The End

At first when faced with this daunting task I had one thought in my mind. Oh great more homework to do but I'm excited to say that oh was I wrong. After I got into the daily blogs I realized I could benefit from them. Knowing that my blog was open to my classmates I always tried to make my blogs witty and enjoyable. I believe I have improved tremendously over this year and I still keep my unique writing style. I believe that the importance of these blogs are to remember what we went over with in class and express our individuality. In class we do the work told but with blogs we are able to enhance our understanding and express ourselves.

Though we take these blogs for granite we will not be doing them for a grade forever. As stated in Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay,"Nothing gold can stay". To me this quote speaks a lot of what we have accomplished and what we will miss later in our high school career. I will miss these blogs, they have helped me to express myself outside of  class through writing and helped me to review everything that we learned. This has also procured more thoughts and ideas then I would have normally thought of. Frost was saying that we have to enjoy things while they are here so enjoy this last blog to the fullest extent. This may be a time of rejoice or a time of sorrow. For me I am both happy and sad. Happy that summer is coming but said I will no longer be able to enrich myself with these blogs.

Most Memorable Project

Over this past year I've done more than just a project. I have done more in this class creatively than I have done in any other class this year. Writing essays to making posters and making amazing movies! I've done a lot of good work in this class but one would have to stand out. This project took time, effort, and talent. Not just anyone could pull this off only a highly skilled group of students. Making this project was a lot of fun and it is all thanks to Kady, Molly, and Ragan. This highly regarded group of individuals collaborated to make the short video called "Mr. Jaggers Attorney at law."

This would by far be the project that I am most proud of. It showcased my talents and the others from my group. None of us really enjoyed that 300 page novel as much as we could but we knew we would crate a fun, entertaining comical movie. We spent a while thinking up a concept and writing a script. After what seemed like a hour we had finished and we were ready to film. During the taping of our commercial I remember a lot of things. The laughs, out takes, memorable moments and more. If Ms.Smith had let us chosen groups and to chose a project I would have definitely done the same as done with Great Expectations. Even though sometimes movies are a trial everything said and done was worth it in the end.

Poetry!

In fourth grade we did a unit on poetry. At the end everyone in the class had to pick a poem, memorize, recite, and then explain why they picked that poem. I chose my poem "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost and started to memorize right away. I thought at the time it was kind of fun to make up motions to the words. Which in the long run ended up helping me memorize it. I also had some props I used during the performance which added a theatrical spark to the whole presentation. Then the day came in all it's glory. Every one came into the classroom having dressed up, carrying props, or done nothing special. I was about half way down the list to recite so I was feeling pretty comfortable. But then when my turn was soon coming and began to get a little bit nervous. My heart starting beating and I could feel the adrenaline kicking in as I walked up to the front of the class. Every ones eyes were upon me as I started to recite, but one line in I was fine. It all started to flow naturally and I was beginning to have fun with it! After I was congratulated by my fellow classmates and realized poetry is kind a fun.

To be honest I am not the biggest fan of poetry anymore. It was fun to recite these poems and to think light of them but now that I have to analyze and think of the deeper meaning embedded in the poems it has just become another part of school. When at first I hear the word poetry I usually think of TWIST but now I sometimes hear poetry as a beautifully entwined way to write.

Conflict!

In Romeo and Juliet Juliet is known to be the obedient daughter of the Capulet's, but when she finds herself falling in love with Romeo, her families enemy,  she intertwines herself into terrible situations. From a girl being so dependent on her parents, Juliet is now forced to make decisions of her own. Juliet's disobedience and poor choices lead her to the death of herself and Romeo. The reader is able to convey the message that young love can lead to poor decisions if not given enough time to grow. Romeo and Juliet push the binding of love and cause their ever so majestic love to be a dangerous game.

Even though as young adults, we don't know the true feelings of being destined for love with someone, but we do find ourselves in situations in which we make poor decisions in order to pursue  happiness. Just like Juliet, we fall into the trap of how modern eyes see us. Juliet was willing to do anything for Romeo, and the everyday teenager will do anything for what some people would call a good reputation. Much like Juliet most of us don't think before we speak or make decisions. Though this message may not have crossed Shakespeare's' mind while creating it, but the timeless tale's message is forever changing as time goes on.

Romeo and Juliet: It's Everywhere

When I first saw the movie WALL-E I thought it was just a fun Disney movie. But now after reading Romeo and Juliet I can see how the makers may have based some of the plot on Romeo and Juliet. WALL-E is Romeo and EVE would be Juliet. As the prologue states," A pair of star-crossed lovers", WALL-E and EVE in one scene are flying through the stars. They both come from different lifestyles and are willing to change for each other which makes this such a great story.

Connecting with Romeo and Juliet

I think that I am most like the character Romeo. When I have something important to me going on I tend to only think about that thing. With that I usually have a ton of ideas bouncing around in my head. It has been interesting to see his character progress and grow. His line often contain many mixed thoughts which is how I feel most of the time. I sometimes overreact to a lot of things that aren't very relevant.   

