Blog 4

A personal honors history:

1. What did you gain from your experiences as an honors student in the first semester (please consider novels, leadership opportunities, writing, history, projects, etc.)?
I gained a lot more information on history such as in depth health care and reading old literature that I would probably never read such as The Scarlet letter and Beloved. They were both good books where I learned about history and issues that are faced even today. I also feel like I'm more of a better reader we had deadlines and so I developed more vocabulary words I didn't know before which will be useful on the SAT.

2. Discuss what you might have done differently if you could do this past semester of honors over again.
I probably would ask for help there were some blogs that I had trouble doing but I didn't ask for help so I did it by myself and I feel like they weren't as good as the could have been if I did ask for help.

3. Discuss your goals for honors in the second semester.
I don't know if I'm going to take it next semester, but if I do then it would be to pay more attention in class, so I can complete the honors assignment at ease.

4. If you could choose any specific parts of literature and.or history for our honors work next semester, what would you pick and why?
I want to focus on something other an US history if possible because I already learned it last year and learning it this year is boring and I want to learn about other countries.

honors blog 3

In a well-developed, polished essay that is supported by thoughtfully-chosen direct evidence and less than 500 words, please answer the following:

Explain one specific program from the New Deal that you would like to modernize and bring to today's society. Explain which one you picked, what this program originally did during the New Deal, why you picked it and exactly how you see it working in present-day and/or future American society. You may use the New Deal program as it is, revise or alter it to make it fit modern life or use it as a basis for something new.

The program that I chose was the Civil works administration. The civil works administration was a program that was created on November 8,1933 by Franklin D Roosevelt. The way this worked was they would give jobs to people for construction howveer this ended because after costing $200 million a month. So much was spent on this administration because it hired 4 million people and was mostly concerned with paying high wages. It ended in 1934 in large part due to opposition to its cost. The significance of this was that it created 255,000 miles of roads, 40,000 schools, etc. Opposing views would argue that even though it helped people by giving them jobs the cost was just too much so it wasn't worth it. How much was it? It costed $400,000,000.

I picked this because right now America is somewhat in a economic crisis and there are several people without jobs right now. I would alter this by making sure it doesn't cost so much money that's the last thing America needs. So perhaps field workers could be jobs for people because it is needed and it couldn't cost that much and that job would be better than having no job at all.

Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Works_Administration

Blog 20

The issue that I chose was segregated schools, there was a time where where schools and other places such as a hospital were also segregated by whites and blacks. The issue was that this was racist because black students would have to go to a school where they didn't get a good education while white students got to go to a better looking building and a higher education. This made it okay so that state sponsored schools were allowed to separate schools. This would be anti-federalist because it was a state choice rather than government. "After the American Civil war (1861–1865), the government was able to provide some protection for the civil rights of the newly freed slaves." The group of people who took action took their case to the supreme sourt agruing that the board of education was violating the 14th amendment. which is that no state may deny equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction.

Interview:

1. What do you think about state government making their own laws rather than federal?

I personally believe that states having their own laws are pointless in a sense. In the end the federal government makes the final decision. Plus, many times state laws get in conflict with federal laws which just causes too many issues. If each state has different laws, i feel that they discriminate in a sense. If California doesn't allow Gay Marriage, but Arizona does, then California is a discriminating state in a sense. Of course it is up to the people to vote on what they believe, but how is a person from California different than a person in Washington? Also, another issue i have with states having their own policy is the fact that you have to pay more taxes in one state compared to another. I feel that the united states needs to be more UNITED. By letting states set all these different laws, we are not as united as we say we are.

2. When schools were seperated from blacks and whites, a team of people came up with this new law that was against the school board and they argued that it was racist and unfair that they should be seperated, so this group took this law into their own hands, what do you think of the action they took?

The people that put this law into their own hands are using a great gift we have in America. I really love the fact that they gathered people together to face the federal government about an issue they felt passionate about. This truly shows that we the people do have a voice in our government and its a beautiful thing that we have in the United States.

