In this blog post, I will provide a brief summary about a podcast called “Hidden Brain” byShankar Vedantam. The podcast discusses what psychological techniques people can use when they feel unstuck and they are frustrated. Christine Metzger was working in education administration for 10 years, and one day she got up and realized that she wasn’t the person she would like to be. After quitting her job and selling her belongings she wanted to start a new life in New England, working at a boarding school. She felt unstuck when she found herself without a job as the result of many circumstances she faced, as like being unable to get a work visa and not being hired. According Dave Evans an engineer that used to work for Apple, before you do problem-solving, you have to do problem-finding. He teaches a class at Stanford University called “Designing your Life”, where he speaks about two different kinds of problems we face throughout our life, tame and wicked. A tame problem is one you know how to solve it, and a wicked problem is one where the criteria are changing all the time, even if you come up with a solution, you can’t reuse it over and over again. He also speaks about gravity problem that include things in our lives that we cannot control them. If we cannot do anything about it, it means that it is not a problem, but a circumstance. Dave Evans mentions that solving these different problems require two different ways “wayfinding” and “odyssey planning”. When you can’t know what are you doing, you can’t navigate like a GPS because you don’t have all the information. You have to wayfinding by taking one step at a time. Wayfinding isn’t just about finding out where you need to go, but being comfortable with the idea that you may not have just one destination. That is not one thing that you can do, there are a lot. Odyssey planning is an exercise that explains that there is not just one career or one life plan for any of us. Dave notes that lots of people ask themselves the wrong questions which is, “How do I figure out that one best solution to my life?” and there is not one answer. A diagram about the podcast from class
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Holiday atmospheres have included all the streets of the city. Wherever I look, the ornaments of houses fill me with a positive feeling and happiness that pamper my soul. It is December. It’s the second semester, and I have to enroll in English Composition 1. I walk on the streets and I wonder, am I ready to take this class, or it is still too early for me (the uncertainty I have in myself about the English language as a second language to me, frightens me a bit). “Hey Ada, how are you”? - I hear a voice as it wakes me out of the thoughts, that have invaded my whole being. I turn my head back, and I see one of my friends I have here in US. “Hey my friend, how are you”? – I asked him with a surprised face. “I called you out a few times, but you didn’t answer me. What’s going on”? – he asked me with a strange voice. “I have been a little stressed this time because I have to enroll in English Composition 1, but I am not sure, if I am ready for that”. “Listen to me, go to enroll to Dr. Mangini class, and you’ll love it”. “What are you saying? I just finished an English class, and it was so boring. What does this have different”? – I ask with an unbelieving voice. “Just go try it and you’ll see”- he said with a confident voice. I started my reflection creating a scene because one of the things I have learned during English Composition 1 class, is how to open the life- choice memoir genre with a scene. A scene has more description and action than telling. If you would ask me before this class, to write a life-choice memoir, it would be a story with the beginning, development and the end. Only telling without any description or action on it. Now that the semester is almost over I turns my head back to see all my journey through this class, and I am happy that I heard the word of my friend, and I enrolled in Dr. Mangini’s course. I really enjoyed this class and I learned a lot about writing process. I remember the first class, when Dr. Mangini was explaining about creating a website, where every assignment would be post in a blog, it motivated me for what would come next. The creation of this website, it would serve as a digital portfolio for all the assignments. After I posted my first blog, I felt an inner pleasure because through this website, I was presenting not only my assignments, but and a part of my personal life and my homeland. Visiting my website, maybe the reader will think about a small unknown country in southeastern Europe that is called Albania. After this course, I am feeling more confident about writing in English, I know how to get out my thoughts, what kind of technics can help me to express my thoughts, how to make a critical thinking, and how to present my thoughts to get the reader’s attention. This class made me to be proud of myself for everything I have done in this class. These are some of the technics we have learned to improve our writing.
Introduction:
The video Reflective Writing is a short video that explain how to write reflectively. A reflection writing has to have less description, and more reflection. In this blog post, I will explain how I wrote my research paper and how I will revise it.
