Canterbury Tales II: What A Character

My Dashboard

So... I have a way that I keep all of my online websites organized, which is by putting them into folders on my phone with a link to each and every one of them. I keep my to do list in my notes, I keep upcoming events in my calendar, I have my email addresses set up to go to my phone, and etc. Although I already have a method, I want to try this new dashboard. I would like to see if it will help me or hurt me. So I set up my personal dashboard with a lot of the sites that I use and I am sure that I will add to the collection as I use it more often. I am not sure how this is going to work out for me as when I am in a routine, it is hard for me to start something new. On the other hand, I think that this resource is going to help me and save me a lot of time. I hope that I can force myself to use it in order to help myself in the long run. I am going to try this new system and go out of my own personal ways and see how it goes. I will have another post in about a week updating you on how my experience is going. Whether I am successfully using this new resource or have completely forgotten about it will be revealed in about a week or so!

By the way.. my dashboard that I created includes a Calendar, the weather, and a to do list. I have links to my email, Dr. Preston's Blog, my blog, and I am working on getting a link to our student portal. I am not including my social networking sites at this point as I want to focus more on the educational things. I am also going to embed scholarship websites and the UC, CSU, and Private School application websites.

Phonar14 Video

This video was very eye opening and made me think about my perspective and how I go about things. It was also hard to wrap my head around at times. I am interested to hear the conversation we will have tomorrow in class.

 

 

The Canterbury Tales 1

A few things that I must add...
Irony is seen in that this group of people are going on this journey to show respect to the Archbishop, but now they are in it for the free dinner and winning the story-telling competition.
The Knight's son was described with similes, metaphors, and a lot of figurative language.
There was a lot of fancy words used where simple ones would work just a great.
My questions are how will the stories that each character tells play an important role in the story? Do the stories resemble the character that is telling them? Why does Chaucer retell the stories using his own diction rather than copy the words of the story-teller?
My favorite character right now is Madam Eglantyne because she is known to be very kind, tender-hearted, and well mannered.

Masterpiece 1

For my masterpiece, I decided that I want to do something that involves the entirety of society interacting with those with special needs. This may be difficult to think of something that will truly make a huge difference. Also, there are already a lot of events that are happening everyday that include what I am trying to accomplish. But I feel that there are only select people who really try to interact with these individuals and make a difference and what I want is to see a difference within the whole of the society. I don't want it to just be that handful of people anymore, I want it to start with my class of 2015 and then I want it to move to school wide, then California, wide and eventually worldwide. I want to make a difference for those with special needs because they are truly amazing people and deserve to be treated just as any other individual in society. I believe that it needs to start here and with our generation. We need to work to make them apart of our lives and make a difference for them. Just by these simple actions as having a dance where everyone finds a Special needs date, or a school gathering where we hang out and play sports with them, or whatever it may be, our actions truly impact their life and their motivation to keep striving. So at this point I am working on what big event will truly make a difference and spread throughout California and maybe even the United States!

Declaration of Learning Independece

I believe that every person learns in a different way or style. For me I learn something by reading or looking over it and then the words and concepts are printed into my brain. I have a photographic memory. Other people learn in a way that when they listen to someone talk they can remember every word and that's how they memorize and learn things. There are also students who need to listen, talk, and do hands on things with others in order for them to learn. Since everyone learns in different ways a teacher must hit all styles of learning to ensure success from his students. Another idea to help students with different styles is to give options to students. Teachers never really trusted students enough to give them an option, rather they would give specific instruction and force the students to do it. But what if a teacher said you need to learn about this story and you will be having a test on it next week. You must find a way to become familiar with that story. So some students will get the audio and listen to the story, others will read it out loud with each other and collaborate when they are unsure as to what is happening, and others will simply do their own thing and read it on their own. This freedom is difficult for us in that we have never been presented with it before. I think that it is going to help myself and my classmates to get a good grasp on techniques and other things that we will need for the AP test and life in general. Although at times it gets difficult without structure, I think that it will help me prepare for college and also introduce me to a new and more helpful type of learning.

Vocabulary #4

1. Obsequious - adj. attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner; attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery.
The obsequious girl flirted with the bartender who eventually gave her a free drink.
2. Beatitude - noun a state of supreme happiness.
After the wedding the bride and groom, as well as every on else, danced the night away in beatitude.
3. Bete Noire - noun a person or thing especially disliked or dreaded; bane; bugbear.
All of the students felt strongly about the bête noire, who had taught them absolutely nothing all year.
4. Bode - verb indicate by signs
The interpreter boded what was being said to those who were hard of hearing.
5. Dank - adj. unpleasantly cool and humid
The dank weather meant that a lot of the town would be grumpy and unpleasant.
6. Ecumenical - adj. of worldwide scope or applicability; concerned with promoting unity among churches or religions
The ecumenical church tried to accumulate more followers by walking the neighborhoods and passing out fliers.
7. Fervid - adj. extremely hot; characterized by intense emotion
The fervid conversation led to screaming, yelling and eventually lots of tears.
8. Fetid - adj. offensively malodorous, smelling extremely unpleasant.
The P.E. locker rooms fetid smell lingered over the weekend as most of the students forgot to take their clothes home and wash them.
9. Gargantuan - adj. of great mass; huge and bulky
The grocery stores gargantuan stock of cereal would please all of the customers no matter what flavor they prefer.
10. Heyday - noun the period of greatest prosperity or productivity
Awhile after the Great Depression and all the work to build the economy back up, there was finally a heyday period.
11. Incubus - noun a male demon believed to lie on sleeping persons and to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women; someone who depresses or worries others; a situation resembling a terrifying dream
The child woke up suddenly due to an incubus that reoccurred all throughout the night.
12. Infrastructure - noun the stock of basic facilities and capital equipment needed for the functioning of a country or area; the basic structure or features of a system or organization
The infrastructure of the government is sometimes quiet faulty, which leads to a government shut down.
13. Inveigle - verb influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
The teenagers inveigled their teacher to not give them homework for the night.
14. Kudos - noun an expression of approval and commendation
The teachers got kudos for coordinating an awesome field trip and lab to go with it.
15. Lagniappe - noun a small gift (especially one given by a merchant to a customer who makes a purchase)
The store owner gave the customer a lagniappe for buying so many items and spreading the word about the store throughout the community.
16. Prolix - adj. tediously prolonged or tending to speak or write at great length
The prolix author wrote a one thousand page book that went on and on about the world ending.
17. Protege - noun a person who receives support and protection from an influential patron who furthers the protege's career
The protégé of Michael Angelo would learn great technique about art and painting.
18. Prototype - noun a standard or typical example
The teacher provided multiple prototypes to ensure that the students would complete the assignment correctly.
19. Sycophant - noun a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
Many sycophants are parents trying to get playing time for their child and constantly take the coach out to dinner.
20. Tautology - noun useless repetition; (logic) a statement that is necessarily true
The author had used a lot of tautology which became apart of his diction and overall purpose of the story.
21. Truckle - noun a low bed to be slid under a higher bed; verb yield to out of weakness; try to gain favor by cringing or flattering
The bullied student truckled to the bully who kept getting in his face and hurting him.