1. Bouncing Knee Up and Down: This student is completely focused. Their essay has them in a complete trance. Their knee bounces to the beat of their heart. No one can pull them away from this hypnotic state of mind.
2. Cracking Knuckles: This pupil needs a break. They feel lethargic, to the point of passing out. They wish they could stand up and stretch, but fear disrupting the young mind frantically writing next to them. Cracking their fingers seems to be the only way out.
3. Tapping of Pencil: A plethora of ideas have invaded this student's brain. Their ideas are swarming around so fast; they must tap their pencil to help them narrow them down. A steady rhythm helps them to relax.
4. Looking around the Room: This student has absolutely no idea what the prompt is asking them. They look around at other student's, heads down, completely focused, and wince. They stare at the clock and watch the seconds tick by. They feel completely lost and alone.
5. Violently Shaking Hands From Side to Side: This is seen most commonly among AP English students. The pupil's handwriting has turned into chicken scratch and their fingers have gone numb. In order to get their blood flowing, they must fiercely flap their fingers. Those who utter "ooh" or "owe" have severe hand cramps that will stay with them for the rest of the day.
Carley, this made me laugh. It it so true; I can really relate to most of these essay writing symptoms. For some reason, I find it very difficult to simply sit still and write the essay. I guess we just have too much anxiety that we need a release? Anyways, I found this guide very humorous.
ReplyDeleteCarley, I can relate to this so much. I notice that whenever I sit down to write an essay I am guilty of many of these things. Unfortunately, I am hardly ever lucky enough to have that zoned in bouncing knee thing, but I do the others all the time. Particularly that shaking hands. My hands always get so cramped and it always seems to come after that 5 minute warning. Up until then my pain lies waiting to pounce when I have no choice but to keep going and deal with it because resting during those last five minutes and missing out on an audience and purpose hurt a lot more than my hand ever will.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, congratulations on making Bobbie's Blog Banter! Its quite an accomplishment. I had fun reading your blog because I could really relate to it. I am a big knee bouncer. Whenever I get nervous in an academic situation, the knees starts shaking. Another thing I often do is flip my pencil. I flip a lot in class normally and during essays I amp it up to a whole new level due to my nervousness.
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