Courtland's house of wisdom

Terrance Hayes was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1971. He studied Art and English at Coker college. Terrance Hayes is a child of the Generation X cohort.   Throughout his career he has has worked as a professor at multiple institutions. He is a well achieved poet and previous poetry editor for major magazines such as New York Times and The Best American Poetry.
MacArthur fellow is a foundation built on supporting and recognizing creative people who stand for global issues in society. Every year the organization awards a limited amount of awards to people of who’s work has stood out. In 2014 Terrance Hayes received an award.

English 101 has challenged my work ethic and skill in all categories of literacy.  Coming into this class, I expected it to be one of my favorite classes. After a brief description of the content we would learn was given to us, I was excited to learn. During the semester we were given assignments that had to be done on computers. The laptop assignments took me out of my comfort zone. In high school the assignments given were more pen and paper based. Even though these assignments were more boring, I enjoyed the traditional school work method. I didn’t like that we had to go online and use websites such as word press, story corps, and adobe flash to do our assignments. The reason I didn’t like going online was because I felt like this was an inconvenience. We had to learn how to use the websites and include links, insert pictures, and make videos ( E portfolio). Overall, now I am more technology savvy. Aside from digital literacy, Dr. Henderson constantly challenged my written literacy. I would take days to write essays (for the first time in my life) and still would receive subpar grades on them. Receiving subpar grades on my essays was new to me. Most times I believe my essay was better than the grade I received.  But it also pushed me to challenge Dr. Henderson, in my mind, when it came to essays, I was batman and she was the joker. If I got an average grade on an essay, the next essay I would increase my skills and try harder to make her give me a higher grade than the last. This pushed me to increase my literacy and made me take essays and research papers more serious, making me a better writer. In general, English 101 was one of my more enjoyable classes. It teaches students how to learn without realizing they are learning so much. The difference between this class and a normal classroom made the class unpredictable. Working in groups, constantly having to speak out loud, and being able to speak about anything in assignments made the class well worth attending.

On Thanksgiving I decided to interview my uncle Victa! Check out the audio recording here.

 

1.Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you?

2.What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?

3. If you could hold on to one memory from your life forever, what would that be?

4. How would you like to be remembered?

5. What are your dreams for your children?

6. Can you talk about the biggest obstacles you overcame in life?

7.What is your favorite memory of pumpkin?

8. What have you learned from life?

9. What are you most proud of?

10.what has been the happiest moment of your life/ saddest?

 

 

 

 

Alice Walker is a poet who grew up in a poor environment. Some events that shaped her life was watching her mother get up early every day and work herself tireless. Other events that shaped her life included watching her mother care for her garden, and listening to her mother’s stories.

The metaphor of the garden is significant to the story because it is Alice’s way of expressing that the garden is her mothers way of showing her creativity. Throughout the story Alice explains how black women are artist, and they all express themselves in different ways (painting, singing, drawing. poetry). When Alice describes the gardens her mother grew, she compares them to “Life and creativity”. At one point Alice states when her mother Is gardening she is “Ordering the universe in the image of her personal conception of beauty.”  By comparing the beautiful gardens to life and beauty, we get the overall main point that the garden is Alice’s mothers way of leaving her mark on the world.

The time period that the author is referring to on page 403 is the slavery time period, before the civil war. During this time period it was illegal for black people to read and write because of laws such as the South Carolina act of 1740.

When Alice Walker states ” We have constantly looked high, when we should have looked high and low” She means that society was looking for women to be doing activities that society says is artistic and creative. Activities such as painting and sculpting (looking high). When black women were being creative the whole time right in our faces by planting gardens and making clothes out of cheap fabrics (looking low).

Walkers target audience is the younger generation of African Americans. More specific target audiences would be young black males. She often mentions how males didn’t appreciate the value of females and then gives us quality traits that they have. She states “their lives in an era, a century, that did not acknowledge them, except as the ‘mule of the world'”.  Another target audience would be new generation African American females. Alice uses the words “Us” and “we” many times while giving information about the past of African American women.  “Black women are called, in the folklore that so aptly identifies one’s status in society, “the mule of the world,” because we have been handed the burdens that everyone else-everyone else-refused to carry.” Alice includes words like “us” and “we” to bring African American females together and make them seem whole.

 

 

 

For Thanksgiving I’ll probably be in New Jersey at my aunts house.  My immediate family (aunts, uncles, cousins) normally meet at one house and eat together.  We watch the Christmas day basketball game and spend quality time together.

The mission statement that meant the most to me “It explores what it means to be an American and how American Values like resiliency. optimism, and spirituality are reflected in African American History and culture. ” I think the museum does a very good job of establishing this mission statement. The museum explains very gruesome stories and shows every harsh image for what it is. They also go into depth describing the leaders; who were some of the first African Americans to start movements against slavery and segregation and the challenges and risk they faced.  The museum going from past time to modern day describing all these challenges, gives African Americans a reason to hold their head high. Because out of all the beatings, hangings, bombings, and lynching’s our resiliency would not let us be stopped and we walked freely through the museum despite our past.

