Blogging Around

First, I read Alli's blog. She talked about how she liked the prompts to help guide her in her thinking and especially liked the "blogging around" prompt. Here's my comment-

Alli-
Great post! While sometimes it was hard to create a blog post about a topic about which we did not have much to say, I think all in all you are right that it was good to have a starting point that came from the prompts. I also especially agree with you about your favorite prompt; "blogging around" was definitely my favorite too! It was extremely interesting to read what other people in my class were thinking, especially those who don't get a chance to speak up in class much. I am on the same page as you: blogging was, overall, a great way to get thoughts out!

Next, I read Daniel's blog. He talked about how blogging was a good experience for him, and it was beneficial that it was typed, because his thoughts could come out more quickly, thus creating a more natural blog. Here's my comment-

Daniel-
This is a smashing post. I, too, liked the blogs, and how for the most part, they were a really natural way to express our thoughts. I especially liked your point about how blogs are better typed. I can type a whole lot faster than I can write, so it was helpful to be able to pour out whatever was on my mind, and then sort through it. I don't think I can be quite as happy as you that blogging has never been forced or foreign; for me, I have had some forced moments when I have been forced to squeeze out some so-so ideas about a prompt I don't have much to say about. Overall, though, I agree with your post. Great job!

Metacognition: Sophomore Year Blogging

I really enjoyed the blogging process this year. For most prompts, I thoroughly enjoyed spending my time blogging. It was a really great way to let out my feelings about different topics in class and say things that I might not have had the opportunity to say in class. The blogging was only cumbersome to me when I couldn't think of something to write about. And even then, after I came up with a topic, it was enjoyable to write freely and let out my thoughts and feelings. I must admit, though, that there were times when I wish we didn't have to go by a specific blogging prompt and we could just write about whatever was on our minds (relating to English, of course). I feel like when we are limited to certain prompts, there is at least a small amount of pressure to meet requirements, and that's not what blogging should be about. IMHO, it should be for venting and/or speculating and/or just talking about whatever is on the writer's mind at the time.
As for my specific thought process during blogging, a lot of the time I am surprised by ideas I can come up with when I have time to think quietly by myself and reach insights alone. Writing out ideas is great to help me see my thinking and actually be able to think more about it! If I had the chance to blog again, I would maybe spend even more time thinking about really good ideas to put down. The problem is, of course, that it's hard to set aside time for some deep thinking in the midst of other homework and activities.
Overall, though, I really enjoyed the blogging process this year! I would love to be able to do it next year and I think it should be kept in sophomore academy for years to come :]

Best of the Week: Michael can LIVE

This week in our discussion of Michael K, as we got t0 the end of the book, we started talking about how Michael possibly escaped the system by his intense nonconformism. At the end of the book, Michael compassionately imagined a scenario in which he would get water for people who depended on him. He said that if he just had a teaspoon and some string, he would lower the teaspoon and raise it and it would be filled with water and 'in that way... one could live.' I made an attempt to analyze this passage by saying that Michael has realized he can survive by living step by step, but was incorrect. Some of my extremely intelligent classmates later fixed my statement by saying that Michael can not only survive in this way, but live. This was a good discussion to sum up LTMK, because a lot of the book is about finding meaning. The absurd premise of the book makes it hard to find significant meaning in Michael's life, but as a class, we realized how special Michael is because of his ability to escape the system and live his own way. This relates to another point that we discussed this week which was Michael as God, or as a religious or other-worldly figure. Michael is a universal example of someone who escaped the system by living in his non-comformist, under the radar way. Overall, we had a lot of great discussion this week!

