Maggie’s Blog

Maggie Safer

Mrs.Duke

English III

May 13, 2021

Final Reflection

The problems I have tuned in on the school system are its effects on students’ mental health. The main problems that I focused on were homework, accumulating tests, and how school and the pandemic affected students. My research came from gale academics, this included statistics about how mental health issues have increased in younger generations. This is because students see themselves as their grades. Students have been very stressed about homework and it takes up too much time in the students life, so that they can’t go to their extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities help students because it is an outlet for them. Students that participate in an activity outside of school have a higher mental health. The solution to this is limited homework. Tests can add up quickly for students and their stress levels increase with multiple tests in a short amount of time. To help prevent this, we can set up a calendar for teachers to put all of their tests and other assessments on. The last main problem that came to light in the pandemic was late policies. With mental health issues increasing, students have a lack of motivation to do this work which leads to late work. Teachers have many different policies for late work which can become stressful for students to keep up with. The solution is to have a school wide late work policy.

In my project it was difficult for me to decide which parts of the school system I wanted to focus on. I know there are many issues with it but I think that focusing on the mental health issues would be important especially when I have seen it in peers. I started to research, which was more difficult than I thought it was going to be. I decided the three main problems were homework, tests, and late work. I then found research supporting why these were issues. I started to brainstorm about how we could fix this. It wasn’t an easy fix since we have a schedule and layout that functions but that does not mean that it functions well. Once I found my solutions I started to lay it out in a powerpoint. I went to see some of my teachers to get their advice on my solutions so I could perfect my project. Lastly, I created my Teacher Policy sheet. It listed the adjustments that should be made with the teachers so the students can have a better mental health. 

First blog: I brained stormed my topic and started to get some statistics on student stress levels.

Second blog: I found a study about the increase in mental health issues in younger generations in recent decades. This was one thing that mainly supported my topic.

Third blog: My first solution started to come together in this blog regarding homework.

Fourth blog: First day working on my presentation.

Fifth blog: Fixed some problems with my research and finalized it.

Final Presentation

I think that my presenting skills were one of the better parts of my project. I tried my best to connect with my audience, that is why I related it to situations I know that some of them related to. My statistics pulled the presentation together nicely and gave me a better argument. However, there were a couple holes in my presentation, I still would need to figure out the limits on tests with the teacher calendar. This is because the calendar includes tests, quizzes, projects, and papers. This would be a decision that teachers or a board would have to make. I have learned that many of my peers have been feeling the same way about school that I have lately. I have also realized that there are many factors when trying to make changes to the school. It is difficult to fit everyone’s needs and it’s nearly impossible to make everyone happy. I have also learned that I have good presentation skills, I just can’t make myself too worried.

In the beginning of the year I mainly skimmed books when I read them, I did not pick them apart and analyze them. I got more out of reading my final book of the year because I relearned how I effectively read. This completely changed my perspective on reading.

In our English class we had time to work on projects or read in class. This allowed us to have more time to do out of school activities or work on another class work once we finish our English work. We have pushed projects back before because of other classes and having too many tests in one week. This means that we were able to do better work in both classes. These are examples of the positive effects of the Teacher Policy sheet.

Today for my English final I fixed some of my research and finalized it. I am still in the process of deciding how I want to incorporate my book into the presentation. I am really excited to present this because I have put a lot of time into this final.

Today I worked on my powepoint, this is explaining the problem. The solution to the problem will not be part of the slideshow. I have all of my research in the slide show and my works cited.

Mental health is younger people has been recently increasing. This is because students base their worth on their grades, they think that if they don’t get good grades that they aren’t going to get anywhere in life. This will lead to low self esteem and to mental health issues. I will be looking into how the pandemic has affected students and how the work load has too. Some changes that I have come up with are having a limited amount of homework for students. The second one is teachers coordinating when tests are. I have noticed that students will have 3 tests in one week and that is not gonna end up having the students best performance.

There is a study that says that over the past couple of decades, mental health has increased within younger generations. This is because of educational expansion and a change in economics. Kids start to view their worth as grades because to make it in the world they think having good grades is the only way. Putting that much pressure on a kid increases their stress levels. This leads to more mental health issues in younger generations. Being alienated in school is also a part of this stress.

