Monday, May 14, 2012

Self Evaluation 5.14.12

English I Second Semester Self Evaluation
  In general procedures I think I do very well. Up until these last two weeks I've brought my free read to class every time, because my nook broke & I read 'Macbeth' in two nights and forgot it at home for a few days. I'm very good about getting water & going to the bathroom before & after class. If I ever have a question I send Dr.deGravelles a formal  email in a timely manner so I do well appropriately emailing. I always to have positive and helpful attitude but some days are better than others, as we all know. During Dr.d's lectures I am very focused and attentive but I do slip when it comes to relevant comments & side conversations. I do feel like I contribute a lot to the class in a relevant way, though. 
  In my personality it's hard for me to stay on task even when I'm home alone in my room doing homework so when I get to work with other people I have to try really hard to focus & it's really hard. But I try! I know this sounds bad but if I'm not truly interested in our project I won't have any motivation to focus which I will have to work on because not every-time we do group work will I like it. I do try to get above Dr.d's minimum in her assignments, especially in individual & group work. I think that I've started getting harder on myself throughout the past few weeks compared to in the beginning of the year. I'm very proud of all the work I've done this year in my English I class because it's been a roller coaster of a class for me! I'll keep up the good work & work hard for an A for this English exam next Thursday. 

Free Post 5.14.12

Dear Freshmen block 4 English I class,
  I think that this was one of the most fun group of people together in a class that I love! I had so much fun this year getting to know our new students Anna Lee, Jared, Jerry, LeLe, & Peyton. I'm so grateful to Dr.deGravelles for putting up with us because at times our talking with the butterfly flapping its wings could get us seriously off track. I'm pretty sure we were the block with the best grades for every test, correct me if I'm wrong Dr.d, which is super positive! I enjoyed having a sitting partner one day and having three new partners the next day when Dr.d changed up the seating and gave us group in class projects. 
  One of the saddest moments of our class was when Mary Michael had to switch out after first semester. MMQ you are greatly missed in class everyday! I learned so much more than I thought I would this year from you, Dr.d. I honestly didn't know what to expect your class to be like especially since you were new to the school. I will be so prepared for my English classes in the future because of the difficulty level & rigor of your class. Even though I complain all the time about how hard I have to work for your class lately I've been seeing how much everything be do is important in my English writing & literature career so thank you for that Dr.d. I have block 3 English next year so I hope some of yaal are in that class with me.
                                         Thanks for a great year Dr.d & classmates
                                                       I love yaal all,
                                                                   Lauren E. Scott

Monday, May 7, 2012

Reader's Response 5.6.12

Outside Reading Freshman Year Reflection
Over the course of this school year I have read a lot more than I expected I would. I do love reading but I get unmotivated very easily so having be graded on my reading was a great motivator for me! This year I read a wide variety of books. A few of the books I read were nonfiction which was very new to me this year. My grandfather, Henry, always told me that once you read nonfiction fiction is for everyone else. But I did also read a good amount of fiction books just because I love them too much to not read them. 

One of my favorite nonfiction books I read this year was A Stolen Life by Jaycee Lee Dugard. A Stolen Life was such a powerful piece of writing I truly enjoyed every page of it. I also really enjoyed Fifth Avenue, 5AM: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Sam Watson. I found that I loved that book because of the perspective of the story. The book is a biography but in a chronological time line. So whenever you start a new chapter you're on a new point on the time line of Audrey's life and you get a quote that she actually said around that time of the point on the time line. It really kept me interested in the story line plus I love Audrey Hepburn!

My favorite free read fiction book that I read this year was The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. I know everyone has seen me post about how much I love this book! But my favorite in class book that we read this year so far is MacBeth by William Shakespeare. I love Shakespearean writing and I love focusing in the details of the writing in English classes! Next in my reading I'm going to finish We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee and then I think I'm going to start a book that my grandfather gave me called The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich.

So as my freshman year comes to a close I've noticed a pattern in my reading. I've noticed a pattern of reading three books in one week to having to force my self to read six chapters in a week. I guess it all depends on the week I'm having. I've used outside reading to think about issues in class whenever I read poetry ,for my free read the week my nook wasn't charging, and I noticed all of our patterns that we talked about in class in the poems.

~Reading Times
4.30.12- 90 minutes
5.1.12-20 minutes
5.2.12-15 minutes
We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee

Free Post 5.7.12

MacBeth's Perspective
How could I kill a man? Though I dream of being king... I cannot kill my king. I am his noblemen. I'm his thane of Glamis and now of Cowador. We are almost one in the same. But when will fate cut in? As of right now all I see is person after person in my way for what fate has promised me. Did these witches lie to me? Am I not to be crowned king of Scotland? My wife, my lady won't leave it be. She makes me anxious about playing with death. I have to make her happy...we said it in our vows but isn't there a line between happiness and foul play?
Will anyone suspect me? Do I show the face of an honest man or not? Once the deed of death is done it cannot go undone.

We've done it now. We've killed the king. I killed the king. My wife killed the king. The guards as witnesses to our wrong doing were killed. We killed three men in one night. How will the scene of the deed be found? I must stay calm and collected. But can I keep it together? This is something I'll have to live with forever. My wife and I will always know that on this night we killed Duncan king of Scotland. What will his sons do when the receive the news? What will my collages say when they find this deed? I will surely fall apart. My wife cannot cover me forever. All I wanted was the crown. But I took fate into my own hands...what have I done... 

Monday, April 30, 2012

WrAP Up Part two 4.29.12

Lauren Scott
Dr.deGravelles
English I/block 4
April 29, 2012
Common Errors List
  1. Missing commas
    Literacy Narrative paper
    Incorrect: "So when daddy went to law school I didn't understand why he could play with me while he was studying or why he was never home during the week until 8pm."
    Correct: "So when daddy went to law school, I didn't understand why he couldn't play with me while he was studying or why he was never home during the week until 8pm."
  2. Comma splicing
    Profiling (a space) paper
    Incorrect: "Grandpa Henry was already dressed in one of his hundred of Ralph Lauren polo shirts, this one just so happens to be red with a navy polo man, jeans, tennis shoes, and a my father gave him for his birthday one year from a lawyer convention that reads "Nobody Talks. Everyone Walks."
    Correct: "Grandpa Henry was already dressed in one of his hundred of Ralph Lauren polo shirts this one just so happens to be red with a navy polo man, jeans, tennis shoes, and a my father gave him for his birthday one year from a lawyer convention that reads "Nobody Talks. Everyone Walks."
  3. Repetition of words or phrases, "I see"
    Profiling (a space) graded draft
    Incorrect: "Whenever I look around I see hints of red in everything I look at. I see a red candle on the first bookshelf, a little jewelry box with red flowers painted on it on the second bookshelf, red flowers on the comforter on the bed."
    Correct: "When I look around I see hints of red in everything I look at. A red candle sits on the first bookshelf, a little jewelry box with red flowers paint on it sits on the second bookshelf, red flowers are embroidered on the comforter on the bed."
  4. Punctuation outside of quotation
    Literacy Analysis paper
    Incorrect: "In the story 'A Letter from Santa Claus', Eleanor Estes introduces Rufus a young boy who longs to receive a pony for Christmas from Santa Claus."
    Correct: "In the story 'A Letter from Santa Claus' Eleanor Estes introduces Rufus a young boy who longs to receive a pony for Christmas from Santa Claus." 
  5. Proof reading/deletion
    Research Global Issues paper
    Incorrect: "These kids need to be living and playing and being kids and not worrying about their immune systems shutting down at anytime or becoming infected with AIDS because they've HIV for more than five years old."
    Correct: "These kids need to be living and playing and being kids and not worrying about their immune systems shutting down at anytime or becoming infected with AIDS because they've had HIV for more than five years."

