Topic Research

       For my project, I have chosen a topic that requires the use of literary devices. I have not dealt with literary devices much besides our weekly homework, so I have read the links attached to better understand what they mean and how someone can use them for a project like this. I also have gone back over my blog posts of the notes from the two texts I chose to talk about, and that has given me a better idea of which literary devices I would like to use for my project. By doing so, it has opened up more ideas for what I can do with the topic I have chosen for this project, and has helped me better understand the stories.
       Some literary devices I plan on using for my project are characterization, plot, theme, imagery and symbolism. I feel that I can relate all these to the two stories I have chosen and it will make it easier for me to talk about and summarize how they are related. At this time, I have not done any outside research regarding my project for the two stories. However, when I am writing the final project and decide to use outside sources, I will make sure to cite them in the final product.

Project Action Plan, Week 5

       For my project, I have chosen the topic: Pick a subject - love, work, freedom, etc. Then choose two selections and discuss how that subject is discussed in those selections. Use literary devices to help frame your discussion. The two texts I plan on talking about for this topic are "About the House Girl" pages 40-50 and "Sarah Elanor Royce" pages 136-140.

       I have chosen to talk about the text called "About the House Girl" for a couple different reasons. First off, I enjoyed the context and theme of that story, and since it was almost all outdoors I could personally relate to it. It was also very descriptive, and I was able to paint imaginary pictures in my head of what it looked like in the real story. The story had a few different meanings behind it, but one of them was love and that was an option to use for this topic of our project. That is also why I have chosen this one. I have read the story multiple times to ensure I understand  it and at this time I don't feel the need of outside resources, although when writing my project if I use any outside info I will make sure to include that as a reference.

      I also have chose to talk about the text "Sarah Elanor Royce." This story had many different scenes of Sarah and her husband traveling towards California, and the obstacles they endured to get there. However, there main goal was to get to California and I think one of the main reasons why they wanted to come here was for a better life and to gain freedom. Freedom was an option for this topic of the project so I have chose to analyze freedom with this story. Again, I have not found any outside information to reference to, but if I do I will attach that to my final copy of the project.


       I am aware that I need to use literary devices as well when I analyze these texts into my project. To ensure I do this correctly, I have read the links Ms. H has provided to us about literary devices, and have gotten a better understanding and idea of what to do. I have read about the literary elements, themes, and context that have gave me an idea of what do to. I also have read the link attached to literary elements, that talks more about literary devices. This article breaks down the basics of the literary devices, and names many that are usable in this situation. I plan to talk about characterization, imagery, plot, symbolism, and theme in the two articles I have chose to do my project on.

Topic Brainstorm

Logan Huntze

Ms. H

California Literature

26 February 2019

Project Brainstorm

The required task for this assignment is to choose 4 different topic posts and analyze them more deeply. The 4 topics I am choosing to talk about are: Comparing and contrasting elements from two different texts, choose one short story or novel and write a piece in which you explore the following, choose a reading and choose one of the following questions and write an argument in response to it, and pick a subject and use literary devices to help frame your discussion.

Why your interested, what previous knowledge you have, what you would like to learn through the assignments and what strengths you will bring to each of the four possible topics

The first option that I have considered using for my project is comparing and contrasting elements from two different texts. I am interested in this because breaking down two different texts and comparing how they’re similar and how they are different will help me better understand both stories and expand my critical thinking through reading. I don’t have much previous knowledge doing this. I have compared and contrasted before, but not for a project. I would like to learn how to effectively break down a text and compare and contrast it with a separate text. A strength I will bring to this topic is critical thinking and analyzing.

The second option that I have considered using for my project is choosing one short story or novel and writing a piece in which you explore the following. There are three different categories to research into depth on this one and that is why it interests me. The only think that gives me previous knowledge towards this post is talking about history. I have done assignments before that have been related to the history of the text I have read. Doing this option, I would like to learn more about the history of this text and how it applies to this class. A strength I will bring to this option is my research of history ability and my connection of history to the actual story.

