Blog #10

What stands out to you most in your eleventh grade experience at our school?

It stands out to me how many things an eleventh grader has to do. Its like there is never really a time when you are like I have absolutely nothing to do or work on. We have many things to worry about in junior year like SAT's and writing resumes and cover letters for internship and already thinking about what college you want to go. Sometimes being in 11th grade can be a little stressful but its important to just do your work and do everything on time. What stands out to me the most in my eleventh grade experience at our school is how we actually get to have an internship in something we are interested in. Also how we get to write resumes and cover letters and learning how to write them, this can really help me later in the future when I apply to a job.

What stands out to you most about your Humanities class?

What stands out to me about my Humanities class is how we are more independent now and we are treated more like adults now. For example, for the American Icons project Randy never asked to read our paper and we never had to turn it in to him so he could read it, we turned it in until we were sure it was perfect. We on our own had to go to him and ask him if he could please read our paper if we wanted feedback from him. Also, in the quizzes we need to take this week, we are the ones that decide when to take each one of them. Also with the Theater Project we all have important jobs in the play that we have to accomplish and we all have to work with each other because we, as a class, are the ones that are going to make the whole play, Randy will help us but we have be the ones that do mostly all the work.

What have you read that made you think this year (in or out of school)?

In math class, we read the article "Rice Paddies and Math Tests" from the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. This article was about how Chinese students are usually better at math because their numbers are shorter and that way they learn them faster also the way they say their fractions is very easy and that way easier to understand. It also talked about hard work and how the farmers that work in rice paddies are successful because of all the hard work they do and how they spend so much time everything is perfect in their rice paddies like the water levels and the amount of rice. Like he said in the article "working really hard is what successful people do." This made me think about school and how I have to work really to make sure I turn in my work on time and so that it is the best work I can do. I need to make sure to put all of my effort in everything I do and make sure I always work hard on everything I do.

What have you noticed about your growth as a writer?

I think I have grown as a writer this year because of all the writing tips I've learned so far. Now everything I write I try to balance out my ideas with my words so that I don't have so many words with a little bit of ideas or too much ideas but with so little writing. I also remember on the first days of school when Randy put us with a partner and one of the partners had to look at a picture and do their best to describe it so that the other partner would be able to draw the same exact thing. This was kind of difficult because you had to find the exact word so that your partner could understand what you were saying, you had to be able to put that picture in their mind so that they would be able to draw it. This helped me see that when I write I have to make sure to use the write words and descriptions so that the reader can have an image in their mind of what I'm talking about.

What goals do you have for your next month? What is your plan to reach towards these goals?

My goals for the next month in humanities class are to try and add more writing tips in my writing and also try to read more books. I plan on achieving these goals by reading through my writing and then seeing places where I can add writing tips also maybe asking for some help from my classmates. I plan on going to the library more often to read more books and maybe ask humanities teachers for recommendations on books. Also I really want to do my theater job right and be able to work well with everyone else in the class to make sure that the play turns out great. I plan on reaching this goal by making sure I work a lot with the project manager and with Naxiely to make sure everyone is doing their work and to make sure everything is okay. Also reading books about plays or looking at the resources Naxiely and I found to get ideas or just to make sure we are doing our job right.