Best Blogger Awards

 

Dear Students,

After weeks of writing, writing, and writing some more, I'd like to take this time to present to you the best blogs of GLPS 18.  It's been really tough deciding, and I'd like to give you all a round of applause.  All your TA's and myself thought there were so many good essays - it was so hard to chose.   I think you've all improved, learned new skills, discovered some creativity, and had fun along the way. 

AND I HOPE YOU ALL CONTINUE BLOGGING!

Please be aware that performance on key assignments was weighted, and to be fair - all blogs were judged as late as possible in the program.  Quantity, Quality, and Creativity were the things I focused on. It has taken a very long time to decide.  

Tomorrow, the top three bloggers from Middle and Elementary will be announced in the Closing Ceremony.  That's for all classes in Level I - not just mine!  Good luck!

Here are the best blogs of GLPS, listed by class:

Class 14

1st  - Eujin Jo

2nd - Heejung Eim

3rd  - Eddie Kim

Note: Class 14 was truly awesome! We had a VERY difficult time choosing the best blogs! Eujin's blog is an example of clean formatting and attention to detail. And she's just a great writer.  Heejung and Eddie also created some wonderful work, and it was hard to choose.

Class 15

1st  - William Ju
2nd - Chae Eun Lee
3rd  - Dabin Lee

Note:  Class 15 was very creative on the Chainwriting, and I really enjoyed your sense of humor.: )  William Ju was a writing machine, and tried to post as much as possible.  Chae Eun and Dabin also worked hard and made their posts look great.



Class 16

 1st - Hojune Kang

2nd - Gyungjae Kim

 3rd - Tom Leem

Note: I was pretty amazed by a few blogs in this class.  Hojune seems to have amazing keyboarding skills with a lot of thoughts he wants to get out of his brain. Wow.  Gyungjae and Tom also produced some great writing. 

Class 24


1st  - Sal Kim
2nd - Sojung Moon
3rd  - Junsuk Lee

Note:  I really enjoyed this class, although the schedule seemed to make it difficult for you guys to post and produce.  Anyways, in a perfect GLPS world I'd see you everyday and we'd have better flow to our class-class plan.  However, you guys really improved, and Sal Kim was definitely the busiest and most social blogger.  She commented, replied to comments, and seemed to enjoy and embrace the spirit of social media.  Sojung and Junsuk had great Odes!

Congratulations to all! 

Let's keep in touch: )

Assignment #4: Chainwriting and Metafiction

 Hello Students,

Our last and final assignment for GLPS is a fun one.   As most of you have already done, we have completed the "Chain Writing" exercise where you passed essays and stories around the room to hopefully complete a fun and interesting piece of collaborative writing.   Sometimes it turns out wonderfully, sometimes it ends up a mess.  In the next part of this exercise, you will have to find a creative way to add to the brilliance (or clean up a mess with your talent).

Once you have the paper you started back, you have to transfer it to your blog in a post that is clearly called "Chain Writing."  If you wish to color each paragraph written by a different writer, you can do that.  Here is an example from the last GLPS camp:

Chain Writing by Vanessa Shin

As you copy the writing to your blog, please correct the grammar and mistakes, but DO NOT CHANGE THE CONTENT.  At least not yet.

Once you have completed putting it on your blog, you can read some of the stories or essays you participated in on other blogs.  Now, you can choose the one you want to use for Part 2 of this assignment: Metafiction. 


What is "metaficiton"? Look it up on Wikipedia here. It's basically a "story inside a story."  Or a story about telling a story.  Or a story about someone encountering someone else's story.  Basically, it's a story with multiple layers - like the layers of an onion.  Alice In Wonderland is an example.  She falls into a rabbit hole and a BIG story happens there.  BUT there is also the story outside the rabbit hole.  

Here is an example in a popular film called "The Never Ending Story."  This is a story about a boy reading a story.  The events in the story are interrupted with his own story - a mix of reality and imagination:

So, once you've found your favorite Chain Writing (it can be the one on your blog, or you can copy and paste from a classmate's blog), you have to re-frame the story and add a layer that encapsulates it somehow.  The possibilities are endless.  A message in a bottle.  A speech.  A student writing a diary.  A student who found a diary.  A conversation with someone.  Take the material and re-shape it into something new with an added element.

• In terms of formatting, try to use different fonts for the original work and the stuff you introduce.  You may also want to use different colored text.  
• You are also encouraged to add pictures, and you may also want to comment (at the start or at the end) about your strategy to employ Metafiction around the original work.
• Think of this as film editing.  You don't have to use ALL of the stuff from the Chain Writing. If a student in your class decided to get silly and mess it up a little, you can take that paragraph out and not use it. 

