Scholarship Help

Just as a caveat - a friendly one - this entire College Project is designed to help you.  So if you haven't figured that out yet or if you haven't thanked Mr. Martinez, Zac or any of the other seniors who are being benevolent, please do so.

Your second deadline is tomorrow so make sure you have at least 3 scholarships, a list of potential recommenders and your college chart.  If you're still looking for scholarships, check out the list below.

AND, periods 2, 3, 4 will meet in the PAC tomorrow for the film festival.  Periods 6 and 7 we will watch the dvd in class.

Scholarship Search Links

www.scholarships.com

www.cappex.com

www.zinch.com

https://public.dollarsforscholars.org

www.fastweb.com

www.collegescholarships.com

www.findtutition.com

www.scholarships101.com

www.scholarshippoints.com

www.fafsa.ed.gov

www.calgrants.org

www.scholarshiphelp.org

www.gibill.va.gov

Good Luck on Bio

Those of you testing, good luck!  You're almost done. :)

College Deadline 1 extended for AP Bio kids thanks to Cooper. Just have your stuff ready to go by next week.

And for those of you who will be in class, we will be reviewing College Binders.

Xoxo

COLLEGE PROJECT

I'll be out tomorrow but you've got plenty to do...

1) Reflective Journals
2) FAFSA pin creation
3) Personal Statements
4) College Chart
5) Brag Sheet
6) Scholarships
7) Letters of Recommendation List

xoxo

p.s. - Deadline 1 is Friday...

Mr. Martinez is the Man!

I am so bummed for those of you who missed out on Mr. Martinez's awesome info session on college/senior year.  Wow.  Loads of info that is invaluable.

We will begin work on the college project Monday as well as discuss TED Talks and their expectations.  I hope to see you then.

xoxo

p.s. - shout out to period 3 who was only missing 1 classmate

No School

In case you hadn't heard: no school Thursday 5/15.
Stay safe and see you Friday.

Xoxo

Good Luck

Have fun on APUSH tomorrow!  Hope y'all do the best you can - sending you good vibes as usual.  Those of you who aren't testing, have something delicious to read.  We will begin work on the College Project Thursday...

Thanks also for the insightful comments from yesterday's reflections.  I will be incorporating your suggestions for next year's class of APES.

See y'all soon - stay hydrated!
xoxo

URGENT!!!!

If you are issued a highlighter DO NOT use it.
Highlighters are not allowed on ANY AP exam.

I REPEAT:  NO NO NO NO HIGHLIGHTERS.

XOxo

Best of Luck

All good energy your way.

Have fun.  Enjoy and read like a thinker.  Write like a thinker.

It's going to be all good.

xoxo

Marathon Runners...

...have trained for a smidglet of time.  Right?

I'm about to box up my proverbial running shoes, but before you pack up yours, look down.

What kind of shape are your shoes in?

xoxo

Dealing With Stress

That voice in your head that keeps whispering to you - last year my Moleskin Mamas and I called it a "chizzler".  Well, don't listen to it.  Wrangle your sanity back in and tell that puppy to "sit".  When the chizzler comes back just tell it to sit again.  Rinse and repeat.

Test is in 3 days.

Whatever.

Go sit (and read).

xoxo

An Open Letter

Dear Child Who Folded A Page in My Brand New Book,

I just recently finished reading Cheryl Strayed's book Tiny Beautiful Things and there's a chapter in it titled, "Ten Angry Boys".  It made me think of you.  Because as I watched you in class, "reading" and asking the time and distracting peers who were reading I found myself getting angry and upset.  Who do you think you are?

Class ended and as I was straightening up the books I'd generously displayed on the front desk, I noticed how one was oddly askew - just sort of sticking open to the last page you'd "read".  And there it was - a folded over triangle in the upper right corner of the previously pristine copy of my book - my book that I bought with my money after working at my job teaching young people like you.  And it all became so very, very clear.

Why, of course.  Folding over pages = marking territory.  Marking territory = announcing to others that this belongs to you.  This belongs to you = the privilege you likely feel toward things.  But the rub is that the book does not belong to you.  It belongs to me (whatever ownership of tangible items means but that's another blog post) and yet you folded over that page in a symbolic gesture - a mindless gesture - that speaks to me loud and clear.

I was here.

This is mine.

I matter.

And my anger evaporated into pity - the kind of pity no one likes - when someone looks at you knowingly and sees you and your hurt and your scars all covered up with unexcused absences, blame on everyone else but you, losses, arrogance, red Solo cups and a path that leads to a world that will eat you up and spit you back out if you don't soften the edges and put into focus the three tenets of a life well-lived:  what is true, what is good, what is beautiful.

