Journal 13

Thoughts on the course.

For the last journal entry I just want to discuss the course and what I thought went well and what possible changes could be made to improve it. What the course entailed became very obvious very quickly. There was a pattern to the class, doing the same things every Tuesday and Thursday, and I thought this worked. We always knew when we had to have a book read by and what to expect in each class period. Each student had the chance to lead a discussion which was great practice for being a future teacher. Many people did many different things for their discussions which always kept the class on their toes. We never knew exactly what to expect and were kept on our toes. One thing I would suggest is you encouraging people to do more than simply discuss the book. Some days became monotonous with simply sitting and answering discussion questions. The days that were really memorable were the days we had exercises that required us all to participate actively. I especially like Izzy's and Mandy's discussion where they had us move to different spots in the class room based on what crime they brought up. Everyone had to have an opinion on where to stand and it led into strong discussions about the novel. Some groups needed to have more hands on activities where we had to participate actively. I even think my second day of discussion could have used come more action to keep the class alert. I enjoyed how book talks went in the class and I really like you're idea of having the class do video book talks. I thought the one we saw was very clever and much more memorable than just listening to someone talk for six minutes. With changing media I think is a very strong idea for you to implement into this class. My one other suggestion would be to have better books at the beginning of the semester. I really didn't enjoy our first few novels and thought they got progressively better towards the end of the semester. I know this doesn't help much cause everyone has different opinions about the books, but I thought the first few were very weak. I did however very much like how you split the books into different categories. This allowed the previous books we had just read to be a part of the current discussion. Overall I very much enjoyed this course and I think it was clear that much of the class did as well. Keep up the great work and I am excited to see what 324 is like next semester. Thank you for a great semester and happy holidays.

Journal 12

I was very pleased with how the class discussion on Uglies went. In our prereading activity we had the class answer questions to create what they thought the perfect person was. They seemed to enjoy this exercise and it lead into a good discussion. We split the class up, boys and girls, and we discussed our answers and what it means to be attractive in today's society. Most people agreed that it is beneficial to be attractive over not attractive. Attractive people get more attention, are more likely to be hired, and receive special treatment from certain people such as a police officer. Most of the guy's in the group had similar answers to the questionnaire about what the perfect guy would look like. The whole class then got together and we shared answers and it was all fairly similar. We then asked the class to switch questionnaires with someone else and to stand up. We called out different categories and if you did not match the other person's answer, then you had to sit down. Eventually everyone had to sit down and it was clear that no one was perfect looking in the class.
For our quiz we decided to have the class create their own questions. This made them think more critically of the book to be able to come up with questions. They then kept their quizzes so that they could bring up any questions that they thought may add to the discussions. I thought this went well and I would consider doing it in my classroom. We then gave the answers to the classes questionnaires they had answered the previous week. It was interesting to see how many people gave the same answers. We then began discussing the novel and I think it went very well. People seemed eager to participate and we had a good combination of students sharing. We discussed the book in detail, the themes in the book, and our own society today. I think that everything led to one another very well and there were little pauses in the discussion. Overall I think our discussion worked and people were engaged with the book and the rest of the class. If I could change anything about it I think I would make them do another activity on the day we discussed the book. The entire class was sitting the whole time and I could see some people beginning to get bored. Maybe some kind of small exercise int he middle where we made them do something would have helped. Overall I am very pleased with how things went and I was able to use everyone else's discussions from the semester to make ours the best we could. This was certainly a learning experience for me.

Journal 11

After all semester long of watching others lead discussion in class, it is finally my turn to do it. I missed the first day we got to sign up for discussions and book talks so I was left with days at the end of the semester. Now with all my classes having stuff due these final couple weeks, I really wish I could have gone earlier in the semester, but oh well. I did however enjoy my book, Uglies, more than most of the others we have read this semester. There are a number of strong themes that can lead to a good discussion. The book's themes are governmental conspiracies, attractiveness in society, and technology being used to control the population. Mileka and I want our pre reading exercise to focus on the idea of being attractive in today's society. We created a questionnaire that asks the class to describe what their idea of the perfect physical person would be. This activity and the discussion about it will lead into us talking about what it means to be attractive in today's society. Are attractive people better off than non attractive people? We will first discuss these questions and other questions that may arise in separate groups, boys and girls. This will hopefully allow the class to speak openly with people of their own sex and what society dictates about their bodies. We will then bring the whole class together and ask them to share with each other what they discussed in their groups. If they do not want to share with the whole class, then that is perfectly fine. It will be interesting to see how the two sex's discussions differed from one another. The class will be asked to keep this theme o0f attractiveness in our society in mind when they are reading the novel. Hopefully this will make them consider what it means to be attractive today and if our society does anything similar to what the society in the book does. I think everything will go well but we shall see.  

