# data[].attributes.body
Similar to creating a blog, I was excited, ready to put my thoughts, ideas, and plans for the future on display. Twitter, however, wasn't new to me. I just never saw my thought my words could be of importance to anyone. Yet, I found Brad Johnson's tweets so beneficial to me as an educator and a dreamer. He tweeted every day, some times more than once in a day. One of his tweets state "Don't let fear limit your potential or your purpose." Empowering right?

With Twitter I found myself more confident as I could change/edit my tweets and really think about what I want to say. Sometimes it can be so hard talking to someone or a group of people as you don't want to mess up or say something you didn't mean. Anything can misinterpreted. There, here, I have control over what I mean. Some might disagree.

I followed a hashtag/topic and by following the #education and #edchat, I found so much knowledge. There were videos, memes, quotes, authors, poems, educators, political figures, and so on. I was shocked and excited to read through all the amazing tweets and retweets.

I found retweeting and quoting tweets really helpful as I would find so much content to be what I have thought of, but yet they had said it in a better way. I could add on to what they are saying or simply share their content.

The connection between Twitter and the course concepts, as well as, course texts was seamless. I found more to say about the course texts and concepts due to Twitter's content on my feed.

I would definitely say that its a pass, or should I say a "Tweet and Retweet."

# data[].attributes.body
Stay tuned for a reflection on the use of twitter.
Was it similar to a blog?
Is it a pass?
How did it deepen my understanding of course concepts?
Did certain @people or #hashtags stand out? Why these?
What advice would I give to an educator about Tweeting?
Come by on the 28th

# data[].attributes.body
Looking at the media I used for my blog posts, I wish I could have included more blog posts on my philosophy of teaching, some movie suggestions, and some awesome authors, writers, publishers, and poets.
After this course, I might edit a few of my posts and be more creative.
To end this amazing course, I would like to bring attention to Armonte Hegwood's blog. His blog post is what every educator (and every blogger) would hope to create. It's interactive, creative, funny, inspiring, and totally "cheesy." Definitely deserves a BLOSCAR!!

# data[].attributes.body
Creating a blog was one of the most motivational and efficacious opportunity I have been able to experience during this pandemic. I found myself producing content that, not only inspired others, but inspired me to be an inspiring educator, a better writer, and a creative thinker.
Looking back at my blog posts, I wish I would have written more and included more quotes or references to the texts in class. I, also, wish I would have made a more creative multimodal presentation (it wasn't my best).

# data[].attributes.headline
Media Appropriation and Ethical Participation 

# data[].attributes.subject
Media Appropriation and Ethical Participation 

# data[].attributes.body
While trying to find a way to make a multimodal composition, I thought about media appropriation. I wasn't sure about the topic so I decided to stick to media appropriation and ethical participation. It's not the best, let alone even good. However, this might show you the effort and time needed to perfect your creativity while implementing and adding your ideas.

# data[].attributes.body
Using multimedia gives the advantage to express your thoughts without the long nights of writing and revising to have your work judged, critiqued, months later just to have your work published and given to the public. You have more control over your masterpieces and people can reach your work from the comfort of their own home and at the tips of their fingers. I think my very first experience with digital storytelling would be publishing my story "X Marks The Spot" on a friend's story site. It requires a lot of work, but it gave me a voice. I would love to get more creative and have my stories in the forms of movies, trailers, or even just some Hanz Zimmer type of music. What a dream...

# data[].attributes.body
When we think of writing, we think pages upon pages typed just to be published on forms like JSTOR or poetry turned into a collection which becomes a book. It sounds so typical, that is why we introduce digital composition and digital storytelling. When you have this rush of ideas of an ending to a magnificent story and all you want to do is bring these ideas to life, you would use digital composition. Hicks, Turner and Stratton described it perfectly, "A digital story is a composition that involves spoken words, images, video, and other multimedia effects" (174). By making your story a movie or just simply adding images, videos, and any forms of expression to a digital story, you bring it to life. Some examples are book trailers, podcasts, websites, blogs (like this one) you bring more options for readers to interact with your work. Check this website out and see how interactive it is.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fresh powder beckoned 16 expert skiers and snowboarders into the backcountry. Then the snow gave way.

