usually if an angle is bigger than 360 degrees say it is 400 degrees, if you are finding the reference angle, you have to subtract 360-400 to get -40 which is an angle that is coterminal and shares a side with the 400 degree angle on the x-axis (if the circle is on a coordinate plane) and you plot the -40 degree angle. If the angle is negative you go clockwise and if it is positive you go counter-clockwise. Since the angle is bigger than 360, it over-encompasses a circle and it is hard to represent, so we subtract 360 from the angle to make it represented as a reference angle, instead of using 400 degrees which is in another dimension, we can find how many times the circle goes around to get 400 by subtracting 360 from it. It is different for radian angles though. I hope I didn’t confuse you;) pre-calc is lots of fun and color-coding and labeling a unit circle is enjoyable.

Dave and Andrew both helped me today in ap english with the unit circle and i think i understand it better now. also dave helped me with physics honors as well. i’m on spring break starting tomorrow to april 3. my pre-calc teacher says there will be a quiz on 6.3 on april 5 (tuesday), i have ch.19 test in ap world history april 6 and an ap english quiz april 7 (thursday) on Into the Wild and also transcendentalism and a physics test on conservation of momentum on april 7 (thursday). so i am going to have a busy spring break, studying and reading chapters. andrew has gotten back to being tense around me because i’m doing better in pre-calc than he is and dave is helping me. dave is a great guy, he is very compassionate, entertaining and explains things in great detail and he is very helpful. he’s the type of person that gets along with everyone. also my yoga teacher has so many cool templates such as chameleons (blending in with nature or surroundings, being at peace with your surroundings), fairies (flying away from stress), buddhas (spiritual awakenings, being at peace with yourself) to color to relieve stress.

sebastian is great person who throws javelin on my track team, he is very encouraging when our team works out in the weight room and he is good at explaining the workouts. we also have two new guys who are very entertaining, i was practicing with them since this is my first year throwing. the two new guys were very encouraging and i managed to throw the shotput (8 lbs for girls) to six inches on my third try not the farthest, but it’s progress). before i couldn’t even throw the shot put far enough, it would just land an inch from my foot and their was no projectile motion, but i have more force now. you have to put a lot of weight in your back leg so when you throw, the back leg is like a launch for your hips to open and have the motion throw far in your arms. my team mates were great as well and helped me lots. mildred, erin, matt, james and the two new guys were all helping me. today, during lunch break, i visited my yoga teacher and i think i might switch my schedule a little next year to take a class with her, my friend, javi (sophomore year cooking class) is in her fiber arts class. javi is quite an entertaining guy and he and i share an interest in the medical field, we both enjoy working out and helping people. he is competitive, but in a fun way.

here is the workout i did for track:

20 minutes of sprints (100 m)

front squats (10,10,8,6) cross arms hold bar and lift it as you squat

leg upleg-step using box (10,8,6)

bench press (10, 8,8,6)

incline pushups (3X10)

curls (3X10)

i feel like my wrist is developing more muscle, but it is also sore as well, but i had lots of fun. shawn and dakota, both friends in my pre-calc class have been teaching me shortcuts on how to solve pre-calc equations since they feel the teacher makes it long-drawn and it is pretty cool. they both are in my physics honors class as well and they have a great sense of humor. dakota has a witty, sarcastic sense of humor much like andrew and dakota can be competitive at times, but not as fiercely competitive as andrew. dakota was teaching me how to rock climb using the stair banister and the wall today and it was quite entertaining. he said we probably used 4000 horsepower (it’s just a fun way to experiment with physics, i don’t think we exerted that much power, but if you have more mass and speed, your power is more).

