What does the re-election of President Barack Obama mean for me and the world?

In recent weeks we were following the U.S. elections, the dispute was between Mitt Romney (Republican) and Barack Obama (Democrat). Barack Obama was re-elected and for me it was the best decision that American citizens made, because the further development of some projects and new ideas that Obama presented are the best direction that the United States can take, compared to Romney.

We all know the power of influence that the U.S. has about the world, they interfere socially, culturally, politically and especially economically. Taking this and some facts that occurred lately in consideration, as the stock market crash and how it affected many countries besides the United States, and economic options that Obama offers support to the people and businesses can significantly improve the American economy, and also the world economy.

When Obama took office, the United States were in a tricky situation, especially economically, and as much as the process has been slow, Barack Obama has done a good job and took the united states out of a very complicated situation. Some years ago, when the country was in crisis and other countries began to develop economically, as China, Obama had to make some decisions that did not please everyone, but still contributed to them to leave the situation they were. Another complicated decision that the president made was with regard to the difficulties in the Middle East and how to remove America from a dangerous conflict. Withdraw troops from Afghanistan and try to minimize terrorists attitudes and armed conflict was a very important goal during the first four years of Obama in power.

Besides these aspects, Barack Obama is also an achievement for black people, such that after so many years of suffering and struggling for recognition and have the same opportunities as everyone else has, now they/we have the opportunity to see Obama in prestige and power.

As a person and citizen, I support Obama primarily because he is a Democrat, because with him in power, blacks, immigrants, women and homosexuals will be able to have more opportunities than if Mitt Romney won the election. Bringing issues like abortion, marriage and adoption for  homosexuals couples, job opportunities for immigrants and equality between men and women in all aspects must be taken into consideration and carefully. According to the discussions, it is clear that Obama will take care of these situations with much more care and effort than Romney. Every day the world have been looking for freedom of expression and less prejudice, we realize that when we see the problems that Syria and other countries are facing against a government virtually dictator. Since the United States has influence on the world, showing that they have a president that is open to new ideas and concepts contributes to the process of extinction of prejudice and repression. The president always talked of unity and resolution of the problems with the help of American citizens.

The proposals that Mitt Romney presented in debates seemed to be utopian and naive. Send troops to Afghanistan, to support the sale and supply of arms to countries in conflict, and take some actions that greatly harmed U.S. and world economy are some examples of misconceptions that Romney offered the American people. During interviews and debates Mitt Romney contradicted himself, changed several times of opinion on the same subject, leaving voters confused and not knowing specifically what are the changes that the country would suffer.

I hope Obama continues to improve and making the right decisions, that he exceeds the expectations of Americans and the world's, that he can help the United States to be a positive influence in all respects, and that the American people collaborates for the development of projects that will benefit everyone.

Goal Setting

Goal Setting

After Mrs. Terrell’s class about time management, I decide to review my study methods and if I was being well organized. I realized that one of my two big problems was to consider my biological prime time, since I’m an athlete; it’s hard not to feel tired when arriving at home and thinking about all homework and things from school that I have to do. So, to make sure that I would be able to have energy to focus on each task, as soon as I get home I eat a snack and take a nap for about 30 minutes. In the beginning I slept too much and woke up late, or after waking up I felt more tired than before. But now, the thirty minutes are helping me a lot, I feel much less tired and more willing to perform my tasks.

Other difficulty that I had was to avoid daily activities that wouldn’t give me any long-term consequences, like watching a movie or another thing for fun. It was really hard for me to start doing my work, also because I was tired and didn’t want to do anything. Before I start studying at ISC, I knew that it would be tough to combine my studies with my practices, and adapting to the new routine, new schedules, types of tests, projects and homework wouldn’t be easy too.

I believe that I can improve my time management and avoid some other things that are still making me waste my time; spending less time on social networks is one of them. A situation that sometimes makes me a little frustrated is not being able to spend as much time playing basketball like before, when I think about it I just let basketball pass in front of the studies, but I’m working on this.

