Ignite Talk!

Slide 1:Introduction. In this semester we've spent a lot of time talking about different ways of learning. So I'm going to look at and discuss my opinions of learning in the world that we live in. Slide 2: In 2011, almost half of an average Americans day was spent watching televison. Following this at a close 30% was internet usage. But where is the learning happening on these platforms that are consuming the good majority of our time? Slide 3: Today, the most popular shows on tv are things like family guy, modern family, the walking dead, and the voice. In my opinion, the only thing that these shows do have in common is the lack of education. None of these shows will help me get through college or pass a test. Slide 4: Most, if not all, of my assigned work in school involves being online. Today people go online for everything. Some of the most visited sites are google, facebook, youtube, wikipedia, twitter, and yahoo. Slide 5: In Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out we look at different ways of learning. One of the main topics was learning through social media. It is believed that kids gain most of their knowledge through informal instruction. Social Media is a platform that isn't centered around teachers or parents agendas. Slide 6:I mat be alone in this view, but I'm not really comfortable with learning from most people out there on social media. I think that it's important to learn from teachers and professors because they kind of know what they're doing. Slide 7: Going back to this guy, James Paul Gee from earlier this semester. Gee us a researcher with an integrated approach on learning and language. He believes in an active learning environment, and learning through experience. Slide 8: Gee believes that video games can encompass many of these ideas. He believes that games let students experiment with trial and error. Games provide challenges for players, which keeps them motivated, and it gives one ownership, which is a rarity in schooling. Slide 9: My go-to source for information is Google. Apparently, I'm not alone. Google gets on average, 7.2 billion page views a day. Seems like a lot. It probably will seem like more when I tell you that only one-third of the world population has internet access. Slide 10: In an instant, I can look up whatever I want. Literally, everything I want to know about the quantum theory to how Kim Kardashians' feet looked like after a long day. It's all there whenever I need it. Slide 11:When doing any online work like a research paper, I'm always overwhelmed with the amount of information available to me through the internet. In those moments, it is always clear to me that the internet is not designed for my style of learning. Slide 12: All of the information that the internet holds gets scattered around in my brain for a few hours, and then semi-organized on a paper, and then "dumped" out forever because I did nothing to learn it. Slide 13: When it comes to me on the internet trying to learn something, I have the strong tendency to end up slouched over looking like this.It's in no way the active learning that Gee talks about. The only thing active is my fingers as they type. Slide 14: Inside the classroom, I'm a verbal learner. For me, everything must be put into words. I take an absurd amount of notes. I can't stand the annoying usage of highlighters, but I will fill up the margins of every book with notes. Slide 15: I'm also, an active learner. I learn best when I engage in activities. I like being involved in things rather than just listening. I always do really well in labs for this reason. Slide 16:Over the tears, I've discovered that when I actively and verbally engage in a topic, I really learn it. The internet serves as a poor aid in this way of learning. I can't go anywhere near social media while trying to learn something or I'll be distracted for hours. Slide 17: Our school system is based on testing and exams. After we take the exams, we are given a graded value that compares us to everyone else. I've learned how to adapt to this system by discovering how I best learn. Slide 18: I wish I could agree with Suli Breaks in that we can't let exam grades decide our fate, but in my opinion right now that's the world that we live in. Like I said before, you have to find ways to adapt. Slide 19: According to learningstylesonline.com there are seven different learning styles: visual, aural, verbal, physical, logical, social, and solitary. Each will have a different advantage or disadvantage to each person but less than half are addressed inside of the classroom. Slide 20: We are all in the same system of learning, but it is important to find out what is best suited for you. Maybe social media and the internet are your best aids in learning a topic. There's plenty of on-line quizzes that you can take that will let you know what style of learning works best for you.

Final Blog Post!

What was my topic? So when thinking about what topic to address for this project, I thought of gender discrimination. Not because I'm a feminist or anything really close to one but I was curious of what people's opinions were about it and if it was still "a thing".

