02/26/2009 MY RESEARCH PAPER

The topic that I chose to do my research paper on was Autism. Autism is starting to become very common, but there is NO definite way to get it. It can be from the X gene, which is a gene that doesn't have the protein it needs. In recent studies many people think that getting lots of shots, to avoid things like the flu, can actually increase your chances of getting Autism as an older child. Unfortunately students who reach the age of eighteen don't get as much attention as the younger Autistic children and that forces families to cut back on hours at work due to them having to watch their children. The previous statements I had made are issues that I hope to address people about in my Research Paper!

02/26/2009 MAYBE THERE'S A GHOST!

Today has been a pretty fun day! Nothing too spectacular. One of my teachers bought me and a few other of her senior mentor students sweatshirts to their number one University, so that was awesome! My math test was a little hard :( so that was a little upsetting. I'm in English class now and my mouse was stuck behind the desktop and it wouldn't untangle. I asked my friend Jamie to fix it and all she did was touch it (literally) and it came out from the desktop, it was insane! Than I realized my computer wouldn't turn out, she pushed the button, and BAMN it came on after I already pushed the button like ten times! I wonder... maybe there's a GHOST at my computer!?

02/24/2009 BANCROFT!

Today I had a wonderful day at Bancroft! I did the usual, as soon as I got there the three students were finishing up lunch, then I took them to gym. In gym class we did a scavenger hunt and the RED TEAM (my team) won! So that was really cool! Also one of the students is in a wheelchair, but today in gym class he used a machine, that helped him stand up. He was so happy, and it made me smile. After gym class the students went back to class and worked on their math skills, independently, and as a class. After math, it was hygiene time! Hygiene time is when the students wash their hands and brush their teeth. After hygien time, the students had one on one time with all of the teachers in the classroom, while I observed. Then before I knew it, it was already 2:15! So all of the students had to get ready and go on their buses.

02/23/2009 NEW PLANS FOR SATURDAY NIGHT!

So like I previously stated in my last blog, my "friend" ditched me and another friend to go to a Lacrosse Game with her boyfriend and his friends. I was determined to find plans for Saturday Night because I was going to let this "friend" ruin my plans! I ended up hanging out with Natalie and her cousin Lisa, we ordered food and ended up having a REALLY great time! I am so happy that I hung out with Natalie and her cousin because if I didn't I would have been home all night on a Saturday Night and that is NO fun whatsoever! All three of us watched a movie in the living room and Natalie and myself even fell asleep. We woke up to her cousins' phone ringing than fell back asleep. About ten minutes later her cousins' mom, dad, and aunt got home. I've meet her cousins' parents before before I never met her aunt. She was so funny! She definitely made the night that much better. We all told each other jokes and laughed until our stomachs hurt. It was a Saturday to remember!

02/23/2009 "Betrayal" PICTURES ON MYSPACE

So I was in Physics class last period and I needed two more blog entries to reach my five blogs. I wasn't sure exactly what to blog about so I asked my friends. My one friend mentioned to me that I should blog about friends and lying. I hate when people lie! Why do people lie!? Just tell the truth, I don't get it! Well anyways, Saturday night I was suppose to go the Philadelphia Wings Game with a lot of people. A few people didn't have the money and didn't feel well so they decided they didn't want to go. That left three people, including myself. An hour before the game my one "friend" texted me and said her parents were no longer letting her out for the night. So I had to text my other friend and tell her the news. My other friend and I decided not to go to the game considering it was just going to be us and we had little time to get ready. Yesterday, I received a text from that friend saying that the other so called "friend" went to the game with her boyfriend and his friends because she POSTED PICTURES ON MYSPACE. What an idiot! I was mad, I mean if she didn't want to go with us all she had to do was let us know! Grr! And I'm sitting next to Rob in the Guidance Office and he said that my man, Athan Iannucci scored 3 Goals and I missed it. He has been out for a lot of the season due to a knee injury, but he returned Saturday Night and I missed it!! AAAHH.

02/22/2009 LAS VEGASSSS!

So my sister and her husband left yesterday around 1:00 to go to Las Vegas. Lucky much!? Yeah, I'm pretty jealous. My mom has to watch their two dogs and cat for them while they're gone. Right now, I'm at my sister's house and will probably spend most of my week here considering my mom will because she has to feed the animals and let the dogs go outside and do their "business." That means I have to get up a lot earlier than usual because they live in Atco. This weekend has gone by so fast and I feel like I didn't really do anything. I still have history questions to do so I guess I'll get to that after I'm finished blogging.

02/20/2009 "Girls + Boys Meeting"

If you don't already know there is two groups at this school that are just for men and women. It's called "Building Women" and "Building Men" it's a group of students that get together and discuss issues likes relationships, celebrity gossip news, even how our previous week had went. The students in these groups all met today during 6th period, I believe the students in 5th period met last Wednesday. The girls and boys in these group never actually met together, we usually just have different meeting on different days. But today was different we met in one of the health rooms and the room was so crowded! We discussed the Chris Brown and Rihanna issue and about how boys and girls react in their relationship. It was a very interesting meeting because everyone said how they felt and we heard the boys' perspective on things.

