Essay 3

From a young age, the idea of Success is a topic drilled into our highly absorbent and sponge-like adolgescent minds. We are predisposed to think of success as a combination of school, high test scores, college and eventually a career with lack of any creative thinking in the midst of it all. In an article from Harper’s Magazine, John Gatto writes “We have been taught … to think of ‘success’ as synonymous with [or dependent upon] ‘schooling.’” However it isn’t success that comes from school, but from education itself with just a bit of creativity sprinkled on top. Teaching each student the same curriculum the same way would be a lucrative route to teaching if each student were exactly the same. Fortunately, we are not ergo the numerous methods of teaching and learning available to America today. Although not all of these methods may be the “right” way, there is no determining the wrong way. Passion, critical thought and curiosity are key elements in the upbringing of young scholars. The next step is to apply these elements and bring light to the creativity of the brilliant young minds that make up our forthcoming generation.

            At just the tender age of six, students are put into a classroom with roughly twenty-five others of the same basic qualifications. Here they are expected to inhale a mouthful of information, digest it, and spit it back out in the form of a test score. These test scores are what determines a student’s academic success. Keyword: academic. It is these scores that have the potential to build students up or tear them down, academically and emotionally.  However, not all students have the same type of digestive system so to speak. Learning is diverse whether it is auditory, visual, kinesthetic, abstract, etc. and the expectation of each student learning the same information, the same way, in the same amount of time is foolish and nonsensical. This is our educational system’s biggest fault. Instead of shoving useless information down a throat that will throw it back up, the real consideration should be the student’s talents and passions, where they are able to flourish into something that is greater than any equation could ever be. In a 2006 TED lecture, Ken Robinson talks about how the most potentially brilliant students are lead to believe that they are unintelligent because what they are good at wasn’t valued in school. This feeling of incapability is unhealthy for students and can carry on later in their adult lives. Rather than feeding them information that they will never put to use, they should be focusing on what they are good at and coached on how to further blossom their fostering potential. One-on-one learning with the students gives teachers the opportunity to really target each student’s individual strong suits. Here they are able to openly communicate and express any excitement or concerns that they have, all while exploring and igniting sparks in their own colorful minds.

            We are coached to go to school so that we can get a job and go to work. Ensue, we become successful. This is a system based solely on industrialism that dates back to the beginning of schooling where students would grow up to become workers. Today however, there is much more to “success” than becoming an industrial employee. In fact, a very small percentage of students nowadays go to school for industrialism due to the endless opportunities provided in today’s booming job market. Often these opportunities are overlooked and students feel the obligation to continue an education that they care very little about because that is what the rest of the world is doing. After being taught for so long that conformity is a valuable approach to life, you begin to believe it. In Bell Hooks’ book Teaching Critical Thinking, she states “… children’s passion for thinking often ends when they encounter a world that seeks to educate them for conformity and obedience only.” Constant conformity is a hard habit to break, especially for those being brought up in a system that encourages it. This is where students find themselves with lack of any individualism, thinking the same way and evolving in each other’s shadows. The key is to realize this and to take the steps to stray from it, avoiding acquiescence and paving a path made for the student, by the student. This opens their frame of reference, allowing choices and introducing opportunities for creating their own success.

            There are those able to learn independently, using their own inner dialogues and applying personal methods to solve puzzling situations in their day to day lives. Then there are those who are dependent upon our education system, sending their children off to let the paid educators do all the teaching for them. Although classrooms are reputable for where learning happens, to think that they are the only source for legitimate education is extremely close-minded. The real classroom is at home and the real teachers are our mentors. It is the parent’s job to plant ideas in the minds of their child from a young age. This provides food for thought, inspiring them to explore, consider and question the new concepts introduced to them. In his article Against School, John Gatto says “we could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness- curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight …”As opposed to denying their right to those qualities, giving them the impression that curiosity won’t get them a career, but going to school will. These qualities play an essential role in the fundamental growth of a student’s conscience. As Ken Robinson said, “we have to see our creative capacities for the richness that they are and we have to see our children for the hope that they are.” Encouraging leadership, independence and fruitful thinking from a young age can lay down a clear path for an evolving, bright young mind.

