Journey of Blogging

         The journey of my Blog has been an insightful and full filling experience. I have enjoyed all of my free posts, and sharing my cute yellow friend Midas, that is Scout my cat, many have asked to see her. I have blogged before in other classes and each blog post was, honestly lame. They made me talk about what was on my mind and made me do it for a certain amount of time and it just felt like work, but with this blog, it felt fun. I really enjoyed posting pictures and having people ask for more. I loved talking to Roxy each week about her posts, and how many times they wouldn't post. It was overall very memorable. It never really felt like busy work, because, the work you put in was the work you graded yourself on at the end, and I think that's why it worked out so well for me. 

         I will say having to re-post the same link each week did get aggravating, and I never really understood why that had to take place, but I mean if that is my only complaint, I think that means this was a successful assignment, because usually I have more to say. In all seriousness though I could see myself using an assignment like this, or similar to this in my future classroom if I ever teach creative writing. It forces creative thinking, and creative writing. I think the experience of blogging once a week is also refreshing. 

         What have I learned about myself as a writer from this is, I'm really bad at naming things. I chose not to ever really name my blog posts because I never felt like the name I thought of was good enough to stick. Another thing I have learned is, this only works if websites allow posts to go through, I think this could have been handled differently if we posted once to a Google Docs form, and just went there to review blogs. That would save a lot of time and hassle, and since the blogs update real time, re-posting links isn't really needed. If i use this in a future classroom I think that would be one of the changes I make.

         Overall, I enjoyed this. I didn't say this, but everyone should go look at Roxy's blog if you haven't she put a lot of work into making hers, way more than I did, and her posts are very creative. Here is the link:  http://bitterbitere.blogspot.com/2016/11/professional-text.html

Teaching Arguments Review


I have learned many great techniques from this book. By applying logic and calmly looking at the situation presented to you writers are able to focus in on an argument and and the key factors that are important to an argument. Factors that go into creating your argument, are tone, audience, purpose, and the occasion. Fletcher does an amazing job and creating a text that explains what an argument is and how one should write an argument. I feel that the most beneficial chapter out of Fletcher's text would be chapter 6 and and 7. Chapter 6 talks about techniques used in order to analyze and integrate Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, and chapter 7 is Aristotle's Guide to being a good student. There is not really anything in this text that I feel makes it a poor read. For instance within chapter 6 Fletcher discusses how "Creating an Academic Ethos" many of the tips and tricks Fletcher talks about only benefit the reader and future writer. This text was an absolute pleasure to read and I truly did take to heart many of the techniques in it when teaching my students how to craft arguments inside the classroom during my Internship.

Beowulf for my kids.

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/fqlcAvboEGg/?mode=movie#/

Homecoming For An Intern

         So, for this Blog Post I am going to talk about my weekend. It was amazing! I got to be a chaperone at Cocoa High School's Homecoming. It was so much fun being the adult, watching the kids dance and have fun. I won't lie, it was even fun to see the kids do outrageous things, and to tell them no. Let me explain; one of my senior students decided to bring a chair onto the dance floor. Well, one can only imagine what she did with it. I will say that it involved sitting and having others dance around her. Since I am only four to five years older than some of these kids, when I tried to take the chair away, not all of them realized I was a chaperone, let alone an adult. I was getting back-sass comments like, "Who do you think you are? That's not your chair!" My reply was simple, "I'm Mr. Hickey, and it's my chair now."
         My girlfriend even got to go with me, and she too had an eventful night. She happens to look younger than me, but in reality is only a few months younger than I am. Many students mistook her for a high school student when I wasn't around, either by looking, or actually asking her who she was. We had a blast though, fun stories came out of the night along with plenty of learning experience for myself.

1. Digital Native, I live my everyday life with some form of tech on me whether its my computer, phone, or some type of device. I am as native as you can get.

2. Socrative is really cool! I love learning apps, I think they are the wave of the future after seeing how they can be used in my Internship I.

3. I think writing in general is important. I feel if we are going to get kids writing we have to appeal to them in some way and the best way to do that now a days is digitally. The biggest risk I feel is plagiarism. Kids don't realize because they have grown up with the copy paste feature how risky and dangerous plagiarism is, or how easy it is to do.

4. I thought the coolest thing on Jane Harts PPT was Google Docs for sure. I have seen the power of Google docs and it should be number one. I just watched my homeroom teacher review a research paper with the student across the room using Google Docs and Google Classroom. Nothing is better than that.

5. I think the bottom three remembering, understanding, and applying. I have trouble with all three of these and I consider myself a digital native. Kids always ask me how do I do this task Mr. Hickey, which they have been doing since August. The hardest things for kids is remembering how to apply what they know and understanding why they have to do it, even when it comes to technology.

6. Recap it is a video recording website where students can record for up to 2 minutes about something. Very cool and very useful.

So let’s talk about reading as kids…

               I wasn’t a reader I actually read very little I would rather go outside or hang out with friends. I found reading boring I couldn’t get into books because books spent too much time talk about boring details and telling you every little thing. I did enjoy and still do reading comic books. I found books difficult to read because I couldn’t find the genre or style of writing I liked. I also found it hard to sit still and reading requires one to sit still and focus and I just couldn’t do that. I enjoy reading now I actually prefer classics and I think that fits well with me because classics aren’t known to give you ever little in fact you have to think about a lot of classics and that entertains me, it keeps me seated and focus for extended periods of time too. I enjoy reading much more now as an adult I even read magazines and anything that can expand my knowledge I don’t really read many “fun novels” a lot of people would probably say I’m boring.

Well that’s everything about reading right now. 

So many people after my first blog post wanted to see my little guy. I love sharing him, I actually own a cat her name is Scout (yes from "How to Kill A Mockingbird"). Midas and Scout actually get a long great and he has been known to sit on her before, it is rare I don't have a picture of that, but I do have a picture of him. I hope everyone can watch the small video!

Introduction to Me

Hello My name is Taylor. I named my blog after my pet bird as he takes up much of my time and writing when I do write. He is a little  Parrottlet picture a pocket Macaw. He is yellow with blue under his wings and I have had him since I was a senior in high school. He has been through a lot with me, and has always been able to put a smile on my face. I enjoy running playing video games and listening to music, and most importantly hanging out with friends and family.