Eritza @eritza29-blog - Tumblr Blog

Gold Stars to everyone

In conclusion I really enjoyed this class. It was a really difficult challenge, but I am left with many great articles that I will hopefully return to the future when I have a problem with my writing. This class was a very different class than what I was used to. This class was more based on our opinions and we lead the conversation, when other classes it’s more of the teacher having control over us. This class was more of a discussion panel. I loved how all our classmates were friendly and we would all give our points of views when we would get together. Also the spaceships sounds will stick with me forever and I will use it in the future when I become a teacher and I will also give my students lots and lots of gold starts. Overall this was a fun class, a challenging fun class. Best luck to everyone.

Hope to see you in the hallways and I will wave and not remember your name. Famous words from our professor, Dr. Hawkins

#engl4343sp17

The article “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott really spoke to me. It talks about how mostly everyone has really bad first drafts, even the really experienced writers. That’s the reason why I liked it because I know that I am a not so great writer, and my proofreading isn't that great. Also Lamott told us that writing is a process, you will not get a perfect paper if you do not take your time at actually sitting down and reading it through and see the mistakes you have made. It should be read several times and you should have several drafts perfecting your work. This article and “Revision Strategies of Students Writers and Experienced Adult Writers,” Nancy Sommers these two articles will always stay with me, because I have been writing wrong all this time. At is is sad because this will be my last semester (hopefully). If I would have taken this class in my freshmen year I would have work on my writing. They showed me what mistakes I have been doing for the past years as I write. It is important that as educators we are shown how is the correct way of writing, because we will be showing other students how to write at times and well at least I wouldn’t like to show them the wrong way that I have been doing it. We focus on the grammar and sounding more professional and using “big words” when we should be focusing in what we want the audience to know, the context. My way of how I see composition has changed, I still see writing as something hard, but when you are taught the correct process and you have the right tools, you can see that it’s not as hard as it seems.

#engl4343sp17

Collaborative Writing

Working in groups is something I have always hated, due to very bad experiences. I have had to do work on my own and the person still getting credit which I have hated so much, but ever since that happened I really avoid working with other because I am not going to be working on my own so other people can get credit over something that they never did.In one of my classes, my professor put in in a group with a girl who was from Brownsville. Now the problem was that that specific class was an ITV class, she would never come to this campus and neither would I go over there. She then emails me saying she would not be going to class that day and if it was okay if she would do the presentation and the research and I would just present it. I obviously agree because I wanted to be nice. Well she didn’t bother to email me until two days before class, she sends me the power point the say before the presentation at 12 am. I was then going to work at 7am and would get out at 3. That class began at 4:40. So I finally get the chance to read her power point and the presentation was totally wrong, it was the right chapter number but of another book (since we had used 2 books that semester and she had used the old one we were using). I had to come out with a presentation with less than an hour for me to present. I made it, but it was the worst experience I ever had. But for this class I was lucky enough to have a good partner. Tim was a really great partner and I think that we did a good job working on our Wikis. He restored my faith over group work. This class was a really nice one because I was able to meet really nice people that would help me understand the readings more. At the end, I believe that collaborative writing helps by storming the may point of what we want to write about. I believe that it’s good to have several points of view and not only one. One person can understand it a different way that how you understood it. That’s why it’s always great to see it from different point of view from several people. It is also much faster working with other people. You will finish faster and both of them can look up different information and not only focus on one certain topic. Even though I've had some really bad experiences, like the one mentioned before, this class was very helpful and everyone did their part when it came to writing and reading. I now have a more positive way of seeing this.

#engl4343sp17

In the article“Locating Queer Rhetorics: Mapping as an Inventional Method,” Donald Unger and Fernando Sanchez, they talked about where precisely does the Queer Rhetoric fit in composition. To be honest I had never heard of Queer Rhetoric, I have heard the word queer before and knew what it meant, but i didn’t know there was a specific category. I also learned during class that it’s not only LGBT which I always had knowledge of, but Dr, Hawkins told us that it’s LGBTQIA which i had no knowledge before. It is important that everyone gets informed over important topics like these. I also like the fact that there is Queer Rhetoric because it’s interesting and it should be something that everyone would read. It should something that people should be more open of this kinds of rhetoric, it should be more talked about because more people have to read this.We can always learn something new from everyone and I believe the LGBTQIA community has so much to say and so much to tell the world. Overall I enjoyed the article and the conversation we had in class.

