Although there was no face to face class this week, we did our midterm reflection project. We had many options to choose from to do this. At first I had chosen the diary entry method called Loggel, but that kept having technical difficulties so I decided to do the blog instead. Overall I found SBS's class to be extremely innovative, I loved that SBS gave these technological ways of doing our Midterm instead of the typical pencil and paper methods. Once again, leave it up to SBS to find the most fun/creative ways to teach us something while having us reflect on our time in her class. I love this class and I have learned a lot whether it be the POW intros or even how to edit my papers and not have too much information within the introduction. I'm glad I stayed with this class and have been able to learn as much as I have. I enjoy SBS's methods of teaching and I wouldn't change anything about the class. At first I was overwhelmed by the amount of work, however, I've realized as the weeks have gone on that each assignment has a specific purpose and is truly beneficial to me achieving the well-rounded education SBS is providing.
Before class this week we read two comical essays in The Longman Reader entitled Beauty and the Beast and What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage. Both of these passages were extremely comical and I really appreciated the humor/advice in each. SBS also introduced us to the Google Scholar tool, I had no idea this even existed so it was a valuable research tool to learn. In class this week we watched a video about female body image, wrote a journal about our thoughts on this and then we did a powerpoint on what the American male is said to be. I enjoyed doing these lessons because body image has been a struggle for me my whole life so it was interesting to see other people's perspectives. Outside of class we wrote our rough draft for our second paper and I continued with my topic of FCAT except I focused more on the effects on teachers.
Before class we read and annotated another two passages in the Longman Reader talking about torture which had to do with the lesson on ethics and morality. We also watched a video on how to create WOW conclusions. I like that SBS shared all of these techniques with us because they really are extremely valuable to my writing. In class we did a journal entry about torture and what is ethical when it comes to ways of getting people to give confessions. I really love how SBS seems to theme her different lessons, it always makes it interesting and she gets her points accross and lessons presented clearly. Before class we also submitted our final drafts of our papers. SBS's inputs and help in editing caused me to like the class even more than I did already. I've had a lot of good english teachers but the thought and effort SBS puts into her course and her student relationships, exceed any teacher's efforts I've had. Our work outside of the classroom consisted of a discussion forum based on nature and science. We read two passages in the Longman Reader about what us as Americans seem to be doing to our environment. We then watched a video in Air pollution and reflected by answering questions in the Discussion forum:
1. Joni Mitchell refers to “paradise”, this could be the beginning of the town Carson describes. Joni Mitchell then goes on to say how they “paved paradise and put up a parking lot” which is similar to Carson’s “blight” or “evil spell” which is cast over the town. Joni Mitchell’s statement “don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got ‘til it's gone” can be almost directly synonymous to the points Carson is trying to make in her essay. Carson is trying to tell people that if they don’t do something, they’re not going to have anything left. Which will in turn cause the people (us) that “don’t know what they’ve got” to realize what exactly they had once “it’s gone” (the world ending or our towns becoming like the one Carson describes). 3. I think the photo definitely adds to the description. Although Helvarg’s description is vivid, the photo obviously brings it to life.
(Markowitz) Surrounded by scattered pieces of broken red brick, garbage bags, crumpled up tarp, brown water, wood scraps, and various other trash; an elderly lady digs through the rubble of her once standing home trying to refuge any last item she can find that wasn’t shatters, destroyed, or stolen by hurricane Katrina.
Works Cited Markowitz, Steve. " Army Corps of Engineers: More Government Ineptness." Photo. Enduringsense.com 19 Nov. 2009. 9 Feb. 2005 <>. 4. After briefly researching how individuals can keep the air clean, I came across a few different ways which seemed to stand out the most. These stood out because I would never think the simplest inspection or change could have such an impact on our environment. For instance “some products that you use at your home or office are made with smog-forming chemicals that can evaporate into the air when you use them. Follow manufacturers' recommendations for use and properly seal cleaners, paints, and other chemicals to prevent evaporation into the air.” (WATE.com) I would have never guessed that just closing a cleaner properly could help the environment. Another simple thing we can do is making sure our “tires are properly inflated” (WATE.com). I also found that the time of day can also have an effect for instance it can help keep the air clean if we “refuel our cars and trucks after dusk”. (What Can You Do to Help Make the Air Cleaner?) If we just slightly adjust certain aspects in our lives we could definitely do things to help save our planet’s air. Works Cited WATE.com. 2000-2010. 9 February 2010 . "What Can You Do to Help Make the Air Cleaner?" Environmental Protection Agency. 9 February 2010 .
By reflecting on the various aspects this weeks lessons were about such as ethics and nature, SBS causes us to ponder various issues going on throughout the world while teaching us how to be well-rounded writers.
