TWO #30 Letter to Future Student

Dear future APELC student,
       You are in for a challenging year. This course is not designed to be easy because the curriculum is designed to push you to the next level. This year is meant to challenge you but it is not meant to break you, so don't get too overwhelmed.
     There are things you have to understand before you try to tackle this class. You are in a class with the best of the best. There won't be many kids in the class who shouldn't be there; more than likely you will be surrounded by the best your grade has to offer. I know that I struggled with trying to feel up to par with my classmates, but just remember everyone is struggling just as much as you are. The way essays are scored in this class is probably not something that you are used to. There are going to be papers that you turn feeling fully confident only to get a grade that you are not used to. I know that for my first essay I received a grade on a paper that I had never gotten on an English paper before. I'm not going to lie it sucks to get an inadequate grade on a paper, but the thing you have to keep in mind is that it's okay to do poorly as long as you take the right steps to improve. The most important thing, and the thing that I wished I had known during my time in APELC, is that when you get that bad grade don't hide that paper in the away in an effort to conceal your defeat. When you get a bad grade just accept it for how it is, and try everything in your power to improve on the mistakes that you made. In the long run getting a bad grade on a paper will not hurt your overall grade, but the thing that will hurt you the most is not fixing your errors.
     Just another little reminder if you are a person who worries about their grade, which is perfectly normal, it's okay to get a bad grade; because everyone gets a bad grade once in a while. You may finish the year with B, like I did, but you have to keep in mind that the information that you are gaining from taking this course will help you for the rest of your life.
     You got this!
Best Wishes,
Kaitlyn Gallagher

TOW #29 Blackfish Argument

        Whenever there is an argument on animals it usually boils down to whether animals have the same emotional capacity to that of humans. In the documentary Blackfish the argument arose that the whales that were kept in captivity were going mentally insane, which was to root cause to them attacking their trainers. I believe the captivity of animals causes mental problems similar to those that they would find in the human mind.
       In the documentary there is the main Orca Whale named Tilikum who wound up killing multiple of his trainers, while in captivity. Whales have gotten the bad rap now that swimming with them could lead to death, and the documentary even mentioned the fact that SeaWorld now has the rule that trainers are not allowed in the water with the killer whales anymore. The reputation that the whales are getting is similar to that of Pit Bulls, the breed of dog has almost become synonymous with fighting. There are people who believe that Pitbulls are a terrible breed of dog, and they should not be family pets. Pitbulls are not bad dogs they are simply trained to be bad by their owners, some may have some attack instincts, but it is the actions of the owners that lead to them becoming vicious animals . It was not choice of Tilikum to kill his trainer, he may have had the tendency but it was a direct cause of their actions that he killed. The whales should not be given a bad rap just because there have been some instances of attacks.
      In in documentary the intelligence of the whales was displayed through numerous examples. The animals display characteristics that are similar to humans. The whales have their own means of communications, and can form intimate relationships with one another. While being held in captivity the whales will gang up o one another and will even attack the other whales when they feel threatened. With this logic it only makes sense that an animal with the mental capacity can also break while in captivity. I can only draw the conclusion that these animals are capable of going insane while being held in such confined locations.
     Tilikum was not responsible for the deaths of his trainers. He was the reason that they died, but he had no control over the fact that he would lose his mind while being kept in a space that did not hold up to the standard that would keep him from killing people,
     

