ferrett+reading+response

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//Chapter 1//- I enjoyed chapter one for the reason that the author went back to school as a non-traditional freshman, even if it was for research. This seems a lot like my first year here at Bloomsburg only because I'm new to the area. And just like anyone else with any other school, you have to get acquainted with the buildings.There is a part where she is questioning the life of students, saying, "Are students today different? Doesn't it seem like they're...cheating more?...so we can have a decent class discussion?" I like this part of the story because I myself sometimes belive that of my classmates. I think that her research will show some interesting information about the college life of students. =====

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//Chapter 2//- She begins talking about what it was like to enter the dorm area. I personally didn't get that experience with being a transerfer student. But I did get to buy lots of cool stuff for the place I would be living in; so in that respect, I can relate. Where she is talking about the pictures in the rooms got me to thinking about my pictures. I have one picture of a family member and the rest are friends. But most of my friend pictures are not all that funny. Then school begins and she is realizing how hard it is. Students have a lot on their mind between books, school work and their personal lives and sometimes it is hard to keep track of everything. =====

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//Chapter 3//-In this chapter, I enjoyed how she started out by telling us how when the students come to school, they reference events that went on during their time growing up. She then talks about the seminar that all freshmen have to go to. I had a class at the school I transferred from that was for all incoming freshmen. We didn’t have to read a book and have a discussion; we were just leaning new things about our campus. Getting students involved in something i﻿n their first year at school I believe is difficult. But Nathan’s RA had the right idea by allowing the students to vote on a community activity. There was a list of six items that were posted for the students to follow. I found humor in these items because a couple of them just seemed like common sense to me. But also because I didn’t have a chance to dorm, so they are amusing to hear. I think that Nathan is getting the feeling that the students didn’t like to interact with one another. At first she says no one was getting involved with their floor activities in the dorm. Then she says she never really sees students eating together in the common room of the dorms. I agree that students don’t mingle like they should. ===== //Chapter 4-// Nathan begins to talk about how students of different races come to meet other people. I feel that maybe people are intimidated by other backgrounds and cultures, so they don’t necessarily being to talk to these people. Whether it is certain stereotypes about certain cultures or any experiences they have had. She continues to talk to some students about their experiences with American students. They express that students don’t seem to talk to them or seem very friendly towards them. One student states that no one really asked him about his country. To me, he is right. Normally I don’t see students talking to someone of a different culture, and if they are I don’t think they ask about their country. This is something I think students should change about themselves. They need to be more open to new ideas. At one point she begins to talk about the classroom setting and the teachers. I think we as Americans are very fortunate to have the professors that we have, compared to some professors that were mentioned from different countries. Professors are more laid-back and tolerant of their students, but sometimes maybe they are too laid-back. But aside from that, they are very helpful. I think this chapter shows the difference in the American and foreign culture in college. There are the differences in professors, and the interaction between students. All of these play a role in the college culture. //Chapter 1//-With this story about Ethnograpic Approaches, I didn't find it that interesting. I like in the beginning the author tryning to relate to the audience by telling a short story about a boy and how he learned to juggle. I didn't understand everything completely, but I can figure out the author wants the readers to understand what an ethnographer does. At first I had no idea what ethnography was until I looked up the definition. Know that I know it has to do with learning about others culture, the story made more sense. They talk about "culture" as a verb and as a noun and that we generally associate it with "meaning one or more society." This is not the most interestin passage, but they are trying to explain how they would look into others cultures. //Chapter 2-// I am still a little lost in this reading. I did pick up on some things that I thought were important. A quote from the reading, "What is happening here in the field site(s) I have chosen?". I found this question particularly important for an ethnographer when they are doing their research. You have to be able to know what is going on in the environment you are in, just like in our CLUE project. We did some observations and had to interpret what we saw. Next, I came across that ethnographers ony ask who, when, what, where and how, not why. This surprised me because normally you would ask all those questions. I guess because the who, what, where, when and how can be proven and people could have those in common, they left out the why, which is more opinion based. I found another quote, "Describe only what does happen, not what does not happen." This quote surprised me only becuase wouldn't you want to document everything? I guess though when you are doing specific research, you mainly want to know what went on. I also think that it would be good to have things that didn't happen to maybe compare and contrast. Finally, the reading states that "Ethnography, as noted earlier, is a theory-building and theory-dependent enterprise." I never really thought of ethnography in those terms, but now it makes sense. You start on a theory and you gather information to support your theory. I feel that this chapter helped shape what you as an ethnography need to do to gather your information.
 * Ethnography**

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