Caitlin acts like an adult

The final stretch...

2007-05-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

It's always difficult for me to define exactly "what I've learned over the course of the semester" because I'm always fully aware that no matter how much I've learned, it will only grow as a result of the class. Well, sometimes. I don't remember much about chemistry or geometry, but those aren't exactly my forte'. This class was important to me because I knew that it would help me as a future English teacher. At the risk of sounding like I'm trying to smooge you: I chose this profession because of your class. I know, it was this funky weekend class that met for hours and only lasted a short time, but it was conducted in a way that made that time pass effortlessly. I learned the material AND I enjoyed myself, and after years of general education classes, that was more refreshing than I can put into words. I've often wanted to thank you in some sort of card, but I've never been one for cards, so a blog will have to work. Over the years, you were always in your office in Taylor from the moment I entered until the moment I left, and I would usually pull long days in Taylor, so that's dedication. So, thank you. You showed me the type of teacher I wanted to be, and it will take hard work, long hours, endless trials and occasional errors, but you seem so dedicated that I know that it will all be worth it. Moving on...

This class was important because it focused on the most up-to-date studies about the teaching of writing. I found the class readings interesting because they were so conversational. They used examples, showed work that was in need of development, and showed the necessary instruction for improving writing. As a future teacher, I mostly enjoyed the ways that the books chose to take note of personal interests. By allowing students to write topics of their own choosing, the outcome of texts were more established. I remember writing about topics that I had no interest in, and even as someone who normally enjoyed writing, I found it was a struggle. Although the books tended to lean toward primary grade teachers, I was able to adapt that information to my own experiences, and they remained true even in older students. I think that the choices of texts were perfect for the class because they were directed at changing teaching practices, and as future teachers, we gained ideas on how to begin on the right foot.

As far as projects go, I found them difficult, but fun. Particularly the movies at the beginning of the semester. I can't remember working on something for so long, but in the end, I learned about the program and was proud of my work. I really liked the way that you provided us with a written grade and also the MP3. I may steal that idea when applicable in the future. I've always gotten written grades and written explanations, but the MP3 was important because it was your reaction right after you watched the movie, so I was able to hear about your opinion the moment you formed it. With hundreds of papers and projects coming to me in the future, I felt that this was a great way to connect with the work of my students and show them that their work was carefully watched and thought about.

The annotated bibliographies scared me at first because I still have a bit of a problem with group work. Leave it to one or two bad groups to sway me for my entire college career...but I'm working on putting more trust in my colleagues. My group was excellent. We would e-mail, talk to one another, and everyone did their work on time. I feel like reading all sixteen would have been far too much, but I was able to develop my memorandum with the help of my groups annotated bibliographies, so the group aspect worked in my favor.

As for the final project, it was hard. Not the project itself, since I'm fully aware that lesson plans will be essential in the future, so I should get used to them, but hard because prior to reading the book, Nonfiction Matters, I didn't know how to encorporate nonfiction into my classes. Which seems silly now that I know the vast number of ways that I can. I mentioned the book to a teacher at Chico High and she immediatly asked if she could borrow it, because she was being encouraged to teach more nonfiction, so I knew that the application would be essential in my future teaching. I felt that way about nearly everything we did this semester, to be honest. I know exactly how I will use my knowledge in the future, and I have the proper tools to put my knowledge to use. Thank you for all the help.
Good luck with the unicycle,
Caitlin

Memorandum Recap

2007-04-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

I knew this assignment would be difficult because I enjoyed the readings, so I couldn't exactly pick two and consider my work done. Furthermore, I cared, which usually makes anything I do take twice as long due to pickiness, etc. Not that I' m complaining...even though it sounds like I am. I enjoyed the assignment because it made me think about the material, rather than just read it. I find that any work that I can identify with is easier to remember, so viewing the articles as a teacher, I was able to distinguish which ones I felt I would like to use.
First, I read all of the annotated bibliographies of my group, jotting down ideas that I felt were important to teaching as well as new forms of teaching that I felt could change-up a classroom rather than continue with mundane vocab sheets and handouts. Second, I decided on three central issues that I felt were important, 1.) Topics that students could relate to/encorporating originality and flair into assignments 2.) Genre practice 3.) Writing as a social practice. I decided which of the three categories my notes could fit into and found that many of the articles had similar steps toward an overall goal. So, simple, sort of.
The writing proved to be much more difficult. To keep a memorandum about changing teaching practices was a challenge. Mostly because I'm wordy, but also because I felt that I could write a twenty page memorandum on such a topic. Not an option, or rather, not an option that I wanted to take. I had to condense my ideas and really focus on the main issues in the articles, removing any excess information and avoiding jumping from one central idea to eight sub-topics.

