2015年12月16日星期三

Self-Assesment of my project

        After reading gathering the pearls, we wrote a diary as the final project. In the diary, we pretend to be one of the students in Sookan's college and write about things happen in the freshman year.
        In this project, I think I did well on fulfilling the length. We are required to write 1900 words, but I write almost 3000 word. At first, I just put a lot of details on my first diary. I just kept adding details in order make the story more specific. As the time going, I felt like I should be more organized when I was describing the events. I created my unique character's story and it was almost my own experience when I first came to America. I was being shy and was not very cofident to talk. I chose to be silent all the time and I did not have any friend. In the diary I developed my own character from a shy girl who did not have any friends to a girl that had more confident. Besides this, I also used the third person view to write about things happen in "Gathering in pearls". For example, I wrote that I became friends with Ellen and Sookan. I included some details about their characteristic in the story, and I wrote about my personal feeling about them.
        To describe my story, I mostly use narration to tell the things happen in the college. I wrote about things happen in different date such as what I did, who I met, and how I thought.  However, I lack the five senses, because I did not use them very often. I did not think I wrote about any thing about smelling and touching. I just wrote what I saw and what I heard. On the other hand, I think there are probably some mistakes in the diary such as comma splice and gramma. If I had more time, I think I can take another look on my diary carefully. I would be able to figure out the mistakes and included more description about the five senses.

2015年12月13日星期日

Writing Center Reflection

It is my third year at Cheshire Academy. During these two years, I heard about there is a place in our school called writing center. It is a place for student to edit their paper and get some advice for their writing assignment. I haven't been to the writing center before since I came to this school. Last Tuesday was my first time visit the writing center. The writing center located on the second floor in Humanity building. 
While I was visiting the writing center, I met Ms.Swift. She is the teacher who is responsible for the writing center. When I came inside to the writing center, I saw some familiar face. It looked like some of my classmates came to visit the writing center as the same time as me, and we were here for the same purpose. The reason why we were here is because our English teacher Ms.Guarino wanted us to come here in order to edit our diary entry. Although there were almost 6 people in the writing center, Ms.Swift was still very welcome and happy to help all of us. She walked around and looked at each of our paper carefully. She corrected some of the grammar mistakes of our diary entries. As there were so many people here, she could not take a look at all of our work specifically. She suggested us to read through our paper while she was working with another student. She said: If you read it all loud, you will find your mistakes. 
When I was reading my entry, as she had talked about, I found out a lot of spelling mistakes and tense mistakes. I realized that I need to fix a lot of mistakes before I finished it. I have a question which confuse me all the time: when I should use present tense and when I should use past tense. In order to avoid tense mistakes, I usually write the essay in the same tense. Between present and past tense I prefer to write in the past tense, because I felt like what I am writing about is always happen in the past. Then, I should use past tense. However, after I visited the writing center, Ms.Swift told us, when we should use past tense of present tense depends on the condition of the sentence. If the thing is still happening, we need to use present. If the thing was only happen in the past. Then we should use past tense. When we are writing a sentence, we need to always think about that if it is still happening or not.
Beside the tense problem, she told us. While you are writing a diary, you need to imagine that you are the character in the story. From that, we can make the store more realistic and attract reader to read. After that, she showed us some magazine which she like very much as example. She told us the best way to improve our writing skill was to read more books or magazine in English. Also watching some English movie was another good way to improve our English. She spent a long time talking about the magazine, how the article was strange and interesting which I did not get what she was talking about. Beside this, I learned a lot from this experience visit the writing center.

2015年12月7日星期一

Dairy

9/1.  
Dear Diary:
it was my first time study abroad in America, I was a foreign student from China. This new place seemed to be very strange to me. After a long time traveling, I finally arrived the campus. It was a really big campus, I thought I would be lost if there was nobody taking the tour for me. The person who was taking tour for me was a faculty member named Sister Casey. She was a very welcome woman I thought, because when I first met her, she opened her arm and hugged me tightly. "Welcome to Campus, Jerry. " she said nicely. I was nervous because in China people didn't hug each other when they met for the first time. We didn't even shake hands. Instead, we said hello to each other nicely. This sudden hugging makes me feel strange, probably she was a outing woman or maybe it was American style to show welcome to other people. After she showed different kinds of building in this campus, I was settled into my room. In my room, I saw two small beds and two desks with a closet beside it. It was a small room, but I thought it had enough space for two students to live. It looked like my roommate haven't arrive yet, because the room was still empty.

