Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing Project

360 Degrees: Homework

Homework: The bane of a beautiful spring afternoon or the ticket to a career where you can rake in the dough? There are so many takes on homework, by teachers, parents and students, and some of them may be surprising to you.
The first, and the obvious, largely held by the students, is the whole, "Homework is stupid. It takes time out of my day, sometimes it challenges me and sometimes I don't even have time to do it all." The real reason students choose to not do or like homeworks is simply that they prefer other thins to it. Who doesn't prefer a new episode of their favorite TV show to 35 Algebra problems and 2 chapters of history homework. Its logical to want to have fun as much as possible, but it isn't a good choice in the long run, unless you enjoy nothing more than reading Shakespeare and doing French exercises online.
Another view is that it is a method to challenge your mind to grow and perform better, so that you do better in school. Students who recognize this take advantage of it and soon outperform their peers because they put more into their homework. If you invest in your mind and challenge it, it will amaze you and everyone you know, which is a very good thing. However, if you are far too smart for the course, or if you just are too stubborn to ask for help on what you don't know, your view of homework could shift back to the first paragraph and you will fall into a slump in school because you won't care about your homework.
Also, a view shared more by teachers than by students, is that homework is an evaluation to see how well you pay attention in class; what you know, how well you know it and how well you can apply it. This is where homework and reading quizzes come into play. Most of the time, just by doing the homework or reading, you will pass the quiz and recieve virtually free points towards your grade.
All of these views on homework are held by many people. While all of them may not be viable or good views, they are common. What students who are making the wrong choice should do is try to put emphasis on their homework because it will help them do better in school and then later on in life.

An Inconvenient Truth: God does everything for a reason

I am a religious person; I believe in God and all of his creations. However, I have always been told that God has everything happen for a reason. EVERYTHING. For many years, this never bothered me, but 4 and a half years ago, my sister, then just 6 years old, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. For those of you readers that do not know what Type 1 Diabetes is, it is basically a condition in which your body's immune system attacks your body's beta cells in your pancreas, leading you to be unable to create insulin, a hormone that regulates your body's bloodsugar. You can die within hours of improper blood glucose management and even with proper treatment, you have an increased risk of so many diseases and conditions that would compile a list longer than this blog post. Type 1 Diabetics live on average 17 years less than not Type 1 Diabetics. Uh, gee thanks God, you just took 17 years from my sister's life. Now you may ask if it is hereditary. Type 2 Diabetes, the Diabetes you get from being lazy and fat and eating wrong, is hereditary, but how one gets Type 1 diabetes is unknown, thus my blaming it on God.
I must admit that when this happened to my sister, I stopped believeing in God because I could not fathom how He could do such a thing to my young, innocent sister who I love so much. I always ask myself, "What did my 6 year old sister do to get screwed like this?" To top off our experience with Diabetes, my sister has had two siezures, one of them on the day of her First Holy Communion. She had the siezure in Church. IN CHURCH! Jesus Christ, what the hell! I cried so hard when I saw my sister on the floor, unconscious. The paramedics assured us that she would be fine and that these siezures werer not uncommon; most Diabetics had multiple siezures and he said "We'll see you guys again." I looked at that man like he was an avatar of Satan. But still, he did not scare me as much as God did.
One day, a few years ago, I finally asked my mom, "Do you believe that God does everything for a reason?" She said she did and then I asked her why God gave Caroline, my sister, Diabetes. She told me that she had been thinking about the same question since my sister was diagnosed and she said that perhaps he was preventing her from some other harm. Being an ignorant child, I then asked her what could be worse than Type 1 Diabetes, and she said "Kyle, there are things in this world so terrible, worse than Diabetes." She told me that Diabetes has potential to be life threatening, but after years of my sister having it, we know now that with proper management, it is just a hassle.
I really think that the whole "God does everything for a reason" bothers me because I can't imagine anything worse that seeing my sister lying of a cold floor unconscious because her bloodsugar went too low. So, for now, I can not come to terms with God giving my sister Type 1 Diabetes until I know of something worse that Type 1 Diabetes.

Dialectics: Music and Writing

Music and writing are very similar. Both are commonly used to express ideas, feelings or emotions. Writing, especially poetry, allows the writer to convey a message through several mediums. The first is obviously the words, but the punctuation, the rhythm of the writing and the double meanings add additional layers to a piece of writing, giving it depth and richness. Music does this similarly, but with a larger emphasis on the different instruments making similar or different sounds, beats or rhythms.
However, the definitions that the authors of music or writing prescribe to their works can lead the listener/reader to formulate their own definition or meaning of the piece of work. For example, when someone hears a certain grouping of notes or reads a series of words, they can and do react to those based on who they are as an individual. Therefore, both music and writing allow different people to come up with their own interpretations of what the meaning of the music or writing is.'
Today, in our high velocity culture, everything is becoming mediated. Music is now predominately purchased online and there are millions of pieces of writing on the internet. So it is far more common to see them blended together, such as stories put to music that compliments the meaning of the story. But this idea is not even relatively new; Opera, which is story in music form, has been popular for centuries. Opera is a beautiful example of how music and writing relate to each other. In essence, both music and writing are methods of conveying stories.

