Just some thoughts

…Moderate drinking…

            This is an opinion paper about moderate drinking. I’ve done countless hours of research on this topic and I have come to the conclusion that drinking in moderation can be, in fact, good for your health! There are a lot of misconceptions about moderate drinking.  A big influence on why society looks down on moderate drinking  is that people tend to confuse moderate drinking with social drinking, which refers to casual drinking in a social setting without an intent to get drunk.  Social drinking has a reputation of causing problems. People get out in the club setting and start having a few drinks then before they know it they are drunk. Drunk people who cannot handle their alcohol tend to cause a lot of problems.  Moderate drinking is the opposite. Moderate drinking refers to drinking that does not generally cause problems. One to two drinks a day would be considered moderate drinking. Now that we have defined moderate drinking, let’s look at the benefits.

            There are many benefits of moderate drinking. Research shows that consuming low levels of alcohol can reduce stress, decrease tension, self- consciousness and anxiety. It even proves that in elderly people, moderate drinking helps improve mood, stimulate appetite and even regulates bowel movements.  Studies show that drinking alcohol in moderation can help prevent coronary heart disease. Also that people who indulge in moderate drinking are 30-40 percent less likely to develop diabetes than those who abstain from drinking.

            The key word in this situation is MODERATE. Consuming alcohol to the point of becoming intoxicated is NOT moderate drinking. People who normally drink a twelve pack and are now only drinking a six pack are NOT moderate drinking. As with all things in life, there are other factors to be considered, for example; age, medical history, and family history. That being said, I still come to the same conclusion which is, for the majority of society moderate drinking is safe and can be both healthy and relaxing.

           

           

           

2nd Paper Rough Draft PLEASE COMMENT with any suggestions...

There are some teachers you will never forget, and there are some teachers that change your life. Depending on who you ask, you may hear mixed statements about Oggie. Who is Oggie, you ask? Well for some, Oggie was a science teacher. For some he was a confidante. Still for others he was the one who kicked them out of school when they didn't meet the requirements, or failed to show up to school. But for me, Oggie was my senior advisor, and the reason I graduated high school and got my diploma at twenty years old. Oggie was an unforgettable teacher who believed that education was important and that anyone who worked for it would succeed.

   Oggie's real name is James Ogden, and unlike other high school teachers, he did not allow us to call him Mr. Ogden. Instead, he insisted that his friends call him Oggie, and that everyone should do so as well. Oggie, as you may come to understand, is not like your typical, ordinary teacher. First I should start by sort of painting you a mental picture of him. Oggie is around 5'7 and a bit on the round side. On his face there is an extremely long, shabby beard; speckled with grey. On his head there is long hair with a bald spot smack dab in the middle. In which he normally covers with his favorite black cowboy hat, but occasionally with an erratic hat of his choice. Oggie's choice of clothes is irregular to say the least. This is because Oggie wears skirts. :) Now skirts aren’t the technical name for them, but everyone likes teasing him about it. (It's all in good fun).

  Now that you have an idea of what to picture when you're thinking of Oggie, I will tell you about his teaching style. You can't really define Oggie's teaching style, because it’s different with every class he teaches. Oggie is the science teacher of Renaissance high school and when you step into his classroom it screams science. I mean literally... He has one of those motion sensing stuffed animal dinosaur that says science when it detects motion! I was in Oggie’s biology class. The course as he would explain was a college course and that it would not be easy. Although the assignments themselves were difficult and a lot of work, Oggie made learning the material really fun. The most memorable moment of biology class I think everyone in that class would have to agree on this was the final. In the week leading up to the finals, Oggie was making us dread the test because he said it was going to be really hard. We studied in class, we studied for homework, and we even studied on the weekends and on lunch breaks. When the dreaded day finally came, we were terrified of the test, but so packed with information there was no way any of us would fail. We walked into the classroom and instead of hearing the usual SCIENCE! we heard SURPRISE!!! Our final consisted of watching what Oggie labeled as an environmental movie perfect for biology class. It was The Simpson’s Movie!! We watched the movie and Oggie ordered pizza for us since we worked so hard studying. He later explained that he wanted us to realize that hard work really does pay off, and that everything is not always as it seems. Also by tricking us, we all gained the knowledge we needed and a cool way to remember it.

