1. Ryan Smith

    Black Box Distribution and Zero

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                There are more than a few main stream skateboarding companies out now days and a few have faded away. Some of the major skateboarding companies come from some major distributors that s...
  2. Alicia Kittles

    iThoughts

    by
    I know in a lot of my previous blog posts I stated that I feel like I am not a good writer and I don't like to write. Well, I actually do spend a lot of my time writing or typing in my notes app on my iPhone. For some reason I tend to always have somet...
  3. Chrishawn Elliott

    Organization

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    At the beginning of this semester I was starting to become overwhelmed with all the class work and responsibilities I took on. As the semester progress and comes to an end I have figured out that the fast pace and continual due date and deadlines do no...
  4. Chun Morris

    Education and Beyond!

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    Something that caught my attention this week was the events that were happening in Ohio. A 17 year old student opened fire at a high school in Ohio, leaving three dead. These events are nothing new they have happened before, some specific ones are the ...
  5. Torrence Grady

    To Study, Or Not to Study?

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    From the title of this blog post it's pretty easy to conclude that studying is the topic. Also, with thetitle being the question that it is, it's pretty obvious that I am really not a fan of studying. Honestly I am not! I really need to improve these h...
  6. Shelbi Calhoun

    Blog Post 8

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    Wow I can’t believe it’s mid-term already. It seems like yesterday this semester was just beginning and now we’re half way done. Now that we’re half way thru the semester I have gotten better with a lot of things. My blogs have gotten longer and stronger, I’m no longer a big procrastinator, and I stay on top of my work. I have learned to manage my time a lot better. I do all of my work first than I attend to my social life. I use to have a hard time doing that. I use to put off homework just so I could go hang with friends or whatever and I had to learn the hard way that that wasn’t the right thing to do. With this class you have to learn to manage your time wisely because if you, you’ll probably end up not passing this class.


                Even though the semester is going by pretty fast, it has been a great semester so far. I’m doing well in all my classes; I’m doing a lot better with my procrastination. I just hope to finish this semester out with a BANG!

  7. Bryce Davidson

    Dale Yeah 2012-02-28 15:54:00

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    Blog Post 8


                I’m going to write about time management. I feel it’s essential to the success of a student. We are no longer in High School, College takes effort. I remember in my High School days I stayed more than busy and without studying and doing homework I was making all A’s. Now in college when I have priorities and can’t find any free time I’m struggling. Other than my time in the military I’ve never felt so tired in my life. Pretty much I just think we all should make just make the most of every opportunity of free time.


                On the plus side the busy schedule I currently have if putting a cut to my procrastination problems. Now since I don’t have time to wait I try to get everything done as fast as possible which I do like. It just wears me out, staying consistently busy. That was one of my favorite things about the military how it put an end to my procrastination or so I thought. As soon as college started for me it seemed to come back. But hopefully now that I am busy again I can finally put an end to my procrastination, so when I do get free time I get my work done first.

  8. Ninja Crash Token

    "Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?"

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    Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? It's the situation where you come across a person that you're almost certain that you've seen somewhere before but can't quite place where. Believe it or not, there's a deeper explanation for that sc...
  9. Dakota Hill

    What do people usually write about?

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    How do people decide what to write about? I think people write about what they read. If some people like to read horror books then they will write about horror books. Other people may like to read about romances so they will probably write about someth...
  10. Simone Wallace

    Success

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    I never enjoyed school. NEVER. Not inelementary school, not in m middle school, and defiantly not in highschool. I hated getting up early, getting on the bus, sitting inclass hour after hour after hour. It felt like pure torture. Eighthours a day, ever...
  11. Ryan Smith

