My dreams for 2013 – Ali

My dreams as a student in 2013


My dream for middle school in 2013 is to have no homework. When kids get home, they should be able to play outside and to enjoy their after school activities. Sometimes, that is hard to do when you feel pulled back by homework.

Homework gets people stressed out. When I’m at home, and I just got back from dance, and I look at the time, it’s already very late. To know that I have to do homework at such a late hour, makes me feel knots in my stomach. Knowing that after homework, dance, dinner, and a shower, it will be about 9:45! Then I don’t go to sleep until about 10:15! That’s too late!

When I get home from school, I want some time to relax. Sometimes I find that hard to do when I know that there’s a bunch of homework waiting for me to do in my backpack.

Think about this, one sheet of homework for each subject in school. Due tomorrow. Science, Spanish, Humanities, Math and Health. Even if it’s only one sheet per class, that adds up to 5 sheets of homework. Depending on the person, that could take a long time to do.

Plus, when you are doing your homework and you can’t figure out an answer…what do you do? You can’t just ask a teacher, because, most likely your teacher isn’t living with you. You could try to get help from a family member…but what if they don’t know? That’s a very stressful feeling to have…at least for me.

I’m not just talking about me though. I know that most of my friends aren’t fans of homework either. I remember, I was talking to my friend online and I said, “I’m bored.”
She replied, “I can never be bored because I have too much homework.”

I don’t think that it’s okay to put kids under this much pressure. A solution? I’m not saying that there should be absolutely no homework, but if there needs to be…maybe push the due dates back or spread it out over time.

My world wide dream
My world wide dream is to have schools be more connected with each other. I think it’s really cool that we get to Skype call with other schools and blog, but I think we can go further.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a project with a school that is all the way across the world? Or, maybe try to spend a day in the life of someone from a different school.

If we stay connected, we can go as far as we want.

My Hurricane Story-Ali

Hurricane Irene

I am worried about Hurricane Sandy because of what happened to us during hurricane Irene. The night before Irene, we all slept downstairs in our house just in case a tree fell. It was hard to fall asleep because I was worried about what Irene would bring.

In the morning when I woke up, my mom pointed at the trees that were swaying back and forth. Around 6:00 a.m. we lost power. Quickly after we lost power, I poured myself some cereal so I could have the milk before it went bad. When everyone got up, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal, just some rain and wind. Well, we didn’t realize how bad it actually was until lunch time…

“I’m going to get sandwiches from the deli” My step-dad called to us once the storm had settled down a bit. My step-dad came back in a bit of a panic. We all went down the street to see what he was so worried about.

First of, I should explain that we live on a dead end. The side of our street that is not the dead end has a stream on it.

So when we walked down the street, we saw that the stream had washed away the road, and the road had turned into part of the stream! It was scary, because that meant that  we had NO way of getting out! My neighbors came down to see what all the panic was about. Soon enough, all of my neighbors were there, stressing over what we would do.

We tried calling a bunch of different people who may be able to help us. When we called the fire department, all they said was “Do you want us to send a boat?” That wasn’t very helpful. To make everything worse, we didn’t stock up on food, because we didn’t think the storm would be that bad. Plus, we didn’t have water, because the water from our faucet is well water. So, if the power goes out, the water doesn’t work. We were stuck in our house with no food, and no water. And let’s not forget, we still didn’t have power!

We realised that we couldn’t flush our toilets, and we knew we couldn’t just leave our toilets like that, It would be gross. So, we did what our neighbors were doing. We went outside, and filled buckets with water. We carried the buckets upstairs into the bathtub in my mom’s bathroom. With that water, we could use it to pour into the toilets so that they would flush down.

We were predicting that it would take a few days for them to fix the road. We were wrong. Within about five hours, they had dried out the spot and put sand over it so that we could still drive on it. We got our power back at about 11:00 p.m. that night. A few days later, they paved over the road and we were good to go! Right now, I’m watching the trees blow because of hurricane Sandy, and wondering if the same thing will happen. Luckily my mom stocked up on food this time!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – Ali

Have you ever thought about what the future will be like? Flying cars and new technology that seems impossible. Well, that’s not exactly what it’s like in this book called The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games is a book where each year, the Capitol (the ruler of all of the districts) holds a game called the Hunger Games. There are 12 districts and each district is very different from one another. Two people from each district go to fight in the Hunger Games, one boy, one girl. They fight to their death. The rule is that there can be only one survivor.  Katniss gets worried when she finds who gets called to go the Hunger Games…Who is it? Find out in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins…

