Writing with Rap

While in grad school, I had the great opportunity to work one-on-one with a fifth-grader over several weeks.  I was tasked with having him respond to a piece of literature in a way that was meaningful to him.  He chose to read Drive-By by Lynne Ewing, a novel about a boy whose older brother is killed in a drive-by shooting and has to learn to survive without him.

When we started to talk about what kind of product he wanted to create about the book, his school insecurities came out.  He didn't think he was a good artist and didn't want to take any risks on a creative project.  He also decided that he really wanted to write about football.  After a discussion about why he loved football and what he thought might have happened if the main character had played football, he decided to try to write a letter to the character to convince him to join a football team.  We tried brainstorming to get ideas for the letter, and I quickly realized that his go-to method, cluster diagrams, was not working for him because he thought in sentences, not topics.

I remembered that he had said he loved Drake and other rappers, and he said he thought he could rap, too.  I played some music and had him start talking/rapping to the main character while I typed what he said.  We rearranged the sentences, filled in what was needed, and he turned the words into a rap song.  I let him record the song, and I burned him a copy on cd for him to keep.  He seemed to be really proud that he had created something smart and cool that he could share with his friends and family, and I learned a valuable lesson about finding alternate routes to meet the same learning goals.

Below is a video I made explaining the creative process and showcasing his rap.

Pixton for Schools

As I've mentioned before, I'm slightly obsessed with Pixton.com, and it seems that a lot of educators are.  I have used it for my grad school classes and for fun, and I hope I will have a chance to give my students the same opportunity to use it as a satisfying outlet for their ideas and creativity as I have.  Even in my interim between grad school and my first teaching job, I still log onto Pixton fairly regularly because I love the site.  This following video should help you understand the benefits of using Pixton in the classroom and might even hook you as a personal user.

One of my favorite Pixton comics, ebabin, writes about her experiences in her classroom, and they are always very entertaining.  She sets her comic characters and props against a background of photos from her classroom, which gives her comics an authentic feel.




Another great Pixon educator comic is slickscience, who creates comics to use with students to teach them science concepts such as physical and chemical changes as seen below.



Take some time to check out the rest of ebabin and slickscience's comics, as well as Pixton's other top authors.  And while you're at it, you could always look through my comics, too!

the hunt is on...

It’s been over a year since I updated this blog, and I think the time is right to take it in a new direction.  I have finished my graduate program at Vanderbilt with and M.Ed.  Yay!  Unfortunately, graduating in August, writing my thesis during prime job hunting time, and having no idea where I wanted to live until late July resulted in no teaching job for me this school year.  I’ve worked a couple of unrelated but pretty cool jobs to fill the year and my bill collectors’ pockets.

My first stop was in a preschool for kids with developmental delays.  I loved those kids, but apparently a masters degree in secondary English education does not help you one bit in teaching itty bitty kiddos.  They walked all over me, and in the end, I decided that they really needed someone who could do a much better job for them than I could.  Plus, I needed to retain my sanity for the kids I can hopefully do much better with.

My current job is working for the Bureau of Legislative Research at the Arkansas State Capitol.  During the legislative session, I proofed bills before they went to the House and Senate to be voted on.  Now we’re getting all the new laws edited and ready to be sent off to the publisher and checking to make sure the publishers don’t make mistakes.  There was a pretty big controversy last session in which an unintended ”not” made it legal for Arkansans of any age, babies on up, to get married.  Whoops!  That’s why they need me and my awesome coworkers.

Now I’m working my booty off trying to get a real teaching job for the fall.  I’ve had a few interviews and some great responses to my inquiries, but so far no news.  It amazes me how long schools drag this out!  One school district I’ve contacted says they won’t even start looking until June.  Come on people, you’re making my hair turn white.  I’m really ready for some certainty in my life for a while.  And so ready to use what I’ve been studying for 5+ years now.

Wish me luck!

Vanderbilt Reflection

One of my last assignments for my Vanderbilt career was to write a reflection on my online experiences with educators.  I made a comic on Pixton.com, a really cool, easy-to-use online comic builder.  I have used it for several comics, including my series about my old cat Smelly (I think they’re pretty entertaining.  Check them out!), and can’t wait for an opportunity for students to create their own Pixton comics.

To view the online teaching community comic, click and drag the comic side-to-side to see hidden panels.

Blog

This is a blog I’ve created for my Reading and Learning with Print and New Media class.  I’m interested in learning all I can about teaching middle school English, particularly ways to help kids become better readers.  I’d love to see any ideas you have about ways to help students develop their reading skills and anything fun you’ve come across that kids might like to read.  I’m collecting books for a classroom library and would love suggestions.  Thanks!