• When did you write this project? Good approach? I collected sources four days before the deadline and I started to write the paper two days before it. This wasn’t a good approach because I was in rush and I didn’t have time to review it before I posted it. • Where did you write this project? Good approach? I wrote this paper in my house late at night, so I don’t think it was a good approach because I got tired, and I couldn’t concentrate 100% on it.
• How did it feel to write this argument ("during, after, and since")? Do you have any "if only" moments that can help you revise the draft? During my first draft I was anxious because I didn’t have enough time to finish it, so I focused more on reaching the deadline than in the quality of the product. After class discussion I realize I have a lot to revise and edit my draft. • How will you revise your argument? I will revise my paper with redoing my thesis statement, and making the argument more stronger referencing to the other writers. Introduction In this blog post I will provide an annotated bibliography with 6 sources, for my research paper. An annotated bibliography include a summary of the source, an evaluation of the text, and an explanation of how the source is relevant to research paper. My research question is : Should America change its school system to follow the Finland system school? Source 1:
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In this blog post, I am going to choose three topics from the documentary Where to Invade Next, and I have to create one research question for each topic. A brief summary of the documentary you can find it in my previous post blog: Summary of Where to Invade Next.
Topic: American Nutrition Class Research Question: Should America have a nutrition class in elementary school to help eliminate obesity? Argument: America should have a nutrition class because it will help to reduce the obesity which has a very high rate in US. By learning the habits of a healthy diet at a young age, it will help to maintain and use these lifelong habits. Topic: Free Colleges Research Question: Should America offer free college education for its citizens? Argument: America should offer free college education for its citizens because not everyone has the opportunity to pay the university debt, and many students abandon college attendance due to fear for non-payment of these debts. Topic: Women in American Government Research Question: Should America elect a woman president? Argument: America should elect a woman president because women are a strong gender, are more peaceful, more sensitive, more reasonable, more caring, more sincere, and they are less corrupt and irritable. They think with mind and act with heart. After 51 men in presidential post I think has come the time for the US presidency to be leaded from a woman. As they run their homes and their families, they will also lead America. Introduction Welcome to my next blog. In this blog post I will provide a brief summary of the documentary Where to Invade Next and a rhetorical analysis of the film. In the documentary Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore visits various European countries to notice changes in important social aspects between them and America. The purpose of this documentary is to “steal” their ideas and experiences and then bring them to America to better improve American life. The first destination is Italy, here Moore focused on the terms of businesses and employees. What impressed him more was the fact that no matter what kind of company or the position is, workers are given eight weeks paid vacation each year. Business owners think that vacations have an impact on the mental and physical health of workers, reducing the level of stress and consequently reduce the chance of getting sick. The second stop was France, where Moore focused on elementary schools and noted that in school children learn how to cook healthy foods and each school has its own chef. Educating kids how to cook proper nutrition it will reduce the spread of obesity. In Finland, Moore was curious to find out how Finland just a few years ago had the same educational level as America (in the bottom of the list), and now is leading the first place. The difference is that in Finland children go to school less, about 20 hours a week and have no homework. The principals think children have a lot of things to do after school, and this helps their growth and development. His next country was Slovenia where universities are free and everybody who attends the university does have no debt. He met with some American students who couldn’t pay the debts in US universities, so they had decided to study for free in Slovenia. In Germany where he travelled next workers work 36 hours a week, but are paid for 40 hours and are not allowed to do another job. Bosses don’t have the right to call or send emails after work, on weekends or during vacations, so employees are less stressed and more productive at work. His next country to invade was Portugal where the cops don’t arrest people for using drugs, and this has affected their drug rate to be lower than in United States. In Norway Moore focused in their prison system. The prisons are in the form of rehabilitation centers where every prisoner has his own room, his shower, his TV and his laundry. Prisoners are treated humane and are taught how to adapt to normal life after leaving the prison. Two last countries where he travelled were Tunisia and Iceland. In Tunisia, women have the same rights like men, the abortion is legal, and women’s health clinics are easily available, so it is their right to control their own bodies. His last country was Iceland. Iceland was the first country to elect a woman democratic president and now women are equal in all businesses. After visiting all the places Moore discovered that all these great ideas were given by the Americans himself, so he did not need to “steal” any idea because the ideas had been there, but they should use them. Rhetorical Analysis
Introduction
