Portfolio Reflection

One of my favorite piece of work in my portfolio is my test on the "Old Man at the Bridge." Test was a multiple choice questionnaire in our English Book. On this test, I got a 10/10, which is a perfect 100% score. I read the entire excerpt and enjoyed reading it. Enjoying the story may have contributed to me getting a perfect score. My test may say that I am a person serious about my work, since I did my best to do everything correctly and get a good grade on it.

Another reason why I like this piece of work is because I followed directions and did a great job writing my answer using the question as a stem. This shows that I listen to my teacher's direction and follow it.

My other favorite papers in my portfolio are my progress reports. Having these progress reports help me keep track of my current grades, days the upcoming assignments are due, and grades I got on my turned in assignments. I always

My greatest strength may be taking tests, that are not timed. Most of my tests I earned 'A's. I am also good at taking one page cornell notes. I can go back to my notes and summary and remember what the video or article was about. I can still improve, but so far they are very informative.

I need to improve on writing essays and doing LATimes. My essays need more concrete details and better argumentative details. Right not they are lackluster and unconvincing. They also need better formats. My paragraphs can sometimes be out of place, since they do not transition well to the next paragraph.

  A lot of the work completed were collaborative. Some were down with partners or in a group. One story that was done with a group was "Race' Politic & Chicanos. We had to read the story and complete two graphic organizers. With our group, we discussed our perspectives on the story to fill in graphic organizers. 

From many past group works, I have learned that I am not the best at working with teams. I tend to go off on my own and not include the rest of my team's input. This can tell others that I am a self-dependent. 

This is another trait that I should change in myself. There will be times that I can not do everything my self and need others to help me. If I am not willing to collaborate, then others may not want to cooperate with me. The only way to do this would be by my own will, so it may be something harder to change. 

How to Eat a Guava Found Poem

How to Eat a Guava by Esmeralda Santiago


A sour guava is green

As I bit into the green guava

I cringed

The inside of my mouth exploded in spurts of sour

I enjoyed the crunchy sound

The acid taste

The gritty texture

At night

Mother wanted me to drink castor oil

But she's an adult

I'm not

My last guava was large and juicy

Today, I stand before dark green guavas

Temptation filled me

But this autumn

I am no longer a child


Santiago, Esmeralda. How to Eat a Guava. Cambridge, MA - Da Capo Press - 2006



Winter Vacation

   For Christmas, my family and some relatives from my mom's side planned on meeting up at a hotel in Las Vegas. The day I found out about this I was very excited to see my cousin Nicole. On the 23rd of December, we decided to start packing up our bags and head to Las Vegas. Since we were only going to stay for two days, I let my mom do most of the packing, while I took care of my important belongings. I made sure to have my earphones, wallet, 3DS, and my chargers for my phone and IPad in my purse.

   After packing up everything we need, I started carrying our packed bags down to the car. I brought down bags of food, clothes, supplies, and my dog carrier. By the time all our bags were downstairs, I was exhausted. We live on the third floor, so going up and down the stairs multiple times was really tiring.  

   By 3:00 pm, it was finally time to get into my mom's car and start driving to Las Vegas. I got into the backseat of my mom's charcoal grey car, and started relaxing. I put on my Apple earphones and plugged it into my phone. When I plugged my earphones in, my music automatically started playing. Once I made sure we were all settled and not forgetting anything important, I started to fall asleep.

   Around 5:00 pm, we got off the freeway to eat dinner at a place called Toto's. I wasn't interested in the food they were serving, so I asked my mom if she'll let me order at Jollibee instead. She agreed and gave me ten dollars to buy my favorite Ultimate Burger Steak. Whenever I go to Jollibee, I order their Ultimate Burger Steak because it comes with their delcious gravy, thick french fries, and rice. 

  As I waited for my order, I took out my IPad from my purse to read the manga Beelzebub. Since Jollibee is a fast food restaurant, I only had to wait about five minutes for my order. After I got my food, I went back to Toto's to meet up with my parents. 

