Xokandieeyesxo's Blog

End of Semester (whattttt) Questionnaire

xokandieeyesxo — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:12:37 +0000

What was your favorite writing assignment? Why? I think my favorite was one of the first ones when we rolled over the piece of paper and would go around the circle and write something different and it really was cool at the end. This type of stuff is my favorite type of writing, just write whatever comes from the pen or pencil and write it down. It’s funny that way too and I think it brought the class closer together.
What was your least favorite writing assignment? Why? I didn’t like the Intertextuality and Investigation exercise. For me it’s hard to take someone else’s work which is so very different from my own and use it to create something else. Additionally I don’t like to even use other author’s ideas so it was hard for me to do this because I felt like I was copying.
Discuss your reactions to full-group workshops. Would you change them in any way? I liked full-group workshops because everyone’s writing style is different and everyone perceives things in different ways so it’s good to get feedback from all of these different individuals. All of this has made me a better writer and I feel that I can even somewhat step back from my work and look at it through another’s perspective. The only thing that I might change is the whole everyone has to make a comment. Yes I think it is important for people to participate but it gets really repetitive when everyone says the same thing so I liked it better towards the end of the semester when we would just comment if we had something new to say.
Discuss your reactions to small-group workshops. Would you change them in any way? I absolutely loved my small group we all got along really well and even though we all have very different writing styles I feel that was the best part of the group. I don’t think I would change a single thing because it was really beneficial to not only the author of the piece everyone was looking at but to everyone else who was also listening and taking in the advice.
Did the overall course structure (two portfolios, emphasis on invention before revision, arrangement, delivery) helped your writing practice? Yes I think it was a good plan to focus on inventing yourself and discovering what genre you like writing in best and then focus on writing that way and making changes to better your writing. Then we would focus on the main part which is how you put your portfolio together, how you lay out your work, how you deliver your message in an oral setting, and other stuff like that. I liked how this course was set up from the beginning and I wouldn’t change much if anything.
Would you have liked more specific instructions on genre conventions (e.g. poetry, prose, creative nonfiction, etc.) or were you comfortable with the multigenre or genre-less approach to writing? Explain your answer. I actually think we should have been told to write in every style and see what fits best. This falls into that invention phase. I myself tried to write at least one piece in every style because I didn’t know what I was actually capable of and I wanted to toy around with a bunch of genres. So my suggestion is to have a schedule and each week the students have to write in whichever genre that week is, and this can be done on the blog or preferably to me, in their journal.
Did you like having the opportunity to negotiate grading criteria? Were you able to fully participate in this process? How would you change it for future classes? Yes I liked the fact that you took the students ideas into consideration, but ultimately you are the teacher and you are going to grade as you see fit whatever that may be. As I have said before and I will say it again, you can’t grade creative writing and I think the more we discussed it the more we came to that conclusion and there really is no right or wrong creative writing piece. That’s the frustrating thing about creative writing. I really don’t know how you would change it to make it better but some type of standards or rubrics need to be made because the students never know how they are doing in the class without some sort of criteria.
Did keeping a journal and blog help your writing practice? Explain. I think the journal really helped my writing because I usually write in everything, my physics notebook, my planner, random pieces of paper, it was nice to actually have one place to put all my writings and I would keep it with me at all times to do just that. The blog didn’t necessarily help my writing but it didn’t hurt it either. I have never done a blog so it was hard for me at the beginning to really figure out what I was going to write and say and title my things as, etc. So I would say students should have this option, or another option, maybe even better is have students make notes in their Facebook pages so they can get feedback from all of their peers and a wider variety of people.
What did you use the blog medium for (creative writing, reading response, journaling, etc.)? I did a lot of different things with the blog, like I said, I never really knew what to do so I did a lot of exploring and played with a lot of things. I put some pieces of mine on their, but I also commented on a lot of the classroom activities. I sometimes just wrote random thoughts about my day or whatever I wanted to write, because after all that is what creative writing is all about, you write what you want, what you feel, what seems natural.
Discuss my performance as an instructor. Did you find the way the course was conducted satisfactory? Would you have liked the instruction to be different? Explain. I liked everything about this course except the fact that we never knew how we were doing in it. Yes we knew how many absences we had acquired throughout the semester and we knew how many blogs and journal entries we had done, but there were no grades posted anywhere. I would like to have maybe at least a midterm grade and possibly a grade before the final portfolio. It would just be helpful to know what exactly you need to improve on, etc. Other than that I liked your laid back teaching style and how you really got everyone into the discussions. I liked the writing prompts at the beginning they definitely helped me as a writer in many genres, and I liked the small and big group workshops which I discussed above. I don’t think the required books were necessary for this class because it’s not an English class really, or reading, it’s a writing class. I think by this point in our academic careers most of us have read enough literature on our own to develop a good understanding of different writing styles and genres so those books just didn’t seem necessary to me. Other than that stuff this was my favorite class this semester!
Please offer some advice or helpful hints for students taking this course in the future.

