Final Reflection

1- What are the three most important things you learned this year?


One important thing I learned this year was the importance of opening up to other people. When I heard each and every single one of those speeches, I admired people's strength and ability to talk about some really personal stuff to the class. Although I did end up really liking my speech, I had just wish I had taken it to a more personal level like my peers did. I wanted to experience the feeling that they felt when they gave their speeches. Again, I did like my speech I gave, but had wished I had found the strength in me to be able to open up to my class.


Another important thing I learned is that you can still have fun while learning. In ELA, it doesn't always have to be just work. We don't just have to be brainless robots who just do work on command and relive
that same cycle over and over. We do have our fun moments sometimes. We did have some fun times in the class and shared a few laughs. Each day was different from the last. We never had to only work, we were all comfortable enough to joke around a little and enjoy ourselves every once and awhile.


The last thing I learned in this class constantly was to never lie to Mrs. Larson. I am assuming a lot of people are writing this in their blog as well, only because it is very true. In the end, no teacher should be lied too. This not only applies to Mrs. Larson, but to every teacher in this building. That is just very disrespectful and shows how untrustworthy you really are. It just makes it harder for them to trust you ever again. I feel no one should have to lie to Mrs. Larson and that they should be completely honest with her. If you do lie, she will find out and give you a consequence.


What is something we did this year that you think you will remember for the rest of your life?


Something I did this year that I will always remember was the relationships I built within this class. At the beginning of the year I was really disappointed to find out that all of my friends from last year had moved to the summit class. I wasn't able to go with them unfortunately. As time went by, I realized that you know what, that's ok. It's ok that I didn't get placed in an accelerated class, it's ok that I couldn't be with all of my friends, because I made even more friends being where I'm at now. As the months went by, I really liked being with the people in this class and have made so many more best friends. I did have friends in this class from before, but I enjoyed actually being in a classroom with them. I would never switch places and be in any of the other classes, my place is and always was here.

3- What was the nicest thing someone in our class did for you this year?


The nicest thing the people in my ELA class have ever done for me was give me a giant group hug when I was sobbing after the speeches. After I had heard Archie’s speech, I was literally sobbing. When I had heard what happened to him and his mom, it had reminded me of something that happened to my family. I was easily able to relate to him and that just made me very upset. After all the speeches, I was still upset and started to cry again. Everyone just crowded around me and gave me a big group hug. I couldn't see who was there, so I will just refer to these people as “the class.” It was just a really nice thing they did and is something I am sure I will always remember this forever.

4- What is something you taught your teacher or classmates this year?


What I hope I taught my fellow peers is that to not give into racism. In my speech, I tried to explain that we can not mistreat people who may be different from us. Our world revolves around humans differences. We need to embrace these differences instead of discouraging them. I was mostly referring g to religion and how we can not just judge certain people just because they practice. I spoke about my Muslim uncle and how despite we had some differences, I still liked him for who he was as a person and learned that he turned out to be a great guy.

5- In what area do you feel you made your biggest improvements? What is something you accomplished this year that you are proud of?

I felt I made a real improvement in my writing. I did say this on my last reflection blog last year, but I do feel like I improved a little more this year. I feel a lot more comfortable writing blogs compared to the beginning of the year. Despite me writing a good amount too blogs last year, I felt that since I was able to blog again this year, I got more in the gust of things if you know what I mean. I am able to successfully write about any topic I am assigned to write about and always get a good grade on it. I know some people may not like blogging I honestly don't think it's that bad.


6- What was the most challenging part of this year for you?


I think the most challenging part of this year was having to learn about the Holocaust. That whole word just bring so many scary images of the poor Jewish lives that were taken from our world from Hitler. It wasn't hard to learn about it, it was just difficult to see some of the images we saw as we went through the lesson. It was especially hard to read the book Night. That book was so sad and I was considering putting that book as the best book I've read this year. It was just so powerful and painful to imagine what this man had gone through as a teenager.

7- What was the best piece of writing that you did this year? Why do you think it is your best?


I think my best piece of writing was my speech. It wasn't really about the amount I wrote, it's the message I was trying to explain to my peers. It was different from a blog where you just sit and read it on your iPad, instead I used my voice to tell my story. I used it to tell my story and explain why my message is so important. Like I said, it was a unique twist to the usual. My speech showed me how powerful you can portray your emotions through your own words rather than simply typing something up for a regular blog.

8- Of the books you read this year, which was your favorite? Why?


The best book read this year was A Child Called It. This book is very powerful and can get emotional. I have to admit, I was getting a little emotional during some if the hard parts. I won't spoil any of the book. It's about a little boy who survived Year sir mental and physical abuse from his abusive alcoholic mother who tortured this poor kid everyday. It was painful to read through his traumatic experiences. The way this kid who is now an adult portrayed these events in his writing really got to me. It was overall a great book that showed acts of strength and perseverance.

9- What advice would you give students who will be in this class next year?


Advice I'd give to incoming students is like I said before, be prepared to work hard and strive for your absolute best. Like I said, a lot of material is going to be covered within this room. You will learn so much in such a short amount. A school year is honestly not that long with all the time that goes by. Your middle school years go by so uncontrollably quick. Along with learning a lot, you have to also factor in the work and the amount of time you have to give up to to get your full educational experience. That means you must and I mean you absolutely must do your homework. You get homework in this class everyday and you should by all means do it and not be a slacker.

Love Rather Then Hate

I believe we shouldn't give into hate that is being spread around the world. I feel that certain people shouldn't get mistreated or hated just because of what they look like or who they are. Have you ever gave into a stereotype? Have you ever gave into the racism and prejudice that is constantly being spread? I remember I was almost sunk into that darkness, but then I met someone very important. Someone who changed my whole outlook on Muslims. This man is my uncle.

