Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde's story was very interesting, I really enjoyed reading it. She had two teachers, her kindergarten teacher and her first grade teacher. When Audre went into kindergarten, she already knew her letters and how to write her name and to read. She was taught by her mother, when Audre first said she wanted to know how to read. Her kindergarten teacher was called Miss. Teacher, she was not a very patient teacher. Audre had wrote her first and last name, to me you think the teacher would be proud, but no she wasn't. She looked down upon it, she said that Audre could not do as she was told. Her teacher was very angry and displeased with Audre, she would threaten to say how naughty and to tell her mother how she won't even try. When her mother came in to talk about what Audre had done wrong, her mother came to the conclusion that Audre should be in school, and that her kindergarten teacher was not capable of teaching her daughter, especially to teacher her to do what she is told. That is when she went into the first grade. Her first grade teacher was Sister Mary of Perpetual Help, or Sister MPH. She ruled her classroom with an iron first, she was very disciplinary, because she had sent a note home with Audre to tell her mother that she should not dress her in so many close so she can feel the pain of her beatings. She liked to segregate the children into two separate groups, which she called the fairies and the brownies. Of course the fairies were the good kids and the brownies were the bad kids, and Audre would always be in the brownies. Either because she broke her glasses, misbehaved and talked to much and because she could not learn her numbers. She didn't believe Audre when she actually did something right. She sent a note home saying that she needs a letter saying you are sorry for lying to the baby jesus. Only to get a letter saying that Audre did write her own sentence without help. Sister MPH was strict and a bit racist, Miss. Teacher was impatient, unwilling and not a very good teacher.

WS pertaining to paper #2

Paper number two is a thesis driven paper. Comparing and contrasting two different teachers. When reading section 28-30 I found it to be very helpful. Section 29 starts us of with planning and pre-writing, which is very helpful on helping you know what your topic is going to be, and to think about the audience your writing to. Which then continues to talk about essay structure and length, depending on what kind of essay your writing, the structure and number of paragraphs can vary. Paragraphs are the basic units of writing, whether they are short or long. In an essay you must and and intro, which would include our thesis. This will help me to explain my purpose and state what I will be writing about. Section 30 talks about using an outline, which will come in handy when trying to organize my paper. This section points out that the main points should reflect their importance. It shows an example that can be used. Each paragraph should have a main point and followed up either by a sub point or another main point. If I am to write a good thesis driven paper I would need to follow up my main points with details to back up what i'm trying to state. After reading sections 28-30 I feel more confident in writing a thesis paper, these sections have really helped me understand that basic principle of writing a thesis paper.

What makes a great teacher.

In my opinion, what makes a great teacher is, a teacher who teaches what they know. Some teachers just cannot teach. What makes a great teacher is a teacher that teaches you what you need to know to pass the class and pass your schooling, but they also teach you life lesson that you can use in your future. My english teacher always taught us things about the real world, same with most of my teachers. Great teachers need to know how to teach it to everyone. Not everyone learns the same, some students are hands on learning, and some are all about lectures. Great teaches need to be patient with students, it takes time to learn and when you have someone pressuring you everyday all day, it can be a challenge to learn. And teachers who get frustrated or yell do not make great teachers. At that point the students do not want to learn, best way to teach is calm and collective that way these students feel like they are attack or stupid because they don't know what the teacher is teaching. It also helps to have a lesson, because if a teacher doesn't have their thoughts together then, your going to be all over the place, possibly confusing students and making the learning process harder than it already is. The best teachers make time for individual students who need help and can have one on one time either before class or after school. Some students may need help, and they don't get the time or the class is too big and not enough teacher to go around. Teachers should be able to bond with the students, which can create a calm comfortable atmosphere. Which makes it easier for students to relax and concentrate on what the task is at hand.

