Shay's cover letter

Dear xxx,

I am writing to express my interest in becoming a teaching artist in your organization. During the past four years, I have studied theater at British American Dramatic Academy at Oxford and at San Francisco State University, where I focused on Shakespearean theatre, movement-oriented theatre, mustical theatre, and devised work. I have also worked with children as a camp counselor and as a dance instructor. I will be graduating in May with a Bachelor’s degree in Drama and hope to work in the fields of education and performance.

My diverse educational experience along with my leadership qualities would be a valuable asset to San Francisco XXX. Currently, I am president of our theatre organization at San Francisco State, where we host events and shows for our fellow student body. As president, I work with people everyday in business and group settings, and as a result I have developed strong management and communication skills.

I am very interested in working with San Francisco xxx and I look forward to the opportunity to meeting with you in person. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Dean's cover letter

Dear Human Resource Manager,

Within the next couple of semesters, I plan to graduate from San Francisco State University with a major in Sociology. My previous work experience has provided me with a strong background in sales, marketing, customer service and training. One of the greatest qualities I have learned is how to multi-task. While in school I have supported myself and still continued forward with my education. I am proud to say that next semester I will be graduating to San Francisco State University.

I began my sales career at Best Buy as a seasonal cashier. While I was there I received multiple promotions and department recognitions as Employee of the Quarter and Employee of the Month. On many occasions, as a part-time employee, my total sales were higher than that of my fellow full-time colleagues. While working at Best Buy I had the opportunity to meet and sale a variety of product to professional athletes, such as Berry Zito, Eric Chavez, and Joe Morgan. After starting my college career I was hired as a regional sales representative. I sold electronics like Panasonic and TomTom through third party stores. While I was working in Costco in Santa Maria, CA, Panasonic cameras quickly became the best selling camera for the store. My sales can be attributed to my communication and customer relation skills. I am able to quickly assess a customer and relate the product to their lifestyle wants and needs. Additionally, my job duties included conducting customer demonstrations for both individuals and groups, training full-time employees on the latest products, and setting-up displays.

Additionally, I have been attending Giants games for as long as I can remember. I have a vast knowledge of not only the San Francisco Giants, but of the MLB. I not only understand the history of baseball, but I stay current on player transactions and news. When the pitchers and catchers report to camp, the New Year starts for me.

I am excited to hear about the sales and marketing internship opportunity, as I would be a great fit for the position. My vast knowledge of the San Francisco Giants and the MLB combine with my understanding and experience in sales would make me a valuable asset to the Giants Family.


Sincerely,

Tiarra's cover letter

March 20, 2011

Dear Hiring Manager:

This letter is to express my interest in a possible entry-level position or internship with xxx in San Francisco. I believe my previous experience of in customer service and management, as well as my creative abilities and educational background in marketing, make me a good fit for your company. I am innovative and charismatic -- willing to express my ideas and to collaborate with clients. I believe I would be a great addition to xxx’s interactive marketing strategies. Following are five significant qualifications I have to offer:

• Four years of retail experience (including efforts to establish customer relationships on a daily basis -- finding solutions to problems, and fulfilling customer needs)

• Excellent communication and team building skills (including taking on a leadership role for more three years in retail and finding new and innovative ways to lead a team to increase revenue, improve performance in sales and customer service)

• Two years of assisting management in developing and managing shift schedules for a retail store (including accommodating a direct manager in agendas, tasks, and special projects, and communicating to managers about every day budget performance of my department and store as a whole)

• Experience with managing the holiday/event display in a retail store: constructing a creative display of products and décor relative to a specific holiday or theme for grab-n-go items and gift ideas for customers

• Strong computer skills in Microsoft Office: creating Excel spreadsheets to help analyze budget performance and goals, preparing Word documents and worksheets to help management organize tasks and administrative functions, communicating to a large staff and management team using Outlook on a daily basis, creating PowerPoint presentations for school and work projects


I look forward to hearing from you to discuss the positive contributions I can offer xxx. Thank you for your time and consideration

Akwoung's Writers Chair

I failed a very important test recently and so I just want to devote this post to a free write of my feelings about blogging and any other thoughts I have compiled in the past few days. So failing this test has put me in a very despairing state. I’ve been ignoring all my friends that want to go play Tennis and do other fun things; the strange thing is that Tennis or any activity that takes me outdoors is very therapeutic for me but right now I don't even feel like opening the door to my apartment. I have been doing nothing but sit in front of the computer and eat loads and loads of junk food, particularly Twinkies. I’m really mad at myself for caving in under pressure during the test and whenever I’m mad at myself and feel unworthy, to the point where I don’t want to do anything, I distant myself from the world and the people I know for a good amount of time. For me, during these times, I'd rather be alone so I can re-evaluate my life.