WrAP-Up Part one 4.27.12

Lauren Scott
Dr.deGravelles
English I {block 4}
April 27, 2012
Year-Long Process Writing Reflection Drafting
“Writing WrAP Up”
  As incoming freshman in high school and a very prominent English student throughout past years I learned so much this year in my English I class and grown as a writer in so many ways. I have never been so challenged in my writing until this year’s English class. This year I wrote a literacy narrative, profiling, literary analysis, and a research {global issues} paper. Our class was also assigned in the beginning of the year writer’s notebook entries but starting in January of 2012 we started blogs to replace our writer’s notebook entries. There has always been consistent writing assignments throughout the year giving us many opportunities to grow as writers and transition from middle school writing to high school writing.
  I was content and surprised at my WrAP total score of 23 and scale score of 1159. I thought that I had done a lot worse than I actually did. My weakest points of my WrAP writing were sentence structure and mechanics.  While my strongest point of my WrAP writing were overall development, organization, support, and word choice. I feel that my WrAP writing truly portrays my weakest points in all of my main writing such as papers but also my smaller writing such as blog posts. During the WrAP I tried to use some of the techniques that I have been taught in class like thinking and reading like a writer by having perspectives on my writing to help broadening the abilities to write on the topic I was given.
  Looking back on my papers throughout the year I saw a trend in my grades. My grades got lower as the types and processes of papers we wrote became harder. The first paper I wrote was the literacy narrative essay I missed the main point of writing a literacy narrative. I made the essay more of a profile of my father with a few paragraphs about my literacy narrative. I did poorly with conventions and organization on this essay. “…Does not go beyond the minimum to offer insight into your writing process…” was the critique given by Dr.d that stood out the most to me because all I did was try and get the bare minimum for the essay and it completely shows.
  Where I lacked in the literacy essay I made up for in my profiling paper. The profiling paper is by far best paper I have written this year. I hit the mark on every technique that we have studied for our writings this year. The techniques for writing that we’ve studied this year are organization, ideas, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and conventions. I did very well on this paper because it gave me a chance to show a lot of my strongest technical points like imagery, a profiling subject, and fluency of story line sentences, and emotion in my voice. I also got very positive feedback from Dr.d on this paper saying, “Great drafts Lauren. You have a clear and interesting perspective that pulls us through the paper.”
  The two most challenging papers, for me, were the literacy analysis and research {global issues} papers. A word for the wise never pick Christmas themed short story they’re very hard to analyze and just bad news for a literacy analysis paper. “Lauren, I know this paper had been a struggle for you” was the comment that Dr.d gave me on my l and was the most important because ‘a struggle’ for the literacy analysis paper is the understatement of the century. I had such a terrible time with this paper so after a certain point I just gave up which was careless and childish of me. For the global issues research paper I had an interesting topic and great rough drafts. But when I got to the final draft one of my strongest points of literary techniques, voice, I used an emotional voice rather than a factual and formal voice in my paper. I have been working on the distinction of my voice in papers lately though. I failed to correctly and precisely edit my paper which just carelessness on my part. Even though I struggled the most with these two papers I learned the most and they will help me as a writer.
  As freshman year comes to a close looking back on all of my writing I remembered the process I went through on each paper. I remembered going to see Dr.d at tutorial and sometimes afterschool to make sure my drafts made sense with our literary techniques and the overall goal of the paper. I learned that you must edit your paper as many times as possible before going in for a final draft, always organize and pre-draft because organization is easy points, and if you really don’t know what to do for any of your papers go online and read around and research your paper’s goal and purpose or ask Dr.d! 

Monday, April 23, 2012

Outside Reading 4.23.12

Outside Reading Times~ Biology Textbook-90 minutes Poetry book-30 minutes World History Textbook-30 minutes We Bought a Zoo- 25 minutes

Monday, April 16, 2012

Free Post 4.16.12

Song Analysis: 'Hurts Like Heaven' by Coldplay
  For this free post of analyzing a song of our choice I had a really tough time choosing a song. I went through my iTunes Library for like thirty minutes yesterday listening and looking up lyrics on Google for this assignment! Finally I hit one of my favorite bands, Coldplay, and knew I had to do one of their songs for this assignment. So the Coldplay song I chose was 'Hurts Like Heaven' on their newest album 'Mylo Xyloto'.  I've always seen Coldplay's songs are poetic but it was just like reading a poem with these song lyrics!

  From just looking at the title 'Hurts Like Heaven' I saw a simile which was a positive start to this assignment. Throughout there is enjambment and caesura as I annotated my lyrics {http://www.elyrics.net/read/c/coldplay-lyrics/hurts-like-heaven-lyrics.html}. I saw so much repetition in the song but the repeated words are 'written', 'you', 'control','street' , 'heart', 'heaven', 'weapon', 'cold', & 'mark'. The repeated sayings/lines throughout are 'It's so cold', 'Still I won't let go', 'Oh you use your heart as a weapon', 'And it hurts like heaven', 'Concrete canvas', 'Armed with a spray can soul', 'Yes, I feel [a little bit] nervous', 'How come they're out', & 'Let [them] take control'. I notice alliteration of the letters C & B. In one stanza the alliteration of the letter C is throughout, 'So on concrete canvas under cover of dark Concrete canvas I'll go making my mark Armed with a spray can soul I'll be armed with a spray can soul'. While only in a line I saw the alliteration of the letter B, 'Fire from the belly and the beat from heart'. All of these repeated lines and words bring emphasis towards the rebellion of the song.

