My Goals

The day I thought I knew what I wanted to do was the day I thought my problems were solved. When I was still in elementary I knew I wanted to become a teacher, saw how teachers worked and I became fascinated with the career option for myself, I went home and played with my younger siblings pretending that I was their teacher and they were my students.

I remember the end of my fourth grade year my teacher asked if I wanted to take worksheets to play with my siblings, and being me I was super excited, I couldn't wait to get home. Those are the kind of things that I’ll always remember because it is what brings me closer to the ones who I most care for.  I have always been the one to help out others, help when someone didn't understand or needed help. I have always loved working with children, now in high school I have more opportunities to do so. In student council we have an opportunity to go out to LHS’s feeder schools and help students with work or with problems they might have in school. Having this opportunity has definitely opened up my mind a bit more to the future I would have if I was to pursue this career. I feel like every school year I see something new that seems interesting to me that I say I want to do, that is why I want to research more on the top two careers that I have chosen.

I always knew I wasn't scared to go to the dentist, I was actually interested to know what they were going to do to me, even though I didn't really know what it meant. Every time I go to my sister's job I see how people interact in a dental office and has fascinated me because it's definitely something I would consider working in. I have seen what a dental hygienist does to help the doctor and personally believe it's one of the most important jobs in the dental office, I chose dental hygiene because I feel it is important for people to understand how to take care of their oral health, and helping them to know what they need to change to accomplish the healthy mouth.

I have always thought it was important to know which career I was to follow because I didn't want to be so fed up in a mess that wasn't so important because I want to focus more on my studies to get there then worrying about getting there. That is why I wanted to research more on both these careers, because I feel like both of these have had the most influence on me exposing me to different opportunities. Hopefully exploring more on these careers will help me to make a choice when the time comes. I believe one of these careers will help me succeed in the helping of others that I have always wanted to be I have always thought that the way I see my family has affected the way I see others. I haven't seen my family as the best I think that is why I have always wanted to do better, better than they have done, than they have done to others. Especially my older sister who has never been there for me I believe has influenced me to do better things that she would have never done, because I have always had my influences from the worst scenarios are the ones that have made me a better me.

My goal is to show everyone seeking a career what opportunities they have in teaching and dental hygiene. By showing these videos, I can explain the reasons behind the meaning these careers have for me. This video shows the inside of a prek classroom. It shows how it actually works instead of simply explaining it. This video will show most people the daily life of a teacher and will show if their interests are towards teaching by seeing how it all goes. Seeing this video or even actually being in the actual classroom may trigger the person to pursue that career, because it is such a neat experience.

This video will show how it is a day in the life of a dental hygienist. With the encouragement of joining their profession dental hygienist I believe have the easiest part in the dental office if that's what you're looking for. A dental Hygienist's main job is to check the patient before the dentist actually sees them, they clean their teeth and check what needs to be done.

Hopefully this deepens the meaning of these careers to other people as it did me, by helping make my decision I have felt a relief in knowing what I want to do after high school.

My focus is when I decide what career I want to pursue how I am going to get there. I want to be able to identify how to become both a teacher and a dental hygienist, to do this I am researching these careers as I come across websites that have helped me understand both career options, through the many websites I came across some that gave great information about the careers.

For a teaching career I found EarlyChildhoodTeacher.org that gave great information on how to get a teaching certification, and I actually made a point to look up information on Texas certification and found that I would have to:

• Earn a bachelor's degree in an accredited college/university
• Complete a state approved Educator preparation program
• Pass required assessment for desired grade level or subject
• Submit an application with appropriate documentation
• undergo fingerprinting for background check

Reading Evaluation

1. my reading goal was to read 16 books by the end of the year even though I only read 13 I was still pretty close and read way more than ever before. I feel like I did meet it because again I read this year more than any other year.

2.  jumping off swings
the giver
blackmailed merger
where she went
extremely loud & incredibly close
Sarah's key
Enrique's journey
dreamland - abandoned
room
Eleanor & park
wonder - abandoned
slammed
point of retreat

3. the book that I enjoyed the most Sarah's key because I love books that contain to history and that story was such an eye opener to so many things that were going on in that time period.

4. one of the hardest books I read was extremely loud & incredibly close just because it had some hard vocabulary and the story line to me was hard to follow.

5.   I believe in the past year my greatest strength has been keeping up with my reading.

6.  I still need to improve in the aspect of vocabulary because everywhere I read I see vocabulary that I don't recognize, so it would help to explore more of that.

7. I believe the reading conferences helped a lot because it made me understand what I should be reading and what I should be thinking about,  I Believe it would help to do them more often.