I guess this is why I haven't posted about biology lately. I haven't felt like doing anything. I think it’s important to just take a breather when you need it and do some self-reflection.

Anyways one thing I have been doing a lot the past few days, besides indulging in s***** food is reading on the net; random subjects from articles on Yahoo and posts from other Blogs and I don’t really know why this is the only thing I feel like doing. I've been able to read because I actually deactivated my Facebook and other social network accounts. Staying off social networks and spending the extra time reading, I realized that there is really not a lot of time spent on writing these days and expressing oneself or analyzing problems thoughtfully. Instead, we spend our time on one sentence or one word statuses, watching videos on Youtube only to leave a f*** *** or other 4 letter curse words on comments of videos you don’t like, which I must admit I’m guilty of from time to time. I even came across a Blog that discussed about how Blogs are becoming extinct now since it’s only older folks that are doing it and once they are gone so will Blogs. MORE HERE

I started this blog, not necessarily out of passion for biology, but because it was required for an English class I didn't want to take but was forced to for graduation. The teacher assigned blogs, and at first this seemed like another boring and pointless activity -- another essay on a topic I care nothing about, another test on material I will forget as soon as the course is over. Initially, I was just going to post about biology issues, sound like a textbook with bare minimum lengths and be done with it because I thought Blogging was stupid. WHY. After reading other people’s Blogs, from classmates and other strangers on the internet, I really feel like Blogging is a form of an open diary where you post issues about your topic while also incorporating a bit of your own thoughts. Besides expression, I realized that blogs can be a form of self-discovery -- through writing, you can xxx -- and blogs can be quite calming at times -- when I write, I find that .xxx. ,Self-discovery and a calm approach to life are not common with people these days. We rush from xxxx We check our blackberries, facebook accts, email... But what about self-expression? I bring up expression, because if we would have done essays in my English class, instead of this blog, I don't think we as students would have been able to really say what we think, really express our ideas and feelings, due to confines of grading, due to not being able to incorporate videos and pictures and due to having to write about something we don't like.





Of course, at this point, I haven’t produced a lot of posts… well at least the amount required. However; I do spend a lot of time thinking about what my next topic should be. I also go back to my previous posts occasionally to read and work on the flow and correct any errors. Most importantly, I really try my best to research on my topic, refresh my memory so that I can make it easy to for people to comprehend and also thought provoking; try to avoid any fancy or complicated scientific terms so that it’s more relatable and less confusing, and steer away from many of the complicated processes or at least break it down straight to the point.





As I hinted on before, I was going to explain everything with my current knowledge and write without much thought; but after the class evaluations and everything it wasn’t going to happen anymore, which I’m kind of glad. By doing research on things I think I know about, I discover more interesting things and I feel like I want to explain it more with care as opposed to just randomly talking about it like nothing. In a way it made me ponder upon certain issues deeper instead of just recalling the scientific facts I’ve memorized about them.





I don’t know how long this interest will allow me to Blog, if any, after this class but at this moment I think I’m getting the hang of Blogs. I realize that perhaps writing does have some benefits besides for school work. Anyways, I'm a bit glad I took some time out to do some self-reflection and evaluation.

Susan's Writers Chair

Ah, its Valentines Day! For me this confection-filled heart-shaped day is no different from any other. But for those of you in romantic relationships, temptations abound. By that I mean of course food -- chocolate, pasta at cozy Italian restaurants, rich desserts at romantic get-aways, boxes of Godiva candy. A few tips on navigating your Valentine's Day if you're on a strict diet, like me:

1. invite your significant other to join you in a 30min cardio-work out sometime in the morning. You'll be burning calories throughout the day;
2. eat Dark Chocolate if you must -- it's healthier than milk chocolate and good for your heart [insert picture of valentine heart here? ]
3. try to have dinner as early as possible, even if its 5pm. This not only gives you time for romance later but also gives your body time to burn the calories you consumed;
4. order Seafood and Vegetables -- grilled,steamed,or smoked -- and avoid carbs as much as possible. Or, choose a salad as an entre. Save the calories for heart-shaped desserts later.
5. for dessert, choose fresh strawberries dipped in dark chocolate. If you must devour that tirmuirsu or red velvet cake then SHARE IT with only 1 order. It's more romantic, and less caloric.


