Final Reflections

        Before this semester at BSU I had not been in a classroom for eight years. I have attempted writing many times, but to little effect or value as I could not get myself to dedicate a worthwhile time to my writing. Through my high school years I always felt myself to be a strong writer. Most assignments were easy for me to tackle without much time or effort placed into them. Perhaps at that time I was a more practiced and accomplished writer, but entering into this class I recognize that my writing is still very infant and needs immense work. Also most of my writing was done in such a way that I would appeal to the teacher grading it at that time. I knew and understood my teachers well at that time, so it was easy for me to insert their preferred thoughts and cater my writing in a way I knew they would prefer. This held me to a style of writing that was not innovative, or to much value to me. The very introduction of this class allowed me the opportunity to broaden my writing style, which was prompted by you asking us to write to an audience beyond just the teacher. Perhaps this is the very reason I feel like my writing needs such intense work is this was a whole new molding for me to fit into. It caused me to think about issue from different perspectives and allowed me the opportunity to really place myself in other’s shoes. I thought about where writers were coming from, their bias thoughts, the audience I was appealing to, and how they would receive my work, and my understanding of the material each time I sat down to write. I recognized early where my shortcomings were in relation to my early intentions to appeal to the individual grading my papers. What’s funny is the more analytical/academic side of writing we have jumped into has become easier, but writing reflections centered towards you have become more difficult. They are more difficult because I don’t want to just say things that I feel will appease what it is you are looking for so I have to really consider my thoughts on what I have learned and what I want to gain from these writings.

            Sometime during unit two we talked about academic writing, in regards to its inherent difficulty and pretentious nature. I related this to a thought I had while serving at The Cheesecake Factory. The thought revolved around wine drinkers and my irritation with their pretentious presence when tasting wine.  I related this to academic writing and how they take simple concepts and add complex meanings and words to them, most the time to no other end than to argue a point. Just like with the wine tasters at first I held a frustration, because I could see no value in it. Also like the wine tasters one day I let myself indulge in the pretention and instead of fighting and questioning their goals I just enjoyed it. This led to a profound interest and understanding of the academic articles I read. When you allow yourself the opportunity to really hear an argument no matter how inherently dry, your own thoughts will emanate through you and will allow conclusions you might otherwise never have considered. I attribute most of this enjoyment from the concept of reading ‘against the grain’. This way of reading takes a bit more time but real allows you to feel what the writer is trying to say. You don’t have to just see the words, but you can piece together his interests, his bias, his understanding, and then you can recognize those same things in your thoughts as you interpret his writing.

            Our service learning has been an infinite source of inspiration for all of the writing we have done throughout the class. There are days where I would go in to do my service learning and wonder is this really beneficial to an English class? I had trouble answering that question until I would sit down to write and I would think about all the things that I wanted to say in regards to Anser and my topic. Also I genuinely believe that service is an important part of society, making sure that we all remember how much we are connected. This allowed my research to come alive and be an applicable worthwhile argument instead of a dull representation of the fact that I did some research. I don’t think I could say enough about my appreciation of the service learning we engaged in, but I have said ample through reflective blogs so I will leave it at this.

            The video projects were tough. They required an intense amount of adaptation and communication that a couple of times made me almost crazy. With that being said, a final project done and presented it was extremely rewarding. I thought that I was just going to have to grit my teeth and push through this assignment. There was a sublime moment when my editing was beginning to come together and I could actually see pieces of the video look somewhere near finish, and I thought wow I am enjoying this. There was still a lot of work to be done but my work became an obsession. I would sit and edit and consider what needed to be done for hours. Admittedly I wouldn’t have wanted to tackle another attempt at a video during the course, but as I said it was very rewarding once the presentations were done.

            While revising my website for the final portfolio, there were a few main issues I addressed. The first was attempting to support my claim that because of modernization and technology lives the reason we need to make changes in education. My attempt to make this claim more substantial was introducing the idea of a changing world and it’s effect on society all together. This allowed me to specify it toward education in the culmination of my thoughts. I feel like my final section should have been more extensive, but at the same time every time I tried to expound further it felt soap boxy and preachy. I tried to keep it short and to the point so I didn’t lose sight of my goal. My goal was to bridge the gap between education reform and why it was needed within a changing society. The second issue I tried to address went hand in hand with presenting this idea of a changing world. Reading back through my website I recognized that my pages didn’t really seem to connect one to another. I didn’t feel a theme between them all. While revising I tried to make my thoughts between each page connect with one another to allow each page to accent the others.

            I want to respect your time, so I will close with a couple of thoughts. This class kicked my butt. As I mentioned I have not been in a classroom for years, and while I was still in high school it was pretty much a coast time for me. Even though there were multiple times I wanted to come to class and yell “Jeremy, you are nuts!” I also really appreciate the fact that you expected a lot from us. Coming into this class and school in general, I had the mindset of breezing through and snagging that piece of paper that says I learned things and can do a job. Through this class I recognized that what I want to get out of school will be what I put into it, and frankly I want to be a more educated person. Thank you for pushing us and complicating our thoughts to allow me an opportunity to open my mind.

Ken's Final Portfolio Blog

Introduction
Before I begin, I must confess that my forte--at least as far as English is concerned--is in technical writing and English literature. In high school, I knew my teachers preferences well. I knew the drill: I was given an assignment, researched through the subject, put my thoughts on paper, revise the paper to the teacher's specific instructions, and hand it in for assessment. A few papers required me to inject my own insight and opinion on the piece of literature, and even then I had very few problems (except for revisions--I still can't stand revisions). Sometimes I found myself writing creatively during break periods--usually out of boredom, anxiety, excitement, or frustration. I had a great system going for me back in high school.

Before now, I had no idea how to employ the use of rhetoric, and I was originally not interested in learning how. I initially believed that this would be an ordinary research and composition class, and that it would be a piece of cake. But this course has put me through a crash course in rhetoric and English composition. I can see how this course encourages students to broaden their horizons, composition styles, and research methods. The bottom line is that I was very much set in my old ways, and I soon discovered that I had to reformat my writing style to fit the mold of rhetorical analysis. More importantly, I felt like I had been pushed through a meat grinder of personal responsibility and accountability. It has not been an easy road this semester.

