Thanksgiving

Since my last post was inspired by Kajder's last chapter, I decided to research some websites that contain engaging lesson plans for Thanksgiving.  I found one in particular that I found to be helpful, and that covered all age groups.

http://www.educationworld.com/holidays/archives/thanksgiving.shtml

While this website had many activities that I felt solely directed to the holiday, I found others that used creative ways to tie the holiday into the normal class curriculum.  What I loved the most was that this website also gave ideas for community service projects!  I remember the classes I loved the most when I was younger was classes that held food drives for our local food pantries.  Not only was I learning how to talk about food in Spanish class, but we learned what it felt like to give back!  I will definitely be using these learning activities in my future classroom even if it is a room full of college students.

Support Structure

In Kajder's last chapter I loved her statement, "Engaging students in new literacies practices with digital media requires not only creativity and ingenuity on your part as teacher but a support structure that helps to move you through the work" (104).  I felt that her section on page 102 best defined what Kajder meant by support structure.  She discusses NCTE and the conferences they hold that provide learning opportunities for teachers.  I agree that a teacher must always be learning by networking and working "alongside professionals you respect to keep growing your thinking" (102).  I also believe that as a teacher, it is natural for the learning process to continue.  However, this natural learning process only goes so far.  I agree with Kajder that it is up to teachers to grow their learning even further past the classroom.  I think that it is vital teachers visit websites such as englishcompanion.ning.com to further learn multi-modal activities for their classrooms.  Even though I do not plan on teaching at a high school level, I will definitely be taking Kajder's advice and looking into conferences like NCTE's conferences to keep my learning juices going.

The Jedi Path

Sooo I was birthday shopping and stumbled upon the book, The Jedi Path.  My mind instantly went to Pirie's article on Drama.  While I am a Star Wars nerd along with many others and was very excited to see that there is an actual guide to being a jedi out there; I also had many questions.  Since Star Wars along with lightsabers is mostly fictional, how can such a realistic guide to this story line be published?  While I was wondering if this style of writing is really realistic, it occurred to me that it is in itself published in order to make something seem more realistic.  This extension of making an object seem more real can definitely be seen when it comes to fictional societies.  

Being a huge fan of Utopian/Distopian Literature, I have found many awesome fictional societies to bury myself into throughout the years.  However, the most interesting ones are the ones who have their own printed language that is exemplified in various smaller books that link to the main one.  For example, The children's story of Dinotopia has various smaller books or additional versions that include the written language of Dinotopia.  With this printed crypt of a fictional societies language, I was able to  make my imagination more real by creating letters to friends or writing pieces of my journal in Dynotopian.  These additional versions or smaller journals that are created off of a main story is also seen in Moore's Utopia.  Many versions after the original had additional maps that allowed the reader to get a better visual of what this world is really like.  Although these worlds are fictional, I found it amazing how small additional details can make a fictional world seem even more realistic.

So I realized that I guess books like The Jedi Path are not that weird at all.  They are only created to make a fictional world seem all the more real.  Not only do they do this but they allow fore readers to continue using their imagination through reading.  While many fans of Star Wars may not like the novels, they can easily follow the world through the film as well as smaller books that relate to specific ways of this fictional world.

Drama in the Classroom

I really enjoyed the kinesthetic learners that Bruce Pirie discusses through the use of drama in the literary classroom.  Nothing really bothered me more than fellow students who were simply book smart, got straight A's, but didn't know how to catch a bus to school without their parents.  I also feel that classrooms can be the same way. While a specific way to analyze or learn an equation is shoved down students throats, students don't always understand why they should do this or feel that they are receiving useful knowledge.  Pirie explains the functions of using drama in class.  He writes, "A third general function stems from the fact that dramatic work unfolds in time: it is about living through experience" (52).  I agree with Pirie, a student is not going to learn or fully understand what they are learning unless they are living through it.  So for the student who is forced to perform an equation a specific way is not necessarily going to think it is useful if they cannot live through it or use it in real life to solve something.  There were many other great factors throughout this chapter of Pirie, but I definitely felt this was the most important!

