Comments 5/3

Charlie's Blog
Robert's Blog

Strengths and Challenges

Writing is an activity that requires attention and devotion, especially for quality writing. It takes all the traits of good writing to create a meaningful and quality paper. Our class has done three major essays, each of which we've devoted weeks towards completing. Our teacher's guidance has made the process easier, but each and every person struggles and succeeds in different areas of writing.

I believe that strongest point as a writer is definitely my ability to turn facts into something interesting  and worth reading. My favorite essays were the literary analysis and the research paper, each of which required facts and interpretation. I did well in both of these essays, leading me to believe that I do excel in this form of writing. My weakness, however, is creative writing. I am not terribly awful at this, but I sometimes struggle with making something out of nothing. Even though my creativity may need a lot of work, my fact-based writing compensates.

Hits and Misses

We have done many projects in English I this year. Some were easily accomplished, and others were tiresome and challenging. Regardless of the difficulty, these projects were all at least somewhat entertaining. The most entertaining project this year was the research project. It was difficult, involving various activities that took effort and care to complete. The best part of this project was the research. We were able to browse an endless amount of sources find all of the information necessary to writing a quality essay. Although the research paper was incredibly entertaining, there were some parts of the year that I didn't enjoy.

For me, the worst part of this school year was writing the personal narrative. It caused me more stress than the other papers because it was our first one. I had no idea if I was doing things correctly, so I was constantly trying to correct each and every sentence, no matter how good it was. This was the first stressful thing I'd done all year, and it really got to my head. After I'd submitted the essay, I did feel better, but the feeling did wear down as time went on and as conferences continued. This year has had its challenges and difficulties, but it has also been a fun first year of high school.

Q4 W4 Comments

Robert's PH Reading Response
Gregory's Free Post

What are the most meaningful relationships in your life?

There are countless relationships that we will have in our lives. They will all affect us differently, but they will most definitely affect us in some way. Some people will make us happy and other will not. Many people will not maintain the majority of their relationships that they have right now, and those that continue to stay with us will be the most important people in our lives.

There are so many people that will tell you friends are friends and many relationships will come and go. They tell you to stay loyal to your best of friends and to not put your relationships before the people who you have known for so long. This is a decision that is a hard choice to make. I feel as if each person can balance things differently, and each can make room for relationships in a different way. The best advice anyone could receive is to be yourself and keep both friendships and intimate relationships but to be sure of what you value more.

Reading Response for PH

Purple Hibiscus has been an interesting novel to read. I have always been a little creeped out reading this book, not only because of the family problems but also the feelings it gives me. The author uses many situations that are normally not accepted in society to create an awful feeling towards the father and the government. This adds to our social knowledge creating a negative feelings towards the novel itself.

It seems as if the children's relationship with their parents is the most prominent aspect of this story. The largest part of this relationship seems to be the father's abuse towards the children and the mother. The father excuses his actions by saying everything is done for God. The children initially believed this excuse but as they grow older and are able to speak to other people, they begin to rebel against their father. These rebellions end in harsher beatings and worse punishments for the mother. This chain has not ended, and it seems as if it will continue to happen.

4/12 Comments

Tucker's Blog on Shootings
Naya's Blog

Shootings

YouTube Shooting: Woman Wounds 3 Before Killing Herself, Police Say by Maggie Astor and Maya Salam

Shootings have become a major problem in our world today. It is almost an everyday thing. This is something that we should not be getting used to, as long as we are human. The most recent and prominent shooting took place at the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. The shooter wounded three people before she took her own life. The three people are injured and in the hospital.

These problems have become more prominent in the world with the rise of terrorist groups and the increasing instability of many people. Issues like these have taken countless lives that we cannot begin to count. These shootings need to be dealt with properly. Hopefully with better laws to ensure that these things will not happen because it is completely wrong for someone to lose their life because of a flawed system.

3/29 Comments

Charlie's Blog
Evan's Blog

Free Post

This spring break, I will be going to visit my sister for a week. She is my half-sister with three children and a husband. She recently moved to California, so we want to go visit her in her new home. My younger sister and I will be the only people going on the trip, so it will be quite an adventure flying alone. Once we arrive, we hope to do many fun things as well as spend time with our sister.

The first thing we will do is drive by the house I was born in as we go to her house in a small town. When we arrive at her home, I hope to have a good meal for dinner and a good night's sleep because we plan on going to walk around Los Angeles the next day. My sister is hoping to meet a movie star. We have not planned every day, but I am hoping to have a fun, stress-free week off.

PH Response

Purple Hibiscus is a novel about a girl named Kambili and her family who are suffering through abuse by their father. The novel shows Kambili's struggles to fit into society because of the way she is forced to live by her father. She becomes and unsocial introvert which makes her appear to be a snob. The pressure of being the perfect family also messes with Kambili because she is not able to ruin their image.

I have found this book interesting so far. It has shown me many reasons and signs of abuse. I also have much more sympathy for anyone who suffers through problems like this. I hope to learn more about things like this. I would also love to learn about prevention and helping someone going through this.

Comments 3/15

Robert's Poem
Evan's Poem

See You Again Analysis

See You Again by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth is a song paying tribute to the Fast and Furious movie series star, Paul Walker. This song creates a feeling of comfort and safety to remember our fallen and be glad that they are in a better place. Even though the song is sad, the audience is able to feel a multitude of emotions from these lyrics.