In the end, though, it all turned out for the best. If there is anything I am proud of this semester, it is how much I've learned about speaking back to my sources, as opposed to letting them speak on my behalf. This essential skill in rhetorical composition made me realize that a paper is much, much more fulfilling if the writer is fully engaged in the conversation between his or her sources. It also influenced my thinking, in that I am constantly thinking about the tone and intent behind my writing, as well as my proposed audience. I can see myself employing this skill in my future technical writing, literature, and communication courses, and beyond that in my career.

One of my teammates wrote that the service-learning formed the basis for most of our writing assignments in English 102. I'm inclined to agree, because service of any kind is a vital part of our way of life. When I was writing my Unit Two project, I found myself referring to the service-learning project at ANSER, and I was amazed at how it made my research more relevant and more applicable to my research topic. I can honestly say that the service-learning at ANSER saved me in many ways this semester, and I'm thankful for it.

Unit One
I would be lying if I said I enjoyed Unit One. The truth is that this was my worst project in this course, and I thought it would be easy.

At first, we were doing mostly the required readings, MLA citations, and annotated bibliographies. I did most of this stuff starting in middle school, so it wasn't exactly new. Although, I thought I would never use MLA style in college (in the technology field, we are mostly required to utilize APA style), so it was a breath of fresh air in that sense. The one thing I was really annoyed with was the free-writing component. I get the concept behind this activity: writing out your thoughts causes you to think in a different and more complex manner. But a class discussion can do that as well, if not better! I'm just saying that free-writing and an in-class discussion is redundant.

I really fell on my face when it came to writing the Unit One project, because the teacher had specifically told us not to craft an argument. Furthermore, my writing was sloppy, disjointed, and it made little to no sense at all. I didn't think about the issues from the viewpoints of different writers, my personal understanding of the reading material, or about the audience I was trying to reach! In short, my Unit One project was a total bust, a complete disaster!

Unit Two
At the start of Unit Two, we talked about academic writing and its difficulty. Personally, when I looked at some of the required reading, I found them wordy and redundant. I've since come to the conclusion that some researchers like to needlessly complicate their own writing simply to make a point. I also found that some writers feel that they have to state and restate the obvious over and over again, like we're stupid or something. For example, I got tired of Joseph Harris saying that academic writing is like a conversation in different ways. What is the point of doing this? I can't speak for the rest of the class, but I don't like being treated like an idiot. Restating a key point several times in the same article is not only boring, but it's painful to read.

When I heard that the project for Unit Two was building a website dedicated to our individual topic, I was really, really nervous. I have very limited experience with programming languages like Java and HTML, and making websites was not an easy matter for me back in high school. I was very happy to find that there was a website called Weebly that makes web design easier and more efficient.

I like the fact that we were given a great amount of leeway in constructing our websites. We didn't have to worry about structure as much, as long as we could clearly convey the information in order to give our research some credibility.

That's not to say that I didn't have problems during the unit. First, I spent several hours finding a suitable design for my website. The teacher said to make it stand out in some way or other, and I believed that the first thing a potential reader will look at is the design. I originally believed that the first impression of a website's design will color the perception of the subject material being presented on it. The next hurdle I had to jump through was sorting my sources into different subject areas, which took dozens of hours. Then I had to use my sources to start a pseudo-conversation about different forms of education. But the biggest difficulty I had with this project--as well as with the revision--was "speaking back" to my sources. I had mostly let my research speak for itself instead of directly challenging my sources and complicating the conversation. In other words, I failed to lend my own voice to the debate about education.

Unit Three
I was relieved to know that the Unit Three project would be done in a group. That would cut down on my stress a little bit. In some ways, the final project was easier than the preparation, primarily because of my group. My teammates volunteered to write the interview questions, provide all the release forms, and edit the video. I volunteered to record the video at the site of ANSER Charter School. Our group was quite efficient in performing its tasks; however, we did have some problems with communications and meeting times. I attended every team meeting and participated in the discussions and the editing.

Lisa, our service-learning supervisor, was also very excited for this video. She's hoping this video would put ANSER on the map and make BSU students consider a service-learning project at ANSER.

If I remember correctly, we did two days of shooting. The first day was for the school itself, and the second day was for the interviews. Admittedly, it was my first time working a Flip camera, so the end product ended up being shaky. To justify this, our group decided that we intended to make an 'Office'-esque documentary of the student and staff interviews. In the end, I thought our video and our presentation were flawed, but I also felt that they fully communicated the information we needed to convey. All in all, it was a very fulfilling experience. We were extremely proud of the result, and I hope that ANSER will be proud as well.

Revising the Website
There were a few issues that arose while I was revising my website. In the first revision of my website, I have been concerned about "speaking back" to my sources. By that, I mean I introduced the arguments of my sources, confirmed them, and then criticized them (according to the teacher). I was trying to sort out the pros and cons of each source's claims while tying them together in some sort of agreement on a certain subject. For instance, one of my sources (Bondelli) said that the education system is composed of a social hierarchy. He made the claim that the hierarchical structure of the education system decreases the quality of learning and growth for the students. While I agree that a hierarchy exists in the school system, I pointed out that he had shown no evidence to back up his argument, and that his claim was too absolute in its reasoning to be credible. Additionally, I tried to inject my own two cents into each education method. Even now, I am still wondering if I went far enough with lending my voice to the conversation. Finally, I added a conclusions tab to my website in an attempt to connect my previous thoughts and to put forth my own views on what would constitute an ideal education system--all while acknowledging my sources. I wrapped up with an open-ended question that I've asked myself over and over again and treated it as my thesis: So how can we reform the standardized testing method of education?

http://alternativemethodsofeducation.weebly.com

Final Portfolio

jghakeem.weebly.com
Revision of website
Revision has to be my favorite, why? Because everything that I look over for a second time is always terrible. Especially this website, I felt as if I had a great idea for my website but while revising the website my context is message was screwed up it left my audience confused. I’ve learned so much in revision, ways of finding solutions and fixing them. I first started with the intro of my website, didn’t have an attention catcher, the paragraphs weren’t visible because they were bunched together and confused my reading. I trashed the whole first and second page while just simplifying the fourth and fixing mistake. I first created a nice attention catcher to draw my audience in with some type of interest, spaced out my paragraphs and provided content so my audience would know what my argument is. My second page had a bit of confusing too, so I had to rewrite that but keep the same message. Instead of having huge paragraphs of content I provided clear bullet of my argument. I address topics where I thought both styles could benefit from each other and acknowledge their weaknesses of how this could be done. Of course I don’t have enough time being a student to do actual research on this topic but I provide a great theory of mine. That’s about it I fixed a lot of grammar and spelling as well and had fun revising this assignment.

