11/30/09-Poem 4

A room full of wealthy businessmen

She gracefully made her way to the table

Full of energy

Poised and smooth

Not a flaw in her posture

Delicately poured them a glass

And swiftly moved on to the next

 

11/30/09-Poem 3

Life is an old fat dog

Lazy and satisfied with sleeping all day

Uses me for steak

Then off on his own again

Rarely satified with what he has

But also full of happiness

Enjoys being around family

And brings new excitement everyday

 

11/30/09-Poem 2

I miss that warm July day

Waking up with colassal expectations

Emagining what excitement I would experience

A never ending game of backyard baseball

The smell of juicy burgers being griled

The brightest sky of the year

Glimmering with luminous colors

Entire neighborhood jammed into the cul-de-sac

Watching lively fireworks with gigantic eyes

The show concluded

The night went on

Two yards overflowing with kids of all ages

Sneaking around attempting to find the flag

But the fn couldn't last forever

Worn out from the long day

It was time for the usual goodbyes

As we thought about years to come

 

 

11/30/09-Poem 1

Every so often I am midnight blue

Extremely focussed and determined     

Dark and scary

Never changes from one night to the next

But then I change into a vibrant orange

Striking and glowing

Full of happiness and energy

Laughing at any sound that leaves someone's mouth

But be aware

Because today I could be either one

 

 

wiki 5 20/20 - good post... you made some very good points... esp. about movement and its important role in holding onto attention. The gym is a BIG room so standing in one spot DOES get to feel pretty static and blah after awhile!

11/6/09-Mr. Schlesselman

Mr. Schlesselman did a good job today.  He had quite a difficult task because he had to communicate with high school students and grandparents. I thought he did a very good job with applying the message to all age groups.  He always does this very well.  One thing that he could improve is his movement.  He stands behind the podium for the entire message. I think he could make much better points if he would take a step or two to the side of the podium when making a point.  His lack of movement sometimes causes me to drift off for a short period of time and I miss something important that he says.  I have always thought that he does a good job of inflecting his voice.  Although his voice is not the loudest, he does a good job of projecting it and inflects when he needs to make a point.  Another thing he does well is make good eye contact.  It seems to me that he has practiced before and knows what he is talking about.  Not only does he seem like h has practiced but he also always believes that what he says is true.  Never have I heard a message from him where he hasn't sounded confident in what he is saying.  

 

wiki 4 - 20/20 - great post... I agree with you about his ease with the High school crowd!

10/30/09-Pastor Hoener

I thought that Pastor Hoener did a great job of connecting with the audience on Sunday and kept everybody awake.  He did a good job of keeping it interesting and while staying on topic with the sermon.  He kept it interesting through his voice control and the gestures he made.  His voice was what kept me listening most of the time. He controlled the volume and had a good quality of voice.  You could tell that he had practiced and knew exactly how to vary the volume and pitch of his voice.  He also made good eye contact.  I rarely saw him look at the podium for a long period of time.  He looked around the audience and made appropriate gestures which helped keep the congregation interested.  The thing I thought he did the best was that he looked confident.  When pastors are guests, they tend to be more nervous than usual.  However, when he went up in the pulpit it he looked extremely comfortable and it showed through his actions and voice.  It was obvious that he connected with the listeners on Sunday morning and did a great job of getting his point across clearly.  

 

wiki 3 - 20/20 - Interesting post... It's cool that you visit other churches!

10/21/09-Brother Pat, Ridgecrest Baptist

Every so often I go to my girlfriends church where the same person gives the message every sunday.  This time I payed close attention to his vocal delivery and body language during the sermon and noticed why people are almost always awake and active during his message.  The reason is mostly due to his delivery.  There is a podium, but he is rarely behind it.  He makes eye contact almost all of the time and asks questions to keep the audience interested.  The thing he does best is using gestures and presents to all of the audience.  Some speakers tend to stay in one spot or go to one side or the other.  He did a very good job of walking to both sides and using gestures when they were appropriate.  When he made facial expressions it made the audience think that he actually believed what he was saying.  He does a very good job of controlling his volume.  Many speakers get louder when they want to make a point but he simply does a much more quiet voice than normal.   The last thing I noticed was the way he pauses and his pronunciation.  When making a point, he slows down his rate and pronunciates every word.  After making a point, he pauses and allows people to take in the information so that they will benefit from the message.  

 

wiki 2 - 20/20 - good observation. He did some interesting things that Sunday... and polling the congregation was a great way to keep them involved!

