A CHRISTMAS CAROL (BY CHARLES DICKENS) :: English Literature

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (BY CHARLES DICKENS) â€Å"By Close Analysis of Staves One and Five Show How Dickens Portrays the Transformation of Scrooge and To What Effect† In December 1843, Charles Dickens wrote and published â€Å"A Christmas Carol.† He published this book when he needed money; he needed money badly because he was in debt. He decided to link it to things that are happening; that Christmas was not taken seriously, it was fading out and ghost traditional Christmas tales. Dickens used the genre of ghost stories, but Dickens did something unusual, he changed the fact that ghost stories are meant to be frightening, in this book, the ghost stories were scary. In 1843 (ancient times), there were no security, pensions, national health nor compulsory education. You were expected to work six days a week and on Sunday, you go to church (only if you had a job). Those who had no job couldn’t go to church, because they were probably in prison or workhouse. There were no holidays, you had to work on Boxing Day, and if you ended up in debt, you would be put in debt prison. Dickens grew up in this prison with his dad, he started work at the age of 12 (it was a terrible work). Looking at the Book, it was about ghosts, and ghost stories were always told during Christmas. Books were always in chapters, but Dickens wrote his in staves; musical notes. Dickens starts to compare, first, looking at the full title, â€Å"A Christmas Carol in prose,† to have a carol in prose means a contradiction (to speak against). The book written in staves, which is a music stave, is already contradicting the title. In the preface, he uses another contradiction (repetition); we will also be looking at jokes and humours. Stave1: Marley’s Ghost â€Å"Marley was dead; to begin with† this is a contradiction; we already begin to make assumptions about the story. Stave1, beginning with a negative statement; â€Å"Marley was dead..........† (A quick reference to stave 5), and stave 5; a positive statement; â€Å"Yes!† with an exclamation mark, showing that there is an excitement there, even in the first paragraph. Dickens uses repetition in the first paragraph of stave 1; clergyman and clerk, undertaker and chief mourner, and Scrooge was also emphasised twice. He uses a simile; â€Å"Old Marley was dead as a door nail†, he was being humorous; in the book he explains why he used it, but we figured out that Dickens uses these to slow down the â€Å"pace† and change the â€Å"atmosphere†, this was meant to be funny (in1843), he used this to divert people’s attention from the

Statue of Liberty: A Lie? Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Statue of Liberty: A Lie? As I sat on a park bench in the middle of Manhattan, eating a pack of stale peanut butter crackers, I couldn't keep myself from thinking about the woman I had met the day before. The lady I met seemed to be a strong woman of high morale, but after our interaction I came to the conclusion that she was living a lie. Well-known and noticeably the tallest female in the community, many people looked up to her as somewhat of a motherly figure. I'll never forget the tattoo on her ankles that partially read: †¦. cries she with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" She was a very old woman who really didn't look as old as she was. As we stood side by side, we had a long interesting debate about violence, values and where we thought the United States was headed as a nation. She kept saying how she had been around a long time and how she has personally witnessed the downfall of America; however, she seemed unemotional. Suddenly, tears began to flow down her solid face; or maybe it was rain? What bothered me the most was her body language, which spoke to me like a smart remark. At first, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something about her struck me as being hypocritical. She told me her name was Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is a national symbol of freedom for the people in America. Many Americans interpret Lady Liberty in different ways depending on their gender, ethnic, racial background and other social factors that influence our personal opinions of the United States. After personally evaluating how Lady... ...ican values, when at the time females weren't even allowed to vote. There it is! Evidence shows that Lady Liberty is a contradiction because her message hasn't been consistent with society's beliefs. Most Americans firmly embrace the Statue of Liberty, but never stop to question its validity as a representation of America. Lady Liberty is portrayed as being an icon of America but I feel she is one of the largest unchallenged contradictions in our present society. The statue of liberty's main objective depicts America as something it is not. At times I feel angry when looking at the statue because I feel as though we are lying to ourselves by accepting a false reality. It's very unfortunate that "Americas ego" is the cause of so many deaths. Personally, I feel that until we honestly accept the truth about ourselves, we will forever be a misrepresented nation.

