Inspiration. Teachers? -[WBP]

I'm feeling kind of depressed right now. Sad? I don't know. Either way, I'm in no mood to write, but this blog must go on. Determination is key.

So I came up with this topic earlier in the week and saved it as a draft to write later on in the week so I could get some more thoughts about it.

The key to success is education. It's how we get anywhere in life. I think the United States as a country takes education for granted. In other countries education is a privilege, not a right. One of the big key issues in government is education. Anyway you look at it, education is a big deal. I mean, we go to school from when we're a young child until we are fully grown adults. School is where we learn everything. It's so much more than standard education. It's where we make our friends to last our whole life, where we learn about life, trends, culture, etc. We learn so much more from just being at school compared to being in a classroom. School sets us up for life. Recently a friend told me he was having such a great time at school. In response I asked how that was possible because I can't really associate being at school with genuine fun. Then he gave me probably the most simple answer ever. School is only fun if you make it fun. It seems like a pretty obvious thing to say, but it's so true. If you are actually into it, it really does become fun and I know because I've tried it for myself. It's a totally different experience.


Anyways, the main point of this post isn't even to talk about schooling. The point is about the people who are responsible for preparing us for the world. Teachers. Yeah, that's right. Underpaid, grumpy and annoying teachers. They are core that make up schools. The supplier of knowledge. Now, from personal experience most have my teachers have been pretty standard throughout middle school and high school. Lecture, notes, bookwork, homework, and tests. The classic schedule for most teachers. What I want to talk about are those select number of teachers that have actually gone over and above their job of simply teaching me the subject that they are oh so wise in. They've made me actually think, given me inspiration and so much more.

It probably began in 8th grade. For Core class (consisting of English and History) I had the ever so amazing Peter Hill. This was probably the first teacher that I've ever had that actually challenged me. Not by being such a harsh grader or assigning massive amounts of homework. No. While I wrote constant essays to turn in to him, he would always give me back feedback. 'Where did you get this idea from?' 'How did this event lead to this?' I mean, these were actually good points, its not some bs reason like 'Didn't use proper format'. He actually cared about writing. In the beginning of the year I was getting around C-'s- C+'s for my writing assignments. Being inspired to improve my writing, by the end of the year I was reaching B-A range on my essays. This was the first time I was actually passionate about writing. I wanted to improve and get better to prove to myself that I could do this. And for that Mr. Hill, I'm forever grateful.

When I entered freshman year I was put into standard English class. The main thought in my head after the first week was 'WHAT KIND OF ENGLISH IS THIS?!' It felt like I was honestly in the 3rd grade. The teacher had me doing worksheets consisting of correcting sentences missing commas and common punctuation. I don't blame the teacher for this either because I talked to my other friends in regular English and we could all agree that this course was just ridiculous. By the end of the year I felt like I lost all the progress that I've made during 8th grade.

And so this year, I'm lucky enough to have Mr. Sutherland as my English teacher. (No, I'm not sucking up).
This guy is pretty amazing. He's not your average English teacher. I mean he does things so differently. He's showing us videos about new information about the world, having us blog weekly, etc. He's constantly trying new things to teach us in different ways and sometimes it doesn't work out as planned, but that fine. At least he's trying something new. It's refreshing and for that I have respect for him. He's a pretty laid back guy, and his class rules are a little unstable, and it's amazing, but in my opinion he doesn't get the respect and attention he deserves. I feel like I'm learning updated standards that actually applies to the world of today, instead of some California State Standards written 10 years ago. I believe after a few years of trial and error experiments on what appeals to the students and what gets through to them, he'll be the best teacher you could have. I'm excited to see what else he has in store for the class, and what I will learn throughout this school year.(http://sites.google.com/site/sutherlandu/)

