Dance Class

My oldest daughter started dance class two weeks ago. Unfortunantly it's during a class i have. Luckily though we got out of class early last week and i was able to go to her class. Now i know it's in the very beginning of the class but i was very happy to see that they weren't in there teaching my 4 year old how to shake her but and dance inappropriately like she see's on TV. My neice is 14 and she has been in a dance since she was about 4 and by the time she was 8 they had her dancing like she was in one of these skanky music videos. That is one thing i do NOT agree with. I think that is why we have so many of these kids in positions thay shouldnt be in is because society is making them older than they really are. And i know that spells trouble. Kids can have a good time and look nice without dancing and dressing like they do now thinking it's cute. It just shows they have no repect for themselves. My question is where are these parents and why are they ok with this?

Post 09/25

I guess the skill that i have learned is how to put a paper together better. The They Say\I Say templates are actually really helpful. They can help you get put what it is you are tryng to say or maybe get you on the right track. It will definantely help me with this next paper because now we have not only one article but another to look at and dig information out of. I think it will help me improve my writing.

Horror Films

Ok so while I have been watching these movies on netflix i have noticed something. All these horror movies have nudity in them. Now don't get me wrong i'm grown and i can handle that but my point is you can't really sit down and watch these movies as a family. I absolutely love horror films but all the ones i've watched in the past week have all had one if not several scenes of breasts. I for one would not feel comfortable sitting down with my family and watching a movie like that. Pirannah, Chain Letter, and The Devil's Rejects are just a few to name with this exact problem. They are generally pretty good the only problem is what is the point in the nudity? Why can't there  be a good quality horror film with no boob shots or naked girls? I just don't quite understand it. I know they do that for the men but i think its pointless.

Johnson VS Stevens

I would have to agree with Stevens on this. She did a pretty good job of proving Johnson wrong. When ever she talkedabout something she disagreed with she made it interesting to the reader by almost making a joke out of what he said.  She also made a new point  against ine of his major point when he said "Not only does Johnson fail to account for the 16 minutes' worth of commercails that interrupt any given episode of, say, 24 (a show he singles out s particularly "nutritional"), but he breezily dismisses recent controversies about the program's representation of Muslim terrorists or its implicit endorsement of torture, preferringto concentrate on how the show's formal structure teaches to "pay attention, make inferences, track shifting social relationships." That was  avalid point and one I myself had not yet thought of until I read this article. 

Netflix

Ok well some how ALL the dvd players in my house all stopped workin at the same time except the one in my son's room and for some strange reason it will only play The Little Mermaid. It is quite frustrating for 3 seperate dvd players to stop working when we don't have cable and we have seen all of the movies we have SEVERAL times (we haven't had cable in about 3 years). So this week I decided to sign up for the free month of netflix. My kids were super excited (I was as well). The first day we had it we sat down and just had a movie night. We watched two movies back to back before we decided to call it a night. It's really interesting to see all the old movies you can sit down and watch. I was amazed. Although it is going to suck when the month is over (because I will be canceling it before it starts charging me) its actually really nice to have.

Post for 09/11

I liked Anne Lamott's idea on the first draft. That way you can really get everything out there and not worry about it. You know it sucks but you also know that you are going to fix it. Personally I think it is a better way of doing it. I feel like most first drafts you're expected to have all your ideas down and pretty much how the paper is going to be. Then you just go back and fix the grammar and such. So I believe Lamott is onto something there. As for the sample paper they did a good job. The best thing i think is that they stated what the paper was about earky on so we knew what it was about.

Educational Shows

Ok well I don't have cable so my rabbit ears only pick up like 3 channels. On Saturdays and Sundays the morning time is always either educational shows or commercails trying to sell you something. I doubt many people watch these shows. The kids and I do. Some of these shows are pretty interesting. One of them is "Jack Hanna's Wild Countdown". The kids like it because he shows you animals from all around the world.

It's very interesting to be able to see the different animals that we never would have been able to see or might not have even known about them if we hadn't watched his show. Another show is "Jeff Corwin's Ocean Mysteries" where he does alot of footage at the Georgia Aquarium. He also dives in the ocean and shows you different species there. One that he showed was the largest Manta Ray. It was amazing to see how big it was.

I had no idea they could even get that large. And to think if we had cable then we never would have even known about these educational programs that are actually pretty interesting.   

Preparing for class?

When it comes to preparing for class all I do is read the assignment or do what was given. I generally don't participate in class discussions simply because i'm a shy laid back person and I HATE speaking in class. It's not that I don't know the material or that I don't have an opinion (although on somethings I might not) but for the most part  I just don't like speaking in front of the class. Listening to the class discussion and paying attention can occasionally help when it comes to homework. Someone could have asked a question I was thinking or had the same thought I had and so yeah it could help out.

Does Watching TV Make You Smarter?

Johnson argues that watching TV makes you smarter because the shows have evolved more over time and they make you think more about what is happening. If you don't think and pay attention you will be lost. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I agree that some shows do indeed make you pay closer attention. They make your brain work trying to stay with what is going on and also at the same time trying to figure out what is going to happen next. Alot of these shows if you don't put some work into staying with it then you truely will be lost and be missing some important information to the plot or to a particular scene.

On the other hand, I believe that just watching TV does not make you smarter. There are so many shows that do not challenge your thinking  at all and if that is all you are watching then how does that make you smarter? It simply doesn't. If you don't apply what you have learned or challenge your mind on a regular basis then it doesn't do anything for you. 

Music and Kids

I think it's interesting to see how kids react to different types of the music that comes on the radio now. I have 3 kids and am pregnant with my 4th. Anytime we get into the car there is always music playing (unless the kids want to watch a movie and even then all these disney movies have songs on them). My oldest is 3 and she will sit in the back and be singing these songs that play and its amazing that she knows the words. Then  my youngest loves music also.

 He will stand up and try to dance by bouncing up and down. When he is sleepy there are certain types of music that put him out. My kids can sense when there is an upbeat "happy" song on or when there is an "angry" song on. I think it's neat seeing how they act when certain things come on. And when a song comes on that they know has a bad word in it and they know I don't let them listen to it they make sure I change it. Music has changed alot since our parents generation.