Having the ability to think freely, explore the mind and apply multiple perspectives to daily life are fundamental elements in showing exceptional leadership qualities. With a society brought up educationally equal, leadership isn’t a common trait found among today’s youth. Finding a voice within themselves gives students hope in creating a bright future. Although there may be no changing the current educational system in America, there are steps to take to lead your kids astray from curriculum that they will not find beneficial and from conforming into un-individual robots who lack thought. Realize what they are good at, embolden their talents and allow their passions to prosper. Recognize creativity, encourage curiosity, challenge their minds and their hearts will follow. After using such an out of date method for educating for so long, take the opportunity to change it for yourself and your children. As Ken Robinson said when speaking to his peers, “we may not see this future, but they will.”

WORK CITED

·         Robinson, Ken. “How schools kill creativity.” TED 2006 February 2006. <https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity>

·         Gatto, John. “Against School” Harper’s Magazine September 2009. http://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm

·         Hooks, Bell. Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom (2010)

New York, London: Routledge. 7-21.

·         Freire, Paolo. “The Banking Concept of Education.” Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 1970. Chapter 2

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What is high school for

In a lot of ways, high school is the general building blocks that set us up for Life. While you're in there, you think of every single reason why its completely irrelevant. When will you ever need to know 3x+4y^5-7xy+4? Why is General Custer relevant in this day in age? In retrospect, its not. The majority of all that information is useless to us, but it wasn't until I left high school that I was able to realize how important it really is. Every person I met and relationship I made taught me how to interact with different types of people and adapt to each situation I'm in given the circumstances. The academic side of high school gave me a little boost, but not much for the college classes I'm taking now where I'm learning a lot of things completely fresh and different. However it was the social side of it that really benefited me more so in the long run. Interaction is such an important part of life and I think high school sets you up just barely in your comfort zone where you don't have to feel completely out of your element, but just enough to where you can branch out and explore your social mind a bit more.
Regarding CHANGE, I think there could be less focus on the 4-5 main subjects (math, english, history, etc.) and more on the creative aspects of learning. Don't get me wrong, those 5 subjects are important, but it would be nice to expand on students creativity rather than boxing them up in the generic "success" routes.
Go outside, smell the flowers. Look at some tree bark. Dance and be happy. Sit less in a stale classroom and more out in a bright environment. Take in what will benefit you, not all the knowledge that they stuff into your brain from a young age.

Using Sources Effectively

In his article Against School from Harper's Magazine '03, John Gatto describes schools as "laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands." He states that "mandatory education serves children only incidentally; its real purpose is to turn them into servants." when talking about the purpose of modern schooling. 

