Learning blog for specails

Chinese has been a lot easier then last year. Because I came in the middle of last year it was hard for me to learn at the same pace. But now, since I started the year in the same class I have been able to learn a lot more, and easier. Although I think I had a better teacher last year my new teacher has been okay. The reason she is okay isn't really here fault. But she has to get real serious all the time and sometimes she even has to yell, which affects my learning. But over all I think I have learned a lot more this year.

Art this year has been a roller coaster, lets put it at that. I have really liked some parts such as the Great Ape Portraits. But I haven't liked everything. My teacher sometimes gets very strict and takes up a lot of our time explaining and then expects us to get our work done in a smaller time. Sometimes that irradiates me but other times she can be really nice.

Music has also had it's up and downs. I really like when we play the xylophones because I find them very easy to play and they make great music. Although I don't really like Music Ace 2 because we have partners and we have to switch off on the computer, and so my partner and I really never get a chance to finish a lesson. But when we play the xylophones I really like music.

P.E. has always been the best subject for me. Because I find myself a better athlete then student. I think most the units we have done such as project adventure and basketball have been fun, but I haven't really liked the stretching we have done lately, because they are very awkward to me. Although I really hope to get better at the touch my toes thing that we do for our fitness test. I hope to do this by strectching more often. But as I said before P.E. is my favorite subject.

Counseling has been very different this year then last year. Usually we learned about bullying and got to do role plays. But know it is kind of weird. For an example today all we did was learn about our brain and if we were right hand or left hand dominate. I just like learning about the bullying things and then doing role plays on what we learned.

This is how I feel about my specials this year.

Story of Learning

I think I have really completed lots of my writing goals. I have really used a lot of details, and used great word choice. For an example here is one of my lines from my story Koko Lake: I sunk down, the masses of seaweed tickled my spine. Even my teacher commented on my writing saying that used a great opening, had a great ending and used plenty of good words. Since I have completed the good opening and fine closing I think my new goal will be to really expand on my word choice. One of my math goals is to learn some geometry. Although we haven't done geometry I am looking forward to it. I don't feel that I have really gotten a lot better at reading aloud and using expression at the same time. In order for me to keep trying I will read aloud to my mom more often. I think in order for me to really get used to Middle School I need to do my homework right away without getting distracted, because in Middle School you get sheets of paper that are due the next day not at the end of the week. So I can't forget or leave things for the last minute. I hope that I can get all my homework done on time every day at Middle School.


I think, as I mentioned before, that my writing is going really well. But I think I can still improve in every subject. In reading I will to focus on only one book instead of reading like three books at a time. On math I think I have improved in many parts, especially with my division and multiplication, but I still need to work on my multiplying with fractions that have mixed numbers. I think the biggest success this year was my narrative story called Koko Lake. I think I really became a better writer during that time. Also I have been reading a lot faster then the beginning of the year. Some challenges have been in writing. When i was writing my realistic fiction story I had to many conversations and not enough detail. But then I took the story home and worked on it with my mom, and I went from having nine conversations to three. I think something that has really helped me with all my subjects and especially my homework has been my parents. They have helped me work things through and figure everything out I would like to thank them.
I think that at the beginning of the year, you don't really know the style of the teacher, and your classmates. So whatever you did last year isn't exactly the same. So for me I kind of have to start over and get used to my class and classmates. Hence the reason my starting scores and cooperation scores are lower than now. I think I have gotten more responsible since the year has gotten by especially with homework. I think that after a few months I started to cooperate more with my classmates, because I have gotten to know them more. So then the more I know them, the more I can relate to them, kid around with them and just talk to them better. I think I work well when I get to pick my partner, because when we get assigned partners we usually have to work with girls. The only bad thing about that is that the girls then get shy and don't talk and they act as if they don't want to be there. It makes me feel unwanted. Where as when I get to pick my partner I choose a friend do we can actually talk. I think at the beginning of the year I always left my homework for the last minute. But now I do it right after school. I think that has really helped me.

January 8th, 2010

1. What is one piece of important learning in reading or writing you have gained this week?

I have learned how to tell when a noun is coming. So now when I read I can tell when a noun is coming because I learned what a noun signal is.

2. Explain how this has helped you in your reading or writing.

A noun signal is a word that means a noun is coming like the words the or many. Here is an example: Many cats ran around the house. Both the and many introduce a noun. (cats and house.) It also helped me in my writing to so I can introduce a noun appropriately.