At first glance reading Romeo and Juliet can seem a very hard task. Though after settling into the plot it becomes easier to understand. The story so far has been exciting as the characters develop. The family feud between the Montague's and the Capulet's has started to become more and more important. I like the fact that we read the book in class and analyze is too because I don't always pick up on everything going on in the book. I like reading the characters as well because it puts you in their situation and you can understand the feelings being produced.

Wrapping Up Great Expectations

Charles Dickens tells of a variety of themes in his novel Great Expectations. The one that stood out to me is money isn't everything. You may think that money buys material happiness but what about happiness with others? It's believed that humans can't live alone their whole life because they will be lonely and go crazy. If you have no friends and all this stuff you will go insane. That's why Dickens has shown that theme to show us that real happiness is in the people you trust and the friends you love. Without those people your life would mean nothing and no one would care about all this nice stuff you had. So always be true, happy, and social with your friends and family.

Done With Great Expectations!

I'm finnaly done with Great Exectations! Although some parts of the book were slow, boring, tiredsome, and terrible I was able to make it through till the end. If you read the book and didn't skip and read on spark notes you would have enjoyed it, maybe not much more but more than skipping half the book! My favorite character would have to be Pip because he is so relatible and when he turned my age I could relate the most. I liked the way that Dickens used foreshadowing and symbols in his book. I realized that the convict (later know as Magwitch) was the benefactor because well I mostly just guessed that he would be since it would be coincidence.

I did read through the entire book although not always following the reading schedules resulting in having me having to read 60+ pages a night on occasion. The first 10 chapters I read and re read to undestand, then I slipped into reading even if I didn't understand and skimming. I would look on Spark Notes which proved to not always tell the truth. I usually tried not to cram before the friday in which things were due but sometimes if I had a busy way I would just happen to have to do that. In all I liked Great Expectations but mostly did not like it.

Photo Connection

I think this picture of a majestic tree can be linked to Pip's life. The soil would represent Estella and Abel. Estella inspired Pip to become a gentleman and follow that path. Abel is the fertilizer whom gave Pip the money in funds to let him buy all the things a gentleman would need such as clothes and furniture. The branches are Pip's friends that he meets along the way to becoming a gentleman. The leaves represent Pip's altering personalty. In the summer the leafs are strong and green which parallels with Pip's ecstatic look at life. When the leafs die and fall to the ground, Pip becomes depressed and makes bad decisions. The light behind the tree represents the mystery in the book that has not been revealed. It is only a matter of time before we discover what these mysteries are.

Connections

In the second stage now that Pip has received his expectations, he has become quite accustomed to the wealthy life style. He is spending money like it's nothing, and on many lavish items such as elaborate furniture, or extravagant suits. This way of living is much different from the beginning of the story when we meet Pip as a low class, apprentice to a Blacksmith. Recently in the story Pip has become unhappy and not content of what he has. It seems as if in life this is true a lot of the time, those who have the least are more content that those who have everything handed to them on a silver platter.

I have always been a huge fan of Disney movies like most kids are. Thinking about Great Expectations I believe the message relates to the main character in the story Aladin. Aladin starts off in the beginning of the movie as a "street rat" running all over the city for food. A Genie comes along when the magic lamp is rubbed and grants his wishes. One of these is to become a prince to marry the beautiful princess Jasmine. Although he impresses Jasmine with a huge parade, Aladin is still unhappy and does not feel he has everything he could desire.

I think that the Genie would have to represent the mysterious donor because he can make all your wishes to come true as Pip's to be a gentleman is granted by the donor. Jasmine would be Estella because I think that Pip and her are going to end up with each other in the end. Pip would be Aladin because they both share a struggle and they both people hire up in the classes. 

Second Stage Great Expectations

Pip's character has progressed in the direction of pursing the role of becoming a gentleman. Along with changing his attitude, Pip has great expectations to live up to when he is sent to London. With high hopes Pip is dissapointed,"While I was frightened by the immensity of London, I think I might have had some faint doubts whether it was not rather ugly, crooked..." His wish of becoming a gentleman seems much more difficult now that he is actually in London. Dickens uses the word ugly to show the upper class is not as classy and charismatic as they may seem.

Pip is no longer innocent and naive as he once was when he was a boy. Although Pip has lost a lot of his innocence in the second stage, Pip lets his determination in for being upper class to cause him to let the innocence shine through like a child. Pip's lost character would have been amazed by the narrow and crooked streets, yet he only sees it as a disappointment. Dickens is always spreading the motif of becoming a gentleman throughout the book showing to the reader that it can cause more harm than good on the ones that really care about you

Pips quote

Pip is referring to how this experience has now changed his life. He now noticed that being a blacksmith isn't the greatest thing he can expect or can become. Pip has now grown up from when he thought a blacksmith would be amazing and now he realizes that it isn't that great at all. These changes are positive because know you can relate  with him more since he is coming to the age and maturity we all are. I am beginning to like Pip more since he is becoming more mature. Before I didn't like him because he was a little kid and made stupid mistakes and now he thinks a lot more before he speaks.

