Dalton schroepfer blog 12/22

Today, we started off class with Rivers pointing to the new, massive good fortune/bad fortune chart on the other white board. We discussed what we went over yesterday, which was Gatsby's childhood and the bad fortune he had in the beginning of his life. We then broke up into our groups for a brief couple minutes to talk about the status change he had in his life. Then, Rivers brought the class back together so we could go over what we talked about. The first status change that was brought up was Gatsby going to St. Olaf college and being a janitor, which would be a step up in status from his life before.  The quote in the book for this is, "An instinct toward his future glory had led him, some months before, to the small Lutheran college of St. Olaf in southern Minnesota. He stayed there two weeks, dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny, to destiny itself, and despising the janitor's work with which he was to pay his way through." We discussed this quote and the idea of romanticism and transcendentalism was brought up about this quote, because of how Gatsby did what he wanted. Then, the next status change brought up was Gatsby clam digging, hunting salmon, having bad dreams, and living for survival. This change brought his status down, but then he met Dan Cody, who gave Gatsby a new job with better money. Dan Cody brought Gatsby's status up quite a bit from where he was at before. Rivers asked the class a question, “Is Gatsby’s status change the shape of the American Dream?” The class discussed this, and Big Kev said that since he made his money doing bad things that it did not embody the American Dream. Rivers fired back with saying that the core of the American Dream was built on people doing ‘bad’ things to create a mass amount of wealth.

My picture won't post to this blog so I'll leave the link here for anyone who wants to see the hottest man in the world: cha boy Dan Cody

https://www.google.com/search?q=great+gatsby&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS663US663&hl=en-US&prmd=ivbn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTwaKkqYnRAhUM9YMKHa8JBPgQ_AUIBygB&biw=375&bih=591#hl=en-US&tbm=isch&q=dan+cody+the+great+gatsby&imgrc=RPuoaEAOemfX-M%3A

Blog 4 12/21/16 Kevin Berlin

For today's class, our objectives were to be able to analyze how Gatsby’s change in status symbolizes the American Dream as a topic and to be able to interpret how Gatsby’s change in status develops a theme about the American Dream. To practice this skill, Mr. Rivers let us break off into our groups. Our task was to find four event/quotes from the story of Gatsby’s youth and plot Gatsby’s status during each event. Two popular quotes that were found were, “For over a year he had been beating his way along the south shore of Lake Superior as a clam digger and a salmon fisher in any other capacity that brought him food and bed.”  This quote shows that unlike Tom, Gatsby has to work for his wealth, and was not born into wealth like Tom was. Another quote found by all five groups was, “ His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people-his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all.” This quote also shows that Gatsby did not just come from a not wealthy family, but also had very low status.

Right before the class was going to discuss a third quote/event, the choir students showed up to sing christmas carols for the class. Little did I know how great they were. They sang two songs, most of the singers actually singing and a couple of them were beat-boxing. The whole class loved it. Not going to lie I was very impressed myself, sadly I was not able to make it to their concert tonight.

Christmas carolers →

Alexis Reeder
December 21, 2016








          Today in class we were able to analyze how Gatsby’s change in status symbolizes the american dream as a topic and how to interpret how Gatsby’s change in status develops a theme about the american dream. Mr. Rivers drew a chart of bad fortune and good fortune and my group and I selected four events/quotes from the story of Gatsby’s youth and plot Gatsby's Status during each event. Sergei and a person from each group had a quote from The Great Gatsby, "His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people--his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all." We discussed how he didn't come from money, he had to work his way up to be successful, and he did not want to be apart of his family. We also talked about how/why Nick cares about Gatsby's life. In chapter 6, Nick wonders why Gatsby has a lot of money but he is a "bootlegger". Jaxon predicts that Nick will send someone to find out how Gatsby got to where he is now. 

          Almost to the end of class, a couple of carolers came to our room and sang "Silent Night" and "Carol of the bells". the sound of them singing was like angles singles. The sound was relaxing and joyful. In my opinion, this was the best singing I've heard from a group of kids my age. 

Alex Pegher Blog 12/20/16

Today in class we began to discuss chapter 6, which we had all read the night before (hopefully). We had a short reading check at the beginning of class and then we dove into analyzing chapter 6 of the Great Gatsby. We discussed how Fitzgerald creates animosity in the chapter by utilizing Tom, Gatsby, Daisy, and Nick to make the mood of the chapter much more tense. Rivers made a point that, following with Fitzgerald's modernism, Tom really isn't at fault here. It's actually Gatsby, who many readers would consider "the protagonist" that starts messing with and deliberately trying to piss off Tom.

These deer are analogous to Tom and Gatsby in the tension they create. Tom and Gatsby begin to butt heads in this chapter and their animosity toward one another is becoming more and more clear.