A huge misconception about dieting is that we must be super strict and never cheat. We assume that a diet means.... We assume that dieting will never work unless.... We assume ... Well giving our bodies a "cheat" day, with an exception of making smart cheat choices is completely fine! Studies have shown that... OR AS SO AND SO WRITES IN HIS / HER ARTICLE... Of course, eating a cheeseburger or pizza is obviously not a smart cheat choice. The real reason that we can make small tweaks and exceptions in our diets, is to throw your body off. Afterbeing on an extensive diet, sometimes your body needs that resistance and reminder of the fatty foods it once craved, which in turn will have no affect on you and only make your discipline stronger. So I hope you learn from this blog that allowing your body to eat bad, for 1 MEAL (not an entire day) is okay. Of course this treat should only be awarded once a month with a good work out regime.

Until next time!

Mid-Term Questions and Reflections

1. How is your blogging going? What challenges have you faced? What do you like best about blogging?

What we like best:
The audience is different and that's key. When you're writing for a teacher, they know more than you,a nd they're evaluating you. When you're a real writer, you know more than your audience (otherwise why would youb e writing) and the audience is trying to learn from you, connect to you, enjoy your perspective, possibly disagree or write back, challenge you.

Freedom from writing on topics we don't like and structures we don't like.
We can express ourselves better -- because we get to write about what we like -- in the voice we decide on, the length we decide on, structure we decide on, etc. We get to make the decisions about what the writing looks like and sounds like.
No pressure.
It's connected to our daily life -- it's like FB and its a way of staying connected nad reaching an audience. Media is second-nature to us -- it doesn't feel like homework. It's convenient -- it's self-paced, flexible. Blogging fits with our generation -- we're used to being online. We enjoy it because it's like FBing -- it's connected, it's wired, and our generation likes that and is used to it. It's enjoyable so it feels easier. It doesn't feel like we're doing it for a grade. We like writing about our own topic.

What we like best:
There's no pressure.
There's lots of pressure.
Different kind of pressure: the audience is public. It's hard to write it for both class and the larger public. Hard to get the right voice (formal or informal).The whole net can read it, so that make more pressure. But -- there's less pressure because the deadlines are flexible. We go at our own pace which helps a lot.

We like that there's no length requirement. We don't have to write things we don't want to, or say things we don't want to just to fill up the length requirement.

There's no pressure to write in a certain way. It's up to us to figure out the tone, the voice, the organization, the level of detail, etc.

We like that it makes us think outside the box. e.g., for Lisa's baking blog, I try to tie the recipe into a theme -- this is making me think outside the box. I'm always trying to think about how to interest the readers, instead of just one teacher.

There's pressure to make it good, esp because we like the topic, so we don't want to give it short-shrift -- we want everyone to like our topic and be interested in it.

We like customizing it -- create a design. It feels like FB -- kind of trendy, and personal but still public. It's creating a whole experience for the reader

We like exploring unusual topics -- e.g. Christian's on hackers. Normally you'd be expected to have expertise, but the web allows anyone to become an expert -- the audience decides whether you know what you're talking about and they also participate and help you learn about your topic.

We get to be experts.

Keeping it interesting, keeping the reader interested.

The topic is too broad, and it's hard to decide how to shape it. It's hard to figure out how to make all the decisions.

It's hard to be responsible for all that freedom! Requires creativity and contant thinking.

Making sure I don't offend anyone, making sure my opinion doesn't offend. Trying to make sure we don't say something that is misunderstood.

Temptation to procrastinate, because there is no pressure.





Making sure you don't offend anyone -- not turning the reader off.

Comparing our writing to everyone else in the class -- this can make us intimidated and shut down our creative juices. We start to critique our writing.

It's hard to make it interesting. Keep the audience interested.

The good thing about blogging is that it makes the audience come alive for us as writers and it makes us care about the audience. School writing has too limited an audience.