Unit One
First off, I would like to thank you for a great year of learning that was really beneficial, this English 102 course was the main source for all my other classes. When we first began unit one the course seemed like an ordinary English class, we start with the required readings, MLA formatting and the annotated bibliographies. I did such similar work in English 101 and it helped me out a lot. I never knew what the purpose of an annotated bibliography was and honesty never thought it would come into play. The actual length of an annotated bibliography is what I enjoy mostly, short and simple. Well I’m glad I paid attention because this semester was my most challenging and a lot of the criteria related right back to this course. For example, I had a 25 page paper due in my communication research class and the first 12 pages were annotated bibliographies about 25 scholarly journals I read. I smiled when my teacher assigned this paper, I felt as if I were ahead of the curve. I’ve always had problems with length requirements and prior to this class I seriously would’ve freaked out before but there are so many different methods that I’ve acquired in your class I rarely have those problems anymore. The most frequent tip I been using is write down all my ideas and do a free-write for each one. I love using it, I’m actually using it for this assignment. While typing and putting this communication paper together the formatting was exceptionally important, I had a book that shows more about MLA formatting but I felt comfortable using my own knowledge.
Many of my other class seemed more structured around English then communication, most of everything we did I felt comfortable with. I remember when we had the conversation in English last year how your writing is different in every class. Content is always the most important but you get docked down major points for wrong formatting. I guess it’s really what you said last semester, everything relates to English in a way. A lot of my communication classes I have require a substantial amount of reading and research similar to reading, research for the website and journals in your English, summarize, analyze, and reflect on your source. Knowing most of this information and still having my old assignments helped me pull my own weight and some of my group member’s weight. Everything I’ve learned in the course has made me smarter, and most of it played roles in a lot of my other courses.
Unit Two
The class took a huge leap with electronic composition, “Blogger” and the website. The blog’s were one of my funniest out of many to me because it was freedom of speech. Like a journal, it was your own opinion, no structure, just compiled thoughts. At least for me, I believe why the blog was one of my favorites because I felt as if it taught me how to address certain factors, especially if I didn’t understand something the blog was the only time where I could ask a question of uncertainty and give my own thoughts. Unit two seem like it would never end with the heavy workload, my mind set with unit two was half real world and half English. Assignment due was like being in the workforce, that’s mainly how I look at everything. Don’t complain just get it done, the only problem was getting the assignments to the blog in time without providing bullshit content in my work. There’s no English method or tip for the amount of workload we received I just embraced it, many times I began to become lost but in the middle of the semester the check in we had set me straight. There are always requirements in life and that’s how I looked at unit two, just like football to me showing up and doing your job no matter what’s expected of you.
All the work we did I understood was supposed to be put in the website just to have enough credibility. When I looked over unit two and saw the website assignment I was sort of frighten because last year’s website were terrible. One thing that was so eye opening to me was when I began my website and looked back on all the research I did, I felt comfortable with an enough credible sources to start my website with enough ideas. Totally different from last semesters website and I still can’t figure out what I did different that made this one some much better and make me feel like I accomplished something. Three valuable things I learn while doing this website: adequate research, writing with credibility and targeting a particular audience. Honestly I hate school with a passion but it’s really invigorating when you learn new things, makes me want to continue to learn. Before I learned how to do a substantial amount of research in any class I learned here first, finding similar references that tie into my research, etc. I began my website like a retard just babbling about this and that without any results, credibility, and evidence. I still feel the same way I did while I was doing my website now I’ve acquired new methods to help me state claims. That’s when I found a ton of sources that I agreed slightly with what I was trying to get across.
Of course with great research a lot of the journals changed what I wanted to prove and helped me make better arguments. I also learned to take out I, we, use, our and speaking in third person, sounds way more credible without. The basis of my audience all depended on the facts I stated, the things I said, what I decided to include and how I persuaded my audience. The audience in my website was mainly parents so I provided information of what I thought parents would want to hear, questions that needed to be answered and major concerns. I had the most fun doing the website out of all assignments; I always talk about having a business and broadcasting my own business one day, the website is just another way to network yourself. Ha-ha now I won’t have to hire someone in the future, I can do it myself. It’s just a class assignment now but I’ll love to have a real website in the near future to network myself and etc.
Unit Three
Unit three was a relief with smaller work requirement but still took up a significant amount of time conducting the video presentation. All the work we complete with the website and blog was for this video to be perfection. It never really seemed like the project was about a video, it was what you captured and the purpose of each shot. Almost like in a journal where you state an idea of some sort and support reasons why. The video was no different from writing on the blog or typing a paper it just helped bring other aspects of English in play. Us learning about rhetoric in English 101 was no difference from learning digital rhetoric in English 102, actually was easier and more convenient. I learned a lot in decision making and why certain choose you go with have a purpose. Instead of writing out what you want it’s visual and an articulate form of English. In Conclusion the three units were brilliant, it just create different ways of English composition. Found alternative ways to bring out the best in me and I will forever remember these tactics.

Final Reflections

         Before this semester at BSU I had not been in a classroom for eight years. I have attempted writing many times, but to little effect or value as I could not get myself to dedicate a worthwhile time to my writing. Through my high school years I always felt myself to be a strong writer. Most assignments were easy for me to tackle without much time or effort placed into them. Perhaps at that time I was a more practiced and accomplished writer, but entering into this class I recognize that my writing is still very infant and needs immense work. Also most of my writing was done in such a way that I would appeal to the teacher grading it at that time. I knew and understood my teachers well at that time, so it was easy for me to insert their preferred thoughts and cater my writing in a way I knew they would prefer. This held me to a style of writing that was not innovative, or to much value to me. The very introduction of this class allowed me the opportunity to broaden my writing style, which was prompted by you asking us to write to an audience beyond just the teacher. Perhaps this is the very reason I feel like my writing needs such intense work is this was a whole new molding for me to fit into. It caused me to think about issue from different perspectives and allowed me the opportunity to really place myself in other’s shoes. I thought about where writers were coming from, their bias thoughts, the audience I was appealing to, and how they would receive my work, and my understanding of the material each time I sat down to write. I recognized early where my shortcomings were in relation to my early intentions to appeal to the individual grading my papers. What’s funny is the more analytical/academic side of writing we have jumped into has become easier, but writing reflections centered towards you have become more difficult. They are more difficult because I don’t want to just say things that I feel will appease what it is you are looking for so I have to really consider my thoughts on what I have learned and what I want to gain from these writings.

