sean’s skool stuff

This year in English we covered a lot of different subjects and themes through our reading and poetry. What we explored the most is how humans work. Is the human race generally bad or good? How can fear be used as a weapon to control the masses? And under what conditions does it take for a person to become “savage”. Discussing these topics took me to a place I had never gone before, where even the kindest most respected people turn on each other, even becoming violent, and where a huge part of the world could be controlled from the time they are children to think what one man wanted them to think. It reminded me about the darker side of humans, but also the power and strength that can come from a single person.
Anne Franks family was only one of many, many, bajillions of families hurt and ripped apart from the holocaust. She was only one girl, with a diary probably never meant to be read. The amazing part was that it wasn’t just her story, the diary of Anne Frank told the story of the thousands of children in the same predicament as hers. We all know that millions, I think in all 11 million people were killed in the holocaust, and that is terrible. But what did they go through before death? That is the scariest part. Anne Frank’s diary showed the power of writing and literature. With one book she told the story of so many others, and told the whole world. Since this book was the second most read book in the whole world, second only to the bible, It probably changed the thoughts of a whole lot of people. Another good example of the power of writing and literature is Lord of he Flies. It tell that anyone under the right conditions will switch to survival mode, only caring about keeping themselves alive, and become savages. The author of this book, William Golding, tried to get the point across that all humans are pretty much evil and it will show under the kinds of conditions he wrote about in his book. I don’t exactly agree with him, he was probably a bit depressed and angry at he time of writing Lord of the Flies, but he showed me something I had never thought about before.
During this year we read a lot of stuff that was hard to understand and needed to be discussed, mainly poetry and the work of Mr. Shakespear who was a weird guy who tried a little to hard to make his writing poetic and ended up making it hard to understand his writing, all the better for me! I got to read his work and translate it and it was great! Just kidding, it was not one of the best experiences in my life, in fact, reading Shakespear was so boring to me it almost compared to reading legal documents. Actually, I’ve never read any legal documents but I could imagine its pretty boring. But all this reading and translating poetry and Shakespear did help me. It helped me to better understand and interpret and appreciate a wide variety of literary texts if you want to get really technical. I discovered that I was pretty good at interpreting poetry and books and other things like that and it was pretty easy for me.
In English class I was an academic achiever because I improved a lot in my effort and attitude as the year went by. At the beginning I was reluctant to do any work with quality and effort, and I ended up getting a big fat C on my report card for English. For example my very first blog post was probably D quality. Now I follow all of the instructions and I put more time into my work, so I have an A+ before writing this essay but Im not sure how I am going to do on it so there you go. I have grown academically in all of my subjects. In order to do the same or better next year I will have to write down all of the instructions for an assignment if they are confusing and follow them carefully. I will also have to put my best effort into all of the work I do.
So I learned a lot this year, the power of writing and literature, reading and interpreting literature, and how to be a better academic achiever. This year in English opened my eyes to a lot of ideas and matters that I had never explored before.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is a fairy tale that has had variations all around the world for a very long time. Variations have come from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Probably the most well known one was the one written by Walt Disney, which was made into the first animated feature film in 1937. That version will be the one I will be focusing on.
Since this tale has its roots in so many different countries and races Im not sure why the one Walt Disney wrote was so much centered around western culture, even though the movie was worldwide. At that time a person from the U.S. or western Europe might not think about this. But imagine what a person from Asia or Africa would think when this movie suggests that the most beautiful girl in all the land is as white as snow. It also suggests that the most beautiful girl is the fairest. In old English, fair means beautiful, but in contemporary English, fair means “flawless or having white skin”. a non-colored person might say that this tale has its roots in old English but a colored person might suggest that this is offensive because fair basically means “flawless and having white skin”. there are other definitions of fair, but I think that Walt Disney should have been more careful in word choice. In a part of the tale, the wicked queen eats the heart of a warthog. I’m sure that Walt Disney was trying to make an impression of the wicked queen as a disgusting, savage figure. In western culture, the consumption of a heart is kind of a taboo. Its thought of a savage thing to do, but in other cultures, it is completely acceptable and even thought of as a health benefit.
Most religions teach that a person should not live with greed or covet something that someone else has, and this is punishable. So I think that most religions would agree that she got what she deserved at the end, after trying to kill snow white three times, just to be the most beautiful in the land.
In this fairy tale, it tells of a prince coming to rescue Snow White at the end and they get married and live happily ever after. A girl might look at this tale and think, “ I need to wait for the perfect man to come and rescue me, like snow white”. When a boy looks at this tale they will think that it is not fair at all. It puts to much pressure on the man. A women should not just wait for there prince to completely rely on, they need to bee able to make there own way if needed, when it probably is.
The Disney version of snow white was dreamed up when Walt was only 15 years old, so all of this sub-text was probably unintentional. But from what I extracted from it you can tell that there are some conflicting racial and religious aspects of the tale.

