Thursday's In-Class Writing

This issue I'm going to be writing about is school assessment. I think I'm going to focus on the tests schools are giving now like Gateway, instead of focusing on Memphis city schools like I mentioned in class. I think the Gateway test and TCAP are ridiculous. For instance the gateway tests, you take the test and if you fail the testy ou have to take another semester of that course and take the test over again. It does not matter if you are passing the course or not. I took TCAP in elementary school and I think middle. I honestly don't understand why they give us the test. It doesn't even matter if you pass it or not you will still advance to the next grade. In fact, some teachers could careless about these kind of tests and that's not a good thing either. Another test I don't get is the creative writing essay we did in high school. Where the scores you could get were between a 1 and 6. Well the government gives you some random topic the day of the writing assessment and you don't know what it is until you flip the paper over and read it. The essay is timed as well. The thing I don't like about this is that it gets sent away and there are judges who read your paper. This is pointless because it is that persons opinion on what they think you should get. They could give you failing score, which means you would have to take it over again until you pass, or someone else could read it and give you a passing score. I'm planning on being a teacher when I graduate from school, so I want to look into this subject matter and figure out why they give these certain tests.

Germantown Cheerleading

Last night I went to Germantown High School's cheerleading practice. Some of you may be wondering why I went. I went because I cheered for Germantown the past three years. I wanted to go watch them practice because they only have like two weeks before they head of to nationals! Hopefully, they will be National Champions! It is such a great feeling. Anyways, during their practice I was yelling for them and saying BE SHARP!! YELL!! LOUDER!! KEEP YOUR HEAD UP!!!! I just wish I could have been on that blue mat with them doing the routine and yelling, but instead I was up in the front with the coach! That is kind of depressing. Haha! I was getting chills just watching how good they are! I wanted to be out there so bad. I wish I could stay in highschool forever and just cheer for Germantown ..to bad you can't haha! Okay, it may seem like I am obsessed with cheerleading but, I'm not. I just really love to perform in front of thousands of people! Cheerleading has really made me a more competitive and stronger person in life. One more thing, I always said I don't want to cheer in college. One because I always tell myself I want a life in college and cheer is 24/7 and another reason because I didn't really think college cheer would be for me. Well after the past practices of Germantown's I have been to it has changed my mind! I really think I'm going to tryout for Memphis All-Girl in April. YAY!

Manifesto

On Thursday, we were given the assignment to look up the word "manifesto" and write one of our own. Of course, I was not too excited about this assignment because I did not know what a manifesto was, and I figured it was not going to be that easy. What exactly is a manifesto? A manifesto is a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization. It basically states what a person believes in and what a person wants to get out of life. As I researched more on the word manifesto, I came across some famous ones. One of the most famous manifestos is The Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence states the United States of America's freedom from Great Britain. "The Declaration isconsidered to be the founding document of the United States ofAmerica, where July 4 is celebrated as Independence Day and thenation's birthday (Wikipedia)." This document states that everyone has the same rights. Dr. Seuss once said "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." I love this quote. I believe that you should not try to be someone you are not. It will get you nowhere in life. If someone does not like you for who you are, then you don't need them in your life (as mean as that sounds..we all know it's true... am I right?). I also believe that everything happens for a reason and noone can help it. I believe that you were given your life you have because you are strong enough to live it. We all know that life is like a roller-coaster, it has its ups and downs, but you just have to get over it and move on, because life is way to short to take anything for granted. I believe that you should live each day to the fullest, because you never know what the next day will bring. I also believe that noone should ever judge you on the mistakes you have made. No one is perfect, in fact, I believe that everyone is far from it. I do speak my mind and I am not afraid of what people think about me. That is one thing that does make me who I am. My family and my friends are my backbone. I have the most amazing family ever, without them I honestly would be nothing. They are the ones who have brought me up to who I am today and who have taught me to not let anyone bring you down. My dad is my hero. I look up to him so much and hopefully when my day comes to get married my husband will be a great father like mine. I am a daddy's girl, but I am not spoiled by no means. My friends mean everything to me. I love my true friends, without them I would be nothing as well. I am grateful to have not gone through the pain of losing someone very close to my heart in awhile. I honestly have no idea what I would do. I believe that Jesus Christ is my savior. I'm a very outgoing, friendly, lovable person. I am not shy at all. I believe that you should never judge a book by it's cover. You should always get to know someone before putting a label on them. I always try my best to treat people that way I want to be treated. I am very talkative person, and will talk to you about anything and everything. I can talk for hours to someone about pointless stuff. I really think I'm ADD and most of my friends would agree. I am very random, but again that's a little something of what makes me who I am. My goal in life is to be a teacher, which is currently my major and to be a mother. I love my major because I enjoy working with kids. My major is elementary education. It's a privilege to know you have impacted a student's life. I tutored a student last semester at campus school and it was an honor to watch the student grow in his subjects. I can't wait to become a teacher when I graduate. Another goal of mine is to have a family of my own in about five years and maybe eventually be a stay at home mom. I wouldn't mind being a dance teacher on the side (more than I am now). My grandmother owns a dance studio and I have grown up around dance my whole life. I have also taken dance for 18 years now, and it's something I love to do and something I enjoy. Well hopefully after reading this you have come to know alittle bit about me. I'm just a normal nineteen year old college student living my own life! =)

Court Date

So this past Tuesday I had court and had to be there at 8:30 a.m. So of course I was going to miss my first class which is at 8:00 and Ithought it would not take long so I could be at English at 9:40. Well,that turned out to be wrong. I did not leave court until about 9:15, so forget English, sorry Mrs. Winter that I missed your class by the way. I was really hoping I would not miss because after reading Mrs.Winter's e-mail it said we may have a quiz over our syllabus. I was freaking out because I didn't want to miss it just incase I would not be able to make it up due to court. After missing English class I told myself I would never miss another day. I really wish I could have been in class so I could hear all the questions that were asked, but no court got in the way! Ugh! So I called my friend Sarah Thursday morning before class, and asked her what we did and she went on telling me about we have this paper to write on a subject you pick and so on. I was like what? Well, if I would have gotten online and looked at the blogspot I would have seen it but I forgot. I have got to start remembering to look at it everyday and my email.