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Thursday, April 19, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
Feb 2012
C - Since first learning about photography I have spent a lot of time working on a 52 week project. Every week I focused on a theme and I look for things to take pictures of that represent that theme. Some of them are as simple as spring or winter, but those are my favorites because I can capture the beauty of nature. I really enjoy finding the interesting things that naturally occur. They are usually the things we see ever day and we never realize how unique some things can be. I don't necesarily enjoy taking pictures of man made things because they usually look so drab and unnatural, and if I find something naturally interesting then I dont disturb its natural randomness. An example would be the way pine needles fall to cover a hole. The needles lay so neatly together that they could not be arranged in a better way. Trying to capture these images has taught me to really admire and want to protect the natural order of things. Just in my back yard, The woods seem to be a mess and over grown where they touch the edge of the property but just beyond that layer there is an organized system that I could not even try to fit together in any other way. Other than nature, I like colorful pictures that inspire happiness when they are looked at, and glossy pictures of the water.
Speaking of water, it was warm enough to get back out there skiing last week. It felt good to be out on the water again.
Speaking of water, it was warm enough to get back out there skiing last week. It felt good to be out on the water again.
Friday, January 20, 2012
January 2012
Action: I have learned so much about basketball in a very short amount of time. It has been a short season this year because our district is smaller since we became a 4A school but it has been a great learning experience. The training I started in my junior year has paid off more than I ever hoped. During my 9th and 10th grade year I focused more on the conditioning aspet and was never truly able to focus fully on learning how to play basketball properly. This season however I have been fully commited to the sport. Playing a center at only 6' 2" is tough and it requires more strength and endurance than any other position. My shot has improved tremendously and I am able to play with confidence which is one of the hardest and most important things to learn. I have commited so much time and effort into basketball that I am determined to make my final highschool season the best it can be. I owe that to myself as well as my team. One of the greatest feelings in the world is being a part of a team that works together to acomplish a goal. On the varsity level winning is no easy thing. On lower levels a single good player can dominate a game, but at this level teamwork is the key to success. From what I have experienced working with others as a team is the most effective and most fun way to acomplish any goal.
Service: I help my basketball any way I can, and one of those ways is in the class room. I feel that it is my duty as an IB student and as a leader to help my teammates stay eligible to play the game and succeed in school. During basketball season I do not have the time to go to the library after school to tutor my fellow students, but I still help as many as I can. Before exams I helped several teammates, not only by leading them through problems, but also by teaching them effective ways to review for their exams. Tutoring them helps more than they know because it allows them to succeed in the short run in their exams as well as when they must learn things on their own. Simply learning to take the time to try to learn what they need and not giving up before they start is one of the best lessons I can teach them by encouraging them to continue on even if they are frustrated. I am developing my skill as a potential teacher when helping fellow students and improving the overall academically struggling population of my school.
I have been commited to improving the basketball team and my school since my freshman year and I do not intend to stop improving whichever community I live in later in life. I am proud of where I live and the people I work with and I strive to create the best place to live for myself and others.
The lip dub also turned out wonderfully. Rachel did a great job editing it.
Also Rosemary has finally come from Uganda! A lot of work has been put into raising awarness to problems going on in the world and Rosemary will help us imrpove it. Through her, we have learned several things about African culture like how their marriage system and some of their government works. Its inspiring for me to learn about how much we take for granted here in the US when children in developing countries have to try so hard just for the chance to get a basic education. We are also teaching her about our culture and I beleive she will take that new knowledge back home with her.
These are just examples of how I hope we can atttract some positive attention to our school so that it can improve in the years to come after I have graduated.
Service: I help my basketball any way I can, and one of those ways is in the class room. I feel that it is my duty as an IB student and as a leader to help my teammates stay eligible to play the game and succeed in school. During basketball season I do not have the time to go to the library after school to tutor my fellow students, but I still help as many as I can. Before exams I helped several teammates, not only by leading them through problems, but also by teaching them effective ways to review for their exams. Tutoring them helps more than they know because it allows them to succeed in the short run in their exams as well as when they must learn things on their own. Simply learning to take the time to try to learn what they need and not giving up before they start is one of the best lessons I can teach them by encouraging them to continue on even if they are frustrated. I am developing my skill as a potential teacher when helping fellow students and improving the overall academically struggling population of my school.
