Hanna Crisp

All Senior Electives are doing Senior Project Presentations in class at this point. The more you have done and prepared, the more feedback your peers will be able to give you on your presentation in class. A good tip is to use your Reflective Paper that was turned back to you this week as an outline for your presentation. All information that is in it is information about your project and your experience that you will want to share.

REMINDER: Expo is May 17…it’s coming up!!

Heroes & Villains: Read to chapter 110 in Angels and Demons

Accelerated Gothic Tales: Choose and read a more modern Vampire Tale. Please email me the title if you have not told me already.

Gothic Tales: Read up to Chapter 42 in The Shining

Happy Vacation!

Over the years the idea of vampires has changed drastically. As we watch Blade: Trinity in class, we notice many different characteristics. However, we only have a basic image of vampires to go from. Over the weekend, do a search for vampires and even look at different cultures and the way the myth was presented. Post some of the characteristics that you find on this post. Make sure you do not use your actual name when you comment, initials or a screen name of some sort are okay.

Reading for the weekend: The Shining p226 (there will be a quiz)

Hello and Happy Holiday Break! I hope everyone has been able to enjoy some time off. I have been grading like crazy and getting ready for when we come back. On that note…Heroes & Villains, your homework for the break….

There have been many villains throughout literature, movies, history and so on. Who would you consider to be the #1 Villain? When I asked myself this question, I actually had quite a hard time trying to come up with an answer. When you are looking across the board there are just so many to choose from. I toyed with the idea of one of the killers from the Television show “Dexter,” and then I contemplated a character from a recent novel I read. One thing remained, I kept going back to a novel I am reading right now, “In the Garden of the Beasts.” It is a novel about the start of WWII and a family that moved to Berlin right at the start of the war. So, in the end, I go back to a name we have mentioned in class a few times; Adolf Hitler. Yes, he shows leadership and oratorical skills that render him someone to be respected in some ways, but ultimately, I would have to conclude that he is a villain, and in my eyes, the #1 Villain.

Sample response: Hitler was selfish in trying to push his ideals on everyone and ruthless in the way that he went trying to achieve them. He treated people cruelly killed them for the sake of trying to reach a personal goal; an Aryan race – a master race. The people that he murdered, with the help of his SS Soldiers, had done nothing to him, nor the people that assisted him and followed his lead. He allowed people like Josef Mengele to do cruel and unthinkable experiments on prisoners of the camps. His lack of emotion and cruel and horrific treatment of the Jewish race, and many others at the time, are what lead me to choose him as my #1 Villain.

But what about you? Who is your #1 Villain? Your homework is to choose someone, or  character, that you can, and will, defend as your #1 Villain. Think about what we have defined a villain as and fully support your response. Type your response as a comment to this post. You will need to create a login/screenname. PLEASE DO NOT POST USING YOUR ACTUAL NAME.

Happy posting! And have a Happy New Year!

This week we wrapped up our extended unit on Alfred Hitchcock’s Pyscho. Although an oldie, this classic sure surprised everyone in class in many ways. Who would have thought it would take SEVEN days to film a THREE minute shower murder? Or what about the fact that Hitchcock made sure no one could enter a showing of the film once it had started?

Reminder to Film Study Blocks D & H: Test on Psycho will be in class on Monday 11/7 and your viewing notes will be due as well. I strongly suggest using the synopsis and study guide to help prepare. Everyone did great on their quizzes today and I am sure will do great on their tests Monday