ADHD is a Pain in the Brain

The human brain. The most complex organ in the body, consisting of many billions of neurons, each sending and receiving tiny messages via a complex web of neural pathways. These little signals travel throughout the entire body, constantly dictating the movement of every organ and muscle. Our brains also control our constant intake and output of knowledge.

Sports, Exercise, and the Brain!

Sports has been a huge part of my life since, well, forever! All my life I have incorporated sports into my school life, and schedule. How it effects the Brain! Exercise is possibly one of the key points to having a healthy brain. Studies prove that physical and aerobic exercise are important for cognitive activity, and basically just thinking straight. A good 30 minute is workout is enough to make a whole day of thinking better! My family is very exercise related, me and my brother doing at least one sport per season and going for runs.

My cousin Jacob is a big part of my life and so is competition sports, so we make it a routine to go the gym and shoot hoops whenever he comes over to my house or vice versa. Because we want to get better, we make playing basketball together super competitive and I think that competition is motivation for me to do much better. Motivation is a key part in helping the brain to work harder, because I know I can't do something without putting my mind to it. When I try to do something, it usually comes out good but I am REALLY hard to get motivated! When I can't focus on something my mom tells me to just get up and do some jumping jacks, which actually helps! Exercise is great for the brain, and helps get you thinking. How it effect Emotions! Another thing exercise helps with is emotions! I get pretty mad easy, and get irritated at people, so going on runs helps me with that! Every single time I go for a run and come home I get a comment from my brother that I'm being nicer, and I guess it gets me in a better mood.

In Putnam city, there was a study where children who ran around for a half hour performed at least 45% better than the children that hadn't exercised. Also, during the class the children who had run around were behaving themselves and gave off a happy vibe to the teachers, and the observers. The effect lasted for about four hours, which is an amazing amount compared to the mere 30 minutes of exercise. Exercise is the #1 thing to cheer you up! What I think! Exercise is basically training your brain to be healthy, and keep in touch with emotions. A new year's resolution of mine is to not fight with my mom so much, so I'm gonna exercise more to keep in a better mood for her, and to be more pumped for schoolwork! The whole point of my blog was just to get you guys to realize how important it is for people, especially kids, to get active! I know it sounds cheesy, but it will help you to get better grades (if you don't go to Catlin...) and to just smile more. Do sports! :) Sources: http://www.patriotledger.com/blogs/health-cares/x1164582311/Exercise-and-the-Brain http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/train-your-brain-with-exercise http://images.google.com/

The Storming of the Bastille and the Estates

Everybody has, at some point in their lifetime, heard of the Battle of Waterloo, and the fight at Gettysburg during the Civil War. Have you, however, heard of the Storming of the Bastille, and of all of the brave citizens who dared defy the higher classes? Of the unfair system of social rank, or the Third Estate? To know more about these answers, we must first go back and learn what the Estates are.

The estates were sort of like social classes, with the third being the lowest, and the first the highest. The Third Estate was by far the majority, it was 95% of the population. If France were our middle school, out of the roughly 200 students, only about ten would be in the upper two classes. Servants, skilled and unskilled workers, serfs, storekeepers, and laborers were all part of the Third Estate. However, it didn't only consist of slaves and serfs, also doctors, lawyers, and teachers. These people were the very backbone of the nation. They payed the biggest share of the taxes, even though they had few privileges and almost no say in governmental decisions. It wasn't until the Estates-General was formed that the Third Estate began to have a voice in the government, but even then, they would lose by vote of two to one.

The First Estate is mainly made up of members of the Church, and religious leaders. People believed that God gave a hierarchy to them, and a luxurious life to religious men who lived under God. They represent a minuscule 1% of the people of France, or two people out of the 200 in our middle school. This small minority owns one-tenth of the land, however! These people enjoyed many privileges, including not having to pay taxes. Nevertheless, most of the people of the First Estate weren't corrupt and rich, but relatively poor and well meaning. Many also knew they had unfair privileges. 


The Second Estate consisted of nobility and royalty, other than the monarch, who stood outside of the estates system. Owning from 25-30% of all the land of France, they had no shortage of places to live. They enjoyed many of the same privileges as the First Estate, and collected rent from the peasants who lived on their land, allowing them to live a very lavish lifestyle. Often, people from this estate joined the Church and moved up to the First Estate. Women were also born into either the Second or Third Estates, but were also labeled with the 'feminine estates': either a virgin, a widow, or a wife. 

Bernard René de Launay

The people of the Third Estate felt like they were being treated unfairly, and their lives were being controlled by the government. A very iconic building of the government was the Bastille. The Bastille was a fortress, serving as a prison located in Paris. Around 30,000 pounds of gunpowder were stored in there, in order to prevent citizens from acquiring arms. A very secure place, the Bastille was very important, and seen by many every day, reminding them of the power of the government. At the time, the governor of the Bastille, proving to be a very important character in the later invasion, was named Bernard René de Launay, son of the previous governor. He was actually born inside Bastille walls, and died protecting them.

During the reign of Louis XVI, France fell upon a major economic crisis, partially because of France's intervention in the American revolution. France attempted to solve its money problems by severely taxing the citizens of the Third Estate. This caused the Third Estate to get extremely angry, only worsening conditions. The government got nervous and posted extra guards to the eighty-four guards already at the Bastille. Eventually, a small group of demonstrators from the twenty-four million strong Third Estate decided to attack the Bastille in Paris.

On July 14, 1789, hundreds and hundreds of peasants, doctors, writers, shopkeepers, and other unified near the Bastille. They had previously stormed the Hôtel des Invalides to gather 31,000 muskets, yet without powder or shot, and now were trying to acquire the 30,000 pounds of gunpowder in the Bastille. There were only seven prisoners there at the time, but the taking of this fortress would be a huge step. The 954 people gathered outside the gates, calling for the surrender of the prison, the removal of the cannons stationed on the wall, and the release of the prisoners and the gunpowder. Anticipating a response, the crowd's hopes rocketed when the governor admitted two negotiators. They stayed inside until noon, and then the people began to get restless and frustrated. Another half an hour later, the now furious mob charged the fortress. 

With whatever weapons the group could find, like a seething, unstoppable wave, they advanced, venting all their rage into this moment. Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities describes this scene immaculately. "With a roar that sounded as if all the breath in France had been shaped into the detested word, the living sea, wave on wave, depth on depth, and overflowed the city to the point. Alarm-bells ringing, drums beating, the sea raging and thundering on its new beach, the attack began. Deep ditches, double drawbridge, massive stone walls, eight great towers, cannon, muskets, fire and smoke. Through the fire and through the smoke-in the fire and in the smoke, for the sea cast him up against a cannon, and on the instant he became a cannonier..." By 3:00, new reinforcements came to the brave attackers; “gardes françaises,” who came along with two cannons, making the guards not the only ones with weapons.

Meanwhile, a substantial force of Royal Army troops were camped very nearby on the Champs de Mars, yet they didn't intervene. The fighting continued, a desperate reach for freedom, 954 courageous humans attacking an enormous fortress, the Bastille. 

Finally, at 5:30, July 14, 1789, Governor de Launay surrenders and opens the gates to the very inner courtyard, and the victorious mob swept into the core of the Bastille, concluding a successful yet hard-fought battle. 98 attackers died, and only one guard during the battle, but afterwards the people of the Third Estate took their revenge upon the guards, and killed many more. 

De Launay was dragged onto the streets from the fortress, and into a nearby tailor shop, where discussions about his fate began. Finally, he exclaimed, "Enough, let me die," but not before kicking an angry pastry chef named Dulait in the groin. Governor de Launay was repeatedly stabbed, shot, and kicked by the frothing, rabid, and furious mob, not yet satisfied with their victory. Finally, Bernard René de Launay's head was sawed off viciously, and triumphally set on a pike. The mob marched throughout the streets of Paris, showing off the beheaded face of the Governor, as well as the other dead guards.

Although this ending may seem unnecessarily violent, imagine a single man controlling your entire life, living above you, living with money and privileges, living a luxurious life while you starve on the streets. Living back then, you would have done the same! After the battle, the 954 heroes who stormed the Bastille would be forever remembered with the creation of an important holiday in France. Called Le Quatorze Juillet (14th of July), formally known as the Fête de la Fédération (Federation Holiday), and called Bastille Day in English, it celebrates the storming of the Bastille and the act of the Third Estate against the higher government for a greater, overall good.

Monet's depiction of Bastille Day

My family and I traveled to France this year before our annual visit to Hungary. We first stayed in Paris for a couple of nights - I mean, if you go to France, who doesn't stop in Paris - and then traveled to Corsica (incidentally where Napoleon Bonaparte was born). We were in Paris from July 12 to July 16, so we had the luck of being there for Bastille Day. It's treated similarly to the Fourth of July here in the U.S., what with fireworks, parties, and dancing. Bastille Day is also celebrated in many countries, such as Hungary, New Zealand, Belgium, England, and even here in Portland! On Champs Élysées, thousands of seats are set up along the street, for the citizens to view the soldiers marching, and the long military parade. Also on Champs-Élysées, hundreds of flags are raised to celebrate the event, accompanied by spectacular fireworks by the Eiffel Tower. We didn't get to go see the parade, the crowds must have been overwhelming, but at home we lit some fireworks with our host family, which was also a lot of fun!

While we were in France, I learned how much France's history affects every-day life, yet how different living in Paris must have been from how it is now. No matter which estate you were or are in, no matter whether you were there for the storming of the Bastille or not, whether you live in France or in Uruguay, everyone can reflect and be amazed and affected by the French history in 1789; everybody can continue to be inspired by what drove those attackers, the same inspiration many of us draw from every single day.

Works Cited:

"Estates of the Realm." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Feb. 2013.

"The Estates." ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2013.

Dickens, Charles, Hablot Knight Browne, and Frederick Barnard. A Tale of Two Cities,. New York: Dodd, Mead &, 1942. Print.

"Google Images." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2013.

"How Do You Pronounce Bastille?" Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo!, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2013.

Karpiel, Frank, Kathleen Krull, and Grant P. Wiggins. MyWorld History. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2012.

My mom

My camera (the pictures at the end are mine)

"Storming of the Bastille." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Feb. 2013.

"The Three Estates." The Three Estates. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2013.

Some pictures from our visit to France: 

The beach in Corsica

The view from our little house in Corsica

Paris as seen from the Eiffel Tower (The line is so long!)

The Seine River as seen from the Eiffel Tower

PROCRASTINATING

PROCRASTINATING

By: Andrew H.

Scenario: It’s midnight and you have two hours of work left because you have been procrastinating. You did this because you found the work boring and decided to postpone it while you played video games and ate dinner. Now you have to use the time you kept for sleeping and use it for homework.

You may think that whole one side of the brain is pro procrastinating and the other is con is a bunch of bologna. Though this is true, prefrontal cortex wants to work, limbic system wants to go play MW3. And for future reference the limbic system almost always wins. This is because of the amygdala. You become fearful of the assignment and the limbic system wins!

So there is nothing stop procrastination from happening that you have control over. But to stop procrastinating you really have to realize how addicted you are. When have you procrastinated and for how long. What were the results? That is my strategy for avoiding procrastination; predicting what would happen if I did. If the consequences aren't bad, then procrastinate and have fun with it.

The human brain: 100 billion cells
by Rubin

Ever think about your brain? Well, the human brain is a very complicated organ. The brain consists of many different parts, but we dont care about that, we only care about one part, the thinking part. The brain is one of the most curious mysteries to most, but once you know a little bit about it the brain make alot of sense. 

How the brain works

The brain is not a simple thing, 100 billion cells is pretty difficult to grasp. To help you remember how the brain works I broke it up into 5 main parts to make it more understandable.

1. The frontal lobe:

          In the red area of the brain, you can see the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is responsible for controlling impulses, controlling judgment, language production, working memory, motor function, problem solving, socialization, spontaneities, planning, coordination, and executing behavior. This may seem like a lot functions for just one part of the brain, However after careful reading I realized a lot of the functions relate and overlap each other.

2. The parietal lobe:

          In the brown area of the brain you see the parietal lobe. the parietal Lobe is responsible for reading touch and body position. The parietal lobe receives the brain waves for for the nervous system. the parietal lobe combines nerv information from different modalities, mostly determining spatial sense and navigation. It is associated with movement, orientation, recognition, perception of stimuli.

3.The occipital lobe:

          In the dark green area of the brain you can see the occipital lobe. the occipital lobe controls our visual perception. The Prostrate region of the occipital lobe discriminates between colors and processes movement.

Visual perception is important because it stops us from running into trees and things infront of us, by triangulating with our eyes we can fing the distance of things by processing it with our occipital lobe.

4. The temporal lobe:

          In the light green area of the brain you can see the temporal lobe. The temporal lobe is responsible for processing sound. When a temporal lobe is not functioning It is impossible to understand someone with out reading there lips. The temporal lobe is very important in everyday life and it is used to decipher answers to almost 9,000 thousand words we say every day.

5. The cerebellum: 

          In the blue you can see the cerebellum. The cerebellum is responsible for controlling you coordination  balance, voluntary motor movements, sense of position of the different parts of your body, equilibrium, muscle tone, and your fine motor skills. These skills control your Ability to write and type as well as much more physical actions like shooting a basketball or catching a football. Next time you think you have a "bigger brain" than a "dumb jock" think again.   

Here is a video of the microscope embedded neurosurgical training system

Remember this? A shocking story about our brains.

   What do you do when you want to learn something? Do you research it in a dictionary? Do you skim for it in a book? Do you look it up online?
   Studies by William Glasser show that people only remember 10% of what you read. That's it! A large majority of this project is reading, whether it's in a history textbook or an excerpt of a story. It's not your fault if you aren't remembering everything!
   However, it's a possibility that reading is the right way for you. Here are some ways to remember your reading:

• margin notes: write the key facts and main ideas of the text you're learning on the side.
• highlighting: (also a visual strategy.) Try not to use a lot of highlighters, because you're brain will be drawn to the colors instead of the text. *
• Don't read all at once: smaller passages are easier to remember.
• Try to find connections to what you're reading. Make mental connections between the book and another part in the book, the book and another book, the book and yourself, and the book to what's happening in the world today.

Here are some other techniques for remembering reading.

Remembering is one of the toughest things about learning.

   You may think that reading up on a topic is the best way to learn about it. It very well may be, but it's not the best way to remember what you've learned.
   Every person has a learning strategy that works best for them.

   Here, I'm going to share some learning and remembering strategies that have worked for me. Here's a quiz that determines your learning style based on habits.
   Which way do you learn how to do something? Those who are visual, then learn faster if they see it done. If someone could tell you how to do something, then you're auditory. If you are kinesthetic, you can learn by doing something. Here are helpful resources for each type of learner. When I took a quiz on how I learn, I actually got even amount of points in each of the three categories. You most likely don't use just one strategy all the time.

Sound: A Step Up

You remember more of what you hear than what you read.

   Though it's still a low percentage, you remember more of what you hear. Though none of these percentages apply to everyone, the average person remembers 20% of what they listen to. If you don't think that's true for you, maybe you're auditory!
   Here are strategies I've used to learn by listening:

• educational songs: Put what you want to learn into song. In 5th grade, my class listened to a song for learning the states and capitals. When you were in preschool or kindergarten, you probably listened to the ABC song. It's a very helpful method.
• audio books: If reading just isn't your thing, then maybe it would be better to hear the information spoken to you. There are lots of free and low-priced audio books about many topics.
• conversation: In class, a group conversation or a debate can help the facts stick in your head. At home, you can either talk about the subject or have a friend or family member quiz you orally. In fact, it is believed that you'll remember 70% of what you discuss!

Sight: Visualize Your Learning

Another strategy to learn is to see things.

The quote from Glasser says that people remember about 30% of what they see. Luckily, there are tons of great ways to learn visually! Here are my top picks:

• movies: Watch a movie or video about the subject you're learning about! There are plenty on YouTube, guaranteed.
• slideshows: These are easy to put along with a lecture. A popularly used program for making slideshows is PowerPoint. Also, Google docs has a presentation mode, if you have a Google account.
• flashcards: a rapid way for learning. For something like an language test, write a word on one side of a card, and the definition on the other. There's a really helpful site called Quizlet, where you can use flashcards, take tests, and learn.
• graphs: more for facts having to do with numbers. Bar graphs and circle charts (pie graphs) are good for visual learners.
• maps: If you're taking a course in history or geology, then you should look at a map of an area you're studying: you'll remember it better than reading about it.

Teach and Learn: The Best Strategy

Helping another helps you learn.

   Believe it or not, Glasser believes that you remember a shocking 95% of what you teach to others. So next time you're prepping for an exam, try helping someone else. While teaching another person, you're forced to think about and recall what you're telling them. A real live person will ask follow-up questions, which could lead to a conversation, or even a debate if you don't agree.

A brief video about how to improve your memory.

Note: I didn't mention all the percentages of what you remember determined by William Glasser. For more information about him: click here for a slideshow and biography. However, if you still remember this post, you know that you'll probably learn more from the slideshow.