The Road Not Taken.

· My first impression of this poem judging from the title:

o It is about choices and probably regrets because the title is the road not taken instead of like "The Chosen Road".

· Understandings of the poem:

o I think that the poem is trying to show how there might be 2 choices sometimes and only one can be taken. Traveller in line 3 might refer to what everyone would be when we are alive. The author wrote that one road is undergrowth, which is a thick forest, which would lead the reader to thinking that it is dark and humid. For the other road he wrote that it was fairer and better claimed. Stanza three might mean that a choice would lead to more choices and then there would be little possibility that one would go back to the first time when they made a choice. The forth stanza is the reflection of the writer after making a choice. The first line of stanza four might that the author is tired of the choice. And that he took a more unique route as it was one that was less travelled by and that has made a big difference.

· Questions in mind:

o What was he trying to say at stanza 2 lines 3-5?

o And what was he trying to say at stanza 3 lines 1-3?

o Stanza 4 line 1, why a ‘sigh’?

o Stanza 4 line 5, what difference did it make?

o Stanza 1 line 1, what were the 2 choices?

Sacrifices.

Write about a time when in wanting to make someone happy you were forced to make a sacrifice.

The sun’s rays were blinding me. I was clearing my messy room, probably as messy as Fred’s. I cleared my room because I felt that there was finally a need to do so. Mother was moving back home with my baby sister and I was excited about her stay. Clearing under the bed was difficult, it was probably the dirtiest part of the room. I flipped my bed over, and moved the wooden part of the bed, which was supporting the mattress and saw a book.

The cover of the book was rusty, with tattered edges at almost every page. It was obvious that it had not been touched for a very long time. I picked it up and dusted the cover, making the air polluted with brown patches of dust. It has a title: My memories… I sat down at my chair and thought about it… It was my primary school book, about my memories with friends. I flipped open the pages, and saw pages of me, with Fred together. Fred is my best friend… Well at least was. Fred was one of my best friends, now he is not. As I read through the pages, I thought about the story and it ended like this.

Fred and I were just playing at a local arcade which we rarely hang out at, but today was an exception, because the examinations were over. We were 11, primary 5 that time. We played from the afternoon until around the evening, which was when I got to go back home, which I did and left him alone. He said that he wanted to stay for a little longer. When I left, I looked back and saw him surrounded by bigger sized people, and I felt scared and so I fled. When I reached home, I was terrified, and did not say a thing to my parents. “What if… he was caught? Or bullied?” wild thoughts crossed my head and I shook my head wildly. I believed that nothing would happen to him, he’s a tough guy. The next day, when I saw him in school, he was rather happy and I felt that it was weird, and so I asked him: “So… What happened yesterday?” I could not remember what he said… But he replied something like: “I got a few new friends.” And I passed my lunch money to him. I did not remember or know why I passed my lunch money to him.

After finishing my thoughts of what happened, I flipped the book, to the next page, which contained of some pictures that struck my memory. I passed him my lunch money, because he said that he was dared by a group of new friends that “if he can successfully raise up to $100 dollars, they would give him a set of arcade game set.” We were too young to think maturely, we thought that society out there was so simple. I thought I could make him happy, and so I made a sacrifice. He seemed so delighted, and explained to me how special it was to own one of the sets and so, I handed him my savings: My $60 dollar savings. I wanted to save that for my game cartridge but I gave $40 dollars, which I thought was a small sum. He took it, and went off. All I could remember vaguely was: “Thank you so much! What I had received from you today, shall be returned! The game set shall be ours!” We were too naïve, or should I say, I was too naïve.

When I reached home after that incident, I called him up. He did not pick up my phone, and I called him multiple times. I felt worried, even more worried than for him than my money. The next few days, he was not present in school. He was nowhere to be found. I thought he was dead. I thought he would, be back with all the games and joy, which he would share… I was starting to regret… But I did not lose fate in him. I turned and look at the other page of the thick, old book and thought… 20 years back, Fred’s probably 32 by now, wonder how he’s doing. He said that he gave the $100 bucks to the few new friends that he met and they in return hit him on the head and fled. He was given a few days off school to recover and I felt guilty. I thought I could make him happy. I thought my sacrifice would be worth it. But it was not, it caused harm to him. Fred did not blame me, he never did. But I blamed myself for that. After a while, he migrated back to one of the western countries which he never did tell me even though we were close friends and I had never met him since. We lost contacts and everything, the only thing that was connecting us together was this book, which only I had.

Friendships are meant to be cherished, but sacrifices must be made when it should be made. Unnecessary sacrifices would not only cause loss to yourself but also to the person you sacrificed for.

My ideal school.

My ideal school would be one that makes studies interesting. Studies can be made interesting with more creativity in the school, in classes and also an element of fun in the subjects. This would help make the school make interesting and that would be my ideal school.

