Tanner Trimble English 12
October 23, 2009 Period 6
We the class has had to experience and learn many things within the last quarter. That is what Mr. Pitcher wanted us to do. He wanted us to absorb what was going on in class. I have learned more about grammar then I have in any other class. He kept everything we do interesting and helpful so that we would absorb it easier. He showed us how grammar can be easy and it is something that we must learn in order to be better writers. I know there are some students in the class that do not expect to have to go into a writing field, or that they must know the exact way to say something. But they do not realize that grammar is a two concept knowledge tool. Everyone will do something that involves speaking. If you cannot use grammar in how you write then when you speak your grammar will be off as well. Mr. Pitcher understands that concept and so he is trying to help us be better then what we are right now. I remember the second day in that class. The first thing he asked was "Who here knows what a Noun is?" When he asked this question we gave him the basic answer; people, place and thing. But he taught us singular nouns, plural nouns, concrete, abstract, compound, collective, possessive, common, and proper nouns. None of us even knew there were that many nouns. Mr. Pitcher helped us with this and so now we are better people.
Not only did he teach us nouns, he taught Adjectives, prepositions and something that we didn’t think was important, the plot diagram. The plot diagram is the outline to a movie or story. There are five parts to this and each one of them can somewhat be altered to make the story and movie better. The first part he taught us was the Exposition. It is the beginning part to a story. This is where they introduce the main characters, the antagonist and protagonist, and the setting of the story. The next step that he showed us is called the rising action. The concept is like a mountain. This is where the characters start developing to the peak of the mountain. They develop bonds or hatred towards other people. They tell their own stories in life. This leads to the third step, which is the climax. The climax is the part where the protagonist has his revelation, or an action that changes his life or everyone else’s. After this is begins to fall and you have your falling actions. The falling action is where everything comes together. This is also where all the loose ends are tied up. The last part is called the Resolution. The resolutions show where the story must end. How the conflicts finally ended for the best or the worst.
Mr. Pitcher also taught us how to us our life experiences to better ourselves. That was the point of the Memorable Essay. Everyone lives in the past to some extent. We all think about what we could have done, or how what we did hurt us dearly. It doesn’t matter if it was five seconds ago or five years, the fact is we look at our past and judge ourselves. He wanted to see what we have experienced or what we put us our most memorable experience. This way he knows what type of person we will or may become. If your life is full of depression and all you do is talk about how hurt you are, then your essays and learning process will be the same way. He wanted to know how we react to the world and what we have to go through because then he knows how we will react in the real world. The last thing that Mr. Pitcher taught us was something he may not have expected to teach us. It is the project that I am doing right now. He taught us that we must cope with the harshness of the world. He did this by giving us a time consuming project that was somewhat difficult. You could argue that we had three days in the computer lab to get this done, but that is easily refutable. The first day we had to fix our wikispaces so that they are better, then the home page which took a class period to do. Wednesday we did not have a minute to work on our wiki’s because someone fooled around and destroyed the time we had in the lab. After that it was harder to get work done because computers were taken in the class room. It became difficult to complete the project and doing it at home was a no go for a lot of people. He was trying to help us develop ourselves so we can work under pressure. That is why if these essays are not great it is because they were done in one day of work. Mr. Pitcher taught us many things in the course of nine weeks. The biggest thing he taught us is to work to be successful. We must work to achieve our goal or else we will be nothing but what life holds us down to be. I know that life can throw the hardest objects our way, and it can slow us down to a stop. But we have to face the objects head on and prove that we can be better. Do you want to be like the people you look down to? I refuse to be what life tries to hold me down to be. I want to be the person the helps me become more.Most of the people are at the stage in life where they believe they are above what they need to be for life. But they are wrong. If they think they are above anything they fall below everything.
October 23, 2009 Period 6
We the class has had to experience and learn many things within the last quarter. That is what Mr. Pitcher wanted us to do. He wanted us to absorb what was going on in class. I have learned more about grammar then I have in any other class. He kept everything we do interesting and helpful so that we would absorb it easier. He showed us how grammar can be easy and it is something that we must learn in order to be better writers. I know there are some students in the class that do not expect to have to go into a writing field, or that they must know the exact way to say something. But they do not realize that grammar is a two concept knowledge tool. Everyone will do something that involves speaking. If you cannot use grammar in how you write then when you speak your grammar will be off as well. Mr. Pitcher understands that concept and so he is trying to help us be better then what we are right now. I remember the second day in that class. The first thing he asked was "Who here knows what a Noun is?" When he asked this question we gave him the basic answer; people, place and thing. But he taught us singular nouns, plural nouns, concrete, abstract, compound, collective, possessive, common, and proper nouns. None of us even knew there were that many nouns. Mr. Pitcher helped us with this and so now we are better people.
Not only did he teach us nouns, he taught Adjectives, prepositions and something that we didn’t think was important, the plot diagram. The plot diagram is the outline to a movie or story. There are five parts to this and each one of them can somewhat be altered to make the story and movie better. The first part he taught us was the Exposition. It is the beginning part to a story. This is where they introduce the main characters, the antagonist and protagonist, and the setting of the story. The next step that he showed us is called the rising action. The concept is like a mountain. This is where the characters start developing to the peak of the mountain. They develop bonds or hatred towards other people. They tell their own stories in life. This leads to the third step, which is the climax. The climax is the part where the protagonist has his revelation, or an action that changes his life or everyone else’s. After this is begins to fall and you have your falling actions. The falling action is where everything comes together. This is also where all the loose ends are tied up. The last part is called the Resolution. The resolutions show where the story must end. How the conflicts finally ended for the best or the worst.
Mr. Pitcher also taught us how to us our life experiences to better ourselves. That was the point of the Memorable Essay. Everyone lives in the past to some extent. We all think about what we could have done, or how what we did hurt us dearly. It doesn’t matter if it was five seconds ago or five years, the fact is we look at our past and judge ourselves. He wanted to see what we have experienced or what we put us our most memorable experience. This way he knows what type of person we will or may become. If your life is full of depression and all you do is talk about how hurt you are, then your essays and learning process will be the same way. He wanted to know how we react to the world and what we have to go through because then he knows how we will react in the real world.
The last thing that Mr. Pitcher taught us was something he may not have expected to teach us. It is the project that I am doing right now. He taught us that we must cope with the harshness of the world. He did this by giving us a time consuming project that was somewhat difficult. You could argue that we had three days in the computer lab to get this done, but that is easily refutable. The first day we had to fix our wikispaces so that they are better, then the home page which took a class period to do. Wednesday we did not have a minute to work on our wiki’s because someone fooled around and destroyed the time we had in the lab. After that it was harder to get work done because computers were taken in the class room. It became difficult to complete the project and doing it at home was a no go for a lot of people. He was trying to help us develop ourselves so we can work under pressure. That is why if these essays are not great it is because they were done in one day of work.
Mr. Pitcher taught us many things in the course of nine weeks. The biggest thing he taught us is to work to be successful. We must work to achieve our goal or else we will be nothing but what life holds us down to be. I know that life can throw the hardest objects our way, and it can slow us down to a stop. But we have to face the objects head on and prove that we can be better. Do you want to be like the people you look down to? I refuse to be what life tries to hold me down to be. I want to be the person the helps me become more. Most of the people are at the stage in life where they believe they are above what they need to be for life. But they are wrong. If they think they are above anything they fall below everything.