To make it successful in life now a days you pretty much have to go to college and have a degree. It really put pressure on people who aren't as fortunate as others for money so that's why there's scholarships to help them out. When people think about scholarships and how they're good they always think about money, but another great thing about them is it gives people a motive to do great at anything they do and to reach their full potential. It shows your accomplishments so you can brag on that.

I think some things I have left to do is to actually start applying and choosing what school I truly want to go to. I have taken my SAT and am going to take it again to get a better score. I could take the ACT but it's not necessary. I need to start getting involved with a fire station to have experience for when I get out I can get hired. I am taking another SAT this May and I'm going to start applying next year in the beginning and volunteering at the same time. Academically I don't think I am where I need to be.. I haven't really taken high school seriously and now it's coming back to bite me in the butt. I need to take it serious now and try to move up as much as I can. Honestly I don't know what college is best for me and where I'm truly going, I'm being a fire fighter so I could go to any college and actually I don't need college but I want to go. So whatever happens happens I guess.

        I think that a college degree is necessary and worth the money and time. I say that because with out it there is very few jobs that you will be able to get that are dependable. Also if it's between you and another person applying for the job, the one with the degree is going to get the job no doubt. I think it is good for you socially too because just think of all the time you spend in college, you're obviously going to make friends and party and be social. Pretty much just make sure and get a degree. 

I would rate the US school systems a solid 10 in terms of opportunities it gives students versus many countries but Africa to be specific. The US gives great education opportunities and we are very fortunate to live here. Everyone here dreads going to school and tries to skip it but really we should be grateful for this chance of education. In Africa people walk miles and miles to go to a school with the bare minimum. The average years of school for Africa is 6 while the US is at least 12. The US's education system is far greater.

 

Spring Break

Over the spring break I took my bff's camping in Cleburne State Park for a couple days. It was raining most of it tho so we just stayed in our camper most of the time which is like a house pretty much lol.  It was pretty fun, also we had two baseball tournaments, but our second one was cancelled because of the rain which really sucked because we pretty much drove to Oklahoma for 2 days straight for no reason. Also I hung out with a lot of friends and we had fun. We went to some club volleyball tournament to watch our friends play and they did good. Then I just slept. It was nice.

The central theme of the movie is "Carpe Diem" - seize the day. It's what Mr. Keating tells his English students when he takes them to look at photos of long dead alumni from the school. He wants them to make their lives extraordinary, to do some different or bold, to follow their dreams. 

The inspiration for Mr. Keating and for his students is poetry and writing - like Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau. When he was a student at the school, Keating and his friends formed a secret group called "The Dead Poets Society" and read poetry together, which is what the boys in the movie do. 

Neil follows his passion for theater. Knox goes for the girl he loves. And the shy Todd will eventually learn to be bold enough to speak up.

But Mr. Keating is considered dangerous for telling them to break free and not to conform, especially in the time period and the school they are in. Being part of the mainstream, being agreeable and just like everybody else is more valued than being unique individuals at Welton. 

When Neil kills himself because his parents will not let him be an actor and are dictating everything about his life, including sending him to military school and then medical school, they look for someone to blame. Mr. Keating and his advice to follow your passions and seize the day are singled out and he is fired. 

The boys - who revered him - are forced to testify against him. They are torn about this decision to turn against someone they loved, and about following like sheep the orders of the school. 

It's the shy Todd who finally dares to speak out - as Mr. Keating is leaving - telling him that they don't actually think he's at fault. The headmaster yells at Todd, tells him to sit down and be quiet - pretty much the same lesson they're taught every day except in Mr. Keating's class. But Todd - bringing together everything in the movie - stands atop his desk, quoting Walt Whitman and saying farewell - O Captain! My Captain! 

Then the other boys who were touched and changed by Mr. Keating's lessons also find the courage to stand up and say goodbye, no matter what the headmaster thinks or the possible punishments. 

So the movie is about seizing the day - making the most of your time before you die - and about being unique and following your passions and being unafraid to stand up for those things.

