Book response...5? or 6?

 

I'll be completely honest here, never in my life have I really inquired to read a Nicolas Sparks books. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm a girl, and romance is cool and all, but PLAIN romance just ISNT my thing. Movies, books, anything with just PLAIN romance and NO real action or suspense is not a movie or book id like to take time on. Plain romance books and movies...are BORING...BORING...BORING and all about sex, sex, sex YEAH I SAID IT! But its true...and not only is sex not love, its not something I really care to fixate on. That's all Nicolas Sparks books were...including his movies...and they just were not my thing...or so I thought.

Friends can dare you to do silly things, including reading books that you otherwise wouldn't have second glanced at. Michele is a dear companion of mine, and she is quite a big fan of romance movies and books, especially N.S., Which I always knew. Book after book, she read and read, claiming that they were all soooo good. I of course never thought so (though I never took time to sit down and read one). Anyways, eventually she challenged me to read the latest N.S. book that she just finished reading, claiming that it was fantastic and that I would love it. I didn't believe her one bit, I thought that I would be SO bored and it would be HECK to get through...

but when I actually took the time to stop and read it, without a biased opinion of how much I would dread the novel, it was pretty good.

 I KNOW! SHOCK ME TOO!

 

Now there is a difference between Romance and Really cute gooshy gooshy cheesy romance that is cute and innocent. a Huge difference. This book so far has been really cute, and actually intriguing though it has been confusing. two different stories are taking place at once, and somehow...they intertwine and make sense at the end.

An old man(named Ira) has crashed his car on the side of a silent snowy road, unable to free himself, and hurt badly. Eventually his pain causes him to hallucinate, causing his deceased wife, Ruth (whom he loved most of all in life) to appear in the seat next to him in a ghostly young form. Through the book they talk to each other and you really just learn more about their life and who they were.

Then there's Sophia and lukes story, two young people who end up falling in love. Sophias a high class college girl and Luke is a good old country boy, who takes care of his family's HUGE acre farm and rides bulls on the side for a living. I haven't gotten really far in it so...like without getting into details that's pretty much how I would sum up whats happened so far. Sophia and luke meet at a party, as he ends up saving her from her scum bag ex, and they just hit it off. Somehow along the way Ira and Ruth will crash into their story but I don't know how..

gotta keep reading I guess...

Proposal for project 4

My area of interest is: Disney Princesses

My initial claim is: Disney princess movies teach  children that there is hope in the world, and as we grow up this hope gives us courage in our oncoming future. Also, each individual princesses and their stories have powerful lessons to teach kids, and inspire them to become great and powerful women.

Others might say: Disney princess movies are bad for the mind, giving children unrealistic interpretations of what the future holds, and happily ever after.

How this is significant/ What does this say about our culture: People all chose to raise their children in different ways, filling their minds with all sorts of morals and ideas that they feel is right.  Some parents challenge the idea that "children shouldn't watch unrealistical, magical, or fantastical, movies" because its "bad for their minds" or "teaches them false things about life" But, children need that sense of hope and creativity at a young age to grow up happy and healthy! Even if there are no Fairy god mothers or princes that save the day, there are forms of those in the realistic sense, and we need to never lose sight of the positivity that reality can bring to us.

My resources will be: "Disney princesses no more"

http://brookeandthebeanstalk.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/disney-princesses-no-more/

"Gender roles and steriotypes found in disney movies"

http://filmandmedia12.wikispaces.com/Gender+Roles+and+Stereotypes+Found+in+Disney+Films

Fifth reading response: Article 2.

 

Sometimes I feel like, as Americans, teenagers (and students of all ages), take the education, and the education system, that we have for granted. I know I know, you've heard it a million times "You need to be grateful for what you have, think of the children in Africa who have no education and in china who are told what kind of life they have", But have you ever really, and I mean really took the time to just STOP and realize how LUCKY you are? We get free education when other countries do not, or don't even get one at all. We get to CHOSE what we want to be, instead of our government deciding for us, or deciding if you'll have a future at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I understand that sometimes, sitting down and listening to lecture, after lecture, after lecture, isn't always the most enjoyable, or effective way to learn, but sometimes we have to engage in things we don't particularly like. However, its understandable that in some instances teachers aren't truly effective in their teaching, but never the less, students need to learn to cooperate more in class activities if we want to get the most out of class.

 

The article got me thinking, I mean, I've heard that foreign counties like Finland and Sweden had the highest success rate in teaching their students, but I never really knew why. Its obvious that students in America take for granted their education and all together have this ungrateful I don't care attitude that pushes us to be so...not in the top intelligence, but that couldn't have been the only reason, there had to be more. The article gave me the other reason I was looking for. The way people teach....hands on learning, personally, I enjoy it and learn a lot from the activities. Things like chemistry and science are not easy classes to take by any means, but they...I feel, have more of an appeal to them because there are so many hands on activities involved with them. Creating things, dissecting animals, things that you learn about in class taking action in your hands and creating memories in your brain, it just seems like such an easy way to learn.

 

Elementary school was (learning wise) a fun time. Field trips, art projects, I mean things like that, small and not so significant, but very hands on, are good ways to teach students an people how to learn. Of course we still need to train ourselves to work by just listening, and train our brain to memorize what we hear, but doing things has a long last effect on the memory maybe even more so, than hearing. ALSO something that we NEED to work on as youth and as a NATION is the community within schools, and the atmosphere presented by them. To learn better, people shouldn't have to work about being picked on, or something like that, they should feel comfortable and safe within the school so that their brain can hown into just learning, and not worrying about what's going to happen after school, or at lunch. I feel that the article made a nice point when pointing out how community plays part in an effective learning environment.

 

Well, I liked this article, it actually interested me a little because it was something that I wondered about and thought on. I read through it with interest but occasionally had to pause because it was lengthy, but didn't hesitate to finish it. I enjoyed reading through it and thinking about things as I read along.