Final Reflection Post

When I first step foot in this course I had an eerie feeling.  I didn't know what to expect and I really was not looking forward to writing.  Going into the course I thought that I was going to have to do a lot of writing and things of that nature.  But after attending the class a few days I found out that it was different then the usual english courses.  I felt that I had more freedom in it and there was not much boundaries in writing.  As time progressed I started getting used to the course but there were some things that were challenging to me.

One thing that I liked at times but also despised was the task we accomplished early in the morning.  We would (almost every day) play some warm up games.  Some days I like it and some days I felt it was just too early to be doing these focus games.

I remember doing one particular "walking into the day" exercise.  For that day we watched a video, I don't remember what the title was called (except it had the word green in it) but it was based on writing.  The main video was focused on an interview with a writer ( I think). The interviewee was throwing out some pretty tough questions at him.  One question that was asked was about writers.  I don't really remember the question but the answer given shocked me.  He was asked something about writing being systematic.  His answered was based around that there really is no rule to writing.  That really had me puzzled and surprised.  I started asking myself questions like: What does he mean?  I thought that there was a specific format for writing, no?  You know, the 4 sentence a paragraph, 5  paragraphs, conclusion and you're set (to get a good grade), no?  So why do I get points taking off (on assignments) for not doing this or that (like creating introductions and ending)?  Or better yet, does the rules even matter?  All these questions bombarded me and his answer confounded me.  After all these questions one thought came up that really had me wobbled.  So if there is no wrong way to write than can there even possibly be a right way to right or guarantee the right way to write.  The way I came up with this was teachers usually tell students "you should not do this or you should not do that".  The word "shouldn't" taken from combination of "should" and "not" implies that "there aught to be a right way to do it".  Take for instance a scenario between a students and teacher.  The teacher tells the class to write about something.  So she gives the class time to write and after a while she starts to go around and take peeks at the students writing's.  She looks and one person's paper and the second person and sees that it looked good.  Then she goes to the third person and stops him.  The dialogue between the two (the third student and teacher) goes something like this.

Teacher: "Hey, Jake you shouldn't start with a lowercase letter after a period."

Jake:  "Okay, so what should I do?"

Teacher:  "Always capitalize the first letter of the first word after a period"

After pondering the interviewee's response and looking again at this scenario, I thought "So this doesnt matter and there's no right or wrong in it".  After all of this I am still confounded by these questions and now think that writing has no certainty.  But I don't know what to think???

Literacy Writing Reflective Post

My progress in writing my literacy narrative had many twists and turns.  The hardest part of the process was, the beginning.  I really struggled with how to start.  I didn't know what to write about. I had many  ideas on what to focus on but was not able to be fully convince on which one to pick.  In writing my literacy narrative I thought hard on what major events that occurred in my past that has really had a profound effect on my present writing.  In choosing my topic, I had followed a couple of processes.  One of the tools that really helped me to choose my topic was an in-class assignment.  In the assignment we were given multiple post cards and given certain questions to answer.  The questions given helped give me a boost on how to start (as far as figuring what topic(s) to write about).

After I chose my topic I came across another stumbling stone.  Once agin I didn't know how to start.  I tried many methods on how to start but it just didn't flow well.  After this the impending departure of me and the narrative was eminent.  I had given up on it for a few days....

until one day, I started to watch videos on improving writing.  It was pretty long but the "end message" of the film was "get all of your ideas on paper and don't worry if it sounds incoherent just get all the thoughts out.  Than later on the revision and editing you can start molding it into the master piece".  So when I started writing again I tried this method  (I forgot to post this piece in the Doc....Ill try to once I find it).  To my surprise their were lots of details, so many that I could easily write the narrative, but with so many parts I didn't know what to exclude.  Eventually I narrowed things down to the most significant details that I could readily expand on.  After actually starting the narrative, everything (mostly everything) just flowed out smoothly  and I barley had a time where I was stuck.  At the end, the time I had wrap it all up was when I started struggling again (I'm still a little stuck on how to end the narrative).  After trying multiple times I gave up on it and started to revise the narrative.  One assignment that really helped in the revising process was the "comment yourself" method.  Basically I read over the narrative and started on any places that flowed awkward or was hard to understand.  After doing a little revision I started editing things by; inserting commas, exchanging words (to help make it sound better), and switching some sentences.

process of writing this assignment, overall, was like walking along a  path facing many road blocks /dead ends and seeing many roads.  Although there were many roads I had to choose the ones that yielded the most ideas and narrow it down to the ones that I could easily travel through.

