Freedom Writers Notes

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Habit 4: Think Win-Win – I would describe habit 4 in my own words as keep your head up and continue to succeed, winners never doubt themselves and think for the positive. The private victory is a perquisite to thinking win-win because you must win the private victory to have the right mindset which, in this case, is thinking win-win. Competitions and comparisons affect the ability to see win-win negatively, you end up striving for something you are unable to be instead of striving for a good goal. It is better to take no deal when it beats out all three bad decisions.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to Be Understood – Being understood is the deepest need in the human heart because it makes you feel like you belong and someone relates to you. I’m the worst with pretend listening, this is because if I don’t like the topic and/or relatable to me I just pretend to care. I can fix it by paying attention no matter what. A deposit in the parent relationship account would be doing a chore correctly that they asked to be done. “I” messages are received better than “you” messages because “you” messages seem self-centered and only care about what happens to you but “I” messages sound polite and help the situation.

Habit 6: Synergize – In synergy everyone comes together and puts ideas rather than agreeing on one like compromising, it also puts a team effort in all aspects not just cooperation. Celebrating diversity makes everyone feel belonged and welcome rather than tolerating it which makes people feel you don’t want them to be there and don’t respect their ideas. I struggle with prejudice the most because when I hear about or see people they’re this good or bad icon and I judge them off that. I am a plodder because I stick to something and make sure it gets finished correctly.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw – I need to spend more time in the body dimension of my life. Balance is important because if you’re missing one thing it shuts down the entire process and makes the person worse. I could save up and buy something more important like more school supplies and things of that nature. I find inspiration in people who have followed the same path I want to follow and succeeded to become big figures.

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Lord of the Flies Notes

Characters: Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, Roger, Samneric, Maurice, Robert, Percival Wemys Madison, Johnny, Henry

Themes: Savagery v. Civilization: Jack represents savagery and Ralph represents civilization and they continually fight over which is a better way of life. Allegory: Everything in the book stands for a bigger purpose such as Ralph stands for civilization and Jack stands for savagery and that all humans will revert to savages in the case of disaster.

Plot: Nuclear war has ensued and a plane full of full boys is shot down into a remote island. The only survivors are children and there are no adults to watch them. They group up to elect a leader to try to return to the government they once had back in England. A boy named Ralph is elected leader with another boy named Piggy to support him as leader. Ralph makes a signal fire and starts to establish rules. Jack wants to lead over Ralph and challenges him all throughout the book. All of the boys have a fear that a mythical beast roams the island out to get them. One night an aerial battle happens above the island and one of the causalities falls down to the island with his parachute, the wind blows it up making the boys mistake it for the beast. In reaction to the panic Jack makes a group of savages that all but a few of the boys join. They turn to ritualistic ways and actually kill a sow and as an offering to the beast puts its head on a stick. Simon gets the courage to discover the true identity of the beast and starts to hallucinate from the witness of the death of the sow calling her staked head the Lord of the Flies, realizing the beast isn’t a creature on the loose but hidden in the boys head. He goes to tell the other boys the finding that the beast is just a dead soldier and is killed in a ritualistic tribe dance thought to be the beast. Jack goes crazy and steals Piggy’s glasses for cooking fires and when they go to get it back they kill Piggy and capture the other biguns except for Ralph. It turns into a manhunt and they start to smoke him out of areas and the British Navy sees it getting there in time to save Ralph from impending doom.

Connections: The older boys are only a few years younger than me and it would be scary watching people revert back to those ways. Also it is a battle for which way of life is right which can happen in the classroom (not violently) with “battles” for who’s answer is right.

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