Review and Thoughts on the Class

1. I have learned that teaching is hard work, but that it can be fun and exciting. The possibilities are endless on how to bring texts and ideas together, and I think that the more creative I get with the presentation, books, and formats of my class, the more we will all learn, and the more fun we will have doing it. I like the socratic seminar, and I hope that I can use it in my own classroom someday--it gives everyone a chance to speak at an even level.

2. I actually enjoyed all of the books. I was not familiar with most of them before the class, and this class served as my introduction into the world of graphic novels--I will never be the same! I might take out Harry Potter or Twilight, I liked them both, but I don't think that they are both necessary. The Book Thief was an absolute Gem!!!

3. Actually, I do think that having the classics with the less traditional books would have been helpful. I realize that we are a bit short on how much time we have to read so many books, but rather than just discussing how the books relate, it would have been neat to see them together and get into more in depth discussions about it.

4. I think that my strength is my passion for literature and finding new ways to make it relevant. I think that my weaknesses are and will continue to be my own anxieties about the responsibilities of teaching, and understanding good time management. Getting to actually teach a lesson helped a lot to see these weaknesses come into play, and I am able to start thinking about how to improve.

5. The group teach was helpful because I have never done anything like that before. It was a bit scary and frustrating in trying to plan out without having any concept of how the lesson delivery might possibly go, but I learned a lot. I learned that planning is good, but execution is very important. I also learned that it wasn't quite as scary as I thought. I absolutely think that group teach should be included. I feel a little better about going into methods now that I have at least a little experience.

6. Yes and No. It helped to be able to get my thoughts down, but it was hard to remember to do it every weak. I think it would have been more helpful to me if the assignment was to blog, say, every 2 or 3 weeks and group the books together for comparison. I might think about doing blogs with students because it is a neat way to communicate, but I'm not sure how strict I would be about it.

7. The only thing I would say is that I wish we were able to do a second group teach :D, and that classical literature would have been a big help, since many of the books we read are not already built into the curriculum.

Overall, this class has been a wonderful experience. I learned so much from everyone, and I think it was neat that we are all in different places at the moment--teachers, undergrads, grads. But I felt like we were all treated as colleagues rather than just students, and that helped me to gain the confidence I needed to be more assertive and speak my mind (I tend to have a problem with that in many of my other classes). I think I would like to bring that attitude to my own classroom. A little respect goes a long way.

Harry and Draco

“He turned back to Harry. “You’ll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there” (108). Harry paused a moment as Draco’s words sunk in. Just this morning he was at home with the Dursleys, partly hiding from them, and now here he was on a train headed for a wizarding school and faced with another just like the family he left behind! “Can’t I ever get away from this?” Harry thought to himself. He grinned slightly, however at the thought that perhaps he would soon learn to deal with such people. Maybe, just maybe, Harry could teach this Draco fellow a lesson. It simply wasn’t right to live as pompously and obnoxiously as this fellow clearly did. Harry caught Draco’s eye and extended his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, and I am sure that your help will be appreciated once we get to schoo,l” Harry said with a smile. Draco looked pleased with himself. Shaking Harry’s hand, and slightly excited by the prospect of having the most famous student to have ever attended Hogwarts as an ally, he missed the quick look that Harry was giving to Ron. Ron smirked in pleasure as he realized that Harry’s pleasantness towards Draco Malfoy was all a ploy. Patting Draco on the shoulder, Harry stood. “Well, it was great talking to you, but I, uh, need to talk to Ron here, and well…” Harry’s voice dropped to a whisper, “you know how it is,” he said nodding his head towards Ron, “I need to let him down easy.” Draco gave Harry a wide, knowing smile. “All right fellows,” Draco said with a slight laugh, “ I’ll see you both at Hogwarts.”
Once Draco had left, Harry turned back to Ron. “Sorry about that,” he said, “I guess I’m just tired of people like that pushing me around!” Harry sat down as Ron leaned back on his seat. “I know that you are planning something, Harry,” Ron said, “What it is, though, I can’t even begin to imagine. The Malfoy’s are famous in our family. Did you know that Draco’s father once stole his professor’s invisibility cloak? The poor man was half blind and thought he had left it in his office. It took him a week to figure out that someone had stolen it, and by then the whole school was in on it. My dad was the one who told the truth, and the Malfoys have never forgiven us for that.” Harry glanced about before leaning in, “I have an idea, perhaps we could…”

I realize that this isn’t the most excited fanfiction out there, it would have been interesting to see Harry and Draco team up, but unless Draco were to be won over to Harry’s side, I think I would have lost respect for Harry. I decided to make Harry plot against Draco because I felt like he sat back too often and let people take advantage of him. Sure, putting the guy in his place like Harry does on the train is good, but I think it would be fun to have Harry a little conniving. As the book goes on Harry is more and more willing to push back, but I thought it would be fun to have him start the war with more of a bang than he does.

Harry Potter

First let me say that I LOVED this book! I remember all the press surrounding these books when the series first came out. I never had the opportunity to read it before since the school I attended was very strict and forbid students from even bringing it to school (I had a friend who covered the cover of the book in a brown paper bag cover like a text book and read it during lunch!) In any case, as with the last book, I probably wouldn't have read it anyways because of its insane popularity and everyone's obsession with it (Somehow that turns me away from wanting to read those books). With all of that, I thought that Rowling did an excellent job in creating a new world that coexists with the real world. I guess Rowling probably had many of the same moments of grating cliches that Meyers had, but the beauty of Harry Potter is in the details. A new sport/past time with specific rules listed out; a three-headed creature protecting a strange mystical object; unicorns; flying broom sticks; magically growing hair; owls; secret train platforms. She has such an imagination! I would actually enjoy using this book in my classroom. It isn't a complicated text, but the story is multi-layered, the characters do develop as the story goes on (Harry's aunt and uncle are a bit flat, and so are many of the other characters, but it does get better). I think that it would be beneficial to use the text to help students start out a creative writing project. In a social studies class (and combined with the English class) during middle school, we were required to make up our own country with laws and hobbies and everything. We created a map using all the various parts we learned in social studies and then wrote a creative writing story about the people who lived there. Rowling's book could be a good starting point or example of how to do something like that.