Standardized testing!

I know most of you are sick of the debate of standardized testing by now, but I am still confused as to why it still exists.  While many think standardized testing is helpful for placing students in the right level of education, I do not believe that this applies to today's education, especially in a generation growing out of technology.  I have recently taken the GRE's and was not shocked to find that I did horrible. I personally know that I am not a good test taker when it comes to standardized tests.  I did not test well on the SAT's or the Praxis, so why would I pass the GRE's. While I know I can be a strong student academically, I felt that the GRE's were riddled full of trick questions and did not consider the fact that the world is full of different kinds of learners.  I know that my low scores will knock me out of the running for some schools but most schools nowadays do not place the sole reason for denying or accepting a student on their testing scores.  I also know most scholars acknowledge that everyone learns and tests differently, so my big question is....Why is there still standardized testing?!

In search of an answer to how my under-qualified scores would effect me, I emailed most graduate departments asking their policy on GRE scores versus acceptance.  A majority of them stated that they did not really look at standardized scores, but looked at the application as a whole.  There were some schools that did set a standard for GRE scores, which really rubbed me the wrong way.  Why set a standard for a test that most individuals will not take well due to the fact that it does not take into consideration various types of learners? While there obviously were some schools that disqualified me as a possible candidate, most did not use the GRE's as a main factor for accepting students.  So, once again I'm going to ask, why is the United States still forcing students to take these unrelated and unfair standardized tests?  If someone out there knows the answer to this, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

Class Wikis: Giving Students Power

I really enjoyed Edmondson's article, "Wiki Literature Circles: Creating Digital Learning Communities."  At one point she discusses how she was "hesitant" with creating activities on Wiki's because of the control it gave the students.  I agreed with her in that highschooler's can be seen as too young to handle this kind of power.  As a student being able to post stuff on a single wall for all classmates to see, a Wiki can be turned into a mode for abuse.  Edmondson discusses how "For assignments that require relinquishing control of the classroom to students, assessment can be tricky" (47).  Despite the possibility of students taking this form of control too far, I believe it is important that students feel that they have a choice to do what they want as well.  As a student, I know how frustrating it can be to be simply told what to do.  However, if I am given control to teach what I want on a project, or post what I want on a discussion board; I am instantly more engaged in the class curriculum.  I believe that Wiki's are a great way to give students a sense of choice and control in the classroom!  Edmondson writes that wiki's allow students to "facilitate presentations, instead of...other traditional methods" (45).  I really enjoyed this description of a wiki because it allows the teacher to see that students can responsibly "facilitate" a class presentation instead of be told how to produce and give a limited presentation.  I strongly agree with Edmondson (Marc Prensky) that "teachers have to learn to communicate in the language and style of their students" (44).  I believe that a teacher's use of a wiki is a perfect way to communicate and bring in the language of their younger, technology oriented, students.  What I felt to be the most important point in this article was that Edmondson acknowledges that using wiki's in a younger-aged classroom can be tricky, but that in the end, if introduced into the classroom properly, Wiki's allowed her students to take an extra mile.

Halloween

In the spirit of Halloween I wanted to talk about how introducing the tradition of horror stories (oral or written) can help in the literary classroom.  There are many ways to get students still learning in a creative way for this particular holiday.  I have had teachers who allow us to storyboard and to create short videos as a project.  With the video we have to translate the movie into a story form.  Although the movie part was not my favorite, I loved going screen by screen and translating every detail into a narration.  I always thought it was funny how some of my classmates believed the film to be more suspenseful while others found the reformat of the written story to be the scariest.  It was the class after this project that we focused on how these horror stories were passed down before writing them down was possible.  I loved focusing on how a story could be transformed into oral language, with pauses and moments of silence to drag on the horror of the tale.

