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?

Lit. Circle Work - White Tigers section - Moderator

As moderator of my lit. circle group, it is my job to be asking meaningful questions that others probably have as well. Throughout the section, many of my questions were answered, but there are still quite a few that require answering or simply further insight. Here are a few from the first half of White Tigers.

When exactly does Maxine become Fa Mu Lan in the chapter?

Who do you think the old man and woman represent? Are they gods or spirits or something else?

What do you think drives Fa Mu Lan to stay with the old people and give up her parents? At such a young age for a child such a decision usually has the opposite outcome. What would you choose in her position?

What do you think Fa Mu Lan thinks the old people are?

How does Fa Mu Lan have such emotional control as to resist the temptation to go save her brother and husband from conscription? At age 14 would you accept being told to wait until age 22 to make a move to save the ones you love?

Methods of Characterzation

The character of my story:

Appearance - The appearance of the main character in my story is my own. For those of you who don't know what I look like, I'm 5'10'', half asian and half white, athletic build, slightly tanned skin, brown eyes, slightly long black/brown hair (long in the front, comes down to my eyebrows, short in the back and sides).

Inner Thoughts and Feelings - The character version of myself has a very fun driven mindset. Willing to risk the safety of himself and others in order to have fun. He will stop at nothing to enjoy life to its fullest and refuses to do anything he doesn't enjoy.

Environment - The envrionment of my character is always with friends unless he is at home.

What They Say - What my character says is often mindless teen chatter, he opens up to the readers more in what he thinks of the current situation and of the people surrounding him.

What Others Say about Them - Not many people will say things about my character, as he is often the background guy mainly observing what goes on with his group of friends throughout their adventures, stepping in only when he feels he wants to.

Actions - Once again my character is the man in the back, observing and analyzing everything that happens. A listener who thinks about what is said and done around him. He steps in only when he has an idea to make things more fun or if he feels like he needs to.

My Hero

My hero is most likely an unknown person by a lot of the United States and the world. My hero is the little six year old boy named Calvin from the comic series Calvin & Hobbes. Calvin is my hero for many reasons, for his limitless imagination, spontaneous humor, but mainly for his constantly positive yet cynical outlook on life. He hates homework and anything that isn't fun, just like me, and as many young boys, has attention deficit disorder when it comes to doing work and often finds his imagination wandering. Calvin goes through many adventures and hardships but always makes it through the end of the day, as I like to think I do. Calvin never gives up on something he sets his mind too, but at the same time finds fun in usually mundane things such as cleaning his room.

Family Story

Even when I was a young boy at the tender age of 14, I was already getting into trouble. Big trouble. The kind you wouldn't think a 14 year old boy and his 18 year old brother would get into. Well maybe you would expect something like this from a bunch of high school graduates and their brothers, but thats beside the point. It was a day like any other, except for the fact that it was a once in a lifetime day. My brother and his friends were all graduating soon, and a lot of them would be going off to college in separate parts of the world. We decided to celebrate the successful hourney through their high school lives without getting arrested or seriously injured. Ironically our celebration plan risked both unfavorable elements. It was nearing the glorious American holiday celebrated on the 4th day of July, and fireworks were on all of our youthful minds. Young, ambitous, and full of hormones making us all ten times dumber than the average person, we set our plan in motion. Aquiring a healthy stock of bottle rockets and other fun fireworks, we made our way to a park that is often empty. Being that it was July 1st, it was a little early for the people of Honolulu to hear the graceful shriek of an airial being shot off 100 feet from their home, and our celebration was cut short by the infamous sound of sirens in the distance. Our happy moment of shooting bottle rockets and anything that caught our fancy was short lived indeed, and the running began in every direction. We split up, heading towards every possible escape point possible. As a group we moved slow, but as a bunch of adrenaline pumped teens running from the cops, we would have given the national sprinting team a run for their money. We ran through small back alleys between houses and away from the park in general. Once we deemed we were a safe distance from the park, we slowed to a walk and contacted the rest of the group via cellphone. No one had gotten caught or arrested, I was surprised to say the least. Unfortunately, one of us had forgetten their backpack at the park and we needed to go back for it. The joy of heading back towards the park in our friend's car and seeing a pair of policemen going through the bag was indescribeable. It was as if Santa had just shown you the toy you had wanted since forever, and then showed you your name on the naughty list. We were in for one hell of a day.

Moodle

I think that Moodle is a pretty good concept, although it does have its flaws like many things in life. The posting traffic and lag when too many users are on at the same time for example. However the potential for such an online sort of database and discussion forum are good and the idea of such a place would be beneficial to many english classes if not all. In short, I thought moodle was cool.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Terry and I am and english student in my freshmen year. In class we have been using moodle as a sort of online discussion area and have started reading Woman Warrior. I am excitied and eager to find answers to universal questions such as "who am I?", something that I hope english class will help me do.