Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing Assignment

While writing the transcript, it really surprised me how I could transfer the plot into a modern perspective and I could still get the same, if not very similar, message. For example, we made our Jane character and orphan who was living with foster parents and had a somewhat strained relationship with them. With this plot, we were able to incorporate many of the familial conflicts. Also, it made me look at many of the aspects of love in a different way by trying to come up with an examples of lost love or familial love that were applicable and were plausible in modern life.

What I found the most difficult was not being able to match Jane's story perfectly. I faced a similar issue that had come up with Heart of Darkness. Finding an extremely close modern representation of the themes in Jane Eyre that were plausible was my greatest challenge. Many times I had to stop myself and ask the question: Is that plausible?

What I was most impressed with during the writing of this was how focused my partner and I were once we started. We both had the common goal of completing it by the end of the weekend, and even though we didn't accomplish that goal, we had a significant start that only required an hour at maximum of our time during the deadline to polish it. But, being so focused was not something that I was used to. Often I get easily distracted while I am at home trying to do my homework. Many times I think, "If I had been productive with my time then I could have gotten to bed at least and hour and a half earlier." It was motivating knowing that I can sit and focus on one task at hand for a long period of time, and allowed me to think that I could be more efficient with my time.

Metacognition: Reading Jane Eyre

I found reading Jane Eyre to be very relaxing to my brain. The long descriptions, the attention to detail--it made me enjoy doing the homework. This was the moment of my day where I could decompress and finally take things slow. This was not something that I could quickly get through. Each page would take me between 1-2 minutes to read. When we started Jane Eyre I was frustrated that the reading homework was taking me so long. I wanted to get it done. But after the first few, I began to accept that it wasn't possible to accomplish the reading quickly and decided to try and enjoy the chunk of time that I had to set aside to read.

What else I found that was refreshing was that Jane would have a conversation with the reading and would forcefully engage me in the reading. Oftentimes, I feel that authors sometimes neglect the reader and ignore the fact that there is someone on the other side who is reading that story they created. Bronte's attention to the reader really help to keep me engaged and focused in the reading when I became so relaxed that I would realize that I had no idea what had happened in the previous few paragraphs. It was her way of telling me that I shouldn't miss any action of Jane's because the theme of love in the novel was very complex.

The thing that I will take away from reading Jane Eyre is the idea that you should be able to find excitement and enjoyment in the ordinary. Bronte would describe a house or a field with such description and passion and craft in her writing that I would find myself wrapped-up in the story. If I can notice the tiny details and be very deliberate and patient, then life will be so much more exciting. I just need to learn how to slow down the tempo of my life and observe what has always been around me, but what I've failed to notice.

360 Degree: Jane Eyre's Trust

The reading of Jane Eyre has really drawn my interest into the dynamics of trust.

Trust is key in developing who we are. When Jane was little and live at ----shire, she trusted Mrs. Reed to take care of her and supply for her. But, what Jane experienced as a child due to the lack of trust caused her to go into a state of shutting herself off from most human connections. She feared that the hurt she experienced would occur again so it was better to close herself off then to stay open and risk being hurt again.

But then Jane went to Gateshead and through her professional relationship, she began to build bonds of trust with Mr. Rochester. I believe that due to the trust bonds being built, they were able to fall in love with each other. Their love was possible in this period of time where two people of very different class getting married was unheard of because of their mutual trust. Relationship will remain stagnant if there is not some degree of mutual trust.

But then Mr. Rochester betrayed her trust by revealing that he was still married, and in a couple of minutes, he had lost all of the trust that he had spent so much time to attain. And, no matter what his efforts, he could not bring Jane to trust him to the degree that she previously had. She came to the conclusion that she could not be with someone for the rest of her life if she could not know that she could put all of herself in his hands and know that she would be safe. But Jane would never have been vulnerable to this hurt if she had remained shut off from the world and had not allowed Mr. Rochester to breach her defenses. I am curious about whether or not Jane will close herself off even more due to this second betrayal or if she will continue to remain open to other people regardless of the risk of being hurt because of the joy that she had while in Mr. Rochester's presence.

