paper three

 Keaton Bowens 

Professor Bleyle 

English 1101

01 May 2023 

Remote learning

Remote learning isn't a new concept it has been around for years. Within the last few years, it has become more prevalent than ever. Why is this? The simple answer is covid-19. This virus pretty much stopped the world in its tracks. It closed schools of all kinds. Businesses were closed and some were even forced to shut down for good. Many lost their jobs and all other sources of income, myself included. Most Americans were banished to their homes and could only leave for the necessities such as food. Families were not united for years on end, due to the fear of infecting those who were more susceptible. It is still infecting people today, but most feel it is more important to live their lives rather than cower in fear. 

Some of the most popular forms of remote learning include Zoom, google meets, Microsoft Teams, and google classroom. These are apps/ websites designed to connect students to their instructors. Some prefer this method of teaching because it can provide more comfort to those who can't focus when others are in the room, those who are bullied at school, and those who need more personalized one-on-one time with their mentor. Others prefer to attend school in person. They feel that meeting with their instructor in person feels more genuine and prevents them from having distractions at home such as family members making noise, pets, and the desire to just leave the computer and do something else. Both opinions present valid points and express the desire to learn in the best environment. 

Image from google

While learning virtually is an excellent experience for some, it is not for all. When covid became a prominent aspect of the average person's day it did not come gradually. Within a couple of weeks of hearing about covid schools and businesses were completely shut down. Many schools did not have time to gather resources for their students. These resources include but are not limited to computers and wifi for the students to work from home, but also just the basic learning necessities such as books, pencils, paper, and other things of that nature. Some schools were never able to gather these resources and distribute them due to a lack of funding. Aside from the learning aspect of covid people were trapped in their homes and for some that made life even worse. Some students only received meals from their school and without attending in person they were not provided food and went hungry for days on end. Mentally this was a trying time for many, they were left with nothing to do but sit and think which isn't healthy for anyone long term. 

For the schools who were able to distribute the materials needed to continue with the curriculum, there was somewhat of a learning curve, but once most of the issues were ironed out they were able to have a relatively pleasant time using the apps. Some preferred learning virtually because it allowed them to get adequate sleep and in return helped them focus more during class. It also wasted less time on things like travel, which made more time for them to study and in return get better grades. For those who woke up every day dreading the thought of going to school, this was a quick fix. During this time there was somewhat of a drought in bullying irl, but that doesn't mean that cyberbullying lessened in any way. 

There are many advantages to learning remotely, some of which include more flexible schedules, constant access to materials, more diversity in lessons, and personalized lessons. Learning remotely provides students with more time which, as stated above, allows people to have less time commuting and allows them to work more at their own pace. Giving students access to materials without a time limit allows students to better understand the material and take their time digesting it “In today’s digital world, students have access to a plethora of digital learning solutions available 24/7. This allows students to study when they choose to, as well as access to a global learning community with the potential to share knowledge with people from different countries and cultures.”(India) When utilizing remote learning teachers are given the opportunity to diversify their lessons. This means that they can assign projects utilizing common house items. They are also presented with the opportunity to incorporate web games and other things of that nature more often. The most beneficial attribute of remote learning is giving the teacher the ability to offer more personalized lessons. “The use of digital learning solutions can help teachers to personalize lessons and tailor them to the needs of students. The freedom of online learning tools to allow students to work at their own pace and on their schedule helps them to gain a better understanding of the most effective teaching methods for them, resulting in more effective learning.”(India)

image from google

While there are a plethora of advantages to virtual learning there are also many disadvantages to learning remotely. Some disadvantages to learning remotely include students being isolated for long periods, any technological issues, a drastic increase in screen usage, and students having self-discipline. Many people don't enjoy large gatherings of people, however, studies have shown that being isolated for extended periods is not healthy for anyone mentally or physically. Connectivity issues real or fake are a huge issue when learning remotely “The classic disadvantages of online learning center around technical problems. Nothing disrupts an online lesson more than audio, video, or connection issues. Many times in the past, students were required to download and/or install cumbersome apps or technology that would deliver inconsistent performances.”(Thompson) Self-discipline is one of the hardest things to accomplish in the world, especially for children who want to do anything other than sit around their house and log in to school. Children have many desires, some want to go play outside, others want to go play video games, and some only yearn for more sleep. Some people during the height of covid would log in to their class and pretend the camera was broken just to go back to sleep without being absent. The biggest form of self-discipline is to stay focused while doing assignments, especially considering most have all of the world's knowledge at their fingertips. “It’s pretty much inevitable in 2022, but darn do we spend a frightening amount of time in front of screens. Online learning sadly contributes to this problem. Excessive screen time can lead to all sorts of physical ailments like poor posture or headaches. But it can also be a personal issue for students who struggle with learning from or focusing on screens. Especially since the internet is geared to distract students with social media and entertainment just a click away from the learning material.”(Thompson) 

