Critical Question #2: The Thruth about Forever

Question: What really hard things are happening in this text? Are these things happening in the world now? Where?

      I'm currently reading the book The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen. Macy is actually a very smart and fun person and she has been running and has won races since she was a little girl but instead of being remembered by that she was remembered as the girl who saw her own father die in front of her eyes. She tries to look her best all the time so people don't think that she looks messy because she's still upset that her father died.
          The really hard thing that's happening in the book is that Macy had to see her father die. Macy loved her dad, they did so many things together, and they were really close, and inside she's a horrible mess. In the book Macy explains that she is angry and sad but she can't let anyone know that, so she dresses herself neatly and professionally. Even though back then when her father was still alive Macy would never care about her appearance now she was kind of forced to care because if she wore some random outfit and didn't do her hair at all everyone would look at her with a sad face and she got tired of it, so she was forced to change how she talks, how she dresses, and how she acts towards others. 
     These things are happening in the everywhere in the world because people lose people who they love and care about everyday without a warning and then there are those other people who see their family members die right in front of them and they can't do anything about it but sit down and regret everything.

Critical Thinking Question: Social Action

                    Is this story fair? Why or why Not?
 
         I'm recently reading a book called Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli. The book is about a group of kids who are all homeless but they all act like a  family. The main character is Misha Pilsudski, he's a Gypsy, he's short, he lives in the streets of Warsaw, and for a living he steals food from other people and runs. Misha Pilsudski has been called, Jew, Stopthief, and filthy son of Abraham. When he saw a Nazi, he wanted to be one too and where Jackboots just like them but when you're homeless and everyone thinks you're a Jew it's better to be nobody.
       At first Misha Pilsudski didn't know anything about himself he didn't even know his own name he just called himself what everyone else called him: Stopthief, but then Uri, one of the homeless guys, took Misha with him and he gave Misha a name and a story. Uri also had to change Misha so people didn't think he was Jew. Misha didn't even know what a Jew was until Uri and the guys explained it to him they said, "This is a Jew." He pointed to himself. "That's a Jew." He pointed to the others. "That's a Jew" He pointed to a horse. "That's a Jew" he pointed to the straw in the horse flop. He held out a small brown insect, "this is a jew". "A Jew is an animal. A Jew is a bug. A Jew is less than a bug." He threw the insect into the flop. "A Jew is that".
     Misha then learned that Jews were treated very badly and that's why they all had to try to look as if they were the same as everyone else, as if they weren't Jews. Misha was always glad that he wasn't Jew but he didn't understand that some people didn't like Gypsy people either. While living with Uri, Misha learned how to take care of himself and how to get into less trouble. Even though Misha tried his hardest to look invisible he couldn't, he always found a way to get himself shot, or hurt. One day when Misha was with his friends  the Nazis came to their "home" and they took them to the "ghetto", that's where all the Jews were being taken, except Uri. When Misha got to the ghetto and he saw people dead on the streets everyday he started to change and he even decided to be nobody.
     I think that this is unfair because there were a lot of Jews in Warsaw and it's not okay to treat them differently just because of their religion. It's also not fair for everyone that lives in Warsaw to be controlled by the Nazis and it's not fair for them to not want to go outside because their scared or for them to not be able to see who they are because they're scared. The main reason that I don't think it's fair is because they're all humans and they're all the same and Misha's friends don't believe in Angels, or mothers, or anything and that's not fair that there childhood is being taken away from them and they have to take care of themselves. They basically have to grow up fast just so they can take care of themselves. I thinks that this is very sad and the saddest part is that Misha didn't even know his own name, he doesn't remember who his mother was or what she looked like and if it wasn't for Uri, Misha wouldn't be alive.
    

