What is American Literature?

Master Piece Mashup

Maddie's MasterPiece

People of Santa Maria

• Wanted to express the passion that she has for photography
• Soon changed it to studying Arts
• Everything in your life matters no matter what it is
• If you learn to express what you love then you will learn to love life
• Rice Ranch and the places that she filmed in her film were very meaningful and represented what her and her friends do
• The song was picked because it was happy and something that expressed her joy
• Everything was done because that's what was special to her
• Everything that was done and what is going to be done has a meaning
• What is beautiful in her mind
• The Journey is Everything
• A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step
• "Life shouldn't be measured by the breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away"

Leandro's Master Piece

Cutting Hair

• Started off by cutting his own hair
• Used it to kill time
• Always had an interest for cutting hair
• When someone messed up on his hair he would know what to do when he got home to fix it
• Kill Time: It's something that I want to do and am happy to do not something that I am being forced to do.
• Do you actually have to time to do the stuff that you want/ love to do?

Bridgette's Master Piece

Children of Divorce

• Support group for teens and anyone that went through divorce
• Why is it such a hard subject to talk about?
• Its way to embarrasing to talk about
• It forces teen to grow up faster
• You always think that your marriage will end up like your parents
• You always think about what it would have been if they wouldnt have split
•  It is never Mom& Dad.. Its alway Mom, and Dad
• "Divorce is probably as painful as death"
• You are not alone!
• Goal for next year: Get people together to talk about their feeling and why its so hard for people to go through something like this
• Most people were opened at the beginning and then when asked the question they were really quite and unresponsive
• Some people seem like they just preferred their parents to be divorced so they can see their parents be happy.
• Its typical for them to have a conversations but most divorced parents still have the moments where they argue
• Its normal for families to be divorced

Justin's Master Piece

Rangers

• After highschool wants to go into the army rangers
• An elite group of individuals in the army
• You must have a lot of strength and will power
• No matter what you need to finish your goal
• Wants to be a part of something bigger than himself and help one of the most powerful armies in the world
• Train Right, Eat Right, and Sleep Right
• Must keep fighting until the end
•  Close to the other special forces in the army
• Had previous family in the army that influenced his choice to go into service
• To be able to serve and make the world a better place means something to him
• 3-4 phases before you can actually go into the special forces
• When you are apart of the forces you are the one to do black ops and secret missions

Pacheco's Master Piece

Photo (Class Room Environment)

• You may see something different then what other people see it as
• When you look outside you can see all of the mountain and beauty and then you actually look ahead and see the reality of life
• Pictures of the solitude of a closed campus and structer
• Says that some students provide more things from this type of structure
• The rows can sit there and work better for people
• The freedom of learning your own way is hard
• First it was all about the classroom and now he is more into prospective of things
• How do I learn better?
• They way different people have struggles with the way that school works and how it develops the students
• A lot from outside resources instead of going into books and online (hands on)
• Got closer to people that helped him through his process
• Photos of car and the way they work

Ronaldo Master Piece

Video Games/ Art of the Games

• Always  loved the art and the way that they create the images in the games
• The games helped to connect him and his younger brother
• Music in video games really set the tones for the game and what is going to happen next
• Gives the game a tone that wouldn't be there is the music wasn't there
• Quest for Final Level
• Improve on skills in drawing
• People in the business of gaming and the art of the game need to be able to draw and work with what they are giving with.
• You must be able to change what you have done to make things "perfected"
• Comic Book Men
• George Perez, John Jr & Sr (SpiderMan Comic Books)
• Each artist has his or her own style

After Questions

• Draws more with pencil and outlines instead of color
• How does music set a tone in the games as a writing sets a tone in the book?
• When you are playing is gives you this sense that no other thing in the game really makes.
• Mood, and Soundtrack
• Different Types of Art
• Jap. comic books
• When they show emotion different things will be exagerated
• Goes from things going big Ronaldo likes to go more straight forward about how someone looks
• Development is key to what you are doing no matter what it is

