Blog Post 8

Before I start, I can't help but notice the exclusionary nature of the Bloscars. As stated, a winner must be a "Representative of 2019/2020 cohort." This unnecessary and exclusionary practice is unfair to those who don't fit into this exclusive group. These hurtful practices drag down the legitimacy of the Bloscars as an institution and the entire blogging community at large. I hope a new board can be created to ensure fairness and equity in future Bloscars going forward.

My vote for people's choice awards goes to:

Grace Armstrong's Teacher in Training. Grace's blog is well designed, has creative images, and speaks ideas clearly and effectively. It is a model blog that others should follow.

Civic Engagement

I believe my work most civically engaging post was my Digital Composition post. In this post, I traced similar movements between the Rodney King movement and the George Floyd movement. I think what really elevates this from a normal blog post is its look at history. It's important that we look as past trends, as they can help us identify longstanding problems that exist, and what strategies to pursue and avoid as we demand change.

Creative

I would have to say my most creative post was my Digital Production post. In this post, I presented a creations that represent a house from Not a Drop to Drink. I think all my posts are creative, but each commenter spoke praises of its creativity, and it's important to take other perspectives into consideration, even when reflecting. I think here I have no choice but to agree.

Best Design. 

I think my best design would have to go to Writing Processes. In this post, I explored how writing is done, from the beginning to the end. While my prior posts are exceptional, I think this one stands out because it doesn't look bad. While looking at my old posts, I noticed a lot had either long paragraphs or awkwardly placed images, or both. This one has neither. Sometimes the bar is that low.

Thanks for all the comments from others. I wish you the best of luck when you get into teaching,

Max Thiede

Blog Post 7-Digital Production

Explore various online platforms for composing multimodal texts (see list of links on session agenda). Create a mini multimodal composition using one of the platforms and post it to your professional blog. (NOTE: this does not need to be a large production, just a small experimental piece to “play” around with the software.) Reflect on your own process of appropriation, and combining of multiple modalities (image, text, sound, video, etc.)  In what ways did the image drive the narrative?  In what ways did the audio or print influence the text?  How might these visual practices be used to amplify learning? To promote civic engagement? 

While looking for ways to create a multimedia representation of my book. I really digged the idea of creating a house. Almost every major event happens at Lynn's house, and it is described in depth, so I decided to make a recreation of it.  I found a bunch of programs. Floor Plan Creator , Smart Draw , Floor Planner, and Blender. I decided to use floor plan creator because I was feeling lazy and it was the first one to pop up. It was fun to play around on the software, but the more I used it, the more limitations I noticed. difficult to make ceilings, walls and stairs would clip through, and sometimes the dimensions just wouldn't line up. I ended up making a really awful home, as you can see. I couldn't put items in, like the bath or kitchen. I couldn't make a nice porch, and obviously, I couldn't make Lynn's little lake. I would say I succeeded only in finding a program to never use ever again. 

I think the other programs could be more effective than this, particularly Minecraft. You can build anything you want in it. I even found an small little house that could look great as Lynn's.

It needs a lake and another level, but the inside could hold many things. I crate with supplies found in the book. A fake water purifier, chairs. Literally all the things that make Lynn's house so interesting. If I wanted to spend a few hours, I probably could make a replica of Lynn's house in Minecraft, maybe even have students work in groups and make houses and write a little description of the house using page numbers, but I'm not willing to spend money on minecraft again. The only thing that worries me about using minecraft in education is kids relate it to fun. Sure kids could make the house, but if they just made a house for fun instead of a recreation, are they really showing learning or are they just goofing off on a minecraft server. Regardless, I think there's a possibility for something interesting here.

Feedback Givers

The individual needs of each writer completely vary. Some need help with sentence structure, some need help with supporting details, some even need help finding out what the assignment is! The role of feedback also varies greatly between the roles of student and "feedback provider" (there's a better word, please tell me what it is, commenters). There's really 4 main "feedback providers": parents, peers, teachers, and coaches. Because I'm not a parent, I'm not going to focus on how they do things. Frankly, I'm not an expert in it at all. Me saying how parents should treat their kids is like a politician without educational experience controlling educational policy. Glad that never happens!

Peers: Everybody knows what peers are. There the other classmates. Despite a lot of people trying to make peer editing a thing, I don't think it should be a thing. Let's be real, students aren't experts in writing. They might not be able to acknowledge mistakes and offer critique. They just don't have the skills yet! Worse, a peer could tell their student is doing things wrong, but they're actually doing things right. Come grading time, they'll lose points because they were led astray by their peers. Clearly not good. So what are they good for? Positive feedback and emotional encouragement. Students can offer positive praise and keep kids going when their interest is faltering. They can also help more in the brainstorming session, but again, peers might give incorrect information. Peers also have secret knowledges of one another, so they can easily "understand better their emotions and know when to reach out for help when needed" (Herrera, 6).

