In class writing

I like Lorenzo both as a character and a person because I think he is a good person inside, but he just does not know how to express himself. In the first two chapters, I see him as a hopeless kid, and I want to save him if I can. He is too shy to make frinds and get into the new group. I remember he pretend to be a kid who bullies others in his school because he wants to protect himself away from bullies. In my opinion, he is just scared and worried because he has no friends in school. If I were his schoolmate, I would be friends with him and influence him by using my positive energy. I know that having no friends at school is very tough for everyone, and it also will cause kids getting shier and more short-spoken. Once children start to blocking themselves from others, it will become harder and harder to get them back in the society. I hope that parents can find out as soon as possible and they can help their kids to beat the difficulty. Thus, I like Lorenzo, and I also want to help him out. We should not define anyone by just looking their outside reaction but inside. 

Confidence Is Not Arrogance!

I saw The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at The Black Box Theater, Cheshire Academy. It was a excellent show. Every actor did his or her best job in the show, and I suggest that everone should go and see the play. I like the character Chip and Barfee so much because I learned one most important thing from them. The things is that we should always be confident, and we should never be arrogant. 

We should always trust in ourselves. There is nothing that is impossible; however, people always doubt their abilities before they try to do something. For example, in the show The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the main charecter Barfee believes that he can spell words correctly because of her magic foot, but when Logainne's father spills coke on the floor, Barfee's magic foot doesn't work. He is so nervous and fear; however, he does spell the word correctly without the magic foot. At that moment, I saw that she jumps and yells excitedly and happily. This kind of thing happens not only in the show, but also in the real life. I remember when I was training my leg last night in weight room, I putted 9 plates on the machine, and each of them was 45 pounds. To be honest, I thought it was my limitation, but there was a sound in my head that kept saying a crazy idea "Maybe I can put one more each side". Actually, I did put one more each side, and I can handle it. I was tinking that if I never had that creazy thought, I could never know what I cnpan do. As we can see, we should always believe in ourselves and sometime we should push ourselves to break the limitation. 

We should be confident, but we should never be arrogant. Lots of people become losers, and the reason is not because they don't have their skills. The real reason is because they over think their power, and they think that others have pour skill. In my opinion, the biggest enemy to us is always ourselves. I remember a main character who is called Chip. He was the champion of the last spelling bee, so he too confident to focus on the match. Then, he fall asleep during the game, and suddenly Vice-Principal calls him up to spell the word. However, he has erection, so he asks if he can escape this round. Vice-Principal says that Chip has to spell the word. Tittup is the word that Chip has to spell; however he spells "t i t u p" which is not correct because of a missing T. I am so sure that Chip knows how to spell that word, but his arrogance beats himself up. When I was in primary school, everytime my mom always asked about my test, and my answer was always good or great; however the truth was that I never did well on my test when I said that I did very well. The reason was that I would be less careful, if I knew how solve question. Thus, we should always be confident, and we also need to try our best in even every little thing, because details make things perfect. 

As we all know, Barfee is the champion of the 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee, and Chip was the champion last year. I consider that Chip and Barfee has the same abilities. The reason why Barfee is the champion instead of Chip is that Barfee finds his confidence back and Chip is too arrogant. Finally, there is one thing that we should never forget. It is that we should be confident not arrogant. 

Books

Treasure Island: is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold". First published as a book on 23 May.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas: is a 2006 novel by Irish novelist John Boyne. This book follows a 9-year-old boy named Bruno growing up during World War II in Berlin, Germany.

If I Stay: If I Stay is a young adult novel by Gayle Forman published in 2009. The story follows 17-year-old Mia Hall as she deals with the aftermath of a catastrophic car accident involving her family. In a coma, Mia has an out-of-body experience, and watches as friends and family gather at the hospital where she is being treated.

Paper Towns: is the third young adult novel by John Green, published on October 16, 2008 by Dutton Books. The novel begins in a subdivision called Jefferson Park. The narrator, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen, and his neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman, both young children, go to the park and discover the corpse of Robert Joyner, a divorced man who has committed suicide.

My Abandonment: A thirteen-year-old girl and her father live in Forest Park, the enormous nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. There they inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, bathe in a nearby creek, store perishables at the water’s edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts.

