5/21/12

School Fines

Kaitlyn Bernath

May 21, 2012

5^th period

This article is talking about how some charter school systems are getting out of hand. They are making parents pay repetitious amounts of money, they may be small but they add up. The policy is pretty messed up but familiar to me. This school is charging money for every little thing the kids do wrong. If your shoe gets untied they give you a demerit. If you have no belt, they give you a demerit. If you don’t have a button, or one of your buttons is undone, you get a demerit. They use this excuse saying it helps them educationally. When your shoe becomes untied, you can’t help it. If you’re running late and forget a belt, it was an accident. The school is taking the little things to the extreme. Getting a demerit for accidentally forgetting a belt is ridiculous, and if anything it wouldn’t help you educationally, it would lower your self confidence. When you constantly do things by mistake you feel as if you have no responsibility, and as if you’re disappointing your parents. I went to Trinity. If you forget a belt at trinity and/or your friend doesn’t have an extra, you have to pay $10 for a new belt. If you get a Saturday school, it costs you $35. After 3 times of being late, its $5 and believe me, it adds up fast.  I don’t think that if these kids mess up just a little, they should be looked down upon and given demerits; it makes you feel bad, like you’re always doing something wrong. This system is messed up in a way, they shouldn’t get demerits for the little things that has nothing to do with discipline of other things. Pine Ridges discipline is different, if the teachers didn’t stress the students to be perfect and not make the littlest mistakes; I think problems would occur less.

IN Orange County, when kids are distracting kids from class with a toy or a match or a lighter, they get Out of School Suspension for 1, 3, or 10 days depending on age and what they bring. In Orange County, for dress code, you can’t wear any provocative clothing or things that are indecent which I completely agree with. You cannot wear hats, sweatbands, or sunglasses inside school buildings. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with hats unless they have inappropriate things on them, you aren’t going to hurt anyone with a hat. You aren’t allowed to wear bandanas or gang related pieces of clothing. Now with this, I agree but I don’t agree. If someone is wearing a bandana as a headband, there’s no harm, but if it’s intentionally meant for a gang related reason, I think it’s wrong. You also aren’t allowed to wear things adorned with spikes or chains which can be perceived or used as a weapon. This I agree with. It doesn’t look good to wear chains on your clothing anyways.  You can’t wear halters or tank tops. This I don’t agree with, if you’re not showing any undergarments, it does no harm. I agree that you need to wear clothes correctly as well. I also agree that clothing shouldn’t show too much skin. If you’re willing to show all that you have no morals or values. I think sagging is dumb, it doesn’t look good; I don’t know why boys think it’s attractive.  Clothing shouldn’t be too tight either, that’s gross. With the shirts and dresses policy, I agree that no one needs to see too much, but there are people out there who are tall and longer and things look shorter on them which aren’t fair. For the most part I agree with it all but some things could, and should be different.

5/14/12

“Blog about whatever”

Kaitlyn Bernath

David Beckham was born in England on May 2, 1975. His parent’s names were Ted and Sandra Beckham. Ted was a repairman and Sandra was a hairstylist. Beckham was a middle child. His family was always fond of Manchester United; it was something he grew up with. Manchester United is England’s legendary soccer franchise. Beckham showed his love for “football” at an early age. When he was 11 he won the Charlton Soccer Schools National Skills Competition showing his skill early in life. The Manchester United team officials started to notice his talent and asked him to try out for the youth team. Already at sixteen, Beckham was playing for the united training division, and had already left home. Two years later he got accepted into the club and already by 1995 he was playing as a full time starter. In 1997 Beckham was named The Professional Footballers Association Young Player of the Year. Beckham netted 13 million dollars in 1998 from an Adidas contract. The Beckham brand got even better when he met Victoria Adam. In ’97 they quickly fell in love and two years later had their first child, Brooklyn Joseph. Two Months later the two got married in Dublin, Ireland just outside of castle, and had an $800,000 wedding.  Beckham still continued to play well and didn’t fail. In 1999 he led the team to 3 titles, The Premier League Title, The FA Cup Championship, and The Champions League Title. England qualified for the World Cup in 2002. The same year, Beckham signed a $22 million dollar contract to stay with Manchester for 3 years. Yet, in 2003 he was offered a deal from Real Madrid.  Spanish players were thrilled to have him on the team. When the Americans were just getting to know him, the movie, Bend it like Beckham came out. America’s fascination with Beckham culminated in 2007 when Beckham moved across the Atlantic to sign a $250 million contract with LA Galaxy. In less than 48 hours, the Galaxy sold over 5,000 season tickets. Beckham injured his knee and missed out of the World Cup in 2010 because of an Achilles injury.  Last year, in July, David and Victoria welcomed their little girl, Harper Steven, in to the family after having 3 boys.

