Entry 11: Goodbye Blogging World

 When I found out we were doing blogs for class I had mixed emotions. I was excited because I like writing and scared for all hell because I didn't know what I could talk about that was personal yet relevant to other people. My biggest piece of advice is to not OVERTHINK your entries. While there may have been a moment or two of writer's block and not knowing what to say, I really enjoyed blogging. 

In terms of an english class, blogging is a way to practice skills that you have learned and show that you know how to use them without a boring worksheet. It is your own ideas and changes as you go, which is really important when teaching people to be their own writers and not use a typical writing format. I think this is a good way for teachers and students to know where they stand in a class, performance wise. I also like that when you get stuck with an entry you can look at blogs of other classmates or simply other blogs on the internet to come up with new ideas or ways to say something. For as much as I enjoyed writing blogs,I enjoyed reading other people's even more. 

For myself as a student, blogging helped me realize that I need to focus on digging deeper with my information when I write. For as long as I can remember, I could BS a paper and focus more on how I was saying something rather than what I was actually saying. I have always been a wordy person and this pushed me to make my words say something instead of sounding good. This is an important lesson in writing that every student goes through at some point in their schooling. These blogs can really help you develop and grow as an author and thinker, if you take them seriously. 

When taking this class, don't be afraid of the work load. It can be done. Don't be afraid of the papers, they will get better as the semester goes on. Don't be afraid of the blogs. You will have a love/hate relationship with them. 

Entry 10: Appreciate Your Teachers

Growing up my mom was an aid in a special needs preschool classroom. At a very young age I was exposed to the behind the scenes work that teachers do on an everyday basis. I saw how hard these teachers worked and how under appreciated they were by the people I called my classmates. Many of the people close to me think that I am crazy for becoming an Ed Major. Truth be told I am very afraid for my future as an educator. But the idea that I can have an impact on a student the way many of my teachers have had on me, outweighs any fear I could ever have.

The amount of work that goes into running and maintaining a classroom is tremendous. Students often complain about the amount of time spent in a classroom, without realizing that their teachers show up at least an hour before them every morning and leave many hours after them. This also increases for teachers who sponsor any clubs or coach any sports. There is a huge time commitment and sacrifice that comes with becoming an educator.

One major time commitment of teaching is creating lesson plans. Writing lesson plans and scheduling a week or a day can be very difficult. More times than not, lesson plans do not turn out the way that they are intended to. But teachers are forced to improvise and make it the best lesson they can. They have to take into account the different types of learning styles in their class, the allotted time for each subject and the available materials to create an activity. I know teachers who thought they had created a sure fire lesson plan that fails miserably. I have had teachers redo entire lessons because they were not satisfied with the outcome. Teachers do everything in their power to assure that their students are learning the material.

Another reason to appreciate teachers for is the fact that they spend their own money to stock the classroom with supplies and decorations. Imagine how cranky your mom gets spending excess money on school supplies every fall and multiply it by twenty-five. Teachers today are no longer given a decent budget to supply their classrooms. They use the little amount of money that they are paid to assure that you as a student have the best materials that you can. They also help supply students whose parents struggle financially with school supplies and often snacks at school. Not only is there a cost for a degree in education, but there is a cost to keep teaching.

Appreciating your teachers should not be limited to just one week throughout the year. There doesn't have to be a grand gesture, but show appreciation and respect for all that your teachers do.

Entry 9: Me, My Self and Media

In today's society media is everywhere. It has changed the way that people do everything from everyday activities to large scale projects. Personally, media is a big part of my life and the lives of the people that I surround myself with. 

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube are all part of my everyday routine. I spend a good portion of the day looking at makeup tutorials, do it yourself projects, easy recipes and product reviews online. I love having the ability to get ideas for anything from nearly anyone around the world.

In the world of social media, there is a page for everyone. I can  argue that anyone who says that hate social media, hasn't found the right site or profile to follow. 

While my boyfriend may not be mesmerized by a Kathleen Light's makeup tutorial like I would be, he can certainly lose him self in a binge watching session of Optic Gaming videos. 

There are so many ways that media can bring people together and really improve the ease of an everyday routine, but it does have downsides. 

One thing I find really important with media, as with anything else, is balance. There has to be a time and place for media use. While you are working, driving or at the dinner table,it is best to have the devices put away. 

While there are so many benefits to media I think the video below does an amazing jobs of laying out some of the down sides: 

What do you think? Is it time to put away the devices and get back to a time before or are media a great new way of living? 

Entry 8: Enabling Parents

In an earlier post I had talked about parents that are too strict with their children, causing them to become sneaky in their older years. I wanted to acknowledge that this is not the case for all parent/child relationships and that there is another extreme on the other end of the parenting spectrum. 

