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! (: