Friday, December 11, 2009
Video readings of our Final Class in English 109.01
Hello students, friends and families--
Today, I am working to convert and upload the videos so that you will be able to see these readings, and follow along with the text that the students have posted here on the Blog.
I am really proud of this class and I had a great time teaching this group this quarter. I feel very blessed to have been able to get to know these terrific young people, and share in their hopes, dreams, and challenges. The work of this group has reminded me of how important it is to hear from many different points of view to get a more accurate portrait of what life is like in this busy world. To me, this has a calming and optimistic effect.
I hope you will also enjoy the stories, feelings, and ideas expressed here, and I think the students did an admirable job of trying to open windows and doors into the worlds that they have lived in.
Here's a group picture of the whole class. Enjoy!
Mike Lohre
Senior Lecturer in English
The Ohio State University
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Li
The strongest memory from taking 109.01 is doing lots of creative writing. I learn that when you write your finial essay, you need to revise more than one time in the writing process. I think every part of the writing process had grown a little because I had that feel and I am still learning it too.
The piece of writing that I had chosen is the snapshot 2: the characterization of a person for the reading. I pick this piece of writing because I like this one and I think it is nice. The inspiration for it is that I will remember her even when I grow older. She had watch over me when I was little girl.
Characterization of a Person
In this story, I will talk about a girl who was in my life when I grow up. I don’t know how to say in English because this story takes place at China. “3 sisters” is that what I call her and that how you translate from Chinese to English. We call her that because she is the three daughters at that family. I like her the best because she is kind and nice. When I was little girl she took care me when my family went to work. It almost likes a babysitter. But she took care of me for free. She also likes to take care of me when I was little. She lives in the same neighborhood as me. She has short black hair, dark brown eyes, and always ware nice clothes. She treats me like little sister. It felt comfortable when I around her. That it like she is part of the family. She likes to help people.
When she was getting married at age 22 year old, she dresses me up and put make up on me. That it the first time I had put make up on. At that day I felt happy for her because she had met her destiny one and she was very happy too. Later she had a baby girl and it is cute baby. I carry the baby for a while and it is cute when she smiles at me. After she give birth to a baby, she didn’t work and up until now. Even her daughter had already gone to school.
Jia Long Wu
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Tyler Stauch
My name is Tyler Scott Stauch. I was raised in Dublin, Ohio and currently still live there. Recently I graduated from Dublin Jerome High School and now I attend The Ohio State University Delaware Center. I plan on applying to the Fisher College of Business at the end of this school year to earn a business degree in aviation management. During my free time I enjoy doing anything outside like riding my dirt bike, fishing, and playing backyard sports, and hanging with friends. I love comfort food, but I am not a big fan of seafood.
Looking back after taking English 109.01, my strongest memory would have to be the class environment. The class environment is a great memory because it was small so everybody got to know each other and it really helped provide one good discussions on the material. The writing process has always been a struggle for me threw my educational career, but this class really helped me break down and brainstorm before drafting. I learned that brainstorming is very essential to writing a good paper because it helps you get all your thoughts out on paper, which therefore helps you pick the appropriate thought that best fits the prompt. In English 109.01 I learned to become an active reader. Before taking this class I hardly ever annotated the book that I was reading, but now this is no problem for me because this is where I have exceeded the most.
The piece of writing that I will be reading is a story of a skunk that was living in our yard. My parents did not appreciate the skunk living in our yard because it caused fear in us that our dog, Tanner, would get sprayed. Therefore it needed to be taken out! I picked this piece of writing because many people don’t encounter a skunk living in their yard. I was inspired to write this story because it is a story that my friend and I won’t forget. If there were a theme that is interpreted threw this story, it would be, “if something needs to be removed, there is always a reason why.”
Stinky
It was only two months ago when I noticed a skunk roaming threw my yard. As weeks passed by, I came to conclusion that he settled into his new home under my barn. After observing that the skunk was not going to move anytime soon, my Dad and I decided that this skunk needs to be shot to prevent it from spraying my chocolate lab, Tanner.
On a nice Sunday afternoon, my friend Jeff was coming over. After finishing the call with him, I went outside and sat on a rocking chair in the yard. As I was waiting, I happened to look over my shoulder. After looking over my shoulder, my eyes grew large because the skunk was twenty yards from where I was sitting chowing down on the green grass. As soon as I was done looking over my shoulder, my buddy Jeff had come steaming down my gravel driveway causing a cloud of dust to appear. I ran over to Jeff’s dusty black car and showed him the skunk. Jeff had brought his .22 caliber rifle over because he can’t shoot his gun in his neighborhood and we wanted to shoot targets in my back yard. As soon as his eyes saw the skunk, he quickly ran back to the trunk of his car and started preparing his gun to exterminate the skunk. He put five bullets into his clip and crept up on the skunk for a better shot. I observed near the car and watch him destroy the skunk. When the bullet first hit the skunk, its face froze and had an expression as if he was screaming. After the skunk was taking out, my Dad came outside and said, “ What’s all this shooting?”
