Blogs are DONE!!

This is my last blog for this class, and while I don't enjoy doing them all the time and can see why we did do them. They enabled our class to get to know each other outside of our class. Because worked so much with each other in our class it was important to know one another on a more personal level. These blogs allowed us to do just that, seeing each other outside of the white walls. I have enjoyed this class, it has taught me a lot about writing and I will take the tools that I have learned and apply them to my future writings. I have enjoyed getting to know everyone in the class too although I don't know everyone quite as well as I would have liked it was nice to get to know everybody a little bit. 

THE END IS NEAR!!!

It's crazy to think that a whole year of school has gone by already. The end is now here. In a few short days my parents will be coming down and moving me out and back home. It'll be weird getting into the groove of things back home, but it'll be a nice change after being here all year. I only have 3 exams this week then it's homeward bound for me! I hope everybody had a wonderful semester and I hope everybody does well on all of there exams. I wish everybody a wonderful and fun summer and I will see some of you when we return next fall to start a whole new semester!!

ESA :)

So some of you may not know but i am a part of esa, which is the community service sorority. Let me just say it was one of the best decisions that i have made all year to join. It has been a wonderful time with all of my sisters and i wouldn't of had it any other way. It has brought me so many opportunities and i am truly thankful for all that it has done for me. The typical sorority stereotype isn't really good and i was nervous going into a sorority, but this decision that i have made to join is probably one of the best that i will make here at Ball State. 

Course Objectives

1. Develop the ability to work well with others on composing tasks.

I feel that we have done this extensively in our English class. From the beginning on our fist paper we got into our peer review groups. I was nervous at first about these because I didn't know anyone and I also am really self- conscious of my writing. Through the peer reviews I have become more comfortable with others critiquing my writing. Getting critiques from the intensive reviews has also been a tremendous help to composing and revising my writings. Going into the intensive reviews I was very anxious as to what my peers had to say, but in the end I feel that this was the best thing that we did with our peers in this class. It was nice to hear all of the suggestions and positive feedback. The blogs have also been away for us to work with others in collaborating ideas for our writings. Overall I feel that this class has really accomplished this objective of working with others on composing tasks. 

2. Develop strategies for becoming more critical and careful readers of both your own and others’ texts. 

Through the peer reviews and intensive reviews I have been able to critique other's writings. It has given me a chance to think about the writing and offer any suggestions that I may have to improve the paper. When I was being intensively reviewed or peer reviewed I enjoyed hearing what others had to say, because it was getting feedback from your audience, and since we write for our audience it was a good way to see how we could revise our papers to make it more appealing to our audience. Also having Mr. McArdle look over our papers and giving feedback has helped me. Since he is more experienced in this field it his critiques of my writings allowed me to improve. Overall I feel that this class has accomplished the goal of becoming more critical and careful readers of both my own and others' texts. 

3. Reflect (orally and textually) on the rhetorical choices and decisions they are required to make as authors to shape a text for a specific audience and purpose.  

I don't really understand what this objective is asking. I don't think that we really did any reflecting in this class over the decisions that we made, at least not publicly. I know in my head and if Mr. McArdle commented on my paper I thought about it, but I don't think we completely and fully did this objective at least orally or textually. 

4. Work with others to solve life’s common problems. 

In this class we worked with others, but I don't think that we really solved life's common problems. I don't really know what common problems through life that we would be able to solve in this English class. 

2 1/2 weeks left SERIOUSLY!?!?!

I can't believe that there's only 2 and 1/2 weeks left of school!!!! I'm sooo excited to be able to go home, but it'll be sad leaving all of the wonderful friends that I've made here at Ball State. As I was watching some people take some of their stuff home this weekend it hit me that we really are so close to finishing a whole year of college. This year has gone by so fast and i can't believe it's already coming to an end. It feels like i just moved in as the clueless freshman, knowing no one here, knowing nothing, here. I've already started making plans with my parents to move me out and I've got tons of boxes to pack up all of my stuff. I'm excited too because I get to move out the Wednesday of finals weeks!!! Yay i can't believe we're so close! :)

465 is a Maze

After driving to my sorority's formal last night i've come to the conclusion that 465 is super super confusing. I was on my way to formal driving down 69 and the exit for 465 kind of crept up on me when i finally realized that i needed to exit i quickly went of 3 lanes of traffic.....and instead of going West which is what i was suppose to do i went South. Now I have never really driven on 465 because i'm from Crown Point which is in Northwest Indiana. So after going on 465 South I had no idea where i was going. I was going South on the East side of Indy when i needed to go South on the West side. So at this point I was kinda freaking out because it felt like there were interstates coming out of every which way as i drove down the expressway like a blind person cause i had no idea where i was going. I finally exited and turned around and finally figured it out but for a little bit there i was clueless lol. So 465 isn't my favorite expressway to drive on but i'll have to figure it out sometime. 

