Public speaking

Are you the type of person that hates talking in front of people? Then you would probably hate being in a public speaking class. Just by hearing the words “public speaking” you’re probably not so excited about it. But have you ever thought about the future? Thoughts as in If you want to go to college or what job you would like?

People should take a public speaking class. Public speaking is a useful class, believe it or not. Sometime people think during class that why they are learning this if they probably won’t need to know this in life. But in a lot of jobs it requires public speaking. If you’re selling something you want to have good public speaking skills.  You need to be able to talk to the people in a way that well capture their attention. Where do you learn good public speaking skills? In a public speaking class, being in a public speaking class is good practice.

You have a lot of activities that you need to stand and talk in front of the class. People get so nervous about this. But the people you talk in front of are your classmates and they have to do the same activities and stand in front of the class. If you take this class you can get used to talking in front of people. Sometime in your life you’re going to have to talk in front of people; and you don’t want to sound all nervous. You want to sound confident and look like you know what you’re talking about. Public speaking isn’t that bad. I mean for the people that hate talking in front of people might think so. But when you go in front of the class more than once, you start getting used to it. That’s the point. Because when you get used to it you start not being so shy and nervous.  People should really take this class, especially the shy people. The activities you do in public speaking depends on the teacher, I guess.

Like I said, public speaking is a very useful class. Always remember that sometime in life you’ll have to speak in front of a group of people. So if you can pick your classes, and public speaking is a choice; make a goal to stop being so shy when you’re talking in front of people. And take the public speaking class.

Public Speaking

Have you ever had a project that you had to demonstrate something your good at? Well in my public speaking class we had a demonstration project; and with that project we had to do an outline. This consists on an introduction, thesis statement, significance overview, the body and the conclusion. When we present our demonstration, we had to basically say the information that was on our outline. We had to explain step by step how to do what we were presenting. We had to act like we knew what we were talking about. Many people did easy demonstrations. Some people did Power Points and others demonstrated how to do something threw video because they either cooked or did something that they couldn’t do in class.


What I did for my demonstration project is how to text. I did that because I couldn’t think of anything else and I thought it would be very easy. Since I text every day, I basically know everything you have to know in order to text.  All I did was look up a cool fact from the internet about texting, make up steps of how to text, then writes them down in construction paper, and write information on a notecard about texting. I really didn’t need a notecard but I put information on there in case I forgot what I was going to say, or had trouble remembering something. I wrote the steps on the construction paper so I could get a piece of tape and tape  it to the board so everyone could see it. That helped me because it reminded me what each step was without looking at the notecard. I guess my  presentation went okay.

We Read

In class, I read an article named Google rejects White House request to pull Mohammad film clip. It said that Google rejected a request by the White House to reconsider its decision to keep a movie clip. On Tuesday, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in a siege on the embassy in Benghazi. They were killed because the movie clip showed Prophet Mohammad as a fraud and philanderer. White house officials had asked Google to reconsider whether the video had violated YouTube's Terms of Service. Google said that the video was within its guidelines.

I honestly think that the video should be taking down. I know that there’s freedom of speech and that probably the guy that did the movie clip probably thought that way. But people that believe in Mohammad didn't like it.

 On the YouTube terms and policy it says that "We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view. But we don't permit hate speech (speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity). This is what I think is hate speech because it makes fun of Mohammad, and some people believe in him, and they took that offensive. Because of that movie clip, the U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans were killed. Well I think that video should be taken down because it offends people who believe in Mohammad.

Random Post!

I turned 15 on July 26. In my whole family, when a girl turns 15 their parents make her a big party called a "quinceñera. My sister had a quinceñera when she turned 15. Now my sister is married. She got married on April 28 2012. My family had wasted a lot of money on her wedding. My birthday was like about 2-3 months later. My mom asked if I wanted a quinceñera but I said no. I never was the type of person that likes a lot of attention. I didn't want my mom to waste a lot of money on decorations, the place it would be at, food and so much more. People mostly didn't bring good gift and wasting all that money, I didn't see the point.

When my parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I wanted money. Because I have everything I wanted. I took Drivers Ed before school ended. When I went to get my eyes checked, they said I needed new glasses. But I wanted contacts. I told my mom that I wouldn't ask her for nothing on my birthday if she bought me them for a year. They were really expensive because they were special contacts. They're thicker than ordinary ones, because my eyesight wasn't so good. So she bought me them.

 But when it was my birthday, she knew I wanted money. So she took me shopping and my sister's husband gave me a lot of money. I bought many things. I had fun with my family because we went to eat at a restaurant and I went shopping with them. I spent the whole day with my family. I was so happy because I got more things on my birthday then I would've got if I would've had my 15th party.

A Book I Read- Always Running

The main character Luis, is still talking about his family's past. He says that his older sister Seni was his father’s daughter from one of his earlier relationships. Seni's mom died giving birth to her. Luis's father was handsome and athletic as a young man. Luis's grandpa was a general in the Mexican army, once disowned him when dad fell for a women and neglected his studies in medical school to be with the women who would become Seni's mother. 