Computers in Elementary Education :: School Technology Papers

Computers in Elementary Education When trying to describe the meaning of education, one might think of the relationship between a teacher and a student. The essence of this relationship is stregthned by the teachers' ability to adapt to the students needs. With many advancements of society and technology, today's teachers are better equipped with tools so powerful that the standards of yesterday are being challenged more frequently. Among these great tools exists the computer and the Internet. Unfortunately, history reveals that great tools often have their consequences. For example, how great must it have been to be among the first few to use a knife thousands of years ago. We all know, just as those first few might have found out, that with all the positive and useful ways we can use knives, there are just as many evil ways we can use them. With the help of the media as well as first hand use, millions of people already know of the risks having to deal with computers and the Internet. Another issue that plays a factor is the tradition as a whole. It might be possible that a few of the teachers around the world fear being replaced by a machine. Can the computer really substitute the help and guidance of a teacher? This idea itself raises another issue. Deciding how many computers per school, how many computers per class, how many lessons involving computers, whether Internet access should be granted, and planning security issues with expensive equipment is not going to be an easy task. I believe everyone is very excited right now about having computers in their classrooms. It's also happening at the elementary school where I am currently working as a T.A. There will be at least one computer in each classroom. The fourth and fifth grade classes have more than one because they have projects that they can type during class or they have any other activity that will enhance their computer abilities. I work in a kindergarten class and when the children were told they wer e going to have a computer in their room they all said, "yeeaaahhh." I would be excited too because they're only thinking about the computer games that are going to be available for them. They're not thinking that their whole instruction is going to be in front of the computer. The decision making responsibilities are probably going to be left to the government.

Inclusive Instructional Strategies & Accommodations Essay

Diana Pastora Carson is a special education teacher and founder of Ability Awareness in Action organization. She always had an interest in changing the lives of disabled people from pitiful life and exclusion to inclusion and life full of dignity and hope. The concern in Diana’s nature came from presence of a brother who was preserved from others as a disabled and dependent human being. Diana’s Brother, Joaquin, was diagnosed with Autism at an early age. While he was in school, he had been placed in an exclusive classroom for students with significant mental retardation. He was twice placed in a state institute due to misunderstanding of his character and his attempts to communicate with his services. Currently, Joaquin resides in a state institute, where he is ill, emotionally and physically, from being locked up in a building away from his friends and family. He expressed his feelings about living in such environment to his sister in a painful way as he once said: â€Å"Diana, people are so boring here†. His family has been trying to get him out of there as soon as possible. They have also taken his case to the court and are waiting for the final decision to be made. They want to get Joaquin out of there and bring him in a home of his own with people who love him instead of staying in that institute any longer. The training, titled ‘Inclusive Instructional Strategies and Accommodations’, is about including all children, whether they have a disability or not, in general education classrooms specifically, and in the community, generally. Everybody deserves to belong to and live in their communities. A teacher has an enormous role in making all students belong to that classroom through her knowledge about each and every student of his/hers, and through recognizing uniqueness in each one of them. This should make the teacher create a supportive environment that meets each student’s needs, and an atmosphere that promotes acceptance of differences and diversity, learning, hope, and collaboration. Moreover, the teacher is responsible for building a curriculum that meets each student’s level and accommodates tests and homework. A great teacher would avoid labels that discriminate individuals with disabilities to avoid lower expectations. Those labels may help professionals recognize what disabilities the students have, in order to provide them with services that meet their needs. However, people within the same label or disabilities may vary; therefore, we cannot always judge someone based on the labels. Moreover, it is very unprofessional to address someone by his/her disabilities as no one likes to be looked at for something that they did not choose for his/her self and it may affect his/her self-confidence. Students’ dignity must be preserved by the teacher and whoever is around, for instance, peers, and family. Professionals working with disabled people should advocate the community about appreciation of diversity and encourage students to speak out their thoughts, make choices, and blend in the society. Most importantly, the teachers should listen to students attentively; look at their body language, written expressions, and vocalization for effective communication. During the training, many strategies and activities to develop a classroom community were shared by Diana, such as setting roles for the classroom, encouraging reading books that promote diversity and discussions, and different cooperative games. Diana also explained how a customized lesson should be designed as a teacher must know her/his students in order to alter lessons based on each student’s needs. Teachers should also know how to model, guide, and measure students’ independent achievements through knowledge of students’ strengths and limitations. Diana enlightened the importance of giving students’ time to process new information, retrieve old information, and speak out their answers. It is very important to break the lesson into smaller parts along with asking questions in between to check students’ comprehension and to encourage discussions about the lesson. It is very essential to bring movement and interaction into the curriculum, serve the different types of intelligences and most importantly honor every student for who he/she is and be aware of the impact teaching will have on his/her future life. Furthermore, visual aids can assist students in organizing their thoughts, memorizing them, and make learning more enjoyable and personal to them. Finally, commitment to learning, inclusion of all children, and building a quality future for each child is a must step for developing a loving community where everyone belongs. By having a brother with a disability, whose community isolated him from others by not providing him with education programs that serves his needs, making public places inaccessible for him, and not advocating the public about disabilities, Diana has learned to honor diversity and anyone who is working towards treating people with disabilities with dignity and respect. It has encouraged her to change the lives of those who are different from normal people, whether with a disability or not. It has motivated her to include all of them in a classroom that promotes collaboration, understanding, and hope. Furthermore, it has opened her eyes to the importance of advocating the society about disabilities and their inclusion, to change the image and future of the disabled in the community.

