Bradley\’s Blog

Works Cited:

*Calkins, Lucy M. (1994). The Art of Teaching Writing (New ed.) Portsmouth, NH: Irwin Publishing

*Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2006). New literacies: Everyday practices and classroom learning (2nd ed.) Maidenhead and New York: Open University Press.

*Graves, Donald . A fresh look at writing. Portsmouth, NH. Heinemann. 1989. Reed Elsevier Inc.

New age according to Knobel and Lankshear require the “mindset 2″ which says  “The world cannot adequately be interpreted, understood, and responded to in physical-industrial terms (example true/not true is considered open to interpretation.) The world is very different from before, largely as a result of the emergence and uptake of digital electronic inter-networked technologies.”  Technology allows today’s classrooms to work with other classroom from all over the world to solve problems, develop collective intelligence, and most importantly to communicate.  Knobel and Lankshear talk about mindset 1 which primarily focuses on the individual student, individual intelligence through individual test scores, and enclosed purpose-specific schools and grade levels.  These are the older mindsets and they need to be adapted, and understand how to use technology in the classroom for full educational benefit.

When I was interviewing my professional I noticed that her school and alot of schools that I have been in don’t have a larger budget to afford new educational enhancing technologies.  These schools, well I should say the staff for the most part are really in between mindset 1 and mindset 2.   The kids, however, get their technology from their homes and the internet.  If we start introducing technologies in the classroom and show students how to use these technologies for educational purposes we will open a new door to how we interpret teaching.

Some of the newer technologies in my professionals classroom were not new ideas.  However, they were new interpretations of older ways of learning together, collaborating.  Knobel and Linkshear talk about emailing.  “The fact that email has been a large scale practice for almost 20 years now does not make it an “old new literacy.”  Some emailing was always old, they are just letters done on a new machines.  However, when emailing became a truly collaborative practice that was new because it allowed communication on a time frame that was faster than the original letter.”

Knobel and Linkshear say and I agree that teachers and students who encompass both mindsets of literacy will succeed the most in the future in terms of literacies.  Those who can use a combination of older conventional ways, along with the newer technologies in creating literature will have their education at their finertips.

I think the older teachers that grew up in mindset 1 have a difficult time with technology and presenting more into classrooms by collaborating with teachers and classrooms outside of their own.  Also, I think some schools just lack the proper funding to have technology in their classrooms.  The professional I interviewed was younger and she was excited about using technology in her classroom, she talked about a new computer lab in their school and some internet sites she tries to use during class time to help her student’s learn how to read.  We as teachers are dealing with the newer generation of students that are understanding of new technologies and are able to multi task when doing their school work.  Teachers have to adapt to these and become immersed in technology for the educational purpose and use technology along with writing in the classroom.

Introduction to Portfolio

1.) TV Poem

I decided to have my “TV Poem” in my final portfolio because I think it displays a different way to look at a subject, through different angles. My future writing workshop will use poetry along with other multi genre writing to enhance student writing and thinking about writing.

To write this poem I simply just turned on the television and wrote down the first thing I heard, then I turned the channel and again wrote down the first thing I heard. I did this for about 5 minutes. Next, I read and re-read what I wrote down and tried to make sense of the unrelated bits of information. Lucy Calkins says “poetry repositions us in relation to our subject” (pg. 370) and I tried to keep that in mind when I was repositioning phrases that I heard while flipping channels and making sense of every phrase in relation to the final poem. I wanted the poem to make some sense so I kept my feelings about where I live in context with our government and how issues occur and unfold in todays media.

Using it in my Classroom:

“Poetry is a powerful genre because of its condensed nature. Because poems can be very short, every child in every classroom can be a poet. Poems can move through four drafts in less than a page or two. At the same time, poetry offers a powerful forum for teaching young writers to make reading-writing connections. When students read novel, it’s not easy for them to match their writing to their reading, but when they read an Aileen Fisher poem on page 370, reading-writing connections feel far more possible.” (page 370)

Writing poetry can be used in every classroom and can get students interested an excited about reading and writing. Some of the examples Calkins uses about poetry being used in schools is very exciting. For example, Poems are not made up of pretty words but of the stuff of the world. My poetry workshop like Calkins describes will be filled with quotes, posters, nature, photographs and newspapers.

2.) Record Review

I decided to write a record review of my own because I read a lot of record reviews on pitchfork and I usually like what the author has to say when he or she really likes a record, or has issues with a record. I’m also really passionate about music and I enjoy thinking about music and albums, that is another reason I wanted my record review in my final portfolio. Record reviews are also personal opinion pieces that only a hand full of people agree with and a hand full of people disagree with. When I wrote my record review I wanted to make sure the reader knew it was my opinion and that I’m not trying to upset anyone by my writing.

