Reflective Letter
Writing
When I first started this class I thought that it was going to be a piece of cake. In the first week of class you assigned us blogging, which I hardly spent any time on. I hardly thought about what I was writing about figuring that you weren't going to even look at it. The next class meeting you called us out, saying that people didn't put thought into anything and that some of us didn't even do it. I definitely fell into this category, and I was embarrassed. After this experience, I made sure to always do my blog posts, which many of them will show up in here to show my progress over the semester.
I had a lot of fun working with the different genres assigned. I had to work with different genres in my Creative Writing 2 class also, so a lot of these ideas carried over into that class as well. What was different though was the use of Twitter. I never thought that I would be able to create a Haiku, Found Poem, and Micro Fiction pieces from different tweets (which I have included below). This challenged me on many different levels, but in the end I came up with pretty good products. The one that I am most proud of was the Found Poem I wrote about my home life. I tweeted about my family all the time, and this was a good way to put it all together. It was a pain to come up with an idea, but once I saw a similarity I went with it. That is something that I have learned from this class: trying to find a theme and running with it. Just the other day we were sitting in class and you pointed out that my collaboration project had a theme of healthy eating. I didn't realize it until after you mentioned it, which gave me an idea for a paper that I am writing for another class. This class gives me many ideas for other classes, because you let me be creative and have fun with my work. Knowing this gives me the freedom to do whatever, which is exactly what I need to be able to create a good piece.
Haiku and Found Poem
02/09/2011
3 Comments Edit | Settings | Delete
Haiku based off of 'The Spitter'
Spitting isn’t nice.
Oh well, I didn’t listen.
Now I am a changed person.
Found Poem:
Home-
Big Loud Family.
Sitting in front of the fire,
Holding onto my niece and nephew, wishing they would never grow.
Lots of similarities like Jeopardy and weather,
And getting the stomach virus on the same day.
Home doesn’t feel right when Mom and Dad go away.
My dog decides to get sprayed by a skunk,
And my cat eats the bagels.
But when they come home,
Everything feels complete again.
Tweets that I used:
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive smell of skunk in the air, yuck!- why did my dog have to get sprayed by a skunk?!
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
My cat knocked bagels onto the floor, ate through the plastic, and bit into every last one. What a mess! #wrt3#twitteriveLizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive hanging out in front of the fire with all the girlys in my fam :)
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive my home is complete again.. Mom and dad are home from Florida. But didnt bring the warm weather!
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive #wrt3 i love hanging out with my baby niece and nephew!! :)
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive #wrt3 so loud in my house- i love my big loud family! :P
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive #wrt3 my nephew and mom woke me up by singing happy birthday- it's gonna be a good day :D
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
3 people in my family got the stomach virus on the same day- how does that even happen? #twitterive #wrt3Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive #wrt3 jeopardy time!
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive i just saw lightning and heard thunder! The snowthunder is here
Micro fiction pieces
02/07/2011
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In this post I have two 250-word micro fiction pieces. For one, I used a line from Gloria Anzaldua's How To Tame a Wild Tongue. The line is: “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing”. The second piece came from one of my tweets. That tweet is: “smell of skunk in the air, yuck! - why did my dog have to get sprayed by a skunk?!”
The Spitter
My life turned around when this nasty girl spit on me when I was younger. I remember when it was, where it was, and who did it. I always let people judge and form me, but after this day I stood up for myself and knew what I needed to do, which was spit back in her face.
I was the girl growing up who followed everyone around. I didn’t know how to talk for myself, make my own decisions, and sat around and ate until I was sick. I gained a ton of weight, and by the time I was in 5th grade I was twice or three times the size of some of my classmates. I was one of the fattest people in my class, and I felt ashamed. I didn’t like how I looked, but there wasn’t anything that I could do about it, so I kept eating.
