September 2022 – Claire’s Education Blog!

Writing a Children’s Book – 2

On 30 September 2022

Welcome to another update on my book writing process!

This week, I worked on developing a storyline and how I plan on making it fun, while also making it educational. The idea I came up with was to have a little astronaut in animal form take the readers up in a rocketship to teach them about each planet in our solar system. I chose to have the astronaut be an animal so that no reader feels left out like they may if I chose a girl or boy. What I mean by “take the readers up in a rocketship” is that I want to make it fun by having it feel like the readers are actually on the tour. While being fun, this idea is also educational, as it will provide accurate information about our solar system in a kid-friendly manner!

I am grateful that my friend, Katelynn Somerset so kindly agreed to help me out by being the illistrator! She is an amazing artist and will really help tie my book together!

I found this great resource that I am going to use to insure the information I include is accurate and it will give my illistrator great references for the pictures! https://artsandculture.google.com/project/explore-the-solar-system

Can’t wait to update you more next week!!

My Digital FootPrint

by cmassier

On 29 September 2022

In Weekly Reflections

To me, a digital footprint is the data and information about you that is online, whether it be on social media or your search history.

I am only 20 years old, so social media and the internet are something that I have been exposed to for most of my life. I got my first iPod touch when I was 7 years old. Isn’t that crazy to think about? A 7-year-old with an iPod. I don’t think my parents understood all the things an iPod could do and what I could access using it. So, I had free range on it, no restrictions at all. With that freedom, it’s pretty obvious that I have a large digital footprint. I’ve made Youtube videos, and TikTok’s, posted on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I have also been in the newspaper a handful of times. When I Google myself the things that come up are: my Youtube channel (one of them haha), my newspaper appearances for gymnastics accomplishments and helping out with the foodbank, my grandpa’s obituary, and things completely unrelated to me. I know that google isn’t the only place to look, so I searched myself up on social media platforms and just my accounts came up. In doing all this, I feel fairly comfortable with my digital footprint. Now though, I wish there less because I want to be mysterious and not give strangers any type of access to who I am, but with the internet, there is no erasing anything, so I have to come to terms.

Here is the link to my Youtube channel because I know you’re going to look anyway: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEG4HCVCMMOxqccC-StVw5A/featured

Let’s Get Started!

by cmassier

On 25 September 2022

In Free Inquiry Project

Welcome to the beginning of my journey of writing my very own children’s book! I am so excited to see my creativity blossom and have you all follow along!

This week I worked on brainstorming. What topic do I want to write about? What is my target age group?

The steps I took to answer these questions included reading other children’s books for inspiration and having conversations with parents about what their children would be interested in. After doing so I decided my book is going to be aimed at kids aged 4-6 years old and it’s going to teach them about the planets in our solar system!

Sadly, I am not artistic whatsoever and children’s books require pictures. I am going to contact some of my friends who I know can draw well and see if they would be interested in helping me out!

Now, it is time for me to start laying out the story and figuring out how I’m going to make it fun, engaging, and educational. I’ll check in next week, see ya then!!

My Experience with Social Media!

by cmassier

On 22 September 2022

In Weekly Reflections

Social media has been a huge part of my life for upwards of 9 years. I started on Instagram when I was about 12 years old and my online life exploded from there. You might be thinking 12? Don’t you have to be at least 13 to join Instagram? Yes, but clearly there are ways to get around that. It was as easy as entering a different birth year and I was in. Looking back now, I see how dangerous that was. I would get follow requests from people I didn’t know, but accept them cause the only thing I thought of was “yay another follower”. After being on Instagram for a bit, I started to expand. I created Snapchat, Facebook, and TikTok accounts. Snapchat was huge for me, I loved being able to instantly send people photos and videos and have them disappear after just a few seconds. I used Facebook mainly for connecting with family and close friends. I loved posting my life! Selfies, sports photos, pictures with my friends, and of my pets. I feel now that I am older and wiser, social media has a lot of positives as well as negatives. The main positive for me is connection. It’s a quick and easy way to keep friends and family in the loop and show off accomplishments. The main negative is privacy. It is so important to understand that the things you post will ALWAYS be there and have the potential to get into the wrong person’s hands.

With the knowledge of social media safely I have now, I feel very comfortable with the idea of creating a professional teacher social media account. I see it as a great way to keep parents, colleagues, and students up to date and involved in a way that is different than your conventional mass email. I will be able to post photos and videos of activities and lessons done in my class and announcements about what’s to come. I understand the importance of keeping the content on this account strictly professional and only posting students’ faces if absolutely necessary and with parental consent. I look forward to bringing my professional and social media worlds together and seeing all the opportunities that come with it!