MDW

Over this Memorial Day weekend, I was hardly at my house. I went to my cousin’s house and found it very entertaining. My cousin got his head under the couch, let me tell you I really wish I would have taken pictures or even better video taped it, but my cousins and I were to busy laughing and crying we didn’t think of it. On Thursday my cousins and I watched the movie untraceable (such a good movie). I watched it again with my cousins on Friday and one of my camp friends came over and watched it too. On Saturday we went up to Jefferson and went riding all day up in the peaks and woods (atv’s, and quads). Monday after a bbq at my house, I went into Hillsdale with my friend Kristen, and we hung out with our friends from valley. Lastly on Tuesday, yesterday, I went out to the ridge diner for lunch with 4 friends, then two of us met up with another friend and went swimming before the storm camp.

outline

What is the question you are answering in your own words?
What is your conclusion and critic of this book, along with other reviews you found on it?
What is your thesis statement? This sets up the entire paper with your focus and direction. The critics for the book Code Talker, By Joseph Bruchac, have correctly stated about the main ideas of a persons language, their pride, war and symbolism, and about experiences as well.
The critics have correctly stated about the main ideas in the book Code Taker, By Joseph Bruchac, and how a person’s language, their pride, war and symbolism, and experiences play a key part in the book.
INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH:
The views on a book differ depending upon what a critic likes to read in a piece of work.
A critic’s opinion differs depending on what they thought about major themes in a book.
BODY PARAGRAPH 1:
What is the topic/idea of this paragraph?
The language a person speaks
What quote(s) ideas from research will you use to help prove your points?
a. A person’s language can tell a lot about them. In this books case, it helped was in major importance during WWII. Although told it had no significant in life it turned out to be a secret weapon for America
b. “ In this case of Navajo speakers, their language said to be the most difficult of all American Indian languages_ is a reminder of the crucial role its speakers played in American History “
What example(s) from the book(s) will you use to help prove your points?
a.
b.
BODY PARAGRAPH 2:
What is the topic/idea of this paragraph?
His Pride
What quote(s) ideas from research will you use to help prove your points?
a. Began takes grate pride in being a Navajo and knowing its precious language. He takes pride in it even though he is being told it’s bad and unnecessary.
b. For someone to have so much pride and vital contribution towards something they are helping for, truly makes a difference when they were told ad punished for that something as children
c. “He conveys his pride in the vital contribution he and his fellow Navajos made to win the war.”
What example(s) from the book(s) will you use to help prove your points?
a.
b.
BODY PARAGRAPH 3:
What is the topic/idea of this paragraph?
War and Symbolism
What quote(s) ideas from research will you use to help prove your points?
a. War, being a main topic in this book, had many symbolisms that came from it. Whether it was good or bad events that happen while war meant many tins do the Navajo people
b. “…to them, just looking at a corpse risked association with bad spirits, and their belief in the danger of the ocean meant that they weren’t comfortable eating fish, let along traveling by ship or submarine.”
What example(s) from the book(s) will you use to help prove your points?
a.
b.
BODY PARAGRAPH 4:
What is the topic/idea of this paragraph?
Experiences (and Lessons)
What quote(s) ideas from research will you use to help prove your points?
a. While being on the battlefield the Navajos had to learn how to do many things. they had to learn how to work machinery, how to use radios, and certain strategies about war. They also experienced how to live life in certain conditions.
b. “Rooted in his Navajo consciousness and traditions even in dealing with fear, loneliness, and the horrors of the battlefield…”
What example(s) from the book(s) will you use to help prove your points?
a.
b.
CONCLUSION:
What should we now understand after reading your paper? What idea(s) does your paper lead to?
a. How the book is a good read for all ages and teaches not only a life lesson but a history lesson as well.
b. The reader will understand the main themes of the book and how people can correctly choose them after reading the merit.
c. We also can see how different people opinions can help you to understand a book better and see more into it then you did yourself

cornell notes

TITLE: Code Talker; a novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two
AUTHOR: Klein, Miles
YEAR PUBLISHED: March 2008
Main Idea #1: Using the Code
Summary: Although taught as a child that Navajo language and heritage is not allowed, it ends up helping him greatly in the future during a great time in need.
Quote: “ He joins the all- Navajo 297th Platoon and is sent to a special code school, where he learns an unbreakable top-secret code based on Navajo: a code so secret that the government only declassified the story in 1969(they had thought they might use that code again).”
Question/Comment: How can the people who forced them to forget their language and everything about their heritage turn to them and ask for their help knowing that they yelled at them for the exact thing they’re asking for.
Main Idea #2: His Pride
Summary: Began takes great pride in being a Navajo and knowing its precious language. He takes pride in it even though he is being told it’s bad and unnecessary.
Quote: “He conveys his pride in the vital contribution he and his fellow Navajos made to win the war.”
Question/Comment: For someone to have so much pride and vital contribution towards something they are helping for truly makes a difference when they were told and punished for that something as children.


