Keyboarding
In 5th grade they sat us down in the computer lab behind the library to learn how to type. We stared at a black screen with white text. Now that I think about it that was really advanced typing then. We had wooden boards over our keys so we couldn't see our hands while we were typing. I cheated and slouched back in my chair to see the letters on the keys under the board. This computer program wouldn't let us use the backspace key. If we made a mistake it would simply turn red and beep at us. Our goal was speed and accuracy. We were timed and they reported our words per minute progress. I was never very good at keyboarding, especially when they asked us to use the numbers above the letters. To this day I still use the number keys on the right, seems more efficient. That was probably one of the only writing endeavors that I failed.
I'm not really sure how the other students mastered it so easily. Maybe they had more practice or maybe they paid more attention. I just couldn't understand why whoever developed the keyboard didn't put them in alphabetical order. I couldn't remember which letters were where. I couldn't find home on the keyboard and my fingers always seemed to wonder across the board. My peers taught me that the home keys were indicated by a little bump on the F and J for my index fingers to feel. Whoever thought of that was a genius!
When I began using the computer more and doing social networking with my friends online I was typing like a madwoman. I sent many emails and was always using Instant Messaging on aol. I would chat with all my friends from school and make new friends who I never met before. I began to look up from the keyboard as i typed faster and more efficiently. I wanted to write as fast as I was thinking so I could keep up with conversations.
I'm not really sure how the other students mastered it so easily. Maybe they had more practice or maybe they paid more attention. I just couldn't understand why whoever developed the keyboard didn't put them in alphabetical order. I couldn't remember which letters were where. I couldn't find home on the keyboard and my fingers always seemed to wonder across the board. My peers taught me that the home keys were indicated by a little bump on the F and J for my index fingers to feel. Whoever thought of that was a genius!
When I began using the computer more and doing social networking with my friends online I was typing like a madwoman. I sent many emails and was always using Instant Messaging on aol. I would chat with all my friends from school and make new friends who I never met before. I began to look up from the keyboard as i typed faster and more efficiently. I wanted to write as fast as I was thinking so I could keep up with conversations.
Learning Cursive
Dear Mrs. Meyers,
I teach your daughter Cassandra’s 3rd grade class at Lake Center Elementary. I have noticed some developments in Cassandra’s education recently that I wanted to make you aware of. I’ll begin by stating that Cassandra is a bright and inquisitive child. She performs well in class and always asks questions when she needs clarification or is curious. In the beginning of the semester I noticed that Cassandra had strong abilities as a reader. Cassandra overlooked my notebook one day and was capable of reading my cursive handwriting. This is not a skill that I would expect the typical 3rd grader to be capable of considering we have not yet covered this in class. I praised her ability and asked how she learned to do so. She responded that she recognized it as bad hand writing similar to her brother’s. We have recently begun to study cursive handwriting in our class and I am concerned that Cassandra is having difficulty with this unit. She continues to rely on the lined format and does not utilize her space well. Cassandra has the ability to successfully read cursive and I would like her to become more proficient in her writing. I am hoping that you will take some time to sit down with Cassandra and practice her cursive hand writing. Some techniques that you may consider utilizing are asking Cassandra to write a daily journal entry in cursive, model cursive hand writing or expose her to the reasons for efficient cursive writing. Exposure to cursive outside of the classroom will offer Cassandra extra practice time and make her more familiar with the material. Thank you for your assistance and I will be sure to update you on Cassandra’s progress in my class.
