The End Has Come!

Hi Everyone! My stint at blog writing has come to an end! Or has it….

Well…It has come to a temporary end! You can never keep the wannabe writer from writing!

Here are a few questions I have answered for you all:

What you learned about yourself as a writer? I learned that I could write just about anything as long as I tried. I often have a love/hate relationship with writing, but this blog really brought out my love for writing. I chose early on to bring humor into this blog and I think I achieved that goal as well.

What you learned about digital writing?  I learned that digital writing can be extremely different than just putting pen to paper. One can make so many creative choices when writing digitally. As well, there are so many tools and websites that students and people in general can use to write. My favorite ones involved story writing and publishing for a global audience.

What lessons you can take to classroom or share with future teachers about integrating blogging into instruction? I would say that the biggest lesson to remember, when integrating blogging into instruction, is to make it a safe technological experience. The teachers should always be monitoring the comments and content of the student blogs. The blogs should be guided so that real learning is being done. I would never want cyber bulling or possible dangerous outside persons affecting the safety of my students. Therefore, this blogging activity would have to be private and just for the class.

Challenges? I did discover some challenges when initially creating my blog and when I used Wordle for one of my post!  However, I think learned plenty from these challenges.

Successes? I think that every post I wrote was a success because I was trying a new medium of writing that I had not tried previously.

1…2…3…4…5 Tips I Learned!

You know that book I was talking about? The one titled Teaching Arguments: Rhetorical Comprehension, Critique, and Response? Well, I have more to say about it. Actually, I have 5 interesting things to say about it.

Here are 5 interesting things I learned from this book:

1. “Self-efficacy” is extremely important for any student, but life saving for a low-income or minority student.
2. It’s okay to admit your faults as a teacher. If anything, students benefit from knowing they aren’t alone, especially English learners.
3. When students forget literature terms, they tend to read a text in a more in-depth way allowing for critical analysis to be achieved.
4. Some students can be hostile in their argument writing. Teach them to spread “goodwill” instead.
5. A student’s audience should not be the teacher, it should be the authors of the texts they have read.

 

Book Review Time!!!

For all the other wannabe writers of the word, here is a tip you should always remember: READING MAKES YOU A BETTER WRITER.

Therefore, today I am going to tell you about a book I have started reading. The title of the book is Teaching Arguments: Rhetorical Comprehension, Critique, and Response by Jennifer Fletcher. I know what you may be thinking, “Why would I read a how-to for teaching if I want to be a writer?” Well, hear me out or actually read me out, it is good to read from various genres and formats to expand your arsenal of vocabulary and knowledge for future writing topics.

As well, this book can actually teach you something about your own argument writing practices. I know the book taught me a few things. One of the most important things I learned was that my own writing contains the endless voices of those that inspired by style of writing and with respect to the point made in the book, my argumentative writing as well.

So here I go showing 14 of the best lines and tips throughout chapters 1-4:

1. “When I teach argument essays today, my students and I begin by listening to the conversations we wish to join.”
2. “We want high school students to see writing as dialogue— and to understand that attentive listening helps us communicate in informed and responsible ways.”
3. “We attempt to suspend all judgment and personal reactions as we work to understand a writer’s meaning.”
4. “Texts bear traces of other voices in the conversation the writer is joining.”
5. “Stasis is the fixed point upon which an argument hinges. Gage explains, “The stasis of any argument is the specific point on which the controversy rests, that one point on which one person says ‘yes’ but another says ‘no’ or ‘I’m not sure’”
6. “Academic writing begins with academic reading.”
7. “Roberts’s reflections on patient learning make an elegant point: “Just because something is available instantly to vision does not mean that it is available instantly to consciousness” (2013). Patience, she tells us, is power.”
8. “Peter Elbow calls doubting and believing “among the most powerful root acts we can perform with our minds” (1986, 268). In my experience, doubting often comes easier than believing, which is why we have to work so hard to understand a text before we critique it.”
9. “I once heard former NCTE President Carol Jago describe high school as a place where young people go to watch old people work hard. Carol’s point— that we should not be the only ones doing brainwork in our classrooms— is an important one. But we do need to show students exactly what hard intellectual work looks like so they can recalibrate their own effort level, especially when we’re trying to break their habit of just reacting to a topic instead of analyzing a text.”
10. “A key premise behind the idea of threshold concepts is that we’re all novices and outsiders before we pass through that portal into deeper learning.”
11. “So what is the payoff for all this hard work? Our students’ ability to read texts more closely? Yes, absolutely. But there are other benefits that appeal to me greatly as a teacher. Sometimes we get a good argument going in our classroom…”
12. “Who we are as audience members changes from one situation to the next. (I myself am a much better listener after I’ve had my morning cup of coffee.) Who we are and what we want as communicators changes, too. Our purpose is immediately shaped by our evolving contexts and relationships, and in fact might be adapted on the fly to respond to a new opportunity or challenge.”
13. “Newspapers, in fact, are a great starting point for helping students learn about nuances in audience.”
14. “The importance of audience is a key difference between a traditional literary approach to texts and a rhetorical approach.”

