Online Publishing Final

· Where do you and your research, professional, teaching interests fit it? What’s the impact of Web 2.0, online publishing on you?

Although I am not a Technical Communication student, I am neither strictly a literature student. As I have not ever planned on staying in academia, my intent when choosing classes for my M.A. was to take courses that would not only give me knowledge regarding works of literature but also skills that would prepare me for a career in editing. As a result, I have taken a broad array of classes, but this semester is my first to take Technical Communication classes. This semester has certainly been useful in giving me extremely useful skills insofar as preparing me for a real world career goes.

Considering my lack of a defined concentration in my M.A., my research interests do not directly relate to literature. Instead, my research interests tend to gravitate toward how to effectively communicate and instruct others (as can be seen through the subject matter of most of the projects completed for this course). Online Publishing has allowed me to better recognize my interests in this area. I have been tutoring ESL students for over two years and teaching Freshman Composition in the classroom for one, but I never realized the appeal actual instruction had until I created the podcast and interactive module. It is not only the human interaction that I enjoy but also the overall effect of instruction.

Regarding my teaching interests, as stated above, I am less interested in teaching from a classroom setting as I am in the actual aspect of instruction. This course has been invaluable in giving me the capability to create deliverables that can be used for instruction. Truly the idea of creating a podcast or module for the sake of teaching never occurred to me. After this course, however, I am really surprised that more pieces such as these are not taken advantage of. As much as we are about to encounter Web 3.0, though, I think that Web 2.0 is still yet to be fully embraced. I have been in an academic setting for the past several years of my life and although I am aware and have been aware of the types of articles available through Web 2.0, such as podcasts, blogs, and modules, to name a few, I have not been an active user of them. The Web, to me, is still something that I go to and not the other way around.

However, after taking this class and seen the ease with which Web 2.0 is used, I think that it ought to be taken advantage of outside of strictly the Technical Communication Department. I do not plan on remaining an instructor on a permanent basis, but for as long as I am (which might or might not be another year), I will certainly take advantage of the lessons of the course regarding the functionality and usefulness of the pushing of web products. Even doing something as simple as requiring students to maintain a class blog will take advantage of Web 2.0 in that it will keep students writing as well as make clear to them that writing is often a public act. The idea of having a class wiki is also an area I might explore further as it will certainly be an exchange of knowledge.

Professionally, it is my ultimate goal to become an editor. I have done work reviewing textbook proposals, and this area seems most appealing as it combines my interest in instruction with my acclimation toward technical correctness. The activities completed in the course and lessons regarding Web 2.0 are useful in that editing is becoming more and more an act that is not done in person but is instead done via an exchange through the Web. Knowing how to create functional pieces and put them onto the Web will speak to my capability as an editor. Editing is more than grammar and content; an effective and hirable editor must demonstrate an up-to-date knowledge of anything regarding an exchange of ideas. I need to be familiar with the tricks of the all kinds of mediums because it affects the style of communication and the way clients manipulate information. Thus, this course has been undoubtedly useful in acquainting me with varying styles through aspects on Web 2.0.

Overall, this course has been useful on multiple levels. Whether I continue teaching or not, the ability to instruct via Web 2.0 will not be lost on me.

New Orleans

I went to New Orleans this past week/weekend for a conference, and the city totally surprised me. All the fanfare I'd heard about Mardi Gras and Bourbon street did not prepare me for what I encountered. Truly, New Orleans, at least the French Quarter, is like a different kind of America. It is not so much sinful or gluttonous; no-- it is just more free. People are thoroughly enjoying themselves by mid-afternoon, and it was really quite a new experience to see people so at ease. Granted, the alcohol didn't necessarily hurt the relaxation, but nonetheless, people walked with a lighter (albeit haphazard) step, and I liked it.