            Sometime during unit two we talked about academic writing, in regards to its inherent difficulty and pretentious nature. I related this to a thought I had while serving at The Cheesecake Factory. The thought revolved around wine drinkers and my irritation with their pretentious presence when tasting wine.  I related this to academic writing and how they take simple concepts and add complex meanings and words to them, most the time to no other end than to argue a point. Just like with the wine tasters at first I held a frustration, because I could see no value in it. Also like the wine tasters one day I let myself indulge in the pretention and instead of fighting and questioning their goals I just enjoyed it. This led to a profound interest and understanding of the academic articles I read. When you allow yourself the opportunity to really hear an argument no matter how inherently dry, your own thoughts will emanate through you and will allow conclusions you might otherwise never have considered. I attribute most of this enjoyment from the concept of reading ‘against the grain’. This way of reading takes a bit more time but real allows you to feel what the writer is trying to say. You don’t have to just see the words, but you can piece together his interests, his bias, his understanding, and then you can recognize those same things in your thoughts as you interpret his writing.

            Our service learning has been an infinite source of inspiration for all of the writing we have done throughout the class. There are days where I would go in to do my service learning and wonder is this really beneficial to an English class? I had trouble answering that question until I would sit down to write and I would think about all the things that I wanted to say in regards to Anser and my topic. Also I genuinely believe that service is an important part of society, making sure that we all remember how much we are connected. This allowed my research to come alive and be an applicable worthwhile argument instead of a dull representation of the fact that I did some research. I don’t think I could say enough about my appreciation of the service learning we engaged in, but I have said ample through reflective blogs so I will leave it at this.

            The video projects were tough. They required an intense amount of adaptation and communication that a couple of times made me almost crazy. With that being said, a final project done and presented it was extremely rewarding. I thought that I was just going to have to grit my teeth and push through this assignment. There was a sublime moment when my editing was beginning to come together and I could actually see pieces of the video look somewhere near finish, and I thought wow I am enjoying this. There was still a lot of work to be done but my work became an obsession. I would sit and edit and consider what needed to be done for hours. Admittedly I wouldn’t have wanted to tackle another attempt at a video during the course, but as I said it was very rewarding once the presentations were done.

            While revising my website for the final portfolio, there were a few main issues I addressed. The first was attempting to support my claim that because of modernization and technology lives the reason we need to make changes in education. My attempt to make this claim more substantial was introducing the idea of a changing world and it’s effect on society all together. This allowed me to specify it toward education in the culmination of my thoughts. I feel like my final section should have been more extensive, but at the same time every time I tried to expound further it felt soap boxy and preachy. I tried to keep it short and to the point so I didn’t lose sight of my goal. My goal was to bridge the gap between education reform and why it was needed within a changing society. The second issue I tried to address went hand in hand with presenting this idea of a changing world. Reading back through my website I recognized that my pages didn’t really seem to connect one to another. I didn’t feel a theme between them all. While revising I tried to make my thoughts between each page connect with one another to allow each page to accent the others. Hopefully I learned from my mistakes. 

            I want to respect your time, so I will close with a couple of thoughts. This class kicked my butt. As I mentioned I have not been in a classroom for years, and while I was still in high school it was pretty much a coast time for me. Even though there were multiple times I wanted to come to class and yell “Jeremy, you are nuts!” I also really appreciate the fact that you expected a lot from us. Coming into this class and school in general, I had the mindset of breezing through and snagging that piece of paper that says I learned things and can do a job. Through this class I recognized that what I want to get out of school will be what I put into it, and frankly I want to be a more educated person. Thank you for pushing us and complicating our thoughts to allow me an opportunity to open my mind. 

Reflective Blog #3

I recently finished my service learning time at ANSER. And I took some rather powerful memories from that place.

As I looked around the halls of the school, I noticed that there is a vivid atmosphere of excitement in the air. It really didn't matter whether there was an auction going on or whether it was Picture Day; I never saw a sad face at ANSER. Even the parents who were constantly coming in and out of the building showed no trace of frustration--they showed delight and vigor whenever they walked through the door. I don't exactly know what's contributing to their collective happiness, but it's become clear that ANSER is a wonderful place for these children, and that their parents not only feel comfortable sending their kids there, but they are more or less satisfied with their children's education.

I don't know if I already said this, but the kids are treated more like adults at ANSER. If nothing else, they certainly aren't being talked down to, in my opinion. For example, on my first day, I sat in one boy's usual seat, and he just stood there looking at me, not telling me that I was sitting in his chair. One of the supervisors picked up on this and asked the boy if I knew that I was in his seat. When he said no, she advised him to tell me, because that would be the courteous thing to do. Moreover, the supervisors are there to make sure the kids are always on-task. There are a few troublemakers every once in a while, but my point is that these kids are learning personal responsibility and time management. Furthermore, the students are learning how to respect their peers' time, which I think has been lost in our education system lately.

In the final analysis, I've come to the conclusion that the current state of the American education system is lacking in some of the most fundamental areas of personal character building. I fear that we are coddling our children too much. We aren't teaching them personal responsibility as much as we should. We aren't instilling that sense of belonging in our educational system. Instead, our children are forced to maintain a minimum standard of competence in their education, but that's not enough. The system at ANSER instills its students with moral and ethical values that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives, and that is the beauty of ANSER Charter School. I was very honored to be a part of this project, and I hope that other service-learning volunteers choose ANSER in the future.

Reflective Blog #3

           Reflection has always been a center of my life. Sometimes to a point of frustration, as I will leave a social event and think back to everything that was said. I will ponder the choices in conversation I had, body language I picked up from others, and an endless checklist of items I am not sure others ponder. The odd thing about the fact that this is how I am on a daily basis, is it seems to make doing these reflective blogs more difficult. I recognize the seemingly obvious disconnect between that thought and statement, but have some thoughts as to why. Every time I leave Anser I can’t help but think of children I may have in the future. I think about where I want them to go to school, if their style of teaching is really the benefit I would like to have my kids be able to take part in. I will think about the students I interacted with, and if the things that I am doing while there are really any sort of benefit to them, and what I can do more to try to insure that I am serving with the best of my ability.