Its talks about how his brother would treat him bad. At school they placed his brother in classes with retarded children because he didn’t speak much English. They even held him back a year in the second grade. Then his brother took his rage out on Luis. Luis’s mom would force Luis into playing with his brother. One day they were both playing on the rooftop of their house. His brother told them to come here because he wanted to show him something. When Luis got close, his brother pushed him of the roof and Luis struck the ground with a loud thump and lost his breathe, laying deathly still in suffocating agony, until he slowly gained it back. Another time Luis’s brother made him the Indian to his cowboy, tossed a rope around Luis’s neck and pulled him around the yard. He stopped barely before it choked the life out of Luis. Luis had rope burns for weeks.

I think that it sad how Luis’s own brother treats him like that. I don’t see why Luis’s brother takes out his rage out on Luis about being held back a grade. It’s not Luis’s fault that his brother didn’t know much English. The way his brother treats him is not safe or right in my opinion. When his brother pushed Luis off the roof, Luis could’ve got hurt really bad. 

We read

Today, at school we saw a video in memory of 9/11. To me, it was really sad seeing the video. In the video, people talked about how they reacted when it happened. I guess those were some of the people that survived 9/11. A lady in the video said that when she heard the noise. She thought that it was an earthquake. So she got under the table. But someone was telling everyone to go so she got up and tried to get out of the building. In the video, it showed a man that was taking pictures as people ran for their lives, and the two buildings that were on fire. Many people died. Firefighters died helping people. Nobody would've ever thought this would happen because it was an ordinary day like any other.

We also read an article is class about 9/11. It talked about a memorial they did where 9/11 happened. The way that the articles explain that the Memorial looks like sounds nice and interesting. Because it says that:

 "Names are engraved — cut all the way through, actually, and backlit at night — on bronze panels along the parapets that form the perimeter of both voids. In all there are 2,983, including everyone (other than the terrorists) who died at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and in the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa.,” So the people's names that died that day, their names are engraved on the memorial. At school, they made us write a poem based on an article about the memorial of 9/11. 
This is my poem:

  "After the soaring" memorial to the people who died on 9/11.

Ten years later, the newly completed memorial,

Two massive square voids sited within the footprints of the towers, it digs down — almost as if the collapse of the towers had pounded out a space to deposit feelings about that whole wretched day. On all four sides of each void, waterfalls descend into a broad reflecting pool, irresistibly drawing your eyes, and your thoughts, ever downward

But all the while that those deep, dark voids express a sense of loss and grief — and reach into your feelings about the grave — the falling water exerts its ancient power to console. 

 Names are engraved — cut all the way through, actually, and backlit at night — on bronze panels along the parapets that form the perimeter of both voids. In all there are 2,983, including everyone (other than the terrorists) who died at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and in the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa.,"

Civics Class

So far my civics and economics class has been alright. It’s not too hard. History is not my favorite subject, but I'm doing good grades right now. My favorite subject is science but I'm really good at language arts. 

Today, the civics teacher wasn't here because she was sick. Since last week she hasn't been feeling so good. She said she saw things blurry. That’s kind of weird to her because she's used to seeing everything clearly because she has really good eyesight. She was taking medicine but I guess things got worse because she's not here today. But I really don't know. But I hope she gets better. I think she’s going to be out for a few days, not sure.  Right now we have a substitute. Her name is Ms. Elliot. To me, she's really nice. In the beginning of school, she was Mr. Paul’s substitute for public speaking. 

The civic teacher left us a lot of work, I guess to keep us busy. But it wasn’t hard. We had to do a T chart and in the both sides write about the federalist and the anti-federalists.  Then you had to do a Venn diagram and compare and contrast the New Jersey plan and the Virginia plan. We also had to do vocabulary words and with the vocabulary words we had to come up with questions about it. A student in the class said we should’ve had this already done since Friday, because the teacher had left it for homework. But everyone either didn’t remember or didn’t know. So the substitute let us do it in class. So I got to get everything done.

A Book I'm Reading- Always Running

Today I read the other half of chapter one that I didn't get to read last time. Most of what I read today talked about the main character, which is Luis; and his family’s past.

 It talks about Luis's grandmother Ana, and how her first husband was a railroad worker during the Mexican Revolution; and her husband lost his life when a tunnel exploded during a raid. Later, his grandmother Ana married his grandfather named Monico Jimenez. When Luis's parents married, his mother was 27 and his dad was almost 40. His mother had never known any other man. His father already had 4 or 5 children from 3 or 4 other women. They left Mexico and so they moved to L.A, at the behest of his older sister. She was a half-sister, who was already married with 2 children of her own. His sister’s name is Seni, a named his father invented. Rumor has it, that it was an inversion of the name Ines, an old girlfriend of his. Seni was his father's daughter from one of his earlier relationship; her mother died giving birth to her.

So far, I think the book it alright. It's kind of boring in the beginning. But when you keep on reading it gets more interesting. What makes this book seem so interesting to me is that this book is not made up. It's based on the author’s life. The things in the book actually happened to him. When I read a book and it’s based on real life but didn't happen in real life, I think it’s a good book. But when it based on real life and you know that everything that happened in the book actually happened to that person it makes it so interesting and it make you think about the book more.

