“Persuasive Project Topic Request.”

After reviewing the Voxopop discussion, I would like to persuade people to Mentor, Alumni, or become a teacher. You may listen to my class’s discussion here.

First Persuasive Paragraph

Sports is a strong motivator for many students on campus. It helps students stay out of most drama, keep up there grades, or get them up. Students on campus should be allowed to play sports even if their grades are low. The program we have now on campus called academic probation helps students who have low grades to get their grades up if they want to play on a team. If students miss one assignment in any class while on academic probation they would not be allowed to play the next up coming games. I think this system should be kept and used in other schools to help low grade students bring up there grades. Playing a sport for a student with low grades would motivate them to strive for higher grades and a better GPA. Students should be allowed to play sports with low grades the help them academically and athletically.

Theme Comparison Essay

Love has a variety of effects on people. When it is pure it can change people for the better and heal their pain. “ Catch the Moon” was written by a Puerto Rican American woman and is set in the Caribbean Hispanic Barrio. “ The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant was written by a Caucasian man from New Hampshire and is set in a New England summer home waterfront community. In “Catch the Moon” and “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” The main character a teenage boy, believes himself to be in love with a beautiful girlhe just met. However, In “Catch the Moon,” Luis feelings for Naomi redeem him by inspiring to return to acts of goodness. In “The Bass, The River and Sheila Mant,” The fourteen yearold boy realizes that “loving” one for their looks is shallow and futile.

In the story “The bass, the River and Sheila Mant” the main character is a boy who loves to fish. The boy falls in love with a girl named Sheila Mant but she hates fishing. He decided to take Sheila out of a canoe, on a date, and ends up catching a bass. He decides to let the bass go and later regrets his actions. In the story the main character says “There would be other Sheila Mants in my life, other fish, and though I came close once or twice, it was the these secrets, hiding tuggings in the night that claimed me, and I never made the samemistake again”. The character changes because he learns not to give up something he loves for a girl who is ungrateful. The theme of this story is that a person shouldn’t have to change who they are for another person to like them, even if they are in love.

The main character of “Catch the Moon” is a boy named Luis who lives in the Hispanic Barrio. He is dealing with the loss of his mother and the pain he had been hiding for years. He went to jail for breaking into a house, and was told by the court that he owed free labor to his father who worked in a car junk yard. He meets a girl, who’s family owns the funeral service that helped with his mother’s funeral, who he likes. She is missing a hubcap for her old Volkswagen buggie and Luis makes it his duty to find it. While Luis looks for the hubcap he starts to think about his mother, and how much he never realized how much he missed her. He found the hubcap for the girl and, started to change when he realized how the girl made him think about his mother. He broke down crying when he thought about his mother and how much he never grieved for her and missed her. Some people change when they are unable to grieve for someone they had lost, sometimes they look for attention by doing things that are wrong, and showing love and grief for someone they lost can be difficult, but it is always important to let go and grieve.

Love can control, and change people. It can change their behaviors and their action. It can heal, and hurt. Never change in the loss of someone you love and never loose something you love for some else. Many people change in the presence of others, and at the loss of someone close to them. Many people hide their grief, and their love for other things, but it is always good to some your love for something and someone you love. Hiding feelings for something or someone can be a mistake that can affect people in the long run. Grief and acceptance is something many people should learn and know.

"Cat"ch the Moon" Theme Graphic Organizer

“Catch the Moon” Grief Paragraph.

The change Luis experiences after he address the grief he feels for his mother’s death is believable because, many people do not grieve a lot after someone close to them dies, because many times they go through shock and also don't realize how much they miss the person until something reminds them of the death. There are many people sometimes who don't even believe someone is dead and go through denial. Sometimes people change their behaviors when someone passes away, like how Luis became mischievous. In real life I know someone like this who's both parents died and she used to be extremely outgoing and now is quiet and doesn't talk much to many people like she used to. Moods and behaviors can change because they might go through depression and it might be hard for them to grieve. It is important for people to grieve because it helps them accept the fact that that person is gone, and it helps them to move on to their life, to leave it in the past.

Financial Education

“You need to learn how to separate your wants from your needs”-Mr. Litoff
(Financial Education Teacher). This quote is important for all students to learn because
it teaches them how to control, save, and spend their money right. Statistics proves that
85% of foster youth don’t know how to handle their money after they get emancipated
or leave the system. We feel that more students should have a financial education before
they leave the system.

Our school needs to have more students educated on how to use money. If we
had an elective class that students could choose to teach them about finances, they would
learn how to spend, save, and control their money. We would need funding for this to pay
for the costs of a new class with maybe some technology such as computers to help the
students learn. We would also need materials and school supplies to make our classroom
a better environment where kids can learn. Students need to learn about how to handle
money because when they graduate from high school and go on their own they need to
know how to control and be safe with their money.