New Life Forms!

Scientists using a remote control submarine discovered one of the deepest known volcanic vents and the superheated waters inside could contain undiscovered marine species and even could provide clues to the origin of life on earth. The vents waters can reach a temperature of 750 degrees Fahrenheit. Exploring the vents scientists have found exotic animals such as hairy worms, blind shrimp, and giant white crabs. Some scientists believe that these vents may have played a part in the creation of life on earth. The vent is found in an area of the Caribbean known as the Cayman Trough, 3 miles below the surface. Interestingly enough the canyon served as the setting for James Cameron's underwater thriller, "The Abyss". One scientist stated "We know more about the surface of the Moon and Mars than we do about our own planet because two-thirds of our planet is covered by ocean making it very hard to explore." The new discovery that scientists have made could be the answer that many people have been searching for: the discovery of life. If they are finding new species under these vents maybe they'll find a life species on Mars, or any other planet. I think it's neat that even though our planet is so old we're still finding things out about our own planet. 

It's That TIme of Year :(

Allergies. They come every year and affect many many people. I am one of those lucky people. This morning I woke up and could feel my eyes swelling. It's going to be another fun season of sneezing, coughing, runny noses, itchy and scratchy eyes. I don't know what I'm allergic to but it must be something common because I sometimes have my allergies from the beginning of spring to the end of fall. It sucks. And during the summer when I wake up with completely blood shot eyes even after I took an allergy pill, I still have to go into work. One morning I woke up and one of my eyes was completely blood shot, so I took my eye drops and put a couple in, but the redness didn't go away. So I put a couple more in a couple minutes later. Needless to say I went through this a couple more times and ended up putting 8 drops in my eyes within 15 minutes. And I didn't know that when you put drops in your eyes it dilates them. After 8 drops my pupil was so large that you couldn't see the color in my eye. This was about 2 hours before I had to go to work too. I went to my mom and she about passed out when I showed her because I hadn't told her that I put drops in my eyes, she just saw my eye. She went back in her room and had to lay down and called the doctor, and then I told her that I put that many drops in my eyes and she laughed :) lesson learned: don't put that many drops in your eyes. 

BSU : Butt Slapping University

As probably all of you know as you received the e-mail alerting all students of the assault that happened yesterday morning. I find it actually quite humorous, although i do not condone any sexual assault. I found it almost unnecessary for a police report to be filed and a public safety notice sent out to everyone on campus. I feel that this situation has been blown up way too much. I find it funny how big of a rise the students on campus have gotten out of this incident. The facebook group that was made has developed into this massive group. I think that it's a little ridiculous that the media has taken it far enough to put on the news. And i'm sitting here in my room right now waiting for the interviews to appear on my television. Although i do not support sexual assault what so ever i find this incident quite humorous for how out of hand this situation has become.

Easter Weekend :)

Happy Easter! I was able to go home this weekend, which was awesome! I hadn't been home for 4 weeks. It was nice going home and spending some time with family and friends. On Friday i got home and went to my friends' house whom i haven't seen in foreverrrr. Saturday I went with my friend to get her ears pierced, then i went to see my dad, and then i went to a hookah bar :). This morning i woke up and went to church with my family, then went back home for some yummy food. Overall it was a good weekend and now we have 5 WEEKS till summer!!!!! SO EXCITED!!! :)

Whatchya gonna do?

