Fate

In Macbeth, whether you should interfere with fate is a huge theme in the book. When Macbeth gets his first prophecy from the witches about being king, he questions whether he should interfere with fate and kill Duncan or just let it happen. Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth to just go ahead and interfere with fate and take matters into his own hands. However, we see this is a huge mistake. One murder turns into another, and another, and another. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can not stop murdering people once they kill Duncan. They kill one person and then find another that they have to kill. The murder drives both of them crazy and eventually kills them.

This story shows how you should just let your fate happen and not try to take matters into you own hands. If Macbeth would have just let his fate happen, he would have never killed all of those people and he would not have been killed. Macbeth thought that the deal would be done after they killed Duncan, but it ended up that he had to continue to kill more and more people. It was an endless trail.


Reading and Working Times
5-6 Portfolio: 1 hour
5-8 Portfolio: 1 hour

Reading and Working Times 5/5

4/30 Portfolio Project - Transformation  30 mins
5/1 Portfolio Project - Transformation Analysis 20 mins
5/2 Portfolio Project - Transformation Analysis 20 mins
5/4 Portfolio Project - Writing 60 mins

Macbeth Quote

Macbeth kills Duncan, but realizes what he has gotten into after and has to kill more people. He says, "Things bad begun make strong themselves ill" (95). This means that when you do bad things, doing other bad things make them worse. Macbeth realizes this when he kills Duncan, but then he realizes that he has to Banquo also. Before all of the killing started he though all he had to do was kill Duncan to be king, but then he has to kill Banquo. After he kills Banquo, he has to try and kill Banquo's children. He realizes that the cycle of killing will never end if he keeps on going.

Along with the thought of the endless cycle of murder, Macbeth also says, "I am in blood. Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more," (109). This means that Macbeth has already killed so many people, but if he stops killing people he will not succeed, but in order to succeed he would have to kill many more people. He realizes that there is no going back, and he does not know what to do. From both of these quotes, Macbeth is realizing that trying to fix a bad thing with another bad thing only makes the situation worse.

Reading and Writing Times 4/29

4/22 Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein 1 hour

4/23 Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein 45 mins

4/25 Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein 2 hours

Free Post

It is getting near the end of the school year, and I have many projects. I have a project in every class due before school ends, and I get very stressed out about these. I am very bad about procrastinating and not starting things until a few days before they are due, but this time I am determined to stay on top of my work. Usually, I know that I have something big due soon and I stress out about, but I think that by not thinking about it will calm me down. This ends up making me even more stressed out in the end, and the night before it is due I am frantically running around trying to finish. Every time I do this, I usually do fine, but it puts so much stress on me the night before.

This time, I am trying really hard to get all of my stuff done before it is due. I am done with my history project, and I have already begun all of my other projects. My goal is to pick a project each night and work on it for at 30 minutes. If I do this, hopefully I will be able to spread out my work and not be so stressed out at the end.

Reading and Working Times 4/7-4/13

4/7 NC Appetizer 20 mins
      NC Entree 45 mins

4/8 NC Dessert 60 mins

4/9  NC side 35 mins
       NC Entree 30 mins

Macbeth Statements

Ambition is a positive, desirable trait in a person.
I agree with this statement. I think that ambition is a good trait to have because if you don't have ambition, you won't work hard for anything. You basically won't care. However, the reason why I don't strongly agree with this is because I feel like if someone has too much ambition, it can be a very bad thing. In Macbeth, Macbeth has lots of ambition to be the thane of Cawdor, but he ends up killing many people to get this. Ambition is a necessary trait to have to get anywhere in life, but if you have too much or you have ambition for something bad then this is not a positive trait to have.

Sometimes you have to do things other people consider wrong to get ahead.
Depending on what situation this is in, my answer would vary. I think that sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Some people may think what you are doing is wrong, but you and others may not. It is their opinion. However, in Macbeth's case, I disagree with this statement. He decides to kill many people to be the thane of Cawdor, and I don't think this is right. This statement could apply to many different situations.

Reading and Working Times

Wednesday - Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson - 60 mins
Sunday- Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson - 45 mins
Monday- Studying for poetry test - 60 mins

Poem

I wish that I had endless money,

buy anything that I could want.

