Tianna McNair Capstone

Posted by Tianna McNair in Capstone · Siswick/Kay · Wed on Thursday, May 18, 2017 at 10:54 am

For my capstone I decided to focus on mental health in the black community. I found that it has been statistically proven that African Americans have more exposure to crime, violence, and poverty. Being in hostile environments all the time activates to fight or flight response and can trigger different mental illnesses. On top of that black people have historically been exposed to hostile things like Jim Crow, slavery, civil rights movement,etc. and trauma affects your biological makeup which can then be passed down to your kids. This information inspired me to get African Americans exposed to this information with the hopes that we can change the how we view the topic and maybe one day end the stigmas around mental health and mental illness. I then held an event for people to come out and talk. I also created an audio piece with a few interviews that I’ve conducted.

Link to audio piece here.

Bibliography

"Black & African American Communities and Mental Health." Mental Health America. Accessed February 02, 2017. http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/african-american-mental-health.

Mental Health in America is nonprofit organization that focuses on bringing awareness to and preventing mental health through education, advocacy, and research services. I found a page on the website the specifically addresses mental health in black and African American communities. It talks about how although black people make up a small portion of the population the rate in which people are reported with a mental issues is disproportionated. This is because there are many environmental factors the historically and currently affect this community. And a lot of times black people are misdiagnosed with mental disorders. In my project I used the infographic. I used the infographic because people retain information better with visuals, also because I wanted to show that we are a minority however there is a big percent of people who have a mental illness.

"Got Your ACE Score?" ACEs Too High. July 25, 2015. Accessed February 03, 2017. https://acestoohigh.com/got-your-ace-score/.

ACE stands for adverse childhood experiences. The ACE test is a series of questions about a bunch of different events and the person answers yes or no. For every yes that a person has they receive a point. This test is used to measure a person person childhood trauma. The reason why this is important to my project is because exposure to a childhood trauma affects a person's physical health on a biological level. If a person who has a score of four a more is at risk for problems with their hormonal and immune system, the brain’s function and development, and the way the their DNA is read and transcribe. I thought that having this in my project would be a more interesting lens to talk about my project through. Most people talk about the social issues that a person may face but no one really talks about the biological effects.

Hairston, Tahirah. "'Being Mary Jane' Gracefully Tackles a Touchy Subject Black People Often Avoid." Fusion. Accessed February 03, 2017. http://fusion.net/story/222956/being-mary-jane-suicide-mental-health/.

This is an article that is giving a recap of an episode from the television series Being Mary Jane. The show is about a woman who is a successful television host on a major network. This show follows the up and downs of her work life along with family and social life. What makes this show interesting is how they address many related issues for black woman in the corporate world. On this one particular episode a character committed suicide after a long and hard struggle with depression. The reason why I wanted to incorporate this into my project is because of the many signs that this character showed and all her attempts to get her loved ones attention and how no one noticed. I am using this episode for a blog post about the many ways that people reach out for help in ways that may not be that obvious. I think that this a source to reference because it’s a pretty current and popular show that could make my audience interested.

"NAMI." NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness | African Americans. Accessed February 02, 2017. http://www.nami.org/Find-Support/Diverse-Communities/African-Americans.

National Alliance on Mental Illness has a similar mission as Mental Health in America. I found more information about the prevalence of mental in the black community and it’s causes. The one thing that this source did differently was that they included resources so that people can get help. They bring up an interesting point about how as a patient it is important to make sure that your health care provider has cultural competence. On website I quote some of their stats about misdiagnosis of african american people about of lack of cultural competence.

Siawale Vesslee in discussion with the author Tianna McNair, January 2017

I interviewed Siawale who is an apart of the African diaspora to get a unique point of view on how families who aren’t from America are similar to the ones who are. I found that there were a lot a similarities with the culture and how we both deal with mental health. Some of the interview questions are: How does you, your family and friends talk about mental people with mental illnesses? Has your family ever talked about or taught you self care? What are some common misconceptions that exist within the black community? What do you think needs to be changed about how we view mental health as a collective? And how can we reach out to people living with these conditions without being overbearing? I then used her response in a podcast that shows how mental health is not often talked about in black families.

"Suicide Statistics — AFSP." AFSP. Accessed February 02, 2017. https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/.

This source is the American Foundation for suicide prevention. This source has a lot of statistics about suicide in America and it gets as specific as the rates by gender and race. I used this source to compare the rates I found about black people to other races here. I used some stats on my webpage.

"Suicide Rates among Young Black Boys on the Rise." CNN. Accessed February 02, 2017. http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/19/health/suicide-youth/.

