Fellow Classmates

Hey fellow classmates!  If i had to give you a guide as to how to survive English 1; the number one rule would be to always do your work!  The thing that gets you the most points is just doing your homework.  If you listen in class you will find that Dr. D tells you everything you need to know and that she really enjoys what she teaches.  When a teacher enjoys what they teach it is easier to learn from them.  When you come to class you need to be prepared because how do you expect to learn when you don't have your materials.  Another thing is, always be on task because during class you are given a lot of time to do class work and its best to take advantage of that time.

While writing papers in English you really need to pace yourself.  NEVER wait until the last minute to write a paper.  Usually papers are assigned with a week to 2 weeks in advance and that gives you plenty of time to ask questions and write nightly drafts to make your paper good!  It is also a good idea to go see Dr. D during tutorial just to talk about things that you are concerned with and she can really help you.  She is a good teacher and listen to your problem and help you with it!

Participation

My Participation over the course of the year i would say has gotten better.  This quarter i have gotten better about interrupting; even though i still do have a problem with interrupting i have been working on it.  Also, i always come to class prepared.  I never forget my stuff and i always have things to do in class.

The thing that i would say i do the most is i go to the bathroom a lot in class.  For some reason almost every day when i get to english class i have to use the bathroom, and i apologize for that. But if i had to give myself a grade on participation it would probably be a C.

Reading over the year

Over the course of the year i think that i have improved a lot as a reader!  My reading has gotten better and i have learned more of what kinds of books i like to read.  I really like chick flick and mystery books.  I still have trouble with my reading comprehension but it has improved a lot, especially because we have had to read every week!  


In reading in the future i am going to try and read harder books that i normally wouldn't pick up on the shelf.  I tend to judge books by the cover a lot and i am going to try and not do that anymore and be more open to what i read.  I have come to enjoy reading more this year and i am glad that i have. 


Macbeth- 15 minutes
iBoy- 2 hours
Bio textbook - 20 minutes 

Lady Macbeth

In the perspective of Lady Macbeth i think that she is kind of crazy.  At first when she hears the news that Macbeth is going to be king she is happy but i think that her happiness brings out a weird side in her.  Lady Macbeth doesn't have much feeling towards other people and when she puts her mind to something she is gonna do it.

If i had to put myself in Lady Macbeths shoes i don't think i could do it.  Lady Macbeth has so conscience and when Macbeth killed the king; Lady Macbeth is the one who finished the work and i honestly can say that i could never do that.

My overall paper!

           While reviewing my WrAP I have noticed I didn’t do as good I would of liked to at all.  The topic was should downloading music illegally be allowed or not, explain your answer?  So while answering that I said it was bad and good at the same time but you shouldn’t do it because it takes away from the artist and that’s there work and they deserve the credit.  My scores on the WrAP were not that high, they averaged around 4’s.  I plan on improving my WrAP score a lot next year and I will make it a lot stronger.

My first writing of the year was my Literacy Narrative Essay.  I was very proud of this writing especially because it was the first time I had ever written a literacy narrative.  I was also proud that I got a 94 on it, which is an A! My strong suit in this paper was with my ideas and organization, with voice and conventions following right behind that.  Sentence Fluency and Word Choice are what I got 8.5’s on and when I go back through the story I can see that I used to many exclamation points and sometimes my tone of voice wasn’t the best.  Overall I was really pleased with this paper and the overall comment you left me made me really happy!

The next paper that I had to write was the Profile Draft.  When I was given the choice to write about a person or place I automatically chose to write about My Lake House.  I was excited to write about this paper because I really love that place and I have infinite things to say about it!  When I turned in this paper on turnitin.com I realized that I accidently turned in my first draft and I was so upset that my final work wasn’t what was getting graded, but still with that being  my first draft I got a B.  To me a B is a good but I think if I would have worked a little harder and made it better I could have got an A.  The thing that I liked best about this paper was that I added some pictures in it so making the representation of what I was trying to say that much more real.  In all of the categories of writing I received an A except in Convections.  When I saw that I got a C in convections I went and looked back in the paper and realized that I needed to use way more commas and I should have added some semicolons to separate my run on sentences. 

