Communication in the 21st century has been defined in many different ways over the years. It has changed tremendously over the years, yet has also stayed the same. Going through these changes has been a part of my life. This is because communication is a part of the society that I live in which means that I have to be able to adapt to my surroundings. We all communicate on different levels than others that are around us. Over the course of this semester while taking my English 101 class, my understanding of communication has not changed from my original view of communication in the 21st century. This is because I still feel that communication is purely focused on social medias despite the fact that it was not that long ago that we were writing letters and sending them in the mail to reach their destination. We cannot forget that technology is a major player in our society today because of the major advances that it has made in the way we do many different activities now. Yes, communication is mostly based upon Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter we have forgotten all about the good old days when there was no computers or websites that made communicating with people such a tedious task. Over the years, our way of communication has changed for the better and the worse. This is because now we can easily write to our loved ones just by going onto Facebook or MySpace and messaging them, yet we have become less personal with this change in technology. Overall, the way we communicate in the 21st century is still solely based upon the times that we live in.

During this semester in English 101, I have had a couple blog posts that have been my favorite. These posts are the consumer essay, rhetorical analysis of a commercial, and the photo blog on the things that we could and could not live without. All of these posts are my favorite because they paint a vivid picture of who I am as a person instead of as a student. They also show the kind of person that I am. In addition, these are the blog posts that I felt were geared more towards me expressing myself and my opinions than having to deal with a writing assignment. They are different from my least favorite posts because they are more focused on a personal level rather than an academic level. After doing so many writing assignments in other classes, it is somewhat nice when we get a break from writing about a certain subject. It is nice when we get to express ourselves on a deeper level than we ever could on a writing assignment. By expressing myself, I am able to get my thoughts in order and I am able to better focus because it is not a writing assignment. Even though, I like having structure in my writing assignments it is nice to be able to go off topic and not be penalized for it. When it comes to my least favorite posts, it would have to be the ones that were not structured. This is because I need to have structure when writing a paper. Although, I like structure this class really helped me to see that there are many different ways to create a masterpiece whether it be through small steps or unstructured steps. I am glad that I was able to learn that because I am now able to understand how other people think towards having structure. All of the blog posts that we did really helped me to see that sometimes having structure is not always the best way to write a successful paper.

After being in this class, I would have to say that I am more of a thinker. This is because when it comes to my writing I have to think it through to make sure that the topic that I have chosen is a topic that I can supply a lot of information on. It is also because I like to think deeply on anything that I am about to pursue because I like to be able to see what could or would have been before I begin. I have not always been a thinker I started being a thinker a few years ago when I learned that thinking is one of the most powerful tools that I can use in writing my papers and essays. It also helps me to see to write a paper because I am able to put my ideas into a sentence that eventually will become a piece of writing. When it comes to writing, an essay or paper thinking is my best friend and tool because it allows me to create a piece of writing that is meaningful to me. During this semester, I have become a thinker. The main reason for this is the blog posts that we have been assigned. I came to be a thinker this semester because of the blog posts that we had to write about on the website wordpress.com. It is also because while completing these blogs I had to think outside the box because at times I was not sure what was required of me in the blog post assignments. In order for me to successfully complete the blog posts, I had to make sure that my thinking was broad on each of the topics that we wrote about so that I could keep an open mind and be able to write to the best of my ability even though at times it was really hard to do just that.

If I had to define myself as a writer, I would be lying to myself. This is mainly because I am not the best writer. I have some good writing qualities but they could use some improvement. During this semester, I had to take English 102 with my English 101 class. By having to do, that tells me that my writing assessment score was probably good but not good enough to do English 101 all by itself. This is why I do not identify myself as a writer because I need to make great improvement in my writing. In the end, all I can say is that taking both the English 101 and 102 together really helped me to improve on my writing skills so that in the future I can write to the best of my ability. That is how I would describe myself as a writer.

If I had to define myself as an inventor, I would not know where to start. Being an inventor to me is someone whose is able to think outside the box and make something that was only an idea or a dream becomes a reality. Inventors are creative people, which is a word that I would use to describe myself as a person. Being creative is how new technology has made such tremendous leaps and bounds in the world around us today. The way that I identify as an inventor is in the way that I contribute my creativity to a group process. This was evident in my groups Invention Mob project in which I was able to contribute my creative drawings and ideas to the group to help the project in its success.