Today on our way to church i was telling my mom how i almost got hit on my way home :). I told her that i was going 90 (in a 70 mph zone) and after i said that she butted in "First of all don't ever tell me that again, and secondly don't ever go that fast again." I just kind of laughed, and then finished my story. But like any good mother she was concerned. She then proceeded to tell me after my story that the police are cracking down and that i better not get pulled over. And after her little lecture i hear a little noise behind me, i looked back and saw the flashing lights. My step-dad looked back and started to pull over then realized that the cop was pulling him over. The cop came up to the car and said "I need to see your registration and license" the phrase that they always have to say. My step-dad right away came up with an excuse, that was true that we were going to be late for church and he's the pastor (like every Sunday we walk in late). But then he realized that he knew my step-dad and they started talking about how the cop played basketball with one of my step- brothers so needless to say the cop let him go with the phrase "Alright be safe and have a good day." I was sitting in the back wishing i had the power for a cop not to give me a ticket. But like every time he gets pulled over he always seems to get out of it. I guess he should've listened to my mom's lecture she gave to me :)

Euchre?

So today my sorority put on a euchre tournament at the student center to raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital, overall we ended up raising over $260, which is awesome. It was interesting to me that we put on a euchre tournament because i never knew what euchre was until i came to ball state, up north i guess we don't really know what it is lol. It seems to me that people that are from around this area can be pretty obsessed with this game, at least that's what i got from watching some of the people play. It was nice to go to though because some ladies from our traditional chapter were able to come and it was neat being able to see them and talk with them. 

Precious: The Movie

So tonight at Pruis a few of my friends and I went and saw the movie Precious. I wanted to go because I would get extra credit for my Soc. class for going to an event for Women's Week here at Ball State. I was also really interested in it when I saw the previews for it and had told myself that I wanted to go see it. And wow what an inspiring movie. The way that it was filmed is so traumatic it really gets you to think. It almost puts life into perspective and makes you think how you would react if you were in that same situation, growing up in a home where you are abused and nothing seems to go right. It makes me think that people actually live like this and it's just not right. This movie was horrific in the sense that I don't understand how someone could be treated like that. Overall it was traumatic, inspiring, and motivational. Precious is definitely a movie to see. 

Why Ball State?

Have you ever gotten the question as to why you chose Ball State for college? Well I have numerous times and so then I always have to go into the whole long story. So this is why I chose Ball State. When I was in about 8th grade I started to draw houses and floor plans and stuff like that and I absolutely loved doing it. So at that point I decided that I wanted to be and architect. That was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I took classes in high school preparing myself for college course of architecture. I had told many people that architecture was what I wanted to go into and I had many people telling me that Ball State had a really good architecture program. So during high school that was where I would go. During my senior year however I went on a COP (Career Opportunity Program) appointment at my school and went to downtown Chicago to a well know architecture firm downtown. And after visiting there I decided that I didn't want to be and architect anymore, being confined in a space all day just wasn't my thing. I thought about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and decided that teaching was the thing that I wanted to do. I know it's a big switch from architecture to teaching, but I did it. I applied my senior year to Ball State and with it being the only school I applied to, because I knew that it was where I wanted to go, I was excited to get my acceptance letter in the mail. So that's the story of how I ended up here :)

Concentrate, Concentrate, Concentration

As you can see we learn about concentration at an early age. And being an Elementary Education major I've had to think about what my concentration would be. I've thought long and hard and I know I  have to declare it soon. It's between Spanish, Math, and Kindergarten. All very good things as a concentration for my field. But which one do I choose, or can I do all three. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I'd like to do all three, because I think that'll give me a little bit of an edge, but the question is if I would be able to graduate on time doing all three. I chose Spanish as one of them because I have done Spanish all 4 years in high school, and I took the Spanish placement test and tested into 201. So I thought that those were all valid points, there's also a rise in bilingual classrooms throughout the US so I thought that having this concentration may help me get a job since we all know that they are cutting back on teachers. The second one I chose was Math because this is one of the most needed things in schools right now, math teachers so I figured if i don't get my dream job teaching a younger grade I'll always have something to fall back on teaching math. Plus math just so happens to be my favorite subject. And last but not least is the kindergarten concentration, this is the one that doesn't have as much value as the other two, but probably the one that I want the most. Deciding my major I had a hard time between choosing Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education. I finally ended up choosing ELED obviously because they make more money working, but I told myself that I really really wanted to teach kindergarten. So here I am now deciding what to do and I'm kind of in a pickle. Any suggestions?

The Sad Reality

As we were driving back this morning from the warm and sunny florida, where the the weather man said it would be "abundantly sunny" today, we were welcomed so warmly by the lovely pot holes that grace the streets of muncie. It was sad leaving last night and i had 20 hours to come up with reasons as to why muncie is better than florida, none the less there were no reasons, except for i get to see all of my friends from here, but other than that...there's really no comparison. Florida was amazing though with some of my favorite people. Got lots of sun that unfortunately is starting to peel a little now, but is already tan. Driving back i was thinking of all the things that i needed to get done and i have to say i was a little overwhelmed. But hopefully i can get it all done. The sad reality is we're back in muncie....