Then the day happened where the nasty girl up the street from my best friend decided to spit on me. She thought I wasn’t capable of doing anything, so she stood there after she did it waiting for me to cry. Instead, I hacked up a loogy and spit it right in her face (and went running for cover). After that day, I realized that I am my own person and that I shouldn’t be ashamed of existing, like Gloria Anzaldua said. I turned my life around and became my own leader, and stopped following others.
Skunkified
You would think that my dog would learn after getting sprayed by a skunk once not to go near one ever again. Oh no, my dog didn’t learn the first time. Or the second time. Or the third time. Yup, that’s right, my dog has gotten sprayed by a skunk 3 different times. I don’t understand how people can say that dogs are so intelligent. If my dog was so intelligent, why has she fought with a skunk 3 times- and lost?! Also, I really believe that my dog is going senile. Every night at 7 o’clock she barks forever. To get her to shut up, I let her out. Then when she comes back in she barks again. So I have to give her a treat. After she has her treat, she barks again. I stir up her food and give her water. More barking. Why? I have absolutely no idea. I wish I spoke dog language because I really want to know what she wants. She is so annoying, not intelligent.
I had a lot of fun working with the different genres assigned. I had to work with different genres in my Creative Writing 2 class also, so a lot of these ideas carried over into that class as well. What was different though was the use of Twitter. I never thought that I would be able to create a Haiku, Found Poem, and Micro Fiction pieces from different tweets (which I have included below). This challenged me on many different levels, but in the end I came up with pretty good products. The one that I am most proud of was the Found Poem I wrote about my home life. I tweeted about my family all the time, and this was a good way to put it all together. It was a pain to come up with an idea, but once I saw a similarity I went with it. That is something that I have learned from this class: trying to find a theme and running with it. Just the other day we were sitting in class and you pointed out that my collaboration project had a theme of healthy eating. I didn't realize it until after you mentioned it, which gave me an idea for a paper that I am writing for another class. This class gives me many ideas for other classes, because you let me be creative and have fun with my work. Knowing this gives me the freedom to do whatever, which is exactly what I need to be able to create a good piece.
Haiku and Found Poem
02/09/2011
3 Comments Edit | Settings | Delete
Haiku based off of 'The Spitter'
Spitting isn’t nice.
Oh well, I didn’t listen.
Now I am a changed person.
Found Poem:
Home-
Big Loud Family.
Sitting in front of the fire,
Holding onto my niece and nephew, wishing they would never grow.
Lots of similarities like Jeopardy and weather,
And getting the stomach virus on the same day.
Home doesn’t feel right when Mom and Dad go away.
My dog decides to get sprayed by a skunk,
And my cat eats the bagels.
But when they come home,
Everything feels complete again.
Tweets that I used:
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive smell of skunk in the air, yuck!- why did my dog have to get sprayed by a skunk?!
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
My cat knocked bagels onto the floor, ate through the plastic, and bit into every last one. What a mess! #wrt3#twitteriveLizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive hanging out in front of the fire with all the girlys in my fam :)
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive my home is complete again.. Mom and dad are home from Florida. But didnt bring the warm weather!
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive #wrt3 i love hanging out with my baby niece and nephew!! :)
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive #wrt3 so loud in my house- i love my big loud family! :P
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive #wrt3 my nephew and mom woke me up by singing happy birthday- it's gonna be a good day :D
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
3 people in my family got the stomach virus on the same day- how does that even happen? #twitterive #wrt3Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive #wrt3 jeopardy time!
Lizzzay1234 Liz Mason
#twitterive i just saw lightning and heard thunder! The snowthunder is here
Micro fiction pieces
02/07/2011
1 Comment Edit | Settings | Delete
In this post I have two 250-word micro fiction pieces. For one, I used a line from Gloria Anzaldua's How To Tame a Wild Tongue. The line is: “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing”. The second piece came from one of my tweets. That tweet is: “smell of skunk in the air, yuck! - why did my dog have to get sprayed by a skunk?!”
The Spitter
My life turned around when this nasty girl spit on me when I was younger. I remember when it was, where it was, and who did it. I always let people judge and form me, but after this day I stood up for myself and knew what I needed to do, which was spit back in her face.