I believe I've known my uncle for over two years. I met him during a very rough time for people who practiced his same religion. On the news you were always hearing lots of stories of terrorist attacks and suicide bombers who were killing a bunch of innocents. Aside from the constant terrorist attacks going on, the Syrian Civil War was still going on. The News was always on a TV wherever I was, so I saw a lot of this on a daily. I would always watch in fear and would think in my head, “Is what's being said any true?” I didn't know if I should believe. I didn't want to. A lot of the stuff that was being said was just very negative and God awful. It was very hard to escape from it.

I met my aunt's boyfriend who soon became her husband. As time went by, I learned that he came from Morocco and is a Muslim. Instead of being skeptical or being rude to him, I got to know him. There was no reason to hate him, so why shouldn't I be nice to him. As time went by, I started to like him a lot. He's such a great guy and still to this day is extremely nice. I came to the realization that if every non terrorist Muslim was like this, then I'd have no problem getting to know every single one of them. If he is an example of how nice Muslims can be, then I'm glad I didn't believe anything the media was saying about them. You can't judge people who you don't even know. I got to know my uncle and found out that he’s a really cool guy.

I believe people shouldn't judge people who they have never even taken any time to get to know. The people I heard in the media said very hurtful things to these people whose lives were very different from ours. Some of these people were going through a war in their country and had to live among the monsters who made people hate Muslims. We may have been through lots of war, but we never had to experience anything like what they experienced.

We can't mistreat people just because of their religion. We can't overgeneralize a group of people by calling them terrorists when really they aren't. That's not how our world should work. It's better to spread love rather than hatred. That only makes others want to join in when really they should be putting it to an end. I believe this and it made a really positive impact on my life.

Final Reflection

1- What are the three most important things you learned this year?


One of the three most important things I've learned in this class is that hard work really pays off. Some advice I'd give to any incoming eighth grader is that you really need to be on your toes when it comes out this class. I'm not saying in a way to warn someone, but just to prepare someone. I'm saying this because you learn a lot and do a lot in this class. There's a lot of material being covered to better prepare you for our later years as young adults in high school. Is even say this to any accelerated seventh grader because I got the experience to be placed The the accelerated class and the just the regular eighth grade class, but that's ok. You still learn a lot and I learned that me doing the hard work from the beginning always pays off in the end.



2- What is something we did this year that you think you will remember for the rest of your life?


Something I did in this class that I will always remember for the rest of my life was the relationships I created. When the eighth grade year started, I was really bummed out to find out that all my friends were in summit and I wasn't. At first it got me angry and made me think that my eighth grade year was just gonna be really bad. I was also disappointed to learn that I wasn't placed in any of the accelerated classes. I've been in accelerated programs through most of my “school life.” When I'm in those classes I feel smart and feel comfortable being with all my friends. As the months went by, I really liked being with the people in this class and have made so many more best friends. I did have friends in this class from before, but I enjoyed actually being in a classroom with them. I would never switch places and be in any of the other classes, my place is and always was here.

3- What was the nicest thing someone in our class did for you this year?

4- What is something you taught your teacher or classmates this year?

5- In what area do you feel you made your biggest improvements? What is something you accomplished this year that you are proud of?

6- What was the most challenging part of this year for you?

7- What was the best piece of writing that you did this year? Why do you think it is your best?

8- Of the books you read this year, which was your favorite? Why?


The best book read this year was A Child Called It. This book is very powerful and can get emotional. I have to admit, I was getting a little emotional during some if the hard parts. I won't spoil any of the book. It's about a little boy who survived Year sir mental and physical abuse from his abusive alcoholic mother who tortured this poor kid everyday. It was painful to read through his traumatic experiences.

9- What advice would you give students who will be in this class next year?

Advice I'd give to incoming students is like I said before, be prepared to work hard and strive for your absolute best. Like I said, a lot of material is going to be covered within this room. You will learn so much in such a short amount. A school year is honestly not that long with all the time that goes by. Your middle school years go by so uncontrollably quick. Along with learning a lot, you have to also factor in the work and the amount of time you have to give up to to get your full educational experience. That means you must and I mean you absolutely must do your homework. You get homework in this class everyday and you should by all means do it and not be a slacker.

I will try and post this weekend!!!

Literature Circle Blog

An essential question my group and I had come up with for our book, The Year of the Hangman, was if Creighton's character was going to change since he was forcefully relocated to the colonies. We were wondering if just him having to live somewhere would at all change him from the Creighton we saw in the beginning, to the Creighton you see at the end if the story. We find out that yes, Creighton wasn't just a static character. Overtime he evolved, and acted to become a dynamic character who in the end isn't the same as before. The Creighton we were introduced in the beginning of the book was really different. Having a lot of fortune made him reckless, troubling, and snobby. A quote from The Year of the Hangman states, “Creighton had shown a tendency toward “running wild,” as his mother put it. The mischief he indulged in was mostly minor” (Page 6). This was just one statement along with a bunch of others portraying Creighton as a troubled teen. Of course all teens get into some sort of trouble here and there, but Creighton just wasn't going through any sort of adolescent phase. I think after his father had died, he just wasn't taking things later on in life. After some events had transpired involving Creighton being abducted, he was taken aboard a ship under his mother's order. Him leaving his old lifestyle and his country he grew up in changed him. According to the book, “But he still felt indebted to Peter for having gotten him in trouble over the lost pistol. So when the Giants came to fetch him, he reluctantly let himself be taken off to the Cafe des Exiles” (Page 115). There were few times within the book that Creighton showed some emotions that readers never saw in the Creighton we were introduced to. He considered Peter as his friend and felt that what he did may not have been morally right.

