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.