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Corduroy Bear
My first interaction with any sort of literacy was with my good friend Corduroy Bear. This book is what taught me how to ready and how to love reading. I grew more in love with wanting to learn and read harder books all because of this one little bear. The picture depicts the front cover of this book. -
Winnie The Pooh
In my early reading years, Winnie the Pooh was my favorite cartoon. This was because one of my first larger sized books was Winnie the Pooh. Beginning in 1999, I began the journey to reading the entire book on my own and supplemented it with some breaks of cartoons. This story captured all of my interests being an only child who most of the time, just played with toys like Pooh Bear. As I continued to learn how to read larger books, I discovered a desire to get competitive with friends. -
Accelerated Reader Points (AR-Points)
My competitive nature really took over during my second grade year when Accelerated Reading was implemented. This point system would forever drive all of my classmates to read a lot of books or a few heavier, or more difficult ones. My classmates and I would rush to see the point totals at the end of the week. We would all laugh, some would cringe, and we would continue reading. -
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
This coveted novel struck the hearts of many in my seventh grade class. We were assigned to read a heavy novel such as this and practice our writing skills on a book report for our English class. About ninety percent of our class chose one of the books from this series. This book and assignment taught me how to read a book for factual knowledge while accurately regurgitate the information in the form of academic writing. -
American College Test (ACT)
Oh the dreaded college entry exam. How I loathed studying for this test. However, the hate gave me determination to just get it over with and take the test. I spent a lot of time practicing my writing skills in order to prepare for the optional writing portion. I wanted to look different than any other applicant so I took on the optional portion to do just that. What I found was that I was actually really good at writing prompts. Which ultimately led me to pursuing a higher education. -
Scholarship Essays
Once I had applied to colleges, now was the time to find a way to pay for it. Fortunately, there is college scholarships that help student fund their education. It was through the essay process of applying for scholarships, that I learned how to write better using different mechanical tools such as various formats and software programs to proof read my entries. This then led me to a whole data base of tools that I would later use in college when writing for a class. -
Scientific Writing
As an undergraduate student, my major was biology with a minor in chemistry. This came with the challenge of writing in scientific format. Based upon observations, research, and methodology, this format completely taught me a new approach to writing a paper. Even to this day, I still think of how to format my writing so that it logistically flows just as a scientific paper would as well. -
Graduate Studies: Master's of Education
Master's level writing is something that I was not prepared for. After writing scientifically with hardly any formatting guidelines I had to adjust to the new standards that were APA. Writing in my first masters program was a great experience. It gave me the tools to pursue a better writing style. -
Professional Writing
While becoming a student affairs professional, I never knew just how much professional writing went into Student Affairs positions. Communicating with students and writing formal letters to address issues is key to success of our mission. Also, in communication to report statistics and results from findings to our supervisors is an asset to continuing success within the department. It was this experience that led me to learn how to communicate through professional literacy. -
Email and Online Literacy
As someone who works with students everyday, the online interface has become the new way to get information out to our student population. Now, most students receive notifications for emails, and messages on social media. This delivery method opened up a new avenue for literacy practice. I now have to retrain my mind in order to speak thoroughly but concise enough to fit the details in less than or equal to 200 characters. This new form of literacy has changed the way we communicate online.
