Discussion in a Democratic Society.....

I love a good discussion and getting students to take a look at their own values and opinions and have a forum where they can have an open discussion with only a prompt from the teacher and no bias as to the instructors feelings. I grew up in classrooms where discussions were not very prevalent and teachers had a way of throwing in their opinion to their out and influencing students. We never had a great venue to talk about issues and when the teacher would provide prompts for discussion it was to be written and not talked about.

When teaching lit to young adults there are always going to be subject matters that arise that are going to have varying opinions and where students will have questions and are looking to have meaningful talks. It is my desire for my classroom, whether it be Social Studies or English, to be a venue for discussion and debate. I feel that this environment is critical for student growth and development. I want to keep my views and opinions to a minimum and allow the students the opportunity to find their own voice. I hope that as in the case of teacher Steve, I too will be surprised and proud as my students pave their own way.

Pleased to meet y'all......

Good morning my name is Sean Pelfrey and I currently a student in English 493, fall quarter at Eastern Washington University. This quarter I am enrolled in 25 credits, in addition to 493 I am also enrolled in English 350 (Shakespeare), English 270 (Intro to Fiction), English 459 (Grammar) and CTED 300 which is for my CTE endorsement. This is my last quarter of classes before student teaching which I will be doing at West Valley High School. My major is Social Studies and I am also getting a English and CTE minor. I am very comfortable with my ability to teach Social Studies and CTE primarily because of my military and engineering background. English though, I will admit, makes me a bit nervous. I feel that I have a good grasp on the literature aspect, but even after taking my comp course, teaching the writing aspect still gives me a bit of apprehension. Growing up I enjoyed writing until I had a teacher who made me feel that my ability to write was sub-par, and I for one doe not want to do that to a student. Though there are some aspects of teaching English that have me cautious, I am looking forward to taking on the challenge. With this course I am really looking forward to getting some great ideas from my peers on good quality YA lit that I can introduce to my students and also looking at some of the mini lessons and also the 15 day lesson plans and stealing them for my own personnel toolbox.

As for the rest of my life, I was carer military for 23 years as a combat engineer in the United States Navy. I have traveled extensively throughout the world and have completed numerous combat tours. I am married to my wife who is a first grad teacher at University Elementary in the CV school district, I have an almost 11 year old son who is in the 5th grade, plays Lacrosse and is pretty fun to hang out with and loves going on random road trips and adventures with me. I have competed competitively in sports since I was about 10. I started out in martial arts and moved on to team sports such as football and baseball, I also steer wrestled and rode saddle bronc in the rodeo, played rugby and now compete in the Scottish Highland Games. I am a avid reader and am always looking for that next great book, and though I have read volumes and volumes, I have yet to find that one book that has given Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird  as my all time favorite book.