Books

This blog will be about some of the books that i have read recently. Including Tina Fey's Bossypants and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I will give you a quick summary/describe the book and I will review it. 
Bossypants is an autobiography of Tina Fey. She talks about her life before her break on SNL, her time on SNL and her show 30 Rock. I actually started watching 30 Rock after I read this book because I wanted to know what she was talking about and I really enjoy it. It is really cool to see what goes on behind the scenes of Weekend Update and how she came in to character for her famous Sarah Palin skits.
I loved this book. I think that it is really well written because it sounds like she is talking to you while you read it. She also is very honest throughout the book, she doesn't make her life seem that it is so glamourous. She describes herself as a normal person with an unusual job. One thing that I would recomend for anyone reading this book would be to watch 30 Rock and Weekend Update or at least have an idea about it. She gets pretty descriptive of these shows and it helps if you know what she is talking about. Overall I really enjoyed this book.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was another book that I recently finished. This book is a fantasy book about kids who have special talents. The main character's family has secrets that lead him to go on a trip with his father to Wales. He is trying to find out more about his grandfathers past. He ends up at Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and discovers there might be more than meets the eye at this run down house in the middle of the forrest.
I really liked this book as well. The reason that I chose to read this book was becuase it has vintage pictures of the kids at the home. I am really in to photography and I really liked the mixture of fantasy and photography. While writing this blog I found out that there is a sequel to this book called Untitled and they are thinking about making a movie. I read an article that Tim Burton is thinking about directing it and you know if he directs the movie it will be amazing.

Poetry

The Number One Question

Katie Wolfe

When are we ever going to use this is in real life?

That is the number one question,

Papers are shuffled out,

Erasers start to dance across pages,

Frustrations boiling like a volcano,

Nervous glances are exchanged throughout the room,

Hands shoot in to the air like rockets

The delightfully, wicked teacher calls on the student,

The student mumbles those few fateful words….

“When are we ever going to use this in real life?”

And BANG the teacher turns in to a raging animal,

So angry, the students gaze in horror,

As the teacher does everything but answer the question,

Growing smaller by the minute,

 The student shrinks in to his desk,

And continues to do the assignment,

Accepting the lack of an answer.

Explanations

1.       The line including the “hands shooting in to the air like rockets” gives the reader an image of rocket ships taking off and students raising their hands .

2.       “Erasers dancing across the pages” gives erasers a humanistic quality which in this case is dancing. When inanimate objects are given humanistic qualities it is called personification.

3.       “Growing smaller” is an oxymoron.  Growing normally means getting bigger, when paired with smaller it becomes an oxymoron.

4.       “Frustrations boiling like a volcano” is an example of a simile. In order for something to be a simile two things have two be joined using like or as.

5.       “BANG” is an onomatopoeia because bang is not only a word but a sound as well.

6.       My word choice could be considered different when I compare teachers to raging animals. This is an example of diction which is basically what words the author decides to use in the writing.

7.       An Antithesis is a comparison of two directly opposite things. I used “delightfully, wicked teacher” because delightful and wicked are opposites.

YouTube

This is going to be another blog about funny Youtube videos because who doesn't like funny videos? I recently found out about the videos tab on pintrest which is a pretty big deal if you ask me. There are tutuorial, funny and informational videos. Just last night I found a tuturial about how to curl hair,  of course I had to get my curling iron out to try it.....lets just say it was a lot harder than it looked. Anyway I found a few good funny ones that I am going to share with you.

1. This is a video that you will eaither laugh until you cry, or will find it stupid. I find this so adorable and funny. This video makes me want to get a baby lamb because it is so cute. All you need to know about it is that the little lamb is trying to find it's owner who is calling it.
Here is the link, or you can just type in lost lamb. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jNaQ4ul7AQ

2. This video is about a little girl  who is selling girl scout cookies. Sounds normal right? NOPE there is a plot twist in this one so you will have to check it out for yourself be aware, it gets loud at the end. I also happen to find this one halarious. Again here is the link but you can search girl scout fail on youtube and it will come up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pNFJfGlsd0

3. This next one isn't as crazy as that last one but I think that it is pretty funny. It is called "The Hunger Games Musical"  It is just clips from the movie Hunger Games with music playing which relates to what is happening. I thought that it was pretty good, not my favorite. If you don't like the movie you might still like this musical because it kind of makes fun of it but that is your call. Anyway here is the link or just search Hunger Games the Musical http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpN335pY7c4

I hope you thought these videos were as funny as I do if not hopefully they made you smile a little bit! Thanks for reading:)

Identity Thief

I haven't done a movie post in a long time so that is what I am going to do. Since the last time I blogged I watched my first rated R movie in the theatre, which was super exciting. It was called Identity Thief starring Melissa McCarthy. So just like I usually do, I will do a quick summary of the movie and then a review.

