Imitation Piece

Dear Lennie,
I know you were always lookin forward to havin our own farm. I really wanted that for us to. We were so close Lennie, we were almost close enough to get ourselves a new farm. But then things got bad Lennie. I know went and lost my temper a lot with you, but you gotta understand I did love you Lennie. I was as patient as any man coulda been with you. But, whenever we would go and score ourselves a good job, you would go and get us in trouble. I did my best to warn people about you, and tell em you had no intentions of hurting anyone, but they wouldn’t believe me Lennie, honest. I still haven’t forgiven myself for what I did to you Lennie. That is why I write you a letter everyday and then burnt it. I thought the ashes of the paper might reach ya somehow. Well I hope they do.
I miss ya pal.
Love George.

Journal # 16

The semester is coming to an end, and some very important choices have to made. It is the time of the year when everyone’s stress levels begin to rise. University applications are due in the middle of January. Throughout our highschool careers our teachers have been trying to guide us and prepare us for university or college. I never tried to worry about university and stress myself over the issue. Saying that I went through highschool not really caring about school as much as I should have. Now I am in my final year of highschool not sure what it is that I want to pursue. There is always the option of coming back for another year, but I think I will regret that in the long run.
Another thing is I am not sure if I am mature enough to go to university. I think that if I smartened up, and really worked hard next semester I think I could mature enough for university. My main problems are time management and organization, and these are big problems. I find I have gotten better with these problems, but I still have to man up and tackle them head on if I want to be successful in the future. If I get accepted to university I think I would decide to take the leap and take on university. I have always loved the idea of becoming a teacher, and many people have told me they could see me doing that. So that is always a path I can take down the road.

Journal 15 "Digital Education"


It was really impressive to see some EWC students helping Mr. MacDonald's law class get into the 'blogosphere.' I realized that as a group this semester's EWC students have some specialized skills that are likely to serve them well in various contexts (school, work, recreation). 

How do you feel about blogging now that you have had an opportunity to develop a history with it over the past two and a half months? Do you feel that you are more or less organized and productive than you would be "the old fashioned way?" What are some of the advantages? What are some of the drawbacks? What advice might you give to students starting the course next semester about how to get the most out of their blogging experience?

I find that blogging has been great this semester. At the beginning of the semester I was excited about the idea because typing all the work would make it a lot easier then hand writing everything. Also I am very unorganized so when it came to doing everything on the computer I was happy because I would have loose papers everywhere and I wouldn’t be losing anything. So with the blogging I found myself much more organized and this lead to me not worrying over losing anything.
The advantage to blogging is that all our work is done on the computer, which I think is a great idea. With the way technology is today I think it would be foolish if we did not take advantage of blogging and working on the computers. There are disadvantages to working on the computer though, and unfortunately I have learned this the hard way. Working on the computer can become very distracting. There is a lot of freedom when it comes to working on the computer, and sometimes your mind can wonder off. I found many times I avoided doing my work, and would just browse the Internet. One other thing I liked about doing work off the computer was getting your hand written work given back to your marked. I think it was easier to see where you went wrong when work was done off the computer. Some advice I would give to the course for next semester is to put locks on the computers for certain websites, like facebook and yahoo. This will make sure kids cant procrastinate with their school work.

Journal 14 - Nurturing Your Inner Writer

To what extent are people born writers? How much are they able to cultivate the writer within through education and experience? What activities and experiences can you engage in order to develop your inner writer? What part of your past has best helped you become the writer you are now? How motivated are you to continue developing your writing ability over a lifetime?

I don’t think people are born writers. I think writing comes from your childhood and life experiences. When someone is good at something it is often said they must have been born with it. The majority of the time I tend to disagree with this statement. When people tend to be seen as really good at something, I think that they put a lot of work into their success. So I do think that successful writers were not born with their ability to write. Education does help people become better writers because it teachers certain rules you must follow. Education doesn’t put ideas in your head of what to write, it teachers you how to take those ideas in put them in words in a proper format. When I think about certain experiences or activities that would improve my writing the first thing that comes to mind is travelling. Travelling has the ability to show you many different places, and encounter many different experiences. The main reason most people decide to travel the world is to encounter new things. Well, all these new things you encounter can eventually end up in your writing one way or another.

When I look back on my life there are many things that may have influenced my writing. The majority of my experiences come from sports, specifically basketball. I have also made a lot of mistakes throughout my life and have failed learn from them. The fact that I continue to make mistakes does motivate me at the same. This does translate into my writing. I am motivated to continue to develop my writing ability. I find writing very enjoyable and something I never get bored. It also helps me a lot when I am stressed out, and it rough situations. Writing does play a big part in my life, and I wish to continue it.