Hannah's Week 2 Post

• One of my goals for this semester is to learn motivating and interesting techniques for teaching language arts.  In addition, I want to learn how to meet all of the learning needs of a diverse classroom of students with their own culture, learning techniques, and interests.  I also want to continue my dialogue with my MT about teaching, the classroom, and students.  Finally, I want to keep an open mind throughout all of my learning, reading, and discussing.
• I am open to the school community I teach in.  I am interested in what I can learn from many different types of schools; rural, suburban, and urban.  I hope to teach in a classroom with a small number of students so that I can learn more about each student and meet their individual learning needs.  I am not sure whether I want to teach in an elementary school classroom, middle school, or elementary special ed classroom.
• I want to learn about fun activities and projects that I can incorporate with everyday reading and writing.  I also want to learn more about integrating multiple subjects with literacy.  I hope by doing so I will catch the interest of all students.  I also hope this will help students to see that the subjects are not separate entities but rather things that can be combined to enhance their interest and learning.
• This first article I read was Putting rural readers on the map by Laura Lester.   I choose to read this article because I am currently observing in an urban school and am interested in learning about the differences of classrooms in different communities.  In addition, I have family who attended rural schools and wanted to learn more about how their education differed from mine.  I really enjoyed the article and thought the strategies Lester wrote about to boost literacy instruction in rural schools could be adapted to different kinds of schools.  "Place-based education (PBE) is a framework for instruction that integrates traditional curriculum-based subject matter with students' knowledge of 'place.'" (409)  By incorporating the students community into their learning you allow the students to see value in their community and gather their interest.  Student will be able to more easily see how the material their learning relates to their life.  "Virtual field trips can provide exposure to a realm of places and resources for students in an unlimited number of geographical locals." (411)  No matter where students live their are different places and experience they will not be able to interact with in person.  Virtual field trips allow students to see new place, have new experience, gather their interest, and enhance their learning.  If virtual field trips are thoughtfully prepared they can be an exciting learning experience for all students no matter where they live.
• The second article I read was Opening the dialogue: Using culture as a tool in teaching African American children by Debbie Diller.  I choose this article because I observe in a classroom where I am a different ethnicity then most of my students.  I hoped to learn more about teaching students who were diverse from the teacher.  I enjoyed Diller's real life examples and attitude that teaching is a learning experience and that all teacher can continue to develop and improve their teaching styles.  "When teachers take time to get to know their students' backgrounds and special qualities as individuals, they can avoid stereotyping and find that generalizations apply in many, but certainly not all, cases." (820)  It is important to learn about your students' cultural background because it has a large impact on the way they interact and learn in school.  Different students have different needs and its important for teachers to know that it is important to have a diverse teaching style to meet all needs.  The article also discussed many different ways Diller learned about her student.  Teachers should reach out to all of their resources to learn more about their diverse students.