Reflection

This was an interesting class to say the least. I thoroughly enjoyed some of the work and despised some other aspects but for the most part the class was fun and engaging and I felt I really learned a significant amount on how to teach other types of texts that I had not thought of.

Poetry was far and away my personal favorite of this class. Getting to explore many famous poets as well as hearing from some of my classmates was an interesting experience. Studying poetry is hard for a lot of students to grasp especially in secondary education where it tends to focus a lot on rhyme structure and rhythm. Instead, I like to focus on the fun aspects of poems: what they mean and their significance. Isn’t that why art exists? In order for us to interpret and suppose greater meaning than the author intended. I know that’s what I like to do.

The world text was the part of the class that I did not like. I thought the stories were interesting and some of them had greater meaning such some of the creation myths. However, most of them were difficult to navigate and they were confusing. Some myths were confusing and others were downright frustrating to comprehend. In reflection of my myth, the Thor one, I still don’t know if there is some greater meaning to it or was it meant purely as entertainment. The project also did not help with my understanding to any of the myths. This I don’t feel was the fault of anyone in the class but of merely the myths themselves. They were frustrating.

I did like however the Media education section and the global text section. These were definitely challenging but also I learned the most from them. Gaining new insight into how different technologies can help aid a classroom, I realized that the possibilities were endless in a classroom that I had more than 20 minutes to figure out a lesson plan. I felt like the time constriction is hard on group projects because frankly, no class that I will teach will only have twenty minutes. I will have roughly 180 days and about an hour a class to devise proper lesson plans and they should go off much better than the ones we did in this class. As far as the global text, I love breaking down movies into a simple narrative. This was challenging but very fun and engaging.

The last thing about this class that I did not like was the blog. I understood the idea of it but I did not feel like I learned anything from the blog project. I rarely looked at others blogs because I was unable to comment on anyone elses and I kept up with mine until Google’s servers decided that it wanted to screw me over and delete my blog and all of my entries. But thankfully I got blog back, only missing a few posts. I wish that the blog would have been more interactive and I definitely feel that it would work in a high school setting where kids seem to have more time than college students since most college students have other priorities outside of school. That’s just my opinion though

Sandel- Morality and the Free Market

I saw this in my Hist 371 class. He was pondering about whether or not paying children to read in turn ruined the spirit of reading. I thought it was at least interesting.

I feel like this essay may be Lost in Translation

The title “Lost in Translation” not only plays on the fact that both Bob and Charlotte are stuck in a place where they cannot understand what people are saying, but it also shows that they are lost in their own lives. Not only are the characters stuck in an identity crisis, but in the film, the country of Japan seems to be as well. With budding interest to become seemingly more American, Japan’s capital through a “consumerist cornucopia” and seems to be a victim of “imperialism’s renaissance” (Martin).

The fact that both characters are married is interesting. Both in varying points in their marriage (Bob about 20 years and Charlotte only a few), they are both suffering from an identity crisis. Bob, an actor reduced to sponsoring a Japanese scotch, is lost in his marriage. He left behind his wife and kids, missing out on important events such as his son’s birthday and the redecorating of his office. However, he also feels left behind by his wife that always used to be with him on set and fly to different places with him but now he leaves the comfort of his own world to an terrifying new place. The translation for his marriage used to be that he and his wife did everything together, but now they don’t even share “I love you”s.

Charlotte follows her photographer husband to Japan because she had nothing better to do. She is willing to make the marriage work, even if that means staying inside her hotel room not even finding the will to wear pants. She is lost in life, unable to find work even though she went to Harvard and is obviously very intelligent. She spends most of her time listening to self-help tapes about finding the true parts of herself. In the scene with her husband and the actress played by Anna Ferris, she finds herself silent, having nothing to contribute to exciting talk of health cleanses and rap beats. This scene is pivotal because she leaves the table to see Bob at the bar. Bob is someone that challenges her and reminds her of the good times that she and her husband had together. This feeling is mutual for Bob’s character.

It is not only the characters showing symptoms of an identity crisis. The city of Tokyo suffers from this condition as well. Everything is commercialized in the city. There is a scene where Bob is walking around town and it looks more like New York City than it does Tokyo. The traditional Japanese architecture is replaced with neon signs and the glitz and glamour of advertising. However, not Japan is like this. In the scene where Charlotte goes to the temple and sees what seems to be a traditional wedding scene in the outskirts of Tokyo. This scene important and adds to the theme of marriages. This couple that is getting married symbolizes the beginning of a relationship, the birth of something new. This is found only in a traditional Japanese setting.