3. How would you relate the case of Brown vs. The Board of Education to a current issue going on today?

If I remember correctly, many people took the case of Prop 8 in their hands to prove it that it was unconstitutional.

honors post 1

Obama's health care Act

What makes this significant to all American citizens

In America there are many American families that cannot afford health care for themselves and their family, this has been a controversy for many families because they are concerned about how they will pay for medical bills. I believe that Obama's health care reform is one of the most significant element of health care legislation in American history because it has been a heated topic, American citizens with low incomes will be able to afford health care, and America is following the footsteps of other countries.

According to whitehouse.gov/healthreform it says, “Health reform makes health care more affordable, holds insurers more accountable, expands coverage to all Americans and makes our health system sustainable.” On March 23, 2010, the Affordable Care Act became law. While this may be a relief to citizens others may argue against it, for this reason it has been a debate between different political parties such as Democrats verses Republicans. Democrats obviously are for the Act while Republicans believe that there should be more of a free market. Now that it has been signed the bill will be taken into effect but will take a while to be put into effect. This means that low income families are going to be able afford medical bills but how?

The way this plan works is that people who already originally could afford healthcare wont really benefit from this because there will be a tax increase for healthcare which is how people who cant afford it will be able to now thanks to taxes that everyone else paid for. A lot of people who can afford it are mad at the idea because they don't want to spend their tax money on other people, the way they think is, “I'm not sick so why should I pay for someone else health care with my hard earned money?” This though is understandable because there are two ways people think one if you have a lot of money then it should all be yours because you worked on hard on it. The other would believe that the reason you earned a lot of money in the first place was because other people helped you, so some of the money you earn should go back to society. An other issue that follows up is arguments whether universal health care will make America loose or save money on the long run.

According to Joel A. Harrison he believes that because America is following the foot steps of other countries such as Canada, Germany, and France that America will save money because they spend less money on health care. “the United States spent 15.3% of GDP on health care in 2004, while Canada spent 9.9%, France 10.7%, Germany 10.9%, Sweden 9.1%, and the United Kingdom 8.7%.” Despite these statistics though America already owes China a lot of money, so although it could save money on the long run it is not for sure because there could be other factors contributing to this. The new health care law will take a while before people see effects on how it saves or waste money.

There are many events in US history that just as this new bill introduced by Obama has effected the way health care is such as the civil rights act which helped desegregate hospitals but I chose this because it is recent and many controversies it has caused because it is effecting everyone for better or worse. It is an event that will follow the foot steps of other countries and could either save or waste money. Either way it is significant because it affects all the classes.

Resources:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform

Bryan Young, “A Good Case for Universal Health Care ,” HuffingtonPost.com, June 7, 2008. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bryan-young/a-good-case-for-universal_b_105866.html

Joel A. Harrison, “Paying More, Getting Less,” Dollars and Sense, May 8, 2008. http://dollarsandsense.org/archives/2008/0508harrison.html

blog 19

1. What are you most proud of in your Life: The Book writing? Try to describe this is detail!
I'm proud of the government verses parents controversies I found, I felt like this section of my article was not only infromative but interesting to read as well.

2. What are some changes or new ideas that you have developed in your writing through the course of this semester?
I learned new writing tips that I can use in other writing assignments and I did a better job with my introduction and conclusion.

3. If you had a little more time to work on your writing for LifE: The Book, what would you do differently? What would you change about your writing?
I would probably make it flow a little better it was hard getting it just right, I know there were some parts when I went to what HPV was and then I jumped to why you should get the vaccine early.

4. How has the additional element of publication in a book affected the way you approach writing?

It made me write it more professionally so when people read my story they will learn something new.

blog 17

What are your character's main goals for the Senate Health Care Hearings?

My characters main goals for the hearing is to get the things she wants which is more funding for CHIP and veterans and to have the highest quality of health care at the lowest price and the government would be paying.

