Flat World Project Reflection Questions

1. What did you like best about the project and why?

I would have to say I liked getting feedback from others the most because it allowed me to see what other people want in a story and all the mistakes that I couldn't see myself. All the different kinds of feedback I got helped me write a story that I could be proud of.

2. What did you like least and why?

I wasn't so fond of the times when I had to read a story that was blatantly plagiarized or that obviously had no thought of creativity (or effort for that matter) put into it. Reading those are a real drag at times.

3. What was something surprising that you learned about the other students (from other schools)?

I learned that different students from different areas of the world all tend to value different things, for example reading the stories from Korea really showed me how much the Koreans value family and education in their everyday lives.

4. How do you think the project affected your writing?

The project changed the way I write for the better. I can write overall better sentences that are more interesting to read and I now better know what readers like in a story.

5. Describe the most challenging aspect of the project.

The most challenging aspect of the story was by far coming up with a good story to begin with as your first draft.

6. Offer some advice to future participants.

Make sure you are interested and enjoy your own story and like to read it. This ensures that when you go to make revisions you are actually trying to make the story better and have a motivated form of thinking rather than just trying to finish your English homework. Plus it makes it a more fun experience in general, especially when you see how others respond to your story.

7. Other comments.

The project was an overall good experience and helps you get a worldwide opinion of your writing and how to better that writing. This should be implemented in all high school English classes. It also gives you a brief taste of what real life is like in the sense that there are time deadlines that need to be met not just for yourself but for others and how others depend on you.

2nd Character Analysis: Robin (The Hobgoblin)

In this segment of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Robin is seen throughout the scenes. He is manipulating much of what goes on from scene to scene with his love flower nectar, causing all sorts of trouble and making people fall in love with those they truly do not. He exhibits signs of sociopathic behavior in the sense that he plays tricks on people and plays with their lives in order to please himself and to do his master's(Oberon) bidding. With caulous disregard for the feelings and well-being of others he does as he is commanded and whatever catches his fancy. He is simply a trickster at heart gaining pleasure from others folly.

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Character Analysis on Theseus

Out of the many characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of the first ones we are introduced to is Theseus. Theseus is a famous and heroic character in many other stories concerning Ancient Greece, however in this story you can't help but dislike Theseus sightly. As the duke of his town, he is the leader of the things that goes on, more importantly marriages. Hermia is a girl that loves a man named Lysander and he loves her back, but is promised by her father to another man named Demetrius who also "loves" her (she does not share the same feeling). Athenian law states that the daughter must obey the father and marry whoever the father wishes regardless of what she wants, or else she is allowed to be killed by the father. Theseus knows that Hermia doesn't wish to marry Demetrius and wants to marry Lysander, however Hermia's father has the law on his side and therefor has Theseus on his side. Even when Lysander tells Theseus about Demetrius' incredibly shameful abandonment of Helena (another girl he once "loved") for Hermia, Theseus simply dismissed it and ignores that fact and continues to support Demetrius and Hermia's father.
Theseus is a man of the law and therefor must follow the rules and cultural traditions. One such tradition is that women really have no say in what goes on in their lives. They are married off and treated somewhat like objects of men. Theseus simply disregards Hermia's wishes and supports the father fully because the law states that the father has final say and even the right to kill the daughter if she disobeys. He offers Hermia a nun's life, the life of a single woman who is to be chast for her entire life as the only alternative to marrying who her father wants. Theseus seems too caught up in his own awaiting marriage and affairs to really hear out Hermia and Lysander's side of things and simply goes by the book enforcing the law to his full extent, in which case is not such a good thing.

Sustainability Fair

Last friday at my school, we had a sustainability fair on how we can make a change in our habits to be more envrionmentally friendly and the educate us on the problems our world is facing such as global warming. The thing I found most interesting at the fair was the solar power station, which demonstrated the flexibility and use of solar power in powering devices on a small scale which could be easily scaled up to alrger sizes. They even had a solar powered water heater that could heat water to a fairly hot temperature. It got me thinking about the electric car and the hybrid cars that are coming out now which use part electricity to power them other than jsut burning harmful fossil fuels. I am currently looking into solutions to global warming and ideas on how to solve this global problem with my dad and uncles.

