The Great Wide Sea

reading quiz

1.   what do the brothers see on the way to the keys?     venus
2. what happens to the mom? hit by a car
3. what is the boats name? chrysalis 
4. what happened to dads hand? cut by the motor
5.  what did Ben do to get them money in Nassau? paint boats
6. what happens to dad? dies
7. how many trash bags does Ben fill with water? twelve
8. what does Gerry catch? a flounder
9. how much money does dad give Ben? $400
10. Why? to get a plane ticket

Main themes

1. one of the major themes is definitely love. the entire book Ben is dealing with love with his dad and whether he loves them or not. also,the strong bond between the brothers show how important love is when you need it most.
2. family is also a major theme. the boys must stick together as a family in order to survive both on the boat and on the island. Family also is important to care for each other and stick together. 
3. the other major theme is trust. a lot of them had to trust each other with their lives and thats the biggest example of trust between them. when dad "dies" the brothers need trust in order to make it home.

news bowl 2

Kushner, By Jacob. "Haiti Candidates Lead Protest to Nullify Election  | Ajc.com." Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News | Ajc.com. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/haiti-candidates-lead-protest-764208.html>.

 some political candidates led a march through Haiti on Thursday to say that the election was tainted with fraud. on person, Charles Henri-Baker, said that the people were not allowed to vote and he wants a democratic election. there were many problems with the elections like the polls opened late and some voters were not allowed in. when protesters threw rocks at police they fired warning shots but no injured were documented.

newws bowl

"Ivory Coast Opposition Leader Named Winner of Vote  | Ajc.com." Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News | Ajc.com. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/ivory-coast-opposition-leader-763388.html>.

the winner of Abijan's recent elections, Alassane Ouattara, was objected since the elections were not on sate tv the people in favor of the ruling party said that it was a 'attempted coup'. the elections chief said that he had won with a vote over 50%. this election was put in place to stabilize the country after its civil war in 2002

news bowl dos

 Puerto Rico Debates 12-year Term for Animal Abuse

Coto Danica. "Puerto Rico Debates 12-year Term for Animal Abuse  | Ajc.com." Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News | Ajc.com. Web. 17 Nov. 2010. <http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/puerto-rico-debates-12-744845.html>.

the 12 year prison sentence in Puerto Rico was recently challenged by a man who got it for dragging a horse behind his truck(?why? i don't know) saying that the law is too severe since even murder has a shorter penalty. this man says he will appeal for the term being unusual and cruel. he also says that since the horse didn't die that he shouldn't get the penalty. This law was  made in august 2008 in response to people saying Puerto Rico was cruel to animals.

(the horse has recovered but has a limp and will not be able to be ridden ever again.

News bowl

 Activists Decry Shooting after Rio Gay Pride March

Barbassa, By Juliana. "Activists Decry Shooting after Rio Gay Pride March  | Ajc.com." Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News | Ajc.com. Web. 17 Nov. 2010. <http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/activists-decry-shooting-after-744720.html>.

this article is about how after a huge gay pride parade a young gay man was shot by men in uniform. Douglas Igor Marques Luiz was chillin' with his friends when three men appeared and ordered everyone to leave but then held him back and started to insult him, then after the insults escalated he was shot. this is odd since it happened right after a major gay prid rally and in Rio De Janeiro which was apparently a very safe place for homosexuals to be.   

Unwind by Neil Shusterman

Unwind 

Neil Shusterman 

the main theme of this book is trust. throughout the entire book the main characters, Connor, Risa, Lev are having to trust each other.

