adaptationErinWhoriskey

===My name is Erin Whoriskey. I am from Northeast Philadelphia but recently moved 10 minutes outside to Bucks County. I am in my second year at Bloomsburg University and pursuing a dual major in Special Education/Early Childhood Education. I spent my childhood in Catholic schools and coming to Bloomsburg was a huge change for me. I love the Philadelphia Phillies and spent most of my summer at the baseball games. I love hanging out with friends and my boyfriend who I have been dating for almost three years now. I am a visual learner that enjoys power point presentations and hands on experience.===

[[image:CIMG0046.JPG width="560" height="420"]]
===Starting from the top left picture you can tell it is a neat girls room. She has plenty of pictures of family and friends to remind her of home and keeps her side of the room well kept. To the right you see a picture of a male student's room who would be considered messy. His belongings lay on the floor and his bed is not made. A skateboard is found on the bed suggesting that the student enjoys skateboarding. The bottom picture is from a girls room who has a number of pictures from her summer trip. She has them up to remind her of her amazing experience and next to each photo is a quote that represents the love and laughter she shared with her new friends.===

I conducted five time diaries from five different individuals on Sunday September 5, 2010
=== -The data that I collected suggests that college life normally consist of sleeping, doing homework, and relaxing with friends and family. All five individuals live in apartments on campus so they tend to spend a good amount of time making dinner and cleaning up their apartments during the weekend. ===
 * < ===**Jamie's Day**=== ||
 * < ===Sleeping=== ||< ===10 Hours=== ||
 * < ===Homework=== ||< ===3 Hours=== ||
 * < ===Cleaning=== ||< ===1 Hours=== ||
 * < ===Relax (Comp/TV)=== ||< ===6 Hours=== ||
 * < ===Eating/Making Dinner=== ||< ===3 Hours=== ||
 * < ===Sports Related=== ||< ===1 Hour=== ||


 * ===**Melanie's Day**=== ||
 * < ===Sleeping=== ||< ===10 Hours=== ||
 * < ===Homework=== ||< ===3 Hours=== ||
 * < ===Cleaning=== ||< ===3 Hours=== ||
 * < ===Relax (Comp/TV)=== ||< ===7 Hours=== ||
 * < ===Eating/Making Dinner=== ||< ===1 Hours=== ||
 * < ===Sports Related=== ||< ===0 Hours=== ||


 * ===**Ashleigh's Day**=== ||
 * ===Sleeping=== || ===8 Hours=== ||
 * ===Homework=== || ===1 Hour=== ||
 * ===Cleaning=== || ===0 Hours=== ||
 * ===Relax (Comp/TV)=== || ===9 Hours=== ||
 * ===Eating/Making Dinner=== || ===2 Hours=== ||
 * ===Video Games/Movies=== || ===4 Hours=== ||


 * ===**Megan's Day**=== ||
 * ===Sleeping=== || ===10 Hours=== ||
 * ===Homework=== || ===0 Hour=== ||
 * ===Cleaning=== || ===1 Hour=== ||
 * ===Relax(Campfire)=== || ===5 Hours=== ||
 * ===Eating/Making Dinner=== || ===2 Hours=== ||
 * ===Sports Related=== || ===6 Hours=== ||


 * ===**Joseph's Day**=== ||
 * ===Sleeping=== || ===11 Hours=== ||
 * ===Homework=== || ===0 Hours=== ||
 * ===Cleaning=== || ===2 Hours=== ||
 * ===Relaxed(Movie/Comp)=== || ===6 Hours=== ||
 * ===Eating/Making Dinner=== || ===2 Hours=== ||
 * ===Went to Baseball Game=== || ===3 Hours=== ||

[[image:Kehr_Union_Gameroom.jpg width="518" height="344"]]
=== After spending over thirty minutes in the Kehr Union's Game-room, I noticed a few interesting scenes. I entered through the main entrance to find only three computers open. Most students use these computers for either educational or leisure activities. I took a seat at one of the computers closest to the back so I could watch the large crowd easily. Next to me I noticed three girls who were working on a group project, but instead found comfort in gossiping about the horrible teacher. The majority of the other students were Nursing students printing out over 100 pages of notes needed for the next class. Four male students that had Bloomsburg football t-shirts on were on the computers directly in front of me talking about their game and finding laughter in reading Facebook statuses about the weekend. Even though there are pool tables in the room many students do not play on them. Instead the ping pong table was being occupied by three male students, who were there from the time i entered until the time I left the game-room.===

