Final Reflection Blog

What are the three most important things you learned this year?

One of the three most important things I have learned this year was the TIQA format. This format was one of the first things we learned when we were introduced to AoW's and was able to be carried on to any assignment that we did throughout the year. A second important thing I was taught that was important to me was to take in a lot of information. What I mean is that in this class, you need to remember a lot of stuff and learn a lot of stuff. I was able to widen my attention span and that helped me take in more information than I usually have. A third important thing that I was taught this year was learn to make an argumentative essay. This was the first year I made an argumentative essay and I did have to make a couple in other classes as a matter a fact, knowing how to make one was really helpful when I had to do other argumentative essays.


What is something we did this year that you think you will remember for the rest of your life?

I will always remember how to properly research. I know that there are a lot of jobs out there that do involve researching professionally, knowing how top research now will give me the advantage when I ever have to. I also know that in High School you will have to do plenty of research and again, knowing how to do it now will be very beneficial for me when that occurs.

What was the nicest thing someone in our class did for you this year?

During the second quarter, I was still struggling on how to properly study for a vocabulary test. I would keep studying and studying, but I would always do terrible on the test. I never knew what to do to improve my score. One day, Jack told me that repetition really helps when your trying to memorize something and trying to ingrain keeps will help you never forget it. Knowing that Jack is a very clever guy, I listened and tried his idea out the following week when we had another test. It worked and I got a good score on my test, I was so relived. I thought his idea and that fact that he told me was really cool and nice.

What is something you taught your teacher or classmates this year?

There have been times where my friends talk to me and tell me that they can't do something that Mrs. Larson assigned to them or that they should quit. I encounter this same situation too sometimes, but whenever I'm on the "OK" side of the situation, I tell them that it will only get harder. If they think this is hard, they should just wait until high school. I tell them that they can get through it and that they just need to keep moving forward. Trudge through any problem that gets in their way. I believe if we encounter situations like this where we don't have any belief in ourselves, that with a little motivation, we are destined for greatness. With just a little help from our friends, anything can be possible and there won't be anything you can't do.

In what area do you feel you made your biggest improvements? What is something you accomplished this year that you are proud of?

The area that I think I have made the biggest improvement on was my blogs I would have to say. In this class, you kind of have to widen your vocabulary and once you do you are set for life. You can use your new advanced vocabulary for all assignments, especially blogs. I like to show that I can use large words and putting them in a blog is a great way to show people. I have done that a lot this year and that really improved my blogs a lot. Something that I accomplished this year that I am still proud of was being able to read more books than I usually do. To be honest, I didn't used to read a whole lot before I got into this class. I would only read when it was necessary or if it was an only option to get through the rest of a class. I am glad that this class gives me a motivation to read more because of the 40 book challenge.

What was the most challenging part of this year for you?

The most challenging  part for me this year was doing the Christmas Carol Extended Response. What had happened was that I had phenomena and was gone the week that everyone went to the play and officially started doing the extended response. I was supposed to do it over winter break and had to watch the movie instead of the play. Of course I waited the very last minute to do it, and did the whole thing the two days before I was supposed to go back to school. I was freaking out and was working with the whole entire time I had, I still regret me doing it at the last minute. I even had to get help from my mom because I kept overthinking everything and it was about 12:00 at night by the time I finished. I am still glad that I went through that experience because it taught me that I should never procrastinate when it comes to doing big assignments like that.

What was the best piece of writing that you did this year? Why do you think it is your best?

I thought the best piece of writing that I did was my argumentative essay. I say this because first, I worked myself day/night trying to do the best research and trying to form the best paragraphs to help me get my point out to my audience. It turns out that I didn't do my best once I received my grade, but I revised my errors it and got all threes for my final grade. To this day I am still proud of me doing the essay and me working up to revising it when I really didn't want to.

Of the books you read this year, which was your favorite? Why?

The one book that I read this year from Mrs. Larson's library that I think was my favorite was the Coraline book. I liked this book because I had watched the movie way before I actually knew there was even a book and it brought back a lot of memories from when I watched the movie.  I think the movie is better because when you read the book, all that runs through your head is that this is just an adventure book with a story tied into it. When you see the movie, you barely believe this could be a reality and it runs chills down your neck a lot sense the movie is a little creepy. The book was never that creepy to me. That's just my opinion.

What advice would you give students who will be in this class next year?

I say this to anyone who will potentially be in this class next year, "You are not an average kid." What I mean by this is that you have something that other kids unfortunately don't. Use it to your advantage in this class. You may think that this class is just a class where you get twice as much work as other normal kids. Once you get older and get into high school, everything that Mrs. Larson taught you will eventually pay off and will never go to waste. Being able to learn other more challenging topics/subjects then other kids means that you must dedicate yourself to this lifestyle because it is not for everyone. You are given a gift by being taught by all of this, don't waste that opportunity by slacking off and doing mediocre work. If you want to do that then be my guest, if you don't you won't regret it.

Of Mice and Men Movie Blog

Section 2:

In one of the two newly added scene to the movie that was never originally in the book, George was in the barn rounding up the horse he had taken in. Culey's Wife was already in the barn almost having us think that she expected George would come in. The two interact when George, who most definitely doesn't want to happen, actually tries to give her a chance and lets her talk. Unfortunately, Curley comes in angry at George.

