What does success look like?!

Wednesday's class discussion really interested me in looking more into success, and what it looks like.  Lately I have been thinking a lot about life.  When kids are growing up all you hear them talk about is becoming a lawyer, doctor, architect, engineer, or what have you.  But where do the normal people come from?  What about our social workers, teachers, bank tellers, or mail couriers come from.  I call these filler jobs, or jobs that fill in everyday society, our NORMAL people.  How many kids do you hear growing up saying they want to be a bank teller after they graduate......not many?  Right.  But why is that?!  I have not always viewed success as doing whatever makes you happy, not content, but HAPPY!  For majority of my life I have viewed success as having an amazing home, white picket fence, wonderful family, trophy wife, and a dog named Spot.  But that can't be what makes everyone happy.  What if what makes me happy is a nice 900 sqft. apartment with bad parking, overlooking a nice local park, single, and a cat named Pepper?!  This leads me to my point!  This picture really upsets me......

I really do not agree with how easy, simple, and one-tracked they are making college admissions look.  They make it seem as if there is only one way to make it to college, by following their exact steps.  But what if there steps don't make you happy?  What if you don't like college visits?  What if you take the ACT instead of the SAT, can you still go to college?!  I really just think that everyone one has a different goal for success, and a different path of taking to get there.  In society we always tend to generalize everything and make it seem one-sided.  We now know that nothing in life is truly one-sided and a person's success cannot be defined by anyone else.

U.N.I.T.Y.

Unity?  What exactly is unity?  Togetherness.  Where do we see it?  How often does it show up?  In class we looked at different pictures in which we were asked to find something interesting, and make it seem odd, even if we knew exactly what it was.  Coincidently we got the picture from the popular movie "Freedom Writer" showing a class of students huddled together.

 

We were asked to make something odd of this picture.  Make it SEEM like something that you don't see everyday.  That was pretty easy given this picture.  How often do you see a class united like this.  No matter the age group, school, or location, you never see this happening!  I think it was interesting that Prof. Lacy put this picture in circulation asking us to find/make something strange about it.  I feel like just looking at the picture we automatically she something strange and out of the ordinary, students UNITED!  Do you all see this as being just as strange as I do, or am I doing too much?! Lol

What Elbow Thinks!

I want to talk more about Peter Elbow's writing "Coming to Know Myself as a Vernacular Intelect" and how I understood it.  When reading Elbow's writing I thought about so many events over the years that have potentially shaped or changed my experience as a writer and a student.  Elbow repeatedly calls attention to the teacher student relationship and how he views it.  Elbow says that teachers have an unfair control over their students creativity.  Teachers have the chance to tell a student if their work is right, or wrong which is solely based on the teachers discretion.  This is unfair seeing as though your teacher changes frequently.

 

Here is my daybook entry where I talk more about what interests me in Elbow's writing.  I have always thought that teachers control way to much of what students feel is right or wrong, and it's nice to know I'm not alone!

Myspace, Facebook, Twitter!

I've had these thoughts and mixed feelings about social networks on my mind for about a week now.  I've heard so many different points of view about whether or not social networks are good for you, or bad for you.  On the good side it is said that social networks help teens to build, perform, articulate, and develop friendships.  This is said to be what social networks provide for young adults.  I believe this is what they were created to do, but they fail.  In my opinion social networks are completely unnecessary.  I believe they tarnish children's self esteem and promote a need to be liked or accepted.

 

Popularity!  The image shows a picture from my daybook of notes I took while reading about social networks.  The word that stood out to me was popularity!  Social networks create the need for kids to feel and be popular.  They create a false image of what's cool and what's not.  Personally, I believe social networks impact a child's social development negatively by creating false images of what acceptable, and teaching kids how to be someone they're not, thus leading to low self esteem.  What do y'all think?!

Are they ALL beneficial?!

Okay, I really want to talk more on the subject of the "games" we all brought into class to share.  I was really fascinated by the variety of games people brought.  I saw everything from simple word games to games that required creative experience.  This was interesting because we all saw them to be beneficial to learning no matter how simple or complex they were.  By reading Gee's passage we automatically think now that every single video game ever created is beneficial to our learning.  However, I don't believe that this is the case.  Although, I do agree with Gee in him saying that GOOD video games can yield GOOD learning.  There is still a such thing as a bad video game, or one that does not help our growth and developement, or does not challenge our problem solving or thinking skills.

For example, I do not believe this video game challenges anyone who is able to play it in any beneficial way.

http://www.agame.com/game/bubble-shooter.html

This games only tests your ability to aim the arrow in the perfect direction, and at the perfect angle to eliminate the bubbles.  What kind of development can you gain from this?  Seriously......  What videos games are truly good learning tools, and which ones are just simply pointless?

Good Video Games, Good Learning.

I want to talk more here about the "Good Video Games,  Good Learning" passage.  This passage really interested my because it focused a lot on the connections between a good, "educational" video game, and actual growth and development of a child.  James Paul Gee gives us a list of insightful things that a good video game can provide to a child.  This words on this list are all collectively critical in the social development of a child.  This passage interested me because it tells us that these traits don't only have to acquired formally, but they can be learned from a video game.  This wold almost certainly cause kids to play more video games, but also help them to grow and develop.

My Wobbliness!

In this English 1101 class I would say that I have had my share of wobble periods.  I have tried new attitudes, new ways, and new points for writing.  A lot have failed, although a lot have also worked!  I came into this class without a clear understanding of what I would be doing.  However, I came out with a completely new outlook.  I have learned many new styles of writing, and ways to write about life.  One very important thing that I have learned is that everything with writing is not always black or white, there can definitely be grey areas!  Wobbling in this class, or not having a solid understanding, has really made my writing what it is.  By wobbling I have learned how to pick myself up, pick my work up, dust myself off, and keep on trucking!  I have learned how to take and receive criticism, and also learn and improve from it.  All in all I would say that my wobbling in this English 1101 class was necessary for me to be able to get a better grasp of the different writing concepts, attitudes, and techniques.  I have learned a great deal in this class that I plan to use for the rest of my college years, and for a lifetime.  I will keep moving forward as a novice writer, and better myself day by day.