Capstone Process Paper

Ruben Burenstein

For my senior capstone I worked privately with students in the Spanish 2 class I assistant teach as well as research teaching techniques. At the end of the first quarter Don Marcos and I sat down to choose students that I would help. We chose the students that seemed to be struggling in the class. During the warm ups of class I would take the designated students out of class and give them a worksheet to complete, or an activity. The worksheets would cover things like conjugations of different tenses, and the activities would be based on conversation and practical uses of what they’re learning in class. The second part of my capstone was researching teaching material to help me look back on my experience teaching these kids, and seeing what I did right or wrong.

I chose this project mainly because of my history with teaching. My dad used to teach classes at Drexel so I was first introduced to teaching at a very young age. I didn’t really want to be a teacher until 8^th grade. In 8^th grade I had an amazing Spanish teacher that made me love the language and the class. It was from this moment until half way through junior year that wanted to be a Spanish teacher. In the middle of junior year I had a crisis where I completely lost my faith in teaching and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. This is what inspired me to do my capstone. I found out that I would be SAT’ing Don Marcos’ Spanish 2 class, so I thought that this would be a great opportunity to see if I enjoyed teaching as much as I thought for three and a half years. I used my capstone to see if education was something that I could envision myself doing in the future.

My capstone addresses the “Inquiry” core value because I had to ask myself what I already knew about teaching. I also had to ask what kinds of different teaching methods are useful for different situations, like does a language require a different style than math? The research I had to do mostly revolved around these questions, and then occasionally refreshing myself on the material that I would prepare for an activity or worksheet. I collaborated with my peers and teachers during this project. I had to collaborate with the kids that I was teaching because there would be on capstone without them. I also had to collaborate with Don Marcos and Mr. Sanchez. Don Marcos helped me organize my capstone, as well as being there as a mentor and support throughout the process. Mr. Sanchez helped me when I needed a book to help me analyze my work, providing several that were exactly what I needed. For the presentation core value, I had to present activities and worksheets to the kids, as well as do the capstone presentation during the last week of school. For the reflection part of capstone I read a book The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong in order to see what I did correctly, and what I could have improve on. I compared the techniques discussed in the book to ones that I had used in order to see how I could improve as an educator.

To complete my capstone I first did some preliminary research on basic education techniques. I then made a timeline to make sure that I actually planned worksheets or activities. Next I started creating or planning the work that the students would complete. This sometimes required me refreshing myself on the material they were learning in class incase I had forgotten since I took Spanish 2. I didn’t take the kids out every day, and stopped creating worksheets and activities around the middle of April. At this point I got a book to read so that I could learn more about teaching techniques and compare them to what I did.

The main obstacles that I encountered were complications with planning and lack of motivation. The second problem seemed to stem from the first problem. There were many days where I had something planned, and then the kids didn’t have a warm up in class. If they had to work on a project I didn’t feel that it was fair of me to take them away from something that was significant to the real class and replace it with practice. There wasn’t really a way for me to overcome this because I just had to accept that there were days they definitely couldn’t come with me, and that I would have to find other days. This caused the lack of motivation because sometimes I would make a worksheet and then the students wouldn’t have a warm up for a week. After this week was up there was usually a new topic introduced so all of the things that I planned kind of seemed outdated. This made me feel like the work I was doing wasn’t being useful so I would get demotivated and stop creating ideas for a while. I overcame this at several points by realizing that I had to continue working, but it continued to be a problem throughout the process.

The main resources I used were my teachers and father. Don Marcos helped a lot in identifying the students that I needed to work with being a large reason that I wanted to teach Spanish. He also provides his Spanish 2 students with links to help them improve Spanish on their own time, which are the websites that I mostly used to refresh my memory on topics. Another teacher that was extremely helpful was Mr. Sanchez. He was there to help me as an advisor whenever I was stuck on something, and also provided me with the book that I used to reflect along with several other useful books. Getting information from Mr. Sanchez and Don Marcos was much more useful than information from a library because they have been teachers for several years instead of a book that could be inaccurate.

The thing that I’m most proud of in this capstone isn’t my final result, but little moments that happened along the way. Whenever a student I was helping said “oh I understand that now” because of something I showed them it made me feel really good. I also liked seeing their progress after they said this to see if they actually understood it, and if they did I was very proud. I also liked seeing the kids that I was helping perform in class and do better than they were before whether it was on tests or simply their accent.

From this process I learned a lot about how to interact with other kids as a teacher. I realized that it’s hard a lot harder for a teacher that is close in age to the students because they are taken less seriously. I learned the most about teaching techniques and ways to be a more effective teacher. The book that Mr. Sanchez gave me clearly talked about several problems that first time teachers could have and I could see myself having them if I continued in the style that I had been. This project helped me realize that even if I feel something might not be used, I have to do it anyway for my own self-improvement.

If I could do my capstone all over again I would first write down every mistake that I made this time and try to fix them. I think that if I fixed all of the mistakes that I made in teaching this time and work prepared for the students more often, then I could have made a greater impact on their Spanish speaking skills. I also think that I could then look back at that process and see what I was still doing wrong. I would also try to thoroughly document the process of the kids that I was helping in the class to see if my lessons were helping. I think looking at their grades starting from when my lessons began and looking again every week would be interesting to see, as well as provide information on how I could be more effective.  I would also try to make a larger variety of lessons, or make sure that all of my lessons were as effective as possible.

My capstone made SLA a better place because of the people that I helped. Although the kids that I helped didn’t completely change around their act and start doing great in Spanish, they did improve a little. I could see when they started to understand something because of my lesson, and then use it without my help in class. I also helped because I will now be able to share my information of teaching methods to other people. I can tell them the basics of how to progress a students learning, instead of just giving them busywork. SLA is better because I helped students learn material that they didn’t understand, while improving my knowledge of teaching.

Ruben Burenstein

Mentor: 

Mark Bey

Summary:

The goal of this project is to provide extra help for students who seemed to be having trouble in a Spanish 2 class. 

Abstract

 I was inspired to make this my capstone because wavering interest in education. Since I started learning Spanish I liked it, and decided that if I were to teach a subject it would be Spanish. During freshman and sophomore year I thought that I wanted to be a teacher, but then during junior year my opinion changed. After finding out that I would be the SAT for a Spanish 2 class I thought that this would be a good opportunity to see what teaching a small group of kids would be like. I soon realized that I would not just help the students on their work, but also help reinforce their core understanding. To do this I had to re acquaint myself with the topics that they were learning, as well as research teaching techniques. For the project I did small activities, and created worksheets with the intent of improving the understanding of the Spanish language. Researching how to be an effective teacher has given be a better understanding of what I should do in teaching situations, and given me methods on how to clearly display information to students. 

