#BeingAuntTay

I chose to make a video because I typically share and pin pictures on social media. Very rarely do I create or share a video. So, I wanted to experiment with compiling both videos and still images together to make a single piece of media that expresses a clear feeling or message.

As a teacher, I feel like this demonstrates that to create, you don't always have to start from scratch. The images and videos I placed in this were all gathered over the last year and a half of my nephew's life. I used things that I already had to create something new. Also, this illustrates how much of a difference music can make in a video or other source of media. If I had put a faster song to this, the feeling evoked in the viewer likely would have been very different. I had a clear goal when selecting the length of each video clip, the starting and ending of the song, what pictures hit what section of the song and the order in which I placed the pictures and videos.

I felt like I had a lot of freedom to mold this to be what I wanted. I want my students to be able to feel that same freedom. In order to make this easily transferable to students, I used an app on my phone, called Flipogram, to create this video. It was very straightforward to use and didn't require a lot of extra time to get the desired result. When I posted this video, I posted it with the following hashtags to further emphasize the point of the video: #BeingAuntTay #LiamAnthony #untilihavemyown

Ode To An Orange

This is my Ode to an Orange.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPl0yc4hoJX/?taken-by=sunshine.poet

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPl2KCuB3WP/?taken-by=sunshine.poet

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPl3Ro8B9eh/?taken-by=sunshine.poet

There are so many things that oranges are good for. I wanted to make this project my own, so I chose the lines from the essay that spoke most to me. I had been drinking orange juice all weekend since I had a cold I was trying to overcome, so I chose to end my pictures on that note.

To adapt this to the classroom, I would likely have my students do an adaptation like this for a scene or play that they are working on. I would want them to create a Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Buzzfeed article/quiz, etc, based off of their character's role and interactions with others. 

Thinking and Writing about Digital Media

My personal media consumption used to have a heavy reliance upon Facebook. After some thought and self-reflection last semester, however, I deleted the app from my phone and have limited my Facebook use to once a week or every other week. Now, I use Instagram as my main source of social media. It is nice because I follow a lot less people on Instagram and I can actually keep up with my families posts without getting stuck in the endless scrolling that happens on Facebook’s news feed.

Another social media platform that I really appreciate is Pinterest. I spend a lot of time on Pinterest gathering recipes, gardening tips, hairstyles, date ideas, etc. I treat pinterest as a place where I can learn and get inspiration. Last week, my husband and I planned our date night off of some pins I had saved.

I also read a lot of articles on google. Whenever I am curious about a subject, I like to google it. Typically, I make a rule of finding three legitimate sources on a topic before taking that information to be sound. If it is a subjective topic, I try to find articles on both sides of the argument before deciding my personal opinion. I find that I’m able to gather a more complete picture that way. I think that this will be very useful in a secondary education setting. Checking sources for research is crucial, especially for students acting as a designer or dramaturg for a show. It is also crucial for me as a future teacher in making sure that the things I teach to my students are accurate and useful.

With my media consumption and creation, whether it be reading a book on my phone, watching a movie, or posting on my blog, I typically ask myself if it will encourage growth or learning. I have a hard time with media that doesn’t encourage or challenge me to expand my mind or understanding in some way. I have couple different blogs. One is for this class, another was for BYU’s Art’s Bridge and two others were started as a way to use my writings to uplift others. I never posted purely to express myself, but rather usually had a challenge or moral accompanying the poetry.

Other personal guidelines that I employ with my media consumption is that relationships come first. My love language is quality time, so if I am doing an activity with someone else, I try to limit my use of digital media. I try to be present in the moment to be able to really interact with those around me. I’m not always perfect at this; sometimes, I will answer a text in the middle of a conversation with someone if I feel the text is important. However, I do my best to put those I am actually with first.