Journal 11 - Self Evaluation

Austen is a wonderful young man who excels in his academics in English class. Austen did well in his quarter test and scored almost a 100% every time in his vocabulary test. If he could check out the usage of the word thoroughly, he is guaranteed a 100% every time. He also did the reading which is a very good thing for discussion. To be accurate, he was one of the few students who read the books. He participated in the chapter discussions very actively. He does all of his journals and his writing. He also has perfect attendance. He received a hundred percent in his quarter test which includes a grammar section. This tells me that Austen at least has all the basics of grammar down. He excelled on his quiz on the parts of an essay and such as well.  Some of the problems I have with Austen does not concern with academics. He tends to speak in class without raising his hand. He also sits with his body tilted to on side which I don't really like. If he could change these, it would be awesome. All in all, Austen is a responsible sophomore and you don't need to worry about his academics.

Journal 10 - First Impression

It was so awkward when I first met him. He was to be our eighth grade Language Arts and Social Studies teacher. His name is Mr. David Svensen. It was the first time I met him. He was all serious with us students and he's trying to show a lot of power over us. I immediately thought he would be one of our worst English teachers. I thought that he was a serious person who does not have fun with the kids. We all thought he was a total jerk. He too thought that we weren't good kids and I know this because he told us about it when we got closer. After about as short as a few days, he became less serious and more friendly. We were good in his class and we had a lot of fun. We learned a lot of things as well. As we interacted as students and teacher, he toned down his seriousness. He soon became very friendly with us. He was one of the best teachers I have every had. He was the most understanding and easygoing out of all teachers. I learned that he could have fun as well. He had fun with us and was very friendly. Even after 8th grade ended, we went to his class for fun or for help. He was a very helpful and friendly teacher, different from what I thought at first. When he left, we were all sad because a good and helpful teacher left us. This taught me that I shouldn't make assumptions too quickly. Even though I learned this, I think that I would continue having first impressions of a stranger whenever I meet one.

Journal 9 - Parts of a Paragraph

A paragraph is a unit of writing. It is one of the most common units in the world of literature. It tends to have multiple sentences, although in cases of dialogue, it may be as short as 1 word. The type of paragraph we are talking about today would be the paragraph in an essay. An essay is a multi-paragraph piece of writing. What is an essay should be covered in the previous journal, so here are the parts of a paragraph. A paragraph starts out with a topic sentence. The topic sentence acts as a thesis to the paragraph. It talks about or comments on the subject that is going to be in the paragraph. Then, there is the chunk. The chunk is the smallest unified group of thoughts that you could write. It is made up of the concrete detail and the commentary. There is usually a ratio to the amount of concrete detail and commentary to the paragraph. The ratio would be 1 to 2 or more, concrete detail and commentary respectively. The concrete detail is the backbone of your paragraph. Almost all of the parts are built up from the concrete detail. It is a specific detail from the subject you are talking about. The commentary is your comment on the concrete detail. It can be an opinion, an inference etc. Lastly, there is the concluding sentence. It is the last sentence of the paragraph and it is all commentary. It gives a sense of conclusion to the paragraph.

Journal 8 - Pig Paragraph

The little pig was successful because he arrived earlier than the wolf did to the appointment he had with the wolf. As shown in the story, the little pig arrived before the wolf such as when he arrived to the turnips at five when he was supposed to go with the wolf at six. This shows that he followed his mother's advice on being early. His mom, at the beginning of the story, told his two very important advice, both of which he followed carefully. One of the advice was to be early, which the third pig did with all of his appointments with the wolf. It was smart of him to follow his mom's advice. The pig was also brave and witty. This is because if he was scared of the wolf, he wouldn't have gone anywhere in the first place. He was scared of the wolf when he saw it but this is usually the case when everyone face dangers. What makes the little pig brave was that he dealt with it without hesitation. He went earlier by his own choice without fearing the wolf. That's why he was brave. He was witty because he he knew that the wolf will try to eat him when they went together. He therefore went earlier also tricking the wolf in the process. About half of the story was about the little pig going earlier than the wolf, tricking him in the process. Therefore, the little pig was an early bird.