I was the girl growing up who followed everyone around. I didn’t know how to talk for myself, make my own decisions, and sat around and ate until I was sick. I gained a ton of weight, and by the time I was in 5th grade I was twice or three times the size of some of my classmates. I was one of the fattest people in my class, and I felt ashamed. I didn’t like how I looked, but there wasn’t anything that I could do about it, so I kept eating.
Then the day happened where the nasty girl up the street from my best friend decided to spit on me. She thought I wasn’t capable of doing anything, so she stood there after she did it waiting for me to cry. Instead, I hacked up a loogy and spit it right in her face (and went running for cover). After that day, I realized that I am my own person and that I shouldn’t be ashamed of existing, like Gloria Anzaldua said. I turned my life around and became my own leader, and stopped following others.
Skunkified
You would think that my dog would learn after getting sprayed by a skunk once not to go near one ever again. Oh no, my dog didn’t learn the first time. Or the second time. Or the third time. Yup, that’s right, my dog has gotten sprayed by a skunk 3 different times. I don’t understand how people can say that dogs are so intelligent. If my dog was so intelligent, why has she fought with a skunk 3 times- and lost?! Also, I really believe that my dog is going senile. Every night at 7 o’clock she barks forever. To get her to shut up, I let her out. Then when she comes back in she barks again. So I have to give her a treat. After she has her treat, she barks again. I stir up her food and give her water. More barking. Why? I have absolutely no idea. I wish I spoke dog language because I really want to know what she wants. She is so annoying, not intelligent.
Research
I had the most fun this semester with the research that I had to conduct for the Oral History and Collaborative Research Project. I'm a hands-on learner, so when it came to getting out in the field to conduct research, it was right up my alley. I was interviewed two times for a project, and I also had to conduct an interview. In my blogs I talk about the difference between these.
Tables Turned
04/01/2011
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Alyssa and I have already completed one of our interviews. Who was interviewed? None other than me :)
It was weird to be on the opposite side of the table. I am so used to asking questions, rather than answering them. It was also weird that I was answering my own questions. While making up the questions, I kept relating to myself and thinking about my own food allergy. This probably hurt the interview a little bit, because I knew exactly what was coming, and had already talked to Alyssa about this stuff before, so I didn't expand as much as I wanted to, which mad my answers short and choppy. It was kind of awkward talking to Alyssa about these things while being taped, because I felt like I had to say something important. With this being said, I got tongue tied a couple times because it felt like as soon as I said something, I was never going to be able to take it back. I know that sounds silly, but I mean it. Try telling someone about your personal life without something recording it, and then with something recording it. The things you say will change. I am lucky because I get to see what exactly will be used and won't be used. Others aren't as lucky. They don't know if something they say will be taken out of context, or be misunderstood. At least I can tell Alyssa if she doesn't understand something, because we will be working on the project together.
Something else that I didn't think of until the interview was where to look! I didn't know if I should look at the camera, at Alyssa, or what. A lot of the time when I was talking, I am looking at a wall, or outside. I guess I'm an awkward person to interview since I didn't look at Alyssa the whole time. I will definitely keep this in mind when I interview someone, because they may feel the same way I did. I won't take it as they are interested in what they are talking about, but rather that they are thinking. When I would look at Alyssa and talk, I honestly forgot what I was going to say. A couple times during the interview I say out loud "What was I talking about again?" because I completely forgot.
Oral History Project
04/15/2011
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The other day I was interviewed again for another groups project. I still think it is weird to be the interviewee, since I am used to leading the conversations. I sat there a couple of times when it was completely quiet waiting for the interviewers to ask me another question. I feel like we talked about more than I did with Alyssa, because I didn't know the questions, but I still feel like I didn't talk a lot. I tried to say as much as I could, but at this point I have talked so much about food allergies, I don't know if I'm repeating myself or not. I did get a chance to be the interviewer last night, and it was a lot of fun. I love to be in control of things, so when I was able to lead the conversation I felt more at ease. I interviewed my boyfriends roommate, Billy, about how he eats. I did this on purpose because he is completely different from how I eat, and I wanted that contrast to shine through in the collaborative project with Alyssa. We are lucky enough to be able to use our interviews as some of our sources, because it falls into the stream of what we want to talk about. I'm really happy about where our project is headed. Now all we have to do is get dirty in the research and start writing our paper!