TOW #28 Blackfish

      There was a SeaWorld commercial on TV today and after having recently watched Blackfish I couldn't help but to feel a wave of emotions as the screen flashed with images of the different exhibits. Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the director of the film, felt motivated to make this documentary after hearing about the unclear death of one of the trainers that involved the killer whale Tilikum. The documentary compiles the life story of Tilikum beginning with his abduction from the wild and all the way through his attack of the trainer and his life that followed. The presentation of Tilikum including strongly suggested material that points towards his involvement in other trainer deaths is directed towards making the audience aware that SeaWorld is providing an environment that is unfit for these animals to live, and suggest that the captivity leads to mental illness. The team behind this documentary had people who feel compassion towards animals as a general audience in mind, for if someone doesn't care enough about the animals than there would be no way to make the impact that Tilikum's story has on those who are willing to listen to the story of this Orca whale.
     The common expression "you have to see it to believe it" applies perfectly with a strategy that was applied throughout the film. The whole issue id that whenever an incident happens that results in trainer injury SeaWorld shifts the blame to human error, rather than a whale attacking its own trainer. The documentary combated the accusations that the only attacks that happen are because of human error with footage from actual attacks. The documentary team could have had people on to interview talking about the attacks for hours, but it would never be as effective as showing the real life footage. In the one piece of footage that stood out to me, a male trainer was in the water preforming a rehearsed routine when one of the whales sprang out of the water and collapsed onto him. watching the video myself there was no question that the whale had jumped on that angle on purpose, which meant that the whale intentionally tried to hurt the trainer. It is hard to even describe why I'm so certain that it was an intentional jump for the actual video feed just provides the viewer to be able to use their own analysis skill to understand what is happening in the situation. The video footage allowed for the documentary crew to have evidence that SeaWorld could not deny, it left it up to the viewer to interpret what was going on in the video.
       The sources that a documentary chooses to rely on are essential towards making their points valid. In Blackfish the main people who were being interviewed were previous trainers are SeaWorld. Instead of having a man in a white lab coat spewing out statistics about Seaworld the use of actual relatable people made the whole documentary more emotionally appealing. Everyone that was interviewed was so personally connected to the situations, there were even interviews with the trainer who specifically was Tilikum's trainer, which resulted in the audience feeling like they really had an inside view of how SeaWorld was being run. Some of the trainers that were interviewed actually knew the trainer who was killed by Tilikum, Dawn Branchea. All of those interviewed told the same story that she was the most professional one there who always cares about safety and protocols and the very notion that she made such a silly, fatal mistake is disrespectful to her memory. Hearing the accounts from people with first hand knowledge added to the emotional impact of the documentary as well as raise the credibility of the film.

TOW #20 Reflection

       It's strange to look back at the TOW's that I have written this year. With each one I flash back to when I wrote it, and what my mindset was while writing. Reading through my first post of the school year I put a lot of effort into it. I remember spending a large amount of time looking for the perfect article to examine and ending up choosing an op-ed piece about Syria in hopes that the controversial topic would bring up the sophistication of my writing, it didn't. I went for a formulaic approach to writing of my TOW including words such as "the purpose was..." and "for example", but it was a good starting point. In the second semester of school I started to improve, I actually included quote in my TOW about the landing of China's Jade Rabbit, but I still clung to the easy formula of writing a TOW.  The third marking period in retrospect was the most difficult for me, I was feeling the pressure to do well and there were points throughout the marking period where I just gave up on things, the aspect that suffered the most were my TOW posts. Examining my 14th TOW which fell in the third marking period I can tell that I put in minimal effort. There are simple spelling and grammatical errors throughout that I could have easily fixed if I had just read through it carefully enough. While the level of writing had improved in my third marking period writing there is no excuse for my rushed work. The fourth marking period I picked up a little spirit, and with the actual AP test looming over my head I felt that I should put a greater effort into my writings. In my 25th TOW post I used a piece form an actual exam to analyze, and while I didn't put 100% of my effort into it I felt it was adequate. It is interesting because even though I didn't put nearly as much effort into it as my first TWO it was a better post, which I believe speaks immensely for my personal growth as a writer. I have mixed feelings towards the TOW post to be honest, I feel if I had put in my best effort throughout the year it would have been better for me, but unfortunately with the stress of this year and small immediate benefits of the TOW posts I never put in the proper work level. There is always room for improvement and looking at my last TOW post I still need to work on not reverting back to the formalistic way of writing. I wouldn't say I mastered anything this year just because there is so much more room for improvement, but I have reached a point where I can write solid analysis without trying to hard, which for me is pretty awesome. Overall I believe the TOW's were an essential part of getting through APELC.