I love to read  but hearing a story that is spoken and not read is always the most effective.  I can't even say how many times I have heard the tale of the Jersey Devil, but each time it's a little different and each time just as scary.  I found some websites that focus on some tales that can jump start this activity in the classroom.  Most of them are podcasts to provide the eerie sense that every student craves on Halloween.  I loved doing this activity in High School and look forward to using some form of this in my classroom to stress the importance of storytelling before written language came along.


http://americanfolklore.net/halloween.html.  (This is a great website with scary stories through the form of podcasts)

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Storytelling-and-Ghost-Stories/ (goes over particular factors that heighten the effect of a story)

Gender Issues in Graphic Novels

I never really though about it but Mary Rice discusses the problem of gender issues in comic books and graphic novels.  She discusses the issues that some of her girls were having over the way women were portrayed in comic books.  Rice also discusses the "hyper-masculine" male characters (3).  Although Rice does not discuss her objection to this factor for long, she leaves it out there for her readers to contemplate.  I think that introducing comic books into the literary classroom is a good idea; however, Rice is right.  It is important to try and pick the right book with appropriate images.  While this seems like it is impossible to do considering the culture of comic books is mainly centered on art and this art is definitely a product of our culture in the way it portrays the ultimate man and woman.  I believe it is because of this that the question is raised as to what age group should be begin to introduce comics that may have some questionable art work?  What age do you guys think would be appropriate where the students will be able to see past the images and instead use the images to help them with their literary understanding of the actual story?

my.voyager.net

Since I am a devout lover of comics and graphic novels, I intensely searched through the recommendations of websites that this upcoming weeks readings provided for me.  I found http://my.voyager.net/~sraiteri/graphicnovels.htm to be one of my favorites.  It was created by Steve Raitieri, a librarian in Ohio.  That in itself I thought was pretty cool.  I know alot about comics already but I found Raitieri's organization of his website to be the most helpful for any curious school that wants to start their own collection of graphic novels/comics.  He goes through recommended comics from DC to Japanese Manga and summarizes what is included in these specific collections or editions.  I even caught some descriptions that included his own personal opinion on the story lines, whether they were appropriate or not.  I feel that these little summaries could really help a library expand its resources.  I look forward to adding some of his suggestions to my collection soon :)

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I found the introduction to McTaggart's article to be amazing;however, I did not really like the rest of the piece.  I felt that McTaggart stated alot of obvious facts in her work, yet didn't really elaborate on them.  Two ideas in her work caught my eye though. The first was that Graphic Novels are simply rising in popularity along with the action packed superheros. The second, that "Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, TV programs were rescheduled and movie releases were delayed or abandoned" (29).  I feel that the rise of popularity of superhero's, comic books, and graphic novels are due to the attack and results of 9/11.  While many may think this is far fetched, I have wondered this many times while the new commercial for Avengers, or Dark Knight flashed on my television.  It would make sense, and I was excited that McTaggart mentions it a little bit in this article.  The Comic book industry stepped forward the soonest after our country experienced extreme vulnerability.  I figured as well that it would be a natural reaction.  What better to fantasize about but a superhero solving our problems.  A superhero could help save the world, and after 9/11 there was a clear wish for someone or something to come along and help us in our time of need.  It is clear that many individuals love of comics, superheros, and graphic novels could have originated from a change in our culture.  It is also clear that these pieces of artistic literature are beneficial for student learning, so why not encourage most schools to start collections?  If these works have been resurfaced in popularity and are becoming a significant symbol of our culture and our countries response as a whole, why not allow them to aid learning? I cannot stress, as a nerd, how happy I was to see that McTaggart had been wondering the same thing I had been when it came to the re-rising of graphic novels, comic books, and superheros :).

