Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Big Question

big question : Is it worth it to give up living with your family to live in a time loop? throughout the book "Miss Peregrines school for Peculiar children" the main character jacob is constantly thinking about this question. He feels it would be a bad experience for his family to suddenly and unexplainably lose their only child. he is what the others of his kind call a peculiar, they all feel it would be best for him to come live with those of his kind in a time loop where he would never age. He is worried that his disappearance would traumatize his family members, so he holds off until the last minute when Miss Peregrine is in danger to make his decision. He ultimately decides to live in the time loop and that it is best for his well being to be with those of his kind because they offer a protection from the wights and hollows, that the normal population would call him crazy for even thinking about such horrendously awful creatures. He also decides after they get over the fact that he disappeared that it will eventually be better for them because the creatures wont go after his family if he isnt around to put them in danger.

Monday, April 16, 2012

I have recently started reading the book miss peregrines home for peculiar children. It is actually turning out to be a good book despite what i previously thought. It has mystery and confusing parts and monsters, so it has kept my attention quite well. It starts out with the little boy Jacob telling how his grandfather used to tell him stories of his childhood involving monsters and a mysterious island that kept them safe. As Jacob gets older he believes less and less in the life he was told about, he begins crediting  all the stories to what the doctors told his family was dementia. but when his grandfather calls him in a panic saying the monsters are after him Jacob goes to check on him and finds the house a mess. they follow the path of objects that have been thrown to the edge of the yard and the see a path going into the forest, Jacob goes in before his friend ca grab a flash light. He runs in looking for something, anything and that is when he finds the mangled body of his grandfather, he looks around to see the culprit and catches a glimpse of exactly the kind of monster his grandfather had described long ago. when he reports this to the police they dismiss it as crazy and he spends months seeing psychiatrists and being evaluated. his grandfathers final words ringing in his ears , an opportunity finally comes for him to visit the island he had heard of as a young child....... will this trip answer his questions? give him closure on the death of his grandfather?

Friday, March 23, 2012

I believe the theme in the book I am reading is that despite a crappy start greatness can be achieved. Young Abraham Lincoln starts life on a small rundown farm where he lives with his family of 4. He experiences death at a young age when his younger brother Thomas dies before he was a month old. His mother dies short after that sending him into a dangerous depressed rage. He finds the culprit of her death is a vampire and vows to kill as many vampires as he can. He kills the one responsible for her death and realizes it isn't as impossible as he thought. He begins training himself in preparation to fight the undead creatures of the night.He gets his behind kicked by an old lady vampire. after many years he becomes the vampire hunter he dreams of. Later he becomes president of theses great United states. He is the ideal that humble starts can lead to greatness.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

SSR book part 2


I am still reading the book "Abraham Lincoln, vampire slayer. this book started off without much promise, after finishing the first page i figured i was in for a boring book that i wouldn't want to finish. but i was pleasantly surprised when the book started climaxing, my imagination was sparked with tales of vampires and the endeavors of former president Abraham Lincoln as he hunted the horrible creatures. After the death of his mother, he realizes the cause of her death was a vampire he vows from that day forward to kill every vampire in America. His first kill doesnt hold the joy he thought it would, it proved a simple task to young Abe. After years of training himself he goes on the hunt when he hears evidence of a vampire nearby. He attempts to kill the creature but is easily overpowered, upon the threshold of death someone saves him. When he wakes he is in a dim room restrained to a bed, he finds out it was a vampire that saved him and he is enraged. but his fleeting emotions proved useless because the vampire was a freind and meant to hel him. Abe went back home where he would occaisionally receive letters from his new freind Henry, containing the whereabouts and identities of vampires nearby. Young abe would then hunt them down and return home as if nothing was amiss. this book has proven itself very interesting and  I am glad i picked it off the shelf.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Education

The problem with education is pretty much everything.From the long tedious hours to the crappy course selection,students are filled with day after day of mind numbing things that they will most likely not use in their career.What use will the majority of students find in Spanish class or Gym class? I sit through 3/4 of my classes without learning a single thing so I assume that most other people don't learn much either. If education were to  find a way to be interesting while still instructing students in what they need then the system wouldn't need reforming. The system could use a change with the hours as well, no student wants to spend 7-8 hours every day feeling like they have accomplished nothing.Dan Meyers explains that students don't learn any real math, because students can decipher the text book without learning a thing. He explains that maybe if students were interested in the subjects they were learning that they would be more inclined to learn it.
 The main problem would be the fact that curriculum doesn't know the meaning of interesting, if teachers could find a less conventional way to bring the students mind into what their learning.

  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

the book i am currently reading is called "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire slayer" I haven't really gotten much time to read this selection. But from what I have gathered it is an okay book and i should enjoy it, i haven't even finished the first chapter and I already have a lot of questions. The intro raised a lot of questions because it barely gave any information on the main character and it gives very little background. The background that has been given is not put together very chronologically and it doesn't make much sense to me. This book is challenging to read due to the fact that it is putting twists on factual knowledge so it bothers me that the author is trying to re-write history to his own twisted little fantasy land with vampires in the civil war.