A year at an American Highschool
1)
Ketil went to Rowland High School in California. He got to know people when they got curious about Norway, and they asked questions.Ketil studied math and “getting around”.In his leisure time he played soccer, and spent some time with his host-family.What made Tonje’s school somewhat special, was the fact that it was an outdoor school, without corridors or anything like that.At her school, the classes had about 25-30 students.For lunch they either had food, brought from home, or they bought food in the cafeteria.They were informed about daily events through the news on the school TV’s.
2)
1. False. Each state decides how its schools are to be organized.
2. True.
3. True.
4. True.
5. True.
6. False. Then they will bring their own food.
7. True.
8. False. They say the pledge of Allegiance.
9. True.
10. False. Students have to meet precise to classes, and show some spirit.

4)
I think that the Pledge of Allegiance should be banned from schools, definitively. It is propaganda, and the victims are helpless young students. Politics and religion shouldn’t be a part of the classroom, particularly if it isn’t related to any subject, like social studies etc.

In the name of the father

In todays English class we saw a movie called "In The Name of The Father", made by Jim Sheridan in 1994. It's about a man from Belfast, called Gerry Conlon. He, and three of his friends are forced to take the blame for an IRA bombing in London. His father and aunt also gets blamed for this horrible insident, and after a while we get to see how he and his father fight for an apeal, while they're spending time in prison. Gerry spends 15 years in prison, and during that time his father dies. When Gerry at last becomes a free man, he said that he wouldn't stop fighting before the people who put him, his father and his friends, in jail, were arrested.

I think this was a movie with a great plot, that's for sure. The actors were very convincing playing their roles, and the story was great. I still think it was a bit long, and at times, boring, because it was times it didn't happen anything. But I guess it was important to build up beliviable characters. To sum it up I think it was a good movie !

Multi Modal Poetry Presentations

The last week we've been working with poetry and making multi modal presentations(Presentations with music, text, picture, etc). Our task was to make a multi modal presentation to a poetry we wanted to talk about. Stephan and I teamed up, and decided to make a presentation based on "Nothing Compares 2U" by Prince. After our presentation I'll have to say this was a fun task. I think so because it is much more interesting and inspiring, than just doing a poetry analysis.

I don't think I learned anything special after these poetry sessions, other than if you're going to make a multi modal presentation it's often best to do it easy.

I guess we could have made our presentation a bit more "in sinc" with the music we chose to complement the poem. The song is called "River Flows In You" and is made by Yiruma.
Click on the videoline at the top to listen to the song, you won't regret it.

Our English Trip

After doing a quite interesting project, where we(Daniel, Sindre, Stephan and me) were going to plan a trip to the UK, I have to say that I really enjoyed this form of work. I think it's so much better than just reading in our Englishbook and doing various tasks. To be able to have a powerpoint presentation, and just talk to a crowd is one of the things I find the most interesting with any oralsubject(Norwegian, social studies, etc).

What made this a fun assignment was;
1: The fact that we could talk to a crowd
2: That we were allowed to make a powerpoint
3: The fact that it was a different assignement

What could have been done better was:
1: It would have been better to have more time to make the presentation

National stereotyping - Possible or not?

In todays society we often use stereotypes when we're talking about people from other communities, cities or contries. But if you think about it, does this stereotyping make sense? Well, personally I don't think so. Okey, the stereotyping can be used as an overstatement in a discussion or something, but not as a hardcore fact.
I don't think this because people are different. It's that easy. Maybe people has some of the same features, but they are still different! People view French people as snaileating snobs, but the fact is that not everyone is like that. France has classlevels; the upper class, the middle class, and the worker class. Just as every other country in the world.
If I'm going to make a statement regarding the possible harmful effect stereotyping can have, I'll have to say that; Yes, sterotyping can be harmful. It can create prejudice againt different cultural races. it's to bad really, because those prejudices can stop you from meeting some really nice people.

Of mice and men - the play

Well, today my class and I went to see the play, based on both the movie and the book. It was really interesting to see how the actors interpreted the different characters and settings. The fact that they had translated everything into Norwegian spoiled some of it to me, because I felt that most of the things couldn't be said good enough in Norwegian. For example; "I want to tend the rabbits George" became "æ vil pass på kaninan George!". A little bit strange, but what the heck. All in all it was a really good play, and every single one of the actors had a top performance! Well done! Besides that, I think it was cool how we could recognize the entire story, regarding that it was similar to the book and the movie. To sum it up in one word: Great!

Of mice and men - the movie

Hi!
Just saw the movie, based on the book. I have to say that it was just as i expected, eventhough the movie had left out som scenes from the book. For instance, the talk between Crooks, Lennie and Candy was far more tense, as Curleys wife came and talked demeaning to Crooks. The three moments I liked the best about the movie was the following;
1. The powerful moment when George shot Lennie. A really touching scene.
2. The moment when Lennie destroyed Curleys hand, and the moments afterwards.
3. When they all were out working in the fields, and Lennie really showed everyone what he was made of.