    Skate: Not Just A Sport At The X-Games

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                  Skateboarding is more than just a few guys and girls at the skate park or on the side walk skating. Skateboarding has become more of a culture or a life style in itself. Many people think skateboarding is just a way to look cool or exercise. It turns out to be so much more than that. It turns out the people you skate with become somewhat of a family to you. Skateboarding is also a way to take out your emotions like when you get angry or when you get pissed off.
                  Skateboarding teaches you respect and patience in the way of learning. One of the first ways is how to ride the board and get “board control.” Then you have to take time and practice how to pop an ollie which is one of the first tricks you need to learn in order to continue on to tricks such as kickflips and hillflips. You get respect from your fellow skaters when you learn a new trick or they are teaching you how to land the trick you have been trying to land for a few weeks. Respect comes in all forms from your fellow skaters like them not ragging you if you can’t pull off a trick the first time or if you can’t manual right off hand.
  12. Chun Morris

    Broadening My Major

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    I am an Elementary Education/ Collaborative teaching major. This major is a dual degree of grades K-6 dealing with children that have special needs. I have always wanted to be an  education major because I had a special ability in dealing with chi...
  13. Alicia Kittles

    Improvement throughout the Years

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    I can honestly say my writing skills have improved so much throughout the years. My mom also thinks so too. I talked to my mom yesterday on the phone for about an hour and we started talking about how my classes are going, and how I'm feeling about the...
  14. Shelbi Calhoun

    Blog Post 7

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    After working on the wiki project alone last week, I have come to realize that I actually like working in groups better. The part of the project that I wasn’t hard or anything, I think I just had gotten used to working with other people. When I’m working by myself, I lose focus very easily; my mind is always wondering somewhere else. I’m very hard on myself and most of the time I think that I’m doing the project wrong. I have a fear that when I’m working alone that the project isn’t going to be right or something like that and I’m afraid that I’m not going to make a good grade on it. I think working in groups is much better for me, just so I won’t be so hard on myself and so I won’t be thinking that the project isn’t going to be correct. I guess I’ll have to get used to working alone because our next project we’re working alone on this project. I’m kind of afraid of working alone on this project as well. Like I said before I’m very hard on myself and I’m thinking that I won’t do my best on this project, but I know if I have any questions one of my classmates will help me.

  15. Ashley Edmonds

    Into the Future

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    For many years now the film industry has played fantasy on virtual vision. For example the one I can think of off the top of my head is the Terminator films. In these films director James Cameron introduces the 80’s to “cyborg vision”. This vision is a virtual computer based vision equipped with face recognition and commands. Fast forward 28 years into 2012 this once farfetched vision is more realistic then one might have thought.

    Earlier this week information from Google X Lab was leaked the release of the android powered Google Glasses. Essentially these sunglasses will be a virtual interaction with your smartphone. The glasses like Bluetooth will be synced with your phone and will allow the user to interact with their phone with out looking at it. How do Google Glasses work?  The glasses will be equipped with one computerized lens and built in camera. The camera records and assesses what you are looking at and portrays the content on the computerized lens overlaying it on reality. For example, say you are at a historical landmark, the glasses will recognize the landmark and display facts and comments on what you are looking at. For more of a social example, don’t you hate when you run into someone and they obviously know you, but you are not sure who they are or how you know them. Well Google glasses can help, because the glasses have face recognition. It will be able to access your accounts (Facebook) and show you who they are and maybe how you know them. How do you command Google Glasses?  The glasses are operated by head nods and side-to-side motion.
    Other Features
    • GPS
    • Apps
    • Motion Sensors 


    Wow, who knew this technology would come so soon? Personally this excites me to think how advanced everyday technology has come. However, I can see the cons this product may bring about. Don’t you hate being around someone with a Bluetooth set on and the awkward moment you realize they were never talking to you? Well now you’re going to have that and someone who is head-bobbing coming toward you. (Talk about awkward)  Also, as if our generation is not already dissocialized enough with texting, tweeting, Facebook, and angry birds the Google Glasses take this to a whole new level. Now you can do these things everywhere at anytime. I also could see the threats users could cause. We already can see the issues with texting and driving, but now Google Glasses make this easier and could possibly cause even more of a distraction than before. With that being said, think about the phrase “the government is tracking us”. Well now that your every move will be recorded this could be more true then ever.  As exciting as this new product is I find it just as scary.
  16. Dakota Hill