Mrs. Shockley
I teach your daughter Cassandra’s 3rd grade class at Lake Center Elementary. I have noticed some developments in Cassandra’s education recently that I wanted to make you aware of. I’ll begin by stating that Cassandra is a bright and inquisitive child. She performs well in class and always asks questions when she needs clarification or is curious. In the beginning of the semester I noticed that Cassandra had strong abilities as a reader. Cassandra overlooked my notebook one day and was capable of reading my cursive handwriting. This is not a skill that I would expect the typical 3rd grader to be capable of considering we have not yet covered this in class. I praised her ability and asked how she learned to do so. She responded that she recognized it as bad hand writing similar to her brother’s. We have recently begun to study cursive handwriting in our class and I am concerned that Cassandra is having difficulty with this unit. She continues to rely on the lined format and does not utilize her space well. Cassandra has the ability to successfully read cursive and I would like her to become more proficient in her writing. I am hoping that you will take some time to sit down with Cassandra and practice her cursive hand writing. Some techniques that you may consider utilizing are asking Cassandra to write a daily journal entry in cursive, model cursive hand writing or expose her to the reasons for efficient cursive writing. Exposure to cursive outside of the classroom will offer Cassandra extra practice time and make her more familiar with the material. Thank you for your assistance and I will be sure to update you on Cassandra’s progress in my class.
Mrs. Shockley
My First A
In 8th grade I was assigned to write a story in Mr. Bratherton’s class. This was my last Language Arts class that I took outside of an honors or IB program. This class was not too challenging and I excelled above many other students. Because of this status in my Language Arts class I felt a need to perform highly and exceed expectations. Other students in my class struggled with things that I had mastered. There were many distractions and much misbehavior. The instructor seemed take it easy and cared a lot less then some of my other instructors. I’m not sure that I belonged in this class.
At this stage in my writing I was particularly fond of fan fiction stories like those exploring the undocumented lives of the Harry Potter Characters. I thought I could be a breakout adolescent author. I made a significant effort to write a book about a young girl who lived in suburban Hawaii and fell in love with a boy who rode a motorbike. This effort was quickly abandoned and I realized that my dreams were a joke. It turns out I’m not as creative as I thought.I learned about fan fiction from my friend Kayla. She was very creative and explored many ways of making herself known. She tried to teach me a ghost class where we would learn about different types of ghosts and how to sense them. We wrote scripts for video-taped shows or movies that even included commercials.
For this assignment I decided to write a mystery. I actually hate mystery stories, but I wanted to explore another avenue and I thought this would make my teacher very interested. If I could entertain my teacher maybe I would get a better grade. I wrote about a crime at the museum. Someone had stolen an ancient artifact and there were several suspects. It ended up being misplaced by the loony janitor and the story had a happy ending. I made an effort to write with suspense and detail. I wanted this to be the best story I had ever written.
This was the first A I ever received on my writing. My teacher put a nice clean A on the front and wrote “great story!” with no reservations, no comments and no response. I was thrilled with myself because I had finally written something that couldn’t be any better.
Now that I look back on that as a prospective teacher I realize that he probably should have responded because that story wasn’t as good as it could have been. However, I did really need to see that A. It boosted my ego and encouraged me to participate in honors and IB English classes. If I hadn’t of had that encouragement I would not have explored English as a viable career option and would not have further developed my writing skills.
At this stage in my writing I was particularly fond of fan fiction stories like those exploring the undocumented lives of the Harry Potter Characters. I thought I could be a breakout adolescent author. I made a significant effort to write a book about a young girl who lived in suburban Hawaii and fell in love with a boy who rode a motorbike. This effort was quickly abandoned and I realized that my dreams were a joke. It turns out I’m not as creative as I thought.I learned about fan fiction from my friend Kayla. She was very creative and explored many ways of making herself known. She tried to teach me a ghost class where we would learn about different types of ghosts and how to sense them. We wrote scripts for video-taped shows or movies that even included commercials.
For this assignment I decided to write a mystery. I actually hate mystery stories, but I wanted to explore another avenue and I thought this would make my teacher very interested. If I could entertain my teacher maybe I would get a better grade. I wrote about a crime at the museum. Someone had stolen an ancient artifact and there were several suspects. It ended up being misplaced by the loony janitor and the story had a happy ending. I made an effort to write with suspense and detail. I wanted this to be the best story I had ever written.
