Best of Week: The Beginning of the End

Going out to dinner, going to a friend's house, trying to attempt to watch a full whole movie without talking through it or end up not watching it, eating more food, talking about an issue that every single person contributes to, staying up until 6 in the morning, walking up four hours later, eating what's left over from the previous night for breakfast, carpooling friends home, and ending up sleeping in your own bed. This is how De La Cru have sleepovers.

I think that the best thing that happened this week was the De La Cru sleepover we had on Friday night. It was the last time that that we were together as this year's team because try-outs for next year's team is this week. This means that after this week, I'm officially done with DLC forever...

I honestly can't believe that after being on the team for 4 years, it's finally over. The only veterans of DLC that were also on it for 4 years are myself and two other girls on the team: Carly Goranson and Caitlin Fitzpatrick. It's just simply surreal.

At the end of the night, when we were all snuggled in our sleeping bags and laying on the floor in circle, we were talking about future Cru. Baby Cru (otherwise known as the members that are going to be on the team next year) are worried about next year's team since they don't know what they are going to do. So all the seniors told their advise and things they should do in order to keep the spirit of the team alive. And at that point, that got me thinking about Humanities.

At some point, we talked about whether or not life is linear or cyclical; whether or not life has a beginning, middle and end or it just everlastingly continues in cycles. Even though for Caitlin, Carly, and I (as well as the rest of the seniors on the team) think that our lives as DLC members was linear, if you look at it as a whole, the spirit of DLC is certainly cyclical. Even though all the seniors are leaving, we still have our juniors and sophomore to continue to keep DLC alive.

It will be a very sad moment when we have our last event together (which is an end of the year ceremony with our coaches) but I'm excited to come back to visit and watch all the performances of the future De La Cru. Hopefully I'll be able to restrain myself from getting up from my seat and going on stage to dance with the team as if I never left.

Inconvienient Truth: Guys Have It Easier

A few days ago, a dear friend of mine was going through the usual monthly dilemma girls inevitably have to face so she was complaining and venting out all her problems she had to me. As I was trying to comfort her, my friend has concluded two things: she wants to reincarnate into a boy in her next life and that girls have much difficult and more complex problems than boys. I agree with only one of the two.

Guys really do have easier lives than girls and I can point out several of many examples:

1.  As mentioned before, guys don't have to deal with monthly biological, hormonal processes
2. They don't have to worry about getting pregnant
3. Their showers are quick; they simply need shampooing and some body washing
4. They can go to school wearing what they rolled out of bed with and still look good
5. They don't care how they look
6. Faster metabolisms
7. If they have a problem with another person, they just punch it off and then they're friends again; instead of going behind their backs and talking about them, causing drama and/or be "fake" friends with them
8. They don't have to shave the majority of their body
9. They don't have to ware make-up!!
10. Shopping doesn't take 10 hours
11. They still dominate the work environment and get better pay
12. They're not as extremely emotional as girls are; if they are emotional, the express it more clearly than girls
13. They get easily amused

And the list goes on and on. It's simply unfair. Girls have to work 10 times harder to receive the respect we deserve and to be taken seriously. And there is still discrimination among the sexes, especially in the professional world.

Even though a guy can argue against all my points and claim that guys have a harder life than girls, it's still a major theory that many of us recognize. I am determined than one day, just one day, all the problems that girls possess will be worth it in the end. It's possible that there will be a turnover and the females will dominate the impossible and do the forbidden.

As of right now, even though my life is full of complications, challenges and difficulties, I don't wish that I was a guy. With every bad, there is good and I realized that it really is fun being a girl.

Blogging Around

Nolan H: Best of Week: Visiting the University of Illinois
Nolan! I can totally relate to you based on this issue. I also had trouble deciding which college I wanted to go to and it was basically between Loyola and Dominican University.

Not only was location a factor that affected my decision but also the finance. Dominican offered me a great scholarship and Loyola gave me a decent financial package. But it's not all about the money, you have to go to a college that you feel comfortable and certain about.

This is why I am so happy that I visited Dominican because that made me realize which college I want to attend: Loyola. At first I thought that since Dominican gave me such a great scholarship, I would just go there and save some money, but after seeing it...it changed my mind completely! Even though it looks nice from the outside, it doesn't so much on the inside. Girl-ratio is around 5 to 1 and the dorms were complete crap.

Now that I've visited both Loyola and Dominican, the stress about college choice is over and it feels great to be relieved and happy. There are many factors that come into mind when choosing the right college and it's based on us to make that right decision. I'm glad you chose which college you want to go to and that makes the two of us stress free! 


Sammy B: Best of Week: Fear of an Audience
Sammy!! First of all, I love you and I love your blog!

We've been friends since last year but we became so much closer this year and this blog made me realize how much I still don't know about you. Because of this blog, though, I feel like I can make an even stronger connection with you.

