Blogging

Blogs have helped me grow. They show me how important spelling is and how they can be read all around the world. I installed a counter on my blog so I can tell if others are reading my blog.

Blogs have taught me how to get around on the internet and surf, for pictures and information etc. I learned to upload pictures into my posts. Pictures in my blog posts help readers to understand my point of view.

This has also helped me with organization and responsibility. I am more organized because all of my work is kept on my blog, so I can access my work from any computer and I won't lose my work. Also, when you miss school you can check Mrs.DeRaps's blog and see what you missed from school. Or when you come back from school. This has taught me responsibility because I can check my teacher's blog and do my work independently.

Poetry Friday

I think that Poetry Friday was a very good idea. I liked that the poems that we read aloud helped me to better understand the plot of the books we read. For example, we read a book called A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. For a Poetry Friday lesson, we listened to a Bob Marley song and studied the lyrics. This helped me understand how the book related music and it helped me to understand the book better.

This helped us learn more about how poems are organized into stanzas and lines. We read poems aloud and then recreated our own personal poems. I like how this helps us to have ideas and a format for our own poems.

I really enjoyed writing as a class and reading other students' poems. I think that we should continue Poetry Friday next year because it helps students with their understanding and ability to read and write poetry.

Showing The Year.

PATHS

This picture exsplains my year because there are lots of paths that you can take in life. Like the path of trust. The trust to be here in school. Teachers need to know that you'll be in class so that they are prepared and ready for. I need to trust that my teachers respect me. There are some teachers who do not respect my situation. This lack of respect makes me feel like I don't even want to show up for school. But, I do have some teachers who do show me respect. These teachers make me feel important.

You always want to make sure you choose the right path. Sometimes it feels like I am taking the high way stuck in drive and there is not any stopping. Like when I'm in school and I can't stop no matter how much I want to. Some classes make me struggle and some are easier when I'm struggling. The difference is that in math it's easier for me. In English, it's harder. I have different strengths and the teachers use different techniques. Math is easy because numbers are easy. English is hard because it's letters. Sometimes I wish things were slower on the back roads.

But you also need to make sure you are on the right side of the road looking out. Make sure to look at the constructive part of your path and to not focus on the wrong choices that you've made. Only look back when you need reminders of what you've done and where you've made mistakes in your past.

Book Review

The Hunger Games

The book that I read is called The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

This book is a dystopia about an imperfect country. The people in the Hunger Games are being controlled by the Capital. Everything the Capital wants them to do or say will happen. Because the Capital has power over them. The kids in the district are scared what to say or not to say. There is a conflict with the Capital and the Districts because the people of Panem has no freedom. They can't say anything because the capital is always listening.

Katniss is 17 years old, she lives in district 12. Their district produces coal. She is a teenage girl who watches her little sister. because her father died in a coal mining accident. So she has been taking care of her and her family ever since. She hunts to feed her family. Which is illegal. And if she was caught she would be killed by the Capital.

Every year they pick people to go into the Hunger Games. And this year Prim was chosen to go into the Hunger Games and Katniss did not want her to get killed or hurt so Katniss said that she would go. Because she is the stonger one out of the two.

The Hunger Games is a T.V show everyone is forced to watch. What the Hunger Games is, is there are two tributes from each district and they fight other tributes till death. They also fight in the arena. So, to win Katniss will have to survived by killing 23 people. Then at the end, she had to kill everybody but Peeta and her. You should win as a whole.

I really liked this book because the book had a lot of imagery in this book. Like in the Hunger Games they had a lot of action. With the explosives, and killing with arrows. And all the love you see in there eyes.

The End of A New Begining.

I think that catniss and peeta will stay together. And there will be no hunger games anymore.

Sojourner Truth

Recently in our English class we have been making Glogsters, I have made mine about Sojourner Truth. She is a woman that fought agianst slavery as a black woman. She also fought for woman's Right.

http://marshmelow20803.glogster.com/smarsh11/

Satisfaction

Satisfaction...

I picked this word because I think that this describes a lot about the people in the town and in court. Cause they felt like the law and the decision were very chosen fairly. And that made them happy. They said that if you were accused and you lied and said no I am not you would be killed. But, if you were accused and you said yes I am then you would be saved for death. They just rely felt satisfaction. Witch made them fell also more safe with the families and friends with out witches around.

Samuel Sewall (Topsfeild)

Samuel Sewall,was born in 1652 in Hampshire, England. He was one of the judges, issued a public confession of guilt and an apology. He shifted blame to others. He was also famous for his diary. Sewall was a representative of a new breed of Puritans who took more interest in secular matters like business, politics, and good living. Sewall kept a diary for almost fifty-seven years (1673-1729). It was an excellent indicator of the manners and mores of the times. A good edition is The Diary of Samuel Sewall edited by M. Halsey Thomas, 1973.

Abigail Word!

Abigail Willams {Devil}


Abigail is a a 17 year old girl and she is falling for an older guy named John Proctor. Abigail wants to get rid of Proctors wife Elisabeth and do so by accusing her of witchcraft. Abigail is a very dishonest person that would probably accuse the people around her to save her self. People think she is evil like the devil.

Witchcraft Poem

O wrongly accused thou art judged
By the townspeople
They accused you of witchcraft
In dark agony

In your nightmares
in the daytime
you wake up
from your restless sleep.