2. How would you evaluate your blog? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

3. What have you learned about yourself as a writer, or about writing, from the experience of blogging? How is blogging similar to and different from other writing that you've done?

4. Do you think a class like this would help students become better writers? Be truthful!! Explain.

5. What do students need to do in order to improve their writing? What do teachers need to do to help students be better writers? Bonus question: what do we mean by "better"? More grammatically correct? More fluent? More voice and ownership? More persuasive? ???

6. What new ideas or questions about writing and/or about school have you gained this semester?
1. Is school ever going to change? Will teachers ever realize that what they're doing isn't helping us?

2. If teachers communicate to students that they care and are on the students' side, the students learn more, regardless of the subject or how the class is set up. Is this true? What really needs to change to improve students' experiences in school?

Teachers / advisors seem like they really don't want to help us.

3. Is writing a skill that can be directly taught or does it have to be nurtured?




7. What kinds of learning experiences would most benefit you in this
class, going forward? What do you want to learn and do in the
next seven weeks? What would most nurture your writing?
1. Work on resumes and cover letters
2. Work on personal statements for grad school
3. We agree with 11:00 class
Writer's Chair: Akwoung and Shanae






1. Spend time in class looking at resumes and cover letters.

2. More feedback on our blogs. Direct feedback.
Possible homework: find the blog with the best sentence-level writing. Find the blog that most needs help with sentence-level writing.

3. More commenting on each other's blogs.

4. More tips for writing from Prof Trainor. Debunking myths about writing. Myth-busters about writing.

5. In-class work on blogs (bring laptops, do focused activities on your blogs).

6. Assign writer's chair so that the writer spends time getting ready for it.
More detailed writer's chair -- more detailed feedback.
Hannah, Susan

Lucia's writer's chair

What we liked:
1. The links are interesting and the commenting on the links is effective. Lucia provides good commentary on links.
2. The topic is serious, but Lucia does a good job of breaking up the seriousness with humorous videos on the topic.
3. She does a good job of stating her opinion.
4. The design is eye-catching and makes you want to read more.
5. The topic is interesting.
6. Lucia's ethos is strong -- she appears to be concerned with justice, open-minded (considering all points of view), curious and passionate about the topic.

For Revision or Next Steps:
1. Do a piece on the politics of what gets covered by the media and what gets ignored. Why certain crimes get ignored, why others get tons of attention.
2. A post on how the media covers crime, what they focus on and why?
3. Put the links in a difference color so they stand out.
4. Make the color in the backgound extend to the whole blog
5. Have confidence in your choice of posts -- no need to apologize or explain why you're choosing to post on something.
6. Follow-up on police officer story (what happened??).
7. Connect police officer story to other police brutality stories and statistics.
8. Write a post on police officer who was dealing drugs.


BEFORE:
I am completely against children and teenagers doing life in prison. I know the crimes committed by them that led to this type of sentencing is uncalled for but these are still children. If a juvenile is behaving this kind of way then their is something going on with them and in their environment. Instead of sentencing them life in prison they need to find them psychological help. I do agree that they need to be punished for their actions but they do not have the full comprehension of life yet because their brain is not fully developed or mature. They cannot even take care of themselves. On the other hand, how did this kid get a hold of a kids size shot gun? Obviously, his parents need to be analyzed as well if the child was able to get a hold of a shot gun. Parents need to start having limits on how much freedom their children are getting. That brings curiosity which leads to unwanted behavior. I have previously taken Legal Psychology and I learned that these children have suffered some sort of trauma when they were younger and led to unwanted and illegal behavior. In this class, we watched a video on children who were serving life in prison and you saw an inmate as a child and the producer followed them years later as adults. When the interviews were conducted when they have become adults, you can see that they do not completely comprehend why they did what they did. They demonstrated a great remorse and told their traumatic stories that built anger, sadness, and pain inside of them which led to behavior and actions that got them in trouble.