Ethan's Masterpiece

• Little info on Youtube:
• started as a small company and is now something that is crazy big
• promotes more of its vlogers than the actual gaming system that makes up the majority of Youtube
• Being a Youtuber is actually a real job
• they get paid by how many people see their post and how many people like and subscribe to what they do.
•  Intro Video
• The power of video games is actually really great
• The amount of video games and types of games that go into youtube is a very large amount
• He plays really anything that he can get his hand on to
• Large variety of games and videos
• You make money mostly by ads that show up on your videos or ads that are of your videos
• Most people that make the videos and try to get paid they join a network and get paid together
•  When you want to get an ad you need to try to verify your web account and when you start getting over a thousand view you start getting paid
• A lot of gamers live stream what they are playing
• Weekly or daily type of routine
• Twitch

The Beauty of a life.

On January 30th we lost a beautiful Angel. Some people say that it brought our community together. Other people said some pretended to be her friend. Well I must say that being her friend and losing her made me realize how much I should actually care about my life and others. There are so many things that We need to cherish in this world that we don't. Breanna Rodriguez was a person who spread positivity and happiness. At the moment of her death grief fell over Righetti. During that time we came together as a family and showed the happiness that she brought upon us. My only wish is that we continue to spread her love and happiness. This one is for you Bree.

"Post to your blog"

What is there to post to my blog? Have I done anything on my master piece? Am I reading Brave New World? All of these things that get asked in a normal English class. But wait I thought this wasn't a normal English class?

There are so many things that we get asked during the day and I feel as though the last thing students want to hear is that they can learn what they want to learn but be set to a time and a way to do it. Doesn't that completely defeat the purpose of learning what we want to. It just seems weird to me that the class I wanted to take because it was so different from the other English classes that I had taken is starting to become more and more like those classes. Being said I am going to take the rest of this school year to challenge Dr. Preston and show him what he is doing and how it is really effecting the students that he teaches. Yea it may seem weird for a student to sit there and want to take on their teacher but I don't want to do this to prove him wrong. Preston asked for our feedback everyday and well here it it!

I understand that I may not do everything that I am told to do in class, but isn't that how every student is? We are told to change the way we do things because that is what id going to help us. Well honestly I think that is a bunch of bull crap. Students are told from the first day of school that they can do what they want yet we are put onto all of the restrictions because that is the "Common Core". What the hell is common core? A system that is used to segregate students even more then just your normal AP and Honors classes. It's so odd that teachers say that they put students all on the same grade system but AP students and Honors students get a boost on their GPA. I mean it makes sense that they get a boost but shouldn't they be put onto different standards?

Our school and our school system needs to look in the mirror and take a deep evaluation of its self.

A Brave New World Chapter 3 questions

1. How do the children play together? What is childhood like?
       -The children have a very bleak childhood, because they are taught nothing but the fact that factories are good and industrialism is the way to go. They are outside playing in a very sexual manner because this is them "maturing" at a very young age.
2. How is our world depicted? How do we get from here to there?
        -Our world is shown in a way that it doesn't really seem like we know what we are doing, this is because we really don't. Our society thinks that it is so perfect when in reality we are the most broken thing in the world.
3. Why must games be so complex in this society?
        - Games are now so complex because as they did in the story adults want children to mature at a young age but are going about the process in a very wrong way.
 4. Why are strong emotions dangerous? Family relationships? Romance? Religion? Art? Culture?
        - In the story the world that they live in is said to be a Utpoia when in all reality its a Distpoia because everything is black and white. You learn things when the adults want you to know about them and if you go against what they say then you are considered to be able normal and treated as though you have something wrong with you.
5. How is sexuality used in this novel? Do you see any problems with it?
        -Sexuality seems to be the basis of this story. I say this because every part of the story that has been used so far has something to do with some kind of sexual reference or sexual part of a humans body.
6. What does Mustapha Mond do? What is his relationship to history?
        - Mustapha Mond is said to be the "History Teacher". He is one of the people that the children look up to when they are old enough to learn about what used to be going on in the world.
7. Is there anything unusual about Lenina Crowne? Bernard Marx? What? Why?
       -They both are people that go through the daily routine but seem to always stray away form the focus point of the day.
8. How does Huxley use the cinematic technique toward the end of this chapter?
9. What is soma? What are its uses?
10. How do people age in this society?
        - People in this society age not by their actual physical age but by how much they know and their physiological knowledge.

