Graduation "I Believe" Speech

                                                         "A Fight Amongst Friends"

Friends fight, friends yell, friends hate, but friends love.  I believe that all good friendships experience conflict.  At about 5 pm a week or two ago, it was a sweltering, humid day, and droplets of sweat ran down my face as some friends and I played basketball.  The sound of the bouncing ball and shouting teammates filled the air, as shoes scuffed against the concrete below us.  We were having a great time, just shooting around in a friends backyard, at least until it got competitive.  It started out as one other kid and I arguing about sports, but it escalated very quickly, and it did not turn well.  However,  just a few days after it had happened, appropriate apologies were said and we were pretty much right back to normal.

After the whole experience, I came to the realization that fighting amongst friends is normal.  Although conflict is never desired, it’s definitely inevitable between close friends.  This whole experience kind of changed the way I thought about what friendship is.  Before this occured, I never really could picture such good friends becoming that angry at each other, but now I understand that it isn’t unusual at all.  In similar future experiences, I’ll know not to instigate or react to any attacking comments towards me, but will also understand that sometimes there’s no stopping something from happening.  That is why I believe in conflict within friendship.

Final Eighth Grade Reflection

I've had a fantastic, eventful, and exciting three years at Heritage Middle School.  As we come to the end of eighth grade, evaluating our achievements, experiences, and journey through the last year of middle school will be one of our final goals.  Throughout the time that I've been thinking or reflecting on my eighth grade year, I realized that there've been good experiences and bad ones not only during eighth grade, but within the time frame of all of middle school.

I've learned incredible and immeasurable amounts of information within the duration of this year.  I've learned and been introduced to all kinds of morals, vocabulary, history, and current events.  However, this list of everything that's been taught to me this year could on and on with way more than just that.  I believe that the three most influencial or important things that I've learned this year are that time is extremely valuable and should not be taken advantage of, loop holes are not an effective, or responsible to get done what's asked of you, and that balancing friendship and education is very important.

There were a lot of things we did this year that I won't forget for a long time.  One thing that I probably won't forget and that really affected me, was having Socratic Seminars on the book Tuesdays with Morrie.  These seminars really influenced how I thought about several different subjects, and my fellow students and I discussed many sensitive topics that I could truly connect to.  I feel like I won't forget this experience and many new viewpoints and perspectives were introduced to me throughout these exercises.

I loved all my classmates this year, and many of them did some really nice things for myself and each other.  We all helped each other out throughout the year and I really appreciate the support, advice, and constructive criticism that was provided for me either within the class or outside of it.  One of the nicest things someone has ever done for me in this class was to give me some really good advice on whether to admit to not doing my homework or trying to avoid it.  Someone could say they didn't care what I did, but this student suggested that I come clean rather than risk more trouble.  Due to this, I was able to make the right decision.

I've never taught my classmates something extremely significant, but I did provide both my peers and teacher with small tips, advice, and help when needed.  If someone needed assistance with technology or an iPad, if they didn't understand directions, or if they were unsure of something and needed advice, I would do my best to aid them.  I enjoyed doing this because I new they would do the same for me.

I've grown immensely mentally during this year, because of this class.  I feel that I made the most improvement in my feelings, emotions, and undying passion for reading and writing.  I will admit that I despise having to analyze what I'm reading, and I really dislike writing about things that I'm not passionate about or things that I'm not interested in.  However, reading books is one of my favorite things to do and I also love expressing my emotions through writing.  

I believe that the most challenging part of this year, was two specific projects.  The Butterfly Project, and the Aphorism Project, we're both very challenging for me.  Both of these assignments required a lot of creativity, and this was especially hard for me, because I have no artistic talent.  However, I was able to apply myself and actually produce two good projects.  That just goes to show that if you try hard and put your mind to it, you can do anything.

The best piece of writing that I conducted this year was my "I Believe" speech.  This speech is going to be performed or delivered to the rest of our eighth grade team at the end of the year, and I'm really excited and nervous for it at the same time.  I will be preparing ahead of time, and this will be the first speech that I've given in front of several people.  I think this is my best piece of writing because we were able to choose our topic, and I'm going to be writing about something I'm passionate about, and something I want to talk about with lots of people.

