Looking back at all the blogs I have written this semester, I can confidently say they are all favorites of mine, but for different reasons. So, similar to Naperville Park District soccer, they’re all going to win different awards as to why each blog was my favorite.
Winner for Best Multimedia – “Trials and Travels — Touring Europe”
“I’d like to thank my mom and my dad for the opportunity to win this award, I owe it all to them.” I think that’s what my blog “Trails and Travels — Touring Europe” would say if it actually won a Grammy or Oscar. Legitimately though, I have to thank my parents for the multimedia shown within this blog because they are the reason that I take the photos that I do. They were the ones that taught me photography. Anyways, while I loved writing this blog and going back through the moments of my trip to Europe, none of the other blogs can top the multimedia seen within this blog.
Winner for Favorite Write – “An Honest Review of Peter McPoland’s Top 5 Rated Songs”
This blog was my favorite to write because I got to listen to Peter McPoland’s top 5 songs on repeat so I could give an accurate depiction of each song within my blog. I also enjoyed writing it because Peter McPoland is my favorite music artist and it got me excited for his upcoming concert in Chicago, which I got to go to. Writing this blog also taught me a little bit about review writing, as it was the first review I wrote for this class. Review writing is definitely something I’m going to take from this class and put to use in the future, in case I ever need to write a review for a restaurant, clothing item, or any product for that matter.
Winner for Most Valuable – “Literacy Narrative”
While this wasn’t my favorite blog to post, it was the most valuable of all my blogs. The literacy narrative made me look back on my life as a reader and writer and question all that I’ve learned through reading. This blog made me stop, slow down, and think about how I’ve grown throughout my life. By reading other students’ literacy narratives, I learned that everyone in AP Lit comes from different backgrounds in reading. This taught me to value the literary insights of other people in class because everyone’s insights are grounded in their different backgrounds. The literacy narrative also taught me how people’s backgrounds impact their writing and what they’re trying to convey.
Winner for Funniest Blog – “Haunted (kayley’s version)”
My blog about the haunted house definitely had to be one of the funniest of the blogs I wrote. I also believe in this blog my voice is the most heard. I know that this is agreed upon by many of my classmates as this blog was also one of my most interacted with blogs. I’d argue that looking at my first blog and then looking at this blog, there’s a large growth in my narrative writing and making my voice show through. It was through this blog that I really learned how to write in my own style, which is even shown within this recap of all my blogs. I will take my style of writing that I found with me into next semester and college.
Winner for Most Underwhelming – “Inside the DuPage Children’s Madhouse”
This blog was really fun to write, but it didn’t have the outcome I had hoped it would. Though my voice was in it, it just didn’t have the same humor that I had tried to create. So, this is why “Inside the DuPage Children’s Madhouse” wins the most underwhelming because it was good, just wasn’t what I had hoped. By writing this blog and having this outcome, I learned that sometimes when you are too purposeful with your writing, it can have a reverse effect than what you were attempting to create.
All in all, I really enjoyed writing all of my blogs this semester and they were all different in many ways. Their uniqueness allowed me to enjoy writing each blog and not feel like I was writing the same thing every blog cycle. They also allowed me to experiment with different narrative writing styles which allowed me to grow in my writing and find my voice in narratives. This would be why they are all the best in my heart, which is quite similar to Naperville sports.
Kayley, I loved how you gave each of your blogs their own award, they all deserve at least one! (Even though one of the awards goes to most underwhelming). Although I did not read each of your blogs individually, your summary and description of them was extremely helpful when understanding why they deserved the awards they did. The multimedia picture you included is stunning and definitely deserves some sort of photography award. “Haunted” definitely seems like the funniest blog, including so many details throughout the night as well as a variety of pictures sprinkled throughout. I like how you mentioned you’ve seen yourself progress as a writer of your blogs and that you have developed a style of writing that you hope to take into the future. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this final blog of the semester and hearing your voice throughout your blog award ceremony.
I love how you gave each trophy a participation award because I feel like almost everyone has played Naperville Park District Soccer. Though it obviously had the comedic effect, I did like the way you presented your reflection. We probably aren’t going to write one blog that is the best in every single way, so analyzing what each blog did well and what it didn’t is a great way to reflect on the work you did and take lessons away for improvement. I liked the best multimedia award the most because you took your own photos. Every time I had a blog other than the first one I was finding a random stock image on the internet that didn’t contribute that much to the blog, so I wish I was able to add more of my own. I also enjoyed the open ended format of the blogs, which enabled us to write unique ones and keep them fresh. I felt that this format allowed us to communicate what was relevant in our lives at the time and gave the rest of the class a window into our lives.
Kayley,
This was such a creative idea for this post! I love how you were able to give each of your blogs an award – I’m sure they appreciate it. That picture that you used in your blog that won the “best multimedia” award is so stunning! It’s also really sweet that you gave your parents a shoutout in the section. I remember reading your blog on “An Honest Review of Peter McPoland’s Top 5 Rated Songs.” I could tell that you put a lot of passion and thoughtfulness into that piece, and it convinced me to give some of those songs a listen. I’d have to agree with you on your opinion about the Literacy Narrative blog assignment. At first, I was disappointed that we had an assigned topic to write about, but it turned out to be a very meaningful and interesting prompt. My Literacy Narrative truly opened my eyes about my childhood and how it has shaped me as a reader today.
Kayley, I think this is such a creative and interesting way to capture and convey your blog reflection, and I absolutely loved reading it! For starters, I have to agree with you on your chosen winner for best multimedia; that picture is so stunning, and the views are incredible. That looks like I place I want to travel to and see in person once in my lifetime. I also agree with the most valuable blog being the Literacy Narrative assignment. That is also probably my most valuable blog, as I feel like those enabled us to really dig deep into who we are and where we all come from in our own individual ways. As a whole, I think your uniqueness and creativity when coming up with blog posts and writing them conveys to me that you’ve truly embraced the concept of blogging and turned it into what seems like has been a lot of fun for you to do this past semester. I look forward to reading more of your blog posts next semester!
Kayley, I really enjoyed reading your blog because of the interesting formatting you used for it. I talked about how seeing the different ways to approach each blog was one of my favorite things about the blog cycles, so your blog connects nicely to that idea of mine. I remember reading your blog about the haunted house and also hearing you explain to me in detail how much I would have hated it, so I think that can count as a lesson from this semester that I should just never go in one. In that sense, I agree that it was your most entertaining and I loved the title of that blog too. I hope all your blogs enjoyed their trophies 🙂