Journal 10

This course was personally one that i did not look forward to taking. I never really enjoyed english throughout high school. So, coming into this class i was not looking forward to writing anything since it has never been a strong point in my schooling. Mrs. Carl, however, made this class as enjoyable as she possibly could.

My favorite assignment for the class would have to be the whole portfolio. It was a very large project and I had to keep pace in order to meet all the deadlines, but it in its own way was fun to do having to do my own research on a topic I felt was relevant.

When i started my community project over the issue No Child left Behind i was completely against the idea of the law. I thought everything it was, hindered the education system. By the end my entire view on the subject changed. Although flawed many items in the law helped many minorities.

Website Analysis

Website Analysis

                 The website i have been following is http://teachthetest.blogspot.com/. The author of this blog is a kindergarten teacher. This is her first year teaching kinder so she has been using her blog to show what she is doing in her class. The class that she teachers consist of seventeen eager students ready to learn. The authors name is Ms. M and she is "setting her students up for success."

                 The audience that she blogs towards are possibly her peers, other teachers, parents, and anyone interested in her progressive adaption of teaching methods for her kindergarteners. She uses a great contrast of colors in her blog. She chose a great school themed background with popping red headers. Ms. M's choice of font is one i have not seen before but is a great addition to the blog making it seem as if it was written on paper. This leads me to believe that it is for the peers around her and others like her.

                 One can tell she is busy by how frequent the blog is updated and just the progression and enhancement of her classroom. She blog a lot in the months of summer but once school started she blogs about once a month, if that even. Every time there is a new blog it shows updated pictures of her classroom and how it has grown to be a very adept learning environment.

                 I wonder why she actually has the blog. Many reasons come to mind but the one that i like is that she keeps it running for herself. It could be a mandatory thing teachers at her school must keep a blog, but i rather it be a blog of pleasure for her. The blog as stated above is a very appealing, visual blog that could be used to inspire newer teachers. Ms. M did it in a way where the visuals complement the content of her blog.

                 We as a reader of the blog automatically give her blog respect because of her content. She is constantly seeking to enhance her classes learning ability and when somebody is doing that for children, one automatically gives respect towards that person. The pictures she provides show new and upcoming improvements to her class. Because she shows us the progress with photos that naturally give creditability to her post.

                  All in all the blog by Ms. M. is fun and visually pleasing to read. She keeps her post relatively short so its not a eye sore or a chore to look at. The only thing i would want from her blog, is for her to update more frequently. It is enjoyable to look at the amazing progression she has gone through with her kindergarteners. From having a inner-classroom with no windows, to a large classroom with windows and "cabinets" Ms. M shows how to creatively decorate the rooms and to make the most out of any teaching environment.

                 On a side note i followed this blog thinking she would be discussing the concept of teaching to the test, but she ended up showing me something different; there still are teachers who take teaching as a art and not just a job. She has put faith back into me that the No Child Left Behind has not polluted all of the teachers. This world could use a lot more teachers like Ms. M, who are as eager to teach as the students are to learn.

Journal VII

Journal VII

                 This article put together by Dànielle DeVoss and Annette C. Rosati explains different aspects of plagiarism. DeVoss is a teacher who teaches a introduction to literature class. After assigning and receiving the first paper she discovers a couple of her students plagiarized their papers. She then went on to talking to the students and even the ones who did not plagiarize were worried they might have. Plagiarism is a large part of today's world with the easy access of the internet. Anyone can easily copy and paste a essay or idea from it. This is however a serious issue since plagiarism in higher education can lead to the failure of a class, academic suspension, or even expulsion in some cases. This article outlines what they think the cause of plagiarism is and how easily it can be done and found.

                High School was the plagiarism capital of the world. I had friends who would copy entire pages from the internet; they would not even change it around so it was a little less suspicious. It was crazy, ever essay assignment you could easily expect at least four people would plagiarize. It was the sad truth about high school. I believe plagiarism is mainly done on purpose. The only accidents i see are the ones where they did not cite properly. It is a moral decision to take someone else's work and not credit them at least. But this is the choice some tend to make. Modern technology has made this both easier and harder to accomplish. Teachers can now type in a couple keywords of your essay to see if it holds any connections to other papers in the internet. It is that easy to check. Sadly that knowledge does not even dissuade some from trying to take the easy route.

Journal VI

Journal VI

Chimamanda Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story”

1. What is Adichie’s primary argument in this video? What is a “single story?”

Adichie's primary argument is that a single story can pollute ones view of the subject. The "single story" refers to a single reference, reading, or side to a subject that is heard regularly because of either its positive or negative side. But since it is told and heard so much one tends to believe that is how it always is.

2. How do you think the idea of the single story is relevant to our class theme?

The idea of the single story is relevant to our class because we need to realize that the one story is not the final idea or representation to a whole, but there is a second that shows the other side.