As you can see, I love those zinger lines that really bring the point home. This book is filled with them! So read on my friends! Read on!

Fun Times in the Technology Neighborhood

Hello! Hello! Come and see my beautiful word cloud that took me forever to complete because I needed to download a few programs! Bask in its glory!….

Okay I am done showing off, but I am extremely proud of my work. It may look like a confusing mess of words, but my cloud holds some of my favorite book titles and I created it on: http://www.wordle.net/

While I was making this word cloud, I thought it would be interesting to present a word cloud, such as this one, to my future students that contained a list of books I prepared for them. The books would just be fun reads to get my students to read more. As well, I think it could be cool to create a game around the word cloud. The students would have to guess the book titles in groups of 5 and the winning groups would get to pick their books first. Overall, I think It is important to give students choice in their reading, especially if it is just for fun!

I challenge you all to use this site as well…..

if you want to be dangerous…

like me!

Lets Try a Writing Exercise!

Hey Everyone! I like to call myself a wannabe writer because I want to write! Today I want to encourage all of you to write too!

Here is a writing exercise you can try at home:

Think of someone you hold dear or someone you spend a large amount of time with. Now focus your memory on their hands and note everything from the unusual aspects of the hands to the overwhelming sameness their hands have in relation to everyone else. Next, convert these notes into a poem that focuses primarily on the subject’s hands and an activity the hands are partaking in. Remember that the poem can take any shape or form as long as it includes the previous rules.

This exercise tends to bring out really interesting results. It forces the author to focus on a particularly normal activity including hands. However, this is where tension is made because the words the author does not include becomes just as important as the words the author does include. Instantly, the reader can tell if this person was cherished by the author or not. It can be an incredibly interesting read as well.

As an example, I have included a first draft poem of my own. However, it is written completely from my imagination which could be a possibility if you cannot think of person to write about.

Caught

Dough sticks to the webbing

of her fingers

as she kneads,

careful

to keep her newly painted

red nails suspended,

like retired acrobats. She

rolls the dough perfectly

between her palms,

like little planets

waiting to suspend

in the void that surrounds her

as the scar

on her right finger

burns brighter

with every false apology

he gives.

Now it’s your turn! I would love to see some poems in the comments section of this post!

My Trip Through Technology Exploration (This is some new age stuff)

The fact that I am also a wannabe teacher pushed me to find out more about the technology used in the classroom and by current English teachers! This is what I found out:

I am a visitor when it comes to educational tools for the classroom. I use technology for my own classes and for submitting writing to literary magazines, but I hardly use it to look up teaching tools. However, It is always helpful to gain more tips for the success of future students. Who knows, one of these students could end up writing the next great American novel!

Being a visitor, all of the digital resources I looked at were incredible to me. I did not even know some of these tools existed for the classroom, It was like I stepped into a syfy novel or walked onto Captain Kirk’s starship. I especially liked the website, “slideshare,” because it is a great place to post presentations for my future students to review and study later at home. Also, the site would allow me to share these presentations with the parents and give them the chance help their children study for upcoming exams. As well, the community as a whole could get a better idea of what content I am teaching in the classroom from using this site.

I continued on my trip realizing that I was going to be actively amazed by even the virtual writing tools for the classroom: I believe that it is extremely important to give students digital tools to help them keep up with the global playing field that is becoming more and more virtual. As well, it is always a good idea to guide students toward original creations. Websites like, “wordle,” “storybird,” or, “wattpad,”give students the opportunity to write in new and exciting ways. As well, the fact that students can write picture books, critique novels, write a blog, create videos, and even word images, just shows the endless possibilities we can give to our students so that they can expand their creativity and just write. However, there are risks when it comes to using any digital platform. First and foremost, there would need to be a way that I can monitor the content and comments on my student’s work. As well, the students would need to be extremely responsible with saving their work.

