One Hundred!

As of today, if you have completed every one of the journal assignments, you will have completed 100 journal entries. This serves as a record of your thoughts and feelings about the topics that were covered in this course over the entire academic year (even if you delete your blog, I have saved it all). Whether you realized it at the time or not, this journal writing was one of the most important elements of this class. It was intended to encourage you to think on your own terms about the topics we covered in class, and to express those thoughts in writing. Looking back at the experience of keeping this journal, write about how you feel about the practice of writing daily about your life, whether related to school or not. Do you think it is a valuable habit? Why or why not? Explain.

• The practice of writing daily about life can be both good and bad. First, if you have a bad memory, writing a journal would definitely be good because it reminds you of what happened before. Second, writing daily about your life provides material for you to remember what happened in the past even if a lot of time has passed. However, one of the bad things for writing daily in a journal is that if you write something personal or private, or some secrets in it, someone who accidentally finds it might see them, and it might cause you some trouble. However, I still think it is a quite valuable habit because it allows you to practice your thinking and improve your writing skills. It also tests your memory because you may sometimes forget to write or type your journal of the day. 
• I'm extremely glad that I have finished all my journal entries for the year (I have just checked my blog and if I exclude this journal entry than I have exactly 99 entries; in other words, with this journal entry I will have completed my 100 journal entries for the year)! I sometimes (actually, a lot of times) forget about my journal, and I'll have to make it up the next day, or the day after the next day. But I'm still glad that I made them up and completed my 100 entries!

Final Exam

How do you feel about your final exam? Are you ready? What parts do you feel unsure about? What parts are you confident about. If the teacher were to say as he was passing out the exams, "Don't worry, this exam is very easy," how much would you want to kill him?

• I would say that I feel quite fine about the exam, except that I am a little bit nervous, as I always am before exams. Though I say I feel quite fine, I would definitely say no, I am not ready for the test. This is because I will never be ready for any test. I know this is a weird logic, but who cares? That's what I think! Anyways, the parts that I feel unsure about are the comprehension parts where the question asks about the content of the story. I feel unsure because I sometimes don't really understand a feeling, tone, or mood, or what a character or the author is trying to convey to me. What I am confident about is the vocabulary. This is because I have spent a really long time looking up the words and memorizing the words, so I feel confident. Finally, I would say that if any teacher passed out the exams while saying "Don't worry, this exam is very easy," I would definitely want to kill him, because if he thought that it was easy, then why even give out the exam!? Can't he just be nice and say, "Oh, you guys are good, so you don't have to take the exam"?

Group Work

Yesterday you were asked to write about situations in which strangers had to work together for a common goal. Many times as students you are put into groups to perform various tasks. How do you feel about group work? Do you like it more than working by your self, or less? Why? What makes it better or worse? Do you think you are a net contributor to the groups you are in, or do you tend to just let others in the group do most of the work? Why do you think teachers make students do group work so often? For example, do you think they are really trying to teach students to learn how to work together, or are they just making their own jobs easier by reducing the number of projects to grade? How do you think group work in school will prepare you for life after high school? Given the fact that in college you might have to work in groups even more than you have had to in high school, and after college you will certainly have to work in groups, how do you feel about the value of group work? 

•  I do not have any particular feelings towards teamwork. My feelings for team projects mostly depend on the situation. If the project is really hard, then group work is good since I can kind of depend on someone else to do it for me (evil, I know, but it works sometimes). However, if the teammates that I work with are incapable of doing the job and lazy, then I would rather work alone than in a group. I would say that I am usually one of the contributors of a project, unless I'm in the same group as "nerds", which include people such as Sarah and Alyson, etc. XD I believe that teachers tell students to do group projects because one, they want to grade less assignments, and sometimes two, they really care about the students and want them to learn the skills of cooperating with each other. I would say that most teachers do this because of the first reason (just my opinion, though; never know what the teachers are thinking about). Anyways, no matter what the reason is, learning to do group projects is an important skill for a person. We can only survive in this cruel world if we learn how to cooperate and communicate with our superiors and partners. To sum it all up, group work is something that everybody needs to know, even if they don't like it.

Strangers Together

Throughout “102 Minutes” the authors emphasize that people are strangers and that they are alone. However, they also point out that the rescue depended on the efforts of many people. What main idea is suggested by these two points? Can you think of an example from your own life or experience of how people can simultaneously be both strangers and collaborators?

