Concluding Reflection
When I opted to apply for Teacher's College I was advised to choose English as a minor by teachers who had previously left the hallowed walls of the division. The main reason was that the work load was overwhelming. However I chose it as a minor because my first passion is the foreign languages.
This course lived up to my expectations- it was very challenging and at times I often asked myself why I chose English. But being someone who never likes to back down from a challenge I took the course on Teaching Adolescent Literature head on. It forced me to enhance my technological skills through the online portfolio and it made me more reflective in my teaching practices. Whenever the lecturer would make a comment on a common error novice English teachers made in the classroom when teaching Literature to adolescents I would shrivel up inside, thinking of the detrimental effect I must had on my students in my ignorance. No wonder they always complained about not liking the subject!
Despite its challenges, I am thankful that I did the course because it also made me more knowledgeable in my practices, and I definitely intend to make use of my new found knowledge in the classroom. Literature as is often proven in the numerous research carried out is about the human experience. it is something to be experienced, not simply read and move on. I intend to make this experience come alive in my class when I return to teaching so that my students can say 'Miss, we had a wonderful class today. We are looking forward to the next class'.
I found the course challenging too. I however realized that a large part of what made it so tough was that I had seen the wrong thing done, not in my Literature classes as such, but across the curriculum; that the failed systems of teaching had become so fossilized in me, that I was re-learning how to learn and how best to teach learners.
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