AF: Roger Ebert and his wife, Chaz

AF: TEDYouth

Kids, read this, and look at the bottom where it says,

Not able to make it to TEDYouth in person? Totally fine. The event will be webcast on Saturday, November 16, from 11am to 6pm CDT. Or find a TEDxYouthDay event near you. They are happening all over the world, in the 48-hour period surrounding TEDYouth.

Feel the fear

I read this quote and I thought it was very inspirational. Hopefully you will find it inspirational also :)

"FEEL THE FEAR...AND DO IT ANYWAY. Often we think, 'I'll do it when I am not so afraid.' But in reality, it works the other way round. The 'doing it' comes before the fear goes away. The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out and do it."

It made me realize I shouldn't fear what I haven't done yet. I shouldn't be afraid of my fears, but I should go out and conquer them. I have been feeling many fears these last few months, dealing with colleges and grades, but I now believe I shouldn't be afraid, I should go out there and do it with as much intensity and hope. There will always be those "what ifs" but I would rather have those "what ifs" compared to "I wish I would have".

AF: What's good?

The Orange
—Wendy Cope

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange —
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment.  It's new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I'm glad I exist.

AF: Success on TED Radio

This was a great little moment on the radio this morning:  an hour devoted to different ideas about success.  I'm going to go back and listen to the entire show, but this short segment (13:17) by Alain de Botton* is really very good.  Play it in the background while you are doing something else, like folding your laundry.

Why I thought of you:  because you are trying to figure out what your major will be; it feels urgent to you that you figure this out, and soon.  Why?  Because our identities are tied up so closely with our work.  But honestly,  how can someone who is just 17 or 18 years old know who they are or what they will be?  You are just on the cusp.

Don't worry about WHAT you are.  Worry instead about getting a good education.  Become well educated.  Study everything. For most of us, it is mistake to look at college from such a narrow, careerist point of view.  I'm not saying that NO ONE knows what they want to be when they grow up, but I am saying that most don't, and that's fine.

*If you're trying to figure out why this guy sounds familiar...he wrote The Architecture of Happiness, a book that figured prominently in the movie, 500 Days of Summer.

I look forward to our time writing in this class. It does not matter to me what topic it is I just like writing in ERW. I know that writing is going to be very useful once I go to college and I do not regret taking this class, but what I am worried about is the possibility that I might not be able to improve myself within the school year. While we write in class I usually look around my table to see how far my classmates are in their prompts and one minute in they are finished with the top half of their page while I just sit there thinking about how I should start writing and planning out how I should go about our prompt. Once our time is up I look around and see that my classmates have gone to the back side of their papers while I'm somewhat close to the bottom. I am thankful that the Peter Elbow Writing With Power presentations came along when they did. After listening to the presentations and taking notes I feel that I could be a better writer once we start writing more in our notebooks. I would have to say that the method that has stuck with me the most has been the dangerous method. I have been using it for most of my assignments across all classes in all years and I have realized that I have been doing it the wrong way. Now I know better than to try to make my assignments perfect and to not over think.

ERW

By the end of this year I hope to become a better writer and I feel like ERW will help me out a lot.

I need to start preparing for college writing courses because as of right now I am not ready. After reading some college level essays, I have realized that my essays seem childish. They are not structured well and I always end up repeating myself. My ideas are never clear and people usually have a hard time understanding me. I don’t want to use ERW as a way of learning grammar, but also as a way to learn how to express my ideas better. I want to learn how to get my message across better using my own voice. I think this class will allow me to do this because of the constant practice we get in the blog, during freewriting, and other assignments. As I write more, I will be able to see what techniques I can use to get my point across because of the constant feedback I am going to get. So far, I have been improving because of the freewriting we do in class. Now I can come up with ideas considerably faster than a month ago. The first time we did freewriting, I only wrote less than a quarter of a page. Now I am able to write at least a whole page and I am able to keep the ideas coming for the entire ten minutes. By the end of this year I want to be able to incorporate the freewriting process into all my essays because I feel that it will help me come up with better ideas. Does anyone else expect ERW to help you in other areas besides grammar?

