*Blogging!*

For the most part, I didn't mind blogging on the web. I found it to be fun, and kept it more interesting, rather than doing journal entries or something else related to that. It was a fun way to express ideas and opinions with others in our class in an easy, efficient way. I felt like it helped me be able to see what others' from my class wrote on their walls. It sometimes gave me a different perspective on ideas or on the content for which we were assigned to blog about. I would recommend using this again for this class. I personally enjoyed expression myself using this blogging method (:

Different Style of Peer Reviewing

I really liked how we did peer reviews during class on Tuesday. Reading out loud my own paper made it easier for me to realize how my paper really sounded like and I was able to get very useful feedback. I've read over my papers many times, but reading out loud really is more effective, I think anyways. For my literacy narrative I was able to see how my paper was lacking somewhat the "worldly" aspect and with the help from Jessica W. I have a better idea as to what I could add to my paper.

For the proposal paper, I felt it REALLY helpful with the points that we were to find within our body paragraphs. This helped me identify what specifically I was missing from my paper. I also think this checklist helped clear up my confusion with how to go about improving my paper, as this is one of my papers that needs some work yet. Thanks for the helpful checklist for our proposal papers!

As for our research paper goes...  I know for fact that my research paper needs lots of work still. But I was really excited about getting someone else's paper to read and give feedback on, rather than trying to read through mine again for the millionth time. I believe this will be more helpful in the long run, when it comes to editing and improving my research paper. I'm aware of what my paper is at the moment, and I'm looking forward for some great feedback from Erika! (:  Thanks!

Future plans.... Where I want to go in life (:

   Coming to USD I was one of those students who hadn't officially decided on a major. I had somewhat of an idea between Health Sciences or Accounting. Attending the intro to HSC 110 class this semester I have finally decided on making it my major. I'm really excited about my major. I've thought about it for a long time and feel very content with the decision. As I have finally been able to decide on a major I can start taking classes that will work towards both my major and my minor in psychology.

   With a Health Science major I plan to one day pursue a career as a Kinesiologist. Over the summer I plan to do an internship or work with our family's Kinesiologist that we see on a regular basis. I'm interested in this occupation because natural health is very important to me and has many benefits. Our society is facing several health problems such as cancer, heart disease, obesity etc. A Kinesiologist can help patients tackle and overcome these and other common health issues that are minor such as the common cold, flu, and allergies. I'd like to learn more about the body and look at what our bodies are lacking in order to truly maintain a "healthy" lifestyle. To also help me further my understanding about the natural nutrients and healing that our bodies truly benefit from I am very fortunate to have my sister-in-law's mother as a resource. She has recently opened up her own health food store in a local town nearby where I am from. In the future I may someday be able to work with her as well.

Everyone tells you that you should choose something that you ENJOY doing because in reality you'll be doing it from the rest of your life.

Literary Analysis Outline ....I'm liking it!

As I received the outline during class on tuesday, I was searching through all my note cards trying to organize them into piles. Then I realized that it would be best perhaps if I simply read through all the note cards and then refreshed myself with the information that I was working with. I started working on my outline after class and sorted everything out into piles that went together. After doing this I then applied the information onto my outline, which I found really easy to do. I then was able to have all my sources and important information all one sheet. This really did help me write my paper much more faster and was very useful I thought!

Thesis Statement! - Revised

In "A White Heron" Sarah Orne Jewett conveys the importance of women finding themselves through their own values and beliefs during the early twentieth- century.

Thesis Statement!

Thesis Statement:

         In "A White Heron" Sarah Orne Jewett conveys to the reader the importance of women finding themselves through their own values and beliefs during the early twentieth- century.

Analyzing Stories

After reading through the stories again and paying more attention to the details I can now analyze a deeper meaning from the readings. I found it helpful to read through the first story together. I also tried analyzing these stories on my own, but found it to be very difficult to do. A few of us from the class were able to get together and work on this together, which helped gather different point of views and form a deeper perspective. I found it really interesting how a writer may write about something that may not seem important but at the same time have a deeper meaning. This isn't easy to do, but it definitely makes the stories much more interesting not only to read but also made me realize the meaning for writing each piece.