What do you want to accomplish?

I want to accomplish getting a better understanding of how hearings work and so get all my work done especially the scripts.

How do you plan to accomplish it?

I plan to accomplish this by talking to the senates in my group and my witness.

Who are you working with to get this done?
Kadija (my witness) and checking in with max

Blog 17

The first article has a very good introduction that hooks the reader and makes them think because they started of with a strong question that made the reader think which was "Does anybody really believe that adding 50 million people to the public health-care rolls will not cost the government more money?"
"Let’s not forget that the existing Medicare system is roughly $80 trillion in the hole." The author tells readers a high amount that would shock readers who don't know much about health care right now.
"Free-market competition will lower costs in health care just as it has every place else." I liked his conclusion because it offered a solution by explaining how the free marker would save the economy. I think this article could relate to my topic (HPV) because I thought about how if we did have universal health care many doctors would not make as much money and this would be bad for doctors and researchers of the HPV vaccination.

The second article addresses the same view point I like how the author has a professional of health backing up what he says. "As Michael Leavitt ends four years as secretary of health and human services, he offers this attention-arresting arithmetic." He also talks about the issue on medicare and how it is going to cost us more because there is a huge population of old people. "When Medicare was created in 1965, America's median age was 28.4; now it is 36.6. The elderly are more numerous." This relates to HPV as the same thing I mentioned before.

The last two articles were for universal health care. What I liked about this article was the statistics he used howwever I felt like he used so many that I got lost.
"50% of consumer bankruptcies in the United States stem from medical bills, including a surprising number among households that do have some kind of health coverage. Nor do they include the approximately 20% of auto insurance premiums or the 40% of workers’ compensation premiums that pay for medical expenses." Its intresting how he talks about how in the long run we will save money.

The other article addresses the same issue I liked the introuduction he starts with because he says hes a liberal person who used to oppose the healthcare issue but now likes it. It shows how someone who is more consertative about this issue might be more open minded.
"I am a small-government conservative/libertarian and have hated the concept of socialized medicine almost all my life. But now, I could live with universal health coverage in the U.S.. Here's why."
Another quote I liked was, "Note that the countries frequently cited as models of universal health care, Canada and the U.K., spent less on public health than the U.S. did. Sweden, the notorious welfare state, spent 15% less than the U.S." I heard about the health care in other countries and by reading this I learned more and how if we follow those steps we can spend less money. This realtes to HPV because more people will be able to afford the vaccine for it and less peoplem will be at risk for cervical cancer.

Blog 16

So this year the debate about health care has been a heated topic.
My topic for the the book is on HPV. First I'm going to talk about the articles that are for the health care being a right rather than a privilege.

The first article I read the author used real life examples that anyone could relate to although it was a sob story, it made me think about events that I could relate too because the reality is that accidents happen and there are so many accidents everyday. This quote stood out to me "It was $2,000 for a 40 mile ambulance ride?" I thought that was a ridiculous amount of money to expect from someone.

The second article is Universal health care will save Americans money. The main point to this article is that we as Americans are already paying way too much for health care in fact he used statistics to compare our country with countries in Europe. "Americans spend more than anyone else in the world on health care. Each health insurer adds its bureaucracy, profits, high corporate salaries, advertising, and sales commissions to the actual cost of providing care." Another quote "the United States spent 15.3% of GDP on health care in 2004, while Canada spent 9.9%, France 10.7%, Germany 10.9%, Sweden 9.1%, and the United Kingdom 8.7%." I chose these quotes because the statistics he used helped him make his point and it made me thinking more about the cost of health care and how it could me improved.

The third article is that universal health care will improve the quality of medical care. This author talks about how we can learn from Europe and that by having universal health care doctors will be more inspired to work. I had a little trouble with this article the most. However the author did a jood job using quotes from important people such as a woman from Harvard saying, "In Switzerland, rich or poor, they all buy the same health care insurance."

