Megan Oteri has lived
in every time zone, but her favorite is Mountain Standard Time. She
writes about her passion for Wyoming and its mosaic of landscape, nature,
people, and lifestyle. It wasn't love at first site though. In fact, she
thought Wyoming was no man's land at first. She moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming
when she was 15 years old from Chicago. In an attempt to escape the least
populated state in the union, she went to college as far away as she could:
Providence, Rhode Island. Her classmates and soccer teammates called her
“Cheyenne.” Having never met anyone from Wyoming, most
people believed she rode a horse to school. She let them believe that. Each time she took the train home
for school breaks, her love affair with Wyoming deepened.
There is a beauty to Wyoming you come to know and understand -- there is magic in the sky; every night sunset dances across the horizon in a mural of color. Megan loves Wyoming’s wide open spaces. She will always be “Forever West” in her heart; she calls Wyoming home, but resides in eastern North Carolina.
Megan has a Masters Degree in English with a concentration in Creative Nonfiction from East Carolina University and a Bachelors Degree in Special and Elementary Education from Providence College. She has taught elementary, middle and high school English, and special education. She currently teaches 6th grade special education in eastern Wake County.
She is a freelance writer and photographer who writes when her four year old lets her. Her writing and photography have appeared in national and international publications, including Cowgirl and Attachment Parenting International. Her book, Baby Monitor is awaiting publication. She is working on a historic food memoir about her great-grandmother's catering and hot meal delivery business in Evanston, Illinois. The Community Kitchen was a model for the nation the in the early 1920's. The Community Kitchen is about women in the kitchen and history in the making. Food = Story.
There is a beauty to Wyoming you come to know and understand -- there is magic in the sky; every night sunset dances across the horizon in a mural of color. Megan loves Wyoming’s wide open spaces. She will always be “Forever West” in her heart; she calls Wyoming home, but resides in eastern North Carolina.
Megan has a Masters Degree in English with a concentration in Creative Nonfiction from East Carolina University and a Bachelors Degree in Special and Elementary Education from Providence College. She has taught elementary, middle and high school English, and special education. She currently teaches 6th grade special education in eastern Wake County.
She is a freelance writer and photographer who writes when her four year old lets her. Her writing and photography have appeared in national and international publications, including Cowgirl and Attachment Parenting International. Her book, Baby Monitor is awaiting publication. She is working on a historic food memoir about her great-grandmother's catering and hot meal delivery business in Evanston, Illinois. The Community Kitchen was a model for the nation the in the early 1920's. The Community Kitchen is about women in the kitchen and history in the making. Food = Story.
Welcome to my portfolio web site for the 2014 ECI 509, Integrating Writing and Technology, a study abroad course for teachers offered by North Carolina State University at the University of Surrey, in Guildford, England. This course is taught by Dr. Ruie Pritchard, Dr. Kevin Oliver, and co-instructors Megan Poole, Sara Lee, and Michael Cook. Funding for teacher travel was made possible by the generosity of the Borchardt Fund, administered by the Triangle Community Foundation. Participants are competitively selected by application and interview. Teachers selected from Chatham, Orange, Durham, and Wake counties, are eligible for Borchardt scholarships.
The study abroad course is titled Special Problems in Instructional Technology -- Integrating Writing and Technology. This special problems course brings together skilled North Carolina educators across content areas and grade levels to study the integration of writing and technology, using media collected from visits to historical and literary sites and interactions with other cultures to promote writing across modes and progressions and the development of multimodal portfolios.
Some of the educational technology programs we will be learning and utilizing are Glogster, Smore, ToonDoo, GoAnimate, Pixlr, Google Docs, Weebly, Lego StoryVisualizer, myHistro timeline, lettrs.com, and Prezi. Some of the sites we visited were Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey), the British Museum, the White Cliffs of Dover, Canterbury Cathedral, Arundel Castle Joust Festival, Jane Austen's Chawton Estate, Selborne, and many other interesting places.
The study abroad course is titled Special Problems in Instructional Technology -- Integrating Writing and Technology. This special problems course brings together skilled North Carolina educators across content areas and grade levels to study the integration of writing and technology, using media collected from visits to historical and literary sites and interactions with other cultures to promote writing across modes and progressions and the development of multimodal portfolios.
Some of the educational technology programs we will be learning and utilizing are Glogster, Smore, ToonDoo, GoAnimate, Pixlr, Google Docs, Weebly, Lego StoryVisualizer, myHistro timeline, lettrs.com, and Prezi. Some of the sites we visited were Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey), the British Museum, the White Cliffs of Dover, Canterbury Cathedral, Arundel Castle Joust Festival, Jane Austen's Chawton Estate, Selborne, and many other interesting places.
Assignment 3: Site Research
The British Museum (click on link to view presentation) Using Keynote (Powerpoint) |
I am from America
Assignment 4: "Where I'm From" poem using Prezi
Poetic Writing
@BoztheBoss
The Polish of Success: the Making of a $68 Million Dollar Man
Assignment 5: Informal Essay on English Author; upload and share embed as a Google Doc
The Polish of Success: the Making of a $68 Million Dollar Man
Assignment 5: Informal Essay on English Author; upload and share embed as a Google Doc
Assignment 8: Design a Dream Room (expressive writing)
This is an assignment we did using Pixlr. We first participated in a verbally prompted writing exercise where we envisioned our dream room. I started with eyes closed, attentively listening to our professor, Dr. Ruie Pritchard, instruct us ever so gently to travel using our mind's eye to a place of our choice that brings us peace, joy, and love. I chose a room by the sea to settle into. White sheer curtains billowed in a summer breeze. My happy place was a combined visual memory of these two images: E.B. White's writing shack (not sure it is really a shack) and this collage image I pasted on inside the back cover of a journal.