TITLE: Novel of Navajo ‘code talkers’
AUTHOR: Haegele, Katie
YEAR PUBLISHED: July 2005
Main Idea #1: The language a person speaks
Summary: a person’s language can tell a lot about them. In this books case, it helped was in major importance during WWII. Although told it had no significant in life it turned out to be a secret weapon for America.
Quote: “ In this case of Navajo speakers, their language_ said to be the most difficult of all American Indian languages _ is a reminder of the crucial role its speakers played in American History.”
Question/Comment: From what I have read through the story, this review was excellent and Haegele was smart to include about the language a person speaks in her review.
Main Idea #2: War and Symbolism
Summary: War, being a main topic in this book, had many symbolisms that came from it. Whether it was good or bad events that happen while war meant many things for the Navajo people.
Quote: “… to them, just looking at a corpse risked association with bad spirits, and their belief in the danger of the ocean meant that they weren’t comfortable eating fish, let alone traveling by ship or submarine.”
Question/Comment: Sharing how the war has many different symbolisms for the Navajo tribe was very interesting to realize. I wonder what other things could mean for them?!
Main Idea #3: Training
Summary: The people were trained in ways that today we wouldn’t use. One main thing that the marines had to learn was how to swim.
Quote: “ During basic training the Marines had to learn how to swim, something non of the Indians had done before…they learned the hard way.”
Question/Comment: What were other ways they trained?


TITLE: Code Talker
AUTHOR: Phelan, Carolyn
YEAR PUBLISHED: March 2005
Main Idea #1: Experiences
Summary: While being on the battlefield the Navajos had to learn how to do many things. They had to learn how to work machinery, how to use the radios, and certain strategies about war. They also experienced how to live life in certain conditions.
Quote: “ Rooted in his Navajo consciousness and traditions even in dealing with fear, loneliness, and the horrors of the battlefield…”
Question/Comment: How did experiences affect their lives? I wish the Author could have give a specific example without giving out too much information, rather than just saying the quote above.

Montana 1948 Socratic Seminar

Today’s seminar seemed to focus mainly on whether or not the reader believes a character made the right choice in situations. First of all, Montana 1948 is one of my favorite books we have read all year; The Body Of Christopher Creed I enjoyed as well. I believe Frank did not get what he deserved for several reasons. Mainly because he didn’t get, what seems like, a punishment for his wrong-doing. With Frank killing himself (making it easier for everyone else to go about the situation) he got away with all that he did. He didn’t suffer any punishment for the ones he made suffer, he didn’t get embarrassed or humiliated for anything he did. Killing himself just made things effortless, his story never got out and no one but the family knew about what he did. I think he should have got put in jail, even if it means their family name might get talked about. People would know the real him and may appreciate the family for locking him up.

Source Posting Summaries

Klein, Miles, Code Talker; A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two, Literature Resource Center
This Review talks about the book and events that will happen without giving it away or too many details for it either. It reveals about the book being “research heavy” and providing many real dates and statistics from our past about WWII. Klein also recommends the book for all listeners who are willing to learn about history in a unique way.

Haegele, Katie, Novel of Navajo ‘code talkers’, Student Research Center; Ebsco
Haegele talks about the book being bout war itself and the difficulties of making peace between two cultures that don’t speak each other’s language. She also says how the book it fact-heavy but includes moments of culture shock and survival. This review tells how the language a person speaks can tell you about who he is.

Phelan, Carolyn, Code Talker, Literature Resource Center
This Review keys on how the book, not being that riveting at some points, is put together to create a concrete and memorable portrayal of a young boy living through life during this time period. We are told that readers will “walk away” with more information and attraction of the Navajo Code Talking than we expect to read about.

Cooperman, Larry, Code Talker, Student Research Center; Ebsco
The author of this review tells how Ned, the main character, tells the story about his life and the Navajo Code Talkers, but with the twist that he is telling the story to his grandchildren. He not only tells us about history but shares his knowledge with his grandchildren as well.