Curriculum Alignment Research Suggests That Alignment Can Improve Student Achievement Essay

Alignment is a match between two categories and Curriculum describes what gets taught (Squires, 2012). Curriculum alignment attempts to put to maximum effect the relationship among three categories; namely the taught curriculum, the written curriculum, and the test curriculum. It shows how the above can be used to improve student achievement thus explaining how the design for a curriculum can be aligned to state standards and state specifications for effective instructional process (Squires, 2012). This article serves to provide a backup into a curriculum design that makes sure what is tested gets taught. It also shows the difficulty that is encountered in in having numerous assessment standards and seeks a way to eliminate the challenge and secondly a specific curriculum can be potentially aligned to more than one standard. From this article, we get to find from Balance curriculum that when a curriculum is properly aligned, student achievement and performance improves. According to Squires (2012), when taught curriculum is aligned to written standards, there is increased, strong and positive student achievement. Squires (2012) showed textbook studies fostered a limited range of learning strategies such that the emphasis is frequently on problem solving rather than learning by reading, discussion and argument in order to acquire the knowledge to solve a problem of one’s own choosing. Squires (2012) showed that textbooks may not be well aligned to state tests and it would be prudent for the school districts to identify the gaps and provide the teachers with materials to cover the gaps. In order to align the state tests (test curriculum) to state standards (written curriculum), Marzano came up with a benchmark for comparing all state and national professional association standards to each other and created a website where the same could be achieved for instance, Archives (www.aligntoachieve.com) provided four criteria for alignment of textbooks to standards that are; content, performance, level of difficulty and balance and range. From above we also find there is constraint in testing time where only a limited number of concepts can be assessed effectively (Squires, 2012). From (Third International Mathematics and Science Studies) TIMSS study findings, it is significant to note that the content of a country’s’ curriculum affects student achievement and that for student learning, the extent of opportunities to learn will depend on the time the teacher spends on the topic which translates to greater performance. A district must control time and content covered at a specific time if the results are to improve of which it is the function of the curriculum. The districts can assist in aligning, structuring, implementing and assessing the curriculum (Squires, 2012). Reference Squires, D. A. (2012), Curriculum Alignment Research Suggests That Alignment Can Improve Student Achievement, London, Routledge. Source document

