SOL#18

“This is what deja vu must feel like”, I thought as I sat in my block three class just as I did the day before. I felt the hard, stone table that my hand rested on. and my ipad’s light shined in my eyes. I could hear the noise of screaming, laughing students around me, throwing a ball around the classroom. I wondered why my teacher lets his students be this crazy, as I had wondered the day before, and even the day before that. I felt as if this day had happened again and again. The only thing that changed was the date on the whiteboard. I sat, typing my slice of life of the day, as I had the day before, and for the past 17 days, typically in this class, but not always. Everyday, I write as fast as I can, then stop to read what I wrote. Then, I catch myself reading the same line I had just written again and again. I catch myself reading the same line I had just written again and again. I catch myself reading the same line I had just written again and again. Eventually, in these repeating hours, my teacher tells us to pack up our stuff, which I do, day after day after day. I found myself just wanting something to be different, even if it is something small. But, at this particular moment, it doesn’t. Or, at least I don’t notice it if it does. Soon, I was walking down the crowded halls heading to lunch, just as I had the day before. I walked with nobody, not being able to find my friends and just wanting to go eat. I get down to the lunchroom, which is actually called the “M.P.R”, and sit down, just as I did the day before.

Tuesdays With Morrie: Bucket List

The first few chapters of Tuesdays With Morrie focus on Mitch Albom’s young adult life and how Morrie affected, in some aspects, how he viewed life and death. One main theme in this book that I have noticed is to not take life for granted. I have only been around for thirteen years, but I already notice this in my own life. I have learned to not take life for granted and to just live in the moment. One way to do this is to make a list of things you want to do before you die, in order to plan out your life and not take it for granted, to use every moment of it. This list is called a bucket list, presumably because it is everything you want in life in all in the same place, like things in a bucket are. While making a bucket list, you think about life and how it only happens once and you come to the thought that you don’t want to waste life, and you need to use every moment and know what you want to do with every moment before it’s too late. Another important thing about making a bucket list is to follow through. If you write down what you want to do, then never do it, it is just a waste and you will regret it. In Tuesdays With Morrie, Albom said, “Instead of chasing my own fame, I wrote about famous athletes chasing there’s” With writing a bucket list, you are in a way committing yourself to trying to “chase” your dreams, instead of giving up. I am doing just that with this bucket list you are about to see.

My Bucket List:

Be a lead role in a play
Write a book
Get into a good college
Get a job
Buy a house
Get a dog/cat
Give a speech
Get a skinny pig
Travel the world

SOL#17

As I ran down the steps to my back hall, I could feel the anxiety of possibly missing the bus rise to the back of my throat. I then pulled my backpack off the hanger at the bottom of the stairs and ran back up. It was only a few stairs but it felt like too many at this moment. I hopped from step to step, maneuvering my backpack out of the way of the walls on either side of my. Soon, I was back to my kitchen table and flung my backpack around me an on top of the table. I could feel the presence of my friend standing behind me, watching my struggle to not miss the bus and also not forget any of my school supplies. I stuffed my folder and pencil case into my backpack and quickly zipped it up, as I almost simultaneously swung it around to onto my back. Then, I remembered that I needed my windbreaker, so I pushed my backpack off me as it flung to the floor. I ran back down the stairs to get my light jacket, pulled it on, and ran back up the stairs, zipping my jacket and running as fast as I could without looking absolutely ridiculous, although I am sure that I did. I then flung my backpack on me and grabbed my ipad and ipad bag as I rushed out the door after my friend and my mom. We all walked to the driveway and my mom saw us off to the bus stop. We ran down the alley and took a turn to see that the bus had not yet come and we were free to walk the rest of the way. We walked, gasping for air and trying to cool ourselves down from the dash down the street. We finally got to the bus stop, about to wait another ten minutes until the bus came. I wished I would have just stopped the rush and breathed while at home.

SOL#16

My work for the class I was in was finished and I now had freetime. I looked around for a few minutes and thought about what I might do. I looked at the book that was in my pile of things and thought about reading for a little bit. But, I decided to first check on my ELA class page to see if we were doing anything that day that I could get a headstart on. I clicked the link to get me on google and I saw the familiar pale grey screen that had the lighter grey bar on top. I clicked that bar and brought my hand over to the small white button in front of me that had an “e” on it. I brought my finger down and pressed it. I could see the smaller “e” appear on the bar at the top. Then I quickly typed “dmodo.com” after the “e”. This brought me to my ELA class page and I scrolled down to look at the schedule of the day. It said that we were writing down our vocab words of the week. I then was about to start writing down then but I decided that I should wait until I got to class. My teacher would give us time to write them down so I might as well use that time. So, I was going to go back and read my book. But, I decided to put a hold on my book reading a little bit longer and do some other work. I knew I had already done my slice of life blog for that day, but I decided to write one for the next day, so I would be free then. That is the blog you are reading at this moment.