after yesterday, my special friend didn’t feel so left out, but today when i went to my yoga teacher for 25 minutes during my lunch break, my lunch buddy (steve) felt left out so i decided to make him laugh by showing him cool techniques on the graphing calculator and talking about track. i felt bad b/c when my special friend asked me to hang out with him after school today, i couldn’t b/c i had track practice, but i had lots of fun with my lunch buddy (steve) and my team mates at practice.
anyway, i wished him a happy spring break. i get the feeling that the more i do well in math and science and go for track, the more my special friend likes me. he has gotten over the fact that he is better at english and history b/c he really cares about me and just wants me to be happy doing what i love. i’ve seen him around other girls and he doesn’t seem to really connect with them as much as he does with me. sometimes he walks alone to think and i do the same and we meet each other and we smile at each other. i think he still wishes he was my boyfriend, but it’s hard with our busy schedules and me having so many friends helping me with school. i feel like i share a special connection to a lot of my friends especially dave and andrew (when he’s not being tense from competition). it’s great having them around to help me with school. sometimes my special friend gets jealous b/c i spend lots of time with them, but he doesn’t have to worry because even though i love all my friends, he remains my special friend, the one guy i love the most.

here is a paragraph i wrote about dave:

Everyone has friends that have helped them throughout tough times in life. Friends also connect to each other with platonic love. True friends see beyond your mistakes and also help you improve your skills. There is no friend like David Murphy; he and I have been friends since ninth grade. Whenever I get stressed and complain, Dave is always encouraging and often helps me with schoolwork. Dave is very modest and easy to talk to and we share a spiritual connection that ties us as friends; we both care about each other. Dave’s humor, easy-going nature, intelligence and compassion make him a great person to be around; we have platonic love as friends because we both chose each other as friends and both help each other develop and grow. Dave is like the song “All I Want” by Toad the Wet Sprocket, in the song it states “Nothing’s so cold, as closing the heart when all we need is to free the soul, but we wouldn’t be that brave I know.” Dave’s considerate nature makes him trustworthy and his confidence helps me feel better about myself and makes me feel more open to meeting people instead of closing myself off. There are no words to describe the platonic love I feel for Dave. Without, him I would not have developed the confidence I have and have felt my soul feel much freer instead of holding back in making friends; he taught me many valuable lessons on trust and acceptance of myself. Also in the song, it states “All I want is to feel this way, to be this close, to feel the same.” I always want to keep the memories of friendship and also am grateful to the way Dave encourages me and makes me laugh when I am sad. Without Dave, I would not be the same person I am today; I am glad that he is my friend and we share platonic love where we both help each other grow and develop.

here is a paragraph i wrote about my special friend:

Everyone is a snowflake, beautiful and unique; no one has the same experiences in their lives. We are all shaped and become stronger based on our life experiences. Yet, there are always people who come into your life who make such a difference and you are never the same again. Caring, compassionate and understanding are three words to describe the guy who came into my life in seventh grade when I felt like I had hit rock bottom and had no friends; he helped me build back the foundation that I thought I had lost. There is no one like my special friend, who is always energetic and reminds me to embrace the positivity of life. Before him, I never knew what I was capable of. Yet, the moment he came into my life, doors opened and I saw light

my special friend and I have been friends since seventh grade throughout high school. In seventh grade, I had low self-esteem and was often bullied. We met in gym class when we were playing soccer, he picked me for his team and it was such a relief to have someone notice me since most people avoided me. When people laughed at his pick, he would defend me and when I felt depressed, he would say things like “I have faith in what you can do, don’t give up.” Throughout the years into high school, he would role play being a bully and teach me ways to be more assertive. If there were times when I cried or felt like I could not go on, he would hug me and say that he was there for me.

i love science so much and it also appeals to dave and andrew as well. we all love physics and biology a lot;) i find i can think quicker and problem solve easier b/c of andrew and dave. dave is great at mneumonics, while andrew explains things quite well.

check out this really cool thing:

Scientists Discover That Water Has Memory. This Video BLOWS My Mind!