Social awareness Project

My Surroundings

     I’ve been observing my surroundings for a while now and I’ve notices many things, one of the things I’ve noticed is that people can be cruel no matter how old they are. I chose to write about what happens in school because I spend most of my time there. In school I noticed that many of the eighth graders and some of the seventh graders push around sixth graders just because they’re 1 or 2 years older. They either push the sixth graders or make fun of them and I feel that this is wrong because it doesn’t make you any better than the person you’re pushing/making fun of and they might not realize it but this is also considered bullying. I also felt that this was wrong because the eighth graders should know better than this, they’re suppose to be setting an example for the sixth graders but instead they’re making the sixth graders’ year harder than it’s suppose to be.

   I concluded that the cause of this is probably that the eighth graders feel cool or they feel like they’re being funny and it’s effecting the sixth graders because this their first year in middle school with new teachers and new people and they’re probably nervous and the eighth graders are just making it more difficult for them. This is really unfair for the sixth graders because they never actually did anything wrong, all they really did was come to school just like everyone else so the fact that anyone is doing this is just ridiculous. Also the school is always talking about how bullying is wrong and everyone always assumes that they never bullied anyone or did anything wrong but they do all the time. A possible solution to the problem would be for the people bullying the sixth graders to put themselves in the sixth graders shoes and see if they would like it if someone treated them like that. Also if everyone stopped laughing; stopped encouraging them and if someone told them that what they’re doing is wrong then they might stop.

Someone who Changes the World

Someone who I feel that changes the world everyday is Stephanie Ortiz she has been doing a lot of things for the world now and I thought it would be great to let people know that. I’ve recently interviewed her and I found out that she really does care about the planet and the people in it she’s an amazing person. She also talked to me about the fundraisers that she’s going to tell her teacher about in school with some of her friends for the planet. Stephanie believes that to change the planet we should all try to stop polluting the air maybe by not smoking and by not throwing garbage in the oceans or anywhere.

  When I was interviewing Stephanie I asked her what she has done for the planet and she said “I sometimes try to help the planet. For example, when I or someone I’m with has garbage I make sure I or they throw it out in a garbage can. I also recycle as much as I can. I have also helped people in need”. She explained that she feels that what she does to try to help the planet is important because if you litter, you don’t know where the garbage ends up and where it ends up can most likely hurt the planet. “If the garbage goes to the ocean an animal can eat it and die. I find helping people in the planet important too because if I help them then they will also be inspired to help the planet and others inside the planet.”

   During the interview I asked Stephanie how she helped people inside the planet and she told me that she has helped soldiers, animals, and seniors. “I’ve collected cell phones for soldiers, cans for the needy in Thanksgiving, saved animals with a group, sent money to a company that helps the dogs in Puerto Rico, Visited the seniors’ center, and gave gifts to the seniors”. She told me that she and a group called the “leadership team” helped the Soldiers from Afghanistan by sending them calling cards and cell phones for them to keep in touch with their families since they’ve been so far away from their families for such a long time. The leadership team and she also sent the soldiers double A batteries and they made cards to cheer the soldiers up. In her free time Stephanie and her friends collected cans and tried to help people who were affected by Sandy.

Original Literary Piece

The world would be a better place if we all just tried a little bit more,

Maybe we can start by helping out the poor,

We can also recycle bottles, cans and paper,

And we can go pick up the trash in the streets later,

But if you can’t do any of these,

At least try to keep the ocean clean, please?

       The poem that I wrote is basically about keeping the Earth clean and helping people out. I felt this is important because usually everyone just worries a lot about bullying which should also be stopped but some people don’t see that they’re also doing damages to Earth. The damages that they’re doing to Earth are also as bad or maybe worse than what they’re doing to other people and we’re living in this planet for a really long time so we should really keep it clean. If we don’t also worry about the planet then the animals will keep on dying and global warming will become stronger and the whole Earth will just turn into a big dessert.

  

Reading Response #6: Something like Fate

     I'm currently reading the book Something like Fate by Susane Colasanti, this is a great book about two friends that have done everything together since they were little but then one of them started to like her friend's boyfriend. Lani is the main character and her friend Erin started to date a guy named Jason from their school, ounce Lani met him she felt a "connection" with him that she's never felt with anyone else and after a while of Lani and Jason being friends Lani found out that Jason felt it too. Lani tried to deny it at first because she didn't want to face the truth but then she learned that there was no way around it because it was something like fate.
  
