ThingLink Poem

For my poem, I decided to write about my dog and his love of going in the backyard to chase squirrels. I was inspired to write this poem by the recent warm weather, leading to an uptick in squirrels in my backyard. I always enjoy watching my dog take on the “guard dog” role while the squirrels play a game with him. This dynamic inspired me to write a two-perspective poem.

Because my poem was about my dog, it felt natural to have a dog as my background picture on my ThingLink. I chose a picture of a happy dog presumably looking up at his owner. This picture reminded me of the look my dog has when he has successfully chased a squirrel out of the yard. From, there I decided to add links on the “dog” side and the “squirrel” side of the poem. For example, on the “dog” side I decided to add a photo of a dog outside, a video of a dog chasing a squirrel (if I had a video of my dog chasing a squirrel I would have added that), and a nonfiction article about why dogs like to chase small animals.

On the “squirrel” side of my poem, I added a video of squirrels chirping, a picture and a video of a squirrel burying nuts, and the song “Spring” by Vivaldi. I wanted to have some up-close visuals and audio of squirrels because we often see them in the distance or tune them out. This poem asks the reader to really think about the animal that we see everywhere, so I wanted to help the reader engage more in actually seeing the animal. I chose to add the song “Spring” because this poem was first inspired by the season, which has caused my dog and the squirrels to reignite their dynamic.

ThingLink was a new platform for me, and I did struggle a little bit at first to figure out how to create my image. However, once I figured out how to begin the ThingLink, it became very easy to use. I ended up really enjoying making my ThingLink poem and this is something I would probably make available to older students who are more tech-savvy. The combination of my poem topic and the links I was finding made this a very relaxing activity to partake in. I almost forgot that I was doing it for an assignment. As a writer, I found that it was best when I wrote out my entire poem, walked away from it for about a week, and then came back to edit. This helped me look at my writing from a different perspective that I originally had when I created it. Next time, I would create more personal links, such as making a video of my own chasing a squirrel.

Our group did a PSA on gun violence in school. We decided to go the route of presenting three claims, sharing three statistics per claim, and a Remind the Reader call to action to convince them to vote for politicians that promote gun violence awareness and policies to strengthen gun laws.

When we started creating our video, we wanted to have an emotional shock factor. We decided to do this by having the sound of children chattering at the beginning of the video, ended suddenly by the sound of a gun shot. After the gun shot, there would only be music, some pictures to complement each claim, and text on black screens. Personally, I was inspired by the speech from Emma Gonzalez where she stood in silence to prove how long lockdowns really feel. This helped me make the decision to not do a voiceover. In this case, I believe the lack of spoken word speaks very loudly.

One area that we struggled in as a group was making sure that our text was up long enough to read all of the statistics. We all believed that every fact was significant enough to have available to watchers, but some of them were very wordy and had to stay on the screen longer than we originally planned so that they could actually be read. Next time, I would work on making the facts shorter so that we could still get our point across without having to overstretch the amount of time the words were on the screen. In the future, I would also like to consider using an animation tool to create a PSA video, rather than just images and music. This is an activity I would share with students to help them learn collaboration and persuasive writing outside of using paper and pencil.

For my topic, I chose to focus on snakes. I wanted to make the main idea of my infographic learning about venomous vs. non-venomous snakes. I chose this topic because I love snakes and used to teach about them frequently at my job with Columbus Recreation and Parks. Additionally, there is a lot of stigma around snakes being scary and dangerous, so I wanted to create an infographic that would clarify the small risk associated with being harmed by a venomous snake (but also what to know about that small risk).

Overall, I found my research easily for this project. I found that the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health ended up having a lot of the information that I needed to put my infographic together. One aspect that was challenging, however, was the fact that I already knew a lot of knowledge about my topic. I found that I had to backtrack and find resources to facts that I already knew in order to cite my information. This challenge could come up with students, if they choose a topic that they are already knowledgable on but are required to cite sources. It would likely become necessary to explain to students why we cite sources even when we already know something.

I struggled with the design of my infographic. At first I tried to use Canva and Piktochart, but I found it too difficult to manipulate the templates in order to fit the information that I wanted. This could be a challenge in the classroom, because sometimes these tools are not very user-friendly. Ultimately, I decided to use Google Slides to make my infographic. I decided to use small blocks of text (I tried to keep them short/in bullet points so that there wasn’t too much text on the infographic), charts and diagrams to show visuals of my information, and pictures of the snakes that I mentioned in my text. I chose to focus on using the color green because it is appealing to look at and correlates with the idea of nature. I tailored my blog to my audience (my peers) because I knew that they would enjoy the colors and diagrams.

