First, I looked at Jamie's blog, because I know she always has a really clear outlook on things and expresses herself eloquently. She wrote about how she liked the use of blogs this year, and hopes that they would be even more drawn into the curriculum next year. I commented:

"Jamie- I really liked a lot of the comments you made about blogging. I completely agree that it would be beneficial to do "prompt-free" blogs, because they would really inspire more creativity. I think it's great that your chemistry class really utilized your blogs. Our teacher asked us to make them, but we really have only had a few posts and never did any sort of follow up on them. I also like your idea of getting feedback from our teachers on our blogs, although I know it would be difficult for one teacher to read about thirty blogs. Maybe they could read and comment on a few blogs per week, then gradually end up ready some of everyone's."

After looking through a few more blogs, I decided to hit up Dylan's. He's always very animated and enthusiastic in class, and after translating through his thick accents, he makes great contributions to discussions. His blog also sang the praises of blogging in general, and discussed how they make it easy for one's own unique voice to be heard. I commented:

"This is a great post. And I believe Mr. Allen would agree, because you really epitomized "form is content" :]. You wrote in your own way and your voice clearly shines through, and that's also what you decided you liked about the blogging process itself: how you can write exactly the way you would speak, if you were just having a conversation about blogging over coffee at a trendy cafe (that's where I assume you'd be discussion this).
I understand what you mean when you talk about how the blogs just "flow" easily onto the screen. Because they are a much more casual form of writing, usually it's much easier to get your inner thoughts out into the open."

Metacognition: Blogging

Throughout this year, in English, we have been writing on our blogs a few times a month with different prompts, usually pertaining to things we are doing in class. I think this has been one of my favorite English assignments, for a few reasons. First of all, blogs don't require extensive research, the need to form complex theses, or making flashcards. They are not extremely time-consuming or tedious, and are usually very enjoyable to write. This is because blogs are like personal diary entries (with a theme of course). Within reason, one can write about whatever they need to vent, advocate, rage, elaborate or think about. Blogs are one assignment that comes with few restrictions and offer a lot of creative freedom. That's why they are enjoyable for us to write, and I think worthwhile for Mr. Allen to read: because they are a true insight into our minds, without stuffy things like paragraph structure or strict organization (not that those things don't have a good time and place . . . somewhere out there). I liked my thinking during my blogs as the years progressed; I believe I began to appreciate the overall effect of blogging and the importance of seeing the thoughts of others, and my own ideas really bloomed and flourished through the year.

My blog has allowed me to gain more understanding and knowledge about English class in general. Specifically, the Blogging Around prompt encourages us to take a peek into the heads of our fellow classmates. Even though we only are required to comment on two blogs, at least for me, this prompt usually causes me to explore more and read many Academite's blogs. Other blog prompts, such as Connection, Dialectics and 360 Degrees, are interesting because they lead to new ideas as well as looking at accepted things in different ways. The Best of Day/Week blogs help me recap important themes and ideas from our class discussions, and many others advocate creative thinking and expression. I think the blogs this year have really been a great, informal outlet for creativity and exploration outside of the classroom, and have been effective in deepening our experiences in our English class this year.

Best of Week: Michael K as God

Overall, when I read/try to analyze books for school, I end up looking at the finer details, rather than the big picture. This happened to me earlier with Life and Times of Michael K, when we discussed how Part One was narrated in 3rd person, but almost had the verisimilitude of how Michael would narrate. That kind of went over my head until I took a step back and thought, "Oh yeah, now I see it." That happened again this week, and it really opened my eyes to a new aspect of the book. Mr. Allen pointed out the hints symbolizing Michael K as a god of some sort; how he had escaped the system of horror and warfare in South Africa. One particular instance was when Michael quoted the Burning Bush, alluding to God and the Bible.

A part of this insight connects to a belief I toyed with once about God, before I figured out that it's just better to leave it alone. For some time, I didn't really understand how there could be a God when there was still so much strife, pain and horror in the world. So in my mind I made up a theory that He created the world originally and put everything in it's place, and then just left, got sort of shut out. That was why all the bad things happened in the world: God was watching, chilling around the edges of reality, but for some reason, He couldn't help us; he'd just watch us mess everything up ourselves. This belief coincides with Michael, because he was very detached from the world and nothing really effected him directly. Yet he still inspired "religious" experiences in some of those around him (the doctor).

