~*~ Blondes the new Pink~*~

Its finally the end of my junior.. .taking the next step in life. Its a bit scary, but I have to think to myself look at all the people that have made it. In our english class we have been writing blogs, and getting insight from other bloggers. Mr. Sheehy asked a few questions about how our year went.

What was your favorite thing that we studied this year? Why was it your favorite? 

-My favorite thing that we studied this year was probably, “Of Mice and Men.” I loved the story which made it even greater, but we also watched the movie. The reason it was my favorite was because the book interested me, and watching the movie helped visualize the story.

What thing did we do or study that you disliked the most? Please explain.

-The thing we studied that I disliked the most was the story, “The Devil and Tom Walker.” It was hard for me to dig through the story and pick out little symbols that mean something great. Another reason i didnt seem to like the book is because, the story seemed to have to many plots… such as Tom Walker’s stange dissaperance of his wife, and the greed.. just confused me a lot.

What advice would you offer one of my students next year?

- Have fun, and make sure you do your reading, because if you dont you will be so far behind.

- I enjoyed assignments when we would just read a short story and than we would have a short blog also.  The reason I liked it was because I could get great insight with other bloggers, and also it was fun to just get things done fast.

- During the first semester, when we learned about, “the Old Man and the Sea.” I learned how to pick through reading material even if it was harder to understand, and find the really important details and sort out the minor ones. I believe I was successful in this because we read the story as a class, and went into the themes and plots together.. which helped me understand.

- It is so much fun, you learn things fast and at your own pace. If you read you will do well, if you dont… good luck.

- I really liked the class so there isn’t anything I would really change, this is probably the best english class that i’ve had during my school years. I have learned a lot and also i have found some new things about the internet and how you can use it to express your insight to others.

 Mr. Sheehy asked us in one of his blogs to write about our blogs . Starting out in this class, I was pretty happy when I found out that half the class all we do is blog. I personally became interested in blogs  this year.  I think this year was probably my tech peak.  In our English class we blogged mostly about our views and relations on the story we were reading at the time.  We also did a lot of personal views, and some of our blogs were just about maybe how we were feeling that day to start us up as a warm up.

My favorite subject to blog about was probably the personal relationships with the books that we had. I like to blog about my own feelings, instead of having to go into insight and looking for the plots or themes, I could just openly express how I felt about the story and where I thought it was going. I think that not only other peoples but also my blogs would have probably been more interesting if we would have used pictures more.. and made a visual of what we were thinking in our blogs to explain it.

Blogging to me is self resource that helps you open up your mind and expand your ideas to not only yourself but to others using the Internet. This year using the computers so much I learned that there is so many ways to use the blogs, not only to right but also for school assignments, and open minded discussions.  When we used these blogs for literature, I think it helped the students out, because they didn’t have to write what they thought about the book in like essay form, they could do it informal and just write what was on their minds in order to explain how they interpreted the book. When I would write about something, I think it helped me with my writing skills, and also made it easier for me to put down my ideas. I didn’t feel like I was forced to write this big long essay or report, I could just share my own feelings in the best way  I could.

Things that I have done well with the blogs, is probably  just be as open-minded as possible with not only my ideas but others. I think that my open-mindness is probably the best quality of writing I have done, because I can take my feelings then read someones elses thoughts and then think back and see if maybe thats how im trying to say it. 

Writing in blogs is completely different than other English classes, because when we are reading a story, we can just go onto our blogs and write about what we think is going on that day, and then in future references we can go back into our old blogs and recap what we thought back in the beginning of the book, instead of just getting a essay assignment at the end of the book, and having to remember everything from the beginning to the end.

