Reading+Reflections

QUARTER ONE

1. I have never had a teacher like Miss Jean Broadie. Some students may feel that she would be the perfect teacher. Sometimes, kids wish that their teacher was as open-minded and willing to be as personal with them as Miss Jean Broadie is with her students. In my opinion, however, Miss Jean Broadie is too personal. I would never want to go to my teacher's house after school for tea, as Miss Jean Broadie offers her students to do. Even though it is not a forced thing, in a way the students have no choice. A teacher will always have more power over their students, even if that was not the intention. If the students did not want to go, Miss Jean Broadie might not have liked them as much as she did, and that could have harmed them when it came time to school. In my opinion, Miss Jean Broadie should have just avoided that uncomfortableness by keeping her students where they should be- in school. Also, even though I want my teachers to trust me, I don't think it should be to the extent Miss Jean Broadie makes it, where she is talking about her personal love affairs. It is not appropriate for a teacher to be telling her students about how she was kissing a married man. That should be her own business, not the business of the students. I'm sure it made them feel very uncomfortable, as well as it should. This is just my personal opinion of Miss Jean Broadie so far.

2. So... I am a lot happier that we are finished with Miss Jean Brodie. I think now that I have finished one book and one essay for Mr. Brunelli, it will be easier now. I am a lot happier to be reading Pygmalion (sp?) I like reading plays better than novels. Perhaps this is because I myself am interested in performing. I am happy that there is a video of the play online, so that we can read and watch at the same time. I will probably start this movie during the weekend. I am very excited to learn more about this play.

3. I really do not like Henry Higgins... I just don't think he ever did anything to help Eliza for herself. He was only trying to prove that HE could do something. I don't think his ways of motivating her to speak more properly were good either. No one deserves to be pushed around and bullied the way that Higgins bullied Eliza. I was so proud of Eliza after she became a "flower girl" and was able to speak in a more proper manner. Even though Higgins took all the credit for Eliza's success, she knows that truly it was her who worked for that. I am glad that Eliza had pride in herself, and threw her shoe at Higgins when he ignored her. Eliza seems like a strong, motivational girl who could be an inspiration for other girls who read this play.

4. I really did not think that the movie of Pygmalion was as easy to follow as the book. Often times the words were different, and I think it would have been just more consistant to read the play on its own. I decided that I am going to go back and re-read the play tonight. I believe it would be easier to read with other people outloud, so I think that I will do that tonight at my play rehersal. I wonder what book we will read next. I like these stories that we have read so far about teachers, but I think my favorite was Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire, from the summer reading list. Maybe we will read more books like this next quarter or later on in the year. Overall, I think the first quarter was successful in terms of the books that we read and the essays that I wrote about them.

QUARTER TWO

1. About a month ago, we were given an assignment to go on a classroom scavenger hunt. The goal of this lesson was to teach us how, as soon to be teachers, to budget our money and still get materials that will be useful for the classroom. At first we were supposed to work individually, but we decided that it would be more efficiant and useful to go in groups of three. My group and Jasmine, Emeline, and myself. I learned a lot from this activity. I was able to buy about twenty items for the classroom, and only spent about 30 dollars. It taught me things that I believe I will benefit from, even outside the classroom. I've realized that you do not have to buy the higest quality items, just what you will need to get by. I've also learned to budget my money, and not buy the first cute shirt I see. I learned a lot from this project, and would definitely recomend doing it in the future.

2. In class, we were told to pick one of our favorite movies and put a clip of it up online. This was because there is always something about the movie you like best that describes you. I picked one of my favorite movies, Grease. I love this movie, and always have since I was a little girl. When I got up in front of the class, I was a little nervous to find out what everyone was going to say about me, based on the movie. I picked one of the last scenes in the movie where Danny and Sandy sing "You're the One that I Want." From this, the rest of the class was able to judge me. Based on this clip, it was determined that I am an optomist, that never wants to be away from my friends, and always wants to be in a relationship. I never really thought about it, but I guess I really am sort of in the good girl/bad girl predicament, where I always try to be good, but sometimes, I just want to break out of my shell. I learned a lot from people evaluating me, based on this clip from Grease.

3. I love reading all these fairy tales for class. The books I got were the Grimm's Fairy Tales. So far, I read Cinderella. I thought it was so interesting to realize how much Disney has taken over these clasic fairy tales. I could never imagine such grusome scenes in Cinderella, like the part where the step sisters cut off their heals and toes to try and fit into the shoe. I think if my mom ever read that kind of story to me as a child, I would have been scared for life!

