Race Conflict in Remember the Titans - 739 Words

Short Title Header - p. 288 (5.06)ï ¿ ½Ã¯ ¿ ½ PAGE ï ¿ ½1ï ¿ ½Ã¯ ¿ ½Ã¯ ¿ ½ Race Conflictï ¿ ½Ã¯ ¿ ½ PAGE ï ¿ ½1ï ¿ ½Ã¯ ¿ ½Ã¯ ¿ ½ Race Conflict in Remember the Titans Duquesne University Chester Skinner / MLLS 714 11/11/2008ï ¿ ½ In the movie Remember the Titans Gerry and Julius worked to overcome racial issues and eventually resolved their unnecessary conflict. They came to develop an amazing friendship built on trust and respect. They eventually learned to appreciate the meaning of trusting a man for who they are as a person rather than the color of their skin. Early in the movie Gerry and Julius would not acknowledge one another, they were like enemies. When they looked at each other it was with both hatred and fear. They both lived their own separate lives, with their own race, and†¦show more content†¦This was unthinkable, but the problem was that if they wanted to play football they had to overcome these hurdles, therefore not leaving them a lot of choices. On camp they would spend days together but neither of them made an effort to get along. Their friendship was so secure and they were so pleased that they had learned to overcome the racialShow MoreRelatedRemember the Titans954 Words   |  4 PagesInterpersonal Conflict in Remember the Titans I choose the movie – remember the titans. It is an inspirational movie, making my blood boiling from the beginning to the end and teaching us that we are all equal no matter what race you are. It talks about not only the games, but also racial conflicts, friendship and the significance of life. The story goes like that: in the early 1970s, two schools in Alexandria Virginia integrate forming T.C. Williams High School. The Caucasian head coach of theRead MoreTeamwork And Leadership : Remember The Titans1699 Words   |  7 PagesTEAMWORK AND LEADERSHIP IN REMEMBER THE TITANS Introduction The dynamics of teamwork and leadership can be seen throughout the film â€Å"Remember the Titans.† The advantages and disadvantages of teams, norms and cohesiveness, and the stages of team development, are exemplified on multiple occurrences. This report will analyze these dynamics and provide examples of how they are displayed in the film. Advantages of Teams Throughout the film, there were many instances of the advantages of being part ofRead MoreRemember the Titans Team Dynamics Analysis Essay763 Words   |  4 PagesVideo Case: â€Å"Remember the Titans† Groups and teams are essential to current business objectives, so understanding how groups form and operate is a major focus of study in Organizational Behavior. The film Remember the Titans supplies a useful example for studying the life cycle of a group, as well as how external pressures can affect group formation and performance, both positively and negatively. Using details from the Titans growth and performance, we will discuss how conflicts affected theRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Remember The Titans 1538 Words   |  7 PagesRemember the Titans is a classic movie about one black-populated high school and one white-populated high school who are forced to integrate into one school/football team in a suburban town in Virginia in 1971. Neither races are obliging to this rash decision being enforced but there was nothing to be done about it. The 70’s were a very difficult time to be a minority especially for African Americans, which is what led to many problems and str uggles not only throughout the school, but specificallyRead MoreRemember The Titans Is A Classic Movie1567 Words   |  7 PagesRemember the Titans is a classic movie about one African American-populated high school and one Caucasian-populated high school who are forced to integrate into one school/football team in a suburban town in Virginia in 1971. Neither races are obliging to this rash decision being enforced but there was nothing to be done about it. The 70’s were a very difficult time to be a minority especially for African Americans, which is what led to many problems and struggles not only throughout the schoolRead MoreAttitudes, Racism and Culture Essay1521 Words   |  7 PagesAttitudes are not something individuals are born with; they are learned from direct experiences and interaction with others. Attitudes are developed from the culture in which we live. In the movie â€Å"Remember the Titans† the students initially had negative attitudes towards students of the opposite race. Their parents, who might have had negative attitudes from past culture and experiences, influenced their attitudes. Derogatory expressions and their parents’ views played in role in the formation ofRead MoreEssay on Remember The Titans814 Words   |  4 PagesRemember The Titans Essay In the movie Remember the Titans by Boaz Yakin the character Herman Boone, played by Denzel Washington, is faced by a difficult challenge that is significantly important to the movie. Boone in a sense faces a challenge of acceptance in which, by the end of the movie, he has experienced in two noticeable ways. Boone faces the challenge of being accepted by the community, revealing to us that he wants