Journal 7 - Parts of an Essay

An essay is a piece of writing that tells your thoughts about a topic. A multi-paragraph essay does the same thing, just in multiple paragraphs. First, there would be the title, which is the name, the student's number, the date, and the assignment. This would be usually placed on the top-right corner of the page. Then, there comes the introduction of the essay. All the paragraphs of the essay should be indented so we would indent the introduction first. The first part of the introduction is usually the hook. At the end of the paragraph, the thesis of the essay would be stated. A thesis is a sentence with the subject of the essay and the author's opinion on the subject in it. After the introduction, there would be multiple body paragraphs. The body paragraphs start with a topic sentence. The topic sentence is a subject and opinion about the paragraph. Mind the details here. It is a paragraph. It is followed by a concrete detail, or CD, which are specific details from the topic. It can be direct quotations from the text or person you are writing about or even just a paraphrase of it. Following the concrete detail is the commentary which is also known as the CM. It is mainly what you have to say about the detail such as what you thought about it or what you could connect it to. There is a ratio between the CD and the CM. For 1 CD there would be 2 or more CM. The complete set of CD and CM is a chunk. Finally there would be a concluding sentence which adds a finished feeling to the paragraph or your personal statement. There would be about 3 paragraphs in the body of the essay. Finally, there is the conclusion. The conclusion sums up, reflects and gives a finished feeling to the essay. It says more commentary about the subject and gives a personal statement. If done well, an essay is never boring to read.

Journal 6 - Commentary on Success

"The Story of the Three Little Pigs" doesn't seem much but it packs a lot of morals, lessons and advice along with it. There are many reasons to the pig's success as discussed in the previous journal. Some of them are the pig's wittiness, the pig's choosing of the brick house, and the pig being earlier than the wolf. The pig's reason for success was that he chose to build his house out of bricks. It kept the wolf out but there might also be other reasons behind it. Firstly, to comment on his decision, it was the right choice. He might have chosen the brick house because he knew brick was a strong and that he could build a strong house with bricks. There is a possibility that the pig built his house similar to that of his mom. His mom is an old sow who survived the dangers and raised three kids. Her house might have been brick or other stronger material like metal. The 3rd pig followed his mother's advice. He did the hard work and woke up early. He took advice from his elders and he succeeded. He witnessed failure of his brother and he wanted to do better. However, there could be one other explanation for his main reason of success, the choosing of the brick house. It is that it is out of sheer luck. This is because the story doesn't say anything about the pig rejecting the hay and the sticks in order to get to the brick house. The story just told us about the three pigs each meeting a different man with a different material. All in all, his choice of the brick house allowed him to survive by protecting him from the wolf and may be even seeking revenge for his brothers. I therefore believe that the right decision is sometimes all you need.

Journal 5 - Keys to Success

In "The Story of the Three Little Pigs," one of the little pigs has a lot more success. Why? There are a lot of reasons for his success. The surviving little pig tricked the wolf and ate him. He basically defeated the one who killed and ate two of his brothers. Looking at this, we can see that he is witty. He could not have deceived such a strong wolf that killed his brothers if he did not have wit. He successfully overcame his problems with a cool head. He also had the ability to work hard. He also chose to work hard. These are some qualities of a successful person. As his mother said, he did not need to want anything because he worked hard. He was also an early bird, going to places an hour before the wolf came. The main thing reason why the little pig survived was because he chose to build the brick house. Choosing to build the brick house might have just been out of luck because from the story, the pigs chose what they saw first and built it as a house. He made the right decision because if he didn't choose to build the bricks, he might have died unless he had stronger material. The brick house was hard to build and he built it knowing it was hard to build. This shows that he made the right decision. To make it short, the little pig was successful because he made the right decision.

Journal 4 - Advice

A lot of people give me a lot of advice. I have gotten advice from my friends, from my family, from monks and many other people. I would usually listen to them but sometimes, I didn't care. Teachers give me advice about trying to be a better student and person. I listen to that. My parents tell me that I should be a better student and that I should play games less. Sometimes, I listen to that. I want to write about two pieces of advice I remember that two different people gave me. The first one is around 7th grade and the second one is the summer after 8th grade. When Leo, who left our school, was here, I almost got in trouble with this kid. Leo stopped me and told me that I shouldn't try to do anything if I don't have support. This made me think a lot. I ended up following his advice, staying out of fatal trouble. That kid's brother had a lot of connections and I might end up getting into big trouble. Another piece of advice I received was when I went to a monastery. I was a monk for around 17 days. In the end, I was ready to leave. It was then that an old monk called me to him and gave me advice. He told me to not do drugs, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes etc. He also told me to get love from the six sides: the back, the front, the left, the right, the up and the down. I don't remember what they exactly are but I remember that it meant getting appreciation from your friends, your family, your parents, your teachers, your siblings, people who work for you and people you work for etc. First, I thought his advice was really long and boring. Later, I came to notice that there was a lot of good things to consider from what he told me. Starting from that moment, I try to listen to the advice people give to me. Sometimes, I would forget them but I hope I am improving over time.

