Plan and Progress

My Plan for the rest of the semester is to work on my Big Question, i have already found a ton of cool things about the human brain's potential and excited to make blog where i can post all my findings. My next steps are to figure out if Jon Hoffman is still doing his blog about the brain so i can just join him. I believe this will benefit others because some of the things I have found have changed the way i think. My blog should be up by this weekend with this interesting and i mean interesting! video on "Athene's Theory of Everything" (it has a lot of things on how the brain functions and it's reactions to the outside world)

Study Plan

What i plan to do to to pass the AP Exam with at least a 3: I'm already in the process of practicing for the multiple choice questions, including the reading comprehension sections. After the MCQ's, i'm planning to work on my essay's with these books i got from the library and just keep practicing until i get good at expressing my ideas and opinions effectively.

Macbeth notes

The witches are about foreshadowing They are giving a prophecy
-The witches say that Macbeth is going to be a king
Macbeth is introduced with the image of him holding a word in “a bloody execution.”
-Angus and Ross are addressing Macbeth as king
-Macbeth is taking the throne because the former king is on trial for treason.

Literary Elements
-Foreshadowing with witches
-Metaphor
the chestnuts in her lap rip away manhood/sailors wife=Macbeth’s wife
-Imagery
“ Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
-Climax
At the banquet scene (at mid point in the play), Macbeth can no longer hide his torment and guilt and incriminates himself saying "Thou canst say I did it." From this point forward in the play, there is no hope for Macbeth. His mind and his country sink into chaos. It is obvious that he is beyond the point of recovery, and his story will end tragically.
-Mood
Dark, brooding, and evil this is developed by the four witch scenes, Macbeth's sick mind, and the chaotic state of affairs.

Video Remix

Top 3

Katie Enstad: kerhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com : Great Stuff!
Nicole Montoya: nmrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com :mind map could use a little more but I liked her vid remix.
Noe Bernal: nbrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com 

L.A. Mind Map

"The Dead" by James Joyce
http://www.mindmeister.com/150121483/the-dead

L.A. Notes for "The Dead" by James Joyce

Characters:

Gabriel Conroy

-A young teacher of literature who is the protagonist. He doesn’t love Gretta he loves to control Gretta.

Gretta

-Gabriel’s wife.

Michael Furey

-Gretta’s lover who risked his life for his love and lost it. Who effects Gabriel’s being towards the end of the story.

The Morkan sisters (Julia and Kate)

-Two elderly sisters. Hosts of the party. Very fond of Gabriel, who is their nephew.

Lily the housemaid

            -Greeted by Gabriel in a mean way as she greeted the Morkan sister’s guests.

Miss Ivors

-A teacher who dances with Gabriel. Teases him about being a writer for a conservative paper.

Mary Jane

-The Morkan sister’s niece who lives with them.

 Freddie

-The drunk cousin. He provides comedy to the story and party.

Setting

            A home of the elderly Morkan sisters and their niece, Mary Jane, in Dublin. The occasion is an annual dinner and dance for the family and friends of the Morkans held during Christmas week every year.

Climax

The revelation about his wife Gretta’s long ago love shatters Gabriel’s complacency about his family and his career.

Theme

            The theme of this work is self awareness/awakening. Gabriel finds out that he was not Gretta’s first love. The man that loved her died for their love and Gabriel becomes aware that he is insignificant to a woman he just wants to control and doesn’t really love. He’s not really jealous but more impacted by Gretta’s love story.

Tone

            The tone of this story is fun and lively. Joyce knows how to paint a picture of a lively crowd at a party. Towards the end the tone shifts to a less fun but neutral tone when Gabriel becomes more self aware of his life.

Summary

            As soon as Gabriel arrives to the party he tells an unfunny joke to lily about her love life and attempts to tip her. He then thinks about his speech he will give later that night. He dances with Miss Ivors who teases him on his career and after that he cannot take his mind off their conversation. He sees his wife indulged in the song playing. When the leave the party and  arrive at the hotel she cries and tells him about Michael Furey and their love. She falls asleep and he engages in deep thought about his life and career and ponders his life decisions and self.   

Socratic Seminar

•children/growing up
-should make own path but parents are sheltering them too much.

•Knowledge/Advice
-remix what you know and give it meaning to your life.