    While I was the reading the book I put a post-it on this page the line that caught my attention was, "I can usually tell when a boy likes me. There have been a few. But the reason I've never had a boyfriend is because they all seemed really immature. I mean, I've gone out with a few different boys, but I've always kept it casual. I just never felt this kind of connection I've always wanted to feel". The reason this is important is because Lani said this line the first day she met Jason and she didn't even know him that well yet. After knowing him for a while, and when Erin left for summer camp Lani and Jason started hanging out together everyday. Lani then realized that she couldn't do this to her bestfriend, Erin, so she tried to avoid him as much as possible but she then realized that it was almost impossible. Jason then broke up with Erin by writing her letter and Lani and Jason started dating but they still didn't tell Erin.

    I think that Lani is a very smart girl so she will be able to figure out what's right and what's wrong. She should also know that what she's doing to her bestfriend is not right because Erin really liked him and even if Erin starts to like somebody else it's not okay for Lani to start dating Jason. I also think that what Jason did was also very wrong because it's not alright to date someone and then date their friend especially their bestfriend and then not tell anyone about it.

     All in all, Something like Fate is a really good book and anyone would be able to understand it and it's a really entertaining book. This book can teach you if you actually know what fate is because Lani was confusing fate with something else because what was happening with her and Jason was definitely not fate.

Reading Response #5: Hurricane Sandy Eyes Coast

    The author of this article is trying to explain to us that Hurricane Sandy should be taken as a big deal because it's bigger than Irene. The article talks about how governors in most states made some people evacuate from their homes because Sandy can easily destroy their house and it could also kill them. The article explained the damages that Sandy did to the Bahamas,Cuba, and Florida. The Hurricane was also compared to Irene and it said that Irene damaged some places and many people were affected by it but Hurricane Sandy was much worse. It brought about 10 inches of rain to coastal areas, it was considered as a category 1 with 75 mile-per-hour winds.
 
    I think that next time people should take this more seriously and then maybe there wouldn't have been so many injuries, and deaths because some people weren't really affected by Irene and they thought that Sandy was going to be the same but Sandy actually did a lot of damage. I really also feel bad for people who lost their houses and belongings due to the powerful winds and rain. When the article explained all the damages Sandy caused in other places I was glad that not a lot happened around where I live and that Sandy didn't really harm anyone that I knew.

   This text changed my thinking about big storms like this, because I usually don't pay attention to what the forecasters say and I always think that nothing will happen but I was proved wrong this time. After reading this article I concluded that you'll never know when something like this will happen so you should always be prepared well enough.

Revised Reading Response #3

I recently finished the book Art Geeks and Prom Queens by Alyson Noel, in this book the main character,Rio, just moved with her mother to California. Throughout the book Rio changes a lot, she doesn't only change her personality but she changes the way she looks, she turns into a completely different person. In the beginning of the book Rio wasn't really interested of hanging out with the "popular" kids, she just wanted to start the new year in her new school and just be herself. Rio also made two new friends Mason, and Jas, Rio was really happy when she met them because they were just like her, they were interested in Art, and they seemed real and friendly. Everything was going fine and she was being herself until Kristi,one of the most popular girls in school, started talking to Rio. Even though Rio is a smart person it will take something really bad to happen for her to realize how much she has changed.

  When Kristi and her clique became friends with Rio, Rio had to change the way she dressed herself, the way she acted around others, and she couldn't be friends with just anyone. At first Rio didn't know if it was a good idea but then she started to like being noticed and that's when she completely changed. She stopped talking to Mason, and Jas, Rio became the person that she never wanted to be. "The next rule is you can't be friends with everyone, but you have to be nice because people expect a lot from you but you can't be friends with them. Kristi is basically telling Rio that to be friends with her she has to ignore all her true friends; this shows that Kristi isn't a real friend because if she was she wouldn't care about who Rio was/is friends with. She did things that she would've never done and she said things that she would've never said before and she didn't even notice that she was doing it. Rio changed so much that she was starting to become like Kristi but worse.
 
