Analyze Test Data

It seems that most students are below their reading level.  The proficient level of reading comprehension in the school is 39.39 the county is 45.66 and the state is 41.93.  The novice level is 27.09.  There were 203 students tested. The math proficient level for the school is 60.09 the county is 48.98 and the state is 41.94.  The novice level is 16.25.  There were 203 testeded in math.  In the science department the novice is 19.40.  The proficient level in the school is 60.19, the county is 49.43, and the state is 39.12.  In science there was 201 tested.  The social studies profiency in the novice is 21.50.  In the school proficient level is 41.00, the county is 39.04, and the state is 36.02.  The number of students who took this test in social studies was 200.  The learning need I would use is reading comprehension.  This helps with to construct a meaning behind reading.  Each student is assigned a group and section to read and discussion.  The students identify important facts, summarize these details, and share them with the class.  A good example for to help support this need is a form of Jigsaw grouping.            

• Organizing students in heterogeneous cooperative learning groups at least once a week has a significant effect on learning (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001).
• Low-ability students perform worse when grouped in homogeneous ability groups (Kulik & Kulik, 1991, 1997; Lou et al, 1996).
• There may be no other instructional strategy that simultaneously achieves such diverse outcomes as cooperative grouping. The amount, generalizability, breadth, and applicability of the research on cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts provides considerable validation of the use of cooperative learning to achieve diverse outcomes, including achievement, time on task, motivation, transfer of learning, and other benefits (Cohen, 1994a; Johnson, 1970; Johnson & Johnson, 1974, 1978, 1989, 1999a, 2000; Kohn, 1992; Sharan, 1980; Slavin, 1977, 1991).
• Cooperative learning can be ineffective when support structures are not in place (Reder & Simon, 1997).

  Does cooperative learning improve low achieving students performance on chapter tests?
I would give a chapter test and see who needs improvement and what students performed at a mastery level.  In the next chapter I will use cooperative group learning.  I will put the mastery students in with the novice learning students.  I would divide the students and make sure they work in a heterogeneous cooperative learning groups.  

Lesson Plans

Here a link to my lesson plans
lesson plan 2
lesson plan 3

My political cartoon

Here is a link to my cartoon

Thinkaloud

Verify domain

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Evaluation checklist

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/09/apophis-asteroid-2036-video_n_820800.html

I found this page from a search engine.  I wanted to really find out about the asteroid named Apophis, and if is going to hit the Earth in 2036.  The domain of the page is .com.  I feel it lessens the page’s credibility.  Yes, the author is involved with the site.  This is an online news paper.  No credibility of schooling, but the author uses scientists to explain their theory.  Yes, the evidence is their but the information is blown out of proportion.  No affiliation was shown nor was there a political point of view.  The author is not the creator of the subject.  The author uses the information to explain about the subject.  The author presents a contact through Facebook and twitter.  I feel there is no validity for the author, but the credibility for the article is by the scientists of the article.  Yes there is contact information.  There is no bias thought, but the video image is wrong.  I feel the information is correct because the author uses Donald Yeomans head of NASA’s Near Earth Program to help the message.  The purpose of the page is clearly stated.  This seems to be a current event to convince you the subject is going to happen.  The audience is for anyone seeking info about the subject, many research enthusiasts.  Yes the tone of the article is what I expected.  The vocabulary fits the style for the author’s message.  The credibility for the current date is correct.  The dates are correct, but the subject matter is exaggerated in the video.  The reliability is there but only from the scientists in the article.  This is reliable information, but the author is not reliable.  Yes it is appropriate because I found incorrect information.  I would recommend this site, but not for the research.  There is a good video showing what the subject would do if the theory was correct.  I knew about the asteroid, but not the correct size or damage.

Obama on the Run

Driving question

Why would you use political cartoons to create a sense of humor in politics?