Enabling parents. 

There are some parents who feel the need to do everything for their child. Enabling them to depend on mommy and daddy for the rest of their lives. While this may seem caring and harmless. It is leaving an everlasting effect on the twenty-somethings of today.

How does this happen?

A parent can become enabling to their child for many reasons. Some of these reasons could be that they are the only child, or that they have lost a loved one. Many time when a child experiences a traumatic event in their young life, parents will coddle them to make up for the hardships for a short time being. This is not being an enabling parent. The problems occur when the behavior continues for a long period of time. What ever the reason may be, there should always be balance and discipline while raising a child. 

Effects of enabled children. 

Children who come from enabling parents are often lacking in initiative or responsibility. This stems from the fact that they don't have to do anything because their parents will do it for them. This starts to have major downsides in the school years. If a student gets in trouble for talking, they will place blame on another student. There will always be an excuse as to why their behavior or actions were not what was expected. 

Working in a restaurant where most of my coworkers are in their early twenties. Throughout every shift I see team members expecting exceptions to rules and special treatment because this is the type of privileges they were given while growing up. There is an omnipresent lack of initiative and responsibility when dealing with young adults who had their every need catered to as a child, teen and young adult. 

Finding balance. 

Too much of even the best things in life will eventually become a bad thing. There is no denying this fact. That is why parents have to monitor their enabling behavior to assure that their child is developing skills necessary for their future. This can be done by having rules and schedules in place. If the rule is broken or the scheduled every once in a while, there is no need to panic, but they should be followed to majority of the time. 

To parents.

When you have rules in place, do not think you are being the bad guy. If you tell your child no, do not think you are the enemy. Children need boundaries and guidelines. Most of all remember, you are the parent. Not them. 

Entry 7: #Hashtag

What the hashtag? 

I loved when the hashtag trend began and my mom kept asking why I put a pound sign next to everything I posted. It was something the majority of teenagers do or have done and its hashtagging. It is a pound sign # next to a word. If you don't know, hashtags make it easy to find posts related to yours or to find your post within a group of posts. 

There are many types of hashtags. Ones with a purpose and ones that are just kinda there. 

Two of these images are popular hashtags that have surfaced over the last few years. One is not. The #blacklivesmatter is a hashtag to bring attention to the way that black people are treated in the United States. Whether you are for it or against it, it has been a popular topic in the news and social media. People are trying to come together and use social media to their advantage. The use of hashtags is to come together with people of the same beliefs as you and show your support. 

People argue that a popular hashtag may not accomplish any sort of change. This is true. But isn't spreading the word and showing support better than dismissing the topic all together. While hashtags may not raise money themselves, it has the potential to reach someone who can afford to donate money to a cause and help in that way. It has the ability to bring issues to the public's attention and educate them, to make a better decision. There may not be an overwhelming amount of financial support coming from a simple hashtag, but there is no harm in it. 

The third picture is of a post that may not be going towards a cost, but to someones self interest. Many people use hashtags to gain followers on social media, get connected with people of similar interests or simply because they feel like it and they can.

Whether you #Love it or #Hate it. Hashtags are a trend that I do not see #dying any time soon. 

Entry 6: Strict Parents Making Sneaky Kids

Growing up I was very fortunate to have very open and understanding parents. I was given independence at a very young age but I was also given the responsibility to do the right thing and keep my parents in the loop. For the most part I would say that I am a very level headed nineteen year old. 

I also know of some people who had parents that were not as easy going. Many of my friends and coworkers had very strict parents growing up. This does not mean that they weren't doing the same things that I was in high school. While they may not have been allowed to date or go out at night. It does not mean that they weren't. I never had to sneak or lie to my parents about where I was going or what I was doing in high school. There are so many kids that sneak out and put themselves in danger because of the fact that they are having to be sneaky about their lives. 

It is important for teens to learn how to make decisions for themselves and be responsible for their actions before they move out and are on their own. 

There are so many kids who grow up with strict parents and go crazy after high school. There needs to be as ease into adulthood instead of teens having to ask permission for every little thing in life then being expected to know how to live for themselves. 

Entry 5: Shorter Classes: Hit or Miss?

In an article by Anne Ryman, the topic of shorter class schedules at ASU is discussed. This doesn't mean shorter class times but shorter semester length. A class can be finished in 8 weeks as opposed to the traditional 15 week semester. This also doesn't mean less work, students get the same amount of work in either class set up. 

Are these classes a hit or miss?

