Tenth Blog

           

Last blog ever!

This semester was pretty great. Within a semester you take many classes, good or bad. You have professors with different personalities and not every class is run the same. With this, every class you have a different experience, I’m happy to say I had a great experience in Sweeney’s class. The book we had to get for his class was “Sweeney’s Lit Reader”. It enabled us to have easy access to the all the material we would endure for the semester. Because it is so on hand it makes it easier for us to keep up with the class. No more loosing handouts, unless you lose the book, then you are out of luck. Sweeney provided help and the peer review days added to this. Normally you are giving an assignment and that’s it, no more talking about it. With this, I feel the idea of peer review days, along with being put into groups, encourages us to do the work and not be afraid to ask for help. Now when it comes down to blogging, though I hate it, I understand how it helps and gives feedback on the material we go over. I really enjoyed English this semester. Help was provided and every assignment was clear and no curve balls through at you.

Ninth Blog

Slightly short and detailed, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, is a rather simple poem. It’s about a man riding on his horse who stops to watch the snow fill up the woods. For a second he wonders whose woods he lingers in but realizes the owner lives in the village. Being they are in the middle of nowhere with no farmhouse near, his horse impatiently moves, ringing his bells. With this he must go on, for he has to go on with his life. The way Robert Frost repeats the last line, “and miles to go before I sleep”, is brilliant. It just adds some taste to the poem. Though, I don’t really know what I’m talking about when it comes to poems, I feel like he’s going through something. Seems like a simple poem with really no point, besides how picturesque snow falling on the woods is. Maybe there is more to the man that this poem doesn't portray.

           

Eighth Blog

I really enjoyed “Facing it”, a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa. I feel, along with some others, I somewhat understood it without looking up the meaning.  It was intense, fast and just great. I felt emotion. The first four lines are my favorite. He is trying to hide his true feelings. It’s just too much pain to deal with. He told himself he wouldn't go there. The impact the memorial has on him is insane. This poem was very deep, but because of it, it’s great.

Seventh Blog

In class, after reading “We Real Cool”, we watched a video on the poem which featured the author, Gwendolyn Brooks. The poem is really short and it rhymes. It’s about rebellious kids, being real cool, leaving school, lurking late, and singing sin. That’s basically the poem right there. But I enjoyed being able to hear the audio of the author reading it. In the video she talks about how she came to write it. It was one day while passing by the pool hall and wondering how they felt about themselves. There is a part in her poem,” Jazz June”, which turned out to be controversial. The word Jazz was said to be sexual. Though that wasn't her intention, she went with it and didn't object others assumptions. It was pretty funny to hear that with humor, but she was more thinking of the music, jazz. Overall, it was a nice, cool, and short little poem.

Sixth Blog

Today we put into groups and spoke about the poems we had read. Each group picked a poem, in which we were to discuss and later read out loud to the class. Our group got stuck with one of the longer ones, “Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane”. The title pretty much tells you the poem, besides one of thing. Hard Rock, prior to going to the hospital, is a hero to the other inmates. He takes no shit from nobody, resulting in his name “Hard Rock”. Finally coming back, he didn't speak and was a changed person. What had they done to him? The inmates though it was just an act and was acting wise. The hope they had is just crazy. Disappointingly, they soon realized that wasn't it, for it took 3 minutes to state his name. This poem had a great story line to it. I actually understood it, unlike most. Though it is indeed a poem I felt it was like a story.

Fifth Blog

Today we had a guest speaker in class, Mark Harris.  His main reason in coming to speak was to discuss studying abroad.  Of course this caught my attention. Once he mentioned Australia, I was all ears.  He told us that he’s an International consultant and the president/CEO of Global Education Skills Alliance. This opportunity is really rare, considering that Richard Bland is a community college. When you think of studying abroad, one normally thinks of four year colleges.  So the fact that Richard Bland was going to be a part of this, was great! He gave us some facts on Australia. Spoke on how the cost of living is higher there. I forgot the exact amount, but the minimum wage in Australia is like eighteen dollars. Crazy! This experience, overall, sounds great and ideal. Not many get this chance and it really is a once in a lifetime opportunity

Fourth Blog

I really enjoyed “Facing it”, a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa. I feel, along with some others, I somewhat understood it without looking up the meaning.  It was intense, fast and just great. I felt emotion. The first four lines are my favorite. He is trying to hide his true feelings. It’s just too much pain to deal with. He told himself he wouldn't go there. The impact the memorial has on him is insane. This poem was very deep, but because of it, it’s great.