Danny's English Blog

 Response: I think a conversation that has changed me was when I was talking with my mom. This was probably back in 8th or 9th grade when I had been really stressed about school work and wasn't doing too well. When we were out to eat I had talked a bit about my worries in school. My mom told me that when she was in college she worked really hard and stressed a lot about school too but eventually it burnt her out and that a job mostly done was better than sacrificing yourself which would hurt you further down the road. I really took this to heart and have been a bit more lax with perfectionism and such and I have been a lot happier because of it. I'm really glad my mom and I talked, I've definitely improved since. Summary: We worked on creating claims, evidence and counter claims. Reflection: I thought it was very helpful to work on claims and evidence. This has helped me look for different perspectives and how to understand opposing claims.

 Response: When I was a kid my teacher told me I had a limited amount of tears. She said  if I cried too much I would run out of tears to cry in the future. Back then I cried a lot and she probably just wanted me to stop. Fortunately for her it did kind of work for a while and I would try to stop my crying by talking myself out of it. Now looking back on it I know she was just trying to get me to calm down and cry less but it still really stuck with me. Even now I still am a lot better at talking myself out of tears. Summary: Today we worked on vocab lesson 2 Reflection: I enjoy learning new words. the work has really helped me comprehend and remember them.

 Response: I had to overcome my fear of the dark. When I was younger I always had a nightlight on, especially when I was in a unfamiliar place. I always would run up the staircase in my basement after I turned off the lights. Over time I was able to get a handle on that fear and I made myself walk in the dark basement to get over it. Nowadays I am hardly scared of the dark. Summary: We worked on claims. Reflection: Im glad I was able to catch up on the work I missed yesterday. 

 Response: I think I will have to debate my stance on AI the most. I personally don't think AI is a good or moral thing. I refuse to use it flat out, even as it has grown to popularity and has spread pretty much everywhere. AI has weaseled its way into everything and a lot of people think that it is not as damaging as it is or actually seem to promote it. I personally would not touch AI and I think its popularity is dangerous to our society and our ecosystem. Summary: Took notes on claims. Reflection: I was absent but the notes I got after the fact seem useful.

 Response: I am sometimes scared to accept that I am wrong. Today I was talking with my friends about what you would call your great grandfathers brother. I had said great great uncle and someone else said granduncle. We went back and forth for a bit until someone else chimed in and we slowly went over it and figured out it is great granduncle. This meant both of us were wrong but I was struggling to admit that. It literally took me a few minutes and the other person saying they were also kind of wrong to finally say that I was incorrect. Summary: Today we went over the core components of an argument. Reflection: Im glad we talked about this more fully. I had gone over ethos pathos and logos a few years ago but had forgotten most of it so this was a good refresher.

 Response: I felt unfairly judged when I was kicked out of my elementary patrol team. For the patrol we pretty much helped teachers or helped during dismissal. I was assigned outside at the end of school to monitor and assist at carpool. A while in I had taken to sitting down while waiting to help kids to their car. The staff/teachers in charge had assumed that because I was sitting on my time between helping kids that I was lazy and slaking off. They unfairly judged my need to sit down within like half an hour as a sign of laziness and fired me from helping out during patrolling again. Summary: We did a commonlit about fear today. Reflection: I thought the CommonLit was very insightful. I had never seen fear as a learning opportunity and I will definitely see it differently the next time I am scared.

 Response: I think mostly I would like to learn about traditional clothes and arts. In general I really like exploring history through art, architecture and clothing because they really show the way the world has changed and is kind of the core of any culture. Seeing different clothes can really teach you about the envorment and values of a people. I always love identifying various forms of traditional art still enshrined and created in the modern day. I have always found it much more charming than postmodern/contemporary art. There is just a lot of humanity and joy that is rooted in our art and the way we dress. Summary: Today we went over prewriting. Reflection: Im glad we delved further into prewriting because it let me learn more about it. This gave me a better understanding of prewriting and I was able to practice it.

 Response: I think Santiago's presentation stuck out to me a lot. I think this is because I grew up with Legos as a kid, they were like my main source of entertainment and really influenced my further creative endeavors. I found it really interesting to see how powerful and how much of an impact they leave on other people. I don't really play with Legos anymore but I still think about them fondly and miss those summer afternoons where all I did was try to build cars and houses. I think his poem caught my attention because it was interesting to see the different ways he was able to express himself through his joy of Legos. Summary: Today we presented our poem posters. Reflection: I think it is very interesting to see all the different stories and perspectives my peers have. I didn't know all that much about even my own friends poems and it was nice to learn more about them while also sharing more about myself.

 Response: I have felt like an interloper and out of place when I hung out with a friend's friends a bit ago. I was invited to go to a restaurant with a newer sorta friend of mine and her friends but I didn't know anyone else there and they were all fairly younger than me. I was also the only guy there and I just felt very out of place to be honest. This made the whole outing feel awkward and uncomfortable for me because of the distance between me and everyone else. Overall I think the outing was nice but I just didn't really click with most of the people there so I was glad to get home and haven't hung out with them since. Summary: Today we read The Interlopers. Reflection: I think this story has an interesting message and I liked analyzing it more in depth in commonlit.