    Teaching to Write Shorter

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    In every writing class that I have ever taken we would always write 500-600 word papers all the time. What if we cut that paper in half, and took out all the sentences we just rambled on about. It would definitely be shorter and most likely be a better...
  17. Christian Webb

    The Wikipedia Chronicles

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    Writing in a digital medium is becoming more second nature to me. I am having such a great time using Wikipedia and other sites to publish my work. My table that I finished for our Wikipedia project is one of my best works this semester. The time that ...
  18. Bryce Davidson

    Dale Yeah 2012-02-22 10:59:00

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    Blog Post 7


       My challenge for this week is my grammar. I recently found out in my meeting that my grammar is what is keeping my grade down. I have a lot lower grade than I feel I should because of it. So now I will be writing it first on word to give me a spell check. I refuse to let a little thing such as a grammar hold me back from the grade I deserve so I will work on it as I have my length to make sure I can improve and make the grades I need to make.


      I am also writing this week’s blog post a day early due to the fact I have to get in 2 hours of study hall time a week. The 2 hours a week are mandatory for me. And frankly I enjoy it. Its 2 hours I can get solid work in without distractions this is one thing I learned could help me out a lot. If needed be I can get tutors to help me out on any subject I need. I think even though my grade is a little low now I can pull it up pretty fast by just typing it on word first so I’m going to see how much better I do first before I hit up the tutors.

  19. Ninja Crash Token

    Bye Bye, Bias.

    by
    What's the opposite of being controversial? It's called, being objective. Being objective turns out to be a key quality in order to actually provide a sound argument. What I mean is that it's the difference between being one of those people who sa...
  20. Ryan Godhigh

    How My Grandmother Taught Me How To Write

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    When your learning to write as a young child you tend to look up to someone to teach their wisdom to you so that you can achieve in writing as well. In this case I looked up to was my grandmother who was an extraordinary writer in are family....
  21. Torrence Grady

    Practice to Perform!

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    In my last blog post I addressed how to better ones writing. I gave tips on how to become a stronger writer and how to independently improve one's writing style. I mentioned several times throughout that blog post, that in order to become a better writ...
  22. Chrishawn Elliott

    The Process of Creation

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    Coming into this Wikipedia project I was a little intimidated. One because I had never edited let alone created a Wikipedia article. And with the failure of our first attempt to effectively create a guide to compose a successful article increased that anxiety. But in class my partner and I randomly chose our topic which happened to be external links which was a little long but easier. One of our fellow classmates recommended a website that we used to connect to “On Writing". In order to weed out several of the links we used the process of elimination and picked the links that seemed to be timely, and relevant. After reading through numerous sources and links we chose the most relevant information. Although many of the external links come from the same source it was very time consuming reading over the information to insure that the content was appropriate for our class Wikipedia. Peer editing was required as well as necessary although we did not receive much feedback; due to the fact our document lacked the opportunity for the class to comment for a short period of time. Although creating a Wikipedia article was not as hard as I intended, I'm not sure if I will ever do another one!
    Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. ~ Ben Franklin

    This quote sticks out to me because if you have absolutely no interest in the subject matter your about you probably should not be writing. Although as students writing assignments are not optional therefore attempt to twist the subject in your point of view how it relates to you personally. And more than likely you find similarities in your situation and Mr. King's. And this relates to the Wikipedia article because if you didn't read the book then this assignment is not worth writing about due to the fact that you have no clue of how you relate to the moral of his story.

  23. Torrence Grady

    Try Very Hard!

