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By: Kenneth Meyer

Dear Michelle,

I don't even know how to begin to thank you for everything that you do, and sacrifice for me.  I remember the first time I knew you really had my back. It was right after we found out about all the crazy drama with my Mom. Many years have passed and we have changed a lot since then. However, no matter how much we change you always have my back, support my goals, cheer me on, and make me feel like I'm good enough. In fact that is exactly what I want to thank you for. Thank you for making me feel good enough, that exactly what a best friend is for.

Love,
Kenny

There is a scene in the book American Born Chinese, when Wei-Chen and  Amelia are locked in a closet having a conversation. During this conversation, Wei-Chen explains that Jin is very important to him and that he was a good, kind person that made him feel accepted when he first moved to their country and school. This inspired a prompt for a writing workshop that asks students to think of a time when someone made them feel this way, and write them a thank you letter to a friend.

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Scary Decisions can be Good Decisions

By: Kenneth Meyer

When I first graduated high school, I made the decision to take a year to myself before I decided if college was the right decision for me. In the meantime, I moved into my own apartment with some roommates while working and saving money. When I decided to pursue college, I did not want to give up my current job and decided to balance both work and school in my life. I believed in myself, and I knew that it would be difficult, but I also knew that I was capable of doing anything I wanted. For awhile, managing both parts of my life was difficult, but manageable and I had been doing my best to schedule work and school around each other so as not to cause conflict. However, I would soon be forced to make a hard decision. One day, my manager explained that she needed me to come in to work on a day that I had class and was not scheduled to work. I told her I was unable to do so and that I had to attend class that day. Essentially, I was told that if I did not show up for that shift, then I would no longer have a job. At that moment, I made the call that school was my first priority, and no job is worth risking my successful education. I went to class that day, and I did lose my job for it. However, I do not regret this decision. Despite a slight setback, I was fortunate enough to find a job that would accommodate my class schedule and allow me to continue. Though that decision was not easy, I had to remember who I was and what I valued the most. I have held to this since then, and I am on track to becoming a teacher in the near future. Sometimes the challenging decisions you are faced with, can be the most rewarding.

One theme that can be found in the book American Born Chinese, is that being your true self is extremely important. The story also portrays there will be times in everyone's life that you feel pressured by others to become, or act different than who you truly are. This book inspired a writing workshop activity where students are encouraged to write about a time in their life in which they felt pressured to not be themselves. I have included my own example.

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By: Kenneth Meyer

M-ortality
O-bstinance
N-otoriety
K-nowledge
E-nvious
Y-early

K-ung-fu
I-nstigator
N-arcissist
G-od Like

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1. First, I read the book, going into the experience with the perspective of a teacher looking to find a quality mentor text.

2. As I read I used sticky notes to jot down writers’ workshop ideas as they appeared to me.

3. After I was finished with the book I went back to my sticky notes and picked my three favorite ideas to use for this Multi-Genre Project.

4. My first idea was to write a poem about the Monkey King’s story. So, a google search later and I found out that this was a variation of the “journey to the west”. A spiritual fable of Chinese origin that is an “allegorical rendition of the journey mingling with Chinese fables, fairy tales, legends, superstitions, popular beliefs, monster stories, and whatever else Taoist, Buddhist, and Chinese popular religions.” (Haiwang 2004) It touched on many different Popular Asian religions, but even more so on morals, selfishness, and envy. In the end I think it was trying to show us that the only way to truly be happy is to be true to yourself and stop trying to be what people what you to be. And most of all except yourself for wo you are, and grateful for it. These concepts inspired the above acrostic poem, about the “Monkey King”.

5. The second sticky note idea that made the cut for this project was the Journal Entry about a time that you had to make the decision to stay true to yourself, and or your goals. For this I wrote about a time shortly into my college career.

6. The last idea that I used for this project was “A Thank You Letter To A Friend” This was inspired by a scene in the book American Born Chinese, when Wei-Chen and Amelia are locked in a closet having a conversation. During this conversation, Wei-Chen explains that Jin is very important to him and that he was a good, kind person that made him feel accepted when he first moved to their country and school. This inspired a prompt for a writing workshop that asks students to think of a time when someone made them feel this way and write them a thank you letter to a friend.

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Teaching Points:

-  This Project helped me identify strategies in Idea Generation, Editing, and Publishing.  Personally, I found the sticky note method helpful that I discussed in the “My Process” section of this presentation. I wrote all of my pieces with writers’ workshop ideas as the intention and included how I would incorporate them under the writing itself.

Review of the Technology Tool:

-  The technology tool that I choose to use for the presentation was Padlet. Padlet is an online publishing tool that allows you to create both community interactive, and editable blogs or post boards, and concreate website publications alike. I have used this tool before many times in the past and highly recommend it for many reasons. First of all, it is free (there is a paid version), anyone can make up to six Padlets at a time, however if you run out you can just delete an old one. It is very user friendly and easy to edit make changes, and even upload media. Plus, my favorite editing assistant Grammerly, works within the mobile app (yes you can even work on your Padlet from your phone) and website.

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Haiwang, Y. (2004, March 20). Monkey King. Retrieved April 20, 2018, from http://people.wku.edu/haiwang.yuan/China/tales/monkey.html