   Halfway through dinner, I got felt my phone vibrate. I checked my phone and saw that I got a text message from my aunt. The message read, "Your room number is 5308. You're rooming with Tita Edith." I told my mom what my aunt said, and from the look on her face I could tell something was wrong. My mom told me to text my aunt saying, "I thought we are rooming with Tito Paolo." I didn't think it was a serious problem, so I gave my mom phone and went back to eating. As I continued eating, my dad started saying that we should just not go, we're just an inconvenience, what's the point in going if we're not all comfortable. I just sat quietly and listened to my parents rant.
   After an hour of eating and convincing my other relatives to switch hotel rooms, we got back to the car and started driving towards Las Vegas. I went back to listening to my music and sleeping. Ten minutes along the way, my dad started complaining and whining about how someone will steal his camera equipment. I hoped my mom would ignore him. Instead of ignoring him and continuing the drive to Las Vegas, my mom got off at the next stop on the freeway. Before getting back on the freeway, my mom stopped in a stranger's driveway. While she was parked, she input our address into her built-in GPS. When I realized what she was planning to do, I was very upset and disappointed. 

Assessment

How can we prevent the government from being able to access our personal matters being kept online? Having digital privacy should be an expectation in the 21st century. Collecting our data is an invasion of privacy and is not completely legal. Whether or not it is for a good cause, world wide data collecting is not good.


"Privacy is a basic need," Bruce Schnier, author of "The Eternal Value of Privacy"  states, "if we seek privacy we are not always doing something wrong." If a person hid in a bathroom stall, they most likely only want privacy to do the deed, not to secretly do something illegal. This quote supports, my claim because the general public's data is most likely innocent and meant to be private.


Keeping our online data is an invasion of privacy. Our personal data kept on a digital device are mostly innocent and meant to only be for ourselves unless intentionally shared with permission. In modern days, many people store their private and personal memories online. Storing memoirs online is much more easier and somewhat safer. In Virginia and Utah, there are giant server farms collecting our digital data. According to Douglas Rushkoff, "they don't have authority to go over it, but they may at some point." This quote means the higher officials are not trusted well enough to give us privacy. Since many people can not trust them, it is more difficult to give them the benefit of doubt to their reasoning for collecting our data.


The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) collects domestic telephone records or audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, etc from people overseas. According to James Clapper, director on National Intelligence, said the internet monitoring is, "used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats." While this may be a good thing to do, FISA is not considering innocent people's rights. According to the US Data Fact Sheet, "The FISA court, Clapper and other administration officials obviously think so [that the data collecting is legal], but many privacy advocates and some lawmakers believe this sort of broad data goes too far." This quote supports the idea that what FISA is doing is not right.


Digital privacy should be an expectation in the 21st century. Wanted privacy is a right for everyone to have. The data collecting that FISA is doing is not even completely legal and approved by everyone. Protest to the government for our right of privacy online.

Final : An American Story and Hunger of Memory

   Does everyone have a place where they truly belong to and are welcomed there? In "An American Story" a Vietnamese family is trying to leave Vietnam. After fifteen years of trials and hard work, they were reunited and became successful in their new country. In "Hunger of Memory" a young Hispanic boy lives in a neighborhood that mostly consists of Americans. The boy and his family stood out, because they could not speak a lot of proper English, but they all still have a loving and special family to return to. Both stories tell us that everyone has a place or family to belong to.
   Since the young boy from "Hunger of Memory" could not speak perfect English, his family was constantly shunned by some of their neighbors. In line 11 the author wrote, "But despite all they achieved, the confidence of 'belonging' in public was withheld from them.(Page 161)" From both quotes of the story, the feeling of not being welcomed and out of place was given. The young boy and his family may not be welcomed by some people in their neighborhood, but they will always have a home and their family to go back to. The last paragraph of the story on page 164 reads, "A family member would say something to me and I would feel myself specially recognized. My parents would say something to me and I would feel embraced by the sounds of their words. Those sounds said, I am speaking with ease in Spanish. I am addressing you with words I never use with los gringos. I recognize you as someone special, close, like no one outside. You belong with us. In the family. (Page 164)" From this paragraph, the author tells us that even though the boy is not "specially recognized" outside, he has his family with him.
    "An American Story" is also about a family moving to the United States. According to the second paragraph, "They were boat people. They had left Vietnam on a small fishing boat. (Page 153" This quote means the Dinh family had to go through a hard course to try leaving Vietnam. Taking a boat out of Vietnam is not the only complicated task in leaving. In paragraph 5, the author wrote, "Phong Dinh tried unsuccessfully twenty-five times to get out of Vietnam by boat. He paid boatmen who never turned up or who were arrested. (Page 153)" Phong Dinh was not the only member to struggle with leaving. Van Dinh and Quan Dinh, Van's son, were taken into Hong Kong camp, waiting for clearance as a refugee. Van Dinh was finally interviewed after years when the Hong Kong authorities began to feel pressured. On paragraph 10, sentence 6 we find out, "The family was reunited after fifteen years." Some family members because successful in America. Some became an accountant, computer programmer, or some are still learning in colleges. One member of the Dinh family, Viet Dinh, graduated from Harvard Law School and is now working as a law clerk. After all their difficulties of getting into America, each person found a place in America as immigrants.
   Both "An American Story" and "Hunger of Memory" tell us that everyone has a place or family to belong to. In one story, a Vietnamese family separate and meet again in America where they have much more freedom. In "Hunger of Memory" a young boy and his family live in America even though they do not know a lot of English. They didn't need to have confident English speaking skills to fit in, because they have each other. By reading the two stories, all readers can realize they are not alone in the world.