Ghost Story

My ghost story actually originates from Australia, but it being just a gigantic island, there is SOME connection to Hawaii.

Three campers were hiking in eastern Australia as a short vacation from their everyday lives. As they were hiking it started to get dark due to a storm that was rolling in all around them. The 2 girls and 1 guy quickly made their way back to the car not knowing what time it was since all of their watches had died. They were all getting worried about where they were going to spend the night. As they reached their car at the bottom of the hiking trail, they quickly climbed in to avoid the cold night and rain that had begun to pour. When th guy tried to start the car, it wouldn't make any noise at all. The car was completely dead. The campers were getting a little scared at this point, but they decided to stay the night in the car and see how things were in the morning. About 30 minutes after deciding to stay in the car for the night, the guy noticed a pair of lights heading towards their car. Slowly the lights stopped in front of their car, it was a tow truck. The campers had lucked out, the driver seemed friendly enough and willing to help them free of charge, although he did seem a bit old fashioned and slightly crazy. The rain had stopped so they decided to tow the car to the strangers camp just down the road. When they got there they set upa small campfire and talked and ate and drank until they all fell asleep. When the guy camper woke up, he was chained to a wall of a warehouse with rusty shackels. His 2 companions were nowhere to be found. He struggled for what seemed like hours before finally getting 1 hand free and then freeing the rest of himself. He wandered around the warehouse before finding a bunch of cars and camping items scattered around a large garage like building in the warehouse. There was everything fomr cameras with pictures still on them of families and hikers, to clothes with large bloodstains on them. The guy immiedietly began to run to teh door and outside into the grassland/desert like area surrounding the warehouse he was held in. When he was about 50 feet away from the warehouse, he saw the tow truck driver and saw him pull out a large bloodied knife and chase after him. The guy ran and enver looked back until he could run no more and finally collapsed near the side of a dirt road. The driver was no where to be seen. In the morning the guy was discovered by a driver that was passing by, he was taken to the nearest town and filed a police report. The police used everything from cars and helicopters to try and find the warehouse and garage the guy spoke of but neither the buildings, camp site, of the guys 2 female companions were ever seen again.

Woman Warrior: Shaman (Moderator)

Questions on the Shaman Chapter of Woman Warrior:

What do you think the title of the chapter, Shaman, means and refers to?

Do you believe in the ghost story or do you think it is simply another story told by the mom to teach Maxine a lesson?

What motivated Maxine's mother to return to life as a housewife after graduated with such honors from medical school?

Do you think Maxine's mom is happy as a housewife, or would she be happier as a Doctor?

Why do you think the Chinese cultural aspect of favoring boys over girls continues to exist even with women making such accomplishments as graduating from medical school and ahving the oppurtunity to make good money for their families?

Why do you think Maxine's mother chose to keep the name 'Brave Orchid' even when she emigrated to America?

White Tigers Lit. Circle (Moderator)

Here are some questions on the second part of White Tigers.

What motivation does Fa Mu Lan have to build up an army to go dethrone the emperor?

Why do you think Maxine has such a love for the Fa Mu Lan story when we have heard of no troubles yet that can be connected with the Fa Mu Lan story?

When Fa Mu Lan sees the widows of the giant she had slain, why do you think she shows no feelings of sympathy for them and simply moves on? Is she a caring character?

The tattoos on Fa Mu Lan's back were said to allow her body to be used as a weapon, even if she was killed in battle. What do you think this means?

What kind of things would Fa Mu Lan be concerned about to go into battle pregnant, only missing 1 battle ever to give birth? What motivates her to fight even at the risk of her unborn child?

Is Maxine trying to be a "bad girl" because she thinks a bad girl is basically a boy, or because she doesn't want to live up to the stereotype of a girl which is that they should be housewives or slaves only.

At the end of White Tigers, Maxine refers to racial slurs that she is suggesting she has been called and connects them to the tattoos on Fa Mu Lan's back. Do you think this is a good connection or that the tattoos and racist remarks are different? Were the tattoos meant as words of vengeance?