Monday, May 23, 2016

8th Grade Speech


"Little Things, Big Escapes" 

I believe that in life, everyone needs an escape from reality. I've loved my escape since I was a little kid. I love being able to forget about my problems and being able to concentrate on one thing. Most importantly, I love the happiness it brings to me. 

I remember the first time I needed an escape from life's hardships. It was within 3 years from the time when I had first gotten my hearing aids. The idea of constantly wearing something strange for the rest of your life was a lot to take in as a child. I still remember waking up everyday and dreading to put my hearing aids on. Around this time I was also beginning to explore the world of soccer. At my first soccer game I remember not thinking of anything except for the game in front of me. I had so much fun and my worries were gone. 

Ever since then, soccer has been my escape. It takes my mind elsewhere to a place where I can be worry-free. The amount of control that I have over the game calms me and makes me focus. Playing with my teammates, who I consider family, brings happiness to me. The attitude I get when I step onto the field makes me feel like I belong there.

We all have our own experiences, problems, and hardships that we face. Having something to take your mind off of all of those problems is important, even if it's just for a short amount of time. Escapes could be anything from watching a tv show, to daily talks your friends at lunch. Without an escape, without my escape, I certainly would not be the person I am today.




Sunday, May 22, 2016

Final 8th Grade Reflection


     I can't believe there are only about 5 days left of our time here at Heritage. It seems like it was only yesterday when Sebastian ripped his pants and Sam and Jeremiah were having a “poetry” battle. There are definitely many things that I have leave this year. Non-educational or not, I have really grown from what I've learned. 

          Throughout the year I have learned many things in this class. One of the things I learned was how to use the TIQA format properly and how to put your own style into it. I mainly learned this while writing the argumentative essay. In that essay we only used the TIQA format. We would use it in unique ways and sometimes had to put two contradicting TIQAs in one paragraph. Doing this taught me that the TIQA format can be used in different ways and adjusted to create your own writing style. Another thing I learned was how to properly use commas. The latest lessons in grammar have really taught me to put thought into where I am putting a comma. Before the lessons I thought that you always put a comma before a FANBOY. I now know that you only use a comma when listing things, when naming dates and addresses, when combining two independent clauses, and when a dependant clause comes before an independent clause. This has helped me improve my writing skills. One other thing that I have learned in this class is how to write different pieces of writing. I have learned how to write a narrative essay, an argumentative essay, and now a speech. This has taught me the different structures of writing and how they can differ and compare to each other. 


          From this year, I think I will most remember the Socratic Seminars. Socratic Seminars was the time when we would talk about how the piece of literature we were reading influenced us personally. It was a time when we would ask questions and wonder the things that we possibly might've never wondered before. It was during this time that we could make connections from the lessons in the literature to the real world. I think I will remember this because, although it was educating, it was when we got to find emotional connections between the book and ourselves. These connections weren't just small ones such as having a common favorite color. These connections were about the way we live our lives, what we value, and questioning whether or not we take life for granted. 

          The nicest thing someone in the class has done for me was to help me with any kind of confusion that I had. This year doing the butterfly project, I struggled for quite some time when trying to figure out the meaning of my poem. My friends in this class helped me by encouraging me to do research on the blurbs of non-fiction within the poem. I ended up doing that and it resulted in me having a full understanding of my poem. I also had some confusion in the poetry portion of the class. My friends would also help me by explaining to me what can be taken out of the poem and put back in to give it meaning. I am very grateful for having people help me when I needed it. 

          During this year I think that I have taught some of my classmates something. The main thing I would say I have taught them is how to remember the spelling and definitions of the vocabulary. I use this strategy a lot because it makes learning the vocabulary a lot easier. The way I would do this is by looking for root words within the words that mean almost the same thing as the actual word. If I couldn't find any root words I would find another word that rhymes with the vocabulary word that can relate to the definition. This is definitely a strategy I will continue to use in high school. 


     I think I have definitely made an improvement in my writing. The TIQA format is the basic foundation upon this improvement. This helped me a large amount specifically in my argumentative essay. I am most proud of accomplishing the fact that I can now hear the words “write an essay” and not freak out. Writing is not an easy thing to do. There are constant revisions that need to be done and diction that needs to be fixed. However, with this class I now know what needs to be put into each paragraph, the structure of it, and what it needs to end up looking at. 

