High School Computer Time

When I was in high school, I was unaware of places like Facebook and Myspace, I am not even sure if they existed yet, so computer time either meant playing online games, or socializing with friends. Our computer lab was set apart from our library and for the most part, went unmonitored so usually everyone just gathered around and talked. There are very few times I can remember actually researching or doing homework in the lab, and the times I can remember were times I was quickly trying to finish something due the next hour. I guess, to sum it all up, computer time really meant social time in my high school.

Podcasts

Although I am sure that pod casts could benefit the classroom and help break up the monotony of lecture, I wouldn't use them in my classroom. This is in part due to the fact that I hate talk radio. It comes from being a child in the backseat of the car and my dad forcing me to listen to AM 1450. Ever sense then, just the sound of talk radio makes me sick to my stomach. I personally find talk radio shows incredibly boring so I wouldn't incorporate them in my classroom, but thats just my opinion, which is in large part due to scarring.

Technology's Educational Benefits..

Personally, without the use of technology in my college education, I would be lost. I am not sure what I would do without the ability to get on the WMU library website from home and look to see if they have particular books and if they have been checked out or not. Without the ability to e-mail professors and classmates with questions or concerns, there are times I definitely would have failed assignments. I don't even want to begin to think about doing homework without internet search engines and online encyclopedias. In fact, I don't know how people were able to function in school without the use of technology, I for one can not picture my life without it.

Regret..

I blew it
I can't believe it
Hours of practicing
Days of traveling
Weeks, months of training
Years spent living and breathing it
Every moment building up to this
Now here I am
Replaying it all in my head
How could I have blown it?
If only I had worked harder
Practiced longer, ran faster
If only....

Original Poem...

Look at the found poetry project for my original poem...

Waterboarding

A delicious jelly
Settles into slick cement
Curse legs and that bed cramp
A gun battle
I am not oppressed

Emotion Poem

Stress..
Stress of writing essays
Stress of final exams
Stress of having money
Stress of nagging mother
Stress of needy brother
Stress of family cross country
Stress of car that doesn't work
Stress of landlord being a jerk
Stress of Dr. Brandao and his pompous remarks
Stress of finishing the semester
Stress of three more weeks.....

Self Portrait Poem

Softball fields at WMU

Tailgating with my crew

Friends and I cheer

Wearing Western gear

Drinks on the go

With Buster Bronco

With Maris and Grace

Smile on my face

The sun is really bright

I'm holding Natty Light

A memorable snapshot

Of me and the mascot

Letter to a Friend...

Hey there...
How are you doing? Hope all is well..This weekend was rather uneventful but I did go out Saturday night with some friends from Jackson. Sarah and I showed them around some of the bars downtown like Shakespeare's, Monaco, Harvey's, etc. We had a good time and everyone enjoyed how much cheaper it is to go to the bars in K-Zoo than in Jackson. On Sunday I got sucked into a marathon of America's Next Top Model on MTV. I don't even know why... Tyra annoys me so much that I could barely stand it, yet I had to stick it out and watch to see who won. It was a sad way to spend an entire day, but hey it was Sunday and I just didn't feel like being productive.. Anyway, hope you enjoyed your weekend..
Talk to ya later, Katey

Fire Write....

Dear Construction Crew on Monroe St.,

I understand that as construction workers you have a job to do, but the fact that you begin your outrageously noisy work at the crack of dawn everyday is incredibly annoying. I have had more rude awakenings in the past few months then I can count thanks to your crew and their thundering vehicles. The best is the incessant beeping that occurs when your machines are backing up. It is not only the noisy machines hauling and dropping that cause so much frustration, but the the workers who scream back and forth at one another all morning long. Not to mention the fact that a "supplies" semi was parked in our street for about a month and I never once witnessed a single supply taken from there...In addition to this, you choose to park your vehicles in my yard and all over our already crowded street to have lunch. So not only have you guys disturbed my sleep and taken over my road, but now I have Joe and Steve looking through my window while they enjoy their afternoon sandwich. I thought that the cold weather would eventually deter you guys and eliminate this problem, but it seems you guys are determined to persevere and go on irritating everyone in our neighborhood. Please construction crew, go away...or at least use morning voices...