As a consumer, how do you decide on what to consume?  To be honest it is quite simple actually, all you have to do is think about the many different things that you buy and consume on a regular basis. These items could be shampoo and conditioner or even clothes these are the kinds of items that people all around the world consume on a regular basis. I myself am a consumer of many different things like foods of different varieties, clothes of all sorts, electronic goods, personal care goods, water, and even energy. All of these things are things that I consume on a regular basis throughout the day. Everyone in the world that we live in is a consumer of some sort. Most people consume what they see on advertisements because they are appealing to the eyes. When something is eye catching, it literally grabs your attention and makes you want it even more, which in turn leads to consumption. As for myself, I truly believe that I am just like any other person that is a consumer, which is that I am an average consumer of goods within the society that we live in today.

I can’t live without this or I wouldn’t get to talk to important people

Most Americans would tell you that they are just like any other person in the world, which is that they are an average consumer of goods on a daily basis. The understatement of the statement is that we buy things that we want instead of things we need. I know from personal experience that it is hard to choose between a want and a need. I have always been told that if it is a want, you can live without it but if it is a need then you need to get it because a need outweighs a want. Personally, I could live without the many clothes and shoes that I have as well as the Smartphone, perfumes, DVDs, and computer that take time away from my day that could be used in a more productive way. Now that I am a college student, my money is very limited. As I stated before people like to buy things because they want it which is because they see it being advertised on commercials and ad posters and if the slogan is catchy than that person is going to buy that item. That is why I enjoy shopping at Victoria’s Secret, Wal-Mart, and Old Navy. All of these stores have their own poster ads and commercials which all of some sort of catchy phrase that has grabbed my attention to the point where a lot of my money goes to these stores on a monthly basis. This is how I define myself as a consumer within this society and culture.

One of the most important questions that I have been asking myself regularly is when do I discard my possessions. It is funny because now that I am moving into a newly built house I have to figure out what I want to keep in my new room and what I do not want. This is always been a problem for me because cleaning and downsizing has never been something that I find to be fun at all. Since I have been in college, that question has haunted me at the beginning of every school year. My mother just bought a newly built house that we are going to be moving into but the problem is that I’m not home to help her pack my room up since I am in school. So with that in mind my mother has taken the liberty to do something that she has always wanted to do to my room which is get rid of clothes and shoes that don’t fit or that I just don’t wear anymore. Knowing that my mother is cleaning out my room scares me because she does not know the things that I like and the things I do not like. In the end, the clothes and shoes that she is getting rid of are going to a better cause, which is to someone that needs them more than I do. Therefore, to answer that question it really depends on the person. In my case it is more of do I still wear this a lot or do I not which ultimately decides the fate of my personal items.

As a consumer, I see that my consumption really is not in the average area for the society that I live in. I have now begun to realize that my consumption behavior needs to change. For starters, I need to make sure that the things that I am buying are things that I really need. Some examples of needs are personal care products and toiletries. These are all the personal things that I need. As for my wants, I need to make sure that they stay a want and do not become a need. Another thing that I can do is make sure that I buy cheaper clothes and shoes. I could also give my old clothes and shoes to other people that would get better use out of them then I would if they were just sitting in my closet collecting dust. The third thing that I could do is shop at the Goodwill or even at Ross. These two store are have a variety of items that are in the lower price range for is what I can afford with my college budget in mind. When I go into the Goodwill and I see an item that is at a low price I just can’t help myself because then I feel the need to by it because it is at a low price. Now when I go to Ross I see that some clothes and shoes are only $10.00 and I feel that they are cute then I feel like I need to buy them just like the Goodwill they have deals which as a college student is something that I cannot turn down. All of these things are just a few things that I could do to change my consumption behavior.

