USC SWIM CAMP

Every summer I use to go to a swim camp at the USC campus. It use to be so much fun. The camp was for an entire week, from Sunday until the next Saturday. I met so many new people my own age. Also, we got to meet Olympic swimmers like Jessica Hardy. We swam for 4 hours a day and had dry land for another 2 hours. Dry land is just another way of saying working out on land and not in the pool. So we worked out for a total of 6 hours a day. It was the best camp I have ever been to. Besides having fun the main point of me going to the camp was to improve my technique and drop time. The camp was definitely worth paying for because within the week I was there I dropped 5 seconds off my 100 freestyle. If you don’t understand swim lingo, this means that I got a lot faster and to do that in a week is just amazing. I was able to attend this camp every summer because my legal guardian was paying for it. And I am eternally grateful.

I have grown tremendously in the past years. It is honestly amazing to the change and the progress that I have made in my life in such a short period of time. Some of the areas in which I have grown are my consciousness, relationships, friendships, and I have definitely learned how to love myself. Most of these things just changed over time, as I grew older, but others changed because I needed them to change.
One of the most significant changes that I have made is my consciousness, the way I think and perceive things. My past has taken a drastic toll on the way I think of things and I use to have numerous triggers. However, I have done a lot work with myself and I have changed the way I think of certain types people and the prejudgments that I have made about others. Even though I have changed I still realize that my work is not over, I still have a lot to work on, however the most difficult part is already over, I’ve begun. This is a change that was essential to my well being, because if I did not deal with these issues, it would have taken over my life. Dealing with the issues from my past has definitely made my relationship with my boyfriend much easier, not saying that our work is done but it has progressed in a positive aspect.
Friendships. This is an area that I had to change willingly because if I did not I would have been lead down the wrong path. I have taught myself that there are some people that I do not need to be hanging out with even though they were my best friend. Sometimes you just need to let people go, and realize that they are pulling you down and not lifting you up. It was a hard change, but I knew it had to take place. Throughout the past 2 years I have been making several changes, and during those changes I learned to love myself for who I am and what I stand for. I had to teach myself that no one could love me unless I loved my self first. This is another change that was significant in my life because I did not value myself 2 years ago. I am very proud of myself for making the changes that I have made over the past years, and I will continue to make positive changes for myself.

4 Favorite Answers

4. No, I do not think a mediocre student will follow a specific set of guidelines. If they do decide to do their work they will most likely to it half way. They should follow the guidelines if they want to produce good quality work, however that would require for them to actually care enough about school. But they are labeled mediocre for a reason.

6. No, I do not think that someone who follows the writing process is better than someone who does not but is also a skilled writer. The skilled writer is skilled for a reason and they probably have their own way of a writing process.

7. If students do not want to raise their standards then they will sink and it will be their fault that they are not succeeding. Staff and teachers can only do so much because it is up to the student. The only solution is themselves, they can only themselves.

12. I feel that the Prewriting stage of the writing process is the most important because this is where you develop your paper about what you will be writing about and where you gather your details. Without this step your paper will just be a blob of words that will most likely make no sense.

:)

What is Reading???!

The 5 most important things in the reading was the eye fixations, return sweep, regression, the fact that reading is a combo of physical, mental and mechanical processes through the brain and phonics. I really liked learning about the regression because sometimes I tend to do that when I read.

Final Check-In Letter

Before coming to Mrs. Priester’s class I attended Our Lady of Peace (OLP), which is an extremely respected school. The work was a little harder in the fact that they treated us like college students rather than babying us. If you missed an assignment you missed it and you could not make it up. Also, if you had up to two Ds you had to take some sort of tutoring. It really was a prep school for college. When I entered the system I was placed at Polinsky. While I was there I still attended OLP. The stress from being in the system really had a toll on my grades. It was difficult, having to study for finals when there are kids yelling, screaming, cry, and getting restrains. But I am proud to say that I passed all of my exams with a C or higher. I personally do not like getting Cs but considering the circumstances I was happy. When I arrived at San Pasqual I was still in a transitional stage which also took a toll on my grades. But when I started getting use to the place I went back to being my old self again, I was getting As, Bs and occasional Cs.
Being in this class has opened my eyes about many things. It has taught me to look for a deeper meaning in things, to pass the surface of stories and poems and dig deeper. It has taught me a variety of new vocabulary word that I can now use in sentences and everyday life. Also, being in this class has not only taught me about academic skills but skills I will need and utilize in my everyday life after high school. For, example we had to turn in an application for a job at a store you though you would be good at. I turned in an application for a manager’s position at Charlotte Rouse. We had an actual interview and we had to dress the part too. When I first entered the room I firmly shook interviewer’s hand and the interview began. I was a bit nervous at first, but after a while I got use to it. And in the end I got the job as manager.
I have a lot of goals in life, both short and long term. One of my short term goals is to attain a 4.0 GPA at least once before I graduate in 2012. I feel my goal is very realistic in the fact that I have already gotten a 3.8 and to push myself to getting that one more A should not be extremely difficult. One of my long term goals and I am so excited to make it come true, is to get a major in kinesiology and continue on to study sports medicine. Whenever I think about me taking those classes in college makes me get butterflies inside my stomach, which lets me know that I am passionate about it. Also another long term goal that I have to make come true is to take care of my mom. She has not always been there for me, but the time when I needed her most she was right by my side. I love her with all my heart and I just want her to have a better life than she has now.
This class has also taught me how to appropriately disagree with someone and to handle things in a mature manner. It has also given me the opportunity to utilize time management. I absolutely hate giving presentations and this class has helped me peel back my shyness and shine through.

APA

Using APA format in my research paper is quite simple. To cite a source means to say specifically where your fact came from. You need to cite your source when you quote something from someone else. They need to get credit for their work. If you are directly quoting the words of someone else you need to put it in quotation marks.A reference page is at the end of the research paper that states the author, year it work was published, where it is published, etc. I will need to use APA format on research paper to quote my facts and to show me how to make my paper look presentable.

Practice Citation
Kausar Suhail, Zobia Bargees. CyberPsychology & Behavior. June 2006, 9(3): 297-307. doi:10.1089/cpb.2006.9.297.

Knotts Berry Farm

This week feels like it is going by so slowly. I can barely take it. But I am looking forward to this coming Friday because I am going to Knotts Berry Farm. The reason why I am getting to go is because I have good grades. The school chose the people to go if they had a 2.7 GPA or higher without any D's or F's. I'm so excited
Also I wrote a letter as an application to get into girls 101. I hope a get accepted. I want to leave my house so badly. Well it is not necessarily the whole house it is just my roomate. I do not get along with her very well. But at least I try to get along with her.