Follow Through.

It's nearing towards the end of the school year and the final stretch is in sight. With less than a month left of school day until summer the only thing that students really have to worry about are finals. This is the test that will make or break many students' grades, including mine. So far the classes that I'm struggling the most in are HP Chemistry, Adv. Algebra 2, and French 3. For all of these classes I basically have a borderline grade. With this being the fact, if I fail any of those finals my grade could actually drop 2 full letters. I'm talking about from an A- to a C+, and since pluses and minuses don't show up on a transcript, it means the difference between an A or a C. It's not only this either. In an effort to bring up these grades for those certain classes, I've sacrificed my grades in my other classes.So basically in the end, I'm faced with dropping grades from my easier classes and borderline grades for the harder ones. This has really been a struggle for me throughout my entire school year. Managing classes, how can one decide which class is better than another? Along with taking 0 period this semester, it just adds onto the homework load and decision making. With the home stretch in sight I still haven't come up with a solution to my problem and so I'm slowly achieving plummeting grades no matter what.
I have found that week by week I just slowly count down until the weekend. The weekend seems so short to me. In my point of view this is how I see things: Saturday is the day off. Your day to relax, hang out with friends, go out, etc. When Sunday comes however, it's when you have to finish all of your homework assigned for the weekend, perform all those household chores, etc. So basically in a full week there are 6 work days in comparison to 1 day off. Also, on Friday night people generally stay up later than usual due to there being no school the following day, however this results in the person sleeping in later and therefore wasting more of their Saturday, aka the day off.
Including the weekend, I find that there are very few things that I look forward to anymore. The only big thing is summer, and even then I'm sure there is a tedious amount of work that needs to be done. Everyday it's just school, school, school. I really hate those teachers that tell you to go out and play, or if we had a nice weekend. Really now? And in 20 minutes you'll be complaining about how nobody did their homework? How do you expect anyone to have an enjoyable weekend with basically half a day off? It's like they're taunting us. Teachers need to learn that giving tedious work doesn't help a student learn, it just turns them more into a robot. Everything becomes automatic, for example stupid math teachers that give you 20 problems that you solve exactly the same way. What is this?! I want a better education, a better quality education at least. Looks like I'll have to do it on my own, another thing that I will have to prioritize...

My Goals as a Writer.

After effectively blogging on a variety of different topics for the past several months, my goals as a writer has shifted slightly. My main focus as of now, is to go into more depth or detail in my work. I think the cause of this would have to be partly due to the requirement changes for the blog posts issued by Mr. Sutherland. Instead of the standard 300 word blogs that I used to be able to write to effortlessly and with ease, I have found out that the going the extra 200 words is an entirely new challenge. The struggle that I have with this is not about reaching the minimum word count, but rather it is focusing on making the content worthwhile to read. The more words that you post, the harder it gets to become less and less redundant in your points. I find it rather difficult to maintain the same level of depth and detail in my old 300 word blog posts as I type out the new 500 worded posts. So this new struggle that I've encountered has slightly changed my priorities on what I want to accomplish as a writer.
Now on another note, a big thing that has been occurring around school are students enrolling for classes for the 2010-2011 school year. My final decision ended up being: English P, HP Pre-Calculus, AP Environmental Science, Multimedia Art, United States History P, and AP Computer Science. To be honest, if all of my choices become approved, I'll become rather nervous. This will be my first time taking any sort of advanced placement classes, and I'm taking two at that. The pressure of schoolwork and grades would definitely be a constant thing on my mind next year. Also, if I would like to maintain as close to a 4.0 as possible, I would need to seriously change some habits of mine. The main point would just be procrastination. I have a huge tendency to work on things the last minute, or get distracted and so if I were to keep my grades up, this major bad habit would need some revising. Now I am fully aware of the fact that AP classes are meant to be taken because a student wants to learn more about a certain subject, or they want it for college credits, but truthfully I think the main reason why I took an AP class is because I wanted a challenge. The curriculum that is currently offered at Alameda High is rather odd. I find that there is a major difference in the regular classes compared with the advanced ones. I find that the advanced classes pushes a student, shaping critical values and skills such as work ethic and being prepared. Meanwhile, from experience and friends, the standard classes are just that, standard. They're not going to be a walk in the park, but the class itself won't push a student over the edge. You'll never find a student pulling an all-nigher due to a regular class, unless they needed to catch up on work, or something. All this is my opinion after all. Some people may feel very differently towards this subject, but from what I've heard from numerous amount of people, this is what I was able to deduce.

