Saturday morning, when I woke up, I knew it was time to take the practice test. I became positive and confident that I was going to do well on the test. The time that I was actually taking the test, I was reading carefully and marking up the test. I was also reading through the questions as I was reading the passage. I thought that I was answering the questions correctly, but little did I know I was getting all of the answers wrong. When I was answering questions about the poem, I did very well. Overall, I have to get better in answering questions correctly. For the essay, I could only finish writing two essays instead on all three of them. I felt like I was thinking slowly and that I was forgeting words that I wanted to put in my essay. This means I have to think faster.
Archive for the ‘2012 Advisees’ category
Nathaly: AP Practice Test
February 26th, 2012Pauline: My Juventus Showcase :)
February 26th, 2012
I can’t wait for this weekend. I have the Juventus Showcase in Redwood City. My Peninsula Blast team from Foster City is currently 4th in Northern California, so we are really trying to bring us up in the ranking with this tournament. A lot of coaches will be there from all over California recruiting players. It will be big. We have four games. I am excited, and hopefully my quadricep fully heals by then.
Our Schedule:
Saturday March 3rd
10:30am…..Blast –vs- AJAX United………. @Palo Alto High School
3:30pm…….Blast –vs- Diablo FC…………. @Palo Alto High School
Sunday March 4th
8:00am……Blast –vs- San Juan Spirits Blue… @ Palo Alto High School
2:15pm……Blast –vs- FC Elk Grove………….. @ Palo Alto High School
Dezmond: Graduation Portfolio Reflection
February 23rd, 2012I’ve learned how to upload video directly to iseroma! No more Schooltube!
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be catching up on all my videos. Here’s Dezmond from January, talking about his portfolio defense. Enjoy!
Marco: Marco Time :)
February 12th, 2012Lately, I’ve had very good and happy days 
I am doing more homework for my classes, and I am starting to procrastinate less. Pre-Calculus is a class that I am struggling in. I need to pay more attention and attend office hours because I have not turned in a lot of the recent homework due to the fact that I haven’t paid a lot of attention. Today, I am going to go downtown and have In-n-Out with the BCA boys I have to get ready for that, so bye
Nathaly: Retaliation
February 11th, 2012I’ve been writing an essay per week since school has started. Mr. Isero gives me a lot of work along with the rest of the students. To get even with Mr. Isero, I have also given him homework, which are my scholarship recommendation letters. Of what I can remember, I have assigned him about 3 scholarships, which is not even half of the work he assigns to me and already he is complaining. Students, on the other hand, are not allowed to complain when given a lot of work. I don’t understand how this system is fair. Therefore, assigning him homework is my pleasurable retaliation.
Antonio is a podcast star
December 25th, 2011
Antonio was recently on The Kindle Chronicles, a weekly podcast dedicated to lovers of the Kindle.
I chose Antonio because he’s read on the Kindle in both Advisory and in AP English.
He had lukewarm comments about the Kindle — some positive, some negative. (This is because he hasn’t figured out how great it is yet! )
Check out the interview below. It begins at 16:08.
Update: I’m happy to announce that I received two more Kindles, bringing up the total to seven Kindles. I will be focusing them on my Advisory to promote independent reading before my advisees graduate, but they will also be available to any student who’s interested. Please see me.
Pauline: what’s next?
December 4th, 2011What’s next, being better than what I am now. Many people have asked me why I try so hard in school and in ever area of my life. Here’s the answer: I am tired of seeing mediocrity. I’m tired of seeing my people, Hispanics, throw away their education and their future. It is time to step up, for real though. I am also tired of seeing sons and daughters of Hispanics see their parents work endlessly and want no change for themselves. They should be a motivation for all Hispanic students. We need to rise up and show the United States that we deserve to be here by becoming educated. We will not show this country that we deserve to be here until we educate ourselves.