1. I think Todd was most transformed because at first he didn't really want to do anything and was really scared to read out loud and say poems in the class but then in class they made him come out of his shell. 
2. I think Cameron red head ginger with no soul is a character that didn't really change in the film because he snitched them out at the end and still followed all of the rules. 
3. I think that can go both ways, his views on life are still the same to seize the day but I also think that the boys really opened up so new doors for him. 
4. Todd's fear to overcome was to read out loud in class and get out of his shell, he did indeed overcome it in the classroom and after that he wrote and read poems to the class. Neil had one huge fear in his life and that was his father and his expectations of him, I think he tried to conquer it with the play but his dad came back and it became too much for him so he couldn't handle it anymore. Knox's fear was the girl and I think he over came his fear and really went after her with everything he had and it paid off. I think charlies fear was the school itself, and I really think that he overcame that by fighting the school.  

1. The story was in the late 1950's at Welton Academy.
2. tradition, honor, excellence, discipline           travesty, horror, excrement, and decadence.
3.  
4. "Seize the moment"
5. To show them that they need to live life to the fullest and not just do everything like everyone else.
6. Poetry represents the human race.
7. He did not agree on how the other professor rated poetry and didn't want them learning false stuff and going just by the book and not using their own thoughts.  

The roles role(s) of women in the 1950's as portrayed in the movie show that the soul purpose for a women was to get married, have kids, have dinner on the table by five, and take care and raise the children. The weren't thinking about trying to get a big job somewhere and to go to college for a career. The only thing they knew and wanted to do was to be the best house wife they could be. Katherine Watson's view on how women should live is very much different than what society thought it out to be. She lived her life as her own person and had dreams for her future and actually wanted to get a good career and be supportive to herself and not be the typical house wife of the time. 

I think they labeled Katherine Watson as subversive because the college that she was teaching at was very strict and went by the book word by word. There was no outside the box it was only out of the book and what they where told to teach. They didn't give the students an opportunity to explore their minds and really think about things instead of just all the information being fed to them. Katherine Watson was very diverse and "subversive" from all of the other professors because she didn't follow the book, she opened doors to the students way of thinking and let them have their own opinions on the art they where learning about. She didn't teach out of the book and instead chose her own art and lessons to teach. Therefore they labeled her as subversive because she wasn't teaching like everyone else. 

The teaching philosophy that Katherine Watson lived by was to think out side of the box and to get the girls to think outside of the box and try to find new perspectives on how they view things. On the other hand, Charles Dickens' way of teacher was the total opposite. He said the only way to teach was to go by the syllabus and never teach anything other than facts and what is in the book. The differences between their ways of teaching are like yin and yang, total opposites. She teaches to look with a new perspective and questions everything, while he teaches where that whatever it says in the book is what he thinks is right and doesn't have an opinion of his own about the very information he taught. I think that the way Katherine Watson taught is much more efficient and really gets the people thinking and making an opinion of their own.  

I thought it was a good movie. It really showed you that you can do whatever you want and you shouldn't let other people shape you and go with what everyone else is doing. That one girl that kept getting with the older married men and the professor was really pretty too so I liked that. She was my favorite part of the movie haha.

Mona Lisa Smile

I think this movie is going to be about how a professor is going to change her students view on life and at the same time they'll change hers too. It will probably be a very moving movie and will motivate people to do something with their life. I think it will be a good movie. The trailer was pretty open so it could go either way.

My thoughts on the different exam levels is that it's gonna be pretty hard but you just have to prepare yourself enough and not slack off. I think the test that we take to get into college and all that is alright. It gives you an opportunity to show that you actually know stuff and that you know stuff. To study for exams and test in college you need to study weeks before so you're fully prepared and don't fail that test because they count a lot in college because there's not so many. Don't slack off and make sure and study using different ways not just one way.

