No 4th Block Today

Today, we didn't get to go to class. Instead, we were told to go to homeroom and we stayed for the remainder of the day.

Chapter 13

Today, the 3rd group presented and discussed Chapter 13 with us. We were asked multiple questions that really made us think deep within ourselves. I think that they did really good and I enjoyed the discussion.

2nd Day of the Student Teachers

Today, the second group discussed Chapter 12 very well. I wish I could’ve been more attentive but I had a massive headache and couldn’t really focus on anything. I know that Mr. Rease gave them
a good score because they were impressive and their critical questions really had the class thinking deeply into their personal life.

Young Teachers

Today, the first group presented their assigned Chapter. They were the teachers for the day which the class respected and were mature about it. I really enjoyed the discussion and they asked a a lot of interesting questions. Class was great, everyone was organized . We listened and responded thoroughly.

Group Work

Today, the class began with the teacher appointing us to groups. We were told that we would be teaching the class about a chapter from ”Wild” by Cheryl Strayed in which were assigned. He told us all the things that we need to talk about in our teaching. While he was listing everything, I had a pretty good idea that I believed would allow things to run smoothly. I know that we will get everything done correctly and that our presentation will be perfect.

Complicated

Today, we created the outline of a story. This consisted of the character known as Jessica Jones and information about her such as her goals, occupation, relationship status and etc. It was difficult trying to construct a story from the information that our teacher let us randomly picked. In fact, when he left out of the classroom and told us we had to create the story by the time he comes back, it was very chaotic. We all had such great ideas but they had to come together like a puzzle instead of multiple stories. Our homework was to create the story over the weekend and share our ideas on Monday.

Dreams

Today, our topic was about dreams. We were told to define the American Dream and then write what our dream is. My dream to be successful in numerous fields of life and engineering. I want to be many things in life and not just anchored to one occupation and aspect but to many things in which holds my heart. I love to paint, I do makeup, I want to do hair, I love technology- I have many talents and I want to be able to use them and not let them go to waste. Before we shared our answers, our teacher played a video of Cheryl Strayed, author of the book ”Wild”, in which she talks about not letting your dream ruin your life. We reviewed what that meant and I found that there were many implications. We watched another video about how being alone could be empowering. I love being alone so I could write all about how being alone has empowered me, but being alone is also my infamy whereas I’m alone way too much. This results in the consumption of my mind by both positive and negative thoughts. We finished class skimming over chapter 7 and 8 of the book and discussing it.

WHO ARE YOU?

Today, at the beginning of class we were surprised with a quiz on chapter 7 of the book we've been reading. At that moment, I was glad that I used my time at home wisely and annotated the chapters that I hadn't finished and then chapter 7. After the quiz, we were asked, "What do you consider your roots to be?" I thought it was a strange question at first because I assumed that all of our answers would be the same, but then I thought about it and realized that everyone is different regardless of their appearance. To my surprise, hardly anyone raised their hands. The teacher then asked us about our race, nationality, and ethnicity. Not many people knew what those words meant so he searched them up and told up what our answers should be. This brought us to our discussion about a poem titled "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes; a short poem about the long history of the black race. It was a challenge deciphering what Hughes meant, but we understood it after a moment of thought. It opened my eyes to how influential poems could be no matter how many words are written. Our last assignment was to add a line to Hughes poem including a river of our familiarity and using our knowledge of today's time. The line I wrote was "I grabbed the warm sun that rose over the Mobile River and felt its arms console me." The meaning of my line is that the people before us who fought for the unity and equality of blacks is the sun and my reaching out is the cry for help to bring back that unity among us today. I enjoyed the poem and hoped that there would be many more that we will discuss.  

Thesis Statement

Today, we discussed what a thesis statement is and how it is written in an essay. Our teacher typed a prompt and we were told to make a thesis statement answering the prompt. I already had knowledge of how to do it so it was easy to me but I never knew there was more than one way to write a thesis statement and that the way that I am most good at doing is called “The List.” The List contains the essay’s topic, point, and 3 reasons to support the claim. This way is much easier for me to understand than “The Umbrella” which contains the topic, point but instead of directly stating reasons to support the claim, the writer is supposed to allude to them. I can never understand how to create one or what word to use, to sum up, all of my ideas. But, I’ll figure it out somehow.

Easy Test

Today, we took a test on the book “Wild.” Although it has a lot of details, I’m able to understand the overall summary of it and the importance of some of the things that occur. The test was pretty easy and I feel like I did pretty good on it. When we went over the answers, I had them all right so I know that my high “B” will come up to an “A.”

Chapter 2

Today, we discussed chapter 2 of the book “Wild.” We found the deeper meanings and explained them, then we explained how we can relate to the experiences or how we would have felt if we were the author. Strayed (the author) had to make hard decisions and felt as if she was splitting between the person she used to be and person she became. The discussion was very interesting and I definitely learned a lot from it. I love the book already and feel that I will be learning much more from it.

