Its beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!!!

I have loved all the snow we have gotten lately. I don't like the cold weather but I love the snow. I just wish it would snow in the summer ha. It always so exciting though to look out your window in the morning and see the ground covered in white. Its too bad that our classes don't get canceled like they did sometimes when we were in high school. That's the only thing I don't like about college. Everyone usually walks everywhere so if the roads are slick it doesn't ever matter. Oh well, I'm hoping now that we will have a white Christmas this year!!

Course Goals

Course Goals ~ Introduces and develops understanding of principles of rhetoric; basic research methods; elements, strategies, and conventions of persuasion used in constructing written and multi-modal texts. Upon completion of English 103 students will:
1. I understand that in order to persuade someone you have to provide a way to show it both physical and verbal. Mr. McArdle did a good job of explaining each one to us.
2. Yes, I understand that different ways of persuasion is used for different types of people depending on their likes and interests.
3. I feel like I am better at revising and drafting papers, its still hard to develop your own sense of writing though.
4. I feel like I am better at composing texts in different types of media. I feel like i can be more creative in my writing.
5. I know what a primary and secondary source is now and how they are used to make your thesis more clear.
6. I defiantly developed more strategies for becoming more of a critical reader by doing the peer evaluations and the intensive reviews  
7. I feel like I am better with my grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
8. Yes! You have too in this class
9. Yes, it is a must in this class because we do so many group things.

Course Content & Format ~ The content and format of English 103 are designed to enable students to achieve the course goals; specifically, students in English 103 will:
1. I feel like Mr. McArdle did a great job of making sure we discuss and analyze different kinds of texts
2. The peer evaluations and intensive reviews helped get others opinions on things in your paper.
3. Peer reviews and intensive reviews also helped with this a lot!
4. There were many times I would just go back and revise my paper. I would get feedback from my classmates and feedback from you so I had many rough drafts.
5. Yes I believe i can now break down text and analyze it more clearly now
6. Yes, I think I have a better understanding on how to break down what the author is trying to portray and the meaning of it.
7. We had four different writing assignments and all of them were for a different purpose, so yes i completing a variety of writing assignments.

University Core Curriculum Goals ~ The central purpose of University Core Curriculum is to enable men and women to live rich and satisfying lives and to undertake the broad responsibilities of citizenship in a free society. Although The University Core Curriculum seeks to discover and nurture individual talents, its primary emphasis is preparation for roles people share as human beings and as members of family and community groups. Thus, students will be able to:
1. Yes, Mr. McArdle did a great job of making sure the writing we were doing was useful and necessary for everyday life and would help us in the future, not just be busy work.
2. I feel like i can communicate better  now, and I think the peer reviews helped with that a lot because we were forced to communicate with each other.
3. There were a lot of other views that I saw and I would always respect that of another person.
4. I thought we all helped each other out to recognize and seek solutions to their writing.
5.Defiantly!! We worked with others almost everyday
6. I think this class really helped me look more at my writing and see it as more than just words on a paper. It has more meaning and you can break it down and really look at what the author is trying to say. 

Thanksgiving and Black Friday!!

Thanksgiving break has finally come to an end :( I had a really good time with friends and family. We went to my grandmas on Thursday and ate lots and lots of gooood food. I went to my friend Jenna's house Thursday night so that we could go out shopping on black Friday. We do it every year now. We started at 11 p.m at Walmart to get video games and movies for my brother. I got the movie Blind Side and The Hangover for $5 each! After that we went to Target and we waited outside for 3 hours!! I will never do that again. It was way to cold. We did get what we wanted though. After Target we headed up to greenwood but we were not there very long because we both were really tired. I went home and slept for most of the day. Overall I had a really good break with friends and family and I cant wait until Christmas break in about 3 weeks!!! :)

Thanksgiving Argument

The argument I choose to reflect on was an argument over black Friday Shopping. One thing we always do on Thanksgiving after dinner or before dinner is look at all the adds. My aunt is a huge black Friday shopper. She loves the deals she can get and loves the adrenaline rush from all the people. My mom on the other hand hates black Friday. She would rather buy it at normal price than have to deal with all the people. They got into a discussion about it. My aunt gets the credibility ( ethos) because she is a dedicated black Friday shopper. The Pathos would be each of their own emotional opinion or appeals on black Friday.  The logos would be the reasoning they use to persuade their own opinion. Why they choose one way or another.

