Tenzin's English Blog

One thing that makes me different from other people is my identity as a Tibetan. Though there are others like me, there are almost no 16-year-old boys who are Tibetan except for my friend Jigme. Being from Tibet means I can speak Tibetan and help the cause to push China out of Tibet. Though there are many reforms to end Tibetan culture, Tibetans have stayed strong and have begun getting closer to their roots.  Today in class, we took a quiz on AP Classroom  identifying claims in passages, plus a writing portion describing our claims of values. This test gave me an idea of what the AP Exam will be like and the types of questions we will see on it. These questions will help me manage my time better on the AP test's MCQ and SAQ portions.

Being an Atlantan is always about feeling as if you’re in the heart of it all, where all of the culture is formed before the rest of the world gets to catch on. This is why I think Atlanta impacts my lifestyle, since everyone who lives here works hard, is creative, and is proud of their roots. If I were to explain to someone who isn’t from ATL what the city is like, I would let them know it’s a lot more than traffic and tall buildings; it's unique neighborhoods, amazing food, and an atmosphere where everyone supports each other. In today’s lesson in class, we went through a speech given by Mayor Bottoms regarding the violent demonstrations that occurred as a result of the murder of George Floyd. We then filled out a packet in which we discussed the various rhetorical situations in the speech, as well as the words the speaker used and their impact on the speech. I will use what I saw in Mayor Bottoms' speech to really express my emotion to my audience. To strengthen my resolve, ...

The most creative thing I have ever done is make Lego flowers with spare parts. Rather than sticking to the instruction book for the Botanical Collection set, I used parts from several different sets and built my own hidden gears inside the vase. Turning the hidden gear on its side opens and closes the petals, showing off the glowing metallic core of the flowers. Using parts for unusual purposes makes it exciting to watch, like using pterodactyl wings for the leaves and pink frogs for the buds. In today’s class, we read a speech by President Donald Trump on immigration. We then analyzed how the various elements of SPACECAT were used in the speech, such as the audience, purpose, context, ethos, pathos, and logos. I will use this to analyze how ethos, pathos, and logos are used in a speech. From the speaker to the contents of the speech, we really realize how much ethos, pathos, and logos have on our mindset.

Studying for AP Chem is not a light task. Through the tedious equations and formulas, you never think you are actually doing a question right. Earlier this week, I thought I would never understand what Unit 1 of chemistry was teaching me or get a good grade on the test. On Thursday, however, the words just seemed to flow within me, and the equations just seemed to come straight to mind. Though there have been times when I seem to be completely lost, I have come to realize that in every situation like that, there is always a way out. Today in class, we reviewed types of claims, such as claims of fact and value. After brainstorming examples of claims of fact as a group, we completed a worksheet on claims of value by choosing a topic and listing criteria for each one. I will use this information we learned today to see if my claim of value will actually hold up with facts and evidence. This will allow me to tweak my claims and make them more arguable with the help of my lidt of criteria.

In my childhood, I believed that the small red light in my bedroom's smoke detector was a small camera put in by my parents to watch me while I was sleeping. I used to position my stuffed toys in front of the "camera" to shield my face and sneakily stay awake at night to watch videos and play video games on my Nintendo Switch. Although I figured out later that it was just a battery light, I still get a nostalgic feeling from blinking red lights. In class today we helped the new students in class get redy for Mr.Rease's class by getting their blog accounts created and relearning ethos, pathos, and logos I will use what we went over in class today as a reminder for new exectations and to remind myself of the blogs due at the end of class. i will also used what we learned about ethos, pathos, and logos as new information and better learning how each one is used.

Last year, my partner and I had a disagreement about which of us would do the design of the presentation slides, and my agenda then was to lead in order to achieve my vision. Rather than trying to persuade her, I used the opportunity to try to win the fight by highlighting the weaknesses in their ideas, thus making it more of a power play in the argument than a persuasive debate that Heinrichs discusses in Chapter 1 of his book Thank You for Arguing. If I had the opportunity to do it again, I would use the technique of concession in Chapter 3. Today in class, we read chapters 1-3 of Thank You for Arguing and summarized how different approaches are used for different debates. I will use these different strategies used in debates to get out of different situations. For example, rather than arguing with my parents about something I did wrong, I could agree with them and make them feel better to lessen my punishment.