   I don't think Rio is going to realize that she has done things that weren't right until her "friends" do something really bad to her, because Rio hasn't realized that she doesn't even have her own opinion or thoughts anymore. She can't control her life anymore because Kristi controls it for her, Rio can't talk to her real friends and she can't like anyone that's not a jock, or a college guy. "I'm not even the host of my own party because my mom and Kristi have planned it all for me". This shows that Kristi doesn't let Rio do anything for herself, not even control what's going on in her party. If Rio ever realizes what's going on I think she'll break down and she won't know what to do or who to be anymore because she was always an independent person but know she doesn't even know what's going on in her own life. I liked how Rio was before because now I just think Rio is like Kristi's clone and that's not a good thing.

   In conclusion Art Geeks and Prom Queens is a really good book that can show people that they don't have to change who they are just to impress someone because if you like who you are then it doesn't really matter what everyone else thinks. Also it's not worth all the work changing the way you look, and act just for one person. I really liked this book and it got me thinking a lot about why anyone would agree to become part of something that they know they're not even if it got you noticed.

Blog post #4: Reading Response

     I'm currently reading the book Evermore by Alyson noel. In the book Ever, the main character, has psychic powers but she's still not use to them that's why she hides underneath a hoodie and listens to loud music that she doesn't even like until she meets Damen. Damen is a new kid that everyone is obsessed with and he's one of the only people that can make Ever feel normal again but she can't figure out what it is. Ever since Damen came in to Ever's life Ever has been getting sweaty palms, and she has even tried to dress like she used to before the accident. This really surprises Ever because ever since the day she lost her family Ever hasn't felt normal and no one has been able to make her feel like her old self anymore because nothing's the same.
 
    When Ever's teacher introduces the class to Damen, Ever refuses to look at him because Ever could hear everyone else thought and according to the whole class Damen looked like an amazing person. Later on one of Ever's friends',Miles, forces Ever to look at him and Ever freaks out. "And what I see leaves me unable to speak, blink, or move", Ever has never been paranoid over a guy since she had to move California with her aunt. This shows that Ever might actually like Damen and that he can make her feel like her a normal teenager with a normal crush again.Even though Ever realizes that she has a crush on Damen she refuses to admit it because there's nothing normal about Damen he's always doing these "magic tricks" like making red tulips appear and the fact that he has no aurora is even weirder because everyone has an aurora the only people who don't are the ones who are already dead.

    Afterwards Ever gains more confidence and she decides to trust Damen even though she's not sure it's a good idea. I think Ever made a good choice by accepting Damen into her life and not questioning why he has no aurora and why she can't read his thoughts. Damen also kind of gets more mysterious throughout the book, he starts to leave without saying where he's going and he's always drinking this really weird red liquid, Ever has even realized that he doesn't eat. "How can he make me feel so normal yet he's not normal at all" this shows that Ever does feel normal but she's starting to realize that Damen isn't and she barely knows anything about him and when she tries to ask him about his family he always tries to avoid the subject in any way possible.
   
     I think Ever should just forget about the past and the bad things in her life and focus only in the good things; she also shouldn't completely trust Damen because she doesn't even know him that well. Ever is a strong person and even though she questions everything and she's a very secretive person it's okay because she has gone through a lot and she just needs to learn that she can't blame herself for everything.This book can actually make readers learn that it's okay to have changes in your life and changes happen to everyone so you shouldn't hide yourself and completely ignore the world and everything around you because it's not going to make you feel better it might actually make you feel worse.

Drummer Boy of Shiloh Reading Response

 
     On Thursday morning a woman came up to me on the bus and asked me how old I was, I told her that I am thirteen, the woman then said that she was asking because her nine year old daughter is also very tall, but she was self conscious because she was the tallest person in class, this connects to the story because Joby isn't confident until the general talks to him and makes Joby feel better about himself. In the story The Drummer Boy of Shiloh by Ray Bradbury Joby wasn't confident with himself until the general talked to him because he was the only soldier without a shield.This shows that everyone feels self conscious at some point in life.

