Reflection Take Three

For this project each student was supposed to incorporate something they learned from internship and morph it into something that could be put into the magazine we were to make. Students were to do photo essays, interviews, or editorials. I had my internship at Cherokee Point Elementary chosen for me so I chose to write an article about the risk I took having my internship chosen for me since it wasn't an issue that was being addressed in others writing.

When I think about my writing in this project what I think I learned is how to cut the useless information in my writing, make it a concert not a pancake, an intro can capture or lose the reader and to always keep it simple.

In my first draft of my writing I had a lot of useless information that wasn’t even necessary.

To graduate in the High Tech High Village you are required to have completed an internship. We do our internship in 11th grade. Internships are required because they give you a little preview of what its like in the real world doing something you possibly would like to pursue in the future. The internship coordinator sets you up with an internship, or you find your own. I was constantly told to get your own internship because you know yourself better than the internship coordinator and you know what you yourself like.

This was a whole paragraph that I had dedicated to talking about how internship works. With more and more critiques I took the whole paragraph out.

Another rule that I learned ,that I think was the coolest, was ‘Concerts not Pancakes’ which basically means Start the writing good have it good through out the writing and end it good, just like a concert. Don't make it like a pancake, having it start good and having it end bad. I tried my best to make my writing like a concert and I think that I succeeded in doing so.

The final but most important thing that I learned with my writing is that the intro can capture or lose the reader. I’ve known this for a while but with this article I was much more aware of it. I was more aware due to the fact that there was going to be about 50 other articles that were about their internship and I wanted my writing to capture the reader and not just have them flip past it.

I learned to keep it simple when it came to my writing in the sense that I should keep the words simple because big words can sometimes confuse people, I know they confuse me sometimes. There’s also no such thing as too much editing and when it comes to the layouts keep it simple .

How I learned these different techniques were through the different critiques that we had and listening to the different podcasts that Randy recommended.

Learning all of this was important because I learned new techniques that I can use in my senior year when it comes to writing and using InDesign.

What I think that I can still improve on is working on the structuring of my writing. I think that the paragraphs could be moved around a little bit more so that I can make it flow smoother and better. I think what will help me improve next time is having someone who wouldn't even know about the writing thats assigned read it and just give me some feedback as to what they like and what they don’t like. I think this because the feedback would be more helpful because I don't think that they would hold back.

Magazine Reflection Take Two

Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what improved? How did it get better? Why?
When I think about the big picture of my writing and what improved I think about all the useless information that I cut out. There was so much useless information that I cut, an example would be when I talked about what internship was and how its done. I realized that it was useless considering that whoever is reading this magazine knows our school, and at least knows about what internship is. How it got better was through critiques with different people and getting information back on what was good what should be moved, added or even taken out.

Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what still needs work? What do you think will help you improve? Why?
What I think could be improved is probably the writing structure. I think that the paragraphs could be moved around a little bit more so that I can make it flow better. I think what will help me improve is having someone who doesn’t even know about the magazine read it and just give me some feedback as to what they like and what they don’t like.

Specifically, show us something that improved and describe the path it took to get better. You can quote your article, your drafts, link to evidence, etc.
Something that I improved on was my writing structure. With the help of my teacher he told me what worked and what didn’t and he was more honest than my peers were which was what I needed. I also improved on removing the useless, unnecessary information. An example my first draft started like this

To graduate in the High Tech High Village you are required to have completed an internship. We do our internship in 11th grade. Internships are required because they give you a little preview of what its like in the real world doing something you possibly would like to pursue in the future. The internship coordinator sets you up with an internship, or you find your own. I was constantly told to get your own internship because you know yourself better than the internship coordinator and you know what you yourself like.

With a few critiques i realized that I needed to take this out. Other classmates were sure to refer to the process of internship. I didn't need to repeat it.

Describe something specific (or a few things!) that you learned about writing. Theres a lot of things that I learned about writing through this project

• Concerts not pancakes- Start the writing good and end it good. Don't be like pancakes having it start good and ending disgusting.
• Intro- I learned how to make my intro start interesting and to capture the reader. In my case I started with telling a story about how i didn't get
  
• Audience- I learned that when writing I should keep in mind who will be reading this. Take in to mind that the reader might or might not know what an internship is.
• Too much copy editing- There's no such thing.
• Keep it simple- Keep it simple with your words, big words confuse people sometimes. Most likely those big words can be replaced with smaller simpler words.
  

Magazine Reflection

The reflection is due by the end of the day on Thursday. Please take your time and look through your own work as well as others classmates'.

Think of the process, which began weeks (or months ago)--you started with an idea or maybe an earlier draft of piece of work. That was edited and revised many times for content, substance and style. You created or re-used artwork or photography. This was edited and resized for our magazine. Finally, all of this was compiled into a layout that was critiqued and revised until you could do the final steps of "file > package."

1. What went well for you during the process of creating this magazine?

• Having people around that know what they are doing was definitely what went well. It went well because I didn’t really have an idea coming into the project if my writing was worth being put in a magazine or what I wanted my layout to be. With the help of my teacher and my peers I made a piece of writing that was really good. What else went really well was just everyone being ok with how the magazine was going to be made and no one really was angry if there choice wasn’t chosen what I’m trying to say is everyone was open to new ideas.

2. What challenges did you face as you moved from an early draft or idea to a final product?

• The challenge I faced was I had two pieces of writing and I didn’t really know which one I wanted to use. I overcame this problem simply by asking opinions of different people and I finally made my decision. Another problem I came into was that my layout was kind of boring to me I fixed this by talking to my teacher who gave me some great ideas.

3. What other examples of work—student and professional—stood out as exemplary and served as a good model for your own work?

• My title was similar to Nyachare’s title. I also used some of the layouts form national geographic magazine and the Atlantic Magazine as my guidelines for my layout.

In the end I'm really proud of this project and I think that it is the coolest one that I have done so far.

Obama's Socialism

Google the phrase "Obama Socialism". What do you get? Try google news... what did you find?
I read that people are bringing up the meeting with the Venezuelas president. Saying that these first 100 days Obama has been called weak and we’re leaning towards Socialism. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-stolz/yes-he-can_b_189361.html

In this article they said that Obama has an agenda to socialism. They say that socialism isn’t as bad as it was twenty or ten years ago that now its not that bad as people think.

