Blog Reflection

 Well my semester has finished. I'm so thankful with all the things I have learned. We did a lot of essays, reflections, short stories, and oral presentations that made us improve in our English skills. One of the things that we also did is to publish all our works in a personal Blog. With this Blog I had a whole different experience compared to the things I'm used to do.

I'm new using this kind of social media called Blog. Like I said it's a different experience for me. In my blog I posted most of all my English works. We also were assigned to decorate our Blogs and attach some pictures and hyperlinks to it. I decided to decorate my Blog with something relaxing. My background it's a natural place, a sky, a flower, and a beautiful green grass. I also put pictures according to the theme of every entry, and also attached some hyperlinks of YouTube videos to few entries. Those hyperlinks are stories remakes of the story I'm talking about in the entry or also they are videos that have a lesson to give and they demonstrate the message I want to give.

 I like this experience because, in addition to what I had said before that it is something different, I like this because I cannot just only show my point of view to my partners in class. I can also show it to the whole world, and it can be helpful to someone out there. I also like this experience with the Blog because I was able to be creative and be free to costume the entry the way I wanted.

Reflection of "Teaching" of Jim Cooper

​            Cooper talks about his experience teaching here in Puerto Rico and tells what he thinks about the education here, he thinks that the education in here is very bad structured and that the teachers are not capable to teach English. In my experience learning English here in Puerto Rico I had bad English classes and some of good ones in my last 2 years of high school. I had different types of teachers with their own style, and also different types of books. I had books with a very low level of teaching English and very good ones.

​            I had teachers that are from the States and teachers from here, Puerto Rico. But I think the best type of teacher are those that are native English speakers and does not speak Spanish because this makes you in an obligatory way talk in English; and this makes us more comfortable with the language so we can speak English to others. Also having teachers that speak English will make you learn how to pronounce words correctly. That is one problem that the author point out “they knew that for years the teachers had not been speaking English to the students, but talking “about” English. Naturally. They couldn’t speak any English” (Cooper 73). I had seen those kinds of teachers and I do not think this is any helpful. But one time I had a teacher that came from the States but her pronunciation was really bad, sometimes we tried to correct her and she got mad about it. She does not accepted any correction. This is a very bad example of a teacher. On the other hand I had teachers from here Puerto Rico that were better teaching English.

But also I can say that I think most of the students nowadays and in my case have learned English probably from outside of school. We have learned more English from the TV shows, movies, and music we use to hear.

Reflection of my Class Journal

The teacher told us to write 5 times in a week in a free line notebook. She told us to write in a free line notebook because we needed to feel free and without any restrictions when were writing in the journal. The only rules we had were: that we don’t get logical, that we need to write whatever comes to our mind, and that we need to keep writing without worrying about the spelling and grammar. We cannot cross out, we need to just be free and write everything you want without caring about the reader because no one will read it; not even the teacher.  With this project I learned to be fluent and learned more vocabulary. Also this project helped me a lot to express myself without worrying that someone will read it and without trying to be perfect. Those papers were everything I had on my mind. Also it helped me to organize my feelings and thoughts. It helped me to know more about me and about the mess I used to have on my mind. But I wasn’t always writing about the situations I had or the plans I got on my mind, sometimes I wrote none sense stuff; it was just expressions in a paper.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                In the other hand we also did a life compass. We needed to do 3 life compasses in our journal. It consist in a circle with four lines similar to a north, south, east, west compass, but instead of the locations we had on it: spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical. We had to write next to each word in a scale of 0 to 3 how we were feeling. For example if I was very sad or angry I was supposed to write 0, and if I was happy I was supposed to write 3. Like the journal entries this life compasses helped me organized my feelings and know how exactly I was felling at that moment. Also it helped me know how I’m supposed to work with my feelings letting me know which one was lower.

I got 40 journal entries and 30 life compasses also my mental status were in total 73, my emotional status were in total 55, my spiritual status were in total 54, and my physical status were in total 55. I got 31% in mental and 23% in the other ones. Like you can see I have a balance between my emotional, spiritual and physical status, but when it comes to mental you can see that when I grab the pen to write in my notebook I have a lot of thoughts and they are very constant. But that’s not always like that, sometimes I was in blank and like I said I wrote a lot of none sense stuff because of that. Also I did charts of my feelings and I can see that my emotional, spiritual and physical relate a little, especially the emotional and the spiritual. I can see that the days I was very sad I wasn’t very spiritual and sometimes it was reflected in my body, in my physical status. The lower number in physical also reflects that I’m almost always in pain because of my back, and the lower numbers in my emotional and spiritual status at the final days reflects the sadness I have been passing through; sadness that my journal helped me relieved.

                     

Reflection of “The Maternal Instinct” by V.S. Naipaul

This story “The Maternal Instinct” by V.S. Naipaul is about a prostitute woman named Laura that has eight children. Her house was full of violence and her children were from 7 different fathers except for the last 2 children that were from Nathaniel, the only man that stayed with her and gave her 2 children. Nathaniel stayed with her even if she used to beat him; he always used to say that he was the one who beat her.

Even if Laura wasn’t a good example for her children, she wanted that none of them be like her. That’s why she wanted that all of her children get educated. Laura used to say: “It have nothing like education in the world. I don’t want my children to grow like me.” But we can see that her older daughter named Lorna got pregnant even if she was educated. “The eldest daughter, Lorna, came home from her typing lessons late one night and said, ‘Ma, I going to make a baby.’ I heard the shriek that Laura gave. And for the first time I heard Laura crying. It wasn’t ordinary crying. She seemed to be crying all the cry she had saved up since she was born”.

