Blog Post - Resoponse to the Seattle Boycott Article

     Last week, one my teachers showed to our class an article that talked about the ongoing boycott in a school of Seattle. Garfield High School has boycotted the MAP standardized test, but what surprised me the most in this event was that every teacher of Garfield supported the boycotted. To my understanding, these MAP tests are forcing the teachers to teach their students the answers to these tests, while the students lose their creativity, they do not learn anything from the subjects.

                                                   

   This is the definition of the verb teach that I have got from dictionary.com: to impart knowledge or skill to; give instruction to. It clearly states that it is the act of give your knowledge or skill to others and instruction them through their learning. My point is that with the standardized tests, students will only receive instruction of how to go well in the tests and no knowledge will be received, which makes the meaning of teaching obsolete.

    In my school we do have the MAP test, but it works different than in the other schools. Let me explain something first, here all teachers make their own test, quizes, and assignments to grade the students. The MAP test we take does not inffluence our grade at all, when we asked our teachers about it, they said it was test that would show how well we are doing in specific subjects. We take these tests once every quarter and there are four tests: a Math test, a Science test, a English Language test, and a English Literature test. I really dislike these tests, because for most of them they ask question about content that we don't even know about. Plus these tests, from my point of view, are a huge waste of time. I support the teachers at Garfield that are trying to get rid of the MAP tests so they can finally truly teach their students.

Seattle Boycott Article: http://processofliving.com/2013/01/27/under-pressure/

Fourth Assignment - Elections

   The USA elections put always a show for their own citizens and the countries that rely on the result, as we all expected, the 2012 elections did the same thing and its outcome was more four years for Barry Obama. I should state first, that as a Brazilian, I did not know much about the electoral college votes, but I have understood how it works after the three weeks we discussed the elections in class. To start I am not surprised that Obama won the elections, but I am surprised how it was not a close victory. I thought Obama would get 280 electoral votes while Romney would get 260, but the president won with 332 against 206. All the research showed how close, in terms of popularity, both of the candidates were and then on the election day this happens. For me, his re-election means his past projects will continue and his efforts to create more jobs will also continue, but I don´t think there will be many new changes in the following four years. My opinion is that because there is some much to recover from the 2008 depression and now there are more problems because of the Middle East conflicts and the European crisis. The Obama government is already occupied with these topics, so there is not much room for innovation. Now for the world, in my opinion the other countries will continue their actions because for them, nothing has really changed with Obama continuing on power. During the elections I found this video regarding the fight between both candidates, I love the ending (sorry, but there is foul language on the video). 

Blog Post 3 - Goal Setting

Blog Post 3 - Goal Setting Assignment

    After the time management class by Ms. Terrell, she asked for our class to settle goals by the challenges you face with your own time management. I made two goals and they were to finish any major assignment two days before the due date and to not procrastinate on my homework or study time. For my first goal, I tried to follow one of Ms. Terrell’s techniques which were to take note of assignments on a to-do list. I never liked to-do lists because they seem really a childish idea, but I tried to turn that in one habit. It lasted one day and I did not do any more of those lists, because I am really lazy to take note on almost everything we had for assignments and I memorize when I have things due and if I forget, I check Edmodo every day. Even without the list I actually finished major assignments two days before their due date, for exception of the simple and easy ones that I would do one day before. To improve my behavior towards this goal I must follow what I told myself and finish even the easiest assignments two days before the turn-in date. My second goal was a bit tricky to beat, procrastination is something that I do not occur to do much, but when I do I get mad at myself for wasting my own time. As I said the lists were not going to help, so I had to figure what to do. Homework can sometimes be extremely tedious and I just keep wasting the time I could use for it by watching YouTube videos. To beat it I just had to put in mind that if I had all the time I wanted after I finished my homework and studies, unfortunately for the most of the times I ignored myself and procrastinated. So I want to improve on this go and try to minimize procrastination as much as possible. 

Second Assignment

Second Assignment

     When I graduate I want to go into Medicine School, but not in Brazil, probably, in the United States. The main reason is that the country we are living is going from bad to worse and I am a hundred percent sure that it is not going to be better in a short period of time. Another would be that outside of Brazil are located the universities with the best Med. courses and my goal is not to be just another doctor around the world, but to be the best in the entire world. I have already made some research in being a doctor in foreigner countries; it is not easy to let them give you a permission to practice it in their society. One of my fears of the path to become a doctor is this restriction.

 

     According to what I have heard, if you want to practice medicine in another country you need to live in this country for five years and you will only be able to practice there, which means if I study outside Brazil I will never be able to practice in my homeland. To tell the truth, I do not even know if my information is correct since I based on what people said and a really quick search I did on Google, but if have to struggle to become a doctor I will not give up. What I think Academic Leadership will help me is to answer all these questions that i have and the others that I may face in the future. One more thing is that I know a bit of what questions I can make and answers to the recruiters in other to impress them. I would like to finish this post with the video of my favorite doctor, Doctor House!