I don’t think my opinions are stupid and others do; so it is better to keep them to myself. (page 102)

What are your thoughts about sharing opinions? Do you agree with Anne, that it is best to keep your opinions to yourself because no one will understand them, or is important to share them nonetheless? For more information on this post, click here.

Dear Anne,

Wow what have you come to poor child? If you have opinions that you yourself believe are good you should always share them, if not with everyone at least share them with someone, maybe Peter or Margot.

Anne if you don’t share your thoughts, than what is the whole point in having thoughts? When you have a thought that you don’t share, someone could do something you don’t like (because you didn’t tell them what you wanted) then you’ll become angry and possibly fight with them. Do you want all of this to happen just because you didn’t share your thoughts?

You said, “Aren’t the grownups idiotic and stupid?” and I couldn’t help but agree; however, grownups aren’t always 100% stupid (my definition of them being stupid doesn’t mean they have an IQ of zero, by the way) and most of the time they do accept your thoughts, and yes sometimes they do decline them, but that should never get you down. One other thing is that a reason the elders in your home at the moment aren’t accepting your thought s or questions is that they are fearful, they are terrified not just for themselves but for you and your sister and everyone else under their care. A reason they are scared is, well just look out your window Anne, there are bombs going off, people being killed, people fighting, and people being taken away to god knows where. So you see Anne it isn’t that the grownups are idiotic it is just that they aren’t thinking straight because the element of fear has struck them tremendously hard.

War Anne, a war is going on right at this moment, and from what I get from your diary entries it doesn’t sound like you get that idea 100%. While a harsh thing like a war is going on it is sometimes hard for people to concentrate, especially older more experienced people like grownups. What I am trying to say here is that right now, at this moment in time your parents don’t have time for all of your questions. Basically, no you shouldn’t keep your thoughts bottled up, but you should only say the ones that are extremely important to you or could make a big change (for the better, not for the worse).

Anne you yourself said, “Even if people are still very young, they shouldn’t be prevented from saying what they think” this is a perfect may to describe freedom of speech and the fact that you should be able to say what you think, so why aren’t you saying what you think? Well me, I think it is because you are too afraid of being judged, you’re too afraid of your own parents disagreeing with your opinion. My point is that you have been blaming your parents for you not being able to give your ideas, but what I think is that it is the fear hidden within you Anne that is stopping you, not the “idiotic and stupid grownups”.

link to article

Summary of Cyclone Larry 

A category 5 cyclone called cyclone Larry hit northern Queensland (Australia) on the 20^th of March 2006. Cyclone Larry whipped out the city called Innisfail and some close townships, also the cyclone destroyed about $300 million ($AUST.) worth of sugar, banana, rambutan and pawpaw crops.

Amazingly in the storm only 30 people were injured and no one was killed. Although that doesn’t sound so bad the lively hood of people has been lost, their houses gone, and some people have lost millions of dollars ($AUST.) in crops and in damage.

Our assignment:

“Please re-read the November 7th, 1942 post (page 43) Pay particular attention to the last page 46. I would like you to write a few paragraphs (300 words min.) about your thoughts and feelings on what she says. Can you relate? If so how? Please use quotes to explain your ideas. In what ways are you similar? How are you different?“

While reading the November 7^th journal I was thinking to myself, “wow what a brat, how can she talk about her parents that way?” After a somewhat long time of thinking I then realized that in this entry Anne is not all that different from me, a paradigm of this would be when Anne talked about looking at the pictures in Margot’s book and then having her mum, dad, and sister (Margot) all yell at her for not giving it back straight away, I would have done the exact same thing if I was interested in a certain picture; however, I don’t think my parents would have reacted like that, and I would have told my sister to just please wait a second.

A difference I have with Anne is that in arguments I think me and my siblings are treated equally (in our parents view), whereas Anne believes her parents are always against her. A second difference I have with Anne is that she sees her mother as a failed parent that just likes to annoy her, while I believe my mother to be a great role model that leaves me something to believe in. Another difference I have with Anne on the topic of our parents is that she hates her mum and loves her dad while I love both of my parents deeply.

