32nd Post (DigLitCircs Discussion #6)

Hello again bloggers. We have come to the LAST Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles for Sketches by Eric Walters. This is so sad! I've had so much fun discussing the book Sketches by Eric Walters with my peers as well as peers in Oshawa. I would like to thank Andrianna, Karran, Arianna, Haneen, Sara and Hannah for discussing Sketches by Eric Walters with me. I really had fun with you guys discussing the book, agreeing on one thing, disagreeing on another thing. Some discussions, we had up to thirty comments. We've had some great times during our awesome discussions. I hope you guys enjoyed the book as much as I did! Sara will be posting the question for the last discussion! Click here for Sara's discussion so far! I know that this last discussion is going to be awesome as usual and will end us off with a bang. Thank you for staying tuned to all of the Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles discussion for Sketches by Eric Walters. I highly recommend that you read Sketches or any other book by Eric Walters, they're amazing! Thank you, and enjoy March Break 2011!  

30th Post (My Black History Month Performance Video)

We have reached 30 posts so far, that's a lot, and there's still more to come! Exactly a week ago, we had our Black History Month assembly at our school organized by my teacher, Miss Pollock, and let me just say, it was the best Black History Month assembly ever, and I'm so happy to have been part of it! I sang the song "God Bless the Child" originally done by a singer named Billie Holiday who was a black woman. Here's the video of me singing, and I hope you enjoy it! Playing the piano for me in this video is my music teacher, Mrs. Laszlo, and playing the drums is Will in my class. I'd like to thank her and Miss Pollock for making this all possible! Thank you, and have a good day! Like I said before, we're getting closer and closer until getting our week off!

29th Post (History Fair Presentation Video)

Ello again bloggers. Last Friday, my school had the History Fair, and all the grade sevens and eights were competing. In the History Fair, you had to pick a topic involving History, and make a three- sided poster board, speech and a three-dimensional item about your topic, and you had to present it to the class. My project was on Native Inventions that we still use today, and for my speech I was a Native girl talking about the different inventions and how we helped the Europeans survive on their land, but in return, they took our land. My project got selected to go to the Regional History Fair at the Ottawa War Museum on April 20th. Wish me luck! Here's my presentation, I hope you enjoy it and learn something from it! Thank you for watching it, and have a good day! We're getting close to March Break! 

28th Blog (DigLitCircs Discussion #5)

Good day blogger mates! We have come to the fifth discussion of our Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles for Sketches by Eric Walters. Arianna from Oshawa will be our host for this discussion. Click here for Arianna's discussion so far! To think, after this discussion, we'll have our last ever discussion of our Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles for Sketches by Eric Walters. So sad, we still have this discussion and next discussion though, so keep making these discussions thought-provoking and beautiful! I know this discussion is going to be another awesome one! Remember, stay tuned to all the Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles for Sketches by Eric Walters! Thank you, discuss and have a great Sunday night before you go back to school tomorrow!

27th Blog (DigLitCircs Discussion #2 Summary)

Hello again. I was the host for the second Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles discussion for Sketches by Eric Walters, and I now have to summarize the discussion, so here it is. I hope you enjoy it.


In the second discussion for Sketches by Eric Walters, we had a total of thirty comments and here's what went down. Everyone had a lot of great responses, and I thank Andrianna, Arianna, Karran, Haneen, Sara and Hannah for contributing! 


At first, Haneen said that Ashley was being selfish when she found out that Dana gave the Chicken McNuggets to the stray cat, and Karran and I agreed, however Sara disagreed. She thought it was Brent that said she shouldn't have fed the cat which was true. Hannah re-read the section of the book where that happened, page 45, and she agreed with Sara. Hannah read page 46, and suggested that Ashley was being selfish, but it wasn't about the cat. Brent asked Dana if she ever stole anything and Ashley said that Dana didn't have time to steal anything since she was too busy taking piano and tap dance lessons. These were all good points.

I talked about the new words I found such as zine, saunter, squat and mangy, so if people didn't know those words, now they knew. Also, Haneen pointed out that learning new vocabulary is an excellent part of reading.

