A reflection on a reflection

All of the links for this memoir activity (the drafts for both the memoir and the digital story) as well as the final memoir and final digital story can be found in this post here.

So as I have been posting lately, I have been working on a memoir for one of my classes. When we were first assigned this project, I thought to myself “What in the world am I possibly going to write about? Nothing in my life has been very interesting, and I don’t remember a lot of details of the few things that I actually do remember. This is going to be a looooong ride.”

Now, when I look back, I think that it really was not that hard to write my memoir, once I got my topic figured out. Figuring out what I wanted to write about was the most difficult aspect of this project. When I first started brainstorming, I listed a bunch of ideas that I could write about (none of which I did end up choosing, and the topic that I did choose, wasn’t even in this list!). When we did exercises in class that were all a part of our drafting process, none of the exercises pertained to what I did end up choosing as my final subject for my memoir. I really just did the exercises to get them done.

Because I was in such a rut on figuring out what event in my life I could write about, I decided to talk to my mom. I mean, who else has better stories about you then one of your parents, right? In talking to my mom, she really jogged my memory on things that happened when I was younger. One story we talked about was when my brother and I played hide-n-seek in a department store, which really turned into “hide-n-lost”. I really liked this memory of my childhood, and I felt that it would make a great story to share with others.

So now that I had my topic figured out, I started out by first creating a digital draft of my memoir. I went through boxes of pictures my mom had at home, and took these pictures with me to my apartment to scan into my computer. Once I got the pictures that I wanted, I had to put together a digital story, along with words that would help convey to my viewer what my story was going to be about. I did not finish my digital draft at the time (leaving it as “to be continued…) because I really did not know exactly how I was going to end my actual memoir. This digital draft helped me in creating my memoir later, as it sort of “outlined” what I was going to write, and it helped remind me of details I wanted to include in my final draft.

Once I had this digital draft created, I began writing my memoir draft. I really had fun writing my memoir. It wasn’t like I had to do any research on the topic, and I could write it how I remembered it (because after all, it’s my memoir!). I really had fun trying to illustrate the events so that anyone reading it would feel like they were there with me when this all happened. Once I had this draft completed, I shared it with some of my peers, and got some feedback on how I could make the memoir even more exciting. I took this feedback and tweaked my memoir, finally finishing the entire thing.

I’m really pleased with my final draft of my memoir. I feel that whoever reads it will really be able to picture the events as they are happening. Adding the dialogue into the memoir really helped me convey exactly what was going on. I’ve never really believed that I was a great writer, but through this memoir, and seeing how I was able to add my voice and really illustrate an event that occurred in my own life, has helped me realize that I can be a good writer if I set my mind to it. Partaking in the drafting process and exercises that we did do, as well as learning how to create a digital draft, have also really helped give me new ways in which to go about writing. I can use these ideas in my future classroom when helping my students enjoy writing and learn that it is much more than just the old paper and pen!

A little extra…

Today (March 26) in class, I shared my memoir with a group of my peers. I was nervous to show them my digital story as well as read my memoir aloud because I hate sharing my work with others. I just fear that people will not like it and then it’s like I put all this effort and work into something for absolutely nothing. I got together with three other people, and actually volunteered to share my memoir first. We watched my digital story, and then I read aloud my memoir. My group members laughed at certain points in the story, which made me feel that all my hard work actually paid off. Once I was finished sharing, my group gave me positive feedback about my memoir, and we talked about some things they really liked in it (like the dialogue). Through today’s sharing activity, I realized that my work really is good and is something that I should share with others, because it really truly is quality work.

Hide-n-…Lost?

I recently posted a draft of a memoir I have been creating. My draft is included on my Writings page of my blog. Over the past week, I have been tweaking bits and pieces, as well as finishing my memoir. I had a fun time writing this, once I was actually able to really remember what happened! Once I got my juices flowing, I was flooded with memories of this day, so it was really exciting to put into a story that I can share with others. Without further ado, here is my final memoir.

