From Fatima

Upon hearing that I would be working with student writers this semester, I experienced a mixture of anticipation for what type of assignments I would receive and reflection in regard to my own writing skills. I felt excited to have this opportunity to dive into real student writing from the demographic that I hope to teach one day, but I also began to consider what insights I could offer to these young writers. I may be older and have more experience in writing compared to them, but I had only ever provided informal feedback to peers and friends. Before undertaking this role, it was important for me to take into account how I could effectively recognize the writing skills belonging to an unfamiliar set of students, while also identifying areas where they needed improvement. I also wondered about whether my students would want to utilize having a writing coach, but after receiving their initial introduction emails and assignments, I immediately noticed how excited they seemed to be ab...

Digital storytelling was a very rare treat presented to me in school. Beyond the standard PowerPoint (or Prezi, if you wanted to get really fancy), there were not many opportunities to explore different modes of storytelling in class until later in high school and only recently in college. Most of my experience is personal from watching video essays and booktalks or creating and designing infographics. Until recently, presenting information for an assignment was strictly completed through research papers (or if you want to get fancy again – short answer questions).   The digital media examples I mentioned above have always appealed to me both as a creator and as a consumer of media. Video essays are informative and insightful while also remaining engaging, and depending on the narrator’s personality, can be humorous as well. Here is a link to a content creator whose video essays I enjoy . The same can be applied to booktalks, which provide a creative spin on book reviews. Infograph...