Why Twitter is a Good Tool for Schools – Mia

I recommend schools use Twitter. It’s a useful tool and it keeps kids focused. We all seem to have fun tweeting and we think a lot about what our tweets will say. Tweeting let’s us talk about what we’re doing in class. It’s fun to update our followers with tweets about what we’ve been up to recently. We like looking at links that people have tweeted to us about different things. Twitter is a good way to keep us focused and excited. When we hear that we’re going to work with Twitter, most of us seem to get excited. I suggest schools use Twitter, as it’s a fun tool that most of us love.

Idiom-Mia

An idiom is another way of saying a figure of speech. An example of an idiom is “a square meal” and that is a figure of speech that means a meal with good nutrition in it. It doesn’t mean that a meal is literally in the shape of a square. In The Phantom Tollbooth however, “a square meal” really means a square meal. In The Phantom Tollbooth, Milo asks for a square meal, thinking a nutritious meal, and ends up with a meal that is in the shape of a square.

Vacation post-Mia

My eyes flew open as my mom told me to get up. I turned to the clock next to my bed. It said 4:15 am. I jumped up and quickly dressed. I went to the kitchen and made myself some breakfast. I went back upstairs and fed my fish, guinea pig, rabbit, hermit crabs and I gave water to my snake. My guinea pig began to squeal. I walked over to his pen and opened the lid. I lifted him out and held him to my chest. As I stroked his long silky hair I could hear the sweet little sounds of him purring. I gave him a final hug and then gently set him back into his home. Then I walked over to my rabbits’ double pen and did the same. When I held him to my face he put his ears back and licked my nose. After gently setting him back in his pen, I walked down the stairs. I ate breakfast and got in the car. I saw the slushy snow next to me. A northern bird was perched in a small tree. Finally, we got to the airport. It was still dark out. After we went through security we walked to the gate. My plane was boarding and my mom and I said a last goodbye. I got on the plane and before I knew it I was in Florida.

Palm trees were everywhere. I could feel the warm air brushing my face. My grandparents picked me up and took me to the condo. In the car we passed a line of palm trees that were really pretty. When we got to the condo I immediately changed into my bathing suit and headed to the pool! A lizard ran by like a flash of brown and green. I jumped into the pool. The water was chilyl, but refreshing. My hair flowed in the soft, cool water. After about an hour, I headed to the beach. The red sand was warm on my feet. Tiny crushed shells lay scattered along the beach. To my left, was a massive beauty of blue and green. The sound of waves hitting the sand filled me with joy. I thought about the snow and slush I saw when I was driving to the airport. I didn’t miss it. I stepped into the waves. I paused, noticed my feet were very cold and stepped back. After watching the waves for a bit, I ran into the water. The cold waves bobbed my up and down. After another hour and I headed back up to the condo. It began to rain. I rode up the elevator and opened the door to the condo. My grandfather had made his special pasta that he makes all the time. I changed into some pajamas and gave myself a bowl of the delicious noodles. My grandparents’ dog Lola sat next to me. I gave her a big hug and a bite of my food. I did mostly the same things for the rest of the week.

Friday, my Aunt Bethie came with her dog Reese. Reese is a Miniature Pinscher, Chihuahua mix that my aunt Bethie adopted when he was a puppy. He has four gruesome skin tags and used to have a personality to match. Now he is much more friendly, but he likes the people he likes and tolerates everyone else. We made a homemade facial out of strawberries and we both did a deep conditioning, and did our nails. After that we played a game of Cranium. I was really excited to see my mom. She walked through the door and I gave her a big hug.

