This project opened me up to the differet types of students we have in our high school. All the different answers I received from them opened my eyes to how differently people think. Having the option to pick what ever project I wanted allowed me to be free and choose the direction I wanted to go in. Thanks shreffler for giving me this opportunity it really showed me a different point of view.
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To start off this week we asked the question ' Can money buy you happiness ?" a question that depending on the person you ask can go two different ways. One way would be a person who enjoys life and what it brings,another would be the person who needs materials to get them through the day. Of course asking a student this question you caould guess what way it went. The particiant in this survey week was a 15 year old boy hwo is a Sophmore, he answered "no" which im guessing is an eye opener for some. His answer to the previous week was "no" as well. I guess our generation still has some hope.
This question was "If you could reaad a book and at the end of the book it told you how you die, would you continue?" This student is 18 in 12th grade and he answered "yes, so i could avoid it.". Then his next answer was "my dad"because he wants to spend quality time with him.
This weeks question was if you could have lunch with one person dead or alive who would it be. This person is a 15 year old sophmore and her answer was "Brad Pitt for obvous reasons ."She was also asked the questionfrom the previous week and her answer was "how much money do you have?"
This year for our projects we could chose our own project and i have chosen to survey someone each week at school but not ask them acedemic questions but ask them questions about life in general. Week ones question is "If you could ask president Obama one question what would it be?" The response I received was hilaroius. I asked a 15 year old sophmore boy this question and his respnse was unforgettable. He said " I would ask Obama if I could borrow a dollar?"
Sleeping to most people is there favorite time of the day. It is a time when they can just shut there eyes and dream. The dreams might not always be happy but when you wake up its all over and you can have a new one the next night.
Arianna Huffington shares her opinion on what getting more sleep can do for you. In her short but sweet video she shares how 2 years ago she fainted from exhaustion and hit her head on her desk, broke her cheek bone and got 5 stitches in her right eye. After this accident she met with lots of medical doctors who told her the way to a more productive, more inspired more joyful life is getting enough sleep. She talks how this issue is slowly making its way to a top priority of people and as she said in the video " W e as women are literally sleeping our way to the top". Unfortunately sleep deprivation has become a virility symbol to men. She tells us to think when we are facing multiple crisis in our world, in our personal life, in our career choice in our happiness level to stop and think about yourself. She urges us to shut our eyes and discover what our min has to tell us. Give the engine that is your body a break and close your eyes and discover the power of sleep an
This weeks refection is called "A Broken Body Isn't A Broken Person". Jaime Shepherd the speaker in this video starts out this talk with a story.Telling us the story it took for her to get to be a cross country skier and her dream to get an Olympic medal.
One day she was riding her bike as she always did. Jaime before she knew it she was hit by a truck. She woke up with broken arms, legs, a shattered spinal cord and ribs. As she said in the video "I Had A Bad Day". Next thing she knew She was in the intensive care unit fighting for her life. For weeks she debated weather or not to continue fighting for her life or to just give up. She heard a voice in her head saying "come on keep going, we can do it together". Jaime returned back to her body and the eternal bleeding stopped. But her back was still in pieces, the chances of her walking again were little to nothing. The only hope she has was the movement she had in her big toe. The doctors told her she would have no feeling from her waist down. Months later she was able to leave the hospital. While she was home she started to be depressed, all she wanted to do was to put on her running shoes and go out the door. But everyday she worked toward being able to walk by herself. Jaime got to the point where she could wobble around the house holding on to the walls. After this she found a new passion. She was sitting down and looking out she saw a plane and new that's what she wanted to do. Jaime made an appointment to fly and she got to fly over the place where she got in the accident and that's when she realized that she thought to her self how far she has come from not being able to walk to being able to fly a plane. After all of this she was able to pass her piolts medical exam and start training at flight school. Everyone there looked at her as though she would never be able to do it but she believed in her self to not listen to them. She was out of her comfort zone but she was breaking through it. Jaime learned to fly almost every plane. After she got all of her licenses to fly she went back to that school and taught other people to fly just 18 months after her accident.