In conclusion, everyone is a consumer including myself in this world that we live in. People consume many different services and goods throughout the world. As for myself, I identify as a consumer by the many different goods and services that I buy and use on a daily basis. The things that we choose to buy are the many different things that we see on commercials and poster ads. There are many reasons as to why we buy the things that we do but the one that is at the top of the list is the fact that these commercials and poster ads all have catchy slogans that have managed to catch out attention. There are many things that I could live without in this world that is things like a Smartphone, DVDs, clothes, shoes, and electronic goods. These things take time away from my day on a daily basis that could be used in a more productive way. When knowing when to discard possessions you need to think about how often you use the item and that will determine whether or not you keep an item. To be honest while I was doing this assignment I became more aware of my consumption of goods and services that I use throughout the day. I found out that I need to change my consumption as a consumer so that I buy cheaper and give away my old clothes to others. These are all reasons as to why in the end I’m not an average consumer in this society.

Have you ever wondered how your peers view hard work and determination of accomplishing a goal that goes beyond the bare minimum of what is required of us? I have always wondered that myself because my viewpoint of what going beyond the bare minimum is different from how my peers around me view it as. Most of the time people only do what is required of them to get the minimum grade instead of doing the extra work to get the maximum grade. This led to the idea of creating a mural that would express our peers’ interpretations of hard work and success. We wanted to get our peers involved and see what their opinions of going beyond the minimum requirements meant to them. With that in mind, we also wanted our peers to feel as though they were part of the bigger picture. In doing, this my group and I were able to see how everyone views going beyond what is required of us through our peers drawings and words. Our main goal was to get our peers to think about the bare minimum but to go beyond the minimum in which they depicted through a future career, self-improvements, or even long-term goals on stars by words or drawings.

When we first began the project, we wanted to make a mural but then concluded that it would be hard to get enough participants and a big enough area for the mural. We then decided to put our idea onto a huge construction paper. The only problem that we ran into during the project was telling people what to draw. Which is why “Shooting for the Stars” soon become our theme for our invention mob. We than began the process of starting our invention mob.

The process began with getting the materials. We were able to obtain a huge piece of butcher paper for the background of our theme. After that, we each had cut out ten stars from stock paper that our peers would draw or write their interpretation. In light of the assignment, we were only required to have twenty stars but seeing as though our theme was going beyond the bare minimum, we figured that it would be beneficial to go along with our theme.

In order of us to be successful at accomplishing our goals, we needed to use rhetoric, materials, and methods. This was our main method in getting our peers to volunteer and contribute to our project. We persuaded our peers by telling them that their star would be anonymous and that it did not matter whether or not they could draw because no one would know which star was theirs in the first place. To get our peers to participate we each went around our own dorms and asked them some of them were people that we knew and some were those that we did not know. This task was easy for me since I am a very sociable and outgoing individual. Being social helped me to talk to my peers and ask them for their help in contributing to my group’s project. The only problem that I had was not getting the stars back in a timely manner. Other than that, I had no other problems. I was able to collect all of my stars and contribute them to the group along with everyone else’s contributions. After compiling them all together we came up with twenty-five stars as a group. The most important step in making this entire project come to life was our use of rhetoric. Our entire project relied solely upon persuading our peers to contribute. Along with the others in my group I to also had issues with getting my peers to volunteer for my group’s project. My peers were either too busy or they said that they could not draw or did not know what to draw in the first place.

Pursuing this plan was the best choice that my group members and I came to an agreement. Our group had come up with other plans that were similar to one another. We decided that each group member would collect drawings that were all separate so that in case someone had an inappropriate drawing we could then replace it with another from one of our group members. This helped to keep our peers drawings based upon their own opinion of what hard work and success looks like to them. Instead of having, them go off of a mural, which would only base their opinion on what they see on the mural. In going along with our theme we did go above what was required of us as a group because we were able to put together a beautiful masterpiece of all the stars that we had collected from our peers which was more than what was required of us.

During this project, I was able to improve on my writing skills. One of the writing skills that I was able to use was knowing my audience. This project helped me to improve on my writing skills especially in knowing my audience. I say this because now I am able to determine which words to use for certain audiences. Even though I did not directly use this writing skill, I still feel that in doing our presentations that I was able to improve on this by discerning what to say to the class as a whole. I would have benefited greatly from actually doing the writing process of our project instead of doing the presentation part. This is because my writing skills would have improved greatly.  My thoughts towards writing have changed since I have done this project. In the beginning, my mindset was stuck on the fact that I did not like to write at all but after doing the project my mindset changed to maybe writing is not so bad after all. I have learned that writing can be a way for me to express myself in words on paper or it can also be in pictures as well. I know look at writing as a way to express how I am feeling.

