Is this the end? Not quite...

    This week, a series of fortunate events have turned what ought to be a hectic an dreadful week into another chance for me tyo complete the tasks given to me in English 2. The previous week, Ma'am Lynnie had announced that the deadline for our term paper draft was this Friday. This would have easily accomplished were it not for a computer malfunction which compelled me to venture to my aunt's house to use their computer. But thankfully, Ma'am Lynnie moved the deadline so good news for me!

   The next event was when Ma'am Lynnie announced that she would be inspecting our outlines. Hopefully, she could give her comments about the skeleton about my term paper about it's flow or coherence and emphasis.

      But aside from the two events, Ma'am Lynnie had announced that our blogging assignments would end by February 28 which is today! Though it pains me to leave this site, I have to move on to continue my studies and concentrate on my term paper. But I hope that when I am free again I will be able to blog again. I may come back to this site someday or I may even move to another blogging site...hopefully it will happen soon!

The week before the main event

      This week, was mostly about pair activities. Last Tuesday, Ma'am Lynnie announced that she was going to postpone our note-taking activity to next week. She also announced that the deadline for our outline was moved to next Tuesday. So today, we began discussing a little more about note-taking. We also talked about quoting and paraphrasing which I assume I am going to use in my term paper.
     Last Thursday, Ma'am Lynnie was not around because she was going to a convention at Cagayan de Oro City. But, she had already assigned pair activities for us to do today. Me and my pair's assignment was about paraphrasing and outlining. I admit that we had fun that day and we learned a little more about outlining.
   But that's not the main event. The main event was when ma'am Lynnie announced that we had to submit our draft by next Friday. Finally, we are about to do what we have been preparing all the time this semester....writing our term paper. So that's I'm currently doing as of now. Hopefully, I will have finished writing the draft before Friday so wish me luck!

Writing using critical thinking

     This week in English 2 was all about good old-fashioned teamwork and critical thinking.  The week before, we were grouped into four and each group was given a topic and was tasked to create a specific topic, specific claim and a thesis statement from that topic. 

     Our group, group 4, was assigned the topic "sophisticated new technology." Needless to say, it took us a long time to think of a specific topic and to formulate a thesis statement. But finally, we chose the specific topic "sophisticated new technology in the field of surgery." I guess you could say that our topic is very hard to swallow, but it was the only thing that came into our minds. Because we knew that it would be hard if our thesis statement was expository, we decided to make it argumentative by stating that the government should provide these sophisticated technology in public hospitals. Fortunately, the only thing Ma'am Lynnie criticized about it was that we needed to expand the statement by stating the ways on how the government should provide these technologies.

     But our activity didn't stop there! From our thesis statement, we were tasked to come up with an outline. We really had difficulty making the outline, and a lot of our subtopics were made on-the-spot. Then, we were asked to critic on the other group's outline (hmmm...a very good time to put on our thinking caps). But thankfully, our outline was said to be okay and just needed a proper introduction and conclusion. Whew! Close call...

     As implied from my previous statements, this week was not very easy for me. But fortunately, I was able to pull it off and learn a few things like creating and an outline and most importantly, about using critical thinking.

I Can Feel the Pressure

    On our first meeting in English 2 this week, we had a fun activity about the APA citation system. We were all divided into four competing groups. The object of the activity was to gather bibliography information from a given book, write the correct APA format of the bibliography on a manila paper and post the manila paper on our respective walls. There were two rounds for the activity. In each round, four books or journals were given. Since there were 7 of us in our group, we decided that four members would do the information gathering process while the other three write the correct APA format in the manila paper. The activity was fun yet very exhausting. We were given only 2 minutes to gather information from one book and 5 minutes to write it all on the manila paper. Fortunately, our group was able to do all of that and we got 29 points out of 40 points, which is not bad. 

   On our second meeting, Ma'am Lynnie interviewed each of us concerning our topic and thesis statement. She wanted to make sure that our term paper was worth writing and can have applied to people who are not related to our field. She was right by saying that a common mistake made by students is writing a term paper that can only be useful to the writer's field. But fortunately, my thesis statement was accepted since it is argumentative and can be helpful to different people.

   And so I hope that there are more interesting things in store for us in our English 2. Until next time...

This Week's Scoop: January 24 - 30, 2010

     This week, nothing much happened in our English 2 class. Ma'am Lynnie did not come to our class last Tuesday. Maybe because she did not know that the ROTC tactical inspection was moved to a much later date.