Compare/Contrast

Looking back on my ideas of good teaching, the thoughts that swam through my mind usually consisted of candy, snack time, and endless games of Heads Up Seven Up. I only considered read-ins, Pajama Day, and field trips when entertaining the thought of what teacher I would end up with the following year. However, taking a closer look from a more grown up standpoint, I realize that those tiny perks are a only sheer veil over the remarkable face of what being a teacher really is.  A good teacher addresses the unfavorable experiences in a students life, in or outside of the classroom, and turns them around to where they are able to take away something positive from the situation.  Erin Gruwell and Ron Clark are two prime examples of extraordinary teachers, devoting their lives and career to educating and creating the best futures possible for their students. With determination, positivity and guts, these two teachers were able to mold the brilliant futures of their young scholars and shine onto them influential beams of light capable of turning the most negative of situations into something much brighter. Giving them encouragement, hope and a group they were able to call family, the scholastic lives, as well as home lives, of their students flourished into remarkable stepping stones to create the base of the rest of their bright futures.
No one was really sure if she knew what she was getting herself into. A new teacher from the thriving high-class city of Newport Beach, Ms. Gruwell didn't anticipate the amount of violence and retaliation throughout the newly integrated Los Angeles High School where she would now be employed. She waited at the head of her dusty, bare classroom while the old graffiti-covered desks began to slowly fill. Looking at faces ranging on the color spectrum from black to white and everything in between, she might as well have been colorblind. The students mocked her fair white complexion and the faculty mocked her devotion to them. Regardless, she stuck around despite how threatened she was feeling to pursue a task that no other teacher dare even consider. Teaching the "unteachables".
With a lack of inspiring material to introduce to her new class, Ms. Gruwell was scorned for asking to use the library books because the students had a reputation for destroying them. She took it upon herself to pick up a second job to help pay for her new school books and introduced them to the idea of Change, which they were all able to entertain. With time she gained the trust of each of her students, some more willing than others, and explored alternative teaching methods to get them to open up more. She used their music preferences and backgrounds to bring them together where they were able to realize how much they actually had in common. During a game, Ms. Gruwell triggered loss as a mutual emotion between all of the students which was used as an icebreaker and offered a link between each of them. She compared Nazi's to the neighborhood gangs that the students were affiliated with to give them a perspective on how amateur they actually are which opened up their eyes to the idea that there may be more to life than the streets.  
Meanwhile at home, her relationship with her husband was struggling. Her heart was torn, battling a constant push and pull from spouse to scholars and she soon found herself splitting up their belongings in an unforeseen divorce. Still she kept close to her class and with them moving up a grade within the year, she was able to convince the school board to let her advance with them and remain their teacher until they graduated. After publishing a book of her students' writing and proving wrong the extremely pessimistic minds of her fellow staff members, Ms. Gruwell followed many of her students to college as a teacher to pursue the rest of her career in their footsteps.
Mr. Clark didn't expect to be laughed at when he said he wanted to "teach" in Harlem. Apparently his small North Carolina town didn't compare much to New York City, so it took some convincing of his weary parents before he decided to make the move. Landing at a low income Harlem elementary school, the faculty was doubtful of the new teacher, referring to the students as problems. He visited each students' home to talk to their parents about the curriculum they would be learning prior to starting at the school. Here he was brushed off with little to no cooperation from the parents, which gave him an idea of what he would be working with once he got into the classroom. For the loud and very disobedient new students, he came up with creative ways to make it exciting for the kids to learn. He rapped songs about History and even played games in class to make it more interesting for them. The number one rule was that in the classroom, they were a family and within that group they had a guaranteed safe place.
Entering a classroom where every single student tells you to leave must feel somewhat unwelcoming and although he considered leaving, Mr. Clark stayed because he was determined to raise the test scores of the brilliant young minds that sat before him. Picking up some of the burdens that the students were dealing with in their own lives gave them a chance to focus more on their studies and less on their problems. He met with students individually to help them with anything that they were struggling with, school-related or not. When he became sick with Pneumonia, he video taped himself at home for the kids to watch in class since he could not physically be there to teach them. Mr. Clark saw education as an out for troubled students while the students were able to look at the classroom as an out for their lack of a decent home life.
The class appreciated what Mr. Clark was doing for them, but not all of their parents did. It took time, but he showed them that if you set the bar low, then that's all you're going to get. When you expect nothing but less, then less is all you are going to get. After some convincing and positive test scores, he was able to prove the true potential of their children and bring light to their intricate developing minds. He took one very troubled student out of the shadows and brought him into an uplifting environment where he was able to prosper into a remarkable artist. Eventually when the students got their final test scores back, the results were outstanding and they ended up scoring highest average of any other class in the school.
It's a combination of determination, selflessness, positivity and guts that make these two teachers as inspiring as they are. For Ms. Gruwell and Mr. Clark's classes, it didn't matter where you came from. You could be black, white, Mexican, Puerto Rican or Jewish. It was the sense of community and affinity, regardless of their backgrounds, that brought them together and gave them a sense of family. Although neither of the teachers anticipated teaching a class of such intransigent students, they took it upon themselves to bring them together as one and give them the sense of wholesomeness and upbringing that they were lacking. Despite the seemingly endless mockery and judgement that they received from their peers, both teachers fought endlessly to improve and encourage the futures of each and every one of their students.

Woodrow vs. Wellesley

The two schools in the movies are far from similar to each other. Woodrow High is a very integrated public school with many cases of gang violence and poverty where as Wellesley is a high-class all girls private college. They both are on two opposite ends of the country with two opposite approaches to learning.
The teachers I find are pretty similar with a few subtle differences. They both aren't really aware of what they're getting themselves into and both struggle on the first few days of school trying to fit in and determine their place in the faculty. Both teachers make the mistake of showing vulnerability, which allows the students to undermine their confidence a little bit in the beginning. But soon they recognize their place in the school and let the students know that they have the upper hand. The most outstanding similarity I noticed however, was their genuine yearning for learning. They wanted to make their students become the best people they can be and it definitely shows as the movies progress.
I unfortunately have not had the pleasure of working with teachers similar to Gruell and Watson but I wish I could say that I have.

