Final Blog Post-Ariela Cruz

English 341 was more than just an average english class. This class was a place of community and of true learning. Not just any community but a community of people that cared and were going in the sam direction as I was. It was a class where the professor, Kim Jaxon, truly put her heart into what she was trying to teach. This class allowed learning in a way that was different from any there class; ideas were freely shared, creativity flourished, and we all grew in our reading habits. As I was reading through my old blog posts I realized that I learned a lot throughout the semester and had fun the whole time. From the fairytale unit, to the series unit, to the author choice, to the genre study,to the poetry unit, to the book club unit, I progressively was learning how to instill a love of reading into children and how to use different resources in a classroom.

In the Fairytale unit I learned that there are so many different ways that a story can be told. Children have so many stories and dreams and they too can write fairytales and stories. In the series unit, I learned the importance of encouraging children to increase the amount of reading they do. In the author study, I learned that a writer can come from anywhere and use his/her experiences to create a masterpiece. In the poetry unit I learned that anyone can be a poet and every poem is worth being called poetry. In the genre study unit, I learned the importance of branching out and reading genres that are often ignored. In the book club unit, I learned that it is great to just enjoy a book! There were so many lessons learned it is hard to put them all down.An important lesson I also learned was that online tools are becoming more and important and it is just as important to help students learn how to use the tools and resources available to them.

This class was great because it  not only required a lot of reading, which I love, but the requirement of blogs, which truly helped me process ideas. I enjoyed all the grow discussions and learned so much from my peers as well.I also learned what it looks like to be a teacher who encouraged thought and creativity. Kim Jaxon was a great believer that students could truly do anything if given the opportunity and I will take that belief into my future classroom.

Thank you Kim Jaxon for everything!!