Starting Over

    As some of you may have noticed, I haven't been seen around here since February.  Since then I've begun to heal health-wise, (slowly but surely), started to improve my eating habits, become happily unemployed for the summer, I almost failed my internship, and I've gone on a much-needed vacation.  Needless to say there's too much to catch up on, so I'll keep this brief.
    I want to start this thing over.  I want to be better at posting here and I want to document as much as I can.  I'm not sure what this will be about yet, but I know I'm going to play to my strengths.  I'm going to be making up a schedule for the end of this week and hopefully start off on the right foot.  Instead of one large post a week, I'd prefer to do smaller ones twice a week, if I can manage.  I'll most likely be posting TV highlights, book reviews and daily life occurrences, like how I'm doing with my clean-eating plan or what's on deck for my future job.
    As I've said before, I won't promise anything, but I'm going to try to do better, at least for whoever reads this blog.  I'm hoping to open up more time in my life for my passions and writing is one of them.  So here's to turning over a new leaf and hoping that leaf gets carried away by the winds of change.  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.

Walk My World

    Here we are, on a Friday.  I apologize for the lateness of my post, but I was busy all day with reading, then a much-needed family night.  Trust me, it was entirely worth it.
    Speaking of family, I have some great news!  My sister-in-law is being induced tomorrow and will have my highly anticipated nephew this weekend!  I am so happy for her and I'm very excited to become an aunt.  My only hope is that when I have my first child I am as lucky as she is to have all the love and support that her family has given her.  They've had a pretty rough time the last few months and her family dropped everything and made room for them and the baby, gave them a place to stay and a new job to help support them.  My in-laws are the most selfless, honorable people I've ever met in my entire life.  They surprise me every day with their unwavering kindness.  I suppose that's sad for me to think that that kind of love is unnatural or special when it should always be that way.  Regardless, I have no doubt that that child will be brought up in the best of circumstances.

    On a less emotional note, I have started classes this week, as you all know, and have been engrossed in reading and other preparations for future projects and case studies.  I will be posting on a new page later today directly connected to my Special Topics course about our readings pertaining to participatory culture.  I have also been making preparations to start an observation case study on a student at the school I substitute at.  I already have consent from three different parties, so as soon as I get her class schedule we can start!  I'm super excited to start looking at her writing and see what connections and inferences I can make.

http://wiobyrne.com/walkmyworld/

    In addition to the blog posts and readings for my Special Topics course, we are trying to participate in the "Walk My World" challenge, which is a research study created by William Ian O'Byrne, (you can follow him on Twitter here).  The purpose of this project is to explore the use of digital texts to see how people connect and communicate with each other.  For ten weeks, I will be posting a picture or video snippet of my life accompanied with the hash-tag #walkmyworld in order to provide a glimpse into what my "world" is like.  There are no guidelines or requirements to the posts, but it has to be about your life.  I take that to mean I can continue to post random pictures from various moments of my life, but more diligently.  That is to say I haven't been keeping up with my Instagram as of late, so I will be posting at least once a week for the next ten weeks or so, starting next week.  Should be fun, and I'm excited to be participating in someone else's research!  If you'd like to participate or learn more about Will or the "Walk My World" challenge, you can visit his website here.

**SPOILER ALERTS GALORE**

    On a completely different note, I did get to watch the latest Bachelor, Bones, Castle and How I Met Your Mother episodes from this past Monday.  So far my current Top 3 ladies for The Bachelor are Renee, Andi and Nikki, but we'll see how long that lasts.  I'm just glad that Lucy Lewd went home, finally.  I really like these girls because they seem really down to earth, they're not too young or immature and they seem to really have his best interests at heart.  Again, not sure how it'll turn out, (my father insists that he never picked anyone at the end), but I feel god about this Top 3.

    Bones made me cry AGAIN this week.  I'm not sure what it is with all these TV shows tearing at my heart strings, but apparently they're in a phase.  Wendell was diagnosed with a rare form of terminal bone cancer, so he now has a 10% chance of living through chemo and other treatments.  I died a little, not only because he's been on the show for so long and has been an undeniable asset to the team, but because Brennan SHOWED EMOTION.  If you've watched the show for as long as I have, you'll understand that when Brennan shows emotion, it's a big deal.  Her being sad at his diagnosis, which SHE discovered, shows that it's definitely a hard pill to swallow.  I wish him all the best in this season, but I'm definitely expecting him to die in the finale...fingers crossed I'm wrong.

    Castle was your typical Castle plot again.  After the tumultuous burning building episode we kind of needed a break from the drama.  I was happy to see Alexis (hopefully) break it off with Pi, seeing as he brought nothing more to the story and was basically dead weight in her life.  We'll see if she caved next week, but I'm guessing they're officially over.  It's sad that that was the highlight of that episode for me.

    How I Met Your Mother is getting more and more daring with their story line as we saw Lily and Marshall finally had the fight they needed to have, but it ended in disaster.  Lily ended up leaving in a random vehicle after calling an unknown person for a ride out of the inn.  She didn't say where she was going either, so we could be following her anywhere next week, but I'm most curious to see who it was that she called.  Marshall will most likely be heartbroken so close to the wedding, but we all know from previous episodes that Lily makes it back in time for the ceremony with everyone else, so we'll see what happens.  We haven't seen the mother in a few episodes either, not since she helped Marshall, so I'm eager to see her during the wedding reception.
    That's all for this week.  I'm expecting to post pictures of Tanner when he arrives, so look out for those on Tuesday, but for now I'm going to try and enjoy my weekend.  Here's to more reading and two blog posts today instead of one!  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.

