Vincent English Blog

Response: A memory of mine that is tied to a meal or dish is when I got my tonsils taken out in the summer of 2024. I was around 3 days into my recovery from the surgery, and I could barely eat anything. The skin of the back of my throat was peeling and very sensitive, so eating anything too hard or too hot/cold caused unbearable pain. Even drinking water would cause severe pain. My mom and I kept brainstorming what I could eat that was soft, warm (not hot), and nutritional so I could finally get some food in my stomach. Eventually, I told my mom that all I wanted for the next week was sancocho. Sancocho is basically white rice over roasted beef, corn, potatoes, and sometimes chicken. My mom cooked the biggest pot of sancocho I had ever seen in my life, and it luckily heats up very easily in the microwave without going bad. I must have had sancocho for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for almost an entire week and I didn't even get sick of it! My throat was hurting so bad during this t...

Response: During the writing process, revising and proofreading my draft helped shape the strength of my final essay the most. When it came to drafting my essay, I assumed what I had typed up was perfect and didn't need any revisions. It wasn't until I went back and revised it where I noticed I had made many mistakes and needed lots of improvement. I learned that as a writer, I need to look back over my writing as much as I can so I can perfect it. I learned that I need to be more open to feedback and criticism of my writing as well. Summary: Today, we wrote the final essay. Reflection: While writing this essay, I was able to see that my writing can contain many flaws and can use room for improvement which helped me perfect the final essay.

Response: Drafting parts of my essay revealed weaknesses I have in my writing like transition sentences and analysis of evidence. I tend to think that my writing is near perfect and doesn't need any improvements, but looking back on the drafts I made revealed a lot of the flaws I have with certain essay topics. For example, my analysis of my evidence contained too much explanation instead of literal and symbolic analysis. Drafting this essay helped me improve my writing to its best form.   Summary: Today, we worked on our essay. Reflection: Drafting can help with the beginning writing stages of an essay and reveal mistakes you may have made. This is why it's important to write an essay in multiple stages/versions.

Response: The parts of an essay that I struggle with the most are developing a strong thesis and transition sentences. With developing a strong thesis, it can be hard for me to gather all of my topics into one sentence and do it accurately. Transition sentences are also a challenge for me because I struggle with moving on to my next topic efficiently while connecting it back to my thesis/previous topic. One goal I have to improve my essay writing skills is to look back on my draft paragraph and observe how I used my transition sentences. I don't think I had used them correctly, so I am hoping to look back and fix them.  Summary: Today, we worked on our essay. Reflection: There are lots of different parts to an essay, and developing each part and skill equally is important to making a well thought out essay.

Response: The top three colleges that I am considering choosing right now are Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University, and Georgia Gwinnett College. All 3 of these colleges are very populated and near big cities of Georgia. Comparing these colleges UGA and and Georgia Tech, I'd consider my top 3 schools a little easier to get into and study in. I've never really been interested in a super competitive school like Georgia Tech. Out of all these choices though, GSU has my heart all the way. I've always wanted to live in the city since I was little, but not have it be my permanent residence. I think I was inspired by Curious George, who has one house in the country and one apartment in the city. I think that living in the city for these next 4-5 years will be a good agreement to my living-in-the-city dilemma. Hopefully I will get in! Summary: Today, we worked on our upcoming essays. Reflection: Choosing the right college is a scary choice, but it's important to ...

Response: The strongest idea I came up with for my essay was using Cheryl's need for new shoes a symbol of survival to work towards a goal in mind. This idea came from the theme of hiking boots throughout the story, a symbol of persevering through uncomfortable and painful times in someone's life. The reason I chose this idea was because it was the focus of my claim-evidence-analysis body paragraph exercise that I did in class. I think that this is my strongest idea because I've had the most time to revise and work on this paragraph than the others. Summary: Today, we choose our topic and made our thesis statement for our essay. Reflection: Writing this essay and taking lots of time to perfect our flaws in our writing has really helped me become a better writer overall.

Response: One thing that I realized while learning about the best college fit was the community and the culture I am applying too. I want to go to a big college in the city that is accepting of anyone who attends there. I hadn't really thought of this factor when choosing a college, but reading the Common Lit helped me narrow the down the colleges I think would be best for me. After asking a couple of my friends that are already in college, I think I would enjoy going to Georgia State University the most because of their diverse and accepting community. Summary: Today, we did a Common Lit assignment. Reflection: Choosing the right college is essential to deciding the next 4-5 years of your life. The right environment can break your college experience.

Response: When reviewing and revising my literary argument paragraph, some changes I added to my writing were grammar mistakes, rewriting my analysis, and changing the way I inserted my quotes. I ended up having to change the way I inserted my quotes into the text but it was no big deal. I had also corrected a couple simple grammar mistakes which was easy. The hardest part was fixing the analysis of the quotes I inserted into my writing. My analysis kept straying away from the claim and evidence that I provided, and I had to focus on getting rid of some filler words. Summary: Today, we revised our practice body paragraphs.  Reflection: Revising your writing and admitting your mistakes can be a difficult but crucial step to writing a well thought out essay.

