dear little lexi

Dear Lexi, 

Hi Lexi, I'm Lexi. Ya know the older, taller, matured version of you. Though I'm only the mere age of 14 I've been through some amazing experiences as well as some ish that wan't too pretty. I have some advice for you, trust me, it'll help. You have a great family, love them unconditionally, take care of them, appreciate them, and devote time to see them. There's going to be some real living impacts you're going to have to go through, stay tough. Even though some people get on your ever last nerve, don't be all overdramatic like the majority of little&pre-teen&teenage girls. OH, and by the way, yes, you will be taller than everyone else in middle school. Commit to achieving your dreams and academics. Don't over think. Do whatever makes you happy, do what is right. Keep on living♥


Love,
Lexi



"Don't worry about a thing,
Cause every little thing gonna be all right."
-Bob Marley 



Student prompt:
 Mary Beth - 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.

My writing center experience

My first time to take a trip to the writing center was basically the last opportunity I had. Literary Analysis was the last paper I would probably be writing for the semester so, I needed to go! I did in fact need some actual help on my paper and going to the writing center helped me a lot with developing and finishing my paper. I made an appointment with a senior named Caitlyn, she was extremely nice! She was very casual, sociable, and helpful to me.
As a result of the writing center I changed the wording, order, and grammar of my essay. It helped tremendously. I could definitely tell a difference between doing an essay by myself and getting assistance on writing an essay. I will of course return to the writing center next semester. Looking forward to seeing my grade on the literary analysis!


Work times:
1 hour 15 min- finishing LOFT and annotating
1 hour- reading focus journals

work times

Posts for 12/2

Reading- 1 1/2 hours on LOFT
Work- 1 hour working on LOFT journal project

Free post- Thanksgiving time ▶

This week is the last one before Thanksgiving break.
Thanksgiving is coming up and who wouldn't be excited?
I'm happy to be able to spend it with the ones that matter, family. Not all about the food even though it's good but, you have to realize it's about being grateful. I mean, it's in the name. I sure am thankful for my family, friends, opportunities, and my full life of happiness. I remember the awakening I had one day in class for being grateful.
Our class was watching a video of poverty in West Africa. I don't usually watch videos like that because I'm sappy when it comes to those but this one, it had an impact on me. The daily life was heartbreaking to me. Have you ever seen something and just wanted to jump right in to help, that's what I wanted to do. The children, adults, and living conditions of the country was so eye-opening. It was so unbelievable how grateful they were for having so little. In that moment I had some self-evaluation. Be grateful, it's not about what you want. It's basically about what you need. And those people they didn't even have what they needed. Now I know sometimes we're all greedy and selfish but; next time you find yourself complaining about some shirt that you wanted or a different color of shoes. Take a second and just think. You know you're not intentionally being grumpy it's just what you want. Now think, how grateful am I being and how can I show that I care. I think it'll help bring out the true attitude of Thanksgiving.


Have a Happy Thanksgiving (:




Work/reading times-
LOFT w/ annotating- 1 hour 30 minutes
Vocabulary- 30 minutes

What is a dream? ☁

I've often catch myself pondering random philosophical questions and I'm sure others have too.
One that I've been thinking about lately is,
What is a dream? Why do we have these dreams?

Almost every night before I fall asleep, thoughts and imagination explodes all throughout my mind. Ask anyone, dreams are awesome. I love them of course. I used to not have them as often as I do now, which is weird. The fact that they're so unique and changeable each time is so fascinating. Dreams are just so crazy in general.
I wonder why we have nightmares. I used to have nightmares ever so often when I was a child; but now, I never do. Even when I watch a scary movie like in my last post; I'm terrified of scary movies yet, I never have a scary based dream.

Ya know those dreams where you have the world or you are the hero to some specific person? Maybe those are some confidence boosters to your real life. I think dreams are there to comfort you, make you feel better. Or maybe those nightmares are too keep you cautious and on your toes about what's going on around you. I think dreams and emotions are mutual to each other, like mood effects dream and dream affects mood.
I know that this post is about such a broad topic but, who doesn't like to think about big questions like that?

