Letter to Classmates

Dear classmates,

 Over this entire year we have all gotten to know each other  a little better by taking on the challenges English 1 has presented us together. I think that when we are all interested and in tune at the same time we have really productive classes and class discussions. Our class was really good about turning things in on time and for the most part we were pretty good with participating in class. We always asked a lot of questions and were eager to move around when we worked, which is why I think we are doing pretty well with Macbeth. 

Of course we had out fair share of problems too. I think some of out main problems was leaving during class or leaving early, side conversations, complaining and not being happy. We actually all worked and thought of ways we could help fix these classroom problems we were having. We brought into effect the points game/ system, we had our sign out sheet, and we have all been trying much harder to participate. I think we have had a pretty good year together as a class and I hope we can continue that throughout high school. 

Yearly over view

This year I think  I did a really good job as far a participation goes. I always came to class with everything i needed i never forgot my Lord of the Flies, or Nervous Condition books. I always had all the materials I need that would include things like pencil, pens, paper, anything extra e were asked to bring. My class as a whole has a problem with wanting to leave early even if we finish class early we want to leave before the bell. 

I think I used my time well between classes to tai scare of what ever I need to do so I could be focused in class. My class had a problem with too many people leaving to often during class, we tried different ways to fix this. I always checked my e-mail and assignments daily, I try to do that for all of my classes. I turned in my assignments on time no matter what they were I don't think I had more than one or two assignments late the entire year. I think I do pretty well in participation although I do learn better by just listening and watching  sometimes I will ask questions to make things more clear. I was pretty good about side conversations I think at the beginning of the year I was bad about it but it has gotten regressively better. When we were put into groups my rule in the group was dependent on the type of project, i tried to always do what i knew could attribute to helping my group. My participation from the beginning of the year to now has changed a lot I learned a lot about my learning style this year and it has helped me become a better student. 

Outside reading over this year

Over the course of the year I've definitely changed a lot as a reader. I used to just not really enjoy reading over all but it has really grown on me over the course of this year. Ive tried different books this year and expanded the variety of books I usually read. I knew that it always takes me awhile to read but over this year I have read more often and know I can read more in a shorter period of time. What has surprised me is how I have become so good at picking books I know I will like and actually be interested in and want to read. 

I have adapted to thinking about the things we look for in annotating. Now when I read I always look of characterization, plot, and theme. For me, next in reading I think I am going to try to continue to pick books that fit my interest and also try to read more challenging books. Over this year I have become a much more involved and encouraged reader. My reading times this week was Son of Neptune: 150

Macbeth: 20 

Lady Macbeth's Perspective

 If I were to be in the story Macbeth form the point of view of lady Macebeth I think it would entirely change the way I view things entirely. From the first time we meet lady Macbeth you can tells he is  very violent, aggressive, and hostile. From my point of view I could never think the way she does, that murdering someone isn't a problem or isn't a big deal and its forgettable. When she sees Macbeth back she tells him of her plan when he refuses to do it she becomes angry. Screaming at him and pressuring him to kill him, knowing that by doing that by doing this  Macbeth will get the position of power that he wants she uses that against him. 

When the time comes for the murder Lady Macbeth persuades him into doing it. Once Macbeth commits the crime he feels almost out of body and so full of guilt he can barley handle it. Lady Macbeth at first is a little on edge but soon becomes much more comfortable with it. She views the murder almost like it was nothing, like they didn't even know the king. She feels so comfortable with this that she even uses the kings blood to cover it on the guards and put the daggers by them because macbeth was too shaken up to do so. Lady Macbeth is not lady like at all she does not have a guilty conscience and is completely comfortable with murder and does not think of the consicuinces. 