Teachers: the biggest "feedback providers" we have. They give a lot of information. They set the standards on how the work students create should be graded. They're the experts, so they should be constantly providing feedback of all manners in order to get them to complete the assignments and achieve higher proficiency.  Teachers should be giving more critical feedback based on what the assignment says and expects from them. 

Coaches: These are a mix between teachers and peers. They're experts (hopefully), so they know their stuff. Unlike teachers, they have no authority when it comes to the final grade. So what do they do? They do a bit of everything. They offer critiques, praises, feedback, and emotional encouragement for the entire student. Sometimes this involves helping with life problems or different subjects, as well as the content provided by the teacher. For example, one of my students was complaining about choir being difficult. I shared some resources with them. Am I a trained choir teacher? No! But I can offer encouragement and some resources that I pick up using my adult level searching skills. 

One resource I always offer is Flocabulary. It is a tool that turns concepts and ideas into cool rap songs. They're usually pretty cringe, but every so often there's a banger and the kids are hooked! It's a fun way to mix things up in the classroom, and it includes quizzes, readings, and kids can even make their own raps. It also allows you to see what students struggle on so educators can provide more effective feedback.

In the end, each of these groups are very beneficial in different ways, and because of this, different students will need different amounts of each. Knowing what's best for your students will help them succeed. 

Digital Production

I have a lot of experience with digital storytelling and all the other jazz that comes along with it. I have been teaching at Milwaukee Visionaries Project, a youth-based film workshop for four years now and have a bunch of experience making films. Many of these made it into the Milwaukee Film Fest and I am actively involved in the development of many. The one thing I learned from this process is that digital storytelling is best done collaboratively. I'm not saying that people can't make great work alone (they can), but having a group of people who are experts makes the product so much more effective. That's something I've seen from experience and has also been found in scientific articles as well: "Teachers need to master more than the subject matter they teach, they must also have a deep understanding of the manner in which the subject matter (or the kinds of representations that can be constructed) can be changed by the application of technology" (Hicks, Turner & Stratton, pg. 181 (as cited in Hicks, Turner & Stratton (2013))).

In our digital world, there are countless examples of digital storytelling, to the point where coming up with 2 is inherently limiting. I have two recommendations which I consider experts in the art of digital storytelling

The first is Mid-Day of the Living Dead. The title being a clear reference to the film Night of the Living Dead, the story follows suite. It follows a young person being chased by zombies. Eventually, the person gets caught and attacked, with a twist rendering a "game over" screen. The person walks outside to see hordes of people walking on their phone. 

What's clear from the use of greenscreen in the first half  of this film is that many scenes would be impossible to produce in person. Perhaps the filmmaker didn't have the ability to drive to these places and take these shots, so they were digitally added. We only see 1 person as a zombie. Perhaps that was the only person available for those shots? Regardless of the answer, the ability to use digital media is allowed the filmmaker to design the film in the way they wanted, regardless of physical limitations.

The second is The Bob Emergency: a study of athletes named Bob. As the title suggests, this video essay explores the history of athletes named "Bob". What stands out to me most is the nearly complete lack of animation. It doesn't need any. Instead, it starts as a blank canvas, slowly adding more and more details as the narrator, Jon Bois, goes more in depth on the histories of the Bobs. 

What I like most about this story is that it focuses on what we can do as digital writers. Too often when we see digital storytelling we think "film". This makes sense. After all, there are countless digital animators who create high quality films circulated throughout our culture. But the thing is, film isn't a requirement for digital storytelling. You can create effective and engaging stories without animation and characters. All you need is an interest in digital production and a good story. Thankfully, we all have them.

Journal 3: Writing Processes

    As pointed out by Flowers and Hayes, "The most important thing about writing goals is the fact that they are created by the writer." (Flower and Hayes, pg. 372).  These are split up into two types, content goals and process goals. "Process goals are essentially the instructions people give themselves about how to carry out the process of writing... Content goals and plans, on the other hand, specify all things the writer wants to say or to do to an audience." (Flower and Hayes, pg. 377). Of course, real writing is never at neatly defined as Flower and Hayes assert, but then again, writing never is. 

    Due to the inherent chaos of writing, my own writing goals vary greatly on the style of writing I am creating. When I am writing a story, I focus on my process. I just start writing down whatever comes to mind and sort it out later, if I feel like it. If I'm to my friends, I try to keep my objective in mind and state it in a reasonably appropriate manner.  Regardless of process, the goal here is to effectively communicate content.

