Fits English Class

Connor Soukup 

                  “After an argument, I think of all the awesome things I could have said”

-A Teenager

    If I had two words to describe English class this year I would choose “questionably difficult”, or maybe “possibly hard”. But that’s just from my point of view. Because it wasn’t very hard for me. I mean sure I got a B- on the first term because I forgot to post my final literary analysis essay the day before the term ended. Or spent a whole class trying to come of with themes from Tom Sawyer but really just thinking about what’s for lunch. Those are the main reasons for my exclamation of the class being “possibly” or “questionably” difficult. Because you have to put the work into it no matter how laid back it may seem. 

    One instance I want to bring up was when fits offered us extra credit if we commented on like ten blog posts or posted an extra independent blog post. I remember him saying at the beginning of the year, 

“It’s shameful to get anything less than a B in this class, you just have to put in some work because English isn’t actually that difficult”

Or something like that. But I took this as an open door to relax. This caused me to not try very hard during class and homework’s. I didn’t think that I had to do extra credit because of how easy the class was. I didn’t even really check my grades that often because I didn’t think I had to. And I didn’t ask for help because I didn’t really think I had to. Which reminds me of Mr. Fits’s famous quote,

“Give a damn and figure it out”

And I didn’t. So I didn’t do the extra credit assignments even though in any other class I would have jumped at the chance. And this backfired badly because I ended up getting some of my worst grades because of English  class. As a matter of I never even checked my English grade for the first term until the last two weeks of school. I was upset, but I knew I deserved it. 

    During class I tried to stay quiet as the same for most of my classes but English was a special a case. It can be described by the famous saying, 

“Boys will be boys”

And so it was. Our class constantly running around and yelling at each other. It definitely added to the theme of our class. Which was no doubt “distraction”. An ordinary start of class started with some of the quiet kids walking in and quietly sitting down at the large table. Then some more kids walk or run in causally yelling at each other. Some kid writhing floor. Students wrestling with each other. Someone just pulled a chair from under someone else. Fits comes in. The class goes quiet as he casually sends some students to Mr. Irwin’s office (head of upper school), the lasting kids sit at the table silently morning the loss of about half the class. I heard one kid quote,

“I wonder who next will fall to the plague, I bet it will be you”

Yet, this happens pretty much every day. I think it’s fair to say it describes the integrity of our class.

    I’m part of sad to see this year end. And I’m upset with myself to admit it. I think this year ended right. And on time. But still I’m very exited for next year to see what it has to offer. 

Listen to Your Teachers Suggestions

Connor Soukup

“The rate at which a person can mature is directly proportional to the embarrassment he can tolerate.”

-Douglas Engelbart

     Sometimes you need to take an opportunity when it faces you. I’ve found that more often than not that they end up well. And if they don’t end up as well as you wanted you might not know the real effect that the experience actually has on you. And no matter how bad it may seem in the moment, it may not have actually been a bad stretch in the path of life. Earlier this year I was faced with the option of joining the upper school musical. For many years I had wanted to do the school play. But never got to it. And probably wouldn’t have done this one either if Mr. Fitzsimmons hadn’t told me one day that I should. As my advisor who probably knew me better than any other teacher. I knew that if this experience went bad I had someone to blame besides myself. But after the musical ended I found that I didn’t need someone to blame and rather to thank. I wasn’t very good at acting, singing or dancing and myself doing the musical proved that to me. But that’s not the only good thing that came out of it. I also found that I had matured by the decision of joining the musical. I was put in the most hysterically embarrassing musical. Not what I expected. The two plays where beauty and the beast, a mellow sort of moody theme. And than once upon a mattress, a comedic reflection of a famous fairy tale. I obviously wasn’t happy.  But this added to the impact of the experience. The maturity that I got from the experience helps me focus often on how bad things could be. And it’s comforting. The people I look up to most at fenn are the teachers, and blindly following their suggestions might sounds reckless. But the two only types of decisions in life are the reckless and the thought over. But sometimes by the time you think over your decision, you're already old and gray.

Through The Tunnel

By Connor Soukup

“Maturity is not measured by age, it is measured by experience” -not sure

     Maturity is a dangerous yet essential part of life. And in the story, Through the Tunnel, by Doris Lessing, it emphasizes the not only physical but emotional growth that the young boy in the story experiences. The boy knows this small task may have no physical importance or use but as a much more important emotional use.

    This story was very interesting and throughout it all I stayed intrigued for the whole twenty pages that was the story. One quote that I really liked was when the boy was decided on whether or not to swim the tunnel. “this was the moment when he would try. If he did not do it now, he never would”. I found this quote very interesting and the truth to it made me think about maturity and how some things going on in my life now I just needed to put my mind to and do. I really liked the idea of how the boy who had never really been away from his mother before attempts a worthless task like in the story just to prove to himself that he doesn’t need others steadying his arm. 

    I often find myself in situations like these where the task may have no real importance but as a person I feel like I need to get it done to mature and build myself up as a person. Reading this boys thoughts and feelings really reflected some of what I’ve thought many times before in situations sometimes much like this one.

    I found that reading this story made me reflected on my past experiences. I had thought a lot about maturity as the boy in this story fought his doubt about swimming through the tunnel. The steps passed during the story showed the real importance and impact that maturity has on people.

All Quiet On The  Western Front

Connor Soukup

8th Grade English

Literary Analysis

    Good can be found in even the most terrible places. In the book, all quiet on the western front, by Erich Maria Remarque, showed me that kindness and empathy can be found even in war. Even though it would seem like warfare would be the most heartless thing, this book shows otherwise. As well as this chapter being very horrific, it also had a repeated theme of empathy.

    Throughout the book the theme of empathy comes up. It’s very surprising and eye catching when you notice it. After all they are all in constant warfare. There is multiple instances where Paul brings out the good in him. Such as when he kills the French soldier and feels bad about it. And he thinks this,

   “My state is getting worse, I can no longer control my thoughts. What would his wife look like? Like the little brunette on the other side of the canal? Does she belong to me now? Perhaps by this act she becomes mine. I wish Kantorek were sitting here beside me. If my mother could see me”.

   He obviously feels bad and there is a couple whole pages of dialogue during which he feels bad about what he did. And thinking about his family and how terrible murder was. He wanted to put him out of his misery but his morals stopped him. “If only I had not lost my revolver crawling about, I would shoot him. Stab him I cannot.” And on another occasion he was in camp and they were keeping Russian captives and they were all struggling to survive. Paul brought his rations and supplies to them and tried to help them even though he knows on the battlefield they would try and kill him. “And yet we would shoot at them again and they at us if they were free.”

   Being aware that being in war you don’t lose all of your morals but just push them down deep inside you makes me feel less dread for warfare. An during these parts where Paul showed empathy for his enemy’s who would try to kill, yet he still helped

them and showed something like care for them.

   The battlefield isn’t very friendly and it’s not soldiers best interest to feel empathy for their enemies, paul's overall morals made him take dangerous risks for the greater good.

Metacognition for video reflection

 For All quiet on the western front 

By: Connor Soukup

     The writing and making my video, although very rushed I learned a lot about iMovie during the process. And making this video was useful and a great way to finish off the book. Throughout the reading of the book, we as a class hade to do many literary reflections by yourself and with partners. Also we had to write many metacognition’s as well as take a couple of quizzes. But making the video overall was my favorite type of reflection we did. I enjoyed finding the pictures and comparing them with the audio to find the write spot for them on the slideshow. Overall creating the video was a great way to finish the book.