The Golden Blog

1.Content: content is key. Everything needs to come from you
2. Organization: some type of flow instead of just random posts. Different pages
3. Aesthetics: design. A sense of the beautiful. Art, color, sense of humor
4. Battle of the Blogs

Class Notes

- relates back to first impressions
-if they are very passionate about what they are talking about then you can listen
- if their attitude is positive you feel as though you can trust them
talk to you instead of at you
-Ethos: the character of the person who is doing  the speaking [the way someone dresses and the way that they carry themselves]
-Pathos: the emotion that a speaker brings to a message
logos: how well does the speaker arrange his or her argument
-JFK Speech
 -President of the United State
 - Positive perspective
 many symbols showing that its going to be an important event
 - introduces himself with gratitude
 - Shows that he knows a lot about what is going on with the nation
 - Supports his argument with facts and facts that support those
 - Connects himself with the people that are attending the meeting
 - Gives everyone a time line to show that they are serious about going to the moon and getting the work that they promised done
 - Puts a lot of emotion behind what he is saying to really get the point across that he is committed to doing what is right and what needs to be done
 - Promises/ vows to the nations that they will come first and that they vow to give them freedom, peace, and effort
 - Nothing is going to effect the people and the nation in a harmful way, only in a way that is going to advance the knowledge of the people
 -"We chose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard"
 - Everything was structured and written down
 - Knowledge is key
 - Act of faith and vision
 - Facts are his key argument!
 - Makes jokes to get everyone involved in the speech (unintentionally)
 - Not waisting money but getting a job done instead
 - The people are involved
 - Made a lot of references to God

What do you think?

We always talk about how we want to work on our masterpiece and Preston likes to ask us how we can relate it to literature. Well I went back through everything that I have done in school and I found this presentation that I did last year for my honors English class about existentialist and I felt as though it related back to my masterpiece because it talks about photography and how you can express things with an image. 
Link to presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MjoX8_rKD7sj5hfZCScqiF-Gkcp-eXrYvEka357HWBo/present#slide=id.p

Fallacies in Media/ Commercials

A lot of times we don't even realize we see fallacies in our everyday life.  The most common form of fallacies is the appeal to authority or popularity. Celebrities endorse products all the time that we have really just gotten used to seeing them whenever we see ads for sports outfits and simple things like makeup products. When going through our day to day life we don't really notice things at first but as soon as we see it our subconscious notices and reminds us at later. These are the kinda ways that corp. authority use to keep things in peoples minds when advertising their product.

Student Notes

Ad Hominem fallacy: responding to an argument attacking a person’s character rather than the content of their argument.

Circular Reasoning: Someone argues the point they’re trying to make by supporting it with other reasons that are supported by their original point.

Ad Nauseum: Making the argument by repetition; saying the same thing over and over again.

Appeal to Tradition: “We do this because that’s how we’ve always done it.”

Appeal to Ignorance: Arguing that something is true just because it hasn’t been proven false.

Appeal to Numbers: Citing statistics to prove an argument

Appeal to Popularity: “All the cool kids are doing it.”

Cum Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: “with this because of this” – just because two things happen together doesn’t mean they’re related or one causes the other.  (e.g., just because a student attends RHS doesn’t mean she has two legs)

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: just because something happens after something else doesn’t mean the first thing causes the second.

Red Herring: the art of distraction (“SQUIRREL!!!” or “Grumpy Cat!”)