I replied, “We got the skunk Dad!”
“Really? Are you guys going to take it out to the woods so it doesn’t start stinking up near the house?”
“ I think Jeff and I are going to let it sit for a while to make sure it is dead, then we will take it.”
“No. You guys need to take it now.”
“ Ok, I will.” I went and grabbed a scoop shovel out of the barn and went over to the skunk. As soon as I got it on the shovel, it started stinking really badly. The stink was so incredible that it caused my nostrils to get irritated and Jeff and I had to take turns to re-gain our breath. After walking nearly a 100 yards to reach the woods, we flung the skunk in to the woods where it still lies today!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Jimmy reads it and means it
My full name is James Raymond Wall IV. I graduated from Dublin Coffman High School in 2009, I have lived in Dublin, Ohio my entire life. I started classes at OSU Delaware in the fall of 2009, and i enjoy playing video games and ice hockey in my spare time.
Childhood Paradise
Originally I’m from Somalia; I lived in the states for almost two decade.
I’m studying to become a Chemical Engineer.
My hobbies are playing physical sports like football and soccer.
My strongest memory in this class is understands the writing process and ability to writing perfect ten papers. One thing I master in this class is how to write creative paper, use metaphors and other sarcastic expression. In the future, I see myself fitting comfortably in English 110, not struggling with my papers.
For my presentation I choose snapshot Four, because this piece tells the story of my childhood paradise. This place is where I use to shake off the entire stress related problem in less than a month. It was place you socialize with many different people that come from all the corners of country. The animals were the beauty of the place.
Childhood Paradise
As child, I had been travel to many places around the world. I have seen Serengeti, wilderness reservation in Tanzania, and Pyramids of Gaza in Egypt. However, no place that I seen has surpassed the beauty of my childhood paradise the Valley of Daar.
Daar Maalin was a summer camp set deep in the heart of a valley inside the wilderness, river running wild, steep jungle, and animals roaming freely feasting the lash green vegetation. No haunting was allowed, because it would ruin the beauty of the place, which was the animals who occupy the valley. The most amazing thing of the place was the Baboons, who occupy the trees on the bank of the river. They felt that we are threat to their territory by bombarding us with rocks. Regardless of the reasons for this phenomenon, we all had known that these Baboons want to play.
Every morning we collected dozens of rocks, wait for them to show up, than the game begins. Sometimes they chase us back to the river. Sometimes we chase them back to the steep jungle, which was spooky place occupied by Wild Hogs. Walking there, I remember, it feels like someone is breathing down on your neck. Sending chills to our spine, our body would start shivered and we would not know how fast we came out of there. Than the Monkeys go nuts. The spectators were some of the monkeys who were dangling on trees above us, and our parents who were surprise to see this phenomenon. Our parents were enjoying the entertainment without thinking about the danger this might lead to. After long battle under the scorching summer sun, we would postpone the game to take dip in the river, all of us including the Baboons in peace.
The sun had laid itself to rest ending long day, and the moon brightens over the valley. The smell of wood burning mix with sweet smell of lavender fills the fresh air. The children gather around the burning fire to listen the elders tell stories about warriors, who used to gather here long, time ago, which none of us are interested. They perform rituals ceremony usually haunting lions to gain the status of become warrior. Haunting loins with spire, give me a breake. Most of us would be snack for the king of the jungle. When everybody goes to sleep, the predators come reeling in to fight over the spoil leftovers. The Haynes start laughing, the loins started roaring, and parents grew worry. Morning came. After long month in the valley, the fun come to end and the packing begin. Daar Maalin was a place you feel relaxed and comfortable in harmony with the environment. Perhaps the most memorable part was the breathtaking view that the valley offers. However, those times are over now and the dreadful world of stress begins.
Good Times!!
English 109.01 was a class i wasnt sure i would like it. I told myself this is easy and i dont need any help with my english. But it turns out that i very much needed this class. This class taught me alot of things. It taught me how revise and polish my essays. I learned the more i try, the better of a writer i will be and in the future i wouldnt need any help. As far as where did i see myself growing the most, i would have to say my writing. With the help of this class my writing has definetly improved.
