so i’m running 26.2 miles in a week – no promises on a blog that day:)
wow, at the books i finished this week – in a somewhat disorganized order…
“marathon” by yakin – graphic novel (comic) about the first marathon – after the battle of marathon – impressed with the blend of history and graphics – must/needs/get for the classroom:)
“mondays with my old pastor” by navajo – we’re going to write on some of the themes in this book this week – so i won’t spoil the fun more than to say it was a great encouragement to anyone who wearies of the path ahead – and a great book about looking to mentors – or the wisdom of our elders
“painting the corners” by weintraub – entertaining book to get you end the mood for baseball season (not that i need more help:) anyway, short fictional stories set in different time eras – i had vol. 1 so i would assume when it’s all together that some of the stories would be great for the classroom (if it doesn’t tick off a football-obsessed world…)
“dead in norbelt” by gantos – newbery winner – now, i’ll say that i’m all for newbery choosing “safe” – not having to make a statement with the book – this was really the most “blah” i think i can recall in a long time – same basic plot as the last two newbery’s – so i’m going to beat everyone to the punch and write an award winner this year – just taking columbiana and a few back issues of the local paper to tell a mystery where a young person comes of age in like the 1930s through the help of the town – and some mentor-ish old person (that’s slightly wacky)
i also reread the ryan hall book – i love ryan hall – love reading running books – anyway, his book was about his journey on the way to the 2010 boston marathon – and his faith – great encouraging read
“shine” by myracle – bonus for the student who lent it out to me – captivating story – marj didn’t like it, but what does she know??? 🙂 good reminder that in a small town, you can’t burn bridges b/c the person’s still there – they don’t go away (but oh how we wish they would – well, there was that one student, trey – he left – but the rest of you hang around:)
happy reading/writing
maf
Rest of Hunger Games. Last of it;) fouthh page glad i don’t have to write it anymore:):)
“So you’re telling me that these people, the Untouchables, are treated like this because of their blood line,” I say. “Sounds like the Holocaust, but not for religion.” I sit down to take in what he’s said. Already a plan is starting to hatch in my head.
“Do the leaders have a home or building that they stay in?” I ask her. “If they do, than I think I have a plan on how to bring them down.”
“They have one place,” she says. “It’s a base in the middle of this city, the Capitol Building. It’s the political, religious, and military headquarters of America, or New Russia, as they call it. They never leave there unless it is absolutely necessary or to save their own hides. If a nuclear-atomic radioactive death missile was falling on the city, they wouldn’t let anybody know. They’d just get whoever they wanted and leave with them.”
“Okay, then,” I say. “Now I have a plan. We disguise ourselves as two of the leaders’ bodyguards, infiltrate the Capitol Building, and assassinate Dimitri and Bogdana in their own precious safe house. Let’s go get ready…”
Early morning. We have our weapons. We got everything we needed last night. Submachine guns, chameleon suits, heavy artillery, medic packs; you name it, we got it. Even RPGs (rocket powered grenades.) Even though it might jinx us, there’s probably no way we can fail this assassination mission.
We enter the underground tunnels used for secret transportation so we can sneak into the Capitol Building. Two guards lie tied up and naked in the apartment stripped of their clothes and their identities. Five hundred feet until we get to the entrance of the Capitol Building; it’s time to kick it into high gear.
We jump up through the entrance. They knew we were coming some how, so seven laser guns’ sights point at us, ready to fire. I love my new life. We turn on our chameleon suits and disappear, sneaking down the hall to the throne room. The two leaders, Dimitri and Bogdana, sit with their backs turned to us.
“We have been waiting for you for the past twenty- five years,” they say in unison, as Christi sneaks off to the side. “And now it is time for us to say hello to our little friend!!!” They turn around. Their bodies are completely fused together except for their faces which are split down the middle. With a mental blast, memories all come flooding into my brain; too many to even recognize one of them. They chunk a knife at me and I turn to dodge it, but the memories hold me in place; it hits me in the left ventricle of my heart. As I lie there and die, I see Christi slice off their heads in victory, triumph, and revenge. This dystopian is finished, but so am I…
THE END:):)
I am still here!!!!! anyway I think it is funny that this is the post I chose to read 🙂 !!!! I do try to read them sometimes. Happy Marathon Week!
So I am reading Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and it is pretty good. The beginning was a little confusing, I just didn’t understand it very much. Later it was cleared up though. It is about a fireman in a futuristic society where the firemen burn books and houses where books are stored as punishment for having books. The firemen are trying to get everyone to be the same by watching the tv walls and listening to “seashells” aka wireless earbuds. The main character realizes that burning books is wrong and he revolts agaist the firemen. His house is burned then he runs away into the countryside. Any way that is a cut down version- somewhat.