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I often use writing samples from past students as models in my classroom. Please check one of the boxes and type in your name and today’s date below:

_X_ I give you permission to use writing samples from my English 227 portfolio

__ I do not give you permission to use writing samples from my English 227 portfolio

Print Name: Stacie Cherie Morris

Date: 12-01-09

Signature:

Journal Review-Collecting Children’s Books

xokandieeyesxo — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:21:35 +0000

The journal that I read was more of a blog than a journal. The blog really caught my interest because I enjoy writing children’s books and the blog reviews all sorts of children’s books. The author himself has never written a children’s book but he has written young adult literature and currently works at an university library cataloging children’s books. The blog wasn’t anything fancy, but it wasn’t boring either. It was actually quite entertaining and contained a lot of humor. The blog wouldn’t just bore you with facts but the author also provided comic relief by adding pictures and funny stories about his life. His blog has a lot of subscribers so I would guess that people seem to think he knows what he is talking about and I mean his job is to look at children’s books day in and day out, I bet he forms his own opinions on each and every book. I think if I had a child I might want to check out some of the good books on the market and this would be a good sight to go to because it has a wide variety of stories, poems, novels, and anything that relates to children. I couldn’t submit any of my work for review because he only reviews already published work not rough copies but that’s okay. I really enjoyed looking at his blogs and it helps me as a reader to get an understanding of how older individuals view different stories and what they do and do not like. I will definitely keep looking at his blogs in the future and who knows, maybe even one day he will be reviewing my book!

Writer’s Inventory Redux

xokandieeyesxo — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:01:38 +0000

Finish this sentence: Creative writing is… What I like to do in my free time.
Briefly describe your history or background in reading and writing creative texts. Before this class I haven’t read a lot of creative writing other than the popular texts. I have and always will write in my free time, when I’m bored, frustrated, and just want to get something off of my mind and onto paper. I don’t have a huge history but I hope to have a greater future with creative writing.
Are writers born, made, or both? Explain your answer. I think it depends on how you are raised. If your parents were writers obviously you might write more than others and get an education in literature most people won’t get. Me personally was made. Both my sister and I write poetry and are both really good at it. Hers is a lot more dark and deep than mine is, haha who am I kidding I like writing poetry for children. Therefore I believe you make yourself a writer but it doesn’t help if you have creative writing genes.
Explain how writing affects your daily life. Like I said above I write almost everyday in my notebook on topics other than school related. When I want to get something off my chest I write it down. And surprisingly enough not all of my writing is poetry, I write stories and songs and in many other genres. I think it really helps me to not stress and when I am feeling stressed writing is one way to relieve that stress so I would say writing has a large impact on my life.
What is the purpose of the creative writer in contemporary society? Well writing is everywhere and in todays society where we are going to the “real world” type of literature I think creative writing is very important. The creative writers job is to challenge a reader to think about things differently or in a way you wouldn’t normally and enjoy it. Creative writing really needs to be entertaining to the individual reading it which is why I think that that writers should write a variety of different things for people of all types. Writers influence our world and especially children, which I plan on doing.
Will you continue to write creatively when this course ends? What are your plans? Yes I love writing. I think this course has taught me a lot about writing. I see things in many different ways now, the way I want readers to see it, and the way others see it. The difference is sometimes huge and I hope to continue to expand my creative writing portfolio every year. The prompts we were given in class were very helpful and I think I will continue to use some of them or make up some of my own and see what kind of stuff I get from that. I hope to get some of my children’s stories published someday, maybe even become the next Dr. Seuss or Shel Silverstein of children’s books. That seems like a good goal, but I have to keep up the writing and publishing my stuff.

