Reflections

When I first heard that we had to keep up with a professional blog, I rolled my eyes and sighed. I thought that this would just be extra work, surely something that I would forget. I soon learned that the blog wouldn't be as bad as I thought it was going to be. I took back my eye-rolling and sighing. I liked doing the blogs, and I liked seeing other people's blogs. 

The blogs posts helped me connect the readings to the questions being asked. Sometimes, what I read does not stay in my mind, it just floats out and so the blogs helped me remember what I had read. The blogs also gave me a way to be creative. I felt like I wasn't being judged on what I said, and this allowed my voice to shine through. I feel like sometimes people are afraid to write because they feel like everything is being graded and judged, so they develop this fear of writing because they think it won't be perfect. I did not feel that way when writing for this blog.

Nominations for Bloscars:

1.) Professionalism - Emily: Emily always had such a professional voice, and the way her blog was set up was very polished. 

2.) Design - Kacey: Kacey's design of her blog was very easy to follow. She always had relevant pictures and links, and the picture at the top of her blog made it feel personal to her. 

3.) Creativity: Adam: Adam's blog talked about some very different things at times. He asked ( and answered) questions that I hadn't even thought of. He also included some creative videos and links that related well to the topic at hand.

4.) People's Choice: Taylor: Taylor's blog was appealing because it was very easy to read. She said things that a lot of other people were probably thinking, and her voice was very powerful.

Infographical Ashley

I decided to create an infographic using the website piktochart.com. Upon entering the website, I was given the choice of picking a free template to use. There were so many to choose from! Once I decided on one to use, I had to think of a topic. Sadly, I had none. But then it hit me. How about I do something on myself? Yes! An infographic on Ashley. Once I had that decided, I chose a picture and the facts that I wanted to display.

My experience creating this infographic was a pleasant one. The template made putting everything together super easy and fun. I enjoyed all of the options I had. I really liked being able to change the colors and shapes of everything, even if I did not create the original template.

I feel like this would be a good resource to use in the classroom. Students could create infographics on whatever topic they decide on. I feel like giving students a choice on what they create makes the project more important to the student because it is something they care about personally. Infographics are a fun way to get down information without creating a long paper. Writing is still involved with creating the infographic (I still had to write down captions and headings), but it was fun to be creative and have a visual for my thoughts. For the students who prefer things to be visual, this website/project could be a great alternative.

Digital Stories

Once upon a time, I had to help my brother make a digital story. My job was to hit the record button when he started talking into the mic and to hit the stop button when he was done. His story turned out pretty good too. He included images and text, and of course his voice over recordings. I was proud to be a part of it. Apart from my brief experience helping my brother, I have not had any experience with digital story telling. This has always been kind of sad to me because I have always thought of recording my video game play-throughs and tossing them up on YouTube.

Alas, I am not funny enough for that.

It scares me a bit that I do not have much experience with creating digital stories. I feel like it is important to include digital forms of learning in the classroom, and that is something that I will have to know as a teacher. This dawned on me as I was reading the article "Reimagining a Writer's Process" by Hicks, Turner, and Stratton. The authors say that "given this ever-shifting landscape of writing, many teachers enter classrooms without developing their skills as writers, and even fewer as digital writers who compose websites, slideshows, and other forms of multimedia" (168). I feel like up until now, it has been easy for me to avoid creating digital media. I've never had a reason to do so. But now... now I have a reason. If I do not know how to create digital media myself, how will I teach my students how to do so?

I feel like papers and digital stories are on completely different levels. Writing a paper is old news. It's stale, and let's be honest, the majority of students do not enjoy writing papers. Digital stories give students the opportunity to create something personal. They can include their own images and their own voices. They can use their own creative minds to create something that they care about. It gives them a reason to care about the project because it is their own living movie. Writing still comes into play when creating digital stories because there needs to be some kind of script, yet digital stories promote a sort of deeper thinking because there's more going on here as opposed to writing a paper. Every element of the story needs to work together to create and understandable and clear end product.

While I was browsing through the examples of the digital creations, I was thoroughly impressed. How will I ever be able to create something like that?! I loved the movie trailer about Goodnight Moon. I thought it was so well made, and I will admit that it fully scared me. I also thought the book trailer about Warriors Midnight was absolutely adorable. This trailer was made by a fourth grade students and he sounded so excited and passionate in his voice-overs. The memoir about the White Stag also really spoke to me. I could feel the emotion in the text and the pictures. Very well done.

Am I a good coach?

Without a doubt, I have always loved correcting writing. I loved making red marks there and there and there, and I loved commenting my thoughts. I thought that I always knew that I was talking about when I corrected the writing of others. I thought that I knew what I was doing.

Until I took a particular course on writing at UWM.

This course changed my look on revising and editing completely. When commenting, we weren't allowed to correct grammar or small mistakes. We could only comment on the ideas as a whole, on what the writer is trying to say. I had never corrected a paper like this before. I was lost. No longer did I feel like I was the shit at correcting papers. Through the stress and the heartbreak, I am forever grateful that I took that course, and that I learned how to comment on papers the correct way.

When looking at the batch of student papers that I have received so far, I must say that being a writing coach is more difficult than I expected. Some of the papers have been amazing, where I could barely think of a useful thing to suggest. Some have been less than great, where I don't even know where to start.

