Classmate I appreciate..

I am thankful to have Briana Hammons in my class.  I've been knowing her since third period geometry last year with Mr. Nunn and immediately we became friends. We went through the year helping eachother out in Geometry and being partners for every assignment.  For every question she didn't understand I would help her and for every question I didn't understand she would help me.  She was a good helper to me and explained things well.  And every time I would fall asleep she would fill me in on whatever it was that I missed in the lectures when i awoke.  We would always treat Robert together and talk about the bball team together.
This year, I appreciate having her in my class because she fill me in on whats going on when I feel lost, she reminds me of the homework and bloggs sometimes when I forget after a long day and practice, and she also helps me sometimes with the vocab book questions.  Don't get me wrong these aren't the only reasons I'm thankful for Briana, she also keeps me dying laughing not only in class but outside of class.  We are not those type of people that are only friends inside the classroom, I have a lot of fun with Briana outside the class room but that is a whole different story so....yeah that's enough about her, I will stop there before I end up putting all of our business out there ;)

Changes in American Lit

To start, I really don't have any major problems with American Lit.  The only thing I can't keep up with is the blog and comments every week.  Don't get me wrong it is a good thing and a good way to express ideas and find out other students ideas on the same subjects but I mean sometimes I just forget to do them by Friday.  Maybe if we could get the weekend, like until Sunday night to have them done it wouldn't be such a problem.  I'm not exactly sure why this is a problem, I think maybe because there's so much going on during the week and other teachers give out so much more unnecessary homework, then I don't really get a chance to get it done.  Or maybe I'm just soo tired after having practice so long after school then coming home to do other home work and studying then I just forget that I have to get on the computer and do this.  If it were due on a Sunday night on the other hand, I think I will have a better chance at getting my blog done.
Other than the blogs,  I think we should have our vocab test and our tests once we finish reading a book separately.  That way we can have more test grades and a better opportunity to do well in the test category.  Since we only had one test this quarter if we were to do bad on it, we wouldn't have had an opportunity to make that grade up on any other tests so that we can get a better percentage in that category.  I guess it doesn't really matter if we just study and read the book then we won't really have an issue with this, but for people like me who have very little time during the school week and at that manages their time very badly than studying and doing homework sometimes really become a major issue for me, especially on those long days when I get really tired.
Overall I think I like this class a little better than it may seem, it doesn't really ask for too much out of you and it really challenges you to think outside of the box.  Also it allows you to voice your opinions so that others may hear you and put up a good argument.

Slavery Today

Have you ever took the time to realize how many people treat others in the world today.  Some people may not think it matters while others may think the world has changed a lot compared to how people use to treat others.  Still there are some people who really don't think the world has changed and probably won't change the way that we treat one another.  The world was once focused on racial issues, cultural issues, religious issues, and many more.  Slavery has been an issue forever though and still continue on, just maybe not getting as much attention as it once was.
In our very own city here in Chicago, I happen to believe that slavery is going on right here in some of our backyards.  Have you ever considered that maybe these street gangs can be categorized in the same category as slavery.  In many street gangs, you have one leader or "master" who is in control of what everybody does, says, and believes.  Then you have the followers, or the people that works for the leader doing all of the dirty work and not getting nearly as much out of it as the leader is.  If you don't obey the leader or if you do something wrong then you will basically get beaten or killed by the leader himself or someone ordered by the leader to do it.  So really you are being forced to do something that you don't want to do because you want to keep your life.  Also to get into the gang may require some initiation where you will have to let every "jump" you or maybe you will be forced to go out and kill a certain number of people.  Some may argue that this isn't being forced if you want to be a part of this gang, but really you don't have a choice because I doubt if you can just tell them no and walk away with nothing done to you after all of that.
I think this can possibly be considered slavery, but maybe it's just me...