ELA in Color

    I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember, so it was a surprise to no one in my life when I decided to switch my major from undecided to English Education at the end of my first year at UW- Milwaukee. Now, as a junior trying to navigate my first professional education semester, I could not be more excited to connect future students with great stories, and positively transform their relationship with reading. While English was always my favorite subject growing up, I know that this is not the case for many students, and they might feel that knot in their stomach walking into English class that I felt walking into my science classes. However, I believe that there is a story out there for every student, and I hope introducing them to all the diverse voices out there inspires them to continue reading and growing.      With all of this talk about reading, we have to acknowledge another key aspect of the field: writing. This relationship is a b...

 As a "Gen Z-er," I can trace my participation in the internet/social media landscape pretty early into my childhood. I grew up with one desktop computer, meaning that time had to be split amongst everyone in the household, and when I was  finally  given my time, I spent most of it consuming/viewing content, not necessarily producing anything. It was not until I got an iPod touch in middle school that I began having a more "independent" presence online and joined social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Even after creating these accounts under my name and finally having the freedom to express myself, I still felt more inclined to see what others were doing and would mainly repost/retweet things that, while not being written/posted by me, reflected my thoughts, values, niche interests, etc. For example, I have had the same Twitter account since middle school, and if you were to calculate the percentage of tweets vs. retweets, I would guess that ...