An Inconvenient Truth: Grades Matter

It is unfortunate that your learning and progression has to quantified.
This constant evaluation has the capability to make many dislike school and the learning that comes with it. Who enjoys doing homework, especially when it is "busy work"? Even the most assiduous student would become irritated and slack. I know that homework is given to reinforce what was previously taught and to practice concepts and apply them, but most people don't see it that way, and even the ones that do don't receive enjoyment from doing homework. This is one of the reasons that some student don't apply themselves. Why should anyone do something that they don't enjoy especially when there are options more appealing?

Some people say that your grades now won't matter once you get into college, but how you do now affects your future. Your grades and test scores determine your options for college and which college you go to determines your career. The better your grades, the more option and choice you have. So if you act immaturely now and are lazy and slack off because you dislike school and all of its responsibilities, then you are severely limiting your future.

I know that now, our school system is dependent upon grades, but I don't feel that a grade should represent your knowledge or intelligence. It should instead represent your growth and progression. By measuring this, you showing the passion and effort that has been applied. And, if you put in passion and effort you will gain a lot. There would no longer be the added stress of memorizing information. Doing things this way would create a system in which people would be enjoy learning more.

Dialectics: Foolishness and Bravery

In order to be brave, one must take a certain amount of unnecessary risk. If you don't take risk, then what is there to be brave and courageous about. When you don't take risk, then you live life without excitement because we all get excited and enjoy and remember the times when we took risks, not the times when we lived safely. But then what is foolishness? Isn't foolishness when you do or act in a stupid way? So foolishness would be excess risk or even attempted bravery that failed. Or you could define bravery as foolishness that is acknowledged and accepted by society and those around us.

But not everyone is brave. So there is something that is preventing many from becoming brave, and that is fear. If you fear the risk or see the risk as too great, then you won't take it. This is reason overcoming foolishness. Then do you have to lack reason to be brave? Because with reason, there comes fear of the consequences.

But bravery and courage may not be terms that even apply to modern life. Many times I associate bravery and courage with times in the past. I don't feel that those definitions apply anymore. There is a slightly different association to these words now. They are used more in the sense of overcoming challenges. Foolishness seems to have been taken out of the equation, but it has retained the same definition and associations. What seems to have taken the place of foolishness is fear. You fear failing at overcoming the challenge, so you must have to the courage and bravery to overcome your fear. When you overcome challenges, you create opportunity. I am sure that we have all seen what happens to people who are too foolish to face their fear and overcome challenges and have limited opportunities before them.

Blogging Around

Roman's Best of the Week blog entry about the idea of epiphany in Cathedral.

Roman, I really like how your described the experience of an epiphany, how language actually limits the description of an epiphany and takes away from the experience. It reminded be of the idea that in order to completely understand something you have to experience it. Even when I write about experiences that I have and try to convey them to other people through words, I find that they never sound quite right. I feel that I am doing a disservice to the moment. The only way that anyone could know what I was talking about would be being with me for the brief moment on a peak, or finding the flower that you've been searching for for years (for me it was the calypso lady slipper). That is why we have other modes of expression like music or art. Like you said, some things just can't be explained with words.

Merrick's Best of the Week blog entry about assisted suicide.

Merrick, I, like Taylor, do honor your opinion, but I have to disagree.

Say that your grandma had Alzheimer's. Would you rather slowly and painfully watch her deteriorate mentally or would you rather let her make the choice while she was still your grandma to end her life? I don't understand how this could be a selfish decision. She would be trying to save you and your family from the pain that they would experience seeing her slowly become someone else, someone who forgets who you are. This could go on for who knows how long. I really liked how Taylor put that they are only existing and not really living.

I do feel that their should be a thorough process that each individual must go through in order to end their life. Their must be a certain amount of counseling as well as doctors, both medical and psychological agreeing that the patient can pursue this option, and they should be able to do this without the fear of putting their career on the line. Their should also be family consent and they should be involved in the entire counseling process because like you said, this decision affects friends and family as well. All in all, suicide should be an option available, but not for the victim of a recent break up.

