Green is the color of my day.

Who would’ve thought I’d have such a day?

The sun is not out,

The birds are not flying.

I just want to shout,

"Everyone stop sighing!"

We need to be glad,

That we all are here.

Please don’t be mad,

Let’s all just cheer

Rain go away,

The sun come out.

We all will go dancing,

And run all about.

12/4/03

 Being in the sophomore composition class with Ms. Schultze has been very different than any other English class I have been in.  Most English classes, you go into the classroom take out a Literature book or reading book and paper and pencil.  When we get to this class the first thing we do is turn on our computers.  We all get out the extension cords and charge our battery.  Ms. Schultze has set up a website that has everything we do each day on it.  We all go to that and do whatever it says to do.  The things we do always deal with the computers.  So when the server or the internet is down, this class is almost impossible to have.  The first thing we did this year was set up our websites.  It has been a never ending process since then and we continue to work on them almost everyday.  Besides doing our websites the biggest change is realizing everything you write is available for the whole world to read.  We are always writing something new and posting it on our websites.  I think knowing that our writing will be on the world wide web makes us think about our writing more, and as we go makes us more confident in our writing.  The other big difference in this class compared to other English classes is that we use email everyday.  We use email to talk within our groups about books we read and to send our writing to Ms. Schultze.  She then can correct everything on the word document and send it back to us.  It has been a major change, but I think it is better than writing on paper. So far I like this English class better than any other one I have ever taken. 

12/4/03   REFLECTION ON MULTI-GENRE WEB PROJECT.

To start our project we had to read a short story and split it up into three different sections.  The story we read was called "Eleven".  We then had to read all the directions and each pick a different genre to write over each section.  I also wrote the opening poem that has all the links to the sections.  Kara set up the front page of the multi-genre web on her website.  We all then would send her our writings and she would post them for us. To get the project finished our whole group had to get our three writings done, and Kara had to hyperlink them to the main page.  When it was all done, each of us had to hyperlink from our website to hers, so it could be posted on all of our websites.  Writing the beginning poem was what I liked most about the project.  When I have a topic to write a poem over I enjoy doing it.  The hardest part of the project was writing the other genres over the story.  I have never written  a monologue before so I wasn't really sure how to do it.  It worked really well to have our group work out in the hall together.  There weren't any distractions, and we helped with each other's  genres they were writing.  It worked better than just writing them by yourself with no input for other people.  If we had to do this again I would choose different genres to write.  I didn't really like the ones I did, so they didn't turn out the best.

12/12/03

Knowing that everything you write in Sophomore Comp, Geography, and Biology goes on your website for the whole world to see, you often think about what other people think when they see your web site.  You would hope that the person visiting your site will like it and enjoy looking through all the different parts of it.  I hope they enjoy looking at everything from my journal writings to the PowerPoints I've done.  I think people around the world, but especially in Yankton would like to read and learn about having computers available for students.  Adults in Yankton probably would want to look at these sites to see how the class works and know what we are doing.  So when parents look at the site I want them to read through the projects we have done and realize that this class is working out well.  I hope people visiting my site think it is interesting, well-organized, and creative.  Outsiders hopefully will read my writings and enjoy them, and maybe get something out of them, since we have done a lot of reflection writing assignments.  Most of all I want them to like looking at it and come back to my site later on to see my new work I'm continuing to put on it. 

12/19/03

Today I am going to journal on how I have changed since taking this class.  One thing that I have noticed is I am very much computer dependent.  If I don't have the computer for even one day, I don't know what to do.  We use it so much everyday that it is just a part of my everyday life.  Since we are on the computers all the time, I have noticed that my typing skills have improved a lot.  I think I type way faster, and I'm more accurate.  I have also become more organized.  Now I organize everything in separate folders and never worry about losing anything.  I have become more confident in my writings as well.   This class has changed the way I operate everyday and is been a big benefit to me.

1/9/03

Today is the end of the first semester as Cyber Sophs.  If asked to evaluate how it was being the first students at Yankton High School to ever have access to a computer 24 hours a day, I would have to overall say it was a success.  Once in a while we would have those days when the network was down or really slow, that being on a computer was frustrating.  Luckily that didn't happen very often.  More often we would log on the computer and be able to work on our websites or other assignments.  Having computers part of our everyday lifestyle also made us more computer efficient.

    One main thing we learned to use better was the Internet.  Having wireless internet anywhere in the school made it easy to use the world wide web a lot throughout the day.  We became better at searching and using it to complete assignments.  We also have used Microsoft Word and PowerPoint a lot.  Becoming more efficient in those two programs is a benefit because we will use them a lot throughout the rest of high school.  Typing was a skill I have became way better at.  It seems like I type all the time now through emails and word documents.  It is nice to be able to type fast and accurate.