Thursday, May 3, 2007
Blog #15 Exams
Exams are coming up and this year is going to be over in just one week!! It is getting pretty stressful especially since i have my two hardest exams on the same day - Biology and History. I am glad in English we had to write a paper to be turned in the week before exams because that took a huge load off of my shoulders. My Calculus exam is on Monday at 8am, so that should be interesting considering my earliest class this semester is at 10am. I have not woken up in the 7am time frame since high school I think. Tuesday is my Sociology exam and I have a paper due in that class on the same day as well. Biology and History are my final 2 exams on Wednesday and I am afraid I am going to be slacking off since it would be my last day of exams, but hopefully that won't happen. Then after those two exams, I will be packing up my room to move home on Thursday--yayy I am so excited!!
Blog #14 My Summer Plans
This summer, I plan to relax and make money. I am going back home to New Orleans to live with my parents and brother and will be working for my aunt. I have to bring and pick up my cousins from their summer camps and bring them pretty much where ever they want. It is a pretty easy job and she does not pay me too bad either for doing it. I will also be exercising a lot to get in shape and laying out to get a tan. At the end of June, we are going on our annual vacation to either Gulf Shores or Disney World, but I am hoping we go to Disney even though it probably will be very hot and crowded.
I also will hang out with my family and friends and enjoy being a bum for a few months. I can't wait, just typing this is making me so excited to finish this semester and go home for summer.
I also will hang out with my family and friends and enjoy being a bum for a few months. I can't wait, just typing this is making me so excited to finish this semester and go home for summer.
Blog #13 Freshman Year
My first year of college has been an overall great success with many ups and downs. I did not know what to expect when I first got here. I actually thought I would hate being away from my mom, but it ended up being just the opposite. I made so many new amazing friends here and learned to be very independent. I have to admit that every now and then I did get a little homesick, and that was a great opportunity to go home, visit the family, eat a few home-cooked meals, and best of all, get my mom to do my laundry. My roommate Amelie and I became best friends over this year and I will miss her so much next year when she is in Baton Rouge.
I learned that having a boyfriend is not necessary for one to function because my boyfriend and I of three years broke up, and we are doing better without one another. I learned that friends and family are the ones who will always be there for you no matter what the problem or how late it is at night when you call or wake them up to talk to them. My friend Mary and I were great friends from our high school dance team, but I never ever predicted that we would be as great of friends as we are now since we have gone away to college together. I met Hailey through my high school friend Lindsay and we immediately became close friends and are even rooming with each other next year.
Overall, this year has been great and I will miss all the new friends I have made over the summer, but I know we will keep in touch with each other because we are already planning activities for the summer. I won't miss showering with shoes on, having absolutely no privacy, living in a filthy room, and the noisiness of the dorms. I have definitely grown over this past year for the better, and know I have become a better person because of it.
I learned that having a boyfriend is not necessary for one to function because my boyfriend and I of three years broke up, and we are doing better without one another. I learned that friends and family are the ones who will always be there for you no matter what the problem or how late it is at night when you call or wake them up to talk to them. My friend Mary and I were great friends from our high school dance team, but I never ever predicted that we would be as great of friends as we are now since we have gone away to college together. I met Hailey through my high school friend Lindsay and we immediately became close friends and are even rooming with each other next year.
Overall, this year has been great and I will miss all the new friends I have made over the summer, but I know we will keep in touch with each other because we are already planning activities for the summer. I won't miss showering with shoes on, having absolutely no privacy, living in a filthy room, and the noisiness of the dorms. I have definitely grown over this past year for the better, and know I have become a better person because of it.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Blog #12 Reading Response
Proper MLA Citation:
This source is classified as an Article. The proper citation is:
Mupinga, Davison M. “Distance Education in High School.” The Clearing House (2005): 105-8.
Summary:
This article discussed what distance education means and the different formats of high school distance education. These include cable television, correspondence courses, interactive television, online courses, and the hybrid model. The benefits from these types of distance education included the flexibility of time and space for the teachers and students, the availability of education for the disabled and those unable to go to a regular high school because of family obligations, and that in some cases students learn more from this type of high school education. The online Advanced Placement courses have recently been proven to test higher than those who take these courses elsewhere. It also said that a big challenge of this is that since there is no face to face interaction, teaching is difficult, but the process of selecting the teachers is very selective and they go through many conferences to help them with their teaching skills.
Importance:
This work is important because it talks about all the benefits and challenges of distance education in high schools, but also gives solutions and ways to fix those problems. Some significant ideas that I gathered from this work were that test scores have shown to be higher for students who take online courses and that the teachers are highly trained beyond just receiving their degree from a university. The teachers are trained so they know exactly how to deal with the new technology and their “virtual” students. The online education world is always expanding and finding new ways of reaching out and teaching to their students.
Connections:
This article is similar to my actual life because I had to do math homework online my first semester of college. I had to learn the technology side of the program, and that by pressing the wrong button, even though your answer was correct, the computer may only recognize it in only one format. Other than this, there was no real connection to my life because I have not yet taken a complete course online in college, and that article discussed distance education specifically in secondary education.
