Independent Serive Reflection / Final reflection

I am Alex Hunter. My values are respect, honesty, caring, and sharing. This may sound very corny and childish, but these four core values as I call them, carry throughout your whole life. If every person on earth could embrace these four values, the world would be a much happier place. There would be no war, crime, hate, or racism. These are my values. For service learning, I was put in the recycling group with Ms. Thomas. Our goal is to educate people on the importance of recycling and to eventually set up a recycling system for the school through showing people how important it is. We will do this through data and research we have found. 

For my 15 independent service hours, I monitored and helped clean the boys bathrooms. Ms. Turnstall signed off for these hours. This entailed washing the floor, mirrors, and toilets. It also included monitorng the bathroom during lunchtime. The bathrooms I did this in were the 2nd floor bathroom, 4th floor, 5th floor, and occasionally the basement bathroom. This situation was far different than anything I do in the classroom, for obvious reasons. The bathroom was much more hands on that anything I do in the bathroom. One big difference I see in the two activities is that after working the bathroom, I see immediate results and am satisfied. In school, sometimes it is hard for me to see the purpose of many things I do. Perhaps I will learn later in life why I did or learned them, but right now I don't. The situation I would change in my service learning group, recycling, would be to do less research and sitting around and more doing. I felt that a lot of the sample trash, and preparation was very unecessary. Everyone knows what trash looks like, so why did we need a sample. 

Service learning will change my outlook on my future career in a few ways. I have learned how much you have to go trough to get things down. This includes proposals, research to find out if the propostion in necessary, and funding. Now that I think about, I would rather be a bum than a businessman in life. 

Service Learning Planning for 5/28

This week I plan on coming in with more data for my neighborhood. I plan on walking around my neighborhood one more time tonight. We will average each group members data eventually to put into our report. Besides this, not much has been going on. I believe the next step is to start to put the report together. Ninth graders in the group surveyed fellow classmates to see their opinions on recycling, which will be published in the report. I also believe we are soon going to be putting together a short film as well as the report. 

Service Learning Reflection for 5/15 session

Last week was a good service learning session. We compared eachothers data from our walks in our neighborhoods. It's great that our group is so spead out across the city geographically. We have people from North Philly, South Philly, Southwest, Northeast, Northwest, and Center City. I can't believe I am already almost done the school year. Throughout the serive learning meetings, I had become very frustrated because I did not see where my group was going with what we were doing. After asking Ms. Thomas this, she gave me a much more understandable explanation. I now know the objective of the group much more clearly. What we are dong is simply educating others on recycling, and coming up with a proposal for a recycling system. We will do this by using facts, figures, and data we find. Through service learning, I have learned the following about the issue of recycling and trash. I've leanred many people either do not care about recycling, or are not educated on the benefits of recycling. I have also learned about many materials that can be recycled that I had no clue could be before I started my research. These include but are not limited to phones, sports equipment, tennis shoes, toothbrushes, razors, ink cartridges, eyeglasses, clothes, and even batteries. My values have defenetly changed through service learning. To be honest, I used to litter all the time, not caring of my actions. I also used to not taking my mother seriosuly when she would tell me to recycle or what to put in the recycling can. After being educated more on recycling, I have a broadened appreciation for why my mom wanted me to do that. I also have more of a desire for a cleaner city after walking around my neighborhood the past few weeks.

service learning reflection for 5-9 workshop

Last weeks service learning workshop went very well. Though a few group members were missing, we stayed on task and got a lot done. We wrote thank you letters to the men that funded our scales. We are using the scales to measure trash we find. Right now, I am collecting data on trash I found in my neighborhood. The goal of what we are doing is to propose for a recycling program for the school district. To get to this, we need to educate and show people the importance of recycling. Many people do not understand this importance and take plastics and other things for granted. Hopefully by the end of the school year, we will have put together a good proposition. For this weeks meeting, which is in 25 minutes, I prepared myself by walking around my neighborhood to see not only the amount of trash, but the days with the most and the specific time of day. THIS IS SPARTA!!!

Superdelegates

A superdelegate is a party leader or elected public official chosen as an uncommitted delegate to a national political convention. There a few pros to superdelegates and some cons. They have a big impact on which candidate the Democrats nominate to run for president. In the 2008 primary season. another con is that the Democratic superdelegates could use their status to choose a candidate, instead of supporting the one ahead in the popular vote.

