I really liked this poem and this assignment. The poem was nice and sweet and I like horses. The assignment was fun and interesting.

At the beginning of this class, I wasn't sure what to expect. I also didn't think a Literature class could be so technical. I have learned quite a few things while being in this class and look forward to the remainder of the semester.

In my portfolio, you will find blog postings and/or comments on postings from other students. Following the blogs are the blogs from the 10 by Dickinson. There is also a collage I did of the character Mrs. Mallard from "The Story of the Hour". I wasn't able to figure out the Playlist assignment and ended up writing a paper instead.

Blog Postings

http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/53 - This was my posting about The story "A good man hard to find."
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/64#comment-93 - This was my posting about the two stories that we did a comparison on, "Girl" and "Sweat".
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/65#comment-104 - This is the posting of the story "A&P". I remember this story well. I guess the fact that the employee actually stood up to his supervisor made an impression on me.
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/65#comment-105 - This is a posting about the story "I Stand Here Ironing". This one stands out to me also, probably because it talks of the mother, the kids, and the fact that they were poor. Emily finally felt like she had become someone when she won the amatuer show at school.
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/96#comment-132 - This was just a comment that I made on a collage a classmate did. "The Dude" collage is an excellent replica of the character in the movie.

The 10 by Dickinson project was a bit more challenging because I was not familiar with annotations. This was my first experiment with them. I did read the poems and made a few comments and/or annotations. I also purchased an Emily Dickinson Book of Poems. Her poems are somewhat short, but seem to be plain. They seemed easily understandable but seemed also to be interpreted in different ways, depending on the reader. Below are the links to the poems that I made comments or annotations on.
http://www.teachmix.com/litwiki/index.php?title=%22A_Light_Exists_in_Spr...
http://www.teachmix.com/litwiki/index.php?title=Talk:%22This_World_is_no...
http://www.teachmix.com/litwiki/index.php?title=%22The_Tint_I_Cannot_tak...
http://www.teachmix.com/litwiki/index.php?title=Sacrament
http://www.teachmix.com/litwiki/index.php?title=Encroached
http://www.teachmix.com/litwiki/index.php?title=%22A_Light_Exists_in_Spr...

The Character Collages were interesting. I don't think I ever really got a good grasp of how to use the program we used, and I probably would have had a better presentation and better collage if I used the program I have at home. It was a good learning experience for me, as was this entire class. There are two collages here, both are about Mrs. Mallard in the story "The Story of an Hour".
Character Collage :
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/69
revised character collage
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/144

The Podcast assignment was good. I enjoyed working with the other classmates!! I know that I am not that vocal in class and I don't like to talk in front of people, much less have them listen to me!! But the group was very patient and was able to pull the majority of the load. They helped make it easier for me. I thank them for that. So our Podcast was on Family Struggles and we looked at the family from the Little House on the Prairie and the family from Seventh Heaven and compared the two. Please listen . . . .
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/files/familyfinal.mp3

The last assignment was the video. This was the most fun and the easiest for me to complete! I know that it isn't as long as some others in the class, however, it was easier to understand the program than the collage program. Being able to search for picture was alot easier than searching for music lyrics for a playlist!! (I never could figure our the playlist, which is why there's not one here!!) So my video is on the poem "A Blessing" which talks of horses. Enjoy . . . . . . . . .
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/143

After reading this story, I have only one question. In the beginning, it said that Bailey was her only boy and at the end she referred to "The Misfit" as one of her own babies, one of her own children. Can someone shed some light on this for me? I thought I followed and understood the entire story, up to this point. Maybe she was trying to decieve him into thinking she was his mother so he wouldn't kill her too?

After reading the all the poems, "Traveling through the Dark" was the one that caught my attention. At first, I could not understand why he would continue to roll the deer into the canyon after realizing there was a fawn waiting to be born. Why not save the fawn? Was there no chance of it surviving? Was he assuming that it would end up dead on the dark and narrow road? I can only imagine that he may have been trying to save human kind from an accident that could kill. Any thoughts?