As far as the conference goes, it was my first conference presentation, so I was nervous to say the least. I prepared and prepared and practiced repeatedly before my presentation day came. And then it came. And as I was about 3 minutes into my paper, fire alarms went off. We had to evacuate. As soon as we got downstairs, we were told that it was a false alarm and we could return. So we got back. My time was already considerably reduced. I start reading again. Two minutes later, they go off again. Needless to say, it was not a smooth or exactly fun presentation. But, I laughed it off, summarized my paper as opposed to reading it completely, and in the end, I think I got my main ideas across. So while it wasn't the best first experience, at least all my future ones have to go smoother, aye?

Pei Wei happiness

My friend Stephanie and I have had Pei Wei probably about 5 or 6 times in the past two weeks. Yesterday we actually tried to branch out by ordering something aside from the tofu teriyaki bowl with rice noodles (as in, we didn't branch away from the restaurant, but we tried to change up our choice of dish), and we enjoyed the new dish, but today we went back to the tried and true. It's sad and funny and also silly that I often wake up looking forward to lunch or dinner because I know that I'll get Pei Wei and that it'll be delicious. It's nice that there is something, however minor, that I can count on to make me if not happy then satisfied, even if just for the time period of a meal. I think more than anything it's funny.

As grad students with endless deadlines and obligations, I think we are forced to revert to depending on the "small things" in life to find an element of contentment. There are too many pressures involved for us to *not* simply find small ways to escape and be happy. To take a break. Yes, I might be struggling with a research proposal or with preparing my conference presentation, but I will use my chopsticks and eat my noodles and be happy.

Endings and Beginnings

Today's the last day of spring break, but really, it already feels over. Tomorrow's Monday, and the normal routine begins again, so today is tainted with the shadow of that. Breaks and holidays are never long enough. Whether they're bad or good, there never seems a time when I am not sorry to see it end. It reminds me of how I felt whenever summer camp would end or whenever the bride and groom at a wedding drive off into the night. Yes, new life or just life resumes, and that can be exciting, but there's still something melancholy about it all.

I graduate in May, and I'm truly nervous about starting somewhere new. I haven't decided where I'm going or what I'll be doing, and it's not a comforting feeling. Even more, though, I am surely sorry at the thought of time ending in Lubbock. After living here for 6 years, it really has become my home, so to imagine leaving it for good-- it's sad. I'm not sure what I'm trying to achieve by getting this down in writing, but it is certainly something that's on my mind.

I'm sure I need to be optimistic and see every ending as some do: a beginning.

ESL Tutor Training Podcast

Below is the accompanying script for my podcast:

Hi. My name’s Stephanie Franco, and I’ve been working with Literacy Lubbock and Texas Tech in their ESL Initiative for two and a half years now. Today I’ll be discussing a few training tips for new tutors as well as some ideas for lessons. Before we get started, one thing I’d like you to keep in mind is that no student is exactly the same, so you might find yourself needing to modify the lessons I suggest in order to better fit your student or students. Also, just the fact that you’re listening to this podcast says something about your character and giving nature, and I applaud your decision to help another. I think we tutors don’t often realize the impact our volunteering has. Teaching someone English is so much more than just giving a person words. Truly, you are giving your students the knowledge they need to feel confident, proud, and able, and those are things that every person ought to feel.

Okay, enough with introduction-- let’s get started.

The first thing you should know is that no matter how nervous you are, be it the first day or every day, the students are even more nervous than you. I know I always get a little nervous on the first day of meeting new people, so I can’t imagine how much more intimidating that would be if I couldn’t speak English or if I felt I couldn’t speak it well. But I’ve found that the best way to put people at ease is to smile. It is, after all, the best thing you can wear. So that’s my first tip. Smile. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, it is. Be happy and excited to see your students everyday, and they will be happy to see you and be there.

Alright, let’s get started discussing some lessons. The first lesson I’m going to share is good for students at a variety of levels. Ask students to bring their favorite recipes to class one day, and then take turns having the students present the recipes to the group. This might sound very simple, but much work will have to go into the preparation for their individual presentations. Depending on their levels, for example, you might lead up to this lesson by having a few classes in which you discuss items in a kitchen and their uses. You might even bring in objects from your own kitchen to visually and tangibly make the words real for your students.