  While reading the lyrics and listening to the song I got two different images but I still got imagery at the same places for both. Imagery in the song are 'Written in graffiti on the bridge in a park 'Do you ever get the feeling that you're missing the mark?', 'Written in marker on a factory 'I struggle with the feeling that my life isn't mine', 'See the arrow that they shot trying to tear us apart', & 'On every street, every car, every surface are names'. After reading and listening to the song many times I notice rhymes, which should of been the first & easiest things for me to find! The rhymes I found we always end rhymes, because they were at the end of the lines making a rhyme. The rhyming lines are 'Written in graffiti on a bridge in the park 'Do you ever get the feeling that you're missing the mark?', 'Written up in marker on a factory sign 'I struggle with the feeling that my life isn't mine', 'Oh you, use your heart as a weapon And it hurts like heaven', 'See the arrow that they shot, trying to tear us apart Fire from my belly and the beat from my heart',  'On every street, every car, every surface are names And at the streets arise, I'll be rather insane', 'So on concrete canvas under cover of dark Concrete canvas, I'll go making my mark'. One small thing I noticed were that there were the occasional opposites put next to each other! Examples of these opposites are 'It's so cold, It's so cold See the arrow that they shot, trying to tear us apart Fire from my belly and the beat from my heart' & 'Yes, I feel a little bit nervous Yes, I feel nervous and I cannot relax'. Both the rhymes and opposites were kind of ironic in the song.

Lastly I noticed that when I read the lyrics out loud them seemed to mean differently to myself than whenever I listen to Coldplay perform the lyrics which I thought was odd. There are a lot of important tone changes and diction in the song that make certain lyrics more important than others. There are a lot of sounds and important guitar bridges which I think add the drama of this rebellious love song. Whenever I heard Coldplay songs I knew the words but after looking at this song I've found that they have a lot more meaning than just a catchy beat which makes me love Coldplay even more!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Reader's Response 4.15.12

We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee
  Over spring break I conquered over half of my large free reading book, We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee. I know y'aal are probably thinking that I must be a terrible reader because it's taking me so long to finish this book.  But the reason it's taking me so long is because in Mee's writing he goes into an unnecessary amount of detail and honestly I get a little bored. While I read I just want him to tell me about the crazy adventures of the zoo he's purchased but so far not many crazy stories have come along.. Which is a little disappointing. I read about six chapters this week and Mee spoke about more of his family troubles. Except not with his ill wife, with his immediate family and their inheritance crisis. 

  Mee now has to worry about his children in this new environment because it's not in shape for children to be running around and playing about! But also because his brother has gone M.I.A and will not return any of the family's phone calls or visits to his house. I feel so bad for Benjamin because his mother just died after she moved in to his new house on the zoo with his family and his brother is ignoring him. He has no time to worry about the zoo right now because he's so stressed with all the bills that he can't pay without his share of the family inheritance. But I truly love how his children always find ways to cheer him up by making him pancakes or leaving him notes around the house. It makes me want to see where this book goes! Even though it's been in a slow spot for awhile I am not giving up on this book!

Reading Times~
5.9.12- 35 minutes
5.10.12- 30 minutes
5.12.12- 60 minutes
5.13.12- 20 minutes 

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Reader's Response 4.1.12

We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee
This is my third week reading We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee. I'm trying to not get bored with this book but it's hard when all Benjamin talks about are money, bills, and debts. But I have been noticing how formally his writing is. The book is so much more different than the book because the children react to the family moving to the zoo.
Mee's little girl isn't as cute as in the movie but of course that's how Hollywood made her in the movie. I'm sure she was adorable in real life but Mee didn't convey that in the book so far. But his son is very witty in the book as he was in the movie. Mee isn't saying a lot about his kids personally unlike how they did in the movie. I still so mad that I saw the movie before reading the book because the movie is making me not like the book! I going to finish this book though, and hopefully like it more or just as much as the movie!

~Reading Times:
3.26.12-40 minutes
3.27.12-30minutes
3.28.12-32 minutes
3.29.12-40 minutes
3.30.12-10 minutes

Analyzing a Poem 4.1.12

Analyzing "Nikki-Rosa" by Nikki Giovanni

  When I was looking through the poems of section two in our class poetry book I saw that the last poem was by Nikki Giovanni. I really loved whenever Ms.Giovanni came and spoke to our school a couple months ago so I though it would be cool to actually read some of her work that she is so well known for. The poem I read is called "Nikki-Rosa" and since our section is of Childhood memories I predicted that the title was about Nikki's childhood nickname & experiences from her past.


  The very first thing I noticed when glancing at the poem I noticed that there were no uppercase letters. But then I looked closely and noticed that only the words 'Black', 'Woodlawn', 'Chicago', 'Christmas', & 'Hollydale' were in uppercase letters out of the entire poem. Giovanni used a few literary techniques in this poem such as enjambment, tone, rep and some consonance.

  An example of enjambment  is"childhood remembrances are always a drag   if you're Black". But the entire poem is filled with enjambment from each and every line. An example of consonance is "...you always remember things like living in Woodlawn   with no inside toilet   and if you become famous or something..." I saw a consonance pattern of -ing within those three lines. I also noticed that Giovanni's tone transitions from just a story of memories into defense of the memories. 

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Reader's Response 3.25.12

We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee
I'm back on to We Bought a Zoo! The story is really starting to unfold. Ben and his kids had passed up the opportunity for the zoo. But Ben explains about how he sees it, buying the zoo, as a once in a life time opportunity. So the family goes back and takes a tour of the zoo. The way Mee uses sensory words to describe each and every step he took at the zoo, it makes you feel like you were on the tour with him.
The book is starting to connect a lot more with the movie now that they family is becoming intertwined with the zoo. I'm still really excited that the Mee's bought the zoo!! But I also get really anxious whenever I read this book because Mee always speaks about how he has to keep with drawing money to keep up with the zoo. I'm really loving this book so far though!

~Reading Times:
3.19.12-40 minutes
3.20.12-40 minutes
3.21.12-10 minutes
3.22.12-40 minutes

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Free Post 3.24.12

The Sound of Music
  For the spring musical this year our drama director and choir director chose 'The Sound of Music'. I was in soccer during auditions for principle characters so I didn't go to the auditions. Which I now regret but I was also a little chicken about auditioning. But I knew I was going to be in the play for choir but I never knew what the choir was going to be cast as. I have always loved the story of 'The Sound of Music' so I knew I'd be happy with whatever part we were cast as.
  About two weeks ago in choir we were told that only the girls were going to be nuns for two scenes of the play. In these two scenes we would sing 'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" and "Climb Every Mountain". We got sheet music for "Climb Every Mountain" but about one three girls knew the lyrics to "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" We practiced "Climb Every Mountain" for days until we mastered it. This previous Monday we started going to play rehearsals up until opening night. Opening night went amazing!!

