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.

I commented on Jessie's blog

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.