**What does the data suggest about college life?**
===The data that I collected suggest that most college students enjoy taking time out of their busy schedule and just relaxing with friends or work on an assignment. Most of the students in the room were waiting for their next class to start and they chose the game-room as a place to check out their favorite networks sites and work on projects and assignments. The game room is not a quite room because of the heavy amount of occupants, but it is a great place for college students.===

===Conclusion: College life is mostly about finding out about yourself and making new friends. Students enjoy hanging out with friends and socializing at parties and campus events. I have realized that many students including myself do not socialize with many people and tend to stick with the same group of close friends. A student's major has a lot to do with how long they spend time on assignments and reading textbooks. For example my second interview with Shannon made me realize how much time it takes to be a nursing student. She spends an estimated thirty hours or studying for classes and practicing her nursing skills on individuals such as myself.===

__** Reading Response #1 **__
=== The thing that I found most interesting in both readings is that the authors changed their lifestyles for one reason: to understand their own students. In Rebekah’s “My Freshman Year” excerpt I could relate to her experiences, from the difficulty with the meal plan to discovering the campus of AnyU. I agree that it is very difficult to start over in a new environment and have to make new friends, but she was able to through sports and activities during her freshman year. Rebekah learned that nowadays more college students engage in social activities rather than their studies, which used to be the main priority years before. What I enjoyed most was reading about her difficulty understanding the “different language.” Her research concluded that college is not just about taking classes and getting a degree; it is also about being social and enjoying the experiences while you can, which is defiantly true. === === Similarly, Michael’s “Coming of Age” excerpt dealt with the same experiences but had a different twist. His story was based on research taken in the 70’s, which made it a little harder to relate to when he talked about marijuana and alcohol in the dorm rooms. I disagree with the rules put in place at Rutgers University because from recent experience I know that incoming freshman tend to do nutty things when experiencing a sense of freedom. Michael also had difficulty with “language” in college; because he had to dumb himself down to be accepted. I did not like this reading as much as the first but it was very interesting to see college through a male’s eye. === === Both readings allowed me to take a closer look back down memory lane and remember being a freshman. However, the first reading was much easier to relate to and I believe it would be a great addition to the incoming freshman’s reading assignments. They need to know what they are in for! ===

__** Reading Response #2 **__
===What I found most interesting in both readings was how similar it was to my experience at Bloomsburg. In "My Freshman Year", Nathan describes the community and diversity background at AnyU. She notices that the majority of the students keep to themselves and only interact with their close circle of friends. This scenario reminds me of my first year at college. Everyone in the dorm would keep their doors shut and not participate in activities or hall meetings. What I enjoyed most was reading about her outlook on the Greek life. I myself was very close to joining a sorority here at Bloomsburg University, but after taking a deeper look I realized that I would be paying to make friends. I really enjoyed reading this excerpt because of the many similarities Rebekah and I shared.=== ===After reading Moffatt's "Coming of Age," I can relate to his outlook of college. No matter where you go to school the freshman will always be the "inexperienced" and the seniors will always be the leaders trying to lead a mature lifestyle. It was interesting to see how the different classes perceive what college looks like to them at that very moment. As a freshman you normally would see the educational buildings and dorm rooms. Whereas a senior sees off campus activities and frat houses. Moffatt also goes into discussing how it is the extracurricular activities that shape a students education, which I agree with. For the most part class is just a place to take notes and listen to lectures. On the other hand an outside event is a place to be social and yourself. One can express their feelings and students start to learn responsibility.===