•Building blocks/learning from eachother
-this class!

•school is scheduled
- routine
-if we don't follow rules = not normal

•challenges
-building yourself

1a. Paragraph #1: How can these concepts enhance your learning as you arrive at a moment when grades no longer matter?

Challenging myself to be better everyday. That's one thing I will take from this discussion. Playing!! Giving time for my creativity.

1b. Paragraph #2: How can these concepts enhance your ability to master content for the AP exam and other hurdles you have yet to leap?

Again, challenging myself would be enough for me to learn these English lit and comp AP concepts. I will have the drive and reason to want to try my best to pass all 4 AP exams I am taking.

1c. How can you use these concepts to collaborate with and inspire others, to improve the information exchange and overall value of your learning network?

Well we are, aren't we?The whole blog concept is a great place to share what I have learned from these discussions to others such as my classmates and other third party viewers.

Literature Analysis

The Alchemist -

9 Elements

1. Dramatic situation-
The speaker is Kendrick Lamar, he is male and he's speaking his mind about racial problems and political issues.

2. Structure-
There is a intro an an outro an in between there are 3 verses 3 hook and a bridge.

3.Theme-
The theme is being yourself no matter the circumstances.

4. Grammar and Meaning-
In Hiii Power Lamar uses some profanity and a lot of slang. There is word play a couple of times in this work. For example "beat" and "instrumental" being synonyms.

5. Literal language vs. figurative language-
There is both literal and figurative language in Hiii Power. A good example of both is at the end of verse one he says "I be off the slave ship" he compares the government/media to a slave ship an uses it as a figure of speech but he also is implying the literal meaning to get off the slave ship.

6.Important words; Diction
Lamar's diction is very creative when he uses metaphors and play on words. His choices of words are perfect. His clearness isn't so obvious because this work is meant to be analyzed to get its full meaning.

7. Tone-
Very serious and sometimes angry.

8. Literary techniques-
There are many metaphors, allusions, hyperboles, and other techniques. Examples: Allusions to Martin Luther King, Malcom X, Huey Newton, Bibby Seale, and Tupac. Idiom: "Grown men should never bite their tongue." Hyperbole: (in the intro) "The sky is falling".

9. Procedy-
Because its a song it flows very nicely and it's melody is spiritual and emotional.

Dickens

I believe that Dickens wrote "A Tale of Two Cities" to portray how the people and times that were leading up and going to be in Paris and London during the French Revolution. At the start of this novel he starts depicting France before the revolution; He paints a scene in France implying that there were many punishments for its citizens. Literary devices that led me to this conclusion i guess would be a combination of setting and tone. His somber tone was perfect for the setting of the French Revolution. During this time people were very poor and the rich were very rich, it was a very corrupt time. Dickens focused on the struggles that people had. For example Dickens gets worked up about just how bad the court system is when Charles Darney gets charged with treason.

Research paper intro

Neuroscientists and researchers study how the brain functions. This type of research has expanded greatly in recent decades. Much of this increase in study is marked as the "Decade of the Brain", an initiative of the U.S. Government in the 1990s.

The Human brain is a very distinctly remarkable part of human life. It keeps your memories in a spot where you can easily find them, it controls your emotions, body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing, it handles your physical movements, it lets you reason, think, dream, and so much more. It’s a very complex organ that does many things. 

Does it ever get tired? How much potential does it have? We’ll examine the brain’s potential for processing visual and general information in developing babies and adults, their creativity levels, and their memory capacity.   

Guided Questions

1. What was a punishment for not kneeling to honor monks in France?

Answer: A

2. What kind of crime was taking place in England ?

Answer: B

3. How did passengers on the Dover mail act towards each other? Why?

Answer:C

more questions and the answers after the jump

Literary Analysis 2012!!

dannys -

A Tale of Two Cities

Reading this novel, I read a section that I've heard someone quote before, actually it's the first section and he says, "It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times"
I never knew it was said by Dickens.
He talks about France and England and this should connect to the French Revolution. He talks about France and England as is they were people (sisters). He then paints a scene in France and basically pointed out that it was not a stable place and that people got punished for thousands of unintended reasons. He then goes on talking about England (where he grew up) and how they were scared of ghost and paranormal phenomenons.

