Thursday, January 21, 2010
American Idol
Each week my sisters and I watch American Idol. There is a new episode every Tuesday and Wednesday. The past few weeks have been auditions. They travel all around the country to big cities, were thousands of people audition for their chance to become a star. So far they have traveled to Boston, Atlanta, Chicago and Orlando. There are 3 main judges. Their names are Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara Dioguardi. There are also guest judges that they have each week. So far they have had Kristen Chenoweth, Victoria Beckhem, Shania Twain and Mary J. Blige. Some people that audition are very talented singers, and others might think they sing well, but actually don’t. Others audition as a joke and dress up in a crazy outfit, and don’t actually try to sing well. On the TV you usually get to see the very best and the very worst auditions. You often only get to see 4 or 5 of the 30 people that make it to Hollywood because they can’t fit everyone of them into the 1-2 hour show. Personally I think they should leave out more of the “worst” auditions, and put in more of the “best” auditions. But that’s just my opinion. Anyways I like the show and look forward for this next season. I’ll keep you posted for the next few weeks as more and more auditions will be taking place.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
First Semester Portfolio- Piece I'd Like to Revise
One piece of my work that I would really like to revise would be my 12 sentence story, “Home Alone with a Tub of Butter”. This short story takes place about 7 years back. My siblings and I were home alone, and my littlest sister wandered off by herself. We later found her sitting in the middle of a huge mess she made with a tub of butter. I don’t think this story is as good as it could have been, because I was concentrating on making it 12 sentences causing it to not have very many details. I really like the topic of this story, and I think it could turn into a really good piece. However at the moment I don’t think everything flows together very well. My smiley face tricks aren’t very effective, and I think parts of it aren’t very interesting. If I had the chance to revise it I would change a few different things to make it better.
Story:
Who would have thought that normal evening about 6 years back could have gone so wrong? We certainly didn’t. My 4 of my siblings and I were home alone, when my youngest sister Maren asked us to play with her. My brother and sisters and I agreed and went down the hall to her room. We were playing stuffed animals, are voices and facial expressions changing for each different dog or cat, and everything was going fine. Although Maren left to go to the bathroom, all of us continued to play without her. After about 15 min we realized she had been gone for quite a while, so my siblings and I began searching the house from head to toe for her. After checking a few places she was finally found lounging in the middle of our living room. My siblings and I stood in front of her with an oh-no-what-are-we-going-to-do, horror struck look on our faces. Maren had found a tub of butter on the kitchen table, dragged it into the living room, and covered herself and a fairly large portion or the living room in it. Since our parents weren’t home, everyone did their best to clean up, and we were still scrubbing the stained blue carpet with all the elbow grease we had when our parents got home. Let’s just say that they rarely left us home along after that.
Story:
Who would have thought that normal evening about 6 years back could have gone so wrong? We certainly didn’t. My 4 of my siblings and I were home alone, when my youngest sister Maren asked us to play with her. My brother and sisters and I agreed and went down the hall to her room. We were playing stuffed animals, are voices and facial expressions changing for each different dog or cat, and everything was going fine. Although Maren left to go to the bathroom, all of us continued to play without her. After about 15 min we realized she had been gone for quite a while, so my siblings and I began searching the house from head to toe for her. After checking a few places she was finally found lounging in the middle of our living room. My siblings and I stood in front of her with an oh-no-what-are-we-going-to-do, horror struck look on our faces. Maren had found a tub of butter on the kitchen table, dragged it into the living room, and covered herself and a fairly large portion or the living room in it. Since our parents weren’t home, everyone did their best to clean up, and we were still scrubbing the stained blue carpet with all the elbow grease we had when our parents got home. Let’s just say that they rarely left us home along after that.
First Semester Portfolio- Favorite Piece
My favorite piece of writing this year was my Cause and Effect Essay, “An Object I wasn’t familiar with”. It is an essay about the time I got my face skinned up on a treadmill when I was little. In English we were assigned to write a cause and effect essay. I wanted to think of something I could write a lot about, and when I started brainstorming ideas, it just came to me. Once I began writing I was able to get really into it because I can remember everything so vividly. This is my favorite piece because I think it is really well written. I have lots of smiley face tricks, and good sentences causing it to be more detailed than most of my other pieces. I also like it because everything really flows together well, and I think it is an interesting story.
Story:
Being at my grandparent’s house was always fun. There was just so much to do. Games, toys, animals, everything a little kid could want. One year the toys didn't seem to be quite enough. I wanted to try something else. An object I wasn't familiar with. The moving object all my older cousins used, the treadmill. I sat there mesmerized by the strange object. It just kept moving and moving. It never seemed to run out. I knew that I should have gone and gotten permission, but let’s just say my curiosity got the best of me.
After I was alone, I got it working. I knew how to get it started because I had watched grandpa do it many times. I found the key and jabbed it into the slot like I was starting a car. The treadmill began to move. I smiled as I began walking. The speed picked up so I began jogging. My smile disappeared as I raced as fast as I could, trying to keep up with the treadmill's speed! It seemed to be going as faster than the speed of light! I didn't last long. I tripped and fell hitting my head. Since I was an inexperienced kid, I held on to the sides of the treadmill with all my might, thinking that was going to help me. Little did I know that if I had let go, my injuries would have been much less extreme. As I held on with all my might, my face began to burn. The treadmill felt hot rubbing against my cheek. My face began to sting. It felt as though I had just gotten a million rug burns. I released my tight grip, rolled to the end of the treadmill, and fell onto the carpet floor. I reached up to touch my face. I didn't feel skin. I felt my raw flesh, damp with blood.
