Mid-Semester Reflection

I have really been learning a lot about children's literature from this class, but more importantly I have continued to learn about myself as a reader and an educatory.  I have been thinking a lot about how I plan on making the important decision of what books I want to use in my classroom.  I want to expose my students to not only a wide variety of genres, but also a wide variety of media in which reading appears.  It is very important to teach children that reading and writing have real-life purposes, and to do that we need to expose them to the infinitely large selection of literature out there.

I have come to realize just how important "controversial" literature can be in the classroom.  Though it is often up to debate whether a particular book is controversial or not (controversy is in the eye of the beholder, perhaps?), but I have become ever more aware that it is essential to expose our students to a wide variety of literature that portrays many different cultures and lifestyles.  This may push some parents or students (or even myself) out of their comfort zones on occasion, but it is absolutely necessary to expose children to as much of the world as we can.  This is more true today than it has ever been before, and I'm sure it become ever more important as our society continues to become more diverse and more aware of other cultures in the world.

Lastly, I have learned that there are many things that happen in the classroom that we can't foresee until they happen, but we can prepare ourselves in order to best serve our students.  Just as important as the literature we put in the classroom is the attitude we bring with ourselves into the classroom.  The language we use, the responses we make to student comments or questions, and the literature and stories we are willing to share with our students all show our children what we view as "normal" and acceptable, so it is important to be able to create a safe and nurturing environment for all of the students we teach.  This requires being very self-aware so we can be sure to avoid making any students feel singled out or out of the "norm."