Why I'm Majoring in Education

I chose this article, mostly because I've stumbled upon it multiple times and I also wanted to bring back The Odyssey from my first paper on the digital age. 

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-im-majoring-in-education

I also figured a light, enjoyable read would be a nice touch to end the semester with. A reminder of why we are going into this field.

It may not be the highest paying salary and it may be tough being "stuck in school", however the rewards from working with the students is amazing. This article especially speaks to you elementary majors working with the young kids, but this can also apply to the secondary ed teachers. I mean, I'm in college and I still love arts and crafts- so high school students definitely will too!

Working in a school also gives your the opportunity for endless learning. As we get older, I see it more and more as technology advances, the older generations begin to fall behind. Being in schools, the students you teach will always be up to date. You will always be able to learn from them. They will teach you whats new, they will point out a different interpretation of the book you're teaching in class, or they will share the most recent gossip that is going around the school. Whatever it is, you will always be learning.

The feeling of helping a student find their passion, reach a goal or just helping a student get through a break up. It's the little things that happen daily in a school that is truly rewarding. You may also say that you get dealt a hand that you may not be sure about. Well, the students that are always appreciative and well behaved make up for the few that may give you a hard time.

The summers, the holidays, the weekends.. they make up for all of the hard work you put into your lessons every day. Although you may be continuing to work on those lessons those days, at least you can do that from the couch or your beach chair.

This also leads to an article my friend wrote, that I could've easily written about a few of my teachers in the past, too.

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/thank-you-to-the-best-teachers-ever-had

The students that recognize your hard work, the students that are impacted by a simple "how are you?" in the hallway, and the students that look up to you as a role model are the students that make your job worth it. The students you build bonds with over tears or over a disagreement because they skipped your class. You build relationships with students, sometime closer than anyone else. You push them to be their greatest, to reach their full potential. These are the students that make teaching the best job in the world.These are the good things that make the low salary, the long days and the hard work put into lessons worth it all. 

My First Education Conference #justteach

Front row for Linda Christensen (Left to Right: Frankie, Sarah, Kelli, Jessica, Caitlin) (PC: Dr. Johnson)

Hey everyone! I am so excited to share my experience from the RI Writing Project conference, especially for those who weren't able to make it. We missed you!!

The day started off with breakfast and the keynote speaker, Linda Christensen. As you can, expect those were both enjoyable to me! Christensen played a video:
https://youtu.be/qtOXiNx4jgQ
In this video, Denice speaks in her own accent mixing both Spanish and English to discuss her mother's accent. She says, "My momma hold her accent like a shotgun, with two good hands". Her mother uses English and Spanish together, to work with each other to keep her heritage alive as well as be able to communicate and embrace the life she has with two languages. I love the final line also, "her accent is a stubborn compass always pointing towards home". We discussed at the conference in our group the different accents in America. A question arose that really stuck with me... Why are some accents thought of being attractive and intelligent, while others are discouraged?

Another activity that I found amazing was called a Tea Party! I love this idea or a classroom activity also! We were all assigned a role and we were to share our stories with the other people. While listening to these stories, I looked into the common themes among the roles. These people were all forced to assimilate to the dominant culture and suppress their native language. The students we got to see in a video were students of Linda Christensen.... I wish I was in that class!! Anyways, these students completed the same assignment and they were able to make so many connections, including their own lives. I thought I loved Christensen while reading her book, but being able to listen to her speak to us on the issues of power and privilege, share her own teaching experiences and lessons and answer questions was something I will never forget.

Changing gears now.. moving to small workshops.
First up, The Importance of Putting Down Roots: Greek and Latin. Here, the two speakers had three stations of activities set up to teach the meaning of the roots and using a variety of words to students. We made riddles to reveal our words with specific roots, we played a game similar to go-fish to create words made with roots, bases and suffixes and we completed revising student work just by looking at overused and oversimplified words that could be expanded on. This workshop was very helpful in providing lessons that I will keep noted for a future classroom! Not to mention the fun I had while engaging in the activities!!

