In the ELA 20 my class and I read a short story called Penny in the Dust by Ernest Buckler, which was based on a childhood memory. I think people write about their childhood memories because your own memories and past experiences are easy to remember. As well, when someone writes about their memories a reader can tell by the voice in literature that there is a lot more emotion put behind the words and phrases. In my opinion, the one thing that makes things difficult about writing a story about your past is that although you remember the story, the details of what we think may not always be correct. When writing about your memories the writer is able to look back and understand what the memories actually mean to them.
My views on my own memories are still a little youthful, considering I haven’t completely grown up yet, but when I look back now I realize and understand more. I have made mistakes, but learnt from them, I have done good and helpful things that really were just for fun, and even though I might not have thought it at times, I know now that people will almost always forgive you if you are willing to try again. This unit on childhood memories helped bring back those carefree and loveable memories as a child and gave me a better understanding of some of them.
Amy has a good point abut how you’ll benefit from looking backat your memories.
The novel To Kill A Mocking Bird was a really good novel. I enjoyed how it was split into two parts. The first part of the book talks about Boo Radley and the children’s obsession with him, but then the second part of the novel almost seems to mature along with the children and talks more about the trail and all the inequality problems. I think that because the story is told from a young girl’s point of view that it makes it easy for people connect with it, based on the fact that everyone has been young and naive. Not only the naivete of the girl but her constant curiosity of Boo Radley makes the reader just as interested with the character.
This novel isn’t as relevant to today’s society based on the fact that black people have a lot more rights and are more equal, but it is still a good read because it educates people on the fact that there always used to be inequality. The book is related to people today because in court and in other places some people will still be prejudice and judgmental towards anyone with a different ethnicity.
My relationship with my parents is like any other. Being a teenager means there is going to be good days and bad days with the parents. There are going to be disagreements on our different opinions and frustration with one another, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t get along or understand when someone needs their own space. In the future I would like to have a strong, but not demanding connection to my parents. Meaning, that as much as I want to see my parents in the future I don’t need them to have to live with me and hold my hand while I go through life.
An example of a parent/ child relationship on TV is from the show, Two and a Half Men. Charlie’s relationship with his mother is basically hate-hate. Neither of them really enjoys seeing the other and when they do get together they complain about each other. As well Jake has an awkward relationship with his parents because he lives off and on with either his uncle Charlie (bad role model) and his dad Allan,(better role model) or his mother and whomever she is dating. His parents still love him, but he doesn’t really feel it when he’s always pawned off on one another.
John wrote a really good postabout his realtionships with his parents.
The odd thing about children’s stories is that there is a lot of violence and wrong behavior, such as Goldilocks not only breaking into the bear’s house, but eating their food, breaking their chairs and sleeping in their beds. Another story with violence is in Hansel and Gretel; instead of locking the evil witch up or even just running away from her Hansel pushed her into the oven to burn. As well, instead of going home after the two were free, they decided to stay at the candy house and eat some more. It is a little surprising how easily in the story that a child could murder someone, even if it was a witch, and then just run away with her money or valuables. These stories, in my opinion shouldn’t be cleaned up because they are well known and still do have importance moral wise, but there is no problem with stories being modern now. Some people have a different opinion about the badness of these stories.
A children story that I find interesting is Jack and the Bean Stock, because not only is there the magic bean stalk, but at the top of it is a huge world in the clouds with a giant and a goose that lays a golden eggs, but the story is about a poor boy. It surprises me that it’s a current children’s story because it’s old and maybe not as interesting as Cinderella/ princess or superhero/ villain stories. In the future I don’t feel that my children have to read certain types of stories, but that they read because they want to and for what they are interested in.
Amy made a few other good points about fairytales, check it out!
My topic presentation I did for psychology was on gender differences in the brain and the form of my presentation was a PowerPoint. Men and women are different in two ways; physically the look different, but their brains as well are different. There are differences in the way men and women estimate time, judge speed, and do mathematical calculations, and visualizing objects in dimensions. In all these tasks, both sexes are prominently different. This may be reasoning for the fact males tend to become mathematicians, pilots, guides, engineers, architects, racecar drivers, than females would be. On the other hand, women tend to be better than men in human relations, recognizing emotions are or tones, artistic expressing, verbal language and carrying out detailed tasks. While women and men struggle to communicate with each other and wonder why they don’t think and react in similar ways, science is proving that the differences in our brains may more to do than with everyday interactions.
I really liked this topic because I had wondered why men and women don’t think the same way in certain situations. Men seem to be more aggressive and forward with everything they do, where as women tend to think about things more and are more gentle. Children are like this also the boys seem to be more aggressive toward things and the girls are gentler. Even the thought patterns are different between the boys and girls. The girls seen to take more time and use different parts of her brain to figure something out and the boys use the same part of the brain, but on the opposite side.
Here is an articleabout gender differences in the brain.
