What I Like About This Class

This is my most organized class out of the eight classes this semester. Every, or at least most of the homework assignments are done either through our blogs or the Wiki-space. It makes students have an easier task where we don’t have to bring the paper version to school, avoiding the risk of forgetting to bring our homework to class. Writing homework online is also an advantage for the teachers. Teachers can use the date and time on the website to determine if the assignment is late or not.

The other good thing about this class is that we don’t read much novels or stories in the book during class. We usually read the stories or novels at home and discuss it during lecture so we can share our different ideas. It would be a waste of time for a teacher to tell us read the stories in class when we can just read it at home and learn something out of the book during our class time. Also, if you have any problem with the homework, the teacher is always available after school for you to ask questions. This is important since after school is the only time where students can ask any questions without peer pressure.

What I Don't Like About This Class

I want to suggest something we did last year in our math class: to delete the worst two grades for the whole semester in student’s total grade. I think it’s a good idea because it’s a chance to have a good grade even though they bombed a particular test or quiz. I think writing a response on the story we read in the textbook can also be an extra credit assignment where you can earn the points if and only if you did responses on all the stories.

Another thing was turning back assignments. Because we do all of our homework assignments online, it’s hard for us to see if our answers in the homework are correct or not. I wish we could see the questions we get wrong after the teacher marks it. Teachers may use the word document or by email and tell us which number on the homework we got wrong. Overall, I would say that this class is one of the best classes I have this semester. It’s well organized and formatted where students can easily follow the instructions with out too a lot difficulties. I think we aren’t too fast nor too slow with the novels, so I hope the speed can stay like this.

Buddhist Doctrine

Buddhist Doctrine is just like the basic “common sense” of human rights. I don’t think it’s neither right nor wrong even though it may be useful to your life. You can definitely be a better person if you apply these doctrines to your personal daily life. There are different sorts of doctrines that are similar to the Buddhist. They all talk about how life is one kind of suffering every person has to face. I think there are always two sides to this doctrine. You can always think life as something that’s suffering, OR you can think of it as happiness. People may not agree to the Buddhist doctrines because of controversies between their believes and Buddhist doctrines. Personally, I think I believe in those doctrines in some way, but I don’t just sit down and think about the doctrines everyday. I do the right things and what the Buddhist doctrine says is right everyday instead of thinking about it before doing anything. The only thing I don’t believe is the Self. I think it makes life harder than it already is. I do not believe in the Self because I don’t think it causes suffering and pain even though I do agree that life is pain in some way.

Why Be a Prodigy

The mother wanted her daughter to be a talented child. The mother said that it was for her daughter’s own good. Jing-mei just wanted to try out everything to see if she’s talented at something. I remember I used to be push by hate playing piano even though I might like it if I wasn’t forced to practice it. I tried to resist them by saying “Oh gosh! IT’s Friday again! Piano lesson day…” in a very upset way. But I don’t really feel any better after saying that, so I stopped whining about it. I just felt like quitting and have my spare time. I didn’t like having piano lessons, in fact, I hated it. I finally could make my decisions when I was in eighth grade and I told my parents I wanted to quit. My parents accepted it and that was when I stopped playing piano. Sometimes, I still wanted to play it for pleasure, but I know for sure that I’ll never be a pianist for my whole life ever again after losing my chance of hard practicing. People always say that seven and eight years old are the best times to learn things the beset in the shortest amount of time.

The Influence of Others

I think both positive and negative influence have a big impact on me. A positive influence gives me some confidence towards something specific. Positive influence may make you a better person than what you had been before. People like my parents and friends definitely have a huge impact giving me positive influences. If there were no positive influence from my parents, I would be uneducated and lack of manners. People surrounding me may view me differently than how they view me now. Negative influences also have big impacts on your life. It can also change your personal traits or the way you act. Most negative influences come from television shows, internet, or even friends you have. A lot of children or adolescence learns from what they see on the internet or on the television shows. They tried to imitate the way they talk or maybe the way they dress and act. Most of the time according to their parents, those kinds of shows has a negative influence that makes their child or children bad. Friends surrounding you may also have a big impact on you. Depending on what kind of friends you have, you may have positive influence, negative influence, or even both after a long time with them.

Can Bad Be Good?

A negative experience doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. It can also be a good less on or moral. It might be a good experience for a basketball player to lose a game and become a better player next time he plays. A negative experience can always bring a lesson which leads to a better outcome the next time. It can improve a person’s ability or awareness after experiencing a negative experience. After the negative experience, one might no longer be feared of something bad because he or she is aware of it. Once you have the negative experience, you will never forget about the thing that happened to you. When something similar happens, you will always think about the past negative experience you faced before. A negative experience can make a person have room to make improvements. Not everyone’s perfect, so the best way to get better is to learn from mistakes, and a negative experience is definitely great mistakes you can learn from. Maybe you can not learn from every negative experience, but I believe that “learn from mistakes” is always a quote people should keep in mind. Everyone learn from mistakes or negative experience, in order to make oneself a better person.

Character Traits and Conflict

8. Mama is a large, big boned woman with rough man working hands. She works in the country side. She felt that Dee is different from them. Mama is not used to the city life that Dee had. She’s more than happy to live in her village with Maggie. She wanted Dee to have the same living standards as them so they don’t feel a big difference between each other.