thanks anita for being so understanding:) i was after school helping senior citizens at the laurelton home celebrate a dog’s birthday, the dog was a grey and white pug and he was so cute and friendly:) he is their mascot and i’m glad the senior citizens have a puppy to cheer them up, the elderly are fun to be around;) so the self-defense club is every monday from april 4 to april 25 and other grades are welcome as well:) i can’t wait to till francine b/c we both had the idea;) most of our class had career day today, so some people weren’t there 2nd block ap english including andrew. dave and i helped each other develop our synthesis essay on whether advertisements were negative or positive. having two ap classes which require lots of essay writing and can be quite draining at times, but dave is great and supportive. he has a great sense of humor and always listens. dave is very encouraging and studious and is a great person to work with. dave like literature, but he prefers physics and math because they have practical real life applications and it can be fun seeing how the velocity of a car affects the momentum (physics honors). we both like physics honors a lot these days and we often talk about physics or chris mccandless because we both think he is adventurous. my school-based counselor/teacher who also does community service with me is great, he designs his office with cool stress reducing exercise and her office light is moderate light and it’s quite calming there. i think i would like to work in that environment, the walls are painted green (very naturalistic) and there are pretty crystal lights and smiley face, one with a crying or laughing face and other with a funny tongue sticking out face. also there is a panic button that when you press it, it says in a tense voice ‘stay calm, stay calm” and then screams, it’s pretty funny. also my yoga teacher is great, she also does fiber arts (making crafts are easier than drawing for me) and is lots of fun and relieves stress. she has coloring templates for her students to color to relieve their stress and it helps, i find myself being entertained by the colors i use. here is a great way to heal and relieve stress, imagine the stress you feel as a color such as red for anger, blue for sorrow, yellow for fear, etc. and take a paper and color the paper the color of your stress (press as hard as you want), imagine as the color flows onto the paper, your stress is leaving your body. then crumple the paper and throw it in the trash (we had lots of fun pretending we were basketball players) saying “my stress is no longer part of me. i am healed.” the templates often are like a vision board for our goals in life, we print out pictures of our dreams and while we fill them with beautiful colors, we imagine our energy going toward our goals, making them a reality. i was coloring a picture of cheshire cat today, as i was coloring i wanted to be happy like cheshire cat, also the trees that cheshire cat was sitting on, i pretended was a truffula tree and i colored it and imagined myself being one with nature. i used many colors and imagined myself expressing my souls’s purpose through the variety of colors. today, cj was really happy b/c he came in 3rd on the writing contest for the school and he says he might help get the school paper more famous so people can write their thoughts. dave is great, today while i was a bit stressed because of the change over time essay using documents in ap world history and having to write another (2nd week, i’ve had to to two essays on top of each other, last week with allergies as well). my head was hurting and i was a bit tired, but dave made me laugh by making a funny comment about the politicians running for president. also there was a flash of green light and i saw angel raphiel wrap his wings around me and saying “don’t be stressed, life is divine.” dave, who also believes in angels thought it was really cool and we both shared a laugh. dave is the most laid-back guy, i’ve met, even though he can get tense at times, he always manages to shake it off and still enjoy life with a smile on his face. his face is always red from laughing and his eyes are always bright with confidence. during december before christmas break, dave dressed in red and pretended he was santa claus and made the class laugh. the universe is amazing:D check out the lunar eclipse coming tomorrow:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/lunar-eclipse-coming-wednesday/ar-BBqJNy8?ocid=ansmsnnews11

The universe always has so many great surprises:D

here are two more poems (i think the first one sounds better) and i’m still adding to the 2nd one:

Awake and Alive- Life’s a Dance

I hear a calling outside in the world

I feel in my soul

Forgetting all I’m lacking

I roll the die in my life

Taking the chances and outcomes I face

Don’t be afraid to take a risk and adventure out of what’s conventional in life

I walk a path of light and love

Nothing holds me back from dancing with the stars

Life’s a dance

You have to move at the music life throws at you

Sometimes you may dance with the moon on your face and the stars behind you

Other times you may dance alone in the rain

When the music of life gets rough, keep your rhythm and keep dancing

I dance with the music of nature

I surrender myself to the divine

I am awake and alive

The world will keep changing its tunes and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the music

Sometimes you may feel lost and don’t know the song in life

You may find yourself falling, slipping on the dance floor

Everywhere you go coarse music plays bringing you down

How can you back to your original spark in life?