12-16-16 blog Gillian Kee

In the past few class periods we have been talking about Chapter five of The Great Gatsby. In Chapter  five Daisy and Gatsby see each other for the first time in FIVE years. Gatsby  is obviously very nervous (rightfully so), so he is acting very crazy running through his head the worst case and the best case scenario....

• Worst:
• She doesn't love him anymore and stays with Tom
• Best:
• they runaway together and live happily ever after

During class on Friday we talked about what is standing in the way of Daisy of her running away with Jay....well

1. Her child, with her child in the picture her running away with Jay and leaving Tom and her baby, she would defiantly lose the child.

2. TOM

3. It has been five years just because she has loved Jay once does not mean she still loves him.

That was all we talked about in class, Chapter five ends with Nick leaving Jay and Daisy alone, so who knows what will happen.

12.17.16 - H. Newbold Blog 1

         In class on Friday we talked about the significance of the green light in The Great Gatsby. We referenced page 92 where it was mentioned in chapter 5, then proceeded to flip BACKWARDS and reflect at last paragraph in chapter one where we had previously read about Gatsby looking over the dock to see the green light; this is where the green light was first mentioned. We now realize that the light represents how far Gatsby is from getting to Daisy. We established that Gatsby wants to be with Daisy, run away with her, be in love - he doesnt care about his house or his parties he just wants to be with Daisy. The light is a symbol for how close/ how far gatsby is, the literal figure is that its just this light across this bay but the figurative meaning is that even though Gatsby seems so close to her he is still in a sense so far.

Secondly we begun making a list of why Gatsby may or may not be able to be with daisy in the end/ what might stand in his way. (Although we only got to the "Why nots"and didnt get to "why"s by the end of class)

Why Gatsby might not be able to be with Daisy;
Child
Tom
Divorce/stigma


Homework: read chapter 6 for tuesday think of the question "Whats different about the party in Chapter 6 compared to the one in the previous chapters?"

Katie McGuckin
                                                                       Blog Post
     Today in class, we began to research and work on our "Does Money Buy Happiness?" assignment, which now due on December 18 (next Monday). All work done on the project should be included in the power-point supplied to each student and contain multiple quotes and evidence to support their claim on whether or not money can make people happy. The first slide should be filled out, in sentence form, stating if money can or can't buy happiness and then giving three reasons why. After the first slide, the next two rely on finding two articles, from reliable sources, supporting your claim and have their links posted somewhere on the slides. Once an article is found, you need to select a quote and incorporate it into a sentence through leading into your point, write the quote, cite it, and  explain its meaning and how it helps prove your claim. Next, you need to search through The Great Gatsby for two quotes that also support the claim and repeat the motions that were followed in the previous two slide for the articles. The final slide asks you include a song/video that expresses how money may or may not give a person joy, quote a line and describe how this is shown, then paste a link on the slide.
     For my power-point, I came to the conclusion that money cannot buy people happiness because it will run out eventually, lead to unseen problems (like corruption, strain relationships, warped views on the world and others, etc.), and will never be able to replicate certain things that are not bought. I chose two articles that gave evidence showing money cannot improve a person's state of enjoyment because it causes people to put their interests into material things that are seemingly nice but unable to solve or improve specific problems in their lives, leading them to pay less attention to things or people they used to find fulfillment in. The song I selected to show that money can't buy joy, was "Can't Buy Me Love" by The Beatles because it's one of my favorite songs by the band due to its catchy tune and lyrics and how it is probably one of the clearest songs I know of that easily expresses that money isn't everything and that some of the best things in life cannot be bought. An example of a quote that says the song's message, is in the chorus, when the words, "Can't buy me love" are sung, which are repeated multiple times in the song to emphasize its importance (even shown in the the song's title). To summarize, in class we started working on this power-point revolving around the opinion of money bringing or not bringing happiness to people, finding evidence in different forms of literature/media and connecting them back into your main claim.

