Final class reflection

My impressions about writing  before coming to this course were good overall, but  they changed in a way that research is now a big part of me when it comes to writing, not everytihng you see in the web is true, and with research is not only good to people see the issues, but yourself, you really learn things you did not learn before.
My favorite assignment was the video we did on Imovie because we were with our groups and we did really good team job, and putting it together was easier, than just being by yourself, we had different opinions and points of view. the least favorite, was the assignment, on the opinion piece, because we had done something really similar.
I have learn that eating disorders is a big issue, and there are many more that we do not know about and is good that we could expose what we think, and what we have researched, because otherwise, we would have been ignorants, and would  not see how real everything is, the assingments help in reading artciles for better understanding.
The three skills that I improved on were re-reading it, doing better research and rewriting it, I will apply them in the future, so that it looks better and god a better grade on my last two years of college.
I really liked doing all the job, but I believe that we should have at least two classes in a week, because when it comes to one, it becomes boring because the teacher only gets to talk and explain what was suppossed to happen in the week, instead of teaching us in class what we should do it was only like going to hear all over it again, and then we sometimes forget about the hybrid days, we should have two days so we can do it all face to face. but overall it helped me a lot for my research.

invisible children documentary film

The documentaty I watched was invisible children
1. It is about four  young boys who went to Uganda when the war was at its most damage. they went so they can make a documentary, they have never been outside of the US. and wanted to see how it is and show everyone how it is, there are a lot of people who teaches them school, and helps them but at the same time, the war is in Sudan so they arrived there and notices that was not the adventure they expected, but the over the time, the learn a little bit about how they live and saw snakes and cows and all those animals that were dangerous, they did not eat well, this is not a simple situation going on, the say all those kidnapped boys and how bad their lives are, they are fored to fight as soilders. it gives ethos in showing your emotions how the kids had to suffer, and wake up early and sleep in very ugly spaces, pathos ins howing the videos how evertyhing is and making it reliable for us to see it from here.
2.The documentary realtes to my topic of citizen journalism and research, because they wanted to live it by themselves, by doing the necessary trip to help them, and to people to see how bad it is over there, that is good research, and reliable because it is been recorded.
3.The documentary posted online is good in my opinion, because it is how people can see by these videos., it is for social change, because we can raise awareness, and now see it from our own eyes so we can help them to socially change and take advantage of what we have. it is effective, because it helped many people want the government to want to help them.
4. they are too involved, because they videoed, the wars, and some interviews about children saying how they feel, and what really is going on, yes their involvement impacts their decisions in filmmaking because it is what made them, want to show us how their experience there was really like.
5. I believe that for people it might be too involved and as citizen journalists, they became journlalists, by just being there and showing how it was. It is not harmful for us, it is better for us to see how they live, and how to want to help.
6. my participating in the video, and showing every single detail to make us understand from the beggining to the end. If this partnership wouldnt have happened it wouldnt have made such awareness of the world as it made today. we can partner with people if we are sure and we know something is really going on, showing our realible sources, and why we think they should partner with us, and then we will see if its available to the public.

History of Citizen Journalism and Context

A brief summary of the video.
It is mainly saying anyone can be a citizen journalist, by only picking up a camera and record, or just writing a blog with the informaiton they have gathered, in these times people have to go to school to become  a journalist, but since it has been really easy for them to be a jorunalist by only recording or witing in a perfect sense, they do not really have to go to school, now in other times people now see all of their news on the internet, it used to be a printing press, before that gave work to lots of people, and now to put something online is just a matter of a button. than having to go get the newspaper and actuall pay for it, the times have been changing, and we do not know if its for good or bad!. Some politians are scared of people who blog all the time because no one actually accepts it, they can blog at anytime and talk about whatever they feel like. it does not really relate to my research since is abortion in teenagers, but we should always focus the distinction.
Creating a bloffer about my semester topic is impacting my research,because it makes me want to know more, and wants me to want to know more about it, and for a better understanding.