This movie is about a middle aged business man, Sandy Bigelow Patterson, that gets a call from his "credit card company" saying that his identity has been stolen and they ask him for his credit card number. When actually it was a woman (McCarthy) in Florida scamming him to get his identity. When Sandy's real credit card company calls him he finds out the truth. It turns out to be a huge fiasco that might cause him to cause him his job. He has only one option, go find this woman and bring her back to his hometown to turn her in to the police. Which proves to be harder than he thought. This is all based on a true story.

I went to this movie with my Mom and we both loved it. It was a mix of everything, funny, sad, and exciting. Melissa McCarthy shined in this movie. She was the perfect person for this role and I don't think it would have been as good if she wouldn't have been in it. What I liked most about this movie was that it did have a good story with more than just jokes. Another character that I liked was "Big Chuck" played by Eric Stonestreet. It was crazy to see Eric in a different role from "Cam" on Modern Family. He plays a very sexual character in this movie which is hilarious. This is one of those movies that can potentially have that awkward sex scene while watching with your parents but it depends on your level of compatibility.
The only criticism of this movie would be that some people expected it to be hilarious all the way through. As I said I preferred the sad and heart warming moments. In my opinion it made the movie more realistic.

I would recommend this for teens and adults. I think that you cold get by with having a younger kid watch it but it wouldn't be the best parenting decision. There is a lot of adult material, swearing and  not to mention the whole sex scene. I will let you be the judge of that. I think that anyone can relate to this movie because it is such a common problem. Everyone has either had their identity stolen or knows someone that has.

Standardized Testing

Blog 4/5/13 words 506

This week was the Iowa Assessments, which is a standardized test that is required for all students in the state of Iowa. In my opinion these tests are a huge waste of time. The scores for these tests are not like those of the SAT or ACT they do not affect students admittance in to college and they are not graded on these tests. There is no real benefit for students taking these tests except for the t-shirt that they get for getting their personal best, 90^th percentile or 99^th percentile

The concept of the t-shirt incentive is a whole separate issue. It makes kids value their academic success on whether they get a shirt or not. If that is the only reason why kids are trying their best on these tests there is a problem. There is also the issue of the kids that don’t get a shirt, how are they supposed to feel? I understand that administrators are trying to increase student moral with the shirts and making those kids that did the best feel that their work is appreciated. I just think that there could be a lot more time and effort spent on other things.

Time could have been spent teaching content in our classes instead of taking 2 hours out of each day for three days. AP tests are right around the corner and I know that in the two AP classes that I am taking I need all of the time I can get in class. The timing of these tests could have been planned a lot better. I think that the best time for these tests to take place is right after AP testing is done and before finals. That way all of the stressing out about the AP exams is over and it is too early to begin to worry about finals. If it were this way I believe that scores would increase because kids would be more focused and ready to do their best on the Iowa Assessments.

Standardized testing is a problem in itself. How accurate is the information collected about students on one day? Every student has a different level of understanding for each class and it is not fair to be judging them all on the same criteria. It is a lot different for a person in Pre-Calculus to take the test from someone in 4 term 2^nd year algebra. Obviously the person in Pre-Calculus will have more of an understanding of the math concepts presented on the test than the person in 4 terms.

I think that there are other ways to measure one’s intelligence. Data collected one day out of the year is not a very comprehensive view of how well a student is doing in school. That is why the Iowa Assessments and all standardized tests need to be changed. If it were my choice there would no longer be Iowa Assessments at the very least, not having them at the same time as they were this year.

Analyze: Let Teenagers Try Adulthood

                After reading Let Teenagers Try Adulthood by Leon Botstein I started to really think about the way that things are in High Schools today compared to a few years ago. I do agree with a lot of what Leon says in this article. Too much emphasis is put on students to fit into a certain group. I also agree with how much emphasis is put on cliques in high school. Why does it matter if you were popular in high school? A lot of the time people that are “outsiders” become more successful than the most popular kids. High school is actually a very destructive place and that can lead to a lot of violence.