Connor is one of  the main characters in the story, in the very beginning he runs away from home and refuses to trust anyone. then as he meets other people he must learn how to trust them with his life. Lev's story is different he is kidnapped by Connor to save him from being unwound and he must trust Connor and Risa, who meets up with Connor and has a similar story.

here are three main stages of the book: the escape, hiding, and capture. in the beginning there is the escape where Connor runs away from home at this point Connor begins the hero's journey and almost goes back to his house, then he meets up with the police (this is one of the trials) and finds Lev(an enemy who turns into an ally) after this he escapes into the forest with Risa and Lev this ends the escape stage. at this point they move into the hiding stage where the bonds are formed and destroyed. in this part Lev begins to trust the other escapees and vice versa. this stage also contains the separation where the characters are split right as bonds are formed. this stage also introduces a new twist, a child. the next stage Connor and Risa get captured and Lev gets drafted into the clappers, a terrorist organization. in this stage new enemies are found and the group gets put into a unwind camp Connor blows it up and that is the end the rest is just a revolt that happens against the guards.

i think that this book connects to junior high in the fact that you must learn to trust your peers just like Connor has to in the book. since in junior high you must trust your classmates to not reveal your secrets in unwind Connor must trust his friends to keep his secrets

i really enjoyed this book since it contains lots of excitement and in contrast to many other reading bowl books it has a more intense feel which many junior high readers enjoy. because of the reasons i believe that this would make a great book for next years reading bowl

-

bloggin' on halloween

     when you meet my parents i think that you will discuss my behavior in class but not as much as you did last year since i feel that i have improved a lot in controlling myself. another thing i think martha will talk about is organization, i have been pretty disorganized for the past week and i sent martha a bunch of emails asking for the homework.

     when you meet my parents i would like you to tell them about how i have improved on controlling myself, which i believe i have. i also would like you to talk about ways to help me stay organized since i am not very good at that.

     there isn't anything that i can think of that i would not want you to tell my parents i dont think i have set fire to anything and thats what counts right?

Hello ADHD people of the world

i am ADHD too

hello canada people

i saw a canadian looked at my blog yay

WikiLeaks Leaks classified information

Jakes, By Lara. "US: Enemies Searching WikiLeaks Iraq Papers  | Ajc.com." Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News | Ajc.com. Atlanta Journal Constitution, 26 Oct. 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. <http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/us-enemies-searching-wikileaks-692132.html>.

Wiki Leaks has just put up 77,000 (classified)  Afghanistan war logs  for the public to veiw. you can see them here http://warlogs.owni.fr/. The Pentagon has gotten messages from groups that say they are using this information to plot against them. CNN says that the Documents did not put troops at risk since no names were disclosed. a spokesperson of the pentagon David Lapan says that Wiki Leaks may have even more information that the government doesn't know about.  


i chose this article because i thought that it was interesting that a website could have such a large impact on the us army when no major hacking was done. also i really like conspiracys since they are interesting from the beginning to the end

this is important to know beacuase it shows how loosely controlled the flow of information is in the U.S. it also shows how much control the internet has over the world. also since the people who got the information were not professional computer hackers what if someone wanted to find more documents and was a experienced hacker?

also in my link just copy paste the link into google and only one will come up 

quiz bowl

a sixteen year-old mental patient broke out of her place in atlanta midtown

And entered Richards variety store such was nearby. She proceeded to smash about one thousand dollars worth of property and threatening people with various sharp objects when the police restrained her they learned that she was mad since her old doctor who she liked wasn't going to treat her anymore. during this whole experience the employees remained calm and helped people get out of the back 

there was a estimated 1000 damage doone 

RED SLUDGE!!

on Thursday toxic red sludge from a nearby alumina plant reached the Danube River, this river is a key waterway for a half-dozen nations in Europe. this sludge has been said by the local university to not be toxic but residents say that they don't care what the university says they can fell a effect. Hungary's environmental minister says that the high levels of metal in the sludge can cause cancer, also since it hasn't rained for a decent amount of time the mud is turning into dust making the metals airborne.  

twist

Lucius is a major villain in the play twist. he is also a major symbol, the first thing he symbolizes is evil. his name, Lucius, is very similar to Lucifer, one of the devil's names. lucius also represents greed. he was willing to kill his nephew just for the money. he also represents the growing racism in the south.

