Yesterday was the last day of my first class at Delaware County Community College. This class taught me so much and was one of the best classes I have ever taken. This blog was created for class, but I am hoping to post more even though the class has concluded, because I do enjoy writing. Looking back, I had so much fun in this class and didn't really mind waking up at 7AM and driving 45 minutes to attend it. Until next time....
"Peace in.. Keep it real.. Holla at ya boy!" -Sabatino
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In the beginning of the semester, I was told to write down a secret no one in the class knew. It took me awhile to come up with one. I did not want it to be too deep, considering everyone would know my secret by the end of the activity. My professor read us all the secrets and we had to guess who wrote them.
This was an activity I really enjoyed. This helped me get to know my classmates, and made it easier to talk to them. After this activity I was no longer nervous to talk in class. I'm sure no one found my secret super interesting or life changing, but it might have made them remember my name or made me more approachable. I think this was a great idea by my professor and I think other teachers should use similar approaches. It was certainly more fun than going around the room and sharing one fun thing we did over the summer, which is one common icebreaker activity. Going into this school year, I was very nervous. This was my first year as a part time college student. Many of my classmates didn't even know I was still in high school. On the first day, I stood outside of a dark classroom with a few other students. Confused, we all made sure we were all supposed to be in English 100. We went in the room and sat down, assuming our professor was just a few minutes late. As time went on, a couple of us left. I checked my phone again and saw that my classroom had changed. "Wow, what a great way to start the year" I thought. I was too nervous to walk into the classroom an hour late, so I just decided to leave and email my professor and explain the situation. Thankfully, my professor is very cool and was very understanding.
Two days later, it was time to go back. I was really nervous and embarrassed that I went to the wrong classroom. Looking back, it wasn't really a big deal but I always worry about everything for some reason. Once I walked into what seemed to be the correct class, I noticed a lot of other kids in my class, I already knew. Lots of them go to high school with me and are also dual enrolled. During this time, I was also applying to colleges to go to in Fall 2018. I hope my participation as a dual enrolled student helped me with my chances of getting into schools. So far I have been accepted to Millersville University, Kutztown University, and Penn State Altoona. This semester has been very difficult, juggling high school and college at the same time. I also have a job. I was very stressed, but I am still glad for this experience I had. I like to challenge myself and I think this taught me how to manage my time better. I found it very difficult at times but then I started doing my homework on my breaks at work. I really enjoyed my class at Delaware County Community College, and I would recommend this class and my professor to anyone.
In this blog post, I will be reflecting on my research paper and sharing with you my writing process in creating this paper.
Where To Invade Next. Dir. Michael Moore. Dog Eat Dog Films. 2016. Online.
My first source is the film, "Where to Invade Next", directed by Michael Moore. In the film, Moore visits other countries and tries to find ideas to take for America. Creech, Mark H. "Universal Health Care Is Unbiblical." Universal Health Care, edited by Susan C. Hunnicutt, Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, libdb.dccc.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010668217/OVIC?u=pa_de_ccc&xid=ad047d00. Accessed 17 Nov. 2017. Fogel, Joshua. "Health Care." Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices, edited by Roger Chapman, and James Ciment, Routledge, 2nd edition, 2013. Credo Reference, https://libdb.dccc.edu/login?url=http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sharpecw/health_care/0?institutionId=5109. Accessed 17 Nov 2017. In this blog post I will focus on three topics from the movie Where to Invade Next. I summarized the film in my last blog post, which is linked here. I will then create a research question for each topic, and write a brief argument responding to the question.
Topic: College debt in America Question: Should college be free to attend in America? Argument: I believe college education should be free to attend in America. Lots of people can not afford to attend college now and there are brilliant minds that will not have as many opportunities as others. Free college education would be ideal, but I do think that would be very hard to achieve. I certainly do not think it should be as expensive as it is now though. Topic: School Lunches in America Question: Should school lunches in America be healthier? Argument: I do believe school lunches in America should be healthier. Sometimes I look at my lunch in school and wonder if it is even real meat. America has a high obesity rate and healthier lunches at school could really decrease childhood obesity. Topic: Paid vacation days Question: Should America have 6 weeks paid vacation like in Italy? Argument: I do not think Americans should have 6 weeks paid vacation. Although it would be nice, I do not think we would get much productivity done. I do think we should be allowed some paid vacation though. Italians are much less stressed than Americans and have a longer life expectancy, and this could be a reason why. In the documentary Where To Invade Next, Micheal Moore visited several countries and explored the ways they are different from the United States. He first visits Italy, where he discovers they get about 6 weeks paid vacation leave per year, while most Americans get zero days of paid vacation. They also get paid for maternity leave, honeymoons, and other holidays. Many employees get two hour lunch breaks where they can go home and eat a home cooked meal. Even with all of these vacations, Italian companies still get their work done and have enough money to pay employees. Moore also visits France, where school meals are very advanced compared to American school lunches. They are served healthy, delicious meals which even includes a cheese course. This makes the kids happier and healthier in school and they have a lower obesity rate. Moore even shows them a picture of a school lunch from the U.S. and all the children are shocked. Next he visits Finland, which has one of the best education systems in the world. They do not have homework, and have shorter school days than the U.S.A. The one thing teachers want the most is for children to be happy. They also have no standardized testing in Finland. He also visits Slovenia where students go to college for free and have no debt. Slovenia colleges also accept American students for free. Micheal Moore explores all these countries and says he was taking the ideas and America was going to claim them as their own.
For my English 100 class, we watched a video called Reflective Writing. In this blog post, I will be sharing insight into what approaches I took to write my life choice memoir. Although my memoir is not shared on this page, the answers to these questions may tell you more about my writing style.
Provide thoughtful answers to these questions:
Print out, read, and annotate The Lottery (Shirley Jackson)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a village with a very strange tradition. The whole town gathers together and each household draws a paper, and if you pick a certain one, your family must choose again. One person in the household will get that paper again, and then the village stones them to death. Something that occurs more than it should in America is mass shootings. I don't know if this would be considered a tradition, but it does share similarities with the lottery tradition in the village. In both occurences, people are killing for no reason at all. Some shootings are done by students, for example the Columbine shooting. This shows a loss of innocence that you also see in the short story when the children are throwing the stones. If you wanted to read more about mass shootings in America, here is the link to an article I found: The Math of Mass Shootings. Every year, my mom's side of the family comes over on Christmas Eve. Family is something very important to me and it is something I value very much. Every year Christmas Eve always ends in a screaming match between my mom and her brother, and they end up leaving and it never really ends well. As much as I love my family this is a tradition I don't think we should keep. My father and I both agree on this, but since we don't see my moms family too often, the tradition stays. Christmas is approaching, and I think this year should be very interesting. Over the summer, I got into a bit of trouble. When my moms brother found out, he called me nasty names and said I deserve everything coming to me. As much as this hurt me, I still am going to treat my uncle with respect this Christmas eve. Hopefully this tradition of fighting every year turns into a tradition of being happy with my family. |
On this blog I will be posting about myself and my views on the world for my English class. Archives
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