Our last post! Well, I’ve never really had a blog where I can express myself and where I can fully rant about school shit. In all honesty, this has been very therapeutic for me, and Kim, I’d like to thank you this–for letting us be ourselves and for not taking our voice away as we write what we learn and how those ideas can be applied to our life. I’ve had so much crap going on with school, and sometimes I find things so ridiculous that I just don’t try put in that much effort. Like for example, I had to do this poetry scansion thing for one class, and I don’t know shit about meters or feet so I tried, but it wasn’t my best work. So…now I’m like…”well, if it’s not going to help me, why would I sacrifice stuff like eating to teach myself how to do this?” I actually had this uber driver tell me that he’s never been the school-type guy, and he said, “Why would you even waste so much money on tuition if you have to go home and teach yourself what your paying the teacher to teach you?” I swear that was like a slap in the face…lol, but anyway….back to things that I actually want to do and care about.

I didn’t have a clue on what I wanted to do with this project. Actually, before I read Ginamarie’s post, I was thinking about baking something, but then Kim said something about someone else doing that, so I was like, ok nope! But I started to think that I didn’t want to do this alone–I wanted to create something with someone else, and I asked my group if they wanted to partner up. As a result, Heather and I are going to do a podcast–and that excites me. I’ve only done a podcast once, and when I did it, I was happy with the result. It’s always fun hearing it too, just because you mess up and you hear your mistake and you laugh a lot. It’s good. What we’re talking about is still a mystery. We didn’t get to talk about it that much, but I know that it’ll be good.

 

In all utter honesty, this is me trying to comprehend multimodal. I get that this is out-of-the-box thinking with projects that allows people to grasp the concept more. It’s more than just writing, I think. It involves using your senses, plus writing and images that just blows your mind away. It always leaves one questioning how that person was able to come up with all that stuff in the first place. Shipka did a really good job at describing the different examples students used as a multimodal. What Shipka says is that there has to be a goal to be achieved. I don’t remember if Kim showed us this website, though I do remember the video from the guy.

Introduction and how to use this resource

From what I’ve explored overall, I’ve seen that multimodal is anything. I was a bit confused as to how exactly an essay can be a multimodal, but I can see that it is. Shipka says “To better understand the role these detailed accounts of goals and choices play in a multimodal, task-based framework, it may be helpful to compare them to the practice of asking students to underline their thesis statements prior to handing in a completed essay.” There are also various steps that has to be taken, and also setting the important structures such as rhetorical contexts, goals, and purposes. I think those are the complications as well–coming up with the proper goals without overflowing all the ideas. I know that when I start a project, I exaggerate and claim that I was this and that with a side of pasta and ice cream sundaes. It’s an exciting thing when you have so many ideas but the point is only focusing on one, and I think that’s what makes it complicated.

This isn’t just about being artistic or creative, but a way to get your point across in an unforgettable way. I remember a project I did in 7th grade where the science teacher asked us to replicate the cell. People used clay and other used food. I carved the cell out in a styrofoam, and the nucleus was made of a little styrofoam that was detached from the rest of the carving. It was lovely, and it was painted and I won the prize of a test pass. And my brother is actually taking that very same class right now, and the teachers used my cell as an example. So I think it’s just one of those things where you make something that people will be really impressed with. It’s a good way to make these things to teach something unforgettable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn Daniel. Back at it again with them blogs.

Anyways, ahem.  When I watched the Kress videos, I thought a lot about our need for the different modes. As humans, we would never be able to just rely on words. We need movement. Our brains are wired to be attentive with many patterns and colors and sensitivity. I thought about our needs for things like that…and when Kress said something about how words are like broken sentences, like stopping mid-sentence and trying to guess what the other part said, I thought how very true it was. As I commented on Heather’s post (which was pretty great), I really correlated what I learned in psychology about the cognitive aspect, to what Kress explained. The different things that we need, the visuals, the auditory tools, our taste and our touch–those are all aspects that I think should be presented when it comes to composing a multimodal.