This week I had to listen a video about Reflective Writing. This video exactly explains that a reflective writing has to have more reflection and less descriptions. In this blog post, I will explain how I wrote my life-choice memoir and how I will revise it. Who did you work with to compose your life-choice memoir? Was this a good approach? I didn’t work with anyone to compose my life-choice memoir because no one except me could describe the emotions I experienced in those moments, although my husband was part of this decision, our feelings and experiences were different. I tried to project the scene once again in my mind to remember all the details about the feelings that I experienced at that time. What rhetorical mode and genre are you using? In my life-choice memoir I have used the Narrative rhetorical mode and the Creative nonfiction genre. When did you write this project? Good approach? I started to write this paper on February 13th during the class and I used the method of Free Writing. I kept working on it on February 20th, 24th, 25th and I finished it on February 26th. The Free Writing method was a good approach because it helped me to write down every thought without stopping and without judging its quality. I used this method three times, and after that I had enough information about the event. Where did you write this project? Good approach? I wrote this project in my class at Delaware County Community College and in my house late at night. I think it was efficient because I was concentrating on it without being bothered by others. Why did you choose to write about your chosen topic? Good choice? I have chosen to write about this topic of leaving my homeland and my family because this is the biggest decision I have taken so far in my life and it has completely changed it. I believe this is a good choice because writing about this issue can help other people who may be in the same situation with me and can find themselves in this story. How did it feel to write this narrative ("during, after, and since")? Do you have any "if only" moments that can help you revise the draft? While I was writing this narrative, I had to struggle with the weight of the emotions that appeared with the same force as at that moment when it happened and on the other hand, I had to describe every word and every feeling to pass it onto the reader with the same emotion I had experienced in those moments. I had difficulty to describe the fullness of feelings through words. After I finished the first draft I want to revise it and make it better. How will you revise your narrative? To revise my narrative, I will give to my cousin to read it, and I will accept her advice to correct and improve it. Introduction
In this blog post, I will be discussing the story Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway). This is a short story about two young people that have faced with a difficult situation. The girl is pregnant and they are discussing what they’re going to do with the baby. The man wants her to get an abortion, but the girl seems to want to keep the baby. Does she stay in her relationship with the man? After reading and analyzing the dialog between two young people, I came to the conclusion that the girl doesn’t stay in relationship with the man. Often the dialogue takes the other turn and gives the impression that the girls agrees in silence with the suggestion of her beloved, I think this is the purpose of Hemingway to confuse us for the end of the story. If you analyze her sentence “But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?” Through this question she wants to be convinced that when she gets pregnant again whether he will accept it or not. The answer of the man doesn’t convince her about their future, “I’ll love it. I love it now but I just can’t think about it. You know how I get when I worry”. The American is not determined and does not seem to be responsible. The end of the relationship becomes clearer when the girl says “And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible”. She says clearly that they could have everything but that decision they are taking will put an end to the relationship. “It isn’t ours anymore”. “And once they take it away, you never get it back”. Through the symbolism Hemingway expresses that by taking the baby they will take and the love she has for him. “We’ll wait and see”. Ending abortion marks the end of their relationship. When have you made an important choice to stay in a relationship or leave a relationship? It is Summer, my favorite season. The sun shines and its warm rays touch everything on the ground. “Let’s sit on the balcony and get some fresh air” my mom said. “I just cleaned the floor with mop and cold water”. While we talk and enjoy our coffee together we hear the voices coming from the family that lives below us. The words are offensive but, we do not pay attention we continue to enjoy our coffee and conversation. The tones of sound become ever more annoying and I jokingly ask my mom, “Hey mom maybe these words are against us?” “No honey, we did nothing to address us with these words”, said my mom expressing surprise in her face. We continue to talk and the offensive words do not stop, but become even tougher. I stop and think with myself if they are fighting with each-other there will be dialog between them, but no, there is just the voice of the woman screaming. I focus on her words and realize that these words are against us. She was complaining about the mop my mom had hung up on the balcony wires that once in a while it flows a drop of water, but outside her balcony. I try to clarify her and to tell that this is not the right way she can discuss with the others. If you have something that bothers you, please tell us kindly without screaming and cursing. But this is useless because she keeps yelling at me. What makes me impress is the fact that her grown daughter and her husband are present, but they don’t even speak a word. My parents have been living in this apartment for over 35 years and the problems with this family have been numerous for the smallest and trivial things. Regardless the problems between our parents I and their daughter have always been friends (my mom has always said don’t involve the children in the adult’s things). But now we are not children anymore, so I can’t justify her indifference because now we are grown up as such we have to act. As adults, we have to give our opinion though it may be different from that of our parents, even though we are their children and for us they are the best, this doesn’t mean that showing them when they are not right, this does make us less loving and respectful of them, so I said to myself enough, this friendship can’t continue we can’t pretend everything is fine. The next day I faced with her, and she got ready to greet me, but I turned my head to the other side and continued the path. Introduction