Slippery Slope: Metaphor—taking one step and sliding the rest of the way.  Either giving away the whole argument based on one point, or applying the same standard to everyone without reason: “If I do it for you, I’ll have to do it for everyone else.”  Assuming that if you give one person/point away, you’ll have to give away the whole show.

Straw Man: Putting words into someone’s mouth (and that someone may or may not exist) for the purpose of exaggerating or distorting the opposing viewpoint.

Naturalistic Fallacy: Using nature as a reason to go from fact to value.

You Too: The idea that two wrongs make a right.  “My opponent accuses me of distorting the facts and exaggerating the evidence, but she does too.”

Begging the Question: (this is the same as Circular Reasoning, just make sure to use the phrase correctly rather than suggesting that something is “raising a question.”  Here, the use of the word begging is intended to suggest torturing a topic beyond its logical conclusion.)

Non Sequitur: Something that doesn’t go in sequence; an illogical leap to an unrelated topic or idea.

Appeal to Authority: the fallacy of asserting an idea as correct just because a person/entity in power says it is.

Fallacies

• Tu quoque ("you too"). This is the fallacy of defending an error in one's reasoning by pointing out that one's opponent has made the same error. An error is still an error, regardless of how many people make it. For example, "They accuse us of making unjustified assertions. But they asserted a lot of things, too!" 
• Straw man. This is the fallacy of refuting a caricatured or extreme version of somebody's argument, rather than the actual argument they've made. Often this fallacy involves putting words into somebody's mouth by saying they've made arguments they haven't actually made, in which case the straw man argument is a veiled version of argumentum ad logicam. One example of a straw man argument would be to say, "Mr. Jones thinks that capitalism is good because everybody earns whatever wealth they have, but this is clearly false because many people just inherit their fortunes," when in fact Mr. Jones had not made the "earnings" argument and had instead argued, say, that capitalism gives most people an incentive to work and save. 
• Post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this). This is the fallacy of assuming that A caused B simply because A happened prior to B. A favorite example: "Most rapists read pornography when they were teenagers; obviously, pornography causes violence toward women." 
• Red herring. This means exactly what you think it means: introducing irrelevant facts or arguments to distract from the question at hand. For example, "The opposition claims that welfare dependency leads to higher crime rates -- but how are poor people supposed to keep a roof over their heads without our help?"
• Slippery slope. A slippery slope argument is not always a fallacy.  A slippery slope fallacy is an argument that says adopting one policy or taking one action will lead to a series of other policies or actions also being taken, without showing a causal connection between the advocated policy and the consequent policies. A popular example of the slippery slope fallacy is, "If we legalize marijuana, the next thing you know we'll legalize heroin, LSD, and crack cocaine." 
• Cum hoc ergo propter hoc (with this, therefore because of this). This is the familiar fallacy of mistaking correlation for causation -- i.e., thinking that because two things occur simultaneously, one must be a cause of the other. A popular example of this fallacy is the argument that "President Clinton has great economic policies; just look at how well the economy is doing while he's in office!"
• Circulus in demonstrando (circular argument). Circular argumentation occurs when someone uses what they are trying to prove as part of the proof of that thing. Here is one of my favorite examples (in pared down form): "Marijuana is illegal in every state in the nation. And we all know that you shouldn't violate the law. Since smoking pot is illegal, you shouldn't smoke pot. And since you shouldn't smoke pot, it is the duty of the government to stop people from smoking it, which is why marijuana is illegal!" Circular arguments appear a lot in debate, but they are not always so easy to spot as the example above.
• Argumentum ad numerum (argument or appeal to numbers). This fallacy is the attempt to prove something by showing how many people think that it's true. But no matter how many people believe something, that doesn't necessarily make it true or right. Example: "At least 70% of all Americans support restrictions on access to abortions." Well, maybe 70% of Americans are wrong! 
• Argumentum ad nauseam (argument to the point of disgust; i.e., by repitition). This is the fallacy of trying to prove something by saying it again and again. But no matter how many times you repeat something, it will not become any more or less true than it was in the first place. 
• Argumentum ad ignorantiam (argument to ignorance). This is the fallacy of assuming something is true simply because it hasn't been proven false. For example, someone might argue that global warming is certainly occurring because nobody has demonstrated conclusively that it is not. But failing to prove the global warming theory false is not the same as proving it true. 
• Argumentum ad hominem (argument directed at the person). This is the error of attacking the character or motives of a person who has stated an idea, rather than the idea itself. The most obvious example of this fallacy is when one debater maligns the character of another debater (e.g, "The members of the opposition are a couple of fascists!"), but this is actually not that common. A more typical manifestation of argumentum ad hominem is attacking a source of information
• Argumentum ad antiquitatem (the argument to antiquity or tradition). This is the familiar argument that some policy, behavior, or practice is right or acceptable because "it's always been done that way." This is an extremely popular fallacy in debate rounds; for example, "Every great civilization in history has provided state subsidies for art and culture!" But that fact does not justify continuing the policy.  
• Argumentum ad populum (argument or appeal to the public). This is the fallacy of trying to prove something by showing that the public agrees with you. 
• Argumentum ad verecundiam (argument or appeal to authority). This fallacy occurs when someone tries to demonstrate the truth of a proposition by citing some person who agrees, even though that person may have no expertise in the given area.  
• Nature, appeal to. This is the fallacy of assuming that whatever is "natural" or consistent with "nature" (somehow defined) is good, or that whatever conflicts with nature is bad.
• Non Sequitur ("It does not follow"). This is the simple fallacy of stating, as a conclusion, something that does not strictly follow from the premises. For example, "Racism is wrong. Therefore, we need affirmative action."
• Petitio principii (begging the question). This is the fallacy of assuming, when trying to prove something, what it is that you are trying prove. For all practical purposes, this fallacy is indistinguishable from circular argumentation. 