Journal 10

Paper 2 idea

In my second paper I want to discuss the topic of government control on its population. Each Feed and Uglies centered around ways in which its governments controlled the population. In Feed it was the planting of the "feednet" into people's brains that allowed so much control. In Uglies it was the legions on the citizens brains that they got during the "pretty" surgery that made the population docile and easy to keep in control. During our Feed discussion we did an activity where we came up with the many ways our government does and can keep control of us. Through this discussion it became abundantly clear that advances in technology made it easier and easier for governments to control its population. I think it is important to teach students about these things and these novels do a very good job of doing this. Students need to be introduced to the fact that these advances in technology do make it easier for the government to track and control individuals. Each of these novels make the government into a antagonist and show how government could get more and more power with advances of technology. With no signs of advances in technology end in sight, it may be a slippery slope to internet actually being implanted into humans brains. Not only are these novels entertaining, they show how freedom and privacy may not always be what they seem. These books should make the students think and question the way our society works today.

Journals 7-9

Intro

Have you ever wanted more? Not more money, or more fame, or more stuff, but more out of life. Have you ever stopped in the middle of your day and said "What the hell am I doing all of this for?" Day after day you go to your job or your school and you know what will happen the next day, more work or more school. Have you ever said "If only I had more money I would just drop everything and get away."? If so, you are not alone. For some reason people continue to believe that it is necessary to wake up each day and hate where it is they are going, only to go to bed that night knowing they have to go to the same place the next day, and the next. Have you ever stopped for a minute and just listened to what was happening around you? Put down your phone, stop ordering your coffee, sit for a minute and just be. Though for some to be is not enough, they must be something. Know that you are not alone in your want to just be. Others have struggled with this want in a society full of somethings, so just know that you are not alone.

“In reality, long-term travel has nothing to do with demographics- age, ideology, income- and everything to do with personal outlook. Long-term travel isn’t about being a college student; it’s about being a student of daily life. Long-term travel isn’t an act of rebellion against society; it’s an act of common sense within society. Long-term travel doesn’t require a massive ‘bundle of cash’; it requires only that we walk through the world in a more deliberate way.”            –Rolf Potts

Prologue

            This isn’t one of those stories where the hero writes about their amazing story and how they have accomplished so much and so can you. Where after a three year break of whatever it was that was heroic they figured they would write it down. Some record their story for money. Others for fame. However, there are those that write to hopefully have others learn and expire others. This is not a cocky “I accomplished (blank) so I know what I’m talking about so listen”. It is simply a record of how an experience or journey changed or affected them, so if others can get something out of their story then all the better.

            Let me make it clear right away, I am no hero. I didn’t save an old lady and her cat from a burning house. I didn’t fight in wars across seas. I didn’t lead my team to glory. I am simply a girl that without certain knowledge would have hated her life. Without life changing advice and guidance, would have ended up as another cog of society, a future laid out before her. I heard the words of a writer and knew they were spoken to me. That what my life was destined to be was in no way unchangeable. I wasn’t destined to be a princess or a prostitute or anything with a life full of jewels or johns. But more I only had one mind set of what my life could be in this world, and everyone I surrounded myself with supported this mind set. It is not a mindset unlike many others. I am no hero for choosing to choose where my life would go, but still I might have saved it.

            I was simply a teenage girl. I had done everything right or so some would say. Played sports most my life and did fine. Was a good student and could choose from a number of universities. Extracurriculars, church, Sunday school, family, a couple nice boyfriends, friends, job, dog, shopping, tv, volunteering, facebook. Everything needed to make an eighteen year old girl in middle America happy right? I do not want to sound ungrateful for having a good upbringing, a solid family structure, good education, and a social life. I know that I won the lottery of life in being born who I am. I stopped complaining aloud at a young age when I figured this and eventually got good and not even complaining to myself.  But I found myself stuck in a life where I could see decades ahead. All of a sudden I wanted to live spontaneously, not knowing what would happen one day to the rest. I looked around for help and guidance but everyone around me reassured me that this was a normal reaction to graduating and that I just need to pick a school and push on.

            I did not push on. I made a choice for myself and stuck to it. I changed my life. It was not easy and I would not have been able to without guidance. I am writing this for you, whoever may read this, now ten years later hoping to make it clear that there are other options. You may be completely fine with where you are headed in life and that is great. But if you are not, if you are searching for what you want out of this one short life, not knowing the array of options and adventures to be had, then please continue reading.

            I am no hero. I have done very little heroic. I simply made a decision that I thank myself for making every single day. I hope that I can maybe inspire those to make the correct decisions for their own lives or at least explore the options of life.

