Wow! Is this semester over already? How time flies when you are having fun! This has been a fun, fast paced, busy, meaningful, informative semester.

Final Summary and Evaluation

Communication- My communication skills have grown throughout this semester. I have been exposed to circumstances where I was able to use my communication skill in a variety of different situations- with the other literature coaches in my group, with my classmates, with my instructor, and perhaps most importantly with the students at Tibbetts Middle School. When I first started in my literature circle groups, I was intimidated and nervous. I had never worked with this age group and was shy and reserved at the beginning of this journey. As the semester progressed, so did my communication with the students.  The more comfortable I became, the more comfortable the students became. This allowed the lines of communication between us to broaden. I was able to open up to the class, communicate my thoughts, and allow open communication on my part from which they also opened up and communicated with me. One challenge that I faced with communication this semester was with a student in my literature group. She was always talking off subject and was started to interfere with the groups communication with one another. When this problem first arose, I was troubled because I wasn’t sure how to deal with her rambling. I knew that I needed to say something to her in order to squash the issue, but I didn’t want to hurt her feeling or embarrass her. I told her that I appreciated her communication with group, but that she really needed to stay on topic. After this conversation, she stopped her off-topic rambling and became more involved in the book discussions. I learned that I need to communicate with others about any issues that I may face, and soon than later. The exposure to this age group was a great for me, and allowed me to strengthen my communication skills all while enabling the students to strengthen theirs.

Research- Throughout this semester I have done a great deal of research. A large portion of research has been done in the children’s section of the SJC and Farmington public library. I have been searching for great children’s books to add to my personal collection, and my online book list. I have been exposed to numerous amounts of fantastic children’s literature that I never knew existed and that I am excited to bring into my future classroom. (Like the man who walked between two towers). I have also done a large amount of research for my Anne Frank book. Because this book seems to lack a little of the excitement that my group desired, I have continuously done research to expand upon the book for our literary group discussion. Some examples include finding pictures of the secret annex, finding out the real names of the people that Anne writes about in her diary, and what happened to each of the characters after the diary ends. I found this to be a great compliment to the discussions that arise from each assigned reading, and allowed the students to see a different side then just the diary entries. This has been a successful strategy for keeping interest.

I have also conducted research for my genre and literary elements assignments and author and illustrator assignments. I learned a great deal about folklore that I didn’t know, including all of the different literary categories that are encompassed in folklore including mythology, nursery rhymes, tall tales and even biblical stories. And all this time I thought it was just folktales! Being able to research this genre was very informative and pleasurable for me.

Also, I chose Dr. Seuss for my author biography and loved researching his story. I have been a fan of Seuss since I read The Sneeches as a young child. It was very interesting to research how he began writing children’s books and the struggles he faced at the beginning of his journey. Now, after learning about his personal story, I love his books even more.

For my illustrator biography I choose Betsy Lewin. My first encounter with her amazing illustrations came when I read Click, Clack Moo- Cows that type. I was impressed by the unique water color technique that she used, and wanted to know more about her story and find other books that she had illustrated. It was interesting to learn about her academic background and all of the research that she does for her books. Doing research on Betsy Lewin was a pleasure indeed. Research has played an important part of my learing throughout this semester.

Technology- I think that fact that anyone reading this is reading it off of my own personal webpage says it all! This semester I have been able to fully embrace technology, and reap the benefits! I have used my website to post assignments, used the internet to conduct research for Anne Frank, used e-mail to communicate with my other classmates and instructor, as well as explore many useful websites dedicated to children’s literature. At the beginning of this semester, the idea creating my own webpage seemed almost immpossible. Now, I am constantly changing the look of my site and finding new elements to add. I have even begun to create a family website to post pictures and keep my family in better touch with one another. Technology has played a major role throughout this semester and I feel I have strongly benefited because if this.

Collaboration- Being able to collaborate well with others is a necessary skill that anyone working in the education field must be successful at doing. Over the past semester, I have been able to work on my collaboration skills in the following ways: working with the students and coaches from Tibbetts, collaborating with my instructor when I needed help and creating a team with my partner Kelly on the poetry performance at the Farmington library. I have also had the privelage of collaborating with others that are not in this class, including other volunteers from the story telling festival and Flo Trojillo from the public library. I felt so fortunate to have gotten a behind the scenes look at the children’s section of the Farmington public library and got to hear the story of the story telling room and a look at all the amazing props. I was also able to speak with Flo about the available children’s books and she so graciously offered me to come in and speak with her anytime and told me that I could use any of the books that the story tellers use (including the big books!) These different experiences that I have encountered has b enabled me to further my collaboration skills, and inturn has made me a better communicator and student.

Confidence and Independence- I have most definitely built up confidence throughout this semester. An example lies in the first week workin with Leah's students. I created a lesson plan to use on our first official meeting with the kids, but did not trust myslelf or have the self confidence that my lesson was good enough and even asked my instructor for feedback before I presented it to the students. I wanted to make sure that what I had prepared was appropriate and needed reassurance that my plan was sufficient. Overtime, I have realized that I am capable, and no longer need the reassurance that I did in the past. I can create good lesson plans, and I have built up the confidence to know that if my lesson plan does flop, I can improvise and still conduct a meaningful and successful lesson. I have also had to find confidence in order to present my ideas to the students in the literary circles, and have gained a great deal of confidence in my teaching skills in general. Being able to work outside of my comfort zone really pushed me to be vulnerable, put myself out there and in turn, gain confidence in myself and my teaching abilities. Now, I have no doubt now that I can teach a variety of different ages, and will not be intimidated by the unfamiliar.

