Public Speaking: Social Anxiety Change & Awareness

In my first blog, I conduct research online about social anxiety and discussed what I’ve gathered/learned from it. Then, I conducted research on my own concerning people that suffered from social anxiety disorder in my second blog. The society we currently live in is made by and for neurotypicals. Neurotypical means “neurologically typical,” referring to those who do not suffer or have not experienced any mental trauma or disorders. Deciding to make a change in society about social anxiety and/or public speaking has always been a goal for me. Currently, I’m working with Jhazzelle Majarucon and TK Saccoh for our Agent of Change. I’ve decided to form a team with them because I believe that we’ve never worked on anything school related. I want to be able to create a bond between us that not only involves friendship, but also work.


My previous research had gathered much needed information about those who need help and others who have those close to them suffer from social anxiety disorder. I reasoned with my group that we could create a change in the community through the Internet. We used the Internet at our disposal because of the fact that a lot of people use it everyday in a sense where they communicate through social media. Some people may be more comfortable sharing their stories in the Internet anonymously.


Our main goal to end social anxiety is to get people to speak up about their stories and situations. Many people are uncomfortable with sharing their information, but that’s alright. It’s a part of the process, and we understand. Although, even if they did tell us their stories, we wouldn’t just read it and try to deem it as a loss cause. My team and I would actually help them by communicating online because we want people to feel accepted in society. The society we live in isn’t just for neurotypicals, everyone can live in harmony even though they’ve faced problems in their lives.


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Figures 1 & 2: Here is the home page of our website. It links to our blog posts and information we’ve gathered about social anxiety.



Raising awareness and helping educate those who don’t know much about social anxiety disorder is a part of our Agent of Change as well. Not only do we want people to contribute by telling us about their stories, but we also want them to participate in the #ToungeTwisterTask. This challenge is created for those who want to raise awareness in social anxiety, which affects 1 in 8 people. By participating, people can make a change, using the hashtag and posting it on their social media networks. The idea is that people who suffer from these conditions avoid social and public situations. Their lives are compared to a tongue twister, confusing and hard to get out of the way. Participants in the challenge can post a short video of themselves reciting tongue twisters, and/or they can donate to the cause by the Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety.


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Figures 3 & 4: This is the part of our website that includes the pages where you could share your own story of social anxiety. Or, to raise awareness for social anxiety by reciting a tongue twister.


So far, we've gathered several people (teachers, students, family members, etc.) to do the #TongueTwisterTask, and video taped them. We compiled them in a folder.


Click here to view my sources.

Funding Philly

Making the Change to Schools

Blog 1  is all my initial research.  I found most of my sources during this time, and layed out all the basic information I could find on school funding, for example why we are missing funds, and I touched on how the more money spent on each student has a big impact on the quality of their education, and in turn how well they do,


In Blog 2 I found out why Philly schools have less money then other school districts even though they are smaller.  Also, I interviewed Mr. Lehmann, and asked him about how a lack of funding has affected our school, and what changes he thinks should be made.  


Right now, I am creating a poster to spread awareness about the current plan of the school district, to get rid of school nurses, like nurse Kelly who is our school nurse today.  Students already need more medical attention, and throwing in someone who we won’t even manage is not the way to go.  My poster tells people what to do to spread awareness, as well as gives a very small summary on some the key points on my topic, which is the problem with school funding.   

 

Before I found out about the recent events going on with school nurses, I was trying to get in contact with an already established organization, so I would not have to start from scratch.  If I had contacted multiple organization, and gave myself more time, I might have been able to get a hold of one, and do some work there.   However, I am really enjoying the poster idea a lot more than I would have, if I had worked with an organization, and probably just done boring paperwork, and not feel as accomplished.  Now, with my posters, I can make a change in my own school, by putting them up all around.  I am glad we did this project, because it’s one of the onlt things we have done all year that will truly affect anything beyond the information learned in the project.  It gave us a lot of freedom, and we get to see our work accomplish something hopefully.  


Annotated Bibliography

Airport

Christian McCormac

Ms. Giknis

English (X Band)

29, May 2015



As you can tell from my first and second blog post my topic is airport security. Specifically how Airport security guards abuse their power. My first blog post showed that I feel strongly about this topic because whenever I personally go through a scanner I feel as though my privacy is being invaded. For my second blog post I found a former airport security guard and asked him to answer some questions I had. After he answered my questions I learned that some airport security guards also believe that by doing there job they are invading the personal space of others. This led me to decide to make posters for my agent of change. These posters were simple and educated the public on the topic of how airport security guards have too much power.


As I was researching my topic I found numerous websites like this one that informed the general public on how airport security guards have too much power.This showed me that my topic was a major problem yet for some reason it isn't talked about a lot. After I realized this I decided that making flyers would be the best form of action to take.


As I was passing out the flyers some people started talking to me about how they don't enjoy going through scanners because ¨they leave little to the imagination¨. When I thought about this comment I realized the main problem. The airport security guard that I interviewed did not like doing his job. Therefore it is possible that the source of the problem if not airport security guards but the actual government. After further research I learned that the TSA is the one that comes up with these rules and regulations. They are the ones that come up with these rules and regulations that lead to people feeling as though there personal space has been invaded.


Throughout the timeframe in which I have been doing this project I feel like I have done a good job of educating the public on airport security. At first I thought that when I was passing out the flyers people would simply just throw them away, but after I had that small discussion with the man I realized that I'm not the only one that feels so strongly about this topic. Although I have not made a world changing effect on the world, I feel like I have successfully educated the general public on the general difference between safety and harassment. I feel like I have paved a good road for me to do something along these lines for my capstone.




Here is my annotated bibliography.

Screens and teens glows and grows

​So for my project one thing that was awesome in the research was that I was able to find so much information and cites that were about my topic.  What that meant was that I had more cites to source and to summarize in my annotated bibliography.  I had a lot of fun collecting the information in my annotated bibliography because I am really interested in my topic how screens affect teens mainly because I myself am a teen.  I want to know more about gorilla glass and how it's made and how is it the strongest glass.  Also I wish I had found how phones and cameras were made because since I am a video and photographer I am interested in that.


