Blog 7 - Too Much Homework

Some students, apparently, are complaining there’s too much homework and that they’re staying up until midnight completing what’s assigned.


What’s your opinion? Do you think that you have too much homework? On average how many hours (minutes?) do you spend doing homework per night? Do you usually have homework on weekends? If so, how much?

Of course, students have been complaining about homework since the days of the ancient Greeks, but have you noticed a recent change in the amount of homework required?

Finally, two things: do you sometimes learn from homework? And, are you one of those students who leaves the big stuff—reports and projects—until the very last minute?

Write about these things.

Homework: it’s not exactly my best friend, but we get along. In that sense, I mean that while homework can be a total pain in the behind, it can also be a helpful resource. Don’t get me wrong; I do not enjoy homework AT ALL. After school being six hours, field hockey being another three hours, and work until eight, at that point I am ready to go home, shower, eat, and pass out. Ha, I wish. That never happens. Most nights I am up until at least ten or eleven. If I am up until midnight, it is doing a big assignment I forgot about or just left for last minute. Sometimes, you need those assignments that keep you up late because you wake up in the morning and you have a mini reality check that puts you in your place for a few weeks and makes you get all your stuff done earlier.

Being a teenager, sleep is a necessity and if I do not get my sleep I will be in an unbearably bitchy mood. I personally can not complain about the amount of homework I have, but I have had a few late nights so far. This year, my teachers are fairly reasonable, and if I am doing something last minute I only have myself to blame. No teacher assigns a five page research paper due the next day; therefore I believe that it is a students fault if they leave a long paper or a tedious project until the night before. I try not to do this too often, but then again three are those mini reality checks…

I believe that homework is not given out as a punishment. Although it may not be a reward, you can most likely learn from the work you do at home on your own time. When you are by yourself, you should be able to do the same work. If you are struggling with homework it might be because a) your teacher can not teach for his or her life, or b) you spent more time saying, “Hey, what did you get for number fourteen?,” then actually doing class work in the class.

As far as leaving things for last minute, it is a habit that I know I can break. Unfortunately, sometimes it is more entertaining to sit on Facebook and scroll through people’s lame statuses than to do fifty math problems that take a page of work each. As much as I know that homework is helpful, sometimes I do not use it to my advantage. However, you do not need homework to reinforce what you teach in class. In my Psychology class, we never have homework, but at the same time I have a one hundred in that class, and I legitimately have a one hundred on every single assignment. I learn a lot in that class, and according to my sister who had the same teacher five years ago, you will never forget the information she teaches you.

In summation, homework does not make you a good teacher or a bad teacher. Teachers who overload on homework only get back negligence and a hidden hatred – it is something that is uncontrollable and will never stop. Therefore, you will never hear the end of the homework complaints, so just keep doing what you do as long as it is working for you, and as long as kids are understanding what you teach.

Blog 6 - Being Alone

After reading this week’s blog topic, all alone in my room, I really thought about what kind of person I am when it comes to being alone. I had to come back to this after trying to figure myself out for a few days. All in all, I think I am pretty much average when it comes to being alone. During my day, I am not alone all that often. On a normal school day, my dad and my puppy wake me up at six o’clock sharp. My dad leaves for work, but my puppy lies on my bed and watches me get ready. After about an hour passes, I leave the house and go pick up friends and come to school. In Central, you are never really alone. In each class there are from 15-30 people. By the time lunch comes around, I am tired of all these people and all the useless chit chat that most seem to be a part of. I decided this year that I would rather sit alone in the media center and get homework done than be sitting in a loud cafeteria next to fake girls that I have no interest in being friends with. At first, I thought that it was crappy that I couldn’t have had better friends in my lunch, but oh well – things happen. I started to like going to the media center more and more, because it became a time for me to clear my head, and get a little bit of homework done while I’m at it. When the lunch bell rings, I go back to the craziness of all of my classes. By the end of the day, I am usually exhausted and hungry. When the final bell rings, I go straight home (by myself), let my dog out, and make a quick salad. By the time I am done eating I have to head back to the school for field hockey (alone). And from then until around five o’clock I am surrounded by all of my friends on my team. After field hockey, I drive to work (alone) and am talking and interacting with people until eight, when I drive back home (by myself). When I get home, I usually try to eat dinner, take a shower, do my homework, and go to bed. I am always exhausted by this time and am usually cranky so I try to stay away from everyone when I do homework. Bedtime comes, and I am still not alone: my puppy cuddles up next to me and falls asleep. Throughout my whole day, I never really feel alone. Even when I am in the car by myself, I tend to enjoy the quiet and I soak up my thoughts and just think to myself. However, I have never felt completely alone; my grandpa is always watching over me from heaven. If I ever did feel alone in a bad way, where I needed some companionship, I could just think of my Pop Pop and know I am not alone.

