Socratic Semimar Morrie Reflection

     The past four Socratic Seminars influenced my thinking about Tuesdsys With Morrie and life in general in several ways. One thing that I thought about after the first seminar was just about the different aspects of the book that I hadn't before. It made me notice that the book was full of both explicit and hidden lessons. I also thought about the little details that the book included, such as paying attention to your surroundings instead of "sleepwalking". The seminar also made me rethink many of my life decisions that I may have regretted, even though I'm still young.

      One trend that I noticed for my personal goals was to speak a little more, or bring up different topics that no one had brought up. Basically, most of the goals were to find somewhere to include myself in the conversation. Another goal was to give more questions to move the discussion along. This extra goal changed the pattern or trend since I actively tried to achieve my goals. I achieved my goal of speaking more by starting the third Socratic Seminar off with a question.

     There were a few trends in each of the class' discussions. Some of the trends were for the good, and some were for the bad. One trend was sometimes going off topic from what someone said, or talking about completely different things. Although, some of the things that were good trends were making connections to the books, and bringing others to the conversation. Overall, all of the Socratic seminars went very different from each other, and both had good and bad elements to them.

Tuesday's with Morrie 4/28/16

     Based off of the six Tuesday chapters that I have read in the book Tuesday's With Morrie so far; I think that the topic of death or emotions had the most impact on me. Although the one that most inspired me was The Fourth Tuesday: We Talk About Death. This is because I feel like it had the most aphorisms in and basically just a big message. One of the main aphorisms on pages 82 and 83 were "Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live." and "If you accept you are going to die, you learn how to live." They both basically have the same meaning: if you accept and learn how to die, then you'll learn how to live.

      The topic of death is important because it is something that is going to happen eventually to everyone. It even says in the book; "Everyone knows they're going to die, but nobody believes it." (P.80) Morrie thinks that the best way to prepare for death, is to always be ready for it. I agree with this because everyone thinks that it's not going to be them and they're not going to die until they're old; but the truth is that anyone can die at any given moment.

     In the book, Morrie is called "a religious mutt". This is because he takes different ideas from a variety of religions. This is why he over emphasizes the idea of learning how to die before living. In this chapter and others, Morrie is receiving lots of letters, and he's giving people with similar situations advice and also telling his own life lessons and experiences (to them). This chapter about death is one of the many Tuesday's of lessons.

Tuesday's with Morrie - Bucket List

     I have many reactions after reading what I have read so far in the book Tuesday's with Morrie. I was shocked at first when I heard that Morrie was diagnosed with ALS, and he still decided to keep on teaching as he had been for more than 30 years. Morrie was a very happy person that had a positive outlook on life which was surprising to me because many people are negative in this world. It was especially shocking to me that he was positive; having a disease, and he couldn't do what he loved: to dance and swim.

     One thing that I read in the book that I did not expect was the jealousy that Mitch had for Morrie when he saw him on television. While he was randomly looking through channels, he saw that Morrie was getting interviewed, but that actually led to him reuniting with Morrie. I didn't expect to see that Mitch would be jealous. He is envious because he sees all of the friends that Morrie has, and how he had developed a lot of real relationships with people; unlike Mitch who lost touch with many of his friends.

My Bucket List:

- Graduate high school and college
- Learn a new language (and actually use it)
- Ride in a hot air balloon
- Visit all of the major cities in the U.S.
- Learn how to drive
- Go to a real fashion show
- Meet my favorite celebrities/bands
- Ride an elephant
- Get a tattoo
- Ride in a helicopter
- Hold a baby panda
- Go to Coachella
- Swim with dolphins
- Visist a black or pink sand beach
- Hike/rock climb out of state
- Dye my hair again
- Get an Alaskan Husky

3rd Quarter Reflection 4/6/16

     In my opinion, I think that the most difficult part of 3rd quarter for me was just to keep up with all of my schoolwork and turn it in on time. I tried to manage my time wisely in order to overcome this problem. I think that the area that I made the biggest improvement in English Language Arts was my writing. I feel that I improved in this because we have wrote a lot in class and it got better with practice as I went.