Tick Tock

xokandieeyesxo — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:05:39 +0000

Random poem I literally just wrote 2 minutes ago!

Tick tock,

You cry, you crawl,

You stand, you walk.

Tick tock,

You grow and learn,

And laugh and talk.

Tick tock,

You try to fly,

But you fall of a rock.

Tick tock,

You’re no longer young,

So you need the doc.

Tick tock,

You find the shoe,

But you can’t find the sock.

Tick tock,

You see the door,

But it won’t unlock.

Tick tock,

You’ve lost the fight,

Against the clock.

the coolest disney characters

xokandieeyesxo — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:41:39 +0000

ok so for my childrens literature class I’ve had to watch a lot of Disney movies and read a lot of fairytales recently….so I’ve composed a list of what I believe are the coolest Disney characters. There are so many more I could add and I wish I had more time but trying to remember every Disney movie is a chore and to categorize the characters is even harder.

20. Dori from “Finding Nemo”

19. Pongo from “101 Dalmations”

18. Iago from “Aladdin”

17. Baloo from “The Jungle Book”

16. Sir Hiss from “Robin Hood”

15. Timon and Pumba from “The Lion King”

14. Chef Louis and Sabastian from “The Little Mermaid”

13. Apu from “Aladdin”

12. Goofy from “Mickey Mouse”

11. Captain Hook from “Peter Pan”

10. Flower from “Bambi”

9. Lumiere from “Beauty and the Beast”

8. Belle from “Beauty and the Beast”

7. Scar from “The Lion King”

6. Stitch from “Lilo and Stich”

5. The Cheshire Cat from “Alice and Wonderland”

4. Flik from “A Bugs Life”

3. Marlin from “Finding Nemo”

2. Peter Pan from “Peter Pan”

1. Genie from “Aladdin”

writing a novel…..okkkk

xokandieeyesxo — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:57:29 +0000

So since it is novel November I guess I’m going to be like the rest of the class and try to write a novel. I have never written anything over a 10 page paper before and I don’t even know where to begin. I do have a lot of crazy dreams at night and maybe I might just start with one of them and see where I go from there, but I don’t imagine my first novel will be very good but I guess you never know until you try so why not! The only problem I am facing at the moment is deciding how to begin the novel and I’m trying to get feedback from friends and they think I should start out by foreshadowing….so that’s probably what I’m going to do since I have no clue what else to do and I’m new to this whole novel writing.

Anyway I really want to write about a person who has abnormal abilities almost superhuman like qualities and never really figures out why he is “special” and ultimately it’s because his Harry Potter acceptance letter was lost in the mail because the owl died or something, but that’s just one idea. I actually have a lot of ideas but not really sure if any of these ideas can be created into 50,000 words….I mean that’s A LOT!!! So I guess my next blogs will be about how this whole writing process is going and what I think about having no life and just writing all the damn time. hahah I mean I seem to have no free time as it is but that’s okay I like to stay busy and this is going to be a challenge and an adventure at the same time. To come to think of it I’m actually okay with this because Thanksgiving break falls in November and I’m going to California to visit family and so I can write a lot on the planes and when I’m bored…..Ok I might actually be able to complete this after all. ok enough I gotta get to work…..here goes