This article was about the Texas governor was at a rally speaking about how “Texas wont go gently to Socialism.” And how they don’t like the big spending politians. Also some posters were reading “Stop Obama's Socialism'. I thought that this was interesting that a governor is against our president.

When Googling 'Obama Socialism' I found something interesting The first one was “Why Obama’s Socialism Matters” inside this article there was an interesting link that I found that had a link inside of it.

“June sources released information that during his campaign for the State Senate in Illinois, Barack Obama was endorsed by an organization known as the Chicago "New Party". The 'New Party' was a political party established by the Democratic Socialists of America (the DSA) to push forth the socialist principles of the DSA by focusing on winnable elections at a local level and spreading the Socialist movement upwards.”

There were also updates from the NP from October 1996 coming out saying that new member of theres was Barack Obama.

Do you feel that the label "socialism" is applied appropriately or correctly to Obama, his proposals or his policies?

Socialism is defined as an economy in which the government controls all means of production.

I feel that Obama is doing what he thinks is best for the country.

Do Obama's proposals or policies have historic precedents in America? If so, what happened in the past?

Obama did repeal Bush's policy on limiting funding on Stem Cell Research.

Photo Essay: Internship Photo Essay

What is Cherokee Point?
I intern at Cherokee Point Elementary. Cherokee Point Elementary is about 4 years old and located in City Heights. This new school has a total of 700 students, Kinder through fifth, 32 classrooms and stands on 6.7 acres of land. The new school was approved as Proposition MM November 3, 1998 and started being built March 25, 2004. The name Cherokee Point was given to the school due to the fact that the surrounding streets of the neighborhood area create the shape of an arrowhead. It was built to stop the overcrowding in the elementary schools nearby such as Adams Elementary, Birney Elementary, Carver Elementary, Clay Elementary and Central Elementary. The school officially opened September 6, 2005.


Beginning of my day
My main location , at Cherokee Point , is the library/media room. My job in the library/media room is to check books in and out, put books away, help kids find books, and some other tasks. I find putting the books away quite boring but sometimes fun. I find it boring because I have to put them back. This can take awhile but I do find it fun because I usually end up finding some cool books to look at. My favorite job to do is, to check books in and out. I find checking them in and out fun because I get to use the scanner and I get to interact with the kids more. I also enjoy helping the kids find their books because I, again, get to interact with the kids. When I don’t have anything to do, my mentors busy or I’m done with my work; I usually just grab a book from their large selection.

My Project
At Cherokee Point they have computer carts, which go between classes in the certain grade levels. The computer carts carry 20 Apple iBooks. Some teachers weren’t really happy with the movement of them because some weren’t getting the computers that often. The solution to this problem was to give two computers to each teacher from grades kinder to 3rd. For this redistributing of computers two computers carts, a total of 40 computers, and had to be distributed to 18 teachers. This was my project; I handled the computers over the two weeks, one computer cart for each week.


Beginning the project
When it came to redistributing the computers it wasn’t just getting them and pass them out. The first day starting my project I had to do software upgrades, Firefox upgrades, and Adobe Reader upgrades. For twenty computers this took me 2:30 hours. After computer upgrades I had to erase student files such as, word documents, Power Points, pictures, music, movies, etc. Erasing took me from about half an hour. After deleting the documents I had to install the printers so that the printer installed on the computer matched the printer in the classroom that it was going to this took me about 45 minutes. After I finished installing the printers I stopped working on them for the rest of the day and helped with other tasks.

End of the Project
The second day, my project involved entering the computer info onto a computer application called Horizon. With Horizon I assigned each computer a specific barcode number. This took me about 3 hours, due to the fact that I had to make sure that all information was right. After I was finished with barcodes I had to clean the computers so that they looked close to brand new. This took me from 11 to about 1. While I cleaned them I had to label them with their barcode so where the green dot is, is where the new barcode was placed. The third day was when I cleaned and labeled the chargers and passed out the chargers. This was the first computer cart on the first week. The next week I did finished in three days but I also did so much more besides this project.



Music Class
The second week I got to do more than just working in the library and with the computers. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I joined in on a music class and I also helped the music teacher out a bit. The days that I went there were different grade levels. Kindergarten, of course, was just simple dancing and singing, 3rd grade was practicing their recorder and some dancing and 5th grade was doing rehearsals for a program they have coming up. I enjoyed going to help out, observe and participate in music class especially with the kindergartens because they taught me some songs and dances. In the picture above I was sitting in on the third grade class taking pictures of them practicing their recorders, this is one of the pictures that I took. I also observed a first/second grade class in which I am basing my next project on. My next project is a combination of my honors project and my internship project. I will be creating a children’s book for this class.

What I'm bringing to the Magazine

What are you bringing to the Magazine?!

1. What article(s) would you like to write for the magazine? What photography could you contribute? Art? List three different ideas for your major contribution.

• I would like to do an article about how its not totally bad if Law picks your internship. I would like to do this because I hear so much about how horrible it is if you have your internship picked for you but I had mines picked for me and I love it. I can add some of my photos from my photo essay onto it or I could possibly just take new ones
• My mentor interview or my photoessay.
• If no one else is doing this then I'd like to produce an interview of those who picked their own internship against those who had theirs choosen for them.

2. Suggest at least one (or more) possible title for the magazine. This could be a title with or without a subtitle. For example, I work for UnBoxed: a Journal of Adult Learning in Schools.

• HTHMA: High School Internship Experiences

3. Suggest a topic for an article that you were personally like to read in a magazine inspired by the internship semester.

• I would like to read about different internship experiences and how they dealt with awkward situations, stressful situations and other situations that they've never dealt with before.
• All this semester we've been asked 'What does the world of work mean to you?' so I think that the magazine should answer that question somewhat.

My Economic Advice

At my internship I intern at an elementary school. My internship is basically in the field of education. In California the education budget $11 billion has been cut. In order to compensate for the lack of funding pink slips have been handed out, 20,000 to be exact. My advice to my internship instead of eliminating teachers which will make classroom sizes bigger, do some of these:

1. Eliminate Saturday School

• My internship has Saturday School for any students that want to come. My advice would be, to save money, stop it. The school during Saturday school has to pay for the staff and the food for the kids.

