5-5;20pm: Introductions, site familiarity, syllabus.
-Tell us a little about yourself, and your relationship with reading, writing.
-What did you do today? What stories are there?
5:20-5:40: Who are you, beyond what you’ve already told us? What do you want? How will YOU get it??
NOTE FOR YOUR NOTES: Everything that you want is attainable. If you don’t believe so, you’ve sold yourself on such. RETURN YOUR PURCHASE.
5:40-6pm: Why wrote at all? Why not. Why not do or at least try EVERYTHING?
Everything can be written. Try it…
6-6:20pm: Be more human than scholastic or academic.
What does that mean to you?
NOTE FOR YOUR NOTES: Thinking is Human, NOT academic in origin, nor intention.
6:20-6:30: Close…. what’s in your notes for tonight??
I’ll ask this every meeting, so be prepared to share what you have in your notes.
ASSIGNMENT: Write two pages about anything and email to me before next class. And get the friggin books!!!!!!! We’ll start with Ms. Irby. Also, start writing in your journal, and feel free to email me pictures of scribbled pages for some additional credit.
#professormikey 
To be honest i can’t remember the last time i wrote for myself.
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Do it TONIGHT.
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Writing is something I essentially fell into, using my knowledge of gaming coupled with my both my dad and brother’s background as writers themselves to land a job. It is not my favorite thing in the world, but I have grown more and more accustomed to it, although I no longer work as a writer for the time being in an attempt to focus on school among other things. Writing “better” comes down to practice and understanding of the subject matter.
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I feel I am a strong writer but i also have days where i cant think of anything to write and start to question my abilities. I have had teachers in the past who have told me to just start journaling when this happens and write down anything I can think of even if its just one word over and over again. I have found recrntly that journaling has not only helped my own mental clarity but also my skills as an improving writter. Its been a great outlet esspecially durring the chaos of the last year.
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Just write, about anything, and from any feeling you have.
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Writing has been some type of therapy for me when I need some place to express myself without being judged or feel like I’m bothering someone. Its an escape for my thoughts. I dont always write for myself, using only doing so when I have to for school but I try to write when I need a place to vent.
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Also, one thing I do enjoy doing is writing down my dreams I have so I can look back later and kind of analyze why I have certain things in my dreams or why certain things happened in it
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I’m getting better about that… The interpretive aspect is fun.
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I like to write just to put my thoughts on paper and look at the bigger picture even though I’m not good at it I can’t remember the last time I did that or wrote for myself. I usually only write for school.
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Such will definitely benefit you in this class..
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My hope is that you make this what you want it to be… the school doesn’t decide it, I certainly don’t… YOU do. Start deciding…
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Who bought the books?
Who’s started reading?
Who is ready to surprise themselves?
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Books are bought and should arrive tomorrow. Excited to be accountable for my reading
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I bought the books they still haven’t arrived yet, but I’m really excited to start reading them.
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just purchased all of them on amazon! all will be arriving before next week.
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BOOOOOOM!!!!!!
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Writing is important for the modern world. Writing is a way of language and speech. Without writing, songs would never happen, poems wouldn’t be a thing, scriptures, books, essays, news, stories, notes in a english would all not exist without writing. Writing contributes to much more than I could imagine. I believe everyone should try everything in life once to see if they enjoy it.
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Write because you might forget that thought. We have roughly 6200 thoughts a day! And, most are stored in our subconscious memory, which we ultimately program. Oh, I like typing also. I’m pretty fast and don’t look at the keys anymore. But something about pen ink to paper is like carving a piece raw material. Remember ancient hieroglyphs??? Write because it becomes real.
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The reality is written, and you wrote because you decided to. Love that…
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I just got a journal and have been writing everything down. I write down my thoughts and dreams. I feel good mentally writing in a journal it relaxes my mind.
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I think writing is a great way to manifest things in life! your goals can be written out! your bills and where your spending your money. personally i just tried to do a journal for my weight loss and i feel like it has motivated me much more than anything else!
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I have never personally had much of an attachment to writing, I find it easier to speak my mind and have more ease getting my ideas across through conversation because even if you misspeak or stutter you can still get that point through. When writing however, I tend to do a lot more second guessing and end up repeating myself and making my point of view less clear to those reading my writing.
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Try stopping the second-guessing, see what happens..
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I really should but I think it stems from the pressure of a word limit or limits set for an assignment as well as pressures for formality in the real work world as well.
