Research Blog

Well, my paper is finally submitted and done. It turned out all right in my opinion. I belive that there's always room for improvement, but it also could have been worse. And what was more, it really was a learning experience for me. I know I said this in a blog entry earlier, but I knew that school funding was an issue, but I had no idea about most of the particulars until I delved into my research a bit more. At my high school, I had an idea that things were not perhaps ideal, but in all honesty it didn't seem that bad to me. I knew that there were problems, and that most teachers and staff did more than one thing, but then I watched that news story on my school about a month ago, and they just made it look absolutely horrible, like it was the worst place to go to school, and I remember thinking, well, I didn't think it was that bad. But it all comes down to what we get used to. I was used to it, so I didn't notice that in many ways, it was bad. I had no idea that my school was one of the first ones to join the lawsuit because it was considered one of the most affected schools by the funding defecit. I always knew that it was a part of it, but I had no idea that it was at the forefront of it. It was really quite a lot of eye opening information for me. Most people don't even realize the problems that these schools face. Sure, most manage to keep their students competing with larger schools, but the small schools definitely need the help and resources that state aid can provide. Another thing that I hadn't realized was how different Minnesota is from South Dakota in the area of teacher certification and salaries and retention. They are worlds ahead of South Dakota. Maybe we need to learn something from them. It seems to be working well for them. I had so much information on this topic, I probably could have written a 10 page paper. That was the hardest part, trying to decide what to use and what not to. At any rate, I'm kind of glad its done now. I'm ready for Christmas.

Research Blog

I finished my paper. Last night, anyway. Today I just have to do the works cited page and submit it. I had so much information, it was difficult to muddle through the stuff that I wanted to add, but I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out. The information that Mr. Leighton gave me was very helpful; it gave me specific examples that I could use and helped explain some terms that were kind of difficult to understand. I learned a lot from writing this paper. I knew that small school funding was an issue, but I had no idea all the specifics of it. I think it makes a great deal of difference to me in my future as a teacher.

Research Blog

Hopefully today I'll be able to make the necessary changes that I need to make to make my paper better,and then I can submit it and be done! Note to self: one of the things I have to do is put my name and page numbers on it, I always forget to do that. I forgot to on my essay 2 revision, so I'm afraid I will on this too. Maybe writing it down will help me remember. I got an email back from Mr.Leighton, so I can also add in that information and a few other things. It actually turned out ok, for the most part. I think the conclusion needs more work, I've never been very good at writing conclusions. I also have to create my bibliography page, but with easybib that shouldn't be too difficult.

Research Blog

Working on writing my draft now. It's a process I guess. I don't feel like I'm making much progress and I just feel like I really rushed the process of it. Maybe that's because in high school the whole thing was rather drawn out and long, so that's what I'm used to. There we had all these deadlines to meet so we weren't doing so much all at the end. I suppose it's just a matter of learning to manage my time better. Trying to organize myself, even with an outline, is proving difficult. Oh well, back to it I suppose.

Research Blog

I realize the need for some kind of organization in my paper. This is going to be just a rough outline, a place to start anyway.



1. Engage the reader-I think I'm going to use a story about my school and how underfunded we are. That would be more personal. Or about the Lemmon school district about how far away from everything that is.

2. Statement: Small public schools in South Dakota are closing due to lack of funding.

3. Thesis: I believe that the small schools in the state should be given funding to keep them open because some districts need to stay open due to location, and studies have shown that small schools provide a better education, as long as they can produce the funds to provide adequate programs for their students.

4. Evidenciary Support:

• Schools all over South Dakota are closing because they don't have enough funding to stay open and provide a quality education to their students.
• One of the problems that these schools are facing is keeping quality teachers, mostly due to the fact that they can't pay competent salaries or because they are too far out in the middle of nowhere.
• State aid is based on local taxes and the number of students enrolled in the school district.
• Small schools probvide only the most basic programs to their students due to lack of funds to provide more in-depth ones.
• Generally, because of this, students from these schools can be unprepared for college and cause problems for both themselves and the professors that teach them.
• Some schools are beginning a system of sharing for things such as equipment and even teachers.

5. Objections/Opposing Viewpoints:

• Most people believe that larger, more populated schools provide a better education for students because those schools can afford to pay higher teacher salaries and have the funding for more advanced programs.

6. Replies to the Objections:

• Studies have proven that students learn better in small school environments.
• Some schools are suing the state due to lack of funding.

7. Conclusion: Small schools in South Dakota are having trouble staying open because they don't have the funds, but some schools are beginning to fight back.

