Tag Archives: reflection

Animal Farm

So, I was gone the day of the discussion on the book Animal Farm, which I would totally recommend you to read. It’s a very good book and has a lot of connections to the Russian revolution. Since I was gone, I want to share some of my thoughts on the book. But first, so visitors aren’t lost if they hadn’t read the book I shall share…THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION PEOPLE CONNECTIONS!!

  • Napoleon, the main pig leader=Joseph Stalin, a man responsible for the death of million. He pushed Trotsky out of leadership and blamed all future problems. Cross his path, disagree with him, or refuse his orders? You’re probably dead. By himself, he managed to turn the new republic for of government into a monarcy, or even a dictatorship. 
  • Snowball, the co-leader with Napoleon until he was banished from Animal Farm on Napoleon’s orders=Leon Trotsky, a man that, after Lenin died, tried to continue the new republic with everything he had. However, his plans were foiled by Stalin who banished him from Russia (later to be killed).
  • Old Major, the most respected pig at the beginning of the book before he died of old age=Vladimir Lenin, a man that started the revolution and got it moving. He soon died from a disease. 
  • Mr. Jones, the human owner of Manor Farm (Animal Farm with humans in charge)=Nicholas II, a man that was a dictator (but was called King). He was overthrown by the people of Russia.
  • Squealer, the pig that lied to everyone to make Napoleon look good and was the speaker of the farm=the newsletter or newspaper that Stalin made everyone subscribe to that made Stalin look absolutely fabulous because it was full of lies. 

Ok, now onto the thoughts on Animal Farm. First of all, let me say this: for a teacher’s pet that’s a stickler for the rules and the execution of rules, this was a hard book to read. Napoleon and Snowball started off by making Seven Commandments that were fairly straight forward; they were simplified to “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Late in the book, after Snowball’s gone, Napoleon changes the rules so much by telling the animals they remembered them wrong. In fact, “four legs good, two legs bad” was changed to “four legs good, two legs better” so that the pigs could walk on their hind legs and not be breaking a rule. The funny thing is, if any other animal tried to walk on their hind legs, Napoleon probably would have found a reason to kill the animal (which was another rule he changed).

Furthermore, whenever Squealer is justifying something that’s bad that Napoleon did, he always ends with saying something along the lines of, “You don’t want Jones back do you?” It really wasn’t fair. It wouldn’t have worked if the pigs weren’t in charge, but they were. Not to mention, no, the animals didn’t have Jones back, but it was almost like they did: working super hard for little gain. It was unjust, but was what was happening during the revolution (“Surely you don’t want the monarcy back?”). 

More about Snowball and Napoleon’s relationship. While Snowball was on the farm, Napoleon was only pretending to like him. When Napoleon had the chance to take down Snowball, he did, and lied to everyone about Snowball. Later, when Snowball was gone, he was Napoleon’s scapegoat (yes…vocab word!). Everything bad that happened, it was Snowball, not Napoleon or the other pigs. Anything Napoleon did before Snowball was gone, was still Snowball somehow.

All in all, Animal Farm was a very good book that I’m sure to read again on my own for fun. I hope that, because of this post, you either think differently about the book or have stronger opinions (if you’ve read the book). If you have yet to read it, go and buy it because it’s fantastic. Comment what you think!

Frozen

The newest Disney animated movie, Frozen, is popular among lot of people and lots of ages. As probably the most popular movie of the year, everyone knows about it, from the lyrics to all the songs to knowing the more famous lines. However, I think it’s terrible how people don’t actually think about it a lot. There is a lot of things in the movie that not a lot of people realize, and things I think are pretty important.

One thing, for example, that bothers me is when Elsa was telling Anna that she couldn’t marry a man she just met. She acts like she should know better than to do such a thing. I personally think Anna did nothing wrong. When her sister was hidden from the world and locked away, Anna was too. She never had contact with the outside world. Anna was locked inside the castle for majority of her life, and was expected to know what to do when she meets a guy she likes. But when she does the wrong thing, everyone’s surprised!

Another thing is how Elsa and Anna’s parents locked away Elsa and hid her from the world. If they hadn’t, Elsa might have known what to do when everyone found out about her power. She might have figured out how to build and thaw things. Personally, if I was Elsa’s parents, I would have told everyone about Elsa’s powers. I would have let them know before her coronation so that she wouldn’t have freaked out. I also would have changed the rule that you don’t need to uncover your hands when you hold and touch royal items, in hopes that the gloves would help control the power a little. I would have built a room for Elsa to practice her powers in, so she would be able to learn more and practice.

I also would not have cut the connection between Elsa and Anna. Anna and Elsa need each other. The violent separation between the once best friends is not ok and is not fair. Elsa didn’t look like she needed help, but she really did. Anna was struggling with being alone since a very young age, but I don’t get why Disney didn’t show Elsa struggling. If I were the parents, I would have moved Elsa to another room, just in case, but I would have let them hang out together (with supervision) as to try to avoid a lot of conflict that causes their home to freeze.

All in all, I think Frozen’s a great movie. One of Disney’s best, actually (because the Elsa’s love I what saves Anna, not Kristoff’s. Though Disney made a fantastic movie, the movie had some problems. However, maybe it’s just me. Either way, I hope you consider what I say and think about it.

