As the first term winds to an end I'd like to reflect and hope you would join me in a moment of silence. _______________. Glad that's over with. I have enjoyed the first 4th of Socratic so far this year. There are a few disappointments (not watching Olympic opening ceremonies) but overall I've enjoyed it and look forward to the rest of the years.
I enjoyed reading Ali Baba. It was a good story, to the point, yet it had complex characters and an interesting story line, especially the conflict. His servant girl is basically a genius. She is the hero of the story in my opinion. Did you guys like it? Tell me what you think.
To quote something from a favorite movie of mine, "The Ringer" Do you think that there are good people and bad people? Or just good people who do bad things? Are there any gray areas? What are your thoughts? Let me Know.
Today in Socratic Seminar we were questioned which was more influential on society, the printing press or gunpowder? The fact of the matter is they have both been vital in shaping our world as we know it today. They are both the fuel behind revoulutions, we wouldn't be a country today with out both of these items. Without gunpowder we would have surely lost the war to the British's much better fighting style. Without the printing press the war would probably have never been started, texts and papers were used to communicate between the colonies and helped print much propaganda and other texts that fueled our nations anger toward the British. Which was more influential to todays society is a true toss up, and I cannot decide between the two. I want to know your opinion, however I do believe that the printing press will be more influential to our future.
Maeser basketball team has our first AAU tournament this upcoming weekend and I'm stoked. I can't wait. I didn't attend any basketball camps or play in any tournaments with my previous high school's team because we knew we were moving, so it has been several months since I've played competitive ball. I'm excited and I think we will dominate our division this year. Lets go Lions.
What's everyone's opinion on these new grading terms. Rather than having two grades that go on our transcript, we have four. I personally don't like this. It's not so much the idea that I disagree with, but the sudden decision to do it. There are teachers that had no idea this was coming and have courses designed to not have much in the gradebook this first term. I think that it's fine that they do the four but I think they should start it next year. There were good intentions behind the idea I'm sure, but we can't start this when the first term is half over. Please tell me your feedback. Let me know if you agree with me.
How do they do this for a month long? That's some serious dedication I've been doing it for few days now and it's tough work. I have to admit that I did cheat and drink water during basketball friday and saturday but thats so I didn't collapse of dehydration. I wonder if Muslim kids sneak food while their parents aren't looking. I had a Muslim friend in Idaho who would be fasting for Ramadan during football. Then, I didn't know what Ramadan fasting involved. I called him up and told him I was amazed at his dedication. This has been a great project and I have gained more respect for the Muslim culture.
I'm curious (and I think this will get some comments on my blog finally) what the origin behind everyones' names are. I'm named after my uncle who died in a car accident. I just found out a couple of months ago that I've now lived longer than he did. I feel obligated carry on his name with honor. What are you named after? Do you like your name? If you could change it, what would you change it to?
I really haven't liked the twisted fairytale assignment. I think it should have stopped at a bell write. I know some people went off with it and had a really good time, but in my opinion it wasn't what I would have liked to be our first major writing assignment of the year. It doesn't really tie in to anything we've been doing in class and for an assignment involving creative writing I think there could have been some funner things we could have done. Oh well, what's done is done. (I'm mostly writing this because I need more posts.)
I was interested as I read the Quran to compare it to scripture I typically read. I was amazed when I realized there aren't that many differences. I would like to read more of the Quran and read straight through instead of skipping to certain verses. I think its cool that we get to read it and as for the debate of whether we should study it in class... I think we absolutely should, 25% of the world is Muslim and the Quran is their holy book. I think the Quran has played such a large role in the worlds history we should absolutely read it.
I loved hearing from Maysa the guest speaker. I learned a lot and I thought it was way cool that we were able to have a Muslim come speak to us. I feel it shattered a lot of the stereotypes I've heard and was great for us to beable to hear from her. I learned more about Islam in that 1 hour than I think I could have learned in a couple weeks out of the text book. I'm looking forward to studying more on Islam.
Socratic Seminar has been a productive class so far. I learned a lot from Beowulf and enjoyed the story, as well as the history that accompanies it. I like the Socratic format of the class from a history point of view, but a regular English class. Overall, I've enjoyed the class. Tell me what you guys think.
I unfortunately was not able to make it to the bonfire this weekend. If someone wants to leave a comment and tell me all about, that would be great.
So today in Socratic our Bell write involved homophones, it was one of my favorite bell writes thus far this year. As I'm sure everybody knows homophones are two words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. I think it would be cool to have people come up with as many homophones as they can and leave them in a comment.
Good Luck
Beowulf is the man!
He is incredible, the guy took down Grendel with no armor or weaponry, ripped the arm right out of Grendel's socket! He should get to go live with the Norse gods or something, he's that cool. He should take Tyr's job because while Tyr is losing arms, Beowulf is ripping them off of monsters.
After reading this entry and seeing what Beowulf did to Grendel, it makes me believe his side of the swimming story. I think he should take Grendel's arm to a taxidermist and they should hang it on the wall of the mead hall.
Like i said, Beowulf is a Thug.
Why I should bother studying the worlds history?
Why I should bother studying the literature?
Why I should bother studying language arts?
Why I should bother studying geography?