BREAK

Ohhh I needed this break so badly. These last couple weeks have been so stressful. I cant wait to spend time with my family, eat, and shop :) I came home yesterday because a couple of my classes got canceled for Monday and Tuesday or "Fruesday" I met my mom in indy yesterday on my way home and we did some early Christmas shopping and went to dinner. It was fun and I love spending time with my mom. This morning I went to church, I didn't realize how nice it was to be back in my hometown. I feel like this break is going to fly by but Im going to enjoy it while i can :)

Good ol Movies

I love it when old movies are on tv. I am watching Meet the Fockers right now. I forgot how funny this show was. I still like Meet the Parents better though. To me whenever movies are on tv they seem so much better then when you watch them on a dvd, I dont know why but it just seems that way.

Red Dress Gala

Last night was Alpha Phis "Red Dress Gala". It one of our philanthropy events that raises money to support cardiac care for women. There was a dinner and a silent auction with lots of cool goodies :) People kept out bidding my mom so she finally gave up ha. It was a really fun night. We all wore red dresses to support cardiac care. I cannot wait to see what our other philanthropy event will be like :)

Long Week

This week has been soo long it seems like. I had a group speech, and two tests. It was not fun at all but I will have to say Im glad its over. The good thing is is that all my hard work payed off because i did good on both of the tests and Im pretty sure i did good on the speech too. He hasn't posted the grades yet but I felt pretty good about it. One of my tests was in History and the other one was in Geology. I am not a fan of either of those classes but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

Alaska Politics

Sen. Lisa Murkowski appears to be winning the write-in campaign.  Republican challenger Joe Miller has filled a federal complaint arguing that ballots with misspellings of Murkowski's name should not be counted in her favor.  Miller argues that the election officials' announcement saying they will interpret voters' "intent" in cases of misspellings violates state law.  For more information, go to the following sites:
Miller Sues
Protest Votes

Freezing Friday!!!

I had an 8 am class this morning and when I was in the bathroom this morning they said the temperature outside was only 24 degrees with a chance of flurries!! We had all this nice warm weather for October and now they are saying snow. I like some snow but I don't know if I'm ready for it to be snowing in the first of November! I haven't seen any flurries yet but its only 11 am so we will see :)

Birthday Dinner

Well my actual Birthday was on Monday the 25th but my boyfriend and I were both so busy that we didn't celebrate it until this last Sunday which was Halloween. Everything he did was a surprise. We went to Indy and he took me to dinner at a place called the Oceanaire. Its a nice seafood place and i loooove shrimp. After dinner he surprised me with a carriage ride. I have always wanted to go on one so i was super excited. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday!! :)

Thursday 10/28

On Thursday in class we talked about different examples of public writing. Mr. McArdle wrote all the examples we came up with on the board. Some of the examples we came up with were newspapers, magazines, billboards, commercials, internet, e-mail and lots more. After that Mr. McArdle asked if we brought in any examples of public writing. We talked about a website called Perezhilton.com, an article on women's rights, and oil companies against global warming. The last 15 min we got out our laptops and did research on different topics to write on.

Tuesday 10/26

Today in class we took a short Quiz. After that we got into groups of two or three and answered questions on what defines a corporation and what defines a college. As a class we listed all the characteristics of both a corporation and a college. Mr. McArdle made a list of each one on the board and then matched up the comparisons. There were a lot of similarities between the two. At the end of class we talked more about our public writing papers.

Birthday!!

My birthday was on Monday...It was weird being away from home for the first time on my birthday but i saw my family over fall break so it wasn't that bad. My dad sent me back cupcakes so my roommate and I ate them at midnight. That morning my boyfriend brought me flowers and a card. Overall I had a really good day! It never fun when your birthday is over thought. You have to wait a whole year. My dad's birthday was a day after mine and I hope his was just as awesome as mine was! :)

Gotta love October weather!

This weather has been so add. Usually around October it is around 50-60 degrees. Lately it had been mid to low 70s!! Im not complaining though because I love warm weather. Yesterday's storm was crazy! I was walking to my 10:00 class and it was so WINDY! I was sitting in my class and noticed the windows getting darker and darker. I checked my email and it said there was a tornado watch. My teacher had no idea. When we finally told her she made us go down to the basement. I was hoping that english class would get cancelled but it didnt :(

Offically an A PHI :)

Today I got initiated into Alpha Phi. Initiation is where you go through a process where you become an official sister. I cant talk about the process they go through but it was so neat and Im so glad I can call myself an OFFICIAL A PHI. I had to get up at 8 am this morning so I am super tired. I think I many take a nap in a little bit. My roommate is going to the football game but I feel like it is too cold out for me. Tomorrow we have a lunch for Alpha Phi where are parents are invited but mine cant come because they are on their fall break :( oh well I am so excited to go home on Thursday!!! I cant wait!!!

