Reflective Letter
Writing:
Throughout the semester, I did a lot of writing within each project. They were fairly equal in the writing department. However, the Twitterive was the hardest project to put together. At first, I didn’t think I’d have to write a lot with it, but then it became clear that I had to show a connection that I had with Carmen in the Twitterive. I specifically wrote out various conversations between me and her to make sure my audience read how connected I was with her during Christmas. My first draft was just a plain layout of what I thought was good. I also realized that my organization was off with my Twitterive too. I was confused on how to begin and end the story. Within my Twitterive, I moved the videos around. For instance, the memorial video was at the beginning, but it fit better at the end to sum up Carmen’s life. Once I received feedback and various ideas, I began to revise my entire story. The list of revisions are as follows:
1. To have more dialogue within the story itself. I want to add more dialogue between Carmen and I so that I can show the reader our connection during Christmas morning.
2. Make more of a flashback with Christmas Eve (since she always helped me put out the gifts under the tree for my family). I'll definitely add more showing this scene since I forgot to add this.
3. Enhance the popcorn photo, but make a short scene out of it explaining the significance it has on me connecting to Carmen.
4. I'm going to try and find a Christmas song for the beginning of the story to get the reader in the "Christmas spirit."
5. I want to mix in some happiness as well.
6. I'll most likely take out the quote at the end since it's not really needed for the story, but I might leave it.
7. I'm going to keep my ending but switch it up a bit by adding more dialogue between Carmen and I saying goodbye to one another (like a last conversation).
8. I'll try to end it with the song, "Silent Night" to close everything out.
From there, I did a lot of blogging and responses to others. At first, I didn’t think blogging was so great because I was always confused on how long it should be or how in depth. Throughout the semester, blog responses definitely added to my participation because in class I don’t like to participate much. However, online I enjoyed reading other classmates blogs and responding to them. While reading other blogs, I felt like I understood some of the readings more because they had great ideas too. Part of the contract was to consistantly blog twice each week. I was always up to date with blogging because I felt that after I read an assigned reading, I needed to blog about it right after. I admit I didn't respond to other blogs as much as I should have. However, towards the last month of class, I did try my best to respond to a lot of blogs. I figured they helped me, now it''s my turn to help them. Blogging helped me in class because if there was a question about an assigned reading, my blog was right there on Weebly to help me.
In each assignment, a variety of genres were used. I tried to mix it up since it gets too boring if you don’t. For instance, my Twitterive had multiple YouTube videos to set the Christmas mood, show Carmen’s memorial, as well as ending it with “Silent Night.” I even got to add in multiple photos for my Twitterive to make it stand out. My collaborative and oral history projects both had multiple genres too. Each had a variety of photos and audio (from recording the interview). It was tough to find various photos for my Twitterive because I didn't know which ones to choose. As time went on, I found myself taking pictures and uploading them to make my Twitterive better. It was a matter of organizing how the genres were going to look in my Twitterive.
1. To have more dialogue within the story itself. I want to add more dialogue between Carmen and I so that I can show the reader our connection during Christmas morning.
2. Make more of a flashback with Christmas Eve (since she always helped me put out the gifts under the tree for my family). I'll definitely add more showing this scene since I forgot to add this.
3. Enhance the popcorn photo, but make a short scene out of it explaining the significance it has on me connecting to Carmen.
4. I'm going to try and find a Christmas song for the beginning of the story to get the reader in the "Christmas spirit."
5. I want to mix in some happiness as well.
6. I'll most likely take out the quote at the end since it's not really needed for the story, but I might leave it.
7. I'm going to keep my ending but switch it up a bit by adding more dialogue between Carmen and I saying goodbye to one another (like a last conversation).
8. I'll try to end it with the song, "Silent Night" to close everything out.
From there, I did a lot of blogging and responses to others. At first, I didn’t think blogging was so great because I was always confused on how long it should be or how in depth. Throughout the semester, blog responses definitely added to my participation because in class I don’t like to participate much. However, online I enjoyed reading other classmates blogs and responding to them. While reading other blogs, I felt like I understood some of the readings more because they had great ideas too. Part of the contract was to consistantly blog twice each week. I was always up to date with blogging because I felt that after I read an assigned reading, I needed to blog about it right after. I admit I didn't respond to other blogs as much as I should have. However, towards the last month of class, I did try my best to respond to a lot of blogs. I figured they helped me, now it''s my turn to help them. Blogging helped me in class because if there was a question about an assigned reading, my blog was right there on Weebly to help me.
