Reflection Piece

This year we were given the unique opportunity to learn in a different way, to use technology for educational purposes. Through the course of the year we have used our blogs to portfolio our writing, and now that it is over, I don't want it to end. Using Blogger we can access our friends' writing, share our own, and get feedback, it is a way to express ourselves publicly. My favorite part of the year was when we were assigned to write an alternative ending to "The Skeleton Key" and we could make up whatever we want wanted to. I love writing fiction so that delighted me. Having an open assignment was amazing. The same thing made me love the website Storybird. The artwork was amazing and the inspiration was even better. One of my least favorite things to write about the exposition or climax of a story. It was a bit monotonous and not as creative but it was still fun. Overall this year has been one blur of hapiness and blogger only contributed to this. Mrs.Kaiser is a GENIUS to have come up with the idea to use blogs with students and I hope her other students enjoy it just as much in years to come.

Introduction Paragraph- Poem

"Mere pleaser is but fleeting; happiness is abiding, for in the recollection thereof is renewed" (Tennyson). This quote connects to poems, as it is speaking of how fleeting true happiness is, and sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere are experiencing their short but joyful moment together. In the poem "Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere" by Lord Alfred Tennyson, the author used P.O.V., figurative language, ad imagery to portray the theme of living life to its fullest/ enjoying love and happiness while it lasts.

Mentor Poems and My Poems

Two Examples of Idiom Poems I found

Cat Got Your Tongue By Adele Tolley Wilson

I was feeling shy when my uncle came.
"Has the cat got your tongue?" he said.
He must have meant, "Why aren't you talking?"
Because my tongue was still in my head.

By P.William

I was nuts about a scarlet woman
with a silvery tongue, but we were
just ships in the night.
So much for the green light,
now it’s raining cats and dogs
but it’s not the end of the world

My Poem

To some she is as cool as a cat

To some she is a toss up

To some she is a doozy

To some she is loose cannon

                                          To some she is water under the bridge      

To some she is a black horse

To some she is a blessing in disguise

To some she is a blue moon

To some she is like biting off more than you can chew

To me…well she’s just me

Two examples of Analogy Poems I Found

Kid Gloves By Lee Emmett

Just don’t get too close now
don’t want to damage anything, do we
look how sweet you are
with those pretty hands covered

Don’t need any trouble now
just keep your hands safely in pockets
out of harm’s way
there’s a good fellow

Day's Journey by Vivian Gilbert Zabel
The day dawns as a journey.One leaves the station on a train,
Rushing past other places
Without a pause or stop,
Watching faces blur as they pass,
No time to say goodbye.
On and on the train does speedUntil the line's end one sees,
Another sunset down
Without any lasting memories.

My Poem

The Flag and It’s Promise

by Me

Flying high

So majestic

United as a country

All men are equal

It’s just a joke

A broken promise

Where is the promise in the face of adversity

Its no where to be found

With discrimination around every corner

Most cower or enforce it

It’s just a joke

A broken promise

Two Examples of Simile Poems I found

Moon Poetess By EBI Robert

Hands flicker, the smokes hurries
And insignia like ice blows in appearance
So seated and commanding twisting joints.
Powers, so she use and sleep.

Cross like lights, like crowns.
And in moon, she exploit simile.
pair of simile, like smile.
married to a poet of the sun.

Seated in a throne, scrutinizing expected writer.o' poet your tones are failing
Your flood is quited.
Take not my gown for a clown.

In this moon there is peace.
And my ink is agreeable to a moon cave.

And the election has ended.
Yet you are the poet.

No truth is bad as a poetess been a poet.
Posted to bright stool.
and good stew.

A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
O My Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June;
O My Luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee well, my only luve,
And fare thee well, awhile!
And I will come again, my luve
Tho' it ware ten thousand mile!

My Poem

While out in the midnight hour

The soft breezes caresses my face

Like a silk cloth

And hums a tune in my ear

While out in the midnight hour

My feet cut through the sand

Like scissors

Leaving only footsteps in their wake

While out in the midnight hour

The waves sound

Like a drum

Pounding against my thoughts

While out in the midnight hour

The moon lights my path

Like a lighthouse on a rocky shore

Letting me roam carefully but freely

The Scholarship Jacket Rising Action

The Scholarship Jacket Rising Action

In the short story "The Scholarship Jacket" written by Marta Salinas Martha, a poor mexican girl with a A+ grade average, is faced with adversity in the highest for. Racism and discrimination change her chances completely for getting a jacket that means a great deal to her. There are many examples of rising action that make this story fantastic. Three of the examples that bring you to the climax are the following. First Martha is expecting to get the jacket given to the class valedictorian in 8th grade because she has the best grades and has been working extremely hard. This is classified as rising action because it is building an expectation to the ending of the story. The second step to the climax would have to be when she forgets her gym shorts and has to run back to her classroom to get them. When she arrives at her classroom she hears her two teachers arguing about the Jacket. Her teacher Mr. Schmidt says that Martha should recieve the jacket because she is the most deserving, but Mr. Boone says that another girl with a rich and generous father should recieve the jacket because her grades are above average (though not comparing to Martha's) and her father would donate money. This event makes Martha reconsider the fact she will be getting the jacket and creates tention in the school; therefore, is a turning point. The final example of rising action is when Martha is offered the jacket for the fee of $15, a high price that is meant to belittle her and stop her from getting the jacket. When she asks her Grandfather for the money for the jacket he solemnly tells her that if she had to pay for it, it would not be a scholarship jacket. With a heavy heart she must relay the news to a smug board. This intrigues the reader, everyone was so sure she would possess the jacket when it looks like she wont everyone must read on to hear the climax where all the tables turn.

