Mardi Gras

     What a break that was! I think everyone enjoyed that weak off from school, because I know I did. But know, we have to all get back into the routine of school. Our family isn't that big on the holiday, but we went to a couple of parades.

     I was not very productive during the week. I mostly sat around, finishing school work, and hung out with my friends often. It was a great time for me to relax from school. Also, our school placed 3rd in the State track indoor meet. Outdoor track has already begun and I can not wait until the first meet!

Outside Reading

     This has been a very relaxing break for me. All of the Mardi Gras celebrations and religious events made it a festive week. During the week, I completed our required chapters for Nervous Conditions. This book is starting to further explain the title, "Nervous Conditions". With Nyasha in school, and Tambu's parents. The conditions of Tambu's parents family and Takesure with Tambu's father really sets an issue in the family.

  As I have been reading, I have been thinking about many things we have talked about in class. Such as how community affects who we are. I am glad the author of this book set up the events like she did. It helps me understand the significance of each event.

NERVOUS CONDITIONS - All 150 Minutes

     

Literary Analysis + Exchange Students

    I thought I had done well on my literary analysis. Until the day we received our grades, I had not done so well. I had received a C on the assignment. I wondered what could've happened. Although, I was never good at writing papers. I hope I can get a chance to rewrite this assignment!

     The Chinese Exchange students have really enjoyed their time at Episcopal. I really enjoyed Caesar's speech that he delivered to the upper school at announcements. I hope they will come back one day, because they were really fun to be around! The French exchange students will be coming soon and I can not wait for them to be on campus.

Outside reading

     For outside reading I read Nervous conditions and Fahrenheit 451. It has been hard keeping up with the work. Trying to read a novel while trying to read an outside reading book while doing activites has been confusing for me. I have been more focused on Nervous Conditions and less on Fahrenheit 451.

     I can not really talk about Nervous Conditions because it is a class assignment, so I will continuing talking about Fahrenheit 451. The book has taken a recent change of events. The world of Montag and all of the other firemen burning books has changed Montag. He has started reading more and more books and has been fascinated with them. Montag calls it his little "problem" and tries to find a way to get rid of it. The reading is so fascinating to him he tries to get companies to start reproducing books. During all of this time, the people of the world are obsessed with TV.

Nervous Conditions - 70 mins
Fahrenheit 451 - 80 mins

Research Paper

     My research paper rough draft is complete! I had many problems starting off this paper. It was too broad of a topic and I had to narrow it down a lot. Thanks to Dr. deGravelles, I was able to develop an outline and narrow down my topic. All of the activities that we did in class, such as the conclusions and intros really helped me.
   
     For the final draft, I will be relying on my peers greatly. I need as much help as I can revising this paper. Hopefully we will have more classes on revising and editing our papers so we can have the most points possible. I hope we all do well on this assignment!

Fahrenheit 451

     For my reading, I have chosen a very interesting read. I have chose the book, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In this book, society is completely different. The story opens up with a man named Montag. Montag is a firemen who starts fires (yes you read that right). As you read on, you learn that no one reads, and that the firemen burn the pages of different books. People in this world waste their lives watching TV and listening to radio all day long. As I read along, I just kept thinking who us Ray Bradbury?
 
    After reading about an enviroment where everything is different, I like to investigate. Ray Bradbury, I looked him up online and it says he was influenced by Edgar Allen Poe (that explains). The enviroment he grew up in was all about literature which fueled him to be an author

70 Minutes - Nervous Conditions
80 Minutes - Fahrenheit 451