  I think that the best night was the second night , Thursday, because I had so much fun on and off stage. I made a new friend, Mae Mae M, by being in this play! Mae Mae and I are really weird when we're together so on the second night we thought everything and anything was the funniest thing in the world. On stage Mae Mae and I could not keep it together because we were laughing to hard. The second I stepped out on stage I saw all of my friends and their families in the audience and Mae Mae did too because we starting laughing so hard, we tried to cover it and keep singing but it just did not work out. We were only laughing during our first scene so we had to get ourselves together for the second one but that did not work out so well either. 

  The third night was a great ending to a great play! But not as fun as the second night. I love everyone I got to work with for this show and I loved being in the presence of such talent at my school! I hope everyone got to see it and if you didn't.. you missed out big time. 

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Free Post 3.17.12

TAYLOR'S GOLD BIRTHDAY SURPRISE!
  So this year one of my close friend's, Taylor, was having her golden birthday this year on March fifteenth! For those of you who don't know what a golden birthday is...your golden birthday is when your birthday date is the same number of the age you're turning. It's also something that only happens once in your entire life! My golden birthday is when I turn twenty five because my birthday is on November twenty fifth. Taylor's mom sent out invitations for the party about two weeks ago and it said in huge type, "SHH...IT'S A SURPRISE!" I got so excited because I knew it was going to be a great party but on top of it all it was a surprise party! For two weeks whenever anyone was around Taylor had to keep this huge secret. Trust me it was so hard to keep this a secret but I think we were pretty successful! A lot of us accidentally dropped hints on the day of the party at school but Taylor didn't really think anything of it.
  My friend Peyton invited eleven of us{the eleven being Sissy, Erin, Charlotte, Julia, Trinity, Caroline, Sara Alice, LeLe, Katie, Melissa, and myself}over to her house to hang out, get ready, and go to Taylor's party. After school on Friday Erin came home with me so that we could ride together to Peyton's house. Erin & I got to Peyton's around 4:30 and Melissa was already there because she and Peyton live in the same neighborhood. Not soon after us, our LeLe arrived, then Trinity, and the girls just kept on coming! We all hung out for an hour or so but we knew it would take us awhile to get ready so we decided to get ready around 6. We plugged in Trinity's iPhone into Peyton's iHome and blared our music while we did our hair, makeup, and showed each other our outfits for the night. We had to make a rule to not put on pictures on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else Taylor could see that we were all together and not ruin the surprise! 
  We all split up into two cars and headed over to CCL's clubhouse. Our whole grade was invited to the party along with some CHS boys & UHS girls & boys. We got to the party and there were already people there and ready to party! Everyone was handed a virgin pina colada in a neon pink cup that said, 'Taylor's GOLDEN birthday' with a crown behind the text. They were so yummy! The dance floor was decorated with beautiful huge pink and blue lanterns and cool red & green lights. At around 8:20 the DJ's got a message saying that Taylor was in the parking lot so we all had to crouch down on the dance floor and wait for her. Some people were late so they had to distract Taylor, sneak them in, get them on the dance floor, and then bring Taylor in.     We all heard Taylor come in and we wanted to laugh but we couldn't ruin the surprise we had worked so hard to keep! Taylor walked into the room and everyone popped up and screamed, "SURPRISE!!" Taylor was in shock and the surprise party was a success!!
  Everyone hung out with people they didn't know and old friends. There were so many pictures being taken that night with flash I could hardly see. I had so much fun dancing with all my friends and helping Taylor celebrate her birthday. It was a great night with great friends, great food, a great party, and a great golden birthday! Love you Tay and I hope you had fun at your party!!   

Reader's Response 3.17.12

It's Not Summer Without You  by Jenny Han
  Since I wrote my last reader's response blog I had just started It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han. I just finished the book and I an even more impressed with the second book than the first! Jenny Han really knows how to write so that you want to just read more and more and more. I really sad that this series is only a trilogy but I'm sure Han has written more books. Yaal can bet that I will be reading those! 
 
  If you haven't read my past reading responses on Han's books, I highly recommend these to girls. Her books are filled with drama, love, and fun. I am about to start back into We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee. I really excited to read this book and let yaal know about it!

~Reading Times~
3.12.12- 30 minutes
3.13.12-25 minutes
3.14.12-35 minutes
3.15.12-30 minutes
3.16.12-10 minutes
3.17.12-28 minutes

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Reader's Response 3.11.12

The Final Three Chapters of Nervous Conditions by Tsisi Dangaramba
~this blog was written last week but I am publishing it today for points~
So the past three weeks we read the final chapters of our in-class novel, Nervous Conditions. When I first started the book I was excited but unfortunately my excitement ran a muck and was soon lost. I do hate to say this but over all this book was not enjoyable for me. The only thing I liked is that the book quickly turned into a hunt to find all of the themes, motifs, sentence structures, important paragraphs, and literary elements. But what I really loved was our class discussions and getting to comment on blogs with my interpretation of the questions.
I have such mixed emotions about the last three chapters we read! Chapter eight I really enjoyed but chapters nine and ten I had mixed feelings about. I felt from the beginning of the book that Dangaramba was going to start the book of sad and end it sad as well. But I was truly disappointed with the way Dangaramba ended it. But I loved the themes that Dangaramba really conveys in the last three chapters but the throughout the novel as  well. Over-all what did yaal think over NC?
Reading Time:
3.2.12-155 minutes