Blogging Around

I first commented on Leanne's blog. She wrote about how she doesn't really like her short story, and is basically writing it just for the grade. She wishes she wrote something that she liked and felt confident about. Here's what I said:

Leanne-
I feel EXACTLY the same way. I'm extremely disappointed with my story, too! :[. When I first started writing it, I thought I had a good idea. But then my original plan seemed wrong, and every plan I came up with and have come up with since then seems wrong. It's very disappointing for me, since I really do enjoy writing, and I was looking forward to producing a good story. When I read it, though, I am embarrassed for myself, because it's pretty awful. I'm waiting for a stroke of inspiration that will make me the next Hemingway, or Coetzee, or Bronte, but right now, I just remind myself of a mediocre middle school writer. I hope that changes. Good luck with your story! Just know that there's someone in the same boat as you. :]

Next, I commented on Tessa's blog. She wrote a "What If?" blog, speculating about what it would be like if people lost the ability to love. Here's my comment:

Wow, Tess. What a scary thought! I can't imagine what the world would be like if we lost the ability to love. So much of the future I have imagined for myself (and I'm sure it's similar to the future almost everybody else has imagined for themselves) revolves around love of all different kinds. Really, though, how would the world function without love? If a person cannot love, are they evil? Or are they just empty? Either possibility is ghastly to think about. I think about in Harry Potter, and how people who have received the Dementor's Kiss are described. "Worse than death", they say. I think it would be worse than death, to live unfeelingly. That's not exactly what your post was about, of course, but living without love, whether the emptiness is filled with evil or with nothing, is something very frightening to think about. I am hoping that love is a mechanism that can't be broken, because it is so essential to people and society. Great post!

Metacognition: Short Story

I wish I could say that my thought process was as comfortable and effortless as it was for the Jane Eyre writing assignment. Unfortunately, it was/is much more strenuous for the short story. For me, writing the short story feels like I am hiking up a mountain and I can never get to the top. For an unknown reason, my mind just hasn't clicked with the short story. I find myself struggling to keep it going. It has been an unpleasant surprise that my story is proving so difficult to write since I was originally quite interested in my story's plot. I feel like I am struggling to bring meaning to my story; right now it just seems like an intriguing little tale of a girl and her experience with 9/11. And some stuff happens, and then it's over. To me, my story seems like something a middle school student or elementary school student could write. It's extremely frustrating because I have no idea how to make it better, hard as I may try.
I guess it's not all bad, though! I think I have had moderate success crafting sentences and putting together some fairly good sentences. Every once in a while it happens that a nice sentence presents itself to me in my head.
Overall though, I would really like to be able to somehow have much more ease with this short story writing process. It's disappointing to me that I am struggling so much since I really enjoy this type of writing and have been looking forward to an assignment like this for a long time!

Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing Assignment

This assignment was a collaborative effort. I had an interesting thought process for it, considering I was thinking as three different people. It was very fun to be able to write and think in the voices of and simulate the opinions of different people. And, surprisingly, it was pretty fun! Working with Jamie, we initially intended to outline our discussion. However, that seemed much too contrived an approach to achieve the outcome towards which we were striving. So instead, we decided to just start our discussion and let it lead us wherever it happened to take us. This turned out to be a very effective approach! In my mind, our discussion flowed quite naturally, and I was satisfied with the way it turned out. I think I had a more positive mindset entering this assignment than I had attacking others, because I simply enjoyed and appreciated Jane Eyre much more than I appreciated (/understood) some of the other works we have read.
Once we got rolling on our transcript, it didn't seem to take very long. The quotes and references fell into their places. We had a sort of 'eureka' moment that happened as we played around with the dialogue, and we turned that into the end of our transcript.
For me, this was one of the most satisfying projects I have ever worked on. I would be extremely grateful to have an opportunity to work on a project with this much ease in the future. I was very happy with the end result of our transcript and I hope it receives a grade that reflects that!