Best of Week: Heart of Darkness Discussion

On Friday, we had a Heart of Darkness discussion about how there was no African perspective in the novel. I suggested that Marlow was made black, and this got a lot of people thinking. People began to argue that the story would lose its perspective. However, we also discussed how an African could be incorperated into the story so that we as readers could see the Africans' view of the white men. If the frame narrator was black, or the Russian was black, then we could glean the African perspective. The reason why this was Best of Week is because this discussion really forced us to analyze all of the poins of view of the characters and how they were related; It was the most involved discussion all week. I see myself analyizing future thoughts from multiple points of view now because it provides a better understanding of what the story/discussion is about.

Connection: Heart of Darkness and Society

Two days ago, I was rereading Heart of Darkness and I simply could not understand the dephth of it, its meaning or the story itself. I walked into class the next day, frustrated because I was not sure if I could seem competent while in a discussion. Fortunately for me, a classmate told me that he had begun reading the story for the story, and not to find deep meaning. I began to understand the story easier and more of the complexity.
In life, people spend so much time analyizing everything; trying to expose every detail in order to explain something. Rather, if we just sat back and enjoyed and accepted life for what it is, I think we would actually understand and appreciate it better because we can live our lives without interrupting them with all of this analyzing. This doesn't just apply to living life, it applies to observing it too. For example, in the news, especially in sports, people are trying to combine and clash every angle of perspecetive. All they do is make a bigger deal out of events. Also, in terms of work, people go to such lengths to impress others, when really the most impressive thing is the ability to get the job done. People try to make stories so complex when they can just be enjoyed, much like life.

Connection - Postmodernism and the Olympics

Since the 12th of February, the Olympics have been in full tilt. Here, I would like to talk about postmodernism and how it connects to the Olympics. Postmodern individuals are members of a system; they all come together to be a part of a greater whole. In the Olympics, athletes come from every corner of the globe to get something meaningful out of an experience that they share with every other athlete that they compete with. An American does not know what it's like to be here as a Chinese person; they each only have their own perspectives, but they do not usually see the other sides unless they inform each other of their own viewpoints. So, sports aside, the Olympics is one big melting pot where people from all around the world strut their stuff and paint a beautiful rainbow of cultures at the same time.

But even if we step outside of Vancouver and into households, we can see the part non Olympians play this. Every second we can't watch Apolo Ohno skate or Lindsey Jacobellis snowboard, some company is trying to sell us a product. It is the American way to craft humorous commercials that serve the purpose of tricking the masses into believing that some product is the best. People are trying to milk money out of spare time.

The Olympics really represent a postmodern world in this regard and that is why this blog is so relevant; in fact, the Olympics may not be in existance if our world wasn't postmodern.

Metacognition: First Semester

Okay, so a lot has gone on since that day when school started. I met many new people, I learned new things, and a bunch of normal, boring stuff happened and small changes in my life have occured. But the way I learn has changed, and thats what I think this blog is about.
In the beginning of the year, I came to school with a collection of vivid memories from the summer, and a collection of memories of friends and school from freshman year, with the school memories covered in cobwebs. Then the year began, with the usual dusting off of the freshman year education. The methods of my thinking were also brought back to the surface. I was a very methodical thinker, and I still am today. I love logic, and I also think very logically. That's a big problem when it comes to English class, because English has rules, but it requires you to be creative, and while I'm good at thinking creatively, I'm much better at thinking logically. When I encountered a discussion question at the beginning of the year, my answers usually came from my perspective. But when we read Sophie's World and we read about how Kant said that what we percieve is filtered through various "lenses" or cultural/social/gender limitations that cause us to view things only from our perspective or standpoint. Since this discovery, I have tried to remove some of these "lenses" when I think and learn so that I can better understand other people's points of view. While I primarily use this in English, I have found it useful in other areas of school and life. So basically, my thought process has been opened up to new perspectives, and this has allowed me to be a more creative thinker.
As for learning, I have found that voicing your opinon never hurts, because opinons always add value, and talking gets you participation points. I've begun to take English class into serious consideration as the most interesting part of the day because we always wind up in a heated discussion about whatever the lesson plan wasn't. Also by participating, I've realized that the way I think has changed because others' views become apparent and then they are easier to understand. It is quite surprising that two seemingly small adaptations can transform the way I think and learn, but they did. I can't wait to see how second semester unfolds.