Without doing research I would say yeah these classes are a hit, same amount of credit hours in half the time? Sign me up. The article makes these classes seem like a great alternative to traditional classes. The idea of finishing college a year early would be very appealing to most students. The article also skims over the fact that these short courses are a lot of work and are very time consuming. Which is a huge deciding factor for students. College students do not have a lot of free time on their hands as it is and I think using this article solely to decide to enroll in 8 week courses would be very misleading. 

Overall this article is a great overview of the courses but I would not recommend it for a student looking to do research on wether or not they would be successful in a non-traditional course set up. 

Entry 4: Discount Makeup Apps You'd Wish You'd Known About Sooner

It is no lie that makeup is an expensive habit to have. Growing up with a cosmetologist step mother, makeup is always something that I have been very passionate about. But being a broke college student has really put a damper on my favorite hobby. One of my favorite eyeshadow pallets alone was $50. That is $50 to cover just your eyelids. I figured there had to be a cheaper way to get quality makeup. So I took to youtube to find some discount makeup apps and reviews of them. 

App one: CUTE 

This is an app to purchase discount makeup, skincare makeup tools and much more. 
Some products are dupes made to look like high end products while some are unknown brands. They range in selection and quality but are generally very low cost. 


One brand that has gotten high reviews on the app is "The balm". They offer many different eyeshadow and face pallets at a very low price.

The Pallets Shown Here Are:

• Smoke Balm
• The Manizer Sisters
• Nude Dude
• Balmsai

Other popular brands I have seen are Anastasia Beverly Hills, Lorac, Kat Von D, and Too Faced.

I have had luck with this app, but again the products are not real. They are products made to look like the name brand ones, which is why they are cheaper. That being said this can be a hit and miss method to building your makeup collection. 

App Two: Shop Miss A 

Shop Miss A is very similar to Cute in that they are discount makeup apps. What is different about Shop Miss A is that everything is only $1. Shop Miss A doesn't carry nearly as many large pallets as Cute but it is very cost effective for single items.

I placed an order for a few things from the web app recently but they have not arrived yet so I will leave a youtube review done by Emily Noel of products from Shop Miss A below. 

If watching a 14 minute youtube video of someone talking about makeup isn't for you, she bought 33 products and of them she liked all but 3. 

Judging from Emily Noel's Review and reviews from other popular youtubers, I do not have any doubts in purchases made from Shop Miss A and I am excited to receive mine. 

Always do your research and look at reviews of products before purchasing. 

The Cute app and Shop Miss A offer a very wide range of products at an inexpensive cost which makes it ideal for makeup beginners and/or people on a budget. The apps are also useful if you are wanting to try a new look but don't want to go broke on something that you are unsure about. Buying knock off makeup is a good place to test the waters, buy dupes of high end makeup products and if you love the dupe, take a leap a splurge on the real deal. 

There is no shame in not wanting to spend a lot of money on something you are unsure about. 

Entry 3: Slants in the Media

As a young college student, I am beginning to take an interest in politics and news. I want to be informed about what is going on in the world around me. To do this, I began watching the news and noticed a pattern. This pattern being that the information presented was not true facts, but in most cases, a small fact surrounded by very large opinions either for or against something. 

This is called a slant. 

A slant is the modification of the truth to make it better suit the authors stance. This could be a minor offense such as leaving out a small detail or a major offense such as blatant lying. Slanted media is something that we as Americans encounter everyday through broadcast news, print news and social media.   

Is slanting avoidable? 

Yes, there are ways to get information without any biased and that would be through a reference book that is purely facts. Every editorialized piece of news media is going to have some level of slant or opinion. It is the audience's job to be aware of this and to be able to recognize the distinction between fact and opinion. 

To dissect some slant news media, I chose a very slanted news media station, Fox News. The video below is a compilation of fox anchors talking about marriage equality over the last ten years.

*Disclaimer- This video was chosen for the sole purpose of analyzing rhetoric. This video is not a representation of my views on the topic of marriage equality* 

Here is a list of some of the non-factual statements used in the video. 

• If gay marriage is legal "other groups will want the same treatment" 
• "Why stop there, why can't polygamists get married?" 
• "Can you marry a duck?" 
• "This case is about...attacking churches" 
• "...a dad, seven moms and thirty five children...'

While each clip in the video is only an excerpt from a whole segment or story, these non-factual arguments are still apparent. Whether the reader or viewer agrees or disagrees with the news, there needs to be a conscious understanding that there are slants in the media. 

The statements that I pulled from the video are to play pull at the audience's heart strings and to push them into agreeing with them. In the instance comparing gay marriage to polygamy or beastiality, two things that hold negative connotations, suggest that gay marriage is unethical or wrong. 

