Final Blog Post (for this class anyway)

When I first read the course title, I had no idea what to expect from this class. I figured it would probably be about reading and writing and I was kind of indifferent to the course. I found out soon, however, that this class was about much more than reading and writing. Even so, I was very surprised how much I liked the reading and writing sections. I really liked that we were given strategies to help improve reading and writing. I had almost decided to throw my textbook out the window as a teacher after taking several education classes, but after this class I can see how the textbook can still be useful when incorporate comprehension strategies. I really liked the before/during/after strategies and plan to use these in my classroom. I also liked the different kind of writing strategies and have gained a lot of ideas for giving my students writing assignments. I am esspecially excited for giving assignments with different audiences than my students are used to to help them synthesize what they have learned. I also really like the different strategies for teaching vocabulary. I think it will be very useful to give multiple ways of learning vocabulary strategies to my students. I also am excited to use different strategies that I have learned to help diverse learners in my classroom. I also learned to value digital literacy. I had a hard time in my other education classes when teachers wanted me to use technology as kind of an add on just to say I had included it. One of the best things I learned about digital literacy in this class was that, if you don't use it for what it can do, it's not worth using it. I really like this idea because sometimes technology can really help, but other times it works better the old fashioned way. I really enjoyed what I learned in this class and I feel like what I have learned has really strengthened my lessons. I look forward to using these strategies in my classroom.