Alright, so I started out with a super creative blog post, but it wasn't working. It may be because my brain is nearly mush due to all these finals. Anyhow, I have definitely learned a lot from this class. I figure it's best to hit the highlights...
I understand phonics so much better. We learned about phonemic awareness in class, and I saw many examples of teaching through the use of phonics in my field placements. So I will definitely be encouraging children to sound out their words and use inventive spelling (well, as long as they're young enough to be in this stage) in my classroom.
Through this class, I've also realized that there is a lot more to language arts that I thought there was. My shock began with the SIX language arts and it went from there. Now I know many of the little pieces of information that fit together to make one gigantic language arts subject.
I learned that a classroom of college students can have an entire conversation using markers and a white board (I really liked that class).
I've rediscovered my joy of writing. Though, I think after writing my final book I should just get over my entire senior year - I feel like that thing was depressing. However, it was a good experience and I was happy to remember how much pleasure I used to receive from writing. Along with this, I've also learned more about the writing process and have already started thinking of some creative ways to include it in my classroom.
Finally, after taking this class I have become very interested in the entire subject of language arts. I combined the information from this class with a small segment from one of my child development classes about preschool literacy and I came to the conclusion that I wanted to write my senior thesis on early literacy. So, thanks to this class, I will be looking more into the classroom environment and it's impacts on children's development of literacy in the early elementary years. I am very excited about this topic.
Overall, this was a wonderful class and I learned a lot more than I stated here (but I've already written one book for this class; I don't think I should write another). I can't think of any super interesting or creative ways to end this post. That is sad. I'll just end with a smile. =)
