AU REVOIR (For now)

 Stepping into this blogging arena I was intimidated and nervous. I've read blogs before and I just didn't feel like my writing style fit into the genre of a blog. Now I could've been overthinking things because blogs are very diverse in writing style and content, but I did not have the confidence in myself. As I write my final blog for the class, it honestly wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Through writing my own and reading posts from my classmates, blogging is truly a space to get creative and leave the overthinking behind.

Professionalism 

Out with the old, in with the new

The way I set this blog up, the words I used, and the amount of citations I provided makes me feel that this is my most professional blog post.

Multimodal Design

Digital Storytelling #4

While I don't feel this comes close to any of my fellow classmates and their multimodal posts, for me, the hyper links, pictures and the whole premise of the blog is my best example of Multimodality.

Creativity

When getting creative goes right

The blog post itself isn't the most creative, but the Zine that I created is the creative aspect. I took a chance and created something for the first time, and I'm actually very proud of the Zine I made and displayed in this post.

Civic Engagement

To AI or not AI

This post receives the civic engagement award due to the topics discussed. I feel as if I'm provided some great information to the audience on ways learning can become hindered due to AI, and how critical thinking and face-to-face communication is slowly diminishing with the use of AI and other technological platforms. Creating this post even prompted me to have discussions with my children about AI and asking them if they use it, and providing real evidence to them as to the harmful nature of these programs.

People's Choice Award

Em's Nook

Looking back at all her posts, and knowing how she is generally a reserved individual, she truly put a lot of herself into these blog posts. You could tell she was speaking from the heart, and used the blog as a way to be more vocal!!

When getting creative goes RIGHT!!!!!!

 I’m a product of Elm Creative Arts Elementary school, and Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts, during the time where the art programs were plentiful and robust. I can remember doing stained art projects, creating books and making paper from pulp. For a moment in my life I considered myself an artist. By the time I reached high school, writing heavy assignments started to take over those once creative pieces, and since I didn't supplement this in my spare time much, I feel my artistic touch vanished. While I do make candles in my spare time (I once operated my own candle business), when it comes to certain artforms my confidence level is ZERO!!!!!

                                                                          

When thinking about what to create for this blog post, I went out on a limb, took a change and created a Zine. Initially I was nervous and super self conscious about my diminishing lack of drawing capabilities, but I wanted to challenge myself and do it. Using different pieces of paper I recycled from past projects, adding bits and pieces of the original article in the form of images wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. I was actually having fun. According to Jenkins, “Many of the forms of expression that are most important to American youth accent this sampling and remixing process”. While I’m not an American youth, even at my age I felt a real sense of creative expression while putting my Zine together. 

My Zine was inspired by the piece from Mari Copeny, a young girl from Flint Michigan concerned with the harmful drinking water in her city. After noticing how sick the residents were becoming, and how the water stunk and was turning colors, she wrote a letter to my forever president Barack Obama informing him of what was happening. To her surprise the president responded back to her and even showed up to her city where he made a promise to provide the city with the necessary funding to make improvements to the water pipes. In my Zine I highlight some of those moments.

After completing this experience I would love to implement Zines as a way for students to display their creativity, and comprehension of a text. Every culminating task does not need to be lengthy papers, as I experienced myself while making this Zine, allowing students to get creative activates so much in their brains!!! I felt young again making this Zine!!

 If you're interested in making a Zine and it's your first time, check out this link for some ideas and assistance Bre.

Encouraging writers

Writing is an expression and form of art, so while critiquing someone on their writing you must remember many people are sensitive about their works of art!!!

Receiving feedback for many people is hard in general. Putting something you create out there for others to give you their opinion on is not easy and receiving feedback takes practice and work.

Participating as a writing coach in this way has been new and a little confusing. Traditionally if I am helping students edit their writings and assisting them along their writing journey, I like to have dialogue with them to get an understanding of why they are writing the way they are and what is the overall message they are trying to convey. I have former students who are in college who reach out to me to give them assistance on writing scholarship essays or class essays and the biggest thing in my opinion is talking to them about their process, as well as telling me what exactly what it is they need my assistance with. In the class reading by Capt. Rebecca Segal, U.S. Army, A Writers Guide to Giving and Receiving Feedback, she states, "If you have specific things that you want the editor to focus on, provide those instructions when you reach out to request edits." Verbalizing what it is you are in need of will prevent the editor from ripping your writing apart in ways you did not ask for. 

While its been interesting reading the works of the middle school students during this writing coach process, it has been a little difficult since there is no communication with the writers, and I'm blindly leaving comments/suggestions on their pieces.

