Final Reflection

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

     I've learned so many things this year, it's hard to pick three. I would have to say that the AOW's have taught me a lot throughout the year. Last year, I learned what I wanted to learn through the AOW's, but with the gallery walks I've learned what other people wanted to learn. This not only improved my knowledge of the world, but also in the people presenting it. They shared not only what the article was about, but their opinion. Which brings me to the butterfly project, we got to view people's opinions on different poems. I, personally, don't analyze poems very well, so it was interesting to see how other people did this. I was actually able to improve the way I analyze things, like poems and songs, through my peers. The socratic seminars also played an important role this year, even though we didn't have a lot of them. I feel it's important to share your thoughts on things, including books, so I think the socratic seminars were a great way to share each others opinions. 

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

     I believe that the To Kill a Mockingbird feast is something that I won't forget. I was able to try many different types of foods that I would have never known existed. I feel like the feast was able to connect us with the characters in the book more than just discussing it. I also thought it was kind of funny how we put the tables together like a Thanksgiving feast (even though when we brought food in for Thanksgiving, we ate separately). To me, it felt like we were a family from different branches of life. Which, in a way, connects to the book, because Atticus accepted everyone's opinions even if they were from a different background. The one moment I will remember forever from the feast is the different faces people made after trying sardines. I will always replay Emily's cringeworthy face after she bit into a sardine. Priceless!

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

     Many people have been extremely nice to me this year, and if I don't thank you here, I want you to know that I do thank you. Anyway, some specific examples are people helping me with my homework or just helping me understand something I didn't understand. Maria has always been there for me, helping me understand certain things on my AOW's and blogs. Gustavo has also helped me out by proof-reading my essay. Abdiel has always helped me catch up on note/work when I was absent. This are just few of many that have helped me throughout the school year.

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

     I would like to think that I taught my peers to always have a good time and enjoy yourself. I've experienced a lot of stress this year and I've always tried to still have a good time. I don't know if my peers have caught on to this, but I always try to make people's days. I enjoy seeing people laugh and have a good time, because it makes me laugh and have a good time. I wanted to teach my peers that it's great to laugh and to help others laugh if they are having a bad day.

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

     I feel like I majorly improved in my writing skills. We did many essay which is probably want helped the most, but the blogs and AOW write-ups helped too. The frequent writing, in general, helped a lot, and even though I still can't spell every well, I am able to use correct grammar, which is probably one of the things I am proud of this year. Knowing that I can correct people's error makes feel happy on the inside, I guess. I also am proud of the To Kill a Mockingbird thematic essay that we work on for a while. I feel like I did really well on it, adding textual evidence when needed, and interpreting it extremely well. 

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

     The most challenging part this year would have to be my hardships with procrastinating. Well, I guess they wouldn't be hardships, but I'll just call them that. Anyway, porcrastinating is something that is so easy to do, but kind of hard to say no to. There was this little devil on my shoulder that somehow always found a way to make me think it was fine to do this later, or that later. If I were to give advice to next year's kids, it'll have to be to not procrastinate. Many of us had trouble this year and I think that the incoming kids shouldn't listen to that little devil on thier shoulder. 

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

     I believe that my best piece of writing this year would have to be the Blackfish/SeaWorld argumentative essay. We spent so much time on it; gathering information and then making sure we knew how to cite it correcting. The only problem with the essay were some framer errors that I'm trying to work on. Not only do I think this is my best essay, but I also learned a lot and know that I will maintain ths information for the rest of my life. 

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

     My favorite book of the year would have to be Forget Me. I find it kind of funny that I would not have even known this book existed if I didn't get bored and decide to steal one of my sister's book. Anyway, I really liked this book because it had mystery and romance. I don't like a book when it's all about romance, but all mystery I'm all for it. Forget Me got me really engaged and I couldn't stop reading it. The end was kind of a twist and really shocked me. There were many good books this year, since I expanded my genres.

Aphorism Drawing

"Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live." This was one of many famous aphorisms made by Morrie Schwartz. In Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie tries to get Mitch to fully understand the meaning of this aphorism: "'I'm going to say it again,' he said. 'Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.' He smiled, and I realized what he was doing. He was making sure I absorbed this point, without embarrassing me by asking." Now, I think that this can be interpreted in many ways, but to me, I think it is talking about how we take many things for granted. I think that when you learn how to die, you start to realize the little things in life; making you learn how to live life to the fullest; taking risks every now and then. I believe that this was Morrie's main message from this aphorism. That people who haven't welcomed death, don't truly know how to not take things for granted.