Recognizing Symbolism

The Yellow Wallpaper

In this particular reading I think one symbol is  the yellow wallpaper. To me I believe it symbolizes the wife's feelings and expressions that she shows. Seeing the images within the wallpaper represents this. I also think the nursery may be a important symbol in this piece. I think it represent how his wife and women overall in general were just seen more as children with not much significance. I found it very interesting when the wife recognized bars within the wallpaper, which gives the symbolism of being stuck or trapped because she's in this house all alone.

The White Heron

In this reading I think the White Heron is important, not only the bird but also the color white. I think it represents peace and freedom. She refuses to tell the boy where the Heron is because she feels that it is important to the environment and life. 

Women in 1900's

I read an article about women's rights vs. the right of men becoming firefighters. A firefighter has been viewed more as a man's job and not something women would commonly do. In 1977, the New York City Department allowed women the opportunity to take the exam in which they had to pass in order to become a firefighter (Holton 43). To their surprise approximately 400 women had passed the written part of this exam (Holton 43). It wasn't until five years later when they revised the exam and 42 women had successfully passed and became the first women firefighters (Holton 43). This struggle for women of being able to take part in a male dominant job wasn't easy in the 1900's. Men were becoming aggressively upset and would often try anything they could possibly do to keep women away from "their" jobs. I feel this discrimination against women is awful. Women are just as human as men are. Thus, women should be treated with respect of that equal to of men. Women weren't trying to take over the jobs of men, but instead only trying to help and achieve acknowledgement that they truly deserved as much as the men did during this time.


Source:
       Holton, Sandra S. Feminism and Democracy: Women's Sufferage and Reform Politics in Britain, 1990-1918. 1986. Google Scholar. Google. Web. 1 Nov. 2010.

The Most Dangerous Game ...mmmh

I started reading this story and begin thinking wow this sounds really familiar. We read this story in high school. Personally, this story is interesting to me in many ways. The one part that grabs my attention is knowing of this man on this island who actually hunts humans. It puts a different twist on life in someone else's eyes that probably hasn't read this before. To be honest I find it very interesting that a person could possibly be a hunter of their own kind? mmmh..   this story in general grabs the readers attention very well.

OMELAS! Omelas!

"...city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea...boats in the harbor sparkled with flags." City Omelas was a joyous place to live and it was considered a "happy" city.  Is this really real through? A city that appears to be really "happy" and a "perfect" place to live is actually not so much? The beginning of the story made a vivid picture of "..if only life was this simple and laid back... and perfect as Omelas" As i eagerly continued reading the story, I became emotionally shocked. The main reason why the city was so "joyful" was actually based on a child's misery. How could this be? I can't even begin to imagine how the child feels. A dark room.. all alone by himself.. people walking by everyday. There are some people who actually care about the child which is good, but why is this child's misery the basis of a community's happiness. Clearly this child isn't happy for there is no smile on his face that shows it. This story actually makes me want to jump into it and say something to the child and then bring him with me to my community! I'm a die-heart when it comes to "poor children". I have a strong heart to want to help them in any way that I can best. Perhaps this is why I found this story to be quit interesting and yet touching. Overall I enjoyed reading this story.

1 Weekend.7 Sources..&& 7 hours until class.. My Research Paper.

Research Paper. Where do I begin to start? 

I went home for the weekend and I completely devoted my weekend to my research paper as my number one priority above anything else. This paper I knew I needed to at least start and have a good amount done before I came back. Friday consisted of reading through the research from what I had collected for class on Thursday. Saturday I was honestly up and ready do some serious research at 8:30 a.m. (:  I spent hours looking up info in the databases and then eventually searching on google scholar to collect more sources. In order to make the writing process easier for me I organized my info on note cards. Sunday came fast and I started writing my paper finally. I feel like this paper is good and that my topic is really interesting...but that it's also in need of alot of work yet. My paper I know may not be long enough at this point either, but I'm looking forward to class to peer views. Personally, I feel like by having someone else read my paper that it will help me decide what areas I should really research more in-dept. Works cited probably would have to be the worst. I never really liked the whole 100+ different ways to citing all different kinds of sources. It sometimes makes it difficult to know or to chose which one to use for your source. I also struggle with correctly citing my sources within my paper. This may something we will touch on in class today, which I would definitely benefit from. I'm trying really hard on collecting all the research I have at this point and presenting it well in my paper....   If I have done that successfully and well.. is the question. But, I will be looking for gathering great insight on ideas and hints to improve my paper for the next draft :) Thanks for all the help Lindsey! I was able to at least write 4.5 pages over the weekend.

