This week was a full week of work. My group finished our books (mostly) and have a good start on our picture notes and website. Something that was unexpected was the amount of friction in my group. We're all intelligent and understanding people, but this project is testing our limits a little bit. A key ingredient in group projects is open mindedness. If you are not open minded, no work will be accomplished. There has been disagreements and a few minor arguments while trying to pick our topic and also on determining what our big question would mean to us. We're trying to be a cohesive group while holding contempt for some team members. This back and forth that we're going through is also present in the book Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo's clan is facing opposition with the missionaries that come to teach them, but many vlan members respond to these strangers with anger and aggression. The best way to work through problems like these is to talk openly and freely about what isn't working and what could work instead. We've just got to hang on and trust each other that what we're doing will eventually turn into one cohesive project. In a song called Hang On Little Tomato, there are lyrics that read; "Just hang on, hang on to the vine Stay on, soon you'll be divine If you start to cry, look up to the sky Something's coming up ahead To turn your tears to dew instead." We are little tomatoes, and we need to work together and hang on to each other and our ideas. There hasn't been anything that tomatoes haven't gone through. We can do this.
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We're working on our multimodal project. The book that my group chose is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. We haven't really started our actual project. We're working on finishing the book and starting the picture notes. So far, I really like this book. The characters and their cultures and lives are really interesting. I love reading about cultures that are different than mine. We chose to work with the question, "Does the world put too much pressure to strive for specific and arbitrary goals?" This question works really well with our main character, a strong man with the name Okonkwo. Okonkwo spends his whole life trying to be a better, stronger, and more successful man than his father ever was. He views his father as a lazy, good-for-nothing that had nothing to his name. Okonkwo is put under extreme pressure to become successful and powerful, to become a true leader of the tribe. The materialistic goal that Okonkwo so desperately wants to achieve is to become extremely successful, and he has learned that with no hard work, there will be no reward. But the journey to success has turned him into a cold, stubborn, and strict man. At some points in his life, there are more cons than pros when it comes to success. To say it simply, AP Lit has been a lot of work. But, today is the last friday of the trimester. After 10 exam weeks, we're about to face our eleventh session of exams. I feel like this friendly stock image man on the left. Trying to keep it together. It's been hard these past few weeks, finishing This I Believe, completing scholarships, starting the Pecha Kucha presentations, being in the pit orchestra for the musical; it's been a lot of work. I am extremely grateful that this trimester is ending and that I will be moving on to my final trimester as a high school student. I'm super sauced by the idea that after spending thirteen years in public and private schools, that I'm moving on to the next chapter in my life. I'm going to start making choices that'll impact the literal rest of my life. After all that I've done, I think that I made a good call taking this class. I'm learning way more than I would in the other English class available, and I am positive that I'll utilize the skills I obtained here later in my life. Okay, so to sum this up, I'm glad that I learned so much in high school to prepare me for my future, but I definitely will not miss it. I'm ready for bigger and better things. |
AuthorCailin Rose Russell Archives
April 2017
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