Final Paper

Upon reviewing everything from the semester, I think what I would like to focus on for this paper would be about how to apply Discourse and  literacy to being a teacher? How can I use these ideas to become a good teacher? How can I meet all the diverse needs of my students? I have created so many questions while reading each article. After each article, I think about how she would apply these ideas into my own teaching. It has changed how I look at literacy and now how I plan to teach it to my students. It far expends what I previously thought about reading and writing. It is far more in depth that what I previously thought.

The articles that we have read in class have really changed my ideas on literacy and how to apply it in a classroom setting. I think that for our final paper it would be good to see how we all have changed our thoughts about literacy and what we believe is the most important aspect of it and how as future educators we can apply it to a classroom setting. I know that i personally have gained many things that i someday plan on applying to my future classroom and it would be interesting to see what everyone else has gained and how they plan on applying it to their future career.

final paper ideas

After reading all of the articles/essays for this class this semester, I have learned a lot more about literacy and understand it differently than I did at the beginning of the semester. For my final paper I think I would like to write about what I have learned about literacy and education or maybe how I will apply what I’ve learned in my classroom when I become a teacher. This class has had a lot of value for me as a future educator and I hope I am able to use what I have learned from this class when teaching my students.

What's next?

In this class I have really learned a lot. I have found myself pondering what I would do as a teacher many times. I have also found this class a great way to learn from others. A lot of the time, while I was posting, I would just spill all of my thoughts onto the screen. Because I did this, much of what I wrote did not make sense. Because of this it is good to have other classmates who will question what I type, and give their suggestions as well.

I really liked reading about ethnicities. I am basing my 2nd paper on this, and the Magic Door. Because of this, I feel that reading more about disabled children would be cool. I have worked with a child who has Autism for many years now, and love to learn more about it. I think it would be awesome for us to read either teacher, parent, or child written pieces based around disabilities, such as Autism. I feel that many teachers are not prepared for children who have disabilities in their classrooms. It has become the Special Education's teacher's position to help only these children. For this reason, I think it would be good for us to learn and scope out what we would do in situations with children with Disabilities.

Last Paper

After all of the articles we have read and discussed in this class, I think most of our opinions about literacy and its applications have changed. We have learned how literacy is like an ‘identity kit’ made of discourses, which are different for everyone. Now, I think the topic of discussion is how we should apply what we learned this semester in the future. For many people in the class, this is probably going to be through teaching. A helpful article about the teacher-student relationship is the one we read for Thursday by Freire. However, a more complicated topic could be how the knowledge of literacy can affect those of us who are not teaching majors, or English majors. I am going for biochemistry, so how can I apply this material into my future? 

Paper Ideas

After looking over everything that we have read and discussed this semester in relations to literacy, Discourse and education in general I think the main question that I have is How can I use what I've learned this semester to be a better teacher when I move on in my professional life and I am teaching a class of my own. What are the pitfalls that I need to watch out for? What are the solutions to the dangerous grounds that teachers get stuck in when it comes to making first appearance judgments and integrating different cultures into lessons?

Theory of Evolution

My conception of literacy surely has changed this semester. As I previously posted to this blog I hadn't really given it much thought before. My previous definition was the ability to read and write, or more casually, knowledge of something (e.g computer "literate"). My definition has now expanded more fully into the realm of "knowledge", even expertise, or as James Gee might put it, fluency. By fluency I mean fluency in what you are doing right now, whether that is school, work, playing basketball, or any other activity. However, I don't think I have to abandon the old definition. Being literate on a very basic level means the ability to read and write. As someone looking forward to working in a low income school as a special ed teacher, this definition of literacy remains important. Also important (and more closely related to Mr. Gee) is the notion that we are born to certain literacies (Discourses). As I go forward in my education and career this is something I will have to be mindful of and work to maximize the potential of my students, regardless of the primary Discourse.

I have grown a little in my ideas of what it means to educate too and this class has played some part in that. As I stated above, as an educator my goal is for my students to do everything they are capable of to the best of their abilities. Successful education is not passive, it is involved, and it must look beyond the day the student leaves my classroom. I want to prepare my students for life as it is in this world so that they may prosper to the extent to which they are capable.

I'm not really sure if my writing has changed this semester. Prior to this semester I had not been in school for 17 years, so writing has really been limited. One thing I can be certain of is that in my formal writing I have been careful to include as much bullshit as possible, and in my less formal writing to try to maintain my sense of humor while I discuss the matters at hand with my classmates. I am a firm believer that the sheer act of doing something over and over will improve your abilities, so I must have improved at least a little this semester. I know I have. I am finding it easier to come up with things to say as the semester goes on. Writing exercises that creativity muscle in the brain which only gets stronger the more it works out.