SOL#15

Once I finished writing the last sentence on the poster I had been working on, I raised my hand. The substitute teacher walked over to the chair I was sitting in and I asked her to check my work over. She did just that and said that it looked fine. So, I flipped the paper over and wrote my name as she walked away to check on another student’s work. I then stood up from my chair, set down my poster, and picked up the scissors, glue stick, and ruler that were in the area that I worked in. I took these and went to the bins where my teacher kept that sort of stuff. I opened the drawers and slid the item into the correctly labeled bin. Then, I walked back to where my seat was and picked up the articles that I had been using. I then walked around the room along the counters and dropped the articles in their correct bin. I watched as the article fell and became just like the other articles just like it. Soon, I was back at my seat and sat down, sliding my pencil across the table so it was next to the rest of my stuff. Immediately, the pencil rolled down the uneven table due to the uneven floor and gravity, falling next to my ipad, which I had taken out in the meantime. I slid it back to and watched as the same thing happened. Frustration started to come to me and I hastily zipped open my pencil bag and shoved the pencil in it, then rezipping the bag and dropping it back on top of my notebooks. With the roll away pencil out of the way, my attention focused back on to my ipad and I continued the work I was trying to do.

SOL#14

I sat on the run-down couch that my family had had for my whole life. It was grey with white speckles on it and it smelled a little bit like guinea pig due to all the times my guinea pigs walked on the couch. Next to me was my brother holding our family computer on his lap. It was playing his favorite show on Netflix. I liked the show somewhat, but wasn’t quite as obsessed as he was. I was partially watching it but also partially doing my homework. I knew on the inside that I probably wasn’t doing my very best work in front of Netflix, but I could barely help it. I started to pay more attention on my homework than the show because personally, I thought the show was becoming boring. I was mostly just sitting there as support for my brother. Occasionally he would look at me and laugh or give me a sort of gasp. I would then copy his face and he would be satisfied and look back at the show. Soon, I was hooked on watching the show again and put my full attention on it. We were fairly far into the show, so it was getting to the intense part and I knew that I would soon need to put my homework away for later and just watch the show with my little brother.

SOL#13

I sat on the bed with my new book, reading and solving the puzzles lined up with the book. This book was by my favorite author and I had been wanting it for a while. Now, I was covered up by the blanket reading each word, enjoying the story and internalizing the information. I was beginning to get cold in this air conditioned house that I sat in. I reached to the bottom of my bed and grabbed a red sweatshirt that actually belonged to my little brother, but I was too freezing to care. I put my arms in it and left it like that because it was too small to put it all the way on. Then, I pulled the soft, blue blanket up to my waist and layed back down. I held the book out in front of me and continued reading for a few minutes. Then, I forced myself to close the book and look at the clock. We would be going to church soon and I had to get ready. So, I rolled out of bed, still trying to keep the sweatshirt on my arms. I walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower and jumped in to take a shower. Once I was done, I took the bathrobe and walked to get my clothes and got dressed. Then I walked to the steps and took my boots and sat on the steps to put them on. I laced them up and and tied them, standing up and running upstairs to get my jacket. I didn)t need it, but I still wanted to wear it. Soon, we would leave.

SOL#12

I stood in the light of the bright sun behind the window shining on me. I was leaning on the wooden counter that swooped down into the metal sink. I saw the blinding sun shining onto the reflective metal and into my eyes. I was forced to squint front the uncomfortable blindness. I dipped my hands into the plastic container of warm, soapy water in front of me. I picked up a bowl out of the water and took the sponge and rubbed it against the hard plastic to take the rotting food of it and it fell to the bottom of the sink. I rubbed the soapy sponge against the bowl a few more times for good measure and placed the soapy, but now clean bowl into the second part of the sink next to the one that had the dirty dishes in it. I continued this process through more bowls, plates, forks, knives, spoon,and many more eating utensils. Once I was done there was a pile of soapy dishes in a pile in one section of the sink. I then turned on the hot water and it rushed out of the spout and on top of the dishes, washing the soap off. I tried picking one up to rinse the soap off the bottom, but the water touched my hand and it felt like it was being burned alive. I quickly pulled my hand away. I added some cold water and the temperature was okay at last. I rinsed off the dishes and lined them up to dry.

