This I Believe
I believe that little things in life always change into big things. What may seem like an inconvenience can actually become big deal. What you do right now can transform into a large part of your life and another person’s life.
Little things like having good manners around other people can change not only your life but also theirs. It can change their life by knowing that there are good people in this world and it could always bring up peoples spirits. However, it could change your life by letting them know that you are kind towards people, also letting them know what kind of person you really are.
One time on an outdoors school trip a teacher told us a story. The story was about a man who was walking on the beach and saw that on every speck of sand was covered with starfish. The man stopped for a short moment, then bent down and picked one up and threw it back in the water to change its life and his. The man and kept on throwing the starfish repeatedly. While he was tossing them into the water another man came over and asked him “Why are you doing that? It’s not like you are going to change anything, there must be at least 1,000 starfish out here!”
the man said “Yes, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t change the world one step at a time. If you do the smallest things in any activity or in your free time people will follow.”
After the teacher told us that story, she made us sit in silence and think about what she just told us. When our teacher made us think, I thought of how the whole story was true. About how smallest things in life always change into the big things.
~ Zoe
I feel very excited about getting MacBook Airs next year in 6th grade. I think that it is going to help us learn a lot. It will help us because it will be very helpful with organizing all of our work. It will also help by having all of your work on one computer.I think that I will try to blog more and get comfortable about using Macs. The thing that I am looking forward to is playing around with imovie, photo booth, and iphoto. The last thing that I think will be easier to do on the Mac is researching. The Mac has all sorts of features, even though we will all be monitored I will still be very excited about getting a MacBook Air.
This picture is of a bunch of penguins living in a shack with no other place to go. It I in a hut on Halifax Island beach, part of a National park. By the 1900s traders had taken all of the feathers off and hid the eggs so that the birds could get them. Now there are fewer than 30,000 breeding pairs that exist in the world.
I chose this picture because it looked interesting to me. I wanted to find out more about the penguins and how they got there. As I was looking at the picture I was wondering if the penguin
s were hurt or if the needed shelter to survive and keep on living. This photograph is by Frans Lanting.
http://www.nationalgeographicstock.com/comp/MM7/628/1403820.jpg
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As school and work vacations like Christmas, Easter, and especially summer come up, people have to start making the decision of where they want to spend their free time. There are a lot of destinations to choose from and each one of them has different pros and cons.
The best place to travel to is the perfect place for independent travelers and group travelers, the beach. The beach is the best because it has so many activities to do. At the beach you can go swimming and shopping to just sitting and relaxing on the beach while playing in the sand. Another great feature that the beach has is their fresh seafood. There is nothing compared to the fresh, juicy, and amazing seafood that the beach its self produces. My personal favorite thing to get at a seafood restaurant at the beach is either lightly battered fried shrimp or the chilled snow crab. The easiest thing about the beach is how it is so easy to pack. Most car or plane rides to go on a vacation are at least three hours, if you had twelve bags in each seat it would make your trip not as fun as it could be. That is if you were at the beach you only have to bring one bag for each person who is riding in your car. The last thing that I want to say about the beach is that you can bring friends and family to have the best vacation ever. But, at the end depending on if you want to go to the lake, mountains, or beach it actually relies on what kind of person you are.
At the beginning of every school year at Trinity School Atlanta, GA the Sixth Graders come up with an inspiring theme for the school to help shape and build on the student’s moral list of values. For the past couple years the Sixth Graders have come up with great actions. Last year their theme was integrity. Integrity means to be honest in everything you do, even when people aren’t watching you. As you can see, all of these themes are very strong and descriptive.
After sessions of long and hard thinking the Sixth Graders came up with a great theme, Determination! In their first assembly the Sixth Graders think of a fun and memorable way to announce the theme. Usually they put together skits to teach the school how to use the theme properly.
All throughout the school people have been using the theme in all of their activities . Also teachers have been bringing the theme up in all of their classes like P.E, Music, Art, and Language Arts. These are some comments on when the teachers bring the theme up and how well the students use it. The students interviewed Brian Balocki, a P.E coach at Trinity School and this is what he thought about his class and the students. “I can only talk about my class and how much I bring the theme up in my P.E and Values classes.” Admitted Brian. “Also in all of our units we do in P.E class I refer back to the school theme and discus determination.”
We know that teachers bring the theme up in their classes but we still don’t know if the students reflect off of the actions from the theme for the first month or the whole school year. The students at Trinity School went around for the second time but this time they went and asked if the students really remember the theme and if the hold onto it for the whole school year. A third and fifth grade science teacher Susan Edwards said that some students remember the theme throughout the school year. She also thought that most remember it at the beginning of the school year and then has forgotten about it completely. But Miss Gangarosa, an ELD music teacher disagrees; she thinks that everybody remembers the school theme throughout the whole school year every year.
