Gallery Walk Assessment

       I learned, in the Gallery walk that people are still talking about the death camps and the Holocaust. I also learned that scientists are concerned about the temperature of our climate and that it has risen by almost a degree in the last 100 years. A lot of Domestic abuse has been removed, and domestic crime has decreased significantly in the last year. On a less happy note, ocean coral is dyeing because of chemicals that have been released into the ocean. South Korea is sending "The Interview" on balloons into North Korea, the movie that they hacked and got into a big fuss about.

       In the class period I learned that ISIS continues to grow stronger, and domestic violence has cut down in the past year. These are important for the world to hear, both good and bad, because they can teach us a lesson about the struggles for certain causes and the people that live in this world. As a child, you aren't worried about terrorists coming to kill Americans, or the str
uggle for women's rights in the U.S., and unless we read articles like we have in class we will never learn. By those standards, the class period served a great way to get snippets of information on these topics.

Heat, By Stanley Suter

          Prompt-Does the title fit the Story?

          This week I have been reading "Heat" by Mike Lupica, and I find myself being pulled further and further into the book. We finally get to view a first person view of the game, and we see how good Michael really is. He pitches next to a no hitter on another team, and his team wins by a point. I have a feeling that he will be recruited to a higher league and leave his team, because he is going to have to achieve something or recover from something before the end of the book, otherwise it is going to be a very pointless book.

          The title fits the book if you think of heat as pitching. I have a feeling it may have to do with his emotions, or the way he makes it to the major leagues, his highest dream. After he goes into details about his fathers death, and what he wished for their building owner to take care of his children so they couldn't be sent back to Cuba, their original home. He was a taxi driver that saved a woman from her ex-boyfriend after she left the car, and due to that small excitement he has a heart attack. Refusing to go to the doctor, he dies on their couch. This was shocking for Michael and Carlos because they had played baseball and talked to him the day before, and it really pushed Michael to become a good pitcher.

          The title is a horrible fit for the book because I feel that it wasn't as clear or as explicit as it should have been. For example, in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerers stone" it was really clear what was going to happen in the book. I mean, Heat? Is there going to be a drought? I only was pulled into the book because last year in Battle of the Books the sports books were very good, so I figured this would probably be good. It is very uplifting to read when he plays. Overall, I think that they named the book "Heat" because of Michaels emotions towards his father's death, and the competition on his way to the top. It does fit.

I commented on Steven, Gabe, and Nikolas.
         

Heat, by Stanley Suter

          Prompt-Who is your favorite character? Who is your least favorite character? Why?

          This week I have been reading "Heat" by Mike Lupica, and so far it is really unrealistic. The book starts out with a robber taking an old woman's purse, and being too quick for the cops to catch him. So a kid named Michael hits him (with a baseball) with enough force to knock the robber out from home plate. As you can see, a teenager being able to do that is so slim that it seems impossible. But he goes home to where his brother is getting ready for the three jobs that he works, and his brother flips out on him for saying that they couldn't afford baseball tickets to a yankees game. The whole thing seems over dramatized and more that a little corny, but Lupica writes well.

          My least favorite character so far would have to be the old lady that owns the floor. She purposely was carrying around a purse that was meant to look much more expensive than it was. She was also flashing over 100 dollars, so it is no surprise that she was robbed and knocked over. I know it wasn't right to be robbed, because it sucks if your the one it's being done to, but she was asking for it. She goes senile screaming "THIEF THIEF" and i'm sorry for picking on the old woman, but that was obnoxious and I can't stand things like that.

          My favorite character would be Michaels brother, Carlos (I don't know why but when I think of him I picture Carlos). He refuses to give up to poverty and instead of working off of our poverty system he works his hardest to support for Michael and himself. It is clearly stressing him out that he can't afford to buy anything nice for Michael or himself and he can barely keep up with his rent, bills, and food. None the less, he promises to take Michael to a baseball game before the season ends, making him a very respectable character.

Nadrian, Citlalli, Sarai.

TKAM Movie Anylisis, Stanley Suter

 Prompt- 1.     How would you prove or disprove that one version of To Kill A Mockingbird is more affective in delivering its message than the other? Be sure to provide specific pieces of evidence to support your opinion.

          To start off with this week's blog I need to go straight to the book. I really enjoyed reading this, so my opinion may be slightly bias, just putting it out there. The main point of the book was racism and social bias put into something along the lines of "I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." The theme was that Tom Robinson and Boo Radley where both mockingbirds (I felt proud of myself for making the connection) because they were innocent, but they were misjudged (and in Tom's case killed.) 

          The movie was a very good visual interpretaion of the book. I believe that for people our age, without as much attention and detail to specific quotes and actions in the book, it was easier to understand and was faster moving. However, it was like a "Sherlock Holmes" movie, peices of the puzzle were missing and the end of the movie was completely unpredictable. The main plot line was pretty much left alone, excluding the change of scenes and some characters not being present (such as when Jem meets the adults in front of the Radley house, in the book Dill was with him, in the movie he just went back to get them.

          All in all, you have to read the book before you read the movie. You don't get all of the details in the movie, and you cannot properly anyilize characters behavior at an efficient pace in the movie. In the book, important scenes that developed the children (i.e. Ms.Dubose) were erased, so you do not get the idea that they are seeing the world differently at all, instead you just think that they are a bunch of rambunctious children on an adventure/mystery to defend a black man and find the ghost of the town. While looking at the book, you can clearly see that the trial and Boo are the main plot, and are therefor explained much further than the Movie. Book wins.

My Adventure, Stanley Suter

 When was the last time you did something for your first time?

          The last time I did something for my first time would be the first time I have played "Godzilla, destroy all monsters" since I was in first grade (I think this counts because I had no idea how to play, and I didn't even remember the game until we found it.) The entire game is basically a 1990's anime throw down where you have characters such as "Megladon" and several different versions of "Godzilla" (mega-Gozilla, 1990's Godzilla, etc.) After playing this with Reese, we couldn't stop laughing.

          There were several unfair advantages to certain characters. For instance, Gigan can fly, teleport, and can't be hit by other characters while crouching. There are no blocks to being picked up and thrown. Megladon can go underground, stay under for almost a minute where he can't be hurt, then give an extremely unbalanced blow to other monsters. But it was a blast to the past, and surprisingly good.