These interviews showed the difference between qualitative and quantitative research, which I also talk about in another blog post.
Situating Narrative Inquiry
03/08/2011
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This was an easy article to read, but there was a lot of information in it. The article starts off with the difference between qualitative research and quantitative research. I have always heard of quantitative in school, which "Quantitative research rests exclusively in positivistic and post-postivistic assumptions" while qualitative research "forms around assumptions about interpretation and human action". All throughout the article it talks about why this research is used, and I found it was because they want to understand something (about somebody). This was the whole argument about using numbers saying, "what distinguishes narrative inquiry is the understanding that all research is based on language whether in the language of numbers or the discourse of researchers and those being researched". I thought this was really important because the narrative inquiry focuses more on where the numbers came from, the person, and what they meant by what they said. This same point comes up again when looking at objectivity. "What fundamentally distinguishes the narrative turn from “scientific” objectivity is understanding that knowing other people and their interactions is always a relational process that ultimately involves caring for, curiosity, interest,
passion, and change". What the article was saying about this was that researchers say that they are being neutral about what they are researching, but in truth what they like and don't like actually comes out in the research that they conduct.
It's all about the stories, baby! That is what makes qualitative research what it is. Whenever I think of this word, I always think of quality. The quality of the work shows through the stories that people tell. When I was sitting in class on the last day, you brought up the story about me getting cheese stuck in my teeth, and that is what the whole class remembered, too. The better the stories you get when you research, the more people will remember what you have researched.
Now to change from Oral History/Collaborative Project to Twitterive. Below I have attached two blog posts that I talked about my Twitterive. The first one is about what my first Twitterive was about. The second post is realizing that my Twitterive wasn't working and I needed to change it.
Twitterive Reflection
02/16/2011
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Who? - My friend Steph and myself and maybe a few others
What?- Connection between the park and my friend Steph, and also how the park symbolizes our youth
When?- The past to present
Where?- Park near Steph's house
Why?- To show change in the characters and the environment
How?- Flashback, Narrative, Photos
I liked talking about my story out loud rather than just on paper. I wanted to make sure what I was doing made sense, and after talking about it, I confirmed exactly what I wanted to talk about. Now I just need to go to the park and take pictures, and I will be set to start writing. Someone in my group brought up if I wanted to talk about going into a mental state as well as a physical one during my Twitterive. I thought that this was a really great idea, and I may include that in my Twitterive as well.
Twitterive
04/05/2011
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I know that we are supposed to be working mainly on our collaborative project, which I'm still trying to figure out how to get my interview onto my computer, I decided to re-do my entire Twitterive. After meeting with my professor, I realized that my Twitterive wasn't going anywhere, and that it needed change- big time. I decided to keep only a couple parts from my old Twitterive, and put it into my new Twitterive. My old one seemed to revolve more on a friendship that I once had, instead of the park that we always went to. With keeping that friendship in my mind, I decided to go to another place that I had more things to talk about- school. Because I want to become a teacher, I thought this would be a wonderful topic to explore, since the school meant something different to me before to what it does now. I want to be able to show that, and within this story I can talk about my old friendship I had with my friend (that way I can keep some of the pictures!) I am really excited to start creating this new Twitterive, while working on my collaborative/oral history project. Should be a bumpy few weeks, but hopefully in the end it will all be worth it!