In the original research it was quite tricky to get a hold of Jeff Adams the google guy who if I really needed him to give me the information I could have gone over to his house because he lives a few blocks away from me so I could have walked.  But he responded within the deadline but barely so if I were to do it again I would ask a lot earlier to give him time to respond and give me time to possibly go to his house.  When I did get a hold of him he gave me a lot of valuable information that only a google employee would know such as whether they get breaks from their screens to optimize work time the answer yes.    


The Agent Of Change went well in my mind so far it hasn't gotten many views only views from me however when something goes on youtube it is there forever so there is no saying when one person sees it then shares it and other people see and who knows I could get internet famous but that probably won't happen, and I am happy with 4 or 5 views.  If other people do see it I hope they learn about the problems I adress in the video and don't just watch it cause they can.  I hope to make more videos like that to raise awareness of social problems.


Drug brochure

For the ¨You and the world¨ project, My issue around the world is drug abuse around the United States.  For my agent of change , I made a brochure for teachers and students at Science Leadership Academy. The brochure consisted of facts about drugs and tips you should take if someone around you, or maybe even you are experiencing an addiction to drugs. Other than my brochure, there are many rehab centers near your neighborhood  who are looking for people who are addicted to drug, so they can get help as soon as possible. In my last two blog post, I talked about how the United States as a whole is affected by drugs and how us as citizens should take awareness of this major issue.


My opinion on drugs abuse is that I think that it is unfair that when the topic of drug abuse comes up, people first thought is adults. I feel as though older generations needs to pay more attention to teens who are a risk of becoming addicted to drugs. Today, the rate of teens who are using drugs have increased insanely because older generations are not paying any attention to their children and young people. I feel as though there needs to be a drug programs just for teens because if a teen is in a room with all adults it creates an uncomfortable environment. Me being a teen, I know that I would feel more comfortable with people who have things in common with me. Although there are websites on the internet about steps to take on what to do if your are experiencing addiction, We need something to do after we finish all these complicated steps. We need something that teens can rely on.


So far during this ¨You and the world¨, I have talked to my friends about using drugs on the daily. Also, I became more aware of how many people are using drugs, tobacco, or even alcohol in my neighborhood.  In addition, I have also tried to persuade a few friends of mind to stop using drugs, Some tended to get upset, but I don't mean to make them upset; I want them to know what they are doing to their bodies and the people around them.  Here's a link to my brochure if you or anyone around you are affected by drugs.




This rough photo above is a preview on of my drug brochure. If you or someone near you is experiencing drug abuse and addiction please use this information here above.  You may also find a few inside Ms. Giorgio's room or with the school counselor. If you live in or near the area of southwest, they have them inside the SouthWest Police Athletic League on 58th and Elmwood.



ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Magnífica casa Diseñado por Tajnia y Syeda

Nuestra casa es una casa de dos pisos en la ciudad de Filadelfia, que es moderno y muy grande. Tiene un interior sencillo que contiene tres dormitorios, una sala de estar, comedor, cocina, garaje, almacén, una habitación, tres baños, habitación familiar/biblioteca y patio. Es en la ciudad con muchas ventanas para disfrutar de la vista. Dentro de las paredes están pintadas de colores vibrantes y ligeros, con suelos de baldosas. Algunas de las habitaciones son sencillas y modernas y las habitaciones y el patio trasero son muy elegantes. Es una casa muy grande que es muy amplia, con muchas ventajas para disfrutar.


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"Hands Up!, Guns Downs!"

With this sustained journey in finishing up my You and the World Project, I am closing this portion of the project on what I wanted to do for my Agent of Change piece. With doing my recent blog post, I did my own research and learned things about certain parts in Philadelphia that I did not know even existed which is why in my first blog post I was just so new to the project. But from then, it’s been a whole different spin on the information I now know. With thinking about doing my Agent of Change, I wanted to find a way for people to recognize the horrifying murders in Philadelphia caused by guns. With putting a little more depth into this project, recently today there was a march on Woodcrest Avenue in Philadelphia. The people were marching and singing. They held a sign saying “Taking Action To End Gun Violence” and marched on the site where a man was gunned down and killed in a robbery.  What they wanted people to take from this march was to use the gun related murder to stop other losses. How are we as the city of Philadelphia going to stop the shootings in our very own streets? With observing all of resources and space I had, I thought that it would be helpful to make SLA aware of this serious situation. With the help of my friend Ella who has a similar project as mine, we made an infographic  to show different statistics and facts about gun violence with teens and Philadelphia. We printed about 50 posters with this reliable information and put them all around SLA.


This is a picture of one the posters on a wall placed around the school!


With making an end to this project, I have learned a lot about gun violence and all of the shootings that happen in Philadelphia. After knowing  about a situation that triggers my mind, I am happy I was able to make a small contribution to this problem. This is something that I can relate to personally and many others can too. I hope people can see and take away from this project the collective need for us to gun violence..  I hope people will stop and take the time to read the posters and be aware of what is going on in the city they live in. This is nothing to be played around with. Everyone deserves to be safe and feel comfortable in the area they live in. After doing this project, I know that I can make my voice heard and help to be one of many advocates needed to end gun violence. I would love to do more outside of this project to gain other people’s attention to go along with me to say no to guns. But overall, I was happy to do this project and what I accomplished. I think this is something that everyone that everyone can see as a problem in our city . It is my hope that we will put our hands up together on this issue so that people will put their guns down. So I close this to say, do you want to live in Philadelphia or KIlladelphia?




For my annotated bibliography, click here!


La Casa De Nisa

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Esto es Nisa.Nisa tiene dos padres, dos hermanas, una abuela y dos perros. Ella le gusta ver la tele y pasar un rato con amigas. los padres tiene dos carros. ella no le gustan los deportes y no le gusta cocinar. Su Madre le gusta cocinar para familia. Sus hermanas tener que una por separado dormitorio. la abuela tiene a dormitorio. Ella familia tiene que estar juntos.




