Blog Post #3

History Repeats Itself

The Baltimore Riots of 1968 was made up of black Baltimoreans rioting from April 6 to April 14. The riot included people crowding the streets, burning and looting local businesses, and confronting the police and national guard fearlessly. This was the result of the April 4 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, which triggered riots in 125 cities across the United States. These events are sometimes remembered as the Holy Week Uprising. Less than 50 years later, history repeats itself . After 25 year old, Freddie Grey, was unexplainably killed in police custody, roits broke out all over Baltimore. A once peaceful protest quickly turned into a blood bath. Looters trashed convince stores and other local businesses in their town. While most of their intentions were pure, these Baltimoreans went about it the wrong way. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had the right idea when he said, "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." Thousands of people destroyed their city in a matter of hours. It's not the police who suffer, its the community and the people living in it. Nine times out of ten, police officers can't even serve in the town they live in. So, when these protesters turn looters set a blaze there city's main infrastructures, they are only hurting themselves. They may have stolen a few days worth of groceries, but they will only last for long. When those same people want to buy groceries for their families as they always do, there will be no grocery store to go to. Just the crisp, crumbling walls that survived the fire. Some even went as far as cutting the fire department's water hoses to prevent them from trying to save their city. Now, tell me how does this help the real issue?

www.cnn.com

When the Student Wants to Become the Teacher - The Snapshot

"Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students." -Solomon Ortiz

    According to Merriam-Webster, a teacher is someone who helps a person or group learn about a subject or how to do something by giving lessons or showing how it is done. When it comes to a career in education there are many specific careers to choose from. At the very beginning of a child's educational journey is a preschool teacher, ending with high school teachers or a college professor depending on their final destination. By the time a child celebrates their eighteenth birthday, he or she would have spent fourteen years in the educational system and sat in the classrooms of about sixty-three different teachers. To just be you of those teachers is a responsibility only a few truly understand, educators have the task of facilitating their students along their journey to greatness. Each one of the sixty-three are as important as the next, although their tasks differ, their ultimate goal is to educate their pupils.

Early Childhood Educator

    Researchers from Emory University have determined that our early childhood experiences can influence our personalities and behavior for the rest of our lives. When you think about it, early childhood educators can’t just play games and babysit. Early childhood educators or ECEs, work with children in nursery schools, daycares, or similar settings. Most ECEs work with children between the ages of two and five. ECEs need to understand how children learn and develop, not just mentally, but physically, socially, and emotionally. They are trained to design games and activities that are fun, but educational in specific ways. Teaching small children the alphabet requires a different and more strategic lesson plans than teaching them how and why they should share toys with others. ECEs need to be creative and resourceful in planning activities that will help children develop and build their self-esteem, as well as keep them interested and motivated. It's also important for them to establish routines that will allow children to feel comfortable and secure. Educators often use arts and crafts projects to encourage children to be creative and learn to express themselves in healthy ways. Effective educators build close relationships with the parents of the children they care for. It's important for them to talk to parents to learn about a child’s home environment, including culture and language. Educators and parents also share information about the children’s personalities, social skills, general development, and physical health. Some ECEs specialize in working with children with physical or developmental disabilities, or behavioral problems.

Elementary School Teacher

    Elementary school teachers or primary school teachers, teach children from kindergarten up to the fifth grade. They introduce children to the educational basics like numbers, language, science, and history. They also help children develop into healthy, confident, socially aware members of society. Working closely with parents to help the children reach their full potential in a huge part. Teachers in elementary schools often teach a wide variety of subjects to one class of students, but some specialize in a couple of subjects and teach several different classes of students. When they are not in front of the class, teachers spend a significant amount of their time putting together lesson plans for upcoming classes and grading students’ papers. Part of their job is figuring out interesting and innovative ways to approach educational topics to make them fun. They use lectures, group discussions, hands-on activities, and computer programs to engage their students. The knowledge that teachers pass on to their students includes not just academic subjects, but also values, attitudes, and life skills. In many ways, teachers are like stand in parents to the students in their class. Elementary school teachers monitor children’s social skills and try to resolve any problems they see, such as shyness or aggressiveness. Teachers meet with other teachers, to do administrative paperwork, in addition to that, they also supervise school clubs and playground activities, take students on field trips, meet with parents, and keep parents informed of students’ progress through report cards, conferences and phone calls home. In elementary school, teachers introduce students to academic learning by providing instruction in the basic principles of each subject, and giving them a good foundation of knowledge. 

