Digital Short Script

"You are the salt of the Earth"
What if your church closed its doors, and never opened again? Would the people in the community notice that you didn't meet anymore? Would anyone care? As Christians, the way we carry ourselves, and the impact we have on our community is one of the main ways we can contribute to helping people understand the important of eternity. What kind of attitude should we have when approaching people with the ideas of church. Judgmental? Arrogant? Pushy? No, God calls us to spread the word, but we are to do that with attitudes like Jesus. "You are the light of the world." God is moving, what are you doing to shine his light in your community?

Project progression

My project has not come together as nicely as I have wanted it to, but I feel like I am finally starting to get somewhere. I really struggled in the beginning with choosing a topic. I originally wanted to study the culture of nursing, but that became too difficult. It is way to hard to try and get around all of the HIPPA laws in order to get the in depth information that I would have needed to make this project interesting and full of life. I was really saddened by this but quickly changed over into doing a project about my Church. I thought it would be easy to unravel some of the mysteries at how our church goes about evangelizing and seeing that God moves not only through the people within our church, but also through the people in our community. I was terribly mistaken about how much work actually goes into all of this, and found that it was really difficult to gather information and talk to all of the people that I needed to talk to in order to make my information seem like research and not experience. A large majority of my portfolio is going to be  interviews and pictures. I am a little concerned that my portfolio is going to seem as though I do not have a lot of researched information, when really I do. Its just a matter of figuring out how to get the information I have learned into a researched format. And on top of that, a large majority of my project is based on personal experience because I have had the opportunity to work with and participate in many of the events that our church holds to help us grow more spiritually, as well as helping the community to grow more spiritually. I really feel that the project is going well and will really come together in the next two weeks.

Archival Materials

Some of the archival materials that I plan to use for my project are:
 *Old bulletins
 *Pictures of our church throughout the years
 *News paper articles about the church and how it has grown
 *Pictures that reflect the way our worship services have changed over the years. For example: Changing from song books to a projector screen, or from the sermons notes being on paper to being on powerpoint.
 * Im hoping to find some different things that we have done over the years on the internet or on our website also so that I can use those things as archival materials, as well.

Lives on the Boundary

Lives on the Boundary was a very interesting book for me to read. I felt like the boundaries discussed in this book were so common with things that people actually struggle with in real life. I enjoyed the way that book discussing the barrier of language. I think that language has become an extremely large barrier in the United States. It is something that I have become more aware of since I started college, because now I have more contact with people from other countries. In talking to some of my friends from other countries I find it interesting the things that they can't really understand about english. It really puts into perspective how difficult it must be to come to a country that you are not familiar with and attempt to communicate in a world of people who can be very judgmental and harsh about that fact that one is not familiar with the language.
I think that the book was enjoyable to read in the sense that it made a lot of good points. I like the idea of physical, as well as, emotional and educational boundaries. I think it was interesting that the author was able to pull together all these different levels of boundaries and make them into a story. The fact that it was a story, and based on something that actually happened made the book seem more real and more interesting to read.

Reflective Memo about the Online Space

Because I chose a single place I could not find specific online memos about my Church, but I was able to find several blog type websites that discuss different activities that other Churches of Christ participate in. The study of these online spaces helped me to realize how many alternate activities there are to participate in, as well as how many things we participate in that other churches do also. For example, I learned that many churches here in the community of Nashville have days where they help out with disaster relief. I knew a few other organizations that participated in helping with the disaster relief, but I did not realize how many churches were actually involved in this process. I also learned new things that are church may could begin helping with that we do not participate in. We could collect snack items for the waiting rooms at hospitals and collect the tabs on coke cans for the Ronald McDonald foundation. Those were two activities I noticed other churches being involved in that our church is not. Looking into these blogs also helped me to realize how many people want to discuss their ideas and beliefs. I would not think that many people would want to discuss this, especially online with people they do not know, but it gave me some insight to how willing people are to evangelize even through typing simple words on the internet.

Cultural Terminology

Within the church that I am doing my project over there is not a whole lot of specific words that one would need to know. I mean occassionally my preacher will make up a word, like disciple-lessness, but those words remain self explanatory, for example that means without disciples. If you get into the teenager classrooms, there you may need to learn some acronyms or just learn the teen lingo. For example, if they say lol, it means laugh out loud, or nbd stands for no big deal. These are common things that you will hear said when spending time with that ages group, but the lingo becomes second nature and most of the time one would already have an understanding of the words. Our youth group is OHYG, which simply stands for Old Hickory youth group, and our church is OHCOC, which simplys stands for Old Hickory Church of Christ. However, other than those few terms, there is not any certain terminology that I think would need to be told of ahead of time.