Supporting Source:
This article could be used as support for my own argument because it evaluates distance learning in high schools in a variety of ways. It listed the benefits and the downfalls, which are what a good evaluation should list. It also lists many solutions for the challenges of online education, which are all very applicable and feasible answers to the problems. I can also discuss the different formats of virtual high schools and talk about what each one entails and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Argumentative Source:
If I had to take this author and their argument to task, I would only critique a few aspects of this article. They listed many benefits and solutions, but never listed a lot of high schools that have implemented these ideas. They also should have interviewed people who attended successful virtual high schools to see what their reaction was to their courses they took. I think if the author corrected these few things in their article, it would be a much better evaluation of distance education in high schools.
This source is classified as an Article. The proper citation is:
Mupinga, Davison M. “Distance Education in High School.” The Clearing House (2005): 105-8.
Summary:
This article discussed what distance education means and the different formats of high school distance education. These include cable television, correspondence courses, interactive television, online courses, and the hybrid model. The benefits from these types of distance education included the flexibility of time and space for the teachers and students, the availability of education for the disabled and those unable to go to a regular high school because of family obligations, and that in some cases students learn more from this type of high school education. The online Advanced Placement courses have recently been proven to test higher than those who take these courses elsewhere. It also said that a big challenge of this is that since there is no face to face interaction, teaching is difficult, but the process of selecting the teachers is very selective and they go through many conferences to help them with their teaching skills.
Importance:
This work is important because it talks about all the benefits and challenges of distance education in high schools, but also gives solutions and ways to fix those problems. Some significant ideas that I gathered from this work were that test scores have shown to be higher for students who take online courses and that the teachers are highly trained beyond just receiving their degree from a university. The teachers are trained so they know exactly how to deal with the new technology and their “virtual” students. The online education world is always expanding and finding new ways of reaching out and teaching to their students.
Connections:
This article is similar to my actual life because I had to do math homework online my first semester of college. I had to learn the technology side of the program, and that by pressing the wrong button, even though your answer was correct, the computer may only recognize it in only one format. Other than this, there was no real connection to my life because I have not yet taken a complete course online in college, and that article discussed distance education specifically in secondary education.
Supporting Source:
This article could be used as support for my own argument because it evaluates distance learning in high schools in a variety of ways. It listed the benefits and the downfalls, which are what a good evaluation should list. It also lists many solutions for the challenges of online education, which are all very applicable and feasible answers to the problems. I can also discuss the different formats of virtual high schools and talk about what each one entails and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Argumentative Source:
If I had to take this author and their argument to task, I would only critique a few aspects of this article. They listed many benefits and solutions, but never listed a lot of high schools that have implemented these ideas. They also should have interviewed people who attended successful virtual high schools to see what their reaction was to their courses they took. I think if the author corrected these few things in their article, it would be a much better evaluation of distance education in high schools.
Blog #11 Reading Response
Proper MLA Citation:
This source is classified as an Article. The proper citation is:
Pape, Liz. “High School on the Web.” American School Board Journal (2005): 12-16.
Summary:
This article discussed how online education in high schools is becoming more prevalent because students in small schools can take classes that would otherwise have never been offered in their school. Most people who were born between 1982 and 2000 spend the most time on the computer than any other age group, and this would be a good way for them to learn since they are so used to it. It gives a policy that schools could use to try and get online education allowed at their schools and seven criteria for online education. These criteria include curriculum, instructional design, teacher quality, student roles, assessment, management and support systems, and technological infrastructure. It also talks about two virtual high schools where the online education boosted the students’ ability to actually want to learn, and the students were able to take more challenging elective classes on subjects that caught their interest.
Importance:
This work is important because it evaluates what makes online educational classes in high school better than the education taught in a normal classroom setting. Some significant ideas that I gathered from this work are that test scores have gone up in the Advanced Placement courses and the rates for passing those exams are five percent higher than other high schools. The student can also learn in a variety of different ways because there is so much new technology and the teacher has the freedom to teach in new ways as well.
Connections:
This article is similar to work I have experienced in my academic career because last semester I had to do math homework online. All of the problems were online and if you needed help, there was an example on the side of each problem to show you how to solve it. I also am going to take an English class next semester online, so it is giving me an idea of what I have to look forward to in order to be able to succeed in that class. The article gave guidelines on how students who were successful completed their courses, so that is very helpful to support not only this evaluation essay, but in my real life as well.
Supporting Source:
This article could be used as support for my argument because it is a great example of what an evaluation should be. It tells you everything that is on the positive side of online education in high schools and all the advantages that follow. It also lists seven criteria, which were exactly what was said in class an evaluation should be based upon. It expands on each of those criteria, which would be great proof for my evaluation essay. It also lists some virtual high schools and how they have surpassed many expectations people have had about online education since it is so recent.
Argumentative Source:
If I had to take this author and their argument to task, I would critique the fact that they did not say any bad points in their evaluation of online education in high schools. They also said that other test scores have improved and are higher in some virtual classrooms than normal classrooms, but did not list any of the statistics. They did not prove that their point was correct, which would not be good proof for my argument in my paper. They also only talked about two virtual high schools and how they have succeeded, but failed to mention other ones that maybe did not do so well.
