What would happen in a world where it was the child's choice to go to school? Would you go to school?

It would be interesting to think of a world like this. I believe that many kids would say that they wouldn't and would not go. I want to know Could I miss, the classes I don't like or think that I need. These class seem to bring my mood down in the day and I feel I would be better equipped without them. Could I change the courses I wanted to take? It would be very cool if the school offered  coding course that I could take and  think a lot of other people would be very interested too.

Sad to say though I do believe that many children would not want to go to school. I think they would think they have better things to do. For me I know, even though I might not like it, I need school. I could not function as a civilized human being and conform to today's social order without school. School can put things into perspective and grant me a large vision of fields that I could take interested into later in life. But again many kids my age, older and younger, would not want to take school.

Writing center

    For me my visit to the writing center really helped me improve my paper. It was relatively easy to schedule a appointment and cancel/reschedule one too. It help me make my paper better in many ways and improved my writing generally too. They definitely helped me get a better grade on the paper. I also new my writing fellow before so it wasn't so awkward, like we meet for the very first time.

    The ways the helped were grammar and fluency, but that is what my paper as truly lacking all along. They helped fix spelling errors and how blocky the paper was originally. The experience also helped when I have to write other papers. It gave me a chance to have someone else give me feedback, which is also a major help too. I am glad I went.

LOTF quotes 1.5 hours
LOTF project .5 hours

Reading Log

30 free read
45 LOTF
45 LOTF Project

State!!

Today we had state for cross country! The boys won and the girls gave a great effort and had placed third. It has been a very long day and a very tiring one too. Lots of sitting and running and cheering and waiting and other things but over all it was a blast. On the way there I got to talk with a lot of my cross country friends. We were so excited though on the way there. But it kind of stunk that the ride was so long to get there. Also by the way the race is in Nacadish? I think that is how you spell it. I want to give a little shout out also to my boy Kris who place seventh in the whole race! As a freshman. That is so crazy, but we had a great time and it was awesome way to finish out the season.

LOTF 30 minutes
Literacy Analysis 45 minutes
Short story 20 minutes
25 Free reading

Why is the Internet awesome?

To me one of the greatest things anyone has ever invented was the internet. One of the amazing things in when this person did this it just created s many more things anyone person could of imagined. It really got the ball rolling with creation of transferring information. Now in 2013 we could do so many more things than anyone could of imagined 20 years ago. That is crazy to me. Things like YouTube were something like 60 hours of content is uploaded every minute is crazy to me. It is easier to talk to anyone now more than ever. I can see if one of my friends is online, where they are, and even what they are doing. I can do something in seconds which would have taken days to do before, and that person could respond quickly too. You can buy things online and have them shipped to you or buy something electronically. For projects you can find ridiculously larges amounts of information on anything everywhere. All the things you can do now is amazing thanks to one invention, the internet. So thank you creator of the internet because I might not be able to do this blog right now. So thank you and thank you internet.

Things

Well cross country ended today and that is sad. We had out final meet, Metro. I did okay, I got a 12:17. I still think I could get under 12 but it is good to finish the season with a personal record (pr). The season just seemed to go by so fast. We started with the summer practices, then the beginning of the season, and final we our here today. It is sad to see it go but it really was a fun season.

Now it is time for soccer to start though. I am so excited to start the new season. Soccer has always been a blast to do and now it is even more fun. I have all my freshmen friends and it is all great again. The high school season is very different from middle school (isn't everything). Middle will not start playing games for a long time and high started last week with the Woodlawn scrimmage. The team tied 2-2, it was an okay game but we can play much better so I think we will be okay. The season is going to be such a blast.

Survival island experience

The activity that we did in class was so cool. It was a cool idea to just drop everybody and be like survival. The situation that our class had planned out seemed to work really well if our separate groups did their jobs. Our class decided to break the class up into groups and have each individual group gather something or do something very specific. The five groups we had were fire, shelter, food finding, plane parts finding, and young lings caring. If everyone did their selected jobs I think that our class would do very well on a survival island.

