Refelections
Key Concepts
English Language Art is apparent in every subject that is taught, in one form or another. I think that we take Reading/Writing, Listening/Speaking, and Viewing/Representing for granted. In doing this assignment I had the opportunity to see why we incorporate all of these ELA strands into our lessons and I also got to focus on how I was going to go about doing it in my own major (Native American Studies). All of the ELA strands bring different aspects to the classroom and allow teachers to teach in a variety of ways while achieving the desired outcomes. It is our responsiblity as teachers to make sure that we are exposing Language and literacy to students on a regular basis and what better way to do it than to incorporate it into each and every subject.
Curriculum Connections
I enjoyed doing the curriiculum connections because it allowed me to get to know the ELA curriculum really well and to understand the objective behind reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and representing. The English Language Arts GLO's are intertwined into every subject and it is impossible to teach another subject without acheiving some of the ELA outcomes. During this assingment I had a chance to look specifically at the NAS/Social Studies program and see which outcomes fit in with my curriculum. I think this will be benifitial for me when I start teaching because I will be able to notice how each of the ELA objective fits into what I am trying to accomplish. By incorportating the ELA objectives into my teaching I will be able to acheive a variety of outcomes in just one lesson.
Strategies and Lesson Plan Ideas
This section allowed me to look at how I was going to implement ELA objectives into my NAS/Social Studies classes. This was benifefitial because it made me start thinking about different ways of teaching and I realized how easily I would be able to include reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and representing into my lessons. I also had a chance to learn a variety of different strategies that I could use when I am teaching NAS/Social Studies. I think this will help me when I start teaching because I will be able to access different strategies on the website and I will be able to have creative lessons. I also have started creating several authentic activities that I can use to impletment FNMI into my class and I now have a portal which I can store more ideas and strategies when I come across them.
Resources for Teaching
Accessing new and fresh resources is a process that I will be doing my whole teaching carreer. I think this was a very important exercise because it made me realize how many resources that are out there for teachers, and how easily they are to access. When I did this website I was just looking in basicly two areas, ELA and NAS/Social Studies, and I started to think about the many resources that are availiable in all teachable subjects. I feel that I am on my way to collecting great resources that I can use when I am teaching and I plan on recording all of the new resources that I come across in the furture so that I will have a large database that I can rely on. This project was an educational adventure, and it was a good investment of my time and energy. I now have a vast amount of information that I can use, and strategies that I can rely on, and I will be a more confident, competant teacher.
Educational Links
I have added another page labelled Educational links to this document. This page is a resource page which lists available teaching resources in all subject areas. Seeing as though I am going to be teaching in all subjects during my Practicum, I think this will be very helpful and make planning easier. I will be teaching a grade 3/4 split class so some of the resources are specifically associated with this age group. I plan on adding new resources as I come across them so that I will have a vast amount of resources available to me and to others who are teaching this age group. I am excited about what the future holds and beleive this website will be a great tool for me as a teacher.