Sunday, June 1, 2014

Masterpiece Academy Question


            Over the past year, being part of a course that practices open source learning has made an impact on me. Having a teacher that trust us and given us a sense of importance and at the same time puts a great deal of responsibility on ourselves. Learning was practically placed into our own hands and whether we just brushed it off or made the most of it was left up to us. But I think we did deserve it. The past three years we were treated as children and were not able to take our own ideas and put them into practice. We had to follow a strict set of rules and everything had to be done in a certain way. And being put through all that, does mean we earn it. Sometimes, however, I think we did take advantage of the large amount of freedom we were given but all in all we did honor and I think every single student got at least one thing out of the course if not more.            

            One character we can all relate with to some extent is Bernard Marx in Brave New World. Although it might not be our entire life like him, at one point or another we all feel like the odd one out. But it’s normal. It’s high school. We are all trying to find ourselves while at the same time fit in, and somehow get decent grades between all of this. One work we can all relate to as well is the Allegory of the Cave. Before Preston’s class we didn’t know any better. We didn’t know we could take learning into our own hands and approach it in any way possible. And although we are slowly starting to turn our heads, we don’t know exactly what this “world” outside of college is going to be like. We all have a little ignorance just like the prisoners watching the shadows did.

            From my own masterpiece, I was able to reconnect with my passion for reading. This passion had gone stagnant once I entered high school and I was able to pick it back up some junior year, but not as much as I would have liked to because I was so busy, but centering my masterpiece around reading gave me the time to actually do what I love to do. From other group’s masterpieces and senior year itself, I discovered my passion for adventure and making memories in general. I’ve learned that it’s extremely important to make the most out of the time and things you have in front of you and not just wait around for something better. Because one day, you are going to wake up and realize it’s gone and your are going to wish you had done it differently.

            Videos have made me “laugh out loud” over the year in this course. For the final presentations last year, a group of us reenacted different scenes of the pieces of literature. And surprisingly, it didn’t even feel like work. We basically were hanging out, just being ourselves, but happened to thrown in some pieces of literature here and there. The scene we recorded where Ophelia drowns was one of the best. We were crying because we were laughing at Whitney so hard, and every time we watch the edit of it we snicker. I also “laughed out loud” at Breanna’s recording of her adventure of skydiving.

            A unifying theme between at least five of the presentations I have seen over the past two weeks is the idea of making memories and making the most out of the time you’re given. In the blink of an eye, high school was over for all of us and now we only have the memories we created to look back on. And we all have plenty to look back on but if we weren’t looking forward to college and our future as much we would have had that much more time to make more memories. In Hayley’s presentation, all the graduates that she interviewed said that they miss how close everyone was in high school and the memories that had created. And in Hannah, Taylor, and Meghan’s masterpiece they decided to document the memories they did create over the past year, and thankfully I am in a lot of it.

            I think I responded to the call of adventure whole-heartedly and made the most out of my senior year. I created memories with my friends that I will cherish for life and that brings a sense of relieve to me because I know that we won’t always be as close as we are now, but if we reconnect in the future or call each other up one day, we have created a strong foundation between all of us and that is something you can’t buy.  

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Gridlock

Poem #1

(Undecided by group so far)

Poem #2

Full Moon

No longer throne of a goddess to whom we pray,
no longer the bubble house of childhood's
tumbling Mother Goose man,

The emphatic moon ascends –
the brilliant challenger of rocket experts,
the white hope of communications men.

Some I love who are dead
were watchers of the moon and knew its lore;
planted seeds, trimmed their hair,

Pierced their ears for gold hoop earrings
as it waxed or waned.
It shines tonight upon their graves.

And burned in the garden of Gethsemane,
its light made holy by the dazzling tears
with which it mingled.

And spread its radiance on the exile's path
of Him who was The Glorious One,
its light made holy by His holiness.

Already a mooted goal and tomorrow perhaps
an arms base, a livid sector,
the full moon dominates the dark.
-Robert Hayden


Analysis (TP-CASTT)
Title: Going to be about the moon
Paraphrase: The moon used to be a goddess or a part of children's stories, and everyone used it like farmers for example. But now it is just a destination for astronauts.
Connotation: Used words to mourn over how the past is lost. For example, no longer.
Attitude: Hayden is dismal and gloomy over how society sees the moon now-a-days.
Shift: In the last stanza. Source of light to source of darkness.
Title Revisited: The moon will always be there but generations all look at it differently
Theme: Everything eventually loses its meaning or importance


Poem #3

A Summer's Dream

To the sagging wharf
few ships could come.
The population numbered
two giants, an idiot, a dwarf,

a gentle storekeeper
asleep behind his counter,
and our kind landlady—
the dwarf was her dressmaker.

The idiot could be beguiled
by picking blackberries,
but then threw them away.
The shrunken seamstress smiled.

By the sea, lying
blue as a mackerel,
our boarding house was streaked
as though it had been crying.

Extraordinary geraniums
crowded the front windows,
the floors glittered with
assorted linoleums.

Every night we listened
for a horned owl.
In the horned lamp flame,
the wallpaper glistened.

The giant with the stammer
was the landlady’s son,
grumbling on the stairs
over an old grammar.

He was morose,
but she was cheerful.
The bedroom was cold,
the feather bed close.

We were awakened in the dark by
the somnambulist brook
nearing the sea,
still dreaming audibly. 

