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    C. Why does it help an artist to see in negative space?

    D. Does seeing in negative space enhance drawings, why or why not?

The book begins in first person in the perspective of Kurt Vonnegut. He is visiting an old friend from the war, Bernard V. O’Hare, and they are reminiscing about the war. Vonnegut mentions that he is trying to write a book about the bombing of Dresden. O’Hare’s wife says that he should name is book the Children’s Crusade, because she believes that the war is talked about like it was a great gallant fight fought by heroes, but it was actually the gory slaughter of children sent to war. That dialogue sets the stage for the book in discussing the meaningless of war, and, the meaningless of life itself. Vonnegut goes on to think to himself about the fluidity and intricacies of time, a theme carried throughout the rest of the book. He then introduces Billy Pilgrim, a boring man from a boring town with a boring life who becomes unstuck in time. 

The story of Billy Pilgrim is not a linear one. It begins with Billy old and senile in his death bed, and then he awakens on his wedding day, and then to the war, and then to his birth and then to his death. Billy’s story is centered around two different parts of his life; the bombing of Dresden, and Billy’s life on the planet Tralfamadore. Through the repetition of phrases, random anecdotes, science fiction, and history, Kurt Vonnegut uses the life of Billy Pilgrim to convey his own confusions about the meaning and the meaninglessness of existence and what it means to be a human being.

Billy Pilgrim floats through time with no start, no end, and no purpose. Aimless and lost, Billy does not feel like he has a solid, down-to-earth impact anywhere, and doubts the significance of his own existence. I related to Billy’s uncertainty. I, too, have questioned who I am, and what the meaning of my existence is. Do I matter? I am significant? Will I have an impact? The philosophy Billy learns on Tralfamdore teaches him that no one is ever truly dead, as they are alive in every other moment at the same time. He learns every moment happened, is happening, and always will happen the same exact way, as it is “structured that way”. Billy raises more relatable life questions I too brood over sometimes. What happens when you die? Do I have a predetermined destiny? If I am simply a compilation of memories than who will I be when no one is left to remember?

Various other characters are introduced in different moments of Billy’s life. There are his wife and his children and his war friends and fellow war prisoners. There is Eliot Rosewater, another man in a mental hospital with Billy. Montana Wildhack, the hollywood actress in the Tralfamadorian zoo exhibit with Billy. And of course, Kilgore Trout, a science fiction novelist no one has ever heard of. My favorite character, or set of characters, where the English soldiers living in the heart of a Russian war camp. They had befriended the Russian guards and recieved extra food and provisions. The Englishmen created a happy and structured life in the center of chaos and captivity and destruction. That contrast, and the recognition of the human ability to create lemonade out of any lemons, was strikingly beautiful.

Slaughterhouse-Five is hauntingly well written and is a book that, as Life Magazine remarked, “a funny book at which you are not permitted to laugh, a sad book without tears, a tale told in a slaughterhouse.” Although the story progression in the book is not linear, Kurt Vonnegut is able to create a sense of continuity through his writing styles and his repetition. Vonnegut takes advantage of the simplicity of the human brain and how easily we can make connections. For example, in the beginning of the book, Vonnegut explains that at the end of a massacre, all you can hear are the birds, and they sound like “poo-tee-weet”. The last line in the book is “poo-tee-weet”, telling the reader that the book was a story of a massacre and a a story of death. The reader knows, even though Vonnegut did not tell. Kurt Vonnegut is a master of words and a master of the mind, and his book is a masterpiece.

I would recommend this book for anyone who likes be intellectually engaged while reading. Anyone who likes science fiction, World War II, classic literature, or anyone who is looking for a short and satisfying read. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think you could too.

To do this project you have to do a research. I found some websites about negative space. You need to know what is negative space and how you look at something. After you know what it is you should try and draw some pictures. You use linoleum to cut out and form an image. Me and my friends helped each other because sometimes we were confused. You have to be careful when you cut out linoleum to not hurt yourself. Then you print your image on the paper with the ink. 

Inquiry: We used inquiry, because we had to figure out which element matched our number. We also had to use our creativity to come up with a quality drawing.

Research: Research was a big part of this project. We had to research a lot of background information about our element, such as it's uses, how it was discovered, and who discovered it.

Collaboration: There was part of the project that Ms. Hull didn't tell us how to do. We had to collaborate with others to figure how to correctly complete that part.

