Mrs. Ho's AP Lang - 2021/2022

      If you don't know who Michael Jordan is, he was a legend to basketball and was a former player for the Bulls. He also starred with Bugs Bunny in the original movie Space Jam, and is also the person who started the Michael Jordan shoe business. I am going to tell you why this guy, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.     Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six National Basketball Association (NBA) championships, these were in (1991-93,1996-98). He was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP) five times in (1988,1991,1992,1996,1998) and was also named Defensive Player of The Year in 1988. That's a five-time NBA MVP by the way, when LeBron is only a four-time NBA MVP. This just comes to show how well known and great Michael Jordan was as a basketball player in the NBA during his time. In 1984, Jordan was drafted by the Chicago Bulls. In his first season (1984-85) as a professional, he led the league in scoring and was named...

 This was at the oscars and everyone knows by now but Chris Rock made a really funny, but, inappropriate and out of pocket joke about Will Smith's wife. The joke that Chris Rock made was, "Jada, I love you – I can't wait for GI Jane 2”. GI Jane is a reference to a bald girl in a movie, which is messed up because Will Smith's wife can't control her hair loss condition. Even though the joke was messed up, Will Smith was very un professional and went up to Chris Rock, on live television , as a famous actors  and more, and decided to punch him on stage, walk back to his seat and curse at him to stop talking about his wife. Will Smith should know better to not be un professional  and do all of that in front of millions of people watching him on live television, he is supposed to be a role model, he is famous so a lot of people watch his shows, movies, content, and he should make a good image for himself so the kids who look up to him, can have a good role model. But,...

  Life during the height of Covid Exactly two years ago today, we were at the start of quarantine. We all thought the Corona virus started in China from a man who ate “bat soup”. We still do not fully know how the Corona virus started, although the world has suffered from it for over two years. For the first four months of the pandemic, most people locked themselves up and did not live life. With the ability to shut off school with the click of a button, online school was not beneficial. We spent all day drinking whipped coffee, watching Outer Banks and All American, and working out with Chloe Ting. We had almost no social interactions. One of my most memorable memories was when I went biking with one of my friends. My friend accidentally tapped my shoulder, and after freaking out that I got the virus, I ran home to shower quickly. I felt guilty that I would get my family sick because someone lightly tapped my shoulder. This story will always stick with me because it describes ho...

     One of my most popular blog topics has been movie and show critiques. As this is our last blog post, I thought I should connect back to my former blogs by writing one more show review.       Recently, I have been watching MasterChef. For anyone who doesn't know, MasterChef is a show where a group of talented home cooks competes in a series of cookoffs till one contestant is crowned the MasterChef. This show reminds me of Survivor, just in a cooking way. The show is entertaining and funny as Chef Gordon Ramsey screams at the contenders. In the past few days, I have watched more than two seasons of the show, which took me a while as each season has around 20 episodes that are one hour long.      I watched seasons 7 and 8, and now I am watching season 9. I built a connection with many of the contestants as I do for most reality competition shows. Unfortunately, in both seasons, the person I was rooting for lost. So far, I have not been...

     This year in AP Lang, I have learned a lot. However, the thing that I feel has improved the most this year, by far, is my creative writing.       At the beginning of the year, my writing was dry, and lacked purpose. As I wrote more and more blogs throughout the year, though, I feel like I have gotten much more creative. Not only have I improved my grammar tremendously, but I have started making my writing more complex, and even adding puns and alliteration to spice things up.      I feel like writing these blogs has helped me out tremendously. I love how these blogs serve as an outlet for what’s on my mind, and how they serve as something that allows me to write about whatever I want.      Now that we are at the end of the year, I recently reread over my old blogs again. The difference between my blogs at the start of the year compared to now is truly monumental.      I am so grateful that we have been ...

