Reflective Essay

Starting this year, I had created my first blog in my entire life. I was able to write about anything I had wanted almost every week. I typed a variety of topics from a personal topic like stage fright to a political and social topic like budget cuts in schools. I pondered, how did those ideas get to my mind and typed on this blog? Then - KABOOM- an answer came to my mind as I scrolled through all the blog posts. Except for the first, second, fifth, eighth, and the blog post before this one, my issues throughout my life had inspired me to write almost all my blog posts.

On my third blog post, I had copied one of my summer reflections about college readiness. I placed it on my blog because it had to do with modern society. Many people are lazy and usually try and get by high school only meeting the minimum requirements to pass. On my blog post, I described what college readiness meant:

"Being college ready means that you are willing to do extra rather than to just homework and going to school... Being college ready means that you are prepared at all times in any situation in class... Being college ready mean that you are actively listening in class and to stay focused to the speaker." 

In the blog post, I went on reflecting my study habits. I discussed which habits I should keep and habits that I need to stop or improve upon. In Alameda Science and Technology institute, students officially begin taking college classes at junior year. That's the next year for me! I wanted to prepare myself for the journey ahead. I not only wrote it for myself, but also for others to see. I can suggest tips so that they can prepare themselves too.

On my 9th blog post, I wrote about stage fright. Stage fright has affected me ever since I went up on stage. It was a personal matter, but everyone has it at least one time in their lives. I continue to have stage fright but starting this year, my stage fright is beginning to degrade It is normal to have stage fright because people feel pressured that they must say the right thing or else ( blank )happens. I wrote about my symptoms of stage fright in the blog post:

"Before and during a speech or a conference, I become extremely nervous and feel the need rush. I want to get the speech or my part of the conversation over with. When this happens, it tends to imply that I will shake my legs or stutter. If I am holding a paper while I talk, many people see that I am shaking the paper intensely. When I am nervous, I also forget my train of thought. That's why when I try to say something, I usually end up saying never mind or that I will go a little bit off topic."

When I was thinking of a blog post to write, I was thinking what to write about. I wanted to write about something that everyone had sometime during their lifetime that was rather hard to get rid of. I thought about stage fright and began writing about that matter. I wrote it so that I would be expressing my experience from stage fright and how it affected me as a person. I also wanted others to create response posts that would help me relax and not develop hypertension so I can prepare myself for the most important speeches when I am in college or in my career.

In the Response post responding to Max's post, I discussed about how the amount of homework in ASTI is creating a ton of stress among students. Starting this year, it has been taking me a long time in order to complete my homework. On weekdays except Friday, the earliest time that I have gone to sleep is at midnight. To add on, I usually start completing my homework as soon as I get home. I continue to work only taking breaks when I am taking a shower or eating dinner. In this excerpt of the response post, I compared the amount of homework between the freshman year and sophomore year and effects from the lack of sleep during weekdays:

"During Freshman year, it was rather easy ... I finished homework in four hours at that time. Now it is like seven hours. If the amount of homework continues to increase, does that mean that we will have no sleep... This year I usually get only about five hours of sleep compared to last year where I had the normal seven hours of sleep during weekdays. That is just because I live rather close to the school and could sleep in. How about those that live in San Lorenzo or those that live in Hayward? They have to wake up at least one or two hours earlier than me because they have to go through traffic everyday."

This blog post was one of the most important ones that I wrote. I complain not just because of myself but also for the other people that have the same problems. I was inspired by students and myself to write this post. It had become such a issue; a big one for me since I have not adapted to sleeping at such a late time. It is frustrating for me and I find the bed so much more comforting than school. For the past few weeks, I have been oversleeping even though I put my alarm on the highest noise possible. I tend to eat less breakfast these weeks.

Over the course of events this year, many of my blog posts have been inspired by something that I find is an issue in my life. Whether it is preparing for college, stage fright, or homework, I write about it because I want to get my opinion read throughout the internet. I hope to write more about issues and continue blogging about it.

The Central Conflict in "Night" by Elie Weisel

Life is full of conflicts and conflicts help to keep life going. Conflicts happen so that a person or groups of people will help to find a solution. In Night by Elie Wiesel, there are multiple conflicts that influence the progression of his memoir. Some examples of conflicts are character vs. society and character vs. self. In this story, I believe that the central conflict of the story is between character vs. the supernatural where his belief in god is slowly degraded as he spends his days in labor camps.

In the beginning of Night, Wiesel was a heavy believer in god. He decides to grow up to be a Rabbi and asks for his father's permission. Elie Wiesel wrote: "One day I asked my father to find me a master to guide me in my studies of the cabbala"(Wiesel 1). He was willing to take a step closer to god to communicate with him. He felt that he had found life meaningful and that god treated everyone fairly. He had a fortunate family and life. No one in the community was ever a bother even the beggar was considered as "invisible".