The thing is though what would happen in real life. Would everyone on the plane crash live or want to corporate. Sure it is easy to say you will do something when your life is on the line but what happens when the food finding group doesn't find enough food for everyone. Who doesn't eat? What about when the first night their isn't enough shelter for everyone. Who doesn't get a shelter. what about when one night the fire starts/ keeper let fire go out? What happens then. I am just saying if everything turned out fine and dandy we would be okay ,but I have a feeling things might go south very quickly.





Literary Analysis 1 Hour
LOTF 1 Hour

Free Post

I don't really what to say so movies I guess. Iron man, the internet doesn't like the but I still like them. Yes they are very cheesy and cliche but I like them. Batman movies, very cool, very explosion, and very Michael Bay. Newest Spiderman movie, do not like them, at all. Not very good to me and were just made to try and make money. Inception, wow. Very mind boggling and very cool. People say CGI was bad in that movie but I still liked it. Ending is really upsetting. Skyfall, sad to see such a beloved character go. Good movie overall though.

Reading Response: The Sniper

The story was a simple story with a big ideal attached to it. Irony. It was very prominent in this story, well the plot was just solid Irony. But I want to look at the perspective as a cause and effect story. When ever the main "sniper" does anything it always have an effect and usually a bad one. One example is when he starts to smoke. He knows that this will lead him to be seen (foreshadows truly). Literally this happens in the whole book. He does something, then something happens.

Annotations, 1 hour

Short Story 1 hour

Reading Log

1.5 hours on Social Studies annotated bibliographies
.5 hours on short story (extra)

Note Trends

During the class when we have to read and annotate the short stories I like it how we only have to look for a specific area of writing to look at. Like the point of view in today's writing or the setting and plots in the other stories. It helps by not having to focus on all aspects and you can focus in and keen your skills on a specific area of writing. Understanding these basic mechanics will help in writing our stories later. All of these topics that we look for are topics that you need in any good writing. So learning to master these skills will in turn help us in the long run become a better writer.

Point of view is important because it shows whose eyes your looking through when reading or writing something. Point of view is so important because it will also show what the reader can know and does know. Setting is important because it shows where plot is happening and what is going on at that time. Plot is important because it is the story that you are reading.






A very Old Man with Enormous wings, 25 minutes
Dry September, 45 minutes
And of Clay are we created, 30 minutes
Free reading in class World War Z,

Plot mapping

For the start of my story I want to start with a teenager who doesn't really know what to do with his life and doesn't really know about how to think about things. He thinks that he loves his parents but he doesn't know why he treats them so bad. He knows he is smart but doesn't know why he does so bad at school. He knows can work harder but doesn't know why he wont. The start of the story is after he comes home from a day of school and starts talking to his parents. He goes to bed and just start the new day. The day goes okay but after he goes home his mother doesn't return like normal. He makes his sister dinner and tucks her into bed. He then learns that his mother died in a car accident that after noon. He doesn't cry or anything he just thinks for a long time. The next day he goes to school the same and same things happen. He then comes home when his sister asked "where is mommy?" This is when he breaks down. and starts to cry. After all that is done he starts to turn his life around. He gets a better job and supports his little sister more and more. That is the end.

Reading Response to Harrison Bergeron

This was a weird type of thinking that really creeped me out. It felt like a numbed down American society that was caused by the government because the people chose to be this way. We voted for this outcome and this just gives me the chills. We chose to be this way. This writing also left me with a lot of questions. How come everyone are not ballerinas and new casters? How many people are still alive? Can you still vote in this future? Are other countries like this? Could they remove these rules? Why are they so scared of competition? Did something major happened that cause competition to be so hated? Did the people expect the handicaps to be this bad? What was the demand for doctors and specialized worker like that? If someone was born with a mental handicap would everyone have to be the same? This short story was sad and finalized but it still let out a lot of open questions.






















