What did computer time mean to me?

It meant time to watch online videos, it still does. Thats exactly what I'm going to do right now...

How does technology affect education?

Pros:
Easily organized
Fast moving documents
Easily attainable resources

Cons:
Different technological levels=different levels of education
Confusing directions/aspects for some students
Complications due to lack of home technology

Overall I would say that technology has done nothing but improve the learning environment. When I say "technology" I pretty much mean computers and the internet. Sure pencils, paper, and calculators are great, but seriously, you can access untold amounts of information with a few clicks of the mouse. Of course I say this having attended high school in one of the more affluent and priviledged areas of the country. I constantly had access to computers for whatever means necessary, almost every room in my high school had at least two. However, now at a later point in my education I realize that the implementation of easily accessible technoloyy in the classroom has created a rift between those lucky enough to have it and those who didn't.

Cloth Escape

I’m just a towel.
I’m simply used for drying things off.
I sit through life mostly unused and underappreciated, waiting until I become too pilly or worn and simply discarded
Or perhaps then I’ll be torn up into dust rags, still with a singular use but even less admiration
I’m just a towel.
I can wipe away the perspiration, the reminder that you were just the means toward glory for another.
I will gladly take your tears and muffle your sobs.
I can provide the comfort for your failure that no living thing ever could
And provide an escape from the cruel world that drove you into my French terry folds to begin with.
I’m just a towel.

Jumbled Liar

Sandy beaches, church every Sunday, and a big extended family who are
Angry that I drink so much to ice and snow
To sleep perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub of
Campfires and the smell of burning leaves of neon
Angry that I have worked so hard and have nothing to show when smiles came easy and
homework did too
I am from a squeaky screen door
Why do they attack you?

Letter to a Friend (If only I had one...)

Hey Man,
WTF? Where were u last night. We had a shit-ton of people over and everyone got really f-ing wasted (THREE KEGS!!!!!!!). Steve passed the hell out at like 10, what a pussy. The rest of us were up drinking and playing guitar hero until like 5 in the fucking morning. You missed out. Aight, peace out.
-Drupac

Professional Letter

Dear Professor,
I was recently discussing philosophical points of debate with several fellow pupils of mine. We came to the agreement that in our modern culture elders are respected less than a satisfactory amount. So I have decided to compose this formal letter to keep you notified of the recent events of my life.
Last weekend a few colleagues and myself enjoyed a box social. A sparing amount of cocktails were served and all attendees kept themselves in moderate reservation. At around the hour of ten we realized that it was becoming late and seeing as we all observe a strict self-imposed curfew we bid each other "adieu" and continued on to our places of residence.

Most Sincerely ,
Andrew F. Miller

Emotion Poem

Mealtime


Hunger for emptiness
Hunger for satisfaction
Hunger for stillness
Hunger for action
Hunger for life
Hunger for death
Hunger for suffocation
Hunger for breath
Hunger for loneliness
Hunger for company
Hunger for being ignored
Hunger for attention on me
Hunger for dullness
Hunger for mood
Hunger for hunger
Mostly Hunger for food!

Self Portrait Poem

Graduation Day


Another cousins graduation
Another afternoon of cliché speeches and name reading

I never thought I’d hate Dr Seuss
But every copy of “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” needs to be burned

Pictures follow, even ones without the graduate
Merely evidence that we were, in fact, present

Thousands of bleary-eyed stranger mill around
Searching for the mediocre refreshments they were promised

Mad Libs Poem In class Activity

A Relaxing Day

It was walking through the trees
The wind was gently blowing a breeze
He jumped in his hammock sipped a Diet coke and ate some cheese
And watched a semitruck leak Anti-freeze
With a flower colored razzle dazzle rose he was quite pleased
As it was pollinated by gargantuan bumblebees
Dumptruck.