I found this article on CNN that talks about how the suicide rates for black boys are on a rise. It talks about how the rate has been on a constant incline for the past two decades. And how suicide is one of the third leading causes for deaths of young black boys in America. I plan on using this article in my blog as another way to show the prevalence of mental health issues. It talks about how deaths from suicide has always been something that was common and consistent among white males. I found that interesting because it was only recently that suicide deaths have become common in black boys and I wanted to explore why that may be. I assumed that it was because of more direct effects on us like mass incarceration, adverse childhood experiences, police brutality, the school to prison pipeline, and strict gender norms.

Vaughn Matthews in discussion with the author Tianna McNair, January 2017

I interviewed Vaughn with the same interview questions that I asked Siawale. He had a unique response. He talked about how he and his family actually talked about self care. He told me about the many different ways that he and his siblings carry out their self care regimens. This was different from all the other interviews that I recorded.

"Welcome to WISQARS™." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. January 12, 2017. Accessed February 02, 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention holds a lot of reliable statistics about deaths in the united states and their causes. I wanted to use this source to find unbiased statistics to either prove or disprove the CNN article. This link wasn’t really helpful in that sense. However, was able to see how many deaths there were and do calculations using the information from other sources to find the percentage of the amount of those deaths were suicides.

Writer, HealthyPlace.com Staff. "Mental Health Hotline Numbers and Referral Resources." HealthyPlace. Accessed February 03, 2017. http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/resources/mental-health-hotline-numbers-and-referral-resources/.

Although this source is would not be considered scholarly, this sources was really helpful for creating my website. My modeled my website to be similar to this source. On this website they have a blog, resource tab, forum, about page, etc. I copied some of the resource numbers on my website. I chose the hotline numbers that were geared more towards mental health. For example numbers for victims of child abuse, learning disabilities, sexual assault, and suicide and self harm.

Ideas About Love Transcend Time

Posted by Tianna McNair in English 3 - Pahomov - D on Wednesday, April 27, 2016 at 1:27 am

Ideas About Love Transcend Time

By Tianna McNair

“Taming of the Shrew” and “Brown Sugar”

“The Taming of the Shrew”,written by Shakespeare, is about a bunch of suitors, dressed in disguise, trying to compete for a young girl's hand in marriage. Her father, the king, would not allow her to be married off until her older sister Katherine was married first. The majority of the play centers around the a man named Petruchio and how he managed to turn a feisty women into a dainty lady. This fifthteenth century play addresses ideas about love and expectation that are present in the 2002 film, Brown Sugar. Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan both star in Brown Sugar, which is about two childhood friends that reconnect. Sidney, played by Sanaa Lathan, feels a way when she finds out the Dre suddenly gets engaged. One thing that is pretty consistent throughout the movie is the idea that women seek mainly to please the man because it is expected of them. Marriage is not really about love but more so about control and based off of expectations set by gender roles for men and women.

To help better explain, look at Act iii of Taming of the Shrew. Petruchio and Katherine get married and arrive at Petruchio's house. Here Petruchio decides to "tame" Katherine by depriving her of many things.

"But for my bonny Kate, she must with me. Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret; I will be master of what is mine own. She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, My household stuff, my field, my barn, My horse, my ox, my ass. my anything, And here she stands, touch her whoever dare”

In this scene, Petruchio makes it very clear that he is the one in control of the relationship. He controls when she eats or sleeps,and even what she wears. He then goes on to compare Katherine to a bunch of different objects. This directly shows that she is a possession to him.

Over the past 423 years, there has not been many changes to the way that men and women perceive love, relationships, and marriage. Men still think that women are there for their pleasure and in ways still object them. Petruchio, from Taming of the Shrew, says that Katherine has to be delicate and submissive while Dre, from Brown Sugar, says that his wife needs to be sexually submissive which is another way of objectifying her.

In this upcoming scene, Sidney and Dre are hanging out and Sidney asks Dre how did he know that his fiance is “the one”. He goes on to explain to her his reasoning.

“You know, we all looking for wifey material. A woman that's fine, smart, classy, but not a snob. You know, hella... hella sexy, but not a ho. That's brown sugar. That's my Reesey. I mean, don't get confused by her business suit. She is a freak in the bedroom…”

Screenshot (14).png

Dre describes what he seems to think that all men look for in a woman. He is saying he scored because he found a woman like that. In both the play and the movie, the male lead seem to use the male expectation of their time to objectify the women in their lives. In present day men are encouraged to be hypersexualized, Dre demonstrates that activity when talking about Reese because he never mentioned a thing about her personality or even loving her. In the play Petruchio objectifies Katherine but takes a different approach in doing so. He speaks of Katherine in a very possessive way. He talks about how she is like the things he owns which shows that she is less than a human, an object, because there is no positive connotation associated with a person claiming to own another person.