See, the problem is, I don't know where to put the part about the schools that are suing the state. I'm not rally sure where it fits.

Research Blog

So I've done some of my organizing and this is kind of what i've come up with so far. I've kind of got a lot of points for the problems of small schools, but I think that's ok because that's the whole point of my paper. And it's supposed to be persuasive, and to do that I need to state the problems of the small schools. Maybe I need to find some more stuff to go into my other categories.

Categories

• declining school enrollments/school closing
• lack of equipment/sharing resources
• losing quality teachers

• What some schools are doing
• Big isn't always better

This isn't very precise or detailed and its very very rough, but it's a start at least. I'm not quite ready to piece together a rough outline just yet; that'll be coming though. I'm still trying to muddle through the research.

Research Blog

I'm grateful for the information that we covered in class today; I found most of it helpful. I must admit that I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed by all the information that I was finding and wasn't entirely certain how I would begin to organize it, so the orgaizational handout that we got was a huge help. Also, the tip on working on certain aspects and then working on something else and then coming back to the paper will be a big help. All weekend I tried to work on my paper, and after a while, I was just feeling lost. If I try the short intervals approach, I believe I'll be much more successful in getting things accomplished with my paper.



The MLA exercise we did was helpful in the fact that I didn't really know very much about ID tags. I was always taught in high school that absolutely everything must get a parenthetical in text citation. I'm learning a lot about the newer style of MLA; I think our high school teacher graded us more on the way that she learned how to do it than some of the newer ways.

Research Blog

The researching process goes on. I'm finding a considerable amount of useful info; now it's just a matter of sorting through it and trying to find what I need, and when I do, organizing it into a paper. Not an easy feat, but it can be done. This can be such an in-depth topic; some of it may be slightly over my head. I've found some reports of different things passed in this area. One of the articles of information that I found was prepared by the lawyers that are handling the case for all the small schools who are suing the state for underfunding. I haven't read through that one entirely yet, but skimming it looked interesting. And I just found an article about small school funding and how that's determined. The information is good, I'm about halfway through reading it, and it's going to be a big help. I just need to check the currency of it; it was written in 2000, and I need to make sure that it hasn't changed since then. Both of these pieces of information will give me good background information for when I talk to Mr. Leighton sometime this week.

Research Blog

Today I'm spending most of my time looking up additional information and trying to organize the information I do have onto notecards and hopefully, if I have time, to start putting an outline together. This paper will definitely show if I can effectively manage my time; I realized the other day that it's due in less than two weeks!



I know I keep saying this, but the information I'm reading is definitely interesting, and will definitely be helpful in my paper. I think the problem won't be finding enough information, the issue will be determining which information to use because I'll have so much. I didn't realize before some of my research that local property taxes play such a big part in school funding. Thats actually the first issue taken into consideration. I knew that was a big part, but I didn't realize how BIG of an issue it was. And I also think I want to do some extra research on exactly what goes into the small school factor. Back to work.

Research Blog

I finished my annotated bibliography last night. One of the interesting sources I found was on the New Project website, which gave me some background information about why larger schools were started, and the smaller schools were closed. It actually had to do with Russia launching Sputnik into space, which I thought was really interesting. The educators and government here believed that we needed to compete with Russia and the only way to do that was "educationally," and they believed that a quality education could only come from larger school districts. The government, both locally and nationally, began closing the one-room school houses that made up 70% of the nation's school system and between 1940 and 1990, the number of schools decreased from 200,000 to 62,000. The number of schools with more than 1,000 students has doubled in the last ten years and most schools have considerably more than that with about 2,000 to 3,000 and up to 5,000. Some educators now, though, are beginning to believe that smaller schools really do provide a better education because they are better able to give individual attention to students, and studies have shown that small schools have lower dropout rates, discipline problems, and violence. That's about as far as I got in reading the article, but I skimmed through it and most of the information seems to be really good.

Another article I found, from the Rapid City Journal, said that Senator Tim Johnson was trying to pass a bill to provide bonuses to teachers who teach in small and isolated school districts. Most of these schools are so far removed that the schools have a difficult time retaining the teachers. This article was a little dated, from 2005, but I still thought the information was pretty good.

I plan on spending most of my weekend doing additional research and beginning to work on an outline and notecards. I also have to remember to set up a phone interview with Mr. Leighton next week.