My ideal school would make studies more interesting with creativity. Some examples of what I feel is creative would be adding in of character development lessons. Lessons such as “Art, Music and Drama” can help make studies more interesting. Student can also express their creativity through decorating the school through creative ways, such as a “Creative Corner” to allow students to draw using erasable materials. This way, studies would be more interesting as they can learn through art, music and drama instead of just the current curriculum and thus, making studies more interesting with creativity.

Also, class can have creativity by organizing class bonding activities. Some examples of creativity in class would be through class decoration, class activities after school or during certain periods, to let the students engage in a fun learning activity together to promote bonding. Such activities happens in my class, but they are not compulsory and the organized activity are not liked by many and thus it was not really entertaining, but with teachers joining in, studies would be make more interesting.

My ideal school would also make studies more interesting by adding an element of fun in the subjects. Apart from science, which includes practical and hands on experiments, teachers can also teach students other subjects with hands on experiments too. For examples: during mathematics lesson, when the teacher is teaching Mathematics, he or she can use outside class or textbooks to show students how makes is applied or how the certain topic can be applied in certain areas, and for literature, teachers can show students or let them learn through English dramas, musicals etc. This way, studies would be more interesting and appealing for the students and thus, making studies more interesting by adding an element of fun in the subjects.

In conclusion, I feel that my ideal school would be one that makes studies more interesting through creativity in school, having fun in class and also adding an element of fun in the subjects. This would be my ideal school.

Comments for ACE

Here are the URLS for the comments for Ace:

http://2p409languageart.tumblr.com/post/9075794158/blog-post-40-ace-10#disqus_thread

http://hci20101p411.blogspot.com/2011/08/clash-of-titans.html?showComment=1313769723409#c1673904744701977081

http://hci20101p427.blogspot.com/2011/07/three-minute-speech.html?showComment=1313770018201#c7630316712202404508

http://hci20112p408.blogspot.com/2011/08/money-no-enough-movie-reflection.html?showComment=1313770405462#c7505914032927533493

IN-CLASS ONLINE LESSON #10

Why this is outrageous.. I have had enough of this anti-Semitism, we as Jews are not respected enough! They had ruined our lives, disgraced our race, and disrespected our religion. They blamed us for this practice known as the Blood libel which appeared in Arab television shows. Blood libel is a practice that we do not even know about nowadays. It is a false accusation that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays. This is absurd! We do not even have practices like this anymore! Our ancestors might have performed this practice before, but it is wrong for you to accuse the new generations anymore! Hath your ancestors not made mistake; hath a person receive a wrong accusation just because of other’s wrong? Just because of various rumours? Hath those that made those mistakes not paid their price? In almost every case, Jews were murdered, sometimes by a mob, sometimes following torture and a trial. Some of us might not mind being spit at, being referred to the devil because of our red hair, or be pushed around, but we certainly cannot tolerate the insults of our religion! Are we not the same as any other person from another religion? Are we not humans too?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel_against_Jews
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_antisemitism#Twenty-first_century

T3 Reflection

Term 3 is coming to an end and I learnt quite a lot of things throughout term 3. The blog writing had became more difficult as we were required to write about 200 words in each blog prompt. But it trained our expository skills and it made us more efficient in starting the thesis and finding the points. This term, we were introduced to something new, called the Reading and Reasoning. R&R is very different from what we had in primary school (comprehension) as it required a whole new level of skills. R&R requires deeper thinking and paper analysis instead of just copying from the passage. Thus, I find R&R difficult and challenging as I failed most of the assignments. I learnt that examples are very important in essays. Also, we read a book called the Merchant of Venice and it included prejudice against the Jews and Mercy and Justice. The book is about a Jew, who lended money to a Christian in which they made a bond in which if the Christian was unable to return by a deadline, he would need to have a pound of flesh cut of. The story is interesting and showed us how prejudiced people were against Jews at that time (early 60s). The book also showed Mercy and Justice, in which mercy seasons justice and people would rather have revenge than show mercy, as they would want justice for themselves. The example in the book was Shylock, the Jew, who refused to show mercy to Antonio, the Christian, and wanted justice, who was finally dealt with law and justice. I enjoyed T3 very much.

T2 Reflections

During term 2, I read about the book titled: To Kill A MockingBird and I feel that it is really a good book as it contained during aspects of life, which includes racism and how unfair life was. The book shows how life is like before racism was stopped and as the title suggests, to kill a mockingbird is like killing a totally innocent and good person, in which mockingbird is referred to as a person. The book showed how a lawyer named Atticus, was looked down upon and almost killed because of his actions to defend a black person, named Robinson. This showed how serious racism was at that time. The movie, "Burning Mississippi" also displayed racism, as the white people formed a party called the K.K.K and burnt down the property belonging to the blacks and killed innocent people. The black people were already living outside the vicinity of the city but the whites continuously disturbed them, thus causing in a revolution, in which people starting to pity and support the blacks. I learnt that racial harmony in Singapore is important because of riots that happened in the early independence and post world war 2 days and that Singaporeans now showed cherish racial harmony and that racism should be stopped.