ANALYSIS

I am completely against children and teenagers doing life in prison. I know the crimes committed by them that FOCUS IS LOST HERE led to this type of sentencing is uncalled for but these are still children. If a juvenile FOCUS IS LOST HERE is behaving this kind of way then their is something going on with them and in their environment. Instead of sentencing them life in prison they need to find them psychological help. NEXT SENTENCE SEEMS TO CHANGE DIRECTIONS I do agree that they need to be punished for their actions but they do not have the full comprehension of life yet because their brain is not fully developed or mature. They cannot even take care of themselves. NEXT SENTENCE CHANGES DIRECTION On the other hand, how did this kid get a hold of a kids size shot gun? Obviously, his parents need to be analyzed as well if the child was able to get a hold of a shot gun. Parents need to start having limits on how much freedom their children are getting. FOCUS GETS LOST IN NEXT SENTENCE That brings curiosity which leads to unwanted behavior. NEXT SENTENCE SEEMS TO INTRODUCE NEW TOPIC I have previously taken Legal Psychology and I learned that these children have suffered some sort of trauma when they were younger and led to unwanted and illegal behavior. EXAMPLE DOES NOT MATCH CLAIM In this class, we watched a video on children who were serving life in prison and you saw an inmate as a child and the producer followed them years later as adults. When the interviews were conducted when they have become adults, you can see that they do not completely comprehend why they did what they did. NEXT SENTENCE SEEMS TO CONTRADICT PREVIOUS SENTENCE They demonstrated a great remorse and told their traumatic stories that built anger, sadness, and pain inside of them which led to behavior and actions that got them in trouble.

AFTER
I am completely against children and teenagers doing life in prison. I am against it because children's brains are not yet fully developed and so we cannot hold them fully accountable for their actions. I am against it because children are too young to even take care of themselves and so they are obviously too young to handle the adult experience of incarceration.... I am against it because.

I know the crimes committed by them that led to this type of sentencing is uncalled for but these are still children. If a child committs a crime, we should assume that something is going on with them and in their environment. Instead of sentencing them life in prison we need to find them psychological help. This kind of help, rather than life imprisonment, might actually give the child a chance to develop full comprehension of their crime.

Another question to ask about juevenile crime is how children get access to weapons and opportunities to engage in criminal behavior. Or, to put it another way, how did this kid get a hold of a kids size shot gun? Obviously, his parents need to be analyzed as well if the child was able to get a hold of a shot gun. Parents need to carefully control the storage of guns because children are naturally curious about guns.

I have previously taken Legal Psychology and I learned that children who are imprisoned do not really learn to comprehend their crimes or the consequences of their actions. In this class, we watched a video on children who were serving life in prison and you saw an inmate as a child and the producer followed them years later as adults. When the interviews were conducted when they have become adults, you can see that they do not completely comprehend why they did what they did.

In the video, the children told their traumatic stories that built anger, sadness, and pain inside of them which led to behavior and actions that got them in trouble. Indeed, children who commit crimes have usually suffered some sort of trauma when they were younger. It's often the trauma that leads to unwanted and illegal behavior.

Alyssa's Writer's Chair -- paragraph flow

I get in the habit of taking it for granted that my dog understands me -- that when I say "sit" he sits; when I say "down" he gets down; when I say "let's go for a walk," he leaps in the air in anticipation. I take these acts of canine comprehension for granted, until I hear someone speaking to their dog in a foreign language. Every time I hear dog commands given in Japanese, Spanish, Tagalog, or even Sign Language it strikes me just how amazing it is that they can understand us at all. We force entirely different structures of communication on them and expect them to pick it up. What’s more, we sometimes expect them to know when we mean “drop it”, but in our haste to correct them, we tell them “no!”

Bridging this language barrier is totally doable. We proved that as soon as we taught them to ‘sit’. But when learning any new language, maintenance is all about practice. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Thus, when it comes to training and command recognition, it seems to be all about consistency. But being consistent is more our problem than our dog’s. If we interchange the term “leave it” when we originally taught them to “drop it”, then they tend to lose any association they built up between command and action.

Priya's writer's chair - paragraph cohesion

In the end, my picks for Best Picture were: Inception, The Social Network and or Black Swan. Inception should have won because .... The Social Network should have won because ... And Black Swan should have won because... But int he end, the academy picked The King's Speech. It was a good movie, but boring in places. THREE DETAILS EXPLAINING HOW IT"S BOrING< USING REPETITIVE STRUCTURE>

I liked the King's Speech but it was pretty boring in the beginning, the movie picked up about half way through. Inception was getting pretty good wins and so was Social Network. I feel those two movies were neck and neck with each other. Black Swan came in too, for Natalie Portman won best Actress. And where was 127 hours with James Franco the co-host actor? It was nominated but it didn't win even one thing. I figured because how can you make a movie about a dude getting stuck in a cliff and then trying to find his way out, and then he cuts off his arm and great the movie is over. So last night's Oscars were very interesting to watch because they only had a few moments where people were actually interested. Well, on the 84th Oscars I'll be sitting with Jesse Eisenberg as his girlfriend and watching him getting some sort of best actor award. Let us hope.