# data[].attributes.body
You don't need a class or course to write. Start where you're at and move on from there. Here is site from a young writer who has amazing work, yet you would never know that each short story takes one to two weeks. It definitely takes time.

# data[].attributes.body
With that lengthy, feely ramble, I’m excited to begin journeys and find ways to better lives through literature, history, and research. To start off, I’d like to refer you all to a little piece of literature. When you watch this you’ll more than understand why being a student, writer, and educator is so important, not just to me, but also you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Danger of a Single Story | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | TED Talks

# data[].attributes.body
While my name says Nagham A at the top of my posts, I go by Jalousy. I think one thing in my life that won’t end is being a student. Life is one tough cookie. It’s like biting into a rock sometimes and while it’s hard it always has that one sweet spot. Along with being a student, I...love....writing. Writing out my thoughts, moments, agitations, frustrations, memories, and, above all else, about life and philosophy. Reader is also a writer in some ways as ideas are extensions. We write to expand on a certain thought, topic or feeling. As you can see I’m writing my thoughts on writing. What a paradox.

What I’m very passionate about for the last 4 or 5 years is being an educator. I started out as a tutor, I’m working at an after-school program, and I’m working my way to becoming an English/Literature teacher. Teaching is hard, from what I’ve experienced, but it makes you work harder. Being an educator is challenging, while also inspiring. I find myself thinking about ways to become a better educator for, dawn to dusk. It’s my lifelong passion!!

# data[].attributes.headline
Digital Composition and Civic Engagement (Part 2)

# data[].attributes.subject
Digital Composition and Civic Engagement (Part 2)

# data[].attributes.body
Digital composition is "cultivat[ing] space for youths to hone critical perspectives and engage in sustained inquiry, positioned as advocates, activists, doers, storytellers, and knowledge creators" (Dejaynes & CurmiHall 2). Each student, not only wants, but needs to learn about something that benefits them and incorporates their experiences, along with their perspectives. By welcoming the use of technology and social media in the classroom, we motivate students to use platforms, such as instagram, blogs, twitter, websites, youtube, and so on, in a more productive way. Therefore, they are monitored, but not controlled. It gives students, who might not be able to express themselves in the class, a voice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The police shooting of Mr. Blake ignited protests in Kenosha, Wis., including one in which a teenager was charged with fatally shooting two demonstrators. The D.A. decided not to chargeofficers involved in the Blake shooting.

A vigil in support of Jacob Blake near the Kenosha County Courthouse on Jan. 4, the day before a prosecutor announced he would decline to bring charges against the police officer who shot Mr. Blake. Credit... Scott Olson/Getty Images

Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was left partly paralyzed after a white police officer shot him seven times in the back outside an apartment complex in Kenosha, Wis., on Aug. 23.

The shooting, which happened in front of three of Mr. Blake's children, was captured by a neighbor in a video that circulated widely and rapidly on social media. Outrage spread quickly, rekindling the nationwide protests for racial justice that had followed the deaths of George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans after encounters with the police.

Protesters poured into Kenosha in the days after the shooting - as did counterprotesters. An Illinois teenager was charged with intentional homicide in the shooting deaths of two demonstrators. Professional athletes in several leagues, led by the Milwaukee Bucks of the N.B.A., joined the protests by refusing to play games

Four months after the shooting of Mr. Blake, the Kenosha County district attorney, Michael Graveley, announced on Jan. 5 that the officers involved in the shooting would not be charged.

Here's what we know about Mr. Blake's shooting and its aftermath.

Mr. Blake, 29, a father of six, grew up in Evanston, Ill., and moved to Kenosha a few years ago to find work and to raise his family, an uncle told The Chicago Tribune.

"It was a safer location," the uncle, Justin Blake, said. "He could work and try to save and build a better life."

Mr. Blake's family said he was working and training to become a mechanic at the time of the shooting.

Image

Mr. Blake's sister Zanetia Blake and his father, Jacob Blake Sr., in Kenosha two days after the shooting in August. Credit... Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times

Jacob Blake in the hospital on Sept. 5. He was transferred to a spinal-injury rehabilitation center in October. Mr. Blake's family has said he is paralyzed from the waist down. Credit... Courtesy of Shermaine Laster

In a statement, the union representing Kenosha police officers suggested that Mr. Blake had forcefully resisted arrest, fought with officers, put one officer in a headlock and ignored orders to drop a knife he held in his left hand.

