Re: Group Projects by Andy Lau

Group projects are always great to do but if you don't have a productive group, there isn't any fun into doing it. It becomes rather one sided. I looked at Andy Lau's post and I have to agree with many of the opinions he blogged about. Here is what he said: 

"I understand that group projects are a good way for us to meet new people. If students are new to a school, group projects can be an anchor to long lasting friendships. They unite students of different backgrounds together. In addition, group projects can also be fun when you are in a group with people you get along with. Furthermore, working in groups with cooperative team members will help us get the work completed faster. It also allows different perspectives to be heard. In group work, students can each bring in their own talent and hide their weaknesses. 

However, working in groups is not always successful. Group projects can be very stressful, especially if you are assigned in a group in which the students are lazy, uncooperative, and always off task." - Andy Lau

I agree with many of the things that he says, but I don't really think that it is a good way to meet  new people since we tend to choose the people that we like to work with. If everything goes well, you would have a fun time and everyone would pretty much split the work evenly. Also, new ideas could come aboard to make a project more interesting.

But as everyone probably knows, not everything is perfect. There is always a few groups that contain lazy people and one or two people do all the work. The lazy ones plainly sit there enjoying their easy opportunity to a high grade. Those that enjoy the easy A would appear to be working when the real workers are trying their best staying up at night finishing up the "group's" work and wishing that they should have gotten a better group. So in the end, the ones that hardly do any work cheated their way into earning that grade.

Most persuasive response and the least persuasive

Throughout the week, students at ASTI read seven responses that answered the following question, "Will you have a better life if you graduate from an elite college or university?" We were to decide which was the most persuasive and the least persuasive out of the seven of them.


After reading the responses, I thought that the  was "Merit and Race" by Luis Fuentes Rohwer. His main point was that going to an elite college  is better than going to a "weak" school. He says that going to a elite school would place you in a spot where you have a higher graduation rate and a higher probability of going into graduate school. I know that more people tend to graduate elite colleges and universities more but I thought that the probability or graduation depends on your effort at college/ university. Luis also states that if a person goes to an elite college, they have lower divorce rates and a better health. That was extremely random. I do not even know how those two are even related to education. He didn't even put evidence to support his evidence. The most terrible thing that he said was that quality in a college or university does not matter. This ticked me off because quality is one of the most important things in colleges and universities. Would you go to an elite college that contains bad teachers and a dirty campus? I wouldn't.


 I believe that the least persuasive response was called "Graduate School Matters More" by David W. Breneman. His main point of his response is to communicate to others that the ranking of a college does not matter but the importance lies withing the students capabilities of attending elite schools. He says that all those that are college ready and created a goal for themselves may go to an elite college sooner and continue to move on to graduate school to achieve their goal. He notes that the students that are not ready to continue on to a elite college or university after high school graduation. He says that they would have a higher chance of being lost in the institution and the probability of graduating and/ or going to graduate school is much lower. He suggested that those who aren't ready should attend community colleges where it focuses on student development towards a college environment. Finally, he notes that elite colleges tend to have a high intuition so the family might not be able to afford it. David W. Breneman's response convinced me the most because it changed my mind about whether going to an elite school is important. The response made me think, "If I'm not even ready to attend an elite college or university yet, what is the point? It's going to be hard for me to stay alert if I'm not adjusted to a new environment. I should be patient and use more time to prepare myself." 

Into the wild by Jon Krakauer book 2nd response/ review

I continue to enjoy reading this book even though many of my group mates begin to lose interest. After reaching to the second paper clip, I thought that Chris (Alex Supertramp) McCandless lived an abnormal life but it seemed reasonable that happened to him. In the beginning of the section, Krakauer reported on a couple of other people that had also ended up similar to Alex; they arrive in Alaska to start a new life in the wild but ends in death.

I believed that Chris had lived an abnormal life because he didn't want to be successful in college but rather explore nature. He ran away from home. He enjoyed being by himself much more that hanging out with the friends that he makes. He donated all his money instead of using it on his trips. On the other hand, I also thought that it was reasonable because he had many family problems. The parents constantly yelled at each other so only his sister was close to him. If his sister wasn't there, then he would be by himself. He was also influenced by a writer named Jack London that expressed the fantasies of living in Alaska.

In our lit circle discussion, we also discussed about what would have happen if he had survived and was rescued by the Alaska state troopers. We said that he could have been traumatized by the course of events and would not go back into the wild again or at least Alaska. We believe that Chris McCandless would have settled down in Carthage and make a family. He would continue to work for Wayne Westernberg in the mills or become someone popular like his father, Walt. He might have become the veteran's adopted son and live with him for the rest of his life.

Throughout this book, our group thought that Alex actually wanted to come back and that his death was something unexpected to him even though he had entered with very little gear. He had promised many things to other people in his letters to them that he would survive and come back to meet them.

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.

