Blog Assignment Nine: Outline for Group Project Presentation

Nichole Walters, Erin Kolb, Krissy Liles, and I will present our group presentation on May 12, 2011.  The topic for our presentation is Oak Grove Lower Elementary.  During our presentation, eight main points will be discussed.  A powerpoint presentation will be shown from my computer, so the class will be able to follow along with us.  The sample outline of our presentation is the following:

(First speaker: Krissy Liles – Introduction and Oak Grove Facts) First, she will discuss that our topic is Oak Grove Lower Elementary, and we chose it as our topic because three of our group members are education majors.  Second, she will state the facts about Oak Grove.  Krissy might say that Oak Grove Lower is a part of the Lamar County School District, and she will give the mission statement of Lamar County schools.  Also, she will state that there are over eighty positions at Oak Grove Lower who teach over nine hundred children.  Other important facts she might state would be their colors of black and gold and their mascot, which is the warriors.  Pictures will be shown in the powerpoint as a visual aid to show what the school and other areas at the school looks like.

(Second speaker: Erin Kolb – Reason for scrapbook and the subjects) First, Erin will explain that we chose to make the scrapbook to demonstrate the six different subjects that are taught at Oak Grove Lower.  Earlier in our presentation, we had planned to make a popup book.  Throughout the presentation we discovered that making a scrapbook would be less difficult.  As she is speaking, she will show the pages in the book that we created, which includes the language page, music page, art page, science page, health page, and math page.  Also, she will state that the scrapbook will be placed in one of the second grade teacher’s room as a “keep sake” for future teachers and students to view.

(Third speaker:  Nichole Walters – T-shirt design and the Pow Wow Day) Pictures of the front and the back of the shirt will be shown in the powerpoint presentation as a visual aid to show what the shirt looks like.  First, she will state the color of the shirt is gold with black writing to represent the colors of Oak Grove.  Also, she will state that the back of the shirt has balls from multiple sports on it to represent the different games played at the Pow Wow Day.  Next, she will say that the shirt promotes the Pow Wow Day held at Oak Grove.  The Pow Wow day will be held on May 13, and it is similar to a field day held at other schools.  During the event, students will be able to participate in individual and group events.  She may give a few examples of the games that will be played at the Pow Wow Day.

(Fourth speaker:  Brittney Ainsworth – Podcast and the Acorn Run) First, I will state that we created a radio podcast that promotes the Acorn Run at Oak Grove Lower Elementary.  The podcast that we recorded will then be played from my computer for the class to listen to.  Second, I will state that the Acorn Run is a 5K run that will take place on April 30.  The purpose of the Acorn Run is to promote healthy living to the faculty, students, parents, and other members in the community.  I will state that anyone at Oak Grove and in the community is eligible to run in the race.  Pictures of the Acorn Run will be shown in the powerpoint presentation as a visual aid.  Also, I will state that in conjunction with the Acorn Run, the Dragonfly Festival and Carnival will be held.  At the festival, shopping, food, and carnival activities will take place, and the proceeds will benefit Oak Grove Lower Elementary.

Once I am finished speaking, we will ask if anyone has any questions about the information that we have presented to the class.  Once questions are answered, or if there are not questions, then the presentation will be over.

Blog 8: Editorial

Timing/Timeliness:  I chose my topic to be the bad effects of smoking.  This topic is very recent because people today smoke cigarettes.  I believe this topic is a very interesting topic because smoking has always been very controversial.

Situation/Context:  I think my topic of smoking could be written in many various sources.  This editorial could be written on the internet, in a newspaper article, in a magazine article, or even played on a television commercial.  The different sources that this editorial could be on would change the formality of the editorial. 

Audience:  The audience that I plan to target in my editorial includes smokers.  I mainly refer to teenagers throughout my editorial, but it can be targeted towards adults, as well.

Intention:  My intention for writing about this topic is to make people realize how horrible smoking is for their bodies, as well as other individuals.  I hope that this editorial is very persuasive to make smokers change their opinion of smoking.  I want them to realize that my opinion of smoking is the best opinion to have.

Editorial:

Smoking is a horrible thing that people have made a habit for their lives.  Teenagers waste their money and life with every puff they take from a cigarette.  Teenagers usually make the decision to smoke in their early years because they think they are invincible when it comes to anything that might harm them; they do not stop to think about future problems because they think adulthood is forever away.  In actuality, smoking is not that simple.  Cigarettes contain nicotine which is extremely addictive, and in order to quit, it takes an extreme amount of will power on anyone’s part.  Smoking gives people yellow teeth and fingernails, bad breath, deep, raspy voices, more aging lines, and, most importantly, the damage of one’s lungs.  Not only can smoking cause death for the person who smokes, it can kill the people in the same area due to second hand smoke.  Almost every adult who started smoking wished they would have never started.  Teenagers need to realize the past and take advantage of the advice from their elders and the fact that they know of the results of smoking a cigarette, unlike the worlds past generations.