   On Thursday, we began discussing the APA citation system that we were going to use when writing our term paper's bibliography. Ma'am Lynnie also discussed the common mistakes students do during the bibliography writing process. I already copied the APA citation system from Ma'am Lynnie's blog a few weeks back so I have an idea on how the APA system format.I hope that it will come in handy someday.

   But even though I had lot of things to do this week, I still found time to participate in the regional convention of our society, the Junior Philippine Institute of Accountants. Since MSU-IIT was the host of the event, all of us were required to attend the said convention. Since I was an usher, I had a lot of things to do. We were in charge of greeting the different participating schools, faculty, judges and guest speakers, maintaining order between the different schools and awarding the trophies to the winning schools. Let's just say that I was awake for more that 24 hours. Plus, I had to wear formal clothes even to Timoga, where the night program was held. But even though I was exhausted, it was all worth it because I got to meet different people from Region X and CARAGA and I also got close to the elder accountancy students.

Reaction Essay: A Mother's Love: Is it Sometimes too much?

      On January 18, 2010, Jason Aguilar-Ivler was, the suspected murderer of Renato Ebarle Jr., was hunted down in his mother's house by the NBI. In the confrontation that ensued, Ivler was pinned down and badly injured. While he is recovering in the hospital, the media now turned its attention to Ivler's mother, Marlene Aguilar-Pollard. Her comments about her son and his arrest seem to depict herself as a confused woman who is desperately trying to save her son.

     One of her comments after her son's capture was that her son has done nothing wrong. I want to believe her because everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but Jason's actions during the NBI raid can surely make me question his innocence.
     In another interview, she accused the NBI of violating Jason's human rights while they where arresting him. But, I think that it was her son who violated human rights. Isn't murder already a violation of human rights? For me, the police were only somewhat brutal to Jason because they regarded him as highly dangerous because of his experience as a former US marine.
     In her latest statement, she appealed to the United States embassy for help. It's a legitimate appeal, but I don't think there is anything the United States can do about it. Jason Ivler, has committed murder and caused injury to Philippine NBI operatives. It is therefore only logical that the Philippine government has the right to judge jason and even imprison him if he is found guilty of the charges pressed against him.
     These three are just a few of Marlene's comments when being interviewed by the media, and there may be more to come. But they do teach us one thing: We should not let our emotions cloud our judgment towards others. A mother disciplines her children when they lie, cheat or exhibit bad behavior. Will she not also discipline her children when they commit something more nefarious such as murder?

      

This Week's Scoop

     Last Tuesday, we began discussing on how to write an essay. Our discussion included the basic essay structure, the kinds of paragraphs in an essay and how to expand a paragraph into a longer composition. As part of our discussion, we were tasked to write a reaction paper on an issue. I'm not exactly good when it comes to reaction papers but I will try to do my best. Also, it could be useful when we are going to write our term paper.

     On our next meeting, ma'am was not present because she had to go to Marawi, so she assigned some psychology students to collect our assignments and she also let them conduct their survey which was all about online gaming. I don't play online games that much so I was not required to take the survey. Plus, I don't belong to any game guild, sorority or society, so I wouldn't have the slightest clue what the survey will be talking about.

As Another Week Goes by

     This week has been a very busy week for our English 2 class. Last Tuesday, we presented the title and thesis statement of our proposed term paper. My paper is titled : Effects of Violations of Accountancy Professional Ethics on the Performance of Business Entities. It's a little hard to swallow, but, at least, I have a topic that is worth writing about. Our teacher approved my topic but I had to restate my thesis statement because she said that there was something wrong with it.

     On our second meeting, we took our prelim exam in Eng2. It was not so hard, nut it was not also easy. In the fourth part of the test, we were tasked to write a composition including its thesis statement and outline. When I reached that part, there was only about 15 minutes left, so i had to frantically come up with a topic. Fortunately, I managed to finished writing before the proctor announced that it was time. 

     So now I am currently searching for references for my term paper. I only have four, so I need six more to complete the requirement.

       Until next time...

The Grandeur that is Mimbalut (Descrpitive Writing: Remembrance

     It was like a dream. I remember that it was cold and the sky was gray. It was still midday, though the sky made it look like it was almost dusk. I was seated comfortably at the back of a pick-up truck together with my relatives. We were feeling the cool breeze as it passed through our faces. We were waiting to arrive at one of Iligan's many waterfalls: Mimbalot falls.