 Response: I think I will use adulterate, ambiguous and aggrandize the most out of the list this semester. I think this because they have more general definitions that could be used in a ton of different contexts. Adulterate may come up in more argumentative writings this semester while ambiguous and aggrandize could be used in just about any form of writing for many different contexts. I find adulterate an important word because it implies a very strong action that would garner such a description. Ambiguous and aggrandize can have a lot of meanings and context so it is important because it will probably show up a lot. Summary: We did our first vocabulary assignment. Reflection: I think working on our vocab will be very useful for SAT tests as well as my future in the work place. I didnt really know about half the words we went over and I had fun learning new words.

 Response: I think I like the clubs and groups I'm in within the Lakeside community the most. I have been able to make a lot of friends in the past few years since I started going to clubs and participating in the Lakeside theater department. I have met many friendly people who have helped me be more outgoing. I always enjoy the clubs I am able to attend and I have done lots of very fun stuff with them. It is a really nice opportunity that I am given here at Lakeside. On the homecoming and spirit side I am less leaning, I don't really participate much in spirit days, though I enjoy the idea, I just never get around to any of them. Homecoming wise I am not very interested in sports or anything and just didn't know if I had the energy to make it to homecoming this year. Summary: Today we took a test. Reflection: This poem was very interesting to read and analyze. I am glad we got to use our annotations from class so I could read over and understand what the questions were ask...

 Response: I  probably prefer worksheet work the most to help me learn. Worksheets are concise and very direct when learning in class. I am also a fan of that organization structure and I find it a lot easier to break down learning in that way. I personally prefer independent work or following along to notes and such as a class. I usually work best when working on it by myself so I can figure it out without clutter. I find writing/typing to help me memorize and I am able to go back and review my notes whenever. Summary: We worked on our poem posters. Reflection: This poster had me think over my poem more. When I had first made it I hadnt really thought about theme and related images so the poster let me more fully realize what I was writing.

Response: I think I enjoy the literary freedom poetry gives me most. Poetry lets me bend and play with the rules of language. Removing the need for specifics, clarity and structure I am able to mess around more and focus more on expression and imagination. Putting my words on the page without restraint is very freeing because I can put my emotions first and give it a more accurate depiction. Summary: Today we learned about figurative language and wrote our own poems. Reflection: I had a lot of fun getting free range to write our own poems. I think this let me explore fairly well and I quite enjoyed being able to do this for class. I also found it nice to get a refresher on certain literary devices.

 Response: I think a recent absurd situation I've been in was actually earlier today. During my drawing class my friends were in a discussion that, and I don't remember how, got into what the middle of the alphabet was. My friend had said it was M ½ and me and my other table mate laughed at him but he kept defending his point, and as he explained it further I got quite confused but after thinking it over I agreed with him. My other table mate was still wholeheartedly saying it wasn't. This argument stretched into 7th period where after some research we came to a consensus that M½ is the middle of the alphabet but that that was because we were not counting a zero letter. In the meaning of numbers the middle of 26 would still be 13. It was a very absurd and confusing conversation that gave me a bit of a headache. Summary: Today we read and analyzed Ferlinghetti's "Constantly Risking Absurdity" Reflection: I found the poem very interesting, I think it serves as a...

 Response: A song to describe my life currently would probably be Shawshank - Demo by They Royston Club. I relate to this song a lot because I am always just really tired and I find it easier to just stay in bed and do the bare minimum. I also really resonate with always being caught in a dream, making it hard to focus and get things done. I think there is also a vibe of discontent and the feeling of being stuck within the song that I can relate to, with me being stuck in school. Summary: We had a test and worked on the 5 song soundtrack. Reflection: Now that we have had our first official test and I think it will set a standard for me to work on my tests in the future. I was also able to expand my creativity while doing the 5 song soundtrack.

 Response: If I were to write a poem about one part of my life I would write it about being trans. I know its kind of cliche and I've mentioned it multiple times in my blog posts but being transgender is a big part of my life that leads to a lot of strong emotions and feelings by myself and others. Being queer is a very visceral yet liberating experience. It is an prolific unignorable part of my existence and I have a lot to say about it. I think it would fall into the common poetry topic of spirituality/identity. I think this bleeds into my overall message of It will get better. Summary: Today we analyzed more of Emily Dickinson's poems. Reflection: This practice we did today in class will help me immensely on the test coming up. The thorough analysis also helped me better figure out the themes of Dickinson's poems.

 Response: Now that I am 4 and a half weeks in, this class has not been that bad so far. The classwork has had a perfect balance of work for me, not being too difficult but still giving me enough work without drowning me in homework. I have also been able to learn new skills, especially in analyzing pieces of text. I will say that even as we do not see eye to eye in many things I am still able to get my work done well enough. Summary: We were introduced to our mini project about Emily Dickinson's poem "Heart, we will forget him" Reflection: This project will help me work on understanding symbolism and perspective within poems. The drawing will get me to work on the poem more thoroughly.

 Response: The fact that I am a trans guy makes me quite different from other people and societal norms. We live in a very cishet centric society and I have become an outlier, especially as ive come out. I skirt a lot of gender norms even outside being transgender because I tend to wear my clothes pretty androgynous with a pretty alternative style a lot of the time. This can really set me apart, especially at school but it has also led to me meeting a lot of other queer and alternative people which have become good friends of mine. Because of how I express myself differently I have been able to cultivate a community within Lakeside and I am very glad for that. Summary: We went over Emily Dickinson's poetry. Reflection: This helped me work with examples on how to properly analyze poetry, especially that of Emily Dickinson.