Letter to a friend

Kassie,
  I was writing you to tell you a little bit about my ethnographic project for my third year writing class hoping you could give me some feedback and different ideas about what to do to make my project strong and look complete. I am doing my project over how I feel God is moving through the people at Old Hickory Church of Christ, and how that movement is going to allow his love and his word to be spread to others. Since you have been attending this church with me for so many years I figured you would have some good ideas on what to do in order to make the project look more complete. Who should I talk to? What events do you think are the main ones that help  the people of Old Hickory Church of Christ grow spiritually? I know that you have gone on some of the mission trips and I would like to talk to you about your experience and how the trip made you feel, as well as the expressing what gratitude you saw from the families in Mexico that we helped. My plan with the project is to focus on two themes: 1) How is God moving through the members of the church? 2) How is God moving through the community of people that the church reaches out to? If you have any other suggestions please let me know. Remember this is an ethnographic project so I have to have lots of information about the culture of our church.
  Thanks
    Kelsi

Interview Response

To start, I have changed the topic of my project to God is Moving. My project is going to be focused on the things that my church does to try and reach out into the community to spread God's word, and then the reactions of the people who are on the receiving end of the activities the church holds.
The interview that I did was with one of the members of our youth group at Old Hickory Church of Christ. I chose to interview one of the youth members because I think that they have a very unique view on the way that God is moving in their lives.
From our interview I was able to learn more about the things that the youth members of our church do to serve others in the communities and ways they grow spiritually. Abby, the girl I interviewed, is a freshman in high school this year and has been attending our church for about five years now. She is a really loving person. I learned  how much the church means to her and how much she feels like she has grown spiritually thanks to our youth minister. The interview allowed me to hear perspectives from some of the youth and I learned that as a whole the way they feel they grow the most spiritually is by singing, as opposed to just listening. The youth is also involved in Christian conferences and outreach programs. They rake leaves and mow for the older people in the neighborhood and other things to try and help others. I learned a lot the youth. It was a really enjoyable experience.

Map

The one thing this very vague drawing of a map did help me to see was how the nurses have to work to get babies from the room to the neonatal unit in a timely manner in the event of an emergency. I hope to add some more detailed pictures soon of this mapped out drawing to provide the details that would have been nearly impossible for me to draw. However there are three hallways of rooms available for mothers. Some rooms are specifically for delivery while the others are for waiting and recovery. The nurses station is located in the center of the floor with the hallways behind it and the nursery and neonatal unit directly in front of it. Hallway 1 and 3 are typically the rooms used for delivery because of the convenient entrances to the neonatal unit. The doors that separate the neonatal unit and the rest of the floor will all open automatically in the event of and emergency allow the nurse to spend more time running to the unit and holding the baby properly with both hands. This map was able to give me a better perspective on the type of route that nurses and babies take when something goes wrong. It helped me to understand the flow of the system more properly. I think it is really neat how doors open automatically for the nurses and it alerts other the neonatal nurses to be prepared. They will usually have their hands and arms already washed and they are dressed appropriately with gloves on and ready to handle the emergency. Such an exciting job!

Cultural Artifact

The cultural artifact that I am choosing to write about is extremely important to the church. I think one of the best and most obvious cultural artifacts in the church would have to the bible. I mean how much more cultural can we get than the bible, and it is dated back many years so I would think it classifies as an artifact. The bible is so important to the Old Hickory Church of Christ, as it is many other churches throughout the world. It is the basis for Christianity and the beliefs of the people within the church doors. The bible is full of texts that can be and have been interpreted in many different ways making many different denominations and beliefs about church, but we are all striving for the same goals, and that goal is to live peacefully on earth, avoid sin as much as humanly possible, forgive, and strive each day to get to heaven. The bible as an artifact is really quite interesting because it not only classifies because of its age, but it is also an artifact in the sense that the words within the bible are so meaningful and some of the most commonly quoted texts in the world. I love the idea of being able to have such a strong artifact for my project.

The YMCA

Interestingly enough, the YMCA seems to be the culture that has been close to me over the past few months since I have began working out their. It is odd to think of the YMCA as being a cultural, and even more off to think of it as a culture that I am involved in. One thing I would like to point out is that I will only be reflecting on the YMCA in Donelson, TN.
I have noticed lately when I go there that there seem to be a lot of elderly people. They are almost always wearing the same color shirt leading me to believe that they participate in classes together. I looked around the YMCA to try and find some evidence of this and learned that the YMCA has a program called silver shoes which is specifically for senior citizens. I decided to watch about twenty minutes of one session to see if it would be something my grandmother my be interested in doing. I noticed that the class does not seem to be as strength based as it is neurologically based. The instructor leads the seniors in balance exercises as well as simple exercises like lifting two and three pound weights, lifting the weight of their legs, and even and simple as being able to to pinch the ends of a clothes pin together. All of the seniors had smiling faces. They were able to  laugh and enjoy one another's company while benefiting themselves with a small workout. I think it is really good for them to have this kind of activity at least two times a week to keep their brains and bodies mobile.
After the session many of the seniors go into the lobby, which is designed kind of like a coffee shop, to continue their talking and drink coffee or tea. I was able to go and talk with a few of the participants and each of them had very positive things to say about silver shoes. One lady told me that it just felt so good to get out of the house and be able to come and talk with others that are experiencing some of the same difficulties that she has. I never would have thought that I would be looking at the silver shoes club and the YMCA as a culture but it really is. They all where matching shirts, usually in an old pair of white tennis shoes, and they all have smiling faces. Its a healthy environment for an older bunch.