New Windows Tablet

Well I have been inspired due to having to purchase a new laptop this weekend.  I was being informed on the new and upcoming windows 8 when I saw a pretty cool tablet with a keyboard attached.  I asked my helper friend at Best Buy "What the heck is that? Is it a computer or tablet thingy?"  He informed me that it is a tablet with a keyboard that clicks into the frame of it.  I was pretty amazed at how thin the keyboard was, it was thinner than my notebook for this class.  Although I was mesmerized by it's fanciness I walked away keeping a budget in mind.  I sat down for some T.V. time and the new commercial for this new and shiny item came up.  I instantly started to feel old.  I barely can work a laptop to it's full ability, let alone a tablet. 

The commercial focuses in on all generations, even an elderly couple...which I found impressive due to the fact that most of my grandparent's generation can barely figure out how to email let alone grasp the concept of a touch screen.  The inclusion of students in the commercial was interesting as well, showing how something so innovative can be used to efficiently enhance knowledge in the classroom.  This seemed a bit lazy to me, encouraging students to bring in personal technology to an elementary classroom, but hey at least everyone was actively dancing in the commercial.

Although I feel confident students, elementary to college, would be able to figure out such a lightweight and efficient piece of technology, what does this mean for computers?  I can only imagine that tablets are becoming the new laptop and the new computer.  People won't need to have a desktop at home and a laptop to travel with, or even a separate computer at work to work on.  It's scary to me that a small touch screen with an almost paper thin click on touch keyboard are going to be able to do it all.  Students won't need to go to their schools labs, they will be able to do it all on their notebook sized tablets.  I know for now this seems like it isn't realistic, but if my grandparent's generation find a cell phone and desktop computer to be intimidating to use, especially in a classroom, I can only imagine what computers are going to evolve into when were our grandparents age.

Check out the commercial yourself; I'll be interested on what everyone thinks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7UlE-o8DQQ

Shafer: Video in Classroom

I really enjoyed Gregory Shafer's article, "Prime Time Literature in the High School," simply because he discussed the non-technical benefits of utilizing video in the classroom.  While Lund focuses more on the various roles students can take within the group as well as the specifics on what a student can gain from learning the technical uses of film, Shafer addresses what using video means to the language arts classroom.  I loved how he used the quote "Language is a performing art. We learn our first language skills by performing them" (93).  I agree, most student will be able to learn about a novel, writer, poet, etc., through the use of visual and literary learning.  By allowing students to take ownership of a project that is truly created by them is amazing!  I know how frustrating it can be sometimes having to write an analytical paper that is using literature about literature to compose your own idea on an author or literature.  I think Shafer does a great job in pointing out that "Ownership is they key, since much of language instruction places students in the role of subordinate" (96).  It is through a video assignment that most students will be able to show a final project that is in itself their own doing.  They are taking their analysations and still making them their own.  I really look forward to being able to assign a team project like this in the future!

Podcasts

I found Rozema's  article to be interesting.  I for one love listening to podcasts and will listen to at least one before I go to bed.  I think it's great that Rozema has her students create book reports through a podcast and allow them to be seen by outsiders.  I also found it interesting that she set limits; that they couldn't summarise but could only promote and provide hints to encourage viewers to read the book for themselves. Rozema states, "I play podcasts to entice students into reading superb YA novels such as Feed, Monster, The Chocolate War, and others and to give them a sense of the podcast requirement, which in turn shapes the way they read the novel" (34).  I feel that a simple podcast can shape the way a student reads novels.  It allows them to look for underlying theories and various topics to discuss, while reading a novel, for their podcasts.  It unintentionally forces a student to focus in on a book instead of quickly skimming through a reading.  Not only this but Rozema compares a blog to a podcast and points out the similarities.  In class we discussed how  blogs give students the chance to find their voice in their writing.  Podcasts can do the same.  They allow students to find their voice in how they view a reading.  Or how they interpreted a particular passage.
 I find podcasts to be an amazing project to assign students and will definitely be utilising podcasts in my future classrooms. 

