Learning Letter

This was probably one of my favorite classes I've taken because it made me think like a teacher. Other classes I've taken make me think about what I will have to think about once I become a teacher, but this class made me feel like I was already a teacher. I got to talk about books I've read that I thought would be great for my future students to relate to. I got to create a unit plan based on a play written by Shakespeare and that might have been my favorite part of the class. It was fun to think about what would be fun for students to do during the unit but what would also be a good way to get them to think. My favorite part of my unit plan was the final project. I figured students would have fun with making their own scripts based off the scenes we talked about during discussions. They would get to have fun with it because of how much sarcasm Shakespeare put into his plays. So, students could add in sarcasm based on language that they use every day with friends and family. If they are extroverted enough, maybe they'd even ham it up during the performance portion of the final project, and that would be awesome. I want my students to have fun in my class because when you are having fun while learning, you actually enjoy school. I know I'm not even a teacher yet, but I think this course helped me become a better one by the different discussions we had and the projects we had to complete. One of my favorite articles we read was Discussion as a Way of Teaching. I love discussions and the different tips and discussion strategies that are talked about in the article were amazing and I hope my future students will enjoy them as much as I like to envision that they will. I still don't feel like I'm ready to be a teacher, but I'm getting closer! I'm excited to get more practice in on lesson plans. I need to become better at explaining how students will or can do things during the sequenced instruction and adding more to lesson connections. Hopefully I can become better with research, too, I wasn't completely confident with my research, but it was fun looking up different activities and ways to teach Shakespeare. I enjoyed this class so much!

Night

I loved this book. It was the first one I read specifically because it is the author's memory from his time in the camps in Germany. I have been kind of obsessed with everything WWII since eighth grade when I learned about the Holocaust. It was completely awful, but I have a random fascination with it which sometimes makes me feel bad because of how sad, awful and wrong it all was. I can't even tell you how many times I've watched documentaries and movies about WWII and the Holocaust. This book was very well written and I thought it was an amazing insight on what the camps were actually like. I didn't know they gave the Jews coffee, soup and bread. To be honest, I had no idea what it was like besides what I had seen in movies like Schindler's List where Nazi's would look out their windows and randomly shoot people in the yard as they were walking through the camps. Wiesel describes how he and his father would trade rations of bread for things like a good bunk or tools. They would be counted every day, they worked every day, they made them run from place to place and if they were going to slow, they would be shot. It was terrifying to read about how they got so hungry that when they were being transferred in cattle cars, the Nazi soldiers threw a piece of bread into the car and men were literally killing each other over it and the Nazi's were using that as entertainment. It was disgusting and I still can't believe something so terrible ever happened. It must have been extremely difficult to relive all that Wiesel went through, but I'm sure so many people, like myself, appreciate it because there is no way we could ever imagine what it must have been like. It's a good reminder of why the history should never repeat itself. I think I would definitely want to teach this book at some point to high-schoolers. I would be interested to know their thoughts and feelings on a book that is the story of someone who went through something as terrible as the Holocaust.

Into the Wild

Into the Wild was a very compelling story. It was confusing at times because it's the author looking into the death of Alex (Christopher) McCandless. Alex had a difficult life with his family once he found out that his father was once a bigamist. He sets out after graduating on a journey with very little possessions. He works odd jobs as he makes his way west to the wild. Eventually he makes it to Alaska where he hitches a ride out to the wild. The man he rides with advises against his plan, but Alex ensures the man that he will be fine. The man gives him his lunch and what cash he has on him. Krakauer writes about Alex's life, what drove him to wanting to live in the wild, and touches on his own life as well. I would definitely recommend this book to my future students.