My face was burning, so I cried and cried some more. When someone finally found me, I was bawling my eyes out. My mom and my grandma got me all patched up. They smothered my skinned face with "Soothing" ointment. It made me cry harder. The company’s definition of "soothing" must be different than mine. My grandma placed a piece of cloth over my skinned face and taped it down with some band-aids. It felt better not having it exposed anymore.
Having a scraped face didn't allow me to do much without hurting. I spent the rest of my vacation at my grandparent’s house lying in a bed like a couch potato. Basically the only things I got up for were food, to go to the bathroom, and to relocate to a new room. I watched a ton of TV- movie after movie, show after show. I was always bored except for when my cousins stopped running and playing to watch with me. Don't get me wrong I got tons of sympathy, but I would have traded all the presents and special treatment in the world, to have been able to run around and play with my family.
As the years went by, treadmills became less scary, and now I actually go on them to exercise for fun. From the experience I learned that I shouldn't mess with things I don't know how to use. I also learned to always ask permission first, which is a good skill to have. I rarely think of the horrible experience, but to this day I remember everything crystal clear. Overall, getting hurt on the treadmill didn't turn out to be all bad, although it did have some drawbacks.
Key: Simile, Hyphenated Modifier, Imagery
Story:
Being at my grandparent’s house was always fun. There was just so much to do. Games, toys, animals, everything a little kid could want. One year the toys didn't seem to be quite enough. I wanted to try something else. An object I wasn't familiar with. The moving object all my older cousins used, the treadmill. I sat there mesmerized by the strange object. It just kept moving and moving. It never seemed to run out. I knew that I should have gone and gotten permission, but let’s just say my curiosity got the best of me.
After I was alone, I got it working. I knew how to get it started because I had watched grandpa do it many times. I found the key and jabbed it into the slot like I was starting a car. The treadmill began to move. I smiled as I began walking. The speed picked up so I began jogging. My smile disappeared as I raced as fast as I could, trying to keep up with the treadmill's speed! It seemed to be going as faster than the speed of light! I didn't last long. I tripped and fell hitting my head. Since I was an inexperienced kid, I held on to the sides of the treadmill with all my might, thinking that was going to help me. Little did I know that if I had let go, my injuries would have been much less extreme. As I held on with all my might, my face began to burn. The treadmill felt hot rubbing against my cheek. My face began to sting. It felt as though I had just gotten a million rug burns. I released my tight grip, rolled to the end of the treadmill, and fell onto the carpet floor. I reached up to touch my face. I didn't feel skin. I felt my raw flesh, damp with blood.
My face was burning, so I cried and cried some more. When someone finally found me, I was bawling my eyes out. My mom and my grandma got me all patched up. They smothered my skinned face with "Soothing" ointment. It made me cry harder. The company’s definition of "soothing" must be different than mine. My grandma placed a piece of cloth over my skinned face and taped it down with some band-aids. It felt better not having it exposed anymore.
Having a scraped face didn't allow me to do much without hurting. I spent the rest of my vacation at my grandparent’s house lying in a bed like a couch potato. Basically the only things I got up for were food, to go to the bathroom, and to relocate to a new room. I watched a ton of TV- movie after movie, show after show. I was always bored except for when my cousins stopped running and playing to watch with me. Don't get me wrong I got tons of sympathy, but I would have traded all the presents and special treatment in the world, to have been able to run around and play with my family.
As the years went by, treadmills became less scary, and now I actually go on them to exercise for fun. From the experience I learned that I shouldn't mess with things I don't know how to use. I also learned to always ask permission first, which is a good skill to have. I rarely think of the horrible experience, but to this day I remember everything crystal clear. Overall, getting hurt on the treadmill didn't turn out to be all bad, although it did have some drawbacks.
Key: Simile, Hyphenated Modifier, Imagery
First Semester Reflection
After the finishing the first semester of Language Arts, I think I learned a lot. One thing I learned that I didn’t know much about before is the different types of sentences. I knew how to write a sentence, but I never knew about complex, compound and compound-complex. Another thing that I got better at is sentence fragments. I knew about sentence fragments, but I never realized how often I was using them, and not noticing. One thing that I really enjoyed getting to learn about was all the different smiley face tricks. I liked learning about smiley face tricks because they were so fun to use. I really like imagery and similes. They make my writing more interesting. I also enjoyed the literature circle meetings. I liked be able to read Elephant Run at my own pace and then do the book project. I also learned a lot about different types of poetry elements.
During the first semester I also learned some new things about myself. When the year started I was really stressed tying to get everything done. I learned how to manage my time better and stay on task. I also learned that I often work better alone because I am very picky about how I want things done. I feel really nervous letting my group members take things home because I think that they might not get it done. I also learned to be more patient, and to be a better listener to those around me.
To be successful this next semester I need to work on a few things. One thing I need to work on is not procrastinating. I somehow manage to always get my work done on time, but there have been nights where I have stayed up late working on homework because I was too lazy to do it earlier. Another thing I need to work on is reading more. I really enjoy reading, but I never have any time to get it done. I need to work harder to make more time for reading.
During the first semester I also learned some new things about myself. When the year started I was really stressed tying to get everything done. I learned how to manage my time better and stay on task. I also learned that I often work better alone because I am very picky about how I want things done. I feel really nervous letting my group members take things home because I think that they might not get it done. I also learned to be more patient, and to be a better listener to those around me.
To be successful this next semester I need to work on a few things. One thing I need to work on is not procrastinating. I somehow manage to always get my work done on time, but there have been nights where I have stayed up late working on homework because I was too lazy to do it earlier. Another thing I need to work on is reading more. I really enjoy reading, but I never have any time to get it done. I need to work harder to make more time for reading.
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