8.  I believe reading more this year has actually helped me stay more focused in my classes because it's something that requires a lot of attention and doing that more often I believe has helped improve in school.

Sarah's key 

What is love?

The definition of love is, according to the dictionary is; 

1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

 But when that feeling changes does the love too. As haddaway's song What is love? Says really that love is hurtful and unclear because there is so much love but they constantly fightthat he doesn't know if the love is still there.




What is love?
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
Baby don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more

What is love?
Yeah

I don't know why you're not there
I give you my love but you don't care
So what is right and what is wrong?
Gimme a sign

What is love
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
What is love?
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, uh, uh
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, uh, uh

Oh, I don't know, what can I do?
What else can I say, it's up to you
I know we're one, just me and you
I can't go on

What is love?
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
What is love?
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, uh, uh
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, uh, uh

What is love?
What is love?
What is love?
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more

Don't hurt me
Don't hurt me

I want no other, no other lover
This is our life, our time
We are together, I need you forever
Is it love?

What is love?
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
What is love?
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, uh, uh
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, uh, uh

What is love?
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
What is love?
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more

Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
Baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
What is love?

Where did she go?

I have always wanted to be forgiving , I see people and

 wonder, how do they do it?

I have a sister that I haven't talked to in over a year

 because when we were little she was the worst to me,

 she hurt me so bad mentally that I could never forgive her.

 Eventhough I had so much pressure coming from my mother

to talk to her I wouldnt budge because I knew she didnt understand

what was going on and I never cared enough to tell her because

I didn't even want to think about her. My mother said

she was changing But having to live with her I saw she was

faking everything I could see she didnt Care for her family

She wanted to get as far away as possible. Eventough my parents

Gave everything they could to her to pursue a new future she took

Advantage of that. A year after she left rehab she started to distant

 herself from her family she didnt come home she didnt talk to anyone

Until one day she just left, I could hear creaking her coming in some

nights, until one day the the creaking stopped and we never heard from

her again. Eventhough she was gone and my mother said she wouldn't

 take her back I knew she was heartbroken because she had finally done,

 it she had finally left.

Segregation in our world

In the past segregation has been a big deal, the idea of segregation is to set people apart who aren't similar to the "Normal" standards we have as in racial majority.
We will have segregation forever since there is racial disputes even now forty years after the civil right movement. Can we encourage and do we encourage segregation after so long of much fighting and disputes or races being so different in the slightest things.

We will go one as a country who is encouraging segregation over our people and who put down minorities because of our skin color. We will go back to having slaves and despising anyone who looks the slightest different, because we are a nation who discriminate after others.

After the little rock nine, has our country become worse over time even though segregation is near to over. The first nine teenagers to go to school in  little rock were spit on, kicked, pushed, and just tortured daily because they weren't wanted, they weren't meant to go to a school where there were only whites where there was no one like them.

Should segregation go on we would most likely be the best at it, because we have done it before.





-experimenting with satire.

My "Creed" Poem

I believe there is a world outside of us

I believe in religion in god as hard as it is

I believe normal is overrated

I believe people can change,

 but they don't, the words

I believe education makes a 

difference, when people care.

I believe ghosts affect everyone's 

present, she affects me.

I believe wounds never heal completely.

I believe love is compelling, 

even when it breaks us.

I believe in forgetting and forgiving

I believe in the wild how consuming it is 

how refreshing it is 

and the breathtaking part of it.

I don't believe in goodbyes, 

I believe in the I'll see you later.

     Photo by: H.D. Carberry

"As life was five" poem commentary

Jimmy Santiago Baca, an author who in everyone's eyes he is an amazing poet. Baca has written many inspiring quotes, but as we read them we realize there is something wrong in him, his writing is sad almost depressing as he writes about his childhood, his family, and his life in jail.

As I read his poem "As life was five" I start thinking about my own family my own troubles and my own childhood, growing up in a family that didn't always have everything they needed. 

In this poem Baca is speaking of his grandfather, how embarrassed he was by the man that wouldn't give him a loan for his land. He speaks of his grandfathers feeling how he couldn't bare Baca seeing him be embarrassed as he was speaking to the man at the store, as the man was being cruel because he didn't speak english. Baca "insulting my grandpa because he couldnt speak, english", is astonishing how baca remembers so much from his childhood when so many events have occurred since then.

Photo by: tim brownson

A Daily Joy To Be Alive

No matter how serene things 

may be in my life, 
how well things are going, 
my body and soul 
are two cliff peaks 
from which a dream of who I can be 
falls, and I must learn 
to fly again each day, 
or die. 

