13 - Lilly T.: Discipline

A lot of parents believe that instilling a sense of fear into their children will cause them to become more disciplined and more obedient. Based on my own experience, this doesn’t really work in the long run. I developed a fear of being yelled at or hit whenever I did something wrong, and this led to a growing habit of hiding everything from my parents. I would run and hide in fear of being caught. When being punished, it was always the broom or hand that I would be spanked with. I just love it when an Asian parent is acting like a stereotypical Asian parent.

Instead of disciplining their children through the fear tactic, parents should set realistic expectations for their children, and have a consequence when their children can’t meet those standards. Violence is never the answer when dealing with children. Children and teens nowadays are on their phones or other electronic devices all the time, so taking away those things would be a good choice for a punishment. This way children won’t develop any physical or mental damage, and will be taught that there are expectations they have to keep up with in order to avoid the consequences.

I understand that taking care of a child is mentally and physically draining, but remember that whatever you do to the child is going to affect them one way or another. The relationship between a parent and their child also depends on this. Using violence as a way to discipline isn’t going to be worth it, and any other peaceful method is going to be better than this.

Word Count: 269

13 - Charlene H: Ethnic Studies

Challenge: descriptive piece about an elective class you have taken or one you would create and take.

I currently take Ethnic Studies, and it is my favorite class of this school year. It has been a positive experience for me. As a person of color, a curriculum that speaks to my two ethnic backgrounds is empowering. From what I’ve seen of myself and the other people taking the class, it helps create understanding and develops greater knowledge. It also challenges students to think more critically about identity and history.

Ethnic Studies focuses on history from the lens of various ethnic and racial groups in the United States, and it ensures that students learn about both the struggles and contributions of people of color. It teaches parts of American history that I was never taught in a typical history class. Some of the concepts I learned include, but are not limited to, why Chinatowns were created, picture brides, the Zoot Suit Riots, the Bracero program, redlining, East L.A. walkouts, and the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. I also learned about people that I didn’t hear about in past history classes, including Afong Moy, Cesar Chavez, Larry Itliong, and more.

Another thing I must also mention, though I am one of the few quiet people in this class and don’t talk much, the people who are in this class are loud, funny, and express strong emotions. Even if I don’t regularly talk to the students in this class besides one person, I enjoy listening to the constant class discussions. I feel more connected with the students in this class than in my other classes. I also love my teacher; he’s easygoing and caring.

The work in my class is easy. There are no tests, quizzes, or homework. Really, the only homework is what we don’t finish in class, but usually, we are given enough class time to complete the worksheets and assignments. My class also has readings, videos, notes, and projects. I actually enjoy doing the projects for the most part, and the videos and even movies can be nice to watch.

I’ve also had one field trip in this class. I went to Angel Island last month on March 17. It is so far my most memorable day of this school year. Though I hated having to hike up the countless amount of steep stairs, the day itself was an incredible experience. The island is beautiful, and the scenic views are spectacular to explore. Going to the immigration station (the museum) and standing right where immigrants were years ago was also interesting and informative. Physically seeing the barracks, the writing carved on the walls, and the other displays of what life for immigrants was like gave me a sense of the horrific feelings immigrants on the island must have felt from 1910 to 1940.

Overall, I love this class, and I will be sad when the school year ends and I don’t have this class anymore.

Word Count: 478

13 - Alejandro M: Sports Heartbreak

 

As a Bay Area sports fan who grew up in the last decade, I have many memories of my teams winning. The Giants and Warriors in particular since they each won 3 titles in their respective sports. The Niners and Sharks haven’t won championships but still brought me memorable events. But when person experiences victory often, a loss creates a stronger heartbreak since you are so used to watching them win. 

The Giants were the first team I began rooting for back in 2010 and we went three straight playoffs with winning it all. In 2016, I was expecting the same results. We had never lost a playoff series so why would that change that year. And that’s when heartbreak hit. With the Giants down 2-1 in a best out of 5 series, the Giants were on the verge of winning Game 4 and tying the series. Up 5-2 in the ninth, the Giants’ bullpen imploded like it had done all season and I saw my Giants lose their first playoff series since I began watching them. This hurt a lot since I had never seen them do this, but it didn’t hurt as bad because of another event a few months earlier.

The Warriors began to build their own dynasty in 2015 when they won for their first time. They had a rematch with the Cavs in 2016 and had the best regular season of all time: a 73-9 season. They seemed unstoppable. Nothing was going to stop them from going back-to-back. And then the Cavs appeared. Up 3-1 in the Finals, the Warriors seemed destined to win again. They lost Game 5 at home with one of their best players suspended in an awful call, lost Game 6 in a hostile environment in Cleveland where the referees seemed to hand the game to the Cavs, and lost Game 7 in an even worse fashion. Deadlocked at 89 for around 7 minutes with a little less than 2 minutes to go, the Warriors got a fast break opportunity. Iguodala went up for the layup and then the block happened. Lebron James chased the ball down from the other side of the court to create the greatest block in NBA history. The Cavs would hit a 3 with a minute to go and end up shocking the world when beating the 73-9 Warriors team. I was so upset at how the Warriors managed to lose this game and the series.