I have learned a lot of things in this food unit. I learned a lot about the diseases that unhealthy eating can cause, and what those diseases can do. I think the most interesting part of the unit was when looking at supermarkets. The graphs that showed the obesity percentages vs availability of supermarkets vs income and population density were very eye opening. At first I thought that it was strange that although there were more supermarkets in places where there were more supermarkets, more people were obese. Then I saw that these places also had a high population density, and they were usually on the lower end of the income bracket. I came to realize this is because there is also a lot more fast food in these areas. The fast food is much cheaper, but unhealthy to it makes sense that people of lower income would go here more than to supermarkets which are a lot more expensive. Something like this was shown when we watched "Food Inc." There was a family that just ate fast food because they didn't really know it was unhealthy, and it was so much easier to get. This showed a real like family that was in the situation that I couldn't really imagine. I have a supermarket .6 miles away from me, and that's almost exclusively where my family shops. This unit showed me how different eating conditions are available for other people, and how much it can effect lives. 

Matzo ball Soup:

• 
  2 (10 ounce) packages matzo crackers  - 877 calories. 0 fat. 
• 
  1/2 cup butter - 814 calories. 809 fat
• 
  6 eggs - 428 calories. - 268 fat
• 
  salt and pepper to taste - 0 calories

• 
  3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley - 3 calories
• 
  2 onions, minced - 0 calories 
• 
  5 ounces matzo meal - 516 calories - 13 fat. 
• 
  96 ounces chicken broth - 96 calories - 96 fat

Analysis:

Only three out of the eight ingredients are processed food, unless eggs are counted then it's four. The rest are mostly natural ingredients, or things that aren't processed. The nutritional information is shown above next to the ingredients to make the soup. Most of the calories are from the processed food, in fact the three processed ingredients have 80.7% of the calories in the whole mean. The butter is also the main contributor to the calories from fat. Almost all of the calories from butter are fat, making it the most fatty and unhealthy part of the meal. The natural ingredients of the food are much more healthy than the other parts, with eggs somewhat excluded. All the other ingredients have barely any calories, and almost none from fat. The chicken broth has the highest calorie to fat from calories ratio at 1:1, but it is still a very small amount. Eating Matzo ball soup every day wouldn't be unhealthy, but probably shouldn't be consumed every day. The butter in the soup is the most unhealthy part of the meal with all the fat it has, but it's not really enough to be harmful because one person wouldn't eat all of the soup made with this recipe.

Most of the food in this has probably been sent from somewhere else. Because this is a Jewish meal, some of the food has to be prepared specific ways, so it can't just be sent from anywhere or straight from where it was produced. Some has to be blessed by a rabbi, or kept from other ingredients. Most of the natural ingredients were probably not grown organically, or in the healthiest way possible. It's much more efficient for companies to mass produce the ingredients, so it more than likely came from large fields that were treated with chemicals or other things to make the food grow faster/taste better. 

The meal costs about $15 to buy all the ingredients, possibly a little more or less. This is a lot more expensive than most fast food. Most fast food is less than $5, and although the soup isn't for just one person, fast food would be more cost efficient. The items in this aren't really regulated. It's not very hard to buy any of the ingredients except for maybe kosher matzah because of the requirements for it to be kosher. The people that made money off of the meal are the supermarkets that sell the products, like Walmart and ACME. Also the places that supply the supermarkets with their products (the places where the things are made). There aren't many small corporations that would make money off of this, because most likely all of the ingredients come from places that mass produce the food. Walmart sells several of the ingredients, so they will be making money off of the sales for matzo ball soup. 

Walmart gets some of it's eggs from Sparboe Farms. Sparboe farms claims that it is "family owned since 1954". This might be true, but that doesn't really mean anything. A whole page of their website is devoted to being family owned, but that doesn't mean they're better than other companies. This just means that the family owns the company, and doesn't say anything about how the eggs are made, or who works for Sparboe. They also say that their chickens are "cage free". This is the same thing as free-range, which just means that the chickens have access to go outside. They could be allowed outside for only 1 minute a day, and have the space allowed as a 2x2 foot small cage. This, along with the "family owned" claim are both technically true, but are purposely misleading. The companies use the definitions to their advantage, making customers think that they are more person and animal friendly than they are in truth. 

Food rule:

My creative piece focuses on the theme of society interfering with relationships by keeping the individuals apart. To portray this theme I first wanted to make a photomontage of me doing a puzzle, but that idea was scrapped as I realized it would take too long. I ended up making a collage that featured mostly people found in magazines or newspapers. The pictures from the collage were split into two categories, people that represented a relationship or togetherness and people that represented society. The people in the society pictures were almost always in a crowd or angry. I put the pictures representing society in the middle of the collage, and then cut the other pictures up and put one half on each side of the collage. This was to represent couples being split up, or kept apart because society was between them. I also included two quotes from The Scarlet Letter that I thought showed a part of how society would view Hester and Dimmesdale’s relationship. The quotes were “Upon his congregation” and “Beloved minister”. When making the collage I bolded “his” in the first quote because it shows how possessive they are of their minister and the things that he stood for. I think that this emphasis on the quote brings more meaning to how people look at Dimmesdale and how much would have gone wrong if the secret was let out. I chose the second quote because it shows how big a part of the community he is, meaning a scandal of that magnitude could really mess up the community.

As mentioned before I was going to do a photomontage based around me making a puzzle. The puzzle itself would have had a meaning towards the theme, but there would have also been creative ways of putting together, like making pieces almost connect but then being torn apart because of society or something blocking the path. I started to do the puzzle over a weekend, but I realized that it would be very hard just to complete the puzzle by itself in that time, and almost impossible to do the creative aspects of putting the pieces together. I brainstormed other ways that I could represent this theme, and came to the conclusion that a collage could represent it well.

 It took me a few days to get started on the collage because of surgery, but I started cutting out pictures of people whenever I could. I spent a lot of time cutting most of these images to make sure that there wasn’t much outside of the lines. The cutting of the pictures took the most amount of time for everything. I wish that I had spent a little extra time getting more pictures to cover every part of the background, but I think the amount that I had was pretty good. I think that my way of representing the theme with the collage was unique, having the people in relationships physically separated by society was interesting. I do wish that I had gotten more clever pictures to represent society, but I think some of the ones that I do have are good at what they’re there fore. I feel like I could have planned out exactly what pictures were going where better, because there were some that I would have liked to be seen but are instead mostly covered by others.

