Final Reflection

This was, far and away, one of the most influential classes that I have been a part of here at Western. I feel as though the small class environment and the discussion based classroom really elevated the level of learning that we experienced. In all, the class was one of my favorites, and there are many things that I will take away from here and use in my future classrooms.

The blogs were an interesting change of pace for me. I have never been one to blog online so I had no previous experience with such a practice. At first I was highly skeptical, I put off blogging for a good several weeks before I finally got my rear in gear and began writing them. What I found, however, is that blogs can be a great way for students to share and express the ideas that they are encountering in the classroom. We are always promoting an atmosphere conduscive to discussion and sharing of knowledge, and what better way to do that then to have them share both in and out of the classroom? Looking at others' ideas can help you analyze and discuss your own ideas, and sharing your opinions can actually be quite cathartic in itself. I am honestly considering using something like this in a high school class to create the same atmosphere.

The Group Teach Project was a great way to end the semester and in our group we found ourselves wondering how to employ the various techniques and ideas that we had discovered in the 480 classroom. The Individual Final Project was a little more frustrating for me, but I realize that I didn't make the effort to talk with you about the project as much as the other students probably did. I felt a little awkward creating my own final project, a little unsure perhaps, but in the end I realized that we, as future teachers, are going to have to do this quite often in the future, so I'd better get used to it.

Everything about the class seemed to fit well with everything else that we were learning together, and the composition of the students really seemed to mesh well with the discussion centered teaching. I truly enjoyed this experience, and felt that it was benefitial to me as a teacher of english. Thank you Todd, and the class, for a great semester.