This year in Mr. Fielder’s class I learned a lot. First I learned how to eliminate clutter when you’re writing a piece to make it better. Instead of having stuff like really or a lot, you just get right to the point and say what you want and it makes your piece of writing sound and look a lot better. I think this helped me out a lot with my writing because I was one of those kinds of people who used a lot of clutter, but now that I learned this, I think my writing piece got a lot better. An example is this, I’m going shopping today to find some new and improved clothes that I really like a lot so it will be a lot of fun. That’s what I use to write like, now this is me; I’m going shopping today to fine clothes that I like so it will be fun.
Another thing I learned was to really focus on one part of a story instead of just wondering off and writing something that didn’t make a lot of sense to the paper. I realized how bad my writing was when I came to this class, but now it seems like I can get right to the point in a paper I write instead of just wondering off. An example of this would be the memoirs we wrote on the first day of school. When I first wrote it, it was bad and I just wrote what happened throughout the whole day and didn’t really focus on anything good, I was just telling little bits and pieces that didn’t make a lot of sense. After when I went back and re did it, I just focused in on the morning up to when I first got to school and it helped me write a more clear story and its made you actually want to read it.
I was never really good at writing a thesis, or even really didn’t know what it even was. I learned how to write a good one this semester and it makes my writing a lot better and it makes me feel better about my writing. When I use to write a piece, I never had much of a thesis, I would usually just jump right into what I was talking about and it never made any sense. Also I didn’t know you were supposed to expand off your thesis, but now I do and it makes my work a lot better. An example of this was the Iran paragraphs we had to write. The thesis was, “In this situation with Iranians nuclear weapons, the U.S should just leave the Iranians alone.
When I use to read articles I would just read them because I had to and I never really took the time to actually focus in on what it was about. What really helped me with that was the margin notes that we had to take. I felt like it made me focus on my writing a lot more and take notes on what I was writing about. One major article that the margin notes helped me with was the Introduction to Rwanda. I started reading it, and it didn’t make much sense to me, but as I read and focused and took notes, I started getting it and it helped me out.
The last major thing I have learned was how to use apostrophes and when to use them. Before, I use to just put apostrophes where ever and I didn’t really know for sure if it belonged there or not. I learned how to show ownership like Zaid’s house or if you’re talking about someone and u want to say Joneses but that isn’t a word, so you would put Jones’ instead to make it sound better. It really made me focus on how to use them and it helped out a lot.

If I had the choice to live in one of the countries that we have been talking about, I would want to live in the USA because first of all I would have a lot more freedom than any other country and also, just the atmosphere of the country would be a lot better and I would feel safer.
I would want to live in the USA because you would have a lot more freedom than any other country in the way you live in everything you do. You can’t go around killing anybody though and as long as you follow the laws then you will be granted your freedom. If you would follow the laws than no one would come check up on you for what you’re doing and you will have your privacy. Also it says in the constitution that you will have your freedom.
The USA just seems like an all better country also for many reasons. They can always help people and other countries out that need it. Also the U.S lets you have a say in your government and they let the people pick who they want to lead their country. There not just assigning a dictator and they run the country they want it, they have to follow a certain amount of limits and rules so they can’t take it to an extreme and can’t just kill people if they felt like it how Sadam did in Iraq. You would really feel safer living in the U.S too because they can

Christmas

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s a time when people get presents for other people and when people can get together and see each other. There are many reasons why I like Christmas a lot. First of all, I like seeing the lights decorated on people’s homes. I also like seeing all the snow that comes down and also I like having snowball fights, going sledding, and going snowboarding. It’s also fun having a two week break off of school so there's not a lot I need to worry about and I can do what I never get a lot of and that is sleep a lot more. The best thing I like about it though is that my birthday is five days after Christmas.
The one major thing I am asking for and I really need is a new hockey stick. I’m using a one 55 now and that stick isn’t good at all. If you know anything about hockey sticks, is that you can’t really do a lot with this stick, because one it is pretty heavy and you want to use a light stick when you play, and two it’s pretty hard to use. One more thing I want is an iHome for my iPod.
I usually go to Maine for Christmas but this year I’m not but that’s okay. My mom’s whole side of the family lives in Maine so that’s why we usually go. I usually have a good time when I go there for Christmas but sometimes it can be boring there because I have no cousins my age that live there so I usually do stuff with my uncle. My uncle is the head coach of a team that’s basically in the same league as the Plymouth whalers so it’s fun to go see those games. We usually go to a game on my birthday so it’s like a birthday present for me. Other than that though I like visiting my older cousins who are all mostly in their twenties so it’s fun talking and catching up with them. I usually stay at my grandparents house but sometimes I stay over my uncles so it’s like I’m back and forth between the houses because my uncle lives right down the street from my grandparents so it’s nice being able to go to both houses. I really enjoy seeing my relatives from my moms side.

Rwanda

The Rwandan genocide discussion made me realize a lot more about what really happened between the Tutsis and the Hutus and who actually started it (Belgium!!). I really found out how Belgium came in and basically started the war and then just decided to leave. It’s not right what they did and they’re the big people to blame. I also learned about the Interahamwe and how they killed many people which still isn’t right even if they say that they had to kill which I think is a load of bull. The U.S.A said they didn’t do anything wrong but that’s a lie too because yeah they just stayed out of it but they’re the number one country in power and they’re not going to help anyone? Well that’s wrong because they could have basically ended the war with all the power, but they didn’t so that’s the main thing they did wrong.