Any time you discuss new key terms or vocabulary, it is extremely important to relate the words back to the students and their own lives. So as you are teaching your students about the words for things in the kitchen, for example, ask them what kind of items they have in their kitchens. “Oh, Mary, you have a crock-pot? And what do you do with your crock-pot?... You make stew. How often do you make that stew? John, Sarah, have y’all ever made stew before? You haven’t, John? And have you ever used a crock-pot, John? You have! Oh, you make chili…” By making the lessons personal and relevant to your students, it contextualizes the new words and increases the chances that your students will remember them.

Okay, so once you’ve given your students a fairly broad knowledge of items in a kitchen, you can then begin the recipe assignment. This is really one of my favorite assignments because the students get to be the teachers. Every person, no matter what their first language or how much they know of English, has knowledge to share, and this activity will remind the students of that. Every class should, and I believe you’ll find, will be an exchange of knowledge between you and your students, but this activity more than ever will ensure that the students feel valuable and knowledgeable.

They might feel embarrassed and nervous, of course, when you tell them that they will be teaching you and the other students how to cook their favorite recipe, but once they do it, I promise that they will feel so accomplished and so proud of themselves and that you will feel a rush of joy and accomplishment just from seeing their happiness.

So just how do you get started? Let’s assume that you’ve already asked your students to bring in their recipes, and, if their recipes are in another language, to translate. The first thing you’ll want to do at the start of class, once you’re past discussing how their days are going and what they’ve done so far is to go around the group and ask the students one at a time to read through their recipes aloud. As most of them will have had to translate their recipes, there might be a few errors or missing words, and this will be your opportunity to find those out and help your students correct them. It is important that each student read one at a time so that the other students can learn from one another and also simply to build confidence regarding their speaking and reading in front of others. The more you have your students do this, the more comfortable they will be doing this, so much so that by the end of the semester they will hardly think twice about speaking in front of others, and this is as important a skill as learning past and future tense.

As you are helping your students fill in missing words or find the right words within their recipes, try to get the other students to help with answers. For example, if Susan doesn’t know the word for “mix,” before just offering the term up for her, ask the others if they know the word Susan is looking for. “Does anyone know what the word is? What is it called when you put things in a bowl and use a big spoon to stir it together?” (You will find yourself often and easily using hand motions and pictures to describe what you mean, and you should embrace this.) Again, when you turn the question back to the students, you remind the students that they have knowledge to share, and anytime you can do this, you should.

If, after asking the other students for help, no one has the answer, then tell them. As this will be a new word for them, do not just move on with having the students read their recipes aloud but instead take a moment or two to contextualize the new word for the students: “What are some other things you ‘mix’? I like to ‘mix’ bananas into my cereal? Do you like to ‘mix’ anything into your cereal, Mark? Do you ‘mix’ cream or sugar into your coffee, Beth?”

Once each student has read through and corrected their recipes, then you can teach them some words used when giving directions. Some of these words are: first, second, then, after that, finally, and so on. After you’ve taught them some key instructional words, you can now demonstrate, using your own favorite recipe, how they should do the presentation. You may stand up or sit down—whatever you are comfortable with. Put a big smile on, and slowly and clearly walk them through your recipe.

At this point, I recommend pairing up the students and having them practice with each other. As they do this, walk around the various pairs and listen, compliment, and give suggestions. Usually, by this point in the lesson, class will nearly be over, so for homework ask them to practice their recipe presentation so they can show the whole group at the next class meeting. At the next meeting, begin with the usual greetings and daily discussion, and then begin the presentations. Again, you should give the presentation for your recipe first to break the ice. Try to be a little silly and over the top about it to help put the students at ease and see that the activity is meant to be fun and not just scary.

