Observational Journals

Knowing Our Place is and excerpt from Barbara Kingsolver’s SMALL WONDER. The excerpt is basically all about the places where her life stories and where important times in her life take place. They all end up having to take place in the wilderness in a small town, in a small house in the middle of nowhere; where she had actually grown up. She talks about how her log cabin at the end of Walker Mountain is near tobacco plants and also how it has old historic nature to it. She talks about how she loves the rain and how it sounds in her little log cabin house that was built in the early 1900’s. She grew up and spent most her childhood in these woods filled with neighbor’s miles away and

It brings you into my life, who I am. It’s a reminder to myself that it’s okay to be vulnerable over the course of the next 80 pages. For a long time I think I had a difficult time opening up to people, and opening up in my work. I would write about things that didn’t necessarily have to do with my life directly. What I wanted for this book was to be personal.

Now when I say tiny town I mean it. The population is about 1,400 people with one gas station, one grocery store, and 2 restaurants with some gift shops. The first time I saw Grand Marais we drove into town and in a blink of an eye it was gone. I’ve never seen anything like this other than in movies. We finally got to her cabin, and it was one of three houses on that entire road which at first seemed horrific. But something I’ll never forget is how bright the stars were. We stood outside and saw every star in that sky, since there wasn’t many neighbors with their lights on, or highways with a cluster of traffic. The first morning I was ther, Brooklyn started to show me some amazing spots such as Hurricane river, Tahquamenon Falls, Marquette Harbor, and so much more. I got to experience a place that most people don't even realize is on the map. When the vacation was finally over I asked my friends back at home what they did. Which you can probably guess was them glued to their phones and laptops all summer. I had an amazing summer that I’ll always remember, and I'm glad it didn't involve

Arriving in the overgrown drive way trees start to crowd your vision, in the middle of all the trees I see an old beach house; that has stayed the same over the 18 years I have been going up there. Grandma is waiting outside on the front porch we all run up to give her a hug, then we go and start unpacking for a week’s worth of relaxing. First thing we do when were done unpacking is go to the old but new play structure. We sit on the swings and look out towards the big blue Michigan Lake. White caps cover most of the water along with passing boats, and some kayakers. Right over the horizon I can see the lights from the town, reaching into the sky. The sun is starting to set; the sky is painted with pink, orange, and yellow.

I decided for my social observation the mall would be a good place to start. I came there on a Friday evening when there should be plenty of people to watch. I also sat in the Barnes and Noble café after that to observe. I expected to see a lot of people shopping and conversing. A few things did stand out to me within the few hours I was there. Some things I didn’t expect to see. We are expected to behave a certain way in public determined by our culture as to what is acceptable. Some people stay well within the lines while some might stray outside the norms but never too far typically. Usually the ones to travel to the extremes are adolescents and teenagers. This is what I observed.

In one's life, for many, the place means everything. In the novel Blank by Trina St Jean, a young teen looses her memory after an upsetting accident and spends the novel trying to figure out what happened. Jessica's life is set in her family farm and surrounding forest. Setting is crucial to her story because of her love for nature, her accident, and her runaway plan. To begin, Jessica’s family farm is the perfect place for a nature lover like Jessica, it could be that living on the farm made her develop her love, or that is grew over time. Nonetheless, the farm is a crucial setting to the story: “After taking the first photo it starts to come back to me. Not a memory, but a feeling. Like I’ve done this before” (St. Jean 189). Here it is seen

Pattern recognition helps to develop the skills necessary to develop a differential diagnosis. When seeing patients in the clinical setting, practitioners begin to recognize associated symptoms, health history details, and assessment findings that are related to specific system alterations. By acknowledging these repetitive patterned-like affiliations from clinical scenarios, we as learners can begin to transform our foundational knowledge to critical thinking, diagnostic reasoning, and differential development. According to work by Flott and Linden (2015), a positive learning environment can be supported by understanding "attributes" that support learning (p. 501). Hence, pattern recognition is an example of an attribute that will contribute to learning in the clinical setting for nurse practitioner students. Consequently, being able to mentally sort a group of symptoms, findings, and diagnostics that are related to a particular problem can help build an intellectual database of reference. As a result, these steps help students develop a diagnosis, differential, and plan of care. A reflection of pattern recognition, problem-based learning, and clinical experiences will be examined further to help substantiate the contributions to the learning experience.

