Letter to Classmates

The school year is almost over, and I'm sure all of you are just as excited as I am. No more tests, except for exams, no more papers, and no more projects. We will still have summer reading but that won't be too bad, I hope.  The books sound pretty good, but I'm still confused about what In Defense of Food could be about because I have not looked and it has a strange title. I have heard that the diary of a part time Indian book is good so that makes me feel better.

I don't know if any of you are thinking the same thing as I am, but I am really wondering which English class I will be in and who else will be in it. I think it would be funny if most of us from this class were in the same class next year. I am also wondering which teacher I will have. I have heard about both of the teachers and they both sound like they have a challenging class. I suppose though that I won't have to worry about that until a few months from now.

Macbeth as Macbeth (Play then Character)

I used to be one of Duncan's most trusted friends, oh the fool. I killed him in his sleep because I wanted to be the king. I am now a traitor no better than the old Thane of Cawdor. The only difference is hat no one knows what I have done. This fault lies with those accursed witches and their prophecies. They told me I would be the Thane of Cawdor and king, and a short while later I was the Thane. I thought to myself, if I did not do anything to become thane then I need not do a thing to be king.

All was fine until Duncan named an heir to the throne. Then my patience was gone and I was split between my loyalty to Duncan and my lust to be king. I did not have a clue of what to do until that "lovely" wife of mine decided for me. We went to his chamber in the night. I had to do the deed. I became delusional as a tried to kill my ruler, but I did it. We framed the guards and I though it was over until Lennox and Macduff came to get the king. To protect my story I had to go see the body again with Lennox. Now I can't get the image of Duncan lying there dead covered in his golden blood. I haven't a clue of how I am going to get away with this.

Me as a reader

I have learned over the course of this year that I like reading more than I wish to admit. Most people in our grade hate reading so others, like myself, tend to agree even if it is not true. I think I am similar to the way I was reading at the beginning of the year (this is irrelevant but beginning is such a strange word with the double n in the middle). What has surprised me though, is what I think about when I am reading.

At the beginning (there it is again) of the year, I would read a book and only see the plot. A great example is that when I was in 7th grade, I read The Catcher in the Rye. My sister was in 10th grade at the time and was reading it too. One time we were talking about it and she kept pointing out things like symbolism and hidden meanings that I had never noticed. Now ever time I read I keep thinking of these things. Just like in Macbeth, when I see cesuras I think to myself, " Oh look, a cesura." I would have never done something like that before.

Participation

General Procedures: C
I am usually prepared for class every day. I always wait to be dismissed, and I don't think I ever needed to go to my locker or the bathroom during class. Sometimes I don't check e-mail every day, and recently I have not been turning things in on time.

Lecture, announcements, and whole class discussion: B
I always listen and take notes, but rarely ever comment because I don't like talking in fear of being wrong. I usually don't ask questions because I either understand everything or someone else asks my question. I always listen to what my peers are saying and don't have side conversations.

Individual and group work: A
I always try to get the work done and stay focused on the task without distracting others. I try not to get off task. I sometime try to keep others focused on the task, but I have learned that they usually don't like to listen to me. I do my best to follow instructions, but I don't try to go past the minimum often.

Growth: C
I participated at about the same level all year. The only thing that really changed is my turning in homework, which got worse, but that usually happens to me in the second semester. Third quarter is always worst and fourth is better, at least better than third.

Outside Reading

 After talking with Brom, who is kind of an expert on dragons, Eragon decides to name his dragon Saphira. One day while in town he see two hooded figures who are looking for the stone he had. The same stone that was actually a dragon's egg. he hurries home so they don't see him. When he gets back he tells Saphira about the men. She starts telling Eragon, through their mental connection, that they are murders and thiefs.

Obviously disturbed by this knowledge of them, Saphira takes Eragon and flies away.  Despite Eragon's attempts to stop her, she flies far away. When they land Eragon angrily demands to be taken back. When he tries to walk he realizes he injured his legs. He finds out that his legs had been rubbing up against Saphira's scales the whole flight and the skin was rubbed away. They have to spend the night in the forest and Eragon sleeps under Saphira's wing to keep warm. Through out this whole part of the book, it is clear that Eragon's relationship with Saphira is growing.

Harry Potter= 80 min
Eragon=85 min

Writing Wrap-up essay

Throughout all of my writing this year I did not improve or decline in any of the traits of writing steadily. For the most part, ideas and organization have been my best traits. They are A’s or B’s in most of my papers. In one paper my ideas were a D and organization was a C. All of the other traits were A’s and B’s in that paper though. This was in the profile paper which was the paper that I had the most trouble with in the significance of my subject so it affected the ideas. Voice and convections have also always been an A or a B. I don’t really understand why they seem to stay the same. My guess would be that I spend more of my time trying to improve ideas.