This week we read and annotated two argument essays concerning law before class as well as submitted our first essay draft, annotated with a self evaluation worksheet about our paper. I found that annotating and the self-evaluation paper to be extremely useful because they caused me to really look at my paper and edit it to be the best it could be. We also learned about constructive argument essays, which are when the writer looks at all sides of an argument and look at multiple perspectives. Later on in the week we read a piece also in the Longman Reader called Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell after reading/annotating this, we watched a somewhat comical video summarizing the passage. We then answered a question in the discussion forum about this:
2. Was Orwell justified in shooting the elephant? Argue that Orwell was justified or not justified and support your claim with your reasons. Here are some points you might consider: the legality of Orwell's act, the elephant's temperment, the crowd's presence, the aftermath of the elephant's death, the death itself. I do not believe that Orwell was justified in shooting the elephant. He wasn’t justified in shooting the elephant because the legality of his act was frowned upon since it was a “working elephant”. Also, the elephant’s temperament at the time Orwell shot it was very calm and it wasn’t causing any trouble. If the elephant was still going crazy and was killing other people then he would have been very justified in shooting it. I understand why Orwell did what he did, because when there is a crowd and they’re expecting something of you, it is extremely difficult to not do what they expect. Everyone wants to be a crowd pleaser in some way, and many people even go against their own personal morals to please others. But that still does not justify or make what he did right. The fact that the elephant suffered for so long makes his actions even worse and if he knew it was wrong he should have been humane enough to take a stance to doing such things. There’s always an alternative to every action and he could have definitely taken a different way. I do understand why he did it but I do not agree with his decision and I do not think he was justified in shooting the elephant.
In class this week we did a group project where we had to do research on a 9/11 conspiracy. Doing this taught us how to work as a team and how to research properly, which is a very beneficial skill to know when it comes to writing essays. Outside of class we read a passage in Longman Reader about the tragedies of September 11 written by a man who was working in the towers. I really enjoyed this passage, it made me tear up. We also read an article about a picture of a man jumping out of one of the towers. It was a very powerful article and it kept me interested the entire time. In order to work on our researching skills, SBS had us research and find sources which were credible and not credible. I found this to be very helpful because when I was writing my paper, sometimes it's hard to tell what is credible or not and this really helped me decipher that. The discussion forum we did this week we were able to choose to write about groupthink or morality in the classroom, I chose morality:
I disagree that modern education fails to teach morality. I do not think the direct issues Sykes writes of, are a cause of this. Teaching children morals should not be solely placed on schooling and that is where our society is substandard. While volunteering in many elementary schools, I have witnessed elementary education firsthand teaching multitudes of lessons regarding morality. If these morals are not implemented at home, why do we expect these children to have a strong moral compass? The problem lies within our society as well as solely within the parenting skills. I do believe direct lessons on morality seem to seize after elementary school. However as the students develop more maturity, moral lessons are taught in less straight-forward ways. For example “schools have a moral ethos embodied in rules, rewards and punishments, dress codes, honor codes, student government, relationships, styles of teaching, extracurricular emphases, art, and in the kinds of respect accorded students and teachers”. (Nord, and Haynes)Would it really be necessary for more advanced levels of schooling to have to plan out lessons as to what is right and wrong? By the time a student enters middle school, educators justifiably assume the outline of moral standards has already been instilled. I believe all they can really do is to provide expectations of these students and to leave the rest up to themselves and the ways they’re parented. I found this book online at the website http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/198190/chapters/Moral_Education.aspx
I think the lessons this week were one of my favorites, I really enjoyed the topics and the way SBS tied it all together to teach us even more lessons that will be valuable to us when we create our papers.
There was no class meeting this week however we did have assignments online. All of these assignments were designed to help us learn how to write more effective argument essays. We did this by revising a boring essay in a passage in the Longman Reader entitled How to Say Nothing in 500 Words by Paul Roberts. This passage is a comical way of telling students how to liven their essays up and avoid common mistakes. We also learned how to make our papers more effective and exciting through 9 different POW introductions to choose from.
I really found all of these ways beneficial and I know it helped me a lot when I sat down to write my essay. I loved that SBS provided us with all of these tools to help us make our essays the best they possibly could be. It was a lot to read for some people I'm sure but I found everything I read to be very helpful. We also did another discussion forum which incorporated the essay editing and a few other items to help us think more creatively. I ended up being the creative composer of the week due to this post and was extremely proud.
Here is my award-winning discussion post :) - 1. Writers write about what obsesses them. You draw those cards. I lost my mother when I was 14. My daughter died at the age of 6. I lost my faith as a Catholic. When I'm writing, the darkness is always there. I go where the pain is. - Anne Rice 2. Writer – a person whose trashcan often overflows with crumpled papers. 3. a. Eradicating the Distraction… College Football.
b. College football influences student bodies to consume dangerous amounts of alcohol.
c. “In the olden times when people played football just for the fun of it, maybe college football was all right, but they do not play football just for the fun of it now as they used to in the old days”
“In the past people played football for their own enjoyment, currently this isn’t the case.”
d. “Win or lose, we still booze” is chanted throughout campuses on college football game days. Although this does sound enticing and can be exciting, it often leads to disastrous issues such as hospitalization, arrests, and even death. This is only one of the many issues college football influences or effects.
