Reading Times

The Cold Sassy Tree-
4/16: 30 min
4/21: 60 min

Portfolio:
4/15: 60 min
4/21: 60 min

Total: 210 min

What I Want

            Woah. What do I want most in the world? That's some deep stuff. I can honestly say this question got me thinking. If we look back at some of the characters in Nervous Conditions, I see that Tambu had a very distinct goal. She wanted an education because that would allow her to look onto a positive future. Otherwise, she would become just like every other girl in her town; a housewife. Another character who knew what he wanted was Piggy from Lord of the Flies. Piggy wanted order and shelter. Although he didn't always know how to get it, he keeps the same mindset unlike the other boys who didn't really know what side they were on and what they thought.
    So when I look at myself and wonder what I want, I feel like one of the young boys in Lord of the Flies. I don't really think that I know what I want to be completely honest. I guess that everything I work towards is to get me to a college out of state. Ideally I want to go to a college somewhere much farther north; North Carolina, Colorado, ect. I play soccer so that hopefully I can get a scholarship. Plus, I try to get the best grades I can. So, if I could ask for anything it would be a full scholarship to a collage somewhere up north. What would I be willing to do to get this scholarship? Well, I already play soccer ALL THE TIME. I am in a hotel right now for a tournament in north Alabama. I guess that I would kick it up a notch and practice everyday of the week rather than just five. I think that I could take harder classes in school so that my transcript would look better. I wouldn't go to extreme measures like cheating on the ACT or stealing an exam though, thats to far for me.

Reading Details:
Crank:
4/9: 2 hours
The Cold Sassy Tree
4/12: 1 hour

Total: 180 min

*I am skipping the poem post this week. I went to the Crank reading disscussion.

Cough Syrup

I chose the song Cough Syrup by Young the Giant. This song is easy to analyze because it is all a metaphor, it has mood, and rhymes. The song has a slightly depressing but more overcoming difficulties mood. The song has movements of the mood where the speaker is hopeful but that is immediately followed by a drop in the mood. However, the music and the tone that the singer uses is very calm throughout the whole song.
      The whole song is a very unspecific metephor. So it can be interpreted differently depending on the person. I think that the speaker is referring to the cough syrup being a remedy (or way) of dealing with whatever is troubling you. The singer talks about "fishes in the sea their staring at me" and "zombies in the park their looking for my heart" are both metaphors for people who have bothered/hurt the singer in the past.
 

Reading Response

      All this week I have been reading Crank by Ellen Hopkins, for Diamond's reading discussion.  So far, it is about a girl named Kristina but she has another side she named Bree. Kristina was an outstanding student, a great singer, and had great friends. This gave her so much to lose. When she went to stay with her drug-addict dad, she became one herself. She did loose it all.
     What I didn't know about Crank before I started reading it is that it is all written in a way that the pictures portray a shape or a mood. For example, if the mood in the book was choppy and tense the words would be scattered. I have noticed that someone who truly loves and cares about her will call her Kristina, but someone who just wants to crank or use her will call her Bree. It really is like she has two different lives, with different people and places. I haven't finished the book but I think that it is going to take a big mess up on her part for her to get her life back on track.

Research Paper

The paper I have chosen to redo is my research paper. I would like to start off by saying that this research paper is a continuing problem for me. I think that this is because third quarter was a funky time for me as far as my grades went, so I didn't put my full effort into that paper. I also chose this paper because it reflects what I haven't yet learned this year and in a last effort I am going to try to conquer my habitual writing mistakes.

   My largest problem is sentence fluency. I think that I can work on the fluency not only between my sentences but also my paragraphs. Also, specific to my research paper, my quotes were not integrated into my paper well. My next problem is my word choice. I think that if I used some new words it would benefit my sentence fluency also. I think that the topic that I chose has much more potential than was reflected in my paper. This time around I hope to give more to this paper.

Goodall's Writing Mistakes

       Plagiarism is a serious offense that regards taking other people's work and claiming it as one's own. Considering all of what Goodall has taken, her offense is major for she took quotes, barely rewording or rearranging their structure. Earlier in the year when we were writing our research papers, we discussed how plagiarism is serious from the stand point of a student. This article shows how plagiarism is still a serious crime and is a major crime even when you leave school. Although Goodall's book has not been released, she will never be respected as an author in the scientific community again.
       Next time Goodall writes a book she needs to pay more attention to plagiarizing rules. There is only two ways that she could have so profusely plagiarized; either she doesn't know how not to or she decided not to cite her sources. The way to fix this is to teach her how to correctly write a research based book and show her how to cite and paraphrase. However, if she does know how to avoid plagiarism then I do not think she has a true passion for writing. Either way Goodall needs to take some time off from writing and re-evaluate her writing career.

