Learning to Teach

So,(there I go with the so's again)this semester I'm taking Secondary Curricular Methods: English/Language Arts and attached to it is my first real Clinical. I have to do fifty hours observation, among other things. One of my requirements for class is to keep a journal or blog where I'll respond to the text, and list my observations and ah ha! moments. I figured since I already have a blog, why not do it here? So this is the first of many, because I plan to continue even after this class.
Anyway this is a little late, but when I did the first reading assignment I jotted down some of the thoughts that popped into my head and underlined some nice quotes that I found/liked.

Chapter One is very short it's just the author (who is a practicing teacher) relates his process for getting ready for a new year. It is literally two pages, but reading it got my blood humming. I even teared up at his recollection of a former student crying during her graduation speech (in my defense, I've been rather emotional lately). My point is that I really feel that teaching is a calling and I've been called. Teaching is what I was meant to do.
That being said, I've never liked the saying "those who can't do teach" so one of the first things that caught my eye in chapter two was a quote from Jeffery D. Wilhem that states Teachers must "not only know how to read, write, learn, and converse as an expert, but must know how to assist and support students to do the same. Those who teach, must do!"
What I'm going to do now is list some things I liked.

"We sometimes resist the value and importance of fun, too often feeling insulted by the idea that we should providing 'edutainment'" and "Creativity is inherently joyful, challenging, and absorbing. It introduces laughter into what would otherwise be tedium. It engages attention and impagination and, when skillfully facilitated, it enhances communication."

This is a quote from one of the author's (Jim Burke) students. "The first thing [teachers] have to see is that it's the government that makes us come to school but it's the teacher who makes us want to learn"--Sarah Ivester

This is from an assignment where student's parents wrote them a letter: "The most important asset in life is friends. Take the time and trouble to stay in touch and to share your life with your friends" -- Nenad Amodaj

This is something a student wrote to a Student teacher: "Patience is the biggest virtue in teaching. Without teachers being patient with me, I think I would feel extremely frustrated and I wouldn't want to do my work because of that frustration. With patience, teachers appear wonderful and kindhearted, qualitites that make kids wish to learn" --Lily Lichaa