New Literacies

So I'm not quite sure if this is where I am supposed to be posting this, but I went to the wiki and it said to post on your blog?  Anyways, I am doing a scrapblog, which is basically like making an online scrapbook.  You can put your own pictures and videos and things on the pages and then decorate and display them however you want to.  You can also share you scrapblog with friends/family and even print it off if you want.  I pretty much think of it as a digital scrapbook which can be much more efficient and inexpensive than real scrapbooking.  It is almost in a way like a powerpoint that can be personalized with pictures, backgrounds, images, placement, font, text, color, etc.  There are an endless amount of choices when creating a scrapblog and it allows you to play with the layout and other options before making it permanent whereas in a traditional scrapbook you only get one chance to place everything the way you like.  A scrapblog can be modified as many times as desired and allows the person to edit if they change their mind and want to rearrange things.  I am learning a lot about the scrapblogging world, something I was not familiar with at all before.  It is apparent some people put a lot of time and effort into their scrapblogs and a lot of a person's personality can be seen through what they create.

I have also learned a lot about emotional literacy.  This is a very important concept to be familiar with as future teachers because we can help students deal with their emotions in a more positive and effective way.  Emotional literacy holds students accountable for their emotions as it teaches them how to understand, express, and deal with emotions using words.  It helps students to know which emotions they are feeling and why and express their feelings in a way that they can reflect and monitor their actions and behavior.  Emotional literacy statements should always begin with "I feel" and not "I feel like/that/you"  and be followed by an emotion.   There are also positive and negative words that can describe our emotions and it is important to attempt to use positive words.  It is also important when expressing emotional literacy to be direct about our feelings or they could be miscommunicated.  Emotional literacy stresses the importance of being consistent, clear, and honest in communication to work through conflicts that may arise.