Happy dreaming☁

Free post- Scary movieee

Well, this past weekend Alyssa and I watched The House at the end of the Street. That movie.... I just don't have any words. Honestly, as much as I try to seem fearless I am such a scardy cat especially when it involves scary movies! But it was probably the best horror movie I've ever seen! A really nice plot till the very end!! The entire time Alyssa and I were so into it and scared. It stars Jennifer Laurence and of course everyone knows her, The Hunger Games duh. I recommend to whomever reads this free post to WATCH IT. We were finishing it up during tutorial and we had earphones in even other people started watching when there wasn't any sound! It does have about maybe 2-3 good jump-scares but other than that you'll be on the edge of your seat!!

What if we were stranded?

When we first arrived to class we were instructed to sit on the floor. Floor time is always fun so everyone was quick to go and sit. Once Dr. D told us that we had been, 'in a plane crash' the entire class was rambling. When Dr. D mentioned that there were sixteen first graders with us everyone freaked. I found some of the ideas to manage the children really odd; I personally would have paired each one with one of us and kind of 'parent' them and guide them. First, we conducted a leader. In my opinion I felt like it was realistic and we were stranded we would need a better and more efficient way of choosing a leader. Mainly because the leader is the biggest role and needs to be the responsible one at all times. After that, we split up into three groups; Three groups were for the three main needs to survive which was food, shelter, and water. Since our class wasn't actually stranded on an island we didn't think much. With all the chatter about the roles and yadayada our leader decided to use a tape dispenser to symbolize a 'talking stick'. I thought that was a really good idea, they also did that in LOTF.

If we were actually stranded on an island, without any adults I don't think we would manage very well. A bunch of 9th graders running around with 16 first graders, well just a recipe for disaster depending on the people. With my specific english class I think there would be a lot of situations with survival issues and such just because we're just a leadership type of class. We all like to get stuff done and do it right.


Work times-
Literacy Narrative- 1 hour
LOFT- 1 hour

just work stuff

10/29-
30 minutes- planning outline for literary analysis
45 minutes- writing peer reviews

11/3-
1 hour minutes- writing outline for literary analysis

11/3-
30 minutes- vocabulary cards

Free post: Freshman retreat (:

Our retreat with the entire freshman class was held on the 25th of October. Now I'm not sure if it's just me or has the entire month of October been absolutely hectic. Consisting of an entire new quarter, big assignments, homecoming and halloween, and even more. It was nice to take a break and go on a retreat with my class. Unlike all the others upper school grades the freshman had to do service work, of course. We're freshman duh we're going to get the not fun activities. We all arrived at school by 7:45 then packed up on the bus. There were only two buses with our packed grade of about 110 students. Every seat basically had to fit three people WHICH it was only made for two. Imagine how uncomfortable that is, especially in the morning! By eight o'clock we were off to the park out in Baker, Louisiana, which isn't that far away. When we arrived my first thoughts were, well this park looks waaay too nice to need some more service work. Turns out they had a lot of work and help to get done! We split off into advisories and the group of advisories I was in was awesome. Our first activity was canoeing in the lake and picking up trash. Of course I was going to like this even if we had to pick up trash because canoeing is the bomb . com of course. My canoe had Katie and Kris in it, I don't think I laughed so hard in a canoe before. It was so pretty out there as well!! So many big beautiful trees and flowers and just everything. Next activity we went to was clearing the trail, or at least the plants that were hanging over the trail. I have never been pricked by so many thorns before, that was a pain. Then we went along the beautiful path to the next activity. Which was actually clearing a trail. That was hilarious! About seven of us went to lunch earlier too, whoops. Then after a good pizza and playground lunch we headed to the last activity. The last activity was just a discussion on being aware of the environment and how to take care of it. I was surprised how long some things take to decompose! After that we all once again packed onto the crowded bus and headed back to school. We arrived back at school at 2:50 and we were dismissed, which was awesome! Honestly, not having to wear that dreaded school uniform for the past 3 fridays is awesome. In conclusion I did actually like working for an entire day with service work and learning. I know in a way it brought my advisory and others closer. I hope we have class retreats more often or trips, they bring us into a family like we should be.  

reading upon reading

I've read three different short stories over the past week and annotated them. 

