This is my first go at a professional blog, and I am not 100% sure what I am doing, so bear with me.
I have had so many experiences over the past 17 years with education. From pre-K through my senior year in college, there have been many teachers who have influenced the way I think about learning in both a positive and negative manner. I come from a family filled with teachers. My mom and grandma are/were both certified in Elementary Education, while my dad and grandpa are/were high school science teachers before becoming a guidance counselor. Because of this, I have been exposed to all things-learning since I was old enough to remember.
By the time I reached Kindergarten, I was able to read books that many students don't read until at least first grade. I had a very supportive staff of teachers in my school who allowed me to read with them, and even assist the reading specialist in her separate room.
Because I was encouraged at such a young age to keep on reading, I found myself excelling in other things outside of these things. It was these times in elementary school that prompted my thinking about becoming a teacher. I'm not sure I would have been interested in it if I didn't have such positive role models in my past.
Once I got to high school, I fell in love with the Language Arts--or what we called "English" classes. I had great teachers who often pushed my thinking beyond the normal levels, and this excited me to learn more. It was here when I thought I would make a great high school English teacher. [Obviously something has changed!]
I have stuck with Language Arts as my teaching major because I love the English language, and all the things it has to offer, particularly the amount of levels that Language Arts can be incorporated into everything that we teach.
In our TE 402 class, we have a very diverse representation of learners. If you look at us, there are not many diversities on the outside. But "don't judge a book by its cover". We all come from many different places and histories. Not all of us are earning our first degree. Not all of us have the same teaching major. We are all here for slightly different reasons because of the things that we have experienced in our past. This is an important key to our learning because without diversity in the classroom, our learning would be quite stagnant. I'm looking forward to all of the different perspectives from my classmates as this semester rolls on.
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I don't know if I blogged on the right topic for my first entry after looking at your entry and Mike's entry. I wrote about the readings and the two of you wrote about your experiences in language arts. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I wanted to comment on the fact that you, Mike, and I are similar in our language arts and education careers in that we all had great support at home from our parents. This support from my parents is something that I have never taken lightly and always greatly appreciated. Looking over your post and Mike's post, it is obvious that the two of you are just as thankful to your parents as I am. We were all fortunate to have parents that supported our education as much as they did. I couldn't imagine working my way through school without my parents' support. School would have been infinitely more difficult and I know that I wouldn't be as far advanced in my schooling. As a future teacher I need to be aware of students who don't have proper support at home and try to help them any way possible.