Sleep by Carly Cheung response post

Sleep, one of the most essential things to life. It is a way in which animals regain their energy from a long day. Even after a long day of school, we go home and do our homework. In ASTI, there are loads of homework to be done in a day. Many of us tend to work on it until midnight or later. On Carly's response post to Ruby's post, she discusses how she is working until late at night doing homework due on later days because she knows that she probably doesn't have time on other days.

"I am doing my post wayyy earlier than I am supposed to because I know I won't have time tomorrow or Friday. So, I found this post especially appealing because it is about sleep. Right now it is eleven something and I yearn to sleep early, at least once" - Carly Cheung

I can relate to her in so many ways. Typically on a school night, I would work until I finish the homework that is due the next day. If it is still early before or a little after at ten o'clock or so, I would continue working on homework that isn't due yet like blog posts or projects. Typically, my max amount of time that I usually end at is at 12 midnight. If I past that time, then I would not get the minimum requirements of sleep of 7 hours. If I do past that time limit if doing homework, I would feel sleepy all morning long. I don't really pay attention in class and always find myself daydreaming, but I never sleep. Until PE, I don't really feel excited. So what's the point of homework if it causes the lack of sleep. It would serve no purpose and instead become something negative. In a way, homework is steering students off to the wrong path in which it guides us that life has too many obstacles and too little time to get across them.

I did a post similar to this a while back, it consisted much more things that I said about sleep and homework.

How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents 2nd paper clip (=

At last I have finally approached the second paper clip that we sophomores needed to have approached by tomorrow. Apparently, I had made the terrible choice to cram 100 pages in a day and it didn't go so well. So far, I thought this book was plenty like House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. It is full of vignettes just like the book we are currently reading. I am beginning to get into the book but I like books that flow and make a big story.

Even after reading this book for 2 weeks now, I continue to find this book confusing but not as confusing like before where I had barely understood a word until the end of each story. Now, I understand what is going on as I read the book. The usual parts that I get confused about is the setting and the character's names. I continue to get lost with the reverse chronological method this book is in but I am used to it by now. When I had first read the first vignette of the first chapter, I did not even know who Laura was until there was the mentioning of the fact that she had four daughters. In the last vignette of Part II, I thought that the family was still in the Dominican Republic when it was actually when they had first come to America.

Compared to a few of last year's books, this book is quite similar to them. They include some form of sex and feminism. It also introduces a different perspective of how minorities sees living in America. They are poor and the parents are working day after day. In the book, the Garcia family comes to America with their traditional cultures but as they grow older, they learn that American culture is way different to their Dominican culture. To me, the book develops a story of how the Garcia family adapted to American ways of life and partially or completely lost their Dominican lifestyle. 

I personally think this book's main story reflects my family. They were immigrants to the United States and struggled in poverty to have food and shelter. Luckily, my dad worked hard and was able to support the family. He got the recognition from Safeway to become a butcher while he was working at a supermarket. My parents expects my sister and I to become educated and have a pleasant life in the future. Doesn't every parent want that for their children?

Reflection: Food Journal

Over the past couple of weeks in Mrs. Corbally's class, the sophomores have been researching and analyzing our diet in our food journal. Students had to observe a four day's meal in which there are two weekdays and the entire weekend. During the period of time, Students needed jot down everything that they had eaten and described the sensations of eating the food in our composition books. This assignment was a preparation for an essay that we had turn in our final draft yesterday. It was pretty fun and overall, I had learned much from the assignment but it had also frightened me as well.

Over that time period, I had completed twelve pages of work in the composition book. I was staring at my composition book thinking that I had eaten a lot. I panicked for a period of time and then I stopped to think. I said to myself that if I had actually eaten the amount that I had eaten, I would probably be a little bit overweight. I am so skinny that I don't think that I can be fat at all. Nevertheless, I was still shocked to have eaten that much though.

This was my first time that I had ever looked into my diet and it was actually an experience that is rare amongst other people. Many others would have usually eaten what was placed before them on the table. They don't look at the nutrition labels or measure how much intake of certain substances to create a balanced diet. When I looked at the nutrition labels, I was amazed at which substances I would consume the most and the least. I learned about how unhealthy some foods are and healthy foods that are excellent for the nutrition and growth of the body.

In my diet, I learned that I tend to consume my daily value of calcium and iron just in breakfast. I tend to eat a small lunch and a bigger dinner. Between lunch and dinner, I tend to drink and eat junk food. I consume too much fat but that doesn't seem to be affecting much at all. On rare occasions do I not eat rice over the weekends nevertheless constantly consume it everyday if not a special occasion.

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.

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.