    When we arrived, I could already hear the sound of the water crashing against the rocks, and I became excited. After I got out of the truck, I headed straightly to the small pathway that led to the foot of the waterfalls. It was not an easy task, for the pathway was slippery and there were lots of huge rocks that were difficult to pass through. We came nearer and nearer and suddenly there it was. An immense column of water greeted us. It was so majestic that I was taken aback for a split second. I dipped my feet at the water and shivered as the freezing molecules rushed to my feet. It was then that I reassured myself that I was not dreaming. It was for real. Though the sound of the falling water as it collided with the rocks at the bottom was deafening and chaotic, I simply smiled. I realized that through chaos, one can see true beauty.

     After gazing at the falls for an hour, I decided to look for other wonderful sights at the vicinity. The water coming from the waterfalls flowed to a place a few meters away, where they accumulated to form a shallow pool. What seemed odd about the pool was that concrete tables and chairs were placed at the very center of the pool. I could even feel the current of the water when I was sitting there.

     To the left of the pool stood two massive, stone columns and a third one placed on top of the first two. I was utterly amazed when I saw the columns, for I knew that it took a great feat to put the structure in place.

     After passing the giant stones, I was surprised to see another waterfall. I saw two waterfalls in one day! What a treat! This waterfall was much smaller and narrower than the first one, but it is interesting to note that at the foot of the waterfall was an entrance to a cave. I wanted to explore the cave, but I did not bring any extra clothing with me in case I got wet and the water surrounding the waterfall was covered in some sort of slimy, floating substance. So I just had to satisfy myself by taking a picture of the falls with my cellphone.

    After that, I spent an hour and a half going back and forth the two waterfalls until my aunt said that it was time to leave. And so I hastily went back to the pick-up truck. As we were beginning to leave, I took one last glimpse at the magnificent Mimbalot waterfalls. I was exhausted yet satisfied by what I had seen that day. And I know that when I grow old, memories of places such as Mimbalot falls will make me realize how lucky I am to have seen something like it.

     

This Week's Scoop: January 5-9, 2010

     At what seems to have been ages , our Christmas break was over and we were finally back in school. In our English 2 class, we met thrice this week rather than the usual twice a week. We met on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday! This was because we did not meet on what was supposed to have been our last meeting for 2009. As a result, our teacher decided to hold a make-up session on Saturday.

     This week, we discussed about fragments and run-on sentences and how to avoid creating these when writing. it was such a nice topic since we all learned a little more about proper English grammar and punctuation. I for one learned one use of the semicolon. It was used to separate two independent clauses to prevent the formation of a run

-on sentence. I never knew what a semicolon was for, so now I know of one reason for using it in constructing a sentence.

     We were also tasked to submit our topic for our term paper. I thought long and hard as to what my topic was about so I hope it does not get rejected.

    During our make-up class last Saturday, we were asked to group into twos for our activities and because it seemed that ma'am did not have enough copies of our lessons for everyone. My partner was Molly, a BSEd-Physics student. So it seems that I did not just learn new things at English2; I also made new friends.

    

All Things Wet and Slippery

     Hello 2010! It's now the start of a new year and a whole new adventure awaits for me. After waiting for the final stroke of midnight and amusing myself at the colorful display of fireworks in the sky,I finally retired to my bedroom for a well-deserved slumber. Little did I know what will happen next.

        I awoke at about 8 o'clock the next morning and found my aunts, uncles and cousins already waiting outside our house. I had almost forgotten that we were going to Timoga today. I frantically got dressed and ate breakfast then hopped onto my aunt's pick-up truck.

     At the pool resort, the water was so cold that I hesitated for a moment to enter the pool. That was until my uncle pushed me and fell into the freezing waters. It got even colder when it started raining very hard. At midday, we were all shivering that we decided it was time to leave the resort.

     However, since it was still early, we decided to take a short trip t Mimbalut Falls before going home. The view there was breathtaking and spectacular. We explored the surroundings of the falls where we encountered a huge stone gateway that pretty much resembles the ones in the famous Stonehenge. We stayed there until 3 o'clock. Then it was time to go home and our little adventure ended.