Teachers and writing coaches play differing roles which may intersect along the students writing journey. While the teacher assigns the work and sets the parameters/rubric the writing coach assists in the student achieving their overall goal or properly projecting their intended message to the appropriate audience. Peer reviewing comes in as another method for input on the writing with the insight from a fellow peer and possibly bouncing ideas off each other.  

Writing can be a stressful process with lots of ups and downs, the need for healthy honest feedback and dialogue can come with rewards and roadblocks, but in the end helping create a stronger more confident writer.

For students looking for additional supports in the area of writing, Priyanka Gupta on her blog page, gives some great tips and additional resources to weed through those moments of discomfort and anxiety during the writing process. On My Canvas. 

Digital Storytelling #4

    During my time at a previous school I worked at, where I taught as an English teacher, I would introduce the 9th graders into the course an interactive slideshow about the history of storytelling and how it has changed overtime. At the end of the slideshow I would ask students to create their own slideshows where they told the story of who they were and things that interested them. Since it was the beginning of the year and I knew writing a traditional journal entry was not something that would interest them, I figured this was a good way to shake off those summer cobwebs to get back in the flow of reading and writing. It was nice to see the creativity from the students, some created cartoon slideshows which told the story of themselves and their lives, while others took a more traditional route and added images to slides with associated pictures.

I personally don't have much experience with digital storytelling unless we count my posts on social media......

    From the selection of multimodal compositions the two I selected were PSA's and Video Book talks. Linked are the two from the listing that I enjoyed the most.... Food Waste (PSA, This was my favorite) & Harry Potter One Minute Book Talk (Video Book Talk).... Both of these examples are great ways for students to get creative and show their personalities while discussing something their passionate about or giving a quick break down of a good book!!! 

Chisholm and Trent in their piece, Digital Storytelling in a Place-Based Composition Course, explain how digital storytelling can give students many tools that they can use to show comprehension and critical thinking toward material that extend beyond the class curriculum. When thinking of the youth of today and the ways in which they interact daily and consistently with online platforms, allowing them to compose multimodal works could be a great way to get them to dig deeper than just surface level yes and no answers or lengthy paper.

Its okay for students to use multiple ways to show proficiency and mastery of topics, as educators we should encourage students to think outside the box and take risks at creativity!!!

To AI or not to AI

 

                Is AI needed in the classroom? Is there an overreliance on AI platforms? Are children loosing critical thinking skills for the sake of work completion?

                                                                           

                                                                                                            

    Growing up there was an art to writing, not saying that art is completely lost, however, because certain tools weren't available,  there were certain bases you had to cover to write proficiently. 

    Before the writing process even began, research papers required you to go to your local library and search the catalogues for books that matched your topic. This was also a great time to meet up with your friends, goof off a little bit, and also bounce ideas off each other. 

Then there was the process of note taking and organizing your thoughts in an outline. Next came the rough draft, a pencil and white out would become your best friends during this phase. If you had parents like mine, they would do proofreading, which would require you to make more edits, to then go to school and turn in your rough draft for your teacher to make additional edits. Once the teacher gave you that paper back with red marks and comments, you went to work on your final draft. Now later on down the road we would use the computer to type up our final drafts, but the computer was FORBIDDEN during the rough draft process.

    Times change and people must change along with them, I get that, but at what cost are we rushing change for the sake of capitalism and a false sense of IMPROVEMENT or ADVANCEMENT? Its too soon and not enough data has been compiled on the benefits of AI in the classroom space, however, the mass push for incorporating AI in educational spaces is a bit troubling in my opinion. I get the arguments that students are already using AI therefore we must teach them how to use it safely, a notion that was talked about in an in class reading by Zack Teitel entitled, Teaching AI: It's Just Sex-ed, but AI isn't like sex-ed. There has been years of data and research supporting the implementation of sex-ed classes especially related to public health concerns. 

There is already a public outcry over low reading and writing capabilities for American students (Americans as a whole), does society truly think that pushing generative AI platforms in the classroom in a cooperative learning capacity will improve those scores? State mandated tested doesn't allow for these AI programs, nor do the ACT's or high school exit exams. Instead of pumping money and funding into these programs how about districts allocate the funds where they belong. Make classroom sizes smaller by paying teachers respectable wages in order to retain educators. Invest money into school libraries and writing tools that students can use during their writing processes in a productive manner. 

    (Don't get me started on the environmental implications. If you are interested in viewing some real time water drainage from AI centers, check out this article by Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-impacts-data-centers-water-data/)

             

After listening to the podcast and reading the attached article by Chanae Bond, I feel like this article as well as the Leon Furze readings resonate with me the best. While I don't believe any of the readings went "too far", I am not in alignment with articles like Brookings (2026), where we come up with ideas and methods to incorporate AI into learning spaces.