Many of the lines in this song are rhymed at the end of lines, but others are not. The artists use many lines of cacophony to create feelings of comfort and love. They also use many assonances, which also instill positive emotions in the listeners/readers. There is also a use of consonance, but it is not used as often as the assonance. Overall, the authors use positive words and techniques to make readers feel happy and content.

Ten Line Poem

Today I am at school.
Many times, I am here
and I look like a fool.
Full of this feeling called fear.

I hear the squishy sounds of smelly mud
which I unintentionally walk through
while my friend hands me a bag of milk duds.
I soon realize that he has the flu.

Now soon I will be home,
watching the Saints in the Superdome.

Evan's Motives and Breaks

Robert's Fortnite Post

Free Post: Fortnite

I admit, I came up with this idea because of a lack of inspiration in anything else. What is Forntite? It is a third-person battle royale game that requires tactical skill making and a new aspect, building. It has recently taken the video-game community over. It has brought many people back into video games. The best part of this game is that it is free!

Now, you may be asking why do so many people play this game? Fortnite catches the players attention by being free, but they do have micro-transactions in which you can purchase new characters, pic-axes, parachutes, and dance moves. These buyable items are all fun and interesting. The company behind the game prides itself on adding new content almost every week, keeping the players entertained. This game seems like it could get stale, but two games are never the same because of are luck. I personally love this game, and I would love to see this game grow even further!

LAUNCH Response

LAUNCH Day is a day of fun, but also seriousness. It is a day where the seniors involved in the Thesis Program present their topics that they have been developing for two years. It is said to be the best day of high school, but it is also the most stressful for those presenting. There were many theses presented on this day, but one specifically stood out to me. It wasn't even presented on LAUNCH Day.

Kenny's topic on atonal music was amazing. He was able to reach the audience through interesting dances and fun tunes. It most definitely held my attention. It also inspired me. I recently talked to my college counselor about the program, and it seemed like something that I would like to apply for. I do enjoy researching topics, but I didn't want to do anything boring which would be a waste of two years. Kenny showed me that you can make a presentation on basically anything, as long as you are passionate about it. Hopefully I get accepted into the program ,so I can teach other high schoolers about what I am passionate about.

Q3 W3 Comments

Greg's Research Update
Zoe's ATDPTI Reaction

Research Post

My spring research project is an essay on an ancient empire that is not very well known by the majority of people. I recently learned of this empire after researching the Mongols for my initial topic. The main topic of my essay is the Ilkhanid Dynasty. This empire is one of the four fragments of the great Mongolian empire. The main question that I am trying to answer is "How were the lives of the citizens of the Ilkhanid Dynasty?".

This empire is important to history because it is the ending of the well-known Mongols. They were involved in many major wars like their war with the Mamluks for the land of Syria. This war caused both sides to expend many resources, and after the Ilkhanate won the war, the Syrian land was not what they wanted. Another major issue with this empire is that the founder was a successor of the great Genghis Khan. This topic has been interesting to me, and I am excited to teach my classmates about this empire.

ATDPTI Reading Response

"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie is a fiction book written for young adults. This novel follows the life of a mentally disabled Native American teenager, Junior. This novel has been banned in many schools, but it does teach many lessons to young readers.

After a hundred pages of this novel, my opinion on this book has become quite clear. I have always enjoyed a good novel with morals and references to reality. This novel does both, but it does it in an unusual way. The author reaches out to the minds of readers through sexual and other inappropriate kinds of jokes, sometimes causing a light laugh. I have enjoyed this book, and I look forward to reading more in the future.

Q3 W2 Comments

JC's Research Update
Thomas's Free Post: Snowdays

Q3 W1 Comments

Nick's "New Semester"
Greg's "New Semester"

My winter break

This winter break, my family decided to not go out of Louisiana because my father has recently had surgery. After exams ended, my sister and mother went to Florida to pick up some clothes and personal items from the condo my parents sold. They came back on Christmas eve, and we went to  my uncle's house to have dinner and open presents. Everyone received an abundance of good gifts and was happy.

After Christmas, we stayed at home and basically did nothing until New Years. On New Years Eve, we made our way over to my mom's friends' home. They did fireworks and allowed us to play with some smaller things as we awaited 2018. The break was not the most fun, but it was definitely the most relaxing one we have had in a long time.

Research Reflection

My research topic is the Ilkhanid dynasty. It is not very well-known, so it was difficult to find the ten sources that were required. I struggled the most with finding primary sources because most of the library databases did not have information on this empire. I finally found two primary sources on art and decoration of the empire, so I had to find a way to incorporate these into my research question. I ended up with quality of life in the empire.

The best parts of this assignment are that these steps are making the rough draft process much easier by using annotated bibliographies to determine the quality of a source and notecards to help us form our paragraphs. The annotated bibliographies were the easiest part of this assignment, but they also took the longest. I hope the rest of this assignment is as helpful as the beginning parts.

New Semester Reflection

The previous semester of school was our first semester of high school. It was more difficult than I'd imagined, but it was more fun than any other year of school, at times. I learned many things this semester, all of which were tips to do better in this new environment. The first of these tricks is that you need more sleep than ever once you get to high school because of the constant effort and energy you must put into your work. The second most important tip is that you should manage your time wisely because assignments are often spread to allow us to finish in time. The most important thing to remember in high school is that you should study every night because cramming will almost never work.

My goals for the spring semester are attainable but difficult. I am going to try to use my tips from the fall semester and become a better student for the second half of the year. I hope that these tips improve my grades and my overall image of school. I will also try to have more fun with my friends and sports to decrease some stress about school