the community working together rather than judging and persecutingRead MoreRemember the Titans925 Words   |  4 PagesGloria Bicolli Remember the Titans HRD 363 Midterm Tuckman and Jensen 1977 Tuckman and Jensen model focuses on the development of internal relations among the team members. There are 5 stages, Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. The movie Remember the Titans was very inspiring especially because it is based on a true story. This movie showed all of Tuckman’s 5 stages. Stages of Group Development The first stage is forming; this is when members get to know one anotherRead MorePrejudice - Remember the Titans1433 Words   |  6 PagesThese core beliefs more often than not lead to heavily discriminatory behaviour from the in-group in order to undermine the out-group/minority and force them to believe their own stereotypes. This idea can be clearly related back to the movie Remember the Titans where racism, sexism and homophobia were a regular occurrence backed up by such discriminatory behaviour as segregation, work-place favouritism and often, violence. Despite this, a number of practices can be put in place in everyday life inRead MoreMoral Dilemmas In The Movie Remember The Titans897 Words   |  4 Pagesis one’s opinion on what is right or wrong whilst a moral dilemma is when one is called to take action that violates their values. The film that I will be analysing is ‘Remember the Titans’ a film directed by Boaz Yakin. One of the moral dilemmas charact ers in the film face is whether they decide to cooperate with the other race when they are forced to merge. One of the ethical dilemmas that characters face in the film are decisions that need to be made to stop the town from an uprising. This essay

Environmental Risk Factors Of Adolescents - 1806 Words

Findings Environmental Risk factors Poverty. The social environments that adolescents are repeatedly exposed to have been shown to influence their behaviors that follow into adulthood. Adolescents who are exposed to toxic social environments (e.g. violent neighborhoods, poverty, minimal parental supervision, etc.) have demonstrated higher rates of offending in comparison to adolescents who come from more affluent neighborhoods (Chung Steinberg 2006; Steinberg Monahan, 2007). Rodriguez (2013) found that adolescents who reside in communities of concentrated disadvantage have a greater predictability of becoming incarcerated at some point in their life. Furthermore, Aizer Doyle (2013) determined that youth who are incarcerated as juveniles are three times more likely to be incarcerated as adults. According to Sickmund Puzzanchera (2014), as of 2010, 22% of youth under the age of 18 lived in poverty---with nearly half (45%) of those juveniles living in â€Å"extreme poverty†. Statistic s show that juveniles from certain racial groups tend to face economic hardships more than others. The racial breakdowns of juveniles living in poverty during 2010 are as follows: 39% were African American, 35% were Hispanic and 12% were White. That data concurs with previous research that indicates that minorities (more specifically African Americans) have a higher prevalence of living in disadvantaged neighborhoods in comparison to Whites (Chauhan, Reppucci Turkheimer, 2009). InShow MoreRelatedFamily Risk Factors For Antisocial Behavior Among Young People901 Words   |  4 Pages Family risk factors for antisocial behavior among young people include abuse / neglect; low levels of parental involvement; high levels of hostility, conflict and aggression within the family; parental criminality; family conflicts; inadequate parental supervision; early parental loss; and emotional deprivation. OJJDP identified several risk factors related to the family who have an established relationship with juvenile delinquency, including factors such as antisocial parents, poor family managementRead More##s Of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure And Cortisol Reactivity In Infants1396 Words   |  6 PagesOn September 13th, we discussed various topics within the field of the brain, biology, and development. Topics ranged from prenatal cocaine exposure and cortisol reactivity in infants to adolescent risk-taking. I particularly enjoyed Eiden and colleagues’ article the most out of the assigned articles. Eiden and colleagues conducted a study examining the effects of prenatal cocai ne exposure on infant hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and reactivity at seven months old (Eiden et al., pgRead MoreThe Risk Factors Of Substance Use Disorder Among Adolescents875 Words   |  4 Pagesp. 