Something I Read In Class

 This week, I read an article that's called Why Procrastinating is good for you? In the article, it says that there are two types of procrastinators. The two types of procrastinators are called active procrastinator and passive procrastinator. Active procrastination means you realize that you are putting off mowing the lawn or cleaning your closet, but you are doing something that is more valuable instead. Passive procrastination is just sitting around on your sofa not doing anything.

 The author of the book Wait says that he always procrastinates in every possible way and he always have. In the book Wait say that when faced with a decision, we should find out how long we have to make it, and then wait until the last possible moment to do so.

                                                         http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/frank-partnoy-procrastination-631.jpg 

Before I read this article I thought procrastination was not a good thing. Because I thought that it was good to do things ahead of time so you won’t have to be worried about it. But I have always procrastinated anyways. I always do things the last minute. When I know I have a lot of time to do things, I always tell myself that I’ll do it later. But the way that the article explains that procrastination isn’t bad it made me change my minds about thinking it was bad.

 But since there are two types of procrastinators, it’s good to be an active procrastinator.  That way you might be putting off something but doing something more important. Some good advice to manage delay is just take a breath, take more pauses. Stare off into the distance. Ask yourself question like what the maximum amount I have to do this.  Think before you do things. 

Random Post!!

Well for my random post, I’m going to talk about Brandon. I am writing about him because, I really don't know what else to talk about. So there's this guy in my class named Brandon Hargrave. He sits next to me in my 2nd period class. He’s very tall, well taller than me. He has blonde hair and light blue eyes. He calls himself "swagg daddy and he says he's the "boss." He always brings Bojangles for lunch. He says it’s not his favorite type of food but it’s the closest thing to his house. When he opens his book bag its smells like food; sometimes I think it’s him who smells like that but he says it’s his book bag.

I think I met him last year, I don’t remember. He was in almost all my classes last year. Now this year, He’s still in almost all my classes.

I enjoy talking to him when I’m bored, because he always has something to talk about. He’s one of my best guy friends. He’s usually always saying lyrics of songs and hearing music on the bus.  He can be weird at times. He says random things all the time.  But I guess you can say he’s a good friend. He makes me laugh, well sometimes; because he can be lame. When we’re in the bus and he starts listening to music, he does weird faces. But they look funny. The faces he does look kind of slow.

As you can see in the picture he does those types of faces.  So he’s a very special friend. Oh trust me, he’s unique. 

The Things We Do In Public Speaking!

In public speaking class, the teacher made each student memorize a famous speech. But we didn't have to memorize it all, we just had memorize at least 2 minutes of it. We also had to turn in a typed copy of the analysis and purpose of the speech. It had to be atleast 1/2 of a page. We had to present it infront of the class. We didn't have to present the analysis but we did have to present some of the purpose, we didn't have to read the whole thing.

When we were saying the speech he timed us. My famous speech was called 1976 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address by Barbara Charline Jordan. I thought that this was interesting because I found out that Barbara Jordan was the first African American to be elected to the U.S house of representatives. She was also the first female African American women to deliver the keynote address. I thought that was cool.

                              http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515M0YYXF1L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

 I had some trouble memorizing the speech because every time I was going to try, I would end up getting entertained by something. I also kept on procrastinating because when the teacher gave us time to do it, I would do other things. The day before it was due I did the purpose and analysis. But I didn't get to memorize it because I was too sleepy. Because by the time I was done it was very late. So I wasn't ready to present it. So I took a late day. But that gave me time to memorize it well. Then when it was the day of my speech, I was so nervous. I was scared that my mind would go blank and that I would forget everything I had memorized. But when I did present, it wasn't bad, I remembered the speech.

A Book I Read.

I'm still reading the book "Always Running" by Luis J. Rodriguez.

 

In the beginning of the story, it talks about the author which is the main character in the story is in the car with his two parents and his siblings. They were on the way to the Union train station in downtown L.A. They had all their few belongings stuffed into the truck and underneath their feet. His mom used to always argue with his father because his mom never wanted to leave Mexico. His dad didn’t curse or raise his voice; he just stated things the way things were.

“I’ll never go back to Mexico,” he said. “I’d rather starve here. You want to stay with me; it has to be in Los Angeles. Otherwise go.”

For months they had been pushed from one house to another; Just him, his mom and his brother and sisters. His mom and dad had split up prior to this. They stayed at the homes of women their mom called comadres, with a bunch of children of their own.

The author left Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, for Los Angeles when he was two years old.  His father was an educated man. In those day’s educated man had to be careful about thing like questioning authority.  His dad was principal. Being a principal is a powerful position in a place like Ciudad Juarez. His dad had received an offering for a six-month study program for foreign teachers in Bloomington, Indiana. He liked it so much, he renewed it three times. By the time his dad came back, his enemies had mapped out a means to remove him, since being a principal is a big position. He faced criminal charges including alleged stealing of food funds. For moths his father fought the charges.  After a trial his dad was found innocent. But he no longer had his position of principal. I thought that was messed up.