Blog #6

This semester, at the beginning of the school year my grades have not looked so good in a few of my classes.  When I came into sophomore year, I soon figured out that it was definitely more difficult than freshmen year.  I didn't start school with an open mind or thinking clearly.  I didn't have a goal set.  I feel like I slacked through this first semester until the last minute and I realized I could actually get good grades if I tried harder and actually took the time to make sure I had all of my work done.  The beginning of first semester we did a few essays, reflections and stories.  I have the best time writing stories because its like it just flows and appears in my head the way I want it to look and sound, but when it comes to essays and reflections I have a hard time trying to get everything right, like is there enough detail, does it support my main point and is the spelling corrected?  I think now I'm doing better in that area because I actually try to take time and read the directions thoroughly until I get what I'm supposed to be doing.  My favorite project that we did was when we learned about the holocaust.  In 8th grade, my English class read two books about the holocaust called, "The Devil's Arithmetic" and "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas."  From those books I got that the Jews were wildly mistreated and the Nazi's really believed in what they were doing and thought it was the right thing, along with their leader Adolph Hitler.  When my class read "Night," I think it gave everyone a different point of view of how we look at the holocaust.  In the book "Night" the main character was telling his story and how he remembered it, even though he went through a lot of trials, including losing some faith in god he managed to get out of the concentration camp and he survived.  The holocaust speaker that came was brilliant because he managed to fit in with the Germans when he was younger because he had blond hair and blue eyes.  I think its great that he still has family, unlike some other holocaust survivors we've read about he is stable.