samrrdg0910's Blog

I wonder if my teachers still have google reader hooked up to my account. Middle school went by really quick and in about a week ill be heading off to highschool. Im actually more excited than nervous. Meet new friends, a new challenge, blahblah. I feel as if I did really well in middle school. Not to be bragging but I recieved alot.  High honors every quarter, a superlative and I won a plaque thats now hanging up in my room.  It was a fun year. I didnt really follow the whole always and forever rules but cmon its summer. Well post a comment if you read this.

 Writing can sometimes be hard, especially when you can not think of anything. Kathleen Benner Duble came in and helped all of us come up with inspriation.  She gave us different places to look for inspiration, like our experiences or our families. I think her “formula” for writing can help anyone that wants to be a better writer. I realized that most of us have used alot of her ideas in our writing. 

Other People:  Dr. Michael Fowlin came in and gave us a presentation on growing up and dealing with problems. I feel he really touched the hearts of many students. I wrote about kids problems and steriotypes. He insprired me to write about some issues kids have and I gave a  basic summary of his act. – I Bet You Didnt Give Mikey a Hug

Vacation: I went on a vacation many years ago to Cape Cod, and we went on a long and hard bike trip. My struggles with this trip gave me inspiration- Keep Going

Life:   In a science essay about the discovery of continenttal drift I wrote  a personal anecdote about school. The story related to the discovery and how people don’t believe teenagers, boys in particular. – Believe Me, Not Her!

Where You Live: I was inspired by a small convinient store not to far from my house. I explained what its like and why I like it. - Its Called “On the Run” for a Reason

Parents: These are great people to get inspiration from. Ask them for a story and your golden. I wrote about how my mom uses the silent treatment on me. – The Silent Treatment

Books:  This year we have been doing alot of writing based off of books. Junior Great Books are easy to get inspiration from because the end of them is ussually a cliff hanger and leaves you thinking. I wrote this about the short story “Sucker” – The Ugly Truth

Have you ever had written a story and the only information about the main character you have is their name. I think everybody has and I always have. While writing my historical fiction book I am actually developing a real character, his looks, his personality, and I must say it makes a story a lot better. The difference between a named character and a character with a personality is like adding whip cream, chocolate sauce and sprinkles to an ice cream Sunday. Carl in my story during the Great Depression is naïve and selfish.

Carl is a naïve, immature, kid. He has all his life been spoiled and never has worked hard. If the real world catches up to him (which is does) he would be overwhelmed “I have gotten everything I wanted for my whole life. Never realizing that other kids don’t get everything they want.” Says Carl.  This is kind of pathetic of him. He never realized kid’s families could be poor. He has to be the most inexperienced child ever. This is one of his major traits.

Another one of his big traits is that he is selfish. Although in the end he discovers the meaning of life. “Being greedy has gotten me no where in life. I was raised a greedy, spoiled brat” This is when he finally realizes that the world does not revolve around him. This trait of Carl’s is one of his worst and causing some bad things, like he runs away from his problems. He runs away from his family when he could just get a job or help by working around the house. Instead he runs away for his parents to do it all by themselves.

A historical fiction book may just be the hardest type of book to write.  This sounds weird because it’s from the past and the setting has already been developed.  But writing this genre of book is like you are writing while in the time period. You need to be incredibly accurate, precise, and knowledgeable about your time period or the book will be criticized. Most authors of historical books agree that there are a set of “rules” that need to be followed in order to write a good story based in the past. Two  rules most authors said was small details are important and research is key

The small details are what make your setting, without them the reader would only have big details that point out what time period the characters are in. The small details help the reader feel like they are in the time period you chose: “The reader has to be able to see the street, see the conveyances; he has to smell the smoke from the factories or the sewage in the gutter” Says Elizabeth Crook. In order to write a truly great  historical book you need to keep the small things in mind.  From the prices of milk to what your person wears it all contributes to building an excellent setting. Reaserch is an absloute must, of course with out it you could not write a historical fiction book:”If you don’t want to do the research, perhaps you should think twice about writing historical fiction.”  Says Caro Clarke. Research will help build your understanding for your time setting. You should know so much about your time period you feel  you could litterally live in that setting without sticking out like a sore thumb.

