Another Week of Learning

This week was filled with learning experiences for me. First, I am learning that I did not learn this stuff in middle school or high school, and that’s why, as a college student, I am having a tough time grasping some of it. I did not think that this class would be this difficult! I really hope that when I am a teacher I get these concepts across to my students, so that they don’t sit there down the road and say “well, my teacher screwed me over.” That’s definitely what I’m beginning to think, although I did have some great teachers.
One thing I have learned this week is prepositional phrases. I had heard of prepositional phrases before, however if you had asked me to explain what a prepositional phrase was or to identify one I would not have been able to do it. But, in the five or ten minute period that Barbara explained them to us, I was suddenly able to identify them all over the place and even understood what they were. Also, before Barbara’s lesson I wouldn’t have even been able to tell you what a preposition was, although I had definitely heard the term before. Anyways, to prove that I did actually learn what a preposition and prepositional phrases are, a preposition is a connecting word and a prepositional phrase is the preposition plus the words that follow. Here’s an example: Sally sold seashells by the shore. By is the preposition and by the shore is the prepositional phrase. I can now look at a sentence and actually identify the preposition and prepositional phrase just by looking.
Something that is really nice about everything that we are learning is now I can make connections with things. For example, as I said before I knew such a thing as a preposition and a prepositional phrase existed, but I couldn’t explain what it was. Now, I am actually getting these definitions and explanations and I am able to apply what I am learning to my writing and even to what I am reading. Although, it is kind of annoying to attempt to read a book and an article while constantly being distracted thinking “that’s a prepositional phrase!” or “that’s a transitive verb!” or “that’s an adverb!”
It is ironic because we have been using these in our everyday language and writing without even realizing it and knowing what these things are called. I feel as if I knew all of this stuff before, but I just could not make a connection with what anything actually was. It is nice to learn these terms and actually have a meaning to apply to them. Part of me feels stupid because I feel as if we should have learned all this stuff in middle school and high school and I shouldn’t be so excited that I now can identify a preposition, but at the same time I also feel like my teachers from middle school and high school failed me by not going deeper than to tell us the comma goes here and the apostrophe goes there.

Question: I honestly can't think of a question right now, so I'll just go ahead and post an activity. Identify the preposition(s) in the sentences.

The dog walked towards the boy.
She parked her car by the fire hydrant.
Harry buried Dobby by the sea.
The Colts and Saints are playing in the SuperBowl. (GO COLTS!!)
He hid beneath the blankets.