     The events of my life during the first day of the year 2010 were such a wonderful start of the year for me that I am now ready to take on whatever the future holds in store.

The Long Road to the Year's End

       Merry Christmas and happy eating to everyone! As for me,I've already eaten my fill last night so today I'm just munching on what's left from last night's festivities.

     Unfortunately, I didn't stay up late last night waiting for the fireworks to announce that it was Christmas. This may be because I found last night's TV programs to be uninteresting which made me sleepier. But I do remember being awakened in the middle of the night by the commotion made by my neighbors and cousins. But instead of getting up to gaze at the fireworks outside, I just went back to sleep.

     Today, i suddenly realized that it was only a few days before the year came to an end. This year has definitely been a very memorable year to me. At the start of 2009, I was still a high school student who didn't have a clue as to what I wanted to do when I grew up. Now, as 2009 is about to end, I am already a college student struggling to prepare myself for a career. I've said farewell to old friends and said hello to new ones. So I guess I'm just excited as to what will happen in 2010.

      In fact, I have already made a list of things that i must not forget to do on 2010. It's sort of a list of my New Year's resolutions. The list is still small but I want to show all of you what I wrote:

      My New Year's Resolutions:

     1. Obviously, lose all wight gained during the holidays.

      2. Never forget the birthdays of friends and family.

     3. Try to have fun and relax this year.

     4. Ty to be friends with every person I meet.

     5. Never forget to keep my promises in this list.

     And so, I am still enjoying the last few days of this year that I have left before it ends. I am also looking forward to our high school alumni homecoming this December 28 so wish me luck! And once again, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you.

 

‘Tis the season to be jolly

     At what appears to be only a matter of days, Christmas is finally approaching. Unfortunately, I won’t be going anywhere which is just swell since I need all the time I can get to prepare for the upcoming preliminary examinations when I come back to school. So to Christmas vacation trips I say “bah-humbug”. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have any plans on spending the Christmas break.

      Aside from well…studying, I have planned to set aside time in order to do the following:

         1. Reading. I have already started reading the book, Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie. It’s sort of a biography about Czar Nicholas II and Czarina Alexandra, the last autocrats of Imperial Russia. As you can see, this book is just my cup of tea.

         I find the reason why the author wrote the book very touching and inspiring. After scanning the last parts of the book, I came to the part where the author talks about the suffering his son went through because of the disease hemophilia. Over time, he became so fascinated in discussions about hemophilia and he becomes more and more interested in the most famous hemophiliac of all – the last czarevitch Alexis. In his book, he wanted to show the effect the disease had on Alexis’ parents, Nicholas and Alexandra and how their behavior towards his failing health lead to enormous consequences to the world.

         But I’m still in the first chapters of the book so hopefully by Christmas, I shall have finished reading it.

         2.Watching TV. This Christmas break has given me the opportunity to watch the fifth season of one of my all-time favorite TV series, Supernatural. I’m so excited since in this season, Lucifer has been freed from hell so this should spice things up a bit. And the only way to know what will happen next is by watching so wish me luck!

         3. Eating. What’s Christmas like without eating to your heart’s content? I just have to stay from dairy products since they’re like laxatives to me. One false move and it could end up a disaster.

     But anyway, this break is just what I need for a little R & R. I expect to look rested when I come back to school. So I wish you all a Merry Christmas and see you next year…

Just getting the hang of it…

     It’s the fourth time I have blogged as of today so congratulations to me! Little by little I am beginning to learn how blogging works so hopefully by the end of the semester I will become familiar with the blogsite. Our blogging project has enabled me to immerse myself to the different activities that can be done in the internet.

     Well enough about that. During our meetings this week we began focusing on the paragraph composition especially the methods of paragraph development which reminds me that I am also thankful to our teacher for moving the deadline of our assignment on paragraph development. Thanks to the extended deadline, me and my partner were able to find and include more authentic samples to our assignment.

     Anyway, we only met once this week with our teacher which was on a Tuesday. During that day, our teacher divided us into groups of four and then she made us write a group composition as fast as we can. It was thrilling yet fun. The next activity we did was enumerating as many words as we can that contains a specific word.

     We did not meet with our teacher on Thursday because she was going to Marawi City that day but she left as an assignment before she left. We were asked to choose one type of method of paragraph development and then create a group composition that uses that method.
     Our English class this week was so fun and I hope it still is the coming days..

