Last Blog Reflection

First of all I can't believe is already the end of the semester. Is crazy how fast time goes by. This class made me a better writer, and a better blogger. I never thought blogging would be so much fun, I always thought blogging was only for celebrities or Perez Hilton. But its obviously not, there is much more to blogging than what I thought. To start off I think that Mrs. Shaffner did a great job in trying something new with the blogging assignments. She adapted to the 21st Century, what I'm trying to say is that there is a lot of teachers that are still teaching the same way they did 10 years ago, but for example Mrs. Shaffner tried something new and it worked. Because plenty of students found blogging to be a great way to improve their writing skills. I think that if you make a student pick between blogs and essays, they are by far pick blogs. This class taught me how to manage my time bette, because most of the time I would procrastinate about my blogs and leave them for the end of the week but at the end it wasn't a good idea. Mostly because I would forget to do them and homework instead of decreasing was increasing. Anyways there is some things that I would like to add to this final blog. I would like to continue blogging, its a way to express my opinion about different web sites. Since I already have a blog account, why not use it right? Blogging is going to help me become a better writer. A person only improves with practice and that's what blogging is going to help me do, and that is practice. Oh I almost forgot thanks to Mrs. Shaffner I got introduce to Stumble Upon. Let me tell you this site is AWESOME. One of the best web sites ever created, I keep adding more interests every day. Whenever I'm bored I go on Stumble Upon and it totally puts me in a creative mood or a ready to do crafts mood. Well finalizing my blog I want to do thank Mrs. Shaffner for teaching me news ways of writing. This was a great experience that will help in the future. 

Favorite Band

The Script

My favorite band of all time is "The Script."All their songs really get to me and they all have a deep meaning. They write their songs with so much love and the lyrics say nothing but the truth. There is one song in special called "Nothing." This song is my favorite song for ever.When I play it in my ipod or car, I want to at least repeated two more times, that's how much I like it. The song is about a drunken, broken hearted phone call to a lost love. The vocalist Danny says about the song,"Don't Change A Thing"about always leaving the door open for the possible return of a loved one. When I read what he said I started thinking that they put a lot of time writing their songs because each word has a powerful meaning. I did some research in the band history. The Script band is composed by three guys, Danny O'Donoghue (vocalist), Mark Sheehan (guitarist),and Glen Power (drummer). Three young Dubliners took on the world, with music fashioned from the emotional fragments of their own hard lives raised up by a love of pop, rock, hip hop, and soul. In two years they've scored up a handful of hit singles around the world including "We Cry", "Breakeven", and "The Man Who Can't Be Moved". The band has become successful in a matter of two years. They went from playing in small clubs to performing in theaters, at festivals and in stadiums. This reminds me that I had concert tickets to see "The Script", but I couldn't go because I had class, I was so upset that day. Anyways this band is no ordinary band, they are becoming more and more popular through the years and I can't wait to listen to their upcoming albums.

Stumble Upon Blog

Jelly Shots Test Kitchen 

I just finished stumbling and my favorite blog site that I came across was "Jelly Shot Test Kitchen."Very neat blog with lots of different ideas of how to make Jelly Shots or as we know them Jell-O Shots. It caught my attention because I happen to love Jello Shots, they are my favorite way to drink liquor. In this blog it tells you how to make them, the ingredients that you need, and it gives you different ideas for any kind of party that you are hosting. What is fun about the blog, is looking at the pictures of all the Jelly Shots that they have posted and they are each different, unique, and of course very colorful. The blog seems to be a hit, as I was reading the recipes, my eye came to find the comments and they were all nice comments telling them to keep up the good work and to post more recipes. This is always good news when viewers are telling you to post more recipes and to keep it up, that's why they are releasing their first recipe book called The Jelly Shot Test Kitchen recipe book. After this blog I'm going to try making Jelly Shots. Is a fun way to start my day and I'm going to tell my mom to help me make them. Jelly Shots Test Kitchen blog is one of the best recipe blogs to make Jello-O shots.

Interesting Blog

Peruvian Chef Chosen Best Chef Of The Year In Houston

Every time I hear someone from Peru is been successful and has won a competition or something like that, I feel proud. Not only because I'm from Peru, but because I know that there is a lot of people with great potential in Peru that haven't been discover yet. Roberto Castre was born in Pucallpa, Peru and has been living in the USA for 10 years now. He beats me for 2 years because I have been living in the USA for 8 years now. Anyways back to the story. Roberto's restaurant "Latin Bites," has turned into one of the best restaurants in Houston, Texas.  Over less than a year Roberto decided to open up his own restaurant in Houston. Since his arrival to the USA, 10 years ago, he had been working in the kitchen in various places, from then he had learned enough to take the next step in opening up his own restaurant. "Latin Bites Cafe," is the name he chose, a place of peruvian cuisine and latin fusion. "The opening month we were chosen the best restaurant in Houston for the month, and the second month we were between the 5 best new restaurants in Houston," Roberto said in a phone interview with a peruvian newspaper. The growth of the restaurant was going great, and what Roberto never imagined happened. He was chosen "best chef of 2011 by the Eater Awards." Im going to conclude the story there, and talk about what I think. I think that Roberto was so brave in taking a chance and opening up his own restaurant. Sometimes people need to take risks if they want to succeed in life. Another thing is that you have to work very hard to achieve your goals because nothing is going to come easy. This story made me realize that hard work always pays off. 