Thank You, Katey Robinson

FOUND POETRY PROJECT

My article was about the growth of peanut allergies and how peanuts could be banned from schools..

"Peanut-free zone"
Banned
Deadly Reactions
Oh Peanut Butter
Why do they attack you?
You provided the world
With a velvety snack
The perfect compliment
To a delicious jelly

Allergies they claim

Will deprive school kids
Of your sticky goodness

Links to Nature Imagery...

Tropical Picture

Winter Scene

Forests

Desert

Cool Poem I Found About Social Justice...

The Pain of Love

Does God understand the pain of love?
The loneliness we feel
The rejection the betrayal of trust by a friend.
Does He understand the experience of total separation
From one He loves?
Does He understand the agony and grief of the soul?
The cost and the pain of love.

God sent his only Son into the world.
He was despised and rejected by men
Betrayed by a friend.
He experienced total separation from His beloved Son.
In the garden Jesus knew agony and grief beyond compare.
The cost and the pain were borne for us on the cross.
Yes God knows the pain of love.

October 1984

Cry of the Unknown Hostages

When you say that you care about the hostages,
What do you really mean?
Do you really care for my brothers and sisters,
Who never make your news bulletins?
Do they really matter to you?
We are the forgotten ones,
The unseen.
They make no videos of us,
Make no demands of the West.
Sometimes they demand a ransom
But who will pay?
Who will redeem me?
Before I pay the ultimate price,
Before the axeman comes.
And yet your Jesus said
"I have come to proclaim freedom"
Will He redeem me?
Will He pay the price for me?
Can He really rescue me?
I do not know your Jesus,
So I need you to speak on my behalf.
I don't want to die.
I want to live!
I want to see my children grow up
I need help NOW!
Before the axeman comes.
And now it is too late
For now the axeman comes.

November 2004 Written in response to the plight of many Iraqi hostages who died without publicity from the Western media. Many would not have known Jesus and many perhaps never knew of the great price that Jesus paid for them.
http://davepoems.tripod.com/id4.html

Response Chapter 14

I liked that this chapter pointed out the fact that although we as teachers should encourage students to get creative, basic writing skills are still fundamental and neccessary. The chapter mentioned that assignments like research papers are still useful in teaching our students how to construct an informative essay, it also sharpens skills like making coherent arguements and having accurate thesis statements. I think this is important to consider when reading a text that focuses strongly on ways to get creative in writing, because it is easy to get carried away with trying to make multi genre essays really original and creative, and things like basic organization and structure can often be overlooked, even though it is a crucial skill needed in school.

Grammar Article...

The article I read was Responding to Student Writing by Vivian Zamel, and was found in the English Journal. This article beared a lot of resemblance to the Red Pen article we had looked at previously in the fact that it debates whether or not teachers are encouraging prodictive writing when they edit harshly. One thing I found interesting is that a lot of the things we brought up in classroom discussion were included in this excerpt. Zamel points out the fact that teachers often give vague instructions or indecipherable comments that only mean something to the person who is grading it and makes it nearly impossible for the student to know what went wrong or how to fix their paper, this was right along the lines of points we as students made in class. This was just one of the many points brought up in this article that closely related to the comments we made in class. The article suggested rethinking the overzealous marking of a students writing because, as Zamel was trying to emphasize, what we as teachers view as constructive to the writing process, actually can discourage and defeat a student. Meanwhile, their original work with the students fresh point of view becomes lost in trying to please the teacher.

Image Grammar

When I got the assignment to read twelve pages in the grammar book, I was sort of dreading it expecting it to be incredibly boring..but I really actually enjoyed it. I loved the way it encouraged you to look at the writer as an artist "painting images of life with specific and identifiable brush strokes." (pg.1). That image was something totally different than I had thought of writing before. I really appreciated the way the book encouraged the writer to use an "artists eye" when painting their picture with words. The five brush strokes is definitley a teaching concept I had never heard of but would be a really neat concept to use in my classroom. I felt like it made me think of my own writing in a whole new way so I can imagine that it could help a high school student tremendously.