These articles help me with HPV because it is a infection that can lead women to have cervical cancer however the cost of the vaccine could be a problem to some American citizens to get and this could be a problem if the person is sexually active because they can be at risk.

The next three articles are opposing universal health care

Article one: Health care is not a fundamental Right. He mentions how its not fair for a doctor who went to study to become a doctor for several years and of course a doctor being a high paid job they would be at risk at loosing a lot of money and its not fair to them. After I read this I realized even though health care is expensive its not fair for people to have to pay taxes for someone who is frequently getting sick while that person hardly gets sick. I like this quote. "I need hip-replacement surgery that will cost $25,000 and that I don’t have the money to pay for it. Since I have a right to health care, that means that I have a right to get the money from you to pay for my operation."

Article two: Universal Health care will be too expensive. Jacob the author talks about how it is not a right but a privledge a good quote I found was, "If I need an operation, then you cannot say “no” because that would be denying me my right to health care. Thus, isn’t the right to health care actually a power to force doctors to provide people with medical services?" I liked this because its not fair that a doctor needs to be forced to this operation for someone if they don't have the money. I know it may seem like being greedy but in the real world we all have to pay. and doctors need money too.

Article three: Universal Health care will worsen the quality of medical care. This is the exact opposite of how it will benefit us because the author mentions something that the other article did not. "The average wait for hip replacement surgery is more than a year in countries like Europe." So this wouldn't benefit us. What's the point of health care being universal anyways if you would have to wait about a year..which could lead you to being more ill or even death.

Overall My view on the health care is that it is a privilege. Even though I do think health care is pricey I believe that it is somewhat fair for the doctors who had to study many years of research and I think if health care becomes a right more people will be more lazy as far as jobs. I also feel like its not fair for citizens to be taxed on someone else's health care while I may be a perfectly healthy person.

blog 15

Describe the types of health care problems Americans face, and the government's role in seeking solutions.

Some of the health care problems Americans face are first of all over 46 million Americans are currently uninsured, the main reason for this is because of the cost. This can lead to a problem because if someone without health insurance is sick and there are many then they wont go and see a doctor which means more sick people in America. Another issue is pharmaceutical companies raise prices for prescribed drugs. There are many programs that stop doctors from accepting their patients with that coverage such as medicare. This somewhat relates to my article because of the cost of being treated for example getting the HPV vaccination may not be affordable to everyone so that may be one issue stopping people to get it.

http://www.realtruth.org/articles/090203-005-health.html
This link helps explain the crisis that is going on with America's health care.
As far as a solution, recently president Obama has come up with a health reform act that will make health care more affordable.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/health-care/
In this link it shows a video of an old couple talking about their health.

1. Using a specific example, describe what makes a compelling character in narrative nonfiction or literary journalism.

Background information and quotes help make a compelling character. An example of this is from The Conevant, "No one in my family had cystic fibrasis, but my parents know what to expect." This quote shows that her family is healthy and so is she. Background info. also helps because it helps the reader what to expect for example in the Darwin article for example it talks about a scientist they describe him as old and working at an institute. To me this made me assume he was wise and hard working.

2. Using a specific example, describe what makes an interesting plot in narrative nonfiction or literary journalism.

The setting helps show a picture to the reader for ex. "Collins came from a poor farming valley, in Shennadoah valley, Virginia." The setting provided me a picture of a farmer working at a valley. The setting provides good information to also talk about the charcters. They both connect.

3. What specific steps do authors take to write non-jargon-based scientific writing?

Some steps would be defining terms and connecting it to the reader. The author has to decide wether using a scientfic term is necessary or not. It might not be boring if you could add humor or something related to the reader that would make them want to read more and wouldn't mind learning a new scientific term or two.

