Blog #10

What stands out to you most in your eleventh grade experience at our school?

What stands out to me the most in my 11th grade year so far has been all the responsibilities I have been going through. There have been more assignments that I have to complete on my own and learn how to keep myself on track so that I could finish them on time and get full credit. I feel like this year, the teachers expect more from you and can't tell you what to do anymore because you have to be more independent and stay on task by yourself. I guess I'm learning how to be more mature and on task with my assignments since Junior year is an important year that everyone looks at when your applying for college.

What stands out to you most about your Humanities class?

The thing that stands out to me the most in humanities is the Honors section of the class. I like being in this part of the class because it makes me feel like I can challenge myself to do better in humanities and get credit for it. I have also noticed that we do interesting assignments that involve what we are focusing on in class, but we get to look deeper in to the meaning of the project which helps me understand it better. It's also something that I can do in my free time which I really like since I get to manage my own time and work on it according to when it's due, but also focus on the assignments we are working on sepratly in class.

What have you read that made you think this year (in or out of school)?
A book that I have read during the school was "They Poured Rain On Us From The Sky" This book really stood out to me because it made me realize that there was more to life than just what I was living in today. This really made me connect to school and stay in school for the better, it's made me focus more on school and appreciate what I have right now. My goal right now is to finish high school and go straight to college. This has been an eye opening book that I recommed to many others that like reading books based on true life stories and what is happening around the world.

What have you noticed about your growth as a writer?
What I have noticed about growing as a writer has been the way I write my ideas now. I go straight to writing and never pay attention to my mistakes, otherwise I loose my train of thought. This has really helped me because now I write more fluently and never leave anything that I have to say behind. This also works whenever I want to get something done fast and detailed, I just write what I have to say and then go back and find the mistakes I made and correct them, and also make sense with what I'm trying to say.

What goals do you have for your next month? What is your plan to reach towards these goals?

For my next month the goals that I have set for myself are that, number one, stay on task and pay more attention to the due dates on big assignments like honor which nobody is going to be telling me when they are due all the time. My second goal is to try my hardest to get things finished before and not wait until the last minute or get stuck doing something else. And my last goal for next month is to expect more from myself and not depend on others, such as the new project that is coming up has to be a really big and so I want to show how good I am working in the area that I have been assigned to in the play. I want to give my all and also go beyond what is expected of me.

Blog # 9

This represents Hamlet madly in love with Ophelia. He has to show her how much she loves her in a madly manner because then he will convince people that he is really crazy. Even though so many people oppose to their relationship because their not in the same hiarchy, they still have love for each other. This aspect of the book really strikes me because Hamlet is supposed to balance the love with her and make himself seem like hes crazy. It's something that maybe he will do really wrong or else he will do it really good. And I have chosen this picture because it shows that he wants to kiss her in a passionate but crazy way while holding her with a strange strangling position.

This picture shows many emotions on Hamlet and it represents how hes become madly crazy. Well at least thats what he pretends to do to get everyones attention towards his craziness and not his intelligence. This really striked me because Hamlet was not supposed to know that his uncle killed his dad but since the ghost talked to him and only him about what had happened, he wants revenge now. This picture stood out to me because of the way he looks deep into the scull of the skeleton head. It really shows how hes going to plan his craziness.

I chose this picture because it really shows the way people can back stab each other. It represents the way that Hamlets uncle killed his own brother which was his father. This really got me thinking because everything that is happening is because of this betrayal. In the book it describes only the setting when Hamlets uncle claims the throne so it doesn't really describe how his uncle killed his own brother.

Blog #8

What stands out to me overall in this American Icon Project is that there were many emotions found during the written artist statement that helped the writing feel more real and straight to the point. I really liked this because I like reading writing where there is a lot of emotion and passion to convince the reader how much they know about whatever they are writing about. This helped many students in their writing because it taught them how to be more descriptive and be simple at the same time. An example of this would be me, who at first didn't know what to write about but then found many emotions that she just had to put on paper so that they could be read by people that wanted to know why my family was my American Icon.

The experience during this project is very over whelming because without knowing it you can make someone feel the connection your feeling with your American Icon. This is something many writers tend to fail on but a lot of us did a great job on figuring out how to organize our paper so that it all made sense as to why we chose who we chose. Personally I think that my work survived the critiques of it being boring and not convincing. I think I did a great job convincing people that I knew what I was talking about and made them feel the scenery that I was describing.

