Acrostic Poem

Athletic

Bubbly

Bold

Enthusiastic

Young

Obersvation

My bedroom:

-Constantly hear my ceiling fan

-Smells like my favorite candle

-Feels comfortable

-Looks clean and put together

-My safe space to escape from stressful situations

-Spacious

-Feels relaxing and calming with my humidifier, candles, fan and dimmed lighting

Specifically focusing on what I referred to in my “Writing Memories” blog, which was posted before this, the situation with my second grade teacher demonstrating how to write in cursive could be an example of a writing product that I created. I was able to witness my teacher showcase to the class how to write the letters of the alphabet as he modeled each letter to us. Then I was able to use his explanation to grasp a better understand towards writing in cursive by myself.

An example of writing processes that were used in elementary would include creating our own books. We were given little instruction on creating this books. Our teacher invited us to write about whatever topic we wanted to. She also suggested we create in whatever order we chose to. We could start with drawing the pictures, or writing the story, or even the cover. She gave us a lot of choice with this writing assignment and we were able to be extremely creative with it.

In elementary school my teachers all pushed towards creative writing. We were given a lot of time to write through every grade. My teachers all also focused on grammar as well as writing format. We spent times breaking down the essential components to a letter as well.

My teachers showcased various forms of writing. They encouraged us to utilize brainstorming before diving into our writing. They also included a plethora of time for free writing as I have mentioned. I also remember keeping a journal in second grade and writing in it often. These are a few ways my teachers taught us writing from what I can remember in elementary school.

As I have mentioned we were given various occasions to choose different topics to write about. My teachers simply wanted us to experience writing in a positive way to encourage us to continue to do so outside of class. We typically would write our pieces for ourselves, and to share with our parents, peers, and teachers as well. Majority of these assignments were creative free writing or journaling/book making.

For the most part while writing about my memories, I feel as though I used a positive affective language. I think I had a wonderful experience learning to write in elementary school and is a huge reason why I still enjoy to write now. I have never really had any issues with writing and have always loved having the opportunity to write.

After analyzing my writing memories, I hope I will be able to give my future students a similar writing experience than what I had. I want to give students an abundance of opportunities to write and have the choice to write what they want to write about. I want students to enjoy writing and not have to stress about writing assignments when they are in older grade levels because they became extremely comfortable with it in my class. I plan to use very similar teaching methods to the ones my teachers used when I am teaching my future students to write to hopefully portray a similar impact.

1- I know that I really enjoy cooking myself dinner

2- I feel better when I exercise and eat healthy and over all take care of my body

3- I am looking forward to my future and although I do not know exactly where I am headed I know wherever it is I will make the most of it

It can be quite overwhelming attempting to look back on the writing I created in elementary school, simply because I feel majority of school growing up consisted of some form of writing. I specifically remember writing in Second grade very vividly. Second grade was when I learned how to write in cursive. My teacher told us we were only allowed to write once we had a cursive license. This basically meant we had to wait until we learned how to write each letter of the alphabet in cursive. This part of learning how to write in elementary school is still so vivid because of how my teacher kept my classmates and I away from writing in cursive before we were ready. He told us the cursive police would come and have a talk with us if he caught any of us writing in cursive. He would tell us the cursive police were two girls with blue curly hair, at least thats how I remember picturing them looking like. My Second grade self did not want anything to do with the blue haired cursive police so I definitely was not writing in cursive until I had my official cursive license.

I also remember in Third grade having the opportunity to create and “publish” our own book. By that I mean we wrote a creative story on one of those blank white hard cover books. I remember really enjoying the ability to write and illustrate whatever I wanted to for that book. I unfortunately do not remember what I wrote about except for the fact that it involved a kangaroo and Easter. Once my classmates and I finished created our books we all had the opportunity to read our books aloud to our classmates. It was really awesome starting from a completely blank book and watching it come to life and being able to say I created a book entirely by myself, even if the book was completely random and was created by my Third grade self. It’s really important to give students chances like that to explore the different components to the writing process, especially at an early age to continue encouraging them to explore their own creativity.

Focusing on the Following Questions:

-How do you define writing?

Defining writing can be challenging but I personally think its best described as utilizing words to help create meaning or portray a message to an audience. It can be used to invite people to explore the feeling of vulnerability by expressing their personal thoughts. Writing can also be found in so many different forms of writing which all also portrays a meaning behind which form of writing is chosen to display a message.

-What do you see as the teacher’s role in children learning to write?

Teacher’s have a very essential role that is crucial in children learning to write but it also takes a lot to understanding how exactly to guide students towards learning to write. There is a fine line for teachers to teach writing because you want to help the students get the ball rolling on their writing processes but also don’t want to over-step your boundaries by taking away their creativity aspect of writing. Guiding students towards exploring their own topics to write about is a major role teacher’s have when teaching students to write.

-What else do you think is important in children learning to write?

It is extremely important to show them the foundation to creating writing before expecting students to be able to write about absolutely anything. Having students learn to write at an early age will lead them to various years of practicing different writing techniques. If children do not have a strong understanding of how to write at a young age this will lead to many challenges for them in the future since writing is such a crucial component to our society today.

In this particular blog post I am choosing to respond to the following question:

• What would be your dream job/career and why?

For starters, to answer the question on the first bullet point listed above, I am in school to become an Early Childhood Educator. With that being said, once I graduate from Illinois State University my plan for the future will begin with (hopefully) becoming a Kindergarten teacher. These last few years I have worked closely with this age group and have fallen in love with their nerve to blurt out anything that comes to mind without even thinking twice. This, of course, could be the brutally honest truth about your outfit that day, maybe a seriously funny joke they’ve come up with, or even sharing a sweet compliment. Nonetheless this age group always seems to keep me on my toes I’ve come to realize which is why I plan to work with them in the future; however I can’t say this is all I want to do for the rest of my life. I simply plan on teaching this age group or possibly bouncing around from Kindergarten to Second Grade and First Grade for the first ten or fifteen years after I graduate college. I feel teaching children at this young age is so rewarding because I will have a major part in building a strong educational foundation for their learning that they will carry with them through all of their learning experiences through schooling. They learn so much about themselves and how they learn at this age it would be absolutely incredible to watch that unfold in my own future classrooms.

After I believe I have had enough teaching experience under my belt, I would really enjoy working with children in a different aspect of life. I genuinely enjoy helping people and working with them to help them deal with any issues going on in their lives. Going along with that I would love to work with children that may be going through some difficult situations in their lives. This could potentially lead me towards some form of counseling which I understand would most likely require more schooling. The question I am answering deliberately states dream job or career so their is no guarantee I would actually be able to follow through with this plan. I truly believe I have the patience and willingness to really listen to these students and understand where they are coming from. I would love to help these students in any way I possibly could even if it simply requires me listening to them express all the emotions they are feeling due to the situations they are experiencing in their homes or at school. I want to show these students I truly care and want to work with them to help them and I believe counseling or another job similar to that would be a wonderful way for me to show them that.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.