In English class we were assigned four essays to write in our writing workshop unit. They were the Scarlet Letter essay, Crucible Character Metaphor essay, our Memoir, and our Nature essay. We had to choose two of the four to put on our Internet blog. I selected my two essays based on how well written it was, how many corrections were needed, and if I enjoyed writing the essay. The two essays that I chose were the Nature essay and the Memoir.
I chose the nature essay because it spoke to me while i was writing it. Nature is something that reflects who i am and i always enjoy being surrounded by it, which is part of the reason that i play golf. I had to adjust my introduction a little bit when I started revising and I needed to reduce the ands and buts in between my sentences. The overall revision did not take very long, which strongly influenced my decision to select it as one of my writings.
The reason I chose the memoir as a writing piece is because it was one of the moments in my life that made a memory to me. I will never forget the anger that flowed through my family that day. If you knew my family, you would know that we are extremely patriotic and some people had anger that I never saw before. The essay had very little corrections to be made, and Mrs. Turner seemed to really enjoy it, so I choose it to put on my blog, hopefully ill make a good grade.
English class this year has been a very good learning experience so far. I have learned to write while using my memory, my imagination, and my knowledge of sources from books that I have read. It has been very fun and rewarding to learn how to read a book that is not written in a language type that we understand and interpret the meanings of both the stories and the characters in them. Probably the most difficult book that we read this nine weeks was the Scarlet Letter. The language is very different from what we are used to. The characters were very different and we had to figure out why the author, Nathanial Hawthorne, made them so. English Three has been the toughest English class that I have been in all my life, but it has also been the most enjoyable.
While writing our Nature Essays, Meredith asked me to help edit her essay. Her essay was very well written, with almost no errors that i noticed, but while reading the essay I noticed that she had a much different view on the Nature Walk than I did. It almost seemed that it annoyed her. This was probably because there was no place to be quiet and reflect. For me to notice all that I did, I had to zone out of what was going on and concentrate just on nature. Meredith might not have zoned out has I had, and that might have been why she got a different experience than I had. To see Meredith's blog go to http://meredith92.blogspot.com/ .
Creating my blog was very fun to do. I feel that it let me express myself in a was that I might not normally have. Hopefully people will look at it and see all the things that I love to do and see. They will also see the type of writer I am, VERY descriptive. To see my blog, go to http://www.tlhgolfer.blogspot.com/ . Give me some feedback, and tell me if there are some things that I need to change. I would appreciate it if you did.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
September 11
By: Chris Caldwell
September 11, one of the worst days in our nation's history, caused me to make a memory that I will never forget. I was at school with all my friends, sitting through another boring Tuesday. I went to elementary school at Calhoun, and Tuesday was the day that some of us went to Project Challenge over at the Adult Ed. building. I remember being in Mrs. Forrests' PC Math Class when there was a knock at the door. Mrs. Forrest stepped outside and, like normal, we all started talking. I heard a loud gasp before she came back inside. Shockingly though, she didn't tell us to be quiet when she came back in. All she had was a mixture of a shocked and scared look on her face. She told us to pack up immediately because we were going back to school. Everybody was confused, but we were glad to get out of there. I hated Project Challenge.
When we returned to school, Mrs. Self, the Principal, was waiting for us. She had the same mixture of fear and shock on her face. She was very quiet, and when everybody was listening, she then told us," For those of you who already know, our nation has fallen under attack by terrorists. Don't be scared, but go to your rooms and gather your things, we are going to have an early dismissal." Suddenly I realized it, something terrible had happened today. I had no clue what though.
Since it was Tuesday, my grandfather picked me up from school. My grandpa was a depression kid, and was around when Pearl Harbor was bombed. I hoped that he would explain what was going on to me. When I got in the truck though, he didn't say his usual, " How is it goin'?" He was quiet. Almost a creepy quiet. I had never seen him like this before. Once he finally started talking he asked me, " Do you know what the twin towers are?" I politely answered, " No sir." My grandfather had almost a relieved look on his face. "Well," he said, " the Twin Towers are in New York, and they were hit by airplanes that were hijacked by terrorists." That was all that he said the rest of the way home.
When we got to my grandparent's house, my whole family was there, even my parents. They were all watching the TV. With my mind wondering about everything, I decided to watch and figure out what all was going on. After a while got sick of all the tragedy around me. I decided to go into the bedroom in the back of the house to watch cartoons. I turned the TV to channel 51, which should have been Cartoon Network. To my surprise though, it was being run over by CNN which was broadcasting live from New York. Sitting down slowly, I decided to watch. At first it made me very angry, then sad. There was no way that I was going to get out of watching this. The headlines read, " AMERICA ATTACKED!" in huge, red letters. I saw those gigantic towers, tall and majestic, collapsing and I thought, " so many people in there." Then I noticed that I was tearing up.
That day is a day that I will never forget. I don't believe that it will be the last time that we have to deal with terrorists. I am glad to know though, that our country has taken great strides in defense, both in Border Patrol and Airplane Safety. The U.S. has come a long way sense that Tuesday, which went from a normal, boring Tuesday to a day that we will remember forever. We have come a long way, and we will continue to do so.
September 11, one of the worst days in our nation's history, caused me to make a memory that I will never forget. I was at school with all my friends, sitting through another boring Tuesday. I went to elementary school at Calhoun, and Tuesday was the day that some of us went to Project Challenge over at the Adult Ed. building. I remember being in Mrs. Forrests' PC Math Class when there was a knock at the door. Mrs. Forrest stepped outside and, like normal, we all started talking. I heard a loud gasp before she came back inside. Shockingly though, she didn't tell us to be quiet when she came back in. All she had was a mixture of a shocked and scared look on her face. She told us to pack up immediately because we were going back to school. Everybody was confused, but we were glad to get out of there. I hated Project Challenge.
