P3.

                I do not know much about teaching, but if I had to give Ms. Chryzanowski some advice, it would be to have a short memory. What I mean is do not hold a grudge against your students. Kids tend to do a lot of stupid and irresponsible things. It is best to forgive and forget, that way they don’t hate you and write mean blogs about you, like Ben Hoy did in the beginning of the year. It will make both your and your students’ lives a lot easier. Another tip is to try to keep your class as interesting as possible because it will keep your students interested. The more interested your students are, the more they will learn.

                I think that if you can do that, you are an ideal teacher. I also think an ideal teacher doesn’t give a lot of homework. I don’t mean to sound cliché, but I’m a busy guy. I have other things to do with my spare time that doesn’t involve homework. An ideal teacher doesn’t assign two choice blogs in a single blog group either, but hey, nobody’s perfect. Lastly, I think a good teacher is always able to set time aside to help out his or her students.

                If I could say something to Ms. Chryzanowski, it would be that I enjoyed seeing around school and working with you in class. I think you will make an awesome teacher. On an unrelated note, your dog is really weird. What is it like half Labrador and half Weiner Dog? What do you even call it? A Weinador? A Labra Weiner? I’m not sure how I feel about that combination. Anyway, it was cool seeing you as a student teacher, and I wish you the best of luck in the future. 

P2.

                I didn’t think it would come so fast, but it is already May. It seems like I say it every year, but this year really did fly by. In September, one of my blogs for Blog Group A was about what I would like to accomplish this year. In that blog, I said that my goals are to make honor roll every quarter, earn a starting position in football, and join a few clubs. Were any of these goals met?

                Well, my first goal, to make honor roll all four quarters, was not a complete failure. However it wasn’t a success. I missed honor roll by less than two points for both the first and second quarters. Then I made it for the third quarter with two points to spare. The way I see it, if I can make it again this quarter, I’ll be batting .500. Not too shabby. My second goal, to earn a starting position in football, did not go exactly as I planned either. I really did work hard to get the spot, but it never happened. I did get a spot on goal line defense, where I made several good plays. Is it really a starting position though? That’s debatable. Anyway, my third goal, to join a club, ended up just like my other goals. I was interested in joining Science Olympiad, so I went to the first few meetings. However, I learned that it would conflict with my swimming schedule. So, I decided that it was not the club for me.

                It may seem like this was a total waste of a year, but I accomplished things that I did not originally set out to do. For example, during swimming I went to ECIC’s for the 100 meter Breaststroke. It was there that I beat my best time for that event. I also received my varsity letter because I was on the Varsity swim team. Lastly, I made more friends and have had a lot of good times since I wrote that blog.

So, did I meet the goals I set in September? Kinda.

P1.

                I don’t think I watch more or less television than the average person. I watch the most TV when I get home from school. On most days I come home at around 4:30 or 5:00, sit down, turn on the TV and start my homework. I don’t pay much attention to the TV when I do my homework though. It’s really just on to break the silence. After I finish my homework, I watch Comedy Central for a while. On weekdays they always play It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Futurama, South Park, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. My favorite shows they play are definitely The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. It’s hard to tell which one is better. The correspondents on The Daily Show are quite funny, but I like the persona of a bigoted ultra-conservative that Stephen Colbert has fabricated. My favorite episode of The Daily Show was the one where Jon Stewart told Bill O’Reilly to go do something that cannot be mentioned in this blog, with the backup of an entire choir.

                On an average day, I would say that I watch about three to four hours of television. This is not very surprising, given the fact that there are six televisions in my house. There is one in my basement, one in my living room, one in my other living room, and one in each of the three bedrooms. Three of the six TVs are flat screens. We recently upgraded from those old box TVs. The day we switched TVs, I discovered what I was really missing. The picture on the new ones is so much better.

                Some positives associated with watching TV are that it is a good way to gain new information and it is a good way to relax. Also, if you watch enough of The History Channel, you will be an excellent haggler. There are often more negatives associated with watching TV. One of those is that if you watch it too much, you may be distracted from schoolwork or your social life. Also, watching shows like Honey Boo Boo will probably kill most of your brain cells. I saw one episode and instantly felt stupider.

O1.

                http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/21/us/massachusetts-fcc-ortiz/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

I got this article from www.cnn.com. It is called ‘Ortiz of Boston Red Sox tosses F- word, FCC doesn’t complain’. This article is about a pregame speech given to the fans watching the Red Sox- Royals game by David Ortiz, just days after the explosions. Ortiz was quoted as saying, "We want to thank you Mayor Menino, Governor Patrick, the whole police department, for the great job that they did this past week. This is our f***ing city. And nobody's going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong”. Normally, the FCC would be all over this incident, issuing fines. However, the chairman of the FCC, Julius Genachowski, decided that, given the circumstances, to let this one go.