For Christmas break I am going to hang out with a lot of my friends and do some cool stuff. I'll probably play some baseball and drive a lot. I know I'll be celebrating Christmas with my family at my house and on Christmas Eve we're going to my great grandmothers house that's like 3 hours away so it's a really long drive. I will probably get in trouble but why not, I'm a teenager in high school that wants to have fun. I'll play with my presents and toys of course and then go hang out with some friends. Hopefully I don't get grounded so then I cant do anything because that would really suck because I just want to have fun and live life. I think this break will be really fun. I really hope it snows too because I really want to play in the snow this year. Not like last years ice, but actual snow.

When I go to college I hope to get a degree in the field that I want to work in. I hope to make life long friends and experiences that I will never forget. I hope to learn responsibility and how to take care of myself. I am going to college for mostly myself because I don't want to be a adult and not have a stable job and not able to provide for my future family. Also i'm going for my parents too so they can know that they raised me right and feel good about themselves. I think the characteristics that matter the most is what they're known for. If you're just going to that school because it looks fun or sounds cool that is not a good idea. You need to look for a school that will benefit you in every way possible. If they don't have your studies then you should not choose that school. I think I will seek input from from my parents and Coach Thrush. They all seem to know what they're talking about so I think I can benefit from what they tell me. I think that college will help me achieve my goals in life because having a degree will give me a ton of more opportunities for jobs and careers. It makes the person look better if they went to college and finished school. I think college is a good thing, just takes a long time.

When I was looking for job suitable for my expertise I found Buffalo Wild Wings. I thought to myself hmm I might actually like this job because I get to serve people and maybe watch a little t.v. while i'm at it you know what i'm say'n? I think it is very appropriate for the kids my age. It is a job that can teach us to be responsible because you cant slack at a job like this. I would go up to the facility and ask around if the people liked working there and try to make friends with them so when the interview came around they would like me. I would dress nice of course and make the managers jaw drop when I walk in. I would say the difficulty of finding a job online is about a four on a scale of one to ten. I say that because you can easily find a job but it's deciding if it's good for you and if you can handle it. I think I could handle it honestly. I can put up with ignorant people and is good with making people happy.

I thought the movie was good to show this class because it shows that you can do anything you put your mind to if you put in the effort. My favorite part was probably when she was in the private school and was getting her life together and getting straight A's. She didn't let her environment or situation put her down and just settle to just being homeless, she decided she wanted the better things in life.

When I was doing my budget the things that most surprised me was how I forgot that I had to pay for all the simple stuff like food and electricity. Also finding a dorm to stay at was pretty hard. I didn't know what would have been the best place for me so I just randomly chose one honestly. I can prepare for those expenses later by getting a job. It opened my eyes up a lot.

The top career I would choose to be is a Firefighter. They get to stay in shape just by doing their job because they're constantly working out and helping people. I don't have to go to college but it's really good for me to so I am. If you choose not to go to college then you will start off at a lower rank and make less money. So I am going to go to college and get my Fire Science Degree so I can start at a higher rank and boss people around.

I took the stress test and got 11 out of 24. "7 - 13: You've got your life in fairly good control. Work on the choices and habits that could still be causing you some unnecessary stress in your life."  is what it said about me. I think it's pretty accurate but it doesn't really know what's happening in my life all they way right now. My grandpa is in the hospital and so is my uncle. My grandpa is getting better so thats good but my uncle isn't really doing that well right now so that's pretty stressful I guess. The definition of stress is pressure or tension exerted on a material object which means like it is pressure on you and makes you think about it a lot.
Some ways to get rid of stress are to exercise more, laugh more, assert yourself with others and make friends, and to get some sleep. There's also like stuff you can do like taking baths and lotions that can help relax you.

My current organization method is usually just going with the flow. I sometimes put stuff in folders but i sometimes don't. I should probably be more organized so I can get better grades.
Procrastination can hurt you pretty bad. If you have a schoology and choose to do it last minute your computer could shut down and you get a zero. You could be doing chores at home and decide you want to finish Breaking Bad and then realize that you have 10 minutes to do all of your chores and then you don't finish them you get grounded.
You can fight procrastination by setting reminders on your phones to tell you to do your work.