The next Thursday, we got in the car and drove three hours to my Aunt Bethie and Uncle Dave’s house in Tampa. They had just recently moved in and I had never seen it before. I got to meet their cats for the first time too. One is named Kitty C. He is grey and really big. My aunt had rescued him from the streets along with his siblings, before she was married to my uncle Dave. She adopted out the rest of the kittens, of which were named KittyA, KittyB and KittyD. The other cat is named Mojo. He is a tuxedo kitty. He was really shy and mostly hid under the covers. My uncle Dave let me go in and pet Mojo. After that we put on our shoes and went for a walk with the dogs. We walked down the pretty streets to a playground. It was huge. It had lots of fun things to climb on and a water spray area. Next to the playground was a big pier. My aunt, uncle and I walked down the pier while my mom and grandmother stayed at the playground with the dogs. We were almost to the end of the pier when we saw a fin curve up out of the water and then slowly back down. Soon enough we noticed that there were about seven Atlantic white sided dolphins jumping up out of the water only about 30 feet away from us. They were so graceful and happy. I wanted to jump in and join them. Eventually the dolphins had passed us so we turned around and headed back.

When we got back to the house, my Aunt Bethie and Uncle Dave made steak, broccoli and potatoes. While they were cooking, my mom, grandmother, grandfather and I sat in the canopy outside. I spotted a little green lizard in the corner. My mom helped me catch it. At first he was a bit wiggly. He jumped out of my hand a few times but then after about ten minutes of holding him and petting him, he calmed down and just sat in my hand, in a very tranquil state. I named him George. Once dinner was ready I set George down on the wall of the canopy. Dinner was delicious. After I gobbled it all down I asked if I could go play with George again. My mom said yes and I walked outside. I put my hand in front of George and he climbed right on. After a while my grandparents went back to the condo. I put George back and went inside.

My grandparents had taken my aunt’s dog with them and my aunt was really sad because she missed him. She tried to start giving away all her nice shirts to my mom and me, because she was so depressed. My mom tried to take them, but I kept putting them back. We cheered my aunt up by doing our nails. My aunt came up with the idea to paint my uncle’s nails. I picked my colors and asked him if I could paint his nails. I wasn’t very pushy about it and said that he was allowed to say no if he wanted and that I would be totally fine with that. He said he’d have to pass on that, but then my aunt kept nagging me to be more pushy. My uncle heard, so he said I could paint one toenail. I got my colors and ended up painting both his toenails pink with a blue X on each one, plus I got to paint both his thumbnails bright pink.  After that I went back outside and saw that George was still there. I put my hand down and he climbed on, even after two hours since I held him last. After a bit I put him down and said goodbye to him. I walked back inside and played with KittyC for a while, then I went to bed.

The next morning I woke up early and got dressed, because that day we were going to Discovery Cove. Discovery Cove is a place where people can go to snorkel over a fake reef with really pretty saltwater fish. There is also an aviary, sea otters and dolphins that people can swim with. When we got there we ate breakfast. It was really good, my favorite food was the french toast sticks, they were really yummy! Then we got our wetsuits and snorkels and went to the reef. There were huge Southern Rays that lay in the sand. Cownose Rays, bigger than I had ever seen before came right up to use waiting to be pet. Cownose Stingrays are very friendly and are kind of like puppy dogs. A huge Eagle Ray swam right under me with amazing grace. I saw a French Angelfish, or as I like to call them Frenchies. There were beautiful Naso Tangs that preferred to stay in the shallows. Even my favorite type of saltwater fish, Powder Blue Tangs. I got less than five inches away from some of them and they were beautiful specimens too. There were about four huge Spotted Moray Eels. I thought that if I ever were to swim with a Moray, I would be very frightened, but I was actually very calm when I saw them.

At 1:00 it was time for my Aunt Bethie and me to go swim with the dolphins! We swam with Bottlenose Dolphins named Jenny and her daughter Copper. After Jenny performed some tricks for us we were sent to the deep end so that we could go for a ride. The trainer told me to put my right hand on her dorsal fin and my left hand on her pectoral flipper. I could feel the muscle working in her body. When we got to the shallow end I let go and stroke her on the side as a thank you. Then my aunt went. We did a few more tricks with Jenny, then we met her daughter Copper. We did tricks with Copper, then the swim was over. I missed the dolphins the second we got out of the water. They were so graceful and strong. They were really playful and curious.  We spent the rest of the day in the aviary where a bird took a liking to my uncle, only to make him jealous when we returned to see the same bird on someone else’s shoulder. We also spent the day in the reef and we went into the freshwater lazy river.

