Week 2

Jessica Matthews

Goals for the Course/Where I see myself

•  Learning new strategies to help students enjoy learning how to read.
• The integration of technology into my teaching is a sub part of this that is important as well. 
• Keeping up with new technology and finding new ways to integrate it into my lessons.
• Finding methods of teaching that will encompass national standards but also to tailor the methods to be effective with the students I am teaching.
• I want to learn about myself and ways that I can assess not only my student's work, but my own as a teacher, colleague, and mentor, and ways I can continually improve the work I do. 

         I hope to teach in a rural or suburban setting; I admire and greatly respect teachers with the drive to teach in urban schools, however I feel that I am not one of them. I hope to teach upper elementary or middle school (science major) since I feel that I connect better with older students. I really hope I am in a community where I can involve the parents in teaching; arranging a reading group or other parental activities. When parents get involved, children have a higher chance at succeeding. I hope to learn several things about literacy instruction to help me reach my goals- ways to involve parents, teaching strategies to get the students interested (both new AND old ways, especially if effective), and teaching strategies for different 'types' of students.

         The articles I read today (Risko & Walker-Dalhouse, Lester) helped me realize several things about the students I will be teaching. Risko & Walker-Dalhouse mentioned using subject areas that correlate with students prior knowledge and patterns in their home and community to help engage and teach. It helped me realize that not only will I have students whose backgrounds are nothing similar to mine, but that an effective teacher must know more about a child than just what they display in the classroom- an effective teacher is one that is able to incorporate all aspects of a child's life into their learning. Lester also talked about bringing a student's life outside the classroom into use when teaching them inside a classroom- but she mentioned also that a higher percentage of rural students are a part of families at or below the poverty line. There are special considerations that need to be taken into account, and their location far away from many museums mean that it would be harder and more expensive to take students on field trips. That is why Lester mentions the use of technology to take students on virtual field trips so they can gain experiences without the expenses. It brings to light several issues I had not before considered, and will now be part of my planning process in the future.