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    Writing isn't something that come naturally to everyone, yet it's like playing sport, you practice to improve. Any author would tell an aspiring writer to read a lot and write a lot; writing is something that needs to be practiced. I think that I'm a d...
  24. Christian Webb

    Going For Gold

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         The class wiki is a chance for all the students. It's a chance to show everyone in the class what you can do. I truly think our class will excell at this task. My fellow classmates are a very bright bunch. I am very intrigued by the portion I am doing. My task is to archive all of his works into a digital medium. I am set that I will do a table archiving by genre and year. I hope that my fellow peers will be able to glance on my work and find exactly what they need. I know that I cannot control others writing, but I have complete faith that our class will excell. My title reflects it all "going for gold". I want our article to be golden. I want the featured article status. That would be a great achievement.      Another topic that I want to address this week is our work individually. It seems like all of our work is evolving I enjoy reading other peers triumphs and toils.[a] I feel like my individual work is evolving. I am more comfortable with my work. I have no reason to worry myself on writing. It's like I just sit back and watch my brain work. I know that I can still improve. I also know that I will improve.
  25. Melonie

    My Problem With Research Papers

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        I am really dreading this 10-12 page research paper that I will have to start soon. I love to write but research papers bore me. . I have to come with a topic, thesis statement, construct the body of the paper, conclusion, and a bibliography. The research part isn’t bad, but implementing all the research into one long paper is a problem for me
                Finding a topic that’s relevant to the class has been hard for me. I have been unable to find a topic that I feel I will be able to write a 10-12 page paper on. Nothing has captured my attention. Some of the topics have been too broad. I have been skimming through my criminology book. Hopefully, something catches my eye.
                Once I find a topic to write about, the thesis statement will be easy. It’s the guideline and pre-summary to what my paper is going to be about.
                After my thesis statement, I have to construct the body of my paper. This is the difficult part. The information from my research has to balance the paper out. I can’t ramble on or be repetitive. I have to have enough information about my topic that I can use to write at least ten pages. I hate long length papers. If I can completely address a topic in less than ten pages, then I feel I shouldn’t have to write 10 pages.
                After I have successfully constructed the body of my paper, the conclusion has to be written. This is easy. I love this part because I know I am done with most of the research paper.
                The bibliography is what I really, really dislike because of the different styles such as MLA or APA. Sources  has to be written a certain way. For instance, newspapers, books, webpages, and etc. are all cites differently. It gives me a headache. Research papers are not my friend!
  26. Chun Morris

    Perfecting My Writing

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    I've always wanted to find ways to perfect my writing. There are many ways that I can achieve this such as reading more, going online to find websites about writing skills, watching my forms of punctuation and vocabulary. There are many books that give...
  27. Ashley Edmonds

    Is More Better?

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    Be honest, which do you find more effective, a brief description/ summary or a long drawn out article? Most would choose the brief description. Think about it, when you Google something most people would prefer to read briefly to get a general idea of the topic. So with this being said, why wouldn’t teachers teach students to be able to write briefly and effectively on a topic?

    In the article, "Teaching to the Text Message"Andy Selsberg, a teacher at John Jay College, saw the interest in texting as an opportunity to teach his students using Twitter-based learning. “We need to set our sights not lower, but shorter.” Selsberg along side traditional writing lessons also set up projects that would test his students critical thinking. In some projects students were asked to define things in two sentences. One of my favorite projects was where Selsberg asked his students to describe a chalkboard in one to two sentences. One of his students wrote, “A chalkboard is a lot like memory: often jumbled, unorganized and sloppy. Even after it’s erased, there are traces of everything that’s been written on it.”This response is beautiful. I believe that these two sentences were probably more thought out than if assigned an essay on the chalkboard.

    I agree with Selsberg’s logic of using less to explain more. I believe setting a required length or word count can take away from an assignment. When setting a length students are more prawn to plagiarize, ramble, or manipulate the true content of the final product. For example, say a teacher assigns a 400 word short essay. Most of the turned in assignments would contain one or even all three of these problems to make the essay seem legit. However, with challenging the students with shorter content students are required to think more about what to write, and could have a better understanding of the topic.
  28. Torrence Grady

    Know Yourself!

    by
    Living changes people. As a matter of fact, life changes while living. People who are now old were young once, and there are numerous accounts of the rich and powerful losing all the money they may have accumulated through their work. I said that to sa...

UMW Spring 2024 (Bond & Groom)

Welcome to Paul Bond and Jim Groom’s Spring 2024 ds106

Student Blogs

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