Freedom Writers Notes

Hilary Swank plays as Erin Gruwell, starting her first teaching job as both freshmen and sophomore English teacher.  She seems to look only on the positive side of things to where as all the other teachers have already given up on the students there.  After getting shot down by her students you would think she would also not put as much effort in but this teacher is different.  Many of the students in her class are involved in gangs and feel what's the point in trying if everyone else has just given up on them and let them down.  Prime example being none of the students have even heard of the Holocaust when many kids learn about the Holocaust around fifth grade.  Gruwell makes sacrifices not only with herself, but for her husband as well.  She has gone and gotten two additional jobs on top of her teaching jobs to go out of her way and buy books and as well as take her students on trips.  It's hard enough for majority of people in today's world to have one job without complaining, let alone three.  This right here would lead back to what makes a good teacher.  Showing she cares and not giving up on her students.  She sees something in all of her students that not everyone sees.  In fact, I don't see Erin Gruwell as just a good teacher, I see her as a great teacher.  Students aren't fortunate enough to have many good teachers anymore, especially in high school.  Gruwell does a fine job at being a good teacher and is a great example to others and the impact she has made.  I'm not saying teachers have to get two additional jobs or even one additional job on top of their teaching to buy books and such.  But it's her compassion and showing she is not going to give up is what makes her teaching so great.

Thoughts on what makes a good teacher

I couldn't find the post for "What Makes A Good Teacher," but I figured I'd still talk about my own thoughts.  In my opinion, being a good teacher is just showing that you care for your students and letting them know you're there to help.  After elementary school, I didn't have them best of teachers.  Then once I got into high school, it was just a downward spiral from there.  Not saying I didn't have a few good teachers in between those time periods, but the ones that weren't good, definitely had some reasons for me thinking so.  I believe respect is a very important thing which links back to, in order to get respect, you have to give respect.  The teachers that I believed weren't all that great always seemed to have an attitude and always crabby.  If students in the class, as well as myself, didn't understand something they would get an attitude as to why we were even asking for help and complained that we had to make them "work" for their money.  Letting your students feel you're there and willing to help them out is signs of a good teacher.  My grandma is a school teacher and before moving to Washington, I helped volunteer in her classroom for a couple months after graduating high school.  I was able to see that teaching isn't the easiest but seems rewarding to me in a way.  Seeing your students faces light up after finally understanding something or using the tools you taught them would give me a good feeling inside.  There's always going to be those kids in your class that are disrespectful no matter what which I never understood.  Even if the teacher is rude to you, I don't think it's appropriate to retaliate back.  Maybe that's because my grandmother's a school teacher, but that's just my opinion.  Adding a little bit of fun into school work is something else I stand by.  I don't necessarily believe it makes someone a good teacher because you have those teachers that just make everything fun and you come out learning nothing once the class is over.  But if you let students know you're down to have some fun and add some into your learning, it will engage them more.  Those are just a few thoughts on what I think makes a good teacher.

Audre Lorde

In Audre Lorde's essay, I feel she did a fine job at illustrating each encounter she had with her teachers.  She starts off in Chapter Three from her book Zami, when her first encounter with the school librarian, Mrs. Baker comes about.  Lorde was always finding herself in trouble with her mother for misbehaving quite a bit.  Lorde goes onto say how she thought Mrs. Baker was "just another mile high club woman" but instead welcomed her with a nice soothing calm voice and had offered to read her a story.  After Mrs. Baker had read to her, Lorde took the book tracing the big letters being able to distinguish the difference between them yelling out after saying, "I want to read!"  Lorde tells her readers how till this day she still remembers everyone of the books read to her that day. It was because of Mrs. Baker that influenced Lorde's excitement in wanting to read.  Her mother did the best she could in teaching her how to read and write her name before kindergarten arrived.  Lorde's first day of school wasn't the greatest of all first days that you would usually expect for a kindergartner.  She illustrates how upset and embarrassed her teacher had made her.  The teacher had everyone trace over the first letter of their name in crayon which was a problem for Lorde to do because she was never taught how.  After being threatened by her teacher that her mother was going to be called, she became frustrated with herself, writing her whole name instead of just the first letter.  As you would expect a teacher to be a little more understanding for the student at least trying, it was the opposite for Lorde and was only embarrassed and put down by the teacher.  The teachers reply, "You don't even want to try as your told" said it all and was just a complete put down and made Lorde feel as if she hadn't tried at all when it was clear she did.  After that incident, her mother had decided it was best to enroll her in first grade at the same catholic schools her sister went to.  Sister MPH was in charge of the first grade.  There were quite a few examples that Lorde provided with her encounter on Sister MPH.  From the jest of it you could infer even from the beginning that Sister wasn't the nicest of teachers.  Lorde gave a prime example of what made me feel this way by saying, "It always felt like Sister MPH either hated teaching, or little children."  Makes me feel as if Sister MPH was just down right cruel to Lorde as if she weren't welcome.  Lorde surely didn't have the best of teachers but thanks to Mrs. Baker, she was able to encourage her to want to read and write.

