Always Learning...

     As an English major, I knew literacy skills would be a fundamental part of what I will teach my future students. I knew that, without proper guidance and modeling, my students may not fully grasp certain concepts and ideas on their own. However, what I didn't realize was that literacy skills include far more than simple reading and writing; literacy pertains to understanding, comprehending, interpreting, evaluating, and producing texts. Furthermore, those texts can include novels, short stories, blogs, websites, musical presentations, videos, business and technical documents, paintings, photographs, and anything else that conveys a message. That's a lot to cover. Thankfully, it's not up to English teachers alone to teach literacy skills; literacy can be taught in all subject areas and by a variety of methods.
     That being said, I'm not trying to downplay the importance of reading and writing; on the contrary, I think knowing how to read and write proficiently can strengthen students in other areas of literacy. For example, an art student who is required to evaluate a Rembrandt painting, pointing out its good and bad qualities and explaining his or her evaluation in clear, concise language, will make a much more effective argument if he or she has been taught how to write analysis papers using persuasive, logical reasoning. A history student will be better able to tell the story of the Battle of Gettysburg and keep his or her listeners interested if he or she has been taught how to write a narrative. Any student moving into a new apartment will be able to understand an apartment contract if he or she has been taught how to identify key words and phrases and to ask about things he or she doesn't understand. So, English teachers can work together with teachers of other disciplines to improve literacy instruction.
     Over the last few months (since I've been in SCED 4200), I've noticed how "information-focused" our world is becoming. Maybe it's just because I'm getting to the point in my life when I have to make my own way and provide for myself and my family, and I can't rely on my parents any more, so I have to be able to understand and interpret everything for myself. With more and more information available, though, we have to become more critically literate. Not everything we see or hear is true, and much of it is biased one way or another. One of the most important things we'll need to teach our students is how to know the difference between fact and fiction, truth and opinion, and research-based information and speculation. Along with that, we need to prepare our students for the time when they'll be out on their own, the time when they won't have teachers to depend on for help. We can do that in a way similar to teaching them how to learn new vocabulary words: when they encounter something new, they should look for context clues and things about the new "thing" that are familiar to them, then go from there. If they can relate the new "thing" to something they already know, it'll be easier to understand.
     The most important thing for teachers to understand is that their students are all going to be different. Different modes of learning will work for different students, and certain accommodations will need to be made for others. In my classroom, I'll need to have different texts available for students with lower reading levels, and I may need to spend more instruction time with those students, too. Literacy applies to us as teachers, too; we'll have to "read" our students so that we understand how much they know, what they're gaining from our instruction, and what we need to improve or explain further to benefit them. We'll also need to learn about the new technologies and resources that are becoming available every day; the more ways we can reach our students, the more they'll benefit.

I love technology...

     If someone were to ask me whether or not I spend a lot of time using technology, I'd probably say no. However, if I had about ten or fifteen minutes to think about it, I'd say yes; I use digital technology a lot more than I realize. I can think of people who spend more time glued to the TV, computer, or cell phone, but I still use those devices a lot. For example, over the course of the past week, I spent a total of 25 hours using either my laptop or iPad (at least 90-95% of that time I was on the Internet). I use them for a variety of reasons, like homework, tracking sports stuff, playing games, watching sports, church stuff, reading sports articles (ESPN.go.com is my favorite website), and checking my e-mail. However, because the past week was spring break, my total computer time was a lot lower than a normal week, because I sit in front of a computer for anywhere between 15 and 20 hours at work each week (mainly doing stuff for work, but also sports-related stuff, homework, etc.). I was at work for 5.5 hours yesterday, and 5 of that was spent in front of the computer screen. I guarantee that my computer time will increase tremendously over the next three weeks due to March Madness; the NCAA Basketball tournament starts this week, and it's one of the highlights of the sports world (fill out your bracket here: http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/).
     As for other digital technology use, I haven't utilized much over the past week. I've only sent or received ten calls on my cell phone, but I have sent or received over 200 text messages. Texting is often a lot more handy than calling someone, and it's quicker, too. I would definitely spend more time in front of the TV if we had cable, but we don't, and that's probably a good thing, because I'd be watching basketball or baseball or hockey or soccer or tennis every night (and football on Saturdays). We have a DVD player, though, so we're not stuck in the Stone Age, and we even had time to watch a couple movies over spring break. Beyond that, I think I used my iPod for about half an hour last week, but I usually listen to www.pandora.com when I want to tune other things out (more computer usage!!). I definitely use technology a lot more for entertainment than I do anything else.
     I wouldn't consider myself technologically-inhibited, but I know I'm not an expert, and I have a lot to learn. I also know I'll be teaching students who know a lot more about digital technology than I do. I should be able to use taht to my advantage, though. For example, students familiar with Facebook should be able to participate in Canvas-type discussion groups, posting comments and sharing things with their classmates. Most students, too, have e-mail addresses and can easily share documents and homework outside of class. Another thing the computer is good for is using the Internet to look up stories, information, primary source documents, and other appropriate readings for class. Blogs, like this one, are great ideas, too. By far, though, one of my favorite things to do with technology in the classroom is show video clips; Hollywood (most of the time) has great ways to help us understand things. YouTube will be on my favorites page for sure. In order to use technology with my students, I'll have to learn a lot more about the different resources available; because of all the recent advances, I have a lot of work to do. In today's world, though, technology is probably the best way to reach most students.