491). These criteria help care providers diagnose alcohol use disorder among a variety of populations, including adolescents, and are similar to the other substance use disorder criteria that are listed in the DSM-V. Psychosocial. Both personality traits and psychopathology can contribute to substance use disorder among adolescents. Personality traits are considered risk factors for drug use, and in turn, the psychoactive substances impact individuals traits. Furthermore, there is increasingRead MoreHealth Care Challenges when Working with Adolescents Essay1174 Words   |  5 Pageswith the adolescent population we have many health care challenges. Adolescents experiences profound physical changes which occur rapidly. These include increased rate of bone and muscle growth, sex specific changes and development of the sexual reproductive system and secondary sex characteristics. â€Å"†Changes are created by hormonal changes within the body when the hypothalamus begins to produce gnoadotropin-releasing hormones† (Potter Perry, 2005, p. 205). This is a time when adolescents becomeRead MoreThe Health Of The Community- Public Health778 Words   |  4 Pages1) Factors that Influence the Health of the Community- Public health seeks to prevent environmental conditions such as: Asbestos exposure, lead exposure, radon exposure, mercury exposure, radioactivity and radiation, ground and surface water contamination, contaminated and abandoned wells, food- borne and waterborne disease, air contamination (second- hand smoke, molds, carbon monoxide, etc.), public health nuisances (e.g., animal control, noise pollution), occupational disease (e.g., farmer s lungRead MoreSuicide : The Suicide Rate For Young Individuals Essay1254 Words   |  6 PagesSuicide, otherwise known as completed suicide, can be described as a deliberate act to inflict harm upon oneself that results in death (Wagner, 2009). Suicide has been recognized as a significant public health problem among the adolescent community (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015; Jurich, 2007). Suicide has been ranked as the third leading cause of death amongst young individuals aged 15 through 24, with an average of 4,6 00 deaths annually (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;Read MoreNeighborhood Social Victimization Essay1272 Words   |  6 PagesNeighborhood Social Adversity and Personal Crime Victimization on Adolescent Psychotic Experiences Your Name University of Louisiana at Monroe Analysis of Cumulative Effects of Neighborhood Social Adversity and Personal Victimization on Adolescent Psychotic Experiences Newbury, et al. conducted a study in 2017 in the United Kingdom called Cumulative Effects of Neighborhood Social Adversity and Personal Victimization on Adolescent Psychotic Experiences. 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Formerly known as adult onset and/or insulin resistant diabetes T2DM occurs due to the cell inability to properly use insulin which then results in lowered secretion of insulin as well as insulin resistanceRead MorePsychosocial Factors That Affect Adolescent s Behavior876 Words   |  4 Pages Psychosocial Crisis in Adolescents Adolescence is an interesting stage of development and is the fifth stage of Erikson stages of development .According to Erikson adolescence is a time of searching for one’s own identity and developing a sense of autonomy. Trying on different â€Å"selves† is a common mental and behavioral activity of adolescents who are in the process of developing an internally anchored sense of who they are, rather than defining themselves by what others think or expect of them

Change In Organizational Structure Of Pilkington †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Change In Organizational Structure Of Pilkington. Answer: Introduction Pilkington is a world-renowned glass manufacturer. It produces high-end products of glass with supreme quality and is famous for that reason. Use of glass has increased with themodernization of architecture. Buildings are covered with glass panes and all the windows are completely made of high-quality glass of different sizes, shades, and strength. It can be observed that the corporate culture of offices has promoted the use of glass in building construction both on the exterior side of the structure and mainly to decorate the interior. Pilkington is known to be going through a transition phase in its organization. Since it focuses on three domains which are corporate, building and automotive it has a lot of variations in its organization. Change in organizational structure of Pilkington has been in three phases (Solouki, 2017). The first phase was triggered by the change in Australian policy of wage.To implement these changes, second phase of change occurred. The third phase was to completely change the structure of the organization to adopt the changes made in the first and the second phase. In the following business report we will discuss and analyze some questions related to change in organizational structure of Pilkington. Factors that moved Pilkington towards change It was observed that during the decade of 1980 Pilkington enjoyed acomplete monopoly over the entire Australia in the business of glass and its products. It was the leading manufacturer and aced all its competitors. But with thepassage of time, Pilkington faced environmental changes and organizational changes both at the same time (Kim Zhong, 2017). These two factors collectively brought organizational change in the management of Pilkington (B.M. Keers, C. van FenemaZijm, 2017). To elaborate these changes, it can be said thatcompetition in international market