The third option I have considered for my project is choosing a reading and one of the following questions to write an argument in response to it. This interests me because I get to choose something that interests me from a text, and then break it down and write an argument about it. I would like to learn what the story means as a bigger picture, such as how the work reflects the time period they were in and how is culture related to that story. I have no prior knowledge of doing this so that also interests me. A strength I will bring to this option is making sure to go in depth with my argument, and explain why I am arguing what I am.

The fourth and last option I have considered for this project is picking a subject and choosing literary devices to help frame your discussion of that text. This interests me because I feel I am able to talk about this topic in relation to my life as well as the texts time. I don’t have any previous knowledge using literary devices to break down a reading. This interests me because I think I have read some stories that I would be able to apply this topic to easily and write about it in a good way. A strength I will bring to this is hard work and critical thinking of the literary devices I choose.

Week 5, Analysis

I have decided to do a close reading post for week 5 of the reading Ambrose Bierce.

       The section that I am choosing to write about is on page 242, and its the second paragraph on that page that takes up about 3/4 of the page. I chose to talk about this because it was interesting to me, and shocked me a little bit. As I was reading the story, some of it was confusing to me, and I didn't understand it as clearly as I understand most readings. Then, as I was reading, we got to the part that interests me, and it sort of tied things together and I was able to understand the story a little bit better. The scene in the story that I am referring to is when the man entered Maxon's "machine room" late on a stormy night. What went on in the room surprised me, and I was not expecting that scene to go down like it did. The man was observing Maxon, and also observing a man that looked to be a machine while they were playing chess. When the man mentioned that the person playing with Maxon looked to be a machine, I understood why Maxon kept asking the question, "do you believe machines think on their own?" At this point, I also made the connection on why Maxon called this room the machine room.
       As I went back through that paragraph, I noted down the things that brought attention to me, and the word choice and metaphors the author decided to use from this paragraph. Some words that were interesting to me that helped analyze the story better were: humming/buzzing, whirring of wheels, disordered mechanism, convulsion, body and head shook like a man, sprang to its feet, hands close upon his throat, clutch its wrists, dreadfully distinct noise, and squawking sounds. From these words, I was able to understand there was a fight, but not just any fight. A machine had basically come to life to become a violent human, and attacked Maxon. I think this was sort of payback to Maxon for treating these machines poorly when they would play chess together.
       As I have broken this paragraph down, mu opinion hasn't changed about anything but the meaning of the story has changed a little. At first, I was quite confused on the whole scene that had just happened. After breaking it down and underlining the key words and phrases that stood out to me, I made the connection that there was a fight, and a meaning behind that fight. Maxon had been seen violently celebrating his win of chess towards the machines. That night something happened, and somehow the machine came to life. When this happened, the machine ultimately went after Maxon and the only reason I could think of it being this way was for revenge, for all the times Maxon had treated the machine poorly in their game of chess.
       This was the ending of the story, and I believe this was a source of resolution. It allowed me to understand the characters more clearly, and actually understand the story more clearly also. There were no other instances in this text like this one. The only time there was a ruckus it was behind closed doors, and Maxon did not seem worried. The affects that this scene had on the story was tremendous, as one of the main characters got killed by a machine.

Reading, Week 5, Bierce, Part B

Reading notes for Bierce, Part B

-born in Ohio and raised in Indiana
-stories known as "Maxon's Master"

The Story: Maxon's Master

-do machines think? that was an unknown for Maxon
-a machine does think about the work it is doing
-Maxon suffered from insomnia
-are plants driven by a brain?
-a tussle went down in the "machineroom"
-claims it was a machine that lost its temper for a moment
-his friend left the machineshop, and in the dark rainy sky could still see the light on inside the room
-he went back to Maxon's and approached the machineroom
-the room was full of ruckus, and he knocked on the door repeatedly
-he entered the room and saw Maxon and another person playing chess
-the other man was short, but had a body like a gorilla
-he made the conclusion that the guy playing chess with Maxon was a machine, and automatic chess player
-a machine got loose and violently attacked another
-the machine was attacking Maxon, and choking him to death
-the man got hurt while trying to help Maxon, and woke up three days later in a hospital
-Maxon got killed, and Mr. Haley rescued the surviving man