Presentation: We had to make our prints look presentable, by centering them on another piece of paper. We also had to make sure that the lines were straight.

Reflection: In order to reflect, we had to make sure that our prints were complete. We have to reflect on how our process went, and even before we finished, you can reflect on if what you are doing is right.

 In the future depicted in the book the world is in bad shape. The people have been going through this disease called the flare. When the governments found out about the Flare and how rapidly it was spreading they joined forces to create an organization named WICKED. WICKED collects a group of  “test subjects” into a place called the maze. In the maze there is a glade where “the subjects” are sent through an elevator. The walls of the maze changes every night with the walls to the maze from the glade closed every night. In the first book there is a code that is revealed through the maze. The code is the key to the next book. 

The books are narrated by an unknown person who knows everything. Thomas the main character’s head is the one that this unknown narrator knows most about. Then there is Teresa the only girl Glader. Newt the "nice" guy and Minho the tough one. Teresa, Newt, and Minho are Thomas’ only friends for a while and they are by his side for the most part. Thomas goes through some crazy things and the conflicts he has are with everyone. James Dashner made sure to put in person vs. person, person vs. society, person vs. self evenly through the series. Thomas has so much conflict he ends up expecting it by the end. My favorite character is Teresa because she is the good best friend she is always there for Thomas even before Thomas knows it and everything she does is to protect him no matter how much it hurts her doing those things. The series is about survival, readers should understand that through surviving something you may lose something else and all you can do is pick up where you left off because if you look back you won’t be able to handle it.

The series is hard to relate to situation wise but when you look at the thematic content you realize that you might have done the same things. These kids go through so much by the end of the series I can barely remember how they got there and I think that was the point. I think James Dashner wanted to make the point that as long as the ones you love are around you then you will be all right and that is what I believe to be true every day. I cannot relate to any specific character yet because they go through so many changes so quickly that when I start to relate they do something that I don’t understand again. I have felt the way every “glader” felt when they were a “shuck greenie” because you feel alone in a new place and you don’t know where you fit it you just know you better start to because right now you are the odd one out. 

The series is wonderfully and skillfully crafted a story that takes you through a train that you want to be an express one with only stops are for the 3:00 am coffee breaks and end of book potty breaks. James Dashner remains what the future might look like and shows you the imagery of the maze in the first book and the world in the second and third books. Throughout the three books Dashner is consistent with the amount of suspense and tension he gives through each book. The series has so many strengths and I think that the biggest strength is how James Dashner creates this world for you and he doesn’t drag it along with details about the smallest of things like other writers might have if they had this subject. I would change very little in this book only the deaths because all my favorite characters go for Thomas. I would recommend these books just based on the writing style and speed because it is very hard to make a person want to read a story so bad that they have to put it down to get through the ending. Dashner gives you these characters that you want to get to know and through the situations they are put through they reveal themselves increasingly to you.

PAYBACK TIME BY CARL DEUKER

   This book is primarily about sports but not fully. This book is also about uncovering a secret and making a great story out of that secret. The main character in this book Daniel (Mitch) True is getting ready to go college and plans on uncovering the biggest story of his life in his senior year of high school. This book PAYBACK TIME received a one star review from Booklist that said “ Definitely one for the top shelf ”. The book PAYBACK TIME received A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION.      

The book PAYBACK TIME is a book about a high school journalist named Daniel (Mitch) True who wants to be the editor of his school newspaper and he wants go to Columbia University to study journalism. An important character in the book is Kimi Yon. She is the sports photographer for the school newspaper and is Mitch's newspaper partner. Mitch and Kimi worked on the sports section of the newspaper together throughout the school year. Another important character in this book is Angel Marchial. Angel is a football player who is a new kid at Lincoln High school and new to the football team at the school. The conflict in this story is Mitch and Kimi are trying to uncover a secret about Angel Marchial who transferred from a different high school. My favorite character in this book is Daniel (Mitch) True. The reason being is Mitch grew throughout the book. Mitch did not have things go his way all of the time but that did not stop him from continuing to try to uncover this story. Furthermore Mitch had a weight problem and throughout the book he lost a lot of weight because he did not give up or let anyone stop him. I believe that readers should take self motivation away from this book. I believe that this book gives good examples about self motivation. Furthermore readers should take away hope from this book. The reason being is that Mitch did not always have the answer to all of the questions that he had about Angel but he knew that at the end of the football season he would have some information to write a story.