La Casa Diseño


       

                La Casa De Nisa tiene cuatro pisos. El Sotaño tiene la cocina, cuarto de lavado y sala de estar. Ellos todos comer en sala de estar. uno dormitorio para dos hermanas, y uno dormitoro para los padres. La abuela de Nisa para dormitorio con uno ventana. Nisa tiene una todos piso. Este casa es mucho divertido para la todo familia!


 #1.-

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         #1. garaje


# 2. Familia nisa para ver la televisión juntos.

# 3.El donde sus cocineros madre.


#4 habitación de lavandería


#5.El baño- el baño es para las dos hermanas de Nisa.


# 6 dormitorios Hermanas de Nisa


#7. Segundo dormitorio de la madre y el padre de Nisa


#8. Segundo padres baño- tienen un cuarto de baño

#9. abuela tercer dormitorio Nisa


#10 . Baño de Nisa- ella el baño tiene bañera


#11.- Dormitorio de Nisa-  Nisa tiene una televisión de Netflix y HBO Go


                                                                                                      



Diez Frases



1.Nisa le gusta ver la tele.


2.Su familia tiene dos coches y se necesita un garaje.


3.Familia de nisa le gustas la televisión  juntos.


4. la madre de Nisa le gusta cocinar


5. Nisa le gusta lavar la ropa.


6. Sus hermanas le gusta para ir al baño

7. Sus hermanas de Nisa le gusta dormir

8. Sus padres le gusta para leer juntos.

9. El cuarto de baño tiene una ventana


10. La abuela de Nisa le gusta dormir




My Insight of the Website

On my first blog post I basically described what I chose for my You and the World is the issue of animal abuse. I chose this topic than any other one because I have a lot of history with understanding animals that were abused and I want to educate the public about the topic. Also, I see animals as living creatures just like humans are living creatures.  Animal abuse is simply when an animal gets harmed, neglected, and/or a does not care for an animal responsibly by a person. In other words, to hurt or to be cruel to an animal would be against the law no matter what.  This the significance of the public being aware of the issue is really serious.

On my last blog post I described my survey for my original research and why I did it. I collected data on a survey so I can educate the public about animal abuse because my main goal was to educate the public. Unfortunately, the results helped inform me on my You and the World issue because this research show how uneducated the public is about the issue of animal abuse. The average person would fail my survey! This added to my understanding of animal abuse that a lot of people do not take animal abuse seriously.When I was done my research I had some strong personal opinions on how people did on my survey and I was disappointed. For example,  the average grade for my survey is a failing grade. One thing that I was still wondering about was why my community is so uneducated about animal abuse.


In my research,  one thing that has been done raise awareness of your issue and to elicit positive change was making a website like the one I did. I made this website for my school because when I did my survey the majority of the people who took it failed. The point of it was to educate the public because it contain all kinds of facts about animal abuse. Another thing that has been are currently being done yearly to raise awareness of  my issue is animal abuse awareness month. During the month (which happens during april) you are asked to wear bright orange to grab people's attention and when they ask you why you are wear a bright orange shirt you say that it is for animal abuse awareness. My opinion on these ways on change are agreeable but wearing an orange shirt it not going to be the only way to change. In my opinion wearing a orange shirt will make people aware of the issue but it will not lead them to make change. For example, if a lot people went to government building and demand for stricter laws for animal abuse then that would probably get people to change.


As I said earlier in the blog for my agent of change I pursued  to make a website. The reason why I did made this website  was because when I sent out a survey to my teachers and classmates about animal abuse and the majority of the people who took the survey failed. Therefore, after that I came up with the idea to make a website to educate the public about animal abuse so my peers in school would be more informed about it. My website contained to inside and outs of animal abuse. This website informs the reader about topics such as factory farming, dog & cockfighting, animal testing, and circus abuse.

This is a screenshot of me working on a software to create my website.


My change has not been so big but I at least informed so people about animal abuse so you could say that I have made multiple changes. Just look at this screenshot of these comments for example. In addition, these comments made me feel great through this project I learned that I not only made a website to inform people but to make them more aware. As I was making this website I learned that if I put in a lot of hard-work and time that things can get done the way that you want them to. Also, I learned that now some students in my school are more educated about animal abuse than ever before. One thing that I feel like I could have done better was to start the website earlier because it could have looked so much more professional. For example, I could have found more research on different types of animal abuse. One thing that has to change is how seriously people take animal abuse. Although, there were many people who learned a lot about animal abuse, I noticed that people still do not take it as seriously.


You're Bigger than the Trigger - The Final Chapter

Continuing on my adventure in my You and World project I am here to talk to you about the change I have made, and how I have become my own Agent of Change. In my last blog post, I took the research into my own hands and decided to use the people right in front of me and what they thought about gun control. After getting mixed responses, it made me realize that our city is full of a variety of people, and I can’t do anything to make them change what they think and feel about it, so my best option is to make it known, and aware, which I think is what I wanted to start out with when writing my first blog post. While thinking about what I wanted to do for my agent of change, I continued my research and began to look at the bigger picture. What is going on now to help this issue? I soon found that as we speak people are fighting for a bill to be passed to advocate ammo limits. The more I researched, the more I found people fighting for what they thought was right, like I was. Maybe I can’t get a bill passed, but I know I could do something. Looking around at my community, and from my results from the survey I gave, drew me to a conclusion that I could instead by lecturing people, I could draw people in and interest them. Before I knew it I had made my own infographic with my friend Madison who was also doing a similar project. After we had filled the infographic with facts about guns involving teens in Philadelphia,we printed about 50 and put them all around school.   


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Here is a picture of one of our posters on a wall in our school.


