Real Time Notes for Mona Lisa Smile

Mona Lisa Smile Notes

·         Frist day of school Katherine Watson was intimidated by the students and pretty overwhelmed by their knowledge on Art History

·         School administration wasn’t very supportive of Ms. Watson’s  teaching plans and recommended that she use better discipline with her next class

·         Betty is super bitching and untrustworthy, her mother is just as rude and aggressive

·         Due to Betty’s untrustworthiness, she wrote an article about  the nurse, Amanda for giving contraceptives to students and Amanda ends up getting fired

·         Joan (a student of Ms. Watson) is thinking about Pre-Law and talking about wanting to go to Yale, Ms. Watson hands her an application for Yale during class, hoping to persuade her to apply

·         The class goes on a field trip to see a new art piece and to consider it as art

·         During winter quarter Katherine is told to be less modern art and more conservative

·         Joan ended up applying to Yale and got early accepted

·         Betty ends up getting married, and it seems not to be all that she expected

·         Giselle and Bill, the male professor has had an affair before and seem to still have feelings for each other

·         Paul shows up to surprise Katherine for Christmas and proposes to her, Katherine isn’t happy about it and doesn’t want to get married

·         Betty misses class and Ms. Watson informs her to be more attentive, Betty insist that is she is failed there will be consequences

·         Katherine gets invited to an AR meeting, which is a secret society. Where they get to ask her any questions they want

·         Betty ends up writing a newspaper article about Katherine saying that she is against marriage and publicly attacks her

·         Bill and Katherine end up sleeping together and Katherine makes sure he know that it is nothing more than just sex and insist that he sleeps with no students while they are together

·         Joan ends up eloping and not going to Yale

·         The school asks Ms. Watson to return for the next year, with certain expectations from her

Class Work

My main point I wanted to get across with my first paper was that parenthood isn't "perfect". There are so many new things that I am learning as a mom. By all means, I am NOT complaining that motherhood isn't perfect. I just wanted to let my audience see that it is an unexpected roller coaster with so many ups and downs along the way. It is an exciting time and a great learning experience. I absolutely love being a mom.

Ideas for my second paper are to show the contrast in teachers in the public school system. While growing up, I had amazing, loving, inspirational teachers who wanted nothing more than to encourage and help in any way possible as well as having teachers that quit frankly made it obvious that they didn't want to be teaching.