Of all the books I read this year, I have to say my favorite is Tuesdays with Morrie.  This specific book influenced the way I see all kinds of life lessons, morals, and vague, powerful topics such as life or death.  The Socratic Seminars that were based of or associated with this book also changed how I see things.  Morrie Schwartz, one of the book's main characters affected me the most, and the way he looked at everything he encountered inspired and left me in awe.

For incoming students in Mrs. Larson's ELA class, I would suggest that if you're assigned something that's due days from then, start it early in preparation.  Procrastination was definitely one of my biggest obstacles or challenges throughout my years at Heritage, and it still is an ongoing struggle for me.  Countless occurrences of "I'll do it later"s or "I can get it done tomorrow"s really hurt me and resulted in several late night homework sessions.  The hole that you dig for yourself will get deeper and deeper before you even realize how far behind you've gotten.  After you've dig this pit, it's extremely hard to get back out.  Good luck!

Final Tuesdays with Morrie Aphorism Project

The aphorism that I selected to base my project off of was, "Love always wins."  The way that I interpreted this aphorism, and the way I see it is that love will always outweigh the efforts of hate and anger.  I believe that Morrie is trying to help us readers see eye to eye with him when it comes to the power of love and compassion.  Especially as Morrie draws nearer to his death, he is increasingly feeling for others, becoming more empathetic, and exploring the powers of love, friendship, and forgiveness.  Morrie wants us to understand that forgiveness and love will always prevail over anger and holding grudges, and he shares a regretted personal experience between himself and a friend that justifies his message.

 I've argued with friends and family all the time, since the day I could talk.  However there was one specific argument recently, between myself, and one of my very close friends that brought this aphorism to life for me.  The actual argument was based off something somewhat unimportant, I think it was basketball, and it started off as nothing more than a discussion of two opposing sides.  Arguments like this occur all the time, but the one escalated.  The two of us felt so strongly for our own side that neither of us wanted to acknowledge the other's point of view at all.  It wasn't like either of us were wrong or right, we just did not want to step down.  At one point, I decided that one of us had to stop being stubborn and just drop the conversation even if we didn't agree, and therefore I did.  Now this example does relates to the aphorism I chose, even if it is to a smaller scale or magnitude.  Instead of being angry at one another, we had to find peace and resolve our conflict by being able to "agree to disagree."

I definitely agree with this aphorism, and I think the main cause of my agreement is personal experiences related to arguing and compromising.  I think that compromising has a lot to do with what this aphorism is all about.  In order to be able to compromise with someone and find an agreement within conflict, you have to be caring, and you have to let go of part of what you want to make room for the other persons' feelings.  The act of that can be more simply defined as an act of love, compassion, and/or understanding.  For example, in the book Morrie said, "there are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: ...If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble."  This goes to show that loving someone will be very hard if you don't have the ability to agree, and compromise.  If you can't do this, you essentially will "lose".  In conclusion, "love always wins."

My Aphorism:  "Make the best out of what you're given, because some things you won't be able to change."

Tuesdays With Morrie Socratic Seminars Reflection 5-4

The Socratic Seminars that my peers and I have held as a class, have influenced my thinking and viewpoints in many ways.  Due to the fact that there are over twenty minds and sources of opinions contributing to the conversation, I've been granted the ability to see certain topics in many different ways.  Instead of viewing a life moral or subject in one locked mindset, I can now essentially see through the eyes of many others besides myself.  In some cases, a classmate was even able to completely change my standpoint on a topic.  For example, at first I believed that the common failure to recognize or address a problem within one's family or close friends was due to the love that they expressed for that particular person or for those people.  However, after one of my peers brought it to my attention that fear of results could play a role in that inability to try to fix something, I began to grasp my mind around the true potential power of fear.

In the first seminar that I participated in, I noticed that there were several instances where many students were fighting to talk.  After someone finished, a lot of kids started talking, and I think this is due to the great notes that my classmates and I took.  In result of this, there were some topics that I wanted to bring up and things I wanted to mention that I didn't get a chance to.  A goal that I set in an attempt to incorporate what I wanted to discuss into our conversation, was to be one of the first students to introduce a topic.  Therefore, I would be able to engage my classmates in what I had best prepared for and what I was interested in talking about.

