Final Reflection

This was by far the coolest writing class I have ever taken. I loved how technology was incorporated into the class and I loved how new ways of doing papers was experimented with (if I could make a video instead of writing a paper for every class in the future, I would do it in an instant). Even though it started out as a struggle, I am so glad that I had the opportunity to learn how to use Windows Movie Maker; I think that it is definitely something I will use again for various purposes. I also really liked the idea of reading four articles and collaborating with our peers to discuss what we read and pull out the most important elements. I thought that this was very similar to something we will do as future teachers.
Now for the dislikes...there is only one. I really didn't care too much for Gee's book. I thought that the ideas that were presented in the book were great and insightful, I just found the book to be very dry and unmotivating to read.
In terms of my teaching, this class has increased my confidence in teaching writing. I know that I have no problem teaching math, science, history, and language arts, but teaching writing scares the heck out of me. I feel that after reading the texts we did in the class I am much more prepared. To be specific, I felt that Harvey's book was extremely helpful and it was put together in a very inviting way. The ideas that were presented in her book were definitely things that I want to take with me into my career as a teacher. There were many ideas that she discussed that were also reiterated over and over again in the articles, and I think those are the things that will have the most value when teaching.

Digital Documentary Review (extra credit)

This is Tracee's roommate and I viewed the digital documentary she made for this class. I really liked the whole idea of creating a video instead of turning in a typical paper. I have never had a teacher willing to explore such a new way to write a piece.
I hear Tracee practicing guitar all the time in her room since it is just down the hall, and occationally when she is not too shy she will play for me. I was actually the one that videotaped her playing for the documentary so I got to see how she has improved over the past few months. I think that the way the video was put together to show how she learned something was very creative. The thing I really liked was that it had a very personal touch to it. If I was a teacher who only knew Tracee from seeing her twice a week in class, I would feel like after watching this video I knew her on a much deeper level. Overall I think both the video produced and the whole idea of allowing this type of writing to be turned in in this format were both really great.