One really big thing that's going to bother me though, is that I forgot to turn in my schedule today to the office and so I'm worried about getting into my desired classes for net year. Do you think they'll allow for me to turn the slip in on the Monday we get back? Thoughts? Thanks.

COMEBACK.

I haven't blogged in about 3 weeks due to winter break and since then I really haven't gotten any inspiration to write a blog either. So this week I tried to get readjusted to school life again just like everybody else. Coming back from not sleeping until the early morning and waking up in the late afternoons to walking to school in the freezing cold at 7AM can take a while to get used to again.
During this week I've decided that I really want to focus more on my academics since I cannot afford to slip up since finals are coming up. Sadly today I found out I have a C in math class. The irony huh? The week that I decide to work harder is the week I realize I'm really slipping fast in school. I guess I've just had a lot of outside distractions as of late. A lot of hanging out and not enough book time would probably be the blame for it.
So anyways, school also had some good sides to it, getting to see friends again and well, learning again. I know a lot of the times school can be a real pain, but I really do appreciate the fact that I actually learn some important information during the 7 hour period. You know the saying "Somethings aren't taught in school"? Well, the same goes for both ways. Somethings, you just don't learn without school. I guess I'm starting to have a new found appreciation for the place in which most kids dread. I'm not saying I completely love it, but it's a start. So Mr. Sutherland thank you for teaching me something new everyday I enter your classroom, even though you don't get paid as much as you should nor receive enough of the respect that you deserve, I'm grateful.

To the Teens

Recently I've been seeing a lot of kids stressing about their classes, grades, school in general, and basically just life. A lot of people don't seem to understand that in this point in our lives, we don't even have much responsibilities. For most of us, we're just counted on doing chores and homework. We don't have to deal with taxes, full time jobs, paying the bills, etc. and yet, a lot of people are just freaking out. I understand that high school is important and all, but sometimes people just need to take it easy for a while and relax. Just stop and live life a little. Go for a walk along the beach, hang out at the park with your friends, or look at the clouds. Look around you. Life is beautiful and you should enjoy it instead of going along with the rest of society all the time. Universities and colleges in general nowadays are more competitive than ever to get into, and because of the economy finding a job can be a hassle also.
I think basically anyone could just go straight home everyday from school, study and do homework, and get straight A's. I don't see that as much of an accomplishment. I have a lot of respect for kids who go out at night to hangout with their friends, or go to parties on the weekends. I'm not saying go get wasted and high and I'll respect you or something, it's just the fact that they show that school isn't their only concern.
So the next time you feel stressed out or concerned, just take a breather. A small break from life and spoil yourself. It's a healthy thing to do. Do what you enjoy, and stick with it because when we're older and grow up all this stuff is going to seem like a walk in the park.

Thoughts From an Unmotivated Me. -[WBP]

I don't know what I find myself doing these days. For the past week life pretty much seemed like a motion. Something that I just did, without any thought. For school I would just mindlessly obey what the teacher's instructions were, and if I was too lazy, I'd just sit there. Doing nothing. Now I'm sure that this isn't a brand new habit that has come across students, but it's pretty new for me. I used to try and get the most out of my education while in the classroom. Participate in class discussions, ask questions, take notes, etc., but recently I felt a sudden surge in carelessness.

One day in chemistry class, my teacher told the class, "What's your reason for wanting to do good in school? Just because your parents want you to go to a good college and earn a degree? What's the point?" So I've been sort of thinking, what is the point for me to do well in school? I get plenty of pressure from my parents and I used to try and do well in school just because they said I should, but now that reasoning is pretty much dying out. I feel that I need to do good in school for me. The reason why? I have no clue. I can't really think of a legit reason for me to do well in school other than to make my parents proud. I guess this week was just a result of me trying to sort things out.
What's your reason to do good in school? Your motivation to keep you going?

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.