I found this aphorism to relate not really to a historical event, but rather a historical person; Martin Luther King Jr.. You see, this aphorism is mainly about taking risk and facing death, but also not taking things for granted, Martin Luther King Jr. does all of this. He preaches and protests even though he knew there was a target on his back. He knew that if he kept protesting, he would eventually die, but he took that risk to help others. I suppose you can say that he didn't take his own life for granted. He put others before himself and he died for others. He didn't just get killed in a robbery, he got assassinated for helping others. Martin Luther King Jr., to me, is one of the best examples for this aphorism.

I couldn't agree more with this aphorism. Well, I guess if I'm actually dying and I know how it feels to die, I would get this sort of "Ah, ha." moment; making me understand it even more. The point is that I do agree with what this aphorism is trying to say. I believed that no one could not take anything for granted, but that all changed after I read Tuesday with Morrie. Morrie made me see that when someone is dying, they truly view life as a gift, hence, "Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live." I honestly, don't know how someone could not agree with this aphorism. I don't know how someone could think that a person who only experienced life can know everything.

Tuesdays with Morrie: Week of 4/27/15

All six of the Tuesdays have had an impact on me, but I think the fifth Tuesday really got to me. You see, I'm not that involved with my family. I mean, I try my best to be connected with my family, but it just isn't easy for me. I see my mom probably five minutes a day when she's working, so I don't really get to talk with her besides the whole, "Hi, have a nice day, I love you." When she isn't working, I also seem to have things going on with school, whether it's homework or an activity. I see my dad on regular basis, so my relationship with him is much stronger. My sister is always at school or work so I don't see much of her either. We all love each other, but don't see much of each other. I'm just telling you this because I figured you needed background as to why this Tuesday impacted me the most.

Morrie had told Mitch, "This is part of what a family is about, not just love, but letting others know there's someone who is watching out for them." This is what made me really think about my life. Remember how earlier I said we all love each other, but don't see much of each other, well, it's kinda hard to think someone is watching out for you, when you don't see them. I mean, I know my family is watching out for me and I hope they know I'm doing the same, but it's nice to be reminded from time to time. I know, this might sound like I'm complaining, and in a way I am, but this chapter really made me think about my family life and I want to share what went on in my head. Sometimes, I'll think about my life, but I never really thought about my family before.

Morrie had a lot to say about family, perhaps it's because of his rough childhood or his own family, but the point is that he knows a lot. One of the things is said is, "If you don't have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don't have much at all." I tried to challenge this statement by thinking of other things that are as important as family. I thought and thought, but at the end I found nothing; family always came up on top. This whole blog post has been me complaining, but now that I'm rethinking about my family is pretty awesome. We may not see each other as often as I would like to, but we make an okay family. I mean, we don't show it every day, but we all know we love and support each other. Morrie has really opened my mind to many things. Hopefully throughout the other Tuesday's I can learn some more.

Tuesdays with Morrie: Week of 4/20/15

Tuesdays with Morrie has been an awesome book. I'm never really hyped when we start a new book, but I always come out loving it; this is exactly what's happening with Tuesdays with Morrie. I find sweet of Mitch to go back and visit Morrie after so long. Mitch could have continued with his life and not go visit Morrie, but that connection came back to him. At first, the connection wasn't very strong, but as Mitch goes to Morrie's every Tuesday, we see the connection start to rebuild. I like how the book tells the present and then explains some of the past. It shows how the bond between Morrie and Mitch has changed. Overall, I think I will really enjoy this book.

Almost everyone has this thing called a bucket list or things that they want to do before they die. I personally think that bucket lists are dumb. You write down things you think will be fun, and if you don't complete it then, oh well. I just don't think that bucket lists serve a purpose. I feel like people should live life and not just write things down. If you find something you want to do, then go out and do it. I don't really have a bucket list, and I don't really want to make one, but I guess I have to, so here it goes.