As our progress in the book grew, and as the seminars continued, I noticed something else.  There were times where I had met my goal and was discussing what I wanted to, but some of my peers weren't as involved.  Because of this, I decided to make it one of my goals to do my part in drawing other class members into conversation.  As I progressively did my best to extract opinion and thought from other students, I began to see traces of significant increase in the completeness and well being of the seminars in general

As a class, we had a tendency to come a little off topic at times, or turn the atmosphere of the seminar more humorous.  Many times, this was the result of someone sharing a personal connection between the book and an experience that they had.  As an individual, I did my best to help the situation of prevent this from happening by changing the subject when I got the chance to talk by saying things like, "Well what did you guys think about this part of our reading?" or "Going back to this..."  

Tuesdays With Morrie (Which Tuesday impacted you the most?")

Personally, I think that the Fourth Tuesday, when the topic of conversation between Mitch and Morrie was death, was the Tuesday that impacted me the most.  The other five Tuesdays that we've read through have touched me in important and different ways as well, however I believe that this one affected me the most.  Throughout life so far, I've spent a lot of time thinking about death, what it's like, and what happens after it.  The mysteries and everything we don't know about death can be scary to think about, and that's why this Tuesday affected me the most.  

Morrie's courage and understanding and acceptance of reality really inspired me, especially under the extreme circumstances that he was going through.  This is shown on page 81 when the book states, "So we kid ourselves about death, I said.  'Yes.  But there's a better approach.  To know you're going to die, and to be prepared for it at any time.'"  This tells me that people are subconsciously afraid of death, and they choose to avoid thinking about it or pondering if they are ready or unregretful when it comes to their final death. 

In the book, Morrie also said, "When you realize you are going to die, you see everything much differently."  He sighed.  "Learn how to die, and you learn how to live." (Aphorism).  This also really inspired me and I admire the knowledge, morals, and life lessons that Morrie has discovered and helped create as he grows nearer to death.  Also, in learning from Morrie, I've begun to develop an interest in educating others on experiences I've gone through and providing people with advice as Morrie has chosen to and dedicated himself to throughout his experience.

Tuesdays With Morrie (Bucket List)

GSo far our class has read a good portion of the book Tuesdays with Morrie.  One thing about this book that particularily caught my interest, was the fact that the author shows the books events and everything that happened within the story at the beginning of the book.  Therefore, unlike several other books, there isn't too much suspense, plot twists, or surprises within this novel.  The author goes into detail on several aspects and certain events along the road of Morrie's death as we journey further into the book, and describes some of Morrie's morals, and life lessons for readers.

As a class, we've already talked about how there are countless aphorisms, and phrases to go by in life that readers should take advantage of and use Morrie's wisdom to guide them throughout, and at the end of life.  Readers can apply these lessons to events and occurrences in their own life and experiences in order to relate to some of the things that Morrie is saying too.  My emotions thus far into the book are mostly sadness and lots of admiration.  To be able to approach death in such a way that Morrie did, is extremely brave, and to make his own death as selfless as possible was incredible to me.

One of the themes that have impacted me the most throughout this story is to not take life for granted. Due to this theme, I've thought more about some things that I really want to do before I die, and I've organized a bucket list here below.

*Meet Michael Jordan in person

*Go scuba diving in the ocean

*Publish a book

*Get a dog

*Coach a sports team

*White water rafting

*Surf

*Ski in Colorado

*Visit every continent

3rd Quarter Reflection

One more quarter until high school, it blows my mind.  Third quarter has held many experiences, activities, and memories that have changed my viewpoints on certain things, and motivated me to change my actions for the better as well.  Unique projects and activities specifically in my ELA class, such as the Butterfly Project, have provided me with a plethora of information and new perspectives on many subjects.

I believe that the biggest area or improvement for me in ELA would be my vocabulary.  My diction, comprehension of words and their connotations, and the range of words in which I'm able to utilize is constantly growing and expanding.  There are several reasons why I think this is so, and the main ones are our weekly Vocab tests, AOWs, and the blogs that we write.  I believe that having a strong vocabulary is a major key to success in life because explanations, directions, and instructions can be much easier to provide for others, as well as receive yourself.