If I could do this project again I would try to find some way to do my first idea. I would look for puzzles that represented my theme, but were less pieces or easier to put together. I think that this idea is much more creative than a collage, and I would have enjoyed doing it more. If time was still a big issue, I would do a collage again but try to organize it in a more creative or interesting way. With more planning on the layout I could make a more though evoking piece for whoever is looking at the collage. 

En el Tiempo de las Mariposas se trata de la revoluciòn en La Republica Dominicana contra el dictador Trujillo. Tres hermanas de un campo no estan de acuerdo con las leyes de su gobierno. Ellas luchan por una comunidad mejor, sin embargo Trujillo les hace la vida imposible. Las tres hermanas trataron para tener prueba suficiente para enseñarle a la sociedad el verdadero Trujillo, pero el solo las torturo.  Fue un movimiento para parar la injusticia social. La realidad no servio justicia, pero las mariposas fueren admiradas por muchas personas.

En total, fue una gran película. La leccion en mi opiniòn fue que si crees en algo, puede lograr sus objetivos. Las hermanas lucharon cada dia algo diferente para traer justicia no solo para ellas, pero tambien para la gente de la Repùblica Dominicana. Fueron avergonzados por Trujillo, pero ellos hicieron todos los medios necesarios para la justicia.  Fueron a la càrcel porque Trujillo supo que ellos eran su enemigo. Despues que salieron, las chicas trataron de sacar a sus esposas de la carcel.Fueron a visitarlos. Cuando estaban en el camino para la casa, fueron detenidos por el gobierno de Trujillo. Mataran a las Mariposas.

Todavia el legado de las Mariposas vive. Cada 25 de Noviembre, es el dìa que recuerdan las Mariposas. Tambien se recuerda la negligencia sobre las mujeres. En el tiempo de las Mariposas nos enseña que si de verdad  creemos en algo devoramos trabajar fuerte para lograr nuestras metas.

La película se trata de Las hermanas Mirabal. Ellos viven en la Republica Dominicana durante el tiempo en que Rafael Trujillo fue dictador. El narrador de la película es Minerva Mirabal, uno de 4 hermanas. En la escena primero Minerva dice que le gusta su vida a su casa. Después de unos años Minerva habla a sus padres y dice que quiere ir a la escuela, porque quiere estudiar la ley en el futuro. Minerva y dos de los otros hermanas van a la escuela, y el 4th hermana trabaja en la casa con sus padres. En el primer año de escuela Trujillo visita a la escuela de Minerva. Cuando visita el toma una de las niñas en la clase de Minerva, después de eso evento, Minerva no ve a la niña más.            

En la película En el tiempo de las Mariposas. Ellos viven en la Republica Dominicana. Trujillo es un malo dictador. El narrador Minerva tiene cuatro hermanas. Minerva casado Manolo, dos personas hacer torturan para Trujillo. Todos tres hermanas lunchanda para que quierían. Trujillo era un hombre de medio. En el final las hermanas fueron matar.

Introducción

Vi una película en este clase, se llama El Bola, hechas por Achero Mañas. La película se trata de el abuso infantil de Pablo “el bola”. La película fue bueno, antes de la película no tuve mucho información de el abuso infantil. Hay temas interesante en la película, como “haces la vista gorda”, “denuncias”, o que vas a hacer en un situación como eso. Me gusta la película porque aprendí mucho información.

Esto es un correo electrónico de mi a la policía. El correo electronico es sobre Pablo “el bola”. Pablo es un niño de la clase obrera, y tiene un padre abusivo. Todos de sus amigos saben que su padre se pega, pero ellos no hacen nada. Pablo forman la amistad con un estudiante nueve, Afredo. Cuando Alfredo vio a los moratónes de Pablo, el supo que una cosa fue malo. El padre de Alfredo ayudó Pablo, y denunció a la policía, pero ellos no pudieron hacer nada sin un confesión de Pablo. Una mujer de los servicios de niños dijo “Vaya a la casa de Pablo, y  Hable a su papa antes de toma Pablo, porque es ilegal cuando tomas sin su permisión”.  Al final de película el padre de Alfredo tomó Pablo sin permisión, y dijo “hable a los adultos, denuncie las cosas que su padre hico.


Correo Electrónico

Hacia:  Jsanchez@abusoesmalo.org

Tema: Estoy preocupado

Querido Juan, vi un de sus carteles, Me llamo Ruben Burenstein, y soy un maestro de niños quien tienen 11-12 años y necesito ayuda de la policía. Uno de mis chavales entró a clase hoy, pero el no fue en la escuela para una semana. Su nombre es Pablo, pero sus amigos llamen “el bola”. Cuando entró, el tuve muchas moratónes en su cara. También uno de sus amigos habló a mi hoy, y dijo “vi la espalda de el bola, y hay cicatrices, y dije vaya al hospital. No pienso que fue.” Esto y los moratónes en su cara son prueba suficiente de maltrato infantil. Muchos de sus amigos saben que su padre abusa Pablo, pero ellos no hablen a sus padres, ellos hacen la vista gorda.

    No sé porque Pablo ocúltalo, el puede recibir mucha ayuda cuando habla con tú o otras personas. El necesita mucha ayuda en su vida. El no vas a hablar de su problemas sin la apoya de otros. La semana pasado hablé con Pablo, y dije “Pablo hable a un adulto de su vida, porque pienso que puedes ayudar su vida.” El no dijo a un adulto, y pienso que es necesario tomar la responsabilidad, porque el no vas a hablar a nadie.  Yo sé que 21.4 por ciento de maltrato infantil es a los niños latinos, y que 10.8 por ciento de maltrato infantil el abuso. Así lo veo, este es un caso de los dos.  
   

Hacia:  Rburenstein@loslideresdecienciás.org

Tema: Sea activo en su vida.

Querido Ruben, Muchas gracias para el correo electrónico. Trabajo en un sección especial de la policía, nosotros investigamos los casos de abuso infantil, y promovemos la prevención de abuso infantil. Haces un buen trabajo a reconoces los indicios de abuso infantil. Hay muchas cosas que pueden hacer para ayudar la vida de su estudiante. Primero averigue más información, recomiendo hablar con los amigos de Pablo, y los padres de sus amigos. Esto es el opción mejor, y ayuda en muchos de los casos de abuso infantil. Ellos saben mucho de su vida, y cuando ellos dicen que su padre le pega, hable a Pablo. También mire el comportamiento con Pablo en situaciones, sin o con su padre.  Nosotros no podemos hacer nada sin el, cuando el va a hablar de su padre, podemos investigar y detener. Es muy importante que su padre no sabe de tu, porque nosotros no sabemos que el es capaz de, y puede azota Pablo muy duro.