The most confusing trait of writing for me is sentence fluency. My rating for it always seems to be A or C. I don’t understand why this would change so much while the others stay mostly the same. I also have trouble with trying to improve sentence fluency. The other traits seem to be much more straight forward and easier to improve. I also do well in support and details. These are not always graded, but when they are, I usually do well.

Over the course of this year my essays have improved in ideas and support but I still need to improve on writing more developed introductions and conclusions, using more vivid details, and being able to meet the required length. For my first papers of the year my ideas were lacking in significance and support. In my last paper, my ideas were important, had evidence that supported them, and included my own input. My introductions usually include what is needed, but I don’t present it in a good way. It always comes out awkward and doesn’t make much sense. By the end of the year this had improved a bit, but I think I still need to work on it more. I also have trouble with conclusions. Sometimes my papers don’t include much of a conclusion and the just end. When there is one, I have trouble summing up the paper without repeating the introduction. I don’t explain things that I say enough that need to be explained in the conclusion either. This has always been a problem for me.

I sometimes have trouble with details and meeting the required length. I don’t do well with details most of the time. They usually are not descriptive enough or there is less than what is needed. My descriptions are sometimes too repetitive which is not good either. Details are not always that important, but I think that I should get better with them for the times that they are necessary. Another part of writing that I have trouble with is meeting the required length of papers. I don’t know why I that I am not good at this. I think it is mostly because I condense my information too much and don’t support or explain my ideas as much as I should. I think that this will probably be the easiest part of my writing to improve on, if I am correct about why I don’t meet the length requirements.

The feedback I receive usually matches my understanding of my writing. I agree with people when they say the way I say something is confusing and can easily be misinterpreted because I do that a lot. I used to not agree with this because I thought my writing was fine the way it was. I changed this after I started getting comments about the way I said something being awkward or someone misunderstanding it. Now I read it out loud and little mistakes like that are obvious. The way I evaluate my writing has also changed since the beginning of the year. Like I said before, I usually read my paper out loud so I can catch some mistakes. I also read my writing looking for things like ideas and support and not just grammatical errors. I think that my writing has overall improved as a whole because of this.

By the end of next year I want to be able to write well developed and understandable conclusions and introductions and improve my sentence fluency. To improve my introductions, I will spend more time putting them together and make sure they are organized well. For conclusions, I will make sure to explain everything well and try to pull all my information together at the end. To improve both of them, I will also get someone else to read them and tell me what they think my point is and if anything doesn’t make sense. To improve my sentence fluency, I will spend more of my editing time looking for mistakes in sentence fluency and try to make sure my sentences don’t sound too repetitive. If I am able to accomplish all of this, then I am sure I will be able to improve my writing as a whole.

Common Errors List

Ambiguous Pronouns: pronouns without clear antecedent (He looks tired.)  

Not using question mark (Are you going to watch.)

Using it’s instead of its: (It held out it’s hand.)

Using effect instead of affect and vice versa: (Your drinking problem will effect your health.)

Using who instead of whom: (She is the daughter of who?)

Double possessive: (That dog of Bob’s is ugly.)

Outside Reading

I didn't get any reading done for Eargon, but I have been thinking about it. I have noticed it before that the main character or hero in most stories is some person who seemed to be of no importance before the story began. They also almost always have no parents for some reason. I don't understand why it is usually like this. Do some people easily relate to this situation so they enjoy reading it more?

This Kind of makes me wonder what some of these stories would be like if you changed the background of the main character. You could make them rich, have parents, and lots of friends. I wonder how little changes like these could influence the whole story.

Poems: 73min
Song Analysis: 20min
Harry Potter: 60min

"Dark Turn of Mind" by Gillian Welch

This song's meaning seems to change a lot. Through most of the song the author talks about a dark turn of mind in a way that I feel as it is bad. He then ends the song with, "And some girls are blessed with a dark turn of mind." This completely changed the meaning of the song for me, and having a dark turn of mind seemed like it could be bad but is also a blessing. I believe this gives the listener the chance to decide what they think a dark turn of mind means.

I also think the tone of the song changes a lot. The beginning sounds sad and depressing when it says,
 "Take me and love me if you want me
   Don't ever treat me unkind
   'Cause I had that trouble already."
In the middle then, the author says nightmares are lovely even though most people would say they are horrible. It also says, "And leave me if I'm feeling too lonely," which seems kind of sad and like the opposite reaction to the way people deal with loneliness.

Outside Reading

The more we read poetry, the more I am understanding it. I still think that it is a bit odd, but it makes more sense. The poem I analyzed for my blog post was a little short, but I saw the patterns being used and writing techniques. I was a little annoyed when the author changed perspective in the poem though. I was reading about the boy being whipped and then he said "My" and I got really confused because up to that point it was in third person.

