Insert Famous Line Here

(It's too cliche to write the line as the title.  Just saying)

To be or not to be a high school student, that is the question.  I don’t know about you, but soon we won’t be and first I went yay! Then I went wait… and then finally…awwww.  It’s been four years of work, fun, craziness, and other things that we shall not mention.

Entirely random, though not it you think about what occurred in class today.  Now what would be random is if I started talking about ponies or a pink fluffy unicorn.  Probably one of the most repeated phrases on the band trip, or maybe not.  See?  That’s random.  Sorry, seemingly distracted like we get in class. 

Back to the point.  We started with Mrs. Loconte and a devo about how to lessen stress from a Christian perspective.  I very much enjoyed it and remember this one point the most: rest properly.  Maybe that means I’ll go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight instead of like usual.

Going on, we stepped into the Act 2 quiz.  Now agree with me: it was pretty good.  And your marks seem to agree.  Here is where I remind you that each Act quiz will be EXACTLY the same format. 

But that doesn’t really matter for the moment.  What does is the fact that we read Act 3 Scene 1 (with some… interesting voices for Hamlet and Gertrude WHO IS THE QUEEN, QUEEN GERTRUDE).  That is how the first paragraph with “to be or not to be” came from by the way.  And I just have to mention how mean Polonius was for putting Ophelia is such a horrid position where Hamlet now hates the world because his friends, family, and girl he liked have basically betrayed him. 

Then the bell rang. 

Don’t run away just yet.  We have homework.

Read Act 2 Scene 2 of Hamlet.

Answer the questions for Scene 1 and 2.

Bonus Assignment (Inner Shakespeare) due May 31^st.

Enjoy your weekend!  Hopefully I didn’t ramble too much.  Maybe I should eat less sugar…hmmm…anyways, see yas!

The Madness of a Prince

Salutations.

Today's Lit class was quiet and focused, quite unusual considering our normal morning antics. I began the class with a quick devotional, and then we were off to study further into the tragedy of Hamlet.

We looked further into Hamlet's "madness" and discovered that through his mask of insanity, he continues to converse in a clever (and often insulting) way. He is quickly able to detect the intentions of his childhood friends-turned-spies, whom Claudius has sent to watch, observe, and report back to him Hamlet's behavior. Polonius continues to act in deceit. He, too, has intentions of spying on Hamlet, using Ophelia as a pawn in his plan.

Hamlet (fed up with his lack of action concerning his father's death) has decided to determine if Claudius is responsible for his father's murder. He has added lines to the play that he and his family will watch the next day that coincide with the events of his father's murder. If Claudius flinches with conviction as the lines are read, it will be enough proof for Hamlet that Claudius is guilty.

After we concluded Act II, we took a break from Shakespeare and read "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen on p.956 of our Lit textbook. Although many of us have read it before in English 12, the poem remains a shocking and gruesome depiction of the realities of the battlefields. The author uses vivid language and images - a trudging line of blood-sodden soldiers, the writhing panic of an unmasked man drowning in a sea of gas - to transport readers to the heart of the war. Owen successfully paints a picture of a situation that none would likely want to experience.

We polished off the class with a trial lockdown. Unfortunately, we had no way to lock our doors, and so if the lockdown had been a reality, we would probably all be dead right now.

Except the Track Team.

They would still have to write the quiz tomorrow.

Homework:

1. Hamlet Act II Quote Quiz will be Tomorrow, May 25. Remember to study the speakers and the meanings of the quotes!
2. "Dulce et Decorum Est" Study and Discussion Questions, p. 957 #1-3 are due Tomorrow, May 25.
3. Hamlet Bonus Assignment is due on Thursday, May 31 - a week from today.

The Second Coming and Hamlet

So, last night I was supposed to blog, and to my dismay, I found out 20 minutes ago that I published it on my other blog.  Thus, I have decided to blog today since a) no one got to enjoy my blogging yesterday and b) Jaclyn was not able to grace us with her presence today.  **If you were here for today's class, scroll down until you see the green words that say "today"**

     For those who weren't here yesterday or today, here's a recap of yesterday's class: To begin, Mrs. Loconte read us a devotion titled Letter From the Father, which was a compilation of different promises given to us from God via verses in the Bible.  In this letter, God promises us that he knows each and every part of us, and that he loves us and desires to lavish us with his love.  He also promises a great future for each of us if we listen closely to his commands and follow him.  

    After devotions, we had our Hamlet Act 1 quiz, which was surprisingly doable if you actually read all the scenes.  When the quizzes had been finished and collected, we moved on to look at Mr. Yeats and his poem Second Coming.  It is a very diverse, and indeed baffling, poem with everything from staunch Christian themes and interesting occult philosophy, to perhaps even some colourful nonsense.  The imagery of the poem though, is extremely powerful, and makes it a worthwhile read.  I especially liked the image given of a falcon as a metaphor for reason, circling and circling until it can no longer hear the falconer.  

     Homework from Yesterday:  Act 2, Scene 1 Questions

    

     Now, we shall move on to today.  Today's class began with another devotion from Mrs. Loconte, titled P.U.S.H, which was a story about how sometimes we think God isn't answering our prayers, when in actuality, he's growing us and making us patient or strong or whatever it may be. In the end, all we have to do is keep Praying Until Something Happens.  