Haneen asked if we were any one of the characters in the book, who would you be? Karran said that he would be a mix of Brent and Dana, Sara would be Ashley, Hannah would be like Dana, Arianna made us laugh by wanting to be Pumpkin but then she said that if she really had to pick, she would be Dana, Haneen would be confident like Ashley, courageous and aware like Brent and sweet and caring like Dana, and Andrianna and I were undecided.

Andrianna also predicted that if any of those three had not ran away and they met before, they wouldn't be friends at all, because they have nothing really in common except for the fact that they are out living on the streets of Downtown Toronto. Maybe Brent and Ashley would be friends, but not Dana. Hannah also asked why Brent, Ashley and Dana won't stay at a shelter, and Sara thought they felt that an abandoned place would be safer than a shelter.


My question was: In this section, we met Spencer, Anna and their dog Squat, and in the beginning of the second section, Dana was petting a stray cat, and giving the cat the rest of her Chicken McNuggets. The young people have very miniscule amounts of food out on the streets of Downtown Toronto, but they're very caring to animals like Squat and the stray cat, why do you think that is? We thought that people out on the streets, such as Dana, Spencer or Anna care for stray animals while they're trying to survive because they are generous and were being empathetic. They can understand what the animals are going through, and felt like the animals needed care as much as they did. Also, people like Spencer and Anna have Squat because it's like raising their own kid. Also, animals want to feel loved too, and people caring for animals will kind of be like a distraction to missing your loved ones back home. Animals will love and always be there for you no matter what. Stray animals might look a little rough, but they have a heart on the inside.  

There you have it, that's my summary. Please feel free to comment about any of the Sketches discussion, and stay tuned for what's coming up. Thank you, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

26th Blog (DigLitCircs Discussion #4)

Hello Bloggers hello! I hope you're tuning in to all of the Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles Discussions for Sketches by Eric Walters. The fourth discussion has begun, and I have to answer two questions this week. Hannah and Haneen are this week's hosts, and they have each posted their own question. Click here for Hannah's discussion so far! Click here for Haneen's discussion so far! This is going to be an awesome discussion times two, since there are two hosts and two questions! Stay tuned to all the Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circle Discussions for Sketches by Eric Walters! Thank you, and enjoy the rest of your weekend, and take some time to discuss something, anything!

25th Blog (DigLitCircs Discussion #3)

Good to see you again bloggers. I was the host last week for the Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circle discussion for Sketches by Eric Walters, and it was excellent just like the last discussion! It was great to be the host for discussion number two, and I enjoyed it! I'm happy to say that the third Ottawa-Oshawa Digital Literature Circles discussion for Sketches by Eric Walters has begun. We're halfway through in the discussions, it's going by so fast! This discussion will be posted on Karran's blog. Click here for the discussion so far! I know this is going to be another awesome discussion of our book! Stay tuned to all of the discussions. Thank you, and have a nice day of discussing!

24th Blog (DigLitCircs Discussion #2)

I hope you're having a great day bloggers! Today, I'm happy to welcome Andrianna, Karran, Arianna, Sara, Haneen and Hannah to our second ever discussion of Sketches by Eric Walters! As you may already know, my name is Melissa, and I will be hosting the discussion for section #2. In our first section, we had an excellent discussion! I hope this discussion will be excellent as well! In our second section, we had to read pages 43-76, and here's my question for you today!

In this section, we met Spencer, Anna and their dog Squat, and in the beginning of the second section, Dana was petting a stray cat, and giving the cat the rest of her Chicken McNuggets. The young people have very miniscule amounts of food out on the streets of Downtown Toronto, but they're very caring to animals like Squat and the stray cat, why do you think that is? 

Comment whenever you can. In two weeks, I will be posting a summary on what you guys thought of my question. Thank you, and have a super duper fantabulous day! 