Final draft paper #1 learning to love life

Who would have thought someones life could change in one day. Not just one day, but for two years. My family is just like everyone else's. Were normal and happy, so why does bad stuff happen to my family? well it just so happens to be that it is a random event of bad luck. I was about six years old when my life was forced to change. It had been a normal day just like any other. I was at school, learning playing with toys and coloring, learning the things a six year old should know. I was in the first grade at this point I believe. I was the type of little girl, who loved school and hated to be away from it. I use to cry when I wasn’t old enough to go to school and my brothers were. So school and me definitely clicked.  

My mom had come and picked me up early, that was very strange, because my mom had never done that unless I was sick or it was my birthday. It was neither my birthday or was I sick. She said we had to go away for a while. I knew somethings have been happening to my brother over that past couple months. He had looked ill and we were visiting the doctors a lot. That day I had learned that my brother had cancer. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it wasn’t something that will go away easily. I felt like my world had ended. Every day, the lump on his arm had grown bigger and bigger. To me it was just a lump on his arm, it was hard and meaty. But to my parents it was the sight of death. I could see that it was deforming his arm, and causing him a lot of pain. At this point, none of us knew what to do but to hope and pray. My brother was only ten years old at this point.

We ended up staying over in Seattle, while my brother was at the children’s hospital, my mother and my other brother and me stayed at the Ronald McDonald house for cancer patients and family. Which was a wonderful place for the parents and families of there hospitalized children. This was a little to no cost for the families who stayed there. A lot of people would visit, such as Ronald McDonald and Santa Clause. Just so the little kids could celebrate and be happy for awhile. While my family was there we had visits from hockey teams and mascots. They wanted to keep the place in a positive mood. A lot of the children there were lively and friendly, they looked without fear. One thing I will never forget was what one little girl had said to me, “I know i’m sick, I know that I will die today, or maybe tomorrow. But i’m not afraid, my mommy will be holding my hand.” I had learned so much throughout these two years. I learned that death is inevitable and can happen, and when it happens they go to a better place. It was hard having friends, my mom said to not get so close to someone because they may not be there again the next day.

There was a beautiful ceremony, for my moms friends son. We were all very close. Her son had cancer and so did my moms son, her son was around my age I believe so we had all bonded. Her son didn’t win the battle, we had all gathered in a park, had a celebration. I learned to not despair but to be joyful, I looked at it that they were no longer suffering, that they had won just not the way we may have wanted. At the end of the day we all had a balloon, his favorite color, red. At the same time we all let the balloon go as to guide her son.

When my brother had started his surgeries and chemotherapy, he had changed greatly. He wasn’t as happy as I remember, before this all happened. Which I guess was a huge side affect of his treatments. He never wanted to do anything, but my mother always made him do something. He had to walk everywhere, he had to ride his bike, go to the movies. Whenever he was to tired to do anything, my mom would hold his hand while he did it. She said its better to do something than to not do anything at all. His hair had fallen out; he had lost his appetite sometimes even. When I saw him lying on his bed, I knew then and there that life was too short, and it couldn’t be taken for granted. That life was like a box of chocolates, I never knew what I was going to get till I got it. When I got it, I had to deal with it. The greatest day was when we learned my brother was going to be all right. We had fought for so long and when we knew that it was finally over. You can say that we jumped for joy. All the hard work had paid off, I think my brother was the most happiest of us all. He could finally go back home and do all the stupid things a now 12 year old boy would do. After everything he had his last surgery, which I don’t think was very serious, just some minor detailing, and they healed him up nice and good. I remember when they first took out the tumor, the doctors got to show us pictures of it. I will tell you now, I don’t eat meatballs anymore.