I wish that I didn't have so many responsibilities,

school work, practice, chores.

I wish that I wasn't always so nervous,

walking past a person and having thoughts racing through my head.

I wish that I was perfect,

and be a model, walking down the runway.

I wish that I could make great grades

without even trying.

I wish that could sing,

and be able to perform notes like a bird.

I wish that I would stop worrying

about all the things that I am not,

and begin to be happy about the things that I am.

In this poem, I used anaphora, consonance, stanza of mostly the same lengths, and a simile.

Reading Times:

Monday: 20 minutes - Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson
Tuesday: 40 minutes - Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson
Thursday: 20 minutes - Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson
Saturday: 60 minutes- Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson
Sunday: 120 minutes - Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson

Song Analysis

Obsessions - Marina and the Diamonds

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/marinathediamonds/obsessions.html

In this song by Marina and the Diamonds, many techniques are used such as cacophony, sibilance, assonance, and personification.  For example, a cacophony is used when the song says, "Supermarket, oh what packet of crackers to pick?" This helps portray to the listener that the person asking this question is sort of mad and annoyed. The way that Marina sings it, she sounds annoyed. In order to understand why it is supposed to sound mad, you will have to read the lyrics, but basically it is about trying to be absolutely perfect and how impossible it is. You can get obsessive about it, hence the name Obsessions. She portrays this pressure through a person in a supermarket who has to pick the perfect pack of crackers. Another technique used is assonance. For example, the song says "Silk sheet... sweetheart," and later in the song repeats "week...weak." I think that this sort of shows a calm and more relaxed point in the song. Lastly, personification is used in the song. The phrases "nasty thought" and "sick ideas" are used multiple times throughout the song. These help tell the story in the song and describe the thoughts and ideas.

Using SOAPSTone, I analyzed this song. The speaker of the song is the character that has an obsession with being perfect, to the extent where she has to pick the perfect pack of crackers. The occasion of this song may have been because Marina suffers with the obsession to be perfect. However, Marina is known for writing and singing about different mental challenges and illnesses. The audience may be general listeners or people suffering from the same problem. The purpose may be to let people know that trying to be absolutely perfect can be bad, and potentially dangerous. The subject is the obsession to be perfect and the consequences that come along with it. The tone of this song is sad and sort of downgrading perfection. Overall, this song has lots of deeper meaning than the lyrics look, along with the rest of Marina's songs, and I recommend listening to all of her songs.

Working Times

Tuesday- Research Draft- 30 mins

Wednesday- Research Draft- 45 mins

Thursday- 4 ATD posts- 1.5 hours

Reading and Working Times

Tuesday- I started working at about 1:00. I watched the video on drafting. I then began to work on the introduction to my paper. For about 30 minutes I worked on the introduction, which was the first two paragraphs. I had trouble with this part. I then looked at my detailed outline and changed the order of it a little because I realized that the order would not work well. That took about 10 minutes. For about 25 minutes more I just continued on with my paper and wrote the third paragraph, the first body paragraph.

Wednesday- At about 2:30 I  began to work on my paper. I started off with reading what I had already written from the day before and I changed a few things. That took about 10 minutes. I then began to work on my fourth and fifth paragraphs. These paragraphs were very long because they were the main part of my paper. Those two paragraphs took an hour on their own.

Thursday- I started to work at about 10:00 in the morning. I read the example in Norton. Then I began to work on my paper by reading what I had already done and editing a few things. That took about 15 minutes. I then realized that the order of my paper was not working well, so I switched it. This took about 20 minutes because I had to change lots of the transitions. After I did all of that I began to continue where I had left off the day before and wrote my sixth paragraph.

Research Paper

On my research paper, I am feeling pretty confident about it.  I think that the way that I am ordering my paragraphs are going to be effective in getting my point across. Also, as I was writing the draft, I modified my thesis statement to better fit the information that I am giving. I think that writing the body paragraphs were easy because of the detailed outline that we did, but writing the introduction was difficult. I didn't know how to introduce my thesis statement.

The things in my paper that I don't feel very confident are the way that I am quoting the information. I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly. Also, I'm having trouble transitioning my paragraphs. I feel that they don't transition well into each other. When you read my paper, I would focus on if the information supports my thesis statement and small details about quotations.