The Ted talk this week is called "How To Make Stress Your Friend" done by Kelly McGonigal. In this talk she speaks about the affects of stress and what it does to your body.
Kelly begins speaking about the research she has done on stress. She talks about a study that went on at a college. More of a social experiment. During this experiment they put you in a situation where you have to count by 7 's starting from 96 and so on... As you are doing this there are people yelling at you to do better and to work faster. After you do this section you have to give a speech about an unknown topic while being judged by a panel of people who are experts in speech. While on stage you have microphones making every sound you make louder than ever. Cameras on your face on shooting the image on huge T.V screens. In front of a huge audience just waiting for you to mess up. After you finish the speech (if you can). The panel of judges is also supposed to critique you harshly. The point of this was to see the the affects that stress has on your body. The results were exactly what they thought. The peoples hearts were racing and they were breathing heavy. After that the people were told not to care and stress doesn't hurt you as long as you know that it wont affect you. The college repeated this after they told the student that information. The results after this showed a completely different conclusion. They looked at it like when your heart was racing it meant you were preparing for action. When breathing heavy means that more oxygen is going to your brain. Stress is a good thing. When you experience stress it releases a social hormone. This is called Oxytocin (cuddle hormone). It is called that because it is what gets released when you hug some one. When you get stressed your body releases that hormone. It is almost as if your body is telling you to let someone know about what you are going through and to be social and to seek support from his/her friends. Most of us live busy lives,we just keep moving and not giving our brain a break to just relax. To start the talker in this is Andy Puddicome the name of it is "All It Takes Is 10 Mindful Minutes" He starts by telling us how powerful the mind is and how important it is to us. He exposes us to the importance of keeping it healthy and not over working your mind until it cant run anymore. In his talk he begins with a story about his first meditation class. As a young 11 year old boy his mom offered him a chance to go to class with her. Andy immediately thought of all the typical stereo types such as sitting cross legged, smelling the in-scents and the vegetarians. Prior to this, he had watched a few Kung Fu movies. Because of the movies he thought going to the class he would learn to fly. He assumed this class was like an "aspirin" , you get stressed out you meditate. Andy never realized that its not a relief its a preventative measure to avoid the stress instead off killing it. In his early 20's he hit some hard times. Instead of hitting the bottle or barring himself in work he decided to quit his degree and become a Monk. Andy goes on to speak about the change this did to him in a positive way. All the befits he was exposed to. It gave him a greater appreciation and understanding of the present moment. He learns to not get lost in thought, to not get distracted and to not be over whelmed by the difficult situations that life may throw at you. Instead he learns to be here in the moment how to be mindful how to be present. We as humans in the 21'st never just take in the moment to enjoy it with our friends and family. Today its all about "lets take a picture" or "Google it". Back then families were so much closer because there weren't any distractions on there car rides or places to post your location so all your friends can comment how jealous they are. We need to learn to live for now and just have the memories with each other not your face book friend list. How long has it been since you have done absolutely nothing. Not sitting and reading not sitting and writing not sitting and watching T.V I mean sitting and doing absolutely nothing. Doing that just 10 minutes a day can give you a different outlook on life. Being busy people, just siting and doing nothing can seem like a waste of time or you feel like you need to be doing something in that time. You will probably go through that the first few times doing this, but getting through that mental block for those times will benefit you in extreme ways. You will start going through life more relaxed and looking at things in a different way. Being more mindful is another 'side affect' of doing this everyday. Teachers are so under rated for there hard work that they put out in the world and the difference they make in peoples life every year. I may only be 14 years old but in my life so far I've had some life changing teachers in my time. Some that I still keep in touch with even as i grew older. Those are just two teachers who have made a difference in my 9th grade year.Thank you to all teachers who go to work in the early am and stay till late after noon. Even tho we don't tell you everyday we do appreciate you! |