        Now as I said before, in addition to being my Biology teacher, Oggie was also my senior advisor. Now going into the school year, I faced a few hurdles. I only had 12 credits going into the year and we needed 23 to graduate, so I had to make up 11 credits which are almost double what you get in a normal school year. Also I was about 8 months pregnant with my daughter, I was huge! I hadn’t been going to school at that time for almost 4 years. And to top it off, I was turning 21 the following summer. This meant that I had to graduate that year or settle for my GED, which was unacceptable for my personal goals. I had a lot of work to do. I shared this with Oggie at our first meeting. He surprised me with a response I will never forget. He flat out told me to quit whining. And to stop making excuses because all of the things I listed were personal choices that I had made and that I had to deal with the consequences. At first, I wanted to get angry, but as I sat there and thought about it, I realized that he was exactly right.

        The school year started and I had my daughter. I had to take a month off of school as a maternity leave to be home with Naraiya, which made Oggie push me even harder. I got through the month and returned to school. I buckled down and worked harder than I ever had before, except maybe during childbirth, and got it done. I had worked hard and Oggie gave me the perseverance and earned the credits I needed to graduate!  

        At graduation, my whole family was there to watch... As Oggie called my name, he did something I would never forget. He told the whole gym that he was very proud of me and that I had walked into that school with so many hurdles to jump and that he pushed me harder than he’s ever pushed me before. With tears I gave my speech, letting everyone know that even if you have obstacles in front of you, anything’s possible if you work hard at it. I thanked Oggie for making me strive for better and accepted my diploma. I graduated proudly with the rest of my class as the highest graduating class in Renaissance high school history. Thanks Oggie, I couldn’t have done it without you!

7/27/11 Words for the Soul

“The shortest and surest way of arriving at real knowledge is to unlearn the lessons we have been taught, to mount the first principles, and take nobody’s word about them”.

                                                                                                -Henry Bolingbroke

            If this quote isn’t the true, I don’t know what is! As children, we are taught what to believe through our guardians. Whether it is Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt and Uncle, Sister and Brother, or whoever, they teach us their principles, which may or may not be right. When you are that young, you rely on what the authority figure in your life tells you are right and go from there.

            What this quote says to me is to think for yourself. Throw out what you have been conditioned to think and use your own mind. “Mount your first principles” says to go with your first instinct. Let your intuition guide you. “Don’t take nobody’s word about them”. Every day, people judge by what others have experienced. By doing this you cheat yourself out of having your own opinion. For example, it could be a certain type of food like sushi. Most people hear sushi and they automatically go ‘yuck’! Have they ever tried it? No, but they hear what everyone else says and go with it. Maybe sushi is the best taste ever, but they wouldn’t know because they never try it. Real knowledge is finding out for yourself. Go out and don’t be afraid to experience life as your own. I can’t stress the importance of seeing life through your own eyes, not through someone else’s.

            I am an authentic person, so this quote really stood out for me. It speaks about what I believe in, that’s why I chose to write about it.

2nd paper: paragraph and thesis statement

 Though not a desirable trait, people judge others all the time. This is definitly the case when it comes to the person I will be talking about. Depending on who you ask, you may hear mixed statements about Oggie. Who's Oggie you ask? Well for some, Oggie was a science teacher. For some he was a confidante. Still for others he was the one who kicked them out of school when they didn't meet the requirements, or failed to show up to school. But for me, Oggie was my senior advisor, and the reason I graduated high school and got my diploma at twenty years old. There are some teachers you will never forget, and there are some teachers that change your life: Oggie was one of them.

Dead Poet's Society Day 1.

I was really excited for this movie because ive never seen this movie before.
NOTES:
I do see that the whole class is white, and there is no diversity in their class.
Carpe Diem means Seize the day. the teacher talks about it during class. He plays on this statement during the class.
They use the textbooks alot more in this maovie than they did with the Stand and Deliver movie.
The teacher tells the kids to rip the pages out of their textbook. They rip out the whole introduction, which of course, goes well with the students, they are happy to rip their textbooks. uh oh the dean came in and thought the kids were running wild, but when he saw the teacher, he quickly withdrew his statement and withdrew hisself from interrupting the class.