Journal 3 - Oppression

Excessive oppression in countries lead to revolution. Sadly, many types of oppression exist in this world. However, some kinds of oppression does not lead to revolution. There is oppression in China, North Korea, Myanmar as well as the United States. It could be said that oppression is global. There is a lot of oppression in Myanmar. There is a lot of gender inequality in Myanmar and females are oppressed. More oppression is directed towards poor people. Beggars, are ignored, sent away or sometimes even insulted. However, oppression is not continuous. Most of the people will give donations and be kind to the beggars as well. The big event that occurred due to oppression is the Civil War. The Civil War helped stopped oppression and Abraham Lincoln took the side of the slaves. Oppression is usually presented by one group or person or thing showing inferiority to the other. The characteristics are very evident in racism, sexism and many others as well. Basically, the inferior ones are pushed down by the powerful ones. Sometimes, there are no limits to oppression, causing both mental and physical damage to the victims. I think that when I was young, I was oppressed by my parents a lot. Everything such as time to eat, time to play and grades to get are set by my parents. Now that I do most of my own things, I feel like I was oppressed in the past. I usually don't have a say in what happens at home. I feel kind of bad and it would depress me at times when this happens. I just have to make myself feel better and that was it. I was once the oppressor. I once oppressed my younger cousins by making them stay still by hitting them with an empty water bottle. It didn't hurt that much but I feel bad for them after it happened. I did it because we were out in the countryside, where water is hard to get and they were still sweating, not ready for the shower. After the thirty minutes, they went and took a bath. I believe I would not do this kind of action to them again.

Journal 2 - Revolution

When people are pushed to limits for a long time, they would start to want to break out. No one wants pain or sadness or injustice for a long time. In the world right now, all of this is going on. There is pain, sadness and injustice in many countries and it continues to rise. Eventually there would be a revolution because not only the people who suffer hates it but also the people who see it or hear it would too. The gap in the world today is increasing. The rich is getting richer and the poor is getting more and more poor. The gap is widening and there is nothing going on that would stop it. Some people try to help but effects are rarely permanent. The revolution, I believe, should be peaceful. People nowadays know that violence is usually not the right way to do things. Because it is the bad things that we are trying to solve, we can't use violence. Doing that would just make things worse. There is not much we could effectively do to avoid a revolution. This is because the results are not permanent and most of the rich are not willing to give up their power. The poor can be helped but there is too much. The problem, also is that some of the people will be freeloaders. Some of the people are also just poor because they don't want to work. The governments could do donations and help create jobs but I doubt there is much the government could do because it also depends on free will. If a revolution did occur, I would want to be on the right side but I would also want to remain neutral and escape all the violence. My dad is a doctor so I think that he would want to help everyone but he would have to take the side of the choppers. This is because he works for the government. I personally would like to choose the choppers although I don't like violence. Violence has an impact on everyone and the most unfair things that could happen are the killings of the innocent. My family is innocent because we don't do anything that is illegal or would harm others. My father is a doctor as well as my grandpa and they save lives. We are not finding money in a bad way and we believe in justice. I hope a revolution, without violence and bloodshed, occurs.

Journal 1 - My Hero

A hero, by the dictionary definition, is "a person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities" (Dictionary.com) However, a hero for me is different. A selfless person, who has a strong heart and a willingness to give up his/her own things for the good of others, is a hero. When you are a hero, you are usually special to a person or a people. I believe that a hero has to have these qualities because he or she is admired by a person or a group of people. I consider parents, people who donate things, teachers and some political leaders as heroes. I consider my parents to be heroes. They are selfless for me and they are willing to give up things for my own good. I also admire them. Other people who are heroes would be General Aung San or The Lady (Daw Aung San Suu Kyi). They are admired by the Burmese people for their honesty, their work and their selflessness. General Aung San has a strong heart and worked for the country's independence. He is a hero for many of the Burmese people. I wouldn't consider myself a hero. I have not been selfless to a person and I wasn't willing enough to give up something for someone. I am not a hero yet. I will try to be a hero in the future through help, support and kindness. When I have kids one day, I might be their hero. I am sure I had some opportunities to be someone's hero. The thing is that I  never noticed them even if they were there. There are things that I did that could be considered respectable. However, the things that I am really pleased with myself would be not stealing although it is not very heroic. When I find something that is not mine, I never take it. I try to get it back to the owner or I would leave it with the authorities. This might sound easy but it is very tempting and very easy to take something that is someone else's. The heroic thing that I might've done would be to donate money and food. This might be a heroic action to the people who receive it but I think I am not giving it my all. Therefore, I do not consider those actions heroic. I hope that I could be a hero someday.