Blogging Around

The first blog I chose to comment on belonged to Jenna. She used the metacognition prompt to reflect on her feelings about blogging this year in English class.

Jenna!
I really enjoyed reading your post about blogging this year because it put a lot of my feelings about blogging into words. I agree with a lot of what you said about the care-free writing style and the freedom that we were able to experience while writing blog posts. As I was reading your post, it reminded me of my own metacognition about blogging this year because I talked about a few of the same things as you did, such as blogging around and how I found it really interesting to read other peoples' blogs as well as my own blogs from earlier in the year. Great post :]

The next post I chose to comment on belonged to Leanne. In her post, she discussed the various reasons that she enjoyed blogging in English class this year.

Hi Leanne!
Great post :] I also really enjoyed when our English homework was a blog post. Looking at other peoples' blogs and reflecting on my past blogs is a fun and relaxing way to pass time and learn about your peers. I agree with what you said about liking to have a place to voice your opinions because I know it can be a little intimidating to do so during academy because we have a lot of strongly opinionated people in our class. The stress-free atmosphere of blogging is a great place to say anything you want without worrying about being wrong.

Metacognition: Blogging This Year in English Class

At the beginning of my sophomore year, Mr. Allen told my English class that we would be keeping a blog throughout the year as a way to document our thoughts and how they change over the next few months. At first, I was a little hesitant to keep a blog because I had never blogged about anything before and wasn't even exactly sure what keeping a blog would entail. Soon enough, I became more familiar with the concept of blogging and managed to navigate my way around the blogging site. I found that blogs were a good way to stimulate my brain to think about things that I never would have thought about before. This happened because of the different prompts that Mr. Allen assigned in order to give us an idea of something to write about. I thought that the prompts were helpful for the most part because it can be difficult to just start writing about any random thing. I also found that even within the guidelines of a prompt, I could basically write about whatever I wanted (unless instructed to write about a specific topic). My favorite prompt was "blogging around" because it gave me the chance to read about my classmates and learn things about them and the way they write. Although I can read my classmates' blogs whenever I want, this prompt was kind of a reminder to me that every time I write a blog, 28 other people are writing them as well and it can be very interesting to read their opinions on a topic that I have written about. Occasionally, I look back on my own blogs as well. I found that reading something that I wrote at the beginning of the year is a good way to really hear my voice when I write because I don't necessarily remember writing that specific blog. Overall, I feel that blogging was a fun and creative way to get my classmates and I thinking and writing without worrying about having a specific format to write by.

Best of Week: Water in 'Life and Times of Michael K'

Throughout this week in English class, we have been discussing the book Life and Times of Michael K, mainly focusing on the text. Many interesting insights have been made about the story's context and content as this discussion has gone on. One insight that particularly stood out to me was made by our teacher, Mr. Allen. He pointed out the continual appearance of water throughout the story, and the significance that it had. After some discussion of this, we decided that water signified life and was often used in that way in Life and Times of Michael K. A point to back this finding up is something that I remembered from the beginning of the book, when Anna K was still living. She was sick in the hospital and Michael tried to give her water, but she couldn't swallow it. Soon after this event, she died. This is evidence of how water signified life in the story, because it shows that the lack of water signified a near death for Anna.

Metacognition: Spanish Video

Once again, the academy class is doing a collaborative group project. This time, it's in the form of a video and my group has 9 people in it. We have to write a script in Spanish, film the video, and edit it all within the next three weeks. Three weeks seems like a long time, but with nine people in the group with conflicting schedules, it's not going to be easy. So far, we have created a google doc and a facebook thread on which we have been discussing our plot and beginning to form our script. If everybody contributes to our script this week, we should be able to start filming by the weekend, but that might be a difficult goal with the AP exam being Thursday... I know we can get it done though. I'm working with a group of my closest friends that I trust and know are hard workers : ] . We just need to remember the collaboration skills we were taught in English class, and everything should go smoothly. I hope.

Metacognition: Short Story

For awhile now, we have been working on writing short stories in our English class. I had never written a short story before this experience and didn't really know what to expect when I started out. The first step we took was to write out a story fragment, which just got down some of our ideas for what we generally thought our story would be about. Then, we wrote out the beginning and middle of our story and got feedback from our teacher. After my first draft, I ended up changing basically the entire plotline of my story because I really didn't know where it was going. I found that by keeping my character, but changing the story made it better. Once we wrote our second drafts of the beginning and middle, we had to write an ending to our stories. I thought that this was the most difficult part because I really wasn't sure how I wanted to end the story and didn't know how to tell when it was over. Eventually, I think I figure it out, but I'm not sure how it will sound to other people when they read it. Hopefully my teacher will have some good advice on how to make my ending stronger.

Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing Assignment

The Jane Eyre writing assignment was very interesting because it was done collaboratively with a partner. I'm used to doing projects with partners, but writing an essay with a partner was different. I think it seemed different because writing tends to be a more personal than a project such as making a video. Everyone has their own voice/style of writing and when somebody adds their voice into your writing, it's often uncomfortable. But, once you can get past that uneasiness, I think that adding two voices into one essay can make it a lot more interesting than it would have been if done alone. The actual collaboration process was not difficult because I was working with a partner that I trusted and knew would equally share the work with me. We found the most affective method of collaboration was to use a google doc. We also met in person twice in order to have face-to-face conversation about our essay. I think that face-to-face interaction is very important when collaborating because it allows you to express your opinions more easily than when talking online or on the phone. Overall, I think that the Jane Eyre writing assignment went pretty smoothly.

iMedia: Chubby Cuppy Cake Boy (video)

I first came across this video when it was sent to my by a friend. I of course found it cute and humorous; I mean, who couldn't? The image of an exceedingly chubby little boy appearing to sing an adorable little love song would bring a smile to anybody's face. Well, that is, until the real story behind this little boy is revealed. After I had finished watching this video on youtube, another video of the same little boy popped up on my screen, so I decided to watch it. This video was of the little boy being on a talk show and informing people about the disease that he is living his life with. This disease causes him to swell up (hence his chubby cheeks), and is forcing him to live with the support of steroids which stunt his growth. After watching this video, I watched the "Chubby Cuppy Cake Boy" video again, but this time with a new perspective. Yes, the little boy was still cute, but this time I was inspired by him. It takes a brave person, especially a child, to take a life changing disorder and make something positive come of it. To me, this experience was a classic example of why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover; f you do, you will never know the greatness that could be hiding inside.