Using it in my classroom:

During a writing workshop time I would give students examples of different reviews for different products, ideas, and thoughts. The students would read through them to help model their review writings. I would want the students to write reviews for things they are passionate about. I think writing about things we are passionate about will give excitement to writing and give personal touches to ever piece of writing done out of passion.

3.) Letter to Microsoft

I chose my “Letter to Microsoft” for my final portfolio simply because I worked a lot with Windows Movie Maker this semester and I have found several flaws that impeded my production of movie making. I wanted to write about my troubles with Movie Maker, therefore I thought the best way to represent this would be a letter intended for Microsoft, explaining how I think the program could improve.

Using it in my Classroom:

Teaching children to write letters, whether it be to friends, future co-workers, foundations, or business is a valuable skill to have, plus it is a different genre that children can explore during writing workshop. Furthermore, children will learn how to express their feelings and concerns in a professional manner through writing letters.

4.) Bobby’s all Mixed Up
Toondoo is a website that allows you manipulate created or pre-created characters in a variety of ways to create single page stories or go further and create a full book like I did. Bobby’s All Mixed Up was a story that I wrote and edited with the interactive website. I had a lot of fun playing around with the seemingly endless combination of ways to make characters and their environment around them. However, it took me a long time to get use to the website and how to use the tools to create exactly what I wanted. I was very satisfied with the end result of my story minus the minor obstacle that the website contains. I was not able to change the colors of the toons shirts, objects, or environment. Other than that toondoo is great for all ages and I would like to use this website in my classroom. My future students would be able to create their own books using their imagination, or I could have my students make books about historic events.

Using it in my classroom:

My future students would be able to create their own books using their imagination, or I could have my students make books about historic events.  This is a website that my students can use and create endless possibilities of stories and characters and then share them over the internet. Students will be able to create short stories that are a page long or create entire books that are easily read on the website.

Final Project

found under final project page

*Calkins, Lucy M. (1994). The Art of Teaching Writing (New ed.) Portsmouth, NH: Irwin Publishing

My Story “Bobby’s all Mixed up” is an original story I created using the website ToonDoo.com.

If the link doesn’t work here is the address.

http://www.toondoo.com/ViewBook.toon?bookid=24001

I like the idea of this movie because it is something that my future classroom will be able to work on and explore with. In regards to the movie that I created I wanted to pick out some of my closest friends little habits that they like and dislike and put them together in a movie. When I was making this movie I had in mind that my future classrooms would be able to spend some writing workshop time interviewing students from our room about the little likes and dislikes that they have. I would pair up the students and have them interview one another about some things that they really like to do and somethings that they really don’t like to do. Next, the students would spend some time revising the interview into a sort piece that he or she thinks really expresses their parents habits. Students will get digital cameras and take pictures of their partners doing the actions of the things they like and dislike. Next, the students will visit the computers and take turns narrating their partners likes and dislikes using Windows Movie Maker. Finally they will put the two files together and I will combine all the files into a final movie that can be viewed by family and friends as well as other classrooms.

Regie Routman author of the article Communicating with Parents says that “children who take pride in expressing their ideas in writing may because discouraged if parents criticize their approximations. The more knowledgeable parents are about the writing process, the more supportive and enthusiastic they are likely to be about their children’s work.” Routman suggests sending parents a letter that discusses what the classroom is working on in terms of writing and to help them understand the writing process and get fully involved in their students writing. I would hope that parents would be more involved and excited to see that their children are collaborating and putting together movies that talk about whats going on in their classroom and how they are progressing as writers as well as their technology skills.

Knobel and Lankshear talk about new literacies that are taking old concepts and just digitizing them. “We see new literacies in terms of practices like web blogging, podcasting, Photo shopping, participating in writing collective works like wikipedia, online gaming, and the like. This is because these are collaborative practices, involving distributed participation and collaboration, where rules and procedures are flexible and open to change.” Hopefully in the future of my teaching career technology will be an important and everyday necessity that will help my students learn writing and creativity. I envision different classrooms collaborating on projects through the internet that will help students with their writing and inspire them to try new ideas with their writing, just like how I learned to do new things with my writing this semester that excite me and inspire me more than writing ever has before.

Routman, Regie. “Appendix J: Communicating with Parents.” Invitations: Changing as Teachers and Learners, K-12. 2nd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1994. 198b-203b.