In What You Don't Know (Lulu Wang), is a podcast about a Chinese girl named Lulu Wang who lives in the United States. She has received the news that her grandmother Nainai is diagnosed with stage four cancer. Her parents and her relatives decide to not tell Nainai about her illness. Lulu is not agree with this decision, she wants to tell her the truth, but the only condition for to go to meet Nainai is to keep this secret hidden from her. So Lulu decides to side with her family and hide the truth. In this blog post I will provide my opinion if I agree with Lulu Wang's family's decision or not. I will also relate this story to a time I have made an important choice to tell someone a difficult truth. Did you agree with the family's choice to deceive Wang's grandmother? During listening the podcast I didn’t surprise by the choice that Wang’s family took about grandmother’s serious illness because the same story has happened with my family when my mom’s father was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age 75. My grandmother and her daughters (include my mom) decided not to tell him about his illness and to not hospitalized him. They thought that the best decision for my grandfather at that age, it was to spend the last days of his life with his daughters and his grandchildren rather than wandering through the hospital corridors which affects the emotional state of the individual. Back to our story, I do agree with the family’s choice to deceive Wang’s grandmother because Nainai made the same choice to her husband a few years ago. She thought this was the best choice for her husband, and this is a clear indication that she would like the same solution for herself too. In my opinion when I find myself taking a decision for someone else’s good, I always put myself in his place and I choose what I would like others to choose for me. From a different perspective people have different personalities, some are strong and try to cope with every difficulty that life brings without stopping until the last moment, and some have weak personalities who, when faced with challenges and difficulties are demoralized, discouraged and surrendered (for this category of individuals such news would be deadly). Therefore, little Nainai knowing her sister’s character was worried that her sister would get overwhelmed with fear and depression., and that she would lose interest in life. At Nainai’s age it is easier to give up than to confront it. When have you made an important choice to tell someone a difficult truth or you made an important choice to tell a lie that had a major impact on you and/or someone else? Many years ago, when I was in the fifth grade, for the first time the two middle schools of the city would arrange an excursion in a coastal town in our country. At that time, my father worked as an emigrant in a neighboring country as unemployment had occupied our country, and that was the only way my father found out to secure the necessary family income. Since the mobile phone technology wasn’t widespread (we didn’t even had home phone) the only way to communicate with him was through the post office 2 or 3 times a month. As a result of lack of frequent communication, my mom decided to not tell my dad about the excursion. It took a long time for the teachers to secure our parents’ approval because it was a long journey (about 4 hours) and in a coastal city (where we could swim). Since the most of the teachers were from the neighboring town, they decided to take the buses from their city because they knew them better, so the transport would be safer. I was very excited about this trip, so the night before it, I couldn’t sleep out of joy and the night seemed to have no end. The trip went very well visiting the most beautiful places of the city, the various games during the journey, and sun bathing under the warm rays of that late June. While we enjoyed our desired journey, someone in our town had spread the news that children’s buses had suffered an accident (later it was learned that a man of anger that they didn’t take his bus went out and spread the news). The news spread throughout the city and the screams of our parents had invaded the entire city. There were family that had more than one child in that journey. The men of the families who owned a car, but not only (the others had booked taxi) and they were heading towards the coastal city hoping that their children would be alive and they would need their help. We were seeing the string of the cars coming to us and we wondered what was going on. I will never forget the moment when we arrived in the evening, and the city square was full of crying people even those who didn’t have their children on this trip. I saw my mom with the tears flowing in her face, her legs bare by the rush to get out of the house as quickly as possible, her hoarse voice from endless screams, and her hands trembled touched every part of my body to make sure I had no wound. She shook my hand and she didn’t release it not even for a moment. The news spread out to the national televisions and my dad learned through them what had happened. Even though my mom got most of the blame, the consequences of that decision also fell upon me. For about four years my dad and my mom didn’t allow me to go on excursions until I got to the high school. In this blog post, I will reflect on a short story called "My Name is Margaret" by (Maya Angelou). This story is about a young girl named Margaret, who works as a servant to Mrs. Cullinan house, a rich white woman. Everything seems to be going very well until at night when Mrs. Cullinan decides to call her "Mary" instead her real name. Margaret didn't like Mrs. Cullinan's decision and she felt insulted by this action. So she decided to claim her right by breaking something valuable for Mrs. Cullinan.
