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So, I just finished reading through everyone else's blogs (Yes. All of them. What can I say? I'm unusually unbusy tonight). Now, having had the opportunity to compare theirs to my own, I've noticed some big differences.

Most of the other blogs that I've read have all been pretty structured and concise. Each post resembles a mini paper that could easily be handed in to a professor. In a lot of cases, they're direct responses to a reading we've done in class or articles from the Denver Post. They're creating smart, literary blogs.

My postings, on the other hand, tend to live up to the title of my blog - they're pretty random and all over the place. I tend to write about what I'm thinking or feeling at the time. While I do usually manage to tie it back to literature or the class in some way, I've definately been pretty unformatted.

It's just really interesting to see how using the same medium, for the same class people can create things so incredibly different. It's also very possible that I'm just doing it the wrong way (gosh, I hope not), but I think it's interesting how different people interepret the same assignment in different ways.

Peer Editing... gahhh!

I've never really been a big fan of peer editing. I think a big part of is has to do with the fact that it was over-played in high school; kind of like the song "Hey There Delilah" is on the radio right now. The first time you hear it, it's pretty catchy, a pretty good song even, but after hearing four or five times a day on the radio, it gets kind of old. What was once a cool song is now just over-played.

Okay, that may not necessarily be it. But in my AP class senior year, we were doing edits at least once a week. As far as AP kids go, there's two types: The Maniacally Difficult Graders and The Weak Sauce Graders.

The Maniacally Difficult Graders, or the MDGs are the the students who get into the nitty-gritty of your paper. Every comma out of place, every misspelled word is duly noted with their heavy read pens. They have no reservations about ripping your paper to shreds in order to make their own look good.

The Weak Sauce Graders, the WSGs, are those who are too timid to give anything but Good Job and Excellent Point on your papers. They don't want to hurt your feelings and thus avoid any form of critique. It's nearly impossible to get any form of constructive criticism out of a WSG.

In my own editing, I find it so hard to find a balance between being a MDG or a WSG. I definitely tend to lean towards being a WSG, only because I don't want to hurt any one's feelings or be too harsh. I want to be objective while still being gracious.

Whenever I need to edit something, I tend to get the same expression as the pencil above; the wide-eyed, blank expression. I kind of freeze up. I think that's why it's taken me so long to get my edits out to Lane and Deven. I've been sitting with that expression for the last few days.

Queen of Hearts

The beginning of a paper has always been the hardest part for me. I don't know what it is, but it takes my brain a while to click into writing mode. I end up sitting in front of a blank document with just my name and the date in the upper right corner of the page. Tonight it reads:

Rebecca Schroeder

January 15, 2008

which is slightly ironic, because by the time I finish, it will be tomorrow.

In the time it takes for my brain to warm up and get into writing mode, I tend to peruse the different games pre-programed onto my computer. One of my favorites has always been Hearts. I don't quite know what it is about it. There's plenty of other quality games on the computer: Solitaire, Minesweeper, FreeCell, Purple Place (for those lucky enough to have Windows Vista, this is a first-class game)... I've had a stint with each of these games, but I always tend to come back to Hearts.

My great-grandma loved Hearts. She was a Bridge player formally, but whenever her great-grandkids came to visit, she was all Hearts. Grandma Irene lived in Kansas, which was a considerable 8 hour drive away. With four antsy kids in the back, I'm sure it felt longer to my parents. But we made it out pretty regularly, at least twice a year. When we'd finally get there, Grandma Irene would have something warm in the oven and hugs and kisses for the lot of us. Once we were all fed and settled, the card table would be pulled out we'd get a game going.

When I was first learning, I was particularly horrible. Whenever I got the Queen of Spades I would let out a terrible scream. Grandma Irene would chuckle at me as I fumed, knowing that I was going to lose because of her. It took me a while to realize that screaming every time I got a crummy card wasn't exactly the best strategy and I eventually developed a pretty good poker face.

As Grandma Irene got older she became less and less mobile. Eventually she was bed ridden, and we would all sit with her as she watched Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. In 2001, Grandma Irene finally passed on at the ripe age of 101, making her one of a handful of people to ever see three centuries. While in Kansas for her funeral, we played Hearts.

I don't think I've played much Hearts in person since then. But I suppose it will always be my favorite game on the computer.

Anyway, I suppose there's a paper I should be writing right now instead of this. Too bad the assignment wasn't What's Your Favorite Card Game...

The Bridge Project

"The current spate of reports on the schools criticizes parents for not involving themselves in the education of their children. But how would someone like Tommy Rose, with his two years of Italian schooling, know what to ask? And what sort of pressure could an exhausted waitress apply?"
-Mike Rose, Lives on the Boundary

I was reading for Monday when I came across this line that I think is very pertinent to my life right now. I'm currently a volunteer at The Bridge Project, a non-profit that is dedicated to "providing educational opportunities for children living in Denver's public housing neighborhoods so they graduate from high school and attend college or learn a trade", as their mission statement provides.

Every Thursday I take the light-rail over to 10th and Osage to the on location site of the Project. Here I find Precious, the precocious little 10-year-old girl whom I tutor. Together we work on her math and reading skills, both of which she is behind where the educational system says she should be.

Precious is one of the many kids who has been affected in the same way as Mike Rose. People say that parents should be more involved in their kids education, but not all parents are able to be there because often they themselves earned little more than an elementary school education. These are the people have been overlooked by the educational system and have been forced on a path of hard work and heavy labor, barely scraping by day after day. How can you criticize someone like this and tell them that they're not doing enough for their kids when, more often than not, they're doing the best they can.

Thus, The Bridge Project; there for these kids in a way that their parents want to be, but don't always know how. Because not all kids are lucky enough to have a Jack MacFarland in their schools to get them through and into college.

On a different note, before reading this article, I had no clue what I was going to write about for my Literacy paper. Now I've realized that my experiences with Precious wouldn't be bad. The struggle we work through together every time. Getting her to not only read the words, but to comprehend what it is she's actually reading. I want for her to learn to love reading as I did when I was her age. It's so hard to see the obstacles that have been placed before this cute little girl, and how much harder she has to work as a result. I'm learning how truly privileged I've been in my own life to attend the great schools that I have, and have the parents that I do who were able to be there for me in ways that Rose and Precious's parents haven't been able.

Anyway, there's my ramblings for one night. As it's now 12:30pm, I think I'm going to hit the sack. That, or do some homework. Oh the good times!