TOW #26 Godzilla Movie Trailer

     The movie industry spends millions of dollars each year to market their movies. One of the key components in marketing a movie is a movie trailer, that can showcase what the movie is all about. Godzilla is was a franchise first introduced in Japan and is now being turned into a new movie coming out this

summer. Godzilla is movie that is often viewed by the public as something to laugh at and joke about.  The new movie is attempting to market Godzilla as a serious, heart pounding drama. The movie trailer for Godzilla uses timing and sound effects to convince the audience to some see the movie Godzilla. From the beginning of the trailer there are scenes of devastation all right after each other, but the audience only sees glimpses of what is causing all of the trouble. It is not until the final scene of the trailer that audience gets a full look at Godzilla followed by the big bold letters that spell out Godzilla. It was effective to do this because if they had shown the big Godzilla monster right away many would have been turned off due to their past experiences with Godzilla, but after the audience has been drawn in with the action scenes it builds up the credibility and suspense of the movie. The audience also has to build up suspense through the use of sound effects, or in this case the lack of effects. Throughout the trailer the audience hear clips of a high pitched screaming noise, also there are the sounds of devastation such as planes crashing, guns firing and people screaming. It is with these sounds that the audience can feel as if they are in the movie themselves. The sound sets the whole serious mood of the movie, which only helps people wan to go see it more. By the end of the trailer it easy to see who the movie is setting as the audience there are only action scenes without much substance. No one is going to watch this trailer and walk into the movie theater and expect to watch a light-hearted film, but everyone knows they will get non-stop action. Overall the trailer did solid job of showing what this movie is all about. Anyone who is an action movie watcher at heart will go see this movie.

TOW #25 Alfred M. Green Speech

Reading Goals
-Pick something that will help me on the exam

Writing Goals
-Solid evidence (use quotes from the text)

      With the time before our exam winding down I decided that I would focus more on the type of texts that will be on the exam. Alfred M. Green's speech, which was on the 2003 exam, was said during the first months of the civil war when African-Americans were not allowed to enlist. Green purpose of the speech was to convince fellow African-Africans to work towards and prepare to be enlisted. It is not the easiest task to convince a group of people who are being oppressed to fight alongside their oppressors, by relating to religious affiliation. Green encourages the audience to "...take up the sword, trusting in God" the way it is phrased makes it seem that he wants the people to put God above all else. He is not requesting that the people take arms with faith that the white people will have their backs, but rather that they place their faith in God, thus the focus is shifted to making this situation into a religious one. Green also offers a counter argument, he brings up the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, which both ended in no better living situations for the blacks. Green knows that the audience will be thinking about how they shouldn't get involved in this war either, because it will end with the same result. Green says that they should not "cavil over past grievances" and ends with talking about how it will dishonor their ancestors, which ultimately ends gets rid of the notion of not going to fight because if past events.  It is always so amazing to look at documents such as this , because you can really see what the people back then were living for. I believe that the speech was effective in convincing African Americans to enlist. I think that by reading this speech I will be more prepared to handle the documents on the exam.



      

IRB Intro Post #4: How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming

         When I was growing up there 9 planets, and whenever asked which was my favorite I would always say Pluto. It was the smallest planet in the solar system as well as the coldest, and to make it better it was blue. It was a sad day when I learned that my favorite planet was no longer considered a planet. To be honest astronomy is not one my interests I love looking at the stars and all, but I have never studied the details of space. For my last IRB I have decided to read the book How I Killed Pluto and Why It Deserved It by Mike Brown. Brown spent years of countless years researching space only to be bombarded by angry civilians, such as myself, for discovering the cold truth about Pluto. This book is his way to explain his journey in finding one of the most important solar system fact of the 21st century. Getting to hear the story of how my favorite planet was murdered by the man who discovered it should be interesting. I have no doubt that this book will be incredibly awesome and teach me things about space that I could have never known before hand.