I like to see things that are typically outside the box. But when it comes to me doing them…eh. My mom’s the creative one, and she does so many beautiful projects. She decorates the house with a lot of things, and for most of my projects, she and my dad always helped me. Unfortunately they never passed down those creative genes to me. But in all honesty, I know that there has to be something in the back of my mind that would even surprise me.

See, I like words, but I like imagery, and so books are amazing to me, and I really don’t need pictures because I imagine everything in my head. Hence, why I never put pics on my blogs. I know, how boring. However, I do crave moments where I want to hear what I’m analyzing, so I look at videos. I did create a podcast last year about kids who work around the world, and I specifically focused mine on kids who have to dig up jewels to make jewelry. I’ve done graphs, but that perhaps have been the most minimal of all areas. I have done fun science projects, with the help of my dad. Sigh. Clearly, I’m not that independent.

However, I’m excited to learn more about what we’re going to be doing. It’s scary because I put myself in a close-minded place where I don’t think I’m capable of doing anything that creative. Which sucks because everyone is very creative and they come up with these genius plans where fairies can suddenly fly, and I’m here feeling like Thumbelina and wondering where my wings be at.

Fun stuff.

 

 

 

Jon Snow is pretty wise, and he knows shit. I, on the other hand, am so lost with this “What I know So far” assignment. Ok, in all honestly, I haven’t even thought much about it because I have 2 essays that I have to work on this weekend, and I have other stuff that I’m concerned about–I’ve been ignoring my responsibilities because I’m tired of feeling like a zombie. Fun stuff.

I can tell you what I don’t want to do. I don’t want to write this as if I’m simply summarizing everything and come up with nothing creative. I’ve analyzed the students on my internship workshop and I am proud of how they’re progressing; they’re pretty smart. Very creative. Unlike me. I have no creativity. I’m basically unplugged from my dominant right-brained skills, and I’m just not letting myself think all these cool things. Half of the peeps are just as lost as me, while the other half give ideas. But le oh well. Maybe I might even write something about how I haven’t been wanting to comply to essays from my other classes because they’re pretty stupid. Ever since I took this class I’ve been on fire with mentally fighting with the teacher about not having to write shit.

This blog was just a rant, but I really need to analyze more of the examples of the assignment and then I can most definitely come up with something good.

Every day we have millions of thoughts and ideas in our head, and we go through many things in life, that we forget those thoughts and those ideas. Wednesday I had a great idea for this blog…that I totally forgot. Sad. But, I will try my best to make it an interesting vlog. Ha.

The five paragraph…that damn burger. I never was fond of those paragraphs and I just hated writing formal essays in high school. In the Wiley article, Wiley mentions how some certain aspects of why he didn’t like the 5 paragraph paper was because he thought that it was taught in a monotone way? Ok, not monotone–but at least to where the students felt that they did  not include their own insight and their own voice. And I can completely agree with it.

Ugh, you have no idea how empowering it is for me to say “I” in an essay. It’s like, yes! I want you to think of me, and screw the rules of looking profesh. I want us–the writer and the reader–to be one. I want us to see one another, and by the end, we are two different opinions, and all because you read my opinion.

Here in college, I love reading first perspective essays. And ones that don’t have a perspective at all bore me to death. Sorry not sorry.

This robotic formula is something that should be good to teach in middle school, as a sake to teach kids a somewhat guide for writing, but I think this “guide” should be completely abolished by the time we get to high school. I wish writing was more of voicing your opinion on your own terms about the subject rather than professors telling us what to write and what to expect.

For example, coming up in my political science class, we have an essay that is about the Muslim Ban. Oh my God, I was pumped to write nasty shit across the page with my blood and rage about it, but wait, I can’t because I only have to say what he did, and how he did it. My voice will not be heard, and it will be nothing but a waste.

On the other hand, this blog is amazing and great. This is where I execute my emotions and slay the nightmares of robotic writing. In these blogs, I have the power to say what I want. Sure, Kim tells us what to read–but she gives us freedom to write about what we believe is good for us.

I hope one day I will continue to use this freedom of writing and portray it to our children so that they may be free to be #freedomwriters.