in our Insight Into Daily Life, i have contributed by writing three different comments on peoeple in our classes blogs. those three people are ; michelle s., terrance, and sharon. what i did in my comments is let them know what they did good and bad. i also related to all of their papers because it ended up that i had alot in common with what they had to say!.
TERRANCE'S COMMENT I WROTE: "this essay is very good i agree with a couple of things. the first thing is how they restrict so many diffeernt things in schools. like for example if mr.fanning was to walk by our class when andys teaching us a massage, im sure he would quesiton it and think..this isnt right...so i agree with that. i also agree alot with the fact that you mentioned about girls being able to hold hands and kiss on the check while if guys do that...they would get made fun of so much. i think its weird, i even think its weird that girls have to have that kiss on the cheek everyy time we see eachother, its kind of annoying.
but overall this mini essay is very good!"
SHARRON'S COMMENT I WROTE: "like like this essay beacuse it was very easy to read in general. i liked how you seperated everything into lil' chunks, this way it didnt bore me. as i was reading i was able to relate to you because most of what you wrote was so true for myself also . i agree with the thing where you dont open up as much with people who you dont really knwo because you dont want them knowing your life all at once, and who knows they might use it agaisnt you.
i also found in common with you , the fact that you said you were shy and dont talk as much, im the same exact way i tend to stay quite allthe time. well overall nice essay and points!"
MICHELLE S'S COMMENT I WROTE:"i think that this intro is very good and intreging! you should keep up the work and get to the body paragraphs.
but i do agree with waht you said about not putting the more important things in front of you , like i usually end up hanging out with friends in an apt. instead of going on the grass in central park.
but overall, you should keep up the good work and get past the introduction! good luck!!"
OTHER COMMENTS:i am very quite in class and try to contribute but im shy. im going to work on that though for next semester!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Reflection Paper
Margaux Kastleman
Insight to Daily Life Class
REFLECTION PAPER:
In this class "Insight into Daily Life" I had came into this class not thinking that I would end up learning so much about myself and my daily life. Over the months, I have grown and progressed from what seemed like nothing to something. Looking back at all my chunks aka the snowball paper and our "listening and touching" essay, I have came to realize that I learned many different skills. These skills have turned into different criteria’s.
The first criteria I would like to evaluate are “Intellectual Commitment”. What I mean by this is being able to work through challenging concepts, looking at ones point of view and creating your own. In this class, I have used this skill because in the first days, you handed out a paper by R.D Laing, and it was his arguments about humans. For me this paper was very challenging. When I first read it I did not know what I was reading, I was a little confused. It took a couple days to get down his arguments and what he was trying to put across. Once I found out that his argument was that he thinks that humans are less then what they can be, that we don’t try hard enough. After figuring this out I created my own opinion/ point of view on the issue. My opinion on the issue is that I agree with R.D Laing in some senses, I do think that people today follow “norms”. They do what they think is normal, its like the society is brainwashing us with what we should do and what we shouldn’t do. They all act up to what’s “normal”. Overall you can see that from this activity of reading an argument and turning it into my own point of view and argument shows that I can work through challenging concepts. That I have an intellectual commitment!
The second skill I have learned from this class is “Verbal Communication”. What I mean by this is conversing with others, interviewing, listening to others, etc. in this class I have actually used verbal communication in SO many different ways. I’ve learned all these different ways through our “Listening and Touching Unit”. In this unit we learned how to conversate with others in a correct manor. We learned the right and wrong ways to have a conversation. And while learning all these skills, we practiced in class with our classmates. We tried talking about different topics, we tried touching each other while talking, and we tried different body language while talking. We tried so many things that will help me in my “outside” life, for when I have conversations with people. This class has taught me how to have a conversation with someone and them enjoying it, not getting bored, asking for more. And I am very thankful for this skill because I think that a huge important part of your life should be talking to others. I think that its really important to be there for others in time or need, and plus a huge reason why people are loved by many people are because of the conversations they have. So overall being able to have great verbal communication is a huge skill I’ve gained over the semester.