Middle School Teacher

    Middle school or junior high, teachers have the important task of building on a student's previous foundation by delving further into these subjects with their students. Not all areas have middle schools. In these regions, elementary school teachers instruct students until grade 8 and then the students move directly to high school. However, in places that do provide a transition between elementary and high schools, middle school teachers prepare students for their high school educations. The exact grade levels taught by middle school teachers vary by state. On average, they teach students in grades six to eight. Because students start to learn more complicated and technical subjects in middle school, teachers at this level usually specialize in specific subjects. For example, they may teach History, Art or Math. Middle school teachers teach four or five classes a day. For each class, it may include about fifteen to forty students. They prepare a lesson plan that includes the information they want to provide, as well as the assignments they will give out to the class. Often there is a government-mandated curriculum that they must cover and state standardized testing, like the S.T.A.A.R. test in Texas. Education isn't just about memorizing and regurgitating information. Teachers aim to motivate and energize their students, and instill a passion for education. To aid them in this process, they often use multi-media presentations, such as movies, they organize group projects, and use computer-based presentations. During the course of the semester or school year, middle school teachers hand out assignments, quizzes, and exams in order to test their students’ knowledge. They are responsible for grading these assignments and keeping track of each student’s grade in an organize electronic or paper grade book. They monitor their students’ progress, making sure that each one is acquiring the knowledge needed to pass the course. If a student begins falling behind, the teacher may discuss the problem with a parent and counselor, or work with the student on an individual basis during a private tutoring session to help improve his or her grades. Teachers support students in non-academic activities as well. They are often called on to help students resolve social problems, like bullying, and advise them while they are developing education and career goals. Many teachers are also involved in extracurricular activities. They supervise student clubs or coach sport teams. These activities include responsibilities such as arranging and supervising trips and games.

High School Teacher

    The next time you complain about how much homework you have tonight, think about the amount of work your teachers have put into preparing it, and how long they’ll have to spend grading it. High school teachers or secondary school teachers, usually work with students from grade nine to twelve. Unlike elementary school teachers, they usually specialize in teaching just one, like math, English, history, wood-shop, or fashion design. High school teachers teach three to six different classes a day, depending on their school’s scheduling system. Class sizes usually range from fifteen to forty students. Despite a larger number of students, teachers try to meet the needs of individual students. This can mean tutorials after and bore school for those who need additional help. Good teachers are creative, and find interesting and varied ways to teach information and motivate students to learn. They organize group work and research activities, and make use of technology. They are usually involved in extracurricular activities as well. Some coach teams, supervise clubs, and take students on field trips. Teachers sometimes have to deal with serious problems among students, such as fighting. They also need to be on the lookout for signs of drug and alcohol problems, abuse, and depression. These things affect students’ attendance and class work, so teachers can be the first adults to notice when a young person is in trouble.

College Professor

   Being a college professor is a career that combines teaching with life-long study and research. Colleges hire professors in the traditional fields of the arts and sciences as well as in professional fields such as law, medicine, and business. Interdisciplinary departments bring together professors with different backgrounds so that a subject can be studied from several different perspectives. For example, professors trained in literature, sociology, and medicine may all teach in a department of women’s studies. Teaching can involve lecturing to a few hundred students or running a small seminar group. Professors also develop course plans, meet with students individually, grade papers and exams, and oversee teaching assistants. In addition, professors conduct research and publish original essays, articles, or books. Professors are also responsible for some of the administrative work in their department and in the college as a whole. A professor might be on a committee that reviews the applications to the department’s graduate program, or on a committee that decides on purchases for the college library. Some choose to do less teaching and more administrative work as a department head or the dean of the faculty.

Whether it be an early childhood educator or a college professor, people with a career in education, shape the minds of the next generation. Every type of teacher of different but one thing stays the same. Students are like sponges just waiting to soak more knowledge through this journey we call life.