The Write Way to Do Things

     I don't know if I'd consider myself to be a writer. At the risk of boasting, I'd say I'm a good writer, but I'm not a writer, if that makes any sense at all. A writer, to me, is someone who enjoys writing and spends a good amount of time (maybe an hour or two a day, at least) doing it, whether it be stories, essays, articles, etc., whereas a good writer doesn't necessarily have to spend a lot of time writing; he or she simply produces medium- to high-quality work when he or she writes. To clarify, I enjoy writing sometimes, depending on what I'm writing. I don't like writing essays at all, but it's one of my strong points. I really enjoy writing fiction and personal narratives, but I spend hardly any time doing that outside of homework assignments.

     I would definitely say I prefer writing to drawing, however. When I was younger, teachers would ask us (the students) to draw pictures of random things (e.g., my family or siblings). I was always the one to raise my hand and ask if I could write about it instead. I'm not an artist, nor am I a good artist. The picture below illustrates my point. :)

Writing v. Drawing? Writing wins every time.

     When I was in fourth grade, my teacher was constantly assigning writing projects. I wrote personal narratives, poems, fiction stories, etc.; you name it, I wrote it. Looking back on it, I'm glad I have the stories, but, at the time, I got tired of it. I'm glad she had me write so much, though, because it made my writing stronger. Besides homework, though, I didn't do much writing. I wrote in a journal every once in a while and wrote letters to people occasionally, but that's about it. It's basically the same now. I write in my journal, less than every once in a while, and I write e-mails instead of letters. Facebook posts are a rarity. Any other writing I do is usually homework-related.

     As I said, I've never particularly enjoyed writing essays, research papers, or literary analyses, for that matter. They're simply no fun. I always procrastinated them, finding 700 other things to do before forcing myself to sit down and write (maybe that's why I didn't like them, because I always waited until the last minute). However, I would be lying if I said I'll never assign them to my students. One of the biggest parts of writing those kinds of papers is making a point or argument and then defending it with proof or evidence. Being able to do that effectively will help my students for the rest of their lives, so I'll have to teach them how to do it one way or another. I'll intersperse those assignments with other writing assignments that they'll hopefully enjoy (I guess some may enjoy essays and research papers, but I think that will be the exception more than the norm), like creative fiction stories, personal narratives, free verse poems, etc.; those assignments allow students to be more original in what they write, and they're not tied to a certain text or material. I think I just like freedom in writing, and I prefer not to write about someone else's writing.

     I'm kind of excited about the huge expansion of technology that's happening, and I'm hoping to learn more about all of it so that I can allow my students to express themselves in different ways (like this blog!!).

I read good!

