My Literacy Story

The Harry Potter novels are one of the most popular book series in the world, and in my life. The book series has played an important role throughout my life.

helina01. (August 29, 2015). i love hp photo (photograph). Retrieved from
http://helina01.deviantart.com/art/i-love-hp-photo-556958097 

The Harry Potter novels were really the first series of books that I read independently that other people I knew read. I always read a lot as a child, but the books I read weren’t the same books that other people I knew were reading, if they were reading at all. My best friend growing up didn’t read a lot, and my sister and mom were reading books above my reading level. I never had anyone to talk to about the books I read until the Harry Potter books starting coming out. When the books were first released, everyone was reading them, regardless of age, gender, and previous reading habits as they appealed to a wide range of people. I was finally able to have deep, in depth conversations about what I was reading, which was very meaningful to me.

helina01. (August 29, 2015). I'm part of the harry potter generation photo (photograph). Retrieved from http://helina01.deviantart.com/art/I-m-part-of-the-harry-potter-generation-photo-556958781

When I was younger my sister was more into the series than I was, as she was the age of the characters when the books came out. I was a few years behind her, both in age and in reading the books, so I got them once she was done with them. I was still early on in the series when the final book came out. The book came out in the summer, and I remember my sister having her nose stuck in the book while we were at the cottage. We slept in bunk beds there, and being the little sister I was stuck on the bottom bunk of our rickety bed. I remember I was annoyed with her keeping her reading light on late into the night so she could finish reading the series. I was annoyed that not only was the light was getting into my eyes, preventing me from sleeping, but that she allowed to stay up late to read and I wasn’t. When she got to the end of the series she shook the bed with her sobs over the deaths that happened, and of the ending of the series as a whole. I was shocked as she didn’t cry a lot, and I had never even come close to crying over a book, so I didn’t understand how a book could influence such emotions. Of course, by the time I finished the series for the first time, I was also in tears, and often am even now rereading the series finale!

helina01. (August 29, 2015). we are the harry potter
generation photo collage (photograph). Retrieved
from http://helina01.deviantart.com/art/we-are-the
-harry-potter-generation-photo-collage-556958549

At the end of high school I went to visit a high school friend who was currently in her first year of university. I took the first Harry Potter book with me for fun, light reading for the trip, and I wound up reading the whole book part way through my trip. I ended up not having a lot of fun with my friend, as she had changed a lot in the few months since she left for university, but I really bonded with her dorm roommate. Her roommate and I talked a lot about Harry Potter, and she let me read the auxiliary Harry Potter books, like the Tales of the Beetle the Bard. We even went out together for me to buy the second Harry Potter book so I had something else to read. I was disappointed that I didn’t enjoy my time with my old friend, but I was glad to meet someone new that I could talk about Harry Potter with, as well as learn new things about my favourite book series.

I enjoy listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks as well, as I can listen to my favourite story as I do other things. My favourite book is the seventh, so I often have it downloaded from the local library’s website onto my phone. One time my whole family was driving up to my cottage together, and we were getting restless on the last hour of the five hour trip. I was listening to the audiobook on headphones already, so I suggested we plug it into the sound system and listen to it as a family. I remember feeling really joyful that my whole family was enjoying my favourite book together with me, and that I could help entertain everyone on a long trip.

helina01. (August 30, 2015). potter generation photo (photograph).
Retrieved from http://helina01.deviantart.com/art/potter-generation-photo-557147740

The Harry Potter series means so much to me that I completed my undergraduate thesis on the first three books. We were told at the beginning of the thesis course to pick something we enjoyed, since we were going to spend a lot of time with the subject, so I picked Harry Potter because I know how much I love the books. I explored the adult-child relationships in the novels, to see if the interactions were negative or positive, and if the interactions impacted the children’s problem-solving. I really enjoyed not just reading the books but really analyze the relationships in the books, and to really think about how they might impact the readers when they read the books.  

helina01. (September 11, 2015). read harry potter photo (photograph).
Retrieved from http://helina01.deviantart.com/art/read-harry-
potter-photo-559615318

The nice thing about your favourite books is that they are there for you throughout good or bad times. This is true with my relationship the with Harry Potter series, as whenever I am sad or sick I can pick up a Harry Potter novel and feel better pretty quickly. It’s a series that has been with me since I was little, and will continue to play a role in my life as I get older and become a teacher and parent, as I will be able to share my love of these books with a new generation of readers.

Genius Hour Blog #3

Hello!

This week was a fun week for me this week, as I got to look through all my photos for some baked good photos! I needed photos to complete my Genius Hour movie trailer, which I think looks awesome! I needed lots of photos for the trailer, so that's why I was looking through my photos from up to four years ago! I realized I used to bake, A LOT, but I haven't baked a lot lately. I used to spend HOURS some weekends baking and decorating baked goods, but mostly cupcakes. It was a lot of fun for me then, but very time consuming of course. I haven't been baking a lot in the last two or three years, probably because I've become very busy and now I have to buy my own ingredients! I'm remembering all the fun I used to have though, and the joy I got when people saw and enjoyed my creations. I think I might start baking more this year, to find the joy I used to have when I baked.

