3rd Quarter Reflection

Prompts:

• Of the books you have read this quarter, which was your favorite? Why?
• *In what area do you think you made your biggest improvements in English Language Arts?
• *What is something you have accomplished this quarter that you are proud of?
• Where are you in your 40 Book Challenge?
• *What has been the most challenging part of 3rd Quarter for you and what did/can you do to help overcome this?
• What have you learned about the world?

* Required

I've finished around three or four books this quarter, and The Lost Hero from the Heroes of Olympus series is my favorite of those books in terms of entertainment, but Night by Elie Wiesel was really eye-opening. Night is a firsthand witness report of life as a Jewish prisoner during the Holocaust. It had a very direct style of word choice, employing no tricks yet leaving no escape from it.

"My faceless neighbor spoke up:

'Don’t be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve.'

I exploded:

'What do you care what he said? Would you want us to consider him a prophet?'
His cold eyes stared at me. At last he said, wearily:

'I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.'"

 The book had me doubting about God at one point, like the narrator, who wrote about the night his God was murdered.

I have tried observing the TIQA format more often after being told several times that my blog post was good, but the format didn't match that of TIQA. Although, while writing this paragraph, it is hard to observe TIQA, and I don't exactly know why.

I don't remember

I have read 8 or 9 books so far this school year, and I am in the middle of reading I Am Malala, which I have not read since late 2014. I have a feeling that I won't be able to finish the 40 Book Challenge, particularly since I'm not that invested in it (sorry).

Like past quarters, keeping up on schoolwork has been hard for me. I think it's actually gotten worse, since I got my first detention due to a combination of tardies and unfinished/no homework. However, I managed to wake up today early due to a recovered mentality from two years ago, and I plan on developing that.

We studied the Holocaust this quarter, and I've learned a lot about that time period. My memory retention is horrible, however: I know things, but if I don't see them often enough they get buried deep into my mind and I don't remember them unless some sort of catalyst (like a reminder) causes me to. But I still found out some things, like how there were many reasons behind Hitler's rise to power, such as his gift of speaking and manipulation of the Germans' feelings.