Importance of Scholarships

Scholarships are sums of money that a student is given in order to help pay for college. There are many different kinds of scholarships so anyone can find one to suit them.  Scholarships help can help save you and your family money because college is so expensive.  It will also help in the long run because of college loans that pile up and affect your future in a negative way.  The application process is pretty easy, so applying for as many scholarships as you can, for whatever the price, will help you with the expenses from college. Plus, colleges will most likely accept diligent students who received a good merit scholarship.

Admission Requirements Reflection

What do I have left to do?
1. Re-take the SAT and ACT
2. Write essays
3. Get letters of recommendation
4.Take another science class
When will these tasks get accomplished?
1. SAT/ACT- December 2015
2. Essays- July 2015
3. Letters of Rec- July 2015
4. Science class- August 2015
Academically am I where I need to be?
Yes, but I really need to get a better score on the SAT and ACT.
Are these colleges really the ones for me or do I need to modify my search?
I think these colleges are the ones for me. I think if I do any more searching, my brain will explode and I will have a mental breakdown since I am so indecisive. So yeah.

Is it Worth It?

Getting a college degree is necessary and worth the time for economic and social success because it means that you are able to sustain a stable and healthy life. I think it will be helpful to get a degree that will benefit you in life. It is important to have a degree because people will take you seriously and the people that you are around will influence you in a positive way because of where you stand in your social circle. Economically, you will be able to support yourself and a child (hopefully) because of your degree and steady job.

I think that we are given more opportunities by living in the US compared to Israel maybe. In Israel, students have to join the army when they turn 16 and serve at least 3 years. In the US, we get to choose whether we want to join the army or not. Although we both have the option of higher education, or college, we get to start earlier which means we have more time to decide what we are going to do with our lives.

During Spring Break~

During Spring break, my youth group participated in many activities throughout the week.  On Monday, we went to Studio Movie Grill in Lewisville and saw McFarland, USA.  I really liked it and thought it was very inspirational.  On Tuesday, we went to Swisher Courts and played Noccer Soccer. I was VERY sore afterwards (it doesn't help if your small).  On Wednesday, we went fishing at the lake at our church, even though I didn't catch anything, it was still sunny and the weather was better than it was on Monday and Tuesday.  On Thursday, we played kickball at the church.  My team won, so it was a good day.  On Friday, they went to Cosmic Jump but I stayed home and worked on my project for English :\.  But on Friday, we went to Medieval Times. That was a BLAST! The food was great and I caught the Rose! After that, we went to church. The rest of the week, I worked on the rest of my project.

Spring Break?

Tomorrow, my cousin and I are going to visit the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor, but for the rest of the week, I will be working on my poetry project for English. I hope my week will not be boring, so I will be exploring and getting out of the house as much as I can or hang out with friends.

Dead Poets Society: 4 Questions

The most influential leaders I've had are my youth pastors, Joe, Haley, and my mom.  Since they have come together, they have been really fun and have/are making a huge impact on our youth group including myself.  They have done this by showing me that you can still have fun and live faithfully at the same time.  I think what Keating is saying means that poetry comes from something more than our minds, but it comes from our feelings and emotions.  I agree and I have been liking poetry more than when we studied it in 9th grade and I think it's important to read it so we can connect the authors feelings and emotions to their characters.  I agree that you must consider different perspectives as you read something because it gives you different points of views of a topic.  I really like the phrase, "seize the day" and I think that would be my verse I would contribute in my lifetime.  

Dead Poet's Society: 3 Quentions

I think Neil would have committed suicide if Mr. Keating wouldn't have come into his life.  I just think Mr. Keating slowed down the process.  I don't even think Neil would have thought about acting if Keating had ever come into his life. I think Todd was the bravest of the boys because he let others, Mr. Keating and Neil, help him come out of his shell. At the end of the movie, you see him progress. He was also the first person to stand up for Keating when he was leaving which takes a lot of bravery. I think Neil was a coward because he could have found another way out of his situation.  Suicide wasn't a necessary option. I think Keating would have put the book in Neil's room because Keating wasn't someone who went with the crowd so I don't think he would have cared what administration thought. He also was the one who encouraged the boys to look at poetry in a different way, so maybe he wanted to show Neil that there was another way to look at the situation.

Dead Poet's Society: Carpe Diem!