Olivia Agius 12/14

Today’s class was started off with reading last night’s interesting blog. Mr. Rivers read it aloud to us in order for us to understand how dramatic the scene described was. The blog related to our recent topic of TRUTH, and what truth really means, along with how truth is different depending on perspective. Also, the blog related to truth because most people agreed that a sum of what was said in the blog was false. After reading the blog, Mr. Rivers quickly mentioned that the “Does Money Buy Happiness?” assignment is due Friday instead of Thursday. Then we went back towards our book, The Great Gatsby, and were told to discuss in groups the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby throughout chapter five. My group said that at first the two were awkward and didn’t know how to react after the long awaited reunion. However, towards the middle they get slightly more comfortable together, and as the chapter progresses, so does their relationship. By the end the two are so enticed by each other that they forget about Nick. Our class then came back together and discussed the same thing. Then, we talked about the weather in chapter five, and the symbolism behind it. At first in the chapter it was raining. The rain symbolized Jay Gatsby’s unease, nervousness, and how distracted he was. These feelings came from how nervous he was about talking to Daisy after five years. Then, the sun comes out and is shining. This was the turning point of their relationship, and is when Nick, Gatsby, and Daisy all go over to Gatsby’s large colonial mansion. The sun symbolized Gatsby becoming less nervous. By the end of the chapter Nick leaves the mansion alone, which is symbolized by rain pouring down. Along with weather being symbolic, the class said the clock was symbolic as well. It symbolizes time running out for Gatsby to be with Daisy, as well as Gatsby attempting to rekindle an old romance. The fact the clock was already broken symbolized that even if Gatsby and Daisy still felt in love with each other, something could go wrong. Another discussion was the best case scenario that could occur from Daisy and Gatsby reuniting. Some answers were them getting married, or them running away together. Contradictory, we also came up with the worst case scenarios, Tom finding out or she tells Gatsby she is in love with Tom. We ended the period left with a question; “Is Daisy a gold digger?” and, “by whose standards and by whose eyes would she be considered a gold digger?”.

Nicole McGahey 12/14

12/14/16

At the beginning of class, Mr. Rivers showed us a very creative blog post that was made by a student in his 6th period class yesterday, and we talked about it a little bit.

After that, we discussed Chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby. Symbols were very prevalent in this chapter, so we examined a few of them.

In the beginning of the chapter, there was pouring rain. During the rain, Gatsby was very nervous about meeting with Daisy. He was so nervous that he couldn’t think about anything else, which is shown in this passage: “An hour later the front door opened nervously, and Gatsby in a white flannel suit, silver shirt and gold-colored tie hurried in. He was pale and there were dark signs of sleeplessness beneath his eyes.

"Is everything all right?" he asked immediately.

"The grass looks fine, if that's what you mean."

"What grass?" he inquired blankly. "Oh, the grass in the yard." He looked out the window at it, but judging from his expression I don't believe he saw a thing.” (Fitzgerald 84).

Throughout the chapter, the weather changed as the moods of the characters changed.

Another important symbol in this chapter was when Gatsby knocked over the broken clock, and nervously put it back, apologizing to Daisy, “I’m sorry about the clock.” (Fitzgerald 86). The clock symbolizes his attempt to go back in time and recreate his time with Daisy five years ago. The fact that the clock was already broken represents the fact that it is not possible to go back to the past.

While we were talking about this, the bell abruptly rang.

This video shows the scene where Gatsby knocks the clock off the mantle.

Megan Lynch 12/13

Today in class Mr. Rivers was absent. Ms. Dalia started off the class by discussing the chapter we read last night for homework. This was the first chapter in which we got to see Gatsby and Daisy interact. After this we went to the google classroom to look at one of the assignments for today. For this assignment we had to analyze Gatsby and Daisy’s emotions for this chapter, and when they met each other. We analyzed that by reading two passages from The Great Gatsby. The class agreed that Daisy and Gatsby were overcome with emotion from not seeing each other for years, missing each other, and now realizing what they have been missing out on by having left each other. Gatsby was nervous for awhile, while Daisy was emotional and cried over ridiculous things for hidden reasons. This brought up the topic that having money, or having “everything” does not always bring happiness. Daisy is rich herself, she took an amazing family name, has good friends, not much stress in her life, however she doesn’t have someone she loves or loves her. Now, we began our new assignment which is due Friday. We have to read an article called, “Why I Gave Up a $95,000 Job to Move to an Island and Scoop Ice Cream”. Together, as a class we read the article. After reading the article we discussed whether it was practical, or the right decision for the author to leave her almost six figure paying job to live in a shack on an island. This article relates to how Daisy is feeling in the Great Gatsby. She might have been given a luxurious life, but it wasn’t a life that she imagined. After discussing the article we got into the actual assignment. A powerpoint is due Friday which must include a relatable song to your opinion, a Gatsby quote, and a second article to back you up.