Snowflake macro: dark star
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Alexey Kljatov via Compfight

Reflection: Seventh Grade

When I arrived in August, I expected classes to be a lot tougher, teachers to be stricter, and students to be louder. In sixth grade, I feel like teachers were really nice and classes were really easy because, mainly, they wanted us to feel welcome at West Ridge. But I soon realized I was mistaken. All of my teachers are still really nice. Seventh grade classes were just as easy for a seventh grade mind as sixth grade classes are to a sixth grade mind. And the students? Come on, this is my grade! We’re probably the loudest no matter what grade we’re in! Can’t compare one year to another. 

By October, my life had changed in many ways. My schedule was tighter because of homework, school sports meets and practices, choir competitions and practices, and a lot of stuff going on at church. I made some new, fantastic friends, lots some old, not-as-great friends, and got tighter relationships with the friends I already had. And, thankfully, the drama decreased a lot!

Eventually, I figured out that seventh grade was going to keep changing throughout the year; I kept having different opinions. That didn’t happen in sixth grade! At first (being totally honest here), I was excited about blogs, then I was iffy, then I didn’t like them at all, and now here I am loving them! My mind also changed about science. I was not excited to be learning life science this year (just a few flips of the textbook pages and I thought that), but now I actually kind of enjoy it. I’m also friends with some people I never thought I’d be friends with, and those are the best friendships I have now!

In seventh grade, I’ve learned a lot of things. Many things. Too many things. I wouldn’t be able to list them all! However, I think I’ve narrowed it down to three major things (or, at least, major to me). To keep this organized, I shall explain in bullet points.

  • I’m not that bad at math. Ya, ya, I know, that sounds stupid, but seriously! Math was my best subject in third, fourth, and fifth grade, but in sixth grade I wasn’t doing as well. That might have been because I went from fifth grade math to seventh grade math in a summer (grade level to advanced). Whatever the case, it was harder, but it was fine. This year, however, I got to math class and majority of the class was either in sixth grade (double advanced) or fifth grade (ok, there were only two, but still. Triple advanced math!). I was scared because I was thinking: “Ok, Kendall, you just got bumped up to advanced math last year. They are already knowing more math stuff than you since you’re one of the older kids in the class and you’re learning the same thing!” Turns out, I’m not half bad. I’m not necessarily great, but I’m ok. I’m getting an A, so I’m good.
  • You’re not always doing as bad as you think you are. In fact, you might be doing fantastically. During the first semester, when I tried out for basketball, of course I was going to do my best and have a sliver of hope that I’d make the A-Team, but I was mainly just expecting B-Team. I tried hard in try-outs, putting in all of my effort…but I didn’t think they were that impressed with the job I was doing (it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good either). As it turns out, they were impressed and I made the A-Team! Another example is of my blog. I didn’t think it was anything special, even when Mrs. Schoch praised it. I thought it was just, well, a colorful blog. Did that really make it great? I didn’t think so. Apparently I was wrong and everyone else thought it was fantastic. I suddenly had comments from Mrs. Bridges, Mrs. Bacon, Mr. Ramsey, and even edublogs! In both examples, I didn’t think I was doing well at all, but as it turns out, I ended up doing fairly well.
  • School is school. It’s never going to be fantastic, but it won’t be the absolute worst thing in the world either (no, fellow students that have actually read this entire thing, no it will not). If you try too hard to make it really good, things seem to backfire for me. If I try to hate it, nothing is going good, socially, not academically. If you just let it play out, everything will fall into place.

As the year comes to a close, I’m both really happy and really sad. Summer’s right around the corner, my transfer request was accepted, I get to keep my iPad over the summer, and I’m doing great in all my subjects. I even…drum-roll please…get to keep my blog over the summer (most likely!)! I’m also sad because summer is coming (no, no, no. Keep reading, I have a good reason) and that means that, as a transfer, I loose a lot of connects with school friends. I also have a lot of stuff going on in the summer, so it’s not always “relaxing” as my summers used to be. It’s fun stuff, but it’s still stuff.

If I had to do it over again, I would used my time better. I feel as though I was rushing to get homework done at the last minute. And a lot. See, I turn everything in on time, but I often do most of it the night before. It was mostly the packets: vocabulary, science review, and math review. If I could have, I would have done a page a day (if it was long term packet). Next year, I’m pretty sure I’ll try to do better than that. 

Lastly, my advice to next year’s seventh graders. First of all, go back and read the things I’ve learned. Remember those? Ok, the last two. “You’re not always doing as bad as you think you are” and “School is school?” Ya. Those are two of my pieces of advice. You probably aren’t doing as bad as you thought you were, and school will always just be school no matter how much you try to change is. Another piece of advice: don’t be stupid with homework given. If you get homework, do it first at home, not at 11:00 at night. If you have a packet, don’t be like me and save it to the last minute to do. If you have an independent project, don’t wait forever to do it and don’t do it badly the first time around think you’ll get help. If you have a group project, do your share of the work, not less.

Now I leave you with these two things: good luck to sixth graders and congratulations seventh graders (for surviving this year very well).