I like the way we did this discussion because it helped me learn a lot better about it. I liked this a lot more instead of just taking notes on this and then taking a test because I seem to learn a lot more in an interesting way because I like interacting with what we are doing. I would like this way more often and it would help me a lot more learning about it. There were some things that I didn’t like though like the way some of the information was put out and also how we just got a little jist if each group we didn’t get the whole thing, I think I would have liked learning a little more about each one, like maybe we should have talked about our groups more than just a little introduction. I’ve never done this in a class before so it was a new experience to me so I really enjoyed it a lot. If we could learn it this way all the time I would be a lot more informed about what’s going on because when were having our “debates” in class, I really would like to get involved but I don’t know what to see but this new way I actually knew what I was doing and what was going on. I really would like to do this more often in class.

"The American Scholar"

Emerson's argument in "The American Scholar" about American society still holds true today.

One reason Emerson's argument still holds true today is that people can be good at doing more then one thing and they can like doing more then one thing. In the story The American Scholar, it says this, "That the gods, in the beginning, divided man into men, that he might be more helpful to himself; just as the hand was divided into fingers, the better to answer its end." I believe this because its saying how a man could do more with five fingers instead of just with a hand and how a man could do more then just one thing. I can relate to how Emerson is saying that a man can do more then just one job because my dad was an engineer but when there was something wrong with the house like craftsman job or an electrician's job, my dad could fix it.

Another reason Emerson's argument still holds true today is that just because someone went to college to do one specific career doesn't mean they have to stay with that just one career, if they wanted to they should be able to because we have the capability of doing more then just one thing. I can relate to this because my aunt was a teacher but ended up getting tired of doing the same routine everyday so she ended up quiting her teaching job and went looking for another job. Its like if someone was playing baseball and started getting sick of the sport, then the person should go and try a different sport that they actually like. This relates to this situation because its like the tennis player is man looking for a new job because they're sick of the one they already have.

It’s the time of Halloween again. A time when people can dress up as scary monsters or ghost and go collect candy. It’s a very fun time of the year for me because for one you get all the free candy you want and it’s a time where you can go out and get scared and I like getting scared. Also on Halloween I like to go to haunted houses with people because it’s not scary when you’re with other people and you can enjoy it better.
This Halloween I’m still not sure what I am doing yet but I’ll probably find out tonight. Two classic Halloween movies that I enjoy watching is Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. I also like seeing all the houses decorated with Halloween decorations and seeing it at night all lit up. Another funny thing is seeing all the little kids getting scared running around as they come out of a haunted house. Their faces all filled with tears because of being so scared is not I’m going to say funny but is just another way it puts the mood into Halloween.
One thing almost every kid likes doing is going out on devils night and vandalizing people’s property. Even though I don’t do it, it seems a lot of fun because it’s like you have a big sense of adrenalin pumping through your body and you just want to get out there and do something. It ranges in a variety of stuff like kids could TP peoples house or egg them or anything like that many kids enjoy doing all this stuff.
The only bad thing about Halloween is about all that candy kids eat after they get it. All the kids just eat and eat the candy and then they get cavities and that’s when the dentist love it because they have more and more people that come in and have cavities. Halloween is a very fun holiday for many people and everybody likes it because it’s just a fun holiday for us kids where we can go out and just have loads of fun. Either it’s with family or friends you still have fun either way. One thing I know for sure is that I’m at least going to one haunted house that is right by my house and is actually quite scary for a homemade haunted house. I am going to enjoy it.

Space

My favorite subject in science to talk about is apace. In my eyes I think space is a very fun subject to learn and you can learn a lot of interesting new things about it. The reason I like space so much is because I am pretty good at it and its fun learning about the new planets and how we are sending many rovers out to different planets to learn more about them. It would be pretty fun being an astronomer because you get to study and learn new and interesting things about space and the interesting things that are out there.
One new thing that seems really exciting is how they found water on the moon. If there’s water and then moon then there can be some proof that there was once some life on the moon. It would be very exciting to find life on the other planets not just in our solar system but in the other galaxies there are in space. It would be very new and exciting if some day we can find life on some other planet or if we can actually get out of our galaxy and into another one because we have never even been out of our solar system so if we could get out of our galaxy it would be great news and it would make history.
The thing that I think is really cool is the rings around Saturn. Even though we can’t land anything on the rings of Saturn it would just look really cool seeing rings around a planet. Even though we will never be able to even land anything on Saturn, I think it would be really cool to get out there and see it but the bad things is, it would be way too far and long to go all the way out to Saturn.
If I could live on one planet in our solar system I would pick Venus because it’s always warm there. Even though we can’t really go to Venus because of the dangerous gases and because it way to hot, I would still like to be there if we were able to live on it.
In the long run I hope we are able to land any rovers on a planet that we have never landed on because we, landing a rover on another planet will be history and because it would be very exciting.