Monday, May 16, 2011
The Forgetting: a Video about Alzheimer's
I knew what the disease was. It was when old people started to forget everything. Who they were and everything around them, including the people who loved them. I recently learned that the disease also killed. When we were about to watch the film in psychology, I was not aware of how dangerous this disease was and how much it effect everyone.
I did not know that the disease was so horrible, that people forgot how to react to their love ones. There was an elder lady who had the disease and they filmed a scene with her four year old grandson. She kept yelling at him and calling him stupid and telling him to shut up and that she didn't like him. Being only four years old, the boy didn't understand what was happening to his grandmother, but all he could do was yell back and cry. He doesn't understand why his grandmother was being mean to him and that hit me hard.
There was also another old woman, just only in her 50's or 60's who looked about 80 or more years old. She had an advance version of the disease. Her mood always change, she communicated with little language, and didn't know her own strengths. Sometimes she would cry and sometimes she would laugh. She pushed people and touch their faces, but she couldn't communicate through language or used very little of it. Her family visited her and the person they once knew, who could walk and knew who they were, was totally gone.
Almost a year ago, in the spring of 2010, my own grandmother started to show symptoms of forgetting. One day she was driving and was on a curb, but didn't know how she got there. By the time September came, she could no longer support herself and forgot dates and short-term information. The doctors say it is NOT alzheimer's but rather that she is getting older. She will be 91 in June.
Now, after a year of finding out my grandmother doesn't have this terrible disease, she lives in a senior housing corp and she has an aide who comes every other day. She writes everything down on her calender and she constantly needs someone to make sure she takes her pills. She comes over every night for dinner and sometimes a late night movie. During noon time, my older cousin's wife help out since she works in the school system near by. My grandmother still has trouble with dates and calls my mom everyday to know the date and she often calls my mom to remember what's going on that day.
One of the hard parts for me is during dinner. My grandmother will ask me, "How was school today?" or "What are you up to?" and I will answer her, but 5min later she will ask the same question and I will answer again. This usually goes on for about 30min or so at the dinner table. She asks everyone the same question and it does get annoying. Even though it is annoying me, I can only imagine what it is like with someone who has alzheimer's disease.
Even though my grandmother forgets things, we all support her and try to help out. Sometimes I go home with her to her apartment and help my mom bring in her groceries. Sometimes on weekends I drive her to places and help her carry things. But my family and I will always be there for my grandmother because we know how important family is.
I did not know that the disease was so horrible, that people forgot how to react to their love ones. There was an elder lady who had the disease and they filmed a scene with her four year old grandson. She kept yelling at him and calling him stupid and telling him to shut up and that she didn't like him. Being only four years old, the boy didn't understand what was happening to his grandmother, but all he could do was yell back and cry. He doesn't understand why his grandmother was being mean to him and that hit me hard.
There was also another old woman, just only in her 50's or 60's who looked about 80 or more years old. She had an advance version of the disease. Her mood always change, she communicated with little language, and didn't know her own strengths. Sometimes she would cry and sometimes she would laugh. She pushed people and touch their faces, but she couldn't communicate through language or used very little of it. Her family visited her and the person they once knew, who could walk and knew who they were, was totally gone.
Almost a year ago, in the spring of 2010, my own grandmother started to show symptoms of forgetting. One day she was driving and was on a curb, but didn't know how she got there. By the time September came, she could no longer support herself and forgot dates and short-term information. The doctors say it is NOT alzheimer's but rather that she is getting older. She will be 91 in June.
Now, after a year of finding out my grandmother doesn't have this terrible disease, she lives in a senior housing corp and she has an aide who comes every other day. She writes everything down on her calender and she constantly needs someone to make sure she takes her pills. She comes over every night for dinner and sometimes a late night movie. During noon time, my older cousin's wife help out since she works in the school system near by. My grandmother still has trouble with dates and calls my mom everyday to know the date and she often calls my mom to remember what's going on that day.
One of the hard parts for me is during dinner. My grandmother will ask me, "How was school today?" or "What are you up to?" and I will answer her, but 5min later she will ask the same question and I will answer again. This usually goes on for about 30min or so at the dinner table. She asks everyone the same question and it does get annoying. Even though it is annoying me, I can only imagine what it is like with someone who has alzheimer's disease.