My thoughts on the book being close to publication is very nervracking because even though we are not professionals we tried our best to do what we could in making this the best book ever. We focused a lot on "Make Meaning Early" because it's something that many authors tend to do in their writing, and I think this was great because it says that we could also become professional writers as well.

Blog #7

The best elements about this project had to be the completed version of everyones photo and artist statement put together in the comons. This really showed how our hard work and enthusiasm paid off. Now everyone can see what we had been doing for the past 3 and a half weeks. I really like the way this project turned out because it's not only some project that we do to get a good grade on it, but it's also a project that helps for everyone to know a little something about you and who you see as an American Icon. Another big element from this project was how we expressed our feelings and passion for whatever our Icon was. This to me was the most fundumental part because without it nobody would want to keep reading our artist statements that had no emotion to it and didn't quite paint a picture to the readers mind about the reasons why we chose who we chose to be our American Icon.

What stood out to me were the photos accompanying our artist statements, becasue they all showed the emotion that we brought to life in our writing. It was a basic picture that we made it feel alive when people read our artist statements and knew what it portrayed. A good example that I liked was for instance Tony's, where he had a great picture of himj and his instrumentss that went perfectly with his artist statement that talked about his passion for music and how it had been from generation to generation. http://anthonygiardinelli.over-blog.com/

Blog #6

Cherishing the Moments

Karina Felix

“Stop! You’re splashing me!” As chaos is in the air, the phone keeps ringing. As I pick it up, someone’s already on the other line saying “Yeah, yeah, yeah come over and bring food so we could play.” My cousins were inviting other cousins to come and play at the house. Moments later, All types of screaming were being heard around the house, whether it was fighting or just having laughs here or there.

That day, the humidity in the air was quite relaxing and unbearably warm. My cousins and I sat in the water smelling the hot grill, cooking the great traditional Mexican foods; carne asada, beans, rice, enchiladas, and it goes on. There were many more kinds of smells in the air. There were many things that we were all busy doing, but it felt very special to me, and proved that we were more together than ever. Being together while having fun playing in the water and eating hot enchiladas, which by the way is my grandma’s special dish, we were gathered once again.

We aren’t the typical normal family, one in which that everyone seems to have their own life and nobody actually ever gets along with each other. My family and I have a great relationship with everyone, and we can talk to whoever is there whenever something’s bothering us. Whether it’s small or big, we will always be there for whoever needs it. I will certainly know that they will never turn their backs on me.

Whenever we have unexpected visits at the house, people tend to be surprised and ask if we are having a party. In response we tell them that it’s typical to find us like this almost every weekend. It’s like a party for us celebrating that we care about each other and seem far away from the family conflicts and problems that we might be having in our personal lives. This is mainly due to the fact that we are straight forward to each other and never keep secrets that might affect us all. We strongly believe that there shouldn’t be any type of negativity inside our little community. We have all learned this from being a religious Catholic family that goes to church every Sunday.

People tend to say that I have the perfect family, but it’s totally the opposite. We are so imperfect that we are perfect for each other. I admire the many things that my family has accomplished. Whether it’s my brother and my cousins accomplishing their education to the fullest or just us having a great day. For us it’s big, which means having a variety of foods and smells that my aunts and grandma prepare, and screams and conversations all over the place by my uncles watching a soccer game, or just seeing them playing on the pool table, cheering and making jokes about each other. We feel proud for the smallest accomplishments but make them feel big in a way that everyone feels accomplished.

We always have a great time whether it’s for a celebration of someone’s birthday or even if it’s just a simple lunch that we are going to share as a family. The point is that we are together and we always will be, even though we will all grow up and have our own families. We will cherish the memories that we shared in my house and pass them on to our kids, teaching them that family will always be there whenever they need it the most.

Blog #5

Some writing tips that seem helpful to me are make meaning early, Sensory detail, the hook, and starting my essay with a conversation or me speaking. This helped my essay be more interesting and more to the point because at first my drafts were boring until they got to the body paragraphs where they were more into the point and seemed to catch the readers attention. Later when I incorperated these tips on my writing I got the readers hook and made people interested in reading what my artist statement is about.

I would like our editors to focus more on my way of putting my paragraphs in order and making them flow well with my story. What I'm worried about is having my essay not make sense and have everything all over the place. Our editors will help me a lot by also focusing on my sensory details that I have been using. I would like them to correct me if there is too much sensory details or I have to put more since my essay already has a lot of scenes where there are descriptions of my family and how I feel about them.