In each assignment, a variety of genres were used. I tried to mix it up since it gets too boring if you don’t. For instance, my Twitterive had multiple YouTube videos to set the Christmas mood, show Carmen’s memorial, as well as ending it with “Silent Night.” I even got to add in multiple photos for my Twitterive to make it stand out. My collaborative and oral history projects both had multiple genres too. Each had a variety of photos and audio (from recording the interview). It was tough to find various photos for my Twitterive because I didn't know which ones to choose. As time went on, I found myself taking pictures and uploading them to make my Twitterive better. It was a matter of organizing how the genres were going to look in my Twitterive.
Research:
Research turned out to be harder than I thought for this class. I always knew what had to be done, but it was sometimes tough since our time was always limited. For instance, my oral history project needed an interview. I knew who I needed to interview, but I had to re-arrange my schedule to fit hers. In the end, I got the interview done, but it wasn’t so easy to schedule. The interview helped significantly towards my collaborative project too. My collaborative project researched to see if school lunches are healthier than McDonald’s. After interviewing, my partner and I came to the conclusion that school lunches are healthier than McDonald’s. Since Carmen Angelotti worked in a school cafeteria for 32 years, she provided a lot of information in helping us find an answer to our research question.
The Internet was a significant help me get through class. I basically researched everything on the Internet considering how much I use it every day to access information. The Internet really helped me collect information on my collaborative research project too. It was nice to know that the sites/sources I found really helped me out.
The biggest source that made me want to research schools and McDonald's was the movie, Food Inc. After watching this horrific film, I wrote a blog entry to show how I felt about it.
(11/17/11)
"After watching Food Inc, I was shocked at how America produces and distributes food to consumers. We eat these almost everyday and never think about where our food comes from. All we see is a nice packaged item with a price tag. From there I was amazed at how some workers are treated horribly because most of them are minorities. They probably don’t want to work in those conditions, but it’s the only way they can make money. I think that the managers and owners of these companies are disgusting. I don’t understand how they can sleep at night knowing that they’re going to wake up and slaughter animals. I understand it’s their job, but they’re so barbaric about it.
As much as I love food, it’s kind of difficult to look at anything the same. Just watching people eat fast food disgusts me more (not that I never do either). But there are some people who eat fast food everyday. That is gross. You look at these fast food giants such as Mcdonalds and wonder why they’re so cheap. From watching this film, I understand now.
The main thing I got from this film was that these companies don’t care about their workers, animals, or even consumers. All they care about is profit. Money is what drives them since they don’t care about anything else. They’ll do anything it takes to make a profit even if it’s a dark secret that nobody knows."
The Internet was a significant help me get through class. I basically researched everything on the Internet considering how much I use it every day to access information. The Internet really helped me collect information on my collaborative research project too. It was nice to know that the sites/sources I found really helped me out.
The biggest source that made me want to research schools and McDonald's was the movie, Food Inc. After watching this horrific film, I wrote a blog entry to show how I felt about it.
(11/17/11)
"After watching Food Inc, I was shocked at how America produces and distributes food to consumers. We eat these almost everyday and never think about where our food comes from. All we see is a nice packaged item with a price tag. From there I was amazed at how some workers are treated horribly because most of them are minorities. They probably don’t want to work in those conditions, but it’s the only way they can make money. I think that the managers and owners of these companies are disgusting. I don’t understand how they can sleep at night knowing that they’re going to wake up and slaughter animals. I understand it’s their job, but they’re so barbaric about it.
As much as I love food, it’s kind of difficult to look at anything the same. Just watching people eat fast food disgusts me more (not that I never do either). But there are some people who eat fast food everyday. That is gross. You look at these fast food giants such as Mcdonalds and wonder why they’re so cheap. From watching this film, I understand now.
The main thing I got from this film was that these companies don’t care about their workers, animals, or even consumers. All they care about is profit. Money is what drives them since they don’t care about anything else. They’ll do anything it takes to make a profit even if it’s a dark secret that nobody knows."