The book and the article I found both have to do with the Revolutionary War.  Creighton and the other characters are people living during this war and seeing it unfold. However, they both take different approaches to talk about the topic. In the article “Museum of the American Revolution celebrates the ongoing American experiment” states, The first museum devoted to the country’s earliest years opened in April — on the anniversary of the opening battles of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord and “the shot heard round the world” on April 19, 1775. It stands in “America’s most historic square mile,” a few blocks from the Liberty Bell, the first White House and Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the U.S. Constitution was ratified.” A way the article contrasts from the book is that it presents facts and real life locations. The one place it mostly talks about is this museum. The book is all fictional and may take place during a real life time period and locations, everything happening within them is all for entertainment purposes.

Despite the article and book presenting the war in different ways, they both still mention real historical figures. The book states, “To Dr. Franklin home, on Royal Street.” Franklin? Is he any relation of Benjamin Franklin?” He's one in the same” (Page 74). This was when Creighton was going to be introduced to Benjamin Franklin. On the other hand, the article involves Franklin within the actual piece by stating a quote if his. This quote said, “As Benjamin Franklin said in 1776, ‘We must all hang together or we will surely hang separately,’ ” As we can see, both forms of writing have very visible differences. That still doesn't mean they can't ever cross paths and not use certain people within them.

Blackwood, Gary L. Year of the hangman. N.p.: Turtleback , 2004. Print

Pompilio, Natalie. "Museum of the American Revolution celebrates the ongoing American experiment." StarTribune. N.p., 5 May 2017. Web. 11 May 2017.

The Year of the Hangman Blog

The Year of the Hangman, by Gary Blackwood, has so far been an enjoyable read. My group and I have only read about half of the book so far, but agree that it's pretty good. This book is historical fiction, it's fiction not only because we are seeing the story through a person who doesn't exist, but it rewrites the outcome of the Revolutionary War. It takes a real historical event and puts a big twist on it. The main protagonist in the book is Creighton Brown. Creighton is a spoiled English teenager who lives with his mother. They are both still mourning over the death of Creighton's father who had died during his service in the war as a Loyalist. Creighton like I said is a spoiled teen. His family is rich, having that fortune has really changed Creighton for the worst. He is very carefree and reckless which is something his mother has had to put up with for some time. His mother finally snapped and had him abducted. He had been abducted to come aboard the Amity to go seek a new life in the colonies. His uncle, who is a colonel for the loyalists, was asked to take Creighton under his wing to fix his act. Along with meeting Creighton's uncle, we are introduced to A British Marine named Hale. Hale so far hasn't played a big role within the story, but hopefully he will soon. Eventually, Creighton reluctantly goes to work for Benjamin Franklin in his paper shop. He is providing the loyalists with information relating to the Americans propaganda and is currently stuck in the colonies.

• Define what makes an interesting story or poem.

In my opinion, what makes up a good story in this case is going to have to be the characters within it. I feel setting and plot are minor compared to the character in the book. I mean if you really think about it, the character forms the plot along with the rest of the important story elements. The elements are covered within the characters actions and emotions. Their roles are needed in order to actually create an interesting story. Also, you can't have an enjoyable experience with a book if you don't like your characters. The main character is who I am mostly referring to. You are going to have to go through this quest with this one character along with a bunch of others as well. If he or she is boring, unrelatable, bland, tasteless, then why should you continue to read. Your experience is going to be ruined because the author of your book couldn't provide interesting characters for you to read about. You're going to get a really bad taste in your mouth after reading that book and may not want to read anything from that author ever again because of that. That's not how books should be. They should have noteworthy people in them. People who you actually like and who can maybe find connections with. That's what I feel like The Year of the Hangman did pretty well with. None of these people so far I haven't been disinterested in. I never have the feeling of the book boring me to death. It’s gotten me a little more motivated into finishing it because I think the characters in it are depicted pretty well.

• Why do you think the author wrote this?

I feel like the author wrote this to try and create a cool scenario that people probably have thought of and actually bring it to life. You can do this for any sort of big “event.” Like what if the Nazi's zis won the Second World War? Or what if the Holocaust never happened? I'm sure people have had these thoughts about other historical events as well. What do you think would happen if the loyalist won the war instead of the Americans? That's the cool idea this book uses. Just that one small question can open so many doors and possibilities in your head. Anything you could think of isn't a crazy idea because it's just a scenario. That's what makes think book so unique. It rewrites the past by changing one small detail and it actually creates a story as to what could happen if this happened instead of this. It really opens your eyes and actually makes you think, “wow, this really could have have been the case.” To be honest, I have never read a what if situation type book ever. Maybe after reading this, I'd look a little more into that category and see if I can find another book like this one that I may like.

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3rd Quarter Reflection Blog

The area I believe I made the most improvement in was my background information on the Holocaust. What I mean by this was that my overall understanding on the Holocaust has drastically changed and has gotten better then before. Before we took a lot of time to learn about it, I had some understanding on the subject. I had a small idea as to what happened and what was going during those years, but I wasn't a total expert on it. After our month long lesson on it, our eyes finally opened. We learned about the tragic events that occurred during these difficult years. It was very terrible and unfortunate. The pain and misery that those people who lost their lives had to go through. Especially for the ones who are thankfully still here today and can tell their dreadful story to other people. I'm just glad we were able to learn this and know how important it is to know what had happened.