Procrastination

We read learned about the dangerous method in Peter Elbow's book. I know I use this method in my life every single day. Its the biggest habit I don't think I ever will get rid of. I can never start anything earlier then when its due. Especially a paper or essay. I still have to go write the essay about what grade we think we've earned for Ms.Fletcher. I'm here the night before an SAT trying to get this done. Everyday it feels like I have no break and this is the way I choose to live. I just accept in my life now. I wonder if anyone else feels exactly how I do. It's not just one assignment its everything. One thing I do is I make it a point to get my stuff done. Procrastination kills!

Procrastination

     Recently I have been struggling trying to think of topics to discuss in the blog. Replying to other threads is simple enough as it is but when I try to start a thread it's different. I have writers block and I am finding it frustrating that I do not know what to talk about and I am pretty sure that I can relate to most of my classmates right now. To make matters worse I have been procrastinating and I only recently checked my email and asked for an invitation yesterday since I never actually received one, I am doing everything last minute, and I am still procrastinating even while I type this blog post. Right now I am currently watching TV, looking at funny pictures, and reading random articles on Yahoo. I have not even bothered with this for about an hour or two and I just stopped to try and finish this. I did not have this problem last year when I was doing my summer homework for AP English. I actually finished my summer notebook early and started my summer blogging earlier than others and I did not procrastinate. I do not know why I just suddenly started to procrastinate so much this year but right now it does not feel nice. So has anyone been doing something similar to what I have been doing? Does anyone feel the same way I feel right now? And if you wanted to know I started writing this around eight o'clock.

Colleges Want Imperfection

After reading the article Want to Get Into College? Learn to Fail by Angel Perez, I was quite surprised.  Yes, I expect many failures to occur in my life, but I never thought college admissions would be alright with them.  Throughout this whole application process, I have been trying to make my application look spotless.  I thought colleges expected the students to be perfect, but obviously I am wrong.  Perez even stated, "Students are usually in shock when I chuckle and tell them I never expect perfection.  In fact, I prefer they not project it in their college applications."  To be honest, I used to view the college admission officers as robots, stamping accept or decline, approving all applicant who seem perfect.

I can definitely say that I am one imperfect student.  I have failed may tests and I am really not proud of that.  Yesterday, I was speaking with one of my old AP teachers about my inability to graduate with MAP.  I nearly cried talking about how dumb I am because I cannot keep up with the rest of the AP kids.  For the past three years, I have been hanging on a string, debating whether I should just snip it and choose simpler, more comfortable classes.  My teacher countered with, "Don't ever feel dumb.  You a brilliant student.  You just have to improve your testing skills; that's what college is for."  Thinking about our conversation and the article, we are all imperfect and colleges realize that.  The rest of us should realize that as well.

Grammar = Glamour

           I struggle with grammar.  I feel lost when it comes to grammatically correcting mine or others papers. I am never quite sure where commas or semi-colons go. It looks like the comma could go there or not, and I'm never sure if the semi-colon is appropriate. I want to be able to be confident in using correct grammar in my essays by the end of this year. I want to know that the comma goes there and not just guess whether or not it does. I want to remember what the difference is between a phrase and a clause.

           My struggle though is that whenever a teacher has a lesson on grammar, I tune out. I cannot get engaged in the lesson and the words go in one ear and out the next. I find grammar lessons boring so I don’t pay attention, but then I stress out when I write my essays because I don’t know whether I am doing it right. In peer review I don’t receive grammar corrections either, so I don’t know if I am right or not.

            I also want my writing to become better. I want my essays and sentences to sound more intelligent and I want to be able to write a college level essay. I want to learn better essay structure and be able to write a good essay without going through several bad drafts. I want to be able to use the writing process effectively. By the end of this year, I want to be a good writer. 

Preparing For Life

Most of you probably already know that college education is important. There are many reasons why one should go to college. College can play a big part in transitioning into an adult. The experience one will have in college will be great with clubs, sports, football games, and the friends you will make. It will all be an experience one will never forget and treasure forever. Going to college will get you the job that will get you the money needed to provide for your family and also for you to spend on things you need and want. In getting that good job one can do what one desires without almost never worrying about how much money is in the back or restraining yourself from buying what you want. College will also help you develop skills needed in the job you want to get and also help you with the real world as you begin to become an adult. It will give you those skills and knowledge of things one needs to know carrying on in the adult life.

