Academic Bias

After learning about bias in my English class, especially about academic bias, I learned that there is no way we can stop this. Everyone is biased no matter what it comes to. A teacher can choose to teach over a certain subject more rather than a subject he/she may not want the student to know about. Everyone needs to hear both sides of the story and although the teachers do this, they still emphasis more on the side that they support. I don't think they can really be called out about it unless they are only talking about their subject and not allowing any more variety or opposing sides to it. This needs to be changed because everyone needs to hear both sides of an argument in order to choose which side they are for or against.

The Virtual Classroom Experience

As part of my normal Friday schedule, I would first go to my math class from 9:35-10:30, then walk down the stairs and attend my English class from 10:40-11:35, and finally go to my last class of the day, biology, from 11:45-12:40. Last week, however, my Friday schedule was a little different. instead of having to go to my English class right after math, I just needed to go straight to the library and log on to this virtual classroom on blackboard. this was done because our teacher couldn't attend class, but he still wanted a class to take place, even if it is done virtually.

I actually found this experience to be fun because it allowed me to talk more openly and freely than when I talk in class, which I don't, because I'm pretty shy. See, when I'm online, I can be this confident type of person who can say and do whatever she wants because I feel more free in writing and expressing how I feel without anyone to judge me when I am speaking in front of an audience or having a discussion in a classroom.

Next, the way the blackboard virtual classroom was setup was pretty fun as well. Not only could you talk to other students from your classroom, you could also ask questions that you felt needed to be answered using the question tool, or draw things on top of the discussion area to create a more fun place to talk. I, as well as many of my other classmates, contributed to drawing fun pictures and writings anonymously when we didn't really have much to say while there was a discussion. Although this was partially distracting, it also allowed the students to connect on a more personal basis rather than just a discussion about digital natives.

Although there were a few problems with the virtual classroom such as not being able to join it (i had to switch to a different computer because some computers don't support this, other students couldn't even join the session) or the area where you could write was small in comparison to the drawing section, this type of communication and discussion served to be much better in the long run because it allowed us to learn to speak to others through Internet and not just face to face, this was relevant to what we were talking about at the time (digital natives), and it took a different approach to learning and may have even lead to a more powerful discussion within the virtual classroom.

Overall, this was a very fun experience for me and I look forward to joining a virtual classroom again and being able to speak about how i feel about certain things and drawing when I don't know what to say. This was a great learning experience and I'm glad I was introduced to this type of communication.

Black Friday Nightmares

As the holidays come closer, people begin to do their annual holiday shopping. I never really had this problem considering I don't have a job to make money and buy things for family so I just make things with stuff I already have (it's the thought that counts!). Also, my family celebrates Eid and sometimes it can be near the holiday season and sometimes it will be after. In my family, we're not really into the whole giving presents things because we already do that at random times anyways and a lot of times as our presents, its usually $. haha so we normally don't go out buying plasma screen TVs and all that other stuff when we already have something like it and don't need it or unless we're buying presents for high school teachers to enjoy the holiday season (not TVs, small presents haha). 

Now before I keep talking about my family, I'll move on to my point in all of this: Black Friday. I, for one, never go Black Friday shopping because 1. nobody will ever drive me to my store of interest, and 2. the deals aren't that awesome because you'll still end up paying a lot of money, but with $20 off of it. It's honestly not something I grew up with or knew about until about like a year or two ago. Anyways, on black Friday, I was eating dinner with my family and thinking about how crazy people are for getting up at 3am in the morning to go shopping (yippy!) when some of the stores have the deal online as well or last the entire day. Now, coming to my point, I read an article yesterday about how a man working at Wal-Mart died from Black Friday. Apparently, he was opening the doors to a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, New York only to be trampled by hundreds of shoppers and eventually dying. When the police told everyone to get out of area, people were yelling and getting annoyed saying that they've been waiting to shop since the morning.

Is this what Black Friday has come to? People need to shove, trample, and kill others in order to save 20% on a plasma screen TV? It annoys me that what once was a way for people to spend money for "good" deals and shop with their friends has resulted in this crazed mania and savageness. Everyone involved in stampeding over this poor man and not even trying to help him should face severe punishments once the surveillance camera with evidence comes out. What they did was rude and selfless and they should be ashamed of themselves of the way they acted. I hope when they're giving their holiday gifts to their friends and family they tell them who they had to kill and abuse to get the presents for them. I'm sure everyone will be thrilled of what people go through to get fun material items for their families. I just hope that one day, the time for giving and caring for your family will reemerge soon and everyone will realize what the true meaning of the holiday season  is with or without material objects, but having the people who love and care for you to be with you. My condolences go out to the man who died this tragic way and I hope happiness can be restored.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday season and learns the true meaning of spending time with family and friends.

