This week was my first visit in a classroom for an experience aspect of my teaching program.

One of the first things my class did was have their weekly visit to the library!

I was excited since one of my passions is reading and I am especially interested in how to learn to make reading exciting for my students.

This library visit was different from the ones I remember in my elementary school years. Instead of just getting time to find some books the librarian guided the students through some ideas for picking out books and how to not get discouraged if they may have not enjoyed their books, he was sure to encourage every student in finding something they would enjoy.

This was such a fun way at looking at things  – students were encouraged to find something they enjoyed and from there to challenge themselves if they like or remember that reading is something enjoyable.

There wasn’t pressure to read a full chapter book and instead the emphasis was on enjoying this activity.

Later that day during our class seminar we had this librarian as a guest speaker to talk a little bit about the roles of librarians and how they can work with teachers on a variety of projects for students.

One of the biggest themes of the day was the shift in focus to Inquiry-based Learning for students. I must admit this idea still feels a little strange to me and even our seminar leaders admitted that this was a stressful change for them in their teaching careers. But I do love the idea of empowering students to learn for themselves and question things. My education was mostly just remembering facts and presenting them and I am excited to shift teaching to suit our world.

I see myself shifting my project to finding a passion with learning and reading. Maybe my passion is just teaching? I guess that would mean I am in the right profession, I feel excited to be learning how to teach as I have been trying for this goal for awhile and I hope to continue to feel this way throughout my career.

Julia