End of the year blog

1.) How were you able to use the blog (e.g. as a thinking tool, space for exploration, place to gather responses from peers, etc.)?
I was able to use the blog as a way to share my ideas with the rest of the class. I used the comments other students left me to revise my ideas.

2.) How did your blog posts connect with and/or enhance your learning?
It did not enhance my learning at all. The only thing it did was force me to actually read the information so that I could respond to the blog assignments.

3.) What, if anything, do you like about blogging?
I did not like the blogging. It was too much for me to remember. I would rather have face to face discussions in class to help me better understand the information.

4.) How did you apply the evaluation & suggestions I gave you in the mid-term evaluation?
I just continued how I had been doing my blog posts the way I was doing before because I got a pretty good evaluation.

Proposal Paper

For my proposal paper I am going to write about standardized testing. In the state of Virginia we have to take SOL's and I think that these tests are hindering the children's learning. Teachers get evaluated based on the scores their students receive on these types of tests. So now a days it feels like teachers are just teaching so their students do well on the standardized tests rather than teaching them valuable information that they will use later on in life. It is going to be really hard to find sources for me to site becuase this is a pretty recent issue. My mom is a teacher so I think I am going to do a personal interview with her and use that in my paper.

The Hardest of the Hardcore

From the very beginning of this essay I was hooked on reading it. The author used words like "killed", "mutilated", and "hung" to grab the attention of the reader. The author uses the word civilian meaning the mercenaries. But when I think of civilian I think of a person just like me. Mercenary means a person that has previously been in the armed forces who still performs tasks for the military. I do not agree with the use of mercenaries. The use of mercenaries causes a great loss of money. Mercenaries are not counted as members of the armed forces or the militias. With the use of mercenaries, militias, and the regular military there are more casualties counted. some of those casualties could be avoided. I think the only people that should fight in a war or defend a country in any way have to be part of a militia group or a member of one of the five branches of the military.

While channel surfing today I came across a commercial for Maybelline Mineral Make-up commercial. The commercial shows a young adult female clearing off her make up shelf of all the pore clogging liquid make up. The commercial for the new mineral make up claims that using the make up will make your skin look fresh. The rhetorical aim and logos of this commercial can be explained by the phrase "Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's Maybelline." That catchphrase makes females want to buy this product because they want to wear make-up without people being able to tell they are wearing make-up. The ethos in this commercial comes from the speakers character. She is wearing the make up and you can barely tell and she seems to really believe in what she is advertising. The pathos, or emotion, in this commercial i think comes sole from the actress in the commercial. She seems to really believe in the product and by the way it makes her skin looks makes others want there skin to look the same.
This commercial can also appeal to males. The actress in the commercial is a beautiful girl. If a male were to see this they would want their girlfriend or wives to look the same way.

Formal essay prep

I am not quite sure sure exactly how I am going to write this paper. I probably won't until it comes down to writing it and revising it. I definitely plan on incorporating main some of the main points we discussed in class such as consumerism- like how colleges are becoming more business like and the strategies they are using to get more people interested in their school, the classical view of education vs. the utilitarian view of education, commercialism, and many others. i think the hardest part to writing this essay is going to keep it focused on the main points. There are so many different lessons being discussed din the essay that it will be hard to focus on just a few. also it will be difficult to condense a summary to the word requirement for an essay that is itself eleven pages. While reading the chapter I discovered many ways to start an essay like this and make it effective. To be successful on this essay assignment I will definitely have to take my time and dedicate my work into doing so.

On the uses of a Liberal Education

I found this essay very thought provoking. Along with thought provoking there was also a little humor in the essay. The essay was written in a formal format but it was written with a semi-informal style because the audience is college students. The essay is written in a conversational type first person. Although it was a really long essay it was pretty easy to read and understand. I thought his examples of how there was no enthusiasm in his class and the poor participation was dead on. I know that this is not true in every class, but in some classes people are afraid to speak up or answer a controversial issue because someone might criticize them or disagree with them. I also like how he quotes himself in the paper, it makes it more real and easier to relate too. I definitely enjoyed reading this except for the face that it was so long. Before writing my paper I will definitely have to read it a couple more times to make sure i did not miss anything.

Descriptions of the same scene

My Dorm Room
Favorable View: When you open the door to my dorm room you are greeted with a great array of colors; colors on the floor, walls, and beds. There is a sweet aroma of a mixture of Ralph Lauren HOT and a variety of Victoria Secret perfume. Looking around there are clothes thrown all over the place but none on the floor. Moving further into the room you see a TV set sitting in clear view of every seat in the room. Behind the TV is a huge mirror perfecting for ready in the mornings in. Right in front of the mirror is a big make-up box, filled with enough make-up for about 15 girls. In the middle of the room there is a large metal shelf. The shelf is a very handy, it hold books, snack, and a fish named Marley. Getting a little more nosey if you open the closets, you will find two very jammed packed closets, overflowing with shoes and clothes. You can definitely tell this is a girl’s dorm room.

Unfavorable View: When you first open the door to my dorm you are greeted by a rush of hot air. The lack of central air conditioning really makes the room burning hot. You will also quickly feel the hard tile floor underneath your feet. You will also notice the size of the room, smaller than any room two people should live in together. There is barely room to move around much. When you finally walk onto the carpet you might get a little grossed out about how dirty the rug is. With no vacuum it is really hard to rug, so it is normally covered in hair, leaves, grass, and other unknown things. You better watch out for the cable cord running along the floor. You follow the cord to find a TV the size of about your computer screen that looks like it is from the early 1990’s. Hopefully you have no allergies when you come into this room the smell of perfume is so strong I even sneeze. You can definitely tell this is a college freshman’s dorm room.

Self-Reflection: Doing this assignment made me look at thing in a different way. Also it made me think of ways to describe everyday things so that a reader can easily get a picture in their mind. Writing those descriptions made me concentrate on the angle of vision I was trying to portray with each paragraph. Because my scene was something I would describe in a favorable view I had to look at it like I was a different person who did not like my room. It was much easier to do the favorable description.