Angus’s English Blog

  Prompt Response:  I enjoy when we talk about what we are learning as a class. This is because I don't have to write as much and I can hear other people's opinions. I enjoyed when we talked about the stereotypes of certain groups of people. Some stereotypes were that women can't drive, all African Americans season their food, and that all white people are racist. Summary:  Today we read a story called, "The Myth of the Latin Woman." We also filled out a worksheet connected to the story as well. Reflection:  I learned more about my identity through completing the worksheet.

  Prompt Response:  One time I was making food while I was on a FaceTime call. I showed the person that I was making some grilled chicken. My friend proceeded to say because I was white the chicken was going to be bland and that I would probably boil it. This made me realize that some people are just in the world being mean so I dropped my friend. Now I have good friends who I treat with respect and who treat me with respect. Summary:  Today we wrote down different stereotypes about different ethnic groups. Reflection:  I learned how certain people feel about the stereotype of their culture.

  Prompt Response:  One gender expectation that has been hard for me to navigate in my culture has been hiding my emotions. When men show their true emotions, they're considered weak. This expectation is hard because it forces you to bottle your emotions up. Bottling up emotions can lead to depression or other mental illnesses. Summary:  Today we read a story called "Girl" and we took a quiz over it. Reflection:  I learned that I struggle with certain expectations place upon me due to me being a makle.

  Prompt Response:  The inspiration behind my poem is that I play lots and lots of basketball. When I play pick up at my local rec center, usually people underestimate me or judge me because of the color of my skin. I am actually pretty athletic and fast. Despite what most people think. Summary:  Today we got up in front of the class and presented our poems. Reflection:  I learned that many people feel judge for the way that people treat them. Or they feel like people don't actually know them because they just assume things about them.

  Prompt Response:  One time when I did something out of the norm was when I tried to join chorus. I didn't wan't to but my mom forced me to. I wasn't happy with her decision but it ended up turning out good. I made lots of friends and they were people that I have connected with since. Some of my friends made fun of me but it was worth it. Summary:  Today I read a story called "Why I Want a Wife." Reflection:  This story that we read today thought me how different stereotypes can affect people and how they act.

  Response:  One time when I felt completely lost was when I went to White Water water park. I was with my cousins and we were waiting in line to go on a ride. I looked away to see how long the line was and when I looked back, they were gone. I panicked and ran towards the center of the park because I thought that is where they would have been. Thankfully I was smart enough to talk to a life guard and they helped me reunite with my family. Summary:  Mr. Rease went over a slide show about gender and sexes in society. Reflection:  Today I learned that there is a difference between gender and sex.

  Prompt Response:  I've adapted to the demands of this course by making sure to complete all of my work before going home. When I make the most of my time, I am really efficient. Also, I am very attentive during class time and add to conversations. Also making my poem let me see how my cultural strength lets me be who I am and I don't have to be something that I'm not. Summary:  Today we read the poem "I, Too" and we had a discussion about it. Reflection:  I learned a new perspective on how different cultures feel about racism.

  Prompt Response:  If someone tried to understand me only using my race, they would miss that I don't have the same cultural values and the race that I have. Most things that I do aren't mainly white culture. Two things that distinguish my cultural identity is my involvement in basketball and my family. My family is very involved in music and they have picked up many cultural values from different bands and groups. Summary:  Today we watched videos on cultural identity and discussed people that had interesting stories about their cultural identity. Reflection:  I learned that some people identify as something different from the color of their skin.

  Prompt Response:  I think that my culture has been heavily influenced by the basketball community. I see things in different ways than I would if I played baseball or another sport. Also certain experiences such as being brought up in a White family household has shaped my culture and the way I act. A part of my identity that influences the person I am today is my athletic ability. This is because I am always exercising and doing athletic things. Summary:  Today we read and talked about a poem called "A Korean Dream." Reflection:  I learned some good lessons from reading this poem and I will use these lessons and values in my daily life.

  Prompt Response:  One meaningful family tradition that is unique to me is that I go to my grandparents house in Scotland and we have a large family dinner. It mirrors with the cultural identity of being with family and having values of loyalty and family bonding. I have dinner with my immediate family as well as my cousins and my grandparents. I love spending time with them because I can connect with my British side of my family. Summary:  We learned about people's names and what culture is. Reflection:  I learned that culture is a large part of our lives. Everything that you do belongs in some culture and especially in my life, there are many cultures prevalent.

