Working on a website for this project was probably one of the most surprising things about exploring food identity. I also was surprised that we could get creative with it and customize the website layout and the content we put in it (within guidelines). Our minds were opened to new food cultures and ideas as well. The annotated bibliography took barely any work at all except the annotation. Using Easy Bib to cite sources, you didn’t have to waste time hunting down most of the information needed to create citations. I like this better than a traditional research paper because my handwriting is close to an elementary school level and isn’t very legible, plus I can type faster than the average student in high-school. As an effect, it gives me more of an advantage to use less time writing and typing and more time putting effort into my answers and assignments. Overall, I believe this unit was pretty fun working with a partner and exploring food identity together through a website.

I believe working together in a group helped me improve my creativity in my story. If I had writer’s block and didn’t know what to do I asked my peers for help to move forward in my story. The group member I was during this unit was mostly the one that offered advice for what was put in stories. During this time with my group, often I was asked for my opinion about certain parts of their story. My opinion really mattered to my group mates and they agreed with my advice a good portion of the time. Our group stayed on task almost the whole time, if I could change something about our group it would be that we could stop goofing off a little bit less. We still got our assignments in on time though for the most part.

Our story had met all of the short story requirements. All work had been completed prior to all of the deadline. I feel the peer review process was a good experience, If you had someone critiquing your work that was very skilled at writing then you would get excellent feedback to whereas someone that just wanted to get it over with didn’t give you good feedback. What I would change in my peer review letters would be more detail on how to fix their stories and make them better.

During this unit we discussed a variety of literary elements that can make our stories better, I think that my work with my introduction can show that setting and dialogue was put to good use.

“Dad, get into the trench and keep your head down.” I screamed

“Okay, toss me another mag, I won’t let the Nazi’s take over our homeland.”

The German Panzer tanks moved ahead, ripping up our defense fortifications. I had no choice. There was only one way we could push them back. I ran backwards into the warehouse at the end of the street and I saw a huge, colossus piece of machinery behind a curtain. I examined the curtain and was going to open it. I felt a huge explosion and everything went black.

Tone and theme on the other hand can be shown using my conclusion paragraph from my short story.

I woke up and realized that one of my legs were gone. I must have blacked out trying to reach the Tesla Cannon behind the curtain. I was bloody and didn’t feel well. I knew I was the only one that could make the Tesla Cannon power up. I crawled up towards the console, and hit the big red button and a giant beam flew out from the front of the cannon.

From this day forth I notice my people of Poland telling stories about The Unworthy One, who saved all of Poland from complete destruction. I look down upon them today, for my sacrifice from that special day, will leave them forever in my dept.

The relationship between all of our group’s stories is rather simple. We all get trapped inside of a local Wal-Mart in Washington D.C and we are brought together to escape and go back from which we came from. They connect since each character helps one another to fulfill their goal and thus, resolve each of their individual conflicts. It wasn’t difficult to tell the story with everyone else’s because we each had a different experience during the story and our characters learned about themselves differently.

My favorite part in my short story is the ending because it is exciting and you learn more about Malcolm and his decision as well. It makes me proud as well that I could construct a conclusion and short story with this potential.

I eat the most during lunchtime on most days depending on what I have for breakfast if I eat anything. What this says about my priorities is that I have a busy morning and do not have enough time to eat breakfast which makes me hungry throughout the day. To an outsider our dinner would be odd to them because we don’t eat at the dinner table, but in the living room. Regardless, we still talk about our day, eat a well cooked meal and watch the news on T.V. There are times where I use food to celebrate. We use cake to celebrate weddings (when there are any), birthdays, Father’s day, Mother’s day, Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving. We use food to celebrate because it is traditional and is a nice gesture to our family that we remembered the specific day. Also, the cake tastes really good!

In the documentary Forks Over Knives, as the viewer I felt very horrible because I shared the same eating habits as those who were seeking help to become healthier. On the other hand, I feel that if things go wrong with my diet I know there is an alternative lifestyle I can turn to if I need it. It was amazing that a majority of those who were seeking help got exactly what they were looking for and reversed diseases in the process such as diabetes.

