One of the three most important things I have learned this year are all of the vocabulary words I have learned. These are very important for me to improve my reading comprehension. The second important thing I learned is how to write objective summaries correctly. This will help me in my future. Finally the most important thing I have learned is the TIQA writing format. I will remember this for the rest of my life and use this to write essays and papers. The nicest thing someone in our class has done for me is to give some very helpful advice on my 8th grade presentation speech. This helped to make my speech much better and more easily comprehendible.
Something that I have taught my classmates this year is to not make the same mistakes I do. I cannot think of anything else anyone would have learned from me. The area that I feel I have made the biggest improvement in is my writing. I have learned better vocabulary which has helped to increase what I can say. I have also learned how to write proper objective summaries. Finally I have learned the TIQA writing format. I am very proud of the speech that I wrote and presented because I had never done anything like that before. The most challenging part of this year for me was completing homework on time. I often would have to stay up late doing homework because I could not do it earlier because of activities. Homework has been a real challenge for me.
I think the best piece of writing I did this year was my SeaWorld/Blackfish argumentative essay. I think it is the best because I included stats and information to support my claim and built my argument well. My favorite book that I read this year was Jurassic Park. It was very interesting to see how it was different and similar to the movie. I also liked the different scenes and plot that was not in the movie. Some advice I would give to students who will be in this class next year is to stay on top of your homework. Although this is not always possible because of activities and other homework it is very important to do your best.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Aphorism Blog
1- Explain the aphorism in detail. what was Morrie's main message?
2- Relate the aphorism to a movie, song, historical event, current event, personal experience, etc. and explain in detail how the example you have chosen relates to the aphorism.
3- Evaluate the aphorism by explaining why you agree/disagree with it. Give specific reasons for your position and specific evidence from the text to support your position.
4- Take a picture of your aphorism to use as your graphic.
2- Relate the aphorism to a movie, song, historical event, current event, personal experience, etc. and explain in detail how the example you have chosen relates to the aphorism.
3- Evaluate the aphorism by explaining why you agree/disagree with it. Give specific reasons for your position and specific evidence from the text to support your position.
4- Take a picture of your aphorism to use as your graphic.
"Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others." This quote means that before you die you should forgive yourself and others. It also is saying that to forgive others you should forgive yourself first. Morrie's main message is that the best way to end you life is with everyone forgiven. He says you should start by making sure that you have forgiven yourself for any mistakes you have made. Then you should forgive others for anything they have done for you. This goes along with his theme of learning how to die. If you forgive yourself and others early in life, before you know death is close, you will be better able to live.
One example of this is Nelson Mandela. He was kept in captivity for many years. Although his captors were cruel to him when he was released he was not angry at them. Even when he became president of South Africa he did not try to punish the people that had held him prisoner. This helped him gain a very good reputation. This shows that forgiveness is very important.
I agree with this aphorism because I think forgiveness is very important. If you do not forgive people you would always be angry and would not be able to live a fulfilling life. I also agree that you need to forgive yourself first because often you are very hard on yourself. Even when you make a small mistake you often make yourself feel really bad about this. That is why I agree with this aphorism.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Tuesday's with Morrie: 4/30/15
The tuesday that has stood out to me the most is when Morrie talked about death. One quote that I found especially significant was, "When you learn how to die, you learn how to live." I can see that this is true and that it is very important to know that you are going to die and how you want to do. If you did not think about this you could be lazy and unmotivated. I was also surprised that Morrie was so accepting that he was going to die. I think that this is how he deals with all of the difficult events in his life, by realizing them and accepting them. He then tries to continue his life around these events.
Another tuesday that I found interesting was the tuesday where they discussed love and marriage. Morrie discusses marriage and tells the true purposes and values of it. He also tells why so many people get divorces now. I think that he was right that it is one of the most significant experiences of life to have someone who can almost read your mind and that you can work extremely well with. I also found it very moving that Morrie's wife was trying to spend time with Morrie and that she stayed up all night with him and did not complain.
The last tuesday that spoke to me was when they talked about how love endures. It was very interesting to me that one reason Morrie said he was not afraid of dying was because he knew people would remember him. He knew that people remembering him would keep his spirit alive. I also especially liked the quote, "Love each other or perish." I feel like this sums up all of what Morrie is teaching Mitch. He is saying that if you do not love others, you will sink into nothingness. I found this very inspirational.