Service Learning

Not much has been sucessful so far in service learning this year. We are doing a lot of research and collecting sample trash, but I ask myself why. How is this research going to help the schools future recycling program? I have not learned much so far, except a few things that can be recycled that I didn't know could be. These objects are listed in my last blog post below. In the coming weeks, what needs to be done is we need to establish a recycling program. I say enough with this " research" and sample trash. I could see if we needed the research/data to convince some one, but we don't. Enough talking and planning, and LETS DO IT! What needs to be changed for next year is that we start service learning earlier, maybe in Early to mid March. This is so that the groups have time to actually get things done.

Service Learning Reflection for 5-1-08

Yesterday was our 4th service learning session. Each week alternates between a Thursday and a Friday. I fulfilled my job in the group by collecting my sample trash, which was a diet coke bottle. Our group went down to the IMC. I was assigned by Ms. Thomas to look up different things that can be recycled. I found out that many things that I didn't think could be recycled can be. Examples of these are phones, sports equipment, tennis shoes, toothbrushes, razors, ink cartridges, eyeglasses, clothes, and batteries. I will definitely put the tips I learned into good use.

Service Learning Reflection for 4/25/08

The last session we had, on Friday, was very productive. I suggested to Ms. Thomas that since it was such a  nice day, we go outside to search for samples of trash. We each grabbed a pair of gloves and a plastic bag.

Service Learning Reflection for 4/17/08

This week we met in the recycling group and discussed ways to recycle. We also talked about reasons why many people don't recycle or do not feel the need to. A lot of people do not realize the importance of recycycling and their contribution. In the hope of changing peoples minds, we decided that the best way to convince people of the positive outcomes of recycling is to show them data and figures on it.  We also divided up different jobs for people. My job is finding samples of trash that could be recycled. 

Service Learning Reflection

It is now April 29th. So far, there have been service learning sessions. I am in the recycling group with Ms. Thomas. We have not accomplished much yet but are currently working on setting up a recycling program for the school. We've talked effective ways to use recycling, reasons people don't recycle, and have even collected sample trash from the streets. Hopefully in the coming weeks we can establish a well working system.

Service Learning Reflection

Service Learning & Independent Service Hours

At first thought, I wanted to tutor elementary school students for my service learning hours. I did this last year, and I had no problems with it. Today, I found out from Ms. Thompson that this choice was no loner available. However, she did mention tutoring classmates within the school, which I am also interested in. Other possible service learning options for me are at an animal shelter. For 15 independent service hours, I am still not sure of what I'm doing. There is a recreation center down the street from my house I help out at. This would include keeping score at any sports events, including baseball games, soccer games, or indoor basketball games. Other work could include cleaning, mowing grass, or cleaning the baseball field.

Quien Soy Yo Spanish presentation

NHD Reflection

Alex Hunter NHD Reflection

NHD is already over! I am very glad that the torture is over. My topic looked at the Battle of Gettysburg and its impact on the rest of the war and ultimately on American history. I worked by myself, and wrote a research paper. Looking back, having last years experience as a backbone for this year was a huge help. Without the knowledge I gained from last year in researching, I could not have done my paper this year as thoroughly or relaxed. I noticed that a lot of students were stressed out and complained nonstop, which baffled me. Students make NHD out to more that it is, constantly procrastinating and unwilling to put the time in. My approach was very laid back and relaxed. I will admit that I often slept during the workshops, and that I wrote the majority of my research paper the night before it was due. However, it didn’t matter too much seeing that my grade was a 100%. I feel like we were almost given too much time to complete this project, which is what gave me my relaxed approach to the project. Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my paper, which was on the Battle of Gettysburg. My research was well balanced, including seven books, an abundance of web sources, an interview with a history professor, and even Civil War battle maps I had found. Next year, I would like to change my project type to exhibit. Writing a paper two years in a row for NHD is enough.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas SAT Words

Biology Project

Annotated Bibliography (25 sources)

Biology Project

I chose to research the affects of different foods on one's heart rate for my science project. I am working with Kadeem Kamara. Our materials will be peanut butter and cookies. We have started our write up and are only waiting to fill in our data. The final project and write ups are due January 18th. 

Geometry PowerPoint on Plato

M

Topic Choice Essay

My topic for National History Day this year is on the Battle of Gettysburg. It will be focused in on the effects of the battle on the town. I will also do some research on the Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the impact of the speech. I have some background knowledge on the topic already. I know that the battle took place from July 1^st-3^rd 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Gettysburg is located in central Pennsylvania towards the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. There were many reasons why I chose this topic. First of all, I have already done research on Gettysburg when I was in middle school. Secondly, I have traveled to Gettysburg with my family many times, so I know much background information and have much appreciation for the history of it. I would like to further my knowledge on the battle. I am yet to figure out how this topic relates to this years theme of conflict and compromise. I am thinking that the compromise could have been that t he war eventually led to the molding of one nation, as opposed to having a nation bound by the north and south.