triggered the need for a change. There was a rise in competition from countries like India, China and Germany got a chance to sell their products due to the reduction in import duties caused by General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade on a global level. Since the manufacturing cost of glass in these countrieswas less Pilkington had huge difficulty in matching the international price levels. Some internal reasons were also there w hich convinced the management of Pilkington to make changes in its organization (B.M. Keers, C. van FenemaZijm, 2017). Pilkington had a major part of its workforce to be in the age bracket of 45 to 50 years which is considered as old in the manufacturing business. These workers were used to traditional methods of expected overtime payment and easy going work methods. These overtime payments computed to be around 70% of the entire payroll in many of its departments. This was an added expense which Pilkington has to bear with not much output derived from it. Then Pilkington management thought this through that this kind of practice should not continue if they have to manufacture World class Glass. So these factors collectively demanded an organizational change. Phases of Change, Focus, Success factors Pilkington desired to change the entire organizational structure by redesigning theformal structure.This change was initiated by the flow of information in the management from lower levels to the upper executive level. The traditional method was that managers used to convey the information to their subordinates (Kim Zhong, 2017). Being a manufacturing unit, the input from shop floor to the higher management is more valuable and appropriate as they know each and every detail about the current issues which they face during production (Gerbec, 2017). This majorly reduced the conflict of opinion in the organization. There was aradical change in the process of production (Sarkar Osiyevskyy, 2017). Individual workers were replaced by ateam of employees who will be collectively responsible for the jobs they are assigned. This was done to enhance the participation among workers. The work done in the organization will not be monitored by individuals of the management but by the teams of worke rs and also by the team members themselves.Change in theinternational structure was doneto maintain the harmony in theworkforce of Pilkingtons organization. Programmed of training for the employees of Pilkington was arranged to make them learn new methods and technologies of manufacturing and make them multi-skilled.Lastly, theintroduction of new work practices to change the environment of the organization (Wadhwani, Galvez-Behar, MercelisGuagnini, 2017). Remuneration systemwas introduced to eradicate barriers and restrictions in the organization. The main focus of the Pilkington was to bring change in the international business structure to stay in the competitionin glass manufacturing.These changes made by Pilkington are the main reasons for the success of change in the organization. Organizational culture problems The problemin the organization of Pilkington is fundamentally related to the working culture. Another problem is about the structure of the organization. Since Pilkington was practicing the old and trusted hierarchal structure of a manufacturing organization in which the top management took all the big decisions (Wadhwani, Galvez-Behar, MercelisGuagnini, 2017). These pronouncements included the performance standards, targets of manufacturing, quality of the products and marketing strategy. These decisions were transferred from the top level of management to the lower ranks of officials who further channeled them towards the floor level workers. There was anonly downward flow of information and the communication was very limited. The lower rank employees who worked on real jobs of manufacturing felt that they are being instructed and theory inputs are of no use. It was not certain that the officials at the top management knew everything about the workings of shop floor and technical d etails of glass manufacturing. This gave rise to a conflict in the minds of workers and they believed the management to be autocratic. Moreover, manufacturing companies are prone to worker union versus management tussle which always exists at the lower levels of the organization. This type of mentality in the workforce tarnishes the efficiency of work among the employees and a sense of dissatisfaction always exists in their minds (Pdr, Pataki Sebestyn, 2017). Pilkington had an old aged workforce which was comfortable with the working methods which existed previously and were reluctant to change. This created a huge problem in organizational change and for modifying the structure of Pilkington management. Motivation Any organization grows by the dint of motivation among its workers. Pilkington has to go through the same process and believe in the same philosophy to implement the change in its organization successfully.Motivation is defined as the inner drive of an employee or the work of an external factor which makes him work more to benefit the