Senior Quote Gone Viral?

For my senior quote I wanted to choose a quote that embodied who I am in a small amount of words. So I choose a quote from my life long hero, John Muir.  When my peers see my face in the yearbook, under my name it will say, "The mountains are calling, and I must go."  Earlier today a friend of mine approached me and asked me if I choose it because I saw it on TV.  My answer was obviously no but I wanted to see what they were talking about!  Thank you Whitney for making the connection!

MASTER PIECE

Most of my classmates constantly hear me raving about Yosemite this and Yosemite that.  Just today I was crazily dancing in the rain; my justification for happiness being: rain here means snow in the Sierras which means more water in Yosemite in the Spring!  For my senior project I am planning a class trip to Yosemite to show my classmates just how life changing a trip to this amazing place can be.  The core focus of this trip will be on environmental protection.

Please click on this link and watch the five minute video.  Just by watching it, you will no longer need any type of explanation for my obsession that my verge a little on insanity!

Literature Analysis #2 Brave New World

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.).  Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
This book begins in a hatchery in futuristic London where everyone is produced and programed to have a certain role in society rather than born and raised.  There is no such thing as mothrhood or marriage because everyone "belongs" to everyone else.  Everyone also takes a drug called soma to be happy.  Bernard is a little bit different and isn't happy with how society functions.  He meets Lenina and takes her to a savage reservation where the two of them are astonished at what they see.  They meet Linda and John who aren't particularly savages.  Linda was created in the world state, but was impregnated and left at the reservation to give birth to her child John.  Bernard and Lenina take the two of them back to London.  Linda goes on what they call a "soma holiday" where she is in a constant dreamland comma.  John faces this "Brave New World" without the help of him Mom.  Lenina likes him, but he doesn't want to sleep with her until after they marry which obviously doesn't happen because people don't marry in Lenina's culture.  Linda dieds from being on to much soma and John bursts because he doesn't understand why knowone will help her and why they don't care that she's dead.  He has an out burst and is sent to talk to Mustafa Mond.  Mond exiles Bernard and a character named Hemholtz for assisting Johns outbreak, but he refuses to let John leave.  John isolates himself in a lighthouse and punishes himself for all the ghastly things he did in this new world.  People find him and won't leave him alone so he hangs himself.  Huxley's purpose in this book is to show that humans are heading down a road to a terrible future so he wrote this book to show readers what he predicts this future wil be like in an attempt to open our eyes.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. 
The theme is the path to dehumanization.  This is a futuristic book that is ment to predict what the       future would be like for the human race.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
The authors tone is scientific, blunt in certain aspects, and doesn't have much emotion.

1. "They mocked him through his misery and remorse, mocked him with how hideous a note of cynical derision." (Page210)
2. "The Russian technique for infecting water supplies was particularly ingenious." (Page 48)
3. "Ending is better than mending." (Page 211)

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers.

1. Personification- (page 1) "Cold for all the summer beyond the panes, for all the tropical heat of the room itself, a harsh thin light glared through the windows, hungrily seeking some draped lay figure..."
2. Allusion- (page 49) "Liberalism, of course, was dead of anthrax, but all the same you couldn't do things by force." Liberalism is by definition, the political and economic doctrine that emphasizes the rights and freedoms of the individual and the need to limit the powers of government. 
3. Simile- (page 107) "The mesa was like a ship becalmed in a strait of lion-colored dust."
4. Metaphore- (page 146) "This hive of industry, as the Director was fond of calling it, was in the full buzz of work."
5. Foreshadowing- (page 164) "'What's in those, those caskets?' the Savage enquired when Bernard had rejoined him.  'The day's soma ration.'" This foreshadows the some killing Linda.
6. Allusion- (page 164) "(remembering The Merchant of Venice)" Huxley uses this when John is search for the word "casket."  The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare.  John alludes to Shakepeare pieces quite often.
7. Onomatopoeia- (page 178) "Click, click, click, click...  And it was morning."
8. Allusion- (page 184) "The savage was reading Romeo and Juliet aloud-..."  Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy by once again William Shakepeare about forbidden love.  John compare himself and Lenina to Romeo and Juliet.
9. Symbolism- (page 210 along with many others) "Deprivation of soma- appalling thought!"  Soma most obviously symbolized drugs, but it also symbolizes the fear of reality, and it symbolizes death.
10. Allusion/Irony- (page 48) "The Nine Years' War, the great Economic Collapse.  There was a choice between World Control and destruction, Between stability and..."  The Nine Years' War was a major war of the late 17th century fought between King Louis XIV of France, and a European-wide coalition.  This quote is also ironic because the characters think that they chose stability, but they really chose world control.

CHARACTERIZATION
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

Direct characterization:  (page 194) "'Whore!' he shouted.  'Whore!  Impudent strumpet!'"

