Reading and Working Times

Maximum Ride - 30 mins over the course of the week

Studying for poetry test 45 mins Thursday and Sunday

Research paper 20 mins Wednesday (I think..)

AP World History Textbook reading 1 hour 10 mins Thursday 

25 Seconds Of Courage

       I felt like I completely failed at writing that poem in class on Valentine's Day, so I wrote this. Enjoy.

25 seconds of courage, that’s all I need

Why am I like this? It’s not as bad as I think

1, I can’t do this, my feet slow their speed.

I’ll change my mind, I’m already at the brink

2, What if they judge me? , I’ll stutter or shake

I know I can do this but still I quake.

3, I’ll be fine, but if I fail...

Not him, but his friends that make me go pale

4, I’m still moving forward, I should be proud,

Look at me! I’m halfway through the crowd,

5, This’ll be easy, he’ll talk to me and I’ll talk to him,

I’ll make him laugh and he’ll make me grin.

6, A fourth of my time is over by the time I’ve arrived,

He says “Hey”, so far I’ve survived

7, 8, I open my mouth, ready to reply,

But I know people are watching, Dang it! I’m too shy

9, 10, 11, 12 Here I go, I’m talking,

Once I start it’s as easy as walking,

13, 14, 15, 16, He starts to laugh then talks a bit,

My chest pounds, but I think I’m gonna make it

17, 18, 19, 20, I can’t believe I was ever afraid,

As I listen to him, the surroundings begin to fade.

21, 22, 23, 24, Conversation’s over, I think it was a success.

Now I’m sure he won’t like me less.

25, I turn around and start to walk away,

I’m so glad I did this. He’s the best part of my day.

         Alright I hope that wasn’t too cheesy.... but I tried ok? Anyway in this poem used end rhyme with the rhyme scheme starting out as an ABAB but then turned into a CCDDEEFF and so on for the rest of the poem. I tried to have an anaphora of the words ‘I’ and ‘he’ but I don’t know if it’s as obvious as I intended. The diction of a lot of the words in this poem was to make it sound like the thoughts of this girl.

Let it Go By Idina Menzel

        The song Let it Go by Idina Menzel from the Disney movie, Frozen, is probably one of my favorite songs right now. In the beginning of the song cacophony is used to make it seem bitter towards her past of concealing herself. Assonance and euphony are used to make her sound sad by stretching out the words. Also the anaphora of the word ’don’t’ in the third stanza shows how many rules she has had to follow her whole life and how much she wants to get away from them. These things also continue on through the rest of the song but their purpose changes as the song changes.

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight
Not a footprint to be seen
A kingdom of isolation,
And it looks like I’m the Queen.

The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn’t keep it in, heaven knows I tried

Don’t let them in, don’t let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know
Well, now they know

            In the line “No right, no wrong, no rules for me” the anaphora of the word ‘no’ emphasizes her freedom and that she doesn’t have thing controlling her anymore. The sound patterns such as cacophony, assonance, and euphony that I mentioned earlier are now used to make her words happier and allows Idina Menzel to sing even louder and puts more power into the words. Disney songs almost always make it so that they are packed with rhymes. Whether they are slant rhymes or not or if they are internal rhymes or end rhymes the whole song is rhyming so that they are catchy, easier to remember, and pleasing to the ears of people of all ages.

Reading Log

50 mins reading in class Maximum Ride for the week

1 hr 20 mins Maximum Ride on Friday after school (I had to wait around a while)

Reading/Working Log

 ATD Discussion Posting- 1 hr

ATD Discussion Comments- 30 mins

Read wordly wise book and poems in class- 20 mins

Monday morning The Iliad- 15 mins

Research Paper Rough Draft and Reading/Working Log

                This might sound very cheesy, but I don’t feel like I have a ‘connection’ with my paper. I usually feel really proud of a paper I’ve written at this point and I usually know my paper by heart but now I feel like I didn’t even write it. Also it was almost too easy… I barely had to write anything. I mean, it’s all in my own words, but all I had to do was copy from my outline and notecards, paste, and modify. Of course, this may just be me over reacting or looking at it from too close of a perspective.

                I think I could use some help on my transitions. Also, I find that at some points I’m just saying the same things over and over again. Then at other times I felt like I wasn’t elaborating enough because I didn’t think I have enough room for elaboration. While I was writing I didn’t want to get to the point when I needed to write my introduction and conclusion and already be at the end of my 6th page. Now that my paper is done I realize I can be more descript wherever it is necessary. I would like to know where I need to explain more, where my major errors are, and if there are any places I could modify my ‘voice’.

Reading/Working Log

Rough Draft- Over 3 hours

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian- 30 mins

No, You Can't Touch the Sky

               The sky is the limit, so close you can touch the sky. Well actually no you can’t. This is a very pessimistic thing for me to say but I was having this conversation earlier today with someone and I found it kind of interesting even though it is quite simple. The sky is not the limit. There is no limit. The sky is not a barrier or wall separating the world from space. It’s just the atmosphere that slowly gets thinner until it reaches space. So the limit is wherever space ends. But nobody knows where space ends. As far as we know it just goes on forever! Plus humans have made it far beyond the sky making that saying false anyway.

                The sky isn’t necessarily something you can touch. Yes, I know it’s a metaphor to make a point about how high of an attitude a person is at, but still it doesn’t make sense. In my opinion we are always touching the sky. We are surrounded by air, always in contact with it, because it is made up of gasses. The gases are part of the atmosphere, which is the sky so we really don’t need to go very high to touch the sky. It might seem like a solid blue thing, but it’s just the color the atmosphere reflects back at us.