Semester Reflection P2

What is the greatest challenge facing your generation? What will be necessary to address it?
I believe that the greatest challenge facing my generation would be technology mutilating social norms. With social networking and college/schools developing online with the same benefits as a normal school, people will be kept in their houses, confined to a computer screen. To address this would be reconsidering online schooling and perhaps giving a limit to those who can and can't attend online schooling, i.e. those with low budget who need to work and don't have time to school. However, a certain number of hours in a schooling environment should be required for graduates.

Describe your vision for yourself in pursuing higher education.
I plan to attend a 4 year college and major in either international business or international affairs, with a minor in the Chinese language. I'd also like to study media arts and graphic design.

What is a quality in a classmate that you would like to develop in yourself?
A quality in classmates that I've worked with would be to gain leadership abilities, since in groups, I tend to be more of a follower. I would like to be a leader to easily share my ideas and have a thought that people are hearing them.

Beyond grades, what motivates you to work hard at school?
I am motivated by the thought of college, and through high school classes which subconsciously teach how to take notes and learn how to manage your time with assignments. This is especially important in college, since there is notably a lot of work that you are expected to know how to deal with when you get there. Not to mention, what you do in high school greatly changes your chances of getting into whatever college you're interested in, so that's a motivation too.

Writing Reflection

At the beginning of the year I found it difficult to create leads and endings to my writing pieces. I had always felt that I had strong content to put in (albeit a tad jumbled) but I could never find a way to pull a reader in or lead a reader out without making me feel awkward about writing the whole piece in general. An example of such would be my "Desert Solitaire" question writing, which I did back in December, which would be here. The essay begins abruptly and ends with a statement that could've been explained much clearer. During my internship, I presented this problem to my mentor. I watched her create ledes and endings for some short articles she had requested I finish. I was able to see what structure an ending should have to finish the writing piece strong, crisp and clear, with a thought in your head. I found that my ending for Ampersand was presented stronger and at the same time satirical.

A goal for my writing in the future would be for my side to be presented stronger. In my ampersand piece, I didn't exactly take too much of a side. An example of this would be my Ampersand piece. While I do find that I had a strong article, I found myself not really taking a side, instead presenting both sides. As Randy always says, there is no such thing as an unbiased piece of writing, so my attempt to create a piece explaining the pros and cons of 2 opposing concepts, and it may have looked like I didn't exactly know what I was writing about. Also, I would like to have more of a smooth transition between different ideas. An example of this is here.

Semester Reflection P1

What challenges do you face as a student in a project-based learning environment?
I'd have to say that after attending HTHMA for 3 years, the greatest challenge I find is the ability to do "normal" school work when it is assigned. By this, I mean essays and other assignments (i.e. math assignments, next-day biology readings, etc.) that would be due in a limited amount of time I sort of found harder to do, since I was used to working in and out of school on a long-term project, such as Ampersand, where I could space my time out and not have that "it's due tomorrow" feeling. This is a challenge, since I will have all sorts of different assignments due overnight in senior year and college, so I have to get used to not having project homework every night.

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.

I mostly had a challenge when it came to organizing thought. I found myself stuttering when it came to explaining my own thoughts when I was called on, or writing in unorganized thought with no pattern. Even now as I write this, I find myself jumping from sentence to sentence. Because of this I had an especially difficult time writing for the La Jolla Light Newspaper (my internship), since my ideas mostly came out jumbled or 1/2 in my head.
Also, Ampersand was more difficult since it was more like I threw everything I wanted to say in the article all at once.

Describe one valuable mistake you made this year.

I think a mistake I've made this year was not keeping up with reading, especially with Grapes of Wrath. I didn't figure it meant much since I was working on Ampersand most of the time, so I didn't keep up with reading. Next thing I know, I'm being told that there's a quiz coming up in 2 days on chapters I haven't read, so I end up frantically reading through the book the last day. I found this to be a habit throughout the year with the honors novels, but after the GoW issue I learned that I should be more on top of reading, and was able to complete Slaughterhouse 5 on time and finish the quotes/sketches every time they were assigned.

Historical Reflections

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?

If I could run into any historical figure, I'd want it to be late president Franklin D Roosevelt. I wouldn't mind him being a student, but if he was a student, he wouldn't have had that much experience in his life, so I'd like him to be a professor for a philosophy class that I'd take. He would be teaching after his presidential occupation had been finished (but not dead, mind you).

Roosevelt would be an amazing public speaker in a classroom environment. I believe he'd treat the students as equal to himself as he did to American citizens when he became president in the 30's. I think he'd personally connect to the students as a teacher opposed to just teaching them blindly.

"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future."
"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved."

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Franklin_D._Roosevelt.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USArooseveltF.htm
http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/fdroosevelt

Honors Essay - Literary Reflections

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?

If I had to go to college with a character from a book we've read, I would choose a Tralfamadorian from Slaughterhouse 5. I wouldn't choose any Tralfamadorian in particular, just the first one I pick. They're friendly, or so I've heard (more like read), so they wouldn't mind accompanying me. I wouldn't need it as a roommate, since it could easily blend into my bathroom as a plunger (well, for the most part). The far superior sight of this Tralfamadorian could predict for me which questions would be on any exam I'd take during my time at college, giving me an advantage for studying. As Kurt Vonnegut once explained, these Tralfamadorians had much to teach about time to us inferior earthlings, giving me the oppurtunity to see beyond what I've been given.

The Tralfamadorians' philosophies are some to live by too. For example, their philosophy of death is one to keep you thinking. They believe that death is just a "hard time in a person's life," meaning that they are still alive and well in other places and time. Surely, their words would have an impact of some sort while I am stressing over myclasses.