There has been a study done that shows the increase in stress levels of students because of the pandemic. Mental health issues got higher in March when college students were told that they had to go home. In this time the mental health issues would usually decrease because of spring break, but they did not in this case. They sky rocketed this time. This is also because they had to stay inside constantly and they did not get to see their friends. Many of peoples stress outlets were taken away from them because of the pandemic. A decent amount of college students also followed the quarantine rules along with the social distancing.

I like looking back on the person I was at different points in my life. Even if these points were good or bad they impacted me and changed me to help become the person that I am now. Some people may call these core memories. I think that every phase that I have had in life so far has been greatly different. A year ago today I wouldn’t be able to recognize myself now which I don’t really see as a bad thing honestly. I see personal growth as always a good thing no matter how we end up getting there. I always tend to go back to these memories because I love to think about things, pick them apart, every small little detail and figure out what it means.

One of the most important things that have made me grow as a person is knowing that nothing is permanent. People aren’t going to stay in your life as long as you want them to. Which yeah it sucks, but I make sure to remember that people in your life could end up being a lesson, or maybe stay in your life a lot longer than you had expected. Sometimes when you think your world is ending, you’ll look back on it and realize it was for the best. Everything that happens to us in our life has a purpose. The important thing is to never stop growing because once we stop growing we can never reach our full potential.

In the past quarter I have improved on my writing in different ways, but overall, the same big picture. I have been focussing on not sounding so repetitive in my blogs and just in my writing in general. It is my main problem, but I think I have improved a decent amount on it. I am also still working on transition sentences because I do not want my work to sound choppy. I prefer it to sound more free flowing. Every once in a while I will also have small grammar problems, but I can always double check it or use grammarly if needed.

Like most people, I write much better and more professional when it’s about a topic I am very interested in. This is not necessarily a good thing because when I write about those topics I have these amazing pieces. When I end up writing something for a topic that I am not interested in it usually turns out to be repetitive and bland. For the last quarter I hope to be able to touch up on these small problems so I can become the best reader I can be.

This week I have been getting memories on my phone from a year ago. I would say it’s bitter sweet but it’s not even that. Videos kept on popping up about how we were getting a two week break from school and everyone was so excited for it. Looking back on those video hurts a good bit. We didn’t know anything that was heading our way. Those two weeks turned into a months in a blink of an eye. My parents were very cautious in the beginning because there was a lot of unknown. I didn’t see my friends for months, but I talked to them so much more, I was always on facetime with one of my friends no matter what. The work load was not too bad and it gave me a lot of time to focus on myself.

I would get all of my work done at 9 or 10 in the morning. I would make myself a smoothie and then go on a run. Once I got back I would make myself a salad and work out a little bit more. The rest of the day was mine. I don’t want to say that I miss it because it was a messed up time and still is but I do miss it more than a I realized. I don’t like being stuck in an endless cycle, I think that is why I liked the first quarantine so much. I got the most out of my day and even though I missed my friends it was so peaceful. It was like we all had our own little bubble and no one could mess it up. With the transition back to school at first it was painful, and it’s still rough because it is junior year. After the first quarantine though, I’m not nearly as motivated. This could be because I don’t have as much time for myself or maybe I miss the little bubble I had during the quarantine. That time was so calm and I know I would probably regret going back but just for a week I would like to experience the absolute bliss I felt one year ago today.

Our technology in this world is constantly growing and becoming more complex. Lately Deepfakes have become more popular. Specifically, an app on our phones that recently got popular to animate old videos. This technology has been used in movies to replace an actor that had passed away or make them look a certain age. This is a technological advancement that can be used to have “conversations” we relatives that had passed or famous scientists. If there ie no record of them speaking then it will become much more difficult to have a conversation with that person.

One way to tell if a video is a deepfake is the voice, most of the time you can tell by the impersonation of the voice if it isn’t prerecorded. Other ways you can tell if its fake is the lighting and if the face gets blurry. In a few years we will probably have deepfakes that we cannot tell are fake. This can become very dangerous for politicians and just everyday life. There is nothing you can do from becoming a deep fake, so someone has the power to do whatever they want with your life. I think that we are starting to become too technologically advanced for our own good. Luckily there are programs that their main purpose is to find deep fake videos and make sure other people know that it is not real. Hopefully we don’t let this technology take over our life too much.