Bierce- pages 235-243

Reading Notes, Week 5, De Burton, Part A

Reading Notes, Week 5, De Burton Part A

-born in Mexican Family, traveled by ship to California
-fought in Civil War, died from malaria
-common practice of "squatting"

The Story: From the Squatter and the Don

-had power to transmit human voice for 500 feet for communication
-fond of dancing with sons and daughters
-wife confronted husband about a "problem"
-he informed her of more squatters on the way
-dangerous squatter William Darrell
-the family is worried about the new squatters to be potentially dangerous to them and there cattle
-searched for ideas to protect their property
-the presence of gold brought riff raff to California
-squatters don't want government land, they want the land of the Spanish people
-squatters locate land and raise crops on the Spanish peoples land

The arrival of the potential dangerous squatters:

-Darrell and his people arrived, looking at each other with happiness
-the men checked each other out
-Darrell loved the looks of his "new" city
-loved the land that was in front of him
-a rifle went off for a celebration of the squatter's arriving, but scared all of them
-talking about shooting their cattle and taking their land
-Darrell requested he took 320 acres of land
-the government has millions of acres for sale, yet Darrell wanted to take from the Spanish

De Burton- pages 244-253

Week 4 Analysis, "Royce"

          In this post, I am going to be writing a literary analysis for the reading about "Royce" which was from our part A reading of week 4. This reading created some what of a suspense, and was also very adventurous which kept the reading interesting. This story uses characterization quite a bit, and here are a few examples. The men and women traveled on mules, which was often how they got wherever they needed to be. So in a sense, these mules represented travel for these people. The men were characterized more as the people building the camps, starting fires, gold mining, and hunting for food. The women weren't talked about as much, but Royce herself was a women. She followed along and often lead the journey, but was also staying back at camp while others were out doing things. Both men and women in this article showed strong and strategic personalities.
         This article also used imagery a lot. In the beginning, they emphasized the steepness of the hills they were traveling, and the awesome views they got of the Sacramento Valley. Each time they stopped at a new camp, it was explained in a very visual way and it was easy to picture somewhere they were. In the scene where the Indians came and tried attacking them, they described the arrows hitting the man in the ribs, and the other men chasing the Indians away. This was a very visual scene and I think that's what made this story so easy to understand.
         A theme in this story that I could relate to was in the beginning when they had just made it to the top of the summit, and realized what a great view they had and that they had made to the Sacramento Valley of California. I can relate to this because I love the outdoors and I am constantly traveling new places, especially lakes. It is always a good feeling when you have arrived somewhere you have never been before, and you're able to look out and take everything in. This theme plays an important role in this story because the Sacramento Valley was there end goal to arrive to, and they finally had made it. It was an opportunity for them to start their life in a different way, and hopefully become rich off of gold. This works as a metaphor because the Sacramento Valley essentially means a new start to a better life. Although it is just described as being a town in California, it has a bigger meaning to the people who have just arrived, and that is Life.
        This readings context relates a lot to a historical meaning, and that is the gold rush. The gold rush is a huge part of California's history, and it changed a lot of peoples lives for the better. I can tell that this influenced how the writer wrote because of its meaning; People were now able to start their lives over and become successful all from the gold of California. This connects to the work because this is exactly what happened in the story. These people traveled to California in hopes of reaching Sacramento. They eventually did, and they adapted to the new lifestyle that they were not used to. They then came in contact with an old friend, and from there they started gold mining and opened their own shop. The shop was not only successful from the gold they were selling, but also from the fresh meat. These people truly changed their lives for the better when they made it to California.

