Mariano’s school stuff

“I don’t think my opinions are stupid and others do; so it is better to keep them to myself.” That sentence surprised me a lot specially coming from a teenager. Being one myself I find it strange that someone who wants to keep their opinions to themselves especially because we normally don’t like to be outspoken. I myself believe that your opinion is a very important thing that can show people who you truly are. I think that everyone should be able to express their opinion freely but without discriminating anything or anyone. I also believe that if you keep all your opinions to yourself, you would be a very outspoken person who never really has any input into what is going on around them. Also sometimes one person’s opinion can make a difference, for example Nelson Mandela didn’t agree with the racism that was going on in South Africa so he took a stand and expressed his opinions and made life a lot better for “black” people (no offense intended) and he also became the first “black” president of South Africa. So if you keep your ideas to yourself you might never get what you and your thoughts wouldn’t be heard so no one could support or oppose your thoughts. these are opinions on self expression and that is why I believe that we shouldn’t hold back on sharing our thoughts with the rest of the world.

To read this article click here.

Please leave a comment.

To read this article click here.

Please leave an appropriate comment .

Swim team’s first week of practice.

Coming Soon…

My family though not as separated as the Franks’ does have its faults. To me the Anne seems like she is pretty separated from the rest of the family and that her father is really the only person she truly loves. Anne doesn’t really appreciate her mother or Margot, to her it seems that her parents only care about Margot and always take Margot’s side in arguments. I sometimes also feel like this when my parents take my little brother’s side in arguments and they always think that I should set an example for him not fight with him as if we were “gatos y perros” (cats and dogs) as my mum calls it. Though it does seem a little unfair at times usually it is with good intentions that my parents do this. A sentence in this entry that really impacted me was “All this comes about particularly because I have in my mind’s eye an image of what a perfect mother and wife should be; and in her whom I call “mother” I find no trace of that image,” the reason this sentence impacted me was that I felt that there was a lot of anger and hatred towards her mother which for me in my case is almost the complete opposite. Another thing that impacts me is when she says that she longs for her daddy’s real love towards her; which for me feels like a very depressing thing that a girl her age doesn’t feel truly appreciated or loved and it makes me think of how thankful I should be that I feel my parents do love my brother as equally as me and that they truly do appreciate what I do.

If I were in the case Ann Frank was in and I could only carry a backpack full of stuff with me I would carry these things: 1)books, comics, and magazines; 2)Monopoly the board game; 3)Legos; 4) a few notebooks were I could draw in; 5)my Mp3 with a solar charger. The reasons I chose these five objects a re pretty varied for the first thing I chose to take I would take the books, comics, and magazines because I like reading and it would also be something to do when bored and usually a good book can brighten up your day and if I were in Anne’s position I’d need quite a bit of brightening. The second object I chose to bring would be Monopoly because it’s my favorite board game and up to eight people can play it at once meaning practically everybody can play. My third choice Legos for those who don’t know are blocks that you can connect and build things with. I would bring legos with me because one of my favorite pastimes is to build things with legos and they entertain me for hours. I would bring quite a few notebooks because sometimes when I am bored I like to just doodle something and I think instead of a diary I would keep books with drawings on what I thought was going on and this would be my diary. The last thing I would bring would be my mp3 and one of those new mp3 solar chargers because music means a lot to me and sometimes music can change my mood from a bad mood to a good mood and because without music my life would be pretty miserable. These are the main things I would bring with me if I were in Anne’s situation.

To me courage means quite a few things. For me courage means being able to taking and stand for what you believe in, being able to do things that would normally frighten or worry you, and it literally means being brave. Courage is that feeling you get in your gut that tells you that you can surpass you fears and that you can do what ever you want. It’s also that rush you get when you know something is creepy or dangerous but you still do it. I believe that courage is something everyone is born with but only some people use it. Courage can also be a small thing like asking the girl you like out, or it can be something big like having the courage to jump in front of a bullet to save a person. i also believe that courage is one of the most useful and powerful traits that you can have. Those are my feelings on courage.