Link to Infographic

Infographic

Sources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, June 28). Venomous snake bites: Symptoms & first aid. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/snakes/symptoms.html#:~:text=Seek%20medical%20attention%20as%20soon,from%20ven. om%20can%20be%20stopped

Contact a nuisance trapper. (n.d.). https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/land-water/issues-for-landowners/contact-nuisance-trapper

Meyers, S. E. (2022, September 19). Snake toxicity. StatPearls [Internet]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557565/#:~:text=There%20are%20about%203%2C000%20species,their%20venom%20to%20obtain%20food.

Venomous versus non-venomous snakes. Cajun Encounters Tour Company, New Orleans. (2023, March 20). https://www.cajunencounters.com/blog/venomous-versus-non-venomous-  snakes/#:~:text=A%20snake’s%20pupils%20can%20be,identification%20method%20can%20be%20dangerous.

The Mapping a Memory assignment turned out to be a unique experience for me. In the beginning, it made me think about what memories I strongly associate with certain rooms in my house. This led to an interesting path of thought for where I would go with my narrative. Ultimately, I landed on baking Christmas cookies in my kitchen. This memory stuck out both as a fond one and one that would make for a good narrative because of the level of detail I could challenge myself to describe.

Something that went well while writing my Mapping a Memory narrative was the level of detail I could remember and insert into my writing. I found that the more I thought about the process of baking Christmas cookies, the more detail I could insert into my story. With that, one thing that was difficult was trying not to over-describe and be too wordy in my narrative. There were many times when I found myself struggling to keep my sentences short enough to make sense. Additionally, there were times when it felt like the level of depth in my narrative was overbearing.

One piece of feedback I got from Jade was to insert more detail in the times of anticipation when the cookies were baking and cooling. While I appreciated this feedback, I ultimately decided not to use it for the same reason I found this assignment challenging – I didn’t want my narrative to become too wordy. I felt that there was already a good level of detail in the paragraph where I described drinking hot chocolate and watching the snow outside, so I didn’t want to overwhelm any potential reader with even more words and details.

Next time I write a personal narrative, I would like to try a different mode such as pictures or videos. I think it could be intriguing to take a snapshot of a memory and find all of the details to include in a visual composition. Narrative Writing

Through this assignment, I had the opportunity to practice narrative writing using a method that I had not previously practiced: comic strips. In order to fully practice this new method of writing, I made sure to implement elements of visual composing to convey the plot of my story. Additionally, I tried to challenge myself by eliminating words from my story, to see if I could create a plot using only visuals. The first element of visual storytelling that I used was facial expressions. The characters in my comic strip have very distinct expressions, such as yawning, shock, and anger. Additionally, I used components like small Z’s by my main character’s face to represent that she is asleep. Another visual component that I considered was the background. I used multiple different settings to try to show where my characters are. The character begins in a desk, surrounded by chalkboards, so you can interpret that she is at school. After falling asleep, she is in a forest, which can be interpreted as a dream. One element I wish I could have implemented in Pixton was a bubble around the forest, to fully indicate that the character is dreaming. Finally, I tried to use positioning to tell my story. The poses of the characters can help convey what they are doing, such as the main character slouching in her seat (falling asleep) or having one leg in front of the other (walking through the forest). In the fourth panel, the position of the main character changes, so that you can only see her face. She has a look of surprise, but the reader cannot see what she is reacting to, making it so that the reader has room for interpretation to guess what the character might be seeing. All of these elements helped me create an interpretive, but complete, story using a new method of writing.

My name is Amanda Mixter, and I am in my final year at Ohio State studying primary education. I have lived in Columbus my whole life. I hope to stay here after I graduate and I would like to teach first grade. My favorite subjects to teach are phonics and math. Outside of school, I enjoy being outside. Many of my favorite hobbies include camping, kayaking, exploring different parks (my goal in life is to visit every single U.S. national park), and relaxing in my hammock. I also enjoy traveling and spending time with my dog. My favorite indoor activities are reading, listening to music, and watching cozy movies.

Growing up, my experiences with writing were mostly academic. I did not often write unless it was assigned to me in school. I have never been a person that has been able to use writing as a way to express feelings or as a method of creativity. Rather, I follow prompts and check off boxes on rubrics. I primarily learned writing through the process discourse in school. This view of writing as followed me through most of my education.

I hope to change my view of writing in this class, so that I can give my students a different perspective of writing. I would like to instill a love of writing in my students, so that they can find creative ways to tell their stories. I would also like to learn more about how I can value non-traditional ways of writing in my classroom, so that every student can feel included in the writing process while finding the method of writing that clicks with them.