NCTE Defines Writing In The 21st Century

NCTE Writing In The 21st Century

Reading this article made me think about teachers, the future, and obviously writing. The article is mostly about the opinions and thoughts of Ex NCTE President Kathleen Blake Yancey. She makes a lot of good points that put me in thinking mode for a long time. One of them is that blogs, wikis, and social-networking has changed the way students learn to write. I think that the way students are writing now has changed in different ways. They write more when they are in a classroom but when they are out, the writing is applied in text messages, status updates, tweets, etc. Which thinking about is good because they are practicing their writing without even knowing it. Sometimes kids don't even write at all, they just sit on the couch all day and watch T.V. Modern technology is helping students write more each day. For example I much rather write a blog than an essay, because blogs are much shorter first of all and the point of view can be expressed just as good. One thing that I need to improve in is writing proper english when I'm sending a text messages. Usually I use abbreviations a lot and misspelled words but I do that because it saves time and I know the person that I'm talking too is not going to care. But that's one thing that I would like to work on and change. When reading this article, I started thinking an interview that I read in my reading class. It was about a Harvard Professor named Eric Mazur. He wanted to teach using new methods, for example students who score high do so because they've memorized information on tests but if you tell them to use it in real life they wouldn't even   know how too. That's why educators should start been more opened to different curricula that's going to help the student learn better and understand the subject better as well. So they can use  what they've learned in their everyday life. Oh and I put a time picture because we need to hurry up and start making some changes. 

Aritcle The Dumbest Generation

The Dumbest Generation

My reaction to Mark Bauerlein's article. I think it was super interesting, it has a lot of good points. Everything that he wrote is true, our generation is becoming dumber and we have to "STOP THAT." What stick to me was when he mentioned that kids instead of using the internet for researching about politics and history, use it for Facebook and Myspace. I have to definitely agree with him, all of my friends when they open their laptops the first thing they do is check their Facebook page. I'm not going to lie I do it too sometimes but I want to change that habit. Our generation is so worried about the "social life" that they have completely forgot about history, politics, and culture. I mean I believe social life is important but sometimes people focus all their attention in only that. The social network is great but I think people need to know how to use it better and instead of worrying about statuses updates in Facebook they should worry about their homework or what they are gonna eat that day. Mark Bauerlein also focus his attention in the peer-to-peer activity. This could turn into a great argument if you put a group of teenagers with their parents in a room. I think that now a days kids instead of talking to their parents when they get home, they go straight to their rooms to watch T.V or use the computer. This needs to change because this is one of the reasons why teenagers get into drugs, commit suicide, etc. Kids that don't dialog with their parents in a normal basis turn into rebels and do bad things because they feel that they have no supervision. Bauerlein also discusses the nature of the Internet itself. He says, "people seek out what they already hope to find, and they want it fast an free." Now how true can this get. I seen plenty of people get mad when they can't find something on the Internet. It is outrageous, just be thankful that the Internet was discovered. People expect to find everything in the Internet that's why of the reasons they don't bother to read anymore because they think that all the answers are in the Internet. This is why I agree with Mark Bauerlein. This generation needs to make a change soon if not everyone is going to become dependable of the Internet. 

Hyperbole And A Half

I just finished reading the blog "Hyperbole And A Half." I really liked it, as a matter of fact I liked it so much that after I finish reading the blog I did a lot of research about it and read some comments about the blog. All of the comments that I read were positive comments talking about all the good things about this blog. I would like to mention some of the key things that stand out to me. The first one is how funny the blog was. The funniest part about it is the drawings, they are awesome. It looks like she draws them at Microsoft Paint. The words that she uses are pretty funny too. There are some bad words here and there but I think those bad words make the blog even funnier. She puts the bad words next to the drawings, I think that's so funny.My next point is that she has over 55,000 subscribers. That's when I was like "WOW" this blog is really popular. Not a lot of blogs get to have this many subscribers. She is a very talented girl that has caught the eye of many web viewers. I was reading some of the comments and she is loved by a lot of people. I think is because in all the blogs that she writes, a lot of people relate to it. She touches a lot of people in many ways, like telling them they are not alone, there is someone else sharing the same feelings you are having. That's a really neat way of helping people. Another great thing about this blog is that she writes about life's minor impedances and exaggerates them into major daily struggles in a childlike sort of way. The childlike sort of way is the drawings that she has on her blogs. I read one blog that was about been mad for no reason. This blog made sense to me, because sometimes people get mad at the most stupidest things. Like for example if someone falls off their bike, is like their whole day got ruined. She makes some good points in her blogs that make people analyze things in life in a different way. The last thing that caught my eye is that she has a merchandise site, where you can buy T-shirts, hoodies, etc. This tells me how big this blog is getting. I think that this blog is getting bigger every day.