Petruchio was very set on trying to get Katherine to agree with marrying him. On page 95 he went on a small rant.

"Marry, so mean, sweet Katherine, in thy bed. And therefore, setting all this chat aside, Thus in plain terms: your father hath consented That you shall be my wife, your dowry ‘greed on, And, will you, nill you, I will marry you. Now, Kate, I am a household for turn, For by this light, whereby I see thy beauty, Thy beauty that doth make me like thee well, Thou must be married to no man but me. For I am he am born to tame you, Kate, And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate Conformable as other household Kates.”

In this piece of dialogue, Petrucio blantly says that he wants to marry Katherine and spends his time thinking of a way to make Katherine submissive. In many movies today and even in real life people will be attracted to someone but try to tweak their personality to make it more appealing to them instead of finding someone who they were ok with from the beginning. Another way that this scene from the play seems to be showing that marriage is not about love because Katherine and Petruchio are pretty much very similar as far as their wild, violent, and straightforward behavior. This makes it hard to understand why he would want so badly to change would her when it would seem more fitting for him to be in love with the idea of having a woman who is just like him.

In this next scene Dre and Sidney are talking and bonding after they find out that Reese has been cheating on him.

“Something happened between me leaving the house… and, uh… getting to the wedding. But, you know, I shook it off, 'cause, damn, I had a beautiful woman that loved me to death. So, you know, I took all those feelings and... locked them away, 'cause not everybody can marry their one true love. It was a pretty difficult situation.”

Screenshot (18).png

When Dre says that not everybody can marry their one and true love then it automatically goes to show that marriage is not about love. Perhaps he married her because she is successful or maybe even because of her looks but either way love was not in it. There is also the possibility that her married her simply because it is expected for a man of his age to do so. The theme of marrying because you have to not because you want to is present in The Taming of the Shrew. Katherine did not want to get married but she had to because of her father and the societal norms of that time.

In man ways people today are different from the people of the past. But male and female expectations in relationships transcends time. Although “Brown Sugar” and “The Taming of the Shrew” are two completely different stories in two completely different time periods the dynamics of the relationships in both stories are similar. They both prove that society on a large scale affects the way that people approach different things, in this case relationships. So something as timeless as the male’s role when dating or marrying a woman makes it so a man from the fiffthteenth centry and a man from present share the similar ideas about love.

Tianna McNair's-The Promise

Posted by Tianna McNair in English 3 - Pahomov - D on Monday, January 11, 2016 at 1:07 pm

Every year at the end of the summer there was always a family member that would invite us to their block party. Generally they would would get permission from whoever and block off the street for a couple of hours. It was almost customary for everyone on the block to bring their grills in the middle of the street and everyone would have their doors open and blast their own music, and there was also that rare occasion where someone would pay for a dj. But every summer it was always the same thing.

I only enjoyed these sorts of events for two main reasons; it was the only time of the year where I could walk in the street, and you could literally go to anyone’s house on the block and eat their food without it being weird. I was either 4 about to turn 5 or 5 about to turn 6 and it was a big deal. Being as though I am my father’s only child, each new stage in my life is also new for him as a parent. After days of my mother trying to convince my dad that I was finally old to play with the other kids without so much supervision, my dad decided to give in and let and have very serious talk with me. He sat me down before the cookout and made me promise that I would a.) stay in front of the house b.) try not to talk to strangers and c.) stay out of trouble. At first this seemed like a very simple and very fair agreement. I figuratively signed my name in blood when I nodded my head yes in agreement with the terms and conditions that my father set forth.

Term number one: Tianna McNair is not allowed to move from in front of the house owned by Angela and Darrel Sykes. Any violation will result in extreme lecturing and confinement in Angela and Darrel Sykes home until further notice. Did Tianna live up to the terms of this agreement: Nope. As we were pulling up the my aunt’s house any normal person would be able to see a block party but all that I could see was my own new found freedom. I made my rounds of hellos and quick pecks on the cheek and I finally made it out the house with my sanity. I tried playing with my cousins but they were all boys and had no interest in babysitting a little girl. I then took it upon my own hands to find some people who I could relate to, people who were young and adventurous like me. So I walked up the street and found a group of kids playing tag. This back and forth and back and forth became way too repetitive in a short amount of time. Suddenly someone brought out their brand new razor scooter with the blue accent pieces. We all stood there in awe of this beautiful scooter as the shiny rails glisten in the sun. At the time having a razor scooter made you cool so this was a big deal. Everyone one was in a trance and our young instincts made us violent. Everyone began fighting over the scooter. After we came to the general consensus we all got in line and waited our turn to use it. It was finally my turn. As I took my first couple of steps towards to scooter I hadn’t realized that the fat kid behind me had his own agenda. He pushed me out of the way and as I tried to get up the scooter hit me in the head causing my head to crush into the ground. When I stood up everyone was staring at me weirdly then I looked down and saw blood on the ground that was coming from my busted lip.