organization and reward the worker as well (Sitzmann Bell, 2017). Motivation is a phenomenon by which any organization taken collectively gives reasons to its employees to work harder and to be more committed towards their work in the organization (Lin, Chen Su, 2017). In the case of Pilkington, the sense of motivation was missing and that too for bringing about a change in the organizational structure. Pilkington was willing to re-create its organizational structure which was only possible when the employees were willing to change their mentality and approach towards their work. Employees of Pilkington had a slow tendency towards work which procrastin ated the entire manufacturing procedure.Due to this sluggish working culture, the system of overtime payment existed (Pdr, Pataki Sebestyn, 2017). This system affected the revenue of Pilkington badly and a change was utterly needed. Pilkington had to pay them more money to get the same job done which was to be completed within the normal working hours. Many workers who were in a habit of taking overtime payment put pressure on the workers who resisted such a practice. The individual pressure was put to ignore the change management was willing to make as those employees were getting monetary benefits out of it. This proved to be a major hassle in context of motivating other employees to complete their work in time. Resistance to change As discussed above the workers of Pilkington did not want to bring about any change in the current working structure of the organization. They were very reluctant and tried a lot to maintain the status quo of Pilkington organizational structure. There are reasons to why employees of any organization resist change. The reasons justify their mentality and approach towards work commitment (Lee et al., 2017). These reasons are hindrances in smooth implementation of changes which Pilkington needs to overcome. Identification of reasons forresistance was done to find out some aspects such as: Things a change comprise of:Re-structuring the organization, consolidation of positions, firing workers, forfeiting the project and putting aholdon ongoing projects. Impact of change:Change effects the employees but it also modifies the position of stakeholders in the company (Lee, Sharif, Scandura Kim, 2017). The reshuffling of workers through projects can also happen. Fear of theunknown:When the change is implemented without giving ample time to the workers to think it through and adopt the changes this type of resistance occurs. Mistrust: If the lower level workforce does not trust the higher level officials then any changes made by the organization has to face a sense of mistrust (Queen Hess, 2017). Workers feel that these changes are made to harm them and to benefit the top level of management. Job Security:When an organization announces changes of downside nature it reflects that workers will be laid off from the companys payroll. The workers start feeling a threat to their job security and resist to the changes. Pilkington introduced the changes gradually keeping in mind all the possible reasons for resistance. The management also started employee training programs to upgrade the working skills of its workers so that they get motivated towards their job and try to be more committed towards their work (Queen Hess, 2017). Implementing Change Pilkington made changes in its organizational structure in the phases which took a duration of two years. This was the most strategic move to bring changes in its organization keeping all the factors of organizational change in mind (Reimer Houmanfar, 2017). The first phase started in the month of November 1994 in which Pilkington implemented a new configuration of information flow and process of production. It applied the bottom-up approach where the shop floor workers gave inputs to the top management about the changes necessary at the lower levels (Weick, 2017). The flow of communication was reversed which proved to be beneficial or Pilkington. Another change was in the process of production where teams were formed to perform certain tasks and collective responsibility was given rather than the previous method of individual jobs (Ma Kay, 2017). The second phase was implemented in November 1995 which was done to fine-tune the changes made in the first phase. Changing the structure of international business methods was done by Pilkington in the second phase. To maintain its stand in the international business Pilkington started employee training programs to equip workers with new skillset. Third and the last phase of change came about in December 1996. Pilkington was suffering from loss caused due to strikes. The reason ofstrike was due to the nature of changes Pilkington was going to make in its organization which included the fundamental change in theenvironmentof work and change in remuneration system. Conclusion Change in the structure of any organization is a challenging task.It becomes difficult to modify or to completely alter the pre-existing structure of an organization. But to maintain a positive growth rate and to thrive in the changing environment and