End of the Semester

Well this semester sure did fly by fast. It seems like just last week we were receiving the class syllabus looking at it like huh? A semester long project?! Well it was very different than I thought and I am glad I got the chance to be a part of a project like this, who wouldn't want to do a project about something that you disagree on and try to change it, for the better and for the students at KU? Not to mention I got the chance to work on this project with a wonderful group, and I am very glad I got to experience this with them.
Project 4 is finally completed and ready to be submitted tomorrow afternoon and our group is very confident in our work. It includes bits and pieces of everything we have worked on throughout the semester and a little bit extra. I am anxious and excited to present project 4 tomorrow: anxious because I really want to present it to the class because I feel extra prepared, and excited because it means that english class is over and there are only 3 exams standing in the way of me and summer! :) 
I am glad I chose this class for my Eng 023, I definitely have learned a lot more than just writing boring papers. Creativity is something that you have no idea what it is until you discover it in yourself. It is not something that every person finds right away, it takes deep thinking, and a lot of it, it also involves going out of your way to do things, and finding new ways to do them. This semester long project is an example in itself of creativity, hence the theme of the class.

Post Project 3: What I Learned From It

This week project 3 was turned in, and hopefully the results turn out to be great. My group worked together very hard on this project, this project definitely took more time and more out of the classroom work than any of the previous projects. As a group we hope that we have successfully raised awareness about the food on campus to a lot of the students. Of course it is impossible to talk to every single student about it, but by handing out over 200 nutrition cards around campus, submitting an article to the Keystone Newsletter, and talking to our friends and classmates about it, we hope that our message continues to spread throughout the rest of the semester. By doing this project about a local problem that I would like to see improved or fixed, I have learned that if you are unhappy with something, you are NOT alone. There are around 10,000 students attending the same school as you and chances are they have things to complain about too. I have learned that you can not sit back and watch this problem progress as it bothers and irritates you inside. Do something about it! Talk to someone about it! There are dozens of creative ways that you can attempt to fix this problem or raise awareness about it. Do not have a narrow mind and think that you can not change something, anything is possible, and your voice is powerful. Before this project I never thought that I would have the power and courage to stand up against something that I disapprove of. But the truth is, people do not mind your opinions and suggestions, most people around campus actually want to hear what you have to say. So now it is time for the rest of the students here at Kutztown to reach out and make suggestions, to make everyone else's college experience a wonderful one.

Eng Comp. Fair

Today instead of having class we attended the english composition fair that was located in the Student Union Building. We listened to several students talk about their lives and favorite memories. The first student that I listened to talked about her memories throughout middle school and high school. She was very funny and even went into details about her pet hamsters. One thing that stuck out to me was when she started talking about how she fell in love with writing. She said that she wrote about everything and did not mind doing papers in school anymore. She even wrote to take her frustration out, she wrote about her basketball coach and everything she felt about him after he did not put her name in the paper for the All-American. This relates to me because I know how she feels, after dealing with my field hockey coach for four years. She hated me and it was obvious, writing my frustration down on paper definitely would of helped me. The next girl that we listened to talked about how much she loves reading. She reads her favorite books over and over again, which to me is very surprising. After I read a book I put it down and never look at it again, I feel that there is no need to read it again, I know everything that is going to happen. One thing that this girl mentioned and talked about that brought back so many memories for me is the scholastic book fairs that would come to my school every year. She even mentioned the fun bookmarks and erasers that I loved. Like her, I could spend hours in there, looking at every single book and wanting all of them. Another thing she talked about that shocked me was that she has a list of books that she wants to read, and the list right now is almost up to 150! For me, that would take years to read, this girl really loves her reading! After attending this composition fair it gave me hope that I could become a great writer. You do not have to be proper or write in a certain way, just write about whatever you want, I never thought about writing like this before, and I never really had the urge to write randomly about my life, until now.

Practical Nightmare!