Ethnography Reflection

The journey to this ethnography project was haywire going in many directions.  The topic I had was architecture.  It was pretty tough trying to relate architecture with literacy.  To be honest the hardest part was the beginning.  I hadn't have a clue on where to start.  The first thing I did was looked up the word architecture.  I just did a quick google search.  What had popped up was this.


ar·chi·tec·ture
/ˈärkiˌtekCHər/
Noun
1.The art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.
2.The style of a building with regard to a specific period, place, or culture.
Synonyms
architectonics

It was a pretty straight forward definition and really helped kick me into gear (to start the ethnography project).   I was still hesitant on choosing what I was going to put as my main focus.  That issue was resolved when me and my group members got together.  During that meeting we just jotted down anything related architecture and if lucky even literacy.  After the discussion I chose to relate the interior of non-academic buildings with literacy.  Afterward everything else fell into place (sort of).  As far as the team work of the project, I thought it was interesting.  I got to see other views on how literacy and architecture were related.  Some of the down sides in the forming the team was time management.  It was difficult for us to find time to do the project.  We all had conflicting times due to our schedules.  In the end we created a compromise and made our time when we will meet up.

The revision process was kind of tough.  I had a hard time trying to find other things to incorporate into the ethnography draft (the things that made sense at least).  I came across things like the roof of buildings and had no clue how to relate it to literacy (besides saying it can with stand tsunamis, but I don't think that UNCC has those kinds of buildings).

I believe that this assignment was a great turn around from the traditional endings (such as writing a final paper or taking a final exam).  I like how we were given the option do what we wanted to without much limits (besides time constraints and things of that nature).  Our group decided to use a short clip as our "product" for the project.  We planned to have separate video of each of us talking about our sub topics relating to literacy.  Afterward we compiled the videos into a single video.  This entire video thing was totally new to me.  I never talked in front of a camera (besides blurting nonsense while passing through the lens accidentally) prior to this assignment.  I was nervous while filming my part but after looking back on it, I didn't seem nervous.  Overall this assignment was a thrill and interesting to say the least.

Random Hacks of Kindness

For our homework assignment we had to read about something called "Random Hacks of Kindness" .  It was embedded into a url link.  Before I read it, I did't know what to think.  At first I thought it was about random people doing helpful and polite things to other people such as;  holding a door for someone, randomly complimenting others or helping a random stranger with groceries (at first I thought the link read "Random Acts of Kindness").

To my surprise it was nothing like what I had expected.  I clicked on the link and my web browser transfer me to a website.  At first, I thought that maybe I clicked on the wrong link so I went back and clicked on the link again.  The same page popped up so I knew I was on the right page.  As I started to skim the site I found that it was titled ROHK (an acronym meaning Random Hacks of Kindness) in a unique font.  I decided to go visit the about page to see what this organization was all about.  The first thing that I read was the mission statement.  It read "Our mission is to make the world a better place through a global community of innovation developing practical open technology."  I pondered what that meant but couldn't grasp its meaning.  So I started to reading the rest of the site'e about page and came across another statement that caught my attention.  It read “hackathons” and “technology for social good”.  After compiling fragments of the site, I came up with something that helped me relate to the site...."Think of people hacking for positive reasons such as helping the people without voices (such has the outcasts or people in poverty stricken places)".    

(Website  "http://www.rhok.org")

" Random Hacks of Kindness – Oxford – 3rd/4th December : Tim's Blog." Tim's Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.timdavies.org.uk/2011/11/05/random-hacks-of-kindness-oxford-3rd4th-december/>.

3 Potential Sources for Ethnography Assignment

Wade, Burton. Belk Gym.  20 December 2006.  UNC Charlotte- Stake Your Claim, Charlotte.  Flickr. Web.  3 November 2012.

This is a picture of the Belk Gym at UNC Charlotte (I didn't take the actual picture.  It is Wade Burton's photo.  I was going to take a picture of the building, but had some difficulties.  So for now I'll just use this as a reference point).  In using a similar photo like this one, I could talk about the structure of the gym's interior and exterior.  I could maybe even mention the floor and the designs on it and its relation to specific sports.  I believe that their are hidden literacies under the lines on the court.  For example: One of the lines may say "hey, if you shoot here you get two points", another might say "if you shoot here than you get three points and tells you that you're pretty good".


Anonymous.  Personal interview.  November 2012

I have not conducted an interview yet, but hopefully I will in the near future.  In this interview I hope to interview at least two people (one male and the other female).  I think it would be best if I could interview some one that knows the building's history, and changes it has gone through.  From the interview I could see how other people see the building.  During the whole interview I'll try to center it around its relation to literacy or hidden literacy.  I bet that the interviewees will have different thoughts on the building and the literacy of it.


