Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Writing Brought Me Back to Life


We are already in the third week of the new semester, and I have discovered a new vigor for teaching. For the first time in my eight years of teaching, I have finally gotten to teach one of my two ideal classes: Creative Writing (the other would be Public Speaking). Creative Writing is a blast, and my other two classes are pretty good, too. I'm actually pretty happy.

One of the best things about Creative Writing is that I have been able to integrate technology into my lessons. I have taught my students to use Live Binders, Mixbook, Prezi, Blogger, and Google Docs. We are posting our online portfolios to my classroom website. You can see some samples of my students' creative nonfiction pieces below:

My portfolio: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=289307

D'Andre's Portfolio: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=297363

Shelby's portfolio: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=297361

Lindsay's portfolio: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=297355

Our class's favorite assignment by far has been the Six Word Memoir. Want to play? You can listen to the story behind the Six Word Memoir at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123289019&ps=cprs. Then try to come up with your own six word memoir and post it as a comment to this blog entry. I'll bring you some chocolate at our next Pinnacle meeting if you post one! :)

I'm so happy this semester. I hope you are too! I can't wait to hear everyone's success story at the next meeting!