I get it, AI is here and it's here to stay for the time being, however, that doesn't mean we allow it to replace the productive struggle that students need in order to be successful in life. Dealing with the ebbs and flows of critical thinking and writing is a sensitive one, which has already been subject to many hindrances throughout the years. 

Why continue to add to the problem.

Who am I as a writer (Blog Post #2)

    Mrs. Craig is in her final year of her graduate program with 3 semesters left in her licensing program. She has worked as an English teacher for the past 4 years at a Milwaukee charter school where she has been able to develop her critical thinking skills and expanded upon her diverse youth reading set. Her passion for youth to conduct self exploration and self discovery through literature is a driving force behind her Why! Mrs. Craig is a lifelong learner and always open to adapt and learn from the unique learning styles of her students.

    She’s a big sci-fi fan and prides herself on knowing too many facts about films like Star Wars, the Maze Runner and Black Box. She is excited to assist young readers into finding what genres best fit them and always making sure to see themselves in their readings/writings.

My Reading Collage

Out with the old, in with the new

 I often feel anxiety and skepticism when I think of replacing in person forums with digital platforms. I'm either afraid of the legitimacy of information presented on certain digital sites, or my fears over the loss of social skills due to limited in person interactions. COVID and the pandemic exacerbated these fears as I witnessed people replace in person interactions with Zooms and Google Meets, and then met children back in the classroom where they had forgotten many important social cues and the much needed soft skills like public speaking, critical thinking and teamwork.

   

Reality then hits me and I begin to remove the blinders that I've developed over the years to remember what using the internet looked like for me as a young adult/teen. I remember loading up the internet on the home computer (which could take a good 5-10 minutes), and getting excited to meet my friends and complete strangers in an AOL chat room. pretending to do some type of schoolwork on a different tab incase my parents happened to walk into the living room. Oh how age does make our memory foggy to the risks one use to take!  

(For anyone who may be unaware of what the AOL chats looks liked)

    While the idea of online book clubs is nothing new to me, utilizing a space like TikTok was an absolutely new concept. How could an app that I'm always telling my kids to close provide them with an opportunity to constructively and impactfully engage with books and other young readers? With this question I started down my journey of BookToks by putting "Black woman BookToks" into the TikTok search and came up with this amazing list. (I've provided the link to you so you can explore also). Blackwomanbooks. The reading by Jerasa and Boffone add nuance and understanding to the needed exploration of young readers that can be accomplished on a platform like TikTok. Young adults spend so much of their free time on these types of platforms that incorporating commentary and suggestions on diverse books is a plus! Especially since I've come across many young adults who have openly told me that they do not read and have no interest in reading. Maybe seeing other people who look like you in not just appearance but age can help activate a spark within them to at least try a new book!

                                                                               

When it comes to my social media usage, I see myself as a firm user of Facebook and Instagram platforms. On these platforms I primarily network and negotiate, as presented in the reading by Jenkins. Posting about upcoming social/ political events, and moving between different online groups allows for me to stay connected with what's going on in my community, which is an important factor in my life.

For many students in urban settings, who are from diverse backgrounds, having a sense of control and autonomy is missing in traditional classroom spaces. According to a reading titled, Critical Media Literacy Practices for Equitable Futures, "Empowering diverse voices to impact and enact social change cannot be done without centering equity in teaching and learning. Doing this not only enhances media literacy curricula but also strengthens the ELA classroom to foster inclusive practices" (Johnson et al., 2022). The ELA classroom is the foundation for all other learning that takes place during a students day. Having a positive relationship with the ways in which you express and digest information is central to a students development, especially those from diverse urban settings. These youth also need to find safety and space within institutional spaces to unpack all the ways in which they feel. DeJaynes and Curmi-Hall explain that, "leveraging institutional spaces for civic discourses engaged youths and their school community in a public dialogue about systems of oppression" (p.10). 

Adults and educators must take a step back and allow the youth to explore. Structured but not rigid should be the motto!!

                                                                    Citations

DeJaynes, Tiffany, and Christopher Curmi‐Hall. “Transforming School hallways through critical inquiry: Multimodal literacies for Civic Engagement.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 63, no. 3, 25 June 2019, pp. 299–309, https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.991

Jenkins, Henry, et al. “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century.” Building the Field of Digital Media and Learning, 2006, pp. 3–4.

Jerasa, Sarah, and Trevor Boffone. “BookTok 101: Tiktok, digital literacies, and out‐of‐school reading practices.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 65, no. 3, 8 Oct. 2021, pp. 219–226, https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1199. 

Johnson et al. "A Field Guide for ELA Educators." Critical Media Literacy Practices for Equitable    Futures, vol.2, 5 June 2025, pp. 27-32, https://prjohnson.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/critical-media-literacy-practices-for-equitable-futures-a-field-guide-for-ela.pdf