One of the options that we were given was to write an optional Profile Revision.  Looking back on all of my work I see now that I really wish I would of wrote a revision of my profile.  It was really nice of you to write to offer for us to get the extra points to rewrite our papers and I wish I would of taken that opportunity.

The next paper that we were assigned to write was the Literary Analysis paper.  I had a very hard time writing this paper, but the process made it a lot easier.  At first I wanted to write my paper on a story by Edgar Allen Poe, but after further reviewing the story I realized that it wouldn’t have been the best choice.  So instead of writing the paper on that I went with another story called Stilettos.  With this story I analyzed the characters and tried to retell the story is a different way.  In every single category I received a C and I am not sure why I got that.  My overall grade on this story was a 79 and I wish I would of tried a lot harder on this paper.

The last paper that I had to write was the Global Issues paper.  This was probably the most fun paper to write because you got to write about anything you wanted.  I chose to write about the Strait of Hormuz because that is what interested me the most at the time and it was a good topic to research and learn a lot about.  The grade I got on this wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, but after reading the comment I realize that my ideas were not in order and that I needed to take some of the information out. 

            An overall analysis of all of my papers showed that my average word was a B.  The topic that I always did the best in was Ideas and Voice.  In all of my papers I received comments saying how strong and great my ideas were.  My topic that I usually score the lowest in was Convections, which actually makes since for my writing.  Usually I get confused where I need to put my commas in a sentence. Over the year what I have improved in most was my Word Choice.  I started using better descriptive words to make the paper sound better.

Over the course of the year, my writing has progressively gotten worse.  That was shocking to me when I realized that because I thought that I had become a better writer over the year.  Next year my goal for writing is going to be that I will make sure to write at least 3 drafts per paper and I want at least 2 people to peer edit it.  My writing usually sounds good to me but when other people read it they have positive feedback and help me change it in a good way.  Next year I plan on working a lot harder on my papers because I really want to improve in my writing. 

comman eras list

1. At first when I handed it to her she was a little confused, but when she realized what it was she couldn’t stop saying “Thank You!”

~from the Literacy Narrative Essay

Explanation: Though it may not always be grammatically necessary, a comma can often help to prevent a misreading.  When a sentence opens with an introductory element, it is a great help to your reader to place a comma after that introductory element. 

2. I was confused and I didn’t know why she told me that (because): I thought it was the best book ever written.

~from the Literacy Narrative Essay

Explanation: In the sentence a colon would work better than the word because so the sentence flows better.

3. The boathouse looks like a huge open aired tiki house with two boats and two jet ski’s resting in the water.

~from the Profile Paper

Explanation: One common trip-up on apostrophe usage for a plural group occurs when people want to discuss what a family owns. For instance, say the Smart family lives across the street from you and owns a boat. The boat is "the Smarts' boat," not "the Smart's boat." Because you are talking about all of the members of the Smart family, you would start with "Smarts." Because all the Smarts (presumably) own the boat, you add the apostrophe after the "s."

4. The sign ‘Now Hiring’ on the door interested one particular girl; her name was Nicki.

~from the Literary Analysis Paper

Explanation: This sentence contains two or more independent clauses.  Separate the clauses with a period or semicolon. 

5. With all of the threats about closing the Strait of Hormuz Iran has “yet made no attempts to disrupt shipping through the waterway, the route for one-fifth of the worlds crude oil, and U.S. and allies have warned they would respond swiftly to any attempts at a blockade” said news media in the current worlds article.

~From the Global Issues Paper

Explanation: This is not cited correctly

6. By that we can infer that maybe her shop will be robbed again or maybe something worse will happen next time and there won’t be a person there to save her.

~from the Literary Analysis Paper

Explanation: Though it may not always be grammatically necessary, a comma can often help to prevent a misreading.  When a sentence opens with an introductory element, it is a great help to your reader to place a comma after that introductory element. 

Outside Reading!

IBoy- 1 hour and 45 min
Biology Textbook Chapter 16 - 30 min
Poetry - 20 min

Reading on the beach

Over my spring break I was at the beach and it was the most relaxing place ever to read.  It was nice because you could tan while you read so it made the time go by so much faster!  The book that i am continuing to read is Catching Fire.  Catching Fire is so good and i am really enjoying it.  The plot is thickening so much more from The Hunger Games and the book is getting really hard to put down.

