Final Blog Post

In the beginning I was kind of nervous to start this class not knowing anyone and me being on the more shy side. Coming into a classroom where I don't know anyone and I don't have any history with anyone it was a little intimidating. But I was excited to start my first college English class because English is one of my best subjects. That being said I was surprised at how well I adapted to the class. I made some friends and the course itself was really interesting. I feel like we all grew if only a little but still grew together. This class turned out to be one of my favorite classes this semester.

The only part that messed me up was submitting these blog posts and assignments online because I live in the boondocks and I have very limited internet access to do that. But it was an experience I enjoyed because I had never had a class experience where I knew nothing about the teacher or anyone in class. I had to get used to the teaching style and adjust to it without any help from the people who I've known my entire life.

I think my favorite thing we've done this year is the literacy assignment because that's when we as a class learned a lot about each other and what kind of literature inspires them most. I really thought that it was cool to share my story with others and them with me and we critique each other. Not in a harsh way but in a way that will help the other grow in their writing style. I can't speak for anyone other than myself but I grew with my writing style and became more developed in how I think and process what I write about because of this cass. I think the skills I learned will help me in any and all future English classes I take.

Thanks to Ms.Simonsen for putting up with my nonstop emails throughout the semester!!! 

Reflection on a modest proposal

All in all I thought this paper was the hardest to write because for one I didn’t know what topic I should pick and it was really difficult to pick one thing that I wanted to change. I finally came down to illegal immigration because I feel like it is a serious problem but I didn’t know how to make a solution to such a huge problem. The satirical point of my paper was hard to convey because my solution was at first so drastic I couldn’t come up with anything to support such a drastic action. But in the end I am happy with the way my paper turned out… that being said I would really rather never write a paper like that ever again. I think I am too sarcastic and when I try to put my sarcasm into words on a page it just sounds like me being a complete butt. That being said one of the major problems I had with writing this paper was that I tended to sound more rude than satirical, so I would change the paper then it would sound worse, so I would change it again. The endless battle of trying to convey my sarcastic tone in such a serious way didn’t work for me. So I had to start again and tone down my comments, and not think about what I would actually say and try to say something less harsh. I have never had such a hard time trying to write a paper and this was definitely a struggle within my head and it was extremely difficult to get things just right. In the end I conveyed what I was hoping for but I am still not confident about my harshness. Next time I will pick a less stressful topic to work with!

God's Not Dead

God’s Not Dead. I have wanted to see this movie since it came out but my family went to see it while I was working and I haven’t had a chance to see it since I am always working. But now I have a chance to watch it.

I heard that it is a fantastic movie and that it really portrays the message well. I am really excited to watch the movie because for one I am a believer and I find all movies with a Godly message to be very fascinating because I look at the problem and see if it is a problem that the audience can relate to. I picked this movie because everyone I know told me how great this movie was and how inspirational it was. I look forward to watching the movie and picking apart the good and the bad and writing a review about it from my point of view. I also picked this movie because it has Willie and Corey Robertson from Duck Commander in it and I’m curious how much of a role they play in the plot of the movie. I chose this movie so I can ultimately find out what everyone is talking about when they rave about how good of a message it had. 

Divergent Movie Rave

In a world where you can only be one thing; brave, selfless, honest, intelligent, or kind. Beatrice Prior was born into the faction where she was born into the Abnegation faction and was forced to be selfless, but she always felt she was different. But when it was her turn to partake in the choosing ceremony she decides to take the leap and become the person she wants to be. She chooses to leave her family and everything she has ever known to go and live with a new faction and be a Dauntless. Her choice will change everything she has ever known.

This movie is a fantastic choice because it makes you keep wanting more. Beatrice Prior is the daughter of a government head and must act accordingly. She is from the faction that must always be selfless but she never fit in. Finally the day comes where she can choose who she wants to be and make her own path, she takes it and leaves her family behind and life of grey behind and goes for a life full of danger. She chooses to be Dauntless, a protector of the city. This is one of my favorite parts of the film because she chooses to let who she really is shine. Though it isn’t an easy road for her she finds the strength she needs to be her best. I can identify with Tris at this point in the film because today the moment teens turn eighteen we go out and get tattoos and piercings that our family would never allow us to have. We move hundreds of miles away to start a life of our own and find ourselves in the people we choose to have around us. This is the moment in the film that really speaks of change for the main character.  

The action in this movie keeps you excited and waiting to find out what will happen and who will win the battle. The fighting scenes are dramatic and really grab the audience. The graphics are fantastic and so vivid, I was really impressed with the way the directors captured the heart of the book and threw everything they had into this movie. This is definitely an action movie with a small hint of romance blossoming into the perfect combination to keep things interesting. The throwing of knives, jumping off buildings and trains, guns, and the undermining of the government gives this a flair for the dramatic. The only drawbacks from this film was that some of the main characters weren’t cast properly, and the setting for the Dauntless compound should have been more dark and dreary, an underground compound shouldn’t be as bright as they portrayed in the movie.