Something that I accomplished this quarter and am still to this day am proud of was my butterfly for the butterfly project. It was very difficult for me to do it. I am not a very artistic person, so a task like this would be out of my comfort zone. I was worrying about it the whole week before it was due and had no idea what I was going to do. I obviously needed help so I seeked help from my aunt who is very artistic. She's so good at art and even paints pictures in her free time. I knew she would be the right person to call. After about two hours of planning, her and I did the project together and it looked fantastic. I knew we were going to do something out of the ordinary. No one in the class had did paper mache like I did. It did take some time, but in the end was totally worth it. I am proud of myself for doing it and am thankful that my aunt was there to help me.

An issue I had during third quarter was managing my time. What I mean by this was being able to devote time for ELA at home. Like trying to find time to do homework or trying to get some reading in. I'm not sure why, but this has been an ongoing issue for me and I'm not sure why. I do my ELA homework so late at night and tend to procrastinate a little bit. What I want to try to do to overcome this problem is finding a quiet place for me to work first. I would probably be more productive working somewhere quiet rather than somewhere where there's a lot of noise. I also want to try and take all my distractions away from my space so I don't procrastinate. This is a goal I wish to accomplish by the time we come back from spring break.

Night Blog

Throughout the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie made tremendous changes after what happened to him during the Holocaust. His whole experience within all these camps caused him to transform negatively. Being in all of these camps made him give up his faith with God and his will to live. A lot happened to him and his father that brought so much pain and misery that no one I know has ever had to go through. No one I know had to be separated from their family/friends, work extreme hours no teenager should work, or almost die multiple times. You have to be a really strong person to be able to survive something like that which is why I envy his bravery and strength.

One way Elie made a colossal change was by completely giving up his faith in God. First off, I should explain that Elie was a very pious person (very religious). He literally wanted to seek out a mentor to better understand his religion and properly practice it. He was that invested and interested in the Cabala. A quote from the the book states, “By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple” (Wiesel 1). This quote alone doesn't prove that Elie tried seeking a mentor, but it does indeed state how much time he invests to study his religion he truly cares about. All in all, Elie was very religious at the beginning of Night and everyone who read took notice if that trait.

Everything was going pretty well for Elie and his family. That soon needed once the SS invaded his town in Sighet. They used Elie's small and peaceful town as a ghetto, a ghetto no different then the others being constructed by the Nazis. This event along with many others slowly transformed. Day by day he was forming into this whole other person who was very different from the Elie in the beginning of Night. He no longer was pious by the end of the book. A notorious passage within Night by Elie states how he feels about God and what his thoughts are on Him. “NEVER SHALL I FORGET that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith for- ever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes. Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” (Wiesel 32). It's worth mentioning at this point, we haven't even gotten halfway through his story. This was only the beginning and Elie had already shared with the reader how he feels about God and His silence. The passage not only shows when Elie lost his faith, but it also shows just how angry he is. Angry that this happened to him, his family, and his people. He is angry and disappointed with God.

During all that had happened, Elie had lost both his religion and his will to live. It was very difficult for him to just keep going. It just got harder and harder for him and his father to live like animals. To live in these terrible conditions they were all in and were expected to keep this lifestyle until they were executed. Along with other struggles Elie had to face, his main struggle was maintaining his will to stay alive. A quote from Night states, “I had to stay at Buchenwald until April eleventh. I have nothing to say of my life during this feeling. It no longer mattered. After my father’s, nothing could touch me anymore” (Wiesel 107). At this point in time, Elie felt lower then ever. There were certain points within the book that he felt death was an escape, but this just shows how his life was no longer a priority. He no longer had a purpose to live an extra day.

Luckily, Wiesel powered through just a little more to finally live as a free man. However, the events that occurred in Night still changed him. He couldn't take what happened in those camps back and had to live with all of those experience before he died not to long ago. In conclusion, what happened to Elie so long ago effected him greatly.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam , 1958. Print.

Butterfly Project

"Forgotten"

You Wanton, quiet memory that haunts me all the while
In order to remind me of her who love I send
Perhaps when you caress me sweetly, I will smile
You are my confidante today, my very dearest friend.

You sweet rememberance, tell a fairy tale
About my girl who's lost and gone, you see.
Tell, tell the one about the golden grail
And call the swallow, bring her back to me.

Fly somewhere bald to her and ask her, soft and low,
If she thinks of me sometimes with love.
If she is well and ask her, too, before you go
If I am still her dearest, precious dove.

And hurry back, don't lose your way,
So I can think of other things,
But you were too lovely, perhaps, to stay.
I loved you once. Good-bye, my love

Anonymous

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Berlin Memorial Blog

During our lesson going over what laws the Jews were given during the Holocaust, I learned a lot. What I learned was that there were numerous laws specifically given to all the Jews during Hitler's leadership. Of course, every country in the world has their own laws to keep everyone within the country in line and civil. For Nazi Germany, the Jews unfortunately had their own set of rules they were required to follow. Before learning about these laws, I didn't have any sort of clue as to how many laws the Nazis could possibly make up just to ruin these people's lives. Once I took a good long look every single card on the classroom walls, I realized there were a lot of them. I had no idea the Jews had to live by all these rules when Hitler was leading Germany. Hitler really wanted to take the Jews livelihood and freedoms everyone should have. To make things less consistent, Hitler didn't enforce a large number of laws every year. This still doesn't change the fact that Hitler truly wanted to try and make the Jews lives worse and worse.

Of course, any memorial is created to help people forever remember what had happened that created the memorial. For example, the memorial in Berlin was created to help Germany remember the terrible things that happened during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was one of those terrible events people just can't and should never forget. Not just people in Germany, but everyone around the globe. It doesn't matter it you lived through the Holocaust or had just learned about it. The Holocaust was part of our history. If you think about it, the memorial was created to show the mistakes our countries made that created this mess. America did have some involvement with the Holocaust. If only our country allowed the incoming Jewish refugees that were trying to escape from Germany enter our country, maybe things would have been different. This memorial in particular I feel was created not only for remembrance, but to show flaws within our countries decisions. Memorials can have other purposes for being created. I believe the Berlin Memorial had multiple meanings for its establishment.