Even though my grandmother forgets things, we all support her and try to help out. Sometimes I go home with her to her apartment and help my mom bring in her groceries. Sometimes on weekends I drive her to places and help her carry things. But my family and I will always be there for my grandmother because we know how important family is.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Bandura Post
In a few sentences, list any and all specific media or cultural items that your parents or grandparents think are bad influences on you, and explain the impact that these items have had on you if any (i.e. specific types of music, video games, TV, movies, celebrities, specific sites on the internet, etc.)
TV: how teenagers, actresses/actors, famous people dress and act on TV. Has no effect on me.
Internet: We get attach to the internet and learn things just by researching it and communicating with other people, including strangers. Has very little effect on me.
Technology: Growing rapidly, especially among teenagers and not being good for our health. Technology has effect how I do work, learn, and play games. I rarely go outside and play or excersie.
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One of the people I mostly imitate is my mother because she is a single mom, I never had the chance to imitate anyone else. She was the only adult that raised and took care of me as a child. My mother is kind and cares about people and she is a good person. She has taught me that everyone is equal and no one is different because of how he/she looks. I will never forget the one time we went to Shoprite in town and someone working there was a Muslim. My mother talked to her with a smile and talked about the heavy rain outside. Before leaving, the lady told my mother, “be safe out there,”. After that, my mother taught me that there are many ideas out there, but none of them are correct or number one, despite what people say. Even our religion is something that we believe in, but it doesn't make it right to say it is the number one religion, only because it works for us and no one else.
Believe it or not, I will say my “attitudes” are from my teachers, not my mother. I see how my teacher's attitudes are and I feel like I copy that. If I am in a room with a really nice and excited teacher, I will be excited too. I could be excited for the whole day. If a teacher is upset or angry, I will be upset or angry by the time I am out of the class.
Everything else I have like the way I speak, thinking, behavior, and habits are things that are me. I had trouble speaking as a child, so my speaking is unique and people say my thinking is very strange and thought provoking. My mother doesn't even know where my “process thinking” came from, I think it something I grew from myself. My behavior and habits are similar, like twirling a pencil or sucking on my tongue when I'm bored. My habits and behavior are also things that are my own because no one I know do them, just me. It's nothing I picked up on TV or from any living person. So a lot of things are actually things that I never saw imitating.
TV: how teenagers, actresses/actors, famous people dress and act on TV. Has no effect on me.
Internet: We get attach to the internet and learn things just by researching it and communicating with other people, including strangers. Has very little effect on me.
Technology: Growing rapidly, especially among teenagers and not being good for our health. Technology has effect how I do work, learn, and play games. I rarely go outside and play or excersie.
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One of the people I mostly imitate is my mother because she is a single mom, I never had the chance to imitate anyone else. She was the only adult that raised and took care of me as a child. My mother is kind and cares about people and she is a good person. She has taught me that everyone is equal and no one is different because of how he/she looks. I will never forget the one time we went to Shoprite in town and someone working there was a Muslim. My mother talked to her with a smile and talked about the heavy rain outside. Before leaving, the lady told my mother, “be safe out there,”. After that, my mother taught me that there are many ideas out there, but none of them are correct or number one, despite what people say. Even our religion is something that we believe in, but it doesn't make it right to say it is the number one religion, only because it works for us and no one else.
Believe it or not, I will say my “attitudes” are from my teachers, not my mother. I see how my teacher's attitudes are and I feel like I copy that. If I am in a room with a really nice and excited teacher, I will be excited too. I could be excited for the whole day. If a teacher is upset or angry, I will be upset or angry by the time I am out of the class.