I learned more about myself than I did about the information in the documentary. Comparing their diets to mine in my life, mine is pretty terrible. There have been moments where I have spent over twenty dollars on lunch in two days and don’t eat vegetables in a week. This documentary moved me in a way that makes me feel like I should take initiative for my own actions and eat a better, healthier diet. Within the first ten minutes of Forks Over Knives, I was convinced with statistics and personal anecdotes that obesity and diet related illnesses is a big epidemic that the United States is facing at this moment in time. One of the statistics is that one in three children born today will develop diabetes. That means years from now the average classroom will have around ten diabetic children in their classroom. That is hard to believe, but at the rate the United States is moving right now it will happen.

One of the most frequent questions that popped up in my head during the documentary is that they don’t talk about exercise all that much. How can you the healthiest you can be with a plant based diet and not exercise at all? I feel the documentary should have put more emphasis on exercise. The other question I had has to do with the development of the documentary. How long did it take them to gather all of this information, have personal stories told and execute it into a documentary? This research has been going on for a long time, I have no clue how long it would take to make a documentary like this one.

Imagine waking up everyday excited to go to school. Now you can with my IDEAL Cyber school. Walking down the hallways, the smell of fresh pencils and lunch. Almost everything, is considered to be the best technology at my school. There would be SMART Boards in every room that take up an entire wall with a projector. The students would be provided with a laptop to be used for school purposes along with a touch screen desk to use in class.

There are also a lunch program too along with our school. It consists of a healthy vendor such as a Subway and a healthy ala carte line with fruits and vegetables. There are no humanoid personnel, but instead with intelligent automatons that can save your favorite lunchtime meal in their database and have it ready for you when you come to eat lunch. For those who like freedom, there is also open campus with the 100 minute lunch period.

Our school runs Monday-Friday and goes all year round. Between quarters there is a two week break period, if you do the math you will discover that for every three months you go to school you get two weeks off! IDEAL Cyber school also has extra curricular activities as well. We offer sports such as football, baseball, basketball, track and field, etc. The school also has clubs such as chess club, community club and art club just to name a few. I hope to see you in the classroom!

For the past few weeks for my Critical Thinking project I had the gaming presentation with Dakota A, Dakota M, Aaron L and Quinton K. I feel that I learned a lot more after doing this project because what I didn’t know before is that when playing a violent video game there is a certain part of your brain that is triggered which enforces emotional arousal, making one violent. It has affected part of my life because I now think about how a video game changes my emotions as I play it. If I had to go back and change topics I probably wouldn’t because I really enjoy gaming and out of all the choices provided, I enjoyed gaming the most.

The parts of the project I was put in charge of was the a majority of the writing with ideas from my peers since it is easy for me to put ideas into words and for the visual I gave ideas and other group mates put it into action. Our goal was to make use of each of our strengths so that we weren’t stuck with something we couldn’t accomplish easily. The presentation on the other hand, was split evenly among all of us. This was because we believed that we all had the same amount of skill when it came to presenting in front of an audience. If I had to rate myself on a 1-10 scale I would rate myself a 9.5 because I think I put all of my effort into this project and participated more than I needed. Also, when I was put in charge of something, I got it done thoroughly, and efficiently. I did not have to rely on my group at all.

We connected our images to our project by first establishing some kind of emotion of theme and worked off of it. Since it was an evil and angry theme, we color based it and modified images to make our audience feel that emotion and better understand our argument. If I could change our poster in any way I would probably make it bigger because as a group we had many ideas that could not fit on the poster that we didn’t include at all and as a result we voted on some of them. My favorite part of our poster was the rated-m logo with the devil horns and tails because it really put that emotion in your mind and it stuck with you. It was altered very well in my opinion.

I prepared for our presentation by practicing my part in a mirror because that is an awesome way to practice before getting up in front of my peers and presenting. Like other students I really don’t like presenting in front of my classmates since I’m not good at public speaking. I feel the presentation went as I expected because we did a good job and we got some compliments after we went. If we could change something it probably would be the length of the presentation because I felt like we were up and out in probably like a minute or two. My favorite part though was that I was surprised that a majority of our group knew what to do when we were presenting.