Bye!!!
🙂 🙁 😉 😛 😮 8) 😀
In Doug’s first reading lesson he learned all of the things that get drilled into your head in Elementary school but the Middle and High school English teachers hate. He learned that ‘C’ sometimes makes the ssss sound but sometimes makes the kkk sound. He also learned that when you put certain letters together they make a new sound like ‘ch’ and ‘ph’. He didn’t learn a lot but for one day of not even being able to read and coming home able to sound out some words that he didn’t even know, I think he did really good. When he got home his dad told him that there was going to be a picnic for his job. They all had to go. That’s all.
Trent
This is more to the story I blogged on her a couple of weeks ago. Creative- Chapter 2
Eliza started to train Holly more. Eliza closed her eyes and a flashback starts. She sees herself as a kid in a gymnastics gym back in California. Little Eliza was wearing black stretchy shorts and a gray t-shirt. She is on a little circle thing that looks like a Pac-man. She sat in the seat part. Behind the Pac-man was a pit full of soft and mushy cubes for her to land in. Her coach, Mrs. Maggie told her to put her hands over the rounded part and push back really hard. This is how you learn to do a backhand spring. Once little Eliza finished the session of backhand springs on the cube, she walked over to the balance beam Mrs. Maggie helped her get up on there and held little Eliza’s hand. Eliza realized little Eliza and Mrs. Maggie were talking but Eliza couldn’t comprehend it as if it was something little Eliza never heard either. After a while Eliza tried to decode it and all she got out of it was something exciting like “Yay!” Eliza converted from a flashback into real life.
She heard Holly screaming, “Yay, Eliza I did it, I did a back handspring without the roller thing! Did you see it?”
It seemed so much like Eliza did see it but in her flashback and it was her. Eliza replied the exact answer Holly needed to hear, “Yeah I saw it, it was great! Eliza said smiling trying to hide the guilt. Ashleigh came in.
“Eliza your shift is over”
Eliza waved goodbye to Holly and Ashleigh and left.
Chapter 3
Eliza drove home in her orange Porsche thinking about what had happened in the gym. She had lied to Holly even though she had just officially met her. Eliza really didn’t see it, she was still zoned out in her flashback like that was reality and her life was the flashback. What is happening most people don’t feel any guilt and Eliza still felt it? Eliza looked at the time on her sidekick, 11:06. Wow was it really that late? She had only got out of the gym at 8:00. Did it really take that long to get home, what had happened in those hours?
Chapter 4
It had been two days since Eliza had went to work. She only works twice a week anyways. This afternoon she was supposed to meet up with some friends to go to the movies an afterwards dine out at a fancy restaurant called The Fig. The movie they watched was great, but confusing. It took Eliza a long time to get it (she’s a blonde). “Hey look over there”, Shane said as he nudged Eliza. Eliza slowly glanced over and it was some old people sharing a milkshake. Eliza thought it was sweet to still be in love most people already divorced after a couple of months. Eliza wanted to be like that when she was older. While Eliza thought it was sweet, Shane had another thought in his mind. He had this disgusted facial expression that looked like a dog that just ate out the trash. Eliza, Bethan, and Eric started to laugh really hard so Shane joined them almost falling on the floor. Once everyone had finally finished eating they left, since they had nothing else to do Eliza took them to the gym after hours. Eric and Shane went straight to play some basketball while Bethan and Eliza decided to do gymnastics and dance. Eliza had met Bethan when she first moved to Georgia. They went to the same gymnasium. It was about a year before her mom had died. Bethan reminded Eliza of their dance they made up the same year they had met. They both remembered little pieces, but when they put both of their knowledge together they had to the whole entire dance again as fresh as when they first had made it up. It actually didn’t look that bad for making it up 10 years ago. Eliza had another one of her memories playing in her head. Bethan was at Eliza’s house when they had made up the dance. Eliza watched step by step how the dance looked and she and Bethan had it right. Once Eliza and Bethan had the whole dance down –packed they went downstairs to show Eliza’s mom Sheryl. Eliza found her self standing in the gym again only this time she had a really sad look on her face because she was thinking about her mother and of how much she missed her. Bethan knew exactly what Eliza was thinking and reached her arms out and hugged Eliza.