            This is the reason that it is difficult for me to write, because I feel like I am beating a dead horse. The thoughts have lived so long in my mind and have been molded and remolded, considered and changed, and all together just over thought. Also my thoughts are so scattered, and that leads to a fluffy sap filled tribute to how much I enjoy the opportunity to serve and how important I think forcing yourself out of your comfort zone is for anyone attempting to grow. With any project, writing, or presentation I do, I try to avoid disclaimers but I guess these thoughts are just that.

            Having stated my disclaimer, when I enter Anser, (admittedly sometimes difficult to go because I have other things that need my attention) I love it. It is awesome to have kids that I never would have known run up to me and yell “Michael!”. They are so excited to see me come in, and well what is better than someone who enjoys you when you know they have no ulterior motives. I have never written anything negative about Anser, and that has two reasons. The first is they work hard and I can tell genuinely care about the success of each child. The second is when a person or organization is focused and accomplishing dominantly good why nit pick and demine to me it has no value. Everything said and done I have really appreciated this opportunity, and hope that I can keep my motivation up to continue finding service opportunities outside of our classroom. 

Reflective Blog #3

Research that led to the video presentation
Unit three was one of my favorite’s assignments we did this year, I understand the purpose of the heavy work building up to it. A lot of the research we discover wasn’t included in the actual final presentation but played a great role of leading to other references. Before we receive the assignment during spring break I was really concern about this assignment, one because of the time it consumed and second because I never had to make my own video with a presentation and conduct a substantial amount of credible research of my own. It was as simple as Mr.Branstad, it can be fun if you really have everything planned out and simplify the assignment or not be as well organized and have hell completing the assignment. We all started with our own individual work finding information that supported our hypothesis also using what we learned earlier in the course comparing the required readings to our work.
I had an idea of what we were going to do for our assignment so every time I went to ANSER for community service I felt as if I needed to learn something else about the school. I tried to communicate with the students more and see what they were actually learning. When I began my research a lot of things changed on the daily basis. First I support experiential learning especially with a lot of the research I found agreed that experiential learning is way more beneficial. After visiting the school and helping the students in homework club a lot of different thought came to my head. I just didn’t want to ignore my feeling and just agree with most research said so my research question changed after seeing how these students at ASNER were. I thought experiential learning takes away from the main fundamentals of learning. I believe experiential learning is what we need to make things in life flow better but not in elementary or junior high. Those are the day of hard core learning and testing.
So after researching and looking for more information I found nothing that supported my theory of experiential learning not being a great source of learning. There I was again lost, thought through it working on my website and what helped me most was my title. The title to me determined the overall concept of my website. I then came up with converging experiential and traditional learning as one, if I must say brilliant idea.
Video presentation
We first started with planning of what we wanted to shoot in the video. ANSER made it exceptionally easy with how colorful the school was, Ken recorded, Mike conducted most of the shoots and editing and had the interviewing and was the contactor between us and ASNER setting up dates. It was simple gathering all the shoots we need in the video, then once we got to the interviewing we had to schedule all the timing frames when the students and staff were available. After we got all our shoots we began editing and throwing our presentation together. Everything thing we worked well because we all complied our ideas together and put together an awesome schedule of free time to get this done. It seemed like something work related so instead of being stressed out I had fun with, in my interviewing process I thought of ideas to make the video more interesting and developed questions that answered question to people that didn’t were familiar with ANSER. Lisa Cates the service learning partner said she wanted the video on their school official website so we thought the video had to be perfect.

Reflective Blog#2

            Every time I enter Anser, there is an immediate feeling of powerful interest. This interest emanates in the halls, you see teachers walking by with ear-to-ear smiles and I can feel the love they have for the children they teach. Upon leaving I have renewed interest in my research topic because I genuinely think that it has great importance and this school is a testament to the success of non-traditional learning.

            Feedback given on my unit two sheets talked about my claim that technology has a negative impact in regards to traditional learning on students. Basically the feedback was saying that this was a very strong claim and didn’t have the research backing it needed. Reading back through my website (hard for me I usually am not pleased with my own work) I very much understood how that idea was underdeveloped and didn’t have much of a base. I have been pondering that for the past week or so and want to reflect a bit on my ideas, possibly I will remover it entirely from my final project because it is dominantly my own thoughts but I would like to at least back my claim.

            What I am proposing is that as our country moves further into the future, the basic structure of family is fading. I see the basic structure as Father, mother, and children. I see father as the breadwinner and mother as the nurturer, and not having the burden of employment to deter from the rearing of her children, with fathers help, of course. Today it is very rare to find this basic family structure, this could be caused by many factors i.e. divorce, both parents needing to work to support, unplanned/accidental pregnancies with youth, we could continue but I believe this gives a structure of what could be causes. Why in this proposed model does technology have an effect that requires change to traditional teaching? Again I may remove this argument from my final project as I have not necessarily found material that supports my claim, but here it is. As a natural progression technology grants ease of life, and takes away an inherent need to survive. This brings a mentality that now is centered on seeking pleasure, and within our culture in order to seek more pleasure you need more money. This intense interest in money over time makes our lifestyles very expensive which causes need for more income so women who might have children at home need daycare, another expense causing more need for additional income. Before I continue I need to say that I am in no way a sexist individual but I do feel that men and woman have roles given them, which in a society devoted to survival is inherent. Men are naturally larger, and more interested in pursuit of physical challenges (hunting, fighting, etc.) while women are smaller generally more nurturing, and frankly the only ones able to bear children. Within this survival devoted society men are typically with men and women with women, when you come home you come home to your spouse/mate. With our desire and need of money this pulls woman and men into the workforce with one another. Causing an environment with potential of flirting, and interest, which can lead to cheating and also divorce. More children begin to have this be a normal or comfortable thing, and morals begin to degrade, leading to very young and promiscuous children. Once again causing more broken homes and children living in a world where relationships are a confusion and not able to create a real basis for morality. This may sound as if I am saying this is where our future is headed but in fact this is how I feel it is right now. (Looking back at what I have written I remembered why I didn’t fully explain my thoughts in technologies effect on traditional teaching.)