Lisa's Writer's Chair -- paragraph cohesion

Wednesday, March 9, 2011Nuts for Peanut Butter!
Ever wondered how this irresistible gooey creamy goodness of peanut butter came to be? It all began where all things basically started (or so it seems in movies) -- the Aztecs.


The Aztecs had originally used pure roasted peanuts to concoct this paste. Whether they ate it or used it for some other purpose is unclear. We don't know what the Aztecs actually did with peanut butter but they are credited with inventing it. However, we can't give the Aztecs all the credit. Their peanut butter was very bitter and very difficult to work with. It wasn't until George Washington Carver (the scientist...not the president) came along and mixed the peanut paste with sugar and sweet molasses that we got the familiar flavor we know today. It wasn't until someone added vegetable oil and made it...wait for it...SPREADABLE! [ooooh! ahhhh!], that we got the modern Jiffy and Skippy brands so popular among school children today.

So what is it about peanut butter that makes kids go crazy when paired with jelly/ chocolate/ nutella? Or that makes dogs smack their tongues relentlessly while we sit back and watch, laughing hysterically? Is it because it's high in protein or antioxidants? Is it because it can prevent cancer? Or is it just because it tastes so damn good? Who knows! But really? WHO CARES!

Tips for Making Your Writing Flow

Sentence Structure Repetition

The Wire was brilliant in the way that it depicted scenes of teaching and learning. Almost every sub-plot was constructed around characters in teacher-student relationship to each other, and every conflict was the result of a failure of teachers to teach or of students to learn. When Omar's grandmother is shot, he and several other characters use it as an opportunity to teach other gangsters about old-fashion gang ettiquette and history. "Nobody ever shoots on a Sunday!" xxx lectures the two boys who work for him. When xxx and his runners are waiting for drug deliveries, he uses the time to explain to the runners how to play chess and how chess can work as a metaphor for their own situation in the inner-city. "We the pawns" he tells them, as the camera pans the desolate housing projects where they live. When McNulty discovers an intricate crime conspiracy, the older, more experienced Officer Bunk explains the police procedures they will need to unravel the mystery. "Now you might think the best approach would be to interview a bunch of suspects, but you'd be wrong," Bunk instructs McNulty. In every scene, the viewer watches as more experienced characters mentor newcomers and the young, making every character familiar as the student we once were or the teacher we once had.

All great police dramas revolve around mystery. They keep the viewer wondering about the motives of the crime. They keep the viewer invested in figuring out the method of the crime. They focus the viewer's attention on the difficulty of ever discerning the truth from distracting and ultimately irrelevent clues. In this way, The Wire was a classic police drama, focusing as it did on criminal's motives, their methods, and their truths and lies. But The Wire took this focus on mystery a step further: it asked viewers to consider the mystery at the heart of human relationships. It asked viewers to think about the mystery of how institutions work and how people are positioned within them. And it asked viewers to contemplate the mystery of our own cultural and personal
truths, as it depicted different cultures' very different ways of life.

The wire took this focus a step further. Viewers could think about human relationsips. The Wire was about instutions too. And it was also about cultural and personal truths.

All That is a classic kids' tv show that aired at 6pm...It is closely related to Sat Night Live only for kids. All That was centered around kids simply being kids, having fun and telling jokes. It had well-rounded hosts who coould bring the show alive, bringing the punchline at just the right moment and giving kids a laugh. It offered kids a chance to laugh at adults, giving them opportunities to make fun of stereotpyical adult behavior.

Because All That was aimed at kids, it offered viewers a chance to... Because it was old-fashioned in its humor, it didn't offend kids' parents... Because it was on Nickoledon parents could trust it.

