Aliyah's AP Blog

   This week I found out that all the schools in my county are shut down! Honestly, I knew this was going to happen because my friends in Georgia said that their school shut down. I am not that upset about it, I'm just grateful that we still are still graduating on time. We also found out that our AP test are going to be online as well. Of course, there's a good and bad side to this. On another note, I began to look through the book for poetry based free response questions. I did this due to the fact that this is most likely what the test will be on. I also went through the multiple choice quiz on AP Classroom. It was fairly easy since it was more poetry based, but I started to to lose focus towards the middle of the quiz. So that's something I need to work on. Overall, this week was great. Well, besides having to stay in the house.😂😂

While everything being canceled that the Class of 2020 was looking forward to, there is to work that needs to be done. I am honestly not upset about the fact that things are getting postponed/canceled because I am at peace, in a way. To prepare myself for the AP Exam, the one thing that is not getting canceled, I decided to take the first quiz on AP Classroom with no preparations. It may sound stupid, but it gives me a better chance to really scope out my weaknesses. One of them being second guessing myself. This is nothing new to me because test anxiety is real. The three biggest ones were: vocabulary, taking a complex question and breaking it down, and paying attention to word choices when choosing an answer. All of these have some type of strategy I can use, that have been mentioned by my teacher at least once. Hopefully, this workbook that I have recieved will be beneficial.

Today was a struggle. I spent all night trying to plan my essay for the 3rd quarter final. I decided to go to Mr. Rease for extra help during his free block because I was about to have a full blown panic attack. I really appreciated the fact that he took his time out help because he could have just brushed me to side to finish what he had to do. I feel pretty good about my essay, but I really need to the critisim to improve.

Field Trip

    Today we did speed dating with a prompt. Even though I took AP Lang last year, I still struggle with the pressure of interpreting the prompt and planing the essay. I think throughout the process I beat myself up a lot. That adds more stress on me. A part of me did not feel as bad because I was not the only one who did not understand. I did not feel alone. Later on in the class, we asked questions about the whole process. Now, I am going to just practice the tips Mr. Rease gave and go from there!

   In chapter 20, Amir and Farid are on their way to Kabul. Amir experiences his first encounter with the Taliban. Farid tells Amir not to look at their eyes. This kind of paralleled to the Afghan culture with women. Soon after, a beggar walks up. Of course, he asked for money. What he had in exchange was priceless. It turns out he taught at the same school as Amir's mother. He could not remember much, he mentioned the food they shared and what she was afraid of. That was enough for Amir. Finally, they reached the orphanage. They asked for Sohrab, but the man at the door hesistated. When Amir reassured the man, known as Zaman, who he was he let them in. They found out a dark secret about the orphange when looking for Sohrab. Every once in the while, children would be sold. This made Farid unhappy, he nearly killed Zaman. At the end, both Amir and Farid set out, once again, to find Sohrab.

Chapter 19 was a very detailed chapter. It illustrated the true life of Afghanistan while the Taliban had taken over. Amir explains he felt like a tourist because of how much his home land evolved. Farid had mistaken Amir's reason for coming back. All the while, Amir really took in his surroundings. He noticed how Farid's brother lived. While asleep, Amir dreamed of being the killer who killed Hassan. Note that in his dream, he alludes to the man being Hassan by the kneeled man saying "for you a thousand times over." At the end of the chapter, Farid apoligizes for mistaking Amir's motive for coming back to Afghanistan. He agrees to help Amir find Sohrab.