Audre Lord

            Hello to all of my viewers. Today I read chapter 3 of Zami , by Audre Lord. Lord illustrated the librarian’s kindness to her by telling the story of the librarian reading her stories when she was too young for story time, and how the simple offer of a story calmed her down from throwing a temper tantrum.

            She also illustrated the rudeness of her sight-preservation teacher by telling the story of when she was instructed to copy a single letter, but instead wrote her name. She included her parents’ reaction to the teacher saying that she wasn’t ready to go to kindergarten based off of this behavior. Her parents’ reaction was to immediately move her into first grade at the private Catholic school.

            Her first grade teacher at the new private school was a nun. The teacher separated the class into two groups; the Fairies, and the Brownies showing her prejudice towards African-Americans. The teacher was illustrated as unfair, and mean. Audre was once punished by the teacher for breaking her glasses. The teacher even requested that Audre’s parents dress her in less layers, so it would hurt more when they spanked her. Audre Lord undoubtedly had some terrible teachers. Until next time; thanks for reading.

Stand and Deliver

Connected with every student
· Encouraged students to look at the bigger picture, made it less over whelming to learn. – Went to restaurant and talked to Ana’s father about her possibly being able to go to college one day

· Paid attention to each student, treated them how they needed to be treated.

· Caught attention by dressing up

· Not intimidated by students

· Had a good attitude, wanted to teach

· Turned real life situations into lessons

· Truly believes that student can learn. Didn’t let other teachers stop him from teaching. "Our kids can’t handle calculus, we don’t even have the books"

· Embarrassed student into doing work, completing assignments

· Took extra time to teach kids, wanted them to get ahead

· "Angel" expressed he wanted to "get straight"after leaving class.

· Mr. Escalante says "All you see is the turn, not the road ahead" to the student who though working was more important than school. "Wouldn’t you rather be designing these cars?"

· Claudia says to her mother "I’m doing this so I don’t have to depend on some young guy for the rest of my life."

· Mr. Escalante said "I want to teach" when asked by neighbor why he quit his job

· Pressured Angel into answering question, did not give up on him

· Shows students home life. Kids/taking care of parents/poverty. "Turn off light" while girl is studying

Dead Poets Society

* All boys religious private school
* High success rate
* Very cult like
* Neal has a very strict father
* Very intelligent, but very droll teachers, except the new alumni English teacher
* English teacher uses unconventional methods
* The boys are relatively close
* Has students destroy textbooks
* Teacher was soccer captain, thigh man, annual edit, and member of the dead poets society
* Students very interested in their teacher
* The guys want to go to the cave where the Dead Poets Society was hosted
* Mr. Keeting left the DPS book in Neil's room for the boys
* All take turns reading poems
* "We must constantly look at things in a different way"
*   Neil wants to audition for a play despite his father's wishes
* Neil gets the lead part, and writes permission letters posing as his father, and his dean.
* Mr. Keeting uses crazy methods to find the poets in his students
* "You must believe that your own thoughts are unique" (not exact words)

    Students are close, but live pretty guided, boring lives. Mr. Ketting is an alumni English teacher who loves poetry. He uses unconventional methods to teach his students to write and love poetry, and to seize the day; or carpe diam.

Stand and Deliver

- Many students forget that teachers deal with stuff outside of school

- Latino teacher teaching in a primarily, but not entirely Latino school

- Teaches math to very unruly students. Some do not speak English

- Gets his car radio stolen on his first day at work

- Has a wife and kid

- Uses apples to teach percent

- Bullied by teenage Cholos

- Gang fight outside the school, stops one student from joining

- Uses alternative methods like every day activity references

- Wants to include all students, and maybe help the troubled ones

- REALLY wants his students to learn

- Some students aren’t even literate

- One Cholo (close friend of “lead” Cholo) student wants to learn, but doesn’t want people to know

- Wants to teach AP Calc to kids who have little math knowledge. His idea is to rebuild the school, starting at the top.

- Teaches trig and math analysis over the summer so they can take AP Calc

- “All you see is the turn. You don’t see the road ahead.”