What's the history behind gender discrimination? For those who are unaware, in the 70's there was a huge feminist movement  Women from all across America united together for a common cause of equality. In my opinion, the most successful result of this movement was TITLE IX which was part of the education amendment  In summary, it said that no federally funded school program can show any bias for gender differences. This was huge for women. Previously, most women had a "place" inside the home, and taking care of children. Women have come very far since then. Every year, women in the work force grow. The traditional belief that a woman's  place is at home is now shattered.  Or is it? This is the question that began my search and through these projects, I have attempted to discover the answer.

What are "important" people saying about gender discrimination toward girls? When my research began I was really shocked at the stance that most people in the academia world were taking. For example, the most influential people that I researched for my topic were David and Myra Sadker. The couple wrote a book,  Failing at Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls. In it, they conducted a huge research project since the 60's that was completed and published in 1994 on subtle ways that a bias based on gender is woven into the classroom, and why girls don't usually pursue "male oriented" professions. They spoke of how boys were more likely to receive praise and recognition by teachers, as girls were instructed more toward the feminine ideal.

Is there gender discrimination toward boys, too? On the other side of the argument were people like a journalist, Anna Mulrine. She composed many studies and opinions of scientist that have done various research that is believed to prove that boys are the weaker sex because they are slower to develop. It is believed that though women's brains are generally smaller than men's it is more refined. There were other's who argued that boys do not get the emotional attention that they need because it's common practice and belief that boys don't need it as much as girls, and that is an explanation as to why boys are shown to fall behind girls on many of the academic levels that schools test for.

What are my personal experiences? When thinking back on my lifetime, I've always remembered when I was in middle school I had a teacher who never liked girls. I'm not saying that when I went through with her is really serious discrimination, but it's something that did happen.

Why I chose to focus on the interviews that I did? The Sadkers main focus was on why girls do not usually pursue the male oriented careers. Therefore, I thought of the greatest male-dominated career in my opinion, engineering. For my final project, I used a male and female interview who are both in UNCC's engineering department. So I figured that if there's any gender discrimination going on inside school systems today, this department would be the most likely candidate.

What did the people that I interviewed have to say? As I figured, they both had experienced and witnessed times where there were subtle moments of discrimination or un-fair treatment based on gender. The female that was interviewed, Bristol spoke of a time when she was singled-out in the classroom. She was the only female in her freshman engineering class. She spoke with me about how she felt as if the professor expected her to preform poorly in the course.  She did however, succeed in the course and is still on track for a degree in engineering. The male that I interviewed, Randy told me a time when the teacher in his class made his female partner talk more than anyone else. He spoke of how he thought that the girl wouldn't know much about the topic at hand, because she was a female.

What are my views? When beginning these projects, I thought that I had a clear and defined view on what I thought about gender discrimination in the school system. I took an AP U.S. History course in high school, and gained a lot of knowledge of the feminist movement. That class gave me the perspective that in the past, discrimination based on gender was a big deal, but now it is unheard of. However, this journey has made my views quite cloudy. I no longer have a clear and defined stance on the topic. I have discovered that yes, it does still exist but because of Americas laws it's subtle actions that compose any unfair treatment that occurs. On my third mini project blog, I had a comment from a girl named Gloria, I believe that she was right on when she said, ..."or maybe we've simply constructed nuances that make them (referring to gender discrimination's) less noticeable...". Yes, it is no where near as prevalent as it use to be, but maybe we have just come so far that "little" episodes that occur are brushed off as not that big of a deal.

How I went about construction this video? For the media format for this project I was originally going to draw it like I did in my third mini project but I have gone horse this weekend and sound rather manly so the voice over for that would have probably been rather scary. I originally got that idea from a great vlogger, Jenna Marbles and a video that she recently did. But since I couldn't really talk I knew that I had to do something silent. So I've seen these video on facebook before where people tell their stories on notecards just with writing. An example of one is here.  It's just a way for people to express and share their story I really couldn't find a happy one so sorry if you want to watch it. It's rather sad but I think that it's not as sad as most.

Enjoy the video. Also, thanks to all of those that I interviewed. Have a great summer!