(page 117) "He had seen for the first time in his life, the face of a girl whose cheeks were not the colour of chocolate or dogskin, whose hair was auburn and [ermanately waved, and whose expression (amazing novelty!) was one of benevolent interest."

Inirect characterization: (page 209) "Twins, twin. . . .  Like maggots they had swarmed defilingly over the mystery of Linda's death."
(page 113) "Hideously masked or painted out of all semblance of humanity, they had tramped out a strange limping dance..."

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

Huxley uses a lot of dialogue for the charcaters so the syntax and diction changes depending on who is talking.

Ex. (page 48) "You're hopeless Lenina, I give you up."

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

The protagonist is definately static because his beliefs never really change.  He is also neither flat or round, but rather in between because he doesn't undergo devolopment, but he does go through little changes.

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction. 

I actually did feel like I me the characters.  I usually don't feel this way, but Huxley portrayed the emotions of everyone toward each other which was really cool.  "His cheeks burn red with the rush of blood, the room swam and darkened before his eyes.  He ground his teeth.  'I'll kill him, I'll kill him, I'll kill him,' he kept saying." (page 133)

MY TEAM

I'm going to honest, we did not get to everything that we planned on today.  Class went by even faster than it normally does.  Our plan was to do the journals and talk about our master pieces within our groups while the sign-up sheet went around and then come together for a Brave New World discussion.  We never came together to talk about the book.  My group talked about our projects the entire period and were amazed when we realized that there were only four minutes left in class.  I think that we'll be fine though because the book is pretty straight forward and all of us show know how to recognize literary elements by now.

LAUNCH

These are my original answers to the LAUNCH/DRAFT questions that Dr. Preston assigned:

• What am I passionate about?  What do I want to do?

I am passionate about preservation and sustainability; especially when it comes to nature.  My true passion is Yosemite.  I know that this is very strange answer, but passion is defined as a barely controllable emotion and Yosemite is where my heart lies.  For years I have thought to myself how I could turn this passion into a legitimate lifestyle and I have come up with a very detailed plan.  Hopefully it follows through.  To save you the burden or reading my entire plan I'll just summarize.  In the future, I want to combine the sustainable aspect of environmental engineering with the structural aspect of civil engineering to draw more people to national and state parks by making Earth's natural beauties more accessible to people.  It's impossible for people not to appreciate the sun setting over Half Dome after a long day of exploring Yosemite Valley or powerful waterfalls tumbling over granite cliffs.  If more people, see these places, my hopes are that they will establish a larger respect for the environment.  For this class, I would like to engage willing students in a trip to Yosemite that will be guided by the Nature Bridge program to learn about environmental threats and what we can do to prevent them from getting worse.

• How can I use the tools from last semester (and the Internet in general)?

The main tool that I can use from last semester, and this one, is Dr. Preston's open mindedness.  I can/have also use the Internet to research the program and contact representatives.

• What will I need to do in order to "feel the awesomeness with no regrets" by June?

Yosemite, Yosemite, Yosemite, Yosemite, Yosemite, Yosemite, Yosemite......

Get my point?

• What will impress/convince others (both in my life and in my field)?

All I need to do is draw people in and have some facts to share, nature's beauty will do the rest of the work.

• How will I move beyond 'What If' and take this from idea --> reality?

I'm doing it...

• Who will be the peers, public, and experts in my personal learning network?

The peers and public will be anyone willing to listen and learn.  My experts would be the Nature Bridge guides and hopefully some Yosemite Rangers!

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After about two weeks of talking to classmates and feeling out this idea, all systems are go!  I was worried about whether or not my classmates would be willing to take part in something like this and felt uplifted when I heard/saw their reactions to my idea!  Now that I know what I'm going to do, I need to work out the details.  

• Dr. Preston recommended recruiting interested peers and planning a time during summer to go in order to avoid dealing with getting permission from the school.  I still like the idea of doing it during the school year so I don't want to rule it out yet, but if obstacles do begin to form, I will definitely try for summer.  
• Another question is how long we want to go for.  It obviously costs more the longer that we stay so I need to get feedback from students about what they are willing to do, and how we will pay for it.
• The last question that seems the easiest, but is actually the most important is if the Naturebridge program even has dates left to accomadate us.  Hopefully they do!
• My plan is to talk with Preston a little bit more and form a list of questions for call and ask the Naturebridge program in order to get this running!

I, JURY...

