Topic Discussion

While listening to the topic presentations in class, I found a few very interesting. Of course, I like my own topic a lot too, so I'm going to include that in the running.

Sexual Education:

• issues: media's misrepresentation of sex, parents aren't educationally qualified to teach their children, and abstinence-only education is ineffective
• This topic is sometimes a very heated discussion, but overall we should be looking at the safety, health, and growth of teens.
• impact: we aren't given the necessary educational tools to become sexually healthy and responsible adults through current educational programs. This promotes STDs and STIs, teen pregnancy, and unsafe/unhealthy relationships. 
• project: present to school board/teachers ways to improve education and then implement new program, put up signs/posters around school/community, and give a presentation to students.

Literacy: 

• issues: aren't focused on learning/comprehension, but on grades; many students graduate without being able to fully comprehend what they are reading; and, sometimes the education isn't available or the resources aren't.
• This was Julie's topic, and it's something that means a lot to me. I want every child to be able to read because it is such a basic thing that every human deserves. 
• impact: this affects everyone in one way or another. if we don't have educated adults we can't keep building and creating. We also have people who are living the kind of life that they shouldn't have to live. We are creating generations of people who don't understand what they're reading which leads to them not caring about bettering the world. 
• project: The Harry Potter Alliance does a campaign every year in April called Accio Books! which is a book drive which aims to fight illiteracy. Additionally, the HPA is also setting up a book club at this moment since our main goal is literacy this year. I think this would be a good project for me because I already have a lot of things in motion and we could add on to them with this project. 

Education: 

• issues: we base our learning environment off of getting the best grades and not on learning. This causes students to not care about the actual process of learning and instead find ways to get around it. This produces a group of people who, again, don't want to better the world, create, and do things with their lives. They want to find the easy way out because that's how they learned it.
• I find this topic very interesting because I know from experience that it seems like high schools are more like credential factories than actual places of learning and enjoyment from learning. We're always trying to get the best grades for the best schools and best scholarships to afford these best schools. This puts immense stress on students. I think implementing a new grading system is a necessary improvement. Students don't learn the same ways they used to (or we used to think they did). 
• impact: this affects all students because we are told we must make the grade and the idea of learning for fun or enjoyment isn't instilled in us, which causes us to not want to improve our world. 
• project: I think we could present to schools/school boards around the area ways to grade differently. We could also contact legislators in the state or at a federal level and suggest changes. Additionally, we contact different colleges and see why/how they actually accept students and why grade point averages really matter if they're not an accurate example of students behavior and personality. What other ways could they potentially admit students?

Persuasive Essay

I think that the topics that I may write on would be feminism/gender equality, sex education in schools, or the effects of online social networks. (while the last one may seem a strange grouping, I also think it would be interesting)

The first topic of feminism/gender equality I know a lot about already. I think this could be hard in the one respect because I may not have sources for every opinion I'd like to put in, but I will have well-formed thoughts on the subject. The three things I would probably include in my essay would be how women are treated as sexual objects by way of media representation, how being treated as objects leads to bad relationships and inequality, and how this needs to be changed. I don't know if that's three points or if I should instead include how this needs to be changed in each point? If so, then my third point would instead be possibly splitting up the bad relationships and inequality (and relate inequality to inequality in the workplace). My reasons for holding this opinion are because women are equal to men and the fact that they're oversexualized leads to discrimination and inequality. and that's not okay.

The next topic would be how sex education in schools is failing its students. I don't know as much about this topic, but I still know quite a bit. I hold this belief because I know from experience in even Orion's "sex ed" classes that we learn almost nothing about safe sex or protection for anyone other than m/f couples. This in turn leads to saying that sex is bad and also scary and you know nothing about your body. Which isn't so cool when you're a teenager. I would talk about how exactly we need to change our current standards in each paragraph. I would include how we needed to talk about safe sex for everyone, sexual orientation, and also teach students about their bodies.

My last topic could be the effects of social networking. I'm not sure how easy it would be to find sources for this, so that's a little bit of a problem. I hold the belief that social networking isn't bad for us, while there may be some bad things involved with it, it isn't all bad. I would include points about how it helps reduce culture shock by educating because these things span worldwide, it builds friendships, and it improves your technology skills by html coding for future jobs. This one would be really neat to write about, but again, I'm not sure how much I could come up with for resources since it is a fairly new issue.

Brainstorming

This blog was really, really hard for me to complete. This is because I couldn't think of anything that I would be able to talk about that would, 1) pass the "So What?" test, 2) be interesting, and 3) that I'm knowledgeable about. I could think of almost nothing that would pass the criteria.

What I've come up with is still not great, but I guess it will have to do. I think I'm going to talk about either The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) or something involving music. I'm not exactly sure what it would be that involved music, but I'd really like to write about that instead of the HPA. This is because I don't want to talk about Harry Potter in every single paper ever because I am getting sick of it, but apparently that's the only thing in the world anyone can suggest. I have spent a few hours today trying to think about this, and I have come up with not a whole lot. I don't know why; but, I guess sometimes you just can't think.

If I do end up choosing to talk about the HPA--and I probably will, unfortunately--I'll talk about background information (how Andrew Slack, one of the co-founders, used the fact that HP has a huge fandom to his advantage), the mission and slogan, how campaigns work and their success, how chapters are formed, and how it is a good way to turn your love of a book/thing into an amazing real-world thing. I guess I have a lot to talk about, but I don't really know how interesting it is, or whether it would pass the "So What?" test. The only thing that would make it pass, in my opinion, is the interesting back story and transforming love of a thing into a movement. Also, finding sources/using the online research libraries and things would probably be pretty hard for this subject in particular.