What I am hoping to improve in my writing is the way my paragraphs flow together and combine to one main thing, which is my family. I am also hoping to improve the boring words that I always use in my writing and come up with new interesting words that mean the same thing but combine two or more words together. For me it's like making my writing shorter but keeps the same message that I want the readers to get. It's a way that I can also grow as a writer since I'm trying new words out and including them into my words, which I think will make the reader seem that I know exactly what I'm talking about.

Blog #4

"A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.”

I picked this quote because it summerizes all of what I think about my family, and since my home has been the one providing and holding us together, I always have a very special feeling about being at home all the time.

The ideas of fitting in my new ideas is by making a transitional paragraph following up on my family parties that happen all the time. I will include the song that I had mentioned on number 2, I would make a scene where we are listening to that song and how we are all enjoying it. Another idea that I had mentioned before was to include a quote at the beginning of my paper because this will make my essay more fluent and straight to the point instead of heading the reader towards a different direction. I think that this quote will make sense when I start talking about my family and what it means to me.

Dancing runs in the family its something that both me and my whole family have. We share the joy of dancing and having fun with whatever steps we could make up. Sometimes we also have dance competitions with each other, wether its the little kids against the big kids or the moms against the kids, its just a great way of expressing ourselves and how much we are having fun with each other.

The songs that we like the most dancing to is mexican banda and duranguense, it's always fun and entertainning seeing my cousins dance and especially when my auntes get crazy and start dancing like us as well.

Music is something that gives emotions and sentimental value to anbody that hears it, not only does it make people have a smile on their face but they can also bring people together as well. Once we have the family parties of course we have to dance and joke around with each other, which I love doing.

I could push these ideas into my writing by incorperating them where I explain how I have fun with my family and the many things that we laugh about. Not ecerything is about talking to each other about our life and other boring things like this, it's also sometimes about laughing at each other and enjoy being together as much as we can.

Blog #3

"A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.”

I picked this quote because it summerizes all of what I think about my family, and since my home has been the one providing and holding us together, I always have a very special feeling about being at home all the time.

Dos Botellas de Mezcal.

Cuando Me Muera, Como Te Agradeceria

que Pusieras En Mi Tumba, Dos Botellas De Mezcal

porque Se Que De Morirme De Una Cruda,

sabes Bien Que Es Culpa Tu Ya.

por No Poderte Olvidar.

(Chorus 1)

todas Las Noches, Cuando Agarro La Botella

yo Te Miro Dentro Ella, Y Me Pongo A Platicar.

al Rato Siento Que Me Abrazas Y Me Aprietas

cual Si Fuera Cosa Sierta. Te Allamo Y Allamo Y No Es Verdad

(Chorus 2)

cuando Al Fin Vuelvo, De Mis Locos Pensamientos.

empiezan Los Sufrimientos. Porque Te Busco Y No Estas.

de Mis Ojos, Empieza Brotar El Llanto Porque.

porque Yo Te Quiero Tanto Y No Lo Puedo Evitar.

I picked this song because whenever my family comes over we always put this song, and it has a sad story behind it. We started putting this song a long time ago ever since my little cousin had passed away and it was his favorite song to sing even though he was too little to understand it.. This has been the only song that my aunt wants to hear and for her well being we go along with it by always playing it in family parties and events like these, its way of him being present with us as well. This song also makes us closer to my little cousin because we have never had anybody pass away that young in our family so its our own way of keeping him with us.

The ideas of fitting in my new ideas is by making a transitional paragraph following up on my family parties that happen all the time. I will include the song that I had mentioned on number 2, I would make a scene where we are listening to that song and how we are all enjoying it. Another idea that I had mentioned before was to include a quote at the beginning of my paper because this will make my essay more fluent and straight to the point instead of heading the reader towards a different direction. I think that this quote will make sense when I start talking about my family and what it means to me.

Dancing runs in the family its something that both me and my whole family have. We share the joy of dancing and having fun with whatever steps we could make up. Sometimes we also have dance competitions with each other, wether its the little kids against the big kids or the moms against the kids, its just a great way of expressing ourselves and how much we are having fun with each other.

The songs that we like the most dancing to is mexican banda and duranguense, it's always fun and entertainning seeing my cousins dance and especially when my auntes get crazy and start dancing like us as well.

Music is something that gives emotions and sentimental value to anbody that hears it, not only does it make people have a smile on their face but they can also bring people together as well. Once we have the family parties of course we have to dance and joke around with each other, which I love doing.

I could push these ideas into my writing by incorperating them where I explain how I have fun with my family and the many things that we laugh about. Not ecerything is about talking to each other about our life and other boring things like this, it's also sometimes about laughing at each other and enjoy being together as much as we can.