Snow Days

This past week has been exciting because we were off of school for three days for "snow". On Tuesday night it sort of snowed at my house. It really wasn't snow, it was just slushy ice, but we were able to make snowballs and snowmen with it. On Wednesday it didn't snow anymore, but none of the ice melted because it was so cold. On Thursday, I don't really know why we were off of school because most of the ice was gone. However, I'm grateful that we didn't.

On Tuesday night, my brother and I went outside to play in the slush. Our neighbors came outside and we had a snowball fight with the little snow that we could find. We also made small snowmen that were about two feet tall. It was very fun because it never snows in Louisiana and it was something different. Overall, the whole week was very fun and exciting.

Reading Times

1/21 The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin  45 mins
1/22 The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin  45 mins
        Notecards                                                                     30 mins
1/23 The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin  60 mins

Research

My topic is about Gandhi and how he affected different parts of the world. I wanted to do this topic because I've always found him interesting. I have studied the Salt March, which was a protest that Gandhi led in order to get India completely free from Britain. I also studied when Gandhi went to South Africa and led many peaceful protests in order for Indians to have equality.

For my research paper, I will be studying Gandhi and how he affected the world. I chose this topic because I have always thought that Gandhi and his way of peaceful protesting was interesting. Gandhi affected many parts of the world by leading peaceful protests. For example, in India, he led the Salt March which was a peaceful march that ended up helping India gain freedom from Britain. He also   helped Indians in South Africa gain equality. However, not only did Gandhi lead the people in these protests, but he also taught the people how to protest peacefully, and he left the world with a lesson about peace.

Reading and Working Times

1/15 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie 30 mins

1/16 Annotated Bibliography 90 mins

1/20 The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin 15 mins

Emelia's Prompt

Question: What was/is your school experience? Did/do you like it?

Mom- "I loved school. I was active in a lot of clubs and organizations and I had a lot of friends. We would hang out at the McDonalds and after all of the football games we would go to Shakey's Pizza. My favorite subject was science- especially chemistry."

Dad- "My high school experience was horrible. I missed a whole year of high school because most of the teachers were on strike. I didn't get taught anything. I think that I did less writing in my entire high school years that you're doing tonight for homework."

Jett (6th grade brother)- "It's cool... I guess. It's fun to go to PE. I like having two recesses. I like some of my teachers. I hate how it takes up my whole day. I like being with my friends. My favorite class is PE, but my favorite 'learning' class is Latin."

Out of all of my family's responses, my dad's was my favorite. I thought that it was interesting how the teachers went on strike and he basically missed a whole year of school. I actually chose this question because he always tells me when I'm up late doing my homework that I am doing more work in one night than he did in all four years. He said more things, and he ended up talking about for about twenty minutes after I was done, but he was so angry. He said that there were so many bad teachers that shouldn't have been teachers and he missed out on an education that he can never get back in those years.

I also liked my brother's response. He was hard to get to stay still and talk to me, but I managed to get those words out of him. I wanted to know about his school because its his first year of middle school and I wanted to know if he liked it. He didn't seem to feel too strongly about it; he didn't hate it and he didn't love it. Overall, I really like doing this type of blog because it was fun to get to talk to my family about something that we normally wouldn't talk about.

Research Topic

For my National World History Day project I am focusing on Gandhi and when India was ruled by Britain. Gandhi was very influential during this time period and he started many non-violent protests. However, throughout my research, I have sort of adjusted my topic. I began to focus more on the Salt March, which was a non-violent protest led by Gandhi that India did against Britain for their rights to not pay high taxes on salt. I will be focusing on the people's right to protest.

This week for my research, I definitely need to tidy up my annotated bibliography. I need to go back and replace one of my sites because I realized that it is not reliable.  I also need to edit my annotations because I learned things last week in class that I didn't know when I was writing them.Also, I need to begin working on my notecards. Overall, I'm feeling pretty comfortable with where I am in the process right now.

Reading/Work Times:

Tuesday- The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey 45 mins
Wednesday-The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey 15 mins
Friday- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie 45 mins
Sunday- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie 30 mins