Blog 7: Website Evaluation

Brittney Ainsworth

P.O. Box 174

Magee, MS 39111

Dear whoever is responsible for the creation of the teaching information website,

My name is Brittney Ainsworth, and I recently viewed the website that was created to give other’s information about teaching young children.  I reviewed the website because I needed information about being a teacher because that is what I plan to do when I graduate from the University of Southern Mississippi.  After reviewing the website, I noticed information that was not needed and information that was needed to be included.    I wanted to tell you the problems I had with the website and the good things I gathered about the website so that you could enhance it.  The main problem I encountered with the website was that it was very unorganized and hard to follow.  There was an abundance of information, but it was very hard to figure out how to maneuver through the website to find all of it.  I know it can be difficult to create a website to please everyone, but I think the greatest enhancement you could do is to make it more organized.  Changing the format of the website would make it be much easier to find all of the information that one could be looking for.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Brittney Ainsworth

http://www.ehow.com/how_3601_be-student-teacher.html

Blog Assignment 6: Collaborative Writing Project Issues/Progress Report

Introduction

In this blog, I will be discussing my thoughts about the course project that my groups will present to my English 333 class.  Since my group, of four members, are all education majors, we are working with Oak Grove lower elementary.  We will be telling the public about the events that will be happening at the school.  It is going to take a very long time to make sure that we have everything about this project worked out right.

Facts and Discussions

We are not exactly to the point that we need to be on this project.  The only thing we have accomplished so far is the group proposal.  Although all we have been required to do so far is turn in the group proposal, we still need to be getting a head start on the many other parts of the project.  We have other events and ideas planned for the project, but have not yet started to work on them.  For the project, we are required to do something with technology, something in print, and something else of our choice that all describe an event.  The idea we decided for the technology portion of the project is that we are doing a commercial about the Acorn Run that promotes exercise and raises money for the school.  The idea we decided for the print portion of the commercial is that we are making a pop-up book about the art program located at the school.  Lastly the idea we decided for our choice is to make a t-shirt design that promotes the pow-wow day held at the school.  Within the next few weeks, we will begin to make the commercial, pop-up book, and the t-shirt design.  The main problem that I foresee happening is the pop-up book.  I am almost positive it is going to be very hard to make.  I do believe it is a very cute idea because we are all elementary majors working with an elementary school, but I do believe we will encounter some issues with it.

Conclusions

Overall, things are going very well within the group.  I think we have a great idea planned.  Since we have just begun working on the project, we have a few kinks that need to be fixed.  Working in groups is always very hard because there are so many dominant and “go with the flow” personalities.  Sometimes people want to do too much work, and sometimes people do not want to do enough work on the project.  Once we discuss who will be completing what, the project will work out perfectly.

Recommendations

I think since we are currently on doing well with the project that there is nothing we need the instructor to do to help us get ahead.  We do need to work on the rest of the project, but the instructor cannot help us with that.

Blog 5: Beginning the Job Search

Job: 

·         YMCA Child Care

            www.ymcahattiesburg.org

Master list of the types of qualifications, skills, and experiences of the jobs:

·         Work well with children

·         Tend to children’s needs

·         Have patience

·         Be organized

·         Not be short tempered

·         Need to know how to speak to children

·         Feed children

·         Be creative

·         Make things interesting

·         Be responsible

·         Dedicated

·         Hard working

            My major is elementary education, and I plan to teach children once I receive my bachelor’s degree from USM.  I am actually applying for this job right now to work this spring and during the summer.  This past summer, I worked at a daycare in Magee, MS called ABC Playschool.  I think I would be fit for this job not only because I do want to be a teacher, but because I work well with children.  I love being in the environment around them.  During the summer, I had to tend to children’s needs, feed them breakfast and lunch, be responsible, dedicated, work well around them, have patience, be creative, make things interesting, and be organized.  Some days I would be working by myself with twenty children ranging from five to eleven.  It was very hard to deal with some days, but I loved every minute of it.  Working at the YMCA would be very good experience for me because of my major.  In the past, I have had to demonstrate everything listed in the master list.  I know that I have everyone of those characteristics, and would be fit very well for working at the YMCA. 

Blog Assignment 4: Improving Professional Correspondence

To: T. Leoni, Manager, Personnel Department 
From: Donald Pryzblo, Manager, Data Processing Department 
Subject: INCORRECT PAYROLL CHECKS


Mr. Leoni,


          I have been reviewing the errors in the computer files.  Contrary to what you insinuated in our meeting, the majority of these errors were made by your clerks.  I do not feel that my people should be blamed for this.  They are correctly copying the faulty time tickets that your clerks are preparing.  You and I discussed requiring my computer operators to compare their entries with the time sheets from which your clerks are copying.  This would be very time-consuming for my people to do, and your clerks are miscopying them, so it would not be a good idea.  My people do not have the time to correct the errors made by your people, and I will not hire additional help for such work.  I recommend that you tell your clerks to review their work carefully before giving it to the computer operators.


