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.