Reading Notes, Week 4, Taylor, Part B

Notes for "Bayard Taylor" part B

-born in Pennsylvania
-writer, man of letters, wrote over 40 books
-San Francisco by day and night - The Journey:

-September of 1849
-Coast mountains across the bay filled with fog, and the sound of people working
-wooden buildings, canvas housing
-half past six, the bells ring for breakfast, and people come from everywhere
-by 9 o'clock, the town is full of business
-by midafternoon, the crowds in the streets are very active
-by 12 o'clock, the bells go off and it was the sound for dinner
-dinner used to cost about $5
-the dinners were small, but greatly cooked and satisfied the working men
-the view of San Francisco at night was something he had never seen before
-the only thing left for him to visit was the gambling tables
-bars filled with activity and entertainment
-the game monte was the favorite game for people in California


Title: "Bayard Taylor" pages 141-147

Reading Notes, Week 4, Royce, Part A

Notes for "Royce" part A

-middle of the gold rush
-she was born in England
-settled in grass valley and spend rest of life in California
-their journey:

-when the mountains got too steep, she let the mule guide and drive himself
-arrived safely to camp
-made way to a large hill
-realized she had made it to Sacramento
-she loved California from that moment
-tried to camp next to Col and his men every night
-history of Indians attacking emigrants
-the night of October 21st they made their camp
        -fires made, people asleep
        -foot steps arose, and guns/arrows had been fired
-two Indian men had made it to their camp
-one man was wounded by the arrows
-the men chased after the Indians firing weapons, but they got away
-on the 24th, they found two or three tents with men and there gold mining buckets
-finally slept without the fear of Indians
-after three days of rest, they moved onto a village called Weaverville
-made an effort to build a house
-ended up making a store to sell gold
-they sold cattle(beef) as well
-they were very successful, as every morning men would come to the store for fresh meat
-they all had a goal of becoming rich


"Royce" pages 136-140
by Sarah Elinor Royce

Feedback Strategies, week 3

Learning about different feedback strategies and the importance of feedback has been helpful for me to develop new ideas on how to be better. The article I read was "Be a Mirror" by Gravity Goldberg and this article provided a lot of good ideas that I have never heard of or used before. The article broke things down into different categories, and that for me made it easier to comprehend. I learned some good stuff about an open mindset and a fixed mindset. This article provided some good points such as if a student has a fixed mindset coming into the class, it will be hard to offer and feedback to that student versus a student coming into the class with an open mindset and wanting to learn. This article also provided 5 different qualities of feedback and why each of them are important. I liked the second quality of feedback, and that was to provide information to the writer with what they have already said, and not things they have yet to say because a mirror can only reflect on the things that have already been said. The fifth quality of feedback is also good information for me, and that is how you respond to the writer your talking to. It provided good ways on how to inform a writer about something and explained how it is more effective.
Yes, I feel confident about giving people feedback because I know it will only help. Learning and reading about the effectiveness of feedback has provided lots of ideas and facts to me that will help myself as well as others in the future. Some strategies I can recommend would be the 5 qualities of feedback provided in the article "Be a Mirror." They are broken down and easily explained and I think all 5 will have positive outcomes on the writers. A way I would like to improve on giving feedback is how I begin with the feedback. In the article I read it gave some examples of how to start of speaking while giving feedback, and it is something that made sense to me and something I would like to get better at. I would also like to get more in depth on some feedback, instead of stating the obvious. Overall, I was able to learn some valuable things that I know will help me with feedback in the future.

