BRAINSTORMING-What I want to write and how

After reading Root's selection on Collage, Montage, Mosaic, Vignette, Episode, and Segment I began thinking about what I wanted to write in regards to my CNF piece and how I wanted to write it. I came up with a couple of rudimentary ideas, just to get started...Of course I would develop these ideas further, but this is still at the earliest stage of development.

I was intrigued by Root's example of Mike and how he uses vignettes of his past while also talking in the present tense. Of course, I found that segmenting the essay becones an important function and I like how he uses paragraph breaks to do it.

I was thinking of writing about when I was in school and using my experiences in the past to connect witrh the ones I am having now. For example, my mother was a teacher so it would seem like it is embedded in my genes "what I was born to do" and when I lived in the Philippines, my sister and I used to play "school" and even though I was not the teacher, I was intrigued with the idea of vecoming a teacher one day.

However, when I started going to school here, more specifically in high school. The thought of becoming a teacher was far from my mind.I was an athlete, a cheerelader on the varsity cheerleading squad and I wanted to do something with Art, more specifically fashion design. I remember being a freshman in high school and taking fashion design classes and taking art classes all through junior year, when I was finally presented with the opportunity to take an Advanced Placement Art Studio class during my senior year that would count towards college credits. I loved Art, but something made me hold back. I ended up not taking it and looking at where I am now, maybe it was because teaching is what I was always meant to do..what I was born to do.

Of course I would elaborate on my experiences here. Talk about Fashion Design Classes with my instructor, maybe particular experiences being a cheerleader, the experiences to point out that teaching was not on my agenda at this point. Then I would talk about experiences I have now that make me confident that this is what I was meant to do. For example, my nature and its connection with a teacher's character. My experiences as an aunt, a volunteer in schools and a student teacher. In recalling past experiences in these vignettes, I would also tell of how I became a teaching major. How I decided that this was the path I wanted to take.

Like the example of Mike in Root, I would tell of the present and go back to the past, then back to the present, but in a way that it is all connected.

MY SECOND IDEA:
I was also intrigued by Nancy Willard's "The Friendship Tarot" and how she used the the different tarot cards to tell of her different stages in a friendship.

I would write my piece in the different segments of a lesson plan. For example, "materials, objectives, anticipatory set, instructional procedures, formative assessments, closure/summary, and reflections" are examples of different parts of my essay, with each portion relating to my past experiences that serve as preparation of me becoming a teacher or "A lesson plan for becoming a teacher". Ultimately, the final portion would be how these experiences made me the teacher I am now.

This would be a segmented essay with the different parts of the lesson plan being a seperate segment and the final assessment connecting all the parts together.

In our last session Dr. Chandler and I spoke of using children's literature, perhaps Harry Potter to use as a literary piece for the CNF composition, I'm still trying to find a way to connect it. Or trying to find another piece that would work.

These are just beginning ideas, I hope I can refine them to make something great, or maybe more ideas will come, maybe new ones.

Dyson Reading: Why is this not CNF?

After looking at Anne Haas Dyson reading, I found many differences in the way this pieces was to others I've read so far. This reading was indeed more "researchy", in the way that it did not fit the definitions I hold for creative nonfiction. As stated in the previous blog("What is CNF?") I believe Creative Nonfiction to be a personal reflection of one's experiences, and the relation of these experiences to other things. Most of all, it is a reflection of personal truth ("my truth").

Dyson's selection is not really told from a personal view, rather it uses an observational approach. She uses the experiences of the teacher and other children to make her points. She does not relate it to herself, she is the outsider. She also gives references as a way to better explain her points.Although she gives personal opinion, she does not give "personal truth", in the sense that she does not explain her opinions through use of her own personal experience.

She writes this piece as a way of trying to explain a concept more thoroughly to get a certain message across rather than using it to explain how this affected her in her own life and drawing examples from experiences.

BLOG 1- What is Creative Nonfiction?

After reading several different examples of creative nonfiction, I have found one commonality between all; they are all truths to the different lives of people (a sort of memoir of experiences). Reading Lott's selection, "Toward a Definition of Creative Non-fiction", I was impressed by certain points he made. Creative Nonfiction being "our responsibility as human beings to answer fot and to our lives" left an impression on me because it regards creative nonfiction as a reflection on what the experiences in our life mean. Kind of like asking yourself the question, "How did this experience change or affect my life? and why is it memorable to me?"

The onteresting part is when you take these memories or experiences and put them in relation to other things. This causes you to dive deeper into the meanings of these experiences and bring out your own element of truth. "Your own truth" is what creative non fiction is to me. I liked the different forms of creative nonfiction that I read. I was most intrigued when it read out like a story. For example, Beard's "Out There" was told in an amazing way. It was like reading a story, but still having to figure out that this was a personal memoir of a time in her life. I also like the way Scrimgeour writes "Themes For English B", relating many things together like his breathing to his students and their circumstances in life.

In my piece (or memoir) I will try to write my truth out like a story but still having one unified focus of how teaching has taught me and how my own experiences with learning have affected these ideas.

FIRST DAY OF STUDENT TEACHING

Today I started my Student Teaching at Madison Elementary School in Rahway. It was quite an experience. In my classroom, I encountered children of different ethnic backgrounds, different heights and body types, different learning levels. Today was the children's fifth day back in school and it was my first being in the school. I couldn't help but compare my feelings about school to how the children might have felt on their first day.

The children, having started a new school year, have an energy about them of nervous anticipation. As I walked into the classroom I had an intense feeling of nervousness, but I was also excited to be able to have the experience of teaching these children. I imagined that this is how their first day experience might have felt...A new classroom, a new teacher, and most of all, new experiences.

As the day progressed I became more comfortable with the students and the teacher. The students, I noticed, were also getting used to the daily routine as I was. During a spelling lesson, the teacher made a mistake in defining a word which a student corrected. The teacher responded by saying "I told you the first day that it was okay to make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes". During the day, as the teacher asked questions, students bravely raised their hands and answered even if their answers were incorrect. Such a small statement made a difference in how the students approached taking a risk, even if it was as insignificant as giving a wrong answer. They didn't give up, they would try over and over again.

As I prepare to teach my first lesson next week, I feel the same nervous anticipation...but I hear the words echo within my head "it's okay to make mistakes", reassuring me to take that risk even if there is a possibility of messing up. This first experience reminded me again that when we make mistakes, we sometimes learn more through that "failure", motivating us to try harder to get it right.

New Blog for ENG 4817: Senior Sem.

**TEST POST**

Looking forward to posting my personal reflections on my experiences as an student teacher and composing my own creative non fiction piece based on those experiences. :)