Deenie by Judy Blume, Response 1

I have always loved Judy Blume. I read her books often when I was a pre-teen. This book is about a girl named Deenie. She is under constant pressure from her mother to become a model. Her mother thinks that she is extremely beautiful, which she is, but there is always something wrong with her posture. After going to several modeling agencies, Deenie is always told how beautiful she is but she just does not walk correctly. Her mother is constantly blaming her for not trying to stand up straighter, and Deenie swears up and down that she can not help it. After trying out for the cheer leading team and not making it, one of Deenie's teachers notices that she is walking weird and pulls her in her office to examine her. The teacher calls Deenie's parents and tells them that Deenie needs to see a doctor. After a few doctors visits, Deenie is diagnosed with scoliosis. Scoliosis is a spine deformity which either causes the spine to curve like a C or an S. It is usually noticed during the growth spurts of puberty. Deenie's mom is devastated and claims that the doctors are wrong. It seems as though her mom is not devastated because her daughter might have to get surgery and go through pain, but rather she is upset because Deenie won't be able to model. I think in looking at my single story this is a very interesting physical ailment. Scoliosis is only debilitating when not taken care of early. In Deenie's case, she is lucky because it was caught early and there are many things that can be done to fix it, yet her mother is still freaking out. This goes along with my single story because it is that constant idea that people who have "deformities" or disabilities are automatically seen as being unable to have a full quality of life. People are constantly jumping to that conclusion. Deenie's mother said when she found out her daughters diagnosis said, "So you're telling me my daughter is deformed?". I can't imagine being Deenie in this situation. She seems as if she just wants her parents to help her but they are more concerned on placing blame on someone. That is another thing I have discovered in my reading, most people always want someone to blame for their disability or their family members disability, but why?

Shifting Gears for a Moment: I Am Mad and I Am Sad

Hi to anyone who reads this. I want to start by saying that what I am about to say is my opinion. If you do not agree, that is fine. Today I read a statistic that saddened me to my core. We have lived through 311 days in 2018, and on 307 of those days there have been shootings. I read this over and over again until hot angry tears ran down my face. Im angry and I am sad. I can't wrap my brain around the fact that some people believe that their right to bear arms is more important than peoples lives. People argue that gun laws are already strict enough, yet California is said to have the strictest gun laws and there are twelve people who are dead in Thousand Oaks California from a mass shooting. The laws are NOT strict enough. My heart is so heavy today, and I guess me writing this is a way to try and deal with what I am feeling. I have so many other things to say, but I am having trouble articulating it. I want to end this post with the idea of privilege. People who believe that gun laws should not become stricter are privileged. I guarantee those peoples views would change if someone they care about was injured or murdered due to gun violence. I will leave you all with this photo. Read the sign, then read it again

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Reflection on My Tech Demo

I did my tech demo on the website Formative. I was really excited about this for a few reasons. One reason was because in searching for this website, I came across some really awesome teacher blogs that have so much information! It was really amazing to see all of these teachers wanting to help each other, and all of the information I was able to obtain. I was actually fairly nervous to present this tech demo to the class because a lot of people had really awesome and interactive websites, but I put my fears aside and did my best. I thought that the class responded very well to my demo, and I was really pleased that the class had so many questions for me. It was my hope that they would all find Formative useful, and it seemed that many of them did! I really liked this website because there were so many awesome features that could be really beneficial to teachers. As future teachers, I think these tech demos are really important and useful for us to watch. I know have so many tools to choose from when I am a teacher!

Stuck In Neutral by Terry Trueman: Finished Book Response

At first I did not think that this book would interest me. It was really small and the synopsis did not intrigue me. I was pleasantly surprised after finishing this book though. It was a quick read, but a very powerful one. (SPOILER ALERT) At the end of the book Shawn's dad seems to be preparing to murder his son. Shawn is completely handicapped. He has hardly any motor functions, he can not speak, and he has constant seizures. Everyone thinks that he has the mindset of a 3 year old, but in reality he is actually really smart and even has a photographic memory. His father thinks that he is suffering and he can not even bear to watch his son suffer anymore, so he thinks that the best thing to do is kill him. This book goes along with my single story because Shawn is physically impaired, and I think this will be one of the most useful books when talking about the single story I chose. People who are physically disabled face more challenges than someone who is not, but that does not mean that their quality of life is any less. The book is written from the point of view of Shawn, and when reading you could tell that at the end of the day he was pretty content with his life. He loved his family, and the fact that he could remember everything. He faced many struggles, but he still wanted to be alive. I think that it is very important to realize that just because from the outside it may seem as though people with disabilities have a "lesser" quality of life, but we don't truly know how they feel. We all need to take a step back sometimes and instead of judging people with disabilities based on what they can't do, we should celebrate all of the things that they can do.