Governor Corbett's Budget Cut

Recently I attended an extra credit event that included the filming of a parody video of what an english class would look like if Governor Corbett got his way with the budget cut. I thought it was very fun and actually realistic. Even though it was a parody video and a little exaggerated, it shows an overall great vision of what an english comp class would look like. An english class taught in a lecture hall would be very difficult considering it is a class that generally is supposed to small and interactive. This is not just about the kids having a difficult time in a large class, but the teachers also. English consists or papers, essays, and long projects and for one teacher to read about 150 papers, well it could take them several months, maybe even a month. By the time the students get their papers back, the next paper is due. I do not know what Joe Corbett is thinking but honestly he will receive hell from thousands of people if his plan goes through. Education is one of the most important things that a person can have, and it is already very expensive as it is. I know adults in their mid 40's that are still paying off student loans, and I am sure when they went to college it was a lot cheaper than it presently is. If the cut goes through, a large amount of students will unfortunately not be able to attend these state schools. And for the students that continue to attend the state schools, well I can not even imagine how long they will be paying off student loans, all because of selfish Joe Corbett. Joe Corbett must not be thinking about anyone except for very high upper class people when he proposed this crazy idea. We are still in a recession and I guess he does not realize that everybody who attends state schools are not as rich as other people, and that all we want is a good affordable education. I did not realize how angry subject has made me until I wrote this blog haha, and I will continue to rage about it, maybe Joe Corbett will even hear from me personally!

paintbrush activity/project 3

The class creativity activity that we did today was very, well, creative! Definitely one of the exercises that got my mind thinking of crazy ideas. We had to think of 10 different ways to use a paintbrush, other than painting of course. At first my mind went blank and thought 'who would use a paintbrush as something else except for painting?' and than I thought it could be used as a broom if you attach them to the bottom of your shoes, or you could attach it to the back of the door as a door blocker, so that the doors do not hit the walls. And then my mind went crazy with ideas, other ideas that I came up with included using the paintbrush as a filter when making lemonade or orange juice, using it to apply body wash in the shower, using the bristles to make hemp-like bracelets, or whicker furniture, and carrying the paintbrush with you in the ocean to keep seaweed away from you. Who would of ever thought that a simple paintbrush could be used in several different ways? Now I have been wondering what other common household objects can I use in several different ways? I guess I will have to  find out for myself!
Project 3 is a self designed project, and our group came up with great ideas for this project. We are going to  make 'nutrition cards' that include various nutrition facts about different foods throughout the campus and hand them out to students entering the dining halls. Some of the cards will include nutrition facts from the Italian Kitchen, The Salad Bar, The Wraps at the AF, and several other places that the students have suggested. By doing this, we hope that the students will read out cards and choose the healthier option when ordering their food. Another thing we are doing is making a powerpoint that includes the research, preparation, and action that went into making and handing out these cards. In this powerpoint we will also include secret video clips, which I can not talk about until the presentation of project 3, it may put you into shock or extreme excitement, so you will have to wait!

regular, fun, play

After watching the TED talk, Stuart Browns speech about play, I have fallen in love with it. I would of never thought about play in such a deep and inspirational way. Stuart Brown definitely has one creative mind! The different types of play he talked about really struck my mind: body, object, social, rough and tumble, spectator, ritual, imaginative are the ones that I caught. One that stuck out to me was rough and tumble, let me explain what popped in my head right away. My moms side of the family and my dads side of the family are total opposites, referring to the kids. My dads side of the family are just normal people, they remind me of me and my brother, except the fact that it is 40+ people, and growing. Each of them are loud, play sports, and know how to have a good time. My moms side of the family is different, they are not your average people haha. They are super rich and classy and are very strict with a lot of the things they do. The kids do not play sports, they learn sign language and play musical instruments. At my graduation party, the kids from my dads side of the family were running around playing tag, playing with the dog, jumping on the trampoline and so on. Now the kids from my moms side of the family were doing the complete opposite, if they even picked up a ball to play with or tried to fit in with the other kids playing, my Aunt would tell them to stop and sit down. This is something I have noticed since they were born (since the oldest is 7 years old), I guess I have not realized the severity of it until watching this video and learning the importance of play. I do feel bad for them, I feel like when they grow up they are going to look back and wish they did different things like most of the american population. It is something I can not change, all I can do is hope that my aunt realizes one day that play is important in a child's life.