Coming to a conclusion of this project, it has taught me a lot. After being able to do something I was passionate about, and actually knowing that a 9th grader was able to make a small difference in a huge issue actually feels pretty good. I am hoping that people will stop by my posters and take the time to read them and think about what's going on in our world, and maybe, just maybe do something to help change it. Now I know that I am capable of doing something that I came up with, and it not going completely downhill unless I really work hard on it, which I think I did. Of course, there is so much more I want to do, change, like spending more time informing others, and possible speaking someone who is really active in fighting for gun control, but for what I did, I am still proud of what I accomplished. Like it says on my poster, you’re bigger than the trigger, so before you pull it, I advise you to think about the world around you!


Click here to read by annotated bibliography.


The Verdict: What Citizens Can Do In The Face Of The Law.

  In my first Blog Post, I summarized the problems of complaint process against an officer when made by a civilian. Then in my Second Blog Post ,I interviewed a person who deals with these complaints on a daily.


For my Agent Of Change I have started a petition to show the Police Department that this is what the people of Philadelphia want. We want these investigations to available to the people both in law and legislation.


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my petition on Change.org. The hyperlink is down below


People are noticing and sharing this with their social groups. This will help people understand the issue and be vocal about it. I feel like I made a voice for myself and others that have been wronged by police brutality in the greater Philadelphia Area. I learned that even though Philadelphia hasn't had a law changing martyr case like Ferguson or Cleveland that these kinds of shootings do happen and that they are not uncommon.


   I could've tried harder to reach out to more people and hear their opinions. I think this could have helped my project have more than one view. Having a more diverse view on the subject would help others understand it more. I still need supporters for my survey which you can sign here. Share it on social media and tell your friends and family to take it!

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one comment made by a classmate under my petition.


The National Police Accountability Project, is a movement organized to fight for justice when police do not conduct themselves according to the laws. They do this through the legal system, using lawyers to help victims of police misconduct deal with their legal struggles.


This way of changing the situation is  mobilizing the people of Philadelphia and others affected by police misconduct to make legislative change in how we handle police affairs  and violence in minority groups of the greater Philadelphia area and other cities.

 

  This project has helped me understand a great deal about Philadelphia and what my Dad 

does for his job. Until this project, I didn't fully understand how the city suffered because of

the way we handle police misconduct. Just because they didn't turn into national cases that the 

entire nation followed doesn't mean they don't happen. It helped me understand what my Dad 

(Kelvyn Anderson) is working for. He is working for the citizens of Philadelphia and their right 

to see justice served even if that justice is locking up one of the “good guys.” In the end I come 

away with a better understanding of Philadelphia.

Here's an idea America, go back to school!

To every story, or at least most, there is a beginning, middle, and end. In my journey through American Historical, Political, and Civics, I started at the bottom of American knowledge. Moving through my own research, things got worse. People did a lot worse on my test for this topic, with approximately 75% of people failing to answer (a minimum) 6 questions correct. As of now, nothing has and is being done to change American Intelligence. The truth is, the American government does not care to do anything because if the public is ill-informed it benefits those elected. What is even more disheartening is without awareness at the least of american ignorance, the trend will continue of Americans failing to pick candidates for elections who accurately represent their views. Some of you may be confused so here is the explanation. My topic covers civics and politics, and politics was the category citizens were least proficient in. Not being proficient or knowledgeable in politics has a huge downside because when election season comes around, those who are clueless (in politics) are more likely to pick a candidate that is manipulative and does not represent their views because they have no idea what they are doing. Instead of handing out flyers on elections days saying which candidate believes in what, education before hand and at young age is the best way to cure ignorance.

My graph from Last Blog showing the disconnect of knowledge

Education, however effective it may be, has its faults and weaknesses. The biggest weakness being that students will not remember most of the information they are taught. That though, is another issue. Other methods would be as I first suggested, handing out informational pamphlets every election. The disadvantages with that, is you have to repeat the process, waste paper and you don’t actually plug the leak, you just mop up the drops. A third course of action would be to call out politicians for not being honest. That would be too time consuming, irrelevant and the amount of pushback from government you would get would be too much to handle. Considering all that I stuck with Choice 1, education. Now I had to zoom my lense in even more, did I want to petition the School district to teach 12th graders about elections or should I make a generalized lesson plan for teachers to use. The lesson plan is what I did, it could be used any time and is more accessible as well as adaptable. So I got a template/example from a teacher here at SLA who teaches some political happenings, and I modified it to fit my subject.

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A screenshot of my LP

As a short description, this lesson plan who have the class mainly focus on researching candidates and comparing what for say, is in the papers, to what's on a non partisan or non candidature affiliated website. I chose this to be the focus because if not everyone has access to the neutral websites, through research they could deduce the most accurate and or honest medium of information.

Change is slow and most likely come to light when the next election rolls around as my LP was not finished in time to be used. That part disappoints me, but working on an LP is no picnic and you have to make sure it covers what you want. I wanted to show what information people are missing out on and prove that being uneducated is detrimental. Having done all 3 parts, I feel baffled at the lack of knowledge on the topic from the public as it is not uncommon to be wrong on this topic. I also feel that could have done something else, but appealing to the public is a daunting task as they aren’t very open to or willing to change their habits/ways.

Going over it all, the one part I would have changed was the focus of my LP. Being too specific missed out on the other important topics that I had worked on and excluding them was as if I had done the work for naught. Though you, yes you! Can make my time well spent by taking the time so when you grow up and vote, you vote with confidence that you made the right choice for you. You help the country (and me!) by weeding out the unqualified and adding the right people to politics. Be the better person and study up when voting, you’ll thank yourself for being smarter than the average citizen.


Works cited

Changing The World...

In the last 2 blog post I talked about my Moms condition and I shared a link to my interview that I did with the Doctor, if you didn't get a chance to see the video Here it is. In my first blog I introduced all of you to MS and what it is and how it affects the people around me This my first blog post and My second blog post talks about the Original Research that I did, you can view my 2nd Blog Post here. Things that are being done to help raise awareness for MS, like I mentioned before millions of people have MS and they do know about fundraisers such as Walks throughout Philly starting from the Art Museum. They have a bunch of things that they do throughout the entire year Visit this Website  for more info. Doing these fundraisers they raise thousand and the money goes toward research and maybe one day finding a cure for MS, all hopes are high that one day they will.  