Compulsory School Age Essay

â€Å"Any young person without a high school diploma is at a severe disadvantage in our high-tech labor market, with its accompanying demands for advanced education. We can’t prepare students for the 21st century who aren’t in school. Increasing graduation rates requires a continuum of strategies that engage students, including ensuring their presence in the classroom.† The above-mentioned quote by National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel sizes up the situation crisply. Although critics contend that students inclined to dropping out of school will quit school anyway and education is a responsibility of local and state governments and raising the compulsory school age will have little effect, research indicates there are benefits in raising the national compulsory school attendance age to 18. Current Problem Compulsory school attendance refers to the minimum and maximum age required by each state for students to be enrolled in and attending public schools or some comparable education program as defined by law. The good news is student in the United States are graduating from high school at a rate better than any time since 1976; the bad news is about 20 percent still drop out, most of whom are minorities. The figures are from the National Center for Education Statistics’ report, â€Å"Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2009-2010.† Dropouts face extremely bleak economic and social prospects. Compared to high school graduates, they are less likely find a job and earn a living wage, and more likely to be poor and to suffer from a variety of adverse health outcomes. The statistics are sobering. Both in the short-term, when dropouts first leave school, and in the long-term, over their entire working lives, dropouts are severely disadvantaged relative to students who complete high (Rumberger, p. 88, 2011). Dropouts are almost twice as likely to be poor—in 2009, 25 percent of high school dropouts had incomes below the poverty level compared to 14 percent for high school graduates with no college (Rumberger, p. 92, 2011). The economic disadvantages of not completing high school have grown more sizeable over time as the availability of low-skilled jobs has  declined. The median annual earnings of full-time, full-year dropouts were 15 percent less than high school completers in 1980, but increased to 21 percent by 2008 (Rumberger, p. 93, 2011). In recent years, the drop-out rate in US schools, currently estimated at over 20% overall and overrepresented among low income, Black, and Latino and other minority students, has gained a great deal of attention, because of its im pact on the students and on the communities in which they live. There are some dynamics that fuel these inordinate rates for minorities. By raising the compulsory school attendance age and providing supports for struggling students, 25 percent of likely dropouts remained in school because of compulsory schooling laws (â€Å"Raising the Compulsory School Attendance Age,† National Association of Secondary School Principals. May 2010.) To remain in school, students must devote their time and attention to their schoolwork and their school activities. They must also get along with their teachers and fellow students. But some students engage in a number of behaviors in and out of school that increase their risk of dropping out. These behaviors include misbehaving in school, delinquent behavior outside of school, drug and alcohol use, and sexual activity and teen childbearing. The research literature finds that engaging in any of these behaviors increases the risk of dropping out of school ( Sanchez p. 172). Potential dropouts will not get the specialized help if they dropout because they were not required to stay in school until the age of 18. Dropouts are generally unprepared to contribute to society and are a burden on the nation’s economy. Lower local, state, and national tax revenues are the most obvious consequence of higher dropout rates; even when dropouts are employed, they earn significantly lower wages than do graduates. State and local economies suffer further when they have less-educated populaces, as they find it more difficult to attract new business investment. Simultaneously, these entities must spend more on social programs when their populations have lower educational levels. The nation’s economy and competitive standing also suffer when there are high dropout rates. Among developed countries, the United States ranks twenty-first in high school graduation rates and fifteenth in college attainment rates among twenty-five- to thirty-four-year-olds. Dropouts represent a tremendous loss of human potential and productivity, and they significantly reduce the nation’s ability to compete in an increasingly global economy. Furthermore, recent estimates project that the future domestic workforce demands will require higher levels of education among U.S. workers. However, without significant improvements in the high school and postsecondary completion rates, the nation is on track to fall short by up to 3 million postsecondary degrees by 2018 (Junn, p. 7). Critics Those contending that raising the compulsory school attendance age would be useless are mistaken. Research indicates that approximately 25% of potential dropouts remain in school because of compulsory school laws. Compulsory school attendance laws provide for the direct enforcement and policing of school attendance. In addition, overall enrollment rates among 16 year olds are lower in states that allow them to drop out when they turn 16. Philip Oreopoulos, in two separate studies using information gathered by various surveys analyzed the issue of implementing compulsory attendance laws (Oreopoulos-2005, p. 12). Using additional information from countries like England and Ireland, he concluded that students who are compelled to complete at least one more year of school will earn 12 percent more than those who choose to drop out earlier (Oreopoulos-2005, p. 13). In the second study specifically concerning that increasing the drop out age (above 16) increases an individual’s scho oling by .12 to .16 years, thus better preparing them for the labor force. In his study he also observed a decrease of 1.2 and 2.1 percentage points in the overall dropout rate. As with some of the other studies, he concluded that the policy does not affect the rates; other factors such as funding and alternative measures must be put into place (Oreopoulos-December 2005, p. 17). Critics also argue that education is primarily a State and local responsibility. While this is established by the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution, the United States has a fundamental responsibility to promote policies nationally that effect all of its citizens. The dropout rate is alarming and could pose national security issues. An independent task force launched by the Council on Foreign Relations (2013) is warning the U.S. education system is barreling toward â€Å"a national security crisis.† The report highlights a Defense Department statistic that 75% of American youth don’t qualify for the armed forces because of a lack of a high school diploma, obesity or a criminal record. The disproportionate number of minority groups with high dropout  rates could be further investigated by the office of Civil Rights (OCR). Why are so many minorities leaving school? We live in a highly mobile society with people constantly moving from state to state. This mobility will result in different compulsory school attendance ages in different states. In 1980, Congress established the Department of Education (DOE), as a Cabinet level agency. Today, the DOE operates programs that touch on every area and level of education. The official mission of the Doe is to â€Å"†¦.promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.