Autobiography

My full name is "Jacey Mae". Currently, I'm attending high school. Before  high school, I went to a performing arts middle school, a regular elementary school, and a private school.

For kindergarten to third grade, I attended a private school, which required money to attend. The only other difference is that classes are really small, but that's because there's free education that's pretty much the same. Also, it's mandatory to read and learn about religion. Every year, they would host plays and talent shows. Most of the time I participated in the shows, and I really enjoyed myself. I still like acting and being dramatic at times, but after moving schools I became really shy.

After third grade, I moved to a different elementary school. Leaving all my friends was really devastating, but I left thinking we would all keep in touch. I was wrong. When I got to my new school, I felt lost. I didn't know anyone except for a son of my father's friend, but that was only by name. Fortunately, I became friends with a girl named Anne. Even though nothing bad happened, I still changed from an extrovert to an introvert.

When sixth grade was over, I had to transfer to middle school. I did not want to go to the middle school that's really near my house, so with a bit of persuasion, I convinced my parents to sign up for a performing arts school. Honestly, I thought I'd be able to stop being shy if I started acting again. Instead, I was too shy to even try and audition. Although I failed at that, I became friends with a girl. She's very confident, likes to talk to people, and really smart. Thanks to her, I became less introverted. I'll talk and keep up a conversation with anyone, but I won't go out of my way to talk to them.

In middle school, I found a subject I'd like to study on my own time. Mythology. At first, I was honestly bored out of my mind. All we would do was watch documentaries, Star Wars, or read out of textbook. During all that, we had to take full page Cornell notes with a lot of colors. When I read the story of Narcissus and Echo, I started to like mythology. One reason, was because of Narcissus' extreme personality. He died by a lake, because he could not stop admiring himself. He found no other girls pretty or anyone, except himself. Second, it made me realize that mythology isn't just boring lecture about boring people who don't and will never exist. Normally, I didn't like to read in between lines. I preferred having things spelled out for me, but now I enjoy reading and visualizing everything in a book. Such as the background, how characters felt, and how I can possibly relate.

Now, I'm in high school. I plan on staying at my current school for all four years. To improve my social skills, I'm taking Leadership. I wasn't interested at first, but then my mom told me I should join and I signed up. After three weeks into school, I was never called to be interviewed, so I decided to give up on it. Later that day, I found out my friend from my private school, also joined Leadership. He told me how to actually get interviewed, and I followed his steps. Now, I'm the treasurer for the freshmen class.

Writing Assessment : Living and Learning With New Media

   Today's youth are completely addicted to online media. One way youth use media is to learn. Another use is to interact and 'hang out' with their friends. Lastly, media is used to improve one's self.

   By using media, youth can learn and discover new things. "Youth using new media often learn from their peers, not teachers or adults." This quote means people are generally more interested in learning from people their age. Some may say we should only learn from well taught professionals, but "youth could benefit from educators being more open to forms... that are generally not characteristic of educational institutions." Students should not be limited to specific classes, especially extracurriculars.

   Social medias are used to talk and 'hangout' with friends. "Youth may find new peers outside the boundaries of their local community." Nowadays, with media people can easily find and make new friends who share similar interests. These people can be schoolmates they never pass by or neighbors they didn't know about.

  Media is used by youth to improve their hobbies or skills. "They can also find opportunities to publicize and distribute their work." By doing this, comments and criticism can be given to the creator. "Youth turn to specialized knowledge groups of both teens and adults with the goal of improving... "Also, "their efforts are also largely self-directed, and the outcome emerges through exploration."

   It is good for media to be easily accessed by youth. It helps youth learn. It provides a way for people to make new friends, and 'hang out' with them. They can improve their hobbies or skills. Online media is not bad.