New Habits

Since the second semester has already started, I have made new some adjustments to doing better in harder classes. I haven’t accomplished all of these new habits, but I hope that they will find its way in my daily routine. 

First, when I study I need to put my phone in a separate room. I used to have my phone in my room but just next to me, but that does not work. I am still tempted to just check instagram “1 time,” and then I end up somehow on a puppy insatgram page. I think that if my phone is in the other room, then I will not be as tempted to check my phone. Lastly, I need to find a way to not become stressed so easily. I often find myself stressed on the small things, when I don’t need to be stressed. I think I am going to start journaling. Hopefully, these 2 things will stick with me throughout the quarter. 

Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

In Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior (the narrator) shows his audience what it is like to be an Indian. This first person narrative book emphasizes on how little Indians feel sometimes. He is stuck in a reservation where there is no hope left. However, Junior is the last person with hope. He quickly makes the decision to change schools and hopes to get a better education. 

What really caught my eye was when Junior said at one point, “I almost felt like a human.” This made me so disappointed that people treated Indians like non-human beings. Junior tells the audience how poor they are treated, but he tries to brush it aside. I like how he is trying to stay positive, but I think that at one point in the book he will break down from all the negativity around him. 

Q3 W2 Comments

Mary Francis- https://maryfrancissblog.blogspot.com/2017/01/dance-and-king-louis-xiv.html?showComment=1485264950957#c4764099014230637938

Sydney- https://sydneysenglishonework.blogspot.com/2017/01/research-topic.html?showComment=1485265327693#c8192702566499045454

About my research topic

I am still working on the right research question for my topic, but so far I have, “What are the characteristics of medieval Spain, and how does it change through the Reconquest.” I don’t know why this is so difficult for me so far, but I hope that once I have the right research question everything will be a smooth ride from there.

I am writing about Islamic Spain and the Reconquista of Spain. Catholicism Spain was conquered by Muslims in 700, and was not re-conquered until 1492. When the Christians conquered Spain, it was known as the Reconquista of Spain. I will connect this to Christopher Columbus because after Spain was re-conquered by Christians, Christopher Columbus was sent to the New World. 

Reflection from last semester

Something that really stood out to me last semester is that you don’t have to be good at everything. Everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses and I learned to accept that. In middle school, my strength was algebra. Now that I am in high school, I am not a geometry person. My strengths shifted because classes got harder this year. 

I am still learning what I am good at, and my weaknesses might be my strengths next year. This taught me to study more in what I am not good at. I will be more prepared for tests and quizzes. Also, I will look at my notes almost every night for some classes. One time in biology I looked at my notes every night for just 15 minutes a week before my test, and my grade improved greatly. I will do this for my other classes too for now on. 

Q3 W1 comments

Sarah C- https://sarahcenglish1.blogspot.com/2017/01/mlk.html?showComment=1484704056580#c8695870938762459483

Lathan- https://jamaicanenglish1.blogspot.com/2017/01/research-update.html?showComment=1484704182595#c4560814337372871318

MLK Day

I always remind myself that MLK day needs to be a day on, rather than a day off like what Fr. Skully says. I used to see this weekend as a three day weekend, but now I see it as a regular 2-day weekend and 1 day of service. 

Martin Luther King Jr. did so much in uniting our community, that it is rude to not do anything on his day of honor. My mom has always told me to go help out the community, and this weekend I did. 

On Saturday I went and helped plant 200 trees. It felt really good to help the community and know that the trail will now have more trees. I’m glad that I was given this opportunity to do service. I hope that other people used this weekend as opportunities to help out the community too because there were a lot of options for service learning this weekend. 

Research Update

The process in doing my annotated bibliographies for research has a roller coaster. Some sources have been fairly easy to read, and others have been really difficult. I couldn’t just do the annotated bibliographies on the easy sources because the hard sources have useful information too. Also, thinking of ways to start my evaluation has also been difficult for me. At first it was easy, but I kept on repeating my first sentence on each evaluation, so changing it up has been hard.

However, Dr. D gave us some examples for starting evaluations and summaries, and it has helped a lot. I used majority of the examples given, and it helped make my writing stronger. Also, reading the difficult sources has helped to be a better reader. The strong vocabulary will help me when writing and reading. I find Islamic Spain an interesting topic, and I am eager to find out more about it.