GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLL

Okay, sorry that I may or may not be the corniest person ever, but any time I hear or see the word goal, I think of soccer announcers— hence the title of this post. But this is a serious topic so I digress.

When I first set out to begin my career in the English Education program (a feat decided upon my freshman year), I had vague realizations of my aspirations. I wasn't sure exactly what kind of teacher I wanted to be, only that I wanted to be a good one.  If I'm being honest, I still don't know exactly what kind of teacher I'd like to be, but I have a starting point in this student teaching experience.  I guess, then, that is my ultimate goal—to find out what kind of teacher I would like to be.  To find out how strict or lax to be, how traditional or innovative (not one or the other, but where on the scale).

I have so many other goals, however, essential to my end goal.  For instance, my initial goal is to find out how to interact with students in this new environment.  I’m used to working with different types of learners after three semesters of tutoring at Classic City High School, but the dynamic of a classroom is completely different.  I feel awkward and out of place in the classroom so far, some of this perhaps due to my awkward relationship with my mentor teacher.  I don’t know my place in the classroom and need to have a conversation with my mentor teacher about that.  I’m not sure how much I should discipline the students or why he’s not, but I hope to get clarification on this subject.  In order to actively interact with the students, my very first goal was to learn every name of every student in my classes and I have done just that.  Hopefully I’m on my way to becoming a confident teacher!  In an ideal world, I would be comfortable in front of a full class by the end of this semester and most definitely by the end of my student teaching experience.

The topic of student teaching next semester brings me to my next goal—to learn how to properly write a lesson plan and how to prepare worthwhile lessons.  Again, many goals fit into this one.  How do I benefit different types of learners? How do I make sure the content is not too difficult or easy for students in the same classroom?  How do I best teach writing to different learners? How do I best teach reading to different learners?  I must learn to teach to different learning styles.  I must learn to scaffold and differentiate.  I must be able to tailor this knowledge to benefit my lesson plans.  I believe this goal encompasses several important classroom components, which is why it itself is important.  However, at this point, I don’t even know where to start when writing a lesson plan.  My mentor teacher calls his lesson plans “filling in boxes” and what he writes is rarely what we do.  This flexibility and ability to change lesson plans based on the needs of the students is certainly beneficial, but I need to learn the rules before I can break them.  Therefore, I wish to write effective lesson plans.

I hope these classes will work, as stated, as cohesive units.  I believe all of the courses are important to becoming the best teacher I can be, which is, after all, my true goal.