Using Details

Audre Lorde’s Zami

“For our mother’s souse, it didn’t matter what kind of meat was used. You could have hearts, or beefends, or even chicken backs and gizzards when we were really poor. It was the pounded-up saucy blend of herb and spice rubbed into the meat before it was left to stand so for a few hours before cooking that made that dish so special and unforgettable. But my mother had some very firm ideas about what she liked best to cook and about which were her favorite dishes, and souse was definitely not one of either.”

For Mrs. Gruell’s class, it didn’t matter where you came from. You could be black, white, Mexican, Puerto Rican or even Arabic. It was the sense of community and affinity, regardless of their backgrounds, that brought them together and gave them a sense of family. Although Mrs. Gruell didn’t anticipate teaching a class of such intransigent students, she took it upon herself to bring them together as one and give them the sense of wholesomeness that they were lacking.

Mike Rose’s I Just Wanna Be Average

“Jack MacFarland couldn't have come into my life at a better time. My father was dead, and I had logged up too many years of scholastic indifference. Mr. MacFarland had a master's degree from Columbia and decided, at twenty-six, to find a little school and teach his heart out. He never took any credentialing courses, couldn't bear to, he said, so he had to find employment in a private system. He ended up at Our Lady of Mercy teaching five sections of senior English. He was a beatnik who was born too late. His teeth were stained, he tucked his sorry tie in between the third and fourth buttons of his shirt, and his pants were chronically wrinkled. At first, we couldn't believe this guy, thought he slept in his car. But within no time, he had us so startled with work that we didn't much worry about where he slept or if he slept at all.”

Mrs. Gruell couldn’t have come to Woodrow Wilson High at a better time. The students desire to learn was dead and at that point, they didn’t think anything could save them. Mrs. Gruell was a new teacher from Newport Beach who decided to take the opportunity to teach at a newly integrated high school. She had never worked in a position like this one, but she took it upon herself to make the most of the situation because she knew no other teachers would. She ended up in an English class teaching a range of ethnicities and backgrounds. She was pretty and young. Her voice was soft, she wore a fancy pearl necklace, and her shoes clicked when she walked on the linoleum. At first, the students looked at her as a joke, with her even-toned white complexion.  However, soon enough she had them so engulfed in positive learning that they didn’t even consider the skin tone that they were sitting next to.

potential victims...

I'm having a hard time pin pointing a teacher who really stood out to me throughout my educational career. Coming from a small school with a mediocre staff, I wish I could say that at least one of them made a positive impact on me. However, there is only one, Mr. Tran, who was the most horrible math teacher I've ever encountered but I feel like I don't have enough background to make a 1200 word paper out of it. I've seen another great movie, similar to Freedom Writers called the Ron Clark Story starring Mathew Perry as a school teacher out of his element in a New York City school, so I'm considering comparing him and Ms. Gruell since they take place in a similar environment.
Any thoughts? Would that be way too easy?

Ms. Watson vs Mr. MacFarland

Was Ms. Watson similar to Mr. MacFarland?
In many ways I see numerous similarities between the two teachers. The first is a sense of liberalism. Both teachers had plans to put aside the typical expectations of your average students to create something greater, that will benefit them more so in retrospect. Ms. Watson however came into the school with the ideas that she would give her students a different perspective on their futures, while Mr. MacFarland didn't try to mold the minds of his students per say, he let his teachings mold their minds to form into something that would benefit them on their own terms.
Another similarity between the two was encouraging education beyond where they stood. Ms. Watson printed out a Yale application for Joan who was on the fence of pursuing her own career and marrying the man she loved, not even considering the option that you can do both...
Mike had no intentions of completing any higher education because he didn't feel he had the background or knowledge to apply for any type of college, but Mr. MacFarland reached out to his own old professors and worked out a spot for Mike to attend his Freshman year of college at the same place where his teacher learned.
Both of these teachers showed great examples of selflessness as well as simply wanting the best possible future for their students. And when it comes down to it, that is the most important key for determining a good teacher.

Mona Lisa Smile

If I had the opportunity, I would be a teacher just like Ms. Watson trying to persuade conservative young women to pursue their dreams instead of marrying the most eligible man they can find. She is all about the movement of women's rights and she wants people to know that there is so much more to women then being a good wife and I definitely admire that in her. Although not all the girls see eye to eye with her in the beginning, they slowly begin to see her guiding light and realize themselves that there is more to life then marrying the finest man and becoming the finest spouse.