Writing Reflection

                                                  Yearly writing Analysis

            Looking back at the writing I have done this year I can unquestionably say there has been a lot of improvement and growth in myself as a writer. At the beginning of the year I wasn’t very confident in myself as a writer and I had trouble getting my ideas across in my writing. I have learned so many different types of writing there are like our profiles, and our literary analysis’. The varieties of writing we have done this year has definitely made me have to really focus and try to modify my writing.  A huge part of my trouble was working and incorporating all of the literary elements and trying to do that correctly and well.  As the year progressed I noticed it began to come much easier for me to incorporate these aspects of writing and doing much better quality work.

            At the beginning of the year my main problem was organization and making my point clear. One of my biggest struggles was while writing the Profile, and the Rhetorical Situation. Looking back on the writing I have done in the past I noticed how I could fix the mistakes that I had made. I observed in the reviews I got people were not very sure what preciously I was trying to say in my writing; things were unclear. Another thing I’ve noticed in my previous reviews was I would have a strong opening but as the paper would go on the writing would wither away and become uninteresting. Along with the other trouble’s I was having in my writing my reviews mostly consisted of the same things. As far as my editing goes I think my papers would have benefited from more revisions and feedback. Numerous mistakes I made in my papers towards the beginning of the year were largely problems that were easy to fix and was just carless mistakes.

            I also made many improvements since the beginning of the year, one of which was being more descriptive. I became more aware of how giving vivid description creates imagery for the reader and how much more my papers would gain from including this in my writing.  One of my extensive problems was sentence fluency, to which I have made a vast improvement on. Just by reading my papers you could tell the sentences didn’t always flow together and they were a bit choppy. I’m glad I was able to see and use the criticism my papers received because it made me realize what I needed to fix and how simple it would be to just try to pay more attention to my weaknesses while writing.

            I knew a great deal of my strengths and weaknesses when we began writing, Many of the people who revised my papers agreed with what I thought I could improve on. I also got criticism on things I had not realized I was having trouble with, so I also learned what I never noticed needed improvement. I agreed with almost all of the feedback I was getting this year and I tried to change whatever I agreed was wrong with the paper as long as it wouldn’t change my writing drastically. A good example of this for myself was the Literary Analysis; I don’t think I included enough of the revisions I had been given which really could have improved my paper. After reviewing all of the comments I received, I tried to make the revisions I was given and I attempted to focus on what I knew were usually my main problems. I zoned in on fixing the main problems in my paper then I looked more closely at the smaller more detailed mistakes I was making.

            Some of my more recent papers show that I have altered the mistakes I was previously making but at the same time it also shows new things I need to begin to focus on. One of my main problems was with citation and still a bit of organization. I have improved in my research and how I present my ideas on the paper because I have focused more closely on that. My sentence fluency has been better and I think if you compared my writing from a few months ago to now you would see how much improvement has been made. 

            Based off the feedback I have received this year I now know what I need to mainly focus on and what to look out for. I also now know what some of my strengths in writing are like ideas, and research so I now know to incorporate those as much as possible in my writing. This next year I am going to spend much more time on my writing. I’m going to spend more time working on my rough draft so that once it is revised I will have a pretty good paper to work with. Lastly, one of my main goals is to continue to work of organization because I have had trouble with that this year. I think that if I am to continue working on these writing techniques I will become a much better quality writer and do better work.

           

Common Errors list:

-       Comma splices

-       Organization

o   Putting all of my ideas on  a topic into my writing in an orderly, sensible way.

-       Citations

-       Grammatical errors 

Just Reading 4/22

Finished Hope Was Here  by Joan Bauer - 80 minutes
Science Textbook- 60 minutes

Reading Response

 This week I have finally finished The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. I really enjoyed the book it was interesting and it had so many twists and turns to make it so interesting. I think towards the end of the book it began to dry on a little in my opinion but by the very end of the book Rick Riordan picked it up again, and again as always has an ending that leaves the reader hanging. When the book is coming to an end the main characters return back to camp after finishing there task. After returning they have all changed so much each of them has grown and become much more wiser in the past week and all now know what purpose they have at the camp.
   After finishing this book I'm not very sure what I am going to read next. I know we are going to be starting Shakespeares  Macbeth so I'm not exactly sure which book I would like to read along with it. I was thinking about reading the ellen degeneres biography that my friends recommended to our english class. I haven't ever read anything like that before so I figured I could read a different type of book I've never read before.

