River City Writers Interview

I went to the follow up interview this morning that included Stacey Sullivan, Joshua Prager, and Christine Kenneally. It was really interesting to hear how passionate each of them were about their research. I guess it was hard for me to understand why they loved it so much, but then I realized that if I were writing a paper on a topic that I loved then I would love the research as well. For the longest time I've been wanted to write a piece about how gender is actually socially constructed and how our society has created a beauty ideal for both men and women to follow. After this morning I'm even more motivated than ever to finally get started. I'm not going to go into this to get published, I just want to find out as much as possible and inform as many people as I can about the subject. It was very entertaining to hear Josh Prager speak about his experiences with sources and other writers, he was very charming and entertaining! I'm absolutely fascinated with Christine Kenneally. She seems like a very interesting and intellectual woman who is very passionate about her work and that's very inspiring. I can't imagine what it must be like to be Stacey Sullivan! To do the things she's done and be where she's gone during those dangerous times is beyond incredible. She's obviously a very strong woman and I admire that greatly. This whole experience of the reading and interview was very special to me. I feel like my mind in open to new things and I can't wait to get out into the world actually learn!

Part 3

The innovation of the World Wide Web, the lifestyle of communication altered by email, it's no secret that times are changing. We are quickly changing out of the slow moving Industrial Revolution into a fast pace Information Age. This constantly growing and amazing modernization has opened up many new career opportunities, as well as a change in skills and knowledge needed for success. Correspondingly, a change in the way our schools are run locally, as well as nationally, need to be altered in order to accommodate these new developments. . If we expect the children of the future to prosper and lead successful fulfilling lives, we must first make it change where it all begins, education. School assessment has been the centerpiece of the educational strategy for decades, just as the industrial age dominated our previous way of life. By moving forward into a new age that includes new intelligence that is needed to succeed in the world today, we must move our educational methods in a new direction. Before we can consider which direction our educational reform should go, we must first look at how school assessment is used today. By identifying the negative and positive affects we can see what works and avoid past mistakes.

In Memphis Tennessee, it's no secret that students in the city's school system are struggling. Just be looking at the State of Tennessee Memphis Report Card for 2006 you can clearly see that system is a complete disaster. The student academic achievement shows subjects
such as math, reading/languages, and social in grades K-8 were given terrible scores between 42 and 45, which amounts to a D. Even more distressing was the score of 41, otherwise an F, for the subject of science. If you compare these results with the records from the previous year, you'll find that Memphis City Schools are just barely improving. Clearly, the city's technique must be improved and in order to do that we must locate the underlining problem.

A major problem with the method of school assessment is the way in which teachers choose to use the system. It is often said, “What you test is what you get.” In other words, what the assessment tests focuses on determines then content of education and the methods in which educators teach. Lorrie Shepard from the University of Colorado has done extensive research on this issue and has found that "teachers taught the precise content of the tests rather than underlying concepts; and skills were taught in the same format as the test rather than as they would be used in the real world. For example, teachers reported giving up essay tests because they are inefficient in preparing students for multiple-choice tests." (3) Teaching students in this manner focuses on drill and practice on only basic skills and knowledge that is tested. "A study of eighth grade teachers from every state revealed that the majority of teachers make instructional changes as a result of mandated tests, and the nature of those changes is at odds with the recommendations of the curriculum and evaluation standards. For example, in response to the use of such tests teachers increase their emphasis on basic skills and pencil-and-paper computation and decrease their emphasis on project work, the use of technology, and cooperative effort.(4)” This type of education denies students of skills such as critical thinking, reasoning, and communicating are not only crucial to the learning process, but also living in the real world. It has been proven that perpetual drill does not increase tests scores, but has the
opposite affect. In fact, students who have been taught based on the method of understanding and critical thinking do better on tests compared to those who are taught through endless drill and practice (3). "Of course, students, particularly new learners, need some direct practice in skills, but low-achieving students suffer the most from this approach, because if their initial test scores are low, they often are given dull and repetitive skills instruction that does not enable them to grasp underlying concepts (1)."

I think it's very important to look at the teacher's choice of educational methods. Are they choosing to focus on basic skills because they're pressured by the city, or are they even qualified for the job? With scores as low and gruesome as Memphis City Schools I can easily see the stress and strain educators are under to make an improvement. But if studies have shown that their method of teaching is inadequate to increasing test scores, why are they not rethinking their education plans? One answer could be a lack of motivation. Public school teachers in Memphis only make about $38,693 a year. The is far from a justified salary for the people responsible for the education of our future leaders. Surely every teacher in Memphis is qualified for the job and deserves more recognition for their contribution, right? Surprisingly, if we look at the State of Tennessee Memphis Report Card you will find that over 1,721 core course are not taught by qualified teachers. However, the No Child Left Behind program require these courses to be taught by qualified educators, yet the school systems are reporting that there are almost 2000 courses taught by incompetent teachers. This could very well be contributing to the failing school system. If we want to expect the students of Memphis is improve in their learning, it is more than clear that a big change must be made.

