#11 It's The Final Countdown

Daaaaaa da da da da da da daaaaaaa the finaaalll countdowwwn! 

Can you believe it friends! The semester is coming to an end already and this is our last blog. I can hardly even wrap my brain around that. I mean I feel as if we literally just started this class and were assigned blogs. Where has all the time gone?! I swear the older I become the faster time just flies by. I honestly dreaded taking this class before the semester started thinking it was going to be like every other class that the extent of writing is only academic research papers but I could not have been more wrong. I am so so so happy I received a 8 on the WPA and was able to take this awesome course. I honestly have enjoyed being able to write in so many different genres. This semester was a lot about writing in a way that we can express ourselves. As students we are always asked to write about what other people think and this class we actually go to write about our own view and way of thinking. I found that really liberating. I feel like I have become a better writer because of it. I used to hate writing before this class and now I am considering one day that I want to write my own novel!! Woo!

As crazy as this sounds to me (because at the beginning of the semester upon hearing we had to write blogs my stomach dropped), I have really grown to LOVE doing these blogs. I think they are just so so fun. It is nice to just talk in a tone that is my normal voice! Happy and cheerful! I mean in academic writings you cannot use this many exclamation points!!!!!!!! Pure excitement is portrayed haha. I also like how you can personalize the look of your blog. The way people personalize them gives insight into the way they are like. I am highly considering starting up my own blog when this class is over. Who knows what I will write about and I can guarantee no one would read it. But hey it is kind of like journaling in a sense where you get all your ideas on "paper" and just have fun with it. I love being able to upload pictures, memes, gifs, etc. It gives it a nice personal and real touch to the blog. Sad this will be our last blog of the semester but I have a feeling it will not be my last blog I will ever write. I am considering rewriting one of my journals into a blog post! Whoop Whoop! Thank you for everyone who has read my blogs at one time or another. It has been such great fun reading everyone’s as well. Much love to all of you. 

via GIPHY
Um and you all should what Younger on TV land this adorble man is in it and its a great show!
Xoxo,
Allison Starr

#10 My Ethnography Paper?..Maybe

Hi y'all! 
I hope everyones weekend was fabulous. I literally just copied and pasted the questions from Professor Flewelling's Blog and will be answering my questions that way. I thought it would be the most organized and easy to write! I am not entirely sure what I really want to write about, but I have been thinking about my job. So here we go. 

1. What discourse community/community of practice do you want to research? 
- My Job @ the Delight of France Bakery. 


2.Why? What is it about this community that interests you? 
-I am writing and interested about this community because I think it will be easier to do since I am actually apart of this group and know the people to interview in this group. 

3.What do you already know about this community? 
I know the hard work that goes into this job, the specific lexis and the different ways of communication.  


4.Where are you headed? What will you research? 
-I honestly have zero idea. I am still confused on what I am doing. I will have to talk this over with the professor of sure. 

5. How do you want to approach this paper? What do you want to learn about the communicative practice? 
-Still have no idea. I guess I want to learn how to balance all the tables you have at once, keeping everyone happy, and making the time to make sure everything that is asked of you is being done in an efficient  time frame. 

6. How are these communicative practices acquired? (Swales, Johns, Gee, Wardle)
-Without doing the actual research I think to answer my question above is probably just a lot of practice and time. Like anything you cannot get good at something over night!

7. What does it take for members to enculturate themselves? (Johns, Gee, Wardle, Mirabelli)
-Learning the ins and outs of the restaurant and who is in charge. 

8. What literacies to members need to acquire? (Mirabelli)
-The menu and how to write quest checks. 

9. What is this community's "way of being" (Johns, Gee, Wardle)
-Ummm being able to work together? Assigning people to certain tasks depending on their strengths.


10. What does it cost to take on this community? (Wardle, Johns)
-I would say you health takes a hit because you are constantly standing and running around. My feet and back hurt after every shift. Also it sometimes can mess with your mental state when costumers are treating you poorly. 

11. What values are reinforced by this community? (Devitt, Wardle, Johns)
-Putting anther person first before yourself. Always having an upbeat and happy attitude  regardless of the circumstances. Being able to multitask and really reading people. 

12. How do readers need to see themselves? How do they need to consider authorities? How do they need to align themselves? (Wardle)
-I have no idea what those questions mean?? Um see themselves as servers? Need to consider their bosses, managers or who ever is in charge at the time they are working? I have no idea how they need to align themselves :'(  (I clearly will suck at this paper)


13. Who will you interview? What can you observe? 
-I am thinking of interviewing my previous manger Marc. He has a lot of experience as a server and as a boss. I can observe the restaurant I work at and the ways of the work place from an outsider perspective. 