Paulina: What I did not know about!!! =O
November 16th, 2011So, all my life I guess I have not known how to use prepositions. I have used them, but I wasn’t really sure how or why. I probably was never explained that concept…or just I wasn’t paying attention in elementary school.
Here’s what I learned!
I learned that “on” is used with days. “At” is used with noon, night, midnight, and with the time of day, and “in” is used with other parts of the day, with months, with years, and with seasons.
I had an epiphany when I read this!!! I remember always having trouble during a conversation, deciding whether to use in, at or on. Now that I have read this I know when to use these prepositions. Thanks!!!
Pauline: My Personal Art Project
November 3rd, 2011
My artwork shows my opinion on the question, “Are our lives chosen for us, or do we choose our lives?” My artwork takes on a religious view on this question. The pictures display how God is the ultimate and only legitimate person that chooses our lives for us. God is the one who chooses what we will do for the rest of our lives, God is the only person who knows before we are in our mother’s womb who we will become and where we are going to walk. My creative and abstract art show how God’s plans are the best for us and that in spite of what he chooses, we as humans do have the free will to choose our own way.
Each picture, each craft, and design has significance and symbolism that shows how there are different paths God will choose for us. The pictures were extremely picked with consciousness because I wanted my message to be that God is the person who chooses our lives to be significant and special. I had my doubts in the beginning about answering this question because I knew it would be controversial. Nevertheless, I knew that since it was my art, I was willing to express my own opinions through these pictures and designs.
The verse at the bottom of my art is the verse that my whole theme or message is built on. “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). This verse shows how God has chosen our lives for us, and he does not plan for our lives to be unsuccessful. On the contrary, he plans our lives to be full of prosperity and riches. Also, the last verse that my project was built on is the verse found in Jeremiah 1:5, which states, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you.” Both of these verses show how God has already planned and has chosen our lives for us.
I got inspired by some of my own scrapbooks that I create. I love to put random vintage items and art together to build something empowering and unique. The flower on the right hand side represents the inception of greatness and something that in the end flourishes into beauty, which ultimately represents our lives. At the bottom left, there is a cap facing up with tools and the insides of a clock glued inside the cap. This represents how God builds us into grandiose people with small pieces; in the end, we become something incredible and breathtaking. At the top left there is a heart, a key, and a button, which all represent how God is the key to our love and who we are because he chooses our fate and destiny.
We were all born to be somebody and to find a purpose in life. Thus, God has chosen our lives for us already. All we need to do is to be in his hands and let him take control of everything. Throughout life, I have definitely tried to take control of my own life situations, and sadly I have failed miserably. That is when I realized that it was time to ask God for help and let him do what he is supposed to do. I had to let God build me into a wise and stronger person in order for me to become what he wanted me to be. Finally, throughout this process in trying to follow and listen to God, I have learned that everyone has a purpose in life and that is to be successful and blessed beyond measure.
Marco: Me, Sethe, Oedipus, Cumaica :)
November 3rd, 2011So this is my Unit 2 Project. I chose to do the conversation at the cafe. When I refer to their books, I say biography for fun. I tried to get some humor in there, but it didn’t quite work out 
Guess I can’t be funny when I do my homework. This is probably silly, but I tried, so don’t judge me, yo. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy
On a cloudy Saturday morning, I walk into Cumaica to get some hot chocolate, when suddenly I look to my right and see Sethe and Oedipus drinking coffee. I approach them not knowing what to say.
Oedipus and Sethe: (Minor Murmuring)
Me: Excuse me, are you Oedipus the King of Thebes?
Oedipus: Former King of Thebes, why?
Me: Well, it’s just that I was reading your biography in my AP English class, and I’m surprised to see you here. What are you doing here?
Oedipus: Well, after gouging my eyes out, I left Thebes. I bought a plane ticket with the help of this guy who called himself the Priceline Negotiator, and traveled here to California where this woman here, Sethe, helped me find a place to stay and eat.
Me: And how about you, Sethe, what are you doing here? I may not have understood your biography very well, but I sure know that you don’t live near here.