This insight let me discover another layer of the novel, which I originally thought to be much sparser. Coetzee really put in a lot of deeper meaning in his work, with supreme attention to detail. Seeing this really made me appreciate the novel much more. although I still don't absolutely love it. But I think that the depth and discussion we have inflicted upon it will definitely help me think more about the different layers of other novels that I read in the future.

360 Degrees: The AP Test

There are a few different kinds of testing: short answer, essay, multiple choice, classroom, and standardized are just a few. And then, there are the monsters, the tests that seem to make or break your future and your sanity. Those are the ACT, the SAT and the AP. These big three can have a huge impact on your future education and career, and honestly, I'm terrified even thinking of them now. I would like to think about the pros and cons of these tests, including the prices, stress, structure, etc; focusing specifically on the ghastly ogre lurking in my immediate path of life: the World History Advanced Placement Exam. Sounds horrendous, but it can also be amusingly abbreviated to WHAP. Hah. Just because you call something cute, like "Little Boy" for example, it doesn't mean it can't blow up and cause utter destruction to your world (or Hiroshima).

Colleges love for student to take AP exams, because they show the intelligence of the student as well as their desire to be perceived as intelligent. Unlike standardized testing and even the ACT or SAT, AP's are not required. So when taken, they show the eagerness and dedication of the student to increasing their knowledge. However, not all colleges accept AP credit for certain classes; they might only accept certain scores or they might offer elective credit, rather than core course credit. Most colleges would prefer to not lose money by letting you skip classes, so they could also just strongly encourage higher level classes.

But are tests like the AP's, SAT and ACT too strongly weighted for college acceptance? For students unsure of their future profession, it is important to have a decently strong background in multiple subjects, but for those, for example, planning to be an accountant or a make-up artist, do they really need to know much about Latin roots or geometry? (respectively) I'm not sure exactly how admissions are dealt with, but I definitely think that test scores should be held equally, if not less than as important as things like interviews, references and personal essays.

The ACT costs start at $31 without a writing portion, and $46 with writing. The SAT begins at $49. Both of these come with a multitude of "a la carte" items, including late registration fees, international testing fees, college reporting and many other options that add on the dollars. Each AP test costs $86. The first two seem pretty reasonable, if you register on time and don't rack up any additional fees, but the AP is a bit expensive. And taking all three types multiple times can ring you up a few hundred dollars at the book store. Most students usually end up taking the ACT and SAT a few times, to improve their scores, and some take many AP classes. I don't know why the price of the AP's are so precipitous, but what if there was some sort of system for the other two, where the cost was lowered after taking it multiple times? That would definitely ease of some of the pressure to get perfect scores after just a few tests.

These tests are an extreme cause of stress. I'm especially feeling the pressure right now. I feel like there is so much information that needs to be covered, and a sinking sense of hopelessness is descending upon me. I am not prepared and I feel bad wasting my parents money on this test. Many students are just giving up, trying not to worry and planning on disregarding however they do on the test. Maybe I'm just an overachiever, but regardless of how much preparation I do, I know I'll still feel horrible if I get a low score. So speaking of preparation, I'm going to go traverse the treacherous pages of my AP World book and try to cram about 10,000 years of history into my mind. Wish me luck.

