End of year blog!

At the beginning of the year Mrs. Gilman said that we were going to the computer lab to do a blog. I sounded really cool and I was pretty pumped because I am pretty tech savvy and anything involved with computers is always fun. And I was right it was pretty fun until I started forgetting about the blog. Looking back on my first blog post I can tell that my writing skills have greatly developed. I have longer sentences, more detail, more sophistimicated words (haha), and I have a better ability to go in depth on my thoughts. Also in my first blog I said that I don't like books without action, yet most of the books this year that we have read have had little action and still the imagery hooks me in. Being able to watch the book as a movie in a sense. What I mean is when I'm reading the book, there is no words there is just a crystal clear image in my head.

When I look at all of the posts that I have made over the course of the year, there is one word in about 50% of the titles that sticks out, and that word is "motif". As you said in one of your previous blog posts we have heard and seen the word motif more than we could imagine. But I think that is what this blog is about. At the beginning of the year I knew none of the words like theme, motif, imagery, all the poetry terms, etc.... My vocabulary has increased so much more because of when we analyze the feelings of the characters and the meaning of the literary devices in the book. And when we do these blogs it kind of keeps you on track for the next week when we talk about the "Treasure Island" motif, or the "Mockingbird" theme.

Another thing the blog has made and helped me do is talk about my thoughts. I think they call it blogging because when a character speaks in a comic a little "blog" so to speak pops up above their head and that can be what they are thinking or what they are saying. Some of the blogs you have asked us to do are personal, yet still relating to indirect characterization and flashbacks and foreshadowing. Like the life lesson blog and the best friend blog. It helps us appreciate our knowledge and our friends that we have in our life.

I think the best idea about the blog was having us comment on each others blogs every week because it joins our class more as a whole. Ill read Sam Meyer's or Quinn Mau's post and just have to make a smart Alec comment on their blog and the next day we will be laughing about it. Like when you told us to do the blog about us where we write the blog and you think "Oh that is so_______" Quinn put a bunch of periods and I said "Way to make the blog longer by using periods." And the next day we were laughing about it (at least I was).

A quote that represents me is "I get knocked down and I get up again." By Chumbawamba. I say this because my grade was really horrible in your class at the start of the 2nd semester and Id be in the car on a Saturday thinking about school and I would just nearly tear up because I had forgot to do the blog, which ultimately lowered my grade. But the next week I would take that extra credit opportunity and then do my blog and make up those points. This has also happened to me with many other assignments in other classes.

Well it's been a great year and I hope to see you next year in the halls or maybe in a class, I don't know what your doing next year so I can't say. It's been a fun blog but THANK GOD IT'S OVER.

essay writing

Writing can mean whatever you want it to mean to you. You can write for fun, for school, or any other reason you would just write. When it comes to me and writing, it is just mainly for school. I wouldn't say that I am an accomplished essayist. But what makes me better is when I have a friend or a parent or a teacher read my essay or writing piece and give me constructive criticism. The things that these people write when they critique me is stuff pertaining to literary analysis. Sometimes you can obtain a habit of your writing that is always bad. You don't know it but other people notice it. When people tell you what you are doing wrong you can fix it and thus become a better essay writer.

There are many things that I need to work on when I write my essays, because to be honest I am not the best essay writer. You would know that if you have read any of my work. A thing that I need to work on is my vocabulary. I always try and use big words so my essay sounds sophisticated but it doesn't always work as planned. Another thing is my transitions. This kind of mixes in with my vocabulary because the transitions I use are the same ones I have used all my life haha. Sometimes I can kind of swoop in and smoothly roll into the paragraph but I definitely need to improve on that.

Summer reading

Well during the summer I don't really read very much unless my dad and I have a competition of who reads the book faster and who comprehends it the best. But I know if I want my reading skills to get better than I need to read. I know later in my life I am going to have to read Shakespeare so I figure why not read more. The next most famous book by Shakespeare would probably be "Hamlet". I am planning on reading Hamlet or any other Shakespeare book that I encounter.