We also sent in our first paper proposal this week and I decided to do mine on standardized testing then after talking to SBS narrowed it down to FCAT.
1. The United States education systems should put less focus on standardized testing and more on creative methods of teaching. 2. a. Students are memorizing information rather than learning it and fully grasping the concepts. b. Teachers are getting frustrated with the restrictions placed on them and are therefore losing their creative edges. c. Students can no longer think outside of the box because they’re taught to conform. 3. My target audience will be all teachers, professors and students of all ages, from elementary school through college. It will be to the people on the boards of the various school systems and universities. 4. I plan to use outline 2.
In class this week we were introduced to polleverywhere.com. SBS had us take out our cell phones and text the answer to a question.
We then proceeded with class and did an exercise to break the ice and get to know each other. I enjoyed how this class went because it made us get up out of our seats and form relationships and get us thinking outside of the box. In the online portion of this class we learned the organizational pattern of a traditional argument and about ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos is the writers credibility, pathos is the emotional appeals, and logos is the logic involved.
We also read and annotated three passages in our "Longman Readers" these passages tied into videos relating to education we also watched, after doing all this we did a discussion forum:
1. Watch the short films, Second Life Media Zoo, Vision of Students Today, and Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall, Comment on the ideas presented in each of the videos. Using some of the ideas presented in this video, Discuss how technology can be best implemented in our nation's schools and universities? Present a case for virtual learning? Would a Second Life learning experience be for everyone? Why or why not? The idea presented within Second Life Media Zoo is that a highly technological virtual world, created by the University of Leicester, has a lot of potential to be extremely beneficial to education. The short video tries to present their point that growing technology in general can be extraordinarily valuable to the learning of students. In Vision of Students Today there is a contrasting point of view which seems to demonstrate that technology is beneficial yet harmful to education because it causes distractions. Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall conveys how students turn into nameless faces and are forced to conform to the certain guidelines schooling and education shove upon them. Technology can be best employed in our nation’s schools and universities by teachers/professors keeping an open mind towards different methods of communication besides phone and e-mail. If professors implement various tools into their lessons such as texting, YouTube and facebook, it could grasp the attention of the students by having them be able to relate to what they know best. This would cause students to understand different items and lessons more clearly. Virtual learning could be useful because our society is so technology focused and is the main way the younger generation communicates. It is also beneficial for the future of our technological society because it teaches students to use the up-to-date technology which will only continue to advance. Second Chance learning experience may not be for everyone for the reason that many people thrive on human communication, as well as the need to feel as if they’re being productive by moving from place to place. 5. Do some research on the type of human capital that many millionaires possess. How did they acquire it? Of the four types of human capital that Brooks describes, which one do you feel is your strongest? Provide evidence that you are strong in this type. Many millionaires seem to possess the aspirational capital aspect of human capital. They obtained this by having “the fire-in-the-belly ambition to achieve” (Brooks) and in many cases because “People told them they were too stupid to achieve something, so they set out to prove the naysayers wrong.” (Brooks) I feel that out of the four types of human capital conveyed, my strongest is the moral capital aspect. I have always had a very high value of dedication and trustworthiness. Year-round competitive cheerleading was my sport for over five years and only missed a practice once due to extreme illness. I’ve received various trustworthy recognitions throughout my schooling, sports, and work life. My bosses throughout my work history could always count on me and never were worried whether or not I would be on time or not show up. When I commit myself to something I never give anything less than my absolute best. Brooks, David. "Psst! "Human Capital"." New York Times 13 Nov 2005, Print. 6. Do some research on the concept of capital as used by economists. How do economists define and categorize capital, including the human capital? Be sure and cite your source. The idea of capital described by economists is that it is an important element of economic activity. They define it as having different forms such as: Assets which many include fixed capital and working capital, financial capital, human capital and social capital. Fixed capital can be the building the organization is located in and/or the machinery utilized by the organization. Working capital are the products or supplies that are expended in the production method. Financial capital describes what it sounds like- money, which includes bonds and shares. Human Capital is the “economic wealth” (“Economist”) or capabilities within a person. Finally, social capital is said to be what “holds an economy together” (“Economist”), this is the amount of “trust” an economy has within it. "Economics A-Z." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited 2010, Web. 13 Jan 2010. .
I really enjoyed the amount of passion SBS seems to have for this course and the amount of technological knowledge she has too. I loved how all of the assignments tied together to create the discussion forum. I could tell this class was going to be a lot of work but very interesting and beneficial from the beginning.