I too am timid and hesitant at times when it comes to performing, speaking, and presenting in front of a large group of people. Throughout high school, I was able to learn that it's okay to take risks, make mistakes, and to be open-minded. I feel like experiences help us change and approach life in different perspectives. And this is part of our identity; we're currently trying to figure out who we are an in order to do so, sometimes we have to make decisions that go beyond our comfort zone.

Sammy, I am SO grateful that you tried for De La Cru because if it wasn't for that, 1. you wouldn't have overcome your fear and 2. we wouldn't of been friends. And when you sang at Hip Hop Coffeehouse, dear God, you gave me the goosebumps and I am so proud of you for making that decision!!

You're such a great person and I hope you build on your character and personality by doing these kinds of things.

Love ya!

Best of Week: Keeping it Chill

It's 4th quarter and all of the senior minds are just done with school. It the end of April, all we have to go through AP tests, and we're pretty much done!! But until then...we're not. We still have tests to study for, projects to work on, and daily homework to dreadfully deal with. We're almost there though, almost...

However, one critical concept that I observed during Humanities this week is to be chill. Mr. Allen understands us senioritis-diseased seniors and that we're all humans. So in order to get through school, all we have to do is be chill. If we get everything that needs to be done during class, we don't have to worry about it for homework. This is Mr. Allen's 4th quarter rule and I believe this rule should be applied to the rest of the classes containing seniors.

Even if a class doesn't follow this "regulation", I am still able to apply it to them. I can get a lot of homework done during class so I don't have to worry about when I see kids freely playing outside after school and I'm just locked in my room doing something not that fun. It is almost the end, and we can all get through this together. Yes we cannot wait to get out of high school forever, but we have to realize that we're NOT quite there yet.

But thanks to Mr. Allen, we can just look at this from an easier standpoint, and be chill.

Blogging Around

Nina K: Captured Thought:emotion/physical bonds 
Nina! What an interesting blog! Even though you provided one simple fact, it makes a huge difference knowing it. Even though I'm not in AP Bio, it's nice to have friends that are in different courses that are able to share such vital and relevant information with their peers. Like they always say, you learn something new everyday.

So going back to your blog, I've never made that connection either. This changes the whole relationship status around. This is great information to have for future relationships and significant advise. Thanks Nina! 


Benjy W: Captured Thought: The Kids You Meet in Gym Class
Benjy! I love this blog that you posted. I agree with you 100% and even coming from a PE Leader, I also get to see the other side of it. As a leader, I see so many different cliques going around in gym classes, for girls and for guys. But they all come for one purpose: a mandatory class. But seeing these kids coming from different groups, cliques, or possees, they all collaborate together in order to get through the course.

It's just like De La Cru! All of us have different nationalities, traditions, cultures, hang out with different groups of people. However, when we have practice, we all come together and cooperate with each other to come up with an awesome performance!

And yes, it is a great way to make new friends, given that you wouldn't receive these rare opportunities to do so. 

LitCircle: Final Blog

I've read Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age and I am comparing my book to what Kyle discussed about The Shallows from his blog. 

Both of our books usually got paired up during our LitCircle discussion days so I was able to draw information out and be able to derive a clear picture of what his book is talking about: what I got from it seemed completely different of what my book was all about. The Shallows made it seem as the Internet is a disadvantage to our brains while Cognitive Surplus made it sound like it is an advantage. However, while reading Kyle's blog, he pointed out that there is an advantage of the usage of the Internet. 


Shirky states that because the human species has evolved into complex cognitive form, we have been able to invent and think of original ideas to accomplish tasks more easily and efficiently. As a result, we have more time on our hands. And what do we do with that time? We watch TV. Instead, Shirky claims, we should be able to take that surplus of time and put it into more useful hands. The book talks about how the Internet and the media helps us thinking outside the box and being able to derive information from professionals as well as amateurs. He's saying that we are more connected through the media and able to spread news in seconds.


On the other hand, Carr explains that because of technology, we have developed a shorter attention span. But, this shorter attention span put us in good use with the Internet and multitasking. "Hyper texts, along with other internet sources, have been proven to increase cognitive loads and increase the ability to retain, as well as use new information." (Kyle). This is a great advantage as we continue to develop and evolve into more complex cognitive species.


All in all, because our cognitive thinking is expanding, so is the media. And as we keep on inventing more efficient ways of doing things, we have more time on our hands and in the end, we should incorporate that time into even more efficient technology to make our lives easier.

 

LitCircle Book Response

Agnes Gul
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age
Meeting Number Three
Pages 97-159

Opportunity and Culture

            These next two chapters mainly discussed about how groups can be an organizing principle of something that wants and/or needs to be done. In the Opportunity Chapter, Shirky claims that something can be done more efficiently and more rapidly if done in a group, rather than done by one person; this is because groups tend to spread among people that are not directly related to the group. In the Culture chapter, Shirky states that “The more people in a community who can understand a particular fact, method, or story, the likelier it is that those people will be able to work together to make use of those bits of knowledge.” (Shirky, 140) In other words, as mentioned in the Culture chapter, knowledge can spread among a particular group, and spread into “peripheral” groups as well.

