Managing my life...

For the past few months, ever since I chose to move here from California, my life has changed a lot. I no longer live with a parent, I have more responsibilities, and those responsibilities seem to be piling up each day. I moved here to go to school and get a degree knowing that my mom was going to help me with bills and support me financially. Well, I don't like to burden others with all my problems based on the choices I made, so I went out and found a job. Getting a job and working, even part time, has made life a little more challenging. Based on that choice I now have less "me" time and I feel like I'm either working, doing school work or sleeping. I try not to procrastinate, but I usually do. Because I have less "me" time now, I find that I procrastinate more and more. I would rather wind down and watch tv after going to school until 2 and working until 10 than do my homework or read my textbooks. Having some time to do things I enjoy at the end of the day is important to me.

In the future I hope to find new ways to manage my time. I don't want to continue to wait until the night before something is due before I start thinking about the assignment. Although that's where my life is now, I hope that I can progress into a better schedule and be able to fit in school, work, homework time and "me" time. But as my mom says, "That's just part of becoming an adult." And frankly, some days I don't like being an adult!

Emperor's Club reflections

1. I think the quote by Aristophanes, “Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever” is correct. All of what is stated is true. People grow up and in that process they become more mature and more educated. I think the part about stupidity lasting forever is based on someone’s willingness to learn.

2. Mr. Hundert is shaken by his experience with Sedgewick Bell because he had never had anyone challenge his authority before. Sedgewick was trying to rattle Mr. Hundert, be the class clown, instead of taking things seriously like the rest of the students. Mr. Hundert was taken by surprise by all of it because he had always been respected and never defied by anyone before.

3. Sedgewick had a way of getting the other boys to follow his lead and get into trouble. The other boys probably felt like rebels when they did the defying acts Sedgewick had done. When Mr. Hundert described Sedgewick’s influence as “hypnotic” he probably meant that the other boys were blindly following him. They knew that what Sedgewick was doing was against the rules but they still went along with whatever he was doing. 

4. Mr. Hundert tried really hard to turn Sedgewick’s attitude around and told Sedgewick that he believed that he could be a better student. When the Julius Caesar quizzes were taking place he saw an improvement in Sedgewick both morally and educationally. When the final quiz was completed Mr. Hundert was faced with choosing the top three contenders for the Julius Caesar contest. Sedgewick was very close to making it into the top three until Mr. Hundert changed his mind about Sedgewick’s final grade. He believed in Sedgewick and wanted Sedgewick to believe in himself so Mr. Hundert made Sedgewick the third contender in the contest instead of Martin – the boy who should have been contender number three. 

5. In the midst of the contest Mr. Hundert notices that Sedgewick is cheating. Sedgewick is the son of a senator – one who provides a lot of money to the school. Mr. Hundert didn’t want to call Sedgewick out as a cheater in front of the school or his father so instead he gave Sedgewick a question which he could not answer so it was impossible for him to win the contest. When Mr. Hundert confronts Sedgewick about his cheating, Sedgewick admits to it and Mr. Hundert’s trust in Sedgewick is broken.

6. Twenty-five years later, when Mr. Hundert is asked to host a rematch of the contest, he agrees because he wants to believe that people change, and wanted to believe that Sedgewick wouldn’t cheat. All the students in the class come together for the contest. Mr. Hundert has hopes that his influence on his students was positive. His hope was squashed when he discovered that Sedgewick was still a cheater, and he feels like he had let Sedgewick down as a teacher. But when his other students give him a plaque saying what a great teacher is, and is shown how much the other men appreciate him, Mr. Hundert has regained his hope that he influenced his students in a positive way.

7. I think the film teaches a moral lesson about living a good, honest life. It goes back to the old saying, “winners never cheat and cheaters never win.” Throughout the movie we see the good and honest people prosper, while Sedgewick only holds himself back. Even though Mr. Hundert put all his faith in Sedgewick, Sedgewick was still willing to cheat to get what he wanted. At the end of the movie, when Mr. Hundert confronts Sedgewick about cheating in the rematch, Sedgewick mentions that he will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. But what he doesn’t realize is that his son was listening. His son storms out of the bathroom disappointed. 

8. Mr. Hundert returns to teaching because he knows that he can inspire and influence his students in a positive way. He isn’t going to let one person who was stuck in their ways stop him from believing in himself. On the first day of class Mr. Hundert is surprised to see Martin’s son in his class.