Hide-n-…Lost? (A Memoir)

I am also creating a digital story of my memoir, so once I finish that, I will include the link here! In a recent post, I included the draft of this digital story, so you click on the link for the post and see if for yourself! (Here is the link for the actual digital draft if you would like to go straight there and bypass the post!)

As promised, here is my final digital story of my memoir. Enjoy!! 😀

continuing to grow

Today I sat down and created a calendar of the days remaining in the semester and wrote down all of the things I have due in the coming weeks. I feel completely overwhelmed with how much stuff I still have to do! Projects, lesson plans, and presentations are going to be the death of me in the next few weeks. But to think that this is all beneficial to me and will help me when I am on my own and having to flesh out an entire year for my students makes me feel a tiny bit better (:

On another note…

I haven’t written about any of my PSII (pre-student teaching 2) experience as of yet, and I feel inclined to express my emotions and feelings about this experience. I am in a 7th grade math classroom in Homer-Center High School with another pre-student teacher, Miss Amico. My teacher, Mr. Page, is a very easy-going teacher, and I feel very comfortable in the room. He knows each of his students, and likes to really joke around with them a lot. Now, I have only gone to the school to visit for two days so far, so I do not know quite everything just yet. I am starting to get to “know” some of the students though, and am starting to understand how things work in the classroom. My cooperating teacher has been very willing to work with Miss Amico and I in trying to find other teachers for us to work with that teach other subjects (social studies and science) to help us fulfill our requirements while we are in the schools from April 12-May 10. I cannot wait until that time comes so I can finally do what I came to do – TEACH! Of course, I also came to learn and observe, but the teaching part is the most important for me because that is what I need to work on and experience more to be ready for my actual student teaching and later when I have my own classroom.

So far, I think I have come to a conclusion that I do not want to teach 7th or 8th grade. My certification will be for grades 4-8, and I think at this time, I am leaning more towards an elementary-based classroom, as opposed to one that is more middle school. While observing Mr. Page teach, I do not think that what he does will be right for me in the future. I get easily distracted and (hate to say it) bored while I am doing these visitations, because I have to sit through pretty much the SAME EXACT lesson four times in a day. I really do not think that I would want to do this for the rest of my life. I like the idea of being able to teach several different subjects in a day (it just seems so much more fun and exciting). Now there are other negative aspects to my visitations thus far that are making me feel this way, but I’m not going to sit here and complain about it all! I’m just thankful that I am getting this experience now to see what I like and what I don’t like, that way I am (hopefully!) not stuck doing something in the future that I do not 100% enjoy.

Of course, I’m still open to teaching in a 7th/8th grade setting, but from what I see now, I just really am not sure it is for me. We’ll see though as I continue to grow this semester and in my final student teaching experience!

A Rough, ROUGH digital draft

As I promised in my last post, I said I would post my digital draft of my memoir on here once I figured out what story I wanted to use. I did choose my story, and created a digital draft through a program called PhotoShow. I tried many different programs, but this was the easiest for me to use. It did not allow me to be as creative as I had wished, but it did the job. Now keep in mind, this is a very rough draft. I don’t go into detail about what my actual story is going to be about, I just kind of build up to it by giving some slight background information. I incorporated some of my own personal pictures, captions on some of the pictures, as well as some music. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my digital draft!

Memories into Memoirs

For one of my classes, we have been working on coming up with an event in our lives that we can turn into a memoir. Doing several brainstorming activities, I’m still not 100% sure what I want to write about. When I first began thinking about what to write about, I had a difficult time remembering special/important/eventful things that have happened to me. But once I began doing some thinking, I started coming up with quite a few stories that I could turn into a memoir. Some of them have a more emotional effect to them, and some of them are just more for laughs than anything else. Because I am not too comfortable with letting everyone peek into my life (especially if I don’t really know them well), I believe I am going to go with a story that will make my audience laugh.