SOL#11

I sat in board game club, on the brown rug on the floor next to my backpack and three friends next to me, laughing and shouting, while I sit, trying to do my homework. I wished that I could do board games in board game club, but no one else wanted to, I couldn’t. Everyone was instead yelling and laughing, throwing a ball around the room. This wasn’t my thing, and that was why I was sitting to the side of the room on the floor. Backpacks and ipads were next to me and all around me it seems. Sometimes I would look over at my friends and couldn’t help but smile at how crazy they were being. I sat thinking about life. I had just finished battle of the books. My group had gotten in 4th place, which I was satisfied by. Soon, I was back in reality and noticing what was happening around me. I heard my friend screaming/laughing next to me. I couldn’t tell which one it was. I honestly didn’t care what she was laughing at. I could just hear the craziness in my ears and the chaos in my mind. I just wanted to get my homework done so I could relax at home. Eventually, I did.

SOL#10

I walked into my block three, ready to work on the project we were currently doing in this class. We were building towers out of limited materials to see if we could build the tallest tower that would survive an earthquake. My partner and I hadn’t been doing very well in this. We had built one, then destroyed it because it didn’t work, so we had nothing at this point. So, I was excited to start again. But, when we got in class, my teacher started telling us stories and jokes. I would have normally enjoyed this but today I wanted to work. Then, my teacher pulled two tables to make a sort of triangle shape. Then, he made students stand in the triangle and tell the truth. He called it the “Truth Triangle”. This was sort of funny to me but I still wanted to do my work. Minutes later, we were dismissed to lunch. I walked down to the lunch room and quickly started eating my lunch and talked to friends until we were dismissed to go back to class. I went back to class, hoping my teacher might let us do the project. But, instead he gave us free time. It turns out that there were others who wanted to do work, though. So, he gave us the choice to either work or do free time. So, I finally got 20 minutes to work out of an hour long class. So, I did.

SOL#9

I sat in my math class, freezing cold, rubbing my hands together to try to keep warm. I look around me and see the light brown speckled table in which my notebooks, folders, and pencil case sit on. There is also a tissue box in the middle of the table for wiping off whiteboards or blowing your nose, which I personally thought was gross, but I wasn’t going to argue. I had finished my work and was just sitting there, waiting for the rest of my class to finish. Then I heard I heard my teacher talking. She was explaining how to do the math problem, which I already knew and I had already gotten the problem correct. So, I just stared off into space until I decided to just move on to the next slide. So I did, and I finished the problems on that slide and looked up, seeing what my teacher was doing. She was still explaining the problem on the previous slide, so I just sat there, feeling bored and wishing my teacher would just move on to the next page. Finally she did, but I had already done that problem so I moved on to the next slide. By the time I finished that slide, I decided to just do the whole lesson on my ipad. I did this with no trouble and finished quickly. My class had finally caught up with me and were doing the problem that I had just done. Soon, my class would be dismissed and I would move on to my next class.

SOL#8

The teacher came and tapped on our table signaling for us to go up and get lunch. So I got up and started walking to the line. Seconds later, I was there and I leaned up against the wall, waiting for the line to move. A few of my friends were next to me, but we didn’t talk. We just stood there, hungry and waiting. Finally, we were at the medium sized black cart with the plastic window covering the hot food. To me, all this food looked and smelled disgusting. The macaroni and cheese looked brown. The hot dogs were tinted a light green color and the nachos seemed very… cheesy. So, I skipped this part and signaled to the lunch lady that I wanted a cold lunch by pointing at the car next to this one. It was identical to the one that was currently in front of me, but didn’t have the plastic window blocking me from the food. I got to that second cart and took a sunbutter and jelly sandwich from the black plastic holder and put it into my empty tray. Then I took a juice and straw package and leaned in to say something to the lunch lady. I told her my id number because I had forgot my id and she needed to mark me down for getting lunch. Once she heard me, I walked off to my table to eat my lunch.

