Harvey's Best Ideas

I have greatly enjoyed Harvey's book. The principles discussed emulate those in our articles for our memorandum. Some of these include: teacher modeling, group work, choice of topics, learning from mentors, informal outlining, and an open and inviting learning environment. Harvey discusses the importance of studying nonfiction reading and writing. Nonfiction enables students to explore their wonders and questions about life, animals, humans, nature, the environment, government, etc.

Harvey also stresses honoring passion and the great influence that teachers have on their students. She says, "passion is contagious. Teachers who share their passions develop learners who want to explore theirs" (p.12). It is so crucial to young learners to witness first-hand the experience of passion and transferring these inquiries into writing. One idea mentioned is that of a bulletin board entitled, "Just So You Know". This is useful for students to keep track of their findings and share their research with other students. Another beneficial outlet for student's expressions is a journal or notebook. This enables a student to explore many interests and often leads to creative and productive writing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan on using it as a reference throughout my career. All of the articles and texts read in this class have been informative, compelling, and exciting. I can't wait to actually get into the teaching field.

Reflection on Memorandum

The memorandum was an interesting assignment. I enjoyed reading the articles in my section and synthesizing all of the information. At first, the memo seemed daunting because I had so much other school work due at the same time. However, once I got into it, it was fun. I imagined myself as writing a real memo and already being a teacher. I hope you enjoyed my Principal's name, Seymour Skinner! I'm greatly looking forward to putting all of these writing methods into play and teaching youngsters how to understand the writing process.

Until this class, I never fully realized the depths behind teaching writing. It is an art form and a process. Not everyone can teach students to understand, appreciate, and enjoy writing. Being knowledgeable and passionate about writing is key to successfully teaching writing. I learned a lot from these articles and composing the memo.

Importance of Correctness

I enjoyed our discussion this afternoon about the importance of correctness. I discovered that I had more struggles than triumphs. However, my group shared many of my struggles and this was quite comforting. My writing stuggles include APA style format, paying attention to tense, the use of semi-colons, and apostrophes. Another struggle for my group were the different uses of affect/effect. I have found that I've had problems with these two words as well. However, that's when my handy dandy Thumb book comes into use.

A common struggle among the class seemed to be spelling, however, this is one of my triumphs. I can typically spell very well and am aware of capitalization. I'm not really sure if I have any other triumphs.

Synthesizing Articles

I found it very helpful for my group to collaborate our key ideas from all of our articles. I discovered that there were many common elements throughout our articles. Most notably, the notion of teacher modeling and prompting. "The teacher, through modeling, takes a strong lead in helping students envision using what they are learning in their own writing" (Ray, p.239). This proecess is essential to teaching writing to students because it enables them to first-hand experience the collaborative writing process. Sharing ideas, hearing what other students have to say, and reading aloud all help reinforce the writing and learning process.

Another prominent theme discussed was that of free writing. Free writing, op-ed pieces, and journals allow students to express their feeings, thoughts, fears, and experiences on paper. The importance of sharing and reading aloud was also displayed in all of our articles. Learning to write is a highly social experience and a sense of community is important to students. Kids play many different roles in their lives and having a positive learning experience is essential to good writing. In Rowe, Fitch, and Bass's article, they discuss literacy as a pathway for social actions. The teacher, Joanne, "...wanted children to understand that 'writing is power' and that they could use print to further their social purposes"(p.427). Empowerment and boosting a student's confidence level is key to successful learning and writing. It seems that all of our articles shared these themes in one way or another.

Reification

There were many aspects involved in making my movie and due to unforeseen circumstances, I'm still working on it. This has been a very challenging learning process in itself. I hope that the end product will turn out how I see it in my head. Anyways, the labor involved so far has been taking multiple pictures of various aspects of my life. I've also scanned numerous pictures of my family and animals. I'm copied and pasted a few pictures from the Internet as well. I'm trying to show the the complexity of our society and how daily life has the power to weigh one down or pick one up. I'm attempting to convey the power of positive thinking and the challenges associated with this due to the demands of daily life.

My target audience is anyone who often feels overwhelmed or stressed out. I know I certainly stress out too much and this is why I'm learning to think more positively. It's a hard process but I'm trying to catch myself whenever I'm being negative and then spin it around into something positive. I find that I feel better and have better days when I do this. However, life does have a way of throwing you a curve ball and sometimes it's hard for me to refocus my thoughts positively. With the guidance and help from my mom, I have discovered many books that deal with positive affirmations and philosophies about the power of the mind. For instance, I have found great refuge from watching the DVD "The Secret" or reading the text version. The Secret embodies the principle of the law of attraction, "likes attract likes". The DVD has many great speakers share their experiences, such as the author from the Chicken Soup books (i can't remember his name right now, i think it's Canfield?) Anyways, there is an entire community of people who practice positive thinking and affirmations. It's quite remarkable and even though I may not agree with of the principles discussed in these books, I do find them very helpful and inspirational. Some other books are The Circle and Deepak Chopra's books.

Even though I don't explicitly mention Gee in my movie, there are a few principles that apply. The Identity Principle strongly relates to my video because I'm recognizing my current identity, reflecting on it, and projecting a new identity. Another principle is the Self-Knowledge Principle. I'm learning more about myself and my current thinking processes. I'm realizing my capacities and how I can take advantage of these. Lastly, the Transfer Principle examines how I'm practicing positive affirmations and thoughts. I'm transferring my old ways of thinking and turning them around or redirecting them. I'm therefore transforming my earlier learning into a more relaxed positive learning. All of this just takes practice and repetition. I know this is a life-long process but I'm not giving up!!

Digital Document Reflection

I'm not sure about everyone else but I am struggling with this project. I'm not very computer savvy so needless to say, I still have many things to work out. I guess I've been struggling with my topic and my audience. I've collected many pictures that represent my life and my loved ones but I don't have any video footage. I'm doing my project on how I'm learning to be a more positive person. It's not that I'm extremely negative but I do find comfort in the fact that positivity attracts positivity. When I'm in a good mood, I seem to have a good day and vice versa. I think my audience is to anyone who experiences bad days or thinks negatively. My purpose is to give insight to others on various ways to feel good. Wow! I think I just had a breakthrough with my project just now! Well, I'm going to go play around with my movie now. Good luck to everybody!!

Learning and Action

I'm sorry this is late. I've had a really shitty week to be honest and this is the first opportunity I've had to write this. I found class today very helpful because I am a little worried about this ditigal document project. Listening to everyone brainstorm gave me more ideas about where I'm going with this project. I also enjoyed discussing Gee's "Cultural Models" and how these models affect our daily lives. I particularly liked Mr. Kittle's reference to his father being a "grammar nazi" because to this day, my dad still corrects my grammar. My most common misuse of words is "lay" and "lie". I always seem to mix the two up in front of my dad and he corrects me every time. His mother was a first grade teacher so I guess she always corrected him. I hate to admit it, but I find myself correcting my fiance's grammar. So is this a hereditary thing? Who knows, but I do know that the world is full of differing semiotic domains and they tend to collide quite often in the real world ( and maybe this applies to video games as well).

I think it's particularly interesting when two people from completely different backgrounds come together. My fiance and I are from different sides of the track so to say. As a result, some of our cultural models are very different from one another. However, we're learning more about each other everyday and growing closer.