Manning, Patricia, Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two, Student Research Center; Ebsco
Manning talks about the tale being inspiring even for those who learned about Navajo’s already. This review shares about how a person having a career as a code talker had an important role during that time period.

Essay:
Montana 1948 has many themes including the major issue of sibling rivalry. In this book Frank, Wes’s brother, and Wes illustrate the theme if sibling rivalry. Wes, being David’s father, and Frank, being David’s uncle, competed not only as children but also as adults to see who the better child is. Frank was always the more outgoing child and one people respected more. He had the looks, the athletic ability, and the smarts, the things Wes lacked. Wes tended to be the child everyone “forgets” about; he also seems to put in little effort to draw his self attention. In one case, during a ceremony for a celebration, Wes and Franks father, David’s grandfather, called up a relative “ Now, I’d like to bring my son up here,” with no hesitation Frank approaches the front while Wes stayed seated and blended in with the crowd. This exemplifying that he himself believes his father only likes frank and only feels the need to call “his son” up and not mention “sons” or Wes. Sibling rivalry, most of the time, leads into some form of jealousy. Although fighting and competing may not be the best way to go about rivalry among siblings, it happens to everyone at one point. Having favorites in family can also hurt a child’s feelings and the way they will treat their family.

Research:
Dealing with sibling rivalry can be difficult but there are in-fact ways to do so. In the article, Family Feud, by Denise Henry it talks about real example of people dealing with their sibling issues. One tactic that can be used is using your issues and jealousy as motivation for yourself (Henry, 2008). In this article two sisters, Olympia and Keishana, compete about school. Olympia admits to being jealous of her sister, but instead of making matter worse she uses it as a motivation for herself. In Montana 1948, David’s dad, Wes, doesn’t seem to realize ways to deal with his jealousy. We see him just sit back and take it; yes, it is good to not worsen it and sit back but if you don’t say something then things may never change. He should use his brother’s achievements as a motivation to achieve his goals. This tactic can help not only to improve relationships but also help improve personal ambitions.

Comparison:
Siblings will always fight, its part of life but people should realize that there are ways to help that. As for the two paragraphs above, writing about those rivalries differ depending on where you get you information. Writing about a piece of literature in an essay paragraph, you are open to write about what you want and can include more analysis than in a research paragraph where you MUST have certain things. For a research paper you must also include where you got your research and cite if you used someone’s ideas. An essay paragraph is mainly a summary about something but not as deep in depth or giving examples. Nicole had good examples on how to write these paragraphs.

annotation

Comarow, Avery. "Heart Attacks." Attacking the Heart Attack. 4 July 2004. 29 Apr. 2008 .
The author of this article, Avery Comarow, shares about heart attacks and the how the team at Northwestern University discovers and test how the damage of the heart attack could be minimized and reversed. The author shares about pathologist Robert Jennings and his research team to demonstrate radical ideas about heart attacks. To test these ideas the team places a block in one of the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart muscle, for various periods of time and then removed the blockage. Team members found that the blood-starved tissue could se saved if circulation to the area was restored soon enough. Driven with confidence the team will continue to further their studies and open to new ideas and studies.