Wilber's Sources

I found many blogs and wiki's, and digital story links in Wilber's work that didn't jump out to me.  However, I found a few that I actually am going to try and follow!

I know many of the blogs talked very factually about teaching and how to integrate outside sources into the classroom.  However, what I found to be most inspirational of all the blogs was http://doyle-scienceteach.blogspot.com/.  This teacher not only addresses being a teacher and the activities he does in the classroom, but he reflects emotionally on his experiences.  He doesn't glorify all the perks and great feelings he gets out of the success of his students but he openly discusses the doubt he sometimes has as a science teacher.  He discusses in full he adventures in nature, with hands on activities and then compares it to what he may believe his teenage students are doing.  His posts are very thoughtful and almost philosophical; I loved them!

One other blog I liked was http://teenink.com/.  This is general website where you can look at fellow teens articles.  It is a sight for highschooler's to look at fellow teens writings.  The one that caught my eye was a poem titled "A Holocaust Victim's Point of View." (http://teenink.com/poetry/free_verse/article/192066/A-Holocaust-Victims-Point-Of-View/).
I loved how it doesn't have to be just informational but it could be creative as well.

The source http://www.classroom20.com/group/digitalstorytelling was interesting simply because it allowed for a mass amount of teachers and professors from around the world to share digital stories they or their classmates have done.  It was cool to see from elementary school students to college level learners, how digital storytelling can be assigned and utilized in a classroom.

Overall I think I prefer blogs still over most of the sources I explored.  I believe it is because it encourages a more personal opinion to be used within posts.  I would rather hear how people feel about certain topics then just click on links that are only fact based.  Knowing the ups and downs of a classroom is vital insight that I know will provide a realistic sense of how to use technology and what it will really be like dealing with real students in an actual classroom.

Interactive Novels

While reading this week’s reading I was pretty excited to see how the using of hyperlinks in reports, or stories can allow students to be more engaged.  By allowing students to click on hyperlinks in a work, it enables them to better understand what they are reading.  I instantly thought of how much I loved finding Interactive Novels online.  These stories allow a student to find or even pick their own story line.  If a reader chooses a certain ending to the chapter it will jump them to a different story line than if they picked on the other option.  Authors of these works use hypertexts that the reader can click on to continue the story.  It allows the audience to continuously be engaged through/within the whole story.  This type of story can also be titled interactive fiction.  Not only are hyperlinks included but sometimes visuals as well.  Images, or small video clips will also aid in the understanding of the story line.  My little sister is always finding new stories online to look at and she loves it!  She likes to read plain books, but when she's clicking away she has more fun at being active in her reading than simply sitting down.  For a young energetic group, these forms of novels are perfect to get a child interested.  They allow for a "choose your own" style of reading.

Student's own voice

I feel that it is important to use some sort of online discussion, in any class, to ensure students are constantly engaged in the topic at hand.  By meeting only so many times a week, there is alot of down time where a student isn't even thinking about the content that is being addressed in a class.  By setting up a blog assignment, students will be critically thinking about specific readings throughout the year/semester.  Wilber writes in his chapter three, “Perhaps the most powerful use of a blog is in development of a student’s own voice as a writer and thinker” (49).  I found this to be extremely important especially at the high school level.  I remember being told throughout high school that this is how I should write in order to get an A.  I remember only elaborating on the theories that my teacher may have mentioned in a class discussion and that was all.  So when I arrived at SRU, I was mortified to have to come up with a solid paper that included my own ideas supported by scholarly writers.  I had only been doing, writing, and reading what I was told.  I was not given a chance to develop my own voice as a writer and thinker, and wished that some of my high school teachers forced us to join in on class discussions through technology, outside of the classroom, such as blogs.  I completely agree with what Wilder has to say, and believe that all teachers should embrace technology as a way to engage their students on the class curriculum outside of the limited class time.  Every person needs time to mull over a certain theory and idea to mold it into their own, so why not use technology to ensure that the student is constantly learning through regular critical thinking.