CSO's

SS.0.9.5.3 read and in interpret historical charts, tables, graphs, narratives, primary source documents, political cartoons and timelines and summarize their information.
SS.S.9.1
Citizenship Students will
• characterize and model good citizenship by building social networks of reciprocity and trustworthiness (Civic Dispositions).
• model a respect for symbols, ideas and concepts of the United States and analyze the roles of significant individuals (Respect For People, Events, and Symbols).
• develop and employ the civic skills necessary for effective citizenship by using criteria to make judgments, arrive at and defend positions and evaluate the validity of the positions or data (Evaluation Skills).
• develop the participatory skills of interacting, monitoring and influencing that are essential for informed, effective and responsible citizenship, including participation in civic life to shape public policy (Participatory Skills).
• recognize and communicate the responsibilities, privileges and rights of United States citizens (Civic Life).
SS.0.9.1.3 Analyze the causes of conflict and propose resolutions
SS.S.9.2
Civics Students will
• examine and analyze the purposes and basic principles of the United States government (Purposes of Government).
• outline and evaluate and analyze the origins and meaning of the principles, ideals and core democratic values expressed in the foundational documents of the United States (Ideals of United States Democracy).
• examine and distinguish the structure, function and responsibilities of governments and the allocation of power at the local, state and national levels (United States Government and Politics).
• analyze how the world is organized politically and compare the role and relationship of the United States to other nations and to world affairs (United States Government and World Affairs).
SS.O.9.5.1

examine the measure the contributions of art and literature throughout different historical periods.
SS.S.9.6
Reading Students will
• use the five reading components (phonemic awareness, phonics, background knowledge/vocabulary, high frequency word/fluency, comprehension, and writing) in their acquisition of social studies knowledge, insuring a foundation of college readiness in this genre.
• recognize main ideas and supporting details to locate basic facts (e.g. names, dates, events).
• distinguish relationships among people, ideas, and events.
• recognize cause-effect relationships in content passages.
• outline sequences of events.
• summarize events and ideas. Infer main idea or purpose of content.
• draw generalizations and conclusions about people, ideas and events.
• write and edit organized texts of various genres to insure that information is clearly understood.
 

Creativity

I understand how these types of questions could give a person statistical information about a specific learning style, but those question were off the wall.  I am a multimodal, i think everyone should be.  I will not develop a learning style until many years of experience in the field.  Yes, all the stategies would work for me.  My highest strategy this time was Aural.  I found out that it depends on how I was feeling that day is what strategy I would use.  I took the test, I think four times, and got different projections everytime.  I just don't think this questionare was accurate.

Instructional intervention

The title of the project is Making Meaning through Written Response.  The problem is to figure out and understand what students think about when they read.  Also find out if the student comprehends what they read.  The instructional intervention is using reading journals which is a form of note taking to developing a greater content.  The instructional intervention that is used is Summarizing and Note taking and.  The evidence that is presented the students who are lower level reading and writing need more of a push or critical questions in order for comprehension.  The better the student understands what they are reading, identify key information, and provide a summary that helps them keep the information.   When students revise their own note, the notes become more meaningful.   The data that is collected is from the students responding to their novel.  The instruction intervention is collecting by the teacher and reviewed to investigate which students are struggling and which are not.  The entries were analyzed into six categories.  Lower level readers were basic a little evidence of details to support their ideas, which were unclear.  Average readers were longer entries with higher level reader entries had ample literary analysis that included all the six categories.  They found that reading journals helped student by allowing them the opportunity to gain insight into their thinking, and provide instruction based upon this observation.   

Survey Results

Friend or Foe

Wikipedia is a good site to gather information from. A student can broaden their horizon, and get other opinions from this search engine. As the article said, you should answer the question that we did in class to find out proper credentials of a subject. I enjoyed the class assignment, I learned how to find out if an article on the web it viable. My opinion about Wikipedia is that it is a good site to find information, but make sure the information establishes credit, or a "relavent hyperlink." Also the information must not be bogus, plus the information must be legitamate. In my future class room I would allow the students to use Wikipedia as a source. But, my main focus would be that the students would need at least 3 search engines that end in .gov. All my professors I have ever had let us use any site with .gov as a reference. I would also challenge the student to provide at least ONE book from the library.

Moral Imperative

Keeping a blog for this course definitly made turning in homework easier. I never have to sharpen my pencil. Not to mention loosing assignments on paper. This blogging helps me stay a little more organized. My only problem with blogging is keeping my modem running, which has been a pain in my back. I think using blogger would help me with teaching by keeping track of work. It would be very hard for a student to tell me that they lost their homework assignment if I place the activity on blogger. Yes, I will continue to use the gmail blogger, but I have to get more involved in computer literacy. It is difficult for me to use the computer sometimes. Teachers must develop 21 century skills if we want to keep our heads out of the water. First of all, I had no idea that I was developing media literacy skills by doing these assignments. I just figured I was out of place because everyone else has been doing this for a while. I just started. I still don't have a facebook or myspace. A new media literacy skill I have seen concrete evidence in is through our Edmodo assigments. This literacy skill would be collective intelligence. I read the unfinished story segments and I would help expand the thoughts of my Edmodo partner named Trinton. We wrote back and forth new ideas for his story about dragons, a knight, and princes. Our common goal was to create a photo story using the final draft he and I put together. The photo story came out really well. I hope that Trinton can practice this skill just as I used my for my project. As for me I need to keep practicing using all four of those media literacy skills. To improve the way I teach.

