I met up with Ashley and Kim in the library where we discussed our oral history project more in depth. We came up with questions which we are going to ask our interviewees and how we are going to incorporate the idea of food labels into our questions. It is my job to look up certain terms such as "all natural" and "organic" and then find pictures of labels throughout the supermarket. Although we have a lot to do, I feel like our project will turn out great in the end.

“Like it was” is a book geared towards, high school students and above, teachers who want to teach about oral history, and any person who picks up the book can learn how to record the right way. For a while, oral history was not something taught in schools because of the expense of having a recorder. By the 60’s tape recorders had become accessible and allowed many people to record historical events that we can listen to or remember today. Before World War II, most of the stories that were recorded were from those who were wealthy and not from the average person. After the war, “history is now open to everyone.” People’s whose voices have never been heard (prisoners, young children, slaves, immigrants, workers) were able to tell those who were not present at that time, how life was for them.

Although we can try our best, we can never completely write an accurate account because each person has a different view or was in a different situation than the next. Not only would oral history benefit our class and us as students, it affects those around us and those who we are questioning.

The following are a few reasons as to why we should want to write oral history which are taken from the book:

• You would be helping to put the people into history who belong there. You would be learning the history that is not available anywhere or any other way.
• You would be serving the people you chose to interview and record.
• You would be explaining and celebrating your community’s values, presenting its history as seen from the inside.
• You would be learning about the moral decisions that people have to make.
• You would be meeting special, wonderful people with whom you might form a deep human bond.
•  You would be honing your skills as a writer, which will enable you as an adult to play a more powerful role in creating history of your community and the world.
  

 In “What Is Oral History”, we learned that “oral history might be understood as a self-conscious, disciplined conversation between two people about some aspect of the past considered by them to be of historical significance and intentionally recorded for the record.”  Although the conversation usually takes place as an interview, with one person asking questions and the other answering them, it is more of a conversation. Oral history has allowed us to understand what it might have been like at another time from by interviewing those who had lived through certain events. It is important for interviewers to try and help or get the narrator (person in question) to try and remember as most of the details that they possibly can. Also, at times, it may be important for the interviewer to read between the lines as to what the narrator is trying to get at and even dig deeper to answer some harder questions. Without oral history, there is much that we would not know about events that we have not experienced. When you really think about it, without oral history, we wouldn’t have much history at all.

At the beginning of the article, the author mentions how he is not necessarily trying to define what narrative inquiry is but is trying to explain it with examples. At the end of the article, I found some really interesting quotes that I think sum up what the author is trying to say. The first one is: "As we worked within our three-dimensional spaces as narrative inquirers, what became clear to us was that as inquirers we meet ourselves in the past, the present, and the future. What we mean by this is that we tell remembered stories of ourselves from earlier times as well as more current stories.All of these stories offer possible plot lines for our futures." I find that many of my plots or ideas for writings usually stem from past or present experiences that I have had and as far as my twitterive goes, it is a story about my future in a way. A second quote that I found interesting was "As narrative inquirers, we share our writing on a work-in-progress basis with response communities. By this, we mean that we ask others to read our work and to respond in ways that help us see other meanings that might lead to further retelling." This is an example of what is occurring in our classroom right now. As writers were are asking the class to respond to our twitterives with questions that might lead us to retelling our stories or adding on to them. Finally, "as narrative inquirers we work within the space not only with our participants but also with ourselves " meaning

As of right now I have not included too many forms of technology into my writing but I have some ideas in mind as to how I am. I plan on using technology to scan a letter that I wrote to my boyfriend while he was away in order to put a personal touch into my writing. I have also found many you tube videos that could fit into my story and I am trying to pick the best one that fits. I also used twitter to help me come up with my idea for my story so I guess technology has really helped me out with producing the outcome that I hope to get.

I feel as though my online identity represents my real identity but it is much easier for me to show my true feelings online as apposed to talking to someone in person. I feel as though I am able to let all of my feelings flow without feeling embarrassed or wondering what people are thinking of what I am saying. I am definetly one to hide my feelings because I don't want to be judge