the blog about the blog!!!!

Well the blogs weren't my strong point in this class because more often than not I would forget to do them! However, I think they are kind of a fun way to express your ideas on topics and get some feed back. Overall i think they're a good idea to have. But maybe instead of having them as an actual assignment that can count against you just give the student an extra point for doing it. That way if students choose to be lazy they just dont get the extra points instead of it counting against you. I probably think this way just because i did every other one:)

revision strategies

I liked the one where we read the stories out loud better. Not only do the other students write down their own comments, but I realize more mistakes when I read it out loud too. I think when you read it out loud its a lot easier to pick up on mistakes. The other one is effective too but i think its pretty easy to look past your own mistakes. And you might think you have all the appropriate parts when you actually don't, just simply because its your own writing.

AHHH!!! My First college game!!

Wow! What an experience this was. This was probably one of the most fun times of my life, but also most nervous. It all seemed fine until coach told me to go in the game. The trip was like every other basketball trip i've ever been on in my life. We left the day before and practice at the UNL gym, and had a team meal that night. After that the team went back to the hotel and just hung out. In the morning we had a team breakfast, and I was still calm as could be. This whole time I was thinking, "ah its just another game no big deal!" Don't get me wrong i was still preparing for a huge game but I just looked at it like that because i thought i wouldn't get nervous. So at about four o'clock we had a pre-game meal. and about six we headed over to the devaney center to get ready for the game. To this point I was still fine, just another pre-game ritual and life was good. So we warmed up and all that good stuff, and they did the starting lineups. And at that point it kinda hit me. For the lineups they shut all the lights off and put a spot light on the players and played so loud music. And the fans were screaming real loud. Even though i wasn't starting, I realized this was the real deal, it was't high school anymore. After about a minute into the game coach told me to go in because the starting center was already in foul trouble. I was not as ready as i thought i was. As soon as I took my warm-up top off my hands got real sweaty and I got very nervous. This was finally it, I was playing college basketball. But I couldn't control my nerves, and all i kept thinking about is how i wanted to impress the coaches. I knew the nerves would go away eventually, but when was the question. After being in for about a minute, i grabbed a rebound, and finally i was in my comfort zone. I was doing what i've always done, just playing basketball, and after that rebound i was fine for the rest of the game!! But my nerves were at an all time high when i started against marquette, but i'll save that for another blog:)

thesis statement

Sorry this is late I forgot it was due thursday and we had a game this weekend and we left thursday after noon so i forgot all about it. But my thesis statement is, In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Ambrose Bierce shows that inner peace is truly discovered after one's sins are washed away.

Critically reading

Wow!! It's crazy what you get out of a story when you critically read it. It makes the story way more intense and realistic. But I still am not very good at doing this, because I kind of just put my head down and push through the story. This is bad because then i only get the surface meaning of the story when theres actually much more to it. So hopefully i can get better at this because it would be very helpful when trying to understand a story!

comparing the two stories

I thought there were a couple things that could be used as sybolsim in these stories. But the white heron was a big one in the white heron. I saw it as the girls escape to freedom and creativity. When she was on top of that tree next to that bird she was in heaven. I thought of the writing the lady did in the yellow wallpaper as sybolisim. This was also her escape from everything, kinda like her own therapist. She could write in the diary what she couldn't tell her husband.

Research Process

Well i finally came to a topic i wanted to write about after i talked to a couple of my friends on my team. So once i knew what i wanted to research, I went online and found a lot of information, and then started typing. Then unfortunately i had to cite it which wasn't very fun:(

Class evaluation

I was really glad to hear that you wanted to give us less homework from now on!! Thats probably because i never get all mine done. But I like when we do the circle thing in class, because then i"m more engaged compared to sitting in a row looking at a power point. And as far as the peer review, i think it has its pros and its cons but overall it helps.

research topic

I would love to tell you what im writing my research paper on but i honestly don't know yet. Because my topic that i had in class i dont think i can get ten pages of info out of it. but some other ideas i have are the effects of steroids on the human body, or technology is changing farming.

research papers

I wasn't in class the other day so I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to write about. I once wrote a thirteen page research paper about the effect carbon emissions from cars has on global warming. I believe i got a b+ on the paper. It took a lot of time and lots of research, but it wasn't that bad in the end since it was in high school. I did most of my research on the internet and some from magazines, because we have a crappy library. So it will be interesting doing research in a real library.

Presentations

We had to give our class a presentation about how to revise our papers so they would suck less! Each group had to present five of the twenty-five different ways. Our group had explode a moment, beyond examples, research, backing up your assumptions, and beginnings, middles, ends, and the work they do. I learned a lot of helpful tips from each presentation, and thought that the frankenstein thing they did was kind of cool. Now i just need to apply all this info to my paper!

Class

Today in class Mrs. Simmons MIA:( but we had class like usual. we went over commas and then peer reviewed each others papers. after that we split up into small groups to work on our presentations. our group decided to do a powerpoint and i hope we get a good grade:)

Proposal thesis

the thesis statement for my paper came pretty easily to me because i had a very clear problem. i have terrible time management skills. so my thesis is how can i manage my time more effectively. my three points/ideas are have my class schedule set up so i have classes all before noon. so i go from one class to the next. another point would to be more disciplined when i have free time. and not just lay around. and my last point is to take full advantage of my mentor! and maybe you have some simply ideas that i can use too:)

100 people that are screwing up america

This was a very interesting paper to read. it was very opinionated, and the opinions were very strong. I also learned some things from this paper about those mass murders in the war with all those innocent civilians!

peer review

I thought the peer review was very helpful. But I also felt uncomfortable doing it, because i'm afraid to say to much. One reason i'm afraid is because english isn't my strong point so i don't always know if what i'm saying is correct. Another reason is i'm afraid of what the author is gonna say back to me. Is he gonna think im mental? Is he gonna punch me in the face because i don't like something he wrote? Don't get me wrong peer review isn't always bad, I personally find it very helpful for me, because someone usually points something out to me that i missed. So like everything else in life it has it's pros and cons!

What i want to accomplish

First off while I'm at usd , i want to become the best basketball player i can be. i love this sport so much, and i just want to be one of the best athletes to come out of usd. And if my skills allow it i wouldn't mind trying out for NBA teams, or playing over seas. But that is something that will come over time. but i also have other ambitions in life. like getting a degree and being able to start my own physical therapy business. or find a job somewhere in the medical feild. and i also want to grow as a person while im here at usd. because the world is a lot bigger place than a guy thinks. especially for a farm kid thats from a town with 500 ppl in it. so i just want to figure out how to deal with all kinds of ppl and survive on my own, and let me tell you this first while at college has been a challenge. but i happen to like challenges so im ready!

more home work!

Well I finally figured out that we simply have to blog on here for our assignments! And although I was kicked out on thursday I'm still going to talk about the stories that we read. I thought the note book thing we read was very interesting. Its crazy to think that he loved her that much to go through that every day. No matter how hard it was for him, or her, he would still get up everyday and read her the note book he kept!

homework assingment:)

Hi, my name is Trevor Gruis! I am from Ellsworth, MN a town of about 500 people located 45 minutes straight east of Sioux Falls.  I live on a small farm outside of ellsworth that keeps me pretty busy. I love sports and being outside. Basketball is my favorite sport, and I'm currently on the team at USD. Most people guess that i play basket ball because of my height, i only wish i got a nickle for every time someone asked me how tall i am or tell me i'm tall.But thats all i have to blog right now so if you want to know anything else just ask!