Jaxon Mase 12/12

         Today in class, we started with defining a WASP (White Anglo Saxon, Protestant). We defined them as protestant being a christian religion, anglo saxon as english and norther european, and white as a complicated connotation of skin color. Mr. Rivers then connected this to the amount of our presidents that have been wasps. We have had 42 WASP presidents out of 44 presidents. He then asked the question of how one becomes the president. The answer is college. If you look at the colleges that our past presidents have gone to are mostly Ivy league Colleges, and to get into these colleges you have to have a high social status (wealth).
          The talk of status used to get to these colleges that produces wealth is connected to Gatsby because he went to Oxford, a very prestigious school. Because of this, Gatsby is very egocentric. On page 67, Nick Carraway is shocked to hear that Gatsby went to Oxford. Its such a famous school and Nick notices his ego. Looking back on page 53, Gatsby calls Nick "old sport" which at first seems to show endearment or brother hood but really is just trying to be familiar without being familiar and really condescending. Gatsby has an ego from his past at Oxford thinking he is a big man and everyone else is below him. He uses this condescending language to get something out of Nick (dinner with Daisy).
The ego of everyone in this is also biased. When Nick is talking to Mr. Wolfshine, Nick realized an abnormality in his pronunciation of Oxford as 'Oggsford" and points it out in he text. (page 71) This represents the bias towards people not considered white in he 1920's, Jews, Irish, Exc.
The obvious segregation in race and wealth displays Fitzgerald's (author) view that race and religion is what caused the wealth gap, and that the rich are given an easier path to success.

This shows the wealthy's advantage (connection to Ivy League Colleges and money) that helps them get to the top over the common man.

The homework is to read chapter five and look at color and weather and how they are being used as symbols. Rest of period used to start reading.

Sarah Haag December 8th, 2016

We started by identifying our objectives which were IWBAT distinguish between Framing narratives and nonlinear narratives, and  IWBAT analyze how music and poetry present these modern and romantic ideas. Mr. Rivers then went over framing narrative within Frankenstein and Rip Van Wrinkle. Framing is a story within a story and how are they different. We identified it through a movie called, “the Princess Bride”. Where a grandpa in a modern world tells a story about a couple in a non-fiction, medieval world to his son distinguishing a story within a story. We discussed that framing goes way back into literature with authors such as Homer, Chaucer, and Shakespeare. Framing is an homage to the past (very romantic) showing the value of the story. It also brings emphasis on folk and how they talk. We then discussed Linear narrative which is a logical progression: Cause and effect making the text complex or cloudy.

Jess Esso
December 6, 2016

today in class we started it off by picking it up where we left off the day before, talking about how in chapter 3 we finally meet Gatsby, our supposed main character of our book.  we went on to then establish more about our narrator nick, and the very last thing he said of chapter 3. 
"Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that i have ever known."
we analyzed this sentence to fully understood what nick meant by this.  we figured out that this character has a very big ego and he is very full of himself.  he himself believes he is the only honest person out of everyone else, but yet he lies just as much as other people.  we find out that he in fact is talking about Jordan while making this statement.  he finds out that Jordan makes 2 lies within the time that they have been seeing each other.  1 about leaving the hood of a convertible down when it was raining and the other about cheating at the semi final championship golf tournament.  nick later goes on to say that Jordan is " incurably dishonest" meaning that he will not hold a grudge against her because all women lie.  he has been lying himself about what is going on with him and Jordan, but also with him and another girl that all we know about is that she sweats.  nick makes these judgements to justify his own actions.  this tells us a lot about how nick is as a person.  it tells us he is very self centered and, projects blame onto other people, possibly not to feel the guilt about his actions, its a possibility but we won't know for sure until we learn more about him not only as our narrator but as a person in general. 

12/5/16 Soumya

We started our class off today by watching a few sci-fi trailers.

The first trailer we watched was that of the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie. It started off very serious, with Rocket Raccoon in the background warning about a really powerful bomb. Then it cuts the him telling Groot not to press the button, and after that funny dialogue follows. We discussed how Guardians of the Galaxy itself shifted away from the darker source material to an enjoyable comedy adventure movie, and how for other movies, like certain 90s Batman movies, it didn't work so well. I've yet to watch or read anything of Guardians of the Galaxy, but I definitely plan to, and I appreciate the tonal shift, as I like comedies. I can also imagine that it was a risk on the creators' part, since there are so many people that normally complain for shift from source material.

We then watched The Last of US trailer, a trailer for a zombie videogame, which I actually never knew much about until today. The trailer we watched wasn't that sci-fi itself, but it did hook me in. The girl's singing was haunting, and it set the tone for the post-apocalyptic world. What she said at the end got me excited.

The last trailer we watched was that of Mass Affect Andromeda, another video game. The discussion that came out of this one was about what brings together, or separates, space sci-fi and stuff like Bradbury. Both have room for advanced technology (space obviously). Anything set in space has more room for bending rules, only because physics is so different in space.

The main part of the class was exploring foils in Fahrenheit 451. One group had to come up with ways Clarrise and Mildred were foils, and the other had to do Montag and Beatty (I was in this group). We didn't do much except talk within our own group; half our class time was towards talking about trailers. I think we're going more into this tomorrow.

Now that we're focusing on foil for Fahrenheit 451, I recognize it more often. I mean, I knew what is was before, but I didn't think about it as often. Here's a video about foil examples in popular texts.