The piece of writing i chose to show is about my dear freind Hadel. Hadel was and still is my closest freind ever. I met her when i use to live back in Saudi Arabia. We would do anything and everything together. Anywhere you saw me, you saw her, and vice versa. This poem is basically about how i am grateful to God that i met her and i will always cherrish those memories we had together. Whether it was us fighting or us laughing. Nothing will ever change. We are still freinds till this day.
Here is My Poem. I titled it My Dear Friend:
My Dear Friend
Influences are either good or bad or in between
Life is either in black or white with gray in between
Friends can either help me or hurt me there’s no in between
I found a dear friend of mine that would cross the line of in between
Someone who wouldn’t mind being more then helpful and do right by me by all means
Where can I find another friend like mine that is so serine?
Who taught me about life and how to face my fears?
Not only fears but to join me when I needed to shed a few tears.
Someone who would keep near for all these years
I miss my friend of mine who was the tom to my jerry
The best of my friends who wouldn’t mind following me to the ends of the earth and would stay cheerful and merry
My dear friend of mine knew me when I was in my cocoon and when I morphed into a beautiful butterfly
Knew my friend when she was a duck and when she transformed into a swan and was no longer shy
I cannot lie to this day, I still cannot find someone like my dear friend of mine so I just close my eyes and go to the sky to see my dear friend of mine
Phenomenal Woman!
The poem “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou is one of my favorite poems. I was never a poetic person neither did I care for poetry. My mother got me into poetry. One Sunday morning we were sitting in front of the TV watching an Oprah rerun and she happened to be speaking about Maya Angelous. She talked about how she’s not just a poet, she’s also a humanitarian. I never really read any of her poems so I asked my mom. She told me that she loves her poems. She told me to Google her work and I did. I started reading all of them but the one that caught my attention happened to be Phenomenal Woman. This poem is about how she’s not the most beautiful girl but she has something that other pretty girls don’t. She says “pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion models size but when I start to tell them they think I’m telling lies”. I love that line because it shows that there is more to a woman than just good looks and a great body. This poem confirms that you don’t have all looks; you should always have something else other than that. It lets you know that you should always be confident about yourself regardless of how you look and regardless of what society says of you.
Never Shall I Forget
My strongest memory from taking English 109.01, is reading the book Ordinary Resurrections, by Jonathan Kozol. To me it was a book that helped me to realize what many children around the world, not just in the Bronx, New York, have to deal with each day. I see how precious life is and how lucky I am to have all the things that I have. I learned many things about the writing process, such as how to write an essay that was worth reading, and how to start off a paper which was my struggle in the beginning of this class.
It was tough to choose one writing that I really liked or wanted to read, but the one that I chose is Never Shall I Forget. It is a poem that I wrote about the day my little sister, Sofia was born. I would have to say that that day was one of the happiest days of my life. Waiting for her for nine months was tough because I wanted so bad to be a big sister again and hold a precious little baby in my arms. Her being born, showed me a lot about myself and I realized that something so little could bring such happiness to so many people, including myself.
Never Shall I Forget
Never shall I forget that cold January afternoon
Never shall I forget snow flakes the size of quarters,
falling from the ocean blue sky
Never shall I forget the time I waited
Never shall I forget the day I saw her
Never shall I forget the light in her eyes,
that shined like the brightest star in the sky
Never shall I forget the joy she brought me
Never shall I forget the moment I held her
Never shall I forget the sound of her cry
Never shall I forget calling my friends and telling them
Never shall I forget bringing her home in her little pink blanket
Never shall I forget watching her sleep
wondering how something so little could bring so much peace
Never shall I forget thanking God for her
Never shall I forget the day my baby sister was born
Never!
Introduction of Annie Yu
I’ve been living with my stepmother since I was three years old. She is nothing like the wicked and evil stepmothers portrayed in Cinderella or Snow White. She’s very kind, caring and gentle most of the time. However, you never want her to get mad as she has the ability to scold people for an hour or two, or even more. When I am not studying for my exams or misbehaved, she gets mad at me and will scold me for the whole night.
My stepmom has to work on weekdays from nine to six. She’s the toughest woman I’ve ever seen. After working in office, she cooked dinner for the whole family at home, then she’ll do all the housework until twelve at night. She always looks tired and exhausted, like she can fall asleep anytime, anywhere. I never thank her for all that work she does for the family, I always take it for granted.