As a coach, I feel it's important that we almost overlook grammar mistakes and spelling errors when revising early on. I have encountered many of these, and I have not commented on a single one. These corrections can come later. As stated in "The Right to Write Badly", it is a natural step of the writing process to produce crappy writing. People need to write badly in first stages of drafting in order to produce something amazing later on. Instead of focusing on petty mistakes, I feel like commenting on the ideas of the paper are more important. Students need to learn how to develop their ideas, how to talk to their audience, and how to develop a proper thesis. I believe that by commenting on these things that I will be a more useful coach, rather than me commenting on grammar and spelling.

I watched Sugata Mitra's TED talk "Build a School in the Cloud". I found it interesting that the children didn't necessarily need a teacher to help their learning. They just needed the proper resources. These children taught themselves different languages and different facts just from playing on a computer. They did their own research to learn what they needed to learn. With that being said, I feel like anybody can learn anything. Students can be good writers if they have the proper tools to do so. I am not their teacher, no. But I am somebody who can guide them where they need it. I can ask the proper questions, and they can expand from there.

 As always, I love the site Purdue Owl. Not only does it have information on how to properly cite sources, it also has plenty on grammar.

Writing is a process.

The writing process has always been a stressful thing for me. Whenever papers have been assigned, I make a big production out of the whole thing. A plan. I need to have a plan. And I need to stick to said plan. Otherwise everything goes off course and then I freak out and my anxiety rises and I cannot focus and and and...

To start, my writing process has always started with a notebook. I must write everything down, and I must see my plan. In my notebook, I write down the title of what I'm writing about ("Shakespeare Paper", for example), and beneath that I write down my main idea of my paper, or my thesis. I then try to develop three main ideas that would support my thesis. These developing ideas include the idea itself, quotes from the text that would support it, and things that I potentially want to say in the paragraph. The pages that my ideas are written on become very important to me, like my baby.

The long-term memory model that Flower and Hayes mention in their essay becomes the main crutch of my writing process. Flower and Hayes say that "sometimes a single cue in an assignment, such as 'write a persuasive...' can let a writer tap a stored representation of a problem and bring a whole raft of writing plans into play" (371). I like to think that I was a good English student. I like to think that I have retained a fair amount of writing knowledge from those days (including my current college days). I like to think that (mostly) I am a good writer. With that being said, it is safe to say that subconsciously I am tapping into my long-term memory to retrieve information about writing and how to write a certain genre. This is part of my oh-so-important notebook plan. As much as I rely on my long-term memory, my mind does not remember everything, and sometimes resources are necessary. I love Purdue Owl as a writing resource for when I am writing MLA papers. Sadly, I have not memorized how to cite every type of source (shame on me!).

It is weird to think that there is a process that goes on in one's mind as they are writing because the process is never apparent as it is happening. But it is interesting to think about. I feel like a writer who is just starting out would hit the paper right away. I remember my middle school teachers telling me that rough drafts were so important, that planning was so important. They were right. Planning allows me to see and organize my thoughts on paper. Honestly, I do not plan out my papers every time I write, but when I do, I can see a difference.

Writing Coach Profile

Hello! My name is Ashley Gemeinhardt, and I am currently a Junior at UWM. Being an English Education major, I love to read. My favorite types of books are Young Adult fantasy and science fiction (Harry Potter and The Hobbit for the win!). I also love video games. My all time favorite game is Fable 2, but Mario 64 and Witcher 3 are close seconds. Although school keeps me fairly busy, I will admit that I binge-watch shows on Netflix whenever I get the chance. I can't wait to read all your beautiful words and to help you in any way I can. 

My name is Ashley, and I was a chat room addict.

I have always found it much easier to connect with others via online text rather than face-to-face conversations. I don't know why this was always a thing for me, but it was something about online media that made me feel free, hidden from the shifting eyes of others, away from the judgmental expressions of those who shared different opinions.

I was the girl in middle school who lived in chat rooms. Yes, I was a chat room addict. My go-to room was baseball themed because I was obsessed with baseball at the time. I was either there, or you could find me in a video game chat room, spewing love about my favorite game, keeping up with all the other gamers. These chat rooms were all I cared about because it was there that I felt I could be most like myself. Middle and high school was a rough time for me, but these chat rooms provided an escape, a way to connect with others who were just like me when people in the real world proved heartbreaking.

But then my knowledge of social media expanded, and I discovered Deviantart.

Like the chat rooms, drawing used to be my escape. As lovely as drawing for myself would be, I still did not get the critical feedback that I so desired in order to improve. Discovering Deviantart was a blessing in disguise because it allowed me to share my art and to connect with others who were doing the same thing I was doing. I made a couple of friends through that site that I still talk to occasionally to this day. Inspiration came daily through that site, inspiring me to work on a drawing almost every day. I even started a long project that I vowed to finish (it's a nerdy project, I'll spare you the details) because it made me feel good. Here's my deviantart, if you're curious: Awesome Art .

Knowing how much my limited experience with social media helped me, I can only say how important it is for there to be media and social technology in urban, English classrooms. Growing up in a world surrounded by social media, it was a necessary and useful skill for children to learn and know. The potentials of knowing how to work around social media are great. It allows people to express themselves and to realize what is important to them. It can allow people to connect in ways that might be difficult in the real world, and it also allows for networking, which is an important thing for job hunting once school is over. Depriving students of digital media in schools can only prove detrimental in the long run. I cannot help but think of people (like senior citizens) who did not grow up in a world of technology. They have a hard time learning how to use computers or even cell phones, and sometimes this can cause problems on their everyday lives.

People may complain that technology is taking over our lives, but that's only because it is. It is a fact in today's world that if you want to be successful, knowing how to use technology is a must. It was my love of video games and, yes, chat rooms, that spurred me to know more about social media. Maybe being a chat room addict wasn't such a bad thing after all.