Dialectics: Love and Responsibility in "Once"

The other day in class, we watched the movie "Once." It was a very cute film with a lot of artistic and meaningful shots in it. One of the main themes in this movie was love. There were many different types of love, such as familial, romantic, friendly, and sometimes even forced. I think that this "forced" love came about because of a crossing of love and responsibility. One of the main characters in "Once" was a married woman who had a daughter, but often had problems with her husband and lived far away from him. During the movie, she fell in romantic love with a man who wasn't her husband, but felt a responsibility to her daughter to remain married to her husband. I felt like this type of love was forced because she was only staying with her husband because it was the "responsible" thing to do. If she had been following her heart and went with the type of love that would have made her happiest, she probably would have ended up with the man she was romantically in love with. When love and responsibility are both considered in making a decision, one will usually prevail.

Blogging Around

The first blog I commented was Eli's. He wrote his "Best of Week" about the short story writing process that we recently began and how the advice of Mr. Allen and one of his peers really helped him begin his story.

My Comment:
Eli-
I agree with you that hearing that we would be writing a short story was intimidating at first and I was also nervous that I would have nothing to write about or that it wouldn't turn out very well. But, it sounds that by listening not only to Mr. Allen, but to your peers, you found a way start writing what could end up being a really good story! I also agree with Jamie that it is interesting that you had a character in mind before you had developed your plot at all. Did you base this character off of somebody you know or did you completely make them up from your imagination? I found it easier to think of a person I know and then create a character with some similar qualities. I hope your story turns out wonderfully!


The next blog I commented on was by Kate Henning. She wrote her "Best of Week" about a comment that Leanne made in class about how Bub could not "see" until he closed his eyes. I commented on this entry because I wrote my "Best of Week" on pretty much the same thing and it interested me to hear another person's point of view on the same topic.

My Comment:
Kate-
Great post! I wrote my "Best of Week" about a similar concept and found it interesting that you thought it was a valuable concept as well. It makes me curious as to what life would be like if I lost one of my senses. Would I be able to understand things that I can't right now? Would I get to know people on a level that seems impossible? I don't think I would actually like to lose one of my senses, but perhaps just interact with somebody who has, such as the interaction between Bub and Robert that you mentioned. "Cathedral" shows that this can also be very beneficial and can teach people a lot about things they never knew they didn't know.

Best of Week: Seeing in "Cathedral"

This week in class we read a short story called Cathedral that had a bit of irony running through it. This irony was that the blind man in the story could see more than the man with vision. Of course the sighted man could literally see more than the blind man in the physical sense, but the blind mad had a better idea of what was going on in the world. He was better at understanding people and their emotions, and could grasp concepts that the sighted man had never even thought about. I think that this is because the blind man could not be fooled by acts that people sometimes try to put on in order to hide their emotions, such as smiling even though they are really hurting on the inside. In Cathedral, the blind man actually teaches the sighted man to look at things in a way that he didn't know he was capable of. That is also ironic, a blind man teaching a sighted man how to see. I can use this lesson from Cathedral in my everyday life by thinking things through more thoroughly and not only trusting my sense of sight to see things for me. I have to dig deeper and look beyond the physical nature of things to really understand them.

What If: We Don't Really Live in the "Real World"

When watching The Matrix and reading Heart of Darkness, a common theme we discussed in class was the concept of a system and a real world. In The Matrix, Morpheus showed Neo that the "world" he thought he had been living in his entire life was just a system within the "real world." Now, this concept may be a little difficult to grasp at first, but is actually possible. We could all be living in a system like Neo thought he was, but really we are all just images and our physical bodies are somewhere on a fetus farm. If this was true, would anybody be able to prove it? Can anybody prove it isn't? Maybe this exact scenario isn't occurring, but perhaps something similar is happening and none of us are aware of it. It seems a little crazy, but I can't help but wonder if something like this is actually going on in the world. Will I ever know for sure? Probably not. But it never hurts to ask the question, "What if?"

Connection: Heart of Darkness and Santa Clause

In the end of The Heart of Darkness, Marlow goes to visit Kurtz's intended. The intended is still heavily grieving over the death of Kurtz and believes that all he wanted on his death bed was to be with the one who understood him most, herself. Marlow recognizes the amount of pain that she is in and knows that telling her about Kurtz's alternate life would crush her. Instead of revealing the truth, he decides to tell her that Kurtz's last words were her name. This situation reminds me of how parents tell their children that Santa exists. They believe that by telling their children this lie, that it will bring them a sense of joy that the truth could not. Now, I'm not saying that there is a dark side to Christmas without believing in Santa. I just believe that there is a similarity in the thought process between Marlow and parents that tell their children about Santa. They both are lying to people in an attempt to bring them happiness because they don't think the truth will bring them the same amount of joy. I know that lying is never the right thing to do, but sometimes it is tempting in order to lie to people because you think it will be better for them in the long run. If I was in the same situation as Marlow, I might have done the same thing; and when I'm a parent one day, I will tell my children about Santa.