Blog Reflection

            At the beginning of this blog activity I was kind of scared because I’m not that good with the computers and the internet stuff. I know just the basics things like use Word and the social media, nothing more. The creation of a blog sounds difficult to me at first glance but like I always do, I get full of courage and I ventured to this activity.

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I started seeing videos in YouTube looking for tutorials and information about the use of Blogger. This site really makes the creation of a blog a lot easier and simple to someone like me who doesn’t know that much about doing a blog. It makes its fun too, I have many options and probably are many more that I haven’t discover. The only problem was the format to write and prepared the post, I think that it should be even more simple and less restricted. A format with the same style of Word will be much better, at least for me. Also, I think that it should have more themes and designs to make the blog even more attractive. Even though I have some critics, it is an awesome way to make a blog. 

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            I think that the coolest featuring of my blog is the video of Gun and Roses that starts automatically when someone visits my blog. Also, the coolest pot is the one with the tittle A Decision Must be Made, in this post I talk about my recently crossroad experience. Also, I have other cool things like the videos of the actual cowboys and the Letter of Birmingham or the gifs. The pictures posted are very popular and funny, I think that the visitors of my blog will like them. My blog really goes with my person,   I do a really good work. 

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The blog activity is a cool because it seems more elegant and formal. In comparation with the journal project, the blog activity looks much better and is a public one. Anyone who enter to my blog would read everything with facility and joy. The blog is something more formal and pretty, my journal was very hard to read because I write so ugly, something that doesn’t happens in the blog. In addition, in the blog I can be more relaxed and take my time to write everything good and express myself better. 

            I added to my blog videos, links, biographies, and cool and funny photos to make it more interesting. I think that the video of the letter of Birmingham is something very interesting that it should be see it by all the visitors. Also, the pictures that I choose should be attractive to the young ones because many of the pictures are popular memes. In addition of the pictures I include gifs, which are very cool to me. The music selected to my blog have the purpose of motivated any kind of visitors and make it have a cool visit. 

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            I’m very proud of my blog and I really like it so much, I expected good reviews from my class peers and from the professor. It seems nice and attractive to me, so I think that I would receive good comments. This activity is nice because destroy the boring and common class norm that is usually give it to us has students. If their update and improve some things this activity will be even more cool. It was a different experience and I enjoyed so much. This activity motivate me to keep doing and maintain a blog based on my experiences or based in soccer news and critics. 

Work cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Class Assignment. Blog Reflection. UPRRP February 2018.

Life Compass Reflection

My development in this project was an irregular one. All the areas of the life compass were constantly altered day by day, there was many similitude between the areas. The ones which had the most similarities was the emotional area and the mental area, in some occasions one of them affected the other and it can be see in their tendencies. The diversity of values could be caused by many factors. The principal factor that comes to my mind is the different hours that the compass was realized, some of them were realized in the morning and some others in the night. Some mornings I wake up happy but other I wake up upset. The same thing occurs in the night, if I had a good day I would be chilling but if I had a bad day my compass will be depressive. Another factor could be the situation or circumstances in which I make my compass. If I was making the compass hungry, hurried or sleepy that would probably alter in some way some of the areas. 

The compass was a review of the mood realized in a few minutes, so my compass will have the numbers of my mood in that moment. I was hungry, tired or sleepy in the physical area. These tree classifications will surely affect the other areas because I was not comfortable In that moment. Being hungry or tired would probably make me feel demotivated and without any desire of be spiritual. The spiritual area was the most challenging for me. I think that the spiritual area is not my thing, even less in the middle of the semester when I have many things to do. I had never been that kind of person. Maybe my problem was that I don’t have very clear the concept of the spiritual area but even though I don’t have that spiritual mood. 

Work Cited 

Pittmann, Cynthia. Class Assignment Life Compass Reflection. UPRRP February 2018.

Group Project Reflection

Is very uncommon, at least for me, to take a class in which almost every day you had to work with the same people. This group project experience was my first one. I had to work in many occasions with a group but never with the same people the whole semester. When the group project was mentioned I was not comfortable with it because I have had many bad experiences working in groups. I don’t like that much working in groups, sometimes people don’t take their roles seriously and severely affect the purpose of working as a group.