Correctness

2007-04-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

I've never been a fan of grammar. Which makes many question why I chose English as my major, considering the fact that grammar is, well, important. Luckily, I read a lot as a kid, so I just picked up my grammar along the way. Sadly, I didn't have many grammar lessons that I can recall in early grades, nor did I have many lessons in High School...perhaps the lack of practice made me dislike it. Last year I took my first real Grammar class. It was interesting, because for the first time I was required to explain WHY commas were placed in certain spots, and what they did to the sentence, etc. It was difficult to grasp many ideas due to my lack of grammar knowledge growing up, but with work, I was able to do OK.
When reading about correctness this week, the book started off by saying, "Too much concern about correctness can inhibit your writing; too little concern can come between y9ou and your readers. Don't let the fear of errors dominate the experience of writing for you." (2). This was my kind of book. Hundreds of times I'll start a paper and get stuck on things like spelling or use of colon, and have to look them up. Great. I find an answer, but by the time I do, I've completely lost my train of thought. I find myself getting caught up in errors before they've been made, and this considerably slows down my writing. I think that this has something to do with the fact that I'm the type of reader that picks up on every error, and often get hung-up on it, ignoring the point of the work and focussing on the mistakes that could have easily been corrected.
So correctness is important, because it makes writing more credible, but I feel that free-writing should come first. Some of the best ideas generated are the first, and it is important to get them down on paper and correct and work with them later. The book defines freewriting as, "dinding your ideas by writing with no plan, quickly, without stopping. Don't worry about what to say first"(60). I feel that this concept is more important that anything else because it is what makes us writers, not where we put our commas.

Thoughts on Memorandums

2007-04-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

Based on my readings so far, I think that I have a strong basis for describing important elements in writing. Many of my articles described how to make students enjoy writing, how to make them improve their skills, how to create well-rounded characters and plots, etc. All these points are important in the process of getting students to become better writers, and I feel that they are often considered less-important on standardized tests than elements such as spelling, grammar, and paragraph development. For me, this is silly. Many of the articles argued that it was equally important for students to understand how to improve their work in terms of creativity and originality. I feel that these are the elements of writing that make students enjoy the act of writing. As I recall, vocabulary and grammar lessons were not the types of lessons that made me decide to be and English major, I always preferred lessons that focused on creative writing and brainstorming new ideas.
So far, I think that these are the types of concepts I want to include in my memorandum. Granted, standardized tests are helpful in grading students based on a flat scale, but I feel that these grading procedures ignore students that have high levels of creativity, but need work in other skills. I feel that the ability to produce writing that is compelling is equally, if not more important that producing writing that is correct in every sense of the grading scale, but perhaps lacks elements of originality. Students that work on interesting writing should be understood rather than discouraged by low test scores. Why do standardized test merely reward authors who answer questions correctly, but possibly lack any sense of flair in their work? Continuing to grade in such a manner seems a crime. How will creative writers have the esteem to produce work if every piece of writing they submit is flatly graded with a criteria that takes no account of their creative abilities? I hope to propose a number of ways of creating new criterias in standardized testing, as well as lessons that will help teachers develop new types of writers in my memorandum.