When we returned to school, Mrs. Self, the Principal, was waiting for us. She had the same mixture of fear and shock on her face. She was very quiet, and when everybody was listening, she then told us," For those of you who already know, our nation has fallen under attack by terrorists. Don't be scared, but go to your rooms and gather your things, we are going to have an early dismissal." Suddenly I realized it, something terrible had happened today. I had no clue what though.
Since it was Tuesday, my grandfather picked me up from school. My grandpa was a depression kid, and was around when Pearl Harbor was bombed. I hoped that he would explain what was going on to me. When I got in the truck though, he didn't say his usual, " How is it goin'?" He was quiet. Almost a creepy quiet. I had never seen him like this before. Once he finally started talking he asked me, " Do you know what the twin towers are?" I politely answered, " No sir." My grandfather had almost a relieved look on his face. "Well," he said, " the Twin Towers are in New York, and they were hit by airplanes that were hijacked by terrorists." That was all that he said the rest of the way home.
When we got to my grandparent's house, my whole family was there, even my parents. They were all watching the TV. With my mind wondering about everything, I decided to watch and figure out what all was going on. After a while got sick of all the tragedy around me. I decided to go into the bedroom in the back of the house to watch cartoons. I turned the TV to channel 51, which should have been Cartoon Network. To my surprise though, it was being run over by CNN which was broadcasting live from New York. Sitting down slowly, I decided to watch. At first it made me very angry, then sad. There was no way that I was going to get out of watching this. The headlines read, " AMERICA ATTACKED!" in huge, red letters. I saw those gigantic towers, tall and majestic, collapsing and I thought, " so many people in there." Then I noticed that I was tearing up.
That day is a day that I will never forget. I don't believe that it will be the last time that we have to deal with terrorists. I am glad to know though, that our country has taken great strides in defense, both in Border Patrol and Airplane Safety. The U.S. has come a long way sense that Tuesday, which went from a normal, boring Tuesday to a day that we will remember forever. We have come a long way, and we will continue to do so.
Nature Essay
By:
Chris Caldwell
"Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or mourning place." This quote is from "Nature," an essay that was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nature is a story about nature and how it surrounds us and effects us. In English class one day, I got to experience the same sensation that Emerson tries to describe. On Tuesday we left the classroom during English class and went into the woods next to the school. We were told to be quiet and reflect on the nature around us. Although not many people were quiet, I tried very hard to see nature as if Emerson and Thoreau saw it. It was amazing to see what a miracle nature is. I saw the ground as being wet and leaf covered instead of just mud. The trees where nature's own sunscreen, a green wall of protection, with the treetops making a kind of barrier above us. The barrier shielded us from the heat and I noticed that the temperature was at least ten degrees cooler inside the forest fortress. Nature is the one thing that man is always surrounded by, and is the easiest way to come to peace. But as time goes on, nature is starting to be destroied and we are loosing less and less. Emerson and Thoreau would be ashamed of how the world is right now. With so much nature destroyed, it is almost impossible to go into the woods as Thoreau did in his story Walden. " I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach..." I only wish that I could take a trip to the woods as Thoreau did. It seems that it would let me be in a place of peace. It sounds Incredible.
Although it was only a short trip,when I went into the forest, I felt at peace. As I was walking I thought to myself, "We rely on nature to breathe, and yet we still tear down what took so long to grow, without nature what will we rely on? Without nature we cannot rely on ourselves!" One quote from Emerson's story Self-Reliance helps describe what I was thinking, " Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." I believe that Emerson is telling us to use nature to our advantage. We all use nature to our advantage, but also destroy it.
Nature is very important, and that we need nature for survival. Emerson and Thoreau described this to us and helps us to understand that we need to respect and learn from nature. If we keep destroying nature, we will have nothing to go to and center ourselves and relfect. We need nature more than we know.
Chris Caldwell
"Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or mourning place." This quote is from "Nature," an essay that was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nature is a story about nature and how it surrounds us and effects us. In English class one day, I got to experience the same sensation that Emerson tries to describe. On Tuesday we left the classroom during English class and went into the woods next to the school. We were told to be quiet and reflect on the nature around us. Although not many people were quiet, I tried very hard to see nature as if Emerson and Thoreau saw it. It was amazing to see what a miracle nature is. I saw the ground as being wet and leaf covered instead of just mud. The trees where nature's own sunscreen, a green wall of protection, with the treetops making a kind of barrier above us. The barrier shielded us from the heat and I noticed that the temperature was at least ten degrees cooler inside the forest fortress. Nature is the one thing that man is always surrounded by, and is the easiest way to come to peace. But as time goes on, nature is starting to be destroied and we are loosing less and less. Emerson and Thoreau would be ashamed of how the world is right now. With so much nature destroyed, it is almost impossible to go into the woods as Thoreau did in his story Walden. " I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach..." I only wish that I could take a trip to the woods as Thoreau did. It seems that it would let me be in a place of peace. It sounds Incredible.
Although it was only a short trip,when I went into the forest, I felt at peace. As I was walking I thought to myself, "We rely on nature to breathe, and yet we still tear down what took so long to grow, without nature what will we rely on? Without nature we cannot rely on ourselves!" One quote from Emerson's story Self-Reliance helps describe what I was thinking, " Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." I believe that Emerson is telling us to use nature to our advantage. We all use nature to our advantage, but also destroy it.
Nature is very important, and that we need nature for survival. Emerson and Thoreau described this to us and helps us to understand that we need to respect and learn from nature. If we keep destroying nature, we will have nothing to go to and center ourselves and relfect. We need nature more than we know.
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