The characters, Charlotte and Bob, also represents parts of the split personality Japanese culture. Bob represents the old Japan, once respected for its class and character has now been replaced by a shell of its former self, forcing itself into sell product that it just doesn’t believe in. Charlotte represents perhaps a future Japan, one that is searching for itself and it turn finds its calling in the past. Charlotte had to leave the overly stimulated city of Tokyo in order to find a balance with the new and the old. As explained by Fredric Jameson “explanation lies in two distinct worlds” one which is marked by “the disintegration of the social” aspects of the world such as “misery, poverty, unemployment, starvation, squalor, violence and death” and in “the other, unparalleled wealth, computerized production, scientific and medical discoveries” along with a “variety of commercial and cultural pleasures” (35). Tokyo has globalized for the worse it would see living in a world that has lost its ability to understand the pain and suffering of others and in turns fills that void with unparalleled stuff.

Works Cited

Jameson, Fredric. "The Politics of Utopia." New Left Review 25.Jan- Feb (2004): 35-54.

Print.

Lost in Translation. Dir. Sofia Cappola. Perf. Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansen. 2003. Focus

Features. Film

Martin, Randy. "Where Did the Future Go?" Logos Journal, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

Thor's Day

Since our presentation was on the Norse Myth "Thor's Duel with Hrungnir" I thought I would share an interesting article about the days of the week. Some of these days are derived from the names of the Norse gods.

Tuesday - Tiu's Day
Tiu is the God of war and the sky and is also identified with the Norse god Tyr.

Wednesday- Woden's Day
Woden was an Anglo-Saxon/Teutonic god. He identifies with Odin as a similar god of the Wild Hunt

Thursday- Thor's Day
This one is the most obvious. Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is the hero of our myth this week.

Friday- Freya's Day
Freya is also a Norse god, leader of the Valkyries and the Vanir.

Sunday, Monday and Saturday keep the names of the Roman predecessors.

Just some food for thought.

Life of a Salesman (poem 2)

This Poem's structure: this poem is free verse with no rhyme scheme. The meter is also varied with no consistent structure.

Will he be Loman on the totem pole?
“Attention must be paid”

Though his pocket never was

Except from the charitable wallet of a friend

Why doesn’t he quit?

The flute song must stop at some point

He is the diamond “rough and hard to touch”

That Ben found in a concrete jungle

He had such promise!

His boys as well

One was Happy and the other was not

The latter destroyed through tragic flaw

He mended the roof over their heads

But left a hole in their hearts

His life was nothing more to him

Than a signature in an insurance office

He is well liked

His story will always be told

And many will be moved

By this Life of a Salesman

Instructions for Fine Poetry Writing (Poem 1)

This poem's form: starts with ABAB rhyme scheme for the first six stanzas and then goes into free verse. In the last stanza, the rhyme scheme is ABCB. The meter doesn't haven't a definite structure.

This poem most likely won’t rhyme

Though I wish it would, I don’t have the time

But hey! Look at that, I did it anyway

After all, I am a poet, what can I say?

This poem’s purpose is to instruct and to teach,

To instill a dream and a goal you can reach.

After reading this, you should write works of art

Ones that will make your reader laugh or break your reader’s heart

First thing you do,

Is get an idea or two

But don’t use your own because they seldom do well

Instead steal someone else’s and it’s likely to sell.

Think of how others will think of your works

With this knowledge, you are sure to get perks

That’s the glory of the job, getting rave reviews

Dragging your readers out of their everyday blues.

Save changes for later because you will not see

How great someone else’s work might just be

Copy your friend’s words and make it your own,

See how easy that is, you’re now in the zone.

Fourthly, use words that big and long to make you sound smart

That will make your words a work of art

Finally, publish these words and make sure they are seen

Bind these words in books for the public scene

Now I have finished my lesson

And if you have followed it to the end

Forget it all!

Free-flowing thought is not meant to be

Contained more than it already has been

Restricting thought to a poem structure

Is harmful enough to

Imagination

Stop all restriction

Forget meter and rhyme

Just write what you think

And you will be fine. 

Rewritten Lyrics

So I did the wrong thing for this exercise in class but I still thought I did something cool. I took Avicii's song "Wake Me Up" and reorganized the lyrics to make a poem. Hope you like it.

I didn't know I was lost
Feeling my way through the darkness
But I only have two hands
Not afraid to close my eyes

I didn't know I was lost
They say I'm caught up in a dream
Guided by a beating heart
and love is the prize

I didn't know I was lost
I tried carrying the weight of the world
They say I am too young to understand
Wish that I could stay forever this young

I didn't know I was lost
All this time I was finding myself
When I'm wiser and I'm older
So wake me up when it's all over

Well life will pass me by if I don't open up my eyes
I can't tell where this journey will end
so wake me up when its all over
Wake me up when its all over


Life's a game made for everyone
Well that's fine by me
All this time I was finding myself
When I'm wiser and I'm older

Hope I get the chance to travel the world
When I'm wiser and I'm older
But I don't have any plans
But I know where to start