     Out of all the books that I have read this quarter; my favorite book was called A Child Callet It by Dave Pelzer. It was my favorite because it was very interesting to read and it was a book that was able to sent the message of child abuse across to the readers by showing the real life cases that Dave (the author) had to go through as a child. This book was all about the mistreatment and abuse that Dave suffered through for years as a child living in his home in California.

     My research skills have improved greatly since quarter two since we have been doing a lot. One assignment that helped me improve more in my research was the argumentative writing essay. Also, I have learned much about the world while researching and while working on the article of the weeks'. So far, in my 40 book challenge, I have only read three books so far; but I have been reading more over the past few weeks as I have finished a book in only a day. Something that I've been proud of this quarter was turning in most of my work on time and not getting any falcon fouls.

Matched 2 3/10/16

Prompt -  Is the setting described well enough that can put a picture of it in your mind?Why or why not?

     In Matched, the settings in each scene are vivid that you can imagine a picture of what's going on in the certain scene. The author uses descriptive words to create the effect that you imagine you are there. She describes ever single little detail to get the image across to the reader. 

     One of the scenes in the book that stood out with a lot of detail was what I have read recently. Cassia signed up for hiking as her summer leisure activity. When she was hiking up a hill, there was a very descriptive piece about her surroundings while climbing up. On page 95, there was a part that read; "It's not quiet in this forest, crowded with vegetation and thick, muggy morning air wet against my skin. Bugs hum and sing." and "My arm brushes against a leaf and a drop of dew falls onto the paper with a sound like ripe fruit dropping to the ground." This specific part really felt like you were in the forest with Cassia because there was very descriptive words that describes the scenery and sounds. 

     One other scene that was well-described was where it said; "I always enjoy these first few seconds in the theater before a showing, when all is dark and I am waiting." and "I might find myself completely alone. Or wondering if the lights won't come up at all." This part in page 88 made it seem that the reader was feeling what Cassia was a well. This was especially descriptive to put a picture in your mind because it's a realistic scenario.

Matched 3/4/16

Prompt: Draw a picture for what you just read.




     I drew various pictures for the book Matched by Ally Condie. The first picture that I drew was of the main character; Cassia. I drew her wearing the green dress that she picked out to wear to the matching ceremony. In the book, when you turn 17 years old; you can go to the matching ceremony where you get your "match". Every girl gets to pick the dress that she wants and Cassia was the only one to choose the green dress, which she loved.
     The compact mirror that I drew was what Cassia received on her birthday. It was an artifact from her grandfather's mother. According to Society, everyone is only allowed to have one artifact from their ancestors. Her 17th birthday actually seemed to fall on the day of the matching ceremony, so she got to take it to the ceremony.
   
   The silver box is what each person at the matching ceremony gets each year. Each box contains information about their new match. Cassia however, got matched with her childhood friend Xander which was good; but she did not even need to see the card because she basically already knew everything about him.
     I wrote "Xander or Ky?" because on the day this she viewed her box that contained information on Xander, a random face popped up and disappeared. This face happened to be Ky's face; Ky Markham was a kid that moved to Cassia's province when they were little. He was adopted by Aida and Patrick. Although, his father committed an infraction, so Ky was an aberration (he would never be qualified to have a match).

     I drew the world pointing to society because in this book the whole world follows everything that Society says. This is why I drew the three pills that were green, blue, and red. They (society) give everyone the three emergency pills gradually through when thy mature. They have to keep track of their pills so that anytime something bad happens, they will have them. The green one they receive first, and it's for keeping calm. Then, the blue one is in case of an emergency, and the red one is to forget.
     Lastly, I wrote the number 80 because that is the age that Society chooses that you it's a good time to die. They think that this is the best age to die because it's long enough to have a complete life experience, but not so long that they feel useless. Towards the beginning of the book, Cassia decides to tell her grandfather about Ky. This information was supposed to be confidential, but she was allowed to tell him since it was about to be his 80th birthday.

Life Is Beuatiful 3/3/16

  

     
     Based on the Holocaust readings we've done, there have been connections and distinctions between both the movie Life Is Beautiful and the book Night by Elie Wiesel. The movie Life Is Beautiful shows life before the Holocaust and even during (living in) the concentration camps in more of a positive note. As for the book Night shows the more real and negative side to the story. They were both about the same topics though; and that was life during the Holocaust.