This source is classified as an Article. The proper citation is:
Pape, Liz. “High School on the Web.” American School Board Journal (2005): 12-16.
Summary:
This article discussed how online education in high schools is becoming more prevalent because students in small schools can take classes that would otherwise have never been offered in their school. Most people who were born between 1982 and 2000 spend the most time on the computer than any other age group, and this would be a good way for them to learn since they are so used to it. It gives a policy that schools could use to try and get online education allowed at their schools and seven criteria for online education. These criteria include curriculum, instructional design, teacher quality, student roles, assessment, management and support systems, and technological infrastructure. It also talks about two virtual high schools where the online education boosted the students’ ability to actually want to learn, and the students were able to take more challenging elective classes on subjects that caught their interest.
Importance:
This work is important because it evaluates what makes online educational classes in high school better than the education taught in a normal classroom setting. Some significant ideas that I gathered from this work are that test scores have gone up in the Advanced Placement courses and the rates for passing those exams are five percent higher than other high schools. The student can also learn in a variety of different ways because there is so much new technology and the teacher has the freedom to teach in new ways as well.
Connections:
This article is similar to work I have experienced in my academic career because last semester I had to do math homework online. All of the problems were online and if you needed help, there was an example on the side of each problem to show you how to solve it. I also am going to take an English class next semester online, so it is giving me an idea of what I have to look forward to in order to be able to succeed in that class. The article gave guidelines on how students who were successful completed their courses, so that is very helpful to support not only this evaluation essay, but in my real life as well.
Supporting Source:
This article could be used as support for my argument because it is a great example of what an evaluation should be. It tells you everything that is on the positive side of online education in high schools and all the advantages that follow. It also lists seven criteria, which were exactly what was said in class an evaluation should be based upon. It expands on each of those criteria, which would be great proof for my evaluation essay. It also lists some virtual high schools and how they have surpassed many expectations people have had about online education since it is so recent.
Argumentative Source:
If I had to take this author and their argument to task, I would critique the fact that they did not say any bad points in their evaluation of online education in high schools. They also said that other test scores have improved and are higher in some virtual classrooms than normal classrooms, but did not list any of the statistics. They did not prove that their point was correct, which would not be good proof for my argument in my paper. They also only talked about two virtual high schools and how they have succeeded, but failed to mention other ones that maybe did not do so well.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Blog #10 - Reality TV
Reality television is something that I can not get away from. There seems to always be a reality show on, whether it is Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, or Big Brother. Currently I am glued to Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. Joey Fatone from NSYNC is my absolute favorite on Dancing with the Stars and I hope that he wins. He is great at every style of dance and puts his everything into every one of his routines. Although Cheryl Burke is my favorite dancing professional, I think she might actually lose this year to Joey.
I am getting extremely frustrated with American Idol. Sanjaya is dreadful to look at and listen to and I think it is sad that Howard Stern and his people are voting to keep him from week to week. I want Blake Lewis to win not only because he is cute, but he has the most contemporary sound and I can definitely picture hearing him on the radio or buying his cd.
I am getting extremely frustrated with American Idol. Sanjaya is dreadful to look at and listen to and I think it is sad that Howard Stern and his people are voting to keep him from week to week. I want Blake Lewis to win not only because he is cute, but he has the most contemporary sound and I can definitely picture hearing him on the radio or buying his cd.
Blog #9 - My Easter Holiday
My Easter break was definitely a much needed vacation. I mostly just went shopping and hung out with my friends and family, but those are the things I love most. I went home Thursday to New Orleans after English class and my family took me out to eat at Outback that night. My parents always make it a big event when I come home and take me out to eat, but I can not complain because I know I love to eat.
Friday I went shopping, or attempted to, but I think everyone else in New Orleans had that same bright idea too. We could not even find a parking spot at the mall, so we left and went to Target instead. Target is one of my favorite places, but it was a very rare occasion because I did not buy anything that day. Saturday my mom's side celebrated Easter because that was the better day for everyone to meet. I ate way too much food and had a stomach ache for a few days after that.
Easter Sunday was very low key and my mom and I attempted to go to mass only to find out we had the mass time wrong and were 45 minutes late. We went home, ate some candy and lunch, and then that afternoon I headed back to Hattiesburg. It does not seem like I had such an exciting break, but it was nice and relaxing for me.
Friday I went shopping, or attempted to, but I think everyone else in New Orleans had that same bright idea too. We could not even find a parking spot at the mall, so we left and went to Target instead. Target is one of my favorite places, but it was a very rare occasion because I did not buy anything that day. Saturday my mom's side celebrated Easter because that was the better day for everyone to meet. I ate way too much food and had a stomach ache for a few days after that.
Easter Sunday was very low key and my mom and I attempted to go to mass only to find out we had the mass time wrong and were 45 minutes late. We went home, ate some candy and lunch, and then that afternoon I headed back to Hattiesburg. It does not seem like I had such an exciting break, but it was nice and relaxing for me.
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