Song Analysis

 There are many songs on the radio that if you really listen use poetry devices we have learned in class. Even very popular songs like "Firework" by Katy Perry uses different poetry devices to make the song flow. If you listen to the first line of the song " Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting throughout he wind wanting to start again" Katy Perry is using a smilie by comparing yourself to a plastic bag drifting in the wind. Which she suss again in her next line saying " Do you ever feel feel so paper thin like a house of cards one blow from caving in." She again, uses a smilie by comparing a human emotion to a house of cards in the way that it can collapse anytime.
   Another poetic devices Katy Perry uses is imagery. Imagery is something that appeals to your senses, or something that gives you a picture in your mind. " you just got to ignite the light and let it shine, just own the night like the fourth of July." In this section of the song she is using imagery I think she wants people to picture something bright and powerful to compare themselves to and naturally when you think of the fourth of July you think of fireworks. She also uses an assonance when she says in the song " boom boom boom, even brighter than the moon moon moon its always been inside you you you." She is repeating the same type of sounding words these three lines to keep the song flowing.

http://www.directlyrics.com/katy-perry-firework-lyrics.html

Poetry Analysis

   For my poetry analysis I did Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden. The poem was mainly about a child describing her fathers work and what he does every morning, how much he does for his family and others. I think the story is told from the point of view of a small child who observes his or hers father working for their family. The poem talks about how he does all of this and asks for nothing in return and sometimes doesn't even get a thank you.
   There weren't very many techniques used in this poem that I could  immediately see. There were some pretty interesting line breaks that I think the author used to make certain words or parts of the poem stick ou or to show how they were important. The author didn't use any similes or metaphors but he did do a good job of creating imagery and help you visualize what was happening.

Reading Response

 This week I have pretty much finished The Lost Heros  by Rick Riordan.  It has been really interesting and I have really liked the new stories and characters,  but I really love how Rick Riordan has also incorporated old characters into the story as well. One of the main parts of this story has been about how Percy has gone missing and how they are trying to find Hera and find him, I think the book would have been even better if Percy and all of the old characters were in it again.
 IM very excited for the next book in this series because Percy will be back in it. I am interested to see how these characters will all adapt and be put into the same story line. I predict that they may not completely get along because they have both become like the leaders of their friends. This week I read for 175 minutes and read 80 pages.

Reading Response

       This week I have almost completely finished my book, The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. So far the three main characters; Jason, Leo, and Piper are trying to find and release Hera who has supposedly stolen Jasons memory. Jason is named after and important man in Roman history named Jason as well. Leo has the ability to summon fire and he is also immune to it, piper is about to charm talk people and Jason can summon lighting so its interesting to see how they use these abilities in situations.  I think I will be able to finish by the end of this week.
      Along with our regular free reading we have also begun our poetry in english. We had to read " The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. In the beginning of the poem she begins to describe the looks of the fish she has caught. When she takes a closer look she sees that the fish has five more fish lines stuck in his mouth. In the end I guess she felt sorry for the old fish who based on the lines, had been caught many times before, because in the end she lets the fish go.

Poetry & Movies

       This week we began our poetry course in english, I was looking forward to this because I do really like poetry. To me poetry is kind of like a puzzle because you have to try to figure out what exactly is going on in the poem. Although usually it takes me quite a while to figure out what some poems mean its really cool because a lot of the time poems have more than one meaning they sometimes can be talking about more than one story as well. My favorite kind of poems are the ones that can be so short but still have such a more interesting and detailed meaning.
       Yesterday I finally got to see the Hunger Games which was the movie adapted from the book by Susan Collins. Most of the time the directors will make the movie so different form the book that its almost not even following the story line. In this movie Susan Collins did the screen play and was a big part of the movie, which really did the movie good. There were certain parts of the movie were the actors said lines right form the book and I really liked it because the movie was almost as good as the book.

