Teacher Thought Spot

I started my graduate program this week and survived the first week! I'm actually really excited. I remember going through training for my undergrad degree and learning and planning all of this hypothetical...stuff. A lot of it didn't sink in because I wasn't able to put it into effect. Now I get to plan and make changes to my lessons that I will be teaching next year. What I love the most about the program are the people! The teachers are great and the "students" (or rather my colleagues) are the nicest people in the world! Everyone is so supportive of each other and their ideas and perspectives. It is nice to see so many views from such a wide variety of teaching backgrounds: from kindergarten to high school and beyond. I've already spent so much time with these people that I don't want to miss hearing their opinions and experiences. The strategy show and tell is superb. I've already gotten so many ideas. I have a section in my binder specifically for "things to use in my classroom." Something I can do to make the classroom environment better would be to maybe share more of my experiences and even my questions. I don't always understand something and hope that someone else doesn't either and has the guts to say so. Now that I'm on the other end of the desk, I can understand why my students don't ask for clarification - it's intimidating! As a learner, having a supportive environment is monumental. As for my class, I don't know what more could be done besides getting to know each others histories better. I really think it's such a great environment already. I really do like to read everyone's blogs. Jim mentioned after another class how beneficial the blog is not only for us but for our students because it does allow us to "say" things that we may not want to say in front of a class but still think it's important to say.