Why the moon affects the tide

Once, a long time ago there was a fraternity, it was the greatest fraternity in all the land. They threw the sickest parties and rocked at intramural sports. However, not everything was a chill as it seemed. A rival fraternity had planned the downfall of them. During the religious festival of the Busch Light God, know as Greek Week. The most skilled members of the fraternity competed in a series of games, the most prestigious of which was Beer Pong. Two of the members of the Great Fraternity were selected to represent their house, Duncan, and a guy who rushed five years ago who was simply known as Big Dog. The game was grueling, both teams were down to one cup. Then, tragedy struck; they rival fraternity made both balls into the last remaining cup. After the extremely outrageous and uncalled for celebrations ceased, it was time for Duncan and Big Dog to shoot. Duncan sunk the cup, and after yelling "OOOOOOOOOOO!" Turned to Big Dog. The tension could have cut with a knife as Big Dog released his shot. The ball rolled along the edge of the cup...and off.
Celebrations for the rival fraternity erupted all around, although many onlookers were so drunk they no longer remembered what team they were even supporting. After the crowd cleared out, only Big Dog and the mystical Pledgemaster remained.
"You have disappointed me, and all of yours brothers Big Dog" The Pledgemaster said. He continued, "You truly are a dog..." and used his magic powers to turn him into a coyote. (He actually meant to turn him into a dog but he also had been drinking heavily) "This actually works out for the better" said The Pledgemaster. He then picked up the beer pong ball and tossed it into the sky. "Howl at that bro!" So from now on when you hear a coyote howling on it is really Big Dog lamenting his poor beer pong skill.

Winter Blunderland

There’s nothing quite like being the first to drive down a winter road. Everything is so fresh and unspoiled. The snow almost erases all types of civilization streets, sidewalks, all cars pulled into their respective garage, ah serenity! Nature juts out of its white blanket in asymmetrical beauty. The tree glazed with icicles looms over the street, the odd bush dusted in a fine white powder. Yes, there is nothing like a snow-covered winter road and how I love to drive over them and ruin them for everyone else.

Comercial

I'm in college. Needless to say I drink more beer now than I probably ever will for the rest of my life. Nothing bother me more than the modern beer commercial. Half-clever quips and visual gags are really not enough to urge me to buy a product. However, I'm going to continue to buy their product regardless so I don't see why they need to spend millions of dollars a year on boring me/wasting my time. The last comercial that has my hate centered on it is the Bud light comercial where two bros (possibly ex-frat) are out at the opera with their amazingly attractive italian-esque dates. One guy leans towards the other and says "How did we do this again?" the other gives a smug smile and opens his suit coat to reveal like a half dozen Bud lights and responds "Don't worry, I got enough for both of us." As they tap bottles and begin to take that first sip the opera singer hits a high note and the bottles (including the ones in bro #2's jacket explode). They and their supermodel dates looked shocked. To cap this little nugget of comedy gold Bro #3 seated in front of the first two turns around, holds up a can of Bud light and says "First time at the opera boys?"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

If I were the prettiest girl at the ball...

I've always wondered what it was like to be a girl. Not in the weird dress up in female clothes way, by just a mild curiosity. If you havn't wondered what it was like to be the opposite sex, then there's something wrong with you (or maybe just me). Everytime I go one a date (not that it's a large number by any means) I am posed with the question : "Do I pay for her?" Now, in this modern day and age it seems like there are more and more girls who are willing to split the cost, and ehere are still those who think boy=pay. I always think it would be nice to have someone pay for me, just once, without me saying "oh shit, I forgot my wallet, I'll pay you back."

