G/H class - Make sure you read Ms. Beltinck's blog for your work.
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Leave a comment for a +point. What is an 'important' take away from today's session with Kwame?
"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." Maya Angelou
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15 comments:
I learned that no matter how tired you are, you can still be energetic and positive. When I saw Kwame Alexander today I was so shocked about how much enthusiasm and energy he put in that assembly (even after a night's long flight and jet lag)
I learnt that we should show perseverance, and your opinion counts more than anyone else's. If other people think it's a really bad idea, and keep shutting you down, but you're sure of what you want, you should keep at it, work hard, and go for it. Because you've got nothing to lose.
I learned that we should keep trying even if other people reject us. Kwame Alexander's book "The Crossover" got rejected many times before it got published. Even though people didn't like his book, he kept trying and revising his book. By the end, his book got sucessful and even won an award.
I learned that pushing yourself leads to a great performance. When I heard that Kwame has been on a plane for more than 40 hours, I thought he would be like the past visiting authors who would put me to sleep. I was so surprised that he got everyone participating even though it was just saying "boom" or coming up on stage like those 8th graders.
I learned from Kwame that pushing your self may be hard, but in the end it will repay you. Like Kwame said that he had to re write his drafts of the Crossover 18 times! I was more shocked to hear that 20 publishers had said no to the Crossover! This made me think and actually, Kwame could have just quit, but instead he did not. He tried and tried, and then finally all his hard work payed off by making him create a Newbary Award winner book!
I think that the most important take away from Kwame Alexander, is not actually in the book, but it is about the book. I think what inspired me was when he talked about publishing his book, and how he failed over and over again. I think that this is important, because it showed me that if I give up I will get nowhere, but if I keep trying I will have a better chance of accomplishing something.
The most important statement that I want to take away from Kwame Alexander is that change is inevitable, and you should never be afraid of it. Instead, you should embrace it. If you want to be inspired, or improve in your own skills (in writing poetry, playing basketball, or anything at all), you have to go through change to see results. However, going through that change is the difficult part for most people. That's normal, but you should always have a goal to accept change, instead of run away from it. Face your problems head on. So, because of Kwame's talk with us today - I'm inspired to get out of my comfort zone and stop pushing change away because it is necessary to achieve your goals.
I think that my biggest take away from Kwame Alexander today is that all pomes have double meanings. They might be about one thing and mean something else. Everyone sees a poem differently and 15 people may have 15 totally different take aways from one poem. This is the power of poetry,weather or not the poet meant to show what he show to you in his/her poem you still saw it, you still saw it in that way and are able to take away more than the obvious meaning from the poem.
Ryan
I think that my biggest take away from Kwame Alexander's speech today is that publishing a story/book can be a lot of hard work. For example, Kwame said that it took him more than 14 drafts to finish writing the Crossover. That is also not at the perfect stage yet. The hard work and persistance that it takes to perfect one's writing. I always thought that after maybe 2-3 drafts my own writing would be good. But, I learned that it takes more than that.
My biggest takeaway was that even though he was tired, he still pushed through it and put it aside so that he could show his energy and enthusiasm about what he does to inspire us. I feel like I could really learn from that.
One of my biggest takeaways from Kwame Alexander today was that you can't prevent change. It's inevitable. However, that doesn't mean that you can't embrace it. Why say 'no' when you can say 'yes'? It was a big change for Kwame to start writing poetry for children, he even got turned down 20+ times before he published Crossover! What better example to have, for after working tirelessly, being rejected time after time, then, after all that effort, to become a Newberry Award winner! Why should you wait for people to say 'yes', to walk out the door, when YOU can say yes? Why wait for success when you can go ahead and get it?
The biggest takeaway that I got from Kwame was the even if you get rejected strive through your work and prove that you can achieve your goals. I understood that rejection is inevitable but it's your decision to be affected by it. You can either do better or stop believing. Even though Kwame got rejected 22 times it didn't stop him from reaching his goal to get his book published. He had a decision that he could make give up in his work or use his positive thinking to prove the publishers wrong. Perseverance and dedication will always help you achieve your goals and will always remind you that their is a reason why you are doing what you're doing.
-Joshua G
One of the takeaways from Kwame that I got today was that you always need to believe in yourself and put in your best effort. First of all, Kwame believed in himself and tried something new - writing for children. He had to rewrite his story countless times, and kept getting turned down by publishers. However, he tried harder and took matters into his own hands and managed to not only publish the book, but also win a Newberry award. Second of all, today Kwame was really exhausted with jet lag and a long plane ride. I know that as soon as I got off of a plane from the US, I felt like sleeping. However, I never would have known that he was so tired, because he put in his best effort and managed to pull off three interactive speeches that had the audience hooked. I think we should all be like Kwame: believe in ourselves and put in our best effort :D
Thank you for your posts. Clearly you are paying attention. +1 for your contributions.
Thank you for your posts. Clearly you are paying attention. +1 for your contributions.
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