My Digital Portfolio

By: Veronica Roldan

AP English 12 2B

June 1, 2009

Table of ContentsMy Writing throughout my Years

Elementary WritingMiddle School WritingHigh School Writing

My Life ListMy six word Life Story

AP 12 Written Assignment #1AP 12 Written Assignment #2

Additional AssignmentCreative WritingMy Soul Picture

Writing from my Younger Years…Field Day

Reflections essayReflections essay cont.

On Christmas…

Hey! My name is Veronica Roldan. I am a senior at Kellam high school. Throughout my public school years English has always been my best subject. I won’t say that it has always been my favorite, but it was my best, especially in elementary and middle school…

In elementary school I always had an A in what was then called “Language Arts”. I was always told what a great writer I was and I loved writing. In fourth grade I won third place in the writing part in the reflections contest. The theme was “I hold in my hand…”. I wrote a story about a ring that I held in my hand and it brought me into the past and the future, and I received a medal for that story!

In middle school I was in Advanced English every year. Writing came so easy for me, and I always had an A in the class and on all of my essays.

Then, when I reached high school, English class became a lot more challenging for me. I still took Honors English every year, but I always seemed to struggle to get a B in the class. In middle school I was always one of the smartest in my class, but in high school I just blended in with the normal students. My writing abilities seemed to decline in high school, and I barely received better than a C on my essays and rarely ever got A’s.

That is how it has been ever since starting high school. It has never changed. I am still a good writer, but there are definitely better writers in high school, and I am happy with that!

Leave Virginia Beach Live in New York City Get my Master’s degree Become a teacher Get married Honeymoon in Spain Meet Keanu Reeves Save a life Jump off a plane Get rich Drive across the country Visit the Vatican

Win the lottery Play on a game show

Just sit

back and

Observe

Life

AP

12 Written A

ssignment

#1

Roldan 1

Veronica Roldan

Ms. Mcgee

AP English 12

January 14, 2008

Avatar:

The Hindu Mythology

Avatar, also known as Avatara, is a Hindu Mythology of the incarnation of a god

(“Avatar definition”). Avatara literally means descent, and means that it is a descent from a

higher spiritual realm to a lower realm for a special purpose. “The aim of every Avatara is to

save the world from some great danger, to destroy the wicked and protect the

virtuous.”(Sivananda) Avatara is used mostly in Hinduism for descents of Vishnu. Vishnu is the

preserver aspect of God within the Hindu trinity While Brahma and Shiva are both also known as

descending in forms of avataras, the avataras of Vishnu carry a much greater importance in the

Hindu religion (“Avatar”).

Despite what many people may think, Hinduism is not a polytheistic religion. Vishnu,

along with Brahma and Shiva are all different aspects of one Lord, and they all have different

Avatars. So, everything branches off from one Lord in the Hinduism religion. Vishnu is the

preservative aspect of the Lord, Brahma is the creative aspect, and Shiva is the destructive aspect

(Sivananda).

AP

12

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#2

Veronica Roldan AP English 12 2B Ms. McGee March 16, 2009

My Soul Essay

My soul is full with many different thoughts and things about me. It is in black and white

to show how I view the world. I don’t judge people by the way they look or the color of their

skin. The city lights are because I love the city and will live there someday. I don’t care if I am

living in a cardboard box in New York, but I will live there someday.

The tap dancer is because that is my most favorite thing to do. I love tapping because it

relieves my stress and calms me down. If I am mad about something I can put on my tap shoes

and all of my anger will come out of my tap shoes instead of somebody’s face. The random

picture of paint and a paint brush is just to show that I am artsy and love to look at art even

though I am not very good at it myself.

The rosary around my soul shows how prayer helps me in my life a lot. The tiny, black

cross in the middle shows how I believe and love God, but I have a hard time keeping him in

everything I do. The masks show how I am a hypocrite, and I sometimes will put on a mask for

people who I am not comfortable around. Many times I have a mask on at church where I am

around people who think they are perfect and don’t do anything wrong. I will say things to them

that I may not actually believe just because I know that is what I am supposed to believe in their

eyes.

The music notes are because music affects the way I think. If I hear a set of lyrics I will

always apply it to somewhere in my life or apply it to a problem I may have and try to fix it. I

won’t say that it rules my life and I can’t go one car ride without it like many other people will

say. Sometimes I like quiet moments in my car just to hear myself think, but music does make

my life a little bit better when I need it to.

Click here to view my

Soul picture!

Additional A

ssignment

How t h is Int er nsh ip Changed Me This internship has changed the way I think about elementary school teachers and

teaching in general. During my internship in Mrs. Siverd’s first grade class, I learned that

elementary teachers are basically responsible for building a foundation of knowledge in their

students. This foundation (either weak or strong) will affect their development in the years to

come. Before my internship I thought elementary school would be the easiest grades to teach. I

thought that since the subjects were simple than teaching them would be simple also. I was very

wrong…

Elementary school is when students are taught the basics of everything so that they are

able to expand on that knowledge throughout their future educational years. If the students’

elementary teachers fail to do their job and the students don’t learn anything in elementary

school, than they will have a tough time in middle and high school.

I learned in Mrs. Siverd’s class that teaching is not easy. You need a lot of patience with

the students. They never understand something the first time you teach them. You are constantly

repeating things for their premature minds to comprehend. You need to be very flexible while

teaching, because things don’t always happen as planned and you need to be ready.

As soon as I started working with the students in Mrs. Siverd’s class, I knew that this was

what I wanted to do when I grew up. I loved the challenge that the students gave me, and I feel

like I became a better person after working with them. They taught me a lot about patience and

responsibility that I could use even outside of the classroom.

I also learned more about their different personalities and ways of learning. Some

students like, Mya and Nathan, work well silently on assignments while others like, Lavel and

Clay, get bored and distracted easily and need more hands-on activities. Some students are good

at writing and others are good at math.

Before this internship I was interested in the educational field, but still not sure about it. I

thought about being a teacher, but didn’t know if it was right for me. I was excited for this

internship because I knew that it would tell me if I really wanted to be a teacher- And it did!

Cre

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Avatar

By: Veronica Roldan

I was watching this show

on Nickelodeon.

it was called Avatar,

and it was quite interesting.

I was amazed by the Avatar and all of his tricks,

so I decided to research avatar online,

and see if it mixed.

At first I learned that Avatar had to do with

computers.

But then I learned it was also

a Hindu religion!

Avatars save the world just like in the cartoon,

but they don’t look like superheroes

like the boy in the orange costume.

I was a bit disappointed to learn that Avatars don’t really fly,

and to learn that there once was a god who actually lied!

I guess it’s okay since the cartoon was only fiction.

But I guess it still had some truth

since they both save the world.

My Soul Picture

Writing from my younger years…

When I was in 4th grade, I wrote in the school

newspaper.

End