Oscar's English Blog

Prompt Response: My experience in American Lit so far has been a little boring. I think, for the most part, I just see it as another class, not something to look forward to. I think the poems and texts we've read thus far have been relatively interesting. What is challenging is the fact the I have to do my blog posts on a separate device, because Blogger is blocked on the school computers. Moving forward, one thing that I need to improve on is procrastination. I haven't been procrastinating quite as much this year, but I feel it creeping in. Summary: In class today, we worked on analyzing different Emily Dickinson quotes, describing the theme, topic, and deeper meaning of them. Reflection: This activity helped me work on my analyzing skills, while exposing me to more work by Emily Dickinson.

Prompt Response: One of my best friends, Gracie, is such a loving and kind person. She lights up any room she walks into. Gracie has been so kind to me in the time I've known her, making me want to be a better person myself. So I carry he with me, reminding me that I can, and should, try to be kinder to everyone I meet. Summary: In class, we continued to work on our heart pictures, as well as completing a CommonLit about an Emily Dickinson Poem. Reflection: Thinking about today's prompt reminds me to continue to strive to be a better version of myself, despite my exhaustion and reluctance to do so.

Prompt Response: A time that my heart and my mind wanted two different things is when the topic of religion comes up between me and my religious friends. I don't personally follow any religion or faith, and my mind reflects that, wanting to tell them how I feel, and that I believe that religion, specifically Christianity, does not make much sense. On the other hand, my heart knows that it is not up to me to tell anyone else what or what not to believe. This conflict often weighs on me these days, but I listen to my heart. Summary: Today, we talked about Emily Dickinson's poem, "Heart, We Will Forget Him!" describing a conflict between the mind and the heart. We started to work on our heart drawings, that are split in half, with each side showing either the mind or the heart. Reflection: This poem is helpful for helping people understand the dynamic between their ow heart and mind.

Prompt Response: In theatre, I am running lights for one of our fall shows this year (A Few Good Men), and on the days where I am doing lights by myself, I am often worried that the choices I make aren't even close to what our director wants. This overthinking and needless worrying slowed the process of finding the best lighting for the show. Our director, Ms. Bridges, assured me that I was doing great, and that the choices that I made were perfect. Summary: Today, we read Emily Dickinson and really thought about the meaning behind what she says in her poetry. Reflection: Reading and analyzing Dickinson's work helps me better understand how to write complex feelings in a way that is well interpreted, and it also helped me grow my knowledge on poetry in general, as it is not my area of expertise.

Prompt Response: One thing that makes me different from other people is my sense of self. I say this because no matter what else I say, there is an extremely high chance that someone else could relate, such as my love of theatre of my living situation. A person sense of self is unique to that individual. I view myself in a way that nobody else does, and I know more about myself and my feelings than anyone around me. Summary: We finished our origin story presentations, and then started to delve into the poetry of Emily Dickinson. We read "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain." Reflection: This poem was really interesting, and helped introduce me to this style of writing and the way that everything can be a metaphor.

Prompt Response: I would like to go on an adventure back through time. Though wildly unrealistic, going on a trip through time would be extremely fascinating because I could personally meet some of the greatest people who ever lived. I probably could bot communicate with them very well, but even just talking to someone like Isaac Newton would be so cool. Being able to really see how things happened and why would be an enlightening experience. I would be able to see famous paintings being painted, and I could also solve some historic mysteries such as the dancing plague in Strasbourg in 1518. Summary: In class today, everyone presented their origin myth posters. Reflection: Seeing other people's stories helped reinforce the fact everyone in unique and thinks differently. Some people had more mystical god-like characters, while others' characters were more animal-like. This was a good activity because it helped expose us to the many different ways to interpret the simple prompt t...

Prompt Response: I think that the most creative thing I have ever made was theatre. I made thatre when I played Macduff in a production of Macbeth. When I was younger, I did Shakespeare camps over the summer. In them, we did a few different plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth, and Richard III. In these productions I played a myriad of different characters. Though the words and dialogue were scripted, the behaviors of each character was up to interpretation. Summary: In class today, we continued working on our origin myth posters to present on Thursday. Reflection: Continuing to work on our origin myth posters has brought me closer to the true purpose of the lesson, and has helped me understand the depth of an origin myth.