Well it is very clear I am still confused about this paper and need some help haha. Lets hope the mini interviews with Prof Erin will clear some things up. See y'all tomorrow! 

Xoxo,
Allison Starr 

#8 Learning to Serve

One second you are crusing the next second you want to cry! 

Happens. Every. Single. Day. 

Why didn't you tell me sooner you didn't like it?

Hellooo y'all! 

Back to blogging again. I mean hey we are almost done with it which is crazy. The funny thing is, I have come to really enjoy it. It has been fun to just write freely. It is so much easier for me to get my ideas out. There is no pressure to be perfect and there is not particular format. You can do what you wanna do!

Anywaysss. 

The reading. 

Wellllll for starters, I felt almost enraged reading the beginning comment that man posted on the bitterwaitress website. I thought he just sounded absolutely arrogant. 

Who is he to define the skills of a waiter or waitress? 

Has he ever done it before? 

-my guess is no or he would know what the job actually entails and would not make such assumptions. 

What are his REAL contributions to society?

 -is he on his way to find the cure for cancer...? Probably not. If so, he would spend more time investing in that than taking the time to respond on this site. Which he clearly has nothing better to do with his time than to bring people down. 

What makes him better than every waiter or waitress? 

-?! beats me. 

From experience this is true.   

Who is he to define what marketable skills are and if waiters or waitress do not have any??

The women's response to him is wonderful and I felt a lot better afterward. Being a waitress, I have learned so so much that cannot be taught in a school. There are actually A LOT of factors that go into being an amazing server and it does take more than just "mindless work". It does provoke problem solving skills and more important communication skills. 

Mhm..pretty much.

As mentioned in the article, the menu for a waiter or waitress is like their bible. They must study and know every aspect of the menu. We are constantly being asked specific questions about the menu and must know them off the top of our heads. 

How strange...in school aren't we required to learn new material and then get tested on it in order to make sure we are knowledgable on the subject? Yeaaaaah. Waiters and waitresses do the same. As a student do you feel like studying is "mindless" work? Nope.  I do not think so. Defiantly have to have your mind all there haha. 

Or is it mindless work for waiters and waitress to be able to communicate with their customers? I know when I am serving I am constantly trying to think of little conversations to start up in order to make sure the customer knows that I think about them more than just a tip. 

Another thing that I saw is that is just not true is serving "involves routine and repetitive tasks". Sure we are working at the same place and it's the same menu etc routine and repetitive. Butttt in reality you cannot really get a "routine" or have "repetitive tasks". Every time you serve, it is different. There are different customers, there could be a huge rush and its super busy or there is not many people at all. To me at least their was nothing ever routine or repetitive about it. I was always having to adapt to new situations and people. You meet tons of people the good, mean, and the wonderful! Having to adapt to rude customers is a skill that servers know all too well. 

Next time you go out please remember most servers are just trying to do their jobs. They are trying the best they can! 

Xoxo,
Allison Starr

#7 Mushfake

My Students!
(some future Aztecs in there)

Co-Workers 

My Mini Minion 

Here are some pictures of my students as well as last years halloween! We held a big party of the students and their parents at the school site. Which these pictures are very fitting since it is currently October!! yaaaaaaayyyyyy. We all had a blast!

Last year while working at the bakery, I applied for a job at the YMCA. The position I applied for was to be a Youth Leader for the after school program. I knew I wanted to be a teacher and I thought this job would be an amazing opportunity for me. I knew this job would be difficult but I wanted to take on the challenge. So after my college classes Monday-Friday I spent my time working with my students. The most tiring job i ever had.

Let me tell you...I was MAJOR mushfake at first. I had zero zero zerooo idea what the hell I was doing. I had some tools to help me on my first day. Like the lanyard you see in the picture with the yellow cards. Those cards had some attention getters, games, and songs. But I only knew a few.

The first day on the job they put me with 15 students all by myself. I was absolutely terrified. Although all of the youth leaders had a schedule to follow, I still was confused on what to even do. There was craft time...I did not have a craft set up. There was something called a co-op game but I had zero idea what that was at the time. So instead, my first day consisted of getting the students in a circle and doing an ice breaker to get to know them. I know they saw right past me and knew I was scared out of my mind. I did try my best to fake it but this job had a lot of responsibility. I have babysat 4 kids at one time and that was tough. 15 all to myself was just crazy. I did head counts every 5 minutes!! I was constantly terrified I would lose one of them.

As the weeks progressed, I started to become less of a mushfake and more of a real Youth Leader. I learned every song, knew all the co-op games, and attention getters while even making some up on my own. The attention getter I used all the time was "When I say Hey!, you say Ms. Allie". The kiddos loved that one. Out of all the youth leaders at the school I worked at, I was the one who sang the most. My kids and I were constantly singing and dancing. We had a lot of fun.