Remote learning is sometimes necessary, even though it is not always beneficial in comparison to face-to-face education. It truly depends on how an individual learns best, and what type of self-control one has. It can aid in providing more sleep, but it can also prevent some from eating for days. Remote learning is based completely on opinion and situation.

Work Cited

India, Author: Schoolnet, et al. “The Top 10 Benefits of Digital Learning.” Schoolnet, 16 Aug. 2022, https://www.schoolnetindia.com/blog/the-top-10-benefits-of-digital-learning/. 

Thompson, Sam. “Top 5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Classes for Higher Education [Updated 2023].” Kaltura, 18 Apr. 2023, https://corp.kaltura.com/blog/advantages-disadvantages-online-classes/.

profile essay- Keaton bowens

 Keaton Bowens

Prof. Bleyle 

English composition I

15 Mar 2023

Fancy feathers

          When considering a new family pet what comes to mind? The first thing to come to mind for most would be a dog or possibly a cat. Some would think a little more outside of the box like fish or hamsters, but very few think of birds. Why is this you may ask? Is it because they are smaller, have feathers, or that they are more intimidating than the average lovable pet? All of the things listed above can be true but are not definitive answers. Some birds are smaller than the average thumb, but some are larger than a house cat and some breeds of dogs. Yes, most birds have feathers, which can be a deterring factor for some because of the dust they produce. Not all birds produce dust, birds come from all areas of the world. For example, a Solomon island Eclectus, which is the most dimorphic bird in the world, has no dust because their feathers are oil-based, not to say they are greasy. Birds can be extremely intimidating, they can be large creatures with long talons and huge beaks that can easily crush the bones in your hands, but they can also be as small as a shot glass and make you laugh when they bite you.  

          Fancy feathers is a business devoted to educating people on everything when it comes to exotic birds. The owner has had a deep love for birds her entire life and has been working with exotic birds for over four decades. She is now nearing her seventies and is hoping to grow the business so that she can have a definitive legacy in the exotic pet community. She along with her husband purchased this business roughly six years ago. Since then the business has grown rapidly. Frequently she has customers calling, flying, and even driving from anywhere in the continental United States in hopes of finding the best pet for their family. On any given week she will have someone drive from Florida, Alabama, and even Indiana in search of a bird. She also has people purchasing birds from places like New York and California, then the birds will be flown across the country to meet their new families. 

       Irene is the livestock manager at fancy feathers. She is in charge of pretty much everything. She helps customers find which bird is best for them, checks stock on food, toys, and other items for the care of birds, grooms the birds, as well as answering the phone and running the register. She has worked at fancy feather since the summer of 2019. Originally she found the business on social media, she found an ad on next door. When asked why she wanted to work in this business she stated “In the beginning, it was meant to be a summer job. I had already owned a parakeet and was eager to learn more about birds. I first started just by feeding and watering the show birds, it then transitioned into working at the store, and then escalated into helping perform with the birds at the shows.”(Stovall) She said that when she first started helping it was somewhat of a culture shock. She mentioned that she had never heard of most of the birds that Brenda privately owned, and she hadn't seen any of them in real life. 

To those interested in a career working with birds, or exotic pets in general irene offered this advice “I would recommend that they volunteer a while before and make sure that they don’t become too attached to every animal that they see.”(Stovall)When someone begins to gain interest in purchasing a bird, they will use the internet to find information and narrow down their choices. Usually, when people decide to come into the store they already have a sense of what they are looking for in their pet. Although most people do research before coming into fancy feathers, some do not, some people come in with little to no information on birds. When someone comes into the store in this situation the first thought of employees at the store is to ask questions and help them decide if a bird is a right fit for their family, and if so which type would be the best fit. Some of the questions asked by irene are “I will ask them questions such as what is their lifestyle, noise preference, what are their housing arrangements, allergies, budget, their age, if they have owned a bird before, what attributes they are looking for in a bird.”(Stovall) These are all crucial questions that must be asked to ensure that the customer will be satisfied with their pet and that the pet will have a high quality of life. 