Indy Teach ROUGH Outline

*The important ideas my individual teaching will center on are; How can we use nature to enrich the writing experience and what are the different ways nature can inspire creativity in the classroom?

* The activity the book focuses on is one large activity in which students track the moon through its 28 day cycle and then create journal entries involving various creative works (poetry, sketches, prose, etc). Since our classroom will not have 28 days to create a journal, I am thinking that our activities will be something involving creative writing involving nature. One thing we can definitley do is look at works done by other authors on the topic.

Helpful Links..

Helpful website for teachers who are just starting out; INSPIRING TEACHERS
Also for lesson plans help, Dr. Allen's Website

Red Pen Response

As someone who has had one of those professors who tore up every square inch of their paper, I can be sympathetic to the fact that the red pen marks, although meant to be productive, can also feel counterproductive. I can relate to the feelings of defeat when looking at a paper covered in red pen, and the discouraging effect it can have on a student. However, I do know that some of those red pen comments were helpful in future writing assignments, they also helped me to produce some of my best pieces of writing.
I would have to say that the best and most productive english teacher should not spend all of his or her time nit picking her students assignments and tearing them apart with their red pen, but should try and find a way to use constructive criticism. There is nothing wrong with helping a student understand grammatical and structural errors while showing them your appreciation for their content. Positive feedback can make a huge differences in the way that students will respond and handle their corrections that need to be made.

I AM FROM

I Am From..

I am from treehouses
Jump ropes
Campouts and sleepovers

I am from neighbordhood bike rides
hide and go seek
and "Marco Polo!"

I am from dress up
Dancing to Janet Jackson
and picking on my brother
just to get a reaction

I am from side yard football
Sprinklers
And Grass on bare feet

I am from pepperoni pizza
Backyard barbecues
Tree forts, and truth or dare

I am from Scott, Karissa
And a huge family tree
I am from love
And thats what makes me

Best Practice Response...

*After reading Chapter 1 of the Daniels and Bizar text, my interpretation of "best practice" teaching is finding a way to combine a healthy balance of student driven participation and creative thought with traditional instructional teaching. Best Practice teaching encourages students to be creative with the learning process and become more experimental. It produces an enviroment in which students and the teacher work together in the learning process, as opposed to the teacher demanding certain things with no room for flexibility. Best Practice teaching does not however mean that there is no room for lecture or seat work based learning, it encourages teachers to find a balance between the differing types of teaching.

*What Best Practice Learning attempts to do is discourage classroom settings that are driven solely by the teacher standing at the front of the class lecturing continually while students are sitting unengaged. This type of classroom setting leads to student disinterest and boredom, which is ineffective when it comes to grasping key concepts. It also discourages "busy work" that rewards students based on how quietly they can sit in their seats and complete worksheets. It also frowns on pulling students out of the classroom for special programs, due to the fact that it singles out certain students who may be struggling and can be looked at like a form of punishment.

* Some ways that Best Practice learning could be incorporated in the English classroom would be in class poetry writing in reading in which students could be encouraged to get creative and write on any topic they feel passionate about, and then be encouraged to share with one another. This would be a way for students to learn mechanics and basics of poetry while still feeling like they are taking a hands on approach and giving them the freedom to make choices on their writing topics. Another example would be letting students group up and choose a book to read from a selection, that each group could present to the class. This way the students would be working together and once again be given some freedoms when choosing what to present on.

*According to Murray, being a writer means exploring your personal thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Murray emphasizes the importance of writing as a cathartic experience, as a means of escape from everyday life, and as a way to find yourself. Murray looked at being a writer as a talent that needs to be constantly exercised and expanded upon. Being a writer is a way to share and relate to the people around you.
* In Murray's introduction, he writes about how he uses writing as a way to defeat what he is most afraid of. He uses a quote by Donald Barthelme stating, "Write about what you're most afraid of" (pg. 5). I liked this passage by Murray because I think that writing is one of the most useful ways to combat anxiety and fears. It was interesting to me the way he described the way that writing keeps his "dark shadows" at bay. I thought that this passage was an interesting and valuable way to show how writing can be a form of catharsis for those who suffer with anxiety and depression.