These websites and others were some of my favorite discoveries while examining educational tools. I especially loved all of the publishing tools because students gain so much confidence from seeing their work completed and read by others. Personally, I would have loved to be given the opportunity to write in such creative,space age, spaces when I was in high school and I know that my future students will be excited about the opportunity as well.

This is when my trip became personal: I really enjoyed browsing the Professional Learning Networks. I never previously studied or looked for teaching tips outside of my college classes, which is why this experience was so interesting for me. I was surprised to see so much information on professional learning and I was glad that my insight could grow. I immediately noticed that virtual professional development could provide me not only the tools, but the global support I would desperately need in my first year as a teacher. Overall, I think that I would probably utilize, “Thinglink,” “Pinterest,” and, “English Companion Ning,” to craft my own PLN. I like the fact that, “Thinglink,” is a place where I can add notes and links to pictures that can be either used in the classroom or used to share with other educators. Also, “Pinterest,” can be used to share and save tips for the classroom as well. Lastly, “English Companion Ning,” would be a great place to get much needed support and guidance in my first year of teaching.

This is when my trip became informative: Top Tech Tools for Educators for 2015 gave me some teaching tips for my future classroom. A good portion of the tools dealt with notetaking, information sharing, virtual chats, online search engines, and creating content for the classroom. Interestingly, a few sites gave teachers the opportunity to enroll into online college courses and possibly learn more for the benefit of their students. However, I was not surprising that the biggest interest for teachers around the world was organization and interesting presentation formats. It seems like today’s educators want to be knowledgeable about the most current technology and resource trends and now I can see why. Knowing as much as possible can really benefit your students.

Finally, while examining a digital tool version of Bloom’s Taxonomy, near the end of my trip, I realized that teachers need to integrate technology in the classroom that can help students, “create.” Originality is what we are trying to gain from our students. If students truly understand the content being taught to them then they will be able to, “create,” that content in new ways. For example, if a student is given a mentor text on a particular form of poetry the goal is for them to understand that form so well that they can write an original poem in that form. Therefore, the teacher needs to try and focus the technology on advancing their students to the highest levels of the Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Overall, I learned plenty of things while on this trip and I think that I will utilize as many of the tools explored as possible. I will probably try some of the notetaking tools like, “OneNote,” to keep my notes organized during my first year of teaching. I will probably even take a course or two from places like, “Coursera,” so that I can benefit my future student further. But most importantly, I will use any creative tool there is to help my students write to the level they need to, but while enjoying the process.

Poems and More Poems!

Hello everyone! Today, I’m sharing a poem that describes a seizure I had in 4th grade. I suffered from Epilepsy as a child and even though I do not suffer from the disorder today, I can still remember the sensation of seizing. I’m sharing this memory because I love reading and writing poems that depict significant memories. That is also the reason why I am sharing a link to Julia Alvarez’s poem, “New Clothes.” She describes a memory from her childhood as well. Forgive me for the lack of humor in this post! Wannabe writers need to be serious sometimes too! Enjoy!

Epilepsy

My lips are numb,
“Catherine what are you doing? Catherine!”
but I feel no pain.
I’m floating in nothingness
and it’s warm.

He can see my body
shaking. My arms
twisting.
My mouth
open. Excess spit wetting the carpet.
I must look like I’m dying. Decaying 
in my 4th grade classroom.

He calls for help.
“Send the nurse immediately!”
And students are whispering.

I bet they’re talking about me.
I bet my name glides off their tongues
as they look at me wilt
and fade
into abstraction.

Here is the link to Julia Alverez’s poem: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/140/2#!/20594502

Oh the Joys of Experimental Writing!

Hey everyone! Your favorite, or maybe not favorite, wannabe writer is here to share some…well…writing! Experimental writing to be exact! I was inspired by a piece by Sherman Alexie and tired to imitate his genius. He is one of the funniest writers I know and he has an extremely interesting Native American perspective. I encourage all of you to read at least one of his pieces. Enjoy!

The Autobiography of Me, a Latino Woman

Early Saturday afternoon in a yellow house in Orlando.

A woman sits at the kitchen table and eats some soup from a can.

She can hear her mother complain on the phone.

“She doesn’t even cook for her husband!”

Her Abuelita’s voice is loud on the other end.

“I know! I tell her! I feel badly for Trever.”

This may be all you need to know about Latino Culture.

*

Thesis: Most people in Latin America either identify as Latino or Hispanic.