Sethe: I just wanted to leave Cincinnati. I wanted to go to a place where there were a lot of trees, and someone told me San Francisco was just the place.
Me: Do you guys think it was fate that brought you two together?
Oedipus: No. Don’t talk to me about fate. It doesn’t exist.
Me: Are you sure? I mean, you spent your days as king trying to prevent your fate, but you ended up leading yourself into it. You being blind and not being able to see anything, how is it that Sethe is the first person you encounter as you get out of the airplane?
Oedipus: It was probably just a huge coincidence, and Sethe being a nice and humble woman, she just had to help the poor blind man find a place to stay.
Me: Well, that doesn’t sound right. I think you deny the fact that fate exists, and that the reason why you gouged your eyes out was because you didn’t want to see the truth.
Sethe: Don’t start arguing you guys, we are gonna get kicked out. Fate does exist, and every decision you make in the past always has an effect in your present.
Me: Well, now you’re contradicting yourself.
Sethe: How so?
Me: In your biography, you kept dismissing the idea that Beloved was really your daughter coming back to haunt you for killing her.
Sethe: That’s absurd, and not possible!
Oedipus: Anything is possible. Here I was thinking I have power and a sexy wife, and it turns out to MY MOTHER. That’s like a slap in the face from the oracles.
Me: He’s right. And so are you. All your actions and decisions in the past always come back to haunt you.
Sethe: What decision did he take that came back to haunt him?
Me: Maybe it wasn’t necessarily him, but his parents tried to avoid him fulfilling his destiny, but they abandoned him and left him to die. They didn’t think he would survive, and when he did, he ended up leading himself into killing his father and sleeping with his mother.
Sethe: Is this true, Oedipus?
Oedipus: I guess. It was all my fault though. I don’t think it was fate that brought me closer to my so-called destiny, it was my mistakes that led me there.
Me: Don’t you see that that is your destiny? To have made your “mistakes” was something that needed to happen in order for you to fulfill your destiny.
Oedipus: I don’t want to argue. I need to leave. Have a good day.
(Oedipus slowly gets up and attempts walking to the front door. Instead he walks towards the cash register, so Sethe and I guide him outside and get a cab for him. Sethe and I walk back inside and continue talking)
Me: He is very stubborn isn’t he? It seems that nothing I said actually went in his head.
Sethe: That does seem right.
Me: Anyways, back to you. Why don’t you accept that Beloved is really your daughter coming back to haunt you?
Sethe: She isn’t. It’s not possible. I killed her so she could avoid a life of torture and misery. I wanted her to have a life exactly the opposite of the one I have lived. Beloved is just a woman, she is not my daughter.
Me: Well why does she have a scar on near her chin where the wound you made your daughter would be?
Sethe: Just a coincidence.
Me: And the song she hums? The song that you yourself used to sing to your children?
Sethe: She could have learned it from her family, or the Internet. It could just be that Denver taught it to her fast.
Me: And her milk-stained breath?
Sethe: Everyone drinks milk, simple as that.
Me: But why does it always smell like it?
Sethe: Because she drinks a lot of it.
Me: So there’s no way, absolutely no way that Beloved is actually your daughter?
Sethe: Nope.
Me: You’re blind.
Sethe: No, Oedipus is.
Me: No, you and Oedipus are. You don’t see the truth. You are too scared of your past to even remotely consider that Beloved is a memory of your past coming back to haunt you. You try to forget it all, so you avoid accepting it, but it’s true. Beloved is your daughter, and if you accepted that, you would see that I’m right.
Sethe: Oh my, look at the time, seems I have to go back to 124. Well, see you around!
Me: Goodbye.
(Sethe hastily walks away and exits Cumaica. The clouds begin to fade away, and the sun comes out)
Me: Maybe now with some sunlight, both of them will accept the truth.
(I stand up, walk out of Cumaica, and begin making my way back home. Just then, I see that an big accident had occurred. Oedipus’s cab had exploded out of nowhere. Perhaps it was his fate?)