Poetry and Dance

So I just wanted to write a blog that does not focus on technology as much and focuses on the transmediation/multimodal use of text in relation to dance.  I am currently writing a paper for my class Teaching of Dance, and I found some great articles on how beneficial the utilization of dance and poetry is on anyone from students to audience members.  Many of the articles discussed that by having students create a dance to a poem or to an excerpt of a work, they found that students were more likely to comprehend, and critically thing about the meaning behind the words.  Not only did it engage the students more into the classroom but it allowed them to be creative and physically active (Anderson & McCormick). 

I even found an article that reported a scientific organization that wanted to promote their focus in electromagnetism.  The author writes that he wanted to "reach an arts-based audience to encourage them to engage with science and scientific issues" (Diprose).  He goes onto say how the audience members seemed to love the performance and how the effect of it seemed to make this complex form of science seem easier to understand for most viewers.  Although this performance of dance was not poetry it was based off of the written out/textual explanation of the electromagnetic process of the moon. 

I absolutely loved writing this paper and finding ways that poetry and text can be paired with any learning process to better engage the viewers or doers into better understanding topics that may be hard to relate to.  This is definitely a form of multimodal education that I will be on the verge of overusing in my classrooms....I apologize to my future students for making you dance too much :(

Sources:

Anderson,  Jack. “On the Move: Poetry and Dance.” Dance Chronicle 33.2 (2010): 251-67.

Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Sept. 2012.

Diprose, Mike, D. Snyder, and J. Morland. “’Moonlight and Magnetism’: A theoretical

performance of electromagnetism, poetry and dance as a stimulus for ideas to use in lecture theatre. ” Teaching in Higher Education. 5.4 (2000): 547-51. Sociological Collection. Web. 3 Sept. 2012.

McCormick, Jennifer. “Transmediation in the Language Arts Classroom: Creating Contexts for

Analysis and Ambiguity.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 54.8 (2011): 579-87. ERIC. Web. 2 Sept. 2012.

Reading in a "Nonlinear" way

I loved Kist's section on Nonlinear reading.  At one point he states, "it could be argues that we have always had the ability to read texts in a nonlinear fashion" (19).  I found this very interesting because while many readers around me can read in nonlinear fashions, when it comes to reading books, I can't.  However this statement made me think more into the younger generation and how the media provides constant forms of nonlinear literacy/reading for internet users.  As soon as this activity was mentioned in class I found myself thinking back to my Native American Lit. class and how frustrated I was that every single book we read was written in Nonlinear fashion.  I found it hard to follow and keep track of what was going on, yet I can go on facebook and read a post from my friend sent to me yesterday and snoop in on a newly broken relationship that was posted 2 seconds ago.  I even realized that I always study for exams in nonlinear fashion.  Focusing on whatever I want first and jumping around within my books and notes until I feel I am ready.  I found myself second guessing my first reaction to nonlinearity and agreeing with what Kist had to say.  But a big question that I had in the end was how much can nonlinear education be utilized in the classroom?  I felt that by allowing and encouraging students to always read the way that is natural to them (nonlinear), then will it become too much?  Will students be able to focus long enough on a work to be able to really critically think/analyze the text?  Or will they only retain the little portions or lines they think are important?  Nonlinear reading is a great tactic for students who want to be involved with social networks but they are not always efficient in certain classrooms.  Integrating technology within the classroom is great! But in certain classes will it be overused, only reinforcing the nonlinear multitasking brains of the new generation of technology users.

Comic strip insanity!

I came upon this website when I decided to be creative one day.  I love comic books and graphic novels and remember a project in my high school English class where we had to create one abouts any scene of our choice from the book The Great Gatsby.  I found this website, but the user would have to create an account.  A million ways on how to utilise this tool in a classroom popped into my head.  I felt that a younger generation would love to have a creative project like this that could be used in any class assignment from a book report, to a funny comic strip on their dog for show and tell.  By using this tool in a classroom, it allows the students to be able to use programs to create a story that could challenge their creative side as well.