Last Nights Reading

I'm going to be perfectly honest, except for the fact that I was going to be hanging out with Nina, I was really dreading going to this River City Writers reading last night. But I fell in love with the entire event. I don't know about you guys but I'm a HUGE book nerd. People make fun of me at my work because I spend my breaks reading in the food court instead of eating. To hear each author read from their book was so surreal for me. When I read a book, I'm so focused on the story that I completely forget someone actually sat down and spent maybe years writing it. To hear each writer read from their very own works in the way it was originally intended to be read, was one of the neatest experiences in my life. By the end of the whole thing I was ready to go to Barnes and Noble and buy all three books. After the night was over I realized that I never give nonfiction a chance. I love fiction, it's mind boggling for me to read a book like Harry Potter (don't laugh! I love Harry Potter!) and to think about how in depth the author's imagination must be to come up with all these different lives and world so vividly. But after last night I realized that nonfiction wasn't boring at all, it just depends what type of subject you want to read about. Each author's book sounded absolutely fascinating to me. I honestly can not stand baseball, but I can't wait to read Joshua Prager's book because it captivated me. Stacey Sullivan's book sounds absolutely fascinating! I just can't believe that one roofer in the United States made such a huge cultural impact that lead to Kosovo declaring it's independence. And probably the first book I will read is Christine Kenneally's. The question of where language started is something that I've wondered for a long time and I'm very excited to read the research that she's done on the topic. And Nina and I had so much fun! She's one of the most down to earth, sweetest girl I've ever met!

Todays HW (boring!)

Sullivan

• Milosevech - past president of Yugoslavia and Serbia and is compared to being as evil as Hitler. Bad man!

• Yugoslavia - describes three of the political entities that existed under the Balkan Peninsula.
  * Bosnia and Herzegovina - a country off the Balkan Peninsula of Southern Europe.
  * Albania/Kosovo/Serbia - a country in Southern Europe, northeast of Kosovo/A Muslim region that recently declared it's independence from Serbia/Christian terriorty that killed thousands of Muslims from Kosova as a means of "ethnic cleansing"
  *ethnic cleansing - a term used to describe the previous events in Yugoslavia, refers to genocide to remove an ethnic group.
  * Hague - located in the Netherlands, it is the home for the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

• George Soros - is originally born from Hungry and is an American financial speculator, stock investor, and political activist.

• Detente 2004 - a French term meaning relaxing or easing

• Abu Graihb - a prison west of Baghdad, a site where Saddam originally tortured executed dissidents and later where the USA's military tortured Iraqi detainees

1. Were you ever tempted to quit your research and journalism because of the dangers you were faced with?

2. What was your motivation to find out the true events in Kosovo?

3. How would you compare citizens in that region compared to Americans here at home?

Josh Prager

• "The Giants win the pennant" - a well known American culture phrase that became popular after Bobby Thompson played a part in the Giants win over Brooklyn.

• "The shot heard around the world" - a baseball term referring to the Bobby Thompson's walk-off homerun that ended up winning the Giants the National League Pennant.

• Bobby Thompson/Ralph Branca - Branca entered the game in the ninth inning and surrendered a walk off home run to Bobby Thompson, allowing the Giants to win.

1. Has baseball always been a point of interest for you?

2. How did you come to idea of writing a book about this event about baseball?

3. Do you think the Giants would have won without the spy signaling the pitches before they were thrown?

Christine Kenneally

• "I" - teachers discourage the use of "I" in most writing, especially nonfiction. It is not promote a professional tone and instead makes the writing personal.

• creative writing vs. journalism - Creative writing is what the name implies, creative. You can make up a story and the facts whereas journalism is stricter and focuses of displaing actual facts

1. Why did you feel the need to write about Lily and her condition?

2. Do you still keep in contact with Lilly's parents?

3. Have you heard whether or not Lilly has improved or not?

Why Do You Hate Hillary Clinton?