Spring Cleaning

- something needs to be done as a class instead of all outside if class work.
- something that is going to bring all if the students together
- comprises?
- a possible class project?
- force people to be social
- have one blog to help students beside the main course blog
- class masterpiece

My Master Piece

1. What is your intended outcome?  Who will benefit besides you?
1. There is so many things that can come out of trying to tell different peoples stories. My main focus really is to show people that writing things isn't the only way you can tell a story. I want to show people that photography is a great way to express feelings and emotions. Many people can benefit from this because it will help them understand that something that is visual can be as strong as something that was written in word.
2. How will present your process, findings, and/or results?  How will your method of presenting create value for your audience/community?
1. I will show this process by putting a performance together. It may not be a slid show that people see every time they give a presentation because students start to get tired of that and they will just blank out and not listen to what I have to say to them. This may include not only showing my blog but by possibly doing a live photo shoot in the room or showing them how the process of everything works. Its not just the thought of the photo that counts, there is a lot of hard work and effort put behind every image that is captured.
3. How much of a plan do you currently have, and how much do you need?  What "next steps" or routines are you currently engaged with, and what do we need to create so that you feel like you're making the sort of progress that will enable you to end your high school career with a smashing success?
1. I need to figure out how I can work with a student to tell their story. I'm not sure on what students to ask because I'm not sure on what kind of stories I want to tell.
4. If you're not already monitoring your own performance, what systems/structures do you need so that you can sustain your momentum and achieve your goals without someone else nagging you?
1. This masterpiece is really something that I really need to keep a calender on. Its more of needing to find people to talk to that are willing to let me take pictures of them and are willing to let me do what I do best.
5. The "Masterpiece Academy" will begin on May 11 (the week after the AP exam).  Please let me know if you need help creating a workflow calendar that will get you where you want to go by then.

