So, I have decided to use this as my medium of collecting myself. I realized tonight that I have a lot of stuff that is buried in my past. I have a lot of things that I started but never finished. I have a lot of stuff to cover, so here is a good start, a good optimistic start.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
crazy.
Ah! So I am trying something new as a person this semester, I am blogging. I also write, so I could say that I am trying something new as a writer this year by blogging. It is exciting and new, however, no one ever reads it, oh well. I miss New York and I miss certain people only when they are around.
Monday, October 1, 2007
The Sun, reading response.
Taylor Mali’s poem “What Teachers Make, or Objection Overruled, or If things don't work out, you can always go to law school, ” was very rhetorical in its delivery because it was an attempt to persuade. However, the method he uses was from an interesting perspective. In the beginning, he had negative connotations toward teachers, he criticized them, saying that they are just students that couldn’t make it elsewhere. He then brings us in to how much he makes via a second person inquiry, and then the rant starts. With his gravel-truck voice, and flawless posture, red-in-the-face, he breaks down just what he does in his job. Mali explicates on just how he makes those kids work. And by explicating this information, he really gives his audience a feeling of what exactly these kids do. He convinces you that he works hard! Yet, he does not merely present the fact that he works hard, he explains why he does it, which brings us to the very end of the poem. And that’s the part in which he answers the second person in the poem to the inquiry of what he makes, stating
“You want to know what I make?
I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).”
Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a goddamn difference! What about you?”
So he sides with his antagonist in the beginning of this poem. He laughs and repeats jokes made about teachers. He explains both sides. But this is a prose, and in a prose whether written, in our heads, or spoken, is an issue; it has two sides. In order to present an idea to someone, we must present both sides, because if we don’t we are not giving the audience the full picture, we are fearing that we may fail in persuading them, and most importantly, we give up the fight to beat something. Like our class handout said, you must accept the possibility that you may not succeed in order to achieve something. You have to know what you are up against, because it is silly to fear what you can not avoid. And when we are trying to persuade someone something through writing or any form of presentation, even speech, the event or situation that we describe is alive in those waves and it is strong. If you are strong about it, you must be able to face the challenges that go with it and that is what Taylor Mali does in his poem.
My Accidental Jihad by Krista Bremer
From an Islamic point of View, Jihad means strife. It means an integrity-driven motive to accomplish. This story starts out with her resenting him, but turns around at the end. It reminds me of Mali’s poem in the way that it has a central message and that is that teachers work hard. In this short story “My Accidental Jihad,” the central message is the same and translates to the benefits of self-discipline. The opposing sides of her husband’s Islam practice or fasting for Ramadan is criticized from the beginning, but in the end, the husband had the last laugh. The husband had the “last laugh” at the end because he appreciated the food he had, he indulged it, and was getting something out of the whole situation, when his wife, did not, she was busy recklessly completing chores. But her whole point was whining about how she couldn’t indulge in anything with her husband, so her negative outlook on it was wrong in the end and she was laughed at, just like the audience that laughed at Mali’s jokes about teachers in the beginning and got the rude awakening of his enthusiasm for teaching and the finger at the end. This is a great example of presenting both sides to an issue, and holding strong to one side or the other will bring conflict as the opposing side emerges. Mali’s poem was a great way to show how to present both sides, but Bremer’s story, is a great representation of how we will face up against things in our strife but the virtue of fighting for your place in line pays off because characters, events, and settings were acting this out in the story.
“You want to know what I make?
I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).”
Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a goddamn difference! What about you?”
So he sides with his antagonist in the beginning of this poem. He laughs and repeats jokes made about teachers. He explains both sides. But this is a prose, and in a prose whether written, in our heads, or spoken, is an issue; it has two sides. In order to present an idea to someone, we must present both sides, because if we don’t we are not giving the audience the full picture, we are fearing that we may fail in persuading them, and most importantly, we give up the fight to beat something. Like our class handout said, you must accept the possibility that you may not succeed in order to achieve something. You have to know what you are up against, because it is silly to fear what you can not avoid. And when we are trying to persuade someone something through writing or any form of presentation, even speech, the event or situation that we describe is alive in those waves and it is strong. If you are strong about it, you must be able to face the challenges that go with it and that is what Taylor Mali does in his poem.