The third skill that I have gained over the semester is my artistic communication. What I mean by this is the way I have used music, art, movies, etc to communicate with others. The first way that I used was that i used my art to communicate to others. I drew a picture of a girl in a field [because I believe that’s very peaceful] with no mouth and a saying that says “it all about the thinking”. The point that I was trying to get across is that I tried drawing a picture that represented Laing’s theory. And when I thought of this all I could think of was myself in a very peaceful place alone, not talking, just laying and thinking [since his argument is all about the mind and how we think and how our minds work], And that is what I tried drawing. The second way I tried using my artistic communication was through songs. I have learned how to use music in many different ways. And I have to thank you for always putting on music when I walk in the class. It’s a good way to set the mood for the period. And from always doing this, I have learned that its always good to have a little music in the background to try and communicate to others what kind of mood I’m in, or what kind of mood I am trying to put them in. so now I have gained the skill of putting on music when I have friends over so I can set a mood.
The forth skill that I have gained from this class is my writing skill, and being able to create a huge paper from little chunks each written on different days. This class has taught me to really take good notes. Because when I get home and I go on my blog to write up a chunk, it’s basically written already because I have FULL complete notes. So that’s one thing I learned, another thing I learned is how to write a huge essay without being stressed. This skill was learned because when it was time to write our snowball paper and when you said it should be eight pages long, I was scared and stressed at the moment. But then when I went on my blog that night, I cam to realize that it was already basically written I just needed to add in topic sentences. This taught me to not write a whole essay all at once, to write it in chunks THEN turn it into an essay. An example where i turned my notes into a chunk is our "childhood" unit.We once observed the 6th grader, then took nothes on what we saw. So then when i looked back in my notes when it was time to write about "childhood" i read what i noticed and wrote it into a chunk that would fit perfectally in a paragraph [in an essay], here is a sample of thwat i wrote ;"Like for example when we went and visited the 3rd floor and watched all the little kids,it reminded me of all the different memories i had in that classroom when i was in 6Th grade...". now all i had to do when i wrote my essay was write a simple transion sentance and copy and paste the whole chunk!This skill will help me so much in life, because number one, my exhibitions are very stressful and this skill will be very helpful. And then second, when I get to college I’m sure ill get millions of stressful essays to write, and ill think back to this class and remember to write up chunks then glue them all together!
Now last but not least, the fifth skill I’ve gained is, my digital communication. Being able to communicate through technology. I’ve used technology to communicate with others through my blog. If you look at my blog, I have so many different ideas up there about my self and others that I want to communicate to others. It’s a way to sharing my ideas.For example, i am a VERY shy person in class so i dont talk that much, but then one day i had a really good idea, but didnt share with the class, so thank you to the blog, i expressed it on there. heres the idea i am talking about "Personally i think that at my age , i cant answer this question. I think that its too early in my life to forget about my childhood. i think that it is very sad for a 16 year old to already have forgotten about their childhood. I would understand that if your above the age of 20...". I have also gained a lot of ideas from other people’s blogs. From reading other peoples blogs, they were able to help me out , and even teach me new things! and when i left comments on three of my class mates pages, it made realize how we all think alike, it was nice to connect to them. so overall, thanks blogspot!
so over all i learned MANY different skills but here are 5 that i talked about. hope you enjoyed.
Insight to Daily Life Class
REFLECTION PAPER:
In this class "Insight into Daily Life" I had came into this class not thinking that I would end up learning so much about myself and my daily life. Over the months, I have grown and progressed from what seemed like nothing to something. Looking back at all my chunks aka the snowball paper and our "listening and touching" essay, I have came to realize that I learned many different skills. These skills have turned into different criteria’s.
The first criteria I would like to evaluate are “Intellectual Commitment”. What I mean by this is being able to work through challenging concepts, looking at ones point of view and creating your own. In this class, I have used this skill because in the first days, you handed out a paper by R.D Laing, and it was his arguments about humans. For me this paper was very challenging. When I first read it I did not know what I was reading, I was a little confused. It took a couple days to get down his arguments and what he was trying to put across. Once I found out that his argument was that he thinks that humans are less then what they can be, that we don’t try hard enough. After figuring this out I created my own opinion/ point of view on the issue. My opinion on the issue is that I agree with R.D Laing in some senses, I do think that people today follow “norms”. They do what they think is normal, its like the society is brainwashing us with what we should do and what we shouldn’t do. They all act up to what’s “normal”. Overall you can see that from this activity of reading an argument and turning it into my own point of view and argument shows that I can work through challenging concepts. That I have an intellectual commitment!