Everything else I have like the way I speak, thinking, behavior, and habits are things that are me. I had trouble speaking as a child, so my speaking is unique and people say my thinking is very strange and thought provoking. My mother doesn't even know where my “process thinking” came from, I think it something I grew from myself. My behavior and habits are similar, like twirling a pencil or sucking on my tongue when I'm bored. My habits and behavior are also things that are my own because no one I know do them, just me. It's nothing I picked up on TV or from any living person. So a lot of things are actually things that I never saw imitating.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
My Learning Styles
I took three different learning style tests to see which learning style fits me. Here are the results:
Self: You have a very good sense of self. You like to spend time by yourself and think things over. You will often take in
information from another person, mull it over by yourself, and come back to that person later to discuss it. You like working on projects on your own. You often prefer to learn by trial and error. Effective techniques to enhance your learning include keeping a journal and giving yourself time to reflect on new ideas and information. More ideas: Go on "guided imagery" tours. Set aside time to reflect on new ideas and information. Encourage journal writing. Work on the computer. Practice breathing for relaxation. Use brainstorming methods before reading. Listen to and read "how to" tapes and books. Read cookbooks.
You learn best when physically engaged in a "hands on" activity. In the classroom, you benefit from a
lab setting where you can manipulate materials to learn new information. You learn best when you
can be physically active in the learning environment. You benefit from instructors who encourage
in-class demonstrations, "hands on" student learning experiences, and field work outside the
classroom.
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My results say that I learn better when I do "hands on" activities and working alone. I do feel that learning through hands on is better for me because I can easily lose interest in a lesson when I have to listen to a lecture or write meaningless things down. If I want to understand something I have to do it. I can't just imagine it, I have to see it and feel it myself. I often do like to learn things on my own or by myself, although I often think a bit too much and need to discuss it with someone.
I did do hands on activities when I took science courses during the first three years of high school. The first two years I learned a lot because we used a program on the computer where I was able to see what was happening and have control over it with my laptop. I loved having labs that including getting up and doing experiments. But in junior year, I mostly had to take notes and re-read power points, but it was pointless and I didn't learn and ended up getting a bad grade. Math was hard too because numbers don't make sense to me and the results of most of my tests explained that math logic was my weakest point in learning.
In psychology we did an activity where I had a partner and she was blind folded. We both had to work together to tie a shoe. While she was blind folded, I was the only one who could speak. We tied one hand behind our backs and got to work. This helped me learn the difference between the left and right hemisphere of the human brain. We also did an activity where my teacher gave us some powder in a cup. While reading us a story, every time he said the character's name, we had to dip our finger in the powder and lick it. After the lesson I learned how classical conditioning worked on humans and if we didn't do that hands on activity first, I don't think I would had been able to grasp the concept.
I do believe the tests were accurate because it really describe my learning style. I was extremely surprised to see how accurate it really was, though I will admit I do not believe it is 100% accurate, but maybe more like 90% accurate.
Self: You have a very good sense of self. You like to spend time by yourself and think things over. You will often take in
information from another person, mull it over by yourself, and come back to that person later to discuss it. You like working on projects on your own. You often prefer to learn by trial and error. Effective techniques to enhance your learning include keeping a journal and giving yourself time to reflect on new ideas and information. More ideas: Go on "guided imagery" tours. Set aside time to reflect on new ideas and information. Encourage journal writing. Work on the computer. Practice breathing for relaxation. Use brainstorming methods before reading. Listen to and read "how to" tapes and books. Read cookbooks.
You learn best when physically engaged in a "hands on" activity. In the classroom, you benefit from a
lab setting where you can manipulate materials to learn new information. You learn best when you
can be physically active in the learning environment. You benefit from instructors who encourage
in-class demonstrations, "hands on" student learning experiences, and field work outside the
classroom.
-------------------------------------------
My results say that I learn better when I do "hands on" activities and working alone. I do feel that learning through hands on is better for me because I can easily lose interest in a lesson when I have to listen to a lecture or write meaningless things down. If I want to understand something I have to do it. I can't just imagine it, I have to see it and feel it myself. I often do like to learn things on my own or by myself, although I often think a bit too much and need to discuss it with someone.
I did do hands on activities when I took science courses during the first three years of high school. The first two years I learned a lot because we used a program on the computer where I was able to see what was happening and have control over it with my laptop. I loved having labs that including getting up and doing experiments. But in junior year, I mostly had to take notes and re-read power points, but it was pointless and I didn't learn and ended up getting a bad grade. Math was hard too because numbers don't make sense to me and the results of most of my tests explained that math logic was my weakest point in learning.