**__ Reading Response #3 __**
=== After reading the the last excerpt from "My Freshman Year," it opened my eyes to the the treatment of international students in a college setting. I really enjoyed reading about how the international students thought they knew what they were getting involved with, but had a totally different experience than what they expected. It was interesting to read that the single biggest complaint that the foreign exchange students experienced was the U.S student's ignorance. The word "community" was involved in this reading again to explain how the majority students tend to stick to themselves and only hangout with people who are like them. On the other hand, the international student, is left with making friends with other foreign students because they have different outlooks from the U.S students, who barely interact with the so called "outcasts."=== ===It was interesting to read about Moffatt's experience at Rutgers over twenty years ago. In his last excerpt he writes about racism and individualism. Back in the 1970s, racism seemed to be a big deal because of the diversity and segregation in the college. I enjoyed reading about newspaper article that the students read together, and the main reason why the minority (black students) decided to choose that school.=== ===Both of these readings got me to think about the international and minority groups here at Bloomsburg University. The international students here at Bloomsburg University are treated just like the foreign exchange students at AnyU. There are four foreign students from Russia and Germany that live in close range to my apartment. These students did not know each other before coming here, but they managed to become friends with each other. I believe Nathan was correct about the interactions between international students and U.S students. U.S students tend to ignore the international students because of their lack of interactions and "ignorance", which is why the foreign exchange students here are segregated from the traditional U.S student. Racism has changed since the 70s, for example one of my roommates is from African American decent but I never look at her skin color, I look at her amazing personality, her sense of humor, and intelligence. If it was still the 70s, I most likely would not have Aunyae in my life.===


 * __CLUE__ Assignment**

media type="file" key="College Life at Bloom.wmv" width="300" height="300"

Final Draft Final CLUE draft

__**EAR Assignment 1**__ Introducing Bloomsburg to a Prospective Student 1. I will most likely use a commercial or video of some type because this generation has grown up watching television and spending countless hours on the computer watching videos. 2. I would like to introduce everything Bloomsburg has to offer (clubs, sports, academics) -I want to show diversity among the students and the relationships that occur during these social activities. 3. I would like to incorporate my interviews into the video to show the future student what college life is about and how getting involved can help gain confidence to make new friends. 4. My goal is to introduce the prospective student to the organizations so that they can have a better experience at college.

For this part of the assignment, which addresses either faculty members or families of students, I will take the mature approach and either write a letter to the president of Bloomsburg University or make a brochure available for parents. [|Examples of Letters] [|Example]
 * __EAR Assignment #2__**

__**EAR Assignment #3**__ At this point I have realized that I will most likely be making some changes for the first two steps of the project. For the student I think I am going to try and make a short video that explains why students should join clubs and groups at BU.It is almost the same as what I was originally going to do. I would like to have a few interviews in the video and post it to either Facebook or Youtube. For the second part I would like to make a brochure for the parents. The brochure would address some main points about what BU has to offer their child and about information the parent would normally ask about (financial aid, meal plans, housing). For the third part of the assignment, I think I will be making a formal letter for a future employer. The letter will address the responsibilities I learned while at college and how I juggled everything at once to gain success. I want to prove that I have learned so much these past twenty years and how I will make a great asset to their company or school.

[|Remix-Wordle]
 * EAR Assignment #4**

__**Group# 3**__
 * Howard Gardner proposed the theory on Multiply Intelligence back in the 1980s and since then has found that every person is different and cannot be judged on an IQ test. The reason for this is because one person can be extremely gifted in the Musical Intelligence category and score higher than say someone who prefers Interpersonal Intelligence. If you were to give these two people an intelligence test the person who enjoys music would most likely score higher for that category and low for others and vice versa for the student who is good with interpersonal relationships. This would place the students into either smart, average, and below average categories, which is why Gardner proposed this theory and hopes that students are only judged on their own unique intelligences.**
 * -What Does It Mean To Be Well-Educated?**
 * There is no one definition for how to define what it means to be well educated? A person can be the most paid doctor in the entire world and still not know the difference between using the correct grammar or know who Faulkner is and his influence on literature.**

