Excellence

Ethan Nelson
Block 4
Excellence

Excellence is defined on dictionary.com as the fact or state of excelling; superiority; eminence. In the Crooked Tree it talks about how something can be useless if you don’t use it in the correct way. The story says “It is useless to you only because you want to make it into something else and do no use it in its proper way”. The example of this is that the crooked tree is useless for lumber but you can use it for its shade.
Excellence in a person is shown by his perseverance. Perseverance is when a person never gives up no matter what the task or how difficult the task is. An example of this is shown through my neighbor Bob. He had a difficult life growing up and had nothing and his family had no money at all. He never gave up and persevered. He ended up making his own company, RALCO, and did very ell for himself his company is still going on today and is still benefiting from it because he never gave up. This is a great example of excellence in a man. I think this is the most important excellence a person can have followed by excellence in sports.
Also in today’s standard excelling in mostly protruded in sports. A guy or team that excels in sports will become state champions or make the all state team. For example, in golf our team last year excelled and we were the southwest conference champs and Tony excelled by himself and went on to the state tournament.
Excellence is going beyond the “call of duty” and striving to be the best. Those who excel preserver through the hard times and go on to be successful in either life or in sports.

Works Cited
Gibbs, Nancy. "Reading Between the Lies." Time (2003): 1-2.

Hoff, Benjamin. "The Crooked Tree." Seeing Metaphors.

Ludwig, Mark D. "Lok Out for More Blairs." Developing Minds (2004).

Puka, Bill. "Student Cheating." Liberal Education (2005).

Education

Ethan Nelson
Education

Education is defined online at dictionary.com as “the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.” I believe that education is the gaining of knowledge through all aspects of life. You can be educated by your family and the proper way to act. You are educated not only in school and by teachers, but by the day-to-day life. You can educate yourself through experiences like by finding out that the stove is hot and not to touch it.

In “Two Ways of Seeing the River” it refers to education as the learning process of life. For example when you see a log floating down the river it means that the river is rising, and that you can tell by how the sun looks that night can tell you if the next day will be windy. We learn through experience and therefore we are educated through our life experiences.

In “The Hidden Teacher” it talks about how something in everyday life can be a hidden teacher. For example in the story Loren learned a lesson from a spider about the spider’s web. Loren was educated in her study of the web and the spider acted as the hidden teacher. This shows that anytime in everyday life you have the ability to be educated by something you see, hear, or read. The story says that you do not have to been taught by a teacher to be educated, but that you can learn and educated yourself in every day life.

In the movie The Dead Poets Society the school and all the teachers say that education is the most important thing in life. School comes first and then life. Most of the teachers and the student’s parents were very strict on this. Neil’s parents (mostly his dad) would not let him do the thing that he loved, which was acting, because he though that Neil should spent his effort on school work. Education to them was the most important thing and those who did not obey and take it seriously would get hit with a paddle. Every teacher educated the students they way that it was done before, except for one teacher. One poetry teacher told his students, “Don’t consider what the other thinks but consider what you think”. This implies that we don’t need the books and authors to teach us, but that we need to educate ourselves. We need to think for ourselves.

Therefore I think that education is the gaining of knowledge through all aspects of life. We learn from our surroundings and not just in school, from our teachers. We teach ourselves and learn from our mistakes and our curiosity.

Work Cited

The Dead Poets Society. Dir. Peter Weir. Perf. Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, and Ethan Hawke. DVD. Touchstone Pictures, 1989.

Eiseley, Loren. "The Hidden Teacher." Seeing Metaphors: 167-169.

Twain, Mark. "Two Ways of Seeing the River." Seeing Nature.

Cover letter

2126 Jean Road
Balaton, MN 56115
April 6, 2008


John Knochemus
President
RALCO
Marshall, MN


Dear Mr. Knochemus:

I am enclosing my resume for a computer job at your company. I would like to work on your new computer inventory program so I can increase my computer skills. I have taking advanced placement classes in both calculus and computer science so I am fairly experienced in these subjects. These skills have helped me increase my knowledge in computers. I am currently attending Marshall High School and plan to graduate in 2008. I will be attending SMSU in the fall so I can work during the school year and not just in the summer. I hope that I have the opportunity to meet with you as soon as possible to discuss an opening.

Sincerely,

Ethan Nelson

Personal Statement

I feel that a job in the science or mathematics field would be great for me. I have excelled in these classes, and I have taken A.P. Computer Science as well as A.P. Calc. These classes have helped me gain more knowledge in theses subjects as well as given me a good background for the career field that I choose. My goal is to have a job that I enjoy as well as a job I am good at. I have always liked these subjects and have excelled in them. With my jobs at Di’s and Ralco I have learned self-discipline and punctuality. It is important that I am on time and that I work hard the whole time so that I can leave on time and not prohibit others to leave. When I worked at Di’s I could not get done late because the other workers could not lock up until I was finished with my job, so I had to work hard the whole time. I believe that I should be chosen above others because of my education background in these subjects, and because of my hard work and reliability.

Resume

Ethan L. Nelson
2125 Jean Road Balaton MN (507) 734-4942 ethan_10511@hotmail.com

Objective: Looking for a job opportunity that increases skill in mathematics, or science such as computer science.

Education: Attending Marshall High School, Graduating year of 2008. Attending Southwest Minnesota State Univeristy in Fall of 2008.

Activities and Skills: Played Golf in High School. Participated in intramural volleyball.

Work Experience: Di's lakeside, Ralco, and for Brian Knockemus

References: Available upon request.

page 96 C.T. questions

Critical Thinking
1. In content the cover letter tells the employer how your resume and your qualifications would assist you for the particular job.
In form the resume is in a bullet form or a list form while the over letter is in a paragraph form like a letter.

2. The resume is divided into your educational background, extracurricular activities, and your work experience. The cover letter is written in a full body paragraph, along with the date, salutation, address, and the closing.

3. I think that Thomas’s objective is too broad and that he should elaborate more. The objective lets the employer know what you want to get out of the job and why you want it in the first place.

4. I would invite Thomas in to discuss his qualifications because he is not very qualified to work with young children. His only qualification that is close to that is that he worked with a fifth grader once a week. I would need to see if he could work with younger children also and everyday rather then once a week.