How is writing relevant? (Allie Akins)

Writing is something that we see every single day. So much or our days revolve around the written word. Being at school, on Facebook and twitter, or even just advertisements placed throughout the city. We are constantly reading in order to keep ourselves informed in whats going on in the world around us. Writing is relevant for that reason alone. Even what we see on TV had to be written down before it was said. Everything that we see was brought about by some form of writing even if it is just a correspondence between friends before meeting up for coffee or dinner. Most of the world is required to know how to do some sort of writing to communicate and thats why I believe that writing will always be relevant!

Tavi,
We will have to begin on our projects soon answering the same question that I just answered above. I was wondering which platform you would want to use-- like powerpoint or prezi or we could explore some other options as well. I want to know how you think writing is relevant? I think that taking images and presenting them with how it took writing to have these pictures happen. We could show text messages and and film scripts to show how writing causes for many other things than just books and articles. Let me know what you think!

Teachers and their students' communities (Allie Akins)

       I most certainly think that teachers should take the time to learn about their students communities. I feel like it is vital to completely understand  their students. In order to get to know anyone, you first have to know where they come from and starting with their community will give you insight into why they are the way they are. Teachers should take some time in their students communities by going to rec games or going to important monuments in their students culture. Just getting to know what is popular in a students community can give the teacher insight to who their students are before they even meet them. It goes both ways though. Students should also try and get to know a teachers community. This will be a little bit harder because some teachers are not as open so I feel like it is the teachers responsibilty to let their students know about themselves and their community. It will give the students insight to what kind of person their teacher is before they begin teaching. I feel like this also humanizes teachers more so students can see them as a person and not just a teacher. I think a good way to make students enjoy writing is to let them write about their community and also have the teacher do the same. Therefore, students are writing about something they know so they are more confident. This also allows teachers and students to learn more about each other.
       Another way to allow for more student enjoyment when it comes to writing is journaling. Journaling isn't something that necessarily needs to be graded for content but just to get students minds turning. It also just gets them familiar with writing so when it comes to writing, it isn't so daunting! What do you think about journaling?

What is community? Community to me, is more than just "fitting in". It's actually being apart of something as a whole. To be apart of a community, you have to actually connect and engage. It's not just "I live here" , it's "How can I connect to people and my surroundings?"
    In Athens the "community" is very diverse. Here, we have several different groups of people. We have the children, the teens, the college kids, and elders. Writing plays a huge role in our community because this is how everything is passed around; news, gossip, etc. School is vital to our community because the majority of people in Athens are STUDENTS. UGA is an ENORMOUS chunk of Athens.

What is community? (Allie Akins )

I feel like community is a place where people living in one area have relationships, form bonds, and  coexist together regardless of differences. Community in Athens, from what I have experienced, focuses mainly on football. Saturdays in Athens bring everyone together to enjoy something together as a community. But I have also witnessed a community at the Athens Clarke County library. I sometimes go there after school and I can see students and adults alike engaging on computer and reading all different types of books.

I think that everyone that lives in that one area is considered a part of the community. I don’t think that you have to necessarily need to be engaged in every facet of the community but just your geographical location can make you part of a community. Because if this, community can be found in many different places including your workplace, your schools, and teams. Community in schools is vital to having a successful classroom and school. If you have people working against each other all the time then it will make it hard to form relationships and coexist well together. When a school has a well rounded community, both teachers and students will have a better quality of life and will enjoy spending time there. That school community is important because teacher and peers have worked together to form a successful work environment which will benefit everyone that comes through that school.

How I feel about writing (Allie Akins)

I have always enjoyed writing starting from when I was a young middle schooler. There was a time where I thought I was going to write a book but then I got stumped and didn’t know where to go next. From then on out, I mostly just did writing for school but through that, I found things that interested me that I enjoyed writing about such as persuasive essays about things I was passionate about and narrative essays as well. Since high school, I have not done much personal writing, I’ve tried my hand at a blog a couple of times but I could never find something that I enjoyed writing about day in and day out. Usually when I am writing, I choose to do it at my desk on my computer usually with music playing in the background. I’ve always found that I write better with headphones in because I am able to block the world out and focus on the task at hand. I feel like I am more successful when it comes to in school writing because I have a very hard time sticking with something to write about and when you are doing writing for school, they tend to give you some expectations to work towards. I would eventually like to do some of my own personal writing again. I like the idea of a blog because of all the personality that goes with writing a blog; I just have to find something that interests me enough to encourage me to keep writing instead of stepping away from it again.

     I love writing, it gives us ways to express ourselves in ways other than verbally speaking. I don't like when there's a guideline I have to follow when writing.  I like writing stories, like on Wattpad. Most of the stories I write are urban stories. It lets me put me free time into things that make me happy, like telling stories. When making these stories, I type them onto Wattpad using either my phone or computer. Out of school writing writing is better because its free handed with no guidelines, while in school writing has rubrics that have to be followed and most of the time we're writing about things that don't even matter to us as students.