Term number two: Tianna McNair is not permitted to talk strangers. Any violation will result in more extreme lecturing if she is not already in danger from the interaction with the stranger. I however forgot about this part of the agreement as people rushed over to help me. I don’t remember crying but I do remember being confused. One teenager boy came over to me and asked,”Do you live around here?” I was trying to process the question that was being presented to me. I mean technically no I did not live around there but my aunt lived on this block. Also I could even remember which house belonged to my family because they all looked the same and I didn’t know how far away I drifted. The boy tried again by asking,” Where is your house?” Again this wasn’t as simple as he thought I was just visiting so was interested in taking me to my actual house or is he wanted to bring me to my aunt’s house. All of my confusion stopped me from forming sentences and before I knew it my tiny finger pointed in the direction in which you had to take in order to get to my actual house which was in southwest Philly while we were all the way in north Philly. I guess the confusion got to him to so he just took me across the street, completely ignoring my directions. When we got there, all of the ladies that were sitting out ran over to me throwing a bunch of questions. I can’t even remember what I said or if I even said anything at all but all I knew was that what was about to happen was even worse than talking to strangers.

Term number three: Tianna McNair is supposed to stay out of trouble by any means necessary. Any violation will result in more trouble and harm. All I could do was think about all the trouble I was going to be in as the group of people from that one house attempted to help me find my family. We all marched around in a large group circling the entire neighborhood but little did they know they were doing more harm than good. We were actually getting farther and farther away from the house. But what I didn’t know was that in that moment my father's intuition kicked in and he organized his own search party to find me. As we were walking up the street my family was walking towards us. I was so happy I couldn't help but run to my mom. One of the ladies that I was with explained the situation to my father.

While I was reading “The Yellow Birds” I really connected to the main character Bartle who absent mildly made an agreement with his friend’s mother to protect him and make sure that he wasn't killed in the war. What he agreed to was out of his control just like my busting my lip and getting lost in a matter of minutes. Just like Bartle I felt guilty for not keeping my promise but only now do I realize that it was not my fault. And that my father is always going to look out for me when I’m in trouble and that I should always trust his better judgement.

Grades

Posted by Tianna McNair in English 3 - Pahomov - D on Monday, November 9, 2015 at 11:44 am

A grade is not objective -- it’s up to the teacher’s standard of what is considered just okay versus what is considered excellent. By that logic, a student can do the same work but be deemed intelligent by one teacher and average to another. This will leave a student confused and take away their ability to accurately gauge their own intelligence. Grades are not a good incentive for doing good work in school because it is less about learning, but more so based upon a person's opinion.

BBC, published an article addressing a study done by Stanford University. The study was trying to figure out the effects of praising a child’s abilities or versus telling them that they worked really hard. According to the article, “Praising a child’s intelligence can teach them that this is a fixed trait that they can’t control. It can make them wary of trying anything new in case they don’t maintain their high standards.” If a students gets an A, it means that the student is “advanced”. All the work that a student does is going to maintain their advanced status. If for whatever reason a student was struggling with a certain subject and a received a C or B, they would just push it off because they think that they just aren’t good at the subject. They will not work as hard to get to the A they want because they have a fixed mindset.

Huffingtonpost.com posted an article about a high school student who decided to worry about learning instead of her grades. ” I would focus on actually learning about the topic rather than just doing what was required for the project. My grades on assignments actually improved from this decision and I did make straight A's in all my classes.” The author of the article was trying illustrate that learning is more than trying to pass. When students focus on trying to pass they absorb all the material in class and once the assignment is done they will no longer retain that information. Therefore, striving to get A’s and B’s hinders a person’s ability to gain new, long term knowledge. A person can cheat and find slick ways to get an A or a B and a person could hard really hard and that is not fair nor is it encouraging learning.