Nervous Conditions Thoughts

    Our class question discusses how culture and community affect an individual. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga fits this description perfectly. The title alone refers how the physiological state of characters in the book are affected by colonization. That leaves the whole book to answer our class discussion question. Even though this book probably has all of the  qualificationst that makes it a perfect book to go along with our class focus I think that, personally, there were still some faults
   The reason that I don't think Nervous Conditions is going to a book that will stick with me is that I couldn't connect with it. Lord of the Flies and Nation  both had non-specific plots, so I could read it and  get the deeper meaning easily. For example, it is fairly obvious that I cannot connect with a bunch of little boys stranded on an island. However, the message is a broad one that I could understand so I will probably remember Lord of the Flies for a very long time. Nervous Conditions, on the other hand, has a plot and theme that neither one really connect with my life.
   This is not to completely discredit Dangarembga for writing a great book. I think that she developed the characters and used them to portray her theme perfectly. I just think that this book would be a better outside reading book or summer reading because it is hard to write papers and takes tests on it.
  As for books that would fill the spot of Nervous Conditions, I don't think that there is one. That is why I think that freshmen should continue to read it (maybe for summer reading though). Although I personally could not relate to the plot that doesn't mean that other students wouldn't be able to.

Expectations

    Tambu is doing a Hannah Montana thing all through this book. Her parents, on the homestead, expect her to abide by the rules of women hood that they have given her. They want her to be quite and work, but what bothers her the most is that they believe education is not necessary. This is the complete opposite of what is expected of Tambu at the Mission. She is expected to keep her grades up and study.  However, at both places she is treated as inferior to the men. I also encounter the same situation as Tambu when I go to different places such as school, soccer, and with friends.
   Whenever I go to school I am expected to be quiet when asked, talk when asked, turn in papers when asked, do everything when asked. For example, the bell prompts students to come and go from classes and students have to wait until a teacher tells them to talk. By following the rules all the time this gives me the identity of a normal, good student. Since practically every kid across America goes to school this student identity is given to all children and teens. The only way to get a real stamped on identity in school is to do something majorly out of line or something really amazing like a scholarship. I don't think that I have either of those.
   When I go to soccer I have to switch my mentality. I can no longer wait for instructions, in fact having to wait for your coach to tell you what to do on the field is the mark of a bad player. I have to anticipate what is going to happen next. Also, being nice when playing soccer is not accepted like in school. I have to be aggressive and not afraid to get hurt. When you get to a certain level in soccer coaches and other girl players start to pick up on how you play. I think that people see me as the outside back who gets in the attack. This means that my team expects me to always be joining the attack, not just defending.
  Whenever I am with friends I don't have to follow rules or be aggressive. In fact, if I acted like I did in class or on the soccer field that would be weird. I can act how I want and chill out. I think my friends view me as goofy and nice.

Reading Times:

Nervous Conditions

3/6: 60 min
3/7: 60 min
3/8: 45 min

Total: 165 min

Babamukuru

              Babmukuru is the character in Nervous Conditions that appears like he is so helpful, giving, and really has his life figured out. In chapters 1-3 he gives so much to Tambu's family and the extended family. Everyone in the town looks up to him, and some practically worship him. Tambu has been looking up to him ever since her grandmother told her about his struggle to become educated and respected, just like Tambu wants to do. Up until this point the reader also respects Babamukuru and looks to him to help Tambu become educated. When Nhamo dies Babamukuru takes Tambu to the mission and Tambu gets to glimpse the real him. At the end of chapter 6, Babamukuru looses his composer and hits, beats, and threatens to kill his daughter. I know that I personally lost all respect for him and I don't expect anything great from him. This was a big turning point for his character, now I think that everything that Babamukuru did in earlier chapters was just to make him look good. He kept reminding Nyahsa that he couldn't be seen with a daughter who doesn't know how to behave herself. I think he is just concerned about what other people think about him.