Belk Gym.  "Basketball at Belk's Gym".  Rec, 2012.  CD

This would basically just be a recording or short film of people participating in sporting events.  I could incorporate some of the sounds into the film and show the hidden sonic literacy such as a ball bouncing and people playing a basketball match.  The communication and the sound that echoes in the gym.  I could even potentially expand on the architectural areas of the gym such as:  Why does sound echo in the gym.   I think that after viewing the recording I'll get a different view on literacy in particular the hidden literacy (most of the pieces might come from sound).


(These are just some of the thoughts I had in mind.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The category of literacy i'm focusing on is based on "architecture".)

Ethnography Project

The Journey...

The beginning of the journey started once again in the building covered with literacy (the Atkins Library).  Our group met up on the first floor of the Akins library.  Once we got together, we started discussing the objective of the assignment.  Then we each picked our own choice of literacy relating to architecture.  After having our mind made up, we dispersed and went our separate ways.  For my choice of architectural literacy I chose the "old gym".  It was pretty cold outside so I decided to stay indoors and started looking up pictures of the building (through google maps/ earth) and how it has changed.  Later I thought about visiting it.  I had already been to the building and at first I had an "old school" impression of the building.  Even before some one told me it was the "old gym" I could see from the design of the building as it had much space and thought it was fit to accommodate many activities (sports particularly).  The design of the building had me thinking of visual aspects of literacy in which just seeing a building, can tell a lot of the building.  The building was pretty much isolated and had many entrances, double doors, and placed above ground level (at least from where I was standing).  The stairs were pretty cramped, it had many steps and the floor was riddled with literacy.  The design of the floor had tiles filled with dirt and debris that told part its history.  Just by looking at it, a person can assume how old it is. In certain areas of the "old gym", a person can even grasp a sonic aspect of the literacy through the sense of smell (from the sweat and odors that may have crept into the walls where even time cant get rid of).

After completing this assignment, I came across an underlife of literacy and its relation to architecture.  I learned that buildings truly can speak.  Not literally, but as we perceive it through our senses we are submerged deep into the knowing, as if we were the reincarnation of the building itself.  Just by looking at a piece created by the mind of brilliant architectures we can tell a portion of the mystery.  Even if we were blind fold but had an acute sense of smell we could still generate manifold amounts of the buildings features.  If all of the senses were present, we could assume an incomputable amount of wonders pertaining to the architectures design.

(here are 2 quotes that I kept in mind while doing this assignment)


"It is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture. That which I have insisted upon as the life of the whole, that spirit which is given only by the hand and eye of the workman, can never be recalled."
~John Ruskin


"Although we may attain various aspects of the enigma... Who can know more of the creation than creator that created it?"~Anonymous

Mapping Assignment

To day in english 1101 we were given a home work assignment . We had to find things of literacy and describe how that thing relates to literacy.  Some of the qualities of the literacy could be visual, sonic, embodied, and textual.  An example of visual could be something as plain as a picture.  A sonic example could be music and noises.  The embodied types (a little harder to explain) could be associated with movement and motion.  the last type, textual, is the most familiar associated with writing and letters.

My choice of the literacy was visual.  The journey started as I was on my way to the Atkin's library.  I don't quite remember the exact time that I went to do the assignment, but it was around 1:00pm.  I started the journey right after my Biology class was dismissed.  I made my way up to the bell tower and thought about writing about it (the bell tower) but thought it was to easy ( I wanted to find something that I haven't found or noticed yet).  As I passed the gigantic structure I noticed another object.  It had the form of a memorial stone.  I pondered on the memorial stone decision, deal or no deal (I was still wanting to find something else)???  In the end I turned down the offer and headed towards the Atkin's first floor door.  As I walked through I noticed a lot of other literacy themes around me such as; music, writings, people reading and some other sources.  I eventually made my way to the quiet study room and a bright fluorescent pigment caught my eye.  I turned to see what it was and I chose that object.  It was a piece of artwork.  It had many different colors and intricate/complex designs, that made my mind just wonder.  In the end I sealed the deal and chose it as my object of literacy.

(The painting could be categorized in the visual themes section.)

UNCC Literacy Underlife (9:30 am)

What Is Music?

When asking some one "What is Music?" the usual answers I get are:  I don't know?What ever sounds good, what ever gets my feet tapping or Oh its just some......(long pause).... yeah!  They than try to dodge the question and change the subject.  In my opinion music is something that can't be expressed in words.  It's not like 1+1=2 or anything straightforward with an exact definite answer.  In fact it's still a mystery.  When trying to define what music is, it actually raises a lot of questions such as:  Why  do I fell a certain way (emotionally) when I listen to this (music)?  Or why do I feel happy or sad.... It's a mystery.  Music to me is defined as what Frederick Delius and others had stated.