I think the final product turned out well. Dan and I worked together well out of and in class. We worked pretty hard, and I think it paid off in the end. One thing that wasn't so great was teamwork throughout the group, we had 1 member who didn't really contribute to the product. Some of the class time wasn't used wisely when there were distractions, but it was mostly used well. Next time I would choose a different way of portraying this information, maybe using pie charts or other methods. I would also make sure to use all of the class time effectively.

I think that we were good at being creative, because we showed parts of the accident that other people might not have thought about. I think that the project was concise, not using very many words, and having a lot of images. I think that it was somewhat attractive, because our images are interesting, and cool to look at. Our project could be more transparent, because it's not that easy to tell who, what, when or where. Also there is only 1 government reaction on the info graphic.  It was harder to make the who, what, when, where, how, and why because it would take away from the info graphic if it was obvious, and the info graphic wouldn't make sense if they weren't included. It was hard to think of a unique design, but once it was thought of and planned it wasn't that hard to make

.

Yo soy María Luisa Infante. Tengo 35 años, un esposo, y dos hijos. Ellos se llaman Patricio, Gonzalo, y Isabel. Soy rica, y siempre fue rica, me gusta ser rico porque es una vida mejor que los otros. Quiero el mejor para mis niños, ellos deben ser un educación igual a el dinero que tenemos. No me gusta el presidente Allende porque niños sin mucho dinero pueden tener el educación igual a mis niños, pero tenemos mucho más dinero. Quiero un presidente nuevo, el necesita entiendo que me merezco el mejor, porque el dinero vas a creer un vida más bueno de una vida sin dinero.

El mural que voy a juzgar es el cargador de flores, hechos por Diego Rivera. Son dos personas en el mural, uno quien es en el piso. El tiene muchas flores, y pienso que el es “el cardador de flores” que el titulo significa. El otro persona ayuda el hombre con los flores, porque el no puede caminar. Su espalda está un paina porque los flores son muy fuertes, y el no puede cagar mucho. Hay muchos colores brillantes en el mural. Los colores son importantes porque más personas vas a gustar este obra de arte. Todos los flores son rosados, o morados. Cuando veo a este mural, los colores son muy brillantes, pero no pienso que ellos deben ser brillantes. Los colores deben ser oscuro porque el situación que el hombre está en. El es muy triste porque no puede cargar los flores, y es posible que este es su trabajo.

Así lo veo, el 11 de Septiembre 1973 fue un día muy Buena. El gobierno socialismo se fue, y un gobierno capitalismo toma poder. Allende fue porque Los Estados Unidos y otros organizaron un golpe de estado contra de Allende. Los Estados Unidos organizaron el golpe de estado porque ellos quieren estar aliado con Chile. Era el tiempo de la Guerra Fría, y Los Estados Unidos quieren más aliados, las comunistas fueran unas amanzanas a Los Estados Unidos. Los Estados Unidos no le gustaron los países socialismos o comunismos. Para mi, este día fue buena porque un presidencia capitalismo es mejor para mi y mi familia. Somos de la clase alta, y Allende fue muy mal, pero fue bueno para las clases medios o obrero. Recuerdo que fui en mi casa cuando el gobierno derrumbó, recuerdo que fui a un manifestación solo dos días antes de el golpe de estado. Los dos personas en el mural representan personas de pocos recursos. Los colores deben ser más obscuro, porque ser pobre es una cosa muy triste, y no bueno como los colores brillantes. El propósito  de la obra de arte es que la vida es más difícil sin dinero, y necesitas trabajar muy duro cuando no tienen dinero. Es ridículo cuando personas piensan que este mensaje está equivocado. Diego Rivera pintó porque el mensaje es muy importante, es mucho mejor para ser rico en el su vida, todos vas a ser más fácil. Estoy de acuerdo con este mural porque sí es mucho más fácil cuando eres ricos, porque dinero pueden comprar un educación mejor, y muchas cosas.

Escogé este obra de art, e porque la obra de arte tiene un buen punto. Estoy de acuerdo con unos de los mensajes de la obra, los personas pobres tienen más problemas en la vida que los ricos. No estoy de acuerdo con los colores, ellos deben ser muy oscuro porque es una cosa triste. Presto atención a este cuadro porque los colores son muy brillantes, pero los personas tienen una vida difícil.

Machuca Project

Ruben Burenstein

Yo soy María Luisa Infante. Tengo 35 años, un esposo, y dos hijos. Ellos se llaman Patricio, Gonzalo, y Isabel. Soy rica, y siempre fue rica, me gusta ser rico porque es una vida mejor que los otros. Quiero el mejor para mis niños, ellos deben ser un educación igual a el dinero que tenemos. No me gusta el presidente Allende porque niños sin mucho dinero pueden tener el educación igual a mis niños, pero tenemos mucho más dinero. Quiero un presidente nuevo, el necesita entiendo que me merezco el mejor, porque el dinero vas a creer un vida más bueno de una vida sin dinero.

El mural que voy a juzgar es el cargador de flores, de Diego Rivera. Son dos personas en el mural, uno quien es en el piso. El tiene muchas flores, y pienso que el es “el cardador de flores” que el titulo significa. El otro persona ayuda el hombre con los flores, porque el no puede caminar. Su espalda está un paina porque los flores son muy fuertes, y el no puede cagar mucho. Hay muchos colores brillantes en el mural. Los colores son importantes porque más personas vas a gustar este mural. Todos los flores son rosa, o morado. Cuando veo a este mural, los colores son muy brillantes, pero no pienso que ellos deben ser brillantes. Los colores deben ser oscuro porque el situación que el hombre está en. El es muy triste porque no puede cargar los flores, y es posible que este es su trabajo.

El 11 de Septiembre 1973 fue un día muy Buena. El gobierno socialismo se fue, y un gobierno capitalismo toma poder. Allende fue porque Los Estados Unidos y otros organizaron un golpe de estado contra de Allende. Los Estados Unidos organizaron el golpe de estado porque ellos quieren estar aliado con Chile. Los Estados Unidos no le gustaron los países socialismos o comunismos. Este día fue buena porque un presidencia capitalismo es mejor para mi y mi familia. Somos de la clase alta, y Allende fue muy mal, pero fue bueno para las clases medios o obrero. Recuerdo que fui en mi casa cuando el gobierno derrumbó, recuerdo que fui a un manifestación solo dos días antes de el golpe de estado.

Sci-fi story

Tony just got done with his third patient for the day, he looked at his “Best Doctor Ever” mug, on the right side of his desk, after taking a long sip of steaming coffee, he looked at his list of appointments for the day, his next patient Tim Mcmillan was supposed to be there in a few minutes for his appointment. Tim has schizophrenia and recently was very unstable, so Tony thought this session could do him a lot of good.