Those three were

-Araby by: James Joyce

-The Cat by: Andrew Barton Patterson 

-Aloha Oe by: Jack London

Each short story took about 30 minutes each including the annotating. 

I started back up on The Fault in Our Stars and read 30 minutes.

Honestly the one that I most enjoyed most was  The Cat, this one attracted me by the name because cats are the ish. This story basically brought out a cat's actual life instead of what humans think or believe their lives consist of. The cat's lives claim to be more exciting than humans. It was definitely an interesting story.

My second favorite was Araby, written by James Joyce. It was just cute to me how the young boy had been admiring this girl living across the street from him. Him finally getting courage to talk to her and stuff. The only reason it is my second favorite is because the ending through me off. I was very confused, I know he arrived at this fancy business place but the description and the thoughts from the narrator scrambled me up. 

The last one I read was Aloha Oe, written by Jack London. In my opinion I didn't enjoy this one. It was long and very hard to comprehend. Being bored from the start I know through me off to not try as hard to understand it as I did with the others. The characters and what actually was going on was when I got lost. 

Reading times

The book I'm still reading at the moment is The Fault in Our Stars by John Greene. I haven't read any this week book wise. I do like the book a lot though. Just jam packed with studying and short story work.

1 hour: Short story preparation/drafting and actual writing

1 1/2 hours: Studying for short story test and re-reading short stories in the book

Personal Questions:

- Why does reading bring joy to some and to others none?

- Do I personally like reading as much as I should?

- How do authors create such complex and unique characters?

Reading

My reading for this week wasn't as consistant as usual dealing with all the short stories things. I am still reading The Falt in Our Stars by John Green and I'm enjoying it. I plan to finish it around this week since I started it a while back. 

My reading times for the week were about 30 in class reading on my book. 1 hour for reading short stories and another 30 minutes writing a draft of my own. 

plot for my short story

The exposition:
-Introduce the main character Aiden, her brother Jesse, father, and step-mother.
-Give info about Aiden's point of view upon herself (confidence, social life, academics, sports)
-Tell the opinions and thoughts about family etc. from Aiden's point of view.
-Tells background on when things were 'bad'. As in her emotions at that time and what was going on.

Rising Action:
-Give background info on family ordeal, step-mother and Aiden get into a fight.
-Aiden started getting overwhelmed
-She turns back to her attitude as a rebellious student in school, depression, and decline in her self-confidence.

Climax-
-Aiden gets very stressed out with step and decides to move out only when she's fifteen, possibly goes with her brother.
-She developed such bad anxiety that she turned to starving herself everyday for 7 months to the point she had lost over 30 pounds due to not eating and was diagnosed with anorexia.
-She becomes depressed and confused about what to do.
-Her father is regretful and thinking about his daughter Aiden and the step-mother, Aiden doesn't know but he will choose Aiden.

Falling action-
-Aiden is at the lowest point she's been doesn't know where to go, what to do, or how to handle the situation.
-Aiden is worrying about everyone but herself, which she is suffering the most.
-Her brother gives her hope and reassures her everything thing will be ok.

Resolution-
-Aiden's father reassures Aiden how much he cares and would much rather her over some step-mom.
-Step-mom moves out
-Her brother rents an apartment a good driving distance to home but in another state.

Reading

In the past week we've read about 2-4 short stories some of them were difficult but I enjoyed reading the. I enjoyed 'Dry September'. I especially liked the end where the man who was so eager to rade Will Mayes turned out to be aggresive to almost everyone when it told he was beating his wife. It was very intregeing.

the short stories took about 1:15 for the ones we read

and outside reading 1 hour- The Falt in Our Stars

pre-sleep thinking

I'm Aiden. Living in small town Tennesse at the young age of 15. My best friend is my own brother, Jesse, he's 17. 

Today was just like any other day, waking up at an early 5am to take care around the house, walk to school and spend it with my classmates who don't know much of anything, come home, and well now I'm here. I know I'm only fifteen but I'm saving up as much as possible to get out of here. 

when. when. when. will I get out of here? 