I think the main reason that i am liking Cathcing Fire is because i think its cool how the book is presented. The whole idea is so random and i just love it!  Its something that I've never read about before and it just manages to keep me interested the whole time!  I recommend this book to everybody.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

In the song Somewhere Over The Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo Ole', Israel is talking about how he is imaging a better world on the other side of the rainbow.  He repeats several times how it would be a “wonderful world.”  Isreal uses lots of repetition by singing the chorus over and over again in his song, which I particularly like!  Rainbows have always been associated with happy things and so I think that Israel is saying he see a better world ahead and he wants to dream on.  In the song he is talking about dreams and how dreams will set you free.  A metaphor that he uses is “Where trouble melts like lemon drops” and in that metaphor I see that he is talking about how he wants happiness. 

Another thing that Israel does in the song is that he talks about colors a lot.  With him singing about the colors of the rainbow, red roses, trees of green, blue birds, clouds of white, and skies of blue you can see that he is trying to give you lots of visuals and represent things.  I think that this song is inspiring and I really like listening to it! 

video-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I

lyrics-

http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/i/israelkamakawiwoole6157/somewhereovertherainbow239745.html

keep on flipin the pages

For my outside reading this week i have decided that i am going to put down Someone Like You and move onto Catching Fire.  I read some of it in the beginning of the year and now that The Hunger Games is such a big hit again i just had to pick it up and read it again!!

The past week Someone Like You has been good and i have really been enjoying it but i am LOVING catching fire right now! Its amazing and I'm glad that i chose to read it again.  Also for some reading i have read some poetry, which i am actually enjoying this unit that we are doing.  ANd lastly for some reading i have had to go back and read some of the Nervous Conditions book for my project.                                                              

"My Fathers Song" by Simon Ortiz

In the poem "My Fathers Song" by Simon Ortiz we see that the poem is written about a son and his father. After reading the first stance we can see that the son misses his father by describing "his voice" coming from "his thin chest."  As you go on to read more you can see that the poem is about a song and I'm guessing that the song resembles there relationship.

As i went on to read more of the poem I stared to think that the way the son is talking about his father that possibly the father is dead.  And while the son is saying how they caught some kind of animal and let it go off off of an edge or in the warm sand that maybe the son means he is "letting go" his father and is going to move on.  Then when i go back and read the whole thing again i see that there is a lot of repetition in this poem and also the wording the very similar and rhymes a lot.

Poetry

For my outside reading i have been reading the poems in class and my free read book, SomeOne Like You.  So far we have only read 2 poems but i really like them so far!  I enjoy poetry, but i don't really like writing it.  I don't always understand it but i think ti sounds cool when you read it.  Last year when we did Shakespiere i liked it, so I've always been open to it.

Someone Like You is just getting better and better! I read about 50 pages the other day and i didn't even realize it.  This is getting to be intense and a little sad.  I seriously think everyone should read this.

LUDACRIS!

This Saturday there was a Ludacris concert at LSU.  The concert was free and it was probably the best concert i have ever been too!  The opening acts for him weren't that good but they were still fun to listen to.  The concert was from 7-11:30 but Luda didn't come out until 10ish.  They had people handing out glow sticks there so almost every single person in the crowds had a glow stick around their head or neck!  I was with a lot of Episcopal people so that made the experience just that much better!

When Ludacris finally come out everyone went crazy!  He sang a lot of his songs that you forgot he was in and it was nice to hear!  He started off singing Glamourous and i was just like wow i forgot he even sang that!  The whole experience was just so much fun and i would do it again any day!

Some One Like You

Some One Like You is the book i am reading right now!  Sunday i spent over 150 minutes reading it!  Its one of those books that you can't put down after it gets good.  It was recommend to me by Elise and Anna and i am so glad that they did!

The book so far is about these two girls and when i picture them in my head i see my friends faces, so its really weird!  I feel like i can almost relate this book to some people which makes me like the book that much more!  Its a really good read and i would recommend it to anybody!

St. Patricks Day!

St.  Patricks Day is such a fun holiday! Its just like Mardi Gras, except you wear green and its Irish!  People go all out in their green clothes and they get to go to parades!  I seriously LOVE going to parades and catching beads and being with friends!  Baton Rouge parades are the best because i feel like every time you turn around you see somebody that you know!  I also love that people get to party and the music on the floats always gets ya party goin!

