Blogging

I think our blogs helped throughout the semester. They helped keep communication with people in the class. I found myself commenting and writing to people I usually don’t sit next to in class. I know that everyone sits in their seats next to the same people and we don’t get to interact with the people on the other side of the room. Having our own blog helped everyone see who was in our class and get to know them better. I think blogging can definitely help any K-12/ community college/university/adult literacy English/language arts class. It can be used as a forum to discuss assignments, and or sharing ideas. For a K-12 class the teacher can have students post certain assignments ie. Poetry, analysis/ discussion on poems, short stories, or books being read in class. Then they can have classmates comment on the work or analysis. This is a good way to have discussions that the students might not want to have in class. It gives them more freedom of being honest. It can also be used in any college course such as what we did. It helps provide a medium where students reflect on their work and how they reacted to the material. You can be creative and make the blog your own space where your thoughts can be seen by your classmates. I liked the fact that we had to respond to other blogs because this made us really take our time and read other blogs. Having to do this helped us feel connected to our classmates. I will definitely use blogging in my future classroom. I think it is a great way to have discussions and post creative assignments. Students will feel comfortable and be free to be creative.

Writing Fiction

I thought the short stories we read in class were pretty interesting. I had never read any of them so everything was new to me. In order to write about fiction, I had to take a close look at the text and find a theme. I decided to write my essay on “Nurse Cora.” This short story has a lot of information about the characters through symbolism and shifts in points of view. I had to first figure out why there were shifting views and what this added to the story. I also had to take a close look at all the events and symbols to bring out meaning. The hardest thing about writing about fiction is finding the theme of the story, since it isn’t explicitly stated within the text. I had to research the author to find the cultural context of the work and find a deeper understanding of the material. I can say that it wasn’t easy to gather all the information together and make meaning out of it. It took time and research to find and gain deeper understanding.

Writing my own fiction was easier to do after writing about it. I knew that I had to use imagery and develop a character in order to give the reader a visual of the story. The more description in the story, the more the reader is immersed in it. I tried to provide as much description in my short story. I decided to use “In what circumstance would you..” I thought this was fun because the person who reads was reading the story without knowing what to expect in the end. The situations and the events being described only lead the reader to believe one thing and they might be surprised with the real outcome of the story. It was easier to write fiction rather than writing about it. I didn’t have to worry about looking for a theme, breaking down the story to find meaning through symbols and point of view.

I think the format of the fiction assignment was good. I liked the fact that first we really had to analyze it in order to write about fiction and then we can have fun by writing our own. I would definitely do this in my classroom. I think the students would appreciate each other’s creative minds when reading their short stories.

Myth

I loved this section of the class. I truly enjoyed reading about the different myths. I also liked the presentations that helped create an overview of everything. I focused more on the Trickster Myth. Browsing over all the different myths in the book, I was most impressed and interested in the Trickster Myth. Some of these myths had strong sexual content or crude humor. This to me was a bit of a shock. I remember my group was trying to decide what myth to present on and we were trying to pick the cleanest one! Our final pick was my favorite myth overall, “Why We Tell Stories about Spider.” This was a great story that showed the concept of being a Trickster. Annanu, the spider, tricks three characters. He doesn’t use force, but rather his cleverness. He finds a way to trick each one by using their weakness against them. Having enjoyed the Trickster Myth this much, made me want to write one of my own. It wasn’t hard to pick the characters in my story because I started with my favorite animal, the polar bear. Having this idea made me pick the animals that lived in close proximity with the polar bear in the wild. The hard part was coming up with a story that flowed, and had the characteristics of a Trickster Myth. I think this is a great way to gain even further understanding on the myth. Since your writing about it, you want to emulate the myths that you read about. From there, you can become creative and change things up a bit. I definitely want to do this with my future students. Not only will they gain a world view of different myths, but also have the opportunity to become creative and imitate the stories. This assignment has many elements to it. First one must read myth, present about myth, write your own myth, and publish a website. Through these steps, one increases their understanding and appreciation of the readings.

Poetry

I can honestly say that writing poetry was much easier for me. For some reason I have a hard time analyzing poetry. It does not come natural to me so I sometimes get frustrated. You have to read between the lines and figure out what the author is trying to say. I liked having the power to write whatever I wanted and have other people figure it out. It was hard at first to open my mind up. Once it was opened, I found myself writing creatively. I liked the rules that Professor Clark provided in class about certain poems we went over. Having a set of rules made it easy for me to follow them and use them as a crutch. For instance, the Wrecking the First Person poem had three sections we had to follow, a true even, a fictional one, and then becoming another person. Having this map made it easier for me to navigate through the writing process. I wanted to create as much visualization as I could in my poetry. I like this in the poetry we read in class. Using the five senses to describe something gives the poetry more substance. The reader is emerged in the poem and the message is felt. Writing poetry made me appreciate the poetry we read in class that much more. I definitely want to provide my future students with this experience. I could not believe the great poetry that came out of our class. Everyone had unique ideas that flourished in their poems. It is going to be fun reading the poetry from my students. I will definitely have them do the Wrecking the First Person poem and the Found poem. These were new poems I hadn’t heard of before. It was a fun way to get started with poetry writing.

Salutations!

Hello ENG 495 ESM! My name is Evelyn Gomez. This is my last semester here at CSUN! I had most of you in previous classes and it is great to see familiar faces.

Being at CSUN for five years has given me a lot of time to think about becoming a teacher. I came in as an undecided freshman because I heard horror stories from other students about deciding on majors and not being sure which one to pick. I wanted to test the waters first and figure out if English was the major for me. As I expected, I truly found my calling in my English classes. I declared my major on the second semester in my freshman year. Now that I am about to graduate, I find myself filled with different questions, uncertainties, and fears that I did not have before. I realize now that I am close to becoming an English teacher and how important my job is going to be. I am going to impact the lives of many students and all I hope to do is make that impact truly positive.

I think everyone remembers their teachers. Some good memories might surface, while others might be horror stories. I know I had both kinds of teachers in my life. The one that made a particular impact was my 11th grade English teacher. I know she is the one that made me want to be a teacher in the first place. She helped me discover my talents in writing and made me improve. After taking her class, I never had trouble writing a single paper. She taught me methods and skills that I took with me in college. I want to do that for my future students. I want them to rely on the skills they learn in my class and not feel overwhelmed with writing.

I am excited about my future and definitely about this last semester. I am looking forward to this class and learning as much as possible. Thank you for taking your time to read my blog and I hope to get to know you all in class! Have a wonderful semester!