 I agree with what the author said about violence in schools. High school can be a very harmful experience for certain kids who are exiled by their peers. In the passage Botstein refers to the Columbine shooting and just recently there was a school shooting at Sandy Hook. These kids were obviously not a happy highschoolers. Kids like these are often outcasts and not well liked by their peers. Some of this anger could be the result of kids maturing sooner than when high school was created. Kids are becoming sexually active sooner than in years before and that causes more conflict within schools. In the past kids were maturing later in life, specifically out of high school. All of those emotions happening at once along with the stress and pressure of fitting in create a really destructive learning environment.

High School has become more about social issues instead of what it is intended for which is learning. That is what the author is saying throughout the essay. If we went back to focusing on what is important then students would be a lot more prepared and successful in life after school. He makes a point of saying that a lot of the time kids that weren’t very high on the social ladder tend to be successful in life after school. Then again High School does not prepare kids for real life and it should be abolished according to Botstein. All of this focus on social issues and lack of progress in education leads to unprepared students and isn’t the point of high school to prepare kids for real life? If it isn’t doing what it is supposed to why keep doing the things that aren’t working? These are some of the questions Botstein raises in his article.

One thing that I don’t agree with about this article is that the author says that under trained teachers is the main reason as to why students aren’t successful and why high school should be abolished. Everyone has had a teacher that isn’t the best at what they are doing but I don’t believe that that alone is the problem of high schools today. I think that it may have a part in it but I do not think that it is the main reason as to why high school isn’t successful anymore. I mean what can a teacher do to change the way that high school works? They just follow the rules of high schools; I think that the main problem is high schools themselves.

So, what can we do to change high schools to make them more up to date and successful? In the article he proposes that students graduate at 16 instead of 18 so they can get on with their lives. I agree with this to an extent. I think that some students are ready to take on the world at 16 but some need those two extra years to prepare themselves. I would change it to 16 like Botstein recommended but I would put some restrictions on who would have that option. I would make sure that high schools were not sending kids out in to the world too early and make sure that they had the knowledge to become successful. Changing the age to which kids graduate would eliminate some of that sexual tensions and frustrations. I think that administrators need to get more involved in the social aspect of high school because it is such a big part of what high school is today.

To conclude, I agree with a lot of the things that Botstein proposed in his essay with a few exceptions. High schools these days are defiantly not what they should be and there needs to be a change. The American High School has become a place of violence, discrimination and social inequality. When the focus of high school is not to become popular but to be successful outside of school.  

To Kill a Mockingbird Response

 

I thought that the way the Author criticized some of the classic books that we are required to read was very interesting. We read To Kill a Mockingbird last year in Language Arts, so I could relate to some of the things that the Author referred to. Long before last year I had heard about To Kill a Mockingbird and how it was a book that “I just had to read”.  

In my Language Arts class we had a whole unit about all of the racial discrimination and prejudices explained in the book. It felt like we were in a history class for most of the time. I agree with the author that schools need to focus less on things like that because students will get most of that information from their history classes.  I do think that it is a big part of the book and there should be some emphasis on it but we should be focusing on how the book was written. It is a lot easier to teach and discuss racial discrimination verses literary development; I think that is why some teachers decide to do just that. During the TKAM unit we wasted time discussing other racial things happening in the time period such as the Scottsburro Boys, we spent at least two class periods watching a movie about it.

Following the unit about To Kill a Mockingbird we had a unit about the Holocaust. This proves the Authors point; Language Arts classes are focusing on the wrong things. I get that the Holocaust was a big event that every student should know about but it would be more beneficial to be working on analyzing pieces of writing for literary points. Last year I was also in World History Class, So on some days we would spend two hours discussing the same topic in two different classes.

I disagree with the fact that the Author thinks that we should change some of the book lists in schools. They should be kept the same because I think that there is a reason that those books have been on lists like that for so many years. If students don’t read some of the classic books I think that they would be missing out. Books on these “must read lists” need to stay the same but the way that they are taught needs to be different.

Overall, I agree with a lot of the Authors points in her essay with the exception of a few things. Language Arts classes should be spending time learning things that will help them in the future and save history topics for history class. Book lists should stay the same but the way that they are being taught needs some serious reform.

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