Adolescent Timeline Takeaways by Carly Miceli

cmiceli12 — 2025-09-29 19:51:42 UTC

Using an emoji, gif, or image, please describe how you felt to recollect all memories from 4th through 8th grade in the areas of literacy. Describe your thoughts below your image

cmiceli12 — 2025-09-29 19:58:07 UTC

When first tasked with this responsibility, I certainly thought mom-brain would take over and it would be really tough to remember so far back. Once I sat down and really delved into what I remembered, I was surprised how easily things came back to me.

I remember even earlier as well, back to 3rd grade. My teacher made apples and onions on a hot plate for us to try after reading a novel (I think it was Pippi Longstocking??) and a few other really heartwarming, positive experiences I had in elementary school. This, in addition to a cool Elvis project I did in ELA in 6th grade, going to the school library to get my favorite "choose your own adventure" books in 6th and 7th grade, and writing poems for an 8th grade ELA assignment with my best friend.

Most of my takeaways were positive, but the few negative I had, I am happy to AVOID as an educator today (hello, grammar workbooks in 7th grade!) Overall, I am happy I really sat down and thought about it because it brought back a little nostalgia!

kelliwilliamsss — 2025-09-30 00:52:38 UTC

It was tough to remember all of these years of late elementary and middle school, especially what the literacy curricula consisted of- I was able to finally place things by remembering how old I was when I read some of my favorite books as an adolescent.

As an adolescent reader, I struggled to focus which significantly impacted my comprehension skills. As an adult and future educator, I hope to share comprehension strategies with my future students who may experience similar struggles. In general, I definitely feel like this project gave me insight on how to create positive experiences for my future students, including what I should avoid.

2025-09-30 00:55:00 UTC

When we were first introduced to this project, I was immediately met with fear and anxiety due to past experiences that aren't fun to reminisce. However, after speaking with some of my previous teachers (now coworkers) and my mom about things that they found themselves to be prominent, it was so much easier for me to find those safer memories and delve into the positives and negatives.

I honestly was very impressed with my final project that I created and nearly empowered myself to persevere through those initial fears of completing this. I had a lot of fun going through memory lane about old projects, and my mom (being the crazy hoarder that she is) even had some of my old essays and book reports that I had completed from grade school!

This has actually been my favorite project I've completed so far this semester, and I really don't think I would have believed I would ever say that this time last week!

megankettler1 — 2025-09-30 00:55:07 UTC

I have a really bad memory so it was initially very hard for me to recall things from elementary and middle school but I was eventually able to remember things we did in those grades.

One simple thing I mentioned in mine was how in 5th grade, my teacher would always add on a silly word to spell at the end of our spelling tests. It was super simple but it got all of the kids excited about the test. Another one I really liked was a writing assignment we had in 7th grade. We had to write a persuasive letter to any company we wanted and this was really fun the day of, but it was also exciting when students would come in with a letter they got back from the company.

Most of my memories were positive and I only shared one negative one that I could remember. I think this is such a good assignment though because we want to teach our students things they are going to remember and what better way to do that then to look back on what we remember learning and how we learned it.

2025-09-30 00:56:05 UTC

It took a lot of thinking back. Which seemed really easy at first until I started. Then I was trying so hard to remember all the back to 4th grade and up and a lot of those memories I honestly don't spend any time on now thinking back. Si, it was definitely hard but worth it to look at now!

2025-09-30 00:56:17 UTC

I think the adolescent timeline was engaging and had us really think back to our childhood. I like that this assignment was meant to connect to us and for many, it probably did that. For me, I have blocked out majority of my childhood so it was hard to grasp those thoughts. I remember who my teachers were and maybe something we did in the class, however, it was hard to tie it to literacy in some of the grade levels. It took some time to think of it and had me brain storming for a couple days before I could actually put something to type.

Hannah Crites

jelayne1123 — 2025-09-30 01:00:23 UTC

Looking back on my 4th–8th grade literacy memories felt like opening an old scrapbook. Some pages made me smile, remembering teachers who encouraged me or books I loved. Other pages brought back feelings of frustration, like being too shy to ask questions or feeling nervous during discussions. Overall, it was a mix of pride, reflection, and realization of how much those years shaped the way I want to teach my future students.

2025-09-30 01:02:03 UTC

I thought it would be hard to remember, but once I started, things came back pretty fast. In 4th grade, I had some really good experiences that made school feel fun, and in middle school, I loved projects and reading stuff that actually interested me. Looking back honestly just made me feel kind of nostalgic.