Reading some of my classmates essays really hit home how important good introductions are.  When the first paragraph doesn't grab you, it's difficult to keep reading.  Especially when your know that you have more to read which is similar to how the AP readers will feel.  Aside from that, I thought that Daniel's essay was very strong in terms of getting a high score on the AP test; it answered the prompt clearly, flowed well in an organized fashion, and had strong evidence and examples.  I would recommend going back and reading it before the AP test because it's a good essay to study from.  The essay that I thought had the best answer in terms of it being creative and well thought out was Micaela's.  She answered the same prompt that I did, but she answered it in a way that I never would of thought of.  She delved into the two worlds that Huxley writes about and talked about the two misfits, Bernard and John.  She talks about their reactions to each others world and how they hammer in Huxley's point at how different the two worlds are.  It was a great response!

I also found that there are many people that don't want to write the essay until they finish the book.

THE MASTERS OF STORY TELLING

I already believed that Pixar was the most amazing animation company in the world, but this link just seals the deal!  Watching Toy Story, Andy's mom seems like a minor character that's hardly ever on the screen.  This article reveals a whole other side to the movie.  I am a amazed at how in depth the stories of Pixar go!

BRAVE NEW WORLD ESSAY

 I will be using the prompt that Allyson found.

"And after all, our surroundings influence our lives and characters as much as fate, destiny, or any supernatural agency."

- Pauline Hopkins, Contending Forces

Choose a novel or play in which cultural, physical, or geographical surroundings shape psychological or moral traits in a character. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how surroundings affect this character and illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole.  Do not merely summarize the plot.

See my essay after the jump.

BRAVE NEW ESSAY TOPIC

I would base this essay on Bernard.  Based on what I've read of Brave New World so far, Bernard doesn't agree with the world that he lives in, but he doesn't take action.  He "conforms" to his surroundings which adds to Huxley's theme.  

Having Trouble Sleeping? Go Camping!!!

Studies show that living your day based off of the light of the sun rather than artificial light improves your sleeping habits.  Check out this link to read more!

I AM HERE

     This first grading period has actually been pretty eye-opening for me.  As soon as Dr. Preston said, "Start your senior masterpiece," with no further explanation I finally realized that we really ARE in control.  There is nothing that is stopping us from going after anything that we set our minds to.  This semester has really shown me that.  Begining the with the King's Speech and ending with all these amazing projects in motion is proof of this senior class's capabilities.

     I currently have a few things in motion that wouldn't be happening if it weren't for this class.  I am currently trying to organize a class trip to Yosemite for my senior project to teach my classmates about the importance of caring for our environment.  I am also working on my application for the Armstrong program which is a scholars program that selects twelve girls to go on a twelve day backpacking trip in the high Sierras.  I also contacted someone to come speak to our class (I'm not sure if I'm supposed to announce who it is yet.) All of these real world experiences wouldn't be happening of it weren't for the encouragement of Dr. Preston and my classmates.

     I'm also apart of a collaborative working group called THE GAME.  As the year progresses, more people will find out what that is.

WELCOME TO THE INTERDISCIPLINARY

     Every little action, object, event or discovery consists of far more than we think.  Just by listening to your favorite song you are adapting your ears to new sounds, recognizing musical patterns, developing an understanding of lyrics and poetic writing, and learning how to memorize lines that have an effect on you.  At this point, a day doesn't go by that I don't hear a random stranger singing "Do you want to build a snowman?" or "Let it Go!"  It's crazy to think that so much more is going on than just harmless singing.

     Our senior projects have no boudaries and are meant to embody our passions.  My goal is to one way or another get my class to Yosemite National Park to teach them about the importance of protecting our environment and living a more sustainable lifestyle.  By taking them on hikes they will not only develop an emotional appreciation for the beauty surrounding them, but they will see the danger and threats that humans pose on nature and wildlife.  They will also learn about geology, botany, forestry, natural selection, and the life cycle.  We will learn about weather patterns, the history of the area, and the strength of running water.  For those who are out of shape, they will learn how the upper respiratory system responds to high elevations and the importance of eating healthy and staying hydrated.  By talking to new people on the trails we will witness how positively fresh air and beautiful surroundings affect someone's mood.  This list is endless and I'm just talking about all the possibilities that going on a hike bring forth.

If we look at every opportunity in this light, time can't be wasted because there is so much more than just the obvious.  Welcome to the interdisciplinary!

Literary Terms List 6

LAUNCH/DRAFT

• What am I passionate about?  What do I want to do?

I am passionate about preservation and sustainability; especially when it comes to nature.  My true passion is Yosemite.  I know that this is very strange answer, but passion is defined as a barely controllable emotion and Yosemite is where my heart lies.  For years I have thought to myself how I could turn this passion into a legitimate lifestyle and I have come up with a very detailed plan.  Hopefully it follows through.  To save you the burden or reading my entire plan I'll just summarize.  In the future, I want to combine the sustainable aspect of environmental engineering with the structural aspect of civil engineering to draw more people to national and state parks by making Earth's natural beauties more accessible to people.  It's impossible for people not to appreciate the sun setting over Half Dome after a long day of exploring Yosemite Valley or powerful waterfalls tumbling over granite cliffs.  If more people, see these places, my hopes are that they will establish a larger respect for the environment.  For this class, I would like to engage willing students in a trip to Yosemite that will be guided by the Nature Bridge program to learn about environmental threats and what we can do to prevent them from getting worse.