Technology:
Twitter:
(9/12/11)
"Twitter hasn't always been my favorite social media site, but I got the hang of it last fall. Last fall, I took intro to writing arts where I was first introduced to Twitter. The one section in this class, I had to use Twitter to take notes, follow fellow classmates, and sometimes just tweet about anything that was on my mind. If it wasn't for certain classes making it mandatory to use, I would never join Twitter.
First off, I honestly hate socializing through Twitter because I don't need the whole world knowing about what I do every second of my day/night. Same thing with not caring about what others are doing every second of their day/night. I hated knowing that people were "following" my every move. In my head, I think Twitter is just for fun and have nothing to do. I think the people who voluntarily use Twitter for their own needs, have no life. I can understand tweeting a few times a day, but if you're updating it all day, you clearly have no life.
From all my experiences with using Twitter, I see it to only be essential in education (notes from class, following classmates and teachers). In intro to writing arts, I saw that it was helpful for students, including myself, because we all wanted good grades. Therefore, we all spoke about class to make sure we were all on the same page constantly. Other than that, I still think Twitter is pointless."
Aftermath: Now that I have used Twitter more than I ever thought, it wasn’t SO bad towards the end of this semester. I realized that it’s useful if you need someone’s advice quicker than a typical e-mail. I enjoyed using Twitter to help me understand what I was going to write about for the Twitterive. I tried to tweet about anything and my Twitterive finally came into play. Twitter was still easy to use, but it’s not one of my favorite uses of technology.
Blogging:
(9/12/11)
"In contrast to Twitter, I enjoy blogging much more. The reason being is that I feel like when I blog, it's essential to everyday life. However, Twitter feels like anything can be posted, regardless of how stupid it is. Blogging for me is a fun and interesting way of getting my views on interests to others around the world.
I can't say that I dislike blogging because if I'm assigned to blog, it's fine with me. The best part about blogging is that sometimes I would do some research to get my points across. I love how when you blog, you can always be creative with whatever you're writing about. For example, if I have to blog about my favorite animal, I would post links and photos of tigers in the post. It shows that you care about what you're blogging about compared to just writing words all the time.
My experience with blogging has be good so far. I was introduced to it in intro to writing arts. In the second module, I had to learn about Tumblr. At first, I wasn't sure I'd like it, but it turned out it was more fun than I thought. Like I said, blogging can be very creative, which is why Tumblr at the time was really fun. I put so many photos, links, tags, etc. in each post. It was fun to show my followers my views on certain topics were. Using Tumblr, I got to sometimes blog about anything that was on my mind. It was almost like a stress reliever when I had something to say. Tumblr let me talk about anything I wanted to, but in a more academic way (not just in 140 characters). This is my second time being assigned blogging, so I can't say too much about it. In the end, I wouldn't use blogging again because I feel it isn't that important to use in my daily life other than for academics."
The most obvious piece of technology used throughout the semester was Weebly. Weebly was introduced to my last fall, but I never used it to this extent. I always thought Weebly was just a fun site to make a project. It turned out that it was a great piece of technology to show your audience that you can make a difference just by simply blogging an idea or creating a Twitterive. Weebly helped me get my ideas out on the Internet for the world to see (if they choose to access my site). Weebly was only difficult when it was the beginning of the semester because I never set up an actual website. After a few weeks, Weebly turned out to enjoyable to use and organize my ideas.
For the oral history project, my partner and I used a digital audio recorder. It was fairly easy to set the recorder up and make sure it caught the words being said. However, uploading the interview to Weebly started out difficult. I had no idea how to upload it until I stumbled upon SoundCloud. SoundCloud was a very simply way of reformatting your recorded audio to Weebly. All I did was upload the interview file on SoundCloud and it made it into a simple click and play format. I definitely recommend SoundCloud to anyone uploading recorded audio to their website.
Finally, for my collaborative project, I used Prezi. Prezi is one of the most enjoyable ways I’ve ever had in making a collaborative research project. It’s enjoyable because of how entertaining it is in the end. My partner and I had a blast putting it together because in the end, it turned out to be so interactive with the audience. Prezi helped us organize our project in such a different way other than the typical research paper or powerpoint. I’ve used Prezi in a couple other classes this semester, but it was the most useful in this class. When you have a lot of information needed to be organized for a class presentation, Prezi is the way to go! Prezi had it’s moments where it was being stubborn (like any technology). However, it was one of the best choices we made in showing writing, research, and technology.