THE END Hope you enjoyed this, it’s hard to write dialogue and actually have it make sense while connecting it to the book. I’ll be waiting to see the other projects the class did. See you tomorrow guys!!
Leo: Symbolism In Beloved
October 30th, 2011One symbol from the book is the tobacco tin that Paul D hides in his chest. It symbolizes the way Paul D deals with his memory. While Paul.D is sharing his memory with Sethe, he does not dare to share everything. He thinks, “Saying more might push them both to a place they couldn’t get back from. He would keep the rest where it belonged: in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be. Its lid rusted shut” (112). In contrast to Sethe, who tries to forget, Paul D locks his memory in the tobacco tin along with his emotion. His love and memory all lock together; therefore, he will no longer suffer from them anymore.
Pauline: The tone in Beloved
October 30th, 2011The tone varies at various points in the story. A word that I would like to use to describe the tone, which is also used on page 136, is theatrical. “In Ohio seasons are theatrical.” This line really helped me realize how the tone was like.
In the book, Beloved, the tone is like the seasons, theatrical. Sometimes the characters feel content and sometimes the characters feel like killing each other because they seem annoyed. For example, during the part when the slaves were rounded up together fighting for their lives, the tone is filled with determination. “A man could risk his own life, but not his brother’s” (129). This excerpt caused the book to have a determined and a never giving-up-like tone, which is much different from the rest of the book. Also, the way I determined that the tone was theatrical is by noticing that there are certain times when the narrator talked about the experience of a Black man. For example, the narrator said, “Unlike a snake or a bear, a dead nigger could not be skinned for profit and was not worth his own dead weight in coin” (175). This part of the novel is really depressing and gloomy, which made me realize that before the Civil War had ended slaves were worth less than a snake’s skin.
Antonio: My response on Beloved
October 29th, 2011I really enjoyed the book. I liked the symbolism and how interesting the descriptions were, and surprisingly enough, I understood the book my first time through. I thought that Morrison did an excellent job in telling the story. I especially like the style in which she told the story. It was really erratic and never stayed in one place. It frequently jumped time periods thus furthering my understanding of the events that happened in the book. Morrison really left no stones unturned for me.
Marco: My point of view on Beloved
October 29th, 2011I honestly think Beloved was the most boring book so far. It has no action, the climax isn’t exciting, and it’s hard to understand. The thing that made the book extremely confusing was that it switched from present to past. I liked that it challenged me, and made me want to read more, but it was just really hard to get into it at times.
Nathaly: My response about Beloved
October 28th, 2011By reading this book, I really got a different point of view of how life was like during the time of slavery. I was able to feel how Sethe felt and the struggles she faced. It showed me that times really do change and people do not really remember what their ancestors experienced. People tend to take things for granted and not be appreciative of what they have and the opportunities that are out there. This book makes me wonder how certain people can even think that they are better than others just because the color of their skin is a little lighter, which makes no difference since every living organism that is human is exactly the same on the inside.
Tips from Marco, Student of the Week #3
October 6th, 2011Marco enjoyed his tenure as Student of the Week, and here are his tips for success in AP.
Paulina: The night before the game
October 5th, 2011Well, what can I say? I’m extremely nervous and I can’t sleep. It has been raining here and it reminds me on the weather in San Francisco. Tomorrow we play Nicaragua and I will start. Ahhhhh! My first major national team game that I will start. Yesterday, we played Costa Rica but we lost. Though I was extremely sad, I knew that I had to get over that and move on. And so I am. I’m for ready tomorrow’s game and though I know the competition will be intense, I know that we will qualify
Cheer Paulina on in Guatemala this weekend!
September 30th, 2011Paulina was on the news! Check this out. (She starts at around 1:48.) Yes, silly, it’s in Spanish.
Leo: Little Tiny Presentation on Existentialism
September 30th, 2011FriDAY!
