The end of a stressful semester…

Well, it is finally the end of the semester. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it due to all the stress that comes with the second to last semester for an Education major. Nevertheless, I am very proud of myself for making it to the end of the semester. I can’t wait to see my final grades that will show my hard work. I am now one step closer to graduation!

What you learned about yourself as a writer? I am glad that we were required to have a blog for this class. I thought it was fun. Before this class, I did not think I could write well without being given a prompt; however, I found out that I can write a successful open post. I did not have a problem with writer’s block like I thought I would. I already knew that I write about deep topics. I discovered this in the first creative writing class I took a couple years ago. I decided to embrace this type of writing and I was happy with the feedback I got from my peers. I will continue to write about my struggles and emotions. It is actually a huge relief.

What you learned about digital writing? I learned that digital writing is a good way to grow as a writer. It is also a good way to get to know peers. I loved reading my peers’ blogs. I got to know them personally through their writing, which is very special. That is something that can’t easily be done in the classroom.

What lessons you can take to classroom or share with future teachers about integrating blogging into instruction? I will share with them that  blog assignments given to students should vary. They shouldn’t always have a prompt. They should be allowed to write freely sometimes. It is also a good way to have them learn more about technology by giving them some sites to look into, like we did for the technology trek.

Challenges? The biggest challenge for me was keeping up with my blog as I was dealing with some personal problems all semester. I sometimes struggled to find the motivation to get on my blog and write. Therefore, I think the deadlines were most challenging for me since I don’t like writing on the spot and when it is assigned.

 Successes? I am proud of the blog posts I have written.  I am going to make sure to keep this writing handy, so I can share it with others. Also, learning about my peers was successful. It was interesting to see how differently we all write.

Thank you for a great semester! I appreciate all the feedback you have given me.

-CS

 

 

Final Thoughts

I chose to read Teaching Argument Writing by George Hillocks, Jr. The chapters taught me how to design a unit about argument writing and why it is an important topic to teach. I have gathered a list of quotes that I think teachers should consider when designing a unit  about argument writing.

TEN THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN TEACHING ARGUMENT WRITING:

1. “Students need to understand what makes an argument sound.”(103)
2. “It is mandatory for us as teachers to help students learn to examine their own judgments and those of others.” (103)
3. Students must “learn how to independently apply and defend a set of criteria in making various kinds of decisions”(114)
4. Debate “focuses on the uses of language, on how different people with different values interpret events, on the necessity of using language purposively and thoughtfully and the importance for critical thinking if we are ever to achieve a just society” (142)
5. “The best problems for discussion will involve relatively abstract ideas or terms, and will likely involve at least two (possibly opposing) points of view.” (143)
6. “Once students have worked on defining two or three concepts, it becomes a fairly simple task to engage students in thinking about and applying what they have learned to other concepts as the curriculum moves along” (176)
7. Encourage “students to become more thoughtful human beings capable of making sound judgments.” (176)
8. “If we want to help students become strong inferential readers, we must provide the knowledge, experience, and practice that will allow them to do so” (178)
9. “Will students find the concept interesting?” (180)
10. “It is important to note that this development of thoughtful students takes place over many years of schooling.” (200)

-CS

Teaching Argument Writing

I chose Teaching Argument Writing by George Hillocks, Jr. as my second book. So far, I am satisfied with my choice. I chose this book because I do not know much about teaching arguments to students. I am actually disappointed in the lack of argument writing I did in high school. I barely wrote anything argumentative. I was not really introduced to argument writing until my freshman year of college when I took English Comp. 2. I think it is really important to teach arguments since students need to have opinions in order to contribute to society. They need to know how to form their own opinion and back it up with support. I think this is a skill that is necessary for most careers. Therefore, it worries me that my own education did not teach me much about argument writing. I had to absorb everything I could my freshman year of college, so I could learn this skill.

When I read, I like to highlight sentences that stand out to me, the ones that make me think. Below, I have listed some of the quotes I have highlighted in the first section of the book. I hope they make you think critically.

