2nd Week thoughts

Today was our second class of the E 339 course. Today's class was great, because it allowed us to be creative and share about ourselves. I feel that sharing personal information with your peers, allows people to latch on to commonalities, and therefore feel comfortable in a classroom setting, and hopefully even an out of class setting. Our writer's notebook decoration, was a time to sort of work freely and let our minds wander because many of us are loaded down with first week assignments. It was a nice break in the day, while still being in class. Also we were able to share personal interests with our peers, which I feel opens so many doors. It allows people to say or think things such as "me too!" or "I agree". I feel that this brings students in the class closer together, because it allows them to relate on a level that is not centered around classroom ideas. Because of this, it allows all of us to become more comfortable discussing classroom ideas when the time comes for in class discussion.

On another note, I also enjoyed the discussion about spelling. Allyson and I agreed that this had been a subject that we had not yet learned about in our college courses. Spelling seems like such a simple task, almost a 'no-brainer' now, because of technology and our ability to ask others. I did not realize however, that I did not know any ways or methods to teach this to young children. It is a difficult topic, because as much as we want them to spell things correctly, we have to praise them for attempting to spell, and for putting forth the effort. These are things that we went into in today's class, and I feel like I really took something away from that.