What I noticed about the number of laws passed by the Nazis was how demanding they were and how strict they were. What really put me in awe was not just how strict the laws were, but for how discrete some of them were. I clearly saw how much Hitler wanted to make these people's lives as miserable as possible. There was literally a law for not allowing Jews to purchase books in 1942. Think of a society without any sort of literature. That law alone would really create drastic changes within how we basically live. Of course, a society without books would be very "unique," but wouldn't be the end of the world. A law that's even more worse then that were the laws enforcing Jews not to purchase certain foods/drinks just to live their ordinary lives. They weren't allowed to have eggs, milk, meat/meat products, and they were restricted from getting many items. In order to live, you need eggs, milk, and meat to feed yourself. Forget not being allowed to have books, what really was something the Jews needed to worry about was how to feed themselves. How are you going to eat if you can't buy essential items for your meals. This really shows how enforcing these laws were and how they wanted residents of their country to live life everyday.

Personally, a certain restriction that I would have a problem with dealing with was the law prohibiting Jewish actors and actresses from performing. Of course, it wouldn't be the end of the world for anyone if entertainment was taken away. Despite this, I feel entertainment is still an essential part for everyday life. Sure taking it away wouldn't be a huge problem, but entertainment is what keeps people occupied. Entertainment is essential for many things in people's lives. For example, it is essential to my life because I enjoy watching people act on television. It's just something something I enjoy doing in my spare time and keeps me relaxed. Taking away that privilege from me would be something that I wouldn't be to happy about. Being stripped of that privilege to me would affect me the most.

Quarter 2 Reflection

In what area do you think you made the biggest improvements in English Language Arts?

The area I think I've made the biggest improvement in is reading more often. Last year, I didn't read too often compared to this year. Last year I didn't find too much time to read and didn't try too hard to find the time. Now, I feel a little more motivated to read all of a sudden. Ever since this year started, I have committed to finish the 20 book challenge and hopefully surpass the maximum. I have been reading more in class and at home. I asked for books this past Christmas to get ahead on my reading and have books at home I could read. So far I have read about 12 books and am certain that I will go above and beyond by finishing the 20 book challenge early.

What is something that your have accomplished since the new year that you are proud of?

Something that I am proud of is that I have gotten all threes on my vocabulary/roots test. I know that an accomplishment like that seem minor, but it is a big one for me. There were some days where I just wasn't having a good day and I would get a lot wrong on the test. Throughout this quarter, that hasn't been happening. According to my grades I have gotten all threes on every test we have done for this quarter. That rarely has ever happened to me ever since 7th grade. Sometimes I would get all threes during one quarter or a couple bad grades in one quarter. This time I did get all threes on the tee and am very thrilled of.

What has been the most challenging part of 2nd quarter for you and what did/can you do to help overcome this?

Out of all the things we have done, I would have to say the investigative journalism unit was a little challenging. It was a little hard for me because of two things. One, what could make a good story? To me, It's hard to come up with a unique idea for news story and when you have something good, everything seems easy. When you have a new article that isn't that interesting, creating it can be a little difficult. Two, for me it was hard to sort of create the article at first. When this was introduced, it se,ed like an entirely new way of writing. It was very unique and different from styles that we have been working with for a while. A big aspect of investigative journalism was that you had to write from a third person point of view. When you are the one coming up with the facts and physically seeing very thing you're writing about, it can be difficult to put all of that in a third person point of view. I'm pretty sure through trial and error, I have progressed a little a had gotten better writing news stories. Writing them more and more helps me fix my errors I have done from the last. Overall, this quarter was pretty good. There still is room for improvement though.

Watchers I.D. Book Talk

     The book I am currently reading is Watchers I.D. by Peter Lerangis. This Science fiction novel is about Eve Hardy. Eve is a 14 year old girl as you will find out right away is a clone. Eve was adopted at birth by a random family and does not have any memory as to who her actual parents were and where she came from. On a ski trip in the mountains she witnessed the death of a teenage girl who died from an accident shares a similar age to Eve. She discovers there have been some deaths from teenage girls who were the exact same age as Kate who have died for unexplained reasons. She is currently further researching into these girls deaths and how/why it's happening. The mood in my eyes seems mysterious. You as the reader wonder how and why are these girls dying? What's keeping me not stop reading is that you want to get a clear answer to all these numerous unanswered questions you ask yourself. Of course this far into the book, it’s a little hard to determine what the these is at this point. From what I have read so far, the theme is teenage girls are dying for unknown reasons.

     I like this book because it's a book that has a little bit of mystery to it. To me, having mystery in a book always keeps m from wanting to go to the next page or reading the next chapter. You will always want to keep reading constantly just to get to the bottom of the mystery. That’s how I feel when reading this book, its mystery is so engaging and confusing which makes me want to invest more of my time to finish. I'll always remember how discombobulated I was reading the introduction. It’s still a little confusing currently where I’m at in the story, but the beginning sort of started at a certain point to address some key details and then just fast forward to a different point in the story. I feel not a lot of books take this approach to introduce a different event in a book and makes this one unique for doing so.

     I would definitely recommend this book to my dad. I would recommend it to him because he likes to watch a lot of shows on TV about mysteries and conspiracies. He just gets really into it and it finds TV shows like this entertaining. He doesn’t read too often, but I feel if I handed him the book, I have a feeling he would be interested. You should go out and get this book because it's a book that has characters who share some of our same age which can make some people relate to them easier. Also, if you like science fiction in your books, this book from what I have read so far is a good book under that category.

