KATIE'S ENGLISH BLOG

Grace M. Seryn

             On St. Patrick's Day, our school hosted a softball tournament where we played a school from New Orleans called McGhee. It was one of our first few games, so we were a little nervous going in to play. The game ended pretty quickly, and they won by over ten points. We were all let down that we had lost, but we knew that we would play them again. This weekend was our second game against them, and we went to New Orleans to play. We were all excited and nervous to play them again, but I had a good feeling about the game.              We got there, warmed up, and the game started. It started very similarly to our first game against them, so we started to loose our energy. However, my team started to get some hits, get on bases, and get some runs. We got more and more excited as we got more runs, and when we were down by three, a girl on my team hit the ball out of the park with bases loaded. We were all so excited and we ended up winning by one. It was by far the best game

So far, I am really enjoying Purple Hibiscus . One thing that I find interesting it the perspective of the book. The narrator is a young, Nigerian girl named Kambili who lives a luxurious life, however, her father is cruel and abusive. I think it is interesting to see her views about her father even though she is fully aware of his actions. It seems her whole life is revolved around getting his approval and her wellbeing also depends on him. This is seen when Kambili goes to school, and she basically throws away her chance to have friends because she is so focused on getting good grades to please Papa. One thing I find surprising is how collected and calm Kambili and her brother Jaja are when their father acts out. For example, when they hear see Papa carrying their mother over his shoulder down the stairs, they both silently clean up the blood left behind. I also find it surprising how ironic Papa is because he is so involved in the church and its mission. He seems to use his author

Grace JC

The green grass grows underneath me As i sit on on my freshly mowed lawn. The warm air sweeps across my face And my mind wanders into the rustling green leaves The azalea bush behind me, bursting with loud hot pink petals. The birds sing sweet songs as They flutter and fly from tree to tree. I lay back and look at the sky As the sounds of spring sing to me. In my poem, I used sibilance, euphony, alliteration, and personification.

Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus https://genius.com/Miley-cyrus-party-in-the-usa-lyrics I chose “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus to analyze for my blog post. Towards the very beginning, I noticed that she says, “Hopped off the plane at LAX”. The “O” sound in “Hopped” and “off” are the same, this is an example of an assonance. I also found an alliteration when she says, “ My tummy's turnin'”. The corresponding T’s create this sound pattern. She uses a metaphor in the chorus when she says, “and the butterflies fly away”. She is referring to when someone has “butterflies in their stomach” and she says this to say that she is comfortable now. During the bridge of the song, I noticed a lot of repeating vowel sounds, causing an assonance. Feel l i ke hoppin' on a fl i ght (On a flight) Back t o my hometown t o night (Town tonight) This helps this verse have an ease to it to lead the song into the last chorus.

Zoe Emma

This weekend was very busy for me. The first thing that I did was go to a Mu Alpha Theta competition with my friend. I thought that it was interesting to go because I had helped at one before, so it was cool to compete for the first time. After I finished the competition, I went to National History Day. There, I presented my research paper to three judges. Once I had finished presenting, I went home, and I relaxed. Later that day, I went to a friends house to get ready for a dance. The dance was really fun because not too many people were there, so it wasn’t overcrowded. Once the dance was over we went over to my friends house to spend the night. We were all pretty tired, so we went to sleep soon after we got back. Once I got back, I only had a little bit of time before I had to go to my softball practice. After that, I got home and relaxed after my super busy weekend.

This year, I was really looking forward to LAUNCH because my sister always tells me how much fun it was. I always knew that Emily was in the Thesis program, but I never really knew what her topic was about. In the days leading up to her presentation, I started to get a better understanding of her topic and I was getting very excited. I know that it may be bias to say that I liked Emily’s topic the most, but I did find it very interesting. I thought that she explained it very well to make it easy to understand. I had never really thought about how my ideas are specific to me and how my brain makes decisions everyday. I also think that her topic was relevant to today with everything that is happening in the world. It was a great message and it was great for everyone to hear.