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That can change.
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I’m so curious to what this semester is gonna bring us. I haven’t bought the books yet.
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The semester will bring you nothing. You will bring whatever you want upon your experience.. Enjoy!
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I’m barely going to get the books this week since i will be getting paid this week!
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Do the best you can..
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My books were delayed by the bookstore but they should be delivered sometime soon!
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Nice!!
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I haven’t written much outside of classes but I have heard that it can be a very good coping mechanism with stress
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Absolutely!!
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I am happy I get to read irby and Sedaris again! I cant wait for Davids book, i feel like I have and love hate relationship with him! haha!
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lol… many do Patricia!! Cheers!!
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To be more human than scholastic or academic to me implies that you should be yourself when you write and express your thoughts rather than suppress them because it is not “professional”. It also means to not always overthink every sentence with your brain and instead just go for it and leave it in your writing.
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YES!!
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I feel like writing is a great way to express yourself and let out bottled emotions.
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I agree completly
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I already have the books , haven’t started reading just yet but will soon!
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Take your time.. no assignments yet!!
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Books have been purchased just not yet in my pocession. Always ready for surprises ( which i feel like defeats the whole point of surprises)
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there is depth to this question, many things that can answer this question. however what comes to mind is that there is a lot of social constructs wrapped around every corner of our lives and with social constructs there are expectations which can cause a negative way of living for many people since it is a social norm to devote our lives to life social constructs. so to be more human means to do less of how were told to live life and really live life the way it should be, in the real humane way.
life is about balance and I feel it is important to live life the way it looks like to you and to not get so wrapped up on focusing on the future that we forget to live in the moment.
was i in the right direction?
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What is entailed in that “balance”?
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I write to manifest, to let out complicated emotions, to remember vital information. I’m neurodivergent and the tactile act of writing is one of the only ways that my brain can fully absorb information. Writing is a great form of communication (obviously) but for someone who is on the spectrum I often find that writing is where I can find my true voice.
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I think that this writing class will be very interesting. It is definitely far from the standard form writing. What I mean by this, is that instead of having a prompt we are being allowed to write really, some things about ourselves, our hope, our goals, and more importantly why we might be in this class. The name critical thinking is in the title of this class, and that for me has always interested me. What topics will we cover, how will we turn in assessments. And more importantly what books will we read. I have never been introduced to this style of teaching, it is very different, but sometimes different can be good.
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You’ll see…
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Be more human than scholastic or academic. I believe this means try to be yourself. We are all human and have our own emotions and feelings to express and we should be able to, instead of acting different than what you would normally because you are trying to seem “scholastic” or “academic”.
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I feel with English courses, we’re forced to see more structure than freedom and expression in the act of writing. You? Sorry, that just angers me… There is no one way to write, an essay or response, poem or whatever. Thoughts?
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I definitly feel there is more than one way to write, however with so many people spending so much time on their phones and computers and tvs…there is a less tact and elegance than there used to be.
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Agreed puts a lot of pressure on developing writers.
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Totally.
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People can sometimes have a problem differentiating between successful in school and successful in life. In order to live a complete life people need to develop themselves as a person with either hobbies or other interests such as music, exercise, and self care. Most people will not be satisfied with their lives if they spend all of their time and energy focus on strictly schooling.
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I have purchased the books but I have yet to dive into one yet. Casually reading is not something I have done for ages, and I am looking to pace myself in terms of reading for this class. This is the area I believe that will be the most difficult for me, as I tend to want to multi-task and sitting down and focusing on reading is simply something I have limited practice with as of late.
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Don’t worry, it’s early.
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Be more human than scholastic or academic.
To me, this means that we shouldn’t hold back and overthink when we write even though it is for school we should put what we are thinking and our emotions on the paper.
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I agree, I think often we are forced to write about certain things and in a certain way in school.
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So wrong..
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Being more human in writing, is effective because we can relate to ones story, we can’t always relate to something such as E=mc2
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“Be more human than scholastic or academic.” This prompt makes me think of artistic freedom. Creating something without the constraints of some educational standards, or without worrying about the thoughts of others. Being human to me means expression without limitations, and connections without limitations. If I was to apply being human to the subject matter of this class, it would mean writing freely, without corrections or revisions. To write purely with improvisation.
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Improvisation, yes. But more so IDENTITY.