 

 

SHows us our history and what our ancestors went through to get us where we are today. the challenges they faced for us to be free americans

My strongest learning style would be logical “Logical learning style refers to a person’s ability to reason, solve problems, and analysis of cause and effect relationships.” (Characteristics and strategies, 2018). Another strong learning style of mine would be Kinaesthetic “kinaesthetic learning or tactile learning is a learning style in which learning takes place by the students carrying out physical activities, rather than listening to a lecture or watching demonstrations” (thoughtco, 2018).  My last strong learning suit would be solitary. “Solitary learning is when you are more private, introspective and independent. You can concentrate well, focusing your thoughts and feelings on your current topic. You are aware of your own thinking, and you may analyze the different ways you think and feel.” ( Solitary learning style, 2017). This class appeals to my logical and kinesthetic learning styles but also strengthens my weaknesses (verbal, visual, and social). Out of all of my classes I would say I am most interested in this course. The work most times has to be presented and submitted in a new way. Instead of traditional assignments such as normal essays, we use online blogs and adobe flash. Overall the use of these sites annoy me because I have to learn how to use the new material. But it also forces me to learn because I have to pay attention when using them. An example would be doing my E portfolio on adobe spark. Learning to use the website was new to me. So I am forced to really read and play with the functions of the site to learn how to use the website to complete my project (Kinesthetic).  Assignments like these also strengthen my visual learning. Visual learning is not really my strong suit because I never really was given assignments where they were necessary. In my blogs I am constantly encouraged to add pictures or include text links to enhance the information included. When doing assignments like these the internet competes for my attention. Since I have to get on the internet to do the assignments, I often find myself in another browser looking at YouTube videos or researching other topics.  My social and verbal learning styles are increased in this class because I am constantly forced to do group assignments or speak in front of the class.  Naturally I am a solitary learner, but with English 101 I learn to balance social skills while still getting the work done. When speaking in front of the class, I am forced to use my words. I have to use the correct words to match the tone of my speeches or paragraphs so that I can make a connection with the audience. I knew that the class would be based on black culture after it was described to me on day 1. I had the general idea that we would be learning about black history but the class teaches us in a different way. We learn from things that relate to our generation to make us more interested.Inside of the modern day information we also learn a little about our history. I believe the rate at which I learn the materials is fine, I get the work done relatively quick but I still retain all information. The materials that help me are the library search engine, the internet, and inquisitive. Inquisitive helps me improve my grammar through practice in a logical manner. I personally break down what the computer is trying to teach me on my own, practice it, and apply it when I am writing. For the most part once I am given an assignment description I understand it and do not need to contact any authority. I believe evaluating your learning skills is important to get through skills so that you can excel in all classes. Evaluating your learning skills also could help you determine your best ways to be successful. But a learning plan is not important to me. I don’t believe you can make up set plans for school, I prefer to just do the work as it comes after I have learned my strengths and weaknesses.

I have multiple learning styles that all help me learn and retain new information. Personally I would say my strongest learning style would be logical. Logical learning is when you use logic, reasoning, systems, and sequences. I often find myself using systems or logic to make sense of new information. After I break the information down and make it make sense to me, I retain it. This style means so much to me because you can hear what someone tells you (teacher), but if it doesn’t make sense to you, then you haven’t learned anything.  When you take the words or phrases someone says to you, and then break it down to make it make sense to you then you have learned.

 

 

 

My other strong learning styles are physical and solitary. Solitary learning is when you like working alone. I could be described as an introvert and I am at my best when I am working by myself. When working in groups I often get distracted by the members in the group, or I don’t focus enough to know what’s going on.  Learning solitary style allows me to access my deepest thoughts because nothing is there to distract me. My last strong learning style would be physical or kinesthetic. This learning style is when you learn by using your sense of touch to help you learn. When I am using my hands to play with learning diagrams or doing labs in class I retain a lot of new information. I am a very observant person. This style of learning allows me to use my hands and while completing the work task, I get to observe and see how things work from the example or diagram. The style of learning also keeps me interested because it isn’t a traditional learning method. I become infatuated with the task and it keeps me focused.

 

Reading this article about the Black Panther Party enlightened me greatly about the organization. Originally I thought that the group was established on the East Coast (New York). The black Panther party was actually established in Oakland California, made to be an anti government group to stand for injustice against African Americans. One very important fact that I learned from reading this article is that Malcom X was active before the Black Panther Party was even established. I had the idea that the Black Panther Party was well established and organized before Malcom X became a human rights activist. The black panthers also made a “Ten point system” with a list of demands from the government, it reminds me a lot of the bill of rights in a way.