Darfur Photo

I chose this images because it reminds me of the book A Long Way Gone, the guy 5th over from the left is kind of smiling. Like he's getting joy out of killing people and guys in a long way gone laugh after they burn down a town. It shows they've been brain washed to act as if they have no soul and no feelings. It's scary people can get joy out of killing. The soldiers there are inhumane.

Yemen Child soldiers.

In Yemen over 33,000 boy and girl soldiers have been in combat. In this whole country 5.5 million people are involved in this battle. Over 80 percent are between the age 7 and 14. This was going on between 1991 and 2001 and child soldiers are still happening today.

A Long Way Gone

Here are quotes from The Message By Grand Master Flash, that relate to the book A Long Way Gone.

"I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jaw

Hear them say: “You want some more?" livin' on a seesaw"

The quote, the part where it say's "livin on a seesaw" is reminding me of the boy in a long way gone because he lives where he can he is alone and pretty much going where he can for a liveable environment away from the terroists. Looking for places to sleep, Living anywhere safe.

"God is smiling on you but he's frowning too

Because only God knows what you’ll go through"

-This quote reminds me of the book because I didn't even know this country existed and didn't know this stuff was happening. And this guy's saying God knows, but God knows everything if he's real and not everyone knows about what is happening over in Sierra Leone.

R.U.F.

RUF stands for Revolutionary United Front

It's almost like a minerature army that involves children, amputees and a bunch rebels that kill civilians.

They are fighting for the rain forest, they want to control it. This started in 1991 and ended in 2002. 11 years.

Kurtis Blow

Kurtis blow is a hard up ganster that loves basketball.

Spoonie Gee

The difference between rappers now and rappers in the 70's is back then there was just a record and they skipped it and all that and they had drums. Now we have sythiziors, and beats from computers and more high tech stuff. They also didn't cus as much back then they talked about how hard life was.

Runner Summary

Runner Summary

John Kelly

I read the book Runner by Carl Deuker. The main character is Chance. He lives on a boat on a boat pierre. He lives with his dad there his mom left him and his dad because she was sick of Chance’s dad being drunk all the time. Chance is poor and doesn’t have many clothes and is kind of a shy kid in school. He runs everyday on the beach after school to get away from his cooped up boat and his drunk father. One day he was running and he felt he was being followed he’s had the same routine for a while and this time he knew he was being watched. A guy confronts him and offers him a 100 dollar bill to think about running “packages” for him and to drop them off in his locker and the rest will be dealt with. He just has to pick them up and drop them off. So he thinks about it and takes the job because his dad had just gotten fired and they could use the extra money. He gets paid 200 dollars a week for just running and picking up packages and putting them in his locker. Chance gets curious and wants to know what is in the package even know the guy told him not to look. So he didn’t and he ran packages for months and months. And he met the guy that gave him the job and the guy said he’l be getting different packages. Just store them on your boat. So he does. His dad has been in and out of different jobs getting drunk all of the time. Chance is disappointed in his dad but he loves him more than anything. Chance opens one of the new packages and finds out it’s plastic explosives. He figures out he’s dealing with terrorist’s. He thinks terrorist are trying to blow up a populated area around the sound. You can read the book to find the rest out.

Opinion Piece

I want learn more about the Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. That really interest's me because it's something we in Maine might have to deal with because the last I heard the oil got to Florida and is on it's way up because they can't stop it. I don't know a lot about this but that's why I want to learn more about it. I think our fishing industry will go down and all of the sea-food restaurants will not have a lot of business if the oil gets up here. But I would like to learn more about that.

http://www.sindhtoday.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/oil_rig_3_spill.jpg

Blog Reflection

This year was a little rough with the blogging because it was my first year, I was new to it and had no idea for like the first month how to use it. I think for kids coming up into freshman year if they have to blog, they should be showed how to use this. How to use the buttons in the tool bar, The last blog I just did (5 minutes ago) I just learned how to use spell check and it's the last day of school so I think kids should have a few classes to be taught about this. Also the user-name and password was hard to remember because I have several user name's and passwords. I think teachers should keep a list of every one's just in case they forget there's. I think that would be helpful. Next year I want to improve on adding a picture in when I've been told to because sometimes I forget and have to go back and edit it.

