Doing Research

One week down out of four, and I am staying right on track for my Genius Hour plan. Week 1 was all about research, so I went to my local library and checked out a bunch of children's novels. I thought about explaining to the librarian why a twenty year old was checking out 4 children's novels, all the beginning of different series, but then decided that I didn't need to explain myself. Since when is there a rule that adults must stop enjoying children's novels above a certain age? Despite deciding that an explanation was completely unnecessary, I couldn't stop myself from excitedly telling the librarian about the project. She smiled back and told me that she couldn't wait to see my book on the shelves. I highly doubt that she was surprised to hear about the project, since when I was in grade 6 I had checked out every book that I could find about the Middle Ages, excitingly telling this same librarian that I was going to write a story set in the Middle Ages, and that I wanted it to be as accurate as possible.

The books that I have read so far have been Jane, the Fox and Me by Fanny Brit and Isabelle Arsenault, Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo, and I am currently reading Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. Other books that are on my list to read are Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (The Harry Potter series), The Bad Beginning (The Series of Unfortunate Events), The Magician Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia), The Capture (The Guardians of Ga'hoole), The Field Guild (The Spiderwick Chronicles), Coming Home (Heartland), Dark Sunshine (The Phantom Stallion), as well as others that I took from the library that I can't remember anymore. I don't know how many of these books I'll actually be able to read, but I certainly won't be able to say that I couldn't find anything for my topic. Many of these books I chose because I read them before, loved them, and found them inspiring, while others are new. I had planned to only research fantasy novels, but happened to pass by the shelf of novels about horses, and couldn't resist grabbing two books from there that I had loved as a kid. This experience made me realize that we are shaped by many books and genres, not just one. Although reading contemporary novels about horses may not be directly related to fantasy, the techniques that the authors use to describe the characters and pace the action will be useful to me. The very first book on this list, Jane, the Fox and Me, is actually a book that I had to read for a different class, and while it is a contemporary graphic novel about bullying and self-esteem, I decided to hit two birds with one stone and take notes on it for this project while I was reading it anyways. I am reading the first books from a bunch of series because most children's fantasy novels are part of a series and because I wanted to get a wider range of writing styles rather than just reading from just one author throughout their entire series.

I am absolutely loving this experience. Although I love writing, I am notoriously bad at setting deadlines and motivating myself to work. This project is the perfect booster to get me to do what it is that I want to do. I love the fact that Genius Hour is so open and free, and that I don't have to do any "academic" readings for my research. When I have my own classroom, I will definitely implement Genius Hour as a Friday afternoon activity for my students. 

Choosing My Genius Hour Question

When you are about to dedicate four weeks of your life to a project, you want that project to be a good one. I spent a fair amount of time humming and hawing about what I wanted to do my project on. I knew that I was going to do something do with creative writing, I just didn't know what. I thought about doing a research project looking at how creative writing impacts students, and I liked the idea, but... it just didn't seem like The Project that I would remain passionate about for four weeks. What I finally did decide to do is almost the same question, except I switched out "research about" to "make". Well, I'll still be doing some research, but not from any academic writing located on jstor like I had originally considered. With this reworked idea, my research is coming from reading children's books, and I'm using this research to imitate the best features from those when I create my own story. That's right, my Genius Hour question is "How can I teach a moral through a children's story?" I shall track my progress by keeping a record of how much I write per week and what I find difficult or challenging about the project. Going through this process to find my question has taught me that I prefer to actually do something rather than read about it. I feel as though I can do more good for children by actually writing a story rather than talking about how stories can benefit them.

The Importance of Citations

We live in a society where it has become increasingly easy to find and download images or video online. Even though it should be obvious to us that each of these images were uploaded by a person, the fact that we are accessing these through the internet where we probably don't know the person who uploaded the image often makes us forget this fact and we seem to think that the image simply exists. when a friend shows us their artwork in person, we realize that we need to ask their permission before using their artwork. When we discover an image online, we often use it without thinking about seeking permission to use this image. We often don't see a name attached to an image, either because the person who uploaded it didn't provide any information or it was shared by someone else who didn't cite where they got the image from.

This is an issue because the moment that someone creates an image, it is automatically given a copyright, meaning that the creator legally owns their image; if someone else uses their image without permission, they are stealing the image. Many people who post images online allow people to use their images so long as the person using the image credits the artist.

It is not difficult to cite images. It may seem confusing to people who have never cited an image before, but if society in general were to adopt the habit, people would be aware that they need to do this and would also learn how to do it. As teachers, we need to teach our students how to do this, and explain to them why it is necessary. We can ask them to imagine what it would feel like if they had their artwork stolen by someone who posted it online and claimed that they had created it.

San José Library. (2008, August 23). Children using the computer [photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/sanjoselibrary/2839835109

San José Library. (2008, August 23). Children using the computer [photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/sanjoselibrary/2839835109

Hello

To all those reading this blog, hello and welcome!

My name is Nicole Horlings, and I am currently in the beginning of my consecutive education course at Brock University. It is incredible finally starting this course since teaching in an elementary school has been a dream of mine ever since I was in elementary school. I have always had a passion for learning, and for sharing information about the things that I have learned with other people. While I was in elementary school, I had several fantastic teachers who really inspired me to become a teacher myself after I saw the impact that they had on myself and my fellow classmates. I am quite vocal about this passion, and as a result, one of my friends from high school told me about an English for Kids camp in Quebec that she thought I would enjoy volunteering at. I have volunteered at this camp four times now, and it is one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I have also volunteered at the elementary school that I attended as a kid, which is a really fun experience since I have gotten to see the other side of education.

For my undergrad, I studied English Language and Literature at Brock University. I am passionate about storytelling in any form. The genre that is closest to my heart is fantasy, since it was the genre that first turned me into a reader. I am currently working on writing a novel of my own, and also enjoy writing poetry.