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Free Post 3.10.12

My 'Four' Day Weekend
  This week was really eventful but mostly because we got a four day weekend! I kept telling my mom that we didn't have school on Friday and she never believed me! So on Thursday afternoon I got out at 2:15 to go to Denham Springs tennis courts to play Live Oak high school. I was partnered with Sara Alice W. and this was her first match ever! She was really nervous so I tried to keep her chill throughout the match. Sara Alice caught on to what to do well into the first set but we lost it 6-2, not bad. During our break between sets we got to talk to our parents, coach(es), & one-on-ones with our partners. In our break I told Sara Alice, "We still have a chance to bring this back and win it so let's just focus and get our heads in the game!" We headed into the second set but it was not looking good thirty minutes in and it was 4-1. I told Sara Alice what my mom tells her partners when they're losing in a match, "We may not win this, but don't make it easy for them to win it. Make 'em work for it!" That's exactly what we did! Sara Alice and I were making our partners run around the court but we never caught up to them. We lost the second set 6-1 but Sara Alice did great for her first match and I hope we can play again together.
  After the match I went home took a shower, packed my Ralph Lauren duffle-bag, & I was off to Sara Alice's house. I was excited to go over to her house because her dad just moved there & I'd never been before! I got to Sara Alice's and we hung out for about an hour and a half until Jasmyn C. ,a senior at EHS. Jasymn drove us to Wal-Mart but on our way to the store we stopped in front of Kathleen L.'s house and sent her pictures of ourselves & texted them to her! At the store we bought a game called Just Dance for Sara Alice's XBOX Kinect, the best chips ever, flavor blasted goldfish, three boxes of cake mix, three cans of icing, sprinkles,paper cupcake holders, & two red box movies. On our way back from the store we stoped at Kathleen's house so she could follow us back to Sara Alice's house to hang out. When we got home Mr. Robert, Sara Alice's dad, had made his notorious 'Dobby pizza'. So delicious! We played Just Dance and Jasymn won every single time we had dance battles. Then we watched 'SCREAM4' until 11:45 when Kathleen had to go home. After Kathleen left I felt like I was going to pass out so I set up a place to sleep on the floor and crashed! I woke up at two am and Jasmyn was gone while Sara Alice was passed out on the couch. Sara and I both got woken up at 6 am because we forgot to turn our school alarms off on our phones! We fell back asleep until 10 am when we got up Jasmyn had been up for almost two hours and so she took us out to get breakfast but everywhere was closed! So we went to YogurtLand for breakfast & then went to Aero to get Sara some rainboots! Jasymn drove us home and then my mom came & picked me up.
  I went home with my mom and started on some homework but remembered that I promised Erin we'd hang out on our Friday off! Erin & I picked the movie 'The Lorax'  for 6:30 in 3D at Perkin's Rowe. Erin & I were the only people above the age of ten that weren't there for their children to see the movie. I was really excited to see this movie because The Lorax by Dr. Seuss was & still is my favorite children's book. Erin only really wanted to see the movie because Taylor Swift was in it & Erin is beyond in love with her!! Erin specifically was craving Red Mango frozen yogurt like crazy so we went after the movie! My dad picked me up and we walked around Barnes & Noble for about 15 minutes. I ran into one of my friends from SJA & some random guy that worked at Barnes & Noble popped up out of no where & said, "I know what you did..." It was so funny it made my night! I left Perkin's Rowe, went home, & passed out again.
  This morning I was woken up at 8:30am but of course I fell back asleep but only until 9am! I got up and hung around while my parents were out at Sam's Club. They came home with tons and tons of food! It was amazing since we haven't had that much food in the house in awhile. I hung around all day today watched some Netflix, some pintrest goodies, washed my carpet,went to Albertson's with my mom, & YogurtLand with my friend Megan E so she could have a study break! Tomorrow, Sunday, I'll start all my homework which I am not looking forward too. Hope everyone had a great four day weekend like I have! 

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Reader's Response 3.10.12

It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han
My last reader's response blog was about The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han and  completely LOVED IT! Now I am on to the sequel It's Not Summer Without You and I am of course loving it! I can't really give yaal a summery of this one because it would totally defeat the point of reading TSITP. But this novel is about Belly Cocklin and her amazing adventures with the Fisher boys, and growing up. I'm not finished with the book yet but I have only two or three chapters left.

Since I am unable to give you a summary I'll give you a feel for Han's writting. Jenny Han makes me feel like I'm Belly Cocklin. Whenever describing something Jenny uses amazing sensory details to make me feel like I'm swimming in the pool or crying under my quilt at home. She also does something amazing in INSWY she gives chapters from other people's point of view besides Belly! I LOVE that about this book so far! She's been giving the point of view from Jeremiah not only with situations from the past book and new situation flashbacks that Han has been bringing in. I really hope yaal read this trilogy!

3.10.12- 60 minutes
3.11.12- 85 minutes

Free Post 3.4.12

Tennis
  Now that I look back on my life from the time I was little to now the game of tennis has always consistently been apart of it. My mom, MJ, played tennis in high school and then went to college, got a job, and just had no time for it. After I was born MJ decided to join a night team at our pool club of the time and take lesson with a tennis pro as well. She always tells me when I lose a high school match or lose a match I play against her that whenever she first started back up again after my birth that she was losing straight sets. She couldn't even win one point! But now fifteen years later she's on three teams and has practice three times a week and once on the weekend. She really has inspired me to do well in this sport because it's always been something she's want me to get into, but I never really had until just recently.
  When I was in fourth grade I was playing competitive soccer which was practice three times a week, games every Saturday morning at eight, and almost every other weekend was a tournament in a random city in North Louisiana. I truly had a love hate relationship with soccer and seriously considered quitting so my mom asked me if I'd like to try tennis, so I gave it a shot. I could not do it with soccer going on at the same time, it was physically impossible. I was so exhausted I couldn't do my homework and I'd either be late to soccer or late to tennis and either way my coaches would punish me. I decided I had to pick one and picked soccer. I don't regret picking soccer but in a way I do because I was really good and on the best team in the state ,which it still is today, but I couldn't give up soccer for something I wasn't so completely ready to dive head into. I regret giving it up because two and a half years later I quit soccer which I will always regret. I moved on to cheerleading then ballet then soccer again at school for the next two years. 
  But in between my mixture of activities where I kept trying to choose my mom and I had decided at the end of 2011 school year that I would play tennis for EHS. I spent my whole summer out on tennis courts twice a week, every week at nine am with the St.Michael's tennis team. I was awful compared all of the St.Michael's kids that have been playing since they could hold a racket! I would cry in the car because I was so hard on myself for not being as good as them. Which now that I look back on it was a waste of tears because for just getting back into a sport I never really got that into I was giving myself no credit. By the end of the summer camp I was keeping up with the St.Michael kids. I was better, not good enough but better. After the summer I didn't really play that much tennis besides a few lessons with my pro Johnny here and there until off-season came at school. Off-season really helped me get some more experience with playing people that were on my level of tennis technique unlike at the St.Michael's camp where I was easily going to get beat without a doubt in anyone's mind.
Summer time tennis <3 can't wait
  Tennis has slowly but surely crept it's way back into my life and I am loving it. I really wouldn't mind going to college for tennis even though I would have to work so hard to get there, if I tried hard enough I know I could. I've always done sports that my parents have supported but but my mom has never wanted anything more than to see me play and successfully play tennis.  I now play doubles on the EHS Gold team with Victoria H. I'm actually pretty good and my mom and Johnny are so proud of me. My goal for next year is to successfully play singles for gold or blue team! I hope to be as good as my really close friend and tennis sister, Megan E. I used to dread going to soccer, dance, cheer, and even tennis (during the summer) but now I can't wait to get out on the courts any chance I get. I think about tennis when I wake up and when I got to sleep, I look up pictures of tennis players, I think about tennis matches during classes (except for Dr.D's of course!), I think about what kind of points I can make during practice that afternoon and who'll be my partner for Queen of the Court, and I watch ancient matches on YouTube just to see amazing rallies and points by the textbook greats. I haven't felt like this about a sport in a while and I'm loving it. 