Australia Plans Tough Laws on Packaging for Tabacco Persuasive

                                Australia Plans Tough Laws on Packaging for Tobacco Persuasive

In this article by Enda Curran it tells about the new Legislation of graphic images on cigarette boxes. The government has decided to increase the value of the health in their country. It also shows how the tobacco companies are reacting, which is not gratefully or gracefully. I feel that this is a revolutionary and extremely great idea. The horrifying quality of these images may revolt children and teenagers to the point they will never touch a single box. Also the lack of logos and bold prints will reduce the "glamour" and rebellion in smoking so it will cause people to quit the gross habit. I think that this is an important way of running things in Australia because it will conserve resources of the residents of the country, increase health, and downsize the epidemic of smoking running rampant. The next step, is banning it from entering the continent.

Dirk the Protector (Exposition)

"For a time in my life I became a street kid. It would be nice to put it another way but what with the drinking at home and the difficulties to caused with my parents I couldn't live in the house. I made a place for myself in the basement by the furnace and hunted and fished in the woods around the small town. But I had other needs as well-clothes,food,school supplies- and they requires money." This is a good example of exposition because it introduces the setting, the character, and the characters situation. The exposition explains the fact that the character lives alone in the basement (setting) and the characters independence (the character) and that he fulfills all his needs on his own. And excellent example of exposition.

The Party On Demand Essay

The Party

When the story begins the girl comes upon her supposed friends who have recently received invites to the “most important party of the year” and is speculating about how great it would be if she was invited to the party. She thinks about how much she wants to be popular and how much she idolizes Bridget, the popular girl throwing the party.  A quote from the first page shows how important this party is to the school. “To not be invited meant standing in stagnant water.”    Even when all her friends already have their invitations and she doesn't, she keeps on hoping. Her hope is shown in this quote:  “…that Bridget was still holding an envelope with my name on it”.

    

Towards the middle of the story, the main character converses with her classmate named Meredith about the party. Neither of them had been invited, but they showed very different reactions to this rejection. Meredith’s versatile opinion about the party greatly surprises our main character and left her with a feeling of empowerment: “I wish she’d invited me so I could tell her no. She’s such a brat. And all that phony hugging. What’s that all about anyways?” What Meredith says allows her to realize that the party is irrelevant- that it would not change who she was.   After her conversation with Meredith, she then goes back to her lunch table. Her friends try to console her and the main character begins worrying again, even with Meredith’s inspirational speech fresh in her mind.   Her anxieties and insecurities resurface quickly, “Maybe she didn’t invite me because of my hair. It’s so long and stringy. Maybe it’s my coat. It is pretty ugly compared to some of the other girls’ coats. I should have bought another color.  But what does it really matter? None of my clothes match. I’m way too tall but there isn’t anything I can do about that, and she couldn’t not invite someone to a party because they were too tall, could she?  Maybe I should smile and hug more but I just can’t get into hugging people unless I know them really well. Probably if I’d smiled more, I would have been invited.” As you can see she now resorts back to petty insults to herself trying to come up with a plausible explanation for her “social exile.”

After going on a very bumpy road the main character comes upon a shaky resolution. Though at first she desperately wished to attend the party by the end she decides it’s not worth the stress or the hassle. Unfortunately, she still yearns secretly for popularity, so when she sees Bridget approaching her with an invitation she tries not to get her hopes up. Bridget offers her the invitation making her heart soar until she comes to this realization “I am an afterthought. I am not on the A list. I'm just filling the space so the vans will be full. Take it, you know you want to go.” This makes her brave and the war that was waged in her mind over the small envelope comes to an end. She finally had the courage to come to produce a decision.

Throughout the course of the story, the protagonist went through a great ordeal about a something as trivial as a single party. This helps her reevaluate the concept of being herself. She now realizes that she doesn’t need to be popularity to be happy with herself and that no one can tell her who she is or what she should be, least of all Bridget. This lesson is a hard one to learn, especially for one so young but our main character learns it quickly and lets it override all the stupidity and drama of school.

     How would you feel if you were excluded from a big event all your friends have been invited to?  There’s one girl who will sympathize with you. In the short story “The Party,” there is a party to which the main character (who is the only one who was left out) is not invited to. Through the course of the story the girl, who is first unbelievably saddened by not getting invited, becomes more independent and breaks away from the hierarchy of cliques and traditional roles in a school, coming to terms with herself and her priorities. The girl learns that popularity and the newest things do not really matter in life.