10/11/09-Pastor Schade

In church on sunday I felt like I was listening to a complettely different Pastor than I have in the past.  While I payed attention to what Pastor Schade was saying, I also tryed to figure out if he had any flaws in his vocal delivery or posture.  For the most part everything was good.  His speech rate and pauses are something I think he does very well.  He has experience so it seems as if he is extremely comfortable and takes his time when he talks.  He also has great inflection of his voice.  During the sermon of good, better, and best, Pastor did a great job of emphasizing his main points.  I could really tell the difference from his normal voice to when he is making a point.  Another thing I noticed was that he doesn't gesture all that often.  When he does it is small movement of the hand and thats all.  The thing I thought he did really really well was the use of conversational style.  Usually sermons last ten to fifteen minutes and people are listening the whole time.  This one was different because it started off by getting the congregation involved which allowed them to feel apart of it and to be more interested in the sermon.  

 

wiki 1 20/20 - great response work!

10/9/09-Pastor Clausing

Today in chapel I noticed many things about Pastor Clausing's body language and vocal delivery that I have never realized before.  His appearance was the usual black shirt and khaki pants, but I really payed close attention to his body language.  His posture was one thing that interested me the most.  I've been watching him lead chapel for 4 years now, but it never occured to me the motion he uses to make a point.  He leans forward on his toes and makes the "okay" sign with his hand.  This gesture is very effective in my opinion.  It really lets me know that a lesson can be learned just by paying attention to one small part of the message.  His facial expression changes from a very serious look when he talks about the law to a more kind face when he gets to the part about the gospel.  His eye contact is always great. It is obvious that he knows what he is talking about so therefore he doesn't have to use his notes very much at all.   The last thing I noticed, and really like, is how organized he is.  Some pastors get a little off of their message at some points which can cause the crowd to also lose interest.  He stays on topic and delivers the message in an organized way of Law and then Gospel

 

Sam Deitte

Mrs. Staude

English Symposium

9/23/09

                              Lesson Learned

It was a cool, crisp morning in early March in the town of

Sandusky, Nebraska. Kyle Haney wakes up to the sun bursting through

his window. He opens his eyes and lays there in his bed.

“Are you ready?”, he says to himself

It was the day of the big basketball rivalry game between St.

Joseph West High Eagles and St. Joseph East High Tigers, the only two

schools in the town. Kyle always grew up as an “East” kid. He loved

everything about it and loved watching them play basketball. He went

to all of the summer camps, knew all of the players by name, and

always dreamed of the day that he would get to wear the navy and gold

of the East Tigers. There was one player who was his biggest role

model and it was his older brother Gary. Gary was the 6'6”, muscular,

and all time leading scorer of the Tigers when he went there. He was

always the big shot in school. Every girl wanted to date him and every

guy would've died to be him. He was now in college continuing his

dream of becoming a player in the National Basketball Association.

After his graduation four years ago, the basketball coach was

devastated. He thought that there was no way he could ever replace

Gary. He would soon find out that Gary had a younger brother who was

a young prodigy. That brother was Kyle, a senior now at East High.

He followed in his brother's footsteps as the basketball star of the

school until his junior year. His junior year he ruined this

reputation by losing the rivalry game for the Tigers by making a bad

decision at the end of the game.

“Kyle get out of bed you are going to be late again sweetie,”

yelled his mother Lucy in her ever so pleasant voice.

“I'm up, I'm up,” murmured Kyle. “Will you make me some

breakfast while I'm in the shower?”

“It is already finished and on the table honey,” she replied.

She always took good care of Kyle and Gary ever since their dad passed

away when they were young. She used to make Gary a special breakfast

that helped him concentrate on game day, so she decided to do the same

for Kyle. He ate quickly then rushed to school to avoid another

tardy. School was different for him that day. Instead of being very

energetic and outgoing when he walked into his first class, he was

quite antisocial. All that went through his mind were the last five

seconds in the game from the previous year and hoped that nobody would

bring it up. He knew that people were excited for the game that night

but in the back of their minds they were probably all thinking about

how they should have won the year before. The day slowly passed as the

thought of the game kept haunting him. The biggest game of the year

was coming up and he didn't want to blow it again. The thought

remained fresh in his mind throughout the day. He had made it to the

last class of the day and nobody even said a word to him about his bad

decision in the rivalry game the year before. Although he couldn't

stop thinking about it, it occurred to him that just maybe everybody

had forgotten about the mistake. This thought would not last long in

Kyle's head. The class was Physical Education and the teacher, Mrs.

Kohl, decided to do a basketball scrimmage in honor of the big game

that night.

After she announced that the class would be doing that for the

day, Billy the football jock, opened his obnoxious mouth and said,

“Let's hope Kyle doesn't lose the game for us again this year!”