Mmmh my evaluation of class this semester...

English 101 has been rather interesting. Class discussions are usually good, although I am not the student in class who talks the most during discussion. But, I do learn well from listening to others speak.
Library quizes: I'm not a huge fan of those libary quizes. I know I could have retaken the quizes over a limit of three times, but after I had taken notes and read through each lesson, I'm not sure how much better I would've improved. Maybe by 5 percent. The lessons and quizes are good to know about and do, but they are simply a pain in the butt. They were hard or at least I thought so.
............. Peer viewing: This is helpful to me, if the reviewer has good knowledge of the subject or idea I'm writing about. I think if you have your paper viewed by more than one person, you'll gain good insight that will help you see what needs to be improved. We would do this in high school many times. I found it stressful with lack of good feedback, but also helpful when having others read my work.
------------------------------------Group Activites: For me, group activities are always fun and keeps me interested. I enjoy working in group settings because it gives you the chance to communicate within a group and listen to different ideas and point of views. I work well with others. I don't mind working independently either, but the group activities in class have been good in my perspective. Just always remember to hold up your responsibilities when working in a group.
********Literacy Essay: Okay, so this was the better of the two essays that we have been working on. And to be honest, this essay is naturally my favorite. I'm glad we wrote this type of essay, becaue it gave me the chance to talk about something that concerned with me and personal experience.
^*^^*^^*^^*^^*^^*^^* Proposal Essay: This essay....   well, let's just say it didn't go over so well as I really hoped it would had. This type of essay is ok...  but when it comes to persuading an issue or an auidences mind, I definitely am not the person. I hate writing things like this. ... give points to your proposal and then bold statements and information to strongly persuade the reader to your side. Yeah...  not so easy.
TEACHER CONFERENCES?!: I found this interesting, that we would actually have conferences with you. I guess I found it something more popular seen during high school and not as likely in college. But, I'm glad we do have conferences with you. This is super helpful for me! I like to be able to sit down one-on-one with the professor and discuss about our papers we are writing and our progress in the class. I'm trying my hardest to improve my writing and going into more depth with my thoughts, such as answering questions that would be great to have explained in my essays or papers. Thank you, Lindsey for all of the help so far. I really do think I'm learning something, and making progess in becoming a better writer overall in general.
**Overall Class..in general: I feel like this class has been helpful in writing strategies and grammer overall. I think it will prepare me well for my future writing throughout college. The main message I'm getting is....to ask questions... making a list of questions and then using them to help guide you in the direction you want your paper to go...  this helps forms a more complete idea and well structured essay and paper overall. One of my weakest points would be grammer though. Possibly we could touch over a few more things in grammer? Maybe not intensively.. but briefly, like for instance do a couple grammer exercises from our quick access compact book? ...pst. (: I really enjoy doing grammer exercises even though I'm not quite sure as to why I do.

Lastly,
I'd like to thank you, Lindsey for giving that first impression during the first couple weeks of school. The impression that "scared" others you may say? It pushed me to be the best I can be and strive for quality writing.   

Topic!

I am really interested in researching about the technology advancements in the medical field. They have all sorts of machines that provide us with "reliable" information, such as heart monitors, blood pressure, even cat scans. What will happen if they continue to expand on technology advancements and something goes wrong during the process of examining a patient? This is fascinating to explore how we've become some reliable on several different advances in technology. How far will it go? Will nurses will be needed as much as they are yet today? Will humans lose their value in the "working" industry. I could also explore the idea if these technology advancements are good or bad for us. How has it been beneficial and what is the downside of it? I think this could be a really good research topic to explore and learn more about.