Audre Lorde's Essay

Lorde's essay was fascinating to me and actually a little shocking, until I think about what was actually expected in classrooms back then. In her essay, Lorde doesn't specifically state who is a good and bad teacher. Instead she allows us to decide by telling us a little bit about the backgrounds of the teachers and her own experiences with them. She talks about behavior and expectations and how the two coincide, as well as Family vs. Classroom expectations.
She shows the contrast between What you are able to do and What you are asked to, especially during her experience in a Kindergarten classroom where her abilities outweighed the expectations and as a result , was punished for knowing too much and not following simple direction.
When she attended Catholic school, the nuns separated the Good and Bad kids in the classroom and by ACCIDENTALLY breaking her eye glasses, she was forced into a dunce cap in the back of the room with no aid or guidance in her scholastic life, as if it was her fault for being born with bad sight.

What makes a good teacher?

Being a teacher is one of the most important jobs there is because they are the hands that mold us as children to become who we are for the rest of our lives. I never understood the impact they actually make on us as people in a society that is always evolving. Without my teachers, I would have never evolved into the young woman I am with the ideas that I have and the things that I know. I think a great teacher begins with an open mind. You can't expect every student in a classroom to learn at the same pace and a good teacher knows that. A good teacher helps you in areas where you need it and break down the subjects that you're not understanding. They are not worried about payroll or their hours, they genuinely want you to understand the material so that you can leave that class feeling confident in what you learned. A good teacher simply wants to make you the best you can be and they put in the equal effort to make it happen. 

Post Essay Questions

1. I'm content with the finished product of my paper. It was difficult at times to write about such personal experiences, but I got most of it down on paper. Its finished for the class. I definitely could have gone more in depth but I'm not comfortable sharing such dark parts of my life with the world so I held some things back for my own preferences. Had I been writing to myself or someone I knew on a much more personal level, I may have added more but it's just fine given the circumstances.

2. Reading everyone else's papers actually helped me out a lot. I wasn't sure which standpoint to write from, but after I read everyone else's drafts, they were all speaking from their own personal viewpoints so that was definitely helpful to shape the voice in my paper. I wasn't sure how safe it was to enter such a personal topic but in reading the other drafts, I became comfortable writing to the class because I could feel the personal aspect in their own papers.

3. I don't feel like I need much help at this point. The revision emails that I received from my classmates did wonders and I was able to make quite a few changes that made my paper even stronger.

4. In paper #1, I wrote about learning who your parents are and learning who you are. And learning that there is a big difference between the two.

5. The main idea that I wanted to convey in my paper was that  being vulnerable is being human and it's okay to be human. Don't feel obligated to take all your traits from your parents, because the world has more to teach you then your parents may. Feeling pain reminds you that your hearts beating and doing something about that pain, reminds you that it's possible to heal again.

Most Important Edu. Experience

My most educational experience happened when I was about 16, maybe 17. Not the kind of experience where you are taught by someone, but rather taught by Life. I was always very cynical about the world, that all people have a very insidious agenda and no one does anything out of pure good anymore. It was something that I really struggled with as a young woman because I didn't trust or confide in anyone due to the fact that I had such a negative outlook on humanity from being screwed over and over by so many people. I was angry at my parents for not being that peer that I really needed. I thought "THIS IS YOUR JOB!!!!! Help me!" But I soon came to find that even my parents were dealing with their own bullshit. I had known them my whole life as Mom and Dad, but as I grew, I realized that they are just people too, dealing with issues of their own. After I stopped blaming my parents for putting me on this crap planet, I came to find that it wasn't so crappy after all. I opened myself up to the goodness in people and let it radiate warmth into me. "GOODNESS EXISTS" i thought. People can be good. Life can be good. It's all about your perspective, having an open mind, and emitting that goodness back into the Universe. Because it will all come back to you.

very ROUGH draft

I never thought I would be the one to fall off the deep end. Especially because when you’re falling, you’re not really aware of it until you hit the ground hard. This was one of the hardest things to cope with in the beginning. Sitting in the waiting room at Peninsula Psychological Center, I was officially crazy. The girl who seemed to have her head screwed on so tight was really the one screaming inside, crying for an ear to just hear me. At the table with my entire family for dinner, I was sitting there by myself, drowned in thoughts that I didn't even know I was capable of composing. 