Preston Wohlfarth

https://docs.google.com/a/email.vccs.edu/presentation/d/1x-8J2ruABx4RwJ24UxtBRzpw9QHTNLj5-LXkTDdZsrY/edit#slide=id.p

Preston Wohlfarth likes to be with friends and dreams of leaving a mark on the world. Though he seems more outgoing than I am I thought being paired with him brought two personalities together which made us have work together to get the job done. He has a passion for politics and spends part of his free time researching current events. Though I found it hard to get the information I had and turn it into a way to show his personality, I found the most difficult part of this assignment was that I had find out who Preston was without actually physically talking to him. It turned out that he was an interesting character. Though we are very different it seems that we have a few of the same life skills. We both have had troubles in our lives but don’t let that dictate our future. I found the most enjoyable part of this assignment was finding out more about someone that I didn’t know anything about. Though the presentation was interesting to write I would have preferred to write an essay because I’m better at essays than I am at presentations. I could only hope I did him justice with this presentation.

Reflection of the literacy narrative

I found that the literacy narrative was pretty easy to write. As soon as I thought of the perfect topic, the words came effortlessly. I guess it was better for me because that was one of the biggest achievements of my childhood and I was truly proud of myself for finally reading a real book. That memory stuck with me for all these years. The hardest part was sticking a message into the memory that others would be able to relate to. I’m still not sure I got the message across very well. I haven’t always been the kind of person that will open up to people. I am very shy, so a lot of the books I read in my teens and my cat were my only friends. I have come a long way in that I will talk to people that I don’t know, if I am being forced or if someone I know is with me.  My favorite part of writing that essay was that I got to take something that was an important part of who I became as a result of my reading “A Dog Called Kitty,” and throw it all into a paper I had to write for a grade. It was because of that monumental book that I won’t go anywhere without at least one book with me. This is my “how I became such a nerd” essay and it was cool to let other people into my life in a way I never have before. I think that is one of the best essays I have ever written because I put so much of myself into it. As I wrote it I could see everything happening like it had before and even though it is sometimes difficult for me, because I have a tendency to get extremely off topic, I felt that it was easier to stay on topic with this essay because it really happened and I didn't have to make it all up. 

Literary Narrative

It was a cold December Thursday morning in the third grade. Thursday's were our library days, I hated those days.  My teacher Mrs.Jenkins, a tall woman with short blonde hair, was leading our class down the very boring hallways to the library that was located in the very center of the school. We only got to go there once a week. Most of the kids in my class really liked going to listen to the stories Mrs.Jenkins read to us and checking out a book of their choice for a week. I checked out the same book for the first half of the year until Hannah, the class smarty-pants, told on me because she wanted to read the book I was harboring. I was forced to let her check out the book and get a new one and take a test on it. Hannah was the kind of girl that knew every answer asked in class, loved catching other kids doing something bad so she would look like a good little girl and inadvertently introduced me to the book that would change my life forever.
Mrs.Jenkins walked me from the reading corner across the room to the column that separated the reading section from the bookshelves. As we approached the column she stopped and knelt down on one knee looking at me very seriously, "Can I let you in on a secret?" she asked. Confused I answered "What secret?". She smiled and whispered "I know you think you don't like reading, but someone wise once told me that There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who haven't found the right book." I was perplexed, I had never thought about it like that before. I looked around the library, Hannah was in the reading center sitting on the old worn green carpet tearing through the book that I had been holding on to. My best friend Katelyn was sitting on a bean bag chair reading Charlotte's Web, she looked as if nothing could disturb her sort of like she were in a completely different world. Tyler was just staring at the wall holding a book he had just pulled off the shelf and checked out. Looking back at Mrs.Jenkins I whispered back, "How will I know if it is the right book?" she answered, "Look at the title, if it jumps out at you just give it a try and see what world you end up in. But you can't give up on finding the right book, if you do you will never see the magic words can have." Turning slowly towards the rows of shelves with what looked like a million books, I decided I would pick the first book that popped.
While looking through the bookshelves, glancing only for a moment at each title, waiting for something to jump out at me. My eyes landed on a book named A Dog Called Kitty by Bill Wallace. I pulled the book slowly off the shelf, trying to decide if this what Mrs.Jenkins meant by the right book. The front cover had a scruffy dog sitting in a field in front on an old white barn. I decided to give it a try, how else would I find out why Hannah and Katelyn seemed like they weren't tuned into anything around them when they read a book? I turned around and walked up to the counter and checked it out. I was the last one to get a book so as soon as I was all checked out Mrs.Jenkins announced that our time was up and that we needed to head back to our classroom. Walking beside Katelyn, the short brunette with freckles across the bridge of her nose, carrying the book I had just picked she looked at it and said, "Are you really going to read this?" I looked at her dark brown eyes and answered honestly, "I am going to try." And that is what I intended to do.
The next week school was closed because of snow, it was too cold to play outside so I was cooped up inside all day with nothing to do. So as I looked through my school stuff I found the book I was supposed to read. So I grabbed the book and walked into the living room where there was a window seat that I could sit in and read. And I started to read.
 From the very First sentence I was taken to a new world. Transported from the world around me the words flowed through me as if I were a part of something greater. I could envision Kitty and how disheveled he looked, and I was baffled at how words on a page could make me feel such emotion. I could see the story unfolding in my mind, clear as if it were actually happening. It felt real, the things happening in the book made me laugh, and made me cry. I was so intrigued that a book could do that to someone. I wondered how is it that a book can feel so real?
After I finished reading A Dog Called Kitty, I couldn't wait until school opened again. I needed to show Mrs.Jenkins and Katelyn that I had actually done it. I read the book and I was captivated by it. I needed to continue. I needed to go on another adventure, I was so excited to go to another world that I asked my mom to take me to the library so I could try again. I wanted to test another book, I needed to see if it made me cry, or laugh, or smile, anything. To this day I haven't been able to resist the desire to travel to a different world and experience new exciting adventures and face the uncertain but imminent danger waiting on the next page.