Tennis is one sport I ahve always enjoyed. I see myself playing it for as long as my body permits it. It's one of the few sports that works out your entire body, from your foot to your legs to your torso, arms, and hands. Last time I played, I was sore for a week; every muscle ached. It's one of the few sports that looks simple but actually requires great skill and agility. When I first started playing, I imagined that all I needed to do was hit the ball; it seemed like a big version of ping pong. It's one of the few sports that works out not only your body but also your heart. When I play, I often find myself panting, trying to keep up with the pace! Finally, tennis is one of the few sports that both the young and old can play, proving that anyone who plays the sport can be pyscially fit, no matter how old they are.



Students are much more unmotivated by school than teachers realize. This lack of motivation is caused by several factors. Parents and teachers over-emphasize the importance of grades, giving students the false impression that the purpose of school is winning points, competing with others, and pleasing authority figures. Teachers fail to teach with passion, giving students the false impression that intellectual work is dull and disconnected from real-world concerns. Teachers focus too heavily on narrow definitions of student success, giving students the false impression that memorizing is the same as learning, that grades are the same as achievement, and that performance is more important than understanding and engagement.

One of the best aspects of PLL is the suspense the writers create. The writers switch some details around in the show in order to keep the viewer on edge with the suspense. They add storylines to pique viewers' interest and keep them coming back for more. They play with the endings of each episode to create mysteries that the viewer can solve in the next episode.


Chaining

The Wire got rave reviews from critics but was nearly cancelled several times because of low ratings. This contradiction -- rave reviews coupled wwith viewer apathy -- can be partly explained by the racial make-up of most of the characters: 70% of the stars of the Wire are black. But this explanation misses a deeper point. Surveys show that most viewers were willing to watch a show about African Americans. But they weren't willing to follow a dense, multi-layered, highly intelligent crime drama, most of which was delivered in heavy Baltimore dialalects and accents. It was this difficulty, more than the racial make-up of the stars, that drove viewers away.

The idea that blogging, as opposed to traditional essay writing, will motivate students, is relatively new. But this newness shouldn't keep teachers from experiementing with it. My own experiment with blogging in my 414 class has led to several intersesting results. For example, students tell me they are more motivated to write when they know their audience is broader than the teacher. This kind of audience awareness is central to developing writers. Students also tell me that they like writing in more visual modes. This kind of writing -- where meaning is conveyed by image as well as words -- has liberated students, who are used to reading and writing in the visual world of the web.

Omar Little's and Snoop's characters in The Wire defy many American stereotypes. These stereoptyes include the ideas that violence is the perogative of males, that gay men are not "tough," that gangsters don't have codes of honor, that children are innocent. These ideas have structured many television and film productions, and The Wire plays with them in order to subvert the viewer expectations. This subversion of viewer expectation reaches a pinnacle in the scene where Omar's grandmother is shot. In this scene, Omar is....

Blog Award Winners

Most Provocative
Christian on hackers, flamers and trols
Lucia on unpublished crime
Layloni on education and the African American community

Best Use of Emotional Appeal
Priya on film
Sabrina on animals and pets
Isa on relationships

Best Topic
Lisa on baking
Tommy on happiness
Tiarra on music and venues

Best Design
Lila on the environment
Matthew on advertising
Tiarra on music and venues

Best Writer
Christian on hackers, flamers and trolls
Daniel on technology
Topher on "anything and everything"

Most Creative
Nichelle on fashion
Isa on relationships
Jonathan on managing your money

Most Informative
Ian on skateboarding
Akwaung on biology
Amanda on psychology

Best Links
Priya on film
Jennifer on marketing
Lisa on baking

Best Writer
Christian on hackers, flamers, and trolls
Sabrina
Isa on relationships

Best Humor
Christian on hackers, flamers, and trolls
Steve on technology
Sabrina

Most Prolific
Christian on hackers, flamers, and trolls
Nichelle
Ian on skateboarding

Best Bio
Isa on relationships
Lisa on baking
Jonathon on managing yoru money

Most Provocative
Lucia
Christian

Best Writer
Priya
Shay
Lucia

Best Visual
Nichelle
Ian
Akwaung

Best Overall
Yin
Tiarra
Whitnee

Best Details
Akwoung

Most Creative
Isa

Best Attenion-Grabber
Topher

Best Design
Jennifer
Whitness
Prescilla

Best Links
Jonathan
lucia
Rosanna

Best Use of Personal Writing
Michelle
Shay
Raenika