Computer Time

Computer time in high school meant FREE TIME. Yes, we were suppose to be doing research on some subject that no one really knew anything about, but no one ever did the research. We just mainly tried to beat the "Parental Codes" and look at our emails and download gross things and then send them to each other. In other words, Computer Time was "Get Nothing Accomplish Time." I do believe this could have been different though had it been for the teachers guidance. Many of my teachers really didn't know how to use the computers and really were no help, but I believe now a days this is different since I know what I'm doing on the computer and could help guide my students a little better. I'm not saying that computer time will no longer be fun, but I do believe it will be more beneficial for my students.

Education and Technology

Technology I believe has benefited that classroom in many ways. The internet by far has transformed education in the way we have our students research and learn about all areas of schooling. Most schools today have a computer lab, and many are even starting to have each student have their own laptop during school so they can do all their assignments online and utilize the technology that is being used in today's fast pace world. Using technology will only benefit our students for the "real world."

The Sunday Morning Slam

Everyone! Come see how good I look.
It was the Sunday morning after,
after a long blissful night of libating.
Whoa, mmmmhmm, ough.
It was the Sunday morning after,
and I look good.

Original Poem

To be, or not to be: that is the question.
But what the question may answer is the heartache of man.

To die, to sleep;
to sleep perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.
And in that death what may rise to live.

Nothing Else

When from the ends of the earth and back,
Relatively speaking,
Shooting up heroin between her toes, her greatest experience was
The umbrella keeping the sun off,
Nothing Else.

Poetry In Motion

I found this article titled "Poetry In Motion" and I found it really interesting, mostly because I really don't know much about Poetry. I never have been really great at it and even though I took a few classes in it, I never really grasped onto poetry that much. This article brought up being created by taking students outside of the classroom and even on a road trip. Although I think it would be difficult to take all your students on a road trip simply to write a poem, the idea of being outside and starting the creative juices by watching nature is a great idea. Some students, like myself, need that extra little help to start the writing process and this is true for all areas of writing.

Poem

To be, or not to be: that is the question.
But what the question may answer is the heartache of man.

To die, to sleep;
to sleep perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.
And in that death what may rise to live.

Poem

Prose Poem

"To be or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause:"

Hamlet
by William Shakespeare

Stars Shining

Why do stars shine? Why do birds suddenly appear, anytime you are near? These questions go hand-in-hand because long ago the birds and stars were one. See long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away birds and stars were lovers and it was then that love was truly pure. Birds could only fly a night because of the mean King Sun who believed that birds would take over his kingdom. The stars in order to keep their lovers alive started shining to light up the night sky for them. Since my computer is about to die, I'm going to end there. Thanks for reading.

Multi-Genre

I was sixteen when I first discovered what could get me really mad. My whole life prior everyone always said "Nothing could ever get Ryan pissed off." And for the most part, that is correct. I hate confrontation and am really laid back. I just like to have fun and will do anything so the people around have fun as well. But here I was, living on my own for the first time and at a bar enjoying some dinner with my roommate when I finally realized there was something that could make me so mad that even I, a 5'4" kid at the time, would start fighting a perfect stranger. Like I said, I was sitting at bar enjoying a hamburger with my roommate when I glanced over at the other side of the bar when a man and woman were arguing. I know you shouldn't stare at people, but I couldn't help it. It's like when there's a car accident that you can see happening right before it actually does, you just can't take your eyes off it, and this was me in the bar. Before I knew it, I saw the rather large man slap the woman he was arguing with and this anger just raged over me. I quickly jumped out of my chair, ran and tackled the man starting what I soon would realize my first fight. Although the man was twice my size that didn't matter to me. He hit that girl and that's all I could take in. My roommate joined in the fight to help fend off the asshole's friends and soon we had more guys join in on my behalf and the matter quickly resolved itself when the bartender asked me to leave along with everyone else. I was sixteen and that was a day of many first...it was my first fight, my first time going to a bar without a parent, it was the first time I ever got really mad, and it was my first time ever getting kicked out of a bar. It was a day of discovery to say the least.

