Final Blog

At the beginning of the year, when you told us about that blog I was excited but I also thought this would get annoying and be hard to remember to do! My favorite blogs were the ones where we could write about us, and write about whatever we wanted. They were definitely the easiest to write! While we first started writing blogs about the books we were reading, I thought they were pointless, a waste of time, and way to difficult. But now as I look back on them, they were actually very helpful to me. I looked back and read about my opinions of books, themes, symbols, characterization and many other things. It was very helpful to be able to read the other classmate's blogs, to see their opinion and things they believed in or said.

Reading back on all my blogs, I realized that Ive matured in my writing style. Also, you can tell when I enjoyed the blog topic. My writing is different when I liked the writing topic and I tend to write a little more, and you can see my personality. In blogs that I didn't enjoy, I seemed bored and sort of ramble on. Which I probably should changed that in the future.

John Jakes said "Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish."

Overall, this year has been amazing, although it went by way to fast! Honors english was a very helpful class, and Mrs. Gilman, you by far, are the best honors teacher :) Thanks for everything you have taught us!

Essays

At the beginning of this school year, I hated writing essays, but the reason I think I hated writing them so much was because it was always hard for me to chose what to write about and what to say. After the Gilman Method, it has become so much easier :) This is also because we've spent a whole year learning about essays, literary analysis, and how to make a good essay that gets to the point. At this point in the year, I feel very accomplished in my essay writing and I have learned a ton!

I have some things that fall under the "B grade or lower" but I alwyas try to go for the A paper. A few things I always catch myself doing are repeating the same word too many times or saying the same idea multiple times. I also have troubles with figuring out what Im actually going to wrtie about. One of the hardest parts for me is, puting what I think of in my head into words on paper, they always sound so much better in my head, and when i write it or say it outloud it makes no sense whatsoever.

Summer

One book I would like to read this summer would be Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. His books are sooo good! I just read The Last Song and it was amazing, as was the movie :) I saw Dear John in theaters, and would now love to read the book! Books are always better than the movie. Dear John is about John and Savannah who fall in love one summer, and John has to leave for war. Their love keeps them connected through letters. When John comes back to visit, Shes with another man. The book is definitely a dramatic love story.

Another book I want to read is also by Nicholas Sparks... The Rescue. Its another love story, but adventurous in a way also. A guy whose never been in love or really had a girlfriend and really struggles with finding love. He helps a lady find her son in a terrible storm one night, and on their search they fall in love.

There are way to many book to read out there! But Nicholas Sparks is my favorite author right now! I will most likely read the Twilight series again also, they're amazing too :)

Fate!

My sign is an Aquarius, and I found that there are two types. One being shy, gentle, patient, and sensitive, and the other lively, exhibitionist, and exuberant. They tend to be active and sometimes like to keep to themselves. We are kind hearted and love to cheer people up and to help them.

I fall under the first type of Aquarius; shy gentle patient and sensitive. I'm shy and quiet when I first meet someone or when I'm not close to them, but when I'm comfortable, I'm not anymore. I also have always been active my whole life! I occasionally keep to myself, sometimes other people think I'm mad or upset but I just like to be quiet and keep my thoughts to myself every once in awhile. I consider myself to be kind hearted, and I love to make people laugh and pick people up when they're down.

I believe Romeo and Juliet are truly meant to be together. Fate brought them together to the same place on the same night. When their eyes met for the first time, you could tell it was love at first sight by the way they were acting. Also, I think this shows they will be together forever because their love for each other is so strong.

Romeo and Juliet

My reference to Romeo and Juliet was the upcoming movie Letters To Juliet. Its about a young American visiting Verona, which is the home of Juliet Capulet from the original play, she joins a volunteer group who responds to letters from Juliet seeking advice on love. She answers on letter dated 1951 and convinces its author to come visit Italy to search for her long-lost love. This brings love into both of their lives.

Skits

1. When Pip gets into a fight with the pale young gentleman (Herbert) at the Satis house. This would be a good scene because it would be insteresting to see how other people acted this out, and its a major part in the novel.

2. When Joe comes to visit Pip in London would be a good scene because Joe feels like he needs to call Pip sir and that he's a much better person than him. Joe also doesnt feel worthy of him, then Pip feels bad about his actions towards Joe. This would be fun to watch how people would characterize Joe and Pip in their skit.

3. The last scene that would be good to act out would be when Pip goes to Miss. Havishams house. When he meets a creepy old lady, a very pretty but rude girl and walks into a creepy house. It would be funny to see how people act out Pip's reactions to all of this and to hear someone act as Miss. Havisham.