† Raising the national compulsory school age to 18 would carry out this mission perfectly. It is difficult to determine how many students would choose to pursue a higher education or technical training, once they graduate, it is extra difficult to reasonably argue tha t they should be allowed to give up on school. Faced with the reality of trying to get a job and raise a family, most students who dropped out wished they had remained in school. The facts are well documented—the economic consequences of dropping out are dramatic (John M. Bridgeland, John J. DiIulio, Jr.and Ryan Streeter argue: Their concerns are merited – the economic consequences of dropping out are dramatic. In the United States, high school graduates earn 43 percent more than individuals without a high school diploma, and college graduates earn more than 150 percent – one and a half times – more. Median earnings for people who have not graduated from high school are currently a mere $415 per week. Research has shown a 10 percent rise in earnings for people who simply stay in school one year longer. Over their lifetimes, female high school dropouts earn between $120,000 and $244,000 less than female graduates, and males $117,000 to $322,000 less than male graduates. College graduates earn between $800,000 and $1,387,000 more over their lifetimes than high school dropouts. Not only are earnings prospects bleak for dropouts who have jobs, but the prospect of having a job at all is not guaranteed: dropouts are much more likely to be unemployed. The unemployment rate among individuals who have not graduated from high school is 65 percent higher than it is for graduates and three times higher than it is for college graduates. Clearly, dropping out of high school is often equivalent to choosing a life of financial hardship. It also places a burden upon society as a whole. Annual public health costs for dropouts have been estimated at $58 billion, and  approximately $10 billion could be saved each year in public assistance if all our students graduated from high school. (p. 10) In their overview and survey of research on the importance of compulsory school ages (Hoor & Reynolds p 3-4) find that raising the age is an important component of confronting the dropout problem. In their study, â€Å"Understanding and Addressing the Issue of the High School Dropout Age,† the authors find evidence that raising the compulsory school age is gaining support across the United States in part because doing so helps reduce dropout numbers. The paper also provides a sampling of evidence-based interventions that help reduce the dropout rate. Solutions There is no simple way to nationally raise the compulsory school attendance age to 18 years. Just raising the age to 18 is not enough. It will take cooperation from many sectors to realize this needed policy change. Evaluating past reform efforts and the existing more recent research literature on implementation will provide information needed for developing more successful programs in the future. Though all states will benefit from raising the age to 18, states have varied factors they must consider and must do what fits for that state. Making schools and schools districts accountable for implementing and maintaining the national compulsory school attendance age of 18 is a great start. Thankfully, No Child Left Behind is is being left behind. However, a fair, consistent and reliable means of effectively addressing dropouts must be developed. The school environment itself determines whether at-risk students succeed. Students who are supported, motivated, and encouraged by their teach ers, who regard their teachers as caring, and who receive guidance from their teachers usually like school. In contrast, dropouts often report leaving school because they did not get along with their teachers or classmates. Smaller class sizes or counseling and guidance programs for struggling students are ways to improve how students perceive their teacher support networks. (Oreopoulos, Philip 2006 p. 31). Making funding available to hire and train teachers and providing smaller classes will help ease these issues. Providing other school-appropriate proven resources will also help. Currently, many school districts expel or suspend students for long periods of time, but are still  able to receive FTE (Full-time equivalent workload of a student) funding for much of the time period the student is not in school. They are not providing services, but they get the money whether the student is in school or not. This must stop. Otherwise, schools have no monetary incentive to keep students in school. School-based approaches as standalone programs are unlikely to solve the dropout crisis without providing adequate support to families and communities. In particular, even widespread school reform that raised the persistently lowest-achieving schools to even average achievement levels will unlikely raise the graduation rate sufficiently and at best eliminate about one-third of the achievement gap differences between racial and socioeconomic groups. Therefore, to improve graduation rates and to close gaps in graduation will require interventions in two other arenas: families and communities (Rumberger p. 274). Making families and communities more responsible by empowering them will go a long way. Family involvement is one of the most important contributors to school completion and success. The most accurate predictor of a student’s school achievement is the extent to which his/her family encourages learning. Success is more likely if the family communicates high, yet reasonable, expectations for the student’s education and future career and becomes involved in his/her education (Schargel & Smink, p. 99, 177). Although t he research explicitly confirms the positive and long-lasting effects of parent, family, and community involvement on student learning, this data is often overlooked in local, state, and national discussions about raising student achievement and closing achievement gaps (Berliner, p. 975). As much as the nation should be alarmed by the scope and gravity of America’s dropout problem, we should also be encouraged by the leadership that states across the country are demonstrating to address it. The District of Columbia and 17 other states already require students to be in school until they are 18. The pessimists will exclaim that changing the compulsory graduation age to 18 will not stop those determined to quit school from quitting and the responsibility of school laws should be left to states, however, there is a compelling body of research that indicates benefits to raising the compulsory age of school attendance to 18 nationally. Works Cited Allan, Kenneth. A Primer in Social and Sociological Theory: Toward a Sociology of Citizenship. Los Angeles: SAGE/Pine Forge, 2011. Print. David, Berliner C. â€Å"Our Impoverished View of Educational Reform.† Teacher’s College Record 108.6 (2006): 949-975. Print. â€Å"Despite Interventions, No-Show Students Drop Out : NPR.† NPR.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. Junn, Jane. â€Å"The Political Costs of Unequal Education.† Department of Political Science & Eagleton Institute of Politics Rutgers University (2005): 14. Web. 24 Oct. 2005. Nakamura, David, and Scott Wilson. â€Å"Middle Class is Under Threat.† Washington Post [Washington] 12 Jan. 2012: 1. Print. Roderick, Melissa R. The Path to Dropping Out: Evidence for Intervention. Westport, Conn: Auburn House, 1993. Print. Rumberger, Russell W. Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2011. Print. Rushton, Rosie, and Kathryn Lamb. Staying Cool, Surviving School: Secondary School Strategies. Puffin, 1995. Print. Sidlow, Edward, and Beth Henschen. Govt: Student Edition. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2013. Print. Smink, Jay, and Franklin P. Schargel. Helping Students Graduate: A Strategic Approach to Dropout Prevention. Larchmont, N.Y: Eye On Education, 2004. Print.

