Final Blog

I've learned a lot about the teaching of writing this semester, and a lot just about how we learn. While I thought Gee's book kind of rambled on about the games he liked to play, he made a lot of interesting valid points. I never took the time to think about how video games helped kids learn, but it is apparent from Gee's writing that they really do. I think our goal as future or existing teachers should be to find a way to bring kids enthusiasm about video games into the classroom. We need to understand that it is not a challenge that kids are afraid of, and rebel against.
All the readings on the teaching of writing gave us a lot to think about when planning our own lessons, and taught us what elements are important in a good writing program. I think the key points that I will take with me into my own classroom are the ideas of giving a choice to students to allow them to make personal connections to their writing. And that writing should be a social activity, students will become better writers by being allowed to discuss their ideas, and from sharing thier writing with others. As teachers we also become better teachers of writing by being writers ourselves. It is important that we experiecne the obstacles and victories of writing with our students. Even as adults we could appreciate that fact that when we were asked to do something new (the digital document) our teacher was right there with us, experiencing a lot of the same challenges, which also made more sympathetic and better able to help and answer questions because he had suffered the same problems.
Harvey's book was also really helpful in seeing the different ways to think about writing. It does not always have to be just a research paper, or a fictional story. Using the book and what we learned from the readings helped make our writing assingnment sequence really good experience for the future.
Of course not all the readings were great, and i didn't necesarily agree with them all, but i did learn a lot about what to think about when teaching writing, and the ways we learn how to write.

about the memo

This was a challenging paper to write. I really felt like I was just piecing together quotes from different articles. Because I didn't actually read some 0f the articles, we just read summaries, I felt like I was missing pieces. I know we are not supposed to apologize for our writing but I really wasn't happy with the way my paper turned out. I think it looked more like a rough draft than a finished work. The first couple of sections which were the ones I felt most strongly about, looked okay, but the further into my paper the weaker my arguments seemed to get. I just didn't have as much information for those as I did for revision and choice for example. It was definitely a creative assignment, that made me look at teaching writing in a new way. When I thought about English class in elementary school before this assignment I thought of those goofy text books that we had to work out of. Most of my classes try to get you thinking about what goes on in a real classroom and I felt that this was a great way to do that. Even though this was an extremely challenging assignment, I appreciate its value.

correctness

I can say without question that I am not confident in my writing. More specifically I am always worried about correctness. Especially with the grammar and punctuation. I think the book "Rules of Thumb" can be very helpful. My biggest challenge is going to be remembering to use it. I think the best thing I can do with it, is place it right on my computer desk so I will remember I have it and it is easily accessible. The pages on how to cite, and how to fix a run-on sentence will be the most used. The conversation we had in class was very interesting to me because I find myself worried about correctness in every type of writing I do, even when I am just text messaging a friend. If I am not sure about the spelling of a word I will go look it up before I can send the text. This is mostly because my friends know that I want to be a teacher and most people hold teachers to higher standards when it comes to correctness.

So far I have found the articles I've read to be very interesting. Especially the second one, about how teachers deal with touchy subjects in student writing, and how to stay subjective and keep your own beliefs out of your responses to them. I had never thought about how my beliefs would affect how I judge my students writing. I think writing should be judged on how well it is written not on the context. I believe if we expect students to take writing seriously then they should be allowed to write about something they enjoy. Students will become much better writers by being allowed to express themselves and be creative, rather than regurgitating something they could care less about. So far the articles have talked about what we learn from writing both as the writer and as the audience, but I would like to see more about the different styles of writing. More specifics on how to teach different types of writing, such as a persuasive paper or even poetry. I think it will be easier to figure out what to look for in a good writing program if we see more examples of how writing is being taught as a whole. I have noticed in the articles that the author talks about different teachers witing plans but I have not seen one completely laid out. I would really like to see a couple of examples of a teachers complete writing program not just one part of it. Even though each article has talked about a different aspect of writing, I think it would be easier to take in as a whole.

my movie

I had a really hard time deciding what to make my movie about. I kept thinking I'm not learning anything new outside of school. The only thing that kept comming to mind was my daughter, because being a parent is a constant learning process. Then I realized that while I have been in a constant learning process since the day my daughter was born, it seemed that I almost had to start the process over when I became a single parent. Things changed so much for me and my daughter I feel like we are learning how to deal together. I thought about the things that were most difficult for me to change. The biggest issue is time. I feel like everyday is this crazy balancing act to juggle all of our commitments. I am a very independent person and it is unbelievable how many people it takes to raise one little child when you are alone. On top of the time issue, it is a very emothal thing to go through. My emotions definetly affect my decisions and the way I schedule my time. When I was married, I was still going to school, but I worked as a preschool teacher, where my daughter came to work with me and I was always home at night and on weekends. Now that I am on my own I had to get a job that payed the bills and has insurance. Now I go to school during the day, and work nights and weekends. I try to spend any "free" time not doing homework or running essential errands with my daughter. I constantly feel guilty for being gone so much and because her dad is hardly there at all anymore. I try to remind myself that it will be worth it in the end when I finish school. I know I will have more time with her then, but in the back of my mind is always the fact that she will only be young once and I'm missing it. Now that she is getting older, six going on thirty-five, she has almost as many commitments as I do. I've realized that we both like to be busy. This is her fourth year of dance, shes plays baseball, and now wants to play basketball and soccer. She also wants to join girlscouts, which is not just a commitment for her but also another commitment for me.
When I was deciding which pictures to use in my movie, I thought about the things that were most important for me. The picture of my daughter at Halloween may simple like a random thing but it is very important to me to be there for things like that. Last year I had to work and it really upset me. School christmas programs or dance recitals or baseball games are extremely important to me to be there for her. But sometimes it is just not possible for me, which can really depress me especially since now I have to play the part of both mom and dad.

Video games and learning!

I had never really given much thought to video games as being a good learning experience. We constantly hear negative comments and have negative feelings about kids playing video games. But I must admit a was a little shocked and impressed when I took the time to see that kids are willing to challenge themselves with these kinds of games. This was the thing that stood out the most to me and really caught my attention of everything that we talked about in class. When most kids get frustrated in school they get angry and are quick to give up. But when kids are having a hard time passing a level in a game they just keep trying until they get it. The realization is that kids do want to be challenged. The question is why they are so willing to challenge themselves on their own but not so much in school. I keep thinking that maybe it is because it is socially accepted to play video games, but a kid who likes school is labeled a "geek". Any thoughts?

I'm really not sure what to write about. I'm not in the process of learning anything or recently learned anything new that wasn't school related. The only thing that comes to mind right now is a race I've been training for. I've been jogging with a group of people a few times a week. We have a schedule that is supposed to build us up to running a three mile race. With this, I am trying to learn how to eat better and make better choices. Other than this there is nothing new going on in my life at the moment. I would like to someday learn how to ride a skateboard. That is something I never quite got the hang of. Even as a kid I was never really great at it, and I seem to have gotten worse the older I get. Oh well, all I can do is keep trying and hope that someday I get it. I hope I havn't bored anyone, since I didn't really have a new skill to talk about. See you in class.