culture of work on global level changes need to be implemented. Pilkington being a leading glass manufacturer has to undergo some changes in its organizational structure as the previous one was incurring aloss to its revenue. To go through the phase of organizational change and that too successfully Pilkington has to identify its requirements of change first and implement it slowly. There are many hindrances and restrictions which crop up once changes start to implement. Tackling these issues becomes a priority job for the organization as the entire change process depends on it. In the above report, all the details of organizational change specific to Pilkington have been discussed in details. Analysis of factors of change, phases of ch ange, therequirement of motivating the employees and reasons of resistance to change are done.It can be concluded that Pilkington has by far been successful in bringing the change in its organizational structure and maintain its position of leading glass manufacturer. References B.M. Keers, B., C. van Fenema, P., Zijm, H. (2017). Understanding organizational change for alliancing.Journal Of Organizational Change Management,30(5), 823-838. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jocm-09-2016-0170 Gerbec, M. (2017). Safety change management A new method for integrated management of organizational and technical changes.Safety Science,100, 225-234. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2016.07.006 Kim, Y., Zhong, C. (2017). Ideas rise from chaos: Information structure and creativity.Organizational Behavior And Human Decision Processes,138, 15-27. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2016.10.001 Lin, H., Chen, M., Su, J. (2017). How management innovations are successfully implemented? An organizational routines perspective.Journal Of Organizational Change Management,30(4), 456-486. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jocm-07-2016-0124 Ma, A., Kay, A. (2017). Compensatory control and ambiguity intolerance.Organizational Behavior And Human Decision Processes,140, 46-61. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2017.04.001 Pdr, K., Pataki, B., Sebestyn, Z. (2017). Bringing project and change management roles into sync.Journal Of Organizational Change Management,30(5), 797-822. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jocm-07-2016-0128 Procedural justice as a moderator of the relationship between organizational change intensity and commitment to organizational change.Journal Of Organizational Change Management,30(4), 501-524. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jocm-08-2015-0139 Queen, T., Hess, T. (2017). Linkages Between Resources, Motivation, and Engagement in Everyday Activities.Motivation Science. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mot0000061 Reimer, D., Houmanfar, R. (2017). Internalities and Their Applicability for Organizational Practices.Journal Of Organizational Behavior Management,37(1), 5-31. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01608061.2016.1257969 Sarkar, S., Osiyevskyy, O. (2017). Organizational change and rigidity during crisis: A review of the paradox.European Management Journal. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2017.03.007 Sitzmann, T., Bell, B. (2017). The dynamic effects of subconscious goal pursuit on resource allocation, task performance, and goal abandonment.Organizational Behavior And Human Decision Processes,138, 1-14. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2016.11.001 Solouki, Z. (2017). The road not taken: narratives of action and organizational change.Journal Of Organizational Change Management,30(3), 334-343. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jocm-10-2016-0201 Wadhwani, R., Galvez-Behar, G., Mercelis, J., Guagnini, A. (2017). Academic entrepreneurship and institutional change in historical perspective.Management Organizational History,12(3), 175-198. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17449359.2017.1359903 Weick, K. (2017). Perspective Construction in Organizational Behavior.Annual Review Of Organizational Psychology And Organizational Behavior,4(1), 1-17. https://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032516-113043

Portfolio Essay free essay sample

The beginning of high school I was a seed in English class. I was not particularly good at English and had doubts on whether I should ask the teacher to move me down to the college prep class. Just like a seed, I was a plain little student sitting in an honors class. Maybe from last year’s English class, I was fully aware my writing was not anything special. That was what I thought because I compared myself to my friends, but for sure, one thing I was positive was that writing was my strength in English rather than vocabulary and reading comprehension. With a portfolio with all my past essays in front of me on my desk, I flipped through it. I noticed that my essays were not well-organized, and I had trouble with structuring my essays. However, at the same time, I saw that I had a variety of transitions, and clear topic sentences. We will write a custom essay