We’re graduating in less than a month. We’ve grown so much over this year in AP English. We’ve gone through horrible essays and we’ve gone through great essays. Mr. Isero has pushed us and trained us in ways that no one was prepared for. It is because of that, that I know that we’re ready to take down this test. We’ve read countless books and know countless themes. As a person who originally did not feel confident in AP as some of you did, today I can say I am confident. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be for this test and hope you can all share my confidence as we take the test. This year has been fun and I want to thank you guys for a wonderful year. I know that sounds cliché but it’s just how we were this year. We were never nervous about our projects or presenting because we are comfortable around each other. So thank you guys for going through it all with me.
Posts Tagged ‘dezmond’
Dezmond: AP English Motivation
May 6th, 2012Frankenstein (Brenda, Chavonni, Dezmond)
May 4th, 2012Rashada: AP test!!!
February 26th, 2012Okay, so I didn’t take the AP test on Saturday, but I want to know how it felt! Lol so tell me about that please 
! OMG the Hamlet plays were pretty awesome! Some were kind of awkward and some were excellent! Haha I will never forget those! Mr. Isero, that was a good idea!! I also wanna say I love Monae, Chavonni, Kevin, Steph, Dezmond, Wendy, Brenda & Paulina!!!! AP love fasho!
Dezmond: Graduation Portfolio Reflection
February 23rd, 2012I’ve learned how to upload video directly to iseroma! No more Schooltube!
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be catching up on all my videos. Here’s Dezmond from January, talking about his portfolio defense. Enjoy!
Dezmond: 4-day weekend
February 19th, 2012This 4-day weekend has been a very unproductive one. I went to see Chronicle like Kevin. I also wish someone told me it was whack. I’m trying to figure out my lines for Hamlet to at least ready myself to make the memorization easier. Anyway, it’s late, almost 11, and I think I’ll head out to the gym. However, lately I’ve been feeling that the gym isn’t enough. I want to start getting back into playing basketball and going swimming. I hope I can accomplish both soon. See you APers on Tuesday.
Quizzards of the Week, February 16
February 16th, 2012More Quizzards this week! I’m really proud. It’s clear that you’re reading more and studying more. Keep it up.
In total, we had nine perfect 10s: Esteffany, Ellie, Carmen, Dezmond, Kevin, Brenda, Sarai, Wendy, and Chavonni.
Let’s get the number of Quizzards up to at least 15 next week!
Dezmond: Health issues
February 12th, 2012So my health has been at an up and down since my junior year and I’ve been mainly trying to keep my body healthy over the past couple years. I think i’ve been making some progress!
It’s been 1 year and 3 1/2 months since I’ve had soda. Let’s see how long I can keep that up. I’ve also found the courage to join the gym again 
. However, I’ve been sick so much lately that I haven’t really gone to the gym, I haven’t been eating as much, and I feel lazy. So now that I’m almost over my sickness (give me a day or two), I’ll be back to 1000% in no time and I’ll be healthier than ever!
Brenda restores order as Student of the Week
February 12th, 2012After Chris’s dictatorial rule led AP English to the brink of anarchy, Brenda restored justice, order, and peace last week in her measured reign as Student of the Week.
Last Friday, she dutifully and respectfully ceded power to Dezmond, current Student of the Week. Brenda noted Dezmond’s humor and all-around goodness.
Dezmond has many other talents as well, including his ability to call out random numbers in his role as “Crazy Number Person.”
Dezmond: AP Essay #12
February 7th, 2012I was so tempted to write about “The Last Supper.” Would’ve been Essay of the Week just on principle.
Dezmond: The Scarlet Letter
January 8th, 2012This far in the book the story is pretty interesting and hilarious at the same time. Hester’s character is so overly dramatic it’s hilarious. The hardest parts about reading the book are the names and the syntax. I though J.D. Salinger had weird names in his book, but I obviously hadn’t read The Scarlet Letter. The syntax and diction are just old fashioned and hard to translate to a more modern text, so I get confused often and find myself reading the same sentence about five times.
Dezmond: Presentation of Growth
December 15th, 2011Dezmond: College is waiting!