9/11

In class, we were asked a series of questions all of which evolved around America. One of the questions was “What does America symbolize?” My written response was that it symbolizes freedom, liberty, opportunity, and unity. As we raised our hand to respond, we were told to explain the answer and how America symbolizes it. The answer I chose to give was opportunity. People from all around the world come to America in search of work and a better life. As we continued, I discovered a lot about my classmates’ way of thought. I also learned who their heroes were and why. I was impressed. Although some were typical, there were a few that really intrigued me and made me not only nod my head in agreement but wonder why I didn't think of them as my heroes. All of the questions we were asked were little steps used to get to our main topic, 9/11. We all know the tragic event that occurred on that day and how it impacted America as a whole. After it happened, we became united and strived to make America better again.

Deeper Meanings

Today, we went over the prologue and chapter one of the book "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed. Our teacher was present so we were able to interpret the deeper meaning of some of the things that the author wrote. This helped me understand the story a little more than I already did. Along with a clearer understanding, I became more interested in the story because I can relate to the obstacles that the author faced. I usually don't like the books that we are assigned by teachers, but I think that I am going to really enjoy reading this one. I also hope that I can gain some helpful information from this book that I could use when I am faced with a certain problem. There are many more chapters in the book and I can't wait to read about how the author overcame her dilemmas.

Teaching Ourselves Responsibly

Today our teacher was absent so we were told to go to the classroom next door. We were so sure our teacher would be present so that we could discuss chapter 1 of the book “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed. I myself was so interested in the book and had many questions to ask. But, I did notice that most people were kind of lost and couldn’t understand what was going on in the story sooo, we thought it would be best to listen to the audiobook while we annotate as a class. Although the teacher assigned for chapter 1 to be read over the weekend, we all realized that rereading the book was a must in order to fully comprehend what was occurring in the chapter. I think we did great as a class. Our behavior was as expected and we kept our discussions at bay. We exchanged things that we underlined and words that we found that weren't so familiar. I think that we taught ourselves pretty well today.

Hiking

Today in class, we talked about hiking. We were asked to compose a list of 10 items that we would NEED in order to do a thru-hike, which is when you hike for days, weeks or months. The list included: water, food, fire-starter; bookbag, clothes, boots, baby wipes, protection and etc. For each item, our teacher showed us images and elaborated on why and how we would use them. As I learned about hiking, I became interested in wanting to hike but it would most likely be a day-hike meaning I would hike a trail and return on the same day. When we talked about protection, the teacher informed us that bears would probably be a problem so we would need to buy bear bells and bear spray. Bear spray paralyzes the bear and bear bells alarm the bear so that we don’t take it by surprise resulting for it to attack. He also showed us videos of how powerfully dangerous they are when they attack. I immediately became astonished because I never knew how vicious bears could get and how harmful one could be. Because of this fear, I am even more curious but mostly afraid to hike. I enjoyed today's discussion and realized that there are a lot of things that I never knew about hiking; if I were to hike without knowing anything of what I learned today, I don't think I would last one second.

A Great Day

Today, the lesson was so interesting that time completely flew by. Class began with us reading a short story about a soldier named Tim. At the beginning of the story, Tim’s daughter questioned his reasoning for being obsessed with writing war stories. She then assumed that he write them because he killed someone during his time serving as a soldier. Not wanting to taint her impression of him, he told her that he hadn’t killed anyone. While reflecting on his lie, Tim pretends that his daughter is an adult and imagines that he is telling her the entire story of My Khe. Tim recounts the night of the ambush outside of My Khe. He describes the experience in full detail confessing that he indeed killed someone but regretted it immediately after because he felt that since the person he killed wasn't a real threat, he really didn't have to kill him. As a class, we discussed certain things in the story while we read. The teacher asked us is there such thing as a “good kill” and I told him “those two words don’t belong with each other. Killing will always be an inhuman thing to do- a bad thing to do, therefore there is not.” Sadly, I was wrong but I guess I understood why. If you’re killing to protect, I suppose that makes it a “good kill.” We continued to discuss the story and answered the questions that followed. Our next assignment was to get into groups and write what best characterize Tim and the next time around he told us to write the moral of the story. I felt that it was very ingenious of him to use our answers to help us with multiple choice. He broke it down so well that everything made sense and I felt as if I had just unlocked a secret that would be most useful for forthcoming tests.

5 Minutes of Class

Today, I had the feeling that class would be intriguing, but sadly I was only in class for 5 minutes before I was given an early dismissal. I had just paid for a book that was required and felt a sense of relief because I didn't have to beg my parents to buy it at its original price. I assume that I missed out on a great lesson but not to worry, I won't be getting an early tomorrow.