Reading+Reflections


 * First Quarter

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Blogs **

Miss Jean Brodie should NOT have affairs in the school where her students can see her! I think that is SO unprofessional. She should not be talking to her students about her love life. Miss Jean Brodie should be teaching her students educational information that will be useful to them in their future. She should not be telling her students to get their books out so it looks like they’re doing a lesson if the principal walks by the room. I think Brodie should not be a teacher because she does not follow the curriculum.

I did not like the book The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I thought that Miss Jean Brodie was unprofessional and rude towards her students. She treated them with disrespect and put students down. Sometimes Miss Jean Brodie was nice to her students, but many times she said negative things to them. I don’t believe a teacher should say negative things about their students because it could lower their self esteem. Miss Jean Brodie is manipulative and does not teach the main subjects which I also disagree with.

**Pygmalion Blogs **  I watched My Fair Lady instead of reading Pygmalion. I love this movie. I think Professor Higgins could be nice to Eliza. He would be a great teacher if he didn’t always put her down. In the end of the movie she explains to his mom that she will always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins because he always treated her like one. I think this is important because Professor Higgins made his “student” successful in learning, but at the same time made her feel bad about herself.

In the movie Eliza and Higgins end up falling in love, but in the book Eliza marries Freddy. This explains that even poor flower girls have feelings. Eliza was in love with Higgins but because he treated her terribly she married the person that was more kind towards her. I think this is a good lesson because Higgins could have been a good teacher if he was more positive and encouraging. I do think that Eliza would have been successful in learning the English language if Higgins was more kind. Some people may think that she wouldn’t learn the language because she needed a tough teacher. I think it wouldn’t have hurt anyone if Higgins was more kind and caring towards Eliza.

**Second Quarter**

**The Moral Life of Children**

I think the book is very interesting. Ruby is very brave to be a child so young and face a crowd full of people who want to hurt her. I also think it is amazing that she is able to pray for people who are so cruel towards her. Ruby faces many challenges in her life with racial interactions. She is a brave girl for being strong and standing up for what she believes in.

**The Uses of Enchantment**

I find this book to have very interesting points. I think it is clever that there are two distinct differences in characters so that the child reading can comprehend each character. For example, one parent is good and one is evil. This helps a child understand and be able to relate it to real life as best the child can.

The analysis of "Snow White" was an interesting story to read about. The different symbols of the story that one would not pick up or perceive unless they read an analysis were pretty cool to read about. I really liked how the story basically had two different meanings. One version a child would read the story as and the other how a parent would interpret the story. I liked how each person represented something and things like the drops of blood and 3 animals that come to her grave had specific meanings. These fairy tale stories have enabled me to believe “there’s more than means the eye”.

This book so far I think is very interesting. The introduction starts with the boy finding the dog stabbed. My first question is who would ever stab a dog? That’s just cruel and unusual! I also did not like how the officer was so mean to the boy, which leads me to my second question, Does the officer know the boy has some problems like mental problems? I also think the faces that are drawn are interesting because it shows that people who have autism are not always able to separate the different emotions people show.
 * The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time **

I'm wondering why Christopher wasn't allowed to visit his mom in the hospital, or why he didn't go to the funeral. I think it's sad that his mom was alive for 2 weeks and he didn't get to see her one last time. I've also noticed how descriptive and observant Christopher is. Reading this book while on my special education rotation has made me see the students differently and understand them through their own eye in a sense. Christopher explains that he is scared to talk to strangers, likes the color red, but not yellow, and also doesn't like to be yelled at. This makes me wonder how the students that I'm working with feel and if any of them feel the same way Christopher does.


 * Third Quarter**

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time ** My question is... what is a good choice for Mrs. Alexander to tell Christopher about his mother cheating on his father with Mr. Shears? In the book it doesn't really explain his reaction to what he has learned about his mother. He never really explains if he is upset about his mother leaving, he just analyzes the details about what Mrs. Alexander has told him.

When Rhodri asks Christopher “What’s 251 times 864?” and Christopher answerers “216,864” and then explains how he came to that conclusion, I found it pretty amazing. Christopher answered the multiplication question in minutes which is pretty amazing and impressive. Most people (including myself) would use a calculator or write it out, which would take more than a minute to do. I also thought it was kind of sad, that Christopher thought Rhodri was laughing at him and that it hurt his feelings

I think it is so interesting how Christopher put so many details into what he sees and observes everything about a person or object. When he explains how is mind is like a camera or video camera, I found it pretty cool. I think it would be very useful if many people could have a photographic memory.

I knew that Christophers mom left with Mr. Shears. I could tell by the way Christophers dad reacted, as well as Mrs. Shears reactions. I think it is SO terrible for a mother to leave their child, let alone a child with a problem. I felt so bad for Christophers father. I don't know how i would be able to handle a situation like that.

I was so shocked to find out that Christophers father killed the dog. I feel so bad for his father. I think it was so heartbreaking because Christopher leaves his father to go be with his mom, when his mom left HIM in the first place! It really made me angry that his mother was sticking up for him and not letting the father see his son. I got extremely annoyed about this. The mother left Christopher, why should she be allowed to have him when she has been out of his life for so long? Why is it all of a sudden okay for her to have a say in his life when his father took care of him by himself?