- Gets his students to sign a contract to prepare for and take the AP Calculus Exam

Intelligence

-Creativity is more important that literacy

-If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never create something original

-We get educated out of creativity, being taught that mistakes are bad

-Every education system on earth has the same heirarchy

-Most useful subjects at work are taught first

-People can be incredibly smart, but not think so, because their type of knowledge is not valued

-Intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct

-Some kinetic people need to "move to think"


I think good teachers see how their students think, and exploit that. A good teacher would notice that Student A is an existential learner, and Student B is a musical learner. The teacher would then devise a way to teach both students the same lesson, but through different means. A good teacher would not criticize a student for where their skills are lacking, but instead embrace what they are good at, and find a way to use that to improve upon where they need work. Some teachers may see their students as a manager sees their factory workers; all the same and doing the same job. But a good teacher would see that students are individual. They want to learn different things and in different ways. The teacher would see that all of his or her students contain uncapped potential if they learn the way that works for them. A good teacher works for their students, they don't have their students work for them.

Adoption-Final Draft

Garrett Walker

        

         Adoption is a wonderful thing. It is the process of a family or person bringing someone new into their life, simply for the sake of wanting to care for them. Adoption takes place in many forms; international adoptions, multinational adoptions, temporary adoptions or foster care, preliminary adoption, and many more. Many people choose adoption because of a lack of ability to conceive. While others choose it because they would rather care for a child already in this world who needs a home. In some cases, adoption takes place because of a d death, or circumstance in which a family member or friend is unable to continue living with their current parent or guardian. Adoption has taught me a number of things. For example, it has shown me how much the world is really connected. It has taught me that everyone is the same, even if they don’t look, or act the same. The process of adoption has had a bigger affect on my life than it has on most people. My brother was adopted from Korea, I have an adopted friend from Vietnam, a few adopted friends from Africa, and two adopted uncles and multiple friends from the United States. Without adoption, I wouldn’t have these relationships, and my loved ones wouldn’t have the relationships that they have now. Chances are that adoption affects you more that you realize.

         When I was seven years old, my mom’s side of the family came over for Christmas. At this time, my brother Cole had been part of our family for about two years. My cousin Sam was a little older than myself, but still young, and she was very uneducated about the adoption process. When I was upstairs in my room, Sam wanted to know where I was so she asked my dad; “Uncle Dave, where’s your son?” My dad replied “Which son?” and Sam answered “Your real one. With most parents and loved ones of adopted family member, would and will take this kind of statement offensively. And I believe with good reason. However Sam was young, and my dad understood. He took this as an opportunity to educate her. He sat her down and told her simply, “Sam, they’re both my real sons. Even though Cole is from Korea, he is no less my son, than Garrett. I love him the same, and he is my son all the same.” He went on to further explain the process of adoption to Sam, and she quickly understood. After hearing this story, I considered the question for myself. Was Cole my REAL brother? I was only seven, and had never even considered the matter. But when I thought about the situation, I quickly decided. Of course he was. He was a member of my family all the same. We might not share genetic material, but he is by any definition; my brother.

         Living with an adopted brother has led to some interesting experiences. I have a friend who moved here from Korea about four years ago. When he first met Cole, he started speaking Korean to him, assuming that he would understand. When we explained that he has been with us since he was a baby, and had know idea what Danny (my friend) was talking about, they both laughed. However some experiences haven’t been as light hearted. Occasionally, I will have someone ask me if I have any “real” siblings, after meeting Cole. This happens less now that people are overall more educated on the subject. However when it does happen, I don’t take it offensively, because the majority of the time it is ignorance through no fault of their own. I simply explain to them how he is my real brother, and after explaining it, they almost always understand. Of course there will always be judgmental people who won’t consider him to be my brother, but I haven’t had to deal with that much yet. This relates to me learning that everyone is the same, because if you teach something, you learn it better. You get used to the subject and understand it more. I have never been a judgmental person, and I think it may be because of living with Cole. He doesn’t look like me. I’m white; I have brown hair, and big green eyes. Cole is dark, has black hair, and thin brown eyes. But he’s not any different, than me. I believe that this taught me that if two people who don’t look alike can love each other, why couldn’t everyone else love each other despite differences?