My Accidental Jihad by Krista Bremer
From an Islamic point of View, Jihad means strife. It means an integrity-driven motive to accomplish. This story starts out with her resenting him, but turns around at the end. It reminds me of Mali’s poem in the way that it has a central message and that is that teachers work hard. In this short story “My Accidental Jihad,” the central message is the same and translates to the benefits of self-discipline. The opposing sides of her husband’s Islam practice or fasting for Ramadan is criticized from the beginning, but in the end, the husband had the last laugh. The husband had the “last laugh” at the end because he appreciated the food he had, he indulged it, and was getting something out of the whole situation, when his wife, did not, she was busy recklessly completing chores. But her whole point was whining about how she couldn’t indulge in anything with her husband, so her negative outlook on it was wrong in the end and she was laughed at, just like the audience that laughed at Mali’s jokes about teachers in the beginning and got the rude awakening of his enthusiasm for teaching and the finger at the end. This is a great example of presenting both sides to an issue, and holding strong to one side or the other will bring conflict as the opposing side emerges. Mali’s poem was a great way to show how to present both sides, but Bremer’s story, is a great representation of how we will face up against things in our strife but the virtue of fighting for your place in line pays off because characters, events, and settings were acting this out in the story.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
My Stress-Management Skills
Manytimes, all stress is is something that needs to be done and I don't know how to fit it in into the million other things I need to do. But the things I need to do include eating,exercising, sleeping, bathing, laughing, and SCHOOL. Okay, so know that I know that these are all things I need, I have to prioritize. Because School has deadlines and it is the worst thing to lose, I know that I have to do that first. .......eureka! I just came to an excellent conclusion! That is, I stress out because I know that a lot is at stake if I do not do my homework, and that's why I stress out about it so much! It is important that I know that one huge thing that will eliminate stress is self-doubt. Yeah, okay, a lot is at stake, but that's fine and that's where it starts and ends. So right there, that is a great way to get rid of stress, to realize that self-bashing ideas are bad. In fact, if you smash those to the ground, you will feel really good knowing that you accomplished that task that was very scary.
Going to places that I like that I always put off is a wonderful place for me to eliminate stress as well. When I say places I like I mean spiritually and physically. Getting things out of the way can start in your head.
Going to places that I like that I always put off is a wonderful place for me to eliminate stress as well. When I say places I like I mean spiritually and physically. Getting things out of the way can start in your head.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Taylor Mali YouTube video
One thing I notice about comedians is they are totally rhetorical. I disagree with everything he says about teachers, yet it is very hard for me to gather my thoughts or think for 2 seconds because his delivery is very aggressive. With that, the comments on the salary just annoy me. Teachers are the most important part of society in the end and it is harder to teach someone something than it is to just learn it your self.
The end statement/hand gesture, said to me that all he said was satirical and he in fact feels bad for teachers because of their salary, and he in fact supports teachers. I think his techniques were arguing a point he didn't believe in, and he did it well. He did this by getting real into it with his voice tone, aggressive body language, vocabulary, bullet-point structure, and his points against being a teacher. He presented ideas that were neutral, yet he used, like I said, aggressive behavior and delivery to get you to think one way or another. This is minimalism and it says what you want to say without actually going into detail and just presenting the concept or idea. His aggressive delivery was misleading, but in the end, his neutral points that he gave in the middle were all very supportive of the statement I think he was trying to make. He is trying to make us feel the anger, frustration, and criticism teachers are faced with, and in the end, how courageous they are. But he used satire, he used facts, or what I called "neutral-points," some of those were; no kids wants to go to school to go back to school, kids that go go because they couldn't make it. In our society, some opinions become facts, and the way he presented them were as if they were facts. But in the end, when everyone was cheering him on, he flipped them off and he had the last laugh because he expressed that this was not true, and that the audience was stupid for thinking that it was. Bringing up money is an objective way to convince someone, and that was a good way to convince people that teachers follow their heart. He was very well-spoken.
