Half Day! ...wait...those don't exist anymore.

Please Note: This is my proposal for my public writing assignment. :]

Last school year, Indiana state superintendent Dr. Tony Bennett eliminated the use of half days and changed the attendance rules across the state of Indiana. Because of this, schools across the state are eliminating parent-teacher conferences, teacher workshops are being offered after school hours without compensation, and two-hour delays are not being used in times when they should be because the school district does not want to make the day up. Waivers to not make up a school day because of "situations beyond the school's control," i.e., a fire, are no longer being issued. I believe that Dr. Bennett was not thinking of some of the consequences of the students and the teachers would have to deal with, such as those already stated. The learning environment would feel much safer if the use of half days were put back into the system.

I love those little kiddies!

It's Monday.
And, as a daily routine of my Mondays, I had to tutor children at Ross Community Center. And, as usual, I didn't feel like going (quite frankly, I really just wanted to take a nap.) When I got there, the kids didn't really have any homework, so I began to play basketball games with a child in the gymnasium. I thought for a second and remembered how nice it was outside today. I suggested to her that we play outside, and she agreed. We then went into the room and asked if anyone wanted to go outside. Of course, all the kids went outside in a frantic, yet excited state. They were super happy to get out of that musty room for a little bit. They had me push them on the swings, make them move on the merry-go-round, and play tag. Oh.My.Goodness. They have so much energy...but I have never seen those children so happy before. It put a genuine smile on my face.
Personally, I think these children need to have these fun days every once in a while. They sit in school for 7 hours a day, only to come to tutoring to do a bunch more homework and play educational games. While I definitely believe getting their education is important, they need to have fun every once in a while.



Okay, picture explanation time. I feel that this picture perfectly fits to what I have just said. How, you ask? In today's world, all we do is work, work, work, especially when we reach the age we have gotten enough education to have a job. So, what makes us feel like we must drown today's youth in barrels of standardized tests, homework, and non-entertaining "activities." Childhood, in a sense, is like a ride. It is meant for carefree fun. Making everything serious and stressful all the time is like taking them off of the ride of their life. I'm sure many of us remember when we felt yanked into the world of reality and responsibility. For some of us, it may have been earlier than you wanted to, so your "ride" of childhood was not as expected. Therefore, this made the ride not enjoyable. I believe all children should be able to enjoy the innocence of life while they still can, because once they realize what the real world is really like, their ride will be over before they know it.
End Rant.

-Emily

What is public writing?

When I first hear, "public writing," I think of ANY writing that can be seen to the general public, such as books, advertisements,and newspapers. I think that public writing will be seen by people that will judge your writing and could help you establish credibility. I don't find writing regular papers public because the only people that will see them are you and your teacher. I think these blogs are a great example of public writing because anyone could find your blog (hey, it's the internet! Just hope it's not a creepy stalker-person,) and people can judge you based on what you say.

Happy Fall Break!

Hey everyone!
Right now, I'm sitting at my boyfriend Cale's house. Last night was his concert, and his band did really well! They have improved SO much since Joey's birthday party back in early July. They had two other more experienced bands playing with them, and I seriously think that his band sounded the best out of all of them. I may be biased about it, but my friend that went with me said the same thing. Earlier in the week, there was a girl at his school saying that they were going to sound really bad since they were a new band and this was their first real show. Well, To She-Who-Won't-Be-Named, THEY SHOWED YOU WRONG NOW, DIDN'T THEY!!! Serves you right for spreading that rumor across the whole school. One of their band members practically told her off after the show after she admitted that they did amazing.
I also got to hang out with my friend Kaylie before, during, and a little bit after the concert. It was really great being able to talk to her for a while. We hadn't hung out one-on-one before, so it was pretty freakin' sweet :]
So, what are my plans for the night you may ask? Cale and I are going to the mall, then we're going to the Crypts of Terror, which is a haunted house thing my old high school puts on. Hopefully it will be good. We were going to see Paranormal Activity tonight as well with Jeff and Jackie, but Jackie couldn't hang out tonight so we're going to wait until I come home in a couple weeks for the Sunshine Dance.
We're getting ready to leave now, so I must be heading out.
I hope everyone is having a great fall break!
-Emily

Man, I feel smart!

Today, I took my EDEL 100 midterm. Our teacher originally told us that all questions were worth one point, but there was one question worth two points. She didn't tell us what the two point one would be about, so it was a mystery when we were studying. She was then going over the test layout when she pointed out the two point question. It was about No Child Left Behind. At this point, I was having a nice little mini-party in my head. For those of you that don't know, I did my multimodal project on No Child Left Behind. When I got to this question, I wrote really small and filled up the entire blank space. Needless to say I think I got full credit on it :D
Midterms in general? I think I did pretty well. We had our COMM 210 Midterm on InQsit and one of the questions had something to do with why someone was dressed nicely. One of the choices for the answer was "He was bringing sexy back." Oh.My.Goodness. I had never been so tempted to pick the wrong answer in my life. I was trying so hard not to laugh at the computer.
Tomorrow is the last day before fall break and I am super excited to go home! My boyfriend's band has a concert so a few of my friends and I are going. It should be a lot of fun. :] I'm also getting my hair redone by a family friend who started cosmetology school this summer. I trust her to do a good job, and I'm ready for my hair to look different (I always make my hair look different... it's kind of a hobby of mine xD.) The weather is also perfect for Fall Break. It just makes me happy in general...it's going to be a great weekend! :]

Family-less Weekend

Well, it's family weekend here at Ball State. It's really hard to see all of these families here having a good time and I'm walking around knowing that mine didn't even make an effort to come.
When I went home last month, I asked if they were going to come up. My mom looked at the date, and without missing a beat, she told me, "Oh, no, your dad is working that weekend." Of course, I was disappointed. My friends here were talking about their families coming up, and I just sat there listening to how excited they were getting to have their families visit them.
Yesterday, I was talking to my mom. She said "Your dad is taking off Saturday." So I got really excited, thinking she was going to say something along the lines of: "We're coming up to visit!" But of course, Murphy's Law set in. She then continued by saying, "Your brother and him are going to the Purdue game!" This hurt. He would rather go to a football game with my brother that he sees every day, to a university that is 10 minutes from our house, than see me. They haven't seen me in a month...but I guess that doesn't really matter, does it?
I have seen many students with their families, and I get jealous. I wish my parents had cared enough to come here to see me.