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But my experience in this group project was a good and open one. I could rate it, out of a maximum of 10, with an eight. This project brought me some benefits that I couldn’t have in an individual way. At the moment of creating an opinion or a point of view I could hear other perspectives and take them in consideration to create my own opinion. The fact that I could communicate with them to ask them something or to help me, was a good advantage of working in a group. Also, this group project made the students relate with one another, it had a social impact. It makes you talk with others and it developed the confidence to speak and argue in English.

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I remember that when we were reading and talking about Malcom X, we had to choose one point or insight of the text and search more information and explain it. When we started talking about our search and notes we were having a great discussion about our learnings. It was very cool to freely have group conversation acquiring more knowledge and relating insights with others. I really learned so much with that activity, I remember Rubie, one of my group members, explained me the reason of the “X” in the last name of Malcom. The reason was that he thoughted that the black people didn’t have to carried with the last name of her owner or a white man. Also, I remember Diego talking with me about the black Muslim orthodox. This activity experience shows me that a healthy discussion or debate could be very useful.

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The group project gives different kind of aspects, it is an interdisciplinary one. This project is influenced by different kinds of aspects and facts that affects the understanding of many things. The combination of different minds will surely result a great variety of thoughts and interpretations. Like I said before, hearing my group peer’s opinion I could take in consideration many facts that I can’t see at first glance. This helped me to see the things from another angle. It is something that we must do in our daily to make better decisions and to have a better understanding. I’m sure that I have influenced so much in the understanding of my group peers because I was always the one who brought a rare or uncommon point of view, at least in my perception. 

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In conclusion, this group project experience brought many benefits and advantages to have a better development in the class. The group dynamic is very useful if it’s well developed and structured. Thanks to God, all my group peers were responsible and dedicated, we were always in communication and in ambient of cooperation. Also, they all had a great domain with the English and they all had a good capacity to talk in front of the class. Despite of my poor skills with English, they always helped me and made me look better. This group experience will be useful in a future because now I know the correct way to work in a group, and it made me change my perspective of the group work method. 

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Work cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Class Assignment Group Project Reflection. UPRRP February 2018.

The Interview

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To make possible this interview assignment, I chose to interview my grandmother, Migdalia Medina. The reason of my choice is that she is my only grandmother alive and she talks an excellent English. My first question to begin this interview was, what was your motivation for going to school? She answered me: “Going to school was my great motivation. Being the first child in the family invite me to be a model for my youngest brothers. Since my very early years I express interest in the education field, I was always eager to be a professional.” Then I asked her how she got to school and the response this time was: “I was born far from town during elementary and secondary school, so I had to walk from home to school. It was about 50 kilometers back and forth. Then my parents moved to another place near the school where I finish the high school. Once at the university level, I used public transportation.” The next question was, how was her student life? Her answer was: “I enjoyed my student’s life. Being in school was the opportunity to share with other students because there were no friends to play around my house.”

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Once I ask her about motivation and experiences in her student life, I started asking her about her future and if she achieved her goals. So, I ask her about her vision and expectations back then and she said: “My expectations were to be part of the school teachers. I started teaching at the early eighteen years in a country elementary school. My vision of future was completely reached, I continued studying and finished a bachelor’s degree in Education. I moved to the metropolitan area, where I got a Master’s degree in Educational Administration and by 2010 I finished a Doctoral degree in Education.” For the conclusion of the interview, I ask her if she was where she wanted to be, and she said: “Definitely, I wanted to be a resource for the island new teachers. Right now, I teach education at college level, something that make me feel realized as a human being.” 

    

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Work cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Class Assignment. The Interview. UPRRP November 2017.