3. Give an example of a time when a single story was told about you.

My sisters were masters of this kind of argument. They would tell my mother that i did something, whether it was true or not. My mother on the other hand would take their word without listening to my story because of their age. In some cases I deserved the punishment or ridicule i received, but other times they were the ones in the wrong.

4. Give an example of a single story that you told about an individual, community, or country.

Oh i tend to do this all the time sadly enough. When I travel to go visit my mom i tell her of all of these "great drivers" we have here in El Paso. This is only one side because its always 1 out of 100-200 drivers that fits into this characteristic. 

5. Give an example of a single story told about your semester topic.

One side to my topic is that Teaching to the Test is causing our students education standards to drop. Although this is what i believe as well, I have found research that proves other reasons besides this one to be the cause.

6. We are in the process of conducting research on our semester topics. How can a single story negatively impact the ways in which we conduct research?

We may become to focused on proving our side of the story that we forget about the other that exist, and possibilities that we need to account for.

7. What are some steps that we can take to avoid telling a single story in our research?

We need to try and keep biases and other influences out of our papers. This will allow us to conduct research that shows our topic without it being a persuasion paper.

Journal V

Journal V

                  For Journal V we read Revision Strategies by Sommers. This reading focused heavily on the difference between student writers and experienced writers. One can consider student writers, writers that focus on editing their papers after their first draft. They use simplified vocabulary, not complex structure, and quite linear progression through their paper. The way I see student writers, they write to complete, not to inform or promote their topic. Its a very simple and easy way to write, but there is rarely any substance. Experienced writers on the other hand focus their after draft thoughts on revising. They tend to like pronounced vocabulary to show their point with a little more elegant tongue. Their witting is a little easier to read off fluently, because it flows. The structure of their paper may be complex but it is followed the whole way. 

                  Throughout my life i have been both type of writers. I fell anywhere between student and experiences, mainly it was based on my interest in my topic given. Whether I was revising or editing, I would try to do a little of both. In school we attempted to do some peer editing, but it never worked out. The other students never really found any interest, benefit, whatever you want to call it out of doing the peer editing. Truthfully I might not have done any my self because of how pointless it seemed to me. These people would not take my paper seriously so why should I take theirs? Reading this "little" reading I was able to put a name with a concept I have seen but have never been able to call it something. There has always been the person who skated by, the student writer, and someone who had a perfect paper, experienced writer. They have both existed throughout high school but i just could never put a exact name to them.

Journal IV

Journal IV

             Let me start by say this was a long reading. This entire section by Sommers was a battle against teachers, and how they criticized their students papers. It stated how the students would write a first draft for their teacher, turn it in for comments, and receive a paper back with with comments and corrections to which the student could not understand. Whether the comments were poorly written or contradicting with other comments they wrote the, students would either ignore them, in their next draft, or use the comments to please their teacher. The students paper however, would usually suffer while trying to please the teacher because they lose focus on their main topic and start to drift away.

           I see where this paper was coming from. I had teachers in the past who would write this and that, but they would write it in a way where you were stuck asking yourself, "how the hell does she want it!" In my grade school years, especially, I had trouble writing, and my paper would have more writing from the teacher then myself. I despised seeing the red lines crossing out words and adding commas, but it was a necessary part in learning how to write effectively. In all I believe that I was taught well in the area of writing, and all of those squiggles on my paper I learned from. Teachers do their best most time to help and to point you in the right direction with your paper, but it is after all your paper. If you think those red lines do not make sense in part of your paper, or if the comment is a bad one, then do what you please to fix it. They try to help but in most cases you are not the first paper they have graded, and if you go by the reading they could have already been grading papers for days.

Journal III

Journal III

             The topic I chose for my proposal is one that I always had feelings towards. This topic was one i did not even know existed until i moved here to Texas in 2009. Now without giving it away i wanted to ask, is there anything in high school that bothered you? No, I am not talking about bullies, grades, or even trying to fit in; but how about the teaching itself? Did it ever feel like the curriculum here in Texas challenged or expanded the knowledge one wanted? I did not think so. I thought the curriculum was a joke. They taught A, B, and maybe C if they had time, but what about the rest? I love learning new things, especially if they made me a better person. Throughout high school I was bored, and I blame this on the Texas way of "Teaching for the Test."

            I lived in Illinois since the second grade. Learning there was fun. It was challenging and also very rewarding. When you left for the day, you brain ached from all the knowledge that was shoved into it that day; and the next day you were ready for more. There were still state test that we had to take. But the difference, between Illinois' way of teaching and Texas, was we learned A, B, C, and so on. Illinois could do this because they did not have the rigorous hand holding that Texas does. They had the idea that students should know "x" by the time your done teaching for the year, and how they got there was up to the teachers creative ability. That there is another point against "Teaching for the Test" but i will discuss that in my paper.