This semester, I'm taking my final four classes at Teachers College:
1) Pedagogical Approaches in the C0ntent Areas for Teachers of K-12 ESL
Luckily, we do not have to memorize the title of this course for the midterm, or I'd fail then and there. Funny story about this class: Courtney and some of her friends from the Harvard School of Ed. told me before I started at TC last year to watch out for this guy named Michael Kieffer who they'd worked under and was apparently the best thing since sliced bread. He'd just moved over to TC, but wasn't in my department so I thanked them for their advice and immediately forgot about it. Just under a year later, I was assisting at a literacy conference at TC when, perusing the program, I saw Michael Kieffer listed as a speaker. I have a fair memory for names, but not to the extent that I'll remember someone whom I've heard a single reference to about 11 months previous. But somehow I thought I remembered him, and when his bio said he'd worked at Harvard, I was convinced. I approached him during a break and said that some of my friends from Harvard had spoken highly of him. He looks to be in his early 30's and was extremely friendly. He was flattered that Courtney and Julie had passed his name on to me, and suggested I take his class in the fall. It's in the TESOL (Teachers of English as a Second Language) program and so I politely said that I'd look into it, but I didn't think it would happen; our courseload in the Reading Specialist program is pretty prescribed. However, his is the class my advisor recommended to fulfill one of my requirements when the original class I was supposed to take wasn't offered this fall. So it's all worked out and I couldn't be happier - Professor Kieffer is fantastic.
As to the class itself, it's all about using text and writing to improve literacy skills of ESL kids. I have no desire to teach ESL, but I can count on having lots of students who are bilingual in my mainstream classes-I had a lot at McGavock-and the things I'm learning will be, I'm sure, quite useful. Not only that, but the strategies we're going to learn can be used for any kids with shaky backgrounds in English literacy, and that certainly applies to lots of native speakers I've worked with. So I'm enjoying it already and looking forward to learning more. Half of the class is TESOL students and the other half is Reading Specialist students, although they're all in their first semester and I am, it seems, the only veteran. They seem like a pretty cool group of girls (per usual, all of my classes are all-female), and I'm looking forward to this class a lot. It's on Monday evenings.
2) Practicum III-Literacy Assessment and Intervention
This is the class that accompanies the third and final practicum I'll have to do at TC. Practicum is usually my least favorite part of my semesters: it takes forever to plan, implement, and write up lessons and I can't help but think about the hundreds of dollars I would be earning each week if I were doing this at a real clinic instead of at TC. This semester, instead of meeting with clients twice for 90 minutes each, we're meeting them three times for 45-minute sessions. In addition, the write-ups are MUCH shorter and we are forbidden from using all of the ridiculous, overly formal language that was a must in previous practica. (bless you, Dr. Masullo!) I haven't gotten my client assignment yet. I will have either a group of three young children or else an older adolescent or adult. I am, obviously, pulling for the latter, having had two young children in the past. It was interesting to get a feel for what early literacy entails, but I would rather walk on hot coals than teach elementary school and would really like to have the experience of working with a client similar to the ones I plan to spend the rest of my career teaching.
Classes themselves prove to be enjoyable. Dr. Masullo has chosen light, pertinent readings for us to do, and her teaching style is simultaneously laid back and informative. This class is on Tuesday nights.
3) Diagnosis of Reading and Writing Disabilities
Immediately after Prac. III, I go to my third class. The professor is a school psychologist-they're the ones that usually administer assessments-and she talks about a mile a minute, though I like her anyway, so far. In this class we're learning about lots of different assessments that can be given to test students' reading and writing abilities. There are TONS of them out there, all suited for different purposes and populations. There's a pretty heavy statistical base to the class, which I don't mind much even though it's math because it's obviously very relevant. Our professor says that even though we'll leave with a good understanding of the basics, we still won't be qualified to administer these tests until we've had lots of practice. This seems a little strange to me. How hard could it be to follow a manual, record the responses, and figure out the score? But of course there's more to it than that, and the real difficulty comes in interpreting the score. So I'll take her word for it and try to learn as much as I can about the tests I'll likely be using a lot in the future. (Some are intended for very young children, so I won't have to memorize everything about every assessment.)
4) Cognition and Learning
I was driving myself crazy waiting for TC to schedule a meeting time for this class over the summer; each time I checked back, "TBA" was written on the schedule. Finally, after much searching through endless webpages, I learned that the class is online. At first I was disappointed, but I quickly realized that this allows me a huge amount of flexibility in terms of my schedule (practicum and tutoring are much less constrained this way). I don't know that I'm learning quite as much as I might if I were going to lectures, but this is an elective and while I'm interested in it, it's not the most critical class I'll ever take. Having said that, however, let me hasten to add that so far I find it fascinating. We work from a textbook, online readings, and online projects, and contribute weekly to discussion posts. Our most recent readings have been about memory. The book makes a lot of references to neurology, which is great because it ties in with the neuro. class I took last year. I like this a bit better though, because instead of focusing entirely on the brain (where there are so many unknowns that you want to tear your hair out), this focuses more on behavior, which, happily, is observable; then it uses neurology to give possible/probably explanations for it. Sweet. I'm enjoying it quite a lot.
It's hard to believe that this is the final semester of classes I'll take before I graduate! Although part of me is a little wistful, mostly I'm looking forward to being done so I can get out of New York and begin my next adventure.
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