Brr-rr-rr

No matter how long I live in Indiana, I will never understand its weather patterns...ever. This time last month, it was 80 degrees and beautiful outside. I didn't need a jacket, I could wear shorts to P.E., and I wouldn't mind walking to get food. Now, it is barely above freezing. Today, I wore two pairs of pants, a tshirt with a sweatshirt, a coat, and fuzzy boots, and I was still cold. This is nuts! We completely skipped that nice, 70 degree weather we all have learned to love. Shoot, we barely had the nice 50-60 degree weather. It's been constantly raining and windy and FREEZING! All I know is, no one was expecting this at all. My winter coat? It's definitely back in my room in Lafayette, along with my gloves and hats. If it wasn't for my boyfriend packing his favorite scarf of mine in my suitcase without me knowing, I wouldn't have one of those, either. Yesterday I got out my really warm microfleece blanket my mom got me, and trust me when I say that it's currently my best friend at the moment.
My roommate is almost positive it snowed yesterday...you know, the snow that doesn't stick to the ground but is snow before it melts in the air? I'm not going to lie...I like snow when it sticks...for the first day, anyway. After that, I hate it. It's cold, mushy, and gets in the way. There were still small patches of snow around Lafayette around my birthday last year...and my birthday is in April.
I feel like winter is coming earlier and staying later each year. *sigh* This makes me feel like global warming is a complete myth...even though it isn't. But still...
moral of the blog?
It needs to be warm again...PRONTO!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away....(Okay, on Friday in the 4th floor of Menk Hall in Stu East), the unexplainable happened. I went into the bathroom, and when I went to the sink, I noticed a lanyard, key, and ID holder on a shelf by the sinks. I was the only one in there, so I went to see who it belonged to. I went to look in the ID holder, and the ID was gone. I thought that was really strange, then I thought for a second and thought, "this lanyard looks a lot like my roommate's..." and compared the key. The key looked exactly like mine, so I went back to my room and asked my roommate if she had her lanyard/ID. She said she didn't, so we went back to the bathroom and we got her key. She then started to naturally freak out because her ID wasn't there, and we practically tore the bathroom apart looking for it. We then came back to the room to look for it again. Still no sign of her ID. We then tried asking our RA and went to the front desk, but no one had it. We later talked to another girl on our floor and she said she saw the ID out of the ID holder about 20 minutes before I did, but she thought my roommate was in the bathroom so she didn't bring it to her. In the twenty minute time span, someone stole her ID. Because this was a Friday night, she is unable to get another ID until Monday. In the meantime, I am letting her in the building and the bathroom, and she is getting food by using her ID number.
What I would like to know is: Why would someone want to steal someone else's ID? We're on an honors overflow floor. I would think that these people would be more respectful towards other people's belongings...but I'm starting to REALLY not like the people on this floor.

Childhood Memories!

A few days ago, the power at Stu East went out (...awesome... <.<) and it somehow messed up the TV in my room. In our midst of boredom, my roommate came across Hey Arnold! on youtube. Words can not deeply express how excited this made me. These last few weeks, I have discovered more and more ways to feel like a child again. Last week, when I was tutoring at Great Achievers, the kids watched The Magic School bus. I am not going to lie when I say that I exclaimed my happiness by going "Yes!" All the little kids looked at my friend and I, but that's okay. My friend Krystle also has a Strawberry Shortcake coloring book. She's been letting me color in some of the pages, and now I really, really want a coloring book and a box of crayons. I guess it's good I have these sort of qualities, since I am going into Elementary Education. :]
Man, I miss being a kid.

Log: 9/29 and 10/1

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Today, we began by intensively reviewing Rachel Allen's paper over the Orbit gum commercials. Professor McArdle then explained to us that any time we use information that is not our own, we must have a works cited page in order to avoid plagiarism. We then moved on to William Bohn's paper on the song "Feel Good, Inc." by the Gorillaz. We then discussed how they were an animated band. After a brief confusion as to whose paper was next, Collin Warner's paper on a song by Lifehouse got intesively reviewed by those who had it.

Thursday, October 1, 2009
Today, we signed up for times for our conferences next week. We discussed the art of argument, and to do so, we watched "Monty Python - Argument Clinic." We then discussed researching to back up our arguments. Professor McArdle then informed us that we will use MLA format to cite our sources because APA is for cheaters. We then discussed our multimodal assignments. We were then shown a youtube video from a former student's "This I Believe" essay and discussed the visual elements she used. Professer McArdle then showed us how to make a weebly website that we have the option of using for our multimodal project.

Another Day, Another Project.

Today, we got assigned our multimodal assignment for english and were shown different ways we could implement different modes. I think I am going to do a website on weebly.com, but I'm not too sure what sort of subject I am going to do as of yet. Here is a topic I am thinking about:
-Stop smoking!
With this topic, I could use different statistics from websites, use "Truth" commercials, use visual images of what cigarettes do to your body, and psychological effects cigarettes do.
This is all I have so far, but I might think of some other things over the course of the weekend.