Masterpiece Response

Carlos Serrano
Dr. Preston
Expository Composition
2 June 2014

Masterpiece Academy Response 

Ever since I have started this course I believe I have changed quite a bit and grew a little more as a person.  I say this because I am not the same, or at least don’t think the same, as when I came into the class.  While taking this class course, I have noticed that the way I think is getting more creative.  I can start seeing more solutions to a problem or question and I can think of a little more questions to ask when I want to learn something more.  I know for a fact that my thinking has improved, along with it, my reading and writing has also improved a good amount.  I started to read more and enjoy it more than before, not only for school but for me, for fun which is something I never used to do.  With my writing, I started to write more effectively and with better quality than I ever have with any other English class.

As this course took place, we were treated more as colleagues than students in a high school classroom.  This had a more of an impact than feeling like we are just some kids in some class. We got to express ourselves more and for the first time ever, we had a say in the course we were learning about. But, some people took advantage of being called colleagues instead of students and slacked off and ended up doing nothing the whole year.  On the other hand, some other students really did deserve to be treated as colleagues and not students because they took the course blog and rocked it like no other.  Those people deserve to be the leaders of the class because they get it and they should help with the course for future students.

Thanks to this course, I got back in touch with my passion, my passion being boxing and anything to do with it.  I am very grateful for that because I believe that without the course I would have never thought about taking up boxing again in a serious way but because of this course and old flame inside of me got reignited and is now stronger than ever.  Now I try and balance my school life, work life and boxing training to try and find at least an hour a day to improve myself, even if it is by myself to shadow box, run, work on my core or anything else until high school ends so that way I can have more time and truly dedicate myself to boxing and to be the best in my boxing weight class.

Throughout this course, something that has really made laugh and was amazed at was when we would have vocabulary words to do for the week, Dr. Preston would tell us that if we could use them all in one big story that we wouldn’t have to take the test because we showed that we understood the words, to show that this was possible, he would go up in front and say a story on the spot using the vocab. Words.  Like I said earlier, this both amazed me and made me laugh at the same time.

A unifying theme that ran through most of the presentations is that if you really care about doing something, whether it be a school assignment or a career, if you don’t put in your heart or soul into it, whatever you are doing won’t be your best work.  If you aren’t doing soothing to be the best, why even do it in the first place because if it isn’t your best work no one will notice and if no one notice then it might as well never existed in the first place.  When each presenter went up to talk/ present there was a certain feel to each and every one of them, a certain pizazz to them.  Each presentation was not similar to each other which made them that much more important and valuable.

When I see my other colleagues in the course with me, I see them as heroes in their own respect, in their own field of study.  Whether it is planes/flying and anything to with them when I see Matt Reynolds or be it body building and hormones with Jacob Caldwell or even Veterinary medicine with Jake Dickens.  Each one is very informed and very knowledgeable in their field, heroes if you will.  But me as I stand right now, I don’t consider myself a hero yet.  I say this because the journey that I have chosen to take is one rigorous and painful road but it is also the most rewarding because once you become champion and you have your world little belt around you and you have defeated many strong opponents, you can truly say that you are strong. That’s why I chose boxing because I want to truly know what it means to be strong. All those hours upon hours in the gym trying to improve yourself were not for nothing, they pay off and because of it, you can stand tall and proud like no other.  What’s so great about boxing and why I choose it as my journey is that once you have the belt and shown that you are the best, you can go on and conquer other belts and be the best in other weight classes as well.

Latest boxing news

Read about the latest boxing news on the Miguel Cotto vs Sergio Martinez for the middleweight championship

 http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2081614-the-hottest-boxing-storylines-for-the-week-of-june-2

Pacquiao vs Bradley 2

In case you missed the fight, here are the results of an amazing battle.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/4/13/5609684/pacquiao-vs-bradley-2-results-manny-pacquiao-avenges-loss-beats

Raising a Moral Child

In the  article titled “Raising a Moral Child”,  it was great to be able to see the links imbedded into the article that lead to the research it talks about to show that it isn’t something made up and they have resources to back up what they say. After reading that article I can say that I fully agree with what the article says with parents caring more about good attitude over achievement and how it is good to teach children to be caring it is almost never easy to show them at a young age as well as how some children are getting to be too good-natured. But what really caught my attention was when it talked about how at a young age, we should praise our children when they do good things but how you do that has a risk to it. When a child does something good and you praise action and offer a reward you run the risk of the child only doing good things when they know they will get something good in return or won’t do it if there is nothing in it for them. That is different if you praise the child and not the action. An example of this in the article is when they say how a couple are careful to say, “That was such a helpful thing to do” compared to, “You’re a helpful person” see the difference.

                Another research that caught my attention was when they explained an experiment done where they basically studied the differences between children who were told to be generous to other kids and give them tokens they have received while the person who told them to be generous was being selfish and children who were told to be generous to other kids and give them tokens while the person who told then to be generous was generous as well. Not surprisingly, the children who saw the adult be generous with his token, ended up giving more than those children who saw the adult be selfish. This experiment really shows how kids learn better through action more than words.

LOOK AT MY BRAIN

When I am working on my masterpiece and seeing what to put it in, I believe that in general it shows most of my inner most thinking because boxing is something that I have loved for a long time, it is something that I think about everyday, I try and think of new ways to improve myself overall and to obsses over the basics because they are your life line in the ring. Its times like those where it is great to be collaberating in training to improve each other.

Something wonderful

Something woderful I did was ask someone to prom,  gave a homeless man $20, which he became very emotional when I did, and I help people in the store with their bags to take them to the car.

Joe Louis

Get to know the man that has defended his title more than any other  heavyweight in boxing history.

http://www.cmgww.com/sports/louis/bio.htm