         Cole is, and forever will be a member of our family. Living with him has taught me that everyone is the same. No matter your race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or anything else. It has taught me that learning to accept people can open an endless amount of doors and possible relationships. Having a biracial family, it is hard for me to understand prejudice. I believe that it all comes down to a lack of personal experience. If Cole had never come into my life, who knows what my views would be? But because he has, I have learned to love, care for, and appreciate someone who’s different from me. If you ask someone with adopted family members if they think of them as any different, most of them they will always answer no. We fight like siblings; we act like siblings, and at times even have similar personality traits like siblings do. If the only thing separating you from someone is your skin tone, your views, or your religion; look past that, and see the person behind it. Thomas Jefferson was once quoted saying “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” If you think about this quote and apply it to this situation, you can truly begin to understand how adopting my little brother taught me that everyone is equal. I would never ask for a different sibling. He is my brother, and always has been.

Adoption-Rough Draft

Garrett Walker

        

         Adoption is a wonderful thing. It is the process of a family or person bringing someone new into their life, simply for the sake of wanting to care for them. Adoption takes place in many forms; international adoptions, multinational adoptions, temporary adoptions or foster care, preliminary adoption, and many more. Many people choose adoption because of a lack of ability of having their own child. Some choose it because they would rather care for a child already in this world who needs a home. And in some cases, adoption takes place because of a d death, or circumstance in which a family member or friend is unable to continue living with their current parent or guardian. Adoption has taught me a number of things. For example, it has showed me how much the world is really connected. It has taught me that everyone is the same, even if they don’t look, or act the same. The process of adoption has had a bigger affect on my life than it has on most people. My brother was adopted Korea, I have an adopted friend from Vietnam, a few adopted friends from Africa, and two adopted uncles and multiple friends from the United States. Without adoption, I wouldn’t have these relationships, and my loved ones wouldn’t have the relationships that they have now. Chances are that adoption affects you more that you realize.

         When I was seven years old, my mom’s side of the family came over for Christmas. At this time, my brother Cole had been part of our family for about two years. My cousin Sam was a little older than myself, but still young, and she was very uneducated about the adoption process. When I was upstairs in my room, Sam wanted to know where I was so she asked my dad; “Uncle Dave, where’s your son?” My dad replied “Which son?” and Sam answered “Your real one. With most parents and loved ones of adopted family member, would and will take this kind of statement offensively. And I believe with good reason. However Sam was young, and my dad understood. He took this as an opportunity to educate her. He sat her down and told her simply, “Sam, they’re both my real sons. Even though Cole is from Korea, he is no less my son, than Garrett. I love him the same, and he is my son all the same.” He went on to further explain the process of adoption to Sam, and she quickly understood. After hearing this story, I considered the question for myself. Was Cole my REAL brother? I was only seven, and had never even considered the matter. But when I thought about the situation, I quickly decided. Of course he was. He was a member of my family all the same. We might not share genetic material, but he is by any definition; my brother.

         Living with an adopted brother has led to some interesting experiences. I have a friend who moved here from Korea about four years ago. When he first met Cole, he started speaking Korean to him, assuming that he would understand. When we explained that he has been with us since he was a baby, and had know idea what Danny (my friend) was talking about, they both laughed. However some experiences haven’t been as light hearted. Occasionally, I will have someone ask me if I have any “real” siblings, after meeting Cole. This happens less now that people are overall more educated on the subject. However when it does happen, I don’t take it offensively, because the majority of the time it is ignorance through no fault of their own. I simply explain to them how he is my real brother, and after explaining it, they almost always understand. Of course there will always be judgmental people who won’t consider him to be my brother, but I haven’t had to deal with that much yet. This relates to me learning that everyone is the same, because if you teach something, you learn in better. I have never been a judgmental person, and I think it may be because of living with Cole. He doesn’t look like me. I’m white; I have brown hair, and big green eyes. Cole is dark, has black hair, and thin brown eyes. But he’s not any different, than me. I believe that this taught me that if two people who don’t look alike can love each other, why can’t everyone else love each other despite differences?