4. What specific steps do authors take to encourage their readers to connect with their stories?

Using loop, starting out strong, and using intresting facts. The way they they write the story are they using metaphors and other figuartive language? Not being too vauge.

blog 14 life the book and humanities

1. I will write about the adolescent stage and HPV

2.One relevant government agency that works in this area would be a doctor working for the department of health and human services. They would be in charge of giving the vaccines to women. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101013/hl_afp/healthcancersex.
This article talks about the dangers that someone can get without getting their HPV vaccination. It can lead to having cervical cancer. The current conflict with this is that although it is a very helpful vaccine for when you do have sex, parents are arguing that by giving their daughters this vaccination they are only encouraging their daughters to have sex because you wouldn't even need to get the shot if you didn't have sex.

3. Another concern to Americans is the cost of HPV, this is a economic issue and now these not many people have health care.
"The cost-effectiveness of HPV vaccination will depend on the duration of vaccine immunity and will be optimized by achieving high coverage in preadolescent girls"
link number 1:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18716299
link number 2: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.25211/abstract


human papillomavirus a vaccine for women
The stage of life is adolescent. The genetic technology that interests me is the way the risks for HPV-associated high-grade intra-epithelial neoplasia (IN) and cancer are increased.

One department that works in this topic is scientist. Their job is to research the effects of HPV and find out if it is harmful or helpful and what kind of risk it may have and the ages of women who should use it for ex. it is used for females from 9-26 years old.
http://cbs4.com/iteam/Gardisil.Girls.Vaccine.2.718592.html
In this article Dr.Harper who has dedicated 2 years of researching HPV speaks out against is in some way. Here is a quote from the article.
"Dr. Harper says she believes the vaccine is safe but cautions that time is needed to study potential side effects in larger numbers of young girls before any consideration should be given to mandating such a vaccine. "


HPV is a vaccine that is helpful yet may come with side effects that people should be aware of even though the age starts from being as young as 12 perhaps girls should wait until of older year of age.
Link one: bio http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/203188.php
Link two: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16672559

blog 13 life the book

Designer Babies:
Now these days we have come up with much more advance technology and one of the newest creations is designing your own baby. Basically you get to pick out what color eyes and hair you would like your baby to have. Genetic testing is used to make this baby. While it may look like a good idea to some people others find it wrong and babies shouldn't be picked what color eyes it should have they should have what ever eyes they are suppose to have without technology use getting in the way.


Adolescence
HPV vaccinations: HPV vaccinations are mostly targeted on teens so they can prevent infections such as cervical cancer and genital warts at an early age. It is very common and found in women in fact more than 80% of American women will have contracted at least one strain of HPV by age fifty. cervical cancer is the fifth most deadly cancer in women. It is a very important and helpful vaccination for teens and older women. However there are some parents who feel that by giving their teen this vaccination that it will encourage their daughters to have sex, although even with this vaccination their daughters wont be protected by all types of STI's out there.
Adulthood
Growth hormones used in sports:
Lately Growth hormones have been widely used and are very popular with athletes. It seems nice because of all the amazing features it does inside your body such as its ability to boost lean muscle mass, increase energy levels, and reduce body fat. It makes your perform better while playing sports and highly effective. Many people find this wrong and a way of cheating because while other people are working their butts off working out and eating healthy the other person may not be doing much because of the growth hormones they are using.

Blog 12 internship

For internship I would like to work in office with one laptop and I want to be able to work both indoor and outdoors. I would want to work with little kids and help them with their homework /or class work. A office where I can tutor a group of kids and in a office and also being able to go outside and play games or do a cool project.

My skills would consist of being patient with kids and and communicating well with them. I would like to learn how to teach and maybe gain some computer skills. I would like to share my knowledge and lern how to be a teacher.

Idea #3 should be the types of things you'd like to learn at internship. Would you like to learn how the business really works? Do you want to know how to bake a gourmet cake? Do you want to find out how movies are made? Describe the big ideas that you want to learn about while you are on the job. Post a cool picture that represents at least one of these big ideas.