9/10
The first week of the school was ended. I met my roommate at the second day. Her name was Johnnie, and she was an  American. She was a silent person, we just introduced ourselves and then we started to do our own thing. During the orientation, I saw a girl came from Korea wearing a special cloth called hanbok. Her name was Sookan, and  she said it was her country cloth. I used to think hanbok was a cloth from Japan, but actually that cloth was from Korea, and the one from Japan was called kimono. They looked similar but they were different.  The courses I was taking wasn't hard especially Math. In China, the Math problems was very complex and extremely hard. We sometimes may spent half an hour to do only one question.  Here I can easily understand the problem and finish it in 5 minutes. The other courses were fine, maybe because it was just the start of the year. It will be harder in the future.

9/17
Before I left, my mom told me to make some foreigner friends, However as a Chinese students, my English was very well, sometimes I did not understand what the other kids were talking about. I was being shy and being worried all the time: what if they did not like me; what I joined their groups but they did not understand me; what if they made fun of me when we were together. For the whole half of month, I was being lonely. I tried to find the other Asian: that Korean girl Sookan, but she was busy all the time. I heard about that she need to do a lot of scholarship work and She spent most of the time outside. I prefer stayed in my own room. Luckily, my roommate was same as me. Looked like She hadn't make any friend yet. Although we were roommate, we didn't talk very much. Mostly she was doing her things and I am doing my things.

9/26
It was almost a month since I came here. I haven't create a lot of friendships yet. But because both my roommate and me liked to stay in the room, we had a lot of time staying with each other. As the time going, we became friends, and my school life wasn't lonely any more and I will tried to make more friends. My grade was not very bad as I studied sometimes. I recieved a mail from my mother. In the mail, she told me everything was fine in China, except my naughty brother who always made her angry. She continued telling me tried to find more friends which made me nervous. I thought she did not understand it was not that easy for me to create a lot of friendships as I was a shy girl. However, I knew she was right and I will make more friends in the future.

10/5
Today, we had sit down dinner which we had to go to dining hall and have dining with every body. I used to sit in the corner with Johnnie all the time having lunch or dinner. I was being shy when I first meet other new students. Now they had already made some "groups". I did not know how to join their groups, and I was being afraid to join their group. What if they thought me as a idiot. During the sit down dinner today, I had a table with different students. I saw that Korean girl Sookan was them to serve the food. Probably she was doing her scholarship again. In our table, I met a girl named Ellen, she was a outgoing girl that she never stopped talking. She asked me a lot questions about China. I remembered she had a good relationship with Sookan also. It seemed to that she was interested in Asian country. I started to talk in the table, and I began to be more confidence.
Today I had a new friend and her name was Ellen.

10/14
Today was Saturday, and Ellen came into my room told me there would be a dance party at night with the other school. She looked very excited and looking forward to the party. She asked me if I could go with her. Her roommate Sookan was doing babysitting for Professor Bennett so she can't go with us. At first, I did not want go, because it will be a place full of boys and strange people. I never went to a dance party before. However, Ellen continued saying don't worry and she will handle it. We will have a lot of fun. At last, I went with her, on the way, I asked her why she was so excited. She told me her boyfriend Kyle will come tonight and dance with her. She kept telling me everything about Kyle until we arrived.

10/25
It was almost the end of the marking period, the work was getting harder, and I had more and more quiz and tests. I used to organized my time well, because I was staying in my room all the time. However, now, Ellen always invited me to go outside and have some fun. It was true that my life was no more boring or lonely since I met Ellen, but I felt that my grade was getting worse. I wondered why she had so much time to have fun. I thought I need to studied more studied more instead of having fun with her.

10/31
Today was the end of the marking period, I recieved the report card. When I checked my grades, I surprised. I thought
I will have a good grade but in fact I did not get that. My grade was neither awful or good. I did well both on the test and the homework. I found out the only thing I lack was the participation. I was talkless in the class, and that was why.
I thought my mom must call me after she saw it, and we probably will have a long talk.