Cultures I am interested in studying

One of the main cultures that I would like to study would be the oncology department at Vanderbilt medical center. This center is actually called the Vanderbilt- Ingram Cancer Center. I am very interested in oncology and always have been ever since my mom was diagnosed with cancer several years ago. I think I could study this by going and talking with some of the oncologists in that particular center to try and learn more about the process of finding and diagnosing cancer. I think that it would also be helpful for me to talk to chemist about the study of medicines involving cancer treatments. It is very neat to me that I could study all these things in the same place.  I would like to learn what steps are taken by this particular clinic after the diagnosis has been made. I guess my main question would be. What are the main steps taken in making a diagnosis and where do you go from there? Each hospital and each doctor have different opinions, and I think it would be unique to learn how the process is done at this particular center.

The other idea that I have would be to study Tennessee Volunteers Football. I have been in love with football my whole life and especially in the past five years or so I have become very interested as I have learned and began to understand the rules more clearly. I could study this by traveling to Knoxville and possibly talking with some of the coaches and players.Also studying the recruiting boards and blogs of the people who are inside Tennessee Football. I think talking with the magazine company inside Tennessee would be helpful also because they dedicate a whole magazine to the University of Tennessee Sports. I want to know more about the recruiting process and what goes in to picking the individual players that we are choose. What separated Tennessee from all of the other college football teams? Although some forms of these questions I could answer on my own, no one really knows exactly what is going on with this set of coaches in Neyland Stadium.

Observational Writing

I had to type my double entry observational notes and then take a picture of my screen in order to get these on here because I do not have a way to get new pictures on my computer at this time. What surprised me? I was really surprised by how many things go on when walking down there greenway that I have never taken the time to notice. It is very rare that I stop to pay attention to my surroundings. I found it very fun to pay close attention to the items that people had chosen to wear. Like the man who wore jeans and sandals to go running with his dog. I was also surprised to see the wild foxes on the greenway. What intrigued me? I would be very intrigued to know how many wild animals I have missed by not paying attention to my surroundings. I also became very intrigued about how many miles are ran, walked, or biked on the greenway each day. I was also very intrigued by all of the different kinds of activities go on. I usually tend to only notice the bikers and walkers, but there are people who fish, some roller skate, and some even ride scooters. What disturbed me? I cant really say that much of anything disturbed me on this trip to the greenway. I can say that at time I am slightly disturbed by the people that are on the greenway. There have been reports of robberies and other suspicious activities happening on the greenway so one always needs to make sure that they are making sure of their surroundings. I am somewhat disturbed about the fact that the greenway is not lighted. I think that because of some people perception of what time it gets dark, it would be a smart idea to have the greenway lit in the even that people are still riding, running, or walking after the sun goes down. Overall, these observational notes have made me more aware of my surrounding when I am on the greenway.  I noticed things I have never paid attention to before at a place I visit about three times a week. It made for an interesting day.  

The world of discourse

Discourse is basically something that just doesn't seem right in situation. Like a grandmother going to her 18 year old granddaughters slumber party, or putting a puppy in room full of kittens to plays. Discourse is all around us. We could probably find a kind of discourse in every situation of the day. It could be even as simple as a purple colored star in a rooms or sky full of yellow ones. Here are some examples of discourse in videos.

There are many examples of discourses in the video above. The baby is talking like an adult for starters. This type of discourse create humor. It is really funny to see a baby talking and using adult language. He is actually saying jokes and creating punch lines. The baby is not only talking but in this particular commercial he is using a ipad or tablet device to search the internet. This is discourse because babies cannot actually participate in these activites, but it creates humor and commercials that are appealing to the viewers.

Things I was taught to never do as a writer.

Growing up as a writer I was taught to never end a sentence with preposition. I can remember my mom always getting on to me for saying "Where is it at?" I know I could have just said Where is it, but for some reason the at always tagged along as an extra unneeded word. When I would say sentences like this often my mom would always make me do write offs practicing not ending my sentence in that way. I was also often taught not to begin a sentence with and, but, or because. For some reason I really enjoyed doing this to add emphasis or sometimes it actually made my papers sound more grammatically correct, like if a sentence where to long for example. To this day I can honestly say I do not struggle ending my sentences with a preposition, however, I will still start a sentence with and or because. Sometimes it is just better that way.