I really enjoyed everyone’s presentations. Rose’s Wiki was very informative and heart wrenching. Gary’s was so high tech! He deserves an A! I could tell that everyone put a lot of effort into their presentations and had topics they were passionate about.
Wow! The semester is almost over! Time has flown by! This has been my first semester back taking classes in years… It has been an interesting few months. I am grateful that I started with English 112. What a way to get back in the swing of things! I am relearning how to write research papers, which I will appreciate when I take my next classes. Learning how to utilize the online library resources will benefit me in the future as well. I have about 10 more courses to take before I graduate, so I will be using the BGSU library to get sources for all of my future papers. I have also learned a great deal about how online classes work in general. After this class, I think I will be ready to take on any class!
Thank goodness for our textbook! Chapter nine is going to be my saving grace. I have read about several techniques for my introduction and conclusion. I tend to get overly nervous when writing, but having an idea of the style of writing I will use is definitely helpful! Oh, and chapter seven! This chapter was immensely useful as well! I plan on summarizing my sources and synthesizing them to strengthen my thesis. Writing the proposal and source analysis has helped me to put my thoughts into structured essays. I plan on cutting parts from those essays and placing them into my big paper. I feel like all along I was taking baby steps to get to this final paper.
Schools across the Columbus area have an extreme amount of differences. The schools in the Gahanna School district are equipped with all of the latest tools and technology to provide for a great education. Schools in Pickerington and Reynoldsburg have new supplies and their buildings are in tip top shape. Why then is it ok for the schools in the Whitehall area to be in shambles and the supply of educational tools is lacking? Are the children in Whitehall and East Columbus not as important as those in Pickerington, Gahanna and Reynoldsburg?
Obviously, the answer is that all children are important. All children deserve the right to receive the best education possible. Educated people are more likely to be able to find jobs and make good decisions. Providing children with a quality education is beneficial to everyone. Educated people are less likely to be on welfare and government aide than those that have not been educated.
The fact that schools rely on property taxes to fund their programs is unfair and needs to be changed. In other European countries and Japan, the federal government foots the bill. The schools are all receive just about the same amount of money providing an equitable education to all students. This is the way it should be here.
Just because I make a meager salary does not mean that my children do not deserve the same quality education as the wealthier people in a nearby city. We need to make changes to help our children get off to the best start they can!
** Writing this editorial helped me to practice writing to an audience of my peers while expressing my thoughts. I will use the same emphasis in my paper.
My proposal is done! Thank goodness! I have researched several sources and am confident that I have chosen a controversial topic.
This proposal was a good way to start the multi source essay. I have organized my thoughts and have thought of a plan of action. My working thesis is one that I am passionate about. There are many different sources that I can work with.
In the future, I may write a proposal to organize my thoughts and give me direction for future papers I am required to write.
Being a single mother of two intelligent boys, I am concerned with the level of education they will receive. I want the very best for them. My oldest child started kindergarten this year. Through my research of the elementary schools in the area, I have found that there are numerous schools in the Columbus Ohio area that are scoring extremely poorly on the state wide exams. I moved to an area in the city of Reynoldsburg Ohio that is within the boundaries of the Gahanna Jefferson School District. The schools in that district are doing much better than the schools ten minutes down the road in Columbus.
Gahanna is a much wealthier area than Columbus. The houses are worth more than the houses in Columbus. Because schools receive much of their money from property taxes, the schools are in much better shape. There is a vicious cycle in the works. Children from poorer areas will receive a poorer education. The schools have less supplies to aide in the teaching process. This is a sad situation. Because the child’s parents may not do well financially, the child’s education suffers. This leads to the child not living up to their potential and in turn, being stuck in an impoverished life.
To look at this subject from another point of view, I have been thinking about how the residents of the wealthier areas might feel. They may have worked hard to achieve the economic status they are in. It may not be fair to have the property taxes they pay be shared with the much less amounts payed by areas with less of a tax.
