Sameer Auluck, Period 6, 9/16/22

 

• At this current point in time, what specific standards have you set for yourself? 

At this current point in time, I haven’t really set any specific standards for myself, but as I progress through the year I would like to gradually increase my standards. I believe that once you set high standards, you will accomplish things much more efficiently and effectively. I tend to procrastinate a lot, so that is one aspect of my standards that I would like to improve. Also, I believe that I am not really a good writer and at the end of the year, I hope that my writing skills become more sharpened clear. I am currently working on my Common App essay for college admissions and I am having trouble writing it because of my writer’s block. It is very hard for me to formulate ideas into sentences and writing. I hope that in the coming months in this class, that I will be able to write with more sophistication and clarity. One last standard that I have set for myself is my school-life balance. This goes hand in hand with my procrastination problem but I try to do my schoolwork while also be able to hang out with friends or spend time with my family. On some days, I stay in my room all day doing homework or studying and I end up not even interacting with my family. I want to improve this balance of work and free time so that I can do more things that I enjoy. 

• How do you  demonstrate resilience towards achieving these standards?

In order to demonstrate resilience towards achieving these standards is planning my schedule ahead of time so that I can finish things on time. For example, I left this blog for the last minute but next time I can check the Mythology syllabus and plan ahead so I can manage my time more efficiently. I am trying to improve my writing skills by actually just writing my thoughts down. I learned that is better to write anything, even if it is not good, than write nothing. It makes it much easier to revise and improve my writing that way. The reason that I take so long to do homework/schoolwork and end up procrastinating is that I get distracted way too easily. This is mostly because of video games on my computer. I sometimes lose track of hours and it will be too late. I demonstrate resilience by resisting the temptation to playing video games on the weekdays, and only limit myself to less than an hour a day AFTER my homework is done. Hopefully, by continuing these habits, I will be able to increase my standards to ones that improve my future as a writer and as a human being in general.

• How do you assess yourself?  What adjustments do you make? How often?

I assess myself by making goals. For example, I am in Boy Scouts and I currently trying to become an Eagle Scout (the highest rank) and set the goal of getting by November. It helps me push myself to my limits and work hard enough to get it in time to put on my college applications. Setting goals will help me perceive if my performance on things are efficient enough or if my goals are too hard/easy. Other goals I have set is to finish my commonapp by the end of September or finishing my 100 hours of volunteering at the hospital. Without settings these goals, I would not be able to complete anything, as I would forget about it and leave it to the last minute. Hopefully, these goals will shape my future for the better. We will see.

Michael Chen, Period 7, 9/16/2022

Atomic Habits & Growth

Although this is the start of the new school year, I have made some standards that I wish to follow. Most of these standards come from what I have learned to do and not to do in the previous years, and I hope that these standards will help me become a stronger student. One of the most important standards that I must follow is to write down all the homework I was given for the day since I have learned that I can not mentally remember what I must do after all my classes as there are simply too many events that would prompt my loss of memory. Therefore, I would have a special notebook where I would write down the homework every time I was given an assignment. When I get home, I would open the book and lay it on my table. I hate open books on my table. Every time I finish my homework, I cross it out of my book. Another important standard I would follow is to write down the days of the important events such as tests because this would prompt me to study a week before the test and is also a way to stay on top of the days. But to achieve any of these, I would need to stay organized. I usually have a hard time being tidy with my papers and notebook, which can cause quite some trouble for me as I would lose my work. The solution was this standard I would follow: I would try to make everything digital such as notes, homework, and worksheets. However, even when storing these items online, it also requires organization. I have weighed the pros and cons of such a solution and did find it more beneficial for me to get everything to be digitalized because there is no way to lose them. I would create folders that would not break compared to the physical folders and label them. To enforce them, I made my computer and phone background to list down the three standards I would have to follow.

As of right now, there is no way to assess myself yet because it is still the start of school. I would need to wait till the end of this semester to evaluate how well I follow the standard and how well did the standard serve me. However, I can foresee some problems with this standard: I am most likely to change my background because it doesn’t look good. I would just randomly change it, and forget it. It would also take me a while to get used to following the standard because I do not usually have a set standard that I would follow in a day to day life. Once I get to the middle of the semester I would check how many assignments have I missed, how well did I do on tests, and whether am I still organized. If I get low amounts of missing assignments, do well on tests, and still organize in the end, then the standards that are set are working. Then I would follow it till the end of the school year. However, if one of these doesn’t meet the expectation, I would try to make some adjustments, but I need to see where the problem stems from. For example, if I can’t stay organized at the end with my digital files, then I might try new methods such as keeping track physically, getting different color folders for different subjects, and color notebooks for different classes. I would then compare both methods and see which one works better.