New Argument Topics

1. Social Conformity
2. Death Row
3. Abortion
4. Police Brutality
5. Censorship
6. Child Discipline
7. Government Transparency
8. Education
9. Economy
10. Medical Marijuana

Class notes

-Deductively: think through a process
-Inductively: start something and kinda just see where it goes
What was the definition of truth relating to logic?
- Objectively Verifiable
-Counter Claim: when you are thinking about the argument before the person says what they are going to say
- Adhom..:

Argument topics

1: Death Row
2: ISIS
3: Women's pay
4: Social Media (Censorship)
5: Artificial Intelligence
6: Government Transparency
7: Animal Cruelty
8: GMO Regulation
9: The Process of Education
10: The Economy

Stupid Arguments

There are so many arguments that I go through throughout the day. The most stupid one I would have to say though was when my Mom and Dad were trying to get me to stop driving my Jeep and start driving the other car because the Jeep is a stick shift and they think that I am going to mess up and end up getting into a car crash. I have been using the Jeep for the longest time that I am very comfortable with driving stick. In fact I enjoy driving stick more often the I do an automated car. These types of arguments are very point less because who really cars. They bought me the car so shouldn't they want me to drive it and not complain when I want to take it places that have hills or take it out to the beach?

Jiro

I believe that Jiro is a dedicated  person. He is a hard worker and is always striving to do better. Jiro said in his interview "Always look ahead and above yourself". This spoke to me by showing me how much people can care for the work and the effort that they day or put into something. I look at Jiro and I see someone with drive. Someone who will stop at nothing to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. In this generation it seems fewer people are determined and ambitious. Some people in my generation have great ideas and ambition like no other, but there isn't as many as there used to be. We need to try a little more and work a little harder and great things will be the outcome. Jiro has worked very hard to be were he is and with the amount of competition he had coming in around the time this documentary was made. He could be traveling the world, but he's working in his kitchen because that is his passion. It's people like Jiro that show why you should want to be a better version of yourself. "Dedicate your life to mastering your skill." Jiro shows complete and utter focus on his dream. He knows what he wants. He wants to get better and better, doing so by pushing himself to reach his full potential. In most instances once a person reaches the success level Jiro has they stop. I know what I  want to do in my future but that doesn't always mean that its going to happen the way that I want it to happen, Things in this world don't just get handed to you, you have to work and work to get better at what you want to do in you life. When you try and try at things and you fail most people stop. But real success comes out of that one accomplishment through all of the failures. If we want something enough we don't stop until we've obtained it and mastered it.

I'm Here..

There are so many things that go through a students mine when you ask them why they aren't doing the tings that they need to do for class. Most will say that they we busy or that they really just didn't have time for it. Well let me tell you that's a bunch of bull shit. Most students just don't do things because they really didn't feel like it.

When I don't get something done it's not because i didn't want to it's because I am either at sports or at work. The students here at Righetti have a very lazy work ethic. I am not excluding myself from that because I know that I have that same type of work ethic at times too. Is it possible for people to actually get things done when they need to? Is it the way that this course is set up or is it just the way we were raised by our parents and how we were set up by our former teachers?

What have I done in this class? I really haven't done much to be honest. I wish I was able to say that I have done everything that I needed to do to get a solid A in this class, but I haven't There is work that I have turned in late, there is work that I haven't even turned in. But for the most part what I have turned is reflects how I think about things. This blog may not be the best blog that Dr Preston has ever seen but it damn sure is a great blog. The way I learn isn't the same way that other students learn and that's just fine with me.

I am a person who is going to do things in the way that I feel will best help me understand things. I am not someone who is going to sit back and let people bother me at all. For the rest of the year I really hope to get things done and show people how I really go about things. Projects are the best way for me to show what I like to do and that's pretty much it.

Have I read Catcher in the Rye? Hell yeah I read that book, and i loved it. This is the second time that I have read this book and I couldn't explain it any better then a book that helps people think about what they really are inside. Ask me how I can prove that and I will show you. Have fun reading and writing.

