TOW #30

Hello new APELC students,

Don't be afraid of the upcoming year. Maybe you have heard some negative things about the course, but in all honesty, it's not scary. With supportive, helpful and communicative teachers like Mr. Yost and Ms. Pronko, someone will always be there to help you even if you don't think you are ready to write another essay or annotate another reading passage. You can talk to them about anything, ask them to give you suggestions on every assignment, and simply trust in the fact that although your grades (at first) may not reflect what you think you're capable of, they will rise by the end of the course, along with your character and ability as a student.

For me, personally, I know that this is true. My very first essays (the one assigned over the summer and the first timed essay we did in class) earned a score of a 3 and a 4. Previously, in honors english classes, most of my papers earned an A or a high B. I walked into this class thinking that it would be easy because it was mostly writing, and the lowest grade I had ever gotten on a paper was an 85. When the 3 (around a 65%) went into Sapphire, I was almost certain that I would be getting a C for the year or worse. I wasn't sure how I would be able to survive AP English with writing skills that I originally thought were good that actually were only worthy of a low D. However, my last two essays written (one a take-home essay scored by Mr. Yost, and the other an in-class essay scored by my peers) scored an 8 each. I know personally that my writing improved over the length of the course, and I know that the writing of my peers have as well. The average essay-writing score improved about 3 or 4 points for the class as a whole, and when the time came to take the AP exam, I know that we were all prepared to the best of our abilities. By the end of the year, I know that you will feel the same way.

An important thing about this course is that you should remember to keep your head up, that you are a good student, and that you are trying, even if your Sapphire is reporting numbers that you've never seen in your grade book before. If you have to, don't even look at Sapphire. Sapphire can, in some cases, only bring you down and checking it every two days does nothing to improve your self esteem as a student. So instead of worrying about your grades, try to concentrate on writing more. Do practice essays at home. See Ms. Pronko or Mr. Yost during study halls to hear what they have to say about your writing. Bring in more than one paper, so they can identify common mistakes that you make and help you correct them going forward. All the help that you need to do well is available, as long as you ask for it.

So sure, in the beginning of the year, you may not feel ready to do well in the class. But, as Mr. Yost pointed out, APELC wouldn't exist if everyone was a rhetorical master as they entered it. But if you stick with it, do your work, and ask for help when you need it, you will be successful coming out of it.

Good luck, remember to relax, it's only school, and have confidence in yourself!
Sydney Hale

TOW #29

The main claim made in the documentary was that bullying is a serious problem that can do more harm than some of us may think. I know that at Wissahickon, or at least in my personal experience at Wissahickon, I have never experienced the harsh realities of bullying, but in this documentary I have seen firsthand that it can lead to self harm, depression or suicide. Because of this, school officials should treat bullying with the utmost importance. As shown in the video, administrators say to the parents that they will do everything to stop what is going on, but people simply don't know the extent or aren't willing to go to the extent that they need to to stop the bullying that is going on. Parents who care about their children aren't even aware because the kids are scared to inform their parents of what's going on. In many cases like these, the bullying is then left unattended and simply becomes worse, as the bullies themselves realize that there is no negative consequence for picking on someone, as long as it makes them feel good.

Because of this, I fully support the stance that we need to educate people about and try our hardest to prevent bullying. The cost of losing a child to bullying is far greater than the cost to simply go to schools and help administrators understand how to deal with bullies, or helping kids understand that bullying is always the wrong thing to do. Documentaries like Bully should be shown in our own high school and the anti-bullying message should be a more prominent one in assemblies, posters, or on the morning announcements.

TOW #28

The documentary that I watched, called Bully, was about bullying in schools across the country, and the negative effects that it can have on the lives of many children. The people who made the film, the Weinstein Company, wanted to do a documentary about something that was important to the American people to try to make a change, and this was the exact way that they decided to go about it. The documentary features first-person accounts of people who have dealt with bullying and who have been negatively affected by bullying, including parents who have lost their kids to suicide because of bullying in school. Their stories and personal accounts make the documentary heartfelt, sincere, and beneficial as far as knowing how far bullying reaches to the hearts and minds of the kids and families affected.