__** Reading Response "Claiming an Education" **__
 * After reading Rich’s __Claiming an Education,__ I could tell that it was written some time ago because the author talked about women being treated differently from men. Woman used to be looked upon as un-equal to the male, but in this day and age more and more woman are fulfilling their dreams and “claiming their education,” which means they are doing something about their future and taking on plenty of responsibilities. I really enjoyed this passage and feel like both genders could benefit from reading this because it could influence more woman to do something more with their lives rather than just go to classes, takes notes, and memorize information and encourage the feminist males to stop looking down at woman as just sexual objects. I found it interesting that Rich inserted that woman need to reject the attitudes such as “take it easy” and “why-worry-you’ll-probably-get-married-anyway.” I feel as if there are still some women who follow these sayings and they would be considered the “gold-diggers,” but I know that the majority of woman, including myself, who come to college, are in search of an education and a degree and will not let anything come in the way of that. I was brought up to be responsible for myself and to multitask because in the real world that is what employers want rather than looking to see if you are a male or female.**



__** Reading Response--3 Articles **__
 * Does a college degree really matter? I I have been asking this question since I was accepted into Bloomsburg. There has been a dramatic increase in college enrollment because student's know that having a degree can possibly get them a better paying job, but honestly most of the students should not be here. All throughout high school students are told that they should pursue college and get a degree because that is the only way to make money and have a fulfilled life when in reality college is not all it is cracked up to be and it not right for everyone. I enjoy college and the education I am receiving, but I think some students come here for the wrong reasons. Instead of teaching everyone that they need to go to college schools should introduce more options like union jobs or registered nurse positions that offer people good pay without the degree.**

__** Reading Response 10/27/10 **__
 * The Animal School was a very interesting portrayal of the college culture. Every student has their strengths and their weaknesses and instead of cultivating what they are good at the administration would rather have the students excel at everything and make which only makes them weaker at their strengths. Take for example, the rabbit who was an exceptional runner but horrible when it came to swimming. The school made him spend more time on his weakness and he eventually became just an average student in every subject, which is acceptable. This is exactly how I felt when I spent the majority of my time on my statistics homework (weakness) and lost track of my favorite subject History. All of my time was invested in statistics and I began to drop from a 4.0 grade in History to a 3.0, which was very unlike me.**
 * College Education and Technology was my least favorite of the three, but it still managed to make me laugh. I hope that the world does not turn into a technology dependent society, because interactions between students and teachers and students and other students are important for the social and emotional growth of an individual. Students rely too much on technology nowadays and I can see this happening one day in the near future because of our constant need to be on the computer and cell phones. The part that made me laugh the most was the reference to having tattoos of phones in our palms. We are always attached to our cell phones and students utilize them as a basic necessity, which means it will only get worse in the future.**
 * The Honest College Ad was probably the most informative of the three satires and I enjoyed this one the most. I feel like the video portrayed college the best because of its real life experiences in college, like the ghost town reference and the guy getting sick in the toilet saying his dad works three jobs to send him to school. This sounds exactly like my college experience here at Bloomsburg University. Everyone finds excuses to party or go home on weekends. I really enjoyed the part where different ethnic students were sitting together and said this would never happen, which is totally true!!**


 * EAR ROUGH DRAFT**
 * STUDENT: [[file:Freshman Survival Guide.docx]]**
 * FACULTY: [[file:PETITION-Lit and Society.docx]]**
 * EMPLOYER: [[file:Resume--Literature and Society.docx]]**

__**FINAL DRAFT EAR ASSIGNMENT**__
 * FOR STUDENT: [[file:Freshman Survival Guide.docx]]**
 * FOR BLOOM PRES: [[file:PETITION-Lit and Society.docx]]**
 * FOR EMPLOYER: [[file:Lit&Society Resume.docx]]**
 * REFLECTION: [[file:reflection-ear.docx]]**


