EDTC 300 Blogs

       This learning project was an incredible opportunity to explore my creativity . It was also an outlet-- a way to express myself and my thoughts. It was an honor to spend some time each week rediscovering my passion for creative writing. Some people aren't so fortunate to find fulfillment in something they've learned to do. For me, writing poetry was more than a learning project, it was an extension of my taking care of myself. I think what stands out from other hobbies and interests I've pursued before is tech integration. For these 13 weeks, I used tech and digital resources to support my learning journey.       Researching different poetry forms was not a hard task. Thanks to Savannah Jackson at Jericho Writers , I was able to collect a list of forms to explore. Although the selection for each week was picked randomly, I never minded any of them. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the ones I was unfamiliar with. Some poetry forms were ...

The lights are set up, and so are the Christmas decorations. I figured, "Why not write a poem for my favorite holiday?"  It worked out very well that my poetry form for this week is the " occasional ." Occasional Poetry      You can definitely guess what this particular poetry style entails. Poets.org  states, " An occasional poem is a poem written to document or provide commentary on an event. It is often intended to be read or performed publicly." (2023, n.p.). I remember analyzing one of these in my AP English class in grade 10. It was Alfred Lord Tennyson's " The Charge of the Light Brigade ." There are no specific guidelines for this poetry form other than marking an event. Why the festive mood?      I was talking to my mom recently about how I wished we could visit the Philippines now. See, we went home last summer, and it rained a lot. The ideal season to visit is during winter, especially around Christmas. They celebrate the holidays ...

 Well, well, well... Here's one of the most popular poetry forms... and one of the shortest.  I remember writing so many haiku in school. However, I don't actually remember how I wrote them. What are haikus? According to Grammarly , my partner this week,  "haiku are short, unrhymed poems that adhere to a specific three-line, seventeen-syllable format. The form originated in Japan, but today people across the globe read and write haiku in many different languages. Because of different languages’ unique syllabic and grammatical structures, haiku have slightly different formats from language to language." The seventeen-syllable format is first line=5, second line=7, and third line=5.  Did you know that 'haiku' was actually 'hokku' and part of collaboration poems called 'renga'?  Did you know that the plural form for haiku can be haiku and haikus? Just for fun, I watched this YouTube video, and it was very helpful.  I followed Ms. Drought's pro...

 I genuinely had no idea ekphrastic poetry was a thing. ' Ekphrasis ' is not something you usually hear.  Well, what is it? Ekphrasis  (ecphrasis) comes from the Greek word meaning 'description.' Basically, ekphrastic poems are vivid descriptions of artworks. These poems don't follow a structure or rhyme scheme. Actually, ekphrastic poems can be written in any other poetry style or found within a poem.   Ekphrastic poetry is not about form, rigidity, or structure, but the connection between poetry and art. I watched Johnny Savage's YouTube video on ekphrastic poetry , and he says, "It's not saying what you see, it's more like what is happening in the picture." Johnny also says, " Go anywhere you can see art: galleries, museums, universities... or go online! And try writing a poem in response to that moment you are looking at that picture ." I like art as much as I like poetry so this style sounded exciting.       I went on Google Arts...

      I remember John Keats' " Ode to a Nightingale " from poetry annotation in grade 10 AP English. It was one of my favorite poems from that class. It was with this poem (and Shakespeare's plays) that I found allusions interesting in poems. I thought they sometimes added a lot more depth than similes and metaphors.  If you couldn't tell by now, I looked into Ode poetry this week, and it started with  Ode - Poetry Foundation . After a few more sites, I surprisingly learned more about odes than I previously did in English class.  An ode is a short lyric poem that praises an individual, an idea, or an event. In ancient Greece, odes were originally accompanied by music—in fact, the word “ode” comes from the Greek word  aeidein , which means to sing or to chant. Odes are often ceremonial, and formal in tone. There are several different types of odes, but they are all highly structured and adhere to poetic forms. ( Masterclass , 2021). What's unique f...

 I found this week's poetry style enjoyable and frustrating to practice. 

 Before I go and make this about me, here is a timeless poem that'll surely introduce you to this week's victor.  "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas

      So, this week was hectic . With all the deadlines and events I was partaking in, I knew I needed to organize myself better. I didn't realize how taxing this week's prompt was until I spent hours maneouvering through this video editing platform called Shotcut .  What is one way people can organize things or themselves?  Ironically, the lucky poem type for my learning project this week is the list . 

 I pulled out from the bag this week's chosen poetry form, and it was the Ballad (or Ballade).  Last week when I proposed my learning project, I think I failed to introduce it properly. Here is my redemption: I went on to search for different poem types and found 25 Different Types of Poem to Explore by Savannah Jackson. I wrote each of these on small papers and folded them haphazardly into this equally small bag. Like I did this week, I took one of these papers, and the poetry style written is the lucky one for the week.  I took this poetry form to a Google search and looked at its features. Did you know that a ballad poem traditionally consisted of quatrains with rhyming 'abcb'? It was originally a hit during the late medieval period and was designed to be sung and danced to. Ballad poems were intended to tell stories with musical accompaniment. I looked at many sites to learn about ballads like the following: Ballad by The Poetry Foundation Ballad by Poets.org Ballade...

 Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings. - W.H. Auden Welcome to my first learning post.  In elementary school, a teacher taught us how to write identity haikus. I thought, 'This is kind of weird. How can I explain myself in so few words?' She'd explained the rules of haikus in detail, and I was lost even further. 'Now, I have to count the syllables and use nature in it too?' My teacher showed us a haiku she had written for herself, and I could not grasp how much of her identity she expressed in it until now. Her haiku included mostly images of the sun.  In high school, I enrolled in the Advanced Placement for English Language Arts-- a decision I am grateful I made. My teacher was the type students were scared of because her philosophies were strong, and she had strict teaching habits that made some students cry. On the first day, she prompted us to write diamante poems, about opposite topics composed of seven lines in the shape of a diamond. If you gue...