Tuesday 23 April 2013

Poetry Discussion

Yesterday in English we discussed Poetry. We talked about what we thought poetry was and what the difference was between something being poetic and a poem. 

I consider poetry to be something you use to express your feelings and thoughts. I feel that poetry does not have to be just words, it could be a video or a picture. It's about making something poetic, not necessarily being a 'poem'. 

I think that by analyzing poems we can get deeper into the text and it is easier to read between the lines. It helps to make interpreting the text/video/photo much simple. 

We have recently learnt a lot about analyzing poems and new definitions about different poetic techniques. We learnt about economy verse and how it affects the way the poem is written.

As I mentioned before, a poem does not have to be words, it could be a video or picture. One of my favourite videos of this interpretation is The Mouse Poem by Sam Pepper, which I have posted about before.


"A poem doesn't have to use words. Be inspired by everything."

Monday 25 February 2013

Red Nose Day - Comic Relief

Red Nose Day is a fundraising event put together by Comic Relief.

By donating to the Red Nose Day foundation/event, you help by giving shelter to young people living on the streets in UK as well as saving thousands of people in Africa from malaria and allotting communities with fresh water and vaccines for children that can save lives.


Multiple celebrities participate in this event, by donating or even by going to Africa and helping out.


Many other celebrities like Justin Bieber, Adele, Rowan Atkinson and Paul McCartney have helped with this fundraising event. Over £74.3 million were raised in the 2011 event which was the highest ever in the 25 years of Red Nose Day.



It does not matter if you live in the United Kingdom or not, you can still donate and help.
Visit Red Nose Day to learn more and learn different ways you can help out.

Reading 'What Is The What'

We've been reading 'What Is The What' for over a month by now. I have read a little past book number two and so far the events in the whole book have been quite interesting.

We talked about the book in class and most people found the parts where Valentino described his present life in America to be quite slow and boring, whereas I found it fascinating. I think that the reason for this was that I liked looking at the people mentioned in the book as developing characters and how they had changed overtime and now during their life in America. 

The part that intrigued me the most was when the narrator talked about how Sudanese people adored giving speeches and were extroverts. After all that the Lost Boys had gone through in their life, you would expect them to quiet down and turn into introverts but their personalities and socializing skills remained the same.

I am really looking forward to reading what happens next in Valentino's life.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Blogging

Blogging can be considered as an essential tool for English as it helps articulate what we are not able to talk about in class. In class, the students may not always be able to share their writing pieces or what they are thinking about, having these blogs provides a chance to the kids to express their thoughts and share their opinions on what they are learning and/or experiencing in their lives. Blogging gives us a chance to convey our ideas and show how our ways of learning have affected us and helped us improve on our general skills. If you are an introvert or a shy student, blogging helps to communicate what you feel uncomfortable saying in class. Overall, I think that blogging is a very helpful tool in English class and personally, I feel that by blogging about the things we are learning in class helps us get a deeper insight and improves our understanding on the topic.

Monday 4 February 2013

How to Write About India

The title should always have something to do with something religious and/or slums in general. Use words like 'village', 'cow', 'God' or 'poor', this will help in showing the main idea of the story.

On the cover of the book make sure that the picture you use is of a rigid, skinny person in a ragged piece of cloth. Try to show that 90% of the population lives in slums.

Five percent of the other being the ones participating in Bollywood and the other five percent being the ones who migrated. When talking about the five percent that migrated, talk about how they are struggling immensely outside their comfort zone and having trouble with their accent. Because all of them have an Indian accent. If ever mentioning Bollywood, do not talk about the multiple amounts of movies they make, just mention the fact that the dancing to the songs in the movies impacts the whole country and educates them.

Do not forget to mention the sports, cricket only of course. Make sure not to talk about the national sport which is hockey, cricket is the most important.

When starting to conclude your story, make sure you include a quote by Mahatma Gandhi.
It will really bring contrast to your piece.

Thursday 22 November 2012

Introverts

Every single thing in this post related to me.
So I admit it. I am an introvert.

Many times in my classes, the teacher has put me on the spot and asked me a question on what we were discussing.
Yes, I knew the answer.
No, I wouldn't have raised my hand to answer that question without being asked to.

Lately, I have honestly been trying to participate more in the class discussions and if you're just like me and are trying to do the same, you would know it's not the easiest thing to do.
Going from a quiet person to someone who butts - not necessarily - into every discussion and conversation is not an easy change.

And when you finally do have the courage and raise your hand, the sudden pang of doubt is back.
What if what I say is wrong?
What if everyone makes fun of me?
What if the teacher thinks that-
What if, what if, what if.

A couple days ago in English, we were discussing about themes in a story called 'On Seeing The 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning' by Haruki Murakami. I had many ideas on what the theme might be but I didn't speak up. 
So as the same people kept on discussing over the themes and issues in this story, I continued mumbling my thoughts on it to myself.

Also, it's not just academics us Introverts have issues in speaking up in, it's sports too. 
And that does not help at all
Now in sports, you have to be very vocal. You have to call for the ball, the puck, anything.
Sometimes we do yell at our teammates for the ball and when we do, we cringe right after.
Was that too loud?
I think it was too loud.
What if I distracted them?
I bet they won't pass the ball to me anymore.

I guess what I'm basically trying to say in this post is that, yes, sometimes we might be wrong and we won't always be right but there's no reason that we should stop ourselves from sharing our thoughts with everyone. Some people may like them, some people may not. 
And even if what we say is incorrect, so what? The people surrounding us are there to help us learn, to help us grow.

There is no wrong answer.

Monday 19 November 2012

Pile Of Books

Recently, I have just gotten some books that I have been wanting to read for a while now. I was so excited to receive these that I thought I would make a post about it. I apologize for these summaries being quite vague as I have not started reading these books yet.

"What if you only had one day to live?
What would you do? Who would you kiss?
And how far would you go to save your own life?"

The book Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver is about Samantha Kingston, a teenager who relives her last day on Earth for a whole week.
This book scrutinizes the capability we have that could potentially affect the people surrounding us. 




"He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air."

The Maze Runner by James Dashner is about a boy named Thomas who gets his memory erased and wakes up in an elevator.
When he wakes up he is welcomed to the Glade, a large expanse which is enclosed by stone walls. None of the Gladers know how they got to the Glade, all they know is that every morning, the stone doors open to a maze that surrounds them.



"A world where everyone's ugly. 
And then they're not."

Tally lives in a society where at the age of sixteen, you will have an operation that will turn you from a repellent "ugly" into a stunningly attractive "pretty".
Tally's friend Shay is not so sure that she wants to become a pretty, which leads to her running away. The authorities of the pretty world give her a choice: to find her friend and turn her in, or never have the ability to turn pretty at all.