Death draws respect 
and fear from the living. 
Death offers 
no false starts. It is not 
a referee with a pop-gun 
at the startling 
of a hundred yard dash. 

I do not live to retrieve 
or multiply what my father lost 
or gained. 

I continually find myself in the ruins 
of new beginnings, 
uncoiling the rope of my life 
to descend ever deeper into unknown abysses, 
tying my heart into a knot 
round a tree or boulder, 
to insure I have something that will hold me, 
that will not let me fall. 

My heart has many thorn-studded slits of flame 
springing from the red candle jars. 
My dreams flicker and twist 
on the altar of this earth, 
light wrestling with darkness, 
light radiating into darkness, 
to widen my day blue, 
and all that is wax melts 
in the flame- 

I can see treetops!

This poem represents everything that jimmy had to go through in jail as he runs into many new opportunities as he leaves to start his new life eventhough there are the events in the past that torture him, he moves on when he sees the outside. 

new commitments

When first starting the 6 needs test I looked at the needs and believed  I would have different results, when I saw my results I noticed my top need was for significance at 93%. Even though the results said my top need was significance I didn't know exactly what it meant so I went to the interpretation page. I read that my beliefs are to feel important and unique and maybe even a bit feared, and I started to ponder that it is true in every situation I feel the need of being respected and being recognized. Even though all my my scores were pretty high I noticed that Love-Connection was the lowest coming in at 46% which at first I believed would be the highest.

Reading more and more I realize that most of what has to do with significance has to do with respect and being heard and I mean I'm all for it but it might be a bit too much as to say Im not as concerned with so much as they say "being obeyed", everyone who knows me knows I can be shy and not at all a person who looks to being obeyed. For the most part I believe this test has actually helped to learn a bit more about myself.

My 6 needs results 

As I go on I realize that I make really poor choices in every sense. I don't believe I'm fulfilling my needs so well as of my peers, I more push them away because I sometimes feel like I have more important things to acquire or that they are getting in my way. Since I go to school full time and work part time it is difficult to have other activities as I used to have as some of my needs. As I think about it over the past three years my needs have changed as I have progressed my activities have gone and my stress has risen.

I have already made a commitment to socialize more this year as well as to keep up with school, but to do that I'm going to need to bring out my needs to make those major changes in my life. As the interpretation says in page 6"I need to get involved in experiences where I won’t get any admiration or special respect. I need to work less and love myself more. I need to indulge in pleasurable experiences just for the sake of pleasure. I need to relax. I need to pay attention to feelings and relationships." And it is so.

For this new year I have also made a commitment to read more this last year I had so far read 6 books that I have finished which include:

• jumping off swings
• the giver 
• blackmailed merger 
• where she went 
• extremely loud & incredibly close 
• just listen 

While reading those at the beginning of the school year we made a commitment to read a certain amount of books and I had said 16, while now I believe I can read more. I have realized I need to read every night if I'm going to accomplish that goal for myself. 

When ever I read a book so tragic like Sarah's Key I can almost imagine it happening. Sarah went through horrible things to get to her brother that almost no one could relate to, but being so horrible there are things that aren't similar but in a way they are. As I see our society now there are still people who would cheer one the nazi's but not to an extent to execute so many jewish families for no reasonable purpose. there are people I imagine just like Sarah who would fight for all they have to save a beloved.

#OneLittleWord

My #OneLittleWord for 2015 is reimagine. I chose reimagine because it is what I want to do really with everything I believe in and even how I see things. I have always seen things in a negative way and I have always judged people that I don't even take the time to know because I feel like I already know how they are. This year maybe things could change to where no one is judged in a way that isn't unfair for them. I'd like to reimagine my way of thinking and my perspective on things.

Peer preassure

When someone tells you "hey lets cut math and go to a movie", can you simply say no would you cut simply because you cant say no to your bestest of friends.

Ive known a lot of people that cant handle their feelings who always have to say yes because they are afraid of what would happen, what someone could do to them because they didnt listen.

Me myself have gone theough that because in elementary I was the person who wanted to get along with everyone. I always had to do things that I knew wernt right because I wanted everyone to like me. In fifth grade Iwas speaking to my friend while I wasnt suppose to that got me and my friend in trouble, we got a week of punishment, and in that week it was when I realized that I didnt need to do what other people wanted me to do to fit in. After that experience everything started to change because I made the choice to stop listen to the people who were making my life worse for myself.

Saying that everyone who goes through people pressuring them  everyday need to find their self-esteem and realize that that isnt them because when they are older they will face more challenges to deal with.