Thanksgiving Break

I just wanted to start out writing how happy I am that I'm finallyy on a break. I was so used to having half days and random days off in high school that now, any day without school is much appreciated because I can relax and take my mind off of school for once. 

Having that said, now I'm just gonna talk about what I did Thanksgiving day, what happened after I got out of class on Wednesday, all that black Friday madness, and why I'm sitting at home doing nothing but listening to music and writing this blog.

So,  after taking my biology test I was stressing about for 2 weeks, I was ready to crash. I waited for my sister to take me home (still don't have a car), but she decided she wanted to try this Thai restaurant with some of her friends. I came with them (I'm not going to stay at school when nobody is there and everyone has gone home to see their family) and I thought the food was pretty good. I ordered these noodles with curry with medium + spiciness. Since I like spicy food, I thought this would be no big deal. NO. It was wayyyyy too spicy for me to handle and I needed to drink a lott of water to simmer down. ha. Nevertheless, it was a very fun outing.

 After all that, my sister and I went to go pick up one of her friends from her house and meet up some other people at Coldstones. This was pretty fun, but it was freezing...I didn't really have a proper coat to shield me from the chilliness. Anyways, I got my dark chocolate peppermint ice cream and it was pretty good and minty =). So, basically I finished class at almost 1:00pm and got home at like 8-9pm. It was a pretty fun day! :D

Now, if your still reading, the next day was Thanksgiving. Family friends had invited my family and other to eat a Thanksgiving type dinner with them. See, my family eats Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc etc. I assumed other Arab families did the same even though we shouldn't really celebrate it (idk). So, when we went, we weren't served Thanksgiving type food, but food like salad, meat, chicken, a lot of Arabic food, dessert, etc. It wasn't what I expected, but I was pleased with a change in things for once and being able to see some of my friends after not seeing them for many months. It was a very fun experience and I wouldn't mind doing my Thanksgiving like this more often :D.

Next, I would love to get on the subject of Black Friday, but I never go shopping on that day plus I've dedicated another blog entry to this day and the craziness I heard that occurred on that day.

Fast forward to today, and now I'm just sitting here writing about my fun fun Thanksgiving break with my friends and family (my friend and I are supposed to go see Twilight today or tomorrow, hopefully :D...if my parents let me haha). 

This was a really fun Thanksgiving break because it let me catch up on my sleeping, finish homework not due for another week, spend more time with my friends and family and be thankful for everything i have (not that I'm not already thankful for everything i have). I look forward to another fun, healthy, and safe year and many more to come! :D

A Student spoke to Mr. Ziegler

This past week after finishing up presentations of media bias, our teacher asked a student to talk about how he spoke to John Ziegler. I thought it was very funny that Mr. Ziegler would actually take the time to respond to this students blog in the first place, but it seemed to be beneficial to the student because he got to learn more things about Mr. Ziegler when none of the other students could say that themselves.

I thought of it as weird how Mr. Ziegler approached the student through blog and wanted to talk to him by phone, but everytime the student asked a rather tricky or personal type question, Mr. Ziegler would get very defensive. You don't talk to a person to clear things up, but when they ask you a question you weren't read for, you become angry. If Mr. Ziegler was going to get defensive of what the student was asking, he shouldn't have let him call in the first place. 

Overall, I think it's great the student got to speak to Mr. Ziegler, but when i heard the student speak about this in class, I just wish Mr. Ziegler would've answered more questions without being so defensive so we can know the whole truth of what happened in Host, by David Foster Wallace.

Elections

As the elections are coming closer and closer, I can't help but notice more and more groups forming with or against democrats or republicans. I don't know if it's just me, but I dislike hearing people put their political views on others. Chances are friendships can come to an end, people become upset because they don't have the same views, and when one of the candidate wins come November 4, the people on that candidates team may say, "I told you so" or "Obviously that person was going to win."

 I understand its election year and people want their points to be heard, but I just don't seem to care or want to know who you're voting for because it's your personal decision and you shouldn't try to have people vote for the same people you are  if they have different views. Let everyone support who they would like to support and if they don't have the same views as you, so be it. You can agree to disagree or accept the fact that not everyone believes in the same thing you do and can think for themselves.

Although I can't vote this election year, when the time comes, I'm going to vote for who I feel is the best candidate and keep it to myself, because that's what I feel is the best way to go.

Media Bias

While i was searching for information for my presentation with my group members on media bias, I learned quite a few things. Most of the media has a liberal bias, leaving only a few newspapers, radio stations, and television to be conservative. I was shocked by this because I feel the media shouldn't have any bias at all and should split everything 50/50 (50 % liberal and 50% conservative). I'm not sure if this is how the media is all the time, especially during the elections, but I'd like to think the media would become half liberal and half conservative when the elections are over so we can see both sides and not 90% of one side.