            Why is this all relevant to traditional teaching? I know many young teachers who have been my friends for years, and who have a genuine interest in education. This being said if all we do is create curriculums to “feed” facts to children without building their self-reliance, critical thinking, and in effect self-worth where is it going to happen? While there are parents out there working their hardest to support and teach and help their children progress, most just can’t. They are perhaps both working or getting one week on one week off with their children. Fighting with their ex’s for custody, and perhaps unknowingly guiding their children down the exact path. With Anser they help students understand that their thoughts are important, that they are in control of their lives. They help them to foster an attitude, which leads to a well-rounded adult not just an adult with facts they can regurgitate to others. Forgive me for the scattered nature of this write up; I just couldn’t get my thoughts to flow well. I hope this does shed some light on my claim so that it doesn’t seem like a “because I liked it”, with no thought writing. 

Reflective Blog #1

At first, I had no idea what I was getting into when I first volunteered to work in the Homework Club at ANSER. I had tutored before, but this was actually my first attempt to undertake a service-learning project and then relate it to my experience in this course.

As it turns out, it is proving to be a rather fruitful experience. The supervisors who work beside us are dedicated and hardworking people. They make sure that the students are actively working on their assignments and keeping on top of their homework. And I was very impressed to find that the students themselves are quite independent and proactive. For the most part, they know exactly what they need to do, and they do it. But they are also open to receiving help when they need it.

I was also thinking about how my experiences relate to my chosen topic--alternative methods to public education. The school slogan can be found at the entrance: "We are crew, not passengers." Here at ANSER, the students are taught to respect their supervisors--even the BSU volunteers--for giving up their time to help them out. If there is a pervasive problem, the supervisors work with the students to come to an agreement that would be mutually beneficial for all parties involved. While there is still a chain of command to follow, the kids are regularly encouraged to actively participate in discussions and respect the supervisors' guidelines.

Reflective Letter

http://jgavins.weebly.com

When entering the class my thoughts of rhetorical choice was actually not bad. I took a communication theory class back in junior college and thought I could sum up a bit but after being in the course I'm well off. I've taken your course before so I know how things go. The articles I read were extremely hard. The only thing that made it somewhat clearer was the thought of service learning. The idea of comparing something that I thought had no type of comparison and using that as a model to expand to other rhetorical issues.

The website was a huge help but I'm still far from a understanding. It's everything else I always thought I knew till I took this course and there's always tons of only ways. When I think of rhetoric I think of an audience, the purpose, and persuading a topic. As many times as it was explained to me I didnt get it till I began my website. I remember last semester in english we covered a lot of different topics and we always had to read the required reading and come back the next class with a extended bibilography. Most of the time I didnt even understand what I was writing and after I later recieved my paper back and there would be a better understanding of how to do such. Like topic of writing analytically, had know clue of what that was before I began the course but now it's a topic I'm familiar with.

The website assignment made this particular assignment fun. It helped in some sort of way, I usually stress over things like this but I took a different approach. As days went on and I didnt more research I found my audience and the awareness of my topic changing a lot. The target of a certain audeince changed and so did my title. Wen doing my website I thought of content, context, and the audience concern. The pictures/images/information I provided all resemble one another. A particular target of persuasion of the audience.

My communication research class which you would think has nothing to do class taught me how to find scholarly artilces which provided me with a significant amount of journals and articles. From those articles I went to the references and found more information that gave different point of views to give me a better understanding. I greatly benefitted from them because when it came to argumentation between two topics I had all I needed. As difficult as the assignment was after a while it became much more managable. I believe this came from working with wix and the difference and how simple weebly was to access material. My sources were very helpful, I used a lot of the assignments we used this semester to help. For one I remember you said how my sources needed to converse and thats what I did.

Pedagologically.weebly.com

When entering this unit my original thoughts about rhetorical choice revolved around articles scattered randomly through any sites deemed worthy by my browser (he’s not particular). I found myself very lost as many articles online seem to have a goal in mind. This may include selling a product, or persuading just for the enjoyment of persuading, and other ulterior motives leading me toward one dead end after another. The most enlightening and refreshing works I found to read is when I broke away from google searches and began to read academic articles found in the library. These articles were inherently dry but, if you allowed yourself to revel in the clinical artistry they display it comes to be powerfully engaging. They not only opened my eyes to the topics they were displaying, but to the world of academic writing.

            Along with the benefit and “eye opening” nature of discovering these writings I came across an issue, which frustrated my work. While pouring through article after article attempting to find those, which spoke in relevance to my topic, I sometimes found myself losing sight of my words. A note left on one of my entries said that my sentences could be a little verbose. I recognized this while I was writing, but had trouble combating myself, as my thoughts would sometimes become a diluted mess which I had trouble packaging. The crux of this issue I would assume resided in seeing and attempting to imitate such complex and encompassing works, as well as writing about the same topic seemingly endlessly. In class we discussed that after a time your work might begin to seem boring or dull to your eye because of the frequency of your interaction with it. Which proved to be a more difficult hurdle than I had anticipated.

            Audience awareness is something very difficult to evolve as we engaged in this unit. Through my website the pictures I chose, were in effect to me thinking of my audience dominantly as young educators. It is difficult to pull yourself from the normal thinking of appeasing the teacher, and maybe just trying to put together something that had facts “shining” in your text. The simple thought of having a more diverse audience, pushed me to write in a more persuasive manner. This was in effect, because I have become truly passionate about the topic of progressive education. My research is a large cause, but also my work at Anser shows me that educators adopting the view of progressive education can supply profound results even with the small pool of children I have interacted with.

            Argumentation is a challenging aspect of this writing. I recognize that it is important to not just steam roll a conversation with any and everyone that supports you. When you are a tackling an issue of such magnitude, it can make you feel silly to try to speak in league with those who agree with you, and even more difficult speaking to those that contradict your perspective.

            I ran into some walls, while attempting to work my way through creating this website. This being said, it has helped me to understand a great deal about what is needed in a persuasive discourse among the academic arena.

Reflective Letter--Alternative Methods of Education

When I first entered this class, I didn't know what was in store. It sounds cliche, but it's true. I truly did not anticipate the sheer difficulty of this class and the material we were supposed to be working on. I knew that we were going to work on research papers, but I never thought that they would mainly be dealing with rhetorical issues. And I certainly did not expect the added service-learning portion. That was when I first knew that I was in the big leagues.

