Friday, March 31, 2017

3rd quarter Reflection Blog



This quarter has been one of the craziest yet, I've had many ups and downs. I don't think that I did so great in ELA for 3rd quarter. And yeah you would expect a student to have everything together by the end of 3rd quarter. Unfortunately I didn't. I’m pretty sure my grades went down, and I don't think I was focused nor do I think I tried my best. But there is something that I have taken from this experience, and something that I will improve on in the future. I've realized that I need to manage my time to get work done. I also come to realize how to be more focused and be even more responsible so that I don't fall behind like I did this quarter.

 Everything wasn't so bad this quarter, from the blogs that I've recently done I have seen improvements. For example compared to my blogs from August you can tell that I'm doing a better job of organizing my thoughts. Other improvements that I'm very proud of is how easy it is to write in an objective tone when it comes to a topic. It has become like an instinct to not put subjective words such as I, we, and I think. I'm positive this will help me do a better job in debates etc.
 
A goal that I want to accomplish for 4th quarter is to have a better vocabulary when it comes to writing. For instance I don't want to keep using basic words to describe emotions. I also would like my writing to be more meaningful. I want it to have some sort of effect on the reader's thinking.

Monday, March 13, 2017

Night blog

        People change in many ways all the time, especially after a very tragic event. An example of change in a person can be seen in the memoir that I've been reading called Night by Elie Wiesel, here he goes back and talks about his experience as a Jew in a concentration camp during WWII. He describes scenes that can’t be unseen. Elie changes both physically and mentally. For example a change that can be easily seen is his connection with God and his religion.

       In the beginning of the memoir Elie is a young boy who was only seeking to serve god in any way he could, in other words he was very pious. An example of his devotion for God is in the book where it says, “He had watched me one day as I prayed at dusk. "Why do you pray?" he asked after a moment. Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe? "I don't know," I told him…”(4.) In this passage Elie’s master, Moshe the Beadle, asks questions that even Elie can’t answer about himself. When he’s asked about why he cries when he prays he makes it seem as it it’s something necessary to live and compares it to breathing and living. Young Wiesel believes that he was born to serve God. Unfortunately when he arrives in the camp his beliefs change. In the text it says, “ Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my souls and turned my dreams into ashes.” (32) Elie feels as if as in the moment that he was prisoner in the concentration camp his God wasn't the one he thought He was. Elie saw so much death that it actually destroyed his view on God.

        Wiesel’s faith wasn't the only thing that changed through the book, his relationship with his dad also did. In the book as Elie and his father arrive at the concentration camp a traumatizing moment for any child happens, in the text it says, “I did not move. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, before my very eyes, and I had not flickered an eyelid" (37) As Elie’s father gets beaten up by one of the guards Elie gets paralyzed and does nothing, he himself was even surprised. Before Elie was ever in the camp he would've definitely done something if one of his parents was ever disrespected like that, but the fear made him freeze and be a bystander. If you think about it Elie and his father were there for a small amount of time, which means that it only took a bit to change Elie. It also shows how cruel and terrifying the atmosphere was.





Friday, March 3, 2017

Butterfly Project












"It all depend on how you look at it"

Terezin is full of beauty.
It’s in your eyes now clear
And through the street the tramp
Of many marching feet I hear
In the ghetto at Terezin,
It looks that way to me,
Is a square kilometer of earth
Cut off from the world that’s free.
Death, after all, claims everyone,
You find it everywhere.
It catches up with even those
Who wear their noses in the air.
The whole, wide world is ruled
With a certain justice, so
That helps perhaps to sweeten
The poor man’s pain and woe.



        I commented on Claudia's blog
        I commented on Nathaly's blog
        I commented on Jack's blog
        I commented on Isaiah's blog
        I commented on America's blog