One of the most interesting projects that we had this quarter, was the Butterfly Project.  The thing that was so special about this project to me was the creativity and artistic effort that was required to successfully complete it.  However, art, coloring, and drawing are my weaknesses and therefore this assignment was especially difficult for me.  In the end though, I was proud of myself for completing it to the best of my ability, and for taking this project as an opportunity to expand my horizons.

The most difficult part of 3rd quarter for me was controlling my impulsitivity and resisting the urge to "check out" of eighth grade early.  I'm just so excited and ready for high school but I need to understand and respect the fact that there is still time left in middle school.  This will continue to be an obstacle for me especially as fourth quarter begins and the year comes to an end.  However, I plan on overcoming this obstacle and controlling myself until the end of the year, and keep my focus on my schoolwork.

Thinglink Butterfly Project

"The Trial" How has the author grabbed your attention, and kept you reading the book? 3-10-16

Just a few days ago, I began reading the book The Trial by Jen Bryant.  This book has already hooked me into its plot and convinced me to continue on with its story within only a chapter or two.  I've experienced books where I completely lose interest within the first few pages, and I just can not continue reading the book.  However, I've also had experiences where as soon as I pick up a book, I become engulfed and intrigued in the plot.  Therefore in this blog, I'm going to be analyzing what about the work of an author can produce this effect, specifically in this book.

As I further investigated the portion of the book that I've read, I came to the conclusion that the simplicity of the author's description and dialogue is one of the causes of my interest.  Now I do believe that this could have a completely different impact on other readers, and the results may vary.  However, I personally enjoy the basic nature of the author's writing.  Some readers may feel the need to have extremely descriptive word choice, but I think that the author has a phenomenal balance of painting a picture for readers, while still providing the capability to paint your own.  For example, on page five of the book the author says, "The streets are wide and clean, the shopkeepers are friendly, and all the children walk to school."  I prefer writing like this, opposed to an author who would instead say something like, "The extensive, vast pavement of the road is spotless.  Shopkeepers greet customers with bright eyed smiles, and children hurry to school in little groups."  Instead of laying out a cemented scene with absolutely nothing left implied, Jen Bryant grants readers the opportunity and choice to visualize the story unfolding in a way that makes the most sense to them.

Another reason for my pull to the book, is the actual plot itself.  The mystery, excitement, and wonderment of the story is a leading cause for my liking of the novel.  The story is about a young girl named Katie Leigh, who lives in a small town that goes by the name of Flemington.  What mainly interests me, is the upcoming trial in Flemington, for a case dealing with the kidnapping of an infant belonging to a famous and wealthy family (Katie is becoming obsessed with the case as well). This is described in the book on page 12, when the author writes, "Someone kidnapped Charles Lindbergh's firstborn son, leaving only some muddy footprints, a broken ladder, and a ransom note... no one saw who did it."  As the trial draws closer and closer, I become more and more curious with thoughts of potential outcomes, events, and/or endings to the story.  

Travel Team (What aspects or sections of the book affect your enthusiasm for reading it?)

One of the books that I've recently completed for my Battle of the Books team, was the book Travel Team.  This book is about a boy named Danny Walker who struggles to pursue his dreams and goals relating to basketball, and the follow in the footsteps of his dad Richie Walker despite his size disadvantage.  This novel gives great messages and provides readers with an amazing story of basketball, friendship, family relationships, and perseverance.

One of my very favorite pastimes and things to do, is play basketball.  I believe that the fact that this book practically revolved around this sport, really encouraged me and drove me to be more interested in reading it.  The fact that I could relate to many actions the characters were taking, and some of the feelings or emotions that they had truly drew me into the story.  For example, some of the interactions between Danny and his mother were similar to some between myself and my mom.  Throughout the story, Danny's mom would ask or comment on Danny's basketball playing, and mess up or alter the correct terminology for what she was referring to, whether it be intentional or not.  Many times I could see myself carrying out the same conversation with my mom, and connections like that are what made me enjoy this novel.

