This week our class and I have been working on our poetry projects. It was really fun to research about different poets. I got Sylvia Plath as my poet. Poet and novelist Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts. Sylvia Plath was a gifted and troubled poet, known for the confessional style of her work. Her interest in writing emerged at an early age, and she started out by keeping a journal. After publishing a number of works, Plath won a scholarship to Smith College in 1950. While she was a student, Sylvia Plath spent time in New York City during the summer of 1953 working for Mademoiselle magazine as a guest editor. Soon after, Plath tried to kill herself by taking sleeping pills. She eventually recovered, having received treatment during a stay in a mental health facility. Plath returned to Smith and finished her degree in 1955. A Fulbright Fellowship brought Sylvia Plath to Cambridge University in England. While studying at the university's Newnham College, she met the poet Ted Hughes. The two married in 1956 and had a stormy relationship. In 1957, Plath spent time in Massachusetts to study with poet Robert Lowell and met fellow poet and student Ann Sexton. She also taught English at Smith College around that same time. Plath returned to England in 1959. A poet on the rise, Sylvia Plath had her first collection of poetry, The Colossus, published in England in 1960. That same year, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Freida. Two years later, Plath and Hughes welcomed a second child, a son named Nicholas. Unfortunately, the couple's marriage was failing apart.
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This week I wrote an analysis on the poem All But Blind. In the “All But Blind”, by Walter de la Mare, De la Mare describes three animals and they are considered “blind” to humans. The first animal that De la Mare talks about is a four-clawed mole. Even though it is “blind” it can sustain itself by eating worms. Although to us it might seem blind, the mole is perfectly capable of taking care of itself. The second animal he talked about was a bat. To us humans, we think that bats have really bad eye sight, but in the evening sky a bat twirls softly by. The third animal he talks about is a barn owl. The barn owl is the same with the mole and the bat. It is blind like the bat and the mole. The owl tries to fly in the burning day. De la Mare is saying in the last four lines that just as we think that the mole, bat, and barn owl are blind, others think that we are blind because we don’t see as they do. This poem is an example of imagery of the sense sight. I was able to imagine the mole trying to find worms, the bat gracefully flying, and the barn owl trying to fly in the burning day. Overall, De la Mare was trying to tell us that we sometimes are perceived as blind. Walter de la Mare was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for subtle psychological horror stories, amongst them "Seaton's Aunt" and "Out of the Deep". His 1921 novel Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and his post-war Collected Stories for Children won the 1947 Carnegie Medal for British children's books. In ELA class we finished Heart of a Samurai. As a class we read the epilogue Manjiro became a teacher. Then Commodore Matthew Perry and his American ships entered Edo Bay in July 1853 and asked for access to Japan's ports. Manjiro was asked to go to Edo and turned into a samurai for his knowledge and expertise about America. Manjiro eventually advised the ruling government to end its isolationist policies and open itself up to America, after all, it wasn't like they had any weapons that would scare America off. On March 31, 1854, Japan and the U.S. sign a treaty of peace and friendship, thereby ending Japan's isolationism. Even though Manjiro was so influential with the shogun, for the rest of his life, people were suspicious of him; he even hired a bodyguard due to the threats against his life. Even so, he achieved many things: He wrote and translated some major books; he taught math, English, and sea navigation. He began the whaling industry in Japan and served as an interpreter for the first embassy to the U.S. He also managed to visit the Whitfields again, when he was forty-three years old. He was married three times and had three kids. He wore a hybrid of Western and Japanese fashion, and he always had a breakfast of toast and coffee. The friendship between the Whitfields and Manjiro lives on in a broader context through the Japan-America Grassroots Summit. Fairhaven and Tosashimizu (a city near Manjiro's hometown) are also sister cities. Manjiro died at age seventy-one. This Wednesday, is Ash Wednesday. It is the first day of Lent. Ash Wednesday is named after the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of faithful as a reminder of human mortality, and as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting, is the first day of Lent . It occurs 46 days (40 fasting days, if the 6 Sundays, which are not days of fast, are excluded) before Easter and can fall as early as 4 February or as late as 10 March. Ash Wednesday is one of the most popular and important holy days in the liturgical calendar. Ash Wednesday opens Lent, a season of fasting and prayer. Ash Wednesday takes place 46 days before Easter Sunday, and is chiefly observed by Catholics, although many other Christians observe it too. Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes symbolize the dust from which God made us. As the priest applies the ashes to a person's forehead, he speaks the words: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Lent is a period of 40 days before Easter during which many Christians do not eat certain foods or do certain pleasurable activities as a way of remembering the suffering of Jesus Christ. Lent is the Christian season of preparation before Easter. In Western Christianity, Ash Wednesday marks the first day, or the start of the season of Lent, which begins 40 days prior to Easter (Sundays are not included in the count).Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline. The purpose is to set aside time for reflection on Jesus Christ - his suffering and his sacrifice, his life, death, burial and resurrection. Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting, is the first day of Lent . It occurs 46 days (40 fasting days, if the 6 Sundays, which are not days of fast, are excluded) before Easter and can fall as early as 4 February or as late as 10 March. Ash Wednesday is one of the most popular and important holy days in the liturgical calendar. Ash Wednesday opens Lent, a season of fasting and prayer. Ash Wednesday takes place 46 days before Easter Sunday, and is chiefly observed by Catholics, although many other Christians observe it too. Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes symbolize the dust from which God made us. As the priest applies the ashes to a person's forehead, he speaks the words: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." This week was Catholic Schools Week! You can always remember when catholic schools week is coming up because it is the week after Open House which is on the thirty-first of January. On Monday we celebrated all those in service. In ELA we wrote letters to policemen, firemen, FBI agents, etc. I wrote a letter to Chief Battalion Steve Rueda. He was at the NJHS Ceremony. He told us to always stay above the line, not below the line. Also that day the 8th graders served breakfast for the parishioner. On Tuesday it was Student Day! We were allowed to come in any Sport’s Team uniform. We also had lunch with our glow buddy's on the field. It was like a picnic. After we ate lunch, we saw the staff and the 8th graders verse in a volleyball game. At the end, 8th grade won. YAY! On Wednesday, it was in Our Nation Day. The whole school got to wear blue, red, and white. I wore my red softball socks. On Thursday, it was Grandparents/ Visitors Day. Last year my grandma didn't come, but this year my mom came. It was fun because my piers got to meet and know my mom better. I also got to know the grandparents from my piers. For example, I didn't know that Skye's grandma would play on the freeway when it was being built by her brothers. WOW! Also I didn't know that Ryan's grandma was bullied when she was a kid :(. On Friday, it is Teacher Aprecciation Day. It is a day to thank the teacher for all they have done for us. This year we are giving Ms. Stronks a poetry book filled with poems that we all made her. I hope she likes it! This week our class finished reading Harrison Bergeron. It had an unexpected ending. Our whole class was surprised! It's the year 2081, and George and Hazel Bergeron have a son, Harrison. Unfortunately for them, the government took him away when he was fourteen years old. See, someone once decided that George Bergeron is of above-average intelligence, so he's had a radio implanted in his ear. Piercing sirens, crashes, and booms go off periodically to hinder his thought process. (His wife, Hazel, on the other hand, is spectacularly average. No handicaps on her.) Anyway, one night in 2081, the Bergeron's are sitting in front of the TV watching ballet—bad ballet, with ballerinas wearing masks to hide their beauty and weights to hinder their grace and strength. The Ballet is interrupted when one of the ballerinas has an urgent government news announcement to make. Harrison Bergeron has escaped! An escaped convict is just what any boring ballet, opera, or interpretive dance routine needs to liven things up a bit, and boy does it get lively when Harrison himself rips off the door to the stage and storms on screen. He declares himself Emperor and takes one of the ballerinas as his Empress. Just what this society needs to pull it from its homogenized doldrums: a crazed monarchy. Anyway, the two of them dance, fly through the air, kiss the ceiling, then kiss each other. There's a whole lot of kissing. But the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers, doesn't seem to care much for kissing , since she shoots them both dead with a shotgun. The Bergeron's' television blows out and goes dark. Must have been a faulty bulb—no way it was government intervention, right? But then it turns out that George had gone to get a beer, so it appears he missed the whole thing. Hazel cries, but soon can't remember why. Life quickly returns to normal. Today in ELA class we started reading Harrison Bergeron. It is a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut. Kurt Vonnegut was born November 11, 1922, Indianapolis, IN. He died April 11, 2007, Manhattan, New York City, NY. He was an American author. Kurt Vonnegut published fourteen novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction. He had seven children. Vonnegut attended Cornell University, but dropped out in January 1943 and fought in world war two. After the war, Vonnegut married Jane Marie Cox, with whom he had three children. He later adopted his sister's three sons, after she died of cancer and her husband died in a train accident.Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952. The novel was reviewed positively, but was not commercially successful. In the nearly twenty years that followed, Vonnegut published several novels that were only marginally successful, such as Cat's Cradle (1963) and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1964). Vonnegut's magnum opus, however, was his immediately successful sixth novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. The book's antiwar sentiment resonated with its readers amidst the ongoing Vietnam War, and its reviews were generally positive. After its release, Slaughterhouse-Five went to the top of The New York Times Best Seller list, thrusting Vonnegut into fame. He was invited to give speeches, lectures, and commencement addresses around the country and received many awards and honors. Later in his career, Vonnegut published several autobiographical essay and short-story collections, including Fates Worse Than Death (1991), and A Man Without a Country (2005). After his death, he was hailed as a morbidly comical commentator on the society in which he lived, and as one of the most important contemporary writers. Vonnegut's son Mark published a compilation of his father's unpublished compositions, titled Armageddon in Retrospect. Numerous scholarly works were released, examining Vonnegut's writing and humor. This week in ELA, our class we watched a slide show on how to read a poem. There’s really only one reason that poetry has gotten a reputation for being so darned “difficult”: it demands your full attention