Week 3, Analysis, The Journey of Crespi

This week, I have decided to write a literary analysis on the story of Juan Crespi. I have decided to choose Juan and his crew of people that he experienced this journey with as the literary device. They started out heading northwest along the mountains. I liked that they had a plan, but didn't know exactly where to go or how to be successful with there journey. Terminology they use such a league and a half is interesting to me and I wonder what it would be like today if we still talked like that. A few of the people who had sailed to San Pedro before were able to help along the journey, and they found a nice river bed pretty quickly into there journey. The way these people traveled back then can be appreciated tremendously compared to how we have it today. Back then, it was travel by water or horses or walking most of the time and compared to what we have now, that was a lot of hard work. I think sometimes we take for granted the things we have today, and it shows by going back and reading something like this from years ago. The theme I am going to discuss is when they arrived at the first river bed and were greeted by 52 different Indians in a group. These Indians took initiative to walk up to these new people and immediately be friendly and welcome them to there village. The Indians let these people live with them, and also helped them work such as building houses or hunting animals for everyone to eat. They were very respectful and gave a good helping hand, and that's something that I think would be different in todays world if that were to happen. Honestly, I think if random people showed up to someone's home or village, today we would not be so welcoming and helpful to those new people. So that's something I think was cool that the Indians did to welcome the new arriving group of people. The context of this is definitely historical. There are not many places in the world that operate like this story did, and these so called villages are almost extinct in most parts of the world. At the village these Indians were living on, it was very cultural. They came over and greeted the new people, and back then I think that was part of their every day culture so I think it definitely influenced the way this author wrote this story. The way he wrote this connects to how life actually was back then, and can be related to how difficult some of the times were. Overall, this story was meaningful, and is a good way to use and show people today what it was like back then. Almost no where in the world operates like this anymore, so that is also a good learning factor that can go into a story like this. Living in the times they did is a lot different than today, and we can always learn from it.

Reading Notes, Week 3, Pablo Tac, Part B

Notes for Pablo Tac(Part B)

-born north of San Diego
-high promise for skill and promise with languages
-Fernandino Father made five big gardens
-in Quechla, there was 5000 people, or souls
-though the sickness killed 2000 people, so 3000 remained
-there were alcaldes
-chief of alcaldes was called the general
-gather at the house of missionary
-at the missionary, the chief provides everyone with a plan
-Indians had a special dance
-dance of Yumas, always sad
-need permission of the elders for your first dance
-the elders teach the song and dance
-cheyatom, their word
-in the first dance, there can be up to 30 dancers
-"Hu"
-the "ball game"
-the place where they play is all level
-choose two leaders
-they try and get the ball from other players
-women also play, but only on Sundays with permission
-the games continue as they knock other people out of the league

Title: "Pablo Tac"
Pages 103-107

Reading Notes, Week 3, Crespi, Part A

 Notes for Fray Juan Crespi(Part A)

-Journey started Friday, July 28th
-started northwest along the mountains
-found a river bed that they were interested in
-found good land which could be easily irrigated
-Indians, 52 came to live with them
-the Indians were there to help build homes and provide food
-experienced a horrible earthquake, happened 4 times within 3 hours
-they learned about the Santa Ana river
- August 1st, a day for rest and exploring
-soldiers went on a hunt and brought back an antelope
-they left and found a new river bed
-8 heathen from a new village came and visited them when they arrived
-old men smoked pipes while heating clay
-August 3rd, left the camp again and headed up the Porciuncula River
-entered a large vineyard of grapes
-found great soil that was sufficient for planting anything they wanted
-found some more villagers offering them seeds
-they pitched a camp near the water
-the final place they had stopped was called The Spring of the Alders of San Estevan

Title: "Fray Juan Crespi"
Pages 78-81

Feedback Thoughts

I think feedback towards the teacher and towards your fellow classmates can be important in learning about some things that may have gone wrong, or ways to improve on your work. Last semester, I had an online class that required us to comment on each others posts. However, this was more of commenting to relate to a post rather than giving feedback to someone who you think could have done better on something. The feedback that I have been a part of the most is back in middle school and high school, and that's when we used to peer edit our friends essays. This was often a success, and reading other peoples work makes it easier to find errors for the person who did the actual work. So to me, feedback and advice towards others can be very useful in learning what may have to be changed for the better. The most productive feedback I have been a part of is the peer editing for essays mostly. There is also a questions regarding the most negative moment I have had with feedback and I cant think of any. In school, we rarely did these peer feedbacks and every time we did them, it seemed to go fine. Feedback outside of school has also been very helpful for me. In sports, there is a lot of feedback, positive and negative. This is an example where I can think of negative feedback. However, feedback in sports is awesome and allows you to learn how to do things better, such as hit a baseball. With no feedback, there is no room to learn or get better, and that is not good. For this class, I think feedback with be good for not only the person receiving it, but also the person giving it. We can all learn something from doing this in this class and I think it will work out good.

