"We Didn't Start the Fire"

In 1989, singer/songwriter Billy Joel created a very interesting song, whose meaning still resonates today:  We Didn't Start the Fire.

The basic message of the song this that there has always been controversy in the world, ever since you were little, ever since I was little, it never seems to end.  The "we" in the song seems to refer to the singer's generation, although can able to all generations.

Billy Joel really drives home the idea that "we didn't start the fire" by using internal rhyme, cacophony, and assonance, to persuade the listener that world events, both good and bad, continue throughout history.

For an example of assonance, Billy Joel says "Princess Grace, Peyton Place."  Here the "ace" at the end of both words, makes the phrase rhyme and continues the song's theme.  Princess Grace refers the the ascent of Grace Kelly, and American actress to the throne of Monaco.  Peyton Place refers to a controversial 1956 novel of the same name and a later TV series.

Billy Joel uses the technique of internal rhyme when he sings "Moonshot, Woodstock" referring to the ubiquitous landing on the moon in 1969 of John Glenn of the United States.  Woodstock of course refers to the music festival of the same era that defined a generation.  The way that these events are temporally placed and in various rhyming fashion draws the listener to the message.

One of the most used sound patterns in "We Didn't start the Fire" is cacophony.  As Billy Joel says "We didn't start the fire, it was always burring since the worlds been turning" he exhibits cacophony though "burning," "turning," and "fire."  At the same time, Joel drives the point home that the problems of the world are truly not the fault of any generation, but are problems of humankind.

Billy Joel
"We Didn't Start the Fire"
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/billyjoel/wedidntstartthefire.html

Reading

Monday 2/3 - 10 min ATD in class and 30 min Finalizing Draft
Tuesday 2/4 - 20 min ATD (class and at home)
Wednesday 2/5 - 10 min ATD in class and 40 min all ATD posts and comments
Thursday 2/6 - 10 min ATD in class
Friday 2/6 - 10 min ATD in class

2 Hours and 10 Minutes

Success

  One of the most wanted things in the world is success.  Many people may want success however many people don't get success, although there are those few lucky people who do run across success.  Success comes in many forms depending on what a person considers successful.  For example some people think being rich is successful while others think just having love is true success.  I am not sure where I fall on what I consider to be success however I know it falls in between love and material things.  This might be selfish to think that material things is success, although many people do anyways.  Success only comes across a few people, those people are success flu because of two reasons that make up sucess.

  There are two things that I think make up success.  These two "ingredients" that make up success determine people's life.  The first "ingredient" is preparation.  The great thing about one of the "ingredients" that makes up success is preparation, is that you can control fifty percent of your chances in being successful.  Now some people take this serious and prepare themselves for whatever there goal  or success is.  While others just do not care.  The last "ingredient" that makes up success is luck.  Now this where is gets tricky.  You can prepare yourself all you want but success does not just come off properness but luck.  Luck you can not do anything about.  For example people prepare all there life for something, may not be successful because of their luck.  However some people do not prepare at all may be extremely lucky and the result is much success.  Life comes with it's ups and downs, there things you can control and things can't so if something goes wrong and your tried know you tried your best.

Homeschool

1/28-

130 Minutes Rough Draft

1/29-

110 Minutes Rough Draft

1/30- 

120 Minutes Blog/ Rough Draft

Through out week-

1 Hour The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

Rough Draft

  This rough draft we are working in has it's pros and cons.  It defiantly shows me where I am as a writer  example my strengths and weaknesses.  Another "pro" would be that I improve as a writer, which is really good.  However like everything there are some cons, it is time consuming.  But isn't all papers?  That's about it on the cons of this research paper rough draft.  One thing in my rough draft that I am sure of is the structure/organization.  

  I am very confident in this part of the research paper, because it has always been a good aspect in most of my papers.  I am defiantly unsure of how i use my quotations, yeah I know we went over this like a billion times in class.  The thing that I am really unsure of is when I use my quotations with quotation marks, like just showing where you got you "advanced" knowledge from.  The easiest part was putting the body paragraphs together.  What made this easy?  Well I had a good outline that helped me a lot in writing the rough draft.  I would like help changing me transitions and making sure my quotations are right.  You should defiantly focus on my quotations, transitions, and structure.  Have fun reading!

-Annie

Clara Barton

  When we first heard about National History Day and that we needed a topic, I instantly knew what I was going to do.  Earlier in my life I have developed a basic knowledge about Clara Barton, a civil war nurse, however wanted to expand my knowledge.  So here I am today researching all about Clara Barton.  my thesis statement is Clara Barton helped expand women’s role in society.  This was achieved through teaching, the establishment of charities and through avocation.  In each of these, she advanced the rights and responsibilities of women not only in her time, but also today.  Interestingly enough many people associate her with medical work fields and there expansions, although I thought of her as an expander for women's rights.  I found out that she was one of the first women to help with the war, one of the first women to work for the government, and one of the first women to go on to the battle field.  All of these actions contributed to breaking down barriers between women and men.

  Clara Barton was a world wide hero.  She was known for her contributions to the medical work field, the civil war and even some international wars.  However not many people associated her with women's rights.  For this reason I choose her for my National History Day Project.  What I have concluded about her and her impact on the world is through my thesis, stated here: Clara Barton helped expand women’s role in society.  This was achieved through teaching, the establishment of charities and through avocation.  In each of these, she advanced the rights and responsibilities of women not only in her time, but also today.  I have learned many things through my research on her.  She was one of the first women to work for the government, help with the civil war, and she lobbied for America's branch of Red Cross.  All of her actions contributed to breaking down barriers between women and men and even establishing new charities.   

Reading Times

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian- 1.5 Hours