High School

High school is a very important shift to a student. In elementary, everything is simpler, less stressful. High school is more complicated. The students and teachers will all change. More homework will be given since this is the point when you need to be way more responsible because nobody will be around reminding you. High school and elementary are two contrasting schools.

In elementary, you only have one teacher, and you stick with that teacher for the whole year. That teacher will care more about you because your class is the only class that they teach. If they don’t mind you, then who else should they mind? They will more or less keep an eye on you. That’s not the case in high school. You have way more than one teacher. You have one for each subject, like science, math, social studies, you name it. Each of them teach more than one class everyday, so they don’t have time to keep an eye on you. They have like a hundred student out there, so you have to find a way to stand out somehow. Raising your hand and answering question, or do extremely well  on a quiz, and that will get the teacher’s attention.

You really have to be more responsible when entering high school. Unlike elementary, where the teacher inform you of everything that you need to do, assign homework and tell you the time to change subject, shift gear. In high school, there’s no one to remind you of all that stuff. After a period, you have to get to your locker, find your stuff and hurry to the next class. For a project, the teacher might tell you what you do, assign it to you, and not speak of it for a whole month. You totally forget about that project. A month later, the teacher tell the class that the project is due, but you didn’t do it because you forgot. So it’s really up to you to decide what to do for homework and keep track of thing. Be responsible!

In elementary, you get yourself a best friend and you’re good to go. You do everything with that person. Math, science, social studies projects, you do everything together. It’s not the same thing in high school. Let’s say you find yourself a friend during math period, but that friend won’t be around when you’re doing science because you guys have different classes to attend. You might still meet during lunch or after school, but not during class periods. You and your best friend can’t work with each other anymore, so you have to get yourself a lot of dependable friends in order to be last all the way from grade 8 to 12.

High school and elementary are two very different schools, but don’t be afraid of going to high school. Despite all of that problems, you might have a wonderful time and really enjoy yourself. The years at high school are guaranteed to be the best years of your life!

The Beach

A beach appears on television. It’s a deep blue color with boats or fish resting and families spending their weekends. We know it as a great place to relax and enjoy. But what a beach really is, is way more than than relaxation, and only people who have been there can describe it.

The best view of the beach is at early morning, during sunset. Before that, the sea is a calm blue bed sheet. When the sun wakes up and pops out, the beach, as if was given life, starts dancing with little waves petting the sand. The sea is no longer a dark blue color. It is now alive with shades of red and orange, mixing with the original bright blue color, fighting for space, overlapping one another. The soothing sounds of waves climbing over the shore are the steady rhythm for the sweet singing of the seagulls and pelicans. The soft and dry sand comfort your hands that had been asleep. The frozen sea chills you to the bone in one touch after spending the whole entire night in the brisk  night air.The smells of pine and coconut trees freshen the lifeless scent of the beach. The sweet scent wakes the sleeping families all around, lifted them out of bed and invited them to the welcoming beach.

Noon is the busiest time at the beach. People are starting to head out with surfboards, suntan lotions and water tubes. The crowded beach is busy with people burying garbage under waves and sand. Boats are woken up and are now cooperating with the fishermen out to sea hauling the starving fish into their nets as if they were playing soccer .Rowdy kids are running in and out of the water, dodging the waves as if playing tag. Adults are relaxing and tanning, barely supervising their children, who are curiously discovering the deep blue. The sound of screaming children and the whining of the early-aged babies drown out the soothing singing of the birds and the continuous rhythm of the waves. The scorching sun ignites the frozen sea water, that once touched will hypnotize and soothe you into the deep blue. The sweet smells of trees are now eliminated, and the awful smell of littered trash and half-eaten lunch, along with the strong scent of suntan lotion takes place.     

As the afternoon comes to an end,the  less crowded the exhausted beach becomes, after all the hard work of entertaining people, burying garbages, you name it. The beach is as calm as it was in the early morning. Calmer and calmer, quieter and quieter, the beach silently goes to sleep. The sound of birds singing also fades out, leaving only the silence. Wind stops blowing and trees stops the ruffling. Before going to bed, the beach has to turn off the lights, and slowly, the sun hides itself behind the mountains and dozes off. The chilly air takes its place. The beach is once again calm and soundless. The sea a dark blue blanket, covering fish and keeping them warm in the brisk night.