2 Parts I Understood-

Shakespear-
I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind
With that which, but by being so retired,
O’er-prized all popular rate, in my false brother
Awaked an evil nature; and my trust,
Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falsehood in its contrary as great
As my trust was; which had indeed no limit,
A confidence sans bound.

My Translation-
I was so caught up in my own studdies,
I didnt pay attention to what was happening in the outside world,
But I still had the popular vote.
While this was happening my brother turned evil, I could see it
but I still trusted him. My confidence in him had no limit.

2 Parts I d
Shakespear-
One word more; I charge thee
That thou attend me: thou dost here usurp
The name thou owest not; and hast put thyself
Upon this island as a spy, to win it
From me, the lord on’t.

Shakespear-
Dear, they durst not,
So dear the love my people bore me, nor set
A mark so bloody on the business, but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,
Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepared
A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg’d,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us,
To cry to the sea that roar’d to us, to sigh
To the winds whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

2 Question About the Plot-

Since Caliban tried to rape miranda, why doesn’t she take a side with her dad against him?

Whatmakes caliban speak more poeticllay than the other characters?

This journal section was all about poetry. We studied and practiced the different styles of poetry, compiling them into a book, and working with students from several different schools to convey messages of global concern through poetry. Working with poetry opened my mind too a more abstract, artistic way of observing the world. It was also a challenge putting ideas and feelings on paper within the restrictions of the certain forms of poetry.
The very first thing we did for the poetry unit was make a poetic list of what poetry is. This lead the way for the rest of the writing we did. While writing poetry in class I was a critical thinker. This means that I applied untried ideas and thoughtful thinking in order to write in difficult poetry situations. For example, when our class sensory poems, about smells, sights, sounds, and touch, we were not working out in a real environment. We wrote from pictures which was very difficult sometimes. One time I had to write a poem about sounds from a picture of a cave drawing. This activity got me to think a lot. I had to use abstract thinking in order to come up with stuff to write. That makes me a critical thinker. I was also an academic achiever while writing poetry. During the writing process we first wrote a rough draft of our poem and then turned it in for revision. After we received it we went over the red marks and fixed up our poems. We continually reviewed and assessed our poems, making parts more understandable or less literal. If I were to write the poetry again I would get into the poem more and delve deeper into my heart and soul to get material.
Our major project for the poetry unit was a poetry book. We had to compile all of our poems into a nice book with colorful pictures. I was a self directed learner during the project. I had to exercise time management skills over the short amount of time we had to do the project. I was also an involved citizen because I showed care for the environment through my message poem. I wrote about global warming and I created a creative picture with Photoshop. I was a self directed learner most of all because of all the time management I had to do. That was really difficult. If I could do it again I would put I better cover on my book. I would give myself a 8 out of five on being a self directed learner and a 7 out of ten on being an involved citizen cause I really care about the environment.
The third thing we did this poetry unit was the teen life project where we worked with students form schools on several countries to make a project about concerning things happening in the world. Our English class was in charge of the artistic, poetic side of the project. We communicated through a blog were we posted our poems and pictures for the project. During this project I was an academic achiever cause I worked collaboratively and independently we worked on the poems and pictures by our selves, then posted it on the wiki for the group part. I could definitely improve on the work that I did. I didn’t really work in the group very much, I just kinda worked on my own and saw what other people thought of it. As a matter a fact, I don’t think my group members talked to me once about the project. Ide give myself a 5 out of ten on being an academic achiever.
The poetry unit opened my eyes to another realm of existence, turning common language, the operating system of human life, into art. Its just like a computer, you can choose to use the basics, windows XP operating system or you can choose a new mac or windows vista. XP will get the job done, but is not an enjoyable experience.