As time passed by Tony got increasingly nervous, Tim was never late to an appointment. Tony decided to do something after painful 30 minutes had gone by, Tony to called Tim’s phone. Tim always picked up his phone and came to his appointments on time, but this time the phone was disconnected. Tony understood the signs; he had seen it enough times with his patients, he knew now all he could do was go home, watch TV, and see where it happened.

Tony arrived home at around 8:40, as he entered his home he thought about adjusting his bracelet for 50% gravity, but decided not to at the last moment. Tony had never liked the government being able to control your gravity, of course as a kid he had played with his bracelet, like everyone had, but now as an adult he knew how controlling these were. Tony had a clean record, meaning that the government would process his requests first if he wanted to adjust his bracelet, and Tony knew this, but he still wouldn’t do it. Tony had worked out that he should only use this when in a lot of danger from someone on the outside, for example if one of his patients brought a weapon to their appointment.

The news was basically the same as every other day; some weather for the next few days, a storm was brewing over the west coast, and then some local news. This was the section Tony was looking for, he was just listening for Tim Mcmillans name, waiting for the inevitable, when he would find out what had happened to his former patient. Tony started to drift off, but then he heard it, “A local mans gravity was raised to 300% today as police surrounded him. Witnesses say the man was yelling gibberish in a hostile manor for about 3 minutes before the police arrived. The police who arrived on the scene shot immediately for fear that this man could cause potential harm to civilians.”

This took Tony a long time to digest this information, he had seen people in the newspaper that were Gravity-bound before, but never to someone who Tony known well, especially not one he would talk to every 2-3 days for almost a year and a half. Tony turned off the TV and laid down on his couch, pondering what he should do about this predicament. Tony realized that the government was getting increasingly strict with their use of the PYC machine, at first they would only use in high-risk, hostage like situations, but as more machine have been built, the use is much more common in every day life, but never used for harmful purposes like it was today. Tony could read the signs better than others, so his final thought before drifting off to sleep was that he should do something to show the government how wrong they were.

The next few months went by in a blur, doing his daily routine over and over, watching the world changing around him. Every once and a while, one of his patients would be Gravity-bound, with the governments increasing intolerability of any type of misbehavior. Tony was slowly loosing patients, everyone that could come to him was either too scared to go outside, or had been Gravity-bound. He pondered what to do, and eventually decided to actually get up and do something about it. Tony had never seen anyone stand up to the government since the PYC machine was invented, and he wanted to make a statement.

Tony spent weeks planning how this would go down, he gathered about 700 people to march on city hall. Tony made signs, having tons of people come over and help him plan for this event. He closed down the office to work solely on this project, not that it mattered; he only had 2 patients left. The plan was to attempt to get in to city hall, and look for the PYC machine controlling the city, or the people who control it, and talk to them sensibly. If they found the machine first, they would stand there until someone they could talk to showed up. The main idea was to not be violent at all, so that the government couldn’t take any forceful action against them.

The time had come; Tony was the first on the scene, observing the landscape until people started arriving. The security guards outside started to notice something was up when about 20 or so people gathered in a group in front of city hall. The group continued growing until almost 150 people were there, then they started making their way in to city hall. Around half made it in to city hall easily before the security started organizing them in to a line, making them walk in between security guards in order to enter.

This is when all hell broke loose, one of the protesters in the line brushed up against a guard. The guard took this opportunity to take out his baton and hit the man. About 6 people around this brawl joined in, while the rest of the bystanders watched. In less than 40 seconds, the 4 protesters involved in the fight had been Gravity-bound, the starter being killed by the guards afterward. The other 3 were led off in handcuffs. Seeing this kind of treatment appalled Tony, especially with the realization that he had caused this to happen.

Things only got worse from here; the protesters arriving outside saw the commotion and ran in, causing a ruckus much worse than before. This started a riot, between all of the guards and many of the protesters. Tony could only stand there and watch as one by one his companions were Gravity-bound and arrested, or Gravity-bound and killed. Tony even watched as one mans gravity was turned up constantly, until eventually his bones were crushed completely.

Tony ran. It was all he could do, his people were getting over run and shut down. Edging his way around the destruction that he caused, seeing fallen comrades everywhere, beaten by the batons of the law enforcement. Past all of the men whose deaths he caused, barely making it under the radar of the guards. 100 feet until the entrance, 50 feet, halfway down the steps, just 20 steps and a small courtyard until he was safe.

Tony made it safely down the stairs, but then he was spotted by one of the guards outside who recognized him as the leader. Tony heard the guard yell out, but ignored him and continued running, then right as he was about to take the last step out of the courtyard, it happened. His body just stopped working like he was used to, Tony was forced to the ground, and couldn’t get up, he had been Gravity-bound. He was surrounded, a gun pointed straight at him.

 Vivo en Roxborough, una comunidad muy bonita. No hablo con muchas personas en mi barrio, pero tengo unos amigos quienes viven en Roxborough. La mayoría de las personas quienes viven en Roxborough son blancas. No hay muchas razas, y no me gusta eso, pienso que debe haber más razas. Quiero más diversidad en mi barrio. En Roxborough hay otros lugares, y vivo en Andorra. Se llama Andorra porque es como el país, hay muchos árboles, y parques. Mi casa está casi en un bosque, y me gusta esto mucho, así lo veo que es muy bonito, para mi que todas las comunidades deben tener un bosque. No quiero que mi comunidad cambie, porque me gusta tal como es ahora. Otras personas quieren más casas, pero pienso que debe ser como el país todavía. Muchas personas en Andorra son amables. No hay muchos murales en Andorra, pero la comunidad va a ser mejor cuando los tenga.

Mi mural ubicado en 738 Grakyn Lane, en la pared de un casa. La tema mayor de mi mural es el medio ambiente, y que el medio ambiente es muy importante para el mundo, y Andorra también. El medio ambiente es muy importante para Andorra porque Andorra se llama Andorra porque el país tiene un medio ambiente el mismo de Andorra, y cuando no tenemos muchos árboles, y flores, va a ver diferente como el país Andorra. Mi mural no cuenta la historia de Andorra, porque no es una historia muy interesante. Muchos de los imágenes en mi mural son verdes, este es porque muchas flores son verdes. Verde es el color que muchas personas piensan de cuando ellos escuchan la palabra medio ambiente. El propósito de mi mural es que las personas quienes ven el mural son que el medio ambiente es muy importante. Desde mi punto de vista,  Lo más importante es el medio ambiente, porque el mundo no vas a ser el mundo sin el medio ambiente mismo.