    I try to emphasize my freedom to write whatever I want, wherever I want, whenever I want, and with whomever I want. Of course, this isn't always the case. Sometimes we have to write very specific information in order to achieve a goal. For example, I am currently writing a research proposal to the IRB. This requires me to plan carefully, think about what I'm saying, and how what I am saying is expressing the content I wish to express. This makes the writing experience much harder because I know I have to write in a certain way or fail to achieve my goal (get approval). 

Unfortunately, students are usually in the same boat. Nearly every rubric has a section for grammar and convention. Are these bad things? No! Especially if these things are being actively taught. The problem is teachers encourage perfected writing regardless of what is being taught in the classroom. The majority of all writing we do is imperfect. Heck, I bet you could spot an error or 7 in this writing. Are projects the time and place for perfect grammar? It makes sense. But how can you grade someone on something they haven't learned. Is that not unfair to the student? It causes them to be wary of writing and feel like poor writers (the same thing happens to readers!). As educators, we need to keep in mind how we teach writing and what we're teaching. Grading and analyzing those should be the main goals, not perfection. 

Digital Composition

 What experience do you have working with online social media or digital composition as a way to connect with others? As a way to promote social action? (e.g. blogging, Pinterest, video production, etc.)? Drawing on the readings for this week, describe the potentials and pitfalls you see for digital media in urban, English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms.

I think when people hear the words "digital composition", we think of some hifalutin ideas where it's something only people with technical experience can do, like making a VR video game that makes noises based on where your hands are, or a goofy video to share your knowledge. In reality, it's literally anything we do with a digital device. Like making talking on the phone or sharing pictures on snapchat. It's something that we've all done!

Digital composition, with it's ability to allow anyone to produce media, has drastically changed social activism. The ability to record video evidence has made it much easier to hold people accountable for wrongdoing. This isn't a recent development as well. In the 1990s, when Rodney King was assaulted by police officers, a video recording from an onlooker proved it happened. This eventually led to two police being imprisoned and King to receive millions of dollars in damages. While it is unfortunate that we have these same problems decades after, it is positive seeing people all over using digital media to continue to keep police accountable, share their locations during a protest, and share information that helps others learn more about the problems in our society.

Of course, schools don't see it this way. As Haddix and Sealey-Ruiz (2012) point out, "in many urban districts I work with, the same tools and practices get policed and censored. Students are prohibited from using them. Even further, the use of digital tools is sometimes viewed as “dumbing down” students’ literacy skills or practices (pg. 190). My school is no different. My students go through a metal detector each day and are forced to give their phones to the principal, who then lock it up. While this would not be a problem if there were ample opportunities for students to use technology. It is simply not the case. At my school, there is 1 active computer lab. That means, if one teacher wants it, they must gain it weeks in advance, hoping one of the veteran teachers hasn't grabbed it weeks in advance. When they get in the computer lab, it becomes obvious that there are only 22 computers, far below the class sizes, which means hoping students are absent, or always requiring students to work as partners. Once students get on the computers, it becomes obvious they are not powerful enough to run simple programs. What would take 1 minute on a phone would take 4 on the computers. 

As Jenkins (2006) notes, "What a person can accomplish with an outdated machine in a public library with mandatory filtering software and no opportunity for storage or transmission pales in comparison to what person can accomplish with a home computer with unfettered Internet access, high band-width, and continuous connectivity" (pg.13). And Jenkins is right! I have been able to do so much more engaging projects with my students through virtual learning rather than in the actual classroom. If I wanted to change my plans and do a student-led research project  about famous Black Milwaukeeans for a day, I can. If I was in the classroom, I can guarantee the lab would have been taken, and it would have taken more time to load information and find information.

Students in districts with less funding are falling behind their peers because the schools can't afford to get these supplies. This is why it is so essential that we fight against the technology gap in schools. We can't afford to leave our students behind where there's so much to gain from high quality technology in schools, and if we can't, maybe it's time to let students use their phones as a tool for learning.

A reintroduction!

 I'm Max Thiede. I currently teach 7th grade English at Atlas Preparatory Academy and help run UWM-led youth film workshop Milwaukee Visionaries Project. I've taught both for 4 years. I graduated from UWM with a bachelors in English Ed, but now I'm working on a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction, examining how physical and digital structures influence learners. When not working or studying, I like to volunteer with local organizations including Draw Write Here, Voces De La Frontera, and the MTEA. I also love fish and have 2 aquariums! 

One blog that I recommend everyone check out it Cult of Pedagogy! Started by Jennifer Gonzalez, it has tips on everything, and I mean everything. While some of her posts are clearly her being a corporate shill, there's very few quality education blogs that aren't sellouts. 

One website that I recommend everyone check out is Teaching Tolerance! A project made by the SPLC, Teaching Tolerance has a lot of great theory and some decent resources about teaching in the classroom. See my collage below.

I'm very excited to meet everyone and look forward to more interacting!