Many people and objects helped contribute to our project’s success. Our group consisted of Michael, Marisa, Amber, and me. We each contributed to the success by making sure that we each knew what our role in the project was. We were actors along with the other twenty-five participants that also contributed to the group’s success. WordPress.com, laptops, cameras, cut out stars, butcher paper, crayons, and markers were all a part of helping to accomplish our task of depicting what it means to go beyond the bare minimum of what is required of us. All of these objects really helped to create a beautiful masterpiece that is “Shooting for the Stars” our invention mob.

In conclusion, I feel that by doing this invention mob that I was able to get to know those in my group as well as those who contributed. My group really did go beyond the minimum for this project. By doing this theme, we were able to see how our peers view hard work and determination towards accomplishing a goal. This is because we mostly only think of doing just the bare minimum instead of going beyond and getting a better grade for it. Our goal to get our peers to volunteer had been accomplished because of the twenty-five stars that we collected which shows our peers interpretations of hard work and determination of accomplishing a goal. After talking it over we were able to come up with the theme “Shooting for the Stars” which helped to determine what materials we needed to collect. We collected a huge piece of butcher paper as well as stock paper, which we used to cut out our stars that we gave to out participants to draw on. By using rhetoric as a means of persuasion, we were able to get twenty-five peers to contribute. This plan was the best for our group because we were able to create a piece of artwork that reflected our peers’ views of shooting for the stars. I was also able to improve on my writing skills in regards to knowing my audience. After doing the project my thoughts have changed in regards to writing because I know see writing as a way of expressing myself. Michael, Marisa, and Amber all helped to make this project become a reality instead of an idea. The twenty-five participants also helped us tremendously as well. By using cameras, computers, WordPress.com, and coloring materials we were able to put together a piece of art work that depicts our views along with our peers views of what shooting for the stars really means to them and us. This project has really taught me a lot about my peers and myself. In the end, shooting for the stars means going beyond what is truly required of us as students instead of only doing the bare minimum and receiving the average grade that comes along with doing the bare minimum.

Out of all the essays that I have done for my English Portfolio I feel that my Research Essay needs to be revised. This is because I feel that it is basically just a boring research paper that needs to be spiced up. It needs some improvements that I can easily make to it so that it is unique. Some of these revisions are:

1. Read it over and make sure it makes sense.

2. Look to see if it is organized.

3. Make sure that I am staying on topic and not going off on a tangent.

4. See if there is any redundancy in my paragraphs and sentences.

5. The last thing that I need to do is proofreading to see if I have any grammatical errors that I need to change.

These are a few things that I can do to my research essay to make sure that it is at the level that I want it to be.

Communication in the 21st century has been defined in many different ways over the years. It has changed tremendously over the years, yet has also stayed the same. Going through these changes has been a part of my life. This is because communication is apart of the society that I live in which means that I have to be able to adapt to my surroundings. We all communicate on different levels than others that are around us. Over the course of this semester while taking my English 101 class my understanding of communication has not changed from my original view of communication in the 21st century. This is because I still feel that communication is purely focused on social medias despite the fact that it wasn’t that long ago that we were writing letters and sending them in the mail to reach there destination. We cannot forget that technology is a major player in our society today because of the major advances that it has made in the way we do many different activities now. Yes, communication is mostly based upon Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter we have forgotten all about the good old days when there was no computers or websites that made communicating with people such a tedious task. Over the years our way of communication has changed for the better and the worse. This is because now we can easily write to our loved ones just by going onto Facebook or MySpace and messaging them, yet we have become less personal with this change in technology. Overall, the way we communicate in the 21st century is still solely based upon the times that we live in.

