Final Blogpost Reflection

      As part of our methods of evaluation in the Journey in Literature English class we had to create a blog. The main purpose of it was to make us, the students, reflect about the readings made in class. After each reading and/or activity we attended we had to write a blogpost about it. One of the various requirements for the blog was to layer it. It was necessary to add links, pictures and videos to make it more interesting. Also, another requirement was that we needed to have a total of ten blogs. I know to some it may not seem like much, but to me it did. At the beginning, I wasn’t very fond of the idea of having to do a blog; I guess it was because I had never done one before. 

 

    At first, it was a little tedious learning to set up the blog but I quickly got the hang of it. I really started to enjoy having to write the blogs because, in fact, it made me concentrate on the readings even more so than before. One of my favorite things to do was to read my group’s blogs and give them some feedback. Furthermore, to me it is always interesting to see how various people can interpret the same reading in different ways. You can always learn a great deal from other people’s points of view. Looking back, I got to say that my top two favorite posts from my blog have to be Day as a Tourist and Life is a Trip, because those were the ones that I liked writing the most.

     Overall, even though it is time consuming, I think that the blog is a nice and different way to evaluate students. Some students like it and some don’t, but it’s cool to change things up every once in a while.  If it had not been for this class assignment I don’t think I would have ever done a blog. Nevertheless, I am glad that I got to experience what doing one is like.

Geography of Bliss

     In his book, Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner talks about his search for the happiest places in the world. During chapter 10 titled “America” he describes how happiness is perceived in the United States. A few of the things he mentions are that, the United States is the world’s twenty third happiest nation and that it is not as happy as it is wealthy. In the following I will discuss some interesting quotes from the reading.

“Clearly, one dynamic at work is rising expectations. We compare ourselves not to the America of 1950 but to the America of today and, more specifically to our neighbors of today. We give lip service to the notion that money can’t buy happiness but act as if it does. When asked what would improve the quality of their lives, Americans’ number one answer was money” (Weiner, 424).

     People will always have rising expectations that prevent them from being happy as long as they keep comparing themselves to others. Humans can never be truly happy if they are always wanting, what the other person has. Furthermore, being the capitalist and consumeristic society that America is has definitely influenced their views on happiness. To most of them money equals happiness, money is everything.  Hence, the more money you have the happier you are supposed to be. If they act like this it is because they were taught by society and learned to be this way.

"We are able to acquire many of the things that we think will make us happy and therefore suffer the confusion and disappointment when they do not" (Weiner, 425).

     This quote is the perfect example that money cannot buy happiness. The reason why people feel disappointed and confused when they acquire things they thought would make them happy and they did not, it’s because people tend to have the misconception that money can buy happiness, when in fact it can’t. Sadly, some people have a bad habit of measuring happiness with wealth and the amount of materialistic things they can possess. How they should really measure happiness is by quality of life; as long as you have health, family and a home you should be happy.

"The problem with finding paradise is that others might find it, too... Paradise is a moving target" (Weiner, 437).

     You do not want your paradise to be another person's paradise. Paradise is someone's happy place, where they feel most comfortable and at home. When other people find paradise in the same place you found yours, there is a chance that it will stop being your paradise because it will have lost what made it so special to you; and you will move on in search of a new one. Therefore, paradise is a moving target; it is a place that may or may not change throughout your life.

 

Teaching English

      In chapter seven titled “Teaching English”, Jim Copper, talks about his experience as an English professor during the 1950’s at The University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez; also known as el Colegio. During his time there he was named chairman of the Committee to Discuss the English Syllabus. After noticing that the students were struggling with learning English, he along with the help of some colleagues changed the syllabus and created a new outline for the English language program. They did this as a way to help the students in their learning process. Up next I’ll discuss some quotes from the reading.

 “He was one of many continentals who didn’t believe Puerto Ricans were capable of learning anything anyway” (Cooper, 69).

     It is terrible to know that this is what many continentals thought of Puerto Ricans. They saw us as inferior people who were not capable of learning anything. As a matter of fact, I find that to be extremely insulting and unfair, because they were most likely basing their opinions on the fact that most Puerto Ricans had a difficult time learning English. But, how would they not have a hard time learning it when the models and methods that were being utilized on the island were originally made for other countries with dissimilar ways of teaching? It was definitely an unjust situation.

“Despite the failings of the syllabus, we did have one very important thing working in our favor in the classroom. The students wanted to learn English and wanted to communicate in it” (Cooper, 69).

     This quote immediately makes me think of that proverb that says “were there’s a will there’s a way”. Even though the first syllabus was not tailored to the specific needs of the students, they were not going to let that stop them. They wanted to learn English and were willing to work hard in order to do so. It was the student’s sheer determination that made Cooper, and a few others, work hard to develop a new syllabus better suited for the students.

“I cannot pretend that our program was any model of its kind , but it was tailored to the specific needs of our students, recognizing that while many of them were reasonably fluent  in spoken English and able to carry on a social conversation on an elementary level, they could not read or write the language at all well”(Cooper, 71).

     Here we can see that Cooper fabricated a program that was not perfect, but contained what was necessary to specifically help the Puerto Rican students. It is important to keep in mind that a single program or model will not function the way it is intended to for every student out there; due to the fact that ways of teaching may vary from place to place. That is why programs or models should be individually tailored to the specific needs of the students.