One Hundred!

As of today, if you have completed every one of the journal assignments, you will have completed 100 journal entries. This serves as a record of your thoughts and feelings about the topics that were covered in this course over the entire academic year (even if you delete your blog, I have saved it all). Whether you realized it at the time or not, this journal writing was one of the most important elements of this class. It was intended to encourage you to think on your own terms about the topics we covered in class, and to express those thoughts in writing. Looking back at the experience of keeping this journal, write about how you feel about the practice of writing daily about your life, whether related to school or not. Do you think it is a valuable habit? Why or why not? Explain.

I think writing daily about our lives is in fact a valuable habit. The act of actually writing down our thoughts and emotions regarding specific topics, events, or even day-by-day occurrences, allows us to process our thoughts, filter them, think them thoroughly, and print them legibly on paper. This is great practice for future writing, where ideas must be quickly processed in order to write quick essays, and is also good for our mental selves, keeping us mentally alert, thoughtful, and keeps the rust off our minds.

For me, journal writing can also be a form of spirituality; I sometimes think about religious thoughts and my spiritual self, and it's a wild jumble of emotions, fears and confidences. As a result one method I've learned to process these thoughts is to write them down, and through this even worship God.

I think the journal writes this year were valuable in that they helped my writing skills, and generally this year journals are one of the few opportunities in this class to practice.

Final Exam

How do you feel about your final exam? Are you ready? What parts do you feel unsure about? What parts are you confident about. If the teacher were to say as he was passing out the exams, "Don't worry, this exam is very easy," how much would you want to kill him?

I feel pretty confident about this final exam. I'd say I'm pretty ready for it, since I think I know the elements pretty well and can analyze the short stories we have read with relative ease. I read over the Nigerian folk tale we are supposed to analyze for the final, and understand it pretty well.

I haven't put much focus on the story 102 Minutes, however, so I'm hoping that there won't be many questions on that. Even comprehension questions may come a little hard for me. But after taking the finals I realized there weren't many multiple choice questions and zero short answer questions relating to the story.

For this test I wouldn't be as angry, as I spent a short amount of review time but not even close to an excessive amount. I think that my study time reflects the toughness of the test as it was described to me before and after the test. However, if the teacher of, say, AP Biology said that I would most definitely kill him.

Group Work

Yesterday you were asked to write about situations in which strangers had to work together for a common goal. Many times as students you are put into groups to perform various tasks. How do you feel about group work? Do you like it more than working by your self, or less? Why? What makes it better or worse? Do you think you are a net contributor to the groups you are in, or do you tend to just let others in the group do most of the work? Why do you think teachers make students do group work so often? For example, do you think they are really trying to teach students to learn how to work together, or are they just making their own jobs easier by reducing the number of projects to grade? How do you think group work in school will prepare you for life after high school? Given the fact that in college you might have to work in groups even more than you have had to in high school, and after college you will certainly have to work in groups, how do you feel about the value of group work?

I think group work in school is good practice for college, and later for our careers. In this world, and especially during this time and age, people need to work together in order for progress to occur. Whether it is on a global level as we experience global integration of cultures and skills, on the career-based level within a company or research team, or on the individual level, cooperation must occur.

It's obvious how group work can be important, as skills may need to be shared and labor equally divided. However I'm not exactly fond of group work. In the past I've always been the hard-working self-starter who did most projects and assignments on my own, and even now I sometimes have this attitude. I think it spouted from my sense of security - trusting in my own ability was easier than trusting someone else.

Nevertheless, in recent years I've gotten rid of this attitude and learned to (though tentatively) trust others much more than I would have. However I still hate the fact that most of the time, the group is given credit as a whole; even if I'm the one who's free-riding, I would hate it because it feels that it was not deserved.

I think that teachers claim it helps in life, but in reality their first thought is that it is easier to grade.

Strangers Together

Throughout “102 Minutes” the authors emphasize that people are strangers and that they are alone. However, they also point out that the rescue depended on the efforts of many people. What main idea is suggested by these two points? Can you think of an example from your own life or experience of how people can simultaneously be both strangers and collaborators
 
It is pretty universally known that in certain situations people must work together in order to overcome obstacles and achieve success. In times of dire circumstances or during crises, this idea is emphasized even more. However during times of crisis, the people who work together may dislike each other or may be complete strangers.

Yet these men collaborate for the idea of greater good and a goal that is beyond the relationship that exists between them. It is an idealistic belief, but I believe that people must realize that when lives are at stake, everything (especially politics) must be put aside in order to address the situation.

Back in my days at Bethany, we used to go on missionary trips to the east coast, teaching aboriginal children English, playing games with them, and helping the villagers. When we were down there, we would sometimes work with church workers. We did not know each other, yet we were similar in that we shared a common purpose.

On one particularly memorable occasion, we worked together to set up a stage, sound equipment, and lights for a worship event. The worship was a huge success, and I think we were all emotionally touching.