My Views on the Harp-By Shawn Wilson

2007-03-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

After watching Caitlin's film, I was really proud of her, because I know how much she hates computers. No patience with them. I took some video of her playing, but apparently she couldn't get it to work, so she took the audio from it instead. It was really nice of her to mention my film work in the final movie, especially since it didn't exactly make it to the final movie...
Being around Caits so much, I know how much she likes the harmonica, so when she found out about this assignment, she was excited that there was something pushing her to learn it. She's been learning about a song a week, which is good for a beginner, at least I think so. Watching her movie, I was impressed with how much information she fit into such a short time. She was able to explain who gave her the harmonica, (patrick), the musicians she looked up to, and the steps she took to get started. I know that she was upset that she couldn't figure out how to get music in the background, since she loves music, but despite the lack of music, her narration was entertaining. I know that she worked really hard on this assignment, and the result was quite good.

And I forgot to add...

2007-03-08T11:54:00.001-08:00

my original narrative took nine minutes to read, so I had to severely edit...

And I forgot to add...

2007-03-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

my original narrative took nine minutes to read, so I had to severely edit...

Down With Reification

2007-03-08T11:20:00.000-08:00

Phew. Done, done, done. I can't remember the last time I felt this challenged and out of my element. After hours of work, I still feel amazed that there is only a six minute movie. I feel like there should be something more comparable to a Star Wars movie. Above all else, this project made me respect the individuals who make movies for a living...I simply don't have the patience.

The "labor" involved in the making of the movie was tremendous. To start, I knew nothing about computers. And I don't say that in a joking way, I truly mean that I didn't even know how to crop photo images or even work with something as advanced (again, NOT joking) as movie-maker. There were problems, am I'm sure many of my peers faced, such as computer freezes, (which I had 5 of without being able to save changes, doh!) problems converting my version to fit a mac (which was a bad idea, and ended up actually deleting my "first" version of my final project), converting my audio to mp3, (which I gave up on after 2 hours), having my gabcast file too scratchy to hear (even after trying to clean it up in audacity), being unable to convert my digital camera's version of video into the proper file for Window's movie-maker, etc...but I digress, what was important was the fact that I still got it done, despite the hold-ups. I put a lot of effort into the elements I could master, such as audio through a borrowed microphone, and pictures. Mostly I was happy that I did it almost entirely myself. I had a bit of help from a friend who filmed my harmonica playing, though I was only able to convert the audio. Basically, the project probably could have been easier if I would have let my computer literate friends help me, but I wanted the project to be mine, so instead, I went through endless trial and error attempts.

Whe thinking about what I wanted to convey to my audience, I thought about people that wanted to learn an instrument, but felt that they couldn't for some reason or another. I mentioned these reasons in my narrative, such as fear, the inability to read music, the feeling that it was too late in life to start learning something like an instrument, the time constraints of a college student, and so on and so forth. I never mentioned specifically that this was the affinity group I dediated my work to, so forgive me, but I tried to make this movie applicable to people outside of the Advanced Comp. realm. I constantly explained my problems and the mental processes that I used to fight through them. This connected to Gee's thoughts on a new literacy. I was learning something outside of my semiotic domain, furthermore, it didn't come easily, so I had to really work at the instrument. In the section where I get carried away with the thoughts of a career in Harmonica playing, with special accessories and my own tour bus, I was dealing with the Identity Principle of Gee's book. I was playing with identity, creating a fantasy about what I would do. Eventually, I slowed the process of daydreaming as I reflected on the reality of my identity, and how I would first have to learn the instrument, then begin to try to live out the dream. I have do understand my potential identity in baby steps, starting with my understanding of the instrument. In the end, I focussed on the progression of my learning and my hopeful future with the harmonica, not to mention a recorded performance of my first-learned song.
So hopefully that answers a few questions about my journey of the making of the video. I still don't feel like the product conveys the work, but I put all the knowledge I had into it, and despite my lack of computer skills, I worked to improve my abilities enough to complete the project.