Deconstructing citizen journalism

The reading on blackboard was called Deconstructing citizen journalism, it explained how the term citizen jourlanist and citizen journalism began, is when they got published, and only wrote what publishers told them to, they had to give the information because many journalist werent able to get the information, so the ones that could get the information complete, give name to the five groups of a citizen journalist. Most of the people do not realize how everything was made in the past, they just care about the future, and did not notice how hard it was at the beggining no life has been created easier, to do something you just gotta press a button, or stuff likfe that, in those times, to gather all that information was so hard, and they took years of research, to only give it to the publishers, and for a really low amount of money.

Action Research

This article was really interesting and was made for us to fully understand how reserach should work, and why teachers do this for us. like the professors should always fully understand what our work is following and imagining it. reserach should be reliable and from sources, that will show how easy we can learn different methods, and how to apply them. and teachers or educators can always learn from our articles or our research, so that is why it is important to always understand research should be prepared and should have the exact connections to what we want to write. and as students we should be ready to be critized so we can make a better research and better understanding of your subject.

Topic proposal

This semester I will focus on my topic which is abortion in teenagers, I chose this topic, because it is a big issue, and not a lot of people is aware of how unhealthy clinics are, and how teenagers are mis-informed, and for a better future, they should have the necessary education to be able to make the decision on killing someone, becasue it can even result in their own death.
Adoption is one of the options there that those girls can consider, because they will not live their lives as before, they will end up traumatized knowing they killed their own baby, and their hearts will end up broken. I also wanted to make more research on the subject, so I can start by raising awareness in my daily life, so girls do not make that mistake.

link

The post that I have been following

http://texasedequity.blogspot.com/ 

group video for Ted

The video was called the brain in your gut (TED)

We chose this video as a group because it talks how wonderful the brain is, and how we were made by our ancestors to eat cooked food, without food we do not have the sufficient energy for the day, the topic of our team, is eating disorders, so it also tells taht the people with anorexia do not have a gut now, becasue their brain is not getting the signal of food, it is not only a mental illness, it gets that way because your gut, does not have the food, to tell the brain it needs more, so it stays that way instead of letting them eat, that is why it is so difficult, for people with anorexia to get healthy because it is not up to the girl is the part of the brain thaat is not working anymore.

it influenced our topic video, because most people think is really easy to just get out of anorexia, but it is not its something they cant control, and people should be aware of this, that is why it made easier our video to give out the important stuff, so everyone can see it is not a game to just stay skinny.

http://www.ted.com/talks/heribert_watzke_the_brain_in_your_gut.html

eating disorders

This is our team video about eating disorders.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mo45tDxsqo

Carolina Alarcon (me)

Viridina Falliner
David Limas
Mariana Ruiz

opinion piece from the new york times ABORTION

Silent about abortion

This opinion piece, is about a book on how unhealthy clinics work, and what the government should do about it, is says that "That those who provide a legal medical service may require federal protection speaks volumes about how stigmatized abortion is in our society."
Which brings you into thinking how bad the situation is that now people who are aborting, who at first were hiding, now want to raise their voices up, they believe that if they are going to commit abortion, it should be safe, and should be regulated, and the federal protecion should find those who hae unsafe clinics.

My topic was abortion on teeangers, which a lot of girls have died of, because they do not know what to do, or are mis-informed, and go to these places, that are unhealthy and can cause them to die, and ask for a lot of money.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/opinion/silent-about-abortion.html

english 1312 responding to a student writing

 Responding to a student writing

         Revision Strategies

After reading the Sommer's article on revision stratgies, my revision plans have changed, and now I had to apply different methods, like for example revising, and later on rewrite it and try to make it better, it is better to read it more than three times, and have wide explanations, and it is best not to generalize, and explain it well, you need to have it clean, so I would use all this new techniques to make it better, and neat, like for example, I noticed that I used to do a lot of repetition, demonstrates that my vocabulary should be more amplified, and modificate what I have wrong, than just being lazy, and just let it be like that. So first of all Im going to start by doing a brainstorm, then writing what comes up to my mind, then revise it, and edit it, then finish it, then take out the parts, that are do not fit or do not make sense at all, and then re-read it and most important not just go through it but actually revising it, and reviewing it several times, till it becomes best and it makes you feel satisfied following the cycles.