My students and I really started to bond as the school year went by. I started to become majorly attached to them. I felt like they were more than just my students but like my family. When a student was sad and upset it just broke my heart to see. Most of my students would come up to me and thank me for being their role model. I would just want to cry tears of joy when they would say that to me. The more my students and I bonded , the better and better I got at my job.

I mean we had some challenging days but overall great times. I found my identity kit.
 Unfortunately, this job was really difficult to balance with school so I had to say goodbye. I think about my students often and find myself missing them.

So yes I was a mushfake...but somewhere along the line I became real. I took on the identity as a youth leader and ran with it.

Xoxo,
Allison Starr

#6 Adjusting to SDSU

Hiii everyone!

I hope everyone had a splendid weekend. I do not know about you but I most certainly love love love October. I feel like carving pumpkins so badly and going to the pumpkin patch. These were the pumpkins my boyfriend and I carved last year. So much fun but man my hand was sore after! I just wish San Diego had more of the seasons. It has been so dang hot lately. All I really want to do is bundle up in a cosy blanket with a cup of coffee and read a book. I want to see the leaves of all different colors fall down and take one of those classic pictures just laying in the leaves...a girl can dream.
SO anyyyyywaayyyy so so so dang off topic but just thought I would share the thoughts that were bouncing in my head.

On that note....adjusting to SDSU.

Well like what we read in Ann John's article, there is what she calls a cost of affiliation when a student becomes apart of an academic discourse community. Saying that in order for a student to fully succeed and become a thriving member of an academic discourse community, one must make family life less significant.

I do see the point in what John is saying but in my own experiences, I still have the same relationship with family since I started going to grade school. Maybe because I technically never really had that "college experience" staying in the dorms away from my parents where I really had no choice but to distance myself from them. Been living with them all 21 years. Even with attending community college and now SDSU, being apart of this academic discourse community my family and I are still connected.

I first started college at Palomar in San Marcos. Although Palomar is a much smaller campus, and does not have all the amenities a university like SDSU has to offer, academically I feel like it is the exact same. I thought coming into this university that classes would be significantly harder than my community college. But you know what it really is not. School is school. College is college. So adjusting to SDSU academically I have not been having a problem. But socially...that has taken some adjusting.

Map of Palomar
(much much much smaller)

I spent 3 years at Palomar. I got used to the campus, knew my way around and I knew people from all the classes I have taken. I saw familiar faces everywhere. It made me feel like I had a sense of belonging. My first day at SDSU it was so strange not to see one familiar face. I did not have that comfort in feeling like I belonged. Although as the day went on I felt less nervous, I still did not know anyone.

As the weeks are continuing to progress, I am starting to recognize faces around campus and people that are in my class. It is nice to get a friendly smile and wave! I see Sam and Jules (from our class) around campus and it makes me happy! Plus I have been making some friends I eat lunch with like Ensephany and Joel (also from our class) and some other gals from my classes.

So I am not sure where I am really going with this but over all academically I think I am adjusting to SDSU just fine. Palomar really prepared me to transfer to a university and I am so grateful for that. My family is still a huge part of my life and I think no matter what discourse community I join, I will always want them around to share it with me.

S/O to my new friends and people who smile and wave at me! It makes me feel happy!

Xoxo,
Allison Starr

#5 My Discourse Community

        Helllllooooooo everyone! It feels like it has been a while since we have written a blog. I have to get my groove back again. Anyway, I did not attempt to read John Swales expert nor did I look at it in fear of it being like Ms. Devitt's lovely article...ha. So what we talked about in class is how I will be writing  this. I still do not fully understand what a discourse community is. Maybe there is a discourse community in understanding discourse communities! Well sorry is my analysis is way off. 

My Discourse Community
(not all who I work with, just some)

For an example of what I think is a discourse community, I am using one that applies to my life. For those of you who have read some of my previous blogs you all know, I work at A Delight Of France Bakery. We not only sale baked goodies but also breakfast and lunch 7 days a week. As well as Friday night dinners only from April to end of September.

From what we discussed in class, a discourse community has 6 major characteristics. I will explain why working at the bakery, we are apart of a discourse community.These 6 definitions are taken directly from Professor Flewelling's powerpoint. 

#1: A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.
At the bakery, we are constantly talking about common goals and expectations that should be met as a staff. The owner of the bakery, is constantly telling us that customer service is our number one goal over everything else. She is always telling us to interact with customers and ask them about their day. Her famous line that we have all heard time and time again is, "Our food can taste mediocre but if our customer service is amazing, I guarantee people will come back". The bakery really does have great food, but I have to admit, as a team all of us are super great at customer service and take that goal very seriously.