"Unemployment"

    Have you ever lost a job? Well if you know someone who has, you probably know that being unemployed for whatever the reason may be is a huge burden on that person and their family if they have one. It's especially a burden if that person doesn't really earn a whole lot of money to begin with. Regardless, not earning a paycheck can really affect a person's home life. You can't buy your groceries and other necessary things without any money. A necessary thing people can’t pay off is their mortgage or rent bills without a job that pays which not only makes them jobless still, but can lead them into being homeless if they have nowhere to live.

    According to an interviewer who will remain nameless, "My dad quit his job last year because his boss was a real Scrooge and he didn't like the amount he was being paid. His job made him really stressful and he felt like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was jobless last fall. Our family had to make sure we were spending our money wisely and on stuff that was extremely necessary despite my mom having a well paying job. We couldn't get new floor for the house because what makes wasn't enough to get out floor and at the same time still be able to frequently buy things we wanted whenever we wanted. The following summer he decided to work for himself and sell houses that he renovates really nicely. He doesn't have to work for a boss he doesn't like and makes way more than his other job as an electrician." This interview shows that being jobless can really affect a person's family. Being jobless can have a group effect and can’t allow you to sometimes have the things you want. You have to make buying your necessities your only priority.

    As you all should know, not only are their unemployed people in America, but people all around the world are without jobs that they desperately need to support themselves and their family. According to a fact from TheGlobalist.com, "In 2013, there were about 157.1 million unemployed workers throughout the world's developing nations." That is a lot of people who were without jobs. Who knows how many million people are jobless right at this moment. This is why we see so many beggars on the street asking for money. All those people are without jobs and ask us for money everyday just to get through the day.

    It's also worth mentioning unemployment can lead to people having psychological issues after losing their job. According to the Chron.com, "People experiencing chronic unemployment might become anxious or depressed, and have trouble sleeping. Prolonged unemployment also has a negative effect on a person's sense of self - worth, damage that might remain in place even after the person is once again unemployed, according to a webpage on Washington and Lee University website." As we can see, being fired can not only affect someone's spending, but their everyday feelings and mentality in a pessimistic way. People can feel all sorts of negative emotions because they lost their only job. A job that they need to keep food on the table and to keep a roof over their head which are huge responsibilities for an adult.

    Adding on to the negative effects of unemployment, some people feel bad about having free time in the day because they aren’t working like they usually do. According to a passage from Psychology today, "I told a neighbor of mine that I had written a book on coping with unemployment and he said to me, “I never told you this, but last year I was unemployed for five months. The worst time for me was when I got up in the morning. I was too embarrassed to go out. I felt like I was in a prison until five in the afternoon when I could leave my apartment. I didn’t want anyone to know that I was unemployed”. People feel shame in not having a job. They feel a person shouldn't have free time during the day and feel embarrassed that they do since they are unemployed. Shame is of course another emotional/mental effect on being jobless.

    On the other hand, the unemployment rate has surprisingly decreased a lot since America’s financial crisis a few years ago. America has been getting better since then. According to a fact from politifact.com, “The December 2014 U-6 rate was 11.2 percent, which is higher than the 11 percent rate in September 2008 and the 10.8 percent rate one month earlier in August 2008.” As we can see, America has made big progress bringing down the unemployment rate percentage. Obama has made some big changes ever since he has been elected into office being able to again lower the unemployment rate by a lot. Despite Obama making improvements to the economy and whatever else he did to lower the unemployment rate, more improvements can be made. We can lower that percentage even more. There is still room for more change. Not only are their people without work in America, but this is a global issue that still needs to be solved. This may look like a David and Goliath situation, but if we all see how we can come together, we can beat Goliath. If we strongly encourage Donald Trump to focus on this situation and help him care, hopefully he can make some sort of change.

Nonfiction Blog

     Yesterday, I finished a book called A Child Called It. It's a memoir and tells the story of Dave Pelzer. Dave, who lived in San Francisco California, was unfortunately beaten, starved, and brutally tortured by his alcoholic mother. Basically, he was abused as a child for several years. He had four brothers that surprisingly were treated well. They were not given the abuse and respect that Dave had to experience. They were sadly brainwashed into thinking what their mother was doing to Dave wasn't bad. They thought he was just given consequences for his bad behavior. When the boys had gotten older, they then realized what a true monster their mother really was. The father, Stephen Pezler, barely showed any care for Dave. He always came home drunk which led to him and his wife getting into heated arguments. He eventually left the family leaving Dave all alone. Thankfully, teachers noticed what Dave had been through and called the police finally saving his life.

     A passage that I found interesting in the book was, "Suddenly, I began to realize the longer I could keep myself off the top of the stove, the better my chances for staying alive. I knew my brother Ron would soon be coming home from his scout meeting, and I knew Mother never acted this bizarre when anyone was in the house. In order to survive, I had to buy time. I stole a glance at the kitchen clock behind me. The second hand seemed to creep ever so slowly. To keep Mother off balance, I began to ask whining questions. This infuriated her even more, and Mother began to rain blows around my head and chest. The more Mother slugged me, the more I began to realize I won! Anything was better than burning on the stove." (42) Although this moment in the memoir almost leads to Dave possibly meeting his death, I was interested by it. It interested me because it showed how smart Dave was back then. At an age like that, he used his brain to get out of something like that. I thought that was amazing, how he adapted and took smart actions. I'm not saying he is a genius or anything, but I thought it was pretty clever on how he distracted her and tried to kill time so his mom can stop.