First Chapter idea

My hope is that I can grab the audience’s attention with the intro, and effectively introduce them to the main character with the prologue. My hope is that the prologue makes the character relatable and gives a tone to the piece right away. I then want to move into a narrative where the narrator still gives insight on these past experiences. I want to begin the chapter with the narrator going to a reading from a travel writer visiting a university in a neighboring town. She is struck by what he says and she has not felt this kind of excitement inside her before. As a naïve teenager she takes it for affection and begins to romanticize about the writer while he answers questions from the audience. She introduces herself afterwards and she asks (almost begs) to meet with him on campus the next day for coffee and to discuss his travels in more details. In this conversation he realizes that she may have romantic feelings for him and he sets her straight. She was thinking that maybe an affair with an older man was the excitement she was looking for but instead she received guidance that will change her life. They exchange emails and agree to stay in contact and he becomes a source of inspiration for her to leave behind the life she does not want.

I decided to try the suggestion you gave about writing the character from a female’s POV. It has not been a challenge yet but I imagine I will have to work and actively be aware about the possible differences in dialogue that I would write for each sex. When that suggestion was given I thought about it and realized I have written very little with strong female characters or a female character as being the main protagonist. This will surely be something new and exciting for my writing which is always needed.

I’m just curious if I have set up the chapter well with the intro and prologue or if it may be too much. Do I need to jump into dialogue and action sooner? Will writing from the first person work well for this story? And any other suggestions or questions are very much appreciated.

Journal 6

Character Sketch


-Doug Mathis
-Age 18
-Senior in high school. A-B range student without generally trying. Has never been very interested in school, he has always learned more from doing and trying things himself. Everyone expects him to go to college and he'll get into some decent schools. He doesn't feel that four more years at least of school is worth all of the time, money, and energy.
-Always has been a decent athlete but has never had the motivation to go out for a team. He enjoys pushing himself physically. Long runs nearly every day. Hiking tougher and higher places on the weekend. Skiing harder and steeper slopes each winter.
-He is always turning down requests from friends and family to go and do his own things. He would rather hike a ridge by himself then go to the movies with a group of buds. He would rather spend the whole weekend backpacking rather than visiting relatives with the rest of his family.
-It is not that Doug does not enjoy his family and friends, they have just started to become mundane to him. The same things happened in his life for eighteen years. The same movie theater. The same houses to hang out at. The same birthday dinners for each of his three siblings, all younger than him. The same routine each Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. He desperately wants to experience new things and everyone around him seems fine with their routines.
-He knows college is yet another routine middle America now does. He can see the path most people he knows takes, including the future path's of many of his friends: highschool, college, career, wife, kids, retirements, death.
-This traditional pattern of life doesn't appeal to him in the least bit. He wants to see more, experience more, know more, and he knows the only way to do this is to leave and experience things for himself.
-He is a personable person and easy to talk to but he has found that people simply talk about the same things again and again. He wants intellectually stimulating conversations and he has never found that in the classroom.

I haven't fully decided what Doug will look like but I know I want him to be very average. Average height, weight, build, exct. There isn't much that sets him apart from millions of other 18 year old white boys in America. This is part of his problem. He is very much a part of Middle White America in many ways and it traps him. He yearns to "spread his wings" and leave the binds of society.

He has recently begun to find inspiration from stories, namely text. He has begun to read London, Thoreau, and Muir as well as contemporary travel writing. He has begun to talk to travelers online who share their travel experiences and encourages Doug to live for himself. He finds inspiration from these people and knows that if they can do it, so can he. 

Journal 5

Thoughts on the class thus far.

So far I have enjoyed this course and what we have read. I must say that I am not a hug fan of a lot of young adult lit. but the selections so far have varied and have made us think. The great part of only spending a week on each novel is that if I do not like one of them, we will soon be talking about a new one.
I think the class has done a good job with discussion, especially with students leading those discussions. In a lot of classes I have seen professors ask questions with no body in the room wanting to respond. These discussions are obviously dry and uninformative. The atmosphere in this class is such a way that everyone should feel comfortable with sharing their views and the leaders have done a good job of getting participation from most of the class. The fact that we have new students leading the discussion each time means we will always be discussing the books in different ways. Each quiz isn't the same and neither are the discussions. With a class full of future teachers however, there are a lot of talkers so this helps.
My one criticism is that on Thursdays the book talks can get long. We do this for the first forty five mins hearing about several different books. Those leading the book talks don't want to spoil anything so we can only go so deep into those novels. I like the idea of the book talks but would rather have a few on Tuesday and a few on Thursday to split up some of the time. Otherwise I have enjoyed this course and I look forward to when I lead my own discussion and book talks.