The second skill I have learned from this class is “Verbal Communication”. What I mean by this is conversing with others, interviewing, listening to others, etc. in this class I have actually used verbal communication in SO many different ways. I’ve learned all these different ways through our “Listening and Touching Unit”. In this unit we learned how to conversate with others in a correct manor. We learned the right and wrong ways to have a conversation. And while learning all these skills, we practiced in class with our classmates. We tried talking about different topics, we tried touching each other while talking, and we tried different body language while talking. We tried so many things that will help me in my “outside” life, for when I have conversations with people. This class has taught me how to have a conversation with someone and them enjoying it, not getting bored, asking for more. And I am very thankful for this skill because I think that a huge important part of your life should be talking to others. I think that its really important to be there for others in time or need, and plus a huge reason why people are loved by many people are because of the conversations they have. So overall being able to have great verbal communication is a huge skill I’ve gained over the semester.
The third skill that I have gained over the semester is my artistic communication. What I mean by this is the way I have used music, art, movies, etc to communicate with others. The first way that I used was that i used my art to communicate to others. I drew a picture of a girl in a field [because I believe that’s very peaceful] with no mouth and a saying that says “it all about the thinking”. The point that I was trying to get across is that I tried drawing a picture that represented Laing’s theory. And when I thought of this all I could think of was myself in a very peaceful place alone, not talking, just laying and thinking [since his argument is all about the mind and how we think and how our minds work], And that is what I tried drawing. The second way I tried using my artistic communication was through songs. I have learned how to use music in many different ways. And I have to thank you for always putting on music when I walk in the class. It’s a good way to set the mood for the period. And from always doing this, I have learned that its always good to have a little music in the background to try and communicate to others what kind of mood I’m in, or what kind of mood I am trying to put them in. so now I have gained the skill of putting on music when I have friends over so I can set a mood.
The forth skill that I have gained from this class is my writing skill, and being able to create a huge paper from little chunks each written on different days. This class has taught me to really take good notes. Because when I get home and I go on my blog to write up a chunk, it’s basically written already because I have FULL complete notes. So that’s one thing I learned, another thing I learned is how to write a huge essay without being stressed. This skill was learned because when it was time to write our snowball paper and when you said it should be eight pages long, I was scared and stressed at the moment. But then when I went on my blog that night, I cam to realize that it was already basically written I just needed to add in topic sentences. This taught me to not write a whole essay all at once, to write it in chunks THEN turn it into an essay. An example where i turned my notes into a chunk is our "childhood" unit.We once observed the 6th grader, then took nothes on what we saw. So then when i looked back in my notes when it was time to write about "childhood" i read what i noticed and wrote it into a chunk that would fit perfectally in a paragraph [in an essay], here is a sample of thwat i wrote ;"Like for example when we went and visited the 3rd floor and watched all the little kids,it reminded me of all the different memories i had in that classroom when i was in 6Th grade...". now all i had to do when i wrote my essay was write a simple transion sentance and copy and paste the whole chunk!This skill will help me so much in life, because number one, my exhibitions are very stressful and this skill will be very helpful. And then second, when I get to college I’m sure ill get millions of stressful essays to write, and ill think back to this class and remember to write up chunks then glue them all together!
Now last but not least, the fifth skill I’ve gained is, my digital communication. Being able to communicate through technology. I’ve used technology to communicate with others through my blog. If you look at my blog, I have so many different ideas up there about my self and others that I want to communicate to others. It’s a way to sharing my ideas.For example, i am a VERY shy person in class so i dont talk that much, but then one day i had a really good idea, but didnt share with the class, so thank you to the blog, i expressed it on there. heres the idea i am talking about "Personally i think that at my age , i cant answer this question. I think that its too early in my life to forget about my childhood. i think that it is very sad for a 16 year old to already have forgotten about their childhood. I would understand that if your above the age of 20...". I have also gained a lot of ideas from other people’s blogs. From reading other peoples blogs, they were able to help me out , and even teach me new things! and when i left comments on three of my class mates pages, it made realize how we all think alike, it was nice to connect to them. so overall, thanks blogspot!
so over all i learned MANY different skills but here are 5 that i talked about. hope you enjoyed.
Monday, January 21, 2008
feelings and touching ESSAY
In my “Insight to Daily Life” class we are doing a unit on “feeling and touching others”. At the beginning of the unit I first brainstormed my basic orientation with other people. I had said “Well with close friends I’m really open but I’m shy around others so unless they talk to me, I’m quite”. In general, I feel like i'm loved a lot more by my outside school friends more then the ones here. And I am loved by my family more then anyone.