For my Agent of Change my Mom and I and a couple of other family members did the MS walk about 3-4 weeks ago here are some photos that I took from the top of the Art Museum Steps.Screenshot 2015-05-29 at 9.08.59 PM.png

Before the walks start they have little booths set up for your convenience and they give you water bottles. Once you return to the Museum they give you food to take on the way back home. Also for my Agent of change I gave a presentation to my class about MS, basically an overview of what's going on, give some examples of the symptoms that my Mom has and things such as that. I have the video Right here click on the hyperlink to see the video that I did in English and the slides that come with it. I felt like doing this project was very interesting in a way, but what really interested me about this project was that it just wasn't some essay or presentation. Going out into the world and actually making a change really changed my view about Project Learning.This project was like a stepping stone into someday changing the world. The idea and things that other people did like coming up with hashtags and making accounts on Twitter was really creative and I'm actually happy that we did this project because I wouldn't have learned so much about my Mom and the disease that she's fighting. I was also really thrilled about doing the original research part of the project I thought that was really fun and cool to do an interview because I have never did one before.

Things that I could have done better with was giving the presentation. I was a little scared the first time just presenting to the class. I still have a lot to cdo and much more to learn about MS and myself.


Stats Q4 BM Podcast 3

Group members present during this discussion: Raz Reed, William Amari, Edgar Pacio.

What your club discussed: During our third podcast we discussed chapters 8, 9 and 10. Sorry there are so many files, we had to keep stopping the recording because there's no way to pause on QuickTime.

How you discussed it: We summarized each chapter and the examples given in them. For chapter 10, which ended the book with a series of questions each person should ask his or her self when reading a statistic, we explained each question and examples of potential answers.

Points of conflict/disagreement during the discussion: We agreed on pretty much everything.

​Questions that came up as a result of the discussion: Now that we've covered the entire book, is there anything that Mr. Miles wants to tell us about statistical manipulation that we haven't heard?
Stats Q4BM Podcast 3 pt. 1
Stats Q4BM Podcast 3 pt. 2
Stats Q4BM Podcast 3 pt. 3
Stats Q4BM Podcast 3 pt. 4
Stats Q4BM Podcast 3 pt. 5

I'm Not Done Yet

Blog Post #3. Wow we are already here. But since it's been a while let's just do a little review. In my first blog post, we learned why I'm here in the first place: To raise awareness for ALL Mental Illnesses. ALL meaning not just Depression, or Bipolar Disorder but also ones like Alexithymia and Hysteria. We learned that 1 in 5 Americans suffer from Mental Illnesses, I being one of them, yet Americans know so little about Mental Illnesses. That brings us to my second blog post which described the little that Americans even knew about a problem that affected around 20% of them. This blog post tried to change that by providing information about Mental Illnesses that seemed to be forgotten, exploited the lies of the myths of Mental Illnesses and all in all just tried to change a small portion of people's perspective on Mental Illnesses. But there was another change that happened that changed a larger portion of people's perspective. My Agent of Change.


My original Agent of Change, as mentioned in my previous blog post, was a walk organized by NAMI Walk. NAMI Walk is the leading Mental Illness Awareness Organization in the United States. This Walk was held on May 16, 2015 and all in all they raised over $80,000 for Mental Illnesses just through that one walk out of their many. My original plan was to be apart of this walk but as fate had it, I was in the hospital that weekend and was not able to participate. This was very unfortunate as this was my main plan for making a change but as I, sadly, cannot rewind time, I knew I just had to come up with a Plan B. My plan B consisted of a presentation to either the two counselors of my school or a class presentation. But as fate would have it, I ended up in the hospital again, the following week. So once again my entire schedule was thrown off track. Although I never got to present my presentation. I shall still link my presentation so you may view what I had tried to do.


This was one of my slides in my presentation and I felt the need to add this because it basically summarizes the main point of my presentation.


This is not the end folks. It's just the beginning. Sure this might be the third and final blog post, but it doesn't mean this cause ends here. You can still help raise awareness for mental illnesses. You can still make a change. I shall not end here. I refuse to let this be a one time thing especially when I didn't get to make a change. I refuse to let this cause end here. I shall make my return so until then, don’t forget that the person next to you may just have a mental illness so be cautious of what you say, because you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.


Le Annotated Bibliography

To Sum It Up

For my You and the World project, I have been working on the topic of Affirmative Action. For those who aren't familiar, Affirmative Action is the process in which an establishment uses special precaution to create equality between all genders and races. Briefly, for my first blog post, I chose to focus more on the data and statistics that accompany Affirmative Action. Basically bringing out a lot of the actual solid facts that would be used to develop a more well rounded opinion. For my second blog post I chose to invest in a more different approach. Even though I had quality information I wanted to see how real people felt. With this I interviewed four different people, two students and two teachers, to discover their reactions and surprisingly, they were very similar. I found that a general idea was that Affirmative Action is not the best solution, but it's something needed in society at the moment. For my Agent of Change I decided to make a website dedicated to the central ideas of what Affirmative Action consist of and how it works. I did a website because it's something that will always be there, and it would be accessible to the masses.


Image result for affirmative action

( This is an image depicting what a large community of people would consider Affirmative Action to be.)


Before assembling my website I did more research to find if anything is being done in support or in opposition to this issue. I actually found that the main thing being done are protest. At first I didn't think it was that much for trying to fix this issue, but upon thinking about it it's a great idea since attention is being drawn. The more protest that are being done the higher the chances change will occur if there is constant pressure from the public. Look at Black Lives Matter who basically did the same things and are known throughout the nation. I think that is a great way for all of the people who want more attention on Affirmative Action to get it. The best source of change that can be done is to physically going out there and fighting for what you want. I'm in complete support of it.


