The Poor are Always with Us
Jo Goodwin Parker’s essay, "What is Poverty" gives a brutally honest, close up, and personal view of the effects of poverty and the intense difficulty involved in rising above it. Parker displays utter hopelessness in regard to her situation ever changing, or her children having any future. She expects to one day see her boys in prison for desperate acts of survival and expects that her daughter will end up in circumstances mirroring her own. To Parker poverty is more than a lack of money, health and hope. Poverty is a destroyer of self respect, pride and honor.
Response: The welfare system is imperfect at best and terribly understaffed by people who become calloused to the needs of the individuals they serve. There are some slick individuals who are experts at using and abusing the system. For this reason, constant review of policies is needed to achieve optimum use of welfare funds and programs. More importantly the community as a whole needs to be active in giving a hand up, rather than a hand out to those who would exercise a desire to improve their circumstances. While there some recipients of welfare that don’t want anything more than to be taken care of, I can testify from personal experience that being on welfare is no picnic and most recipients want and are willing to work toward a better life.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Introducing Mnemonics
Crucial to the successful test taking by any student, is a group of memory techniques called mnemonics. The phrase, "Car, car, keys,license" is an acronym to help a person remember the eight memory techniques. They stand for chaining, acrostic, rhythm, chunking, acronym, rhyme, key words, and loci (location). The following letter "You will Remember" was written for a reading and study skills class to future students of that class to encourage and give tips aiding in memory recall. This piece was chosen partly because it was fun to write, partly because some reader might benefit from reading the tips contained within it, mostly because as a writing it contains smooth transitions. I refer to the next to the last paragraph that begins with, "To accomplish this..." Take a look, you just might find something that will help you with your next memory challenge.
You Will Remember
You Will Remember
Dear Student,
I am now going to test you.
T Tell you to prepare ahead of time for tests.
E Encourage you to use all those memory techniques.
S Say you can do it!
T Take my own advice.
What you’ve just read is an example of a memory technique that with a little practice can help you to remember most anything. When preparing for a test, make a game of it and give your self rewards. When you know a certain concept well, go on to something else. Believe it or not, you can actually over study.
When you test, it is important to remember that a test is nothing more than an evaluation of what you’ve learned. Put in a positive perspective, it can become a chance to show off rather than something to be feared. Each day you’ve been in class has been a building block on the day before. Now you just have to get it from your memory, down through your arm, into the pencil and on to the paper.
To accomplish this, a good test taker will get a good nights rest, eat a healthy breakfast and drink plenty of water. Be sure your breakfast contains some protein and is light on the sugar. Sugar clouds the brain and also has a let down period that may come at the worst possible moment. To have a well hydrated brain, water is best. Coffee, tea, and energy drinks contain caffeine which dehydrates the brain.
When test time arrives, take a few deep breaths and say to yourself, “I know this and I can do it.” Deep breathing is a good relaxation technique as well. Remember that what you focus on expands, so keep your thoughts positive. Take a moment to survey the entire test, paying close attention to the directions. Then answer the questions you’re really on top of first. This will save time and allow for a longer thought process on those things not as familiar. If your test is one requiring a scantron, make sure your answer is in the right place. I place the edge of the test paper under the line I’m going to mark, sliding it down with each new question. This keeps me from marking two answers on the same line. It also helps me stay focused on the question being asked. Everything is difficult before it is easy, but you’ve had some practice quizzes, so your next test should be easy right?
Good luck to you. I’m sure you’ll be great
Doryce Seibold
Dear Student,
I am now going to test you.
T Tell you to prepare ahead of time for tests.
E Encourage you to use all those memory techniques.
S Say you can do it!
T Take my own advice.
What you’ve just read is an example of a memory technique that with a little practice can help you to remember most anything. When preparing for a test, make a game of it and give your self rewards. When you know a certain concept well, go on to something else. Believe it or not, you can actually over study.
When you test, it is important to remember that a test is nothing more than an evaluation of what you’ve learned. Put in a positive perspective, it can become a chance to show off rather than something to be feared. Each day you’ve been in class has been a building block on the day before. Now you just have to get it from your memory, down through your arm, into the pencil and on to the paper.
To accomplish this, a good test taker will get a good nights rest, eat a healthy breakfast and drink plenty of water. Be sure your breakfast contains some protein and is light on the sugar. Sugar clouds the brain and also has a let down period that may come at the worst possible moment. To have a well hydrated brain, water is best. Coffee, tea, and energy drinks contain caffeine which dehydrates the brain.
When test time arrives, take a few deep breaths and say to yourself, “I know this and I can do it.” Deep breathing is a good relaxation technique as well. Remember that what you focus on expands, so keep your thoughts positive. Take a moment to survey the entire test, paying close attention to the directions. Then answer the questions you’re really on top of first. This will save time and allow for a longer thought process on those things not as familiar. If your test is one requiring a scantron, make sure your answer is in the right place. I place the edge of the test paper under the line I’m going to mark, sliding it down with each new question. This keeps me from marking two answers on the same line. It also helps me stay focused on the question being asked. Everything is difficult before it is easy, but you’ve had some practice quizzes, so your next test should be easy right?
Good luck to you. I’m sure you’ll be great
Doryce Seibold
On the Way Out
Words are powerful. Used properly they have the abiltiy to describe, define, convince, encourage, comfort, hurt or destroy. In speeches such as the Gettysburg Address and " I Have a Dream",they can bring change to society. In books they can take us to far off places, real and imagined. From the petroglyphs of ancient cultures to raised bumps for blind readers, to carefully set type for newspaper pages , writing has been a means of communication and a means of recording of history, scientific facts, emotions and humor. Writing is essential to reading and reading the express lane to learning. This quarter I've been challenged to write with solid organization and clarity and have learned new terms such as audience, voice, and parallelism. I've even been encouraged by one instructor to publish some of my poetry. I hope you've enjoyed the writings contained in this portfolio and that you have been encouraged to write as well. Thanks for reading my selected works!
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