Amy's phlogg 4

As far as Superbowl predictions go, I have none. I don't even know who's playing. But I am a bit of a gambler, so I've entered into some Superbowl pools with my fam. Haven't a clue what the numbers mean.  I have been lucky enough to win the past 3 years in a row, though, which infuriates my relatives and increases my love of the Superbowl Sunday. So there's bliss to my football ignorance.  I do not find bliss fits in with ignorance when it comes to teaching, however. Ha!
My purpose in teaching is to utilize my degree with my best capabilities. I want to help students read and write and find their own voice while recognizing others' voices through literature. Literature and language are so important, socially.  It is how we learn from one another and about each other.  If I'm passionate about it, I believe it will reflect through the way I teach content.  If I'm interested, I can help student interest level raise, right?  This relates socially in the context of everything, really.  What one can do if literate is infinite, I believe.
At the literary services I volunteered at, I heard so many stories of adults (some in their 50's and 60's) telling me how they went through life unable to read.  Street signs, job applications, groceries, things we take for granted, they had to find ways around the words to function in already complex society.  Each person's story expressed the same desire to want to read and write and being shuffled through a system without any help to do so. Some of these adults had a high school diplomas!!  As these people grew older, so did their desire to learn.  Each person I talked to expressed a belief that being literate would lead to a happier being and they would be more likely to succeed.  As a bit of a word nerd, I can't even imagine a life without the ability to read.  It caused me to wonder if my education was due to my color, class, geographic location, etc.  I refuse to believe that anyone should have to go through life without being taught to read and write if it in their interest to do so.    
 Being 'the other' in a class, gender, ethnicity context may be difficult enough in this world without adding illiteracy to the mix.  The more people that read and write and articulate themselves, the more it creates a voice of their own.  This would benefit under-privileged citizens greatly.  Through literacy and language, voice can be found. And individual voice encourages people to write about their situations or release fear of oppression expression.  Audre Lorde's article talked about how relating within inequality can be helpful and create new definitions of power.  More voices, more stories, more power within stories and thus, more positive change.    
I want my classroom to be multi culturally aware.  I want to be challenged in my way of thinking when it comes to diversity. I want to instill a desire to read for pleasure within my students.  I want students to be able to identify a book that would interest him/her to read on their own. These are my purposes in teaching.
How I will execute these goals, I imagine will be trial and error.  I'll try and adopt some equity pedagogy. I will choose to believe that every student can learn.   I like assessing through written comments, especially when it comes to papers that are due. I don't know how teachers expect students to better their writing skills if all they receive is a letter grade at the top of the page and no feedback on how to improve. These are my thoughts, folks.  Feed back is much appreciated.