The purpose of this documentary was to highlight bullying and the trauma that it can cause for everyone involved. People who are bullied have different negative reactions, ranging from suicide attempts, both failed and succeeded, self harm, or bringing a gun to school buses to protect themselves from the bullies. Families of bullying victims have to sit by and watch their children suffer, helpless to do anything but take them out of the school they were bullied in and move elsewhere. For families where this is not an option, they may lose their child to suicide or watch their child be thrown into juvenile detention centers for finally striking back against the bullies.

The most useful device in this documentary to highlight the main idea of the film were the personal testimonies of children who had been bullied or who were being bullied, or of parents who had lost their children to suicide. Truly heartbreaking scenes where parents break down because of the loss of their child made a very strong emotional appeal to the audience and made them understand the need for a change in how school systems approach and deal with bullying. The serious consequences of being a bully or having been bullied need to be more at the forefront of our minds when we think about the education system, and the documentary wanted to make that point.

TOW #27

In my TOWs, I've noticed an improvement in terms of how I analyze the content. In the assessed TOW as compared to TOWs, I was able to analyze the context, color and purpose of the picture presented, whereas with the first picture I analyzed, I almost summarized what was being shown. Now, in later TOWs, I understand more fully what is expected from the short analyses, and am able to complete them more with this in mind. I believe that I at least mastered identifying the author's purpose, which was incredibly helpful in my analysis essays going forward. When it comes to making improvements, I could still learn to further explain what the devices were that the author used to achieve his or her purpose, as this is what usually made my analysis essays in the 4-6 range instead of 7-8. Sometimes I stated the purpose in a confusing manner and other times I was simply commenting on the article, instead of actually analyzing what the purpose of it was. Overall I believe that I did benefit from these assignments because I was able to refine my skills for the analysis essay, which left me better prepared for the things that I ended up finding very easy at the end of the year, like argument and synthesis, and was glad that they are a part of the curriculum.

TOW #25

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/president-obama-regrets-not-spending-more-time-mom-142912498--abc-news-politics.html

As mother's day draws nearer, many of us are thinking about how we will celebrate the holiday or what we will do to show out moms that we appreciate all they do and have done for us. Many are also remembering mothers that have passed on, and looking back on all the good memories that they had shared. Barack Obama is no different, and says that one of his biggest regrets from life, at his current age of 52 years, is not spending enough time with his. She died in 1995, while he was in his 20s, and he knows that between 20 and 30 he didn't reach out to her much, as he was busy with other responsibilities. He, however, looks back on that time with regret, thinking that he could have taken some time out of his day to see how she was doing or bring her gifts, or simply spend some time with her. He feels that family is the ultimate source of happiness and that he can raise his daughters to become wonderful young people.

IRB Intro #4

For my 4th marking period IRB, I plan on reading The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson.

TOW #24

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/clippers-wear-warm-up-shirts-inside-out-to-protest-alleged-comments-by-team-s-owner-202850099.html?vp=1

It has been revealed that the owner of the Clippers, Donald Sterling, has said racist things regarding blacks and bringing black people to his games. These racist remarks have left millions in shock and in anger regarding the fact that he is still in a position of power over the Clippers team when the league has a zero tolerance policy for racism. The Clippers team, as part of the body representing the Clippers organization, wore their warm up shirts inside out in response to the allegations, so the Clippers logo was hidden from view. They also dumped their Clippers logo warm up jackets at center court, with the logo facing down. This statement made by the players regarding how they feel about the open racism in Donald Sterling's case shows that they know that although they are a basketball team and there is basketball on the court, they have lives, values and feelings off of the court as well, and believe that they needed to do something to protest their owner's tactless comments.