On edutopia.org, a website for teachers, posted an article about the effects of a bad teachers on good students. ”A painful few educators regularly appear bored with their subject material, lecture constantly instead of engaging students in intellectual conversation, or even seem to specialize in classroom put-downs.[...], since even hardworking students who face ineffective instruction can end up unhappy in school and incapable of getting much out of their relatively short time in the classroom.” A teacher’s ability to teach is another key factor in the whether or not a student, who wants to learn, will be able to grasp the content. A teacher can be unfit for teaching and the students will suffer, so giving the bad teacher the power to judge whether or not a student deserves a good grade is unfair to the kid. It is unfair to the students because they have to do a lot of work to gain some sort of content from a lesson that wasn’t the best to begin with. In the end, the grade will not reflect the student’s actual intelligence, instead it will only reflect how hard they worked.

When asked, teachers might say that grades are a good incentive for doing good work. But on close inspection, grades do more harm than good. In the end, going to school to get an education is about learning and what a student takes away from it in the long run. However, traditional grades do not support that. Grades do not reflect a person’s knowledge but their work ethic instead, and they tend to do more damage in the long run because they cause less motivated students to fall behind even though they may still be very smart. Over time a student will not

Bibliography

“Is Praising a Child Good or Bad for Them?” BBC. Web. 8 Oct. 2015. <http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140204-is-it-right-to-praise-a-child>

“Punished By Rewards?: A Conversation with Alfie Kohn - Alfie Kohn.” Alfie Kohn. N.p., Feb. 1995. Web. 8 Oct. 2015. <http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/punished-rewards-article/>

Rubino, Jen. “Grades Vs. Learning.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jen-rubino/grades-vs-learning_b_2525903.html>

“The Secret To Raising Smart Kids.” Scientific American Global RSS. Web. 8 Oct. 2015. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids1>

“When Bad Teachers Happen To Good Students: Communication Is the Key to Change.” Edutopia. Web. 12 Oct. 2015. <http://www.edutopia.org/when-bad-teachers-happen-good-students>

Crossing Boundaries Through Geography And Culture

Posted by Tianna McNair in English 2 - Pahomov - A on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 at 1:31 am

The Coldest Winter Ever

Posted by Tianna McNair in English 2 - Pahomov - A on Tuesday, January 20, 2015 at 8:45 am

When people think of a good story they usually think of interesting characters, a unique plot, and a great setting. But what people fail to realize is that in order to have all of those things you need to be a great writer with a lot of different techniques to enhance the passage. In “The Coldest Winter Ever” the author Sister Souljah used her artistic abilities to give vivid details and descriptions to allow her readers to experience the book with the characters. A author’s skillful use of similes and metaphors helps paint a vivid picture of whatever scene she is writing about and helps the reader picture and connect to whatever she is writing about. It also makes the story more enjoyable. The author’s writing style strongly affects and influences the finished work.

In the book “The Coldest Winter Ever” Winter Santiaga, the main character, is describing Midnight, her crush, while he is playing basketball. Winter say’s ”But what really got me was that black skin. It was smooth and perfect. It laid on top of his bone structure like tight Saran Wrap.” This works because we all know what Saran Wrap looks like when it’s over top of something. It is generally smooth and shiny. This helps us to picture how nice Midnight’s skin and how his bone structure is really defined. Also the use of words like “perfect” and “smooth” help the reader to feel the same attraction Winter feels as she tell us about her crush. Had she just said she has really nice skin and she likes it the story wouldn’t be the same. But because she put the emphasis on this particular aspect it helps the readers to share the same emotions as her.

In this part of “The Coldest Winter Ever”, Winter is helping the reader get familiar with the setting and introducing the readers to the characters. She begins by telling the readers about growing up in Brooklyn with her family in the projects. Winter then continues on to say,“Chemical warfare is the only way to describe what happens when cheap perfume, body splash, body spray, underarm deodorant, curl activator, hair spray, and pissy Pampers collide.” Sense of smell and memories are closely linked together. One scent can trigger a memory or emotion. Because of this I feel as though it was very smart for sister souljah, or any writer for that matter, to mention all of these different scents. The pampers remind me of annoying crying babies. The curl activator and hair spray and perfume remind the reader of black hair salons. With all of these scents with my own personal memory attached to them I can easily picture what it’s like standing in the hallway that was mentioned.

In this part of the book Winter had assumed that Sister Souljah and Midnight were dating and Winter grew jealous because she wanted him. Winter finds the letter’s that Sister Souljah and Midnight have been sending to one another and finds out that they were not dating. Midnight only went to her to get his life together. In the letter Sister Souljah is describing why he should change his ways and give up selling drugs. Sister souljah says, “Drugs rob every person, man, woman, and child of their beauty. Drugs turn people into animals who can only respond to instincts. Drugs are so powerful they eradicate the God in both the taker and the giver.”Sister Souljah could have easily just said drugs are bad for everyone. Had she said that it would have erased all of the emotion that is linked to what she originally said. By her using words like rob shows how unexpectedly, forceful, and harmful drugs are to users and their families. By her using such harsh words it helps the reader to feel the same disgust and sadness she was trying to portray.