    Next, we moved on to presentations for those of us who did the extra credit projects.  Jeff started us off with a dramatic presentation of how "The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire", showing us all the countries that were once under British Rule (i.e England, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, etc.).  After that, Kathleen gave us a nice poem countering the pessimism of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach.  I preceded to also give a poem countering Arnold's pessimism.  

     After everyone had been put to sleep by my poem, we moved on to (or should I say back to?) Yeats and finished analyzing Second Coming.  Personally, I am of the opinion that Yeats was enjoying some recreational activity (read: DRUGS), and I'm pretty sure the rest of you all agree.  Either that, or he was into some pretty wacky voodoo that was conjuring up some strange images in his head.  

     Speaking of crazy people, we also continued to discuss Hamlet, reiterating what we read in Act 2, Scene 1, as well as starting to read part of Act 2, Scene 2.  We all kind of agreed that Polonius is, in Emmett's words, "a scumbag", or at the very least, crafty, manipulative, and distrustful of his children. Ok, yeah, a scumbag.  Polonius gets Reynaldo to check up on his son Laertes to make sure he is behaving reasonably and not shirking his studies, by asking around to see if he is a party animal or not.  Next, we learn that Hamlet is acting like a madman, making everyone start to question what is wrong with him.

Homework for Today: Read the rest of Hamlet and turn in a 25 page paper on the underlying themes of the poem by tomorrow.  Just kidding. Maybe. 

**REAL HOMEWORK DUE TOMORROW: Finish Act 2, Scene 2 and do all the question for it. Yep, stay up all night if you have to. JUST DO IT. - nike**

P.S: Sorry if this blog post is long, boring, weird, hallucinogenic, riddled with mistakes, or just plain terrible. I may have been trying to get my creative juices flowing through some recreational activity just like Yeats did. Just Kidding. Maybe.

P.P.S (or is it P.S.S??) Jaclyn, could you do devotions tomorrow? I won't be there.  Thanks :D

Now that you've wasted half your life reading this, it's time for you to go rest, go outside, kick a ball, listen to some music, go party. Oooooooooh, wait. You can't. You have seventeen questions for Scene 2 to do. Better get on that.

Have a nice day.

Friday's Class

Hi, sorry for the late blog...

On friday we heard devotions from Kathleen about keeping our mind clean and allowing Jesus to enter it.

We also discussed Hamlet Act 1, scene 3 questions and Act 1 Scene 4 questions.

We also engaged in a class discussion about the rolling up of the Carver pants... it was concluded that it was not allowed... although many of us found it unreasonable.

Homework:
-Read and complete Act 2 Scene 1 questions
-Bring both Hamlet and the lit 12 textbook to class on tuesday

Oops, my bad

I wrote down that i was blogging, but I checked my homework sheet at 11. I guess I've learned that we should always check our plans ahead of time to avoid events like this one!

Today's class was quite empty. We mostly discussed Hamlet and what we have read so far. Hamlet's love life with Ophelia is introduced as well. What was really interesting this class however was our discussion about whether suicide sends you straight to hell. Some argued that suicide was a sin, and committing suicide would mean that you have no chance to repent of it, thus sending you to hell. Others argued that some were in such a desperate state of mind that it would be unfair to condemn those people. It was a good discussion and it was quite unfortunate that we were not able to share this discussion with our missing classmates.

The Homework:

Act 1 scene 3 + 4 questions

I apologize for the late blog

Blogs, like cheese, are important.

Just so YOU know, I still check these regularly and am marking you on completion of them.

Late blogs are not okay.
Remember we agreed to blogging no later than 9pm.

I will not blog what we discussed in class today nor what the homework is as that is not my job,
but I will share a link that I feel is a nice conclusion to the discussion we had today that was sparked from Hamlet's soliloquy.
http://www.bible.com/bibleanswers_result.php?id=228

Lastly, please stop asking me 'who is/am I blogging today'.  You know where to find that information and if you can not blog on your given day, make arrangements to switch with someone.

I look forward to reading your blogs- see you tomorrow.

100 Saints You Should Know

Today class was started out by having Tayler with devotions. She told us a story about a play that she had recently seen at the Pacific Theater called 100 Saints You Should Know. The main point of the play was to not turn people away from God, but instead tell them about him, instead of sending them to talk to a pastor or another person.

Next we continued on to take notes which were on the board. We then discussed Hamlet Act 1 Scene 1.

While reading Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2, we were interrupted by the Student Council Executive elections, and left to the gym to hear the speeches.

Also I feel as though my blog was very short so here are some quotes to make it look as if though I did tones of work.

“Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”

― G.K. Chesterton, Alarms and Discursions

“How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?”

― Charles de Gaulle

“The moon looked like melted mozzarella to my bleary and blurry vision. Was I tired, intoxicated, or in love? Or was I sober, asleep, and alone?
”

― Jarod Kintz, At even one penny, this book would be overpriced. In fact, free is too expensive, because you'd still waste time by reading it.

“I just don't see the point of not eating cheese. I mean, if God didn't want us to eat cheese, would he have let man invent it?”

― Lisa Samson, Hollywood Nobody

“Dessert without cheese is like a beauty with only one eye”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

 “A long time ago people believed that the world is flat and the moon is made of green cheese. Some still do, to this day. The man on the moon is looking down and laughing.”
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Have a great afternoon

Homework:
Read Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2