Reflection on Reciting a Poem In English Class

"On Turning Ten" by Billy Collins:

The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I'm coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light--
a kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.

This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed. 

I think when I recite this poem on the stage and read it out in the class before everyone, I forgot some of the lines. From the beginning of my poem, I almost remember everything, but those lines showed up in my head with a little late. In the second stanza, I think I've done pretty well, because I remember the image that is created by the imagery. However, in the last stanza, I forgot the first line. I think that is because I spent almost most of my brain on imaging the picture for the first few stanza. Remember many things for me is quite impossible, because I think I have less brain cell to remember all of the details of the poem, especially the one that is without the end rhyme. Also, I accidentally chose the poem that didn't rhyme. At first I thought I couldn't memorize all lines in the poem word by word without the end rhyme, but I did it!!! That is one of the greatest achievements that I have ever got. Overall, I think I did a pretty great job.

Reflection On Chinese New Year

During Chinese New Year, I spend my time in Taipei and Miaoli for the first half of the week, and the other half in Hsinchu. In Taipei, we went to my grandmother's (dad side) house for the New Year Eve dinner. We didn't brought our dog to Taipei because my grandmother is allergic to dog. After the dinner, we played Mahjong, a type of Chinese board game, for the rest of the night. We also sleep in my grandmother's house. We also slept in there, too. I wan't so please for this Taipei trip, because my parents' attitude to my grandmother wasn't so nice. The next day, the official first day of the Chinese New Year, we left Taipei and went to Miaoli to my another grandmother's (mother side) house to eat lunch and pick up our dog. After the lunch, we leaved Miaoli. From both trips, I received many Red Envelope, but I haven't counted the money yet. I decided to save all of my Red Envelope in the bank. I think this Chinese New Year is pretty good to me, although I didn't go anywhere for the another half of the Chinese New Year.

Can You Think Out Of The Box?

Why is innovative thinking so important? Innovative thinking is so important because sometimes it helps solving the problem. For example, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, in order to solve the problem of wasting candle when people are trying to do things. Sometime people think outside of the box because they have different mind in their brain. In another word, they considered the problem in people's life and tried to solve it with new invention. Sometimes, the new invention solves many problems all at once. Using light bulb's example, the invention of light bulb not only solved the problem of saving the number of candle using every day, but also solve the working time in the factory. Instead of working only in daytime, factories owner required workers to work at night, too, with using light bulb. To me, I think I won't be able to think outside of the box, because all I can do is to stick to the rules instead of dream big by myself.

Reflection on 1st Semester

In the first semester, I think my performance is pretty good, except for the reading quizzes that we took in the class. I'm not good at doing reading quiz, despite I finished the story before the quiz. Other than that, I think I did a pretty good job on handing in the homework, doing classwork, such as the literary circle, discussion, and doing the holt reader in class. I also think I cared about my grade a lot, because when I am missing some homework or classwork, I will go to Mr. Dahl when I have time and talk to him about it. As looking at my report card, my highest grade is my Class Participation point, and my journal entry. I got those 100 % because it is the easiest point to get in English class. For my homework, I should really be more careful on the grammar and the writing. For the next semester, I should be more focus on my grammar and writing, and also the diary. Originally my total score is 88.99 percent, after adding the extra points, my total score changed into 92.64 or so.