Week 2 Analysis, "About the House Girl"

I am creating a literary analysis blog post for part B of week 2's reading. I understand that I must choose a literary device from this reading and for this I am choosing Patapir from the story "About the House Girl." In this story, Patapir was very unique to me, but I also learned and understood that he was a very smart boy. Patapir was known as the "flute boy" but I think he often had his own way of doing things and he always had a reason for doing so. I think when he saw the two girls across the river and decided to head over to them, the bigger idea in his mind was to go over there and find an excuse to go up to the old ladies house where Ifapi lived. To me, this was critical thinking that went on in his brain while he was trying to be sly with his actions toward the other girls. When Patapir agreed to meet the two other girls later that night, I think his idea of Ifapi had gone out the window, until he saw her out in public for the first time dancing at the event he was at that night. Once he saw her, I think his mind was really made up that he wanted to be with, and in the bigger picture marry her. The fact that the next day he made it back to her house, and this time went inside to take Ifapi was pretty crazy. The old lady was very protective of her at first, but I think Patapir's determination and respect let the old lady realize everything was going to be fine and allowed Patipir to take Ifapi. Patipir wasted no time and immediately married her, and planned their wedding for that night. This was something that made me think a lot about and wonder how things were so much different in the story than today. I also have to choose a theme that means something to me from this story and I am going to use the river. The river in this story was not only everyone's way of transporting, but also used to get together in the canoes and travel down river. To me, this symbolizes everybody's life, like how are roads are today. We rely on the streets to let us drive our cars on which allow us to get anywhere and everywhere we need to go. Without streets for us in our life, their would be no life. It would be impossible for anyone to commute to work, unless there was a secondary option like airplanes, but I cant see that happening. Same goes for this story, everyone lived around or close to this river they were in, and the only way they ever transported to each other or any events was a canoe, that river is there life like streets are ours. To me, I think it would be cool to live in an area like this, where boats were the only way of transportation. I do not think having a whole world like this would be cool, but having certain areas with river access and places to live would be fun. I think the author used this river well as a metaphor. He basically used the river to symbolize these peoples lives, because without it how would they make it anywhere down or across stream? This story seems to be describing the time of life many many years ago, so I think it is pretty historical. I can tell the historical meaning influences this authors work because he based his whole story off of it. There is no where in the world today, at least I don't think, that lives like the way the people in this story does. I know that some areas may have boat and river access, and may use boats for transportation a lot, but it still doesn't add up with this story 100 percent. The historical element connects to this authors work because the whole story is based around it. Without the author making a historical story about the past, this whole thing would have been different. Overall, I enjoyed this story a lot more than I would have expected, and I hope there are similar to this in the future of these readings.

Reading Notes, Week 2, Part B, About The House Girl & Coyote Cooks His Daughter

About The House Girl and Coyote Cooks His Daughter

-"Karok"
-Patapir liked playing his flute along the water
-Ifapi lived far up river
-Ifapi was shy and would hide from men that came to the house
-never seen in the village
-Patapir saw two young girls he was attracted to across the river
-he canoed over to them
-Patapir got seaweed from the old lady up the hill, Ifapi didn't say anything to him
-Patapir met the two girls that night
-Patapir climbed into a boat with two random guys and headed down river to the "dancing"
-Patapir ran into Ifapi at the night event
-the next day he went back for seaweed from the old women
-he once again saw Ifapi in the house
-this time he approached her and grabbed her shoulder
-the old lady got mad and yelled at him
-Patapir did not care and continued holding Ifapi
-Patapir took Ifapi away from her home and married her that night
-Patapir took Ifapi downstream where they met up with her father
-they both talked to her father, and the father was very grateful for the girl Patapir had gotten him
-Patapir and Ifapi went out to sea
-we found out why Patapir had named Ifapi "about the house girl"
-the Coyote Cooks His Daughter was a unique writing

Author: Jack Hicks, James D. Houston, Maxine Hong Kingston, Al Young
Title: "The Literature of California", About the house Girl & Coyote cooks his Daughter pages 35-55