December 4th, 2011Now that most of our college apps are over now it’s a waiting game. I’m waiting on UC Berkeley, LA, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and University of Washington. How about all of you?
Dezmond: What about Siddhartha?
November 9th, 2011Siddhartha has been a hard character to pinpoint as far as categorizing a character goes. I first thought of him as spoiled and ignorant; however, as the story progressed, he seemed more determined than anything else. I like that he’s trying to assert his independence rather than have everyone wait on him. I like that he does, but I don’t like the way he goes about doing it. His character does things in such a weird way. He believes he’s better than everyone, yet he wants to be less. It’s confusing and I’m still figuring out where to categorize his character.
Essay of the Week: Social Conflicts in Catcher
November 4th, 2011
In the book, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character, Holden, is in constant conflict with society both literally and metaphorically. It is by design that Holden asserts his independence because this shapes his individuality. His character is defined by his resilient actions against society. Some instances are during his time at Yancy Academy, others during his time in New York, and some on his general view of society; these instances show overall conflict within the book.
Holden does not want to conform to society’s standards because he believes he is an outcast. When Holden is first at Yancy Academy, he decides to fail his classes even though he is full well intelligent enough to pass them. He does not do his work, solely on the fact that he believes it is beneath him. To society, that is unacceptable and because of this people tend to avoid him. He deters contact with others, which sets the theme of independence. Thus leaving Holden to rely on himself for comfort and support. The author does this so that Holden, as a character, is isolated. His isolation is seen as bizarre to society which puts Holden into a position where he must choose between his morality and society’s.
During Holden’s time in New York he learns of society’s “do’s and don’t’s”. One example is where he finds it socially acceptable to wear a bright red hunting hat, while society questions his choice of wearing a red hunting hat rather than a regular, socially acceptable, hat. He does this to further his distance from society by making himself stand out. This conflict with society gives Holden the idea that his independence is unacceptable. However, to him, his differences give him a greater learning experience by giving him a difference in perspective while also being able to learn about acceptable behavior, according to society.
Holden separates himself because he believes that society has an antiquated sense of morality, while his morality is more modern. Throughout the book, Holden criticizes people based on their morality. For example, he calls people “phony” to show that he feels the way they think is obsolete. However, in his sense of thought he hates change. To him and to a select few in the book, Holden believes that they got older while their minds stayed young. He believes that all adults are “phony”, while to society; to lose one’s innocence is a part of growing up. This is a major conflict in the book that Holden finds metaphorically baffling. He is mentally stumped because he does not want to lose his innocence if it requires him to get lost in the crowd, so to speak. Holden’s constant clash with society is due to the fact that he is trying to grow up while at the same time, keep his innocence.
In conclusion, Holden’s views in general are the exact opposite of society’s; however, this is to give the overall meaning of independence to the book. His views are made to be the opposite. He is meant to be an outcast to show that even he can succeed, even without society’s help. It is a bold statement from the author to give a character the exact opposite attributes of society to show independence.
Dezmond: Greek Mythology
November 4th, 2011Dezmond: Symbol of milk in Beloved
October 30th, 2011Milk is a symbol that represents life, because it can be taken or stolen. In this case, Morrison writes, “They beat you and you was pregnant? / And they took my milk!” (20). This shows how important milk was to the story to show how she needed to develop it, just as life needs to be developed. However, just like the milk was stolen from Sethe, her life was stolen when she was put into slavery. That is what I believe Morrison was trying to portray through the milk and through Sethe.
APers Outloud, Edition #1
October 23rd, 2011Welcome to the first APers Outloud podcast! Listen to what the APers have to say, and feel free to leave a comment.
Dezmond: Here’s a Secret
October 10th, 2011To be honest, I’ve been keeping a secret. I secretly love Greek mythology. I’m not sure what about it I like, but I always have. I’ve been reading a series that is definitely not on my reading level, but I love it cause it’s about Greek mythology. What other genres do you guys like?
Dezmond: Dehumanization and Estrangement
September 30th, 2011
Artist Statement
This set of work is meant to be viewed with the feeling of sadness and sympathy. My main influences for these pieces are from the book The Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka and The Stranger by Albert Camus. Both books explore the themes of dehumanization and estrangement.
