Portfolio 2020

Portfolio Autumn 2020-2

My Portfolio 2020 Karen Eva Þórarinsdóttir

For this optional Assignment, I chose to listen to a song and explain the message of the lyrics.&nbsp;&nbsp; I chose the song - Can’t help falling in love by Elvis Presley.&nbsp; This song is very special to me, my daughter always falls asleep when I sing it to her.&nbsp; I think the message of the lyrics of the song or lullaby really, is about falling in love rather fast and wanting to be with that person for eternity if possible. Some people rush into love too quickly and it can turn out to be the wrong decision. But in this song, it’s about how sometimes you can’t help rushing it, because that person is completely worth it.&nbsp;&nbsp; What I learned was to understand the lyrics behind the song, to really listen for it. Sometimes you have to read between the lines when it comes to lyrics.&nbsp;

Roses are red Violets are blue My heart is in flames When I am with you It’s tacky I know How else can I show My feelings for you Has a love story come true? For this optional assignment, I decided to write a poem. I chose this task because it’s my first attempt to write a poem,&nbsp; I’ve always wanted to be able to write one. I love the roses are red poems so I started with that and thought of some rhymes to go with it and I just started writing. I learned that rhymes are fun and poetry isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

I believe I am a bit advanced in English and I’ve always been very interested in it, done good, and gotten nice grades. My strengths in the English language are many, but to name a few. Pronunciation, spelling, and most grammar rules. My weaknesses on the other hand are writing assignments, but mostly how to set them up and write them properly. When I joined this class I wanted to learn better about the history of the English language and how to read stories with more advanced grammar and I have certainly succeeded in that. In my opinion, the easiest assignments are the pronunciation practices, you’re only saying the words out loud and improving your score as you go. The most challenging assignments I find are the writing assignments. They take the most time and a lot of thinking but they are also the most useful assignments. I enjoyed the reading assignments the most, you get to read a whole new story each time and you have to deeply listen to what the author is intending for the story to mean. If I could have a say in anything I would like less of the portfolio projects, But that’s most likely because it’s very new to me so I still need to learn how to enjoy them better. It’s been challenging for me in a fun way to create my study habits, and being a mother of 3 young children can call for creative ways to do my assignments while also being on mom duty. My study habits mostly consist of me doing my assignments during the evening when my kids are asleep, but I would like to try my best to do more studying during the day. I’ve learned so much about being organized and working ahead, so I won't miss any deadlines. I’ve also learned a lot about short stories and listening assignments, they’ve been very informational. I feel as if I need to focus more on trying my best on the writing assignments and spend more time on them in general. I love being able to do online classes and have more to do during my maternity leave.

<a href="https://youtu.be/CRe0m1aiI9A">https://youtu.be/CRe0m1aiI9A</a>

<a href="https://youtu.be/Q5CHqEILmfg">https://youtu.be/Q5CHqEILmfg</a>

For this assignment, I chose to read a story from the news and write about it.I regularly read the New York Times on their website for some international information, And this time I came across a very interesting story about plastic pollution which is a subject very dear to me. I find the pollution worthy of our attention because it’s destroying our planet however fast that may happen. I want our generations to come to have a future. This story is about a study that Americans may add five times more plastic to the oceans. And that is avoidable by contributing to better recycling ways and of course by selling fewer plastic products. There are many ways to prevent this from happening. They could produce products made from alternative ingredients. From this story, I learned about the Ocean Conservancy and what they do as I researched it afterward. I also learned some new words and the translation of them. Fivefold = Fimmfalt&nbsp; Conservancy = Verndun/Varðveisla https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/climate/plastic-pollution-oceans.html

For this final optional assignment, I chose to read a story that my friend recommended to me. The story is called Lord Of The Flies by William Golding. I found the story quite interesting and a great read. I was practicing my reading skills and memorizing points from the story like I would while doing the assignments on the short stories. I also learned new words and decided to translate them and find out the meaning behind the words.&nbsp; Ululation - A long, high-pitched trilling sound resembling a howl. Conch - The spiral shell of a gastropod, often used as a horn. I used dictionary.com for a reference. I found the story on this link. <a href="http://colleronline.weebly.com/uploads/2/8/2/0/2820270/lotf_text.pdf">Lord of the Flies</a>&nbsp;