Research Blog

Still working on my research. I'm finding some interesting information. I found an article by Deborah Verstegen saying that some lawmakers are beginning to believe that smaller school districts are a better investment than larger schools, but are still incredibly underfunded. She also points out that 51% of the nation's schools are in small towns or rural areas, so small school funding is an issue for all of us. It also goes on to tell how different states distribute school funds. There's a considerable amount of information here. Since I'm still working on my annotated bibliography, I do think I'll use this site as one of my sources.

Library Research Activity

1. teaching AND "virtual worlds "
teach* AND ("virtual worlds" or "virtual world")

2. (grow* or cultivate*) AND peanut*

3. (design* and test*) AND game*

This activity really helped me. I think knowing these search techniques will help me save time in my searches.

Assignment 2-Research Blog

I wasn't really sure when we were supposed to start these, I know we talked about them one day a little, but not very much, so we were probably supposed to start doing them then so I'm probably a little bit behind on it.

As far as my paper is going, I'm in the process of working on some background initial research. Some of it I think will be a great help; I found information on the state Department of Education website that I think will be important to my paper. And I want to take a closer look at some of the online encyclopedias that Rise talked about just as some of my initial research.

I'm also in the process of trying to set up an interview with the superintendent of my high school. Florence is one of the small schools suing the state for lack of funding, so if we can both work an interview into our busy schedules, first-hand information from him will be great.

Assignment 1-Research Topic

Possible Topic One-School funding in South Dakota

This topic is a huge issue in South Dakota now, especially with small schools like the one that I attended. Actually our school was just on the news last week as one of the schools fighting the state on the school funding issue. This issue will definitely impact my future as a teacher.

http://www.schoolfunding.info/states/sd/costingout_sd.php3
This article brings up valid points such as how many students there are in South Dakota, grades K-12, and how much each school has per each student. It points out that some districts recieve adequate funding, but 161 districts out of 170 are underfunded. Low teacher salaries are also stated as a problem. School districts are having trouble recruiting and retaining.

Research question: Why are some schools underfunded and what can be done to recruit and retain teachers in this state's small schools?

Possible Topic Two-Increasing Cost of Living Verses Frozen Salaries

The cost of living is going up everywhere. No one can deny that. But why aren't job salaries rising to keep up with the cost of living? Most people are being pinched tighter and tighter and somtimes may have to take drastic steps such as choosing between feeding their families and paying bills. South Dakota has a relatively low cost of living but the situation is the same. Real estate and land are also getting harder for people to buy. This applies to almost all jobs, not just teachers, although they face a tighter crunch since salaries are relatively low.

http://www.slate.com/id/2147256/
This site explains how the rising cost of living is going up but salaries are staying the same or dropping. In short, people are having a hard time keeping up with the rate of buying things that are necessary and paying bills. High gas prices, healthcare, food, and even general everyday items are going up in price. People are having a hard time keeping up, and some people have to choose between getting what they need to live and paying bills. This is also affecting businesses; people are starting to conserve money by not going out as much and cutting what they can.

Research Question: Why are prices going up and salaries not keeping up?

Possible Research Topics-Assignment 2

I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do my paper on. I have a whole list of topics in front of me, but none of them really, really spark my attention. The one right now that does is my major-English, and reading, my favorite hobby. If I could somehow do something with that, it would be an interesting paper. I love stuff like that, but in this case I'm just not sure yet how to turn that into a research paper. The other one that interests me somewhat is one of the topics listed under my "problems" section of topics-low teacher pay in South Dakota. That's a serious problem and something that concerns me and my future very much, but that topic may be too general and there may be too much info out there about it; I'm not sure how interesting I could make it. It would be a good topic though, if it wasn't too overdone. It's not something terrribly overdone, like abortion or eating disorders or a sport, so maybe it would work. I could definitely stay interested in it. This is a huge issue right now in this state, especially in small schools like the one I attended where they're having a hard time staying open and drawing new students and teachers, let alone raising teacher's pay rates to attract the best teachers. I could go back and interview my superintendent; he would be a great resource. I could do school funding in general and incorporate teacher salaries into that.

