Final Post

Blogging was a whirlwind for me, I’m not going to lie. It was difficult for me to keep up with all that I have going on and do a blog at the same time. This was a rough semester for me. I was in and out of the hospital and in a really bad Crohn’s flare. My life has been incredibly hectic with health issues going on and managing a chronic disease while going to school. I’m still learning how to do this and it has been quite the challenge. What I am getting at is I had all of this going on and my blog was the one who suffered for it. I set my priorities and I feel like the blog took a second seat to what I had going on.

I feel as if I gave it my best, but failed in the end. I didn’t really fail because I tried at it in the first place. I kept it going the best that I could and got things in on time. However, when it came to the book posts is when I was in and out of the hospital. That took a pretty hard hit for me because I felt like I was trying to stay afloat. I had so much going on-on top of all of this my brother had to have spinal surgery-that I felt like I prioritized my assignments, and my blog became not last, but close to it.

I learned that I like having a blog, but I need to set aside the time to actually keep up with it. It is nice to sit down and write, then have people actually read what you have to say. However, I think that I will stick to pen and paper from now on. I think that I actually do better at writing in a journal because I can grab it whenever I want to grab it. Digital writing is such a neat tool to have in the classroom though. It keeps people connected and I think that it is something that I would love for my students to do. However, I do think that this would be more of an extra credit thing in my class, or for something to use to ask questions about assignments. I personally don’t think that I could keep up with everything.

My challenges have been listed, but my success is coming this far and actually doing it. I created my blog and I participated in it. I might not have been as active and fantastic with it as I would have liked to have been, but I did it. That is an accomplishment right there. I think that with all that I had going on this semester, coming this far with my blog was a personal success. I learned that I need to make time for all of my assignments, and I learned that I need to prioritize better. This was an amazing experience for me because I feel like I have come out of this learning a lot. I enjoyed reading and commenting on other’s posts just as much as I enjoyed writing my own. I wish that I would have done more with it, but I am proud of what I have and what it became-just an assignment to a really big learning experience.

Professional Book Post One

This book is filled with mentor texts and writer’s notes after each text. The book begins with a how to on how to use the book. The Ralph Fletcher, the author, has a section where he introduces himself. The texts are all short texts that you can easily use or incorporate into your lessons. They are also ELL friendly, for they are short, but word friendly.

I think that this is a great book for every writing teacher to have in their classroom. Since there are a bunch of short texts, it makes it easier to pull from when you are trying to put a lesson together. Also, since the author writes these short texts, then has a writer’s notes section, it is easy to figure out how to use each text in the classroom. He takes the time to give you background on the pieces and he takes the time to tell you how he would use it in the real world classroom.

I am really enjoying this book and I am really glad that I got it. I was looking for mentor texts for a lesson, and these that he has in here are perfect. You could use these texts to teach about so many different things, and I think it is also nice to have the author’s feedback on what you can do. I highly recommend it.

 

Golden Pieces (Since this book is made up of short texts, I chose some of my favorite pieces.)

 

“Shaping the Story”- Have you ever been lost? Getting writing right and shaping your writing into something beautiful.

“The Family Plot”

“Developing a Character by Describing One Physical Attribute”- “One of the hardest things in fiction is to make a character come alive in the mind of a reader” (30)

“Squished Squirrel Poem”-Can you write about a squished squirrel?

“Using Personification”

My Diagnosis

Hi everyone!

 Today I wanted to write about my chronic disease. I have Crohn’s Disease. I was diagnosed in January of 2011, but I have had it my entire life. If you don’t know what it is, it is a digestive disease where my immune system attacks itself. My immune system thinks that it is a disease so it is trying to fight itself off. So basically my insides are always fighting with themselves.

Having this diagnosis at 17 was scary. I know that many people are diagnosed later on in life, but there are still those people that are diagnosed even younger than I was. When I got the diagnosis I didn’t know what to do. I knew I had something, but I didn’t want it to be Crohn’s Disease.

When I got the diagnosis I was on my way to Universal with my mom and brother. My brother was about to go in for spinal surgery and we wanted to do something special for him before he needed to go. Let me tell you, it helps going on a trip after a diagnosis like that. You need the time to do something fun to take it all in. I highly recommend it.

After we got back it was time for him to go into surgery. We stayed in Orlando for a couple of days and enjoyed the Harry Potter area. The day after we got back my brother had to go in. My mom went with and what was supposed to be a four day long stay turned into a six week long stay. I was alone. To attend college, keep the house together, and do everything by myself. I had never done that before so it was intimidating for me. I was dealing with a new disease and everything else alone.