                Personally, I think that it is extremely cool that David Ortiz was able to drop the F- bomb on national television. I would pay a lot of money for that opportunity. Also, I am very glad that the FCC did not decide to fine him for his colorful language. I found his speech to be totally appropriate and actually quite inspiring. What happened at the Boston Marathon was a horrible tragedy that shocked everybody. If his use that kind of language gave reassurance to the people who were affected by this, then that is fine. I think sometimes people (and the FCC) are too squeamish when it comes to vulgarity. This is why I’m glad they stretched their rules and allowed his use of the F-word to pass without any trouble.

On a related note: I just want to say that because of the events of this past week, I have a whole new respect for Boston and the people who inhabit it. With that said, I am not now, nor was I ever a fan of the Boston Red Sox or the Patriots. 

O3.

                The other day, I watched Django Unchained for the first time. I have to say, it was one of the best new movies I’ve seen in a while. I chose to watch it because it is a Quentin Tarantino movie, and I am a fan of his movies. Some of my favorite movies that were directed by him are Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds .

                Django Unchained is a Spaghetti Western about a freed slave who teams up with a German bounty hunter to save his enslaved wife from an awful plantation. The movie is set in the south in 1858. The two men find themselves in Texas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, taking lives at each stop.

                My favorite part of the movie was the scene where a local mob chased after the protagonists for killing three white plantation workers. This was a five minute scene in which the members of the mob laid down the ground rules before capturing them. What started as a simple speech given by the leader turned into a huge argument amongst the whole mob, regarding the size of the eyeholes on the white bags they wore over their heads. I thought it was funny because of what they said, and because they wasted at least five minutes arguing over something so stupid when they should have been chasing Django and Dr. Schultz (the German bounty hunter). I’m also a bit curious about that scene. For some reason, Jonah Hill was one of the men in the mob. He got about four lines all together and didn’t play a significant role in the movie. He was just kind of there for no reason. I thought it was weird. Anyway, I liked this scene because it brought a little bit of light to a rather dark movie.

                I’m glad I invested 2 hours and 45 minutes into watching this movie. It took the classic western and gave it a more modern spin (and more violence). That is why I will forever be a fan of Django Unchained. 

O4.

My mother is a very nice lady. There, my obligations for this blog have been fulfilled. Just kidding, I will keep writing about my mother. Could you imagine if I changed the subject completely? That would be outrageous. Oh dear… 300 is a lot of words. A LOT of words. Where to start? Where to start?

My mother’s first name is Anne. She has four children, including me. I can say with fair certainty that I am her favorite child. My mom is a part time bus aid for the school. She really loves her job. She likes it because she gets to work with kids. This is something that she is especially good at. I guess she has had a lot of experience with me, my brother and my sisters. She says that being a bus aid is the best job she has ever had. Another thing my mom is great at is cooking. I like it when she makes ribs, Shepard’s pie, macaroni and cheese, and steak. Yet my favorite thing she makes is apple pie. The crust is always crispy and delicious. She uses just about every kind of apples imaginable; Granny Smiths, Macintoshes, Courtland apples, you name it. It’s pretty cool when she skins the apples because she cuts off the skin in one piece. Unfortunately, she only makes it on holidays and birthdays.

My mom is a pretty great person, but I wish there was one thing she would stop doing. I wish she would stop mixing the Pepsi with the Diet Pepsi. Sometimes when we have both, there might be half of a bottle of the diet and about a quarter bottle of the regular and she will just dump one into the other! Who does that? Really, I want to know! Then she tries to tell me that it’s all the same. No it isn’t. Diet Pepsi is the worst drink ever. Even though she is not perfect, I love my mamma very much… now you know that.

O2.

I agree with this article completely. Going to college really is one of the best investments a person can make. More and more jobs are requiring a higher education, and even if it isn’t mandatory, it still could be the difference between getting the job and being turned down.

As far as college educations go, my family is pretty divided. My mother did not attend, while my father went to a two year trade school. Like my mom, my sister, Sarah, did not go to college. However, my other sister, Maggie, will be graduating from Niagara University this May. She went to school to become a teacher. As for my brother, he plans on going to college right after he graduates from high school.

So what will I do? I think that when I graduate, I will also go to college. I want to go because it will help me get a well-paying job. Also, my grandma really wants me to go. If there’s anything you should know about my family it is that my grandma has leverage over almost everything. If Gramma wants something to happen, it’s going to happen. That’s fine with me though because a college education is something I’ve always wanted to pursue.  Yet I have not decided what I would like to go for. I am thinking about going for something related to engineering, but I also find foreign affairs interesting. I’m not thinking about being an ambassador or anything. I would try to be something like a foreign affairs analyst. I have even less of an idea about where I would like to go to school. From what my sister tells me, Niagara University is pretty nice, but I don’t know what they offer. I never thought I’d say it, but I’m glad I’m only a freshman, because I have a lot of thinking to do about my future.