Mean Girls Can Feel Guilty Too

Girls are to Boys as guiltiness is to innocence. Complete opposites. Everyday there are people who do things that they believe may be a perfectly fine thing to do but in the end is something that’s unbelievably wrong. Once again, perfectly fine to unbelievably wrong = complete opposites. Guilt (click here to read and article about people feeling guilty and apologizing) is something that you can have before an action is done, where you realize it and stop yourself from doing something in the first place; it’s also something that can sneak up on you; you realize something was wrong after you do it. This happens to be the case for Cady Heron, Lindsay Lohan, in the movie Mean Girls. When Cady starts going to school she doesn’t exactly know how to deal with friends considering she moved from Africa where she was previously home schooled. When meeting Damian and Janis, they give her the “inside scoop” on everyone, but then they start to get selfish when the popular girls on campus start talking to Cady and inviting her places. They decided they wanted revenge because the popular girls on campus are also the mean girls on campus and have done some unruly things to them in the past. With this, Cady goes along believing it is a good idea at first; she gets sucked into being great friends with them and then turns on Janis and Damian, shortly after she realizes everything she is doing in wrong. She learned that plotting revenge on people could only hurt yourself as it did in Cady’s case. When everyone lost friendships Cady learned from her mistakes and forgave everyone for what she did but she didn’t do it without feeling guilty.
Just like it did for Cady guilt has snuck up on me too. When my little sister pisses me off I just want to sock her one and get revenge but then guilt comes and says “don’t do it, you’ll get yourself into more trouble.” I have to admit, half the time ill do something back anyway and then she’ll go crying off to mommy and daddy and complain but that’s beside the point. Sometimes if I realized I hurt her I’ll feel sorry; guilt comes pouring over me like the water in a water cooler comes pouring over a coach’s head after winning an important game. You either expect it to come and you just don’t know when, or it just comes out of now where. Guilt will sometimes strike me before I take action and save me from getting in trouble or even hurting someone. Guilt is a powerful thing. Everyone one time or another experiences guilt whether it’s when they misbehave towards parents, betray a friend, or plainly just doing something stupid.
In Macbeth, many of the characters feel guilt. They get a guilty conscience about something they did. For Macbeth he gets a guilty conscience about having Banquo killed and imagines him sitting at the table for dinner with them.Lady Macbeth(click here to read about her guilt journey) also experiences guilt about murdering people; so bad that she sleep walks and talked to people about all the secrecy going on. When feeling guilty people tend to go through hard times. Guilt can make you confess to things or even make things worse. People can have a hard time dealing with guilt that can cause them to do act in an un-orderly nature as it did to lady Macbeth. Guilt is to shame as innocence is to purity. Complete synonyms.

from the eyes of a female

Okay so tell you the truth I never really knew what feminism was completely, which considering I am a 15-year-old girl in high school who already stands up for my rights, is pretty dang pathetic. I swore I just lost half respect for myself just now when I looked it up on dictionary.com and read the definition aloud. It makes so much more sense now actually being clear on what it means and the articles I read about feminism make so much more sense now that I know what it exactly is. Seriously I’m like embarrassed for myself now. All right, well anyone else out there reading this and not knowing what it means and feeling dumb you, here look it up. Feminism/Feminism (choose the easy way out and click the first one, read about it more in the second one ☺).
Feminism is so important in women’s lives today, and to stand up for themselves in what some guys believe should be a “men’s society”. Phsss yeah okay, what’s the fun of that for women, so sit around having to listen to what the guys say; yeah makes total sense to me especially when women are just as equal, just at strong, and even smarter then men. And guys, don’t even try to deny that. Women can do anything men can do and I just hate how women are so underestimated. Our rights are just as important to us as men’s rights are to them. We earned these rights by fighting for them and speaking out; men just got lucky sat on their ass and the rights were given to them from the start.
Anyway other than being annoyed about them not even working for it, lets move on. Oh okay let’s talk about appropriate and inappropriate role models for women and young girls. I am going to repeat what Kevin said in today’s seminar “ the best people to be role models are normal people.” With this being true I lean more towards someone in your family being the best person you can have as a role model, more respectably an elder.
I seriously don’t understand what-so-ever how anyone, especially an adult, can look up to Paris Hilton and all those ditzy celebrities who don’t know what they are talking about half the time and get paid so much money for literally being stupid, oh and you cant forget the fact that they’re only famous because of there oh-so-rich daddy’s that they all suck up to. Point Proven. It makes laugh how dense some people can be. HAHAHA, see….I’m laughing.
Lastly lets talk about Lady Macbeth, in Macbeth being a feminist role model. Once again, hahahha, don’t think so. She is the type of women that displays both positive and negative characteristics towards women/girls. Yes, she is proving she can be strong as a woman, more importantly during that time period, but I can almost guarantee that when a queen tells you to do something, your going to do it. The worst thing that her character shows is that even though she is a queen when she told someone to do a bad thing, they did it. She is able to manipulate people to getting anything she wants to be done, done. This shows women have power, but for this case not in a good way. Anyone can kill someone and talk a person into doing so you just have to mighty good at doing it. I feel she is not the appropriate person to look up to because in this case she knows she has power and is abusing it. Wrong thing to do lady, shame on you!!