This Week’s Scoop: November 29 – December 5, 2009

     On our first meeting this week, our teacher returned to us the outline we passed last week. She then began discussing how to properly write a sentence outline. She first discussed the correct format and parts of an outline. Once again, I took the liberty of copying what she wrote.

     Then she illustrated the way the main topic, subtopic and subsubtopics are stated by revising one of the outlines a classmate of ours made. The outline was all about the advantages of the internet to its users.

     Then we corrected the assignment we were tasked to do which was all about identifying the topic sentence and its position in a paragraph and identifying the main topic and controlling idea of a topic sentence. I learned a lot from checking the assignment which I hope will be useful someday.

     Unfortunately, our teacher was going to leave for Manila tomorrow so she wouldn’t be able to meet us on Thursday. So she just left us an assignment aside from the usual blogging assignment. The assignment was that me and my partner should cut out paragraphs from different texts to familiarize ourselves with the methods of paragraph development. Thank God I didn’t throw away all those old magazines. It seems they still have some usefulness…

     This week also I have just finished reading the book entitled The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Reading the book suddenly awakened the bookworm in me. And the book contains lots of historical facts and trivia which is just what I need to feed my appetite. As you all know, I am a fan when it comes to books with historical connections. And so I hope I can balance my time studying, eating, sleeping and reading.

     Many people think reading historical novels is boring because they think past is already past so why bother writing about it.

     Well, my reply is an old French saying: “Il n’est jamais trop tard du changer l’histoire!” (It’s never too late to change history!)

And so here ends this week’s scoop. Gotta go…catch you guys later!

Specific Topic: Psychological Stages Undergone by a Dying Person

Thesis Statement: A dying person undergoes the psychological stages of anger, denial, bragaining, depression and acceptance.

This Week’s Scoop: November 22-28, 2009

     Last Tuesday, a woman suddenly entered our room in English 2. I didn’t have the slightest clue that she was our teacher. I was surprised that she was because she looked taller in the picture in her blog.

     Well anyway, it doesn’t matter because I didn’t really get a good look at her picture so why am I complaining? Our teacher, Prof. Lynnie Deocampo was one of the most unusual and fantastic teachers I have ever been under. For one thing, she spoke in English with such fluency like she grew up in the States or something. I have a feeling this is going to be a class I won’t soon forget.

     She then required us all to speak in English in our class even to our classmates. If we were caught speaking in the vernacular we would have to sing a song in front of the whole class (tricky…very tricky). But at least I was thankful she finally came so that we could finally start classes and have a proper discussion.

     During that meeting, we began talking about concept mapping in order to ease the burden of trying to come up with a good topic to write about. She said that concept mapping is useful in deciding what topic to write about in our term paper and I agree. She also taught us how to state our specific topic. I took the liberty of copying the concept map she used as an example which was about education.

     During our next meeting which was on a Thursday, we discussed about the concept maps we made last Tuesday. The teacher gave us some helpful tips when choosing a specific topic and when writing our thesis statement like not choosing a topic that even laymen know about, making sure that the thesis statement must be connected to our specific topic, using parallelism and etc.

     And so here ends this week’s scoop. Until next time…

How I Think and Feel Towards Writing in English

     As for me, I have mixed feelings whenever I write in English. But if I have to describe these feelings in a single word, I would use the word pleasurable. i admit that I feel more comfortable writing in English than in my native languanges. It sounds hypocritical but life is complicated. Just because I prefer another language than my own doesn't mean I no longer love my country, right?

     Well anyway, the reason why I decribed writing in English as pleasurable is because it gives me the some advantages that could prove useful in the near future.

     First, it offers me the chance to express myself through writing my thoughts, emotions and experiences. Writing opens up to a world where there are numerous possibilities and where anything is possible. It is an enjoyable and stress-relieving exercise.

     Secondly, it lets me practice my writing skills. I confess that I am not a very good writer. If I had a peso every time I attempted to write something that ended in failure and disappointment, I'd probably be able to own my own house right now. Okay, that was a little bit an exaggeration but you get the picture.

     Finally, it would give me a chance to brush up on my English and to include some novel words I learned through the years and other words which I thought I would never be able to use in my entire life.

     And so I hope I can do all those things I just said and live up to the expectations of my teacher and others concerned. I also hope to learn new thigs as I continue travelling into the vast and unknown future.