What If?: Being a Boy

What if I was born a boy? I am convinced that my life would be much, much easier. Truly, guys have it easier! Jane Eyre has put this thought in my mind even more than usual. First of all, boys clearly do not have nearly as much pressure on them to look good as girls do. I know that I have spent many, many hours fretting over my appearance and comparing myself to other girls. Second, I feel like guys are in general much nicer to each other than girls are. Girls are by nature incredibly dramatic and catty. It makes things extremely difficult and uncomfortable. Also, in relationships, it seems like men have all the control. This isn't just within relationships, but in the circumstances leading up to them as well. Women spend days and months and years fretting over men, but in the end, it really comes down to boys to take initiative. We see how this affects Jane in her longing for Rochester. She has admitted to herself that she is in love with him, and cherishes her moments with him, but Rochester is "committed" (hmm... we'll see) to Blanche and there is nothing she can do about it. While women have gained many political rights and recognition over the years, men still seem to have the upper hand in social and romantic situations. Is this because this is nature, or protocol, or just "how things are supposed to be?" It seems like it would make sense for it to be more accepted for women to have equality in relationships just as they have gained it in other areas. Sometimes tradition is nice (like when it comes to proposals, etc.), but it certainly seems like sometimes boys can be too dumb to be trusted!!

Dialectic: Feminism and Love in Jane Eyre

I will start off by saying I am very unsure if I am doing this blog correctly... but I will do the best I can!

The two major themes of Jane Eyre are feminism and love. The feminism comes up as Jane is continually struggling to gain recognition as an individual in society. Her status as a woman certainly hinders her in the 19th century Victorian world. We see how Jane is extremely thoughtful and intelligent, and if she were a man who perhaps had a little bit of money, she could certainly make a difference in the world. We as readers are constantly impressed by her thoughts and opinions.
And then, along comes Rochester. While Jane impresses he and the readers with the intelligent conversations the two share, when we again gain access to Jane's thoughts we see how her love for Rochester has had at least some effect on her thinking. At the end of Chapter XVI, Jane becomes thoroughly consumed by her anxiety that Rochester will fall for Blanche, the beautiful girl. At this point in the story, it seems to me like she has at least temporarily abandoned her mature, non-conformist thought and is thinking very... conformist-ly. She is acting just how women are supposed to, focused on appearances.
I think it will be interesting to see how Jane's feminist struggle plays out with her love for Rochester as the story progresses. I am hoping that she will be able to both make a feminist stand while finding love. Today, being a strong woman and being in love would not be very remarkable. 200 years ago, though... well, I'm excited! Power to Jane.

Blogging Around

First I commented on Tess's blog post. She talked about how we discussed the importance of objects to humans, and I really liked the point she brought up.

Tess, I really like your post! It is so true how certain "things" can make us feel so many different emotions. So much of our world can only be fully grasped through the senses; many attempts to describe something through words fail miserably. This is the essence of a big challenge for writers: how do you communicate the full beauty, or horror, or sadness, etc. of an object simply through writing? I think I am going to have a difficult time describing things in my short story. It's so hard to show and not tell. Not only does this apply to describing physical objects, but also to showing people's thoughts and reactions. Thanks for a great post! It helped me realize something I really need to focus on when writing my story.

Next I commented on Dylan's blog. He wrote a "What If" blog, contemplating the possibility that in class any random student would be called on and asked to share what they're thinking. Here's my comment:

Dylan- This is an AWESOME idea! Of course, I'm saying that right now after reading about it and how great it could be, and I would probably curse the universe if I was ever called on to share what was going through my head at a given time, but still- it's a good idea. I'm not one to talk very much in class because I think I will never say something that's smart enough. If I was simply asked to share what I was thinking, though, it could generate discussion and I wouldn't be judged because, well, I don't have a ton of control over what thoughts go through my head! This wouldn't work so well if I happened to be daydreaming at the time of being called on... then I would be forced to make up something that I'm not really thinking just to avoid the embarrassment of sharing what I am actually thinking. Really, though. If this worked, it could be awesome! The whole class sharing their thoughts without getting judged? Sounds great to me. A+ idea ! :]

Best of Week: Cathedral

It's hard to choose a specific "Best of Week" moment for this week because we had a couple days of very valuable discussion about Cathedral. My classmates came up with some great ideas about the last line of the story, and also about the transition from short, blunt sentences to more elaborate description and back to short sentences. It's a great learning experience to make note of these writing techniques. It gives me ideas about how to write my short story, though I'm not sure I'll be able to have quite the effect Raymond Carver had. Still, though, it's very helpful for me to have an idea of what I should be aiming for when I write my short story. I have learned that actions speak louder than words in short fiction; it's better to show an emotion than to just say it. I hope that as we talk about more short stories, I will be able to notice some of these writing techniques and I will get better at effectively applying them to my own writing. It's really amazing to read works of such amazing authors; I can't tell if they were born good writers or if it takes practice. Probably a little bit of both... though I hope for my sake it's more of the latter. I'm looking forward to more great discussion this week!