#engl4343sp17

In this article we see what medias were being used in the classroom, which is mostly referred to CDs. Now i believe that as educators we need to make sure we keep up with all of technology that we are being introduced to. For example, now in days, there is many classes who are being given through ITV. These classes are basically the same, but the professor is in another classroom and they are teaching two groups of students, one face to face and the other through teleprompter. These were never before done till this day. Also students now are so involved in social media, for example, for this class we are using Tumblr that is a social media service. It’s not crazy like snap chat or like Facebook, but surely was not used for education purposes. But in this class we were introduced to it and we are using it as a place to write what we feel and communicate with our classmates, which I believe is good. This is an example of what I mean. Teachers need to see what the technology is being used so the students can use it for educational purposes. There is also a game called Kahoot, where the students use their cellphones and they all can participate by answering the answers of the questions that are being given through the projector. This can be a learning alternative and make it more interesting in the classroom. Even though social media and technology may be overwhelming it is something that we have to look at and see where we can come out with ideas to use these in our favor.

#engl4343sp17

The article, Literate Misfitting: Disability Theory and a Sociomaterial Approach to Literacy by Elisabeth L. Miller, gives us information over disabilities. I believe students who need special accommodations should be able to get that in order to learn. Students with disabilities need teachers that are properly trained to teach them. If they are placed in a general classroom they will not be able to learn. Every teacher should get some kinds of training to manage students who have disabilities. Sometimes the district does not have the enough funds to put in every school a special education classroom, and that is very unfortunate. Students regardless if they have a disability or not, they should still be allowed to get an education. The child is not at fault that because they have a disability they shouldn't get an education. But sometimes the school district has their hands tied, and they just don’t get enough funding from the federal or the state government. When something like this happens, the district at times has a school and they send all of the student who have a disability, it’s good that the school district at least has a school with a program special needs, but how inconvenient it is for the family that has to drive miles away just so their child could get the education they deserve. I believe that the government should pay more attention to students who have disabilities and create more funding for them because they need equal education.

#engl4343sp17

Teaching writing teachers how to write

This article was interesting. I had never thought on the topic Reid talks about. As a student, growing up you see your teachers as someone who knows everything. It’s not till an older age that you find out that most of the times that’s not the case. As I am about to graduate and my career path is teaching, I am thinking how I am going to be able to teach several students, what am I going to do if I do not know the correct answer to one of their questions? That’s why as a teacher I have to have sympathy towards my students and not seem to know everything. Same goes to teachers who claim to know how to write, but they really don’t. Writing teachers at times give hard work and they expect the students to have a perfect score, or to understand perfectly what they are expected to do. When writing teachers are put in the same place as their students they will have sympathy and they will be in the students shoes and will know how the students feel when the teachers puts them in a certain situation. Teachers should be put the same way so they will feel how the student feels. Reid states“Teachers who experience writing difficulty not only connect emotionally to their students, something they might do after writing what their students write, but they gain clarity about how students learn to write better.” (Reid 201)

#engl4343sp17

Emotions?

In the article Engaging a “Pedagogy of Discomfort”: Emotion as Critical Inquiry in Community-Based Writing Courses we can see that the author talks about how some students wrote their essays and sharing empathy when they were writing them. They shared stories of other people and they grew concerned if their essays were showing enough emotions. They were writing over event that had occurred around the community and they were trying to show emotion in their writing. When we talk about events like these were the student is trying to show empathy with their readers, it is important to show what the person they are writing about has gone through. Now these students had to “connect” with the people they were going to write about. But some students had trouble “connecting” with them. Some students felt guilt when talking to them because of the the people were going through some rough times and they well they didn’t have it that hard. Prebel states that students can work in showing their emotions better if they are showed how to since an early age. The students he had in his class had a hard time doing so, he believes if students are exposed at an earlier age they will be successful later on in life regarding this. Prebel states that “Scaffolding strategies, in other words, work by supporting students’ learning and “socio-emotional development” through stages or steps, as students come to understand how “language communicates emotions”” (Prebel web) Emotions will always play an important thing when it comes to writing. Readers need to see the emotions of the writer in order to feel empathy towards them.

Composition and writing

#engl4343sp17

Girl Power.

Feminism. This is a word that lately has cause stir around the country. During class it was a topic that we discussed. Coming that most of the class is made up of woman you would think that all of them would stand up because as woman we still have problems going on. On the reading of Bell Hooks, who is a social activist talks about her struggles. Then as the class that we are we discussed our views of feminism. Most of us claimed being a feminist but there were some who said they couldn’t say they were feminist because most of the feminist woman are those crazy one who do not shave and go braless. (Not her specific words but close enough) I believe that as women we should all stick together and want to fight for equality, since women are seen as the “weak” gender. I have seen around that some women state that men are stronger and there are some things that us woman can not do . I am not a person who gets into conflict with other regarding their opinions, but these woman need a reality check. Women are not even getting involved in careers that are just seen as male careers. Just here in the valley they just hired the first woman to be part of the fire department. These women should be seen as role models because they are breaking the rules by going into career paths that only men are part of. These woman may face adversity because they will most likely will be facing sexual harassment and will not be treated the same as her male coworkers. It is important to see how feminism has changed, compared to when Bell Hooks was. Slowly we were getting there, but now that we have this new president it seems that things may be moving backwards. But that is another topic.