Although Anne and I have few similarities, we do still have a few. For example when Anne said that she and Margot were complete opposites, I can completely relate to that with my brother. Even though my brother and I aren’t complete opposites, we almost are (which in my opinion is what Anne and Margot are). Because of this I can sort of see what Anne is talking about when she says that she always clashes with her sister for I am exactly the same with my brother.

Over all me and Anne have lots of differences, but I think we are very similar especially when it comes to siblings.

“Margot and I began to pack some of our most vital belongings into a school satchel. The first thing I put in was this diary, then hair curlers, handkerchiefs, schoolbooks, a comb, old letters; I put in the craziest things with the idea that we were going into hiding. But I’m not sorry, memories mean more to me than dresses.” –Anne frank

Now the question is raised, if you were in such a situation as Anne and Margot Frank, what would you pack and why? To get the idea of our assignment, click here.

Yes I am with Anne there are defenatly more important things than clothes, so here are most of the things I would pack

Well the first thing in my satchel would be a laptop. I would take a laptop because it would enable me to keep writing every day without having a messy pile of paper, also seeing as I don’t know where I am going I might not be able to go outside so a laptop would keep me occupied through those long boring days. Since I don’t know where I am going I also don’t know if there is electricity so if I cant power up my laptop I will have to have something else, that something else would be a book (maybe four or five) and a journal, because a book will keep me occupied (without a laptop) and a journal will enable me to write down all of my crazy adventures and or controversies and just share my thoughts

Sticking to the topic, “what would I bring”, I would bring an old photo album. I would do this to make sure I remember what life is truly like outside the hiding spot, and to ensure that I remember all that is important to me, including family, friends and just plainly life itself.

My hand-phone is something I would definitaly take to this special hiding space. This is a necessity because I could call anyone I wanted to, so I wouldn’t forget about them or if I got sick of the people I was in hiding with my hand-phone would enable me to call someone else to talk too. My hand-phone is also good because it has a clock so you can always tell the time, it has a calendar so I can tell what date it is. Lastly my hand-phone also has games and an array of different music for when I get extremely bored.

laptop hand phone

books journal

In our class we read a book called “The Lord of The Flies” during this unit I did overall pretty good but here are some more detailed reflections.

While reading the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, I was a Critical thinker. By being a Critical Thinker, I built meaning and understanding using prior knowledge and new information. In clear more understandable terms this means questioning the book and thinking of patterns that aren’t clearly shown. I also believe this includes doing some extra research to decipher information I don’t understand. I feel I executed this part of the ESLR by writing down a diverse variety of questions while reading and then researching them after I had finished. By being a Critical Thinker I am also a much more improved Effective Communicator because I have a better understanding of the book, which enables me to get my point across to others more effectively. Next time I could also listen to other people’s thoughts and opinions and tie them to my own research to further enhance my understanding. When I was reading the book, I believe I became an excellent to average Critical Thinker thus I think if I was graded on my ability of showing how to be a critical thinker I think I would get an A-.

During our class discussions I do not believe I was being a very good Involved Citizen. I don’t believe I demonstrated awareness and respect for others, because I wasn’t willing to help anyone say anything, I would just lazily listen to them struggling to get their point across even though most of the time I knew what they were trying to say. To clarify what I mean, in our second class discussion one of my friends was caught trying to get his point across. I knew what he wanted to say, but I didn’t help him like I really should have. Comparing this to a couple of years ago I have slowly gone from a great involved citizen (while having a discussion in class) to a personality that isn’t so good at it. For example in our English class last year we had many ESL students so when we were reading “King Arthur” in our English class I was constantly helping them to get out what they wanted to say in our discussions. I think to help me become a better involved citizen I need to not just listen and respect my peers while in discussion but also help them get a hold of what they’re trying to say, so that they can contribute there thoughts. During most times when we were in discussion this year, I would give my self a D on Involved Citizen for I now need to learn to stop merely listening and to begin helping too.

