gay adoption infographic

feb. 24

1. infographics help readers understand things visually or with visual relations. include plenty of images and icons

2. infographics are preferred over plain text as they make the information more enjoyable for whoever it is reading

3. to make an infographic: idea and research -> story and design -> distribute and promote

4. spend time working on all the little details because they will make a big difference

5. make sure the order your infographic goes in makes sense

feb. 23

tell me about your weekend. give me a story, something funny that happened, an experiencing you had, the way you felt, etc. include photos!

i had a pretty busy weekend. on friday, i attended the first varsity basketball game and played in the pep band. once it was over, my friend and i went to visit my boyfriend at work (which was an interesting experience - his coworkers are pretty funny).

on saturday, i spend the first half of the day doing homework and studying. at around five pm, i started getting ready for a birthday dinner party. it was for our family friend who was turning 60. it was a lot of fun - the dinner was hosted at pinstripes and the food was amazing. they also hired a belly dancer which i thought was hilarious (egyptian tradition, i guess). after words i went home and was finally able to sleep.

sunday, i spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon doing even more homework and studying. at two i had work. it wasn't too busy which was nice, so i spent most of the time there talking with my coworkers. after i got off, i hung out with my boyfriend for a couple of hours, and headed home.

feb. 20

my ideal curriculum would be one where 1) nearly everything taught is guaranteed to help us later in life and 2) we are able to choose the courses we take in order to build onto what we want to do (like college). i find that a lot of things i learn in school won't help me in life - my brother graduated from college and confirmed that this is true. for me, because i plan to major in psychology, i would need to take more courses revolving around that one topic, but also taking basic general education classes. my ideal schedule would probably include a statistics class, english, and multiple different types of psychology courses.

for me personally, i feel like i learn better when i'm not being lectured. i'd rather do something hands on or learn visually, with few reference notes. open class discussions are also very useful, as you get to hear everyone's opinions. i wouldn't mind too much homework. the only think i would change is the actual content of the homework. right now, most of the stuff i'm getting is just busy work and doesn't actually help me learn. the last thing i would change is standardized testing - aka a way of measuring someones level of intelligence on how well they can fill in an oval. tests should be more in context rather than just reiterating words and phrases (for example, vocabulary - instead of asking what something means, make the student correctly use it in a phrase or sentence). 

overall, my ideal method is very, very different than how school is right now.

feb. 19

my favorites - 

my favorite food: chocolate
foods i'd like to avoid: sweet pickles
my favorite things to learn: sociology and psychology
my favorite color: black and pink
my best friends are: cole, noah, zac, nimisha
my favorite games to play: none
my favorite books: the fault in our stars, the lock artist
my favorite movies or tv shows: the office, orange is the new black, forrest gump
my favorite holiday: halloween
things i do well: napping, procrastinating
things i need to practice more: my clarinet
my favorite place to go: starbucks, chipotle, florida
my favorite family activities: vacations
my favorite thing to do outside: just hang out at the park with friends, take walks
my favorite chore: cleaning my room
my least favorite chore: doing the dishes
what i want to be when i grow up: an industrial organizational psychologist
a place i want to visit: europe
my favorite part of the year: going to the bahamas
my favorite part of each day: finishing everything i have to do and getting into bed

feb. 17

tell me what you believe this cartoon is trying to say. do you agree or disagree with this idea? try and look at this from two different perspectives. what is your perspective? what would be an adult/teacher's perspective?

this cartoon is showing different stereotypes as far as education goes around the world. one perspective is agreeing with these stereotypes, and attempting to enforce them. (ex - all asians are good at math, all indians are good and the sciences, and all americans are lazy and not good at any subject). however, my perspective is different. i think this is a pretty racist cartoon. this is not because i'm american and i don't want to be viewed as lazy and uneducated - i also believe it's racist to assume all asians are good at math, etc. the perspectives of adults and teacher will vary, depending on the person. again, some will believe this is true while other believe this is a racist and ignorant way to look at things.

feb. 10

think about the quote above. what does this mean to you? how could this apply to your life? how could this apply to your school work? i would love to give you less work in class if it meant you were going to focus harder on the work. do you think you would get more out of it? would that work for you? why or why not?

i think this quote is talking about focusing on the quality over the quantity of things. sometimes the benefit is not just equal, but even greater. i agree with this quote - for example, homework. students get assigned so much homework that there is just not enough time to complete it, so they scribble down random answers or google them in order to just get it done, and no more than that. i remember sophomore year when i took philosophy, we were rarely assigned any homework (probably ten assignments for the whole semester), but you could tell almost each and every student including myself put in all the effort they could into those ten assignments. the same goes for sociology. we had just a few assignments, but the majority of students put a lot of effort into it. however, in other classes such as math or english, students are getting assignment multiple assignments every day, so they turn to copying answers from friend or from online. i believe that there is a certain number of things that need to be accomplished (depending on the subject or work it deals with), but for me, in most cases quality rules over quantity.

feb. 9

tell me all about your weekend.

my weekend was mostly taken up by performing in 42nd street. we had a performance on thursday, friday, and twice on saturday. the saturday night show was probably my favorite because we had a great audience and it was completely packed. i would've stayed for strike and the after party, but i was way too tired (saturday was a long day - act in the morning and then go perform in two shows almost back to back). i was hoping to have sunday to relax but it was kind of the opposite - i have work all day and then i had to come home and finish homework and study for a test. overall, i pretty good weekend. however, i'm really looking forward to this four day weekend. i'll have a ton more time and i'll probably just hang out with my friends.

feb. 6

tell me about some interesting things you have learned about your global issue so far. what have you learned that you didn't know before?

the most interesting (funny) thing i found so far was this article that was actually very against allowing the lgbt community to adopt children. one of their biggest points was trying to prove the lgbt people die at an earlier age the heterosexual people - not just by a few years, but by decades - and therefore cannot be good parents. this article claimed that out of interviewing 22,000 people, the median death age for the lgbt community was between 30-40 years old while straight people generally died at a median of 70-80 years. they also tried to say that the oldest lesbian they found in that group of 22 thousand people was only 49 years old. overall, that article made me laugh a bit.

on a more serious note, before researching this topic, i never actually knew which countries and states legally allow the lgbt community to adopt. sweden, the netherlands, and south africa have all made it legal. however, inside of america, lgbt couples still have to apply to be allowed to adopt. in some states, it's completely illegal.

feb. 5

you haven't had a chance to tell me about your sweetheart weekend yet - tell me about it now! include photos if you have them. even if you just laid around on the couch and watched netflix, tell me all about it.

i didn't go to sweetheart but instead i had my birthday dinner. i went to ra and paciugo's with my mom and brother (my dad wasn't there - he is currently on a business trip in romania). i received my birthday gifts which were a diamond necklace from my mom and a couple t shirts from my brother. also, yesterday i found a package in room from my dad and inside was a mug, fuzzy socks, european chocolate, and a few other things from romania. on sunday i went to paradise diner with a few friends for brunch. later, i went home and completed a practice act and then went over to my friends house for a super bowl party. overall, it was a pretty great weekend.

feb. 2

what is email? when do you use email in your own personal life? list reasons and ways that people use email. what do you know about "email etiquette"? explain.

email is a type of communication over the internet. i personally use email to receive notifications about band and school. i also use to ask teachers any questions i had about homework or tests. others may use email to communicate with coworkers, managers, companies, and family to discuss important projects and upcoming events. i don't believe i know anything about email etiquette.