PYTASH - Final Reflection

     This class has helped prepare me to be a teacher more than any other I have taken thus far. I enjoyed the fact that we were able to work with a text that we will probably be teaching one day. I was able to look at it as a teacher instead of a student. I am certain that I will be able to apply some of the lesson ideas that I saw in class when the expert groups presented. That was something that I enjoyed as well. I was glad that I got to get up from my seat and teach. Parts of this were difficult, such as the subject matter because we all know the book inside and out, so none of our lessons were very challenging to us, but I am sure they will be to our future students. 
     I was also thankful that I was able to write a lesson plan, and read some standards. As much as the standards irritate me (they are so vague, yet so complicated), it was nice to have to use them because I will when I teach. I suppose that this class actually acted as a trial for student teaching to us, and I am thankful for that.
     One thing that I must say is that I really missed reading young adult lit this semester. The class that we had with Dr. Pytash last semester was one of my favorite classes I have taken yet, and it exposed me to a lot of texts that my students would enjoy reading. I do appreciate the final project we will have, where we apply a canonical text to a young adult text. I have not yet started compiling the paper, but I am sure it will be interesting.
      I am also thankful for the closer look at the canon. There are many books that I have not yet read from the canon, but I do not dread the idea as much as I used to. I now seem to read with teaching in mind.
     Overall, I learned a lot this semester about how to be a teacher. I believe Carol Jago's text was helpful as well. I look forward to expanding on her ideas when I student teach as well as when I have a classroom of my own. Once again, Dr. Pytash succeeded in creating some pretty good pre-service teachers this semester.