He had to go back every month for a year and then every six months and then one last time for his checkups. And each time we were afraid it would come back, but the cancer had stayed away for good. He had to do his own therapies at home, which of course he never wanted to do, but he did it. The surgeries had left him with a long scar down his bicep. He will never have the same mobility in his arm like he had before, it left a nice indent on his elbow where the tumor was, it was hard for him to do the sports that he wanted to do, but he managed. My brother was a fun loving child, a bit of a trouble maker; he took his life for granted. He expected everything, and wanted everything. He didn’t think much of the consequences. I think he learned what I had learned as a life lesson. He never took his life for granted anymore because it was like a gift, and gifts can be taken away. The scar on his arm will always remind him that he was a survivor, and that life cannot be taken for granted and no one can live forever. Life is a gift, it can be taken away just as easy as it is given to you. Our time in Seattle was a happy one, not once did we let this problem get to us. My family still did things with each other, because we knew that staying home and doing nothing wasn’t going to solve anything. We had to make the most of it, and thats exactly what we did. 

Stand and Deliver Notes

the teacher was suppose to teach computer science.
he is now teaching math 1a
he is kind and caring for his students he wants them to succeed but yet he insults them
the school he works at is run down. there is little funding for the school. they dont have computers or books for most classes.
he is a tough and pushy teacher. he doesnt let his students say no, or quit. he forced his students to go to summer school
he made a contract for them to sign and there parents stating to be at school an hour early and stay til 5 and go on saturdays.
he wanted his students to learn calculus
inorder to learn that they had to pass the other classes during the summer
he wanted them to take the advanced placement test so they can earn college credits.
all the kids eventually bonded togeether and with the teacher.
other teachers and board members thinks that he is asking to much of the kids
they had low self esteem and if they fail they may not bounce back.
all 18 of the students passed the test.
though the testing people thinks that all 18 of the student cheated because they did so well on the test.
he defends his students because they didnt cheat
he believes that its because they descrimminate
they have to take the test again just to prove they didnt cheat
they only had one day to review the whole book
another misunderstanding with the test scores
with just one day review they all had passed the test
all the students passed the test just like they did the first time they took it
every year more and more students passed the A.P calculus exam.

This was a very interesting movie. Inspiring that all these students started at the bottom and were able to come all the way to the top.

best and worst teacher

My best teacher ever was my sixth grade teacher. He was the best ever! he was fun I had him for 5th and 6th grade. He was good about teaching, he taught us our daily math and reading and writing and so on but in the 6th grade he kind of slacked. He had already taught us so much and he thought well since its our last year at the elementry school that we should just have some fun. My class started a weekly newspaper for our school. We would put puzzles and questions in it. Funny comics and pictures. My duty for the paper was the columist, I wrote all the short stories in the paper. Was so much fun! during halloween, my teacher decided that we should turn our classroom into a haunted house. Which we did and had the whole school come and go through it. Wasnt very scary, but it was tons of fun. He let us do all sorts of things, which is why he is the best.

My worst teacher ever was my english teacher in the 7th grade. She just wasnt very nice. She didnt care to put up with any of us. She wanted everything to be perfect. And when your talking about kids, there is no perfect. She was picky with kids and she was kind of a racist teacher. Although her intentions were good and she wanted to teach. She just didnt do it the right way.

Main Idea

The main idea that I wanted the readers to know, is that life is hard and shouldnt be taken advantage of because many things can happen to you and you may not come out on top.

Tools for writing

Writing can be easy to do, but that does not mean the writing you do is gonna be good. A good tool to use is planning. Everything starts with planning, that is where you get all your good ideas. One thing I read in the textbook was organization, essay structure and length. My problem is I tend to either write to long paragraphs or I write to short of paragraphs. The outline of my paper tends to be mixed around. I may not have all my ideas in order and I may write about more than one idea in a paragraph which can get confusing. But using an outline like in the textbook, would really help. Writing out an outline can help me organize all my ideas and put my thoughts where they belong. The textbook talks about good guidelines for writing a good essay. Think about the topic first, consider audience, outline essay, write and edit, get feedback which is most important, proofread and correct and write your final draft. As long as I keep those in mind, I believe I will write a very good paper.

