This I Believe Speech - 5/23/16

“A Family Created”

My belief was formed during the eighth grade when I finally joined a football league, something I wanted to do for a long time. I went into the league knowing nobody, but I left with a family.

We supported and encouraged each other; we were all accepted. Throughout the season there's one memory in particular that stood out to me.

It was a cool, gloomy day and practice was almost over but we had to do the most dreaded thing...run. The running was split up into two groups by position. During the run a lineman, who just joined, was struggling because he had asthma. The other group and myself, who had just finished running, noticed this and ran out there to him to encourage him and make sure he didn't give up. The rest of the linemen shouted words of encouragement as he finished. That day we ended practice on a strong note and it brought us closer together as a family. The lineman even started to encourage others and started to talk to others more often. 

After the league was over I realized how much sports can bring people who have never met each other together. I realized that losing doesn't demoralize a strong family. And most importantly I realized that sports creates families. Now I try to join sports and clubs that require a lot of teamwork and that has made all the difference.

End of Year Reflection Blog - 5/22/16

1- What are the three most important things you learned this year?

This year I learned that time management is the key to success. If you don't have a good schedule or routine it might cause you to fail. I also learned that procrastination can be stopped. I usually procrastinate by using my phone, but I found an alternative that personally helped me. I would instead listen to music on my phone because I don't need to use my phone and it's still something entertaining. Lastly, I learned that no matter how much you get stressed you can still make it through.  Stress is something you have to push past to succeed.

2- What is something we did this year that you think you will remember for the rest of your life?

Something that we did that  I think I'll remember for the rest of my life is the readers theatre skits. For this we were assigned to groups and had to make a skit that parodied a Edgar Allen Poe poem. I'll remember this because it was a very fun experience making the skit and practicing it. It was also funny watching some of my friends act for the whole class.

3- What was the nicest thing someone in our class did for you this year?

In my class a couple of my friends helped me catch up with work that I missed at the end of the year. I missed a lot of days towards the end of the year because of robotics and the musical, so I became behind on work. My friends helped me understand what to do and told me what I missed in class. I really appreciated their help.

4- What is something you taught your teacher or classmates this year?

I don't think I really taught anybody anything this year. Maybe some teachers and classmates can argue saying I taught them that anything can be made up or turned around with a little hard work. While reading To Kill a Mockingbird I didn't annotate for the first couple of chapters. I finally got over the stress and started annotating. Similar situations happened in other classes. In math I had 10 hours plus the currents weeks of Khan Academy to make up. I made up all that time and a little extra in three weeks.

5- In what area do you feel you made your biggest improvements? What is something you accomplished this year that you are proud of?

The are that I improved the most in was writing. This is because we had to write an argumentative essay, memoir, a speech, and a theme essay. These pieces helped me with TIQA, citing, quoting, and telling stories, which helped my overall writing skills. I'm the most proud of my argumentative essay becuase I believe I made a strong argument. I also am proud of it because I got a good grade on the assignment.

6- What was the most challenging part of this year for you?

The most challenging part of the year for me was when we were reading To Kill a Mockingbird. This was the most challenging part because of all the assignments we had with the book. We had to read, annotate, find quotes, and answer questions every night. I became very overwhelmed and stressed from these assignments.

7- What was the best piece of writing that you did this year? Why do you think it is your best?

My best piece of writing is my argumentative essay. This is my best piece because at this time I knew how embed quotes, introduce quotes, make citation lists, and I had practice with the TIQA format. This made my essay better than others because I could add these things to it that made it more organized. 

8- Of the books you read this year, which was your favorite? Why?

Out of all the books I read this year A Monster Calls is my favorite. One reason it's my favorite is because of the amazing illustrations in the book. The illustrator did a good job and the visuals helped me picture what was going on. Another reason is the plot is very interesting because what's going on in Conor's life. It's a very interesting concept and it was executed very well.

9- What advice would you give students who will be in this class next year?

For the students that are going to be in Mrs. Larsons class next year there are three things that will guide you through her class. These things are time management, organization, and persistence. You need to make sure you manage your time because some days you'll have more homework than usual, so you have to make sure you get it done. You have to make sure you're organized and have all your papers and you turned in everything. Lastly, if you feel stressed or overwhelmed you have to persist because it will soon be over. You have to take it one day at a time and just keep going.

Aphorism Project - 6/12/16

Prompts: 

1- Explain the aphorism in detail. what was Morrie's main message?

2-     Relate the aphorism to a movie, song, historical event, current event, personal experience, etc. and explain in detail how the example you have chosen relates to the aphorism.

3-     Evaluate the aphorism by explaining why you agree/disagree with it. Give specific reasons for your position and specific evidence from the text to support your position.

4-     Take a picture of your aphorism to use as your graphic.

5- Include your own aphorism regarding life.

          The Aphorism "Accept the past as past,without denying it discarding it." (p. 18) basically says that you need to accept the things you did in the past. Morrie wanted Mitch to embrace his past instead of putting aside and forgetting about it. I also think Morrie told Mitch this because you have to do this to fully forgive yourself before you die. You have to acknowledge your decisions right or wrong to forgive yourself, which will make you a happier person.

          I can relate this aphorism to To Kill a Mockingbird when Scout said, "I sometimes felt a twinge of remorse, when passing by the old place, at ever having take part in what just have been sheer torment to Arthur Radley." These quotes are similar because this shows that Scout didn't discard her past and feels bad about her decisions. In this aphorism Morrie said to do exactly that, which is why I can relate the two.

          I agree with this aphorism because accepting your past is good thing to do because your reflecting on your life. Reflecting on things can help you distinguish what is good and what is bad. Without reflecting you would make the same mistakes over and over again. I also agree with this because it helps you forgive yourself which is a good life skill.

Tuesday's with Morrie Seminar Reflection - 5/4/16

Tuesday's with Morrie

Author: Mitch Albom

Prompt: 

- Explain how the past four Socratic Seminars have influenced your thinking about Tuesdays with Morrie and life in general.

- What trends did you notice with yourself and your personal goals for each seminar? How did your personal goal(s) change and what did you actively do to change throughout our last four discussions?
- What trends did you notice with the class for each seminar? What did you notice that helped or hindered a specific seminar?

          The four Socratics Seminars we did in class helped he understand certain parts in of the book better. This is because I get to hear other people interpretations and observations about aphorisms, events, and quotes. For instance, on pages 175 and 176 when Morrie explain what his perfect day would be if he had full control of his body again. The day he described seemed so average and I was trying to figure out why he chose those things. I didn't know why until we had the Socratic Seminar where I realized everything he wanted to do was things he loved to do, like dancing, looking at nature, eating favorite foods, and meeting family and friends.

          A trend that I noticed in myself is that I didn't talk a lot through all the Socratic Seminars. It was hard to jump in because the seminars are fast paced and there are a little less than 30 students who also have things to say. This affected my personal goals becuase I always put to try and say more. To fix this I tried to say things whenever I could and I also made sure I didn't hesitate.

          A trend that I noticed for the whole class is that the same 6 or 7 people were the main people saying things. This was because they had a lot of things to say and everybody else seemed to be shy or too quiet. This could have been fixed if whoever was trying to talk spoke up so they are noticed, this also includes me. Something else that I noticed that hindered the Socratic Seminars a little is that we would get off topic at some point. Making connections is a good thing when discussing something, like a book, but we would usually get far off topic which wasted time.