SOL#7

I woke up to the a snowstorm in April. I had been doing an argumentative essay on climate change so I was thinking a lot about it lately. Since it was about 70 degrees a week ago, I was now convinced that this was the end of the world as we know it. Then I heard that it was supposed to be 50 degrees the next day and I actually started to stress out. It became even worse, when later on in the day it started to thunder. And this may seem normal, but it was thundering while it was snowing. “This is the end!”, I heard myself say. Then, with all these thoughts and worries about Earth’s climate, I started to write my slice of life of the day. I am writing this in hopes of people finally realizing that climate change is a problem and that we have to do something about it. After my long thinking session, my mom brought me my lunch, which happened to be mac n’ cheese, I ate it up, listening to the snow and the thunder outside, which I hadn’t thought possible until today. I finished my lunch in front of the television and then put my bowl in the sink to be washed. Then I took out my ipad again to continue my slice of life for the day. Then, I finished it and continued on with my day.

SOL #6

I got into the car and buckled my seatbelt. I sat there for the five minute drive thinking about what we would do once we got there. Then, the car pulled over to the side of the road and my mom said goodbye to me. I said it back then opened the card door and ran to my friend’s house. Her mom opened the door and I said hi. She said it back and let me into the house. My friend was standing there and we walked to her room and sat on her bed. We opened the computer in front of us and got Netflix on. We discussed what to watch for a few minutes then finally came to a decision. We turned on the movie, which she had watched before but I hadn’t. An hour and a half later the movie was done. It was an okay movie, in my opinion. Then we scrolled the pages and found a movie that neither of us had seen before. It had the same actor in it as the previous movie and it had a similar plot. Then, another hour and a half later, the movie was done. By this point, I was becoming very tired because it was around 11:00 at night. I wondered why I was so exhausted because this was only a little bit later than when I usually go to bed. Then I remembered that I had gotten up at 6:00 that morning, so the mystery was solved. During the next movie, I fell asleep and by the time I woke up my mom was coming to get me and I sleepily went home.

SOL#5

We walked quietly to my house. The wind was very strong and our hair was getting blown all over the place and I could barely see anything. We had only been walking for a couple of minutes, from the bus stop, but it seemed like hours. Finally we came in view of my house and quickened our pace. My friend and I saw our brothers playing with their Nerf guns in my backyard. We said hi to them and went into the house. I yelled hello to my mom in the other room before we continued on to the front room. We stood there for a few seconds pondering what to do. My friend standing next to me asked if I wanted to go outside. I didn’t really feel like it but I said okay because anything had to be better than this uncomfortable silence. So, we went outside but still didn’t know what to do. So, we just sat there. Eventually,she got on her phone and I was left alone staring off into space. I thought about my day and what had happened and what I could have done better. Soon I got the idea to watch something on Netflix, because anything we could do would be better than this.

SOL #4

I took out my ipad and my headphones, as I was instructed to do by the teacher. Then, we were told to exit out of any apps except for one called TestNav. I almost never have any unnecessary apps open, but I checked just in case. I didn’t, as I thought, so I just went onto TestNav and sat there, staring off into space thinking about nothing in particular. Then my teacher gave more instructions and my attention snapped back into reality. I did as we had been told and the test was about to begin. After that it blew by like a breeze. I read articles, passages, questions, and answers. I wrote and wrote until my brain was sore. Then, I was done. I raised my hand and waited for my teacher to come over to log me out of the test. Then I put my ipad away and took out my book to read. I knew I needed to finish this before next Tuesday, which was the battle of the books competition. For some reason, I really wasn’t in the mood to read at that moment, though. It may have been because I just took the ELA IAR test, I thought. So, I took out my ipad and went onto edmodo.com to see what we were doing in class today. I scrolled down the list and saw “Thursday, 4/11”. Then I read what we would be doing and I wasn’t to excited for it. Then I remembered that I had to do my slice of life for today. So, I got on my Slice of Life google docs and started to write.