“Although adolescents may intend to write an argument, they often see no need to present evidence or show why it is relevant; they merely express (usually vague) opinions”(15).

“We know that if we don’t allow youngsters to explore the problems and make some errors along the way, far less learning takes place. On the initial activities, we work together so that we can provide careful support for difficult thinking”(28).

“When learners reach a level of proficiency, it’s time to increase the difficulty of the work and provide less support. How quickly to withdraw support depends on the learners’ needs, abilities, and proclivities. Withdraw support too soon and they become frustrated. Maintain support too long and they become bored. It’s a judgement call”(30).

“It is counterproductive, if not unethical, to teach toward one specific target of learning and grade learners on another”(38).

“Listen to what the students are saying in their groups only long enough to find out if they are on track”(66).

I hope you can apply these quotes to your own classroom. I think it is very helpful to read this book since it is written by an experienced teacher.

-CS

 

My Tech Trek

I consider myself decent at using technology. I am not completely clueless, but I am not a tech genius, either. I can use my laptop and cell phone with ease. When it comes to new technology, I can usually learn it fast, but if I don’t keep up with the constant updates, it becomes more difficult. As I was looking at the list of technology terms, I could only find a couple words that I am familiar with, but the majority of the terms are foreign. I am familiar with vlogging because I used to watch vlogs all of the time on YouTube. However, I have never created a vlog nor do I have interest in doing so. I am familiar with the sites Tagxedo and Popplet because I have had to make mind maps for college courses in the past. These are sites I would use in my classroom since it makes organizing thoughts fun and easy. I am also familiar with Weebly, which can be used to make a free site. I believe I have made one before and it was easy to use. Certain terms like Voxer, Zaption, Meerkat, and Canva were foreign to me and even after I looked the sites up, I was confused as to whether I could learn to use them. The site that was new to me and interested me the most is Nearpod. It seems like a great way to make presentations and to track student understanding. Though I am foreign to most of these sites, I would like to visit these sites more often and eventually become a resident to the majority of them.

Screen-Cast-O-Matic really intrigues me and I want to use it to teach a lesson. I have had professors use sites to record their lessons and I liked it because I could go back and revisit the lesson if needed. It is a good study tool since students can watch a lesson multiple times. I would probably use it to explain projects or assignments that have a lot of instructions. Instead of having to answer a lot of questions everyday about the assignment, I could tell the student to check out the video recording.

Teachers are not done learning after college. They need to stay updated with the latest trends in technology and new teaching methods. You can keep learning about teaching by attending professional workshops, social networking, reading blogs, and watching livestream chats. I do not think I would use social networking or professional learning via twitter for virtual professional development. I learn best from reading, so in order to craft my PLN, I would most likely read blogs written by other teachers. Also, I rather learn face-to-face about professional development. From my experience in internship, it does not seem like teachers receive enough training about technology. I see quite a few teachers struggle with the simplest technology, which makes me concerned. It makes me wonder how proactive I will have to be to stay updated with the latest technological advances or if workshops will always be at my fingertips.

Learning about tools that students can use to write virtually is very important. Most students do not write with a pen and paper anymore. By offering them opportunities to write online, they will be more engaged since this generation is savvy with technology. Goodreads is a site that I have used for about four years. I use it to keep track of the books I read and I enjoy making lists of books I want to read. This is not a site I would require students to use, but I would introduce it to them if they were struggling to find books that were interesting to them. I really like blogs and I think it is unfortunate that none of my high school teachers required me to keep a blog. It is such a fun way to write and get thoughts off your chest. I would use blogging much like this course by having prompts some weeks and free style other weeks. I personally do not like prompts, but some students need prompts to get them thinking.

I was relieved after going through Jane Hart’s Slideshare Top Tech Tools for Educators 2015 because I was familiar with more than half of them. I am an avid user of tools like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. It makes me relieved to know that I do know how to use the top tech tools. While flipping through the slides, I was intrigued most by Socrative and Nearpod. I want my classroom to be interactive and I like the idea of tracking student progress through technology.