This year Jesse is a senior in highschool,

What am I going to do without him around..?

He's been my bestfriend since I was born! He's planning on going to an out-of-state college. He doesn't even know which one but, him and I have the same mind set. Anywhere but here. 

It'd be easier if mom was around to help us out.. 

It'd be easier if that woman were supposed to call our 'step-mom' too would just scadaddle.

I hate thinking so much before I go to sleep, cmon brain. I love to try and wrap my mind around uncomprehendable topics such as,

how far does the universe go?

I don't know that's just me.

Time to catch some zz's. Nite. 

Reading Response

The book I'm finished Wake by Lisa McMann. The main character is a 17 year old girl in her senior year. She's not like all others teenagers, she can see into other people's dreams. I'm really enjoying this book and it's really easy to read. I'm almost done with it and I read about a good amount pages within 10 minutes. I'm most likely going to finish it today, so yah cool.

Reading times:
2:20 hours
pg. 100- pg. 210 finished

E-book

I'm definitely not very confident about putting my literacy narrative out there on an e-book. I know we have to but, I'm not what to change about it but there are some changes that need to be made. It would be nice if I did have some more peer proofreading just for a confidence booster. Other than that I'll be fine. I don't have an idea for images to put in there maybe a picture of a composition notebook? I still don't have an idea for a title but the layout/design we could do something like a journal of some sort? That mite be cool. E-booking timeee.

Reading Response

Reading Wake by Lisa McMann-
2 hours 54-101

I've really been enjoying this book. It's easy to keep up with or follow what the author is actually saying; not many sudden jumps to some other situation.

Working on literacy narrative-
3 hours- September 3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th

Interrogation

officer- "Where were you on august 13th?"

suspect- "Well.. as far as I can remember I was at home. By myself."

officer- "Alright. If you want to play this the hard way we can, your decision. Now tell me, WHERE were you tuesday august the 13th around 6 pm?!"

suspect- "I told you, at my house alone."

officer- "Well then how is it that we found YOUR DNA on the victims clothing?"

suspect- "Like I would know.." he remarked snooty

officer- "Well we sure do have enough evidence in the back to arrest you but, is there any objection or reason I shouldn't you'd like to tell me?"

suspect- "I didn't do it... or maybe I don't remember doing any such thing like that."

officer- "Excuse me?"

suspect- "I mite have done it, maybe I just don't recall.."


^^related to an interrogation between a police officer and the suspect in a crime. I've heard of instances of where the suspect claims to not know if they did the crime or not so..

Reading Response: Update on literacy narrative

I am very proud of my literacy narrative. This is one of the first times I think I gathered and organized information into one and wrote a good 'essay.' The selection I made for the topic was how I became the writer I am today. It did take me awhile to think of a situation applying to this but I finally got it! Judging by my feedback not including errors on turnitin.com I think my writing does of course need tweaks. There are some confusing and awkward sentences I will have to fix but, who doesn't have that in there rough draft!



reading times:
Wake by: Lisa McMann
9/7- 2hours pgs 1-54

This is Water

I watched the 9 minute video called "This is Water." It is safe to say that I really liked it and finally someone in this world is bright enough to understand that we are not the ruler of the earth as one person, and we are not free to judge people just by their appearance or actions. I've experienced situations like these within the supermarket, mall, restaurant, anywhere you could think of were you have to guide yourself into thinking positively and putting yourself in other people's shoes. I know for a fact and completely agree we all have the moments where one single thing can set your temper off. I try as best I can to get another perspective on what other's are going through. Even take a look and see what other people do, because I sure do know no one knows exactly what I've been through or am going through so why should I be the judge of them if I don't want to be judged either? I tell people to not only think of the possibilities like the video said but also to just imagine a day of living in the other person's mind. For example when someone bases a person's whole character after one bad day no one knows what is going through that person's mind, they could have lost their grandparent the week before and just the memory of it brings the person to a bad and depressed mood that is given off on that day. I try to live like this wether it's hard sometimes. Also, I know I'm basically summarizing or maybe even repeated what the video was talking about. I'm just glad there are people out there who aren't quick as others to judge.