Spelling Bee

I researchered about The 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee on the Internet. It is a long one-act musical comedy conceived by Rebecca Feldman with music and lyrics by William Finm. It is a really famous show, and it had got lots of honors such as six Tony Awards and Grammy Award. It is also be called "Parent-teacher Conferences" and "adult night at the Bee", because at the beginning they only allowed people who is over 16 years old to see the show. In 2007 the translating started at Soul in Korea. In 2008-2009 Non-Equity U.S. National Tour premiered on October 11, 2008 at the Union Colony Civic Center in Greeley, Colorado, with an official opening in Fort Collins, Colorado on October 14. I think it is a great show not only because it is famous, but also becuse acters are working hard. I have been to blak box nearly every day at Cheshire Academy for two weeks, and I saw so many hard working in it. For example, Jack Jack doesn't let any one to touch the number on the ground because he wants to work faster and better. Also, I can see Andrew ran to the black box three times because he did not want to be late for the practice. I saw the painting which Jack Jack did for the show; the painting is amazing. I never see persin like him before. I remember on last Saturday Andrew told me that he had been practicing for 6 hours a day. I never practice a show for 6 hours, however I know how hard to work on one thing for 6 hours. So I suggest everone could go to the show and give them your best applause for their hard working. To be honest, I can wait for the show.

 

Quiz

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Haiku Quiz
1.     How many lines comprise (make up) a haiku poem and how many syllables are in each line? (10 pts)
first line has 5 second line has 7 and last one has 5
2.     What culture does haiku originate from? (5 pts)
Japan.

3.     Choose the best word from the list below to complete the following haiku poems: (15 pts each for correct syllables and good description)

a.     Sweet scented floating

Confetti gentle from heaven
With a rose breeze

Word list: rose, sent, floating, gentle, happily, blossom, nice, smells, outstanding  

b.     Spring buzz winter’s tide
Nature comes quickly alive
Bees, fast hope for brides

Word list: buzz, changes, fast, so, turns, quickly, buzzing, transforming, nature

4.     Write 2 haiku poems about spring. (25 points each) Use at least four of the following words in each (use 8 different words altogether in the two poems): season, bright, sunshine, daffodil, tulip, cool, puddle, umbrella, happily, skip, cloudy, lighthearted, shady, flower buds, green, fields

wake up

Season is coming

The bright sunshine is on face

It's all green outside

Rain

In a cool morning

I run happily on fields

The flower says hi

5.     Name one element that makes a haiku effective or fun to read. (5 pts)

In my opinion, a store makes a haiku fun to read, because it is more fun to tell a story by haiku than normal way. 

Lonely

Lovers annoying me

I like staying in the dorm

I am a loner.

The man

Handsome and clever

Always full of energy

He is John Jiang the man

Winter

I can't walk too far

The longest distance for me

Woodberry to Gym

Confusing 

Syllables are hard

They keep bothering me now.

I am far away 

haiku poems

Yosa Buson

Three examples of the haiku of Yosa Buson from the late 1700s are offered here:

A summer river being crossed

how pleasing

with sandals in my hands!

Light of the moon

Moves west, flowers' shadows

Creep eastward.

In the moonlight,

The color and scent of the wisteria

Seems far away.

Kobayaski Issa

Here are three haiku from Kobayashi Issa, a haiku master poet from the late 1700s and early 1800s:

O snail

Climb Mount Fuji,

But slowly, slowly!

Trusting the Buddha, good and bad,

I bid farewell

To the departing year.

Everything I touch

with tenderness, alas,

pricks like a bramble.

Natsume Soseki

Natsume Soseki lived from 1867 - 1916.  He was a novelist and master of the haiku. Here are a couple of examples of his poems:

Over the wintry

forest, winds howl in  rage

with no leaves to blow.

The crow has flown away:

swaying in the evening sun,

a leafless tree.  

Recent Poems

Following are some recent examples of haiku poems:

In the coolness

of the empty sixth-month sky...

the cuckoo’s cry. - Masaoka Shiki

Whitecaps on the bay:

A broken signboard banging

In the April wind. - Richard Wright

Lily:

out of the water

out of itself - Nick Virgilio

ground squirrel

balancing its tomato

on the garden fence - Don Eulert

As the wind does blow

Across the trees, I see the

Buds blooming in May

I walk across sand

And find myself blistering

In the hot, hot heat

Falling to the ground,

I watch a leaf settle down

In a bed of brown.

It’s cold—and I wait

For someone to shelter me

And take me from here.

I hear crackling

Crunch, of today’s new found day

And know it won’t last

Falling to the ground,

I watch a leaf settle down

In a bed of brown.

A cricket disturbed

the sleeping child; on the porch

a man smoked and smiled.

I'm turning over

look out and give me room there

you cricket, you.