Ashlyn

5/12/14 Our project was a group project where we were given a candidate trying to run for mayor and we had to create a whole campaign for them.Our group was given a 60 year old man named Reeve Stodgers. Reeve was a veteran who had 6 children and 10 grandchildren. For the project there weren't many guidelines so it was all up our group to design and create a campaign for the candidate. Our group chose strategies such as glittering generalities using words such as, a family man, we also used testimonial strategies by asking Malcolm Hitchcock in our video advertisement.

The most challenging part of our project was just figuring out how to best sell our candidate to the public and finding the most effective way to get people to vote for him. I think if I had to redo this project I would hope for more guidance as to where to start and what to do. We received a sheet of paper that had Reeve's information and information on the community along with questions. I would have hoped for more of a plan as to how to go about the project but I also think it made us work more together and think harder about things.


 * 1) 1. How might you use the techniques you learned for this project in the future of this class?
 * 2) 2. How might you use the techniques you learned for this project in other classes?
 * 3) 3. How might you use what you’ve learned in the future, outside of the high school setting?

3/21/14 Is Gossip Girl really a bad influence or is it really the first show that demonstrates how us, as teens, live…minus being insanely rich. Blair showcases who all girls are, self-conscious, power-hungry, bitches. There is absolutely no positive way around it, girls worship characters such as Blair Waldorf and Serena VanderWoodsen because they execute the behaviors every girl wants to, flawlessly. Think about it. Chuck Bass is chasing Blair, he wants her always. You cannot seriously say that you don’t want to be desired by someone at all times. Plus they’re always friends, Serena and Blair have been mentally, emotionally, and physically abusive to each other but they still end up best friends. Blair is condescending and backstabbing and totally awful as a person to basically everyone but is still worshipped for everything she does, you know you wish you could do that. We are all Dan too, LOSERS. Losers who want so badly to be a part of everyone else and know that being anywhere close to those people will have to be anonymously. You know we’re all gossip girl too, if you aren't constantly thinking about hateful things to tweet about people but are too ‘sweet’ and ‘innocent’ to do it are you really actually doing anything. No, you’re not. The thing that can be easily overlooked however is that each character on Gossip Girl acts these ways because of where they come from. Chuck was born with the weight of the world on his shoulders, Blair was never good enough, Serena never had a father or a mother in many cases, Dan well Dan was just a wannabe the same way his father was. Everyone comes from somewhere and everyone wants to be loved and desired we’re all born into situations that we can’t control and with time more problems come but so do more answers. The characters in Gossip Girl are portrayed in such a way that we can hate, love and connect with them all in the same way that we should do this with the people around us. SPOTTED: A saying something useful for once? Take detailed notes everyone it may not happen again…..you know you love me..XOXO gossip girl

3/14/14 Mrs.Whitley I think you should eat Pad Thai for dinner. It's literally the most amazing thing I've ever consumed. It's a Thai noodle dish that has a sweet and spicy sauce on it with scrambled egg, chunks of chicken and vegetables.... trust me girl your life will be changed. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pad-thai-2/

2/28/14 Who are real heroes in society today and who are just people we think are “empowering” though they stand for nothing at all? A real hero should be a courageous, determined, humble, leader, so why do we consider people who don’t meet these requirements “heroes”? Our younger generations are stubborn; they do what they want when they want because they want to, with no consequences at all. A celebrity such as Miley Cyrus promoting this “never care, do whatever you want” lifestyle only lessens the value of a quality person. So much emphasis is put on these people that kids think, “Wow she’s getting attention I want some too”, and they begin to act this way. We make this socially acceptable. No one ever wants their child to grow up and do drugs or drink or have sex. You want them to wait but that’s not how things are happening right now. What does Miley Cyrus do? She does drugs, drinks and promotes sex. Why is Miley ever on the news? She has been spotted doing drugs, drinking or promoting sex. When you think about that, is that really what we want to be showing kids? Do we want to show them that this way of life will make you popular and get you noticed? The intent in most parents is to expose their children to this material and tell them it’s bad and will make you less of a person but in case parents haven’t noticed….when you tell your kid not to do something they’re going to want to do it to try it out anyway. We need to put people who deserve to be in the limelight there. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things should be shown off instead of celebrities. This would also be a hard thing to do because I think real true heroes are the people who do the right thing and help others without anyone watching. Real heroes are the ones that no one knows their name but everyone knows what they did. I recently went to the funeral of probably one of the most kind and loving women you could ever meet. She was a hero. From what was said at the funeral this woman wanted no praise for her actions and she did great things because she was a great person. I think we need to model our lives after people like this. We need to teach our children not to love power and attention but to love others and love to help others.