<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RBStg3n0xAeZOySGbcVz3lAHD73OLgmKgoWA3EOYQiw/edit">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RBStg3n0xAeZOySGbcVz3lAHD73OLgmKgoWA3EOYQiw/edit</a>

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie review. I’ve been watching the Harry Potter movies since I was a kid and I’ve watched them at least 10 times each. My favorite movie in the film series and the one I watched this week is The Half-Blood Prince. The movie is about Harry Potter finding out how Voldemort keeps parts of his soul in six objects. Those objects are called Horcruxes, And for Harry to defend himself and kill Voldemort, he needs to destroy them. The characters go through a lot of challenges in order to learn what Voldemort is planning. Harry finds all sorts of information through a potion textbook which has a name written in it. The Half-Blood Prince. Harry and his friends suspect that Draco Malfoy is working with the death eaters and Voldemort. Severus Snape tells Draco’s mother that he is a mole within the Order of the Phoenix and he makes an Unbreakable Vow to keep Draco safe as he attempts to fulfill the Dark Lord’s wishes. Draco mended the Vanishing Cabinets that make a pathway between the Room of Requirement in Hogwarts and Knockturn Alley. The death eaters then enter Hogwarts and Draco’s assignment was to kill Albus Dumbledore but he hesitates so Snape casts the killing curse on Dumbledore. Harry then finds out that Snape is indeed the Half-Blood Prince. What I found great about this movie is how well it was filmed, the acting is incredible and the storyline is fantastic. The changes in scenery are also good. The emotions in this movie seek through you while you watch it. When Dumbledore is murdered you can feel the sadness and mourning in all of the people at Hogwarts. It doesn’t bother me how long the movie is because it’s so exciting that you can’t take your eyes off of it. The director David Yates suggests that making Hogwarts seem a little darker is a subtle transition for what is yet to come in the next movies. In my opinion, I really recommend this movie for everyone. Especially those who like magical stories with the added drama, a little scary and, a splash of love. You won’t regret watching this popular movie.

<a href="https://youtu.be/EbyoDUdmg6g">https://youtu.be/EbyoDUdmg6g</a>

<a href="https://youtu.be/PP8xY81-3hU">https://youtu.be/PP8xY81-3hU</a>

My mother has always been my role model in life. She taught me everything I needed to learn to be able to function as an adult and as a mother myself. She inspires me in so many ways by being herself and that it’s okay to go through tough times. She’s always been there for me. Even when I didn’t really need it. When I got bullied at school as a kid she showed up to the school and demanded some actions to be taken against the bullies, And she did not give up. She supports me through my decisions and my goals for the future.&nbsp; As a single mother of 2, she worked two jobs to support us and made sure me and my brother always had everything we needed. She was even more available for me when I acted out as a teenager and scared her with my behavior, But she took it as a reason to teach me how to cope instead of shaming me for my problems. She is my hero for believing in the best of me and being an amazing parent. She raised me to become the feminist I am and told me I could be anything, And do anything I want in life. I am the person I am today because of her and I fully believe that her influence got me to where I am now.&nbsp; My mom is now a happily engaged 55-year-old woman who’s living the best years of her life and enjoys nothing more than being a grandmother to my kids. She loves traveling and doing things she could never afford when I was growing up. She’s a hard-working woman who just now started to cut down her hours at work to relax a little bit. My friends look up to me for being there for them at all times. They call me the therapist of the group because I’m always a shoulder for them to cry on if needed. They remind me so many times how proud they are of me for being a great friend, And for believing in myself and learning all the things I want to learn, And for being an inspiring mother to my kids. I hope my kids will look up to me as their role model in the future as it would be the greatest honor I could ever get. I can definitely see myself being a good role model for them.

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