Best of the Week: The View of the Black Slave in Heart of Darkness

I believe that the best idea stated in class was whether or not the view of the black slave could be worked into Heart of Darkness. The most interesting idea that I though was offered was making the narrator black and have him expressing his views based upon the actions of Marlow and those around him. But this would not have worked because it takes away from the integrity of the novel and alters Marlow's true experience because Marlow is using this story to reflect and find inner meaning. With all of the other examples that were offered, there was some reason that it couldn't be worked in without changing the story in a profound way. This then made me realize the importance of the history of the author and time period of publication. In Conrad's time, racism was still an integral part of all societies. Even a person like Conrad who was writing this story and being abnormal for his time would have found a book with the view of a black man to be too revolutionary. To further demonstrate Conrad's racism, I would like to point out that there is not a single point in the novel when a black man is not portrayed as being inferior or savage. It has rarely occurred to me that these two aspects were that important, but this book has really shown how changing when the book was written would affect the overall product. Even if the book isn't historical fiction, you still need to do your research to fully understand and comprehend the deliberate decisions that the author made.

Captured Thought: The Media Loves a Bad Story

As I was watching a recent episode of the Simpsons in which Homer and Marge went to the winter Olympics and won the gold medal in curling, a sarcastic comment was made by a sportscaster. "This is the sort of bittersweet melodrama Olympic coverage feeds on," is what he said after Marge hurt her shoulder sweeping too hard. Then it dawned on me how one of the few things I remember about the last winter Olympics is Lindsay Jacobellis's showboating incident that cost her the gold medal in snowboard cross. But it's not only sports, but all types of media, magazines especially, that envelope themselves in what is considered "trash". But then if it's trash why do people keep wanting to read about the latest development in Brangolina's relationship status? An then it occurred to me that all the people on the news are famous and have an aura of perfection surrounding them and that when these people act like normal people and make mistakes, we can relate to them. We want to see these people act human. In a sense, the media is doing us a favor by broadcasting this "trash". The media is giving us what we want, what we need. And even though we know that we shouldn't find pleasure and comfort in another's misfortune, it's what we want to read, and we get it.

Connection: Postmodern View of Memory to History

As we were discussing memory and why there is a frame narrator in The Heart of Darkness in class it dawned upon me how just like the frame narrator is making Marlow a part of memory, so to are we a part of history. Marlow needed to be a part of the memory because this memory was too important to be one person's memory alone. His story and similar stories were all experienced in the jungle he calls the heart of darkness. We, and all the people of the past are a part of the great memory referred to as history. But, all history is based upon the writings and discoveries of those that experienced it, so it is not truly postmodern memory. Where is the purely objective history? Where is a record of all the events and cultures of the past without judgments or a point of view? The answer quite simply is that it doesn't exist. History is from everyone, and although everyone is a part of history, the vast memory called history is shaped by the ones that are a part of it. It is in the gray area between the modern and postmodern views of memory. But as I reflect back on The Heart of Darkness I realize that Marlow's feelings and observations are a part of the dialogue of the frame narrator, therefore the frame narrator is not entirely postmodern because an entirely postmodern frame narrator would eliminate the feelings of the people that are a part of memory because it is not a personal memory.

Metacognition: The 1st Semeter

As I progress through the year, I continuously feel that the area in English that I need the most work on is writing, and even more specifically clarifying my thoughts and formulating an effective opener. Maybe the issue with clarifying my ideas is that I am both my worst and best critic. I hold myself to high expectations, but then when editing I am too easy on myself and I miss many opportunities for improvement things. Sometimes I have a difficult time letting go of what I believe is a really creative introduction that doesn’t necessarily have perfect relevance. More frequently though, I find that for my opener, it comes out with a mystifying tone and overall feels forced.

Something else that I’ve discovered is that I prefer to demonstrate understanding and creativity in a theatrical way or with a presentation rather than with prose writing. I enjoy the interactions with other people that projects offer and like to test my comfort limits by presenting. So far this year, the King Lear skits have been my favorite assignment because it suited my preferences. I want to start to enjoy prose writing but I don’t how to start to have fun with it, especially when it is an assignment.