Chapter 5
Was at the doctor Monday! Have a boot now! So going make up my blogs.(:
Monday-Author’s Purpose
I think the author’s purpose of Poison Plate is to tell a story. Mark, a young boy, is now settled into his new foster home. He doesn’t get along well with his new brother Tim. They share the same room upstairs and are sworn enemies. Everything that goes wrong gets blamed on Mark. Like he wants to be there! It isn’t his fault. Someone tries to break into the dinner and Mark sees the person. The burglar throws flour in Mark’s eyes and runs. Who was it?
Tuesday-Alternate Ending
Instead of Mark seeing the burglar leaving the restaurant Tim is the one to wake up. As Tim usually was in a deep sleep he awoke suddenly to a loud crashing noise. Tim was slowly walking down the stairs with a baseball bat tight in his grip. The Morris’s have never had a big problem with burglars but Tim had a feeling that this was different! He walked up to the window of the restaurant just in time to see…..
I didn’t know Trey was going to blog. TREY!
Doug wasn’t very excited about going to the picnic and his dad hated his job so to him there was no reason to go. Then he found out: there was going to be a trivia contest on Babe Ruth. (Later you figure out that the tirivia contest was on random baseball players.) Doug’s dad knew everything about Babe Ruth. He knew all of Babe’s averages, his home runs from every game, and anything else. So that was the only reason that they were going to the business picnic. He wasn’t looking forward to the picnic after his dad told him that there wasn’t going to be any good food there. I wouldn’t go without any good food. That’s all until tomorrow.
Trent
Well, happy marathoning week. Cause everyone knows I’m not running it…. 🙂 Trey, we just can’t get him to leave, can we? He follows us around, a shadow in the night…..
And the HUNGER GAMES PARODY CAME OUT TODAY!!! It’s called the Hunger Pains, written by the Harvard Lampoon, the same people who wrote Nightlight
I’m reading Nightlight this week, which is pretty funny
Mon.- This book is a parody to Twilight, which means you can make fun of a lot in it. Bella’s name has been changed to Belle Goose and Edward is
Edwart Mullen…. So, naturally the book will be funny 🙂 It really hints on the fact that Bella is a very self-absorbed person. Because I stand by the fact that she is.
Tues.- So Bella is moving to Switchblade, Oregon. *everyone laughs* So when she gets to the airport it says her dad doesn’t recognize her because she doesn’t have an umbilical cord…. Amd he doesn’t mean when she was born, she had a ‘pet umbilical cord phase.’ Words can’t describe how strange that is.
Wed.- So Belle moves to Switchblade, and she just thinks everybody is falling in love with her. Mailman says hi and she thinks ‘you wish…’ she’s so weird. It’s funny though, and if I look like a crazy chick when reading, please excuse me. Oh, her dad is a windowsill washer, and he bought her a U-HAUL for moving back home.
Thurs.- She really appreciates her new room. It has four walls and a ceiling just like her old one in Pheonix. Speaking of Pheonix and her family, it really elaborates on how her mom is extremely unable to take care of herself. And her husband is on a travel hockey team that goes all the way around the whole neighborhood….
Alright, everyone have a really good week! Bye 🙂
-Saint K
– when the moon is blue, the clock strikes noon
Okay, so I didn’t get to blog yesterday because I was busy getting my teeth yanked out of my mouth… Yesterday was not a great day. I had 4 pulled and I look terribe.It’s extremely embarassing and I’m having flashback to my first grade year when I had lost both my front teeth and bottm teeth.
Our Scholar’s Bowl competition is Friday. I’m excited and I think I can do a good job. After going to the Scholar’s Bowl competition thing at Spain Park High School… I’ve got my game face on and I’ve done a better job.
Earlier on this year I read Percy Jackson and The Lighting Thief. Then I read The Sea of Monsters and everytime I went back to the library they never had the next one, The Titan’s Curse. So I bought it on my nook for 5 dollars. So that was nice.
I started reading it and it took me a few pages to remember who all the characters were.
So Percy was with Annabeth and Thalia (Who is Zues’ daughter) They are going to some military school where Grover is. Because there are half-bloods there that they have to take to camp half blood.
When they get there they find out that the vice principal of the school is a monster. He throw Annabeth out into the sea and nobody knows where she is.
That’s was short but I was in a hurry.. So bye
So I’m going to do 3 blogs on Gone.
Monday- So we have Quinn, Astrid, and Sam have headed out to there houses. First up is Quinns, but of course nobody is home. Then there is Astrid’s house which is pretty nice, but she begins to freak out becausee her autistic brother, Little Pete, is missing from the house, but he is not 15 or older. But of course her parents are missing. But she insists that they look for Little Pete later as sooon as they get things organized. They head over to Sam,s house, well more like a shack. It is in a pretty bad neighborood, but they really don’t have to worry because nobody is there. Something was left on the stove, so he turned it off, and went to his bedroom to see if it was still there.