This is an assignment we did using Pixlr. We first participated in a verbally prompted writing exercise where we envisioned our dream room. I started with eyes closed, attentively listening to our professor, Dr. Ruie Pritchard, instruct us ever so gently to travel using our mind's eye to a place of our choice that brings us peace, joy, and love. I chose a room by the sea to settle into. White sheer curtains billowed in a summer breeze. My happy place was a combined visual memory of these two images: E.B. White's writing shack (not sure it is really a shack) and this collage image I pasted on inside the back cover of a journal.
Then I went through the window into memory -- the memory of my mother. I couldn't help myself; she called to me from the sea. I listened; my heart bleeding truth.
Our hearts bleed. It's simple. Writing soothes -- balms. Whatever its magic, whatever its muse -- I miss her; it's very simple.
I was very happy with the direction of my writing exercise, which I plan on developing later. You can view a longer clip of that writing here. I was rather impressed with myself when I used Synasthesia unknowingly. I shared an excerpt with the class from our dream room writing exercise:
I can smell her breath as she talks to me, cigarettes and coffee and the taste of laughter on my lips.
syn·es·the·sia
ˌsinəsˈTHēZHə/
noun PHYSIOLOGYPSYCHOLOGY
noun: synaesthesia
Our hearts bleed. It's simple. Writing soothes -- balms. Whatever its magic, whatever its muse -- I miss her; it's very simple.
I was very happy with the direction of my writing exercise, which I plan on developing later. You can view a longer clip of that writing here. I was rather impressed with myself when I used Synasthesia unknowingly. I shared an excerpt with the class from our dream room writing exercise:
I can smell her breath as she talks to me, cigarettes and coffee and the taste of laughter on my lips.
syn·es·the·sia
ˌsinəsˈTHēZHə/
noun PHYSIOLOGYPSYCHOLOGY
noun: synaesthesia
- the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.
Synaesthesia from Nikko Hull on Vimeo.
Assignment 9: Create a Bio Poem (poetic writing) and create a Glogster poster
"Forever West"
"Forever West"
Assignment 10: Comical Conversation using Toodoo
For this assignment we were supposed to have a comical conversation with a historical figure. I chose to have a conversation with my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Odell because in real life I wish I could speak to her about the Community Kitchen.
For this assignment we were supposed to have a comical conversation with a historical figure. I chose to have a conversation with my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Odell because in real life I wish I could speak to her about the Community Kitchen.
Assignment 11: Cultural Generalizations Supported by Instances
Using Padlet
The assignment is to think about a cultural generalization about English culture and post a photo on Padlet.
I chose the Art of Leisure, London Fashion, Healthy Lifestyle, and British Beauty.
London Fashion:
http://padlet.com/kevin_oliver/4ws5s7jsqdsc/wish/30595208
Above is an example.
Using Padlet
The assignment is to think about a cultural generalization about English culture and post a photo on Padlet.
I chose the Art of Leisure, London Fashion, Healthy Lifestyle, and British Beauty.
London Fashion:
http://padlet.com/kevin_oliver/4ws5s7jsqdsc/wish/30595208
Above is an example.
Assignment 12: Annotated Map using Google Maps
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Assignment 14: Postcard Card Home
Lovely London lures me in
On my people watching perch, I sit for hours
Negotiating traffic, people, curves, and gaps
Dreaming of centuries so very long ago
Old and
New
On my people watching perch, I sit for hours
Negotiating traffic, people, curves, and gaps
Dreaming of centuries so very long ago
Old and
New
Royal Observation
On the River Thames
scurrying quickly
along the brown river,
between the South Bank and North, a clipper
brought us to Greenwich
where we climbed a monstrous hill to capture this
erupting view.
Photo: At Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England.
On the River Thames
scurrying quickly
along the brown river,
between the South Bank and North, a clipper
brought us to Greenwich
where we climbed a monstrous hill to capture this
erupting view.
Photo: At Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England.
Assignment 15: Historical Timeline
Assignment 16: Scripted International Duologue using GoAnimate.
Assignment 17: Lesson Plan
Create a lesson plan using one of the technology tools we have learned in class. My lesson plan implements Google Maps with 8th grade Common Core Language Arts standards. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
Create a lesson plan using one of the technology tools we have learned in class. My lesson plan implements Google Maps with 8th grade Common Core Language Arts standards. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
Assignment 18: A Day in the Life, Poem of DetailThe Original Journal Project
"Will You Sign the Journal?"
The UK Journal
marbled pages and interesting characters, alive with persuasion and English pride
engaging, asking, writing
the scent of a thousand more stories
curious, storied, textured
wrinkled, coffee stained pages
like a scribe without paper, interacting with humans to preserve a print
elderflower frost in a glass mug, sitting atop a wooden chair with good mates, tasting scented air
cobblestone streets beckoning memory to crawl into my arms
beauty, travel, friendship, freedom
uneven cobblestones delivering history under its hoof, horses from centuries ago traveling between the past and the present
the UK Journal, open and alive -- erupting tales of a journey journaled
Wilda's laughter and Deb's walk -- a cocoon of comfort for Meg and her muse
quirky, questioning, curious
Assignment 19: Personal Reflection
Each student will write three, short personal reflections or self-evaluations of their writing, one per mode -- expressive, poetic, and expository.
Each student will write three, short personal reflections or self-evaluations of their writing, one per mode -- expressive, poetic, and expository.