         Cole is, and forever will be a member of our family. Living with him has taught me that everyone is the same. No matter your race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or anything else. It has taught me that learning to accept people can open an endless amount of doors and possible relationships. Having a biracial family, it is hard for me to understand prejudice. I believe that it all comes down to a lack of personal experience. If Cole had never come into my laugh, who knows what my views would be? But because he has, I have learned to love, care for, and appreciate someone who’s different from me. If you ask someone with adopted family if they think of them as any different, nine out of ten times they will answer no. We fight like siblings; we act like siblings, and at times even have similar personality traits like siblings do. If the only thing separating you from someone is your skin tone, your views, or your religion; look past that, and see the person behind it. Thomas Jefferson was once quoted saying “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” If you think about this quote and apply it to this situation, you can truly begin to understand how adopting my little brother taught me that everyone is equal. I would never ask for a different sibling. He is my brother, and always has been.

The Process of Living with an Adopted Brother

         Hello to all my viewers. Tonight I am to write about the process in which I learned that everyone is the same. I never thought of anyone as different, but a real defining moment was early on in childhood. When I was five years old, my family adopted my little brother from Korea.

         He obviously didn’t look like me, and he wasn’t biologically from my parents. But he was, and is my brother. I realized that everyone is the same no matter their race, age, gender, or sexual orientation. Growing up with an adopted brother sent me through the process of realizing what love really is. People will question, and always have questioned if he is really my brother. And of course he is. I never have and never would think of him as anything different.

         People are inherently ignorant with situations like this. But if you talk to anyone with adopted family, they’ll tell you the same thing. Having an adopted sibling is just like having a blood sibling. The only difference is they don’t look like you. Having an adopted brother has taught me to love and except everyone, and that we’re all the same. Until next time; thanks for reading. -Garrett

Traveling Solo

         Hello to all my viewers. I just read “How I Turned to Love Traveling Solo” by, Cate Huston. This narrative was educational in more than one way. It spoke about the learning experience of the blogger, as well as teaching the readers about solo travel. This blog relates to the first unit in the sense that it was an educational narrative about a significant thing in the life of the writer. Different from other educational narratives, she (Huston) took a section to educate her readers as opposed to simply talking about her own educational experience.

         I can relate to Huston in the sense that like me, and the rest of my fellow students, she is sharing her narrative via blog form. It seems the simpler form of sharing ideas. Writing a blog to tell a personal narrative allows for a slight informality and personality that might be seen as undesirable in a formal paper. I will be sharing my own educational narrative via formal paper, but if given the choice, I think I would share through blog as Cate Huston has.

         This text was interesting and I may apply it to myself in future travels. I enjoyed that she shared advice in her blog, and that’s something for me to consider doing in mine. Until next time; thanks for reading. -Garrett  

Songs About Adoption

If You Could See ME Now - The Script http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGlkwKA-t_4

Home - Michael Buble http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbSOLBMUvIE

Airplanes - B.O.B. (feat. Eminem and Hayley Williams) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEu9vF_nxMs

Coming Home - Diddy - Dirty Money & Skylar Grey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ImCpNqbJw

Pocket Full of Stars - Nine Black Alps http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeOOOhfqbiI

Adoption

10/ - Keeping Calm

           The most important thing I have ever learned is, to always keep calm. I never was uncalm, in fact I almost taught myself about being calm. I just know that I always remain calm and collected, and it helps me avoid stress and confrontation. I rarely have any anger or sadness because of this. It helps to assess situations logically and act on them so forth. This reads as if I had problems staying calm in the past, but that's not at all true. I realized early on that people can't function well when they're angry, or stressed, or panicked.

            This is the most important thing that I have ever learned, because it carries me through everything. I wear a yin-yang bracelet to always remind myself to stay collected. Remaining calm at all times helps me in stressful situations throughout life. Such as; medical emergencies, exams, confrontations, and this speed-blogging that we're doing right now. Keeping calm is my way of life.

           Everyone has a creed, or a code to live by. I choose to live my life with calmness and collectiveness. It can help me assess and react in situations. Living calm brings peace and with peace, I can live easy-going. 