Tuesday- He told the rest of them to wait in the living room, and he would be back. He went into his room, and under some half hearted disguise was a bright orb that was sitting in the middle of the closet. He ran hs hands through it and he felt a warm glow feeling. He then covered it back up. The orb appeared when his mother was at work, and a storm had come and wiped out there power. He was left alone in his room, and the orb had appeared. Since then he had been trying to hide it from his mo.. He covered it back up, and hoped this had nothing to do with the strange ocurences.
Wedensday- He went back in the living room, and they were staring at some document that was left open, which looked to be like a diary entry from Sams mom. In it it used abbreviations for certain things like CA, or S. They all standed for something like Coates Academy or Sam. It said how she couldn’t confront somebody with something because she could lose her job, but he didn’t want him to hurt Sam again. It was all very confusing, but he shut it down, and they headed for the door. When they got halfway back to the school, they smelled a fire coming from the plaza, and they all hurried along to see what was the problem.
Today I’ll do an author’s purpose
I think that the Author’s Purpose is to tell a story about a young boy. Nothing goes good for him starting when he has to move from New York City to a small town called Marysville. He also has to live with his abusive father and evil/crinimal brother. At least he likes his mom and her smile. Everything that goes wrong gets blamed on Doug or his brother which ends up turning out bad for everyone. When school starts all of the teachers hated Doug by the end of the first day. His oldest brother, Lucas, got injured in the Vietnam War and isn’t home so we don’t know much about him. Doug’s life finally starts to look up when he meets a girl named Lil.
Trent
Four Journals on Wends. so excited for tom. b/c of Scholars Bowl I could scream! NO SCHOOL TOM. B/C of the match have fun everyone! 🙂
Monday- Girl Barley 15 Flirting For England
SPEAKER- Author 3rd person
OCCASION-When high school students go on a camping trip with thier french exchange partners!
AUDIENCE-Middle school girls
POURPOSE- to entertain
SUBJECT- Jess is okay with having a bo for an exchange partner. He comes to see her and boom he is a total dork. So now they are on this camping trip and she is falling head over heels for her BRATTY LITTLE friend’s exchange partner!
TONE-funny, in love
O
N
E
Tues.
Okay so now i am taking the point of view of Marie-Louise. That is Jess’ best friends french exchange partner! Hello! MY NAME IS Marie Louise. Flora is my exchange partner and we are having so much fun! Right now we are on this camping trip and we havplayed a bunch of new games! I love it here it is Flora’s “mum” is calling! Bye!
Wends.
Creative
Hi! I am the part of Joci’s Comedy of Errors story that did not get tacked on. Let me finish!
Heeeeyyyyy! We are Anna and Abby! We are the assistants around here. We fetch things for people who need the things. We love it here and think thatit is awesome. We could not ask for better bosses! I wish we could do hair some day! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeedeee! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 😛 😛 😛 😛
Thurs
I think the author’s pourpose for this story is to entertain! It starts off with Jess being totally willing to have a guy exchange partner! Well when he came she thought he was a total dork! She (Jess) did not like that! Well now they are all going on a camping trip and she is looking for a person and finds the wrong one!
:d
Finished Poison Plate today!!(: Good book, I recommend it to all of you.
Wednesday-Creative
Ugh! Nothing to write about today, again! I have already done all the interesting stuff! So I am doing a creative. This is the story of a young boy, Bernie. He was 8 years old and was in love with.. this is awkward so sit down, okay? Bernie Satchels is in love with… HIS TEACHER!!! I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. But I just told you so I guess I told someone. In a way, but I don’t want to erase all this so you now know. Just don’t tell anyone I told you, okay! Wait, I hear breathing. The teacher is standing behind me and reading all this!! I am gonna stop here so, bye!
Thursday-Soapstone
S-The author is speaking, 3rd person.
O-A kid is writing in a journal as the narrator/author about a midnight accidental wreck.
A-Kids in the high school and the kid’s parents.
P-To entertain young readers of a story about high school and what drama can force kids to do.
S-A kid is driving home from school in the middle of the night when he tries to take the easiest way out of all this drama.
T- Shocked as the family hears of this wreck and starts looking for bodies.
O
N
E
Hey, Mr. Mayfield!!! I have just finished “Where I’d Like to Be”. In this story, 11 year old artist Maddie is living life as a foster child, having been abandoned by her mother at a younge age, and who’s life had been saved by a ghost. (Though that has nothing to do with the story 🙂 ) Then Murphy, a mysterious girl shows up at The Home. Maddie befriends Murphy and together they form a band of friends, sixth graders Logan, Donita, and 6-year-old Ricky Ray.
