Trey's Blog

Something that I believe in is that trying hard. My parents say as long as you try to something your hardest you can be successful. When I am doing an activity I am only expected to do the amount that I can handle. I believe I should try hard in all things that you do because it may be the only time I can do it.

A place where I try hard is on the basketball court. I always try 100% on the court because I know that I have the chance to beat anyone even if my team is the worst team. I know that this can happen, as long as I try to play hard. In a basketball league I play in, a really bad team was in the playoffs, and all they did in the playoffs was upset teams. They upset teams all the time because they believed that they could beat any team, so they tried as hard as they could. In the end, all their effort paid off because they ended up winning the championship game. That is another reason why I try as hard as I can.

Another place where I try my hardest is in school. I try hard there because I know if I try hard I can have a good education, get into a good college, and get a really good job. I also try hard because with a good education I can become wiser and learn better. When I am in school and I am taking a test all I have to do is try as hard as I can right? Even if I fail, all that matters is that I tried my best. Trying hard is a really important thing.

These are some reasons why I believe in trying my hardest. I try hard in basketball and school and many other things. Overall I believe that if I try as hard as I can, I can get good results benefits, and be successful.  As long as I try my hardest, I can accomplish anything.

Next year Fifth and Sixth Graders get MacBook Airs. I am excited to get mine. I have been waiting to get one for a long time. I feel that Macs will help me because I can organize my thoughts. I think that this will help me a lot. I think that this will affect my learning because I can take notes and have my own research and saved files on my own computer. Also I think that it will affect my learning because when I need to know something I can just flip open my computer and look up whatever I need. This will be a big upgrade for many schools. The applications iMovie and iPhoto will also help in many projects. Next year I am going to use most of the applications. I am also going to use it for most of research and work. I am also glad that we can do our homework on our school computer, not home because if our home computer is broken then we have another for school. Overall I am so glad that schools are picking Macs over PCs because Macs are faster and easier to work with than PCs.

This is a picture of a volcano in Nyiragongo Congo. It is about to explode, but that is not good because it puts so many lives endanger in the Congo. It makes me feel sad to think all those lives will be lost because of just one volcano. The gas in the air can signal the people to clear out so they don’t get burned.  I think that the photographer was thinking that it would be a good action shot. I think that the photographer realizes fully that many people in Congo are in danger.  I like photojournalism because of the emotions and the story behind each picture.

Exhaling clouds of gas, a cauldron of lava boils in the mile-wide crater of Nyiragongo, an active volcano in the Congo that threatens two million people. Eruptions have blistered the region for millions of years, since the African tectonic plat began to split apart to create the Albertine Rift.

Photographer: Carsten Peter     http://bit.ly/IHdS6F

Adults are allowed to vote because they do many things that children don’t do. Some examples are that they jobs to make money, they pay taxes to the government, and they can drive to places. Since they can do all these things they have a say in government by voting. Even though adults can do all these things, why can’t children vote. When a kid turns 16 years old, they are allowed to drive. Since they can drive why can’t they vote? Some children at the age 12 or 13 can get jobs in a store. Why can’t they vote? They have a job then and they make money for their family. Still they cannot vote. Those kids who have jobs may or may not have to pay taxes, but if they do, why can’t they vote. I think that kids should be able to vote at the age 12 since they can do all those things except drive.

Many children aren’t happy at first when they see who won the election, but after time they get used to it. If children want a certain person to win the election why don’t they get to vote?  I personally think that children should be able to vote because I think that some children could take on the responsibility. When they vote once, the child’s parents will let the child have more responsibility. Another reason why I think that kids should vote is because it gives kids the chance to have a say in government. People can hear what children think and who they think should be the president. When children have their say in government they can pick who they want to be the president.

Overall my response to this is that children should vote. It gets everyone’s opinion. If children were able to vote it should be at the age 12 years old. Since 12 year olds can get jobs in stores and pay taxes they should be able to vote. Getting everyone’s opinion is important even if you get a 12 year olds opinion.

At Trinity School in Atlanta Georgia, Fifth Graders have started to study the Ancient Greeks. Fifth Grade students, teachers, and parents all look forward to this unit. The Greece unit is a tradition that happens once a year. The Fifth Graders at Trinity School study this unit because of the Greeks contributions to modern day life, and it gives a chance for the kids to work cooperatively with their peers, There are many things to find out about Greece.

At Trinity the city-states are cooperative groups in your class which are based off of real city-states. There are a dozen city-states. The city-states this year are Athens, Pylos, Argos, Sparta, Amarynthos, Orchomentus, Delphi, Thessaly, Megara, Olympia, Knossos, and Mycenae.  Each city-state will work together to complete projects such as making a group banner, creating a bulletin board full of information, and building chariots and t-shirts for the Olympics of the mind and body. “I think that the Olympics are a good idea because each city-state has a chance to compete against each other. “I think that each city-state will have to use teamwork and cooperation to be successful,” Fifth Grade student, Sophie McGahan, quoted. The Olympics of the Mind is a cooperative challenged based on the knowledge the groups have accumulated throughout the unit to answer questions about Ancient Greece. The Olympics of the Body challenges the students physically with the events of javelin, high jump, marathon, and other competitive events.

