On Thursday, May 6th the entire 6th grade went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (A.K.A the MET). On the ride there each advisory had their own van. Our advisory had an awesome time because it was the only time we could use our phones so we were texting the people in the other van. When we got there we split up into two groups, the Athenians and Spartans. Our tour guide’s name was Bambi. We saw a lot of art but my favorite thing was a girl’s bedroom that had paintings of a palace on it and on each wall the was a scary face and it was really cool.

After we got a tour we went to lunch. We hung out in a park outside of the museum. The boys were having a competition to see who could jump farther and I was the judge. It was really funny!

After lunch, we split up into three smaller groups and filled out a scavenge hunt packet.  When each group was done we went to the shop and bought cool stuff. I got a pen with Blue Hippos on it! Then we went back to the vans and drove home. We had an awesome time and both vans stopped to get stuff on the way. I had a lot of fun and I can’t wait to go there again!! 🙂

I think a great student is a person who is very focused on their school work but has at least a few friends. I also think the person has to have an interest in their learning because the most enthusiastic kids are the best learners. I think having friends helps a student learn because they can share their ideas and help each other. I think that some students came be great but they cannot be the best in every class because there are different subjects that are sometimes more difficult than others.

I think to be a great teacher a person has to have a sense of humor because it would not be fun to be around a dull teacher. Out of all the teachers I’ve had the best teachers were the nice ones with a sense of humor but could be serious if necessary. A great teacher knows how to deal with their students without having to yell or punish them. Teachers should know what they are teaching about and have something planned for us that will keep our attention. In the harder subjects they should have extra help sessions that are optional and also fun. I think that the more strict teachers actually get less work done because the kids feel like not listening to them because they yell all the time.

My favorite 2.0 tool is our class blog because we can do many different things on it.  It was cool how we could post things on our blog and people could see our posts around the world. I also liked looking at blogs around the world and commenting on some of their posts. One of my favorite things to do is the Voki that we did about the Hudson Valley. My Voki character  was a baby with awesome pink glasses and it was really cute! It was very cool being in the same class as one of the Blogging Challenge winners!

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on 1/19/1809. His parents were David and Elizabeth Poe. He had a brother and sister named Henry, and Rosalie. Elizabeth Poe died in 1811, when Edgar was 2 years old. Edgar was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan. John Allan was a merchant and Edgar grew up with them and went to good schools.  When Poe was 6, he went to a school in England for 5 years. He learned Latin and French, and he also learned math and history.  He returned to school in America to continue studying.

Edgar Allan Poe went to the University of Virginia in 1826 when he was 17. John Allan had plenty of money but  he only gave Edgar about a third of what he needed. Edgar was good at Latin and French. Edgar became a drinker and quickly he had to quit school to pay his debt in less than a year. Edgar had no money and no skills, so he went to Boston and joined the U.S. Army in 1827,when he was 18. He got the rank of sergeant major. In 1829, Mrs. Allan died and John Allan tried to be friendly towards Edgar and signed Edgar’s application to West Point. In 1831, Edgar Allan Poe went to New York City where he had some of his poetry published. He submitted stories to a number of magazines and they were all rejected. Poe had no friends, no job, and he had trouble with his money. He sent a letter to John Allan begging for help but John rejected him and help didn’t  come to him. John Allan died in 1834 and did not mention Edgar in his will.  In 1835, Edgar finally got a job as an editor of a newspaper. He died in the hospital on Sunday, October 7, 1849.

Edgar Allan Poe was known for his horror stories. He was said to be the father, of horror stories .He wrote about “murder revenge,torture, the plague, being buried alive, and insanity”.One of his great stories was The Tell Tale Heart. One of Edgar’s great talents is making things sound scary. sometimes he repeats the words kind of slowly, or he mixed the words in a way and it just made it sound creepy. He is also great with details, in one paragraph from The Tell Tale Heart you can see what a great writer he was and that he must have put so much time into this story.

I think Edgar Allan Poe is a great writer because of his technique for making the stories he writes scary and interesting. I think that Edgar could have gotten his characters from either his childhood or adult hood. In some cases he could be describing somebody that he knew and then changed stuff about them except for what they looked like so he could describe them.  I liked reading his work but I do not think I would read them for fun.