#2: A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
The bakery is an old building with older technology. So while working, the main form of communication we use among each other are what is called a "guest check". Workers who are writing the ticket must write legibly or else the cooks will get confused leaving the possibility of an order being messed up.

#3: A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.
I am not entirely sure what this means...but as a team, when going up to customers and interacting with them, we are constantly asking how did everything taste? what was your favorite part of the meal? are you coming back again? So as employees are are constantly looking for feedback on how we can do better or praising the people who were complimented. Also, on the bakery website there a place to contact the owners! So if one does want to write a review our owner can be contacted.

#4: A discourse community utilizes and hence posses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.
A genre that was just discussed previously is writing those guest tickets. Other genres that we use to further communicate our goals of great customer service is social media! The bakery has its own Instagram account. Follow @adelightoffrance. Our Instagram account is there for the customers! It tells customers if we are having any special promotions or a new pastry on the menu. The account shows that the bakery has more to offer then just breakfast, lunch, and pastry's! The bakery also does wholesale and catering. There is also a bakery website customers can access as well.

#5: In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.
As discussed in another blog I talked about the kind of language we use to write our guest checks. In order to be fast and efficient, we use abbreviations. Only the workers and the cooks know what we mean. The previous examples I used were Mex. M XX(nay nay) or CR b.fast (bac). Those stand for Mexican Mocha no whip cream and Croissant Breakfast Sandwich with bacon.

#6: A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise.
The workers I have in my discourse community all must of had at the very least customer service experience with the ability  to adapt and learn quickly to the fast pace food business.

Well that is all I got folks! So I hope my analysis was okay on my discourse community. I hope everyone has a good day. See you all tomorrow.

Xoxo,
Allison Starr

#4: 3 and 3

Quick tangant from our assignment: 

Me this morning.
via GIPHY

My parents left for a vacation to Europe this morning without me. Sad morning as I said goodbye to them at 3:30am!!!! Which by the way I could not go back to sleep which was highly frustrating. So I got 3 hours of sleep. While laying awake after they left I was thinking to myself well shoot, here I am trying to better my future by getting an education (which is a good thing) but I missed an amazing opportunity to travel and see the world. Soooo on that note, take into consideration I am very sleepy so I apologize in advance if this blog totally blows. 

Any who...when I first opened the link to our optional readings I noticed right away a lot of the readings had to do with politics. I am not the biggest fan of reading about this years election. There is so much garbage out there I would rather my mind stays clear. What I did like though was every article that I read was short, sweet, and to the point. They were all super easy reads compared to Ms. Devitt.

 In my opinion, I enjoyed reading the JSTOR articles a lot better than the opinioned ones. What appealed to me is that they were more fact based arguments with subtle opinions from the author. The three JSTOR articles I read were "Where American Public Schools Came From" by Livia Gershon, "How Does the Language of Headlines Work? The Answer May Surpise You" by Chi Luu, and "Stranger Things" and The Psychic Nosebleed" by Liz Tracey. All three of these articles valued a strong ethos. All three authors seemed knowledgeable about the subject they were discussing. They used the research of others to back up their argument to make them more credible. In just a short amount of words, these authors got their point across and created a trust with who was reading. I never watched "Stranger Things" before, but after reading Tracey's article, I found her credible by her using sources. Even though I did not know everything she was talking about since I did not know the full background story of the show, it was still an interesting read. It makes me want to watch it. I also really enjoyed reading the article about headlines. Luu mentioned in the article something called Clickbate. They are essentially attention grabbing headlines that do not lead you to a real article to read. Luu took a topic people can relate to which made it interesting while at the same time getting her point across how these headlines catch you in. 

OH my goodness. No joke I am falling asleep. I cannot stay up. Just a little bit more. Cannot do it. 

Ironically here I am voicing my opinion on which type of article I like better, and I did not like the Op Ed ones. It is much easier to right about your opinion than to do research. So I get why authors would rather just say what they think. The only work it takes is to make what you have in your head sound good on paper. Op Ed reminds me of blogging in a way. What you want to say you can say it. It is after all your opinion. Granted, authors are doing a lot more than voicing their opinion they are also trying to convince the reader to think how they think. Now that can be more challenging. Op Ed authors appeal to pathos to evoke emotions out of people, good or bad. These articles are written to get people thinking and so that what they wrote can be a topic of discussion. 

Alright my friends. It is time for me to take a long nap! I am so sorry for this hot mess of a blog. 

Hoping to get my beauty sleep, 

Allison Starr