I could relate to Angel Marichal. One reason is I have been in his situation about starting on the bench and eventually starting in the starting lineup. The second way I could relate to Angel is because of his quiet leadership. I understand at first why he did not want to be one that talked a lot. Furthermore I can relate to Angel being the one to sit at the end of the bench and not be getting into the game. The mindset that Angel had was remarkable because he played well but he only played a little and would not be warmed up when he was put into the game. This gave him a disadvantage because he was not warmed up and was not prepared to be in the games.  

I did like the book. The book was great and had very interesting themes. One strength of the book was the imagery. When I was reading the book I could imagine the football field and I could imagine the energy from the sports fans in the stadium. Another strength from the book was the action in the book. This book had a lot of football play by play detail and kept the reader interested throughout the book. One weakness from this book was the ending. The ending did not close the book properly. The ending could have been better. Another weakness in this book was the detail of certain places in the book. For example where Mitch had gone running was not described well and was hard to imagine what it would look like in real life. I would change the ending of the book. The reason being is the ending was not what I expected and could have closed the book better. The author left it up to the readers imagination but I would have liked to have a clear ending at the end of the book.

for everyone and that probably could take something away from this book. I  

definitely recommend this book to sports fans. This book has great play by

play detail and really makes the reader feel like they are at the game. Another

thing that this book has is a theme about self motivation. In this book the main 

character Daniel (Mitch) True deals with a weight problem and he tells 

himself that he must get into better shape so he could be healthy. At first 

Mitch was losing weight to impress Kimi Yon but at the end he realizes that 

he was doing it for himself.        

Treasure Island is a novel published in 1883 by Robert Louis Stevenson. The book was meant to just be stories that he told to his stepson, and ended up being published into a great story that has been famous and told for generations. The movie “Pirates of the Caribbean” was based off of the well-known novel, and for that I have based my creative portion of the individual reading book project on the movie’s ‘theme song.’ “He’s a Pirate” was composed by Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt and is used in the movie as the background and occasional ambient music. I think it goes perfectly with the book beccause I couldn’t help but imagine that music playing while I was reading. The song has an epic feel, and for that I decided to play it on piano and use it as my creative piece.

Billy Bones leaves a chest at the Admiral Benbow for safekeeping, and stays there along with it. He dies from a fatal stroke. Jim Hawkins, the protagonist, finds a treasure map in the chest, and with the help of characters that were introduced earlier in the novel, he goes in search of Treasure Island with the crew. The treasure is from the already deceased Captain Flint. Will the treasure be found? Read the rest to figure out what happens in the rest of the gripping story.

The main character is Jim Hawkins, the narrator, and son of the owner of the Admiral Benbow. Jim tells about his adventures with the pirate crew, and his experience in his “coming of age.” He uses his feelings and emotions to portray the story in his own way, explaining everything that happens in good detail.

The main conflict is getting along with Captain Flint’s old crew, and getting to Treasure Island. It isn’t until they get there that they all realize something has happened, which could change the entire story from the expected outcome.

My favorite character is Jim Hawkins. I think this because first of all, his name is pretty darn epic and awesome. Also, he has a sort of mysterious nature. It’s hard to explain, but when he explains the story from the narration point of view, he tells it in his own way, unlike any other books that I have read previously. He also has a sense of adventure, and I like his personality. It really fits the story.

I think the reader should take away the fact that even if the book is old and a little challenging, it can still be a treasureable story. The words and lingo used are a little more traditional, and adding the fact that it contains a lot of vocabulary that I’m not used to, it was a challenge to read. There were words like “dubloons” that I have never really heard as part of a story before. It was interesting to see how pirates would have talked, too. I think one huge theme is how when you “come of age” you can prove how heroic or gallant you can be.

I don’t think I can relate to anyone in the book, considering the setting was in the eighteenth century, and most of the characters were pirates, but I still enjoyed the book either way. I don’t think books need to cater to the reader and have to be relatable to be enjoyable. Adding to this, I haven’t had any similar experiences to the characters in the book either, because, well... The characters are fantastical pirates from the eighteenth century that go on adventures in search of treasure!

Overall, I enjoyed the book very much because it was a challenge to read and comprehend, and I’m not usually a fan of old fiction. I think it’s something that I wouldn’t pick up first if I were given a pile of books to choose from, but I’m very happy that I did pick it up to read, because it’s a very enthralling novel.