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Reader's Response 2.22.12

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
  Even though I am in the beginning of We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee, I found the novel The Summer I Turned Pretty on my NOOK App and decided to read it over Mardi Gras break. I had always seen the book by Jenny Han in Barnes and Noble every time I went but never gave it a chance until I was online and saw it had such great reviews by girls my age. Over Christmas break I got a lot of money to buy books for my NOOK tablet and The Summer I Turned Pretty was one of many purchases! The novel is the first in its trilogy called 'Summer'.

  TSITP {The Summer I Turned Pretty} is about Belly Cocklin and how her life revolves around her summers at the Fisher's beach house at Cousin's beach and how her life evolves from a young girl into a beautiful young woman. The story is told with flashbacks which I love about it. The flashbacks give explanations for the way {Isabel} Belly Cocklin, Conrad Fisher , Jeremiah Fisher, Steven Cocklin, Taylor Jewel, Susannah {Beck} Fisher, Laurel Cocklin, Mr. Fisher, & Mr. Cocklin act when it comes back to the present. Belly loves Beck like she is her own mother and Conrad and Jeremiah as her own brothers. But Belly has been in love with Conrad since the day she met him. But Conrad is hard and hidden and has never shown any of the same feeling towards 'baby Belly'. Belly has a true shock of real life when her summer ends {no I will NOT tell you!! ;) }

  I highly recommend this book to girls! Sorry guys but you boys would most likely not enjoy this book. I loved this book because I could relate to some of things that Belly went through or said in the book. TSITP is a love story as well as a tear jerking drama. The way I described the book to my mom and grandmother was like a teenage Nicholas Sparks novel. I hope reading this will make you guys want to read the book and tell me how you like it or dislike it.

Reading Times:
2.20.12- 2 hours and 37 minutes
2.21.12- 3 hours and 10 minutes
~over all 5 hours and 47 minutes~ awhh yyeeah!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Free Post 2.14.12

Gold Team Tennis Adventures
~this free write was written for the assignment due on February 27th but written on February 14th~
   This year I joined the EHS tennis team. I played tennis when I was younger and was very good but I stopped and pretty much lost all of my technical skills on the court. I've been very good about going to practices and after school meetings to make sure I would be chose to get playing time! I am on the EHS gold team which is like a JV team because we are not as amazing as the blue team is. 

   Today during advisory Coach Stevens, who is the gold team tennis coach, asked me who I wanted to play doubles with and I requested to play with Victoria H. He said that Victoria and I would be playing first court doubles which is a pretty big deal! It made me super nervous because of the responsibility that comes along with first court playing but excited to play my very first high school league tennis match. 

   I had played doubles with Victoria before during off-season tennis and at our practices but it's always different in a game regardless of the sport. Gold team's opponents for the afternoon was Runnels High School. I used to go to Runnels since I was two years old and left after seventh grade so I knew everyone one their team which was a little awkward. But Victoria and I got out on the court and lost our first set 6-2. We got our heads in the game before the second set and said, "C'mon let's do this. We know we can." We went out and won the second set 7-5! We were so pumped up and Coach Stevens was really excited for us. Our coaches decided that we play at 10 point tie breaker. Victoria and I worked hard but lost the tie breaker 10-6 in the end. We did an amazing job for our first doubles match of the season and put up a hard fight!

   I was disappointed because of our loss after the game. But my mom and Coach Stevens said that we fought how first court players fight which really cheered me up. After tennis Micheal H. and Victoria were coming with my mom and I to get some food before we had to go to our choir rehearsal for six o'clock. I went to go get all my backpack and books I went into the pocket of my backpack where I put my phone before I went on to play and it wasn't there. I looked to my right and I saw two quarters on the ground beside me which caught my attention because for two weeks I've had four quarters in the pocket of my backpack where my phone is kept. I checked pocket again. Still no phone and only two quarters lying in the bottom of the pocket. "Someone took my phone" was my immediate reaction. But my mom, Michael, and Victoria helped me dump out all my bags, check the locker room, ask the front desk, look on courts but still no phone. Once I was completely 110% positive my phone was stolen my dad called AT&T and had it deactivated.

   We got into the car and sat in traffic. My mind was racing of the thoughts, "is there anyone who could of possibly of accidentally picked up my phone? Did I leave it at school? Is it in Michael's moms' car?" Michael and Victoria were in the backseat of my mom's car thinking of everyone and anyone who could of seen or have my phone. No one had it or had seen it. It took us twenty five minutes to get from the tennis courts to Cane's which with out traffic is less and five minutes of driving. All the traffic made me stressed that we would be late to rehearsal which Mr.Hubbard specifically told us not to be late to. We went to rehearsal and everything went well.

When I got home from choir I was crying when I had to change my passwords for everything I had on my phone because I didn't have a pass code on it. I still don't have my phone which is upsetting. I'll miss my very first iPhone. :( I worked so hard to pay for that phone myself. But what really makes me mad is that is could of been anyone of my teammates who got their iPhone stolen but it just so happened to be mine {just my luck, huh?} Hope y'all all had a better day than I did because today is going down as one of my worst days in the history of ever.

These were the Valentines Day adventures of the EHS Gold tennis team and a total Lauren move.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Nervous Conditions

Nervous Conditions 
  In English class we have been reading Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. We now have read three chapters of the novel and it's very intense. I really understand this book which makes reading it ten times better. Plus I love annotating books :). Chapter two was very confusing for me. I think it has been the most challenging chapter for me in this book so far because of all the flashbacks that Tambu has within it. 

  In chapter three so much happens! I got really confused but not as confused as I was in chapter two. I was really relieved to find out how Nhamo died but that doesn't make any make up for how much I dislike him. I find that one of the main themes it equality for women which breaks my heart. Jeremiah and Nhamo should be completely ashamed of themselves, in today's society. But my classmates and I found that they aren't ashamed of themselves because the way the behave is how they were pretty much expected to act by their society. I can't wait to see how this book moves on.

Reading Times:
1.9.12- 1 hr and 15 minutes
1.10.12- 1 hr and 20 minutes 

Free Post 2.11.12

EHS vs UHS: Meet Again
   All day at school yesterday I heard murmurs of, "Are you going to the basketball game tonight? It's going to be awesome!" All of my classmates were referring to the EHS vs UHS girls and boys basketball game at seven  o'clock Friday night. I haven't gone to a basketball game all this season of boys and girls. I decided to give myself a break for once this weekend and go to the game! I was super excited to go because it was also was a camouflage themed game, senior night, and something called a 'Silent Night' game. A 'Silent Night' game is where all the fans make a lot of noise while the teams are warming up but once the clock starts for the game, but make no noise until their team scores ten points. Also the cheerleaders cheered but without sound. The fans only did 'Silent Night' for the boys game though.