Educational Narrative Final

  

Educational Experience

            As a child, we all go through a phase and thrive to become something we’re not.  Maybe it’s a rock star, or a football player, or an actor.  There are many things we come up with in our imaginative minds as a kid.  I once had that dream believe it or not.  I wanted to become this musician that everyone would listen to and found my music unique.   Kind of lame, I know.  But we all have those dreams.  It seemed fun and something to do as a hobby since I wasn’t going to pursue the musician world.  My grandfather as well as other musicians was a huge contribute to wanting to pursue learning how to play.

                When I was younger, I would always go in my grandpa’s office where he had a stereo and his guitar.  I would dress up and get really into performing, as if an actual audience were there.  After a while of jamming out, my grandpa would come in and have me sit down with him while he played a few songs he learned back in the Navy.  That’s when it all hit me.  Seeing the joy out of my grandpa’s face, seeing him light up as well as myself, made me realize I wanted to learn how to play.  I figured it could be such a great learning experience and back then I didn’t really know a lot of young kids playing the guitar.  Another thought that came to my mind was how fun it’d be spending time with my grandpa.  We’ve always been close since the day I was born.  In a way my grandpa is like my dad.  He is such a great man and has so many talents.   Around the age of seven or eight, my parents bought me my first guitar for Christmas.  I can only imagine how priceless my face was when I opened my present.   Ever seen the movie The Christmas Story, when Ralphie gets the bee bee gun he had been dreaming of?  Well my first guitar was the same way for me.  Sure I didn’t necessarily need the guitar but I was fortunate to have received one and now here I am playing the guitar now.  For the first few weeks, I would practice tuning it but that was as far as I had got.  Years had gone by and all the guitar was good use for was a pretend prop for when I was “performing.”  After my step dad came home from deployment the end of my sixth grade year, he had taken up a guitar class.  Of course I had found myself wanting to learn how to play and repeatedly told myself each time after passing it, “I will learn how to play.”  Once again, a couple years had passed and I had found myself becoming curious while home alone cleaning.  My first thought was, why not go ahead and mess around on it since no one is home.  Right there was it.  It hit me all over again just like it did for the first time when I was sitting down hearing my grandpa sing and play in his office when I was younger. 

            Guitars have that look about them.  They just look so cool and fun to play around with.  I first started to learn how to play the instrument upside down.  I was left handed and my step dad’s was a right handed which led me to start off playing that way.  I would watch YouTube tutorials on how to tune your guitar.  Once I had got tuning down, I would turn the guitar around and start playing right handed to see which way I was more comfortable with.  My very first song ever learned how to play was “Your Body Is a Wonderland,” by John Mayer.  He’s one of my favorite musicians. John’s music is so down to earth.  From there, I had learned a few more songs becoming more and more excited after the more I learned.  I kept begging my parents to buy me my own guitar since I outgrew my other.  A couple months of begging led to a brand new acoustic left handed guitar, just for me.  I don’t care how crazy that sounds but guitars are such a beautiful instrument to me.  They have this look to them that captures my attention.  From then on, I was on my way to learning more songs.  John Mayer, Maroon 5, Cold Play, The Fray, One Republic and many more various bands and musicians have been inspirational motivation.  The wonderful instrument not only entertained me, but my friends as well.  It was fun to play while we would all sing and just jam out.  We could be silly and not care how dumb we looked because all that mattered was we were having fun.   