Did you agree with Margaret's choice to break the casserole dish and two green glass cups? The question if I agree with Margaret’s choice to break the casserole dish and two green glass cups I would answer no. I fully agree with Margaret’s nervousness and anger against Mrs. Cullinan, anyone in her place would feel insulted if someone wanted to change the identity without her consent and her approval. This is a violation of human dignity and human rights, so no one has this right, whoever he or she is. Although Mrs. Cullinan is Margaret’s chief, this does not give her the right to break the feelings of the young girl, Margaret is not a toy that she can do whatever she wants. Despite of the economic and cultural level, both are human beings with equal rights, and nobody has the right to harm the feelings of the other. But I disagree with the way Margaret chose to respond to Cullinan’s action. By breaking the casserole dish and two green glass cups that had a spiritual value for Mrs. Cullinan, Margaret sat down on the same level with her, doing a similar action and hurt the feelings of the white woman. If I were Margaret’s place, I definitely left the workplace because I can’t be productive in what I do in an environment where the values are not respected as human beings, regardless of the racial, economic, and cultural difference. But not breaking something valuable to Cullinan, but facing it and telling her that I will leave this job because my personality doesn’t allow me to work with people who do not value others for what they are and what values they carry, but depending on the color and the economic level. When have you made an important choice to either resist or not resist oppression, challenge the status quo, or refuse to obey an authority figure? During high school, I and my best friend wanted to study at an Italian University (which was recently opened in our country) for nurse, being a future nurse was the greatest wish of my parents. The idea that after graduation we would work and live in the neighboring country encouraged us even more. The high school went through preparations and preoccupations to achieve the highest scores, and the desire to be admitted to the university of dreams. Little by little the school was coming to the end, and we were very close to realizing our dream. In addition to the nursing, we applied into two other universities specifically for psychology (as a new field in our universities) and for journalism, but the nursing was our priority. During the period we were expected the answers from each university, as by irony of chance my cousin was hospitalized to make a surgery, and I should stayed and took care of her. During my stay in the hospital, I was faced with the practical work that a nurse does, so I realized that being a very sensitive person this would hinder me in my job, and I didn’t want this to affect the emotional state of the patient. I do not forget the day the results came and both of us were admitted to the university we had dreamed of, and I remember the face of my friend that was brilliant from joy. She was talking about the plans we had created, for the student life, and for the life we would create in the other country. She looked at me and was surprised by the lack of my enthusiasm, by my obvious passivity which was also understood by my parents. They couldn’t believe that I would study in another field like psychology (which was just opened and for the sake of truth we didn’t have much information about it). Who knows how many times I have gone up till the middle of the street to enroll in psychology and I am back from my dad’s phone calls that has asked me to think it and once before deciding. I had decided that psychology was the best choice for me, and it was the first decision I took without the consent of my parents. |
AuthorHello my name is Oljada Zani. This is my blog for my English Composition 1 class. Enjoy! Archives
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