Reading Response

      Currently I am ready The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. I just really started to get into the book and so far I really like it. I also loved the Percy Jackson series which was the earlier series before this. I have always found greek mythology interesting so I think thats why I like these books so much. The Lost Hero focuses mainly only Roman mythology that means new stories, new characters, and new problems.
      Right now in the story Leo, Piper, and Jason are trying to figure out what happened to Hera. Jasons memory was taken from Hera and finding her would mean finding out who he really is. Im just starting to really get into the story but so far its really good.

KONY 2012

   Recently, many people have been seen the video KONY 2012. A lot of people that have seen that video, including me, were really inspired by it and wanted to help. The way the video was made it was like watching 30 minutes of these poor kids suffering and having to be afraid every time they were going to sleep. The man who made the video went on a mission trip there and learned all about who Kony was and what he did, he even talked to many of the people who escaped from Kony. As the video explains, Kony is a Uganda dictator who takes children from there homes and put them into armies to fight and sells them as sex slaves. After watching the video I couldn't see how this was just starting to become important if Kony had been doing this for years now, but more recently I learned the other side of this story.
   A few days after the KONY 2012 video went up, another video went up which had been made by someone who actually lived in Uganda. What was said in this video, I thought, was very suprising. Kony has actually not been in Uganda for over six years now, and many people in Uganda are greatly offended by the Kony 2012 video because it makes Uganda look like such an awful place. Now of course there are two sides to every story but I think that its really interesting how this who issue over took America and we don't even know all the facts.

Reading Response

      Right now I'm reading The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, it was recommended to me by my friend Jerry and Ive been wanting to read it for awhile. I have always been kind of interested in greek mythology so I knew I would probably find this book interesting. This book is a follow up series to the The Lighting Thief series also by Rick Riordan. The difference is in the previous series it was about greek mythology this more recent series is about the Romans. 

      The book follows three main characters Jason, Leo, and Piper. The book also has most of the old characters form the previous series in the book but it mainly focuses on these new characters. I have really like it so far because this book is like a fresh start to the same kind of story expect its an entire new history from the Roman point of view. 

Reading Response

      Right now I'm reading The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, it was recommended to me by my friend Jerry and Ive been wanting to read it for awhile. I have always been kind of interested in greek mythology so I knew I would probably find this book interesting. This book is a follow up series to the The Lighting Thief series also by Rick Riordan. The difference is in the previous series it was about greek mythology this more recent series is about the Romans.
      The book follows three main characters Jason, Leo, and Piper. The book also has most of the old characters form the previous series in the book but it mainly focuses on these new characters. I have really like it so far because this book is like a fresh start to the same kind of story expect its an entire new history from the Roman point of view.

The Hunger Games

      One of my absolute favorite books is The Hunger Games trilogy by Susan Collins. Its really the only book I've ever been able to read that really grabbed my attention to the point where I couldn't put the book  down. I was so excited when I heard that the book was going to be made into a movie. I really want to see how they are going to put such an amazing book into a movie. For those who have already read it you know there is a lot of violence in the book, there are some very complex characters.
   Almost always the book is better than the movie so I am not expecting this movie to beat the book, which would be hard but I am excited to see how they are going to do this. There are many scenes in the book that I can imagine would be very hard to film because of the violence or point of views of the scene. I know many people are looking forward to this movie along with me so I'm really excited to see it!

Character Comparisons

Throughout the book Nervous Conditions many of the characters have changed. Whether changing personalities,views, or traditions of things almost all characters have grown in some way after deling with some sort of situation. I think the two best examples of this are Nyasha and Tambu. At the beginning of the book Tambu had always just really accepted the way things were, she was never always agreeing with what was being done but she never usually interjected. She had wanted an education more than anything and had never  really be so fond of Nyasha. Nyasha at the beginning of the book was the exact opposite. She was very out spoken, outgoing, and very rebellious. 