Así lo veo, el arte público no es necesario para la comunidad, pero es muy bonito, y la comunidad es mejor con el arte publico. El grafiti es arte público, pero es un delito. El grafiti pueden ser muy bello, y es bueno para la comunidad cuando es bello, o en un lugar bueno para la comunidad, cuando no es mal para unas personas. En mi opinión, mi mural es arte publico, porque es de una pared que es no muy importa, y la comunidad pueden ver que es importante a nosotros.  Mucho de el arte público está creadas por personas quienes son muy talentosos. Mi mural es arte, porque todas las cosas, como grafiti, y también el vandalismo son arte, y el papel de el arte público es para ser bonito. Así lo veo, que mi mural es bueno, pero puedo tener más de la diversidad, porque debe ser más diverso en Andorra. También debo tener más colores en mi mural, verde es bueno y representa el medio ambiente, pero más colores son buenos.

 Diría a Pedro porque es su novia. El debe saber que su novia hace. Yo pienso que diría a Susana primero, y haría un trato con ella para mucho dinero, o iría a Pedro. El verdad es que diría a Pedro primer, porque el es mi mejor amigo. 

¿Le dirías algo a su novia?

No diría a ella cuando no es un trato, porque ella no es una novia buena. 

¿Qué le dirías a Pedro?

diría a Pedro, porque el es mi mejor amigo y pienso que el diría a mi cuando eso paso a yo. 

¿Tratarías de ayudar?

sararía los fotos porque es más verdad de solo diría

¿Qué le recomendarías a Pedro?

recomendaría que romper con ella. 

Yo, en su lugar, … (If I were in his place…)

querría que el diría a yo, porque es una cosa muy horrible. 

Si viera a la novia de mi mejor amigo besando a su primo, ... 

llamaría a mi mejor amigo ese momento y diría el, porque es muy importante por su relación. 

            I think the role of the individual is to realize that they need to change, and then do it. Change is much better if the individual is the one who realizes that they need to change. Change is much less effective when someone is told to do it, because that is much different than coming to a realization that something is wrong.

            I used to know that voting wasn’t exactly majority, but I didn’t realize how unfair the Electoral College is.  It makes me think that voting should be a majority for it to be a democratic government. It also made me realize that we have the choice to vote, but if we don’t take advantage of that freedom it be a lot worse for the country.

We tried to show that there have been very small voting percentages in the past few years, capping at 61%. We said that with mandatory voting that if a person didn’t vote, then they would be charged a 100$ fine. We capitalized on this point, because a lot of people will choose to go out and take the time to go to the polls, rather than paying the fine. 

Over this year in English and History I learned a lot about the nature of people. I learned that it is easy for people to stray off of human nature for various reasons. While writing my Op-ed I talked about how violent video games are blamed for many school shootings, when it really has to do with home problems or mental disabilities. This showed me how people are aware of things being able to change people, but might not have the best judgment to know what is changing them. For my first quarter English benchmark I talked about how the kids become more savage when exposed to less technology. Throughout Lord of the Flies the kids start to revert back to having animal like behavior while on the Island. This showed me how people are willing to go back to savage behavior very quickly, instead of work together and act civilized, or can make sure that they do not become savages. The way to not become savages would be to make the island like their life and not change anything, but this is very hard to do; that is why it is so easy for people to revert back to being savages.

            During the fourth quarter we learned about freedom and prisons. We had several assignments talking about torture. During these lessons we discussed how almost anyone could become a torturer. We watched and reflected on a video called The Milgram Obedience Experiments where “scientists” would bring in someone from the street, and ask them to question another person in a different room. Every time the person in the other room got a question wrong the person brought in from the street would press a button that they were told gave an electric charge to the other person. The person who was answering questions was not actually getting shocked, but was just acting and pretending to be in pain. The questioner was told to turn up the intensity of the shock until it got to a certain point, and keep it at that level. There were several circumstances, and the results varied from where the answerer was, where the person telling the questioner to do their job was, and if there was any other people in the room. In the end most people would go somewhat far, even though they could hear or see the other person that they thought they were torturing.

            One of the units in History dealt with sweatshops, and child labor. We talked about why it happens, what the benefits are, what the downsides are, and how it can affect consumers or other people. We had a group activity where everyone was split up into several teams for a Transnational Capital Auction. These teams were the Ruling Elite for countries. The object of the game was to try to please the Multinational Companies, so they would give work to our citizens, but to make sure that our citizens were not going to rebel against the government. We had to decide our standpoint on key issues like ability to form unions, child labor, laws on keeping a clean environment, and several others. There were five rounds to change the bids, and depending on what you did, the Multinational Companies would want to go to your country. The team that ended up winning didn’t put everything good for the Multinational Companies, because that would mean their citizens would be very unhappy with the government. The teams that did good put things somewhat in the middle of good and bad in the choices, even though they all seemed to be very bad from our standpoint in the United States.

            During the video the man protests shocking the other person, or asking a new question many times, and seems adamant on his decision. Almost every time the “scientists” are able to get him to go back and “shock” the other person by just talking to him and telling him what to do. I was surprised that the man would go back so many times, because he seemed ready to stop asking questions very early on, but continued because he was told to. The thing that surprised me the most was that after the person on the other side of the wall stopped yelling or making noise, the man didn’t show as much resistance until he finally decided to stop. 

Throughout Lord of the Flies the kids become more savage. The boys start out as somewhat civilized, but as they realize that they might not get saved, they get more savage. In several instances in our world, there have been people or groups who are against technology. The example about groups not having or wanting technology relates to the boys because they go back to their animal instincts.. The real life example hurt people for a not very good reason, and they either didn’t have or want technology. The diminishing amount of technology affects people in ways so that they revert back to their instinct of savagery.

During the book Piggy’s glasses go from good condition to being broken. While the glasses are diminishing, the savage instinct of the boys becomes more prevalent. A quote from the book from where the glasses are half broken is “You didn't ought to have let that fire out... one side's broken." page 71. During this section the kids are in the middle of being animals humans. This quote shows that they are starting to abandon one form of technology that they have, fire. They left the technology to go hunting; and because of this the ship that passes by didn’t see them. If they had kept their technology, then they would not be fighting about not getting rescued from the ship. The fire would have also kept them from killing the pig, so that they would be less savage. Only savages would leave something as important as the fire, to go kill a pig for food that they wouldn’t need if they were rescued.

Many of the older boys were hunters, or wanted to be with jack to kill a pig. Luddites were people in the early 1800’s who were against some new technology. The new technology would do their job faster, but they claimed that it wasn’t as authentic, or good. The luddites destroyed many of the machines, and killed some people in the riots. The luddites are similar to the boys in Lord of the Flies, because they ignore or demolish technology, and in the process they hurt things. This new technology made them destroy technology, which showed how they went back to their animal instincts, and didn’t think about anything else. The luddites were against new technology, while the hunters were against watching the fire. Both of them had their priorities wrong, the luddites could have found new jobs, or solved the problem without violence. The boys had their priorities wrong because they chose hunting, and fun over being saved.