This was the first A I ever received on my writing. My teacher put a nice clean A on the front and wrote “great story!” with no reservations, no comments and no response. I was thrilled with myself because I had finally written something that couldn’t be any better.
Now that I look back on that as a prospective teacher I realize that he probably should have responded because that story wasn’t as good as it could have been. However, I did really need to see that A. It boosted my ego and encouraged me to participate in honors and IB English classes. If I hadn’t of had that encouragement I would not have explored English as a viable career option and would not have further developed my writing skills.
Writing for SchoolIn school we were assigned to write argumentative, comparison or other persuasive papers. Papers that required the standard 5 piece format:
Introduction & Thesis 1 Main Point 2 Main Point 3 Main Point Conclusion These papers were merely assignments fulfilled for the satisfaction of a grade. I was never encouraged to invest myself in my writing in a real way. Of course teachers have asked me to write about things that I cared about or choose something I am interested in, but it was always for the purpose of satisfying a lesson. I never took it to the next level, because I felt that would be inappropriate or unappreciated, god forbid, ignored. I never felt safe enough to share my thoughts or emotions nor was I asked to. My teachers never seemed to accept their student’s expression and individual efforts. I suppose that if we are to ask our students to be writers we must allow them to truly write. We cannot apply ourselves as writers unless we are allowed to utilize our writing for our own advantage. |
HomeworkOften times in school teachers seems to just assign homework to give us something to do. Its like some unspoken rule of the teachers that they must assign homework every night no matter what. In math we would receive repetitive worksheet to practice formulas. In science we would be given a chart and we were asked to identify parts of a neuron. Language Arts teachers would ask us to perform fill in the blank or matching vocabulary worksheets. All these exercises seemed pointless and predictable. They were busy work for students to perform for a feeble 5 points. The idea was that as long as the student was thinking about the subject and working with it that they must be enhancing their knowledge on it. But the truth was that these worksheets were forgotten as quickly as they were accomplished.
The most effective form of homework that I have encountered was offered in a select few classrooms, usually and elective such as psychology or an honors course. My teacher would ask me to write a journal and express my thoughts in a subject with support. This required me to invest myself in my education and take a stand. I became passionate about a subject and at times I actually wanted to learn more. Teachers should give their students homework that matters and asks the student to become engaged out of the classroom. |
Grading Creativity
I took a creative writing class in my sophomore year of college. I thought that this would be a good elective choice for an English Major. On the first day of class the instructor spent the first 20 minutes telling us how useless this class was and how she really can't grade our work. I was a little confused as to how this class would be taught if we could not be graded. The instructor often spoke poorly of administration and admitted to administering tests out of obligation. She was very real with us which was actually inspiring. A creative writing class almost demands that you be 'real.'
She was a petite woman with a pixie haircut and a the & symbol tattooed on her forearm. She spoke indirectly and sometimes around the point. She was unique and believed that each of us were also unique. I had never thought of myself as being unique, I am about as average as it gets. I began my creative writing by telling stories and trying to be more adventurous to attract appeal. She quickly shot that down. We were instructed to provide more sensory information and to write about things that would not normally be considered creative or appealing, like trash and how it smells :). Creative writing does not have a format, which took me out of my comfort zone. I would not say that I was great in this class, but I did receive an A for effort and understanding.
She was a petite woman with a pixie haircut and a the & symbol tattooed on her forearm. She spoke indirectly and sometimes around the point. She was unique and believed that each of us were also unique. I had never thought of myself as being unique, I am about as average as it gets. I began my creative writing by telling stories and trying to be more adventurous to attract appeal. She quickly shot that down. We were instructed to provide more sensory information and to write about things that would not normally be considered creative or appealing, like trash and how it smells :). Creative writing does not have a format, which took me out of my comfort zone. I would not say that I was great in this class, but I did receive an A for effort and understanding.