Hero Narratives

                Last Wednesday Lacy had us split up into our writing groups. Earlier we had created a list of narratives in the form of movies, TV shows, and music. She told us to make a list of ten random narratives from the bigger list and describe if how or even if there was a hero. The assignment was pretty much opinion based which made it more interesting because we got to converse with our group members on whether or not the narrative had a hero in it. Once we figured this out, we were to post a comment for all ten of our choices on the Google doc that Lacy had made. At the very end of the assignment we had to go back and look through alllll of the comments that everyone had posted and write in our daybook what we saw and what questions we might have. As I looked though the comments I noticed that most of the narratives people had listed had some type of hero in it. I think this goes to show that we need heroes in our everyday life and anybody can be one.

UNCC Homecoming 2013

                I go to school at UNC Charlotte and this past weekend was our homecoming basketball game. I am involved with greek life here also. This whole week has been packed with fun activites leading up to the big game. There was a competition between all of the sororities and fraternities and whoever got the most points at the end of the week won. There were events where if you went, you got points for your sorority or fraternity. We also had penny wars where we tried to raise money.

                Saturday was the tailgate. All of the greeks on campus set up in the parking lot and we grilled out until the big game. It was so much fun. We were up at 7 am setting everything up but it was so worth it. Every sorority was paired up with a frat and they had a tailgate to themselves but everyone wandered around the parking lot anyways. There were about 5 different cars playing 5 different songs and everything was so loud. It got everyone pumped for football next year. This was by far my favorite memory here so far.

Networked Publics

                Last week, Lacy told us to pick one of the three subheadings “Genres of Participation,” “Networked Publics,” or “Peer Based Learning” and to read it carefully. I chose to read “Networked Publics”, because it seemed most interesting. As I read it I got the gist of it and realized that it was talking about how social networks and social interactions helped with people skills. It also talked about some other things, but I got the most from this. Ito mentioned in her writing that social media helps people with social norms. I would say that I agree with this to an extent. Sometimes what people post online are not what kids, or anybody really, should be reading or acting like. Social media’s do help us interact with people, so that could be a reason for helping with social norms.

                The writing also talked about social media’s in the workplace. Ito described how it helps with productivity because it allows workers to connect with others from all over. Ito described it as “circulation of culture and knowledge” and as “always-on” communications. Another group of people that social media’s affect are kids and teens. Parents aren’t particularly fond of this because it is “unmediated”. All-in-all, this reading helped me better understand Ito’s point of view on social media’s. Ito believes that they better our society.

String games

                On the first day of classes Lacy gave us some string. At first I thought we were just messing around, but I soon realized the point to the activity. She gave us the string and some instructions on what to do with it. We learned how to do the basics and how to make a cup and saucer. The point to the activity was that we learn that it is okay to make mistakes in this class. Making mistakes helps you as a writer to learn what works best for you. It also helps you learn which way works best for you as a learner.

Final Reflection

                On the last day of class, Lacy asked us to describe a time where we struggled with her class. Except instead of using the word “struggle” she used the term “wobble”. She then asked us what we thought the term meant. People shouted out many answers like dance, shake, wiggle, to sway, to stagger, unsteady motion, like a baby, and to falter. She then told us that for our final reflection she wanted us to talk about how we struggled with English 1101. She didn’t want it to be a success story; she wanted to hear stories about how we “wobbled” throughout the class.

The biggest struggle I had during this class was my literacy narrative. I was so excited to write it because I loved my topic, but when Lacy mentioned she wanted us to revise it and to completely think in a different way, I was stuck. I had just written this four page paper that told the story of a major event in my life and she wanted me to change it? So when it came down to it, I made very minor changes with grammar and Lacy said that wasn’t enough. Then she suggested the rolling due date, so that made me procrastinate a lot. And the night before the assignment was due I had to pack all of the revising into one night. I had to revise my paper and make it completely different and then I had to write a final draft of it. I was up for hours! So needless to say, this was what I “wobbled” with the most.

I also struggled with my daybook. I enjoyed having the chance to write every day because it challenged me. I’m not used to doing that so I had a hard time with it. I didn’t know what to write but Lacy told us that it didn’t matter because she was never going to see it. She also told us that there was no right or wrong thing to write about, she always gave us the option. So in the end, I ended up really enjoying the daybook but in the beginning I wasn’t sure how to use it.

All in all I truly enjoyed having Lacy as my first English teacher in college. She never told us we were wrong, but she always gave us her opinion on how we could make it better. She was really big on revision and even though it sucked sometimes, it made me think out of the box and I learned a lot from it. I know that I have grown as a writer and am excited for what the future holds.

Reflective Blog for Literacy Narrative

I knew exactly what I was going to write about as we were choosing our topics. I had just recently finished my last year as a dancer so I knew I wanted to write about my last recital and what it meant to me. When we had to write down other ideas I listed dance recital, letters to santa, writing for the SAT, pen pals, stats project, and practicing spanish. None of my ideas were interesting to me except for the one about my dance recital. I knew I would have a lot to say about it.

When it came to revision work I had a hard time. I knew I had written it the way I wanted it. My first draft was witten in first person and in the present tense. I included some specific times to let my readers know when and where the events were taking place. In my second draft I switched it from the present tense to past tense, but I still kept it in first person. I added more times to it so that it seemed more like a timeline. For my final revision, I went back to the present tense because I felt like I could tell the story much better if I was telling it in the moment. I kept the extra times because it added to the story and made it more interesting. Needless to say I did not enjoy the revision process. It was long and tedious and I really like my first draft so I didnt like having to change it.

Overall I enjoyed this assignment because it brought back so many amazing dance memories.

Ethnography: Sound

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRQqXY0JYvQ&feature=youtu.be

This project was deffinatly one that I enjoyed making. Our topic was sound and we decided to make an audio recording like we heard in "This American Life". We started out with a sound map that we made in class. We wrote down music, language, singing, ringtones, noises, videos, and voices/conversations because that is what we expected we would hear when we went and did our sound mapping. Next we went to the student union and wrote down everything we heard. We also included interviews where all three of us each interviewed someone. once we had all of these components together we went back to the student union to recap everything we had learned over the process of completing this project. I personally learned that sound differs in different cultures and that what we are used to around us might not be what others are used to. Also we dont really realize all the sounds around us. we only focus on what we want to hear.