11/1
Today I got a call from my mom, I knew that will happened as she saw my grade. I thought she would be very curious and disappointed about my grade. Why couldn't I do well in participation. I even thought about if she would get angry about me. However, in the phone, her voice did seemed like she was angry or mad. She said she understand it wasn't very easy because I was an international student. And she knew that I had tried very hard. She encouraged me to do better in the future. I was glad that my mom understood me, and I decided to work harder and show her a better grade in the next marking period.

11/9
This week, we had a lot of work. I had 4 tests coming forward, and 2 project due Thursday. I did not understand why we still had that much of work when the first marking period was just ended. There should be a time for us to have a relax. I wondered why can't we have a break after each marking period. For example, thanksgiving after the MP 1, Christmas after MP 2, Spring break after MP 3, summer vacation after MP 4. I knew I was dreaming about it, and I was very looking forward to my Thanks Giving break. I need some time to relax from all of those work.

11/20
Finally, it was time to have the thanksgiving break, I had been waiting it for a long time.  Both of me and Johnnie signed up the Boston trip. We will travel to Boston and stayed there for a week. I heard that there was China town in Boston right next to the place we lived. What a surprise. I had not eaten any Chinese food since I came here. I can imagine that how delicious the food will be. I wished I could invited Ellen, she must be very interest in these, but she told me that she would spent her time with her boyfriend Kyle. Kyle must be the most important people for her, so I wished her have fun with him. Now let's time to have fun and relax!

11/27 The Black Friday
Today I got up earlier than before, because I had a lot of things to do. I waked up at 11:00 rather than 1:00. I went to china town for some food first, after that I went on a bowling trip. The bowling club was very dark but with different color light shining. The first ball I missed everything because I threw it too hard. For the rest of the balls I focused more and tried to throw it more easy. Finally I made a strike. I felt very proud and excited when people were clapping hand to me. After that I went to Newbury St for shopping. There were crowed every where, and we need to wait in lines to get in one shop. I bought a cloth which was expensive but I liked it. I hesitated for a long time and finally made the decision. After I bought this cloth, I felt like my mom will kill me when she waked up. However, when I got back to the hotel, I received her message. She just wanted me to show her what I bought. Nothing else.

12/1
Time passed so fast, and the Thanksgiving break was end. I still missed the time when I was stayed in Boston. The food I had and the place I lived for a week. I got back to school yesterday, but I still thought the Thanksgiving break had just started. I could not believed time passed that fast.








2015年12月1日星期二

Diary form

11/27/2015 The Black Friday
Today I got up earlier than before, because I had a lot of things to do. I waked up at 11:00 rather than 1:00. I went to china town for some food first, after that I went on a bowling trip. The bowling club was very dark but with different color light shining. It made me felt like it was a night club instead of bowling club. Never mind, the goal is to have fun. The first ball I missed everything because I threw it too hard. For the rest of the balls I focused more and tried to throw it more easy. Finally I made a strike. I felt very proud and excited when people were clapping hand to me. After that I went to Newbury St for shopping. There were crowed every where, and we need to wait in lines to get in one shop. I bought a cloth which was expensive but I liked it. I hesitated for a long time and finally made the decision. After I bought this cloth, I felt like my mom will kill me when she waked up. However, when I got back to the hotel, I received her message. She just wanted me to show her what I bought. Nothing else.




Thanks giving break

This Thanks giving break, I went to Boston for the school trip. I had delicious Asian food in China town and I met our friends here. I got up very late, so there was no morning in my Thanks giving break. I usually got up at 1:00 and went out for lunch. There were activities in the afternoon, I went on the duck boat which was a van but can transform into a boat. Beside the duck boat trip, I also went bowling. Bowling was very fun, I felt very proud and excited when I made a strike. The rest of the time, I stayed in my room because I was being lazy and outside was very cold. On Black Friday, I went shopping at Newbury St. There were people every where, and I need to wait in order to get in a shop.  Thanks giving break was so fast, that I could not think about more besides these. I felt like the beak had just started when I got back to school.