  AP exams are soon! As tedious as these exams are, they can be somewhat refreshing. It marks the end of the school year in my mind and most classes tend to be lenient with work due to these exams. I have been panic studying all of AP Psych and AP US History recently and preparing for all of my exams. This has got me thinking about which have been the best and worst AP classes so far. So lets make a blog post about it while I procrastinate! Including my APs from this year, I have taken Human Geography, Comp Sci A, Comp Sci Principles, World History, Art, Lang (obviously), US History, and Psych. As of right now, I believe my favorite AP has been AP Lang and I am not just saying that to be a suck-up. Work-wise, there has been no useless or time-wasting work. Everything had a purpose and a specific skill to teach. On top of that, all of the work was interesting, especially the class debates! Thank you Mrs. Ho! After AP Lang, I am not sure the exact order of which APs, but I do know wh...

 What is the Urge to Itch?                Itching is a painful and aggravating experience, especially when scratching only makes it far worse. Furthermore, there are several conditions that cause people to itch incessantly without alleviation. In one case study, a woman scratched through to her brain because her scalp was so itchy. Itching is a curious sensation that scientists are still struggling to understand.  The itch sensation is known scientifically as pruritus, and it's thought to have evolved as a means to defend our largest organ, our skin, from parasites and dead cell build-up. Our other organs are safely kept inside our bodies, where our immune systems can properly defend them. However, because our skin is our first layer of protection and is constantly exposed to the outside world, it's logical that it has developed some unconventional methods to keep us safe. Furthermore it reveals why itching is infectious: back in t...

          I am so excited, we are this close to summer vacation, and so close to being done with all our AP exams and our hectic Junior year. Of course it’s going to be very sad to have to be done with AP chem and never have Mrs. Leibowitz as a teacher again, and it will be very sad to never have AP Lang again, but everything has to end sometime and we all came out of it smarter and more prepared for future endeavors .            Summer is going to be crazy fun, I can’t wait. I know a lot of you might not care what I’m doing this summer, but I don’t care. I’m going on a west coast connection trip to Spain. It’s a college enrichment program where I will be spending three weeks in a university in Barcelona, Spain, studying Spanish and business. That’s not all I’m doing though. I will also be touring Barcelona and enjoying the wonderful city. Seeing art and architecture, as well as having a somewhat real college experience be...

  E.T. Adventure is the oldest operating ride at Universal Studios Florida, being the only ride left from the parks opening day on June 7, 1990. Despite its age, this ride still holds up, and is my favorite ride at Universal. Its use of animatronics and real sets is extremely refreshing next to many modern rides, which rely more heavily on screens.  In the ride’s pre-show, Stephen Spielberg informs riders that E.T.’s home planet, the Green Planet, is dying, and that we must bring him home so he can heal it. After Spielberg’s spiel, we get our interplanetary passports, and are then led into the ride’s indoor queue. The queue is made to look like a spooky dark forest, with trees, rocks, and a loop of forest sounds under the ride's theme music. This room, and the ride as a whole, have this specific ambiance that makes it my favorite place to be in the whole park. The ride also has such a distinct, almost melancholic smell, reminiscent to that of a rainy day, but in a good way. Th...

  Well, this is it. Our final blog post.  Many have looked forward to this because now they don’t need to worry about writing a weekly blog while others enjoyed it as it gave them an opportunity to write about whatever they wanted. Either way, no more blog posts for the year. Whether it’s a yay or a nay from you, congratulations! Now, what's next? So ya, we finished our blog posts, and to many it might seem like nothing but to me, this is big. We just finished our blog posts! This is something we have been working on for the past year. This means the school year is almost over. Yes, you already knew that but this makes it even more real.  The school year ends one step at a time. First, no more blog posts. Then, we have spring break and we finish the curriculum and next thing you know we are taking the AP exams. And whether you're ready or not, it's happening and time is moving on.  So many people have written blog posts about being scared for the future and s...