4/18/12

People have been illegally downloading and sharing music online.  The war over Internet file swapping has raged from Silicon Valley to Washington.  There were an estimated 63 million people who download music over the internet. These people had little to worry about until now.  Entertainment companies have the right to get your name, address and phone number if they have evidence your using the internet to get their copy righted works. They have permission from the US District Court in Washington. There was a case where someone was sharing 600 music files. People who also download music for personal enjoyment can also be affected.  The initial focus is on super users, the 10% of people who offer 90% of the files. Not everyone will be warned before a lawsuit is filed. Fees can run as high as $150,000 per song.  The robots aren’t perfect though. One time the robot thought someone downloaded Harry Potter but it happened to be a report. I think people should get in trouble for doing it, I mean it’s illegal just like doing drugs, but if the person doesn’t know that they’re doing wrong, they don’t deserve to suffer all the consequences. I personally get music from iTunes or other music apps where you pay for the song on my iPod. If I was a musician I wouldn’t want my music illegally shared. If my music was being illegally shared, I would be getting no profit, which I wouldn’t like. Musicians make money at concerts, they make money by selling their products, and they make money through iTunes etc. I think it is over all wrong, but if the person honestly doesn’t know they are illegally downloading the music, they shouldn’t have to suffer the consequences.

There was a case against Whitney Harper, a Texas teenager who was fined for allegedly downloading 37 songs on her computer that she didn’t pay for.  She argued that she wasn’t aware that the file sharing program was illegal. She said she thought that songs could be downloaded for free. She was charged up to $750 for each song that she had downloaded. An association of record companies had sued her. Whitney said she should be charged $200 because she didn’t know she was illegally downloading the songs. The court said that she couldn’t claim she was an innocent infringer.  The court said her argument was of irrelevant reasons. The association hired investigators who sued and/or threatened to sue 40,000 people. A lot of the people who were sued or threatened to be sued were students who couldn’t afford the fees.  I believe that the fees that were charged to people will warn others of doing the same thing. A lot of people don’t have the money to pay the massive fines. If you just bought a song for 99 cents or 1.29, it would be cheaper than ending up having to pay the massive fines.

Volusia Writes 4/9/12

Why is trust in any relationship important?
Kaitlyn Bernath

Trust is so important in life. Having trust develops a foundation, a new start, a beginning to something more that is or will come. Trust is a very important part to every relationship. Trust is one of the many things you need to have in a relationship. If you’re starting a relationship first you need to love the person, you cannot just pick someone up of the street and want to marry them, and you need to build a relationship first. Trust is included in building an actual relationship. You need love, faith, strength, and you need to be yourself.

Trust is when you can tell your spouse, or even friend, or lover etc. everything, and when I say everything I mean everything. You should be able to tell them what exactly your doing, where exactly you are, where you have been, what you are doing and what you have done. You should be able to tell them your life story including everything ion your past from birth to the current time. You shouldn’t have to even think about what you’re telling them, and all along you need to be you. You shouldn’t fall in love with someone you cannot have fun around or can’t tell everything to. You need to be with someone in whom the first spark you felt when you met them still remains. Think about it, when you are with someone who you’ve been with for 30 years, and you still feel the same way about them as you did when you first met 30 years ago, they were meant for you, and it’s most likely true love which cannot be replaced.

Trust is being able to rely on the person you love, and the assurance that they will always be with you no matter what. Trust is the first step in a relationship it’s the base on which your relationship grows. If you don’t have trust, you have nothing. Trust is an important part of any relationship, not just your relationship with your boyfriend/girlfriend or fiancé or spouse.

Trust in Friendships is also extremely important. If you don’t have a friend you can confide in completely, and tell absolutely anything to, you feel helpless. Friends you can trust are ones to encourage you and help you through everything that hurts you, and sometimes they become part of you. My best friend is someone I can confide in completely, I can tell her anything. Luckily I also have more people I can confide in, but sometimes there are things I can tell my best friend that I don’t even want to tell my mother. Friends are really important to me, and being able to trust in them is just as important. If I know I can’t trust in someone, I don’t like to be around them. If I was to stick around them and accidentally tell them something really important to me and they told someone else, I would be extremely mad.

Some other people you should be able to trust in are your family. Family is very important, it means the world to me, but if there is someone in my family I can’t trust, why would I want to be around them. Family is someone who should always be there for you and always tell you the truth. Sometimes friends will tell you things that will make you feel better but aren’t necessarily true. I believe if you want to have any kind of relationship with anyone, you need to flat out tell them the truth. It is wrong to sit there and lie to their face. Anyways, family should be the first people you go to when you have a problem. I would first go to my mom or dad, or step-mom or grandma, the people who have always been there for me.