(9/12/11)
"Twitter hasn't always been my favorite social media site, but I got the hang of it last fall. Last fall, I took intro to writing arts where I was first introduced to Twitter. The one section in this class, I had to use Twitter to take notes, follow fellow classmates, and sometimes just tweet about anything that was on my mind. If it wasn't for certain classes making it mandatory to use, I would never join Twitter.
First off, I honestly hate socializing through Twitter because I don't need the whole world knowing about what I do every second of my day/night. Same thing with not caring about what others are doing every second of their day/night. I hated knowing that people were "following" my every move. In my head, I think Twitter is just for fun and have nothing to do. I think the people who voluntarily use Twitter for their own needs, have no life. I can understand tweeting a few times a day, but if you're updating it all day, you clearly have no life.
From all my experiences with using Twitter, I see it to only be essential in education (notes from class, following classmates and teachers). In intro to writing arts, I saw that it was helpful for students, including myself, because we all wanted good grades. Therefore, we all spoke about class to make sure we were all on the same page constantly. Other than that, I still think Twitter is pointless."
Aftermath: Now that I have used Twitter more than I ever thought, it wasn’t SO bad towards the end of this semester. I realized that it’s useful if you need someone’s advice quicker than a typical e-mail. I enjoyed using Twitter to help me understand what I was going to write about for the Twitterive. I tried to tweet about anything and my Twitterive finally came into play. Twitter was still easy to use, but it’s not one of my favorite uses of technology.
Blogging:
(9/12/11)
"In contrast to Twitter, I enjoy blogging much more. The reason being is that I feel like when I blog, it's essential to everyday life. However, Twitter feels like anything can be posted, regardless of how stupid it is. Blogging for me is a fun and interesting way of getting my views on interests to others around the world.
I can't say that I dislike blogging because if I'm assigned to blog, it's fine with me. The best part about blogging is that sometimes I would do some research to get my points across. I love how when you blog, you can always be creative with whatever you're writing about. For example, if I have to blog about my favorite animal, I would post links and photos of tigers in the post. It shows that you care about what you're blogging about compared to just writing words all the time.
My experience with blogging has be good so far. I was introduced to it in intro to writing arts. In the second module, I had to learn about Tumblr. At first, I wasn't sure I'd like it, but it turned out it was more fun than I thought. Like I said, blogging can be very creative, which is why Tumblr at the time was really fun. I put so many photos, links, tags, etc. in each post. It was fun to show my followers my views on certain topics were. Using Tumblr, I got to sometimes blog about anything that was on my mind. It was almost like a stress reliever when I had something to say. Tumblr let me talk about anything I wanted to, but in a more academic way (not just in 140 characters). This is my second time being assigned blogging, so I can't say too much about it. In the end, I wouldn't use blogging again because I feel it isn't that important to use in my daily life other than for academics."
The most obvious piece of technology used throughout the semester was Weebly. Weebly was introduced to my last fall, but I never used it to this extent. I always thought Weebly was just a fun site to make a project. It turned out that it was a great piece of technology to show your audience that you can make a difference just by simply blogging an idea or creating a Twitterive. Weebly helped me get my ideas out on the Internet for the world to see (if they choose to access my site). Weebly was only difficult when it was the beginning of the semester because I never set up an actual website. After a few weeks, Weebly turned out to enjoyable to use and organize my ideas.
For the oral history project, my partner and I used a digital audio recorder. It was fairly easy to set the recorder up and make sure it caught the words being said. However, uploading the interview to Weebly started out difficult. I had no idea how to upload it until I stumbled upon SoundCloud. SoundCloud was a very simply way of reformatting your recorded audio to Weebly. All I did was upload the interview file on SoundCloud and it made it into a simple click and play format. I definitely recommend SoundCloud to anyone uploading recorded audio to their website.
Finally, for my collaborative project, I used Prezi. Prezi is one of the most enjoyable ways I’ve ever had in making a collaborative research project. It’s enjoyable because of how entertaining it is in the end. My partner and I had a blast putting it together because in the end, it turned out to be so interactive with the audience. Prezi helped us organize our project in such a different way other than the typical research paper or powerpoint. I’ve used Prezi in a couple other classes this semester, but it was the most useful in this class. When you have a lot of information needed to be organized for a class presentation, Prezi is the way to go! Prezi had it’s moments where it was being stubborn (like any technology). However, it was one of the best choices we made in showing writing, research, and technology.