- Skydive
- Go to DisneyLand
- Go to England
- Go bungie jumping
- Hang glide
- Go scuba diving
- Ride in a helicopter
- Meet my favorite actors/actresses
- Meet my favorite youtubers
- Go to the Canada side of Niagara Falls
- Go dog sled
- Go to Hawaii
- Ride a Segway
- Attempt to ride a unicycle
- Go to the Kentucky Derby
- Go horseback riding on a beach
- Go skiing
- Go to LA
- Go to Hollywood
- Pet a Kangaroo
- Pet a Koala
- Have a camp fire on a beach
- Rope-swing into a lake/river
- Go paint balling
- Learn another language
- Bring Jenna Jr. back from the dead

Life is Beautiful Comparison: Week of 4/13/15

The book, Night, and the movie, Life is Beautiful, share many similarities. The main one, I believe, is the father and son bond that is shown throughout both sources. Even though these two things have this in common, they also differ in some ways. Night shows how the Holocaust can make someone lose that precious bond between father and son. When Elie's father dies he thinks, "Free at last!" (Wiesel). This shows that Wiesel saw his father as just another thing to worry about. On the other hand, Life is Beautiful, focuses more on the strength of a father and son bond. There is not one part that demonstrates this; it's the whole movie. Guido creates this lie just to make sure his son keeps his innocence. I say that's the father of the year, right there. 

The mood in Night, and Life is Beautiful differ from each other substantial way. Night focuses on the many of the negative things on the Holocaust like the deaths and dangers. I'm not saying that there's a positive side of the Holocaust, but Life is Beautiful, focuses more on the father and son bond than anything else. With Guido's personality the movie was actually funny. This was interesting because funny and the Holocaust isn't something that should be used in the same sentence. I thought it was a interesting take on the holocaust. I never thought anything was funny in Night, so I feel like this is a major difference. 

I believe that you could say life was beautiful thoughtout most of the movie. At the beginning, life was gorgeous; it couldn't have been better. In fact, the first 30 - 40 minutes was just a sappy love story. When the main characters were sent to the concentration camp, life began to become more gloomy for most. I say most because I believe Joshua still viewed life as beautiful. I only think this because he did not know the truth about things. At the end, life became beautiful once again. Even though Guido died, he succeed with his goal of having his son keep his innocence. Plus, when Joshua and Dora reunit, life couldn't have been better. 

Night: Week of 3/30/15

Night focuses on a lot of father and son bonds; expressed through Elie, and many other character. The main bond is that of Elie and his father, but the others play an important role in the story line. The story starts off explaining Elie’s bond with his father before the he is taken to the camps: “He rarely displayed his feelings, not even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (Wiesel 4). This shows that Elie’s father was not very close to Elie, not anyone in the family, actually. This is also shown when Elie’s cousin approaches his father while they are in Birkenau: “My father had not recognized him. He must have barely known him, always being up to his neck in communal affairs and not knowledgeable in family matter. He was always elsewhere, lost in thought” (Wiesel 43). This shows that not only did Elie’s father not share his feelings with his family, but he didn’t socialize with other relatives.

Even though Elie’s relationship with his father wasn’t very solid, it held up when they were being separated from the women of the family. All Elie could think about was not losing his father in a time like this: “My head was buzzing; the same thought surfacing over and over: not to be separated from my father” (Wiesel 35). This was from the first time Elie stepped inside a concentration camp, but this behavior repeats throughout the story. In section five when Elie could barely walk with his injured foot, he didn’t want to be separated from his father: “As for me, I was thinking not about death but about not wanting to be separated from my father” (Wiesel 82). In section six when Elie’s father was chosen as weak, he wouldn’t accept it: “My father was sent to the left. I ran after him” (Wiesel 96). Lastly, in section eight when the same thing that happened at Elie's first time in a concentration camp occurred again, the old fear still remained: “I tightened my grip on my father’s hand. The old, familiar fear: not to lose him” (Wiesel 104). All of these are examples of Elie wanted to stay close to his father during their stay at the different concentration camps. At the beginning, staying with his father was an instinct, but at the end, it was a routine.