Back to my own Agent of Change, my website was meant to be a site that would provide viewers with all sides of the Affirmative Action debate. From the time I spent researching, it was evident that most websites were trying to convince you whether Affirmative Action was completely great or should be abolished immediately, but this website more informative than persuasive. Readers learn the ins and outs of Affirmative Action while viewing all sides to help create their own depiction of it. This way a very good way to change this because I got to put some of my own opinion on it but mostly informing those who don't know much about this as to what it is because it's something that's often swept under the rug. I think this has been a good change as long as people are reading it. As long as people are reading it, informing themselves, and leaving with at least more knowledge or a better understanding of the topic it has been a good change because I'm helping those who don't know, know about it.


I feel that doing this project really brought everyone closer to the a certain community, and made them more involved with their issues. Because we have spent so much time working on these issues and learning so much about them we have a more personal connection to them, and even no more than what we did before. While we informed the public and our peers, we did the same thing to ourselves. I also learned that that we have a diverse group of people who are all affected or have a strong connection for a wide variety of things. Most importantly, I learned that my classmates as well as myself a willing to put the hard work in for something we believe in. If I was to do this project all over, I would have given myself more time to do some of the task before they were do. I handed everything in on time, but there were times when I was trapped for time because I procrastinated. The only things that seems to be left are to monitor what our Agent of Change has done to help or bring awareness, and to simply keep following it.


Annotated Bibliography

Image Makes All the Difference

So here we are, almost twenty years into the 21st century. We have touch screen cell phones that double as GPSs and even 3D printers. With this boom in technology and information, you would think that most of the issues we faced in the past would be far behind us, right? Well no. Despite all the problems facing our world today, women’s rights may be one of the most ongoing movements in the past decades. I’ve given a lot of information on this topic and its impact on society, but I struggled a bit with how to tackle it in the real world for my "You and the World" agent of change. How does one girl change an issue that is so huge within a short amount of time? Well if I had Obama’s number maybe I’d only have 98 problems, but I don’t. Even though the internet is a vast plethora of information and discovery, I only had so many resources. Since this is such a general and widespread issue, I figured the best way to create change was to spread awareness. The best weapon against wrong-doing is education. Educating those who have no use of gaining this knowledge otherwise is a more powerful tool that I had to use to my advantage, so I took that and ran with it, resulting in a presentation! I presented a small slideshow in front of my stream mates and it went pretty well...besides me sounding like Porky pig with all the stuttering I did. Other than that, I spread awareness on a topic that I’m very passionate about and hope to do more work to change it in the future. It surprised me how many people were also aware of what was going on in our society as well, because it’s not usually a topic brought up amongst kids and teens. I received great feedback from my very active audience and couldn’t be happier with the turnout. Even Ms. Giknis was inclusive in the discussion and added some really great points. I also referred to some topics I covered in my blog posts 1 and 2 which helped me explain the issue of women's issues even further. I gave some of the statistics about the low numbers of women in certain fields and educational programs, talked about equal pay, and also shared some of the results I collected from the survey I took in my second blog post. One point that I brought up was the issue of the images we

re given about a certain issue or topic within our society. The example I gave was how when women enter the workforce, they are constantly making decisions between family and career, as if there’s no in between. Either you’re a loving mother who would rather stay home and shake formula all day or a hard-working businesswoman who has no time for marriage or children. Why should we have to choose? Why can’t both worlds be blended into one to create a world of working mothers with supportive benefits and stable households? It’s all about image. If the image that society places on what a breadwinner looks is that of a male than that’s what will occur. Women feel that the world isn’t ready for our takeover as presidents, CEOs, astronauts, and even receptionists or painters. We should all be proud of what field we are in and not let gender stereotypes or misogynists hinder us from pursuing our careers, and we also shouldn’t be ashamed if we are making more money than our husbands/partners.

I would use social media as a source of delivery for all this research and information I’ve collected, but it was an idea a lot of people partook of and I wanted to do something slightly original. Even though presentations are somewhat mainstream, I figured it would be the best form of spreading the word.

Currently, there are numerous organizations that run specifically to target the issue that face the female working community. One I found was this website, which spreads awareness on women’s issues and also donates to a number of different causes that support the fight for women’s rights. So far, I think I’ve created a significant change in the women’s rights movement because of my blog posts and also my agent of change. I hope to have my message spread globally, but I would also like to partner with some organizations to create a change that has a huge impact on society and is original in its planning and design. Here is my annotated bibliography.
Screenshot 2015-05-29 at 10.30.17 PM
Screenshot 2015-05-29 at 10.30.17 PM

Defeating Dyslexia Stereotypes

In my last two blog posts I talk a lot about what dyslexia is and how I was affected by it.  You can click here to look at the first blog post.  You can click here to see the second blog post.  Since my last blog post I was able to actually do my agent of change.  For my Agent of Change I presented to advisories and did a presentation where I tried to destroy all the stereotypes there where on dyslexia.  You can click here to see me present to my advisory (Mr. Ames advisory.) In the the presentation I started off by asking everyone what they thought dyslexia is.  I asked this question to see what stereotypes would come out right away. And I got seeing things backwards and floating off pages.  So then I showed a video to explain dyslexia and then went into the stereotypes.  I think I really got across what dyslexia is and I feel after my project they had better knowledge on dyslexia.  Also after the presentation people presented to me some good questions such as “What is mild dyslexia actually?” To answer, I told them about my dyslexia and how I struggle with reading and writing because I have mild dyslexia.    