Grendel’s point of view on the fight with Beowulf- Ali

I am Grendel.  No human has ever been strong enough to win a fight with me. Battles feel so easy to me. Usually, I can tear the fighter to death with my claws in under a minute. I am fearless when it comes to battles. I am strong and fierce. Most of all, I am brave. I have confidence that each battle I undergo, will be yet another victory for me. When humans see me, most of them will flee. I have the effect to scare at first sight. It is not just humans who are scared of me. Animals most certainly fear me as well. I have nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone’s fear of me just makes them easier to battle…

I marched my way to Heorot, where I knew I would find my next match. Stomp, stomp, stomp. I walked harshly to scare off anyone who tried to fight me. The door that had always been open was locked. Who dare lock me out?! I took out my rage by bursting the door open with my ever so sharp claws. With my bright eyes, I noticed men in the hall, sleeping. None of them seemed to notice me, yet.  I looked around and  grabbed the man that was closest to me. He looked right into my eyes and gave a loud scream. I could tell how scared he was. The horror was spreading across his face. the more scared he got, the more he shrieked. I laughed at the mans  try to break free. Every time he tried to break free, I squeezed him a little harder. I soon ripped him apart and drank his blood.

I reached for another man but caught eye of a man, grabbing me. What a foolish man I thought to myself! He thinks he can fight me?! I am Grendel! No man can succeed in fighting me! I looked right into his dark brown eyes, they were looking fiercely at me, I then caught sight of his at his tan, glowing skin.  I started to try and fight back. I noticed his shiny, silver sword staring right at me.  Fear flung through my brain. The warriors men began to wake up, one by one. As soon as they caught sight of  my shining eye, they backed away. I felt a sudden burst of relief because I didn’t think any man could fight ME with no army. I was wrong.  The man grabbed hold of my arm. I squirmed and screeched to be let go of. I kicked him and used all of my might to try to tear him. The warrior’s hold was as tight as ever. I gave one last try to break free but the man would not let go. I pushed and squeezed. I thought I was fearless but  the ugly thought of losing hung over me, as I realized, I may not win this.
I started to feel a terrible pain in my shoulder. The pain was not going away, and I could not shake it off. Everything was going blurry and I was shaking with fear and pain. I heard a large crack in my shoulder. With all of his might, the warrior was tearing off my arm. There was no way I could fight back now. I tried and tried, but the ache was too strong. With great pain hanging over my head, I stumbled out the door.

Everything seemed one big blur. I had to sit down in a near field. My one claw was shaking. The fight was over, but I was still terrified. Terrified of what?  I thought to myself. Death? More battles? That man that had just tore my arm off? I didn’t know exactly what I was so scared of but I knew that my fear was almost as great as my pain. My breathing was heavy and shaky. I was wishing for someone to talk to, but it would not help, for I could not form a single word with my mouth. It felt like I was too weak to think of just about anything. The only words that rung in my head, were “I just lost…”

My wound was big and I knew I could not live with such a great pain. I held my injury with my remaining arm. It seemed to make it worse. I had never been in such bad pain. My world was crashing down on me. I looked up at the grey, ominous sky. The sky seemed to be telling my emotions perfectly.  Memories of the fight soar through my head, as I lay down. Looking back one last time,  I screamed in agony. I felt the pain of a thousand wounds. I was not ready for this to be the end, but it had to be. I did not feel like I could live through this. I imagined the man who was fighting me, starting to celebrate right now. A tear dripped down my hot, furry cheek. I reached up and pulled my arm toward my chest in a slow motion, as if to grab something. My eyes began to close, and I knew that was the last of me.

“The Power of We”-Ali

The Power of We (Blog action day)


What can WE do together that I can’t do by myself?

Two is greater than one. “The more the merrier” If you work with a team, there’s more ideas to share. More strength than one alone. Nothing is impossible, for WE.

Two is greater than One

We is greater than I

Strong Ideas coming together and helping one another

Help. Always having someone there to help. Never alone.

Smiles to share the greatest times, minds to share the greatest work

Us, together, one team.

I’ll be there for you, you be there for me.