It allows you to create a simple three-pan comic strip, or a story that could take up a whole page.  Even if a student doesn't want to use the characters they are provided with through the program they can print the blank frames out and draw a comic themselves.  Although I'm no child...I am guilty of doing this myself.  So I feel that this could be a good non-print tool that all age groups can easily understand and use.

Below is the URL for this specific program. 

http://stripgenerator.com/strip/create/

Kist's Ch. 1.

I loved the introduction to Kist's first chapter!  I found it interesting how he explained the Internet as "interactive in nature," and that most students will use it as a way of "getting back in touch with the world after hours of forced disconnect" (1).  This only made me wonder how utilising more technology into class curriculum could not only make students feel a little more connected with the outside world but could also allow the relationships between teachers and students improve as well.  I'm not saying that I think it's a good idea for students to start texting in the middle of class or checking their facebook, but by maybe using these sources as a way to get students to present an interesting topic they found through one of these social networking cites and to look into it a little more and maybe to even present it to the class.  Before technology existed, and before the Internet, teachers would have to go out and learn how to use certain anthologies, or how to utilise their local library's system in order to efficiently teach their students in a classroom.  When the television was invented, teachers learned how to use this new technology to show students educational videos that allowed them to learn in a more efficient way.  Now that we have all these new non-print tools, why shouldn't teachers learn how to integrate them in the classroom, just as teachers have before them? By allowing students to use technology they are familiar with or introduce them to technology such as blogs, podcasts, etc. can better prepare them for the real world.  Many careers and jobs in the world outside of school require workers to know certain technological tools.  So why not push students to keep an open mind and expand their knowledge on the tools they can use to make their lives more efficient whether in school, or later in a career.  I know for one I see my dad using anything from online discussion boards to skype in order to keep in touch with fellow offices that belong to his company.  Without these tools work projects, and communication would not go as smoothly, making the final execution of the project not as successful/efficient as it should/could be.  If students love these networking websites, and are comfortable with technology....why not utilise these tools in the classroom to strengthen their skills as well as prepare them for a world full of technology. 

About Me!

Hi!  My name is Kellie McKinney and I am an English literature major and dance minor.  I plan on graduating this fall and continuing onto graduate school for English Lit.  I am from Bethlehem Township, New Jersey which is about 6 hours from here.  My family is a big part of my life so I usually travel there on breaks and holidays.  I am the oldest of five and have three younger sisters, Shannon, Mariya, and Rylee, and a brother Brandon. If you can't tell by all our names...we're very Irish.  We play alot of soccer during picnics and gatherings so my soccer skills are a little above normal.  My family also takes in foster children so I do have a couple of brothers that still come around every once in a while to visit. My house is basically chaos 24/7 so if I start talking really loud in class take no offence, I'm used shouting over loud noises.  I do work alot but love the fact that I can support myself and continue to learn as much as I can here at Slippery Rock. 

As stated before I'm a dancer and my favorite form would have to be ballet.  I've been dancing since I was about 6 or 7 and cannot get enough of it!  I am a die-heart Kevin Smith fan and have been to the Secret Stash many times.  I love comic books and graphic novels.  I also live about 20 minutes from the Quick Stop where the films Clerks, and Jay and Silent Bob were films so naturally I'm a huge fan! I plan on travelling alot in my future, specifically to Ireland (of course) and Italy.  I spent about three weeks this summer trekking through Italy and it was amazing!  I'm pretty pumped about this class since I'm not very good with technology...I'm hoping it can help me utilize different ways to get my future students interested in literature the way I am.  Or maybe to just blog about my future experiences abroad!  Hope you guys all enjoy my posts about the readings and what non-print media interests me. :)