Reading Times

Size 14 is not fat eight by Meg Cabot
11/31-Page 1-50 (40 minutes)
12/1- Page 51-67 (15 minutes)
12/2- Page 68-90 (25 minutes)
12/3- Page 91-121 (20 minutes)
12/4- Page 122-146 (20 minutes)
12/5-Page 147-159 (10 minutes)

Total Time: 125 minutes




I didn't go to the Writing Center but I had my Journalism Teacher, review it.

Reading Times 11/18-12/2

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Reading and Annotating)
11/18-Pages 61-89 (50 minutes)
11/20-Pages 91-115 (35 minutes)
11/21-Pages 116-137 (30 minutes)
11/24-Pages 138-150 (20 minutes)
11/26-Pages 151-170 (30 minutes)
11/28-Pages 171-189 (36 minutes)
11/29-Pages 190-202 (20 minutes)

Total Time: 221 Minutes

My own Blog Prompt

This week Dr.deGravelles challenged us to make our own blog prompts. So, I have been sitting here for a good 30 minutes trying to come up with a prompt and they all suck. I never appreciated how much time Dr.D put into blog prompts until now. I think I finally have one.
                           Here goes: Write a Letter to younger me.
The assignment is to write a letter to a younger version of your self trying to help them through tough times or giving advice. Write about whatever you think a younger you would need. Here is my example:

Dear Young Mary,
   I am writing to you as my not-so-mature 14 year old self. I can honestly say you have done a pretty good job of growing up nicely. You  will go through some tough times in your pre-teen and early teen years but, power through them. While they might seem tough at the time, they will make you a better person in the end.
  A little Gold nugget of Advice:Be yourself because everyone else is taken. If your trying to be friends with somebody new, its better to be yourself and get rejected than to pretend to be somebody else and them like you. If you act like  somebody else to get people to be your friends, then the odds are they probably won't be very good friends back. Stand firm in who you are and don't let anyone change that.

       Stay True,
14 year old Mary

Reading Times :)

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Reading and Annotations)
11/11-Pages 8-20 (30 Minutes)
11/12-Pages 21-43 (25 minutes)
11/13-Pages 44-60  (40 minutes)

Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
11/12-Pages 280-300 (30 minutes)
11/13- Pages 301-345 (50 minutes)

Total Time: 175 minutes

The Basketball Star

So I think from every free post now on, I am going to write a little story. I haven't decided if to make it a series or just a collection of mini stories.

The Basketball Star

It was an eerie Friday night on the Unc campus. No body was to be seen, but screams were to be heard. As you followed the screaming you were lead to a basketball court. It was the Unc vs. Nc State game and everybody was cheering on their team. This was the biggest game of the season so far, if you weren’t at this game you weren’t considered a real college student. The rivalry was so big that when you got your ticket you had to go to a specific line, for your team. Once inside you saw the gym was split in half, one side red and black, and the other blue and white. Everyone was dressed in blue and white or red and black, students had crazy, painted afros, foam fingers, and anything else you could imagine.

          The game had started and UNC was leading the game, but State wasn’t far behind. By the end of the 1^st half UNC had gotten a farther lead, and State was getting their butts handed to them. The cheerleaders came out at half time and did several dances; one to one of Chapel Hills theme songs and then one to a popular song in that time.

Half-time ended and the teams came back out. The ball was thrown and they were off! State made a breakaway and got the ball but UNC wasn’t far behind. Then Chapel Hill had the ball and was making crazy passing patterns, dribbling like nobody’s business, doing between the leg passes, behind the back passes, fake-outs anything to hold onto their lead. At about halfway through the 3^rd quarter State made a comeback and was taking the lead, but UNC wasn’t happy about this so they once again pulled out their bag of tricks and started doing plays never before seen by the crowd. Once the final buzzer rang, UNC was considered champion of the league because they had won the game!

A Secret Loss

So I didn't really feel like writing about some boring topic, so instead I wrote a flash-fiction. Here we go.

                                               A Secret Loss

     Brown. The color of my all-time favorite teddy bear. His name was Mr.Brown-I know real original, but hey I was 5. I had Mr. Brown from the time I was five to when I turned 10.

   Everyday I would get picked up at the carpool line, and my mom would ask me how my day was, who I sat with at lunch, did I have any quizzes or tests, if not did I get any back, and did I have a fun day at school? I hated those thirty minute car rides, they were pure agony. All I wanted to do was sit there and listen to my music but sadly I couldn’t.

   When I got home I was greeted by Mr. Brown. He always said, “Hello, how was your day at school?” and I would reply with “good. How were the animals today?”  Mr. Brown sat in the special “study corner” of my room.. I had a little desk, pencils, some pens, loose leaf paper, a little chair and Mr.Brown. I never once sat on that pink and purple chair, always preferring to sit on the comfy brown plush. When school ended I would be sad that I had to leave my friends but then I would remember how Mr.Brown was waiting for me at home. Until one day he wasn’t.

