Blog Post #2

Due to the nature of my high school I was often required to explain what my school was all about. The standard boiler plate is the name, MetWest High School, the school is (perhaps "was") a small public school based in Oakland. MetWest was part of a group called the Big Picture Schools that originally started in Providence Road Island with a school called the Met. The Big Picture model was all about the individual student. Our school experience was project based and depended on a very hands-on approach to learning. Each student had to identify their passion or interest area and find an internship related to that area. Once we landed an internship we had to design projects around them that expanded our learning.

Our schedule was different from a standard school in that we were in class Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and at our internships on Tuesday and Thursday. At the end of each semester each student was required to present all work to a board of peers, parents, staff, mentors, and teachers in what was known as an exhibition. Exhibitions were typically about an hour and a half long and really stressed presentation skills. This model contributed greatly to my current outlook and skill set, I can say with confidence that I would not be where I am today if I had gone to Oakland Tech which was the closer and more firmly established option. As a result of how MetWest operated, a much larger percentage of graduates went on to college and our test scores were usually higher as well.

Blog Post #1

I have always noticed a distinct difference in the way I speak when compared to my peers. From elementary school all the way to high school I had difficulty communicating with my peers. The reason for this difficulty seemed to stem from both the size of my active vocabulary and my more standard use of English. The way I speak and form sentences has been greatly influenced by both my mother and several friends of my family. The most readily apparent trait that all these people share is that they are writers. At a young age I had access to a vast wealth of vocabulary and creative thinking focused around the English language. 

When I was younger my reading skills were considered to be subpar for my age, the reason behind this was I felt uncomfortable using words that I didn’t feel completely confident in using. After I had widened my comprehension of English I had a small explosion of language. Eventually, I found a more comfortable medium between the non-standard English in use at my schools and the standard English at home. Obviously I veered more heavily toward the language spoken at home by my parents. Looking back at the past and observing my own speech patterns now I can find many parallels to my mother and a few close friends that I interacted with a great deal in my infancy and adolescent years, I think more than anything it was this group that formed the way I talk.