Blog 26: Help Erin Holbrook

Well, first I have to say that I thought the class was very effective. I felt more than prepared for the AP exam, and if you, Mr. Logsdon, were to teach the class the same way the next year all of your students would be more than fine. What I found most helpful was all of the practice that we did. From practice multiple choice tests to all of the essays we wrote, every time we did one of these things I felt more confident about the AP test. I especially liked congress. I'm a big fan of constructive criticism, and I think the congresses were a good way for people to hear their strengths and weaknesses. That said, one problem I had with the congresses was inconsistency. It seemed almost like we weren't grading each essay by the same guidelines. Some essays would be berated for small grammatical errors, while others did not have ideal paragraph structure or explanations, but were considered "good enough". I don't think we always stuck to the rubric or graded as though an AP grader would. That might just be my overly-critical self talking, I was often harsher than the class in my grading. Another thing was that I didn't get much out of essay reviews done online. Most people seemed to comment just for the sake of commenting, without actually analyzing the essay. There wasn't much to learn from comments posted online on turnitin. I think that if you have time it might be a good idea to spend more time discussing essays in class near the end of the year. The only other thing I could think of would be to go over and practice multiple choice more often. Questions on the test were often vague, and it would have helped to be more experienced with just what we were looking for.

I hope that's not overly-critical. I tend to criticize more than praise even when I really like something. I hope this is helpful! Have a good summer, Mr. Logsdon.

Blog #25: Erin Holbrook

It shouldn't be a surprise that I'm going to to take this opportunity to talk about physics.

The wackiest thing about physics, I think, is that it all makes sense. Everything in the universe, all the chaos and randomness, can be boiled down to a handful of numbers. The universe isn't governed by just a few laws, it follows a very strict code. There are about 20 universal constants that keep popping up when physics meets mathematics. They're always there, in a spooky way. And not just these numbers, but others as well. Take the geometric series of 0, 3, 6, 12, 24... and then add four to each number and divide by ten. The result is 0.4, 0.7, 1.0, 1.6, 2.8.... This set of numbers just so happens to be the ratio of distances between the planets and the sun. Mercury is .387 AU from the sun. Venus is .723 AU from the sun, Earth is 1 AU, and so on. This symmetry appears to be a coincidence, yet it is an incredibly exact proportion. There's only one word for it: strange. And that's what physics is, that is why I like physics so much. It is strange.

Blog #24 The Future Erin Holbrook

Thank goodness the year is over. Though honestly, I'd be lying to say I didn't wish it was senior year that I had just finished. Even if I'm not ready for the future, I'm excited for it. As far as junior year goes, I was far from perfect. I slacked off on more than a few assignments, regrettably I did not even keep up on my blogs. Still, somehow, I survived with hopefully straight A's and a solid plan for next year. And by solid... I mean painful. College applications on top of 6 AP classes, several clubs, writing a book for my mentoring project, and working whenever I can. It's not going to be pretty. Hopefully I can survive once again and geet to the more sun side of the future: college.

College is what I'm most looking forward to. As introverted as I can be, I'm really looking forward to going far away from where I live now and experiencing new things. I'm looking forward to the dorms, the roommates, the libraries, the classes, the research, and especially the cities. I'm looking forward to studying hard enough, AKA not procrastinating, that I have time to try new things. I'm looking forward to Graduate School and Research. I'm looking forward to getting a job that's not just a job, and to traveling as far and as often as I can. To infinity and beyond! I can't wait for the future to come.

Blog 23 Perfect Playlist: Erin Holbrook

A Perfect Playlist for writing:

I spend a lot of my time writing, and always find that music can help when the creative juices just aren't flowing. A perfect playlist for writing, for me at least, consists of:

1.)"Who Are You"by The Who

2.)"Eleanor Rigby"by the Beatles

3.)Tchaikovsky's"Nutcracker"

4.)Marquez:"Conga del Fuego"

5.)"Me Voy"by Julieta Venegas

The first song on the list is a song that is just one of my personal favorites. It mainly serves as a good song to sing along to, so that one can wake up and start thinking before actually setting down to work. "Who Are You" is a catchy song that is very easy to sing along with. Eleanor Rigby is also a good song to just listen to, but it serves here the purpose of a transition between old rock music to classical instrumentals. Classical instrumentals are the best music to actually write to, because they help one to focus on writing gracefully, or at least intelligibly. Any of the Nutcracker tracks have strong music with which to write to, as does "conga del Fuego" and most other classical music. Finally, "Me Voy" is a fun, light song that is perfect for anytime. It's a good song to get around to when writer's block or any kind of frustration sets in because of it's light and airy, but still catchy, tune.