3. Explain what the difference is between a common noun and a proper noun.

A common noun isn't exact like a proper noun is. For an example: A cat crossed the road. Cat is a common noun. But if you used the cat's name that would be a proper noun because it is more exact. So to change that sentence to have proper noun would be like this: Jerry crossed the road. You are talking about a certain cat named Jerry not just a cat. That is the difference between a common noun and a proper noun.

Unit Four Reflection

1. Tell why you think it is important to be able to divide numbers. For what kind of problems do you need to use division?

You need to divide not only in division but also in fractions. The way we use division for fractions is to convert it to decimals. You divide the numerator by the denominator to convert the fraction into a decimal.

2. Tell what part of this unit was the most difficult for you and why. Describe what you did to overcome any difficulties you had.

I think the most difficult part for me was doing the partial quotients. Because the other way was so much easier and partial quotients was just really long. But if I used long division it was a lot easier and faster than partial quotients. Some of the things that I did was practice at home, and it made me better at it. I think it was a great way to get better at something I wasn't.

Religion Reflection

Here is my summary of Matthew 13:1-23

The Parable Of The Sower.

This parable is about a farmer that went out to sow his seeds.He scattered all of them each with a meaning. There is one that falls on a path and gets eaten by birds. Just like people that were told the word of the lord but did not understand. They got snatched away by the evil one. Every one has a different reason but only one seed fell on good soil and was raised nicely. Just like the man that heard the word of the lord and understood it. He is the one that is blessed with a crop holding one hundred and sixty, or thirty times what was sown. All the other either got scared of the consequences or just did not understand the word of the lord.

Writing Self Assessment

1. What do I notice about myself as a writer as I read through my work?

I notice that I use a lot of detail. I also notice that all my good pieces come from my cabin. Most of my stories are not action filled and I don't make try to be action filled. I just want them to be a good story with detail.

2. How have I changed as a writer so far?

So far this year I have changed by using better descriptive words. Mr.Daw has also told me to cut down on the I's so I will try hard on that.

3. What are three things I do well as a writer?

I use a lot of detail.

I am good at starting and ending the story.

I am also good at setting the setting up the beginning of the story.

4. What are some things I want to get stronger at as a writer?

Well I want to stop using as many I's. I would also try to work on using a wide range of settings in the story. I want to get better at connecting each sentence to each other.

5. What is my favorite piece, and what are the things I love about it?

I have a number of favorite story's and they all are different. The only thing that I notice is that they are all at my cabin. I think the two best ones I have done is one poem called Early Birds. My best two story's are, Koko Lake, and The Roaring Of The Crowd.

The thing I love about Early Birds is that it is a nice soft short poem. It uses a lot of detail but not to much. My favorite line from it is, Our feet press against the soil "SSSHHH" we look up. Loons in their spot lake, perfect, crystal clear, almost glass.

I love Koko Lake because it is a day that I will never forget. Secondly because I had so much fun that day and I put it all in the narrative using detail. It is a story that I will never forget with a heart warming dog in it too.

I loved The Roaring Of The Crowd because it was my first football game and my cousin Kasie and I were in for a treat. The crwod was wild most of the game and so were we. I liked this story because it is a great memory of my first football game too.

Math Questions

1. I like playing Factor Captor because it is fun and it helps me learn prime and composite numbers very easily. It can also be very challenging, if you use the highest numbers. In all I like playing Factor Captor because it is challenging, Fun, and helps me learn my prime and composite numbers.


2. If you make an array it can help find all different ways to get a certain number. for an example, if you need to find all the factors of 36 you can start with a number and either work up or down like this: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .

And you could go on for a long time. Arrays can also be described by two factors just put into dots. It can also hep you right it out when you need to ex plane something. That is why I think that using arrays is a good way to explain/ show your factors for a certain number.


3. I liked the unit when we worked on the prime and composite numbers. I liked that unit because of two things. One is that I liked working out to find multiples of numbers and to find numbers that are only a multiple of one and them self, in other words a prime number. At the beginning of the unit I did not even know what a composite number was. The second reason is the unit was filled with fun. We learned the games: Factor Captor, Math Baseball, Bingo with prime and composite numbers.

That is why I liked the prime and composite number unit.