Second Assignment: Personal Response
English 112
For this assignment, you will need torespond to one of three articlesthat have been posted on the eLearn/Moodle site. This isNOTa research assignment, andit is essential that you respond with your own thoughts only! Please read the articles then decide which one you are going to respond to. You might begin by asking yourself if there is anything in the article with which you particularly agree or disagree: this will help to shape your opinion and should suggest a draft thesis with which to begin. You might also find that you want to respond to part of the article or to one thing the writer says or that you agree with some things the writer writes and disagree with others: ANY of these is an acceptable beginning point for your response.
The word requirement for this assignment is350 to 500 words. Please apply the skills covered so far such as drafting a thesis, structuring your ideas and preparing an introduction.
Note that a lot of the work you do will be invisible to me. You will NOT be submitting any draft outline or draft thesis that you create—although I hope you are using those drafting and organizing skills. The grade will be based entirely on the finished version of your essay that you submit.
Frustration, resignation: What it's like returning to school during a pandemic Many of the rules for a safe return seem redundant or only useful on paper Ben Alexander · FOR CBC SK OPINION · Posted: Oct 15, 2020 11:10 AM CT | Last Updated: October 15, 2020 A hallway at Campbell Collegiate in Regina stands empty. (Submitted by Ben Alexander) This is a Point of View piece written by Ben Alexander, a 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Campbell Collegiate in Regina. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ. The first day of school seemed to take an eon to get here, but somehow also arrived in the blink of an eye. I wouldn't say I was excited to get back, but there was an eagerness to get things started. There was a lot of anticipation. It felt like we were all waiting for something to drop. Nobody quite knew what to expect from the school year. The initial plan had given us all low expectations. Hearing that things had been revamped put us all a little on edge. Many of the rules for a safe return to school seem redundant or only useful on paper. For example, we have to enter through specific doors, but it doesn't matter where we exit. Our classes start and end at staggered times, but we still pour into the halls en masse. For perspective, our school has more than 1,400 students. That's a lot of people navigating the halls and stairways. There is hand sanitizer on tables outside classrooms and at each entrance into the school. The one by the door I enter through has already had the head of its pump broken. A lot of us are nervous about the health risks, but while discussing them we sometimes bunch up in groups, starting new chains of contact. In my mind I think I should be guilty, but it doesn't resonate emotionally. Desks are spaced out at Campbell Collegiate in Regina. (Submitted by Ben Alexander) On the first day, after our homeroom teachers gave us a breakdown of the rules, we watched a few welcome back videos and then dove into our schedules. Our timetables, divided into five semesters called quints (with two classes/day), cannot be changed once classes start. If we need to leave the classroom at times other than our bell schedule, we sign a piece of paper with the time and reason for leaving. Each class is approximately two and a half hours long. This feels about two hours too long. At about the half-hour mark I can feel my attention span waning. Many points in the lesson have to be repeated for the students whose minds are wandering. If we have to miss a few days of classes for any reason – it's like missing a week of school in former times. This has special significance for seniors like me, because if we don't earn the right credits we don't graduate. With university applications looming, I feel a sort of increased pressure. I should be able to keep up with everything, but at the same time, it feels like my workload has tripled. Fortunately for me, I've got only one class this quint. My teacher for the class actually contracted COVID-19 closer to the start of the pandemic. He's been open about his experience and it makes the risks more real to us. In the end, we realize that for the most part, it's out of our hands.- Ben Alexander Normal school activities like music and sports events, welcome back rallies, even just sitting in the cafeteria together, are not permitted or discouraged. The Student Leadership Council – which I am a part of – is trying to keep things positive with themed spirit days, but our options are limited. We students want this virus gone. It has taken so much away from us. But it can be hard to always follow the rules. I recognize it would be easy to text my friends instead of talking to them, but it's still easier (and more social) to simply walk up to them. Everything that has been implemented for safety works wonderfully on paper, but the letter of the law means nothing if we can't find the spirit to maintain it. Water fountains are off-limits due to COVID-19 restrictions at Campbell Cellegiate in Regina. (Submitted by Ben Alexander) When students are let go at the end of the day we tend to congregate either in the parking lots or on the front lawn of the school. We mingle with friends and students from outside our classes. Around one-third of the students take their masks off the instant they leave the building. Our social relationships have changed in subtle ways. Most people who hang out with each other tend to be of similar minds. In personal relationships, it's rare that someone would be called out. We all tend to get along in person, but once we are at home and behind a screen we begin to voice our opinions a little more loudly, whether it be on social media or in group chats. Through it all there are two emotions that keep coming up. The first — and most common — is frustration. It's frustrating to know that none of the rule changes can fully protect us. It's frustrating to be reminded of the pandemic by things like upcoming university tours going "virtual." It's frustrating to be caught in a sort of limbo, feeling like if something major was going to happen it would have by now, but also knowing that by relaxing we could be making it worse. The second is resignation. I think we're all doing the best we can, but teachers and students aren't really trained to deal with this situation. In the end, we realize that for the most part, it's out of our hands. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ben Alexander Ben Alexander is a 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Campbell Collegiate in Regina, Sask. Schools reboot: Covid-19 slammed economic brakes on India. Government must now press the accelerator January 19, 2021, 7:35 AM IST Times of India’s Edit Page team comprises senior journalists with wide-ranging interests who debate and opine on the news and issues of the day. Schools in Tamil Nadu are to partially restart physical classes today. Yesterday, students of Class 10 and 12 in Delhi attended classes in schools for the first time since last March. These developments mark a new phase in the staggered reopening of schools across India. States have devised their own protocols to ensure safety and taken independent calls on how they want to sequence the reopening. Next week, Maharashtra is scheduled to reopen some of the junior classes after it started with older students earlier in the month. It augurs well as India makes steady progress towards leaving behind the worst of 2020. The advent of the vaccination drive marks the beginning of the last phase of the battle against Covid-19. But the staggered progress towards normalisation comes with its share of challenges. The very nature of the pandemic means that neither government nor civil society can drop its guard. And there will be setbacks, as we saw when some teachers and students tested positive late last year in Andhra Pradesh. Regardless, India must continue on the path towards opening up. Low levels of activity in many areas have taken a large economic and social toll. India’s economy is forecast to shrink around 7.5-7.7% in the current financial year. Most likely, this has pushed many families back into poverty. Loss of economic growth also represents a setback in other areas. China, India’s most formidable rival today, announced that its economy expanded 6.5% in the October-December quarter of 2020. This performance helped it post an annual growth of 2.3%, led by an export engine that was quick to tap opportunities that showed up on the heels of supply chain disruptions. By contrast, India is an economic mess. Over the last ten months, the Centre and states have had to focus on beating back Covid-19. In the process other health initiatives have been relegated. This month the government postponed the pulse polio immunisation drive. While the vaccination drive against Covid-19 is of paramount importance, there is a danger that neglect of other important areas can lead to problems down the line. It’s essential for governments to balance the current vaccination drive with its other priorities. The overarching aim must be to foster an environment in which India realises durable economic growth that offers citizens more opportunities. Music to keep your creativity flowing Jacob Zimmer of Whitehorse's Nakai Theatre shares some music that will inspire you Dave White · CBC News · Posted: Nov 01, 2020 6:00 AM CT | Last Updated: November 1, 2020 Nakai Theatre artistic director Jacob Zimmer shares some of the music he listens to to keep the creativity going. (© Alistair Maitland Photography) This story is part of a web series called Music that Matters with CBC Yukon's Airplay host Dave White. Dave sits down with Yukoners to talk about five pieces of music that inspire them. As the artistic director of Nakai Theatre in Whitehorse, Jacob Zimmer has a lot of tasks, but one of the most difficult is keeping people awake and inspired during the company's annual 24-hour creativity competition. "We were thinking about the music we use to keep us creative and energized through the night," he said. "I have a lot of playlists that are for work, and different kinds of work; 'this is a playlist for grant writing'....those sorts of things are really helpful for shaping my energy." Canadian dance group Thunderheist provided Zimmer's first choice with their track Suenos Dulces. "I often need a lot of energy and excitement and enthusiasm and this song is just a straight up banger of positive, let's go energy," he said. Zimmer's second choice is by Canadian artist Gonzales and his track Overnight. "I've got a playlist of solo piano which is just Gonzales and Thelonius Monk," he said. "And that is an almost Pavlovian response for me to settle in and calm down and let the creativity flow. That's a playlist I put on very frequently to help myself focus." "So now we've calmed down into the evening, but maybe we're a little anxious and need some energy so we're back with Janelle Monae and Dance Apocalyptic ... it's also a delightful amount of silliness and science fiction and Janelle Monae is such a fiercely creative artist who does such wonderful things with her imagination." Yukon band Crytozoologists provided Zimmer's next choice. "This song, I'll Find Patterns, from his newest record is just the perfect song for 2 a.m. for how my brain or anyone's brain who has been working late at night begins to find the patterns that you never knew were there." Listen to I'll Find Patterns. For his final selection Zimmer went back in time a bit, and back home to Cape Breton when Ashley MacIssac released his record Hi How Are You