Blog post #3: Roses

The high of this week was finishing my literacy narrative. I spent all last weekend worrying about what would be a good topic to write about and how I could make it interesting. I wasn't very happy with my first draft of the paper so I wasn't at ease after that either. I still wondered how I could make it better, and what I could change. I finally just took it in a new direction and wrote a piece that I was more happy with. The low of my week was trying to figure out what I was going to write about.

In class, we have been learning about how we have and will become better writiers. For the literacy narratives, we did many activities to help us see writing in a different way. For example, the "seeing in the moment" activity we did where we closed our eyes to visualize a moment that we are writing about to help us to better remember, or even make up the things that were going on around us. We have also learned how to edit each others papers, but not just grammar corrections, but giving each other more insight as to what would make the paper better. Not only have we just learned about writing, but we have learned about each other as weel. Through the literacy narrative, the name games, and just being in class around one another.

As far as a list poem, I have never heard of it, but it seems to me kind of like a Dr. Seuss book. For example, the first Dr.Seuss book I ever read was The Foot Book.

Left foot
Right foot
Left foot
Right
Feet in the morning
Feet at night
Left foot
Left foot
Left foot
Right
Wet foot
Dry foot
High foot
Low foot
Front feet
Back feet
Red feet
Black feet
Left foot
Right foot
Feet
Feet
Feet
How many, many feet you meet.
Slow feet
Quick feet
Trick feet
Sick feet
Up feet
Down feet
Here come clown feet.
Small feet
Big feet
Here come pig feet.
His feet
Her feet
Fuzzy fur feet
In the house, and on the street,
how many many feet you meet.
Up in the air feet
Over a chair feet
More and more feet
Twenty-four feet
Here come more and more........
.........and more feet!
Left foot.
Right foot.
Feet. Feet. Feet.
Oh, how may feet you meet!

If I were to write a list poem, I would write one about roses.

Roses are red
that is what I said
but they can also be yellow, or white.
roses have thorns
that may poke you when worn
when you look at them they'er such a delight
roses are associated with love
they're thought to be beautiful just like doves
flying all around
roses are sure to never make you frown

Post #2: As it all starts...

The starting of this English class is pretty much what I expected. Because I've already taken the course once and another summer course last session, I expected it be be very fast paced with a lot of writing, and of course I expected to be with all freshman...with the exception of Teddy haha. Although I knew what to expect, I didn't expect the first paper to be as difficult as it was. It wasn't meant to be difficult by any means, but I just had the hardest time thinking of a good topic to write about that wouldn't be boring to listen to. Growing up, I wasn't much of an English person. No offense Ms. Ingram, but English was my least favorite subject. I was more of a math person. I learn by watching, and with English, you dont really have much of a choice but to read. I didn't really like it that much because I was such a slow reader and I always felt like people were making fun of me when I read out loud. So because I wasn't much of an English person, I never read more than I had to in school, therefore I didn't really have many good events to pick from for my topic. Aside from that, I finally picked a topic and got through the paper. Today, we revised each others papers in our peer groups. I really liked the workshop focus questions. They helped you to get a start in not only giving critical advice to the writer, but also giving complements, which everyone always needs as well. To me, revision and editing are slightly different. Revision is seeing what you could add in or take out to make your story sound better and keep the readers interest; editing is more of the grammar aspect. As far as what to expect during the school year, my advice to any freshman would be to stay focused. Don't get too involved and caught up in all the distractions, because trust me, they will always be there. Just stay focused and motivated and nothing can stop you!

Post #1- When I was a freshman

I was a freshman here at Charlotte last year and I was so excited to finally be starting college. I wanted to get involved and meet as many people as I could. I became a cheerleader, joined a sorority, had a job, and was going to school all at the same time. Unfortunately, all of this became way too much. Being a freshman, I didn't realize that you actually have to study for your classes. I was the type in high school where I didn't really have to study and could still make good grades, but quickly learned that's not the case for me in college. Because I pretty much had no free time to study, and all of the non-stop going was wearing me down, my grades began to suffer as a result. I knew that I had to do something to free up some time, so I decided to quit cheerleading. Although this did help, it was already too late in the semester, and I had already missed too many classes. At the end of my first semester in college, my grades were not at all where I wanted them to be at all. I got very discouraged, and even thought about taking a year off, but after talking to my advisor, I decided to stick it out and work my butt off to get those grades back up. This leads me to where I am today, taking summer classes to catch back up from my first semester; it's not so bad though, like Ms. Ingram said, college is about expreience, learning and growing, and becoming a better person...even if that comes with consequences.

Right now, I would say that the "List of Good Stuff" in my life is:
-being close to home...I have 7 month old nieces that I love being able to see pretty much whenever I want.
-being out on my own
-having a pool at my apartment that I can go to whenever I want...definite plus in this 100 degree weather

My list of "things I'm anxious about" is:
-being able to get my grades back up to where I want them to be
-starting a new job tomorrow
-my future as a whole
-being able to have the grades sufficient enough to get into my major, Pre-Kinesiology, when the times comes to do so.

One interesting thing about me, I guess, would be that my grandmother and I are the only two redheads in my entire family. I've always look like the odd-ball of my immediate family because my mom, dad, and sister all had dark brown curly hair, and mine is straight and red. But, I definitely wouldn't change it. I love being a redhead because I love what some people ask, like "Do you have a soul?" and silly things like that. I also love that I am one of the few reedheads that can tan...so I'm only pastey three of the fours seasons.

-Ashlynn