To come up with the perfect story, I took a few steps which included:

1. Listing ideas that popped in my head within a five-minute period
– This helped me just gather a bunch of ideas that I could use, that way I did not get to a point later and have no ideas to go off of. Once I got a bunch of ideas written down, I could narrow them into categories of what emotion they would convey to the audience, and then go from there in choosing a story that I would feel comfortable telling to people and that I would be able to tell with enough detail so my audience would really understand what occurred.

2. Reading a few sample memoirs to get me thinking about events that were relevant to my life
– My professor had an example from a previous student that she had us read. Reading this along with a few others that I found helped me think about pin-pointing a specific event in my life. Instead of just thinking about a big event that happened (possibly over a few years), I started to think about just one time that something happened (in the matter of a few hours or a day). This way, it would be easier to create a story with more details pertaining to just one specific moment in my life. While also reading these, we had to “read like a writer”. In other words, we read the memoirs like we were a professional writer, looking at things like voice, fluency, ideas, etc. This helped me think about how I need to write my memoir so that it is not just any old story, but really an overall strong piece of writing. To have a strong piece of writing, writers needs to think about incorporating certain traits – and by making sure each of these traits are in the final piece of writing, one can be sure to have a really good final product.

3. Writing six-word memoirs and twenty-five word stories
– Six-word memoirs & twenty-five word stories can be powerful tools when trying to create a memoir. Just a few words can convey such a strong picture to an audience, and when written correctly, it makes the reader really want to know what story this person has to tell. They can be difficult when first trying to write, because you need to know how to condense your thoughts into just six or twenty-five words, but once you do it, you will want to continue doing it when you have to write other pieces for different assignments. It is really fun to try – so try it the next time you are writing something. Think about your overall story, and then try to write first just six words that would really get the reader interested in hearing your entire story. Then, try to write twenty-five words, to either tell the story in a nut-shell, or to just tell a few more interesting details that would pull the reader in and make them want to hear more. SMITH Magazine is the place to go to read many six-word memoirs. It is fun to read many of these, and it gives me inspiration to write more of my own about different aspects of my life.

4. Listing five important people in my life; Choosing one and writing five words or phrases related to that person; Choosing an event that is related to that person and writing five words about that event; And finally writing, or drafting, a story.
– This helped me in actually starting to draft a story. It got me thinking about just one person, and then specific details and events related to that person. Once I had just words and phrases jotted down, I was able to start drafting a story. It was not difficult to begin writing the story because I already many ideas down that I could incorporate into my writing as I went along.

These steps, along with talking to my mom, have helped me gather ideas and narrow down to just two that I need to choose from. Once I choose my final story, I will be creating a digital draft. To create this draft, I will be using VoiceThread, or a similar tool that can help me create a digital story. A digital story is exactly what it sounds like – a story told digitally (through a software that allows the user to create a movie or slideshow using images and narration). Here is an example of a digital fairy tale.

Once I figure out exactly which memoir I want to write, I will be creating my own digital draft with my own personal pictures, narration, music, etc. When I do that, I will post it on here, so keep tuned! (:

Poetry Through VoiceThread

In my previous post, I talked a little bit about VoiceThread. Here is an example from the VoiceThread site, which is a collection of third-grade student’s poetry and accompanying art about weather. VoiceThread can be used to showcase student’s work, and allows them to narrate it as well. When the students are finished with their projects, the videos can be shared and people can comment on the work through a variety of mediums.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Poetry Through VoiceThread, posted with vodpod

Does One Size Fit All??