Out of all the classes the poster that I liked the most was the one of a Facebook page and an iPod border on it. I thought it was really creative and informative at the same time. What I learned from another group that I didn’t know before is that a lot of teenagers these days do not spend their money wisely and I now am considering now in my life if I should use the techniques that they showed us to apply in my own life.

Writing, it is one of the easier things for me to do in the world of literature. Ideas, words and themes pop in my head in the blink of an eye. I decide what to write about by doing a mental brainstorm of all the thoughts in my head. All thoughts are included at this point despite the fact If I don’t like it or not. The one that I like the best is the one that I use. Being told what to write really irritates me because nine times out of ten it is something that I would either be bad at putting in words or just on a topic that I do not like at all. Deciding my topic would be the best choice for me because when I write about something that I like I do way better than when I write about something that is assigned or given to me.

For me it doesn’t matter what I write whether it is creative or academic. I can write both easily and fluently. If I had to choose one that struggled with it would be creative. This is because sometimes it is hard for me to describe things that appeal to my senses like smell, touch, taste, hear and see. On the other hand, in my academic work as long as I pay attention in class and have some fairly good knowledge I can succeed with any kind of academic writing. My favorite genre to write in would have to be creative non-fiction because I have a really bad imagination. I struggle when it comes to thinking of original ideas to write about. Likewise, when I write creative non-fiction I can add my own spices and my own personal twist to something that really happened. Thus, making it easier for me to write.

The favorite writing piece I have ever done would have to be my most recent Personal Essay. I think that this is my favorite writing piece because I really put effort and thought into the essay. It also made me thing more of my grandpa and how he really changed my life because of his death. When I share my pieces with my peers most of them just nod their heads and say it is very good. I imagine it is because it is true. Most of my writing is very well written and I usually don’t get good feedback for that very reason. I feel that when I have a peer look at my work then they are just complimenting in which I could ask anyone to compliment my work. One writer that would have to inspire me would be J.K Rowling because I love how when you have the plot in a story figured out something twists, turns and makes the end unexpected so that you have to read the next novel.

Typing out my work would have to be easier than writing it out because my penmanship needs work, lots of work. When people try to read it they have to ask every twenty seconds what a certain word says. Typing on the other hand is very legible and easy to read. Also, I can type outstandingly fast as well, making it a win-win situation for me in terms of typing. In other words, if I had to choose one writing goal for the course of the year it would be for me to expand my vocabulary in terms of writing because it seems that most of the time I say the same words over, over and over again. I don’t want to have the feeling that I’m making my readers bored as they are reading my pieces. That is my goal that I would have for the course of this year.

Hypertext helped me learn in many ways. Three of the ways that hypertext helped me learn is just generally. Hypertext itself helped me learn that I can still learn about a topic in hypertext without having any prior background knowledge. This is because certain words that are hyperlinked lead you to a webpage that teaches you more about a certain topic that causes you to have inferences from a word or topic in the text. I feel that overall that hypertext helps me as a reader because if I don’t understand something in the text that causes me to form inferences it is usually hyperlinked so it can give me background knowledge.

Another way hypertext has helped me is in creating writing such as my personal essay. When writing my essay I had to ponder on what words to hyperlink and in which where will they lead the reader to. Writing this essay also helped me as a reader since I understand how the author is trying to use a hyperlinked word and why they chose a specific website. Overall, this essay was different than other essays I have written in the past because this is the first year I have heard about hypertext, what it was, and how it could be used in writing. It also showed me that you can put your point across easier since you can relate hyperlinked words to webpages that give your reader background knowledge instead of them having to find the background knowledge on their own.

The final way hypertext has helped me is by making me a better writer and author. It challenged me to think outside the box and make inferences about my writing, which is something I have never done before. It also challenged me by choosing which words to hyperlink and to which websites they go to as well. During this experience I learned that hypertext can be easier and can be harder for some people at various points in the process of the writing. Some people may find it easier to hyperlink words and others may be skilled at finding appropriate webpages that correspond with the hyperlinked word. In short, I think learning about hypertext was an experience I will not forget and will make my text more entertaining and exciting.