2. Apply for Grants

• My school can apply for grants for computers and other requirements too.
  

3. Promote Attendance

• I think that it would be good for the school to promote attendance.
  

4. Fundraising- Bake Sales, Concerts, Talent Shows, Etc.

• I know that the fund raising wouldn't really pay for a teachers salary or anything big but the money could go towards replacing a broken computer, new playground equipment, new books, etc.
  

Internship Immersion

What did you learn during immersion? How did you learn it?

What I learned at my internship is how to manage my time properly. I had to do a project in the span of two weeks, the total immersion time, and I had to upgrade 20 computers, install printers on all twenty, put information from the computers on the Horizon system and barcode all of them so that when they were checked out they had a barcode, then I had to clean them. I had to do this twice twenty computers fo each week and it took me three days to do one cart and three days to do the next. I was so proud of myself when I finished this project I was proud because I finished this project on my own time. I also learned that when my mentors gone and theres kids I'm in charge and that they have to listen to me and I can get them in trouble,a certain class doesn't think so. The most important thing that I learned is that I definitely want my future career to be in education whether its a teacher or a school psychologist. I do know though that I either want to work with kinder, first or high school students though.

How important were the following at your internship site: profit, social welfare, advertising, promotion, industry, markets, economics, politics, information and specialization? You can write about some or all of these--whatever is best for your internship site.

Economics was important at my internship and has been a current issue. This is a current issue because I work at a school and recently in California $146.7 million deficit in next year's San Diego school district budget and a way that the district is dealing with this is by issuing pink slips. So far pinkslips have been issued to 26,500 teachers. My mentor is a librarian/media teacher and since she is not a regular classroom teacher her job might be at risk.

During internship my project also was afftected by the school budget which was effected by the economics. My project was to take two computer carts with twenty computers in each and give two computers to 18 teachers ranging from kinder to 3rd. If the school budget wasnt so limited right now we couldve bought more computers for the classrooms instead of the classrooms only having two computers. I also got to sit in on a staff meeting where the school budget was discussed and how limited it is.

During the course of my internship this topic has really interested me and I would like to look deeper into my internship's school budget and how it fits into the overall San Diego School District Budget. I think that I can look more into it with my honors project.

Honors Blog: The Island of Dr. Moreau

What physical presence does the character have? Include height, weight, size, physical fitness, posture, etc.

• In the book “The Island of Dr.Moreau”, he is described as a mischapen man, short, broad and clumsy with a crooked back.

Describe the characters further visual details. Include hair, eyes, face, teeth, scars, tattoos, etc

• M’Ling is described as having black thick coarse hair, big white teeth, bloodshot eyes and hazel pupils and a face that is projected.Later in the book what concerns Edward Prendick is that M’Ling has pointed ears that have fur on them before he thought it was just his black stringy hair that covered his ears but it was actually the hair on his ears.

What distinguishing items does the character wear? Include clothes, jewelery, shoes, and any other physical item the character keeps with him/her.

• The character is described in the beginning as wearing dark-blue serge.

What distinguishing behavior does the character have? Include habits, preferences (music, food, literature, etc.), speech (sayings, stalling words, etc), and demeanor.

• M’Ling does seem to be cowerdly, and devoted to his master, Montgomery.

What is the characters role in society? Include his/her job, hobbies, and uses of time.

• What M’ling’s job is, is to be Montgomery’s assistant. I think the purpose of having M’Ling in the book is to have the reader esee the reaction of Edward Prendick when he encounterd his first meeting of one of Dr. Moreau’s creation.

What is the character's religion or philosophy? What beliefs does he/she hold? How does this create or mitigate internal conflict within his/her psyche?

• M’ling just does what Montgomery tells him to do. M'ling defends montgomery and just basically has his back if something goes wrong
  

What do others in the book say about the character?

• Montgomery is sometimes friendly but also sometimes he is somewhat mean to him. Monreau is the one that created him, he was one of the first made. Prendick is very suspicious of him and curious as to what he is.
  

What connections does this character have to history, established religion or the world beyond the book?

• I didn't really think that he had any connection or history of anything else that goes beyond the story of the book

What does the character's name suggest? Authors rarely (if ever) name characters at random. What could the name symbolize? What evidence do you have for this?

• Well his name is M'ling but I don't know why H.G Wells chooses that name but it does seem to be just an odd name for an odd character.

How does the character develop during the plot? How does he/she change?

• This character doesn't change in appearance but through out book as we learn more of him we learn that he takes orders and that he listens to Montgomery. In the end he does die while defending Montgomery.

What physical presence does the character have? Include height, weight, size, physical fitness, posture, etc.

• When Monreau is first introduced in the book he is described as having broad shoulders.

Describe the characters further visual details. Include hair, eyes, face, teeth, scars, tattoos, etc.

• Monreau has white hair, fine forehead, eyes that had droppy lids and the fall of his heavy mouth in the corners gave him an aging look.
  

What distinguishing items does the character wear? Include clothes, jewelery, shoes, and any other physical item the character keeps with him/her.

• The character is introduced as wearing a blue serge.
  

What distinguishing behavior does the character have? Include habits, preferences (music, food, literature, etc.), speech (sayings, stalling words, etc), and demeanor.

• The behavior of Monreau is that he doesn’t seem to like Prendick there in the beginning, he wasn’t supposed to be there.
  

What is the characters role in society? Include his/her job, hobbies, and uses of time.

• The characters role in this book was to make the animals into men.

What is the character's religion or philosophy? What beliefs does he/she hold? How does this create or mitigate internal conflict within his/her psyche?

• Monreau believes that animals can become men and that’s what he trys to accomplish.

What do others in the book say about the character?

• In the beginning Prendick doesn’t know that the white haired man that he saw Montgomery talking to was Monreau, but later on when he does find out he is concerned with the strange mysteries of the island and its inhabitants.

What connections does this character have to history, established religion or the world beyond the book?

• I think the character, Moreau, is just meant to for the purpose of the book and nothing else of it.

What does the character's name suggest? Authors rarely (if ever) name characters at random. What could the name symbolize? What evidence do you have for this?