top ten

In my classroom I helped the students put together a power point project for a Geography lesson. The students' assigment was to create a power point on a counry of their choice in Western Europe. It is different becuase they were not making their own websites. They did have to post at least hyperlinks, use a variety of slides, and use the internet for questions to be answered from the rubric. I am not sure what type of learning style is my strongest. I am not suprised that this activity had no text books. With the vast accessible information through the internet, who needs a book?:( It is weird, if I would ask my father what something ment, he would say "Get a book." The whole idea has changed for me. My biggest concern is that published books are becoming a thing of the past. The only barrier I have using websites is that you never know when your computer is going tostart malfunctioning, like mine all semester.

Survey Question

Texting in Schools

In the past couple months I have noticed that technology is slowly, but slowly assimilating itself into classrooms. But, how far should we take these new advances. Computers and cell phones both work side by side in this "21 Century," I strongly feel that all cell phones should be OFF during a class, period. If one student is going to text, they all are going to. Every student for the past 100 years has not used a cell phone for education purposes, we should not start now. Computers do the same amount of applications a cell phone can do. Teachers can plan to use computers for assignments. Teachers have plans for reasons. It is extremely hard to catch classes up if one is behind. Time management is one essential key to being a good teacher. If kids are texting it is distracting. Distraction leads to time delays, which in turn lead to a lesson plan leading into the next day. I believe cell phones in classrooms need to be turned off, if the student needs to make a phone call they can go to the office. But, if the teacher can use texting while using combining the core subject, by all means. Let em.

picaso

Voki

Survey for Edmodo

I came to a conclusion that the 5th grade students like to share their experiences through writing with Edmodo. They were interested in letting other people read their stories with the internet. The students seemed to get excited not having to write on paper.
The 5th graders like the writing activity the best. I would think that they liked the writing more because of the interaction. The students were able to judge the mag covers, but there was no interaction.
I enjoyed the interaction of Edmodo. I was excited to get on line and see that the student liked sharing my ideas with his story. I learn evertime I get on the computer. I have little knowledge and not computer lit., so it is still difficult for me to really understand. From what I experienced, I really was very interested in this project.
a collaboration project I might implement to others student would be through Edmodo. I would ask my students to gather historical facts about their town. Then I would let them post their finding and send them to another school. Next, I would ask that school to do the same idea in the same time period. I would then have the students compare and contrast.

Mag cover

final digital story

media

Media Interpretation

The media has more viewers now more than ever.  The internet gives billions of people to look at many types of media.  People do not have to look at just black and white pictures.  Color and technology has changed the way we perceive things in books, magazines, and computers.  Using the computer I was able to get some news about what was happening with President Obama and the B.P. oil spill.  I knew very little of what the President was doing about the spill.  I gathered information on the B.P. from broadcast media.  I found it odd that the president of B.P. took a vacation during the crisis.  I would have to choose the internet to find more about this situation, because it took place last year.  This is very important, in my opinion, about the use of the internet.  I would not want to purchase a magazine or a news paper article to get my facts, because it would not even be in there.  It is months after the accident, there will be no story line.  Gathering media information is extremely easy on the internet.  The main purpose of writing is to grab a certain audience.  The audience for these two images would be for environmental people and the government.  Writing to this audience would state a purpose and ask question about the situation, who, what, when, where, and why. 

                      President Obama never had control of this urgent problem.  It took weeks for the disaster to be over.  Plus, there are months of clean up.  He looks concerned and frustrated.  The positioning of the camera is close portrait shot, probably to show his emotions of his views.  He does not have a tie on and there are no guards around and he looks casually dressed.  My view of this image is that I have no confidence in him.  What can be completed at a desk?  This was a hands on problem. 

                 

President Obama looks more in control on the ship.  He looks like he has a smile, but I think that is the sun on his face.  This is a wide view shot, which probably illustrates that he is out there trying to get something done about this sluggish situation.  He looks like he is just listening to the bull crap that this yuppie has to say.  The people around him look like they are more excited to see the president than fixing the problem.
 