Tilting the description

1. I walked into my kitchen, and just stopped for a second and just looked around. This was the room that is the most lived-in and where everything happened, and it was definitely beginning to show the wear and tear of all that living. The warm, sun-kissed brown of the cupboards once kept the room feeling friendly and inviting, but now just make it look old and worn. On top of the fridge in one of the five crystal vases, the bright, sunshine- yellow daffodils add extra color and brightness to the room seriously lacking in life and color. Besides the daffodils, the top of the refrigerator is full of other plants and crystal vases in various shapes and sizes, mismatched and uncertain. The almond-colored refrigerator itself is full of old school pictures, including the bad ones, the ones that should be hidden away, out of sight. Everyone has a picture like that, with half-closed eyes or a bad smile that mothers everywhere, for some unknown, incredibly humiliating reason, just insist on displaying for the world to see. Colorful, unique magnets from past trips and vacations dot the fridge here and there, holding up important papers that should really be kept elsewhere, where they won’t get lost and ruined, and bright, vivid pictures drawn in elementary art classes at school that look as young and immature as the artists who drew them Toward the bottom of the fridge is a basketball sized red, black, and white magnet advertising Florida State that looks completely out of place in this kitchen. The countertops around the kitchen are continually cluttered with baskets, flowers, bills, and letters of various shapes, sizes, and colors. This clutter makes the room look messy and unkempt, like someone forgot to clean it for about three weeks. . It’s a messy room and certainly isn’t the normal idea of perfection. The dog can often be found wandering around in here, waiting for someone to pet his soft, silky fur or scratch behind his floppy ears, which consequently leaves dog hair scattered around the kitchen; on the floors and furniture, making the room truly as dirty as it looks.

Essay 2 Ideas

I've been doing some serious thinking about my topic for the second essay, and I can't really decide if I want to profile a person or a place. I think that a person would be harder to profile, but if done the right way, it could be good. But I'm leaning more toward profiling a place. This summer I met some new friends and we hung out at an old apartment building that one of them owned. This building has had many different uses over the years and is just an interesting building. We played games like ditchem and capture the bag in that old building, and I can't help thinking that it would be kind of fun to profile one of the rooms of that building. I really wish I could do the whole thing, but I think to kep it narrow enough I'm going to have to pick just one room. The problem is, which one? There are so many different possibilities with it. I'm kind of excited for this essay. I can't say that there's really anything overly special about this building, but it is interesting and I've had some good times there.

Add some pizzazz

1.) The candy dish sat on the counter.

The candy dish, overflowing with colorful candy of all shapes and sizes, sat on the counter.

2.) Hubert ran to the store to get a block of cheese.

Hubert, suddenly hungry for a grilled cheese sandwich, ran to the store to get a block of cheese.

3.) Ivan worried, about his job and his coworkers, his family problems, and most of all about school, his worry keeping him awake tossing and turning all night.

Sentence Variety

This was a really hard assignment!

1.) Some shoes are expensive.
Different, unique colors, style designs, and designers, are all factors that make some shoes expensive.

2.) Now, however, my views have changed.
Now, however, my views have changed considerably towards my shoes in the way that I view them and their different, unique qualities.

3.) By the end of the school year, my shoes were completely worn out from continual use and wear.
By the end of the school year, my shoes, scuffed and full of holes, were completely worn out from continual use and wear.

Showing Not Telling

The classroom was cold. At first, it didn’t seem to be so; it wasn’t the obvious slam-you-in-the-face cold, like walking outside in the middle of January is. No, this cold was the slower, more subtle kind, the kind that isn’t noticeable at first but slowly creeps up on a person until that cold chill is all that they can think about. This cold doesn’t produce an immediate reaction; it takes slightly longer to be recognized. It begins with the slight feeling of discomfort and not really knowing what that discomfort is. Then it progresses to unconsciously rubbing arms, slowly at first and then faster and more frequently, trying to warm them. At this stage most people don’t realize what’s happening to them. Goosebumps appear. This is when the arm rubbing really escalates, hand rubbing is added to the reaction, and even feet begin to feel the cold despite the fact that they’re layered in socks and tennis shoes.

Hooks For Belief Essay

1.) Why do women have so many shoes?
2.) Shoes are a girl's best friend.
3.) The average American woman owns 19 pairs of shoes.
4.) Heels, Nike's, and flip-flops: women are obsessed with shoes.
5.) Billions of different shoes are made every day.
6.) The real difference between men and women are shoes. Women simply need more
shoes than their male counterparts-nineteen pairs to be exact.
7.) Shoes may seem like a small part of life but they can represent something much bigger.
8.) I have 10 pairs of shoes in my closet. The average woman has 19.
9.) It may seem like shoes provide the simple service of covering our feet, but in fact they can
provide much more than that.
10.) I love my shoes. Most women love their shoes. That's just a fact of life.

This I believe essay ideas

I believe in the power of making my own mistakes. I would explain how making my own mistakes is important to my development into my own person.

I believe in music. I would explain how it has a different meaning for everyone and can be interpreted in different ways to different people but it can bring people who are completely different together and give them something in common. It is the great equilizer. And it has the power to completely change a person's mood.