-Elizabeth Bishop

Analysis (TP-CASTT):
Title: I assume that the writer is going to imagine how she'd like her summer to go
Paraphrase: The writer is talking about scenarios that could happen during the summer like the idiot picking berries and hearing the owl.
Connotation: Simple at first but then incorporates imagery in the fourth and fifth verse.
Attitude: Nostalgic
Shift: From first verse to second verse. Dark yet comical fairytale and then we learn that the dwarf is the lady's dressmaker
Title Revisited: She is capturing how the contents of a dream make sense.
Theme: Enjoy the simple things

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Seventh Reading

My group: Annette, Ian, Tay, Hannah, & Meghan

3 Poems:
  • Elizabeth Bishop
  • Robert Hayden
  • William C. Williams
Poem I read (7+ times)

A Summer’s Dream

To the sagging wharf
few ships could come.
The population numbered
two giants, an idiot, a dwarf,

a gentle storekeeper
asleep behind his counter,
and our kind landlady—
the dwarf was her dressmaker.

The idiot could be beguiled
by picking blackberries,
but then threw them away.
The shrunken seamstress smiled.

By the sea, lying
blue as a mackerel,
our boarding house was streaked
as though it had been crying.

Extraordinary geraniums
crowded the front windows,
the floors glittered with
assorted linoleums.

Every night we listened
for a horned owl.
In the horned lamp flame,
the wallpaper glistened.

The giant with the stammer
was the landlady’s son,
grumbling on the stairs
over an old grammar.

He was morose,
but she was cheerful.
The bedroom was cold,
the feather bed close.

We were awakened in the dark by
the somnambulist brook
nearing the sea,
still dreaming audibly.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Macbeth Act 5 Notes

  • Lady Macbeth sleeps walks talking about the murders of Banquo and Lady Macduff and claims she sees blood on her hands that will never wash off
  • Outside the Scottish lords talk about the military situation, and then the English and Scottish decide to join forces. Macbeth has fortified Dunsinane Castle and is making his military preparations in a mad rage
  • Macbeth comes into hall of Dunsinane saying he is not scared of the English or Malcolm army because "none of woman born" can harm him 
  • Malcolm talks with English lord about Macbeth's plan. They agree to have each soldier cut down a branch to hide their numbers when they approach the castle
  • Once outside the castle, Malcolm tells the soldiers to get rid of their boughs and draw their swords.
  • Macbeth slays Lord Siward’s son and disappears in the fray
  • Malcolm and Siward emerge and enter the castle
  • Macbeth and Macduff are battling and Macbeth says he is invincible because of the witches' prophecy while Macduff says he was not woman born because his mother's womb was ripped and Macbeth is scared but says he will not surrender "to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feed/ And to be baited with rabble's curse'
  • Malcolm and Siward walk in the castle they have captured.
  • Ross tells Siward that his son is dead
  • Macduff enters with Macbeth's head and says Malcolm is King of Scotland
  • Malcolm calls all those around his friends and invites them to see him crowned at Scone while cursing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

Macbeth Act 4 notes

  •  Hecate comes by and compliments the witches who are chanting in a circle
  • "By the pricking of my thumbs/ something wicked comes this way"
  • Macbeth asks the witches to reveal the prophecies: floating head says to beware Macduff, bloody child comes and "none of women born shall harm Macbeth", crowned child holding a tree says he is safe until Birnan Wood moves to Dunisane Hill, and lastly, eight crown kings walk by and the last one (Banquo's ghost) is holding a mirror
  • The witches vanish before Macbeth can learn the meanings of the prophesies
  • Macbeth learns through Lennox that Macduff has feld to England
  • Macbeth sends murderers to Macduff's castle to kill his wife and children
  • Lady Macbeth asks Ross why her husband has left and is ignoring her, he says he trusts Macbeth
  • Lady Macduff tells her son Macduff is dead but he doesn't belive it
  • Lady Macduff learns she is in danger but is confused as to why because she has done nothing wrong
  • The murderers come and say Macduff is dead but the son calls him a liar so he stabs him and
  • To test Macduff's loyalty Macolm says he is not fit to be king because he is greedy and violent and says he will be a good king 
  • Macduff's loyalty to Scotland is proven when he agrees he's not fit to be king and he runs back
  • A doctor comes in and says “crew of wretched souls” waits for King Edward so they may be cured, and Malcolm explains to Macduff that the king can cure diseases
  • Ross tells Macduff that his wife an children are well and says he needs to return to his country
  • Malcolm says he will return there with 10,000 soldiers lent from King Edward
  • Ross breaks down and says his wife and children were actually murdered
  • Malcolm says to turn grief to anger and inflict revenge upon Macbeth 

Sunday, April 13, 2014

The Crossroad Between Should and Must

Articles like this one, or any "make you think" type things, always get to me, and make me re-evaluate what I am doing with my life. When I get older, I want to look back and see how the fun and memorable experiences I have created during my lifetime. Personally, I can say I have made some great ones so far, but I know there is plenty of time left on my clock and I'm not entirely sure what I want to do yet.

Currently, I have taken the "should" path with school, because everything seems pointless now. I know where I am going to college, I know what I want to major in, and what job I want, yet high school has trapped me from going out and doing what I want. However, I plan on taking the "must" path in college. I want to make the most out of those four years, before I really have to settle down and focus on my job. My job, however, will be what I love to do, spend time with kids. But in college, or the years right after, I want to travel and be adventurous.

However, after all that being said, I do want to take the "must" path now. Maybe not with school, but with other areas of my life. We are all young and should be enjoying life, and nothing can stop us.