#eng4343

Just Reflecting

This class is something that I never thought I would enjoy. I have a total of 5 classes, and decided to write because I have a lot of work to do. If this class has taught me something is that free writing helps you to become a better writer, so I want to show you all my emotions and feelings by writing everything. I know I have a learning journal but that’s more to what I learn every day. This is something that I have learned through the whole semester, well so far. This class is something that I never thought I would enjoy. Since my major is not English I thought I wouldn’t enjoy it, but I believe that in order to become the educator I want to be, it’s important to learn everything I can which will help me in the long run as a teacher. The methods we are learning here are good, and I am sure I can incorporate them in the future. It will help me develop my teaching philosophy. Also everything that I have learn so far has helped me. My writing is slowly changing, I’m not sure how I can show that, but I see it. I pay more attention to how I am writing and not worrying a lot if I am writing correctly (meaning the correct spelling and grammar). Well I think I feel a little better after discussing how this class has impacted my life. Slowly but surely these readings have changed the way I think about composition.

#engl4343sp17

lizzieelizondo286-blog

Money over Education?

Bill Readings explains how education is not what’s important to Universities instead, it’s the money they bring in that what matters most to them. Culture has been lost within the Universities in an attempt to give the impression that “culture has no value” when in chapter 3 he brings out that point as culture does have meaning and serves a purpose to students at the Universities. In chapter 4 Readings argues how culture is a legitimate idea to the modern university and how Universities have been founded and brought up on culture. How can we as students believe the Universities best interests reflect upon our education rather than money? Well we can’t, as Readings said in the beginning, it’s something that can’t be changed by just one person, the University has so much power, it’ll be hard to try and even get someone to change it.

Excellence is based on what a school has and what they have to offer rather than what type of education you will get from it. Reading’s states how “no one knows what excellence is but that everyone has his or her idea of what it is.” Sometimes it is seen as a form as capitalism, which Readings believes it would be wrong to look at it that way. Bringing other national and international students is another way Universities view students as a source of income.

When Readings bring culture in the University setting, it reminded me when I first started college and there was so much emphasis on your culture, and I believe there still is. But in chapter 7 it talks differently on how cultural studies is loosing its true meaning demonstrating how the national culture is dying, which I only believe because the Universities are all about consumerism and globalization in this era.

Readings does a great job at presenting us with topics that students will find useful, but also not only students but more so professors would understand this more because they actually see what happens behind the closed doors of the University.

nayleaorta-blog

you make a great point. The University went from a place where you gain knowledge and “find yourself” while learning about others to an institute “all about consumerism and globalization” as you stated. Instead of creating productive people in society by gaining knowledge, the University views students as dollar signs and help them so in the long run the students could help the University once they become successful. Your blog really made me think about these things which before I hadn’t really thought about.

nayleaorta-blog

eritza29-blog

I believe universities are now treating us as customers. They do not care of what we are gaining, they are just seeing us as consumers. For example, this university, it sucks. The parking is just so little and they do nothing to fix it, but they charge us $60 for parking and most of the time we can’t even find any. Also compare the buildings like our the humanities one, compare that to the new medicine one. They have their own library!!!! We don’t even have enough space to be able to sit down and read, but they get a new library? Our buildings are old, the inside is old, everything is old. And I believe it’s all because of of the field that we are studying for. Engineering and medicine are some of the highest paying jobs, while humanities well they do not pay enough.

auroraluna1-blog

Rule of Reason

The University of Berlin was founded in the 1810’s with a vision of a modern university. However, the foundation was founded with one concept of teaching in that of a humanist education approach. Through the years the educational system has evolved bringing in new concepts of education. In the book” The University in Ruins, by Bill Reading they mention the theology and philosophy approach. A Theology approach meaning the study of law, medicine, or religion. On the contrary, philosophy is based on reason alone. Therefore, they become a discussion of ideas between the original traditional pedagogy approaches of teaching. Now, my understanding is that theology Universities produce technicians for the state, while physiology protects the University from abuse of the state. In my opinion, I can relate this to what a University chooses to teach into their curriculum, but it can also depend on which standards each institute follows. Has anyone ever noticed that higher payed jobs are linked to interest of our government. Many degrees for higher education require more money to be invested and additional state certificationas. Also, many people in our government and educational system have different perspectives of education. For example, many teachers teach what is required versus what they originally believed or wanted to teach. Government plays a role by benefiting from the student and builds them up as an industrial investment for business.