Alcoholism

Alcohol abuse has always been a problem in america, too many people are dependent on alcohol. Some people might not realize that it is actually hurting them health wise. While its shown that while on alcohol people act differently as getting into fights, causing a car crash and many other things caused because while drunk people tend to have slurred vision and a curved mind.

 In personal experience I have gone through having someone in my family being an alcoholic, my father used to always drink, when I had to be with him especially in a car I was always scared something would happen, even though he gad always been a good driver I knew the effects of drinking which made me worry the most. It took my father to have a stroke before he could realize that drinking isn't a good thing.

 There are always options for people who drink it is on them if they dont take advantage and rid of the substance that's killing them. There is always that person who believes their body and mind dont change when they drink some people might get away with it, but it does affect everybody and it is harmful for everybody.

 There needs to be a way to make people understand that drinking isn't the right thing, they cant wait until something horrible happens to them. We need to find a solution to alcohol abuse.

Our rights

How do we know if our vote actually counts? What secures us of our liberty? What we all want to know is how the voting process actually works because there is nothing that we can trust to be sure our vote counts.

Today as I was driving to school I was listening to the radio, there was a story about election day the woman was saying she went to vote just yesterday. When she went to vote someone gave her a code so she could vote, after she had voted they asked for the code back. when she found out that greg abbott had won by a long shot, he won by more than 50%, everyone was shocked the lady on the radio said she started to think maybe the scores were fixed. How could greg abbott win by so much while he was hated by so many texans? Thats what everyone wants to know.

While they were talking in the radio they mentioned how the statistics showed that it was going to be a close one because Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott were supported by so many people, it couldn’t be possible that the voting showed such a difference from what everyone thought. The score 59% to 39% how is that possible, some people say it was fixed others say differently. 

It might also tie in with the fact that not everyone votes or that for some reason A lot of people changed their mind last minute. Not everyone believes abbott was the best opponent for Davis because they had such different opinions on how Texas should be ran. You could say that people electing Abbott for our new governor because he promised to create new jobs, enforce our rights and other things but should we believe his words.

My reading life

http://youtu.be/tjTqGW2Ewso 

My sophmore year I read for the beggining of the year about five books but two were because I had to read them for my english class, when I started to have more work from my classes I read less and less from what I used to. This year since we have to read everyday for english I have read more and more than I imagined that I could read, so far I have finished four books and have many more books that I'm already planning to read. So far i have read jumping off swings, the giver, blackmailed merger, where she went and am currently reading extremely loud & and incredibly close.

 I have learned that myself as a reader am incredibly passionate when it comes to a book that intrsests me, I actually have an author that I enjoy reading because she writes romances, and those are some of the main books that I read mostly I like to read Sarah Dessen. Right now the most difficult book I've read would have to be extremely loud & incredibly close just because Jonathan safran foer writes it in a way that is difficult to understand and he has one person speaking one chapter and another in the next.

 I usually read whenever I find the time to with my busy schedule, I read during school in class whenever my teacher gives us time, during lunch, and when I get home I usually read before I go to sleep. I would have to keep up with my reading every week to keep up with any work that might go with it. I believe I still need to find more time to read, because after school I usually have to go to work. This year I would like to read more books than last year and learn how to read even harder books than im used to.

That midnight craving- AWESOME

Not being able to sleep, having a craving in the middle of the night. Tiptoeing your way to the kitchen, hoping no one catches you. Opening the fridge, searching for something to snack on. Not finding anything in the fridge, moving over to the counters searching and searching not being able to find anything munch on. Remembering of your mother's secret stash of treats, searching again for the place she keeps them. Until finally you find them, you hear your stomach churning of hunger, you grab a handful run back to your room sit in your bed wondering if that is enough, starting to devour everything you can, finishing everything, feeling horrible of what you had just done, feeling your stomach start to churn over pain.

Nowadays your prepared for that midnight craving, you have prepared your own secret stash which you munch on only when you are hungry and alone in the darkness. Not having to worry about getting caught, the first time was awesome, but when doing it over and over again you begin to relize it isn't so good for you with all the stomachaches you've been having. Until one day you relize you do have to just do it by midnight you can do it at any time in day. When you know everything will be all right your golden.AWESOME

#Writemycommunity

Being in student council I understand that there are a lot of things that the school does for our student body and the community. Student council is the main source for our schools events, they are the ones who organize everything as well as going out to the community to make it better, to reaching out to other schools for mentoring. Every event hosted by LHS is most likely being run by our student council. Without our student body and especially our community it wouldn't be possible to organize so many events LHS does every year. Every thing we sell at any event is for student council funds. those funds go to events that we organize throughout the year for example homecoming, prom, etc.. It is always important to have the community involved because it helps out so much more. Gratefulness always comes from our school to the community for the support either because they have children in school or they themselves went to LHS , because that farmer pride is always there. What we do as well is mentor in elementary and middle schools, to support other schools as well, we are always involved in the community volunteering in events by the city or creating volunteer opportunities for our student body to go help the community in other ways. It is important to keep our community safe, clean, and together to have peace and harmony. 