Learning and Action

2007-02-15T15:43:00.000-08:00

Today in class, we discussed Gee's Cultural Models, specifically about the World, Learning, and Semiotic Domain Principles. Since I have recently started developing the movie for my project, I found the section relating to the Learning Principle the most interesting. According to Gee, this principle relates to cultural models of learning and forces the person to think about their own learning practices and preferences. In addition, a learner must then compare their methods to other types available. Gee stresses throughout the chapter that in learning, some people are better or worse than others. I found this to be an important point, because it seems that it is common for many to believe in the concept of equity, where each student has a chance no matter what. Rather than rely on this false ideal, Gee chooses to point out the fact that this leads to different methods of learning, and actions taken in attempting to learn. I have thought about this concept when developing my movie project. While trying to learn the harmonica, I have found that it is much more difficult for me to learn because I have never played an instrument before. While many of my friends who are musicians can pick up the instrument and figure out a song in minutes, I take hours. This isn't to say that I am necessarily a bad learner, but it does mean that my methods of understanding take much longer than theirs. This is an issue I plan on discussing in my final result.

I'm beginning to understand these "gamers"

2007-02-07T14:31:00.000-08:00

I've never been particularly interested in video games. Granted, I enjoy a quick game of old-school Nintendo, but once the joystick was invented and the arrow key was replaced on the controller, I was pretty much out of my element. Thus, I am what one would refer to as a "non-gamer". Growing up with two brothers, I would often try to understand the point of spending hours in front of a screen and only completing a few levels. To me, it was too repetitive, too mundane, but that was what made each win so much sweeter for them...I guess.
After reading the chapter, "Situated Meaning and Learning" in Gee, I began to connect with the mindset of the "gamer". Why? Mostly because Gee compared it to books and movies, both of which I enjoy and understand. Well developed video games have the capacity to give players, "good perspectives on how learning, thinking, and problem solving work in the world and should work in schools"(76). These "good video games" extend beyond the learning-oriented Leap Frog genre and extend to even the shoot-em-up versions (which I am not a huge fan of). Games such as "Dues Ex", for example, gave Gee choices of how to build his character, both with physical options and the possibility of gaining skills. Creating a character makes a player capable of connecting to the storyline of a video game in a different way than books and movies connect to viewers. Players can decide what happens to their characters, act accordingly based on skills and powers, and become more emotionally involved due to control. When playing a video game, one wants to excell because the characters victory is the players victory. After failing, one wants to start again because they are motivated to do better on the second try. How many teachers can say that after failing a test, a student is encouraged to do better rather that discouraged by it. I feel that if such dedication can be applied in the classroom, then knowledge and enthusiasm would improve greatly.

ESPN and Noise

2007-01-25T09:34:00.000-08:00

Give and take, the elements of a successful relationship. I don't like dating, but have recently found a boyfriend that beat the odds. As someone that normally prefers being alone, it has been a new experience to spend my time with him and attempt to take interest in his hobbies as he does the same for me. Typical;he likes ESPN and metal music. I know how to hang out with guys, in fact, the majority of my friends are males, but usually when they decide to flip on ESPN, I decide that it's time to head home. Now I am faced with the challenge of watching Dick Vitale and acting like I'm listening, or at least trying to understand him beyond his animated monologues. Don't get me wrong, I like sports. Soccer is great, basketball is fast-pace, but football...football is something that is about as interesting to me as Chemistry Labs. I'm working on learning the rules, because the last time I watched football was in High School, where games were more of a social arena than an athletic event. I've been figuring out the difference between first down and fourth down, how important ten yards can be, and why a field goal is chosen instead of running the ball. Don't I sound like I'm interested? No? Ehhh well, it's more than I knew a few months ago.
Did I mention that he also likes motorcross? Last night he sat talking about the difference between a 250 rider and a 125 rider. Apparently it's the size of the engine, I'm sure I'll need at least ten more explanations beforeI understand, but the point is, I'm trying. For once, I'm trying to learn how to take an interest in something that I haven't found an interest in during the 22 years I've been alive. It helps that I have a reason, and I'm sure that when I watch Grey's Anatomy and listen to Bjork he's grinding his teeth and trying to be patient like I do with football. Step 1 is trying, I've got step one down...

I am officially a computer genius...

2007-01-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

The title implies that I'm being sarcastic. Sadly, no. In my head, creating a blog is something that I'm going to boast to my parents the next time I call them, because they are the only people on earth that understand computers less than I...