Last One

Terrell Artis

Journal Entry

The last week of school is finally here, this has been a long, stressful, crazy and productive semester. Finals are finally here no one is in the courtyard or out socializing because it’s a serious time now more than ever. I’ve switched my major again to something I think fits me more than anything I’ve changed it to previously. Something I could thrive and be successful in. I changed my major from education to business. I’ve always wanted to work for myself because working for others at times can be a major hassle don’t get me wrong teaching/teachers is something we definitely need right now but I see myself going in a different direction professionally. Every summer just about I go out doing yard work (raking leaves, cutting, grass, planting etc.) as much as I can and I make a pretty good amount of money a day from doing that. This semester really made me look at the big picture more than anything. I feel like I’ve been spinning my wheels for so long at a standstill maybe now I can start driving in the right direction

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Thanksgiving Break

Terrell Artis

Journal Entry

Today my group had our last grammar schmammar presentation and our first reading presentation. I can’t lie I thought we were doing them after the thanksgiving break but yet again I was wrong. We awkwardly assembled in front of our classmates and presented both presentations. That was our last class before thanksgiving break which besides Christmas break is our best break. I left the school late on Wednesday and came home to the smell of thanksgiving food galore it was dishes all up and through my house I couldn’t have been happier. The only downer to me on thanksgiving was the fact that I and my brother had to wake up at 7ish to get ready for church which I wanted no parts of but I was doing it for my mom. So after church we head out to Blackstone VA to eat. I was too hype because I hadn’t seen any of my family since I left for school in August. When we got there most of the family was already there. So we just joined in with everyone with the eating and conversating, it was too good of a day.

Taboo

Terrell Artis

Journal Entry

For this week we had our second peer review because everyone didn’t bring their papers the first time so Sweeney gave everyone a second chance. I missed this class for a reason I can’t remember but it was a good reason not just random bullshit. But the second half of the week we played Taboo which I play all the time at family functions. The class was split up into two teams and the winner got 5 extra credit points the runner up I think got 3. That was probably the most fun I’ve had in a class all semester. Taboo is like a guessing game you have a word that your group is trying to figure out like "Knob" and on the card there are clue words you can’t say like "Door", "Handle" etc. If you say one of the words on the card the person holding the buzzer making sure you don’t say those words hits the buzzer and you lose a point. And you have a time glass as your timer you’re supposed to do as many cards as u can before that timer runs out. My directions probably aren’t as good as those that come with the game but it’s a really fun game to play.

Crime and Punishment Revision 1

Terrell Artis

Journal Entry

Today we had our first rough draft peer revision groups for our crime and punishment essays. Most of the people in class didn’t bring theirs so whoever had theirs would just read to the people in their group just like a regular revision day. We of course got tips, pointers and other feedback on how we could make our good papers better ones. I wanted Mr. Sweeney to look over mine before my final draft but he was occupied doing the same for another one of my classmates. I got some pretty good feedback from my classmates in my group, most consisted of checking grammar and spelling and broaden my ideas a little more and not be so one sided which is a valid point I guess; but in a sense there supposed to be sided because it’s a persuasive essay but I took all criticism as constructive. This paper so far was the hardest to write but I did learn a lot that I didn’t before about the subject. People do such crazy things to get punished in such a barbaric way. Why cant we all just get along.

Hurricane Sandy

Terrell Arti

Journal Entry

Hurricane Sandy came through and was more of a scare than a catastrophe. She was supposed to come through on Monday October 29 and leave on the 30^th. They predicted the storm to hit harder than Katrina but as it came up the coast all we got was wind a mild rain. The school told us that we didn’t have to leave the campus but they urged that we did as a precaution to Lady Sandy’s rage. We didn’t want to be stranded at the Bland with no power leaving us sleeping in the gym. I’m nowhere near down for that, so me and my boy Rek headed out for Richmond. The closer the storm got the more school got delayed all the way up to the day it was rumored to hit. It was like a mini vacation almost we stayed in Richmond the entire time I was expecting power outages all over but thankfully we kept power the entire time.

