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ABOUT ME
Hello, my name is Meghan Yizzi. I am a freshman pursuing a Chemistry degree with minors in Psychology and Business from the Eberly College of Science and the Schreyer Honors College. I come from a small suburb of Philadelphia, a close knit family, and supportive friends. This ePortfolio is a culmination of my work done in my CAS 137H/138T class over the past year, show casing some of my favorite projects that display who I am, what I believe in, and what I want to know more about. Thank you for visiting my site, I hope you enjoy it!
'Communicating' With Students
For my final civic issues blog, I have decided to focus not on what is taught in the classroom but how it is taught. Schools across the country are run in their own way, constructing their own curriculums and deciding how those curriculums will be taught to their students. This discord poses an obstacle in trying to determine the best plan of action for teaching students and putting that plan into action nationwide. Common core, which many thought was the best plan of action, aims to create a nationwide standard for student's expected reading and mathematics skills at the end of every grade from K-12. Although common core has not been adopted by all states, and some of the states that have adopted it regret it, the idea of unifying the school systems might be the key in resurrecting our schools. Many school districts grant individual principals and school officials the liberty of deciding how their school will be run. For top-notch schools this is not a problem; whatever they are doing is working. However, for many schools across the country this separation is unhealthy. Education experts claim that constructing a school district that is run by one set of rules and enforced by all might be the lifeline so many schools need. (Kirp) If a school district is unified, failing schools can look to their neighbors for good examples to improve their school.
Union City, New Jersey, is a prime example of this romance between individual schools and the entire district. This city, with performance ratings only higher than Camden, was failing in almost all areas. As a result of their poor performance in math and reading tests, the school district was under fire from the state. If the school district wasn’t able to improve the students’ classroom performance within the next year, the state would take over. Allowing the government to take over the education system was the last thing anyone wanted, however, no one knew how to save the schools in a year. *Cue Fred Carrigg* Fred Carrigg was the gladiator who was called upon to assume the role of savoir to the Union City school system. Carrigg was chosen for this job because he knew the inner workings of the Union City school system, including the demographic of its students and teachers. He created a team of individuals who worked tirelessly to figure out how to save the schools. They read everything they could about reviving schools, and they eventually composed a plan of action that was backed by research and evidence. (Kirp)
Fred and his team found that the schools were figuratively and literally trying to educate students who didn’t speak their language. Teachers were using outdated methods of teaching which involved picking out a textbook before the beginning of the year and basing their curriculums around the text. This way of teaching often didn’t resignate with students because it did not capture their interest and in some cases students literally did not understand what the teachers were saying. As a result of Castro’s Cuba, about eighty percent of Union City’s population was Latino. (Kirp) Many of the teachers were not bilingual and could not communicate with their students. However, instead of trying to fix the problem, most of these teachers labeled non-English speakers as unintelligent because they could not communicate with them. This caused many problems as these students were not learning and therefore did very poorly on evaluation tests administered by the state, sinking the city’s results. After observing this problem, one of the most vital parts of their revival plan was introducing bilingual teachers to the classroom.
Bilingual teachers proved to be indispensable in Union City’s road to recovery. After revamping the entire district’s curriculum, Carrigg & Co. were able to save the schools from the government’s grasp. Understanding the makeup of their students was vital in improving their schools. Now many advocates use this example to show why American schools should become bilingual. The list of pros is extensive and includes providing students with an academic edge, marketable skills, and life-long proficiency. After incorporating bilingual teachers in their schools, in addition to other revisions, Union City is now a thriving school district and may hold some of the answers in reforming our school system.
Kirp, David L. Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America's Schools. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.
A major portion of part of my CAS class was devoted to blogging. The semester-long assignment was to create a blog with three different focuses: civic issues, rhetoric and civic life, and passion. For my civic issue thread I choose to focus on education. I firmly believe that investing in a child's education pays the best interest as they are our future, so understanding and improving our education system is in everyone's best interest. For the rhetoric and civic life thread we were given specific prompts to which we would research and reflect on. Finally, the third thread focused on our passion, we were given full freedom to write about anything we desired. As family is of the utmost importance to me, I choose to mirror Disney's "Good luck Charlie", a TV series that served as a forum for an older sister to impart wisdom and advice for her little sister. I called my passion thread "Good luck Kelli" (named after my little sister) and documented all of the wisdom, embarrassing stories, and life lessons I felt would help her when she goes to college. Below are two of my favorite posts, and the link to my full blog can be found below.
Music and Medicine; the Ulimate Duo
The TED Talk I chose to analyze is titled "Between Music and Medicine" by Robert Gupta. The main point of his talk is that music and medicine are often separated when in reality they go hand in hand. The description beneath his video reads, "Robert Gupta tells a moving story of society’s marginalized and the power of music therapy, which can succeed where conventional medicine fails".
Robert Gupta is in short a child prodigy. He holds degrees from Yale and Marist College, music training from Julliard and he did neuroscience research at Harvard. He landed a spot in the LA Philharmonic at the ripe age of 19. He also started a non-profit organization called "Street Symphony" whose aim is to heal mental diseases through music. Throughout his talk he combines his advanced knowledge of neuroscience and music to demonstrate how the addition of music significantly improves medical treatments.