The teaching styles are VERY different than those of stand and deliver. well maybe not the teaching styles so much as the teaching environment. like i said in my notes, this is a predominately white school and they are much more disciplined than the students were in stand and deliver. Also they are much more willing to learn. The teachers in both movies have a passion for doing what they do, so they both found ways o get their students excited about what they are learning about, and in this movie's case it is about poetry.

Stand and Deliver: day 1

This movie is a very powerful movie that sheds light on the very real problems that alot of schools, students, and teachers face. Mr. Escalante started out thinking he was going to teach a computer class, but seeing as how there are no computers, he is stuck teaching math. Well during the course of teaching, he also teaches little things along the way like some kids he teaches English, He teaches the kids by visual and hands on learning. These types of traits get the kids interested in what he is teaching, even if they don't admit it at first. He is a great teacher because no matter what the kids put him through, he still gets up and tries and never gives up on them. These kids aren't used to teachers that actually care. They are used to being bad and scaring off all the teachers just so they could do what they want. Try as they may though, Mr. Escalante was not willing to engage in their bullying. I'm looking forward to watching tomorrow!

Day 2:
During this part of the movie,  Mr. Escalante took the kids on a fieldtrip. He is making it more fun for the kids to learn. They are going to be starting to learn calculus. He keeps the kids enjoyment and attention by cracking jokes about the other kids and things in general. He is challenging one particular student even more because he needs a little more help to understand calculus. When angel arrives late all the time he tells him to o home, that there is no excuse for being late to class.
Mr. Escalante teaches them that it is as easy as "tic-tac-toe".  He also teaches night school for free which I believe is amazing.
Out of nowhere when he is teaching his night class he has a heart attack! The class gets a substitute that doesnt even really know calculus, he was supposed to be teaching music. Against doctors orders, Mr. Escalante returns back to work and takes over the class once more, just in time for the big test.
To prepare the class, Mr. Escalante goes over the rules he drilled into their heads and the kids remembered them. He gave them the confidence they needed to go into the test!
Every single student passed the test, all eighteen of them. They presented a plaque to the teacher to honor him for helping them and pushing them through.
The kids get accused of cheating because they all passed the test. Mr. Escalante accuses the Board of racism and discrimination,. He defends the class against not only the principal but the board members as well.
The kids all go in to take the test again...
This makes me look at the teacher with even more respect today after watching this segment. He had a heart attack and still was there for them to take their test. I mean if that doesnt show genuine caring, I dont know what does!!

DAY 3:
The kids got their test resuts back and they all passed. each year the number of students passing got higher and higher. in 1987, 87 students passed the exam.

Audre Lorde 7/18/11

The teacher in this writing is very mean to say the least! There are alot of ways that she is mean, but to point out three ways, i could give these to you just based on the first couple paragraphs. Audre paints a picture of the teacher, Sister MPH that lets us know that she is young and hated her job and the kids that came with teaching. She divided the class up by color and by who was a 'good kid' and who was a 'bad kid'. So she was very racist. Another way that she was terrible to the kids was that she would beat them. The beauty of now a days, is if our child's teacher did any one of these things, they would not only not have a job, but they would also very likely face a lawsuit as well.

First Formal Paper: Final Draft 7/18/11

Victoria Baker

English 99

Ms. Begert

Education Narrative

As a child you look at the world with bright, hopeful, innocent eyes. The world is at your fingertips and the possibilities are endless!

            My second grade year was most definitely my favorite school year and one of my most memorable. We did a lot of fun things that year and learned a tremendous amount. My favorite thing about my second grade year was my teacher Mrs. Barthell. She was an amazing woman with an outstanding talent for teaching young kids. She loved her job and all the children loved her back.

            I remember like it was yesterday, the night before my first day of second grade. I was worried about going into the class my older sister, Denee just left before summer began. In my mind I had the unspoken duty to uphold or rise above the success and mannerism of my sister who was always known for having straight A’s and being the teachers pet. She was very intelligent.  I confided this to my Mom and she surprised me by telling me that Mrs. Barthell personally asked my Mom to put me in her class. She had seen the type of student I was and wanted me in her class. Hearing that, I went to bed at ease, eager to start school again.