   I had just entered the 4^th grade, and my mom thought I was getting too old for Mr.Brown. So one day when she made a stop to Goodwill, she made a giant, brown, fluffy donation. I didn’t talk to her for a week.

Reading Times

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Includes reading and annotations)
11/8-Pages 8-31 (40 minutes)

Literary Analysis
11/5-20 minutes
11/6-30 minutes

Size 12 is not Fat by Meg Cabot
11/9- Pages 201-279 (60 minutes)

Total Time: 150 minutes

Simulated Island Exeperience

    In class on Friday, we spent the first couple of minutes pretending we were the characters in the book, Lord of the Flies. We had to figure out how we would run the island,  look for food, find shelter, make S.O.S. signals and live. It was a disaster in my class. We wouldn't have made it past the first week.
   We all would of died. Nobody could decide on anything. Some people wanted to go off on their own, some wanted to be cannibals and some wanted to split up jobs. We didn't have a regulated order of how to do things, and nobody was interested in making one. We would have been faced with all the daily obstacles we do now, but instead of just going to the fridge for food we would slowly starve to death instead.

Reading Times

Size 12 Doesn't Mean your Fat by Meg Cabot
10/31-Pages 151-200 (45 minutes)

Thesis and Barebone Outline
10/31-35 minutes

Detailed Outline
11/1- 40 minutes

Total Time:120 minutes

Short Stories Analysis

For my Free short stories I chose to read Araby by by James Joyce,Sucker by Carson McCullers, and The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty. I chose to read these three short stories because they all had interesting one word titles. In each story, the main character starts off pretty good but as they continue in the story, something goes wrong, contributing to the eventual down fall of the character.
  For my Literary analysis, I think I am going to analyze Araby for setting because there is a lot of hidden patterns and themes that I can work with. I am very excited to begin working on my literary analysis because I haven't written something like this before, and it will be something to add to my repertoire of writing styles. No questions come to my mind about literary analysis but if any come to mind I will be sure to ask you them.

The Comfort Zone Issue

      This week we were told to write a free post. Well I had trouble coming up with a topic for this one because I haven't really done anything exciting enough to write about, I haven't read any interesting books, like Alligient in the Divergent Series, and nothing embarrassing has happened to me. So I decided to write about something really exciting.. My first Journalism publishing.
      This semester I chose to take a class called Journalism, for those of you who don't know what that class is, it is the class that publishes the school magazine, the Boulevard. About each nine weeks we have to make a publishing of our magazine. Making a magazine is a huge responsibility, you have to decide on the topic, assign people articles to write, find pictures to go with the articles, get permission to use pictures, edit all the pages and finally get approved for web-publishing. This nine weeks, we are writing the Comfort Zone Issue. While I can't tell you a lot about the articles, I can tell you it comes out this week. Including in the magazine, is a scavenger hunt, for those few lucky winners who complete the hunt first my class will bring you a meal of your choice to the class of your choice at the time of your choice. SO GET EXCITED!!

Reading Log-10/28

Size 12 is not Fat by Meg Cabot
10/21-Pages 1-22  (15 minutes)
10/22-Pages 23-47  (20 minutes)
10/23-Pages 48-60  (10 minutes)
1024-Pages 61-90  (25 minutes)
10/25-Pages 91-120 (25 minutes)
10/26-Pages 121-150 (25 minutes)

Total Time: 120 minutes

Personal Questions Exploration

I couldn't decide on one question for this nine weeks so I choose a few.

1.What is Love?

2.What would happen if somebody were to change their whole life for what they think is true love, only to have it blow up in their face?

3.Why do people make choices based on their "gut feeling"?

October 14 Reading Log

The Elite by Kiera Cass:
10/7-Pages 1-50 (40 minutes)
10/8-Pages 51-100 (40 minutes)
10/9-Pages 101-167 (40 minutes)
10/10-Pages 168-200  (25 minutes)
10/11-Pages 201-230 (25 minutes)

Short Story Work:
10/5-45 Minutes

Total Time: 215 Minutes

Plot Line-A Lying Secret

Reading Log

The Selection by Kiera Cass:
9/24-Pages 1-23 (20 Minutes)

9/25-Pages 24-60 (10 Minutes)

9/26-Pages 61-89(30 Minutes)

9/27-Pages 90-110 (10 Minutes)

9/28-Pages 111-170 (50 Minutes)

Dry September:

9/26-Pages 21-31 (15 minutes)

Total Time:135 minutes

Literacy Elements

    For the past few weeks, we have been doing several literacy items. I have enjoyed doing every single one of these projects. My favorite one was writing the literacy narrative, because I haven't ever written something like that before and it was fun to explore that side of writing. I hope we do another segment like this before the year ends.
   There was some things I noticed appeared in a lot of the essays. Almost everyone wrote about when they realized they didn't like reading. If this many people wrote about not enjoying something we have to do everyday, then why aren't we doing something to change it. Just something to think about, but other than that I would say every essay has been different.