But, I have always enjoyed both reading and writing poetry. As I was doing Tuesday night’s homework I discovered that many of the poems have effective rhyming. I know that when I have written poetry, I have also done free verse writing because then I could just divide the words and organize and phrase the words where they seem to naturally fall. Whenever I have tried to rhyme it has always felt forced and it seems to break up the natural rhythm and flow of the poem. One thing that I really want to get out of this poetry unit is how to rhyme effective because when used effective rhyme is an incredibly powerful tool.

Blogging Around: Chelsea and

In Chelsea's post where she connects collaboration on the volleyball court to collaboration in a classroom, she talks about how there needs to be leaders and followers and how there needs to be a trust factor between all of the collaborators.

I found this very interesting how you tied sports to academics. Soccer season ended about a month ago and I could connect a lot of what you said to my team. I noticed how 90% of the time it wasn't the best team the triumphed but the team that could utilize the strengths and weaknesses of each individual player to reach a common goal. The leaders, whether they were given the title of captain or not, were the players who could unite the team and allow members to use their strengths.
I certainly agree with you on the importance of collaboration in school, but I feel that collaboration does not occur as often as it appears. I remember in junior high how there were, unfortunately, the people that no one wanted in their group. And often, those people would be excluded from the group because people thought that they had nothing to contribute. But, if you took enough time to figure out what that person was good at, then the project could be completed using everyone's strengths. This returns to your idea of balance, and how it is the leader's job to identify the strengths of each individual and the followers job to use their strengths, and when both of those roles are filled, then the goal can be reached in the most efficient manner.

My second comment is on Fatima's iMedia post where she asserts that the female image of Disney characters teaches young girls that they should be really thin and seductive and young boys that they can only like the 'hot' girls.

Fatima I respect your opinion, but I just don't agree with you. I grew up on these videos, and I watched them for pure enjoyment. I didn't once think, "I can only like girls who's stomach is narrower than her hips." I find Disney's depiction on their female characters absurd and ridiculous like you do, and they probably have that depiction of them because of society's pressure, but I don't think that a young child is going to interpret that message from these movies. Maybe I have this view because I am a boy, but I remember having a discussion similar to this last year in English class and many people agreed with me, including girls.

iMedia: Pachelbel Canon in D Major

Song

This is a rather famous piece, and if you haven't hear of it then I would be shocked. It is the traditional wedding song that is played by a string quartet at some point be it at the reception or as the bride walks down the aisle. But no matter how forward thinking some people are or revolutionary, this piece is a must have. It is comforting to me at least to know that no matter how far we move ahead, we still maintain solid traditions from our past. It is sad thought that most of what we remember of the past is song. Ask anyone questions about history and my guess is that few will answer correctly. History is our warning. If we don't heed it, then it is bound to repeat.
Pachelbel Canon has always been one of my favorite pieces of music. I had this old cassette tape that I would fall asleep to each night that had soothing ocean waves breaking on the shore in the background. It was a part of my childhood, and it's one of my top favorite songs right up there next to The Gambler, the artist is escaping me. To me Pachelbel Canon always cleared my mind and help me relax. It is too bad that I ended up playing the tape one too many times, and now you can't hear the middle section of the composition, and I have misplaced it. The soft, placid notes will always resonate in my head when I want them to.

Connection: King Lear to the Erosion of a Mountain

King Lear starts off as a mountain in the beginning of the play and as the play progresses, the mountain slowly begins to erode and become one of the Appalachians, which in my opinion shouldn't be considered mountains. His daughters are the constant force of the elements that batters the cliffs and courses through the cracks in the rocks during Spring. Goneril is the wind howling in her wrath. Regan is the water that passively pushes itself through any obstacle, but sometimes turns to ice and snow and becomes a blizzard. And Cordelia, well, she is the animals that migrate elsewhere when the sides of the mountain become too harsh, but return when the snow melts the grass begins to appear. Seeing the four "major" characters in the way really helps me to characterize and understand who each of them is. Since I find Shakespeare difficult to understand, I find that I make sense of his works best when I can identify what type of person each of the characters is, and that helps me decipher there responses to the different situations and predict with more accuracy what I believe will occur. But, my analogies of the characters will change as situations that I couldn't explain with the existing ones are explained to me.