Another way I have been able to build upon my self confidence is by having participated in the poetry performance in front of the students at the public library. The thought of getting up in front of middle school students and saying silly poems made me very nervous! After the performance, I realized how fun it can be to step outside of the adult role and be silly. I gained the confidence that I needed to be successful performing, and confidence in my own abilities to do it again!

I have also gained independence this semester by being required to post my work to my webpage, rather than turning in a piece of paper each class. This has allowed me to be completely independent and soley responsible for doing my work- with out having the accountability of actually being asked to turn in papers. This form of independence has pushed me to new levels of self disapline and made me more independent.

Knowledge content- Through out this semester I have been able to learn about different genres and literary elements that I have either never before been exposed to, or have not thought about in a long time! Before this class I had never heard of Manga and had forgotten what hyperbole meant! I have also been able to gain a great deal of knowledge about Anne Frank’s life story and the holocaust in general.

Of the most important thing that I learned this semester is the importance and power of a story. With my genre, the stories are passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. This speaks volumes on the importance of story. The purpose of a story can vary greatly from person to person and story to story. Many people write and tell stories to entertain, to escape reality or to preserve  significant events. Whatever the reason, stories are a piece of someone‘s life. Stories are what connect us all together. When you meet a new person and are getting to know them, you tell them your story- who you are, what you do, where you are from- that is your story! . Though it is never said or presented in this way, that is what you are doing. When you make a new friend, you tell the stories from your life (that you have told a hundred times) and that have molded you into the person you have become! You tell them the story of how you ended up in Farmington, or how you met your better half, or silly stories about high school or your childhood. This is what makes the power of story so strong! It is what helps us connect as human beings! I think that this real world connection was the most significant for me.

Skills and strategies- I have learned and implemented many beneficial strategies for connecting students to literature while working with my literature group from Tibbetts. I have learned the importance of recognizing when a strategy is not working, and how to make adjustments to fix the problem. When we first started working with our groups, we stayed together as one large group, and the students were not communicating with us or their peers. The other literary coaches and I decided that something must be done to resolve the issue and we tried breaking the groups up. This helped tremendously! I think that the intimacy that the small groups, allowed the kids to feel more comfortable and allowed them to open up and discuss what they were really thinking and feeling about the book. Also, after hearing that the students thought that the book was getting boring, I had to strategize about how to keep their interest. I first brought in pictures that found on the internet of all of the people who lived in the annex with Anne. They really seemed interested and I knew that this strategy was working. I then decided to add supplemental information for each lesson and it really got the students thinking and talking about the book.

While finding and implementing these strategies, I used my observation skills (paying attention to how the group was running) listening skills (listening to what the kids were saying about the book so I could understand their point of view) communication skills (with the group and coaches) and perhaps most importantly combining these skills together to strengthen my teaching skills. I have used these skills to develop strategies that have been helpful and aided in a successful literature group.

Use of prior and emerging experiences- The most useful prior knowledge that has helped this semester is my previous exposure to children’s books. Having taught preschool for four years in Arizona, I was able to read a great deal of quality literature that I have recently revisited. I have also taken a children’s literature course once before that helped prepare me for this course in terms of literature exposure and basic information, but not the hands on teaching experience that I really needed to develop my teaching skills. -- When I took my transcripts to UNM, I was told that the children’s lit class that I had already taken would not fulfill the requirements for the needed children’s literature credits. I was a little upset and thought that one children’s lit class can not vary that much from another. I was very wrong! This class has allowed me to work hands on with students and help them make connections through the literature. The first class I took only allowed me to make connections and did not include any practicum. This class has allowed me to call upon my prior knowledge, and further develop existing skills.

Reflectiveness- I have realized that reflection is key to learning. I believe that one can not truly learn something until they step back, and interpret their experiences. This became most apparent to me each week when I would sit down to write my reflections on what happened at Tibbets. It was at this time when I would have my ahh haa moments, and be able to understand why different strategies were or were not working. By reflecting, I can put the pieces together, figure out what piece I am missing and begin to build a new puzzle. Reflecting is a very important for teachers to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and a great learning strategy to teach children.

Suggestions:

One thing that would have been helpful for me would be to receive quarterly grade reports. I also think it would be helpful to have the last 15-20 minutes of class to allow the literature circle groups to plan for the following week. Also, I agree with the suggestion mentioned in class about having the genre presentations in the beginning of the semester.

Estimated grade:

I feel that I deserve an A+ in this class. I have been to every class, participated in class discussions, worked hard to create quality lesson plans for Tibbetts, volunteered to work at the storytelling festival, practiced and memorized my lines for the poetry performance, and completed and posted all assignments to my webpage on time.