My Opinion on Slam Poetry.

For those of you who don't know Zaccheus Jackson or "Zack" came to perform slam poetry at Fraser heights, Slam poetry or Spoken word is becoming more common in todays society as it is a way to express your emotions in a healthy way. During Zach's presentation he told us some great stories especially those on his Struggle with addiction and how slam poetry gave him a positive outlet and changed his life. After Zach recited his poems, I understood why Slam Poetry had risen to such popularity as it displays a lot of similarity to rap which is also quite popular.
   My personal opinion on Slam Poetry is that it is an great form of protestant art because it is healthy and non violent I believe that slam poetry will rise to an even greater level of fame in the next decade.

1. What did you think of Zack's performance at Fraser Heights? 

 What I thought of Zack's performance was that it was entertaining and interesting. I liked how he talked about his personal life and rapped about it. It was almost like he was a professional rapper.  But, the first thing he started talking about was his personal life. He said that he was homeless on the streets for at least 6 months and told himself he needed to change. The next bad thing that happened was he became addicted to drugs and was an addict. He got arrested a couple times for drinking and went to jail. His cellmate was released from prison at the time so he had to cook for himself.

  He moved to another cell with a different person, and his cellmate expected him to cook for him because he didn't know how to cook. Zack said he knew how to cook but not very well but he was forced to cook for his new partner.  He made spaghetti for his partner and he didn't like how many onions he put in for him. He got in a fight with him and argued about it. Zack said it didn't matter how many onions he put in as long as he was grateful. Afterwards, he was moved back to his old cell where he wrote his first poem without paper just in his head. He remembered it by heart and never forgot it.


He also talked about how one day he was walking and he came across this place where he could recite poems.  On the sign it said "Grand Slam Poet" and he walked right in, went on stage, and recited his poem. He was very nervous and after the performance, he ran straight out the room and all the way home. But, eventually that became his job and now he does it for a living. Sometimes, he wonders how he got his job, but he said if he didn't go in there and recite that poem in front of everyone, to this day he would still be on the streets addicted to drugs and homeless.

Zacks Performance

Zach's performance was really great. I learned many things about him and why he had joined slam poetry. Now I am going to share the facts Zack shared with us. The first thing that Zack shared was that he was homeless around 6 months, then Zack told himself that he needs to change in life so that he wouldn’t be homeless anymore. When he was on the streets he used to be an addict but now he isn’t. Zack said he went to jail and in jail he wrote his first poem thing. When he was in jail, he moved to a low security prison, which had a TV, video games and not a lot of guards. Zack had to be the cook in that prison because the other cook was released from prison. One day Zack was making his spaghetti and another guy said he didn’t like his spaghetti because of the amount of onions he put in. Zack watched a lot of TV when he was younger so instead of talking to guy he started a fight with him. After the fight Zack had to leave the nice prison and had to go back to the other jail where he had came from. He was put in a small room, which had a very thin blanket, a window, which stared at a brick wall, and a LED light which was on for 24 hours. He started going crazy in his little cell after six days so he decided to make a poem, which he wrote in his mind and remembered it by heart. 

Zack never wrote this poem on a piece of paper. The first time Zack performed this poem was at a café, before he performed he asked what a poetry slam was and so the guy explained it to him and when he was finished Zack decided to perform. Now Zack has a Successful job, which he really enjoys      

Current events~ one thing I would change about school~ Priya

If I could change one thing about highschool I would change the grading system to something that is less of the teachers opinion and more on how much you learn and understand.

 

I want to change this because i've noticed that sometimes when someone has a really great intelligence in a certain subject they get a lower mark than someone who has a lower intelligence in this subject, that is an unfair system to work with and won't help you actually know how your doing. Also when you get homework and tests it mainly supports your memorization not your full understanding. If our system is like this it will be really hard to get into the university of your wishes, because you got a low grade on this subject which technically means your bad at this subject, even though you are not bad at it. Maybe you want to be a scientist when you grow up but you can't get into a good university for it because you got a C in science. You also got this C because you had after school activities which sometimes interrupted your class so you couldn't do your homework and you got bad on a test because you didn't have enough time to understand the subject; in the end you end up being a low rate scientist or not a scientist at all.

CURRENT EVENTS POST #3

The topic I chose to write about is how students would change high school if they could based on an article written on Huff Post Teen.  The article gathers Twitter comments made by teens and reveals students' opinions regarding high school and their suggestions on how to improve it.  They make comments about what should be taught at school,  how good the cafeteria food is, school starting too early and other statements.  In my essay I will talk about whether I agree or disagree with some of the students' opinions and state my point of view on various comments. 

Emily states that she would like it if students never had to finish anything, but realizes that this isn't how life works.  She thinks that "The real world sucks".  I think that sometimes too.  It would be nice if students didn't have to complete assignments and meet deadlines, but this doesn't prepare you for the real world.  What kind of a person would you become if you were never required to complete anything?  I don't think you would be able to hold down a job for instance.  You wouldn't be able to complete any tasks that your boss asks of you.  How would you earn money to live?  Learning how to complete a task is a good thing and students should master this skill as much as possible.

Isabel Song comments that she would like to have a class that teaches life skills.  I completely agree.  It would be so valuable to learn for instance, how to make friends, how to keep friends, how to get along with others, how to cook and mend things.  Starting in elementary school and through high school useful things that would help in everyday life should be taught.  I like Isabel's idea about how to be the best you can be that would be really helpful in your life. 

  

I agree with Danny Fratella who says that schools don't offer the courses that would help him in obtaining a career.  In addition, I think it would be useful if we could take online courses.  This would be helpful for someone like me who only goes to school for half a day.  If I could take some of the courses which I missed then I wouldn't fall so behind on my learning.  Students could take courses that interested them, i.e. fashion illustration or designing furniture, etc. 

In conclusion, some of the students had good ideas, but in reality they wouldn't work well.  Other ideas were very good and if they were incorporated into our school system, it would be an improvement.  I especially like the suggestion that schools teach more life skills, after all, these types of courses would be most beneficial to students in their everyday life. 

The website where I got my information was:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/high-school-changes_n_4844338.html?utm_hp_ref=tw  

Current events

In the article "14 things that are outdated  in 21st century schools", the author argues that many things that we think is  normal in our schools,such as phones computers, computer labs should be banned. In this current event post I will explain why technology is good for our schools. 

  These people don't understand that banning wifi,phones and computer labs/computers would make learning much harder because we can't really search up the things that would aid us in our assinments or projects during school hours. Not trying to be mean but these are the kind of people who where raised without technology. These people do not understand that technology is very important in the 21 century. 

    The other half are the more understanding people who are more up to date people. They understand that technology is really useful and really isn't the wrost possible thing in the world. I do understand that it can easily be used for bad things and can cause distractions in the class. But if you change  the rules a bit, like any other classroom rules, that texting in class is bad, then you would be fine.

     All but 1, which is #8, unhealthy food in cafeterias. I really don't see why they don't sell unhealthy food in the cafeterias like pizza and burgers. Not selling junk food in our cafeterias wouldn't make a difference because we have many stores beside our school that has candy and other things like Quiznos, dddn, and subway. But back to technolgy. You can do so much more with technology, teachers could show videos and other things relevant to the lesson. We could do a lot more with technology compared with books and paper that's all of the things schools currently have. Technology is all around us, why would people make such a big deal about it.