Back to School

It definitely feels like it has been forever since I have written a blog post and I am unsure how to start this one. I guess ill start by saying that I had a great spring break and that it was needed. Midterm week killed me this semester, but i made it thought it and now i am on the final seven week home stretch.
When we got back into class, we were told to walk outside and look around for phrases that were up to around four words. These phrases were supposed to be something that was supposed to tell us some sort of information. We also talked about how we are going to take our midterm paper that we wrote to high school students and further elaborate that into something that will get us to where we are thinking the same way that lacy is. This project is going to last for the next few weeks and is going to work with a book that we are reading. I choose to read Enders Game because i read it in high school and really enjoyed the book. I feel that this book will be an accurate representation of what lacy is looking for in a students experience.

Midterm Week

Midterm week is coming up and everybody is starting to feel the crunch of a heavy workload. The library is going to start to get full and people will stay up longer and longer so they can do the best that they can before spring break. On the other note spring break is the next weekend and i could not be any more excited. I have some plans to go the beach which should be really fun. But anyway, in English, we are supposed to write a paper as part of out midterm project. We are supposed to write a narrative about school learning. this assignment is going to be due towards the end of the week; however, lacy wants us to have a start by the time class starts tomorrow. Honestly, i have not started mine yet which is bad considering its already 11:30. this blog is going to be one of my shorter ones so that i can hopefully finish all of my work before it get super late, but i am going to hopefully make some progress on this midterm project.

PS. The picture included has nothing to do with this post, but i saw it in the hallway of burson and i thought it was funny.

Pass the Picture

So this week in English we did this game called "Pass the Picture" (I don't remember the actual name). But anyways, this game is where we have a picture in front of us and we look at it and write something about it. It can be something we see/don't, what we feel is represented, or anything that is worth noting. Then after about 30 seconds, we pass off the picture to see what others say. We did this about 15 times and then we got our original picture back and were able to see what everyone else thought about our picture. There are many things that I think we can take out of this assignment not only in a real life situation, but in an English environment as well. In a real life situation, i can see this as being what others can think of you or the situation you are involved in. The way you carry yourself can play a big part in how others view you especially if they do not know you that well. It's a hard thing to view something when you have no idea what is going on a make your own assumptions about it; however, i feel that we do this all of the time. Not only do we do it, but we are usually wrong. Why do we judge and place labels? I don't know is that is because of how society is or what, but i think it is a bad quality that we have. Sorry i kinda got off topic there. But back to English. I am not really to sure where we were going with this assignment and I am not sure how this plays into the idea of learning with technology. This might be something that is completely new or maybe Lacy will tie it into a later lesson, but i think it will be interesting where she goes with this.

Blog Post Procrastination

Alright guys so I have come to the conclusion that I procrastinate with these blog posts. I don't know why I procrastinate so badly with these posts. Usually with everything else I do, I get it done way in advance. So I'm a little baffled, but anyways, this week, Lacy asked me if I wouldn't mind letting her use my blog as an example for how we are supposed to view this class and how we are supposed to reflect upon what we learned and apply it to our own lives. I usually write these posts knowing that worst case scenario, three to five people will see it, but now that may not be that case. I didn't mind letting her use it, but it is a weird feeling knowing that there is a possibility that people that have never met, or even seen me will be reading these posts. They will be looking into my mind and seeing what I think about and judging me based on things that I write on the website. But back to what lacy is doing with this class, she is teaching in a way that I have never experienced before because honestly how many times are we sitting in class and say, "How is this going to help me in real life." We go though life and always study for the test and never take the time to look back and see how the information that we learn can be applied to everyday life. I am only a second semester freshman, so I really don't have a strong grasp of college classes because I am still taking the pre major, high school/college, transitions classes; however, I feel that Lacy is trying to get us to think like a college student. It just a theory and I could be completely wrong, but the fact that she is trying to incorporate our everyday lives into this class is interesting.

As a side not from English, the basketball game on Saturday was crazy. There were so many Niners there who all came out to support a team that should have one that game. I got there at five so i could get the best seat possible and was sitting two rows from the court. Not Alan Major, but another one of our coaches was getting in the refs face after he didn't call that walk in the second half. It was pretty obvious that the game was not called evenly, but hopefully we can make up for it. Because of that last game, we went from #4 to #7. We play so much better when we have the support of the team because we are the "sixth player." So everyone grab your friends and get as many people as you can to come out to the game on February 24th against temple.

Another Blog

It was a long week and I had a lot of school work. Coming up this week, I have all of my first tests so I have been spending a lot of time studying. This week in class, we had our first experience with imporv. I feel that improve is kind of like "icebreakers". They are awkward and not everyone wants to do them. I think with some, they are fun and can be something that everyone would want to do; however, in a class environment, that isn't easy. Lacy is trying to show us different things that are going to get us out of our "comfort" zone in an attempt to learn in a different way. She is doing this i feel to make this class abstract. I am not really sure though. On a other note, I went to the UMASS game over the weekend and it was packed. It was awesome to see all of the fellow Niners come and support the team who brought us another victory. We are currently undefeated at home and ranked 2nd in our conference right behind VCU. It is going to be interesting to see how we do this year as the season starts to come to a close. Anyways, I hope everyone had a great weekend and ill see you in class on Monday.

Studying Peer Based Learning

For homework, Lacy had us choose what we wanted to read. There were three different options that we had to choose from. I choose to read about peer based learning which talked how it revolves around informal learning with friends. Parents look at peer based learning as something that is bad because  students get off topic and dont learn as much. This is interesting because students look at this as the complete opposite. Students feel that they are able to get more done because they are able to "bounce" ideas off of others and get a good amount of feedback. This idea of peer based learning exists in many different forms. One of which is social media. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, Myspace, or Instagram, there are many different ways that students can dive into this "peer based learning" idea. Above is a picture of a sheet of paper where our group put all of out ideas onto paper. I'm sorry that it is upside down, I tried everything to get it to be rightside up and I couldn't figure it out.

A New Semester of Blogging

Winter break is over and everyone has come back to school relaxed and ready for a new semester. This semester is going to be a difficilt one for me. I am taking 18 credits over 7 classes. I am sure that I will be able to do it, but it is going to be difficult. Anyways, classes started this week and that meant that we started with the "interesting" approach to English 1102. For you all in my writing group that dont know, I had Lacy last semester for 1101. Her class was interesting and fun. It's hard to believe that an english class can be fun but the was that Lacy approaches it is very different. Last year she did imporv sessions almost every day and this allowed us to be silly and relax before class started. 

So this week we started out with playing these string games. They are something that i used to play when i was younger and completly forgot about. These string games allowed us to let are creativity show and make simple designs out of a single string. We also watch a "TED" speach that talked about how everyone can be a "Maker". I think this semester is going to be another great one and i am excited. 

A Little About Me

I figured since we are all going to be basically writing to each other for the next 16 weeks, i would tell you a little about myself. My name is Michael Shaw. I am currently studing to be an Electrical Engineer. I am a freshman (I think all of us are) and am looking to start a Co-Op next year. I have two pets, a dog named Marcello and a cat named prime time. In my spare time, I ompetitevely mountain bike, play drums, guitar, piano and I am a DJ.

I am excited to get to know you all this semester and I hope you enjoyed your long weekend. :)