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This energy is wonderful for a first meeting… let’s intensify it as the semester progresses!! Write for your LIFE…
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Be more human than scholastic or academic. I think this means not to take life- or education- too seriously. There isn’t a syllabus for being a successful human. Being the first generation to graduate from college, I was raised with a lot of ideas that people with educations think they’re better or they couldn’t ever relate to us living in poverty. As I grew up, I learned that we are all having a human experience and that in itself is enough for anyone to have in common. I also believe it means that rather than focusing on how proper our writing is and getting caught up in the rules and grammar, we just want to make sure it gets out there. I believe this quote could also relate to being empathetic to one another. Being kind to each other’s work when reading and giving feedback.
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Love this.. Well said.
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Is it dinner time yet? Who cooks in here?
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Love to cook but only when I want to cook
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What do you cook?
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I cook cereal! ha! But I can bake!
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Absolutley love to cook! I dropped out of culinary school becuase it was killing my love for it
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Heard that before.. Yeah. What do you like to cook?
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oh really? I almost went that route but for baking.
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Vegan pizzas have been my specialty recently. I”ve been experimenting with different vegan cheese recipes and flavor profiles.
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I can kind of cook, and I watch Master chef! So probably means I’m lowkey a pro.
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I totally agree! I feel throughout many different english classes the cariculum has trapped us in little boxes with prompts that listed out in madening detail how the paper should look and what informarion or context should be observed throughout it. I always loved free write prompts because it gave us that freedom to write absolutley anything our little mind could think of and alowed us to convey our own emotion and personality throughout our writting.
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What do you think “Misc” entails, on the syllabus?
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Showing our personality?
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Partially…
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to Be more human than scholastic or academic what that means is to always be true to yourself as well with being original with your work, own your work instead of trying to be like everyone else be different with your learning/ writing.
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I’m eating soup and biscuits right now!
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Jealous..
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I think being more HUMAN than academic or scholastic is to put emotion into your writing. Don’t just go through the motion, but feel what you’re writing. Do it for you, not for the academic or scholastic part. Write for yourself, and let yourself flow onto the page.
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Be more human than scholastic or academic.
This prompt makes me think of emotions. Instead of just writing about the topic at hand, put some personality into your work. Instead of editing your brain, write what you think and only what you think, nothing more or less.
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I believe one of the reasons I only recently began to enjoy writing is that the structure from school and lectures never truly suited me. The ability to have a more loose style and flow truly allows me to express how I feel.
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Be more human than scholastic or academic.
Although im wrong, i feel like being scholastic is the main source of becoming successful in today’s world, of course there are many other ways of becoming successful, however we were all taught when we were younger that finishing school was always the most important.
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The main source…? Why?
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The one thing my wife and I can struggle with is cooking, given we both truly are not a fan of spending that much time in the kitchen. In all likelihood something like Panda Express is on the menu for tonight.
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I think that the misc. in the syllabus means our journals and possibly other assignments
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6-6:20pm: “Be more human than scholastic or academic.” What that mean to me is that being human is important, it shows how you look at things and how you react in certain situations. for example, jobs don’t just want someone who is smart, they want someone with personalities and human qualities, that can’t be taught in a textbook. Anyone can go to school and learn the same information, but what makes you different and what makes you stand out is who you are, your character and your feelings.
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To be more human than scholastic or academic means to me to find my own personal “voice” in writing and get really comfortable with it. That is you, and as long as you stay genuine with yourself, your writing will be effective. Which is what it’s all about right? Whether it is for you personally or or for public.
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To be more human than scholastic or academic, I think that means to live life and not drown yourself in school because we can let life pass us by and it wont come back and as for school it will always be here for us.
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I like the way your wrote that. Yes!
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I believe that being more human than scholastic or academic is a great way to say that there is more to life than a grade or a degree. One can only grow as a human if they truly want to, not when somebody else is constantly telling them what to do or how to do it. If -like Mikey has said- you write FOR YOU, instead of for a grade, you’re truly doing yourself a service and growing as a person. Express yourself freely, and passionately. You will get more out of it that way.
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There just needs to be truth, no matter the intention of the page.
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What would you like to see when it comes to us writing notes? I currently don’t have anything in my notes for this class, I’ve just been writing replies on here.
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Thoughts on the prompts, on what your colleagues say… don’t worry too much right now, it’s the first night!!
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