Which Essay I Enjoyed the Most

I definitely enjoyed Mike Rose's essay the most of the three, and I believe that is mostly because I have been there myself to a certain extent. I was in a remedial English class once, and it was pretty rough. I was also in a marine biology class, that was the alternative to regular biology of chemistry. That class had a lot of loud sports players who had little to no interest in school whatsoever. The teacher was pretty quiet, and most of the time overwhelmed with the class. But eventually, he got used to the noise, and just taught over our voices. The information he was teaching us was actually very interesting, so we eventually learned to stay quiet, and almost everyone really enjoyed the class. If Mike Rose's teacher, Mr. Alvarez, had done that with his Spanish class, things may have turned out differently. Maybe the students would have realized that Spanish is an important thing to know, especially when you live in LA.

Comparing Malcolm X's, Franklin's, and Rose's Essays

The biggest difference to me with these essays is that Malcolm X and Benjamin Franklin wrote about a very specific part of their education, reading, and in Mike Rose's essay, he talked about how the environment in which he was educated affected him. I found Mike Rose's essay much more interesting, partly because I had experienced some of it myself, and I could relate much easier to Mike Rose's situation, than I could to Malcolm X's or Benjamin Franklin's. From what they wrote, it sounded like both Malcolm X and Benjamin Franklin were encouraged to read and to further educate themselves by most of the people in their lives. However, Mike Rose was struggling to find inspiration and a role model for his education.

Analyzing Ducks

Ducks are made up of many parts, and many systems, much like all other animals. They have a nervous system, a respiratory system, an endocrine system, and a digestive system. Ducks are birds, so they have wings, and they can fly. They have webbed feet, which are better for propelling themselves while they swim in water. Their feathers are very water resistant, which is what helps them float on top of the water. They also have a rounded bill, rather than the beak that some birds have. When ducks mature, they loose their baby feathers, called down feathers, which are used in clothing, and blankets and such. Ducks lay eggs.

How Cubing Can Help Your Writing

Cubing can be a very useful strategy, especially if you are having trouble getting started on a paper. It give you some easy questions to ask yourself about your topic, describe it, analyze it, compare it, apply it, associate it, and argue it. When you answer those questions about your topic, I would probably suggest using bullet points to make a list. That way you can easily incorporate ideas from each question into your paper, without having to take apart a paragraph. In our in class cubing exercise, our group examined texting. My part was the "describe it" portion. It was fairly easy to think of ways to describe texting, but I found that some of my points kind of invaded the other portions of the cubing assignment. This is why I would suggest making a list, rather than writing out paragraphs, because you are bound to have ideas overlapping, and that way you will be less likely to repeat yourself.

In Class Cubing Assignment - Describing Texting

Texting is a way of communication that has only been around for only about ten years. It is essentially an instant message that is sent between phones. You type a message with the keys on your phone, address it to someone in your contact list, and in a few seconds, they receive your worded message. Typically a text message contains only 140 characters, so text messages are usually brief. But if one message is not enough to get the amount of information across, then multiple messages may be sent. Text messages can also be used by companies to send out relevant information to their clients, such as the school alert text messages that Olympic College sends out.Text messages can also be used to send pictures, videos, or internet links.

Blog posts can be the ultimate rough draft for any project. You could potentially write a paper on a blog post, and then ask for editing advice, or technical writing advice from people around the world. It is a medium that needs no backspace or copy paste. You can effectively write out your paper, read it aloud to yourself, and then use notes and your blog post to write your paper. It's a kind of way to get more than you own input on the editing of your paper. Like the difference between a group project, and individual projects. Other people might see your words differently than you intended, and allowing them to be read in a blog post before the paper is due, could potentially save you some trouble in the end.

Mike Rose

I did once have a teacher that was like Mr. Montez, Mike Rose's Spanish 1 teacher. I'm not going to put his real name in here, so I'll call him Mr. White. Mr White was my marine biology teacher in high school. He was a really nice guy, and he had a genuine desire to teach us about marine biology. The problem was, he was intimidated by the students. Marine biology was an alternative science class to biology or chemistry, so it was filled with lots of loud kids from the sports teams, who didn't have much interest in school whatsoever, one of those students being myself. When he got the courage to settle us down, the class was very interesting, but almost every day, we would spend about 20 minutes talking after the class had started. Voc Ed and other remedial classes are a joke in my opinion. Every student is going to struggle with one class or another. It should be up to the school and the teachers to help such students when they struggle. I was in a remedial english class in middle school, and it was completely worthless. We would come to class every day, the teacher would tell us to write a story on a piece of paper, and then he would go read his book. He didn't give us any guidance, and if we ever asked for any help with our writing, he would tell us to talk to other students about it. I have struggled my entire life with writing, but in high school, I had a great teacher, who saw my struggling, and decided she would help. I met with her after school hours, and she would help me edit my writing. I wouldn't consider myself to be a great writer by any means, but I am significantly better at it now. I think Ken Harvey and myself kind of share that problem of being disoriented. Right now I am struggling with a decision. I have always wanted to be in the army, ever since I was a little kid. And now I am trying to figure out if I should quit school and join now, or if I should finish at least an AA, and then join. I know that I am going to join the army, the question is when. College can be disorienting because the options are almost limitless. I find it difficult to decide what I actually want to study in college. High school was more structured, you have to take this many math classes, this many english classes, and some foreign language. In college, you get to decide, and you get to study whatever you want to, and for me, that's pretty tough. My educational experience was very similar to Mike Rose's.