Blog #22: Fictional Characters: Erin Holbrook

If I could be any fictional character... I'm afraid I'd pick a character that is not too original. I'd be The Doctor from Doctor Who. It isn't because Doctor Who is my favorite work of fiction, or even because The Doctor is my favorite character- though he is certainly high on the list. It is because he would simply be the most fun person to be.

The Doctor, for anyone who doesn't know, is a character from a popular British television show with a cult following. He is 1200+ year old Time Lord. Though he appears human, he is an alien. He can be killed, but he can also theoretically live forever, or very close to it. On top of that, he is not just clever but has the mental capacity to know just about everything (not to say that he does).A time traveler, he also knows everything that was, could have been, cannot be, is, will be, and can be. He takes with him his time machine, which can create endless rooms within itself and is essentially a mansion, and a sonic screwdriver, which makes just about anything he wants do whatever he wants (i.e. opens doors, hacks computers, makes ATM's give him money, etc.) Finally, he is not only unemployed but basically untouchable by any rule or regulation, and lives out his days doing whatever he wants to do, travelling anywhere in time and space.

Who wouldn't want to be the Doctor?

Blog#21: Right Now, Erin Holbrook

At this very moment, somewhere in the universe, a supernova explosion is occurring. It's occurring at such a distance that we won't be able to observe it for millions of years. And so for millions of years, that star will be dead with every soul thinking it alive. Meanwhile, we watch other supernovas that occurred thousands, millions, or billions of years ago as though they are happening today. One in particular is very interesting. It is a supernova that is like any other, far away and incredibly bright. Actually, it is much brighter that usual. It is so very bright that many scientists thought of classifying it as a new type of supernova- though it wasn't. It was in fact a dying star like any other, only with a galaxy between us and it. The light of the galaxy didn't get confused with that of the supernova. Something much more interesting is happening there. The mass of the galaxy is such that it has a very strong gravitational pull, which modern science will tell us does not pull in objects but bends space. Light follows the curves in space created by gravity, even though light itself is not effected by gravity. The light emitted from the first supernova is, right now as I type, being bent around the galaxy. The galaxy thus behaves like a ginormous magnifying glass,  a very interesting phenomenon.

#25-Rachel Hart

I, like many other teenage girls, am looking forward to watching The Fault in Our Stars.  I loved reading the book shortly after it released and have reread it more than ten times in the last year. John Green is one of my favorite authors and I enjoy reading most of his works(except Abundance of Katherines, I could not get through it). Though I am excited for the movie I’m nervous about the director’s choices in the film. When I read a book, I often get attached to the characters and create my own mental image of how they should look and act. I have been upset with many films made from books in the past and hope that Josh Boone has taken the extra measures he claims to have taken in making the film close to the book. I’m sure that no matter what choices Boone makes the movie will still be great as the story John Green has given us. 

#26-Help!-Rachel Hart

I'll begin first with the positives. Like most English classes, in your class we wrote a multitude  of essays. While I complained before we began to write any of the essays, I have to say that they actually helped to improve my writing and the scores I received. I also think that becoming familiar with the style of questions both essay and multiple choice was effective in my preparation for the AP test. The smae is true for our ACT prep. I hated the thought of answering multiple choice questions each day, but breaking them down into 15 or so question chunks helped in making the task less tedious. However, I did not like using turnitin to grade essays.  I found that those responding to my essays never gave quality feedback like I received in congress style discussion. Everyone, including myself, were rushing to have enough comments on each essay then moving along to give more bad feedback to the next essay we needed to grade.

26- Lucy Wan

I probably could have walked into this class and gotten a 5 on the AP test from the very first day. (Did that sentence get your attention? I used it for the shock value.) Of course I didn't realize I could have passed the test until I knew what it was about, and that is what your class is. 

Now normally, I have a pet peeve against teachers who teach to the test. I find myself bored and ill-prepared to use those skills beyond that specific test. However, you managed to make the material seem interesting. I think congress was the best thing we did all year. Being able to have my own work critiqued and looking at my classmates work made me a better writer. That being said, I HATED turnitin. Writing comments on others papers without having any of my classmates back me up or even year me down was confusing. I didn't know what to say, or whether I was being too harsh. I would have also liked to do an equal amount of every essay and review each essay type before the test. We did much less argumentative essays than analysis. Also, by the time of the test, I had not written an analysis essay in a few months. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous for that one. 

There's going to be a divided opinion about your class because some people don't feel like they're learning anything. Sometimes the class can be very stagnant; we seem to do nothing. I understand that your job is to teach to the test, but learning about parts of English other than just writing strengthens the student as a whole. Yes, we did AP practice tests, but it would have been easier to analyze passages had we analyzed a text. 

