Learning Letter

This quarter has been one of the busiest quarters I have ever had. I think having to spend nine hours at my high school then having to come to EWU for classes added to the busyness of this hectic quarter. However, I learned a great deal of how to manage my time wisely and accomplish all I needed to do to stay successful. This class has been a tremendous help for me as a future teacher. I felt challenged by this class and so I definitely grew as a student. Having to do a 20 minute mini-lesson on a literary text helped me. I walked away after completing this assignment with great constructive criticism from both my instructor and peers. I really enjoyed knowing my peers were willing to both tell me what I did great, but they also told me what I could improve. That kind of feedback is extremely helpful for anyone, especially future teachers.  In addition, I loved having the opportunity to choose a young adult text and prepare a short talk to introduce the text to the class. All my peers chose interesting books to present to the class. I really enjoyed that no one from my peers chose a boring book. All the books my peers presented were books I would want to teach in my future English class.

            The one assignment that stood out like Mount Everest: The Literature Unit Plan. When I began this assignment, I was extremely nervous. However, towards the end of it, I felt like a Holocaust survivor being liberated from Auschwitz. I was FREE! Nothing felt better. But I am grateful for doing this assignment because I learned so much along the way. I discovered how to write better TPA lesson plans and I enjoyed learning how I could teach my text in a fun and creative way.  Overall, I am grateful for taking the amazing Dr. Agriss and my phenomenal peers who made English 493 a class that I won’t soon forget. We had many discussions and the ideas we bounced off each other are ideas I hope to soon implement in my classroom.