9. Mr. Hundert used many problem-posing aspects of teaching. One would be dialogue, he was always asking questions and having his students think and answer them. He is passionate about what he’s teaching and it is reciprocated by the students. Mr. Hundert grows a strong bond with the students, not always being authoritative, but being a friend as well.

10. The study of the classics helped the students become better versions of themselves when they were adolescents because it taught them discipline, strength and gave them a greater understanding of the world. As they became adults it helped them in their careers, using their knowledge of the classics to become better lawyers, businessmen and even teachers.

Inspiration to Learn

The person who inspired me to learn was definitely my mom. She has inspired me to learn since I was 4. She used to read me bedtime stories every night until I decided that I wanted to be the one to read to her. No matter how many hours she had worked or how tired she was, she always made time to read to me and teach me how to read – even if it took hours on end. I remember sitting on my bed most nights of the week and we would just read together and we wouldn’t stop reading until I was able to get through the whole book.  When I was growing up I loved to read. I had so many books. But the inspiration to learn didn’t stop there. My mom always wanted what was best for me. She wanted me to excel in everything I did. She got me into school programs to help me advance my reading and math skills in elementary school. When I was in the third grade it was a combination class of third and fourth graders and I was doing all the work from the fourth grade books because the third grade books were too boring for me – I was too advanced and my teacher wanted to see if I could handle the material. I was an over achiever back then. My mom is still inspiring me to learn new things, not only in school but in life as well. I’m sure she will continue to inspire me for years to come.

Banking Concept of Education worksheet

1. Paulo Freire's concept of "narration sickness" is about someone, in this case a teacher, saying/teaching something and expecting the students to memorize the information. The teacher just talks and expects the students to regurgitate the information at a later time.

2. This notion of narration sickness mimics standardized testing because those tests are given to every student in the state. All the students are expected to know the same things as if they were all taught in the same way - by getting told what the need to know so at a later time they can open up their minds and dump out all the facts. Like Freire mentions, students' minds are like "containers" to be "filled".

3. When I was in 8th grade, my physics teacher taught in the way that Freire describes. He basically stood in front of the classroom with projector slides and read from the slides word-for-word, as if we, the students, couldn't do that for ourselves. Some days he would put us in a circle and we would read directly from the book. It was terrible. I'm sure most of the students in my class learned something about physics, but it definitely didn't make physics very exciting to learn. Freire stated this "the teacher talks, and the students listen."
Well that's exactly what happened. And I know that most middle school children don't know much about anything but teachers should want to make learning exciting, not recite exactly what the book says. We could read the book on our own and gain the same amount of knowledge. We could have skipped class every day, read the chapters at home and still left the class knowing the same things. Needless to say - the class was incredibly boring and it made learning physics boring as well.

4. A teacher that stands out for me would be my Spanish 1 & 2 professor from my first two years of college. He is from Mexico and was totally awesome. Not only was his class fun to go to - mind you it started at 6:00pm and went until 9:00pm - but it made Spanish fun to learn. He is a jokster and always wanted to keep spirits high. He would tell stories from his own past, and his family's past to teach us about the Hispanic culture. We would watch YouTube videos and listen to songs, even sing along with the songs.
He would open up the class for discussion so he could learn things about us as well. He was new to all the slang words and we would fill him in on what things meant. This dialogue turned the class into a great learning environment. My favorite part of the class is when he would bring in a movie for us to watch in Spanish. There would be a pot luck and we would just watch a movie. I found this a great way to learn Spanish because it wasn't just doing grammar, it was being able to hear the way the words were spoken and that helps me to pronounce the words. He was a great teacher overall and really tried hard to supply us with all the different ways we could learn a new language. He made the environment fun, friendly and relaxed. I think that's why I enjoyed that class so much because it is important to feel relaxed and comfortable while you're learning.


5. Based on Neil Postman's "My Graduation Speech" I think that the Athenian culture would embrace the concept of problem-posing education. 
In my introduction to the Bible course, we practice problem-posing education in the form of "dialogue". There are a lot of times when we get into small groups and have to communicate with other students in order to answer questions and/or grasp concepts that the professor has given us. Some days the professor talks and we listen, but never a day goes by when questions go unasked and/or answered. There is always some sort of dialogue going on. My Chemistry class on the other hand could probably use a bit more dialogue. The professor breaks up the chapters so we talk about them for several days. The first couple days he stands in front of the class and lectures the entire time - almost putting the whole class to sleep! Then the last few days of the chapter he opens the class up to ask him any question we want to ask him. So there is some dialogue going on, but I definitely think that there could/should be a little more discussion and dialogue from the students.
 