FlOrIdA!!!!!!

It's spring break and here i am in florida :) I love it here it reminds me of summer and i just want it to come now!! It's around the 70's and absolutely gorgeous. Last night we drove through the night and that was somewhat exhausting as i drove from 12 - 3 it was very tiring, but we did it and now were here! We checked into our hotel and then went and laid out. And the sun here is pretty hot let me tell you i am pretty burnt, but it'll turn into a tan so that's all good :) I love it here already and i don't want to leave. It's going to suck going back to muncie after just having been here. 

English 103 Goals

English 103 Course Goals:

• English 103 introduces students to the fundamentals of rhetoric; to the elements,

strategies, and conventions common to persuasion; to the use of those elements,

strategies, and conventions in the construction of their own persuasive visual and verbal

texts. Upon completion of English 103 students will:

 

1. Understand that persuasion—both visual and verbal—is integral to reading and

composing. – I understand this through the websites that we had to make. I used pictures to persuade them on my page and get at the emotions. I also used certain words to persuade the audience who is reading my website.

 

2. Understand how persuasive visual and verbal texts are composed for different

audiences and different purposes. – I also understand this through the website also. For my topic I chose adoption, which can be a touchy subject to talk about. I made sure my language was appropriate and my pictures wouldn’t offend anyone who read it.

 

3. Develop effective strategies of invention, drafting, and revision for different

rhetorical situations and individual composing styles. – Through the rhetorical analysis that we had to write I learned that you have to pick something that would interest you and that would also interest your audience. I learned that it is extremely important to do revisions. I have learned that this is probably one of the most important things to do when writing a paper or any type of thing.

 

4. Compose texts in various media using solid logic, claims, evidence, creativity, and

audience awareness. – I have learned that it is important to do this through the various assignments that we have had to do. Evidence is especially important because it gives substance to your argument. It also is important to have audience awareness because your audience is the one who is reading your work. You do not want your audience to be offended by anything you show or write. Creativity is also important because you don’t want it to be boring its important for it to be fun and interesting.

 

5. Integrate primary and secondary research as appropriate to the rhetorical

situation. – It’s important to do this to show that you have done work on your paper and to get other views on your topic from other people.

 

6. Develop strategies for becoming more critical and careful readers of both your

own and others’ texts. – I have learned this through the peer reviews and the intensive reviews. I feel like the intensive reviews have helped me the most. I enjoyed having people critique my writing because it can help me improve my work. I also enjoy giving constructive criticism to others’ work also.

 

7. Demonstrate a professional attitude towards writing by focusing on the need for

appropriate format, syntax, punctuation, and spelling. – It’s important to do this because other people are reading your work and you want it to be easy for them to read and understand and with correct punctuation syntax and spelling it makes that easier.

 

8. Take responsibility for your own progress. – Putting together this final portfolio has taught me this. Putting together different drafts that show my progression over the semester.

 

9. Develop the ability to work well with others on composing tasks. – I have learned this also through the peer review and intensive review. It has taught me to accept peoples’ criticism and also to give criticism to help others in the composing tasks.

 

Course Content & Format

• The content and format of English 103 are designed to enable students to achieve the

course goals; specifically, students in English 103 will:

 

1. Discuss, analyze, and respond to a variety of visual and verbal texts to identify

rhetorical elements, strategies, and conventions.  – I feel we have done this through the rhetorical analysis assignment. We have also done this through some of our blogs.

 

2. Discuss, analyze, and respond to the persuasive logics by which various visual

and verbal texts achieve, or fail to achieve, their purposes.  – I feel we have done this through the rhetorical analysis assignment, where I did a commercial about Doritos. I also feel we learned this through our assignment where we had to be persuasive through a website.

 

3. Collaborate in developing ideas, analyzing visual and verbal texts, and providing

peer feedback.  – We have done this through our peer review groups, where we analyze and give positive encouragement to each person concerning their work. We have also done this through our intensive reviews where everyone is able to collaborate together in helping someone become a better writer.

