Midterm coming up

          As far as midterms go for this class, I'm not too worried. English is a subject where if you understand the material, you don't really have to cram the information into your head. I've personally just paid attention in class and basically remember everything.
          There are still some hazy areas here and there. I am a little confused on the literary elements. I'm sure if I reviewed them, I'd remember, but when I hear those words, I automatically assume that some elaborate list should pop into my head, but it doesn't. Anyway, with review in class and studying at home, I'm sure I'll do fine.

TRAPPED

If my classmates and I were trapped on an island along with a group of first graders, I think we would manage. Staying alive in a situation like this certainly wouldn't be easy, but considering our discussion in class, we would put our minds together and make it out of there alive. The key thing to remember is that everybody has something to contribute. Some people are loud leaders, while other quietly observe. The hard part is finding out who can work together.
One thing we had plenty of in our class was leaders. Diamond was keeping us all organized and making sure things didn't get out of control. Alex and I were taking charge and assigning roles to everyone and establishing a "game plan". Emory was working on how to keep us from fighting by creating a small government. The disadvantage was that there were a lot of people that kept quite even though they had great ideas. Akbar finally spoke up and decided that the first thing to do was scout out the island and find a water source. That was a necessary task and to be honest, I overlooked it. It may take one to lead, but for us to live through and experience like that, we would need to all work as one. I think we would.

FREE POST

            I never know what to write about in these, but I guess I could write about the LSU women's basketball team this year. We did really well for a while and made it to the final four a couple times a while ago, but we lost our coach Pokey Chatman a few years ago. We're finally starting to adjust, and it should be a good year considering we got some new freshmen that are supposed to be great.
            There is one problem though: Pat Summit, Tennessee's previous coach for years, has retired because of her early-onset Alzheimer's  (I want to show some respect for her and what she's done for Tennessee's program over the many years. She is one of the best coaches of all time!) ...but, back to the problem: Our current coach, Nikki Caldwell, was a previous Tennessee player. I worry that after this season, Tennessee will make a coaching offer to Nikki, considering what a great job she has done at LSU. Understandably, I would expect her to take the offer and go coach at her own school. Hopefully, she'll stay with us for a few years, but I guess we'll just see what happens.

Reading Response

          This week, we got a little break from short stories, so I finally got to get back to my book, "Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection".  A little refresher, Geno Auriemma is the Uconn Womens' Basketball coach. He has won multiple championships and was this year's Olympic team coach.  Basically, the whole book is just Geno going through each season he coached, talking about the players, and all of their accomplishments.
          Since one of my goals is to be play college basketball one day, it is really interesting to get a coach's point of view on what they look for in players, how they recruit, and quite honestly, what completely turns them away from a player. I have always admire Geno and his coaching style. A lot of people think he's a complete jerk because of how blunt he is. He doesn't sugar-coat anything. I love coaches like that. The varsity coaches at EHS are Coach Bourgeois and Coach K. Both are also football coaches, so you could imagine that they are not afraid to yell at us just like they do the guys. I've also had coaches who are just too sweet and just care about "trying your best" and "doing what you can do". I hate that because here's the  thing: just trying your best is not going to get you anywhere once you're playing at a higher level. I feel that when one of my coaches just looks at me and says, "Julia is you mess this up one more time, you're running, and by the way that was a terrible pass," it makes me better. Yeah, it may make me a little upset at first, but I know it will make me improve in the long run. Anyway, I'm enjoying this book a lot and suggest it to any other basketball players looking for something to read.

Short Stories

For my three short stories of my choice, I read "The Sniper," "The Return", and "Hills like White Elephants". I truly did not like "The Return". I just found it kind of boring and depressing. "Hills like White Elephants" was alright, but it was extremely confusing. I felt like the author wrote the whole story and then cut it in half to create an ending. That leaves us with "The Sniper". I liked this story a lot, so I'll use this for my thesis.

I thesis statement could be, "The man was an experienced soldier and was well prepared for the attack". He could shoot precisely from far away and still remain in secrecy. Also, when he got shot in the arm, he knew exactly how to care for and clean the wound. This could be argued against because he did make one crucial mistake: the man he shot was his brother. I think this would be a good topic for my thesis. 

Literary ElementsI

I think that the story with the strongest characterization traits is definitely "Waltz of a Fat Man." The way the author describes Noe is so realistic! I feel like I can see his fat stature and the way he looks into the mirror in denial thinking things like, " On his best days, Noe could make that weight look like muscles." The author does a great job of describing Noe.
Not only are there vivid descriptions, but so many things can be understood through Noe's actions. For example, "When he shook the hands of women, he did so vigorously, hoping to see movement on their bodies, some small adventure to take his breath, some nodding yes, some quite dance of the upper body. The first adventure of a man." Seriously? I would just like to say how pathetic that is, but anyway, the author says nothing about how desperate and kind of creepy Noe is. Through this action though, we can assume so many things. The author provides perfect examples of showing, not telling.

CLASS PARTICIPATION

So.... I would say this is probably the class I participate in the most. I pay attention in my other classes, but I don't really engage myself into class discussions. In English, I do participate a lot and will definitely put my say into the conversations. I guess it's easy to talk about because I understand it, and there's so many possibilities to discuss. In science and math, there's almost nothing to discuss. You either know it or you don't. There's hardly any variations, which I hate, so that's basically why I choose to participate in English.

I would say, if there's something to work on it's making sure I'm on time with all of my supplies. I'm usually either late or don't have time to go to my locker to get my binder. I manage without it usually, just writing all of my notes on a sheet of scrap paper, but it would be easier just to have all of my stuff together before I walk into the classroom. Overall, I personally think I am really good about participating in class on a regular basis.