But now that I have come through these first two units, I'm finally beginning to understand some of what I didn't understand before. But that does not mean that I haven't had problems. My first thoughts about rhetorical choice mainly involved websites that were good at persuading me personally and spoke to my topic. But, like most people, I had trouble finding articles that spoke back to me and my topic. A lot of them were bland and distasteful, to say the least. On some of my blog entries, a few comments said that it would not hurt to lend my own voice to the discussion at hand. It took quite a while to break through myself and finally give voice to the sources I used on my website. Even then, I don't think that I expressed myself clearly enough; nor do I think I was persuasive enough. But it is a start.

When it came to designing the website, though, I had quite a few problems. like most everyone in this class, I found difficulty in finding the right words to speak back to my sources. The most challenging part was to find ways to counter or support other authors' arguments, which is key to this project. Oftentimes, I would go back to check and recheck my sources to make sure I didn't skew the arguments or get them mixed up.

Another hurdle I had to jump over was audience awareness. Even now, I have no idea who would be interested in reading my website. As such, I found that I had to inject some of my own rhetoric to complement my sources and carry on the argument. I don't think I did that properly. But at least I have a better idea of what is expected of me as far as my audience is concerned.

In conclusion, this Unit Two project helped me understand what is needed in an academic discourse.

http://alternativemethodsofeducation.weebly.com/

Website Proposal

1. My website is aimed towards those who have pondered the different methods and approaches to education and how they can shape our children’s lives. Maybe there are teachers, administrators, or superintendents who want to devise a balanced curriculum that deviates from the norm. Or there may be parents who want to know if there are alternative forms of schooling for their children.

2. Almost all the people of this state have some sort of background with regards to traditional education. I would have to include information about vocational and liberal arts schooling.

3. I think that they might be at least interested in the different forms of education. Whether or not they agree is up to them. My main goal here is to encourage a little debate about the merits of traditional learning vs. non-traditional learning.

4. Most of my sources believe that the traditional American education system is inadequate for our children’s needs.

5. I think I may include pictures. The trick here is to make sure it connects with my audience in some way. Does it help convey the message or hinder it? Is it appropriate to the subject matter?

6. Personally, I am inclined to agree that we need to consider revamping our current education system, especially in light of our current situation. But due to my limited intelligence, I thought it would be a good idea to consider any side of the system.

Website Proposal

1) The topic of my website doesn't necessarily single out any one particular type of person, nor does it leave room for too broad an audience.  I'm hoping to direct the subject matter towards teachers, students, and parents of the like.  Being as my topic is about self-advocacy, I feel that it would be beneficial for an diverse audience of age, gender, and educational background to learn the subject.  Not only does this give a student an idea of what could be helpful for the rest of their lives, but it also gives parents and teachers the opportunity to open their eyes a little more to, perhaps, bring the subject to the surface of education.
2) I feel that for the older generation that my topic addresses has enough of an idea of what self-advocacy consists of that they won't need too much of an explanation describing it's source; for them, I'm expecting to give more of an overlay of the importance of self-advocacy.  For the younger generation, I feel that I will have to dive more into the subject.  Generally though, I believe that the audience will get a good idea of the topic without having to dive too heavily into it's background.
3) My audience should be, for the most part, agreeable with the subject matter included in my website.  It's doing nothing but attempting to help the education system, so I believe the interest level will be at a high rate.  Being as my topic is introduced in a way to help students and teachers alike, this should give more incentive for my entire audience to stop and give a second look.
4) The gist of the conversations going on is pretty much the importance that self-advocacy plays in the educational process, and in the future of students.  There isn't a lot of disagreement on the subject; the only disagreement that sometimes arises is the fact that self-advocacy is mainly centered around special needs people instead of addressing everyone.
5) Because the web plays such a huge role in the lives of all people around the world, it seems that attempting to catch people's attention through this medium won't be a difficult task.  People enjoy visuals, and the efficiency of the subject matter.  Are the facts reliable? Can they connect with the audience?  Do they leave room for some conversational thought?  These are questions that most people center their research around.  Taking these questions, and the use of visuals (pictures, videos, etc.) I believe this should be enough to attract the audience to my site.
6) My viewpoint on this subject is directed in a mainly agreeable sense, with little room for discussion on the various other viewpoints being introduced.  I also am going to be leaning in the direction of self-advocacy for everyone as opposed to advocacy just for special needs people.  Given it may mean more to the special needs society, I feel that it should be addressed to all people because self-advocacy is beneficial to everyone. 

Reflective Blog

Walking into ANSER, I had a very dim view of what the school might consist of.  I thought of it as nothing more than any other school I had ever been to/heard about.  What I didn't realize was how different it's teaching methods were compared to other schools.  It's like nothing I have ever experienced before.  Being as I come from a series of public schools who do nothing more than follow a basic teaching style, it was a major surprise to see how ANSER strays away from that in an attempt to better prepare the students for what lays beyond elementary and junior high school.  The students aren't limited based on the available resources, ANSER has a very large emphasis on providing the students with whatever resource they may need to finish their schoolwork on time and efficiently.  It's also a major help in the various different ways that the students might learn.  They are never denied learning a subject due to the fact that the school doesn't provide them with many helpful resources.  The time I've spent at ANSER has opened my eyes to a whole new style of teaching and learning.  It's amazing to see how schools are attempting to introduce new teaching styles.  The students at ANSER, even the struggling ones, seem to have an extremely good understanding of what is expected of them, and they put their best effort into the obstacles introduced throughout their time at the school.  Working with the students has given me an extraordinary opportunity to see the difference in educational maturity compared to, for example, various other students in public schools.  I am looking forward to continuing with my research and working with the kids at ANSER.  They have begun to open my eyes to this new style of teaching and learning that, otherwise, I would have been completely ignorant of. 

Web proposal

1.                   The audience that I would like to engage, are those currently active in the teaching process. This may be students trying to get the best education that they can or a teacher/professor. This allows for a large variety of age, but I can assume that dominantly younger educators will be the most willing to tackle a new way of teaching.

2.                  Even though it is broad I feel like anyone who is reflective on their time in a classroom will have experience they can relate to my research. It will be important for me to differentiate the different ideals in teaching, in regards to conventional and more progressive teaching.

3.                When I write anything whether the purpose is to entertain or inform, I like to think of every reader as resistant. This is helpful because it keeps you thinking of how you need to try to pull your reader in, and focus on making sure your content will flow well as to not lose their attention. Those who will most likely be interested are educators looking for better results from their students, and students who are frustrated with the downfalls of teaching in their past.

