Honors Blog #4:

I am glad that I chose to be an honors student for the 2010-2011 school year first semester because I really gained some important skills and opportunities from being in honors. I have noticed lately that my writing has improved greatly since the beginning of the school year and I believe that a large portion of the reason for that is because of all of the Honors reading and Honors writing that I have been completing.

The reading I have been completing has been of all classic and historical novels which has expanded my knowledge on not only Humanities related topics, but other topics as well and the reading has also (most likely) improved my writing just because I was absorbing and unconsciously learning new vocabulary and writing techniques/styles that was being used throughout the books that I read.

The Honors writing I had to complete was not that much extra, but it was an additional amount of writing that I had to do. This writing helped me because it provided additional practice for applying the writing skills that I learned in class and it also usually required some additional research to be done on the certain topic that the Honors Blog was about for that particular night.

If I were to do this past Honors semester over again I would probably access after school extra help from Randy more often for topics that didn't make sense to my that we were learning about or assignment that were particularly challenging for me. This is because while I did access the office hours that were available to me on occasion I still feel like I would have had a less stressful time completing my work for English Honors and would have completed a better quality of work had I gone in on my own time more frequently.

My goals for English Honors in the second semester would be that first of all I hope to keep a solid A in my honors class by ensuring that I always turn my assignments in and to go in for office hours more often.

My grade for the first semester started out strong but then as the semester continued on my grade dropped from and A+ to a B-, but luckily I have been able to pull my grade up from a B- to a B+ so far, but I would have still much have rathered an A. I think that the reason for this was that I would not stay completely on top of my assignments and writer them down every second that I heard something additional that I had to do. I would also just forget or not double check with my teacher that he saw my homework and marked me as having it complete and on time.

As I said previously I came to office hours a few times for English but I still did not fully take advantage of the office hours being available to me. If I had gone in for office hours more often I think that my work would have turned out better and I would have improved my understanding of all the topics slightly as well.

The history that I am interested in is any kind of Art History and I also like learning about Philosophy and philosophers and their beliefs. I also enjoy learning about the history of religions, but considering this year the main focus is on American History I would say that I would like to learn about the different cultural groups or cults in America like the Klu Klux Klan because I am interested also in anything culture related. I feel that this past first semester in Honors English has relatively been a success and I am looking forward to continuing on and raising my standard in the coming semester.

Honors Blog #3:

One of the programs that were created as part of The New Deal was the start of Social Security. This program is still a part of the United States today, but I would also like to make a few adjustments to it in order to modernize it a little more to how today's society works. The changes I would like to make to it is that I think it should no longer include the Unemployment Insurance.

Social Security is a social insurance program that is funded through "dedicated payroll taxes" and is the federal Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program. It was started in 1935 and the president at that time was Franklin D. Roosevelt who was a relatively well-liked president in our history partly because he did so much better at making a difference in solving America's problems at the time that the prior president who was McKinley. Social Security was started in a difficult period of time when we were in the Great Depression and it was a part of The New Deal and its new set of programs that it started.

The way that we should modernize social security for today society is that I think that it would be better if we dropped the Unemployment Insurance that is provided as a part of Social Security. This is because while in 1935 there were many people who were unemployed due to the depression, now although there are people who are unemployed from the current economy, there are still a lot less people who have a legitimate excuse for why they are unemployed so the Unemployment Insurance that we are spending our money on as a part of Social Security just doesn't seem to be as necessary as it was during the Great Depression.

Honors Blog#2

Dear Mr. President Barack Obama,

I write to you bearing but a few resourceful references or facts that I have collected throughout my research that I have conducted on how to improve the economy of our great nation. I have spent some time reading over what the "final straw" was to boost our country out of a very deep depression between the years, 1933 and 1936 and what I have come up with stems from the New Deal act created by Theodore Delano Roosevelt. First I suggest that we follow suit and close all of the banks in the country so that then one all of the necessary legislation has been passed billions of dollars can flood back into the banks therefore stabilizing Americas banking system.

Now allow me to explain my reasoning thus far. As you know, the Great Depression began with President Herbert Hoover in charge. Because of his lack of ability to handle the situation at hand when the next election came around and the Great Depression was still in full swing, it was not surprising that the senates view swung strongly to the democratic side, the vote for the new president along with it. This resulted in President Theodore Roosevelt becoming elected.

Roosevelt was greatly liked by almost all citizens of the US. He took some great, even debatably risky steps in order to get to the root of the problems in our country back then as to then be able to cure it. He even had his own radio station titled, "Fireside Chats", where he would turn to the people in hopes of having his agenda passed. The word "chat" was even used because it indicated that the President was confident that the US could survive and defeat the Great Depression. They instilled confidence in the government under his leadership.

Since times have indeed changed since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, and my proposition of closing the banks for a while and then reopening them to have cash flood through and revive them all may not work, My main advice to you would be to simply get creative like President Roosevelt did. From his radio talk show where he communicated directly with the people, to his closing of all the banks in our country, there were no shortages of risks taking place yet maybe that is all our economy needs today, a leap of faith that just might solve everything.