I would like to learn how hard it is is to be doing things that teachers do, I'm used to always being the student so it would be nice to see how it is the other way around. I would like to learn how to be organized and plan projects and stuff because teachers are very organized and always plan things in advance.

Blog 11

After looking at Randy's class tweets I chose the article this article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703358504575544381288117888.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter.
This article was about scrapers taking away information from sites and using it for their own benefit so they can make money. There was a website for people who shared their illnesses to other people who have the same problem and these scrapers track down everything they say so they can come up with better over the counter or prescription products. It is a violation of ones privacy and it seems like a greedy tactic to make more money.

Now these days the internet is full of adds and many times the adds are suppose to target you by showing you adds on things that you would be interested on based on what your interest are. Many websites like myspace and other chatting websites have captchas which help determinate who is a robot and who is a person by making you type random letters. This has been one way to help and try to get rid of scrapers however scrapers have been able to get through it.

This article reminded me of how much adds you see now these days for example when you go to a gas station they have those little tv's for people to watch as they put gas into their car. I feel like adds are taking over its kind of scary.

The article that I chose that was related to the previous article on top is this one http://computer.howstuffworks.com/workplace-surveillance.htm.
In this story you will find how your boss might be tapping into what you do online at work. This could be argued for both sides the opposing side would say it's violating privacy and workers should be trusted. The side for it would say that workers slack off a lot during work and search irrelevant websites such as slacking and going on facebook and sending personal e mails.

Dying for Dixie

What was/were the root cause(s) of Michael Westerman's death?
The civil war took place in the nineteenth-century however Michael Westerman asked for a death wish when he drove to an area that was strongly against the rebel flag and he purposley waved around the rebel flag on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And this happend recently way after the civil war. The root cause for this was ignorance and jealousy for black people having the same rights as them because they no longer felt special, when he waived around that flag he felt a sence of power.
"That same weekend, a nineteen-year-old named Michael Westerman drove through Guthrie with a rebel flag flying from his pickup."

Challenge: In a natural and thoughtful manner, connect the dots between this reading and the readings/topics that we have covered in the past month (for example, we have already seen that Madison's concept of representatives in Fed. 10 is present in the middle school meeting).

A faction was shown in this group when the majority of people in the middle school wanted the rebel flag to stay as the school's mascot. There were two groups one for the mascot and one against. The school boards job was to decide who to listen to, they were sort of like a republic.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50367118-76/arizona-law-utah-enforcement.html.csp

1. The Arizona law which is facing many law suits, including one from the US Department of Justice because it can lead to racial profiling. However Arizona law sponsor urges Utah to act, too. Basically Arizona's law is said to be a solution to immigration but at what cost?
"“We’re not even halfway done learning about all the aspects of this issue,” Jenkins said. “We have a lot more information to gather still.” Utah is still deciding but the fact that they would consider this is pretty sad, it was already a shock when Arizona came out with this ridiculous law.

2. According to this article http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/0910/Arizona-immigration-law-Funds-roll-in-from-across-US-to-defend-it. Gary Piekaar believes that federal government should be funding the law rather than fight it. States have no power to pass immigration laws because it’s an attribute of foreign affairs. On Section 8 - Powers of Congress it says, "The Congress shall have Power To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;" So the power of congress has that power.

3. After doing a little further research about the Arizona law and Utah I learned that it was unconstitutional and the State doesn't have the power to make that kind of decision for immigration laws. I also looked this up because of the trial we will have in class and I wanted to know a little bit more about it and I personally believe that law isn't right so I wanted to know what is being done right now.

What stands out so far?

What stands out to you in your learning?
Whenever we do writing tips it always stands out to me because we wear bandanas and Randy sounds excited, which is good because it gets the energy level up.

What is working well in this class?
I think when Randy explains the answers to homework the next day that helps, because it gives me a deeper understanding of the homework.

What can you do to build upon your successes?
I think asking my classsmates for help will build upon my success.

