Friday 25 January 2013

Final thoughts

The TBL project was by far my favorite  out of all that we did, it was the thing that made me feel the most involved. I have been planning on making videos to put up for a long time, and finally with some help from this project I have added my first video. Even though it was only an amateur clip it was fun to put together and talk about, if I were to have to redo any of the projects this would be the one. This project was also unique in its field because I have in fact had to make a bucket list before for another class, but never have I added visuals and made a video. This is how this project was a one of a kind, it made use of our Internet blogging and actually inspired me to continue blogging after the course.

My least favorite assignments were actually tied between the blackout poetry and the twitter fiction. I have had a lot of time to think about those two projects and I have tried to see them in a positive way, but to be completely honest I can't. Both of them shared something that I despised, being that they limited my creativity. Now you will not even see close to my best work on this blog or on twitter, I was not committed to them at the start of the course. The difference is that the blog changed my mind, twitter did not. I now want to make better use of my blog, twitter is something I never want to use again.
 The blackout poetry was a creative idea, but stop to think about it, in school poetry is one of the hardest things for students to understand in English. Now lets get them to write three poems about the same topic, but wait, now lets limit their vocabulary so that every time they may think they have a good idea they must first search the page to instigate it. That is what bothered me about twitter as well, making a limit of characters when you are writing and putting together a short story is aggravating, you have to break every thing up and limit yourself again. Now I see how this could be productive, twitter is a very popular web site and it gets students out there, but for me I believe the negatives out weighed the positives. Do not have a student write a long story and then limit the amount they can put out at the same time.

I greatly enjoy reading, so it was always a special treat to have a full class to read. Reading is something that I do a large amount of on my own, and I would on occasion get scolded for not putting my book down. That is why having a care free day just for reading made me feel very relaxed.
The Monday reading response was a an enormous help with looking at the ideas, motives and purpose behind a story. This was a way for students to learn not only what to look for in a story but also what they should be putting down if they ever make their own.

The WRN was used at first but as the course progressed I began neglecting it more and more. To be clear I was not trying to pass off work, we were just doing so much online work that I just didn't think of it anymore. The WRN was useful and has notes that I would like to review though, so I will be hanging onto it, if I ever want reference for my writing.

The blogging first started out pretty slow and I did not really get into it, but now looking back on my performance I wish that I had put more effort on my work. I eventually made up my mind that I liked certain things about the blog, well actually I like most of the work we did on it, the one thing that I think could have been improved was the amount of personal posts we had to add. Realistically an actual blogger would only add 2-3 posts a week, but I believe the number requested declined throughout the semester, so all is well that ends well. Other than that I think the work we did on our blogs was quite productive and necessary for the future.

Twitter was something I despised from the get go, the course only made me hate it more. Everything but the reading response was an aggravation to me on twitter, I cannot stand the limited amount of  characters or the idea of followers. I am aware that it is those characteristics that make twitter unique and popular, but honestly, the only reason I would use twitter is for the community, not for academics. I may just be captious here, but after this class my feelings towards twitter are even more negative than before.

The integration of technology into the course was fun and enjoyable, it made me more involved, and caused me to no longer just be a consumer a of the Internet, but a entrepreneur of my own ideas. Being able to add your own voice is a great way to get yourself out there and noticed by the world, because that is just how vast the Internet is, you can share with everyone.

I did not learn much in a sense of becoming a better reader and writer, the skills I have learned were more just reintroduced. Although there were a couple new things, it was not much because I have previously had these subjects in past English classes. Saying that it is still helpful to review the material.

I do believe you are doing a good thing instigating students to go out into a larger community, having them share their thoughts with more then just their classmates. However like I mentioned before twitter is not something that I would ever advise a teacher to have her students work with. I think that you should still give your students the option of using a WRN even if it is not that popular.

Tell miss McLauchlan that twitter is not to be used to write short stories, if she insists on using twitter create a different project to use it with.

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Picture Post #22

Ever seen a dog smile before? not as cute as you might think it would be.

Picture Post #21

The beauty of fires orange glow is what makes it my favorite colour

Picture Post #20

How to become a Goomba 101

Picture Post #19

This was the best frosting affect I have seen this year

Picture Post #18

Like a shadow in the night he hides in plain sight.

Picture Post #17

I know it looks unwelcoming but when you really think about it, it can actually look quiet beautiful.

Picture post #16

This is something that always gets on my nerves, because of how the keys are lifted up, there are always crumbs that get underneath and prevent me from hitting certain keys.

Picture post #15

These were just a few ideas for huskie wear that we drew but were not completed, still I think they are pretty cool

picture post #14


Emm ice cream sometimes I wish I could eat it all

Sunday 20 January 2013

TBL project

The thing I wanted to focus on the most in my TBL project was completing the things that were on my list. I made an effort to at least complete half of what I put down onto the list. I did not add a completed or not completed in the video because I think it is pretty self explanatory. One thing that I will apologize for is the lack of rehearsal and variation in scenery, I had only one day to do this so I dint get around to much. The reason I didn't add in places I want to go was because of the focus on completing things. If I were to have added travelling in to the project I think it would have become side tracked. That sums up my authors note so enjoy.

note: My bucket list tuck up to much space so I put it a separate blog post.


How I will be going about tackling things off my bucket list is by taking my time and doing them over the course of my life, because unless I find out I only have something around 21 day to live, I will have lots of time to do the things I have always hoped to do. Seeing people go around on a whim and do the things they want to do is inspiring, but at my current stage in life I am not ready to go around the world. What I will do is make sure I do the things that are available to me now, so when the time comes that I do my own thing I do not become side tracked from .