Works Cited

Chapman, Amanda. "Gender Bias in Education." Gender Bias in Education. D'Youville College, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

Mulrine, Anne. "Are Boys the Weaker Sex?" US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

Pavalko, Susan M. "JITE V33n1 - Under Review - Failing at Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls." JITE V33n1 - Under Review - Failing at Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls. Virginia Tech, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

Sadker, Myra, and David Miller Sadker. Failing at Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1994. Print.

Mini Project-3

Yay! Third Mini Project! 

Inspiration for the media type to utilize for this video came from a vlogger that I follow, Jenna Marbles. In a recent video she "drew her life". I really liked how she was able to use pictures to get her story across in a more meaningful way. I though that it would be a neat way of voicing peoples thoughts, as opposed to just the normal interview.

In my last video, I interviewed 3 girls on their views on gender discrimination. One girl, Bristol Weekly, was an engineer major. She talked about her experiences where she felt belittled by her own professors at UNCC. This got me really interested in the engineering department, not to bash on the department in any means but because of the low ratio of girls to guys. 

I was also, interested in what guys thought about this topic because almost all of the "academia" sources that I've been using for this project, have only been addressing females experiences, opinions, and views. I don't know why that is, but I knew that I didn't want that to be true for my project.

For this video I interviewed two males at UNCC who are studying engineering. They shared experiences of both in, and outside of the classroom. 

It was really interesting to me to see that it's not only girls noticing a gender bias. They both shared personal experiences with me in times that they witnessed these things. 

Do I think gender bias is a big deal? No...I still don't believe so. It is, however like I said before interesting to me that it does subliminally still occur and both genders are taking notice of it. 

Enjoy :) 

Mini Project-2

For my second Mini Project I knew that I wanted to get other student's opinions on the matter. I went back and forth on including males or not, but after talking to the first girl that I interviewed I knew that girls would probably have some really interesting things to say so I didn't want to short them of anything by excluding most of the interview to keep the project more concise. 

I recorded my voice on what the three girls said because most people don't like the sound of their voice over a recorded media. It also, made it more appealing to the girls to go through with doing the interview. Also, I added clips of the song I'm a Woman by Peggy Lee to bounce off the song I included in my first project. Maybe for my third project I'll add something a little more contemporary? hah

When I began deciding on who I wanted these interviews to come from I questioned if high school, elementary, college, or all of them combined would be the best way to get what I wanted across. I asked around and decided on keeping it in the realm of college and more specifically UNCC students. It was really interesting to see that each of the girls had a different experience. I found that there were some grey areas on what discrimination based on gender meant to each girl.

Reflections of the three girls that I interviewed:
Megan Eastergard- Megan and I have been friends for awhile, but we have never talked about the topic that I'm exploring for this project before the interview. Megan had a hard time relating to this topic. For her, it was not something that she really experienced much of in her life. It was a topic that she didn't see as being too prevalent in today's time for our culture, but is a serious matter in different countries. Being an international business major, I believe that it helped her tie in the connection between gender discrimination in different areas.

Michelle Booth- Michelle is in my writing group in class. Michelle had personal experiences in high school of gender discrimination that I loved hearing about. She talked about times when teachers had really crossed a boundaries based on her and classmates being females. These stories were really interesting to me because I had never experienced anything like what she described before.

Bristol Weekly- Bristol was an intentional pick for this interview. I knew that she was a Engineering major and I figured that if any field would show discrimination it would be one where women are vastly out numbered by men. She told a story of her first semester in college and in the engineering program. I have yet to experience any discrimination based on gender at the college level so it was really interesting to me to hear that subtle forms of gender discrimination are still occurring at this level of academia.


I really enjoyed talking with these girls about this topic. I loved hearing all of the stories and opinions based around this sometimes controversial topic. I hope you guys enjoy :)

Mini Project-1

So for my project I explored the bias in school settings based on gender. After a lot of deliberation and asking some peers what to do, I decided to compile a picture slide show of pictures and quotes based on the research I did. Just so you guys know, the song that goes along with the pictures has a purpose! It was a theme song for the 70's women’s movement….I would usually never listen to something like that.