During this semester in English 101 I have had a couple blog posts that have been my favorite. These posts are the consumer essay, rhetorical analysis of a commercial, and the photo blog on the things that we could and could not live without. All of these posts are my favorite because they paint a vivid picture of who I am as a person instead of as a student. They also show the kind of person that I am. Plus, these are the blog posts that I felt were geared more towards me expressing myself and my opinions than having to deal with a writing assignment. They are different from my least favorite posts because they are more focused on a personal level rather than an academic level. After doing so many writing assignments in other classes it is kind of nice when we get a break from writing about a certain subject. It is nice when we get to express ourselves on a deeper level than we ever could on a writing assignment. By expressing myself I am able to get my thoughts in order and I am able to better focus because it is not a writing assignment. Even though, I like having structure in my writing assignments it is nice to be able to go off topic and not get penalized for it. When it comes to my least favorite posts it would have to be the ones that were not structured. This is because I need to have structure in order to successfully write a paper. Although, I like structure this class really helped me to see that there are many different ways to create a masterpiece whether it be through small steps or unstructured steps. I am really glad that I was able to learn that  because I am now able to understand how other people think towards having structure. All of the blog posts that we did really helped me to see that sometimes having structure isn’t always the best way to write a successful paper.

After being in this class I would have to say that I am more of a thinker. This is because when it come to my writing I have to think it through to make sure that the topic that I have chosen is a topic that I can supply a lot of information on. It is also because I like to think deeply on anything that I am about to pursue because I like to be able to see what could or would have been before I begin. I have not always been a thinker I started being a thinker a few years ago when  I learned that thinking is one of the most powerful tools that I could use because it helps me to determine what was right and what was wrong. It also helps me to see to write a paper because I am able to put my ideas into a sentence that eventually will become a piece of writing. When it comes to writing an essay or a paper thinking is my best friend and tool because it allows me to create a piece of writing that is meaningful to me. During this semester I have become a thinker. The main reason for this is the blog posts that we have been assigned. I came to be a thinker this semester because of the blog posts that we had to write about on the website wordpress.com. It is also because while completing these blogs I had to think outside the box because at times I wasn’t quite sure what was required of me in the blog post assignments. In order for me to successfully complete the blog posts i had to make sure that my thinking was broad on each of the topics that we wrote about so that I could keep an open mind and be able to write to the best of my ability even though at times it was really hard to do just that.

If I had to define myself as a writer I would be lying to myself. This is mainly because I am not the best writer. I have some good writing qualities but they could use some improvement. During this semester I had to take English 102 with my English 101 class. By having to do that tells me that my writing assessment score was probably good but not good enough to do English 101 all by itself. In the end, all I can say is that taking both the English 101 and 102 together really helped me to improve on my writing skills so that in the future I can write to the best of my ability. That is basically how I would describe myself as a writer.

If I had to define myself as an inventor, I wouldn’t know where to start. Being an inventor to me is someone whose is able to think outside the box and make something that was only an idea or a dream become a reality. Inventors are people that are creative which is a word that I would use to describe myself as a person. Being creative is how new technology has made such tremendous  leaps and bounds in the world around us today. The way that I identify as an inventor is in the way that I contribute my creativity to a group process. This was evident in my groups Invention Mob project in which I was able to contribute my creative drawings and ideas to the group to help the project in its success.

Have you ever wondered if bullying leads to behavior issues in adulthood? I have because I have personally seen what bullying can do to a person. This I why I care so much about the topic of bullying because I feel that we need to stop the vicous cycle from continuing and created lasting behavior issues that can go into adulthood. Having a little background on the subject is why I wanted to focus on this topic. Bullying is something that I really dislike because it is something that is happening in our schools around the world. The increasing number of children that are getting bullied has risen over the years. About 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year. The part that catches my attention is the fact that people who bully really dont take into consideration their actions and how they effect the victim that they are bullying in the long term. About 75% of school-shootings are linked to harasement and bullying. I was able to find out that both males and females can be both victims and offenders in regards to bullying. Helenius, Helstela, Piha, and Sourander did a study that showed that 15% of boys and 7% of girls were bullies and about 12% of girls and 13% of boys were victims of bullying (pg 873-881). As you can see both sexes can be both a victim and an offender. It is important for us to really understand bullying so that we can prevent any further harm from being done to others. Bullying of any kind has lasting effects that can lead to behavior issues all the way into adulthood. 

