Anthology/ Independent Study.

Theme: Desire

Poems: The Magic of Numbers

By: Kenneth Koch

Poem for Haruko
By: June Jordan

Poem to an Unnamable Man
By: Dorothea Lasky

Dracula
By: Salwa Al-Neimi

Dear Love
By: Barbara Jane Reyes

What I Would Give
By: Rafael Campo

Joshua.

Joesph F. Girzone
Pages 1-58
Fiction

Joshua is a story of a mysterious man who is new moving into the small town of Auburn. To start off, the book describes the town and the closeness of those who inhabit it. Joshua, the newcomer, lives astray a little outside of the town. However, he lingers into town to pick up groceries and work materials. The town is very suspicious and wonders about him because he has yet to make friends with them, he just minds his business and does his own thing. Except one day, the mail man named Charlie had a package to delievery but no where to put it. So, he took the initative to knock on Josh's door. Surprised by his politness and quick hospitality, Joshua instantly invites Charlie in for some lunch. Charlie looks around, eyes scanning the house, looking for anything interesting. He notices that Josh is just a normal person, except he lives more simply. His house contains little fruniature or pleasureable things..just things he needs on a regular basis. After lunch Charlie rushes down to the local restaurant to gloat about what he had just been through. Little did Josh know, this was the start to a chain reaction!

Following Charlie's visit, came Herm. And then Katherine and her family, and so on and so on. Joshua didn't mind though, he loved the company and doing what he could for people. Later we learn that Joshua is a craftsman and builds wooden objects and carves wooden objects in order to make a living. I love way he says, "I don't make alot, just enough to get by and pay those bills." The situation I ended on was Josh making a Moses statue out of a cherry log for the Jewish Church. He does all he can to help anyone but himself. He is not selfish. The book also describes his close relationship with God. Throughout the book, Joshua prays every night before bed, every morning before breakfast and once before lunch and once before dinner.

Blog Winner!

T Manatee really drew my interest with their blog. I really liked the choice of background and text change they picked out. I also think their blog is creative in the sense that they have extra things surrounding their reading logs. By that I mean they have put in an area for fish and music and such things. There is a good balance between personal posts and assigned posts. The add in of pictures helps too!

Where will you be in ten years?

I think a lot of the kids picked for these interviews had some of the same ambitions as people at Homestead. Some had higher than others, but almost all wanted to go somewhere in life and make something of themselves. I really admired Raquel Reynolds. She is an aspiring hair stylist and make up artist. The thing about her is, she isn't going into this field for herself. She says she wants to get into this work so she can help others and work towards leading girls to gain confidence in themselves. I also liked Elivia Freeman. She wants to become a neonatal nurse, which is also something I am interested in. I liked how she said she didn't care about how much money she made or if she was wealthy, she just wanted to do something in life she enjoyed. So, along with Elivia, in ten years I see myself in the nursing field as well. I love babies and children, so I am looking at neonatal study.

My Awesome Things.

#283: Eating the thing you're cooking..while cooking it!
I love to bake; from cookies or brownies or cakes, it doesn't matter. I mostly cook with my family, which is always fun I think. Of course everyone looks forward to the goodies being done and out of the oven, but for me, I look more forward to eating the uncooked mixture. It is my favorite part! I think out of everything I have baked, the things I enjoy most eating are brownies.

#305: When little kids hit the age where they start saying hi to everyone.
I find kids so adorable. I absolutely love children. Especially the non shy ones. They come up to you at stores or doctors offices to simply say hello and put a smile on your face.

My personal addition to the list would have to be waking up and realizing you still have hours to sleep before you have to get up and ready for school or work. Every so often, actually, it happens more than every so often, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking it's time to get up and get ready for school. It's easy to get confused since, for most of the school year, we drive to school in darkness. Anyway, I dread waking up. So whenever I turn over and check my phone to realize its still only 3:18 and I have almost four more hours to sleep, I wake up happier.

The Independent Project,

By Susan Engel.

Engel's article is an inspiring note of how a group of studnets forumlated their own school inside a school. This group consisted of everyday kids, from two close to dropping out to some few honor students. The program was called, The Independent Project. They devised a curriculum of math, reading, science, etc..the normal requirements for graduating however, they added their own little flavor. The students underwent an "individual endeavor" of learning a new skill such as piano playing or cooking. At the end of the term, they preformed these new skills and shared them with each other. For this one school, it was a successful idea. On the other hand, for Homestead I don't think this plan would work. In the article, Engel states that this takes very commited and serious students. I feel like the leaders of schools would not want to put in disciplinary action and only focus on the "fun" things. But this would not work, we would not be successful. I personally would love to try this idea, but I don't know how well it would work.

2.23 Diction Exercise.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman.

a.) Jut, amidst, eventually, inhabitants, taciturn, outcrop, descendants, treacherously, placid, hewn

b.) Elevation: Sophisticated, Ostentatious
Connotation: Imagistic, Sensuous, Metaphoric
Sound: Delicate, Soft, Quiet, Relaxing
Concreteness: Imagistic, Inspired

c.) Neil Gaiman's relaxed sophisticated language conveys an admiring nostalgic tone for this passage.