            When I play, I find myself not doing it just for fun, but for other reasons as well.  I didn’t grow up in the greatest household.  I would constantly be fighting with my step dad and towards the end of my junior year, I found myself actually wanting to be at school instead of at my own house.  Music took that pain away for me.  Whenever I was stressed or upset I would just pull out my pick and guitar and sing and play as loud as I could as if no one were around.  Living in Florida majority of my life, we would have many sunny days so it was nice to go outback sometimes and just enjoyed the fresh air along with my guitar. 

          To sum it up, my guitar is like my security blanket.  When I had moved out here to live with my aunt and uncle, I unfortunately was not able to bring my guitar with me because of all the luggage I already had to bring along.  I find myself missing playing whenever I’m bored or homesick.  What did learning how to play the guitar teach me you may ask?  It taught me to challenge myself and become patient.  Learning how to play a right handed guitar while being left handed can be frustrating.  It’s already frustrating enough learning with a guitar that’s specifically made for right handed people.  I developed even more of a bond with my grandpa because of learning to play.  I can’t wait to go back and visit Florida and just be goofy with him.  Learning to play the guitar may not be the most educational experience someone can have, but it sure is memorable.  

Q & A Educational Narrative

Learning How to Play the Guitar:

Who: Myself, Grandpa, and Family Friend

When: I finally learned how to play around my freshmen year of high school.  

Where: There's not one specific place where I learned how to play because I briefly learned different places.  My first encounter of learning to play the guitar was my grandparent's house, then mine, then at a friends.  

Why: I've always been interested in learning how to play so by the time high school rolled around, I was able to motivate myself in learning how to play.  There isn't a specific reason that caused me wanting to learn how to play.  The guitar has just always interested me.  Hearing my grandpa play and watching how happy he gets when playing was a small attribute to me wanting to learn how to play.  It was also hearing musicians on the radio, hearing how they all have a different sound to them even if it's just a little different.

How: Playing the guitar has always caught my eye.  I've always loved music!  Singing was something I had done a lot when I was younger.  My grandpa had a guitar in his office along with sheet music and a stereo and I would always play around acting as if I was performing for an audience.  He would come in and sit down and sing some songs he had learned back in the Navy.  That time spent with my grandpa and listening to him play, seeing him light up with how much fun he was having was what first led me to wanting to learn how to play, not just any instrument, but a guitar.  When I was about seven or eight, my parents bough me my first guitar as a Christmas present.  I remember how I would try practicing tuning it but never went much further than that.  After my step dad got home from deployment, he had taken up a guitar class.  When seeing how great his guitar looked, I kept telling myself how I WILL learn how to play.  A couple years had past and I was home alone one day and had noticed the guitar while I was cleaning.  I figured, why not play around for a little while since no one's home.  I thought it was a "cool" instrument to play and could make myself sound different when I play.  I started learning how to play, turning the guitar upside down since it was a right handed guitar.  I would watch YouTube tutorials on how to tune your guitar.  After getting it down, I would turn the guitar around and start playing with my right hand to switch it up some.  Once I had got a couple songs down, I kept begging my parents to buy me my own guitar since I had outgrown my other.  They finally did after a couple months of begging and I was on my way to learning more songs.   

Beginning of Educational Narrative

I've had a lot of educational experiences, all linking back to important parts in my life.  Narrowing it down though, I would have to say learning how to play the guitar was one of the most educational experiences in my life.  I always tell myself how I like a challenge and learning how to play was definitely quite the challenge.  Being left handed and learning how to play a guitar that's meant for right handed people wasn't the easiest, that's for sure.  Some of the best guitarists are left handed and it makes me feel kind of cool in a way to be different and not a right handed player like most people who play are.  I'm not the best at keeping my patience and use to get angry easily, not as much now though.  I always use to think playing the guitar was so cool and now I just look back and laugh because it was made to be so much cooler than it actually is.  Whenever I play, it just makes me happy and feel like nothing else in the world matters.  It's my escape from the world which is why I'm glad I learned how to play.  Try challenging yourself!  It doesn't have to be on learning how to play the guitar or even an instrument in that matter.  Just go and challenge yourself, see what good comes out of it.

Favorite Blog So Far and Why..