To begin with, let me give a brief description of the many different types of bullying that their are. One type is called cyberbullying. This kind of bullying is done through the internet and websites such as Facebook and Myspace in the form of threatening messages. About 43% of children have been bullied online. The statistics show that 1 in 4 kids are are cyberbullied more than once. Second type is verbal bullying. When someone is called names or threatened to make themselves feel bad is considered to be verbal bullying. It can lead to self image issues as well as self-esteem issues. Suicide is also a common outcome from verbal bullying. Third type is physical bullying. This type of bullying leaves scares that can last forever as well as lead to emotional damage. These scares are physical ones that can be seen on a victim but they are too afraid to say something about it for fear the bullying will only get worse. It can also sometimes borderline sexual assault.  A fourth type of bullying is indirect. Spreading rumors can lead to a person’s reputation being ruined even if it is not true which is what indirect bullying is really all about. This can leave emotional scares for the victim. Another type is called intimidation. Bullying of this kind is based upon installing a sense of fear into someone whether it be from fear of harm or injury. Statistics show that 160,000 children skip school because they are afraid that they might get intimidated by someone at school. Finally there is social alienation. This kind of bullying is based upon leaving someone out of games and deliberately ignoring them by making them feel as though they are an outsider. These are the just a few different types of bullying that can occur in schools around the world today but bullying has many different forms.

Second of all, are the many different types of behavior issues that come along with bullying hat can go into adulthood.Bullying as been associated with emotional and behavioral problems in many different studies. It has been said that bullying is linked to anti-social behavior along with violence and delinquency in adulthood. Bender and Losel  both agree with me that there is a relationship between school bullying and long-term criminal behavior in to adulthood (pg 99-106). It helps to make the statement that criminal activity can stem from being bullied in a person’s childhood. This just goes to show that bullying is a real issue that can lead to many different types of behavior issues in adulthood.  Bender and Losel believe that criminology research and school bullying should be considered together because they seem to be linked together based on their study (pg 99-106). Another reason for this delinquent behavior may be a result of verbal bullying. Those that are verbally bullied have been known to get a temper quicker than those who have not been bullied. Knowing this makes the notion that verbal bullying can cause a person to become aggressive which in turn can lead to violent or delinquent behavior.

On the other hand, some say that bullying may be a good thing and that it doesn’t have any links to behavior issues in adulthood. Have we as a society really underestimated the abilities of bullies? This was the case for Sutton, Smith, and Swettenham they believe that bullying is good for cognitive and social skills. I found it very interesting that one of the articles that I found went in a totally different path compared to my thoughts on bullying in regards to behavioral issues. Sutton, Smith, and Swettenham took a stand in saying that bullying does help bullies to obtain better cognitive and social skills. They believe that bullying is a means of manipulation as well as a way of understanding the minds of other people. This notion would lead a person to think that bullying is a good thing for children to endure during their school years. To me I found this statement to be crazy because they are promoting bullying instead of stopping bullying. This causes me to think that these people have not really done a good job of doing their research on bullying and the effects that is has on an individual. Sutton, Smith, and Swettenham wanted to challenge the minds of people who view bullying as a stereotype and challenge them to think that these bullies know exactly what they are doing and are gaining a better understanding of individuals (pg 117-127).  The perspective that they are trying to change is that people have underestimated bullies abilities to see a social situation from a different perspective.  After reading this article I was able to see where they were coming from.

Finally, are some ways that we can prevent behavioral issues in adulthood that stem from bullying. In our society bullying has become so severe that children begin to skip school for fear that they might end up getting bullying. This is the kind of fear that a child should never have to endure ever in their lifetime. Our schools need to hold classes that educate its students on the lasting effects of bullying. We also need to take a stronger action in regards to those that do bully so that they can really see that what they are doing does have an effect on another’s future. Along with the premeasures that our schools take we also need to make sure that our communities are also getting educated as well. This is because when they see bullying happening within the community they are able to handle it in a respectful manner. They also need to make sure that criminology is also talked about with bullying so that people can really begin to understand how these two are linked with one another. I feel that if they were to do this that some of our criminal offenses would decrease in regards to the ones the stem from bullying. When schools have programs that are geared towards stopping bullying they don’t take into account to even consider crime prevention along with child and family oriented programs. If schools would do this we would probably see a decline in criminal activity that stems from bullying. If this world is going to start to even take a stand we are all going to have to start with baby steps. With the being said we are all going to need to be willing to make sure that we ourselves aren’t doing the bullying. When it comes to the subject of bullying people tend to want to shy away from the topic because it is something that our culture has become immune to over the years. In order for us to break the vicious cycle we are all going to need to do our own part to help stop bullying no matter what form it may come in.