I think a major strength of the book is the ability for the writer to change perspectives. It was very interesting to read when Jim Hawkins traded in telling the story with Doctor Livesey, who had a more accurate version of the story, while Jim included what he felt like. Also, the reader is painted a picture of exactly what every staggering detail is. Without the visualization in a fiction book, the book easily becomes boring, and it’s not as fun to imagine or think about the plot.

I don’t think I would change such a classic book, but if I had to, I would change the beginning. I find it very confusing on how the events take place, and I had to reread a lot of parts, just to understand what was going on. Once I did understand it, it was really worth it, and I was glad that I had gone through again to read it. 

I think I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys suspense and adventure. I often times found myself wondering where something that had happened in the beginning of the book would come back. It made me wonder if it was foreshadowing, or if it was going to eventually tie into the later plot.

I enjoyed the book, and am proud of my creative portion that I have created. I don’t think I would change a single thing about it. Please watch my video of me playing “He’s a Pirate” on piano. 

Click this link.

A. Negative space is the area around and between objects. It uses the space around something to show it, without inner detail.

B. In my drawing, I found negative space by replacing the outer portions of the drawing with a mirror of the inner, so that they both reflected the outside of the object.

C. It helps an artist to see in negative space because that makes them aware of the surrounding area of an object, even if they aren't shown. It also helps them display objects without relying on inner details.

D. Seeing in negative space does not enhance drawings, it just is a different way of drawing, a different style.

Science Leadership Academy - Senior Capstone 2013

Student Name: Natalee Schiavoni

In school Mentor: Ms. Dunn

Link to my Capstone website:

http://716596935655210608.weebly.com/

Cover Page -

The goal of this project was to create an artistic portfolio of my most recent sketching and drawings to show my understanding for the techniques artist use to produce successful artwork. I want to mold together an artistic view point and practical techniques to create functional blog/website to help others find great resources.

Abstract -

My sketch portfolio is a collection of my best and most recent artwork that highlights my love for art and shows my experience throughout the year. It is a visual archive of my artistic accomplishments that demonstrates my ability and potential as an artist.  My finished portfolio documents additional work that demonstrates an awareness of formal visual organizational principles and experience with a variety of tools, media, styles, and approaches. You will be viewing still life, landscape, figure drawings, portrait, perspective, and diagrammatic drawings.

I am Lindsey Jones and I’m going to take you through a thorough and thoughtful review of the dark comedy, philosophical thriller, Blubber Island. Blubber Island is written by Ismael Galvan. An author known for encrypting his stories with characters that are at the bottom of the social food chain and putting them in the oddest situations and eventually letting them flourish. Galvan, currently resides in Japan with wife an English teacher. He most famous work is in fact Blubber Island and writes in a Gutter Surrealist style.    

Elis, a social outcast sits in his small hut by a fire drinking tea. He is then abruptly affronted by a man in a business suit who tells him that he has torn a hole in his head. Elis is taken back by this and asks what exactly does he mean by this. The businessman continues on and Elis defensively drives to attack him with a spear when all of a sudden his world is turned inside out. Zombies come from nowhere and begin eating Elis. As his flesh was being torn apart, Elis is eventually saved by a tribe of gorillas summoned by an old man. Elis meets the old man, who tells him the zombie virus is spreading rapidly throughout his body. They both begin to argue, ending in the old man's home being caught afire. The old man urges for Elis to go inside the fire and rescue the antidote, or else he will become a zombie. Elis opposes to this, and expresses that he'd rather be a zombie than deal with such a nasty world. The both suddenly wind up in a forest, meeting an old samurai, and man named Casper. Casper takes Elis to a ballroom filled with awfully cheerful souls. The party is ambushed by a group of ninjas and gorillas. Everyone begins to oddly want Elis to dance with them. At random moments, the people begin shooting themselves. A man named Suit tries to keep Elis hostage as the chaos resumes and zombies appear. Elis is able to free himself and escapes the party with Casper. They both end up falling down a dark tunnel.

