Finals

So this semester is wrapping up and it's time to finish everything up. I feel like I have SO much to do in every one of my classes, mostly my fault for being an incurable procrastinator. My research paper I'm really unsure how much more editing I feel like I need to do. There is a part of me that says you really aren't going to be able to do much better with what you have. But there is another part of me that is scared that it is so crappy that if I don't change the whole thing I will get a horrible grade. At this point the only thing I know for sure is that I need to cite within my paper and also add my works cited page to the paper (the last thing I need is to get an F for plagiarism). I also really need to redo my second paper. I knew when I handed it in that it wasn't going to be a good grade (could it be because I wrote it in two hours the night before?). I really do not want to take the grade that I got on it but at this point I'm wondering if I really will have time to finish it. Also we are required to hand in a portfolio as our final for this class. We need to write a letter about what we have learned in this class...well what our teacher has tried to get us to learn from his goal statements. What I have learned.....? Hmm, well...I have learned that I find it impossible to critically read in class because my professor is usually distracting us when we are suppose to be reading. I have learned that the definition of rhetorical is more complicated to understand than most poetry I have ever read. I have learned that trying to write a paper in two hours doesn't work, it never will, so why even try. I have also learned that Wikipedia is not a good source to use for a research paper, but it has some funny things to read when you are suppose to be writing your paper. And finally I have learned that whether it is APA or MLA, I will never really know where the periods are suppose to go but I'm pretty sure know one really knows that answer either. Oh and I have also learned that I hate being forced to argue about something when I don't know what their actually point of view is. Now I'm off to try to finish one of my ten papers I have to do.

Comments

After we turned in our research paper rough drafts, we all took turns reading and commenting on other classmates papers. It was good to read what other people thought about my paper. It was also good for me to see what other people had written about and there style of writing. It made me feel a little more comportable with my writing, seeing whether I am in the same place as other people. With my paper the one main comment that both people said was that my argument as a whole was not extremely noticeably, especially at the beginning of the paper. They felt that it should be more defined, maybe even explained a little more. I actually did find that a little surprising because I thought that it was there. They also pointed out a few run on sentences that I needed to take care of, but besides that it seemed that the paper was OK. I think that this process was helpful. It gave me another point of view and took myself away from my own paper. When I go back to my paper, it will make me aware of the fact that I need to pick apart my paper a little bit and make my main argument more obvious.

Practice Paragraph

From the opinions of some experts, the No Child Left Behind Act has a lot of work that needs to be done to it. One of the reasons for this act is to ensure that our children are learning what they need to learn for higher education. Our current Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan has recently made an opinion on the act by saying that " we are lying to children and families when we tell children that they are meeting standards”. His vision of their futures is not bright either. He believes that “they are woefully unprepared to be successful in high school and have almost no chance of going to a good university and being successful." Other opinions on this act are that it is just a starting off point, not a finished policy. "We think the federal law is like a first draft of a paper - and we don't think it's developed very well," Jack Jennings, President of the independent center on Education Policy, stated in September of last year. The other issue is the gap between different cultures. In an article in Diverse Hispanic in June of 2008, Dr. Sheryl Denbo discussed the problems with certain groups of children still being left behind.“If we are to make change in the educational system, we have to include everyone.” Though NCLB Act may be a great starting off place, even after years of being in progress there are obviously many people who feel there is still change that needs to be done.

Research Paper

I have decided to do my research paper on parts of Obama's education plan. There is so many things that he seems to be extremely passionate about but you begin to wonder if everything is achievable and whether the programs he is thinking about funding really deserve it. One problem is Head Start. Yes head start could be a great program that helps underprivileged children but there are some research articles out there that discuss some major problems with this program as well. Without a discussion about things that might need to be fixed, is it really appropriate to shove money their way. Another is performance pay among teachers. This itself is such a good idea but as so much controversy and issues that need to be discussed with it that it seems unattainable in the near future. The problem that I can see with my paper is whether I can really pick a side. I could argue both sides to each argument, I am just unsure on whether I could pick one.