“What I like about the unit so far is that my city-state, Argos, gets along well. Also we work well on projects together,” exclaimed Fifth Grade student Drew Balser. “Overall I like my city-state, and the start of the unit. Research may be hard to find because Argos isn’t really a big city-state, but I still enjoy the Greece unit.” All of the students greatly look forward to making projects, competing in the Olympics, and working together to be the best city-state in Greece.

Andrew and Trey

In Gloria Whelan’s book Homeless Bird a girl named Koly is married to a man named Hari. Hari is sick and ends up dying. She adapts in this situation by trying to do what she thinks is right even though she gets scolded by her Sass. Her Sass yells at her by saying Koly you didn’t do this or Koly we have a problem, fix it and scolds Koly all day long. Koly says from the book “I did the best I could, thankful for a bed to sleep on and food to put in my mouth.” She also makes the best of Sass scolding her by going to Sassur to learn to read. Sassur says “Ah, Koly I wish my students were as anxious to learn as you.” Sassur says that on page 63. When Koly goes to the river to wash clothes she sneaks the books with her. Koly says that she isn’t allowed oil at night. She says “In order to read the books, I have to take them with me hidden in my sari, when I go to the river I quickly do my washing so she can read.” Koly says that on page 58. When Koly gets dropped off at Vrindavan she has nowhere to go. She sleeps out on the streets for a week. Then she starts to adapt after a while. Then a boy named Raji sees Koly and tells her to come with him. Raji takes Koly to Maa Kamala’s widow’s home. Koly adapts there too.

I think that the theme of the book is hope. I think the theme is hope because when Koly runs into a difficult situation she waits for something to happen. When she is waiting for something to happen she hopes that a good thing will happen next. For example, after Hari dies, Chandra leaves, and Sassur dies Sass gets stricter and stricter. Koly waits and waits. She does her job day after day. She hopes for something good to happen. Koly thinks about running away, but she doesn’t think that it is right. When you hope for something it doesn’t mean that you are going to get what you are exactly hoping for. Another example is when Koly gets dropped off at Vrindivan. When Koly is there she is sleeping on doorstep, trying to get some food in her body. She hopes and hopes. Koly doesn’t just use her rupees to go find Sass in Delhi; Koly uses her rupees on food and other resources. Koly waits for an opportunity to come. Then Koly gets her chance that she hoped for, to live somewhere safe in Vrindivan. Koly also hopes for a job, and she gets one. Another example of hope during the book is when Raji leaves Vrindivan to go back to his village. Koly waits every night after Raji leaves hoping that he will come back. Raji does come back to Koly and Raji asks her to marry him. Another example of hope in that example is that when Raji left for his village he had always hoped that he was able to go back to fix up his uncle’s house. Raji hoped that he could leave the city which he said is loud and noisy and that there are lots of crowds on page 133. He leaves to go to his uncle’s house to fix it in the village, away from all the sound and noise

I think that Gloria Whelan uses literary devices a lot in Homeless Bird. Literary devices are similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, alliterations, and more. Gloria Whelan uses the literary devices when she wants to compare Koly or any person to a thought, feeling, or a comparison to a thing. I think that the literary devices helped me understand how Koly and some other characters felt sometimes. Some examples of literary devices used in the book are when Koly is in Maa Kamala’s widow’s home, on the first night Koly and all the other widows tell there stories of how they were a widow. Maa Kamala doesn’t like that so she says “You wallow like pigs in mud. That is all past.” That is a simile on page 121. What Maa Kamala is trying to say is that put your past behind because you are a new person in this widow house. Maa Kamala explains how she felt about all the widow’s stories. Another example of a literary device in the book is when Koly says “I feel like a newly caged animal that rushes about looking for a door that is open.” That is also a simile that is on page 21. It means that she feels like a person that has no rights that is looking for some freedom. Another example is when Gloria Whelen explains that Koly is waiting to get a thought out. The literary device is a simile. It is “The thought had been waiting like a scorpion at the edge of my mind.” That is on page 104. My last example of a literary device is when Koly thinks back to when Sass dropped off her in Vrindivan. Koly thinks she (Sass) had left me alone in this city as if she were dropping a kitten down a well. That thought from Koly is on page 117. This thought is an example of a metaphor. What Koly is thinking is that Sass just left me in the city, and then she left. In the metaphor the kitten would be Koly, the well would be Vrindivan, and the person dropping the kitten would be Sass.