Catcher in the Rye Notes

• Holden is "crazy" because he is telling the story itself from and asylum
• Ambiguity: figure it out for yourself.
• Get to actually know Holden instead of just flat out knowing everything about him from the start of the book
• Holden feels lobe when he is with his sister (doesn't use the same type if vocabulary)
• Holden is a person that has many different sides of himself for the different people in his life
• What was it about Phoebe and Ally that makes him more of an emotional person
• Why is it that he only ever wants to leave the school when he wants to go and see his sister?
• Rhetorical question : a question that is asked to get a point across. Causes the person who is asked the question to think deeper into the meaning.

Catcher in the Rye Summary

The novel by J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye, is a classical American novel that has touched the lives of many people.  The Novel takes place during the late 1950s. Told by a guy named Holden Caulfield, who is telling his psychiatrist the story of his latest Christmas experiences.Holden is not a troubled kid, aside from being a heavy smoker and getting expelled from four different schools.  He fails to recognize the importance of his schoolwork and does not agree with his peers on anything of any value. Holden is notorious for making extremely rash decisions. One being he makes the choice to leave his prep school, Pencey Prep, a few days before he is scheduled to leave for winter vacation. He stays in numerous places before finally going home. All the while, he attempts to "live it up" by taking girls out on dates, getting drunk , and ordering prostitutes. In the action of all of this happening Holden is only 17. Typical guy stuff, if you were living in the late 1950s. As he goes through all this stuff, he begins to wonder why he's doing what he's doing. Holden comes to a realization, "Why was he going about, living this way, when everyone and their mother knew that he shouldn't be living his life this way?" J.D. Salinger wrote a masterpiece of a novel that adeptly defines the maturing process of human nature.  Holden goes from being an immature teenager making bad decisions to taking his actions into consideration and making himself a better person.  Salinger takes into consideration the thoughts and actions of the younger generation and pens his main protagonist as a kid that others can easily connect with and relate to.  Through Holden's actions we see the struggles of daily life of newly graduated individuals who, for the first time in their lives, no restrictions in their day-to-day lives.  The dilemmas they face can be brutal and leave them worse off than they were before, but somehow,  through all the pain and suffering, that terrible event can cause the person to rethink his position on life.

Catcher in the Rye Project

Bree the G (#forbree)

American Literature

• the type if literature written or produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies
• During its early history, America was a series of British colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day United States. Setting its literary tradition to be linked 
• The New England colonies were the center of early American literature.
• It was in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that the nation’s first novels were published
• American poetry reached its peak in the early-to-mid-20th century
• Like other national literatures, American literature was shaped by the history of the country that produced it.
• American poetry, drama, fiction, and social and literary criticism 
• At first was naturally a colonial literature, by authors who were Englishmen and who thought and wrote as such.
• the bitter war worked to find the new nation’s government, they were influenced by a number of very effective political writers
• After the American Revolution, American writers were exhorted to produce a literature that was truly native

Graceland Notes

• 25 years ago, Simon released Graceland. 
• The album broke open musical boundaries and brought together diverse cultures
• it split public opinion as Simon was accused of breaking the United Nations’ cultural boycott of South African
• The album went on to be widely celebrated for its revolutionary fusion of musical styles
• bringing the gifts of under-exposed South African musicians
• sparking a brave new musical world of mixes, mash-ups and globe-hopping collaborations
• What is the role of the artist when society is in upheaval?
•  Who does music belong to?
•  Whose rules, if any, should artists play by? 
• Do cultural collaborations matter? 
• What will be the legacy of Graceland’s indelible songs in a world that has since been politically, and musically, transformed?
•  Each man has his own passionate reasons, and without taking sides
• Berlinger allows the audience to see all the angles and come to their own conclusions 
• even as the music that triggered indignation and exultation comes to life again.
• “This is a film that doesn’t smash a particular POV over the audience’s head – and I think it is interesting that Paul Simon allowed that kind of film to be made. Some people might walk away feeling Paul made the wrong decision 25 years ago, while I think many others might come away feeling it was more complex – that it was worth the controversy to have musicians from opposite worlds finally able to share, as Paul says, ‘the deep truth that artists speak.’ Either way, what is remarkable is that apartheid now lies in the past, yet the music lives on as a great achievement. The power of the music is that it is still bringing people together.”
• The power of the music is that it is still bringing people together.”