I believe in my shoes. I would explain how different shoes serve different purposes but even though they are all different, in essence they all do the same thing, they just look different and do it in different ways. They're diverse.

The Mess That is My Mind-Thought Provoking Questions

First of all I just want to say how hard this assignment answering these personal belief questions is going to be. Reading the introductory paragraph on the question prompts page really hit home for me-the part about family values anyway. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what I believe and how that differs from the way I was raised, and I'm just going to say that it's not going so well. My parents are trying to tell me what I'm supposed to think, and I'm really not ok with that, but at the same time, I'm not sure exactly what I think either, or how to tell them that what I think is different than what they taught me. I'm so scared of dissappointing them by not doing or thinking the wrong thing but at the same time, at some point I have to figure out what I believe and stand up to them and show them that my beliefs aren't necessarily bad, simply different from theirs. It's not going to be pretty when that happens, but it's inevitable. That quote by Ernest Hemingway sums things up pretty well. But I just wanted to say that that part really hit home for me. This has been on my mind lately, so this will probably show up in these questions because I've been thinking about it so much.

1. ) When were you disappointed when someone made a promise to you that they couldn't keep? Or when did you break a promise you made to someone else?

I can't really think of a specific promise that someone made to me that they broke; not a big important one anyway. There have been multitudes of small promise infractions, like a friend not coming when they said they would, someone telling a secret that no one was supposed to know, or my dad not being able to make it to my volleyball or basketball games because he had work to do on the farm. Nothing really big or significant has ever been promised to me without it actually being followed through. I'm probably really lucky that way. Most people can't say that. Unfortunately, I have to say that I have made promises that I can't keep. This is actually a big part of my life right now, and I'm not going to get into all the details now, but it has really hurt someone and I hate that, but it's just such a complicated issue. A promise is a promise, but sometimes when a person breaks a promise, they felt that they had no choice. Breaking a promise isn't always about hurting the person that it was made to. Sometimes there are unforseeable circumstances involved in breaking a promise. When I break a promise, it's never to hurt the person. I feel absolutely horrible when I do break a promise. I hate breaking promises but sometimes it's kind of inevitable, at least to the person breaking the promise. I hate it when people break promises to me but at the same time I know that when I break promises I just feel like that's the only way.

2.) Have you ever prejudged someone incorrectly based on their appearance or has someone ever prejudged you unfairly based on how you look?

Again, I think of my boyfriend right away. That was probably the biggest prejudgment that I've ever made. As unfair as it may be, when I first started working with him (that's how we met, we worked together) I thought he was a nice guy but just not someone that I would ever hang out with, let alone actually date. He just wasn't my type at all. I had always been into farm boys-mostly because that's pretty much all I knew, and I know that's what my parents wanted for me. And Adam is NOT a farmboy, not by a long shot. Once again I was doing what my parents thought and not necessarily thinking for myself. That's been quite an issue for me lately. But then I started to get to know Adam, and even though he doesn't wear Wranglers and cowboy boots-he's much more of a band t-shirt, black jeans, skater shoes kind of guy-and his taste in music is questionable (heavy rap or techno), he's a great guy. And it simply took getting to know him to see that. I had to give him a second chance, and, more importantly I had to get over what my parents thought and go with what I thought about Adam. That's a major lesson learned for me. I'm sure people have judged me based on my appearance. People assume I have a nasty temper-which can be true, I'm not going to deny it-but if people don't know me it kind of bothers me that I have a bad temper just because of my hair color. And people assume that this isn't my natural haircolor; I get asked that all the time. I'm sure people judge me just as much as I tend to judge other people. It sounds horrible to say that I judge people like that, but everyone does. This is just part of being human.

3.) What skill or area are you still working to make progress?
I'm still working to make progress in many areas of my life. I believe that there's always room for improvement. When we give up trying to make progress, its just giving up. We can always make ourselves a little bit better in small ways, especially mentally. We can never give up learning.