Here is an example of Metafiction I just wrote for fun, randomly choosing something another class wrote last camp.  Ironically, it's about a teacher reading an essay: 

Mr. Garrioch sat down at his desk, and began to look at the essays that his students wrote.  There was a new student named Chuck Brown who had just arrived the day before.  He had blue hair, two earrings in each ear, and a tattoo.  He seemed to be strange, and Mr. Garrioch didn't know much about him.  He was very curious to read his essay.  He sipped his coffee and began to read Chuck's awkward handwriting:

Many things must be stopped. First of all, abbreviation in language must be stopped. Nowadays, many people use abbreviations in language. The most famous are "CU" or"LOL" which are abbreviations of  "see you" and "laugh out loud." Since so many people use abbreviations, people are getting confused. Sometimes when I use abbreviations speaking to my mom, she gets confused and doesn't know what I am talking about and keeps asking me stupid questions. Also, I think abbreviations are destructive to  language. It is erasing the original meaning that it contains.  So it must be stopped!

Mr. Garrioch agreed with Chuck's logic.  This student must be very brilliant, he thought. He continued reading.


Abbreviation has made our communication hard to understand and also destroyed the essence of the Korean language - Han-Gul words are being shortened beyond recognition and polite form.  So who is to blame? It is mostly students. Students or young teens want to make long words shorter to pronounce easier. Also, they think they are cool when they use it.  For example, an elevator is "elva" or teacher  is just "ssam."  

Suddenly, Mr. Garrioch was interrupted by a knock at the door.  It was Chuck, poking his head in.  "Hey Mr. G! Can you spare a few ticks?" 

"What? What do you mean by ticks?  Ticks are insects, are they not? What do you want?"

"LOL!" Chuck replied with a big grin.  But while he did say "LOL," he didn't actually "laugh out loud."  Mr. Garrioch was old, but he still knew what LOL was.

"NEway,Mr. G, ma peeps is w8in so I gotta holla lata.  TTYL about ma essay. I hope u think it's gr8! 4reeelz!"

And just like that, Chuck disappeared, leaving Mr. Garrioch with a bemused look on his face.  He continued reading the essay:

This is also a problem in English - not just in Korean.  Texting and spoken words are becoming the same. How will anyone communicate???
 
That's a good question, thought Mr. Garrioch. How WILL they? And then he wrote an F at the top of Chuck's essay. "ROTFL!" Mr. Garrioch thought to himself.  That's what Chuck won't do when he sees his grade.  Kids these days.
   

My Favorite Viral Video

Hello Students,

Just thought I'd share one of my favorite "viral videos" with you.  GLPS is called "Global Leadership" camp, and, if you notice, the theme of "leadership" shows up in many of the writing assignments I have given you.  Everything from KONY to Caine to Adora involves leadership of some kind.   I want you to realize that "leadership" is also a result of "creativity," and if you have a good idea you are passionate about, and want to share with others, you will automatically become a leader.  Sometimes all you need is a positive message.  Here is an example.

This short film was made by one guy (Jason van Genderen) piecing together words from signs he encountered on the street in two cities he'd lived in: Sydney and New York.  Even more amazing - he made it with a mobile phone camera.  The final result is very persuasive (lots of pathos!), and I hope you can hear the accompanying music.

What do you think inspired him to make this film in this way, and why does that make the film even more effective? Could you make something like this?  What do you think the title "Mankind is no island" means?

Assignment #3: Reflective Essay

Update: Why not take a look at what our Writing TA, Sohyeon, wrote on her blog about Adora's message.  This is an example of some good "reflection" mixed with "analyisis."

Reflective Essay: In response to "Spring" or "What adults can learn from kids" or BOTH TOGETHER!

In class, we watched the first chapter "Spring" in Kim Ki Duk's film "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring."   and  Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids.  The purpose of this essay is to write a simple "reflective essay" with the following in mind:


In the film, what lesson do you think the monk is trying to teach the young boy? Reflectively relate this learning process to your own personal experience.  

In the film, what lesson is Adora trying to teach adults? Reflectively relate this to your own personal experience and give examples.

Here is a simple outline for structure: 

1. An introduction with a very brief summary of what you saw in the film.  Try to limit your summary to about 4 sentences.  If we over-summarize, our reader will become bored.
2. A Body Paragraph where you relate your own personal experience.  As children (and even adults), we often "learn a lesson" from our parents or teachers.  Have you had similar experiences?  Can you provide a personal anecdote? This section of your essay is the most important, and can be more than one paragraph.  
3. A conclusion.  What is your overall opinion on how the old monk taught the young monk or how Adora presented her thoughts to the audience?  Was it too harsh?  Was it effective?  How should teachers and parents teach children? How should children teach parents and teachers?