    A homeless girl named Jamie attends a prestigious university with her best friend, Green boy. They blend in with the students, who are the same age. However, they are different from them. Jamie expresses her dislike towards the students that come from affluent families and could pay their way through anything. Green boy, her ambitious best friend, convinces Jamie to help him break into an experiment laboratory within the university’s boundaries. Green boy attacks the scientists inside and runs off campus with Jamie. They are almost caught by security but stow away in a van and drive to a local pharmacy. Green boy holds the pharmacy at gun point. The victims inside begin fussing with Green boy, some even attempt to escape from through the front doors only to get gunned down police. The boy and girl somehow are able to avoid the police and leave with the upper hand down into the sewers. Inside the sewer realm, Jamie and Green boy accidentally meet an aggressive homeless man. The man scolds Jamie for dropping a bottle on him, but also tells about him getting tricked into selling his drugs. He needed the drugs to communicate with “aliens”. The homeless man tells Jamie the story of a suited man coming into the sewers offering the homeless food. The people that ate the food would quickly fall asleep and were pulled into the shadows the man. Later, they would turn up with their eyelids missing. The people then tried to the homeless man to cut his eyelids off as well. The strange conversation continues until Jamie and Green boy tire and descend back into their resting place.

    Jake, a man imprisoned sits in his cell. Blank. His failed attempts at suicide were told, and he ends up giving up. He is then approached by a small cockroach that quietly invaded his cell. Jake is blithe at this notion and attempts to claim the cockroach as his own. He was afraid of the roach leaving, and him being alone and abandoned. Jake begins to fantasize about falling in love with the roach and the endless literature that he would write on his/her behalf. When Jake attempts to befriend the roach, a toxic smoke enters the room. Jake refuses to give up the insect and shouts in despair. The room overfilled with smoke until a woman in a green suit is presented strapped to the ground. Jake realizes in order to save his roach friend and leave the room, the woman must be the key. Jake brutally rapes the woman until her true face is revealed, Jamie. The doors of the prison cell open and Jake and his roach are able to escape.

    The continues as the initial main characters are introduced. Each scenario revolving around Jake, Elis, Green boy and Jamie connecting another to piece to the puzzle. Green boy and Jamie realize their worth in the world and attempt to make another tear in the universe similar to that of Elis'. They do so, but the tear is not large enough for them to escape entirely. During this journey, they come of up with an idea to do a “take-over show”. This show involving gathering mass amounts of people in hopes of helping them stretch the tear so they can escape. They call this plan, Blubber Island. After Jake's escape from the hospital, he stops in the middle of nowhere on a highway. He captures of group of Indians and is invited to join their activities. Jake comes in the middle of a ceremony for an infant that had died early. The tribe was mourning the child's death and attempts to explain the meaning of the celebration to Jake. The death of the baby was compared to that of a bird's death by tourists and it's children starving. Jake gets high with the Indians and eventually leaves them.

    Elis is reunited with the old man at random. Elis tells the old man that he had forgotten who he was, but then realized it was the same man from dream. The old man tells him the reason for him invading his dream was because of the danger humanity was in. Elis still doesn't understand what he means. The man explains that the evolution of the universe is now conscious of it's existence, therefore defying the law of physics. The mind is merely a building block and is now attempting to evolve into something else. He tells Elis of the tear that is slowly altering and ripping apart the reality around him. Elis interrupts the old man and tells him he has lost the dream. The old man is bewildered and attacks Elis for dooming the entire existence of the human race.

    Once their intense battle subsided with a rainstorm, the old man tells Elis of “collective unconscious”. A psychic universe in which human experience connects everyone. A place that he prefers to call, Blubber Island. The old man longs to go there, as the mind is in it's most fragile state and highly unpredictable. A spiritual realm that has its own demons as well. A place that also interacts with the real world. If violence occurs in the real world, the event manifests itself in Blubber Island. This is the same for Blubber Island as well. The positive and negative things that happen there, also come to light in reality. The old man had found Elis' tear, as it was so big it made his own journey unnatural. The tear grew larger and larger until the old man had to interfere. The tear had become so big that corrupt creatures not only exist in Elis' mind, but his reality as well.