Creative Writing Process

    I'm obviously a sucker for anything related to English or Language Arts, so, naturally, I have a talent for creative writing.  I've done everything from nonfiction to poetry to journalism, and I can honestly say, without a doubt, that fiction is my favorite form of creative writing.  You can do anything within the scope of this genre, and I appreciate the freedom it gives you to write literally whatever you want.

    When you teach creative writing, I find it a lot simpler if you just let your students have as much fun with it as possible, including picking their own topics.  Now I know that's not ideal for every subject area or topic you're studying, but giving kids as much freedom as you are allowed will be more beneficial to their writing process.  It will also result in a much better final product, complete with effort, which is a fleeting hope at best when it comes to student writing.
    As I've stated in a previous post, I'm a huge fan of the multi-genre projects, which give students multiple options with which to tell their story and interpret information differently.  Within the multi-genre project are smaller writing activities built to engage the writer and incorporate their prior knowledge about the subject they're writing about.  Some of these include, but are not limited to, narratives, dialogues, letters and fairy tales.  All of these options and more can be used as creative writing activities.
    Another tool I like to use in creative writing is a notebook.  Never underestimate the power of a good notebook.  Students can use them for note-taking, jotting down ideas for projects or essays, making lists, comparing and contrasting ideas and just general brainstorming.  They are also good for free-writing activities, which are meant to give students the opportunity to write down their thoughts in the hope that some vital information will surface.  In creative writing, notebooks could represent the beginning stage of any piece.  Notebooks can house various drafts of writing, inspirational dreams and story arc maps to generate more ideas.

    Notebooks are one of my favorite things to use in my writing process.  I've been writing in a composition notebook since first grade, and I have kept almost every single one up until now.  I still keep a notebook for writing about various occurrences in my life, but in the past, I've used them for writing short stories, interpreting my dreams and experimenting with voice and character development.  Notebooks have been a huge part of not only my academic career, but also my inspiration to teach writing.  I believe that notebooks would be an asset to any English and/or Language Arts classroom.
    The versatility and freedom that come with writing should not be ignored or misused.  Students should be allowed to choose their own paths to writing and feel that their ideas and opinions are honored and respected.  There is no wrong way to write, nor is there a right way; only your way.
Writing is an integral part of any school curriculum and it would be a shame to waste all our energy and great skill on state-mandated essays and writing assessments.  Teachers should work with their students to find the writing style that bests fits their personality in order to create an open-minded learning environment.  Creative writing is meant for students to broaden their minds, reach into their imagination and explore writing as an enjoyable art form, not as a boring requirement.
    Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.
   

Multigenre Projects

    

    So, for one of my courses I have to create a curriculum support project with regard to some aspect of writing.  I've decided to do a unit on the multi-genre project, which is a combination of smaller projects rolled into one.  Teachers can choose multiple genres of writing to provide for their students on any given topic.  The goal of this type of learning is to generate and support the same ideas you would gain from a typical, boring term paper.  Plus it gives students some choice and the ability to work their strengths in an otherwise difficult practice.

    Melinda Putz, a teacher and author from Michigan, wrote a strikingly effective account of multi-genre projects in her book, A Teacher's Guide to the Multigenre Research Project: Everything You Need to Get Started.  You can find that resource here to learn more about the process and the different interpretations available.  Putz arranges a detailed and organized account on how the process works, what choices you have to give your students and step-by-step instructions on how to bring it to life.
    In Putz's example, she starts off with a topic search, where students can research genuine personal interests to narrow down their project ideas to two different choices, making their ultimate decision from there.  Students then choose at least seven different genres to use in their projects, including, (but not limited to), diaries, letters, recipes, graffiti, dialogues, comic strips, etc.  The kids are encouraged to make their own choices in genre, as long as they relate well to the topic they've chosen.  This aspect of the project is where I think it truly excels; kids can basically choose their own project, down to the content and the type.  The amount of freedom and flexibility is really beneficial to students' educational self-esteem.

    I chose to dive deeper into this project because I wanted to know the true advantage to using this sort of system as opposed to the traditional essay format.  Obviously the multi-genre project has it's perks: almost complete student-driven control, multiple options and a personal touch.  There are virtually no downsides, so why don't more teachers utilize this project?  How isn't this adaptable to other subject areas, such as science and math, as opposed to English and History?  The point, I think, is that the liberal age of teaching is just beginning.
    With the ever-growing access and advancements in technology and the influx of younger, newer teachers on the horizon, the chances of a more hands-on, inspirational learning environment.  I believe the day will come when school districts will be more susceptible to change and classrooms are not places where students go to write their lives away for a standardized test.  I think that day is upon us, or at least I hope so.  If you'd like to learn more about multi-genre projects, you can follow the link I posted above.  With any other aspect of teaching, please don't hesitate to ask:)