Lesson Plan

This was by far my favorite assignment! I really took a lot of time working on this assignment trying to get the most out of the lesson I was plannning on teaching. I was able to incorporate many different types of learning styles such as physically, visually, and hearing. I wanted to make the assignment fun so they would be more likely to remember the information in the long run, that is why I included an art projected at the end of the assignment. I hope that someday I am able to perform or something like this lesson plan in the future. Thanks for an awesome semester, see you in Reading Lit next!!

Memo

I thought this assignment was definitely necessary, although very challenging. I understood what you wanted us to get from the assignment, it was just difficult to produce it. I learned a lot from the readings it was just difficult trying to pick out what was the most important. I have never been a strong writer myself, assignments like this make me extremely nervous. I wish I could have had someone edit for me before I turned it in, no one on the rugby team would really have qualified. I think I just need more practice when it comes to writing more professional style papers.

CORRECTNESS

I am definitely one of those writers who fear of making a mistake like spelling, punctuation, and grammar. When I was reading the commonly confused words, I realized that I did not know the difference between "affect" and "effect", I believe I have been using them wrong all a long. I also never knew when to use "whose". In the section called, One Word or Two?, I recalled back to 5Th grade when my teacher made a huge detail about "a lot" always being 2 words, it nice that my teacher made this detail making it easy in the long run! I never thought spelling has been trouble some for me, although grammar, using the wrong words at times is what I am weak at when writing. I am really glad that I bought this book looking and glimpsing through it, this is definitely a book I am going to keep for the rest of my life.

Teaching Writing

The first two articles I felt were directed more towards lower elementary, while the third article seemed more as if the students were older. I know that the third article did have a lot of important info that could be used at the lower levels also. I felt that the first and the third articles correlated with each other by having the children write freely (quick writes and community involvement) since both the assignments allowed personal passion and their own thoughts. We learned that each student brings their own culture and personality style to their writings. (I have to go to my doctors appointment now... I will finish tonight at home, sorry!)

Video Project "reification"

The labor portion of my project took me forever. Finding all the pictures to use and sorting through them to see which ones would work best made me feel like the project was never going to end. Then after putting the right pictures with what I was saying took some time, but the worst part was once I added all of the video transitions the timing was all off. I had to go back through and change it all again. I never got the opportunity to film my own team (obviously I was playing...) Although I did get a chance to film the men's team. The verbal portion didn't take that long to say to gab cast, but figuring out what I am going to say was another story... It was extremely hard to get started, it seemed to pick up once I got the intro done. I realized when doing my project that the rugby affinity group would truly appreciate my project. I think I was able to bring other affinity groups together in my project by making the main focus on working hard and good things will happen (I felt everyone could some how relate to that!) Picking my music was a challenging, I settled with Jack Johnson. Although it doesn't seem like the right music for a sports themed video, I felt the Eye of the tiger has definitely been overplayed!!

Video Project Update

I am pretty mad, this weekend I was planning on getting some video of me and my team playing rugby against Stanford, but since the weather was so bad I was unable to capture what I was looking for. I am having a hard time putting videos in with my pictures. I also hope someone has figured how to turn down the volume of their music once I begin to talk.

Movie

Well... Instead of learning a new position in Rugby, I wanted to become a BETTER rugby player. In my movie I am going to show what it takes to be a better rugby player. I am going to show pictures of practice, conditioning, and games. The dedication, desire, and focus it truly takes. I have some pictures on the video making, but I still need to get practice and conditioning pictures. I need to have someone on my team film portions of my game this weekend to add those clips. My only concern is not having enough pictures (but I think I will put more general pictures of rugby instead of pictures just on me playing.) I am still confused about the audio portion and the phone number I am suppose to call.

Learning and Action

In the section "going to war", I found this extremely interesting... I was wondering how Gee was going to incorporate these video games. Gee explains that when playing games like these you take many shots to the body and you are able to save yourself by finding certain medical kits through out the game. Once you have one the game, it repeats and shows you all of your good moves you made through out the process. This is important when it comes to education, once children have done a good job, we need to go back through with them showing them (reinstalling the info), and rewarding them for a job well done.

Situated Learning

We learn from our past... In chapter 4 Gee discusses how when people face a new situation in the world we use past situations to solve the problem. In the video game Deus Ex with its turning story line, ever event is important. With movies and books the author determines the sequence of events. When it comes to this video game ever piece of information or intense conversation with another character can lead to more clues. This allows players to gain information in many different ways. There are four ways that can affect the way you receive your clues. 1) The game designer (the actually author). 2) How you the player chooses to play the game. 3) How you as the character plays the game. 4) Your imagination.The character is able to understand and keep the information what he/she has learned from the past conversations and use it towards accomplishing the game/mission.

Video Games

The first claim that James Gee makes that makes sense to me was his theory about the basketball sentence. For me since I know a lot about basketball- "The guard dribbled down court, held up two fingers, and passed to the open man" (pg 18). For me this sentence makes complete sense, but I can see how this would be extremely confusing for other who had no back ground in basketball. To be "good" readers we must be able to "literate in a great variety of different semiotic domains" (pg 19). I like how Gee mentions how older generations feel about video games, "a waste of time", but in reality we learn that video games have a family of semiotic domains.

Something New!

I currently play rugby for Chico State. I have lately been learning a new position so I am a more versatile player. I play a position called "Lock", and I am learning how to play "8 man". Knowing more positions in any sport can guaranty more playing time for anyone! This can be extremely frustrating and sometimes it would be much easier to stay in the same position I am comfortable with, but I know the more I practice the more successful I will be!
-Stacy Pitsker

My first Blog

I LOVE JD's!! I wish I could have it right now!!! But I can't!!!!