Inspired, 8th Grade!

Ok since my sister has now started blogging, she has inspired me to get on my blog. I still have remembered my password so I will take that as a good sign. 

Starting off this new school year was a bit of a change, with teachers being moved around and everything. But I’ve come to enjoy my 8th grade year.  I have Coach Smith for social studies, and I can honestly say that he is my favorite teacher (this year Mr.McGuire! :b) and I love his class. Everything is so laid back, but I easily learn a LOT.

As for last years 6th graders, I see a lot of you guys! I should have gym with some of you guys this year, and I see a lot of you guys in the hallways, games, etc.  Its good to know people that have went to my school and can be friendly with me.

Well, I honestly miss Laurelville, but I LOVE McDowell! To the 6th graders this year, enjoy Laurelville, and definitely look forward to McDowell next year. I guarantee you, it’s not as scary as it seems.

 

Image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24919404@N05/3565990589/

BIEBER FEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, Justin Bieber was in town and my parents surprised me, Molly, my friend Natalie and Molly’s friend Grace with tickets to the concert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Originally we thought we were just going to Easton to go shopping and get something to eat in celebration of me and Natalie making the volleyball team . So we just think of it as a girls night out.  But as were in Olive Garden and getting ready to leave, Mom says “Ok, do we want to go to Easton, Tuttle,. . . or the JUSTIN BIEBER concert!!!!” We were all like “Bieber!!”

When we get there, we all enjoy watching his first opening act, Vita Chambers.  Then out comes Jessica Jarrell and she was me and Natalie’s favorite opening act so far.  She was singing and dancing along with her background dancers so we thought that was really cool.  Now, when we first got there,  we did not know SEAN KINGSTON (!!!!!!!!) was going to be there!!!  So out he comes and sings his awesome songs and everyone is just up and jumping around, singing.  After he gets done performing, they take a 20 minute break and at the 15 minute mark, a countdown comes down ’till when JB comes out.  Even when the countdown started, you would have thought he already came out, there were that many girls screaming already!

When the time runs out, the place gets dark and just erupts in screams.  They show a video of whatis “suppose” to be happening backstage.  They show his background dancers dancing to his new Xbox game and then he appears on the screen and once again the place just erupts.  Then he starts dancing along and all the dancers leave because they know it is time to go on stage.  He is the last one standing.  Finally when he comes out, he comes out of the floor in a giant ball with smoke going everywhere.  His opening song was “Love Me”.  He sings a couple more songs and then gets up in a heart-shaped chair and go out over the audience.  He does this twice.  Then he brings out just a fan and serenades her with flowers and takes his hand against her cheek.  You would have thought something terrible happened the way that place erupted in screams (including me :/). 

Next he sings a couple of more songs and leaves the stage.  But we encore him back because we knew he still hasn’t sang his biggest hit “Baby” yet.  He comes back out and he’s like “you guys want Baby?” and then starts singing “rockaby baby in the treetop. . .”  Then he realizes that we mean his song and starts singing.  That’s when the crowd got the most into it.  We were screaming and jumping up and down, everything you can possibly think of.  My mom said she was surprised the place didn’t tumble down they way we were jumping so hard!!

All-in-all we had a great time especially seeing that hot guy.

 

First image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/26674411@N00/4630149162/

Second image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/34691905@N07/4516876261/

 

Washinton D.C.!!!!!!!

Yesterday my family got back from a week-long trip to our Nation’s Capitol, Washington D.C.  And even though we walked every day to everywhere we went, it still was awesome.  We saw a ton of different things that I will remember forever. 

Here are some of the things we did:

*Go up to the top of the Washington Monument

*Saw the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorial

*Go to Ford’s Theatre and saw where Lincoln got assassinated

*Go to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (where they make money) and saw 384 MILLION DOLLARS just in one room

*Got a tour of the U.S. Capitol

*Went to the Library of Congress

*Got a tour of the Pentagon; Which did you know it covers 6.4 million sq ft and the inside courtyard can hold the U.S. Capitol?!

*Went to 4 of the Smithsonian Museums: Museum of Natural History, Museum of American History, Air and Space Museum, and the American Indian Museum

*We saw the White House, and saw all the security that comes with it

*Went to Arlington National Cemetary where we saw John F. Kennedy’s tomb, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Changing of the Guards, which was long, but sweet

*Saw the FBI building (it was right down the road from our hotel)

*Saw the Korean, World War 11 and Vietnam Memorial

*Went to Union Station

*Went to the Holocaust Museum

I think that’s about all we did while we were there.  Oh and we were in our hotel when the 3.6 earthquake happened, but we just heard a boom.  D.C. was AWESOME!!!!!