Next time you are watching the news or reading a magazine, I challenge you to find these slants and make a conscious decision of whether or not you agree with what the piece is saying. 

Entry 2: Lies Our High School Teachers Told Us About College

Think back to high school, whether you have to think back nine months or nine years, think about anytime someone asked "Why do I need to know this?" The answer was the same for every class: math, history, english and science, "We are preparing you for college." In some cases, this statement would start a conversation, or debate, over how college would be. Now if you have not started college yet, brace yourself, they are lying. 

Lie Number One: The Syllabus.

To teach students to be more self sufficient, high school teachers use the terrible tale of the college syllabus. Teachers tell their students that college professors give you the syllabus on the first day and never bring up due dates again. Yes, a syllabus is given out and you are expected to know all of the information in it, including deadlines. However, professors often remind their students of important assignments and due dates throughout the course. It is important to be up to date on assignments and due dates, but professors understand that many students have not grasped the concept of independent learning and will not leave you to fail in a 101 class. 

Lie Number Two: Late Work. 

Another favorable scare tactic amongst high school teachers is that college professors never accept late work. There is some truth to this lie. There are some assignments that can not be turned in late. Do not show up the last day of class without your final. But, for the most part, professors understand that college students are very busy people. This doesn't mean that there is no punishment for late work. But it is, in more cases than not, still accepted.
I do not recommend letting late work become a habit at a college level.  

Lie Number Three: Professors Do Not Care.

Unlike high school teachers, college professors are not graded on whether or not their students succeed in a class. This could take away the incentive to really push students to do their best in a course. However, they are still teachers for a reason. If you are skipping class and failing to turn in assignments, they may not care about your overall success. On the other hand, if you show up everyday and have no missing assignments, but are not achieving the grade you had hoped for, talk to your professor. They are more likely to help you succeed if you show interest and effort. No teacher goes to work hoping that their students fail. 

 

Do not hate your high school teachers for feeding you lies to scare you straight, they only wanted what was best for you.

Just remember that the syllabus is there for your knowledge, deadlines are important, but not the end of the world and your professors are there to help you through it all. 

Entry 1: Hello World of Blogging

The world of blogging is a big one.

Blogs about anything and everything are available to anyone with an internet connection, which today is almost everyone. Blogging is another way to keep up on the trends of anything in which you are interested. Personally, my heart belongs to makeup and fashion blogs. But there really is a blog out there for everyone. Check out some different blogs I have come across. 

Lifestyle: Life Hacker  

Makeup: Jaclyn Hill

Food: AZ Foodie

Travel: The College Tourist

Video Games: That Video Game

Life Hacker is a fun blog that shares everyday hacks to make life a little easier. Some hacks are very practical while some are more out there. The website has posts from many authors that vary is topic. My only complaint would be the organization, there is no set categorization for posts. If sporadic life hacks are something you are looking for in life, I highly recommend. 

AZ Foodie is something that I heard about on the radio and started following recently. They share everything Arizona food related from top restaurants to recipes along with pictures. Everyone needs food, why not admire it on AZ Foodie?

The proof is in the pudding that there are blogs out there about everything; however, some blogs are not as enjoyable as others. Hullabaloo is a blog I came across that wasn't as easy to follow or as visually pleasing as the ones listed above. Like anything else in life, blogging can too be hit and miss. 

Reading blogs and familiarizing yourself with different themes, styles and layouts is a great way to begin your blogging journey. 

The power of blogging is incredible for both the author and readers. 

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the world of blogging.

Entry 0: Bailee: Party of One

Hi everyone, I am Bailee. To understand the name of my blog, you would have to understand who I am and how I got my name. Originally, I was supposed to be named Stevie Nicole, after my dad Steve. Having been born in 1996, everyone made the assumption that I was named after the wonderful Stevie Nicks. Stevie Nicole, Stevie Nicks. I am sure you see the correlation. However this drove my mother insane, so she refrained from Stevie and chose another 90s route. I am now named after Party of Five's Bailey Salinger. Bailee Leininger, Bailey Salinger; how original. After doing some research on Bailey Salinger, I found the book Bailey's Journal: Party of Five and I thought to myself, "How appropriate."

That being said, this is my second semester in college and I am really enjoying it. I work full time at Red Robin and when I am not at work or school I am watching makeup tutorials or traveling. My favorite part of both of these things is the art. I have been to art museums around the world and makeup stores around the country and I can't get enough.

While I do love art, education is where my heart is at. More specifically early childhood. This is where I hope to end up in life, teaching. After community college, I will be transferring to ASU to pursue my teaching career.

But for now, lets see where this semester takes me!