I have carried over many writing lessons and techniques from my English 110 class into the writing pieces I have completed for my other various courses. The first lesson, is using MLA format. This is the first aspect I focus on when beginning a paper. I present my name, class, professor’s name, and the date in the top left margin of my paper. I just feel as though this gives the paper a formal appearance and will automatically show the teacher that I am a serious writer and that I am serious about my piece. The example of writing that I chose is from my Exploring Teaching class. This was our final paper. Every Thursday, we go visit and interact with students in a third grade class, and for our final paper we were asked to reflect on our experience in the schools. In English 110, we learned about viewing writing as a recursive process. My paper I have presented below is not my first draft. I first wrote an architectural draft including the ideas I wanted to have in my paper. I then expanded on my main ideas in my rough draft. After that, I finally polished my rough draft into my final draft which is what is posted below. The ability to view writing as a recursive process has helped me revise and improve on many of my papers for other classes immensely. English 110 has also taught me the severe importance of peer review. I had done peer reviews before this year, but I never noticed until this year just how helpful they can be. Some mistakes just need to be viewed by another person’s eyes in order to be recognized and then fixed. English 110 has made me a stronger writer and reader as well. I have undergone so much improvement as a writer and a reviser and am much more confident in my skills.
Mary Philbrick
Exploring Teaching
Cindy Altomari
3 December 2017
For the past eight weeks, I have had the honor of observing and working with Mrs. Leclerc’s third grade classroom. During my visits, I worked one-on-one with students who were struggling in the subject they were being taught, or just needed somebody to read to. During the students’ reading time, I would be paired up with one of the students. I would receive a copy of the book the student was currently practicing reading. The student would read their book aloud to me and I would read along in my head. My job was to praise them when they were doing a good job, and to assist them when they got stuck on a word they weren’t sure how to pronounce or a sentence that didn’t quite make sense at first. I could tell the students loved reading with their “UNE friends.” The moment Mrs. Leclerc let them know they would be reading to us in the hallway you could see the excitement appear on their faces as they rushed to get their reading folders and books and pulled us into the hallway along with them. Throughout our field work experience, I did not miss any field work days. I feel as though this is important. Even though missing one day may not seem like a big deal to us college students, the primary students notice when we’re not there. It may not seem like it, but they look forward to our visits and you can tell by how excited they become when we enter the classroom. Kids our age might try to justify missing a class by saying they have a lot going on but I guarantee some of these kids have a lot more going on. Many of these kids worry about when they will receive their next meal and what kind of environment they will be coming home to after school. Almost evert time, their problems and struggles outrank anything that we may be going through.
I loved the atmosphere that Biddeford Primary School possessed. I personally believe the reason I was so fond of BPS was because it reminded me so much of my elementary school. BPS’s physical layout is almost identical to my elementary school’s. Even more crazy, my elementary school mascot was also “The Tigers” and we had “Tiger Pride” as well. I loved the colors and bright artwork throughout the halls of the entire school. Cindy explained to us how many of the BPS students live in poverty, and have experience at least one Adverse Childhood Experience. The home lives of many of these children could be worse than we could comprehend. Having a happy, colorful, and safe school environment for them to come to everyday has a great positive impact on these children. I didn’t see enough of BPS to judge what aspects the school is lacking. For example, I never got to see the gym or the library or the cafeteria or any of the other school sites that are important to students’ physical, mental, and nutritional needs. Since I have not seen them, I am not able to judge their ability to meet students’ needs. Although, the classroom I was in and the rooms and hallways I passed, seemed like a great learning environment for kids,
Compared to when I was a kid, teachers have changed quite a lot. They are now equipped with new and evolved ways of teaching, and are gifted with technology to use to aid themselves in the classroom. Although, at the same time, they haven’t changed a bit. I personally feel as time goes on, no matter how much changes around them, good teachers do not change. To be a good teacher solely takes compassion, patience, and understanding. I was impressed by the use of technology in teaching new lessons to the entire classroom. Mrs. Leclerc used her laptop and a projector to project a lesson onto her whiteboard. After the lesson, she would then put some practice/review questions onto the board as well. Students would then volunteer to solve the problems on the board and explain their problem-solving process to their peers as they go. I was very fond of this teaching method for many reasons. First, the use of technology to aid in teaching the lesson seemed to keep kids more interested as Mrs. Leclerc taught. Young children are amazed by many aspects of technology so I think that incorporating it into the classroom makes them more passionate about learning. Also, the problem-solving in front of the class made students more eager to do work. When Mrs. Leclerc would ask for a volunteer to solve a math problem in front of the class, the kids would excitedly raise their hands. The opportunity to be in the spotlight for a moment made them happy. I also really liked that Mrs. Leclerc had them explain their steps of problem-solving to their peers as they worked. This way, students were able to learn not only from their teacher but from someone their own age as well. During the students’ snack time, Mrs. Leclerc would read aloud from an interesting chapter book. This is a good way of introducing students’ to more complex pieces of reading in a gradual way and also the kids enjoyed hearing the stories as well.
The students were absolutely amazing. I am not going to lie, my first day going to BPS I was nervous. But from the second I entered the classroom, the students’ made me feel at home. When I was confused about something they were working on, they would jump to explain it to me right away. At some times, it felt like I was learning more from them than they were from me, but I loved it. What I noticed most about the students at BPS is that what they really enjoyed most about my visits was just receiving attention. What these kids really want, is just somebody to talk to about anything. Trust me, ANYTHING. I heard about their dogs, their favorite colors, their cousin who picked his nose, the time they almost dropped their baby sister; I could go on forever. They have interesting stories to tell and some of them may not always have someone to tell them to. Throughout my experience interacting with these kids I have learned so much about myself. I always had a small thought that I wanted to be a teacher but was never completely sure that was what I wanted to do. Working with these kids opened a passion in me I never even knew I had. The joy and satisfaction I got just from spending quality time with them was wonderful. The most important lesson I learned was that being a teacher doesn’t always mean you have to be the one teaching; sometimes you are the one being taught. The amount of knowledge I gathered from just talking to these students was astounding and I am so thankful for my opportunity to work with them.