Into the wild by Jon Krakauer book response/ review

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is such an amazing book to read for me. It is about a college graduate named Chris McCandless that drove away from his family from Atlanta. When he leaves he changes his name to Alex Supertramp. He traveled all around the United States and even traveled to parts of Mexico along his adventure. Throughout his journey, he encounters many people and made bonds with them. He kept a diary and camera to take pictures of his journey. He enjoyed reading books especially books by Jack London, a writer from Alaska. These fictional stories written by Jack London inspired Chris to go to Alaska where he ends his life. This book is similar to a news report in which the author travels around to question those that knew McCandless and what they had done together.

Many of these stories were interesting but the last one that I have read so far was inspiring to me. It was about a veteran who had lost his family. He began to drink but was able to control himself. He then met Alex, in which he grew attached to him. It states: "McCandless made an indelible impression on a number of people... Nobody, however, was affected more powerfully by his or her brief contact with the boy than Ronald Franz..."(Krakauer 81). When they both met, Franz treated Chris as if he was his own son. He would drive him everywhere he needed to be and when he was hungry, he would buy him food and provide him with provisions as he traveled. Franz was always there. It seemed as if Franz was waiting by the phone all the time to help him out. This story reminded of my friends and family. Whenever I need help, they always seem to be there where I can reach out to them. Franz was like that to McCandless. What stood out from the other stories was that, he actually wanted to adopt McCandless in the end but Alex had said no. That was shocking but it was not surprising. The story builds up to Franz saying that. McCandless was filling up that hole that Franz had have since his family died. When Alex died, he began drinking once more because even a deeper hole was dug out.

Even though, the main plot of the book has already been given. I still wonder what there is next to come. I want to hear further stories about the adventures. I am amazed that McCandless was able to survive such a long time. I wonder why he left his family in the first place and how that hired investigator was not able to find him since he had exposed himself with a job.

How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents final book response post (YES!!!)

At last, the difficult journey of reading this book has ended. I am so glad that we had finally finished it. I could not bear another of those Valdez books. In each Valdez book, there always seem to be a main character that encounters a form of rape or murder. It seems to be rare because how could so many tragedies happen so often within a person's lifetime. Overall, I thought that the book was neutral; not good and not that bad.

For the last reading, I thought that it was much better than all the rest of the parts. I learned to adapt to Garcia's syntax and diction. In the third and final part of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, I thought that it had contained many symbols and that there was a much deeper meaning to it. In class, Mr. Sutherland said that the last paragraph was making the book like a cycle where the reader can go back to the beginning of the book again and not be confused like when I had first read it. That ending had really surprised me. I wondered if I had just read the book over again, would I feel the same way? or words just be words? I thought about it and came to a conclusion that it would actually be more fun to read it again.

In the last section of the book there were a few scenes that were basically deep symbols of each character. One of them is when the bank got jammed and that the figure was stuck between heaven and hell. I compared it to how Carla was not able to decide what she was going to do when she had forgotten about it. The best symbol in this part that I thought was amazing was the nightmares of Yolanda of the kitten. In a way, the kitten was like Yolanda and her sisters. They were taken away at an early age and they did not necessarily adapt to their surroundings. Like the kitten, the sisters, too had became lost when they had arrived in America and it had took them a long time before they had found their way again.

Connecting the title to the main theme of the story, the title states "lost their accents." I thought that it wasn't much of their accents but more of their culture. When the family were at Dominican Republic, there was a tradition and a more strict culture. The environment was much more calm and the family was rich there. When they had arrived into the United States, the Garcia Girls had experienced a much more loose culture. They were poor there and could not afford much. Boys tended to tease them and American culture seemed to rely on sex. The girls soon had adapted to American culture and had heavily lost their Dominican Republic culture as a result.

Response to 11-4-10 by Vic Xuan

Social networking has been common throughout my period of life. When I first knew about the internet, Myspace was the first social network that I had personally knew of. It was sort of boring so I didn't access my file often. Then society had created Facebook. I joined last year and I grew fond of it and it is a great way to keep in touch with friends. I looked at Vic Xuan's response post to Ivan Arreola's post and found a quote that I agree on:

"I agree that Facebook can get addicting sometimes, but there isn't much to do on Facebook besides the childish games. Facebook can't intervene in life for a long period of time because it is simply searching and reading. People wouldn't know every movement a person is taking if they don't publicize it. Possibly, the people who do publicize it, don't mind other people knowing about their life and privacy. People know when they are giving out too much information."

Personally I agree with Vic on what he says on his response post. Ivan said that Facebook was a bad place to go to because it is addicting and many consequences could happen such as bullying. Like what Vic had said, Facebook is not addicting because a person spends only a small amount of time on it because he or she is only reading and replying. Why would a person sit there waiting for just some reply or someone to talk to because they think that they have nothing else to do? They have so many other options such as homework, reading, hanging out with friends, or something active. Well, you could even be playing video games.

My other agreement with Vic is about bullying. Bullying usually only happens when a commenter can be anonymous. In Facebook, everyone has a name. If they carry a false name, you should have never accepted them as a friend in the first place. It is so obvious. If it is someone that you know is bullying you, you can report them to anyone that you feel comfortable telling them. That could be a parent, friend, or even a teacher if you are fine with it.