After a long day of interviewing the students asked their final question, does the school theme fit the school? Mrs. McIntosh, a Trinity School Third Grade teacher says “Determination is very important and that you have to keep it in your mind in your everyday activities.” To the school, the theme is very inspiring and important in everything the teachers and students do. They make the theme so all of the people in the school have something to remember and add to their list of moral values.
Jordan, Will, and Zoe
In this post I will be talking about the book Homeless Bird. In the three paragraphs it will be talking about comparisons, similes, bad situations, and themes. Also it will have examples of tough moments for Koly and the rest of the characters in the book. Also how the characters push through the bad situations that they face.
In some parts of Homeless Bird Koly has fixed her problems very well. One example is when her Sass ditched her at temple. Koly stood up for herself and went to talk to the boy to see if she could get a shelter. If you think about it Koly could be walking anywhere by now with no food or water and no rupees left. Also other people help her gain conference so that she could go and do other things that she is not comfortable with. Like when the boy said “It is such a waste of a sari putting it on you.” I think that that made Koly think better of herself so that she can speak up most of the time. Also when she first moved into the Metahs house she was not sure if she would like it or not but then she ended up getting her new best friend Chandra from there. I think that if she didn’t meet Chandra she would have ran away right when she got to the Metah’s house. Also when Sass told Koly to give her the earrings that she wore for her wedding Koly stood up for herself and said “No” and went up to her room to hide them in her mud wall. I think that if Koly didn’t do that she would not have gotten the chance to sell them even if she didn’t want to.
In Homeless Bird there are some main themes that the book follows. One of the main themes is” Keep your head up.” I think that because Koly hits a lot of dead ends and she keeps positive thoughts in her head so that she can run into something good after Hari died or any bad situation has happened. I think that one example of that is when Chandra left her all alone with Sass and Sassur. She kept her head up by taking a deep interest into reading and that gave her something to do in her breaks instead of working. Also I think that reading helps her because now she can understand more and write or maybe make signs around to sell things to get more rupees. I also think that another important theme is “Don’t look back”. I say that because when Hari died she started taking reading lessons and an interest in writing so if she didn’t do that she might not have gotten to get to have as much free time or get to know Sassur as well as she did at the middle of the book. Also from all of the other times like when Chandra got married, Sassur died and now the most resent one that Sass left her. I think that if Koly looked back at all of the bad moments she had she would not have had the courage to go and talk to the boy about getting a shelter at Maa Kamala’s widow house. Also if she didn’t have any courage she might not have gotten to sneak out to Mala’s house. I think that if she didn’t sneak out to her house she wouldn’t have had the chance to meet her and to find out that she was really a bad person. Also if she didn’t go she would have kept on being her friend at work and have not realized that Mala could pull her into a bad situation or could make Koly do bad things and get into a lot of trouble. Something that leads from Koly and Mala doing a bad thing is she could have to move out of Maa Kamala’s house.
I think that the author of Homeless Bird “Gloria Whelan” uses a lot of literary devices in parts of the book. I think that she compares Koly to a lot of things. One example of Gloria Whelan comparing Koly from something is when she refers herself to the pariah dog sitting in the corner of the Metah’s courtyard. She said that because after all of the people that left her she was very lonely and there was a dog in the courtyard with no friends, home, or family. Koly thought that she had a lot of things in common with the dog because they were both lonely with no happiness happening in their life. Another thing that she uses in this book is similes. One simile is on page 104 when she says “The thought that I had been waiting like a scorpion at the edge of my mind.” I think that when she talks about that is because scorpions wait for their pray and that is like when Koly is waiting for her Sass in the temple. Another comparison is when Maa Kamala says “You wallow like a pig in mud”. I think that she is comparing Koly to a pig who is messy and doesn’t care what they do, look, or act like. She is telling her to stop and be more sophisticated to keep the widow’s shelter neat and clean so if there are guests like the rich lady then they would be prepared for anything. Also I think that she is referring to their behavior. If they are being bad or just immature than she could
All of the examples above have explained comparisons, similes, bad things that have happened to Koly, or good things that have happened to Koly. I think that also throughout the book there had been cliffhangers, surprises, and a lot of weird or happy experiences. Also themes, and what Koly has been through. If you put yourself in Koly’s shoes than you can imagine all that she has been through the book Homeless Bird.