Digital Story 2201

Video Games and Work

Games and the Workplace

            Good games and a highly motivating work place have nothing in common.  Video games should not be compared to education purposes.  Videos games are just another way of entertainment.  I would rather take a stick and play with my dogs fecal matter for an hour than play any video game. 

            The difference between learning in schools and learning in good games is that knowing how to play video games does not get you prepared for the future or even college. 

            Learning in schools should never be like learning in good games.  Sorry but this blog prompt is not worth five points.  Video games and I have nothing in common.  Nothing………….

The Six C's

The Six C’s

The Six C’s are motivational tools to help students gain interest in a specific content area.  For this assignment we should evaluate video games and these motivational strategies.  I don’t think video games have anything to do with learning techniques.  In my opinion, the Six C’s are for development of learning social skills and motivation.  Video games, on the other hand, tend to lessen social skills and motivation.  Many people just sit around and play video games and accomplish nothing. 

              Choice is the first tool of the Six C’s.  A student can choice what video game they get to play.  This tool in motivation helps the student get involved because choice lets the student pick the subject of his or her desire.  This would help motivate the student by letting them have a personal experience with the assignment.  I was never given a chance to pick my own subject, it always gave me trouble.  I always wanted to feel related to what I want to learn. 

            Students that go beyond their skills tend to have a challenge, which is another tool for this motivational strategy.  Students who feel that they are being challenged often strive to see if they can accomplish a task.  Video games are a challenge, la di frickin da.  I really don’t like video games. 

            Classroom control is another tool in the Six C’s.  Teachers should always be in control of the students, but if the students are giving time to control the class the students feel involved in decision making.  This then leads to more of a design to relate to other students and control what they want to learn, instead of being forced what to learn.  Gamers can control their own players or whatever they are playing.  Who cares.

            Collaboration, I think, is the most important of these six tools.  I feel when people get together and share ideas the outcomes are endless.  One person can think of many ideas, but they can’t judge if their ideas are good or bad.  Working in groups helps me learn different points of views.  Collaborating with people is enjoyable to me, because sometimes a get blocked and no ideas come out of my brain.  The only way video games fit into this is online video games, which in my opinion are a waste of time.

            Constructing Meaning is a great way for students to learn the value of what they are learning.  Motivation is extremely hard if the students do not know what, how, or why they have to learn what they learning.  A meaning of an idea gives relationship to the student and his or her subject.  It may help them appreciate a new subject.  If anyone can find meaning in a video game, they need a dog, or something to get them away from what they are doing.  In my opinion, if someone finds meaning in a video game, they might need to a new meaning in life. 

            Consequence is the best motivation tool in the Six C’s if I may say.  One main reason is that, “There is no “correct” way to complete a project.”  I feel that I always make the wrong choice.  I always think they are the right answers, but nope.  In this “open-ended task context” students would always appreciate completing an assignment and it goes recognized.  Recognition is a great motivational tool.  Video games, bla.  The games ends you buy another. I could not relate to this article at all. Sorry      

The World of Digital Story

The World of Digital Storytelling

            I have been thinking a lot on technology these past couple weeks.  I have just realized that I am a “computer immigrant” according to this article. I feel that I am gaining knowledge through these online assignments.  I have been trying to assimilate myself, but it is difficult.   I totally agree that students gain knowledge from digital storytelling.  If a teacher were to give students a written report, the students would read information and summarize, it is harder to process of digital storytelling.  I would consider story boards and story mapping the same idea as brainstorming on a piece of paper, but digitally.  The three components the article used would, in my opinion, be the same as what type of report the student would choose.  The visual portrait of a story, definitely, would be the words.  Also, digital storytelling lets the students use different medians.

            Writing a report consists of paper and pencil.  Completing a digital story is much more difficult.  There are many strategies to even knowing how to retrieve the proper programs.  Of course, written reports would need research books and articles, but it does not take much to use paper and a pen or pencil.  The process of preparing digital stories takes thought and dedication to learn how to use the devices needed to finalize the digital story.  I think that if a student in today’s society does not know how to navigate or use tools for a computer, they are going to be lost in the future.  We are living in a digital age and we need to educate our youths so they are prepared to plant their feet in the future and leave a mark.    

Where I Am From

Where I Am From

WHERE I'M FROM

I am from a one street light town, from 17^th Street Surf Shop and Powell Peralta.