Journalsim and Photography

Journalism and Photography

    When I was asked what I wanted to learn in the second semester I really didn't know what to respond with. Once I really got to thinking i remembered how much I loved to write and how much I loved to take pictures.

      

     Taking pictures is a really hard task to do. No matter how much you practice or how you try to approach it the subject will always be hard because you never know what elements you will be shooting and how they will work with you. When I started to take photography I noticed that it was something that really came easy to me so I continued to try and take different photographs in many different ways. I started off by taking very simple pictures and then slowly moving into movement pictures. I finally realized that shooting sports and shooting action shots was something that I was really good at so I thought why not keep going with that. This semester I hope to achieve a way of photography that is going to help me express the things that I love to do and help me visualize everything that is going on. I want to show people that even though I am a teenager I can take the adult world are make it something that I want it to be.I want to show people that if you try to get me to do something that you don't think that I can do I will prove to you that I can be creative and that I can do whatever it takes to be good at something. Photography isnt something that everyone can be good at though. I didn't think that I was good at it when i started and then i really got into taking pictures for the yearbook and taking pictures of my friends just around campus. Doing this helped me think about what I wanted to do in the future. 

         

      How will I take this semester with an approach on photography you might ask. Well it is a subject that can really be stretched and fuzed into others. When thinking about reading a story the author likes to put thoughts in your mind about what is going on in the story. Well that's what a photographer is for, we are here to take those words and take those thoughts and create the actual image. When you tell someone that you want this or that you want that to be shown, well a photographer is the one that listens and is willing to go the extra mile to put all of the thoughts together and create the actual image that you are thinking of. I was asked in my photography class to capture a picture that shows sadness. When I was first asked I wondered to myself how I was going to do this but in all actuality it wasn't that hard. So for the semester I plan on taking photographs of what actually goes on during school and around our campus. I plan to ask students what they think should be showcased about our school. How people want to be represented when they graduate. I will show the flow of the students at Righetti, I will also show how different it is from a students point of view going through high school now then it used to be.

      Now for journalism. Well writing is something that everyone has to do when they are going through high school. It is something that none of the students really want to do because we have to sit there and write essay after essay in all of or most of our classes. Well when I got into my Honors English class last year we had to do many free writes about ourselves and about things going on around us. I really clicked to the fact of writing things that are really going on other than to writing essays about story after story. I have never really been fond of having to write essays, yet when I am writing about something that I am passionate about and something that I really care for I can write pages upon pages about the subject.

       

     When I told Dr Preston that I wanted to do something on journalism he kind of just looked at me in a funny way. I don't know whether it be because he thought that it was something that I wouldn't want to do or whether is be because he had great thoughts about what I should be doing and how I should Approach the subject. I am still not quite sure about how I want to do this but I do know that it is something that I really want to do.  I want to be able to ask students what they think about things going on during school. I want to be able to help students show how they really feel on the day to day life of a teenager. So many people think that we don't see stuff or don't understand stuff. Well I am very not sorry to say that you are wrong. The students here at Righetti High have really been put through a lot these past couple of year not only with everything that has been happening on campus. Students really go through so much stress with having to deal with sports, academics, and just life period! I dont really only want to write about sports and students though. I want to write about just random things. Things that I notice and things that come to mind when I hear a song or when I read something from a book, or even when I hear something in class that a teacher or fellow class mate says. Writing has become a major thing in my life and I plan to continue the battle of finding things to write about and take pictures of.

    I will be posting these ideas and thought onto a separate blog that has been put into a tab on this home page. I am so eager to start this next semester that I have already gotten a head start. I am posting my pictures that I have taken around campus and pictures of my friends that have been taken by other people that I think need to be shared with people. The things that I will be posting will not all come from be but will be things that have greatly influenced my love for the two subject. I hope you enjoy my second blog and I hope you enjoy the second semester.