Baby Mamma Drama Final Draft

Josie Baxter
Sonia Begert
English 101
January 30, 2013

     When my husband and I first learned that we couldn’t have children, it was a pretty big shock to us. We cried a lot, we got frustrated a lot, we even took refuge in our private little studio apartment for a few months and then finally we learned to live with it. When one learns reproducing isn’t as easy as it seems to be, you start to think about so much more than just “should we have a baby?” I started thinking about the things it meant to me on being a mom. Does it mean I should be the one giving birth? Does it mean I should be there from the beginning of his or her life? Would I even be good at being a mom? Can I be patient or understanding with a non-speaking human that cries almost constantly? At first we started to talk about surrogacy and we even had a few people offer to be surrogates for us. Then we discussed adoption. Whoa- adoption. Can we even afford to adopt? No, probably not. We should revisit adoption in a few years, or decades. That was that, and we began living our life with the understanding that we wouldn’t have children on our terms but more on “the world’s” terms, whatever that meant.
    I remember the day like it was just yesterday. Devon and I were driving down the road talking about what we needed at the grocery store, and then out of nowhere he tells me someone had called him and asked him if we were interested in adopting their child. “Wait, what?!” was my first reaction.  Someone wants to give us a baby? They want to give us a baby that we have been trying for 3 years to have on our own? Of course we want their child! Unfortunately the sensible man I’m married to talks about finances, our small studio apartment, work, and all of the other perfectly rational reasons why this would probably never work. And so begins our talk about whether or not we could even consider adopting. Well five, long, miserable, drawn out minutes later we decide that hell yes we wanted to adopt this little baby.
    A week later, we sit down and meet the birth mother. We talk about her health and why she decided to put her baby up for adoption. There were many tears, laughs and nervous silences. But at the end of the day we all decided this was the best choice and that Devon and I were going to adopt a little boy. After that meeting, it took us about another week to decide to tell our parents that they were going to be grandparents. Of course, there were some uncertainties about the adoption. It was going to be an open adoption and yes our son was going to know his biological mom. It seems as though many elderly people find adoption unsettling. We got many questions like “Why does he need to know his birth mother?” and “Are you sure you want to adopt another woman’s baby?” and of course the most common one “When will it be finalized?” It seemed as though many people were afraid to open up their heart to this amazing little boy, my son, until they knew for sure that he would be ours. At the beginning I was even a little nervous about saying we were adopting. I myself asked similar questions like, “Will he love his biological mom more than me?” and “Will he feel rejected as a boy knowing that his biological mom gave him up, even if it was for good reasons?” and the most common question I kept asking myself “What if she backs out of the adoption at the last minute?”
   Two weeks after we met with this amazing woman, who wanted to bless us with her unborn son, we received a phone call at 5:30 in the morning saying her water broke and she was going to the hospital. Holy Shit! He’s coming 6 weeks early and we are totally not prepared. What do we do? First step is buying a car seat. So on the way to the hospital we stop by Wal-Mart and purchase a newborn’s car seat, and a little cushion meant for holding a newborn’s head more still in the new car seat.  By the way, this is a pointless purchase because the hospital staff is trained to take them out, throw them on the ground, and use a receiving blanket instead. Wow, this is really happening. We waited at the hospital all day, stressing, freaking out and running to Target buying anything we can possibly think of that we might need. My friends came to the hospital and threw me a small baby shower with lots of diapers, clothes, bottles, and twice as much of everything else as we could possibly need. Devon and I were beyond blessed and neither one of us could believe what was happening. Our son, Josiah Ray Baxter was born at 7:25pm that night.
   Over two and half years have gone by since that day and man oh man have I learned a lot. I always thought that parenthood would be like a perfect little fairy tale, that there wouldn’t be any problems, ever. Ha! I was in for a big shock. Growing up, I thought the world was a perfect place. People didn’t argue back and forth all the time, babies didn’t poop on their moms in the shower (which YES, YES, YES they do!!!) and beautiful, perfect little boys didn’t get upset with their beloved mommies. Thinking back, I see how our amazing, independent son has taught me so much in these very short couple of years. I have learned from this innocent, curious little boy how to be patient, love uncontrollably and especially how to adapt to wildly imperfect and downright strange situations (like poop in the shower).
   At the beginning, it was so hard to figure out the best parenting skills to use. There were so many books on different ways to parent your child. By the time we got into a few chapters of any one book or magazine or web article, whatever the author was saying just stopped making sense.  Devon and I decided the best thing to do was just love the snot out of our little boy.  We decided to teach him everything we could think of, to keep playing with him when we were tired, to enjoy every last minute.  The rest has fallen into place nicely.  He has structure, but his life isn’t built on discipline. He gets to snuggle and sleep with mamma from time to time, but he knows when it’s time for “night night”.  He gets away with things every once in a while, but he sure does get tired of time-outs sometimes too. 
   In the end, I’ve found that I love being a mom.  I love giving 110% when I’ve run out of energy.  Adopting wasn’t that hard, or expensive, now that the dust has settled.  And hey, even getting pregnant seems to be an obstacle we can overcome, because after 5.5 years of trying, the doctors say that I’m 6 weeks pregnant today. Who knew!  The timing of our lives may not have been our first choice, but I’m starting to get the picture that it couldn’t have been much more perfect, and maybe there’s someone out there who is helping us along the way.  The biggest lesson I’ve learned?  Being a mother isn’t always cupcakes or PTA meetings, but it’s the greatest gift I’ve ever received, and I’ll never give it up.

  

Baby Mamma Firtst Draft

When my husband and I first learned that we couldn’t have children, it was a pretty big shock to us. We cried a lot, we got frustrated a lot, we even took refuge in our private little studio apartment for a few months and then finally we learned to live with it. When one learns reproducing isn’t as easy as it seems to be, you start to think about so much more than just “should we have a baby?” I started thinking about the things it meant to me on being a mom. Does it mean I should be the one giving birth? Does it mean I should be there from the beginning of his or her life? Would I even be good at being a mom? Can I be patient or understanding with a non-speaking human that cries almost constantly? At first we started to talk about surrogacy and we even had a few people offer to be surrogates for us. Then we discussed adoption. Whoa- adoption. Can we even afford to adopt? No, probably not. We should revisit adoption in a few years, or decades. That was that, and we began living our life with the understanding that we wouldn’t have children on our terms but more on “the world’s” terms, whatever that meant.

I remember the day like it was just yesterday. Devon and I were driving down the road talking about what we needed at the grocery, and then out of nowhere he tells me someone had called him and asked him if we were interested in adopting their child. “Wait, what?!” was my first reaction.  Someone wants to give us a baby? They want to give us a baby that we have been trying for 3 years to have on our own? Of course we want their child! Unfortunately the sensible man I’m married to talks about finances, our small studio apartment, work, and all of the other perfectly rational reasons why this would probably never work. And so begins our talk about whether or not we could even consider adopting. Well five, long, miserable, drawn out minutes later we decide that hell yes we wanted to adopt this little baby.