What If: My Life in a Short Story

What if I was given an assignment to portray my life thus far in a short story? How would I do it? What details would I include? I might use specific examples of different times in my life to portray that era of my existence. I might use straightforward summary, simply describing the course of my life. As demonstrated in the short story Boys, though, I think the former would be a more effective option. It was remarkable how powerful it was to get snippets of the universal boys' lives; it was very effective in communicating the essence of the day-to-day happenings. So, what would I include? I think it would be pertinent to talk about going to my friend Colin's house to eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of the teal lunch box nearly every day after preschool. My sister would be frustrated with me; it was HER lunch box. I would speak of sitting in a circle on the carpet during Kindergarten, singing and talking with Mrs. Dandino. I would recall the moment when my parents told my sister and me we were leaving Skokie, how I was excited and Sarah was bawling. I ran to make a hand-crafted "For Sale" and stuck it in the front lawn. I would include the day I got the tour of Wescott from Meghan and Sabrina, my first friends in Northbrook. It was crazy hat day. I would talk about the countless days through the year I would bike just down the street to Meghan's house, to play games we made up in her basement or play outside in the back yard. Summer after summer, winter after winter. What else? Sundays at Northbrook Theatre, learning dances and music, all leading up to the weekend performance days I hotly anticipated. The Halloween I spent trick-or-treating with Josh and Meghan in 3rd grade, when Josh knocked over the lamp post by accident. The recesses at Wescott spent playing wall-ball and four square. The day of registration at Maple, when we first got our lockers and learned how to use the locks. My group of friends, the "Happy Circle"- we were grossly exclusive and spent one memorable evening watching Monty Python and rolling down a hill. The days as president in 8th grade, giving speeches at assemblies, and finally giving our graduation speech on the stage at GBS. The graduation dance, where everybody was crying uncontrollably, speaking of how we would miss the southies so much, even though they would still be living just minutes away. The night before I started high school, eating at Kamehachi with Jenna and Sydney. The first day of school at Academy, how excited we all were to be meeting each other, and how nervous we were for what was to come. The joy of swim season and the pride I felt standing on the block winning an event at JV conference. The exhilaration of water polo and all the energy I expended. The constant nervousness for varsity swimming which turned into true love for the team and the season. All the night spent online talking with friends, but mostly classmates, complaining about homework and frantically preparing for tests.

These are the moments I would include. It's weird to think that this has only been 15 years of my life, that I could live to be 80... or 90... what a thought.

Connection: Almost everybody/Mr. Kurtz and Dumbledore/Grindelwald

Please don't eat me for making a Harry Potter connection! I couldn't help but notice similarities between Mr. Kurtz in HoD and Grindelwald in Harry Potter. Grindelwald was anti- Muggle and was planning a plot to have wizard domination over Muggles. Dumbledore was captivated by Grindlewald and joined him in his quest for wizard domination. On the surface, the pair made their plot seem okay by saying all progress would be for "the greater good," while in reality what they were doing was domineering and evil. In Heart of Darkness, Mr. Kurtz had a captivating quality over not just one person, but many, particularly the Harlequin. In his text, he said "we whites 'must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of supernatural beings- we approach them with the might as of a deity.'" He said "'by the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded.'" In the margin, however ,the words "Exterminate all the brutes" were written. This is very similar to Grindelwald, who got Dumbledore to believe they were doing good, when reality he was all for the extermination of Muggles. Both Kurtz and Grindelwald had power, and people were attracted to it. Both examples show how people's views of what is right can be skewed by the unquenchable thirst for power.