The beach isn’t just an area for relaxation. It has life. The heart is deep down in the center protected by marine creatures. Unlike us, the beach, when asleep, hums its beautiful song and writes words far down the horizon that simply say ‘See you tomorrow’ as the morning approach.  

Are Video Games Good?

Do you like playing video games? Most kids and teenagers, especially boys, love to play with these electronics. Video games have good and bad effects. They are like two doors, one good and one bad door. If you are discipline and know how to use these electronics just for entertainment, then you have entered the good door. But most people entered the bad ones, and that can be really disastrous.


People usually forget about their health while playing video games. They just care about what’s on the screen, and completely ignore the outside world. They forget to eat or exercise and even to sleep. The people that play a lot of video games are usually really fat, because they are not exercising enough, or to thin because they don’t eat. They are so focused on the screen that nothing else matter. After focusing so much on the screen, people usually get a mini headache that causes them to walk all wobbly and not thinking straight. One way to prevent that is to play for only about half an hour. Then go and do sports or read a book. Doing homework is not recommended because you can’t fully concentrate after focusing on the screen.

Video games can become a really terrible distraction. They can make the players ignore stuff like homework or chores. That could lead to bad grades in school, or really frustrated parents. Another horrible distraction is that the players completely lost the sense of time. They might thought that they only played for half an hour, but they actually played for an hour perhaps. For example, they started playing at 8pm, and after what seems like a flash, it was already 10pm. One way to prevent this is that you can be discipline with yourself, and promise to finish homework and chores before touching the game controls. Before starting to play, set a timer for half an hour or so, and when it rings, immediately stop playing.

The last, but very horrific effect of video games is violence. After playing really violent games, evil thoughts may come to the players’ mind. Then after playing too much of violent games, when they can stand no longer, they begin to take actions in real life. School shootings or teenagers murdering each other usually came from violent video games. Games like Call of Duty, GTA, and especially God of War, are really violent. One way to prevent this horrible effect is to check the players’ electronics once in a while, and stop them from buying any violent games. This is for parents, by the way. But check it when the players are most unexpected, like when they’re asleep, or during school. This will decrease the murders that are happening right now.

Video games are truly terrible, but don’t stop playing it. It could be an entertainment after a stressful week of school. But most importantly, be self-discipline. Only allow yourself to play for only a short certain amount of time. If you can do this, video games won’t be bad at all.

Writing Reflection

What is your favorite subject in school? Mine sure isn't language arts. Writing is never the interesting subject in school that I look forward to in school. I enjoy all the other subjects, like math and science. They are fun to learn. Language arts take days, or weeks even, to complete. All the process, like writing, drafting and editing, takes time and effort. The process was already tiring.

I am not the best writer. In the beginning, all my writing doesn't sound nice or flow at all. The structure was really messy. My introduction didn't stand out or grab the reader’s attention at all. It was just like another body paragraph, boring. I just couldn't fit in synonyms for a lame word. For example, I used the word “good”. I could have used some other words like “amazing” or “fascinating”, but no. I wrote essays and narratives that weren't descriptive enough. Adjectives weren’t used properly or not at all. I had wrong grammar everywhere, in dialogues or in normal sentences. I wasn't a great writer when I started off!

Now, I’ve learned many of the skills needed, both in school and with Ms. Reyna. They are really helping me. My paragraphs flow and sound better because of my choice of adjectives or verbs. I now put them in the right place and at the right time. I know how to explode a moment or paragraph, making more exciting. I keep reading books now and learning new vocabularies so I can easily squeeze in a few “wow words”. My grammar had improved a lot in the past few months. I learned how to punctuate dialogues and sentences with Ms. Reyna as well as in school. My paragraphs and sentences vary in length. They are more descriptive. My introduction can hook the reader’s attention and hypnotizing into reading my writing. I can see myself improving in a bat of an eye!

Though my writings are decent now, I would still like to improve. I want to be the best writer that I could be. I would like to, besides using adjectives and verbs, use figure of speech. Similes, metaphors and idioms would be great to put in a piece of writing. They would make the writing sound a lot better. I would still like to improve on grammar. I still get mixed up sometimes, and not being able to make the best out of my writing. The last thing I would like to improve isn’t actually writing. It’s reading. I like reading, but couldn’t find enough time. It would benefit my writing, allowing me to use bigger words.

I still want to achieve more, but I am currently happy with my writing pieces. I can feel myself improving. Looking at my old pieces and comparing them to my recent ones, I can see the changes in ever single way.