Blog Post #1 - assignment

For your first blog post, let's discuss the obvious: how it feels to be a college freshman! Write for 15-20 minutes, and answer the following questions in your blog. However, you don't have to stick to just these questions: let this blog take you wherever you want to go!

Please label your post accordingly (e.g. "Post #1").
This post is due before class on Friday 7/6.

• How does it feel to be a college freshman?
• What do you expect to "get" out of UTOP? 
• What do you expect to learn from ENGL 1101? (You can look through your syllabus for ideas, of course!)
• What are your strengths in writing? Explain one piece of writing from your past (it doesn't have to be a school assignment) that you are proud of. Also discuss ways you think you can improve your writing.
• What do you think YOU can do to make UTOP and this course successful experiences for you?
• What are you most excited about right now? If you had to make a list of "good stuff" in your life, what would be on it?
• What are you most fearful of right now? If you had to make a list of "stuff that makes you anxious," what would be on it?
• Do you have any ideas about what you might major in? Explain.
• What questions do you notice that keep running through your head as you embark on your college journey?
• What is one thing you can tell us (your classmates - and me, your teacher) that will help us remember you? Why are you unique, and why should we remember you're name? (:

• Lastly, read your peer group members' 1st blog posts and comment on at least one of them.

Hints:

-Your Blogger blogs count as a major assignment in this class, which you will include as part of your final portfolio, so take this seriously. However, this is reflective writing, so it is "low stakes," meaning you should relax, focus on generating good content, and your tone can be personable; you won't be graded on grammar and punctuation, and there's no "correct" answer to any of my questions. Just think, and WRITE, and show your thinking and your reflecting in your writing.

-Keep in mind your teacher and (at the very least) your peer group members will be reading your blog. So, you are writing for YOU (to learn about yourself and to explore your thoughts), but you also have an audience.

-Here's a helpful website, especially if you're new to the genre of blogging: http://www.problogger.net/how-to-write-great-blog-content/

Ms. Ingram's Blog Post #1 - an example

So, I thought I could write Post #1 along with you, to provide an example of a thorough blog post and to let y'all get to know me as I get to know you.

I was a college freshman 11 years ago, at Appalachian State. I remember feeling many, many emotions. I was anxious about college classes, unsure of whether or not I was prepared. How hard will the classes be? Will the professors be impersonal and uncaring? I also wasn't sure I wanted to be in college. Everyone told me I had to go to college, that there wasn't really a choice, but I thought that I maybe just wanted to work and make money and get my own place. I was also a bit sad about leaving my parents; I wasn't so much sad for myself, but I felt bad that my mom cried when they left me at my dorm room for the first time. In hindsight, I can tell you that college was the best decision I ever made. By midterm of my first semester, I had figured out that I liked college and that it was worth my time and energy - and my parents' money. I wasn't sure what my major was yet, but that didn't matter because college isn't just about the end result--the degree, the prospective careers--rather, it's about the experience, about learning and growing and being stretched out of your comfort zone, and about becoming a better person.

I didn't get an opportunity to take any freshman seminar-like classes or to be involved with anything like UTOP, so I kind of had to "go it alone." I'm really excited for all of you to be here, getting a head start. On my list of "good stuff" right now, that is definitely at the top:
-new UTOP students, embarking on their college careers!
-I just had 8 weeks off of work, wahoo!! (come ON, that is just awesome)
-it's summer and I can go to the pool
-my summer garden, and my hanging basket of marigolds
-letting my cats outside to sunbathe
-summer fruit and frozen yogurt
-going to Kure beach with Elizabeth
-having lots of free time to read and write (during these past 8 weeks)
-going to the mountains to visit Sarah
-yoga

My "stuff that I'm anxious about" list is much shorter:
-moving offices
-turning 30

When I was in your shoes 11 years ago, this last list was much longer b/c of all the unknowns. So, growing up isn't all bad. (:  But, back to my college life...at first I was a Hotel & Restaurant Management major. That changed after I realized I didn't like business classes or economics. I eventually became a middle grades education major, which was definitely the right choice: it was a small program (about 30 students in my graduating cohort), and I got to take lots of English and history classes. Plus, I really enjoyed my student teaching, and this all led me to apply to grad school and--long story short--to this job that I have today, which is my dream job!

As far as something interesting about me: I've lived in 3 very different states -- NY, TX, and NC. NC is my favorite.

-Ms. Ingram

Post #2 - assignment

This post is due before class on Tuesday 7/10.

For this blog post, discuss how it's all going so far. As with the last post, please address the following questions in your writing, but you may go wherever your writing takes you! Challenge yourself to write for 20 minutes, and be thorough.

• At this point in the semester, you have been to 3 days of college classes. How are they going? Are they the same as or different from what you expected? Explain.
• You've written a draft of your first college essay assignment, and workshopped it. How was that experience? How did the writing go? The workshop? If they didn't go so well, what will you do to make the your next writing and/or workshop experience better? 
• How are you revising and/or editing your Literacy Narrative for the next draft? While we're thinking about revision and editing, let's think about this: what is the difference between revision and editing? What do you think?
• You've completed 2-3 reading assignments in this class so far. What are your reactions to college reading assignments? Thinking ahead to a semester when you are taking a full course load (5 classes), how do you predict you'll get all your reading done - and not just done, but done well?
• Do you have any questions you'd like to pose--about college, about the course--to your teacher and classmates?

Post #3 - assignment

• What was your "high" this week? What was your "low"? If you could have a "do over" for your first full week of college, what would it be?
• What's standing out to you about college right now, or what's surprised you, or surpassed your expectations?
• Write a hefty paragraph or two about what you've been learning in your classes, without looking back over your class notes or textbooks. Then, spend a couple minutes reflecting on what you wrote.  Part of college is learning how to learn. So, how is your learning going? How could you improve your learning?

• Have you ever written a list poem? It's a poem, essentially a list, that's organized around a central idea. Here's an example list poem about the color orange:

What is Orange?

Orange is a tiger lily,
A carrot,
A feather from

A parrot, 

A flame, 

The wildest color you can name. 

Saying good-bye 

In a sunset that 

Shocks the sky . 

Orange is brave 

Orange is bold 

It's bittersweet 

And marigold. 

Orange is zip 

Orange is dash 

The brightest stripe 

In a Roman sash. 

Orange is an orange 

Also a mango. 

Orange is the music 

Of the tango. 

Orange is the fur 

Of the fiery fox, 

The brightest crayon 

In the box.

And in the fall 

When the leaves are turning 

Orange is the smell 

Of a bonfire burning.

---Mary O'Neill (from http://www.angelfire.com/ct2/evenski/poetry/listpoempg1.html) 

For the last part of this blog entry, pick something about college or UTOP to write a list poem about. Aim for at least 10 lines.