 

4. Compose persuasive texts through multiple drafts, revising based on peer

feedback, self-reflection, instructor’s written comments, and teacher-student

conferences.  – We have done this through our websites.  I have learned that it takes many drafts to get the best results possible. Mr. McArdle really helps with this especially when we turn in our writings and he gives helpful insight to what can be changed.

 

5. Reflect (orally and textually) on the rhetorical choices and decisions they are required to make as authors to shape a text for a specific audience and purpose.  – I feel we have done this through our rhetorical analysis projects and also when we do peer reviews and intensive reviews. This helps not only ourselves but the others in our class as everyone can get a view from one another.

 

6. Reflect (orally and textually) on the rhetorical choices and decisions they are

required to make in order to construct meaning out of another’s text.  – We have learned to reflect on our blogs when we respond to other’s blogs.

 

7. Complete a variety of writing assignments for multiple purposes, audiences, and

contexts, using various media, and including primary and secondary research. – We have done this throughout our assignments starting with the “I Believe” paper, rhetorical analysis, and the website. Doing a variety of papers has helped me to expand in my writing.

 

University Core Curriculum Goals

• The central purpose of University Core Curriculum is to enable men and women to live

rich and satisfying lives and to undertake the broad responsibilities of citizenship in a

free society.  Although The University Core Curriculum seeks to discover and nurture

individual talents, its primary emphasis is preparation for roles people share as human

beings and as members of family and community groups. Thus, students will be able to:

 

1. Engage in lifelong education by learning to acquire knowledge and to use it for

intelligent ends. – In this class I have learned how to write to help me later in life whether it be writing papers to parents or any other business related. This class has helped me to correct my writing so that it flows nicely and it has helped me with my grammar as well.

 

2. Communicate at a level acceptable for college students. – I think that the blogs has helped with this because it is off of the internet and we do it all on Facebook so why not blog about stuff that our class can comment on. I feel that this is a really good idea in this class.

 

3. Clarify their personal values and be sensitive to those held by others. – I feel that I have been able to do this through the papers that I have written. I’m able to freely write about my beliefs and how I feel about them, but yet be sensitive to those around me.

 

4. Recognize and seek solutions for the common problems of living by drawing on a

knowledge of historical and contemporary events and elements of the cultural

heritage surrounding those events. – I feel that I have done this through finding resource for my website. I have found information from others to support my topic and enhance it.

 

5. Work with others to solve life’s common problems. – We are freely to talk about anything we want and we are then able to question those in order to help them or enhance their papers. It can also answer some of their problems. We have done this in our peer review and intensive reviews.

 

6. Assess their unique interests, talents, and goals and choose specialized learning

experiences that will foster their fulfillment.  – This class fulfills all of these through all of the papers, peer reviews, and intensive reviews. 

Website!

here is the link to my website it's not entirely done yet, but what i have put in it so far i think is good :) www.lmebbens.weeble.com

Horsey Races :)

This weekend I was able to go home because I needed to get some things together before I went to Florida for Spring Break. But anyways last night I met up with some of my friends that I haven't seen in a really long time. We decided to go to Balmoral Race Track in Crete, IL. I've never been to anything like this before so I was kind of excited. We got there and all the guys knew exactly what to do, but me and my friend Caitlyn were a little unsure of what was really going on. We sat down and started looking at the book to see what horse had the better odds of winning. There were 14 races that night, but we ended up only staying for 7. After looking through all the races I decided to bet on the 7th race on the 6th horse. Unfortunately my horse didn't win. It was in the lead until the last little stretch. So I'm 2 dollars short, but happy about the experience. 

Too tired to function

On Thursday night/Friday morning my friends rachel, paige, dalton, natalie and I were all just hanging around in my room. Rachel was leaving at 2:30 in the morning to go to Florida for the weekend, lucky I know. We were going to stay up with her so she wouldn't fall asleep, but after a while we all became a little sleepy, especially her. We were just talking and I said sarcastically: "Why don't we just take you to the airport?" Rachel turned around and said "Could you?" I really wasn't planning on it, and Natalie became really excited about it. So we all decided that we were going to leave at 2:30 in the morning drive down an hour and a half to the Indy airport and then drive another hour and a half back to Ball State. The beginning of the car ride was fun as we were still somewhat awake but 20 minutes into the ride we all became exhausted! When we finally got to the airport Rachel got out and was on her way to Florida, but the rest of us still had a drive back to school. I helped keep Dalton awake as he drove, while Natalie and Paige were passed out in the back. We finally got back to the dorm around 5:30 in the morning....yeah...I woke up at 9:30 and was not looking forward to the 11, 1, and 2 o'clock classes I had that day. I felt like I was going to fall asleep in all of them. And now that it's Sunday I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep. :) But I'm happy that we were able to take our friend to the airport without falling asleep.