9. Mama faced a lot of conflicts in the story. She faced external conflicts when Dee was trying to own the quilts. Mama had to argue and convince her that the quilts are for Maggie and not her. The conflicts and arguments between Dee and Mama is one of the external conflicts that she faced. Mama also faced internal conflicts where she had to decide whom to give the quilts to. The quilts are one of the most precious heritages in her family, so it was important for Mama to make decisions. She also faced internal conflicts at the beginning of the story where she thinks she doesn’t feel being together with Dee. She had an internal conflict that wanted to be the mom and daughter on television where they are a happy family without feeling any distance between each other.

Literacy Analysis

Maggie wanted the quilts for her marriage. She wanted the quilts to be passing down to her so it can be part of her heritage. Maggie knew that the quilts were on of the most precious objects that her family has passed down from her grandmother. Dee also felt the quilts important. It showed the heritage of Dee and where she came from. Dee could use the quilts to show people who lived in the cities. She wanted to express herself that she has a different background than others even though they all ended up in the city. The quilts showed the countryside’s life and how different they are from the people living in the city. Both Maggie and Dee wanted the quilts for certain reasons, but Mama preferred to give the quilts to Maggie since she has promised Maggie to give her the quilts for her marriage. She also felt that Dee was trying to be different from them whereas on the other hand, Maggie lives the same way Mama lived and felt happy with the life they were used to. Dee wanted to show her smartness in front of her family and then show her friends where she was from by showing the quilts.

Read With a Purpose

There is a conflict between the two visions of heritage. Mama thinks that the heritage should be passed down to Maggie since Dee is no longer similar to them. Dee thinks that the heritage should be passing to both Maggie and her because they are all part of the family. Dee accused Mama of not understanding her heritage because Mama didn’t allow her to have the quilt. Even though Dee didn’t have any purpose for using the quilt, she still wanted it. She wanted to show her heritage to people surrounding her living in the city. She wanted to tell other that she is from a poor, African American family and wanted to feel proud of her heritage. She wanted to feel special and tell others that even though they all ended up living in the city; she was different than others because she had once lived in a community that’s different from where she’s living now. She really felt being separated from Mama and Maggie because of the years living in the city that made her a different person from her family. She felt she was longer part of the family even though she has some genetic heritage from the family.

Reading Focus Quick Check

1. According to Mama, Dee was unlike the narrator. Dee would always look anyone in the eye without any hesitation. She wanted to be better than Dee and Mama and be separated or different that makes her special. Dee was like a city girl whereas Mama was from a poor place. Dee would be easily angered when Mama didn’t give the quilts to her. Dee was also being harsh to Mama at the end of the story and that showed that Mama was different from Dee, living in a regular life enjoying her instead of trying to get everything like Dee.

2. Maggie would have the quilts for the marriage between John Thomas and her. Dee would like to hang the quilts.

3. The story focuses on the idea of family heritage. In the story, the readers can see that both daughters wanted to share the heritage that’s being passed down. Both Dee and Maggie wanted to quilts as a heritage and use it as different purposes. Dee wanted to hang them where on the other hand, Maggie wanted to use it for the marriage between John Thomas and her. Dee accused Mama of not understanding her heritage because Mama gave the quilts only to Maggie and not her, and it showed that Dee didn’t get any heritage from her mother and her ancestors.

Character Traits and Making Inferences

A) Maggie seemed to be nervous in this story after her sister went. She’s like a person that would feel uncomfortable when she’s separated from her sister. Maggie started to feel lonely and hopeless when her sister left. She believed that her sister is always right and viewed her sister with envy and awe.

B) Based on the passage, the readers can infer that the narrator didn’t have a good relationship with Dee. The narrator wished to embrace Dee and feel happy about being together like those children and parents on television shows that would hug and kiss each other when they meet. They seemed to be living far away from each other and they don’t really have a good relationship like those ones in the television shows. The narrator has always wanted a lovely relationship with Dee, but it seemed really hard because of living in separated places. According to the passage, they also seemed to have different standard of living. One is living in the cities where on the other hand, the Dee is still living in the countryside, who can barely afford living without financial problems. They are two different people who lives in different environments, but who wanted to be together.

How Does Heritage Contribute to Character?

A person color of skin, religion, and height are all heritages contribute to character. The heritage of a character is mainly the background of the person, which includes genetic heritage and some physical appearances for instance I look like an Asian because of genetic heritage. If I were born in an American family, then I might look like a white person instead of Asian. There are also some characteristics that do not contribute a character from heritage, such as discipline and having leadership. A person’s discipline comes from the education the person received during his childhood and life time. I think the background and religion of a person are the most important heritage. My father, grandfather, and my ancestors contributed my religious freedom, making me having the opportunity to believe in any religion I want. My ancestors aren’t Jews, or Christians, or Buddhist, or other religion, so I have the religious freedom now to believe in whatever I want or believe in nothing at all! I also believe that background of a person can greatly contribute to him or her. If I weren’t Chinese, I would’ve had different interests in academics. Instead of taking physics and math class like most Asians, I might be taking art classes right now.