Images from Compfight.com   (We are going to get our pictures developed first before I put them on the computer)

An Awesome Ending

Yesterday was the last day of our softball season, with the Fish Fry and championship games.  We ended up getting first place in the tournament.  You know how in my last post I was talking about beating the undefeated team Friday night?!  Well we ended up losing to them with a short rally at the end.  So since our tournament is double elimination, that was our first loss, so we got moved down to the loser’s bracket and were scheduled to play Hummel and Plum.  Well we played them yesterday at 11:00, and ended up beating them.  So now we are at the championship game facing again the undefeated team.  If we won the first game, we had to play another game because it would have been their first loss.

Which we did end up beating them!!!  We were close the whole game, then with our last-at-bat, we scored the winning run, ending the game.   The score ended up being 13-12.  They weren’t undefeated anymore!!!  What was funny was some people from the other teams in my divisions were there and after that game I think they were even more excited than we were that we beat the team no one else could beat!!!

So since we beat them, we forced a game 2.  We only had 45 minutes to cool down and rest .  But anyhow, in our second game, they scored the first run, but yet we ended up winning it 7-5.  We beat the same team twice!!!  I think our motivation was that one of the parents said that if we won, we got a 3 dollar limit for ice cream, and if we lost we got a 2 dollar limit.  She stayed true to her word though!!!  My mom claims the main reason we won was because of her and my friend Natalie’s mom doing the rally cheering, with a 5 person wave and “thinking positive”.    Whatever you say Mom!!!!!

I will post pictures from this years softball season as soon as I get them on the computer!!!!

Happy Birthday Hadley!!!! 

SOFTBALL!!!!!!

Our softball season is now coming to an end with our Fish Fry tomorrow and a tournament game this evening .  My softball team placed second in the regular season.  We lost twice to the undefeated team, each time by one run .  Then we lost when I was at camp, then lost the Wednesday after I got back.  So now tonight we play the undefeated team again and I am reading to FINALLY beat them!!!!!!  

Their REALLY good pitcher is one of my friends and when we text, we smack talk to each other.  Yesterday she sent a text that said “You are not going to beat us.  Not without an army you won’t.  Me and Bradi (other pitcher) are ready.  You won’t see it coming.”  I just laughed and replied “You wish.”  But anyhow we play at 7:30 tonight under the lights ( ) at the Ted Lewis Big Diamond!!!!!

School’s Out!!!!!

School is out for the summer (!!!!!!!!!) and we ended it as great as anyone could have asked for.  Us sixth graders are now moving on to McDowell, where we will have all new teachers, friends and different experiences.   Thank you teachers for help preparing all of us throughout our lives!!!!  We will miss everyone!!!!!!!

But then again, none of us can’t wait to leave the school we’ve been at for six years.  I don’t think anyone will miss the fact that Laurelville has four flights of stairs and McDowell is all one level .   Personally for me, I just can’t wait to get to see all my friends from the other schools every day!!!! 

So like I was saying, we had an awesome ending for our school year.  We had camp Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then Friday was the last day of school.  Camp was AWESOME!!!!!  Although my group didn’t get to do Fat Man Squeeze, we all had fun swimming, enjoying our groups, developing new friendships, and learning about the Hocking Hills.  I’d have to say my favorite things about camp were campfire, swimming and staying up past lights out (eleven) and then have to get up at six thirty .  What was your favorite thing?!

Have a nice summer everyone!!!!!!  Keep in touch with your friends and post on your blog!!!!!!!!!

The Big League: McDowell

Yesterday, all the sixth graders from Laurelville, Saltcreek, Washington and Pickaway went to our McDowell orientation.  It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got to see all my friends from the other schools, show them my other friends, and we also took a tour of the building and meet the teachers.  My favorite teacher would probably have to be Mrs. Klein.  She was one of the seventh grade science teachers.  Mr. Herd was the other, but we didn’t get to meet him.

I loved how everything was so open and one-story!!  I was so use to four floors, so that will take some getting use to.  Like I was saying, it was really open.  The library was like in the middle of the whole building and it had no walls.  The classrooms had glass windows and some classrooms didn’t have a door at all!!!

Lunch was cool and when we had intramurals with Washington, it was fun to meet new people.  I mean I knew just about everyone from Washington thanks to just one friend, but it was still fun.  We also got to play knockout with them.