Maddie learns about the delicateness of friendship in this story.
Murphy, in my opinion, has self-esteem issues. Not like Voldemort and The One Who Is The One, Murphy just has a need for attention, which she does get, with unexpected results.
If you want to make friends, I suggest that you don’t lie about every aspect of your life. I also suggest that you don’t go off, suddenly hanging out with another group of people, espcially snobby people, because they have a dreamy house.
If I had added on to this story, I would have added more about the lady who wanted to adopt Maddie.
I also would have liked to learn more about Donita’s Mama and sister. I think that it’s sad that her little brother died. Russel seemed like such a nice and interesting character.
I think that Maddie is alot like Wisty Allgood. Smart mouthed and brave. I also think that Maddie would have also made a great witch. It would be cool if Ricky Ray took Whit’s place as the Wizard. After all, they’re both without parents and care about eachother alot. Maddie and Ricky Ray are pratically family.
I really like the fort that the group made. A project like that sounds fun. I think that designing house plans and making layouts would be fun too.
I really liked this book. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being best, blah, blah, blah) It gets a 9. Which isn’t bad, only the Hunger Games and The Son of Neptune have 10s.
I highly recemend this book. 🙂 😀
Peace out, Gifted peeps!!!
mon- so he spends about two hours rubbing the gold liquid all over the didacts body. after a while the voice tells him he is done so he walks out and finds the humans. it is late at night so him and the humans go to sleep on a hill.
tues- the next morning they are woken up by war sphnxs that are working. he looks around and sees that they are all flying to the top of a mountain and are working on something. he sees the didact and then goes back to sleep.
weds- the next time he is woken up he sees the didact with some gear and his arms look stronger.the humans are gone so he decides that he should go look for them. the didact starts walking one way and the forerunner starts looking for the humans.
thurs- the forerunner finds chakkas. so the forerunner and chakkas start looking for the other human. they spot him going into the woods with a pile of sticks in his hands. they try to chase him into the woods but the sphnxs stop him. then they turn around seeing the didact coming back from his walk.
Mercedes is this weekend. I’m not running
Creative-Two years ago when I used to live in Alabama I had a big, open yard. Now I have a 1500 square-foot apartment that I have to share with my mom and Davis, my brother. Two years ago I was happy. Now when I want to go play in a yard I have to walk three blocks to a park. Before New York I had to walk ten feet. I hate this stupid town as much as I hate any big city. When my dad left and my mom got offered a job closer to my family we had to move here. I have no friends here and no one likes anyone with a southern accent in the heart of the city. When I turn Eighteen in two months I’m leaving to go back home. I can’t wait. Finally I’ll be where I belong. That’s all for this week.
Trent
Monday
This week I’m blogging about The Castaways of the Flying Dutchman. It is by Brian Jaques, the author of the Redwall series. Anywho, I know that he wrote this to entertain the reader. I pretty sure anyways. I think he wrote this to entertain, but he used facts about the countries and myths of the Flying Dutchman to an advantage, because he twists it to a new point of view of a never-before-heard-of-character. At the same time though he creates the image a huge ship where the boy is put in the galley.
Tuesday
Wondering what would have happened if Neb would have escaped in Denmark?
My guess is that he would have found the black lab and went to a bench and hid until the pirates were gone. Then he would have made a home and been one of those beggars who sits on the corner of the block in New York. Or maybe if he didn’t like the dog anymore … sell the poor black lab. I mean that’s what I would have to do if I were him, but I’m not so that is all his discision. That is what I think would have happened to Neb if he escaped the ship in Denmark.
Wednesday
After a lot of thought The Castaways of the Flying Dutchman is like the beginning of Peter and the Starcatchers. They both have characters get on ships. Neb got on because he was running from his stepbrothers and one of them hit him and he fell into the ice cold water, then all of a sudden a stringy rope hits his head and he uses all his strength to climb onboard. In the other book orphans get onboard because the are forced to be slaves to an evil king overseas. Well, I mean, they have \the same ideas just different plots.
Thursday
So far the captain of the Flying Dutchmanis making a deal with a chinease merchant who is offering FOUR emeralds for him to deliver emeralds to other high-paying people. On another POV a boy is running from his stepbrothers and runs into a dead-end. His stepbrothers or the ocean?!?!?!?!?!? Which is worse?!?!?!? Well, he doesn’t have a choice because one of his stepbrothers hits him in the jaw and falls into the freezing cold ocean shivering and alone.