The Best Game Ever Made

It was the beginning of February of my senior year in high school. I had been conditioning for months leading up to tryouts for the baseball team so I was in the best shape of my life and I was confident. The past three years before that I was put on the JV team because the coaches didn't like my â€Å"attitude†, so my senior year I was determined to get a starting spot on the varsity team no matter what. During tryouts the coaches would always look at me like I didn't belong and would whisper things amongst themselves Just quiet enough so I couldn't hear.I knew I would have to work arder than anyone trying out to make the team and that is exactly what I did. I got my spot on the team. Workouts for varsity baseball at London High School were some of the hardest things I had ever done but I knew that it would be worth it once the season rolled around. We ran, lifted, ran, ran and then we ran. It was exhausting but rewarding. Towards the end of our offseason workouts the team st arted to throw inside the gym so our arms would be ready once it got warm enough to go outside. Two weeks of that and everybody on the team were worn thin with each other, the game and the oaches.It finally got warm enough to go outside and I was ready to show my coaches that I had what it took to start for the London Red Raiders. They put me in left field because they knew I could catch very well. It didn't start out too well for me the first couple of practices but once I got my throws down I felt like there was nothing that could stop me. I was fighting for a starting spot with a Junior who did not deserve to be playing on a varsity field. I knew then that all I had to do was keep the mistakes toa minimum and the starting spot would be mine. I was right.I earned my starting spot and played well through the first fifteen games of the season but the worst thing that couldVe happened to me, happened. It was game fifteen against Westland and we were up 4-0. A ball was hit to down the left field line and the only way I could make the catch was to dive so that is exactly what I did. I caught the ball but I also broke three ribs while making the catch. It felt like somebody was slowly pushing a hot knife in to my rib cage and twisting it. I couldn't breathe let alone stand up so I had to get help to the dugout. The doctor told me thatI would have to sit out at least ten games to let my rips properly heal. Ten games later our record was 20-5 and we had a good chance of making it to the state finals. Our first game of the playoffs was against Columbus Mifflin which was easily the worst team we had played all season. The second game was against Bishop Watterson. It was the top of the seventh inning and we were winning by one run at home. All we needed was one more out to win the game and move on to the regional finals. There was a runner on second and third with Watterson's best hitter at the plate.The second pitch of the at bat he hit a ball that I knew was going ov er my head as soon as it came off the bat. I immediately started running straight back and looked back for the ball after I had traveled about fifteen yards but couldn't find it at first. Once I did find it I realized that it was going over my left shoulder so I turned my As soon as I caught it, all I could think about was all of the months of hard work I had put in to making the varsity team. All of the drills and lifting I did by myself to make myself better.All of the time and effort I put in to baseball instead of going out very weekend or sitting around doing nothing. I stood up with the ball in my glove and instantly got tackled by my best friend who was playing center field. That's when it hit me that I made the game winning catch to send our team in to the regional finals. Ever since that day I have always been very confident in my abilities to play baseball and that only increased when I was called by the head coach of Clark State Community College and asked to play at the collegiate level. But still to this day, that one catch, was the best moment that I have ever had.