#selfie #meaningfulwriters #justteach

Last, and unfortunately my least favorite part of the day was Miracle Minis: Small Lessons to Teach Effective Narrative Writing. At first I thought I was just jealous I wasn't in Christensen's workshop, but I then continued to be disappointed. We went over a few lessons and examples of how to help students but the majority of the workshop was revolved around writing our own narrative.. actually the teacher was writing out a narrative. I would have liked to have a lot more focus on how to teach writing narratives and on the little lesson worksheets we were given because I already went through high school, college and have taken extensive English courses where I know how to write an effective narrative, but I had never seen the handouts for the lessons that we received. It was nice of the speakers to plan and take their time to share their knowledge with us, after the first two amazing sessions, I was expecting a little bit more from this one.

Overall, this was a wonderful first experience at an education conference. I am so happy I was able to share this experience with a few of my classmates. This made the day even more fun, while I learned a ton! I can't wait to look into more conferences and I will be keeping an eye out this time next spring for the annual writing project conference!

6+1 Trait Writing Model

The 6+1 Trait Writing Model

1. Ideas 
2. Organization
3. Voice
4. Word Choice
5. Sentence Fluency
6. Conventions
7. Presentation 

A model for effective writing that isn't limiting or overly specific in terms of standards to be met, but rather a more passive, more personal set of qualities for a paper.

I love this because I think it is a perfect piece to give to students after writing a first draft. When revising I think students can look at this list and see if they have these in their writing. It is just enough to where it isn't overly powerful, but it can pull the writers best work out of them. It can also highlight the student's personality in their writing and allow the student to have power in their writing. It is important for students to feel like they have some power and and are able to express their individuality. Meanwhile, the student also has enough direction that they can learn and improve their writing skills.

English As Another Language

Pahl and Rowsell, Artifactual Literacies
This chapter focuses on the significance of personal objects and/or artifacts. Attached to the objects in someones life are experiences and memories. As stated by Pahl and Rowsell, "we have found that eliciting stories about objects from students opens up their home experience and enables teachers to access communities that may not be visible within schools" (1). I think this relates to many of the readings we have done in class regarding narrative writing.

It is important to have students write about what they are familiar with and enjoy so you can get to know them better as a person and a student. You may also get an insight as to what they experience at home, their cultural backgrounds and practices and you can then offer more personal assistance to help them meet their needs. As you get to know the student, it will be easier to understand what they are doing during class time and why.

The chapter then goes into discussing literacies, as we have discussed in class over the course of the semester. I think that Pahl and Rowsell explain literacies perfectly when he states, "The word literacies signals that literacy is multiple, diverse, and multilingual and spans domains of practice, from home to school to community, and in each domain there are different literacies"(4). Students can use their object and then tell their story in different ways. Poetry, music, videos, narratives, or drawings are all different types of texts that can be used in the classroom to tell the student's story.

It was also mentioned in class that objects can be used to learn something new. If an object is unknown, a students can use their imagination to write about what it may be or what it reminds them of. This may be challenging but can also improve writing and help the students learn about and unfamiliar object.

Fu, Chapters 2-4
Students who's native language is different than English, should be encouraged to speak their native language often, while learning the English language. Students are often told to speak English in class and at home, however taking away the native language may just set the student behind academically instead of moving them forward. Fu discusses the set backs students may face when trying to write only in English. They may get a serious form of writers block and their ideas may not translate over the same way. This could take away from how a student thinks, the topics they develop, organizing their thoughts and many of the important details that would contribute to the story. Fu states, "Letting them continue to write in their first language gives them the opportunity to further develop these skills"(29).

I think it is important to encourage the students to keep their native language and use it often at home. I loved reading and looking over all of the examples Fu provides of the student's work throughout the stages  of writing development. Despite how I fully believe in what I read this week and I understand how important and helpful it is to learn to be bilingual, I am concerned for myself going into teaching these students. I do not know how I will be able to help and assess the student when I do not fluently speak any other languages, most of which I do not have the slightest background in learning.

I'm sure we will discuss this in class, but if anyone has any feedback, I would love to hear it!