Some new resource I looked at to get more information on dyslexia and to add to my presentation was websites that had different pictures that represented dyslexia.  I used this to add more to my presentation.  This is one picture I found: push here to bring you to where I found the picture.

dyslexia.gif


For my Agent of Change I have only done one presentation so far but I am planing to do another one on Monday.  I am excited to see how this turns out and all of the different varieties of questions I will get this time around.  I really want to see the stereotypes being defeated.  I am really happy I did this project to spread the truth to my fellow peers.  I feel as if change has already begun because the questions they asked me were great.  Also, the other day someone said something about dyslexia that wasn't accurate and was a stereotype and one of the students who listened to my presentation corrected them!  When this happened I felt like I really did something important!  And I could see the changing that I have caused happening right then.  What I think I could have changed about the project was asking more advisories to do the presentation or have a big group presentation.  I feel this would have spread the word even more.  What I learned about myself doing this project is that I am good at getting across my point when it comes to dyslexia. What is still left for me to do in this project is do the presentation one or two more times to spread the word and to make sure people understand dyslexia very well.  I am very happy that I did this project and I hope it really affects the people around me.

My Body ≠ Your Body

For the final part of my English You and the World project, I decided to help out the American Civil Liberties Union send in a petition to Congress of 25,000 signatures to protect insurance coverage for abortions. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a non-profit organization that, in its words, works to “defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States.” My contribution was to get at least one hundred signatures onto the petition from my community. I went around my different classrooms to gather emails and names, and I emailed my family members and friends. When I finished, I felt satisfied and happy to look at the number of signatures go from 23,500 to almost 24,000 (though not all were my work). I felt that I had contributed to this, and I had actually made a change instead of just sitting around and complaining about my issue.

I focused on women’s rights and reproductive freedom for my You and the World project (and more can be found in my first and second blog posts). The topic is one that I’ve cared about and followed for many years. I think that it is unfair that getting an abortion for an unwanted pregnancy is becoming more difficult with each passing day. I think that it is unfair that it is mostly male politicians in our country who control the rules of what happens to my body. I think it is unfair that some people are trying to ban birth control or make it so difficult for women to get access to it. All of these things anger me, and that is why I chose reproductive freedom for my project. Some people argue against abortion because it is “murder” and wrong. If I put myself in their shoes, I can understand why they think that, honestly. Nobody in his right mind would think, “wow, abortions are so nice! They are such pleasant procedures.” However, I believe that every woman everywhere should be able to decide what to do with her baby. Bearing a child and being a mother are such big things that no woman should have to go through if she doesn’t feel ready or able. I think that abortions are actually kinder for the babies since usually the mothers feel they would not care properly for them.

The hypocrisy in the political world of reproductive freedom is jaw-droppingly frustrating and leaves me speechless. Many of the male conservatives (male: gender of the human race who will never be able to become pregnant) who are solidly anti-reproductive rights have been known, in their personal lives, to think otherwise.

            Another thing for these politicians to keep in mind is that birth control and abortions are also in the male population’s favor. Yes, unwanted pregnancies ultimately affect the woman more, but the women are not getting pregnant on their own or with each other - and hopefully, their male partners would stick with them through an unwanted pregnancy (which, presumably, they wouldn’t want any more than the women).

            Maybe this all sounds very negative, like it’s all going downhill. Things are not great right now, but there are some very powerful and admirable leaders and organizations out there that are trying to turn the tide. Organizations and people are creating petitions, marches, and strikes to raise awareness about this topic. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are both powerful organizations that work hard to protect women’s rights. Planned Parenthood gives women access to birth control and abortions for free (and many other things), and the ACLU fights politically for reproductive rights. There are things that are being done right now to help this, but the conservatives are strong and the direction of legislation in most states is going more anti-reproductive freedom. This is why I chose this topic - I want my generation of young women to know exactly what we’re up against, what the current issues are, and what we can do.

(This is the petition for which I gathered signatures.)


Annotated Bibliography



Lyle Seitz signing his name for the petition.



One page of the list of names and emails I gathered for the petition.



Creating Awareness for Teen Peer Pressure...

My Blog Post #1 was focused on introducing my issue I wanted to bring awareness to. I discussed why it interested me and why teen peer pressure is significant to myself, me, and people across the world. I touched on interesting information of teen peer pressure. For example, I explained why many peer pressure professionals and people say that teen girls go through the rough stages of teen peer pressure more often than teenage boys. In my Blog Post #2, I mainly focused on finding new information on my topic and explaining what I learned. I summarized my work from my Blog Post #1 and finally begin telling my readers what my results was from my Original Research, which I created a Teen Peer Pressure Survey. I discussed my results from the survey and gave my opinion on the outcome of it. During my research on this issue, I found out there are more and more organizations going to different schools around the world to talk to the students on peer pressure as a whole and bullying. Like I discussed in Blog Post #2, Connection between Bullying and Peer Pressure. There are many videos on the topic as well to raise awareness. Here go one interesting video I found during my research…Teen Peer Pressure Experiment

Image result for teen peer pressure

Teen Giving Into the Pressure

“Be strong and don’t give into the pressure like this young teen is about do”


I am satisfied with the way the awareness of Teen Peer Pressure is being spread. Teen Peer Pressure mainly happens in school and with professionals going to explain to the students how to do the right thing and learn how to not be another victim to Teen Peer Pressure. For my Agent of Change, I made a website and a presentation to create awareness of this issue. My website consists of many stories that other teens went through, real life stories I found during my research. The presentation I created is linked in my website. In my presentation, I discussed the meaning and significance of Teen Peer Pressure. I also gave three things to do to not get involved with doing negative activities with friends that pressure you into doing.  


For this issue, I have researched and found ways to avoid teen peer pressure. The three steps I found during my research on this topic, which was put out by the American Academy Of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. I emailed this organization multiple times, and unfortunately couldn’t speak to a peer pressure professional, but their website helped me research a lot and learn how to spread more awareness on this issue. Also ways to solve this issue. On my Teen Peer Pressure survey, I made teens open up about their past experiences with this issue and I feel getting those things of their chest and realizing that the pressure isn’t rare, it made them feel better about themselves and who they are as a person. This project was really fun. I had a great time doing research on an issue that affects many people around the world my age, even me. Overall, I strongly agree that this was one of the most compelling projects I did so far at school. I learned that many teens at my school think the same on this topic. My Teen Peer Pressure Survey gave me that conclusion, just what is peer pressure and how they believe it affects teenage boys and girls. This project made me learn where I went wrong and why I got caught in between peer pressure. Not being able to say “NO” to my friends and just not being the leader I always claimed to be. However, experiences like these are always a life lesson and I learned that from different sources that I used to research for my topic.