Biography-
James Langston Hughes was born in 1902, in Missouri. His parents divorced when he was young. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. He started writing poetry in Illinois. After graduating, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University. In 1924, he moved to Washington, D.C. Langston’s first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published in 1926. He finished his college education in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature.

Langston died in 1967 from cancer. along with all of the poetry, he also wrote several plays. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New York City, has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street has been renamed, Langston Hughes Place.

Poem-

Hold fast to dreams 

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

I like this poem because it is easy to understand. It means that you should chase and embrace your dreams, because if you don’t, then you are stuck in reality and life will be dry. You will have nothing to try and achieve and take chances. I like the part about the broken wings of a bird, but I do not understand why he compared life without dreams to a barren field of snow. It cant be that bad.

There is some figurative language in this poem. In the second line,”For if dreams die”, is an example of personification. Also, the third line of each stanza is a metaphor.

On the third of Febuary the H5N1 strain of avian flu was found in britin for the first time in 15 years. 2,600 turkeys on the Bernard Matthews company turkey farm were killed by the virus, but as an extra precaution they slaughtered the other 159,000 turkeys. The avian flu has killed 165 people since 2003, but so far has only been transmitted from bird to human. So far their haven’t been any  human cases of the viruses in Britain or the United States, all 271 cases have been in Asia and Africa, but mainly in Asia.

Hi, I’m Sean and I go to an international school in Malaysia. I like to play guitar, listen to music (preferably rock), skateboard, and play tennis. I am 14 years old. My favorite bands are Red Hot Chili Peppers, Papa Roach, Sugarcult, +44, and a bunch of classic rock bands. I have an ipod and I listen to music every day really loud on my stereo. I have two guitars, an Ibanez acoustic guitar and an Epiphone Les Paul Custom. I take lesson and I play all the time. Living in an international community is pretty cool, you meet lots of people and you learn that kids are pretty much have the same issues and interests no matter where in the world they are from. It can also be difficult. You’ve got to be careful if your talking about politics or sports because people are pretty sensitive about those things, especially the first one. I’m not really very interested in politics to tell you the truth so I don’t have to worry about it. We pretty much all get along just fine.
I am very interested in science. I love hearing about new discoveries and things like that, usually if it has to do with medicine or electronic devices, but my favorite thing to learn about is new technology in cars. I like cars a lot, especially European cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis. I always go on the internet to find cool cars and see how much money I would need o buy one. If you live in the U.S or I guess a lot of other places, you might get the Science Channel. I like that channel a lot. One of the issues that I enjoy learning about is the whole climate change thing. Was it caused by humans? Is it a natural cycle of the earth? I don’t know! They always have those shows on t.v about how the whole human race is going to come to end and we have to do something about before we cause our own demise, Blah, Blah, Blah. But do you want to know something, I like watching those shows because I think they are fascinating. I also like learning about the history of the earth and all of the weird ancient animals that used to live on earth. I think all that stuff is really fun to learn about.
I hope that you learned something about me today, and if you share some of the same interests as me, feel free to comment away….

Step 1:
Where did the Aztecs originally live? What prompted them to relocate? Where did they end up and why? Chose an artifact, which you feel best, represents this event. Support your choice

The Aztecs originally lived in Atzlan. They left Atzlan because their ruler Tenoch had a vision where Huitzilopochtli told him to relocate his people to the swampy island in the middle of lake Texcaco.

Step 2:
The Aztecs ended up in the middle of a lake and built their new capital Tenochtitlan. What were the pros and cons of settling in the middle of a lake? Describe the lay of the land and chose an image for your exhibit.

One pro is the safety. The Aztecs were probably safer because boats go slower that people running and so they would have more time to defend themselves. A con is that they had to build man made islands if they wanted to expand.

Step 3:
Which gods were worshiped? The pyramids were built for what purpose?

Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, Chalchiuhtlicue were the most important Aztec gods

Tecatlipoca- God of the great bear constillation and the night sky. Could see everything and even knew the deeds and thoughts of men. He was the protector of slaves, he severely punished masters who treated slave badly. He rewarded goodness by giving riches and fame, and he punished wrongdoers by sending them sickness or by giving them poverty and slavery.