I am from the rough neck, beer drinking, small crack of the world.

I am from decay rose pedal, the prick stem and thorny sides.

I am from American Revolution and aggressive backbone, from the Melville and Shnerry, and Barcus.  

I am from the railroad building and coal mining immigrants.

From don’t fight your brother and quit picking on your sister.

I am from here nor there, nor the sky or below. I am permanent, I am set free.

I am from the fighting Irish and the potato eating, and hop drinking outcasts.

From the two generals in my family who helped the Americas build a nation, one who became an author and another who started a family.  We are all black sheep.

I am from ashes of nothing, which became everything, I am from a family of burned pictures and undiscovered  mementos.  Nothing worth saving, but worth millions to me.  I am proud of my heritage and my family tree. 

Text or no text

Text or No Text

I cannot believe that legislature would ever think about taking curriculum books out of the classroom and replace them with computers.  Many situations can occur while on a computer.  The problems are endless, unless you know how to navigate the programs or even just the internet.  Books are primary sources.  You don’t need power to run a text book.  Power of the brain is the only thing that a book needs to turn on.  I have dropped many books on the ground and kicked them, try that with a computer.  I would rather read a book, than look at a blinding irritating computer screen.  I know this is the new world of technology but come on people, we at least need to keep some things old school.  Here is another thought books cost less than computers.  We can keep computers at our students desks, just as well as keeping a book for one student per desk per class.    

behavioral strategies

Teachers often use behaviorist strategies in cases that have to do with discipline.  From my experiences from school, discipline is the most often used behavioral strategies, or a negative reinforcement.  In my homeroom class the teacher would turn off the lights and not let us watch Channel 1 until the class was silent.  This worked most of the time.  The stimulus was all electricity was enabled until the correct response was made, being quiet.  There are some cases in which teachers use positive behavioral strategies.  I had a Social Studies teacher who would allow us to collect bonus points by bringing in 5 articles, one per day, to help raise the student’s grade.  The stimuli, positive reinforcement, were the bonus points.  The correct response, if the child would want bonus points, would be to read an article from a newspaper.  There are many behaviors in classrooms that a teacher is going to encounter.  In order to maintain the proper classroom environment teacher should use positive and negative reinforcements.      

issues of language

I gathered many ideas of different stereotypical attitudes towards the way people talk from our reading. Everyone’s dialect is different in many regions.  First and foremost, you should never judge intellect without getting to know the person individually.  Why would a teacher pass judgment on a student for having any type of accent?  How could anyone say a person could not educate themselves because of the lack of skills to communicate with “standard English?”  The English language is one of the hardest languages to learn, let alone to read and write it.  Just like the girl who didn’t understand the concept of silent reading.  Or the child who knew he wrote a word, but didn’t understand what he had written.  I still have trouble reading and writing proper grammar.  It is a shame that some countries do not have enough funding to provide a good education for its citizens, just as the villagers in El Salvador.  The English language changes everyday.

            In my opinion, poverty is the biggest leading factor of why children to do get the adequate education they need.  Poverty causes social, psychological, and behavioral problems to name a few.  Lower class families do not have the money for leisure books, newspapers, and other reading materials.  In the educational process parents must provide enough time to help the child at home.  Lower income families, judging from statistics, do not spend the allotted time for at home education.  Middle to upper class families buy books and give enough attention to their kids, one, because if they are middle to upper class, the parents do not want their children to grow up and be the kinds of people who are being stereotyped in these passages.  Reading these passages about Jenny and Donny gave me a realization of how true these statistics are.  Ms. M should have been viewed by the board, just as well as the other teachers who passed Donny “just because.” There are other things that can be done, but that is another subject. Children who come from these uneducated societies do not know how to get out of them.  “It is believed that they “just don’t have it” as far as intelligence and or the will to learn, to achieve, to move out of their impoverished conditions go.” (133)  The only low income children who develop those skills of reading and writing, there must be some type of motivation for the child to strive in a world of knowledge.