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2006). New literacies: Everyday practices and classroom learning (2nd ed.) Maidenhead and New York: Open University Press.

asking different people their likes and dislikes, take photos of them doing this likes and dislikes and then narrate over the top of music about the likes and dislikes…similar to Ameile movie part…

Dear Microsoft,

First and foremost thank you for providing me with great computer access for my first ten computing years of personal computing. Your Windows programs introduced me and a lot of other people to the new and rapidly growing computer age. Your programs in Windows are easy to use, self explanatory, and semi-user friendly. However, there is one program for which I’m writing this letter that needs improvements. I’m talking about Windows Movie Maker. In the past I have fiddle around with Movie Maker doing little projects and making my vary own videos! Nonetheless, when I tried to tackle a larger project I found many little obstacles that eventually lowered my expectations for the projects I had big imginations for. Below are a few suggestions that I had in mind for improving Windows Movie Maker in the future.

-Windows Movie Maker should be equipped with a 3 or more track dubbing arrangement. I can’t tell you how many times I needed to put in music along with my narration to enhance my project. I just found myself overlapping the music with the narration and trying to time it just right so I could get my slide to play for the appropriate time and blend together. I feel by adding a couple track editing options users of your product would be able to freely move around and dub over music tracks, narration and other audio applications.

-Another area that I found troublesome was the ability to move around movie clips and pictures. I know that you can just drag the movie clips and rearrange their order easily. However, there are numerous times when I want the clips to have space in between them. For example, if I’m trying to make a movie and I want to do another scene first before the next proceeding scene in the actually movie I can’t move these clips and pictures to an area towards the end and give me some space between the two different scenes to work with. furthermore, The clips aways butt-up to one another and the only way to insert another scene in the middle of a movie is to do it manually one clip at a time which ends up throughing off my timing of audio with the clips.

-Another topic that needs to be discussed and hopefully fixed is your help support and tutorial tools. Some of the most effective tutorials I’ve seen by other story editing programs contain videos about certain FAQ’s. All I have to do is locate my FAQ and hit play and the tutorial visually guides me through the program showing me how it works. The text based Movie Maker tips is somewhat useful, but I find myself stumbling over the words and getting even more confused, and spending more time figure out how to actually make something work.

-And Finally I think Windows Movie Maker needs to pay close attention to the lack of information one can put into Movie Maker before it begins to run at a slower pace. Now when I say alot of information I’m inputing approximately 30 photos along with music and it will slow down the program considerably. I find myself doing about 2 minutes of footage, saving it, and then starting the next scene, and then finally combining all the parts together. While this is one way to make longer movies it is troublesome to have some many seperate pieces.

Thank you for taking consideration to all my suggestions in improving Windows Movie Maker. I enjoy the program but the little obsticles slow down my movie making abilities, and I think if these suggestions were looked at Windows Movies Maker would be an even easier and more efficent program.

Sincerly

Bradley Terrill

During the interview with a professional my teacher told me about a website that the students use when they are at the computer lab.

Starfall is a website that helps students with their reading and writing skills. The website as stated on the homepage is designed for 1st graders, however, is useful for all children learning to read and write. My midtier teacher uses it for her 2nd-4th grade special education students. The website is very interactive with great games that will teach children to read and write while they play games, watch movies and my favorite, make snowmen! The website has an interactive homepage that lets children choose from different stages of reading and writing. The top of the homepage starts with an interactive ABC’s learning game that lets the students select any letter and then learn about the letter. The next section is the “learn to read section” that lets children learn skills on how to read, and to apply those skills. Next is “it’s fun to read” and supplies fun games that students can do while they are learning valuable reading skills! And finally the last section called “I’m reading” has a variety of different genera’s that the students can click on and read through, and then they can check and see how their reading is progressing.

I like this site because it does a couple of things for students. One, it introduces children to reading and gradually builds on their skills of reading. And two, it lets children interact and work on their computer skills. My only advice for this website would be to have games that practice typing along with the reading and writing, but then again the site might want to just focus on reading and not go overboard with learning to type. I will be using this website in my kindergarten next semester!

Saw this movie last night, and it’s official I’m moving to Canada after student teaching. I have always wanted to move out of the United States ever since I started college and this movie makes me want to do it even more now. If I could move out sooner I would, but I have to wait until I’m done with student teaching. This movie is shocking and is very accurate to how I view America. I’m my opinion so many Americans are so scared to move anywhere else because or media warns us of the dangers outside of America. Basically everyone is a terrorist. I just need to get educated on how to become a Canadian citizen. I want to look back at this post in the future and be able to tell myself that moving out of America was the best thing that I’ve ever done for my future…