Going to college can be an amazing experience and can help you in your life in the future. It can help your future family that you might create one day and can help you with giving back to the family you have now. With college many things are possible and one can achieve the success one wants.  

Anyone else nervous...?

So, I read Ryan's post about high school being a quarter of the way done, and I know everyone else is excited to be done. Am I the only one scared as hell of leaving the safety of Mayfair and being dumped into the chaotic, big, bad world out there? Do not get me wrong, I am happy that I completed twelve years of pre-real life school.  I have realized that I'm not SURE what I want to do with the rest of my life! I hear everyone in my classes that know where they are going to college, going to major in, and then do with their life. Thinking to myself, I know that I'm not ready to go out into the world yet. I don't have anything planned, or accomplishments to lean on.  I feel like a failure almost, but then again, some people change their plans again and again. God, I'm already slacking off, this blogging is the struggle because I have never done it before, and this is only ONE aspect of ONE class. I don't even have to stress about the personal statement because I'm going to a CC. I just have to keep saying that I need to get my...stuff...together. I know college is going to be harder, and if only this is hard for me, how can I swing it in college, right? I think one of my "progress goals" should be to do all of my work on time. Obviously, I am not good at that...

Personal statements

I am very happy we were able to write these personal statements and get the time to really understand what needs to be said in them, what we shouldn't write about in them, and how to make them ten times better then what they would of looked like. Luckily I won't ever have to write a personal statement ,because the school I'm going to is a state school, but I still enjoyed writing them and getting better as a writer. I know a lot of people were stressing out about having to write one for the colleges they are applying for and now they were able to practice writing it to make it perfect. I learned a lot from this whole process. I know am going to make sure I make multiple drafts and have someone read them to catch some of my mistakes, to make it even better. I will do all these steps with mostly every paper I wrote now because I realized how important it was to do so. On top of it we learned tons of stuff about tricks to writing papers, that I will never forget. How to share and how to wrote down a couple of main ideas before writing the essay and many other tricks to making someone's paper just that much better. I found something I like about English and I hope we can write more essays in the future.:)

No Regrets!

I feel like these few weeks of school have flew by us faster than I would imagined; it is like waiting two hours in a laboriously long line for Space Mountain at Disneyland only to experience what seems like a minute of pure ecstasy. Throughout high school, I expected my senior year to be the best and the most fun, but a quarter has already pass and I'm under more pressure than I have ever been. Don't get me wrong, I do have moments of fun, but those fleeting moments are outweighed by much stress built on later because of those fun times--oh, the irony!



Everybody needs time to relax and release the accumulated cortisol. These high school years are ephemeral: they won't be here forever and I don't want to walk down the aisle in June with memories of stress, pressure, stress. In fact, those are the details I wish would blur together into one day instead of being the description of my daily life. I want to remember the time I nearly burst from laughing from a joke or prank my friends and I did. I want to be able to reminisce about the time we got stranded in a Taco Bell and had to call my nun to come get us. I want to be nostalgic about the days when I was "stupid."
I know this time of the year is full of anxiety, but I don't want to invest all my time being stress. I know what my responsibilities and priorities are by now, and I know to make sure it's taken care of. Even so, we all should put time aside for the fun side of life.

Quarter of a way done with high school

Now since the first quarter is over I now have to take the second more serious. It is the second quarter of school and us seniors are now one quarter of the way done with high school and I have to say it feels pretty good. The second quarter is very important because these grade I will receive for the end of this quarter will count on my transcript and what college's will see what kind of student I am, being my senior year. Im pretty sure that there are seniors every year that just think they are practically done with school and do not even really try anymore. With those seniors it's most likely hurts their chances to go to whatever college they wanted to attend. I know for myself I do not want to run through that option and have to deal with being in a situation like that. Even though I kind of didn't kind of get the best grades last year I know I can improve this year. Now that I have one more quarter before the first semester ends I have to be on top in all my classes especially English. I say I have to do a lot for English because over the years I tend to be kind of lazy in my English classes I was in the last couple of years. Even though I got A's and last year B's both semesters in my English class my goal is to maintain a B or higher for both semesters. I also have to say this quarter went by kind of fast and we did a lot of stuff so far in this class. I look forward to see what we do in this next quarter. I really have to work harder and stay focused throughout the rest of the year to achieve my goal. I cannot wait until the next quarter kicks off on Monday and after the second quarter is over because we as seniors will be half way done with high school and to graduation. Look forward to everything to come guys and finish strong because graduation is coming sooner rather than later.                