    Jamie and Green boy began their take-over show. A large band began player, accompanied by hoards of punks and other bystanders. The music suddenly turned angry and sour. Jamie was confused. The audience began going mad. Stomping to death those who accidentally were pushed into the crowd. People smashing into each other. Punching, kicking. All out chaos ensued. Mounds of blubber globs arose and began being thrown around the crowd. Everything and everyone was being destroyed. The police attempted to handle the event, but were pummeled to death. Jesus appears and tells the audience of how he has given up and wants time for himself. He then leaves, and random pedestrians attempt to claim the title of the All Mighty. Suit appears and summons a horde of zombies on the crowd. Chaos continues until of Green boy, Jamie and Elis all meet face to face. Elis attempts to let a bomb off in order to “fix” everything, but is stopped by Green boy. Jamie realizes that Green boy was drunk with a sense of invincible power and gives the bomb back to Elis. As Elis is about to set the bomb, he is eaten whole by a giant. Suit captures Green boy and attempts to eat him as well, but is stopped by Casper who appears at random. Suit tells Jamie he will give her back Green boy if she gives him the dream. She refuses and shoots Suit whilst receiving Green boy. Suit begins laughing maniacally as he slowly dies. Casper is in distraught. Green boy is bleeding through his neck. Jamie is left in shock of what she has done. This triggers the end of the world.

    Blubber Island has a wide variety of characters whose own stories are told every few chapters. Somehow, these stories are all connected. Each of the characters come from different backgrounds, but all have a similar goal. The reader is unable to tell which character knows who, or if they know each other at all. In the beginning of the book, it can be assumed that the stories are completely different between chapters, but as the book carries on, the connections between each character is known. These links are either made known between dialogue or through hints until the very last chapter.

    The initial main character is Elis. A science professor at a university who seems to be unsure of himself. He maintains a cocky attitude on the outside while having endless reflection in Blubber Island. Elis is the root of Blubber Island. His decisions in life affect the realm, and could possibly doom of all humanity. The book centers around his own selfish needs and how he takes to being the most important piece to the complex world of Blubber Island. Upon his supposed death, his importance his highlighted.

    Green boy could be seen as a younger, reckless version of Elis. He acts on his own terms, not thinking about the consequences of his actions. Green boy is another player in the game Blubber Island hosts. The boy gets thrills from the harmful chaos his tear in the universe causes and doesn't seem to mind it. The bigger his tear gets, the madder he becomes. His sociopathic ways are seen upon the uprising of the take-over-show.

    Jamie is the only relevant female character of the cast and seems to be the most sane despite her condition. Her origin is of an abusive home on the countryside. Jamie ran away from home after becoming fed up with her drunkard father and nonchalant mother. She was able to fend on the streets for herself, creating new names and stories for her upon each meeting. She meets Green boy and is instantly attached. They become two halves of a whole.

    Jake, an oddly written character with an indefinite background. His reasons for jail time are unknown. But his disparity for human contact give hint that he was a resident in prison for a long time.When he escapes from prison, his personality is seemingly normal. However, he is the most absent character out of the main quad. This could be because of his need to establish himself from once a mentally insane prison occupant, to a normal acceptable man.

The main conflict in this story is person vs. self. The four main characters are constantly in battle with their need for self pleasure. They take drugs in order to enter Blubber Island in an escape from the real world. This is shows the character's true selfishnesses. As they continually sin in the real world, they are affecting Blubber Island. The tears they created only get bigger and bigger, causing humanity to become potentially extinct. The characters do not seem to care how their actions affect a mass majority and do as they please.

    Green boy seems to be my favored of the vast majority. Despite being a very selfish and arrogant person, his actions are what really drew me into this book. Green boy always had a goal and would stop at nothing to reach it. He was unbreakable and stubborn at most. The plans and ideas he came up with most likely would have not worked in the real world, but it was nice being able to use my imagination through Green boy's. Green boy isn't a perfect character. He has nooks and crannies and open wounds that would usually make a reader look in the other direction. But his annoying imperfections are what makes him a roughly lovable character.

    Readers should definitely feel a sense of entertainment and a “thirst for more” after reading Blubber Island. Yes, this book isn't perfect, but if an author is able to make me reread a paragraph and go “What exactly did I just read?”, then the book was written right. For future writers, Blubber Island is a great introduction into figuratively writing gore and physiological scenes.

    A theme that isn't major, but is surely relevant is friendship. Jamie and Green boy stick together through thick and thin. They treat each other as family despite having contrasting personalities. Towards the end of the book, when Jamie realizes the trouble Green boy has caused, she still sacrifices the entire planet for the sake of him. Friendship isn't a big topic isn't this book, but is surely alive in between the lines and in small parts of the story. Between the gunshots and gore, there is still affection and love between the characters.