This is an example of how a parent should raise a child, because if you want your child to be a good person in the future you should not settle by telling them to be a good person. You as a parent have to be an example for them. You should show them how to live and be good people. Lorna must have showed to her children how to go forward with a decent job and treated her children better, with love, and only caring for them and not being behind males. We can see the sad end that the story become for Laura, she was so ashamed of what her daughter did that she didn’t show up on the street because she knows it was because of her bad parenting. She was even relieved when the police told her that her daughter Lorna died drowned, she said: “It good. It good. It better that way.” Maybe she was relieved because her daughter’s life may have ended worst like her mother’s life. Also we can infer that Lorna committed suicide because of her mother’s reaction to the news of having a baby. One character said: “Is what they always do, swim out and out until they tired and can’t swim no more.” Maybe the daughter thought that her mother will be proud if she become like her, like the example her mother gave her. This is a disaster that occurred because of the mother bad behavior.

  

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7w6rDDD_lCo

Reflection of "George and the Pink House" by V.S. Naipaul

"George and the Pink House" by V.S. Naipaul is a sad story about a family that little by little decomposes because the one that should be guiding the family is not a good person. The author describes this family of a mean man named George. He talks about the fear that George and his pink house gave him. George is a man that beat his family, kills his wife, and even found a husband to his daughter so he cannot have all the charge of his daughter after killing his wife. George at the end dies very lonely.

            This is a sad story that nowadays still happens; I have seen similar kinds of stories. Like the author of this story said: “I couldn’t understand how anybody in the world would want to live with George”. It’s hard to believe that we can see this happening and that we can see people that live with bad persons like George. I have known wives that stay with their abusive husbands for many inexcusable reasons. They stay with their husband because: they want their children grow up with a father, because they had made a promise in matrimony to never leave their husbands, they don’t want anybody to talk bad about them, they want to protect their husbands dignity by not telling anyone that he is a bad man, or that their husband threat them so they can’t speak what’s happening in their house. These kinds of women are always behind their husband, they don’t do anything without them and they don’t see like a proper person like the author said about George’s wife: “George’s wife was never a proper person. I always thought of her just as George’s wife, and that was all.” These women should leave these excuses apart and think about how this situation can conclude, this situation can conclude in a bad outcome like George’s family had. George’s wife inaction resulted in her own death.             

We can also see that this situation can be painful to everybody in the family. I can infer that George’s sons, in addition of suffering abuse from their father and seeing their mother suffer, they were in pain too because of the death of their mother. Also we can see that the inaction of the mother against the abuse also resulted that when she wasn’t alive, George found a husband for his daughter Dolly. Even Dolly didn’t claim for help she was always giggling and obeying her father. Dolly was giggling but not because she was happy; we can see this in this text: “The women and the Americans made Dolly and Razor kiss and kiss, and they cheered. Dolly giggled. Hat said, ‘She ain’t giggling, you know. She crying really."

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_zWIVRIWk

Retelling "Thank You, M'am" by Langston Hughes

The story "Thank You, M'am" by Langston Hughes is about a boy that tried to steal some money of a lady so he can buy a pair of shoes he wanted. This boy received a lesson by the lady that he wanted to steal her purse and also the boy at the final got the money he was searching for. The lady was very kind with him and he act ashamed of what he tried to do.

            The story begins with the boy trying to get advantage of the lady that was walking alone at 11pm. He tried to snatch her purse but he failed because the purse broke and he fell. The woman kicked him, grabbed him and asked him: “What did you want to do it for?”, and he lie saying: “I didn’t aim to.” When the kid said sorry so he can be released, the woman told him: “Um-hum! And your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash your face for you. Ain’t you got nobody home to tell you to wash your face?” and the boy answered “No’m,”. Then the woman drags him to her house instead of calling the police. When they arrived to her house she told him to wash his face, to comb his hair and told him that she understands him because at that age she also wanted things she couldn't get and had done bad things too. She changes her attitude towards him showing that she understand and that was comfortable with him at her house leaving the door open and her purse near him without looking at him and her purse. She cooked for both of them and talked about other things. They talked about her life and not about the incident, his family or his life. And when they finished eating she gave him 10 dollars so he can buy the shoes he wanted (the reason he tried to steal money). Finally when he was leaving he tried to say "Thank you, m'am" but she shut the door and never saw her again.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UMrBMTglPxc

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eHyhYa9CQcQ

Reflection "Use of Force" by Williams Carlos Williams

In "Use of Force" by Williams Carlos Williams we can see the difficulties that a doctor had trying to find the problem of a sick girl that he visited. The little girl was very aggressive and did not let anybody to treat her. She was hiding her sickness forcing the doctor to use a different strategy to finally found the sore throat that she was hiding; he had to use his strength against the girl.

            Some people think that the doctor should not have done that. The truth is that indeed it could result in a worst outcome. Using his strength can be danger because he could hurt her in a very severe way. But I think that if he takes control of his strength and use it very careful is okay, because that was for her own good. If the doctor does not had use his force he would never noticed her sore throat that she was hiding. If the doctor had not noticed her sore throat she would probably died.

            Also I think that the fault that the doctor had to use his force to find her illness is because of the parents. We can see this in this text: “Both parents answered me together, No . . . No, she says her throat don't hurt her. Does your throat hurt you? added the mother to the child. But the little girl's expression didn't change nor did she move her eyes from my face. Have you looked? I tried to, said the mother, but I couldn't see.” Like we can see the girl is very brave and her parents didn't put control over her. She was doing whatever she wanted. Her parents were dealing with her they weren't forcing her. I think that the fact that the parents didn't put control over their daughter, the attitude of the girl and the fact that it was for her own good are good reasons for the doctor to use his force in this situation.

   

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vBmeaC08l3Q