A week later, we sit down and meet the birth mother. We talk about her health and why she decided to put her baby up for adoption. There were many tears, laughs and nervous silences. But at the end of the day we all decided this was the best choice and that Devon and I were going to adopt a little boy. After that meeting, it took us about another week to decide to tell our parents that they were going to be grandparents. Of course, there were some uncertainties about the adoption. It was going to be an open adoption and yes our son was going to know his biological mom. It seems as though many elderly people find adoption unsettling. We got many questions like “Why does he need to know his birth mother?” and “Are you sure you want to adopt another woman’s baby?” and of course the most common one “When will it be finalized?” It seemed as though many people were afraid to open up their heart to this amazing little boy, my son, until they knew for sure that he would be ours. At the beginning I was a little nervous about saying we were adopting. I myself asked similar questions, “Will he love his biological mom more than me?” “Will he feel rejected as a boy knowing that his biological mom gave him up, even if it was for good reasons?” and my most common questions I kept asking myself “What if she backs out of the adoption at the last minute?”

Two weeks after we met with this amazing woman, who wanted to bless us with her unborn son, we received a phone call at 5:30 in the morning saying her water broke and she was going to the hospital. Holy Shit! He’s coming 5 weeks early and we are totally not prepared. What do we do? First step is buying a car seat. So on the way to the hospital we stop by Wal-Mart and purchase a newborn’s car seat, and a little cushion meant for holding a newborn’s head more still in the new car seat.  By the way, this is a pointless purchase because the hospital staff is trained to take them out, throw them on the ground, and use a receiving blanket instead. Wow, this is really happening. We wait at the hospital all day, stressing, freaking out and running to Target buying anything we can possibly think of that we might need. My friends came to the hospital and threw me a small baby shower with lots of diapers, clothes, bottles, and twice as much of everything else as we could possibly need. Devon and I were beyond blessed and neither one of us could believe what was happening. Our son, Josiah Ray Baxter was born at 7:25pm that night.

Over two and half years have gone by since that day and man oh man have I learned a lot. I always thought that parenthood would be like a perfect little fairy tale, that there wouldn’t be any problems, ever. Ha! I was in for a big shock. Growing up, I thought the world was a perfect place. People didn’t argue back and forth all the time, babies didn’t poop on their moms in the shower (which YES, YES, YES they do!!!) and beautiful, perfect little boys didn’t get upset with their beloved mommies. Our amazing son is so independent and has taught me so much in these very short couple of years. I have learned from this innocent, curious little boy how to be patient, love uncontrollably and especially how to adapt to wildly imperfect and downright strange situations (like poop in the shower).

At the beginning, it was so hard to figure out the best parenting skills to use. There were so many books on different ways to parent your child. There is Authoritarian Parenting, “which is essentially built upon structure, blind obedience and authority. Authoritarian parents believe that children thrive in a home where there is structure, boundaries, strict routines, firm discipline, and high levels of well-defined parental authority.” (Lowe 1) Then there was Permissive Parenting, “which is essentially the opposite of authoritarian parenting. Permissive parents tend to be much more relaxed and flexible in their style of parenting, and aren’t too worried about structure or authority.” (Lowe 2) And then there was Attachment Parenting. “Attachment Parenting focuses on the nurturing connection that parents can develop with their children. That nurturing connection is viewed as the ideal way to raise secure, independent, and empathetic children.” (WebMD)

By the time we got into a few chapters of any one book or magazine or web article, whatever the author was saying just stopped making sense.  Devon and I decided the best thing to do was just love the snot out of our little boy.  We decided to teach him everything we could think of, to keep playing with him when we were tired, to enjoy every last minute.  The rest has fallen into place nicely.  He has structure, but his life isn’t built on discipline. He gets to snuggle and sleep with mamma from time to time, but he knows when it’s time for “night night”.  He gets away with things every once in a while, but he sure does get tired of time-outs sometimes too. 

In the end, I’ve found that I love being a mom.  I love giving 110% when I’ve run out of energy.  Adopting wasn’t that hard, or expensive, now that the dust has settled.  And hey, even getting pregnant seems to be an obstacle we can overcome, because after 5.5 years of trying, the doctors say that I’m 6 weeks pregnant today. Who knew!  The timing of our lives may not have been our first choice, but I’m starting to get the picture that it couldn’t have been much more perfect, and maybe there’s someone out there who is helping us along the way.  The biggest lesson I’ve learned?  Being a mother isn’t always cupcakes or PTA meetings, but it’s the greatest gift I’ve ever received, and I’ll never give it up. 