The Civil Rights Movement

1. According to dictionary.com, passive resistance is resistance by nonviolent methods to a government, an occupying power, or specific laws, as refusing to comply, demonstrating in protest, or fasting. There are many people in the world who have used passive resistance. Mahatma Gandhi is an example of someone who used this method of protest when he used it in the fight to gain India’s independence from the British. It was used throughout the United States during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s by Martin Luther King and many other African-Americans fighting for their rights. It is even still being used today in many parts of the world today.

2. This photo was taken during a protest in the 1960’s. You can see that the protesters are sitting there on the sidewalk, not putting harm to any one, yet the fire-fighters are spraying them with a high-powered hose. This is just shocking for me. It amazes me that people that are supposed to be protecting us, are harming to ones who just want to stand up for what they believe in. It seems so ridiculous that the firemen used this force to break up the crowd of “sitting” protesters.

This next photo is a more recent one I found. This is an example of the discrimination people in the United States face today. Muslims are discriminated against, mainly because of what happened on 9/11/2001. But this is what American’s need to understand: not all Muslims are responsible or agree with what was done that awful day in American history. We can’t go around blaming everyone of the same religion, gender or race for someone else’s actions. It is wrong and unjustifiable. 

3. I do believe that there is still discrimination found in our community today. Even though there are many laws to protect citizens against it, there is still many examples of discrimination that go overlooked. For one example, I find that many people in California discriminate against Hispanics. There is a large population of Hispanics in California that have immigrated from Mexico and many of them are blamed and discriminated against for taking jobs away from the other California citizens. I think that this is just a way of putting blame for the horrible unemployment rate that California has. Everyone seems to need someone to blame, and Hispanics are the target for this blame. 

4. My next essay is going to be about how insurance companies discriminate against people. Insurance companies discriminate against people who have preexisting conditions. I, for example, was under the same insurance company for an entire year before I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. They are trying to make me pay for all my tests, treatments, etc. saying that I have had this issue since before I became insured by them. In my essay I will use pathos by bringing in examples of people much like myself, trying hard every day to fight with an illness and having to deal with the insurance companies not wanting to help me pay, even though I pay them a lot of money per month to be there for me when I need them to be. I can use logos in my essay by bringing in facts and statistics on how many people are denied insurance based on their illnesses and/or preexisting conditions. And I can use ethos in my essay by reaching out to the insurance companies and giving examples on how they can better themselves.

Sculpture Walk

Sculpture One

Robert the Bruce by Benjamin Victor

1. First five thoughts that came into my mind were:

                a.) Heroic

                b.) Brave

                c.) Powerful

                d.) Battle

                e.) Victorious

2. This is my favorite sculpture I encountered from the sculpture walk. This sculpture just evokes courage and strength, everything a king, such as Robert the Bruce, needs when he sets out for battle. This sculpture captured me, and I could picture Robert the Bruce riding in front of his men, readying them for the battle ahead, giving them a heroic speech. The thing I love most about this sculpture is the incredible details – from the ripples in the horse’s coat to the chain-mail of Robert’s armor, each circular chain linked and placed perfectly. This is truly an amazing piece of art.

3. There isn’t anything I dislike about this sculpture.

4. If I could afford such a wonderful sculpture, and if I had somewhere to display it, I would most certainly buy this sculpture. I would buy this piece because of the message it evokes, strength through hardship, and bravery. I would be able to walk by it every day and be reminded that there were worse things I could be going through, and it would remind me to be strong.

5. The subject matter of Robert the Bruce is bringing history to life. Through this sculpture, people can picture what Robert the Bruce would do before a battle. The symbolism of this piece is strictly bravery and heroism. The sculpture grabs a hold of the viewer and takes them back to the moment of this battle, as if they were one of the soldiers being prepared for battle.

6. This sculpture has a very strong frontal presentation although, the back of the sculpture is still visually interesting. The symbol of the lion, which appears on the king’s shield as well as the horse’s coat, is continued on the back portion of the sculpture, on the horse’s coat. The sculpture is located under a tree, which doesn’t allow for a lot of natural light. But this doesn’t harm the sculptures integrity in any way. This sculpture can stand anywhere and still have the same dramatic effect. The artist used his materials in a variety of ways, first he had to sculpt the form and then come back in later with the details, such as the chain-mail, which was delicately placed, one piece at a time, in order to create a more realistic feel to the piece.