Temitayo Adewusi, Period 7, 9/15/2022

Temitayo Adewusi

9/15/2022

Modern Mythology 2023

Atomic Habits & Growth

When it comes to setting goals and standards for myself I don’t really have a specific way of going about it. I have an experience or I notice something that affects me and I set a standard for myself. I make new standards depending on my personal experiences and the new situations I’m put into. If I see something that I can learn or improve on, I try to make it a standard for myself. As far as standards I’ve set for myself recently I only have 3. 

1. Get enough sleep

2. Stay on top of school

3. Always execute

Since covid, my sleep schedule has been horrible. I was very easily irritated, always tired, and overall had low energy. I would constantly find myself awake at 1-3 am on my phone scrolling through TikTok, watching anime or YouTube, or playing video games. As a student-athlete, I realized this wasn’t very practical, so this summer I set a goal for myself to get more sleep. I take naps whenever I can and I try to sleep before 1 am. Luckily I start school 3rd period so I can sleep in a lot. Since I have practice after school, homework, and my home responsibilities, sleeping is something that I need. I have seen improvement in the way I function, I have way more energy, and I also grew a little bit. Getting more sleep is a standard I plan on sticking to.

School has never been a problem for me, but sometimes I’d just stop applying myself and lose all motivation to do work. I used to find myself looking for excuses to not get work done or study and it hurt me. I noticed my grades were dropping and I knew I could do better so I set a goal to stay on top of my work. With school starting back up and teachers slowly assigning work I know that I have to stay on top of everything before it becomes too much for me to handle. I check Google Classroom to see if I have any assignments due and I ask my teammates (that I have classes with) if there’s any work we have to do.

Execution has been very big for me because I apply it to almost everything I do. No matter what the task is I must execute it to the best of my ability. It could be as little as making my bed in the morning, or as big as making a play on the field but no matter what it is — I must execute. If I have an assignment, I execute and make sure I do it as best as I can. For me, I noticed that to do something I have to be dialed in or it won’t get done. I can always make an excuse to not do something, but being lazy doesn’t get anything done. Execution does. That’s why I have to do it. 

 

Joel Alex, Period 6, 9/15/22

 I am not someone who listens to motivational videos or life hack youtube videos. However, there is a philosophy of life that I agree with. It is the idea of setting high standards for yourself. I have found that setting high standards for yourself allows you to accomplish more on a daily basis and allows you to gain more fulfillment in life. I also believe that it is quite easy to implement.

I have found that wanting to improve yourself in any aspect of your life (mentally, physically, etc.) can help you gain a level of happiness and fufillment in life. It also creates humility, in the sense that you can always become better and you will never reach perfection..

I have found that often a good way of knowing what your personal goals really are is to write them down on paper. I usually list the following:

1. Traits and behaviors that you would like to develop, change, or improve on.

2. Habits you would want to implement into your life

3. A time constraint of when you want to like to accomplish this goal

4. What actions will you take to accomplish this goal?

For example, if my goal was to always ensure that my actions meet up with my words, I would list the following:

1. Meet deadlines.

2. Always honor my commitments. 

Then, you would set a time constraint on it. It takes roughly a month to form a habit assuming that you do it on a regular basis so after this amount of time is over, your new habit or trait will become second nature to you. If your personal goal was to improve your life from a more physical standpoint, you should set specific, progressive, and measurable goals with a clear deadline.

For example, assume your goal is to run a marathon. You would set a progressive goal. On day 1, I will run 1 mile. On day 2, I will run 2 miles. You should set a measurable goal. This is quite easy to do as 1 mile can be easily measured. You should set a goal with a clear deadline. I want to run a marathon in a month's worth of time.

One standard that I have specifically made for myself is to get rid of my procrastination. Procrastination is something that I have struggled with during my life. I am working toward this goal to create a daily to-do list with specific deadlines and break bigger projects and tasks into more manageable chunks. These goals can often be changed as time passes. If you find that a certain goal is not measurable or realistic, I have found that they can be changed with new deadlines.

You can develop resilience towards these goals by progressively attempting to achieve these goals. For instance, if you are a huge procrastinator, you can set smaller goals first and then move on to set and accomplish larger and harder goals. I usually make adjustments to my goals on an occasional basis.

My personal standards have largely been shaped by my personal experiences. I have come to the realization that with the exception of a few family and friends, nobody truly cares about you. As a result, you will have to take advantage of your life and can not depend on others greatly. By planning out your life through measurable and realistic goals, you can maximize your life to work in your favor.