Prioritizing my schools tasks, after taking the nap, is helping to notwaste my time on useless activities and I started to organize my schedule in away that is good for me and that will not interfere with my studies. I feelmore confident about what I’m doing, before I set goals, I always forgot to dohomework or felt lazy and barely studied for some quiz. Now the results areevident to me, even doing everything I need, I can sleep with a clearconscience and a sense of accomplishment, I eat well and have fun with myfamily or maybe watch movie. School tasks are not as scary as before, and Ilearned that we will not always be feeling well and willing to do everything,everyone has bad days, we need to respect our body and organize our lives in away that does not leave us stressed or make us feel incapable.

-Time Management Tips for Student-Athletes
-Time Management Tips for Busy Student-Athletes

I've been thinking about college since 2010. Before that year, I was thinking to graduate here, in Brazil, but my parents told me that it would be good for me to go to the USA, because of basketball and the opportunities that I'll have there may be better than if I stay. So I started searching about the best universities and with the best sports programs. This is my first year studying in ISC and I'm really happy because my chances to go to a good university increased. I expect to get a scholarship and play basketball too. 

My issue is about the course I'm going to choose. I will definitely do something related to sports. To be honest, I always dream about my first day at college, my first basketball game in the NCAA and, God willing, my first game as a professional basketball player. One of my fears is to not get there, not make my parents and myself proud. I know it is not going to be easy, but I am ready to do whatever it takes to get there, I told myself that I will do my best and work hard every single day. A concern that I have is how I will combine studies and basketball practice? I need to know what type of player the coach is looking for and what are the admission requirements for an athlete. I will need to learn how to organize my schedule and my life at the campus. I'm a little worried about how the other girls on the team, especially those in the same position that I play, will behave with my arrival? 
If I be an aware Academic Leader, in the future, I'll be better prepared to make decisions, I will be more responsible, more confident and certainly a better student, athlete and person. That's why ISC has a significant portion in my way until college and I have to take these three years very seriously.
Coach Carter is a movie that always motivates me and teaches me that I can play basketball and be a good student at the same time!    

 

"In our first two weeks, you have read two articles, seen several videos and been engaged in several discussions related to the concept of academic leadership. At this point, and in your own words, what does the concept mean to you? What subjects or interests do you have a sophisticated, intellectual understanding of that you may want to turn into a major academic project in this class? How do people sometimes abuse academic knowledge to manipulate others? How would you feel if someone used your work to manipulate others (as Jared Diamond claims Mitt Romney has)? How can creating academically sophisticated, intellectual leaders help prevent such people from taking advantage of others the way they do? How can this create a stronger democratic society?"

Academic Leadership, to me, is a course that prepares for the IB, graduate students able to position themselves in debates, arguing about something, develops leadership and also helps in the process of technological integration. Various themes can be worked in a major academic project, since currently there are numerous resources to assist in this process. I wish my project was about basketball, it's my favorite sport and I think it has many interesting topics to be addressed.

As we saw in the article that we read, some people manipulate other ideas to form their own "knowledge", but without even analyzing and studying the concepts of the author. This has occurred because the professionals are not being taught how to build their own arguments and opinions. Most often, people only seek what is in their interest and are not taught to look for diverse opinions and establish connections between them. If something happened to me, I would feel disrespected because the knowledge I built with much effort and hard work, was easily distorted and manipulated by someone who does not even researched the subject.

Creating leaders with a sophisticated general knowledge can avoid manipulation and distortion of ideas, since they will be able to form their own knowledge and also will know that to build concepts of other authors they must study them. This contributes to the existence of a better and better structured democratic society, a society in which the laws are not only on paper but are put into practice. People will not choose any candidate for the office, because they will have a critical knowledge and will know which projects that the candidate has and whether or not it will be good for the development of society.