I had a lot of fun this year. You've made me a better writer, even though it takes me forever. Thanks for everything.

Help! Jania Stevenson

Now that I've taken the AP test for this class I can see how writing all those essays actually kind of helped. I mean, I never improved at writing, I got the same grades on my essays every time but at least we knew which essays were going to be on the test and how to write them. Grading the essays however, wasn't that helpful. Most people, including myself, just wanted their points so we said whatever it took to get them. I'm pretty sure someone telling I used quotes well in my essay wasn't going to help me with anything. The reviews on turnitin were even less helpful. For the multiple choice section, I think we should have gone over the answers more. We always got back the sheets that told us how many we got wrong, but we almost never got back the test packet, so we didn't even know what questions we got wrong and what the answers were. The ACT practice was helpful though. We went over the answers people got wrong and you actually explained why certain answers were wrong. Over all your class could have been better but it was still pretty good

Blog 25 Jania Stevenson

About three weekends ago I went and saw the movie "Godzilla". There are only two words that can describe that movie, and those words are: life changing. That movie was so awesome, I talked about it for the rest of the weekend. I'm still thinking about how good it was at this very moment! The animation and sound effects were amazing and as a bonus, the main character was super attractive. They give you more of a back story on Godzilla so you actually know where he came from and what his purpose is, unlike in other Godzilla movies where he just comes out of the water, destroys stuff, and leaves. There's so much action and explosions, which I love, plus a little bit of romance, which I also love. It's just all around an amazing movie and I would recommend that everyone go and see it. Trust me, your mind will be blown.

The Future Jania Stevenson

My Junior year was actually pretty successful. The past two years I have struggled a little bit in school, but this year I did pretty well. My grades were good, I actually learned stuff, and for probably the first time I did all my work by myself. The only class I had some trouble with was English because I'm not the best writer, but I got through it and I think I did pretty well on my AP test. I did slack off a bit towards the end of this year, but academically it was still a good year for me. And not only did I do better at school, I surprisingly made new friends. It's weird how you can go to school with someone for three years and not know that they exist and then you can randomly become friends. But as much as I loved my Junior year, I'm really looking forward to being a Senior. All my classes are pretty easy and graduation is super close now. The only things I'm nervous about are college applications and my mentoring project. I'm not sure how my project is really going to work out so I guess we'll see if I can make it work. Hopefully Senior year will be just as good as this was.

20- Lucy Wan

How to write a slam poem

I don't know much (as shown by my grades this year, oops), but if like to think I kind of know about slam poetry. After all, I might watch way too much of it for my own good. Here's my 5 steps to writing a slam poem.

1. Pick a topic.

Your topic should make you feel something. Whether it's anger or sadness of happiness, the stronger the emotion, the easier it is to write a poem. 

2. Start of with a mundane and seemingly unrelated intro.

I once started off a poem talking about how my nail polish was chipping off and ended it on body issues. The more out-of-left-field your issue seems to come from, the more impactful it will be.

3. Describe things in new and fresh ways. 

Everyone has heard of eyes that are as blue as the ocean, but has anyone heard of eyes like outer space, as bright as the stars? Feel free to create similes and metaphors that are totally unique to you. The more personalized the poem is, the better it reflects you.

4. Think of how it will sound.

The most important and distinguishing factor of slam poetry is that it's meant to be performed. Thus, as you're writing the poem, think of how it will sound when read aloud. Are there any words you can stumble over? Do your line breaks sound awkward? Edit your poem so that it's easy to read.

5. Write whatever you want.

Whatever I say, the poem is is your own. The words you write can be whatever you want; in the end, slam poetry is read to an audience, but written by you. 

Zach Wolfe 21

At this very moment, somewhere in the universe, a tree feel and didn't make a noise because no one was around to hear it. I've never understood that saying. Obviously the tree still makes a noise. It has to. There was a vibration when it hit the ground, and vibration causes sound. Even if no one heard it, this still occurred. That's like saying animals don't go to the bathroom because no one saw them. Obviously all animals have to relieve themselves. It's a process of life. Just like the vibration caused by the tree is a process of sound. I wonder how many trees just naturally fall each year, or even each day. I've seen trees collapse after being covered in ice or being struck by lightning but I've never seen a tree just fall for seemingly no reason. I wonder how many people I know have seen a tree naturally fall. 

19- Lucy Wan

When I was in 4th grade, I started playing chess. As a child, I was rather impatient. I absolutely could not stand how long and boring a chess game was. It could take hours? I can't talk? Needless to say, 4th grade me was not thrilled with being on chess team. But, my parents thought chess was a refined sport. They believed the game would teach me discipline and patience.