As the students go through their own presentations, take notes. Be genuinely interested. I’ve found many a great recipe this way, and the students will love that you are really trying their foods out.

Okay, we’re almost out of time, so I’m going to briefly share just a couple more lesson ideas. I’ve offered a lot of general teaching practices during the recipe activity, so I won’t go into as much detail in the following activities. As always, you should adapt these activities to fit you and your students’ personalities.

A good activity for practicing listening and comprehension skills is to print out copies to some song lyrics, preferably a song that is relatively slow, but leave a few blanks within the lyrics. Play the song for your students, and ask them to just listen the first time through. The second time through, ask them to try and fill in the blanks. Play it a third time if the students would like you to. Then, go through the song lyrics, taking turns asking the students what words they placed in the blanks. After everyone has filled in each of the blanks, discuss the song. What was it about? Have the students ever experienced anything like the singer was experiencing? A lot of songs will contain metaphors, so you’ll be surprised and maybe even challenged by the level of discussion you will get out of this activity. I’ve done this with Garth Brooks’s song “She’s Gonna Make It,” and it was really fun. I warned my students, though, that in country music, correct grammar is not always employed, but that since it’s Texas music, that makes it okay. For some reason, they thought that was really funny.

One last quick activity I’ll leave you with is to have your students be tour guides and show you around. Depending on the facility where you tutor, you might have this inside and have the students make up various uses for the rooms (they might have to use their imagination for this one) or you can take them outside and have them describe what they see to you. This activity is fun because it gets the whole group moving and it creates a real memory for the students. I once had a student say that this was his favorite activity out of everything we did.

Okay, those are just a few ideas to get you started. It takes a very special person to be a volunteer and a tutor, so as I said, if you’re listening to this, you’ve already proven you have what it takes. Be confident and adapt and create activities to best fit your students. Most importantly, remember to have fun. I guarantee that you will look back at your time as a tutor and relish every moment.

Sick.

I've been sick since Tuesday (I felt it coming on right at the start of class, actually). It has been terrible. I know there's really no reason to write about this here, but seeing as I have to write about something and it has been consuming my life the past few days (and still a bit currently), this is the subject. What's really bad is that I pride myself in not getting sick. Just two weeks ago I was hanging out with a friend who was sick and I confidently told her that I don't get sick and that she need not worry of infecting me. I don't think she did infect me, though, because I don't have what she had, but still-- my strength and credibility? Totally undermined.

So I've been sick and I've been such a baby about it. I've moped and whined, but really, no one was even around to cry to, which made it so much worse. And I think the forces that be conspired against me. Truly, I can't remember a span of two weeks in which I had more work due and more work to do. If there were ever a time where I should pull all-nighters every night, this would be it. And yet, to spite me, my body needs sleep, rest, etc. now more than ever. I literally can't stay up past midnight. I can't. I have tried. I have tried this weekend and this past week, but no. The second the clock strikes twelve, my eyes just close. I HATE being sick.

Oh. And my voice! I've been putting off recording of my podcast for as long as I could, but, unfortunately, I can't put it off any longer. And I sound manly and hoarse and awful. So, if any of you reading this will listen to my podcast, allow me to apologize in advance: I'm sorry. :/

That's all for now.

This is my practice podcast

This is just a practice. Don't listen. :)

Podcast

Podcasting is proving to be quite a fun activity because it really shows a person how he/she speaks. I've been working on my script, and I've found that the best method is to get a solid paragraph or two down, record it, listen to what I said when I recorded it, and go back and add in all the extra little words that make my speech my speech. I'm not sure if this is the best method as far a getting a "professional" podcast out, though. The original written script is formal but not uptight, but when I read it, I never fail to add in little extras like "okay, enough with that; let's get moving." I'm not sure if these little tidbits will enhance the podcast by making me more of a real human being or if they will negate the seriousness with which it is received. I'm hoping for the former. Feel free to reassure me. :)

What is less fun about podcasting is having to listen to myself. I'm finding little accents and nuances to my speech that I had no idea about and that I wish I still didn't know about. I mean, no matter how many times I try to say "okay" in a way that sounds "normal" to me (I use scare quotes so as not to imply that there is an actual right or wrong way to pronounce some things), I inevitably end up sounding like I'm from MinnesOta. And nothing against Minnesotans, but I don't like the way I sound. So, yes-- that aspect of podcasting has been somewhat problematic.