Goodreads.com is a website where people can read and write book reviews and create reading list. On the website a user by the name of Kay Prime left a review on the website expressing how much she enjoyed the book and how great of a writer the author is. Kay prime said,“ The voice that Souljah gave Winter is still there. She is well- written, raw and real.” This shows how the character is relatable. The only reason that she feels this way is because when you can picture everything that is going on. When the author uses very brilliant descriptive details it helps the reader to connect to what’s going on. This is especially true when the author makes references to things that you can understand which adds to the “raw” and “real” feelings you get while reading.

Writing is so much more than putting words on a page. Writing is about using your skill set to get creative and write stories with different techniques like similes metaphors, symbolism, and different story structures. A book without descriptive details would be very dull. The writing wouldn’t be as impactful. This also adds emotions and helps guide the tone and the mood of the story.

Works Cited

Souljah. The Coldest Winter Ever: A Novel. New York: Pocket, 1999. Print.

"A Review of The Coldest Winter Ever." Goodreads. Web. 19 Jan. 2015. <https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/88631346?book_show_action=false&page=2>.

Spanish Interview

Posted by Tianna McNair in Spanish 2 - Bey - D on Sunday, January 4, 2015 at 8:43 pm

https://www.wevideo.com/view/296942869?timelineId=296846105

Green Eyes

Posted by Tianna McNair in English 2 - Pahomov - A on Sunday, November 23, 2014 at 10:59 pm

I know that there is a bus stop right out front of my house but I think I’ll go catch the train this morning. It’s about five blocks away in the part of the city that people call the white side but all the cute boys from St. Charles East catch the train from there and besides I could use the exercise. [rolls eyes] I mean I don’t know what it is about cute boys but they just make you do stupid things.

I was standing on the platform clinging onto my book bag as the train rushed into the station. The wind from the train made my hair blow fiercely like Beyonce in concert. I am ready. [Flips hair] The train door opened and I walked in and grabbed a seat all the way in the back of the train. Thats when I saw him. [eyes grow wide from amazement] I saw green eyes sticking out from the crowd of people as he scanned his transpass and made his way into the same train car as me. No freaking way. So I’m clawing through my bookbag trying to find my lip gloss. Got it [puts on lip gloss] I hope he sees me. [Sits up really straight and crosses legs]

Green eyes is just standing there and slowly bobbing his head to his music. I wonder what he is listening to. Maybe classic 80’s rock. Yoooo look at those lips. Good lord. They are so pink and full and so round they are perfect. They probably feel perfect too. We would be so cute together posting kissing selfies. He could be my mcm every Monday. And his hair… Lord. His beautiful baby brown curls fall effortlessly down his smooth Ivory skin. I just want to hold his hand. Or just be able to feel his arms around me Shit. He sees me staring at him. Ummm maybe I should smile. [Smiles awkwardly] OMG he really just smiled back. Hopefully he doesn’t remember me from last time. When I tripped and dropped my cell phone, my glasses and my wallet. Hopefully I can redeem myself.

I really would like to get to know him but what will he think if I just walked up to him and told him that would like to have his number. He would probably tell all his friends that I was thirsty. And all my friends would call me an oreo, sell out, or say that I [air quotations] hate my people. Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be like other girls. To be able to like boys that do not necessarily look like me without being accused of hating myself.

I love myself. I love my sun kissed skin, wide hips, round lips, and kinky hair. Today I’m going to do what I want to do. Who gives a damn what people think. That’s right today is the day I’m going to get his number. But wait… what should I say? [bites lip as if in deep thought. Eyes get wide from amazement] I got it! I could say, yooo I lost my number can I have yours? Nah. I could say I’m pretty and you’re cute, together we could be pretty cute. Nah. I’ll just let it happen naturally I mean whatever happens, happens. This is the moment of truth.[stands up and nervously walks over to guy] [Clears throat] Hey, umm you know umm do you know what stop is next?

Ain't What You Say But Whose Interpreting

Posted by Tianna McNair in English 2 - Pahomov - A on Tuesday, November 11, 2014 at 10:55 am

It was the night of my SLA interview. My mom dropped me off in the morning, around 9 am and we all traveled up to the fifth floor and settled in the 10th and 11th grade english classroom. The huge windows showcased the picturesque Philadelphia skyline. The suns rays reflected off of the buildings and made room warm and cozy. It was beautiful. As the hours passed, the kids left one by one, until, I was the only person in the medium sized classroom. It was pitch black outside and the room was dead silent.

