Well, it's the end. What a good freshman year this has been. I feel that I have learned so much in this 9th grade honors english class and I think that is evident through my 27 blogs. When Mrs. Gilman first mentioned that one of our grades would be to keep a blog I was so excited. I could hardly wait for blogging to begin! I could just keep thinking about how cool would it be to do some of the assignments online. Later in the year after about 4 blogs I was annoyed at the idea that every Friday I had to spend a little time on a blog. Not to mentioned that the blogs were assigned about a week in advance, but my wonderful habit of procrastination usually kept me up to do them right before the little clock on my computer said 12:00. (As the year went on this habit gradually faded away)
It is was really fun to see as I look through all of my past blogs I remember all of the assignments we did this year. I had completely forgotten about reading The Importance of Being Earnest and Poetry Outloud. My favorite blogs to look at are the picture posts where we had to find a picture or movie that related to something else. It's almost as if when you go back and look blog by blog you see the whole year in motion in a short amount of time.
Although I didn't always enjoy doing every blog, I see a big change in my writing level from the beginning of the year until now. I think that I have also improved in being able to think creatively to find a response to a blog assignment and not just giving an obvious answer. One quote that I think sums up my blogging experience is by Lewis Carroll (I also happen to really like this quote because Lewis Carroll was the author of the poem I recited for Poetry Out Loud) Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it." This quote is so true for all of the assignments, blogs, projects, and essays we have been assigned this year. The main idea in everything was always to find the theme and prove a lesson of what you thought was important. In all of our blogs we were supposed to find our own response to the subject which is why this quote works perfectly.
Over all I really enjoyed my blogging experience and I will miss it next year. :( Having to write weekly in away that all of my peers can see my work, and writing about specific interesting topics helped make the process of writing and coming up with ideas a lot easier which is a huge accomplishment for me. Thank you Mrs. Gilman for making blogging an assignment. It really has made me more confident in writing assignments for my future in high school and for the rest of my education experience.
Goodbye Molly's Blog :)
Monday, June 20, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
make-up blog: Thoughts on Great Expectations
originally due by April 2
I think that getting through Great Expectations was a big accomplishment for us as a class. Although at times the story seemed as if it was dragging on, I enjoyed the overall plot. Dickens' style of writing was intriguing and his choice of vocabulary was extremely broad which lead to the reading being interesting. My favorite character was most definitely Joe. It seemed that whatever situation he was put in he always had a positive outlook which was refreshing. I will admit that I did use sparknotes to help with the parts I was confused with, but I found that I understood the difficult passages more when I would discuss them with friends.
At first when the book was assigned I set a routine each night to read the day's assignment. This lasted maybe 3-4 days. After that I tried just finding time in-between other homework. This strategy did not last long either because I often would procrastinate and end up reading in the morning while eating breakfast and on the ride to school. As the weeks went on I began to have a pattern of reading the book right after I got home from school and this actually worked! I took the time when I would relax and leisurely eat a snack to read. This helped me in two ways, 1. I was not super tired while reading like I was when I would read right before bed, and 2. I was not rushing through because of procrastination. These two benefits helped me to retain a lot more of the story that I was reading. Dickens' books are not easy reads that you can just pick up and read anywhere because the story is not predictable and the language needs to be deciphered. I am proud of my self for getting through such a challenging book and I think I am a better reader because of it.
I think that getting through Great Expectations was a big accomplishment for us as a class. Although at times the story seemed as if it was dragging on, I enjoyed the overall plot. Dickens' style of writing was intriguing and his choice of vocabulary was extremely broad which lead to the reading being interesting. My favorite character was most definitely Joe. It seemed that whatever situation he was put in he always had a positive outlook which was refreshing. I will admit that I did use sparknotes to help with the parts I was confused with, but I found that I understood the difficult passages more when I would discuss them with friends.
At first when the book was assigned I set a routine each night to read the day's assignment. This lasted maybe 3-4 days. After that I tried just finding time in-between other homework. This strategy did not last long either because I often would procrastinate and end up reading in the morning while eating breakfast and on the ride to school. As the weeks went on I began to have a pattern of reading the book right after I got home from school and this actually worked! I took the time when I would relax and leisurely eat a snack to read. This helped me in two ways, 1. I was not super tired while reading like I was when I would read right before bed, and 2. I was not rushing through because of procrastination. These two benefits helped me to retain a lot more of the story that I was reading. Dickens' books are not easy reads that you can just pick up and read anywhere because the story is not predictable and the language needs to be deciphered. I am proud of my self for getting through such a challenging book and I think I am a better reader because of it.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Favorite assignment
I came in to high school not knowing really what to expect. But since my first period class of English on the flirt day of school I have done so many awesome papers and projects, but my absolute favorite project in this class has been making really cool movies. The first one was for Pride and Prejudice the next for Animal Farm and the latest one for Great Expectations. Making movies is so fun and by the time we made our last movie it was done fairly quickly vs. the first one that took over 3 days to film and edit. I hope that there will be movie making opportunities next year!
I am very proud of these assignments because I think they showcased our group's creativity, and how well we worked together to create a great project. There was so much planning for each one, and after almost every movie had been made, we re-did it again to make it even better. The final piece for all of the movies looks polished and the work put in is evident. I am so glad that making a movie was an option this year because I had so much fun making them with friends.
I am very proud of these assignments because I think they showcased our group's creativity, and how well we worked together to create a great project. There was so much planning for each one, and after almost every movie had been made, we re-did it again to make it even better. The final piece for all of the movies looks polished and the work put in is evident. I am so glad that making a movie was an option this year because I had so much fun making them with friends.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Poetry!
Poetry is one of those things that you hear from when you are really little then in school and for the rest of your life. When I was younger I used to think poetry always rhymed. I loved nursery rhymes, my favorites were "Ba Ba Black Sheep" and the "Eency Weency Spider."Thinking back, the reason I loved nursery rhymes so much was probably because you could them, I can memorize the tune and lyrics after only a few times of hearing the song a few times.
When I was in elementary school and middle school there was a "speech meet" where you cold chooses to ether memorize a poem or another famous speech or dialogue. I loved doing this every year, and I think I still remember some of a poem I had in 3rd grade. For memorizing these poems It is easiest for me to just read the poem over and over and over again because eventually it sticks. This was also my strategy to Poetry out loud this year.
When I hear the word Poetry, I now no longer think of just rhyming poems. As we are learning in class what are some very different elements t poems I have been realizing how great the poets truly are. I still struggle with finding the meaning behind poems myself, but I am getting better! All in all I am excited to be studying poetry again.
When I was in elementary school and middle school there was a "speech meet" where you cold chooses to ether memorize a poem or another famous speech or dialogue. I loved doing this every year, and I think I still remember some of a poem I had in 3rd grade. For memorizing these poems It is easiest for me to just read the poem over and over and over again because eventually it sticks. This was also my strategy to Poetry out loud this year.
When I hear the word Poetry, I now no longer think of just rhyming poems. As we are learning in class what are some very different elements t poems I have been realizing how great the poets truly are. I still struggle with finding the meaning behind poems myself, but I am getting better! All in all I am excited to be studying poetry again.
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