About Men by Gretel Ehrlich

This essay talks about the stereotype commonly known about cowboys. The author begins this essay by exposing how she misses the barn life and reminiscence it with an advertisement in which appears the famous Marlboro cowboy. But she is in total disagreement with the cowboy portrayal given by the company and how it impacts the stereotype of cowboys in society. She explained that cowboys aren’t that rough and unemotional, society has disesteemed their true character. According to Gretel Ehrlich (Biography), they are kind of strong or in some cases rough because their daily interaction isn’t as constant to the people that live in a more populated environment. They have almost no one to talk to, they are mostly all day on horseback tending their livestock. The toughness isn’t about land possession or conquests, it is more about daily unexpected situations that force them to put up a front as defense mechanism. They author compare them with rocks, everything happens to them, but they must endure it and keep going.

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Despite the long hours on horseback, they must take care about the beef-raising industry. They take care about calves and their mothers, seeing many births, illness and deaths make them know more about animals than people. The cowboy is someone who really cares about his livestock and his animals. The time spent with the animals creates a great sentimental value, in addition to the care give it to their animals, they are careful and respectful with women. They didn’t know how to get close to women or how to demonstrate their love. This lonely and distanced lifestyle cause a poor social life because there is a huge distance between ranches and even more distance between them and any city. This lonely daily scenario is a good explanation to the known cowboy personality.

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All this information about the cowboys try to explain the truth about being a cowboy and who they really are. The author took her time explaining the reality to make a change in the urban cowboy stereotype. She uses a nice syntax and a good tone to make the audience sympathize with the cowboys. The examples exposed in the essay were a great way to see this kind of characters with other perspective. At the first moment I read the word “cowboy” I imagine the toughest man in the old west which was on horseback and occupied a big revolver in his belt. Once I kept reading, my point of view started changing. I see the cowboys as a man who get directly affected by his work circumstances. I was ignorant about the reality of a cowboy, I just imagine it like is presented in the movies and media. I think that the work circumstances affect them directly reforming their persona. The typical portrayal presented in movies and media, made us be ignorant of their circumstances and the reality they face.

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Many times, indirectly, we classify someone by his culture or lifestyle even though I don’t know anything of him or his reasons. That is a big mistake from different people because how can you classify someone just by his looks, or his culture? Everybody is different, we can’t stereotype anyone. This situation with the cowboys have the same basic problem as the black people or Asian people. The way that many of us thinks that the cowboys are bad and rough, is the same way that people stereotype black people as gangsters or the Asian as nerds. Another thing is that they tend to perceive “men” as someone who can’t express their feelings, they can’t cry in front of anyone, but also someone who is rough. The man who is the one who works outside and is the provider and main income of the household. This type of stereotype has changed a little bit but still dominating in many households and families.

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Work cited

Ehrlich, Gretel. Class Assignment. About Men . UPRRP February 2018.

Reflection: Girl

This short text forced me to read it many times because is a very uncommon type of text. This story doesn’t have a clear outcome in which I can see a beginning, center and final. The story doesn’t have clear setting, plot or conclusion. Also, I could note the use of some words in the text that seems so unpopular to my vocabulary, like benna, okra and doukona.  In my investigation of where these words come from, I founded that the author, Jamaica Kincaid, is from Antigua and these words comes from there. (Biography)

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It was a different idea to express a critique of this society filled with prejudices and where the values are gone. I can identify that the story is about basically a mother telling her daughter how to be the proper woman according to the standards of their society. In addition, the mother advises her daughter of not convert or become a slut. It was shocking to me when I read “slut” because when I started reading I was expecting a formal and fancy text of how to be an exemplary lady. It seems to me that the daughter doesn’t have reached the adolescence and her mother is worried about her current behavior that may lead her to be slut or a bad woman. The mother is trying to teach her all the works and roles that the women usually take, like laundry, cooking and cleaning. 

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Also taught her some lessons about men and relationship. Is clear the critique that does the author of the hard times that many girls experience in their lives because they are treated with inferiority by society and the huge amounts of preventions and reservations that they must do daily. I can understand perfectly how uncomfortable and sad could be this situation. But some people who want a solution to this problem and equality between women and men, get to an extremist level. Those who are extremist defender of the women rights devalue men’s rights. It must be equality, not a payback. Since men have roles and limits in the society to.  

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Works Cited

Kincaid, Jamaica. Class Assignment. Reflection about "Girl" UPRRP January 2018.