Ben Crump, a lawyer for Mr. Blake's family, denied that Mr. Blake had been carrying a knife and said Mr. Blake had been trying to break up a disturbance involving two women when the police arrived.

A neighbor recorded the shooting with a cellphone. The video shows Mr. Blake being shot seven times in the back in front of his children as he tried to get into his car.

On Aug. 26, the Justice Department announced a civil rights investigation into the shooting.

Mr. Blake's family has said he is paralyzed from the waist down. In a video posted on Twitter on Sept. 5, Mr. Blake said he had staples along his back and abdomen.

CNN reported on Oct. 7 that Mr. Blake had left the hospital and was in "a spinal-injury rehabilitation center in Chicago," according to one of his lawyers, Patrick Cafferty.

Protests over Mr. Blake's shooting played out in the streets of Kenosha, in cities across the country and in the spotlight of professional sports in August. Athletes from the N.B.A., the W.N.B.A., Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer and at the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament refused to play, seizing on the shooting to take a stand against systemic racism and police brutality.

In Kenosha, anger was palpable during the first nights of the protests, as some demonstrators burned buildings and cars and threw fireworks, water bottles and bricks at police officers in riot gear. Officers responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Protesters and police officers clashed in Kenosha on Aug. 24, the day after Mr. Blake was shot. Credit... Carlos Ortiz for The New York Times

Protests spread across the country, to cities including Madison, Wis.; Portland, Ore.; Minneapolis; and New York.

In Kenosha on Aug. 25, two people were fatally shot, and a third was wounded, as protesters clashed with counterprotesters, including a group of armed men who said they were protecting the area from looters. The two people killed were Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26. Mr. Huber's friends said he was protesting against the shooting of Mr. Blake.

Kyle Rittenhouse, then 17, who is white, was arrested at his home in Illinois and charged with six criminal counts, including first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide, in connection with the shooting deaths of Mr. Rosenbaum and Mr. Huber and the wounding of the third demonstrator.

Mr. Rittenhouse, who is now 18, pleaded not guilty to the charges during a brief arraignment via videoconference on Jan. 5. His case will proceed in March.

The presidential candidates weighed in, visiting Kenosha in September. Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. spent much of his appearance at a church in Kenosha expressing empathy for Black Americans. Credit... Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York Times

On Nov. 6, prosecutors in Kenosha County Circuit Court dropped one count of third-degree sexual assault and agreed to drop one count of criminal trespass if Mr. Blake pleaded guilty to two counts of disorderly conduct, according to court records and Mr. Blake's lawyer, Patrick Cafferty.

Mr. Blake, who made a virtual court appearance via a video call, pleaded guilty to the two disorderly conduct charges and was sentenced to two years of probation, Mr. Cafferty said.

The Walworth County district attorney, Zeke Wiedenfeld, who had prosecuted the case, said the sexual assault charge had been dropped in part because the woman who had accused Mr. Blake was not cooperating with the prosecution.

Mr. Blake had maintained that he did not commit sexual assault, and by dropping the charge, Mr. Cafferty said, prosecutors acknowledged that "ultimately, the state could not prove it in court."

Mr. Cafferty said the resolution of the case would not affect the Justice Department's investigation into the shooting of Mr. Blake.

On Jan. 5, Mr. Graveley announced that charges would not be brought against Rusten Sheskey, the police officer who shot Mr. Blake.

The prosecutor concluded that a case against Officer Sheskey would have been hard to prove. He said it would be difficult to disprove an argument that the officer was protecting himself from Mr. Blake, who Mr. Graveley said had admitted holding a knife.

Mr. Crump reacted on Twitter, writing, "We are immensely disappointed and feel this decision failed not only Jacob and his family but the community that protested and demanded justice."

The authorities in Kenosha began to prepare for possible unrest after the announcement. Mr. Graveley pleaded for the community to remain peaceful as tensions and fears of violent protests rose in Kenosha, where some businesses were boarded up and the National Guard stood near the Kenosha County Courthouse.

