Uh. I do pay attention in class. Honest. Despite my lack of speech and willingness to share my ideas, I really do pay attention. So why is it difficult to recall what I've done in class recently? Oh, wait. How could I forget about you. You. I've been studying for you for quite some time. And apparently incorrectly as is apparent in my grade. You.
The terms test.
I paid attention in class, I played enough Who Wants To Be A Millionaire that I now don't want to be a millionaire anymore if that's what it takes to be a millionaire. Thanks Ms. Holmes. You've ruined being rich for me. Just kidding. Please don't fail me for saying that. I confused many of the words with each other, and to be honest, some just seemed to run screaming from my brain as I started the test. On the bright side, it did seem easier the second time. That's probably good, right? This test was a nice wake-up call in showing me that my current study methods are wrong and will not work. Tough love, but effective.
My class really likes those... What would you call them... Ya know, those warm-up thingies that we do before class starts that eventually end up taking up half of the class period for us because we're so methodical in what we write. Even the day we just copied what second hour said. Third hour, all the way. Those reading and responding challenges. I do enjoy those as well, but I need to learn to speak up more in class, because I never seem to get my opinion out there. I think it's because I feel like, "I'm not qualified to say what the author was trying to say. Who am I to judge what this means?" If I keep thinking this way, AP Lit is going to be a long, hard year. This is what we do everyday. I just need to get my ideas out there, and not just in the challenges but in class discussions as well. I'm just too afraid that if I say something no one will agree and everyone will give me strange looks and then I'll question my reading comprehension and then... I need to remember the big question though: Who cares? Not everything said makes sense in class. And it could lead to interesting discussions. I should volunteer more.
Let's see. We started to watch Death of a Salesman. My dad is an AP Lit teacher as well and he's taught this book before. He told me he doesn't like it that much. Great. It is a bit frustrating to watch. They all seem to have communication issues and Willy seems a little... I don't want to say "nuts", but doesn't seem to be "all there in the head" if you get my drift. I mean, he looks pretty old, so that's understandable. And selling might be pretty tough, so... Again, I don't want to make assumptions quite yet. I'm interested though, because I've never heard my dad say he didn't really enjoy a work of literature, especially one as famous and often-used as Death of a Salesman. I should probably start annotating soon, so what happened with The American Dream doesn't happen again. New study habits being implemented now.