What pisses me off??

I'm a pretty laid back kind of guy, but there are a few things that can make me mad. One is when people complain, especially when they have so much. How can someone complain when they have so much to begin with? Can't they find something to be happy about? Another thing that gets me going is when someone disrespects another person, especially when they don't even know the person. Some might say they are just joking around, and that's fine, but you should at least know that person so they know you're just joking around. The ultimate things that gets me absolutely outraged is when a guy hits a girl; there is absolutely no excuse for that. I've only been in two fights ever and each one was because I saw a guy hit a girl.

It's me

My name is Ryan Miller and I'm from Jackson, MI. I'm 22 years young, I'm short, I'm Irish, I'm Catholic, and I'm almost done with school. I hope one day to invent an elevator to the moon and also set the world hot-dog eating record. This is me.

Stereotyping

Over these last two class periods we have tried to present stereotyping from a small scale classroom all the way to how the world showcases stereotyping. It is obvious from our class discussions, activities, videos, ads, etc. that stereotyping is all around us and each one of us, in some way, also is guilty of stereotyping. So how do we end this? As teachers, it is our responsibility to inform our students and give them correct information about cultures because the bottom line is, knowledge is power and knowledge is the only way we can end stereotyping. It is our job to give our students this knowledge and put an end to this tranquility.

Disney

Dear Disney,

I have always been a huge fan of Disney movies dating all the way back to Aladdin and throughout my younger years remember waiting in line for other movies such as Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, Peter Pan, Little Mermaid, and even Mulan, but it took till I was an adult really to understand what takes part during these movies. As a class activity, I examined these movies more closely, especially the songs sung during the movie and found many, if not all, were extremely racist and had hundreds of stereotypes evident in them. As a child I sang these same exact songs and constantly got them stuck in my parent's heads, but it took till now for me to understand what I was saying and how wrong these lyrics really are.

I wish I was a girl.....sometimes

It was cool autumn day as the fall leaves glistened in the sunlight and there I was a mere 48 inches tall all dressed up in my hoody sweatshirt and jeans. I was five years old when I first had a glimpse of the forbidden fruit that would plague me for all of eternity. My older sister, Colleen, a true Irish name was part of the world-reknown River Dance Company and was the center of attention at every fair and theater we traveled to. "I want to dance," I would say to my parents, "I want to dance." My heart yearned for the attention and rythem of fire beneath my feet, but I was a boy and this would turn out to be my downfall, my cross I would have to bare.

Multi-genre papers, Chpt. 14

I would have to say that this chapter raised a question that I've been faced with before, what it the most appropriate way to write? I believe that they said it best that both styles have a place in the classroom and this is true because of many reasons. Multi-genre papers are wonderful means of writing, but traditional research papers often times have a very strong "paradigmatic voice that argues and illustrates and extends thinking in a logical progression of language and ideas" (89). Both styles of writing do have a place in our curriculum and therefore both serve an extremely important part in our classrooms.

Grammar Research

I started this research project by simply googling "Grammar in the Classroom." I found thousands of articles and books about this subject, but honestly they all seemed to revolve around the same thing; rules and what to do with those rules. Sometimes I feel that people get so caught up in rules that they totally forget about the artform of writing. Yes, rules are important and there are certainly right and wrong ways of doing certain tasks in writing, but when we do nothing but pound these rules into our students the creativity gets lost in the shuffle and this is where we begin to see our students loose imagination in their writings. Am I saying that we shouldn't teach grammar rules? Absolutely not, but I do believe that some teacher put too much of an emphasis on them to the point where the students are no longer worried about writing a good paper, but more of a correct paper.

Group Teach 1 blog

One of the most difficult topics to teach, in my opinion, is exactly what Noden talks about in this chapter. During my short time in the classroom and reading papers from various age groups it has been a common occurrence when students don't necessarily lack in grammar, but more visuale observations, or bringing their stories to life using descriptive words. I believe that Noden's concept of "painting with 5 basic brush strokes" could be a great way of allowing our students to explore this extremely artistic/creative approach to writing and could help immensely with helping students grasp this somewhat diffult task of bringing words to life.