natalie-mena01-blog

Omg yes ! I have absolutely notices that some of the higher paying jobs are directly linked with the government. And absolutely, the higher the education the more expensive. We live in a society that values education and looks at degrees very highly. The problem with this is, many smaller degrees aren’t really praised. And so students know right away that the job market is scarce. Students really don’t choose the jobs they want sometimes because it’s not as respected or it’s not enough pay. So they pick Pre-professional jobs like Pre-med, Pre-law to pursue degrees in. Many teachers have to follow a particular curriculum and so for example, if they want to teach a particular topic using a graphic novel their ideas are shut down by the school district. I really feel strongly that the government has a lot of benefits from the money that we spend at college.

eritza29-blog

This could not anymore accurate. Like Teachers have to invest so much money if they do not get certified through a university. It is expensive to get certified through an alternative place. And in some states in order for you to be a teacher you need a masters degree to even be considered to apply as a teacher. And to top that off you will get a very low paycheck compared to what other people’s do.It’s sad because most of the time people pick their career based on what will give them more money to what they really want to do as a career.

Is the Education System really working?

This reading had a lot of things that talked about the University. There were many different topics regarding the University. But there was one specific one that I can relate to. University in the Ruins was a reading that I could had not agreed more in. This article tells us of how the university is composed in. As we all might want to think, the schools only want what’s best for us, but at least in this University that is not the case. I thought that only I had that kind of opinion regarding how the university runs. But Peter Elbow is on my side. The university “system: is being runned as a business. The people that run this institution do not care whatsoever of the students. They only care of how much money it can make from the students. Instead of the University making education accessible, they tend to increase tuition every so often. But the help that we get from the government stays the same and the interest rates that we get from the government also stay the same. This is when we include the government, because even though some say that they have nothing to do with this they do. Many countries have free college, even if it’s just for the first 2 years of someone’s education, but that’s a help. In some countries in Europe, education is free even to people who are not citizens and what not. This is when we see that our education system is doomed. That this country that many people die in trying to be part of sucks! The future of this country are the people who are going to college and furthering their education. These people leave the university owing thousands of dollars, some don’t even finish paying these loans ever, because the interest rate were so high. The university system has much more work to get done, because this is just not helping future generations. And things seem like they might get worse with the president that we have, and with Betsy DeVos.

#eng4343

natalie-mena01-blog

What is a Feminist?

In Ch. 5,Theory as Liberatory Practice, Bell Hooks, as a social activist, was attracted to theory because of her difficult childhood. She struggled to understand male authority and what her family considered to be the “social norms.” Her parents saw her as a “demonic little figure who threatened to subvert and undermine all they were seeking to build.” Her parents could not understand and in result she could not connect to her family so she turns to theory as a “healing place.” She brings up several theorists in terms of feminism. Alice Miller is mentioned because of Bell’s personal connection to Alice’s story which included her turning to theory because of her wounded childhood. She introduces Katie King and how she talks about how white, powerful women sometimes do not give recognition to lesser known sources they take from. And even if they say they’re building on ideas based on unknown authors, the credit is given to the more well-known people. Katie King goes on talking about how one way theory is used is to set up unnecessary and competing hierarchies designating work as either inferior, superior, or ,more or less worthy of attention. In academics, the work deemed truly theoretical is work that is highly abstract, jargonistic, difficult to read, and containing obscure references. Outside of academics this use of theory is useless because it promotes class elitism and creates a gap between theory and practice. Some black instructors do not speak up on their theoretical conclusions when they are mostly around white teachers and a small group of black people because they want to fit in with the small group.

Something we talked about in class is how you don’t have to be a woman in order to be a feminist. You can be a guy who strongly supports feminism and everyone has a different way of viewing it and that’s great. That’s why I chose the above quote/gif by Beyoncé because it includes all people not just women.

eritza29-blog

You know, sometimes men are feminist and that is great!!! We need to help each other be equal because that's all we want. We don't want to be superior to men and thats what many people do to understand. We just want say wages, and for people to respect us. Because sometimes women are treated as just a piece of meat. I want to think that things have changed ever since Hooks wrote thins book, and they have. But with the new government we have, we are going back in time and everything woman have fought for so long is being lost. How is that even posible? Instead of making progress we are just walking backwards.