Blog Post #2

Powder Puff or MMA? No One Knows the difference!

Albert Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian author of 'Things Fall Apart', once said, "When a tradition gathers enough strength to go on for centuries, you don't just turn it off one day." Achebe clearly was not at the annual but final Powder Puff Game for Lewisville High School last night. The score board read 28-7, of course the Seniors in the lead. The game was going as it does every year, Junior and Senior girls battling it out in a friendly, not-so friendly game of flag football. But this year it was different. The game was scheduled for April 20, 2015, also widely known as 420 or "Weed Day", an annual excuse to abuse illegal drugs. A school sponsored event and 420 do not make for a family-friendly event to be enjoyed by all. As I cheered for the junior girls I was surrounded by students who were clearly under the influence, the distinguishable order of "Mary Jane" filled the stands. In addition to the blazed spectators, a girl from the Senior team was seriously injured due to excessive force from another player. The game came to a stand still when Senior, Haley Drake, had to be escorted off the field, she spent the night in the ER, lucky for her the Medical Center of Lewisville is less than a mile from the school. Drake spent the following morning in surgery while doctors tried to repair the damage to her broken ankle. Later in the day she posted a tweet saying, "I know this is going be a super unpopular opinion, but I'm kind of happy that they are taking away the Annual Powder Puff Game. I know that what happened to me was an accident and the fight at the end was just on incident, but in all honesty this is all absolutely ridiculous! It's just a flag football game! And it's comforting knowing that people aren't going to get hurt because of it anymore." No truer words have ever before been tweeted. A long standing tradition becomes a problem when young adults can't respect themselves and their school enough to act maturely. Almost everyone is to blame, from the players to the people in the stands. Even after the game resumed, a fight broke out after a Senior tackled and kicked a Junior in the face. The two started to tussle as everyone on the field joined in to exchange blows. It only takes but a second for a tradition to be ended once and for all. It's a shame that a deadly mixture of a bad decisions and judgment, excessive force leading to a serious injury, an all out brawl in the middle of the field and a made up "holiday" encouraging subsistence abuse, ends a tradition intended to be a way to engage in a friendly game of flag football.

www.twitter.com

My Doctrine

I believe in Hell on Earth though I don't believe Heaven lies above the clouds or 

Hell lies beneath the surface. I believe life can be the greatest gift or the greatest curse. 

I believe coloring outside of the lines is good for the soul. 

I believe I am a smooth pebble in a world of rugged stones, 

which doesn't make me better than the rest, 

I have simply been tumbled around a few too many times. 

I believe "black" and "white" are labels for crayons and colored pencils, not people.
I believe my "Prince Charming" is really a princess.

I believe love is blind and it has the power to rescue the weary, 

though it can't save the forgotten. Life is like the blind leading the blind, 

I believe water can be thicker than blood, I believe in wishing wells, 

calling is always better than texting, and checking your watch in class makes ninety minutes turn into an eternity, and if I hold my breath

and wait for the day society accepts me,

my lungs will never be filled with air again. This is not a result of reason but ignorance.

I believe in all-nighters: 

coffee, alarm clocks, Cheetos - sip sip sip, tick tick tick, crunch crunch crunch. 

I believe in the slippery slope called life. I believe time is priceless,

except when the time clock tick-tocks. I believe in the complexity of crunching numbers. 

I believe there is a difference between right and wrong, I'm right and you're wrong. 

I believe in education, and if you open every door to new opportunities, 

you are on your way to greatness. Do you believe in second chances? 

I never believed in second chances until I was given one, 

as I popped each one as if they were candy, before I knew it,

the once full bottle was empty, 

a sense of peace and serenity washed over me. Soon, it would all be over.

All the anger and all the pain and all the rejection and all the fear melted away.
And the day I cheated death was the day I really started living. 

I now believe there is a reason I was put on this Earth. I believe one day I will find it.

I believe rules and guidelines are the only way to live.
I believe average people are satisfactory,
extraordinary people are exceptional, and if we all stopped chasing short cuts, 

we would have reached our destination already. I believe in sweat and tears not luck but

I do believe in Lucky Charms, they're magically delicious.