Reading Notes, Week 2, Part A, General Introduction

Week 2, General Introduction notes Part A


-California's statehood began long before the name California
-CA had a place in the European mind
-island full of gold
-gold discovered in 1848
-California's first large narrative was called The Life of Adventures of Joaquin Murieta
-1992 Rodney King case
- El Dorado was California's first metaphor
-for years, people have been attracted to California
-SF was a launchpad for the gold rush
-LA grew to be the biggest city West
-deep culture with indigenous tribes
-18th century had the first Spanish explorations
-by 19th century, only sixteen thousand indigenous people remained
-survivors fled and changed names
-North America was known as turtle island
-Indians often kept to themselves

Title: General Introduction, Indian Beginnings Introduction, and The Creation. Pages 1-35
Author: Jack Hicks, James D. Houston, Maxing Hong Kingston, Al Young

Growth Mindset

Fixed mindset and growth mindset are both two familiar terms to me, but I have never spent any time researching them or had the opportunity to learn more in depth about them. As far as the theory behind both go, I can position myself being on both sides of this theory at different points of my life. One of the questions that was posted is do you think your mindset differs on the situation you are in? My answer to this is yes I think it does. Every kid and every adult has their own likes and dislikes and everybody is into different things. For example, a young kid who is super into sports may have a growth mindset all the time at a sports practice, but that same kid who doesn't enjoy school may have more of a fixed mindset in a school atmosphere and only apply the growth mindset ever so often. I can relate to this a lot. Growing up I loved sports so I always kept a growth mindset because I was eager to learn new things. As for school, I never had a problem with it growing up but I definitely had certain classes that I enjoyed more than others. In this case, for example, history class was not as exciting and enjoyable for me as lets say EMT class I took here at LMC. I took EMT class because it is a part of what I want to do with my life, so I was interested and always had a growth mindset going into that class. So I definitely think the situation, adult or child, has a play into having either a growth or fixed mindset about something. I have been in school a majority of my life and I have learned a lot about myself over the years. Up until high school, school was always super easy for me and I was always pretty involved in my classes. When I started high school, the classes weren't overly hard but my attention wasn't as focused in some of them that didn't intrigue me. I often thought that some classes, such as pre-calculus, was too hard for me. However, my junior year I took pre-calc and was able to change my fixed mindset to a growth mindset, and ultimately I think that helped me a lot in the class. I ended both the semesters of that class with a B. It was way better than I thought I would ever do, but what I learned is if you have a growth mindset going into something, the outcome is much more likely to be positive than negative. My biggest challenge with learning new things is my interest level. There are many things that I would love to learn and know more about, but the things that I am not interested in make it harder for me to focus and learn. I used to go into something new thinking it was too hard to learn about, since I had no idea about whatever it is coming into it. However, I have changed and now keep an open mind about everything, and keep in mind that learning new things and making your brain work harder is only going to make you smarter. I think I am going to be interested in learning more about growth mindset this semester since it is something that has helped me already in my life. Learning new strategies and ways to use growth mindset to overcome a fixed mindset is also interesting to me. So overall, I think learning more about growth is going to be a good thing in this class. A personal learning goal for me this semester is to always keep a growth mindset and open mind, no matter what the topic or subject is that we are learning about. I think that this will help me become more knowledgeable about things I have not learned about in the past and I look forward to doing so.

Time Strategies

My life, as well as many others I am sure, is very busy. I have two jobs and go to school full time, and also have classes and drills that are often on weekends that contribute to my life being hectic. However, I have learned and tried to maintain a fluent time management schedule for school that works into the other events in my schedule. The way Ms. H has created this class with the work and assignments due is very easy, and I appreciate her for that. This is going to allow me to better balance the work with this class into my daily routine, and also work around my other classes I am taking this semester. The weekly calender that is provided to us in advance also makes it very easy to prepare for what is to come, and make sure you make enough time for the work assigned that week. I also enjoy the opportunity for extra credit, as that can contribute to some extra points towards our assignments. Some strategies that I will use for this class to better myself with time management is prepare, complete all work, and use my time wisely to try and get ahead of the assignments. I know this is possible since the work load is spread out in this class, and the time period to complete things are on your own schedule. I am glad this class is set up the way it is and I am happy that I will be able to work this class in with my schedule without much hassle.