Teachers need to consider their students as they integrate technology. Some tools would not be appropriate for some students. For example, I would struggle with tools for animation and design since I am not very creative. Teachers should give students options as to what kind of tools they can use. One project could be handed in as a video, a presentation, or even a word map. It is best to give students options since there are a variety of learners. Also, teachers need to consider their own understanding of the tools since students will have questions. Teachers need to be able to answer these questions and should be knowledgeable. Based on my exploration, I want to try out sites like Nearpod and Kahoot to track student understanding. I want to become more familiar with these tools, so I can use them when I start to teach. It is also something I can teach my supervising teacher at internship to use to track progress. Overall, I learned about new tools I can use as a teacher and it made me realize that I still have a lot to learn.

Tagul

https://tagul.com/show/rj5tky5kzbz5/Cloud%201

For this blog post, I decided to use the site Tagul. This is the first time I have used it and I have never heard of it previously. This site translates a text into a word map. The most common words in the text are the biggest, while the less common words are smaller. You can choose what shape you want your map to be. Also, there are a variety of fonts and colors to choose from to make the word map personalized. For my word map, I chose one of my favorite poems, “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath. The most common words in this poem are “Daddy,” “Black,” “Man,” “Ich,” and “Jew.” I chose to make the word map in the shape of a man since it is about Plath’s father. I am satisfied with how it turned out. I think this is a great activity for students who are reading poetry or other shorter texts like speeches. If the student pastes the text onto Tagul, they can discover what the main ideas of the texts are even before reading the text. It could be an excellent before reading strategy. Most kids love visuals, so this is a great way to make reading poetry more fun. The site is easy to use. You can even log in through your Facebook account if you do not want to set up an account with Tagul. I recommend this site for students since it is easy to use. You don’t have to be tech savvy to make a nice word map.

But you don’t look sick…

Last year, I fractured my toe while working at my job at the UCF Bookstore. I immediately told a supervisor and my friend drove me to the doctor as I tried not to cry over the pain in my foot.  Once I got to the doctor’s office, my foot was X-rayed and I found out that one of my toes was broken. The nurse bandaged up my foot and gave me a not-so-stylish Velcro shoe to wear. I was given papers to read about my injury along with information about my follow-up appointment. Needless to say, I was taken care of, which is the point of going to see a doctor. I went because my toe was broken and it needed to be mended. I needed to be healed. You could have taken one look at my bloody right foot in the waiting room and known why I was there. Unfortunately, not all injuries, illnesses, and diseases are as noticeable as a broken bone.  Mental illnesses cannot be spotted in a waiting room. They can’t even be spotted in the real world most of the time.

A major problem in our society is that mental illnesses are not treated like other health problems. They aren’t even seen as illnesses at all, even though they are since there is something malfunctioning in the brain. Do you have a sore throat? Go to the doctor for antibiotics. Did you break your leg? Make sure it is put in a cast and heals properly. You might need surgery. Is there a chemical imbalance in your brain? Do nothing. Well, at least this is what most people think about mental illnesses. They say it isn’t a real illness. They have that, “you’ll get over it” mentality. Why is it that it is totally acceptable to ask for medical help when it comes to other parts of our body, but our brain is off limits? It should be treated with the same urgency and importance as a broken bone. Nobody made negative comments to me when I got medical attention for my toe, but when I get help for a mental illness, I suddenly become a freak, a psycho, a weirdo. Nurses and doctors have looked at me like I was a strange act at a carnival, but I’m not. I’m a human with a common illness, yet no one understands it. Our brain is one of the most important parts of our body, so it makes sense that we would go to the doctor when it gets sick. Without getting help, we can’t think or function properly. We lose our interests and our identities. We start to have foreign and scary thoughts. Mental illness is a big deal and it is about time that it is treated as highly as other illnesses that come through the doctor’s office.

What experiences do you have with the lack of mental health awareness?