Dear John....the book

This past week i was captivated by nicholas sparks' book dear john. I normally am not a reader by any means, i don't like to read all that much, but this book was so amazing. I can tell when a book is good because it doesn't take me that long to read. Normally it takes me forever to read but not this one. I love the way he portrays the characters, and the way that he puts detail into a scene making it easy for the reader to visualize in their head as they are reading. The ending was a little disappointing for me, but i won't give it away for all those that may be reading it. I really wanted to see the movie, but i wanted to read the book first. So now i am anxiously waiting to go see the movie. I hear that the book is always better than the movie so i'm a little scared to go see it because i know i'll be upset if the ending is different than the book which it probably is. So hopefully i'll be able to go see the movie sometime this week :) But i highly recommend reading this book or one of Nicholas Sparks' books after i finished Dear John yesterday i already started reading another one of his books, The Last Song. And apparently there is going to be a movie coming out about this book too. I told one of my friend the other day that you know your a good writer when four of your books have turned into movies. 

Avatar in 3-D!!

On friday my friend katie and i went to see avatar in 3-d. I have to admit i wasn't expecting it to be that great. I had heard that people liked it, but the whole sci-fi thing really isn't my cup of tea. But to my surprise the movie was pretty neat i have to admit. I hooked me right away at the beginning. Even though it was a little weird here and there especially because the characters were giant smurfs. But anyways i thought that the story line was really interesting how everything played out. It was a 3 hour long movie and going into that i was dreading it, but it didn't seem like it was that long at all because it was so captivating. There never really seemed to be a dull moment in the movie. And come on the 3-d glasses were pretty cool too. It added a whole other effect to the whole experience. If i had to rate this movie i would rate it probably at a 9.5 on a 10 point scale. So if your bored one night i would suggest going and seeing this movie especially in 3-d :) . 

Homeward Bound

This past weekend i was able to go home. I was so excited because i hadn't been home since christmas break, and even more excited cause i got to do laundry for free!!! (always a good day :) ) Right when i got home i had to go to my dad's house for dinner it was nice having all of us together especially because my step brother was home from Afghanistan. Then today we just got back from michigan and celebrating my grandma's 85th birthday! I was able to see a lot of my family so that was really nice. And now were back home and i have to go back to school tomorrow but it's all good because we have conferences this week!! :)

Diggin Out

On wednesday two of my friends and myself made the trek out to the stadium to dig out our cars. We went downstairs in the main lobby of our dorm and surprisingly they had a shovel, so we went on the bus and drove down there. When we got off of the bus i was kind of scared to see what we had a head of ourselves. My car was first and it really wasn't all that bad, although it was a little difficult just cause my tires kept on spinning but we finally got it out. It was soo much fun doing this though cause we cranked up the music and started dancing while we were digging lol. At least we tried to make the best of it :). We then started to go over to the baseball fields and helped push another girl cause she was stuck, i can't imagine what i would do in that situation if i was by myself. Then we moved on to my friends car which was alllll the way down. There were drifts that were all the way up to my waist it was neat to see but somewhat difficult to walk through, but we got there and then got her car out too. When i was driving around the next day i felt bad for all the people that had to dig there cars out cause when the trucks plow they just leave the snow right there making it difficult to get out....

JaM pAcKeD!

I just looked at my assignment book and it makes me feel sooo overwhelmed. Each day i constantly fill up each day with all of the assignments that i need completed. I feel like it's never ending. Especially this week i feel like i have projects, papers, tests, and assignments all due. I try to work ahead and am somewhat successful at it, but sometimes i just get completely sidetracked and distracted and then don't do my homework in a timely manner. So today i am sitting in my room trying to get as much homework as i can done before i go insane, which will probably be in a few hours or before i at least have to go get something to eat. :) 

Dear snow...

I love snow! But it sucks when your dumb enough to walk around in moccasins all day.... which is what i did. My shoes were soaked by the end of the day. But the snow is soooo pretty and being from chicago i'm use to heavy snow. It's weird to me though how it's really not snowing that much but home but of course in muncie it's like a blizzard. I was going to get my car but decided against it partially because my friend wouldn't let me but i didn't want to be that dumb girl on the side of the road with her car in the ditch because it probably would've happened so instead i'm sitting in :). So i hope that whoever reads this was safe tonight!

