Inspired by an Earthworm

Apology to a Worm
While Fishing on Reed’s Crick

You wriggle (with an r, as only a worm can do)
hoping your last struggle is to salute Caesar
but my thumbs only press you down into the hook.

Mea Culpa.

Your death is inglorious.
You will not battle bass, trout, or even perch
(I know this even as I spear you).

You want to be cast into the river
where the swiftwater will whip you in eddies.
You want a cutthroat to swallow you,
a violent, valiant finale for your earth-eating life.

Instead, I will dangle you from this hook
while I laze in the shade of a cottonwood
and let the breeze blow the canoe upstream.

There are no fish in Reed’s Crick.
Not today, anyway.
I gaze down to the muddy bottom and know your life was in vain.

But how else could I explain why I lay all day in the bottom of a canoe
listening to the crickets and grasshoppers shwishping the grass?

You are my alibi.

The river is much too fast and I would have to cast
over
and
over.

-Katie Suenkel

Digital Short Story

This is an example of a digital short story I created in the class, "Writing for the Digital Age" using Windows Movie Maker and audacity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSsek1n6XHM

Response to "Five Ways to Grow as a Digital Writer"

What happens after "the end" is the focus of chapter 11, "Five Ways to Grow as a Digital Writer". Two of the suggestions, join online communities and create a personal learning network, I've already begun to do through this class. The other three, view and create online teacher cases, conduct teacher action research, and create an e portfolio, I would consider doing in a somewhat limited way. For example, this blog has come to represent a type of e portfolio, a place to think about and record my learning and projects I've created. My goal is to add to this blog--just for myself--as I find more and interesting projects that might be useful. I would like to read about other teacher cases, and as I do more with my classes, I might feel bold enough to contribute to this online learning community. As for teacher action research, it seems as though we all do this informally every day, and this informal action research, combined with the blog reflections, will help me grow in my practice and abilities.

In all, I am more excited than ever about the possibilities for learning and writing with digital technologies. I realize that there is more out there than I will ever be able to fully use, but being able to bring my students' learning into another dimension through web 2.0 technologies will enable me to help my students become full participants in shaping the future. I am excited for what the future holds.

Romeo and Juliet Podcast

This is an example of a podcast created using sound effects from sounddogs.com and audacity. In this podcast, "Dr. Phyllis" interviews Friar Lawrence, The Prince, and the Nurse about who is most to blame for Romeo and Juliet's death. It is hosted on podbean.com at http://katies.podbean.com/

Click below to listen:




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The wordle created below is based from the words on this blog. The most frequently used words appear as the largest. It's an interesting way to really "see" what you're writing about.

To create your own wordle, go to: http://www.wordle.net/

Response to "Fostering Reflection through EPortfolios"

I like the idea of using eportfolios. In Ed401 this year, we had students use first wordpress and then microsoft publisher to create eportfolios that they could then send to their prospective employers. It had limited success. I think this would have been a more powerful tool if students had started it prior to their semester of student teaching so they were familiar with the programs, and then while they were student teaching updated it as they saw fit. Two principals viewed both groups and gave them feedback on each of their portfolios--they were impressed with its ease of use--the teachers could email the principals before the interview, providing a link to the portfolio so the interview committee could see their stuff before or after the interview. One caution, though, was that my principal said it would be better for them NOT to send the eportfolio than send one that was incomplete, difficult to navigate, or unsound in some way. He said that would undermine the credibility of the applicant. So, it can be a powerful tool, but it needs to be well done for it to be effective. Also, it's very important to keep in mind purpose and audience when deciding how to structure it.

I liked the process that Todd Bergman used in Sitka, AK. I think that reflection is extremely important--I can see using this as a final assessment piece in the classroom. I want to look at ChalkandWire eportfolio site and explore its possibilities a little more.

Response to "Using Digital Tools for Formative and Summative Evaluation of Writing"

I have used the formative evaluation writing comment features in my newspaper writing class for several years now and can attest to its power. First, the comment feature enables me to provide sophisticated analysis and suggestions faster because I can type faster than I can physically write, and I can point to the EXACT text I am referring to. Additionally, my comments can easily be absorbed by the student and then X-ed off the page after they consider my thoughts. I really agree with the cautions the authors provide with the focus on providing positive, constructive feedback and limiting ourselves to strategic errors or one or two major ideas (e.g. organization, character development, etc.) It is soooooo easy to overevaluate using the comment feature, and the same horror students had when they received a red, ink-ed-up, bleeding paper from their teacher can occur digitally when we overcomment. I've definitely made this mistake. I've found it's better to focus on one issue at a time, have students resubmit, then focus on another issue. Pretty soon, students start to eliminate that issue in their writing because they get tired of fixing it. I understand that we can edit directly on the students' page, but I abhor that practice because it takes away the students' ownership as author and they don't really learn to fix their own mistakes--it's been done for them. I've found that my editors become "experts" in helping other students with the very mistakes they used to make over and over. Above all, I think it's important to remember that using digital tools does not replace our good judgement and practices as writing teachers. Everything we know to be true about fostering student writers still holds; we just have more and different tools at our disposal to help that fostering. I think it's very important not to lose the student writer in the media we choose to use.

I cannot see myself using the cell phone, IMing and other synchronous systems with my students at this point for two reasons: time and access. I recently read a study that university professors teaching online classes typically spend 20% more time per student than they do in a face-to-face classroom. This is great for the student, but the instructor still needs to make effective use of time. Being available online seems more time-intensive than what I can do at this point. Secondly, because I teach in a rural area with a generally low SES, many of my students do not have access to these technologies at home. I want to focus primarily on how I can help students while they are at school with some options for after-school teacher tutoring, but not to the extent that some students will be greatly advantaged over others.

I also liked the rubric ideas in this chapter and want to look more in-depth at CPR (calibrated peer review (p. 200)). This seems like a great opportunity to help students make good use of rubrics and internalize how they relate to specific writing assignments.