That's a Wrap! (blog 8)

Time to wrap up the semester of blogging and recap the past 7 blog posts that I have completed. Our class this semester was very new to me whether that be the blogging experience, the writing coaching, multimodal compositions, etc., and I think that I have continued to grow with the new materials throughout the weeks. Although I was not exactly keeping these things in mind as I would write my blog posts each week, here are my opinions on which posts fit the best into each of these categories: professionalism, multimodal design, creativity, and finally, civic engagement.

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Professionalism: Blog 5 The Writing Process, What a Wonderful Thing

I chose this blog because of my discussion on what the writing coaching process was like for me. I wrote in a way that I believed would describe the writing process the best while also sounding like I knew what I was talking about. I described how everyone has the same goal of wanting to see students succeed and how the writing process looks different for everyone. I wanted the readers of my blog post to realize what a novice writer was and recognize that everyone goes through that phase of writing and that there are resources out there to help you succeed and grow as a writer. 

I tried to be professional in all of my blogs while also keeping in mind that it was indeed a blog post and was not meant to be as formal as other assignments may be, but overall, I thought the information that I was putting out there in this blog post was the reason it should be considered the "best post/entry" for this category.

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Multimodal Design: Blog 7 All About Crowfall!

I chose this blog because I formatted my post to include a multimodal composition to show the creation of the project I created to go along with my book. The design of this blog included multiple links and photos to show the digital zine I created. I thought this blog was the best to choose for a multimodal design because of the format of the screenshots of my zine pages at the end. They were in a way that showed the page layouts and had pops of color, and clipart, and were fairly short and sweet. I used both a real photo and the screenshot photos which incorporated two different design options which involved the same thing, too! 

Designing these blog posts throughout the semester was enjoyable, but I found the most enjoyment in this last post. I was able to have fun with the zine rather than have it be a stressful task and "the visual elements we recognize as adding new layers of meaning to students' stories are: metaphor, color, and space," (Chisholm & Trent 314) which I used lots of colors and made use of my space in this blog! 

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Creativity: Blog 2 Writing Coach Profile + Identity: All About Me

I chose this blog because the topic of the blog was all about me, therefore allowing me to be creative in what I was discussing and how I was going to do that. I was able to explore new platforms and create a selfie mashup to include different things I was interested in and be creative with. This post described who exactly I was and what my experiences with reading and writing have been like so far. I described different platforms that can be used and was able to get my ideas out there in a way that was easy to read and understand while also doing it in a way that I wanted to. 

This category was somewhat difficult to think of since all of my blogs are formatted in a similar way in order to get the message/requirements of the assignment included in the post. This blog post, in particular, I found very enjoyable to create because of the selfie mashup which made it the ultimate reason behind my pick. 

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Civic Engagement: Blog 7 All About Crowfall!

I chose this blog because I discussed at the end of the blog what types of visual engagement I think would promote civic engagement the most. The novel Crowfall is an eco-narrative book that shows readers that they should do everything they can to prevent their power source (the Earth) from getting destroyed. I mentioned that there are different ways to stretch students' minds in order to promote civic engagement. 

Although I did not necessarily enjoy picking the same blog twice for these categories, I truly think that blog 7 fits into this category and the creativity category the best. Being able to have a variety of things that are included in a blog was interesting to view while I was reevaluating my blogs throughout the semester, and I can say that my blogs got better as the semester progressed! 

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People's Choice Award: Paul!!

Although obviously everyone did a great job this semester with their blogs, I have to say that I did not read everyone's throughout the semester. This being said, I needed to pick a blog that I would still read fairly often. Every so often when some of my blog-group members may not have posted theirs yet and I wanted to ensure my comments would be complete, I would find myself clicking on Paul's blog and becoming engaged in it. The easy-going tone of the blogs while also being professional in a sense fit Paul's personality great and was super enjoyable to read and see how his journey thus far has led him to this class. His blog was entertaining/creative while also having a strong voice!

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Overall, great job everyone at a semester of blogging and creating things that may have been new to us, I know it was new to me!

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