Sincerely,

Malia Bence

"Climbing Out of the Great Depression." Brad DeLong's Website Home Page. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

"Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Great Depression." Lycos. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

Erickson, Arthur. "The New Deal: Franklin D. Roosevelt's Solution to the Great Depression."Associated Content from Yahoo! - Associatedcontent.com. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

"Fireside Chats." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

"The Test : The New Yorker." National and World News, Profiles, Culture, Reviews, Fiction, Poetry : The New Yorker. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

"Obama, the Economic Crisis, and the Democrats : The New Yorker." National and World News, Profiles, Culture, Reviews, Fiction, Poetry : The New Yorker. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

Honors Blog #1

Medicare is a system that was first started by President Lyndon Johnson that was set up in 1965. President Johnson felt that "it was the government's duty to provide medical insurance to its elderly residents." This plans purpose was originally to provide a hospital insurance program for the elderly under the Social Security Act with a "supplementary medical benefits program and an extended program of medical assistance", to better the benefits under the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance System, to improve the Federal-State public assistance programs, and for other purposes. This plan did not just develop over night. There was 20 years of debate that lead up to the passing of Medicare, but Lyndon Johnson lead the way until the end.

The Medicare system is made up of two parts. The first part is Part A and the second part it Part B. Part A Medicare covers all hospital expenses such as diagnostic tests, doctors' fees, inpatient stays and meals. The Part B plan then offers standard medical coverage for expenses such as outpatient surgery, medical equipment and "primary care". Today, the Medicare system has additional parts to it such as Part C and Part D. These parts allow the Medicare costumers to choose between an HMO or PPO plan to customize an insurance policy that fits their needs, and for prescriptions, the Part D plan uses private insurance companies to help the Medicare customers to pay for their medications. All citizens of the United States that are or over 65 or have a disability can have Medicare.

One thing that people commonly think about Medicare is that Medicare is a free health care program. In reality, the technical truth is that all US citizens are paying to have Medicare available because the tax money that the government receives pays for Medicare and that total amount that they receive each year is about two hundred and seventy seven dollars in total. While Medicare does not come cheap technically, it is still something that every US citizen should care about having around because eventually, it will affect us all.

Blog #20:

Should the government have control over "personal" issues such as violent video games, marijuana, gay marriage, etc.? Questions like these have been surfacing for many years now. A main topic of interest in whether the government should control whether or not it happens is, the issue of gay marriage/rights. The period of granting licenses for marriage and such to gays first began on June 16, 2008, due to a ruling by the Supreme Court of California that was based on an equal protection argument and ended November 5, 2008, because of the passage ofProposition 8. Today another "gay" topic that has been surfacing is whether the rule of "don't ask don't tell" should be continued or to be shut down or gotten rid of. In fact senator John McCain has taken on a position of trying to prevent the "don't ask don't tell" rule to be eliminated.

I interviewed a fellow student at High Tech High Media Arts about her opinions on what the government has control over and if it should be warranted. I asked her about video games, gay marriage, etc. When asked about violent video games being controlled by the government she responded with, "the government should control things such as video games and movies just so there is control and young people aren't exposed to violence or sexuality."

Although she was alright with the government having control over violent media, when ask about the government being able to control gay marriage and/or don't ask don't tell, she said that the difference is, "gay marriage is a choice that an adult makes and obviously if they want to get married and have strong feelings, then the government has no right to make laws that interfere with love." Finally, further asked about her opinions on the governments involvement with "gay" laws or restrictions she said, "I feel like the topic of "gay" shouldn't be discussed or debated by anyone in the government especially anyone who is strait. They have no right trying to make a law on something that I see as a right to happiness which comes from love." While in some places I may have a slight variation of opinion about these topics being controlled by the government, I pretty much share a common opinion with my interviewee.

1. I am VERY proud of everything about how I completed this project. I am proud of how although I had a really hard time starting out the project, I was able to push through my hardship and actually come out with my best piece of writing so far in this class. I am proud that I was able to fumble around with and figure out Adobe Illustrator enough to be able to create an impressive art component that followed all of the guidelines, and as I said before I am proud of the piece of writing I came out with in the end.

2. A way that my writing has changed from at the beginning of the semester is that I have begun to include many of the Writing Tips that we have learned in class in my writing. Some main writing tips that I incorporate in my writing are, MME (make meaning early), concerts not pancakes, the loop, and more.

3. Honestly I am pretty proud of the piece of writing that I came out with in the end and I don't think that I would change anything about it, but if I absolutely HAD to change something I would probably just continue to critique it and go over it and I would probably end up including more advanced vocabulary or more uses of the writing tips.

4. I now realize how important the element of peer critiquing and having other people read over your writing several times because a lot of times you will have things that you may have read over several times and thought was perfectly fine, but everyone else sees it as being awkwardly worded or something which you can the change if you want to after reading over it again with a new fresh perspective.