Portfolio Assignment Blog! (the last one )

This being my last english class for my undergraduate degree, it has been the one that I have learned the most in. Not only has my writing improved , but I have learned different ways of approaching an english writing assignment (i.e. Video Doc, Memo and the Writing Assignment). The things we did in class were challenging but fun at the same time. The Video Doc. is something that i never thought i could pull off . It seemed like such a challenge, i consider myself pretty nifty with computers and the net but this assignment was a big struggle. It showed me that there are many ways in which a student can showing their writing through different outlets. I'd like to be able to do an assignment like this with my own students one day, and although it may seem impossible at the begining it is very do able. Our blog postings were very cool, it was a good idea to post something on line that was always accesible to everyone including the teacher. Getting feedback on what we thought was a good idea to mold our ideas and learn from them. The internet stuff was cool because we didnt have to worry about remembering to print and bring it in, it was just a click away. Our Wiki/Memo assignment was the one where i got the most insight into the teaching of writing. There were ideas that I would've enjoyed my own professors to practice. So in writing the Memo i wrote as if i was the teacher, with my previous experiances as astudent who has had to write many papers i wrote how i would like to have been taught. These articles spoke of all the ideas i'd wish my teachers wouldve used so that writing wouldnt have had to be such a struggle. These methods that we've learned from the articles have taught me that there are many ways to teach a student how to write and make it fun. With all the things that we have learned it seemed only fair that our last assignment would have had to combine everything we learned all semester. Good one P.Kittle. It didnt seem like a challenge at all, we put it together with ease due everything we had learned pervious to this. The wikkis, the video doc, the readings all helped us put this assignment together with much flare and creativity. It made me remember why i wanted to teach again, its projects like this that make you go "ah that's why i wanna teach still."As far as the readings I felt that Harvey was much easier to read toshe just got to the point, and Gee made you think it out. Gee was much more of a challenge than Harvey in that respect.
This class has been one of my favorite so far, it has reminded me why i still wanna teach, and you dont get that often from the other professors. I feel what I've learned in this class will not only help me become a much better writer who is more aware of different stragies to tackel an impossible assignment but someone who knows that they can think outside the box and be creative with thier future projects for thier students to come. So with that said, thank you P.Kittle your class rocked! I have learned a lot and this is not something i say a lot from many of the mindless and useless classes that i've taken.

The Memo from hell

About the Memo i just didnt quite understand the assignment at first, the readings i felt were good but when it came to having to quote and pull information from them for our memo i was super lost. and this is me just rambling about my own struggles i guess, i will admit that the rule of thumb book realy helped for ideas on how to break down the problem into smaller portions and take it piece by piece and that's what i did. i broke up the assignment into several paragraphs and each day i wrote one or two, the next day i would re-read and revise. this made the paper not that long and seem less difficult. it went smoother to know that i only had a little to do everyday . when i finally got to the last thing on my little to do list it was fabulous!
The funny thing is that the other day my roomate went off on how she wished that her paper would be on something that interested her, and felt that she had no motivation to write because the subject was bland and irrelevent to what she wanted to learn out of class. I sat there and had a 30min conversation with her about my memo and the assignment given. She thought it was a good idea and i thought t was pretty cool that some of these ideas really do pertain to actual life.

The Importance of Correctness

I really enjoyed our discussion in class about our triumphs and struggles. I found that many of the students in class had the same struggles, and very different success stories. Working with our group really helped too, I felt so comfortable around them that for once , I didnt feel like I was dumb. kinda of , i know that sounds weird but sometimes I feel like im the only one who doesnt get it. So to know that a smaller 'affinity' group had the same struggles and fears really made me feel smart. lol I do think that it is hard to catch your own mistakes at times because you dont see them. And asking for help does actually work, I just have to find the courage to ask for it. It is important to correct one's mistakes that way we dont sound dumb, it just takes awhile to train yourself to do it.

In reading these articles on the teaching of writing, I can definitely see how they're all coming together as one big piece of the puzzle. Though I must admit, at first and maybe even now I'm still a little confused (what's new). I feel like sometimes im reading this article and i dont understand what it is trying to teach me, or what im supposed to get from it. But then after speaking to other's in my my inquiry group i see the 'bigger' picture. maybe its like Graves said 'Children wanna write about what they know' but in the sense of reading we wanna read something that's interesting right off the bat . Instant satsifaction. random i know but back on topic, the annotation, i sometimes feel like im just writing and not making any sense, when I try and put some of my own thoughts into what the author is saying i ended up going in circles. So once again im greatful for my group, they help geer me in the right direction.
All three articles that i've ready definitely go together (duh) its cool to see that they're looking at 'education' before the classroom from different prespectives. from the classrooms, to stacie and the classroom again.... i have to post

Yay the nightmare is over!

After many, many hours of staring at my computer screen, going though pictures, music files and recording my video doctumentary is finally done! This 'little' project of mine was a lot more work that I thought it would be. I had no way of begining at first and then when I had ideas I was stuck on how to get them accross like in my vision. I am usually an avaid picture taker where ever we go, if it is someone's bday I'm the picture mom snaping away throught the night. But when it came to finding pictures that would fit my narration, that was a little more of a challenge, trying to find appropriate pictures was the question. Then I realized that only having pictures was kinda boring and it would take FOREVER! So I dug up my digital cameras instruction manual so, that I use the video option. Once I masterd the "video" option I realized that I was alone, and had no one to be my "camera crew." This was a challenge that took a bunch of cereal boxes, books and running back and forth from camera to positon. I decided to make my own camera stands and, set the timmer on my camera. wow what a work out, but in the end the final project looks as if I had some homies helping me. But no its all me Pkittle. As far as the "thinking process" I had lots of ideas, but also at times, I needed to brainstorm with others. Hence the picking of my roomates brains. They gave me their ideas on what good ways to save were and some direction in the way it was structured. Is this my affinity group? Well sort of , they were the best people for the job. After all was said and done my Video Doc. is finally done (I mean it still has yet to be burned on a cd for tech. difficulties but its done) and it feels fabulous to know that this, huge elephant has now been lifted off my sholders.

Video Doc.

So as far as my video doc on what i've been learning its going okay. Acutally ive really become productive on it once i put out all my ideas on paper. At first i couldnt start at all, after staring at the computer screen for an hour, i realized that im way better at writing my ideas out. so i began writing my intro and drawing out little boxes where the pics would go. after that the ideas began flowing. I started to use my own music and finally got gabcasst to work. i have fought with movie maker here and there but for the most part. i have like a minute and a half and i think its a start.. for sure. and what pkittle!

Learning and Action

This chapter i felt was way more interesting than the rest, maybe because i can relate to a lot of what Gee was pointing out. Especially with the cultural models, because i find that sometimes we all are put into "groups" and single out other groups. "People are good people when they are acting so as to help their group" this is so true. so in contrast, with learning when we are taught something we want more of a hands on approach and then we 'throw it up' and teach it to other people in our group. We as an individual believe in certain things and ways of living. So when Gee says that social groups do not pay much attention to their cultural models, i would have to dissagree, in our everyday lives we see and hear about culutres everday. video games are their own culture.