American Literature: "I Hear America Singing"

American Literature: "I Hear America Singing": Mash It Up!   We read and discussed Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing" as well as Langston Hughes's "I, Too."  Type your modern vers...

   I hear the farmer, running his plow, singing in tune to the beating machine.
I hear the teacher guiding young minds, leading a chorus of youthful exuberance.
I hear the mechanic, doing his work, singing alone, happy and free.
I hear the fireman, saving a life, breathing his words in hopes of survival
I hear the judge, staying true, staying right, sing to America
I hear the daughter, a families reason to be, sing a song quite out of key.
I hear the son, protector and heir, singing his song for all to hear.
I hear the mother, leader and lover, singing and quaint peace.
I hear the father, supporter and true, singing for pride.
I hear the guard, hiding an endangered light, singing in sacrifice.
I hear the policeman, cleaning the street, singing his prisoners to sleep
I hear the star, modeling young lives, singing for cause,
I hear the student, learning for life, singing for a future
  I hear America, strong and true singing her song in different colors and hues.

    The poems each have their own spin, and while I had to use Whit's as a reference mine still has a little bit of Langston's message inside. They all have America included, and they both talk about how the country either sees or shows or speaks her opinion.
    The poems differ by the way they are put together, and the final message behind them. Whit talked about how the country was put together. Langston talked about his treatment and his hope for the future, and I talked about the different personalities inside America and their contribution to the future.

American Literature: Unit 1: Creation Story You've completed your read...

American Literature: Unit 1:  Creation Story
You've completed your read...: Unit 1:  Creation Story You've completed your reading of the Iroquois's myth "The World on the Turtle's Back."  Choose one of the two opt...

American Literature: Unit 1: Creation Story You've completed your read...

Tori Hermsen 

American Literature: Unit 1:  Creation Story
You've completed your read...: Unit 1:  Creation Story You've completed your reading of the Iroquois's myth "The World on the Turtle's Back."  Choose one of the two opt...
2.  The twins in this myth represent "two ways of the world which are in all people" - the "straight mind" and the "crooked mind."  Write your reflection  in which you agree or disagree with this view of human character.  Support your opinion with examples.

In this story the two twin do represent different types of mental statuses. Such as a normal person like you or I could have a stray thought to cause some minor damage to a person we don't particularly care for. Like say, one of my old babysitters; but we are typically a good natured type of person. Then you have the truly twisted people who think of nothing but revenge and how to get the upper hand. Like say, the Left handed Twin.
The Right Handed Twin did have a slightly twisted side, because if he had been true to himself, he wouldn't have lied about his one weakness, it would have remained a fair fight throughout the rest of eternity between the twins.
The Left Handed Twin did do some real good, making sure to keep the population down of the animals his brother had created, and then telling the truth. In my own opinion, I don't honestly believe he had been as truly evil as the rest of my classmates believe him to be. Honestly, the Grandmother wouldn't have favored an evil child over a truly good one, so I do think some of this story is left out, or meant to be left to the imagination of the reader, in either case, this story does have some complex thought and some inner soul searching if you think about this story in the correct way.

Unexpected Latin Remix

The other day I was downloading a music on my iPod and I came across a song that I wanted so clicked download with out looking at the words in parenthesis. I continued browsing for more songs while it downloaded. When it was finally finished I went and listened to it and it was in English so I figured it was all in English. I continued browsing for more songs and about half way through the song a guy jumped in and started seeing in Spanish. Confused I went and looked at the name and it said "Official Latin Remix" so I kept it.

When the FFA went to the state convention, we saw many people and things. It only stands to reason that in Ames we would hear some people speaking Spanish. We were on our way to the convention hall, we had just gotten out of the elevator in our hotel, and we heard someone speaking a foreign language. Immediately we recognized it as Spanish. We all looked at each other and kinda laughed, because they were talking so fast, we could hear little snippits of the conversation, but we could recognize some of the words they were saying! It was amusing, hearing how fast they could speak and still understand what the other was saying! It kinda blew my mind! I hope someday I will be able to talk that fast!

Shopping

Me and my mom were shopping two weekends ago when we ran into a mother and daughter. The mother was talking to her daughter in spanish and was telling her that she could only get one of the three shirts that she had picked out. They walked away and later we met them at the check out again and my mom asked me what they were saying and I couldn't tell because they were talking fast and I didn't recognize the words.

World War 1

World War 1

Today in World History we were talking about World War 1. Mr. Huegel told us that the Germans didn't want the U.S. in the war so they sent Mexico a coded letter telling them to attack the United States. Thinking about that, if Mexico would have attacked us think about how history would have changed, think about how the relationship of the U.S. and Mexico would be today. Things would be so much different and I'm glad they didn't attack us because we are so close to them and we have a lot of common.