4. After discussing our fairy tales in class, I realized there is a lot more to the story of Cinderella than I was able to pick up on. One of the biggest ideas that I realized after talking about it in class was the significance of Cinderella's step sisters cutting off parts of their feet. Often times, feet are associated with sex, and the idea of blood flowing from the feet alludes to the idea of losing their virignity. With this thought, it shows that because Cinderella was the only one who did not need to cut her foot, she is the most pure of all the sisters, and that this was the reason she was the right bride for the prince. I realized that I enjoy Cinderella so much, becuase it is not so much about Cinderella's evil step mother, but more about her evil step sisters. There is competition between them, because her step sisters strive to be better than Cinderella. I most definitely understand this idea, since there is always competition with me and my sisters. I really like the true story of the fairy tale of Cinderella, even if its not as "pretty" and "kid-like" as Disney's version.

5. Even though I have already "Flowers for Algernon," it was in the eigth grade. Plus, it was the abridged version, so I guess I really have nothing to say about it. I do remember that I enjoyed this shorten version. However, when I was younger, I couldn't really understand the book in its entirety. Even going back and saying what I remembered about it, all I could think of was the mouse that took the test and got smart and then died. I know talking about it now, there is a lot more to this book. I hope I get more out of the plot and meaning this time than I did when I was younger. So far, I am noticing a lot more than I did in the abridged version. Charlie is so lost and confused in the world around him. It is so sad that the people around him laugh and make fun of him, and he thinks that they are his friends. I hope that later in the book, after the experiment, Charlie realizes that these people are not good to him, and he can meet better people.

6. Finally, Charlie begins to show an increase in his skills. This happens around his eighth or nineth report. His spelling is getting slightly better, and he is starting to understand what is going on around him a little bit more. Also, his memory is coming back. Slowly, Charlie is sable to remember events from his past, such as the fact that his mother was mean to him and wouldn't let him hold his sister. The first time Charlie beats Algernon at a race, I was very happy for him. I think that even though I know this might not be good (since I already know the ending of the book) as of right now, I am happy for Charlie. All I want is for his brain to continue to develop, and him to be able to read and write much better than he could in the past.

QUARTER 3

1. Poor Charlie. He has to go through so much once he becomes smart. I guess that is the price one has to pay for deciding to undergo this operation. Even though he is becoming much better at grammer, vocabulary, and spelling, he is starting to see people for who they really are. He begins to realize that the men at his job were never really his friends, and just were making fun of him. Personally, I think this is much worse than not being "smart." I would never want to learn that all this time people were actually making fun of me, and laughing at me for my disability. The only other good thing that is coming out of this is that Charlie is begining to get much closer with Ms. Kinnian. That should certainly make for an interesting story line!

2. I am sort of glad that at the end of __Flowers for Algernon__, Charlie goes back to the way that he is. Even though I feel bad that he had to lose his "smarts" I think it just goes to show that he should have never done the surgery in the first place. If he never did this surgery, he would not have known what it was like to be smart. Now, forever, he will resent who he is because he knows what he was missing. It is sort of like realizing that you should just be thankful for the way you are, and how you live. I think an over all thing I learned from this book was that you should never try to get more than you have, because later in life when you lose it, you will be more upset than if you never had it at all.

3. In class, we watched a section of the movie "Freakonomics." It was the part where the people were trying to determine what motivates students. The idea was that maybe if you pay students for good grades, they will work harder to achieve them. This idea was proven to not really be as afficient as we originally thought. I don't understand why students wouldn't just work hard for the grades. It isn't like these students can't do the work- sometimes they are just lazy. I know we definitely have students like this in my school, and I do think if this reward system was open in my school, students grades would improve dramatically. I sure know mine would!

4. Recently, we started __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time__. This story is about a boy named Christopher who has autism. The whole story is written in the first person idea coming from Christopher as he tries to find out who killed Wellington, his neighbor's dog. I can already tell there are certain things interesting and unique about this novel, due to the fact that Christopher is austistic. For example, the chapters are only numbered with prime numbers. This is because thse are the only numbers that Christoper likes. I hope that everything is okay with Christopher throughout the book, and that he does not get hurt or taken advantage of just becuase of his disability.

5. So Christopher definitely seems like one of those austistic students who can be very intelligent in other ways. He mentions that he is in the level A math class and that he thinks he can get 100 on the math test in school. However, he still certainly has some odd ticks about him. For example, he believes when he sees four yellow cars in a row, it will be a bad day, whereas when he sees four red cars, it will be a good day. I understand this happens to a lot of austistic students, and although it is not to this extent, I certainly can understand where he is coming from. Christopher seems smarter than people think however, because he can tell that there is something off about Mr. Shears. When he mentions him and his father freaks out, Christopher gets even more curious about him. I wonder what it is about Mr. Shears that is so intreging to Chris and his father.