As Night progresses, Elie finds himself in Auschwitz and sees innocent people being burned alive by the Germans.  He was terrified and shocked and wished that it was all a nightmare. In this scene, Elie begins to question God: "... I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?" (Wiesel 31). In this scene, Elie wonders why God is doing this to all of his people. They had never done any wrong and yet they are to suffer slowly and die an unfulfilled life. He sees God as more of a traitor and that he only supports the strong and full of injustice.

At the middle of Elie's time in labor camp, he witnesses a young child being hanged and he had to stare at the entire scene. Due to the young boy's light weight and size, he continued to struggle out of the tight rope. At the moment he marched past the struggling boy, he believes that God had disappeared from his side. He states: "Behind me, I heard the same man asking: 'where is God now?' And I heard a voice within me answer him: 'Where is he? Here He is- He is hanging here on this gallows...'" (Wiesel 62). He believes that god has mistreated many people causing them to suffer ever since he had gone to Auschwitz. Now that he had witnessed a young child being hanged, he broke and was angry at god. He knew that god had just killed a boy that had not lived to his full potential. The next day, Elie blames god for all things and rebelled him: "Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day on Sundays and feast days." (Wiesel 64) Elie continues listing all the other destructive things that he has done. He does not pray nor believe in him for God. Elie experienced all the torture and witnessed all the deaths of the people that he had forgotten about the past. All he thinks about is how to survive and make it through the camps.

Overall, Elie lost his faith in God by the end of the concentration and labor camps. He was mistreated and saw dead people where he went. He had lost faith in the god he was once familiar with but it had died. That is why this book Night by Elie Wiesel is about Elie vs. the Supernatural (religion).

Re: "Ms. Valdez" by Vy Truong

Last year, the freshman class had a different English teacher. We addressed her has Ms. Valdez. Many of us really miss her and wish that she was still here. She left a big memory in ASTI history. I found a blog post that described her on Vy Truong's post posted 2 weeks ago and I would like to respond to it: 

"She was one of the most mmm..interesting teacher ever. Ms.Valdez always had to have it her way and be right no matter what. She even said “when I’m right I’m right and when I’m wrong, I’m still right,” that was Ms.Valdez... We read many books in her class... She made reading more understandable and always found a deeper meaning in everything we read. Her essay’s were a pain to write but it got easier as the year goes on but Ms.Valdez never gave out A’s, it would be rare when she did... I have to admit she was an amazing teacher. I have learn so much in her class than I learn in all my years of middle school. She would always make class interesting and keep the class predictable. Also she was able to interpret the reading very clearly and lets us say whatever we want about the reading. She just wanted use to express ourselves as a student and help us find the bigger meaning in everything" - Vy Truong

I do have to agree with everything Vy said in her blog post. She was a strict and tough teacher. She usually gave us a lot of reading each night ranging from 10 pages to 56 pages and it usually took me 2 hours to read it while annotating. Everyday after we read, we would have a small quiz that tests what we read. She says that this makes sure that the student actually reads instead of skipping it and pretend. By the way, the questions' answers are rather specific so you really actually have to read word for word. Her essays were specific prompts that we would have to answer and provide a deep analysis for it. She usually gave a short period to brainstorm, write the essay, and edit it for mistakes (about the total of a week to a week and a half). Her standards for grading essays are very strict because she wants our essays to be college bound so essays in her class doesn't go above a B.

Yes, she is a very strict teacher, the strictest that I have ever experienced but she does have a good personality. Before, she allowed us to eat in class because she does herself and it would be unfair. She allowed us to randomly talk about the book and allowed us to express ourselves freely in Socratic Seminar and in our writing. She is a nice person to talk to especially when you are sad. She may look mean but she is kind. She only wants us to learn and be successful in college.

Speech: Bullying in Alameda and how it can be stopped

Alameda has been a home to me for almost four years and I have enjoyed living here ever since then. There are many reasons for that. Alameda is a safe neighborhood and a great school district with very little dangerous incidents or gang fights. Another reason is that the city has many great activities to participate in. For example, there are swimming lessons during the summer, boy and girl scouts, and fairs and parades.

Unfortunately, there are some problems in Alameda that should be solved immediately. My major concern is the common bullying of misfits at school and outside of school. As a young adult living through my educational career, I have experienced bullying first hand. I was teased but had not entered the stage of physical abuse. Although bullying is generally thought as physical, it can also be cyber bullying, mental bullying, and verbal bullying. Cyber bullying includes texting or posting mean messages about a person. Mental bullying can be ignoring a person or giving them dirty looks. Verbal bullying is the most common. This type of bullying includes calling a person names or talking about them behind their backs. Bullying never ends up as a good thing and no one ever wins. Bullying usually starts with jealousy or anger at another student. The jealous or angry student begins teasing other peers and it later becomes a chain reaction.

