Learning Letter

Dear Dr. Agriss,

Before I start in earnest with this letter, let me just say: thank you for being an awesome instructor and for listening to all my moaning and groaning about the literature unit plan. That being said, let me begin:

Book Talks: These were awesome! It’s not often I get to share reading materials that aren’t strictly academic with other students, and it’s not often I receive reading recommendations from peers that aren’t for academic purposes. These book talks were also a wake-up call of sorts to branch out into reading books from other genres, and not just my usual go-to favorites (though still amazing) on my bookshelf at home.

Lit. Unit Plans: Since you already know about my rather strong feelings associated with working on this assignment, I’ll move on to other venues. As I’ve mentioned before, I really do recognize and appreciate the merit that this assignment holds, as I’ll need all the help and preparation I can get in my training to become a teacher. However, I believe that a lot of my heated, loathsome feelings in regards to this assignment don’t stem from “man, this is a lot of work, I hate this” so much as from this assignment making me feel rather lost and helpless to a degree. What I’m trying to say is: I’m being an impatient, teacher-trainee-wannabe that wants to rush in and get teaching experience right now, this very minute, rather than sit down with lesson plans of which, due to the fast-pace nature of the classroom, will inevitably change to fit the curricula I need to impart to my future students. Am I making sense?

Don’t mind me. I think I’m just being headstrong, young, and foolish in thinking I can handle an actual classroom crammed full of students at this point and time in my life. I’ll just have to scrape up as much patience as I can and carry on with working on lesson plans in the years to come.

Theories and Concepts: To tell you the truth, I couldn’t name a single one we went over in class: their official academic designations, I mean. I deal much better with theories and concepts when shown in examples or demonstrated for me to see. One concept, however, stuck out like a sore thumb to me because I still feel baffled as to how to teach it: teaching students how to read. Of course they’ll know how to read; but teaching them to read as I read: annotating, analyzing, critiquing, and summarizing all at the same time. At this point in my education, doing everything I just listed above while reading seems perfectly natural to me and I can do them without realizing that I’m doing them.  How do I get students to a point where they’re on their way to reading the way I read? How do I explain all this to them? I guess I’ll find out.

Predictions for the Future: Being in English 493 has helped me realize that I can indeed be a teacher; a teacher filled with humor and realistic expectations when it comes to the work and herding students this way and that. Realistic expectations as in knowing that I won’t be this perfect little automaton of a teacher that does and says everything right, and that there will be days where I’ll want to give up or tear my hair out in frustration. English 493 has been like a buoy in uncertain waters, with a message stamped on it that reads “You can be a human being and a teacher at the same time: you’ll be okay!”

Thank you for your time Sean!

Sincerely,

Angela Hardesty