My life story

To write about something in my life was difficult, to talk about something that has happened to me and my family was hard enough because everything about me i have kept from everybody else.the easy part was finding a topic, the hard part was explaining it and deciding to stick with that topic.

The first part in writing my short story was thinking about what happened and  making  a way of explaining it. I didn't want to take it to personal so i wanted to write about something going on in school or my social life. Then i thought i could write about something that i could really explain and that maybe someone could relate to.

It started out with explaining my grief and how i felt, but i didn't want to make it just about me  i wanted to include the feelings of my whole family, what as i felt of the sickness of my father. My father had just suffered a stroke in January, we all suffered there was pain everywhere, there was a point we didn't know what to do. 

There was suffering everywhere and there still is, how to explain it i have no clue. The only way for closure is to bring it out. 

So what i did was write about how it made me feel and edited to where others could understand my pain and my families pain. To see My story. 

Taking a breathe of reality

There are too many people being offended. Matt walsh is correct people need to understand the meaning behind words. People are being offended by things that aren't meant to offend.

People are too sensitive words wise. There are people who like to joke around and go to another level with their jokes that could be offensive. There are also people who like to joke to lighten up the mood which could offend without knowing it, but it doesn't mean any one should be offended.

A woman carrying a heavy box could take offense if a man comes up to her and tells her he'll take it, the woman would insinuate the man doesn't believe she can carry it. If the woman would be offended she would see of the man as a hypocrite, when in reality he was trying to be a gentleman by helping her out. It can be true that women in particular can be more offended then men, even though men do get offended too.

In matt walsh's blog "I'm sorry but it's your fault if you're offended all the time" he argues that our society is the most whiney, sensitive people to exist because of how easily we are offended, he says nobody has ever been so offended as we are. He also argues that if it wasn't intended to offend you, then you shouldn't be offended, it really is true because we sometimes take things to seriously or in the wrong way. 

Nowadays it's all about the who said what but the one thing we don't think about is the why they said it. If someone tells you "you look nice today" that is a compliment we should be taking but the only thing we think about is "you're saying i didn't look nice yesterday. What we dont think about is why he said that, there could be many reasons, but really none of which were meant to offend.  

Shaping our society

Technology is a new way to communicate with other people it has been here for us changing every time to better our communication. Technology is important for our society to evolve.

Some people might say technology is the worst thing because it distracts us from the important things, the true reason for technology is to help people communicate without so much trouble, if someone in New York wants to communicate with someone in California there is no other way to do that without technology because it's a long distance communication calling or texting could be a better solution then spending so much money to travel to California. Technology is soon going to be available for everyone because there is so much going on not just for communication, but technology is also available for internet which can be used to get some work done in school or at work it is always available for everyone.

 I have family all over the united states and Mexico, it's hard to communicate with someone who lives so far away, technology coming into our lives makes it easier to communicate on a daily basis. I know that now that my mother has access to so many kinds of technology it is easier for her to communicate with her Sisters.

In the article How technology shapes our society  they ask to go back ten or twenty years ago and ask how people then do what we do now. People in the business world communicate solemnly by email so what would they have done ten years ago with no internet to communicate with other business people.

technology has allowed countries to communicate without having to travel thousands of miles. It helps the government work together for a better future.we should see technology as the future, what we can create with it is endless.

Our lives in texts

Nowadays use see most teenagers with phones, we always see people texting almost everyday. It seems easier to text but the truth is texting cuts off most of our face to face communication. 

In an AVID weekly article by the name of texting away our best manners and memories, Barbara Shelly argues that by sending a text it might be possible someone could regret it, since it go out so the whole world can see it which could be taken the wrong way by many.

By communicating with someone with words in person they can see the tone and emotions in someone's words. In person someone could say as much as they wanted to talk about, and actually express their feelings, while by text someone could say and express  so much that the person reading the text most likely won't understand the actual meaning behind the text.

Even now eight year olds are having phones or tablets, in my opinion it is worse to have technology at such a young age which causes their attention span to someone talking to be shorter since they're almost always on their phone or tablet.

Photo by: Rosa Gomez