Practice 2.6

When I was ten years old, I was constantly outside. Nothing would stop me from playing in the woods with my friends, not rain, not heat, not even the little annoying bugs that were bound and determined to eat us alive. That is after all what bug spray is for right? Well that summer the bugs were awful! I mean so bad you couldn't even be outside for more than thirty minutes without having bug bites on places no bug should be able to reach! So we made a game out of looking for an answer to our problem, a hide and seek of sorts. Whoever found something usable won a lunch that the losers had to make. Off we went in search of anything we could get our hands on, fly swatters, a net that you wear to keep the bugs out, but  I found a green can with orange writing on it with a little rust on the top but it all I had that could work. I had found Off bug spray. We decided to spray each other, not knowing how much to use we just kept spraying and spraying. I t was sure to work if we used it all! That is exactly what we did, we emptied the can on each other. Off we went out into the woods just being my house and we started to make forts, and mud pies, using all the weeds we could find to make the mud look less like dirt and more like a decorated cake. The longer we were out there the more I started to feel odd. A weird sensation spread through me, something was definitely not right. I wondered if it could be a type of plant we had picked up that was making my fingers look all funny. But no, we picked the same types we always used. I tried to push the feeling away and focused on my pie, but as the time went on I started looking different, my fingers were growing very puffy, and turning a light shade of purple. My friends were getting worried, they decided to walk me home. By the time I walked up to my house a rash had appeared all over my body. Little red dots, very similar to bug bites but much more painful. I went straight to my mom who rushed me to the doctor. The car ride was the longest car ride of my life! Every minute that passed my body grew more puffy and itchy. By the time I had reached the doctors office I was scratching intensely as if my life would end if I didn't scratch my arms. The doctor took me immediately and told me it looked like a reaction to something. He asked me if I had done anything unusual that I normally don't do, or touched something different, eaten a new food, anything out of the ordinary. The only thing I could think of was that rusty can of Off bug spray I had found in the shed. So I told both the doctor and my mother about the can of bug spray we used, and he gave me a prescription to make the rash go away and to make my puffiness go away. Later when I was feeling better, and looking better we ran tests and discovered that I am indeed allergic to bug spray.

Introductory Post

My name is Michaela Gardner and I am majoring in Liberal Arts. I am planning on transferring to an art school and using my degree to help me get into a career as a photographer. I have been into photography for about three years and hope to one day own my own company. Though in the mean time I am a waitress and receptionist. I have two brothers and a sister, of which I am the youngest. My sister is currently working on her masters for nursing and my brother is attending a trade school. I consider my animals part of my family so Ruger and Chug are my little brothers, even though Ruger towers over me. I grew up in King William County Virginia and attended school there. I am really involved in music and have been in some sort off band for eight years now some of which include; orchestra, concert band, jazz band, marching band, and a local community band. I am not only a music fanatic I am also an extreme sports player. I played softball for eight years, I also played soccer for two years, I run all of the time, and I am currently trying to get into yoga.
I am a fan of reading. My favorite types are science fiction, and mysteries. I am currently reading the Shadow Falls series, and Pride and Prejudiced. My favorite series of all time is the Divergent series. I never go anywhere without at least one book. Some would call me an obsessive reader, but I just refer to myself as enthusiastic. One of my many faults though is that I will not read on a tablet or a kindle, I have to have an actual book to be happy.