C Layer Project Reflection

     For the first part of this project I decided to read all the chapters first and then do the projects. I did this because, when I don't have to annotate, I really do enjoy reading. I have a feeling that I am going to do the same thing for C layer 2. Another reason I read first is if I can convince myself to do all the reading on the weekend I will actually get it done. Otherwise I tell myself all week "Oh, it's just reading. I'll do it tomorrow." until I am left reading everything the night before. With reading guides or other projects I will actually get it done at home or in class.
   My favorite project was the character map on prezi. Mostly, this is because I actually reflected on the characters and their importance but also I liked how it was so fancy :). What I mean is it was neat and flew to the different slides. Plus, while entertaining me, I got to look deeper into the characters. My least favorite was the book mark, not because it was a bad project but because I was basically doing the same thing I did for the character map. Not that this was entirely bad. I could use my character map as a guide so I didn't have to work as hard. It was bad in the sense that I didn't learn anything new about the book doing this.

Paper Reflection/ Work Times

        This was the first research paper I had ever written. For me personally the hardest part was the annotated biboliagraphy. To start off I didn't even know what noodletools was, let alone an annotated bibliography. Two things made the bibliography the hardest: databases and paragraphs. I struggled a lot finding sources on the databases and I ended up stressing over that rather than concentrating on the actual annotations. Actually, my most helpful sources weren't from databases but from outside sources. Looking back I wish that we peer reviewed the bibliography because the paragraphs that I wrote could have been better and I could have received a better grade. Also, citing the sources was very confusing maybe because it is just a difficult technique to learn but I still don't think I fully picked up on it. Outside of the bibliography nothing stands out to me as the easiest. The rest of my process was just ups and downs of work ethic. My rough draft was not my finest work, I just threw it togeather. Then I worked really hard on corrections and ended up adding a whole page of supporting details to my paper. Next, I printed out the wrong draft and accidentally brought it in for review. I personally wish that I had taken the whole process more seriously.
     The weakest part of my paper was sentence fluency. Out of all the traits of good writing I wish this wasn't the one I had the hardest time because it seems like the most important. Sometimes when I am writing a paper I have all of my ideas in my head and I think about how they connect and affect each other. It all fits together so well in my head, but when I go to write it I leave out parts and my writing gets choppy. However, I think that the organization was strong in my paper. I started off with the education itself then moved on to students personal lives and how they are affected by the education they are given.
     The most helpful advice I received for my paper was from my p.e coach. She encouraged me write more supporting details rather than adding more facts to support my topic. I thought about this while I was re-reading my paper and it really helped me to round out my paper.

Reading Times:
2/17: The Fault in Our Stars~ 120 min
2/19: Paper revisions~ 45 min
2/21: The Fault in our Stars~60 min
2/22: Final Revisions~ 30 min

Total: 255 min

Reading/Paper Times

2/8: finished rough draft (120 min)
2/11: read What The Night Knows by Dean Koontz (30 min)
2/15: printed out rough draft and started making corrections (35 min)
2/16: finished making rough draft corrections (30 min)
2/17: read Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (45 min), made corrections to rough draft (35 min)
  Total: 295 min

Work Times

Research Times:

1/28: Writing Detailed Outline on paper, very brief just with the basic structure (30 min)
1/29:  Typed Outline with quotes, summaries, and paraphrasing (1 hour and 15 min)
2/2: Corrected citations from annotated bibliography (30 min)

Research Update

   Informal:
     
    My topic is about the differences in curriculum in China and America an how it is taught differently. The reason I chose this topic wasn't because I am very interested in school systems, ect. but that it was very convent, with Kanis (exchange student) being here. As I started my research the only sources I got  were people arguing about one system being better than the other. This was a problem for me because I needed non-biased facts so that I could come to my own conclusion. Finally, I started to find what I needed on and off databases. By far Kanis helped me the most, I got to ask her my own questions so that I got exactly what I needed to tie together my research. What I found most interesting was the classes they took in middle school such as physics. They take full advantage of middle school, unlike in America where some students don't take school seriously until high school. That is the answer to my research question, Typically chinese students are able to excel in school because they fully use their middle school years with more advanced classes. However, the stress that is put on the students creates an unhealthy school and home environment that may not be worth the academic excellence.

