Final Reflection

What a semester this has been! I have had some really great opportunities for learning in both the first and second sections of this semester. The second half of the semester was more focused on the actual literature part: learning genres, literary elements, author/illustrator studies, and just reading books. We have had a couple of really great guest speakers that came in to speak about their experiences with books and reading. I think that I have also had some great opportunities to really learn some information about specific genres and be able to present it to my peers, it makes me feel like I understand the genre better.

Once again though there have been some trials and tribulations throughout this second half mainly focusing around the websites we have been attempting to create. Although no one is to blame in this area it has been rather frustrating to a few people on the class, me being one of them. But in the end, with a little perseverance, we were able to make it through and work out most of the kinks. Just one of the joys of working with technology; although we really need to use it (and most of us love it) it can be somewhat difficult at times.

I have really enjoyed the opportunity to read a variety of different books of different genres, most of the genres I would not have chose to read if I was picking the books without genre specification. Although, at times I felt a little overwhelmed with all of the reading I was doing it was nice to be able to do some reading again, I have been missing it. I realized that I really have to learn to step outside of my comfort zone in order to do what is best for my students because not all students are going to want to read the same thing. By reading books from different genres I will be able to relate to my students better.

I have really had a great experience with a lot of the learning opportunities I have had in this class. I know that I will continue to utilize my book list to add more books to it as I read them (it will be nice to be able to refer back to it for an appropriate book). I will also be sure to do author/illustrator studies with my students because I know the importance of it. I learned so much about my author/illustrator that I would not have known otherwise. There are a lot of great experiences that I will carry into my own classroom to try to instill a love of books and reading into my students.