Kelly's Blog

Last Blog

Wow, i cant believe my semester is already coming to an end. it was nice to get to know you and its to bad i couldnt hear back from you more often, but keep doing good in school, and good luck with the rest of your year. Im going to be off for a month, right along with all the other college kids, but next semester it will be tough, i have some really hard courses that i have to take. Over the break im going to be working and riding my horse. Hopefully it will not be to cold out. It has been freezing out having to walk to class and to and from my car, thankfully theres a bus that allows us to hop on it when the weather is way to cold. Well i have to get to class, but it was great hearing from you the times that i did, take care, and hopefully you have a great rest of the year.

Thanksgiving

Hi, Im just writing to see how you have been over the past few weeks, I still haven’t heard a response, but I was just curious as to how things were going? I am doing good, I had a really good Thanksgiving, and ate lots of food. I went over to my aunts house for dinner and dessert and then went to my boyfriends family for games and movies after my aunts. What did you do for thanksgiving, anything exciting? Well I hope to hear from you soon, I will be anxious to hear what you have to say. How is school? Are you looking forward to being done? I sure am, its gone by fast though, but it will be nice to have a break. Talk to you soon.

Hi

Hello, just wondering how your doing!! How is school going, are you learning alot?? Im really busy studying and getting ready for finals. College is definately alot different from middle school or high school. Ive been writing alot of papers, and havent had much time to go out with my friends.But wheni do go out we usually go shopping or to a party, or just hang out. Do you go out with alot of your friends very often? When you do what kind of things do you do? Do you have a girlfriend? What are your favorite hobbies? Do you play any sports in school? When i was in highschool i was a football cheerleader, and was a gymnast, but now at college i dont play any sports, i dont really have time. I also have horses, so i ride them alot. Well i will talk to you soon, im looking forward to hearing from you soon! Take care, Mckenzie

Tips to becoming a better student

Hi Abraham, i am just writing to see how you are doing, i still havent heard any responses from you since i wrote you back last, but im just anxious to see how school is going. Are you done with your fist quarter yet? im almost done with my first semester of college, and then i have a month break. Some tips for you to do better in school are to study hard, because in the long run all things will pay off, also be sure to pay attention, sometimes it can be difficult, but that will help you to really focus in school and to become more educated when you have questions. Really use your teacher as a resource in terms of asking questions and allowing her to help you when needed, it will make you more confident not only in school but in your every day life if you have the confidence to just talk to people. Have a great after noon, hope to hear from you soon.

Hi Abraham

It was really nice to hear back from you! Im glad you like school, its a really fun place to be and you learn lots. In the future it will all pay off when you finally get a career. So halloween was just the other day, im wondering how yours was? Did you get lots of candy, or did you not go out and trick or treat? What was your costume? was it scary? I went to a halloween party with some friends from back at home. it was really fun. i went as the girl from dukes of hazzards. im not sure if you have seen the movie, but shes just a young cowgirl. Well im anxious to hear back from you talk to you soon. Study hard!!

Lincoln Students

My name is mckenzie Kelly, i grew up in Farmington minnesota, about 30 minutes south of minneapolis. I am a freshman here at the university of minnesota. MY hobbies are horsebackriding, studying, shopping, being with my friends, and 4-h. I am going to school to be a dental hygenist, or maybe even a labor and delivery nurse. thats just a few things about me, but i have a few questions for you. I want to know how you like school, and how many classes you take, and what kind? Are your classes very big, about how many students do you have in a class? i also would really like to know a few things about yourself, what are your favorite hobbies, where abouts do you live, and how do you like school? I will talk to you soon, i look forward to hearing from you

Writing the second essay

This week when we had to write the second essay, it was nice to be able to talk it over in class, to sort of get a heads up as far as if i was doing the paper right. I found that by writing this paper, its easy to see what some people have and others dont. I have learned how easily things can be taken for granted, and i now understand that life isnt always as easy for people on the other side, the grass isnt always greener. When i was comparing some of the things that i had when i was in school to what the kids have that attend Lincoln school, it was interesting to me how more things differed then compared. I think this paper will give students a good view on what they have in life, and maybe not always take things for granted. This paper was a nice heads up for people to see what they really have, and that you cant give up, cause hopefully things will get better for those who live by Lincoln.

lincoln and me

Safety in school seems to be a really big issue for lincolns school. i find it really interesting that so many kids stated that they felt unsafe in school and when they took the survey only like 40% of the students said they felt safe. It seems really sad that the students are put into this sort of environment and that they dont feel like they can go talk to teachers or staff, and they have to walk through metal detectors to get in to the building. In my school, there were always teachers willing to help and counselors that you could talk to you if you had any concerns or needed a friend. Our school was a really safe place to be and there was more than one person who you could confide in with questions or problems. its a shame to see that children grow up in such poor , run down communities where there is so much crime and they cant even go to school without feeling scared. There should be some sort of chanes made to help these students feel they can go to school and be comfortable and study without having to wonder whats going to happen next

Like most and least

The things i like most from the last two weeks are how we are talking about writing a new essay and we got the first one out of the way. It was nice to be done with the first paper and move on to the second. I think that this next paper will be interesting, only because we get to compare how our school years were like compared to the Lincoln school in noth minneapolis. I have been doing some research and have been brainstorming ideas for this new paper. It should be interesting to see how many things compare or contrast for each person. I also like the fact that we get to go online to the website to see the different things going on with lincoln school, and its not just about reading a ton of different articles. Another thing i liked this week that we havent done yet was watch a video about some schools that were poor and were not, it was nice to get a visual aid to help us see what is really going on and not just have to hear it.

School Girls

LaRhonda from school girls seems to be not very efficient when it comes to school. From the reading it shows that she doesnt go to class and shes on the way to failing most of her classes. She doesnt show up or turn into assignments when she should be. Both of these two came from not very weatlthy families, they were both considered a minority in their city. LaRhonda being black and Sherman Alexie is Native American. LaRhondas mom is like Shermans dad. LaRhonda views her family as a good well being and values them. Sherman only expalains his family as being not to important, maybe just linked through genetics. LaRhondas family and school are somewhat in conflict.

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.

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.

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.

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.