23rd Blog (DigLitCircs Discussion #1)

Allo bloggers! Our class and our Oshawa buddies are coming together and doing Literature Circles, which is when you're in groups, and you have a different book for each group, and you read sections of it every week, and then once a week you discuss with your group about the section that you are reading, and you would also have questions about the book to respond. The thing that all of these books have in common is that they're by the same author which is Eric Walters. I'm reading the book, Sketches by him, and it's really good so far. To start us off, Andrianna from Oshawa was our host for the first ever Sketches discussion, and started us off with a BANG! Click here to check out the discussion so far! I'm really enjoying it so far, and I hope everyone else who's taking part of it is enjoying it as well! Next week, I will be the host for the second Sketches discussion, and I'm very excited. I need to think about a question, and decide how to welcome people! Stay tuned to all of the discussions of Sketches! I will keep you posted! Please feel free to comment. Thank you, and enjoy your weekend! 

22nd Blog: (Ethical Giving or If I Had $100)

Yo bloggers! My next assignment that I had to do was made by Miss Crosbie, the teacher of our Oshawa buddies. We're given 100 imaginary dollars and with that imaginary $100, we have to think of what charity and what kind of gifts that we will give using that imaginary $100. Click here for more assignment information.  You can also click here.  Think, if you had $100, what would you do with it? Would you spend it on yourself, or for someone in need?

If I had $100, I would give all my money to World Vision, because World Vision is one of the biggest charitable organizations in the world, and its focus is to help children and families overcome the obstacles they face during poverty in many different countries around the world. I always hated seeing commercials of different families struggling to cope with their own lives, and I always wanted to help with different charities, and World Vision was a charity that interested me, so I would choose to give money to World Vision if I had $100. I would purchase two hens and a rooster to someone in need. The reason why I would choose this gift, because when you receive two hens and a rooster, they can lay up to 150 eggs combined. With those eggs, it can provide food for you and you can also sell them for money. Also, some particular countries do not allow hens or roosters, so instead World Vision would give people in those particular countries other poultry animals, such as turkeys or ducks, etc. and that can be raised, bred or eaten. It would be such a great gift to give, and it's World Vision's most popular gift every single year. Another gift that I would like to purchase would be some musical instruments and art supplies for children. The reason why I would also choose this gift is because I have a huge passion in the arts especially music, and for a child to have never expressed their self in that way is unimaginable. With art and music, you can escape from rough patches and express yourself. It can change a child's life momentarily, and a child will burst into creativity. The arts needs to be shared with the world, and you can always rely on the the arts, it will always be there when you need to express yourself. I would be distributing my funds by spending $50 on two hens and a rooster and $50 on art and music supplies. That's what I would do if I had $100, how about you? 

There you have it, there's my assignment, please feel free to comment. My friend Tara <- (Click here for her story) has gave some money to World Vision and has definitely inspired people including me to follow in her footsteps. I attended the "Make it Happen" conference along with Tara and 16 other grade eights in my school, and I learned a lot about different kinds of charities and how I could help. This year, I want to try to be more generous to people and to give more to people in need. Please show some empathy and make a change for people around the world who have less than what you have. Instead of recieving gifts for Birthdays or Christmases, etc., ask your family or friends to give you money so you can give gifts to people who have less than what you have, it'll be very appreciative.  Thank you, and have a good snowy day.

20th Blog (S.O.L.E. Video: Cyberbullying)

Are any of you bloggers cyberbullies? I hope you're not! On monday, I presented my S.O.L.E. assignment along with Amy, Reshad and Aaisha who were my group members. Our topic that we had to research about was cyberbullying, and as a group it went pretty well. Our presentation was videotaped with Miss Pollock's camera, because my class' Oshawa buddies are gonna see them and then comment on my blog about the presentation. So Courtney and Breah, this is for you and I'll be fine with what you have to say, it's your opinion! If you want a review on the assignment click here and here. Also, if you want to see our group's post about cyberbullying click right here. In this video, you'll see a description, a bunch of poems including a slam poem, a SENSE-ible poem and an acrostic poem and a unique way to stop cyberbullying from happening. I want you to notice that cyberbullying is terrible and no one should be put up with it as well as the different types of poems we used and how we used the media cart to showcase our work. So here's the video, I hope you enjoy our presentation! When you're done, please feel free to comment. Thank you for watching it, and have a splendid day!

12th Blog (How Are You Creative?)