            On the first day of school I had many different emotions running through me. I felt excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. We boarded the school bus in the morning and arrived at school. As we walked toward our designated line up area my sister Denee told me it was going to be awesome and I was going to love it. Little did I know at the time that she was absolutely right!

            We spent the first day getting to know our teacher and each other as classmates. We had a bunch of fun playing the name game and also the telephone game. By the end of the day, I was looking forward to the rest of my second grade year.

            There were many things that Mrs. Barthell did with us that were fun and educational at the same time. One of my fondest memories of her was when she read James and the Giant Peach to us. She made that book come to life with different voices for all the various characters in the book. I looked forward to reading time everyday because we read a chapter a day. The end of the book came and Mrs. Barthell surprised us with a pizza party and she brought in the animated Disney movie adaptation of the book James and the Giant Peach. It was just the sort of thing that won 7 year olds’ hearts and she really did.

            I remember so many things we did that year in Mrs. Barthell’s class, but my fondest most memorable experience in her class was our camping trip. Every year the second graders in Mrs. Barthell’s class took a three-day, two night camping trip to Camp Joshua Taylor.  I will never forget that experience, because it was the first time in my life I was going to be on my own for that long period of time. I felt independent and mature and extremely excited. I remember packing my favorite clothes and pajamas and my Mom was stressing out, checking my list rechecking my bags asking me if I remembered this and that. Finally, when my Mom was satisfied enough to let me leave, we drove to my school and she dropped me off. We took role in the lunchroom and boarded the bus. After what seemed like forever on an endless bus ride, we finally pulled into the campgrounds. We got out and entered the dormitory style building where we walked into a huge open space on the inside. There were beds everywhere and we were told to pick one with boys on one side and girls on the other.  We all scrambled to our spots and as I was unpacking my sleeping bag to make my bed I overheard some girls talking about one of the girls in our class named Jessica. They didn’t want her by them and they were being really facetious. She went off to a bed by herself with no one around. I thought about it for a second and then packed my stuff back up and headed over there. I set my bed up next to hers and told her not to worry about them they were just ignorant.

            After setting our beds up and unloading our stuff, we went outside to barbeque some hotdogs for lunch. Let the fun begin! After eating, we chose buddies and walked down to the beach. I asked Jessica to be my partner and we set off for the beach. The beach was beautiful and we explored and turned over rocks to find crabs and poked washed up jellyfish with sticks. We were allowed to bring two things back from the beach to take home and I decided on a sand dollar and a pretty hermit crab shell. I still have both of them, although the sand dollar is glued together from being broken a couple times.

            That night was amazing. It was the first time I had seen fireflies before. I was amazed. We had a huge campfire that night and it was so fun singing camp songs and telling stories. We got to top the night off by roasting marshmallows and making huge, gooey smores. I can’t lie and say that night it was kind of scary sleeping in that huge room, but we had snuck candy and we stayed awake as long as we could with the tiny flashlights hidden in our sleeping bags so we wouldn’t get in trouble.

            That fieldtrip was one of the best ones of my life, and I was sad to see it come to an end. We were all moping as we packed up our stuff and cleaned up the camp. We were quiet on the way home due partly of being sad and also of exhaustion. All in all it was a phenomenal experience.

            Time went by and the school year came to an end. I cried along with the rest of my friends at the end of year celebration. Second grade had been a year I would never forget. I wish I could say that I still talk to Mrs. Barthell, but we lost touch over the years. The last time I spoke with her she was planning on retiring. She touched many lives over the years including my little sister, who had her as a teacher 5 years after I did. If you ever had a chance to talk with Mrs. Barthell, she would be happy to tell you about “the Baker Babes” as she nicknamed my sisters and me. She has deeply touched my life and she is what inspired my career choice to be a second grade teacher. I can only hope that I am as good as she was!

Draft: First Paper: My Favorite School Year

   As a child you look at the world with bright, hopeful, innocent eyes. The world is at your fingertips and the possibilities are endless! 

            My second grade year was most definitely my favorite school year and one of my most memorable. We did a lot of fun things that year and learned a tremendous amount. My favorite thing about my second grade year was my teacher Mrs. Barthell. She was an amazing woman with an outstanding talent for teaching young kids. She loved her job and all the children loved her back.

