Summer Time

I took my one and only final this morning at 8! Besides having to get up and take a final at 8 the rest of the day has been good, and now I have finished up my freshman year of college, well except for having to write project 4, and now it is summer time. Summer is my favorite time of the year. Swimming, working at camps, and hanging out with friends and family members is what I plan on doing this summer and I am so excited. And it all starts now!! Hope everyone has a great summer!

No More Comp Classes

Comp II is over and for most of us that means no more comp classes. No more comp classes doesn't mean that writing is over with also. There will still be term papers and other essays that will have to be written in other classes that aren'r related to English. I hope that everything I have learned in Comp I and Comp II will stick with me and help me in my writing when I am having to write a term paper or another essay in the future.

Dracula

I have never read the book of Dracula or seen the movie. This week while reading the book of Dracula I am finding it not as good as I thought it would be. A lot of people talk about it like it is the best, but I am not seeing it. I think what made it so big is that it was the first vampire story that was easy to understand and had the sexual desires and other aspects that young adults like. I must say that going over the book in class discussion is helping me out, because while reading the book in the journal and diary way it is written I miss some stuff. Maybe that is one of the reasons I am not liking the book as much as I thought I would, the way a book is written is very important and I am not liking the journals and the diaries.

Elizabeth Bathory

I am looking up information about Elizabeth Bathory for a project in my comp class. That girl was nuts! The things that I have read about her are crazy and I can't believe she lived like that. She would take baths in the blood of virgins to make her seem younger and more beautiful, which is why she is called the Blood Countess. Taking baths in blood makes her insane enough without considering all the other horrible things she had done.

Stage Fright

In my comp2 class we are having to do presentations. I really like the topic that my group is working on and I am okay with the presentation until it is my turn to go. I have horrible stage fright and our instructor is going to let us have an audience to present our presentations to. I am going to have the worst stage fright ever come this Friday when I get to talk about a topic that most people won't know about in front of people I don't know. Speaking in front of people for me is always better when I know the people, but since I won't know the people on Friday I am sure I will mess up somewhere. I can't wait to get the presentation over on Friday. I am already getting nervous and that's not good.

Group Projects

It seems like at least once a semester a person will have a group project in a class. Group projects can be fun if it is under the right circumstances. I am having to do a group project in my comp2 class and I'm not sure exactly how i feel about it. I like group projects and they can be interesting. The problem I am having with this group project though is we don't have enough time it seems like to make 10-15 minute presentation about our topic. We are having to rush around to find the right sources that we can use and on top of finding the correct academic sources we must find time to acutally meet as a group and work on the project, which is hard in college since we all have different schedules and activities to work around. Group projects...I like them, but then I don't at the same time.

Education Oberservation Class

I am an education major and for one of the classes I am taking we go to other schools and get to observe a teacher there. So far I have observed a 6th grade math teacher, a high school medical procedures teacherm, and a 5th grade english teacher. I really like observing the teacher an with have such a wide variety of subjects and grades it helps me decide more of what I am wanting to teach. I think I would like to teach a 7th grade math or history class. I would prefer teaching math over anything else. With observing these classes I have also realized that I would like to teach upper lever elementary and into the middle school level grades.

Quick Write

 Everyday when we walk into class the frist thing we do is a quick write. The quick write can be anything from questions about the reading assignement, projects we are doing, or even questions asking our opinion on issues. I really like writing the quick write especially when it is over a reading assignment because the question will help me remember what I read and what I thought about that piece of reading.

Bad Test Taker

When it comes to taking tests I am horrible. I can study for hours and hours but when it comes to the actual time to take the test I forget everything that I spent time studying. That is one of the problems I am having with one of my classes in college. I am scared that I am going to fail the class, because are overall grade is made up of the 4 tests that we take in the class. We don't get any other grades but those 4 test scores. As I mentioned before I am a horrible test taker. I hope that I can continue to study hard and make better scores on my test, and hopefully get a decent grade in the class.

Reading The Giaour

Last week in my Comp II class we went over The Giaour, which is a super long poem. The poem was hard to understand. I would have to read a couple of lines over and over before I would be able to get a since of understanding for what is trying to be said. I am glad that we went over The Giaour in class, because without the help of our teacher, Ms. Hodges, I am sure I wouldn't have understood the meaning of the poem at all.

Vampirism

In my Comp2 class we have been discussing how the characteristics of vampirism can work for humans that aren't vampires. For instance a pale, cold, lifeless, and scary individual may not be a vampire but he/she could have a lot of the same characteristics that we assume is how a vampire would be described.

Prewriting

Today in my Comp II class we discussed prewriting. The one thing I learned other than procrastination isn't good and everyone has some form of it is that I need to start planning and organzing my paper in advance and not wait until I sit down in front of a blank computer screen to start writing. When a teacher would tell me that a paper is due in a month and gives us what to write about I will just think about stuff in my head about what I want to write about and not start writing my paper until a couples of days before it is due. The only problem with that is when I sent down to write my paper I tend to forget what I have thought about in the previous month. I have mentioned before that I am a horrible procrastinator, but this semester I am going to keep a notebook and when I think about something I want to put in my paper I am going to write it down so I won't forget it and have it available for when I sit down and start writing my paper.

Introductions with Topic Sentences and Main Points

Introductions usually consist of a thesis sentence and the main points that you will be writing about. Well anyway that is how it is in most academic essays. There are occasions though that an introduction won't consist of a thesis statement. The thesis statement will be somewhere within the essay, it could even been the conclusion. I am having to write a papere for my Comp II class and it can't be like an academic essay, which means the introduction can't be a regular one. The introduction can't consist of the topic sentence and the main point. I have to figure out someway to write this paper and have my topic sentence in a different paragraph and not mention in my introduction what my main points are. I am evaluating an article about Twilight and my paper has to be written in a format like an article for a magazine would be written. This is going to take more though and planning than I had thought.

Popularity of Vampires

Vampires. Almost every teenage girl/boy are into the whole scene. Now every new book, tv show, or movie is about vampires. How long will this new thing last? Is it going to get bigger? It started out as vampires but now has moved on to include werewolves and zombies. I am about tired of the phenomenon and ready for something else. Twilight is one of my favorite books. I like reading about the book and what other people think about it. Twilight started a whole new genre with teenagers though. I think it is about time for something else to come along and grab the attentions of teenagers.

Procrastination with School

Procrastination is probably one of my biggest problems I face with school. I always wait until the last minute to start working on assignment. Let me be the one to tell you that waiting until the last minute isn't the smartest thing to do. I know some people wait until the last minute to do an assignment and they do better that way. I was like that in high school, I could wait until the night before a paper was due to start working on it and get a good grade. In college though, that doesn't work. A college student has to take time, plan what they are going to write about, get sources, and talk to their instuctor and other classmates about good topics. I got a B on my first paper I wrote in college. I though it was a good paper, but my instructor made some comments about how I should have went into more depth and explained situations and examples more. I think if I would have taken more time on that first paper I would have made a better grade. I am starting my second semester of college and I am going to work harder and not procrastinate as much. And to anyone who is reading this I hope they do the same.