In psychology we did an activity where I had a partner and she was blind folded. We both had to work together to tie a shoe. While she was blind folded, I was the only one who could speak. We tied one hand behind our backs and got to work. This helped me learn the difference between the left and right hemisphere of the human brain. We also did an activity where my teacher gave us some powder in a cup. While reading us a story, every time he said the character's name, we had to dip our finger in the powder and lick it. After the lesson I learned how classical conditioning worked on humans and if we didn't do that hands on activity first, I don't think I would had been able to grasp the concept.
I do believe the tests were accurate because it really describe my learning style. I was extremely surprised to see how accurate it really was, though I will admit I do not believe it is 100% accurate, but maybe more like 90% accurate.
Monday, April 11, 2011
"Born Rich"
Born Rich is a documentary video about kids who are born rich and don't need to worry about money and getting a job. The film was made by Jamie Johnson, a rich kid himself through the Johnson and Johnson's company.
In the film almost all of the kids were different from me. They don't have to worry about money, going poor, getting what they want, doing what they want, ect. They get everything by the time they are born. They can buy anything they want, can ride helicopters, ect. I believe that is the main differences because everyday I wonder if I will have enough money to buy this or buy that or how much money loan I'll need for college. The kids in the film don't need to worry about that.
The similarity I found was the information about not sharing money. I grew up with my mother telling me that money is a discussion only in the house and with the family. The kids on the video were very wary about sharing information about their wealth and money, but every family has that issues about sharing that type of information. Also one of the kids is going to college and living the life of a regular college kid, he chose living on campus over living in a mansion that could be close by. I was surprise at this because I never knew a rich kid wanted to be so much like a regular college kid. That part was very interesting.
While watching the film I noticed that many of the kids get their motivation from the same thing. They are motivated to not make an embarrassment on their family. They know that if they do something wrong, their families will go down with them and they may lose their rights to their family's money. All the kids try to be good children for their parents so they don't get in trouble with the public and to get some of that, if not, all of that money. There are even some kids who said that their parents told them that if they don't work, they will get nothing. So from what I've seen it's their family's money that drives them or motivates them to be good people. I believe my motivation is different because I have to motivate myself, I try not to be motivate by any other way. I motivate myself to get up, go to school, and do my work. Many of my teachers have taught me that I work hard and I know that if I do good in high school and college that my dream of becoming a teacher is one step closer.
In the film almost all of the kids were different from me. They don't have to worry about money, going poor, getting what they want, doing what they want, ect. They get everything by the time they are born. They can buy anything they want, can ride helicopters, ect. I believe that is the main differences because everyday I wonder if I will have enough money to buy this or buy that or how much money loan I'll need for college. The kids in the film don't need to worry about that.
The similarity I found was the information about not sharing money. I grew up with my mother telling me that money is a discussion only in the house and with the family. The kids on the video were very wary about sharing information about their wealth and money, but every family has that issues about sharing that type of information. Also one of the kids is going to college and living the life of a regular college kid, he chose living on campus over living in a mansion that could be close by. I was surprise at this because I never knew a rich kid wanted to be so much like a regular college kid. That part was very interesting.
While watching the film I noticed that many of the kids get their motivation from the same thing. They are motivated to not make an embarrassment on their family. They know that if they do something wrong, their families will go down with them and they may lose their rights to their family's money. All the kids try to be good children for their parents so they don't get in trouble with the public and to get some of that, if not, all of that money. There are even some kids who said that their parents told them that if they don't work, they will get nothing. So from what I've seen it's their family's money that drives them or motivates them to be good people. I believe my motivation is different because I have to motivate myself, I try not to be motivate by any other way. I motivate myself to get up, go to school, and do my work. Many of my teachers have taught me that I work hard and I know that if I do good in high school and college that my dream of becoming a teacher is one step closer.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Motivation
If you won 319 million dollars, what would you be motivated to do if money was never going to be a concern????
If I won all that money, I believe my life would change very little. I would motivated myself to use the money only for emergencies and for college. I would also motivated myself to use the money for when my mother got older and she would need a new place to live, like in a senior citizen home or something and I would also use the money for insurance for my family. But even though I had money, I would still motivate myself to go to college and get a job because it's my dream to become a teacher. Even though I would have money, I would motivate myself to use the money to go to college and get a job. I would motivated myself to becoming a teacher because it is my dream to teach the younger generation in the area of English and of course there are other reasons, but those are personal. So my life might not be any different because cool cars, new technology, awesome house, don't really appeal to me, I love where I live and I love what I have.
