Getting Through The Test

    A Few Tips and Tricks on Getting Through a Tough Test

     This week at my school, and in all other schools around Texas, we are taking several state-tests. Sometimes, taking tests can be extremely exhausting and boring, so what do you do to keep yourself focused?
     The main two tips that almost every single administrator gives you are:

• Get a good night's rest the night before and
• Eat a nutritious breakfast the morning of...

     I know, I know... You are so tired of hearing these two tips, but I have to say that they actually are pretty credible! Sleep is a must if you want to be able to think clearly and eating a good breakfast prevents you from being hungry, distracted and embarrassed from your stomach growling (it happens!).
     A couple of other test taking tips are:

• Get yourself into a comfortable testing environment. If anything in the classroom you are testing in is going to distract you or make you feel weird, get out. Don't just walk out obviously, but make arrangements with who ever is in charge. I promise, it won't be that much of an inconvenience to them- they want you to pass!
• Use your test as help with other questions. If you forget something in one question, look back at the other questions to see if there is information you can use to help you. For instance, if you forget a formula to figure something out, look back and see if another question states the formula in the question. Also, make sure that each answer goes together and makes sense. You must make sure that one answer does not contradict another answer to another question about the same topic.
• Make your calculator your best friend. This will only apply to math and science tests, but calculators can do just about anything. While studying and getting ready for your test, make sure you know how to do everything possible with your calculator and don't be afraid to ask your teacher for help.
• Ask, if you do not understand directions. I know, the directions are pretty clear on these state tests, but sometimes you may be hit with a question that you are not sure how to answer. If you really do not understand the directions to a section or question, ask! Don't be scared of looking stupid or idiotic, chances are if you don't get it there are other students who are having the same problem as you. Don't feel bad either, or like you are bothering the teacher- that's what they are there for and the worst thing they can do is say "no".

I really hope these tips have helped you and I wish the best of luck to all of you!

Thanks for reading,

-B



Tackling The Issue Of A Failing Education System In America

It Takes More Than Being "Street Smart" to Be Successful In Life 

  Education in the United States is currently in serious trouble. I'm not 100% sure about how schools around the nation are doing, but I am pretty sure they are doing just as bad as mine as well as the schools in the entire Houston area. What has education come to? First it was 'We can't go on many field trips this year', then it was 'Buy your own pencils because we are on a slight budget', but I never thought it would come to 'Your classes are going to be crowded next year because we are cutting teachers from their jobs', 'The administration is basically forcing some teachers into retirement', 'You can't go to an AP Test study session at the Toyota Center because the school feels is isn't important enough to spend money on' and 'Don't ask for a tissue, pencil, pen, paper, or eraser, because the school is not paying for anything else'. Are the students and teachers the only people who see a problem with all of this? It's just not cool. I mean to basically tell students that we're not going to get the same education we used to get because of money, and to tell teachers that they're soon going to be out of jobs because they cannot afford to pay them... This problem has gotten to a point of no return... most likely. I feel that Americans do not understand that when a lot of money is involved in something, we must be careful and smart with it. We can't just go crazy and buy luxurious "non-necessities". This mistake has been repeated time and time again, not even just in school-related situations, so why can't we learn from our mistakes? That's another problem with the education system in America, sometimes we just simply cannot admit when we are wrong and we all love to preach yet half of what we are so talkative about isn't practiced at all. People high up in the chain of education have always said that we need to be cautious when spending and we need to have teaching and gaining knowledge as the #1 goal, yet this hasn't been happening at all! At my school, I literally can only count about 8 teachers who are qualified to teach (in my mind at least). What administrators should have been doing in the past if teaching and gaining knowledge was the number one goal, is hire teachers who they truly believe can provide the proper material to students so that we can be successful in college and even after. To be completely honest, it doesn't mean anything to me that my school has gone up 20 places in the best ranked schools in the Houston area and it doesn't mean a thing to me that we were voted one of the most improved. Why? Because look what we are being compared to, it isn't hard to get up there. Also, look at us as a nation compared to every other country in the world and tell me how developed and smart we are. Just think about that. Some say that everything is fine and that there is no real problem in the school system these days, however, haven't we always said that? If you keep repeating the same patterns over and over again, nothing changes, and sure we can all say that we get that and we know that and "duh", but we never act on it. America is all talk. Especially when it comes to education. So what can we do about it? As students? As teachers? As Americans? We do what we do best: speak out. We need to be active and let our voices be heard to the people that are in control. Stop complaining to the teachers, it isn't their fault. Stop complaining to the principals, it isn't completely their fault. Take this to the state. Show them that we care about our future.

 In today's society, it takes more than being street smart to be successful, and you can quote me on that one.

Thank you for reading,

-B

Lady Gaga Monster Ball Tour Hits Houston

The Best Concert I Have Ever Been To In My Whole Life

Tonight, Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Tour made it's way to Houston, and guess who went! Me!

Let me just start off by saying WOW. This is by far, the best concert I have ever been to in my entire life!

Lady Gaga definitely gave it her all tonight and there was not a single dull moment in the entire show. From her quick 5-second changes, to her wild dance moves while hitting notes perfectly at the same time, her performance was just phenomenal.

Something that I really admired about the concert was that through out the whole thing, she kept screaming out words of inspiration to the audience. One moment Gaga was telling her chaotic (and loyally dressed) fans that everything in life gets better, and the next she was telling the stories of how she used to be bullied in high school and even though she still feels the pain of that sometimes, she has moved on to (obviously) bigger and better things. I also loved how she told the audience that nobody needs plastic surgery and that we should never listen to anybody who tries to bring us down or hold us back from what we really want to do and be in life. There were several sentimental moments that completely inspired me, and unlike what some singers do, Lady Gaga was able to make it seem like she was talking to a small crowd in a club as opposed to the reality which was a huge crowd at the Houston Toyota Center.