Thesis repeated:I would rather be called Latino than Hispanic because the label, “Hispanic,” was given to us in the United States as a way to group us all together. We are more diverse than one word can hold.

*

April 2014, Jacksonville, Grammie’s house. Trever’s cousins congratulate us on our engagement. His cousin Josh jokes about the cake toppers.

“You should have a Salsa dancer and a Cowboy. That would represent the different cultures perfectly!”

Everyone laughs. I hold back my frustration and laugh as well.

I’ve never been that good at dancing Salsa.

*

2006: I exit the lunch room with a group of middle school friends. The August warmth finds its way into every cool spot left on our bodies. The girls can feel sweat forming inside of their patted bras. The boys feel sweat trickle down their necks. The scent of Axe can no longer conceal their pungent smells. Rachel is talking about her experiences in Puerto Rico.

“School is way different over there.”

“I’m Puerto Rican too.”

“You can’t be Puerto Rican if you’re not born there,” she says.

Roderick agrees with her, “Yea! You’re white.”

I’m quiet for the rest of the day. A year earlier I was accused of acting too white when I was obviously Puerto Rican. I’m not sure what I am at this point.

*

2015: Yesterday my mom invited a couple over that are interested in our daycare. Mom tells them that we are Puerto Rican.

“So will you be speaking to our son in Spanish?”

My mom says no.

“Aw that’s too bad. We would love him to be bilingual.”

I wonder if they speak to him in Polish or Italian at home. Probably not.

*

I made the choice to marry a white, southern man. He made the choice to marry a Latino woman.

Our Hope: To create ethnically diverse babies that never have to worry about labels.

*

I want to be considered a Latino writer, but I’m not sure if I’m Latino enough nor do I read enough Latino literature. Do I need to eat a few more beans, sit under a few more Caribbean suns, and speak Spanish to be considered Puerto Rican?

This keeps me up at night.

*

2014: A month before my wedding. I’m talking to my fiancé in the car ride home.

“You know what Aunt Marlene told me today?”

“No, what?”

“She said it’s good that I’m not marrying a Mexican because they’re dirty people.”

“Wow, that’s terrible. I better not tell her about the Mexicans in my family.”

“Yea, you should probably hold back on that one. Marlene’s just an eccentric old lady. ”

We both laugh it off, but something inside me hurts. I don’t think my cousins are dirty people.

*

2004: Tuesday, the first week of school. My father is talking to me on our car ride to Deerwood Elementary.

“Remember, don’t paint everyone with the same brush. You are no better than anyone else and no one else is better than you.”

I wonder how many people painted my dad as a good for nothing “Hispanic.”

Here are some links to Sherman Alexie’s website and his memoir piece:

http://bibliosity.blogspot.com/2008/11/unauthorized-autobiography-of-me.html

http://fallsapart.com/

The Introduction of the Artistic Production of My Life

Hi, my name is Catherine Manning and I’m a wannabe writer. I first discovered this condition while walking through the aisles of a book store when I was 9 years old. Each book I passed washed over me in a cascade of colors. There were aquas and maroons and even some mint greens. These books satisfied something in me that was intangible given my struggle with reading and writing. I had a learning disability that prevented the very act of writing that I wanted to pursue so badly and yes, the irony was not lost on me. I decided instead to store these thoughts in my head like a collection of colorful strings tied together, but not tight enough, therefore, I lost ideas for stories and grew frustrated.

By middle school, I was able to read well enough to fully absorb the words being presented to me on paper. I could create pictures in my mind that lasted longer than the thoughts of before. This gave me a doorway into a world of unreal, but fantastic creatures and people with the ability to alter their life with the flick of a wand or the chant of a spell. They gave me life, hope and the courage to write. My first attempts were rough and cracked like the driveway of my childhood home, but slowly I learned and grew and changed.

Today, I consider myself to be to be an okay, maybe good, writer (still growing my confidence). I attend the University of Central Florida and I’m majoring in English, Creative Writing with minors in History and Education. These areas of study inspire me and force me to practice my writing. They also give me the opportunity to indulge in the possibility of becoming a teacher, which is something I never dreamed of being qualified enough to become before. It’s funny how the anxieties of the past shadow the accomplishments of today.They bring you back to confusion and doubt, but I now choose to live in light.

So once again I must say: Hi, my name is Catherine Manning and I’m a wannabe writer and maybe even a wannabe teacher, it’s really nice to meet you.