     The characters in this story weren't exactly the most relatable human beings. But they did have moments, even if they were split seconds, that I could connect with. In the very beginning of the book, within Elis' dream, he says “I'm sick of humanity. This is why I came here-to get away from everyone...”. After finishing this book and seeing the type of person Elis can be, I was able to spot a contrast in this quote and his further demeanor. Elis is in a extremely fragile state with in dream. He expresses not his hatred of humanity, but of his dislikes towards the people who wronged him. It clearly angers him, but at the same time, saddens him. Throughout the entire story, there is not a moment when Elis is emotional except at this point. I never like to be seen in a vulnerable state, like Elis. Our true personalities are completely different than what we portray to the rest of the world. However, when we get in a comfortable state within ourselves or someone else, our true thoughts come pouring out.

    On another spectrum, it was rather difficult to relate to anyone else in this book. The situations and characters were so goofy that it was hard to try and create a true connection with any of them. One of the main genres in this book is comedy and action, and these aspects outshined the rest of the characters. The small moments in the book are what when the components of reality come in and the reader is able to make a true connection.

     In all honesty this book was breathtaking. It had it's weird moments, events that even made me question what the author was thinking about when writing. But overall, it was a book that really made me question myself. Sure, it definitely wasn't what I was expecting when originally reading the summary on the back. But I guess that's what made me appreciate the book much more after all. However, this wasn't a perfect book. Yes, it is one of my favorites, but there are small aspects that left me confused.

    The main weakness that this book has is character development in my opinion. The characters weren't terrible, but it seemed as though the author mainly focused on writing a face paced, action-packed, psychological thriller that kept the audience engaged. The character's weren't given much depth or background for the reader to feel connected or interested in how they should be perceived. Jamie was the only credible character that was given a background story, despite being a second main character. The rest of the character's seemed to be almost identical in personality’s and how they dealt with their lives. In my opinion, characters should have dimension. Within each chapter of a story, the layers of their being should be unfolded. With Blubber Island, I never felt that.

    I wouldn't change much about this book. But I would definitely change the way in which the rest of the characters are gradually developed. This book would have been just as good, or even better, if characters like Elis and Green Boy were seen not just as faces for each situation they are in, but individually. Also, it seemed that there was a ridiculous amount of bloodshed and detailed gore. This aspect was fine at first, but became repulsive as the story progressed. Most situations, in reality, wouldn't have required loads of blood to seem as gruesome as in Blubber Island.

I do not recommend this book to those who prefer books with deep meanings, long journeys, and characters that have a deep past and connectable personalities. This book is more targeted towards readers that have a wide imagination and a little bit of immaturity to them. Blubber Island is a fun book with entertaining characters and doesn't really have to make an effort to impress the reader. It makes one raise an eyebrow just by existing and being included in a genre of books that most don't necessarily run to read. Discovering this book was a challenge, it was that far down the food-chain of book types that most would look over in a heartbeat. I wanted a specific type of book that was out of my element and could possibly introduce me to a new genre I had not previously explored. This book did exactly that. Every scene and moment was unexpected and kept me engaged. I devoured this book and wanted more after reading. Blubber Island is a great book for those wanting to start out reading a “different” genre of books.

Capstone Process Paper

Ruben Burenstein

For my senior capstone I worked privately with students in the Spanish 2 class I assistant teach as well as research teaching techniques. At the end of the first quarter Don Marcos and I sat down to choose students that I would help. We chose the students that seemed to be struggling in the class. During the warm ups of class I would take the designated students out of class and give them a worksheet to complete, or an activity. The worksheets would cover things like conjugations of different tenses, and the activities would be based on conversation and practical uses of what they’re learning in class. The second part of my capstone was researching teaching material to help me look back on my experience teaching these kids, and seeing what I did right or wrong.

I chose this project mainly because of my history with teaching. My dad used to teach classes at Drexel so I was first introduced to teaching at a very young age. I didn’t really want to be a teacher until 8^th grade. In 8^th grade I had an amazing Spanish teacher that made me love the language and the class. It was from this moment until half way through junior year that wanted to be a Spanish teacher. In the middle of junior year I had a crisis where I completely lost my faith in teaching and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. This is what inspired me to do my capstone. I found out that I would be SAT’ing Don Marcos’ Spanish 2 class, so I thought that this would be a great opportunity to see if I enjoyed teaching as much as I thought for three and a half years. I used my capstone to see if education was something that I could envision myself doing in the future.