I was interested in this topic because I’ve personally experienced biased based solely on gender in my schooling career. In particular, in eighth grade I had a teacher who was known as someone who favored boys.  I never wanted to believe it, I thought that it couldn’t be possible. However, it truly was! She would often be-little girls indirectly when they would say something wrong. If one of her favorite male students begged her to go outside instead of having class, she always eventually gave in and did what the boys wanted. My thoughts were that she wanted to be seen as a cool teacher, but at most female’s expense.  

This got me thinking about other people who may be talking about this same topic. To my surprise A LOT of people were talking about it, and doing so with a big passion! I took my research back to the Title IX days all the way to today’s time.

If you guys are unaware of what Title IX is I’ll give a brief history lesson…..Title IX came from a huge feminist movement in the seventies. It was an addition to the Educational Amendments basically saying that any educational programs can’t discriminate based on gender.

This obviously helped a lot but a married couple, David and Myra Sadker wrote a book in 1995, Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls. This book looked at the progress of gender equality in the classroom since the passage of Title IX.

Most of their findings were that Males are still highly favored while girls are only praised for “girl” things like being neat, organized, and mild mannered. There were a lot of discussions on how this bias resulted in jobs in mathematics and science being overpowered by men.

On the other side of the discussion were people like Ruth D. Nass who claimed that boys were at the disadvantage because they are more susceptible to disorders.

This project really changed my view on this topic. I use to think that how students were treated had a dramatic impact on their success rate. Though it does play some role, I truly believe that it’s minimal. I experienced this but it didn’t affect me in getting to where I am today. I think that it’s something that depends on each person

Forestview High School Day

So the other day we met some Forest view high school seniors and talked about what influences us most in life. We had to draw this in some sort of diagram and this is what my group came up with...

We mostly talked about popular culture, and its effect on our daily lives. Most of us are constantly wrapped up in some form of technology or social media that connects us to the rest of the world. I know that most people feel lost without their phone in hand. It's something we always have that gives us access to bascially everything. Therefore, I think it has the most impact in shaping us into who we are.

Inquiry Project

So... since we didn't have class last Wednesday I decided to go ahead and tell you guys what I plan to write about for mine. Please give me some feedback, good or bad!

This semester two things that have stuck with me that we've discussed was how gender is displayed in popular culture and different ways of learning. I wanted to take those two ideas and go in a new direction with them..

i was thinking about looking at how gender plays a role in learning for both students and teachers. Also, the different limitations and advantages each gender holds in the areas of learning.

Nothing Prepared Me for College

So we're in the process of writing to the Forestview school and in all honesty I have the approach that nothing prepared me for college. I'm not sure if I can take that stance with my paper so I decided just to talk about it here instead.

Here's my steps to college that we did in class:

It begins with me as a little girl and everyone telling me what I needed to do in order to get to college.

Growing up, I went to a private college-prep school, worked hard, took AP classes, did a lot of community service, and took the SAT until I did well. I did all of these things in an attempt to be prepared for college, because everyone around me told me that was what I needed to do.

Through all of those things had an effect on my road to college, nothing that I did could have prepared me for the experiences that college has brought to me.

I could go on and on with examples but I just give a big one to keep this pretty short. Throughout my schooling career, I had pretty good teachers overall. They loved what they did, and they all went to school to learn how to teach. However, going into college I immediately enrolled in a pre-bio program. It was a shock to me that most of my teachers couldn't teach. They were all very knowledgeable about their subject, and could tell you anything about it; but most lacked the ability to effectively teach it. Unlike my teachers growing up who went to school to teach, these professors went to school to learn about their subject. I found that this made a big difference in my overall work load in the course as well as my interest.

Mean Girls

So in class the other day we continued our topic of the representations of schooling in popular culture. I continued to gear my views toward gender. One of my favorite movies in middle school was Mean Girls. For those who haven't seen the movie it's about a "new girl" in school named Cady (Lindsey Lohan), and basically her sturggle to understand a new high school culture.