Remember, you control your life

When life gets tough, keep dancing even in the rain

There is a rainbow hidden behind the storm clouds

So live your life

Let yourself be free

Make yourself truly awake and alive

And keep on dancing

Keep taking chances

Go for your dreams

You have the opportunity of being awake and alive

Life is effortless

Enjoy the music and dance to your own beat

The world can’t tell you who you truly are

You have to drop the limitations put on you

You have to go out there and be free

Your adventure is calling

Dance to the music of life

Life is beautiful

when your heart gets heavy and the music doesn’t seem right

Change your attitude as you would change a record player

You are a spiritual being capable of great things

Dance to the beauty of life

Know that you can be awake and alive

know that every path you take, every music you dance to leads to home.

Discover Yourself- Live your dreams

It’s never too late to broaden your horizons

Take the reins in your life

It’s time to discover yourself

It’s time for you to light up the world

Don’t just get by in life or you won’t get far

The stars are out there waiting to be reached

It’s time to discover yourself

Follow your soul’s calling

Do what truly makes you happy

Trust the process of life

thanks anita;) my parents can be the most criticizing people i know. yesterday before i went home, i asked them to sign a community service form that would allow me to help out at a nursing home. i love working with the elderly, they have a great sense of humor and are fun to be around. they keep ragging me about the 1490 i got on my sats. they think that i’m not preparing myself for college and that i’ll just be another poor person. i don’t like my score much, but i only missed 10 points from my goal and i’m pretty sure i can do okay on the 1600 worth sat. at the start of my junior year, my parents had kept pestering me to take the sats soon when i didn’t feel quite ready, they said i should take them before colleges started denying access. i don’t think february (rescheduled from january to snow) was the best time to take the sats for me because i was still adapting to a new semester and also i was worried about my special friend. he was struggling in one of his math classes and i was helping him. there were a lot of pre-test in my new classes and i was always trying to study and do well on them. my parents said the reason i didn’t do too well is that i didn’t study, but i would spend the 20 minutes left of each day that wasn’t studying for my classes reading and studying my notes. i think february was quite stressful month, but i’m glad that i could help my special friend.