The entire class immediately went silent while Kyle marched out

the door furiously. He grabbed his book bag and booked it home. His

day was going pretty well until Billy made the much unnecessary

remark. Without second guessing himself he took a nap only so that

the thought wouldn't keep replaying in his mind. He later woke up to

the wonderful smell of his mother's spaghetti. He quickly ate and

left without even telling his mother goodbye. His mind was now

focused on nothing but the game and rightfully so. Kyle entered the

crowded gym and was still feeling a little uneasy about the game. He

sat with his team as they all watched the JV game take place. The

team then headed into the locker room as usual to prepare for the

game. As they were changing, the flashback kept going through Kyle's

head over and over. He knew that to get his reputation back as the

basketball star he had to perform well that night. Kyle was somewhat

uncomfortable in warm-ups, but when game time came around he was

ready. The starters of the navy and gold Tigers shook hands with the

starters of the gray and black Eagles. The two tallest guys lined up

for the jump, one bounce from the referee, and the ball was tossed up

in the air. St. Joseph East won the tip and got off to a quick start.

Kyle and the Tigers controlled most of the first half. They led by

five at the start of the third, but would be outscored that quarter by

six which led them trailing by one to start the fourth. Before the

quarter started, Kyle took a quick glance into the stands. He saw his

sweet mother, stud brother Gary, and the die fans in the student

section. He knew the importance and tradition of this rivalry game

and didn't want to mess it up again. It was a hard fought fourth

between the Tigers and Eagles. If the East scored, West would answer

right back with a basket. If West scored, East would go the other way

and do the same. But surely enough, it would come down to the last

ten seconds yet again. The Tigers had possession of the ball as they

trailed by two with ten seconds left and the ball was yet again in

Kyle's hands. As he dribbled, all sorts of negative thoughts went

through his head. He thought, I hope I don't choke again, will my

family be embarrassed if I mess up again, as the clock ticked down to

five. Kyle was double teamed by black and gray jerseys, but still got

set to shoot the ball. The crowd was going crazy as they thought that

Kyle would cost them the game two years in a row. He brought the ball

above his head, bent his knees, got ready to shoot, and PASSED the

ball to Tommy who was wide open. With three seconds to go and the

Tigers down by two, Tommy shot the three pointer. The gym was

anxiously waiting to see if the ball would go in or if West would win

it two years in a row. The shot looked good as it headed towards the

hoop. It went up, came down, and swished right through the center of

the rim as the buzzer sounded. The East High students rushed the

court as the West fans stood there in shock. After the game and in

school everybody treated Tommy as the new basketball star of the

school. From then on Tommy was the one who got all of the attention

from the girls. Although Kyle felt better about his decision to make

the pass, he didn't regain his reputation as the basketball star as he

had hoped. However, he did indeed remove the bad thoughts of the

rivalry game that had been haunting him for over a year. He learned a

very valuable lesson from the game that even though it may seem that

being the best player is the most important aspect of sports, being a

team player means much more.

 

 

wiki 5 - Great job on your posts both this week and last. You have a lot of interesting ideas and I enjoy hearing them.

September 17- So is it always true that "what goes around comes around"? Or is there a lot more than what meets the eye in this interesting little tale.

Most of the time it seems that what goes around comes around.  Marty is always bullied at the beginning of the story.  Like a normal kid, he is sick and tired of getting picked on.   His solution to this is getting the new kid to play baseball with him and the kids.  When the new kid ducks to avoid the ball hitting him, Marty decides to make fun of him.  This makes Marty feel good because he has always been picked on and now it is his turn.  This is just like the pecking order we talked about in class and this is one of the reasons it seems like wha goes around comes around.  

 

September 17-  The story "One Friday Morning" has really made me think about racism in our world today over the past couple days.  When I first read it I thought that there was no way that this such thing could happen in today's world.  After having this thought in the front of my mind since then, I have come to conclusion that this type of thing could in fact happen in this society.  I thought that it couldn't happen because it is against the law to deny somebody a right because of their race.  Although this is true, the scenario could still take place but the people who denied her award would have to make up a different reason why.   

 

September 10- When you think about people being "Displaced", what other types of people in contemporary times could that include? How do we in mainstream society generally deal with these people?

The other types of people that I think about when i think about being "Displaced" are those who lose most of their possesions in a natural disaster.  One example that comes to mind are those people who lived in New Orleans when hurricane Katrina wiped away all of their houses and town. GREAT example! They lost many if not all of their possesions from this one extreme hurricane.  We generally are nice to these people and are willing to help or don't care one bit.  Some people help to support these people financially and others just don't care because they think it's not their problem so they don't have to worry about it.     

