Semester Reflection

What have you learned about the way you learn, work, and/or collaborate?
The way i learn is not very simple. I tend to be forgetful at times needing to go over the material again. This was a struggle for me when studying for tests. I started doing this better towards the end of the year when I would just take an hour out of my day to study. 
I can say that I am a hard worker when I apply myself for projects and class assignments. I do sometimes get off task while working in class but towards the end of the year I learned to catch myself and get back on task.

What project was most valuable to you, and what have you gained from it?
Ampersand was most valuable to me this year. One, I learned that multiple drafts can turn your work into high quality writing, and two, writing tips are very helpful in creating interesting and understandable writing.

Describe in detail one significant academic challenge you faced this year. Why was it a challenge for you? Go in depth, use specific experiences, and explain how they contrast with a less challenging experience.
One challenge I faced this year was with the balance of school, work, and sports. I went into this year with a job, taking up my time on weekends and sometimes weekdays. But I still knew school was first. Towards the middle of the year I started baseball which resulted in leaving early for games resulting in missing class. The balance was very difficult at first because I have never done anything like this. I put school first, baseball second, and work last. This was proven successful in my grades, that while juggling 3 different activities I can still maintain a high GPA.

Writing Reflection

In the beginning of the year my writing was messy and didn't prove the point I was trying to make. I had not learned the writing tips, therefor my writing didn't make sense and had unnecessary words which went against all the writing we learned at the end of the year. In my Ampersand piece I tried to use the tip, make meaning early. This means that the important information or points go first in sentences and paragraphs.  In my Into Thin Air essay I wrote my paragraphs so that all the important information was mixed around in different order so that it was hard to understand.

Drafts played a huge role in Ampersand. I started out my essay writing about my job then I was going to try and relate it to cooking. This was a challenge because as hard as I tried, I couldn't accomplish this. I realized that I just needed to stick with cooking and how I feel about it, which worked very well for me. Over the course of the eight different drafts my writing went from bad to shiny and polished. This was because I used the writing tips such as; make meaning early, avoid using ings, and revisit sentence basics. With these tools I could write like a pro!

A goal I have for myself for writing in the future is follow the rules and tips. When I think of this, I think about the long list of tips that promote what to do, and what not to do while writing anything. I will not write for length using filler words and run-on sentences, but I will make meaning early.

Historical Reflection

Of all of the historical figures we have studied this year, including—but definitely not limited to—Presidents, philosophers, politicians, leaders, social movement-ers, and the many everyday people that have contributed to American history & culture, who would you most like to run into in college?

FDR would be a sweet person to have as a friend in college. He would be the cool nerd that you could rely on to help you on homework as well as be a good person to talk to.

I chose him because he was the only guy that seemed cool to hang out with. Hitler would be kinda weird because he would kill me, Hoover was not a very popular guy and that was about it. 

"The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces." When FDR tell us all stories about his presidential term, he often starts out by talking about the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

"The only thing we have to fear. . .is fear itself." This is one line that he will say over and over again. This was his most famous line from his inaugural address.  


Speech to Congress, December 8, 1941

Literary Reflection

If you could bring one character from any one book that we have read this year with you when you go to college, who would bring? Why?
In the book Slaughterhouse Five, the character Billy Pilgrim interested me the most. If I were to pick a character from any book from the semester to have as a friend, I would have to choose Billy.
In college Billy would be the kid to always tell the interesting stories and always have insightful thoughts about everything. When he was abducted and brought Tralfamadore, he learned so much and it brought out an experience that changed his life. This would benefit me because his stories will become more interesting and insightful.

Besides the fact the Billy Pilgrim dies in the book in a plane crash, lets just pretend that he didn't.

"Billy Pilgrim says that the Universe does not look like a lot of bright little dots to the creatures from Tralfamadore. The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti." page 110

This shows how much insight he would have on things. If you are abducted by aliens, you are bound to have either very cool stories or just be crazy. Billy Pilgrim is not the type of kid who stands up for himself so he would not be a very strong friend but at least he has a good personality.