Left Behind, Way Behind

In the article, “Left Behind, Way Behind” the author expresses his opinion about how high school systems are not helping the students reach the potential needed for college. This is one of the best arguments about schools now that anyone could have. The saying no child left behind needs to be kicked to the curb. That is not helping students to better themselves if they know they can slack to a certain level and still get by. Education should be taught starting at a lower level to where a child should be in good shape going into high school and well educated by the time of graduation. This argument is working very well stating that schools in the U.S need to better their programs to better shape the future of the U.S.  This article is very believable that students have been slacking for this generation just to slide on by with a low amount of work. It is seen throughout tests done in schools all over the country.

The author proves his point very well in this article. He backs it up with statistics that are terrifying in a way for people that are getting an education in the U.S and didn’t even realize that this was going on. I have always heard of the saying, but never really saw proof that it was hurting our education to not leave anyone behind. His strategies that stuck out to me were the percentages of students that graduate or didn’t because of the lack of schooling taught to them. He also used a story about how low income and minority children are likely to start school with fewer skills in all subjects, and only forty-one percent of nonpoor students can read. Some things need to change so that students that are willing to put in the hard work and effort will have success in the future.

ICC Softball

ICC softball is known to be one of the best junior college softball team competitors. We are one of those teams that everyone else will play beyond their potential just to beat us. This year we have so much talent on the team from pitchers and catchers to infield and outfield. We have everything a coach would possibly want to have a great team! There is just one problem though: We are having trouble with finishing a game and putting teams away early. It is so hard to watch us lose so many games that we know we have the talent and capability of winning.

For this season to get better and our team to win more games, we need to show that we have confidence and can play the best that we know inside all of us can do. We also need to trust our other teammates and believe in them so that they will believe in themselves. Sharpening up our defense along with pitching may be one thing that could help us get to nationals. It does not need it horribly, but a little work to help tweak the parts we are having trouble with will put us into good shape for region. Another part of our game that needs to become more contagious and consistent is our hitting. Everyone on our team can hit the ball very well, but we all have certain games where we struggle. If we could just make sure to really focus every at bat on just getting base hits our game will severely improve. I am so ready for more games to come and to see us getting better every game!

Out of the Woods: Today's Kids Can't See the Forest for the MTV

This article by Joel Achenbach is a great argument about how children in this generation would rather spend their time indoors than go outside like most kids did in our parents or grandparents generation. The argument works very well in the sense that it is so true because children are taught that outside is rather dangerous from their parents. It states that “…the outside world is dangerous, that it’s the land of speeding cars, heatstroke, lightning and creepy strangers.” But then parents turn around and tell their children to get outside and play because that’s what they always did as children. In that sense of the argument it is like parents are saying, “Go play outside, and watch out for serial killers.”
The article is very believable because you can see it with so many cases of children today that would rather play video games than enjoy the beautiful weather outside playing with friends. Even though the children may ask what are they supposed to do outside, tell them to go exploring or play a game with friends. Those are the different strategies the author uses to encourage kids to go outside rather than be stuck in the house.
Children need to enjoy the outdoors and learn about nature and all the fun things that are out there to do. The author does prove his point that children in this generation stay inside more than go outside. It may be because of the dangerous or not fun things that their parents have told them or made them do outside. But there are also plenty of fun and exciting things to do outside as well that most kids if they took the time to try them out would love!

I love my Family!

Family is a very important part of my life. I am the youngest of four children in my family which makes some things great and some things really hard. My parents have been together for thirty-five years and still live in the same house out in the country a mile from the town Farmington. I have two older brothers and one older sister. My older brother Aaron is ten years older than me. He is an eighth grade math teacher and high school age baseball coach down in St. Louis. Since he now lives there, he goes to as many cardinal games as he can! He was married to Ashley Ashford in the year 2010. He has been a great older brother, always there for me to talk to and get advice. My second older brother Andrew is seven years older than me. Andy has always been the wild child of the family, but everyone loves him for it because he always keeps us on our toes. Andy was married to Scherie Huddleston in 2009. He has been in the Army since he was nineteen years old and is currently over in Afghanistan until June of this year. We all appreciate what he does for our country and so grateful that he has been safe for three tours overseas. My older sister Alaina is five years older than me and we have been best friends all our lives. Alaina married Nathan Hamilton in 2011 to finish off all my siblings leaving me at home with mom and dad. I have always looked up to my sister in everything she has and does do. She is currently a nurse at Methodist Hospital and we are still close friends as well as sisters. I love all the people in my family counting the ones that have just joined. We are all so close which makes holidays so much fun! I wouldn’t want to trade them for the world!!