So, to the child who folded a page in my brand new book,  I hope your heart starts to melt a little, sort of  like the edges of an ice cream cone when you're not fast enough with your licks on a hot summer day.  I only have to live with you for a few more weeks.  You've got to live with yourself for the rest of your life.

xoxo

***THIS IS ALL TOTALLY FICTIONAL...JUST PRACTICING MY WRITING, YA KNOW?***

Hyperbole and a Half

This is one of the funniest blogs/books.  I was reading some today and laughing out loud.  (Z and T, you get it...)  In case you don't have access to the book itself, check out Allie Brosh's blog HERE.  It's worth your time.  As for Friday's test, you're either ready or you're not so you might as well read.

Special thanks to A.S. for the awesome gift was back in December.  Adore.

xoxo

More on My Mind

Period 2, you are creating cheat sheets but my eye is not drawn to those of you nose deep in notes or frantically flipping pages.  My eye is drawn to the kid sitting quite casually, pencil in hand - yawning, doodling, scratching his hair.  And my mind floats to a future that is both unwritten and unseen.  How will this kid ever make it?  How will this kid change the world and make it better than he found it?  And it scares me if I let it - thinking about the big, bad world that all of us live in and how your generation has only known speed, technology, and peeking into other people's lives one tweet or post at a time.  Who are you and who will you become?

Something interesting happened to me last week that I think perfectly highlights why my fears are credible.  I was at home doing the mama thing when my phone dinged.  I checked the text and there was a question about something grammatical.  I didn't know the answer off the top of my head so I opened up Safari and googled it.  I found the answer, closed the tab, and texted back the person with the query.  Easy peasey.

I went about my life.

Something you should know about me - empath me - is that oftentimes I wake up from a dead sleep with an answer or a vision or a certain clarity that I didn't have before.  It's really weird but it's how I find missing items or answer conundrums of both the heart and mind.  This night I woke up in a dark house with fear on my heart and a little bit of anger too.  Why the hell could this person not have done what I did to find the answer to their grammar question?  I didn't know the answer.  I looked it up.  I figured it out.  What I had done earlier in the day was the work - the heavy lifting - for a person of a generation that knows only easiness and privilege.  And it made me so scared.

I went to check on my girls - blissed out in sleep and unaware of the perils of the world.  And I remembered that just because you have a tool doesn't mean you need to become one.

Long live pen and paper.  Long live digging deep and making mistakes.  Long live killing your tv and iPhone and iPad.  Long live playing outside and falling down and being able to pick yourself up.

xoxo

You're Testing...

...I'm reading, but I can't read in here with you because this new book (the post Tiny Beautiful Things book) is just as much of a dagger.  And the fact that someone else's words can evoke such emotion in me (and millions of others) is mind blowing.  Someone somewhere decided to think something, write that something down, and put it out into the world.  If that isn't beautiful, what is?  So then my brain scuffles over to those of you - yes, you - reading this blog who don't read IRL.  More importantly, what about those of you who don't even read this blog let alone books.  How can you possibly expect to be whole and real and true and good?

A recent study (it was published in Time so insert credibility here) found that the brain does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life.  The same neurological regions are stimulated.  WHAT?  The study goes further and states, "Individuals who frequently read fiction seem better able to understand other people, empathize with them and see the world from their perspective." So basically...reading great literature enlarges and improves us as HUMAN BEINGS.

Shut the front door.

And some of you don't read.

That desperately makes my heart ache - like in a visceral way.  Have you never found yourself so immersed in a book that the entire world falls away?  Have you never found yourself on the pages of someone else's writing and look around to see who's been watching you because how else would that author have known...known how you feel and what you think?  Have you never been cracked open with a sentence that so deeply resonates with what you believe that you get in your car, drive to the nearest bookseller and buy out their inventory so you can hand out the book like candy on Halloween night? (Not that I've done that...wink wink.)

My God.  READ.

You eat, don't you?

You pee, don't you?

You breathe, don't you?

As teachers we make you read such crap, right?  Why do you think you're told to just read in this class?  And how bone rattling to know some of you don't even do that?

If you take nothing else from this class as you move forward into your senior year and adulthood and beyond (besides don't be an a-hole), well...read.  So you won't be an a-hole.

Take me to the bookstore.  I'll show you the way...it's the first step in a journey that will change you for good.

DFTBA.

xoxo