Idea Development - Victoria Grant

The play on words idea has been very helpful for me in developing my "song" for the memoir project. Writing the song, even choosing one, was beginning to really intimidate me.  I was already having a hard time with the memoir. So even looking at the song portion was not an option.  But, Thursday's lesson was awesome.  I became so inspired and confident about my entire project, I went straight home and continued working on it.  Like others in my class, I too was experiencing some difficulties with the memoir.  I'm not sure what it is.  It should not be this difficult to write about me. Seriously, I literally sat for hours writing and rewriting because I kept veering off into either, my family or life events. I know all of these things makes the person that I am today, but when I read over some of my colleague's rough drafts, I noticed, (by one particular colleague) she was listing who she was by starting off with, "I am..." and I began to get a clearer understanding and started listing items only about me.  So, five words that describe me:  strong, stubborn, patient, caring and loyal.

Patient. I am probably the most patient person alive.  I will take my time or wait any amounts of time for something to be right, or happen, or develop.  I guess this is what gets me through my days as a parent with three children.  

I discovered, through the writing lesson, how to develop a paragraph through just a simple title.  I was excited that me and my group were able to construe some well defined sentences.  One member even explained how she may want to continue the story and create a short story for her class library.  This lesson has made my memoir journey an easier one.   

When I registered for this class I was'nt sure what to expect. I was nervous excited, and anxious. I was preparing myself for an intense and overwhelming semester because I knew this class would be specifically focused on getting me ready to be the teacher I dream of becoming. Well, so far, I have calmed my nerves and have acclimated myself to the class curricula. I love what I'm learning and I believe this is the reason why I'm enjoying and absorbing everything this class has to offer, stress free =).

Some important factors for becoming a successful teacher I have learned have been: The six effective ways of learning, The process of learning (The Schemata Theory), The five strategies of learning and The language system. The six effective ways of learning are listening, talking, reading, writing, reviewing and visually. Integrating all six ways will assure a positive and well educated student in Language Arts. The Process of learning or The Schemata Theory, is putting all what you know together. Creating knowledge. The strategies of learning are recognized through five factors: Rehearsal- repeating information, Predicting - anticipating what will happen, asking yourself questions, Organizing - group information into categories, Elaborating - expanding, researching, questions, and Monitoring - regulating, keeping track of progress. The next system we learned was the language system. Consisting of four factors: Phonological - sound, Syntactic - structural, Semantic - meaning, and Prasmatic - social or cultural. These are very important because knowing what language a student will learn best by will create a more easy and confident teaching process.

I'm excited about developing my skills in these areas so I that may be able to use them correctly and effectively in my classroom.