My first theme is dehumanization and how it connects to society today. Dehumanization is to make somebody less human by taking away his/her individuality. In today’s society, this is common in most schools. This is because many schools have dress codes as well as many other rules that take away or put a cap on the youth’s creative interests and passions. In doing this, schools are dehumanizing youth by making them conform to wearing a uniform where everyone wears the exact same thing to prevent individuality. I took two separate pictures and put them together to form a diptych, two different pictures put side by side to tell a story, to express dehumanization in today’s society.
The photo of the rose with the green flame also conveys dehumanization in a metaphorical sense. The rose is meant to represent a person’s passion. Now as society tries to break a person’s passion, their passion begins to burn slowly, and when it stops burning, the passion is gone, just as the rose would disintegrate as the fire continues the burn. This was one of favorite photos to shoot because I had to use chemistry to get the flame to burn green. To create a green flame you need two things: methanol and boric acid. Combining these two substances create a solution that when burned, burn green. I had the best time trying to get the best flame for the pictures. This picture connects closer with the book The Metamorphosis because in the book, the main character, Gregor, had passion. However it was because of society’s constant attack on his passion that he was dehumanized on a daily basis.
My second theme of my photos is Estrangement and how it connects to both society and the book The Stranger. The photos of the girl on the bench more closely connect with the book The Stranger because it shows estrangement. Estrangement is to make hostile, unsympathetic, or indifferent. The pictures of the girl on the bench closely connect to The Stranger because just like the main character, Meursault, she is a loner. This interpretation is more straight forward that the next picture.
The picture of the burning book also closely connects with The Stranger in a sense that a burning book would alarm most people while burning the book wouldn’t alarm the main character, Meursault. The person holding the book is obviously not alarmed but shows estrangement because their reaction to a burning book is indifferent. One of the books subthemes is what happens if a person acts the opposite of how society expects them to act.
In conclusion, these photos are meant to bring out the emotions of the viewer, especially if the viewer has read the books. As a photographer, I have to consider how many images people look at every day and how I want a person to feel when they look at my photos. With this in mind, I always try to put deeper meaning into my photos. I do not just take photos for the sake of taking photos. I believe that pictures with meaning are always are always better pictures.
Dezmond: Great/Crazy Weekend
September 25th, 2011This weekend has been so crazy. Let me break it down for you AP/Iseroma addicts.
Friday: Crazy busy day, got my AP Book Analysis essay in despite my procrastination/forgetfulness. Then right after school, I had to drop Cassandra off at work, run to the post office then make it all the way back to school for my senior portraits. The portraits went well — funny and awkward — but nonetheless, it was fun. Now here comes the fun part: I picked up my sister from school, got some In N Out, then picked up my friend so that we could go to a concert downtown at the Warfield to see Two Door Cinema Club! The concert was awesome: loud music, great people, great bands. Wow. Needless to say, my Friday was great. I came home with a smile on my tired face. My ears were still ringing, my voice was shot, my feet were dying but still I was stood there smiling. Until MY MOTHER decided it was okay to sign me up for SAT prep the next day! I’m excited about that, too. However, the idea of it at the time was terrible…and a head’s up would’ve been nice. Now let’s go on to Saturday.
Saturday: So saturday…it was…tiring. I slept at 3 that morning because of the concert and I had to wake up at 8 and be at Riordan before 9. Got there on time but SAT prep was horrible! I completely bombed the test due to my tiredness. I was really mad at myself for doing so bad. After, I got home at 2 then slept till about 7. From there I don’t really remember. Slept again at 3, I had church the next day so I had to wake up at 8. I know what you’re thinking…my timing is horrible!
Sunday: Woke up, house was empty. Missed church, therefore my number 1 thing to do? BAM! Make mini tacos! Well, that was the morning. Later, I got a smog check for my car, had a Macy’s run, then a small family party. Now I’m home finishing up this post and hopefully getter a better number hours of sleep this week.
Well, that was my weekend. I’ll see all of you in 10 hours!
