Entry #12-Reflecting About the "Blogging" Experience

Now is the time for me to sit here and think, reflect, and truly dig deep into what I have learned this semester not only about the content, but with my own experiences with blogging for the first time. I had always seen a friend or two of mine have blogs, but I never had an interest to have one of my own. I felt that the information would seem to personal to just go an release all over the internet. But to each his own as they say- because it is really up to the writer to decide how much information you want to reveal to your internet audience. What I would have never expected was the fact that I could use a blog for educational purposes- for myself or for my students! The class discussions we have held about online writing experiences, the class textbooks (Hicks and Tompkins), and by giving a genre presentation, I was able to gain a much broader experience with digital writing, teaching tools, and genre features. 

I really enjoyed being able to see how others' were learning in the class. It was nice to not feel alone on some of my opinions about writing, and it was nice having the chance to free-write. I was able to reflect about my teaching experiences or even my own experiences in writing from my past. I think I initially struggled to connect with some of the readings, but once I read other posts and was challenged by Dr. Jones, I began to unravel my thoughts a little more and dig deeper. I had to question my thinking, think about what I would do in certain situations if I had my own classroom, and I had to connect with the readings all at the same time. I think I became a stronger "blog" writer a few blogs into this assignment. 

I have taken the time to read over the student learning outcomes. I feel that I was able to meet outcome #1 because I was able to explore a variety of genres, experiment with them through my blog posts and genre pieces project, and I was able to read about them in the Tompkins book. The Tompkins text was a vital piece in helping me to learn about a variety of genres that readers and writers use to communicate. It had excellent examples from real classrooms, and it offered research about each genre.

I was able to understand better about the role of purpose and audience in writing because of the genre pieces project. I am still learning about audience through this class and my literacy clinic class (LTED 685), but I understand the connection between having an audience and how that can alter an entire writing piece. Each piece in my genre project has an audience that would best fit the piece I chose to write. 

I was able to meet outcome #3 because we were able to explore newer forms of writing through the Hicks text. I have increased my knowledge about podcasts, blogs, subscribing to webpages, and so on, but I need to actually sign up or mosey on through these sites to actually understand how to follow through with some of these new digital literacy resources- naturally. 

I remember reading about the relationship between reading and writing. I know it is a transactional process, and it takes many stages for a writer to complete. Dr. Jones helped me realize that writing can always be edited and there does not necessarily have to be a finished,"permanent", writing piece. I was able to think metacognitively and reflect about my experiences using this blog and how it can help me in the future. Of course I was able to increase my reading comprehension through the online reading assignments, class reading opportunities amongst peers' posts, and with text chapters.

The Hicks reading helped me to understand the types of reading and writing assignments that are appropriate for learners. There were have to be many modifications for online resources in the younger grades, but teachers would have to familiarize themselves with the writing too first, then read it to the kids. 

It helps having a rubric made available to us to understand the purposes of the assignment, how we are getting graded, and what I can do to try to earn the most points when I demonstrate my full potential toward a writing task.
 I was able to somewhat gain a better idea of writing assessment by seeing the rubric available for each of our assignments in this course, but I need to further develop my knowledge on writing assessment or evaluation for my students. I need to learn to set high expectations, but not get too "nit picky". I need to understand that each individual's writing will be different amongst once classroom, and sometimes I just need to look past the writing to see the message behind someone's writing piece. 

This has been an interesting experience. I hope to use blogs in the future with my classroom to help students connect, build community, and learn about themselves as writers.