Needless to say I managed to get through it. After starting some new medications I was feeling on top of the world. I thought that I had finally conquered this disease. Nope. It only lasted a month. It was a bumpy road from then on.

With this disease I gained 35 pounds in one month after starting a horrid medication that makes you do that. I went from under 100 pounds to 135 very quickly. That body image change killed my self esteem. I was crushed. I thought that I was ugly. Round face and all, it made me ashamed of every picture taken. This happened the month of my high school graduation, so you can imagine how great I felt.

From then on it has been a road of medications and more medications. I’m not a druggie, they are all to help me get better. I still haven’t found anything that works, I have failed many different things. Now I am waiting to come across something that will help. I have lived most of my life in a flare, and I have lived the past two years in one. This semester has been the worst. That is why I miss classes. I’m not lazy, I’m sick. It is hard for people to understand that. I may look fine on the outside, but on the inside things aren’t so hot.

So, if you know someone with a chronic disease, don’t be quick to judge them. It takes a lot to get up everyday and survive. Right now I feel like I am surviving instead of living. It will get better, but you don’t know where people are in their life. There may be a lot going on behind the scenes.  Take a minute and be thankful for what you have in life. I have learned to do that. No matter if you are healthy or have a million things going wrong, take a minute. I always think, it could be better, but it could be a whole lot worse.

 

Have yourself a cup of tea,

Jacqueline

“The Great Gatsby” Wordle-Tech Post II

I chose to create a Wordle. I have always seen them around the internet and have been fascinated by them. I was so excited to create one! The one that I have created is a bunch of quotes from “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I love everything about the book and saw it fitting to create a Wordle out of something that I am passionate about. I like that it highlights and darkens the different words and it makes the words that are most said or important the largest. I think that this would be great for writing and teaching the students about the importance of words in the text. This took a bunch of quotes and jumbled them up into just words. It would be great for vocabulary as well as for learning about style. I love it!!

Technology Post One

The airplane video relates to integrating technology into the classroom because it is a work in progress. You are “flying the plane” while still figuring out the little things, like what does and doesn’t work, along the way. Everything else in the class is still going, but technology is new. It is something that takes time to build but is worth it in the end. When the people talk about the “look in the child’s eyes” or loving our job, that is us as teachers. We take technology and integrate it into the classroom to make other people’s (our student’s) lives better. This makes our job even better as well.

When looking at that slide and the abundance of social media listed, I seem like a stranger. I am a native when it comes to Facebook, Email, Skype, and Twitter, but other than that I am pretty much a stranger. I didn’t know about half of the stuff listed! Like I said, when it comes to my native roots, such as Facebook and Twitter, I know it backward and forward. I also spend a decent amount of time on them, too.

I think that a good way to use Skype as a class is to talk to each other about projects and so forth. You can create a group so that the students only have access to their class, and if they have a partner assignment, it is a great way to communicate. Also, it is overall a great way to get the students talking and more active in the classroom. You could also have office hours on Skype where students could ask questions and get help. There is just an abundance of things that you can do to help in the classroom, and to reach students outside of your classroom. Padlet is another great tool that students can use. I like that it can be saved so that all of the information can be given. If a student is absent, they can go over what is on the padlet. It will give them an overview of the assignment that was done, or depending on how much you use it, it can be used for the whole class. This is also great for students who need extra help or time to have it. They can access this from any computer and have their notes with them. It lets the students keep up with the class. I love ustream a lot too. I think that this can be used for many things, but I will stick to a few. First it can be used for absences if you need a student to catch up on something and you need to explain it yourself. Also, this can be used so that students better understand projects. Having the teacher be able to explain the assignment, and give examples right there, is a huge help. It will eliminate the need for so many questions since you have to explain it to them once in the classroom.  

To keep learning while out of school you need to visit teacher development websites and seminars on your own. You are now responsible for teaching you. Virtual workshops and professional development sites really help active and on the go teachers. Teachers are super busy and don’t usually have time to cut out of their schedule to attend an afternoon seminar. So, if this is the case, virtual learning is better. Teachers can access it anywhere and it can be taken with them. Also, it doesn’t have to be done at one in the afternoon; it can be done at midnight or one in the morning if that is when there is time. With lots of the professional development sites I see that many are teacher oriented and you talk back and forth with different teachers. There are lots of threads to connect with other teachers and see what does and doesn’t work for them.

I think that students writing virtually is a good thing. It gets them in the swing of things with technology, which is catching on so quickly these days. It is also a great way to implement and encourage technology in the classroom. Obviously there are good and bad points to this. You never know what a student will write or what websites this one will lead to. They can get off task easily and play around. Also, students who don’t have access to technology at home may feel embarrassed or left out. However, this is also a good way for those students to get their hands on some technology, too.