The only thing I feel I could have done better on this project was reaching out to some more organizations on teenage peer pressure. Yet, I am happy because I did in fact try my best to reach out to American Academy Of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry professionals. The only thing I can say that is left for others and I to do to make a change is to be a leader and a good friend to others who seems to need help standing up for themselves. And this is for Teen Peer Pressure and bully. Like I stated before there is a Connection between Bullying and Peer Pressure

  

Here is my Annotated Bibliography...


Stereotypes: Where do they begin? Post #3

In my first Blog Post I introduced my You and the World project. My topic was stereotypes and how they affect youth. I found that stereotypes have the ability to judge a certain group or class of people based of off multiple encounters. When researching my topic I found that stereotypes are issues involving ignorance, racism, and hypocrisy. I was interested in the topic because it wasn’t something that you heard often.

In my second Blog Post I introduced my plan for original research. I decided to make a survey that was school wide. I only wanted responses from students because this project is based on youth. I have gather some incredible information from the survey. I found that 100% of the people that took the survey were aware of stereotypes. I also found that 91.3% of the people that took my survey used stereotypes.

Since the last post, I had a few thoughts about what I wanted to do for the Agent of Change part of the project. My topic is so quirky that every thought I had was not good enough. They had no effect on the purpose of my topic. It took a while for me to come up with a superior idea for my Agent of Change. After a while I just stopped thinking and went to google for some ideas. I had no luck with that either. An idea of a petition came to mind when I was watching an episode of Zoey 101. I decided to create a petition, but a single question got in the way. “A petition for what?” I did not really know what my petition was going to be for. I had to brainstorm a little more. How do you fight the causes of stereotypes? Well if everyone censored what they say it would not be an issue. I remembered a rule from my elementary school. It was for when you wanted to make a joke or say anything not too appropriate. It was called T.H.I.N.K.!

Untitled drawing
Untitled drawing

T.H.I.N.K. means to think…

T- is it True?

H- is it Helpful?

I- is it Inspiring?

N- is it Necessary?

K- is it Kind?


By considering these steps not only are people censoring what they say they are also bettering themselves as a person. By signing my petition you are agreeing to T.H.I.N.K. before you speak. After getting the word out about my petition, multiple people asked question about if they could still say what they intended to. I just reply “do what you think is right”. If we all T.H.I.N.K. before we speak the world may become a better (less ignorant) place.

I think that I could have made a better decision on for my Agent of Change. There were only a few choices and I picked the one of best fit. Maybe I could have given a quick presentation about it at TFI like another student did or maybe I should have given a presentation about it during advisory. These thoughts came to mind a little too late. But knowing so much about this topic now, I don’t want to give up on it. I still will be collecting signatures long after this project is over. I am determine to get the word out about stereotypes affecting today’s youth.


Technology Use is Reduced!

In my first and second blog posts I introduced some of the negative side effects that technology has on people. For example, lack of social interaction and joint pains, like carpal tunnel. In my first blog post I spoke about how people don't realize how much technology is hurting them until the aftermath of it. I showed some of the statistics of the average amount of hours people go on their phones or use technology on a daily basis. It is actually quite frightening how much people use technology within a few days.

As I moved on to expand my learning and research I decided to do a field observation on a few people. I asked permission from a few of my friends to observate them but I never told them when I was going to do start my observation. After an hour of observing them I noticed that everyone was using a form of technology within an hour. One person was using a phone and their laptop at the same time. After a few minutes they put away the laptop and sat on their phone for the rest of the time period. My observation provided me with some more knowledge and also proved some of my research to be correct. There was an insignificant amount of social interaction. These people sat at a table together for an hour and rarely said anything to each other because they were so caught up using their phones and laptops. Then I had an idea.

I started to ponder a few ways I could make a change. I knew what I wanted to accomplish I just couldn't decide how I was going to do it. After thinking long and hard about how I wanted to reduce the technology use in my school, I finally found a solution to this problem. I decided I wanted to make a contest where everyone in my class can take part and also challenge themselves. The contest was who could last the longest without using their phone for two days in school. In the end the winner(s) will receive a cool prize. Once the contest started I caught ten people within a period of fifteen minutes. I heard a few people say things like '' I forgot I couldn't use it, I naturally check it every five minutes'' while others said '' I don't really care if the winner gets a good prize I need to use my phone I can't live without it.'' This just shows that people can't handle not using a phone not for even twenty minutes. As the first day ended I caught more than half of the class using a form of technology other than their laptops.

On the second day there were about fourteen others who were not disqualified. One student (Conor Meier) attempted to eliminate everyone else and did a great job resisting using his phone. By the end of the day I had two winners, neither of the contestants would even bother to check their phones. So I had to choose two winners. The victors of my contest were Conor Meier and Jonathan Saldivar. They both did an exquisite job in my contest and really helped me with my change.

I decided to interview each of them asking them both the same question. '' How did you feel not using your phone for two days?'' Jonathan responded with '' It was horrible I wasn't able to use my phone all day, I almost accidentally used it like ten times''. Conor said '' It was not as bad as I thought it would, at times I really wanted to use my phone, especially when it vibrated.'' I asked a few others and someone responded with '' You really made me realize how many times I use my phone in one day, even when I am in school and I shouldn't be using it, I check it so much more than I thought I did''.

A minute after class ended I found both of them pull out their phones right away

and use them.

After my research and being an Agent of Change I found that I really did make a difference. I reduced the amount of technology use in my class by at least 15%. My contest helped two teenagers reduce the amount of technology by almost fourteen hours. I am glad that I did this for my project and am satisfied with all the new things that I learned after researching and writing these blog posts.   


Click here to view my Annotated Bibliography!