Whilst we where in the first and second class discussions, I was not bad at being an effective communicator, especially when it came to bringing up new topics and double checking with what a person had said. This is because I always listened respectfully and asked questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight. To me this essentially means that I listened while others were talking and if I didn’t comprehend something I would simply raise my hand and ask. A paradigm of this would be when we were discussing the scene with Simon talking to the Lord of the Flies, in this I wasn’t sure what the Lord of the Flies was so I asked my friend and he said, “the talking was in Simons head but there was a pig head on a stick or pole that was covered in flies”. Judging my self against last school year, I am a superior effective communicator given that last year I was too introverted when it came to asking about what I didn’t catch onto very well, and I wasn’t the best at listening while other people were talking. I think in the next discussion we have I could exceed what I did this time by taking notes (while reading) on utterly everything that I do not understand while reading, and after I do that, I could bring up in discussion everything I took notes on, and I will also take notes during the discussion. If I were to grade myself on being an Effective Communicator I would give my self a B+, this is because even though I was good I think I could have done even better if I even harder.

I believe I was an Academic Achiever in the two different classes when our group had to imagine we were alone on a abandoned island lacking a teacher, any adult guidance, and only having our own opinions and a piece of paper. Because I demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. I showed that I could work by myself and with a partner or two. I accomplished this by doing a little research on Blooms Taxonomy by myself (independently).After Taylor had done some on her own we eventually did most of it together (collaboratively). Comparing my skill of working collaboratively from last year, I have improved a great deal. This is because last year I dreaded group projects or any work that included a partner, but this year I prefer to do some things with a partner and some things by myself. I trust that next time I will illustrate both how to be independent and how to be collaborative even more. Although it will be hard to do it better than in those two meetings, I will try. To do this even better next time I will be a little more independent and not depend on my partner as much. On a rating of 1-10 (10 being the highest) I think I was an 8.5 because I was not bad at being an Academic Achiever and I was undoubtedly above average.

Because we had only a week to do our projects, I had a warehouse full of problems to try and solve using a variety of sources. This means I was showing signs of being a Critical Thinker. In basic terms this means I had to figure out some different ways of solving just one problem. One of the times I had to do this was when I was drawing my pig head on a stick. The drawing kept turning out more like a horse than a pig. I asked my brother for a tip or two on how to make my picture look more like a pig. After his suggestions, it was looking better but still not good enough. Eventually, I printed out a picture of a pig off the computer and tried to redraw it, and when I did this (to my surprise), it looked like a pig. By truly muddling through to solve a fairly difficult problem similar to that I have in fact showed incredible growth from last year. When I did a project previously, I would have just left it instead of trying to improve it and make it better. To be an even more advanced critical thinker I could have printed off many pictures and used all of them to help me, or I could have gotten my friends (that could draw extremely well) to give me a few pointers or hints. I would imagine that if I were rated on being a good critical thinker I would get a pretty high mark or a mark at least above average, maybe an 8 or 9out of 10.

In a not to good way, while I was making my project I do not think I showed examples of using the ESLR of Effective Communication. I especially do not think I listened respectfully and asked questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight. On the whole I didn’t ask any questions while I was making of my project. I didn’t ask the questions I required to get a better understanding of the project when something wasn’t clear to me I just played it like it would be okay and hoped that it would be. There is another point about being an Effective Communicator that I think I did do in this project unlike the point written above. This is the demonstration of my creative talents to convey my ideas. The way I did this was that I produced a cover and then just kept adding and adding things till I thought it was superior even though I wasn’t even sure if I was doing everything fittingly. Lucky enough I did do the project accurately so I wouldn’t give myself a horrible grade on this ESLR; however, I was unquestionably below average on the project perhaps a B- or a C+.