There is a lot of symbolism in Lord of the Flies. One big part is Piggy’s glasses. They symbolize technology, which also shows civilization and how put together they boys are. In the beginning of the book, when the boys are civilized the glasses are fine. When the glasses are half broken the boys are splitting apart, and most of them are going back to their animal like instincts. Close to the end of the book the glasses become fully broken because of the Savagery. A quote close to when the glasses are broken is “”How can we make a fire?” Jack squatted back and frowned at the pig. “We’ll raid them and take fire.”” Page 136. This shows that Jack has turned savage; he wants to steal from other kids on the island without asking first. His animal instincts have taken over, where he thinks that violence is necessary and doesn’t even consider talking to them. Another type of technology that they have on the island is fire. At the beginning they use the fire because they realize that it is an important part of them getting saved. The first time that they let the fire go out was when they first started to become savage. They decided to kill a pig instead of get saved by a ship. The technology was not present, so the boys reverted back to their animal instincts. After the boys split into two groups the fire is almost not present, which shows that they are barley separated from animals. At the end of the book there are two significant fires. The first one is the cooking fire, which would not serve their purposes, this shows that they are using a different type of technology and have disregarded the signal fire. The other fire is when they light the forest on fire to try to kill Ralph, this fire shows how much of savages they are; that they would destroy the jungle in order to find and hurt one person that wouldn’t join them.

There is much symbolism around the technology in Lord of the Flies, along with much emphasis on how anyone can become savage.. Technology is one thing that separates us from animals, so when it goes away we go back to our animal instincts. The boys lost almost all of their technology throughout the book, which made their savage instincts easier to see. This happens in our world, where people loose their technology, or the technology changes and they revert back to being animal like.

The shootings at Columbine high school were blamed on many things. Among drugs, alcohol and mental disorders was the first person shooter video game called Doom. Many people blamed the video game because there was not a lot of drugs or alcohol that showed up on the tests. Bill Manville on NY daily news said “"Doesn’t that sound like they were trying to rack up a record score in some video arcade?" This isn’t a very realistic idea, there is no way that a violent video game can make you think that on your own.

Many studies say that when testing violent video games on kids, they test whether the games made kids more violent. Almost all of the studies concluded that the kids who played violent video games became more aggressive after playing them. Many people who play violent video games become more aggressive, but they don’t make you act on these emotions.

The reality is that millions of people play violent video games, and there are not millions of school shootings or violent crimes every year, so it cannot be affecting people so much that they want to act on their emotions. Recently, video games have become more popular.  As an article on PBS says, “According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low." This combined with the fact that many of the other studies only said that the people playing violent video games only became more aggressive supports the idea that it makes people more aggressive, but they don’t act.

Violent video games do make people more aggressive, but they don’t act on these emotions. If the violent video games were having such an impact so that they made the kids to things like the columbine shootings, then there would be a lot more juvenile violent crimes. The study was only for the United States, but these statistics could be different for other parts of the world. A lot of these studies are not 100% accurate because they don’t account for everything in the game players life. This is almost impossible to do, so the data will never be completely correct for these kinds of studies.

The shootings at Columbine or any other school shootings are not majorly caused by the kids playing video games. Many people try to blame video games because they are something that many people can easily put the blame on, even though according to PBS 83% of video games that kids shouldn’t be playing are bought by their parents. Less of the blame should be put on video games, and more on other factors like illegal substances, or mental problems.

Overall many people find that violent video games are something easy to blame problems on. In fact the video games do make the players more aggressive, but not as violent. Although violent video games do hold some blame in violence today, there are many other factors such as drugs, alcohol, or mental problems that contribute to this violence more than violent video games.

Many studies say that when testing violent video games on kids, they test whether the games made kids more violent. Almost all of the studies concluded that the kids who played violent video games became more aggressive after playing them. Many people who play violent video games become more aggressive, but they don’t make you act on these emotions.

The reality is that millions of people play violent video games, and there are not millions of school shootings or violent crimes every year, so it cannot be affecting people so much that they want to act on their emotions. Recently, video games have become more popular.  As an article on PBS says, “According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low." This combined with the fact that many of the other studies only said that the people playing violent video games only became more aggressive supports the idea that it makes people more aggressive, but they don’t act.

Violent video games do make people more aggressive, but they don’t act on these emotions. If the violent video games were having such an impact so that they made the kids to things like the columbine shootings, then there would be a lot more juvenile violent crimes. The study was only for the United States, but these statistics could be different for other parts of the world. A lot of these studies are not 100% accurate because they don’t account for everything in the game players life. This is almost impossible to do, so the data will never be completely correct for these kinds of studies.

The shootings at Columbine or any other school shootings are not majorly caused by the kids playing video games. Many people try to blame video games because they are something that many people can easily put the blame on, even though according to PBS 83% of video games that kids shouldn’t be playing are bought by their parents. Less of the blame should be put on video games, and more on other factors like illegal substances, or mental problems.

Overall many people find that violent video games are something easy to blame problems on. In fact the video games do make the players more aggressive, but not as violent. Although violent video games do hold some blame in violence today, there are many other factors such as drugs, alcohol, or mental problems that contribute to this violence more than violent video games.

“Lets go to the point of the island,” I said to my cousins while in North Carolina. “Okay” said my cousins Sam, Max, and Jake. We were really excited to go to the point, we had only been there once and it was really fun. They are all my cousins, and mean the world to me. My cousins are some of the most important people in my life; we influence each other so much. We love spending time together, and do it as much as possible. We started making our way to the point. We walked along the beach thinking how long it would take to get there. The beach had many shells on it, and the water was amazing. The water was so warm and calm that it was like we were in Florida. After the mile long walk to the point we got in the water.  I noticed another section of the beach that we had to swim to. “Lets go over there, the water is pretty shallow here” I said. We all walked through the surprisingly shallow water to the other section. As I look back at it now, we could walk through this water because it was low tide. We knew that we might spend a while there, and by the time we got back low tide could have gone away, and high tide or somewhere in between high and low tide could have came through.

As soon as we got there, Jake said “whoa! There’s an island across there, let’s go.” I noticed that the water in-between the island and us had a very strong current. I told my cousins, but they said we could do it anyway. The current pulled us so strongly that a bird on shore looked like it was on a treadmill. We had gotten pulled about 75 feet down from where we expected to end up because we couldn’t stand on some parts of the swim. While we were there we hung out and talked for a while. We laid down in the shallow water because it was so warm, and just talked about school and how our lives were.  Sam and Jake live in Florida, and we don’t get to spend a lot of time just talking. We always have to do something, and don’t just get time to talk about what’s going on. This was special because we almost never get to do it; there is always an agenda.