I poem worth loving would be "HiiiPower" by Kendrick Lamar

I chose this poem because its basically saying no matter the consequences, do what you want to do.

Poem and video after the jump.

Thinking Outside the Box

                   Plato and Sartre both characterize our thinking as something that can be manipulated. In "The Allegory of the Cave", people's minds are influenced by others. In "No Exit", the characters themselves represent the shackles that hinder their individual thinking or doing.Whether by an outside or inside force, ones open mind can be limited.
                  Through the use of the prisoners, Plato helps us understand a closed mind and man's relationship with it's closed mind. Plato's shackled prisoners represent humans that are blindly forced to think a certain way about life and Plato uses the unshackled enlightened man who was once a prisoner to represent someone who has found new knowledge of life. Because these shackled, close minded, prisoners repel new information they kill the enlightened man who tried to take off their shackles. Their narrow minds forbid them to want new information. An example of a closed mind, like the one being addressed, are students who are told cooperative work is bad. Questioned in Dr.Preston's "The Role of Interdependence in Strategic Collaboration", why should cooperative success equal no success at all, just because someone enforced it?
                    Sartre's uses the characters to help us visualize how self-limitation limits our thinking. The setting of hell brings in to play the subject of ineluctable torture, which represents a unchangeable mind due to a closed mind. Because all three of these characters are similar, they serve as each others hells, each bringing out their most unwanted traits, bringing them torture. Therefore technically they bring this upon themselves with their own insecurities. So with that said, that is why when the door was open, representing a chance for a free mind, nobody tried to leave because of their narrow minds.  
                           

Tongue in cheek

Tongue in Cheek is something said or done with insincerity, irony, or whimsical exaggeration while feigning seriousness.

In other words:
The art of telling a joke with a straight face. (we have all done it before)

One way of memorizing this term is,
for someone to keep a serious face they might bite their tongue as if it were in the cheek to hinder laughter.  

One personal example of a tongue in cheek moment is that I was recently watching this video on funny or die about this fake Herman Cain Sexual Harassment Ad and my dad was looking at it from a distance and asked "Is this an actual ad" and i told him "Yes" like it was no big deal, but then he caught on because of how serious my face was. (deadpan humor)


More Examples:

Literary Analysis #3

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a story about this boy named Huck who lives with a widow named Douglas, who Huck doesn’t like because she enforces civil ways upon him. Huck has a lot of money. After many attempts of getting his money, Pap, his dad, kidnaps Huck and puts him in a house where he escapes. He decides to run away, so he goes to the Mississippi river where he rides down it in a boat. He runs into Jim, Douglas’s sister Miss Watson’s slave, and they both run away in search of freedom. This is where there adventure starts. They become good friends while running away together, they find a house with a dead man in it, they find a wrecked boat where they encounter robbers but escape with all the loot, then Jim, the wanted runaway slave, almost gets caught but Huck manages to lie to the men that almost captured Jim. They get separated. Huck ends up with this silly family who have a feud their neighbors, there he is caught up in the whole rivalry but soon enough Jim finds him with the raft and they both leave. They meet a King and the Duke who take over the story line for a bit and sell Jim to a farmer and he goes to find him. Huck finds out that these people are Tom’s parents so together with Tom they rescue Jim but soon after he ends up a slave again to save Tom. But actually Jim is free because Miss Watson died and in her will Jim is free.
2. The Theme of this novel to me is racism. This is a major part of the novel, because as a slave running away, Jim faces many struggles. He is constantly reminded of the dangers of running away and is scared of being captured. Huck and Jim overcome the race barrier after Huck overcomes his inner struggle of whether or not to save Jim. Huck's idea of racism is based on his upbringing, but he questions the validity of his race’s values.
3. Mark Twain’s tone is ethical but also satirical. On example of this moralistic tone :
“I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn’t do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking—thinking how good it was all the happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell”……. “I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing. But somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me up against him”
4. Symbolisms: the river representing freedom and the river is freedom for Jim.
Allusions: The Bible is everywhere in this novel, Don Quixote, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet during the plays.

Big Question

How much information can our brains hold? do we have infinite space for knowledge?

Update!

How do we know how much potential our brains have for:
-memory
-info processing
-creativity

How will we discover the brain's capacity and true potential