My favorite blog would have to be, "How I Learned to Travel Solo," by Cate Huston.  There are quite a few different reasons on why I've chosen this educational narrative as my favorite so far out of all the ones we've read.  One of the main reasons was Huston being able to persuade me into wanting to venture out and travel the world alone.  Cate listed all kinds of reasons as to why traveling alone is worth the experience in the long run.  The top one I agreed on was never having to wait on anyone.  When thinking about it, making plans with someone involves at least one person out of the pair or group to wait on someone.  Think about it for a second, when you're picking someone up and they haven't came out of their house yet.. What're you doing?  You're waiting on them.  Say you're sharing a hotel while you're out of town.. What're you doing?  You're waiting on them once again.  The list can go on and on.  I can give examples on going out of town with friends and family and having to wait on them or vise versa.  It's great to be able to have that ability and just leave when you want, not be on anybody else's time but your own.  Packing light was another part of the reading I liked for some strange reason.  Whenever I go out of town, I found myself packing and not being able to decide what to bring so I just bring as much as will fit in my bag.  Here, Cate shined some light and pretty much said, hey you know what, you'll never see these people again, so why bothering even dressing to impress.  Savoring the small moments is something I don't do a lot. I take advantage of the things I've experienced in my 18 years of life and just need to take it all in whatever it may be.  My aunt and uncle just recently went to Europe and one of the places they visited was Prague which I found funny because Cate mentions a couple things she did there.  She was able to go out of her comfort zone there and going to a show alone along with just having fun and spending time in places that some people may not get much enjoyment out of.  One of her last points was to just do what you love and get as much enjoyment out of it as possible.  Sure it'll seem stressful in the beginning but when it comes down to it, it's all worth it in the end.  Let's see how far I get on traveling somewhere alone.  Cate did it, why can't I?

Ed. Nar's. and Blog Contrast

Well, first of all, the educational narratives from the published print books seem to be lengthier than the blog posts.  The blog posts appear to be more opinionated and a bit more intriguing.  In both Malcolm X and Mike Rose's readings, they have a more serious tone in the text.  Not to say the blogs we've read so far aren't serious, but they have a more serious feeling because they're an autobiography.  In the blogs, Aboukhadijeh, Romero and Huston had fun with their readings keeping the reader interested.  Although there were things I didn't particularly like from a couple, they still helped me learn a few things I didn't know regardless of whether I plan to program computers or cut myself off from Google.  In the educational narratives, they provide factual events that occurred.  Another difference in the the narratives and blogs is that the autobiographies on Malcolm and Mike were fairly earlier than the past three blogs we've read.  I'm not saying I disliked the educational narratives on both men because they were very inspiring stories, but I prefer the blogs more.  They were just able to keep me a little more interested and it was easier to relate.

First Paper Process

I took a few different things from each of the readings.  I liked how Romero gave a step by step process in his piece when talking about how he was going to cut himself off from Google.  However, his conclusion seemed as if he was just trying to jumble a whole bunch together and it didn't seem to flow.  I have that same tendency sometimes.  I'll find myself not knowing what to say and just cram whatever I can in the conclusion just to have something down.  But you need a good ending.  You know like the saying, "Go out with a bang!"  I liked how Aboukhadiejeh started from a young age and kept a repetition going.  There, I can take his process and compare it to my most important educational experience.  When learning how to play the guitar, you improve on your playing and get better and better as you go.  In the beginning, I was an amateur and would constantly find myself making mistakes, just like Aboukhadiejeh's website's.  They needed more work and improvement.  He was able to work on building stronger and better website's with the more practice he got.  Works the same with me learning how to play an instrument.  I can only imagine what other's thoughts were when I was first learning how to play.  This is when both Romero's and Aboukhadiejeh's readings come in handy.  I'm able to take what I've learned from both and apply it to my essay.  I can take what I liked and didn't like and transform it in my own process of writing.  To top it off, I have the two educational narrative's I can look back on.  In both Malcolm X and Mike Rose's narratives, their process is about the increment of their learning which also ties back into the then and now of learning how to play the guitar.  All four of the readings can be used as helpful tools when writing my educational essay.

How I Learned to Love Traveling Solo

I never really felt comfortable enough with traveling alone until Cate Huston's post.  It seems hard enough for me to go out to eat by myself let alone travel the world, but Cate had a way of making it all sound fun and adventurous.  Huston's thoughts and experiences on traveling solo were inspiring.  She had a way of making me feel as if it were okay to go out of your comfort zone and try new things.  To live care free in a sense.  Me being someone that doesn't have the best sense of direction, would start off small at first as to where I'm going.  I've always wanted to travel the world ever since I was a little girl.  Being able to experience new things and different places, see all the different cultures and to go out of my element and taste different foods just seems intriguing to me.  While traveling alone, you wouldn't have to worry about going along with plans that may not interest you.  You wouldn't be on a schedule or timeline.  Having the ability to just pack up, (lightly I may add), seems amusing to me.  After reading Cate's post, I am more motivated to just go out and travel.

