September 29, 2005
Lincoln Elementary
I thought it was interesting to see that the basic skills testing for lincoln elementary scores were really low. it also said that students in the school only show like 30 percent respect for teachers, which goes to show that the attitudes of students seem to be really poor and negative. Also the incomes of parents are low, leaving 93 percent of the students having to get free lunches and other things because the parents cannot afford to pay for school lunches. It was also interesting to see that only 58 percent of students said they felt safe in there school. i find this really sad becasue school is a place that should be comfortable to be in. An environment of good students, teachers and people to look up to, however it seems that the students dont feel they have enough safety as they maybe should.
Posted by kelly435 at 3:12 PM | Comments (0)
revision groups
this week in revision groups i learned quite alot. i find revision groups really helpful in the sense that its really nice to get feedback from other students and the teacher to help you see how you could improve on your writing ethic. i found out how to make my paper more interesting, maybe add a new introduction to the paper to catch the readers attention and where to add some dialogue in my paper to help the readers feel like they were there with me. adding visual aids to my paper will give the reader a sense of feeling in how the paper is going and where im trying to end up. I changed some things in my paper and then read it over to myself, and noticed what a difference it made to just touch it up a bit. Hopefully with the help from the students, my paper will make more sense and sound somewhat better with the things that i added.
Posted by kelly435 at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2005
Mean Girls
The girl in the story mean girls seemed to really give alot of details as far as letting us know what was going on throughout her homecoming experience. i would think however that it needs more information as far as what her friends were like before the situtation occured, maybe a description of each girl and what their attitudes were like. I also think she could have given us information to make us feel like we were there in her shoes, however i have experienced the things that happen during homecoming, but it was nothing of this story. I couldnt imagine a so call group of best friends would have said the nasty words they used to describe her or what they did to her house. Some of the things that made the story strong was that she stayed on the same track throughout the whole piece, she didnt drift away to other subjects or views.
Posted by kelly435 at 2:52 PM | Comments (3)
September 19, 2005
least and most favorite things in class
Some of the things that i like most that were doing in class this week are typing essays and going over them in revision groups. I think that this is really beneficial to all the students only because its nice to get feedback from others and view other perspectives. Sometimes you think that everything in your essay sounds good until someone else reads it, then it a different story. I thing i like least about the class is having to turn things in through internet. im so used to being able to just print it off and not have to worry if it was sent over internet. When i turn it in myself i know for sure its in, and it will get graded. i get concerned when im not sure if i did it the correct way and sometimes computers can have a mind of their own. Overall i think this week has been fun and it will continue to be a good year. its nice to be able to meet with groups each week, even by doing group activities in class you get to learn about the other students and make new friends.
Posted by kelly435 at 1:56 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2005
the land of red apples
The personal traits that i saw in the young girl in the story was that she seemed very close to her family, she was determined to get home and didnt want to be at the school, she also seemed scared of the peple in the school such as the teachers or other students. The most influence on this girl seemed to be her family she seemed to look up to her mother, and really rely on her brother dawnee. I thing i disliked most about the story was that when you think of going to school in most aspects you think of it being good, and in the story all it seemed like was it was bad, the girl was scared and just wanted to be back at home. When you think of school you think of it as being a safe, comfortable place for you to get an education.
Posted by kelly435 at 2:34 PM | Comments (1)
September 13, 2005
connections from other classes
The things that we talk about in writing class connect to my other classes at this particular time because we are writing an essay about education. The essay topic is the things we carry, meaning success is school is usually due primarily to and individuals drive, effort, and talent. But the most important thing that matters is how friends, family and teachers context our learning. These people have and important role in our success or failure too. I see this in other classes because you choose the education you want however it is shaped around many other things other than yourself and your goals. Like in my other classes the teachers offer help and are interested in learning about our goals for ourselves. Also its important about who you meet in class and how they view their education, if they want to do good they could be a help to you, but if there just here because they feel forced, they more than likely are not going to try willingly. The way you choose to work will determine what kind of future you will have and the knowledge you gained from you educational experience.
Posted by kelly435 at 5:38 PM | Comments (0)
shitty first drafts
The sentences that i found most interesting would have had to been at the end of the story. It was the second to last paragraph which told the readers to close there eyes and get quiet for a minute, until the chatter starts up. It said to isolate one of the voices and imagine the person speaking as a mouse. Pick it up by the tail and drop it into a mason jar. Then isolate another voice, pick it up by the tail, drop it in the jar. And so on. Then put the lid on, and watch all these mouse people clawing at the glass, jabbering away, trying to make you feel like shit because you won't do what they want. Then imagine that there is a volume control button on the bottle. Turn it up for a minute and listen to the screaming, of angry, neglected, guilt-mongering voices, then to turn it all the way down.
I found this so interesting only because i have never really heard someone explain in that way of how to ignore all of the voices that go on in your head while your trying to write. It was cool to see what other people think when there trying to block the other thoughts going on. It also gave the story a little style in that it was humorous and funny.
Posted by kelly435 at 3:11 PM | Comments (0)
September 6, 2005
My Past and Future
My name is McKenzie Kelly i grew up in Farmington, Minnesota a town of about 25 to 30 thousand people, a small but growing community. I was about five years old when i moved from Eden Prarie to Farmington. I don't remember much about Eden Prarie only because i was so young, however, my Farmington neighborhood brings lots of memories. There was about 3 houses on my block when i first moved in because it was a new lot, but now it is full of houses. It was a quiet street but lots of kids to play with.
I went to Farmington High School from freshman to senior year. What i liked most about highschool was probably the teachers and students. It was such a small school so i new most everyone and became close with teachers and staff. The thing i hated most about highschool was there wasn't ever really new students that came during the year, so when the year ended and a new one begun you didn't really know who came and who left.
My worst teacher that i had in highschool would had to have been my 10th grade biology teacher. She and I didn't really see eye to eye and i had a long sememster trying to get along with her. Im not the hardest person to get along with either so i didn't really understand how it could be so hard. The thing i disliked most about her was her personality to teach. She really didn't seem like she liked it to much and i often wondered why she chose that as a career when she had such a hard time getting along with the students. She also talked to fast and i had a hard time understanding her teaching style. My favorite teacher was completly opposite of my worst teacher. He was my junior year chemistry teacher and also our varsity football coach. The things i liked most about him was his outgoing personality, his love for what he did and his motivation to help his students succeed in his class. He would have done anything and everything he could to make students understand him, and even if they didn't he would help till the did. He would come early to class to study with a student and stay late before football practice to explain a problem.
I would evaluate my education i recieved so far as priceless. I wouldn't have given anything to have made myself feel like i could have had more fun in highschool. It really was a memory never to be forgotten. I feel like i have learned alot throughout the years and just enough information to take me to the next level (college). However, some things i would have liked to have changed if i could have would have been studying harder and better prepared myself for tests and finals. I wish i would have asked for help more when i would have been stuck or needed it. Overall my highschool education was a good one, it couldn't have been that bad otherwise i probably wouldn't have made it as far as i did, like to where i am now.
From the day i can remember i always new i wanted to go to college. I didn't exactly know where i wanted to go but i new i was going. My junior and senior year is obviously when i narrowed it down to where i really wanted to go and where i felt i could recieve the best education. I picked the University of Minnesota because i wanted to stay close to home and it offered a good dental hygiene program or my other choice was nursing and the U is known for medical. I feel I am the most responsible for making the decision to go to college or not! With help and support from my parents they made it very possible for me to be where I am today, and I am very pleased that they pushed me as far as they did to have the positive and willing attitude to believe that if i want something bad enough i will do anything to get it!!
Posted by kelly435 at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)