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Thursday, April 23, 2015
Jurassic Park: 4/23/15
Pages: 181-268
Prompt: Summarize and describe the characters.
I started reading right after the power in the park was out and the kids had been thrown off the road by the T-Rex. They escaped with Grant and saw one of the people who was with their group. They then saw the young T-Rex kill him. They walked to a service shed near the herbivore enclosure. They did not know that a T-Rex was there. They were walking to get back to the safe area when they were attacked by a T-Rex while taking a boat to safety. The T-Rex swam after them. They escaped when the T-Rex was distracted by the younger T-Rex taking its food. Meanwhile the people in the safe area were trying to repair the problems with the security and phones.
One of the main characters is John Hammond. He is the owner of Jurassic Park. He does not know very much about the park's systems and operations. When the park's systems begin to malfunction, he becomes frustrated with the workers and yells at them. He does not understand how to solve the problems and panics because his grandkids are lost in the park. Grant handles the situation he is in very well. He calmly deals with problems while attempting to escape with the kids to the safe area. He has to avoid the T-Rex that is running loose in the park and is almost caught by it on multiple occasions.
One other character is Lex. The is the granddaughter of John Hammond. She enjoys playing baseball and has a mitt and ball the whole time she is lost on the island. The becomes very stressed out and asks where her parents are multiple times. She often argues with her brother, Tim. A final character is Tim, John Hammond's grandson. He is very interested in dinosaurs and knows more than many people on the island. This helps the group when they are trying to escape.
Prompt: Summarize and describe the characters.
I started reading right after the power in the park was out and the kids had been thrown off the road by the T-Rex. They escaped with Grant and saw one of the people who was with their group. They then saw the young T-Rex kill him. They walked to a service shed near the herbivore enclosure. They did not know that a T-Rex was there. They were walking to get back to the safe area when they were attacked by a T-Rex while taking a boat to safety. The T-Rex swam after them. They escaped when the T-Rex was distracted by the younger T-Rex taking its food. Meanwhile the people in the safe area were trying to repair the problems with the security and phones.
One of the main characters is John Hammond. He is the owner of Jurassic Park. He does not know very much about the park's systems and operations. When the park's systems begin to malfunction, he becomes frustrated with the workers and yells at them. He does not understand how to solve the problems and panics because his grandkids are lost in the park. Grant handles the situation he is in very well. He calmly deals with problems while attempting to escape with the kids to the safe area. He has to avoid the T-Rex that is running loose in the park and is almost caught by it on multiple occasions.
One other character is Lex. The is the granddaughter of John Hammond. She enjoys playing baseball and has a mitt and ball the whole time she is lost on the island. The becomes very stressed out and asks where her parents are multiple times. She often argues with her brother, Tim. A final character is Tim, John Hammond's grandson. He is very interested in dinosaurs and knows more than many people on the island. This helps the group when they are trying to escape.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Life is Beautiful 4/16/15
The film Life is Beautiful is very comparable to the book Night, which is also about the Holocaust. In both movies the beginning talks about before the concentration camps when the Jews. They both describe how the Jews were treated badly. They then both talk about the train ride to the concentration camps. The buildup part of the movie and book are very important because they show how the situation started and progressed as time went on. It also shows that these people were living normal lives before the Nazis came into power. One difference between these two movies is where the main characters start out. In Life is Beautiful the main character starts in Italy, which started out as an Axis country. In Night the main character starts in a country that is captured by Germany. This results in the main characters having different experiences.
The tone of the two pieces are very different. In Life is Beautiful the tone is hopeful. The tone is funny at times because Guido is telling Joshua lies about the camps and jokes to keep him happy. In the book Night the tone is depressed. There is no humor and the main character is very depressed the entire book. This makes the movie and book appear very different when they are actually very similar. The tone of each piece is also very important to how it is viewed. The movie Life is Beautiful is thought of as a story about hope during bad times because of its tone. The book Night is more of a story about the horrors of the Holocaust because of its tone.