This funding for our school would give a personal impact because we feel like it
would be an interesting topic to learn about and learning to control money is important to
teenagers who are becoming adults. It would help us when we have to go out on our own
and learn how to use money. This prize money would help many students in the need
for financial education. It would help us learn many things about money spending most
people don’t know about. This funding would be extremely important.

One way teenagers can learn about money at our school is by the one man who
gives individual lessons and helps students open a bank account. This is the closest thing
we have to getting financial education on our campus. It would be good to incorporate
these learning skills in to a class to help many other students learn about it in a school
environment, and give the opportunity to many students at a time.

This program will have an impact on our school by helping students prepare for
adulthood and it will also give the students an opportunity to earn school credits and learn
about business. By having this program in our school it will give the students different
options for elective classes. It will also help students and enhance their knowledge
not only about money but also about banks, businesses, and any other money related
companies such as stock trading and investment firms.

Financial Education is important and should be taught to students to prepare them
for a business career and their future with money. Our school needs to enhance its
student’s knowledge and teach them more what it’s like to handle and be in control of
their money. This prize would be helpful to our school and will open doors for many
foster youth.

I wrote this essay with Amy C. We wrote it for the KNSD Homeroom Reform Essay Contest http://www.nbcsandiego.com/brchannel/103556549.html.

"SPA Movie & Games Day Paragraph"

On Friday it was a lot of fun because we got to play sports, and the sophomores won the basketball round for sports. We lost in the volleyball round to the juniors but it was still fun. Before we played all the sports, we watched a movie. We watched "Freedom Writers", I had seen that movie so many times, but it was okay to watch again. I think next time we have a movie day for the campus, the students should be able to choose the movie. After the sports and the movie school got out and we got to go to the cafe, where there was a cupcake eating contest, and a BBQ. It was funny to watch everyone try to shove the cupcakes in their mouth whole. Tedra was funny too, because she poured milk on her cupcake to try to make it soggy and she won. Afterward Amy, Jojo, Augui, Breeana, and I went to girls 1 to watch one of my favorite movies, "Nacho Libre." It was a good day.

Homeroom Reformers Idea

"The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant" Theme Graphic Organizer

Comparing “The Bass, the River, and Shelia Mant” to Brad Paisley’s song “I’m Gonna Miss Her.”

In the song "I'm Gonna Miss Her" is similar to the story because the boy has to choose between fishing or the girl. In the story the main character struggles to chooses between fishing for the bass or chooseing Sheila mant over it. He chose Shiela Mant and regreted it. In the song the man chose the fish instead becuase he loved it so much he was not willing to give it up for her. he was happy while fishing and said he was going to miss her, but he still continued to fish. I think in both theses tories it means to always be yourself and choose what you love.

Internal and External Conflicts in "The Bass, the River, and Shiela Mant"

In "The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant" the main character experiences internal and external conflicts. The internal conflict that he encounters is his love for Sheila Mant and how much he likes her. He had been watching her all summer and had been trying to impress her. He battles to find the courage to ask her out and when he finally asks her out he decides to take her to the fair to see some bands. When they are on the canoe on their way Sheila tells him how fishing is stupid. That is his favorite sport and her battles that there must be a reason why she doesn't like fishing. When he tries to hid his fishing pole in the boat he shoves it under the seat and his line accidentally catches a bass. He doesn't want to real in the bass because he doesn't want Sheila to see him fishing. His external conflict is his struggle with the fish. He know that it is the biggest fish he had ever caught and he struggles to keep the fish on the line and not let Sheila see. Another internal conflict is him trying to decide whether or not to try to catch the fish or not embarrass himself in front of her. He battles if he should catch this fish because it is the biggest fish he had ever caught or let it go. When he let the fish go because of Sheila he later knew that he made a mistake because he Sheila didn't pay any attention to him and she left him later that night to go with someone else. his conflict was that he had made the mistake of choosing Sheila over the greatest fish he would have ever caught.

"Catch the Moon" Falling in Love.

To me falling in love can be a bad thing and a good thing. Love changes many people. Love can help someone to be more confident, compassionate, and loving. For example, if someone were to be an extremely shy person then they find love in someone who has extreme confidence, then it can help that person to become more confident. Love can also be bad in certain ways too. For example, love can sometimes be complicated and there can be problems. In a relationship people will fight, argue, and sometimes get their hearts broken, but its always a good relationship when they can talk and get over their problems together. When a relationship is damaged and issues between the two people can not be resolved then it usually mean s that the two people shouldn't be together. love is hard in many ways and good. In all relationships love is hard. If love was not hard then it would be impossible for people to change. change takes time and hardship. This is why I believe love changes people in many different ways.