Blog #3- Myths

I was happy that we learned about the different types of myths in class because it helped me determine what kind of myth I wanted to create for my website. I think it is easier for me to be creative when I am given some guidelines to follow. I think I would have struggled with writing a myth if I had never learned about the various types. Once we started doing our presentations, I realized that I would really like to write a trickster myth because I could incorporate a little humor into the story. I would have felt restricted in my writing if I had never learned about how a creation myth differs from a trickster myth. I feel like before this class, I had only ever read about creation myths. I wanted my myth to be something different so knowing I had options allowed me to more creative.
This experience has taught me that I should give students examples before having them work on a creative assignment. I think it is beneficial for students to get an idea of what their teacher expects from them before they start working on a new project. I always appreciated it in high school when my teachers would show our class examples of projects from prior years. It gave us a chance to think about how we could improve on these projects and make them our own. Do you like when teachers show you an example of a creative project or would you rather come up with an idea on your own?

Poetry- Blog #2

Writing poetry has always been therapeutic for me. Writing helps me organize my thoughts and deal with my emotions. I like the freedom of free verse and the constraints of stylized poetry like sonnets or limericks. I have always enjoyed writing and experiencing the feeling of poetry. To me poetry is extremely revealing and personal while being slightly vague. I like that you have to work to find its meaning.

When I had to analyze another poet's work, I was able to sit and deconstruct my own work. I saw what worked in a poem and what needed more developing. I actually began to appreciate poetry more once I knew what to look for when reading it. When I begin to teach about poetry, I think I will have the students write their own poem before analyzing another poem.

In one of my classes, we had to take a famous poem and put our own spin on it by replacing key words with words that represented us. It was kind of similar to when we took Shakespeare’s sonnet and rearranged words; I enjoyed projects like these because they helped me find a poetic voice. I had the freedom to choose words or phrases that represented aspects of my personality while working in the confines of an existing poem. I would definitely use a project like this to get kids thinking about poetry and what it means to them. I’d also allow time to do a found poem.

Did you enjoy the poetry projects we did in class? Do you think they would work in a high-school classroom or not? Which project was your favorite?