What I notice about the different technologies is that I have heard of mostly all of them. Also, they are well known and they are ones that we have used in our class, too. Many of them are social media which kind of surprised me at first, but then I figured, what better way to get kids interested than with Facebook or Twitter? Also, many of the sites are writing sites. Students have to participate and write virtually. Another thing that I noticed is almost all of the sites were geared toward education.

First, I must say that this is a fantastic graphic. Each lets you know what you should introduce before the other. It also gives stepping stones in what the teachers want to reach with their students. Now they can see what websites to go to for different aspects of Blooms Taxonomy.

Tools that I haven’t used many tools in the classroom except for PowerPoint, Word, Prezi, and basic things. I would love to be able to do more.  I think I will try Padlet next. It seems like such a great tool to use in the classroom. Padlet will allow me to censor the students, yet help them understand what is going on. Also, they will be able to get active in it since most of them have Wi-Fi enabled devices. If they don’t, even better. They will have to share with another classmate. I learned a lot about different technologies to use in the classroom with this. Thank you!

 

Have yourself a cup of tea,

Jacqueline

Something that I love to get is free stuff. I mean, who doesn’t? I love when I go to my mailbox and look inside to find a pile of freebies sitting in there. I also love going to the store to get amazing products, handing over my coupons, and having my total be $0.00. I feel so accomplished and it really does kill that urge to shop.

Getting freebies can be as easy or hard as you make it. I like to look online for free stuff. There are a lot of great freebie websites that list free things that you can get as well as contests that you can enter to win free things. Don’t believe me? Search for yourself!

I have a thing for magazines, and right now I am getting every single one for FREE. I know this sounds too good to be true, but it isn’t. I will give you a little in on my freebies. Rewardsurvey.com is a great site to go to, to get free magazines. You never have to put in a credit card or form of payment, and you never receive a bill. You take a survey, earn reward dollars, and boom! Free magazines!. I promise, it is a site that I use on a regular basis. My best score there was an US Weekly subscription.

As far as my other freebies, I have gotten tons. My latest was a free “Say Yes To” product. I have already picked it up! My doggie loves me because she is constantly getting free treats. I actually just got two free bags of her food as well as two more bags for $2.00 a piece. She is certainly stocked up! I also collect free cat stuff and donate it to the local shelters.

Some freebies you may have to work for, some not. It all depends. Overall, it is one of my favorite things to do! I encourage freebie hunting, especially when you are in college. If you have any questions about it, ask!

Have yourself a cup of tea,

Jacqueline

About Me

Hi everyone. My name is Jacqueline. I am a Senior at UCF and plan to graduate summer of 2014, Go Knights! I love to write. Writing just comes naturally to me. I wish I had the attention span to keep a journal because certainly would! I think that my love for writing really fed into me wanting to become an English teacher. Also, the amazing teachers that I had throughout my years really fueled the fire, too!

I love living in Florida, and I wouldn’t change a thing. Seeing the sun, the palm trees, warm weather, beaches, and NO SNOW really make me love it here! I don’t think that I could live up north. I would be miserable during the winter. However, I do like that they have less humidity! One of the very, very common downsides to the beautiful sunshine state.

Dogs. Yes, just one word because dogs are a huge part of my life. If I could describe myself, I would want to describe myself through the eyes of my loving, beautiful girl, Ginger. Ginger is a sheltie that is five years young. I love her to pieces and I do think she is one of the most spoiled dogs around town. She is my rock through hard times, especially when I am homesick.

I have Crohn’s Disease! Look it up if you don’t know what it is. I was born with it, and yes, if you looked it up it is an icky disease, but we are all adults here, right? Crohn’s is probably the biggest part of my life because it kind of takes over a portion of it. Sometimes I do feel that I live for my disease, but I am learning to live for me and get things under control. I’m a survivor. Don’t break out in song, now!

Finally, giraffes are my favorite animal. You would think dogs, right? Nope, they are a part of the family, so I see them as family instead. Giraffes are amazing. Don’t believe me? Spend some time with one. I have and it was the most amazing thing ever. They are graceful, loving, funny, and just don’t care sometimes. Everything I want to be! Being with a giraffe is my happy place. My love extends greatly, you should see my apartment.  

I just realized that today is the fifth. Oops. I thought this was due every Wednesday, but I guess not. Oh, well. I have been sick, so that contributed to my lack of memory and cognitive functioning. Haha

Well, that is a little about me. Hope you like my cheery, weird, lovely self.

Have yourself a cup of tea,

Jacqueline