My story is decent when it comes to forming a time setting. My story takes place in the 1930′s during the Great Depression and I must say that I have gone in some amazing detail. The reader could easily tell when the book took place other than when I say ” The Great Depression” in my story. It goes into details about prices and what not. At one point I said ” I will bring 50 cents with me, this should last me a week or two”. The reader knows that money exsisted but everything is cheap. Now a days 50 cents could get you one piece of gum. But back then you could buy 5 loaves of bread.  But honestly I did not research all that much. I need to add in more details to make the reader feel like they are in the 1930′s.

I can honestly say I have never been moved more by a presentation than Dr. Michael Fowlin’s. Usually when I go to an assembly I think “oh it’s just going to be another speech that I am just going to ignore.” Not with this presentation. It was perhaps the perfect presentation; it had some comedy, some emotion, great acting and could relate to everyone in that auditorium.

His presentation was actually rather funny. Some of the voices he did were funny, but they got the point across perfectly. Like the one where he did the small child that never stopped talking. Even though the teacher told him to stop and would send him to the principles office, he was still there. He also went over many classic stereotypes. Like a well built, foot ball captain can’t possibly be gay, well his character was. And Mikey got the across the point that not all jocks had to “get all the ladies” and there is no reason to judge them for that.

He said that most people think that kids that live in the city have the hardest lives.   Because they don’t have as much money, and they don’t live in a nice, big, pleasant house they have horrible lives. Well this isn’t true. Kids in the suburbs have it just as hard as the inner city kids. Parents tell there kids they have nothing to worry about so they have to act like everything is okay and bottling up emotions is the worst thing you can do. If you keep in the emotions they will eventually burst. So making fun of people for what they wear or what they look like may seem funny to you and they will look they think it’s funny on the outside. When on the inside they are burning up.  Everybody could relate to this. If you have ever been made fun of or picked on you can relate. I loved his work so much I gave him a hug after school

This year in science we have covered a broad area of material. We have done the seasons, the Moon,tides, galaxies,  and stars just to name a few topics and now we are working on continental drift. And I can honestly say I have enjoyed most of it.  I have had a generally idea for most of the topics, so alot of the units came very easy to me. 

Mr. Musselman is a decent teacher but isnt the best at answering questions. I will ask him for help and all he will do is respond with another question. Then I am just confused even more. But he is good at comparing our topics to other things so we can understand it better.  He makes very fair tests with question that we have learned.

I like how there is alot of group work in science this year.  I strongly disliked the seasons challenge. Next time that assignment is given, Mr. Musselman should give a more narrow topic, instead of saying ” Find the relationship between Earth and the Sun”. I had no idea what I was suppose to be researching. But I guess that is why it is called a challenge. I really liked the design you own experiment activity. We got to design an experiment using sand, water, test tubes and other various things.   We followed all the steps of the Scientific Method. It was a good way to learn how do work as a team, plan an experiment and make a lab report on it.

This year has been very demanding in writing. I have written some good pieces and some not so great ones.  Some of them have a good grabber while some are just an over all great piece of writing.

Best Comparison: “Books are like school they always have something to teach you” from Being Honored is Sometimes Bad

This was awarded best comparison because of how simple and easy it is to under understand. Everyone that has been to school and read a book can fully relate to this.

Best Introduction: “Settling for less than you want is like getting a 75 percent on a test. Of course you wanted to do better, but when you think about it a C is average. This is called an approximation; settling for less than is desired. It’s not what you wanted but you can’t do anything about it. In the “Approximations” by Mona Simpson, Melinda has to constantly deal with these” from Deal With It

This does exactly what it is suppose to do, grab the reader in. It does not give away the whole essay instead it gives them a very general idea of what the writing is going to be about. And it includes a great comparison that everyone can relate to.

Best Writing:   I’m a 2000 kid

This had all the perks that a perfect writing piece would have, an intro,  multiple comparisons, 4 paragraphs just to name a few and they were all done great. It was me reflecting on the past 10 year; my friends, technology and my school progress. Not to mention it was featured on Mr. Olivo’s  blog

Worst Writing: That Pesky Gull

This was kind of a creative piece of writing.,although it came out horrible. We needed to inclde word masters words and it they were thrown in at almost complete random. This writing seemed to be rushed and there was no attention to format at all.