As a reader I struggle at many things such as keeping track of what is going on as far as conflicts, setting and overall plot. I just cannot seem to focus in certain forms of writing. However, the easiest part for me is to connect with characters in young adult literature. Characters that like to play sports and have strong emotions towards school and friends are kind of like me.

Personally, depending on what the topic is in non-fiction I will read it. If the fiction novel is based on a topic that I like, then I will also read that. Overall, if it is something that I think will interest me I will read it, even if it’s part of a  homework assignment. I choose a book by the back cover, if it really sounds interesting and is about a topic that I like then I will give it a try. I find out a lot that I give up many books. I believe if I read the first two to three chapters and I don’t like it I give up on it because I don’t want to read something I don’t like. Rarely, I find myself keep on reading a specific novel dislike, especially when I am supposed to be doing chores or something. Usually, that happens when it is for homework. If it depends on my grade I will get down to it and don’t stop until the work is finished. For me, the difference between a good book, and a bad book is that a good book is a book I really enjoy and will read it in my spare time. A bad book for me is a book that I will read the first few chapters and will quit on it because either I don’t like the characters, plot or maybe even the cover.

As far as reading that I do out of school I don’t really like to read novels assigned or for fun that often. The only reading I do is on social networking sites like Facebook, and Twitter. Also, I like to text and read magazines like Auto Plus and Gameinformer. If I am sitting in the passenger or backseat of a car I like to look outside the windows and read what is on billboards or buildings.

My favorite book so far reading is the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. This is my favorite because it helps me picture what is going on in the novel since every so often there is a graphic shown on a page showing what is going on. Since my weakness in reading is it is hard for me to picture the novel, it is enjoyable for me to read it. I can remember one time reading a whole novel in one night because I lost track of time. I was really surprised! I really feel excited and happy when I read this series because if I could visualize more it would help me have fun reading.

An example of a novel that taught me more about myself is the Harry Potter series. What I learned from this series is that I actually kind of like fiction. Since it was a big part of the media awhile back I thought that I would give it a try. Truth be told, it also taught me to be kind to other people that may act differently and that as you get older you seem to understand who your real friends are. In other words, I think with new technology such as iPods, iPads, eReaders and other forms of technology that allow you to read, is reading. I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be. If reading the text word for word on a mobile device then I don’t see why it would be different than holding the book in your hands and reading it.

 If I had to set a goal for myself in CyberEnglish for the semester it would have to be to have a new favorite book. For a few years I have had the same favorite book now which is the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. I think I should find a new book that will be my favorite because I believe I will learn a lot in this class as far as making me a better reader and a better student.

            Hello, my name is Anthony, but everyone calls me Tony because I don’t like the sound of my legal name. My immediate family consists of my mom Laura, my grandma Doris and my only sister Melinda. I have a special bond with my mom because she has always been there for me from taking care of me when I was an infant to helping me guide myself through high school and preparing me for later life.

            The type of student in high school that I want to be is a student that always turns in homework and is organized. Knowing that I’m organized will help me in the future as an adult. The college that I want to go to is anywhere in the state of Wisconsin because I don’t want to venture out too far from my home state; I really like the people here and leaving my family behind would hurt me deep down inside. What I will do to get to the college of my choosing is that I will earn all my high school credits and pass all the classes that I need to pass in order to get into the college of my choosing.

            What I want to be when I grow up is that I want to go into the police force. I would like to be either an officer or for that matter, a detective. I want to be in that career because it has interested me for the past couple years and I like to watch crime shows so I think it would be really cool to work in the police force.

            As far as hobbies go I like to play Xbox and play first person shooter games like Call of Duty or Halo. I’m looking forward to Modern Warfare 3 which is coming out early November. Other things I like to do is cook, watch T.V, and hang out with friends and occasionally skateboarding. The thing I like to do the least is read because it is hard for me to focus when I’m reading and I never understand what is going on unless it is a book that pertains to my interests.