creative minds

Project 1 turned out great for my group! Next step is to put action into it and see how much we can accomplish and change through our thoughts about the food here at KU. In class last week we did a creativity exercise that I thought turned out to be a lot of fun. We broke into our groups and one person started with a piece of paper. The first person had to start off writing a story, but only 1 line of it. I was the first person to start with the paper and i staretd the story with "Once upon a time at the Philadelphia Zoo". When the first person finished writing the first line they would pass it to the person next to them and then they would add on the next line of the story. When they were finished, they would pass it to the next person and so on. Eventually the whole paper was filled and we had a complete, crazy, random story. Our story ended up being about a monkey who in the end secretly imposture'd a human and wore regular human clothes, and has not been found to this day since he blended in, acted like, and looked like one of us. Who knows, he could be a student at KU, maybe even a student in our class! It is crazy how creative six students minds can be when they are put together on a project like this, especially when they are basically strangers. We thought ours was hilarious and crazy until we heard some of the other groups stories which were out of control. I wondered how crazy it would be if we did this same activity but included the whole class, not just one group! I personally love doing these creative exercise out of the "Caffeine for the creative mind book". Whether its now or sometime in the future, I do believe these creative exercises will help me. It may be on a paper or it may be a real life situation but creativity goes a long way!

hand games

Today in class we had to make a game that we can play with somebody, anywhere and at anytime, without using any objects. You had to make this game up using your mind, and imagination using just your body parts (hands, feet, eyes, ect). At first I was very confused and found it difficult, I had no idea where to start and kind of just stared at my hands thinking how am i going to make a game using just my hands and mind? Me and Janelle began to play with them, thinking of other hand games that we used to play with our hands from grade school. We began to play them and then thought how we could change them to make it our own game. We started playing the game we both knew "slide" and messed with it a little to see what we could do with it. We thought we could do colors, and each time a new round started you would say a color, and as the game progressed you would repeat the colors and you do not stop the game until somebody messes up and forgets one of the colors. Yes, this game is hard to type out haha I guess it is one of those games that does not really have instructions and somebody has to teach it to  you in person. This exercise was fun, it seemed to put everybody in a laughable and relaxes mood, everyone was having fun. It kind of seemed like a stress reliever, it made you forget about schoolwork and whatever was on your mind. Your creative side had to come out, whether you think it or not, making up a game in a matter or 5 minutes is creative whether that game is fun or not. Dr. Morris also stated that it would be a fun thing to do when your stressed out right before your walking into a class where your taking an exam. At the time I was thinking that would not relax me at all, but thinking about it, after we played the games in class, everyone was laughing having a good time and it really gets other things off your mind. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN BEIBER !

Justin Beiber turned 17 today! Happy birthday :)

not a worrry in the world..

I personally think that our proposal went great.. it came together perfectly with everybody working and communicating inside and outside the classroom. I am excited and looking forward to presenting to the food contract office.
In class this week we discussed what superpower would be the greatest one to have, and my immediate answer was to freeze time. Freezing time is the ultimate superpower, you would never have to rush anything and you would have all the time to get your tasks done. Just think about, you have work 5-10pm and have a 10 page paper due the next morning at 8am, with this power you will never have stress, just freeze time and take your time writing your paper, jump in the shower, do you hair, unfreeze time and drive to work. Anybody who would not LOVE having this super power is absolutely crazy. This superpower would be especially extra handy and helpful for college students like me, I constantly say to myself that there is not enough time in the day to get everything done that I would like it. Between all this schoolwork, you friends, trying to go to the gym, and many other things you never have time to relax or even watch a movie. Freezing time is the ultimate superpower, but it would be wonderful if it was realistic and not just something I dream about having. :)

project 1

My groups ideas for our english project are coming along very smoothly. We are currently looking up companies to compare to Aramark, using other schools companies and food products as our examples. We are also researching the food plans and alternative food stations involved with Aramark, we have already found that Aramark offers several different options, one we all thought would be a good option was Subway, because of they'r various healthy options. I do not think this project is going to be an easy one with all the planning that goes into it, including presenting our proposal to the person in charge of the food here at Kutztown University. But with everyone in our group working together and putting their best efforts into it, I see our project turning out great and successful, and hopefully even making a change for the better here at Kutztown. I am looking to forward to working on this project for the rest of the semester. :)