02/19/2009 "Dealing with Rejection"

So today Mr. Abrams gave me a newspaper article that he thought I may be interested in. Normally I wouldn't be interested in reading newspapers, but the caption seemed to catch my brown eyes (haha). "When the alma mater of your dreams says no" was the title of the article. Basically to sum up the article it was about a High School senior boy who applied to a University that he was sent on getting into. He GPA was great, SAT scores were great, he had the whole package. However, he received a letter stating that he did not get accepted. It was the only college that he wanted to attend and he had so many great things going in his favor. I guess the college didn't see the great things the student had to offer. It kind of made me realize wow, I almost didn't get into my number one college and I would have be absolutely devastated. When I got put on the waiting list for WVU, it made me realize that I wasn't going to give up! And I didn't! I feel very bad for this boy because I know how it feels, it almost happened to me. I wish him good luck in his future and I hope everything works out for him!

WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I CHECKED MY APPLICATION STATUS TODAY AND IT SAID THAT I HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED TO WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY! I WAS IN GUIDANCE IN COMPLETE SHOCK, I WAS SOOOO EXCITED, MY BEST FRIEND EVEN STARTED TO SHED A FEW TEARS! THANKS GUIDANCE DEPARTMENT =] IN THE BEGINNING OF MY JUNIOR YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL AFTER SEEING A FOOTBALL GAME ON T.V. WITH WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY PLAYING I KNEW THAT I WAS GOING TO STRIVE MY HARDEST TO GET ACCEPTED TO THAT COLLEGE! I WAS ON THE WAITING LIST FOR THE LONGEST TIME AND IT DEVASTATED ME TREMENDOUSLY, BUT I KNEW THAT IF THIS IS WHAT I TRULY WANTED I WOULD HAVE TO FIGHT. I EMAILED THEM, SENT THEM LOADS OF RECOMMENDATIONS, RE-TOOK THE SATS (HOWEVER, I DIDN'T DO TOO MUCH BETTER) I EVEN SENT THEM A LINK TO MY BLOG (SOMETHING THAT MY ENGLISH TEACHER THOUGHT WOULD SET ME OUT FROM OTHERS =]). I AM TRULY AT A LOST OF WORDS!

Bancroft 02/18/2009 =]

Yesterday February 17, 2009 I went to Bancroft and had a BLAST! Of course like every Tuesday when I go there the students are getting ready for Gym Class. Yesterday for Gym we played basketball and went to the weight room! After gym class I had some one on one time with the students. I guess one of the students thought I wasn't paying that much attention to him so he said "Do you not like me!?" I was puzzled! Why would he every think I wasn't fond of him, I felt sad, like I had let him down. I responded "Of course I like you! Why wouldn't I?" And then for the half hour left of class I talked to him and worked on his math skills! One thing that I absolutely loved about their math class was that the teacher had so many unique ways for them to learn. They were going over addition and subtraction and the teacher brought out a ruler with a bunny on it, every time the problem was addition the student and the bunny jumped forward, when the problem was subtraction the bunny and the student jumped backwards! I am not a fan of math whatsoever, but this is a neat technique to get younger students to enjoy math if they do not like it.

02/13/2009 SCHOOL #4's AUTISTIC PROGRAM

So today I left school around 10:00 with Mrs. Chelotti, we went to School #4 and sat in on an Autistic Class. I had so much fun! When Mrs. Chelotti and I got there the students were going over Math and counting up to ten with Cheerios's! I am glad I went today because I got to check out two different functioning classrooms, such as Bancroft and School #4. I forget what the machine is called, but School #4 has this really neat machine that helps Autistic kids concentrate a little bit better. The classroom I was in was with a group of 3-5 year olds and they are so incredibly smart. I'm really glad that Mrs. Chelotti took me today! I definitely plan to volunteer there a lot more before my Senior Year is over.

02/11/2009 WEATHERRRRRRRR =]

Today is ridiculously beautiful outside. I can't even believe my dark brown eyes. I woke up dis morning and my mom told me that all I had to wear was a little jacket because it's suppose to hit about 68 degrees today! This New Jersey weather is absolutely absurd! We went from having a delayed opening last week due to snow to tanning outside today, I love this weather! I just returned to class from a fire drill and I must admit I definitely plan on making myself productive outside today even if it's just talking on the phone on my porch. I have to take full advantage of this beautiful weather because with this crazy New Jersey weather tomorrow could be a blizzard!

02/09/2009 THE NEW YORK'S TIME -- SPECIAL EDUCATION ARTICLE

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/nyregion/thecity/08disa.html?_r=1

“This is one school, 100 percent full, and it doesn’t need construction; it’s all here. All we’re asking is, let us stay and pay rent.” - Hannah Achtenberg Kinn.

This article made me cry. A Special Education school that teachers mostly preschoolers with Autism is endanger of closing their doors, due to the state wanting the building to be constructed into an apartment building. No child should be neglected and have their education taken away from them and in the direction that the State of New York is going now, unfortunately, that is what may happen to these preschoolers.

02/09/2009 RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE WITH THE BUSINESS BUDDIES!