Research Paper :)

During class on Tuesday, I felt like I participated more than I usually do...which is a plus! I'm not the type of person to blurt out answers or really talk much in class.. But, when we started talking about our research paper in class I found the brainstorming activity to be useful. It brought many ideas and good insight on what kinds of questions to answer within your research paper. I have my mind set on two particular topic ideas. They include, technology advancements and life on mars. I'm leaning more towards the technology advancements, mainly because I don't know where I would start with the other topic of life on mars. It's not talked about all that much anymore, or at least I haven't heard anything on the topic recently. Thinking through my head about what I could possibly research on the topic technology advancements....I'm not really certain what questions would be really good to research and answer in my paper. Perhaps I should narrow down my topic to a more specific idea?

Presentations

I feel like the presentations were helpful to see the context as a visual and not just in text. Personally, I enjoyed working on the presentation we did in groups. Working in groups helps brings new ideas and discussion to the topic being discussed. Jessica and I came up with a worksheet to just quickly have a reminder of the revisions we talked about to help remember what they were about. This activity was fun and kept the content interesting and not boring.

2nd Peer Viewing

During the peer viewing in class on Tuesday, I found that paper is lacking a bold solution. After we completed peer viewing in class, we moved onto an activity that we were assigned to do in groups. Revision. Looking through the revisions we were assigned to, I learned how I could fix my paper enormously. As Jessica & I worked on our powerpoint for our revisions, I now have some useful insight. I have a pretty clear idea as to what I need to change about my paper, now I have to work in the revisions into my paper to improve it. I'm starting to like the peer viewing more. It was nice to get input from another person in the class. Overall, I'm glad we did this again in class. The revisions at first seemed "boring" and wordy explanations.. but when I started working on our powerpoint, it made me realize how helpful it really is when you apply it to your own work.

Decreasing in Enrollment

Thesis: A decrease enrollment can affect a community as it may start to lose it's interest in and could possibly become dead with a lack of involvement in residents and families.

3 Main points:
   1. Increased tuition
   2. Budget cuts
   3. Cutting programs

100 People..Screwing Up America

Okay, so let me start off by saying after reading these stories I found it to be very interesting. Although the very first story from America Bashers made me laugh a little bit and think..hmmm..  what was the reason for 9/11..  Well, Moore made a really good point. He stated that many innocent families were affected by this trademark in history. "If someone did this to get back at Bush, the they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him!" I personally was never a big fan of Bush myself. So this made me think a little bit as to what others really thought about him on both sides. In one of the other stories I found it striking how a girl wasn't even allowed to wave a flag out her living room window. I really acknowledge the daughter's point of view of what the flag represent. It just surprised me that the mother had reacted the way she had when just millions of people from her own country just died. I feel like waving the American Flag would be a sign of supporting those families who are left behind that we're still alive. We as a country are still holding ourselves together as a whole.    ....Celebrities on the other hand... don't get me started. Well I guess you could say I don't pay close attention to them what so ever. I know their names but that's about as much as I know. To me their just full of publicity. In my honest opinion I sometimes don't pay attention to what they say in content. But, I did like what Fred Durst said... that this war should go away as soon as possible. This is true. A war can only go on for so long until I think it should be resolved.    Overall all of these readings had A LOT of information that made it hard to all comprehend. Some of the information in these stories were things I really had no full understanding of to begin with. 

"Reviewing" draft # 1

So I'm sitting in class and we're reviewing each other's papers today. The first thing that runs through my mind is that this probably won't turn out good for me. I enjoy writing papers, but I never feel like anything I write is ever "good enough" no matter how much I try. This of course is a problem. But as Andrew is reading my paper, I catch a quick glance as he smiles. Maybe I have written a paper that actually has some sense of humor, which is good. I always feel like I never know how to make my papers more interesting, especially when telling about a personal experience I've been through in sequential order.
    He's finally done reviewing my paper. He says it's good and everything flows well, this makes me feel more confident about the paper I had written. The problem now is trying to "make it better" on my own. I feel like reviewing other papers during class helped bring helpful insight on how others are creative with their stories and ideas. It helps me think of ways to "spice up" or fix my own work by looking at someone else's.