In Chapter 4 of Julie D. Ramsay’s “Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?” Collaborating in Class and Online, Grades 3-8, Ramsay talks about how she personally differentiated instruction for a group of her fifth-grade students who struggled with oral language. She uses a free tool called Jing, which lets the user create a narrated video. The students were hesitant at first upon hearing they would have to narrate their project, but Ramsay assured them they would be able to take their time and do their narrations in privacy, so that they could get their very best recordings. When Ramsay’s students completed their project, they were faced with an obstacle – not being able to use it in the classroom, due to the program being blocked by the school district’s server. Although the students were unable to show their video in class, the student’s were still very excited to have  been the first ones in the class to use this new technology, and to successfully complete a project using it. The project gave these students new momentum when it came to their oral reading.

While Ramsay was trying to figure out a new way to use this type of software in her classroom, she was introduced to VoiceThread. VoiceThread allows the user to create a slideshow of images, text, photographs, videos, and narration. This program works great for a collaborative project, because you can share your slideshow with others, who can then comment on your work through voice, text, audio file, or video. Ramsay and her students did a collaborative poetry project about “going green”. She wanted her students to comment on the work of others, and when doing so Ramsay was able to target a few groups of students who needed more help in particular areas of oral or written language. She differentiated her instruction to fit the students’ needs, which dealt with things like articulation, grammar, and using descriptive words and figurative language.

While doing these projects, Ramsay realized how important it was to tailor her instruction to meet the needs of the learner. Differentiating instruction means that you observe and understand the similarities and differences between learners, and you use this information to plan instruction. In a classroom, there will be a variety of differences between the students and how they learn. Knowing how these students learn will help ensure that they will succeed in your classroom. And not only does differentiating instruction deal with tailoring the instruction to fit the students’ needs, but it also means not doing the same things over, and over, and over again. Just look at the cartoon below to see how important this is as well:

Below are 9 ways in which you can differentiate reading instruction. Keep in mind that these don’t just stop at reading, they can be used in some way for all of the other content areas that we as teachers are responsible for teaching. (These tips come from “Differentiating Reading Instruction” by Laura Robb – and you can get more information on her tips by clicking on the above link).

• Make your read alouds a common teaching text.
• Teach with diverse materials.
• Organize for instruction so you meet all reading levels.
• Value independent practice reading.
• Show students how to construct meaning while reading.
• Encourage discussion.
• Write to explore, think, learn, and improve comprehension.
• Use ongoing assessments to support each student.
• Plan your units carefully.

As a future teacher, there is one important thing (along with the thousands of other important things) that I believe I need to remember when it comes to becoming a successful teacher. All students are not the same. In order to help them succeed, I need to be prepared with my lessons and be ready to teach all levels of students, including those who are at grade level, below grade level, and above grade level. Remember:

technology in the classroom – is it really that important?

Before last semester, I never thought much about how technology could be incorporated in the classroom. I used to think that it would just make things more difficult, especially if you did not know how to use a specific program or piece of equipment. One professor in particular and a few peers have introduced me to a world of technology that I did not know existed. Through projects and activities such as:

– creating a book trailer (here is an example of one for the book “When You Reach Me” by Rebecca Stead.. this is the one my group made for our project)
– using a wiki
– making a Goodreads account to rate and review books (and you can see some of the books I have reviewed by scrolling down and clicking on the widget on the right of the screen!)
– making a video using animoto (here is “All About Me In 30 Seconds”)
– showcasing a chosen author by making a Glog (here is one that a peer and I created, about Judy Blume)
– using presentation programs such as Prezi and Sliderocket
– watching presentations on using technology in the classroom
– creating this blog
– using Dropbox for backing up materials (instead of the old, un-reliable flash drive.. this saved me just last semester as my hard-drive crashed just a few weeks after being introduced to Dropbox!!)
– making a digital notebook using Evernote
– and MUCH, MUCH more

I have come to realize how useful and FUN using technology in the classroom can be. There are a number of benefits that can arise from doing so, and I believe that any teacher who uses technology to teach their curriculum will see just how much it can be enhanced.