and won’t settle for less. Unlike a novel, where you can drift in and out and still follow the plot, poems are generally shorter and more intense, with less of a conventional story to follow. If you don’t make room for the experience, you probably won’t have one. But the rewards can be high. To make an analogy with rock and roll, it’s the difference between a two and a half minute pop song with a hook that you get sick of after the third listen, and a slow-building tour de force that sounds fresh and different every time you hear it. Once you’ve gotten a taste of the really rich stuff, you just want to listen to it over and over again and figure out: how’d they do that? Aside from its demands on your attention, there’s nothing too tricky about reading a poem. Like anything, it’s a matter of practice. But in case you haven’t read much (or any) poetry before, we’ve put together a short list of tips that will make it a whole lot more enjoyable. Follow Your Ears. It’s okay to ask, “What does it mean?” when reading a poem. But it’s even better to ask, “How does it sound?” If all else fails, treat it like a song. Even if you can’t understand a single thing about a poem’s “subject” or “theme,” you can always say something – anything – about the sound of the words. Does the poem move fast or slow? Does it sound awkward in sections or does it have an even flow? Do certain words stick out more than others? Trust your inner ear: if the poem sounds strange, it doesn’t mean you’re reading it wrong. In fact, you probably just discovered one of the poem’s secret tricks! If you get stuck at any point, just look for Shmoop’s “Sound Check” section. Read It Aloud. OK, we’re not saying you have to shout it from the rooftops. If you’re embarrassed and want to lock yourself in the attic and read the poem in the faintest whisper possible, go ahead. Do whatever it takes, because reading even part of poem aloud can totally change your perspective. Picture has a link. This week in our class we learned about intensive and reflexive pronoun. Most Intensive and Reflexive pronouns end in self or selves. Some examples are: myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, and themselves. An Intensive pronoun is used to emphasize a preceding noun or pronoun. An example is, my mother paid for her education as a vet herself. The Intensive pronoun is "herself". Another example is, I myself want to become a doctor. In this case, the Intensive pronoun is "myself". A hint for Intensive pronouns is if you can take out the Intensive pronoun in the sentence does it make sense? If it does than it is a Intensive it is an Intensive pronoun. If it is not than it is a reflexive pronoun. A reflexive pronoun is used as the direct or indirect object of a verb or as the object of a preposition. For example: We considered ourselves considerate enough to handle a dog. The reflexive pronoun is "ourselves" and it is the Direct Object of the sentence. A second example is: They bought themselves a dog yesterday. The reflexive pronoun in this sentence is "themselves" and it is an Indirect Object. The last example is: Mike takes care of his pets by himself. The reflexive pronoun in this sentence is "himself" and it is the Object of the Preposition. Intensive and Reflexive pronouns can either be first, second, or third person. First person Intensive and Reflexive pronouns are: myself, which is singular, and ourselves, which is plural. Second person Intensive and Reflexive pronouns are: yourself, which is singular, and yourselves, which is plural. Third person Intensive and Reflexive pronouns are himself, herself, and itself, which are singular, and themselves, which is plural. Zeus was the god of the sky and ruler of the Olympian gods. He overthrew his father, Cronus, and then drew lots with his brothers Poseidon and Hades, in order to decide who would succeed their father on the throne. Zeus won the draw and became the supreme ruler of the gods, as well as lord of the sky and rain. His weapon was a thunderbolt which he hurled at those who displeased or defied him, especially liars and oath breakers. He was married to Hera but often tested her patience, as he was infamous for his many affairs. Zeus, the presiding deity of the universe, ruler of the skies and the earth, was regarded by the Greeks as the god of all natural phenomena on the sky; the personification of the laws of nature; the ruler of the state; and finally, the father of gods and men. Using his shield, the Aegis, Zeus could create all natural phenomena related to the air and the sky, such as storms, tempests, and intense darkness. At his command, mighty thunders would flash and lightning would roll, wreaking havoc; or the skies would open to rejuvenate the earth with life-giving water.As the personification of the operations of nature, he represented the grand laws of unchanging and harmonious order, by which both the natural and the spiritual world were governed. He was the god of regulated time as marked by the changing seasons and the regular succession of day and night, in contrast to what his father Cronus represented before him; absolute time, i.e. eternity. As the ruler of the state, he was the source of kingly power, the upholder of all institutions connected to the state, and the friend and patron of princes, whom he guarded and assisted with his advice and counsel. He was also the protector of the people, and watched over the welfare of the whole community. As the father of the gods, Zeus ascertained that each deity perform their individual duty, punished their misdeeds, settled their disputes, and acted towards them on all occasions as their all-knowing counsellor and mighty friend. As the father of men, he took a paternal interest in the actions and well-being of mortals. He watched over them with tender solicitude, rewarding truth, charity, and fairness, while severely punishing perjury and cruelty. Even the poorest and most forlorn wanderer could find a powerful advocate in Zeus, for he, as a wise and merciful paternal figure, demanded that the wealthy inhabitants of the earth be attentive to the needs of their less fortunate fellow citizens. Picture has a link. |
Julia Godinez
I am creative and helpful. I also love to make new friends Archives
June 2016
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