Indy Teach Lesson Plan

Essential Question: How do you bring excitement to papers?

Main Idea: The main purpose of this lesson is to encourage the students to be more creative with their writing. Over my short time interning and grading papers I have found that one of the most difficult things for students to grasp in their writing is using their senses and creativity to make their topics come more to life. This lesson will deal primarily with waking their senses up and showing the students how they can transfer these adjectives or "exciting words" as I have called them sometimes, onto paper making their writing far more interesting and allowing the reader to feel a part of the journey.

Activity: Students will think of 5 objects. These objects can be anything from a pop bottle, a car, a tree, etc. They will then take these objects and outline each one on a separate piece of paper. The drawing does not have to be in great detail, just something simple where you can easily make out what it's suppose to be. Students will be asked write down words (Adjectives) that describe the object and write them alongside the outline of the object. In other words, the words will circle around the object and once students completely encompass the picture they will be done. Once this is all done students will be able to easily see how many words can be used to describe even a simple object and will be able to see how their writings can be more exciting by using these words.

Unleasing Potential with Emerging Technologies

This article really explored the realm of the different technologies that are being used in today's classrooms. Podcasting, blogging, wikipedia journals, and many other forms of technologies are changing the face of teaching as we know it. Our students are growing up in the age of where computers are very easy to obtain and the internet rules the world, so why not use these tools in the classroom. Students love going online and "googling" and researching new and unventured plots of information and as teachers we can make are classroom and assignments more enjoyable by allowing the creative nature of our students to show us how they are learning through these tools. Wikibooks

I am from...

I am from open lands enriched
with homes
football in the front yard
where hereos were made one bruise at a time.

I am from bar-b-ques and friends
constantly engulfing
the street light lit night

I am from "You're a Miller, what are you doing?"
chocoalte chip cookies
Pretzels
"Don't eat anything before dinner."
Oops.

I am from cracklin fires
dogs roaming freely from couch to couch
and older sisters screaming
thinking they're my second mom.

I am from chores
"Clean your room."
Ice cream man
Oops, is this before dinner?

Murray Chpt. 2

"The world is full of details that can ignite writing." pg. 36

How true is that! Everywhere one looks they can something that sparks a certain interest. Writing doesn't always have to a story, but rather writing can be just a brief "spark" of interest. I have found over my short time in the classroom that students who don't like to write often feel that writing often is a drag because they can't write what they want to and often feel confined to the rules the teacher gives. We have to eventually allow our students to break out and do some things on their own and often free writes are a great way of doing this.

Murray

1. To be a writer is to willing share your creativity with words in depicting a story. Whether that story be true or not is beside the point, writing is an activity that allows an individual to express who they are in words and can open the minds of readers to different view points and atmospheres.
2. "The reason I continue to write is not so much for publication, for fame, form money, but for suprise."

This is really how you can tell great writers from average one; the surprise feeling they get from their own thoughts and words. Writers have a gift that allows them to explore new avenues of thought and can take those view points and illustrate them with words that create a landscape of emotions in the reader's mind.

Daniels and Bizar

1. My understanding of "Best Practice" teaching is that it is an array of student focused discussions, activities, and demonstrations where it is more the students learning from each other rather than the traditional ways of having only the teacher lecture. This way creates a more student centered classroom and in return allows the students to be more creative and latch on to topics more easily and quickly.
2. The tenants of "Best Pracitice" teaching are that it is student-centered, experimental, reflective, authentic, holistic, social, holistic, social, collaborative, democratic, cognitive, developmental, constructivist, and challenging.
3. "Best Practice" teaching is not teacher centered and full of lectures, silence, stress, competition, and reliance on standardized tests.
4. The easiests way of incorporating this type of teaching into an English classroom is simply being active in the classroom. Allow the students to do skits and readings. Allow students to sing and even rap a poem. Creativity is the key with this type of teaching and allowing the students to be free.