Self-Evaluation

1. Self Evaluation

As the semester is drawing to a close, I still can’t believe how quickly it went. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was at FTCAP picking classes and hoping that my first classes  at Penn State would treat me right. When I first picked to take English 15S, I didn’t know what to “S” stood for and figured that it was just a fancy name for an English course. My advisor told me that English 15S was a great course to pick because not only would I be fulfilling my English credit, but I would also be fulfilling my freshman seminar credit. I was basically killing two birds with one stone. When I walked into the classroom on the first day, I loved that it was a fairly small class because it made the transition from my high school classes to college classes a bit easier. I was fresh out of high school and I was still nervous about being thrown into big classes where the professor will probably never know your name or face.

I have learned a lot during my first semester. I was pretty nervous about coming to this school and getting involved because I’m a pretty quiet person. As of right now, I feel like I’m apart of this student body. I have joined organizations, participated in activities, met great people, and have had a blast going to the football games. English 15S has helped me improve my writing skills and use my words as a way to express my opinions. I also learned how to figure out if a piece of art or writing expresses pathos, ethos, or logos. My favorite thing about this course was going on field trips because it helped me discover the arts here at Penn State. Who knows if I would have ever found the Aboretum or wandered into the Palmer Museum of Art if it wasn’t for Ms. S! English 15S was 100x better than my high school English classes because we got to go to arts around campus  and write about our experience on our blog. In high school, English class consisted of reading books and writing papers on them. I never was a fan of English until I took this course. I loved that we didn’t have to read books and that we got to make and run a blog for class.

Out of all the art field trips we went on, my favorite was going to see the play In The Red and Brown Water at Playhouse Theatre. I really enjoyed watching it and the actors/actresses did a great job. From the second it started, it had my attention and I learned important things from the play such as, you should never give up an opportunity because you never know if you will be given it again. I’m going to miss this class but I will continue to explore the various arts here at Penn State because of what this class has taught me.

2. Blog Response Round-Up

1) http://jspellman94.blogspot.com/2012/10/artscultural-response-ill-abilities.html

2) http://rfatherly.blogspot.com/2012/09/palmer-museum-visit.html

3) http://itsblogtimeeverybody.blogspot.com/2012/10/kickin-it-old-school.html

4) http://articulatingtheartsatpennstate.blogspot.com/2012/10/good-will-hunting-movie-review.html

5) http://15snmpy-y.blogspot.com/2012/09/so-you-think-you-know-art.html

6) http://www.cheddarbread.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html

7) http://jenniferlongdancingart.blogspot.com/2012/10/higher-learning-movie-review.html

8) http://quirkyconfessional.blogspot.com/2012/09/affirmative-action.html

9) http://jrose412.blogspot.com/2012/12/for-love-of-music.html

10) http://knaviello.blogspot.com/2012/11/exit-through-gift-shop.html

3. SRTE Evaluations

Hi, Ms. S -- I completed my SRTE’s!

MMG Concert

On November 4th 2012, I went to Maybach Music Group, a.k.a MMG, concert at the Bryce Jordan Center. MMG consists of rappers Rick Ross, Meek Mill, and Wale. They were the headline acts for the show and up and coming rapper, Machine Gun Kelly, was the opening act. DJ Scream was the host DJ for the night. When my friends and I arrived to the BJC, our tickets got upgraded because there were plenty of seats available near the floor. We were pretty happy about that because we would be sitting in $70 seats that we only paid $20 for. As we made our way to our seats, there was a huge crowd on the floor and on the side seats. DJ Scream was spinning recent songs and everyone was singing along and having a good time. After DJ Scream finished warming up the crowd, Machine Gun Kelly made his way to the stage. He performed songs off of his new album Lace Up including “Wild Boy”, "Invincible", and "Stereo". MGK even jumped into the crowd and went crowd surfing. He looked like he was having a lot of fun performing on stage. After that, Wale came out and performed some of hits. I’m personally not a fan of him so I didn’t pay his performance any mind.