Punishment & Grammar Schammar Week

Journal Entry

English 101
 

Today we got into a heated debate about jail sentencing and the death penalty which I’m all for in some instances. The only people that I think truly deserve the death penalty or life is child molesters, rapist and murderers. Some argued that jail might turn them around for a second chance because everybody deserves one, but what would stop a killer or rapist from killing or raping again. The only reason I would say a person shouldn’t get life or the death penalty is if it is an accidental murder. Like the case when 12 year Lionel Tate was sentenced to life after performing a wrestling move on Tiffany Eunick taking her life at 6 years old. I say boys will be boys with the rough housing and fooling around not to say his actions are inexcusable but he an adolescent was as an adult in a court of law and he got life in prison. Of course you have to take in to consideration that her family will never have their daughter again but I truly don’t believe that it was on purpose.  On a lighter note my group and I did our first grammar schammar presentation on Run-Ons and Comma Splices. We did a power point and we had a multiple choice worksheet on that topic. I think we did pretty good overall.

Fall Break

Terrell Artis
English 101

This week in class were had to turn in our first persuavesive essays about pop culture. We also had fall break which was a much needed one. We weren't required to leave for the break on October 11th we could’ve stayed in the dorms that weekend. I chose to leave later on that day after I finished up some lingering homework, an essay and found out that half the damn campus was already gone. Me and my boy Rico left school around 6-6:15 and got home around 7. I had to take him back to the Southside of VA before I went home. As soon as I got home I went go see my mom for a few. Went to my boy Austin’s job at Jason’s Deli ate and went to find the rest of the crew but they were all at work. So I went back around my neighborhood and played some basketball with the homies. After that took a shower and got dressed and went to get my home girl Gabbo we went back to Austin’s where we met up with him Nate and Malcolm. We proceeded to pregame as we plotted on the night. About halfway into inebriation we found out about this house party around the VCU area so we went to check that out. It was a good night the party was cool but we left a little early and hit the bar. After that we took the first of many cookout runs that weekend and took it in, a pretty successful Friday night.

Revision Week

Terrell Artis

Journal Entry

This week in English class we got into groups to read and revise each other’s Pop Culture persuasive essays. There were about four to five of us in each group and we were instructed to read our papers aloud twice to our group and do revisions. The first time others in the group just listened as we read. The second time around the group had to write down their opinions and likes and dislikes of the paper, pretty much constructive criticism. When we were done reading we shared our ideas and what we wrote down everyone seemed to the take the peer revisions openly and heard everything we had to d=say. It was four people in my group everyone one had really good papers. All having good subjects and points to make their papers interesting. Everyone in the group had to participate even of the paper wasn’t complete. I think it was a good process to have our peers evaluate our rough drafts. When Mr. Sweeney gave us the rough draft deadline I thought he would be evaluating the papers himself. Also that week a grammar schammar group presented their topic. They had number 4 which was subject verb agreement. They taught on the subject for about twenty minutes showing how it is used correctly and incorrectly. We did a worksheet and they played a fill in the blank correctly game, giving candy to the ones that got the worksheet and fill in the blank questions right.

#2

Terrell Artis

Journal Entry

We got a week off from class last week for personal meetings with Mr. Sweeney to talk about my Pop Culture topic for our Persuasive / Descriptive essays that we’ve been working on. I was having some trouble narrowing down a subject from rap and the positive and negative impact it has on teenagers, to college sports and why don’t the players get paid to play, to professional sports about the referee lockout and the negative impact that has on the game of football. But after my meeting with Sweeney I narrowed it down to the replacement referees and their impact on the NFL football league. He helped pick different points and subjects I could type about while writing the paper. Telling me to keep it up to date and recent with dates and games etc. The meeting went pretty smooth and I think I wrote a pretty good paper from the ideas and opinions given. We also talked about how to post the blog correctly on blackboard because when I was posting the wrong link on the discussion board. This was good because I’ve gotten behind on my postings. This should definitely turn around very soon. I’ve been slacking on keeping them up to date and on top of that I didn’t know my blogger password to save my life.

1st Blog

My Terrell Artis and I am currently taking Mr. Sweeney's 101 English class. I am in school in pursuit of becoming a elementary school teacher with a minor in photography. I'm in my second semester at Richard Bland with either 2 or 3 more to go. The first couple of days of class were kind of chill we were all just really getting to know each other. We had a few readings to do to be honest I didnt get a chance to read them but during the class discussions I wish I would have they seemed like something I would've been into. Then we had a discussion on what topics we wanted for our persuasive essays. I missed the first day of duscussion, but from what I heard it was hard to get everyone on the same page but the next day in class we all found common ground. I dont really like writing papers that much but from the look of the syllabus I'm gonna have to get over that.