Reading and Writing Interest Level Survey

Class,

In order to gage where your reading and writing interest levels are, I would like you to take a survey I created. Please click on the link below to take the survey. Be completely honest! I will only be looking to see if you completed the survey and won't be grading or judging you based on your responses (although it might break my heart if you say you hate both reading and writing passionately!)

http://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_bEHyptzioH1SbXK&SVID=Prod

Picnik Experimenting

For the picture I uploaded into my Introduction page, I had some fun editing it in Picnik (such a great resource and free!). First I resized it so it wasn't huge and wouldn't take up a ton of space on my blog post, then I sharpened it a little bit to make it look a little more antique-ish, then I changed the color to a more sepia tone, and finally, I changed the exposure a little bit. It was really fun and I'm glad I found out about this great online tool!

Introduction

Hi class! My name is Miss Austin and I'm excited to be teaching you English this year! We are going to learn so much together, read so many great books and short stories, and improve our writing skills. I'm excited to get started! A little bit about me: I am from Layton, Utah and will be graduating in English Teaching from BYU in April 2010 I'm engaged and will be getting married in December so wedding planning is keeping me pretty busy :), and I went on a study abroad last summer to London and was able to go to Paris for a weekend. The picture to the left was taken at a cafe in Paris drinking hot cocoa. It was an amazing experience that I'll never forget (the whole study abroad - not just drinking cocoa).

I have always loved to read and write, which helped me decide to become an English teacher. Another thing that influenced my decision to teach English was my ninth grade English teacher Mrs. Workman. She was phenomenal! She made English fun and accessible and something that my peers and I looked forward to. I hope to do that with you this year and to get you excited about reading, writing, and communicating your ideas! Communication and critical thinking skills learned in English will help you in any career you choose.

This website is where you can go to see what we'll be doing in class each day and what assignments I've posted. This is also where I'll post questions for discussion so you can voice your opinion on the things we're talking about in class. Also, this website is a great place to post questions for me about assignments or concepts we've covered in class. I'm looking forward to a great year teaching and getting to know you better!

School Calendar

Diamond Fork Junior High School Location and Map

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Teacher Tube Video Analyses

The first video I watched on Teacher Tube one about Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." It was made by a student by the sound of it and was basically an overview of different literary devices Poe uses in the poem. Here's the link to the video if you're interested. I liked how the creator only used a few images and background music to supplement her voice over about the process Poe went through when writing the poem. She had a picture of Poe, a picture of the word "Nevermore" in the shape of a raven, and a still shot from The Simpson's parody of "The Raven" (so she didn't use more than 5 from the same artist). She also had background instrumental music. I don't think she violated copyright laws blatantly because she didn't have two-and-half minutes of a popular song playing (and could have gotten the background music from a site like Free Play Music). However, even though the images she used were only supplemental and not excessive, she didn't cite any of her sources. If she had included a references list or works cited page at the end I don't think she would have violated any copyright laws at all except by using the still shot from The Simpson's episode - somehow I don't think that qualifies as fair use but I'm not sure.

The second video I watched was one about Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." Here's the link for it. I really liked this video a lot - it was a really creative way to discuss different interpretations of the poem. It was basically an animation (for lack of a better word - check it out to see what I'm talking about) showing a forest with two separate paths and a traveler trying to decide which one to take. It also included an image of the poem in its entirety which is okay because the poem is less than 250 words (144 to be exact). I don't think they violated any copyright laws because the animating all seemed to be done by whoever made the movie and did the voice over. The only copyright laws I can think that the creator may have violated depends on if they got the animation from another source and didn't cite it.

My Google Reader Experience

So I'm new to the whole Google Reader thing but already I've found that it's a great way to stay in touch with what other people are saying about education and technology. I like how Google Reader sets up everything so it's really easy to see the new posts from your different feeds - sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed trying to keep up with different people's blogs and suggestions (even though I'm sure they're great) and I like how Google Reader organizes it and makes it a little more accessible. So far I'm connected with the Edu-Blogger (Brother West's blog), Web-logged, and two feeds about using technology in an English classroom (already I've gotten some good tips about using webcams or podcasts in class projects). I'm also connected to my group members' blogs will make it easier to see what things they discover. I'm excited to get better at using Google Reader because I think one of the greatest resources we have as teachers is other teachers' ideas, suggestions, comments, etc.

Inspiring Quotation

Here is a quotation from President David O. McKay that I absolutely love about the importance of teaching. It's on a plaque in the McKay Building so you may have happened to see it at some point.

"I think it must be apparent to every thinking mind that the noblest of all professions is that of teaching, and that upon the effectiveness of that teaching hangs the destiny of nations." - David O. McKay

Sometimes I feel like people look down on teachers as taking the easy way out somehow - like deciding to teach is a cop-out profession. I like how this quotation expresses how important it is for society to have good teachers. It reassures me that what I'm doing is worthwhile (although I may still get scorned by students from other "more impressive" majors).

Background with Technology and Goals...

I have always liked working with and being on computers. I'm no computer wizard by any means but I have worked in the computer labs at BYU for barely over a year now and through working there and going through the training I have become more familiar with Microsoft programs and better at trouble-shooting computers. I've also had experience learning new technology tools for teaching inmy TMA 457 class (about integrating media and teaching in English and Theater classes). So I'm excited to learn more skills in this class to use while I teach! I think technology has opened so many doors in teaching and has given us new opportunities to open our students' minds. My goals for this semester include learning about and mastering programs I've never worked with that I could use as a teacher and improving my computer skills in general. I'm excited to learn about useful and fun programs that I've never been introduced to before.

Experimenting with Gadgets

Welcome to my IP&T 286 Blogsite! I'm excited to blog about the things I learn in this class and to get better at navigating blogger. I've created some blogs before (for other class assignments) and so I know the basics of blogger but I decided to experiment with adding some gadgets to my blog to make it a little more exciting. (Also, on the blogging rubric Rick said it would be a good thing to add gadgets to make our blogs a little more personal). Anyway, the first gadget I added was a picture of my fiance and me, I also added lists of other websites I like to visit, links to other blogs, a poll, and an "about me" section. I hope those additions made my blog a little more fun and help you get to know me a little better!