The following Sunday, we left from the condo. We passed the line of palm trees I saw on the way to the condo when I had arrived. Then we went to the airport and got on the plane. Three hours later, when I looked out the window, there were no palm trees, and instead of thick green Florida grass, there was slush and mud. I thought about that line of palm trees I loved so much. I missed them.

Dreams for Students in 2013 – Mia

My dreams for students in 2013 is for everyone to have fun learning and to think of learning as a great opportunity to enjoy the world better. I also feel like everyone has a different opinion on classwork and homework. Some kids feel that we should have less homework and less classwork. Others feel that we should have no homework at all. Kids also sometimes think that we need more class work and more homework. I feel that we should not have any more than an hour of homework a night, maybe an hour and a half. I say that because some kids are really busy they might have a lot of other things they need to do after school. Some kids come in without their homework done because they didn’t have time to do it. I feel like we should do a lot of different projects in class time, like in Humanities.

Dreams for middle school students

My dreams for students in middle school is for the kids to be respectful to each other, even if they don’t hang out with each other. Also for all the kids to be respectful of the teachers and not call out or ignore them. I feel that at PDS some of the kids, especially 6th graders, could be a more respectful towards the teachers, and fellow students. I think we could definitely improve that.

Phantom Tollbooth-Mia

I feel that I am not like Milo in most ways, but like most people I have taken some wrong turns before. One time, when I was four years old, I was playing with a quarter and I accidentally swallowed it. I ended up having to go to the hospital and they had to surgically remove it from my throat.

In the book, there was a part where Milo was chased by a watchdog. I had an experience similar to that last summer. I was at my family barn, and was putting my saddle in my tack box. My mom had let the donkey out to play. When I turned around I just saw a donkey chasing after me. I ran inside the barn and closed the gate before he could catch me.

I’m not like Milo. In the book, it said that he was always bored. That when he was somewhere he wanted to be somewhere else, then when he got there he wanted to go back. I don’t relate to that at all. I’m never bored. I don’t really mind if I’m somewhere I don’t want to be. I just wait until I can leave and just try to make the best of it.

I’ve been to a place where I didn’t really know anyone before like Milo did in the book. I was at my first cavy and rabbit 4-H meeting and I didn’t know any of the kids. Also I was one of the very few kids who had a cavy not a rabbit.

Nano Wrimo Book Talk – Mia

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a great book about a 16 year old girl who made a promise to her little sister Prim. After their father died a few years ago, their mother didn’t really function too well, so Katniss had to take care of her sister Prim all by herself. In district twelve, that was very hard. When Prim was picked to go to the hunger games, Katniss volunteered to save her dear sister. This book is a suspenseful book. People who are a fans of suspense, would very much enjoy this book, The Hunger Games.

Choice Topic – Mia

Coral reefs are in terrible danger. Because of pollution, global warming and overfishing, our beautiful underwater wonderlands are quickly vanishing. Because of global warming, the plankton, small fish and shrimp are either dying or moving to cooler waters. Then the coral starts to starve. It turns a creepy white color. That reaction to the global warming is called coral bleaching.

How to stop our reefs from dying:

There are lots of ways to help take care of our reefs. I started a club to raise awareness about reefs. A lot more people started caring. When a lot of people care about something they try to help it. Also do some research, the more people know the better.

Coral reefs are very interesting ecosystems. Unfortunately they are in trouble. So please help our reefs!

Mia’s passion

Horseback riding is definitely my passion. I love the wind in my face and how I feel like I’m flying.

Riding is also very good exercise. Although some people think that horseback riding is just sitting on a horse, it’s actually an Olympic sport and I believe that it helps to relieve stress.

I don’t just love riding, I also love just playing with horses. They really are gentle giants. Horses can really tell what your emotions are and they are so loyal.

Here is a link to my families barn website: