Numerous Ways to Fight Stress- Joaquin

No one can avoid stress. It’s that overwhelming feeling you get because of all the work you have to do. But there are numerous ways to fight stress that I can share with you. First, there is relaxation. You can use relaxation by walking on the beach, meditating, watching tv shows you like, or listening to music. This helps you forget about all the stressful things you did earlier in the day. The second way to fight stress is through exercise. When you exercise, your body releases endorphins which relieves you of stress. This is relevant to me because I’m the kind of guy who gets stressed easily. What’s important is that there are ways to prevent it.

Stress affects teenagers because most of them are overwhelmed with schoolwork or exams. This comes in while they are trying to focus on their schoolwork but can’t. They can stop what they are doing and try and relax with these ways to fight stress. I learned that fighting stress is a good way to make your life easier. Even though it may be very helpful, there are some problems that come with these methods. One of them is that it takes up so much time, so it may not be best to use them if you are in a rush. There are solutions to these problems if you are in a rush, you can try and shorten the methods to make them faster and still almost as effective.

There are ways to prevent stress too. First there is learning to say no. When you have so much work on your hands and someone is giving you more, just say no. Second is to pare down a list. Listing down what to do and when to do it helps you prevent the chance of accidentally doing something when you are supposed to be doing something else, then it messes up your schedule. Third is avoiding people that stress you out. If there is someone who is constantly stressing you out, try and look for other people to talk to. Last is controlling your environment. If something on tv is stressing you out, turn it off, or if the traffic is really bad try and take a longer and smoother route.

I think that these methods are very effective and help lots of people in their everyday lives. If you don’t relax, you might as well be the hulk.images-4

Amnesia- Amani

Amnesia is basically a memory loss (fully or partial). That’s why I chose this picture, because it shows someone confused about a thought/ idea. This issue is relevant to me because I know lots of elders, so knowing about this issue makes me respect them more for not being able to remember something.

This issue affects teenagers because there have been horrid events (like bombings, kidnappings, etc.) that have completely traumatized some kids and teenagers, which changes their whole life.

I learned that Amnesia can be the loss of memory after and incident, or before and incident.

Some problems connected to this issue is that Amnesia can also be a result of lots of diseases the elderly are prone to, like alzheimer’s disease. A solutions connected to this issue is that you can prevent yourself from getting brain disease (which is a cause of Amnesia), by doing things like avoiding lots of alcohol, and wearing safety equipment (eg: when biking wear a helmet).

My thinking has now changed because I now know how one traumatic event can be life changing.

My final opinion about this issue is that since there isn’t really a way to bring back memories for someone who has Amnesia, we should treasure all our memories because we won’t always be able to say “remember that time where…?”.

Civil War in Syria

As we begin our unit on Transformations we will be focusing on the Middle East (M.E.) and the current conflicts happening.  In particular, we will be focusing on the issues of the Syrian Conflict.

Below is a video that helps to summarize what is going:


Here is a family tree outlining how long the Assad’s have been in power:

Screen Shot 2013-10-18 at 11.05.13 AM

Below is a list of the 5 main points of the conflict, taken from the reading we did in class:

  1. It is now a full blown civil war (Assad vs. the militia)
  2. It is a proxy war (backed by several different countries)
  3. Obama Administration wants to negotiate an end
  4. Chemical Weapons have changed the game
  5. The “Strike” of Obama needs to take place at his chosen time and place




Understanding the Middle East

We’re starting off our Unit 2 with an understanding of the Middle East (M.E.) region.  Below are some mapping games that should help familiarize you with the areas, countries, capitals, etc.

Use these games to help you review for our Middle East Map Quiz on Friday, October 25.

How Stress Affects the Mind and Body – Mackenzie

In an environment like school, stress can be one of the biggest threats to your health. This issue is extremely important because many people are affected by it, but are not treating it. Stress has the largest effect on people who are repeatedly exposed to demanding situations, such as large amounts of work, which happens a lot with teenagers. This triggers your body’s fight or flight response which releases Adrenaline and Cortisol, your body’s stress hormones. There are numerous problems caused by stress, ranging from decreased brain performance to vulnerability to diseases like insomnia among others. However, there are also many solutions to stress too, some of the most effective being yoga and organizing yourself. The most important things that I learned from this project is that controlling and regulating stress isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity. I learned this because when I was researching, I discovered that about 75-90% of all diseases are related to stress and how it weakens the immune system. This shows that stress can be extremely dangerous to your health if left untreated

In conclusion, my idea of stress and how it affects the body has changed quite drastically over the time of this project. I used to think that stress was just a minor nuisance, but now, I think that it’s one of the most deadly diseases in the world.  


This is important to me because I want to let other people know how bad it could be and its important to me because my uncle has Dementia. There are effects that come to Dementia like losing the ability to communicate, they may speak fluently, but not make, they may not be able to understand what you are saying, they may have difficulty expressing emotions appropriately. I have learned that many people can catch this and how bad i really could be. I think we should try preventing this by being physically active, having a balanced diet, maintaining good cardiovascular health, and exercising the brain. This information can also help influence us so we wont catch this. This changed my thinking because at first I thought Dementia is something that does not matter, but then i’ve seen how bad it can turn out because when you get Dementia you get the chance of getting cured. Sadly my uncle didn’t.