Quick Write 3/14

2. Of the many strategies that Gallagher introduces in chapters 2 and 3, they all are centered around the ideas of (a) giving plenty of time for students to practice writing and (b) modeling writing practices as a teacher. When do you think each can be used most effectively in your classroom? Can you think of a time where you found success after plenty of practice time? What about a time when you learned the best by watching someone model the activity?

"Good things come from hard work!" --Dad 
The one thing I love about classes is having a writer's notebook. Just like in many math classes, having a "warm-up" each day helps students get ready for each class. A writer's notebook also allows students to use their own creativity and get the grade for the effort they put in rather than what they write. I enjoy our quick writes in class where it isn't graded so much on what we write or how much we write, but the effort and participation. In our class, our awesome professor, also writes with us and shares her entries. This is a great example of modeling. 

Modeling is important when teaching a student how to do something for the first time, when giving directions that could be difficult to understand for one or more students, and for encouraging participation in class. It is also important to model imperfections. Students should feel comfortable sharing their work with you, even if it isn't perfect. Which leads to revising and editing. These two need to be taught and modeled. I remember one class I was in in Jr. High School we were asked to peer review. We had no idea what to do.. so the only editing we did for each other was look at spelling errors and missed capitalizations. Students need to be show examples of good revising so they are able to make their work better and help their classmates when peer reviewing. 

I learn best through my own practice after watching someone else complete the task. When playing sports my dad would always say "Good things come from hard work". And he was right. Without practice, you will never reach your full potential. It is important to encourage students to not only practice their hobbies, but also what they are learning in school. I also used to watch videos for softball of other teams. I learn best by writing things down to remember so I used to watch and write step-by-step what they did in the video. I did this mostly for pitching and hitting in softball. Over time after watching many videos on how to though different pitches, and practicing all year round, I became a much better pitcher. 

I love the similar relation between practicing hobbies and work in school. It is important to make these relations when explaining to students or else you may never connect. The student may think of the practice work as extra work that is just a time filler. It is also important to model both the imperfect and the revised work so your students can see what to do and how to do it better. 

No One Rises To Low Expectations

The Politics of the Paragraph, Michelle Kenney
I began to read this article and thought.. "I think I've read this before." Turns out I did... Sarah had posted it on twitter at the beginning of the semester using our hashtag .  I continued to read for a second time because it just hits home and is relevant to what we will be discussing in class.


I found the story about Erica and her writing experience extremely relatable. I also remember we briefly discussed the structuring of graphic organizers when discussing the different literacies. The graphic organizer is an example of functional literacy. Like discussed in this piece, it limits the writer to thinking they can only write a certain amount and in a certain way. The final writing piece should exceed this expectation and allow the student to express themselves and use their own creativity.

The structure of writing is often taught so intensely using different graphic organizers rather than teaching the writer or recognizing the amazing writing the student has in their work. Like Kenney says, some of the best writers get tied up in trying to fit the format they are expected to write in that they can't think creatively and write as best as they can.

I definitely think there needs to be a type of organizer as an introduction to writing, but throughout the year it should be used less and less. Like Kenney, I think that writing templates are like training wheels and they do help many students along the writing process. However, I also agree that sometimes students can write better and should be excused from writing according to a specific template. As a teacher, I am looking forward to recognizing when a student understands what should be in a paper and letting them go free to write their paper without a given direction.

Chapters 2-4, Kelly Gallagher
WOW! This reading holds a ton of information and resources as a future teacher.

To start, I love how Gallagher compares teaching writing in the classroom to coaching basketball. You cannot expect a player to go out on game day and win without plenty of practice. Students need to practice writing often and different variations in order to write well. One thing he also writes about is the writers notebook, which I full believe in. It is a place for students to practice writing, have an outlet to express themselves, and also see their own development as a writer.

I also enjoyed looking over the in class writing activities. He not only tells about them and the advantages for the students and the teacher, but also gave examples. I think it is important for students to view examples, just like I do.

This leads into the next chapter. Similar to Kenney using her own writing as a model for her students, Gallagher writes about the different ways to model for your students. Modeling can be done to show students that first drafts are just a draft. First drafts shouldn't be perfect and the best way to show this to student's is for them to see your imperfections. Modeling throughout the writing process is also important and I enjoyed this chapter.