Bullying can happen in many ways. At school, students can be judged by their personality or their looks. They could also be teased by what they do or how they act. The internet is another place where bullying happens constantly. During these past few years, the internet has been becoming a rather a popular place to chat and email each other. Forums such as Myspace and Facebook can hide the user’s name or be created with a fictitious name. Bullies can use this system to tease or post hurtful comments to make the victims feel depressed.

An example of bullying happened on Monday, March 31 where nine bullies led a month long campaign of bullying in Massachusetts which later led to the suicide of a 15 year old girl. She was physically abused and verbally harassed because a small group of students were displeasured by her minor dating relationship from about six weeks ago. She was later found hanged in her apartment.

    As once said by Martin Luther King Jr., “the ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and the cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” What Martin Luther King means is the fact that no one speaks up when someone is in trouble. During the Jim Crow Era, Negroes were afraid to speak up because they feared that mobs would come after them and lynch them. At school, students who are victims of bullying are afraid that if they speak up to the teachers or the principle, they will be physically abused and teased afterwards by the bully. This is the main problem of bullying. It continues on and on because no one has the courage to speak up for themselves and for the other students in risk of the dangers of being bullied.

Everyone should speak up when someone is in trouble. Students shouldn’t be afraid of the bully at all. I also suggest that teachers and the principle should pay more attention to each student. When using the internet, I suggest staying away from signing up for websites where random people can comment anonymously. When using Facebook or Myspace, make sure that the friends that you approve aren’t strangers.

Building a comfortable education where young adults are happy is important to their educational career. If bullying cannot be stopped, kids will live through their educational career in fear and depression similar to those in the civil rights movement and the girl that committed suicide. I understand that stopping bullying takes a large amount of time and effort. But, as long as everyone puts in some effort, it can be stopped permanently.

Re: Stress Level Override by Max Rohde

In my entire career as a student so far, life had not been harder than for me this year. As a sophomore,we have a lot of assignments to do and many tests to study for. Especially in Alameda Science and Technology Institute, the school I am currently attending, it is the harder than many other charter and public schools because we have to prepare for college within two years time. Even though this is rather short compared to the four years of high school, I believe that we students of A.S.T.I. should still have less work compared to the present work that we have but still more work compared to other high schools. I found a post from Max Rohde's blog that really relates to what I am writing about. The following quote is one of the quotes that I would say about the amount of work is to me:

"The amount of work that teachers give their ASTI students is painfully unbearable. Not only are we enrolled in difficult and advanced academic classes, bit the workload of homework, studying and tests is to a point where our precious childhood lives are being deprived from us. We are losing countless hours of sleep, and have been turned into workaholics"  - Max Rohde

In his radical blog post about the amount of homework that A.S.T.I. gives out to Sophomores, I agree with most of it. I agree that we do have a lot of homework every night. When every teacher gives out homework for us to do every night to do, I would usually work till midnight or later if I didn't have college classes during that night as well. I usually start my homework at four o' clock and only stop working on my homework when I have to shower, eat dinner, or when I have wrist cramps and need to shake loose. In my opinion, colleges classes don't even give out that much homework at all.

During the summer, I took two college classes and the amount of homework compared to school homework now is not even close at all. It takes like one-fourth of the time or two to three hours to finish it averagely. I think that A.S.T.I just wanted us to make us work continuously every night so that when we take college classes, it will be a breeze. I don't like that idea because I believe that each grade level should become only a little bit harder not dramatically harder like it is now.

During Freshman year, it was rather easy even when Ms. Valdez taught English and that we had tests everyday for her class. I finished homework in four hours at that time. Now it is like seven hours. If the amount of homework continues to increase, does that mean that we will have no sleep. It sure seems like it. This year I usually get only about five hours of sleep compared to last year where I had the normal seven hours of sleep during weekdays. That is just because I live rather close to the school and could sleep in. How about those that live in San Lorenzo or those that live in Hayward? They have to wake up at least one or two hours earlier than me because they have to go through traffic everyday. Does that mean that they only have about at most 3 hours of sleep? I guess so.

This amount of homework is stressing many students out. Students are now even willing to not complete assignments just to get some rest. Students are not liable to pay attention in class and probably sleep while the teachers are giving a lecture. Students don't get to learn this way because class time is much more important than homework because class time is a time for students to learn while homework is just to practice what we learned. Practice should not have to take seven hours but should take only 30 minutes for each subject everyday.