3.27.12

Kaitlyn Bernath

This article was talking about college education. It was talking about the rising and falling of money received in loans etc. In this article it was saying that tuition has gone up and people are wondering why. Like for estimates, they don’t take deductions from employment or income taxes. The estimated life time earning is $800,000. College is worth it, you need to spend money carefully. While in college you give out so much money, but you don’t take in as much money as you’re putting out. Scholarships help to reduce the initial price to get in to a university.  College will offer you classes and degrees that will get you farther in life, and make you earn more money. If I go to college hopefully I won’t pay for it. I’d like to get a scholarship that pays for the majority of my fees, and then I would be more than happy. If I don’t get a large scholarship, I hope my parents will help with tuition; otherwise I’m going to be stuck with multiple jobs, depending on what kind of college or university that I go to. So basically I hope I’ll get help with tuition or I’ll be left on my own.

                I picked the University of Florida, and the University of Michigan. To attend school at The University of Michigan, for four years, it costs anywhere above and below 10,000 a term, unless you’re not a resident of Michigan, then it’s around 20,000 a full term. To attend The University of Florida, it costs fewer than 2,000 for a full term. These colleges use bright futures etc.  The books cost around $50 used. College is very pricy and costs a lot of money. I’m still hoping to get a scholarship to guide me through. 3 more years!

3/12/12

Kaitlyn Bernath

Sports Marketing 1

Alves

3/12/12

Compare and Contrast: “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Scottsboro Case”

In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, and “The Scottsboro Case” there was a lot of prejudice and racist people. The Judge was white, and so was the Jury. This meant that there was basically no tolerance for black people. In the courtroom, the blacks even had their own section to sit in. The judge and the jury had the verdict before they even started in the court. They ignored all the evidence that proved the offender not guilty. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the offender was Tom Robinson, and in “The Scottsboro Case” the offenders were the nine Scottsboro boys. The Scottsboro boys and Tom Robinson were charged with raping white woman. The three of these women wanted attention. Ruby Bates, and Victoria Price, who were in “The Scottsboro Case”, were prostitutes so they obviously wanted attention. Mayella from “To Kill a Mockingbird” was emotionally and physically abused. She did not even  understand what love was, and what it felt like to be loved. Mayella was supposedly beaten by Tom on the right side of her face, but evidence proved it wrong. If Tom had punched Mayella, he would have used his left hand, but he could not use it. When Tom was younger his left hand got caught in a cotton gin and that accident made his hand unusable. Bob Ewell, Mayella's father was left handed which proved him guilty of beating her. Also in the Scottsboro case, the two girls were completely unharmed and not injured in anyway , which obviously meant they could not have been raped. Also both trials occurred in Alabama in the 1930’s.

                There were also a couple of differences in the two trials, here are a few. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, there was Tom Robinson and Mayella only (one on one), but in “The Scottsboro Case”, there were nine boys and the two girls(nine on two). Also, the nine boys in the Scottsboro trials were all teenagers, and Tom Robinson was a happily married man with kids. Also, the trials and convictions of the Scottsboro Case took years and years longer than the trials and convictions in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Another thing is, “To Kill a Mockingbird” was a book and The Scottsboro trials happened in real life. But no crime in American history had more convictions, trials, reversals, and retrials as did “The Scottsboro Case”.

2/6/12

                John Barrie was interested in paper mills, which were websites where students could get papers from online for a small fee, and turn them in as their own work. John Barrie had an idea. He decided to use technology and use it to catch kids who were cheating on their assignments. John Barrie made a for-profit company called iParadigms. His website is used for hundreds of U.S High schools and universities. When a school licenses his service the faculty make accounts on his service. The teachers tell the students to turn in digital copies of their work to the service. Then the papers go through databases and they see who has used the same paper. He says that 85% of the papers turned in are exact replicas of the ones online. Another 13% comes from old papers used by other students.

                I think that Mr. Barrie is very smart and is doing the same thing. When you plagiarize, the person who actually spent time in doing their research doesn’t get any credit, which is wrong. I think if you’re actually going to take the initiative to go to college, you need to do what’s expected of you rather than cheat and feel bad. When you do things you feel accomplished, but when you cheat, you don’t feel good about it. Plagiarism is not okay and it shouldn’t be motivated. When you have a lot of things going on and are stressed, honestly, you think about it but you got to have some responsibility and then you’ll be looked up to. You won’t be looked down on or have a bad reputation. I think that definitely the student needs to sit there with the teacher watching and do the report. Then they most likely won’t do it again, who wants there teacher hovering over them? Anyways, I think institutions take it seriously because, if you cheat it won’t take you anywhere in life, and it won’t prepare you for future jobs and business opportunities. At the University of Michigan, international students (if caught plagiarizing) cant register for full time classes, will have to go to another school, or even possibly have to leave the U.S. Plagiarism could result in suspension from the school for several terms, permanent expulsion, and the students degree could be revoked. I think plagiarism is wrong.  Also on  http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/7506 it says that UM actually uses Turnitin.com.