• The characters name, Dr. Moreau, obviously suggests that he is a doctor. Moreau possible comes from the last name of Gustave Moreau, whose main focus as a painter was illustrations of biblical and mythological creatures.

How does the character develop during the plot? How does he/she change?

• The character in the beginning is hesitant in having Prendick their coming along with them on the island but then gets used to him. Later in the book we learnm that when Moreau was working on an animal it attacked him Moreau follows after him shortly after with a revolver. Later we learn that Moreau has died.
  
  

1. What physical presence does the character have? Include height, weight, size, physical fitness, posture, etc.

• Montgomery is seen as quite large with long limbs.

2. Describe the characters further visual details. Include hair, eyes, face, teeth, scars, tattoos, etc.

• Montgomery is described as being a flaxen haired man, a nether lip and irregular teeth.
  

2. What distinguishing items does the character wear? Include clothes, jewelery, shoes, and any other physical item the character keeps with him/her.

• Montgomery loves to drink liquor.
  

3. What distinguishing behavior does the character have? Include habits, preferences (music, food, literature, etc.), speech (sayings, stalling words, etc), and demeanor.

• Montgomery loves to drink brandy and have it near he also has a lisp.
  

4. What is the characters role in society? Include his/her job, hobbies, and uses of time.

• Montgomery seems to make sure that all the animals are in check and that Prendick doesn’t wonder off. Basically I see Montgomery doing all the stuff that Moreau doesn’t do.
  

6. What is the character's religion or philosophy? What beliefs does he/she hold? How does this create or mitigate internal conflict within his/her psyche?’

• I think that Montgomery believes that these animals serve a higher purpose.
  What do others in the book say about the character?
  Montgomery is described by Prendick as having a bad temper when pushed over the edge.
  

8. What connections does this character have to history, established religion or the world beyond the book?
I believe that this character is nothing but a character in this book9. What does the character's name suggest? Authors rarely (if ever) name characters at random. What could the name symbolize? What evidence do you have for this?

• The characters name suggests, to me, that he is sophisticated.
  

10. How does the character develop during the plot? How does he/she change?

• The character turns from being very secretive of what he knows to being very open with Prendick about what he knows. Montgomery eventually dies at the end

The patterns that I know about each character is that they are all together and that they are close. Dr.Moreau is the mastermind, Montgomery is his assistant, and M’Ling is Montgomery’s assistant. The conclusions that I get from this is that they were working for a while together and that they seemed to trust eachother.

Internship immersion

1. What are you most excited about in regards to your immersion experience? Why do you feel this way?

• What I’m most excited about my immersion experience is to be able to go earlier. I like that I get to go earlier because I can have more time to do stuff that would probably take me, according to my mentor, a month or two. I am also excited because I might be starting an after school program in which I’ll be teaching some of the kids how to use a certain program to make comic books.

2. What are you most concerned about (what causes the most stress) regarding immersion? Why do you feel this way?

• What I am most concerned about is whether or not Ill be able to do my honors project or if I could possibly change it into making a comic book or something. I’m also stressed just overall that I will be late, I really hope I’m not. I feel this way because I have to get to my internship at 8:30 and my sister needs to get to her internship and my brother has to go to school at 8:15

mentor interview

Sitting here in Cherokee Point Elementary School’s library you might think that Rachel Clark is just another librarian but that’s where your wrong. Rachel has been working here at Cherokee Point as a computer technician/ librarian teaching the children at the library and also teaching the kids how to access information on the computers that they have. Eleventh grade here at the High Tech High village isn’t like any other junior year in other high schools. Here at High Tech High village juniors are required to complete an internship in order to graduate. Here at my internship at Cherokee Point Elementary School I am responsible for doing the updates for macs, helping the kids find books and helping them do their homework, and just some extra around the library such as putting books away. For my interview with Rachel we discussed her childhood and growing up, College, Job and Internship. We hit some interesting topics here the basic points we hit.



Stephanie Santiago:

What is your official job title and job description here at Cherokee point

Rachel Clark:

My official title would be school librarian but I think sometimes people would say media teacher cause it incorporates media. So media teacher and school librarian would be the title. The job description would be running the library and then also teaching the kids how to access information the different content areas like science or health or math through technology

Santiago:

Did you grow up knowing that you wanted to work with kids?

Clark:
I grew up knowing that I wanted to be a teacher but I didn’t think that I wanted to work with young children . So I think it wasn’t until I actually got into college that I decided that I wanted to work with elementary leveled kids.

Santiago:
Did you originally want to work in the library and media?

Clark:
No not from the beginning I originally studied to be a general ed teacher, a regular classroom teacher, and about 5 years into my job we had a vacancy in our computer lab and so the teacher that ran the computer lab had left and gone on to bigger things she became a vice principal so the computers just sat there. So I was thinking what a shame for the computers to be sitting there and have no one using them so I learned a little bit about computers and realized that kids can still learn math and science and health what have you through computers and it would be a different kind of job and I wanted to give it a try so accidentally I fell into running a computer lab at my other school and than it just kind of morphed into the library position because this is where all the computers are, in the library. As far as my credentials go I’m not a school librarian I’m a classroom teacher so its kind of interesting that I run the library, being that I’m not a librarian. So that’s why on certain documents or certain papers in the district it’ll say teacher or computer teacher or media teacher doesn’t necessarily say librarian.,

Santiago:
Do you have any advice for those in high school that are still looking for what they want their career to be in the future but are not really sure?

Clark:
Well I think being an intern is definitely one way to figure it out. If you have any interests that your leaning towards a good thing to do is to talk to people that are in that profession. When I was becoming a teacher part of the requirement was to go and observe and to work in the classroom but it wasn’t till I was actually in the program, so at this point you might just want to talk to people and see what your options are and also how ,much schooling you would need. If your interested in finding a profession sooner than later than that’s something to consider certain jobs require a masters or a PhD others require just maybe a bachelors or an associates degree. So it kind of depends I know college isn’t necessarily for everyone I kind of always thought that way but more and more people are getting into vocational colleges and vocational schools so you know I think its important to go to school to some degree but I know a lot of high school kids, at least, like the kids that I service, eventually go on to high school, their at risk for dropping out so I would just encourage them find something you like and pursue that and do it and be proud of it. So talk to people that are in different jobs that you might be interested in ask them see if you can observe or volunteer, or check out colleges too that’s something that you might want to consider; I know that we have a lot of them in our area some might be more expensive than others so its just realistically speaking what can you afford and how much time will you be investing and that might help you make your decision as well.