2/21/14 These articles say very interesting things, the first saying that clothing is discriminatory of women and states that we as women can’t do what men do or are inferior to men, the other talking about how girls now “show more skin” and wear provocative clothing. The second article, A Line Between Sweet and Skimpy, focused a lot more on inappropriate clothing and how a lot of teen clothing promotes sex and drugs. The question is though who is making this a problem? Is it the problem of clothing lines for putting suggestive jokes such as “who needs a credit card when you have Santa” on a pair of young women’s underwear, or has it become the only way to get attention and is therefore socially acceptable?

What we, as young women, wear shouldn’t be a focus but what should be is how we feel in it. Our generation is taught to hate ourselves and hate our appearance but to pretend like we love it. We’re taught that we have to have a boyfriend and someone has to be in love with us in order to be pretty and worthy of anything. Society tells us that you have to be flawless and you have to be the stereotypical “perfect girl” to be successful, but what is that doing for the girls of this generation? It is making us feel unworthy of love, making us feel inadequate, and that we as people are not enough. The focus of today’s world is all on materialistic things, we are even taught that in order to be popular or have power you have to tear others down because making someone else hurt puts you “ahead”. I think clothing is a clear indicator of this, if you wear provocative clothing and name brands you show that you have money and people will envy you no matter what type of person you are. Life has become about who can cover up their insecurities the best or who has the prettiest fake smile. It is extremely degrading and when someone comes along and tells us that we’re beautiful and valuable we immediately fall in what we call love.We are so deprived of compassion and acceptance that the second we get even the slightest bit of it we need it and we crave it and the first person who gives it to us feels like the only person in the world we could ever need. When you think about it it’s sickening. Girls as young as Kindergarten are being told that they are not enough. These things don’t just end either, the second someone convinces you that you are unbecoming or inadequate it follows you, you start to believe it and you fall right back into the cycle of hating yourself and using materialistic things to cover it up. Would it be so wrong for everyone to accept everyone else or for a girls’ family to tell her she’s beautiful? It starts with the people closest to us, for me to hear my brother stick up for me or for my parents to tell me and genuinely mean that I was beautiful, I might believe it. We need to be more cautious of what we are and aren’t telling people or teaching them. No one should ever feel less than beautiful. [|A Line Between Sweet and Skimpy]

2/7/14 You never know where people are in there life and what they're dealing with and not everything people say is what they mean, [|as stated in the article people don’t always realize what they are saying.] We all have a right to express ourselves but should we be more cautious about the words we say? In the time we are in now and the generation we are part of, it has become acceptable to alter the definition of a once derogatory word. The N-word, for example went from being a very offensive discriminatory statement to a word used to call someone your "home boy", but is it different when talking about sexuality? Is the problem really the words we use? I don't necessarily believe so, I think that it's just a small part of it. I think as these words are altered and used in different ways they can create a sense of vulnerability in some. In terms of sexuality, homosexuals become offended when these words are used no matter what the speakers intentions are. You could argue that homosexuals aren't accepting of themselves or they wouldn't care what terms were used in which ways because they're content in their lives, so it shouldn't matter. However, you can also argue that people using derogatory statements aren’t accepting of themselves and are extremely insecure. I see this whole issue as a self-image problem and a problem with no one ever feeling adequate. This to me seems like an issue with personal acceptance which leads back to the question, should we be more careful about what we say? I don't think so. I think we need to be more conscious not of what is said but what the speaker is trying to say. When someone says "you're a ft" do they mean it as a derogatory statement to offend someone or are they just trying to joke around and call someone a loser and if they are just trying to call someone a loser does what they said even matter? Does every single person always need to take offense to everything ever said? I don't think so. I genuinely believe that if everyone paid closer attention to themselves instead of everything everyone else is doing or saying we could be a lot happier of a generation. xoxo Ashlyn