Class Participation

This quarter, I think that I participated fairly well.  I always have all the things that I need for class.  For example, I always have my pencils/pens, notebook, reading book, binder, and short story booklet with me.  I usually use my breaks during the day well and get water and go to the bathroom then, but every now and then, I might need to go to my locker to get my ipad because I don’t like carrying it around, because then I am tempted to read during other classes.  I check the EHS website multiple times every night to make sure that I have done all of my homework, and when possible, I try to get ahead.  During class, I try to participate, as much as possible without being the only one answering the questions.  At then end of the class, I usually only pack up early if I have somewhere that I really have to be, like when I had to do the sermon in chapel, or on Monday when the cross country team goes to Highland Road Park for practice.  Other than those days, I usually don’t pack up until the very end of class. 

            When Dr. D is lecturing us and showing the class the power points, I always take notes, especially when she emphasizes something, says it twice, or says we will need to know this. Whenever she asks us questions, I try to give a goo answer that is correct, but sometimes I don’t answer because I don’t want to be wrong, and I am not completely sure my answer is correct.  I don’t usually ask that many questions during class because I feel that Dr. D explains everything very and doesn’t give us that much room to be confused.  Whenever people do ask questions in class, I listen to make sure that I know the answer and to make sure that I won’t ask the same question later.  I never do anything else in English but English and reading when I am allowed.  I don’t usually have any other conversations because there are not any other people I could talk to.  When Brennan and I do talk, usually it is one of us asking a question to the other one.  I rarely ever use my computer in class.  When I do use my computer, it is when we are writing a paper, so I don’t ever do anything I am not supposed to do on it. 

            When we do group work, sometimes I am quite and don’t always put my thoughts into the group discussion (I am a little shy), but when they ask me something or they get stuck, and then I put out my thoughts a little and see what they think.  Usually, they like what I say, and it helps everybody get past a mental block (or some such thing).  I am usually lucky and get in a good group, so we always stay on topic.  We always complete the task(s) assigned to us and I try to put a little more than what is asked for. 

            Sometimes when I write, I ramble on and on and on, and can easily get off topic.  To fix that, I am going to try to write a little bit more concisely, but not as concise as Richard.  He can fit huge ideas in such a small space because he chooses his wording very carefully and spends FOREVER on one sentence.  Woops…rambling again.  My goal to improve my writing during the second quarter by shortening it.  

Reading Minutes

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
10/4-208 pages, 2.5 hours
10/5-190 pages, about 2 hours 15 minutes
10/6-197 pages, about 2 hours and 15 minutes

The Warlock Plot

The Warlock is about a pair of twins who are separated.  One of them is on the good side, the other on the bad side.  They have to fight for the side they think is right, but they love each other and want to help each other.  The protagonists in the book are Sophie Newman and Nicolas Flamel.  The antagonists are Dr. Dee, Virginia Dare, and Josh Newman.

The conflict in this book is between Nicholas and Sophie against Josh and Dr. Dee.  Nicolas Flamel is dying and he needs to get the Codex back from Dr. Dee and save the golden twin, Josh.  Sophie is helping him.  The climax of the book is when Josh decides to side with Virginia Dare and Dr. Dee against his twin Sophie and Nicholas Flamel.  He does this because he thinks he sees Sophie kill a pretty girl, but actually, the girl is a snake lady and is evil.   Virginia Dare and Dr. Dee want to destroy the world, but they don’t tell Josh that.  They tell him that they want to save the world and make it a paradise.  After he switches, Nicolas Flamel and everyone on his side know that Josh is truly lost to them.   

To get to this point, there was a lot of rising action.  Many people that are usually enemies decide to join together to stop Dr. Dee.  Mars Ultor was one of those people.  He had been an enemy of Nicolas, but realized that Dr. Dee needed to be stopped.  The Witch of Endor released him from prison so that he could fight.  Other people, like the Elders and the Next Generation, have to work together to stop him from destroying the world. Machiavelli and Billy the Kid also team up together to help stop Dee.  Originally, they were working with Dee and Virginia Dare, but once they learned what he was really planning to do, they felt that that was not what was right and that his plan would never succeed.  They tried to get Josh to join their side, but once again, he chose Dr. Dee. One of the most important rising actions was when Sophie Newman learns that her aunt is really the One Who Sees.  This is important because the things that the One Who Sees tells Sophie start to make all the books in the series fit together to make one final outcome. 

There was not a lot of falling action after the climax in The Warlock. Dr. Dee tries to get Machiavelli, his new enemy, to tell him how to release all the monsters on Alcatraz.  When he doesn’t, Dee threatens to feed Machiavelli’s new friend, Billy the Kid, to the sphinx.  Machiavelli and Billy the Kid both agree that it is better to loose one life than loose an entire nation.  The last and most important falling action is when Sophie Newman makes it to the island and tries to convince her brother that he should come with her.  This is important because it shows how much she loves him and how much she is willing to sacrifice for him..

The resolution of The Warlock is also a cliffhanger.  Josh tells Sophie that Dr. Dee and Virginia Dare need his help.  Sophie knows that her brother will not come with her, so she decides to go with him.  They all end up at the beginning of the world on Danu Talis.  This is important because it shows how much the two siblings love each other, and that Dr. Dee’s plan is not actually what he told Josh.  His plan is something bigger and something much more dangerous than just taking over the world. 