One thing last year that was kind of a wake up call was when I paged for the house legislators. When I decided signed up for this opportunity I kinda thought it would be a way to get out of school and meet people from across the state. After I few days I realized it was a pretty interesting thing to do. So I decided to treat this as a job and got a lot out of it by doing so.

Great Expectations Reading

This book Great Expectations has proved to be a challenging but compelling read. One part I don't fully understand is at the end of chapter three, on page 19 where the convict says "Where is he? ...Show me the way he went. I'll pull him down, like a bloodhound." The convict is referring to the man Pip said he had seen before giving him the food and file. Why is this convict so scared of another convict possibly residing in the swamp?

Group Essay

Hello group members. In my paragraph the only thing I changed was the second "chunk" because ya know I sorta mixed up the characters. I sorta need to spice up my thesis so anything you say would help. Thanks!

The Importance of Being Earnest

In The Importance of Being Earnest there are many recurring themes. One that stands out most is about dishonesty. I found that at some point in the play each character would be dishonest. They would mostly do this for the pursuit of pleasure. They knew what they wanted and didn't have enough patience to wait, they had to lie to get it as soon as possible. The epigrams that I found seemed to always contradict whatever the character was implying. They also almost always had little lies in them to spice it up. The main social institution in the book is marriage. There was a lot of satire showing how that in that time marriage was most like a business arrangement. There was obvious dishonesty when Jack and Algernon both claimed to be Ernest to their loved ones. You can see how in society men and women will go to great lengths, or lies for that matter, to marry the one they love.

Oscar Wilde was trying to show how extremely ridiculous the upper class was in that time. The way he shows this was through the name Ernest. The men and women in that period were so polite and had such strict customs that there were no true feelings involved in marriage. Wilde shows how marriage became an ordeal between parent and child and the amount of money. I never mattered the personality only how much they were worth. Since Algernon and Jack both told their girls their name was Ernest, Wilde stresses on how funny it was that the name could influence the girls so much. A man back then could be charming but it didn't matter, all that mattered to the family was social status. In this time I am glad to say we can marry for feelings not money or power.

Animal Farm Evaluations

1. Britta
Poem
She told of how over time the animals became corrupt and went against their own ways.

2. Kady
Movie
She showed how the farm became corrupt and used foreshadowing with music.

3. Joel
Drawing
He showed how before the revolution man was superior to pig and after they became equal.

4.Galen
Comic
He showed that when major fell the whole farm started to fall with him.

5.Olivia
Drawing
She showed how ironic it was that at the beginning of the book the pigs were so against humans but at the end they seemed so similar some animals had a hard time telling them apart.

6. Catherine
collage
She showed the hierarchy of the farm, pigs, dogs, all other animals.

7. Matt
Collage
He showed how Napolean was power hungry and surrounded himself with his dogs to protect him. He also showed how Snowball started to fade away from the farm.

8. Enola
Movie
She introduced all of the characters names.

9. Porter
Drawing
He showed that after the revolution the pigs turned against the animals and acted like humans.

10. Keenan
Comic strip
He shows that the animals trusted Napolean but he turned out to be a  tyrant that ordered them around.

New Years Resolutions

This year has been a great one, it has its ups and downs but has overall been quality. On new years I was watching the ball drop in new york and waiting until the clock came to the time of 12:01 as most people were doing. When the year 2011 finnaly came I thought up a few resolutions.

One resolution being to keep all A's in every class with the exception of math which I can live with at least a B. This school year from started out good, but as it progressed I started to become sloppy and my grade started to show for it. Right when the new year came I realized how quickly this school year is going and now I have to really kick it into gear if I want to maintain my grades.

A resolution I really should have started a while ago was to spend more time with relatives. I realized that some of my older relatives don't have much time left until they pass and I need to spend time with them while they are still here. With that I noticed how fast life goes by and how you have to be thankful for the small things that happen. Enjoy life day by day and try not to let people get you down. Sometimes its best to just get away from all the stress and drama, such as going to a park and being in the calm brisk air. Thinking about how you have really lived your life to the fullest and what you have done to help society. If you haven't done anything yet this would be a perfect time to sit and think of what you could do to help people. You could start by volunteering and helping the homeless. Since you know the best feeling is when someone thanks you for the big bowl of chowder you have given them. This feeling could spark something else like say you could form a organization that goes and helps people in need. Then when you grow old you can pass all these storys to your children and grandchildren. They would do the same if you really inspired them on how to live your life. If you think about it our experiences really shape how the next generation will do things and what they will think about.

I found this video and I thought it was kinda interesting. Enjoy.