When you transfer your in-class writing onto your blog, please title it "Reflective Essay:_________" with a suitable title of your own showing which video you are writing about.  To help interested readers know what you are talking about, please include this video from YouTube or the TED Talk, as they may wish to watch it themselves to form their own opinion.



You can also chose to write about this video by Adora Svitak, a 12 year old blogger:

Adora is a blogger, visit her blog here:
 http://adorasv.blogspot.com/

If you need more help writing a reflective essay, please check out the following link:
http://www.essaywritinghelp.com/reflective.htm

The paper should be 500 words.  Good luck and I look forward to reading your blogs soon.

A Fun Mini-Assignment: Diamante Poems

Diamante Poems

Diamante poems are named after "diamonds" for their shape.  They are simple, easy and fun to write, and I'd like to see at least three on your blogs.  This will give you a chance to use your THESAURUS and find some good words to replace simple words.  It will also allow you to play with some creative formatting.  As you can see in the Diamante Poem I wrote below, I made the fonts different colors and even used emoticons and pictures to contrast the opposites. 

Here is how a Diamante Poem is written:

NOUN
ADJECTIVE  ADJECTIVE

ING-VERB   ING-VERB   ING-VERB

NOUN       NOUN      NOUN       NOUN

ING-VERB      ING-VERB     ING-VERB

ADJECTIVE  ADJECTIVE

NOUN

There are a few ways to write them.  They can be about one thing, from start to finish, but it's more fun to start with something and transition towards an opposite - such as HOT & COLD, COMPUTER GAMES & HOMEWORK, or even SISTER & BROTHER.

1. Opposites: As you can see above (and in the example below), the poem is divided in half. The first noun and the last noun should be opposites, such as HOT and COLD, and in the middle there should be a transition. This is the most interesting method, and you can be creative. Spring and Fall, Love and Hate, Sleep and Awake etc. etc. etc.
2. Just one topic: You can keep your poem about one thing only, and explore more words to illustrate it. The first noun and the last noun could be the same or about the same thing.
3. Related Dynamically: Instead of using opposites, you could change your poem in the middle to contrast two things that have a relationship. One of my students started with "Cheeseburger" and finished with "Global Warming." Can you guess the connection? Fastfood creates paper waste and the meat is from cows who produce methane. Very creative! How about North Korea and South Korea, or School and Academy, or Apple and Microsoft? iPad and Galaxy? The possibilities are endless.

In the past, I've had students start with CHEESEBURGER and move towards GLOBAL WARMING.  It doesn't have to be an opposite.  As long as it's related and the reader sees the connection, your Diamante Poem will be good.  

Here is an example of what I expect from you guys with the Diamante Poems.  Try to write at least two or three, and creatively make a transition from one subject to the next.  Post pictures to jazz things up a little.  This one, about Red Cards and Green Cards.  These pictures help a lot, and make sure everything is centered . As well, we've made the font as big as possible for more impact.  Let's have some fun with this simple yet very creative style of poetry.  The best ones from each class will get a GREEN CARD!!!!! 

ㅠ,ㅠ
Red Cards

harsh, critical

catching, punishing, crying

P.A., T.A., Teachers, Students

winning, earning, enjoying

positive, proud

Green Cards!
^,^

Shout Outs!

Our blogging program is well underway and we are now into our second week of GLPS.  All teachers and TAs are very impressed with our many excellent students.  Some of you have blogged before and some of you haven't, but it seems all of you are enjoying it and learning a lot.

Reading your blogs has been a lot of fun, and I've seen so many impressive blog posts.  Some wonderful Odes and also some entertaining personal introductions.

Please read Shout Outs written by our 4 wonderful TA's as well:

Won Woo:  He gave Shout Outs to his favorite Odes in elementary classes.  Please read his many reasons why he liked certain ones.  Lot's of good feedback. Also - he has been busy making an Android App for Smartphones.  Won Woo is a genius! GET IT HERE! It's awesome.

Chan Jung:  He gave Shout Outs to his favorite blogs in the middle school class. He asks that you leave comments on his posts as well. : )

Shin Tae:  He gave Shout Outs to his favorite Odes in middle school classes.  He's been doing a lot of reading and commenting, so please thank him!

Jiyoung: Last but not least, Jiyoung, our only girl, has given Shout Outs to her favorite elementary level blogs! Please thank her for reading and commenting!  She has some useful advice to all of you on her blog.

Also, if you have friends in Miss Oakey's class, you can go and visit their blogs and leave comments.  Here are her Shout Outs!