Now this last person I want to talk about is pretty surprising to me. Yong Joo, my mid-30 year old, horrible public speaking honors chemistry teacher. I've heard throughout my freshman year that he was the best teacher ever, and all the best compliments you could possibly give to a teacher. My first impression of him, he's a boring guy. I mean, I'm sure he's a cool person, but when he teaches chemistry, it's pretty dull. He didn't live up to the hype that I expected. Now that I've learned a little more about him, he seems like a genuinely amazing guy. Today he told us his life story about how he was a nerd in high school and got into MIT. Then he didn't really understand the reason for why he wanted to do well academically in school, so he started slacking. He got on academic probation twice and finally graduated with a chemistry major after switching in his mid-junior year. After finishing college he struggled to find what he really wanted to do and hopped around doing a variety of different jobs. Through this he picked up some skills and finally took a shot at being a teacher. I'm almost as glad as he is that he's made the right decision. From the exterior he looks like some dorky, awkward guy, but that's not him at all. He goes on crazy motorcycle trips throughout the United States with his buddies as well as random strangers, he's a pyromaniac, and probably most significant of all, he can relate to us (the students). He didn't know what he wanted to do when he was growing up, he didn't even know when he was out of college. He's struggled through this and has succeeded and for this I admire him. It gives me comfort knowing that I'm not the only one uneasy about my future career and my purpose in life. I can't wait to get to know him better. In case you want to learn a little more about him here's some blog posts or e-mails he's written a while ago. http://yongjoo.fastmail.fm/

These people are not just your standard teachers, these people have given me so much to look forward to in learning as well as motivation to do good. I'm grateful to have/had these people as my teachers, giving me so much more than just a 
standard education.

If you've read this far, leave a comment on which teachers have inspired/motivated you and why.(=
 P.S Sutherland, I'm sorry this post was 1200+words. Have it in your heart to forgive me. Haha. I'll slim it down next time.

A Change of Course -[WBP]

So, I've had a week to think about this since my last blog post. My statement of purpose. In class Mr. Sutherland mentioned that the class should blog about something that they want to talk about. Not just some random thing because he required a topic. During the time when the class was writing the rough draft to the purpose of their blogs, I felt pretty uninspired. Looking around seeing everybody write I felt pressured to start as well. So on the spot, I made up something. Culture. Fact is, I'm not that fascinated by culture. I mean I find it interesting, but after a week of thought, I don't want to write about this every week. I've read around on some of my peer's blogs and they seem pretty inspired by what they want to write about. Also it's pretty personal. So, I want to make my blog personal as well. It is my blog after all.

I've decided that I want to write about me. This may be a pretty trendy topic to write about amongst the vast number of students blogging, but this topic is different. This topic has variety. Each blog is about the author. A little piece of the person goes into writing about the blog. So I'm going to be writing about things that matter to me as they happen. Now, it's not going to be 3 posts a day or anything, it's basically a summary of my week.

And this won't just be some blog about how "I went to school today. It was boring. I had a test." No. There's no point in blogging about that. I'm going to use this blog to voice my opinions on a variety a subjects. I hope this goes well because when I usually blog, I don't have much of an audience. Well this time, at least I have some people that I know are reading often instead of those lurkers that never say anything. I hope this blog won't bore you. (much...)

Statement of Purpose. -[WBP]

For my blog, I would like to write about foreign culture. I want to learn about other countries' lifestyle. The food, clothing, music, art, etc. I'm interested in traveling to different places such as Asian and Europe. I have already visited China 3 times and from my experience, it was simply amazing.


I was still at a pretty young age the last time I've been there, but I had no idea the culture would be so different compared to ours. Ever since then, I've been fascinated by other cultures. Their lifestyles are so unique. I believe we could incorporate some of these things into our own lives to benefit us. Some other things may go on this blog as time progresses.



Another purpose for this blog is that I want to improve my writing by expanding my vocabulary as well as work on the way my paragraphs flow, such as transitions and organizing sentences. Wehn I usually write, I just write and write. I rarely ever think of 'Oh, how am I going to transition from this topic to the next?' This often makes my writing appear choppy and not flow. By expanding my vocabulary I can make my writing go in depth and make it more detailed. I can expand my vocabulary by reading more to get a better understanding of where to place words in a sentence to help it flow better. Reading can also help me on transition with paragraphs and maybe I will get some inspiration too. The reason why I want to improve on my writing is to help me in school as well as the SATs. Writing is an essential aspect of school and if I improve on that I belive my grades will also improve.