Movie and AP tests

I was really interested in the movie we watched today in class. It was the perfect movie to watch since spring break is so close. The movie actually really fit into the poetry unit that we are studying, and it made poetry seem not that bad. It was surprising to me to see that the group of boys enjoyed poetry enough to recreate a club just for poetry. They did it on their own free will, not as an assignment. I also liked the teaching techniques because they were completely crazy and the boys just went along with them. I hope I don't forget the details over spring break so I will know what's going on when we finish it. On another note, I am completely surprised by the amount of time we have until the AP tests. I have AP Calc and the Lit test to take this year. I think that the in class essays have hopefully preparedness enough to do well on that section. The practice multiple choice has also been helpful through out the year. My concerns is the choice of vocabulary used because I have a bad memory with the vocab quizzes, so I will have to go back and review all of that.

Updates

I really can't believe that I only have a couple of months left of senior year. Spring break is next week and graduation will be soon after. It was an exciting day in the NCAA tournament and most of my bracket choices have been accurate so far. I chose Ohio state for the national champion so I hope they pull through. On another note, the poetry section hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. I have actually enjoyed a good amount of the poems we have read. It helps that they aren't pages long like I expected they would be. The poetry responses are helpful but somewhat difficult to write. It is hard to have enough things to write about. I feel that I am repetitive when writing them, but I don't have much to say about some short poems. I think the poetry responses would be worth our time if we had some basic questions to answer and expand on. I think that I haven't been benefitting much from the responses because I don't know what to say. I try to expand on analyzing certain lines and parts of the poems, but I think I am just saying the same thing over and over.

Poetry

I have mixed feelings about poetry. For the most part, I despise it. It can be boring, difficult to understand, and painful to read. I have studied and read poetry throughout high school and for the most part I have disliked it. I think it would be easier to understand if I read it slower and multiple times. Shakespeare has shaped my opinion of poetry and I think it is because of the old language and terms. I have tried to use translation guides and help websites to understand it but I still hard a difficult time. Although I don't enjoy poetry, I respect the writers. They write with elegance and beauty and somehow make it sound great. I have no clue how they manage to make the lines rhyme and have purpose at the same time. I enjoy reading poetry much more than writing it. I hope that the upcoming poetry section changes my previous opinions about poetry. I hope that the poems are more interesting and that I understand the meaning and language used. I hope that I can also recognize the techniques used to write the poetry and the figurative language used.

Independent Reading

We have another independent reading book due on Monday and I wanted to give an update on my second book. I am reading a non fiction book for this selection and I am really enjoying it so far. The book is about how important, huge companies hire private investigators to spy on competitors and other businesses. The book is a little confusing because many different stories are told and it is hard to keep them all straight. I think it is really interesting that there is so many things happening behind the scenes that the public doesn't know about. The book also ties in interesting stories about the history of spies. One of the stories told was about the first private investigators in the 1800's. I love hearing and reading about things that happen behind the scenes so I think I picked a good choice for this independent reading book. This book selection varies from my previous book choice because it is non fiction. It is crazy to think that all of the stories told are actually real events that happened. I think a lot of information is hidden from the public and I love reading about the hidden facts.