SOL #3

I opened the door to the band room and saw only a few people sitting in the chairs liming the room. I heard the teacher in the room tell me to get my guitar. So, I walked out the door and down the long stairs to the main office and found my guitar sitting against the wall there. I took it and headed back upstairs, maneuring my guitar through doorways and other students walking by. Finally I was back upstairs and in the band room, sitting in a chair, waiting for everyone else to arrive. My guitar was propped up against my legs until I decided to place it on the floor instead, Finally, my group came and we all went to the back row of chairs where there were spots open. Then, everyone gathered in the room and the vice principal told us to begin. I suddenly hear music playing, songs being sung, dances being danced acts being acted, and instruments being played. It was all a blur until it was my group’s turn. We walked up to the front of the room. I could sense my friends panicking but somehow I wasn’t. We were announced and I strum the guitar with all my might. Then the song began. I could faintly hear my friends standing there next to me, sing quietly, nervous at what others may think. I focused on playing and I tried my hardest to make it sound amazing. Apparently it did because I heard clapping all around me as I walked back to my seat. This was so intense for my group mates and I, and it was only the practice talent show!

Quarter 3 Reflections

My biggest improvement in English Language Arts has has most likely been in my note taking and annotating skills. During this past quarter we read and annotated both Night and To Kill A Mockingbird, which consisted of a lot of learning about how to do it and when to do it. At the beginning of this quarter, I was awful at annotating and I didn’t do very much of it. I got some practice with Night, but the main one was To Kill A Mockingbird. By the time I was finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird, I had piles of post-it notes, full of annotations. This felt like a huge accomplishment for me, and I feel like I couldn’t have done it before. Now, I have found myself annotating my independent reading books outside of school. These annotating skills from this past quarter might last a lifetime.

I cannot think of anything specific that I am proud of from this past quarter but there are many small thing that I have accomplished last quarter. I have read and annotated To Kill A Mockingbird, which feels like an accomplishment to me because I heard about it being so difficult and I was nervous about doing it at first, but it turned out to not be too challenging. I also read my books for Battle of the Books, which is a bit of an accomplishment because it is something not everyone did. Nothing very big happened to me this quarter, I just focused on getting through it, trying my best and getting good grades. By next quarter, I will have completed the Battle of the Book competition. I will have done the talent show also. And, I will have also finished my 7th grade year at Heritage Middle School and I will be moving onto the 8th grade, which is somewhat an accomplishment.

The most challenging part of English Language Arts this quarter was probably socratic seminars. I tend to be a quiet person, especially in front of people, so the idea of speaking in front of the class isn’t appealing to me. The first socratic seminar I was not prepared for. I didn’t do the organizer for it and I barely had my thoughts together for it. I didn’t speak very much at all during that socratic seminar. The next one I did better in with the aspect of being prepared. But, even until the last socratic seminar, I couldn’t find the voice to speak. This challenge of speaking I still haven’t gotten through, but I plan to work on it. I will work on finding my voice and speaking more in front of people to truly prepare myself for the next socratic seminar.

SOL#2

Each week on Friday I have a guitar lesson at a small store down my street where they have music lessons and I had taken 3 years of guitar and ukulele lessons. On this Friday I took my guitar and placed it into its case and clipped each of the small pieces of metal to secure it in order to make sure it didn’t fall out on the walk to the music store. My mom and I put on our jackets and opened the door to start our short little walk. We walked down the alley past our backyard and garden, then through the small gate at the back of our fence.Then, we hurried down the alley past garages and garbage cans. Soon we were at the Dunkin’ Donuts by my house. There we took a turn right and headed down that sidewalk with the cars zooming by us. Once we got to the intersection leading me to the music store, my mom kissed me goodbye and sent me off to cross the street and go to my destination. Once I got there, I opened the big door leading to the shop. Then I turned to the left and into the room where the lessons were taught. My teacher met me there and we went to a back room to start my lesson.

SOL#1

I sit on the couch behind the television working frantically on my math homework trying to get it done by the next day. My guinea pig, Andrea is sitting next to me, almost asking me to pet her. So I do, putting the homework aside for now. My full attention is on my pet. Then I start to think about the day and what happened in each block. Then something pops in my head that I had forgotten to do. I quickly get back on my ipad and scroll through the apps to find google docs. I quickly open a new presentation and title it, “sol 1”. I know this stands for “slice of life 1”. Then I press the little blue button on the right hand side of the screen and watch as the keyboard pops up. I think for only a couple of seconds before I know exactly what I will type. I press the first letter. It is an “I” and after this one the letters pour out of my fingers and onto the screen. My mind works hard to write each letter, each sentence and do it on time for me to get a decent amount of sleep. Soon I feel that I may have enough and I could possibly stop and just go to bed. I hear in the background my family talking softly to one another. Although I know I should be fast asleep, I continue to type and just can’t stop. Maybe soon I will be able to take a rest and breathe again, knowing I have completed this challenge for today.