I have been commited to improving the basketball team and my school since my freshman year and I do not intend to stop improving whichever community I live in later in life. I am proud of where I live and the people I work with and I strive to create the best place to live for myself and others.
The lip dub also turned out wonderfully. Rachel did a great job editing it.
Also Rosemary has finally come from Uganda! A lot of work has been put into raising awarness to problems going on in the world and Rosemary will help us imrpove it. Through her, we have learned several things about African culture like how their marriage system and some of their government works. Its inspiring for me to learn about how much we take for granted here in the US when children in developing countries have to try so hard just for the chance to get a basic education. We are also teaching her about our culture and I beleive she will take that new knowledge back home with her.
These are just examples of how I hope we can atttract some positive attention to our school so that it can improve in the years to come after I have graduated.
Friday, December 9, 2011
12/9/2011
Well for the past week I couldn't play basketball because I hurt my foot. I made a good decision to take some time off from practice to let my foot heal. It was a great desicion because it gave me some time to work on my shot. It was a soft tissue injury but the whole time I have been working to try to strengthen the muscles in my foot and speed up the healing. I started practice again two days ago and I'm playing like I was at the beginning of the season. Its great to be back in the game and our game against palatka tonight is going to be awesome!
I'm also still tutoring my fellow players because we all have to be sound in the class room as well as on the court. Sometimes I want to just give them all the answers to their questions but I do not want to taqke away their capabilies to learn. When I tutor them I still make them figure out how to do their homework but I give them little hints along the way to keep them from giving up, which many people will do when they are confused. This is especially important because the end of the semester comes up right in the middle of the season. It really matters what the players get for the end of the semester because it can determine whether they will be eligible to play the rest of the season.
I'm also still tutoring my fellow players because we all have to be sound in the class room as well as on the court. Sometimes I want to just give them all the answers to their questions but I do not want to taqke away their capabilies to learn. When I tutor them I still make them figure out how to do their homework but I give them little hints along the way to keep them from giving up, which many people will do when they are confused. This is especially important because the end of the semester comes up right in the middle of the season. It really matters what the players get for the end of the semester because it can determine whether they will be eligible to play the rest of the season.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Invisible Children Presentation
I made the basketball team! I've acheive one of my main goals that I set at the beginning of my junior year. I have been training for playing basketball since before last season started and I may even start in a game tomorrow. I'm very excited about being a senior on the team and getting to lead my team through all the struggles that we will face this season. I'm continuing to push myself in practice because working even on fundamentals to the best of my ability will improve me as a player and allow me to be a better leader. I still have a lot to work on.
A big event happened at Pedro in the last few weeks. We had an invisible children assembly and our entire class worked as a team helped spread the word about invisible children and the organization's goals to help kids and refugees in Africa. Together our class organized many students from our school to ensure that we could fit as many people into the assembly as possible. After the assemblies we put together a huge lunch for the invisible children roadies and ate with them and asked them many questions. There was a woman from Uganda with the invisible children speakers and it was very interesting to hear what she said its like in Africa. Later in the year a teacher from Uganda will be coming to learn about the education system here in the US and she will be in some of our classes. The whole presentation and getting to talk to the speakers was inspiring and I can not wait untill we get a teacher from Uganda comes.
Other than that I am still tutoring some of my fellow students. I do not have the time for helping students in the library after school but whenever we have late practice in basketball I help the other players on the JV and Varsity with their homework. I have the skill of basketball and I like helping people learn so I do both as much as I can and it will help my team because the students stuggleing in school will not be troubled by the possibliity of loosing egibility in sports.