She tries to get into with the most popular girls in school named "the Plastics". However she also makes friends with the "out crowd" Damian and Janis:

Longgggggggggggg story short, the plastics fall apart and the out crowd "wins" in the end. 

I think in terms of "the plastics" girls are highly sexualized, and as Cady is trying to get in with them you see her completely change herself to do so. However, they didn't prove to be anything too great by the end of the movie. This made me reevaluate my hope for popular culture. I really liked how this film showed the underdogs coming out on the brighter side, as opposed to the girls who seemed to have everything. 

 

Disney Princesses gave me false hopes

So in class we watched The Hidden Meanings in Kid’s movies by Colin Stokes. He talked about girls and boys stereotypes in the movies they watch. 

I have always agreed with a lot of his points, especially concerning the Disney princesses. In these movies girls are always seen as vulnerable and in need of a man to save them. The false hope that these movies give are pretty insane if you ask me. 

                                                                                                                       For example, Cinderella gives the hope that if your family life is less than perfect, you should have no fear because one day you'll turn into a princess and a handsome prince will make all of your troubles go away....as long as your home before midnight.

                                         

               Auora, as sleeping beauty gave me the idea that all I would ever have to do is pick berries in the forest and sleep to get a guy...but that's just not how it works.        

I follow a girl who does weekly youtube video named Jenna Marbles. She posted a video awhile back about What Disney Movies taught her. She has some good points on the false hopes that Disney Movies provide. Sorry about the language if your offended but here it is

                                         

I'm ALWAYS in Woodward Hall or Burson

The other day in class we read the poem Schoolsville by Billy Collins. In the poem Collins talks about his reflections of his days teaching. I’m going to take you guys through my thinking when reading this poem…

I feel like I never get or notice what I’m “suppose” to when it comes to poetry. There always seems to be one line in every poem that makes me think of things that would be a bit of a stretch for anyone else. In this poem the line was, “All the creative-writing students recline on the courthouse lawn and play the lute.”

This made me think of identity, and how I’ve always thought that you can usually tell a lot about a person by knowing where they spend most of their time.  I then thought about where I spend most of my time at school, and sadly enough it’s in the two academic buildings, Burson and Woodward Hall. This was a really unhappy realization to come to. But on the bright side, I think it changed my previous opinion about being able to know someone based on where they spend their time. Yes, I’ve been in those buildings way too many hours, but they don’t even come close to revealing too much of anything about me.  Maybe it would be better to base something on where people hang out for leisure but I'm not sure :)

Here’s what I wrote in my daybook…

I feel like im always in Woodward Hall or Burson. I would overwhelm myself if I tried to count up the hours that I have been in those sometimes dreaded buildings. I’m surprised that Burson hasn’t started charging me rent; I’m there more than I am home. 

Gaming and Education?

I’ve really been trying to wrap my head around this whole connection between video games and learning…and to be honest I’m just not really getting it.

I’m just picturing a semi-fun and challenging game but then you get to this road block and it tells you to solve an impossible calculus problem to continue. I don’t know about you guys, but that would just frustrate me enough to quit.

Also, usually if I know something is educational going into it, I usually write it off as dumb and a waste of time before I begin.

Games are always being manipulated and different versions come out rather frequently…but in my opinion, things are being discovered and new theories come into the world at a much faster rate. I just don’t see how a game could keep up.

I get the use of technology in the classroom; I just don’t get the whole game thing. If someone wants to try to explain this to me you’re more than welcome to! 

I want to invent something!

So….I haven’t felt too inspired by this week’s main topic about relating games to learning. I don’t know. I’m not too much of a “gamer”, so I can’t relate that much. So this blog will probably be a little all over the place.

Since it’s a new semester I’ll introduce myself a little. I’m Kristen :) I’m a bio major, I love doing anything outdoors like hiking or biking. I’m really easy-going, and that’s pretty much me.

This is how I decorated my day book…it’s just a lot of pictures of some friends.