Another Question!

In chapters 36 through 44, one thing I don't understand is when Pip is talking to Magwitch about his life and how he's been hiding and running from people. Magwitch says " Dear boy and Pip's comrade. I am not a-going fur to tell you my life, like a song or a sroty-book. But to give it to you short and handy, I'll put it at once into a mouthful of English. In jail and out of jail, in jail and out of jail, in jail and out of jail. There, you've got it. That's my life pretty much, down to such times as I got shipped off, arter Pip stood my friend."(345) What I'm not sure about is, why he keeps hiding? That is all Pip and Herbert were asking, but he never gave them an answer. So, what is he really hiding?

Question

The question I have is from chapter 26. "There's power here," said Mr. Jaggers,coolly tracing out the sinews with his forefinger. "Very few men have the power of wrist that this woman has. It's remarkable what mere force of grip there is in these hands. I have had occasion to notice many hands; but I never saw stroner in that respect, man's of woman's than these." (214) My question is; What is the significance towards Molly's wrists in the book? Mr. Jaggers makes it seem like there's a reason behind, but what? I get that something in her past has made her strongner or if it was cutting herself why did she do it.

Great Expectaions: Photo

This picture is of a butterfly just coming out of its cocoon after being a young caterpillar. To me, this represents Pip in many ways. One, him becoming older and acting differently towards his family. Also how he wants to become a gentleman, which means being mature.

Great Expectations: First Stage

When Pip says "Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day" he's referring to a day in his life that changed him who he is as a person. This was when he went to Mrs. Havisham's for the first time. Pip hadn't really been out of his house until he met people of the upper class; Mrs. Havisham and Estella. This was Pip's "memorable day" because he realized he wanted to be a gentlemen instead of just a blacksmith.

The day that changed me as a person, was one day I was hiking with my parents on Mt. Rainier the summer before 8th grade. While we were hiking i was thinking to myself, "Wow, i cant believe both my parents have been to the top of this thing." i then realized how truly beautiful the mountain really is. All the other times Ive seen the mountain i didn't really care for it and just thought it was pointless. But thinking about both my parents have signed the book at the middle peak, made me want to do it myself one day. Ever since this day Ive had a lot more respect for the mountain and have just wondered what it would be like to go to the top.

Group Essay

Our group topic was dishonesty in the play and the different levels of lies throughtout The Importance of Being Earnest. I had the Ernest/Earnest lies, lying about your name.

My first concrete detail is when Jack is saying why he lies about having a younger brother Ernest. I then went on saying how lying can tear one's life between duty and pleasure and that trying to make life more interesting can lead up to lying about things. My 2nd concrete detail is Jack asking Gwendolen if she coulndt love him if his name wasnt Ernest. I talked about how lying can change a situation or relation ship, and how lying gets people into worse situations. My last concrete detail is Jack telling Gwendolen he has no brother Ernest and he has no brother at all. I said people tend to think lying is a more efficient way to live life, but reall its the opposite of conventional thinking and is worse.

Im not sure what to do for my topic sentence, If i remember right Caroline was the paragrpah infront of me, any ideas how to transition smoothly?

Victorian Research

When we started reading The Importance of Being Earnest, I was glad we had researched the Victorian Era before reading the play. Marrige was brought up constantly through out the play, luckily i researched this beforehand. When Lady Bracknell had to ask Jack questions about his family life and other things to see if he was suitible to be her son-in-law, this was commom in this time. Since he didnt have a wealthy family, she decided he wasnt good enough for Gwendolen.
Another topic I was thankful for researching was about the social classes. I learned that the upper class was much more important than the lower classes. Algernon and Lane were both respected, but because of Lane being in the lower class and algernon in the upper class he got much more respect because he was born into a wealthy family, and Lane wasnt.

New Year's Resolution!

My New Year's Resolutin this year is going to be to do better on tests! Ive always done good on the homework and projects but don't usually do very well on the test which brings down my grade. I have all A's and B's but i could be doing better. I've decided that im going to take more time on my homework each night and mkae sure its done correctly and a couple nights before a test and study more for them each night on different concepts, especially this month because of finals coming up! I could also try asking for help from teaches or other students more often specially in math and science.
This year and over the summer, I'd also like to improve in basketball. If I go out and practice my shot, ball handling skills, and just overall basketball skills a couple nights a week when I have free time I could improve and if I work on this all summer and in the off-season then I would be hoping to make Varsity or J.V and be a swing player as a sophmore.