My name's Renee, and I've never blogged before. I have written in a journal forever, but never was there the audience (or at least the chance for an audience) that this publicly displayed blog holds. Luckily it is for a class, so my thoughts will mostly focus around required readings, my ever changing thoughts about writing, and my fears of having to teach high school students how to write.
This is my second semester in the School of Education at Iowa, and I'm so excited. I graduated from Iowa three years ago with a degree in English and a minor in Ancient Civilizations...it just so happens that there are zero jobs for English majors, let alone a job that actually challenged and intrigued me. That's when I started thinking about what I really wanted to do with my life. I certainly didn't want to work retail jobs forever, and I don't have the commitment to sit down and write novels (I always quit on my books about three chapters in because I get bored with my own ideas). Teaching was the only profession that made sense, the only profession that fit me.
I want to teach high school English. I want to teach Shakespeare, the Odyssey, the Great Gatsby, Robert Frost , Edgar Allen Poe, and all of the things that people claim to hate because they had bad teachers. I find it inexcusable that we have teachers in school that make reading and writing a punishment. Words are beautiful, and I understand that they are more beautiful for some than for others, but why can't we as teachers breath a little life into these stories? Why can't we extract some passion from out students?
My father has been one of my biggest inspirations for becoming a teacher. He is so intelligent, so driven, so charismatic, but he never went to college and he hates books. I've only seen him read one book in my entire life. One book. The only reason he read the book was because it was a story about a close friend of his who died fighting for our country in the Middle East (the book is Black Hawk Down, and I recommend it). I can't remember a month when I haven't read at least one book, let alone twenty years.
As a teacher, I want all of my students to find a passion for reading. My ideas for reading and writing are different, but I think that they have merit. If you can get a student to read, you can get them to write. If you can get them to write honestly, then they can start to believe that they have something important to say. If you can give your students confidence in their thoughts and beliefs, then they will have confidence in themselves. If they believe in themselves, then they will have the strength to break down the barriers that life puts before them. Reading leads to writing leads to realization, and that is why I want to be an English teacher.