I am, I am, I am…

This past summer was a disappointment. I expected it to be successful. I didn’t have to take summer courses, so my time would be used wisely back home. Having depression in college is the toughest hardship I have experienced so far in my life. I have to try to find ways to focus on school, work, sorority activities, and more even though I do not have the energy. Every day feels like it is never going to end. I want to cry for hours, but I don’t have time. I need to get help, but it’s the same problem. During the semester, I have no time. Depression doesn’t fit into my schedule.

So, since I was not busy this summer, I decided I would focus on getting better that way I was ready for internship, classes, and my other responsibilities that would come in August. I thought that I would go to my doctor once every week for help. I would attend my home church and read my Bible daily. I would do anything to get better. Heck, I even started going to the gym, which is the worst place in the world in my opinion. I was committed to finding an answer. After two years of severe depression, I wanted an answer.

As I have already foreshadowed, the summer was a bust. My doctor still failed to find the perfect medication combination for me. He recommended me to a psychiatrist, who only made matters worse by giving me a new antidepressant on the market that has terrible side effects. Towards the end of the summer, I stopped all medications, which was recommended by my doctor, and I knew within days that I needed medications again. The depression was not going to go away on its own. I attended church, but I didn’t connect to the words my pastor spoke. My Bible gathered dust on my nightstand. I injured myself at the gym, so I stopped going. I took extra pills some nights, even though I knew it probably wasn’t going to make me sick, but I did it anyway. I refused to return home one night, so I waited in the hospital parking lot. I just didn’t have enough courage to go in.

Though I may not have accomplished my goal for the summer, I did get the chance to read some great literature to pass the time. I have always loved Sylvia Plath’s poetry, so I decided to borrow her novel The Bell Jar from my library. It was my first time reading it. It is a book that is somewhat autobiographical about a summer where the protagonist, who is modeled after Plath, suffered from depression. I related to this protagonist more than any other one out there. Some quotes were my thoughts in words. It is hard to describe my symptoms of depression when the doctor asks; however, Plath found a way to say what I have been thinking in beautifully written ways. This quote is simple, but so relatable to me: “I was supposed to be having the time of my life.” The protagonist is a college student, as well. I have everything I could possibly want. A job, a loving family, great friends, a sorority, an apartment, financial support. These are supposed to be the best four years of my life. Let me tell you, these have not been the best four years of my life. I wish I knew what it was like to be having the time of my life.

Sure, my summer didn’t go as planned, but on the bright side, I found a novel that contains the words I am unable to find on my own. Sometimes that’s all we need. We need to know there is someone out there that has the same thoughts and feelings. It is easy to feel like you are the only one suffering with your specific emotions and troubles. The truth is, you aren’t alone. Though Plath lost her battle with mental illness, her memory and prolific words live on and remind those with depression that it is okay to not be okay. It’s okay to open up to others. You can even write a book about it. Plath reminded me that depression is real and unfortunately it occurs to people all around this world. I’m not alone. I’m going to continue to fight until I know what happiness is again. I will do as Sylvia Plath says. I will take a deep breath and “listen to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”

-CS

Some kind of slick chrome American prince…

My friends are telling me to let you go. My family is telling me to let you go. Even my doctor told me to let you go. What they don’t understand is I can’t. I can’t let you go.

The last evening I was with you is a great representation of my inability to vanish you from my life. We spent the whole night together, laughing and ignoring the reality that you were about to move thousands of miles away. You kept reaching for my hand, clinging to the idea of us. You repeatedly said you liked that idea. Us. So simple, yet so impossible. I wanted the drive back to my house to never end. I wish the clock would have paused, so we could have more time, but that isn’t how life works. Life is frugal with time.

We both stepped out of your car into my driveway and you hugged me tight, while leaning in for a long kiss. I didn’t let go of you and you didn’t release your grasp either. There we stood, hugging each other tight while your car hummed and your radio played a mixture of songs. I was only listening to our breathing, trying to slow down my breaths to your pace, but I couldn’t. Reality was settling in along with the stress. My time with you was coming to a close. I would let go for a moment to finally say goodbye, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave you. So, we continued our embrace, for approximately twenty minutes. The hardest and longest goodbye I have ever had to face. You told me you would be visiting often, but other responsibilities are consuming you. You told me that you don’t want to see me sad, but I am.