The 4:1 Grading stuck out the most to me in this chapter. I often was graded in math on or science on the completion of my homework for effort. Then we would go over it in class to check our answers and go over any problems we had trouble with. I think this is also important in English classes. A student who has everything they write graded with notes all over it will potentially get discouraged. It is important to give credit for the effort they put into writing as well as some assignments that are assessed and gone over.

Finally, using other outlets for modeling was discussed by Gallagher. He discusses using restaurants, movies and magazines as pieces for reviews. These are important to use because students will be personally reviewing these on their own throughout their lives. I love bringing real world elements into the classroom, especially to help students become better writers and more familiar with literacy outside the classroom.

Personal vs. Personalized

Let's Get Personal

Personalized learning and personal learning are defined differently, but can both be intertwined in the classroom. Julie Coiro discusses the concerns and the resolutions regarding personalized learning. From what I understood, Coiro mentioned how she is against the most intense versions of personalized learning and more supportive of a balanced classroom setting. She quotes "that building deep conceptual understanding and higher-order thinking requires intensive student-teacher interactions, and technology sometimes distracts from this valuable human engagement".

Now that I've looked more closely into this article, I agree with this statement, because as a student on my own, I use technology often in class but also find advantages in meeting with teachers in person and taking notes on pen and paper. I also would motivate myself often instead of just learning from a teacher in the classroom and I think that should be encouraged for everyone. As an example, I would play with a multiplication leapfrog toy before I even learned all the multiplication tables. I also played many games as a kid, where I would pass certain levels with ease and other levels I would need more time and help with. Sometimes I would even ask a friend or family member help me with it. This relates to personalized learning in the classroom.



Think about it. What if you were stuck playing a video game at level one until the rest of your class was at the same level. And then level two, three and so fourth. You had no other way to play higher levels because you were restricted to that level. How boring.

I understand that there are classes that are separated by grade and into lower and high level classes, however still not all thirty students are learning at the same rate. With personalized learning, teachers can create lessons that fit the needs, interests and level of each student. The teacher can then still meet with students, still create a personal relationship with students, but the students can move along the lessons at their own pace and not be left behind, while the lower level students can feel more comfortable asking for individual help and they can actually learn more.

Netflixing Human Capital Development 
The article by Roberts-Mahoney compares personalized learning to Netflix Amazon and Pandora. When someone is watching a show, Netflix uses the type of show to suggest other similar shows based on the genre of show or the main plot. Amazon and Pandora also do something similar, suggesting other items to buy or other songs to listen to, based on what you have searched and bought in the past or the genre of music that is being listened to most often. Students can also get this through personalized learning. The computer can generate what level the students are at and display other lessons that relate to where they are.

Assessments can also be designed online to fit the best way to show understanding of the content. Not to mention, depending on the student, they could also meet with the teacher to complete an assessment because personalized learning does not completely cut out the teacher's position. I think that this was a good point to make, although it is creepy that the computers can tell what we are most interested in based on the click of a button. However, I do think this customized learning plan would be beneficial in the classroom and the analogy stood out as a great description of what it should look like in practice.

Developing Teacher Candidates in a Networked World
The first point was striking to me. I never even thought about how even before you are born nowadays, you have a digital footprint on some media site. Seeing as how they are though, they enter the digital world very young and it is true that technology impacts every aspect of our lives now. Technology can be used to improve the classroom and really get students engages.

I also like the next point made, that there does need to be models of appropriate usages of how to learn online. I thought of our class twitter hashtags we have going #meaningfulwriters and how are all teaching one another a small lesson every time we share something. Students can also learn how to find accurate research and information to share with others. The teacher can then look at these posts online, look into the students posts and make connections and assignments based on what they are interested in learning more about.

Technology has become a huge part of our world and I think it is important to bring this into the classroom to meet each student. I also believe in making personal connections with each students as well, but so far from what I've researched on personalize learning, they can both be applied in the classrooms.