I was almost completely done my first Twitterive when I decided to change it. I had already searched through hundreds of pictures, went out into the field and took more pictures, and typed up many stories that happened between my friend Steph and I, when I realized that my Twitterive, which was supposed to be about place, wasn't about place. I made the decision to delete the whole thing and start fresh, deciding to only keep a section to put in my prologue. I decided to go with the theme, as I mentioned before in the writing section that I have started to look for themes in my writing, about school. I met Steph at Winslow Township School # 2, so I decided that would be my new "place" in my Twitterive. I then had to conduct all new research to go with this new idea. It took a lot of courage on my part to delete my entire Twitterive that I had been working on for so long, but I knew I had to do it. I searched through pictures again to find the exact ones I wanted, went to Winslow Township School # 2 a few times to take pictures, and started talking to people about what they remembered about school.
Tables Turned
04/01/2011
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Alyssa and I have already completed one of our interviews. Who was interviewed? None other than me :)
It was weird to be on the opposite side of the table. I am so used to asking questions, rather than answering them. It was also weird that I was answering my own questions. While making up the questions, I kept relating to myself and thinking about my own food allergy. This probably hurt the interview a little bit, because I knew exactly what was coming, and had already talked to Alyssa about this stuff before, so I didn't expand as much as I wanted to, which mad my answers short and choppy. It was kind of awkward talking to Alyssa about these things while being taped, because I felt like I had to say something important. With this being said, I got tongue tied a couple times because it felt like as soon as I said something, I was never going to be able to take it back. I know that sounds silly, but I mean it. Try telling someone about your personal life without something recording it, and then with something recording it. The things you say will change. I am lucky because I get to see what exactly will be used and won't be used. Others aren't as lucky. They don't know if something they say will be taken out of context, or be misunderstood. At least I can tell Alyssa if she doesn't understand something, because we will be working on the project together.
Something else that I didn't think of until the interview was where to look! I didn't know if I should look at the camera, at Alyssa, or what. A lot of the time when I was talking, I am looking at a wall, or outside. I guess I'm an awkward person to interview since I didn't look at Alyssa the whole time. I will definitely keep this in mind when I interview someone, because they may feel the same way I did. I won't take it as they are interested in what they are talking about, but rather that they are thinking. When I would look at Alyssa and talk, I honestly forgot what I was going to say. A couple times during the interview I say out loud "What was I talking about again?" because I completely forgot.
Oral History Project
04/15/2011
0 Comments Edit | Settings | Delete
The other day I was interviewed again for another groups project. I still think it is weird to be the interviewee, since I am used to leading the conversations. I sat there a couple of times when it was completely quiet waiting for the interviewers to ask me another question. I feel like we talked about more than I did with Alyssa, because I didn't know the questions, but I still feel like I didn't talk a lot. I tried to say as much as I could, but at this point I have talked so much about food allergies, I don't know if I'm repeating myself or not. I did get a chance to be the interviewer last night, and it was a lot of fun. I love to be in control of things, so when I was able to lead the conversation I felt more at ease. I interviewed my boyfriends roommate, Billy, about how he eats. I did this on purpose because he is completely different from how I eat, and I wanted that contrast to shine through in the collaborative project with Alyssa. We are lucky enough to be able to use our interviews as some of our sources, because it falls into the stream of what we want to talk about. I'm really happy about where our project is headed. Now all we have to do is get dirty in the research and start writing our paper!
These interviews showed the difference between qualitative and quantitative research, which I also talk about in another blog post.
Situating Narrative Inquiry
03/08/2011
0 Comments Edit | Settings | Delete
This was an easy article to read, but there was a lot of information in it. The article starts off with the difference between qualitative research and quantitative research. I have always heard of quantitative in school, which "Quantitative research rests exclusively in positivistic and post-postivistic assumptions" while qualitative research "forms around assumptions about interpretation and human action". All throughout the article it talks about why this research is used, and I found it was because they want to understand something (about somebody). This was the whole argument about using numbers saying, "what distinguishes narrative inquiry is the understanding that all research is based on language whether in the language of numbers or the discourse of researchers and those being researched". I thought this was really important because the narrative inquiry focuses more on where the numbers came from, the person, and what they meant by what they said. This same point comes up again when looking at objectivity. "What fundamentally distinguishes the narrative turn from “scientific” objectivity is understanding that knowing other people and their interactions is always a relational process that ultimately involves caring for, curiosity, interest,
passion, and change". What the article was saying about this was that researchers say that they are being neutral about what they are researching, but in truth what they like and don't like actually comes out in the research that they conduct.