Malcolm X, Franklin, Rose

Malcolm X, Franklin and Rose's esssays all differ because they were all learning something at a different time in each of their lives. Malcolm was imprisoned at a older age and decided to better himself by learning and educating himself on his own. He did not have any help from anyone. Just his books. Benjamin had the ability to go to school and choose what he wanted to learn. He was able to start out at an early age. He had different learning experiences, working with his father for two years, working with his brother. Always getting his hands on books to read. He was always learning something. To me, Mike was pushed into education, he had it just because it was there. He went to school, he may not have learned as much as someone would need, he had trouble learning, he was bad in math, his teachers didnt know how to engage the attention of the students, he had a hard learning experience, but at the end he learned a lot. About his friends, and his teachers.

Rough draft-paper number 1

   When I was learning to draw, which was pretty recent, it was a painstaking voyage into the unknown. I knew pretty much nothing about drawing, all I knew how to draw was stick people and a few types of flowers. I didn't know anything about the perspective of objects and how one object relates to the other object. How the angles vary, how you see the object and how the object really looks. One thing I learned when I started drawing, was that when I drew a picture of a box. To me the box would look identical to the box on the table, but really the boxes did not look alike, the angles may have been wrong, the height of the box compared to something next to it. The space around it would be off. I learned that my mind would make me manipulate the way I see the box to make it look like it was identical. I had to teach my mind and my hand to communicate and to see. Drawing can be described in many different ways, drawing is used with pencils, pens, charcoal, graphite, etc. Drawings can either be really big or really small, of people or flowers. Drawing is similar to painting, to me its the same thing, but to others it can be different. Painting is used with paints, acrylic paint, not pencils. But yet your still drawing, your still making a picture for everyone to enjoy and talk about. The only difference I see is that painters use different material than an artist would use for drawing. Drawing can lead to many different opportunities. Such as: becoming an artist, a lot of people are good at drawing whether it be people, and still life drawings, to landscapes and other stuff. They may be an illustrator for children's books, or just picture books. Drawing can be a way for a child to express themselves, from what I know, children's psychologist may use drawing to help understand what a child may be feeling. They can interpret what they draw. A lot of children cannot just sit down and spill out there heart and soul, so they use art. Painting, drawing, whatever works best for them. For me, drawing is just my hobby, I like to draw, I enjoy it very much. I like to draw pictures of flowers mostly because that's what I'm good at. I started to draw faces, as that is my next step. When I started drawing faces, I was really hard on myself, I told myself I couldn't do it, that every drawing looked like a different alien and isn't from this world. I denied myself the ability to improve and congratulate myself. Part of drawing is to be able to pat yourself on the back, your drawings may look bad at first, 100 drawings can be terrible but drawing 101 will look good and for that you must appreciate and make yourself feel good. That I did not do, but I learned, I learned I need to appreciate my artistic ability, for I just started drawing and my drawings really were not that bad. I had some talent in drawing. When I finally decided that I shouldn't be so hard on myself, my drawings became better and better. I was more positive and the more positive I was the better my drawings were. You have to enjoy something in order for you to get better. If you don't enjoy what your trying to do, you can lose interest very easily. You won't take the time that is needed to learning that particular thing or you don't put in enough effort to learn it. Learning to draw is just like learning to do something else. It takes the same steps, first you just have to do it. Self teach yourself or get a teacher. Obtain books on what it is your trying to learn. For me I would get drawing books, whether they were step by step on how to draw what this way. Or a book of pictures that I can practice drawing on my own paper. Practice, practice, practice. That is one of the most important things. Nothing will happen if your sitting on your bum watching t.v. those are most of the steps it takes to learn something. There are much more, but those are the steps that I take to learn to draw.