Formal:

  The topic I chose to research is, how is curriculum taught differently China than in America, and how does that enable one system to be more effective than the other? During the research of this topic there were many irrelevant and biased topics that proved to be obstacles. However, eventually I was able to obtain facts that allowed me to come to my own conclusions rather than just accepting a previous answer. During the interview with a student from China, all of my question were answered and false facts were thrown away. She discussed her middle school curriculum, which was very different from the typical American students. After all of my research I came to the conclusion that China's education is superior because they fully utilize grades sixth through ninth (middle school) unlike many American schools, however the exorbitant amounts of pressure put on students in China results in un-healthy home and school environment making their levels of academic achievement not worth it.

Free Post: Reading Post

  For my free post this week I am just going to do another reading post. So, What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz is starting to get very interesting. Just to let you know, the Calvino family consists of a mom, dad, two daughters and a son. All of them have had different supernatural experiences but keep them to themselves. It is kind of like the parallel plot structure because I know that later in the book this "ghost" is going to attack them all at one time causing the plots to collide.
      I have to admit I never took this book for a fantasy horror story. To be honest,  I would rather the whole fantasy genre when it come to horror stories. I hate it when I am watching a movie and it is too similar to real life and I am freaked out for months on end. Anyway, what makes me so angry is that the whole Calvino family is keeping the crazy things that are happening to them to themselves because they are trying to protect each other or they think they are crazy. I sit reading these scary parts and my heart is pounding, what they don't realize is that the ghost doesn't want them to let the rest of the family know what is happening to each individual because that would ruin his plan. This book is full of dramatic irony and it makes me want to scream at the characters in the book and tell them exactly what to do. I also may have read the last page of the book, I couldn't help it! The suspension was too much, I just had to make sure the whole family lives which *spoiler alert* they do.

Research Topic

    My topic is about the differences of education systems are different in America and China. When I first started my research I was going to narrow my topic down to the faults in each of the systems mostly because I was having a hard time finding anything good about them. In class Dr. D gave me the key word "curriculum". Let me tell you, key words can make or break research. I immediately found tons of sources, looked in their bibliography's, and found more sources. Now my topic has moved towards the differences in how the curriculum of the two countries differ, and the differences in the way they teach.
   For my primary resource I am lucky enough to have Kanis, a chinese exchange student, answer some of my questions. I haven't interviewed her yet because I am going to do all of my other research first but I have a feeling she is going to be very helpful.

Reading Response

I was having trouble picking out a book to start reading. As a last resort, and last minute, I ended up looking through some of my older sister's books. After googling many of the books and reading summaries I chose What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz. I have never heard of this book, but from what I gather from google it is the second book in a series and it is a murder-mystery. All this to say, I have no clue what I am getting myself into.
    The whole book is very dark and disturbing, it is about a detective, John Calvin, who is investigating the murder of a family of four by the fourteen year old son. The boy's name is Billy, what the reader initially finds out about Billy is that he is a psychopath in a mental hospital for murder. The farther you read into the book that more common and flattering descriptions Billy is given, he was so smart he skipped two grade levels and throughout his hundreds of paperback books not a single one was a murder-mystery. Well, based off of Billy's "normal" self, I would suspect that I would murder someone before he ever did. That is one of the creepiest parts of the book so far. As the book develops the reader finds out that for some reason John has a feeling that his family too will be killed in a massive murder, later he does find pictures of him and his family on Billy's computer.
   That is as far as I have gotten. This book is so detailed, Koontz supplies the reader with vivid imagery by using measurements, colors, feelings, and smells, much to my dislike as he is describing a mastermind's killings. However, What the Night Knows seems to be foreshadowing events that will tie up the book in an amazing way, like maybe an Agatha Christie book?

Reading Times:
What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz:
1/13: 120 min.

Free post

    I love learning about different cultures from all around the world. To me the most interesting day during history class is when we get past the boring geography and government and actually learn about the people, it makes the whole area more real. It is no surprise that two of my longest, and best, friends aren't from the USA.  It is funny to me to see the quirks they carry from their own countries. However, culture all around America changes from place to place, Louisiana also having a very rich culture. I know about Louisiana's culture though, I am more interested in learning about other cultures.
   A few summer's ago I had a French exchange student, now for a few weeks I am going to have a Chinese exchange student. I am excited to learn about her culture because we hear so many de-humanizing things about China from the news, government, ect. I think this will give me a more realistic look into people's life in China.