School day started out normal, first period went by as usually.. and we were all getting settled down into second period when Mr. Jones came over the speaker and told us to start our lockdown. The first thought that goes through everyones mind is that its only a drill… so we slowly make our way into the computer lab, turning off all the lights and just sitting on the floor. I first started realizing that it was maybe real when our teacher kept saying.. you know I don’t think this is a drill, its real. Some kids were joking and laughing about it.. I mainly was just conserned about my nap that I was taking on the floor.  When the day seemed to get longer and Mr. Jones wasn’t calling the lockdown off, we all knew it was real. I wasnt that scared or anything, i didnt think that there was something serious going on just maybe a stranger in the building or something.  When Jones came on a second time and told the teachers to go and read their emails, we knew something was going on because he wasnt saying it over the intercom. Our teacher of course came in and told us what was going on and what the email said, so everyone got a little more tense. We weren’t aloud to use our cellphones but i think that everyone said screw that idea and all cellphones were out and being used. I know that I kept getting txts from my parents, which was weird for me because i didnt even know they could use txts. I looked at the teacher and told her that i was going to txt my parents back and tell them i was ok, which i believe she started understanding where we were all coming from and let us slide.  When we finally got the announcement about what was going on, why were in lockdown, and what was happening next, we pretty much already knew what was going on. About a half hour later, we heard bangings on the door and Mr. Murphy yelling that he was coming in our class room. At first just him and a police officer walked in.. then we realized wow there are 4 SWAT team officers int here to. Fully dressed in their armor, with there huge helmets and rifles strapped across the front of them. It was very scary seeing this. I think this was the time i realized that it was real. When we had to put our hands on everyones shoulders people that it was a great idea to run themselves out of the doors, and pretty much drag all the slow people down.  Finally when we stepped outside for the first time which seemed like forever, we were greeted with cameras in our face and worried parents standing outside.  We walked into the civic center which was alright, I was one of the first classes in there so it wasnt too crowded. After sitting in the civic center a while, we got the new that it was false…. the reaction was priceless… everyone was pretty “pissed” off. I dont think there was one person in there that didnt want to beat the crap out of that kid right there and then. I will admit i was one of them. I couldnt believe that i had that much time in my life wasted by something so stupid and immature, that now i have to come back another day out of my summer for something  that could of not happened, if that kid wouldnt of lied. The thing i think is the worst is that they did it right after the REAL tragedy at virginia tech. Im still mad about the deal something so dumb.

OUR GROUP QUESTIONS and OBSERVATIONS:

8. They use dirt, but cover it up with snow so it doesn’t resemble a black man… racisism in town.

The morning started off normal, until I heard Scout yelling about how the world was ending. Atticus running to the window, still with shaving cream on his face, retold her that it was only snow.  I of course knew what it was, but Scout had no idea because she hadn’t seen snow.  About that time Eula May called to let us know we didn’t have school. I had a great idea since it was snowing.. to make a snowman.. but i didn’t really understand how to. Scout wanted to walk all over the snow, but she was just wasting it so i told her to watch her step. Scout not knowing anything about snow was yelling that it was hot..when really it was just cold. Miss Maudie wasnt using her snow, so I decided to run over into her yard and ask if we could have it for our snowman.  After not having enough snow, I added a bit of dirt and then just covered it with snow… then we made it look like Mr. Avery.  Miss Maudie seemed like she wasnt proud of our snowman but deep down I knew she was impressed.  We used wood for his mouth, eyes, and nose.  Atticus was also impressed.  Then instead of just making him into an ordinary snowman we went over to Miss Maudie’s and borrowed her hat and clippers.

Later that night, I was awaken by Atticus, we went outside to see that Miss. Maudie’s house had caught on fire. Scout was scared that Mr. Avery would get stuck, but he finally crawled out the window.  Her house completely fell apart, but some of her stuff was carried out. After the drama was over, I realized that Scout had a blanket on her. I had no idea where she got the blanket when Atticus asked us.  I started getting scared, so i just started telling Atticus everything with the tree, and the items we found.  I was curious about seeing Boo Radley, for he was the on that put it on her. But Atticus wouldnt let me.  I was curious about how Miss. Maudie’s house had caught on fire, but she said it was just the stove probably. Miss Maudie started acting weird towards Scout, and she asked me about it.. but i just told her that was Miss Maudie, being Miss Maudie.