I also read some more Eragon, but I never have much time for it. In it, the dragon is still growing very fast, but he realizes he knows almost nothing about dragons. When he gets the chance, he goes to see Brom, a man who lives in the nearby village who always tells stories of dragons. He is hoping Brom can help him learn something. His whole conversation with Brom was a little awkward for him because he had to hide his emotions when Brom said certain things and make up excuses for the questions he was asking so Brom wouldn't know he had a dragon. That made it kind of funny to read.

Harry Potter: 100min
Poem: 43min
Eragon: 21min  

"The Whipping"

The poem I chose is "The Whipping" by Robert Hayden. This poem uses  repetition of the same word a few times. It starts with, "She strikes and strikes..." I think that this makes the reader think that the boy is being hit again and again and again. The same happens later when he says, "the blows, the fear worse than blows that hateful." This gives the same picture as strikes, but with the fear and hateful, it makes you think of the scared child being hit by the mean hateful woman. The last time is when it says, "it is over now, it is over." This shows the relieved child that he is no longer being beaten, but it also shows the woman that is realizing what she just did and how she may have gone too far. It changes the view of the mean woman to the mistaken woman who took the beating too far. This is also supported by a part at the end that says, "avenged in part for lifelong hidings she has had to bear." This may have been why she was beating the child so hard, because she was letting out maybe anger that she has held in all her life.

There are also some other techniques that the author uses. He uses irony at the beginning when he is saying how the woman is whipping the boy while announcing her goodness and his wrongs. This is ironic because whipping a child seems like a wrong but she says how she is good. This also goes along with her bottling up her anger from something that happened in her life because she could be saying how she was good but something still happened to her. Another technique he uses is switching the boy and he with my and I. By doing this it could show how he is thinking about when he was whipped while he is watching it happen to someone else. It makes it seem like he wrote the poem about his own childhood experience but made it about someone else.   

Poetry

Since we are doing stuff in English about poetry, I decided to write about it. I hate poetry. I don't understand why people write it most of the time. It is a lot of times creepy for some reason. I seem to be incapable of writing anything remotely poetic. Sometimes I even feel like people write a bunch of strange things down and call it a poem.

Reasons for writing poetry usually are not obvious to me. Like "The Fish", why the heck did she write about catching a fish? Does it have some deep meaning or does it show us something about her personality, because I don't have a clue. A lot of times, poems seem to be creepy or violent. An example would be that poem by Edgar Allen Poe where one guy kills another and hides him under the floor. Later when the police investigate, he thinks he can here the guy's heartbeat. I just don't understand poetry.

Outside Reading

This week I read more Harry Potter, Eragon. and the poem we had to read for class. I thought that it was really strange. One thing that I associate most poems with is that they have rhymes. This poem barely ever rhymed. I also don't see why they would write about a fish.

In Eragon his dragon has hatched and he is watching over it. He decides to keep it hidden from his family because he doesn't know how they will react. He made a home in a small tree for it so people wouldn't find it. The dragon is growing so fast though, that he has to build it a new home within a week. Hopefully the book will get a bit more interesting soon.

Harry Potter: 100min
Poem: 15min
Eragon: 40min 

More Harry Potter in French

Last week I kept reading Harry Potter in French. I've gotten farther into it, but it seems to be getting more difficult to read. Now just about ever time I read it, I keep the English version with me. Like the English version though, the book is starting to get really good.

He has already gotten bombarded at his house with letters. One think I thought was different was how in the French version, he gets moved to Dudley's second room before he goes to Hogwarts the first time. I might just be basing this off the movie or it really did happen and I just don't remember. I need to look in the English book though to see.

150min: Harry Potter pg. 44-76

Anime

If you read my last posts, you will know that I had been watching Death Note. Since then, I have been watching a lot more anime. I don't know why but it always seems to be really good unless you get something really creepy. Death Note was a bit creepy because Light was insane and murdered people, but it was still a really good show.

Another show I started watching is Chaos; Head. In case you were wondering, that semi-colon is part of the title for some reason. I would love to explain this show, but it is so confusing I doubt you would understand it. Even though I'm watching it I don't understand everything. The worst thing is that everything you thought you knew in the beginning turns out to be wrong. Even the main character, Takumi Nishijou, is really a delusion that came to life of the real Takumi.

Outside Reading

One of my outside reading books is Harry Potter in French. I don't really have much of a reason for picking it but my teacher used it as an example of a book to get, so I chose it. I can understand most of it, but it takes me a long time to read. For most books I can read about one and a half pages in a minute. For this book, I read about three pages in ten minutes. I also sometimes keep an English copy of the book with me to help me understand, but I try not to use it.