4.) What obstacles are you proud to have faced and conquered?
I am proud to have conquered the obstacle of paying for college. I was really worried about how to pay for college, but I worked hard. I filled out as many scholoarship applications a I could. I asked questions. I wrote essays. I didn't give up when I didn't get one of the scholarships that I applied for. And it finally paid off: I got the Dakota Corps Scholarship, which will pay for just about all of the costs of school that I have if I teach in a critical need area in South Dakota for 5 years, so I decided to double major in English and Spanish. I was so excited when I recieved that scholarship. I was also particularily proud when I was able to buy my own car and completely pay for it. That was a huge accomplishment for me, because it made me feel more self-sufficient.
5.) How do you define "hero" and who is your hero in your life?
I personally define a hero as someone who can be looked up to; someone who has accomplished something in their life. It doesn't have to be a save-the-world kind of accomplishment, because sometimes the person who just does the simple things is the most worthy of being a hero. In my life, as cliche as it may sound, my dad is probably my hero. He works so hard to give us a good life, and he's been there for me and taught me so much. He has lived and worked on a farm his entire life and he saved up money to buy the farm that we live on. Dad and I may not always get along, but I do respect the things that he's done.

6.) When did you feel divine because you were able to forgive someone for their mistake? When did someone act divine by forgiving you when you were wrong?
This may sound conceited, but I feel like I forgive people a lot, for big things and little things. I haven't ever held a real grudge. I believe that most people deserve second chances because we're all human and we make mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes are big and sometimes they are small, but we all make them and everyone deserves to have a second chance. I'm definitely glad that people have given me a second chance, because I've made some pretty silly mistakes. Lately I've asked Adam to forgive me for a multitude of things, and I'm so greatful that he's willing to give me another chance. I think it takes a lot of inner strength to forgive people.

7.) What is a quotation that guides your life?
"It is our choices, far more than our abilities, that make us what we truly are."-J.K. Rowling
I love this quote and this is the one that I'm trying to use to guide my life right now. I need to grow up and start to make my own choices and decisions, even if they are different from my parents. It's not going to be easy, but that's the way it has to be.

I believe that people can learn

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14415923

I chose one of the very first essays on the page, called Teaching a Bad Dog New Tricks. In this essay, David, a workaholic bachelor doesn't depend on anyone and doesn't have anyone to care for and likes it that way. He rarely goes out with friends or on dates because of work. One day, however, he wakes up and realizes how empty and lonely his life is, so he decides to get a dog, a chocolate lab named Duncan. Since then, Duncan has taught David many life lessons including appreciation, loyalty, friendliness, and the importance of relationships.
I chose this essay initially because I like animals, dogs in particular. That may seem to be knid of a juvenile way to choose an essay, but not everything is rocket science. Some things really are as simple as they seem. When I began reading the article, I fell in love with the opening line "I believe in my dog." It was so simple and sweet and interesting that I just had to keep reading the essay, and the more I read the more I thought it made an excellent point. Why can't we be more like dogs? That sounds like an odd thing to say, maybe, but dogs truly appreciate the simpler aspects of life like eating the same thing everyday when we wonder what to eat everyday in a kitchen full of food, as David said in the essay. Or how they always seem to love us no matter what we do. I really wish that was a lesson people could learn. That may be overly optimistic and a little bit foolish, because sometimes people shouldn't always be given another chance to hurt us, but sometimes people give up on us too soon when we really just made a mistake and need them to hold on just a little bit longer. Dogs do that. And they show us how important our relationships are and sometimes what we really do need whether we realize it or not. David didn't realize that he needed something in his life that depended on him but when he got it, that's exactly what he'd been looking for. Ironic as it may seem and whether we humans as the "superior" race want to admit it, we can learn a lot from our dogs.

Saying Nothing

Like the title of this piece by Paul McHenry Roberts says, it really is possible to say nothing in 5oo words. People believe quantity equals quality and that they need to take the same position in their paper as the teacher has just to get a good grade. Most papers where students are asked to take a position all come out generally the same with the same obvious points for or against the issue. Roberts suggests that students should take the more unusual route and not use any of the first thoughts that enter their mind in their paper. And if they have a choice of topics, they should choose an unusual, more difficult one only so that it will differ from the rest of the students. Teachers get tired of reading generally the same paper over and over again, and something different will catch their attention. Students should also be descriptive and thorough in writing, but not overly so. Being overly descriptive will cause the reader to lose interest just as fast as having no descriptions at all.
Reading through this article was great. I know I'm guilty of many of those things, like not always being descriptive enough or using cliches when I write. Sometimes I probably pad my papers a little bit, not intentionally, but without even realizing it. Something I hadn't really thought about was how a teacher or professor would feel, reading the same type of paper with almost the same arguments and information over and over again. That would become incredibly tiresome and redundant. Just one student writing about the harder or more unusual topic could make all the difference. Most often I just use the arguments that first come into my mind, and I never thought that maybe everyone else is having similar thoughts and using those thoughts in their papers too. Not sure why, but that thought just never really occured to me, even though it should have. More than anything, this article made me more aware of my writing and the way it could be.

