My Life in a Blog

This week was a very short week in class. Our topic this week was Transgender and to be completely honest, this unit changed my viewpoints on everything that we have discussed. At the start of this unit, my views were very conservative and I wasn't very open to new ideas. However, after hearing how much aggression and hate these kids had towards them, my mindset completely changed. No kid should ever have to come to school not feeling safe, or have to stay home because they are afraid of being bullied or having rocks thrown at them. Kids in today's society are just so cruel and heartless towards anyone who is different. Regardless of one's sexual orientation or desire, kids are still kids, and they shouldn't have to feel not wanted and abandoned in a public setting. I have never really looked at the negative implications until now, and now that I have, I feel so glad that I was able to learn something new.

This past week in class we started to discuss the topic of femininity. It was actually quite funny because a majority of our class is females, we only have about 5 boys in the whole class. But after talking about femininity and hearing everyone's point of view, I was quite interested. To start the week, we read a couple articles discussing the importance of women. one article showed how vital the women really were in a small town. It was kind of weird for me to read that article because it talked about how the men couldn't handle doing all the extra curricular activities with the kids; however, in my family, my dad does all that stuff with us. My dad is the parent who is super involved in my life, takes me to sporting events, drives me to my practices, to work, to everything. He also takes my sister to her hangouts and school. My mom works as an engineer so she doesn't have the time (or interest :) ) to come to sporting events with us or to take us to practice. My dad is t...

This week in class we started to discuss the topic of gender. We decided to focus on masculinity first. When I googled masculinity, one of the first topics that came up was a masculine/feminine test, which actually surprised me a lot. Who has the time to take masculinity tests?? But when i searched images, this photo was the first one to pop up. In today's society, masculinity is associated with how bulk ans big you are, how many sports you play, how deep your voice is, how much money you make, and most noticeably, how in control you are. Everyone in today's society is taught to believe that the man should be the alpha of the house and should be able to provide for the female. However, in some cases I believe this to be absurd. If the man is in between jobs and is struggling to make ends meet, I should be able to pay for my meal or even pay for the whole date. This honestly makes me so upset because sometimes I really want to be independent and pay for my bill but the boy t...

There has always been a time in  our lives where we have felt that our teachers have been too hard on us. However, that is nothing compared to how the children are treated in China. This week in class we wrote a synthesis essay regarding the educational system in America. For me, this week the topic at hand was easy. I believe that the educational system we are in today lacks discipline. According to Source A, teachers in China push their students constantly and force them to put time and work into their assignments. Although this strategy is on the extreme side, it proves to be effective. Looking at their test scores and achievement levels, China has students that are prospering and thriving in today's economy. I really liked reading articles about this and getting another outlook on the world around me.

Last week in class we continued our discussion on education. One article that we read that truly shocked me was the article on the new third grade law. The newly developed law requires all students to take a reading proficiency test to establish whether or not they are ready to move on to the 4th grade. I always knew that students were behind in Elementary School but I never thought they could be held back a couple years for not performing well in ONE topic. My sister actually was a slow reader in Elementary School but she started to practice everyday and worked with my parents a lot and she is now one of the best readers in her class. I do not believe that holding students back will serve them any good. However, I agree that students should take a test to see where they are at. This will therefore give teachers an idea of where the students are and what they need help on. The new law establishes after school help, summer reading camps, and one on one personal tutoring to help further...

Well, this week proved to me that just because you have a 2 day vacation, it doesn't mean that you can slack off and not learn anything. In class this week we started our education unit. Right off the bat I knew this topic would be extremely controversial. There are many students who feel very strongly against the educational system and some who strongly support it. For me, however, it isn't really a huge problem. Students all throughout our school hate standardized testing with a burning passion, but I find myself being indifferent towards them. I think this has to do with the fact that I usually score highly on them, so they don;t really affect me too much. But I understand the frustration behind the ones who detest standardized testing. I am much smarter than what those tests make me out to be, and I wish there was a better way to measure the intelligence of someone. If only there could be a method for colleges to select students based off of their transcripts and not a wei...

155k came so quickly to all students at Athens this past week. Charity week is by far the most amazing week at Athens; however, that does not stop us from excelling in our English class! :) Last week in class we discussed more variations of language and the rhetorical skills associated with them. We did a couple group responses based off of different articles that helped us further our knowledge. Also, we completed our first practice essay. The first essay topic we had was to synthesize multiple pieces into a well constructed essay. We worked with a partner to then look at other examples and critique the work of others. I got to read another essay that had a different approach than I did, but still effectively delivered its message. It opened my eyes to new ways of writing and was very helpful.

Well, here we are again. It is now 2017 and the AP Exam is now a short 3 months away. This past week, our class has been discussing our routine for the next few months. We have discussed how rhetorical terms quizzes will be set up, how vocab will work, and how each week we will write a practice essay in preparation for the exam. Last week we also discussed different types of languages and what each tongue means. We read different kinds of articles, and the one that stuck out the most to me was the one about Chicano Spanish being different from normal Spanish. I think the reason it stuck out so much for me was due to the personal connection I made with the piece. I am Romanian and sometimes in some situations I feel more comfortable speaking English than I do Romanian. Some people might take this as an insult and say I am fake to my culture, but it is simply a preference that I have developed. In Elementary School I was actually punished once for speaking Romanian on the playground bec...