Lady Gaga's voice is outrageously amazing, that girl can really sing! About halfway through the show she also felt she needed to make it a point that she doesn't, "never has, and never will lip-sync a single word" of a song. (Her words exactly). Her vocal range and the overall sound of her voice is something that is almost indescribable. Her voice is just something that reaches somewhere in your heart that you don't quite fully understand and that feeling is incredible.

Singing songs from both albums The Fame and The Fame Monster such as "Just Dance" "Paparazzi" "Lovegame" "Poker Face" "Telephone" "Teeth" "Monster" "Dance In The Dark" "Alejandro" and "Bad Romance", Gaga ended the show with an inspiring and spectacular performance of her new song "Born This Way".

It was an amazing show. I feel like I have run out of adjectives to describe how awesome this concert was. Being in that audience, you could just feel all of the love and energy that people were giving off and you were not afraid to act crazy and be yourself. The feeling was great, and it was all made possible by the one and only Lady Gaga - a true icon of our generation.

Click on Read More to see more pictures!

What Should Your Friends Be Like?

     When you are choosing the people you want to call your friends you often have to be extremely careful. What qualities do you look for in people when searching for friends? I asked a couple of people in my life that same question and this is what they said:

"honesty, caring, loyalty, and trust. mostly honesty, because without honesty you can't have a good relationship with anyone. caring because to keep a relationship going, you have to want it. loyalty, because you don't want a two faced/backstabbing friend. and trust, because without trust you'll have a sketchy relationship that is completely unbalanced."

"awesome personailty that is crazy, funny and outgoing. can take a joke. can be stupid at times but then be serious when needed. they should be a good listener that is there for me whenever i need them and someone that i can call just to call and them not get annoyed by it"

     Agree? I do. To me, a friend should be someone you just sort of click with. You should almost never run out of things to talk about, laugh about the smallest things, and most importantly be able to relate to each other. Your friends should be people that make you happy no matter what is going on in your life. Once you have figured out that you can be happy and have fun with these people, you must think about the things that might be a little more difficult to detect...
     Trust and communication is key in any kind of relationship, including friendships. It may take some time to figure out if you can trust someone. One way to tell if you can trust a person is if they confide in you certain things that happen in their lives. Depending on how "top secret" the things they tell you are, they probably won't be telling a lot of people and if they are telling you, that should mean something. Trust usually isn't something that can be built over night and most of the time it shouldn't. Two reasons why trust and communication is so important when looking for friends are because you wouldn't want someone to go tell all of your secrets to the world and because you need someone to talk to when you are going through a tough time. It's so much more healthier for you when you have someone you can tell things to instead of letting all of your problems bottle up inside of you, just waiting to explode. You need someone who is a good listener and isn't always changing the subject to themselves. In order to have a good friend you need to listen and be listened to.
     It is such an extremely comfortable feeling to know that you have people in your life that you can count on whenever you need them. It feels good to know you have people you can hang out with when you need a break from work and difficult things in life. Be good to your friends, cherish them and let them know how thankful you are for them almost on a daily basis.
     I hope you agree and can somewhat relate to the advice I have given on looking for the right friends and I hope that you keep these things in mind every day when you meet people.

Be the best friend you can be and I guarantee you will find that people will start to be the best friends they can be to you.

Thanks for reading,

-B

Abusing Social Networking Websites

A Lesson For Teens

   Almost every teen in the United States is using either Facebook, Twitter, or some other kind of social networking website, but for what? I usually use Facebook and Twitter to get things out about my website and information about my modeling and acting career, but I also use it just to keep up with my friends and what they are doing. However, lately I have been noticing so many negative things happening on these sites and it's just not cool. There have been statuses I see that talk badly about other people with out putting the person's name on it, there has been arguing back and forth in the form of tweets, and I am so sick of it. We are all teenagers here. We share the same pain, we go through the same issues, we are all growing up and we are not alone. A HUGE problem today in the society of teenagers is that we do not know how to empower one another. Instead of going against each other and always picking fights, we need to be encouraging and uplifting to each other. Most of the time, when I'm not promoting myself or my website, I try to write inspiring things that will lift self esteem in others and hopefully make others feel better about what ever they are going through at the time. This is what we all need to do! When negative things are being posted about people, nothing good can ever come from it. If nothing good can come from something, it doesn't need to be done. It's time for everyone to stop all this nonsense and cyber-bullying and start being positive towards each other. Many teens always say, "No one understands me" or "Nobody gets what I'm going through", but in all reality what most teens truly don't understand is that we all know what we're all going through and we all should be able to understand each other. We need to start being here for each other, accepting each other, and being willing to listen as well as give advice to one another. Facebook and Twitter were not created to be tools for drama, crap talking, and bringing down people, and nobody should use it that way. It's not right to ever hurt anyone's feelings, but to go on the internet and write nasty comments where everyone can see is almost a pretty heartless thing to do. As much as I would love for everyone to read this and just stop doing these things on Facebook and Twitter, it's not going to happen. So I am asking you, being a loyal reader, to help me stop this. If you see something on the internet like what I described, confront that person and tell them it's not cool to put that on the internet. Also, if you start using your statuses and updates in a positive manner that builds people up instead of tearing them down, others will start to get the idea and they too will help bring forward this movement.

Please help put an end to the abuse of social networking sites.

Thank you for reading, try to help spread this message.

-B