Goals for the Remainder of the Year For ERW

Now that 25% of the year has gone by ERW has been a pretty good class in my opinion. I like how we have written our personal statements and have gotten feedback on them. I've done all of my work and everything that has needed to be done in the notebook. I believe I did well on my Peter Elbow presentation and the other things as well. The grading system is different, but I think it will be a positive thing in the end because it is based on our participation in the class and how we have improved over the course of the year, semester, or quarter. October was a really busy month and I did not know if I would be able to keep up, but I think I did a good job of keeping up with my work.

            One thing I think I need to improve on is the vocab tests. I have gotten a 70% on both of my vocabulary tests and I am normally good at those types of tests. The difficult part for me is putting the words into the sentences provided for us. The easy part is when she gives us the definition and we just have to find the word, but I struggled on that part on the last vocab quiz. If I can start getting A’s on those types of quizzes I think my grade will be where it should be. There is no way I should be getting a C on a vocabulary test.  

First Quarter

                The first quarter is now over at Mayfair and I think I have a had a decent outcome on how my grades are. Senior year is different compared to the 3 previous years of high school. There is not as much homework as I would normally have, but its also harder to do homework because of “senioritis”. When I get home I tell myself I will do this homework, but I take forever to start the homework, or I get side tracked very easily and get extremely distracted to where it takes me a long time to do the work that has been assigned.

                Another thing I have also been doing is procrastinating a lot. I normally never procrastinate because I don’t like the stress that it brings, but I am basically procrastinating right now because I am doing this blog on the day that it is due. I study for tests on the last day; I do all my homework, schoolwork, and projects on the last day. I even started procrastinating on my college applications. The good thing is that I always get the work done that is need to be done; on the bad side if I keep procrastinating I’m going to bring more stress to me. I Think I need to do better on tests as well, since I procrastinate on my studying I’ve been getting C’s on my tests and a C is average and that has got to stop quickly, so I  am looking forward to the next quarter.

Notebook

We have been using notebooks for as long as I can remember in school, it is expected that we have one for this class. Each year teachers have us design the notebook differently than last. Last year I had Mr. Bacani and he had us divide up our notebook into three sections: quotes, SSR, and journal (writing) topics. This year is much different with our usage of the notebook, although it may be different I think it is useful. What I like about this years notebook is that we are taking notes down in it, such as the Peter Elbow notes, which can easily be referenced later. Having the free writing included is a nice option too, letting us be more open with our writing and exploring out thoughts. On the first page we have a large area written up with nothing except information about ourselves, I will enjoy reading this at the end of the year, or farther down the road to see what has changed and what has not. The writing process handout in addition to Peter Elbow notes will pose useful later on too. Lastly there is the vocabulary in the back of the notebook, and I feel the format we are using is useful because it makes us look into more than just the word's definition. Overall, I feel this years notebook is an effective use of our time.

AF: Glitches in the Common App

Here is an article about the glitches in the Common App this year!

My Goals For ERW

I have a lot of personal expectations for ERW. After the year is over, I want to be able to say I am an extremely different writer then I was at the beginning of the year. I have never been a strong writer and I feel like I'm not ready for a college level English course. I really would like to work on my grammar and spelling. That has been my weakness for years, and it's been holding me back. What I'm really looking for is a strong structure of grammar and spelling where i can start and move on from there. Another one of my goals is to became a good annotater. When i read articles and stories, I don't always decode everything or I don't decode it right. I might miss the main point of the story or I miss little hints about the charactor that is key to figuring out the character's conflict of the purpose of the story. This has hurt me on tests. I feel like this is the right class for me and it will help me get to where I want to be with my reading and writing skills, which is to be able to say that I am truly ready for college level couses after I graduate.