Santiago:
If you can send a letter to your high school self what would you letter say?

Clark:
Oh gosh (laughs). Well between than and now I’ve made lots of mistakes so the letter might say try avoiding doing the following I think one of them was , but then I look back and I’m thinking then maybe they weren’t really mistakes., It took me a long time to get my degree, my bachelors, it took me seven years because I worked a little bit then I paid for school and then I worked a little bit and paid for school so I really didn’t have debt going to college but it took me a really long time and I was always feeling like there was never a light at the end of the tunnel so maybe I would tell myself try a little harder to finish faster, maybe take out a student loan if I had to just to finish, all my peers were finishing 4 years and I was still there I think at the same time though I got lots of work experience I worked in a bank and I also took some time off and I traveled so I was able to work get experience pay for some traveling I got to see the world so even though it took me a lot longer I have lots of different experiences under my belt that my friends don’t have. Cant really think of one thing but maybe just done be so hard on myself I think that I was always overall critical of the things that I did maybe just remember try as hard as you can give it your best, that’s all you can do is your best, and accept the fact that you did your best and not be so hard, I’m pretty hard at myself at times. If I could’ve learned that a long time ago I probably wouldn’t have been as frustrated all these years later.

Santiago:
Do you think your college choice, the college that you went to, was a good choice that helped you with your job?

Clark:
I think so I was actually fortunate enough to go to Cal State San Marcos and so when I was getting ready to go to college that school was just getting built it was a brand new university at the time I was starting college and it was close to home and so that saved me a lot of money that was a huge thing for me I was able to live at home and still work my regular job and then go to school where as a lot of my friends went away to college and they accured a lot of extra debt living away so I think it was a good choice I got a good education. I didn’t originally go to school to be a teacher so my degree is something else I later changed my mind after a graduate at the time that school had a good psychology program and so that was another reason that I went there so to get a degree in psychology.

Santiago:
Why did you change from psychology?

Clark:
Well I think originally I wanted to be a psychologist. I wanted to get bachelors than a masters and then a PhD and then be a psychologist and then do that for a number of years and then eventually work at a university and be a professor and then when I realized that It took me so long to get my bachelors, seven years, cause I was just working and going to school when I could afford it, that to get a masters and then a PhD it would take me forever at that rate cause I was going so slowly so what else did I want to do? And being a professor is a teacher and so I had always wanted to be a professor I always wanted to teach but being a professor of adults is also different than teaching children so I inquired with different universities in the area about earning a credential for learning and the quickest and fastest, cause I was ready instead of spending another seven years just I want to teach how quickly can I teach, and so a lot of friends were going to national university and going to school at night they still worked during the day and so I went to national and you can take a number of courses without actually saying that you want to teach elementary or middle or high school so I was starting my credential for teaching I still had time to figure that out and sometime in the first six months I figured that I like the age of elementary school children and so even though it’s the opposite from adult I wanted to try it cause I had good experiences when I was in elementary school so I respected my teachers a lot.

Santiago:

So how did you get to this job here at Cherokee Point?

Clark: Well I interviewed actually not so much for this job but to get a job in our school district you have to interview with the school district and human resources so 10 years ago is when I got the job in our district and then I started out at a school named Brooklyn and I met a teacher friend there and then he went on and became a VP and he went to a school named Linda Vista so I’ve been in contact with him the whole time and then he moved to this school 3 years ago so he and I were really good friends and he’s real smart and talented so when he became principal here they had a need for someone that did what I did computer related skills and teaching kids how to use computers and so he asked me if I would come on over so I did an informal interview with him and that was three years ago.

Santiago:
Do you like working here and how is it different from the elementary school that you worked at?

Clark:

I do like working here its definitely different the school that I worked at before was very old so the difference was well there was many differences this is a school that is only four years old and the school that I used to work at was almost 100 years old. So the technology here its definitely, we have it, where as the other school did not. Although out equipment is four years old many would think that that’s outdated but your coming from a school that’s a hundred years old and doesn’t have anything then this is pretty current. The teachers are great here pretty competitive all the teachers here are trying really hard to do the best that they can and get the kids reading and math scores and writing scores and all the scores up. It’s a pretty young staff too we have a couple of new teachers and maybe our most seasoned person might have 15 or less than twenty years we don’t have any one that’s been teaching more than twenty years so its on the younger side and maybe one or two seasoned people.

Santiago:
What are the pros and cons of your jobs? Why?

Clark:
Well that pros are working with kids everyday and the cons would have to be also working with kids (laughs). Kids are pretty challenging and frustrating at times but I think that the rewards out way the negatives cause kids are a lot of fun. I think also too just keeping up with 30 or 40 teachers staff members if their computers break down, their printers break down, cause that part of my job too so when I’m working with kids sometimes I get a call or an email saying my computers broken or my printers broken so just trying to find a balance of helping the kids and focusing on them first and then spending time with this other stuff. There’s just not enough time in the day to do the stuff you need to do so that’s probably the biggest challenge just not having enough time.

Santiago:
What would you change about your job? The time, or why?

Clark:
I think it would definitely help to have a little bit more time during the day like maybe half an hour to an hour of having some kind of a prep time the teachers have one hour sometimes two hours each week to prep or plan and things like that but since I’m with kids from 8 until 2:15 and no break in between its just kind of a hard balancing act so having 30 minutes extra a day would help. I do a lot of stuff afterschool which helps the kids are gone and I can do a lot of that work but then often times staying late puts me home late so its just finding a perfect balance of getting all the tasks or the jobs done in a given day and being able to prepare good lessons for the kids.

Santiago:
Has this job opened up any opportunities for you?