In second scene that we see that was added, we see Curley's Wife talk to Lennie and George instead of just George. She tries to ask how Curley seriously got his hand hurt and they try to avoid her once again. They just try to answer her questions as quickly and as brief as possible so they don;t get into any trouble with Curley. She actually tries to come out and tell George and Lennie that she just wants someone to talk to, but they still just try to avoid her and spare themselves from being possibly fired and or beaten up.

This changes my view on Curley's Wife because I think when you see her character in film, you can see actually how lonely she is. We can see that she literally has no one top talk to and she isn't allowed to talk to anyone either. Since Curley doesn't want any guys near his wife getting any "crazy" ideas. It makes the person whoever is watching the movie feel kind of bad for her because she really is all alone. She has nobody to talk about other than Curley and she doesn't like that. She even says out loud that she doesn't like Curley. She gets upset that she isn;t allowed to talk to anyone at the barn and when she tries, they avoid her to spare themselves from the trouble from Curley,

Section 4:

I thought this novella was great because ever since I heard we were going to read it I have heard many great things about it. Including my mother, who by the way only have seen the movie. The movie seemed more dramatic then the book because we can see actual emotions from our characters. I thought the movie was great as well. I have learned that hopes and dreams really matter and life. Once you set them, you feel like you have something to drive you towards greatness and that makes you do much better at what you want to do to help you get your dream. I would really recommend this to my mom because first off, she loves to read books. Especially ones like these especially that are sad. Second, she loved the movie and as we all know, book seem to be better then their movie counterpart. Which means she will love the book even more.

Of Mice and Men Conflict Blog

In Of Mice and Men, there are lots of conflicts. These conflicts can originate from someone saying or doing anything to someone else. For example, the conflict I am going to talk about is Man vs Man (kind of). Let me elaborate, Lennie and George have been on the road together for a long time, George could say something to Lennie and Lennie could forget it in a matter of minutes or hours. You can never really tell. This leads to George always insulting Lennie or having to yell ay him because he is forgetting what George is telling him to do. "Jesus Christ, you're a crazy bastard." (Page 4). This struggle between Lennie and George does cause some conflict, but nothing explosive or long term. George is Lennie's idol and always helps him get out of sticky situations which is why Lennie tries his hardest to do goof for George.

This struggle hasn't effected them massively yet, but I feel something is going to happen. Maybe Lennie will say something to The Boss or misunderstand something The Boss says and will het them fired from the ranch. He also is in on the dream that George and him have and he is not suppose to tell The Boss about it otherwise the two get fired. Maybe that will come into play soon.

Another conflict that I will be covering is Man vs Man and involves Curley and Slim. This tension between these two characters formed when Slim was wrongly accused of doing stuff with Curley's Wife (stuff I am still unsure of). "Well, you been askin' me too often. I'm gettin' God damn sick of it. If you can't look after your own God damn wife what you expect me to do about it? You lay offa me?" (Page 62). the gravity of this situation of pretty serious, when Curley acused Slim of doing stuff with his wife, Lennie got dragged into this mess and he got his face beat by Curley because like always he loses his temper and that caused the two to fight.

Now again, this fight caused a lot of conflict and tension. We haven't really heard a lot from Curley and Slim about the situation. Also Lennie and Curley haven't really talked to each other either. I think they are trying to keep their distance from each other and trying to cool down.

What Could Have Been

I considered myself a star.
I played and played and played.
Even though I didn't like playing in front of people I still liked playing.
It didn't care.

I have the equipment,
I have the speed,
I have the agility,
I had it all,
what can go wrong?

Then reality just hit me!
Time passed,
Years went by,
My dream was diminishing.
My dream was crushed into oblivion

I didn't feel sad.
I felt like I was taking this situation reasonably,
this was never going to happen.
What was I thinking.

All I know is things change.

Of Mice and Men

I feel that the bunkhouse has a lot of negative energy. There is all this rudeness being spread and Candy is kind of bad mouthing Curley behind his back. I feel this negative energy is spread from the boss because he is very rude, and judgmental towards his workers. Then it reached to his son who is almost a carbon copy of him. Then the cycle of negativity just goes on and on.

Like on page 27 when George said, "This guy Lennie is a son-of-a-bitch to me, I don't like the mean little guys." Also, the swamper or Candy tends to gossip a lot so far in the story which is not really a good thing to do, knowing stuff about everyone. "Curley says he's keepin' that hand soft for his wife." That for example, he shouldn't know that. Other than those incidents of negativity, there have been many others and this proves that it is not a healthy environment for George and Lennie to be housed in to do their work. The atmosphere is also positive. George and Lennie seem to be getting along with Slim so far. Slim also was referred to as a, "hella of a nice fella..." according to Candy. He seems to play the nice guy role pretty well.

Now onto the ranch, the ranch specifically has not been described like the other setting locations we have encountered. Maybe John Steinbeck left that for chapter three to build up a plot or conflict at the ranch.

Curely's wife does not have a name is because of the timeline the story takes place, I will elaborate. As you know, unfortunately African Americans were referred as "niggers." The men probably treat the women like African Americans because like the African Americans, they were not looked at as equals to the men. Like on page 32 when George said, "Don't you even look  at that bitch... I seen em' poisen before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse that her." According to George, women obviously are not shown with respect just like that African Americans.