In addition to these connections that I made between the characters and I, the author did a really good job of developing powerful and/or emotional moments throughout the plot.  He did this through various methods including dialogue, and character interactions with one another.  Several times, I found myself agreeing with one character over another if they were in an argument, or I would feel emotions such as sympathy, anger, or inspiration, towards one of them.  I would wish that I could go into the book to talk to a character, to warn, congratulate, discuss with, or yell at them.  In order to not spoil the plot, I won't give away too much information, but there was one instance where a main character's parent was reprimanding or yelling at them for something I COMPLETLY didn't agree with, and I felt so much anger and feeling towards the parent.  If an author can really pull readers into the story and get them to start feeling for the developing plot and occurring events like this, readers will become more interested in their work.

"Life is Beautiful" Analysis

Throughout the film "Life is Beautiful", there were several instances where life was displayed as beautiful.  Most of these examples are shown through relationships, or bonds within a family.  Life is also shown as beautiful with emotions, gestures, and actions that were directed at certain individuals.  These people could be friends, acquaintances, family, or complete strangers.

One instance where life was shown as beautiful, was when Guido's wife decided to join him and their son on the Jewish train transport.  This showed me that life is beautiful because she knew that they were being taken to a bad place, but she sacrificed and put herself in great risk for the people she loved.  This action showed great compassion, sacrifice, and love for others, and it proved that there still were good things in the word during the horrible time period of the Holocaust.  Countless atrocities were carried out and directed at the Jews, but positive thoughts, optimism, love, and friendship were still present despite the circumstances.

Another example of life being beautiful within the movie, was the moment right before Guido's murder, when he made eye contact with his hidden son.  Throughout his entire experience at the concentration camp, Guido disguised the true horrors of the Nazi camp in order to protect the innocence of his son Joshua.  Specifically, right before Guido was shot, he looked at his son who was hiding, winked at him, and pretended that he wasn't scared even though he obviously was in that situation.  Guido sacrificed his safety many times in order to save his son, and I definitely think that shows how beautiful life is.

"Night" Significant Changes

Throughout the novel "Night", both the main character and author Elie Wiesel, experienced some large changes in personality, and his viewpoints or mindset on certain topics.  These changes were related to several different topics or aspects of Wiesel's life, such as religion, personal bonds with other people, or his reaction to the actions of others.

One way that Wiesel changed in a result to what he experienced in the book, was shown on page 113.  Wiesel stated, "I spent my days in total idleness.  With only one desire: to eat.  I no longer thought of my father, or my mother.  From time to time, I would dream.  But only about soup, an extra ration of soup."  This shows how the treatment of the Nazis to the Jews completing erased and corrupted their minds, feelings, and thoughts.  They truly weren't functioning, being treated, or living as human beings anymore.  After having gone group such tragedy in losing his mother, sister, and then father, all Wiesel could think about was food.  However, I do know this mindset has changed since the times of the Holocaust, and Elie has regenerated his ability to be human, but this shows how a whole race was transformed, treated as animals, and changed in a time period.

Elie's beliefs were also changed in a way that provided him with different opinions on violence and peace.  One section of the book said, "...let hatred and danger be removed from their horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land...if you could remember what I remember, you would understand."  (Page 120).  This excerpt is proof of how Elie has seen so many atrocities and horrors in his time, and it is these awful memories that have molded his peaceful and generous lifestyle.  Because of his memories at these camps, and his remembrance of all the death, and brutality, Elie has a strong opinion and idea for what is right and what we need to do to get there.

"Night" Maintaining Humanity 2-18

Based off where we are as a class in the book "Night", I've decided to focus this blog on Elie's struggle and efforts to maintain his humanity and identity as a person, during his life at the concentration camps.  While Jews stayed at these concentration camps, they were stripped and torn from any piece of their identity.  Clothes, names, hair, and any other personal possessions (watches, pictures, jewelry, etc.) were forcefully taken from them.

Elie realizes that he must be strong and keep life in him for not only himself but for his father as well.  We can understand how any feeling and emotion can be drained from someone when you're literally taking away what makes them who they are, and this begins to have an effect on Elie too.  We see part of this vacancy after the first hangings when Elie thinks the soup tastes really good, and doesn't hardly seem to be giving the hangings a second thought.  This goes to show how the mass destruction, and devastation was thrown into the Jews' lives and they became used to it and insensitive or immune to the thousands of deaths around them.