Freewrite #1

My most educational experience would have to be learning how to play the guitar.  I've always wanted to learn how to play since I was little.  I found myself so fascinated with the instrument for some reason and not sure why.  I've always been into singing so I figured, why not play the guitar along too?  John Mayer's music was the first I was interested in playing.  He has the sound about him and his music is so chill and down to earth.  As if learning how to play the guitar wasn't challenging enough, try adding on learning how to play a right handed guitar while being left handed.  I found myself getting so frustrated in the beginning when all I wanted to do was get the tune down and keep a steady pace.  I would watch YouTube tutorials and have my grandpa teach me the basics.  Your Body Is A Wonderland was the first song I learned how to play on the guitar.  Then it went from there.  I would have friends that have been playing for years teach me how to play other songs by various amounts of bands and artists.  Such as, Maroon 5, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, and more.  Some of the songs I only have a certain part down.  I can't really tell why learning how to play an instrument was my most educational experience.  Maybe because I partially taught myself.  I was able to challenge myself in learning how to play a right handed guitar before a left.  I'm glad I went forward in learning how to play.  It's fun and gets my mind of things and is just kills time.  Recently moving here from Florida, I unfortunately had to leave my guitar back home because I already had a lot of luggage.  I hope when I go back home to visit in the summer that I'll be able to remember how to play.  Playing the guitar isn't different and yes there are a lot of people who play, but everyone has their own tune. Everyone who plays has something that makes them different and that is why learning how to play the guitar was my most educational experience.

Malcolm X and Mike Rose

Malcolm X and Mike Rose, both have similarities and differences in their essays.  In Malcolm X's essay "Learning to Read," he changed his life through a homemade education to where as Mike Rose's essay "I Just Wanna Be Average," changed his through education at school.  Malcolm's essay was more about himself to where as Mike's was the opposite talking about himself as well as others.  The way Malcolm and Mike were brought up and taught was a huge difference.  Malcolm was taught while in prison by Elijah Muhammad who had become a role model to him, leading up to Malcolm becoming one of the most powerful leaders.  Mike however, had learned through others around him.  Similarities of the two essays are that they both wrote how education changed them.  Both writers were determined to learn regardless of the situations they were both in.  Malcolm X and Mike Rose were aspiring men with very different backgrounds that made something of themselves.

Aboukhadijeh and Romero

    My first official homework assignment was to read two educational narratives.  "How I Learned to Program Computers," by Feross Aboukhadijeh and "How I Learned to Live Goggle Free," by Joshua J. Romero regarding the online world.  I can't really say I had a favorite, but if I had to choose, Romero's story would be more relatable.  Romero goes onto say how although he wasn't purposely trying to become a Goggle addict, it just happened.  When thinking about it, Goggle is a trap.  Like Romero says in the beginning, we've all at some point done business with Goggle.  The amount of time we spend on Google doesn't dawn on us until someone points it out. 

    Where is the first place you go when you want to find out information about something?  Most likely Goggle, correct?  Romero took a bold step in cutting himself off from the Goggle world.  Romero provided a step by step process on how he is going to exclude himself, which ties into our first paper.  Say my first paper is going to be on learning how to play a musical instrument.  I'm going to use a step by step process on how and when I learned how to play.  I'm going to talk about the different challenges that came about during my experience, just as Romero did.  

    Both writers had well written papers and can both be examples on how I can write my first paper.  They both talked about their process from start to finish, and what their ending results came out to be.  When it comes down to it though, Romero wrote a piece on something a lot of the world can agree upon and understand.  Which is why I prefer his story over Aboukhadijeh.

First Paper Priorities

1. Write a narrative essay
2. Include educational and personal experience
3. Provide examples
4. No use of plagiarism allowed
5. Doesn't need to have a clear thesis statement
6. Compose 1,000-1,200
7. MLA Format

Blog #1

Let's see how this whole blog thing turns out.. Hopefully I will get the hang of it soon enough. I'm interested to see how this all turns out.