Thank you,


Donald Pryzblo




          When I first read this email, I did not like how it was set up.  There were too many paragraphs than there should have been.  Although I did not like the setup of the email, I continued to read it, and I was able to understand it.  For the revision of the email, I moved all of the information into one large paragraph.  This way, it looked more professional and was easier to read.  Also, I took out the quotation marks that were located around the word errors in the first sentence.  The reason I took that out was because it was not professional to make a joke such as that in a professional email.  The email was written in very harsh language.  I changed a few of the sentences, so it would not sound as harsh towards Mr. T. Leoni.


          I thought the words in the email were written very well, so I did not change much of 
the wording.  After I revised a portion of the email, I hope that it was easier to read than it was how it was originally written.  Also, I hope that it looked more professional instead of a few sentences creating many paragraphs.  I changed some of the language in the email to make it sound more formal and professional.  The way it was originally written, it was not professional at all, and it was an attack on a certain person.  I hope I made the email more professional sounding since it was written about a business setting.

Blog Assignment 3: Defining Your Brochure’s Objectives

     This week, I will be talking about effective and non-effective ways that Universities in the South recruit students to a certain major.  Since my major is elementary education, I will be focused on that major.  While searching on the internet, I looked at Universities in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.  First, I went to Mississippi State’s University.  From there, I went to Ole Miss’s webpage, and was able to find information about their elementary education program.  The next websites that I went to were Louisiana State University and the University of Alabama’s website. 

     After viewing the web pages of these four universities surrounding USM, I discovered that Mississippi State no longer has an education program.  Louisiana State University’s web page was effective, but it was not the most effective in my opinion.  The university that was the most effective in choosing elementary education as one’s major was Ole Miss.  I found their education program at http://education.olemiss.edu/depts/curinstr.html.  The most effective part of their website to me was that they had an abundant amount of information on their page compared to the others.  After reading the information about the elementary education program, the contact information for the school was listed.  It gave the address, the phone number, and the fax number, which covered the main ways of contacting someone.  On the information page, a link to the undergraduate and graduate program was listed, so one could view the different levels under the main program.  The university that I found to be the least effective was the University of Alabama located at http://education.ua.edu/departments/ci/elementary-education/bse/.  On this website, there was not much information given.  The website was not very interesting to view; it did not catch my attention like the website for Ole Miss did.  The contact information was given, but it was under a different link.  It was not on the same information page like the Ole Miss contact information was.  I was not pleased with that website at all.

     When creating my own brochure for elementary education at the University of Southern Miss, I know I need to use an abundant amount of information that is helpful to students.  I will need to include the contact information as well as including bright colors and pictures.  Also, will think about the following:

Overall Purpose

1. What are you writing? A brochure about my major, elementary education

2. What prompts you to write? The education program

3. What outcome do you desire? I want to show others how great the education program is and how the country needs great teachers.

4. What outcome does your reader desire? To have read a great brochure about the education program

Reader Profile

1. Who is your primary reader? My teacher and my classmates

2. What is your reader’s relationship to you? My teacher and my peers

3. What are your reader’s job title and responsibilities? To make sure that I did the assignment right and to teach how to do it.

4. Who else might read your communication? Other education majors

5. How familiar is your reader with your subject? Somewhat familiar

6. How familiar is your reader with your specialty? Somewhat familiar

7. Does your reader have any communication preferences you should take into account? No

8. Should you take into account any other things about your reader when writing? Different ways to keep them interested.

Situational Analysis

1.      What events and circumstances influence the way you should write?  The different events that are involved within the education program.

Usability Objectives (Reader’s Tasks)

1. What are the key questions your reader will ask while reading? Why should I choose elementary education, why is this piece of information important, etc. 

2. How will your reader search for the answer? (The reader may use more

than one strategy.)

          _X_ Sequential reading from beginning to end

          ____ Selective reading, as when using a reference book (what key terms

          will your reader look for?)From Paul V. Anderson’s Technical Communication: A Reader-Centered Approach

          ____ Other (explain)

3. How will your reader use the information you provide?

          ____ Compare point by point (what will be the points of comparison?)

          _X _ Attempt to determine how the information you provide will affect him or her

          _X_ Attempt to determine how the information you provide will affect his or her organization

          _X_ Follow instructions step by step

          ____ Other (explain)

Persuasive Objectives (Reader’s Attitudes)

1. What is your reader’s attitude toward your subject? Why? What do you

want it to be? Interested

2. What is your reader’s attitude toward you? Why? What do you want it to

be? Very good

Stakeholders

1. Who, besides your readers, are stakeholders in your communication? Other education majors

2. How will they be affected by it? Very affected

Constraints

1. What expectations, regulations, or other factors limit the way you can write? I can only write the way education majors write.