 

September 10- The Finish of Patsy Barnes

I really enjoyed reading this one.  I thought the story line was so realistic and the suspense of the race really pulled me on.  My emotions went up and down constantly as the story went on.  When I found out that Eliza had pneumonia my heart sank.  The doctor that came to take care of Eliza didn't even care about her health and this too made me feel sorry for Patsy and his mother.  My hopes then started going up when Patsy decided to ride the horse.  Brackett said if he won then he would give Patsy more money than he had ever seen before.  During the race my heart was going up and down constantly. The entire time I was just hoping that Black Boy and Patsy would pull it off.  I definitely liked that Patsy used the money he won to get his mother a much more caring doctor.  It always puts me in a good mood to read such an interesting book with a great ending.  

 

Great job on wiki 3!

September 1- Progress on project #4

It took me a while to decide which project I was going to do.  After sitting down last night and thinking about how I'm not a very good story writer, I have decided that I will do the 4b.  After that, I narrowed it down to three authors.  The three I have so far are Updike, Bradbury, and Cormier.  I really was interested in the stories that each of these authors wrote and wouldn't mind reading more.  I plan to do most of this project on my vacation this weekend because I should have a good amount of down time.  I will let you know next week how everything is coming along.  Great - I have lots of Bradbury around if you get stuck and Updike is widely available too.

 

September 1- "Usher II"

I'm not so sure I've ever been so into a story before while being quite confused at the same time.  This story was one that I would love to read multiple times.  I liked it because of the imagination that Ray Bradbury wrote with.  His style kept me interested throughout the whole thing.  The one thing that I especially liked about it was the way that the people died.  Having read a few Edgar Allen Poe stories in the past, I recognized some of the ways in which the people were killed.  Bradbury also added some suspense to the story when Pikes found the nuts, bolts, and wheels in the incinerator.  This meant that the real Mr. Garret wasn't dead and the police would be to Stendahl's house shortly.   Although this suspense lasted for a short while, I still was on the edge of my seat to find out what would happen and how the story would end. 

 

August 27-"Sixteen"

I thought this story was just okay.  I liked how she started off by saying that she was not a dumb person.  She said that she has two older sisters and knows what to wear and how to wear her hair.  The reason I liked this part was because I feel somewhat the same way having two older siblings myself.  I was able to learn from their mistakes and this made it much easier on my part.  The thing that I hated most about this story was the way the guy acted as if he liked the girl, told her he would call her, and never did.  I just think that this is something that happens all too often in today's world and some people are left miserable because of it.  Overall I liked the story because it was very realistic and again it was one that I could somewhat relate to.  

 

August 26-"The Moustache"

"The Moustache" was a story that I really enjoyed reading.  Thee were a few different reasons for my interest.  The first was because I could relate to Mike in many ways.  He is seventeen, has facial hair, and has a mother that isn't exactly a fan of the facial hair.  Another reason I liked this story was because it made me think about how my grandparents were once my age and probably went through some of the same problems I have.  The last thing I liked about this story was the fact that Mike played along with what his grandma was saying. Instead of telling her she was mistaking him for her husband, he just couldn't break the truth to her.  

Good work on wiki 2! Esp liked your personal connections to the stories.

How's your ideas for project #4 coming along? 

 

August 19, about what we did in class on August 18.

When I was reading "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" I was lost. I was asking myself why this author was changing the setting from a wedding to an old western. I really didn't like the story until we did the interview in class which took away much of my frustration. It helped me to think of the characters in more depth than just what Stephen Crane tells us. After the interview when we were talking about the uglier girls marrying guys from the west, it helped me see why the sheriff would marry a girl that wasn't pretty. Finally, when we were talking about how small towns don't like new people to the town, I realized why the sheriff was trying to sneak her into the town without anybody knowing. That class discussion was very helpful and brought the pieces of the story together for me which I liked.

 

August 19th

What would YOU have done in Pablo's situation? Would his situation even happen in 2007?

I would have a very tough time if I were in Pablo's shoes. Whenever I am surrounded by people who don't necessarily agree with what I'm saying, I usually back down and just agree with the people to avoid the conflict. If I were surrounded by people who hated me at a bar, I would probably just be quiet and leave instead of flipping stuff over like Pablo did. I'm not too sure if this would happen in 2007 but there is a good chance that it wouldn't. Although there is still hate between different races of people, it isn't bad enough where the bartender would not save the glass that someone of a different race drank from.

Good job on wk.1- I enjoyed reading your ideas! Glad the discussions are helpful!