30 minutes Harrison Bergeron Annotations
20 minutes Da Dun annotations
30 minutes A+P Annotations
40 Strangerz Dean Koontz

Voice of character

I don't know about all of this. It seems like to much. When I know I can go harder and be a better person why do I have to stay in my shell. It is a social comfort but why would I want to do that. I have confidence well not really socially. I.. I know what I can do. I am not reaching my full potential. Is that why Dad yells at me? He just doesn't have any other way of conveying it. He feels like he has to be the rock that the family relies on. That just is just a task that is too much for one person. It is a lot of stress, rarely seeing your wife, your kids, because your at work all day trying to provide for them making sure they can stay in a nice house and have warm dinner every night. At least that is what I hope he means when he yells at me. He says I need to be stronger, but the ways he conveys it he is being a hypocrite, using his alcohol to tell his words when he is not enough of a man to say it himself. Uhh whatever I think about it tomorrow.

E-book things

I will not need to make any chances to my literacy to protect the innocent nor make any changes to fix my paper. I'm not that good at drawing so I think that I am going to be on the editing side of things for this e-book. I really fine with whatever happens for the art cover. I am sure my peers can come up with something awesome. It will look really cool to with freedom with font, size, and spacing too. I don't know what the tittle will be either. We had some really cool and silly ones during class but again I think that we will come up with something cool again. We could find cool pictures and have people draw stuff and I can't wait. I have never created a e-book before and I feel it will be a lot of fun.

Reading Response

During some of the free time in class I got to read a book called World War Z. It was a zombie book with a collection of zombie stories that happened during the zombie war. I have heard about the book from some people and I have seen it be recommended for Episcopal summer reading before. I thought that it was a cool because I am interested into that action zombie type of thing. It sounded very action-y and like a lot of fun.

The book started out like a biography type with the author saying how these events had truly happened and how these are not the narrator's stories, how they are the actors stories. He does this to add some tenseness to the story and how it tries to add some affections tenseness to the story. I didn't get the far into the story and only a little bit into the beginning.



Reading Log
15 minutes in class reading
30 minutes editing literacy narrative
75 minutes free reading

a conversation among three characters in which no line is more than three words long

a conversation among three characters in which no line is more than three words long

"Hey"

"Hey"

"Whats up?"

"Nothing you?"

"Yea something happened."

"What happened?"

"I cannot say"

"Why?"

"It was bad"

"How bad?"

"Illegal bad"

"What could you.."

"Do? Something bad"

"Like murder?

"No never."

"How do I.."

"Trust? You can't"

"Okay stealing?"

"Well kind of"

"Kind of?"

"Well it was.." 

"Who's? What?"

"Well it's personal"

"What was it"

"They made it"

"Made what?"

"Cookies"

"That's why."

"I'm so sorry"

"You should be."

"I.. I ... sorry."

"It'll be okay."

Update on the Literacy Narrative

Update on the Literacy Narrative

Right I have turned in the first draft of the Literacy Narrative and I think it has been graded. I haven’t check yet sorry. We are now doing the group chat thingy. I think I will like the group chat because it allows a new perspective to my piece of writing. It helps me get new ideas for my paper to make it better. I also like how there is only good and positive criticism. It is good to get criticism and help make the paper better which means a better grade for me! I think that this will also make me a better writer because it also me to gain criticism skill so I can make my paper better with revisions and bring me back to earth with not think my first draft is perfect. It allows to help me look for what things might not make sense or sound right.

I am so far loving this paper too. I love the idea first of all. It brought me back to great times and a great project that we got to do. I like the way my paper sounds and the details I have. I think that they are vivid and well written so far but still can use some revision and proofreading. It isn’t perfect yet but I would like it to get there. I hope you like reading and have a great literacy narrative. 





Reading Log
9/8/13 60 minutes Dean Koontz, Strangers
9/9/13 60 minutes Dean Koontz, Strangers 129 - 183

Reading Response

In Strangers the stories are getting stranger and stranger but there is some things in common. The first thing is the biker helmet and the leather gloves. What is up with that like Don (I think) got the note that said the answer lies in the past, so does that mean that all of their answers lie in the past. Were they all in the same place and some event happen that non of them remember, it is all strange. Next is that they all have some person that they go to and they trying to come up with solutions by themselves. All of them have different stories but all are connect. It is very cool and I can't wait to see what happens.







