Last night, my best friends and I went to see The Perks of Being a Wallflower premiere in Pittsburgh.

Stephen Chbosky was there to sign books and introduce the movie! I first read Perks when I was a sophomore in high school and immediately fell in love with Charlie, the main character. Seeing the story on the big screen was such an awesome experience. This is a bit embarrassing  but I pretty much cried the entire last half of the film. There are some really emotional parts through the end that overwhelmed the entire audience (no really, everyone was sniffling!). Stephen both wrote the screenplay and directed it, and it definitely made a difference. I may go as far as to say this is the best book to film adaptation I've ever seen.
I've always thought this novel would be great to teach in a high school class. Sure, it has some controversial/suggestive topics, but nothing that the typical high school won't experience. It addresses adolescent and universal issues in a really creative way through a down-to-earth character to whom we can all relate. I guarantee you will love this movie.

I really enjoyed this week's readings. Probably my favorite was Chapter 4 in Miller & McVee, where it discussed the multimodal projects of Carol, a 9th grade English teacher. I loved hearing the results of her Halloween story project. "Her son, the mother told Carol, frequently struggled with school learning and was easily intimidated by school assignments, but during this particular week, he had told his mother enthusiastically about his story, had continued to work on it at home, and- in an uncharacteristic demonstration of confidence-had proudly shared it with his mother" (55). This quote really struck me.
I really  loved my high school, but it did have its fair share of flaws. One of which was the separation of "good" and "bad" students. The honors students were always in classes together, and then students who typically got lower scores were together. Often in my honors English class, the teacher would comment/joke about the "other" class that failed their tests, or didn't turn in project, or handed in sub-par work. While I get that teacher get frustrated sometimes, I hated seeing a whole group of girls (it was an all-girls school) labeled as "bad" and expected to fail. I firmly believe that no student is "bad". It's so important to me that when I teach, I use multimodality and new digital literacies to make sure that all of my students feel connected to what they're learning. I've experienced so many teachers that when faced with students that didn't understand the lesson, shrugged their shoulders and moved onto the next topic. Instead, they should've taken the time to approach the lesson in a different way that allows students who learn a different way to understand. Honestly, my biggest dream as a teacher is allowing students, like the boy Carol encountered, to see that they truly can excel in school and see learning in a different light.

As stated in my last post, I'm a huge fan of poetry. I've been writing it ever since I can remember (yes, that includes the cheesy ones I wrote when I was 12 that I still have) The past few years, I've really gotten into spoken word poetry. Hearing a piece performed is a totally different experience than reading it on the page. This poem below "A Finger, Two Dots, Then Me", performed by the awesome Derrick Brown, was the first spoken word poem introduced to me at a Writer's Workshop in high school. Even now, it's one of my favorites. As a teacher, I'm really excited to share contemporary poets to my students along side the classics. I really want to emphasize to my students that they can write awesome and emotional poetry and feel proud of their work. 

Personally, I think this poem is best heard with your headphones on a high volume with your eyes closed..but that might just be me. Enjoy!

Ideas for Later

I'm rather disappointed I had to miss this week's class, because after going through the assigned readings I would've loved to hear the discussions that took place. Ah, well.

The reading that struck me the most was Kist's chapter, "Short: Social Networking in a Low-Tech Environment". I felt like I was "star-ing" something on every page! At the moment, I'm really interested in working with low-income schools in more urban areas, so I really enjoyed this section. I absolutely loved the activities suggested in the book. As a student in grade/high school, I never minded simple writing assignments because, well, I love to write. I love analyzing text, writing responses, etc. However, I'm fully aware that my students may not share the same sentiment, or have had writing introduced in a way that excited them.

My favorite idea was the "List Group Label With Found Poetry". I write poetry in my spare time, and love reading it when I get the chance. I actually wish we incorporated it more into my curriculum more in high school and college. I really liked the book's idea because it removes the stigma around poetry that it has to rhyme or resemble Shakespeare. The activity gives the students some direction by providing a "key word", but then allows the students freedom. I was always really shy in grade/high school (I still kind of am...), so when imagining ideas for class, I always try and keep in mind that not all students will be excited to speak out or show their work to the class. This activity has a great mix of both--allowing students to showcase their originality by having their own words on the poster corner, but combining their words into one collective poem.
Overall, I'm pretty excited to see what other ideas the text offers for the classroom.

This week in Writing for Non-Print Media, I really enjoyed reading the book Adolescents and Digital Literacies. My favorite was the tackling of literacy myths, because I could personally identify with nearly all of them. Unfortunately, many teachers perpetuate those myths, such as "students who struggle with one literacy will have difficulty with all literacies". I've seen teens given the label of "bad student" (which followed them all throughout high school), when in reality he/she just struggled in one area. Given the opportunity, he/she could excel in another area. It's important as teachers to know our students' strengths and weaknesses, so we can better cater to their learning styles. For instance, so many students struggle while reading Shakespeare right from the page. Acting the scene out in class, perhaps, would be a great way to help students who are visual learners. The use of non-print media is a really important way to approach different learning styles and bring more modern and nontraditional methods into the classroom.

Greetings!

Hello, everyone.
My name is Brandy Geist. I'm a 20 year old junior attending Slippery Rock University. I'm majoring in Secondary English Education (and also hopefully minoring in Women's Studies). Reading and writing are both really big passions in my life, and I'm very excited to become a high school English teacher and share that with my students. Eighth grade was around the time becoming a teacher sparked my interest, and the idea has stuck ever since.
Some of my random interests include: reading, writing poetry, feminism, Sylvia Plath, and chai tea. I do keep a personal blog, but I'm eager to keep a blog specifically focused on my future career. Hopefully this blog with be a great place to gather resources or ideas to use in the classroom! Happy reading :)