Thursday 17 January 2013

Picture post #13

If you guessed it earlier you are probably not so surprised. Yes there was a crash a traffic was sent everywhere. Pour guys car was totalled.

Picture post #12

This guy is my brothers, andhe was the size of your thumb the last time I saw him. Now he is about as big as someones hand. This was  maybe a Two monthes in time. 

Picture post #11

Cats have a true fasination of boxes, this is my friends cat, it was walking in and out of this box all night.

Picture post #10

The FBI being sneaky.

 
jk. Random persons network name that I found kind of funny

Picture post #9

This... is... pathetic, I know. Something my friends insisted I do. Fun stuff right, they actually thought this looked good. Well at least it was a good laugh for a while. lol. If you can tell I was trying really hard not to smile in this picture.

Picture post #8

Same day as the bus thing can you guess why there is such an abnormality in the traffic?

Picture post #7


This little thing will take on a bear,she is supper in charge of everything... except humans. For people shes a little softy. It is actually kind of funny watching her growl at a huge dog on a walk, because she is such a twerp.

Picture post #6

Ok, so...theres a bus on this residential street. They are not supposed to be there

Picture post #5


There was some snow attached to the bus stop window, and so i couldn't resist drawing a dragon there. I apologise the pictures blurry, the lighting was off.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

picture post #4

I wish I could have taken the true picture I was after but every time I tried to aim the camera at the BIRD THAT HAD LANDED ON MY HEAD it would become frightened and start to fly away. so instead I took a picture of this sandwich in memory of that bird

picture post #3




One day I heard a tapping and scraping sound coming from down stairs, this was odd because I was the only one home and I had never heard this sort of rhythmic tapping before. I followed the sound which lead me to my kitchen, where I found my little dog doing a dance around the water dish, she kept this up until I was not so flabbergasted by her unusual behaviour and caught on that she want water. she now proceeds to do this dance now every time she wants water in her water dish.
 

picture post #2



Once again my cat, also know as the boss who can sleep anywhere, seriously he has crawled into peoples backpacks, on the back of wood chairs and right next our dog which really has no liking for cats. Here he has crawled into my shirts on a rocking chair in broad daylight.

photo post

I have decided to make a bunch a personal posts on pictures i have taken a briefly describe them. This is the first one and there will be many more.

This was taken after my cat zipped out side and found out it was freezing out. He did not want his paws getting cold so he climbed on to the front door and mioaed, this is because his claws had become stuck.

Monday 14 January 2013

Bucket list

My bucket list
 
1.publish a music album
2.write a book
3.visit the great wall of china
4.publish a book
5.genetically engineer a dragon
6.have a roll in a movie
7.gain an Irish accent
8.go sky diving without a parachute and have someone latch one onto me in the air
9.swim in the ocean
10.go gliding
11.set a world record
12.visit the Edmonton mall
13.visit the mall of America
14.learn how to dance
15.build a house
16.go to Hollywood
17.go to Los Vagus
18.travel to Africa
19.visit Australia
20.learn martial arts
21.fight a bear and win
22.swim with dolphins
23. make a sword
24.build a castle
25.survive in the wilderness for a week
26.beet my oldest brother in an arm wrestle
27.learn to speak Spanish
28.learn to speak dutch
29.make a film
30.have a sword fight and win
31.go sailing
32.go to a rain forest
33.meet Jackie Chan
34.be able to do a front flip
35.live out of a backpack for a month
36.buy a plain ticket for somewhere random
37.go mining
38.dive for treasure
39.own a monkey
40.climb a mountain
41.plant and grow a tree
42.visit the grand canyon
43.film a movie
44.get on a tv show
45.learn to widdle
46.learn parkour
47.help build a school in Africa
48.run a Marathon
49.visit Egypt
50.dive off a cliff
51.become a youtube sensation
52.do a plank push up
53.do the human flag
54.break a ice block with my hand
55.go to stone hedge
56.visit the Easter islands
57.go somewhere no one else has been
58.learn to play guitar
59.learn to play piano
60.go down in a submarine
61.go to the Olympic games
62.be a millionaire
63.become a knight
64.have a theory named after me
65.out run the police
66.fly a plain
67.escape a burning building
68.meet Will Smith
69.go to a concert
70.meet Ryan Renalds
71.ride an elephant
72.visit a volcano
73.complete a food challenge
74.mine a diamond
75.get on wipe out Canada
76.get on ninja warrior
77.make a famous poem
78.make a famous quote
79.go on a safari
80.become a magician
81.be able to do a back flip
82.become a musician
83.make my own show
84.build a grand piano
85.walk across burning charcoals
86.go hunting
87.be in two places at once
88.operate a recking ball
89.explore a cave
90.get on Canada's got talent
91.be in jail for a night
92.meet Simon Cow


Saturday 12 January 2013

newspaper blackout poetry

Newspaper blackout poetry

The newspaper black out poetry was a creative way of writing but it was not for me. I could see how it could be a good release for someone who could not think of how to get their idea out there, but for myself it felt as though my own creativity was being held back and restricted to what was on the page. I found that it took to much time to find the words I was looking for and it was both hard to coup with and frustrating because I would have an idea in my head that I could not put on the page. This also in tern caused me to think in not a way of poetry but more in a way of writing a story, which was what really happened in the end.  To be perfectly honest I would take a blank peace of paper to which I can do what I over something that is give me ideas and distracting me from how I normally express myself. I believe that there is much more opportunity in poetry when you can create something new, it can be useful to pick up ideas from something else in order to help you craft a poem of your own, but other then that I think newspaper black out poetry was a style that I would rarely if ever try again.