On another note, like we talked about in class, everyone has a different way to demonstrate they are feminist. Some will protest and want their voices be heard, some might decide to vote and write letters to their state representatives so they can vote in favor or against something, but others might go to the extremes and display they're body. Everyone thinks differently and even though some people might not be in favor of this “extreme” way of showing feminism as woman we should stick together. I’m going to end it here because I can go on and on.

natalie-mena01-blog

Research Paper:

This Thursday (3/2/17) we had a guest lecturer, Consuelo Salas, she was really sweet and I really liked her lecture on the research paper that is due at the end of the semester. To be quite honest with all of you, I hadn’t put much thought into the research paper, nor did I even know that there was one we had to do (I know right where was I? Under a rock?). Ms. Salas opened up my eyes completely and really helped me figure out what I was going to do for the research paper. She offered great tips on how to start researching and she gave us time to really think about what it takes to get us there. One method she brought up that I really enjoyed was the Information Timeline. Set up into Event (Days), Analysis (Weeks), Context (Months) and Filtered (Years). She had us talk about all the different resources we use when conducting research and without even realizing it we all had so many different answers. Some of us use articles, youtube videos, blogs, books, and even social media! I had no idea we could even use social media (depending on context and who is saying what). Another technique she brought up is the CRAAP method. Currency (Kairos)- timeliness/ context of info, Relevance (Topic)- importance of info for your needs , Authority (Credibility)- source of info; both author/location found, Accuracy(Ethos/Logos)- reliability, truthfulness, correctness of text, Purpose- reason info exists; what the author is trying to achieve in their work. Something I find very effective in the CRAAP method is checking the validity of the article and the author’s intentions for writing it so as not to stray off the topic you’re trying to get at with your research paper. Overall, I feel like I am prepared to write my research paper (or at least more so than I was before the lecture). The gif I inserted above shows Sheldon from Big Bang Theory throwing around a bunch of papers. I included this because conducting a research paper can really start to feel chaotic when you don’t know where to start. It’s like having all this information and not knowing what to do with it. I really feel like Ms. Salas was effective in getting us to a great start so that if we follow the two methods she mentioned, perhaps we won’t feel in over our heads.

eritza29-blog

I loved her presentation. She is helping us out in what we have to do to have an easier research process. The timeline was my favorite part. It’s crazy how it takes time in order for an event to get enough reliable information, I had never thought about that. The whole process would be great to use, but sometimes we are limited to some of those resources because our professors do not allow us to use them. We can only use academic databases and that’s when it gets hard in getting some information. At the end this was a great post!!

Nailed it!

When guest speaker Consuelo Salas came, I was like here we go, a lecture that is not even going to help, just going to waste my time. But when the screen came on and saw that the topic was research it interested me. The two biggest things students hate is writing essays and doing research, at least that’s what I’ve heard. When she asked us to choose a topic I left my paper blank because I didn’t know what would be a good topic. When choosing a topic usually I want to get something that not only interests me but also something that I know I can find a lot of information so I won’t have trouble at the time I need citations and what not. Till this day, I do not know what to write about. After picking the topic, we have to start getting sources and start reading. That to me is the hard part. The easy part is when I already know enough about the topic and start writing my paper. Consuelo Salas helped me to take one step at a time. She showed whole process of how an event happens and all the articles that start being written about, that was a long but interesting process. She made me feel more comfortable of how to conduct research. She made it seems easy, and now I can’t wait till I get to start my research for this class.

#engl4343sp17

Free writing?

In this reading, Elbows states: “The most effective way I know to improve your writing is to do free writing exercises regularly.” (Elbows75) Just with this sentence I can say a lot. First, being a college student I have always hated writing essays. When I would enter a classroom the first thing I would look at the syllabus is see how many essay we had to do. Elbow says we should free write and that is a wonderful idea. But as a college student, we just want to get over assignments, there is no time really to free writing. I have a diary that I write maybe once every six months, either than that I don’t do much of free writing. Students write because they must, not because they want too. Of course, I would love to free write but there is no time. Now as we have read in other readings, revision has always been a big issue with students. They focus on just that, on making sure everything is written correctly, and Elbows states that’s not the issue, the issue is that we revise when we’re not supposed to. I can be writing an essay and once I see Word underline a word in red or in blue and I stop my thinking and go and correct it. I just interrupted my thoughts so I can go fix a grammatical error that is not important. I know that many other students can relate to this. We need to write down everything first and at the end of everything we should go ahead and revise and make sure that everything is correct, but not just focus on that, but focus on the context of essay, on the structure. We want to make sure that what we are trying to say actually makes sense.

#engl4343sp17

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Eritza