In conclusion, you can see that bullying really is linked to behavior issues in adulthood. In doing my research on this topic I was able to see how bullying can lead to behavior issues into adulthood. By understanding the different types of bullying we can begin to see what kinds of effects they can produce. There are six main types of bullying that occur in this world. These six types are cyberbullying, verbal bullying, physical bullying, indirect bullying, intimidation,  and social alienation. These are only a few different types of bullying that occur in schools around the world. All of these types of bullying each have an effect on a persons life in some shape or form.  There are many different types of behaviors that are associated with bullying. Some of these behaviors are anti-social, violence, and delinquency. Bullying has been known to be linked with emotional and behavioral problems. There was a study that was done that proved that there was a link between bullying and criminal activity in adulthood. Bender and Losel both believed that bullying created violent, delinquent, and anti-social behavior that went all the way into a person’s adulthood. This was the result of a study they conducted.  There are some that believe that bullies are severely underestimated. This was the case for Sutton, Smith, and Swettenham. They believed that bullying was a good way of developing better cognitive and social skills. This is because they thought about it as though bullying was a way of manipulating and understanding another person. You could see that they are trying to get people to think outside of the box rather than inside the box.  This kind of thinking is going to be hard because our society has always been accoustom to over the years and this kind of thinking is going to take some time to before any kind of change can occur. To prevent children from having behavior issues later on in their adulthood we need to take firm action and stand against bullying. We need to educate our children on what it really means to be a bully. This can be done by making sure that our children go to seminars that are based upon bullying so that they can be more aware of how serious bullying really is. The more we surround or children with awareness of bullying the more they will become educated on the matter and prevent it from happening to anyone else around them. In order for this to happen we need to make sure that our communities are all educated as well on the subject of bullying. In the end, bullying can really cause a huge amount of personal issues that can cause a tremendous amount of behavior issues that can go all the way into adulthood.

     Have you ever wondered how your peers view hard work and determination of accomplishing a goal that goes beyond the bare minimum of what is required of us? I have always wondered that myself because my viewpoint of what going beyond the bare minimum is different from how my peers around me view it as. Most of the time people only do what is required of them to get the minimum grade instead of doing the extra work to get the maximum grade. This led to the idea of creating a mural that would express our peers’ interpretations of hard work and success. We wanted to get our peers involved and see what their opinions of going beyond the minimum requirements meant to them. With that in mind, we also wanted our peers to feel as though they were part of the bigger picture. By doing, this my group and I were able to see how everyone views going beyond what is required of us through our peers drawings and words. Our main goal was to get our peers to not do the bare minimum but to go beyond the minimum in which they depicted through a future career, self-improvements, or even long-term goals on stars by words or drawings.

          When we first began the project, we wanted to make a mural but then concluded that it would be hard to get enough participants and a big enough area for the mural. We then decided to put our idea onto a huge construction paper. The only problem that we ran into during the project was telling people what to draw. Which is why “Shooting for the Stars” soon become our theme for our invention mob. We than began the process of starting our invention mob.   

      The process began with getting the materials. We were able to obtain a huge piece of butcher paper for the background of our theme. After that, we each had cut out ten stars from stock paper that our peers would draw or write their interpretation on. In light of the assignment, we were only required to have twenty stars but seeing as though our theme was going beyond the bare minimum, we figured that it would be beneficial to go along with our theme.