Loss can come in many different ways. I doubt many people think of sports when hearing the word loss. But this is my passion and most of my life revolves around sports. All of my sports team has made me experience this loss in hard ways. Over the years, I have learned to accept the losses and not get too upset at them. The Warriors last won in 2018, and that’s the last time one of my teams has won it all. Loss is now just a natural occurrence and I just seem to always expect it now.

Word Count: 509

13-Krishna Clay: I lose EVERYTHING

 

    I lose EVERYTHING! I will lose something within five minutes of me putting it down, and it is actually a problem. I lose things mentally too, like I am such a forgetful person.

 I CANNOT remember people’s birthdays for the LIFE OF ME. I…feel…terrible about it. My friends from elementary school understand by now that I will not, nor will I ever remember their birthday. I can remember the month though, like one is in October, another is march, and another is in April, but i don't know the exact day. 

I still find toys that I lost when I was 13, and it’s NOT because my house isn’t clean, they were just in weird places. Like one time I found my toy airplane in my washing machine, but not in the main compartment. I found out when we were taking my old washing machine to the dump and when we threw it out the drum fell out and popped my plane. 

So the moral of the story is that I lose everything, so don't trust me to hold onto stuff because I will lose or forget it, buuttttt you can trust me because if I do find it I will give it back. Don't trust me for both of our sakes, I don't need that stress. 

WC-217

13 - Lucas V: Robotics Here at Wood

    

    This class is probably my most anticipated class of the year because of how fun and exciting it is. In this class, you would build robots and also code. Robotics is part of the CTE program here at Wood bringing newer class types like Auto and Woodshop. With being in this class for almost a whole school year, I have connected through classmates in class. I have also learned the basics of robotic engineering with what gear ratios to use and also what code I would have to input so that the robot would run correctly. There were numerous projects which were fun like having the fastest robot while having different gear ratios and different weight distributions used. At the moment, we are building a manual transmission with 3 gears to shift to.

    The environment in the classroom and the lab is very chill. Students are doing their own things with a little bit of chit-chat in the background. When we are in the lab to build, there is usually music provided by the teacher(he likes country). Most of the time the class is usually in Room L-6 to go over some notes and our instructions on what to build. When coding our robots, the whole class is very loud in which is filled with tons of typing of those crusty, musty school keyboards. Every day I wait for this class which is my 6th period which is a great period as it is basically a class at the end of the day and is also pretty chill. Most of my memories of my junior year is from this class. Plus during block scheduling, I get to be in that class for 2 hours which is great.

Word Count: 288

13- Khiem D.: Size Matters

 

Size Matters

Being heard and communication is key to learning when it comes to learning, then why do we pack classes so much? Simply put, it is much more cost effective to have a class of 30ish students than paying another teacher or the same teacher to teach another class. This isn’t even the worst of it since most 4 years have classes of over 300 students. But I’m sure you already know that and to avoid insulting your intelligence anymore let’s move on to the prevailing issue. Smaller classes offer up a multitude of advantages such as easy access to the teacher/professor and a tighter group of students.

In smaller classes we often have a pretty easy time reaching our teacher/professor for help, emails, office hours, and often just directly asking after class. In a larger class this might be more difficult as while office hours are still there, it’s a much different situation as professors must now juggle between hundreds of students.  Hundreds of emails, papers to grade almost immediately after class, and fighting for attention during office hours. All of this culminates in a situation almost akin to trying to vy for a parent’s attention in a large family.

In addition class sizes also affect the student on student relationships as the smaller the class the more tight knit the student populace is. Like a small suburban community, most students would know each other pretty well as the sea of faces in a normal class now shrinks to a mere puddle. There would be a greater push to talk to each other since there isn’t really a wealth of choices which in turn could improve student relations for the less socially inclined. A network of contacts which could assist each other on assignments, lessons, you name it and we even can observe it in private schools where the population of students is so miniscule you could recognize anybody at a quick glance.

Overall if it was cost effective I wholeheartedly believe that it would be of huge benefit to institutionalize small classes and safely say size does matter. (Yes Entire Post Was Just An Excuse To Make A Joke)

WordCount: 358

13- Antonio L: Refusal To Acceptance

 Refusal To Acceptance

Loss, as the title explains, ignites the grieving process which is the transition of refusing loss to accepting it. It can also be seen as the first state of grief, where people refuse to accept what was lost.

Loss can take many forms, but it can only apply to certain people who have their own experiences with what they’ve lost. How people tend to cope with loss determines how they’ll handle similar situations in the future.

If someone is willing to accept that loss is inevitable and must move on from that, loss will affect them less. Compared to denying that something’s wrong, a person can only deny so many things, and they’ll have to face the truth eventually, not really creating another way out of denial. 

When people lose something, they fear to lose anything else, usually becoming paranoid at the thought that anything bad could happen at any given moment to anything a person cares for. This fear is built off the experience that comes with loss.

That feeling of defeat, a melancholy tone to everything around you, a less vibrant experience towards everything in life. Reaching a low that one must climb out of on their own, because it’s all a mental game at that point. 

Grief and loss are almost synonymous to each other, where you have to lose in order to grieve. The grieving process is complicated but also leads to acceptance in the end, leaving no way to stick to the past.

With how much goes on in life, it’s almost impossible to stay in the past. So loss can’t be bound onto a person forever, and it becomes another event with its long lasting effects. But loss itself is never impossible, but people must prepare themselves for how to deal with it when it comes. 

Word Count: 302