   I got to EHS boys gym at around six fourty five with my two friends Megan E. and Natalie R. When we all walked into the gym the girls were playing and the fans section was pretty packed already with camouflage! It was freezing outside but super hot in the fan section! The girls game was such a great game. It was very intense and filled with great shots for both teams. Fans had giant head posters of two of the Varsity girls playing, it was so funny! The final score of the girls game was 43-42! EHS GIRLS WON! Every fan that was crammed into our tiny section stormed the court screaming, "EHS! EHS! EHS! EHS!" Then all simultaneously stormed the fan section to get their spots back for the main event, the boys game. 

   Sweating and filled with excitement from the girl's win we all started yelling for our beginning of the 'Silent Night' game while the boys were warming up. The boys finished warming up, set up their starting line up for the game and head out for tip-off. The clock started and the seniors started 'shh-ing' all the fans. It was really exciting but very hard for me to be quiet because as we all know...I love talking. A lot. It didn't take very long for our boys to score ten points and we went WILD!! It was so fun that we got to ten points and we could talk again! The boys game was so super intense and EHS would be down and then ahead and then down and head! It was even more intense than the girls game. The final score of the boys game was 45-41. EHS BEAT  UHS AGAIN! The whole fan section ran out onto the court screaming even harder and even louder "EHS! U-HIGH U-CRIGH!" I had so much fun and I am so proud to be a knight! 

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Reader's Response 1.4.12


Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

  Last week in English class we were given the novel Nervous Conditions by Tistsi Dangarembga. Whenever Dr.d told us about this book I was a little excited because it was something new that we were doing but I knew it would be a lot of work. I was really afraid that this book was going to be an allegory novel. Whenever we work on allegories I get really stressed out by all of the themes and motifs that go along with all of the work.

 I read the introduction and first chapter of Nervous Conditions last Thursday. I found that the first chapater of the story was a little too much information. Dangarembga introduces almost every character in the first chapter along with a lot of unknown African words which was very confusing. I really enjoyed the introduction but not as much as the first chapter. I'm trying to stay positive with this book even though it's just another thing on my list of things to do in. I really do have high hopes for the plot and the way Dr.d plans on teaching it to us though.

Reading Times:
1.2.12- 95 minutes; Nervous Conditions
1.5.12-55 minutes; Research and note cards for Global Issues Analysis 

Friday, February 3, 2012

Free Post 2.3.12

School and Stress.
      "Work hard because at the end of your high school career it will all that work will be worth it.",one of the school college counselors told my class about sophomore year scheduling. Personally I'm really excited for senior year, graduation, and going to college. But I can't just jump to senior year graduation and getting college acceptance letters. I have to work hard in my first three years of high school and make it count. That statement is completely easier said than actually done. 

       I knew going into EHS that it is very well known as a great high school but a lot of work and it is. I have been so stressed out lately to the point where I just do what I have to do, get it done, and go to sleep Which makes me either go to sleep at 10 PM or 1 AM depending on the day. This really stresses me out even more because I love being over prepared for all of my classes, but that hasn't really been happening lately. Also it stresses me out because I am so mean without sleep so I have been living off of cups of coffee to keep me nice. I get home by almost four o'clock and I goof off for about thirty minutes or so and then I begin my work which takes me between 3-8 hours depending on what I have that night. 

      I know that 2-8 hours is a wide range of time and a little ridiculous but I'm not lying when I tell you that. What surprises me is that I'm not in any honors classes and it takes me this long to do homework and study. I hate that one some weekends, including this one, I will be doing homework Friday-Sunday because there is just so much work. Doing all this work just completely stresses me out because I have to miss out on social events sometimes which isn't fair to me as a kid! But my sophomore friend Elizabeth H. showed me that is so true and completely relates to my situation!

     But I have been trying to manage my stress lately by going to the library at any break I get to do my required homework that's due the next day. So when I get home I can get prepared for my classes the next day or work ahead. At first I was embarrassed to do this but now I just worry about myself and thing of this picture and what our advisers keep telling us!


Sunday, January 29, 2012

Writer's Response 1.29.11

Global Issues Project
Over the past two weeks I've been working on this Global Issues project in World History and English class. My initial thought for this project was, "I have to do something HIV/AIDS." I bet you're wondering why I said that I just had to this project on HIV/AIDS. Well ever since I saw the rock opera 'Rent' by Jonathan Larson I have been very passionate about the disease. But I was really disappointed when Mrs.Andermann said I couldn't focus in on the AIDS epidemic in New York in the 1980's. But I moved on to the disease's believed birth place, Sub-Saharan Africa.
African Children with their faces painted for World AIDS Day {December 1}

My research question is, "What is life like for a child living with HIV/AIDS and a child affected by HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa?" Essentially I'm researching two sides of the story. One side being a child infected with HIV/AIDS with the other side being a child living with the effects caused by HIV/AIDS. When I first started researching I was really interested but then I got lost within all of these facts and statistic and it was frustrating. I made my research question what it is because everything I kept finding was boring and things everyone already knew about my topic. But what I always wondered about was 'how do those child live? What keeps them going in life?' because if I were them I would feel hopeless and lost. That's what I'm finding out for my audience! The hardest parts of this project so far were making the detailed outline and STAYING on task.


Time: {sorry I put it off until Sunday Dr.d!}
Sunday: 150 minutes; went through new sources,read new sources, cited new sources,paraphrased new sources, wrote detailed outline, my outline then deleted itself so I had to rewrite my detailed outline. 

Free Post 1.29.12

EHS vs. UHS
On Friday night my friend Megan and I went to the boys varsity EHS vs UHS soccer game. I was really pumped for this game because of the rivalry between EHS and  UHS. When Megan and I got there it was about 10 minutes in and still 0-0.  The EHS and UHS boys took some great shots on the goals but the goalies kept getting the balls! All of the boys were so frustrated and when the game ended it was still 0-0 so they went into two 10 minute golden goals. After the two rounds 10 minute golden goals it went to PK's, where five players on each team gets to take a shot on the goal with the opponents' goalie. EHS made one of their PK's and UHS made three of their PK's. The boys lost their game and the were heartbroken. The boys loss made the girls get even more pumped up for our game the next day!

On Saturday morning I got to school at around 12:30pm and found varsity warming up on the field. I volunteered to be ball-girl for varsity's game. All of the varsity players had told me before the game, "Lauren be as quick as you can and if we yell at you do not take it personally we'll just be stressed out during this game because it is so important!" The girls were right they were so stressed during the game because this game was very important for district. So many fans came out with horns and bells and signs to support our team and it was amazing! The game ended 3-3 so the ref's decided to do only one round of 10 minute golden goals. During the 10 minutes neither team scored, so they went to PK's. EHS made three of their PK's and UHS only made two. The score board read, "HOME: 7 GUEST:5" EHS girls won the game by one PK so the final score was 4-3!! I am so proud to of been apart of that game even though I was only a ball girl! After that game I played in the JV game were we won against UHS 1-0. I love my varsity and JV girls and the sport of soccer. And as my teammates and I would all say...
                             #EHSWINNING
                             #EHSSOCCER
                 #NOTECHNICALITIESNEEDED                           

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Reader's Response 1.22.12

We  Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee
        Over Christmas I got over $100.000 in Barnes and Noble's gift cards from friends and family. I bought over 10 books with my Christmas money including, We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee. I saw the movie before the book which I now regret doing. The book is about a father, Benjamin, who loses his wife to a brain tumor while living in the country-side of France. Benjamin's sister sends him a voucher from a real-estate agent selling a zoo in England. After Benjamin's wife dies after battling against her stage four brain tumor he buys the zoo, moving he and his two children's lives forever. 

