"Hold On" (This I Believe Speech)

5/23/16

"Hold On"

Mentor Sentence: "I believe in the power of holding on."

Belief: Formed

I believe in the power of holding on to family. Throughout all the hardships, all the losses, and all the small accidents your family and you make, you have to stick together. It may be very hard, but it should be known that at the end they may be all you have left. A lot of things will try to come between you and the people that you love. It is important to keep them close psychically and mentally. 

The one thing that tested us was having a dysfunctional family around our immediate family. How it was triggered was because five months ago, give or take, one of our family members had a issue with their immediate family and that made many people mad at that person in many different ways. This has been going on for a while and that puts a lot of pressure on us because we are one of the few parts of our family that is still stable. That means when need to stay close together and hold on to each no matter what happens to us or the family around us. 

The realization I came to is that family is determined to stay together. That has changed the way I am going to be with my family, which means less arguing, more love and positivity towards them, and mature faster so I can be a more understanding person. This will affect the future because I will affect my family greatly and want it to be in a positive way so my family to have a positive future.

I believe in the power of holding on to family. You have to hold on to them. Even if you think they are not important, they are in the long run when you really need them. After all you really never know what they would go through for you.

End Of The Year Reflection

5/17/16

End of The Year Reflection Blog

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

The first most important thing I learned was the TIQA format. This extremely helped me with my writing because before I knew what this format was my paragraphs would usually just be all over the place. The second most important thing I learned this year was the holocaust research. This is because it was really interesting to learn about what they went and how they survived, my favorite part of it was learning about the Jewish partisans and how they resisted. The third most important thing that I learned this year was about Malala and how she was able to stand up for many girls and fight for young girls' education.

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

I think reading Tuesdays With Morrie would be something I would remember for the rest of my life. The aphorisms for the most part is the reason why I will remember this for the rest of my life, This is because they teach very good life lessons to help guide people in the future. This will hopefully persuade people to live in better ways and maybe improve the world around them.

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

I think the nicest thing someone in our class did for me was fix something on my iPad. What the problem was basically is that every few seconds or so "sign in to iCloud" would pop up. This extremely annoying because before it was fixed I had to with it for an entire day, which also meant that it would heavily interfere with doing my work. In first block of the next day my partner noticed the problem and fixed it very quickly.

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

In all honesty I really don't feel like I taught anybody much. If anything, I was the one taught by others. It is because English is not my best subject and throughout classes my writing has improved. I also learned how to interpret different messages and was able to put it into words and even into a picture. I was also able to explore and learn about different things happening in the world and being taught that was mostly a really good experience.

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

Formatting is the area I have made my biggest improvements on. This is because before I taught how to do certain paragraphs my writing used to be all over the place. I am really proud of completing the butterfly project. This is because I got a really challenging poem to do a butterfly on so I was really proud when I was able to interpret it and put it on the butterfly.

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

The most challenging part of this year has to be the speeches we are doing. This is because each of us [students] only has one minute to explain our belief. This means that we have to be brief which seems almost impossible for me at least because I have multiple events which I can go in depth with and really explain why I believe in what I do, but I can't because of the time restraint. It is also hard because you have to get personal. Getting personal means sharing your most personal problems that would not want to share out loud. Many students including me will have a difficult time trying to that, so believe me it is hard but I am going to try my best to do so.

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

 I think my best piece of writing I have done this is the "Which Tuesday Has Inspired You" blog. This is because it was something I was able to go in depth to and really explore. The life lessons and other things Morrie said related to me and many other people, so I was able to talk about it very easily. The overall message of that tuesday which would be that money doesn't replace love and tenderness. Which is very true and knowing the fact that people don't believe in that really gave me the drive to write about it.

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

Out of all the books I have read this year it has to be After Ever After. This is because the story was very interesting. The main characters Jeffrey and Tad were dealing with regular problems when dealing with their cancer. The thing is that they stayed very positive for most of the story and was really entertaining to read. Even after Tad's death Jeffrey still had conversations with him. That was something that really touched me because it shows that people can still be together even after death.

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

The first advice I would give is that to do not procrastinate. This is because the work will a lot of time and attention and if you wait to the last second to do something the work will probably be of lesser quality to what you could've done if you had more time. The second piece of advice I would give is pay attention because if you don't you are going to miss some very important information about your classwork or homework and that can leave you very confused when trying to do it and make it very hard for you to finish.

Aphorism Project

O5/11/16

Aphorism: "When you're in bed, you're dead." 

The aphorism means when you are in bed you are as productive as a dead person, or when you are stuck in bed you feel dead. You feel as if you are disconnected from what you used to be able to do when you were out of bed and had the proper energy to do things. It is likely that you are not going to do anything meaningful when you are stuck to your bed. You are also not able to explore the world around you, it is as if the bed you are stuck to is blocking out the world from you.

Personal Experience:

I have personally went through something similar to the aphorism and it was far from pleasant. It was about two years ago, I was extremely sick and stuck in my bed. I was in bed, all of my energy was drained from my body, I didn't even have the energy to get up and eat the one meal I got the entire day. I was able to do absolutely nothing the entire day. I was stuck in bed, just plain hopeless. The worst thing about it was that I had no choice but to stay in the bed. The only thing I relied on is the help of my family and don't get me wrong, they did help. There was just zero chance of me recuperating from the sickness.

Evaluate the aphorism by explaining why you agree/disagree with it:

When it comes to this aphorism I semi agree with it. This is because when you may be sick and stuck in bed you can still do things productive. An example of this would be getting a work done in bed such as an essay or a sheet of math problems. A great example of being in bed and being productive is Morrie. This is because as he was stuck in his bed he still was able to educate Mitch about different life lessons which helped Mitch with his life long after Morrie passed. Although, if you are deathly sick you obviously wouldn't be able to do anything. You may need assisting from a few or many people and feel like you can't do a single thing.

My Own Aphorism:

"Die without as many regrets as possible."

Socratic Seminar Reflection

5/04/16

Prompts:

• 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 seminars made me really think about the world around us. This is because as we were talking about things like admiring/examining the world around you, forgiving others then yourself, and learning how to die, it really change my perspective on how I live. Before the book I never really thought the world around me was as important as I think it is now. The book has taught me many things, and through the seminars I also learned a lot of things, for example, why don't we act when people are yelling their guts out for help and why second place is really not that bad. Both I have thought of before the seminar, but the seminar extended my thinking about those topics and left me more educated about them than before the seminar.

The obvious trend that I had with my personal goals was actually getting involved in the seminar. I didn't really achieve my goal during the socratic seminar. This is because I was very anxious and nervous to talk or discuss what I had jotted down on my notes. It was also because I was very hesitant to discuss my notes, and most of the time I never really found the opportunity to discuss the notes. In all honesty, I am really not satisfied with myself and wish I did a better job.

A trend I noticed is that when the class starting discussing a certain topic it lead into another and so on. I think this most likely caused by Morrie's aphorisms. I think this because his aphorisms are really thought provoking and can have the ability to branch out into many different topics. I think the topics that the aphorisms can bring up is what helped the seminar flow better. It compelled more people to get involved into the conversation/discussion.