          When asked what her favorite part of working in this industry is, Irene stated “Connecting people to their lifelong family members and helping to educate people on the care of birds.”(Stovall) The most important part of working in any type of pet-reliant business is the education of the customer. If someone purchases a bird from Petco or Petsmart they are given little to no information on the bird. They are required to do their own research, which usually will give them incorrect information on how to care for it. When asked about the negative aspects of work at fancy feathers irene had this to say “Uneducated people and people who have not taught their children to be respectful. Some people think that they know everything even when they have been misled by the internet.”(Stovall) 

     The store itself is in an odd location for a business of this nature. It is located in what most would consider an industrial park. The business is located in Norcross Georgia off beaver ruin road. The area mostly consists of businesses that require a large amount of warehouse space. Our business alone occupies over five thousand square feet, which is more than double the amount of space of the previous location which was in Doraville. When asked to compare the old and new locations Irene had this to say "In our new location we have more than double the amount of space that we did, it is much newer looking, and we are now handicap accessible. We also have separate rooms for birds in boarding, cages, and food."(Stovall) It is safe to say that the business is thriving and continuing to expand.

The store is comprised of three different rooms for birds to be housed. The first of the rooms is for birds in the boarding program. This program is modeled after a dog daycare, so when people who own birds decide to go on vacation or something else of that nature they will place their bird in boarding. The second room is where birds that are for sale are housed. The third and final room is called the quarantine room, this is where birds from a multitude of backgrounds are kept. Most birds are kept in quarantine for thirty days to ensure that they are healthy and do not carry any diseases or illnesses. When the store rescues a bird or someone surrenders a bird, this is the room where they are placed. 

Fancy feathers is a business devoted to helping people find their dream pet. They do everything in their power to teach the necessities of bird ownership, even to people who have no experience. This business is making non-traditional pets more accessible to the general population, and providing any vital information pertaining to their care easily accessible. 

Keaton Bowens-remembering an event

Keaton Bowens 

Professor Bleyle

English composition 1 

12 Feb 2023

Remembering an event essay 

When I was younger, maybe seven or eight years old, I lived across the street from a driving range. This is where people, mostly, dads in their mid to late forties go to hit golf balls for fun. You may be thinking of something similar to top golf, where people go to socialize with their friends and try to sink the golf balls into targets hundreds of yards away. You could not be more wrong. In the town I am originally from there is nothing nice, it is one of the poorest towns in the state of North Carolina. This driving range was just a patchy grassed hill where very few people went to hit old golf balls with bent rusty clubs. The worst part of this place was that you had to hit the balls uphill, so even if you hit the ball as hard as you could it didn't even look mildly impressive from a viewing perspective. 

This is my opinion now, however, when I was younger all I wanted to do was go to this place. I wouldn't even hit the golf balls, my cousin and I would go play in the creek that ran right behind where people teed off. This was where all of the golf balls went when someone royally messed up. My cousin Nathan only lived a few streets over, and his parents had given our school permission to let him get off the bus at my stop on certain days of the week. We would constantly beg my uncle who lived with me to take us to the driving range and he rarely said no. Looking back now I realize that the only reason that he took us was to practice his Happy Gillmore trickshot. I would be willing to bet that half of the golf balls that ended up in the creek were his. 

Nathan had an older brother named Braven, who was roughly fourteen at the time. He would sometimes come to my house and hang out with us, but not often. Even though he didn't often come to my house, the middle and elementary schools shared a bus, so we saw each other every day and were relatively close. Considering he was nearly old enough to have a job and we lived in an extremely small town, he knew of multiple places that were hiring. He told us that the driving range would pay people to go and collect golf balls by the bucket. I don't recall exactly how much he told us they paid per bucket, but it was enough to get my younger self interested.  