After the parade some of my friends and me went to the Leblancs party which was really fun! Andrews dad cooks really good jumbalaya and that was fun to eat!  So St.  Patricks Day is a really fun parade and its awesome to get to go to and experience.

The Hunger Games

Reading The Hunger Games was probably one of the best books I have ever read!  I usualy dont like reading but this book got me to love it and i am so excited to read the next book which is Catching Fire.  The Hunger Games was about this set of "games" and there are 12 districts that are involoved.  A boy and girl are both selected to go to this competition and you have to fight with everyone will the last person is alive.  Its a bloody and hard battle.  Lots of drama happens and its really intense.

The hunger games probably the best book ever and now that i finished i get to go see the movie!! Also i read Nervous Conditions for part of my 150 minutes of outside reading.  I have really enjoyed reading thus far and i continue to find books like Hunger Games.

Bein the big sis

I am one of 4 siblings.  I have 2 brothers and 1 sister, and i am the oldest.  Carly is my little sister and she is 2 years old but i swear she acts like she's 10!  She is the best little thing that has ever happened to me and i love her so much!  She was born when i was in 7th grade and i swear that day was life changing.  I've never thought i can love someone so much before!  Yes, some times she is the biggest handful and gets annoying but at the end on the day i will always love her!

Carly says and does the cutest things ever!  Each day she surprises me with these new things she learns and it amazes me how much she has grown!  I can't wait to be there for her when she is older and always be the best big sis i can be!

Good by Nervous Conditions

Nervous Conditions is finally over and i can't tell if I'm excited or sad.  I am glad that i don't have to read it any more because the chapters were long and all, but it was a pretty good book.  It started off slow and all and i wasn't interested but it got better as the book went on, and i was especially interested in the middle.  Now that its over i would say over all that its a pretty good book.

Now that we are done reading Nervous Conditions its time to find a new book.  Ive been spending all my 150 minutes on NC and so now i need to find a new book.  I think i am going to read Catching Fire because i read THe Hunger Games and since the movie is coming out i want to read all of the other books.

crawfish!

This weekend i went to my first crawfish boil of the season!  It was good good and im so glad that its that time of year again!  It so much fun to be with family and enjoy eachothers company and eat some crawfish.  Every year i try and teach my little cousins how to peel them but it always just ends with  me pealing it for them.  THe crawfish were nice size and they were delicious!

I am so excited to go to more crawfish boils and hang out with more people!  Its a tradition that we always have one on St. Patricks Day so i am looking forward to go to that this year!!

Nervous Conditions

Tensions are heating up in Nervous Conditions!  My last post about the book was that i didn't like it but things are starting to get better.  I thought that Chapter 6 was really good and it actually made me interested in the book!  It was intense and kept me reading, and the time went by really fast.

Chapter 7 was pretty good too, but not as good as 6.  In chapter seven Lucia, Tambus aunt, comes in the picture.  She causes some drama with the family. especially Tambus dad.  So Nervous Conditions is getting a lot better and the plot is good! I hope it stays like this through out the book.

throw me somethin'

              I had a really fun Mardi Gras break!! I didn't get to go to as many parades as i would of liked to but it was still really fin the ones that i did go too.  I went with my good friend Liz.  We drove down to nola, and of course we were late because neither of us are ever on time.  So parking was ridiculously hard and we were in the back of the crowds, so i wiggled our way to the front.  One of the parades we went too was really fun and we caught a lot of beads!  But the other one wasn't as fun and there weren't as many people.
              After the parades we decided to walk around the French Quarter and ate at Hard Rock Cafe.  That restaurant is really good and we both love it!  After lunch we decided to meet up with some other people and partied on Bourbon Street!! There were a ton of people there, but it was really fun and I'm glad that i went!

NC = Bad

For this week i did my reading of Nervous Conditions and i wrote my research paper.  So far i think that my research paper is really good and i am proud of my work!  I think that it is coming along really well and i thought it was gonna be harder to write than it actually was.  When i read other peoples paper is showed me where mine stood in comparison to others and i think that its pretty good, and i thought that other peoples was interesting too.

