Hello
I'm Laura-rose, my blog's title, "essay!!...what essay?", was inspired by the evolution of English Language Arts. No longer are we asked to write and hand in an essay in hard-copy or even deliver electronically. The times have changed and rather bloggers we must be: to blog reflections, ideas and understandings, comment, converse, connect and help construct a network of our creativity through blogging and viewing. Though I am a newbie blogger I embrace whole-heartedly the ever so cutting-edge blogosphere. So please, welcome to my blog! Here I will post a collage of reflections from our class, I also accept any comments or kind challenges :)
What I Expect English Language Arts to look like/sound like/ be like in the middle school classroom:
Off the top of my head, picturing a middle years English Language Arts classroom I go back to my grade 7 classroom at Queen of Angles School. Though I am trying to picture a new setting, I keep referring back to my own experience as a guide. I guess I don't imagine there to be much difference. Maybe the computer in the back of the classroom is a little more up-to-date? (maybe not) or maybe the computer is gone and hasn't been replaced. Perhaps the students' essays are on display on the bulletin board, and I propose the bookshelf in the back corner is over-flowing with novels, especially now that the Harry Potter heptalogy has been completed and every grade 7 girl can't get enough of the Twilight Series. Sure there are a few classic literary novels as well. (I wonder if kids read them these days?) The desks are placed in rows facing the front where the teacher stands and writes the lessons on the board. I hear chalkboards are on there way out, the whiteboards have made their break-though, but I am not convinced every school has been provided with the option-out of chalkboards, chalk, and brushes. Oh god, some poor kid's job is to clean the brushes by banging them together at the same time as holding their breath to prevent suffocation from chalk dust.
Besides the sounds "smack smack... cough cough" echoing from outside, in an English Language Arts classroom I might hear the teacher lecturing about proper use of the semi colon. On the other hand, I might hear the sound of students practicing their public speaking, reading aloud, or rehearsing a speech. Silent reading time was always a favourite of mine, where I could just escape the classroom by reading a good story. The classroom might be silent though highly doubtful because of course there are those whispers between friends trying to converse low enough to escape the teacher's ears. At some point the silence will be completely broken and ideas and comments will be shot across the classroom, the students actively communicating and learning. Both setting and sounds of the classroom help create what it is like to be in a classroom.
Personally, going back now as a student teacher, I think will be fun and eye-opening. As a grade 7 student, I used to know what it was like, but now not so much. What I do know is that every kid won't feel the same way about their experience in the classroom and not every kid will take the same experience with them when they leave. Obviously not every kid will be dancing to the same beat. Everyone's got their something and that's what makes the Language Arts classroom a great place to be. I think the classroom will be a collaboration of different ideas, emotions, learning abilities, personalities and endless possibilities.