Response: It is important for students to write essays in their own words because having artificial intelligence write for them is too easy. A student could feed artificial intelligence an essay prompt and have their essay completed in 15 seconds. While it does save time, a student's ability to write a well written essay will disappear overtime while using A.I. By writing an essay in your own words, a student can accurately form their own opinions and word choices the way that they want to instead of having AI make it for them. Summary: Today, we learned about the dangers of AI in a school environment. Reflection: Writing an essay in your own words is essential to help develop your ability to express your opinions and statements in words through a well written paper.

Response: When creating the claim-evidence-analysis structure during our body paragraph exercise, the biggest challenge for me was the analysis of my evidence. I would constantly be making up other claims that wasn't supported by my evidence and also after I had already made my first claim. My analysis would stray off from the evidence/quote that I provided, and it was hard for me to correct this mistake when doing my revisions.  Summary: Today, we did a body paragraph exercise for our upcoming essay. Reflection: The claim-evidence-analysis structure in a body paragraph must have all 3 elements mastered in order to create a well written paragraph.

Response: When it comes to essay writing, my favorite part is finding all the evidence for my paper. This is mostly because I find it the easiest task to complete, but it's also one that I can get done the fastest. The hardest part about essay writing is either making my writing grammatically correct or connecting my evidence to my claim. While practicing the body paragraphs in class, my biggest challenge was explaining my evidence accurately without making any other claims. I used to think essay writing was super easy, but there are so many aspects of it that I have overlooked. Summary: Today we practiced writing our body paragraphs for our upcoming essay. Reflection: Finding your strengths and weaknesses in essay writing can help you reflect on areas you need to improve/strengthen and focus on.

Response: While looking at my classmates digital posters, I couldn't help but think "I should have done my poster like that." For example, Orion's digital poster was very visually creative with his black and red theme. Looking at these other digital posters, it inspired me to make a more visually appealing poster the next time that I am assigned to make one. Summary: Today, we looked at our classmates visual posters and provided feedback for their work. Reflection: It's important to remember that these digital posters have to be both visually and grammatically creative.

Response: During the simile and metaphor worksheet, the topics that challenged me the most were the negative labels, finding your identity, and appearance based judgments. All 3 of these topics had something in common. They all made me want to talk about who I am as a person. There's been a lot going on with me regarding my identity, mental health, and future purpose. However, one thing I haven't been able to do is put these feelings into words. I hadn't realized how hard this task would actually be though. It took me around 3 days to finish all 12 similes and metaphors, and I got stuck at those specific topics for days. I was eventually able to work through this challenge by taking time after my 10 hour shift at work to sit down alone in the living room and reflect. I sat there for around 2 hours to come up with meaningful and well-thought-out responses. Once I finally figured out the similes and metaphors I felt properly matched the feelings I had, I had finished sooner t...

Response: While creating my similes and metaphors, I learned how to put all the struggles I have been through in life into words. Some of those struggles include leaving St. Pius and coming to Lakeside, academic struggles, insomnia, gender identity, and negative things others have said about me. I've always wanted to write about these struggles I've been through, but I could never figure out how to put it into words or how to create symbolic sentences about them. I learned during this activity that I do actually have the ability to create meaningful sentences that I can closely relate to. I also gained some confidence in talking about topics that I normally am not comfortable sharing. Summary: Today, we wrote similes and metaphors about our struggles in life. Reflection: Turning topics in my life into meaningful sentences using figurative language helped me figure out how to express myself symbolically. 

Response: During the break, I spent most of my time trying to rest my body and my mind from the stress of school and college. The week leading up to the break had me crammed with many assignments that were overdue (much like all of my blog posts (sorry)), and I had to just take that week during the break to rest. When I did go out, it was usually to go get dinner with my family or my girlfriend, which would give me a chance to get dressed all nice and put some makeup on, which has become a recent hobby of mine. I've been experimenting a lot with the outfits that I wear when I go out, and this break gave me a chance to finally change my style and see how I felt about going out in public in these new clothes. Overall, the break was just a nice week where I got to rest and try something new. Summary: Today, we read "Still I Rise" in class. Reflection: February break has always been a nice break in the beginning of the second semester that I think everyone needs.

Response: The way I show love can be represented by a CD, a person's favorite food/drink, and a stuffed animal. The CD shows how much I think music connects me and that person together. I believe most people enjoy music, so when I am trying to show my love to someone through music, it's usually a CD. The food/drink shows how much I listen and observe what the other person likes and enjoys. The stuffed animal (which would be their favorite animal) shows how I pay attention to the little details, and give a physical gift to someone which they can hold and enjoy. Summary: Today, we finished up our Interactive Oral. Reflection: Expressing love to someone you care about can also mean you want to be treated the same way too!