“It’s your turn.”

I slowly stood up, made my way to the door, and we walked around the corner in the vacant hallways. My hands were clammy and shaking from my uncontrollable nerves. We approached the classroom door and the girl turned over slightly to look at me. ”It’s ok to be nervous. Just be yourself and you’ll do great.”

“Thanks.” I tried my hardest to create a smile that didn’t look overly forced. I failed. I pushed open the door. The man and the student next to him both smiled and welcomed me in. I kept making mental notes to remind myself to enunciate my words and pronounce all of my vowels. The last thing I needed was for them to think I was unprofessional. The man and the student began to ask me questions about my project. The whole time I was zoned out trying to suck back all of um’s, like’s, and so’s that were forcefully trying to creep their way back into my sentences.

“What do you think you can bring to the SLA community?”

“I ...ah ...wahhh...I...umm… could you repeat the question please?”My face was bright red and my hands were soaking wet. But most importantly I knew exactly what the man had just asked me, i was trying to think of something that sounded interesting. I was also trying to redeem myself for saying umm so many times I just needed to breathe and put on a different persona.

“Yes of course sweet heart. What do you think you can bring to the SLA community?”

“I believe that I can end cliques and also I could just be a person that anyone can talk to.”

Nervous was an understatement. I felt as if I had to erase all of the “Tianna” out of my system and try to become someone else. In The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingstan, the protagonist’s mother cuts the tongue of her daughter to help her speak, and in his quote she is explaining why. ”I cut [your tongue] so that you would not be tongue-tied. Your tongue would be able to move in any language. You’ll be able to speak languages that are completely different from one another. You’ll be able to pronounce anything.”

The way you talk is sort of like a sponge. It is made up of your environment, your city, your age, in some cases your race or sex. Most of those things are things that people use to make assumptions about your character. It is easy for them to judge you based off of the way you speak because everything that makes up the way you speak can also be used to discriminate against you. So in order to avoid that, people feel the need to code switch so that people can not make false assumptions about who you are and where you come from.

When the author says “cut your tongue ... your tongue will be able to move in any language“, it reminds me of when you code switch. You cut all the ties that connect you to where you come and many more things that make you, you.

Code switching is when you switch the way you talk when you enter a different setting. There are many different reasons why people code switch. One example would be, when you switch from speaking slang with your friends to speaking standard english when you have a conference with a teacher. Another example would be when you speak spanish at home and you switch to speak english outside of the home.

In the passage “Hunger of Memory” by Richard Rodriguez , Richard describes growing up in Sacramento with his Mexican immigrant parents. In the quote on page 13, Richard explains how his parents have two different personas, one in the comfort of their home and one for when they have to speak to people in a more formal setting outside of the home.“In public, my father and mother spoke a hesitant, accented, not always grammatical English. And they would have to strain-their bodies tense-to catch the sense of what was rapidly said by los gringos. At home they spoke Spanish. The language of their Mexican past sounded in counterpoint to the English of public society. The words would come quickly, with ease. Conveyed through those sounds was the pleasing, soothing, consoling reminder of being at home.” Richard explains how his parents had to acquiesce in order to get what they need so that they could get ahead. Similar to Richards parents I also had to acquiesce to a different vernacular that was deemed socially acceptable which was different to the way I’m used to speaking.

After the interview I learned how important it is to develope a different persona for when you enter more formal settings like an interview. This is because the way you speak is a label for many things, negative and positive. People seem to take you more seriously when you speak standard english. Although that isn’t right you don’t want to sabotage yourself from getting an opportunity. But you should always be proud of the way you talk speak because it is what makes you uniquely you.

Negative Space

Posted by Tianna McNair in Art - Freshman - Hull - y1 on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 at 6:10 pm

Negative space is the space surrounding the main subject in a picture. In the cut out I found the negative space by looking at the two different colors. And for the drawing I knew that the negative space had to be everything around the table, the stools and the plant. Artist use negative space because it helps them see things that are usually hard to see. Negative space is useful when making art because it helps artist because it helps when drawing very detailed things and it helps make the art more pleasing.

La Casa de Holly

Posted by Tianna McNair in Spanish 1 - Manuel - D on Sunday, June 8, 2014 at 11:23 pm

Mi cliente nombre es Holly Dancy y ella es 22 años. Quiere ser un professora. Ella colores favoritos es amarillo y verde. Holly le gusta jugar básquetbol, voleibol, fútbol, y nadar. En su tiempo libre le gusta cocinar, leer, ver la tele y películas, pintar, y hacer arte y poesía. En el futuro, quiere dos niños y un esposo. No quiere un mascota.