Visual Poetry Project

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oUDV2t92g1wWEEsNWH-5bmEJTKJiRAr5/view?usp=sharing



This process started off difficult for me because I usually am not good with technology but once I started really working on it I knew what I had to do and everything became more organized and came together. At first I had absolutely no idea what my vision was for this poem, then after reading it a few more times as well as getting feedback from my peers the ideas started to flow in. My family means the world to me and I just knew that I wanted them to be apart of this. After re-reading the poem multiple times it became clear which family members I wanted to read each of the different parts. As for the media, the story board really helped me come up with different ideas for that and it made it a lot easier to get all of my ideas down on paper. I changed the background music a lot when I was working on this project. Nothing seemed to fit and flow the way I envisioned it, so I kept searching and I finally found a song that I liked. Then I had some trouble with some of the videos I uploaded. Every time I would upload a video that I had previously recorded off of Snapchat, they would stretch vertically and look so weird so I had to record new videos which I ended up liking a lot better. At first I really did not like doing this. I am not good with technology, but then once I started doing it, it made me appreciate and really look to see what the poem is saying. I felt that this project really made me engage with the poem more than I would have by just reading it. I feel fairly confident in my project. It is in no way perfect and it is pretty amateur but I know that I did my best and I am really proud of what I accomplished when I didn't think I would be able to do much of anything with this project. This project in a way made me see that technology (even in literature) can be a really useful tool in the classroom and I am glad that I have been given so many tools to use in my future classroom!

Stuck In Neutral by Terry Trueman, Blog Post 1

At first glace, this book seems like one that I would have a really hard time staying interested in but after the first 60 pages I really enjoy this book. The premise of the story makes me really sad, and I find myself having to suppress tears. I don't want to give too much away but basically a boy named Shawn is extremely disabled by cerebral palsy and seizures that have left him brain dead, or so everyone thinks. He is completely unable to speak, feed himself, go to the bathroom by himself, etc. His father who is the winner of a Pulitzer Prize for a poem he wrote about Shawn, left the family because he could not take seeing his son in pain everyday. The part that I am on right now is where his father is on a talk show, defending a man who murdered his disabled son. This is leading Shawn to believe that his father wants to murder him, but nobody has any idea that he understands what is going on. Shawn is actually really intelligent and has a photographic memory, but since he is unable to speak, doctors have ruled that his mental age is about 2-3 years old. I am curious to see what happens with his father and if Shawn is able to ever let anyone know that he actually knows exactly what is going on all the time. This book fits really well into the single story that I am exploring, because this shows a lot of instances where people (especially Shawn's father) have passed severe judgement onto him, and just assumed that his quality of life is so horrible, that he might be better off dead. I am looking forward to seeing what else I discover throughout the rest of this book!

McVee, Bailey, & Shanahan: Response

I really liked this article, it gave me a better look into what goes into our class! It was interesting to see the transition this teacher made when first teaching this class, and then what he learned after teaching it a few times. A quote that reminded me of our class was "When I first began introducing technology to my teaching I thought bout how much flexibility is needed to make a class run smoothly.". It really made me think about how our class is so flexible and that I really enjoy that aspect of our class. I always feel as if we never rush things, we take the time we need to, to finish what we are working on. Another part of this article I liked was how always having a backup plan is strongly encouraged. I feel as a future teacher, that is going to be a very important thing to remember and is also something I have been taught in my other classes as well. My favorite part of the article was the talk about incorporating humor into the class, I feel that many teachers/professors don't feel that way, and it is really refreshing that some teachers/professors still like to make learning enjoyable!