I believe an apology can't fix it all; 

I believe in rebels without a cause; I believe in Care and Be Fair, 

friends are essential and family is optional, everyone belongs to someone, 

and the best cookies are made from scratch and baked fresh from your own oven. 

I believe Tupac is still alive, Jesus is a fictional character from a book of fables called the Bible, Auntie Anne's pretzels are delightfully sinful,

Revenge Day should be a National holiday 

and the life beyond high school I have dreamt about awaits my arrival.

All my dreams and plans swell up and fill up every inch of my heart with joy. 

I believe I may never live up to my own expectations, I may never be satisfied, 

I may never be truly happy, I will always wonder if I am good enough and 

if I never get to experience another day of life, I want to believe, 

I need to believe I have left a lasting foot print in the sand 

and I am departing without a single what if or shoulda-woulda-coulda. 

www.minsmash.com

Five Years to Build and 5 Seconds to Crumble

Tears tricked down my face. 

My eyes become waterfalls. 

A seemingly endless supply of defeat stream down my cheeks.
This pain was like no other, no Band-Aid, no Tylenol,
there was not a single remedy in the world for a broken heart.  

Feeling every emotion under the sun, 

I couldn't decide if I was just mad or just sad or just anything really. 

FIVE YEARS. 

Five years worth of break ups and make ups, 

nights spent out and nights spent in. 

We spent all that time building this friendship just for it to all end over your pride and your ego and your stubbornness. 

Every memory we ever made together rushed through my mind at once.

The thought of the end took my breath away. 

As I sat there struggling for air I couldn't believe my best friend would treat me this way, 

talk to me this way, and look at me this way. 

Through my sobs I hung on to every word you fired my way. 

The words "You. Are. Ri-dic-u-lous", bruised like rage fueled blows to the gut. 

You stressed each syllable to ensure I felt every bit of pain. 

Every word was stretched out slow but steady,

 making sure I felt the sword being trusted in my back. 

After reloading your gun with your vexed bullets, 

you finally ran out of ammunition. 

As I lay there nursing my wounds, 

I hear your bullets being fired once more "You Are So Sel-fish! 

You Are Dis-re-spect-ful beyond belief", 

like a broken record it plays in my head on repeat.

As if you hadn't done enough, 

you continue to rub salt into my wounds. 

You don't look at me, but through me. 

You don't speak to me but about me. 

Being in a room with you and not next to you becomes harder than not seeing you at all. 

From non stop chatter to painful silence. 

The silence. 

Oh how it kills me slowly. 

Days turn into weeks. 

Weeks turn into months. 

Months turn into years. 

Years turn into what feels like forever. 

But forever ends with a faint "You Were Right", 

so faint I almost don't hear you. 

As I turn around at my desk, 

I turn and see my best friend turn enemy turn stranger sitting in the desk behind mine. 

Those three words instantly sparked my healing, all the bruises, 

wounds and the scars her knife left, shriveled up and melted away. 

The friendship could never be salvaged from the wreckage. 

But now I had the strength to raise from under the rumble. 

www.outlawmama.com

Baca's Oppression

Oppression 

by Jimmy Santiago Baca 

Is a question of strength, 

of unshed tears, 

of being trampled under, 

and always, always, 

remembering you are human. 

Look deep to find the grains of hope and strength, 

and sing, my brothers and sisters, 

and sing. The sun will share 

your birthdays with you behind bars, 

the new spring grass 

like fiery spears will count your years, 

as you start into the next year; 

endure my brothers, endure my sisters.

www.poemhunter.com

www.srr.com

       Jimmy Santiago Baca, a prison inmate turn award-winning poet and writer, wrote a poem called "Oppression", it tells a story of how Baca held on to the little hope he had left while in prison. In this poem he says, "Look deep to find the grains of hope and strength...", the diction in this line helps the reader visualize how little hope there was left but somehow he finds the strength to go on. Within the walls of the prison, his sense of humanity is tested, Baca reminds himself "...always, always, remembering you are a human." Baca shows how he had to dig deep within his self to find even the tiniest grain of hope and strength. He also says, "The sun will share your birthdays with you behind bars, the new spring grass like fiery spears will count your years...", this stanza shows how ordinary things to free men, like the sun and blades of grass, become just another reminder to an inmate like Baca that they are trapped in cage of oppression. As the years of his sentence pass, the changing of the seasons just remind him how much time has really passed. His choice of comparisons and diction help the reader understand his state of mind. Although, only three sentences this poem sums up the emotions felt by Baca during this time in his life.