With this knowledge of how to make money, we began scheming. In my eyes, this was going to be played out somewhat like a prison break. I thought we were going to run down the street, collect a bucket of balls, collect our payment, and run home before my grandmother noticed we were missing. We planned this out for weeks. The plan was to run home after getting off the bus and all three of us were going to do our homework as quickly as possible and then tell my grandmother that we were going to go play in the woods, which was a common thing to do in my town. We would often go and build tree houses or teepees in the woods. We would also hang out with some of the older kids from the next street over, they often had lighters and would start small fires and other stupid things of that nature. The next step after making sure my grandmother wasn't watching was to grab our bikes and go as fast as we could to the end of the neighborhood, and ditch our bikes in the woods at the end of the street. We would sprint across the street, run down the hill to the shack where people would pay for their balls and rent their golf clubs, and grab some empty buckets. We would then start in the creek collecting all of the easy balls, we thought that this alone would fill a few buckets. The next step was to run back across the street and go back to my house and get water and check in with my grandmother so that she didn't have any suspicions of our whereabouts. We would then return to the range and run up the hill into the wooded area and collect all of the balls that were scattered there and then go and collect payment for all our labor. We thought we were going to make hundreds of dollars, and as a young child that means you're rich.  

The day came for us to carry out our plan. We decided to do it on a Friday so that we could go try to make money for the remainder of Friday and the entirety of Saturday so in theory we could have more profit. We rushed into my house, grabbed a snack, and rushed through our homework. None of us could have spent more than fifteen minutes doing our homework. After we “finished” our work we started packing up our books and stuff and my grandmother questioned how we finished so quickly, my cousins looked at me nervously and I told her that I didn't have much to do and then they both just said the same thing anxiously. The first part of our plan had come to fruition and now for step two, we told her we were going to play in the woods. She said to be careful and that she was going to take a nap because she was tired. This was perfect, we all giggled running out of the door. We decided to wait like thirty minutes for her to fall asleep before commencing the rest of our plan. After we felt comfortable we grabbed our bikes and pedaled as fast as we could to get out of view of my house. We arrived at the end of the street and ditched our bikes in the bushes on the tree line. Our bikes were out of sight of the passing cars, not that there were many. As soon as we started crossing the street a police car came around the corner. At this moment the only thing going through my mind was oh shit we're done for. From the police officer's point of view, we must have looked like deer in headlights. My older cousin ran back to the street we came from and Nathan and I were frozen in the middle of the street. As the police car approached I ran back to my street with my older cousin and Nathan finished crossing the street to the driving range. My older cousin tried to reassure me that he was just going to pass by, and I decided to believe my cousin because he was older. The police car came within roughly fifty feet and turned on its blue lights. He said on his intercom for us to stay where we were. My heart dropped, and my older cousin for some reason thought it was a good idea to run. He ran into the woods, jumping over a fence that kept the wild animals from entering the neighborhood. My other cousin Nathan was already crying by this point and screaming that he was going to jail. This was one of the most confusing moments in my life. 

The officer asked what we were doing playing on the road, and scolded us because it was dangerous. I tried to explain that we were just crossing the street on our way to the driving range. He did not take kindly to being lectured by a child. He asked where the third person went and Nathan gave him up instantly. He then ordered us to get into his car because he was going to take us to the police station. I believe that he was just going to take us to my house because he knew my family because of my last name. To this day nearly every police officer in that town and the surrounding areas knows my last name because nearly all of my blood relatives were criminals. The most notable of all the criminals in my family was my father, he had spent more time in jail than he did in the free world since he was 16. The moment I told the officer my name he became noticeably more angry. 

Out of nowhere, my uncle stopped at the end of my street, he noticed the police car with its lights on and us getting put into the car. He jumped out of his car and started approaching the car and asked the officer what was going on. The officer told him the situation and after verifying his id he said that we could go with him. My uncle made us grab our bikes and walk back up the street while he followed us in his car. When we arrived at my house he told my grandmother what had happened and then he left for the grocery store. My grandmother lectured us for what felt like an eternity and then sent Nathan home. She called Nathan and Bravens mother and told her what had happened. She then turned to me  and asked where my older cousin went. I told her that he had run from the officer and I wasn't sure where he had gone. A few hours later my cousin's mother called my grandmother and told her that my older cousin had finally come home and that they were going to be grounded for a few months. I was for some reason not punished after the initial lecture. My grandmother didn't talk to me for a few weeks. In my mind at this age that was a far worse punishment than being grounded. When I arrived home every day after school, my uncle told me that she wanted me to do my homework. For that duration of time I fixed my own breakfast and dinner, and on the weekends my lunch as well. Let's just say for those few weeks there was a lot of cereal and sandwiches.