4.                My sources speak toward better education, and reform in learning for the benefit of our young. In my life experience if there is a topic worth talking about there is always going to be disagreement. Within my topic there is differences in opinion on what the focus should be i.e. teacher, curriculum, or idealogy. Also there are those who say that progressive education is not only not the way of the future, but can even be a hinderance to a child’s learning.

5.                When I visit a website, the most important things to me are visuals and flow. I would like to incorporate humor with pictures, and videos that speak toward my topic. Also in regards to flow, make a website that is intuitive to navigate, allowing easy navigation from one area to the next.

6.     I would like my contribution to be highlighting the fact that education is lacking in some way. I would also like to really bring acrossed how important it is to have students who are critical thinkers and well rounded with the ability to adapt and push this country/world to a better place. What has brought me to these conclusions, has been watching the youth that sometimes “crawls” out of our education system. Those kids who are narrowminded, apathetic, and with very low standards of what they want to accomplish. I recognize the fact that education is only one factor in what will be a deciding factor for changes in youth, but it is one that we can control. You can’t force on people the importance of abstinence, planned families, general morality, and integrity. Hopefully though if we can inform and create more well rounded individuals in the classroom, these issues will naturally be recognized and reintigrated into our society.

Reflective Blog #1

All throughout school I always heard of schools changing there approach of teaching. It was always questions that came up and teachers mention about passing state test and all the requirements and do they really reflect on the lives of students as of in the real world. I'm from Miami,Fl and we had a pretty harsh school system being below state requirement during my time in high school and etc. I really believe every state district teaches different. The same traditional teaching ways but different methods or ways of simplifying a problem depending on the subject. While I'm doing research and attending my service learning I'm observing certain things, comparing them to the way I learned and etc. I always thought it would be beneficial for schools to change there way of learning but now after seeing it at ANSER I have really change my mind, it's really the worse possible choice ever. As I began my first day at ANSWER the kids are really in a different type of comfort zone as anyother type of kids. I'm not sure if thats ANSWER's way of experiential learning but I thought they were in a sheltered world. The biggest surprise was the school stops at 8th grade and most of the things they aquired at ANSER over the next four years will go to waste. The kids my first week didnt really communicate with me, I pictured experiential learning as more hands on constructual things similiar to ANSWER but I felt that teachers babied the students a bit too much. Part of it I believe comes from the school being so small which influences a closer relationship between teacher and stduent. My model of what experiential learning is, is based around ANSER.As I observed many of the kids work so saw many errors. These are middle school kids and I'm not most definitely the smartest person but there were minor spelling, grammar, common sense issues that they should know. I think the idea of really focusing on experiential learning leaves holes in what learning is really about. A good foundation of learning and the basics. None of the kids seemed to have it. Discipline was the first issue, kids get up and leave the class as they pleased. When a issue came up and the teacher asked him to finish typing his paper he wouldnt so she stood next to a middle school student and typed his paper for him.Of course this is only of one school of many that teacheS this way and I'm sure every school like ANSER is different within the school but I'm going off observing ANSER. I felt as if there were so many negativities, and the worse was the teachers letting students have their way and not thinking how it hurts them in the future.

Website Proposal

1. The audience of my subject will be parents, teachers, the community, and anyone who is involved in the school board system. My website will target concerns parents want to know about their children’s future, what their learning in the school system,and how their being taught. Teachers are included in my audience mainly becuase it’s their profession and whatever happens within a school system starts and ends with teachers. The community will also be the audience, people that don’t even have kids always want to know what’s going in their school systems mainly because of taxes. Depending on the age group of students they should be a minor part in the audience because majority of what happens is based on the student outcomes. The students introduce the way of how students want to learn,teaching style, etc.

2. 2)Teachers and parents background play the most significant role in my topic. Teachers background in education play the most important role in getting students to be productive and parents play the role of being involved in students schooling supporting and influencing them. I believe the amount of background information and explanations I include varies.

3.I believe knowing the majority percentage of your childs outcome is beneficial. Whatever type of school system or teaching techniques better your child for a more successful chance at having a career will draw in parents and interest them. I’m not really leaning towards a particular type of teaching. Both I believe are great ways of teaching so I don’t know where my audience will choose to go but I expect them to agree in some way with the result I provide from information and studies.

4.The gist of the conversation sources have been providing are the pros and cons of experiential learning. We have been taught by the same standardized teaching techniques there isn’t much information bashing the basic way of teaching besides the complexity and difficulty of how students struggle learning that way. Experiential learning is a newer approach and hasn’t been studied too much, many have a thought of how it seems to be but there isn’t much research of actual students compared between the two and their outcome. (theroritical opinionate not too many facts)

5.People now-a-days don’t seem to care about the future and what’s seems to be the most beneficial at the time so they do what they feel is best depending on circumstances. I think the best way to grab most people’s attention is through money. Show them how the children’s education one day will affect them whether its taxes and etc. At a time like this many people are out for themselves and it’s hard to get anyone’s attention if it doesn’t have to do with money.

6. The main viewpoint is the pros and cons of experiential learning.

Is it worth it, we’ve been in this system for a while why should we change now? I went through it, you went through it. Before you ever leap into something you always have to know at least where you can benefit from it and there’s always a downfall to something way down the road. I once agreed with experiential learning till I began my service learning and there are a few things that I believe will come to hunt us. Structural things like spelling, grammar, fundamentals that mean the most. Hands on experience is great and we haven’t found any research about it but I believe experiential learning has a bigger downfall then the normal traditional way of teaching.

Annotated Bibliography

Birbalsingh, Katharine. “How can we make our teachers better.” The Telegraph, 24 Nov. 2010, web 3 Mar. 2011

            Katharine Birbalsingh, in an article written for a British newspaper, speaks towards the importance of rigor in schooling for teachers. She calls out the struggle she has with those teachers who are not pulling their weight within the schooling system. What is difficult about teachers not performing is the unionizing of teachers, allows little room for head teachers (principles, administration) to insure their teachers are giving the best effort. This article was an important note to supplement what I have already been researching in regards to a better learning environment. Birbalsingh expresses frustration with lazy or incompetent teachers, this is an important fact to note in our education system. How can we expect students to excel and further their education if there are teachers who are not themselves constantly striving to create a better learning environment?