Reporting was contributed by Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Julie Bosman, Michael Cooper, John Eligon, Marie Fazio, Katie Glueck, Neil MacFarquhar, Sarah Mervosh, Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Marc Stein.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What We Know About the Shooting of Jacob Blake

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The police shooting of Mr. Blake ignited protests in Kenosha, Wis., including one in which a teenager was charged with fatally shooting two demonstrators. The D.A. decided not to chargeofficers involved in the Blake shooting.

# data[].attributes.headline
Experience with Social Media/Digital Composition (Part 1)

# data[].attributes.subject
Experience with Social Media/Digital Composition (Part 1)

# data[].attributes.body
I have always been fond of using social media to express who I am and connect with others. I use Pinterest quite often. As well as, Instagram. I also have a twitter, yet I don't use it all that much. I have used Youtube for multiple classes, yet have not made any of my videos public. Blogging and twitter are one of my more preferred uses as they allow for more room for expression and communication.

# data[].attributes.body
Growing up, I absolutely loved writing. I won my first poetry competition when I was in 4th grade. I learned how to write 3 page essays in 4th and 5th grade. I would spend long nights with my mom perfecting all of my ideas and making sure I don't forget a single correct comma and noun. Yet, this dream was crushed when I wrote a 3/4 page paper all night, without sleep, and had my teacher, the next day, give me an 'F' because it didn't fit any, not one, of the criteria. I was 12 at the time. To have a 12 year old's heart ripped out their chest was just evil. It wasn't just about the age. My teacher didn't give me any credit for completion or anything. These types of experiences continued as I entered middle school. However, this all changed when I entered high school. My English teachers in high school worked with me for a long time because they saw what I couldn't in myself. What I'm trying to get at through this anecdote is that we need to scratch perfection and push for effort. We need to introduce writing as painting your thoughts in words. The results of this might be sloppy, but a sloppy start is better than expecting perfections. If art can be abstract, why not writing? It's art, it's way more than just art, too. It's Picasso/Shakespeare mixed with Judy Blume: special. At the bottom is an image of Picasso's process of a poem.

# data[].attributes.body
Throughout high school, peer reviews were always the one thing I didn't look forward to as I never liked the fact that my class had to judge my writing and critic my work. Anytime someone had to check my work I had this need to make it look perfect. I will say for certain that this impacted me as an aspiring teacher. We want students to make mistakes in order to enjoy the journey and experience of writing. Perfection, especially with grammar and sentence structure, should be one of the very last things we look at as peers and as educators, The act of jotting down ideas on a paper where your thoughts become public is a scary step to take. Who are we to tell young writers what a good writer is when its even difficult for us? This video really inspired, not only as a person, but as an educator, because as educators we have one of the biggest influences on children and young writers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Shane Koyczan: To This Day ... for the bullied and beautiful

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By turn hilarious and haunting, poet Shane Koyczan puts his finger on the pulse of what it's like to be young and ... different. "To This Day," his spoken-word poem about bullying, captivated millions as a viral video (created, crowd-source style, by 80 animators).

# data[].attributes.body
Now I'm no Shakespeare or Edgar Allen Poe, but I love reading and writing. Not necessarily in the way you do, rather I like taking my jumbled, spider web thoughts and putting them on paper. I know they might not make sense in the after the first draft, but knowing that my mind is FILLED with ideas, thoughts, hopes, dreams, and passions is what drives me to write. Reading through the fifth chapter in Vicki Spandel's The 9 Rights of Every Writer: A Guide for Teachers really put into perspective how we all grow up learning how to write 5 paragraph essays and research papers only because our teachers and school systems said we had to. Yet this isn't writing. Think of writing like jotting down everything in your head about one topic and then seeing the light bulbs of others who read them and create even more ideas. This is what writing truly is, or should be. The best example of this is "Freedom Writers."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Freedom Writers (2007) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers

# data[].attributes.body
Welcome! You've entered my chamber of thoughts. You'll find me going back and forth in a conversation with myself about the connections between the internet and composition. In other words, digital literacy. It's a slippery topic, lets begin...