When Rick Ross came on stage, I immediately jumped out my seat with excitement. He had on a custom Penn State navy jersey that had “Ross” on the back and “Penn State” on the front. He said he loved Penn State and that everyone in attendance are future bosses. He then performed “Hold Me Back” and got the crowd jumping. He also performed songs off of his recent albums and mixtapes like “Diced Pineapples”, “So Sophisticated”, “Hustlin”, “Bag of Money” and “Stay Schemin”. Up next was Meek Mill and once again, my friends and I jumped out of our seat with excitement because he is from Philadelphia. Meek Mill came out to “Flexin” which is off of his Dreamchasers 2 mixtape and then he sang “Young & Gettin It” which is off of his debut album Dreams and Nightmares. He also performed “Amen”, “Burn”, “Im a Boss”, and “House Party” which are all off of his mixtapes Dreamchasers and Dreamchasers 2. The crowd was going crazy and singing along to every song. When Meek Mill and Rick Ross performed “Im a Boss”, I had a lot of fun singing along with my friends and at that moment we all thought we were bosses. Throughout Wale, Rick Ross, and Meek Mill’s performance, the well known phrase “M-M-M-M-M-M-MAYBACH MUSIC” said by an Australian woman was played.

This concert was crazy and a lot of fun. I enjoyed every minute of it. Something crazy I saw was a girl being escorted out of the arena by police officers and while they were walking, she got loose of their grip and started punching the officers. They officers fought back and were able to regain control of her. Everyone in the stands ran to the end of the stands to see the fight and some people recorded it. After that, a special guest, the rapper The Game, came out and performed “Hate it or Love it”. No one was expecting him to make an appearance so the crowd was pretty surprised. Wale, Rick Ross, and Meek Mill came out one last time to perform a final song and say thank you and goodbye. Flames and confetti shot out as they walked off stage and everyone clapped and taking pictures. PSU students had a great time at the concert and marked this in their book of memories.

Machine Gun Kelly Instagramed this picture of himself at PSU

Rick Ross tweets about PSU

From left: Rick Ross, Meek Mill, and Wale on stage at BJC

Big Sean: PSU Hoops Madness

On October 25th 2012, rapper Big Sean came to Penn State to perform for Penn State’s Annual Hoops Madness at the Rec Hall. As soon as word spread around that Big Sean was coming to PSU and that the event was free, everyone was beyond excited. I had recently seen Big Sean at the Made in America Festival in Philadelphia on September 1st and he did a great performance so I was excited to see him again. I knew that the line was going to be long because the event was free so my friends and I decided that I would be the one to hold a spot in line since I finished class the earliest. After my Economics class was finished at 3:20, I quickly grabbed a bite to eat at The Mix, dropped my backpack off in my room, then made my way to Rec Hall. When I arrived there around 4:15 the line was actually not to long. By 5:30 my entire group of friends were standing with me in line and we were chatting away with everyone in line. When 6:00 rolled around, the line was so long, it was going down Burrowes Road. At 6:25, everyone was so anxious and excited that people started pushing and the doors weren’t even open yet! Finally at 6:30, the doors opened and my friends and I ran in screaming and sat in seats near the front.

The opening performers for the event were Penn State’s Blue Band followed by the Lionettes and the Cheerleaders. They all did a great job hyping up the crowd and showing school spirit. Dance crew Ram Squad also did a performance which was pretty cool and the crowd loved them. After that, the girl’s and boy’s basketball teams were introduced. When they came running out, they threw t-shirts into the crowd and I had fun trying to catch them. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful at catching one but my friend was lucky and ended up catching 4 t-shirts. The boy’s team then had a slam dunk competition and even did a dance routine. Finally, the lights dimmed and Big Sean graced us with his presence to the song “I Don’t Like“. The crowd was going wild as he came out. He performed many of his hit songs like “Dance (A$$)”, “Marvin Gaye & Chardonnay“, “Clique“, “Mercy“, “High“, and “I Do It” to name a few. When performed “Burn” by himself and rapper Meek Mill, my friends and I went crazy. Meek Mill is a rapper from Philadelphia so we hype as ever rapping along to the song. Overall, I had a blast at the concert. Big Sean did just as great when I saw him at the Made in America Festival in September. This concert will be another memory of my fun times during my freshman year at Penn State.