     There were more differences in the movie and the book than similarities. Similarly though, they both included a part when the hard labor was described/shown. In the book, Elie had to do such hard work with the others that his foot had become swollen due to continuous hours of work and the extreme weather they had to be in with only a shirt and pants. On page 74, the book reads, "...my right foot began swell because of the cold. I was unable to put it on the ground." This was similar to the hard labor in the movie, but it was shown on a lighter note.

     In the film, Guido, the main character; had to go to work everyday with everyone else. Everyone had to do forced labor and carry very heavy things. He covered the fact that he was forced to do work for his son.  He told him that their whole time in the camp was a game that they were playing for points to win a tank. 

     One other similarity that the movie and book had in common was that there was a father and son as the main characters (aside from Guido's wife Dora in the film). In Night, Elie and his father were both aware of how they were in the concentration camp since Elie was a teen at the time. In Life is Beautiful, Guido's son Giosue was very young, so he didn't know about most of the actual events that were going on as he was in the camp. Then, another thing that both the movie and book had in common was how they both involved being secretive. 

     Being secretive helped both Elie and his father, and Guido and his son survive. In the book, Elie helped his father live when the SS were sorting and selecting  the weak and those who could walk well. Elie and his father got sent to opposite sides, so he ran after his father and the SS went to bring Elie back.  On page 91 of the book, it said; "Several SS rushed to bring me back, creating such confusion that many of the people form the left were able to come back to the right-and among them, my father and myself." This was just one of the times that Elie helped his father or vice versa.

     In the movie, Guido helped his son to survive by telling him to hide in small cabinet outside. This helped Giosue survive because he listed to his father's advice to stay quiet and not come out until everything was quiet. The movie foreshadowed this scene a bit in the beginning because since Giosue didn't want to take a bath, he hid in a small cabinet at home, like the one in the concentration camp. Also, he could've been sent to the gas chamber when everyone we told that they were going to take 'showers'; but he decided to stay back and hide which saved his own life. 

     Both the movie and the book have a lot of differences, one is that the book was focused mostly on Elie and his father. In the movie, it was focused on Guido and his wife Dora mostly in the beginning, until later in the movie it focused on their entire family including Giosue. Also, a huge difference of the both is that the moods/tones are completely different; even though they were both set during the Holocaust, one was more negative while the other was more positive. Night was a very gloomy and depressing book that showed the real hardships that Elie and everyone  in the concentration camps during the Holocaust endured. 

     In Life Is Beautiful, the beginning was cheerful, and even the middle and the end were not that somber for the most part. What helped the movie be more positive was that it had a lot of humor in in such as when Guido thought or pretended that he had powers to do things in his mind (liked when he wanted to detain the guard dogs from barking at the cabinet where Giosue was hiding). They overall had completely different tones with the same topics. 

     As well as humor, the movie had a lot of suspense; one scene that had a lot of suspense was when Guido was trying to hide from a guard, but one found him and took him behind a building. The scene just shows the wall but there are gunshots heard. Some viewers can infer that Guido shot the guard and ran away with the gun since after that scene the  rushed away, and there isn't a clear view of his (the guard's) face. Viewers can believe this because Guido could've switched clothes with the guard, and he had dressed up before to survive. Although, it didn't end up being Guido since he was the one who was shot. 

     Throughout the film, there are certain parts where it is shown that Life is Beautiful. In the middle of the movie, Guido's family are happy and live in good conditions. Then, they are taken to a concentration camp and have to try to survive there. This alone is supposed to show that their life before is something to be appreciated and how life is beautiful. Also, there are just certain instances where Giosue gets to escape when he's probably going to go into the gas chamber or get in trouble.

      One scene (other than how he survived in the cabinets) was when he was sitting in the room having dinner with other kids, but no one was aloud to speak. Giosue accidentally thanked one of the servers when he gave him food. The server went to report what had happened when Guido decided that he could fix the situation. He made all the kids say "thank you" when the server came back with one of the SS women that were in charge. This made it seem that it was everyone, and not just Giosue so he wouldn't get in trouble.