Poetry Friday

I have learned more about poetry this year. Poetry Friday helped because it was a weekly thing and you just didn't learn everything at once because then you just forget it. It was all year long and weekly. It helped me learn about more people that are poets and rappers are poets too. It showed me how to write poems in different ways. It was easy to read someones poem and kind of change it up a little and make it about me. I do think Poetry Friday was helpful.

Blood Brothers

I read the book Blood Brothers. It's about two boys Clay (main character) and Joey (his best friend) Clay works in a hospital as a helper he and his best friend Joey are mad at each other about a girl. Clay is at work and a teenage girl comes in bleeding really badly, and he sees her die, then he realizes there are worse things in life and doesn't want to argue with Joey any more. So he rode his bike to Joey's and when he got there the place was trashed. It looked like a party had went on (joeys parents are out of town) so clay was looking for Joey.Joey was on the floor passed out. Clay woke him up, and out of no where Joey just attached him! Clay defended him self and pushed joey to the floor. Joey smacked his head off the floor and was knocked out cold. Clay called 911 and Joey was sent to the ER. This is a short book with a lot of detail about Joey and Clays life together, Clay has flash backs of memories they shared together, while Joeys in the ER on a feeding tube in a coma.Clay is devastated and never wanted to hurt Joey that bad. Joey's at the same hospital Clay works at. This book I'd recommend for teens because stuff like this can happen to anyone especially teenagers, just horsing around can do a lot. I liked this book it taught me to be careful, and not to mess around like that because hitting your head is serious. There is a lot more to this book if you want to know if Joey gets to go home or not read the book.


http://www.barnstable.k12.ma.us/bhs/Library/images/blood_brothers_000.jpg

My Cause

My cause is to spend time with my son or daughter. To go to there, baseball games, softball games, football games, to the lake, to the ocean, to the fair, to the circus, to the zoo, graduations, going fishing, going hunting, cookouts, anything with them anything that involves spending time with them. Because my dad missed a lot of games, practices special events because he was always working on the road. Alaska, California, Virginia, Connecticut, Colorado, Ohio, many others. The fact is he wasn't there for a lot. So I want to give back to my children and be there for them.

The Chariot

I think The Chariot card goes with me because I like to work for my stuff, not like school or book work but work outside of school. I don't like taking hand outs. I'm strong willed like the card says I don't like getting things handed to me. I work for what I want.

Seven Spread Out Trees

Those trees, they're not very close. They're all very distant. One leeches off the rest. One is generous and helps out. The rest are mutual and just there.

Born Antsy

I'm always wanting to get up and do something. Even if I just got done playing baseball, I'l get inside and after about 5 minutes of just sitting down I'l get bored and have to do something outside again. I hate being inside it's to boring. I'm more of an active person then a just sitting around doing nothing kind of person. I rather work outside like mowing, weed-whacking, cutting trees, splitting wood, or riding my bike then just being inside. Last night I weed-whacked the sides of my driveway at 9:30 because I was bored. I like to keep busy.

Undecided

All of my brothers have tattoos, all but my dad out of the guys in our family have tattoos. So im undecided about getting one. I don't want to be 8 in a nursing home and have tattoos all over my trying to look bad ass at age 8, I think that would be embarassing to have a tattoo at age 80 or 60 or 70 and I don't want to regret having something I don't like on my body because that's somthing that will be there until I die. So I'm undecided so far about getting a tattoo for now.