     This summer is one I have been looking forward to all year. Literally, I have never been more excited about a summer in my entire life. All throughout the year, I have been, in a way, planning my life in anticipation of the summer, where I am going to be going to Israel on a group trip.      Ever since I went on my trip last summer, I have been eagerly waiting for this summer to come. Last summer, I met so many amazing people and had so much fun, but after the summer, it felt as though I didn’t do everything I wanted to do. Last summer I feel like I wasn’t as confident in myself - this is a major reason why I started working out, and have tried to improve myself in every way.      This summer, my goal is to ensure that I don’t have the same regrets I did last year. All year I have worked on bettering myself in order to be more confident when approaching new people, and this is a major thing that hindered me last year.     ...

Ben Heller 4/5/2022   I have to be honest, I was reading through other people’s blogs because I couldn’t come up with a topic for my own, and Leah’s struck me as especially important. Leah gets credit for this one because I altered her topic for my own. Guys, this year has been crazy -a whirlwind- you might say. Somehow we’ve managed to keep our heads above water and are nearing the end of the scary eleventh grade.  I feel like everything we’ve done throughout high school up to this point has been leading to this moment. We’re finally starting the process of selecting colleges; and in six months, we’ll be applying to them with our finished essays. For me, this is an especially mind-boggling fact, because ever since 5th grade, I’ve had a plan for getting myself to my dream college (think: yale). This 7 year plan (as I called it) would help me set myself up for success . It started by becoming SGA president in middle school, then being a member in NHS and maintaining top notch...

 Ori Shai AP Lang 4/5/22                                                                                     Spring Break     I go to Donna Klein Jewish Academy, and I'm a Junior in high school. It's a private Jewish high school, and that means we get holiday vacations. A couple of weeks ago, all "regular" schools got Spring Break for a week and a half. During this time, our school went on a field trip to Universal, and as you could guess, it was packed. Nevertheless, it was an awesome experience full of going on the same ride over and over again: Rip-Ride-Rockit. Anyways, we didn't get Spring Break at the "normal" time in the middle of March, but instead, we will be getting it during Passover Break. For the first time, Passo...

Since this is the last blog post this year, it seems right to connect it to the very near end of the most difficult and stressful school year of our lives.  I can’t believe how fast the year has flown. It seems like just yesterday it was my birthday and the first day of school. I remember feeling very scared for eleventh grade because so many people told me how hard it is. When I look back at the year we’ve had now, I feel so proud of how all of us as a grade have coped with the challenges that junior year brings.  Junior year was definitely difficult, between the workload, SATs, the start of college applications, and still keeping up with my commitments from last year, such as chores, dance, community service, and babysitting. Sometimes it felt impossible, although it wasn't. I thought that I would have no time to hang out with friends and my family because of how much I’ve had, however, I’ve learnt how to manage my time in order to complete all my homework and still have tim...

The final blog. Most students have been looking forward to this and if I'm going to be honest, most of the time, I was one of those students, especially this semester because of the current event blogs. Although, being a student who loves writing, I am a little sad to see this year-round assignment come to an end. If I'm going to be 100% truthful, I had no idea what I was going to write about for this blog, so I took that as an opportunity to write a reflection on this weekly assignment. In my opinion, last semesters blogs were much more enjoyable to write, and that was due to the absence of the current event blogs. Personally, I absolutely love creative writing, so when I was told we had a weekly creative writing assignment I was excited. Unfortunately though, I really suck at journalism and things like writing articles. I just find it boring to write about current events. I like writing with my creative mind. I find it easier to use my own tone while writing creatively rather...

  The unknown is very scary, at least to me. Even just thinking about what next month is going to look like is scary, so trying to figure out what I want to do in the future and for the rest of my life is crazy and I can not wrap my head around it. I have a sense of what I want to do with my life, and I definitely know what I do not want to do in my life, but trying to figure out the exact details of it, like college and what I want to major in, is terrifying. Being a second-semester Junior, college is always being brought up in my house. There is literally not a day that passes by that we do not talk about it, especially since I have a twin brother who is going through the exact same thing as me at the same time. The more that it is talked about, the more that it scares me.  I also think about my parents, and how it will affect them. My mom is a stay at home mom, and does not have many hobbies, so when my brother and I leave the house at the same time, my mom will all o...