What very specific, concrete & manageable steps can you take to make the most of your opportunities to learn in this class?
Focus during class, Take notes, ask for others around me for help, Write homework down on planner. If I still don't understand something I will attend office hours. Use my notes to help me with homework and try to get things done before the due date.

What are your goals for the next few weeks in class?
My goals are to get everything done in class on time and finish The Sarlett Letter. Try to speak up and participate more in class.

American Icon and Picture

American Icon
By: Livy Solis

Would you feel deprived if you only had one parent at home? As I sat by myself during dinner, I looked at the empty chairs and sighed. My mom couldn't join me because she was at work and wouldn't get home until later. Even though I was disappointed, I understood because she worked hard to support me. When she got home she looked exhausted but she still made time for me. We decided to watch La Bamba. My eyes were glued to the television screen. As I learned about Richie Valens life and how he started off with so little and ended up a fantastic singer. I learned that his mother encouraged him so much by setting up shows for him to perform at. That opened up my eyes because my mom has always been supportive of many things that I enjoy to do, one thing was writing.

Ever since elementary school I have always enjoyed writing short stories, it wasn’t until 9th grade where I felt very proud of my tragedy story. Like Richie I started at an early age to find something that I liked to do. Most people in my class were excited for this project and had many ideas popping through their heads like a bunch of spam ads taking over your computer screen. My head was blank and I dozed off into my own world. When I got home I asked my mom what I should do for the project. She suggested that I should write my story based on a book. I didn’t feel that sparked energy feeling I have when it comes to writing. My mom observed me and could tell that I was not doing well with this writing. She reminded me of my successful work and inspired me to write.
I brainstormed some ideas and once I had it I grabbed my pencil and let all my thoughts flow into that paper I wrote fast yet nice and steady. I made sure to use descriptive language and felt confident that my first draft was dandy. The following day I let a few of my classmates critique it while I read theirs. I anxiously waited to see what kind of feedback I was going to get. I scanned the comments and smiled at most of them until I ran into a vague negative comment, I read the word, “bad”. That word stuck to me like some nasty glue that wouldn't come off no matter how hard I tried to pull it away.
I remembered seeing Richie being determined to get better at his music and even though some of his classmates didn’t think he was good enough, he still played music. After thinking about it some more I shrugged it off and continued to work on my story, this time I knew my story was great. I showed it to my teacher and she liked my story. I was proud of my final grade and I let my mom take a look at it. She loved it and told me if I continued to write like this I would be able to have even more fantastic stories to share. I was back on my feet again and I realized that I just had to be reminded of what I could accomplish.
Richie died young at 17 however; he accomplished a lot because music was his passion. His two most popular hits were Donna and La Bamba. La Bamba was traditionally a Mexican folk song, but he made it into his own version. He inspired many Mexican Americans after he sang that song. He was a great rock and roll musician. When the movie ended I was glad to know that he achieved his dream as a singer by the support of his mom and believing in himself. I will too by continuing to work hard and not giving up on myself.

Icons Loop

Intro:

Would you feel deprived if you only had one parent at home? As I sat by myself during dinner time I looked at the empty chairs and sighed my couldn't join me because she was busy at work and wouldn't get back home until later. Even though I was disappointed I understood because she worked hard to support me. When my my mom got home home we were browsing the Netflix movies to watch instantly and we both decided to watch La Bamba, my mom had already seen it but she wanted to see it again and it was my first time. My eyes were glued to the TV, I was so interested in the film.

Outro:

Richie died young at only 17 however, he accomplished a lot because music was his passion. His two most popular hits were Donna and La Bamba. La Bamba was traditionally a Mexican folk song but he made it into his own version and he inspired many Mexican Americans after he singed that song. He was a great rock and roll musician and although his goal was different from mine, I’m glad to know that he achieved his dream as a singer by the support of his mom and believing in himself, as I will too by continuing to work hard and not giving up on myself. In a couple of years I will be attending college and take all of my writing knowledge there.