 * TELL Step 1**

__“This I Believe” Response__ Reading this essay gave me a reality check. I knew going into the Special Education/ Early Childhood Education major would be difficult because of the so called “at risk” students. Everyone tells me how much work goes into being a special education teacher and my life will dramatically change once I begin my career but it was after reading this teacher’s essay that gave me a sense of what is going to happen within the next few years. He talks about the achievement gap found within most schools where diversity continues to grow. This teacher feels that he needs to do something about and he incorporates his fighting skills into his daily lessons to show his students that he is not giving up. I hope that one day I will have the same strength and courage that this teacher has because he is in my eyes a role model. I really enjoyed this essay the best because of its inspiration. He opened with a very interesting quote that I find to be accurate and explain education the best because it can transform someone into a better and more knowledgeable person. The author was dealt a crappy set of cards in the beginning, but he relied on his education to take him somewhere and he eventually became a “changed man.” This essay is an issue that we have discussed in class many times before. To you have to go to college to be educated and smart? The author’s nona (grandmother) grew up dirt poor and received no education, but was skilled in embroidering and multiplication. Her granddaughter learned many valuable life lessons from this woman like to have faith, and because of that the author considers her nona to be a smart woman. I did not really enjoy this essay that much as the others because it did not grab my attention like the other two. However, I can relate to the author’s situation about what does being educated have to do with how smart a person is? I find that not all students who attend a university fully acquire a sense of being educated. Having a small piece of paper that reads degree is not good enough because that person could have spent four years just getting by instead of becoming a “well-rounded” individual who received an education instead of just passively getting through college.
 * “Life is a Spiritual Struggle”**
 * “Admittance to a Better Life”**
 * “This I Believe”**

__**TELL PART 2**__ Past Object/Moment As I walked through the empty hallways that I was no stranger to I realized all I had were memories now. I got to the third floor of the south side of the high school and entered a lab-room that I spent countless hours in my senior year. There was no other room like it in the entire building. The walls were royal blue and covered with paintings of giant cells,scientific posters hanging from the ceiling, and a fridge that held the remains of my close companion, Tinkerbell. I could remember when my Anatomy/Physiology teacher's, Mr. Donahue, voice echoed as he explained to the class that we would be dissecting animals throughout the course. I had prior experience cutting open and exploring the insides of dead worms and frogs two years before in Biology class, but it was mid December of my senior year when I was introduced to Tinkerbell. She had a beautiful black coat with shades of brown tint in her fur, and her body just laid there still and cold due to the formaldehyde. She looked so peaceful but I still had mixed emotions when it came time to cut open her chest and tare apart her organs but I knew if I wanted to pass the class it had to be done, after-all I wanted to be a nurse and would have to deal with this kind of thing all the time. It took four months to complete the anatomy dissection of Tinkerbell and as I pulled out her last rib I came to the realization that I would be a great nurse, but teaching is what I loved more. It was Mr. Donahue that inspired me to change my mind about my future. He believed in me when I did not believe in myself and then I knew I wanted to inspire students just like he did for me.

Present Object/Moment I was always a straight A student throughout my first twelve years of school, which is why I freaked when I got my first Cells, Genes, and Molecules test back my first semester of college. My very first test in college was in a subject that I thought I knew a significant amount about,Biology, but little did I know. I walked into the class 9:30 that dreadful Thursday morning and was told to put all my belongings in the front of the room and take a pencil to my seat. I had spent the last two days reviewing my notes and taking practice quizzes online to prepare me for this 45 question test. The scantrons were passed out first and I watched as sweat began to drip off my face onto the paper. After ten minutes we finally got the test and as I looked down my mind went blank and I got more confused with each question. I could not believe how difficult it was for a 100 level course and as I walked out of the lecture hall I began to tear up because I knew I did not did good. I arrived back at my room and called my mom to tell her the news and even mentioned dropping the course. She told me that she believed that if I worked hard enough just as I did the years before than I could still pull it off and that is just what I did. With each test I studied harder and longer and after completing the final, which I felt confident about, I walked away with a B in the course and was happy.

Future Object/Moment It is a beautiful September morning and students begin to arrive in the courtyard in front of the school building. I look around one last time before I walk out and greet my students. I have the classroom just as I imagined with a U shape desk outline, colorful walls and decorations, a place for them to play and a quite area for reading and sharing time. I had accomplished my dream of becoming a teacher and now was my time to help and teach students learn in an environment that I hope they enjoy just as much as I do.