The factual report I did for English was on the topic of child death in Africa. The main factors of child death that can be prevented are diseases, accidents and injuries, drowning and other smaller causes. In Africa the rate of child death is higher than anywhere in the world because of less sanitation, less access to medical supplies and the climate. Because of their warm climate and bad sanitation this lets disease and infections easy to acquire. And the fact that Africa has very poor medical attention, the people who are hurt or have disease are unable to get better very easily. These diseases and injuries can also be prevented and or sometimes cured. Africa has the highest rate of injury in the world and half of the annual world child death occurs in Africa. As well Africa is the only continent with rising numbers of children under the age of five. Forty per cent of all child deaths are from accidents or injuries. The last main cause of child death is from drowning or near drowning incidents. Drowning remains the second-leading cause of children ages one to fourteen.
My view on this topic is that there is way too munch death in the world let alone child death. It’s horrible that in Africa they can’t afford to have good medical attention so children are dying because they don’t have it. As well, drowning is preventable and very easy to prevent, but somehow children are still dying from it because people may be too lazy to watch them. Injuries are preventable also, but children aren’t always careful, so they get hurt and have to live with injuries that may not heal properly or may die from the injury depending on the extent of it. It is really sad to see children dying, especially when they can’t do a lot about it in Africa.
Here is a siteabout problems involving death in Africa.
In English we were asked to interview three people. One of the people had to be a parent or guardian, another had to be a teacher whom we respected and the last person we had to chose was a mentor or someone who guides us. We had to ask them two questions, the first being one of their life changing moments and what it taught them. The second question was in their opinion what is the most important lesson to learn in a lifetime. I learnt that a few life-changing moments are when you have your first child. At first you’re not one hundred per cent sure what to expect, but when you have your child, you learn that you will never be alone and that a part of you will always or almost always live on. It also taught me that you have to appreciate everything good given to you and not take it for granted.
The most important lessons I learned were that you can sit and wait for things to happen themselves, or you can get out of your comfort zone just a little bit and live life to the fullest. I’m quoting the movie Dead Poet Society, and saying “Carpe Diem”, which means, “seize the day”. Another lesson I learned was that it’s okay to make mistakes, because you will get up onto your feet and try again, but you learn from your mistakes what you should and shouldn’t do. This doesn’t mean though that you should do stupid things, but it means it’s okay to take risks. The hardest thing to do is to listen to everything you are told not to do because you won’t learn important lessons.
Amy had a lot of good information from her interview.
Everyday there is pressure and everyone gets pressured. Peer pressure doesn’t have to just be your friends; they can be your parents, your siblings, teachers, co-mates, etc. Life pressures can alter your life. Just because someone is doing something that they think is cool or will get them attention, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. If you don’t like what they are doing then it’s other people’s problems if they get into a troublesome situation. For example, from the movie The Dead Poet Society the main character, the teacher, takes the class of boys outside for an experiment.
He had three boys walk, and they had no direction in how to walk, they were just told to walk. But what happened was one person started walking and the others followed until they all were going at the same pace with each other. It wasn’t necessarily a verbal pressure, but the boys felt that they should follow the one who had started walking first. Instead of taking their own path at their own pace, the boys followed what they thought to be right and with the rest of their class standing around clapping, they thought they were doing the right thing, even though that may not have been how they wanted to walk. People face many decisions in life and instead of following others, we should travel our own way and accomplish what WE want to achieve.
The actual part where they are walking starts at about 6:34 into this video.
the brain and the form of my presentation was a PowerPoint. Men and women are different in two ways; physically the look different, but their brains as well are different. There are differences in the way men and women estimate time, judge speed, and do mathematical calculations, and visualizing objects in dimensions. In all these tasks, both sexes are prominently different. This may be reasoning for the fact males tend to become mathematicians, pilots, guides, engineers, architects, racecar drivers, than females would be. On the other hand, women tend to be better than men in human relations, recognizing emotions are or tones, artistic expressing, verbal language and carrying out detailed tasks. While women and men struggle to communicate with each 
other and wonder why they don’t think and react in similar ways, science is proving that the differences in our brains may more to do than with everyday interactions.
The factual report I did for English was on the topic of child death in Africa. The main factors of child death that can be prevented are diseases, accidents and injuries, drowning and other smaller causes. In Africa the rate of child death is higher than anywhere in the world because of less sanitation, less access to medical supplies and the climate. Because of their warm climate and bad sanitation this lets disease and infections easy to acquire. And the fact that Africa has very poor medical attention, the people who are hurt or have disease are unable to get better very easily. These diseases and injuries can also be prevented and or sometimes cured. Africa has the highest rate of injury in the world and half of the annual world child death occurs in Africa. As well Africa is the only continent with rising numbers of children under the age of five. Forty per cent of all child deaths are from accidents or injuries. The last main cause of child death is from drowning or near drowning incidents. Drowning remains the second-leading cause of children ages one to fourteen.
alone child death. It’s horrible that in Africa they can’t afford to have good medical attention so children are dying because they don’t have it. As well, drowning is preventable and very easy to prevent, but somehow children are still dying from it because people may be too lazy to watch them. Injuries are preventable also, but children aren’t always careful, so they get hurt and have to live with injuries that may not heal properly or may die from the injury depending on the extent of it. It is really sad to see children dying, especially when they can’t do a lot about it in Africa.
one hundred per cent sure what to expect, but when you have your child, you learn that you will never be alone and that a part of you will always or almost always live on. It also taught me that you have to appreciate everything good given to you and not take it for granted.