I chose this opening because I start off with a question and somewhat of a setting.

This ties my ideas together because I start off talking about how I first got introduced to Richie Valens by talking about how I saw La Bamba and I talk about my goal which is writing. The outro leaves the readers with like me using this knowledge in the future so I went from present to future.

I hope my readers are able to see how I connect with Ritchie even though my goal wasn't singing, I do feel like he is a great icon.

Blog 3

Part 1: Icons

I'm going to include Richie Valens and my mom in my artist statement. My events are going to be the events that took place in 9th grade about my writing.

The ideas I chose were how Richie Valens had the support of his mother to make him keep going and not giving up and my development of how my love of writing came to be. These ideas represent how one can go far by believing in ones self and having as a little as one person encourage you. For me I believe that Richie and I share the same connection of having our moms be their for us but not just our moms but also the determination we have to get there.

Part 2: Resources

Post an annotated list of resources that you are using to create your artist statement. For each resource, post as much of the following as you can:

http://www.ritchievalens.com/
My tragedy story from 9th grade (includes drafts)



These resources are useful to me because the first one which is Richie Valens website helps me understand his history so I can talk about how he influenced me and my tragedy story from 9th grade is what I'm mostly talking about in my artist statement because after doing this project it helped me get in track again with writing and inspired me to do more better.

American Icon Ideas

The first person I'm considering for my American Icon is Richie Valens.

1. Who and what was important to this Icon? Why?
Singing and playing music, his family and girlfriend. Playing and singing songs was a talent that Ritchie had and he wanted to make it big because he believed in himself and wanted to share his music with everyone else. His family played a major role in his life, his mom encouraged and supported him when he was young and before he was popular. His girlfriends was important to him because he loved her a lot and she believed in him.
2. How did this Icon become important in American culture?
Richie first became popular in American culture when he started performing rock and roll music at a bar and then performed in more bigger places as more people listened to his music.
3. How did this Icon become important to you?
This Icon became important to me when I saw how young he was and already went big for doing something he was good at and him being in the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement with his hit La Bamba. I also liked the way he believed in himself.


Icon number 2 Rachel Ray
1.How did this Icon become important to you?
Rachel became important to me after I saw her enthusiasm while she does her job which is cooking. I always wanted to learn how to cook like her and have fun while doing it.
2. Who and what did this Icon inspire?
She inspired people to cook easy and healthy meals instead of wasting your money and eating out. She inspired people who already cooked to try new ideas of their own and to have fun.
3. How can you relate to this Icon?
I can relate with her because we are both women who have an open mind when it comes to trying new things such as trying or making new food.

Icon number 3 is Tyra Banks
1. Who and what did this Icon inspire?
Tyra inspired many young woman to gain confidence and feel good about themselves by starting her BIO campaign which stands for beauty inside and out. She also inspires people to go more big then just looks. Tyra started off as a model but she also has brains.
2. Who and what was important to this Icon? Why?
Making people feel good about themselves and giving tips to make other peoples life easier. Also her mother who supports her and Tyra mentions her a lot during her talk show.
3. How did this Icon become important in American culture?
Tyra became important in the American culture when she first began her Tyra show her main goal was to through issues people were struggling with and trying to help. Her show became a success in the American culture and she is not only know for looks now as a model but her knowledge as well.

Back to School

-Better writing
-Understanding history
-Ace quizzes and tests

My hopes for this year is to be able to make great final products and work well with people. My goals for this year is to gain a better understanding for writing and history. I enjoy writing and I consider myself a good essay writer but I would love to get better at it and become more creative with writing and make it stand out. I also want to have good grade and also have fun in class while learning.

What is something that you do in your life that naturally try to do well?
I'm good at taking critiques from people and improving on it such as school work, food I cook, or a sport I play. Another thing is writing because I have always liked to write, because it can entertaining.