MM Website

http://fulldayvshalfdaykdg.weebly.com/

My argument is over half day kindergarten and full day kindergarten. Which is better? Many parents will have to make this decision when their little one is ready to start school. It can be a hard decision for many. My mom is a kindergarten teacher so I am familiar with the whole half day vs. whole day issue and I am able to see where people stand. As a kindergartener myself I went full day. I believe full day kindergarten is a better choice because it provides more of an opportunity for children to interact with one another and have more time in the classroom. By going to full day kindergarten children also get to go on field trips and do many other activities that half day students don't. By going a full day I believe it makes the students more mature and therefore ready for the transition into first grade. As a future teacher these are some of the reasons I believe full day kindergarten is more benificial for children.

Homecoming!!

This week was Homecoming week. I have been so busy with Alpha Phi events. We were paired with the Delts this week. They were pretty fun. Monday night we went had a fiesta dinner, Tuesday we were supposed to have a cookout but it wasn't planned well enough so that was a fail ha. On Wednesday there was a luau party but I couldn't go to because I had a test :(. Thursday was Air Jam and it was so fun! Friday we just chilled and Saturday was the Homecoming game!! We lost but it was still fun. :) Overall it was a good week!

Home Sweet Home AGAIN :)

I went home last weekend and it was so nice! I love school but i also love being home and with my family. My grandparents were visiting from Florida and they came up to Ball State to see the campus because they both went to school here. After they came up I went back home with them and my mom and I went shopping :) I got some winter clothes because this past week has been really cold. Im loving the warm weather in October right now though.

What a DAY!

Today has been a really long day!... I woke up at like 11 this morning and then i had to shower and stuff to get ready to go to this Greek 101 thing for my sorority. It was so long and so boring. It lasted from 2-5 pm and then we had to go to our new member education meeting. We didnt get done until like 6:30 and i was starving. Oh well. Hopefully i have a good week this week with not too much homework :)

The Library..

I am sitting in the library right now. It is the first time I have came here this year.  We have to have 2 hours a week of Study Tables for my sorority. Of course I am doing mine on a Thursday night and they are due tomorrow although i have to admit I am getting a lot done. I never knew the Library was actually this quiet. They always say its going to be quiet but i never really believe it. It is actually really quiet up here though. I am on the 4th floor. My two hours is almost up  :)

Tie dye!!!

I get to go to the Alpha Phi sweet tonight for something called Phi monthly. We are tie dying shirts tonight. It should be really fun and a good way to get to know the older girls and my pledge class better. We have had a lot of stuff to do this week and its been a little overwhelming at times but fun. Im trying to get most of my homework done so i can do all the stuff the girls have planned. Hints why i just did all my posts and comments! ha

Alpha PHi :)

On Monday I became a new Alpha Phi baby!! I am so excited. Throughout every round starting on Thursday i had put them as my number one. It was really hard to choose but i knew that when i sent to Alpha Phi on Sunday which were the pref rounds that they were the ones. I couldnt be happier!! :)

Sunday nights..

Well right now i am sitting on my bed trying to get most of my homework done. My roommate is doing the same. Sundays are always one of the worst days because most people usually save all their homework till the very last minute and try to cram it all in. I am usually not one of those people but i have an excuse because rush is going on now. :)

Rush :)

Wow! This week has been crazy! Rush started on Thursday night and i have been sooo busy. Hints why i am just now getting to my posts. I have had so much fun though. Bid day is tomorrow so im a little nervous but very excited. Hope everything goes well :)

Home Again :)

I decided i was going to go home this weekend. All of my friends that are from my hometown and my roommate went home so i thought i would go too. Its nice seeing all my family again and yesterday was my sisters birthday. We are having family over today to celebrate. She just turned 11. Yesterday me, my mom, and my sister went shopping. I got a couple new things. My mom was being extra nice..maybe its because she missed me so much :)

Another week

Well its been a little over two weeks now since Ive been at Ball State. I guess ill talk about what we did in class this week. On Tuesday we went over how to write our "This i Believe" essays.  We went to ThisIBelieve.org and looked at others peoples stories. It was interesting to see what different people believe in. On Thursday our papers were do and then we went over how to upload them on Blackboard. We had a pretty bust week but im glad our first paper in done :)

On the first day of English class this week we went around the room and had to say our favorite movie and book. My favorite movie is Sweet Home Alabama although i have a lot of favorite movies. My favorite book is The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. After we did that we went over the syllabus and rules. On Thursday we went over the Ball Point Worksheet and we figured out how to set up our blogs. It was a pretty easy week :)

Well it is already Sunday...the weekends go by soo fast :(. I am in my room right now with my roommate named Jenna. I am eating mac and cheese right now for lunch. Im not looking forward to this week of school but I am looking to English class because English is one of my favorite subjects. Our teacher seems really cool too so it should be a good semester.