La casa esta en Rabat, Morocco. La casa está cerca de la ciudad, muchas tiendas y supermercados. La casa está lejos de Filadelfia. La casa es mediana con uno piso. La casa es conveniente porque hay muchos cosas ella le gusta dentro. La casa es espectacular con un montón de árboles. La cocina es elegante y moderna con mucho ventanas enorme con vistas de piscina. La puerta en la cocina conduce a piscina grande con sillas a relajarse y leer. La comedor es muy simple pero es surprisingly bonito. Hay ventanas y mucho luz del sol. Tu y su familia comen en la sol. La dormitorio #1 es muy magnífica porque hay un baño ir con lo. El baño #1 es todo blanco con luz del sol y una ducha de lujo fuera. Hay una oficina personal. Usted lata escriben poesía, trabajan, surfear la red, estudian, o ver la tele solo. La casa tiene dos dormitorios extra para niños o invitado. La casa tiene un garaje para carros. Este casa grandísimo es la casa de sus sueños y lo es de venta.

Contacto Me

Precio: $800,000

Agente: Tianna McNair

Contacto Numero: 215-888-CASA

Llamar ahora para descuento

La casa de Eddie Murphy

Posted by Tianna McNair in Spanish 1 - Manuel - D on Wednesday, May 28, 2014 at 11:24 pm

Esta es la casa de Eddie Murphy. Está en California. Está cerca de mucho famosa personas. Está lejos de mi casa en Fliladelfia. La casa de Eddie Murphy es muy bonito. La casa tiene árboles. Hay tres piscinas. La casa tiene dos pisos. Y la casa tiene una pista de tenis.

La Casa

Posted by Tianna McNair in Spanish 1 - Manuel - D on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 at 10:24 pm

El baño tiene dos lavamanos. En la cuarto hay una grande cama. En la cocina hay dos hornos. La casa no tiene un sótano, sala, y garaje. Hay una mesa en la cocina. La casa tiene un piso. Y hay una lavadora y secadora en el baño.

Yo Encanta Mi Familia

Posted by Tianna McNair in Spanish 1 - Manuel - D on Friday, March 14, 2014 at 1:53 pm

Esta es mi familia. Mi mamá es trabajador. Mi mamá lee africana americana historia libros mucho. Mi mayor hermana Aisha trabaja en peluquería. Ella es muy creativa y talentosa. Mi hermana Holly y mi hermano Amin escriben poesía. Ellos encanta cantar. Amin canta terrible y Holly canta suṕer bien. Holly estudio en Americano universidad en Washington DC. Yo escribo poesía y dibujo. Odio cuidar a los niños de Aisha. Porque ellos hablan y comen mucho. En el verano, vamos a la playa y nadamos y comemos. Cuando tenemos tiempo libre nosotros vamos al cine.

Remake

Posted by Tianna McNair on Tuesday, January 14, 2014 at 9:05 am

I learned a lot from the in class presentations which made me want to revisit the sources that were given to us from Ms.Hull on canvas. I really liked how Alicia spaced out the letters in her title so I thought it would be nice to borrow that idea from her and incorporate that into my new slide. I learned from the sources to use the rule of the thirds, which I attempted to do on my first slide but was more successful this time around. From the Design Slide website I read how color was important while making a slide because it draws the viewers yes to it so on my slide I tried to use bright colors that were from the same color palette. I used a white background because I found it way easier to find colors to contrast with it. From Presentation Zen I learned that your slide should stick to one point and I believe I was successful with that. My slide stayed with the theme on traveling so I used colors the represent the earth, I used a image that displayed the world map, and my quote/definition talked about traveling and wanderlust. I really tried to leave some empty space so that my slide wouldn't look cluttered just like the website Presentation Zen mentioned. Overall i feel really proud not only about my new side design but more so how much I learned and how much I grew from my first slide to now.

Tianna's Billboard

Posted by Tianna McNair on Monday, December 9, 2013 at 9:02 pm

The one thing that I love more than food is traveling. So that being said I made my slide/billboard display this passion. My visual has hearts in each continent which symbolizes,to fully understand who you are you have to find yourself via traveling. I wanted it to be simple so I tried to use only a few words with a cute simple visual. I have some contrast(the white and red). I also tried to leave empty space, (upper far right and lower far left). I tried to the best of my ability to use rule of thirds by placing them as you can see. And I made sure that I made my type big and easy to read, and my font design was consistent. Also my slide has one point and one point only.