Salut bloggers! My teacher, Miss Pollock asked our class, "How are you creative?" so today, you bloggers will be checking out my creativity and as well learning a bit more about me. Click here to check out the assignment. ENJOY!

There are a lot of things that make me creative. I've said on my blog before that I'm a singer. It's true, I love singing, I've been singing ever since I could remember. Also, I've been taking lessons for about 4 years, and thanks to my music teacher, I've performed at local festivals, recitals and Universities. I've also sang in school talent shows from grade 1-6. I've sang in front of a big audience, but I don't sing in front of my schoolmates very often, I guess I'm just shy at school. Also, I watch Glee, which is a music-related show that's so good. I'm hoping to go to an arts-related high school next year. I have to fill out an application and audition though, I hope I get in.

Another thing that makes me creative is that I love to eat, especially junk food. I also eat healthy food, like fruits and vegetables. For example, I love broccoli and Brussel sprouts, which most of you bloggers probably hate. Junk food though is my life, chocolate, chips, pretty much anything EXCEPT CANDY AND SODA! I find that they don't taste very good. I went trick-or-treating on Halloween, and I got a fair amount of stuff. If you see the picture shown below, when I ate my Halloween chocolate, I would eat about that much every day, sometimes even more. The picture shown below is worth about 3 regular sized chocolate bars. I know that's so bad, my Halloween treats is done now at least, so now I can go back to eating a little bit of junk food everyday.                                 

Another thing that makes me creative is that I hate sports. I suck at playing sports every time that I'm asked to. I'm more of the fitness kind of person than the Phys. Ed. kind of person. This year, I think I'm trying to get more fit by walking to school and from school when I can and doing at least 10 push-ups a day, and I gotta say, it's definitely helping me get in better shape. Also, everyday when I get home from school, before I do my homework, I would listen to upbeat music and I would just start dancing. I feel like that helps me get more fit as well as helping me prepare for the school dances.

Another thing that makes me creative is that I'm into electronics. I have a lot of gadgets in my home. I have a Nintendo DS Lite, a Game Boy Advance SP, an orange iPod Nano, a green iPod shuffle (which was mine, now it's someone else's), an orange camera, a pink MP3 Player and more. I play electronics in my spare time when I'm bored, have no homework, or don't really feel like dancing. To me, it really passes the time. I bring my orange iPod, my Nintendo DS and my Game Boy Advance to school everyday, but I'm only allowed to play with these items at recess only, which sucks, but on the bright side it saves a lot of battery juice. Also, I'm very tech-savvy. For example, when I first receive electronics, I don't need the instruction booklet, I would just go ahead and start operating the machines. I'm happy that I have electronics as part of my life, they make me a smarter person.   

 

The last thing that makes me creative is that I'm studious. People call me a nerd, because they think I'm smart and because I wear glasses, which I do, I've only been wearing them for a year and a bit though. Part of it that makes me want to do good in schoolwork is because I'm a perfectionist. When there's a test coming up, I would worry about it and start heavily studying, because I want to do well on this test. Same with an assignment, I worry about it, because I want to do well, so I heavily work on it. If I do well, I would be very proud of myself. If I don't do well, I wouldn't be mad, but I would be disappointed in myself. It motivates me though to do better next time. I shouldn't be complaining though, I just got my progress report, and I'm really proud of it, which means I'm doing well in grade 8, and that makes me happy.

    

Well, I hope that answers the question "How are you creative?" There you have it, my assignment is complete. I hope you enjoyed it. Please feel free to comment. Have a great rest of the weekend!

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P.S. (For those who didn't know already) I love The Simpsons! I watched it ever since I was a baby, and it's been hilarious ever since. I was so happy when I went to Niagara Falls, because in one of the wax museums that I went to, there was a wax thing of Homer. Also, all over the walls it said, "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy" which was from one of the notable episodes from The Simpsons which was so awesome. Did you know that The Simpsons show started in Christmas 1989? That means that The Simpsons show is almost 21 years old. That's long, I hope it never ends, it's that good. BYE, now you know how creative I am and you know more things about me!