     For most of my life, I've considered myself to be a pretty decent reader. I'm not the world's fastest reader, but I feel good about my comprehension skills. I've enjoyed reading since I was six or seven, starting with books like Bruce Coville's My Teacher Is an Alien, the Boxcar Children series, Goosebumps, and Animorphs. Those occupied a lot of my time until fourth or fifth grade, when I made it through nearly the entire Hardy Boys series. I've always really enjoyed fiction; nonfiction, even to this day, doesn't appeal to me much, with the exception of news articles on ESPN.com. Reading was a huge enjoyment for me until high school, when it became homework instead of a hobby. Don't get me wrong; I still enjoyed reading, and I read a lot of good novels and plays in high school, but it was something I had to do, not something I wanted to do. I can probably count on less than one hand the number of books I read for pleasure (okay, there's one exception; I read the entire Harry Potter series--the books that were already published--at least four or five times) during high school. If I would have been more awake and coherent during those four years (I was a chronic late-night homeworker and averaged less than four hours of sleep a night), I probably would have read more. But I wasn't. And, despite the fact that I consider myself to be a good reader, I don't read very well through closed eyelids.
     It wasn't actually until last summer that I really started reading for pleasure again. Because I've taken so many English classes in college, I was simply burned out when it came to literature. I couldn't take it any more. Thankfully, getting into some Education classes (as opposed to English classes) took my mind off of reading as homework, and I made it through some good books during the summer. My summer reading list for this year is already three miles long, including anything from The Lord of the Rings and Gulliver's Travels to the Percy Jackson series and Fablehaven (still not much nonfiction). Every time I hear about a good book, I write it down. I'm sure I'll read plenty of ESPN articles during the summer, too.
     I honestly don't know where my love of reading came from, but my parents have never been against it. If I wanted books growing up, they were always good about making sure I had something to read. My siblings read a lot, too, so maybe my parents drilled the idea of reading into us when we were one or two and we just don't remember it; it just stuck in our subconscious somewhere. It was also an alternative to video games, but we had plenty of those, too. Most of my friends didn't read, but I didn't care. I loved lying down on my bed and finishing an entire Hardy Boys mystery in a day, or staying up all night to finish the newest installment of Harry Potter. My friends could wait. Nowadays, I'm a lot busier spending time with my wife, going to school and work, and taking care of everything else that needs to get done, so I can't decide to spend a whole day or night reading. I still fit the time in, though.
     So, how does this novel apply to future students? I hope to instill into my students the idea that reading isn't just a smart thing to do, but it can be a lot of fun at the same time. Many students don't read because they have trouble understanding or comprehending, and I hope to help them overcome that by assigning books that are somewhat simple, engaging, and entertaining at the same time. If I can get them hooked on lower-level, higher-quality literature, then they'll be more willing to move up to the higher-level stuff. I might have to alternate some entertaining books with some tougher books to keep them going. I also don't want to assign them more material to read than I need to, because I don't want them to get burned out like I felt at times. Because I've always seen myself as a good reader, I'm a little worried about how I'll help my struggling students (because I haven't been in their shoes), but I'm sure I'll figure out ways as certain situations arise. My goal is to help them realize that, if they put a little effort into it, they can become great readers and comprehend things themselves.

SCED 4200 Blog #1--Introduction

Hellooooo, everybody! My name is Anthony Poulsen, and I hope to someday be a great English teacher (and maybe psychology teacher on the side). I enjoy sports, reading, eating, and traveling; but, most of all, I love spending time with my wife, Afton (if we can do my favorite things together, it's even better!). An interesting fact about me (and my wife) is that we live a full-day's drive away from both our families; my parents live in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Afton's parents live in Placerville, California (near Sacramento), so we're kind of stuck in the middle.

I want to teach English because I love literature and all that we can learn from it, but especially because I had a very influential high school English teacher who inspired me to want to help others. (I think my first blog post--I set up this blog for another class--actually tells a little about her, so if you feel inclined to read that, you're welcome to.) English, to me, is very multifaceted, and it includes reading, writing, comprehension, language, and basically just being able to interact with the world around us. Most importantly, I believe that English teachers should be able to help their students find their own personal application from things they read and convey their thoughts and feelings through writing of their own, and I hope to be able to do that.

I would define literacy as being literate, or being able to read something--a newspaper, novel, short story, cereal box, instruction manual, etc.--and understand all or most of it, and also being able to communicate clearly. Literacy plays a big part in English because so much of the discipline deals with reading and writing, and, if students can't understand what they're reading and writing, they'll get bored with what they're reading (and will find no application or personal value in it) and make no sense in what they're writing. Literacy is the connection between students, literature, and the world. I've learned so much about the world from what I've read, and I would love to help my future students find the same connections someday.

A Teacher I Be

I haven't always wanted to be a teacher; it was only in high school that the idea occurred to me. I had a fantastic high school English teacher, Mrs. Pedersen, who inspired me by the way she taught and interacted with her students on a daily basis. No one loved English more than she did, and no one loved her students (except maybe their parents) more than she did. She had a way of teaching that made us not only to want to learn about English, literature, and writing, but it made us want to be better people and more clearly understand the world around us. She encouraged us to apply what we learned on a daily basis; a lot of teachers simply require their students to memorize a bunch of facts for a test, and then they don't care what they do with what they learned. Because of Mrs. Pedersen, I want to be a high school English teacher. I want to inspire my students to go out and change the world, to recognize what is happening all around them and how they can affect it, and to take advantage of all the resources that are available to them. I want my students to be able to think for themselves. I want them to be able to go to college and get degrees, so that they, in turn, can inspire others to be better. I like the "Pay It Forward" mentality; if I help my students learn and grow, they'll help others learn and grow, and so forth. I was inspired by an amazing teacher, and I want to do the same. That's my teaching philosophy.