Chapters 1

Daniels and Bizar:

My understanding of the Best Practice Teacing is implementing a structure, as a teacher, within the school that produces students who have a sense of critical thinking, decision making, independance, and a clear concept of the material that was taught. In short, Best Practice Teaching is the definition of what most people would say a "good" teacher is. This method consists of seven building blocks including reading as thinking, representing to learn, small group activities, classroom workshop, authentic experiences, reflective assignments, and intregrative units. These can be used some of this time, most of the time, overlapping, etc. Best Practice Teaching is truly based on a student centered classroom. It is not lecturing, sitting, listening, rewarding for silence, "busy work," or emphasizing standardized testing. This method could be easily incorporated into an English class or any other subject really. I would use this by doing several group activities. Bringing the class to gether to brain storm for paper topics or having a class act out a scence from a book they read could create a sense of community among the students.

Murray:

To be a write can mean a list of things to many different people. I think that after reading this chapter, to be a writer means to expand the experiences in your life. A writer gets to analyze the things that they are doing or life experiences that have occured. Sometimes things happen so nonchalantly that by writing about them or being inspired by them gives the writer a chance to reflect on what has actually really happened. A quote that stuck out to me was, "I started to write because of a terrible feeling of powerlessness: I felt I was drifting obscure, and I rebelled against that." This stood out to me because throughout day to day living I sometimes feel the attitude of people not caring encircling me. I realize that just as I don't care about others personal struggles at times, they also don't care but about me, which makes me feel like I could be invisible to most. When I write, I get so tangled in what is being written and my own thoughts that it is a nice feeling of empowerment.