     Something I am bound to never forget after reading this book is the fact that kids who have been severely abused can really consume and numb yourself as a person. According to the book, "My morale had become so low that in some self - destructive way I hoped she would kill me." (141) Of course it's a given that kids who have been abused, you don't normally function or act as though someone who was my age or younger that thankfully never had to go through all of the abuse he did. Just the way he said that made me knew that issues like this are really serious. Of course I knew they were, but hearing life threatening stories always put me in perspective of that persons issue and makes me feel terrible for that person or group of people.

     Something else I am never bound to forget was what Dave had to go through. "...My brothers and I were playing in our room when we heard Mother rush down the hall, yelling at us. Ron and Stan ran for cover in the living room. I instantly sat down in my chair. With both arms stretched out and raised, Mother came at me. As she came closer and closer, I backed my chair towards the wall. Soon I touched the wall... I closed my eyes as the oncoming blows began to rock me from side to side..." (134) Every time I heard about him being hit like that just mad me feel really sad. This is is what he had to go through every day. This book gave me the realization that kids that could be my age face bigger problems then me. In conclusion, this memoir indeed made me learn a lot about Dave and child abuse in generally.

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What I Am Thankful For

What I am grateful for this year is being with my family everyday. You may think that's a a little obvious to be thankful, because everyone is grateful for their family. I still think it's worth mentioning because not everyone is thankful for their family or are united with their full family. We as teenagers may take our family for granted or can't be with our full family for the holidays. Maybe from them passing or dying of some sort of unfortunate disease. I however don't take my family for granted and am thankful to be with them on Thursday. In conclusion, I am very thankful for all my family and their well being.

Something else I am also thankful for is specifically having my aunt living here and not moving. The story is, my had gotten married Fall of 2015. Last year they had been talking about moving to Morroco to live with her husbands family. Two months before last years Thanksgiving she had decided to move their out of nowhere. It was a very emotional day for our family seeing her leave to the airport. Thanksgiving my parents/brother and I went to my grandmothers for Thanksgiving dinner and as we walked into the kitchen, we saw her smiling and happy to see us. I am just thankful she stayed and won't be leaving ever again.

Another thing I am thankful for is having the opportunity to be able to attend a private high school. Thankfully, my parents make just the right amount of money to be able to send me to a private high school. Unfortunately, some parents can not afford for their kids to go to a school like Nazareth. That's also a reason why I don't take my parents for granted. They are giving me this big opportunity to go to a really good school which will cost a whole lot compared to a public school. That is something else that I am very thankful for.

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Article of The Week: What Learned

     From my own AoW, I learned a lot about something I never have heard of before. Who could have known we had all sorts of bugs living in our houses other then spiders? I didn't, that was why I chose my article topic on that. To learn something I had never heard of before. I learned that there are over 600 types of these bugs in our homes. Not just my home, but there are all kinds of bugs in everyone's home all across the country. Like me, some most likely don't even know at first. Newsela is useful for learning new information and learning more facts about the world everyday.

     Aside from my article of the week, I have learned a lot other then insects this week alone. Despite me not being able to particitape in last Thursday's gallery walk, I still had learned a lot this week. I read articles about Trump, an Earthquake hitting New Zealand, and not just on Newsela, but the news as well. What's great about the news is that it can be presented differently, that may be through newspaper, TV news, articles, and all kinds of other ways. In conclusion, I learned a lot more this week then just what a read in my article for my AoW.

   

Election Reflection

     In my opinion I feel this election was the most difficult to deal with in our generation. What I mean is that in this election, we had two candidates who have wronged us citizens in some way. One of these two had to be chosen by us to lead our country for four years. That is a really tough decision to make, for any individual, it may be easy for some but hard on others. That's how my mother felt once the election was over. She felt like she was being backed up into a corner trying to choose her side. She did not support Donald Trump and did not approve of some of the actions Hilary Clinton and her husband had made the past years. She had no idea who she should support and I didn't know who I should support for either. As I said before, I felt we Americans were put in a real tough spot choosing a president for our country.

     The results for the election didn't really surprise me. I had this feeling Donald Trump would win for some reason. Unfortunately, his words and said to be actions he'll take as president if he gets elected had been brought to a lot of citezens attention. If they believe in his same beliefs then they support him. The thing about Trump is that he wants to get stuff done in America. He may not be 100% detailed as to how he'll get these said things done, but he wants America to keep moving forward. People feel the same as he does, they want these things done as well. They want a president to act upon society's problems which was where he got all of his supporters from. That's why I wasn't that suprised of him winning.

     I am excited to participate in the next presidential election. I am adequately involved in today's politics and me being involved would help me formulate a decision as to who I think should be our president. I want to make a difference and have the feeling that my vote mattered. I want to feel like my vote made a difference and shows my beliefs and mindset towards society's problems.

     One issue I am interested in seeing Donald Trump go about is how to deal with terrorism. Now, I of course don't approve of his comments towards Muslims or any comment he has towards a certain group of people. I also don't approve on how he wants Muslims treated on America and how he thinks they should be dealt with. Still, terrorism is a huge issue in today's society and needs to be put to a stop. I'm not even sure how he's going to try and stop it, but citizens of America including me want to see territories stopped just as much as Trump.

