Amanda+M's+Identity+Work

=
When I was younger, my online identity consisted of the numerous local musical theater performances I was in growing up. Now when I search my name, I normally can only find brief personal information and the fact that I have a Facebook account. But unbeknownst to me, there is plenty of information about my life. Most of the information comes from my mother's personal biography on her WCPSS school's website. =====

=
When I think of what I would hope my web persona to be, I consider only keeping a professional identity online. I would rather stay away from social networking and only find it necessary to enlighten my students on the ways in which is can be a positive and/or negative experience. I hope to find, through our technological advancements this semester, a way to balance my personal and professional life online. I like the idea of having a Glogster to keep everything that I am willing to share online, although I have found Glogster to be a bit more complicated than I'm willing to use. =====

=
To get my professional persona online, I believe I need to have some sort of portfolio that can easily be searched by typing in my name. I don't think there would be anything better than a link to my portfolio popping up first when an administrator is searching to find out more personal information on a potential future employee. =====

media type="custom" key="20699454"

//**Comments from Dr. Y:** Nice job on your Life Map -- a strong mix of positive and less positive events, and a good use of a tech tool to present your ideas in a compelling way. I would also like to read your freewrite we completed in class highlighting one of the items on your map that you feel is associated with passion. If you could post that here or make it available to me, I'd greatly appreciate it, and this assignment will be complete. Best, Dr. Y//

=__// Freewrite on Passion: //__= // What led me to become passionate about teaching actually has nothing to do with the teachers I had in school. Of course I had very innovative and wonderful teachers who helped me achieve many goals in my education, but it was my mom that made me want to become a teacher. She is the most passionate teacher I’ve ever met and sees more progression within her classroom than anyone I’ve ever seen. //

media type="custom" key="20966412"

=__**// First-Person/Inquiry Application: //**__=

=
My father’s side of the family is polar opposite to my mother’s when dealing with family names and passing down of family information. My mother’s side just recently completed a family history of my grandfather’s lineage dating back several hundred years; meanwhile my father barely knows anything about his own parents’ upbringing. There was a time when I confronted him about his family’s history and he had a difficult time recalling how his parents even met. There is a plaque in the foyer of the house of my childhood that contains an official document stating the origin and meaning of our name Moniz. I read it a long time ago and only recall that our name originated in Portugal and has several translations in other countries: Munoz, Munez, Muniz, Nunez. =====

=
The first search I did lead me to the Moniz Family Crest and History. I was going to quickly regard it as being rubbish until I saw that the variations of our name were identical to the ones I read in my parents’ home. On top of this discovery, I learned that the first Moniz to come over to America was named Francisco Moniz, who arrived on the Spanish Main in 1836, and shares the same name as my grandfather. I also saw the coat of arms that is similar to the plaque in my childhood home. Although the name is considered Portuguese, it seems to have started in the mountains of Spain and was originally considered to be purely of prestigious Spanish descent. Turns out that our name means “dweller at or near the mountains”. =====

=
I stumbled across another website that was extremely interesting to read about. It is a forum for people who have the last name Moniz to discuss the information they have on our family line as they try to piece it all together. From this site alone I can conclude that I am directly apart of it. Not only is there a reoccurrence of first names from my direct family being mentioned in this forum, but they are primarily located where my grandparents live in New England. I’ve come to learn that one of the earliest to come to America in our family had a very successful farmland in the Massachusetts area; hence, why so many of my family members can be traced back to this area. =====

=
On another website, I found that there may have been a reason for so many different variations of our name. Not because they all mean something different, but that they may have been just misspellings of Moniz, as so many people during the 1800s were not highly educated. =====

=
I can see how this type of activity can be used in the language arts classroom to focus on characterization comparison between individuals in a book. Although, I can see how this activity would be more utilized in a Social Studies classroom. It =====