7. This sculpture defiantly has a realistic style and is a concrete representation. I would say it is more geometric in form because it has many shapes and the horse’s coat portrays movement. The sculpture is definitely very detailed and has a lot of textures, such as the rough chain-mail and ripples in the horse’s coat, to enhance the piece.

Sculpture Two

Katrina by Osamede Obazee

1. First five thoughts that came into my mind were:

                a.) Strange

                b.) Fragile

                c.) Windy

                d.) Nature

                e.) Broken

2. The thing I like about this sculpture is the emotions it evokes. The sculpture was made in remembrance of Hurricane Katrina, and when a viewer looks at it they can see the distress in the woman’s face. Also, the sculpture is made in a way that has you picture what this woman must have been going through – the extreme wind and chaos. The umbrella is broken, yet the woman still holds on, as if it was her last hope.

3. The thing I don’t like about this sculpture is the cut-outs in the body – on her legs and arms. I understand that they might be an artistic expression, but in my opinion, I lose a lot of the realistic feel. The sculpture represents something so important and then the cut-outs make it seem like there is something else the artist wanted to represent, but it isn’t as straightforward or clear to all viewers.

4. I don’t think I would purchase Katrina. It doesn’t speak to me in a way that would make me want to see it every day. I don’t feel a strong connection to this sculpture in order to purchase it.

5. The subject matter of this Katrina is nature. Nature, in this case, being a hurricane – one most American’s can remember. The woman seems to be running from danger, and the viewer can tell that it is very windy, not only by the movement depicted in her dress, but also the umbrella and the fact that it is broken. The symbolism of this piece represents Hurricane Katrina in a way most viewers can picture it, through the woman’s point of view. The viewer can look at the piece and see that the woman is in distress.

6. This sculpture has more a 360 degree view strength than just at a frontal position. It doesn’t matter where the viewer stands around the piece; it still evokes the same thoughts and emotions. This artist used scrap metal as his material of choice. It is used in a way that makes the piece seem fragile. As I was viewing this piece, it became very windy and the umbrella was wobbling in the wind. This shows that the artist wanted to add some realistic elements to his piece. The woman is trapped in a hurricane, and if the piece was sturdier, it would take away from the emotions it portrays.

7. The style of Katrina is geometric – there are many different shapes, the roundness of the legs, the jagged angles of her dress and the shapes within the cut-outs of her arms and legs. Some parts of the structure are smooth while other parts have pattern, the pattern within the cut-outs being one example. There is also a rough texture to the woman’s hair, made from twisted metal. Overall, I would say this piece is a concrete representation, intertwined with a few abstract details.

Sculpture Three

Wings by Felix Velez

1. First five thoughts that came into my mind were:

                a.) Majestic

                b.) Peaceful

                c.) Religious

                d.) Smooth

                e.) Angel

2. What I really like about this sculpture is the emotions it evokes. You can tell that this is a very religious piece at first glance. The longer you look at it, the more it envelops you and tells a story. Another aspect of this piece I really like is the stone material used and how smooth the piece is. It adds finesse to the sculpture.

3. There isn’t anything that I dislike about this sculpture.

4. If I had the money and/or proper place to display this sculpture I would buy it. It is beautiful, magical, and really tells a story. As I was looking at this sculpture, under the name of the piece I saw a message from the artist explaining what the sculpture represents – the lost promises to God. The man in the sculpture, because of his guilt, straps wings to himself in order to become more angelic. I would buy this piece so I would remember every day to live life the way God wants me to.

5. I believe that the subject matter of Wings is religion and faith. I think that the artist wanted the viewers to feel a connection to God and to be reminded of everything he has given us, and we shall keep the promises we have made to him.

6. This sculpture is very strong from the front but that doesn’t eliminate its visual interest from all sides. As I was walking around the sculpture I enjoyed it more and more. You can really capture the essence of the piece by walking around it and not just looking at it from one point of view. The sculpture is very smooth and looks like stone of some kind. The smoothness enhances the piece and brings softness to the sculpture.

7. In my opinion this sculpture, because of its smoothness, is more rounded. There are portions of the piece that are detailed and textured, such as the hair and the wings. But for the most part this sculpture is very simplistic. In my mind this sculpture is more abstract than a concrete representation because it is like a metaphor. The wings are a metaphor for turning his life around, as this man, depicted in the sculpture, regains faith and reassembles his life in order to become more angelic and focus on God.