   

   

"Thank you Veterans"

Thank you veterans for giving us our freedom
You will forever be in my debt
To me, you are America’s greatest asset
Unlike some people, when they think of Veterans, they tend to forget

I apologize for your comrades that were given a horrible and tragic fate
In my heart, they are and should still be considered great
I can’t show how much I appreciate
If I were god in heaven, for you all of you I would open the gate

Thank you for our peace and for our freedom
Because of you, this world is rid of some of its evil
You showed our country that we can be strong
You showed that terrorism and fear in this country doesn't belong

You put yourself through great torture and sacrifice
Your great service to this country can never be put at a price
What you do in battle will be forever honorable
For whatever our enemies do to you out of spite will  forever be dishonored

What you do out there matters to some of us
The conversations I have in school on Veterans Day are important to discuss
It's hard to think that you can fight for people who may consider you someone random
But you know that it's not only you, but it's us you fight for

Thank you veterans for giving us the peace, freedom, and joy that most countries simply can't get from their veterans
You matter to the world and especially me

What's Going on With Morton

Have you ever seen a Morton lawn sign anywhere around Berwyn before? Only one sign has been seen which isn’t ordinarily seen here in Berwyn. On October 21 2016, two blocks down from Wisconsin Avenue, there was a lawn sign that read “Morton West Tennis” on some unknown families lawn. The reason they have the sign up is unknown. The sighting was very peculiar to see in this part of Berwyn. On the whole street and the street across were no signs that related to Morton West at all. Signs supporting Morton don’t usually come up in the neighborhood. Now all of a sudden someone puts up a lawn sign just now.

Lawn signs showing anything related to Morton weren’t and haven’t been seen customarily around this area of Berwyn for an unknown reason. Why wouldn’t there be signs that show other people where their kids go to school? Could this indicate not a lot of teenagers attend Morton in the Wisconsin avenue area? What could the reason be for them not wanting or being able to attend a school so convenient for them? Hopefully, there can be some answers to these questions.

First Quarter Refelction Blogs

My blogs have been progressing quite well since August and 7th grade. Last year I did write a lot in my blogs, but I mainly kept them to their minimum which was three paragraphs. Now I've really been starting to write a lot more then I usually did last year. Instead of three paragraphs per blog, they have been increasing it's size into four paragraphs per blog. Right at the start of the year I kept saying to myself I can do better and that my previous work can be much better. Me trying to perservere really showed when my blogs started looking a whole lot nicer compared to a blog I wrote last year.

A strategy I have learned in this class has and always will benefit me is the TIQA format. It has always been a great organization stradegy to use when writing some of my paragraphs for my work. It keeps things in good cronilogical order and smoothly introduces quotes well without making things awkward. It especially helps me when I am doing an objective summary or trying to answer in essay question that is in need of a quote. This will salads be a skill I am going to use not only in this class, but in high school as well. Organization is key when starting high school and if I can learn early how too organize sentences in parghraphs, I'll do fine next year.

I have been doing well in my 10 book challenge. Last year I really wasn't looking to read 40 books during the whole year. I didn't have the stamina or the motivation to try and attempt to do that. For some reason, things have changed this year, I don't feel this same way as I did with reading anymore. I'm now starting to like books and have been reading them faster. I have read so far Lincoln's Grave Robbers, The Walking Dead Road to Woodbury, The Giver, Never Fall Down, The Nazi Hunters. I'm now in the middle of new book I just signed out and hope I can read more then 10 books this year. 

Some things Iearned about the world is that anything can happen other then negative stuff. In news today, it's really focused on finding the bad in the world and trying to highlight the trade gives a lot when there are other good things happening in the world today. For instance, for our second AoW we annotated an article about a 64 year old women who successfully efully swam all the way from Cuba to Florida. That shows that some people in the world aren't trying to do bad things and that they can do good things. Like accomplishing a goal like that sounds amazing and shows that hard work pays off when trying to reach a goal. Also for our first AoW we learned about how there was a new gene found to cure a diasese. That doesn't associate with anything bad, that is good information. Information like that should be told in news more often then what goes bad in the world.

Book Vs Movie

A scene from the movie that was way different from the book was the part in both the movie and book where we see how Jonas is feeling after expirincing the memory of war. In the movie, Jonas like the book experienced the memory of war. He was scared after living through seeing someone who he doesn't even kniwnkilled right in front of him. In the movie, Jonas walks through the courtyard where the kids are playing. What was different was that the kids weren't playing any war game at all. Also Asher wasn't a director or anything like that, he's a pilot in the movie.

Compared to what happened in the movie, what happens was very different from the movie. According to the book, "Then they were all silent, standing awkwardly, and the only sound was The of Jonas's shuddering breaths. He was struggling not to cry" (134). Jonas reacted very differently compared to the movie. I should also mention on this same page, Jonas abruptly tells Asher to stop playing the game and they get in an argument. They are probobly different because that would be a long scene in the movie. The bad thing about the movie is that it leaves important events and details the book thankfully provides for the reader. Maybe that scene would extend the time of the movie and effect the scene for the rest of the movie.

A thing I noticed in the movie was the age of the actor that played Jonas (Brenton Thwaities). He does not look like how I portrayed him in my head as I was reading the book. The reason why I believe the director chose an older actor was to try to bring the book to life as well as possible. In the book it states, "When I was eleven," his father said now, "as you are Jonas..." (13). The book specifically states Jonas is an eleven before the ceremony and doesn't show him aging rapidly in the Giver. The time span of the plot was not very long a sit was in the movie. Back to what I was saying, I think bringing in an older actor would connect more with the person watching the film. It wouldn't be realistic having a 12 year old boy and 12 year old Asher and Fiona would backfire on trying to liven the book to a movie.

To be honest, I would have to say the book impacted my understanding of the whole story for me. The reason I mainly choose movies over books is that it brings what you imagine while you read a book to life. You can finally see what the charters look like and listen instead of read dialogue between characters. I also rarely ever like when movies bring new ideas to the table and try to use them to maybe further the plot. The Giver kind of satisfied me, but not fully. In the end, I would prefer watching the movie rather then reading the book.