Best Idea: Shakespeare Wants Us to be Sad

I tried to convey the idea that Shakespeare attempted to make his audience sad. I explained it in a way anyone can understand

Having the will to keep going is not easy. If you get the idea of stopping in your mind, you will without hesitation stop. This is many people’s weaknesses. It’s not about your skill of the game; it’s about being determined to never give up. Giving up is like turning down one million dollars. You are giving up the chance to have the feeling of accomplishment. And then after you quit you say to yourself “I just should have just kept going.” This is similar to the time I went on a 30 mile bike trip.

So we started out down the trail and I was thinking this is going to be an easy, little bike ride. It actually ended up taking way longer than I expected; about 6 hours. I guess I didn’t realize just how long 30 miles actually was. We started down the trail and I was completely fine, going over hills and long strips of road like there was no tomorrow. I was at the head of the pack, thinking I was better than every other rider. Until we hit the half way point things stared going way down hill.

We went to a small ice cream shop, got a snack, went the bathroom and headed back the other way. Another 15 miles, it was going to be easy. Then I started to run out of fuel and was at the back of the group, the very back. An adult and I were so far behind we couldn’t even see the others. I sort of felt bad because they had constantly stopped for me so we could catch up. I was so incredibly tired I was about to collapse, literally. But the thing is I didn’t give up. The only time I stopped was when we had to catch up with the group. When we went up the hills, I didn’t stop. When my legs felt as if they were on fire I didn’t stop. I just kept going and going and going. Seeing our final destination was perhaps the greatest feeling ever. I went into my lodge and collapsed to my bed with the feeling of accomplishment by my side.

Imagine you just discovered a cure for cancer.  Just by giving someone with cancer an antidote you would banish all death-threatening disease from their body. But you’re just a teenager and no one will believe you.  You have absolutely no training in the field of oncology (the study of cancer), how could you ever achieve something so great. This is how Wegener felt when he came up with his brilliant theory of continental drift.

Wegener questioned how could there be fossils of the same animal on separate continents. They couldn’t have just flown there. Wegener realized that the continents’ coastlines all seemed to match up.  He did immense research and came to the conclusion that the continents were once in one huge super continent.  Over millions of years all the continents drifted away from each other to form the present day lands. Wegener’s field of profession was meteorology not geology, so all big, important, chief geologists completely rejected his ideas. This is like going to jail for no reason. People don’t believe you and you are punished for it. I kind of agree with not believing him. At first I would completely reject his work but they maybe look into it more and realize he is right.

This happens all the time in school, especially with substitute teachers. If you are even close to a group of kids goofing off the sub writes down your name. One time in Spanish, we had a sub. We were supposed to be working in groups, so I got a group and then someone stole my pencil case and books.  While my group and I were attempting to get my stuff back we were told to sit down. Then we were negotiating with her to give it back and got in trouble again for distracting her. Then the sub wrote down our names and my group got a 30 minute detention. Of course the sub did not believe us, and believed the girl. The girl even apologized and admitted it was her fault.

Reading is one of the best ways of relaxing. You lie down in your bed with a book to read and time will go by incredibly fast. Sometimes I will think it’s early in the night but it ends up being two o’clock in the morning. I am so mesmerized by the pages I cant take a break to simply look at the clock. For the past month or so Mr. Olivo required us to read one novel and we had to write multiple essays on it.

A Boy at War” by Harry Mazer is about a boy living in Hawaii during the Pearl Harbor attack. The boy dealt with all the problems of growing up along with putting up with his military based dad. It had a very slow start, but got more and more exciting as the plot unraveled. -Sam R

This book, “Eragon” by Christopher Paolini, is a very absorbing book. It really draws me in andkeeps me reading for a really long time. It has an adventurous story line to it and it has many fantastic things in it like dragons,magic, dwarves, and elves. – Andy J

Over the past week or two, I’ve been reading “The Attack of The Fiend” by Joseph Delaney. This book kept me well entertained throughout the whole book.When reading it, it was like I was in my own world, like everything else didn’t matter. This book combines a great storyline and interesting characters to create something amazing.  -Kevin F

Summer Secrets” by Patricia Hermes is about a girl named Missy who struggles to find things to join the hot summer of Mississippi. It was really sad and gave me a better understanding of the lives of people during war. It was warm and showed the true meaning of family and friends. -KaseyL

The book ” The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold was creepy and chilling in the beginning, and became very interesting in the middle. My favorite part was when the girl broke into the murders house it was very suspenseful. I liked how the book was sort of creepy and disturbing.    -Amanda L