          In order of us to be successful at accomplishing our goals, we needed to use rhetoric, materials, and methods. This is was one of our main methods that were used to get our peers to volunteer and contribute to our project. We persuaded our peers by telling them that their star would be anonymous and that it did not matter whether or not they could draw because no one would know which star was theirs in the first place. To get our peers to participate we each went around our own dorms and asked them some of them were people that we knew and some were those that we did not know. This task was easy for me since I am a very sociable and outgoing individual. Being social helped me to talk to my peers and ask them for their help in contributing to my group’s project. The only problem that I had was not getting the stars back in a timely manner. Other than that, I had no other problems. I was able to collect all of my stars and contribute them to the group along with everyone else’s contributions. After compiling them all together we came up with twenty-five stars as a group. The most important step in making this entire project come to life was our use of rhetoric. Our entire project relied solely upon persuading our peers to contribute. Along with the others in my group I to also had issues with getting my peers to volunteer for my group’s project. My peers were either too busy or they said that they could not draw or did not know what to draw in the first place.

          Pursuing this plan was the best choice that my group members and I came to an agreement on. Our group had come up with other plans that were similar to one another. We decided that each group member would collect drawings that were all separate so that in case someone had an inappropriate drawing we could then replace it with another from one of our group members. This helped to keep our peers drawings based upon their own opinion of what hard work and success looks like to them. Instead of having them go off of a mural, which would only base their opinion on what they see on the mural. In going along with our theme we did go above what was required of us as a group because we were able to put together a beautiful masterpiece of all the stars that we had collected from our peers which was more than what was required of us.

          During this project, I was able to improve on my writing skills. One of the writing skills that I was able to use was knowing my audience. This project helped me to improve on my writing skills especially in knowing my audience. I say this because now I am able to determine which words to use for certain audiences. Even though I did not directly use this writing skill, I still feel that in doing our presentations that I was able to improve on this by discerning what to say to the class as a whole. I would have benefited greatly from actually doing the writing process of our project instead of doing the presentation part. This is because my writing skills would have improved greatly.  My thoughts towards writing have changed since I have done this project. In the beginning, my mindset was stuck on the fact that I did not like to write at all but after doing the project my mindset changed to maybe writing is not so bad after all. I have learned that writing can be a way for me to express myself in words on paper or it can also be in pictures as well. I know look at writing as a way to express how I am feeling.         

          Many people and objects helped contribute to our project’s success. Our group consisted of Michael, Marisa, Amber, and me. We each contributed to the success by making sure that we each knew what our role in the project was. We were actors along with the other twenty-five participants that also contributed to the group’s success. WordPress.com, laptops, cameras, cut out stars, butcher paper, crayons, and markers were all a part of helping to accomplish our task of depicting what it means to go beyond the bare minimum of what is required of us. All of these objects really helped to create a beautiful masterpiece that is now known as “Shooting for the Stars”.

          In conclusion, I feel that by doing this invention mob that I was able to get to know those in my group as well as those who contributed. My group really did go above and beyond the minimum for this project. By doing this theme, we were able to see how our peers view hard work and determination towards accomplishing a goal. This is because we mostly only think of doing just the bare minimum instead of going beyond and getting a better grade for it. Our goal was accomplished because of the twenty-five stars that we collected which shows our peers interpretations of hard work and determination of accomplishing a goal. After talking it over we were able to come up with the theme “Shooting for the Stars” which helped to determine what materials we needed to collect. We collected a huge piece of butcher paper as well as stock paper, which we used to cut out our stars that we gave to out participants to draw on. By using rhetoric as a means of persuasion, we were able to get twenty-five peers to contribute. This plan was the best for our group because we were able to create a piece of artwork that reflected our peers’ views of shooting for the stars. I was also able to improve on my writing skills in regards to knowing my audience. After doing the project my thoughts have changed in regards to writing because I know see writing as a way of expressing myself. Michael, Marisa, and Amber all helped to make this project become a reality instead of an idea. The twenty-five participants also helped us tremendously as well. By using cameras, computers, wordpress.com, and coloring materials we were able to put together a piece of art work that depicts our views along with our peers views of what shooting for the stars really means to them and us. This project has really taught me a lot about my peers and myself. In the end, shooting for the stars means going beyond what is truly required of us as students instead of only doing the bare minimum and receiving the average grade that comes along with doing the bare minimum.