It mainly talks about how your editing may also change what your peers meaning of the wiring was, you might want to change it diffrently but your peer, must haveunderstood it differently than you did, that is one of the most important aspects to check; as I said before not to generalize, but the best thing is to always explain if you say many plants, specify which plants you are refering to.

english 1312 more than just error

More than just Error Connection

An analysis review on this reading was very intersting, becasue you could see how the corrections, and the editing, and realizing, what is important, and what is now has made the reader do all the reserach concerning our methods for a better writing.

It shows you the details that have been made, on the revisions, and what we did not realize before we had wrong and that now is very important such as repetition, accuracy and general improvements. One of the biggest mistake on revising the paper was that repetition is the most common error people doesn't notice until is very repetitive, when at the end its wrong, and the student did not have the time to revise it. 

Moving on another thing that made an impression in this reading was that most of us do not even check the accuracy of the writing it may seem really persuasive, but sources must always be there because otherewise the writing looks weak.

 If students would revise more often and understand every step of the revision it should always support writers in activating their strategies, following the steps first to plan their ideas, then to make their drafts, then editing and at the end, re-read it again for a better understanding to the writing.

This writing has shown that there are many details that we did not notice before, and should always help us for a better writing

Journal entry 9

Refelctions on the class

In my opinion the only thing that needs to be changed, is trying to wok more as a group with different people from our class, not the same ones, considering that most of us are shy, to just go ahead and talk to someone, but to the class, nothing has to be changed, I have learned in a fun, and interesting matter, my skills have improved over the semester, I liked having to write so much, because it is a way of showing your emotions, and showing that you really cared, about the class, and it is going to help us, throughout the rest of our semesters, to show our new skills.
My writing process in my own writing has changed in structuring everything, because I would always mix up, the words and the parts, and now  what we do the  most is double check the whole writing, and then do more research, because there is more than only google and wikipedia.

Journal entry8

Same-Sex Marriage

My community report was same-sex marriage, whether people was going to let it be legal or not, it was on how much people was in favor. What I liked the most about the writing process, was that you could actually do a lot of research, you got to learn more about it, going through different points of view, through opinions, videos, interviews and many things that you do not think on your life, but when you do research you get connected to your topic and want to research more, and actually get it.

For the future I would like to change, that people do not support same sex marriage, if they are happy they should let them be,as long as they are not hurting or offending you, and actually live in a free country, where people can pursuit their dreams and desires.

Third presidential debate

 Thrid presidential debate

As I noticed in the third presidential debate, that was held in Florida, major points were mentioned, having to do with foreign polic, such as terrorism, the longest war with Afganisthan and Pakistan, and what is going to happen with Israel and China.

When talking about war and the spendings on the army that were made during his still presidency, trillions of dollars, Obama maily talked about how that money was well invested, because the only thing he wanted was to keep us safe, so the money was not wasted, he will do whatever he needed to do for our own protection, while Romney on the other hand, was saying he would rather have spent, or is going to spend that money on the navy, because according to him the navy has not been working as it used to be used before. That was one of the major points that were argued on the table; something that interested me in the whole debate, was when the question about where America is right now, Obama said it was stronger that four years ago, because of the end of Iraqs war, and according to him employment was growning. So the war with Pakistan is not over yet, because Romney believes they have too many nuclear arms, that are out there; while both of the debaters argued, I could see that Obama was most of the time making fun of Romneys ideas, but overall I think Obama won the debate, he stayed strong during the whole debate, and I believe is sometimes rude from governor Romney to evade the moderator when he was about to say something.

vice presidential debate

The Vice President's debate

the question on who won the debate, is still a tie, according to me, both of them were ready to give all they got in them betweehn Joe Biden and Paul Ryan.

From what I saw, Paul Ryan, was the strongest one, always having something to say to persuade everyone, and to show his real feelings about what has happened,he was basically saying that Obama never did anything, and if there was a terrorist attack, they would never say it, he believes people should know the truth,  also talking about Iran, and other nuclear weapons, he was also talking about how employment rate, has decreased during Obama's presidency, Romney wants to help everyone, was promising how Romney cares about everyone, he wants to end poverty, and loves to help people, On the other hand, Joe Biden, was telling him to stop saying what they were going to do, instead he wants him to show America that all those promises are true, and that we will fight  for those people in need.