By clearly staging my goals and hopes, I am able to give myself a clear rule to follow and live my life accordingly to. I have done this by making a list of everything that I want to accomplish in the next year’s time.

You can also make a list of people that you personally inspire and look up to because it keeps you motivated. You can also be motivated by other motives such as a desire to take care of your loved ones, etc.

Steven Chen, Period 2, 9/16/2022

Steven Chen 

Period 2

9/16/22

Modern Mythology 2023

Socio-political Consciousness

What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

    Issues of inequity, oppression, and power have been recurring topics throughout the history of mankind. Personally, I think these issues can never be truly "fixed", but they can be improved upon. In the year 1776, the 13 colonies ruled by the British Empire decided to establish a document known as the Declaration of Independence. As its name suggested the purpose of the document was the colony throwing off British influence because of the constant oppression and the lack of power that the colonists possessed. As Thomas Jefferson once said, "...all man...are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…” Even though America finally became its own country in today's society, many still face inequality,(gender inequality, racism, income, and healthcare), which is ironic because oppression was what they fought for yet has anything really changed? Well to some extent yes things have changed for the better in recent years. For instance, the Equality Act of 2021, "prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment." In addition, to this today there are way more movements fighting for the equality of basically everything, from race to sexual orientation, such as the Pride Parade and Black History Month, which both celebrate the achievement over the years and light a fire in people who support these movements. After listing all these actions taken to decrease inequality and oppression, the issue still stands for decades of improvement; the end doesn't seem to be within our reach. Being superior or "better" than someone has always been second nature to humans, which is also why we as a race were able to stand above the rest because we are never satisfied. Although greed has brought the human race many good things it also made inequity, oppression, and power imbalance inevitable. 

How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

    While most of the population demands equality for all, I have a more realistic view, which is that no one will ever be truly equal no matter their race, income, or status. Yet standing from another's perspective I can understand that we need to at least reach for the sky in order to make changes and that's when I realize that sometimes extreme or unrealistic goals are necessary in order to take a step towards a goal. I assume that because of basic human nature we the people of the same race wouldn't allow each other to be equal and although that might be true to some extent it is also true that I fail to realize that over the past decade the growth of equal rights has been exponential. Following this rate who knows what's possible in the near future. After I reflect on my own experiences over the years I also realized that equality has really changed. I grew up in a traditional Chinese household, and my parents had always had a stereotypical view of certain races and were prejudiced against them. Recently, though I would say the past three years I have seen my parent standing up for those exact same race when news of them being harmed was spread online. This made me realize that things were really changing for the better in terms of equality. My perception of self has also changed during these times, and I seem to falter on the thought that equality cannot be achieved. In addition, over the course of my high school career, I've taken many college-level history classes that aided my knowledge in terms of history around the world and the United States. After understanding the blood sweat and tears people and activists put into creating equality I sort of thought of myself as a narrow-minded person. I understand now that people who are putting in work behind the scene has really impacted the idea of equality and that if we keep pushing forward toward the goal of equality who knows maybe we will see a day where equality, oppression, and power wouldn't be a problem in the modern world. 

    

Miles Chen, Period 2, 9/15/2022

 Atomic Habits and Growth

It is only the beginning of the year so I haven’t set many goals for myself yet, but I think that a reasonable and achievable goal for myself is to stay on top of my class responsibilities. As someone who procrastinates a lot, I want to try to change that little by little before I go to college. To work towards this I will start using daily reminders and planners to make sure I organize my workload and overcome small parts of it everyday. For example, to force myself to be proactive when I was preparing for the SAT, I set a daily goal of at least 30 questions. I wouldn’t play any games until I had finished the 30 questions. Another problem I have is delaying finishing my homework. When I get home after taking the bus I always lounge at my desk scrolling on my phone as a break after a long day of school. I don’t think this is a bad thing to do, but I tend to take it too far and end up wasting a lot more time than I originally planned. This sometimes results in staying up late and night to make up for the time I wasted. To fix this, now I take a shower right away once I get home without even sitting down so that I won’t be tempted to go on my phone. When I finish I get started on my homework straight away, turning off my phone so I won’t get distracted.

I think that I’ve made a lot of progress in some ways, but I have skimped on some of my efforts. College applications are approaching and I definitely shouldn’t procrastinate on them, but I still haven’t finished my common app. It’s mostly because I still don’t really have a complete idea of the end result, but that doesn’t change the fact that I wanted to finish my common app before school started and I haven’t reached that goal. I am also not as on top of my class responsibilities as I hoped I’d be. In fact, I wasn’t aware of the blog I am writing right now until just 2 days prior to its deadline. It was still enough time to get it done, but I think that I should’ve been more aware of it. On the bright side, I know for the future to check the syllabus every day so I won’t be blindsided by another assignment. Some other adjustments I will make to make sure I better manage my time and meet my goal is to have a calendar in my room so that it’ll be easier to recognize what I have to do each day and to add new things to my schedule. I also plan on being more specific on what I will do each day, like setting alarms for when I should plan on finishing my homework or leaving some time everyday to look into colleges and scholarships. It’s a lot to keep in mind, but I think that sticking to this kind of system will definitely help me in college and even after I become a working adult.

