Singing Lessons

          For the singing lessons starting January 5th, I decided after many days of considering my plethora of options, that I would sing Viva La Vida by Coldplay, relating it to the biblical stories my English class read. I chose this song because although it is one of my favorites, each verse references the bible. Not only that, it is fairly easy to point out bits and pieces of the references even without extensive biblical knowledge. The catchy tune makes it easy to remember and it gets annoyingly stuck in one's mind, allowing the biblical references I am required to teach to be absorbed and remembered by my "students". The song allows the listener to reflect on the previous lines with subtle pauses and this light-hearted song actually contains very hard and dense religious material ranging from the Old and New Testament with various meanings, leaving room for interpretation. I chose to teach about the bible because many songs on the radio reference religion and I would like myself and others to be taught how to look for these hints in songs and relate them to what we learned in 10th grade English. These refernces are everywhere in a teenager's favorite tune stuck in their head, but once I point them out in an extremely prevalent hit single, hopefully people will try to find other songs with religious meanings and will find how easy it is to break the song down and understand each lyric. 

            I plan to teach about these biblical references by making it mostly up to my "students" to pin-point each reference themselves and show them different view points with room for interpretation. This song can branch out with many different meanings so I plan on including as many unique standpoints as I can. Since my goal is to prepare my "students" with the ability to find religious meanings in other songs they listen to, I will have pictures hung up for the kids to look at while I sing, along with the music video, so they can try to link the picture with a line in the song (also for interaction purposes so they do not get bored). I will have a PowerPoint for after, explaining the references, which will include a multitude of pictures, videos, and interactive thinking questions. I am also going to either have students come up or raise their hands for feedback purposes, or create a quick game to get their minds thinking and challenging them to create their own interpretations.

          

Give Thanks on Thanksgiving

Being a unique individual does not mean that you are completely different from those around you. I, myself, would not be the person I am today without being influenced by people that I am so lucky to have in my life and see everyday. The part of me that is hard- working, focused, and diligent comes from my mother, the caring, worrying, and serious side from my twin sister, and the competitive, crazy, fun side from my friends and classmates at school. With Thanksgiving in just four days, I am reminded of these people and am filled with a great amount of appreciation. I am first thankful for my mother who despite the constant nagging about grades and college, which I find quite annoying at the time, I know all too well that she has the best for me in mind and I am thankful each time she lectures me. At school, I am now focused on getting the best grades and I love challenging myself, probably because she challenged me to try to like working, and now that I do, I want to strive for harder things. After soccer games, she would always tell me how to do better, so I now have become a perfectionist  and am serious enough to work harder on certain aspects that I need to improve on. This reminds me of a quote by Henry Adams, which shows that my mother's influence has affected me for a lot longer than the moment she told me, "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops".  I worry myself over people that I care about because since I was young, I've always had to watch over my twin sister and that same urge is now reflected on those around me. I am serious when speaking to people because I had to be when teaching my sister lessons that my parents can't teach her, and in order to get my message received fully by whoever I am conversing with, I have a more stern look. Each and every day, my peers and friends who make me laugh and smile change me in ways big and small. Whether it's my mood or how I treat others, those similar to my age are who affect me most because their influence is larger than most people think. I am grateful that I am around such kind people because not everyone has that pleasure. I think that those who have affected me, I have affected too, and would like to think in a positive way, whether it is a part of my lifestyle that someone copies from me, a mindset because I could be an idol in the eyes of my sister, or the joy in my mother's heart that she has done well in raising her kids. With knowing the quote, "The people who influence you are the people who believe in you" by Henry Drummond, I have learned that it is important to be around kind people because it is they who shape who you are and to always be a good example because you never know who is watching you. "Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another" - Napoleon Hill.

By Les Haines https://flic.kr/p/droTti

Hello.

My name is Allison Roth and welcome to my 10th grade English Blog! I live by the Pacific Ocean and my twin and I are the youngest in a family of six. My favorite subject in school is definitely English, mainly because I have the best teacher this year who makes reading literature surprisingly fun. Mr. Brown is absolutely hilarious, nice to the bone, and adds just the right amount of crazy in each class period. A little information about me is that I just about live and breathe soccer and have since I was like five! The goal of writing this blog is to hopefully use this as a possible outlet of the stress from being in high school and even giving others a peek into the life of one whether you want to look back and hopefully take a trip down memory lane, or are scared to leave middle school and want to know what it's like. I look forward to writing about my future English assignments, but also the adventures I have throughout the next three years that are worth writing about and sharing to the world!

By Canned Muffins https://flic.kr/p/8LLNCu