Clark:

I think so actually having come here to work with my friend he encouraged me to get my masters degree and to pursue administration so I ended up getting my masters in the last two years and got my administrative credential and earlier today you probably heard me on the phone a little bit I got my results we had to take a test if you want to become a principal or a VP in our district you have to take a test and its an oral examine and I found it to be quite challenging and I’ve been waiting for the results and I was hopeful to passed and I passed

Santiago:

Congratulations

Clark:

So having come here and working under the leadership of my friend and having someone to encourage me and push me in a positive way towards the next level I pursued that. Otherwise had I’d stayed at my other school I might’ve you know I don’t know if my friends around me would’ve pushed me in that direction or not. So its kind of good to move once in awhile to have some new challenges and otherwise if your in the same place for a long time that you can just get stuck in a rut so I had been in my other school for 7 years and I you know it was time for a change and it was a good change

Santiago:
Was that your first job at your other school?

Clark:
No not my first job it was at my parents store. My parents owned a seven eleven store so I was born in to literally born they owned it when I was born so like when I first started walking or when I little I could go help put things on the shelf and probably junior high or senior year I started working the store working the cash register, that’s my very first job. I’ve been at three different schools, this is my third one, I worked at a bank for ten years and I also worked at a tax accounting firm same time I worked at the bank both were part time jobs so during the day I worked in a bank and nights and weekends I worked at the tax office. So I have background in accounting, taxes and banking .

Santiago:
So how have those jobs affected you as a person or shaped you as a person?

Clark:
Well I think all of them have taught me a lot about working with people. At the bank and at the tax office your dealing with adults and situations that could sometimes be bad or sometimes could be good so you never know each situation is different kind of like the kids, you can’t predict what’s going to happen. I think that a lot of the jobs have taught me to have a lot of patience and just again try to be the best that you can be and you know helping customers isn’t always the easy thing, doing your best to resolve whatever problem that they have and knowing that you’ve tried your best and they can walk away feeling that they got some good service, it might not be the right answer but at least you tried. So I think that all of them have contributed to some degree in making me who I am so it’s a little bit of good a little bit of bad a little bit of both.

Santiago:How do you define and view the work world?
Clark:Well I think now definitely its tough with the economy being the way it is. I think people are lucky to have a job. Some people don’t have a job right now, its very unfortunate. I’m personally thankful to have a job and to actually enjoy it and like it I know a lot of people don’t even like their job. So going back to one of your earlier questions just find something that you like because your going to need to do it for twenty or thirty years and if you find something that you kind of just sort of like your not really going to be happy so I think in the work world right now it’s a good thing to have a job and its really hard to find work people are really struggling and I think sometimes you do have to settle then you can find that job or find something different that you like better but that’s what you need to go for but maybe this is also to where maybe having that good educational background would help you cause often times people with a degree will end up getting a job over some one that doesn’t and maybe even being willing to a lesser pay, like some people may have an advanced degree but if there isn’t a job for that and that they have to take minimum wage than maybe doing that for a short time period may do until they get that other job. I just think that a lot of people that I’ve been talking to are losing their jobs left and right. So right now I don’t know what to say
Santiago: Its rough
Clark: Right now it is yeah. Maybe it will change shortly and I’m hoping that it will. My biggest advice is find something that you like because your going to be doing it for a long time and just always renew your skills and update your résumé and be prepared. I have some really smart friends that have lots of advanced degrees and they’ve been laid off but they always try again and their always updating their résumé and taking another class. You have to do something that sets you apart from the next person, you cant just be another, you have to be different.

Santiago:
So how did you hear about High Tech High’s internships?

Clark:

Well I knew in our district we had some really smart kids and were really good at computers so I think that IU might’ve just looked at the high schools and the name of course caught my eye High Tech because a lot of the elementary schools are now considered High Tech, High Tech Elementary. So I kind of assumed that most computer savvy kids would be at High Tech High so I just sent an email and I don’t even know how it ended up with Stacy and then more recently the person that is supervising it now, Law, so Law then I think was emailing me this year. So this is my second intern so although I’ve been at this school 3 years just two semesters now I had Phillip last semester and now you and I think that it is a good opportunity for us and then hopefully for you to get some experience or at least see what goes on in a school. So it was kind of accidental just stumbling on the internet.

Santiago:
So what do you like about being a mentor?

Clark:
Well I think just the opportunity to help someone out and then intern them helping us I mean I think that there needs to be some reciprocity I mean definitely I sought out your help because we needed I mean I genuinely needed help but at the same time hopefully you’ll learn something about a school or elementary school or kids or computers or the library here might help change your mind about certain things or might give you an idea of what you want to be when you get out of high school so just being able to help someone who is then helping me.

Santiago:
So overall in life so far what is your most important lesson that you’ve learned so far that you would like to pass on to me?

Clark:
That’s a tough one. It kind of sounds corny but never give up is one of them, I’ve had some challenges especially leaving the other school that I loved and just coming here I thought that I was ready for a change and then just finding that maybe I didn’t like it here or maybe feeling that I wanted to go back or leave the school or quit but just trying everyday to come back with a different attitude and trying “ ok what can I do differently” not that I ever hated my job but just sometimes that people say things that hurt your feelings or frustrate you but just never giving up at trying to be successful at whatever you do and also just being confident in knowing that you’ve done your very best, like for example when I took this test a couple of weeks ago I felt horrible leaving I had no idea what I did but I mean I did know though that I did try my best but even though I tried my best I felt horrible all weekend long, ten days later I felt horrible I was hard on myself and felt bad and knowing that I gave it my all and if I passed great but if I didn’t I tried my best I can take it again. So just knowing that you have tried your best and that’s all that anyone can really expect from you is that you tried your best.
Santiago: And have a positive outlook on everything that you do.
Clark: Exactly no matter what cause sometimes you have to go through hard things you know life is not always perfect its hardly ever perfect but sometimes you know people are going to be mean to you and say stupid things to you, even adults. Sometimes have to let go of what others say and just focus on the positive things each day and not worry about stuff like that. The worlds pretty tough but if you can find something positive in your day it helps you , I think, through the hard times. Sometimes challenges do make you stronger too. So mean people do help you out sometimes too whether you realize it then or much later that mean people are here too to serve a main purpose in your life and I think that that’s kids too, kids learn lessons from each other and even the mean ones so its interesting yea if we just learned more from kids instead of them having to learn so much from us.

Progressive Era blog

The Progressive Era- 1890-1920

Constitutional Amendments

• Authorized an income tax
  
• Provided for the direct election of senates
  
• Extended the vote to women
  
• Prohibited the manufacture and sell of alcholic beverages
  

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/progressivism/index.cfm

Workers & Working Conditions?