thanks anita;) our school has a newspaper, but no one pays attention to it. the athletes at the school and those on the A team get the most attention, the simplistic compassionate people are often pushed to the sides. i think he newspaper writers work quite hard to spread news and they are good students, but no one seems to pay much mind to them. learning at alison.com is great;) they have free courses online about business, health, computers and the like and they explain things quite simplistically so it doesn’t feel like it is overwhelming. you can take notes while you learn (they have a notepad at the bottom) and their slideshows often go in bullet points so it’s easy to follow and interesting. i have realized that when i feel like i have doubts my circulation seems to decrease, but if i meditate and keep myself happy, my circulation improves. i hope i can work on a way to completely healing myself. i had a really strange dream last night. i think the angels were trying to show me my life’s purpose. in some of my dreams, i think i meet actual people in this world or who have crossed over and i tend to help them find their way. in this dream, there was a girl with brown hair and her name was kayla. i saw her walking alone near a cliff near a mountain range and she seemed upset and just drifting by in life. the waters below the cliff were raging and i knew she was about to jump. i called out to her and told her not to jump. she continued to walk toward the cliff, just when she was about to jump over, i ran to her and pushed her away from the edge and restrained her from going to the edge. kayla then started crying and telling me that her life was terrible, that her significant other had broken up with her and that she was a failure. i being an empath felt her pain and i told her that it was okay if she felt like she was broken inside, but that by ending her life she wouldn’t have any chance to improve it or change herself for the better. kayla started sobbing and saying she couldn’t live life like this anymore, she wasn’t strong enough, she didn’t have her significant other to hold her. she was broken in to pieces and didn’t know what to do with her life. she told me that there was no one who cared about her anymore. i felt a deep compassion and sympathy for this girl and i put my arm around her and told her that she would be okay that i would help her put the broken pieces back together. i would be there for her and teach her how to believe in herself and be strong. kayla was still sorrowful and said “how can i ever find true love again? how can i ever trust myself in my life again?” i told her that there were 7.5 billion people in this world and that just because one guy didn’t love her, it didn’t matter because it makes the search easier to find someone who will truly appreciate her for who she truly is. I then asked her “Do you truly want to end you life now and let the darkness win? Do you truly want to give up now, that you’ve come this far? Don’t you have goals in life you want to accomplish? You have too much to lose if you just give up now and end your life, there won’t be nothing to change. Why don’t you take a risk, be strong on your own and live your life?” kayla seemed a lot more upbeat after this, but she was still upset and worried that she wouldn’t be able to make it. i told her that i would help her through her life, i would hold her until she could stand on her own feet again. i also told her my story about my special friend and how he helped me. she seemed to feel much better and i took her hand and lead her away from the cliff. this dream left me unsettled and in a cold sweat because it was like i was back in my past when i felt like kayla and i was helped by my special friend. however, after the dream i felt myself be lifted by a beautiful purple light and the angel said his name was uriel. he told me that i was coming to terms with my past, learning to appreciate myself more and also that my life’s purpose was to help others who felt sad and broken and lead them to living life more. angel uriel said “you must accept the dark parts of yourself instead of hiding and denying them, you must confront them and bring them to the light so you can truly heal. by bringing you doubts and insecurities to the light, acknowledging and accepting them, you can be more free and positive and help others along their way. you are an important person and a spiritual guide for those who have lost their way that is your purpose.” i was then lifted by purple wings and i saw myself in beautiful woodland area. i think i really admire henry david thoreau and i think it would be cool to be an environmental journalist and take some supplies and go out to explore nature. angel uriel said that i should go for researcher career like a journalist and i can be both a medical and environmental journalist and be out in nature. angel uriel also showed me getting a medical degree and also making enough money to travel the world like doctors without borders writing about nature and helping the poor. angel uriel said “there is a reason for your idealistic nature and your joy of living. don’t let it fade away. it is what makes you who you truly are and what will help you reach your true authentic purpose.” i feel like my parents have gotten even more stressed over the demands in the restaurant and also their house rentings to people, they seem to have an even shorter temper than usual. every time you allow stress and anger to control you it weakens you and makes you live a year less and also raises your blood pressure and likelihood of stroke. angel uriel says it’s okay to be an empath, but i have to be careful not to let others’ negative energies start to drain me. i’ve been getting strange senses of intuition these days like when i know that a friend will email before she emails and also i seem to have both an analytical and also idealistic side to me these days. i know that whatever path i take i’m going home and life seems so simplistic. yet, there are things i still need to learn like driving, reading maps quicker (i can read them, but sometimes the east, west confuses me) and working on possibly figuring out incomes and budgets (i took a financial literacy class, but i still think i need more applications in it). sometimes i wish my parents had another job because the stress of the restaurant sometimes makes them very weary and they tend to be overly criticizing about me or they don’t have much time to teach me much about life’s skills. there are times when i find myself questioning whether i can make it out in life, whether i can develop the skills to survive. i have been currently meditating and working on healing and being more positive person and possibly help my parents live life a little more.

Here are two poems I wrote about life (I found that when I originally wrote them, I tend to edit them when posting so they become longer and more detailed.) :

You are a Star

The only person holding you back is yourself

Dare to take a risk, happiness is all around you.

Every step you take lights a candle in your path

Even if the wind blows out a candle, hope still lights the way

You are a star, you control your life

Let your imperfections help you find who you truly are

It is through our imperfections that make up the adventures of our lives

Accept your imperfections and acknowledge them, they are what makes life meaningful

If everyone were perfect, there would be no change in the world

You are a star, accept your imperfections and use them to make yourself a better person

Follow your dreams, listen to your heart

Try your best and don’t let your fears and imperfections control you

Let nothing hold you back, you are a star capable of great things

Every step you take is an adventure of new doors to be opened

Each lap you take gets us closer to a world with more hope and dreams

So give life all you’ve got

Chase after your hopes and dreams

Don’t let fear and security of what’s conventional hold you back from exploring new horizons

Life is a gift waiting to be opened

It has a rainbow of opportunities

Go and explore a new horizon

Live the life of your dreams

You are a star and may your love and light touch every horizon in the world

You are a star and nothing is impossible.