Blog post to generate ideas and text

I can use blog post to generate ideas and text for my first formal paper. I think blog post would be a perfect opportunity to write down all my ideas, and do my brainstorming for my paper. I can do a lot of prewriting, and editing in my blog post. Blog post are a wonderful way for my fellow classmates to read and possible comment on my writing to help my process along the way. What normally would have been done in class and in groups, giving each other your rough draft to read and edit for you, and only a small amount of people would be able to do that with certain time limits. With blog post many people can read all of our blog posts about the paper and comment. It is like the ultimate "easy button." With blog post, I can write down as much as I want with out scratching ideas and without worrying about organization. When I finish a good portion of my paper, I can go back through and organize and take out what I don't need and possibly re-write what I want to keep. One thing I personally like about writing all my ideas and thoughts in blog posts is, that all my writings are kept nice and neat. Usually when I write everything down on paper it gets very messy and unorganized. Also like that my fellow class makes can read it whenever I want to post something. With there help, it can be easy to create new ideas. When multiple minds think together, wonderful creations can be made.

"I Just Wanna Be Average"

Rose's teachers were all very different. His homeroom teacher brother Dill who was troubled and unstable would smack the students, His P.E teacher would paddle them, an ex-lineman. He wanted to make men of the students. Then there was his spanish teacher, who had no authority in the class, he was very quiet and delicate, a small man. Most of the time Rose did not learn anything, either his teachers, like his english teacher did not teach or he just did not pay attention. In my experience with teachers, I had moments where I did not want to pay attention. Voc.Ed made Rose find his own socially, he made friends with different kinds of people, tried out for track. Rose could not simplify algebraic fractions, he developed faulty and inadequate ways of doing algebra. One reason may be that he tuned everything out in elementary school. No matter how bad the school, people encounter notions that don't fit with the assumptions and beliefs that you grew up with. People like Ken just decide to be average to protect themselves from the madness. And some people like Ted, you just let your mind roam. To me I don't find college to be disorienting, everything in college is pretty straight forward to me. Your class is here, you learn this, homework is this. But that is just my opinion, schooling has always been easy to me because I love it so much. My experience of education somewhat compares, I have had teachers that held barely any authority at times, kids would not pay attention and talk and goof off, and other times I had very strict teachers. And I think that at least once someone did not pay attention in school, I knew many people who just tuned everything out, or settled to less than what they could be. Reading this text and answering the questions helps me to ask question like that about my own educational paper that I will be writing. And that I can use other papers and think about what they are trying to say to help me to understand what I may want to write about. This helps me to think if I should write more emotionally and intellectually or even socially. Something that involves me or a group of friends that I made while learning.

Compare&Contrast Malcolm X & Benjamin Franklin

Wow, after reading these two autobiographies, I was completely inspired by these two men. When reading "Learning to Read" I was so impressed that a man can overcome his frustrations and teach himself how to read. Even though it was a slow and painstaking process he was able to pick up books and start at the very beginning. Not everyone is taught in this particular way, copying word for word from books and dictionaries. It makes me think about how many people learned to read and write when they do not have the sources that most people have. After reading both autobiographies I found many comparisons between the two. Considering that both men have a sort of devotion and love of knowledge of reading and writing. Benjamin was always writing (ever since he could remember, he was reading). Both men always had a book in their possession. Always wanting to read more and learn more. Malcolm was determined to better himself even though he was imprisoned and I admire that. He would stay up late every night just so he can continue to read, he did not need many hours of sleep, he just wanted to read. That is one determined man. Benjamin would always find new ways to teach himself, whether he was being pushed around to work with his brothers, he would still get his hands on books to read. There were not many differences, different time and different people. One a man imprisoned teaching himself to read at an older age, through dictionaries and rewriting everything, to reading and reading different subjects of books. Benjamin a boy who went to grammar school at eight years of age, who read books from the time he was little. But both people had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