Kayla Edwards 12/5/16

Today in class we had 2 objectives; IWBAT evaluate how modernists question the absolutism of romantic writers and IWBAT  clearly integrate evidence that support a specific claim. Also we were assigned to have chapter four of The Great Gatsby read by Thursday. He also asked us to consider the question, what structural change happens in this chapter? as we read. Next we reviewed what we did on Friday and talked about perception and its affect on the modern idea of truth. We also discussed if we should trust Nick because at the end of Chapter 3 he says, “Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”. My group decided we should trust him but also keep in mind that truth is subjective which means we only have one side of the story. Next we talked about balancing specificity and clarity when writing topic sentences and integrating evidence. We used two examples for this: one that was clear, but not specific, and one that was specific but confusing. Then we discussed as a group what was wrong with each sentence and how to improve them. For example, the topic sentence "He's just a man named Gatsby." is clear because there's nothing complex about it. However it doesn't give us enough information about who he is or why he's relevant. He also gave us another example (which I cannot remember because it was very long) that used way too many details that may not have all been relevant to the rest of the paragraph. For integrating he gave us too similar examples, one with a short quote that wasn't introduced or given context and one with a quote that was over 4 lines which gave us too much information. Using these examples we then made a paragraph balancing these two things about what we learned about Gatsby in Chapter 3.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Author of The Great Gatsby

 

John DePreker blog.

John DePreker

Blog 12/2/16

    

    What the heck?

Today in class, we all sat down as usual turned on our computers and waited to be assigned directions. A sort of different start had taken place in class. It was Mr. Rivers and Mrs. Dalia watching the class while sitting on top of the desk and not saying a word at all. So, they did not say anything and we sat there in confusion about what we were to do for the period. We all honestly had no clue what was going on and some students made remarks such as jaxon saying, “Everyone be quiet” , well supposedly… Anyway, It was truly confusing to the point where he even felt sorrowful and chuckled at our reactions to this scene. I made the remark, “This would make a terrible blog!”, because nothing was being said or taught so I thought to myself, there is no verbal communication between him and us. He laughed as some other students did as well. Then after, a post on Google Classroom caught my eye and the students were asked to write a paragraph explaining their perspective on the past few minutes.

So after all of that paranoia, we got onto more (real) Classwork,

Perception- How our senses create meaning

Input:Success failure of senses.

Output:Success and failure of language

Pre-modernism truth is Binary

True/false

Modernists truth is based in perspective and subjective.

Output Lies in omission- not actively lying but not being truthful

Input Failure of the human brain especially memory

These notes symbolize basically the gist of the rest of the classwork. Remember that when talking about “Perception” you must think about the 5 senses (Sight,Hearing,taste,smell and touch)

Kevin Berlin 12/1/16

In class today, we started off going into more depth of the Great Gatsby. We discussed the time period that the book takes place in and what was going on during this period. After that we moved into more literal and figurative practice. We first analyzed a picture/symbol of “Justice.” As a class we broke down the components of the picture and explained what each detail in the picture represented and symbolized. This picture represents literal aspects through the blindfold, sword, balance, and the scale. Figurative aspects are shown by fairness, justice, law has no bias, and punishment/justice of the law. Although the picture may not look to interesting, every little detail represents something bigger.


After the class analysed that symbol, we analysed “The Valley of Ashes”.  We went over romantic and modern characteristics of the valley of ashes. We learned what romantic and modern qualities are in the Great Gatsby. For example, in the book when they say that a in the valley of ashes, ashes grown constantly on everything everywhere, when really no ashes grow, that is just a way of them saying the city is broken down and unmaintained. This is an example of Modernism. An example of romanticism in the book is the negative tone when talking about the valley of ashes. And how there is nothing positive about the city. Now because of the harsh reputation the city has it give the people that live there just as harsh as a reputation.

<-- Justice

Callie Bevacqua November 30

Callie Bevacqua

Today, class was opened by introducing the new marking period 2 blog schedule. I ended up being the first blog of the marking period :)

Overall in class we analyzed how symbols are used in figurative as well as literal language.

• Figurative language is an idea that is open for interpretation. This is also known as an abstract idea.   
• Literal Language is a non negotiable, solid fact, idea, object etc.
• Symbol is an object, character, place (something physical), that has a figurative meaning.(idea open for interpretation)

Saying the Earth is covered more with bodies of water than land would be an example of Literal language because it is a known scientific statistic. Saying I will not be getting any sleep tonight because of all the homework I have is an example of Figurative language because the idea of not getting any sleep is an exaggerant. An example of a symbol would be the american flag. Its physical appearance is cloth, but the meaning is much deeper because we think of freedom, respect and love for our country.

- This is a Symbol. Physically it is a bunch of circles made to be a flower. This is the flower of life and represents natural cycles of life as well as eternity. 