It's all about the stories, baby! That is what makes qualitative research what it is. Whenever I think of this word, I always think of quality. The quality of the work shows through the stories that people tell. When I was sitting in class on the last day, you brought up the story about me getting cheese stuck in my teeth, and that is what the whole class remembered, too. The better the stories you get when you research, the more people will remember what you have researched.
Now to change from Oral History/Collaborative Project to Twitterive. Below I have attached two blog posts that I talked about my Twitterive. The first one is about what my first Twitterive was about. The second post is realizing that my Twitterive wasn't working and I needed to change it.
Twitterive Reflection
02/16/2011
0 Comments Edit | Settings | Delete
Who? - My friend Steph and myself and maybe a few others
What?- Connection between the park and my friend Steph, and also how the park symbolizes our youth
When?- The past to present
Where?- Park near Steph's house
Why?- To show change in the characters and the environment
How?- Flashback, Narrative, Photos
I liked talking about my story out loud rather than just on paper. I wanted to make sure what I was doing made sense, and after talking about it, I confirmed exactly what I wanted to talk about. Now I just need to go to the park and take pictures, and I will be set to start writing. Someone in my group brought up if I wanted to talk about going into a mental state as well as a physical one during my Twitterive. I thought that this was a really great idea, and I may include that in my Twitterive as well.
Twitterive
04/05/2011
0 Comments Edit | Settings | Delete
I know that we are supposed to be working mainly on our collaborative project, which I'm still trying to figure out how to get my interview onto my computer, I decided to re-do my entire Twitterive. After meeting with my professor, I realized that my Twitterive wasn't going anywhere, and that it needed change- big time. I decided to keep only a couple parts from my old Twitterive, and put it into my new Twitterive. My old one seemed to revolve more on a friendship that I once had, instead of the park that we always went to. With keeping that friendship in my mind, I decided to go to another place that I had more things to talk about- school. Because I want to become a teacher, I thought this would be a wonderful topic to explore, since the school meant something different to me before to what it does now. I want to be able to show that, and within this story I can talk about my old friendship I had with my friend (that way I can keep some of the pictures!) I am really excited to start creating this new Twitterive, while working on my collaborative/oral history project. Should be a bumpy few weeks, but hopefully in the end it will all be worth it!
I was almost completely done my first Twitterive when I decided to change it. I had already searched through hundreds of pictures, went out into the field and took more pictures, and typed up many stories that happened between my friend Steph and I, when I realized that my Twitterive, which was supposed to be about place, wasn't about place. I made the decision to delete the whole thing and start fresh, deciding to only keep a section to put in my prologue. I decided to go with the theme, as I mentioned before in the writing section that I have started to look for themes in my writing, about school. I met Steph at Winslow Township School # 2, so I decided that would be my new "place" in my Twitterive. I then had to conduct all new research to go with this new idea. It took a lot of courage on my part to delete my entire Twitterive that I had been working on for so long, but I knew I had to do it. I searched through pictures again to find the exact ones I wanted, went to Winslow Township School # 2 a few times to take pictures, and started talking to people about what they remembered about school.