My capstone addresses the “Inquiry” core value because I had to ask myself what I already knew about teaching. I also had to ask what kinds of different teaching methods are useful for different situations, like does a language require a different style than math? The research I had to do mostly revolved around these questions, and then occasionally refreshing myself on the material that I would prepare for an activity or worksheet. I collaborated with my peers and teachers during this project. I had to collaborate with the kids that I was teaching because there would be on capstone without them. I also had to collaborate with Don Marcos and Mr. Sanchez. Don Marcos helped me organize my capstone, as well as being there as a mentor and support throughout the process. Mr. Sanchez helped me when I needed a book to help me analyze my work, providing several that were exactly what I needed. For the presentation core value, I had to present activities and worksheets to the kids, as well as do the capstone presentation during the last week of school. For the reflection part of capstone I read a book The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong in order to see what I did correctly, and what I could have improve on. I compared the techniques discussed in the book to ones that I had used in order to see how I could improve as an educator.

To complete my capstone I first did some preliminary research on basic education techniques. I then made a timeline to make sure that I actually planned worksheets or activities. Next I started creating or planning the work that the students would complete. This sometimes required me refreshing myself on the material they were learning in class incase I had forgotten since I took Spanish 2. I didn’t take the kids out every day, and stopped creating worksheets and activities around the middle of April. At this point I got a book to read so that I could learn more about teaching techniques and compare them to what I did.

The main obstacles that I encountered were complications with planning and lack of motivation. The second problem seemed to stem from the first problem. There were many days where I had something planned, and then the kids didn’t have a warm up in class. If they had to work on a project I didn’t feel that it was fair of me to take them away from something that was significant to the real class and replace it with practice. There wasn’t really a way for me to overcome this because I just had to accept that there were days they definitely couldn’t come with me, and that I would have to find other days. This caused the lack of motivation because sometimes I would make a worksheet and then the students wouldn’t have a warm up for a week. After this week was up there was usually a new topic introduced so all of the things that I planned kind of seemed outdated. This made me feel like the work I was doing wasn’t being useful so I would get demotivated and stop creating ideas for a while. I overcame this at several points by realizing that I had to continue working, but it continued to be a problem throughout the process.

The main resources I used were my teachers and father. Don Marcos helped a lot in identifying the students that I needed to work with being a large reason that I wanted to teach Spanish. He also provides his Spanish 2 students with links to help them improve Spanish on their own time, which are the websites that I mostly used to refresh my memory on topics. Another teacher that was extremely helpful was Mr. Sanchez. He was there to help me as an advisor whenever I was stuck on something, and also provided me with the book that I used to reflect along with several other useful books. Getting information from Mr. Sanchez and Don Marcos was much more useful than information from a library because they have been teachers for several years instead of a book that could be inaccurate.

The thing that I’m most proud of in this capstone isn’t my final result, but little moments that happened along the way. Whenever a student I was helping said “oh I understand that now” because of something I showed them it made me feel really good. I also liked seeing their progress after they said this to see if they actually understood it, and if they did I was very proud. I also liked seeing the kids that I was helping perform in class and do better than they were before whether it was on tests or simply their accent.

From this process I learned a lot about how to interact with other kids as a teacher. I realized that it’s hard a lot harder for a teacher that is close in age to the students because they are taken less seriously. I learned the most about teaching techniques and ways to be a more effective teacher. The book that Mr. Sanchez gave me clearly talked about several problems that first time teachers could have and I could see myself having them if I continued in the style that I had been. This project helped me realize that even if I feel something might not be used, I have to do it anyway for my own self-improvement.

If I could do my capstone all over again I would first write down every mistake that I made this time and try to fix them. I think that if I fixed all of the mistakes that I made in teaching this time and work prepared for the students more often, then I could have made a greater impact on their Spanish speaking skills. I also think that I could then look back at that process and see what I was still doing wrong. I would also try to thoroughly document the process of the kids that I was helping in the class to see if my lessons were helping. I think looking at their grades starting from when my lessons began and looking again every week would be interesting to see, as well as provide information on how I could be more effective.  I would also try to make a larger variety of lessons, or make sure that all of my lessons were as effective as possible.

My capstone made SLA a better place because of the people that I helped. Although the kids that I helped didn’t completely change around their act and start doing great in Spanish, they did improve a little. I could see when they started to understand something because of my lesson, and then use it without my help in class. I also helped because I will now be able to share my information of teaching methods to other people. I can tell them the basics of how to progress a students learning, instead of just giving them busywork. SLA is better because I helped students learn material that they didn’t understand, while improving my knowledge of teaching.