10/2 - Malcolm X and Mike Rose

         Hello to all my viewers. These past couple days I have been reading exerts from Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” and Mike Rose’s “I Just Wanna be Average”, two pieces about unlikely and unique education.

         Both Mike Rose and Malcolm X are generally regarded as quite intelligent men. Surprising based on their education and how they obtained it. Mike Rose was wrongly placed into the Vocational Education program at his Catholic high school. A program designed for below-standard students. This was the result of his testing results being confused with another student. Students placed in this program were often thought to be future deadbeats. However, Rose is now a published poet, has written published textbooks.

         On the other side of the spectrum, I remember Malcolm X once answered “Books.” When asked what his Alma Mater was.

         All this goes to show that an education can be obtained regardless of one’s position in life, and the most unlikely people can turn out to be intellectuals. X and Rose both found education through less than conventional means. Unlike Rose, X’s education was mostly sponsored in a prison library, but this supports the point that anyone can receive education with work. Until next time; thanks for reading. -Garrett

10/1 - Pre-Writing

        Hello to all my viewers. Tonight, I will be writing about pre-writing. Not the most exciting of topics, I know, but this blog’s main purpose is for a class, so it has to be done. And maybe it will wind up helping someone.

Personally as a writer I have always liked the outline form of pre-writing. I am an exponential learner and so having straightforward, organized thoughts work well for me. Addressing the other part of my brain, I have always found flow charts to be helpful as well. In fact, a good flow chart will often help me draft up my outline.

When writing an outline, it’s important to keep things clear and organized. What has proven successful for me is writing the content in the chronological order that I intend to use them in my paper.

It’s important to remember though, that everyone thinks differently. I believe you will be most successful if you master whichever form of pre-writing that works the best for you. Whether it be a flow chart, an outline, a ven diagram, a list, or anything in between, a pre-write can be a great tool in starting of your writing project. Until next time; thanks for reading. -Garrett

10/1 - Irony

        Hello to all my viewers. As today I am to write about whatever I want, I’ve chosen to write about irony. We live in a world of irony and some people choose to despise this, some reason that a greater power is controlling it, and some like myself find humor in it.

            I play tennis for my school team and my season has started off well. I have been playing the best tennis of my life. Or I suppose I should say had  been playing. In our match against our rival school, I tore my rotator cuff in the first game. With irony on our side, my partner and I continued to play and eventually win the match. With this new injury, I will not be continuing on with the rest of the season but will hopefully return relatively soon.

            The reason I share this anecdote with you is that while some athletes would be devastated by the news, I choose to find humor in it instead. I have had what some may consider to be an accident-prone past. So when I found out that my rotator cuff was torn, I couldn’t help but laugh. Of course I am disappointed that my undefeated season is coming to an end, but when I had been playing the best tennis of my life, of course I should have suspected nothing less. Irony has it in for us all eventually, and if you can create humor out of a difficult situation, I believe you win. Until next time; thanks for reading. -Garrett

9/24 - Narrative Models

        Hello to all my viewers. As I am new to blogging, I ask your forgiveness for any Internet faux pas that I may use. Although this blog was created for my English 101 class, who knows where it may end up? This last Tuesday, my professor recommended two blogs to me; “How I Learned to Program Computers” by, Feross Aboukhadiejeh, and “How I Learned to Live Google Free” by, Joshua J. Romero. On a side note, I do recommend both to ample bloggers. Antwat, in reading these two blogs, I realized how easy it can be to engage readers with casual, informal writing. I plan to use this in my future papers and posts. Both authors used an informal, but not unprofessional dialect in directing their viewers. In a few weeks I will be constructing a personal narrative about an event from my past, and I believe that through these readings I may have found a way to convey my story.

                These bloggers both did something quite unique, and they retold their story through example, opinions, and results from their actions. I’m playing with the idea of doing something similar in my narrative. Using these blogs as a reference, I believe that I can derive techniques and styles to convey my own story in both an engaging, and entertaining matter. I plan to include multiple sides of my story as Feross in his blog, and I plan to include the affects the incident left on me, as well as the people involved, like Romero in his blog. Maybe one day my blog will be as popular as theirs, but I made need some practice first. Until next time; thanks for reading. -Garrett