The fact that twist is bi racial is also a large symbol.just like Lucius his name is symbolic,twist is

like a twist between black And white. His name is also

symbolic of dancing like how in the beginning how the

people are tap dancing and they twist alot so it is a

symbol that twist can dance well.

  the fact that the play is set in new orleans also has great significance. new orleans has been a prominently black state for a long time but for some reason even though they are no longer the minority they are still oppressed. but even though they are oppressed in the mainstream once you get into the streets the power shifts. you see this in the scene where Boston and Lucius are arguing it seems that Boston has more power than Lucius so Lucius has to make a deal with him rather than just demand what he wants

C.I.H 2

this week we are going to send a object that represents something that is important to us to Ghana. i want to send a pencil. a pencil represents my creativity and my passion for drawing stuff. the pencil will also show how i think differently from other people in the class.  the pencil means a lot to me because it allows me to express myself in ways i cant do otherwise.

       we were also asked to start on our paragraph that we will write on the photo we send. we are supposed to write about peace.

i think peace is a very important goal for the whole world. if we can manage to become peaceful we will be more open to new societys and will not try to fight them rather become friends with them. peace is just as important in everyday life as fro the world as a whole, if you can be peaceful with your friends and not argue all the time you can get more done and build a stronger relationship with them.

second post

we are about 4 weeks into school and my first year as a eighth grader. while how i had expected 8th grade to be near impossible it actually turned out pt not be so bad. the homework was the thing i was most concerned about but the homework load so far has not been much although i know it will get worse later in the year, also this is not a reason to give me more homework. also the only class i am having trouble in is lit, the quizzes are much different from my 7th grade teacher's quizzes. last year the quizzes where much more literal than this year where they include questions about symbols and quotes. i think overall that 8th grade has met my expectations in some areas but in others it fell a bit short.

  socially 8th grade isn't much different from the 7th grade social system, all of the people who play sports hang out on the green while others are inside playing on the computers. i belong to the latter spending much of my lunch at robotics club unlike the stereotypical geek i have plenty of friends that are not in robotics club. some intimidating figures from last year still exist such as john but not in a bad way since he is one of my friends. i have pretty much gotten to know most of the people from last year and the "7th grade i have to get a lot of friends" period has ended. also i already know a lot of the 7th graders.

   i think that i have presented my self as a leader for some of the more unusual 7th graders such as Dylan and Houston. i  like being like this since i don't want people to feel like they are the only hyper one in the junior high which they certainly aren't.i dont think that i am a good leader for many of the other people since i only play ultimate and normally the way the leadership is formed is in sports.

  the thought that next year i will be in high school scares me in some ways. to be ready for high school i want to learn more bout time management so i don't procrastinate cause  my sister i have learned that you cant wait until the last minute to do your homework. i also want to learn how to be more organized and i have made progress in that already.

C.I.H

this week my class was visited by the founder of Children Inspiring Hope, a program that links classrooms in the United States to other countries primarily in Ghana. we will send pictures and videos to our class in Ghana. one of the things we did in class was discuss what peace meant to us, for me peace means being able to connect to others without fear. when i think of peace i think of a group of diverse people working together to complete a common goal whithout concerns to their own self gains.when this happens in a community it will become a all together safer and better place for everyone in the group. one way i try to promote peace in my life is helping others. we also discussed different ways to create peace and we used the sentence "paths to peace: creating peace through            " in the blank you are supposed to decide what you think, i chose connection since to be peaceful you must be connected. i think as a good project to send to Ghana would be a class video that we all partake in.we could include information on what we are studying and what we look forward to doing with the class. we could also send them videos of our news bowls and other class activities this way the class in Ghana will feel more connected to our class Wichita will lead to a more enjoyable time.

intro

hello I am a 8th grader in ******* at a certain time that is not to be revealed at this time. I will be posting about my academic experience at *******