The night before I moved to the United States, she cooked all my favorite dishes and was very quiet. I looked into her eyes, and they are filled with tears. I was speechless, thinking of the scenes when she’s doing housework and scolding me for not studying my tests. She’s only a stepmom, so actually she doesn’t have to do anything for me or even care about me. However, she’s the one who’s always worried about me and cared for me. My father once told me that stepmom is not looking for any pay back from me for what she has done for me. I would love to say she’s the greatest stepmom ever, but the fact is she’s more to me than my stepmother and she will always take a very important part in my heart.
Hello, Ladies and Gentleman
In English 109.01 I have really enjoyed a lot of the writing that I have been able to do. I also enjoyed reading The House on Mango Street. I think that I have also learned a lot about the writing process in general. I think I am getting better at brainstorming and playing around with different ideas as I write and it is helping me to open up and be more creative. I think this makes the writing process a lot more enjoyable and I am happy with the way I have begun to grow as a writer. I feel like I can be more creative and I have more of an outlet because this class has been good practice to develop my writng skills.
The piece of writing that I chose to read for the class was my fourth snapshot. I wrote this one about a place downtown called Park Street Tavern where there is a jam session every tuesday night. I chose to read it because I think I did my best to give life to that feeling I get when I hear the music there. It is really about that feeling and about the synergy between musicians during a good performance.
There’s a place downtown where all the cool cats go to jam. It’s a tavern on the north end and on any given Tuesday night you can hear all of it from the street. Cool smoky tone saxophones, slide trombones, wails and moans, chomping keys, walking bass lines, crashing cymbals and brushes on a snare. It all fills the air and spills out through the doors and windows. It’s warm inside, and it smells like free popcorn, but the sound always brings me home, and when I walk in the back door during Pete’s solo there’s always a chair open.
I’ll walk in around ten, buy my coca cola from the pretty girl at the bar and take a seat next to a stranger. Some of these people aren’t here for any jazz, but you can tell who is. You can see a few drumsticks by the bar, the old timers are in the corner nursing their trumpets, and you can hear a symphony of b flats coming from a group of sax players tuning up by the door. I just write my name on the list and set my guitar against the wall next to me while I listen to the quartet as they snap another tune.
Later in the evening I’ll join the band. I might not know anyone there, but when I pull out my guitar
it doesn’t matter. When you’re on stage it’s like everyone knows your name. You call a tune
that everybody knows and it all comes together.
Memories
My strongest memory from 109.01 would be our class dissussion. I enjoyed how as a class we would sit together and discuss what we were reading. In high school, it wasn't like that we would all sit at our desks and only a few people would talk. It has helped me to be comfortable with talking as a group. In 109.01, I also learned new things about the writing process. Invention is a vital part of the writing process. It helps you to get some ideas establish and then pick from those ideas. I never did this in high school. I just would write about the first thing that popped into my head. I grew in this class especially in the area of creative writing. I enjoy writing now, whereas before i hated writing. It didn't matter what writing it was, academic or creative, i hated it. I can now say that I actually enjoy.
I chose the piece of writing, Snapshot Seven. The one where we talked about our favorite song and why it was our favorite song. I picked this piece because it stands out most in my mind about my everyday life and its about music which is a part of most college students life. The inspiration for this piece was my mother and the song "Don't Forget to Remember Me" by Carrie Underwood. There is a theme with all of the creative writing that we have done. In all of them, we have written about things or people that have had an affect on our life. This theme is seen also in this piece which i think is important.
Carrie Underwood was on American Idol.
She is one of my favorite country singers.
"Don't Forget to Remember Me" is one of her popular songs.
I like to listen to all kinds of music. I think the best kind of music, however, is music that has meaning or tells a story. It makes it seem more related to life and allows people to make connections to things in their life too. There is a song that has stuck with me since it came out in 2005 and now seems very vivid in my mind. The song is "Don't Forget to Remember Me" by Carrie Underwood.
This song is about a girl who has grown up and is now leaving home. She sings, "Eighteen years have come and gone, for mama they flew by but for me they drug on and on." She is saying good-bye and moving on with her own life. She doesn't want her family to forget her. This song means a lot to me, because I am at that stage in my life now. I'm ready to leave home. Every time I hear this song I think about how it will be when I do eventually leave, if mom and I will stay as close as we are now. It tells of the relationship she has with her mom which is most similar to mine. She sings, "Hey Mama don't forget to tell my baby sister I'll see her in the fall and tell Mee-Mal that I miss her yeah I should give her a call and make sure you tell daddy that I'm still his little girl yeah I still feel where I'm supposed to be but don't forget to remember me." This is probably one of my favorite songs and my mom's too. This song has had a great influence on me to not be afraid to leave as they will remember me.