One final thought...

As the semester comes to a close it's time for me to reflection back on these past fifteen weeks. Overall I think that this course was a great learning experience. Throughout this course there has been ups and downs for me. I feel that I successfully completed all the required assignments and discussion forums to my best ability. I believe this class helped shape me into the kind of teacher I plan to become. One way I feel that I've grown with this course since the beginning is that I feel more confident with my teachings. As a result of me being able to teach an entire fourth grade class, I feel that this gave me more experience than I have had prior to this course. As a whole class I am proud of my peers and myself with teaching the fourth graders. I feel that we successfully taught the class. We were innovative with our lessons and knew how to keep the attention of the students.

I also feel that another difference I have gained since the beginning of this course is my ability to manage my time and work has positively strengthened. I have learned how to proportion my time so I am able to finish everything that I need to get done on time.

Another gain from this course is that I was able to lean about the differences across three types of lesson plans. I have learned about direct instruction, inquiry, and cooperative learning instruction lesson plans. I have learned that direct instruction focuses on the teacher using a script or lecture to instruct the students on one specific goal. The second type of lesson that I learned about is inquiry. Here I learned that inquiry focuses on two goals for the students. The first goal focuses on the content of what the students will explore and then the second goal is about the student's thinking and reasoning. Lastly the third type I learned about is cooperative learning. This lesson focuses on the students social skills. It is important with this lesson to focus on what the students are learning and their responsibilities within their group. I learned that these lessons all vary and that one type of lesson may work better then another depending on the content that is being taught.

With becoming a future elementary teacher I can't wait to make a difference for these young growing minds. I want to create a fun and supportive learning environment for my students. I want to have a classroom that has instructional posters around the room. I plan on using technology to support my students  learning. I feel that it is important to do this to give the students variety in the classroom. No student likes to just sit and be lectured everyday so I plan on giving students many opportunities to work together and complete hands-on activities. This class has left me feeling excited and a little anxious to student teach. I cant wait to have the opportunity to put all my dedication to work with teaching in my own classroom some day soon!