I sped past the kitchen to the laundry room which smelled like  heaven. It smelled very good in the laundry room because there were lots of pies and cakes scattered all over got to the place. We were going to have the deserts later in the day, but they looked so good I just wanted to take out a fork and start to eat now! Some of the cakes and pies were gooey cherry pie, creamy pumpkin pie, crunchy chocolate cake with nuts, and a lot of other Thanksgiving delicious delights.

It was Thanksgiving and I was going to celebrate it in Columbus, Ohio at my aunt and uncle’s house. I arrived at there house at around 1:00 pm and the first the thing I did was to go to everyone and greet them. I was very excited to see all my relatives because I don’t really get to see them often. The very next thing I could think of was to find my older brother Caleb and go to the basement to go play Ping-Pong. I was beaten many times and I was thankful to be called up for dinner. Thanksgiving dinner was ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls. The food was delicious, and I got seconds because the food was really good. When I was eating my uncle started a fire and the TV, which was turned to the NFL football game.

I sat on the closes chair to the fire so I could get warm, because next thing you knew the boys and men were headed outside to play a game of football. I put on layers and layers of coats on so I could stay warm. During the game I scored a touchdown, but my team ended up losing by 7 points. Even though the game was over some of the other men where going in slowly talking about something, but I sped past everyone to throw off layers and layers of jackets, and got a blanket and got a good seat by the fire, to watch the rest of the game. My aunt then brought in the sweet desserts that were there. As I was trying to warm up by the fire, and eating my cake Caleb asked me again to play with him in the basement. When we went down there we decided to play pool. I got beat every time, but playing the game was still fun.

At around 7:00 pm we were called up for a second time. When I got up again I saw people getting on their coats. I figured out that we were going to the fire pit in the woods. I got many coats on again and headed outside. It was cold again, but I got warm around the fire. It took a while to get back in after eating the gooey marshmallows. When we got back in many people started to leave. I was talking to other people who hadn’t left yet. A little while later we had to leave to my grandparents’ house where my family was staying.

The time of seeing my family during Thanksgiving is my favorite event when I go to Columbus.

Weather that 

Is powerful and strong that

Nobody can see, twirls leaves through the air and

Drastically makes the air cold.

As we have learned about Mesopotamia there were many topics to choose from to do a project. I chose the topic of the rebuilding of Babylon. What has happened is that the World Monuments Fund and the Iraq State Board of Heritage and Antiquities have been trying to rebuild Babylon. They are going to make Babylon today, look like ancient Babylon. The World Monuments Fund believes that Babylon has lots of rich history and will get lots of tourists in the area soon so it will help Iraq economically. This years work has mostly been focused on conservation.

What has happened is that  The World Monuments Fund has been making world site management plans for the area. They have talked with the Iraq State Board of Heritage and Antiquities about the site management plans. What they have done first is The World Monuments Fund has been marking the actual city boundaries by excavating the dirt, so there is no encroachment and so they know were the real outline of the city was. Then they and local people cleared the site of debris and vegetation in the area because it posed a threat to the archeological ruins. Then, they used new advanced technology, and used it to document the current conditions of the site. Then, they used the same technology to create accurate maps of the ruins. Next, they have used more new and advanced technology specifically laser scanning. What they are doing is they are trying to take the old brick from and laser scan the relief sculptures and brick works, and they will put it into a computer and see how it is created. Then they said that they will take the image from the computer and make new relief sculptures and brick works like the old ones, but not as destroyed.  One problem with Babylon and how its supposed to look ancient is that when Saddam Hussein was president one of his palaces was in Babylon. When he was in Babylon he had construction done on the older brick and put in new modern day brick. The people of Babylon and The World Monuments Fund want the brick to look old, but they are just going to let it stay there because it is already pretty old, if nothing happens to the brick it will get older and older. There has been a good amount of progress in Babylon, but there hasn’t been a lot of huge progress because the war in Iraq as held up some work.

This is a project on the rebuilding of Babylon. As I have researched I learned a lot about what they are trying to do to rebuild Babylon.  I didn’t at first know they were rebuilding Babylon to look like how it was in ancient days. I think what went well was parts of the research. What also went well was figuring out my essential question. What else was easy was finding pictures. What didn’t go so well was the the other part of the research.

1. http://www.wmf.org/video/documenting-babylon

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar Gate

3. http://www.zionministry.com/babylon.html

What I felt when I read Bud, Not Buddy was really sorry for Bud because his mother died. Also, Bud is always on the run, and not eating for 24 hours or more. Not many people care for him, some people care for him but, most don’t. He has nobody there to support him. He is sleeping on the streets while I am sleeping in a warm bed. I think Christopher Paul Curtis wants us to feel like we are in The Great Depression and feel what it was like back then when the stock market crashed. He want us to feel like we are in the book and that we are actually there. I also think that he wants us to feel that the book is very funny. I think he wants us to feel this way because when we feel sad about the book he also wants us to feel on the positive side of the book, and not so sad.