MIDTERM REFLECTION

Our syllabus is like poetry, music-only symbols on a page until you begin to speak and interpret it and bring life, purpose and meaning to the learning enterprise. Our framework is loose on purpose because the variable that is unknown in the equation is you-the students. I always look forward to how the syllabus will play out once we come together. So the syllabus involves your participation and I cannot know the outcome because it is a shared experience as we build a learning community together. The practicum enhances the experiential component of our time together and hopefully brings more practical meaning to our course text.

According to the 5 Dimensions of Learning, my reflection continues:

Confidence & Independence Experiences in your practicum work and reflections, class discussions, anthology and text reading, Chautauqua characters will contribute to exploring our conceptual thinking and what it is to be a culturally responsive educator. Having the opportunity to think about the multidimensional and multi-perspectival aspects of culture challenges us to consider our own cultural assumptions and cultural contexts. Debriefing after our weekly sessions helps you gain insight and confidence as teacher practitioners.

Skills & Strategies:

Practicum experience with 4^th graders; anthologies and literature circles; writing workshop-process; meeting and talking with different people during our field trips are strategies to reinforce your personal and professional skills. Chapter presentations presented by your peers are another way to experience the chapter content. Chautauqua storytelling experience is a potent skill and teaching tool; a natural bridge for working with all children since we all know stories.

Knowledge Content:

We are just beginning to explore our text formally with our chapter presentations. Hopefully working with children directly at Apache school will help put some of these concepts and ideas into perspective from a more practical application. Working with the 4th graders' family stories provide us with the content for an authentic learning environment and one in which validates the stories student bring to school with them. For those interested, our course text prepares you quite adequately in taking the TESOL exam. I took the TESOL exam June 2008. Highlighting significant vocabulary words, definitions, concepts, and other pertinent information will assist you in preparing for your exam as well as serving as a quick reference for future use. The also will prepare you with applicable scenarios common in New Mexico.

Our is a reference point and a resource tool for you and myself. Please explore it for it is an ongoing work in progress with new links being added all the time.

Our field trips are a way to learn more about our diverse communities which may serve as future resources for parents and students.

Emailing in between class with session updates hopefully keeps you informed and clarifies information in between our class sessions. Weekly highlights gives you a voice in documenting what is happening week to week. It also provides continuity in recording our course story over time.

Your web pages are your own design and considered your intellectual property. In this way, I hope you will take charge of your own learning as it documents your own learning and progress over time.

Our anthology readings and discussions will help augment our experiences with otherness-cultural and personal contexts different from our own-as another lens for learning.

Chautauqua characters were videotaped and DVD copies will be available. I created a Flickr place for our characters at

Use of Prior Experience:

As Constructivists in the UNM program, we value the stories that children bring with them to school. The stories you bring and the knowledge base from other courses is respected and acknowledged. We recognize this also when working in our writing project collaboration with 4th graders. We are honoring their stories, which become the learning content within the context of their classroom for improving their reading and writing. Your Chautauqua stories connect you with your own family history and sense of who you are.

"Experience without reflection is hollow" as Cooper & Collins (1992) In Look What Happened to Frog.

Reflection is a pedagogical tool of our profession. In this particular course we will scratch the surface of what it is like working with diverse children. By 2050 it is predicted that 49% of the population will be people of color. Since language is not neutral, by association it begs us to consider politics, culture, social controls, privilege, class, race issues, all of which are initially uneasy to talk about in our society. However, they are a loud reality in our schools. As educationalists, we must begin to enter this discussion and become more informed ourselves in the dialogue and consider our perspective as well as those who are contributing also to this discussion so we do not shy away from it but approach it with open and searching minds.

Your weekly reflections will capture how the process is working for the students and how you will plan next steps leading them to the eventual performance.

Thank you for trusting me in the learning process during this course, for it is a creative learning process. Hopefully it will become a process that is energizing and rewarding for you and your 4th grade students. I enjoy experiencing (and learning beside you) our course content in authentic and meaningful ways together. I look forward to the rest of our semester together!