If I end up choosing the music related thing, I guess I'll maybe talk about music relates to almost every subject in school curriculum and how it has been proven to help with rehabilitation. This will pass the "So What?" test by showing how music can be applied and why it is a subject in schools. I think this may get a little opinionated, though. I would, however, be able to use databases effectively.

I really don't know what to talk about. If you have any suggestions, feel free to add them.

How to Make My Favorite Meal

It has six sides and is freezing cold. Many people don't know how to make it, or have been making it wrong for years. It's ice--one of the most versatile foods in the world! It can be used to cool drinks, reduce swelling, and make sculptures.

The first step in the preparation of ice is to set your freezer to 32°F. This is the freezing point of water and will make sure that your ice will be properly made. If you don't set your freezer to this temperature before preparing your ice, you could end up with it watery or overdone. Additionally, make sure to empty out your ice tray if any cubes are left. Old ice cubes can get stale if you leave them in the freezer too long.

After you set the temperature of your freezer and empty your ice tray, pick up the empty ice tray and bring it to the sink. Turn on your faucet to cold and fill the empty tray halfway. Ice cubes expand as they freeze, and will overflow if you fill the tray with too much water. 

Carefully pick up the filled trays and take them back to your freezer. Make sure the temperature is still at 32°F, and then place your tray in on a level surface. Close the door to the freezer.

Sit beside the freezer for a few hours as you wait for your water to make the miraculous change into ice. Don't open the freezer too early as you could interrupt the process. 

After the few hours have gone by, check to make sure your ice cubes are completely frozen (if not, put them back into the freezer and sit by it once more). Next, take them out of the freezer and knock the tray against the counter to loosen the ice cubes. They will fall out. Put them into a bin and then back into the freezer so you can keep them for later. You have know successfully made ice cubes. 

Pre-Free-Spree

Immediately after hearing the prompt for this personal essay, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about. I wasn't exactly sure on what my second option would be, but I didn't think it would be that hard to find a defining moment. This is what the common app and some other college applications have as an essay question, so it's been on my mind all summer. I'm either going to write about Harry Potter changing my life, or about meeting my best friend Miranda.

The idea that Harry Potter has changed my life may seem kind of silly or juvenile to some people, but it really isn't that odd of a happening. This book series has applied so much to my life and helped me through so many dark times. I rode the Hogwarts Express in, pulled pranks with the twins, and loved with the trio. They gave me a family and a community that is one of the most loving fandoms in existence. It also introduced me to LeakyCon, a Harry Potter/literary conference held each summer, that I think I can call one of the best experiences of my life. The books and the community have changed me and my thoughts so much, and they've changed me for the better.

My second option, meeting my best friend Miranda, is just as monumental in my life. I met Miranda in eighth grade, but we really started to become friends freshmen year. Before meeting her, I just kind of went along with what everyone else said and had my entire life planned out exactly and just wanted to be a "normal" kid in high school. She introduced me to the beauty of intellectual conversations (they are my favorite and so hard to come by), the greatness of just living instead of planning everything out, and the author John Green who has made a large impact on my life (nerdfighteria) and connects back to LeakyCon where I ended up meeting him. Miranda made me want to read and write and be intelligent and interesting and creative. It's not that I didn't have the desire before, it's just that it wasn't the main thing on my plate freshmen year. But since that moment in Spanish I when we were sat beside each other, she has made my life so interesting. And I'd like to think I've returned the favor.

I think this assignment is so hard because my events are sort of intertwined. Harry Potter came first, making me want to be a better person and live life well. Then Miranda came and reinforced the idea of increasing awesome and decreasing world suck. I'm not sure if I can even classify one single event as "life-changing." I mean, I can classify something as a starting point of life-changing, but it won't be THE life-changing event. So that might be a bit of a problem while writing. However, I think this assignment will probably be one of our easiest.

Blog #1: Abilities as a Writer

As a writer, I feel that I am prepared. I will usually start by researching a topic fully. That means printing articles and highlighting, making an outline, and organizing my paper. As I write, I'll try to find the best places to insert quotes and paraphrasing to support my topic. I like to write very factually whether or not the paper is fully academic. I want to have a broad knowledge of the topic so that I can answer any and all questions presented to me. My major problem with writing is that I tend to do it in big chunks of time instead of spread out over days. This is a problem for me because when I write in huge chunks I get really erratic with my writing and it doesn't come out as well as I'd hoped. Sometimes I also have issues finding the right words or the right topic sentences and I have to keep coming back to the spot and trying new things. This is only a problem because a) I won't turn in the paper until I've found the right ones, and b) you're supposed to edit after you finish, not during writing.  I like things to flow very smoothly from topic to topic in my papers. However, I am pretty confident in my writing ability. I'm not the best, but I would say that I'm probably a smidgen above average for my age and grade. I don't like to think too highly of my writing because usually people who do get really cocky and make mistakes. I don't have a lot of problems with writing, but when I don't have the motivation to do it I can't make myself. I know there are ways to get yourself into the writing mood, but I just can't do it. 

I don't really have a lot of questions about Eng 101/102 because the syllabus and book are pretty straightforward. I've been pre-reading for the course over the summer and found the book kind of terrible. I mean, sure, correct information is presented, but the examples are ridiculous and they misspell things in an English book. They also don't begin with your basics, but go straight in to writing tips and then in chapter nine or something they finally get into basics. I've also been tutoring over the summer in English, so this book is really, really dragging for me. 

I'd love to have more practice in writing entry essays for college (personal basically). While I can write these, they take a little bit more because you can't entirely refer to quotes and data. You can insert them in places, but they don't really support unless you have a pretty strong case. I'd also like to learn more about logos, ethos, and pathos. I'm sure I use them, but I don't recognize using them. 

This course isn't really worrying to me, but it will be good practice/entry to college level material.