Blog 5 - Importance of Music

Music. No matter what kind of music you put on, I will know the lyrics and sing them loud and proud within a minute. It doesn't matter what type of music; any music is beautiful in its own way. Music is my favorite outlet, and you can be sure that there is a song about any situation that life deals you with. If you are heartbroken, happy, mad, or sad, you can easily find a song that will most likely describe your mood to a tee. Not only is the music good to listen to, but you also have a way to vent and heal from your problems at the same time. I often find myself liking a song so much because it describes the situations I am in. I like to feel like different artists can relate to me and things that go on in my life.
My favorite types of music are pop, techno, and rap. Kind of crazy, you might say, to have three favorites that are so widely opposite from each other, but in all reality these types of genres always get me in a good mood. To me, music is not just "something," it is everything. I listen to music from when I wake up in the morning all the way until I am falling asleep at night. Music can be many things, including very calming. No matter what I am listening to, I am, without a doubt, humming shamelessly the words that have such thought and passion inside every word, each word sewed together to make a line, and each line is weaved into the song. I truly admire artists who write their own music, which is becoming more and more rare as of recently. I feel like when an artist sings a song that has been written by someone else, it is kind of like a lie to sing it and pretend it is your own. Those are the artists that I can’t relate to; I relate more to the songwriters that put together these pieces, but get no credit for writing all of the beauty in the song.
All I really know is that music, to me, has never been considered "noise." Music is an important way to express yourself at any time of any day, and it is safe to say I would be bored out of my mind if I didn't listen to it all the time. No matter what I am doing, ninety percent of the time, my iPod touch is sitting right next to me on shuffle. Without music, the world would be bland and misunderstood. How else can people really and truly show us what they are feeling? You can write a poem or a story, but where is the beat? Where is the acoustic background that makes you bounce in your seat and sway your hips? Music is part of my daily routine, and I am pretty sure that I am unwilling to take it away, because taking away music would be taking away a part of myself.

Blog 4 - Relationship with the Phone

What’s your relationship with the phone?

Some students hardly use their phone at all: either their parents forbid them, or their phone is always tied up by someone in the house. Others have a phone in their pocket all the time, and seem to be constantly talking on the phone—even to the exclusion of talking with their friends who are right there next to them.

Who are you in this spectrum? Do you spend hours on the phone daily, or hardly any time? What would your life be like if there were no phones, or if the entire phone network collapsed for six months?

Write about it.
The minute I logged on and saw that our blog was about my phone, I smiled. What an easy topic to write 500 words about! *PHONE CHECK* Well, my current phone and I have been together for eight long months now. We have a very strong relationship. I tell him everything. He is such a good listener, and I tell him absolutely everything. No but really, if you ask anyone, we are perfect for each other. However, my mom has something against him. Sometimes, she takes him away from me, and as pathetic as it sounds, I cry my little eyes out because life without him can be very lonely. *PHONE CHECK* As far as ignoring my friends, I am not one of those inconsiderate people that think that my phone is more important than the people surrounding you. And at the same time, you can tell who the attentive people in your life are when they actually listen to you and don’t whip out their phone every minute and a half!
Throughout the day I usually text a few different people, and when I get home before I go to sleep I talk on the phone. If I had no phone, I would probably have to bring back snail mail or emails. *PHONE CHECK* If I had no phone for six months, I would end up inventing some type of phone-only-cooler things. But hey, we are called the tech-generation for a reason!
People might associate the term tech-generation as being a bad thing, but I think that it makes our generation have better communication. *PHONE CHECK* Why pay for postage stamps and wait days when sending mail when you could shoot someone a text and get a response immediately? *PHONE CHECK* Nowadays an unlimited texting plan is fairly common, so communication is just simple.
If we are being honest right now, I don’t really consider my phone a necessity. I can function without it, but it helps a lot. *PHONE CHECK* I have a Blackberry Torch, so if I really want to know something, I can just Google almost anything I want to know. My phone comes in handy because you can do basically anything you want with it. There are apps that you can download for free, ranging from a flashlight to a ‘gas buddy’ that tells you what the cheapest gas prices are. You can even use a phone to do banking transactions. Phones are a gateway to the internet, videos, pictures, family, friends, etc etc etc. For the fact that cellphones have a negative connotation, I say, like my grandma would, that is malarkey! Phones might be a distraction to some people, but to most it is a handy and convenient way to do most things that used to take a week. *PHONE CALL* All in all, a phone has become a helpful tool, whether it is helping a teenager or an adult.
And since we are being honest, I’m starting to realize how pitiful I am with each phone check while writing this blog. *PHONE CALL*