            I remember like it was yesterday, the night before my first day of second grade. I was worried about going into the class my older sister, Denee just left before summer began. In my mind I had the unspoken duty to uphold or rise above the success and mannerism of my sister who was always known for having straight A’s and being the teachers pet. She was very intelligent.  I confided this to my Mom and she surprised me by telling me that Mrs. Barthell personally asked my Mom to put me in her class. She had seen the type of student I was and wanted me in her class. Hearing that, I went to bed at ease, eager to start school again.

            On the first day of school I had many different emotions running through me. I felt excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. We boarded the school bus in the morning and arrived at school. As we walked toward our designated line up area my sister Denee told me it was going to be awesome and I was going to love it. Little did I know at the time that she was absolutely right!

            We spent the first day getting to know our teacher and each other as classmates. We had a bunch of fun playing the name game and also the telephone game. By the end of the day, I was looking forward to the rest of my second grade year.

            There were many things that Mrs. Barthell did with us that were fun and educational at the same time. One of my fondest memories of her was when she read James and the Giant Peach to us. She made that book come to life with different voices for all the various characters in the book. I looked forward to reading time everyday because we read a chapter a day. The end of the book came and Mrs. Barthell surprised us with a pizza party and she brought in the animated Disney movie adaptation of the book James and the Giant Peach. It was just the sort of thing that won 7 year olds’ hearts and she really did.

            I remember so many things we did that year in Mrs. Barthell’s class, but my fondest most memorable experience in her class was our camping trip. Every year the second graders in Mrs. Barthell’s class took a three-day, two night camping trip to Camp Joshua Taylor.  I will never forget that experience, because it was the first time in my life I was going to be on my own for that long period of time. I felt independent and mature and extremely excited. I remember packing my favorite clothes and pajamas and my Mom was stressing out, checking my list rechecking my bags asking me if I remembered this and that. Finally, when my Mom was satisfied enough to let me leave, we drove to my school and she dropped me off. We took role in the lunchroom and boarded the bus. After what seemed like forever on an endless bus ride, we finally pulled into the campgrounds. We got out and entered the dormitory style building where we walked into a huge open space on the inside. There were beds everywhere and we were told to pick one with boys on one side and girls on the other.  We all scrambled to our spots and as I was unpacking my sleeping bag to make my bed I overheard some girls talking about one of the girls in our class named Jessica. They didn’t want her by them and they were being really mean. She went off to a bed by herself with no one around. I thought about it for a second and then packed my stuff back up and headed over there. I set my bed up next to hers and told her not to worry about them they were just ignorant.

            After setting our beds up and unloading our stuff, we went outside to barbeque some hotdogs for lunch. Let the fun begin! After eating, we chose buddies and walked down to the beach. I asked Jessica to be my partner and we set off for the beach. The beach was beautiful and we explored and turned over rocks to find crabs and poked washed up jellyfish with sticks. We were allowed to bring two things back from the beach to take home and I decided on a sand dollar and a pretty hermit crab shell. I still have both of them, although the sand dollar is glued together from being broken a couple times.

            That night was amazing. It was the first time I had seen fireflies before. I was amazed. We had a huge campfire that night and it was so fun singing camp songs and telling stories. We got to top the night off by roasting marshmallows and making huge, gooey smores. I can’t lie and say that night it was kind of scary sleeping in that huge room, but we had snuck candy and we stayed awake as long as we could with the tiny flashlights hidden in our sleeping bags so we wouldn’t get in trouble.

            That fieldtrip was one of the best ones of my life, and I was sad to see it come to an end. We were all moping as we packed up our stuff and cleaned up the camp. We were quiet on the way home due partly of being sad and also of exhaustion. All in all it was a phenomenal experience.

            Time went by and the school year came to an end. I cried along with the rest of my friends at the end of year celebration. Second grade had been a year I would never forget. I wish I could say that I still talk to Mrs. Barthell, but we lost touch over the years. The last time I spoke with her she was planning on retiring. She touched many lives over the years including my little sister, who had her as a teacher 5 years after I did. If you ever had a chance to talk with Mrs. Barthell, she would be happy to tell you about “the Baker Babes” as she nicknamed my sisters and me. She has deeply touched my life and she is what inspired my career choice to be a second grade teacher. I can only hope that I am as good as she was!