socratic seminar

Okay so here’s the deal, in our English class once a week we have this thing called a Socratic seminar in which our class focus’ on a topic. Students in the seminar get to share how they feel about the discussion, while a group of people outside of their circle gets to listen and share their feelings at the end. These discussions can get intense depending on if people agree or disagree with each other. Sometimes people get really angry, sadly but sure enough, I find it funny. I enjoy these discussions because it’s a time in class that we can just share how we feel and people can share how they feel about your opinions as well.
In today’s Socratic seminar our class discussion was about the book Macbeth, feminism, and feminist in today’s world. Throughout the seminar there were many things I agreed on yet disagreed on as well. Kevin had very good ideas and strong answers to the discussion in which most of his comments I agree completely with. When asked about Paris Hilton and her being a role model he answered, “ the best people to be role models are real people.” This I also believe because I see a lot of people who tend to say “OMG IT’S A CELEBRITY LETS STALK THEM AND LOVE THEM AND LOOK UP TO THEM FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES. ” All I have to say to that is why? Yeah, there are celebrities that I do like and may enjoy watching or whatever but none of them are my role models. My role models are my family. Other than the questions about Lady Macbeth and her being a potential role model and is she classified under the idea of feminism, the one that stuck out to me the most was, would you want to know your future? What may be some of the dangers to that? I personally don’t want to know my future, what’s the fun of that. Yeah, yeah we know there’s always certain events that we’d like to know how they’re going to finish before we either participate or do something different in, but still. The only reason Macbeth may have become king is because three people predicted his future. For him, he probably figured “oh I already know its going to happen so why not I just make it happen sooner,” wouldn’t you rather be surprise about something like that?! I know I would. Why do people want to know what going to happen in there life, to me the whole point of life is to go about it how it comes and to learn from the events that happen. Its suppose to be a giant surprise, if we knew everything that was going to happen what’s the point of even living through it at all.

when the good guy goes bad

Recently the former governor of New York committed a crime that from this point on has ruined his reputation. Not only did Eliot Spitzer's reputation become ruined but his popularity and peoples respect for him did as well. Whom people thought was an all-around good guy wasn’t so special after all. With out good reasoning Spitzer thought he could have a perfect relationship with prostitutes and not have anything go wrong. Hate to be the one to break it to you Spitzer, but when you’re the governor of New York and a some-what important person, people are going to watch your every move; people may not realize things at first but how long did you expect to keep this a secret. Spitzer(click here for a second article about his crime in detail and watch videos on his apology) in this case proved to be un-loyal to his family, his friends, his supporters, and everyone else looking up to him as well. Is this case justifiable? HAHAHA, if it is I would like to know how. I personally don’t believe a person can come up with something like this and then just say ”its not what it seems”/”its not my fault” or something along those lines when clearly there’s proof it is. He must have thought he could get away with this because he had so much power; that he could just do what he wanted. He must have felt greed with his power or something, but who knows, he got screwed both ways anyway.
Just like Spitzer did, Macbeth became greedy with what he thinks he can accomplish. So far, in the book, Macbeth has decided to kill Duncan to make himself heir, but will things work out the way he thinks they will? Who knows we have not read the entire book yet, but my guesses are no. Big crimes like Spitzers’ and Macbeths’ are not things you can just hide, especially when others know about it. Most likely in Macbeth a character will turn against him and his entire plan will all go down from there. Killing someone to become king because of what some witches told you would come true is not a justifiable case either. People tend to become greedy when they have power; they tend to do what they want to get themselves more power and to just please themselves in anyways they think are appropriate at the time until it may eventually backfire like in Spitzers case it already has. Committing crimes not only are a bad thing to do but are sometimes stupid too; just don’t do them, people will respect you more when you can be trusted.

Introductions

What would you do if a movie or book started off with: One day while sitting in the park I saw a cow cross the street and for the rest of the day I followed it: who would want to read that. Well, yeah I know there are some of you out there saying you would but come on. They need to start off with some flare, something that will catch the reader/viewers attention. For little kids all they want to hear is “once upon a time”, or simple music they can dance to; for teens we just want to see things go straight to the point. When starting in the middle of something that is going on, it makes us want to keep reading to figure out “why?” Some times a book or movie will start off where it ends creating a full circle ending, other times it may start in a key place throughout the story. In the Lion king, it’s a full circle ending; this movie starts off with music and bright colors of the sunrise to catch people attention as well as all showing many different animals. This helps because people will say “oh that’s so cool” or “look at that!” and it makes them want to keep watching.
Just like The Lion King, Macbeth starts off in the middle of something, but in this case it’s a conversation. It starts off with the three witches whom are casting a spell, the author describes what’s going on around them but by them speaking. When introduced to them the reader can almost get the vibe of the wind whistling and the thunder roaring; its almost as if you were there. This is the perfect way to start something off; making it seem like your there only adds the effect and makes it a better beginning. The more interesting someone finds the begging, the more they will want to read.