My Expectations for High School

One of my expetation for highschool for me is to pass the WASL without stressing over it and having to retake it many many times. Also I want to finnish my culminating project while I'm a junior so then I can have a fun senior year without much worry. I have a high expectation of myself to make a varsity sports team by the end of highschool. Either volleyball or basketball but maybe even both would be cool. I would like to make varsity sports next year but I don't want to get to far ahead of myself. I would also like to start finnishing things way before they are due because I have a bad habit of waiting until the project is almost due. I hope to change my habit way before I get out of highschool.

Hopefully I can take away very good people skills from highschool. I want to be able to funtion in a normal society. I don't want to sterotype people, but teens that don't go to school with other teens tend to be a bit strange and not well accepted into society. Which is one of the main reasons we go to school is to have fun and feel accepted with our friends. I'm glad that I have my friends and can't wait for all the fun Highschool functions we will go to. Another thing I want to take away from highschool is, a greater knowledge of different studies that would make me be interesting for colleges because I want to go to a good college and become someone in this world.

Poetry Out Loud

I initially choose this poem to be truthful because it wasn't as long as some of the other poems that were like stories. I knew that I would have to memorize it and I wanted a reasonable amount of words to memorize. Now preparing for the competiton I want to make sure I'm using good word inflection and also getting the words right so it's practically second nature to recite it. Im also working on reciting it more fluently like how I would normally speak.

What this poem means to me is that people need to move on with their life. When the whole entire world is against you even when it seems impossible. Even when nothing will ever go right again, somewhere there is still happiness and the world moves on without you and sooner or later something good will happen to you. My personal significance to this poem is that at a time in my life I felt like everyone was turning against me, but I was really blowing things out of proportion and making it worse. I realized that I needed to move on and ignore my hater and live my life and have fun with my friends.

3 Poems by Robert Frost

The road not taken by Robert Frost had a lot more in the poem then just choosing between going here or choosing to go over there. It had depth about how every choice affects you and your life. One wrong choice and your headed down the wrong road and you may not be able to come back. The road may twist and turn to the point of no return, but hopefully like the speaker in the poem he choose the road that benifited him most. Something that would make him happy so he choose as in the poem, "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." which did for him since if he would have went down the path of others the speaker would have been miserable.

I chose this poem because I believes it teaches a good life lesson about how each decision alters your life. This is important to me because I am a bit of a percrastinator and so when I don't want to do something such as homework then I probably will wait till the last minute. But this poem taught me something. Something that I have experienced with my percrastination when I wait till the last second instead of doing it when I had time then i'm usually more miserable and I usually have to miss out of something fun to do. Or even another example that i've realized through this poem. When I choose to work out or condition for basketball and then I go to play in a game I feel a whole lot better and happier to play then when I choose the lazy way out and sit around.

Comment to a classmate: I agree with Amanda about how every split in the road is your decision to make and you have to make it better yourself and not to benefit others or eles you most likely will end up unhappy and stuck on a path you would rather not be on.

The Movie

In the court scene of the book To Kill a Mockingbird I imagined it almost exactly how it was portrayed in the movie. For example I saw the court room of people and how the lower and upper decks were and it was almost exatly like in my mind and it was just like the book described. The judge also looked like how I thought he would look sitting up on his little stand. When Mayella appeared I thought that she looked exactly what my personal interpretation was of her. A kind of gross, greasy woman and thats what she looked like in the movie.

Even though many things were the same in the court scene in the movie as in the book there were a couple of differences. Such as, how I pictured Tom Robinson different then how he was portrayed in the movie. I thought his left arm was going to be like half the size of his right arm but that wasn't the case. I also imagined that the place where the lawyers question people would have its own little stand kind of like in law and order shows but instead it was just a measly little chair. When I saw Bob Ewell I actually thought that he looked to clean and just normal compared to everyone eles where in the book he's portrayed as a grody man below the average person in Maycomb which did not come through for me in the movie.

TKAM Chapter 32

The next morning I woke up and went to visit Jem, but he was still heavly sedated. While I looked at him eagerly to see a hint of consiousness Atticus spoke up from the chair where he had been all night long, "Most likely he won't be up for a while Scout. To keep busy you can think of someway to thank Mr. Arthur Radley." So I went off. I thought of all the things Boo did for us without us knowing we appreciated him. He always had looked out for us. I could never began to think of how good of a neighbor he was to us and now i've been placed with the burden to thank him. This could be a long day.

I put Jem to the back of my mind and started to think about what a guy like Boo would like. Hmm could he like candy? He might, but I could never be sure, for some strange reason, some adults don't like it. Then I realized I should probably save some for Jem, for when he's healing, so i exed that idea out. Aunt Alexandria walked into the room and sat near me on the floor, "How are you handling Scout?" she asked.
"Fine," I quickly stated focusing to much on thinking."I need to find a way to thank Boo for being there for us, for saving us."
"Hmm, that is tough thing to do you have there." She stated, like I didn't already know that. Really, what could I get him, or maybe do for him.

My head started to hurt but not in a bad way, just out of frustration. I was trying to focus but Aunt Alexandria was annoying me, just sitting there looking worried. I think she finally got the hint and noticed how serious I was about my job so she left me with nothing but a good luck wish. After a couple more minutes of thinking, frustration, and focus, I finally came up with the perfect idea. I would write him a letter. A letter to thank him for the many times he's been there for both Jem and me. Let him know that we appreciate all that he's done for us and that he would be our friends. As I was writing I made sure to include to thank him for things like the delightful little presents in the tree, or during the fire for helping me keep warm, and then when he saved us. I certainly added alot of praise on him for that. Also, I let him know that as his neighbor I would help him with anything he needed. Right after I wrote the letter I ran to his house and dropped it off at the front door with excitement then ran back home.