Log on a Blog

In English this week:

Monday we got in our peer review groups and went over each This I Believe essay. We gave each person ideas to help them improve their paper. We filled out a sheet with questions on it and went over that wit each person. I liked doing this cause it allowed me to see things that were wrong with my paper that i may not have caught earlier.

On Wednesday We got in our "circle of love" and went over Theon, Kiley, and my paper's. Going into this i was really scared of what people would say about my paper. One of my biggest fears is people reading things that i right, but i really enjoyed this and can see why we do it now. It helped me get an insight from the whole class as to how i can improve on my paper. We talked about Theon's paper and how his his environment has shaped the way he is today. And kylie's paper about how lyrics have impacted her life. Mr. McArdle then told us that we may have a quiz over the readings that were assigned (and i actually read them).

On Friday we really didn't have a quiz. And we went over Tyler's paper and talked about his beliefs and what they mean to him. We also discussed Tanya's essay, i thought it was really well written and i could relate really well with it. We weren't able to go over Ed's paper cause he wasn't there but i thought he too had a very well written essay. We were then assigned to read the readings again so we'll se if we actually have a quiz today :)

Groovaloo!!

So i went and saw groovaloo tonight and WOW!!! They were amazing it was soo neat seeing them do all of those neat moves and it was really cool to see how they combined dance into their own stories. You could really see that dance is something that comes from within them. It's crazy to me how someone can physically move there body in that way. I've always enjoyed watching hip-hop like that and this was probably one of the best things that i've ever seen. If you don't know what groovaloo is look them up on youtube cause there worth seeing. 

This I Believe

I really enjoyed doing this assignment. It made me think about my life and what i actually believe in. When the assignment was first introduced to us i was kind of scared because i was thinking of what i do believe in and i couldn't really think of anything. Especially one that was life changing for me. After a while it hit me that my beliefs play a role in my life everyday. Everybody believes in something because everyone has an opinion. I wrote about something that i firmly believe in CHANGE. It has played a major role in my life especially in certain situations. 

Facebook..

So every time i try to be productive and get all of my homework done right away i find my self logging on to facebook. I loooove facebook i think it is a great thing. It allows you to keep in contact with people you haven't seen or talked to in forever or friends from back home. But it's so distracting at the same time. I like going on there and seeing what everyone's doing or what they did the past weekend, and i know everyone else does it too. There's a lot more to say about it but i'm being distracted right now by it :)

Public or Private??

All my life i've gone to private schools from Pre-K to my senior year of high school. I went to Crown Point Christian School and then for high school i went to Illiana Christian High School (weird name i know but it's on the border of Illinois and Indiana hence Illiana). So being at ball state this is my first time that i've ever gone to a public school. And i have to say that it is pretty different. The first time i noticed the difference was when i went to orientation i heard some of the people in my group talking about things that happened at there high school like hangings, people having sex in the halls, and so much more. It was weird to hear all of this, because i never experienced this. It made me kind of scared to think of what i was getting myself into. Being at a private school i felt as if i've been sheltered all my life in a way. And we have this thing at my high school called the "Dutch Bubble" because like everybody at my school is Dutch including me so people get stuck in the "Dutch Bubble" and can't get out it's weird lol. Anyways i've really enjoyed the public school experience it opens my eyes to so many things and i feel as if that is something that you need because this is the real world and not the "Dutch Bubble".

Fist Week Dowwwwn

Sooo the first week of class is over now. I always get really nervous for it cause i don't really know what to expect all the time. But it's over now and i have the rest of the semester to enjoy. I can't believe how much homework i've already gotten this week. I already have a paper due and a ton of other little assignments that were due throughout the week. But so far i'm really enjoying my classes, but i especially am happy about the time schedule about them all. Last semester i had a couple night classes and my classes were all spread out during the day. But this semester has gone really well so far. 

Not only has the classes been fun this week but this weekend has and will be fun. Last night my friends and i went laser tagging lol at this place called Play Station really close to school. It was sooo much fun. And today i might go shooting with my friend in anderson. Sunday i'm going out with my girls for my birthday dinner. So i'd so overall this weekend and week were a success!! :)