So far i don't really like Nervous Conditions that much.  Its kind of confusing with all the strange words and i keep getting the characters mixed up.  I am not sure whats going on in the book at all and i am reading slowly and paying attention and i still don't understand it.  I had to reread chapter 3 because i didn't get it and that took me about 3 hours to read and annotate that and then reread it.  The book is not that good to me and i am just hoping that it gets better.

Valentines Day!

So this week is Valentines Day and I'm really excited!  No i don't have a "valentine" though.. i have 3! hahah! Me and some of my friends decided we were going to be each others valentine so i have to bake a lot of stuff tomorrow night for them!  Thank god for pintrest, pintrest gave me great ideas for what to bake and today in the mall i got a really cute present!  

Valentines Day has always been one of my favorite holidays and I'm glad that people go crazy on it!  I love walking into a Walgreens or CVS and seeing those huge bears and chocolates everywhere! I think its a cute holiday and its an excuse to eat some candy! I hope everybody has a great valentines day!

NC

This week i have spent all my time reading nervous conditions/annotating, and writing my research paper.  Just a few minutes ago i turned in my paper on turnitin.com and I'm am extremely proud of my work!  I have never heard of the Strait of Hormuz before and now i am so glad what i have learned about it and wrote about.  Its a big world issue right now and I'm glad i got to learn about it.

So far i have read chapter 1 in nervous conditions and I'm not to sure about that i think of the book.  I am a little confused about some things that are happening but i am really glad that you gave us that sheet with what the words mean because it helps a lot.  I think the book is starting off a little slow but I'm hoping it will get better!

Fish-Tail

Every morning when I wake up I think to myself what am I gonna do with my hair today? Most of the time i just brush it and leave it down but over the past 2/3 weeks I've been really obsessed with braids.  Pintrest has given me so many new ideas on how to braid my hair and i love it!  The one i like most is the fish-tail braid. Almost on a daily basis when i get to school i will ask someone to fish tail my hair and they do it! I just think that its so pretty and looks cool! 

The new braid that I've been really wanting to try is the water fall braid.  Its where it goes across your head and it just looks really cool!  I have been trying to teach my self how to braid my hair in the different ways bit its not working so well! The waterfall braid looks like this

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surfing the web

           For the past few weeks i have been doing my research project on something called the Srait of Hormuz.  THe Strait of Hormuz is a water passage way about 35 miles wide and is so valuable to the world you would be extremely surprised.  Lots of concerns have been going on with it right now making America and Iran not get along so well.  I have been looking at numerous websites finding information and its been really interesting to learn about.            

           Since we have had the week to work in the writing lab for out paper i have gotten a lot of work done with it.  I finished my outline and my draft is complete.  It is a really good draft too!  I am very proud of what i have accomplished and i can't wait to hear feedback from my classmates on what they think about it too.

U-high ~> U-Crigh

            Yesterday was one of the biggest soccer games Episcopal has had to play.  The girls Varsity soccer team played uhigh for the second time and it was a very intense game.  The fans were amazing and a lot of people came out to support!  People made signs that were really funny and had whistle that eventually got taken away because they were too "distracting". The final score was 3-3 meaning we had to go into over time.  With no one scoring in over time or double over time we had to go into triple over time.  Triple over time is where each team kicks 5 penalty kicks and who ever scores more is the winner.  It was really nerve-racking but ehs got 2 more points than uhs making us the district champions!  It was a really fun game to watch.

          After varsity played was the jv game.  The jv team is a lot more layed back and we aren't as intense at all but its still really fun to play.  Jv won our game against uhigh 1-0 and it was our second time beating them! So this weekend the jv and varisty teams both beat Uhigh!

Pumpin up the party

      This weekend has been fun and one that will not be forgotten.  On friday there was a basketball game at school, which I'm not the biggest basketball fan, but it was fun.  Being with friends and cheering in the stands for the players is awesome.  Somethings that i thought was really funny was that some one brought to the game huge cut out heads of some of the senior players!  They were funny pictures but i am not to sure i would want my head on a huge poster being waved everywhere.  After the game was an after dance in the greer center which was fun.  There were not many people there so there was lots of room to move around but i personally think that you need a lot of people at a dance to make it fun so i wish there could of been more people!