We did a Writing into the Day this week on Monday called, We are Makers, by Dale Dougherty via TED. Here's my writing on it...

He talked about how we’re creatures with the need to make. It got me thinking about inventions and how I’ve always wanted to invent something and make millions. Sadly, that hasn’t happened yet and I’m still waiting for that million dollar idea to hit me in the head. I think it’s really neat how people can have the seemingly stupid idea of a blanket with sleeves and somehow make money on that. 

I can have major ADD when it comes to having a computer in front of me...So I googled some inventions due to curiosity and I decided to add some that I thought were funny. Enjoy :) 

Because using a knife to spread your butter is too hard these days...

For beginners in make-up...

A result of some great parenting...

This would make me feel lonelier than going to bed by myself...

Final Reflection

The idea of “wobbling” has been present throughout this course for me.

Before Lacy described what she meant by “wobble”, I of course, thought of the song. So, for your listening enjoyment, here’s a link to the video to the song if you would like J

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE_64SdD27w

From Day 1 of doing improv, I was forced to come out of my comfort zone. Initially, I really didn’t like the idea   these activities and didn’t see the point.

But through the semester, I really started to like all of the improv activities. It was a nice mental break for me. I liked starting the classes off with these things, and by getting up and doing stuff I was able to stay more focus throughout the class.

This semester made me realize how much I’ve become use to a structured and defined classroom environment. Lacy really let us be more expressive as students than ive ever been allowed to. For example, when concerning our midterm project she told us “there’s no wrong way to go about doing this.” That’s what ive been wanting a teacher to tell me my entire academic career! However, those words stressed me out!

I’ve always had teachers give me so many boundaries especially when it came to major grades. It was really weird to have the exact opposite. Once I got over it, and realized that it really was okay to take the assignment it a new direction it really helped me enjoy the project more and it really helped to lower the stress level of projects.

Overall, I really started to enjoy these things that got me out of my comfort zone. Im still not always 100% there with getting out of my comfort zone, but this semester really did help. I really enjoyed it and am very thankful for the experience.

I hope you guys have a great Christmas break and spring semester J

and remember.... 

Reflective Blog Post on Literacy Narrative

What it was like for you to figure out what to write about.

Like most writing assignments I’ve ever done the process of deciding what to write about and where to begin is a random one. A lot of times I’ll think of a few things in the moment and then change it later on as a random idea pops into my head. I knew that I wanted to go into the direction of my childhood because I figured it would be pretty easy, and I loved reading when I was a kid. My initial though was to talk about when my mom would read Dr. Seuss books to me when I was younger. But I eventually decided to focus on a story that dealt with school because I felt that a school environment could be more dynamic and entertaining than my former pre-bedtime routine.

I’m truly scattered and unorganized when it comes to revision. I guess I just like to let things happen and not put too much thought into them. I started with a wide variety of ideas which included:

·         Learning how to read and write
·         Writing short stories in school
·         Childhood diary
·         Story time in elementary school
·         When my mom would read to me
·         Reading short novels like the Junie B. Jones collection
·         How AP classes helped my writing process

·         Somehow i was also thinking of incorporating the idea of the internet in this project….I’m not sure what I was thinking there

What it was like for you to revise your work.

Like I mentioned before, I went with a topic from my childhood in the school setting.  So I knew that I wanted to write about story time but I had no idea how. Lacy gave me some advice to try to put the readers in the moment with me as a child at story time in order to see what it was like from my childhood perspective. I really liked this idea so I decided to go with it.

Prior to our first draft being due, on October 4^th we had a homework assignment to try out different techniques with our work. I tried to revise my work by reading it backwards…my narrative made little sense already, and this only made things worse. I then tried to write several different leads or catch beginnings…this was okay, but I still didn’t like anything well enough to incorporate it into my first draft.  I then tried to examine the use of my verbs and I didn’t find this very beneficial since it was a story set in the past. So in all, my revision process was a bust!