After about 45 minutes Jake and I decided to leave. We made it past the water with the strong current, and onto the other part of the beach that we had almost been able to walk to. It had gotten much windier since we started to walk to the point. The water that we could walk in before had turned to a churning jumble of strong waves. As we tried to get across we got hit over and over by the waves. We realized that we couldn’t move because of the current the wind caused. We had to go back to the extended part of the beach, and walk around on the pavement. The pavement was extremely hot, and we didn’t have any shoes on. Every step hurt, because it was burning hot and the little pieces of it made cuts on our feet as we walked. We finally found a place from the burning hot gravel onto the beach again. The sand felt very cool and relieving against our feet. 

At this point I realized that we should have understood that this would happen. We had seen the wind picking up earlier, and could have left then without having to struggle through the water and walk on burning hot gravel. If we had been responsible we would have done that, and made it back safely without anyone worrying, or any important people in our lives getting in possible danger. We walked for about 15 minutes before we started to realize how tired we were. We were dehydrated, exhausted, and starving. The only water around us was the beach, which we could not drink because of the salt. We continued to walk at a much slower pace because of our state. Finally we got to the beach in front of our house. 

The only problem was, when we got there we saw my parents talking to the beach patrol. Because we had been gone for so long my parents had asked the beach patrol to help them find us. Sam and Max had not left yet, so we didn’t know if they were okay. The beach patrol said that in this kind of weather, at this time of day, they had probably drowned. If we had communicated with my parents, saying “we will be back in 2 hours”, or said anything about when we would have been back it would have turned out much better. Without us saying when we would be back, they probably thought it was going to be about an hour like most of the other times we went to the point. We waited outside on the beach for them for about 20 minutes before heading back inside. For about 30 minutes we waited, becoming increasingly more upset by the minute. By minute 20 Jake and I had almost started crying because he thought he lost his brother and cousin, and I thought that I lost 2 of my cousins. This would have been the worst days of our lives by far; one of our cousins that was gone was the oldest cousin. All the other cousins looked up to him, we did whatever he told us. To loose someone that important to you is one of the worst things that I can imagine happening to a person. We need people in our life who influence us, and are always there for us. For me it is my cousins, but for others it is different. Finally, after those 30 dreadful minutes were up, we saw them. Coming up from the beach, having no idea why we were so happy to see them. 

One summer I was at my cousins in Florida. Every time that I get outside I let the moist air into my lungs. I love everything, from getting my baggage to finding the car in the parking lot. I love Florida, it’s what I look foreword to every winter break and summer. I used to just go there and hang out with my cousins. They moved to Florida when I was about 7 and it was extremely saddening. I was there when I was in 7^th grade. I was playing Xbox 360 with my cousin Jake for the first time ever. We sat on his comfortable carpet floor, playing on his 50-inch flat screen TV. We joked around about what was going on in the game of just us. After a while we decided that this was kind of boring with just us. We played an online game where he talked to other people. I couldn’t understand anything that he was saying. He said things like “Owned, Camper, Noob, Wrecked, Beast, and No-scope.” I asked him what that was. He was astonished that I didn’t know what those meant. He explained to me that its what you say when you play a game. He said, “Owned means I beat him really badly. Camper means that they are camped out in one spot. Noob means that he is bad at the game. Wrecked is a synonym for owned. Beast means that I’m really good.” I asked, “What does no scope mean?” He replied, “when you use a sniper rifle, and you don’t scope in but still hit someone.”

I spent several weeks in Florida that summer, all the time playing Xbox with him. I started catching on to this part of language. After I got home I had no-where to use this new language. I pleaded for weeks to get an Xbox, and finally I got one for my birthday. The first thing that I did was talk to my cousins. I was so excited that I forgot all of the trash talking online.  No one in my old school spoke with gamer language, so I didn’t either. I thought that I would get made fun of if I said anything that I use every time I play Xbox. While I wasn’t saying any of this in school, I said them as much as possible when talking with people online. When I came to this school I found other people that play Xbox. I started playing with them, so we used our gamer speak online. Eventually we became better friends and started using our gamer speak at school. This creates a problem because I am at risk of people being like “What is that, nerd!” I have decided that gamer speak is a kind of language that many people in the world use or speak. It is somewhat a type of slang, whereas words replace others and not everyone knows what they mean. I try to switch between these as much as possible, not saying some things to my friends who don’t play games, and saying gamer things when talking with my friends that do play games. Sometimes it gets kind of confused, so I switch the things up.  

In 8^th grade I got a homework assignment in history class. We were asked to use a primary source, but I didn’t know what that was. I went to my friends house after school. My mom came after a while to pick me up. I walked out to our light gray Toyota Camry.  I always loved the seats because of how fuzzy and warm they are. They are also the same color as the car. I asked my mom what a primary source was. My mom was born in Queens New York. She lived there until she was in college, but then moved to Philly. I had never heard her New York accent before this. She repeated “A Primary sauce?” I started laughing uncontrollably, saying “Primary sauce? My primary sauce is tomato, I like it on spaghetti.” She didn’t understand why I found this so funny, because that is how she says source. When we got home I sat on the maroon sofa in the family room. This room is very dark, so the couch looks even darker than it is. The couch has a weird design in it, where unfilled in hexagons cover it. I don’t like sitting on it because of this, and because the small blanket is somewhat itchy. While sitting on the couch I was talking with my mom about it. Eventually she said sofa, but it came out as “Sofer.” This was the second time in one night that I had heard her New York accent, and it surprised me very much. I now make fun of her every time I need to find something, and use a primary source, or any time I sit on the sofa. 

Changing your accent is not something that most people would do unless they really wanted to. Everyone thinks that their accent is normal, so the only reason to change how you talk is to fit in with other people. It takes a long time in order to change your accent or how you speak. Many people try to change their accents in order to fit in, but like gamer talk it slips out sometimes. I think that changing your accent is unnecessary because people shouldn’t judge you on how you sound, or what you talk like. 

A lot of things about dialect are making you fit in or make you stand out in a bad way. Changing your accent or dialect can be a tough process. It takes a lot of time in order to change how you talk. It is not something that can be done over a short period of time, and even if you take a long time it will never be perfect. Everyone who has changed how they talk will eventually go back to how they used to, even if it is only for one word. Changing how you speak is something that many people do in order to fit in places, even though they probably know that it will make them alienated from the people that they knew before.