Reading Projects

Reading Projects are well under way.
Please construct an interesting blog post that will entice other readers to your selected book.
Please include author and title.

Tradition

Thanksgiving is usually a time of tradition for families. I make Italian Wedding Soup and it must be cooked in a particular way and not deviate from the recipe by one iota or Grandma Bette will let me hear about it until next Thanksgiving. Grandma Perez expects all girls to wear dresses on Thanksgiving(!). Papa Tom will tell stories about hunting his own turkeys as a child with his trusty bird dog , Gus. Heather and Olivia will be in charge of clean up duty as they are the oldest of the youngest nonmarried girls in the family this year. My sister,Betty will put up her Christmas tree after dinner.
What are your traditions? If you do not know- ask an elder or parent during Thanksgiving dinner.

Self Reliance and Junior Retreat

Self-Reliance is an essay written by American Transcendentalist philosopher and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's repeating themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotes, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

You spent part of this week immersed in spirituality and nature with your entire class and other inspirational members of your school community: teachers and senior class members. Think about how your experience will enable you to become a self-reliant individual. How was the retreat beneficial to your burgeoning sense of self? How will you keep the "retreat high" going?

Being "Abigail Williams"

Winona Ryder found playing Abigail Williams engrossing and disturbing. "I've heard Abigail called the villain of the piece, but I am not so sure," she says. "She's never given any power...Abigail understands that she can get power and attention so she goes with it. There's always a part of her that knows she is fooling, but I think she is convinced spirits are attacking her. I see her as insane in a way, but so is the whole town. It is like a disease."
Do you agree with Ryder's assessment of Abigail? Why or why not? Be specific and clear.