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| Photo taken by Marissa Melin |
I am a dweller. I dwell on endings. As a teacher I dwell on my closings and shudder thinking about the days I don't get there. I like closure. I like endings. I like to give my students that closure to each lesson. At the end of the year, I put together an anthology for my students so that they have closure from the year. They take away their own publication along with their memories and I hope a new found appreciation for literature and writing and technology.
I recently started a new endeavor, my journey back into grad school and I am coming up on the first ending of my semester. As I reflect back on this semester, I am searching for closure. I have struggled getting back into being a learner and not just a teacher. I have read this semester, not my usual young adult literature, but professional literature about teaching and learning. As I dive back into school, I have one profound thought: All teachers should go back to school. It is important to rediscover what being a student is like. I think it gives us the ability to empathize with our students and learn more about our profession.
I thought I'd end this semester and this chapter with some thoughts on what I have learned this semester.
1. I have a lot to learn.
2. Research is challenging, but important.
3. Purdue Owl is my APA friend.
4. I need to learn the power of the paraphrase.
5. Even a tech savvy teacher like me can learn more about technology.
6. Every picture I share should be given the correct attribution.
7. Blogging can be fun, and tedious, and fun all at the same time.
8. Students should be allowed to explore their own interests in my classroom.
9. I probably should have created a Twitter account years ago.
10. My passion is technology.
I think that last take away is the big one. I was pursuing a degree in curriculum but changed midway to a focus in technology. The classes I took this semester highlighted this passion for me and I cannot wait to share my passion with other teachers.
I loved how you wrapped everything up! I use the Purdue Owl all the time :) I also really agree with your statement that all teachers should go back to school. There are so many teachers doing the same thing the same way, because that's the way they've always done it. There are so many new things to learn, that will enhance the learning of your students. It's great when a teacher can learn and try new things with their students. I also love how you've found your passion :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Danielle
Hi Marissa
ReplyDeleteYou are so right! This class has opened so many doors for my tech novice mind. Im not a teacher, but many of the products we have learned about I can use in industry and when I mentor GS leaders and girls. I too have found Twitter fascinating, and have been able to decipher its #'s as my daughters look at me in wonder. They didn’t even know. I really enjoyed how your list including correct attribution and blogging is tedious-sometimes, as a list I could have should have written. Great blog capturing our last four months of EME5050. Hope you have a great winter vacation.
Hi, Marissa,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your final blog post immensely and found interesting that you placed your passion for technology as your number 10, not as your number one. I think that discovery is huge and will serve you well in coming years.
For me, the great discovery was a reaffirmation that my true passion is communication and expression, and technology becomes a means to achieve both, which I value. I, too have a lot to learn, and this course really highlighted that for me as well.
Blogging came easy to me from years of practice as a 'writer on the run' (aka, a journalist). For me, writing is essential to who I am and is, in many cases, the best way for me to figure things out, to fine-tune ideas. Research dragged a bit for me. This in part because the language of research felt artificial and constricting at times; closer to philosophy than to any other discipline I can think of. In other cases, I felt researches were stating the obvious.
Anyhow, I appreciate the humility with which you approached your learning. It's a very good place to start from if the goal is life long learning.
It was a pleasure making your virtual acquaintance and will miss your posts. Your students are very lucky to have you. I seriously mean that!
-Claudia
Marrisa,
ReplyDeleteThat was so fun getting to know you through the things that you learned this semester. Happy first end and beginning to your graduate program! I am very excited for you to be in your program. I completely agree with you in the fact that every teacher should go back to school. We forget what it was like to learn. I tell my students all the time that I learn from them, which I do, but it is completely different from learning at school. Like you said, we empathize with them while we are in school. We take the time to reflect upon our own teaching styles and start to think about the student who learns like us. How do we treat that student? Are students comfortable in our rooms? Are they learning? How do we know? The questions go on and on? There is a lot of reflection happening while we are earning our degrees and that is half the fun.
How neat that you, an 8th grade language arts teacher, have identified with the fascinations of technology that you are changing your degree focus?! I am excited for you! I wonder where this will take you in your career. I also wonder how it will change your language arts classroom.
Thank you for the insight!
Kelly K.
Marissa,
ReplyDeleteYour statement "All teachers should go back to school. It is important to rediscover what being a student is like." could not be more true. I think that some educators do not remember what it is like to be a student. To me life is all about learning, you cannot keep up with the trends in any career or hobby without educating yourself. Great Post!
-Kyle Cole