My goals when I talk to someone and I’m having a conversation with him or her are that I want to create interest; I just want to interest them. Another big thing is to make them happy, to make them laugh and feel good after talking to them. Those are my main goals. But then once again what should me on my goal list is; for the person to feel comfort around me, for them to want to have another conversation with me after they leave, to keep them wanting more. But ii have different goals in different cases. Like when I am talking to my parents I want them to be proud of me, to be able to trust me at the end of the conversation. But then with a friend, I just want to interest him or her and be able to help him/her out with their problems, because I know that on there side of it, they just want my advice.
There are so many different ways that people can wreck conversations. And most of the time when you ask your self this question the answer is most likely going to be: because they are selfish. They always end up talking about them selves. They interrupt, change the topic, talk about themselves too much, etc. but on the other hand some techniques that you can use to be polite is, to use great eye contact, keep good body language, focus, use clarifying questions, and grunt, etc. now those techniques will keep them talking!
This all relates to the “ 10 obstacles to empathic listening”. The 10 different ways of listening are; to give advice/ fix-it, to explain it away, to correct it, to console, to tell a story, to shut down feelings, to sympathize, to investigate, to evaluate, and to one-up. No these are all the different ways people may ruin a conversation, or in some cases make it better. After reading these 10 ways, I noticed the 3 ways I use them. First I investigate to get some background on the issue, then I make them feel better by consoling them, then last I give my opinion and advice on the situation. Most of the time this technique works very well! Which brings me to this cartoon Andy handed out in class. It was different ways that you can have a better conversation with a child. The one way that I want to try using more in my real life is the “ don’t ask too many questions”. I feel like I sometimes ask to many questions, which make me look a little obvious that I want to figure something out. So from now on im going to try and let them bring up the answers of questions that were unasked.
In class I was taught about Goleman’s argument. His argument was that we are basically walking mirrors. What happens is that when we interact with others, we start to pick up each other’s feelings/emotions/actions. Like if one is in one position the other will slowly pick that up. My reaction to his argument is that I think that this is half true and half not because for example if im sad and im with happy people sometimes ill get annoyed and go home because im not feeling good. But in other cases I agree that we mimic others because when interacting, we are like mirrors. Like when im watching a movie, if there’s an emotional scene ill sometimes shed a tear because I am starting to mimic them.
Now to move on the “feelings” part of this unit, why do people touch? I think that people touch to get a certain feeling across. And some people don’t touch to avoid aqward-ness. When Andy listed the different “feeling” categories, I was in the patchouli category because I am a very affectionate person, and I receive a lot of affection as well. I am very satisfied with the amount of affection I receive, I don think I want more or less, I am just right! I think that our society regulates our physical pleasure. And this is because it is morally wrong to do certain things with touch, or even just weird. Like if you sit next to someone in an empty train, its just plain weird. But that’s because our society molded it this way. Like no one thought of it as this way but when you get a mani/pedi or a massage it is a type of prostitution. This is true because you are paying a person to touch you… not in a perverted way but just to touch you. People need to pay other people to make them feel a certain way because they can’t get it any other way. This relates to why people go shopping so much. They shop to make them feel better. I can actually relate to this because when im down or upset I always go out and shop and most of the time when I buy something new, I do feel a lot better!
Now sometimes touching can get very out of hand! And you have to be strong and stand up for your self. Some ways to show that you don’t want to be touched through body language are; to twitch away, aqward smile or look, move slightly, loose eye contact. Now when I have to verbally say NO, I just politely say no thanks im fine and they always listen, I’ve never had a bad situation. Which relates to people who DO have bad situations, aka rape! What is a good way to stop rape at colleges? I don’t really think rape can be stopped because there’s so many men out there that need sex and cant get it. But I think that you should always limit your self when you drink because that’s most likely how you’ll get raped [more then 80% of people that get raped are drunk]. But then there was a college that tried a new system out to stop rape. The Antioch policy was before initiating a more intimate level, verbal consent is required. So you have to ask if it’s ok before sex, taking off clothes, etc. I do not think this is a good policy because number one, it ruins the moment. Number two; if someone’s raping you, the man is not going to ask you, is it ok if I rape you? I just think it’s a stupid policy.
I just think that over all the society creates “norms”. Like we try to distance our self on purpose because of the norms. Such as that if you’re not a virgin , you’re a slut/whore. It just teaches us to interact with people so differently. And because our culture is like this, I find my self-interacting with others less, and less intimate because im afraid others will think wrongly of me.