Then again Paul Ryan mentioned medicare, that while in Obama's presidency they took to much time deciding on who to give the medicare to, instead of just giving it, and helping more people.

While both parties, discussed over most political issues, that are poverty, education, unemployment, and both of them stayed strong on their ideas, eventhough they ended up fighting with words and interrumpting themselves, it was a great debate overall.

Political issue

Employment

The political issue I am going to be talking about this year is employment and unemployment, that people unfortunately has gone through desperation.

The article I have read is in the Huffington post, and it talks about how this year the employment rate for young adults has been the lowest in sixty years, study says.

Because the economy has been going down in this years, young people struggle finding jobs, eventhough they are well educated,and recently graduated from their colleges, it has not been easy for most of them, and when they do get a job, at the end get paid off less that they should get, but out of desperation, they settle with the first job they can get, after months or even years of searching for one. The population has been growing more with time, that can also be a factor.

The author stablishes credibility(ethos) by showing, where he got the information from in the beggining: J"ust 54 percent of Americans ages 18 to 24 currently have jobs, according to a study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. " also shows examples from  interviews he had made to others, and by putting a the economic policy institute as a resource. After showing this information it makes you want to read more. For pathos he is not really persuasing anyone, but yourself that everyone is on the look for jobs, so it is going to  be more difficult, so I guess is making you want to look somewhere else than a big city. and ethos by making you want to feel sad because of them, and want to make them look around or maybe inspire them to get a different education, because the economy has been going down that most people are unemployed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/09/employment-rate-young-adults_n_1264241.html

discourse communities

Discourse communities

My discourse community is called Rotex, is for young people fro 15 to any age, that has been on an exchange all over the world with the Rotary International program, the members at this point are from 16 years to 21 of age, both female and masculine, we are all students at this time our goal is to we help exchange students\foreigners who have just arrived in Mexico, to help them go through their culture shock and help them get settled, because we have been through the same experiences, so we know what it takes, or how someone feels being in a completely different country; you become a member by having gone on an exchange, and have a complete attendance on the different meetings we have over the year. Our communication is via phone, email or via social networks such as facebook, we actually have a group and thats where the president or anyone can post about their ideas, or coming activities.We write about new ideas, about our experiences and then share them with everyone else, this topics are important to the community, because when someone goes somewhere, when you do not know anyone, and everything it is just different, and we are people who speak other languages, and will help them go through it all, it is important to our community, because no one else could help that foreigner that us, that we have been thtough the same and know the language, and some other stuff. we talk spanish and english, but since a lot of our members have gone to Brazil, we speak spanish and portuguese, it is important that we speak other languages because it helps up to our future and opens doors to other opportunities in life, not everyone is a trilingual person. an important thing that has happened to all of us ex-exchange students is that one friend who went to Taiwan decided to open a mini school for languages, and you would get paid for teaching that language, so it opens opportunities not only for the future, but also for those people who want to learn the language and doesnt have the opportunity to go for a year to another country, where everything is different than your comfort zone, it takes a lot of courage to do that. Adapting to a community is not so easy, but our community of Rotex is easy to adapt, because as I have mentioned before, we have been in another country all by ourserlves, so we had to become independent, and learn how to make new friends, so it has been easy to adapt, with the topic we had been talking in class in the 2012 elections, I believe that in the elections it takes leadership, and as young people we are learning how to take the lead, and help others. this organization has made an impact on exchange students, eventhough this is our first year in the organization, the effect on those foreginers has been greater than we expected,  now we are getting more people,for them  to start thinking of others by giving them the support they need;On the other hand in their exchange  the foreigners get to stay in different houses, so if they are having trouble with their families they can come to us and we can give them advices. It takes a big heart to give some of your free time to help those who need it,therefore we inspire, and get inspired, so associating this with the political issues that are happening in our country are countless, it will help me, to get more information, and learn from otheres.