Underage Driving in California

Last week when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger passed the bill outlawing driving and using electronic devices by California's teenagers he made a big imposition on the freedoms of people in that age group. Shouldn't issues like that be up to the parents and young drivers to decide? It's kind of a personal issue about knowing what you as a driver can handle. Some young drivers perhaps shouldn't doing more than simply driving, but clumping all teens under age 18 into that category is a big generalization. Some young pople are much more mature than others and would be able to handle the responsibility well. Most teenagers that drive have cell phones for a reason: so parents can know where they are at and if there is some kind of emergency. What if they have an accident and need to contact their parents and let them know what's happening? Now most of the time if an accident occurs, the student wouldn't still be driving, but "accident" is kind of a broad term and there are millions of unforseeable situations that teens can get themselves into that may require a phone call. And what if the parents have some sort of emergency and need to get ahold of their children? If their son or daughter happens to be driving when they get the call and, because of this law they can't answer the phone, the parents will worry because they don't answer. Even though these drivers are young, they have rights too. This law imposes so much on the freedoms of young drivers.
On the other hand, young drivers don't have as much experience driving and are much more easily distracted behind the wheel of a car. Really, this law is about protecting everyone involved. Young drivers can get so involved with talking on the phone and texting while driving that they could be a hazard to themselves and other drivers. Cell phones are a good thing, if used in the right way, and the right way isn't while they're driving. Emergencies happen, but if there is an emergency, usually there's a place where teens can pull over and make a phonecall; that way they're not jeopordizing their own safety and the safety of everyone else. There's always somewhere to stop and call. And if parents have to get ahold of their children, they can have certain check-in points or some other system depending on what they decide is best for them and their teen. This is a law that most parents can agree with and feel secure about, knowing that their rules are not only being enforced by them but by the law as well. This is a law to protect everyone.

Judgements and Perceptions

Yesterday I was reading through Chapter 2 in my speech book, and it was talking about how we all have different perceptions of the same situation and how we judge people. I was forced to think about how I see things and judge people. Judge is such a harsh word-it makes me sound like a mean person. But judging people is just human nature, whether we really realize it or not, we do it. Think about all the different ways we judge people in today's society. After September 11, we stereotype agaist most people of Middle Eastern descent. Some people may not mean to do that, but it still happens. And we judge based on how people dress and look. I was watching America's Next Top Model the other day and it just made me wonder who decides what beautiful is? We as a society care so much about looks and material things. Being skinny and thin in today's society is almost a "must." Who decided that was beauty? I'll never quite figure that one out. Everyday we judge people on things like that, but why? Who are we to judge? There are nine perceptual errors we engage in, sometimes without even realizing it most of the time. First impressions was one of those errors, and that's probably the one that I'm most guilty of. Why are first impressions so important to us? I can't explain it but for some reason they just are. Can't we give people a second chance? For some reason, first impressions are hard to change, no matter how hard we try. I know for me sometimes they can be, anyway. Maybe we feel the need to "categorize" people right away, for lack of a better phrase. Everyone knows certain kinds of people, and maybe we feel the need to put people into those groups. Maybe it makes us feel better about ourselves. If we see someone in a less-than-ideal situation, we take comfort in the fact that we would never be seen "like that." Or maybe we just simply do it without even realizing it. I think that could be the most likely reason. We grow up with all of these ideas and ideals and sometimes new people we meet don't match those ideas and we just judge them without realizing it. Its a type of predjudice, I suppose. We don't acknowledge that we're judging them, because, really, who wants to think that they judge people harshly? But on occasion it happens without us even being aware of it. First impressions aren't really very fair, because people have bad days all the time and aren't always presented to new aquaintences at our best, and they judge us. It's not necessarily right or fair, but that's the way it goes. On the flip side of occasionally harsh first impressions is leniency, and I think I'm pretty guilty of that too. Sometimes we just can't see the bad aspects in people and keep giving them more and more and they keep taking it and walking all over us. In a perfect world, everyone would stick up for themselves and no one would get walked all over, but newsflash: this isn't a perfect world and we do it. Again, I'm not sure why...error in human nature, I suppose. We all have different ways of seeing things, though, which makes us unique. I don't really understand why we judge others, and ourselves for that matter, but as humans we do and I really don't know why. I'm beginning to discover that there's a lot of things that I really don't understand if I take the time to stop and think about them.

