Personal Literacy Story

            I'm back friends!  Time for another update in the exciting life of learning with Miss Lauren.  Let's give a quick shout out to my language prof, Dane, who will be the newest addition to the Little Learner family.  Hey man! So for this update to my digital presence I'm actually going to go back in time in order to visit a piece of my personal literacy history.  We are going to take a trip down memory lane, destination Mrs. Marks' grade two classroom.

Tucker, R. (2015). Compound word day. Twitter.

            This year and this teacher are my absolute favourite memories of my literacy development.  To be a little bit more specific there are two memories that have always stuck with me.  The first was a theme day that Mrs. Marks' had for our room, and that theme was Compound Word Day.  That might not necessarily sound fun but to this day I think it is hilarious and absolutely something I plan on doing in my classroom. For this activity we had one simple goal, come dressed as a compound word.  I remember that faithful day when 25 second graders walked down the hall dressed as everything from peppermints, rattlesnakes, sunflowers, airports, butterflies, and more.  And of course my spectacular outfit HOMEWORK.  Thats right, can you say teacher's pet? And to top it off, Mrs. Marks was wearing the same thing (this is where I would insert the laughing/crying emoji).  I'll never forget sporting that neon pink bristol board with homework problems all over it.  I was very proud of myself to say the least.

            I am not sure why this event specifically has stuck out to me so much over the years but it is

ClipartFest. Get excited clipart. https://clipartfest.com
/download/538da73defa1ded8c15079fd488abc2811d3ef7d.html

something I will never forget.  Maybe it's because it was the first time and one of the only times we made language into something more than just writing on paper.  It was something real, unique, and something I hadn't experienced before.  It doesn't even have to be this activity specifically but anything that challenges students to think outside the box and make them excited.  This event was hugely impactful as a child, I wouldn't necessarily say this event changed the way I looked at writing but more that it added an air of excitement as it demonstrated the different roles language can take.  Looking back now I also recognize the connection to print awareness as well as word recognition as discussed in our class.  Activities such as these aid in the development of early literacy learning by reading familiar words and connecting them to themes it can help to improve fluency and comprehension (Personal communication, Gallagher, October 3, 2016).

            The second event that I distinctly remember taking place in Mrs. Marks' classroom was an incentive reading system.  For each book you read and returned you were given a mark.  At 10 books you were given a fancy pencil, 25 you could pick from a chest of treasures and 50 you got a chocolate

White. E.B. (1970). The trumpet of the
swan. Harper & Row Publishing.

bar.  I know bribery isn't always what you want to introduce to your students but this really introduced a self of motivation for me.  Although it may have started out as an external stimulus the more I read the more I began to shift towards an intrinsic motivation.  This activity wasn't mandatory, we weren't being graded or anything Mrs. Marks just added it an some extra fun.  That year I read more books than anyone else in my entire class and I would absolutely pinpoint it has the year that made me love to read.  I powered through novel after novel until the year was over but thankfully my passion was not.  That following summer was the year I asked my parents to get my a library card.

            This experience inspired me to continue reading and changed who I was doing it for.  It wasn't for my teacher or my parents, I was doing it because it was something that I enjoyed.  I think the key was that I wasn't being forced to do it.  Mrs. Marks' almost tricked us because what started as a bribe brought me down a road of adventures and excitement that I wouldn't have know otherwise.  This is something I feel is a really interesting technique as a teacher. Sure, some students may not develop the same passion that I did but it was still a way to almost trick students into loving something.  As discussed in the course an important aspect in cognitive and socio-cultural development is student's agency.  By allowing students to make the choice to read and engage, as well as bonding through social activities such as compound word day students have the opportunity to learn amongst themselves in support of Vygotsky's social constructivism theory (Personal communication, Gallagher, September 5, 2016). .

Park, B. (1997). Junie B. Jones has a monster
under her bed. Random House Publishing.

            To this day, I read novels at every chance I get.  Not everything may be fully academic to say the least but hey a book is a book.  I often get confused for being obsessed with my cell phone but more often than not I am actually reading a book I have download and simply cannot put down.  One
of my favourite activities that I did frequently in my teaching block was reading novels to my students.  Each time we finished a chapter Junie B. Jones and I heard them protest as I closed the book I couldn't help but laugh as these books were slowly creating life long literacy lovers (say that 10 times fast), just like me.  And for that I have Mrs. Marks to thank!  To further this development a practice that I would like to continue and do more in my next block is having critical literacy discussions.  I feel it will be especially important since my next placement will be in a junior block.  When I was younger I do not feel I took enough time to critically analyze texts or recognize their perspectives in a socio-political context (Personal communication, Gallagher, September 19, 2016). .  I think that choosing novels that inspire these discussions is important in the classroom because it creates not only critical readers but critical citizens as well!

This brings me to the end of memory lane.  Literacy is something that has been important to me for a long time and will continue to impact the way I promote learning in my classroom.  Until next time my Little Learners!  Keep reading!