For the longest time I could not stand Hillary Clinton and I was a big Barack Obama fan. But then I stopped and asked myself where these opinions were coming from. I came to realize I had no reason at all for disliking her but was in fact taking biased opinions and making them my own. Almost every time I watch a discussion on the democratic primaries or read about the nominees, I'm fed with this complete anti-Hillary garble. Almost every newspaper article with her picture shows her in mid sentence with her mouth wide opened and eyes half closed (cleary to give a demented image). While the other candidates are pictures are normal and obviously more appealing. It seems very clear to me that the media is trying to persuade the less informed voters that she's this terrible being that spits out nothing but nonsense. From eveything that I hear, Hillary Clinton is made out to be one of the most hated politicians in our country, but if that's true then why is she neck and neck with Barack Obama? She must be something right even though the media portrays her unfairly.

I also came to realize that even though I'm of aged and able to form my own opinions, I was instead making my parents thoughts my own. Even when I asked them why they hated Hillary they could not give me a concrete answer because they themselves didn't know a thing about her history or where she stands on the issues. And now that I've taken time to research and make my opinion, I'm proud the say I support Hillary Clinton. I think she's completely qualified for the job; she has worked to empower women throughout the world; she's ready to end the war in Iraq, she has a plan to help our environment; she's been a passionate advocate for providing greater educational opportunities to all children; and she's been fighting for universal health care since she was first lady.

If you're a supporter for Barack Obama, more power to ya! But if you're going to hate Hillary Clinton, then have the decency to research and find out the facts. If you do that and still dislike her, then that's cool with me, everybody is entitled to their own opinion and I will never disrespect that. You should do the same!

So There's This Boy

About nine years ago I met this boy named Jacob and I instantly developed a little girly crush on him (I was ten at the time). As the years went by and I got older my interest in him never faded. He intrigued me more than anyone else I had ever met. He was an artist, he could draw anything and everything with accuracy. And what was even more amazing was that he taught himself how to do it all. He was intellectual but very imaginative, so it was impossible for him to bore me. He was quirky and awkward, two traits I somehow find appealing. He was bluntly honest, always a sweetheart, and whether he pretended to be unafraid of society's opinions or not, he convinced me. He wasn't mister popular (he was too real for that sort of thing) but everyone knew him and everyone loved him.

Unfortunately for myself, he had no interest in me as a girlfriend so I took the next best thing. We became best friends, I was like a sister to him but I didn't want to look at him like a brother of course. For years I watched him get his heart broken by girls that did not deserve him. I dated throughout high school and made some bad alternative picks, but my interest in him never went away. And then junior year it finally happened.

We started dating and we've been together since. The best anecdotes I have are about the crazy things we've done. I share a connection with Jacob that I can't find anywhere else (I took some time to make sure). Our relationship goes deeper than just going out. We both have crazy imaginations and could entertain each other for hours just by talking. And then on the other hand, we can go for hours without talking at all and still enjoy each other's presence. We make jokes together about things that no one else can understand. We don't have to try and impress each other, we just have to be ourselves.

Last semester, Jacob came to campus really early one morning (he's not a student there yet) and posted a ton of posters around campus for me to find. He wrote the letters PBN and drew a beluga whale and underneath it said "it's all for you," which is meaningless to everyone else but is a personal thing between us. But it's not just the surprises that he leaves for me that make me proud to be his, it's the little things. Jacob's always there for me, even when I'm not being entirely rational, he's never given up on me. He lets me hog the bed, lets us eat at taco bell a million times in a row even though he doesn't prefer it, runs his fingers through me hair when I'm falling asleep on the couch, draws me little comics featuring ourselves, will watch Gilmore Girls with me occasionally, and shows me just how much he loves me everyday.

So basically, I love this kid, more than he'll ever know.

Yep.

I'm proud of myself.
This is the first week I finished all of my blogs BEFORE Friday.
Go me.

Chapter 1 Part 2 of A Story That Will Probably Never Be Finished

It all started on July 11, 2005, I remembered the date because it was my sixteenth birthday. I remember waking up that day and not quite feeling like myself. I decided it was nothing but my overwhelming excitement. After all it was a big day for me; I was going to get my license. I would finally be free to go where I wanted. It was before I knew in Manhattan it’s much faster if you walk. My father told me before I left that I had to be home before 5 today, if I wanted to get my license.

It was a hot sunny day, there were no clouds in the sky, and everything was perfect. I met up with Eric at the corner buy the corner shop with the neon sign. It’s where we met everyday before school. We would walk and talk about how we were going to skip class and hide out in “Jimbo’s Fun and Games Arcade”. It never happened though. We were both to afraid to not do whatever we were told.
“You look nice today”, I said, “Did daddy get a raise?”