Over the thanksgiving break I got to water ski again and hopefully it will not be the last time this season, although the water was very cold. It was nice to find out that all the effort I put into learning over the summer was not wasted because even though I had not skiied in a while it felt just like I was riding a bike. I got up out of the water right away and skiied like a champ!
Back in october the lipdub was a success. I was one of the ones organizing the gym and it was pretty hard to keep the sports teams organized because we had to take several takes. I hope the videos turn out good.
A big event happened at Pedro in the last few weeks. We had an invisible children assembly and our entire class worked as a team helped spread the word about invisible children and the organization's goals to help kids and refugees in Africa. Together our class organized many students from our school to ensure that we could fit as many people into the assembly as possible. After the assemblies we put together a huge lunch for the invisible children roadies and ate with them and asked them many questions. There was a woman from Uganda with the invisible children speakers and it was very interesting to hear what she said its like in Africa. Later in the year a teacher from Uganda will be coming to learn about the education system here in the US and she will be in some of our classes. The whole presentation and getting to talk to the speakers was inspiring and I can not wait untill we get a teacher from Uganda comes.
Other than that I am still tutoring some of my fellow students. I do not have the time for helping students in the library after school but whenever we have late practice in basketball I help the other players on the JV and Varsity with their homework. I have the skill of basketball and I like helping people learn so I do both as much as I can and it will help my team because the students stuggleing in school will not be troubled by the possibliity of loosing egibility in sports.
Over the thanksgiving break I got to water ski again and hopefully it will not be the last time this season, although the water was very cold. It was nice to find out that all the effort I put into learning over the summer was not wasted because even though I had not skiied in a while it felt just like I was riding a bike. I got up out of the water right away and skiied like a champ!
Back in october the lipdub was a success. I was one of the ones organizing the gym and it was pretty hard to keep the sports teams organized because we had to take several takes. I hope the videos turn out good.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
6/10 Reflection
Service- So far this month I have tutored a few students in math and I tried contacting Katie Arnold who works at the Council on Aging. I still haven't heard back from her. I started arranging cloths in the Cloths Closet which is a collection of cloths for the less privileged students at our school. I've tutored several students at school at school in the past few weeks. Sometimes its a challenge because I first have to quickly figure out how to do the problem myself and then teach someone else how to do it. Next Tuesday I'm tutoring the basketball team who really need help if they are going to play.
Action - I'm going to basketball conditioning and working out even on the off days. I'm pushing myself to run faster every time during my workouts. For example, after playing basketball in the gym for two hours I worked out and ran an additional mile. Today I got my time down to 11 min 15 seconds for a mile and a half. The more I try to cut down my time the harder it gets so it is a big challenge. This weekend I'm running with a few friends that need a little extra encouragement to exercise.
Creativity - On 9/17 I went to the beach to take pictures of the sunrise which did not work out well because it was very dreary weather. Its kind of disappointing waking up very early on a Saturday and not getting to see the sunrise. This weekend I'm going flying so maybe ill get a few pictures of the river from the air. I'm doing a 52 week challenge for photography and I'm getting some good photos.
Action - I'm going to basketball conditioning and working out even on the off days. I'm pushing myself to run faster every time during my workouts. For example, after playing basketball in the gym for two hours I worked out and ran an additional mile. Today I got my time down to 11 min 15 seconds for a mile and a half. The more I try to cut down my time the harder it gets so it is a big challenge. This weekend I'm running with a few friends that need a little extra encouragement to exercise.
Creativity - On 9/17 I went to the beach to take pictures of the sunrise which did not work out well because it was very dreary weather. Its kind of disappointing waking up very early on a Saturday and not getting to see the sunrise. This weekend I'm going flying so maybe ill get a few pictures of the river from the air. I'm doing a 52 week challenge for photography and I'm getting some good photos.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Invisible Children
I just watch the video of the the kids who went to Africa and I found it quite disturbing how the people in Africa can live in such poverty and chaos. I know all of Africa is not like Sudan or Somalia but the wars in those countries cause fleeing refugees to be found all around. Its just a really bad situation and there isn't much we can do besides raise awareness and do whatever we can to help.
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