Genius Hour Update #5

Hello friends.

This is the final update before I post my final Ted Talk and come to the end of my journey.  All and all it's been fun.  I have learned a lot of different songs and I personally feel as though I have improved a lot.  I've included another video of myself playing so you can all get a little glimpse.  It might not seem like there is a huge difference in skill level but this song was a lot more difficult to learn and faster paced than the last one.  I'm pretty excited because the last one I posted I couldn't even play at full speed and this one I can play almost entirely from memory.  Like I said in my last post, the key thing I've taken away is not how to play one specific song but rather than I can always keep improving.  If I had to go back now I would adjust my initial goal for myself from learning to play one song to learning the fundamentals to continue my journey playing.  If I had just stuck to one song I don't think that would have really encapsulated my path to learning the ukulele as a whole and would have ended up as a really boring experience for me.  I'm glad that I changed my practices and although I didn't really reach my goal of being able to stand up and play one simple song, I'm much happier with the result of this passion project!  Hopefully you all enjoy my results as well and maybe it will inspire you to take up a project of your own!  Goodbye for now my little learners!

Genius Hour Update #4

AHHHHHHHHHH! Oh my goodness everyone, we're coming to the end of our Genius Hour journey! With only one week left until my deadline I am interested to finally see my result. I think what I have learned most over the course of my project is that mastering a musical instrument is an ongoing process. I have played a bunch of different songs and continued moving through levels but there is no real end in sight. I can continue challenging myself to learn new songs for the rest of my life which I think is the most exciting realization of this experience. What I am also really enjoying now that I have improved quite a bit is going back and playing songs that I struggled with in earlier levels and finding them easy. I wish I had done a before and after video comparing my first week to my last. Maybe someday I'll attempt to even write my own song but no promises that it will ever surface. My biggest step now is just continuing to practice my chosen song and attempt to master it! Stay tuned for the final result. Keep rocking MLLs!! OH and Happy Halloween!!!

Genius Hour Evaluation

Genius Hour Update #3

Hello old friends,

I feel that it has been too long since we've caught up.  I have been very busy the last few weeks with various teaching conferences and activities.  Last week we had a wonderful Ontario Teachers' Federation information session.  It was the first time all the Brock concurrent and consecutive students have been together in one room together and it was PACKED to say the least.  But back to the topic at hand, my role in the music community.  Ukulele is going well I think.  I think that if I were to keep practicing the same song over and over I would memorize them pretty easily however, I have learned that is not as much fun as moving up through the levels.  For the sake of the project I think on top of leveling up I am going to select one song to also review each time and then use that as my memorized song.  That way I'm still improving at actually learning the broader skill of ukulele but still meeting the goal that I had initially set for myself.  I actually think that to use more than one of the resources I have found, I'm going to pick a Youtube tutorial for my selected song.  Any requests? I was thinking "La Vie En Rose" by Louis Armstrong for all you How I Met Your Mother Fans.  If you are curious about my other artistic adventures pop over the GH Movie Trailer Page and check out my first attempt at playing around with iMovie, naturally my inner drama came out.  Also, I don't think I have mentioned before but I have also created an education twitter account.  The handle is @laurenndann12 so head over and give me a follow for some funny (hopefully) blurbs about my educational journey.  Until next time MLLs.  Keep learning.

Audioboom!

Screenshot from Audioboom.com, October 17, 2016.

The educational resource that I explored was Audioboom, which is a site for podcasts.  I have mixed reactions about this platform.  I do believe that podcasts are a unique way of getting different perspectives into the classroom and allow for students to hear people speak besides their own teacher.  There are plenty of interesting podcasts that discuss and what I enjoy is how the categories are so fast.  You can basically search for any topic or genre and there will be hundreds of podcasts related.  The issue that I found though was being able to narrow the topic further to look for specific themes or idea that you may be discussing in the classroom.  I think that you would really need to do some digging in order to find podcasts that fit with what you would like to discuss in class.  Further, I am not sure that I would allow my students to use this platform by themselves because I cannot find any filter to make sure the content is appropriate for their age level.  If there was a way to create a teacher lock for content I think it could be interesting to set the students loose and see what they are able to find.  I tried a few different searches which all produced really broad results.  To be fair, you can see from the image, my first search was just "ukulele" so the response was vast but i found it difficult to find key words that would narrow the search but still produce results.  For example, I also searched "Canadian Teacher Podcasts" and only 6 posts were found.  I think it would take some time to learn how to navigate the site and learn to sort through what is relevant.  Additionally, I did not realize that you cannot just start creating your own podcast, you actually have to apply to receive one so if that is your intention you might have a bit of a process!

Gamification

Gamification was a really unique and interesting way of learning.  Personally, I am very competitive so I really responded to the idea of being awarded by completing the work and turning the process into a game.  This is definitely a tool that I would use in my classroom, or components of gamification such as reward systems.  I think having this in the classroom is an interesting way of getting students invested in their work because it feels like they are actually getting something out of it.