In his TED Talk he opens and closes by playing the violin. Not only does his beautiful music calm the viewer it also gives a first hand demonstration of how music affects the brain. Some of the main points he discusses is that music and medicine coincide and when they coincide life changing results occur. One of the most memorable examples he gives of this is the story of politician Gabby Giffords. Gabby Giffords had to undergo intense therapy after suffering from a horrific shooting. In therapy she was having trouble saying simple sentences but she was able to sing "This Little Light of Mine" in its entirety. Gupta also discusses that modern neuroscience research has found combing music with treatments is able to help stroke victims, children with autism, people with stress, anxiety, depression, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
This video hit home as I lost my grandfather to Alzheimer's. It also shed a lot of light on the subject of music therapy which I have become more interested in. Robert Gupta has an intriguing on stage presence and supplies the audience with an abundance of new research. Although he speaks rather quickly by playing the violin at the beginning and end of his presentation he shows how to passionately give a presentation. This TED Talk can be characterized as a presentation because Robert Gupta introduces a rather new idea of incorporating music with medicine and plays the violin to offer an illustration of how incredible the power of music truly is.
“I'm a testimonial. Click to edit me and add text that says something nice about you and your services.”
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GOODLUCK KELLI
BLOGS
BREAK THE BAG HABIT
Break the bag habit is a website I created advocating the termination of plastic bag use and the increased use of alternatives. The focus of this project was to advocate for a subject we felt was imperative in improving our world. Using our new knowledge of persuasive techniques and arguments, we were to pick a subject and create a forum that would educate and call individuals to act on behalf of our topic. After reading an article about a young whale washing up on shore after digesting 37 pounds of plastic I decided to advocate against the use of something so simple as plastic bags that impose a huge detrimental effect on the environment. I choose to create a website to educate individuals researching the subject of why plastic bags are harmful, how they can avoid using them, and how we can reverse the detrimental affects.
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THIS I BELIEVE
"This I Believe"...... For this project, our assignment was to tell a story. We could tell any story we felt was central to who we are; a funny story with a lasting impact, advice passed down from a role-model, or a belief that we live by. I choose the subject of laughter. Although a story about laughter might appear lighthearted and surface-level, laughter for me, is vital to living each and every day to the fullest. Laughter is the sound of happiness, the best medicine, and something I wish to all in manyfold.
This I believe in laughing at yourself.
As the American writer Elbert Hubbard said, “Do not take life too seriously, you’ll never get out alive.” This quote, although slightly morbid, yet 100% true, tries to advise the reader to enjoy life and not take it too seriously. One of the best ways to do this is through laughter. Studies have shown that laughter releases endorphins that lower stress levels, improves memory, burns calories and enhances mood. The old wives tale, “Laughter is the best medicine,” might not be just an old wives tale after all. For this reason, I believe in laughing at yourself.
Laughter readily comes when surrounded by friends, when watching comedy, and at parties. But do we laugh when we are on our own? Do we laugh at ourselves? I believe the ability to laugh at yourself is a trait that enhances our lives by reminding us not to take everything so seriously.
This belief has taken me a long time to realize. I thought that laughing at yourself made you look weak or dumb, but in reality it does just the opposite. Laughing at yourself allows you to take a break from life’s stress, find humor in the moment, and then revisit the situation with an improved attitude. I believe in laughing at yourself.
At the beginning of my first ever college class we were asked to introduce ourselves. The introductions included the usual; name, hometown and major, but they also asked us to share one of our most embarrassing stories. This made the entire class nervous. We just met these people and we would be sharing moments that most of us wanted to forget. But as we shared our stories, and laughed with each other, we became more comfortable and open. The story I shared, crowns my list of embarrassing moments. When I was 13 years old, I went to Europe with the People to People program. In Switzerland we visited a 500 year old mill stored in a quant little house. We were allowed to climb narrow, old, worn stairs to get to the top of the mill and see the grain that was still being produced. On the way down, after peering into the mill, I slipped on the stairs and fell down the whole flight on my butt, in front of the entire group. The worst part was that my camera flew out of my hand and directly into the mill. Thankfully, one of my friends did a flying leap and managed to grab the camera out of the mill.
To this day I can remember sitting at the bottom of the stairs mortified. However, almost instantaneously the group started hysterically laughing and I soon joined in. Joining in the laughter and not crying or shying away, allowed me to form a connection with my peers. It also taught me that laughing at yourself is not a bad thing; yes it makes you feel vulnerable but in the end it will make you feel better. I still smile and laugh at myself, and my clumsiness when looking back.
In certain situations, like this one, there’s not much you can do but laugh. Laughter helps us emotionally and physically. Laughing at ourselves allows us to be vulnerable, make connections and focus on what truly matters in life. The power of laughter combats the bad, stressful aspects of life and enhances our happiness.
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If you have any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to contact me!