Family Story

In my family we don't necessarily have a story but we do share a laugh together whenever one subject gets brought up. That subject would be my grandma. Over the years she has became the center of attention in our family. She goes to Florida with my grandpa every winter, and when they come back in April every year she always starts to sort of act out. The first thing that starts happening when she arrives back from Florida is she stops taking her medicine, which is bad. Once she hasn't had her medicine for about a month she starts being crazy. She started smoking cigarettes again, she has ran away more than once, she accuses her 70 some year old husband of cheating on her with her twin, and much more! She even joins us in the laughs sometimes about the crazy things she has done. The funniest I think that is most talked about in our family is one of the times that she ran away. She decided that my grandpa was cheating on her with her twin so she took $1,000 out of her bank account, grabbed her car keys and left the house. She even left her cell phone behind. She lives in Monticello, but she ended up in Battle Ground, with her windows down and it was raining into her car. So her leather seats were getting ruined. When the cops found her she was asleep in her car on the side of the road sort of pulled over. She was all wet from the rain and said she didn't know where she was and that was why she pulled over to sleep. After that instance though she began taking her medicine again. At the time it wasn't funny because we were all very worried about her. However afterwards we all laugh about it, and use that story as a reason to why she should always take her medicine.

Week 10

The structure I am planning to use for my mini ethnography I have not quite decided yet. I think I will be looking at some of the online examples of the mini ethnographies and probably do a structure similar to those. I plan on beginning my mini ethnography by telling my readers what my subculture is that I have been observing. I will then begin my mini ethnography in a chronological order of events that take place over a course of almost a year of being on the dance team and the rituals involved in that year. I think I will save my informants until the topic on which they gave the most information about comes up. I will eventually be talking about my interest in the subculture and my place in it when I talk more about my position and past within the subculture. I will be proceeding through the paper as a type of story in order of events. Yes I will be going chronologically through my paper, not based on my research in which I found my information, however through events and the order that they happen. Some of the areas in my paper will have themes, but they most likely won't be linked to the other themes in a big way. I haven't yet really thought much about the conclusion to my paper. I probably will try to wrap up the season of the dance team in the end of my paper. I might even try to mention all of the highlighted points I wrote about and join them together in some sort of way. I think the chronological structure I have chosen will work very well with my piece because I can go through each ritual throughout the whole season and that will thoroughly show my readers a type of insider prospective to being on the dance team.

Brief Glossary

1. eight count - a section of the dance
2. flat back - a position to describe how the coach wants their backs during a certain part of the routine
3. double turn - two full spins in a circle
4. spotting - while spinning, looking at one certain spot and keeping focus on that so as not to lose your balance
5. facials - something the coach often yells while they are performing to remind the girls to smile and give the audience good facial expressions and attitude
6. body suit - a black tight fitting piece of clothing that goes underneath their regular dance uniform for a performance so no skin is visible in the midriff area

American Tongues

Question 1:
I think as a researcher today I would possibly ask a few different types of questions and maybe go to some more states other than the major ones. What I would do the same would be interviewing all of the different types of people talking on their own means and not just answering specific questions.

Question 2:
Some of the flaws in the study are maybe that they don't portray every state. The study also shows some ugly sides of people when they talk about stereotypes of accents. I think the north and the west coast was under represented and the south was maybe a little over represented. If I were going to make the study more appealing to the audience I would probably but some different types of music playing in the background along with the different areas of the country.

Question 3:
I think language can have a certain part in how we perceive others. For instance the normal thought of someone with a southern Kentucky area accent would be that they are a hillbilly or something, however that is not true for everyone in that state, so possibly people should just remember that when judging other people's accents. Others think that by our language and words we use it can reveal our level of intelligence and our class.

In class writing (3 questions)

The instance I am recalling is one of the performances I went and observed.