In English this year we read the book “Lord of The Flies.” The book is about a group of boys who get stranded on an island. After reading the book we were told we had to do a project. We had a choice of twenty projects which we could choose from; each project required a different type of activity. Some involved more writing than others and some you had to do something artistic and others you had to make a presentation. For the project, I chose to select songs that would fit the themes of the book and to give an explanation of why and also to present this information using media. Apart from that we also had to show and explain which skill of each ESLR’s we used and didn’t use. ESLR’s stands for “Expected School wide Learning Results.” The ESLR’s are: Academic Achiever, Critical Thinker, Involved Citizen, Effective Communicator, and Self Directed Learner.

For my project I was a Self directed Learner by demonstrating competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills. I think I did this because I set aside time to do the project so that I would have enough time, and so that I wouldn’t have to rush myself the day before it was due to finish the whole thing. By managing my time more wisely I was able to finish it correctly and on time and I had time. I performed this project without too much stress to finish it on time because I had set aside time on more than two days to finish not like other projects where I had to finish them the night before they were due and they had been rushed so they weren’t done as well. Compared to other projects I have done I think I used my time wisely and gave myself enough time to complete the project. Because I did my project in an organized matter I also think I earned the grade I had gotten. If I had done this project again I would have tried to make the project a bit more organized so it would be clearer and I would have liked to have set aside a few more hours to also have made it a bit more thorough. Overall I think I used my time wisely and didn’t do the project all in a rush and in the end the project looked respectably well done because I had spent time on it. I think I did above average in this part and if I had had to grade myself on this I would give my self a B or a B+.

Another ESLR I used was being an Academic Achiever. I think I was an Academic Achiever because I demonstrated technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completion of a project. I showed this because I made a PowerPoint presentation for my project which helped make it easier to present and it looked a bit more creative and attractive than other projects I’ve done. By doing my project on PowerPoint I found it easier to present, and to incorporate the music into it and to make it flow. In addition it was more interesting than just a speech. Apart from that I think that the way I did my project this time in comparison to other ways was easier to do and to add the music to because it was all on a computer. It was also easier to check and correct if it had something wrong with it. If I had presented this project as a poster I don’t think it would have been as easy to present, check and correct because if I had done something wrong I would have had to do the whole project again. If I could have done my project again, I would have tried to make it flow better and I would have practiced a few more times before presenting it, I also would have tried to put the music onto the presentation so it would have been easier to present because it took a bit of time to change to the next track and change to the next slide. Another way I could have used technology would have been by maybe making a Flash animation of the scene and having the music playing in the background of that. Overall I think I used the technology wisely and to the most of my ability because working with computers isn’t exactly one of my expertise. If I had to grade myself on the use of technology I would have given my self a B+ because I used the technology pretty well but I could have done a bit more.

Another ESLR I think I hit was being an Effective Communicator. I think I verified this by incorporating/utilizing technology as a tool for communication. I think I showed this by making my presentation using PowerPoint, which helped me present my project in an easier more understandable way. I think by doing my presentation on computer it was easier to communicate my idea to my public and it was easier for the public to understand. In addition by incorporating/using technology as a tool for communication I also demonstrated technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for the efficient and inventive completion of a project. In the end I think I communicated my project pretty well to the public. I would give myself an A- for this part.

Overall I think I did my project capably even though I could have improved a bit more on it. Also I would have liked to have been able to use the ESLR’s Involved Citizen and Critical Thinker fairly more. With a bit more effort and a bit more time on the project I think I could have gotten an A. Also I think that if I had been more of a critical thinker I could have put the ideas that I hadn’t thought of before on the project. Furthermore I would have liked to have expressed my thoughts in a better way so that they could have been clearer. But overall I think I performed exceptionally well on the project.

Hey, what’s up? This is my first post for my new blog and I’m excited about posting more things.
If you would like to read the blogs of my hommie’s (a.k.a my classmates), click here.

And here is a cool picture of a Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT