Our Self-Made, Dangerous Future

"The problems of the environment have become too complicated to be solved by piety and an unyielding clash of good intentions" (Wilson 946). The longer we wait to change the way we treat our environment, the closer we approach catastrophe. If we keep polluting the oceans and skies at our current rates, our planet will be permanently damaged and human extinction will become inevitable. If things are this serious, why don't we do anything about it? This is because we are approaching this environmental issue the wrong way. As Wilson said, morals and ethics can't solve global warming. Instead the problem should be approached in a more serious and active manner. The everyday citizen can make simple and cost-less lifestyle changes to help our environment. For example, one can recycle more and spend less time in the shower or they can take ten minutes out of their day to pick up litter. There are many people who are capable of doing these things and yet they don't. Instead of telling to people to treat the environment in a ethical and good-willing manner, we should be encouraging people to be active and get rid of their actions that harm the environment negatively. However, eco-friendly treatment of the environment by the everyday person isn't enough. Large corporations need to make adjustments to their actions as well. According to the FDA a bit more than half of all pollution comes from factories. These factories belong to governments or large companies and stricter regulations need to be placed on them. Some may believe that the economic consequences of these regulations are too great. Reducing production from factories and the cost of limiting pollution are not attractive from a money perspective. Although the economy might take a blow, there is no price too high for a clean environment. Once irreversible climate change takes place and humanity is at its last stand, there will be no economy. The well-being of a company is not worth the health of the Earth. Not only do we have to be active and determined to help our environment, but we must be willing to give the time and money for it. The fate of humanity is in our hands.




 

Satirizing the Education System by Nachi Deshmukh and Enes Buzgyov

When one requires help during school, often times teachers are asked to provide aid or to clarify the matter at hand. This challenge should be easily resolved because of the vast array of teachers at schools right? No, wrong. The author of “school”, Kyoko Mori, said “I was told to ‘try harder,’ but none of my teachers spent extra time with me to go over what I was doing wrong. Since I wasn’t given a real chance to improve, I decided after a while that I didn’t really care how I did” (Mori 203). The standards that are set for students in our education system can be seen as absurd. How can a teacher expect a student to be successful when they fail to provide sufficient aid? The teaching staff at schools are expected to be very helpful and are should have assisting their students be their first priority. However, many students are still under performing academically.

How could it be possible for students to graduate from a strict boarding school and still end up working at a fast food restaurant? The blame should be put on the education system, not the students. There must be a lack of attention or effort from the teachers and administrators to support the students. Teachers should begin to provide more help to their students, as it is evident that students will benefit from their guidance. Teachers should spend more time to help individuals who are falling behind in class or struggling. If teachers are just going to write “try harder” or “pay better attention” on students papers, they might as well not mark students’ papers at all. These pointless comments only bring the students down and make them feel ashamed of their performance. The education system should emphasize more student and teacher interaction because leaving a student to be independent can set them up for failure.

The Different Ways I Speak

          I speak multiple variations of my most fluent language, English. I code switch with my way of speaking English depending on who I am talking to. I speak English formally for a large portion of the day. During school, I speak English in this way when I speak to teachers and other staff at the school such as the workers in the cafeteria. I avoid using slang and I speak with proper grammar and a serious tone. I speak this way primarily to adults and people who I don't know well. I speak differently when I am talking to friends and people that I know well. In this variation of English, I use slang and I speak colloquially. My tone won't always be serious because the conversations that I have with my close peers aren't always serious. This "English" is similar to the different "English" I speak when I am playing soccer. When I am talking to my soccer teammates and coach, I usually speak colloquially because we are a close knit team and I have a close relationship with the coach and all of our players. The most prominent characteristic of the type of English that I speak with my soccer teammates is the soccer jargon we use. We use terms such as false nine, full-back, and playing direct. These terms are usually exclusive to soccer players and aren't used in normal conversation. In addition to English, I am also fluent in Bulgarian. At home I usually speak in Bulgarian with my parents so I can practice the language and remain fluent in it. I also speak in Bulgarian to my grandparents because they don't speak English. However, I do speak to my parents in English as well, especially when we are outside of home.

          I speak in different Englishes depending if I am speaking to an adult, close friends, or my teammates on my soccer team. I also speak a completely different language at home. All of these different ways of speaking create different personae for me. When I am talking to my friends I am less serious and speak in a more joking manner. I also use teenage slang, which makes my speech informal. Around adults, I have a more serious persona; I use proper grammar and a genuine tone. Having both of these personae give me power because I am able to change the way I interact with people just through the way that I use language. I can be taken seriously when talking if I speak formally, and I can be taken less seriously when I speak colloquially. Speaking to my soccer teammates also creates a different persona for me. I don't speak formally and I use soccer jargon. This persona empowers me because it makes me feel like a good soccer player and it makes me enjoy the sport more. Having the ability to speak with my teammates who are close friends of mine makes the sport more enjoyable. Also, using a variety of soccer jargon makes me feel like I am educated about the tactics and ways of playing soccer. My way of using language makes me feel empowered through the different personae that it creates. 

   

Metacognitive Reflection

Over the course of the first semester, I have improved significantly as a writer. I am now much more confident with my writing skills than I was at the beginning of the year. In order to grow as a writer, I made sure to improve my revising skills on my essays. I had friends and family members check over my essays so I can fix mistakes. An area that I have improved in is my ability to write a a strong thesis statement. My thesis statements answer the prompt completely and are arguable which sets me up for a strong essay. An area that I need further improvement in is my analysis. I struggle with tying my evidence back to my thesis and I plan to improve this by asking for help from my classmates and teacher. An assignment that I am particularly proud of is my Gatsby test short response. I earned an AP score of 5 on this response, which is the highest grade that I have gotten on a writing assignment. In this short response, I was able to construct a strong thesis and I supported it with a variety of evidence. Also, unlike some of my other writing assignments, I was able to provide a decent analysis to prove my argument. In order to perfect my writing skills, I think it would be beneficial for Ms. Nagi to instruct us more on how to improve our analysis. We could go over well-written essays as a class so we can see what a strong analysis looks like. Overall, I am hoping to improve even more as a writer so I can be prepared to be successful on the AP exam.