My final agreement with Vic is about keeping in touch with their friends. Sometimes, school isn't enough to communicate with friends enough because of the limited time. When at home and you want to talk to your friends, you can keep in touch with them by calling them but it costs the phone bill. So, you go to an alternative in which it is a social network where you can chat and keep in touch that way. It is so accessible as long as there is internet.

My first impression of "Garcia Girls"

In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, the author write the book in many unique ways. Alvarez had written the book in reverse chronologically order. I was puzzled by that idea that an author would do that. The book is confusing and I tend to lose sight to where I am. I placed so many post-its in the first part that I wanted the author answer. Some on them were but many of them were not. In the end, I figure out who is communicating and what the section in about.

I found the book confusing mainly because I have had no experience about the book at all. I did not know who the author was and her background. It was fresh and I did not know where to start when I first received the book. When I first began the book, the author didn't give any background information about characters except for the family chart that marked the main characters' position in the family. The author just began with a story after story. Sometimes, Julia Alvarez just jumps from one scene to the next barely or not even making any transition at all. Until the end of each section, I was confused but as the story progresses I slowly understood the plot and the main point of each section. Julia Alvarez wrote the book where it was just the perfect amount of confusion but it also gave a chance for the reader to understand what is going on.

Besides the confusion part, I found the book quite interesting. I enjoyed how there were like miniature stories within the book. It was similar to House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros where there were vignettes. It was also nice how she had included a family diagram so that the reader would know the family.

My favorite part of the book in Part 1 was the section where Sofia (FiFi) had lost her father's trust since she had run away with another man. The father disowns her and he does not speak of her name. Even when Sofia tried to throw a party for him on his 70th birthday, the father still did not approve of her. One of my questions was why the father held the grudge for such a long time. I am hoping that it will be answered later.

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: "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.

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.

Response to "ASTI Size Increase" by Amber Chan

     As many people know, major budget cuts are affecting all of California and many other states of the United States as well. In California, one of the cities in which the budget cuts affect the most is Alameda. As a student of Alameda Science and Technology Institute, I know how this is physically affecting us. I found a post from Amber Chan's blog and would like to respond to it.

"As many of you know, there have been major budget cuts this year, and the Parcel Tax did not get passed, so a lot of the funding for schools has been drastically lowered, and we do not have as many funds to pay for textbooks and teachers.  Many of the schools have been planning to shut down soon and merge with another school, and grades for the school to be changed.  I heard that Encinal High School and Lincoln Middle School might shut down... the grades in Alameda High... would be changed so there are seventh and eight graders too.  Also, they have plans to shut down about half of the elementary schools in Alameda... Because many of the schools might get shut down, and most schools are losing privileges and teachers" -Amber Chan

     In addition, Chipman Middle School was closed this year and is replaced with a charter school that does not follow the district. Encinal High School will be closing next year. All students that wish to attend a public high school would have to attend the last public high school in Alameda; Alameda High. The amount of school days for Alameda have so far been cut five days but there will be more cut later.
     I think that this budget crisis is just unfair for all students and also teachers. Just because California does not use their budget well, they have to cut school budgets and other important funding for public and heath services. Why couldn't they have cut spending on prisons or the military? They are not extremely important at all. Why can't they only have a few large prisons located on a island so that it is hard for them to escape. If there were more cuts there, there wouldn't have to be so many huge effects on the school system. The government should understand that the future is much more important. The future depends on children and if their learning experience is cut, the chance of success goes a little bit lower. This increases the chance that America or at least California will end up in the worse economy and a decline in technology as well.

Quote that i found from another person and how it relates with the ASTI constitution

I found this quote from Vincent Liu's blog and I thought about how much it relates to one of the major rules of the ASTI constitution:

A time when I have been made harassed by a larger group was the time when I got a bad grade on a test while most of the people in my class got a good grade. The people that got a good grade went to me and start laughing at me because I got a bad grade while they did well.
                                                                                                            -Vincent Liu

This action of teasing a fellow classmate violates the rule of accepting others for who they are. Just because a person received one single bad grade on a test doesn't mean that the next test that he or she would fail again. Think about this: If the group of people that laughed at Vincent received terrible grades, would they would have wanted someone to laugh that them? Almost everyone would say no because it makes them feel bad. It is impolite to do such a thing. I said almost because some people don't care that they received it and let it fly bye. Instead I would sometimes say that someone laughing at someone else can inspire others and the victim to become better so that they are able to avoid the teasing next time. Accepting others for who they are is one of the rules in the ASTI Constitution as mentioned above but I think that accepting people for who they are should be followed everywhere. No one is ever the same in personality because everyone's culture is different. Especially in America, many immigrants come from all over the world. They have different religion, social class and even different manners. Just because people are different, doesn't mean that you are above the law so that you can tease them. Respect others and they will respect you.