Getting my feet wet.

Here are the facts.

I love reading.
On a beach, in my bed, on the bus, at a coffee shop - doesn't really matter where I am, because if the book is doing its job I am lost somewhere in a suspenseful, funny, exotic or mysterious world. I don't know how it happened, but my parents and teachers were never forcing a book in my hands, they were generally tearing it away from me.

Listening is pretty fun too.
Play me a song, read me a story, spill the beans on your deepest darkest secrets - I'm listening. And recalling the random details many years later.

I (usually) like writing.
For a good while there, essays and silly assignments had my love of writing on life support. Writing was all about word count, referencing styles, dressing up information in fancy academic thought, enduring late nights. Writing was directly linked to that pain in my neck.

Then I re-discovered my diary writing days through emails to friends far and near. I realized how much fun it was to be in charge of writing content for a website - one that people actually look at! And I embraced with enthusiasm the challenge of coming up with pithy comments on the photos I posted online. Ahhh...writing. Glad to have you back.

And I (mostly) like speaking.
If I've got a purpose, a point or a script I'm all over speaking. Heck, I might even sing! However, ask me to engage in small talk and polite conversation and you've just built a mountain in front of my very eyes (or lungs....).

I expect an ELA classroom to be really different than it was when I was in school. Was I engaged in learning? In all of these areas? We did spelling tests (which, by the way, was kind of my thing) and maybe the teacher read us a story and we handed in a book report or two. After 2 weeks in this program, I am beginning to get an idea of what "engaging" really means. I'm excited about the possibilities, and delighted to see that education seems a little more in touch with the world than it used to be.

Here's a few things I know for sure: I don't want to scare anyone off ELA because of a grammar lesson, or beating a dead horse while we analyze the protagonist's thoughts and dreams. I don't want someone faking sick on their presentation day because they are way too terrified to get in front of the class. I really want to figure out a way of being the teacher that has to tear the book out of her student's hands.

These are all pretty grand plans, I know. For now I just hope I can use my ELA skills to learn everything I can from Carol, my fellow students and heck - maybe even the IRP's, bless their heart.