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In Between

SergioDiaz's picture

            When I was seven years old, I began the second grade knowing only the English taught to me in my first grade immersion classroom; it wasn’t much, but at this point of my life it didn’t seem important. The first day of school, I remember waking up so excited to return to school that I jumped right out of bed put on my clothes, ate breakfast, and grabbed my backpack as I headed out the door. I was stopped by the fact that I was 20 minutes too early and my brother and sister hadn’t even woken up at this point, my mom had to drive us all together, so I waited 20 excruciating minutes. I made it to school and was so excited to start learning again. At the end of the day, something was odd.

Silence - Thomas Hood

Persistence's picture
There is a silence where hath been no sound,
   There is a silence where no sound may be,
   In the cold grave—under the deep deep sea,
Or in the wide desert where no life is found,
Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound;
   No voice is hush’d—no life treads silently,
   But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free,
That never spoke, over the idle ground:
But in green ruins, in the desolate walls
   Of antique palaces, where Man hath been,
Though the dun fox, or wild hyena, calls,
   And owls, that flit continually between,
Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan,

Comfort Zone

Persistence's picture
  1. Rank the five locations in order of where you felt happiest.

    1. Morris Woods, northeast of English House
    2. The campus center parking lot 
    3. The glass staircase in Dalton Hall
    4. English House I
    5. A laboratory in Park Science Building

  2. What influenced your comfort level? Why did you rank the locations the way you did?

Irrelevantly Mistaken

swetha's picture

I was visiting my hometown of Milwaukee, WI for a family friend's wedding the summer after I graduated from high school. This wasn't the first or second or even the tenth time I'd been back since we left. I knew my family friends, I knew the area, I knew that suburban Milwaukee was extremely white. As an Indian American who grew up in the Midwest surrounded by white people, I had to reconcile my differences with "those Americans," as my dad likes to call white people, by emphasizing the Midwestern friendliness and hospitality.

Are we all that different?

AquamarineAura's picture

- Rank the five locations in order of where you felt happiest.

1. Morris Woods

2. A laboratory in Park

3. Glass staircase in Dalton

4. English House

5. Campus center parking lot

 

- What influenced your comfort level? Why did you rank the locations the way you did?

It seems that other than Morris woods, all the spaces that made me happiest were the most familiar to me because I visit them most often.

 

Lost in the Light

Persistence's picture

In spite of the obstacles and hardships I have been through, the goodness, innocence, and naivety in the world continues to burn strong inside me. The reflection I see in the mirror is a living image to why I choose to be soft despite how hard life gets sometimes. I see a fragile girl who is a little lost in the light, trying to keep the fire from burning out.  I want to stay strong for that girl. I want to be persistence for her.

Alice's Reading Notes for class 1/26

alesnick's picture

These are offered as conversation starters (in your minds as well as in our class), not as complete or definitive.

FRANK: idea that an ethnographic approach is a tool for suspending judgment, making the familiar strange, and seeing from the "meaning perspectives" of insiders to a cultural space. 

An ethnographic approach depends on forming over-time interpretations that recognize multiple perspectives.

What kind of authority does this approach offer?

What do you think about the way Frank positions herself socio-culturally in relation to why an ethnographic stance is valuable to her?

 CARINI

Importance of a process that neither over-emphasizes nor ignores aspects of child's experience and expression.