However, after the second hangings, Elie experiences a different reaction.  He thinks that the soup tastes like corpses and this tells readers that these deaths do have some sort of effect on Elie.  In the first hanging, readers are shown the hope and emotion in Elie's body depleting and draining, but we do see that there is hope left and the fight to remain sane and human will continue.  I can predict that this struggle will become much more harder in the future as his father becomes weaker and weaker, and probably closer and closer to death. 

 

Holocaust AOW Impressions Blog

On Friday when our class participated in an Article of the Week gallery walk, I learned a lot of really cool things relating to the Holocaust, and I also provided my peers with information on that topic as well.  One of the coolest realizations that I came to was the fact that information, discoveries, and events pertaining to the Holocaust are still being encountered to this day!  For example, one of my classmates was displaying an article about how Holocaust survivors could possibly have a greater chance of developing Schizophrenia which is a brain disorder), than average people.  My article also is connected to our modern day world, and it is about President Barack Obama's recent acknowledgments to some of the heroic actions that occured during World War Two, and he recognizes one of the great men in particular who did something amazing to save up to 200 lives.  (You can find this article by clicking on the link below)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/world/middleeast/obama-honor-americans-effort-to-save-jews-the-holocaust.html?_r=0

There were also several other interesting stories about current events relating to the Holocaust.  One of which was an article on 14 Holocaust survivors who are suing Hungary in the US court.  The country of Hungary is being sued for three different reasons.  Their collaboration with the Nazis, their compliance and agreeing to deporting over 500,000 Jews, and their indifferent attitude towards the huge amounts of unfair confiscated belongings.  This is also the first time Hungary has been taken to court for their affiliation with the Nazis during the Holocaust.

After completing the gallery walk, I am now really grateful for the opportunity to learn not only about one article, but a whole class full.  I look forward to becoming involved in more events such as the gallery walk or events similar to it in the future.  

Berlin Memorial Activity

Throughout this activity in class and the events and laws that we explored, I learned all kinds of new information and facts.  Restrictions were placed on Jews and other groups such as gypsies, or homosexuals.  I was also able to make the realization that many of the laws established within this time period didn't hardly affect anyone of Non-Jewish heritage anyway, and it was simply unnecessary, not to mention unjust and unfair, to make them.  For example in 1942, a law was created that stated Jews were not allowed to have pets.  Every single law passed during those times were unfair, however some like these would have absolutely no effect rather than taking away entertainment and happiness from some people.  In no way could it benefit (fairly or not) anyone else.  I learned that all freedoms and rights as humans were being stripped from people of Jewish religion, and they were no longer able to make big decisions for themselves or control themselves.  At one point in 1941, they weren't allowed to emigrate.  Therefore, they were trapped and controlled.

I think that the lampposts with the laws displayed on the back were created as a reminder to Jews of what their limited and unfair place was at the time.  I believe that these signs and posters were a way for the Arayan race to remind not only the discriminated groups of that time period who was in power, but to also boast to themselves and have the regulation of their desired and forced superiority be publicly known to Germany.  

I noticed that there were certain years where over a dozen laws were published, and then there were years where close to if not zero were created.  For example, in 1942, 16 laws were established that limited Jewish citizens of Germany and their rights, but in 1944 there were none.  I thought maybe Hitler had released a bunch of his new ideas and plans to Germany in certain years, and then attempted to carry them out by constructing these new laws, and they could've come more frequently in these specific years.  I also considered the possibility that these laws would come in numbers that related to the condition that Germany was in during a specific point of the war.  So for example, maybe Germany was being really challenged in battle and they didn't have time, power, or whatever they needed to execute their plans for these laws in some years.

Personally, I think I would have the most trouble dealing with the rule that stated, "Jew's last will and testaments are no longer valid."  I feel this way because this law is literally taking away one's ability to decide where and who their belongings will go to after they die.  This law is explicitly saying that any Jew's personal belongings will go to the German government after death.  This is not to say that every other rule that was created and that we studied in class isn't completely unfair, evil, and cruel.  I'm positive extreme struggle and difficulty was experienced because of the other laws as well, but this is one that astounded me the most.