•  The main idea that is suggest by these two points is that even though people are strangers and may not know one another (or maybe they dislike each other even without knowing others), strangers sometimes have to work together with other no matter what when the situation calls for it. 
• One of the examples in my own life where people can simultaneously be both strangers and collaborators can be found in MUN, or Model United Nations. When we first attend a meeting, we do not know anyone who is there, since we come from different places. However, we are at the meeting in order to work with others in order to solve a problem or an issue that is plaguing the world in the current world. We have to be able to communicate with others and merge our ideas together, and we slowly turn from strangers into allies, and from allies, we turn into friends. In MUN, lobbying is the experience where we have to be able to find people with the same point of views, and then we merge our solutions for the issue (our resolution). Then in the debate, we have to try to support our own allies, and try to pass our solution. I believe that MUN is a great activity where we can turn strangers into friends by working together and collaborating with each other.

Project Reflection

What did you learn by doing the project on the book of your choice? How would you characterize the level of effort it took to read the book? How much effort did you put into the project? How long did it take you to complete? In the final analysis, do you feel like the exercise was worthwhile? If so, why? If not, why not? Could it have been a deeper learning experience in some way? Did your own participation and effort have an effect on the value of the project as a learning experience?

• There are quite a lot of interesting things that I learned from the reading project. First, I learned some names of Italian schools and universities, the name of a German university (University of Gottigen), a German address and a German phone number, and also what should be included in a peer evaluation form for teachers and for professors. 
• I believe that my level of effort in a scale from one to ten would be about 9. I said nine because I believed that I placed a lot of effort into researching the information that was not clarified within the book. I spent a total of about six to seven hours to finish and complete the book report, the reading project, and also the presentation.
• I believe that this is a worthwhile project. For me, researching more and creating a more detailed analysis would help me better understand the characters that I am reading about. I believe that this learning experience is set up quite well. 
• Participation and effort definitely have an effect on the value of the project as a learning experience. If not effort was placed within the project, nothing would be learned.

911

There is no doubt that the terrorist attacks of September 11 were terrible. What about the aftermath? Considering the state of world affairs today, what effect do you think 911 has had? Did the United States respond appropriately? Is the world now a safer place? Now that Bin Laden has been killed, do you think that the survivors and those who lost loved ones in the attacks feel better?

• The aftermath of the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers was that people became more aware of the fact that there are terrorist groups who are willing to sacrifice themselves to that level for their cause. The event also made people more aware of the dangers that they face every single day, every moment, and made them fear these terrorist, and made them really jumpy about events. 
• The United States first response was to find out what the motive was, which was a quite appropriate response. The attack on the Twin Towers also started the War on Terrorism in Afghanistan. I personally believe that the United States should stay more out of foreign affairs and just strengthen their national security. Getting themselves involved might only increase the risks of the United States being attack by the terrorists again. Therefore, I believe that the starting of the War on Terrorism in Afghanistan was not that appropriate.
• I believe that the world is not a safe place. We can use the death of Bin Laden as an example. The death of Bin Laden does make the people feel better, but does not make the world a safer place, but instead, a more dangerous place. This is because the death of their leader may cause the terrorist groups to want even more revenge.

Buried Alive

Today we will begin reading a true story about two men who were trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building. What do you think it would be like to be buried alive or trapped in some life-threatening way? What thoughts do you think might go through your mind? Who would you like to have the chance to send a message to? Would you want to have done something differently in your life? If you were trapped with others, do you think that you would all work together to try to survive, or would it be “every man for himself”?

• I believe that being buried alive would be very, no, I should say extremely, uncomfortable. How would it be comfortable, anyways? It'll make you feel like you can't breath at all. And, also, depending on the situation, you might either be very wet, or very muddy, or in anyway, be "dirty", to sum it all up. 
• I can almost be absolutely sure that if I ever get trapped alive, my first thoughts would be swear words such as "CR*P" and "SH*T" and "F**K", etc. I would say that almost anyone under that kind of situatioon would think like that, unless you are someone who is extremely weird. 
• If I had a chance to send a message out, it would be of course to someone I love the most. If, during that time, I have a lover of some sort, then maybe the message would be sent to him to tell my family about my current situation. If, however, I don't have a lover of some sort, then the message would definitely be to my family. I would say that I would want my grandparents to read the message first, then my parents, then my cousins. Weird order, I guess, but whatever. 
• I would not have really wanted something to be redone if I know that I'm going to die. At least, not right now. I believe that I have nothing in my life that I have to regret for.
• If I were really suck in such a life threatening situation, I believe that I would want to work together with other people and try to survive instead of fighting with each other and making the situation even worse.