Roads of Life

Which path to take?

It seems like I’ve lost my map on the road of life

Everywhere I go I’m plagued with doubt and worries

Which color of the rainbow leads to the pot of gold?

When you feel uncertain on the roads of life, you’re not alone

Hope lights the way, you will make it through

Look within your heart, see what truly makes you happy

Keep that vision in your thoughts when the roads of life become sinuous with under-brushes, tides that you need to swim against and currents that threaten to pull you under

When you feel like you are falling behind and lost, don’t stop and just stay in the darkness

You must make the choice to take a chance or things will never change and you will be stuck in the valley of shadows and broken dreams

So take a chance, you are stronger and braver than you think

And if you feel like you can’t make it through, take a break and regather your strength, but don’t stay lost in the maze of life, take a chance and start living

And if you feel fearful of taking a chance ask yourself “What do I have to lose if I’ve already felt like I’ve hit rock bottom? Do i really want to stay in this abyss watching life pass me by?”

So take a chance, you may open a door that leads you to perfect road

But if you hit another dead-end, don’t get discouraged

Pick yourself back up and keep traveling on the roads of life

In our darkest moments, we realize how strong we truly are

And what if you have lost all hope in yourself, what if every road you take seems to lead to failure and you are hanging on by a thread?

What if you find yourself alone on a path, broken down?

And what if you lose your ships at sea and your maps are blown away by a coarse wind?

The roads of life aren’t smooth, but that’s what makes life beautiful

Ask yourself “What would be the meaning of life if everything was perfect? How would we learn who we truly are if we don’t have anything to experience and change us?”

It is the obstacles we face and overcome that give life its meaning and beauty

Take your obstacles and use them as bridges to get further on the roads of life

Don’t be afraid to take the road less traveled

Believe in yourself

Follow your heart

Experience life to the fullest, don’t miss out on the windows of opportunity by not trying and just getting by

Get out there and start living your dreams

What have you got to lose?

And no matter what roads in life you take, you will always be lead to home.