 What are Goosebumps? Goosebumps are little bumps that can appear anywhere on your body, but are most common on your arms and legs. It's a common occurrence when you're cold or experiencing a powerful emotion such as fear. You might notice small hairs developing on your arms and legs if you look intently. Each of these hairs is surrounded by small muscles, which draw together or contract when you get goosebumps. When this happens, the muscles and skin surrounding the hairs pull closer to your body, causing the hairs to stand up higher and giving you those small bumps! They're called goosebumps because they resemble the skin of a goose behind the feathers. Goosebumps aren't actually felt by geese; they may expand their feathers, but it's not the same. Other animals, on the other hand, get goosebumps. Especially furry ones. The temperature, or how warm or cold it is, is one of the most prevalent causes of goosebumps in humans and other animals. Your body strives to ke...

 “The Lord of the Desert” is in Jerusalem                A rare carved stele from the early fourth century BCE, which had been hidden in the Israel Museum's storage rooms for a long time, was put on special display on March 8 at the museum. The towering stele—a standing relief constructed of a stone slab carved with figurative images—is exceptional not only for its life-like size: it stands 1.74 meters tall (5.7 feet) and weighs 350 kilograms (771 pounds), but also for its extremely well-preserved state despite being shattered into two pieces. The stele, known as "The Lord of the Desert," was discovered in 2017 during an inventory of the Iron Age storage, where it had been placed wrongly since its arrival shortly after the museum's foundation in 1965. The stele has been put on display for the first time after a five-year restoration procedure led by Laura A. Peri, curator of Western Asiatic Antiquities at the museum. She mentioned that t...

     Note to self: it really is true when your mom says that time flies by when you're having fun. As childhood time is starting to fade away, as we start thinking about our future, my emotions have begun to twist and turn. While of course, I am excited about the new paths in life I am about to endure, it is not the same as being home as a “mommy's girl” and living under the roof of whatever your parents put in front of you.       Many juniors have been having to scramble recently due to the amount of stress, anxiety, and thoughts on our plate. We are trying to build our resumes, do SAT/ACT testing, narrow down certain schools we would like to apply to, and figure out our plans for the next year and a half to make what we do look good for college, along with keeping up excelling grades in school. For me, this has been an ongoing thought in my head as I am planning my summer adventures. Due to COVID-19, these past 2 summers have not been the same as I h...

  For the past few years, towards the conclusion of the school year, I have repeatedly wondered what was objectively the best class I took that year. Often I may have felt as if one class was superior, however at the same time I knew that my opinion was likely based on that particular day’s events and not conclusive of the entire year. At the end of last school year, I created a plan to finally obtain an answer. I would report a ranking of my classes every day over the course of the next year, and then at the end of the year, I would average out my reports and gain a scientific answer to my question. And unlike many other experiments I have tried unsuccessfully to run, I actually stuck to my method. Every single day that I had at least one class, I would rank each of the classes I went to. Now, at the end of the year, I have statistics from the entire year about my favorite classes, and I answered my question once and for all. However, this is by no means a fully objective report...

      I love to play all types of games: video games, card games, and board games. Games offer many different advantages, such as competition, planning, strategy, and co-operation. They are great for playing with friends, family, by yourself, or competitively, and each game is different enough to make each play-through fun.     I have a lot of different types of video games because there are so many different varieties of video games. My favorite open world game is probably Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This game has an expansive land to explore and different quests and side quests to follow to defeat the final boss. But the best part is that you can play the game at your own pace and solve whatever puzzles you want whenever as you gain new abilities and weapons. I also love creative games like Minecraft because of the possibilities that you can accomplish in the game, and multiplayer games like Rainbow Six: Siege, Warthunder, and Halo Inif...