So as everyone may know I left school today after first period, the reason being I went to the Ronald McDonald house with the Business Buddies. I had so much fun I got partnered up with a student who I've know since sixth grade so that was really cool! We were on the bus going to the Ronald McDonald house in Camden, New Jersey and my student turned to me and told me a joke.

She said "Sam, want to hear a joke?"
I responded "Of course!"
She said "What do you call a cat on a log?"
I said "I have no idea, what!?"
Her answer "A catalogue!" And we both began to laugh!

We talked about school on the way to the house and then I looked over and we had arrived! Time surely does fly when your having fun and are in a deep conversation. We walked into the house and got straight to business. The first task for my student and I was to cut ribbon that was going to be tied onto the bags we were stuffing with goodies. After that, we had stuffed bags filled with candy, purses, hair clips, and magazines. We went around the table fourty times, meaning my student and I stuffed 80 bags total! I had so much fun! We went to McDonalds for lunch and than came back to the house and started to cut ribbon again! Then by that time it was 1:30 so we had to leave :(, but I truly did have a great time today so I thought I would blog about it!!

02/08/2009 I wondered... thats it... "MY HAIR!"

So this will be my second post of the night. I was sitting on the computer and checking my email and saying to myself.. "humm.. I just wanna blog!", but I wasn't too sure about what. I sat here wondering what could I possibly blog about that would be sort of interesting. Then a light bulb went on and it came to me.. "MY HAIR!" I've had soooo many different hair colors all throughout my four years of high school, from bleach blonde, blonde, dirty blonde, brown/red, brown, black-blue, even black! Of course my hair is dead as anything right now, but it's starting to get back on track thanks to the expensive Paul Mitchell and Jon Frieda shampoo and conditioner I use for extremely damaged hair. I just like change that's all. You know Obama's campaign slogan "CHANGE" well I'm for it in my own way. "CHANGE" in my case is for hair.

02/08/2009 Instructor Course

So from 9:30 dismorning to about 8:00 at night I had to review CPR/AED and my water rescue skills. Yesterday from 8:30 to 3:00 I had to learn how to teach a class. Today was a very exhausting day. My eyes are so red and watery because of the chlorine in the pool. Overall it was a very fun class, I met a lot of new people and saw my Regional Manager from last year who I absolutely adore. He's pretty humorous and he keeps the class at a fun level, not at a boring level. I also met another Regional Manager, he is too funny. I remember Thursday night when I had a review for the class another Regional Manager sang.. "Tell me how am I suppose to breath with no air!" If you don't know Jordan Sparks sings that song, so I thought it was pretty funny considering that we were giving CPR, meaning the person is unconscious and not breathing haha. In the class there's twelve people total. Three Regional Managers and the rest are lifeguards. I was pretty honored to get chosen to become an instructor because it lets you know that people can count on you to get the job done. I took this class with my best friend Natalie too so that was pretty fun! I might even be a Supervisor this summer too, so I'm extremely stoked about that! =]

02/04/2009 Dude I need to Vent!

OK so I feel like my life is not meant to go anywhere! The only college that I want to go to still hasn't made a decision and it makes me very mad! They put me on a waiting list due to my SAT scores not meeting their standards. However, I re-took the SATs so I'm hoping I did a lot better. I applied to another college today that I just became interested in recently, but I still want to get accepted to my Number One College Choice! I don't want to be in this town forever, I don't want to be one of those Lindenwold High School Students that is always coming back to visit LHS. Hence, some visits will be OK. But I do not want to be one of the students that has no life and just comes to LHS everyday and visit. I have my life planned out in my head, but as of now it's not looking too good! I just want to go to my number one college choice and hopefully by February 20th I know what exactly is going on.

02/04/2009 Bancroft!

Yesterday February 03, 2009 I went to Bancroft and volunteered in the room that I have been volunteering in. It was a lot of fun. The teacher, had to test each student individually for the State Exam to see if they have progressed at all. I was very impressed, those students are so smart and even though they have some disabilities they never give up. The challenges they face everyday are challenges that I can easily do. But to see these bright students work to their fullest potential brings a bit of tears to my eyes. I grew to like these children very much and I can't wait to go back next Tuesday!

02/02/2009 "A QUOTE BY MR.ABRAMS"

"I'M TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED" - LARRY ABRAMS

02/02/2009 "Chicka chicka what what"

This is my first blog post for the month of February 2009 =]


So this Thursday, Natalie and I have to go to Mercer County Community College after school to get trained to be an instructor for lifeguarding. I am pretty excited because the pay is sweeeeeettt and I may be supervisor this summer, depending on when I leave for college. I'm a little scared however because the instructor course consists of three written tests and I'm not very good at written tests. The American Red Cross instructor doesn't actually start training us until this Saturday, but one of the Sparkling Pools Instructor is giving everyone a refresher course Thursday so we don't look like complete idiots when acting out CPR and Lifeguard Skills infront of the American Red Cross woman. The Sparkling Pools Instructor is suppose to print out the written tests for everyone to study and look over, but she hasn't yet, so I hope she does soon because I'm kind of dreading the written test!