Robert Edward's Bed-Time Thoughts

    Getting ready for bed all that flows through my brain is a run through of what I did today.Got up at 6:00 am and went to workout with the baseball team. At school took a hard Geometry test and an AP test. Went to the library at lunch, thinking how tired I was of hearing kids complain about their tiny social studies test, when it's like I just took a Period/ Unit test on 4 chapters. Chill down people. After lunch I went to the weight room to lift for football because I didn't go to practice today. Finally got home and ate my mom's homemade chicken Alfredo for dinner.

Ohh and I did some homework.

 I go to bed thinking about what the greater purpose of my life is. Everyday I do the same routine, and when I ask to do something different I get turned down by my parents saying, "Not today, sweetie we need to stay in town today." Why was I adopted by this family? Why do my "parents" put so much emphasis on sports instead of my grades? Why am I the fittest kid in the school? Why? Why? Why?

Why can't I go to bed now!?

  

Reading Log-September 23

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore

9/17-Pages 101-145 (30 Minutes)

9/18-Pages 146-170(30 Minutes)

9/19-Pages171-197 (20 Minutes)

9/20-Pages 198-220 (20 Minutes)

9/21-Pages 221-304 (60 Minutes)

Short Essay:

Harrison Bergueson

9/18-20 Minutes

A&P

9/20- 20 Minutes

Total Time:200 Minutes

Reading Response

This week I continued reading in the series called The Lorien Legacies. Reading the second book in the series, The Power of Six. I finished reading the book, so now I am going to continue the series with the third book, Rise of Nine.
   In the end of the book, we meet more of the special kids. Number Nine is introduced right before the last big fight of the book, Six is introduced towards the middle of the book and is a big character throughout the story. Now originally in the setting we were lead to believe there were only 9 Lorien kids, but we learn that was incorrect.  After leaving Lorien, a second ship left with the tenth child, named Ella. Ella was chosen to recieve the 10th elder's powers. Shrinking to different ages has allowed her to sneak into the lives of different children.

Reading Log- September 16

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore
9/13-Pages 1-40 (30 minutes)
9/14-Pages 41-100 (45 minutes)

Literacy Narrative
9/10-30 minutes
9/11-30 minutes
9/12- 30 minutes

Total Time:165 minutes

We're making an Ebook!

 This topic we are suppose to write about our concerns for the publishing of our narratives in an E-book, but since I don't have any I am going to talk about the things I am excited for! I am excited to finally be in a school publishing! I tried to be in a school publishing at my old school but they said I was too young. Being able to compare my work to my other classmates is kinda exciting because I have always wanted to but its kinda rude to be like, "Hey, Can I see your essay to compare it to mine?".

  To enhance my writing, I am thinking of getting some pictures of my journalism class, so people can actually put warm bodies and faces to my story. I might also just publish it in a pretty font, you can never go wrong with Handwriting-Dakota. Changing your font is a simple way to grab peoples' attention and make your piece stand out! I am very excited for our class to work together and pull off a fabulous E-book.

Reading Response-September 16

This week I have been a little slow on my reading, because I have been writing a Literacy Narrative for class. Aliteracy narrative is a paper, that tells a story about reading or writing. For my literacy narrative I am writing about the time when I realized how serious writing is to me. Since this was a recent time, it has been pretty easy to write about, which is a good thing because some of my classmates are struggling with a topic-let alone the essay-. I am very proud of my story so I can going to give y'all a sneak peek.

I roll my eyes thinking how I do the exact same thing. After a couple of minutes a group of about five girls walk in. They all automatically sit next to the girl who had been texting. Following them, a giant boy walks in a pulls up a seat next to me. I automatically nickname him “the Hulk”. He’s about 6’4, tone, brown hair-light on top; dark on bottom- he has a stern look in his eyes. Probably trying to be sweet and nice to me, he pulls up a chair next to me. We are about to start class as one more senior saunters into the class and of course the only seat available is the one on the opposite side of me.

“Ma’am, I am so sorry for being late. I didn’t know where to go, so I went to your office but you weren’t there so I started looking around and finally found y’all.” He says in a deep almost country accent.

His accent is so twain and deep that you could barely understand him. The only way to describe him is by saying he was born and raised in Pier-Part, Louisiana. He is given the nickname country bumpkin boy.