Technology
Connection of technologies
02/27/2011
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I found that the blogging, which I have always hated, and weebly really helped me connect to my place. I never got into blogging for some reason. Having my thoughts and feelings out there in the world just isn't appealing to me. I would rather have my personal infomation shared with my friends and family; not for the rest of the world to see. But for this project, through writing a micro-fiction, I found inspiration. I only wrote it because it was homework, but from that homework something developed that I thought never would. Now Weebly on the other hand is something that I think is awesome! I'm being completely serious. I never thought that designing a website would be so fun. I get to see my progress as time goes on with all the different pages and assignments that I have to do. I will definitely use this when I go out into the field for a teaching position, because it is like having a portfolio, but so much better. Most people now a days don't look through a portfolio on a job interview, even after you have spent so much time on it. With having a website, the interviewers can go through what they want to, because everything they need is a click away, rather than flipping through a bunch of pages. Through the weebly I have been able to decorate the weebly in what ever way that I want, showing off who I am as a person. Now for the negative aspects. Both YouTube and Twitter haven't helped me much. For YouTube, which I rarely use, only helped my Twitterive by giving it a different genre, which was a music video. YouTube wasn't necessary in the making of my Twitterive, but rather something to give it some spice. As I came up with my idea for my Twitterive, I didn't even use my tweets. Honestly, I tweeted after going to the park to take pictures about what I saw that way I would have something to put in my Twitterive. Twitter was really in the back of my mind because of all the other classes that I am taking, and I kept forgetting to tweet.
I'm going to start with my class identity first with using both the blog and in the Twitterive. My class identity is seen in both of these, because I am the student who gets done all of her work on time(usually), and follows all the directions. I hate going to class without having my homework done, because I sit there and feel dumb. Now for my real identity. I feel like the Twitterive more portrays who I am as a person, than my blog. I only use the blog for class assignments, and even though they come from my opinions, they are based on what I have learned from the classroom. The Twitterive came from a place that is really special to me, and is about a person that had a big impact on my life. The Twitterive is more on my level, with all the pictures. I love to take pictures, that way I can capture memories from my life. In the blog it is about something that we have read in class, which isn't my type of learning. I hate to read articles and write about how I feel about it. I know this is a writing arts class, but that isn't my thing. I am more of a hands-on person, loving to be in the action of what I am learning. You can definitely tell that I want to be a teacher rather than a writer, and this is probably why I liked the Twitterive than blogging. The Twitterive let me get into the action of what I wanted to write about; taking pictures, writing poems, etc. Blogging is more of me explaining my feelings (bor-ing).
From when this blog was written in February, I feel like I have already changed my mind about blogging. I liked to blog more after you stopped assigning what we had to blog about because I felt like I had more freedom. The blogging acted as a useful tool for me when I was keeping my food journal, because instead of writing it on paper and then on the computer, I could just write it as a blog then copy and paste it into my Collaborative Research Project. The only constraint that I found wrong with the blogging was that if you typed something too fast and posted it, what you just typed didn't show up. You then have to click on the edit button and go back in and make sure it was there, and save it again. This happened to me a couple of times, which got annoying because I had to keep going in and fixing it.
For the Collaborative Research Project, I recorded for the first time. This went okay until I had to upload it on my computer. I had to change the file, which I had no idea how to do, and had to get my family to help. I finally got it onto my computer, and then had to upload to YouTube. Again, I never used this before so I decided to use Viddler. It was really easy to use except for the fact that one of my videos didn't upload all the way. My computer wasn't cooperating with Viddler's systems, so I had to use another computer. I was thankful that it was my computer, and not my camera, because if it was my camera I would have had to re-do my whole interview again with Billy. Another thing that was annoying with Viddler was that they view your videos before they are uploaded. This means that they are put into "que" until someone watches them. This could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 hours. My one video was done in a few minutes, while the other one took over an hour.