Revelation...kind of

Why do people do the things that they do? Sometimes it seems so pointless. I heard about some businesses in Watertown getting broken into and held up this weekend, and it just makes me wonder why on earth someone would do that. It seems pointless to me because it only makes situations worse for those people involved. There are so many more effective ways than stealing from a convenience store to get the things that you want. Sure, it might sound like a good plan at first, and they may get away with it for awhile, but eventually they'll get caught. It's inevitable. And when that happens, their situations will be so much worse and harder to control. Why would anyone want to risk that? I certainly wouldn't and I really don't think many people would, but yet things like that happen every day. It doesn't make sense tko me. But then I was flipping through channels on tv and happened to see a little bit of a show-to be honest I'm not even sure what it was called or what channel it was on- but it was a show where they were talking to homeless people and asking them questions: what it's like being out on the streets, lifestyle things, and what happened to send them out there to live like that. One man replied simply that he couldn't help it-he had no choice. He lost his job and couldn't find another one, although he used all the resources he had in looking for one. After being unemployed so long, money began to run low and payments couldn't be made and he simply couldn't keep up with the money situation and he was kicked out of his house. After that, he really couldn't find a job because he had no home and hardly any possessions and no one would hire a man who lived out on the streets. Hence the reason he was homeless and living on the streets. And that made me think about the people holding up those businesses. What if they're in similar situations? I'm not saying at all that I'm condoning what they're doing, but what if they truly think they have no choice? Who knows what people will do to try and fix their situations? They can't really be blamed for that. It's certainly not the best way to fix the problem, but it might be the only solution they can come up with. Maybe they have kids to feed and bills to pay, and with today's crazy economy sometimes things just don't even out and people come up short. Maybe things aren't always what they seem and there's more to the story than we know. I always used to have such contempt for people who did things like robbing a convenience store, but I never thought about it from the other side before. It could be a last ditch, desperate attempt to save things. Now I don't know what I think for sure. I think that robbing is wrong, definitely, but I also think that sometimes there is more than meets the eye. It all depends on the situation I guess. Its not always black and white, good or bad.

Fish and worms...I don't get it

I'm not really sure where this is coming from, but for some reason today I was thinking about fish...just kind of out of the blue, for no particular reason. I like to fish, so maybe that's why I was thinking about it. Getting to the point though, I just don't understand why, when you're fishing, you can catch a little fish and throw it back into the water, and sometimes they just keep coming back and eating the worm again and again to get themselves caught. I just don't understand it. I realize that the fish have got to eat, that's just a fact of life, and I understand that. But I just kind of think they should be smart enough to at least be a little bit scared of the worm and not go swimming up to the very first one they see after getting caught. God made animals with instincts to follow, which I suppose is why the fish does that. But didn't God also make them smart enough to make choices? I suppose that's a choice that the fish has to make: decide to take the chance of getting caught or eating. Either way they could die. It all comes down to choices. The same thing could be said about people. Why do we make the choices that we do? Sometimes it seems like we have so many choices to make and we end up making the wrong ones. I hate not knowing whether I should just go with my gut feeling or if it needs more thought. Sometimes I wonder why we have the power of choice... it complicates things, but then again we wouldn't be happy without it. That's what makes us human. It confuses me, but some things just aren't supposed to make sense to us.

My Writing Style

When I write, I am like rain. Now that may not make sense right away, but stop and think about this: rain can be either nice and soft and comforting, or it can be dark and heavy and damaging. My writing style is just as unpredictable. Just like with a rainstorm, before it begins it's sometimes difficult to tell what it's going to be like. With some writing projects, I'm organized, efficient, and have a clear outline and path to follow, which could be compared to the nice, soft rain. Other times, however, it is disorganzed, all over the place, and has no clear direction or purpose. I'm just trying to get my ideas down on paper so I don't leave anything out and worry about the cleanup later on. I compare this to the hard, heavy, damaging rain that brings a flood. The rain comes fast and leaves a mess to be cleaned up later on. And sometimes when I'm writing, I'm not always very clear or I make my paper too long by putting in too many details, but other times I don't add enough. That could be compared to the length of a rainshower. Then we work through it clean it up and organize it and it all turns out well and looks good. In my mind it just makes sense. I find that most things make sense in my head but not as much when I try to explain them. For the most part, I really like writing, even research papers. But I can't say my writing style is anything noteworthy. It really varies depending on what I'm writing. The only thing that I can say for sure about it is that it changes and is unpredictable, just like the rain.

This is new...

Well this is pretty cool, I've never had a blog before...this could be kind of fun. We had to set this up for my Honors 101 Comp. class to do reflective journaling. I think this'll be fun, definitely a creative new spin on writing.