A Helping Hand

   Audrey Hepburn once said, "Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it's at the end of your arm, but remember you have another hand; the first is to help yourself, the second is to help others. Always use both hands".  For as long as I can remember, helping others has brought me great joy in life. So when I took the Six Human Needs Test and got 100% for Contribution I was not surprised at all. The human Needs test revealed I feel incomplete and insignificant without a sense of contribution. My desire is to leave a mark on the world no matter how big or small. Focusing on someone else's needs and problems distract me from my own pain. I tend to lose sight of the fact that I should put myself first. As a result my physical, emotional and spiritual needs suffer, I suppress them until I can't do so any longer. My main focus is on the world and not myself, I work for others until the point of exhaustion. Everything the test revealed I agreed with a hundred percent. I have always believed a person can never be too nice but maybe it is possible when they forget to give back to themselves. Recently, I felt I had to quit my job, I had a mini break down at work. The pressures of junior year, AP classes, extracurricular activities, covering extra shifts for co-workers and personal relationships all became too much. I pushed myself to my breaking point without realizing it until it was too late. I have come to realize if one of the two areas in my life, academic or personal, is not going as planned the I dive into the other. When my personal life is terrible, my grades are amazing, when my academic life is not what I want it to be, my personal relationships soar to new heights. The up and down of this pattern I call life becomes my biggest flaw.

www.inspiringwordsbook.com

   Reading should be a joy but for me it is a chore. Since day one I have never had a love for reading, my attention span while reading is shorter than that of a goldfish. Picture yourself going up a flight of stairs, each step is a page in a book you've read. While most people can just spirit up each step, I struggle to make it half way and never see to get to the top. In the process of trying to find a love or even just a strong like for reading I've tried to find a genre that can spark my interest. Non-fiction books like memoirs have become a new favorite of mine. I can actually read these types of books and enjoy myself. I would still choose an audio or movie version but this is a step in the right direction. So far I have completed 6 books, which include: Exactly As I Am by Shaun Robinson, Sula by Toni Morrison, A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard, The Liars Club by Mary Karr, The Dictionary of High School B.S. By Lois Beckwith, and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. My favorite book was A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard, this is the first book I've read and couldn't put down. The story was so unbelievably raw, Dugard describes her years in captivity in great detail. Her story really made me think what I would do in her shoes but you can't ever really know until you've lived through it. For my Summer reading assignment I chose to read Sula but the whole time I was confused and found it difficult to keep up with all the characters. When school started I decided to challenge myself by re-reading Sula to hopefully understand what everybody else saw in this award winning book. I didn't understand it than and I still don't understand it now. I'm not sure what it is about this book that makes it just fly right over the top of my head. 
   Little Bee by Chris Cleave is a story of hope and misfortune. The main character, Little Bee is a refugee from Nigeria seeking safety in England. After oil companies come to her village to drill for oil, her family and neighbors are raped, tortured and murdered, the home she knew and love was destroyed. Little Bee leaves and stows away on a ship leaving very thing behind. The only thing she has is the clothes on her back and the memories of the horrors from her homeland. Even on the ship she is reminded of the life she has just left, the fear of "the men" coming to kill her lingers in her mind throughout the story. I am currently on page eighty-five, the last page of chapter three, and I have come to know the two main characters, Little Bee and Sarah an English women who becomes Little Bee's saving grace. Much like myself Little Bee is faced with hurdle after hurdle but when faced with adversity she always finds a way to over come it. Although compared to Little Bee my problems seem futile, whether it be the struggle of taking AP classes or having nightmares for 6 months in a detention center, they are both problems nonetheless. I have become to admire Little Bee for her determination, vulnerability, intelligence and resourcefulness. She tries to make a new life for herself with no money, official papers or identification and with  a little help from strangers like Sarah O'Rouke and Mr. Ayers Little Bee is on her way to a new life.