Course Strand and Dimensions of Learning

Course Strands

1. Communication:

            Communication is something that has been really important to me in my life.  My mother, as well as a lot of my family has had a lot of trouble with communication in the United States.  The main problem for this is because in the United States English is spoken, and they don’t speak English, so communicating is a hard thing for them.  Through this semester I have learned that communication can be made in many different forms.  For example I got to communicate with my students at apache through storytelling.  I got to meet some of their family members (well not really meet in person but got to know them really well).  This not only happened with my students I also got to know some of the family members of my classmates through the chautauqua stories.  I got to learn that for some students it was really uncomfortable talking about a family member, and for others it was lots of fun.  At the end we all got to know more about our families.

2. Research/Content:

            To me research before this class, was having to go on the internet and research information for a topic that I wanted to know more about.  Through this semester I learned that researching can be done anywhere not only in a computer.  I did research with my students through communication in order to find out more about their character and their families.  Students were also doing research themselves in order to get more information on their character.  Many times they had to go home and observe how their character acted at home, what he or she liked or disliked, etc.  This was something totally different for me and very fun to do.

3. Technology:

            Before this class I always thought that only experienced people could make a webpage, but was I so wrong.  Through this class I learned that constructing a webpage is not as hard.  I had lots of fun doing it and showing it to my family.  I know that from now on this will really help me in my future.  I also had to get in the mode of technology all the time because throughout the semester everything was done through email.  This was hard for me because I do not have internet access at home, so the only internet access was in my office.  At the end I got my ways to getting informed of what was going on.  On our last class we had a class on how to make a video and edit it.  This was lot of fun and new to me.  I am really excited that everyday I learn something new.

4. Collaboration:

            I learned a lot about collaboration with my students at apache elementary.   I had to collaborate with them in order for them to collaborate with me.  This was really nice, because it worked really well and we had a very good collaboration process.  I really enjoyed my students and I am really grateful that they collaborated with me throughout the semester.  I will sure miss them.  I also saw a lot of collaboration from my classmates, if there was anything I needed help with they were there to help me.  I really want to thank all of them.

Five Dimensions of Learning

1. Confidence and Independence

            I am at the end of my first semester at UNM and wow was it a big experience.  I have gained a lot of confidence in myself and a lot of independence.  At the beginning my self confidence was very low; many times I was really embarrassed because of my Spanish accent in my English.  Throughout the class, it felt really comfortable for people asking me about my experience with a second language.  This was important to me because I could tell them how hard many things were for me, but at the end I feel more confident.  Independence was a big challenge for me because I had never worked independently with children one on one.  At first it was hard, but at the end I felt very comfortable doing it.

2. Skill and Strategies

            I have learned many skills and strategies throughout the semester.  Getting to know my students and having good strategies to work with them was a life learning experience.  Many of these strategies and skills came by themselves and other were passed on to me by my classmates.  I learned that all children are different and have many different ways of work styles.  For example one of my classmates is a story teller and he had no trouble making up his chautauqua story.  He even changed his story many times.  On the other hand my other students was very shy and had a lot of trouble in coming up with her story.  She knew she wanted to be her sister, but she did not know how to act in front of everyone with out getting embarrassed.  I worked with her and let her know I had the same problem.  I have a lot of trouble performing in front of people, I am really shy, and it is really hard for me.  But I was able to accomplish it and it was a success, so I told her “If I can do it, you can do it”.  This helped her understand that she is not on her own.

3. Knowledge

            I learned a lot from our text this semester.  Each chapter had a lot of good techniques in teaching linguistically diverse students.  Many of the information in the chapters took me back to the years when I was learning English.  Even though many years have passed many of the techniques and ideas are the same.  Each chapter gave different ways of managing with linguistically diverse students, and the forms in which my classmates presented helped me gain more knowledge.

4. Use of prior and emerging experience

            I have learned a lot through this semester.  Prior to this I was taking my basics so I did not have a lot of experience in the classroom.  Through out this semester I have gained a lot of experience in the classroom as well as with the students.  I have learned that all children learn differently, and all of them come from different backgrounds.  I have learned to have patience with each child, and be able to help them out as much as I can.  I have learned that there are many ways to help a child and a teacher should do the best she can to help each and everyone of her students.

5. Critical Reflection

            This was a really hard semester for me.  First of all it was my first one at UNM.  Secondly, going from a college to a University is a big difference.  Finally, being in the classroom was uncomfortable for me at first but with time I have been more comfortable.  This class has really helped me and I am sure I will use information I have learned in this class in my personal classroom.

Final Evaluation

Reflection: 

I really enjoyed this class.  I am not from Farmington, so with the fieldtrips I got to visit many places that I did not know existed.  I also got to give my classmates an opportunity to learn a little bit of my culture by taking them to the Michoacana.  The Chautauqua stories were a little frustrating at the beginning because I am not a person that is comfortable acting in front of people. But once I did mine and got to see all of the other stories it was really fun.              

Suggestions:

I really don’t have any suggestions for this class.  I really enjoyed the field trips and I would recommend keeping them.  But other than that, those are the only suggestions I have.  I have another one but I am not sure if it is just me, but the jokes that go around the classroom make me feel very uncomfortable.  The reason for this is that I am really naïve and many times I think you guys are saying the truth, and when I find out it is was a joke it is not even funny, but embarrassing because I feel Stupid.  This is only a suggestion so I don’t know if it is just me.

Grade Evaluation:

This is really hard for me to say.  I feel like I have done everything that has been asked from me to do.  I have worked really hard and learned a lot as well.  I did not miss a class.  I worked really hard with my students at Apache and really enjoyed it.  I believe I should have an A+.