Extra Credit Blog

For the past semester we have been required to blog on certain topics, and i know that i have failed to complete all of these blogs and i dont really know why. i think part of the reason that i didnt blog and i think the main reason is because for awhile i thought that blogging was dumb. i didnt get the point of it really, i thought i was just for people who had to much time on there hands and sat by a computer all day, when really it isnt. Blogging is a way to express yourself, its a way to voice your opinion on a certian topic or anything you feel like talking about, and thats the great thing about it. Sometimes its a way for people to get something off there chest thats been bothering them, and they have had no one to turn to for help. so when they blog about it they may find help through there blog, from some one across the state, across the country, or even across the world. its a way for everyone, whether your white, black, hispanic, indian, or of any other descent. Its something all people should do because its not just for nerds, or computer geeks, or someone who just has too much time on there hands. Blogging is something that has really fallen off the last couple of years and it think that it is something that we can bring back to its glory. Some people have problems and have no one to turn to and they dont even know the help that they could be getting from just signing onto there computer and just blogging about what they are going through because they dont think anyone will care or because they dont even know. Blogging in itself is something fun and people dont know this until they try it, and thats what happened to me and thats why im going to try and continue to blog even after the semester is over because when im having a bad day or just want to get something off my chest i know that when i log onto a blog someone out there will listen and maybe even help me out. That is why blogging is cool.

Extra Credit -Simple Things I've learned

I, too, am going the "reflection route", but it's going to be a little different because I remember we wrote reflections of the class before spring break.

3 things I 've learned from attending Kent State:

1.
One of the most important things I learned is that laziness must die. Also, (and this is kind of a no-brainer, but hey, I am a slow learner sometimes lol) that college is not like high school at all academically wise. In high school, I could just not turn in a project, and I would still manage to get a good grade in the class. But at Kent(at least in my experience), there are less assignments which means every grade is weighted a lot higher. You would think I would of already taken this into account before hand, but nope..I regretably still revert back to my old and stubborn high school ways sometimes. There isn't much room for laziness. Which is a really good thing actually because in the real world you have to learn how to juggle everything and if you don't manage your time wisely you're screwed.

2.
Another thing I've picked up is how to schedule classes strategically so you can be successful! I am a night owl, so naturally I came up with the idea to schedule all of my classes past 12:30 pm. That didn't work out as well as I thought because after about 3pm my brain thinks that it's time to have fun. So next semester, I'm back on the morning classes train. Also, I learned to schedule classes as close as possible to my dorm because it is pretty much miserable when it's cold.

Basically, use your head in college! What a novel idea.

3.
My final thing is that making the most of campus life (and it means different things to different people) is really crucial because if you don't have fun, you'll go crazy. And the only way you can have fun is if you do your work!

"Work hard, so you can play hard!"

The End.. yay

Extra Credit - Reflection

Well, I wanted to give some reflection of my overall experience in your class this semester.

I gotta say... starting my first day in your class, I wasn't expecting to actually enjoy having you as my teacher this semester, going from loving music, to even bringing up George Carlin as a reference for a homework assignment. That can go a lot of the same with other teachers I've had so far, but you're an awesome teacher with, in my opinion, how flexible and relaxed you are in terms of our teachings in this course.

The blogging was something new that I never would of thought that would come up as a homework assignment. With the freedom of writing in our own way, with no boundaries of HOW we write, I quite loved the idea... and coming to today, I've enjoyed it so much.

You made our readings, and even our essays, interesting to tackle on. In comparison to the teacher I had last semester for College Writing I (even though he was good as well), you've actually made it more interesting, and mind grasping for the audience to get involved with, and be more creative (which is what I like in a English teacher). I rather express my writing through a more free-style of writing, rather than it being constricted and narrow.

Although I'm not in much favor of ALL the readings, most of them were ones I quite liked. Your AUDIO essay I LOVED (far as copying it onto my computer, as I mentioned... although I haven't listened to it so far yet lol). The Google article, and several other ones I've liked (and I gotta remember to copy those until my computer as well). You brought in topics that were interesting to being open-minded and awed about, in comparison to having a history lecture throughout the whole, entire course.

Your essay topics were a good mix. The 'music video' one was my personal favorite because it allowed me to think a little more open-minded about the video, and the song, through different perspectives of it. As a writer, I should expect to have more point-of-view on things, but you touched something in my head to look at a music video through more aspects of it. I never would of saw more to the 'One' song than before; it was all focused to the passing of my grandpa, and war, and pain... but you opened my eyes more to the overall production of the messages.

The only few things I felt were a little unease, were things like when we learned about topics like the Gettysburg Address and such. I'm not gonna say they were completely boring, or 'what's the point of knowing this', but... it seems like it was a fill-in, especially that we never really talked about it much afterwards. That, and when it came down to the last essay, the Works Cited... I was completely iffy with, and I felt a little uncomfortable about, because I wasn't sure on some things on a correct format.

Overall, Mr. Sloan, you've been an awesome teacher for your first steps into teaching the college level! I'm really glad to have you as my teacher this semester, and it's going to be somewhat of a mini-heartbreak when I end up seeing you again on Monday lol.

... On the side, I'm kinda curious about if you've ever done any creative writing, or perhaps have any recordings of music from your old band (or your own personal writing) that you've done. I would like to hear/see em' sometime!! : )

I'm hoping you may end up teaching College Writing II!!

Best of Wishes,
Joseph Sendelbach

extra credit

I decided to blog on my overall experience of this class. I basically had no problems and thought everything that was expected of us was made clear and simple. Like I said at midterm I’m not the first one to volunteer to speak in class so blogging was a good way to get my opinion across. Although some found it annoying I didn’t mind it too much. I didn’t find anything we did in this class to be particularly difficult and I like how many essays were assigned. It wasn’t too much work to put on my plate but enough that I actually got something out of the class. When working on essays and blogs it was really helpful how we basically went over things in class and did class work that would help us with what we had to write. Another thing I liked about the last (once again I stated at midterm) was discussing and practicing revision. I like how we had the opportunity to change problems that were addressed during peer review in class. To sum it all up I found the class to be pretty laid back which was nice. I basically didn’t have too many problems with anything and the only somewhat difficult part of the class was part 2 of the final essay. This was completely understandable though keeping in mind that it was the final and was supposed to be a little more difficult than everything else. Overall I enjoyed the class, two thumbs up!

extra credit blog

this class was overall very good. i really do not like any class that takes attendance for points i just think its unnecessary and if a person doesn't want to go to class they shouldn't necessarily be penalized. i thought the class was pretty interesting as far as content. doing 3 essays is plenty enough so i think 4 would've been too much. so the teacher should probably leave it at 3. i love the take home final idea it saves so much time for me. thanks to this take home final i can go home about a week earlier then everyone else. i like how the blogging was used as a form of participation points since no one really talked or participated in this class that saves a lot of peoples grades. i believe i did pretty well in this class I'm hoping to get a B but i don't know what i have right now which brings me to online grades. i think online grades are a must have because people need to know what they have at all times. so maybe online grades could be incorporated into the class. The instructor was very good. overall the class was a good class that i enjoyed. watching and using the videos on the computer is a great idea. i liked watching videos and really thinking about them.