           

In Class Writing Paragraph: 07/12/11: Excerpt from my Education Narrative

        As a child, you look at the world with bright, hopeful, innocent eyes. The world is at your fingertips, and the possibilities are endless.
       My second grade year was definately my favorite school year and most memorable. We did alot of fun things and I absolutely loved my teacher. What alot of people don't know is that the year before, my second grade teacher had my older sister, Denee as a student. She was always a straight A student and a teacher's pet. Going into the class she just left before summer began, I had an unspoken duty to uphold or rise above the success and mannerism of my older and in the eyes of many; perfect sister.

I Just Wanna Be Average: Questions: 07/11/11

!. Rose's experience in vocational education was a little sad. The teachers seems as though they dont care about their jobs and treat the kids poorly. For example in his English class, they read Julius Caeser over and over, never striving for better or more challenging.
2. Vocational ed. was supposed to help with economics, however it pretty much sucked the life outta the kids. They were thrown into a place where no one really cared. I think Vocational Ed. took their educational growth and stunted it. It's hard for him to catch up because he was finding faulty ways of doing the equations.
3.For kids like Ken Harvey, they are "outsiders" who in order to fit in amongst others, refer to themselves as normal, average just to be left alone.
4.College is pretty much all self motivating. The classes are hard and the syllabus tells you what is due when, not the teacher. you are expected to hold your own weight and stand on your own feet. Basically I would suggest keeping a planner and writing down the days homework assignments in one defined place and just taking it one step at a time. You will start to feel accomplished as you check off things that are due, and before you know it you may find yourself ahead of the class because you have everything organized and know what is due. Also ASK QUESTIONS.. never be afraid to ask as many questions as you need to in order to understand what is expected of you.
5. I believe we are the same in the sense of I am HORRIBLE at math. I've been in normal classes, but alot of times I have trouble with the workload. I am managing my family and school and for many that is really easy, for me it isnt so easy. I love spending time with my kids and can get carried away doing my' kids homework with them and then cooking and cleaning. My first quarter of college, I did poorly and when I physically saw my grades I was appalled. I knew I could do better, and was very disappointed in myself. This semester I am determined to get at least a 3.0 GPA if not better, I also want to do well so I can start my work study job!

WS: 9-12 & pg 28-29Developing strategies I've used before:

 The main developing strategy I use is an outline. An outline helps me keep my paper organized and not running off rambling like I do all the time.  An outline pretty much is a template for your paper, and you just fill in the blanks with the details, making it extremely easier when you go to write your rough draft. Narratives are alot easier to write than other types of papers, because you are writing a paper about yourself and your memories. It is a story about you told by you, so making an outline should be pretty easy, you just put your main points that you will talk about into order.

WS 1-9 pp 26-28 Pre-writing Ideas...

 In the past I've used all sorts of different styles of prewriting. Normally when I write, I work best handwriting out my thoughts, before I type them up. I like to create a list of what I want to talk about in the paper that I'm writing. The list helps me to remember to include all the key points in the story. I sometimes do some free writing, but I am the queen of drafting!. I write and rewrite, revise and rewrite again. I like proofreading my own work and doing a revised version before I get the input from others. I've never really used a cluster when writing before, except maybe in grade school.
I liked reading pages 26-28 because it gave me insight on a really good narrative. There were lots of tips and pointers to bring together a good narrative.

Malcolm X: Questions: something I learned based on a motivation...

The thing I learned about from pure motivation was I would say, how to cook. I know that’s a funny thing to write about, but I take pride in my cooking and it has been a long time coming! ;)..

 I moved out at 15 and immediately got a job. My husband and I had just got together and we decided to move in together. We searched and found a beautiful little apartment that was perfect for us in our minds and I officially had to learn to cook! My husband grew up around food all the time. If it wasn’t his Mama cooking, then it was his Grandma or his sister. I knew the basics, and that was ok, but I wanted to do better. I started collecting cookbooks and watching the Food Network shows and also the Texas Barbeque Guy on channel 9. I began experimenting with different ingredients in the main entrée and different sides to compliment the entrée.