1. In this scene I was in the bleachers in front of the dance team while they were on the floor performing their routine. I was not necessarily interviewing anybody during this time, but merely watching all of their hard work in action and seeing how everything they told me about went into play. The relationship between me and the dance team at that moment was one of proud. I felt very proud of them while they were dancing.

2. There weren't any recorded words specifically that I can recall from that instance, however the song that they were performing to would be something to recall. I think what influences my informants' and my fixed positions would be our background. We all at one time went to the same high school and were all on the same dance team. The subjective positions would be influenced by where we are in life now. I am now an outsider, as they are still attending that high school and on that dance team. There is a deffinant power relationship between me and the team. The relationship is one of bond and trust. We all were very close last year, and that still plays over when I go to the field site and observe them.

3. They were not talking during this instance. However after their performance I congratulated them and they were very thankful to hear that they did well. After there performance I could only talk to them for a short minute, because they were all tired and hungry so they went to get food at the concession stand and to cool off from the routine.

Week 9

So far the hardest thing with my research has been finding time to get home on the days the dance team has performances. The season for them just ended a few weeks ago, so I will not be able to observe any more performances, but they are still active, and tryouts are coming up soon. Another hard thing has been trying to find books about dance teams. I have decided though to just look for books on general information like dance in general. The easiest thing so far during my research process has been getting information from the actual members of the team. They are very willing to talk to me about their subculture. I can talk to them in person when I am home, over the phone, and even the Internet for some of them. It has been very convenient. If I could start over again, I would probably pick a subculture that is a little more close to me so I could visit the site more. Or I would pick a different subculture that I am totally unfamiliar with to learn about a whole new subculture. So far keeping this blog has helped me in my research process by helping me keep my thoughts organized and focused on the upcoming assignments. It has helped keep me on track at working towards the end of the project. I also can look back at my blog if I have forgotten something that I wanted to input into my mini ethnography if needed. I think my blog will help me prepare my mini ethnography by organizing my thoughts and ideas into sections that are related some of the blog postings. The blog help me recall ideas that I want to use in my blog also.

In class writing (audience)

1. My readers will care about this issue mainly if they are involved in dancing or a dance team. I am sure they will find it interesting and informing. They might even learn something they didn't know before if they are new to their dance team. 2. Technically my readers won't really need to know anything before hand about this issue. They could learn all of the basics from my mini ethnography, because I am going to be providing all of that information in it. 3. My readers probably already know what dance teams do, and somewhat how they work. However, they probably only know the general information about them. 4. I want my readers to learn more about dancing and high school dance teams. I want them to be able to respect dancers and what they do, and not place stereotypes on them. 5. If I am trying to persuade my readers of anything on this issue it would be not to place stereotypes among all dancers. If I was trying to persuade them, it could be a difficult objective since some dance teams have become more provocative in their performances lately. 6. My readers could use my writing for general information about high school dance teams. My readers could also use it to learn something new about dance as an art. They might even be able to use it as some backup information if they are arguing a topic about dance teams.

Week 8

So far I see my main theme as high school dance teams. Through this theme I am looking at specifically aiming towards the rituals throughout the year, starting with tryouts and ending with senior routine. I am planning on going into detail about the whole experience of the subculture based on a year's range of events. Through the field site of course it is the same theme, since my subculture is specifically a high school dance team. I am trying to stick within the high school range, however some parts of my mini ethnography will dip a little into college level and even career level dancing. As of today, my place in the subculture is still technically an outsider, but I feel like an insider still. Overall I guess in a way my position has changed a little, because 8 weeks ago I was not going to their dances as much or visiting the team. Now that I am doing this mini ethnography I have been spending more time at the field site and working with the team more hands on. The only major changes between now and 8 weeks ago would be that I have a better understanding of the changes that have occurred since last year on the team. Also I have had the privilege to go "behind the scenes" of the dance team as far as the coaches standing. I have been able to talk more with them and listen to their reasoning on why they do certain types of dances for basketball vs football season, and where they get their dances moves and ideas from.