Pre-writing

In the past, my brainstorming for a paper started with me sitting down and grabbing a piece of paper. I write down all the possible ideas of what I could write about. Whether it is a good idea or a bad idea, I make sure to write them all down. I then initially decide which topics are worth writing about, whether they will draw in a reader or turn a reader away. When I have a good list going about topics I write sub topics that clarify and describe my main idea. I always want to write my paper about an idea that I know more about, so that I have more to write about. Topics that have little details get erased. When I finally have my sole topic of what I'm writing about, I start to do my first draft, I usually just blab. My teacher in high school taught me that if you cant think of a good way to start a paper you just start writing what comes to mind. Later on when you find a good beginning you can add it in and continue on. When I finish my free write, I like to pick out certain sentences and paragraphs that really say what my topic is about or sentences that are very descriptive and creative that make my paper sound more interesting, and divide them into paragraphs and elaborate more on that one sentence meaning or paragraph meaning. I then eventually have a paper, my first draft. I take a little break from my paper, give my mind a rest. When I come back to the paper, I begin to read it out loud. That will help me to fix any grammatical errors I may have. I then continue to edit and rewrite sentences or add in more words and ideas til I get the perfect paper. When I achieve this state I make sure more than one person reads my paper. So they can edit and give me insight to what they feel about this paper. When that is all said and done and rewrite my paper once more with all the edits I might need to do and finish it off once and for all. All of these pre-writing tools successfully help me write my papers. I use to not do any pre-writing, I use to just write and write, rewrite and finish, I didn't care much about how my paper got done. Just that it got done. But when I started brainstorming ideas and free writing on each idea and picking one with more detail I realized that my papers have become better and more organized and more in depth.

Collabaration #2 Abbey, Emmy and Nahshon

After reading Malcolm X "Learning to Read" we concluded that this can help us because he wrote about his intense desire to read and his passion to learn. It just started out that he just wanted to read and write, fix his penmanship, after which had started into something bigger than that. He carried on with his passion for writing and reading to help other people along the way. We could also write in this way, to help other people who may read our paper to understand and to try and acheive something for themselves. He wasnt doing this for a badge, or a degree, he did it for himself. His own self gain, and eventually to help teach other people the ways of Elijah Muhammad. He gives us a good view on what we should write about, what inspires us and motivates us.

Collaboration: Abbey, Emmy and Nahshon

We understand that our assignment is to write a paper about a real learning experience that we have had in our past.  We want to draw the reader in with creative writing, using fact and models.  We need to use a lot of details to describe our personal experience and toconvey to the reader exactly what we want them to get from the paper. We need to include our obstacles and solutions to create a connection between the reader and the writer. Although the paper does not need to be formal, it must be written in proper english.  The use of casual writing will help to connect the reader to what they are reading.  Finally, we also understand that since this is a paper about a personal experience, we can use use the words I, me, or my.

Blog #1

   After reading the two sample Educational Narratives, I have found that I can certainly use parts from each narrative to construct my first paper. From the computer programmer narrative, I really enjoyed how he started his story. And I would like to start mine in the same way. Giving a little background history and summarize about what I'm going to say and then carry on with my story from the beginning of how it came to be. What really intrigued me was with the second article about living without google. He used a lot of his "voice" in the story, by the way some of his sentences came around and the way he asked himself question and followed up by answering them. I would like to do something similar in a way of me asking my own questions to my audience, to include them and also to make them think about their own experiences and to question them. After reading the narrative about google, before writing my own narrative. I would need to ask myself a few questions. Why would I write about this, why would I do this, what have benefited me in doing this. Which would then help me to start a sort of background into my narrative to explain to the audience why I chose to write about this. What I have found in the second narrative was something I would like to use in my own narrative, about the problems I faced and how I overcame those problems. When I finished the Computer Programmer narrative, I thought to myself that I would like to outline my narrative similar to the way he did, by not only explaining how he learned to be a computer programmer but also that he is, in a way teaching his audience on how to become a computer programmer. I like how Joshua J. Romero concludes his narrative, by telling us how his experiment affected him and benefited him. It was a life lesson, and you always benefit in some way, it will help me in my future writings to know I have a good foundation to start a paper and a good moral to what I need to say.

First blog

First day of english class. So far so good. But boy do I tell you, creating a blog was quite confusing. Lets hope it does not stay confusing for long!