3rd Quarter Reflections

In what area do you think you made your biggest improvements in English Language Arts?

     In ELA, I think that my ability to write essays has improved. Before I would often not add enough information in my paragraphs. I would usually not include a quote, as I did not see the point of having one in every paragraph. Also, my information was more scattered and I did not connect my paragraphs to one point. As such, they looked more sloppy than they do now.

What is something you have accomplished this quarter that you are proud of?

     Something that I accomplished was becoming slightly more responsible with my homework. I tend to postpone any work that I have until the last possible moment. I will be the first to admit that I am lazy. After getting grounded I realized that I had to get my act together. After that I made myself a schedule and have been sticking to it. Although I do still slip up, it's not nearly as much as before.

What has been the most challenging part of 3rd quarter for you and what did/can you do to help overcome this?

The most challenging part of 3rd quarter was having time to do all my work. For three days out of the week I often didn't come home until 8PM. This left me little time to do my work and the quality started slipping. As there wasn't much I could do about it I just tried my best to finish the work on time. Thankfully one of the things keeping me out ended, so now I only stay out late one day a week.

Lit Circle Blog

     I chose to do our first EQ: Why do fire fighters burn books? This question is one of the more mysterious questions that this book presents, and one of the most important. The entire book focuses on a firefighter's developing thoughts. Yet it is never explained in clear terms why firefighters do this, we only get tidbits of information as to why this is. For example, "Not enough hurt in the world…" "…poetry and tears, poetry and suicide…" This could make you believe that this started because people were taking things too seriously and hurting themselves. The emotions drove people to extremes, so in an attempt to help the government started to burn books.

     we chose the article "North Korea: On the net in the world's most secretive nation". The article and book do have some similarities. For example both focus on censorship. Ans example from the website," In a country were citizens are intentionally starved of any information other than government propaganda…" From "Fahrenheit 451", " Technology, mass exploitation,and minority pressure…Today, thanks to them you can stay happy all the time…" These two quotes give you a feel of how the people are being censored. Both are having their access to information limited. In North Korea they can only find information that the government deems "acceptable". In "Fahrenheit 451" people could only read comics because they were not as offensive and pointless as books.

     The article and book are different in what is censored. In the article,"…the internet too is dictated by the needs of the state…" In "Fahrenheit 451", "…while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn…" These two quotes explain the two different ways that these two different societies are being censored. While North Korea focuses more on the internet, "Fahrenheit 451" focuses more on books. While North Korea gives incorrect information, "Fahrenheit 451" gives none and hopes that no one asked too many questions. Though they use different means the out come is the same, the public is censored