** Work Cited Page to be included in  Final Draft**

My Fav Essay

Between all three essays that I’ve read by Benjamin Franklin, Malcolm X and Mike Rose I seem to be stuck deciding my favorite between Rose and Malcolm X. Benjamin Franklin’s essay seemed to be drawn out and I constantly felt myself having to reread his sentence to try and figure out his point. When it comes to Mike Rose’s paper I felt as though I could definitely relate to his experience in having shitty teachers when growing up. It seems as though, not many people are keen on wanting to become teachers. Many of my classes in high school were taught by PE teachers. Who ever thought that a PE teacher was a prime teacher to have teaching World History was vastly wrong. Having so many dysfunctional teachers growing up, is the main reason I am in school now to become a teacher. Mike Rose’s thoughts on disoriented schooling hits home with me a lot.  However, when it came to Malcolm X’s paper, I felt as though an awaking was happening inside me to want me to pursue my own goals I’ve put on the back burner. Malcolm X shows how going after what he wants changes his life completely. His excitement seems to encourage me to not just live life. But to go for things that I never thought could happen.

Rose, Malcolm X and Franklin

Franklin’s essay was very dull. His form of writing is outdated and it confused me and even frustrated me that I had to read it. Franklin talks about his pursuit of wanting to further his education on printing. However, his essay was aimed more towards a particular audience, that I am just not part of.

Rose seemed to be aimed to a diverse audience. No matter where you are from or what kind of schooling you got, it always seems to be a reoccurring problem that somewhere in the mix, there is a grammar school teacher who is uninterested in their students lives and aren’t very encouraging. Their focus is elsewhere and it makes you wonder, “Why the hell did you want to become a teacher?”

Malcolm X’s essay was about his experience in prison and teaching himself how to read on his own. He gives you examples about how he would read his dictionary by light in his jail cell and how the reading affected his life forever. Malcolm draws you in with his writing and even seems to help encourage people to go after their wants and dreams. I loved how Malcolm X shows his determination to better his own life.

"I Just Want to Average" Questions

Pondering of the Questions:

1. In Rose's paper he describes his life in Voc. Ed as a part of his life that he wasn't thrilled about. His teachers were either abusive, such as his PE teacher , ("He routinely had us grabbing our ankles to receive his stinging paddle across our butts")  or were run over by the students, such as his Spanish teacher Mr. Montez ("Mr. Montez's tenuous authority was finally ripped to shreds, and I think everyone felt a little strange about that."). When I was in school, I had teachers that weren't necessarily run over by the students, but just didn't give a crap about the class, so let the students run the class and do whatever they wanted. This is not how a class should be run nor how a teacher should dedicate their life.

2. It seemed as though Voc. Ed formed the students into who they grew up to be. Whether it be a teacher who is fighting to help correct the system, a man who grew up to be a bully because he was never taught how to behave or a person who is shy and intimidated because he was picked on throughout his whole school life.Just like Rose, I feel as though if your teacher doesn't make an effort to help you figure out a good learning strategy then of course you are doomed  to fail any class, especially math. 

3. High school feels disorienting to almost everyone, especially Ken Harvey. There are multiple classes, multiple "cliques", decisions on what to wear, how people will judge you, and one of the most important questions student are beginning to ask themselves, "How the hell am I suppose to learn in a class where there is so much disrespect and bullshit happening?" Ken seems to cope with this disorientation by sliding by, not really caring about too much, just making a passing grade and getting on with his life. I have seen others cope with the pressures of school by using drugs, becoming shy and closed off or worse coming to hate the school there at and all the people that are in it." You can't really teach a kid anything: you can only show him the way and motivate him to learn it himself" - Dave Cullen, Columbine

4. When it comes to college, I feel more confident. I know who I am, I know I am paying to be there and I know how to get shit done. I don't mind asking a teacher a question when I am struggling and if they shrug me off and say it's not their job to dedicate more time to a disoriented student, I am quick to point out that I am paying tuition to make sure I get a good education, and if they don't' seem willing to help,  then it's quit easy to drop their class and resume with a teacher that is more opt to show encouragement and willing to help with struggles if they appear.


5. My educational experience seems to contrast more than anything with Mike Rose's. Rose seems to be more laid back in his approach when first entering school. More scared to speak up and ask a question or see why he is in an English- Level D class instead of an English- Level A class. My experience is more question oriented. I am constantly asking questions, taking classes and learning new ways to become a better mom. Once we adopted our son, I was scared, much like Rose. But I stuck my neck out, joined groups and involved myself in his schooling, to make sure that I was able to better provide for my son.