204AoP

The countdown has begun. Three weeks til your finals and then...your future awaits. Wow. Well, before we move forward, let's look back. What was your favorite moment of each of your 4 years here at the Oak? Simple, direct and honest. Everything a blog post should be!

If you are a former Langer, this question should be familiar. There is an old proverb that says, basically, if you cannot ask you cannot live. Well, it sounds deeper and more profound than that but I can't think of the exact wording. In preparation for your This I Believe presentation, which is a 3rd TM writing assignment (and the only one you have besides your OP) and is also very cool, and usually fun to write, please carefully consider the questions below, and do your best to reflect and answer them as honestly as possible.  1. What am I grateful for? 2. Am I honest? 3. What do I need to change about myself?  4. Do I know what my talents are and do I utilize those talents?  5. When I help someone, do I think, "what's in it for me?" Again, answer honestly--no one will judge you, especially me. In fact, I will answer them too.

The original version of following video was released approximately 12 years ago, and when it was, my then-AP Lang class had to watch, think and respond to it in a very Lang-like way. I mean, like, by exaining the rhetorical strategies the video used, the appeals, etc. I was super lame back then, because by assigning this as work , I negated some of the power of just absorbing the information.  Live and learn, I guess. In any case, the more enlightened version of me now realizes  that there is more to be gained if I have you watch it, and then respond as you fit.  Your ideas, opinions, criticisms etc. That is, are you shocked? Did it change anything about how you view the world and the ever-changing landscape of technology and innovation?  Is this old news? Lastly, below the link to the newest video is the original--the one I used in Lang all those years ago. The soundtrack and statistics are different, and that alone is worth watching both videos because it give...

Sunday night. This night has sort of a paradoxical connotation tied to it for me. It goes back to, for lack of a better (read: trite) euphemism, my extremely crappy childhood. Let me explain. I was, like many of you, a child of divorce. I lived with my mother, saw my father on weekends (when he remembered he had a daughter waiting for him to pick her up) and dealt with all of the guilt, sadness, and overall wistfulness of being the kid caught between parents that hated each other. It was, as I mentioned, extremely crappy. And Sundays were the worst because that was the day that my father would drop me back off at home, and I knew it could be the last time I ever saw him. I would make my way into the house where my mother would be waiting, and if I looked even the least bit sad, she would launch into attack mode. “Oh what’s the matter—had so much fun with your dad that coming home to your boring old mother is too depressing? Well sorry I have to work two jobs to support us since that...

It is finally here--2018. For most of you--your GRADUATION YEAR!!  You have waited three very long years to get to this moment.  But, before we move forward, let's look back a little bit.  Allllllll the way back to when you were just a baby freshie.  How were you different then? Includes differences in physical appearance, intelligence, emotions, opinions and ideas. What was the most important thing you learned about yourself during the course of your freshmen, sophomore and junior years?

I was thinking about names the other day, because it is something I tend to think about every so often.   I went to school with twin girls named Misty and Summer.  Their last name? Weathers. True Story.  Names are fun. Shakespeare, through the voice of Juliet, asked us to consider: "What's in a name?" Well, what is? How many of you were named for other people, specifically, family members? Does being named after a beloved relative heap unfair pressure on you to be a certain way--act a certain way--love certain things--just because the person you're named after did? What about those of you who were named for favorite actors or actresses, literary characters or anything that your parents thought was cool at the time? Do you love your name? Does it suit you? Would you change it if you could? To what? Do you ever think you might be a different person if you were named something else? Do you know the origin of your name? How did you come to be a Jameel or a Darren ...