Reading Response/ Log

Reading Response- A Scrap of Time
I finished the book that I was reading and to be honest I wasn't that into it. As much as I adore non-fiction World War 2 books I didn't care for this one. I'm guessing because in my distracted head of mine I can't keep up with a book that changes every chapter with words that are unfamiliar with my grammar.

Reading Log-
doing wordly wise vocal- 1 hour 8/31/13
reading- 30 minutes 135?- 150
blogging- 30 minutes for both blogs

Reading Log week 2

       I'm currently reading A Scrap of Time by Ida Fink. This book goes a little too fast pace for me in switching scenes so fast, basically every chapter. It is in a way a fiction book but the same time nonfiction that was written as a journal by Ida Fink. It switches scenarios so quickly so if you are interested just know that it's difficult. It is a collection of different stories written originally in Polish and translating in English. It is about World War 2 mainly in Poland and their people.







Reading Log info-
8/21 - 8/22 1 hour working on presentation
8/24- 30 minutes studying wordly wise

A Scrap of Time by: Ida Fink
8/25- 30 minutes reading pgs. 124-149

Woohoo I'm new to this

         About 2 weeks ago, the first day of school, I started riding the bus for the first time as some kind of transportation to school. I chose to ride the bus this year because if you haven't gotten to know me or my family real well, let's just say we can't get places exactly when you want us to be there. I wasn't going to be walking in late to class in high school, I wasn't in the mood for that deal.

        This mite sound a little weird to some but, I enjoy riding the bus every morning. I'm not a morning person AT ALL, just completely grumpy from 12am-12pm but 12pm-12am eh I'll be fine. Just waking up at 6 o'clock isn't always that fun but when I actually get on the bus at 6:25-ish I always get to see the moon go down and the sun come up from either side of the bus and that is one of the most pleasing sites I'll ever see. Playing my music and just staying quiet is also what I get to do when riding the bus, in the morning I usually don't like talking anyways. I have a couple of friends on the bus so that's definitely a plus too. Bus rides are going to be especially awesome when it gets cold because then i get to wear giant sweatshirts and leggings!

Reading log week 1

Book Title: A Scrap of Time 
by: Ida Fink

I read almost every morning on the bus so that's why the times are so similar.
August 13th- 6:30am-7:30am (1-47)
August 14th- 6:15am-7:40am (47-101)
August 14th- 4:45-5:15pm (101-124)

Goals for this course throughout the year.

        Entering 9th grade english I have set my expectations and goals higher than usual for this course. I am willing to challenge myself to keep up with my work, be as thoughtful with my work as possible, read more, and get a nice strong creative bone in my body for working with writing assignments. In my past years of taking english I have always struggled with it and I'm not to sure why. I have high expectations for myself to complete tasks and to do them to the best of my ability. Becoming a high-schooler represents will and having to step up to the plate and but your big boy pants on. 

My goal for this class are to keep up a good average grade, preferably keeping it at an A as long as possible. Academics this year are my number one priority in school this year as it was not within middle school from distractions with sports etc. I'm really looking forward to this 2013-2014 school year in school and english class.

Free Choice Book Reading Response: What I liked most was...

      What I liked most about my choice book, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, was that it was detailed about the surroundings and feelings. It's based on World War 2 so I love to get descriptive details on the surrounding to experience it through words. I could imagine what the landscape, the camps, and the city they were living in. My favorite thing to research and read about is World War 2 always has since I was young so I love to read some good non-fiction and fiction books about stories or facts about it. The author also came up with a good story to create the book, most World War 2 books are usually non-fictions novels and things like that so I admire that this story had such a realistic tale to it even though it most likely never happened. 

Having the details throughout and about the story was so very helpful. Since World War 2 started 80 years ago it would have been harsh on my reading to not be able to imagine the setting taking place. The book took place in 1938 so, it was still hard to imagine even after 5 years from when the war began, descriptive paragraphs help more than you think. I also really liked how the author gave the reader a perspective and actual feeling about how the main character felt. Wether it was sad, happy, excited, or mad the author could put those feelings from a fictional character into the real life reader.