Hello, again...finally

I decided to finally kick the dust off of my personal blog and write something. Now, I don't feel like I have been slacking, not blogging, yes, but slacking, no. I am currently finishing my master's and my entire final culminating paper/project has to do with consturcitivism in my classrooms. Now, I haven't been as creative with technology; however, I believe that constructivism has led to great things in my classes. I can't say, as of now, that everything is constructivist based, but I do feel that my students are more excited about their learning and the things that they do. Now, this may be a lofty assumption, but I just collected surveys today regarding this method of instruction and how students learn and most students are seeing its value. I don't know about anybody else, but this has been a truly hard year. I feel that I'm learning more as a teacher now than I ever did in getting my education licensure, and that I am constantly trying to make and do things better. I really feel that we have some of the most difficult jobs and the fact that we are coming together as a group and trying all of these new things, has weighty influence in our professional lives and the lives of our students. When we first started this process, I never thought that my teaching would change like this-and for the better. I have collaborated more, tried more new ideas, and challenged myself more than I thought I could. Really, we are doing wonderful things as a faculty. you know by just talking to students. I think we have a special situation at this school and really don't know how lucky we are to teach most of the students we have each day and more importantly, the staff we have. However, I still worry about whether or not how to write a thesis statement will stick with my freshmen. I worry in how to make something like Dickinson poetry applicable to student lives. I think the biggest worry is that I may be overestimating my students. What i see them doing and accomplishing might be bigger in my own mind. I really, honestly, truly do beleive that our studnets are capable of amazing critical thinking and application of what they are learning to the world around them. I truly beleive that they are capable of deep thought and looking at something with a more discerning eye. Is overestimating them bad? I expect a lot out of myself, thus I expect a lot out of my students. If I can't challenge myself, I can't challenge them.