Shelly :)

By definition critical thinking is the mental process of actively and skillfully applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion. But it’s all how you look at it. Critical thinking as we read is asking questions. It’s finding out more about something you didn’t know about before. Almost like researching. Someone who is a critical thinker does not just read to get it over with, they are an active reader. They read to gain knowledge, to learn something new.

It’s also looking at ideas and subjects at different views. Not just stopping when someone shares one side of the story. A critical thinker would find another side of the story so they could compare and contrast, and analyze all the information. They go above and beyond to learn.

An example of a critical thinker could be Albert Einstein. He never stopped when coming to a dead end on an invention, or idea. He would think a different way or try a different way and look how successful he was. Another example could be Martin Luther King Jr. Instead of going with many people and being violent, he looked at the problem in a completely different way and became a great historic figure who helped change Americas ways.

Critical thinking is a different way of thinking, it’s your our way of figuring things out.    

It was my third grade year, and she was a first year teacher. She had no idea what she was getting herself into. It was a guinea pig year for all of us. Her name was Mrs. Hostetter, and half her class was kids who didn’t struggle in school, strong students; and the other half of the class was kids with mental, physical, and emotional struggles. The school called it an inclusive class. My parents and I had no idea I was placed in this class to be a help to the struggling students, and the reasoning behind it was that I would grow as a leader and be a strong role model to help others. However it had a great turn for the worse. I grew extremely attached to a fellow student who was losing his battle with life physically and felt that it was my responsibility to make each of his days go as smooth as possible and be a scribe for him. Also throughout the year an emotionally challenged girl grew overly attached to me. She deeply believed that she and her mom were witches. She would call my house at night casting spells on me. This alerted my parents; my mother had to call to inform the teacher what was going on.  My reading partner was a Special Ed student whose reading level was significantly lower than mine. The intent of the school district was to bring the struggling students level up, but with my constant helping of others brought my academic level down.      

School is SO stressful. Having four academic classes in one semester is not such a good idea. Especially when you play a sport every sports season. After a day of classes you go to practice come homw shower eat, and then do hours of homework. Go to bed, and wake up to do it all over again. You definitely need to have someone you can go to for support to get you through all the late nights and hard work. You feel tired all the time, and you count down each week to the weekend, and O MAN you love vacation time! Thats the best, not having to worry about getting your homework finished for the next day.

But after it’s all over, and you have accomplished all the tough times, you feel amazing. It’s like you can go out and conquer anything. But to think this is the last year I will have to feel this same way. Yeah college is coming but it’s not the same as high school. So you almost want to cherish the horrble stressful times, but at the same time you don’t. It’s all how you look at it. Hopefully this year I can think in a positive way throughout the tough school times.