Quetzalcoatl-
Step 4:
Who are the different members of Aztec society? What are their roles? Choose an artifact that represents the social order of Aztec society.
There are here different groups in the Aztec society, the slaves, the commoners and the nobles.
The lives of slaves were tough. The childrens of poor parents could be sold, usually for only a certain time period. Slaves could buy back their freedom. The slaves that escaped and reached the royal palace without being caught were given their freedom instantly.
Most people were members of the commoner group. They were the farmers and the workers. There were also different levels of commonisity. There were the farmers that owned land and got to keep all of their produce, and thee were the tenent farmers who were allowed to work the land owned by the nobles.
The nobility were the people who were nobles by birth, priests, and those who earned their rank. Most people didn’t really earn their ranks because the Aztec weren’t that smart. The very highest social group was taken by a only a small amount of families known as the pipiltin. These people were members of the hereditary nobility and occupied the top positions in the government, the army and the priesthood. The nobles chose an overall leader known as the tlatoani from within their own group, in Nahuatl this name means he that speaks.

Step 5:
The Aztecs have a spoken language. What was it called? Did they use any other forms of communication? Include an example of either written or visual language of the Aztecs.
The Aztec spoken language was called Nahuatl. They also had a written lnguage. Either they put a few glyphs together to make a sentence or they drew an entire picture to tell a story.

Step 6:
How did the Aztecs grow food and what was their main crop? Did they trade and with whom? Did they have a currency (money)? Find an image for your exhibit about making a living Aztec style.
They grew food using a method called terracing. Their main crop was corn. The currency the Aztecs used was cacoa beans.

Step 7:
Discuss the Impact of Spanish Contact 1519 from both the Aztec point of view and the Spanish point of view. Find an image depicting this event.

Step 8:
Discuss La Malinche or Dona Marina. Debate her positive/negative impact on Mexico past and present. What does the term Mestizo refer to? What influences remain today from Aztec culture of the past?

About one third of all of the carbon monoxide and CO₂ emissions are absorbed in the ocean. this causes the oceans pH to lower steadily over years. Scientists are now saying that the level of acidity in the ocean is getting to a dangerous level. to a level were the acidity of the ocean could cause lifeforms in the ocean not to develop properly, kill coral, and maybe even disrupt the food chain. This isn’t just a problem for sea creatures, think about how much we eat that comes from the sea. pretty much the only way to resolve this problem is to lessen our carbon monoxide emissions.

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Anne has a perfectly good reason for keeping her thought to herself. I know that when I am super stressed or at the breaking point, the last thing I want to hear is someone telling me that I’m doing something wrong. If I was the only one at the breaking point in the beginning, there will two people once I’m done lashing out and yelling at the person that tried to tell me what to do. Usually I don’t even think about what I’m saying when I am yelling at my mom our dad once I get to that level of frustration, I just have to get something off my mind because it makes me feel better inside and helps me take out my anger on somebody or something else. (Just to let you know, I am almost never in super stressed moods or at the breaking point and I don’t yell a lot and I don’t argue with my parents very often. I just don’t want you to think that I am a violent, depressed, emo kid.) A great example of this is, don don don, long car rides. I hate being confined in small spaces with my brother, it always causes problems. I get really annoyed whenever my brother sniffles his nose. It drives me crazy! And the sounds he makes when he sleeps! I can’t stand it! I absolutely hate sharing a room in a hotel with him, and whenever I share my feeling with him, usually Shut Up or Go Away, it starts an argument and I start a fight for all the wrong reasons. I can’t imagine what Anne had to go through sharing a room with a smelly old guy that probably snored. That would be the worst.

Usually it is not a good idea to keep your opinions and feelings bundled up inside. I feel confident confiding my thoughts and feelings in my friends. Sharing your opinions with your friends is not always safe though. No matter how good of a friend you are confiding with, they always have somebody they have to tell your secrets to. Sometimes I think that it is important to share people’s thoughts or opinions with others even though they don’t want you to. For example, if someone was planning on hurting themselves or someone else. Of course this is the most innocent example. We all spread rumors and regret it, but we tell them anyways because you just can’t keep certain information inside, you have to tell somebody.

I am not sure I agree with the things that that Anne said about adults being stupid and idiotic. Sometimes I feel that way, but then I think back to what I had said to them, and being not what I intended to say, caused problems. Sometimes you have to be more patient and think about what you say. I think  Anne’s patients has already run out, and I think that she is handling herself and staying under control pretty well for the situation that she’s in.