TOW #21

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/opinion/the-ugandan-tabloid-that-stole-our-pride.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

Recently, Uganda has passed a law that criminalizes homosexuality. Much like Russia, laws in that country very much align with the religious beliefs of the governing bodies, and this law was passed in accordance with the belief that homosexuality is anti-God. Also recently, Uganda's largest tabloid, the Red Pepper, printed an article about how homosexuality could cause mental illness. The author of this article, Denver David Robinson, describes here how the Red Pepper used one of his images without his consent, and how he is planning to rectify this situation. Not only is he angry because of copyright infringement, but because of the homophobic nature of the article and how they are using his work as a face for their hate. Because of this, the people in the picture that was used have been estranged from their friends and family, and he himself has been called out for being homophobic although he, as a gay man, is not. Issues like this shouldn't be prevalent in modern society, but, however, people will sometimes break the law in order to accomplish what they feel as though they need to. For some in Uganda, religion comes before morality, as highlighted in this article.

TOW #20

Sydney Hale

March 2nd, 2014

This is a picture juxtaposing the plaza in Kiev, Ukraine, before the insurrection and afterwards. Whoever photoshopped this image made sure to merge the same areas of the plaza so that we could see exactly what the whole plaza would have looked like without the devastation that has occurred in the country. The first thing that we see from this image is an obvious appeal to pathos, as we see a man appearing to be quickly walking away from the darker right side of the image. The plaza on the left looks very beautiful, while the plaza on the right and the city in the background is mostly destroyed, black, charred and on fire. On the left, we see people gathering and going about daily life, and on the right there are smoking ruins. Even the ground is torn up, black, and patternless as compared to the meticulously completed design on the right. There is also a contrast between the colors in the two sides of the pictures, with the left side being a more happy, well composed blue and the right being a darker black and gray, which further accentuates the difference between the two sides of the picture. The purpose, to show the difference between beauty and devastation, is clear due to the artist’s attention to detail.

TOW Post #19

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2014/02/20/its-unanimous-facebook-buying-whatsapp-is-the-best-or-worst-deal-ever/

Facebook recently bought the mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion, acquiring a 5 year old company that was well on the rise towards becoming a popular application that consumers could use to reach their friends without having to go through text messaging. Most analysts seem to agree on the fact that this deal was simply not worth the money that Facebook has invested. According to people like Jon Swartz from USA Today, the deal was "downright silly", and due to Rob Enderle it seemed to be a desperate move by Facebook, who is currently having to deal with a massive slowing of user growth and advertisement growth. The author of this piece, Forbes' own Jeff Bercovici, seems to agree with these points of view. His favorite quote regarding Facebook's purchase was from Henry Blodget, who calls the decision, depending on how it turns out, either brilliant or incredibly moronic. Throughout, the Bercovici uses exemplification, or repeated testimony from analysts, to convey the idea that this purchase was probably not a good idea for Facebook. He uses a lighthearted diction to almost make it seem as though he's making fun of Facebook, or not taking the purchase seriously due to how bad of a decision it was. But due to the amount of negative commentary he added to the article, it appears that he seems to agree that WhatsApp wasn't worth $19 million.

IRB Intro post

The book that I've been considering reading is called Moneyball by Michael Lewis. It's about how, despite having a lot of money to spend on good players, the Oakland Athletics ends up being one of the best teams in baseball in 2002.

TOW #18

http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/quirks-of-sochi-construction-1391548019-slideshow/

Sochi, the site of the 2014 winter Olympics, isn't exactly up to the standards of the visitors who have come to watch the games. To add to the political controversy circling Russia over their treatment of LGBT citizens with the recent anti-gay propaganda law, the town appears to be not quite ready. To give the people who worked to develop Sochi credit, they transformed a virtually unimportant plot of land into an Olympic-ready game town very quickly, but it doesn't exactly match up to the 2008 Beijing summer Olympics with their huge glass dome. TIME Magazine calls it one of the worst Olympics destinations ever. After people get by the hotels that are either in shambles or unprepared for their arrival, they have to worry about terrorism or nonfunctioning equipment in rooms. The visas are expensive, and people are simply not having a good time. The pictures shown in this slideshow help to show viewers exactly what the people are seeing, along with the ethos of the prestigious Olympic games, and adds an irony that is hard to ignore when thinking of the games overall.