If I won all that money, I believe my life would change very little. I would motivated myself to use the money only for emergencies and for college. I would also motivated myself to use the money for when my mother got older and she would need a new place to live, like in a senior citizen home or something and I would also use the money for insurance for my family. But even though I had money, I would still motivate myself to go to college and get a job because it's my dream to become a teacher. Even though I would have money, I would motivate myself to use the money to go to college and get a job. I would motivated myself to becoming a teacher because it is my dream to teach the younger generation in the area of English and of course there are other reasons, but those are personal. So my life might not be any different because cool cars, new technology, awesome house, don't really appeal to me, I love where I live and I love what I have.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Altered State
Meditation has been a part of my life for a long time. I was taught that meditation can be used to help us see the correct path we want to take and also as a way to relax and think about our wrong doing as well as our rewards. Besides mediation, I have heard of sensory deprive, which is getting rid of one or more of your senses to increase the other 5 five senses, but not permentally destroying those senses.
As a child who is Mayan, I've heard stories of shamans doing this as a way to connect with the spiritual world and the living things around us. Long ago, my ancestors believed that if you enter a cave and went deep into it, you will eventually lose all 5 of your senses to open your 6th. I've heard story about this and that when a person was through with this part of the training, they felt more connected to something and felt more sensative to the things around them. They all said that while in the cave, they could not tell up from down or right to left.
I'm not sure if I really believe in sensory deprivation, but I do know that if you want to become a shaman, it is something that has to be done, while meditation is a technique that is study in my religion and is required for every follower to practice constantly. I like the way of meditation, it makes me feel light and floating. I feel as if I am not where I am sitting or practicing my meditation. I like this way because I can control my thoughts and what I want to think about.
As a child who is Mayan, I've heard stories of shamans doing this as a way to connect with the spiritual world and the living things around us. Long ago, my ancestors believed that if you enter a cave and went deep into it, you will eventually lose all 5 of your senses to open your 6th. I've heard story about this and that when a person was through with this part of the training, they felt more connected to something and felt more sensative to the things around them. They all said that while in the cave, they could not tell up from down or right to left.
I'm not sure if I really believe in sensory deprivation, but I do know that if you want to become a shaman, it is something that has to be done, while meditation is a technique that is study in my religion and is required for every follower to practice constantly. I like the way of meditation, it makes me feel light and floating. I feel as if I am not where I am sitting or practicing my meditation. I like this way because I can control my thoughts and what I want to think about.
Monday, February 14, 2011
The Lost Hour
I was surprise that while reading the lost hour was how much information we could lose. Teens and adults have difficulty sleeping, I believe because we try to cram things in one day and the more we lose sleep, the more we lose our memory. That was what really impact me while reading the packet. I was also surprised that a study showed that those in 6th grade who did not get enough sleep perfromed at a 4th grade level the next morning. For me, I get about 8.5 hours of sleep so the "lost hour" doesn't effect me but among my peers, I don't really notice anything. I know it's bad, but at this age, it seems normal for a teen to go to bed at like, 1am and I find myself the strange one for going to bed at 9 or 10. But I do see how my peers are tired the next morning and have a hard time concentrating the next day, but eventually they wake up.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Sleep
"teenagers should have 9-10 hours of sleep," my mom told me when I was fourteen years old. Since then I've been worried about my health and ever since that day four years ago, I always make sure I get enough sleep.
Teenagers my age and adults don't get enough sleep because according to the articles we read in Psychology class, people have work to finish up and teenagers love to go onto social networking sites such as facebook to chat with friends or even stay up to text with friends. Teenager's brains are also different from adult brains in which a chemicle call melatonin does not take affect until later at night. Melatonin is a chemicle used to make us tired and to tell us when our bodies need sleep and the melatonin of a teenager will take effect until around 8:30 in the morning. It won't be until the teenager is a bit older that the melatonin will take effect earlier in the night.