Blog 3 - Noticing Drivers' Behaviors

I’ll start this blog with the scariest day of my life. It was the day of junior prom, and it couldn’t have been a more beautiful and exciting day. I was driving to Lacey to pick up my friend Amanda who would be my date for the night – stupid boys... Of course we had to rush home to get our hair and makeup done by my sister. She was waiting at my house, impatiently, I might add. I was getting calls up the wazoo to come home ASAP. However, Amanda forgot to tell me that she needed to go fake and bake before our big night out. So I drove her to the tanning salon and waited for her to burn for twelve minutes, which then seemed like an eternity. After that we really had to pedal-to-the-metal to get home in time. I was right about to turn from Route 9 onto Station Road, when the light turned yellow. I thought I could make it, but just as I was turning I watched the light turn red. I thought nothing of it, until I saw red and blue lights flashing in my rear-view. It was probably the scariest thing I had ever experienced up to that point. I said sorry to the cop and after almost peeing my pants, he let me go with a warning. As late as we were, we had to rush our hair and makeup. By the time we left my house, pictures had started about 45 minutes prior. I must admit I was rushing and maybe driving a little crazy, but when some old fart cut me off I was livid. I then did the not-so-mature thing and swerved in front of him. He then proceeded to re-cut me off! It was nuts, and it was my breaking point. I knew I wasn’t a good enough driver to be messing around like this, so I cooled my jets and just drove. Then, he put on his directional to go left. I moved to the left to pass him when he turned, and he DIDN’T TURN! He tried to trick me and I had to swerve off the road and almost hit his car! I wasn’t sure if I really hit it but I did the only thing I could think of and sped off. He followed me. It was even more scary then the cop situation that happened two hours earlier. This was clearly not my day. He kept following me, beeping and sticking a choice finger out of his window, while yelling profanity that made me blush. So I did the dumbest thing possible, and I got out of my car, heels and dress and all. As soon as the creep saw me his whole attitude changed, most likely because I was wearing a prom dress that was not too modest. I asked him what the *insert expletive here* he wanted, and he said “just be a better driver” and went on his merry way. Well, we arrived at pictures an hour late, and I was shaking too much to even take any pictures, but that whole day taught me a very valuable lesson – don’t be an asshole driver. I was more confident driving then I should have been, considering I had only had my license for five months. If I didn’t go through that, I wouldn’t have been so serious about being safe. Driving around with the windows down, shades on, music blasting, and your friends sitting next to you, you are more careless. It happens to the best of us, but you have to keep in mind that no matter what you still need to drive safely.
If you really think about it you can’t really tell who a person is by the way they drive. You can be shy, but you can be a jerk on the road. Or you can be a loudmouth, but you are the kind of person that follows all the speed limits and lets people cut you off.
You see some crazy things when driving. While driving with a friend, coming home from North Jersey, we were driving and feeling awesome speeding along, so we tried to have fun. We saw a good looking guy in a big truck, and we screamed out the window to him. He clearly liked the attention and wanted to play games. He tried to impress us by cutting off absolutely everyone and speeding so he could be ahead of us. Oh how romantic, right? Not. He was being stupid and he could have gotten all of us killed. We learned our lesson about never doing that again because we realized how dangerous it really was.
If I could mold myself into the perfect driver, I would. However, there is no such thing. People do the best they can, and that’s fine with me. Unfortunately not everyone is cautious and safe while driving, but that will never change, so I don’t dwell on it. But as for myself, I’ll be the safe one, going the speed limit and stopping at red lights like a good little girl.