      Saturday i got to go to the Melting Pot with some friends which is one of my favorite restaurants in Baton Rouge.  Some people think that its weird to cook your own food in the little pots but i just think that is amazing!  There are 3 courses, first is the cheese course where you dip bread in the cheese, then the dinner course where you get meats, and the dessert where its strawberries, bananas, and brownies and you can dip it in chocolate! Now that just sounds amazing! I love the melting pot and you should definitely go if you haven't been before.

Reading week #2

             As you may remember that last week my outside reading choice was The Revenge of the Wannabes.  This book is still good and I am about half way through with it now.  In the story its all about who wants to be the alpha.  The girls continuously fight each other to be as the book calls it, the "leader."  The girls spend most of there time in hidden tears and are holding back there true emotions with each other.  Its a good book, but some of the things these girls fight about is a bit redicoulous and does not seem worth it.   

           The rest of my time with week was spent reading for other classes.  I had to read World History sections, Science sections, and some Norton pages which took up a lot of reading time as well.  To be honest World History and science readings are the most boring things i could possibly read so next week i am hoping that i can just stick with my outside reading book.  

Stilettos

For outside reading this week I split the time between two books and Norton reading assignments, the books were More to Life Than Mr. Right and Revenge of the Wannabes.  The story Stilettos is a short story in the book More to Life Than Mr.  Right.  It is about a manager of a shoe story who is extremely rude and inconsiderate of others.  She hires a girl Nicki because she is pretty because she believes pretty people sell better.  Later on in the story she sees people standing in front of her store so she calls the officer over to make them move.  THe people area appalled and say that next time there won't be police there to save her, which is foreshadowing what happens in the end of the story.  Later on a few days later when they are about to leave for the day two men enter the store and attempt to rob her but Lynette(the manager) hits them in the head with shoes and runs out the store screaming for help.  It is a really good story and i recommend you read it because it shows a good example of karma.

Revenge of the Wannabes is the 3rd book in the clique series.  I read the clique series when i was younger and i decided to pick back up on it again.  So far in the book its just about how 5 girls all have drama and lots happen to them and they are all "friends" but they all talk behind each others backs.

Jersey Shore!

                Jersey Shore is one of my favorite shows along with Pretty Little Liars and Awkward.  Jersey Shore is a reality show that started its first season on December 3, 2009.  It is currently on season 5 now and still comes on tv every Thursday with new fun episodes to watch.  Season one was filmed in Seaside Heights, season two was filmed in Miami, season three was filmed back in Seaside Heights, season four was filmed in Italy, while the currently running season is back in there "home" Seaside Heights.  The original cast of Jersey Shore is Michael Sorrentino "the situation", Vinny Guadagnino "Vinny", Paul Delvecchio "Pauly-D", Nicole Polizzi "Snooki", Ronnie Margo "Ronnie", Smantha Giancola "Sammi", Jenni Farley "JWOWW", and Angelina Pivarnick "Angelina".  Angelina was not liked as much by the other cast and finally when she had enough she left for good in season 2.  The roommates were overjoyed that she left, and they got a new roommate in season 3, her name was Deena.  Deena and Snooki make the perfect of friends because they both like to party and they refer to themselves as "the meatballs."

                Watching Jersey Shore is really fun and it is a good show.  I recommend that you watch it because its really funny.  You can expect that every episode will have drama and keep you entertained.  In the latest episode that aired Vinny decided he was having too much anxiety and thought it was best to leave the shore and go home.  We have yet to see the roommates reactions, it will be revealed this Thursday.  There is a lot more to come in the next episodes so you should watch them.

Finger Nail Polish

Finger nail polish can explain a person just by looking at them.  You can get so creative when using finger nail polish, and its fun! You can use any colors or make any pattern.  Sometimes when you go overboard with to many colors it gets kind of tacky.  My personal favorite is sparkly nail polish.  I have white sparkles on my nails now from new years, and because I like it!

 If you want to find different designs you can just look up things on the internet and you have an unlimited amount.  Also, a lot of famous people have finger nail polish lines and they are pretty colors that show off ways that they like to express themselves too.  The four hottest colors for 2011/2012 winter is glittery metalic, Greige/Mushroom/Taupe, super dark, and icy blues.  If you want to look at cool patterns then I recomend you look on pinterst and they have cool glow in the dark colors and tie-dye.