 Three goals that I want to achieve this year are to get a college offer to play basketball. This would make me very happy because I love playing basketball. Another goal I have for myself is to graduate towards the top of my class. I think I am smart enough to achieve this goal. The last goal that I have for myself is to have a winning season for Lakeside Basketball. The team this year at Lakeside is looking promising and I hope we will do well.

  Prompt Response:  One of the best strategies that I've used for my group to ensure that all of my members are on task was to assign jobs to each person and motivate them to do it. I was constantly making sure they were making good progress and not goofing off. The best way I've found to communicate is to make good eye contact with each person and talk to them professionally. Summary:  In order to make sure everyone is doing their work, I have to be on their case so that they finish it on time. Reflection:  I think I did well working with my group and I communicated well.

  Prompt Response:  Some challenges that my group faced was picking the best source to put into our project. There were many good options to chose from, which made the picking much more difficult. But in the end I think we made the right decision on which source to choose. Summary:  My group and I had to get through some adversities while we were researching. Reflection:  I'm glad that I went through this because I learned from my struggle.

  Prompt Response:  The most compelling issue connected to the War on Terrorism is that many people's civil liberties have been worse due to counter terrorism policies. I find this issue important because my civil liberties have been made less due to restrictions. Not just me though, in airports people have to wait in long lines in order to get through security. This is now a mandatory but annoying process in order to combat terrorism. Summary:  Many new policies have been put into place so that terrorism is much less likely to happen. Reflection:  I'm glad that we have the policies in order to protect us, because they are very important.

  Prompt Response:  Creating this annotated bibliography has clarified my understanding of the War on Terrorism by giving me lots of information to understand what is going on. My sources connect to one and other by all being linked to the same topic. This is really helpful because I can use all of these sources in my essay to support my topic I'm writing about. Summary:  I have learned lots through completing this assignment. I've learned that the more you read, the more information you can learn from. Reflection:  I hope to continue to learn new ideas and things that go on in our world about the War on Terrorism.  

  Prompt Response:  The most challenging part of the annotated bibliography was finding each document and summarizing it. All of the documents I found were quite long which made summarizing it much more difficult. Although this challenge was hard, it helped me grow as a researcher because I was able to read documents better and understand what it was talking about more efficiently. Summary:  I read different documents and had lots of challenges but some were harder than others. But through this, I was able to become a better researcher. Reflection:  I'm glad that I went through these hardships because it made me a better researcher.

  Prompt Response:  Some differences that I noticed were that some ideas and countermeasures were more radical than the others. One for instance was the capture of terrorists and the torture of them. Although it was good that the terrorists were stopped, it isn't good in any scenario to torture someone. But in the contrary, the US government has made some countermeasures by placing laws in that if they suspect you of terrorist actions, they can raid your living area. Summary:  There have been many things done in order to stop terrorists from harming people. Some of those things are better than others but all have been a decent deterrent of terrorists. Reflection:  I hope that everyone will be able to get along with each other eventually.

  Prompt Response:  In the past, I researched by just typing something into Google and clicking on the first source I saw. Now I use GALILEO to filter and find the best source possible.  Using GALILEO was a lot different than just typing something into a search engine and clicking the first thing I see. Usually, I just Google it but that mostly gives me surface-level info or random blogs. GALILEO made me actually think about how I was searching. Summary:  GALILEO is basically a massive digital library that lets you get into academic databases you can't find on regular Google. It gives you access to legit peer-reviewed journals, ebooks, and actual primary sources that are way more reliable than random websites. Reflection:  I will continue to use GALILEO because it is a great search engine with very good sources. Also I will read the source and the details in it before I use it as evidence.

  Prompt Response:  Donald Trump is being criticized in this image. This source could suggest that this person is against Donald Trump. Also it could suggest they don't like ICE because they're being very mean and disrespectful towards immigrants. Summary:  I think the drawer/source is against Donald Trump. Reflection:  I hope that I can continue to better my knowledge on research and different art forms.

  Prompt Response:  In the past I have researched incorrectly and I found some websites that weren't good. But now that Mr. Rease told me the correct method of researching, I can find redible and reliable sources. Also rearching this topic of Anti-terrorism has taught me a lot about terrorism history. Summary:  I have reaserched incorrectly in the past but now I understand the best way to do it. Reflection:  I hope to continue getting better at researching and understand what a good website is to research.