We also, had to write different styles of our narratives but they all were too weird for my liking. Even when writing simple drafts in my day book, they all seemed to be lacking and it was just becoming a narrative. I really had no idea what to do about it, so I just kept it for the time being even though it really frustrated me. However, when I started typing up my first literacy narrative draft I had the idea to include little bits of what my thoughts would have been in that moment. I think that it was a bit unorganized and didn’t make too much sense until you were able to realize that, but I kind of liked doing it and it made it a little fun.  

What it was like for you to edit your work (include here the editing goal(s) you came up with in class.

My editing process wasn’t much better. When Lacy told us to write goals for this project, I was a little stumped so I put down standardized goals for any project. I just wanted to get a good grade, get it done, and make it interesting. For my first draft I added some more detail and thought segments. I still wasn’t 100% happy with the turn out but I submitted it anyway.

For my final draft I wanted to try something different. I liked the inserts I did with my thoughts and wanted to try and incorporate that again, but in a different scenario or in a new way.  I worked on it over our Thanksgiving break and most of my revision process took place on the computer. I typed random thoughts and starting points, and deleted most of them very quickly. The first day of doing this I quit because I couldn’t think of any ideas that I really liked. Throughout the day I continued to think on it and I decided that it might be cool to write about my position on literacy now, and try to display the contrast of my feelings of literacy between my pre-adulthood and adolescent years.

I loved this idea because this project really helped me realize this contrast because it forced me to think and remember how much literacy meant to me as a child. I decided to put this story in my more current classroom setting of English class to keep that sort of theme common between my two narratives.

So with that topic I began, I tried to incorporate the thought process again, but it didn’t seem to work as well in a story that was in present tense.  I played around with it for a little while and decided to put in inserts of writing in my day book instead.  This seemed to work pretty well at portraying my thoughts like I did in the first draft.  Towards the end of my paper I decided to insert a reflection of the contrast of these two time periods for me.

What else do you want to say about this assignment?

This project was overall, pretty interesting. Like I mentioned earlier, it made me realize things that I has forgotten or never put too much though into before. It was a whole new experience to experiment with different ways of writing a paper. It really challenged me to think and be creative. 

Reflective Blog Post on Ethnography Project

For me, it was pretty easy to figure out what to write about because I just stuck with my original idea.  I chose to write about writings on desk tops and supposed meaning behind them. When I originally did it, I didn’t think much of the purpose behind the pictures I took. Therefore, through the revision process I had to think more deeply about my topic. It was a little tiresome to kind of create meaning for something that is usually seen as meaningless, but I made it through J.

Working in a group always has its pros and cons. I would say that lack of communication was our biggest problem. We all weren’t always on the same page with things. But overall we got along pretty well and my group was really fun to work with.

Initially, I was hesitant to the fact that the project wasn’t in a traditional form, but I really warmed up to the idea. It was fun to do something out of the ordinary and it didn’t seem to put as much pressure on the whole thing as the traditional style projects do.

I thought this project was pretty fun, and it was nice to take a project in our own direction. I liked that we were able to decide what we wanted the topic to be and all of the dynamics that we wanted to explore about that certain topic.  

Ethnography Project Update

I decided to use this weeks blog post to talk about my groups project and kind of where we are...
So our main idea is words or written objects that are seen in places that are considered to be "non-traditional". We're looking at things like graffiti and writings on desk tops and trying to bring light to those items meaning. My group decided on doing a prezi presentation, they haven't really added their parts to that yet but im staying hopeful that they will :) haha. I think with prezi I'm mostly limited to just words...I don't know if this will portray our point in an interesting way or if it will just get boring. I also, conducted an interview but i'm not sure how to incorporate that into the presentation...I was thinking maybe just adding important quotes of what the girl said. Maybe there's a lot more to prezi then what I'm doing and I'm just limiting myself.

Anyways, if you guys have any advice or suggestions I would LOVE to hear them. Thanks :)

Things aren't always what they seem...