            It should never go as low as saying this person lacks intelligence because of the way they use their individual dialect to have a personal identity.  “For example, the Boston dialect of the Kennedys or the southern dialect of Jimmy Carter are never pointed to as evidence of cognitive and linguistic deficit.”(133)  I live in the country and I see poverty everywhere I look.  I talk to people who have thick country accents.  These people are educated enough for their life styles they love, simple.  So people have a draw in their voice and some have speech impediments.  They are all good people, through and through.  I know this individual who did not graduate from high school.  This individual also has a difficult problem with reading, he may be dyslexic or have another impairment.  My point is, his cognitive thought process is more active than any book smart person if have ever met.  Also, his problem solving skills are phenomenal.  He can take a part anything, from cars, to houses, and all kinds of electrical devises and fix them.  That is something an educated person could not do without reading a book.  I believe that many people have street smart characteristics that help them overlap their lack of education.  In my opinion, sometimes book smart people are the most ignorant people I have ever met.  And they talk with perfect “standard English.”

            My last thought would be “No one “talks” like written Language.  Everyone uses fragmented syntax different pronunciation patterns, and different types of vocabulary words when they talk as compared to when they read and write.”(137)   Teachers should not judge their students by their “Nonstandard, socially marked dialects…to prevent people from learning to read and write.”  Our teachers out there must understand that the children we are teaching today are going to run our government in the future.  We need every child in America to be educated and prepared to enter the world after public schools.  Who is going to run our country when we are older?  

metacognition

Why is metacognition essential for good learning?

Metacognition is extremely important in order to retrieve and remember what learned.  Through the information process, thinking about thinking, helps understand the problem.  Long and short term memory plays an important role gathering, remembering and retrieving information.  In the middle of this is, “control process, is the metacognition process.   We need to realize what is happening while our brains are controlling thought while learning. 

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/geography/pointingnsew.htm

mountaineer

Is our way of life unique?

            West Virginia is a state the does not get much positive recognition.  I was born in Wetzel County, West Virginia.  My father got stationed in Norfolk, Virginia when I was 2 year old, and we moved to there.  I don’t remember West Virginia as a child, of course I was too young.  The first time I remember my mother mentioning West Virginia, I had always remembered it as Western Virginia.  I grew up in white suburbia.  We ate at the dinner table.  Our clothes were always washed.  My mother taught us how to use silver and helped us grasp the concept of religion.  I was also given opportunities that a middle class family would grow up in.  Things happened in my life and I had to move back to where I was born, Paden City, West Virginia.  It was a huge culture shock to me.  For one, there were no other races in my home town but white.  The Ku Klux Klan still had members there.  My clothing style, my accent, and their actions were different from what I had been used to.  It seemed everyone shoved me into an outcast society, pretty much ostracized.  It wasn’t until about 2 years later I had assimilated myself into their culture.  I noticed everyone had family ties.  Everyone knew everyone in town.  People in the town new we were from the beach so they just assumed, like I assumed, we were all different.  That wasn’t the case though.  I was a naturally born West Virginian.  After the town people found out that I was born in the same hospital as most of my new forming friends, I was accepted.  I was invited to many homes for cook outs, which were just a little different from what I was used to.  They were eating deer steak and deer burger.  Also, I learned my favorite cultural sport of West Virginia, “muddn.”  Family life is the biggest tradition that I was aware of.  Heck the longer I live here the more my accent changes to the West Virginia slang.  I love it. 

Understanding the stereotype

            I remember growing up at the beach and thinking about West Virginia, knowing that my dad’s mother and father lived here.  I used to make fun of these people because that ate spaghetti sandwiches.  My brothers and I grew up saying only “hicks” and “rednecks” ate spaghetti sandwiches.  That was one stereotypical attitude I can think of.  I always thought that “Western Virginians” had no teeth, no shoes, dirty clothes, and always thought of inbred yokels.  When I first came to West Virginia these people had more racism or stereotypical attitudes than I did.  They hated me for being an outsider.  I used to have to run home from school so I would not get beat up by the local bullies.  They used to scream, “go back to your own town.”  And I remember saying, “Those stupid hicks are mean.”  As the years progressed I was eventually accepted by them.  I guess the realized I could take a beating.  Now everything about me loves this state.  I get excited when I hear her name.  Actually, West Virginia’s name was going to be Vandalia.  I love that many important people are from this state.  It doesn’t bother me about fictitious characters.  I enjoy it, because it gets people to think about our state. Not very many people do, if they are not from here.  Another cultural tradition would have to be the love for West Virginia as their state.  Every family that is true West Virginian would fight for this state until death.  Many families lost sons in every war.  Because in every war there was one West Virginian soldier in battle.  There is “poor white trash” everywhere in America, not just in West Virginia.  You know what they say, “You take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.”