My last high school essay...

I have grown throughout this year long process by learning rather than being taught. Open source learning has taught me to utilize the internet as a resource and also to put passion into learning. It has also taught me to take risks and to step out of my comfort. An example would be my masterpiece. I have never shared my findings and ideas to anybody yet I managed to do it that day. It also managed to teach the English requirements as directed by the state. My writing skills have improved a little since I began in the fall. I feel a bit more confident as I write and started to organize my ideas more. My reading has improved a bit with all the new vocabulary terms I learn and as for my thinking. It has improved so much. It feels like a door has been open and I can see a light with many imaginative ideas.

The class was given a high sense of trust from our instructor. We deserved that high level of trust because without it how else could you approach open source learning? We have earned that trust by just saying that we wanted to give open source learning a chance. Not everybody has honored that trust. The majority of the class didn’t because they are still stuck in the traditional school mind set. Not only that but they didn’t do the work, keep up with the blog or the journal. I say since the past month May I have begun to honor that trust by doing my masterpiece. The rest of the time I spent in the class I was like everybody else doing nothing trustful.

            While have experienced this course I have strengthen a passion I have. The best way I can describe my passion is being a human textbook. I have looked up a wide variety of ideas, concepts and facts ranging from the traditional math and science to video games and philosophy. Throughout the year Preston talked about utilizing our greatest resource we had, the internet. At first it flew right past me but as he kept saying it to us it finally got inside my head unconsciously. I began to look up more information as the year progressed and before I knew I used that passion as my masterpiece.

            The course wasn’t all work there were a couple of laughs in there. One would be my friend presented his masterpiece and they used inappropriate music. It was so funny because the song wasn’t made for a presentation and Preston called them out on it. Another funny memory was when I presented my masterpiece and I got flipped off by my teacher. I was glad because it felt like a friend flipping me off so I laughed. Those were my favorable moments that I remember from the class.

            Passion was a reoccurring theme in our masterpiece project. Our masterpiece project was our grand senior project where we presented on what we were passion about to everybody in the class. I saw passion over and over again but actual passion and not just passion that was made up at the last minute. Eddie who reported on why he wanted to be a paramedic gave us a personal story on what drove him to choose that. He said that a paramedic once saved his life so now he wants to do the same. Another college wanted to better him so he took up boxing as a means to get a shape and now has deep appreciation for the sport. He is making progress and has told me that he would to get with boxing. Another college named Daniel baked the class food as means to show what he has learned. He loves to cook and has even gotten a job in a restaurant where he has a mentor to guide him. He will pursue his goal into becoming a chef. Two more colleagues decided to put their projects together into one. Xavier and Robert came together to form a better idea. They will provide clothing made from street artists. Their passions drove them to create their first shirt and are planning on making a website for the public.

            I have not completed this journey. The journey on my life has just begun and I plan on taking on this adventure head on. This is my hero’s journey and I will complete it. From now on I will be living life how I want it and experience all that this world has to offer and more. I could not find a mentor because I did not know exactly what I want to do so it made it tough. At least now I know what I am interested in. It was a challenge trying to break out of that traditional school mentality because I have spent all my school life being taught and not learned.

What I thought of my masterpiece presentation

I presented my masterpiece on Wednesday and I thought it was good. I stated that we are all living, interdisciplinary textbooks.  I used myself as an example by taking my colleagues on a whirlwind 20-minute tour through calculus, evolution, philosophy, and religion. The one thing I felted the would have made more of a difference on my presentation was time. I felt rushed and couldn't deeply talk about some of the concepts as much as I wanted to. Also I forgot to mention some important ideas on the subjects I discussed. There was also one subject I didn't cover and that was history. Overall the presentation was a success.

request for response

"Recovery for Whom?" was the name of the article I read out of the four. It talked the recent recovery that the US economy is going under. Yet there is bit of confusion about who is the recovery targeting because there are different generations in the workforce. The older generation the babyboomers are being helped out the most with the recovery because they have the money. They are the rich and being helped out the most out of everybody. The poor working class should be helped out more than the rich because the poorer generations are the ones who have it the worst.

For example, the millennials, the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s. They are far worse off than the previous generation; Gen Xers (born in the 1960s and 1970s) were at that age. Not only that but the generation before Gen X, the babyboomers had it better than them at the same age. The millennials have had it rough when entering the workforce for when they entered it the recession hit. Instead of securing a stable economic future they struggled with underemployment and unemployment. Many of them had fallen so far behind that it is almost impossible to catch up.

 According to the latest census data, nearly 16 percent of those in their mid-20s to mid-30s were in poverty in 2012, compared with just above 10 percent of Gen Xers in 2000 and baby boomers in 1980. Not only that but nearly 14 percent of that age group were living with their parents which is a higher percentage than the other generations. This only goes to show that the recession majorly affected the younger generation in the workforce.

This only goes to show that there has to be more programs or government involvement to get the young up and running. The recovery should focus more on the young because true prosperity is impossible when the productive potential of young adults is being squandered. The recession set them back a bunch and now they have to play catch up without any support.

LOOK AT MY BRAIN

My masterpiece does not reflect my inner thinking because I do not have a masterpiece. I am in the processing of making one. I have a few ideas to include to it or make one into the masterpiece. I don't know. But I will leave with this note the majority of my work does not reflect my inner thinking. Tis just a scratch of the surface. Though there are some posts that reflect my inner thinking but only a few. As for the creativity I don't know how to express it through a computer screen. The collaboration is difficult for I would rather do something myself unless that person is more informed about what they know than I can know with research.

SEEKING MENTOR

I honestly have no mentor in mind but if I did I would ask him a bunch of questions. The questions will mostly be involving what the mentor does. I have a few mentors in mind and I will have to choose which one to contact. I was thinking about being my own mentor but I don't think that will fly too well with my teacher so I am looking for one. My mentor will be of the math or science related.

S' WONDERFUL

Today in class we talked about how can we present our final form of the project and what it will look like. The class talked about making videos of doing our masterpiece, having a visual presentation like with pictures, having the mentor join us in a Skype call. There were other things that the class mentioned but I don't remember them.

PREVIEW OF COMING ATTRACTIONS

• Getting to see who my expert/mentor is
• A big finale of the progress I made
• Updates on how the project is going
• A couple videos here and there