360 Degree: Grades

One of the first things that comes to mind when you think of school is grades. But, are grades important? Are they necessary?
School should be about learning, not about how well you do on a test. Why must we quantify learning? In doing so, learning no longer becomes enjoyable. It becomes a chore, a drudgery. You study to pass a test, not for yourself. Education becomes a game of survival where those who are most successful have the most opportunity. How high you climb in social ladder is determined by your grades in high school or even junior high. Should the weight of that all be placed upon the shoulders of adolescents who at that period in their life want nothing to do with school, unless, in my personal opinion, something has gone haywire in their head.
Without grades, where would the world be? Some people have to succeed and others have to fail in order for the world to function. Grades are a way of determining who those people are. Also, how would be know if a child needed help in an aspect of their learning if grades didn't show that to us? And, is there another option other than grades and test scores to determine those most in need? Without the competition in schools, how can we get students to achieve their full potential if there is no incentive? What I see when this happens though, is that there are some students who attempt to reach the incentive, and then there are others who decide that it is impossible to achieve and stop trying. Is is possible to find a middle ground or an alternative measurement for success?

Metacognition: Kite Runner Essay

I found that it was extremely helpful to start with the body paragraphs, move to the conclusion and then back up and finish with the introduction paragraph. That way, I could phrase my thesis to fit my paragraphs, not the other way around. I normally don't do it this way, and I often have a difficult time letting go of ideas that I really like in the opening paragraph, so I think that this approach will benefit me for the future. Also, as I was writing the essay, I found myself stopping and going off on some irrelevant tangent that was not related to my thesis at all, but were very intriguing possibilities that I unfortunately had to omit due to the narrow focus of my thesis. I like this about my thinking, that its sporadic; it jumps around. But, this thinking really irritates me when it comes to writing a paper because I can never stay focused. I just want to write where my mind goes, but I can't allow myself to. With this essay, if I were to have more time to squeeze out the details, I would place most of my effort into the opening paragraph. I really wanted to keep the idea of skeletons flowing throughout the paper, so I knew I wanted to reference them in my opening paragraph, but it doesn't seem to flow as seamlessly as I would like. That I feel is the major improvement that needs to be revised.

Blogging Around

In Sean's "Best of the Week" post he asserts that he is amazing, the alpha in the class, and also briefly voices his opinions about The Kite Runner, saying that he believes this book to be sub-par overall.

Sean, I find that you are taking a task that you find to be meaningless and pointless and creating it into an opportunity to have fun within the parameters of the prompt. I think that this is a very valuable tool to be able to use.
Though, I feel that didn't take the assignment seriously. I found it hilarious and refreshing, but this time, I feel like you neglected the prompt and just let your creative mind wander.

In Sam's "Connection" post she compares literature to artwork saying how important it is not to rush through each one.

What you said is of the utmost importance, and I completely agree. If we rush through anything, we are bound to miss something. That is why whenever I have a reading assignment I try not to leave it for the end of my homework list so that I can gain the most meaning. Even now, when I visit the Art Institute (I can still only be in there for about two hours max) if I stand in front of a painting long enough, I keep noticing these small details that provide new meaning. Although, I have to disagree on your opinions about Pollocks. They are very emotional, I see that, but I don't see them as great artwork. Whenever I look at one I cannot stop thinking about paintings that we did in elementary school with marbles and shoe boxes.

Connection: Juxtaposition to Bones

For a while now, I have been trying to find a suitable way of describing the TV show, one of my favorites, Bones, to others, but oddly enough, I have never found the right words. It was as I was watching the second episode this weekend that I could finally come up with the means of portraying how it was more than just a crime show.