During class we then started looking for symbols in The Great Gatsby. We realized a lot of meanings that we would have not picked up on just reading through it once. Mrs.Wilson, Tom's mistress, wanted a dog very much. Myrtle thought the dog was so cute, and this represented her want for a romantic relationship. Tom purchasing the dog is a symbol of his rich social status.  As Tom pays for the dog he says,“Here's your money , go buy 10 more dogs.” This shows us how Tom ruins relationships with his money  because the remark he made was very careless about the actual dogs. Tom views the dogs as all the same, and just money he doesn't care about.  The Next symbol we talked about was The valley of ashes. It is described in the book as a valley filled with ashes. This place of living is actually just a poor, rundown area. People who live there are negative energy and it's almost like they are ghostly or non existent. The last symbol we did not get into was The eyes of Dr. Eckleburg. The eyes represented how everyone sees and interprets things differently. This fact has us realizing Nick is the narrator and we are viewing all the characters and events through his judgement.

The review of the symbols in The Great Gatsby was very interesting to me and definitely has me thinking. It also helps me understand the book a lot more.  

Jaxon Mase

Today in class we did an exercise where four groups get different supplies at random to all achieve the same goal. Every group had supplies and not enough alone to complete the tasks at hand. Some groups had more than each other to simulate status. My group, (group 4) only had two different pieces of paper, paper clips, and scissors. We would need much more things such as a ruler, pen, and different types of paper which put us in a difficult situation. We had to trade and work our way to success, that did not work well. We ended up trading ourselves into a corner when we need plain white paper. At that point, there was no more white paper that was un-used. That was the point of failure for my group. At that point I tried to steal plain white paper of Mr. Rivers desk to complete the book. Skyler caught me in the act and i went to prison and an interview for a brief moment. Group two won and my group achieved no success and lost the whole competition. What held us back was our lack of valuable supplies to trade with. We stared in the lowest class and ended there.  This exorcize revealed that status will remain the same. The rich will stay rich and the poor will stay poor. Hard work does not pay off. At first you will think you are doing better but in reality, you are working yourself into a corner. I noticed the richest group,(group 1) was very disrespectful and was destined to win in the first place. They were very mean to the poorer group and all for the bagel prize. Power can drive the rich to feel above everyone else. In conclusion, the rich win because they were born in the position to win and the poor will never rise above their status.

Jake Zerillo

    In class today we did something unique by doing experiment and how it reveals success in capitalism and the American Dream. First we got put into four groups and randomly picked a number in which that number had certain tools that we were aloud to use to make our own society. Each group had to make a ring, a house, a burger, and to make a book but you couldn't just throw each of them together how ever you want to you have to follow specific measurements and instructions to make a basic civilization. Even though we all had to make the same thing it was harder for some because we all had different tools and some would start with more tools than others and you had to trade and nagociate with other groups to get the tools you need to make everything. Our was definitely given the shorter end of the stick because all we had was two pieces of paper one wavy, one wooden, a pen and just five paper clips.
    No matter how hard we tried our group struggled to trade with other groups because they had more tools than us therefore we needed more things then they did and we had little to trade and negotiate with. Therefore with this problem our group did not achieve success today because at the end of class we only had completed the burger, the ring and we would have completed the book but we did not have enough paper to make six pages. While another group finished everything because they had more material to start of with, which gave them more to bargain and trade to get what they need to finish everything. Some things that helped our group succeed enough to get some of it done was us improvising. For example, we knew that a paper clip was an inch long so since we didn't have a ruler and we did have a pen would would just mark each inch with the pen and we had to fold our paper until it ripped because we weren't able to bargain for scissors.  And clearly not starting with as many tools as other groups held us back. Therefore this experiment reveals that success in capitalism or the american dream does not always work because no matter how hard you work to achieve your american dream, some people are already given everything you ever wanted straight from the beginning and the American dream is a lot easier for them to achieve. Im not saying that if you work as hard as you can to achieve the american dream it won't happen, it still does happen to some people but it is almost impossible to compete for that american dream that someone else basically already starts with.

Kevin Berlin Competition Blog

                  In today's class, my group got ROBBED of a much deserved victory. The activity involved 4 groups, each group receiving a random assortment of recourses. However, no group had all the materials they needed to complete the tasks, meaning groups have to trade materials to complete the tasks, and which ever group finishes first wins. So I was in group 1, accompanied by Kayla, John, Callie, and Alex, and right off the bat Kayla grinded out the hamburger. Meanwhile, Callie, John, and myself were working on the house, as Alex, being the clever little fella he is, went around to each group. Out witting everyone into some great trades in our favor. As predicted, we were the first group to finish the tasks. Therefore, we decided to increase the trash talk a little more expecting that we were going to win. Little did we know Mr. Rivers was going to call our house invalid due to one side being a half an inch shorter than the correct length. Not going to lie, the news was the harshest of harsh blows, but none the less, group 1 wasn't giving up without a fight. Right away Alex snatched up the scissors and cut a half inch of paper off of the sheet to add it too the side, John whipped out glue stick, but it was too late. Nadir and his group of savages closed the gap on our lead, and took advantage of our first trail error. Winning the competition, receiving bragging rights and a bagel of their choice, they cheered passionately. As my fellow group members and I filled with disappointment and sorrow. Left defeated and weak.