Welcome to Class Blogging 2023!

Welcome to Ms. Fusaro's Class Blog!  I am excited to have you join in on this year-long journey of development and growth.  Each year the requirements are slightly different, so please be sure to read carefully for your particular year.

Technical Requirements of the Blog

• One student per class, per day, will be responsible for blogging.  Blogs are expected to be posted by 7:00am on their respective due date.  (For example: John Doe is in Period 7.  If his blog date is November 8th, he must have the completed blog PUBLISHED by 7:00am on November 8th.  This means that John will need to get his blog to the Blog Wizard in enough time for the Blog Wizard to post the blog on November 8th, 7:00am.]
• Title of the blog should include:
• Student's full name, class period, and DUE DATE.  (For example: John Doe, Period 7, 11/8/22).
• Students MUST LABEL their blog with “Modern Mythology 2023.”
• Students are responsible for keeping track of when it is their time to blog by completing the Blogger Sheet.
• Blogs will be published on the world wide web, so we must practice digital citizenship and remember that our audience is GLOBAL, so our tone is FORMAL.
• How to make sure your blog is formatted correctly.

What should the blog content include?    

• Pick ONE category and respond to all of the questions related to that category. Blog categories cannot be repeated except for Literature Circle.
• Please note that these choices are all linked to our POWER STANDARDS. If you have a different idea, be sure it applies to the Learning Targets of our Power Standards.

Literacy & Learning

• Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or nonfiction covered in class.
• Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.
• How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

Literature Circle - TWO BLOGS  (2023)

• Choose one of the texts to read, partner up with other students who are also reading the book (can be across classes).
• Write two blogs - one during your reading and one after you’ve completed the novel.
• **Please speak to Ms. Fusaro about topic ideas.

Atomic Habits & Growth

• At this current point in time, what specific standards have you set  for yourself? 
• How and why did you come to craft these standards? 
• How do you demonstrate resilience towards achieving these standards?
• How do you assess yourself?  What adjustments do you make? How often?

Socio-political Consciousness

• What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?
• How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

Creativity & Fiction

• Craft a piece of FAN fiction related to any of the reading we’ve done in class that addresses one or more of the following: 
• Literary elements (i.e. structure, tone, diction, mood, irony, and figurative language) to craft a narrative.
• Structural features of drama (stage directions, character attributions/tags, dialogue, monologues, and/or soliloquies) to craft a script.
• Multidimensional characters to develop themes and create socio-political metaphors.

When Do I Blog?

Please refer to the Google Sheets Blog Date List. (This is on your syllabus.)

Sample of Excellent Blogs (They had different requirements)

• https://msfusarostudent.blogspot.com/2022/04/selina-zheng-period-1-04-01-22.html 
• https://msfusarostudent.blogspot.com/2022/03/stella-vayner-period-7-32922.html 
• https://msfusarostudent.blogspot.com/2022/03/talha-gondal-period-1-02282022.html 
• https://msfusarostudent.blogspot.com/2022/02/nicole-duran-period-1-02162022.html 

What does your blog grade mean?

• MASTERY (MAS): Great work, you nailed it! You covered an amazing multimedia summary of what happened in class using a clear, easy-to-read format. Most importantly, you absolutely included fantastic reflection which addresses all three main questions with depth beyond the classroom.
• APPROACHING (APP): Your summary got the general gist of what happened in class, but could definitely use some elaboration OR your formatting is not aesthetic OR your reflection may be basic (such as just reflecting on how it can be applied in your schooling instead of the real world). 
• DEVELOPING (DEV):  You probably didn’t include a reflective aspect at all or your summary was so minimal it was hard to have any idea what happened in class.
• NOT YET (NY):  Incredibly basic and/or the tone was rude, offensive, or inappropriate for a school, public blog.
• M: No blog written on your assignment day.

Blog Revisions & Reflections

• Blogs will receive a mastery grade within 7 days of publication based on the rubric above.
• Blogs may be revised, edited, and updated if the student would like an opportunity to improve his/her grade. IF the student does opt for a revision, he/she MUST EMAIL ME with a direct link to the published blog to inform and notify me to check the blog again.