I’m getting better, but my nose is still somewhat stuffy. i stayed after for pre-calc yesterday to go over radian measures within a circle and what quadrant they lay in and angle of elevations and depression. it’s still a bit complex, but i think i understand it better. i like chris mccandless in Into the Wild, although he made the mistake of overestimating himself and he can be a bit too self-assured at times, i admire his independence, his adventurous nature and his desire to go for his dreams. at a young age, mccandless had loved nature much like me. he works hard in everything he does and is very philosophical. in chapter eleven, chris’s mom billie says “that mccandless liked to devote his total energy to whatever he undertook and he found his athletic calling in track. for him track was a spiritual experience, the sheer will and determination to push yourself forward. also the feeling of being free, running through obstacles, through the evils and hardships of the world when he ran. mccandless was very competitive and set high standards for himself” (Krakauer). I feel like i connect with mccandless in the fact that i am very focused and intent on my goals and i can be quite idealistic at times. i balance my idealistic and practical side for example i know it will be hard to become a genetic engineer, but i take steps toward it and keep a positive mindset and push myself. like president kennedy who was an idealistic person who looked ahead and saw many opportunities especially the landing of a man on the moon in july 20th 1969 which ended the Cold War, i tend to also see myself going along the path of my dreams and taking practical steps toward making it a reality. i agree with mccandless in his view that you should give all that you’ve got into life and you shouldn’t let the negative influences of others influence your path and also i enjoy running distance like mccandless especially cross-country (which mccandless did) because to me it is also a spiritual experience and seeing the beauty of nature is breathtaking. the sheer momentum of pushing yourself forward and running and the sheer freedom of it like nothing can hold you back, like you can go great distances and challenge yourself is elating. there is a thing called “runner’s euphoria” which is the rush of adrenaline that brings mental clarity after a hard run and it makes you feel great and look at the world with a new light. mccandless enjoyed the spirit of running because he believed he was leaving his limitations behind, letting go of all that he was not. i think after being around dave who is great at literature, my writing has quite improved and it is sometimes effortless to draft words for an essay. dave told me that when writing an essay i should engage in my topic and also see the side of the audience and try to connect with them as well. by engaging myself with the essay and also seeing how the audience might perceive it makes the essay seem easier to write and also more sophisticated. also andrew who is great at math and science has made me think a lot quicker and i find myself being able to remember formulas and think a lot quicker than i thought i could. i was ecstatic when i was able to understand the physics honors and pre-calc formulas and derive them within only five days of studying when typically it would take at least twelve days. life seems a lot more effortless these days and i feel like i’m just letting the flow of life lead me. even through harsh times and also when people are overly criticizing it doesn’t affect me as much anymore. i think mccandless has something valuable to teach us all and that is that life is meant to be lived and you should give all you’ve got toward your dreams. i think i have found a way to stay motivated in my studies because sometimes it can be hard to keep focus on studying, but i tend to make analogies for my studying to how to apply it to my life and it makes studying more fun and interesting. i like teachers who can apply their subjects to the real world, who are laid-back and can make learning fun for their students by making references to real-life scenarios. i like pre-calc and physics honors best because my teachers do this quite well. i feel like i have also learned a lot about the world in ap world history and economy and business and also in improving my essays. my ap world history teacher who also teaches psychology knows and says that the reason students hate school and don’t have ambition is because it is the same routine daily with no variation and there is no hands on applications, it’s just note-taking and the teacher talking, test taking and homework. the students don’t learn much about how their learning applies to the real world, but with my ap world history teacher she also has interactive things such as having us present to the class and do research, make posters, work in groups and we often have lots of discussion in class. the good thing abou this is that it encourages the students to actively voice themselves and think and also it makes them interested in learning since they know how it applies to their environment. i feel like my ap english teacher is a good person but she doesn’t really teach as much. she is always asking us to write essays with only a few guidelines and most of the essays we write don’t have much to do with what we will learn in the real world. i enjoyed writing the definition essay which you explained your interpretation of a word, but i’m not really sure that really will help me much in college. in college most of the essays often ask you to analyze, argue, respond, evaluate, etc. a point in a story you have read or just to write an essay based on a topic. i feel like she doesn’t really give much guidelines to writing that we need. we are often to read passages and just analyze them and then write a topic on the author’s use of writing style and his argument. it’s just straight taking a few terms and putting them in a clear-cut essay with not much thought involved. in ap world history when we do essays, the teacher allows us to explore different avenues of how to write the essay and also offers guidelines of how to add points of view or additional information to our essays, she encourages us to think outside the box and make inferences. i think in college it is more important to be able to take passages and make inferences and look at the passages as a whole instead of finding author’s style and using it in your writing. i don’t think colleges are going to have essay prompts that say “what rhetorical strategies does this author use to develop his argument?” this question is too simple and clear cut. i like the ap world history questions that really make you think and use what you know to apply to what you are trying to figure out such as the question “after reading the passage, analyze and describe how the industrial revolution impacted the slave labor and describe the changes and continuities and why?” this question allows you to look at the story as a whole and pull evidence out and also asks you to think outside the box a little, sometimes it is important to include some prior knowledge when explaining things. also my ap world history teacher encourages us to do our best, but can also be quite hard at times. you often have to catch up by yourself if you miss a day and you still have to take the test. 4:26, i was reading a chapter in ap world history about hiv in africa and the radio announced that there are organizations working on eliminating it, i think it is a cool coincidence.

cool quote, anita;) wednesday was the the day when i got a really bad allergy attack to pollen. i have seasonal allergies that go with the change of the seasons and they can be quite unexpected at times. i had to do a ap world history quiz (got a 70 on it), draft an ap english essay and also do a physics honors lab and do my pre-calc homework all with allergies of sneezing, sore throat, headache and runny nose. it was not a good day, but dave was great, he kept asking me if i was okay because he also has allergies at times tuesday was pretty good, i was having fun planning a princess and superhero tea party for april 22nd (possibly) wuth my community service group to fundraise for relay for life.