Asher's English Blog

 A phrase I find myself saying a lot is my pleasure. Since working at Chick Fil A, I have had to say that after every order that I have taken. It has been so engraved in my brain, that I find myself saying it even when I am not even working. On Saturday, I held a door open for a woman at the pro shop of a golf course, and I said my pleasure. I felt so dumb, but it was super funny.  Summary: Today in class, we took notes on definitions, and completed pages in our workbook.  Reflections: With learning new vocab, it felt helpful with being able to make my writing sound better. As well as being able to sound more intelligent while speaking. 

 I think with being 4.5 weeks in this class I can already feel my writing skills becoming better. From when I wrote my paragraph today, and re read it I was very impressed with my skills on a topic I feel passionately about. Even though I think the blog posts every day are somewhat annoying, it is deffinitly making me practice my skills for writing. One thing I need to be better with is doing these blog posts on the day they correspond to. This is how my first 4.5 weeks have been so far in AP Lang.  Summary: Today in class we wrote a paragraph on if we think a kill is good or bad. Reflection: By doing this paragraph, my writing skills increased. I will use these skills on the AP exam in may. 

 Something that made me question how do you know is when my friend explained to me how to perfectly hit your iron in golf. He was showing me the correct form and footwork needed. I was confused so I asked him where he learned it from, and he showed me a video of his golf coach teaching him how to do it perfectly every time. When he showed me it I understood his information was right and used it. Now I know how to hit the iron club perfect each time.  Summary: Today in class we discussed we discuseed and read a story about an army veteran. Reflection: It was cool to see different peoples views and ideas about one topic. This inspired me to view peoples views even more than I already do. 

 I prefer doing hands-on activities the best in my opinion. Especially in science, so I can see how the stuff works in itself. Or in ELA, by reading a physical book I enjoy it since if I have something to connect it to by touching it clicks in my brain just a bit better. Or when in social studies we can like touch a 3-d map to understand how mountains actually feel and where they are at. This is why I prefer hands on activities more.  summary: today in class we learned how to make claims and completed a worksheet about it. | Reflection: Learning how to make strong claims is very important for writing. Like how I used them on my paragraph today. 

 Something I will never fully understand is why people make everything political. It really annoys me when you make a comment and someone says something like, "average democrat." It truly drives me insane, because I say something that has nothing to do with politics, but somehow talking quarterbacks somehow involves the republican party. Or another example is, when I said I love watching Christian Pulisic in the world cup, and someone said I hate him cause he did the Trump dance. Like its that type of stuff that annoys me and that I will never fully understand. Summary: Today in class we made claims on how important formal speech is. Reflection: By doing this activity it makes me see how important formal speech is. As well, as planning out my argumentative essay for the future. 

 One thing that makes me different from other people, is how much I love being a Christian. I know there are still people who agree with me, but in our society it feels like it is a bad thing or controversial. With what something I am doing in AP government, we had a debate on do we think the pledge should be allowed or not, and one of the main arguments is the under god part. This angers me very much, since god created every living thing on this planet. This is how I feel different from others. Summary: We watched videos and did SPACE on them and we did a quiz. Reflection: With watching the videos, and having to think of rhetorical appeals, I can now put a lot of things as rhetorical appeals. Like when I listen to music I can hear pathos a lot. 

 I would say living in Atlanta has definitely changed the way I see my community. With how I treat others with kindness and how others treat me. I would want someone to understand how awesome the community is and the people around us. I would also want to show people the culture of this city, with the music, the sports teams, as well as how cool this city is. I would most definitly say living in Atlanta has made me view the city and people in a positive way. Summary: We listened to the go home speech, and completed a worksheet based off of it. Reflection: I will now know how to easily breakdown speeches and now fully understand what the speaker is saying. This can help with my future, of understanding what people are saying. 

 The most creative thing I have ever made was how I designed my room. I think it is very cool how I have a lot of UGA things and USA things. I think my room really relates to my personality as being a big UGA fan and a person who really loves this country. Not so much politics currently, but I really do love being a patriotic American. This is how my room is my most creative thing I've made.  Summary: Today we listened and broke down a speech Trump made in 2019 Reflection: This lesson made me learn how to break down speeches and writings. This is a valuable tool, in the future to truly understand what the speaker is saying. 

 A time I felt completely felt lost was my first day of freshman year. I was the "new" kid with not going to Henderson or Globe, since I went to Chamblee in the magnet program. It was hard to try to fit in new groups at first but I adjusted pretty quickly in my opinion. Finding my classes was the hardest part though. I was so lost and had to ask so many people for help. But, I quickly figured out how the school works.  summary: We read an article on 3rd year bachelor degrees, and completed a worksheet based off of it. Reflection: I thought the article was super detailed, and thought it changed my mind about going to college for 4 years. I also learned how to make my claims stronger. 

 Something that I believed in as a child was Santa. Every Christmas, my family and I always went to the mall and took pictures with Santa and put them on our Christmas card for the following year. Aswell, as the presents that Santa brought us. It was super fun to think he was real and now I can play along with it with my younger cousins. It also just makes the holiday season so much more fun and festive. Summary: We learned how to make good claims. Reflection: With doing this worksheet I have become better at making claims. An example is by having a claim be more of an open ended statement instead of it being answered with a yes or a no. 

 When I had an argument with my mom about screen time. I got super angry and started yelling at her instantly. I should have been a lot more calm and used more patience with her. I should have used the cop scenario from the book in class today. This scenario was saying to let the cop win points and let him talk you out of the ticket. How this would have applied to me is letting my mom talk herself out of my screen time rule. Summary: Today in class we took notes and learned how to argue more successfully. Reflection: In the future I will use these new tips and tricks to argue more professionally and maturely. It also can increase your chance of your side winning the argument.

 A time that I was trying to persuade someone and change their mind was one of my friends and we were debating who the best basketball player of all time was. I used logos to persuade him that Lebron James is the goat. I used career points and playoff wins, as well as total games played. My friend took this information and he now believes Lebron is the goat as well. In the moment I was not thinking about which rhetorical appeals would be the best, but looking back, logos was the only one that applied in this scenario. Summary: We had to present our name origins and do a rhetorical appeals worksheet.  Reflection: While working on the worksheet, I really was starting to learn how to use the correct rhetorical appeals in each scenario. As well as further more understanding my fellow classmates name origins. 

 Prompt response: I think as I get older, one thing I will have to stand up and debate more often is my political opinion. Because my friends have different political views from me, as well as some things my family disagree about. I truly do not care that much about politics since I am sixteen but there are some things I do believe in. As a person I really do not share my opinions much except with some that I trust and know will not be mad at my opinions. Also, with sharing my opinions publicly with society, I do not want people to view me differently just of who I voted for. Lastly, I do not want to be cancelled for just sharing my political opinions even though they are not even that extreme.  Summary: In class in 8-10-26, we took notes on Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. Reflection: I learned how to break down advertisements to see what type of rhetorical appeals they are. I will use this knowledge in the future to look at advertisements a new way and if I ever have to design them...

 There are plenty of goals I have for this upcoming school year, such as being a straight A student, meeting requirements to get into good schools, as well as being a member of Varsity Tennis for my second year in a row. Being a straight A student is not easy, and I know well about this since I have not had all A's since elementary school, but this year I have a new momentum entering this school year, as well as a new study habit I used that worked well for me. Meeting requirements to get into good schools is like getting a good enough GPA, and getting good SAT as well as ACT scores. I am going to train through out the school year to prepare myself to get those good SAT and ACT scores. For tennis, I train two to three times a week, at a private academy, also I work out at the gym pretty often to maintain good health to bring me success this tennis season.