Through the time period of 15 weeks, my attitudes toward teaching have been modified. When I began my internship, I wanted to teach immediately arguing that simple observation would not be of great benefits to me. This was clear in my earlier blogs. But since the mentor allowed me to communicate with the students during class and participate in class activities, I was able to develop a special relationship with the students in the class. I believe that this relationship would have not been the same if I began my presence in the class as a teacher. The students saw me and treated me like a near-peer allowing me to know things about their lives that the actual teacher may have not known such as school issues and health issues even though she was very sincere in her teaching. Knowing these things about my students prepared to the challenges that I may face when I teach my own class. I may not know all of the information that I knew about the students in this class, but I must create an atmosphere in which the students are comfortable in sharing these issues with me.
Furthermore, my perspective of what students would write developed over the past couple of weeks. In the both sections, students wrote about topics such as global warming and abortion. However, I find these topics repetitive and lead to no new conclusion or argument. I do not think that my mentor knew of the commonality of these topics. But since I am majoring in English, these topics are considered some of the worst topics to write about. I believe that if the students were asked to write about current topics such as gene tests, which some Medical insurance companies want their future client to do in order to see if they have the genes that are associated with certain diseases. These ethical topics would be a learning experience for the writers as they will experience trouble finding sources and as they will have to determine and develop their own opinion. Since these topics are not the popular topics of the 1990s, the students in the class will listen to unique positions, topics, and ideas. Then, they will respond to their peer's writing. During the process of it all, they will become better writers as they engage in each others' papers making writing, as Vygotsky suggested, a social activity.
As a part of this internship, I taught six classes. Two classes were for a different section. I learned about how expectations and assumptions are changed due different students. I came to acknowledge the students' creative mind as they argue against my own opinion and challenge their peers arguments. I understand that this may sound cliché because students - like any other person--have their own beliefs. However, these beliefs do not rise to the surface unless the students were challenged by new topics. Those students, whom I believe will be successful in their future classes, taught me as much as I taught them. Here, Johnson and Golombek (2002) notion of teachers as learners of teaching became a reality and the blogs published, when closely examined, are an example of such a concept. bar.
Furthermore, my perspective of what students would write developed over the past couple of weeks. In the both sections, students wrote about topics such as global warming and abortion. However, I find these topics repetitive and lead to no new conclusion or argument. I do not think that my mentor knew of the commonality of these topics. But since I am majoring in English, these topics are considered some of the worst topics to write about. I believe that if the students were asked to write about current topics such as gene tests, which some Medical insurance companies want their future client to do in order to see if they have the genes that are associated with certain diseases. These ethical topics would be a learning experience for the writers as they will experience trouble finding sources and as they will have to determine and develop their own opinion. Since these topics are not the popular topics of the 1990s, the students in the class will listen to unique positions, topics, and ideas. Then, they will respond to their peer's writing. During the process of it all, they will become better writers as they engage in each others' papers making writing, as Vygotsky suggested, a social activity.
As a part of this internship, I taught six classes. Two classes were for a different section. I learned about how expectations and assumptions are changed due different students. I came to acknowledge the students' creative mind as they argue against my own opinion and challenge their peers arguments. I understand that this may sound cliché because students - like any other person--have their own beliefs. However, these beliefs do not rise to the surface unless the students were challenged by new topics. Those students, whom I believe will be successful in their future classes, taught me as much as I taught them. Here, Johnson and Golombek (2002) notion of teachers as learners of teaching became a reality and the blogs published, when closely examined, are an example of such a concept. bar.