What have I learned thru my bloging?

As I'm reading through my blog posts I'm wondering if I have learned anything. This class has seemed almost effortless with the material because it seems almost common sense. So have I learned to be a writing consultant? Am I at the point where I can honestly say that through blogging I have learned ...... I just don't know. To me it seems that I have these past couple weeks just writing typing out what was in my head at the time, not really thinking how they all connect together. But do my blogs have a common think besides just being for the same class?

I know I have intentionally written on my dream of becoming a teacher and what I hope this class will provide me in my future classroom. Is that the connection I need to talk about in my blog paper? Or is there something deeper that I have yet to discover? I hope I find the answer soon, since I am running out of time.

Response to "The Concept of Control in Teacher Response..."

In this article I found a quote that I think both relates to this English 383 class and my education class backgrounds:

"The teacher's proper role, [Joseph Moxley] explains, 'is not to tell the student explicitly what to do but rather to serve as a sounding board enabling the writer to see confusions in the text and encouraging the writer to explore alternatives that he or she may not have considered.'" (224)

Unlike the other article we read, "The Genre of the End Comment," which I found to disregard encouraging remarks made by teachers, stating they were part of a generic convention and not of sincere intentions. I find that this quote serves to better describe the teachers role in paper reading than the other article which I thought stated teachers were under educated on grading papers.

Digital Story Interview

Today I FINALLY was able to interview my professor for my Digital Story Project so I can get the rough draft of the script done on time. My professor is from the Education department so some of her points might not be understood by all but I totally understood her. There were some points in the interview that I thought were very interesting, especially in the view of this class. In one instance my professor and I discussed how the audience is such an importance on one's writing. She gave an example that if she had to write about something that she doesn't think any one is going to read then what's the point? Also, that id you don't connect with your audience its hard to write about something and feel confident in your work.

My professor just happens to be a procrastinator like me (hence writing 4 blog posts the day before they are due lol); so I asked her how she is able to complete her work on time, even though she waits till the last minute. Her Response was that even though she waits till the last minute to write her paper all the time beforehand she is thinking about it, synthesizing ideas, pondering over connections, etc. So I guess in a way she formulates an outline of ideas in her head of what she wants to talk about and just in a stream of conscience writes them all down at once.

I found the interview enlightening in some ways knowing that someone else has a similar process to me own. I hope everyone will like my Digital Story.

Totally how I feel when Im thinking about what I should say in my Blog...

This cartoon is by Dave Walker. http://www.weblogcartoons.com/page/2/

Where am I in this class?

From the last post "Where am I in this class?" I feel like I have been slowly warming up to the idea of blogging about class and the articles we have read in class. I feel that in my posts I don't really concentrate on the readings as much as I try to concentrate on my experiences throughout the class. I don't know if this is what we are supposed to be concentrating on in our blogs but I find the experiences through discovery about what a writer is rather than the materials we've read gets me more involved in what this class is about.

I'm happy where I am in the class now, even though I'm still a little behind in the posts, I feel like I'm on the right track. The only thing now is the Blog Paper that is due this week and the Digital Story Script that's due. I have yet had the chance of interviewing my professor due to scheduling problems so I'm nervous about getting the script done on time. But I'm sure it will all work out. Also, I talked to Prof. Dolson today about the due date of the Digital Story and was VERY CONCERNED that it might be due right after fall break when I was under the impression it wouldn't be due till the week after. I hope that we get this figured out soon because I have a plane to catch Friday and I need to know if I should have my project done before fall break or if I can do it after I come back. Here's hoping for the best.

My Response to "The Genre of the End Comment: Conventions in Teacher Responses to Student Writing"

When reading "The Genre of the End Comment: Conventions in Teaching Responses to Student Writing" I was very surprised what was presented towards the beginning of the article. More specifically the quotes:

"Teachers usually do not receive formal training in commenting and rarely share their written comments with each other." (249) 

and 

"Unfortunately, the positive-only convention in the evaluation of the paper is so strong that some teachers may write positive evaluations of the paper without actually belileving them, simply to confrom to the generic conventions." (253-254)

I was astonished that the author really found these conclusions from reading selected papers in a random paper drawing. In response to the first quote I know for a fact, from seminars and talking with veteran teachers, that most teachers do in fact go to tutorials and seminars on how to evaluate, comment, and assign a letter grade to student's papers. Also relating to the first quote, any first year teacher can tell you that the teachers in your community are the greatest resource you can have. That discussing with other teachers about evaluating students papers and what to say/do with their papers is of high importance. So that one can gauge what to expect from a student and what they should correct or help a student on.

The second comment all I have to say is that if a teacher were to write on a paper anything completely negative not only would the student's confidence completely diminish but also have to deal with parent's reactions as well (which can get pretty ugly). Writing can be a very personal experience, and to outright say that it was poorly written or other such things could cause the student to have anxiety for the next paper or any assignment the student might have to turn in.