• How can I use the tools from last semester (and the Internet in general)?

The main tool that I can use from last semester, and this one, is Dr. Preston's open mindedness.  I can/have also use the Internet to research the program and contact representatives.

• What will I need to do in order to "feel the awesomeness with no regrets" by June?

Yosemite, Yosemite, Yosemite, Yosemite, Yosemite, Yosemite, Yosemite......

Get my point?

• What will impress/convince others (both in my life and in my field)?

All I need to do is draw people in and have some facts to share, nature's beauty will do the rest of the work.

• How will I move beyond 'What If' and take this from idea --> reality?

I'm doing it...

• Who will be the peers, public, and experts in my personal learning network?

The peers and public will be anyone willing to listen and learn.  My experts would be the Nature Bridge guides and hopefully some Yosemite Rangers!

HAFTA/WANNA

I feel that in high school, there are so many things that you have to do that there is just no time to do what you want do.  For example, for my senior project I want to take the class to Yosemite to engage in a learning program through Nature Bridge, but this will require a lot of time that I'm not sure I have to give.  I also just want to spend my time applying to scholarships, but my class work gets in the way.  To be honest, I think that the first couple of semesters of college will be somewhat similar to high school in the sense that we all HAFTA take our general eds.  Once these are out of the way, things will definitely change because we will be taking classes that we WANNA take that engage us. This is where the HAFTA changes to the WANNA.  We can study abroad, do internships, take classes that interest us, ect.  All of these things that are no longer a chore to get out the way are what should give us all a boost to keep working hard.  

The biggest difference between now, and a year from now for example is that I set my own schedule.  I will be responsible for my own success and won't have anyone pushing me.  This is usually what causes people to fall, but I feel that it will drive me more.  Whenever my parents are out of town I become more responsible in planning so that I can get work done and still cook and clean.  I feel that right now, I am so worried about others.  Will my coach be mad if  I miss practice?  Do I need to make dinner tonight?  Does my friend need a ride to her practice?  Am I volunteering enough?  Does my boss need me to work on Saturday?  Don't get me wrong, most of these questions will still apply, but they will come as a result of me wanting to ask them.  I won't have to worry about what others need, just myself.  Although, knowing me, once I get to know people I'll probably start putting their needs before mine again because I'm really bad at saying no.  I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'll be able to make my own decisions and base them purely on how they will impact me rather than the people around me.

I honestly don't think that people will suddenly change after high school.  Slackers will be slackers, partiers will still be partiers and busy bees will still be busy bees.  We'll just find ourselves through the work that we put out.

As I said earlier, once our general eds are out of the way, there won't be that much of a balance between have to and want to because everything you do from that point should be something that you want to do.  Outside of working because in college that is a have to, but you should be able to choose your classes, your schedule, your friends, and your living arrangements.

In high school, college is kind of a HAFTA and a WANNA.   We want to get into college so we feel that there are so many things that we have to do in order to get there.  All these things that we have to do in high school are worth it becuase we get to do what we want to do once we graduate. The options are endless.  I see myself doing well in college and taking advantage of every opportunity given to me before I graduate and start a life for myself.

The Nose

1. What does Ivan Yakovlevich do for a living? 

Ivan cuts hair for a living, he is a barber.

2. What does Ivan find in a loaf of bread? 

 Ivan finds a nose, and realizes that it belongs to his customer Kovalev.  

3. How does his wife respond to Ivan's discovery?
I don't really think that she likes him very much.  She calls him a great big brute and claims she will call the police to report him.  What kind of wife does that?

4. What does Ivan set out to accomplish?
To get rid of the nose.

5. When Ivan tosses the "package" in the river, for a brief moment he is happy; then he is arrested. What does this scene suggest about the role of happiness in Ivan's life/community/society? 
It suggests that happiness is short lived and hard to come by.

6. Where does the title object belong, and how does it finally get there?
On the face of Major Kovalev, and the police return it.

Literary Terms List 5

Parallelism-  the principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal function should have equal form.
Ex.  This is not only just what I wanted, but also just what I needed.

Parody-  an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist.
Ex.  Weird Al is the king of parodies.

Pathos-  the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness.
Ex.  The SPCA commercials.

Pedantry-  a display of learning for its own sake.
Ex.  Edward answered all the questions on his history test correctly, but because he misspelled Napoleon’s name, his teacher took off points.

Personification-  a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.
Ex.  The twisted arms of the tree reached out and grabbed her shirt.

Plot-  a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose.
Ex.  Every story has a plot line.