As for myself and in my house, I'm the rare teenager that goes to be around nine or ten at night. I go to bed before anyone else in my house. My aunt and mom go to sleep around midnight or one in the morning because they work late just to make ends meet. My cousin on the other hand is the last to go to sleep but what he does is chat with friends, text, play video games, and watch TV in his room. During the winter, I find it very difficult to stay awake. My doctor has told me I have a vitamin D deficiency which is why I get very tired in the middle of the day during the winter. During the summer, when I'm outside more I have more energy but during the winter I don't. On weekends, I'll wake up at ten or eleven in the morning but after about two hours I'll go back to sleep for a nap and wake up about four to five hours later. Usually just in time for dinner and then I'll be tired by ten. That's just how my body works.
I go to bed at nine or ten to get enough sleep for the next day. I care a lot about my health, when I go to bed, what I eat, exercise, and so on. I find being awake the next day for school very important and I want to be awake so I can pay attention. No one forces me to sleep at nine or ten, I decided that on my own and since I've been doing that for four years, I really do get tired by nine or ten and I like it.
Teenagers my age and adults don't get enough sleep because according to the articles we read in Psychology class, people have work to finish up and teenagers love to go onto social networking sites such as facebook to chat with friends or even stay up to text with friends. Teenager's brains are also different from adult brains in which a chemicle call melatonin does not take affect until later at night. Melatonin is a chemicle used to make us tired and to tell us when our bodies need sleep and the melatonin of a teenager will take effect until around 8:30 in the morning. It won't be until the teenager is a bit older that the melatonin will take effect earlier in the night.
As for myself and in my house, I'm the rare teenager that goes to be around nine or ten at night. I go to bed before anyone else in my house. My aunt and mom go to sleep around midnight or one in the morning because they work late just to make ends meet. My cousin on the other hand is the last to go to sleep but what he does is chat with friends, text, play video games, and watch TV in his room. During the winter, I find it very difficult to stay awake. My doctor has told me I have a vitamin D deficiency which is why I get very tired in the middle of the day during the winter. During the summer, when I'm outside more I have more energy but during the winter I don't. On weekends, I'll wake up at ten or eleven in the morning but after about two hours I'll go back to sleep for a nap and wake up about four to five hours later. Usually just in time for dinner and then I'll be tired by ten. That's just how my body works.
I go to bed at nine or ten to get enough sleep for the next day. I care a lot about my health, when I go to bed, what I eat, exercise, and so on. I find being awake the next day for school very important and I want to be awake so I can pay attention. No one forces me to sleep at nine or ten, I decided that on my own and since I've been doing that for four years, I really do get tired by nine or ten and I like it.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
3 Mechanisms I Use when Face With Difficulties
Turning aganist yourself: Whenever something bad happened in my life, weather it was in my family or a fight that included my closest friends, I often think it's my fault. There are times when a close friend of mine or even my mom are upset about something, I think I did something wrong. Also when I get a bad grade in school, I always blame myself and complain in my head such as "why didn't i study more?" or "maybe I'm stupid,". When something bad happens to me, I don't think it is anyone else's fault but my own.
Intellectualization: I usually don't make anything great a big deal. When I got accepted into college or the first time I got straight A's, I was proud, but not too proud that I would talk about it or that when I found out I was jumping up and down screaming. I was just like, "yeah, whatever," because I don't want to rub it in anyone's face. I don't like making things too big of a deal, even though it's supposed to be.
Repression: Of course with everyone, we face a challenges or an event that we don't want to remember. For a long time, these painful memories would come back to me everyday, but a couple of years ago, I started to block them from my mind. I didn't want to remember very painful events, so I would block it out as much as possible.
Intellectualization: I usually don't make anything great a big deal. When I got accepted into college or the first time I got straight A's, I was proud, but not too proud that I would talk about it or that when I found out I was jumping up and down screaming. I was just like, "yeah, whatever," because I don't want to rub it in anyone's face. I don't like making things too big of a deal, even though it's supposed to be.
Repression: Of course with everyone, we face a challenges or an event that we don't want to remember. For a long time, these painful memories would come back to me everyday, but a couple of years ago, I started to block them from my mind. I didn't want to remember very painful events, so I would block it out as much as possible.
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