Music is an outburst of the soul.
~Frederick Delius

Music is will said to be the speech of angels.
~Thomas Carlyle

It is incontestable that music induces in us a sense of the infinite and the
contemplation of the invisible.
~Victor de LaPrade

Music is love in search of a word.
~Sidney Lanier

Music is the shorthand of emotion.
~Leo Tolstoy

Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before
speech, and it is above and beyond all words.
~Robert G. Ingersoll

You can't go to the store and buy a good ear and rhythm
~Les Paul

I play the notes as they are written, but it is God who makes the music....
~Johann Sebastian Bach

Mid Term Assessment.

For my English 1101 midterm we did something unusual but at the same time interesting.  Class was canceled that day and we had to meet up with our group members to complete the assignment.  We all met up in the Atkins building, on the 2nd floor near the couches and sofas.  At first I was not sure if my team members were going to be there.  I thought that I was the first one to arrive but one of them had beaten me to the destination.  I was relieved to know that some one else was there and not just me by myself.  Soon afterwards our missing group members arrived.  We all sat down and tried to figure out what we were suppose to do.  For the most part I was lost.  But we eventually solved the enigma.  We had to find a mentors text and document how we found it and than do what I'm doing right now (blogging).  As already stated, our journey began on the second floor of the Atkins building.  Our first strategy, well we didn't really have one but.... we just went to the closest book shelf and started picking random books.  We soon realized that, that was not good and we were not going anywhere.  So we than tried to get on one of the computers and find the Atkins catalogue (database where all the books are stored I think).  Then we tried to search for "mentors text", and what ever came up first was our next object on the "search and retrieve list".   This lead us all the way to the 6th floor ( I think).  Once we got to the level we started searching for the book.  One of our group member forgot to write down the whole id number, so we were wandering around aimlessly again.  Eventually we found the book and saw that it was not what we were looking for.  Than we repeated the process of finding mentors text.  Except this time we searched popular mentor texts on google and saw one named "Owl Moon".  We than searched for it in theAtkins catalogue.  We got recorded all the values and the location of the book and started once again to find the mentor text.  I t was located on the 5th floor.  Finally we found it and got together to discuss what to do next.  Some of the group members took pictures of the book.  we than started to skim through the book and it was similar to a children's book.  I quoted one thing that caught my attention. "When you go owling you don’t need words or warm or anything but hope".  I chose this quote because I thought that it was unique and I never heard it before.  That was our journey to finding the mystery book and the midterm.

After looking back on this experience.  I thought that it was interesting and different.  It was a nice turn over from doing the usual "write a paper" type of work.  From the very beginning of the assignment it felt as we were on a quest or journey.  I'd compare it to an adventurer seeking something relatively hard to find (since we'er searching for a book in a place with millions of other books).  All in all this assignment was a highlight in the course.

My Little Piece of Writing and English (Most Memorable part II)

My freshman experience about me going to summer school, to take English I, was one of the major events that helped shape me as a writer.  The next year was my sophomore year.  Usually during the sophomore year, students are required to take a writing exam.  I believe that it was a requirement for all students in the Mecklenburg County to take it (so there was no way to get around it).  During the school year teachers were always pressured, but for this year most pressure was put on the ones that taught English courses. 

Anyways the single event that happened this year involved the writing test.  The day came when all the sophomore students had to take the test.  The test was issued around 10:00A.M (I don’t remember the actual time).  I came in went to where my exam was held.  It was a pretty small classroom maybe round 30 people in the room.  Teacher came in read the exam policies, regulations, procedures and rules like not cheating, the time and all of that.  Then we took the exam.  We had to write an argumentative essay (forgot what it was about, I think it was about free speech and a controversial advertisement something like that).  We had about three hours.  I couldn’t think of anything.  The hardest part was trying to figure out how to start the argument and which side to lean on.  I saw that everyone else was writing all very focused and I was idle.  Near the end, the teacher said 10 minuets left and I still haven’t written anything (besides trying to plan and brainstorm…I had a headache!).  So I tried to scram my thoughts on the paper and then the exam propter said, times up and the long speech after completing the exam, all in all I wrote only about one paragraph. 

Couple weeks later got the exam back and BAM Got A score of 1 on it!  Although I didn’t pass the exam I made it through the English II course so I could still move on to the next grade level. Of course I was upset but I couldn’t do anything about it… That was the 2^nd major event that impacted me as a writer.