Metacognition: Short Story

I'm really not sure how I'm feeling about my short story. I really liked it, until I had to put pressure on my main character, the mannequin. I understand that it is important to the story to challenge the characters, but I don't know if I accomplished this well. With this feeling of insecurity, I wrote the ending of my story. I tried to make my girl sound as confused, desperate and desolate as possible while also keeping rather cool, but I feel as if the ending is too abrupt. I also remember Mr. Allen telling us that the ending shouldn't really be final, but I think one could take mine to be either final or unfinished. Either way, I'm feeling very insecure about it. Because of this, I'm just letting my mind roam free as I write, and not really thinking extremely carefully about every word. (This could prove to be a good thing or a very bad thing)



I wish I could have discussed my ending with Mr. Allen individually, like when we talked to him about the middles of our stories. It would have been nice to have a little bit of direction; right now, I feel as though I'm just slinging words on the doc and seeing what sticks. I really hope my ending works. It would be a bother to rewrite it with little guidance. I'm also worried about the story in general. I know it would be nearly impossible for Mr. Allen to really look at every sentence in everyone's stories, but I almost feel as though my ideas might be good, but once looked at more closely, there will be many problems. I wonder if we'll have more time after this revision to focus on the smaller aspects, or if it will just be assumed that it's perfect, from the inside out?

Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing Assignment

I really liked the idea of this assignment, bringing together characters and having them interact in new ways. I also liked how we could choose our own groups and topics that interested us most. I believe my group's experience was very different than other groups, however, because of our extracurricular challenges. The week the project was due was tech week for GBN's spring play, Cinderella, which Kyle, Melanie and I all had roles in. We asked Mr. Allen for an extension, which he generously granted us, but we really did not have much of a chance to work on the project during the week, with rehearsal every night until 10 p.m. We finally all got together on Sunday afternoon and spent quite a few hours adding, editing and finalizing our transcript.

It was a fun experience to create a discussion. Normally, when writing a paper, it's all from one point of view, very direct, and very structured. For this project, I tried to think of things from multiple angles; rather than just stating opinion or fact, I also made sure it fit with who the character was. For example, the views on feminism in 18th century could not really be expressed by our faux Academy student, and some of the Academy book connections would be better explained by the student, rather than Charlotte or Jane. I also liked writing it because there wasn't a specific structure that needed to be followed; we could just let the conversation flow, while also incorporating our connections and quotes. I won't really know how successful it was until we receive our grades, but if we did it correctly, I would definitely say that it was a much more enjoyable and free-formed way to reflect on a book read in class.

I liked the connections I made, especially with Sophie's World. I realized it's easier to connect two books with a pre-established theme, rather than to just try to find any similarities. I also especially liked when I read through the previous work and helped connect the sub-conversations while preserving the overall theme. I'm pretty happy with my work; I just wish our group could have met together more often, because on a collaborative project like this, it really does work better when the group members are physically together.

Captured Thought: Hands

I am a very touchy-feely person; I love holding hands and hugging and other things of that nature. Recently, I've been looking at boys' hands and mentally comparing them, and today, in Academy, I had an epiphany: all the hands of the guys I know that play volleyball have really square/circular palms, and their fingers are about the same lengths as their palm, and the hands of those that play basketball have thinner palms and long, thin fingers. Maybe this isn't the most astounding insight ever made, but I felt a strange but oddly satisfying wave of accomplishment hit me as I realized those connections. I'm probably not going to go around at do a clinical trial examining the hands of GBN's volleyball and basketball teams, but it would be very interesting to see the results.

Let's assume that my observations are true for all, or at least a large majority of these athletes. What does that mean? I'm not sure if it would be possible for a sport to alter the hands of a person; they usually seem to be something hereditary that can't be changed. Therefore, is it possible that hands could tell you something about your personality? Chiromancy, the art of palm reading, has been practiced for centuries, and involves evaluating the "lines" of the hands, characteristics of fingers, nails, fingerprints, skin texture and color, shape of the palm and flexibility. Among all the future-predicting/"psychic" arts, I almost think that this one makes the most sense, because rather than relying on crystal globes or tea leaves to predict things about your life, chiromancy is based on something that is inherently yours, that no one else can trick or beguile.


On a darker note, what if humans got this down to a science, and if, at birth, everyone was characterized with a list of possibilities for the kind of person they would become, based on their natural physical features? Or, if parents could be genetically analyzed to predict what kind of person their children would grow up to be? Our world has always been a mad race, a survival of the fittest; how soon do you think it will be until scientists literally take it into their own hands and choose to create the humans with the most potential, based off of their physical, inherited characteristics?