Clearly I didn't learn anything about those two skills. However, what my chess coach told me one day has stuck with me. "Think three moves ahead." In chess, this meant that I would have to keep track of both my opponents and my pieces; I'd always have to predict their next steps. While I wasn't great at applying the concept to chess- I blame my 5th grade attention span- I think the advice can be applied to life. Obviously we live in the present, but remembering that the future can change anytime is comforting. I've made a lot of mistakes, but there's so many moves to make. The world is a wide open possibility just waiting for me to take a chance.

Zach Wolfe 26

This year's English class was very enjoyable. We were prepared for the AP test by doing those multiple choice practice tests and the times writings. The AP test was exactly like all of those. I also liked the activities we did during the time we weren't doing those exercises. The video was a fun final project even though editing took longer than I would have liked. Grading each other's times writings was a good exercise even though our class was pretty harsh towards each other. Reading what other people wrote gave me ideas and changed my writing a little bit. I expanded my word choice and further developed arguments that I made. The socratic seminars were good because they engaged the entire class but I didn't like doing the on-demand ones. We didn't get as much time to develop ideas and generate talking points like we did with the ones we took home. Sometimes it was harder to generate talking points because we would have a piece that was meant for a literary analysis essay. Also, because it was harder to generate talking points, people were more reluctant to speak and we sat in silence more often. All in all, it was a good year. 

Zach Wolfe 25

I think I'm going to talk about what I'll be doing this summer. Since I play soccer, the World Cup is a really big deal. Unfortunately I think I'll need to find another team to root for because the US might not win a game. We got put in a group with Ghana (the team that's knocked us out of the last two World Cups), Germany (ranked #2 in the world), and Portugal (ranked #3 in the world and has the reigning world player of the year). We have no chance. I think I might root for Germany just because of my grandfathers German roots and the fact that they have some entertaining players, as well as being ranked #2. They have a legitamate chance of winning the tournament. There are also some other interesting matchup sand team to look forward to. The Netherlands and Spain are in the same group. This match will be a rematch of the final in 2010. Also, everyone will be watching the French team because of how they internally imploded last time. They rebelled against their coach and he even sent one player home. This could be a really entertaining tournament. 

Zach Wolfe 24

During my junior year I found out that it's always important to do your work on time. In this class for example, I almost never did my blogs on time. At first it wouldn't affect my grade but once Mr. Logsdon would put in grades, I would suddenly have an F. This would result in being chewed out by my parents which is never fun. The same thing happened to me in seminar. I ended up turning all my work in towards the end of both semesters and so I would be showing a really bad grade for a majority of each semester. One thing I did manage to do is not get any Cs. This is the first school year of my high school career without a single C. I was proud of myself. It helped that junior year was a lot easier than everyone said it was supposed to be. My hardest class was calculus and math is my best subject so it didn't bother me. This summer I plan on getting as many hours logged as I possibly can for my mentoring project. If I can get a majority of that out of the way, then I won't have to worry about it during senior year. 

Sydney Smith Blog #26

Overall, I think you did a great job with this class this year. AP English Language and Composition is a pretty hard course, and the test is long with a lot of reading, essays, and multiple choice questions. We did a lot of preparing for the test specifically this year, so that helped a lot. We did a ton of practice tests and those helped us prepare for the test, definitely. We took probably 5-6 complete practice AP tests, which helped us get ready for the real test at the end of the year. We got used to the passages, and the kinds of questions they ask on the test. We also got used to sitting through a really long test and be able to finish successfully.

Congress and reading through people's essays was VERY helpful throughout the year. We got to read each other's essays, see the strategies other people used, and got to receive comments from our fellow students. However, I don't think the peer review on the computers was very helpful. People didn't leave very good comments, and not a lot of people read them anyway.

Sydney Smith Blog #25

One really good book that I read recently is "Thirteen Reasons Why." It's one of my favorite books now. I read it over spring break, and I read it in one day. One night, really. I stayed up until like 4:00 in the morning reading it, and had to recharge my Kindle twice. That's how you know a book is good. You literally can't put it down! And that's what happened with this book. It was really just that good.

The book is told through both narration and through cassette tapes (that the narrator is listening to at the same time as the audience). The tapes are made by a friend of the narrator who committed suicide earlier in the year, and they explain her motives for killing herself. They are to be passed along from person to person, seemingly to people who are to blame for her suicide. The book is so intense and leaves a lot of the important things to the end, keeping the ultimate reason she killed herself secret. And then, at the end, you finally find out what the narrator's connection to the whole story is. It's really a great book, and I would definitely reccommend it.