            “…much twentieth –century economics mistakenly assumed that market transactions are an ideal and even default model for human interactions. But some kids of value can’t be created by markets, only by a set shared and mutually coordinating assumptions, which is to say by culture.” (Shirky, 136) We can see that the organizing principle of most inventions, ideas, and creations are based upon groups. Just how an infectious disease can transmit from one person to another in a fraction of days, so can ideas within groups. Some people see a group challenging the status quo or trying to break the Philistine way of thinking, they’re most likely to join that group if it personally relates to them, and then others will join, and so and so on; as a result, it creates a chain reaction. The Internet plays a key role in the spreading of ideas since the Internet is global and ideas can be shared across the world. Thanks to modern technology, we are able to globally share our ways of thinking and collaborate with one another.

Captured Thought: Connections to Humanities

Throughout these last two weeks, I've been reading "Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age" by Clay Shirky as a LitCircle book. As a group we have to read and have to turn in a writing response. Looking back at my previous two writing responses, I realize a strange connection between the novel and Humanities.

So far in Humanities we have been discussing as a class about organizing principle, adjacent possible and challenging the status quo. And of course we read other books, short stories, and poems about all these elements but they still aren't enough to fully understand what they mean. However, my LitCircle books provides an excellent source of really capturing the the true meaning of these themes. The author provides clear, straightforward, current examples of what is going on in the world and connecting it to either organizing principle, adjacent possible, or challenging the status quo.

And not only does Shirky connect his book to Humanities, but he also connects it to current events (that aren't mentioned in his book). For example, in Chapter 2, he talks about Korea and importing American beef and how the Korean citizens were protesting against it with the means of blogging, websites, violent demonstrations. As I was reading this chapter, it kept reminding me of Egypt and what is current going on in that country.

As a result, I think that choosing this novel is very beneficial when it comes to clearly understanding and applying topics that are discussed during class.

It Matters: Egyptian Protest

New semester. New quarter. So what will this new quarter bring us? Well as of now, we have been discussing about challenging the "status quo". We read "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr., and analyzed the methods that he used to challenge the status quo during his time period.  It is pretty obvious that it's challenging to understand something that has occurred in the past but it's easy for us to relate to it if we compare it to something that has happened recently. Fortunately, we just got what we wanted.

This past Friday, Mr. Allen told us that somewhere in the world, the status quo is being challenged. That somewhere is Egypt. The majority of the class time was spent watching the news online about the Egyptian protesters. Apparently tens of thousands of people are out on the streets, demanding an end to the 30 year rule of President Hosni Mubarak.Citizens have been protesting against to what they think is a corrupt authoritarian government. Then even shut down the internet.

This goes to show that challenging the status quo can happen anywhere, at anytime. If something is deemed unfair, unjust, or just wrong, people are not going to stand there and wait for an event that will make things right. No, they are the ones that are going to proceed with action and do whatever is possible to make a difference.

And it's also mind-blowing how we can see something that has happened in the past occur now.

Metacognition: First Semester

When I first walked into 5th period Humanities class, I noticed something oddly familiar about that classroom. I realized that it was the classroom that was always dark and had only a few lighting every time I walked past it in my previous years of high school. So once I stepped in, I thought to myself "No way! This is the class with the cool-looking room!" What a great start to the first semester.

As the weeks went by, and as I reflect upon it as the semester ends, it honestly amazes me how much I've learned in a single class and the majority of it has to do with creativity. I feel like we talk about creativity almost everyday and that reminds me of how Mr. Allen told us today that in our future careers, in order to be successful, we need to be creative people. We are already in a highly competitive era for businesses and professions, but no doubt will the competition greatly increase in the next 10 years or so. So the more creative we are, the better we stand in our careers.

What stood out to me the most was taking the little things that we already know from previous learning and education, and simply taking a closer look at it. Things like listening to a musical piece and "vertically listening" to it. I never realized how there can be two different "songs" in one. Or understanding that everything typically has its "organizing principle" like in The Shadow Catcher novel or The Falling Stairs musical piece. Like I always say, you learn something new every day and that's exactly how I feel about this class.

The one thing I honestly wasn't prepared for for this class was the homework load. When we were picking our classes last year, all the seniors said that it was basically an art class in an English class. False. However, with all of the Mindbook entries, the blogs, the reading, the essays, and projects, it really helps me step into different worlds and become a better creative person as an individual. I am able to explore my resources and expand my own creativity.

All in all, I think that I made a very good decision about taking Humanities class and I hope that I will take everything that I've learned so far (and what I will learn) and carry it forward into my future life.