So, here I am, trying to finish my last year of school, but all I can think about is you. I don’t want to be here. I wish I was with you somewhere, avoiding reality and holding on to the idea of us with all of my strength. I cross the days off on my calendar as they pass and it gives me a burst of joy every time. I don’ know when I’ll see you again and I don’t know if you’ll even want to see me again, but the later in the year it gets to be, the more likely I am to see you once more.

In our favorite song, there is the lyric, “She said she always knew he’d come around.” Part of me knows you’ll come around, but another part of me is filled with doubt and anxiety. Listen to our song. The answer is there. Please come around.

-CS

A Day in the Life

Many people tell me I was born in the wrong time period. They are right. I admit it: I am old-fashioned. My favorite movie is A Hard Day’s Night. I have an obsession with classic music like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Buddy Holly, etc. Just as an fyi, my site title “A Queen Without a King” is a reference to a lyric in Led Zeppelin’s song “Going to California.” If I could have chosen when I would come into this world, it would be the 1940s, so I could experience the 50s and 60s. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way, so I settle with my reality by watching old TV shows and jamming out to The Beatles in my car.

I was actually born in 1993 in the state of New Jersey. I grew up twenty minutes from the Jersey shore, so I spent most of my days walking the boardwalks, eating good food, and visiting NYC. Though it may sound great, I can’t say I miss it much. Two visits to the good ol’ Garden State per year are enough for me now that I’m living down south. When I was 10, my family decided to move to Florida after a divorce and a couple other tragic events occurred and we were left feeling exposed. We wanted a new start, which brought us to a new home that is ten minutes from Disney World. I have lived in Florida ever since and I don’t think I’ll ever move back up north.

I’ve always been an introverted bookworm type of gal. I love to read, especially classics and dystopian novels, and write, especially essays and blogs like this. Music holds a huge piece of my heart. I grew up with a father who plays drums, a brother who plays guitar, and a sister who sings and plays piano. I was inspired at the age of 7 to start vocal and piano lessons. I continued them up until I graduated from high school. During middle school and high school, I was involved in musical theatre. I performed in musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof, Cinderella, Seussical, and Gypsy. I hated high school, but I do miss theatre. I don’t continue it anymore, but I still love to sing whenever I get the chance, mainly worship at my church. Music speaks to me on a level that nothing else does. Lyrics stick with me and I often have a different song that I listen to on a weekly basis that describes what I’m going through and I form a connection with it. Music cheers me up when nobody else can.

I’m a senior in college now and I must say the past three years have gone differently than I thought they would. I thought I would become best friends with my random roommates freshman year. I thought I would join several clubs on campus. I thought I would never be homesick. The reality is I was wrong. I spent my freshman year alone in my dorm room. I struggled to meet friends on such a huge campus. I didn’t get accepted into the music organizations I tried to join. My college life turned around a little my sophomore year by joining a Christian sorority on campus. My faith is a strong and important part of my life that I am not afraid to express. This sorority turned my life around by keeping me busy and blessing me with lifelong friends. It has made college better for me.

When it comes to writing, I am not afraid to be personal. I write about what is going on in my life and it isn’t always easy to write and read, but I do it because it helps me to get my thoughts out there. It heals me and I hope to help others too through my writing. I am slowly becoming more open about my toughest battle: depression. It is a battle I have been fighting for a few years now and it is steadily going downhill. Most of my writing will be about it and I know it is a hard illness to understand, but one of my favorite authors, Sylvia Plath, described it best in her novel, The Bell Jar. She wrote, “Wherever I sat, on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok, I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.” Depression follows me wherever I go in this world and I am actively trying to find a way to fight it. My life is far from perfect. Even though I am about to graduate, I am still confused as to what I want to do with my life, though I am pursuing a degree in teaching. I am trying to take life step-by-step and seeking patience because I know it is all going to work out in the end. There is a plan for my life that I just have to find and hopefully writing this blog can help me sort out my thoughts.

-CS