               
                  All in all, I do believe our group succeeded today, we may have not came in first, but we had a blast and had some quality bonding time. We worked well as a team and I'm confident that we will defeat all other groups in the next competition. Something that really helped our group succeed was giving everyone a specific job, trying to be efficient as possible to be the first group done. There wasn't much that held our group back, besides the error or measuring our sides correctly, we were pretty on point. This activity showed me that people who are selfish, some may even say "savage", is not what gets you on top and succeed. The best formula for success is hard work and good strategy.

Alex Pegher 11/22

Today in class we were split into four groups and tasked with the challenge of producing four different items that represented food, shelter, education, and resources. However, no one group had enough materials to suit that need, and trade was required in order to supplement the needs of the group. The winning team would receive bagels on Wednesday so the stakes were high. My team, which was given resource allotment "1" had many of the crucial things that we needed. The only things that we ended up requiring were "wave paper" and "polka dot paper", both of which were much easier items to trade for than scissors or a pen. This abundance however, let to one teensy-weensy tiny little but ever so soul crushing problem...

HUBRIS

To present an anecdote of my groups performance imagine the following: a sick and twisted version of the tortoise and the hare, in which the hare, us, is ahead in the race but halfway through gets mauled by a mob of people, other teams, who he boasted to the previous day. They beat him long enough for the tortoise, winning team, to get ahead and win the race.

In being somewhat ahead and being not so secretive about it we drew the ire of the other three tables. Negotiations broke down and although we almost got the prize at the end, our measurements on the house came up short and we were unable to secure the bagels.In hindsight, we had a very good shot of getting those bagels, and if we had just calmed down and negotiated with a smile on our faces, we probably could be eating bagels on Wednesday. We did not succeed, we failed hilariously. The activity taught me and my group one thing about the American dream: you can work as hard as you want, but if you see yourself at the top, you're probably very far from it. We were given what could be called a "silver spoon" to start with, but we squandered it.

Shannon Kehoe American Dream/Success Experiment

Shannon Kehoe 

11/22/16

P.8

     The activity that we did today in class was a prime example as to how somebody really does achieve success and the underlying message in the game plays a great part in how to achieve success in real life. Mr group and I acheieved success today because we won the game and we worked very hard together because we were told that if we won we would get rewarded with bagels and that is like  if you work hard in the real world your reward would be that you are wealthy and therefore succesful. Being successful in reality is just like an input and output machine, because if someone puts in hard work and energy the output is usually wealth and success. The factors that helped my group and I succeed today were that before we made any decisions we made sure that all of our group members agreed with what we were doing. The things that held us back today were that we weren't given everything that we needed in order to achieve success which is just like reality because in real life you aren't given everything and in order to achieve success you need to work hard for what you want. Our experiment reveals key aspects in how to achieve the true American Dream and success. These key aspects are that in order to get anywhere in life and achieve ultimate success you need to work hard and be smart as to how and what you do with the things that you are given, because life can be very brutal sometimes and all those thing that you worked for can be taken away in an instant. But that is what life is and we just need to take the cards we are dealt and play them as good as we can. The American Dream in my opinion can be whatever you consider it to be. If you consider the American Dream to be sitting on your couch and watching netflix and paying your rent every month on time and you consider that to be successful then that's what it is for you. The view on success is different with every person because some people have different opinions on what is successful and what is not and that is completely okay because if we agreed on what everyone was saying, life would be boring and we would not get the full expeience of life. We are only on this Earth for a short amount of time so we need to make the most of it while we are here and we just need to roll with the punches that life throws at us.  