A week past and I had heard nothing from Boo. Jem had gotten better but still not fully recovered. Things had gone back to normal and sadly that ment that Boo was still the misturious guy in his house. I was a little bit hurt that Boo never responded, untill one evening I went out to the porch and found a little letter. It was from Boo.
It stated, "Thank you, very much little Scout. Jem, you, and I can always be friends.-Arthur Radley"
I looked at it, and over again realizing the simplicity and the meaning. I was felt greatly accomplished and showed it by telling everyone, including writing a letter to Dill. Thinking back to my summer of wondering about Boo and now I know about him. What could I possibly do next summer to compare?

Life Lessons

Scout learned an important life lesson which is that everyone is not alike. She learned that everyone, adults or kids are all different. They have different ways of doing things and different ways of living. Not everyone is like her little family but she can't judge people based on what the do, look like or believe in even if it is wrong to you. She can judge people on how they act unless they are actually bad people.

Scout learns this lesson from many people in the book. She learns to accept Dill even tho he has a messed up home life but she doesn't judge him for it since its not his fault. She also never thought anyless of Walter Cunninghams son just because they we'ren't the worst off. Now she learned not judge Arthur Radley just because he likes to stay in his house. She knows now that its his choice and she also knows that he is truly a good person because he saved Dill

This is an importanat life lesson because if she compared everyone to her "normal" life then nobody would shape up. People have to accept others for who they are and not make assumptions and how another acts or lives. For example when I was in elementary school everyone knew I played sports, so everyone assumed I was a tough cookie. While really i was just like all the other girly girls and people realized that once they got to know me. Once she found out that boo had been the one who she witnessed "He was carrying jem. Jem's arm was dangling crazily in front of him. " she didn't think he was all bad since he saved Jem.

Extra Credit

Im here!

Finally at highschool,

Seeing seniors,

Juniors,

Sophmores,

And my friends and I

Freshmen!

I can't believe i made it!

Crowded hallways,

Interesting Lunches,

Socializing,

Confusing math,

Being a role model,

Dances,
Highschool sports,

Homework,

Responsibility,

Freedom,

and hanging with Friends.

Can it be better??

GO BEARS!!

Atticus as a father

Atticus is a very calm and relaxed father. His parenting style is to let the kids make their own mistakes and have them learn from it. He trys to teach them that once you do something wrong then you have to make it better and making a scene about it doens't help fix the issue. Also when ever Scout or Jem got into trouble he always found a way to make them think about what they had just done or make them fix what ever problem they created without freaking out on them. For example when Jem knocked all the heads off of Mrs.Dubose's floweres and Jem was mad that he was going to have to read to her he said,"...Atticus, do I have to."and all he said in a calm voice was,"Certainly."

Atticus is not like my parents in anyway, actually like the complete opposite of my dad. My dad is a total micro-manager and if I screw up i'll get into trouble. He loves to tell people when, how, and where to do everything. Now my mom on the other hand is a little bit of a micro-manager but shes more calm about things. She understands more than my dad that if i mess up then i feel bad enough and she'll help me fix things. She also believes that i'll learn from my mistakes on my own like Atticus does. Im not sure if i would like Atticus as a father because i'm so used to my dad and I might actually get frusterated with him if he was my dad because he doesn't freak out about anything, even really big things.

Changing Perceptions of Boo Radley

The name Boo Radley has always been a monster name that people made up stories and rumors about, but I believe that no one has really known the truth about him. Some things in this story make me think that Boo is really not a bad person he's just greatly misunderstood and even his family treats him like a creeper. For example there is a great possibility that the treats in the tree is Boo trying to reach out to other people and be nice. Also there was the time where Jem got his pants stuck and all torn up in the fence and when he went back it was sewn up and folded. What other person would have done that other than Boo. One of the last pieces of evidence that shows Boo is not a big bad person is that when the fire was going on and Jem and Scout were frezzing Boo put a blanket on Scout so she wouldn't get sick or cold. I believe that everything he does has good intention beside it and he doesn't try to scare people but i think he trys to help people.

I think when Jem, Scout and Dill talked to Miss Maudie they learned that maybe Boo was a person instead of something living in an old house. Even when the kids were gossiping about Boo's assumed death she said, "His name's Arthur and he's alive." I think that made the kids think about that they were actually talking about a person. They also learned about how Arthur was a sweet polite child. I think it might have kind of confused Scout but she trusted Miss Maudie and if she said he was then she belived her. When Atticus caught Jem, scout and Dill playing the "Boo Radley Game" which imitated Boo's life Atticus got so angry. He thought it was extremely rude of the kids to play a game that broadcasted someones life in public. He knew that the children didn't know Arthur's whole story and had no right acting like they did, especially when he knew that Boo had probably watched it all. I don't think the kids understood the cruelty of playing the game.

comment to a classmate:
I agree with Jordan about the things left in the tree. I do think that the culprit of the magical tree prizes is Boo Radley and I also think Mr.Radley know that. Boo just want some interaction with people so he would leave treats for the children to be nice, but when Mr.Radley found out he filled up the hole in the tree with cement to prevent Boo from coming outside.