• Muckrackers bought attention to the harsh working conditions
  
• Compared then to now there is not really any news about people getting hurt during the job unlike back then a man was literally chooped up to pieces while doing his job.
  
• They dealt with the long hours and bad pay and bad conditions just because it was a job and it was a steady one.
  
• Three reforms (1 private) were created during the Progressive Era which was a response to the industrial safety problems

Advances in technology

Plant construction continued to improve conditions

http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/mono-regsafepart05.htm

Conservation

• Americans seemed to think that there was an endless supply of natural resources and they just went through a lot at that time and developed a tradition of waste.
  
• When conservationalists realized that there wasn’t they called for federal supervision of the nation’s natural resources and for them to preserve some natural resources for future generations.
  

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/progress/conserve/conserve.html

Amazazing Blogz

Economic Advice to Obama
Paul
I feel that Pauls economic advise to Obama was interesting to read and that it wasn't boring. He used evdence that I think was interesting to hear, for example he lists what John Thain bought for his office that cost him $1.2 million dollars to remodel.

"According to CNBC the former CEO of Merril Lynch, John Thain, spent over 1.2 million dollars of bailout money on personal items around his office including “ An Area Rug, Mahogany Pedestal Table,19th Century Credenza, Pendant Light Furniture, 4 Pairs of Curtains, Pair of Guest Chairs, George IV Chair, 6 Wall Sconces, Parchment Waste Can, Roman Shade Fabric, Roman Shades, Coffee Table, Commode on Legs.”

He also used historical evidence that fit in perfect with which he was trying to explain to Obama.


Literary Analysis
Ashley

I think that Ashley's literary analysis blog is good because she lists her evidence. She also has in depth details as to why she thinks this specific literary device is found in the book.

However you do get the inside scoop on every other character and see them as she sees them.One example would be in a paragraph where esther lays out the tension between Doreen and Betsy she quickly states "Betsy was always asking me to do things with her and the other girls as if she were trying to save me in some way. She never asked Doreen" in the following paragraph Betsy asks Esther to join her cab, and esther declines because she knows how doreen feels about it.

Historical Writing

Vanessa Segura

I think that Vanessa in her writing it seems like shes talking to you one on one through her writing thats why I like it. She also cites her sources. She also compares history to present times and sometimes other parts of history to other parts of history.

Organization

Nyachare Gatkuoth

I know it may sound weird but my pet peeve with blogs is that they are sloppy. I think that Nyachare does a good job of keeping her writing organized.

For this blog she lists the question and has her answer.

http://nya16.blogspot.com/2009/02/science-and-humans.html

http://nya16.blogspot.com/2009/01/wow-what-day.html

Happy Late Birthday Darwin

Darwin was a famous scientist.... As humanities students (and humans), what responsibility do we have for the understanding of science? What role should scientific inquiry and scientific knowledge play in our own society? How should science influence our decisions, laws, and culture?

What responsibility do we have for the understanding of science?

• I think that we as humans have a responsibility to discover it since no one else can. I think that we, as humans, are meant to figure out science so that it could possibly open up new door for humans like curing cancer or something big.

What role should scientific inquiry and scientific knowledge play in our own society?

• I think that we have an important role in scientific inquiry and scientific knowledge because we as humans are the only ones that can figure it out we have the knowledge that makes us capable to understand science. I think that it plays a major role in society because science explains a lot of simple stuff that happens in society such as magnets, scientific method, and much more.
  

How should science influence our decisions, laws, and culture?

• I don’t think that it should I think that science is natural and that there shouldn’t be any laws in which we try to stop it. I think that it probably should influence our decisions somewhat like using the scientific method affects our decision somewhat. Science does affect our decisions sometimes because science can get in the way of certain things because certain things work in one way which certain people might not want. I believe that certain science is controversial due to religious views but some science can be seen as helping others. It shouldn't be religion vs. science but I think that everyone should look at it from both sides instead of just one.

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby was a great book ,that I thought, had an interesing theme, the theme being that the American Dream is not all always full of wonder and could have its falling outs. The american dream that they had was that they were all rich, Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby. They have there falls when Daisy learns of Tom’s affair with another women, Myrtle. Daisy and Gatsby have a past where Daisy liked Gatsby but he wasn’t wealthy and she was tired of waiting for him. Tom and Daisy end up meeting up where they rekindle the old flame they had together and they start and affair. Fitzgerald strengthens his theme with the literary themes personification, foreshadowing and irony.

Fitzgerald uses personification as a theme to describe the place that Daisy and Tom live in. “…but now he’d left Chicago and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away.” He also uses this literary device to describe where they live, “Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens - finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run. The front was broken by a line of French windows, glowing now with reflected gold and wide open to the warm windy afternoon,.”(page 6). When I read these quotes I liked how they painted a picture of how wealthy they are Fitzgerald painting a descriptive picture of where they live.

Another literary term that I found was foreshadowing. Fitzgerald uses foreshadowing in the book for when Tom finds out about Gatsby and Daisy’s affair together. The day that he found out was described as “The next day was broiling, almost the last, certainly the warmest, of the summer”(page114). I thought that it was interesting because this was the day that Tom confronted Gatsby about his affair with Daisy and they got into a heated debate.

The last literary term that I connected to the theme was Irony. “The "death car." as the newspapers called it, didn't stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment, and then disappeared around the next bend” (page 138) “"Who was the woman?." he inquired. "Her name was Wilson. Her husband owns the garage. How the devil did it happen?." "Well, I tried to swing the wheel - ." He broke off, and suddenlyI guessed at the truth. "Was Daisy driving?." "Yes,." he said after a moment…” (page 144). I found this to be ironic that Tom’s wife, Daisy killed his mistress Myrtle Wilson and not even on purpose.

What happened at the end of the book Tom told Wilson, Myrtle’s widow, that Gatsby killed his wife. Wilson took things into his own hands and killed Gatsby and himself.