*Reaching for what I want to do

For myself I have visuals as to what I want to do in my life time. I may not be sure on a specific major at the start of my freshman year at USD, but I do have an idea. Being in the health science field has appealed me to me since the beginning of my senior year. I became more familiar with "natural health" healing and medicines as well as the value of foods and the difference between what is important for our bodies and the junk that we consume nearly every day. I'd like to work as a natural health kinesiologist. Our family has gone to a kinesiologist for the past four years and I have benefited from it as well as my parents. The health kinesiologist, Sandy, who we see offers classes during the summer and teaches different approaches and skills to become better doctors for ourselves. I have attended three of her classes, and I have found a huge interest in the field. During this coming summer, I plan to attend more classes, reaching further more in depth and learning more about it as I continue to study it. I may also have the opportunity to do an internship this summer working with her. (:

This has really opened a great opportunity for me, and it fits my personality well. I enjoy helping others, and I am excited to see where this takes me!

Boys vs. Girls

Have you ever thought what it would be like to be the opposite sex? This question has often crossed my mind.  I would have to admit that being a guy would possibly be easier in some aspects of life. For instance, they aren't as "high maintenance" as girls. Just stop for a moment and think about living life for a day as the opposite sex, as a girl this is how I would describe it. A guy likes sleep, that's a fact for most anyways. They can take a shower and be done within five minutes, that includes, shampooing, condition, and body wash. Then simply throw on any ordinary random (if i may say so) shirt and match it with the first pair of jeans they see in their drawer. Where as a girl on the other hand, most of us change about 2-5 times before we actually are ready for the day. Guys also don't have to spend an extra 15 minutes trying to blow dry their hair, without having to worry about controlling frizz. One quick shake and their hair is fine for the rest of the day. But let's not forget about one of the most time consuming things that all guys might say girls do that take so long doing when getting ready, make-up. Yes, first the foundation then the blush, eyeliner, mascara, eye shadow, and don't forget the lip gloss! This is something guys don't have to do in the morning or before they leave to go out. My point is life as a guy for one day would be laid back and no worries. Girls may actually be more stressed about how they look and what guys think of them, where as guys don't nearly as much.

The Notebook

I have watched the movie The Notebook  and after reading a short passage of it I realized the difference. Books are literally described better in context then in movies. I found the style of the writing to be really descriptive and made me feel like if I were him telling the story. Where as a movie you don't quite get that feeling nearly as much and they don't always say exactly how it is in the book either. I'm a big fan of The Notebook and this reading actually made realize I should really look into reading books more verses just watching the movies. I enjoyed reading this short passage from The Notebook .

*Me Talk Pretty One Day*

After reading this passage I thought about how we learn from others. At first I thought that if you have a teacher who seems extremely rude or mean that chances are you won't learn nearly as much simply because you might be intimmidated by the teacher. In the passage Me Talk Pretty One Day, the teacher wasn't exactly the nicest person you'd hope with a smile on thier face, but instead seemed rude. Learning another language alone is hard enough without having a teacher who makes you feel completely "stupid" or embarrassed infront of the class to top it off. But in reality, we all live for pride. For example, if someone were to scoll me for something that I clearly wasn't great at, like speaking a different lanuage, I'd probably find myself studying for hours on end trying to improve. It sets the bar higher with the mind bogging thought of "I'll show you!" In Me Talk Pretty One Day gave me a positive view on how we can still learn from someone who doesn't fully think you'll actually accomplish a task that is different from our daily lives, such as speaking a foriegn language.

A little bit about myself!

Hey! My name is Isabel Kirchner which you might already know. I come from a small town in Southwest Minnesota, Fulda. I chose USD because the campus gave me that feeling that it was "right" for me. So far I'm liking it here and I really like meeting new people. Outside the classroom you can find me studying, hanging out with friends, or making a trip to Wal-Mart because I thought of something that I forgot to bring to college. I'm excited about this class, English 101. Personally english hasn't ever been one of my greatest subjects or interest what so ever. It was always a pain to write about prompts that you really didn't either care about or didn't have a clue what to write that would make it long enough. This class has put a different view on things and I'm excited to finally be able to write about something that I can actually relate to and have something to say about it.