The other book I am reading is Eragon. I started reading it earlier this year, but I went on to another book. I started it again because I didn't remember much about it. I think it is good so far though. The only thing that has really happened is that Eragon found what he thought was a stone in the forest, but it just hatched into a dragon.

Monday:Harry Potter pg.1-7, Eragon pg.1-15 32min
Tuesday:Harry Potter pg 7-12 20min
Wednesday: pg. 12-20 20min
Thursday: pg. 20-26 20min
Friday: pg. 26-34 20min
Saturday: pg. 34-44, Eragon 15-40 45min 

Death Note

I just started watching a TV show called Death Note. In it, a high school student named Light Yagami finds a notebook that was dropped into the human realm by a god of death. In the book it says that the human whose name is written in this notebook shall die. After testing it out, Light decides to rid the world of evil by killing every criminal in the world and create a new good world that he is the god of. He kills everyone with heart attacks so that people will notice and know that someone is passing justice over evildoers.

The police get L, an anonymous detective who has solved every case he has gotten, to investigate. L quickly figures out that Light is killing people but has no proof. Also Light knows who L is, but he doesn't know his name so he can't kill him. Most of the season is a battle between L and Light to see who gets who first. Because L is so good, Light constantly has to come up with ridiculously  complex plans to keep L from proving who Light is. Another interesting thing is that Light is the main character but is always portrayed as an evil character which is not common. 

Shows

Recently I have been watching TV shows I have not seen in a while. One in particular is Mythbusters.
I had not seen this show in a while, but I have always liked it. I think the things they do are very interesting and the cast is hilarious. I do learn a lot from the show. Most of this is not in the actual myth, but in their explanation of what they are going to do.

They test some of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen. These strange things are part of what make the show so good. I have also started watching some old shows I would watch when I was younger. I stopped watching some of them because they ended or I thought I was too old. Most of them are really good though.

research paper

The research paper is coming along well so far. I think that a research paper would be mostly easier to write than the other papers we have done. This is because most of the paper is facts that you find. In other papers you may need to come up with a completely new idea. So I think that just researching something something is much easier.


This week I spent about 120 minutes researching and working on my outline. The other 30 minutes I spent working on the body. I think that the paper is pretty good so far. In it, I am going to explain the causes, the problem and effects, and the proposed and failed solutions. Since what I am going to write about is already planned out, I think it will be easy.

Obsession

One thing I have noticed recently is that I constantly get obsessed with things. Like this new game I got. I spent all weekend playing it because I thought it was so fun. This always happens to me though. I will get something new, become obsessed with it for awhile, and then move on to something else.
I also sometimes have these sort of lasting obsessions. When this happens I will always want to go back to whatever I was obsessed with for a long time even after I think I have moved on. Unfortunately, this is never homework. But I think being obsessed with homework would stink. 

Papers and homework

Working on the literary analysis has not been fun. When we were writing it, I was constantly busy with other homework and couldn't get any work done. Then I had things to do after school which delayed me even more. Now that I am finally done, I feel much better.
Now that that paper is finished, we have another one which we have to finish in the next few weeks. If that wasn't bad enough, my homework load isn't going down and I will have to write a really long paper for science later in the year. Things just seem to be moving so fast that it is hard to get all my work done.

My paper and new book

The paper we have been working on is kind of hard and easy in different ways. It is easy for me to write about my topic, but I was having trouble getting to three pages. I only had two major points and could not get to the minimum number. This weekend I found another point and got past the minimum.

I also started reading a new book called Eragon. The last book in the series came out and my sister was reading it. I decided to read it because they sounded like a good book. I'm not very far into it but it sounds pretty good. I also kind of like things about sword fighting and dragons.

Jump Start

 This Saturday, the robotics club went on another trip. This time we went to Slidell to the robotics competition jump start. At the jump start rookie teams build the frame of the robot and some of the electronics to make it run. Our team had to split in two to do both parts at the same time. I went with the electronics.

It was fun to try to build the board with the electronics. The problem is that me and the other two people with me did not have a clue at what we were doing. The other teams there were really nice though. They constantly were offering to help us carry stuff. They were helpful with the electronics though because we didn't know what we were doing.

Robotics Trip

This week, I went on a field trip with the robotics team to Mississippi. We went to a NASA facility that was just into Mississippi. There we learned more about the organization that runs the competition. We also got a kit filled with all of the stuff we will need to build a robot. I had a lot of fun with all of my friends.
Some parts of the day were really boring though. The video we watched about the organization was long.
During it the founder was talking for a long time about things that seemed irrelevant to me. The busride there seemed to take a long time too and was pretty boring.