Peace out homies, it has been real.

At this moment and time, my whole world has changed about literacy. At this moment I feel enlightened about literacy. There are so many different things that play into this one little word that is forever changing. Also, I believe that gaming and literacy can go hand in hand!
First, I think that the most interesting thing that I did for this class was the book club. I learned a lot about teaching and the development of learning. In Brothers and Sisters I learned that not all kids learn the same, not saying that I didn’t know that already but it did give a better insight. For example how one of the kids in the class was into sports teams and that’s how he remembered each state or two best friends in the class would use music lyrics to convey certain emotions to each other. I really liked how there were so many different things and techniques these kids use to learn. This brings me to teaching, and how my teacher that I am interning for uses these techniques. Mrs. Hislop used diagrams and ample amount of writing to get the students to understand Shakespeare. It helped some of them understand by using the pictures and the diagrams to understand the story and then she let them write about the relationships over again to see if they understood. Another thing that I thought was interesting about my internship was the fact that Mrs. Hislop let her students use there phones in class. If they wanted to look up a word on their internet then they could or if they were doing some silent work she would let them use their phones moderately but they would still have to get their work done. Which, I thought was pretty fair and they all did get their work done.
Something else that I thought was pretty intriguing was the movie we watched about Hobart Shakespeareans. I thought the way that the class room was set up was interesting. The teacher of that class I believe puts all his faith into teaching his class and giving them a taste of the real world by having currency in his class. Some people might disagree with that but I strongly believe that if you are doing your homework, reading, and learning then it should be fine to get rewarded for that. Plus, I think it prepares them for the real world. I think that teaching them dedication will help go very far in life.
In my internship I learned about classroom democracy, which was surprising to me. My teacher would give her students a choice to read their assigned reading for homework that night or to move on with lecture. They had to write a complete sentence and give a supporting reason why. I think that giving the students a choice made them more invested in learning.
I the biggest two things that I learned in this class was that literacy is forever changing. I don’t think one thing can just define it. Another thing that I learned was about literacy and technology. In a lot of our discussions we talked about how technology is changing the way that we learn today and also about integrating technology into the class room setting and not run from the new things that are occurring. I think when I become a teacher I want to integrate every genre of teaching there is. I want to teach them how to write a well written five paragraph essay, I want to teach them about fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in an interesting way, I want them to use music and break it down into their interpretation, I want them to know that video games can help them learn, I want them to read different books than the generic ones that everyone read and still learn from them and I want them to see the bigger picture of English. I don’t want my students to leave my class without leaving with something they will take with them and remember that they had fun learning. I still want to know one thing about literacy, when will everyone know or find out that literacy is something that can be acquired in many different ways?
This was one of my favorite classes ever since I have started my college journey! Thank you so much for having hands on learning as well as showing and being invested in the class Kim!
-Tiffany F.