Blog #4 Popular Culture

Blogger #4 What is popular culture?  What or who influences  your generation in pop culture?  Explain in 5-7 sentences at least. 

Oedipus Rex Reflection - Blindness

Oedipus blinds himself at the end of the play because he can no longer look upon his crimes.  He gouges out his eyes to blot out the pain.  Without eyes he will not have to look upon his father and mother in Hades, or to endure the sight of his children.  The ideal for him would be deprived of all perception of the external world, a world which can only remind him of the pain he is in. 

 

Why does Oedipus blind himself?  Why does Sophocles represent Oedipus as blinding himself?

Oedipus Rex: Fate vs. Free Will

Below are three quotes on the topic of "fate".  Please write a paragraph response to any of the three quotes below.  In your response, be sure to reference the quote you are writing about.

"For whatever reasons, Ray, call it...fate, call it luck, call it karma. I believe everything happens for a reason. I believe that we were destined to get thrown out of this dump." Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters (1984)

"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart." Marcus Aurelius, last of the "Five Good Emperors" during the Roman Empire 

"I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing."  Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States

Use the questions bulleted below to jumpstart your thinking.

• Your emotional response to the quote, if it made you feel a certain way.
• Something that the quote reminded you of or made you consider.
• Your opinion as to the accuracy of the claim in the quote--do you agree or disagree with what is being said?
• Your interpretation of the quote.

First days

The first few days of school have come and gone.  Holy cow! At this point, we have worked on a lot of small and, seemingly, random things: joined our MBC group, parallelism, characterization, Blogger, and "le Morte d'Arthur".  Don't give up yet.  Don't get discouraged.  We have a little more disconnectedness to get through (Achieve 3000) and then (hopefully) things will start to flow a little more.

One of the activities we began the year with is the spaghetti challenge.  The goal is to create a tower that will hold a single marshmallow.  You only get 20 (dry) spaghetti noodles, a yard of string, and a yard of tape to make the tallest freestanding tower.

This was a silly activity that had very little to do with our English/Language Arts standards.  However, through this activity, students had to effectively communicate, problem solve, work as a team, deal with the pressures of being in a time crunch, and deal with the pressures of the other teams' towers.  In the end, there were some successes--only a few towers stood; however, we had almost 100% participation.

Syllabus