Do What Needs To Get Done!

I've learned how to spell better. I now know about what going on in the world which sometimes good and somethings bad. I now know how to do write summary. I know about what Ishmael and what he went through and Arnold how he was living. Like how he went to a new school and the people on the reservation started to hate him. we learned about the holidays and whats going on in the world. I like this class when I am there. I might not be there a lot but when I am I think that I am pretty focused on what is happening. I have learned now how to blog about stuff as well. Thank you Mrs.DeRaps

Hazard on Haiti

On Jan. 12 Haiti, which is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, experienced the worst earthquake in 200 years. The natural disaster left the majority of the capital under ruin and 50,000 citizens dead. The massive devastation has left many obstacles for any out side country trying to send help. About 3 million people/one third of the pop. in Haiti have been effected. The orphans of the earthquake have been, and are being set up with eligible parents in the U.S..This leaves people homeless and some with out their family.

A Long Way Gone (Final)

Ishamel Beah is now living in Brooklyn New York and has become very successful. He is working for Human Rights Watch Children's Division Advisory Committee. He wants to go to graduate school. He has served as the key spokesperson for some events, like the Global Young Leaders conference in 2007. He is currently 29 and visited his homeland in Sierra Leone with a news group and said that it was a good and bad thing. His book A Long Way Gone has earned an award called the Quill award for the best debut author in 2007.

This is where I found my information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_Beah

Double Conciousness

Ishmael is a young boy trying to find his way out of a full grown fighting soldier. This "soldier" was a kid not to long ago. He was forced to become this soldier boy. No body cared how old he was. After the war between the Army and the Rebels had began Ishmael and his friend left, they got sent to this reform housing. Where you get taught how to become a kid again. He was not ready to make this change he was still a soldier at heart that is what he was trained to to kill and serve.

A song For Boy Soldiers

War "Bob Marley"

War in the east,
War in the west,
War up north,
War down south -
War - war -


This song really relates to the book A Long Way Gone. This makes song reminds me of when Ishmael is at war with the rebels and all he sees or here's is about war. No matter were he goes or looks that's all he knows.

Civil Rights

Martin Luther King Jr.

"If man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live." Speech in Detroit 23rd June 1963.

I think that what Martin Luther King Jr. is trying to say is that he feels strongly about getting African Americans equal rights. While he was fighting for the rights of African Americans he was shot in 1968.

I think that I feel very strongly about child abuse. I think that the people that hurt the children of today should be killed or put away kill death. If I saw that a baby was getting hurt physically or emotionally I would step in and say "STOP!" I would not care if people came after me or stepped to me with a gun. Because you know when taking a risk like that there are consequences. Just to stand for what you believe in is very hard. No matter what you do there is always a risk of something. I think that we should always should have had the free dome of speech, or when we do have the free dome of speech we should not be punished for what we say.

Poem(Apple)

A Single Slice Reveals Them
By:Naomi Shihab-Nye

An Apple on the table
hides its seeds
so neatly under seamless skin.

But we talk and talk and talk
to let somebody
in.

This poem really relates to the book A Long Way Gone because Ishmael doesn't like to show his real feelings, no matter what they are. He is very good at not telling anyone how he is feeling. When you talk to him you have to sit down and get to know him. As soon as you do then you will now him. And then you will see under the seamed skin. Inside he feels like he has hate, anger and aggression. He wants and needs to have someone to sit down and talk to. He doesn't act like he wants someone to talk to because he doesn't like to show his true emotions. This is going to take quite along time for Ishmael because, he does not like to talk. So doing this for him will be quite harder than usual. Ismael is living know at this shelter. The consulers there are trying to bring the "Boy" back out from in him. Every time something goes wrong Ishmael would go up and punch someone in the face, put people in the hospital. But when they would come back, they looked at Ishmael and say, "This is not your fault".

Little Rambo

L acking fear.

I ntense feeling.

T o the end we will be friends.

T ogether we will make it happen.

L ust is here.

E veryone killing their neighbors, friends and family.

R evenge is in the air.

A ttempts to kill.

M achete killing left and right.

B ullets are flying everywhere.

O pportunities for revenge are everywhere.

The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie

This book is about a indian boy named Arnold who is living on a reservation and he is in a struggle every day. He fights just to go to school that was not on the reservation. This book relates to real life, I felt very strongly about this book. He went off to real school so that he could have a real life and not be a drunk his whole life like the rest of the people on the reservation. He wants to become a basketball player but he thinks that he will never make it. Arnold had two different personalities he had one for white and one for indian. He was kinda like two different people everyday.

Keeping Things Wholes, "Mark Strand"

In a field

I am the absence

of field.

This is

always the case.

wherever I am

I am what is missing.

When I walk

I part the air

and always

the air moves in

too fill the spaces

were my body's been.

We all have reasons

for moving.

I move

to keep things whole.

Explanation:

This poem relates the book A Long Way Gone because Ishmael is missing his family and he is what is missing from his family. Ishmael and his friends are walking around trying to find his family. When the poem talks about when the air is being parted, that makes me think about when he is somewhere no one knows because when he steps forward the air fills back in like he was never there. When the poem also says, "We all have reasons/ for moving" that makes me think that there is always a reason for moving on, trying to win!