My Writing Process

I am gonna tell you a narrative story about how I think about myself as a writer.
I would describe myself as a good writer, with lack of experience towards writing or organizing in a proper maner my writings.When I start to write something, I just start to write what comes up to my mind, because I do not know why, I get confused sometimes when I star brainstorming or outlining, I just get desperate, I am a weird person, who has to be doing something all the time, I am not a calm person; I do not have any preferences as where I prefer to write, but lonely places are way better, or listening to classical music, makes me feel inspired most of the time, If I am going to write something long I need to start writing it way before, because if I am in a rush, I do not even like re reading what I write I just turn it in, what I like the most, is when teachers tell me what I have wrong, I guess I trust them more than me and then when they tell me what to do, I try to do it better, and they have more experience, but I guess I will start to write and then re read everything and try to make it sort of professional for my future.
I like writing one or two days before, so I can make up my mind and then go back to what I forgot to write or what does not makes sense, sometimes I do not go through my writings because im afraid, ill get everything wrong and then will have to start all over again, and now im confusing you, and myself, well overall I guess I just need someone to give me a little push, on my writings.

Carolina Alarcon

 My name is Carolina Alarcon, I was born in El Paso Texas, on a beautiful and green april 7th in the year 1993, Hello everyone, Im going to tell you a little bit about myself; I have two brothers and a sister, we are all pretty close to eachother, and also by age because my older brother is twenty, I am nineteen, my sister's eighteen and my younger brother is seventeen, of course I am closer to my sister, because we are only eleven months apart from age so, we are like twins we do everything together, except when I decided to go on an exchange for a year, I decided to go to India, somewplace not everyone has gone, not everyone knows how it really is, and I wanted to have adventures, and learn another culture, language, also how to be independent, my parents supported me through this, because my older brother also went on an exchange to Belgium, and he really did change, and grew up, so that was it. I went all by myself to India, I really did not know how India will turn out to be, I had only seen the movie "Slumdog Millionaire", so my expectations were not so big the first thing was  to go with an open mind, or i guess I did not really expect anything at all; I got the cultural shock pretty quickly as soon as I set a foot in India, out of nowhere..... cows, people, rickshaws, bycicles, motorcycles, scooters and cars everywhere and in your way, they also got to drive like crazy, as soon as I got in my host familie's house I called my mom, and told her I wanted to go back, I told her India was a crazy country, and the food is not tasty, I dont like it here, then I cried, but then my mom put my dad on the phone and reminded me how strong I was, and that he knew I could handle it on my own, so I said  to myself, Okay, i'll see how it goes this week; well after two days  I loved it there, I did not want to go back, my families where amazing, I got to meet a lot of people and learn about their festivals, ceremonies and stuff, everything now it seemed really interesting and colorful, I mean I was completely on the other side of the world, not eveyone get this kind of opportunity, Afterwards I met another exchange students from all over the world, we were always together and they became like my family we were all really close, so we got to travel all over India, to the south to the north, the himalayas and the most amazing deal was that we got to see the Dalai Lama!;  and other things like  I got to learn a little bit of hindi, to dance like them and do some art, an opportunity like this was unique, so I do not regret the time I got to stay there eventhough I am one year behind in school, im one year ahead of experiences, this is pretty much, the most interesting thing that has happened in my life.

My major is Special Education, at the beggining I was not so sure, but then I had some experiences when I was in high school, I had a boy with down syndrome in a class, and no one would really talk to him, because he just cant, he just stammered, so people did not bother to even try ,but I started to try to talk to him, and he would conversate with me that I thought I could help him, just by listening and being with him, so I did it after sometime then after some days, everything changed I was so happy everyday I did not know why, but then I realized it was because I helped him, the satisfaction of helping someone with difficulties is something you cant explain, you are just smiling the whole time, and it takes a lot of patience to do it, After sometime a special aid teacher came to me and asked me to go to some of her classes to see how she teaches, and have some experience so I went to the classes sometimes;  That was was influenced , and  inspired me to become an special education teacher.

I guess something that has made an impact in my life was my year in India, that is why I talk about it a lot to everyone; some think is interesting, some think is crazy, but if I wouldnt had gone, I wouldnt have learned so much about who I really am, and what im capable of doing.