Red Ink and Me

Growing up I always thought of myself as a good writer, I read A LOT of books and tried to do my best to imitate Roald Dahl and company as best as I could. When we wrote our first essay in third grade and the teacher said "Now I'll read a few good examples from the class" I leaned back with a smug grin on my face and prepared to hear my own massive one paragraph essay read aloud and bask in academic glory. It came as a shock when the teacher did not start reading my essay first...or second...or third...or ever. With my bottom jaw almost on the floor the teacher began to hand back our small pieces of literary defeat. When she finally placed mine on my desk I almosy immediately declared that she had given me the wrong essay, I had written mine with pencil not red ink. A horrified feeling ensued as I realized what the red ink was...corrections. I seemed to me as though my words, sentences, and overall ideas were entirely incorrect. It was, in fact, this very moment that my long standing hatred of thick red ink was birthed.

Obviously I have never been a fan of having a paper thrust back at you with various lines, circles, and puncuation written all over it. Red ink does not seem to do any justice to the fact that what you are holding in your hand is somebody's ideas (or at least an attempt to mold ideas). It always seemed like kind of a vain attempt at improving students writing on the teachers part. I do find it understandable since most teachers have way too many students to ever throughly review and revise every piece of writing produced by their students. For me it always seemed like a few minor puncuation and spelling corrections were never enough, I wanted actual feedback. My wish was finally fulfilled (only about eight years later) when I arrived in college. In classes comsisting of only 10-12 people it was possible for the instructor to read and response to students writing in both a positive and critical way. I really prefer some kind of writing workshop, one that lets both the teachers and students work together as a microscopic writing community in order to advance the writing skills of everyone involved (and maybe save some of that precious red ink for the math teachers).

I am from poem

I am from...

I am from freezing in summer
and sweltering in winter
I am from ice cream trucks out of snow cones
and ice skaters out of breath

I am from always falling asleep with the TV on
and sinking into an overstuffed couch
and "You'll be a hunchback if you slouch!"

I am from being ready early and still being late
with a soundtrack of Phil Collins and some Annie Lennox too
I am from last minute school projects still wreaking of glue

I am from Boys Meets World credits will still in soccer socks
and knowing that the fronts door will never have any locks

The second post of the semester

I decided to choose a passage from Donald Murray's work because I don't really think Christensen has the most profound quotes in the world. Don't get me wrong, I though the Christensen piece was extremely helpful, but it seemed to read more like a set of intructions or more specifically what worked the her class. Again helpful, but I believe that every class is slightly different and the instructor needs to realize this and tailor their teaching method to best fit said class. I DO believe that there are many useful way on which a teacher can go about doing this within the work. I guess what it really comes down to is that I just didn't like the way Christensen put lengthy thank you notes to herself in the essay.
Way back at the beginning of the last paragraph I mentioned that I decided to choose a quote from Murray and havn't even so much as touched the issue. It's hard to imagine that I will be teaching children to write even though I can't ever seem to get to the point, and have an even harder time staying on it once I finally do. To this point Murray has tossed a slew of quality quotes at us. Out of this latest batch I found one that really seemed to perk my interest: "Voice is one of the most complex and yet least-investigated areas of composition. It is a subject that often makes academics uncomfortable because it does not seem intellectual, but we all speak and write with voice." I chose this not because it was the most profound or enlighting quote out of the essay, but simply because it was something I strongly agree with. I find that every writer, scratch that, every person has a different voice that is strangly similar to their speaking voice. It may get masked in MLA format, over-flowery lauguage and spellcheck, but it is always present. Readers/writers will never agree with "intellectuals/academics" (whatever those title really mean) because readers and writers alike both look to find voice in literature. Once I do find the voice of a certain person, I find reading their writing to be far more enjoyable. An example would be one of my favorite authors Dave Barry, at first his comedic writings seemed a little lost on me, but once I found the flow and tone and all the other elements (known and unknown) that go into a persons literary voice then an entire new world opens up. I had the oppurtunity to hear Dave Barry speak which I treasured as a rare occurance, not because Dave Barry seldom speaks in public, but rather because you seldom get to hear and author of a literary work speak, here is where the classroom is truly a fantastic place. In the classroom you not only get know your students on a personal level, but you also get to hear both the literary and non-literaray voices of your students, but you also get to help them merge the two into one.