Elie wants to be close to his father, but that doesn’t stop him from feeling angry towards him. Elie feels a lot of anger when he is in Auschwitz, even towards those who don’t deserve it: “I had watched it all happening without moving. I kept silent. In fact, I thought of stealing away in order not to suffer the blows. What’s more, if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father” (Wiesel 54). Elie’s father was being beat up and Elie watched in silence; not feeling anger toward the guard, (who also beat him) but towards the victim, his father. Elie isn’t the only one that felt anger towards their father. A pipel got anger at his father for simply not making his bed right: “In Buna, the pipel were hated; they often displayed greater cruelty than their elders. I once saw one of them, a boy of thirteen, beat his father for not making his bed properly.” (Wiesel 63). This young boy probably never did this before he arrived at the camps. This  shows that the concentration camps turn people into beasts, for example, “Meir, my little Meir! Don’t you recognize me… You’re killing your father...I have bread... for you too...for you too…” (Wiesel 101). This is a the words spoken from an old man whose son killed him for a little piece of bread. This shows that the concentration camps starve people and those people become desperate. The sad news, the son didn’t even get the bread, he was killed by the other men…He killed his own father for nothing.

A father and son have been together for three years in many different concentration camps. When they were forced to run, the old father couldn’t keep up and fell behind, what did the son do, he kept going: “But then I remembered something else: his son had seen him losing ground, sliding back to the rear of the column. He had seen him. And he had continued to run in front, letting the distance between them become greater” (Wiesel 91). This shows that this son either got tired of caring for his dad or he wanted to survive so he forgot about him; both happens to Elie. When the soldiers say run, Elie ran, even if it meant leaving his dieting father behind: “During the alert, I had followed the mob, not taking care of him. I knew he was running out of strength close to death, and yet I had abandoned him” (Wiesel 106) This is the start of Elie realizing that he needs to care for himself, and not his father in order to survive. Later, his father dies. Elie doens’t cry, but thought that he no longer needed to worry about someone else: “And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!” (Wiesel 112). A few days later Elie only thought of himself: “I spent my days in total idleness. With only one desire: to eat. I no longer thought of my father, or my mother” (Wiesel 113). This shows that after a  few days of not worrying about his father, Elie simply forgets about him to protect himself. This shows that there really weren't any family or friends during the Holocaust; there was only survival.

Night also has many people begin to question God's ways. Night starts off introducing Elie faith, just like his bond with his father. Elie put life in religion studying and praying throughout the day: “By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple” (Wiesel 3). This shows that Elie was devoted to God. Of course, this was before he was sent to Auschwitz.

When Elie arrives at Birkenau, he doesn't have doubt in his faith. When he is separated from his mother and sisters, he doesn't doubt his faith. When he sees innocent babies being thrown into fire is when Elie really starts questioning God's ways. Elie writes about his first night in a concentration camp, “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes” (Wiesel 34). This was his first night and he already lost faith. Still near the beginning of his long stay at concentration camps, he no longer prays: “As for me, I has ceased to pray…I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (Wiesel 45). This shows that Elie's faith just cracked under pressure. Further in the book, Elie questions why people are still praying to God when he has killed your loved ones: “But look at these men whom You have betrayed, allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed, and burned, what do they do? They pray before You! They praise Your name!” (Wiesel 68). This is one of the last times Elie mentions God within the book. This seems to be the last straw for Elie. Elie watched as men fasted for God, but in return, those men most likely died.

Elie was not the only one in the book who lost faith overtime. Akiba Drumer kept faith in the beginning, maybe even helped other keep their faith: “God is testing us…And if He punishes us mercilessly, it is a sign that He loves us that much more” (Wiesel 45). This shows that Akiba might question God's ways, but he still has faith that God will protect them. A while later a selection occurs. Akiba has grown weaker and doesn't have faith anymore: “But as soon as he felt the fist chinks in his faith, he lost all incentive to fight and opened the door to death” (Wiesel 77). This shows that Akiba was only living because of his faith, that's all he had. Another character, a Rabbi from Poland prayed all the time in the beginning, but fell off the wheel when he became weak as well: “He was always praying, in the block, at work, in the ranks…One day, he said to me: ‘It’s over. God’s is no longer with us’” (Wiesel 76). This shows that some people in the camps just gave up hope, which caused them to lose their faith. For some, faith was just something they had, but for others, faith was what kept them going.

"Forgotten" Butterfly Project

Comments: Autumn, Isabelle, and Gustavo.