In class on Thursday we read Hazel Tells Laverene by Katharyn Machan. It was a twist on the old fairy tale, The Princess and the Frog. This immediately made me think of Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.   It is a revised look at the land and characters of Oz from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the 1939 film. Wicked is the story of the Wizard of Oz from the viewpoint of the Wicked which of the West. It's also a really famous musical. I don't read a lot, but I will admit it's a really good read :)

Wicked takes a whole new spin on the land of Oz. In Wicked, the Witch is misunderstood, the Witch of the East is a religious zealot, Munchkins are prone to mob violence and bigotry, the Wizard is a dictator, and animals can talk.  


I'm completely in love with things like this. Even things like getting someones perspective or opinions on various topics is really interesting to me. It opens us up to newer ways of looking at a situation with every perspective that we gain. Like in Wicked, you begin to sympathize with the wicked witch because you start to understand the reasoning behind her antics. 

Annotated Bibliography Mini Assignment

Graffiti on dumpster, Charlotte, North Carolina. 30 Oct. 2012. Personal Photograph by Kristen Armstrong. JPEG file.

This picture was taken on the side of the back entrance to the Atkins Library. Our Ethnography Project is focusing on unique or different forms of literature. We are primarily focusing on literature that encompasses a sense of freedom of expression. Graffiti is an example of this because there are no limitations when it comes to this form of expression.


T-shirts hanging, Charlotte, North Carolina. 30 Oct. 2012. Personal Photograph by Kristen Armstrong. JPEG file.

These t-shirts were strung outside of the Atkins Library. On each shirt, someone put a message of anything they wanted. The purpose of this display was unknown to us. We wanted to include this picture because many of these shirts held a hurtful or sad message...things that are not always publicly addressed. However, many of the shirts were anonymous, and thus, left a lot of room to express concerns or feelings freely.


Writing on desk, Charlotte, North Carolina. 30 Oct. 2012. Personal Photograph by Kristen Armstrong. JPEG file.

This photo was taken in a classroom in the building Denny. The writing on the desk can sometimes show a students realest thoughts. No one is there to grade or critique what you're writing on a desk top so there are no worries of being proper or saying the right thing.

Fieldwork Mini-Assignment

For our fieldwork mini-assignment, we decided to focus on expanding on a greater number of examples and providing explanations on  how those examples tie into our unifying theme. 

 We decided on the theme of Public Expression. This theme appealed to all of us for many different reasons.Our examples that we utilized were writings on desk tops, expressive t-shirts, and random writing around campus.  These"forms" of literature are far from what is traditionally thought of literature.  The non-traditional aspect of these examples is what originally attracted me to explore these forms of literature further. For myself, I love the authenticity and creativity attributed to forms of literature that fall under this theme. Things like writings on desks are often overlooked and thought to not have much importance; but while observing and taking note of all of these forms of public expression I believe that one thing that ties them together is a great significance to the author. Since most of these examples were anonymous  authors were left with no room for judgement, ridicule, or limiting rules. Therefore, opening up a wide range for creativity. 

                                                                  Desk, desk top writings, chalk and picture of concept map:

The first place we re-visited was the building, Denny. Last time, I only confined myself to the rooms that I had classes in. This time around, we visited rooms I had never been in. We were primarily focused on finding different writings on desk tops. I believe that the writings from students on desk tops during class are the realest depiction one can get of what is going on in their head. There's no certain standard for this type of writing, leaving much room for creativity and freedom of expression.

Graffiti, t-shirts, and re-mapped areas:

We then traveled to the front of Atkins Library. In front of the library, there are many t-shirts with various writings on them. None of us were really sure what these shirts were for or what purpose they served. When taking a look at many of them, we saw that some advocated things like non-violence and anti-bullying. Most seemed to come from a place of hurt or despair. Very few of the t-shirts had any bit of a positive outlook. Happy or sad, they all contained messages to that had a lot of meaning to the author. Most of these T-shirts were anonymous  I think that this leaves a lot of room for these people to express exactly what they want without any fear of other's opinions.

As we continued around campus, we noticed a couple of spots that contained graffiti and sidewalk chalk. We couldn't read any of the graffiti but it still appealed to us because of the creativity it contained. The sidewalk chalk contained mostly messages that brought attention to certain events going on around campus.