He was wearing new clothes: so new I had never seen them on anyone, or at any store for that matter. Also, his complexion was better and his hair was done almost to perfection. They look as if every little strand whispered “style” as he stopped in front of you. He just smiled and started walking.

“Today will be different!” He finally said on about the third block away from the store. I had been rambling on about the high prices of pizza at the arcade.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’m going to talk to her today, and she is going to like it” he replied quickly, almost before I finished my question.

“Asking for a little much?” I hesitated, “Just because you got some new threads doesn’t mean your prince charming, ya know?”

“We’ll see, we’ll see.” He said and smiled that almost evil grin. He was talking about Rachel Milcox, a girl he was practically stalking, and believe me she had no interest in him. She only dated older, much cooler guys, guys with cars, but he was the hopeful type. She was a blonde-dyed, tan -for lack of a better word- Bitch.

When we got to school, everyone looked at us like we were Marilyn Monroe and Brad Pitt. He walked straight up to Rachel and started talking. I couldn’t hear them but Rachel was being a bitch like usual! Surprising Huh? - This isn’t sarcasm; I really couldn’t believe she was talking to him!

I guess I was a little jealous, and I had every right to be, I knew him first. He only looked at me as if I was his little sister though. No matter how much he pretended to not notice, I would never stop thinking that way. It was my feeling, mine alone, and no one could change that and that included myself.

Something was horribly wrong about today, but I couldn’t put my finger on it, and Eric was the person to ask. So I jumped on the occasion to tear him away from her. I ran and grabbed his attention buy giving him a little shove.

Chapter 1 Part1 of A Story That Will Probably Never Be Finished

Today I read in my horoscope that I would be reunited with someone from the past, and sure enough it was true. This usually sounds good to someone who has a lot of friends from the past, like me, but horoscopes are never very profound. They make them so they could relate to anyone, in any situation. In fact it scared me that this one was so assuring, and something even scarier was it never said friend. I saw him, right after I left home for work, in the old neighborhood we grew up in. I could never find the courage to leave home. I couldn’t abandon those memories that I worked so hard to create.

The neighborhood was just like it was when we were growing up. The same corner shop where we bought ice in the summer, it still had the neon green sign that said cold beer. It had lost its liquor license before I was old enough to buy any, but the shop keep kept the sign, he said it attracted customers. The sidewalks still had the same cracks in them, and every now and then I could have sworn I saw old Miss Jinni’s black cat, Binky. Though it was impossible we had played with it since I was still learning to walk straight up – a little bit after learning to stand up and not fall down, of course.

The place never changed in one little bit, and when I saw him it seemed neither did he. He still looked exactly like he did eleven years ago. I wasn’t surprised. He still had the same posture. His back was arched and his chin up, as if the whole world was lucky to have him here, unfortunately this was kind of true. His black hair was still in his eyes. It was so dark I was amazed he could see through it, and he still had that grin on his face, like a villain in a comic book.

Once I saw him a chill ran down my back. I raised my hand for a cab and hid my face. I thought about how stupid I was to think that would work. How do you hide from something like him? He called me by the nick name the kids at school would hound me with after classes. “Twinkles” He screamed and before I could turn around I could feel him breathing down my neck. I turned and saw a face and as usual I felt the face and all those other memories that came with it enter my eyes, rush back into my mind and settle.

“Did you need a Taxi?” he politely asked and motioned with his hand for me to turn around. I looked back to see a taxi waiting and impatiently revving its engine.

“No, Eric, I was just waving at the nice police man across the street.” I said nonchalantly. Eric smiled and opened the door for me.

“Well,” he replied, “this way is a much easier way to get to work, for you at least. Besides you know what the boss says, Time is money.”

My boss did always say that, and it was no coincidence that he knew that. I’m sure he knew his name and his social security number too. I got in the car there was no use in resisting him. He got in after me and started reminiscing about old times. He and I grew up together, and until that moment I had forgotten what happened between us.

A Little Snippet of My Paper

The controversy over the way schools are using assessments as a basis for their teaching methods began when our society started to shift from an industrial age. Before these changes in our society, people could get by with basic skills such as reading and arithmetic. Now our future has moved into a new direction, the informative age, also known as the digital age. Because of this major change in our society, people can no longer succeed in the world with basic knowledge skills. Schools need to rethink assessment and begin a new educational reform to adapt to the turnaround in our ever changing culture.

