11/07/19 Myunbo Pen

11/01/2019

Myunbo Pen, PD8

Aim: Why and how does Hercules characterizations make him one of the most memorable figures in Greek mythology?

As per usual our class begins with a question, that is, “Write about a time when you did something wrong whether purposefully or inadvertently, but for which you were extremely sorry. Did you try to apologize, or make the situation right? Were you successful?” 

These questions usually lead into the crux or further into the main idea Mrs.Fusaro wants us to understand and likewise does the aforementioned question.

After some time of deliberation Alan starts of the period and shares a story about a time when he, with intention, tackled a younger kid and the poor chap fell and broke his arm during football practice and afterwards felt bad about it, in a nutshell. Following the same course a couple others shared their experiences like a time when Stanley, who after watching a scary movie about a nun, came home late. While walking home he inadvertently espies a woman dressed in a hijam walking her dog and due to his recent experience with the strikingly similar dressed nun he saw in the movie, he pushes her and runs away. Though that was disrespectful Stanley feels very apologetic of his actions that night. 

After that interesting period of time Mrs.Fusaro explains that genuine feelings such as wrongfulness and repentance and the feats the characters are willing to take to vindicate themselves – Hercules – are what makes a character unique and stand out. 

Afterwards the class watches a short video about a dog and a guy (an ad) that the class is supposed to record their general trend of feelings over the course of the video. 

In a nutshell the feelings were expressed as: 

Dog and owner are warm, cuddly, friendly. 

Owner leaves for a trip with his friends and the dog is lonely, sad, and pitiful

Owner returns from trip and the dog is super happy again.

The video in the context of the lesson illustrates how the roller coaster of emotions can lead the reader to sympathize with the main protagonist and cause a more deeper understanding to his plight and the sincerity of his actions.

Last but not least the class reads an article by Stephen A. Diamond, PhD and annotates, then we share our opinions on the psychology of evil, expressing is it ever vanquished or are we truly our own worst enemies. In that regard, the debate was a mixed bag as some agree to one side whereas some don’t and had other propositions. All in all the agreed point comes to the fact that the perception of evil comes down to perspective, polarity of the situation, and how the collective people view it as due to various circumstances, or at least in my humble opinion. 

Finally last, but certainly not least, to conclude the period in a memorable event Joshua gets a "shut your face" paper ball thrown at him for almost spoiling medusa.