Essay Reflection

Ideas and Content
For both, the Julius Caesar and the Alchemist essay, my writing shows that I don’t provide appropriate information in an easy to understand way, as some of my paragraphs are not well crafted; an example is my Julius Caesar essay. On my Julius Caesar essay, my paragraphs weren’t well crafted, as they don’t have many important details, and I also didn’t explain the quotes very well. The way I could improve this is by focusing more on my reading, so that I can understand what the important quotes mean, and the important details of the story.

Organization
My writing clearly shows appropriate organization. An example is in my Alchemist essay, I started with a topic sentence, and then I go through some of the events in the story, then I had three body paragraphs and each paragraph was in order according to the way the story goes, and at the end there is a conclusion about the story. Although my writing is well organized, I believe I still could improve my writing for superior organization and one way I could do that, is by practicing my writing at home, or doing drafts and having a teacher give me feedback on my organization and writing, before I am ready to write the real essay.

Personal Growth
Between my Alchemist essay and my Julius Caesar essay I didn't note any improvement, and the reason why I think this happened is because for the Alchemist essay, we had more days to write it and we went through every paragraph in class with the teachers help; when in the Julius Caesar essay, we had 2 days to prepare, we had to figure it out by ourselves and we only had one class to finish the whole essay, which to me it was not enough time of preparation and writing. I also think that I didn’t do well in the Julius Caesar essay, because I didn’t focus on it as much as the Alchemist essay, and also because I didn’t seek help as much.

SLR Reflection
So far, during these two essays, I haven't been able to find an SLR that I have really used while crafting an essay. The reasons why I haven't been able to find an SLR are the following:

• Thinking Creatively: the reason why I don't think that I interact with Thinking Creatively while crafting an essay, is because I don't use much creativity if I'm writing an essay.
• Reason Critically: I don't interact with Reason Critically while I am writing an essay, because it is noticeable through some of my writing that I do not Reason Critically much.
• Learn Enthusiastically: Although Learning Enthusiastically does apply to writing an essay in some way, I believe it is not well reflected on my essays as I had a lower grade on my Julius Caesar essay than in my Alchemist essay.
• Communicate Effectively: the main reason why I don't use Communicate Effectively, is because when I write an essay, I don't communicate my ideas or the main details of the story that well with the reader, so it makes it hard for the reader what the story really is about.
• Collaborate Constructively: Collaborate Constructively usually is more valued when the work is being done in groups, not for individual work like writing an essay.
• Live Ethically: Living Ethically doesn't apply to writing an essay so much, especially on the Julius Caesar and the Alchemist essay, this is because those stories don't have an ethical issue, which is the one of the reasons why Living Ethically would be used while writing an essay.

Marcus Brutus

(Pg. 128, lines 20-21) “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more…”—Brutus—. This quote shows that Brutus is very motivated by love, but that is not the only motivator that drives him towards his actions. The great and noble Brutus is also very motivated by honor which is one of the reasons why he slew his best and most beloved friend; Caesar. This honorable man is willing to slay his most loved friends and even himself, just to show his love for Rome and his honor.

One of Brutus’ main motivators was love and this is shown in the following quote; “Not that I loved Caesar less, that I love Rome more…” the reason for Brutus’ motivation for love is the fact that he cares and loves Rome over anything, and the result of this is the fact that Brutus joined the conspirators on a plot against Caesar; the reason why Brutus had this change in behavior against Caesar is, because the conspirators got him to believe that Caesar would harm Rome, and having honorable Brutus on their side was a very smart idea, since Brutus is very well loved by all of Rome, so once they completed their plot, which is killing Caesar, the people wouldn’t have so much hate towards the conspirators, as Brutus is on their side and they all believe that he is an honorable man and that he would only do such a thing for the good of Rome. Not only love was what drove Brutus towards his behavior, but also honor.

Honor represents Brutus very well, as he says that no actions should ever be done with guilt, but with honor, this is all shown on the following quote; “Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily. Let not our looks put on our purposes, but bear it with untir’d spirits and formal constancy. And so good morrow to you everyone.” The reason why Brutus is so motivated by honor is because of the fact that he is noble and has great love for Rome, also because, as its shown in the quote, all actions should be done with honor and not guilt or any other emotion that shows guiltiness. The result of this is the killing of Caesar and the fact that he went out to the people and showed his bloody hands and sword to them all and made them believe that this act was done for the good of Rome and with honor.

Although Brutus showed that his behavior and actions where all done with honor, they do not justify the means, as Brutus didn't really know if Caesar would or would not harm Rome.

Lost Boys I-Movie

The Lost Boys Life

Think Creatively

The way I Thought Creatively on my project was by adding some creativity to the Collage. Some of the elements in the Collage where i used my creativity was when i colored the flag of Sudan, where i wrote MASSACRES. Another element was writing down words next to the pictures that they matched with.

Reason Critically

The way I used the images and the text that I used on my Collage to show that I understood the Lost Boys situation, was by putting the words with the pictures that they matched with, so that I wouldn't only be showing what happened to the Lost Boys by pictures but also by words.

Communicate Effectively

My Collage shows awareness for the Lost Boys plight, since the images in it show the things that the Lost Boys have gone through such as massacre, genocide, loss of home, loss of family and famine. And also the text such as fire, loss, family, and massacre.

Live Ethically

My Collage evokes an emotional response from the viewers, by giving information about the ethnography of the Lost Boys of Sudan, which is depressing and devastating. This also shows my empathy for the what the Lost Boys have been through.

VOID (2nd blog entry)

The International School of Kuala Lumpur provides (silence) an exceptional education that challenges each student to develop (silence) the attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding to become (silence) a highly successful, spirited, socially (silence) responsible global citizen.

I feel that adding a silence after the word "provides", gets the reader(s) asking questions about, what it is that ISKL provides. When adding a silence after the word "develop" gives a little bit of tension to the audience (readers), which are usually parents, because the are always concerned about how their children are developing and what type of skills they're developing. By putting a silence after the word "become", i feel that i added tension to the Mission Statement, because the word "become" basically talks about future, and that is what all parents are concerned about, the children's future. And also by adding a silence after the word "socially", i feel like i messed with the structure of the Statement, because it is supposed to be positive, but by adding that silence, it could be anything either positive or negative.

One way a composer could create tension is by messing with the structure of the piece, and to create a release the composer could then after a certain amount of measures, go back to the melody of the piece and continue on as we did in the VOID concert.

Peter's Journey of Life

Peter went through a lot of very depressing events while he was child as he was forced to migrate from his village due to the civil war in Sudan. When he was told he was one of the people going to America, he was convinced that this place would be like heaven; hence he was filled with joy. Once Peter arrived to America, he and his friends faced a lot of difficulties such as: being short on money, not being able to get a well paid job, having a hard time fitting into the American society, getting an education, homesick and following laws. These were the main difficulties that Peter came across, especially in Texas; and this is why Peter decided to move to a different state, Kansas.

Once he moved, he was successful on finding a good job, getting an education, and finding friends which means that he managed to fit into the American society, and he also managed to graduate from High School with good grades, which means he could study for a career, get a really good job and use his money to help his family back at the refugee camp in Kenya where all the "Lost Boys" are. This is just how Peter dealt with his culture shock, and also what he did to adjust to the cultural divisions. From all these experiences, Peter learned about life in America, and now he knows that there is no heaven on earth, and that what people say at the camp to the people about America is not all true.