TOW #17

This is a picture that went viral recently through social media sites like Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Tumblr. The caption reads that a shark collapsed at the Discovery science center in Kuwait, and that it's something people on these sites should like or upvote because it's something they'll only see once in a lifetime. As it turns out, however, this picture was a hoax, and it wasn't originally designed to make people believe that there were actually sharks swimming in a mall. Jamie King, a photoshop expert, made this photo to be a joke and posted it on his twitter. Someone else added the caption and, before we knew it, the picture went viral. This is just one example of many where people simply believe things without checking the sources of what they've found interesting. A recent "disease" was shared on the internet called Alexandria's Genesis where a child is born with purple eyes, they have no hair on their armpits or their legs, for girls they wouldn't menstruate, and fair skin that would never burn. People shared this diagnosis on Tumblr for months, not knowing that it was an interesting character trait made by an author of fanfiction. No one really knows why people change the meaning of certain things to make large numbers of people believe something that isn't true.  It does, however, prove that we, when we use the internet and see something, need to check before we share it, effectively making more and more people "dumber".

TOW #16

http://news.yahoo.com/trial-sought-sc-boy-14-executed-1944-172035983.html


In 1944, a young man, 14 years old, by the name of George Stinney was executed by the state of South Carolina for the murder of two white girls, aged 7 and 11 years old. He was found guilty in a trial which only lasted 2 hours, and was held and interrogated by multiple police officers, grown white men, before confessing to the crime. A full story was included in the confession detailing how he did it and why. However, what people are  beginning to find out is that this crime would have been impossible to commit. The murder weapon, which was found near the two bodies of the young girls, was a rail spike weighing over 20 pounds. Stinney would have barely been able to lift the weapon, let alone swing it multiple times in the way that crushed the skulls of the two young victims. In South Carolina in the 1940s, however, racism ran rampant, and Stinney happened the last person to see them alive. If he had been a white boy, there is almost no doubt that Stinney would have been acquitted or not even tried for the crime. Now, however, there may be retribution as Stinney gets another day in court, mainly to clear the name of the youngest person ever executed.

TOW #15

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/nature/post/giant-squid-caught-by-net-fisherman-off-japan/

Recently, on the internet, a story of a giant squid, measuring up to about 160 feet due to radiation poisoning from the recent power plant explosion in japan, was circulating, along with a photoshopped image and quotes from experts who actually didn't exist. People on social media sites didn't quite fall for it however, knowing that it was just a hoax. 160 feet? Really? That would be about 16 floors tall for a building. I don't even know if there are whales that big. An actual giant squid was caught, however, with more more reasonable, although still pretty big, measurements of 12 feet long and 330 pounds in weight. They swim at depths of 300 feet, and this one was caught by a net fisherman from Japan named Shigenori Goto who is more used to catching buri yellowtail at depths of 300 feet. If the size was unbelievable at first, it'll be interesting to hear that giant squid can grow to sizes of up to 40 feet and can weigh nearly a full ton - 2,000 pounds. To me, this rare species is definitely one of the more interesting that Earth has kept guarded from the dangers of human beings.

TOW # 14

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12205467/1/more-pathetic-pictures-from-a-dying-sears.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO

Stores seem to be lacking in multiple areas, as shown by Twitter user Brian Sozzi, who takes pictures of different areas of the stores where they seem to be having trouble maintaining a decent upkeep. He even makes jokes about the stores, saying that there are places that you should check when trying to gauge the quality of a store. Like, for example, under empty shelves that have been placed slightly away from the wall, blocking items. Or on racks that boast a hot selling item but that have been empty for days. Or, in many cases, racks that are simply empty. These stores, namely JC Penny and Sears, were quoted by the article to be "dying", but it could just be that they need to hire a new staff team. Brian Sozzi, the man who was taking the pictures, seems to be a credible source, as he is the CEO of Belsus Capital Advisors and a writer for TheStreet. He mainly took pictures of stores tagging them #fail to describe the picture and #shld to tell the viewer what the picture was about.