All-in all, it was an AWESOME day!!!!!!!  What did you think?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124372247@N01/742235207/

D.A.R.E. Essay

Over the past few weeks, my class has had D.A.R.E. in our Social Studies class.  D.A.R.E. stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.  We have to write about what we learned, what we thought of the program and how we learned to say “NO!”  This is for two language arts grades and to graduate D.A.R.E.

I love the D.A.R.E. program.  It teaches me how to avoid drugs and violence, about the drugs, and we also have fun at the same time.  For instance, it was fun to watch our classmates with the D.U.I goggles on, but we also learned what it was like when you’re drunk.

One of the many things I have learned is that smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer.  This doesn’t really surprise me because I knew that the smoke affects your lungs really badly.  I have seen on TV what your lungs look like when you smoke.  They look really bad, all purple, wrinkly, and small.  I hope when I get older I don’t smoke and have cancer.

The most interesting thing that I learned that really stuck out in my mind is that there were over 200 KNOWN poisons in tobacco.  That pretty much guarantees the fact that I will not smoke tobacco.  I mean, just think about it, would you want to smoke something that has OVER 200 KNOWN poisons in it?!  Smoking also turns your teeth yellow, gives you bad breath, and causes shortness of breath when you play sports.  I don’t want yellow teeth because right now I’m doing everything I can do to make sure I have straight, white teeth with my braces.  I also don’t want to smoke because I am very active in sports and there’s no way I want to get shortness of breath and dizziness.

As I was saying, we had fun in D.A.R.E.  We had fun having extra recess if less than two people did not wear their D.A.R.E. shirt.  This didn’t happen very much for my class, but it was still fun when we did have it.  When we did the DUI goggles, it was sort of like a challenge for boys against girls. We had to walk in a straight line with the goggles on, then turn around and catch a tennis ball with them still on. We were looking for how many boys caught it and how many girls caught it.  The boys and girls ended up tieing.

I have learned MANY things from this program, and I think it is a great way to help reduce the amount of teenagers that use drugs and help them avoid violence.

Pledge: I promise to make wise decisions about alcohol, tobacco, other drugs and violence.  I will say “NO!” when someone asks me to do drugs.

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124477206@N01/14010006/

The Book of Jealousy: For Dummies

In the Reading Workshop, we have continued to work on our fictional narrative.

1.  Create your characters and develop their characteristics and physical traits.  Is there a villain and what is he/she like?  How does the bad guy impact the story?

Daija- A 13-year-old, tall, medium-size blonde, athletic, smart, and attitude that makes her think she’s the best at EVERYTHING, Dad- Preston, Mom- Taylor

Bobby- A 14-year-old short and skinny red-head, VERY SMART (actually in 8th grade but taking sophomore math classes), on the Debate team, very kind/nice attitude, nothing at ALL like Daija

Brenna- A 13-year-old tall skinny brunette who’s VERY smart, VERY athletic, new to Woodburn Junior High, doesn’t have any friends yet, very shy, but yet outgoing when it comes to sports and classes

2.  Create the setting.  Where and when does the story take place.  How does the setting impact the story?

- The setting takes place in Woodburn Junior High, a new two- story school with an 2 indoor swimming pools, a giant auditorium, 4 softball fields, 4 baseball fields, a nice new football field with a track around (and yes this is a junior high!), about 10 seventh grade classes, and 15 eight grade classes.

- How

3.  Create the problem or conflict?  What minor problems will build tension leading to the climax?  How will the main character react when faced with the main problem/conflict?

4. What crisis will occur at the last minute which will grab the reader and give the main character a last chance to solve the problem?  Plan for a fingernail biting moment.

5. How will the main character solve the problem?  What positive attribute like courage, creativity, or intelligence does he/she possess which will help him succeed?

6.  Finish with style.  What lesson does the main character learn?  How will the reader connect and learn from the moral?

Integrity

In the Reading Workshop, we had to write a comment about how we think our integrity affects our life and how our integrity compares to Kevin’s, from Freak The Mighty.

Here is my comment:

I think integrity does matter to a sixth grader because you don’t want them talking about your bad integrity while you’re at recess. For example if Hadley, Madison or Savannah told me to steal something in Mr. McGuire’s desk (which they never would) I wouldn’t. It also matters because your friends want someone that knows the right things to do (and not to do). And I hope you would want someone with a good integrity as a friend too.

Integrity guides my life because I think integrity means doing the right thing and I want to do the right things in my life.

I think Kevin’s integrity is different from mine. For one, I wouldn’t lie about getting a brand new body. I also wouldn’t keep it a secret from Max that I knew I only had about a year to live. With that big of thing, I would be sure to tell my best friend(s).