My Last Visit

For my last trip I worked with the same student that I worked with my last time, Sarah. This time I was able to find out a little more about her. I found out that she was supposed to be graduating this May, but fell behind in her classes when she was expelled from her high school her senior year. She said that they did not let her go back to school for a few months so that put her behind.
Unlike many of the other students that I have worked with who are eager to get back to the regular classroom, Sarah says she likes going to school at the PLC better. She said that she likes it because she does not have to wait on the teacher to give her the tests and that she can go ahead and do it on her own. I think that this shows how Sarah is a little more self motivated than some of the previous students I have worked with. She also only has two more units left in her course work for her English class. That is super impressive considering she just started at the PLC about a month ago. She told me that she takes notes and does well on the pre-tests so that she does not have to sit through all of the other parts of the unit and slow her down. Sarah said that sometimes other students ask if they can borrow her notes and she tells them no. She thinks that they should take their own notes and do their own work. When I asked her what she wanted to do after school, Sarah said that she wanted to attend cosmetology school.
I think that it is important for the student's to have plans for after school. I know that Adrian also said that she wanted to be a crime scene investigator. Derrick told me that he wanted to work with computers. Whenever students have something that they aspire to do after they finish high school, it gives them something to look forward to. I love it when the students ask me questions about college. I like it when they ask me about my classes and what college is like. It excites me to know that they are interested in getting to where I am in the academic setting.
One thing that I can safely say that I have gained from this class is a better idea of what goes on in the classroom. The different issues that we have covered in our book clubs has made me realize that there are many aspects to teaching in today's classrooms. The skills that I learned while giving our book presentations have also been helpful to me. Last week I had to give a presentation in my English class. When I was preparing my presentation I knew that I was going to have the class interact with me. Once it was my turn to do my part of the presentation I started out with a funny, relative article to my topic and grabbed the class's attention and then asked them their opinions on certain parts of it. I was more than thrilled when the class responded to my questions and it was not just dominated by one student, but many of the students in the class were involved. When I was finished I was very proud of myself because I felt like I had accomplished something that was relative to my future job.
Sometimes I wonder why I chose to go into education and then I think about all of the things that I like about it. It gives me a chance to work with something that I love everyday which is books. It also gives me a chance to be around people and I thrive on interaction with others. My favorite part of teaching is that it gives me the chance to go and make a difference in the world. I can share my knowledge with the next generation and hopefully inspire them to learn to love learning the way that I do.
I have taken away very many things from this class and it all helps me ascertain that I am heading in the right direction with my career choice. I think that teaching is more than a job though. I think that teaching is a lifestyle. As a teacher I want to always be thinking of new ways to introduce material to my students. I want to be innovative and have a fun classroom where learning does not seem like such a chore. Because of this class I think that I will have the tools needed to have the type of classroom that is beneficial for my students. I know that I will have the knowledge to find the answers to any difficulties that I have in my class and I will always continue to learn more about the teaching profession. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in this class and everything that I learned from it and my time spent with all of my different students at the PLC.