On the whole, though, I'm enjoying it. I'm hoping the podcast itself will prove useful to others. That is yet to be seen.

sunshine :)

Weather is such a funny thing. Or perhaps. more appropriately, the effect of weather on people (at least on myself) is such a funny thing. It's truly remarkable the power to which it can affect my mood and resultant actions. I'd never survive in a place like Seattle (unless of course Edward Cullen really did exist and he was enamored with me instead of Bella, but I digress...). So, today, as with the past few days, I awoke to the wonder that is sunshine. In February. Nice, warm sunshine. Naturally, I was happy and eager to do anything involving said weather. And I enjoyed myself, driving with the sunroof open, lounging outside, and just generally soaking up the warmth.

Here's what's interesting. When the weather is wonderfully warm, I cannot bring myself to stay inside. Even worse, I have so much trouble concentrating on anything that isn't as light and warming as the sun that I generally am not productive, school-wise, on days like this. Yet, on days when the weather is dreary, rainy, etc., I also can't be productive because I get so bummed about the day. I feel listless and sad, and any work I do get done on these days inevitably has to be re-worked because my listlessness comes through.

Really, it's only on the cold but not snowy days that I am a fully productive student during the daytime. In the evenings, I am fine, despite what the weather, as my current blog time will exemplify, but my daytime work ethic depends much on the sun or lack thereof. I don't know if this is something particular to me or common to most. If the former, does that say something deeper about my status as a student or perhaps about my outlook? I'm not really sure. What I am sure of is that today was a beautiful day. Just wonderful.

Online Pub-- blog :)

As will or can be noticed from this initial post, my blogs will primarily consist of my current thoughts or frustrations during each week. For the most part, I've tried to stray away from open journals such as this for the very reason that people, as I will, write according to moods or situations, which is not always an entirely accurate version of the writer. Be this as it may, one's thoughts, however swayed by situations or occurrences, are nevertheless one's thoughts, so I will do my best to be unashamed in whatever is most pressing each week. :)

This week, I've been thinking much about change. We always hear of mid-life crisis, and rightfully so-- many realizations undoubtedly occur when one realizes he or she is more than halfway through life-- but I've never heard the term "young-life crisis." This bothers me. Young people often face significant crossroads in their lives (whether or not they should marry, where to live, what profession to pursue, etc.), but they are never granted the grace that would accompany such a title as young-life crisis. If anything, this point in their lives (and in my own, naturally) is as if not more tumultuous as mid-life crisis. During a mid-life crisis, one, for the most part, has a career and has lived a relatively successful life. There are no pressing life changes on the horizon unless one chooses. Young adults, on the other hand, are bombarded with sizable decisions, and yet, society expects each person to pass through this phase with little difficulty.

So I've come to decide that young adults ought to be entitled-- nay, even mandated-- to participate in free therapy sessions. I haven't worked out the details of how/when each person would qualify/be required to go through this, but I am quite sure that this would benefit the overall well-being of future society. I even wonder if the high school or college grads who get married immediately out of school would do so if they knew there were more options, if they knew that they were entitled to want and pursue something aside from simply finding his/her other half and living happily ever after. I do not denigrate any who are happily married; I have several friends who are recently and not so recently married who legitimately could not have chosen a better path. But would things be different if we openly discussed the issues and conflicts that accompany young life changes?

So, yes... Young-life crisis. It's present, and it needs attention: spread the word. :)