Sorority Sisters by Claudia Welch - Flyer

Sororities- More than just a letter on a sweatshirt

Sororities

In Glendale School District in Southern California, they are spending 40,500 dollars to monitor students on multiple social media platforms. This is the districts response to bullying on social media and how they plan to stop it. The district says that "monitoring is for student safety". Many people are saying that this is an infringement of privacy because no one, including the principals, has made a public statement addressing the monitoring.

The entire thing wouldn't be wrong if they just let the students know that they were monitoring. That would give them the chance to turn their accounts on private, and even think before they speak. If people knew that the school was watching everything they put on the internet, they would behave differently. Spying on them is wrong and having daily reports of what students choose to say sent to administration is unconstitutional. On the other hand, if you don't want your page or account to be public, make it private.

Anyone could look at anything on the 

internet and people need to be aware of that. This does not justify the fact that they are snooping on their students, but people just need to realize that if you are a public page, anyone could be reading your posts. This topic is very controversial. If you scroll to the bottom of this page, you can read many peoples opinions in the comment section. 

If this happened at San Ramon, I think people would be infuriated. Not at the fact that we would be monitored, just the fact that no one told us. Also, I know me and my friends tend to joke around with each other on twitter and instagram. I think its hard for a computer generated program and people working for a  company to differentiate between posts that are posing threats and posts that aren't.  Its hard to tell over the internet what people really mean, but people have the right to say whatever they want. I could see this happening at San Ramon but i've never seen something on social media that would've needed the administration involved. I'm careful about what I post on the internet so it really wouldn't be a problem for me, but for other people it might actually be a good thing for them to realize that what they say is public and what is said on the internet will be there forever.

Lit Circle Reflection

My second Lit Circle was much better than my first. The first time, I was unprepared and it was hard for me to participate. I improved in multiple ways including that I had alot more to say and I also did my job well. I liked being the Discussion Director more than the Summarizer. My groups performance also improved a lot the second time. We all did our jobs and had in depth discussions. We all listened to what each of us had to say and overall it went extremely well. I'm looking forward to seeing how much we improve in our third Lit Circle.

Tuesday Write #5- 10/31

Tuesday Write #5

There are many factors that hold a civilization together. The first and most important factor is leadership. Without leadership, everything would fall apart. The leader has to be well respected and elected for people to want to follow what the leader says. Having a dictatorship does not work because people will ultimately always end up rebelling. I believe morality falls into the category of strong leadership. Even if people don’t have morals, if the government and rulers are strong and fair then the people doing wrong will be punished. Even better, if the rules are fair, the majority of people will obey. Economy also falls into leadership. I don't think a class system is necessarily bad because it is impossible for everyone to be equal no matter how great that sounds. Stronger nations with strong leadership are less likely to be poverty ridden.  

In Lord of the Flies, society fell apart because of leadership. As stated above, leadership is the most important factor of holding a society together. The leadership was unfair and the children rebelled because of that. If there is no leadership, then war is inevitable because people start to believe they can do whatever they want with no consequences.

Quotes from LOTF with the theme "Power Struggle"

Looking for Alaska Book Review

       

     Looking For Alaska- Looking for Love, Loss, and the Great Perhaps

  The book Looking for Alaska by John Green tells a classic love story with a twist. Miles "Pudge" has always been a loner and kept to himself before he went away to a boarding school in Alabama. There, he met Alaska Young, a beautiful, interesting yet mysterious girl. Miles has always been interested in learning peoples "last words" and he never thought he would be a part of someones. Miles falls in love with Alaska but watches from a distance as she self destructs. "Ya'll smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die." Miles learned more from Alaska in the small amount of time he spent with her than he ever did in his old, boring life. Miles and Alaska both try to find the answer to the dying words "how will I ever get out of this labyrinth!" of Simon Bolivar, but tragedy strikes and Alaska never finds her answer. The book is organized into "Before" and "After" instead of chapters. There are many other supporting characters but Miles and Alaska are who the story is mainly focused around. Alaska just had something about her that drew people to her and made them want to be around her. The funny thing is Miles is exactly the opposite, but Alaska saw through that. 
 Overall, this book is beautifully written and left me thinking for days after finishing it. I've read many other similar books but no others really hit me the way this one did. The diversity in characters and the interesting plot made this an amazing read. One thing that bugged me while reading this was just the way Alaska is. This is one of the first times i've read a book and really disliked the main character. She is moody, pretentious, and very self absorbed. She is the only part of this book that is hard to relate to and it was hard to sympathize for her. "Maybe she loved mysteries so much she became one." The way she treated others made it difficult for me to feel the sadness that the other characters felt when the climax of the book happened. Alaska said a lot of beautiful things but her personality just wasn't as attractive.  One of my favorite quotes from the book is "You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you will escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, an imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present." I think that quote sums up John Greens writing style and his ability to make you think about your own life while reading a book about others. A wide range of ages would enjoy this book because anyone can relate to it. It is a wonderfully written coming of age story. I would recommend this book over any other John Green book I have read. I think he is a very talented author but this book in specific really hit home with me.



Green, John. Looking for Alaska. New York, NY: Speak, n.d. Print.

After reading "The Warren Harding Error", I was more aware of the implicit associations that me and many others make every day. Before reading this, I didn't realize that our bias's could effect who rules our country. After thinking about this for a while, I can now see that there are certain things in my subconscious that effect me in my daily life. The message I take away from this is to be aware of the bias's you might have and take them into account when you make decisions. I don't believe we can undo our unconscious bia's but we can learn to realize we have them . When we discussed leadership qualities, none of them had to do with looks. To be a good leader has nothing to do with the way you look. Leadership has to do with the way you are, like being honest, fair,  and trustworthy.

Warren Harding, 29th President of the United States

 When I took the IAT for Bias towards sexuality (Gay/Straight), my result was a slight bias toward straight. This surprised me because I really don't think I have a bias at all. I think maybe because i'm left handed the results weren't 100% accurate. All in all, this surprised me and I will keep the results in mind.