2nd Quarter Reflection

            We're already half way through 8th grade, second quarter is over!  It's hard to believe that the year is going by so fast.  I definitely believe that it's been a productive and successful quarter.  I've come pretty far from where I was at the beginning of the quarter.  However, I also believe that there's a long way to go and a lot of work to be done in a lot of categories.

            I made progress in a lot of areas within ELA, but I think I've improved my vocabulary the most over the other categories.  I was able to grow and do this through in school activities such as Vocab quizzes, or exercises outside of school in order to prepare for high school entrance exams.  I now know words that I'd never heard of at the beginning of the year, and if I come across a word I don't know, I can often dissect it and recognize roots or prefixes that we've studied.  I've begun to realize that the key to not only seeming intelligent, but actually acquiring intelligence and learning new things, is a strong vocabulary.

            I recently took the high school entrance exam at Nazareth Academy, and I'm proud of myself because I think I did well after all the work it took to prepare.  The very first time that I glanced at all the pre-tests and practice questions, I was so overwhelmed and nervously.  However, after several weeks of work and studying, I introduced myself to all kinds of new skills, concepts, and methods.  There were many different topics or areas that I obviously needed improvement on in order to prepare for the exam, whether it be the actual work, focusing for the length of the test, or managing time and using strategies that ensured my completion of the test.

            A significantly big obstacle that I've been faced with and am currently facing, is making sure I put forth 100% effort and making sure that my work is at its best quality and that I'm working at my full potential, as well as pushing forward to extend my limits and capabilities.  I've had a tendency to do the bear minimum, and completing only what was asked of me, in order to just get past with the least amount of work as possible.  Going into the third quarter, and then past that, I plan on overcoming this barrier, and getting to the point where my work is reflecting and showing everything that I can do.  I believe that the first step in solving this problem is managing my time better and becoming more organized.  If I have everything I need set out in front of me, and I have enough time to think about what I need to do, and what I can do to go further, I will be able to exceed standards and shine.

To Kill a Mockingbird Film Book Comparison

            I think that the biggest and most important difference between the film and the book was the knothole in the tree in front of the Radley house. The difference between the amount of times that the tree and its gifts were mentioned was pretty large.  The book really went into depth on the tree, what it held, how Scout and Jem reacted to it, and its symbolism.  Whereas the movie did show it, however not to the extent that the book did.  I feel that the tree and its presents symbolized and introduced the fact that Boo Radley was actually a good person.  It sort of flowed with the whole idea of Boo being misunderstood, and fit into and backed up the plot.  The tree also connected with Jem's growing maturity, and you can see this when the book describes Jem's devastated reaction when Mr. Radley filled up the hole, and this wasn't shown in the film.

            There are differences and similarities between the movie and book, and although I feel differently about certain differences and things that are the same, I think that it's important that two versions of the story are created.  Every person's imagination is different, and the way they might process, interpret, relate, or connect to a story could be very different than someone else's. 

     I believe that it's necessary to create both a book and film on a story in order to ensure that every reader receives the points and messages in the story.  For example, some people might be able to visualize events or setting in their head in the way they like it and can get the most out of books, but then some people might need to see and hear everything that's happening for them to understand. 

To Kill a Mockingbird (Why or how did the book affect/speak to you) 1-6-16

There are so many readers who loved this book, and some who didn't.  Several readers have almost identical, or at least very similar basic reactions or thoughts about the story.  However, all readers experience these reactions for unique and different reasons, depending on how they connected with characters, setting, conflicts, or anything else.  Therefore, I'm not going to be talking about the fact that I really enjoyed the book, but why I feel this way.

There really isn't one singular aspect that makes me react the way I do to this book, instead, there's a few different contributing factors that influence my thoughts and opinions on the story and its content.  For example, there were times where did really be able to connect with Scout, Jem, and Dill, and relate to their thoughts or actions.  A good example of character connection that I experienced while reading, was while the Finch's gathered together for Christmas.  It was really cool how I could match up practically every member of their family with one of my own family members. 

Secondly, I personally thought the author did a really good job with influencing and stirring up readers' opinions on specific topics, such as segregation and racism.  Readers could have different levels of passion when it comes to certain topics.  I was able to form my own opinions on all subjects of the book, and share them with other readers and peers, all because of the author's power to reach out to different people in different ways through his words.