The main theme of Dead Poets Society is carpe diem, which means “seize the day.” In the beginning of the movie, Mr. Keating tells them this and to make their lives extraordinary. Neil represents this by pursuing his acting career even though he knows that his father would not approve. He takes Keating's advice and talked to his father about him pursuing his dream as an actor. Todd also shows carpe diem when he stands on top of his desk at the end of the movie. Even though Mr. Keating is leaving and the board has made up their mind, Todd takes leadership and proceeds to announce to Keating that it wasn't his fault, despite the fact that he could have been expelled. So, I think Carpe Diem was the main theme for this movie.

Dead Poets Society: Follow Up Character Quentions..

    In my opinion, I think Todd transformed the most because he went from being a shy kid who followed the crowd to someone who showed leadership and stood up for someone the boys admired. At the end of the film, Mr. Keating was fired and blamed for the death of Neil. Todd took the initiative to stand up and confess to Keating that he disagrees with the rest of the school that Mr. Keating was the cause if Neil's death.

    Neil's father is a static character in the film. Neil's parents, especially his father, were very controlling over his life. When Neil tells his father about his acting, his father is very clear that he does not like the path that Neil is heading towards. When he finally lets Neil participate in the play, it doesn't end well. His father continues to be controlling as he tells Neil where and what he will be studying in college. 

    Mr. Keating is the protagonist of the film. Even though the school board does not see Keating as someone who you would look up to, but Keating was the "hero" to the kids. Their lives were changed by him.

    Todd Anderson had a fear of being noticed and attention, but Mr. Keating and Neil helped him break out of his shell. You can tell that he overcame his fear at the end when he stands up for Mr. Keating even though he might have been kicked out of the school. Neil Perry had a fear of not being able to live a life of his own. His father is controlling his life which leads him to commit suicide. I think Neil overcame his fear when he decided to act knowing that his father wouldn't allow it. Knox Overstreet had a fear of compliance and conformity. He uses girls and disobedience in order to seem more prominent among others.

Mona Lisa Smile: Discussion (2&4)

Since Katherine Watson's teachings were labeled as unorthodox, it means that her teachings were different than what the school's rules and traditions were.  An example of her "unorthodox" teachings would be when she taught the women about the history of modern art and Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflower painting becoming a paint-by-numbers activity.  The scene where she takes the girls out to look at the art piece and "consider it" is also a part of her nontraditional teaching because she taught them things that weren't accepted by the school.  When the word subversive comes to mind, I think of rebellion.  In Mona Lisa smile, I don't think Katherine was trying to be rebellious. She just saw potential in the young women and hoped that they saw it too.  Katherine Watson wasn't just a teacher to them, but a mentor and counselor and the board tried to take that away from her.  So, Katherine Watson wasn't a subversive person, the school wanted to think that she was.

Mona Lisa Smile: Katherine Watson & Charles Dickens Comparison

In Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times, he states that facts are important when teaching.  The problem with that is, not all facts are right. For example, many people believe that we only use 10% of our brains which, is obviously not true (Yes, Lucy lied to us).  Each part of our brain serves an important function for us to store, remember, and learn new things.  If all we taught were facts or "facts", we would all be  a bunch of confused animals.  In the movie, Mona Lisa Smile, Katherine Watson shows the same kind of passion as Dickens by replacing the words "facts" with originality and independence.  She teaches the women of Wellesley College that facts are not the  most important thing to pass her class, but to think outside of the box and not attune to the ways of life back then.

Mona Lisa Smile: Theme

My favorite theme was Individuality.  I liked how the women, in the beginning of the movie, thought that getting married was the most important thing ever, but once Joan decided not to go to Law School, Katherine tried convincing her that she could still raise a family and go to school, but she resisted.  Also, when Betty filed a divorce she was showing individuality because that was uncommon back then.

Mona Lisa Smile: Prediction

I think Mona Lisa Smile is about a woman coming into a school and teaching women that getting married isn't as important as getting an education.  I think in the midst of Julia Roberts' character's complications she finds love.  Or it's about really smart women who know everything and she wants to teach them about life and other things like art.

Differences Between College and High School Exams

I think tests in high school may be easier to study for because you take them right after learning the objective.  Also, testing is frequent in high school, like we would randomly have a test on Tuesday, then on Friday for another class, so it's harder to prepare.  In college, I think it will be harder to study for exams because of the larger material that would be covered. I think it would be smart to form or find a study group quickly and to practice some forms of studying in high school that seem interesting so you can use it in college. Overall, I think you should make sure that the material is understood in order to study it obviously....