A second book I would like to read would be a present day book. All year we have been reading Charles Dickens and all these old novels and plays of which the writers aren't even alive so maybe a book written by someone that isn't six feet under. Luckily for me I have never seen any of the "Lord of the Rings" movies and I would like to get into a nice series of books that will occupy some of my time.

Dreams

This may sound a little weird but usually when I have dreams they are not very scary (probably because of my dream catcher), but they are either flashbacks or awesome dreams. Some of my awesome dreams have been if like I get something I have really wanted like a new phone or a new pair of shoes. About 50% of my dreams are warnings so to speak. My dreams are my school journal. A lot of times I will have a dream that I forgot a paper that needed to be signed or I forget my baseball jersey, and then I wake up no matter what time it is and I get what I saw in my dreams. Also some of my dreams are foreshadowing. Ill see a house or some object in and then I will see it later and have the weirdest sense of deja vu. I think that my dreams are more like Romeos because when Romeo talks about his dreams it is all about foreshadowing like when he was going to the party he was talking about what he dreamt was going to happen.

Modern Culture

It seems like the play Romeo and Juliet is everywhere. Relationships are constantly related to the play and the awkward situation of the secret love between Romeo and Juliet even though the two families hate each other. Many movies have had the same plot based over forbidden love between two people whether it is because of the social class or a rivalry between two families. For instance West Side Story, Step Up, and many other romances in television shows and in songs. Lastly many people in movies refer to the perfect guy or girl as Romeo or Juliet.

Extra Credit Reflection

I'm not gonna lie English is not my greatest subject. My vocabulary is sub par and my writing skills are well.... they're just writing skills nothing special. But this year I can definitely tell that my reading skills have improved greatly because I am just whizzing through chapters in all of these books whether I enjoy the book or not, and the best advice I have gotten about writing from anybody is when you told me that I needed to make my writing more of my own with better word chioce. Last year when it came to DGP I did not really pay much attention and I was very awful at it so to speak. If you would have brought up an appositive to me last year I wouldn't have known what you were talking about.

All of the stuff we have done this year has been fine. I very much enjoyed the poems and reading and annoting the books has been fine but mabe we could read a more modern book. Dont get me wrong I loved To Kill a Mockingbird and The Imortance of Being Ernest was also very good but modern literature is much different and I think it would be best if we mixed things up a bit and I know that we read the old books because the school has already bought them and the budget probably cant afford new books but it would be nice.

SKIT

There arent many exciting parts in the middle of the book but at the beginning and the end is where all of the parts are. The first scene is at the beginning of the book when the convict (Magwitch) threatens Pip's life in the graveyard when Pip is visiting his parents grave. It would take some skill to act as angry as Magwitch or as scared as Pip so I think it would be interensting to see how well the actor/actress does it. The second scene I would like to see acted out is the first time that Estella and Pip meet because Estella is so snobby and rude while Pip is absolutely in love with her and there are a couple people in our class that could probably do good at being a snobby Estella. The last sceen I would like to see acted out is whe Herbert and Pip get into a fight. That probably isn't possible but that would be pretty funny.

Question??????

I'm a little confused on why Pip has given Magwitch the convict another name. Pip is calling Magwitch uncle Provis. I figured that Magwitch was no longer a convict so the reason why he gave him a different name isn't because of the police in fear that they will find him, so why is Pip calling him Provis? Please tell me why they are changing his name so suddenly.

Representation

This represents how When Pip came into a deal of money from the convict Magwitch. Pip didn't act this excited but he knew that since he got the money he could start over his life and become a gentleman. He wanted to be a gentleman for Estella but then he realized he didn't want to be lower class anymore. This guy is very excited because he has money and even though through emotions you don't know but with the money he can be happier.

"Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day." The "memorable day" Pip is talking about is the day he went to Miss Havisham's house. Since she is of a higher class it was a different place for Pip. Both Miss Havisham and Estella were convincing Pip that he was common and since Pip liked Estella so much he was trying to be uncommon. Since he was trying to be uncommon, he didn't want to apprentice Joe anymore because blacksmith was a lower class regular job. He likes this girl that doesn't even treat him well so much that it puts his life to an abrupt halt.

The day that started my chain was about four years ago. My dad and my brother got into a fight for reasons I didn't know which I later found out about. Life was good before that day. Our family was good, sports were good, and it couldn't have been any better. When they got in the fight my brother and dad were so mad at each other that my dad kicked my brother out of the house and he was only sixteen. That one night changed the rest of my life. This was right when my baseball team was doing really good so baseball kept me occupied and happy, but every once in a while David would screw up and it was pretty hard to function. Within that two year span there were so manny ups and downs, thorns and flowers, that I could have sworn I was on a roller coaster.

Group Collaboration

We are writing an essay on topic number two. That is the topic about dishonesty. There are many forms of dishonesty in the play. Some do the action of dishonesty to have fun, some use it to keep there social status, and some do it because they think it will make there life easier. That's what I am going to write about. I am going to write about how different characters use different types of dishonesty in the play. Algernon uses dishonesty to have fun and lighten up his life a little bit. For instance when he says he is Jacks brother he is just doing that to go bunburying. Augusta uses dishonesty to try and keep herself proper and look rich. You can tell this because she is always talking proper and the way it describes her. Lastly Jack uses dishonesty so he can basically live two different lives. One in the country, and one in the city. He is Jack in the country and Ernest in the city. In our thesis we stated how the dishonesty in the play is related to the Victorian Age.

The importance of being earnest/ Victorian research

In the play "The Importance of Being Earnest" the words and lines are very plane. All of the humor is very dry, because all of these things people would only find funny in the Victorian age (with the exception of a few people in the present day). I say this because present day is very different than when Queen Victoria ruled. How the people were supposed to act was different, how they talked was different, and the irony was different. When I was doing the Victorian age research I found out about all of these things, and how much different they are than today.
A large difference is marriage. If I would have read the play without the Victorian research I would have been lost. I say this because when Jack purposed to Gwendolen and Gwendolen's mom found out, she literally interviewed Jack to see if he was right for Gwendolen, because back then it was all about money and social class but now it is about really wanting to be married to someone not because of their money (sometimes). Another thing is how they act. Aunt Augusta is very proper. She speaks like she is very rich, like when she says "Oh I just got back from crumpets and tea." It sounds like something a rich person would say. And the only reason she was talking like that is because of her social class, and the fact that she wanted to fit in which in the Victorian era was a large deal. The last thing is that every little pun has something to do with the deeper meaning of era. They aren't just witty puns but puns making fun of the time they were living in.

New Years Resolution

It was a fun year full of sports, school, and just hanging out with friends. As everybody has noticed high school is about ten times harder than middle school and the sports opportunities are more abundant. I like to stay active and always have an organized sport that I am playing, so this year I tried out cross country and I didn't play basketball last year, but I did this year. That is exactly my problem. Practice is everyday till 5:30 for every sport so by the time I get home it is 6 and I don't feel like doing anything, and it has reflected in my grades. My new years resolution is to be a better student althlete.

My dad always tells me that school is my job and whenever he sees my report card and doesn't like it he says "You are a STUDENT athlete", and he says it with an extra emphasis on the student part. My dad is right. The chances of me going pro in a sport are 1 in 1,000,000, but if I have good grades, colleges will be calling me for my academics and maybe my sports. I just have to balance my time better. The main thing that will be a great contributor to being a better student is to get a better night sleep. If I get a better nights sleep then I will have more energy to do my homework after practice. Another thing I need to do is to not play as much video games. I don't play that much, but in the time I am playing video games, I could be studying for a test of hitting a bucket of baseballs. And the last thing is to eat more protein. Protein and carbohydrates give you energy, but if you have too much it can make you feel sluggish and tired. All of these things can contribute to my new years resolution, and that is to be a better STUDENT athlete.