Reading minutes

The Warlock by Michael Scott
9/24-131 pages, 2 hours
9/25-139 pages, a little over 2 hours
2/26-96 pages, about 1.5 hours

Narrative: about 2 hours

The Build a Fire: about 30 minutes

Stories

Adventures, Love, and Romance too

I love writing about those, don’t you?

When I am not busy and I am at home

I’ll write incredible stories and make them my own.

Mother, Father, and Grandmother too

Would all like to read them to see how I do

I might be a princess, mermaid, a girl, or a knight

Who would do amazing things and win every fight

Or even a cute, clever little witch who casts spells

And can see the future by looking through seashells

I am a writer who likes to write stories

And share them with everyone to create more love between us

So take your best guess…

What will I write about next?

The Necromancer

This week I read The Necromancer in the Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott.  It is about twins who have the power to save or destroy the world.  They are being trained in the 5 elemental magics and are trying to decide whose side they are on. 

One lesson that I learned from The Necromancer is that there are people in the world who would do anything for power.  They might try to destroy a country, take over a community, or try to eliminate an entire religion.  They would put entire nations at risk and would stop at nothing to get to the top.  In The Necromancer, Dr. John Dee wants power, and to get power, he needs to have the Codex, a book that would tell him how to bring the Dark Elders back and destroy the world.  He will stop at nothing.  This reminded me of a few situations in the real world, one very big, and one very small.

In World War II, Adolph Hitler would stop at nothing to get power.  He wanted to rule the world.  He took over Germany by creating the Nazi Party and brainwashing people to follow him.  Then he began taking over other nearby countries.  Some people were too afraid not to follow him, even though they knew what he was doing wasn’t right. The people that didn’t follow him were usually sent to concentration camps to die, and sometimes their families went with them.  Many of them were tortured.  Because people were so afraid of him, they wouldn’t stand up for what is right, and they just followed along.  He even persecuted the Jews, gypsies, Russians, and many others who didn’t want to do what he said.  Like John Dee, he would stop at nothing to get power.  But eventually, the world realized what was going on, and Hitler was stopped.  He couldn’t stand the thought of not being powerful, so he killed himself.

The other situation that this reminded me of was bullying.  Sometimes bullying isn’t physical where people actually hurt other people, and sometimes bullying happens just because someone wants to be powerful or popular.  In this situation, the person that wants to be popular will do things to make herself look good by making other people look bad. She thinks she looks cool if she is mean to smaller kids or kids that she thinks are less important.  This often makes her friends follow along and be mean to the smaller kids. They think that if they don’t, they might not be in the popular and powerful group.   I think that like John Dee and Adolph Hitler, there are some people who will stand up for what is right in a bullying situation, and that eventually, the person that wants to be popular will either realize that to be really popular, all you have to do is be a nice person, or that other people will figure out that that person isn’t really nice at all and not follow her.  The powerful person, like John Dee and Adolph Hitler, will eventually lose power and not be powerful any more.

The Decorating Fairy

This week is my dad’s birthday, and he is turning 42. It’s fun to have a birthday in my family because we always celebrate a lot, but I am usually the most excited because this means that I get to decorate!  I am the official decorator of our family, aka the “decorating fairy.”  This is a really fun job because I can make everything in our house really fun and colorful to celebrate a birthday, and I always love to see my everyone’s reactions to how I choose to decorate for them. 

Being the decorating fairy is an extremely important job.  I decorate for every special occasion, and everyone expects to have a different design each time.  I usually use multi colored streamers.  I always enjoy trying to get the different colors to match up right and making them look really cool together.  I might hang a whole bunch of streamers in front of the door, or all over the ceiling in the kitchen, or upstairs in different rooms.  It is always fun because I get to stand on tables, chairs, counters, and anything else really tall.  But my favorite part of decorating is the confetti!  We have all kinds of confetti, from multi colored circles, stars, balloons, and hearts, purple and gold LSU confetti, and some black and white confetti for the old people!

My job can be a little challenging.  I can only do this late at night when everyone else (except maybe my mom) is asleep so that it can be a surprise.  This means staying up a little bit later than usual.  It also means that I have to be quiet.  The hardest part of my job is to get streamers in all the right places.  If it is not in the right place, then it really pesters me.  Everything HAS to be perfect, or else it looks terrible to me. 

Yesterday, my dad was out of town, so we went to his office and decorated it with red, purple, and yellow streamers.  They are hanging from his ceiling, from his desk, and from the doorway.  Since I am home sick today, I plan on doing a little bit of decorating while no one is home!  I am going to let loose with the confetti.  My dad really doesn’t like all the confetti! It makes a terrible mess, and it is a huge pain to clean up.  For this reason, I always really want to use a lot of it on his birthday. J  I will put confetti all over the kitchen table and make a pathway going from the front door to his room…out of the kitchen, through the dining room, up the stairs, into his room, and even in his bed! I think I’ll even put some in his bathroom.  I can’t wait to see what his face looks like when he walks in the door tonight and I have really decorated the house!!!  Maybe I’ll decorate the driveway or the roof…