Supremacy Crimes need to go!!

In the article “Supremacy Crime,” the author really looks at generalizations of these crimes such as who the killers are and what are their motives. Her thesis is a good argument of how we judge certain people with certain crimes like the supremacy crimes. Her argument was that teens in schools all over the U.S plan to kill or bomb their classmates or school because of being bullied or humiliated. The other part was that for adults the people that usually do the supremacy crimes are white males of the middle class because of their addiction to superiority. I know her argument was very strong and to me mostly correct with the fact that those are the people that do these supremacy crimes, and that society needs to look at these crimes and figure out a way to reduce the number of murders and rapes per day and per year. This article is very believable because of the crimes we hear about all the time on the news. Some people would judge other races and say that those are the people that commit most crimes, but in realization it makes sense that the white male does do the most superiority providing crimes to make himself feel powerful. The other does prove her points very well. Throughout the article for every change of subject the author used specific examples of supremacy crime with the names of the killers meeting the descriptions giving by herself. The strategies mostly used in this article that worked best were provided the examples of the killers and what they had done. The article really spoke out about supremacy crimes that continue to happen every day and that there needs to be changes to decrease the crime rate.

Threat to our own privacy on Facebook

The article “On Facebook, Biggest Threat to Your Private Data May Be You” was a great argument for this person to bring up in the newspaper. I think that the article definitely is working the argument through many different aspects such as the attitude and facts of what people express making their private lives known to friends. The author of this article starts off with much attitude about how Facebook cannot be very private if you open yourself up to that situation. For one example, if you do not know the person or haven’t been in contact with them for a very long time you should reject them because you never truly know who someone is through cyberspace.
This article is very believable in the sense that people use Facebook every day and share the most private feelings or information about where they are going, but they may be sharing it with the public or even people that they have become friends with that they do not know very well at all.
The author throughout the article proves her point to be true more and more. When she goes into detail about “terms of service,” she is right about Facebook basically owning us especially because most people do not actually read all of that information. With that part of the signing up for Facebook, there could be anything written in there that people just automatically agree with just to sign up with the program faster, so her point is very valid about a Facebook user not actually knowing their own privacy issues.
The different strategies used throughout were starting off with a strong attitude, opinions about if we are our own threat, and being able to distinguish between our public and private selves. This article was a very strong written one that really made the argument valid about us being our own threat to privacy.

freestyle of why the music industry hates guitar hero

The music industry hates guitar hero and other music games that they say has taken money from them in the past. People in the music industry want it to stop, but the games being stopped would only hurt them in the end.  I think that the music games could increase business in the music industry if the CEO and publishers use it to their advantage. The music industry does not need to complain about the game makers; instead it should work with them to sell more products. This topic of how the music industry feels about game makers of music is interesting and could use more details to explain about the situation. I thought before reading the story that the music industry would be upset about losing money, so my thought was right. I just do not understand that if they are so upset why they would not just talk to the makers and make a business deal with them. Better money could be made for the music industry by labels and titles. Even if the license is a small price at first, it will help turn it into a big income in the end. In doing so the music industry could introduce new artists or bring back older ones. The music industry could make money off of the artists and the games as well so that they would get a win in the situation. I learned a little about how the music industry feels, but I am interested in knowing more to fully understand what the games are doing to make the industry hate them.

Why the Music Industry Hates Guitar Hero

In my opinion, I do not think that the music industry should hate Guitar Hero. This article has been written to show how music game makers have taken it into their own hands to start a new type of business without the help of the music industry. The game makers are making billions by the games created that deal with music. Mostly because they are reaching out using new artists, but also bringing back some great artists from the past. The organization was very good of the author by putting everything in the order of how it started and ways to fix the problem. The style the author used to write was to start with the good ideas about how the game makers have been successful in making the music games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Then the author moves to show how much money the games have brought in while the music industry is suffering from signing the license part of the deal. After that part, they show how the music industry is in a lose-lose situation. But the author shows how the CEO and everyone else in the music industry can make the situation a better one for everyone. The music industry just needs to learn to work with the game makers so that more profit than just the license can come to them and they will do better in business. The attitude used in the article by the author was anger toward the game makers. The music industry has a big problem and not sure how to solve it. Maybe someday they will learn to work together and make the music industry even more booming than before.