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June 5th, 2007 by alexh

Hey there Mr. R.  You told me to write this casually, but the problem is I don’t know if I can do that. Here I go anyway. As you already know, fairly well, I have to put in words my growth and opinions from through out this whole year. I did a lot of debating with myself when trying to decide what to write about. I finally came up with my first topic, the role of the individual vs. conformity, so that is where I will begin.

This theme was discussed in great length during long, long English classes filled with heated disagreements between Aron and me. I chose to talk about Lord of the Flies as my first example. Here my individuals are not only Simon and Ralph but also Jack, because in the beginning of the book he was the one who didn’t agree with Ralph’s ways. Consequences. When Jack took over Ralph was the outsider who was against the gang. Simon was an individual through out the entire book. He never truly fit in with either side and was content with just himself. In that area he is very similar to Anne Frank, who just happens to be my next example.  Here Anne represents the individual and the Nazis conformity. Most of the Germans didn’t really inflict harm on the Jews but they still stepped blindly into Hitler’s genocide, any number of them could have chosen to not join and follow their own beliefs. Anne and her family were just one of the many Jew families that went into hiding instead of giving up and turning themselves in for a life of labor.  In The Wave the situation is very similar, except thankfully without the killing, a large group of people started a group others joined them. Soon enough they started forcing people to join them if they didn’t want to in the first place, and trying to silence people who could stand in their way. I know that is really easy to get caught up in something you believe in but there are cases where it just goes to far.

I know Mr. R, I sound formal again but I am trying. My next topic is how I was an Effective Communicator this year. This is probably the most boring out of all my topics and I don’t really want to write it, but I guess I have to. I believe that I understood and conveyed written, oral, and visual information using appropriate media. I did this during my poetry unit and my Teen Life project by writing poetry that was meant to convey my feelings and emotions at that time. During the Teen life by writing a poem and creating a picture to inform people about the dangers of teenage drug abuse. Also on the poetry night I read one of my poems out loud in front of the crowd and was hopefully understandable.  In a number of areas I collaborated with others in appropriate learning situations to achieve group goals. I chose to write about my Anne Frank memorial; I had to work with two people I had never worked with before, Aron and Daniel Bae, which was hard because Aron and I don’t really work well together. We created and painted our own memorial surrounded by different objects of meaning. Again during those long English classes I listened respectfully and asked questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight, and you know I actually discuss things and ask questions when I don’t know something. Sometimes it was while you were talking but that phase is so over now.

On to my favorite subject, dance. Mr. R before I start I just have to say that you have greatly influenced my dance and without that I wouldn’t have been able to honor your teaching with my excellent dance performance. The first thing you did was teaching me about subtext, hidden meanings, and how to find underlying messages. I used that knowledge in my photography, my newest poetry, but most importantly my dancing (not the midnight kind but the interpretative kind). The second thing you did was in drama how you forced used to have unique poses and to come out of our personal bubbles. I was so nervous when it was my turn to come on, but then I remembered acting in your class and how I was nervous before that also but when I was out there actually acting I was perfectly fine. I walked out onto the stage and just danced, all my nerves gone. The third and most important of all the things you did to influence me was to teach Anne Frank. While we were reading it I didn’t really understand how this book was supposed to move me inside, but the way you talked about Anne made me really interested and as we progressed and discussed I became more and more convinced that it really was a great book. I do have to admit I didn’t actually finish the entire book. In my dance I tried to capture both Anne’s feelings and emotions and my own, I know that I might react differently if I had really been in that situation, but I knew the whole subject was personal and wouldn’t have been complete without it.

As I sit here listening to my Evanescence I finally understand why you had us write all those reflective journals, which I did not like! You wanted us to see how we are selves have grown instead being told by someone else. Well, your reason might be totally different but that is what I got.  Anyways. Overall this year with being suspended and making new friends and enemies didn’t even amount to the feeling of dancing on that stage, being actually seen by the entire audience.

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