        So far the first three chapters are pretty slow but I have a feeling the story is about to speed up. Benjamin Mee is a very great author as well as a great husband and father. I still don't understand why his sister would just randomly send him a letter showing him a zoo for sale just because he like animals. I mean most everyone likes animals..but it doesn't mean they want to own a zoo. I really love the way Benjamin tells the story with such personal details. Benjamin and his late wife Katherine had such a beautiful marriage and I loved all of the stories he tells about their exciting times together. I shouldn't of expected the book to be exactly like the movie because so fat it's nothing like the movie! I'm loving it but I also loved the movie which is why I bought the book.

We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee- 1hr 55mins; 75 pages

'The Norton Field Guide to Writing'- 35 mins; 15 pages

Free Post 1.22.12

AP United States History
           "AP United States History is a college course that can be taken sophomore year here at our school.", I remember Mrs. Andermann saying as she passed around the AP petition forms to the people in our class that raised their hand for the piece of paper. Only six people in my class asked for the petition. "This is a highly selective class and it moves at a very fast pace so please don't be disappointed if you do not get in. These petitions are due the last day of exams. Do not forget them or you will regret it!", Mrs. Andermann advised the class. All of her 'advise' was making me really nervous so I wrote my name down on the petition and put it in my World History binder.

        A week later it was 7:50 A.M. in Mrs. Andermann's classroom and my class and I were preparing to take our exam. Mrs. Andermann suddenly reminded us about the petition and I had completely forgotten about it! I asked her if I could bring it to her tomorrow and she said yes. I ended up forgetting about the petition until the last day of exams. On the morning of my last exam I text messaged my mom before school asking to get the petition, sign it, and bring it with her when she comes to pick me up. She did just that and I brought it to Mrs. Andermann.

       Fast forward to January 19, 2012. After soccer I got home and I checked my school email and I had five emails but one really stood out to me. It didn't say who it was from but the subject said, 'AP Petition- US history.' I got really nervous, excited, and anxious so I opened the emailed and it said, "Congratulations! Your petition for AP United States History has been accepted for the 2012-2013 school year.  Thank you, Mrs. Andermann."I was so relived and excited! I told my my mom and dad and they were beaming and congratulating me. I told my two friends who are currently sophomores and both taking AP US History, Megan and Lance, and they both sent me emoji icon's of party balloons and messages saying,"CONGRATS LAUREN!!" I am so excited for AP US History because I have worked very hard for this opportunity and I am so thankful and blessed to be given it.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Free Post 1.16.12

 Wallpapering
        I've lived in my new house for almost a year now and an old lady used to live in it so my family decided that we'd have to do a lot of person work to it. We've gotten all new appliances to the kitchen, had the guest room, living room, entry way, sitting room, dinning room, the extensions' hallway and the solarium painted, my mom and I painted my room, and now my mom and I decided to wall paper my vanity room. My mom said she wallpapered our dinning room in one of our past houses...fifteen years ago. I was pretty worried when we started on Saturday morning but it turns out if you've done it once, you can do it again!

       On Saturday we got a whole wall and two quarters done of two other walls. Which is a lot considering we didn't really know what we were doing. Everything I'm saying may make it seem like wallpapering rooms is easy...it is not at all. Wallpapering is the most frustrating thing I've ever done! On Sunday my mom and I started back to wallpapering and got another wall and a half of another wall. But the paper got too heavy and peeled up while it was drying. Which made me even more frustrated but my mom said we can fix it. I really love my wallpaper but it's really challenging to put up with when applying it! The whole time we were wallpapering I kept saying that schools should teach kids how to paint and wall paper rooms instead of Algebra. Don't y'all think so?



This is the wall we did on Saturday! The wall paper patter is a brown and blue toile.

Reader's Response 1.16.12


    Charmed and Dangerous: The Rise of the Pretty Committee. The Clique Prequel by Lisi Harrison      

     For my outside reading this week I bought a new book on my NOOK tablet. I bought Charmed and Dangerous: The Rise of the Pretty Committee, the Clique Prequel by Lisi Harrison. I loved The Clique series by Lisi Harrison all throughout middle school and I have been awaiting the prequel for so long now! Most of the girls reading this blog probably have read at least the first book in the series because it's very popular.

      The book is all about how 'The Clique' ,aka The Pretty Committee, all met. The Clique is made up of Massie who's the alpha of the group, Alicia, Dylan, Kristen, and Claire who are all betas to Massie. When ever I was reading the series Harrison always made me feel like I was apart of the Clique! Also I had always try to come up with my own ways of how the girls all met but those thoughts were nothing compared to what Harrison wrote in this book! I truly love this book {and the entire series} because no matter what all girls can relate to what the Clique goes through, minus the gorgeous million dollar mansions and designer everything. It was so imaginative and I highly recommend it to all girls still in highschool maybe even college!{Sorry boys! Not really your kind of book..}

Reading Time:
Saturday: 2hr and 30mins. 150pgs.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Free Post 1.7.12


       "Girl, respect yourself." I was scrolling through my dashboard on tumblr.com this morning and saw this quote. It really made an impression on me so I decided to share it. I feel like this quote is not just a 'message for the week' but a message for life. Young girls take themselves for granted now a days as though it's like breathing air. Does anyone no longer remember sock-hops and learning to waltz? A time were there was no iPhone with an app for everything? There where no social networking sites were rumors can spread like wildfire and ruin a person's reputation. I do understand that there were still some girls even back then that didn't respect themselves and there were still gossiping girls spreading rumors like wildfire. But there were always classy girl walking with their heads held high. Which seems as like a rare species of girl in this day and age.
 
     Some people make take offense to this quote and say, "everyone does it" or "seriously..it's no big deal." But I would like to be taken out of those boats and defy our generation. No everyone does not do those thing and in fact yes it is a big deal. Respecting yourself shouldn't be a chore because it should come naturally but unfortunately for many it doesn't. Girls need to think before they act because at the time it sound like the best idea in the world but later on it will never help you in a positive way. So for the reputation of yourself, your school, the people you associate yourself with, your family's name, and your own sanity... girl, respect yourself.