Here are some students that have impressed me in each of my classes.  Keep in mind that there are not ANY DUE DATES in my classes, and you are welcome to complete assignments at your own pace.  GLPS is busy, and you have to learn the art of "time management."  I'm sure many of you will start blogging more actively when you have time.  Here are this week's Shout Outs from me:

In Class 16: 

Hojune Kang has been very very busy posting a lot of interesting stuff. I like how his blog is creative and makes use of many pictures and links in a clear and easy to read format.  Keep it up Hojune! Your blog looks amazing. 

As well, Gyungjae Kim has very quickly produced a first draft of his argumentative essay about Kony 2012.  5 beautiful paragraphs that are easy to read.  I know for certain his final draft will be even better. 

Emily Park has also posted some beautiful posts complete with figure skating pictures and also a very nice Ode about clocks.  Does she love them or hate them?  Go and read and find out.

There are more wonderful blogs I could write about... all of you are doing great.

In Class 15: 

William Ju has been blogging like a machine! He has been attacking the "optional assignments" list like an enraged ninja! Ted Video reviews and even a letter to his younger self.  Keep it up William!

Chae Eun Lee  has also been very busy. I really enjoyed her long and convincing Ode To Teddy Bear, along with a touching poem to her father.  Nice blog Chae Eun!

Dabin Lee has also been busy, getting a lot of comments on her "three things about me." It's great to see so many students commenting on each other's work! Also moms! 

In Class 14:

Eujin Jo has been posting things from many classes - even her wonderful History Presentation! Very interesting stuff.  Great looking blog Uzin!  

Eddie Kim also wrote a very poetic Ode about his hat! I never thought about a hat that way until I read it.  Lots of guys truly love their hats just like girls love their purses.  But a hat can do so much more.  Right? Hmmm. Very creative. 

 Yenny Kim's blog looks nice with a lot of creative formatting.  Good stuff! I like how she made her Ode mysterious like a riddle. 

 In Class 24:

Sal Kim has been blogging and blogging and blogging.  Easy to read and engagingly active - there is a ton of stuff going on in each post.  Great work!

All the odes in this class were fun to read.  Everything from Robin's letter of complaint to Bill Gates  to Sena's apology to her abused Barbies to Suhyun's creative photography and a letter to her hair.... So many great odes in Class 24!  

Note to Class 24:  You guys need to get busy! You had fewer classes last week but you still need to mark your spot as the top class.  The younger classes are making you guys look hmmmmm. :)

Assignment #2: Argumentative Essay

Now that you've had some fun with creative, descriptive writing with your odes, it is time to be persuasive in Assignment #2:  The Argumentative Essay.  This is the most common type of essay, so it is important to practice and learn how to properly structure one.

The first thing you need to do is develop your opinion.   In other words, you need strong arguments to support your opinion.  The more you know about your topic the better, so always read and think as much as possible before writing.  

For this purpose, I've introduced you to the many issues surrounding the recent stir caused by a viral video called KONY 2012.  In just a few short months, the video has been viewed over 100,000,000 times, and has resulted in a lot of attention aimed at a man called Joseph Kony.  Many people think he is the modern version of Adolf Hitler, and must be captured, while many others feel he is not the person we should be focusing on at this time.  Africa is a continent with many problems,  and many experts think it is ridiculous that millions of Americans are only focusing on Uganda and Joseph Kony.   Before we get carried away with some possible arguments that support or criticize the video, lets watch it and see what you think:

You can see that this video is clearly very persuasive.  Do you know the Three Modes of Persuasion?  They are: 

If you want to persuade someone to share your opinion, you have to use all three of these to become convincing.  The documentary you saw just now uses all three of these very effectively.  Everything from music to camera angles to editing - Invisible Children is an organization that knows how to make a strong argument.  But is it the 100% truth? 


All over YouTube, there is plenty of evidence that not everyone in the world is happy with what Invisible Children wishes to do:

With a bit of googling and research, you should easily be able to enrich your opinion and have something to write about in a good argumentative essay.  Before you do write it, however, you should plan it.  Keep in mind the following elements:


Reguirements: 500 words (4-5 paragraphs)
Must include: At least one video, one picture, and one link.

Here are the three elements of essay structure you must focus on:

1. Introduction

The first paragraph is the introductory paragraph. It introduces your topic with a creative hook and clearly states your opinion - or as it is more commonly called - a thesis statement.

2. Body

The body paragraphs contain the reasons which support your thesis statement. Each paragraph should deal with one reason only, and should support that reason with evidence.  It is always good to appeal to "ethos" by becoming as credible as possible. Use quotes, stats, and persuasive language.

3. Conclusion

The conclusion restates the points you made in the introduction (and hopefully proved in the body).  You should summarize your arguments in a colorful way that is not repetitive or too similar to the introduction.  However, it should not be too different either.  Do not introduce new reasons in the conclusion.   

 The most important thing is to be balanced and organized in order to communicate strongly.  


Have fun!