“There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of the water as the fresh flow from one end urged its way toward the drain at the other. with little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool.
A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with its accidental burden. The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of compass, a thin red circle in the water.
It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete” (page 162-163)

This part stood out to me because it was a combination of all three literary terms personification when he describes the water urging out of the drain. Foreshadowing with how the weather is “There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of the… A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with its accidental burden” The weather gave a sense of something bad just happened. It was ironic that Daisy killed the women in Tom’s affair and Tom’s actions of telling Wilson, Gatsby killed his wife, led to the killing of Gatsby who Daisy was having an affair with.

If I were Obamas economic Adviser

Hello Mr. President thanks for allowing me to have this time with you to discuss the problems with the American economy. What I want to focus on is what’s on everyone’s mind which is the current unemployment problem. The unemployment rate last year was the 2nd worst annual job loss at 2,590,000 people, which was right under the worst annual job loss during 1945 when the unemployment rate was 2,750,000[1] , and according to the U.S. Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration, 4.8 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits now[2]. Now you recently wrote an editorial for Washington Post, addressing the economic problems and what you propose we should do to heal America. Now in the editorial you did mention bringing down the unemployment rate by “...create or save more than 3 million jobs over the next two years” Now what I want to address about this statement is that ok, 3 million won’t be unemployed but the number of people unemployed will continue to raise so what about the others that will still be left without jobs? Or is it like what Harry S. Truman, 33rd president of the United States, said when he was addressing the Congress on Unemployment Compensation and in that message said, “However, some temporary unemployment is unavoidable”[3] What I also wanted to address another statement that you said in the Washington Post when you said “What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis.” Now how can this process hurry so that America no longer is sick and back to its normal self? The reason that I bring the topic of unemployment up is because I know that it affects a lot of Americans today and I personally know some people that are being forced to be put on unemployment. I want to know what you could do so that those that I know who are worrying about their future are no longer worried. When finding solution I hope you reference Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression and Unemployment was soaring so he just created more jobs.[4]

[1] "Total 2008 job loss: 2.6 million - Jan. 9, 2009 ." Business, financial, personal finance news - CNNMoney.com. 9 Feb. 2009 . "Barack Obama - The Action Americans Need - washingtonpost.com." washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines. 9 Feb. 2009 .

[2] "Unemployment report worse than expected ajc.com." Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News ajc.com. 9 Feb. 2009...
[3] "Harry S. Truman: Special Message to the Congress on Unemployment Compensation.." Google. 9 Feb. 2009.
[4] 1939. "Franklin D. Roosevelt Biography." Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. 11 Feb. 2009.

Internship Interview
Location: Cherokee Library
Time: Sometime between 2:30 and 3:30
Technology: Video Camera

Stephanie Santiago and Jazzy Bell: Design Principles of an Interview

My partner and I used this article of the California Governer. We thought that this was a good article and that it had a lot of examples of how to make a good interview. These are the design principles that we got.

1. Preview:

• In the beginning of the Arnold interview they give a little preview of what's in the interview and I think that this is good because it lets the reader preview what their reading and if they want to continue reading it. We could include this in the final product by putting it in the beginning before the actual interview.
• Story Highlights
• Schwarzenegger says he'll campaign in Ohio for Sen. John McCain
• He says Gov. Sarah Palin will be ready to lead when she takes oath
• He says he's willing o work with a President Obama or President McCain

2. Looking towards the future:

• Interviews to me should be that it ends looking to the future. Maybe they could talk about how they could improve somehow in the future.
• Schwarzenegger: It's like been there, done that. It's not about me now. It's about California and America. Because everything that I've done, every dream that I've had has become a reality because of America. And now it's important for me to work hard so that other people can have big dreams and make their dreams become a reality.
  

3. Thoughtful Questions:

• Last but certainly not least a great interview has to have thoughtful and interesting questions. you have to leave your reader wowed by the question. The question should not be answered with just yes or no.
• Brown: You have said, a couple of times now, that McCain is a rebel within his own party. That he walks his own path. He has not, necessarily, always been in lock-step and, certainly, you are right about that with the die-hard conservatives of the Republican party. But, Sarah Palin, many people will tell you, is. She is very much a part of the conservative movement of the Republican party. What do you think of her as a choice?

My internship at Cherokee Elementary School

My internship is at Cherokee Elementary school. Where my mentor and I meet is at the library in the school I like it because its a quiet area. What happened today was I met my mentor who was really nice about everything. I found out today how to do software updates for the Apple Ibooks and I also watched part of Toy Story. There was not really a lunch time due to the fact that i arrive at 1:00 which by then lunch is over. The problem that I ran into today was transportation. My dad had to take my sister to here internship and then me to mine. I was a little late since we had a little trouble finding my sisters internship but we got there pretty close to 1:00. Overall I think everything went good I cant really say for sure how I feel about it so far since it was just one day but I think as time goes by I will have more stuff to do besides software updates and watching Toy Story.

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan is the 40th president of the United States 1981-1989. I chose to focus on the relevance of Ronald Reagan's inaugural speech to the current financial crisis and the Bailout due to their contrasting ideas. Reagan’s ideal government was one that Americans were not so dependent on but rather independent and now with the financial crisis and the bailout it is hard to not be dependent on the government since most are depending on the government to fix the current situation

These two quotes from Reagan’s Inaugural is what made me realize that Ronald Reagan's goal was to try to put a limit on the government and to get the government to work with the people.
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
”Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it's not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work--work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back
I think that this relates closely to the bailout because it reminds me of how now it’s the opposite right now of what Reagan would’ve wanted. We are depending on the government due to the fact there is a financial crisis that’s going on and now we are depending on the government to do the right thing with the bailout money.

The government hasn’t really spent any money on the homeowners. Homeowners are doing badly in this financial crisis and they aren’t really getting any help from the government. From the article that I read it stated this,
"Congress meets next week to decide whether to dole out 25 billion dollars or more to the auto industry, and maybe craft a bill to assist the unemployed and create jobs. But there is no congressional plan on the table to assist homeowners. Congress may then recess until January.
Ronald Reagan didn’t want it to be this way; Reagan wanted it to be so that the government worked with the people as said in his speech, “We are a nation that has a government--not the other way around.”

“The Senate already approved the release of the $350 billion before President Obama was sworn into office, making a House vote unnecessary" With the bailout they recently approved for Obama to be in charge of the rest of the remaining bailout money. It is now up to Obama to spend the remaing $350 billion in a way that he thinks will be best for America.