cover letter

Through the course of the semester, I found each piece of writing to be
beneficial for me in my future as a teacher. By composing the digital
document, I found that reading doesn't have to be from a book and writing
doesn't have to be in the form of an essay. This idea helped me to realize
that there are ways to make writing fun and creative in the classroom.
When working on the memorandum I realized that teaching sometimes involves work
outside of the classroom. This was something I had never really thought about.
The readings for this assignment also helped me in realizing what is important
in the classroom. Overall, this project exposed me to things that would be
helpful inside and outside of the classroom.
Our final project, the assignment sequence, was the most interesting to me. It
allowed us to take the ideas that we found to be important in our memorandum
and apply them into an assignment. I think this use allowed for us to come
full circle in our research. We used the various readings in the course and
brought them back into one model that could be applied in the classroom.

blog #8: memorandum reflection

While working on my memorandum, I had trouble keeping consistency. I felt like I had problems keeping a professional tone as well as making recomendations that would help recomend a writing program. I felt myself writing about what teachers should do in the classroom rather than what a writing program should contain. I suppose these things do have a connection, but it was rather hard for me to seperate the two.

I found it rather easy to deal with issues of correctness as I didn't have many issues with spelling or punctuation and I also found it easy to pull out the ideas that I believed to be the most important. Those ideas became the basis of my recomendations and I was able to expand through the information provided from the texts we read.

blog #7: the importance of correctness

In our discussion in class it was interesting to hear the problems that everyone else has with correctness and how they compared with mine. I always thought I was the only one who struggled with effect and affect, but that obviously wasn't the case. I also thought our discussion on when it mattered was interesting. I know I don't pay attention to my grammar or punctuation when I'm writing to a friend but when I write a formal paper or an email to a teacher I am much more conscious of what I am writing and how it is put together.

blog #6: reflecting on readings

From what I have been reading, I have seen that it is important to make sure that the students in a classroom have a personal connection to their writing. Whether this connection be in the topic, genre, or other area of writing, it is important to the students development for a love for writing. My writings have stressed the importance of media to children and how that can impact their experiences in writing as well as freedom they experience in their applications.

What concerns me the most is not the ideas that are presented, but more of an idea of implication. How do we make this a reality in the classroom? One article I read stresses the importance of allowing students to choose their own topics on which they will write about. I can see the importance of this because when they are writing about something that is important to them, they are more likely to enjoy the process itself. I feel that this approach could be beneficial in the classroom, but aren't there certain times when different types of writing are required (ie: fiction, non-fiction, etc.)? Are we to set guidelines and let our students expand on the ideas from there or should we just leave the subjects open at all times?

Another idea that is constantly expressed in my writings is the expectations that teachers should hold for their students. The authors of my articles have stressed that expectations should be high for students and that feedback should be both positive and frequent. One author stated that students shouldn't be limited to a final draft. This makes sense to me. Maybe teachers could make writing an ongoing process, allowing for students to revise and rewrite as often as they desire instead of setting a final date where their writing must be complete.

blog #5 - what i did in producing my video

In making my video, I put a lot of thought and effort into the final project. I found it easiest to write my narrative first as it gave me an idea of what kind of images and music I would want to use in my final video. Don't think that this was the easy part though. I went through more than four drafts of my narrative before I was satisfied with the one I used, although I still think it could have used some improvement. I did not explicitly mention Gee in my narration, but I tried to give an idea of how much an affinity group can help when you are learning a new task. In this case, I used my parents as members of my affinity group who helped me in learning. Because my audience was a future class of students, I felt this was rather appropriate. I also tried to use his idea of the amplification of input principle when I talk about starting small and experiencing success in my efforts. I also wanted my narrative to give a story of a struggle in learning. I thought this would be beneficial to my audience of future students because I want them to know that it is ok if you don't understand something immediately.

Next, I decided I would find music to put in with my video. I decided that I wanted to use a few different songs and found the song "Live and Learn" by the Cardigans to be a good song to use in my introduction because it is talking about learning and that was exactly what I did in my project. I do think that I let this play on for too long, but when I realized that it was too late because I had already compressed it into an mp3 file with my narration and ending credit music. Through my narration I wanted to use an instrumental version of a song. I tried many different songs with my narration at first and realized it was hard to understand what I was saying when the music had lyrics and I was talking. At the end, I just picked the introduction to one of my favorite songs, "Is it Any Wonder" by Keane, and used it for my credits.

My last task was the visual part of my video. I decided only to use pictures because I had tried to find video to accompany my project, but I could not find anything that I wanted to use. Then I decided to use a lot of pictures of food since my project was about learning how to cook. I also used some visuals that were cartoon-like because I wanted to be able to present it to a future class of students and thought this would be something that would appeal to them. Overall, I wish I was able to take more pictures myself and possibly find a video or two, or make them, but I had issues at my house with our kitchen light being broken, so that was not possible.

I am satisfied with my final product, but I can see where I could make improvements if I decide to revise it.

blog #4: gee chapter 5

While reading this chapter there is one point that stuck out quite clearly for me. When Gee stated, "Learners cannot do much with lots of overt information that a teacher has explicitly told them outside the context of immersion in actual practice. At the same time, learners cannot learn without some overt information" (119). I find this interesting because I have never thought about this middle area with students. I work at an after school program where I help students with their homework a lot of the time and I feel like I am cheating them out of their learning experience if I have to tell them how to do something (I like for them to work and discover it themselves). By reading this from Gee it seems that there are times when it is appropriate to tell students what they need to do. I suppose early grades do involve a lot of this teaching. In Kindergarden you are often told to repeat your abc's after your teacher. It is hard for students in younger age groups to grasp the abstract ideas of math and writing, so maybe it is essential that we give them some of this information to help aid them in their learning.

blog #3: gee chapter 3

In reading Gee and what he has to say about identity and its involvment in learning it is interesting to think back on the learning I had experienced in school. Just as Gee had suggested about the students in science classes approaching the class as scientists, my teachers would do the same thing. When we were to transition into science lessons my teacher would ask us to put on our "scientist hat" and we would then pretend we were scientists. (This is obviously around 2nd grade or so)

Another thing Gee points out is that, "the 'amplification of input principle'. When systems operate according to this principle, they give, for a little input, a lot of output" (64). This seems to me like it would be very important in the classroom with younger students. It is very rewarding for them to work on a task and succeed, but imagine if they were to do very little work on a task and be able to reap great rewards from it.