   When we look at our characters at the end of the book they have both changed for better and for worse. Nyasha has gone from being rebellious and from being so outgoing to being weak, unhealthy and obsessed with studying. She is so obsessed with studying and she is so unhealthy form her diet that she has a break down and has to be placed in a clinic. Tambu on the other hand has changed for the better. She is much more of her own person after having so much education and having so many new and different experiences. 

Character Comparisons

Throughout the book Nervous Conditions many of the characters have changed. Whether changing personalities,views, or traditions of things almost all characters have grown in some way after deling with some sort of situation. I think the two best examples of this are Nyasha and Tambu. At the beginning of the book Tambu had always just really accepted the way things were, she was never always agreeing with what was being done but she never usually interjected. She had wanted an education more than anything and had never  really be so fond of Nyasha. Nyasha at the beginning of the book was the exact opposite. She was very out spoken, outgoing, and very rebellious. 

   When we look at our characters at the end of the book they have both changed for better and for worse. Nyasha has gone from being rebellious and from being so outgoing to being weak, unhealthy and obsessed with studying. She is so obsessed with studying and she is so unhealthy form her diet that she has a break down and has to be placed in a clinic. Tambu on the other hand has changed for the better. She is much more of her own person after having so much education and having so many new and different experiences. 

Reading Response

This week we have finished Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Throughout the book we have followed Tambu on her emotional, physical, and spiritual journey thoughout her life. She has gone from a girl who was basically being denied an education to being able to get the best possible education there is. She has also grown as a person, part of that comes from being with Nyasha so much that she has developed into a completely different person.

  While living with Babamukuru, Tambu has experienced different situations grown form all of them. One of the main events that took place at the end of the book was when Nyasha stared to have a break down because of all the pressure and unhealthy conditions she had put herself under. I think that this really made Tambu realize how much had changed back at home while she was at Sacred Heart. 

Reading Response

 This week we read chapters 6 and 7 of Nervous Conditions. In these two chapter the story really heats up. Nyasha and her father Babamakuru get into a physical fight. I liked theses two chapters because it really started to get interesting. I think part of the reason that Babamakuru got mad at his daughter is because she is representing him wherever she goes and he was getting worried about how people were viewing him as del as his daughter.
  Nyasha has always been a more of a rebellious character so when she started fighting back with him I wasn't surprised. Tambu learned a lot about victimization in this chapter, her views on it changed. She used to think it would only happen under certain circumstances but she now realizes that it is a universal thing and can happen to anyone anywhere, including her own home.

Service hours expeirence

      Yesterday I went to the Our Lady of the Lake hospital to complete some service hours while on break. While many would think this wouldn't be a very enjoyable experience, it actually wasn't all that bad. Usually when people come the hospital looking for service hours or volunteer work they are placed in the hospitals playroom. The playroom is for the younger patients in the hospital who are not contagious and who's condition is not too serious. As you would imagine, it is imperative to keep the playroom as clean as possible. Surprisingly there are many other jobs in the hospitals playroom that are actually kind of fun.
    Although the majority of the time we were cleaning board games and toys for the kids I was able to do other things as well. I got the opportunity to sit down and talk to a few kids that were in there. Most of the kids that come in the playroom are around 1-10 years old and even though some of them understand that they are in the hospital for whatever reason, they are still very positive and excited to try new things to get better. I really enjoyed the experience and getting to talk to these kids.

Reading Response and Research Paper

       This week we read chapters two and three of Nervous Conditions. The author Tsitsi has a very creative way of writing, she portrays her stories by going back and forth from past and present. Whenever she began the book, she began it by talking about the past when Sisi's brother died. You can tell that the narrator is telling this story from later on in her life, like she is telling the story form her past. I do like the was Tsitsi writes though, It gives the book different climaxes by transitioning form the past to the present in the story.

       This week we also turned in a draft of our research papers. I was really happy with my work, I thought I did a good job on it. I really liked how we did the peer review because I now will know what specific things I need to fix in my paper. Hopefully these comments will be very constructive and I will be able to really improve my paper. 