Technology Tools

This class is online and may bring challenges, but with these online tools and ideas I think it should help not only me, but everybody enrolled in the course. I am not that familiar with online classes and computers are something that is not my strong part. However, I think these tools posted are going to be a help for me. There are multiple tools involved in this class, but I am not familiar with any of them. Blogger is something new to me and I haven't been able to use it much yet, but I am already learning new things with this and learning how to use it. With googledocs, I am a little familiar with it but not much. I used it a couple times in high school but could use a refresher. I read and understood the meaning and use of class wiki, and hopefully I can get familiar with using that soon. My only concerns with this course is not being able to figure out how to use something because of my computer skills, but with the help of these tools and Ms. H I know I will be fine. I am excited to start doing more things online so I can practice using new websites and materials online, and get to familiar myself with things I have never used. Blogger seems to be a good resource to use to get a whole class together online to do work together and I think it is going to work out good. I also like the fact that we are given these tools and opportunities to help better us in this class. Overall, these tools and resources should be an advantage for us in the class and I am looking forward to using them.

Favorite Place: Lake Shasta

I have a lot of places I like, but one of my favorite's is Lake Shasta. Lake Shasta is in northern California just north of Redding. The lake is 46.88 square miles and the elevation level is 1067 feet. Lake Shasta is a place that anyone can go to and participate in many different activities. Fishing is a big part of my life and Lake Shasta is one of the best fisheries in the world. There is many different species of fish in the lake including spotted bass, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, trout, sturgeon, catfish, etc. and the lake can provide fun for everyone. This lake also has camping, on shore or house boating. I have been house boating there before during the summer and it is always a fun time. The lake is also super big, so it allows you to go somewhere on the lake away from other people to have fun. This is one of my favorite spots because it offers lots of fun things that I enjoy. The fishing is awesome, and you can wake board, surf, or camp at the lake and I enjoy those things also. The big thing that I want to let the readers know about this place is if you like the outdoors and are interested in having a fun time camping or house boating, this is a great place to go. This place is significant to me because I have been going to this lake most of my life periodically through the years and each time I have some of the most fun times of my life. This lake is a perfect place to take a vacation for relaxation and a fun time, especially during the summer. I was just their for a fishing tournament a couple weeks ago and I hope to be back over the summer.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g33078-d142436-Reviews-Shasta_Lake-Shasta_Lake_California.html

Introduction to a future Fire Fighter

Hello,

My name is Logan Huntze and this is my second year at LMC. I am working to get my Associates Degree in fire science. Once I finish my AS degree at LMC, I am considering going to paramedic school instead of transferring to a 4 year college. My favorite class so far at LMC was EMT class since it had a lot to do with what I am going to be doing in my career. My goal is to become a career firefighter with in the next 3 years. I would love to get hired and work at Contra Costa County Fire since that is where my dad works. I have grown up around the fire department and it has definitely been a big part of my life. I currently have two jobs and go to school full time. My favorite hobby is fishing; I have grown up living on the delta so fishing has always been in my backyard and a big part of my life. I competitively compete in fishing tournaments on the weekend, 1-3 tournaments a month usually. This also adds to the busyness of my life. I also enjoy wake boarding, surfing, or camping. Pretty much anything to do with the outdoors. In high school I played baseball all 4 years and that was some of the best times of my life. Once in awhile I regret not going to college to play, but I am happy with the decisions I have made and the things I have accomplished by staying home. My best friend would describe me as funny, hard working, determined and sometimes crazy. I listen to lots of different kinds of music, but my favorite is probably hip hop and country. I do a lot of commuting to school and work so I am always listening to music. This is only my second online class I have taken and computers is not one of my strong points. I currently have this online class and one other, kinesiology. This semester is going to be a busy one but  I am looking forward to a good and successful semester with this online class.

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