     The most challenging part of this year for me was, once again, time management. I got into a really bad habit of starting big projects and assignments last minute. By doing this I created more stress for myself. I would come home from soccer practices and stay up really late doing homework that I could've started before. This procrastination was tied into the time management problem. About 1/2 of the way into the school year was when I decided to get it together. I created a schedule that would plan out the assignments I needed to do and the extracurricular activities I had. That really helped a lot and shrinked the amount of stress I put on myself. 


     The piece of writing that I am most proud of is the argumentative essay. It was on a topic I felt strongly about. This, I think, is what made me want to do good on the essay. I wanted other people to see my argumentative and hopefully agree with me. I think I made a very good argument that was supported with a good amount of evidence. I took a lot of time in writing that easy. I also worked really hard on making sure it all tied in nicely together. Next year I will definitely refer back to this essay when having to write an argumentative essay. 


     My favorite book from this year was, without a doubt, Tuesdays With Morrie. It made me think about the things in life that I had never thought of before. Those things included the thought of the possibility of me dying days from now. Therefore wondering if I would've been satisfied with my life. This taught me to not take my life for granted. Another one of these thoughts was questioning if I have purpose and meaning in my life. It provoked me to think more about my future and about the person I want to be. This book was filled with life lessons that I will remember in the future. 

     There is a lot of advice to give to future students of this class. First, always listen to what Mrs. Larson says. The directions and expectations she has are for a reason, and there are consequences for not following them. Second, make a schedule and stick to it. I cannot emphasize enough to how important time management is, especially in this class. You do not want to be doing an AOW, a blog, and studying for a vocabulary quiz all on the same day. Trust me, you will get stressed doing that. Third of all, have fun in class. Especially for all of the upcoming eighth graders. This is the year that you want to make memories and have fun.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Final Project

Tuesdays With Morrie


"The big things - how we think, what we value- those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone -- or society determine those for you." - Morrie S. 

          Morrie's aphorism is fairly simple, yet thought provoking. It starts off by stating that one of the big things in life is what we value. These values most likely include family, having friends, and possibly identity. It then goes into saying how these values must be chosen by you and you only. It's saying you can't let anyone decide what you personally value and care for. The aphorism then states that you cannot let society decide your values. People often think that they have to value what everyone else values. However, if it was all like that then would those values even be values? This is where having your own values sets you apart in a unique way. This aphorism therefore has the main message to decide things for yourself.

          I can relate this aphorism to a personal experience. I know someone who spent their whole life doing the things that other people wanted them to do. That person was, in reality, really sad. That person was sad because they didn't get to do that they wanted in life. The person pursuited a completely different career than they actually wanted to do. Eventually the person spoke up and changed things around. However, the person went a long time living unhappily with the decisions other people made for them. Although this person did not do as the aphorism says to do, it still relates to it because it shows what can happen if you don't do as it says.

          I really agree with this aphorism because there are other sayings that Morrie said that can help build support behind this one. This aphorism states that you alone have to decide the big things in life, such as what we value. Morrie had also mentioned how people sometimes put their values into the wrong things. One reason as to why they might put their values into the wrong things is because that is what society is telling them to do. It is because they are too busy listening to society and easily being controlled by it. 


Personal Aphorism

In order to be happy you need to let go of the things bringing you down, no matter how much it hurts.


Thursday, May 5, 2016

Socratic Seminar Reflection

Tuesdays With Morrie 

          The past four Socratic seminars have influenced my thinking about Tuesdays With Morrie and life in general in a major way. It mostly brought awareness to me about the fact that you never know what is going to happen. Morrie was this healthy, young man that looked like nothing would ever happen to him. He ended up with ALS. It made me look at Morrie like he was an example of the fact that life can give you unexpected events. It made me see that this book had several different meanings as to why it was written. It also made me see that life has to be lived to the fullest. Not knowing what will happen in the future makes me feel like I should appreciate it, be happy, and love others in the present. 


          Trends that I notice about myself and personal goals for each seminar is that I want to get other people involved. I would always make it a goal to get anyone else involved. Throughout our last four discussions, I brought forth new ways of looking at things. I mentioned how some characters in this book are on the contrary of characters from To Kill A Mockingbird. I also showed, while discussing our ‘Morrie Test’, how much people can be oblivious to simple things. I explained that I've never seen the 7 flags in front of my neighbor’s house. 

          One trend that I noticed with the class was for most of the seminars, we would mainly focus on the book and the feelings that would come from it. We also talked a lot about aphorisms and how they can be applied to our lives. Something that I noticed that helped/hindered a specific seminar was the connections we made from the book to the world. I think that played a major part in making the Socratic seminar successful. We were able to see how the things in the book applied to not only our lives, but to the lives other people.