The industrial age has dominated our civilization for almost 300 years since it broke in the 1780s (2). During this period, vast changes in agriculture, transportation, and manufacturing had major effects of our way of life. These developments morphed our society from a pre-industrial culture into a automated civilization. Because of these innovations, peopled needed only basic knowledge to succeed in life.

Our society has now moved into a new direction, the information age. “In this new era, the global economy has shifted it's focus away from the production of physical goods and toward the manipulation of information. New technological advances in this field have changed lifestyles around the world and spawned new industries (1).” Now that our cultural values and way of life has begun to change, the way in which we choose to teach the youth of our country

needs to adjust as well in order for them to prosper.

School assessments today still focus on testing students on basic knowledge. These skills are still important when it comes to the goals of education, but schools today tend to overemphasize them in order to to raise standardized tests scores (3). Many educators believe that what gets assessed is what gets taught. This means that the majority of teachers are focusing their practices solely on the content of the assessment tests and the subject matter that educators are focusing on is taught only in the same format as it is presented on the test, instead of how it's presented in everyday life (4). This way of education may have worked well during the industrial age, but times have changed and new skills must be taught. With this new age that we are living in, our youth needs to learn how to access, investigate, define, resolve, and use information for making decisions (4)

I Promise To Ease Up On The Depressing Blogs

I want to apologize for missing so much class lately. I'm going through a tough time in my life and I'm doing my best to keep up with my responsibilities, but man it's hard! I've never slacked off as bad as I have this semester and it makes me sick to think about it. I thought maybe spring break would rejuvenate me and I could get everything back on track but I was wrong... The whole entire break I was stuck taking care of my mother's responsibilities, taking care of my sister, dealing with more uncontrolled drama amongst my family, and work work work. It's so hard when you have no one to help you and no one to tell you that every thing's going to work out. But I know I'm strong, even though there are times I just want to give up. I have to keep reminding myself that I've been through a lot more worse and traumatic things in my childhood. I've made it through all of them and have even come to appreciate them because they've made me stronger and more mature. I can't wait until the day I can sit there and say the same thing about all this.

One more thing before I go. Yesterday, my dad called to tell me that my brother went in for an MRI to try and find evidence of a bipolar disorder (apparently they can do that now). Well they were looking over the results they found something that shouldn't be there (unrelated to the bipolar disorder) and are now going to have to do more tests to find out what it is. They're afraid it's a tumor, but I'm hoping with all my heart that it's nothing. Please keep my brother in your prayers!

Propaganda Analysis

Hey Everyone! Was anyone able to actually write a 1000 words for their analysis? I tried so hard but I could only come up with 500ish! If you have some time please read mine and let me know what you think!

The piece of propaganda I've chosen to analyze was presented by Memphis City Schools on their website. It's an ad for the district's community awareness campaign, “Every Child. Every Day. College Bound.” Memphis is full of minorities and lower class families that don't have many advantages. The Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners voted on this campaign to help communities understand that becoming college bound is not limited to your race, social class, or ethnicity. The purpose of “Every Child. Every Day. College Bound.” is to persuade the citizens of Memphis that the School Board is providing the city's children with quality education while preparing all students for college.

The ad shows a small picture of three, smiling students of different races wearing graduation caps and gowns. The pictures is next to a background filled with clouds against a blue sky with the campaign's phrase in big bold black letters on top. The picture of the three kids graduating is used to promote the campaign's positive vision of students, regardless of their race and social class, succeeding in our city's schools. The words of the phrase are printed big and bold to catch and command the viewers attention while the choice of sky background is to influence a feeling of hope that our city's youth will be able to achieve their dreams.

“Every Child. Every Day. College Bound.” is trying to appeal to the common man by choosing ordinary language and blunt words to identify with the average citizen. The campaign has chosen a slogan that affects the emotional appeal of the audience. The motto inspires the campaign's intended attitude of optimism and hope towards equal education for every single student in Memphis in order to win the support and confidence of the community.

The campaign's motto, “Every Child. Every Day. College Bound.” is promoting the idea that every child deserves a quality education and a chance to go to college, no matter where they live or what race they are. I think this piece of propaganda paints a picture of a large part of American culture. For centuries, part of the American dream is to earn a high school diploma and go to college in order to get a good paying job. From the time we enter elementary school, the idea of doing well in school and becoming college bond is promoted to us by our families, society, and school systems. This shows education is a very important cultural value not only in our city, but also in our country. Education is important because without we are vastly limited in what we can accomplish. Graduating from high school and receiving a college education has become a cultural value all over the country because it leads to better jobs that will make our future more enjoyable. With a well paying job we gain comfort, respect and wealth that ends up making our lives easier.