At first it was probably a 60/40 ratio of doing it right, however over the years I have just about perfected many of the recipes that ended up disasterous in my rookie years. Now that we have our family, we both cook. Sometimes we switch off and sometimes we cook together depending on our schedules. Our friends and family love to come over because they know they are going to eat well! Holidays are a huge gathering of both our families and it is a whole lot of fun! We have so many different dishes there because most people that come over will bring a dish of their own.  Anyways its safe to say I learned to cook out of pure motivation, with no formal education at all. It was fun and at times not so fun, but in the end I learned to do it,

I still have so much to learn and please post a recipe if you have a good one.. I love trying new things!!

Possible Narrative Topics

I'm not sure exactly what i'm going to write my narrative about. i was leaning toward my 2nd grade year in school. I can remember so many fun times, it was my favorite year in school. Another possible topic is my struggle to graduate high school. I went back at age 20 and got my diploma a few months after i had my daughter. People suggested i write about driver's ed, however seeing as how I never took driver's ed, I don't see how that would work ;).  I would love to write about teaching my son to write his name, except this is an assignment about me. Another experience I would write about is my teacher that I had when I was pregnant with my son. I was going to the alternative school program on the remann hall campus in Tacoma for students on the Becca bill. It has been a struggle to get this far, but now that i'm here I am determined to succeed!

7/06/11: literacy narrative handout

This handout was all about literacy narratives. We have an assignment coming up that requires us to write a formal paper about a significant event in our educational history. The handout is a great tool because it gives us an example and lots of instructions and tips on how to write a good narrative. In the story called Proficiency the author talks about her road block in the street of writing. Her failure of a test multiple times discouraged her from writing and even made her dislike what she once loved and enjoyed doing so much. As I read through the handout, I began forming potential topics for my formal paper. The handout also talks about the importance of dialogue in a narrative, which is something that I am not very familiar with. I'm excited to get started on the paper and get feedback from the professor and from my peers. I will start with a list of topics and ask a few people which they would like to hear about and which one they would not want to hear. This way, before I even get started, I will have valuable input on the decision for which topic I end up writing about.

Me In 500 Words

Victoria Baker
English 99
07/5/11

            I’ve lived in Washington my whole life scattered around, but born in Tacoma. I’ve spent most of my life in that racing city. I am a hometown girl, and I love it. City blood courses through my veins. With the heart and ferocity of a lion, I am a strong woman, loving mother. I’ve been in Bremerton for two years now. I came out here and went back to school to get my high school diploma at Renaissance High School. After graduating, I went to work for Manpower for a year before starting here at Olympic College this past spring quarter. I originally intended for psychology to be my major, but I decided to change it this summer to early childhood education. A little bit about myself that led me to decide to go to college, was my family. I am engaged to a wonderful man named Randy. I call him Rj. Together we have two beautiful kids, a boy and a girl. Our son will be 4 in October, his name is Randy III. Our daughter will be 2 in October, her name is Naraiya. Currently, both Rj and I are attending Olympic College. He is pursuing his degree in Computer Information Systems. Outside of school, I love to cook and have family time. Whenever I get the chance I enjoy playing volleyball and going swimming. Our main outdoor recreation is fishing. I could spend hours, maybe even days out on a boat in the water.

            Growing up, I enjoyed elementary school. I went to Arlington Elementary, in Tacoma. I still communicate with my favorite teacher, Mrs. Barthell. She was my second grade teacher and I will never forget her. I also really loved my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Borgert. In fifth grade I had the honor of receiving the presidents award. There was a big assembly in the gym and all my family was there.

            Middle school came along and I went to a couple different schools. Mostly to schools in the Tacoma School District number ten, however I also attended school in the Highline school district as well.

            My high school years were not as successful. I wasn’t going as much as I should have been and I ended up paying for it, by not graduating until recently. Going forward, I intend to further my education and get a degree in elementary education. I love working with kids and my whole life everyone always told me I would make a wonderful teacher. I’m not sure if it is a coincidence or not, but I want to become a second grade teacher. My inspiration to stay in school comes of course from my family and now more then ever I am determined to become successful. In May I lost my grandfather. He was basically a Dad to me, taking on the role my father ran from. He was so proud of me and always drilled it into me that education is the most important thing. Always get educated, and when you think you’ve had enough, you’ve only just begun.

            So when asked about me as a student at this time, I would tell you that I am a determined student eager to learn and ready to be successful.