Some states are considering changing the way schools get their money. In Georgia, there is talk of a sales tax that will take the place of the property tax. That idea would be beneficially because it would add fairness to all of the schools. A state wide sales tax could be dispersed equally among all schools.
Much more research is needed to come up with the solution to this problem. Luckily, the library tutorial has prepared me well! My essay is going to be directed towards state legislators.
It is that time of year again. I had to fill out the paper work and get ready for it… It was time for my annual review! At first I was a bit nervous. How are my managers viewing my work ethic? Then it donned on me, I can use my synthesizing skills to show them why I deserve a raise!
So, I got to work. I started by contacting a few of the vendors I deal with on a daily basis. They agreed to email me with comments praising my efforts. That was a good start.
I then printed off my time card for the past several weeks. This will be a great visual aide to illustrate my reliability. I do not come in late, leave early, or miss days from work.
My last resource was cookies. I made a big batch of cookies. Because I started scheduling monthly potlucks that help to keep the morale up in our office, I thought cookies would be a reminder of those events.
On the day of my review, I was able to convince my managers that I did deserve a monetary increase. The emails, time cards and especially the cookies were unique ways to show my team that I was an important part of the team.
Cha-ching!
Now that I have finally finished my first essay, we have an assignment to start a second essay! This college stuff is keeping me busy… The good news is that the first essay assignment has helped to prepare me for the second essay.
The first assignment had me to read, annotate, summarize and critique an article. For this next essay, I will be doing pretty much the sames tasks, except I am not planning on doing a critique. Another difference about the second essay is that I will be using more than one article to prove my point (whatever my point will be). I will be synthesizing all of the articles. Because I have been focusing on summarizing, synthesizing will be a cinch.
The fact that this class started off with a critique and moved onto a synthesis has really benefited me. Although I struggled through the first essay, I am thinking the second one may come easier.
My oh my! This has been quite a week. I spent the beginning of the week so stressed and worried about the first essay. Yes, I know it is only a 3 page essay! I work with several young college students and to them, this was a cake walk. Well, it has been years since I have written a paper, and I would get worked up back then as well. I finally calmed myself down.
Then I printed off the outline we created on the Wiki. Thank goodness I had all of that help! Then I wrote an essay. I thought it was a very good essay…until I read the description of the critique and the requirements… Duh! I wrote an essay about how parents should be wary of the marketing strategies of businesses and how vulnerable our children really are. I was on a roll… I wrote from the heart and gave personal experiences.
After I read the critique description, I scrapped the majority of my essay and did an actual critique. It took me a considerable amount of time longer than my first and my ADV probably does not make sense, but I am done. Finally.
So, I have learned much from this experience. Aside from the obvious, I will definately get a head start on the next essay so if i do have a problem, it will not be down to the last minute to get it finished.
Being a mother, I am constantly researching and analyzing. Are immunizations safe? I have researched and decided that they benefits greatly outweigh the risks. I want to know what cereal would be the best for my boys to start their day with. Oatmeal works out best for our family: whole grains, low sugar and inexpensive. My list can go on, but I must keep this short so as not to bore my many readers.
The most recent big decision that I have had to research and figure out was whether or not to start back in school. I have recently started working full time for the first time since having my children. Both my boys are getting so big so fast. I want to be able to provide for them all of the opportunities that I feel they deserve. Those opportunities cost money. After talking with many family members and researching jobs online, I have decided that the only way I foresee myself in a decent paying job is to get a college degree. How will I pay for college now, though? Again, I consulted family members and researched online. I have found that there are programs that offer financial help to fund schooling. I have also found that college debt is “good debt”.
Once I get my degree, I can teach and make a decent living, while working similar hours and days to fit the schedule of my children. Daycare will not be such an issue for my finances. I will have the nights, weekends, holidays and summers off to spend with them.
For the time being, my life is extremely hectic. I am having to create new routines that allow me time to get my school work done. I have started taking naps on the weekends to help me catch up from the lack of sleep I get during the week. Overall, I feel this decision was the right one because in the long run, things will be just the way I want.