35 minutes W/ homework 8/27/13
10 minutes w/ class reading 8/30/13

60 minutes w/ home reading 9/1/13 Strangers Dean Koontz 93-129 

20 minutes w/ videos 9/2/13 

literacy narratives

For my literacy narrative I watched the I have a Dream and This is Water. I have a dream, what can you really say about that? It always has the it important but what effect does it really have. I like to think that it applies today but not necessarily in the same context. I feel that today it applies in the way to treat people today. No matter the differences like if they are weird to you or strange just try and talk to them and you might be surprised. Next the Water, I absolutely loved it. The message it gave was great and the way it presented it to you was awesome, it was strait up. You could tell that hey this is how it is and get ready for. I am glad I watched both.

Reading Responce to Strangers

I am reading the book Strangers by Dean Koontz. I am reading this book because I have read two if his other book and I loved them so I said why not try another one. He incorporates this suspense into his books really well and the build up always seems to pay of in the end. The stories that he writes about are always scary or just out their so I can really enjoy them.

Strangers is about s far about 5 people that are all from different places and are having this one weird thing in common. This is diffidently  one of the bigger build ups of the book I have read and I love it. The book really give great vivid details and keeps the reader encased in  the book. It is a good read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a good thriller/creepy book.

8-25-13 30 minutes, Strangers, Dean Koontz
8-25-13 1.5 hours , Strangers, Dean Koontz 40-93

Cookies!

Well one of the only vivid things that I did this past week really was baking cookies. I love to bake cookies because I get to eat them ,but the bad thing I have to share so that kind of stinks. I'll try to be as descriptive as I can because that s what Mrs.D ask for. So first I grab one of the plastic bags with the cookie mix in it. I'll then preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Ill grab and egg and a stick of butter to put into the mix. To make it easier to mix these three ingredients together I will put the cool butter into the microwave and heat for about 15 seconds. Then I take out the butter put in with the egg and mix. I like to mix it together but I think it is neat how it will go from powdery to sticky to doughy. So after that I will take small bits of cookie mix and put them on the tray. Slap them into the oven for about 16 minutes and sham! You have cookies and they are a nice, warm, and soft cookie creation.

Why hot bus rides to highland stink.

Why hot bus rides to highland stink.

First off the bus has been sitting in the hot sun the whole day. The seats start to burn, the air in the bus is hot, must, and mostly gross. It is full of tired or overexcited children yelling and complaining about how terrible the next practice will be. Everyone on the bus is hungry and thirsty yet ready to get the practice started. So this happens for about 20-25 minutes so we have to find a way to “pass” the time, I am writing this blog post, while the bus gets hotter and hotter. The only true way to sort of cool the bus is roll down all the windows which will only help if the wind is really blowing, which it never is. To finish it though you get to go run. This concludes my rant about the bus rides and thank-you for reading.

The Knife of Never Letting Go Response

                The Knife of Never Letting Go was a strange book for me because there were indeed some parts that I like but there were also others I didn't find very enjoyable. I’ll start with the bad first. One of the very annoying things originally was defiantly the slang/misspelling on purpose. I get why the author used it but still when it would come up I would find it tough to have to stop my train of thought just to try to understand a word or a certain spelling. Another thing I didn't like was the beginning. It was very slow for me and I couldn't really get into the book, but I understand why. The author did this to make sure the story didn’t feel rushed, you knew everyone, and you wouldn't feel very confused when a major plot point happened. Even still it just felt to slow and I just couldn't get into it. Maybe if I would have known or the author gave some hint (which the author probable did) about what was going to go down. Finally the plot I had mixed feelings for. I fell I have a like/hate relationship with the plot. Some of the parts make me go “Oh come on, like that would ever happen, this is just too cheesy.”

                There were also many things that I loved about the book. First of all the character development the book was just amazing. The book had attached me to a dog! A dog! It tore me apart! Another great thing was the setting. The planning for the whole book must have taken a long time. Having the new world to get used to is also cool having to learn the rules. Finally the other part to that love/hate plot. I have to say I do like that plot. It is pretty neat that the city is like kicked out and not allowed, and then they are just running the whole book. How you cannot stay in one place all the time, nowhere is safe. The impending doom is coming. 



8-15-13 15 minutes, working on notes
8-18-13 70 minutes , reading , Dean Koontz, Strangers
8-19-13 10 minutes , reading Dean Koontz, Strangers, 1-40 pgs.