My goals when I talk to someone and I’m having a conversation with him or her are that I want to create interest; I just want to interest them. Another big thing is to make them happy, to make them laugh and feel good after talking to them. Those are my main goals. But then once again what should me on my goal list is; for the person to feel comfort around me, for them to want to have another conversation with me after they leave, to keep them wanting more. But ii have different goals in different cases. Like when I am talking to my parents I want them to be proud of me, to be able to trust me at the end of the conversation. But then with a friend, I just want to interest him or her and be able to help him/her out with their problems, because I know that on there side of it, they just want my advice.
There are so many different ways that people can wreck conversations. And most of the time when you ask your self this question the answer is most likely going to be: because they are selfish. They always end up talking about them selves. They interrupt, change the topic, talk about themselves too much, etc. but on the other hand some techniques that you can use to be polite is, to use great eye contact, keep good body language, focus, use clarifying questions, and grunt, etc. now those techniques will keep them talking!
This all relates to the “ 10 obstacles to empathic listening”. The 10 different ways of listening are; to give advice/ fix-it, to explain it away, to correct it, to console, to tell a story, to shut down feelings, to sympathize, to investigate, to evaluate, and to one-up. No these are all the different ways people may ruin a conversation, or in some cases make it better. After reading these 10 ways, I noticed the 3 ways I use them. First I investigate to get some background on the issue, then I make them feel better by consoling them, then last I give my opinion and advice on the situation. Most of the time this technique works very well! Which brings me to this cartoon Andy handed out in class. It was different ways that you can have a better conversation with a child. The one way that I want to try using more in my real life is the “ don’t ask too many questions”. I feel like I sometimes ask to many questions, which make me look a little obvious that I want to figure something out. So from now on im going to try and let them bring up the answers of questions that were unasked.
In class I was taught about Goleman’s argument. His argument was that we are basically walking mirrors. What happens is that when we interact with others, we start to pick up each other’s feelings/emotions/actions. Like if one is in one position the other will slowly pick that up. My reaction to his argument is that I think that this is half true and half not because for example if im sad and im with happy people sometimes ill get annoyed and go home because im not feeling good. But in other cases I agree that we mimic others because when interacting, we are like mirrors. Like when im watching a movie, if there’s an emotional scene ill sometimes shed a tear because I am starting to mimic them.
Now to move on the “feelings” part of this unit, why do people touch? I think that people touch to get a certain feeling across. And some people don’t touch to avoid aqward-ness. When Andy listed the different “feeling” categories, I was in the patchouli category because I am a very affectionate person, and I receive a lot of affection as well. I am very satisfied with the amount of affection I receive, I don think I want more or less, I am just right! I think that our society regulates our physical pleasure. And this is because it is morally wrong to do certain things with touch, or even just weird. Like if you sit next to someone in an empty train, its just plain weird. But that’s because our society molded it this way. Like no one thought of it as this way but when you get a mani/pedi or a massage it is a type of prostitution. This is true because you are paying a person to touch you… not in a perverted way but just to touch you. People need to pay other people to make them feel a certain way because they can’t get it any other way. This relates to why people go shopping so much. They shop to make them feel better. I can actually relate to this because when im down or upset I always go out and shop and most of the time when I buy something new, I do feel a lot better!
Now sometimes touching can get very out of hand! And you have to be strong and stand up for your self. Some ways to show that you don’t want to be touched through body language are; to twitch away, aqward smile or look, move slightly, loose eye contact. Now when I have to verbally say NO, I just politely say no thanks im fine and they always listen, I’ve never had a bad situation. Which relates to people who DO have bad situations, aka rape! What is a good way to stop rape at colleges? I don’t really think rape can be stopped because there’s so many men out there that need sex and cant get it. But I think that you should always limit your self when you drink because that’s most likely how you’ll get raped [more then 80% of people that get raped are drunk]. But then there was a college that tried a new system out to stop rape. The Antioch policy was before initiating a more intimate level, verbal consent is required. So you have to ask if it’s ok before sex, taking off clothes, etc. I do not think this is a good policy because number one, it ruins the moment. Number two; if someone’s raping you, the man is not going to ask you, is it ok if I rape you? I just think it’s a stupid policy.
I just think that over all the society creates “norms”. Like we try to distance our self on purpose because of the norms. Such as that if you’re not a virgin , you’re a slut/whore. It just teaches us to interact with people so differently. And because our culture is like this, I find my self-interacting with others less, and less intimate because im afraid others will think wrongly of me.
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