New Movies

     This weekend I went to see The Vow with my friends, although the movie itself was very good what caught my attention the most was the previews. One of the previews was for a movie called The Lucky One. This movie was originally a book written by Nicholas Sparks after watching the trailer I realized how familiar it looked to me. That's when I realized I actually read the book much earlier this summer.
    Usually when books are turned into movies just from the trailers you can tell that the movie will not be as enjoyable as the book is. To my surprise, this trailer really did capture the main events in the book so that for those who have read the book, you could actually tell what the movie was trying to portraying. The Lucky One is one of the best books I've ever read it is clever, captivating, and relatable. I am very excited for this movie to come to theaters because I'm sure the movie will be just as great as the book.

Reading Response

      This week in english we bean to read our new book Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. So far in the book the main character Sisi Tambu has described her daily life, her family. She gives descriptions of her family and her relationship with certain people. She mainly focuses on talking about her brother. She begins the chapter by saying "I was not sorry when my brother died."
      Just from reading the first chapter you can characterize that Sisi is a hard worker, she cares a lot about her little sisters. You can also tell that she and her brother don't have a very good relationship even though neither of them treat each other poorly. Even though she doesn't really like her brother you can tell she feels bad from when she says " I could not cold- bloodedly inform my sisters that I had been thinking of how much I dislike our brother. I felt guilty about it." Just form this quote you can infer that she has a good heart because she feels guilty about not liking her brother.

Research Paper

      Right now school is becoming increasingly stressful, in all of my classes I have a project or something complicated. What I have been focusing on the most lately is my research paper. Since this paper counts for two different classes I have been putting extra effort into making this a really good paper. Everyone got to choose their own topics and those topics were different things that were issues in America and also other countries.
     I chose to do my research paper on abortion because it is something that has been a debatable topic for many years now in America and other countries as well. Although this topic wasn't something I was very happy to have to research about, I actually found out some pretty interesting things. Abortion not only is a problem in the U.S. it is also a debatable topic in other places like China, Asia, and parts of India. I also learned how much more common abortion has become but I also learned that there are more and more different ways people are taking actions to prevent this form continuing.

reading response

      If you have read my last blog post you will see that I had started to read the book The girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I got to about page fifty and although it did seem interesting it just wasn't the kind of book I like so I decided to take a break with it and began reading a book I've been meaning to read for awhile. In seventh grade we read the first book in a 5 book series called The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I really loved the book and all the greek mythology in it so I ended up reading the next two books.
   Over christmas break I read the fourth one and now I am reading the last book because Rick Riordan has made a second series that follows the same characters on into their next story. My friend Jerry told me about this new series so I am hoping to finish this last book so I can begin the new series. Because from what Jerry has told me this new series is really good and even better than the first.

Camp Ozark

       My absolute favorite place in the world is Camp Ozark. Camp Ozark is a religious summer camp located in the Ozark mountains in Arkansas, I have been going there for 6 years. I know many people would probably agree that camp is one of the most amazing places ever but I think I love Camp Ozark for many different reasons. In my opinion the best part of camp is the people you meet and get close to while your there. You are placed in a cabin to live in with about 10 other girls for the time you will be there. While, your at camp you get really close to many people especially with the people in your cabin. Camp Ozark's goal is to help kids from the ages of 7-17 to have a stronger faith.
     Camp Ozark also has many different activities to do while your there. Because you stay there for two weeks they have a variety of different things to try  such as arts, gymnastics, cheerleading, film & photography, they even have scuba diving. Another reason I love camp is because every night they have a different themed party some of the themes are western, water world, 70's night, and masquerade. On these theme nights they decorate the camp to fit the theme and have activities to fit the theme also, you even get to dress up for it. They also have something called tribal competition, everyday the two teams, osage and caddo play a sport for one hour and at the end of the camp session whoever wins the final solution wins their session. There are many other things that makes camp my favorite place to go but my favorite part of camp is that even though you may be always moving and doing different things camp is still like a get- away from stressful things and you really feel at peace while your there.