I grew up with a good idea of who I was. My parents, two hard-headed semi-egomaniacs raised their children independent, grounded and just as hard-headed as themselves. They divorced when I was a toddler due to "irreconcilable differences" that still have yet to be reconciled, so I was put into a very awkward situation at a very young age. I was 11 when my two brothers cut all ties with my Mom and moved in with my Dad, who encouraged the move from my Mom and set rules for the boys to follow if they chose to stay in his household. This put me in the middle of my Mother and Father's long-time stand off and with my brothers now involved, I was Switzerland in a new World War. 

Cubing

Marijuana
Analyze:
Compare/Contrast:

Define:

            Marijuana: One of life’s greatest herbs? Or the Black Plague of horticulture? From buds and leaves to edibles and tea, Marijuana is one of the most common forms of medication around the globe. With use varying from home remedies to cancer medication to just feeling good, Marijuana has been proved to bring forward remarkable benefits. The leafy plant that is covered in tri-combs of THC, varying in color from purple to white to green to black and orange, has a distinct scent that cannot be mistaken for anything other than skunk cabbage. Each strain of Marijuana is different and has its own unique qualities verses other strains, which can be beneficial depending on the consumer. 

There are many arguments to be made on either side for marijuana. While not everyone agrees on whether or not it should become legal, it is clear that there is a push in our culture towards the recognition of the benefits of the plant and the buds it produces. For those who don’t smoke, here are some things to think about when considering this weed. There are enormous benefits to using marijuana as a medicine. It is primarily used as a pain inhibitor but it also does well for stress. How about the increase in state revenue if it was regulated and taxed? No more offenders on the streets getting popped for dime bags. And it just seems to be with the times, doesn’t it? Obama tried it. And for those opposed: it might be a nuisance, but smokers tend to keep it out of sight, it might make for lapses in judgment, but everyone needs to step out of their comfort zones and have fun, and it might make somebody lazy, but nothing bad ever happened while sitting on the couch with Cheetos and ice cream. 

Marijuana is a drug and ingested in different ways. One is very interesting way. Unlike alcohol, tobacco products you can ingest marijuana in bakery products. I believe that is the “safest” way. Smoking marijuana is more harmful then smoking cigarettes or cigars. You can chew tobacco but if you swallow – you are a very sick person. I have not heard of making a drink using marijuana.  Drinking alcohol is the only way I know of ingesting. I would think a drink made with marijuana would not taste very well.         

Apply:

Marijuana is a versatile plant that has numerous applications for including recreational, industrial and medicinal purposes.

The most commonly associated by product of the marijuana plant are the buds themselves that come off of the plant. These are used in both recreational and medicinal scenarios. There are many distinct breeds or strains of the marijuana plant that each contain varying amounts of certain chemicals, that in turn have varying effects on the body and mind. The two most important chemical properties in the buds themselves are THC and CBD or Tetrahydrocannabinol and Cannabidiol respectively.

In fact, studies by federal researchers at the National Institutes of Mental Health. Their reports have stated that these two chemical properties both appear to protect brain cells from the damage that often occurs during a stroke. When the brain's blood supply is cut, as occurs during a stroke, THC and CBD's act as powerful antioxidants, protecting the brain cells from exposure to toxic levels of the brain chemical called glutamate. This finding also indicates that marijuana may hold medical value in the treatment of brain injuries and diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Which book?

Can anyone tell me which Writing Simplified book we are using for English 101? If you could just tell me the author, it would be great because there are a variety of Writing Simplified's to choose from.

Thanks :)

The Icebreaker

Joshua chose his template because it was the first one he saw. He likes mountains and was drawn to the mountainous background. The font he chose was an accident and he decided to just leave it.

Evan's template decision was based on drawing attention to his blog. He wanted his blog to catch the eye and he picked his font according to his own personal handwriting.

Jason is in the tech industry so he went with a technical-looking template. He only changed the top font because it was boring.

Cassidy wanted her background to reflect on herself. She loves the beach and beautiful weather so she went with an uplifting, bright theme. The font she chose was a cursive style because it is girly and she is the only female in the class.

Welcome To English 101

First post!