Literacy and Technology

I read this book back in the beginning of the semester, but I wanted to come back to it and respond to some of the questions that Professor Cole posed in her comment on my first post. The significance of the title is that Esther, the main character, feels as if she's trapped in a bell jar . She feels cut off from the outside world and starved for air. She feels trapped by her own mind and depression and she feels as if there's a world going on around her that she can't access. From what I've learned about depression through The Bell Jar , It's Kind of a Funny Story , and Shoot the Damn Dog: A Memoir of Depression , the bell jar metaphor is a pretty good metaphor for how people with depression often feel.  In regards to how I feel about the text beyond the story it tells, I enjoyed Plath's writing. It was poetic and subtle in its beauty. She didn't use overly big or impressive words, but her word choice always felt spot on. It was impactful writing without ...

Before I started writing this, I looked up Sally Brampton, the author of this memoir, to see what she was up to. I found out that she passed away in 2016 from what is thought to have been suicide.  This isn't what I originally  plan to write about, but after learning of her death, I was shocked. I think learning of her death really solidified for me that depression is a true disease. Sally did everything she was supposed to do when you have depression. I'm not quite done with the memoir, but so far she had tried countless medications, went to various therapists, and had worked hard to get better during her multiple stays in psychiatric hospitals. She was resisting using alcohol to numb her depression, had safety plans in place for when she felt bad, and  had close, supportive friends.  She talked about how she utilized meditation, exercise, and therapy to combat her depression. Despite doing everything "right," she still lost her battle. Depression is just like any o...

It's Kind of a Funny Story is a first-person narration from the point-of-view of Craig, a 16-year-old boy living in NYC. Craig is depressed, and it shows from the first line of the novel: "It's so hard to talk when you want to kill yourself."  One thing that really interested me about Craig as a character is that he oscillates between thinking that he is severely depressed, and worse off than everyone around him, and thinking that he's just inventing his own depression. I think this could be a symptom of the depression itself, or perhaps comes from who Craig is as a person, or perhaps it might have to do with his age.   The quotes below display Craig's tendency to have contrasting thoughts about his depression   On needing medication: "I don't know if they really need it. I really need it." When he starts improving in the psychiatric ward: "I'm not that much better, man." On others with depression: "I'...

For my mini-lesson, I showed the class how to use Piktochart . I chose to work with Piktochart because it is a tech tool that I use regularly in my life. I've used it to my cards, posters, newsletters, and more, and I also use it often for homework assignments.  Before my mini-lesson, I made a detailed plan that included  how and why  I wanted to teach my classmates to use Piktochart. I found that having a plan really helped, because during my mini-lesson I knew exactly how I wanted to use my time. My plan included steps that built on each other, so it was easy to move from one step to the next to make sure I talked about everything that I wanted to in my allotted time.  It was hard to keep my lesson to 10 minutes, but that was only because I wanted to include sufficient time for my classmates to play around with the program themselves.  Overall, I think my mini-lesson went well. I could have been a little more engaging, but I'm happy with the fac...

https://youtu.be/ssWXEm7TLBE For the most part, I enjoyed working on this project. I think I took somewhat of a different approach to thinking about this project when it was assigned, which, as a result, impacted how my final video turned out. Way back when the video was assigned, instead of finding a poem I enjoyed or knew I wanted to work with, I thought about what I would enjoy filming. I just transferred schools, and while my best friend from high school goes here, I was really worried about making other friends. But her friend group instantly took me in, and now, even though it's only been two months, I've never had such a close group of friends. So, when this project was assigned, I knew I wanted to film them and to create something that represented all the fun we have together. Knowing this, I started looking for a poem that would fit what I wanted to film. I probably spent a good week looking for a poem that I liked about friendship. I liked A Time to Talk becau...

This was my first time reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. As for my first impressions, it was a difficult book to get through. The writing wasn't difficult, but I found that reading the book altered my mood. It's a sad book, and I guess I wasn't expecting to be so effected by reading it. Having heard it was a sad book before I read it, but not knowing anything else, I was surprised by the normalcy of Esther's life in the first couple of chapters. There are hints that she's unhappy but they can be interpreted as just everyday, "normal" moments of unhappiness. But things quickly escalate. At the start of the second half on the novel, Esther makes her first suicide attempt. It was difficult to read, but maybe not for the reasons I expected. It was off-putting how nonchalant Esther was at attempting to take her own life. This is one of the many points in the novel that made me realize that depression can alter not only how you feel but how you act. This is ...

Dr. Bullard's convocation lecture was a lot to take in. The evidence to back up the fact that people of color and people of lower socio-economic status are systematically affected by environmental problems (both within our control and out of our control) is astounding. Dr. Bullard showed us slide after slide that displayed how people in the poverty belt are more likely to have inadequate access to necessities like clean air and water, are more likely to suffer from specific diseases/health issues, and are more likely to have a lower life expectancy. While his talk was fantastic at identifying various environmental problems that affect marginalized groups, I wish he had spoke more about how we can become advocates and how we can enact change. It's an overwhelming problem. It's a problem that has history and involves corporations and the government targeting specific groups. How do you rectify all that history and ensure that it doesn't continue to happen?