So I guess what I am trying to say, is that Mr.Mali wanted us to think for ourselves in this one. I think it was amazing how he made people agree with him. He did this by talking about teaching in a deragatory way and the audience was cheering him on. In the end, the audience was fooled and yet another great point of how we need teachers and they're stronger than the rest. It was very manipulative in a way because he was so convincing. I did not agree wit him from the get-go, but I couldn't stop to think because it was so aggressive. His main technique was presenting ideas and feeling strongly about them in his speech and voice tone, somethign that is lost in writing. But, what he did was make everyone feel bad and maybe that audience will have a better appreciation for teachers.
The end statement/hand gesture, said to me that all he said was satirical and he in fact feels bad for teachers because of their salary, and he in fact supports teachers. I think his techniques were arguing a point he didn't believe in, and he did it well. He did this by getting real into it with his voice tone, aggressive body language, vocabulary, bullet-point structure, and his points against being a teacher. He presented ideas that were neutral, yet he used, like I said, aggressive behavior and delivery to get you to think one way or another. This is minimalism and it says what you want to say without actually going into detail and just presenting the concept or idea. His aggressive delivery was misleading, but in the end, his neutral points that he gave in the middle were all very supportive of the statement I think he was trying to make. He is trying to make us feel the anger, frustration, and criticism teachers are faced with, and in the end, how courageous they are. But he used satire, he used facts, or what I called "neutral-points," some of those were; no kids wants to go to school to go back to school, kids that go go because they couldn't make it. In our society, some opinions become facts, and the way he presented them were as if they were facts. But in the end, when everyone was cheering him on, he flipped them off and he had the last laugh because he expressed that this was not true, and that the audience was stupid for thinking that it was. Bringing up money is an objective way to convince someone, and that was a good way to convince people that teachers follow their heart. He was very well-spoken.
So I guess what I am trying to say, is that Mr.Mali wanted us to think for ourselves in this one. I think it was amazing how he made people agree with him. He did this by talking about teaching in a deragatory way and the audience was cheering him on. In the end, the audience was fooled and yet another great point of how we need teachers and they're stronger than the rest. It was very manipulative in a way because he was so convincing. I did not agree wit him from the get-go, but I couldn't stop to think because it was so aggressive. His main technique was presenting ideas and feeling strongly about them in his speech and voice tone, somethign that is lost in writing. But, what he did was make everyone feel bad and maybe that audience will have a better appreciation for teachers.
Learning styles session
From going to the seminar on knowing my writing style, I learned a lot. My learning style is all I found. No, seriously, I took the test and got an equal number of points under each category. I was scared to hear this, hahaha, but, the more learning styles you apply to, the better you grasp concepts. This makes me really happy, but at the same time, it truly impedes on my studying sometimes, because I really want to get into it. This leads me to believe that I am, all in all, a kinesthetic learned at heart because I have to do SOMETHING to learn. The definition of a kinesthetic learner that the seminar gave was that you have to physically do something to learn best. I think that I need to physically do something like exercise or walk to think about what I have learned, but also, for example, writing something as soon as I hear it or think it will help me learn best. I think getting into it, totally,, is how I learn best. For example, after I get out of my art appreciation class, the best thing for me to do is look at a piece of art and apply what I learned to the piece, read more about it, re-write my notes,and re-play what the teacher said in class, and then walk to think about it and learn it best. So, I truly incorporate all three styles into my optimal work envirnoment.
I think this relates to the Paddington Bear activity and the concepts therein because the assignment encouraged us to encompass a writing topic's many angles to get a reader to grasp a concept. using sensory details "fattens up" a draft, just like incorporating different learning styles. Another thing that relates to the things we have learned in class was how your learning style can change with time. To me, this relates to how our draft can change at any time, our mood and way of grasping concepts can change, thereofre our outlook on our writing will change. I also think that asking us to always be working on a draft is related to kinesthetic learning because we are thinking about our pieces as we do different things.
I think this relates to the Paddington Bear activity and the concepts therein because the assignment encouraged us to encompass a writing topic's many angles to get a reader to grasp a concept. using sensory details "fattens up" a draft, just like incorporating different learning styles. Another thing that relates to the things we have learned in class was how your learning style can change with time. To me, this relates to how our draft can change at any time, our mood and way of grasping concepts can change, thereofre our outlook on our writing will change. I also think that asking us to always be working on a draft is related to kinesthetic learning because we are thinking about our pieces as we do different things.
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