Skylar Winberry

Skylar Winberry
In today's class we did an interesting experiment regarding capitalism and the American dream. The class separated into 4 groups. Each group was given specific tools to create their own society. The groups were tasked with making a book, a burger, a house and a ring symbolizing the basic needs of civilization. The catch was that each group was given different tools but we were all tasked with making the same civilization. So to make your civilization, you had to trade for the supplies. I was in group 3. We're we're given wavy paper, wood paper, 5 paper clips and a pen. Our group had to get many other supplies through trading. This caused our group to be pretty unsuccessful. We only made a ring a burger and part of our book. The process of trading was difficult for our group because we didn't have the supplies that others needed. The lack of communication within our group unfortunately caused our demise. We had to come up with other ways to solve our problems. We used our 1 inch paper clips to help us measure things and ripped our paper instead of cutting it. Trading was the difficult part of this project for our group. We didn't have much that other groups needed so they tended to not trade with us. That's not to say that we should have been pitied and given what we needed because we didn't have much. This experience says a lot about capitalism and our society. It shows that capitalism can cause those who start with less to end up with less. This is because they are seen as being a more risky investment because they may not achieve the success expected. The American dream is that with hard work, no matter what they are given you will reach success. This happened in our class because we were all given different materials but we're tasked in making the same things. The idea that with hard work anyone can be anything and be on the same level as those given everything. It is true that with hard work you can achieve many things, but those who are given nothing may have different dreams than those who already have what they need for success. This idea I shown in a quote by Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a genius. But if  you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”. This shows that you can't expect every person to perform the same because everyone is a different person with different backgrounds.

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 Jess Esso

November 22, 2016

Today in class we were given the task that required us to work together not only as a group, but as a community.  we were given basic materials such as paper, paperclips, scissors, glue ect.  there were 4 groups and each group had a different set of materials, every group had to accomplish the same tasks using all the materials.  but not just one group had all the necessary materials they needed to complete all tasks by themselves.  we had to trade, and communicate with other groups to get the necessary materials needed to complete the tasks given.  the winner got bagels for the class period the next day.  my group being the geniuses we are, won the challenge, but not for just one reason but many.
we had to see which group would be successful and how they achieved it, is so.  in my opinion, my group achieved success but our extreme use of working together, communicating and collaborating was the way we got to where we needed to go fast and efficiently.  when it came down to it, when we needed to trade, we traded not a single object until all the people in our group said it was okay.  we made all choices together, and if one said no, we did not make the deal.  but what held us back were the deals in their entirety.  some would say, others wanted way too much for what was being asked for, so sometimes we ended up trading more than we had to, or we didn't have the materials they were asking for, and needed t trade materials that we did not have.   this reveals a lot about how some people work, and how they work with others.  but if anyone wants success, we found today that you cant do it alone.  you need others by your side to help guide you in the right direction and help you through tough times. the harder you work, the more respect you can earn, and the higher you status will go, and the better name you could have as a result.

Kelli Vogel

November 22, 2016

     Today in class we did an activity. This activity was to test our ability on how well we know the American Dream. The activity consisted of building different objects using household materials such as paperclips, scissors, paper that has different designs on it, along with other building necessities.  The objective was to trade your materials with other groups to make your survival needs, for example my group started off with 5 paperclips, a pen and wavy paper. We had to build a book out of white paper and we didn't have white paper so we traded some of our wavy paper for scissors in one group and then in another we had to trade wood paper for some more white paper. This task was kind of hard because most groups did not want to trade with us and or they didn't need what we had. For example group 1 did not want to make trades with anyone because they had everything they needed to build with. Some groups were willing to trade but they were very rude about not trading, because they had everything they needed they felt superior, and they thought they were going to win.
     My group was not successful at all. we only accomplished making the book, half the house, and the ring. I wish we were more successful but the other groups did not want to trade with us. I know that we weren't successful because we did they least amount of work. I think the thing that really held us back was lack of communication with our group and with other groups. This experiment reveals success in the American Dream because it demonstrates that when you have a lot in life or when you have everything in life you don't need to communicate with the lower class because they aren't the same as you, to sum it up, "you are better than them." All in all this was a fun activity and i hope that we can do something like this again.    

Megan Lynch

I was in group four today. To start, we received paper clips, scissors and two different kinds of paper. The plain white sheet, and dotted. I would say we did not achieve success today. Not only did we lose, but we made immoral mistakes. At times were unfocused with the actual task, and more on defeating other groups. We started to gain success when we got power through trading. Other groups relied on us for our paper and scissors. At one point we even held a scissor monopoly. As a group we even got creative. For example, when we didn’t have a ruler we measured by using the paper clips, which we knew was a little over one inch. What held our group back was a lack of communication. We didn’t always talk while trading, and some group members made risky actions without consulting the other members. For instance, we made a specific trade with one grouped which guaranteed us our scissors back, but one group member traded with a different group to get scissors because they forgot about that deal. That did not affect the group too badly, because we then had the monopoly, but it still shows the lack of communication. Another setback was when a group member got put in jail. Their actions of stealing were not condoned by the rest of the group, and we had to overcome that considering they did a lot of work to help out the group. This project showed a lot regarding capitalism and the American dream. In my group a bit of greed showed when we steeped down to stealing to get what we needed. Which also shows a flaw in capitalism. When other people started becoming successful that made other’s work even harder, which showed competition can promote success. I think the hardest workers did have the most success, they planned out their ideas better and worked well with their group to gain their success.