The juxtaposition that I would like you to view begins at roughly 41:48.
Click here for the link to the video

When we first were learning about juxtapositions I was very confused, but after seeing the ending of this episode, not only did I gain a better understand about the characters and the relationship that they share, but what juxtapositions were clicked in my head. I found it ironic that television put it into the right context for my brain to comprehend. By placing the lives and lifestyles of both Temperance Brennan, the anthropologist, and FBI agent Seely Booth. I thought that it was an intelligent filming choice to have this juxtaposition early in the television show because it allowed for a better, more comprehensive understanding of the main characters in the show. Not to mention, but this technique of using a juxtaposition early on in a story or even a show is incredible valuable because it allows one to quickly provide complex information about the character. This, I imagine will be incredibly useful when we are doing our sonnets and short stories; it will be almost a necessity. This also tells me a lot about Temperance Brennan. She can only connect to bones; bones are her life, her world, whereas Seely Booth leads a normal life and can connect to people, but yet, he still seems so distant. This makes me wonder...

Why is Temperance Brennan so unconnected?
Why does Seely Booth isolate himself and close himself off from others?

Best of the Week: Is Assef a Sociopath?

I think that the most important thing that was discussed was whether or not Assef is a sociopath. He is a cruel person that uses people and does terrible things to them. But why is Assef this type of person? One possible answer is that Assef is facing a problem that he has by handling the situation poorly and responding with something that my Health teacher called the reaction formation. The reaction formation response is when you behave in the opposite of how you are feeling. Perhaps Assef is lonely and is demonstrating that loneliness by being angry and cruel to the people he encounters. But you also have to wonder, is it Assef upbringing or his nature that made him who he is? Personally, I believe that any person's personality is strictly determined by his/her experiences. In other words, we are who our experiences shape us to be. Two possible solutions to Assef's personality are either poor or strict parenting. Theory #1: Assef's parents did such a terrible job that he never distinguished the difference between right and wrong and never experienced guilt, which psychologist consider a learned emotion, so he feels no shame when he does something that we believe to be horrible. Theory #2: Assef's parenting was superb. His mother, of whom we know little about, is a passionate believer in Hitler and all of his values and thus instilled them in her son to make him the terrible person that he is today. I am leaning, more like falling, towards theory #1 because it seems much more plausible in the context of the book. For example, at Amir's party, Assef did all the talking for his parents almost like he had control over them not the other way around.

The most likely place that I see myself using this information, is in analyzing characters in novels. The question that I always enjoy contemplating the most is: why is the character in question the way he is? If you can understand the characters, then, I believe, that you can understand the novel and the messages that the author is attempting to portray. Another instance when I can use this, is in everyday life. It will help me from criticizing someone or their work, and tell to myself that I don't know anything about this person so it is unfair for me to make prior assumptions. This will also help me live up to the Code of Living that I shared in the previous post.

Carry It Forward: The Code of Living

The Code of Living is a unique idea at Cheley Colorado Camps, the camp that I have been attending for the past six summers. I find it fascinating. Fifty to sixty teenagers, some who have never met, and as a group write the rules and standards that we, as campers, want to hold our self and others to; the belief being that a person is more likely to follow the rules if they are a part of the process of creating them and they can see their influence. All the campers sign it, like a contract, and receive a blue kerchief that symbolizes the code that they are striving to live up to. And I find, that I become a different person for that one month. Let me share with you this summer's Code of Living.

Initiative
Have the courage to be the one to take the first step.

Communication
Communicate honestly so we may trust each other. Communicate thoroughly so we do not misunderstand each other. Communicate respectfully so we may strengthen the bonds of our community.

Individuality
Have the courage to be yourself. Put your own spin on everything you do. "Dance like no one is watching." Do this keeping in mind that your actions as an individual affect the community as a whole. A complete puzzle is made of unique pieces.

Passion
Do everything with heart and purpose. Make each step your strongest. Push yourself.

Appreciation
Be thankful for what you have. Be proud of what you accomplish. Be glad for the help you receive along the way.

What is so special and unique about the Code of Living is that each year, it changes. Returning and new campers arrive at camp the next summer and different traits are selected with the input of all. No Code of Living has or will be the same.


What I attempt to do is carry that code of living with me throughout the rest of the school year and try and force myself to be who I am at camp. It is a tough challenge and there have been times when I have realized that I have not been living up to the code. I have let myself down. And maybe, my actions will rub off on someone else. All the North students will roll their eyes when I say this, but it is similar to paying it forward. Held together by a fragile strand of trust that each individual is responsible for keeping in tact.