11/5

This week’s readings focused on what I think are innovative forms of literacy and how to apply them in classroom settings. Although I am pretty young, I am not the biggest fan of technology and for one reason or another I’d much rather write in a journal than on a blog. However, I think Bomer makes an important point when he says “we need to remember that literacy is a technology. Writing with ink on paper is a technology, and a reader of a book, turning the pages, flipping back and forth to cross-reference something, is a user of a technological device, too (Bomer 243).” This is important for me because it makes me feel like the older technologies function in the same ways as old technologies. My biggest issue with computers when it comes to communicating or writing is that it feels distant. I would feel much more connected through paper, journaling, or face-to-face conversations. However, I do think it is very important, in an age where kids are heavily involved with newer technology practices to bring those interests to the classroom. In addition, what you do with those technologies should have substance. And I think that’s what Bomer is trying to emphasize in this chapter.

I think my lack of enthusiasm when it comes to blogs played a part in the way I read West’s article on Weblogs. I didn’t find the study as interesting or enlightening as I usually find some of the readings but I do think giving students a space where they can freely and comfortably express their ideas about texts is very important. What I did find interesting was the notion of identity construction in the blogs and how that affects their responses, I wish she would of expanded on those ideas because they stood out to me.

I found Yi’s article a bit more interesting because it focuses on ELL’s and that is a group we do not talk about much. I found what these students were doing to be very fascinating and “sophisticated”. Overall, I was a lot more moved by Schillinger’s article on the Wiki collaboration. I thought everything about what was done in this example was fabulous. I love the idea of purposely creating a class for girls where they can share their experiences. I think it is even more incredible that they can begin to look at race and class and how that affects their experiences as girls and growing women.

All in all, the readings have proved that the newer technologies offer a lot of ways for teachers to make instruction interesting in ways that the older technologies couldn’t do, and we should definitely take advantage of them.

As for the field I feel like I’m in a difficult situation because I wanted to learn, but in the end I didn’t learn much so I’ve been trying to find a teacher at my school that could help with that. Unfortunately, I have not had much luck and the teachers at Travis seem to pretty much follow the same model, a model that does not reflect what we’ve been learning in class, and one that I’ve seen before in my previous experience working in a high school setting. I actually think the teachers I worked with last year did a much better job at engaging their students and rejecting the common practices that Bomer wants us to stray from. As a result, the process has become very boring and I am not engaged anymore as an intern. Everytime I visit the classroom, I find myself back in my own dull English classroom from years ago and wondering how these kids could sit through that environment day in and day out. I am surprised by how well behaved and compliant they are despite how ridiculously dull their class is. In Miami, those kids would have been like “teacher this is boring, we need to try something different (lol). Of course that’s very rude, but I’m not used top seeing kids be so well behaved in such a mundane space. Anyway, I am hoping I can find someone that is a better fit for me soon, or at least by next semester.