Washington D.C.

    This summer my family took a trip to Washington D.C. for about ten days. My dad had always wanted to take us there and show us all of the sites, he was really excited we were going. When we finally got there after two days of traveling we were all ready to go see all of the interesting things in Washington. Washington has a lot to offer like the white house, the Smithsonian's, different museums, war memorials, george town, and many other things. We were only going to be there for about a week and believe it or not that almost wasn't enough time to do everything.
    We went to and visited many places and things while there but I think my favorite thing was proabbly and The National Museum of American History. I think that this particular site was my favorite because it had the most amazing things there. They had an exhibit that had every single 1st ladies dress they wore  from the presidents inauguration. They even had Abraham Lincoln's hat, the shoes Dorothy wore in "The Wizard of Oz". I think Washington is an amazing place because there is so much history and stories behind it. I really liked going there and I hope to visit it again one day soon.

Reading Response

    This week I finished the book "Water for elephants" by Sara Gruen. I was an amazing book every chapter would captivate you more and more and leaving you asking questions. The way the book was set up was every chapter the story would shift from the point of view of the man in his twenties to the point of view of the man as his current ninety- three year old self. I liked that the book was set up this was because it was told more vividly and it really voiced his opinion. The way he told the story from his circus life was usually while he was dreaming he would pick back up from where he left off which really helped piece together the story.
    As it came to and end it answer many of the questions you would want to know about his future. In the end he needed up getting what I think, he wanted most leaving him happy to live out his final years. My new book I am beginning to read is "The girl with the dragon tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. I have heard this was a great book form many people. The book is around 600 pages so I imagine it may take me awhile to read but it seems interesting.

Water for elephants

    Right now for outside reading I am reading Water for elephants by Sara Gruen. I chose this book because it has been recommend to me by many people, it is supposed to be a really great book. I just started reading it so I am not very far into the story but so far its amazing. The story is about a boy named Jacob Jankowski he is studying to help his father in his veterinarian practice. Right before he is going to graduate he finds out that sadly his parents both were killed in a car accident. Unsure of where to go or what to do he wonders out of town.
    He stops when he finds some train tracks and decides to rest. When the train passes by where he is he jumps on it and decides to go where ever it is taking him. He ends up arriving at the Benizi Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth which is a circus. There, he is welcomed and starts to work for the circus. So far it is a really good book and I like the story. It seems really interesting and like something I would enjoy.

Recommended Books

      If your like me sometimes its hard to find a book that you actually enjoy reading. Often I will pick up a book but stop reading it if it takes too long to get interesting. I have read many books like this in the past but there were a few exceptions. One book that will immediately have you hooked is The Hunger Games by Susan Collins. This story is very unique and will have you reading non stop in seconds. If you like books that are thrilling and keep you guessing what will happen next then  I highly recommend this book.
     I know many people have read The Hunger Games trilogy so if you are one of those people here is another book you may like. The Great Wide Sea by M. H. Herlong. The story centers around three brothers who are out at sea with there father. One morning they wake up to find him gone, they must learn how to survive without there fathers guidance. I personally really loved this book because it was very interesting and it keeps you wondering what will happen next. Those are just two of the books I have read that  I love but they are still really amazing.

New Year, New Start

        Now that 2011 is over and behind us its time to start fresh in this new year. Usually I don't make resolutions because I would need a lot of motivation to keep them up throughout the year. However, this year I have decided to make a resolution for this new semester. Last semester I struggled mostly with procrastination and waiting until the very last minute to do some of the smaller assignments and quizzes. This year I would like to really try to keep up this goal and hopefully I will.
    Although last semester I was pleased with my work for the most part, I think I could do better. Without procrastinating I will have more time to work on assignments which will probably increase the quality of the work. I think this is a perfect goal because It could help me in every class especially science and english.