Night Review

The book Night written by Elie Wiesel, is a book about the Holocaust during World War II. The book tells you about how the Nazis invaded Jews and wiesel’s neighborhood in Sighet. They were sent to concentration camps and had to abandon there homes becoming refuges. Most of them suffered through four years of agony. They were brutally beaten everyday Elie and his family were in a camp called Auschwitz for a while and families were split apart and people were killed left and right. After a while they moved Auschwitz to a camp called Buchenwald this was a more brutal camp. To get there they had to ride in cattle carts packed with about 100 people. People were petrified of where they were going. When the train stopped the Jews had to run 40 miles and if they stopped they were shot on sight the germans were sabotage. When they got to the camp they saw a huge cremator people looked at it in terror. Elie and his father were split up and could only see each other just before bed time for a very short period of time. Elies father got really sick and was in danger of getting selected as getting cremated. Elies father died. Elie was liberated two weeks later, fatherless.

I learned a lot out of this book. I didn’t know as much as I do now about the holocaust now I can see how it could be offensive to some people to say “ i got jewed” or “ that means about as cheap as a jew” and stereo types like that I see how it can be offensive. I could not believe living like Elie did, I’m very fortunate to live in this time and in this country. I understand I have it pretty good compared to a lot of people and I am thankful for that. I defiantly learned a lot out of this book and understand the holocaust now that we read the book Night.

picture from: http://www.meredith.edu/summer-reading/images/night_cover_lg.jpg

Sandra Cisneros Bio Poem

Who is a writer that was born third and the only girl in a family of 7 children.

Who writes about poetry and some of her life. But mostly about Chicana culture.

Who loves books and poetry and Chicana culture.

Who feels accomplished, with her life and books.

Who says “Revenge only engenders violence, not clarity and true peace. I think liberation must come from within.”

Who gives and puts education, time, and her knowledge into her books and poems

Who is known for writing My Wicked Wicked Ways, The House on Mango Street, and Loose Woman.

Who has worked as a high-school counselor for dropouts, and a arts administrator.

Whose parents are a Mexican father and a Chicana mother.

Who is a ¡Bueno el libro el escritor

Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros

Sandra
Who is a writer that was born third and the only girl in a family of 7 children.

Who writes about poetry and some of her life. But mostly about Chicana culture.

Who loves books and poetry and Chicana culture

Who feels accomplished, she won the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award in 1985.

Who says "My books have been translated into over a dozen languages, including Spanish, Galician, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Norwegian, Japanese, Chinese, Turkish, and, most recently, into Greek, Iranian, Thai, and Serbo-
Croatian."
Who gives egducation, time, and her knowledge into her books and poems

Who is known for writing My Wicked Wicked Ways, The House on Mango Street, and Loose Woman.

Who has worked as a high-school counselor for dropouts, and a arts administrator.

Whose parents are a Mexican father and a Chicana mother.

Who is que est don diabla porque mush tu

Cisneros

Dramatic Irony- Macbeth

Dramatic Irony- When the audience knows more then the characters do. In act one of Macbeth a case of dramatic irony is when Macbeth is planning to kill King Duncan to be become king and have a better and more enjoyful life but what will really happen is his life will get worse and everything will go down hill and he will be killed also.

Soliloquy-Macbeth

Here is a soliloquy from Macbeth page 54-
" Might be the be-all and the end-all here,/
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,/
We'd jump the life to come."
This quote means if Macbeth kills Duncan the king he will suffer after for ever apposed to regular life as a king it'd be good, but when he dies he will be damned for taking a life, forever. Soliloquy is when a character talks to one self and in this case Macbeth is trying to make a decision .

World News

Haiti

SSR Book Review

Last quarter I read New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. The book is the sequel to Twilight her first book. New Moon takes place in The Forks, Washington. It is always raining and rarely sunny there. It's a perfect place for people like the cullen's because they don't belong in the sun. Bella is the main character in this book she lives with her dad, he's the town sheriff. Her mom lives in Florida with her baseball playing boyfriend.