For gift of time as a class we wrote letters to the shepherds center wishing them happy holidays! I’m sure that whoever got them had a big smile on their face when they read them. Also for my family we put an ornament on a large drift wood tree at the beach. I know it sounds weird but once everybody puts one on you can barley tell the difference from a Christmas tree. When we go back for M.L.K day we are going to go to all of the beach stops and picking up all of the trash that we can find scatterd around the beach. I think that doing Gift of Time is a great idea to help bring other people joy over the holidays. But, you don’t only have to do it at Christmas and Chanukah, you also can do it in any free time that you have.
My Christmas was great! We had my whole family over ( my mom and dad’s side). We all had a blast with all of the company that we had. Since every Christmas we have my family at separate times this year it felt so different. We didn’thave enough room in our house for everyone so since my grandparents have come to our house and looked all over the place they stayed at a nice hotel close to our house. To not let them feel left out in the morning my dad and went over in our golf cart and picked them up. Basically they lived at our house but slept at their hotel. After our small routeen every day we went back to our house and relaxed or went to the beach. My two dogs Dave and Gus always go crazy on the beach and Gus hates water so every puddle Gus leaped over them then there was a really big puddle and he wouldnt go so we had to go out and get him. After all of our guestes we had to clean our house and enjoyed the New Year.
For Christmas I am going to the beach. We are having my whole family over from my mom and dad’s side. We are going to put up our special Christmas tree. It is special because it is three palm trees. One is big one is medium sized and one is small. We put lights and ornaments up all over the tree. After we do that my mom makes a sauce to cook on the stove all day long and it makes our house smell good. Even though we do the same thing every year I know that this Christmas will be the best.
Early in the morning as the sun is still rising, we all say goodbye to the freedom of just relaxing. We slowly get into the car that was packed as full as I am on Thanksgiving. It mostly packed with bags, but it was packed with a huge crate with my two dogs in it. As my mom and dad look out at our beach house for one last time for the whole summer we heard the car drive off and my brother was waving to our neighbor. At that time I knew that we would not turn back. So that was it that was the last day of summer at my beach house.
The thing that I miss most about the beach is the freedom of just doing nothing. Most of the days that we were sitting and relaxing we were at the beach. Like Atlanta in the summer it was VERY hot at the beach. On the rainy days we played Yahtzee. Yahtzee is a game where you take turns and one of the people roles a dice and tries to get five of the same number and that is called a Yahtzee. There are also other things that you can get like, large straight, small straight, full house etc. Most games that we played my grandma won because she used to play all the time. That is what we do on rainy days, but the day that I will be telling you about is one unique and busy day.
Right when we got there my dad and I went outside and got all of the snacks ready. About an hour later my aunt, uncle, grandma, and grandpa came from both my mom and dad’s side. We all got in our bathing suits and jumped in the pool, except for my aunt and uncle. The pool was the coldest I think that it will ever get. When we got in we all started throwing the Frisbee around, and sooner or later it turned into a Frisbee tournament. After a while my uncle grabbed my aunt and both plopped into the pool. They both splashed into the pool so hard and they made a huge splash! But they didn’t have their bathing suits on so they got soaking wet. We had the greatest time and now I know that that will be the best pool day ever.
After we swam for a while we all got really tired so we got out of the pool. My brother and I sat in the lawn chairs and my dog Dave got the other one. He was two then. For lunch we all ate warm hot dogs, fruit, carrots, and lemonade. Then we went inside.
Inside we played Yahtzee. We played so many games and my grandmother won a lot because she used to play the game all the time. So, after our pool time and the Yahtzee games we all got tired and everyone but my brother and I took a nap. My brother and I went to his room. The man cave, we played Mario Cart, Party, and Golf. We stayed in there for a long time but then we came out and it was dinner time.
My family went to my favorite place called Mullet Bay. I always get the shrimp. The shrimp is so good. It has some light breading on it and it is so juicy. After we go to Mullet Bay we have a tradition of shopping in the village and getting ice-cream at Moo-Cow Ice-Cream. My mom gets coffee and it is so bitter and that is why I think she likes it so much. My brother gets chocolate covered potato chip and that is vanilla ice cream with chocolate potato chips in it. I get salty caramel. Salty Caramel is the best because they drizzle warm caramel all over your ice cream. We always have to sit in line for a long time because it is always so packed. But, It is all worth the weight.
At the very end of the day we started packing up the car. The car was so stuffed because we took a trip for the whole summer. When we were all done packing up we were all so sad because we have to go. But we all know that we will come back again soon. So we got in the car slowly and drove off for another five hours.
~ Zoe W.