   In the beginning of the story Joby had a hard time being the drummer boy because he's the only person in the war without a shield, all he had was a drum. "Me thought the boy, I got only a drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield. There wasn't a man-boy on this ground tonight who did not have a shield". This shows that Joby is thinking about how he doesn't have anything to protect himself and it also shows that Joby feels alone because he's the only man-boy without something to protect himself."This drum was worse than a toy in the game to be played tomorrow or someday much too soon". Joby's thought show that he doesn't want/care about his drum he only wants to be able to protect himself and he wants someone to be there for him. 

   Towards the end of the story Joby was a little bit more confident with himself because the general talked to him. "If he, Joby, beat slow tomorrow, the heart would be slow in the men. They would lag by the wayside." Basically Joby's thinking that by not caring about how he's beating the drum and by beating it slowly all the soldiers would get tired and they just wouldn't want to fight anymore. "But if he beat a sure, steady, ever faster rhythm, then their knees would come up in a long line down over that hill, one knee after the other, like a wave on the ocean shore. Had he seen the ocean ever? Seen the waves rolling in like a well-ordered cavalry charge to the sand? Well, that was it, that's what he wanted, that's what he needed." This is when Joby realizes that it's a good thing that he's a drummer because when the soldiers hear him play the soldiers will be more energetic and there would be a bigger chance that they will actually win the war.
    
    All in all, everyone feels self conscious or alone some times but it's good to talk to someone because that person might make you feel better about yourself or they might make you feel more confident. I think this story is a great way to show people that you should always feel confident about what you do or who you are because you might not know it but you might be helpful to other people. It might be hard at first to accept who you are but then you have to realize that you can't do anything about it and who you are will always be a part of you, so you might as well accept yourself.
     

Blog Post #3: Reading Response

   I recently finished the book Art Geeks and Prom Queens by Alyson Noel, in this book the main character,Rio, just moved with her mother to California. Throughout the book Rio changes a lot, she doesn't only change her personality but she changes the way she looks, she turns into a completely different person. In the beginning of the book Rio wasn't really interested of hanging out with the "popular" kids, she just wanted to start the new year in her new school and just be herself. Rio also made two new friends Mason, and Jas, Rio was really happy when she met them because they were just like her, they were interested in Art, and they seemed real and friendly. Everything was going fine and she was being herself until Kristi,one of the most popular girls in school, started talking to Rio.

  When Kristi and her clique became friends with Rio, Rio had to change the way she dressed herself, the way she acted around others, and she couldn't be friends with just anyone. At first Rio didn't know if it was a good idea but then she started to like being noticed and that's when she completely changed. She stopped talking to Mason, and Jas, Rio became the person that she never wanted to be. She did things that she would've never done and she said things that she would've never said before and she didn't even notice that she was doing it. Rio changed so much that she was starting to become like Kristi but worse.
 
   I don't think Rio is going to realize that she has done things that weren't right until her "friends" do something really bad to her, because Rio hasn't realized that she doesn't even have her own opinion or thoughts anymore. She can't control her life anymore because Kristi controls it for her, Rio can't talk to her real friends and she can't like anyone that's not a jock, or a college guy. If Rio ever realizes what's going on I think she'll break down and she won't know what to do or who to be anymore because she was always an independent person but know she doesn't even know what's going on in her own life. I liked how Rio was before because now I just think Rio is like Kristi's clone and that's not a good thing.

   In conclusion Art Geeks and Prom Queens is a really good book that can show people that they don't have to change who they are just to impress someone because if you like who you are then it doesn't really matter what everyone else thinks. Also it's not worth all the work changing the way you look, and act just for one person. I really liked this book and it got me thinking a lot about why anyone would agree to become part of something that they know they're not even if it got you noticed.