Now, Bella and Edward are together they are both seniors in high school. Edward and his family ( The Cullens) are vampires and have to keep it a secret and only Bella knows. Carlaisle, Edwards adoptive parent is a doctor he has been for a while and people are getting suspicious that he doesn't look like he's getting any older. So the cullens have to relocate, and that tears Bella's heart out because her boyfriend (Edward) is leaving...for good. She never hangs out with her friends anymore or does anything fun she just goes to school comes home and goes to her room. This goes on for months. Bella is depressed and her dad is concerned and has her hang out with Jacob (her old friend) and she seems to have fun with him so she keeps hanging out with him. It takes her mind off Edward. Bella and Jacob want to rebuild motorcycles because Bella figured out if she does something "reckless" and "crazy" she can here Edward talking to her in her head and she gets a rush off hearing his voice. Anyways Jacob and Bella are rebuilding motorcycles because Bella knows when she is riding it she will hear Edwards voice because it is "reckless" and "crazy" she has never driven a motorcycle.

So Jacob gets the motorcycles running and they go to a dirt road and she drives one and starts to hear Edwards voice again then she crashed it and just scraped her head. So Jacob brought her home. Charlie (her dad) had told Bella about hikers going "missing" in the mountains and there might be a very dangerous bear in the woods so he wanted her to stay home and stay out of the woods. Bella had called Jacob a few days later and got no answer and then called again and again and Jacobs dad kept telling Bella that Jacob was not there or sleeping. So Bella thought Jacob was avoiding her now for some reason and Bella started thinking of Edward again and she really needed to see Jacob to get her mind off things. So she drove over to La Push (that's where Jacob lives) and Jacob is sleeping and his clothes are all torn up and she lets him sleep.

So a few days later she went into the woods because she wanted to hear Edwards voice again and she wanted to find the first place they had gone and she found out he was a vampire. It was a little valley in the woods. So she hiked up the trail by the school where she had gone in before and she found the spot and forgot all about the "bear" and she stayed a while and then Laurent ( a vampire that tried to attach her in the first book the cullens killed his friend) showed up and was going to attach her but a huge wolf came in and then a few other came and chased him away. She went home. A few days later she found out that Jacob transforms into a wolf and he wasn't suppose to tell her because he would get in trouble. But anyway she knows now. Bella wanted to do something else "reckless" and "crazy" so she jumped off a cliff at La Push and almost died. She sunk and sunk and Jacob brought her back up. Everyone was worried and they called her dad and he was at a funeral because his friend died. So Bella went home and in the drive way was a very familiar car, it was Carlaisle's. Jacob was mad because his pack of wolves and vampires don't get along. But Bella went inside and she found that Edwards sister (Alice) was inside and she was so worried because Edward called earlier that day and asked for Charlie and he heard that Bella jumped off a cliff. When someone answered the phone Edward asked if Charlie was there and they said no he's at the funeral.

So Edward figured it was Bella that died and she because she jumped off the cliff. Alice told Bella that Edward was planning on seeing "The Vulturi" (they are upper class vampires) to ask if they could kill him and they denied him. So the only way they would kill him now if he went crazy in the town and did somthing stupid like revealing him being a vampire they would kill him. Bella and Alice flew to Volterra where The Vulturi is and where Edward was planning on getting killed. Alice and Bella are planning on stopping him when they get there...

I did not like this book because it was so long and it was pointless to read because I finished it about two months before the movie came out I could of waited. I think if you like books that aren't real you would like this because it is fictional but the author makes it pretty believable.

http://www.celebritysmackblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/new-moon-tickets.jpg

Critical Thinking

I think from the beginning of the year that my grades and attendence have gone down so far. I have noticed this by looking on power-school and comparing my grades from last quarter to this one and they have gone down from then. I think the reason why they have gone down is because I have not been here as much lately and I am missing a lot of work.