Mid-Year Symposium

The first presenter at the symposium spoke about stereotypes based on the experiences that he's faced in his life due to his ethnicity and his size. He gave examples regarding the KKK and a man who was able to turn his life around, and Jeremy did this to show that if you give a person a chance, they can surprise you and actually be nothing like you would originally expect. The second presenter, Meghan, wrote a paper about the benefits of eating organically, even if it is more expensive. She claims that it's worth the investment because food plays a role in most aspects in our lives, and she gave the saying "You are what you eat" and suggested at the end that we "Make the change". I thought both of the presentations were very interesting, and it was a good experience.

The Aftermath: Social Networking

So far, my final paper has been coming together better than I had anticipated. I was originally worried that I wouldn't be able to find enough research to prove my argument that social networking has made society a more individualized one, using college students as my control group. However, it turns out that I'm not the only person who thinks so. I've found numerous sources that will give me the information that I need, almost making it hard to choose what is most important to include in my paper. In class on Friday we began writing our introduction, which is usually the hardest part of the paper for me to write, but instead the ideas began pouring out and I'm already very satisfied with it. My outline for my paper is done, so now all that's left to do is write the draft, which I feel will be an easy task given the information that I have, along with the interest I have for the topic I'm writing about. I feel that I'm going to be very happy with my final piece of writing in this class.

Everything in Moderation

Steven Johnson's essay "Everything bad is good for you: Games" was the reading that stood out to me the most this past week because I believe that his argument is a very strong one. He presents both sides, and even points out good things about the other point of view, but in doing this he only makes his argument stronger. He believes that video games are not necessarily bad for kids, and can provide an increase in manual dexterity and visual memory, but they can also teach many important lessons to children like focus, and challenging themselves. What I liked most about his article was when he presented the idea of what if video games had come before book; would people still be finding ways to find the negatives in this new way for children to spend their time? He believes that the answer is yes, and so do I. People are constantly questioning new things, and looking for the bad in them, and I feel that if books were the thing to be replacing video games, they would somehow find a way to find the negatives in reading. My personal thought is to agree with the theory: everything in moderation. Some reading, some video games, and other things as well in order to be a well-balanced person. Just like a diet: You can't eat all of one thing to have a healthy nutrition, but rather a little of each.

How to Use Sources

On Wednesday, my group and I decided to assign different parts of our topic to each person so that we could each do our own research for when we meet again. We will put our research together next class into one PowerPoint, and combine our ideas to make the most effective presentation that we can, in what we hope will be a creative way. We brainstormed ideas on Wednesday involving quote sandwiches, and how to present these "sandwiches" in a fun way. I think our project will be completed by the end of the next class as long as everyone did their research.

Community Continued

I've given a lot of thought to the original community that I wanted to observe, which was an elementary school, and realized it would conflict with my own classes. At first I thought that I would be able to work around them, or go after I was out, but decided it would be too hard, so I went with the next best thing. The dance studio I used to go to also has teachers so I can still focus on the same type of community, just in a different setting. I have much more access to this because there are classes on nights and weekends, which would the best time for me to observe, and also the teachers are much more accessible for interviews. I also loved my dance studio and would love to get their opinions on it and how it all works behind the scenes.

Community

The community that I would most like to observe is the elementary school that my father is the principal of, Indian Brook Elementary School. I've been visiting and volunteering at the school ever since I was no longer a student, and it's one of my favorite places to be so I thought it was the most interesting place for me to observe. I want to focus on the interactions of the teachers both in and out of the classroom, and how they use media and technology both to communicate, and to teach. Not only will this be interesting to learn and write about, but I think it will also be beneficial to me in the future.

The Problem with Fitting In

One of the goals that many people struggle to obtain in life is finding a group that they fit into. In David Berreby's article "It Takes a Tribe" he gives insight to the problems that arise for those who do reach it. When a person finds people to associate with, they also find their enemies, and I could not agree with him more. When finding a group to spend time with, who share the same interests and likes, they also share their ideas on who they don't like and who to be against. This is what alludes to the ideas of stereotypes because we group our enemies into groups and judge them based on the things that we don't have in common with them, otherwise they would be part of our group. In continuing to find like groups to associate with, we continue to find people that we do not choose to associate with. As Berreby points out, it creates the idea of "us versus "them" and only continues to separate people rather than bring them together, which is ironic because the original idea is to be a part of a group not against one.