Prompt Response: If our current theory of the Big Bang is correct, then what, if anything, came before that? This question is important to me because it can help us understand what the concept of our universe is. As humans with consciousness we are inherently curious, and the questions about the true essence of our universe have perplexed us for years. My next question is "What is the chance of life in the universe?" The answer to this question is likely a number that is incomprehensible to the human mind, but I think it would help us realize just how special we are, and to help preserve the diverse Earth that we have. Summary: We talked about the necessary visual components that we would need to represent our origin myth, we also discussed certain common design elements and features of Adobe Express that we might use. Reflection: I realized that there are more unique ways to represent my origin myth. Also, this blog post reminded me that there is still so much that we don...

Prompt Response: Over the past week, we have learned about a lot and realized that this course needs me to be in a certain mindset. Even though I'm still getting into it, this mindset helps me focus on the deeper parts of the texts we read and helps me understand the components of the Native American literature that we have gone over. I feel that a strength that I have is that I can keep up with the workload. A weakness that I have is rusking my work and not giving my best effort. Summary: In class, we took a test on the components and typical story elements of an origin myth, and then we worked on and revised our own origin myths. Reflection: Taking the test today helped my solidify some of the concepts that we've talked about in elation to Native American origin myths.

Prompt Response: Creating my own origin myth story helped me understand that people use fantastical and creative ways of describing the creation of natural features and animals to make them easier to understand as opposed to understanding the more complex geological and biological processes that created the world we have today. It's also a lot more entertaining. When I was writing my origin myth, I liked the idea of creating a character that represented the sun, or another god-like being who is ultimately responsible for the general creation of Earth. Another common character trope seen in these myths is a person representing the first humans, and one or more animal characters, both of which I included in my origin myth. I wanted my story to communicate the power of love and friendship, so I had my main characters get involved in a large conflict, and then realize that conflict didn't help them at all, with the characters finally deciding to collaborate and rebuild the broken ...

Prompt Response: I have a stuffed animal snowy owl that I have had for years. My grandma on my dad's side, we call her Mama Daph, gifted him to me as a first birthday present. His name was Big Owl. Big Owl went through the torture of dealing with a childhood version of me, getting his stuffing picked out, his nose torn, and his eyeballs scratched. I still have him, and he is stays on my bed all the time. As a kid, I would get upset a lot, as most kids do, and when I would hurt myself, or start crying for whatever reason, I would go grad Big Owl and he would make me feel better. Summary: Today in class, we went over the Navajo Origin Story, and answered questions analyzing the characters and meaning behind the story. Reflection: I learned of a new story, as well as how similar these indigenous stories are to religious texts such a as the Christian Bible.

Prompt Response: In 2024, my family and I took a trip up to Kentucky to visit Mammoth Cave National Park. On either the second or third day, we took one of the longer tours down into the cave. When the tour guide was leading us back up, they to a minute to turn off all of the lights in the cave. It was such a profound darkness, and it gave me a comforting, but still unsettling feeling being so close to nature in its unfiltered entirety. I really felt connected to the Earth being hundreds of feet underground in complete darkness. Summary: Today in class we learned about Native American literature and the meanings behind Origin Myths. Reflection: I learned that Native American myths and texts are very similar to religions and belief systems that come from outside of America. Many of the Origin Myths that we are going to be talking about share certain aspects with other religious texts such as the Bible.

Prompt Response: I want to achieve a more balanced social life and make a few new friends while maintaining and strengthening the relationships that I already have. I also want to eliminate procrastination from my schoolwork routine because that was a big problem last year. Personally, I would also like to get a bit more fit and start eating healthier. This year has a lot of potential for growth and excellence, so I aim to emulate that. My health, school, and friends play a bit part in my life, so those are the areas I want to spend the most time on.