Frederick Douglass's meaning for the fourth of july

Frederick Douglass thinks that The Fourth of July is just a celebration of our own vanity and injustice to american citizens not accounted for (african americans). He thinks that the holiday celebrates hypocrisy and cover up disgraceful crimes.

Introduction

Edgar Allen Poe has to be one of the most influential writers of not just our time, but all time. His dark stories and poetry are known by millions. His style of writing was pretty new, with his darkly sarcastic humor. His writing was good, but Poe himself is known in history for being quite the controversial character, having married his cousin.

Fifth anotation

Tomlinson, David. "The Humor of Edgar Allen Poe." 1994 6 Nov 2008 http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/poe_humor/poexx.htm.

This is a lightened website featuring an article about Poe's dark humor in all of his work, giving interesting light to the subject, because many can't pinpoint humor in Poe's morbid poetry.

Fourth annotation

Allen, Hervey . "Biography of Edgar Allen Poe." 08/1927 6 Nov 2008 http://www.houseofusher.net/library.html.

This is a link to a website that has more information then i've ever seen on any other website about Edgar Allen Poe. This one section, listed under "bibliography" and "articles" talks more about his life; like his wedding & marrage and where he lived, more so then just his work.

Third Annotation - thesis statement.

Allen-Poe, Edgar. Edgar Allen Poe - Selected Works. Baltimore: Gramercy, 1999.

This book has his complete works of litature, from famous stories and poems to unknown stories and poems. Includes a forward by Alix Perry, telling of Poe's life and his harships to write.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thesis Statement :

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most influential writers of our time, and maybe of all time.
He overcame his own obsticles in life. He had been adopted, and ventured out on his own, resding ina few places, but most famously, Baltimore and Philadelphia. As a writer, his typical writing style was new to the time period, ranging from stories of a detective solving murders (Murders in the Rue Morgue), or to his very famous poetry, such as "The tell tale heart" Or, "The Raven." Thus, making him one of the most famous and influential writers of our time.

2nd annotation

Brown, Arthur. "Death and telling in Poe." April 1994 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. 23 Oct 2008

This article explains Poe's meanings in his work, mostly his preoccupation with death, and how that relates to us, and our own preoccupation with death also. A quote i really liked and might use is, " Poe's task is always the same as our own - to tell what cannot, or should not, be told." I like it because it shows thatpoe was a very controversial writer.

NHD 1st annotation

Poe Museum, "Poe's life." 2007-2008 20 Oct 2008 http://www.poemuseum.org/.

This website is for Poe's Museum. It has a variety of sources, including aritcles, biograpies of his life, books, pictures, and most importantly, Poe's many authored/published works.

NHD topic choice.

Me & Ashley chose Edgar Allen Poe, because we figured he'd be the type of individual no one would really pick, although he's a really well known poet. Also, we picked him because we really wanted to do a writer and/or poet of some sort seeing as how writers had a HUGE impact in history. So choosing edgar allen poe seemed like a good fit, in part because he was such a great writer, had a huge impact on history, and also, the Edgar Allen Poe house is right in th city.

Last Week's service learning reflections

Last week we didnt do much, except for a little bit of research (AGAIN). 

My reflection is that this recycling group is almost a waste of time. We could be actually making a difference by actually DOING something, but instead all we do is TALK about doing, but we never do anything. The closest we've come to doing anything was a trash pick up around the city, and that was even the original or planned idea. Plus, all we found was one, maybe two pieces of trash. 

Each night at a certain time, we're supposed record the trash on our streets for data, which is probably the most productive thing we've done since we started, & i'm not counting the letters saying thank you for the scales we aren't using because we haven't collected any trash to actually weigh. 

Service Learning (an update)

In my group, we do recycling. It's been okay so far, slow progress, not quite sure what our goal if for the rest of the year, but either way we made some type of group progress.
All of us were assigned a different topic and mine was aluminum. I had to do research on aluminum; how it's recycled, what becomes of it and so far. We also did a walking tour around the city to pick up trash.

Service Learning

My service learning group was about recycling. We discussed: 

*recycling around the city

*recycling in school and in classrooms

* Use of green products

*how to clean the city and our communities up. 

We thought about putting recycling bins in classrooms and all around the school. We also decided to clean up our neighborhoods, and try to use 'green' products in the school, like recycled paper for our printers. 

My Ideas For Service Learning:

1. Work in a Hospital
2. Volunteer at a homeless shelter
3. Fundraisers for cancer
4. Tutor kids at an elementary school
   
5. Help with Seniors at a Nursing Home

NHD Relections

When i worked on NHD, i found it to be very hard. I had never done a project this big before and i didn't know at first that it would be so hard to put together. For my NHD i did a group performance on The Philadelphia Women's Anti-Slavery Society. We had thought that doing a group performance would be eaiser then doing a documentary, which was our first choice, but we found out that it wasn't. For our performance, we had to write a script. First we reasearched our topic, using both primary and secondary sources. Then, we brought all of that information together and created a script revolving around one particular event, the burning pf Pennsylvania Hall. We had to write the script a couple different times to make sure it was historically accurate, and then we practiced our lines.
NHD was a very stressful project, and my group and I fought alot. But even though we fought all the time and hd many disagreements, theis project also brought us closer as friends, because through the fighiting and stress, we stll remained friends.

Maya Angelou(almost finished)

Maya Angelou was born on April 24, 1928, and is still living to this day. During her life, she wrote many great works, but her most famous was I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which
tells about her life as a child and her hardships . She won awards such as, The National Book Award, A Yale Universtiy fellowship, A Pulitzer Prize nomination, to name a few.
s.

Should the abuse of children be okay?

No. Child abuse is a very common thing in our country and it shouldn't be that way.
Abuse of children hurts them mentally. It can lead to problems later in life, such as depression, anger issues, and self injury. Many teens who have been abused are depressed, and don't seek help for it. It's not just physical abuse that affects children, there is also sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and verbal abuse. A lot of people concider emotional abuse and verbal abuse to not be abuse, but 'tough love'. That isn't true. It is almost like you are a monster in the eyes of your child. Would you really want them ot think of you that way?

Should Huck Finn be taught at CHS?

I think that Huckleberry Finn should be taught in our school, for three reasons.
For one reason, i think it is a good adventure book. Secondly, it details all of the aspects of history during that time period very well, and third, it does have some good morals.

In Huck Finn, the use of the 'N' word is very rapid and repeated throughout the story. Of course the use of racial overtones would make a story seem offensive, but first you have to look at the surroundings in the book and the timeframe it took place during, which was the late 1800's. Also, there is abuse, kidnapping, and drinking in this book. Most people who are very consevative would concider this book as a bad influence on kids, but i say its not, only because it is something you can't really hide from; it's life. Those things happen, and shielding your children from something they are going to end up experencing, or hearing about is pointless, and can cause problems with adjustment later in life.