In the book titled “Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?” Collaborating in Class and Online, Grades 3-8 by Julie D. Ramsay, Ramsay discusses ways in which she successfully used technology in her own fifth-grade classroom. Although her school district had a rigid curriculum, Ramsay and her students were able to weave technology into their writing, making it possible for them to communicate in a digital world. Through this book, one can see a variety of digital tools that Ramsay used, as well as how effective this technology proved to be in improving these students writing and learning. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who teaches English or writing, or who will be doing so in the future. Actually, I think pretty much any teacher between grades 3-8 can really benefit from this book.. so read it!!

As someone who never really enjoyed writing, this book helps me out A LOT. It gives me ideas of how to successfully teach writing to students when I need to, instead of teaching them in a boring and dreadful way as I was taught.

The whole technology in the classroom ordeal also sparked an interest for writing a paper. In one of my classes I am taking now, we had to choose an essay out of one of our class books and use it in some way to write our own essay. Ellen DeGeneres wrote a book, The Funny Thing Is…, from which the excerpt “This is How We Live” was taken. Ellen argues that technology has made our society extremely lazy. She discredits a lot of technology, saying that it has done more harm than good.

Although this had nothing to do with technology in the classroom, it got me to thinking about the benefits of technology, in particular the benefits to learning. I wanted to write a paper on how important it is to integrate technology into the classroom. I know that when I have my own classroom, I will definitely be using technology in many of my lessons. Because of the growing technological world that we live in, it is very important for students to know how to ‘survive’ in this world, and a lot of those survival skills will come forth if they are exposed to the technology available to them. And keep in mind, I’m not saying that integrating technology in the classroom is foolproof and there are no cons to using technology (because there certainly are). But I believe that the pros outshine the cons profusely, thus my belief of integration of technology in the classroom.

An Original Poem…

Here is an original haiku that I wrote, and an animation to go with it. I created this animation using Smilebox.

This was a fun way to animate my poetry. I’ve never liked writing or reading poetry, but this made my poetry more fun and exciting. This would be a fun activity to do with students to get them more involved with poetry, and to get more students to actually enjoy it rather than dread it!

“I don’t want to because boys don’t write poetry. Girls do.”

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech is a short, wonderful book about one boys struggle with poetry. To read a little summary about it, click here.

While going through school, most students have a bad experience with poetry, thus developing a dislike for the genre. Personally, I never really liked it growing up. A teacher would give my class a poem, tell us to read it, analyze it, and then share our thoughts about what it meant. Often, what I thought was the meaning of the poem was not the teacher’s same meaning, so I was always told my ideas were wrong. But really, poetry is supposed to convey a message to the reader, and that message may be different for everyone. I wish my teachers would have understood that…

Anyway, when reading this book, I realized how much of an impact poetry can have on a person, as long as it is taught correctly and in a FUN manner. In this book, Miss Stretchberry helps Jack realize that he can write poetry. She does this by sharing poems with Jack from which he can be inspired, thus helping him along in his process and gathering his thoughts. She also allows Jack to share his poetry with the class (at first anonymously), and then eventually he lets everyone know who is coming up with these great poems. Miss Stretchberry also allows Jack to decide how he wants his work displayed, which helps boost his self-esteem about his work.

I believe that by writing this book, Sharon Creech wanted students who read it to understand that they too can write poetry, and have fun while doing so. As a future teacher, I think that this book conveys the message that sometimes we need to let students have freedom while writing, and let them use their imagination while writing. Doing this often results in wonderful pieces of work, as shown by Jack in Love That Dog.

Writing poetry can really be a fun activity for students, as long as it is done right. Having students just memorize and analyze poems while not supplementing them in some way is probably going to result in a students absolute hate for poetry. Here is a link of tips to help teach poetry (:

One of the poems in Love That Dog is The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams.

The Red Wheelbarrow
by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

Here is a poem I wrote, inspired by William Carlos Williams work.

 The Broken Glasses
Inspired by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

the child’s broken
glasses

taped together in the
middle

allowing him to
see.