Blog #6: Brainstorming Persuasive Essay Topics

One of my three ideas to write about is homeschooling. I believe that homeschooling is great, but it should be kept to a minimum. People take it way too far as to trying to teach their kids things that they never even learned. I also think that if you are going to homeschool, your kids should be required to go to a school to take a test about the things they have learned. I know a family that has kids that just don't go to school, but they claim to the state that they do. This isn't supposed to be allowed, but the state doesn't make it so they have to take tests showing that they are learning. Also I believe that there should be a curriculum they should follow so they are learning things to the level that kids in regular school are learning.

Another topic that I could write about is high school sports. Sports are great! They are just taken to a level that shouldn't be reached in high school. Last year during softball, we had a rocketry meeting that we had to look nice for. Because of this, another girl and I wanted to get out of practice early enough to shower/get ready, but our coach wouldn't let us out until last minute. She was risking our grades for her own sake. I have also heard stories about coaches not letting kids do certain things for classes just because they want them to be at practice instead. I am not at all saying that high schools shouldn't have sports, but they should be no where as intense as they are.

The last topic that I came up with to write about is teenage pregnancy. To me, it is common sense that there are so many ways to prevent this; the most effective being abstinence of course. Television promotes teen pregnancy so much that it is ridiculous. I think that it needs to be cut out of shows, commercials, and everything else that media glorifies it with. I also think that if teen celebrities get pregnant, they should be cut off of all ties to the media. This being said, media is not the only way that girls see it. I know that it doesn't go on in Orion, but it sure happens in other schools. I know that at least Cambridge, Sherrard, and Rockridge all have had girls that had babies while in high school that are seniors now. This is not good. Girls in middle school and elementary school look up to high schoolers and if they are seeing this, what will they think when they get to high school? They will think that it is okay. It is not okay! You are ruining your plans for college and your future when you have a baby before you are financially stable, especially when you are in high school.

Blog #5: Informative Writing

Something that I think would be good for me to write about for this essay is adoption. This is something that I really know a lot about and think highly of. This would be good to write about because there isn't really a need to persuade people one way or another with this topic.

On adoptuskids.org, it tells a lot about what adoption is and how it benefits the child. This is a website that I could really use to help me with this essay. It also helps couples become able to adopt a child, so there is another aspect to that website. I know that there are a lot of books that would help me write my paper as well. It all just depends on availability of the books. It also depends on my knowledge, of course. I think that I know quite a bit on this topic, so it shouldn't be too difficult for me to wrote about.

Blog #4: Taco Pie

In making taco pie, first the hamburger meat needs browned. After this, the meat needs taco sauce mixed within it. Next, croissant rolls need to be rolled out into a circular pan with some hanging over the side so that they can cover the top of the contents that will go inside them. Continuing after that, the meat needs to be put into the circular pan over the bottom of the croissant rolls. With the meat in the pan, cheese needs to be added over all of the meat. The cheese can be mixed into the meat if desired. After this, the top of the croissant rolls need to be folded over the meat and cheese and this needs to be baked at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the croissant rolls are golden brown. Once this is done, the pan needs to be taken out of the oven. Cheese needs to be sprinkled over the top. Once this is finished, it is ready to be served. How this is normally eaten is with lettuce and taco sauce over the top of it. Serve and enjoy!

Blog #3: Personal Experience Essay

Choosing two options for a personal experience essay that could be used is very difficult. The only thing I can really think of is that I could write about my dad adopting me, but since I was very young when this happened, I do not remember anything about the process. Nothing other than that has really impacted my life or made me who I am today. 

Ideas for my dad adopting me would be how I found out and how it all happened. Because of me being such a young child when it all happened, it would probably be in my best interest that I write about when I found out that he adopted me. Although I could write about when I found out about it, it would be much more sentimental if I wrote about when he adopted me and when we went through that process. This event really has shaped me into the person I am today because without him, I wouldn't have learned a lot of the values that I have in me now.

Blog #2: Personal Writing-Summer Experience

This summer I really did not do very many exciting things. Because of this, it is very hard for me to choose something to write about. The main things that stick out to me most would have to be the bad things that I experienced such as witnessing two people tear their ACL and noticing that my softball team had more drama between the girls than we had been winning games. We really did not get along too well. Beside all of this though, I did have some really fun times this summer. I had the privilege to work at the Two Rivers YMCA summer camp as a camp counselor.

I gained so many friendships between other counselors and the children that i was with everyday. I earned a connection between each and every one of the kids I was fortunate enough to meet through this camp. The camp that I was working was an all day thing. The kids would normally be there from 6:30 in the morning to 5:30 (give or take) that night. Whenever we would switch who was on the clock to be with them, you could tell which kids truly trusted you because they would not want you to leave.

Every week the children would get to go on a fun field trip to somewhere outside of the Y. One week it was to the zoo, one was to Splash Landing water park, and one was to White Water Junction. There were many more field trips, but these stick out in my mind the most. For every field trip, each counselor is assigned to about 8-10 kids to have with them the whole day. This may seem like a lot of kids to many people, but it was actually really fun and the kids were almost always well behaved.

Of course sometimes the kids would act out or bring drama into their fun days, but those issues were always worked out with the help of a counselor who just tried to make sure that there was no more fighting going on. We counselors wanted nothing more than for the children to have fun because that's what they were there for. Having drama between people is never that much fun, so we always had to be on our toes to make sure that we caught what the kids, mainly girls, were saying to each other. The girls were so harsh to each other even at such a young age. Some of the things the kids would say to each other, such as "your mom doesn't even want you," (something we heard quite often) and "no, you cannot play with us today," hurt the other kids very much, so we would always have to council the children so that they wouldn't be as hurt anymore.

Although it may not seem like my summer was all that exciting, I absolutely love being with kids and this summer I worked my ideal summer job. I loved every minute of it, whether it was during the drama or during the very fun times, and I am so fortunate to have met all of the people that i did meet.

Blog #1: Your Abilities as a Writer

As a writer, I usually take my writings very seriously. I utalize the time I have to complete my piece of work. While I am working on it, I frequently read through what I already have done so I know how it is flowing. I will often print what I have written and have someone read it for me to make sure that it makes sense not only to me but to other people, also. As long as it makes sense and flows to them, I will continue to write as I had been. If the writing doesn't flow as well as I thought it should, I will go back and see what I can do to make it flow together. Because of this, I am pretty confident about my writing ability. I believe that I handle my writings very well to make sure that I get them done to my full capabilities. My main strength is grammar. I have always been good with grammar and tend to be able to pick out my own mistakes in writing. My main weakness is not knowing how to start or end writings. Once I get going, I can just go, but if I am stuck on the introduction or the closing paragraph, I have no idea what to do. I really think that I need to work on that.

I think that we should working on opening and closing essays and writings. It isn't something that has really been stressed over the years so not very many people actually know or understand how to do that. All we have really talked about in previous English classes is how to write the body paragraphs and not the beginning and end of the writings. As for questions about the class, I really do not have any. It has been explained very well and I understand the gist of what we are supposed to be doing.