Life is beautiful throughout the film because of Guido's uplifting attitude. When Guido is in Italy he is very cheerful. He talks very kindly to everyone and is very energetic. Many people like him because of this. This attitude also makes life beautiful while he is in the concentration camps. When the commanding offices needs a translator to tell the Jews the rules, Guido volunteers. He does not know what the officer is saying but instead makes jokes and the officer cannot understand. This makes the tone of the arrival at the camp much more light hearted. This also makes Joshua very happy which is Guido's goal.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Night: 3/31/15
**Spoilers**
Focus Question: How do Elie's experiences during the Holocaust change him as a person?
Before Elie went to the concentration camps he was a very sympathetic and kind person. When Moishe the Beadle returns from being deported Elie writes, "I often sat with him, after services, and listened to his tales, truing to understand his grief." Elie was a very kind and sympathetic person and sat with Moishe after he returned. Although he could not believe what Moishe was saying, he still tried to be kind to him. Elie was a very kind person, to all people. Elie was also very religious. He says that when he was a child, "By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple." Elie was very religious and used this to guide his decisions. He thought that everything that God did was for the good of humans.
Elie undergoes great changes throughout the Holocaust. He becomes much less sympathetic through his experience. When his father is beaten he says, "What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked." This shows that Elie cared very little about the conditions others were in and only cared about himself. He had only been in the camps for one day and already had lost much of his caring and kindness. The camps had began to make him a completely different person. Elie also lost his faith in God in the concentration camps. When he had just arrived and seen babies being burned he said, "Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?" Elie thought that god had abandoned him and the other prisoners. He became very angry at God because of this. This was the start of him abandoning his religion.
Elie's experiences during the Holocaust make him much less sympathetic than he was before he was put in the ghetto. When Elie's father dies in the camp in Germany Elie says, "If I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!" He was not upset that his father had died and even felt free from the burden of supporting him. Before the Holocaust Elie was very kind to his father and even during the beginning of the Holocaust he grew even closer to his father. The horrors of the Holocaust caused Elie to not feel sadness when his father died. Elie's experiences also made him doubt God. When Jews would normally fast Elie says, "And then there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God's silence." He was very angry at God. He did not fast to show his respect towards God because he felt that God was being unfairly silent. He thought that God was allowing these Jews to die and that he should not respect or honor him. At the beginning of the book, before the Holocaust, Elie was very religious and would even cry when he prayed. His opinion towards God was changed by the Holocaust.
Focus Question: How do Elie's experiences during the Holocaust change him as a person?
Before Elie went to the concentration camps he was a very sympathetic and kind person. When Moishe the Beadle returns from being deported Elie writes, "I often sat with him, after services, and listened to his tales, truing to understand his grief." Elie was a very kind and sympathetic person and sat with Moishe after he returned. Although he could not believe what Moishe was saying, he still tried to be kind to him. Elie was a very kind person, to all people. Elie was also very religious. He says that when he was a child, "By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple." Elie was very religious and used this to guide his decisions. He thought that everything that God did was for the good of humans.
Elie undergoes great changes throughout the Holocaust. He becomes much less sympathetic through his experience. When his father is beaten he says, "What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked." This shows that Elie cared very little about the conditions others were in and only cared about himself. He had only been in the camps for one day and already had lost much of his caring and kindness. The camps had began to make him a completely different person. Elie also lost his faith in God in the concentration camps. When he had just arrived and seen babies being burned he said, "Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?" Elie thought that god had abandoned him and the other prisoners. He became very angry at God because of this. This was the start of him abandoning his religion.
Elie's experiences during the Holocaust make him much less sympathetic than he was before he was put in the ghetto. When Elie's father dies in the camp in Germany Elie says, "If I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!" He was not upset that his father had died and even felt free from the burden of supporting him. Before the Holocaust Elie was very kind to his father and even during the beginning of the Holocaust he grew even closer to his father. The horrors of the Holocaust caused Elie to not feel sadness when his father died. Elie's experiences also made him doubt God. When Jews would normally fast Elie says, "And then there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God's silence." He was very angry at God. He did not fast to show his respect towards God because he felt that God was being unfairly silent. He thought that God was allowing these Jews to die and that he should not respect or honor him. At the beginning of the book, before the Holocaust, Elie was very religious and would even cry when he prayed. His opinion towards God was changed by the Holocaust.
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