02/27/2011
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I found that the blogging, which I have always hated, and weebly really helped me connect to my place. I never got into blogging for some reason. Having my thoughts and feelings out there in the world just isn't appealing to me. I would rather have my personal infomation shared with my friends and family; not for the rest of the world to see. But for this project, through writing a micro-fiction, I found inspiration. I only wrote it because it was homework, but from that homework something developed that I thought never would. Now Weebly on the other hand is something that I think is awesome! I'm being completely serious. I never thought that designing a website would be so fun. I get to see my progress as time goes on with all the different pages and assignments that I have to do. I will definitely use this when I go out into the field for a teaching position, because it is like having a portfolio, but so much better. Most people now a days don't look through a portfolio on a job interview, even after you have spent so much time on it. With having a website, the interviewers can go through what they want to, because everything they need is a click away, rather than flipping through a bunch of pages. Through the weebly I have been able to decorate the weebly in what ever way that I want, showing off who I am as a person. Now for the negative aspects. Both YouTube and Twitter haven't helped me much. For YouTube, which I rarely use, only helped my Twitterive by giving it a different genre, which was a music video. YouTube wasn't necessary in the making of my Twitterive, but rather something to give it some spice. As I came up with my idea for my Twitterive, I didn't even use my tweets. Honestly, I tweeted after going to the park to take pictures about what I saw that way I would have something to put in my Twitterive. Twitter was really in the back of my mind because of all the other classes that I am taking, and I kept forgetting to tweet.
I'm going to start with my class identity first with using both the blog and in the Twitterive. My class identity is seen in both of these, because I am the student who gets done all of her work on time(usually), and follows all the directions. I hate going to class without having my homework done, because I sit there and feel dumb. Now for my real identity. I feel like the Twitterive more portrays who I am as a person, than my blog. I only use the blog for class assignments, and even though they come from my opinions, they are based on what I have learned from the classroom. The Twitterive came from a place that is really special to me, and is about a person that had a big impact on my life. The Twitterive is more on my level, with all the pictures. I love to take pictures, that way I can capture memories from my life. In the blog it is about something that we have read in class, which isn't my type of learning. I hate to read articles and write about how I feel about it. I know this is a writing arts class, but that isn't my thing. I am more of a hands-on person, loving to be in the action of what I am learning. You can definitely tell that I want to be a teacher rather than a writer, and this is probably why I liked the Twitterive than blogging. The Twitterive let me get into the action of what I wanted to write about; taking pictures, writing poems, etc. Blogging is more of me explaining my feelings (bor-ing).
From when this blog was written in February, I feel like I have already changed my mind about blogging. I liked to blog more after you stopped assigning what we had to blog about because I felt like I had more freedom. The blogging acted as a useful tool for me when I was keeping my food journal, because instead of writing it on paper and then on the computer, I could just write it as a blog then copy and paste it into my Collaborative Research Project. The only constraint that I found wrong with the blogging was that if you typed something too fast and posted it, what you just typed didn't show up. You then have to click on the edit button and go back in and make sure it was there, and save it again. This happened to me a couple of times, which got annoying because I had to keep going in and fixing it.
For the Collaborative Research Project, I recorded for the first time. This went okay until I had to upload it on my computer. I had to change the file, which I had no idea how to do, and had to get my family to help. I finally got it onto my computer, and then had to upload to YouTube. Again, I never used this before so I decided to use Viddler. It was really easy to use except for the fact that one of my videos didn't upload all the way. My computer wasn't cooperating with Viddler's systems, so I had to use another computer. I was thankful that it was my computer, and not my camera, because if it was my camera I would have had to re-do my whole interview again with Billy. Another thing that was annoying with Viddler was that they view your videos before they are uploaded. This means that they are put into "que" until someone watches them. This could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 hours. My one video was done in a few minutes, while the other one took over an hour.
Afterword
This whole semester has been such a learning experience. I feel like my knowledge in all three fields: writing, research, and technology, has expanded. When I show my family my website they are always astonished saying, "you did all of that?" I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or offensively, but it just shows how impressed they really are. My mom is going to pay me to make a website for her work this summer because she liked mine so much.
This class hasn't just helped me grow in the classroom, but outside as well. I now know that to write a good piece of work I have to get involved in it. If I don't like what I'm writing about, then why would anyone else? Putting myself into the research has gotten me so involved in every one of my projects, which makes me proud of my work, and want to show it off, which I have never done before.
This class hasn't just helped me grow in the classroom, but outside as well. I now know that to write a good piece of work I have to get involved in it. If I don't like what I'm writing about, then why would anyone else? Putting myself into the research has gotten me so involved in every one of my projects, which makes me proud of my work, and want to show it off, which I have never done before.