In regards to my Genius Hour project, I need to continue working on mapping out where the bakeries are in Ontario. I didn't get a lot of work done on this part during the last week, as I was quite busy, but it's something I need to get working on!

On wards and upwards!

- Leah

Genius Hour Research

Hello!

This week I really started to research my Genius Hour topic, which to recap, is about the best bakeries around Ontario and the route one would take to visit the top fifteen. So I started to look around different websites to figure out how they rate or rank bakeries and restaurants. I wanted to compare a few websites to see if a few bakeries stood out, but I discovered that they all compare bakeries very differently. I wanted to use Zomato (formerly known as UrbanSpoon), but you can only look at the top rated bakeries in cities, not the whole province of Ontario. Another website, Ontario Travel Blog, had reader submitted favourite restaurants but for very specific topics, such as the best pie shops in Ontario. The best website I found was TripAdvisor, where I could search for best bakeries in all of Ontario, as rated by the website's users. Now I am going to review the top fifteen rated bakeries to see if they are the best fits for what I want. For example, one of the top fifteen rated bakeries appears to be more of a delicatessen, though it claims to be a bakery as well. There are also a few ice cream places, so I need to determine if they fit my idea of what a bakery is for my road trip. After I have confirmed the bakeries that are being visited, I will start mapping out where the bakeries are located.

I have found this research to be a lot of fun, though it does make me hungry to look at pictures of delicious baked goods. I have also been impressed by some very creative bakery names! I love puns and alliterations, so I enjoy the names that use these. I have also found that though I am very interested in this topic, I need dedicated time to work on my research, as I am not very good at being proactive. This is a skill I am going to have to work on and improve on this year.

Until next time,

-Leah

Genius Hour Blog Post #1

Hello!

After learning more about the concept of Genius Hour I have started my own Genius Hour project. I love road trips and baked goods, so I have incorporated those two elements into my project. I want to discover the ideal route to take in order to visit the best bakeries in Ontario.

I am going to use existing lists and ratings of Ontarian bakeries to determine the fifteen bakeries the trip should visit. Once I have determined which bakeries to visit, I will use an Ontario road map to map out the bakeries and what order they will be in to visit. My goal is to make the most efficient road trip to visit the best bakeries in Ontario. At first I wanted to do bakeries across Canada, but that goal seems to be too broad and difficult to do in only a few weeks. With choosing bakeries in just Ontario, it is a more achievable project and potential road trip!

So far my experiences with my Genius Hour project have been positive. I have found some websites that clearly rank bakeries in Ontario, so I feel encouraged and hopeful that this project will be easily achievable. I have also found making my proposal pitch fun and easy to do, so I look forward to completing more steps in this process. I am really looking forward the next step of this project which will be looking through the top ranked bakeries in Ontario, as it is fun and interesting to me! Hopefully there will be some bakeries near by so I can do some hands on research!

Let me know what you think about my Genius Hour project and if you have any tips or tricks to share with me!

- Leah

Copyright

Hello!

Copyright is an important but sometimes complicated issue. Everyone wants credit for something they have done or made, but many people do not know how to give someone else proper credit. This can be especially tricky on the Internet, because even if one person doesn't cite or credit the author then it can move around the Internet quickly without it's copyright.

Ribelro, Lucella. (2008, June 30). Children at school (photograph). Retrieved from https://goo.gl/kjAn5N

It is important to be aware of copyrights as an educator, because they limit what teachers can show and share with their class. If teachers are not aware of copyright laws, then they will not be able to teach the children in their class(es). Teachers should be educating children on copyright laws to that proper credit can continue to be given to the right people. 

Alejandrocaicedo. (2011, March 11). Kids studing at RIA Centers (photograph). Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ni%C3%B1os_RIA.jpg 

So next time you do a web search or read another blog, take a look to see if the photos and other types of media are cited properly. Copyright should be important to everyone, not just the original artist or creator. 

- Leah

Welcome!

Hello!

Thank you for checking out my new blog. This blog will document my journey through Teacher Education (most people refer to this as Teacher’s College), but more specifically through a digital education course. The world is rapidly changing due to technology, so education should change with it! 

One thing that is new to education is something called 'Genius Hour'. Genius hour is a time during school when children can research things that they are passionate about and want to learn more about the subject. Children figure out a question that they want to find the answer for, research it, and then present it in fun and unique ways. This is a great way to keep children interested and involved in the classroom, because they are motivated to solve the question.  

This video is a great explanation of how Genius Hour started, and what it is all about. 

I have found some great resources online, mainly through Pinterest and Twitter. You can see some of my resources on my Genius Hour Pinterest board here. 

I hope this blog post helped explain Genius Hour to you, and that you will continue with me in my educational journey. 

- Leah