99 things you have to watch

xokandieeyesxo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:22:23 +0000

01) grape stomp
02) charlie bit me
03) chocolate rain
04) dancing baby
05) post secret
06) charlie the unicorn
07) mentos and diet coke
08) numa numa
09) peanut butter jelly time
10) george lucas in love
11) you’re the man now dog
12) yatta
13) star wars kid
14) bubb rubb
15) the flying spaghetti monster
16) dramatic chipmunk
17) homestar runner
18) gi joe pork chop sandwiches
19) fail blog
20) skateboarding dog
21) all your base are belong to us
22) winnebago man
23) we like the moon
24) i can has cheezburger
25) barney vs. tupac
26) shining
27) cute overload
28) rick roll
29) lazy sunday
30) david after the dentist
31) powerthirst
32) christian the lion
33) bert and ernie rap
34) lady punch
35) leprechaun in alabama
36) where the hell is matt
37) boom goes the dynamite
38) breakdancing baby
39) drunk jeff goldblum
40) scarlet takes a tumble
41) susan boyle
42) gay mount everest
43) afro ninja
44) cop shoots himself in leg in classroom
45) tron guy
46) “leave britney alone”
47) laughing baby
48) i’m the juggernaut bitch
49) exploding whale
50) take on me the literal version
51) bill o’reilly flips out
52) don’t tase me bro
53) the landlord
54) breakdancing baby kick
55) the pet penguin
56) ms. south carolina answers a question
57) i’m f*#king matt damon
58) will it blend
59) spaghetti cat
60) tom cruise kills oprah
61) little superstar
62) chad vader
63) pretty much everywhere it’s going to be hot
64) i like turtles
65) who needs a movie
66) jake e. lee shreds
67) hawaii chair
68) aussie party
69) hitler plans burning man
70) montgomery flea market
71) look at the horse
72) asian backstreet boys
73) leroy jenkins
74) pinky the cat
75) monkey sniffs finger
76) sneezing panda
77) prison inmates remake “thriller”
78) techno viking
79) ask a ninja
80) best man trips and ruins wedding
81) best wedding toast ever (amy’s song)
82) kitten surprise (how to break up a cat fight)
83) katana sword infomercial goes wrong
84) matrix ping pong
85) la pequena prohibida
86) angry german kid (translated)
87) evolution of dance
88) ok go “here it goes again”
89) battle at kruger (lions vs. buffalos vs. crocodiles)
90) daft hands
91) human beatbox
92) most t-shirts worn at once
93) zero g dog
94) cuppy cakes song
95) george washington
96) scary maze prank
97) gay referee
98) tranquilized bear hits trampoline
99) reporter gets a fly in the mouth

xtra normal

xokandieeyesxo — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:24:59 +0000

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5472661

Words for Women to Live By :)

xokandieeyesxo — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:57:18 +0000

my mom sent me this….thought I would share with the girls

1. Aspire to be Barbie – the bitch has everything.
2. If the shoe fits - buy them in every color.

3. Take life with a pinch of salt… A wedge of lime, and a shot of tequila.

4. In need of a support group? – Cocktail hour with the girls!

5. Go on the 30 day diet. (I’m on it and so far I’ve lost 15 days).

6. When life gets you down – just put on your big girl panties and deal with it.

7. Let your greatest fear be that there is no PMS and this is just your personality.

8. I know I’m in my own little world, but it’s ok. They know me here.

9. Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself.

10. Don’t get your knickers in a knot; it solves nothing and makes you walk funny.

11. When life gives you lemons in 2009 – turn it into lemonade then mix it with vodka.

12. Remember where ever there is a good looking; sweet, single or married man there is some woman tired of his bullshit!

13. Keep your chin up, only the first 40 years of parenthood are the hardest.

14. If it has Tires or Testicles it’s gonna give you trouble.

15. By the time a women realizes her mother was right, she has a daughter who thinks she’s wrong.

Slinky

xokandieeyesxo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:45:40 +0000

I have a slinky.

That is new.

I want to play.

But what do I do?

Do I set it on my head?

And watch it fall off?

What happens if I sneeze?

Or I have to cough?

Should I push it down the stairs?

Or roll it down a slide?

I have a lot of options.

Will you help me decide?

Can I put it outside?

And let the wind blow it over?

But what if it gets eaten,

By my dog Mr. Clover?

For crying out loud,

I know what I’ll do.

I’ll set it on my knee,

And roll it onto my shoe.