sample on Portfolio Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The topic sentences were not creative because it was in a basic format, but I knew she could work on that the upcoming year. Thanks to the portfolio that my teacher handed out at the start of the school year, I was able to realize that my writing can change and believed that if I put time and effort through the year, my writing may become a flower one day and bloom beautifully. I sat down in that classroom, day after day, learning new ways to improve. Eventually, almost a year of 9th grade passed. Now that almost a year has gone by and I compare my current self to myself in the beginning of the school year, I definitely see an improvement. I started the year off well, with many A’s in my timed writing and my annotations. But as the year progressed, my grades were dropping. At first, I thought it was because I was putting less effort or my English teacher was grading hard on me. Although my grades did not show improvement, I feel my grades are unimportant. What really matters to me is that I grew and improved mentally through the year despite what my low grades. Of course, if I improved then my grades would rise, but compared to the beginning of the school year, I feel that I am able to write more fluently. Response to literature essays seem more familiar to me, and I do not struggle with concrete details anymore. Due to the timed constant timed writings I had to take, I can brainstorm essays faster and finish essays within the given time limit. Paying attention to details was a major problem for me in the beginning of the school year, but now I know that I should read the text more than once and constantly write notes in the book with post-its so that I do not forget what happened. In addition, just like I wanted to improve on my topic sentences, I was able to learn to make a variety of topic sentences instead of the basic topic sentence formats. Discussions, homework, lectures, and tests, were not the most interesting things, but through these, I was able to change. Throughout the year, I was given many on-demand writings reflecting upon each book that I read in class. I always had trouble with brainstorming because I took too much time on it. I was not able to organize my paragraphs well with pressure of time. The results of this were shown through my basic formatted paragraphs because I could not think of varieties of sentences. However, as time passed, my brainstorming time got faster and I was able to have enough time to edit my essay afterwards. As I looked through my portfolio toward the end of the year, I saw all the on-demand writings I took over the course of the year. My favorite one turned out to be the Fahrenheit 451 in class essay. The essay was well written according to the comments from the teacher. It had an interesting opening sentence, organized thesis, and clear topic sentences. I am proud that I showed changes in my TS especially since I wrote the Fahrenheit 451 ICE toward the beginning of the school year. I would probably say that this essay is far the best on-demand writing I have ever written. In addition, I wrote a couple other ICEs on Oedipus Rex and Romeo and Juliet. From these two essays, I learned that I need to work on my commentaries and my introduction paragraph. I look forward to seeing new growth in myself next year. Process essays were my worst essays. It took up lots of time to brainstorm and research, especially since they are worth a lot of points and important. However, I found that the fact that we had only a limited amount of sentences for commentary was invaluable. I should have the freedom to write as much as I want in the commentary especially since that part is one the most important parts to each body paragraph. A couple essays I wrote were a persuasive essay and a career report. Typically, people would favor the essay that received a higher grade, but I prefer my persuasive essay. It had an attractive hook, but needed work on unity and depth. Persuasive essays are my worst type of essay especially because I have to do research and I am terrible at looking up concrete details for these essays. I usually tend to blow off my commentaries because I do not have enough detail. But while flipping through my last year’s essay, I found a persuasive essay, and it brought a smile to my face. There was a huge improvement with the flow of the essay. My other essay, the career report, was definitely better than my persuasive because it had a good introduction and integrations, but the improvement touched me more than just a grade. I never knew an essay with the worst grade I ever received could make me smile. At the moment, I am a seed with a small, barely noticeable sprout. I feel that I am still not a great writer, but I learned many valuable lessons this school year. Through those lessons and small improvements I noticed, I hope my writing will grow and bloom like flowers in the spring. Next year, I wish to create stronger commentaries, introductions, and conclusion paragraphs. My weaknesses will become my strengths to improve throughout my high school years.