When the end of the year comes I plan to take a walk along it once a week. Throughout winter, the meadow was insignificant and boring, because it was gray and dark green, and those are the colors you see in winter. Right now it is so beautiful with the blooming lupine, and the tall grass. I especially love the pond in front of the building and the way that it gives the illusion that the building is floating. Sometimes there are ducks or geese on the pond or in the grass and they make the pond that much more beautiful. Weyerhaeuser Way is beautiful anyway and anywhere you choose to look at it, but I think the meadow is the most beautiful part. The meadow is especially lovely this time of year, especially when the sun is out and shining. I choose color pencil for my medium because it gives off a kind of faded, and airy look to what you are drawing, and when I think about the meadow I think of light and airy grass and flowers. The flowers are my favorite part of the meadow just because they brighten up the boring grass shades that we see everywhere and make the whole place so much more cheerful and happy, especially with those bright magentas and purples and pinks in

Once I arrived at the park, I breathed in the fresh air around me and took it all in. The air was cool and salty from the Atlantic ocean, and the trees were a stunning shade of orange this autumn. I could hear the waves crashing against the shore and leaves crunching beneath my feet. An ice cold wind whipped my hair, and I was glad I wore warm clothes. I made a beeline

I have a "friend" who hangs on me and follows me everywhere I go. Although this is not "strange" for most people, it is for my friend, whose name I will not say. Since I will not say names, lets call her Leaf. I'm not sure why I "leaf' came to mind, but the trees are budding, so let's go with it.

As I sit here, on the hood of my car looking out into the vast field I think to myself, why this place? Out of all the places that mean so much to me, why does this place stand out the most? Everyone has that one spot that is special to him or her for various reasons whether it be a memory, experience, how it makes them feel, etc. For me, my favorite place encompasses all my senses bringing them to an all time high filling me with an overwhelming indescribable feeling. It’s my sanctuary, a safe place, but above all a place to clear my mind and getaway from reality. There aren’t enough captivating words to describe the beauty of this place. In the winter, the vast field covered in a blanket of untouched glimmering snow surrounded by bare

Paisley woke up at 9:00 A.M. catch her flight to leave New Orleans. Just as she was sitting down they had announced that her flight was delayed because there was a huge dilemma. She yelled ugh! and sat back down. She thought to herself what am I going to do. A lightbulb went off in her head. she was going to go to Morning call in City Park. When she arrived at morning call, she went and looked on the menu and realized they only serve beignets and milk. After ten minutes of waiting she finally order, sat down and enjoyed her meal. she enjoyed it so much she lost track of time. she quickly rushed back to the airport to see her flight take off. she rushed to ask the lady when the next flight out was and she said tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. She tantalized

I wouldn’t have even guessed that people lived here if there hadn't been bridges and shepherds walking around. Nature is so many things, but ultimately its a thing of such beauty. Untouched landscapes could show you just how beautiful nature is without human interference, seducing you with its beauty. Food for the animals were scarce as well for the poor. I saw these band of orphans, deep in the mountains who were starving, I could tell by their gaunt faces. It hurt to see such a sight, the only food I had on myself at the moment was gum, so I gave each child a piece of gum. Their faces lit up

Bright lights, unfamiliar streets. An impersonal city, shiny and new as she always pictured it. She’s all alone, surrounded by strangers whom she never has and never will again see, but the thrill of adventure overtakes all. She tries the food, flirts with locals. She loses herself in the mysterious beauty of a city prompting exploration.

Walking through the trail full of mud and leaves always made me think about my life. It was always there when I needed to walk and get things off my mind. Looking around watching the leaves fall off tree after tree flying like butterflies, all different colors. When they stopped, they immediately died and they were not coming back alive again. Piled leaves filled up under trees and children ran and jumped on them like they were pillows. These trees tripled the height of humans with numerous branches holding hundreds of leaves. While walking the river flows and it is such a beautiful view with the sun shining right off of it. The ducks and little birds chirping and floating through the smooth water puts a joy to my face.