Our Trip to the MET by Charlie

Last Thursday, our two sixth grade advisories (Joe’s and Shirley’s) went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in N.Y.C. We went there to look at Ancient Greek and Roman art. When we arrived there at the museum, we met the other advisory which had traveled in a separate vehicle (I’m in Shirley’s advisory). Then we went to a special area of the museum where the tour guides start their tours. The teachers put us into two different groups one called the Athenians and one called the Spartans. I was in the Spartan group.

Our tour guide started off by taking us to a monument grave marker picturing an athlete named Megakles. In total we went to five different examples of Greek and Roman art. I enjoyed the the pottery very much. When we were done we came back to the tour area and we met up with the Athenians for lunch.

After lunch our teachers handed us little booklets to fill out back in the museum. It was sort of like a scavenger hunt. We were split into three groups. I was with George our middle school’s principal. Our group rushed through the hunt pretty fast and we finished before the other two teams did. Then George took our group to the gift shop and that’s how we finished the day! In all, I think our school’s field trip to the MET was a really fun trip and I think we should do it again sometime.

S.L.C. — Charlie

A student led conference is where the student presents to his/her parent/s about how he/she has done in school. The parent is silent while the student talks about his/her weaknesses, strengths and goals. At the end of the conference the student, teacher and parent make a third goal.

Before the student lead conference we had to do a lot….A LOT of preparation. First we had to look at our report and circle anything we thought we could have done better on or anything we thought was important. Next we found all of our reflections from all of our academic classes — Math, Spanish, Science and Humanities and our advisory reflection. Then we gathered two examples of work for all of the classes.  It could be something we thought we did well on or something we thought we could have done better on.

I was not there when the other kids were at the conferences. I hope my conference will go well and that I remember to state all of my strengths, weaknesses and goals! I hope to show my parents all of my examples from classes and talk about all of the classes and how I am as a student in them.

I learned that I do not prepare for test effectively, although I am getting better at Spocab. I learned that I work better when I stand up as oppose to sitting down and that I do a better job of homework when I do the homework in the morning. I also learned that I am a good reader……I kind of already knew that!

A trip to the Hospital by Charlie

While the rest of the kids in middle school were at Nature’s Classroom, I was in the hospital waiting for news of my grandma who had fainted at a funeral. Let me start at the beginning….It was 8:00 P.M. on a Sunday when the phone rang with alarming news. My grandmother had just fainted while at a funeral! My mom (Meme) quickly gathered my sister and I in the car with my other mom and we drove off to the Kingston Hospital. I was really nervous and SCARED! I didn’t know if my grandmother was even conscious. We finally arrived at the Kingston Hospital and my mom told my other mom to drop her off while my other mom parked the car. We parked close to the building and ran into the hospital.

Inside the hospital I spotted my cousin Kayla, her boy friend Jeremy, my aunt Betty and her husband Roy. My mom had gone inside the emergency room, so I didn’t expect to see her. My sister was about ready to pass out as well because it was around 8:40; the time when she is usually in bed. I saw my cousin Kayla cry and I felt like crying as well. Then I heard good news. My grandmother was conscious.

I really wanted to go see her, but I couldn’t because there was a limit of only one person in the emergency room at a time. My mom and my aunt Mary were in the emergency room, so it was over the limit. My mom came out of the emergency room with my aunt and told me that my grandmother was OK, but it looked like she might have to stay there another night; little did we know that it was going to more than that.

I really wanted to see my grandma so I convinced my mom and sister to come with me. When I saw my grandmother she looked really tired and stressed because she had come from a peaceful funeral and the next thing she knew she was in a hospital bed. She greeted my sister and I and said she would be OK. It was around 11:00 now and it was way past my sisters bedtime. My aunts and moms suggested that my grandma get some rest. But it was hard for her. I think that our chattering kept her awake.

My cousin Kayla and her boy friend stopped by a few times to check in on things. Then a nurse came in and confirmed that my grandma would indeed have to stay for another night…maybe even two! Afterword – Meme and I would have to stop by the hospital for two more days till my grandma was free to go home.

In the Footsteps of Marco Polo by Charlie

Dear Denis,
Thank you for coming all the way from Queens to be here in Poughkeepsie. I learned a lot about Marco Polo from your visit. I can’t believe you’ve been to Tibet. I have a friend named Taylor and she and I are trying to free Tibet from the Chinese goverment. I loved the way you talked to the third graders and made them feel so special. I’ve always wanted to travel  to the Silk Road with my traveling aunt. I really enjoyed the video documentary about the journey. I also like the book because it contains all of your amazing photographs! How did you get to see the Mentawi tribe? Did you just stumble upon them or did they invite you in to their village? I found your talk to be very interesting and I hope you come back to Vassar College with Francis and talk a little bit more about your amazing trip/journey.

From,
Charlie

Online Learning by Charlie

On Friday we had a snow day and Shirley asked us to communicate on Edmodo. I enjoyed it very much because I could just relax in my lounge area of my house in comfortable clothes and talk with my peers and teacher. I did not have any problems with it luckily, so my first experience was not too bad. I really like commenting on other people’s posts and doing the tasks that Shirley gave us. At first I did not know how to comment on another person’s post and made multiple posts when I could have just clicked reply and commented. I don’t like how I had to have to keep refreshing the page, but I guess you have to do that on all chat-like websites. Overall, I think it was a very successful tool and I hope to use it again!

Google Docs – By Charlie

My favorite tool to use is Google Docs. This is because you can write something, like a post, and share it with someone to edit it and they can share their work with you. I also like this tool because you can create many different Google Docs with different names and subjects. It’s also like using Microsoft word, only in Google Docs you can edit in many ways. For example in Microsoft word you can choose a different font and size for your letters or numbers and you can also change the color. Also you can underline and highlight. One difference is that Google Docs automatically saves for you and in Microsoft word you have to remember to save…although it does try to remind you, when it asks: do you wish to save – yes or no. The bad thing is that sometimes you forget to say yes! Google docs is great for authors and their editors. The author can write a piece of his story and have the editor go into his Google Doc and edit any mistakes. Another cool thing about Google Docs is that you can have two or more people viewing and typing on the same Google Doc as long as it is shared with them; and that’s why I like Google Docs!

What Makes a Good Teacher? By Charlie

This is what I think makes a good teacher. First the teacher should connect with every student in a different or the same way. Like one student could really be into learning and another kid might not be into the subject, but if the teacher wants to teach the student who is not really into learning she/he might want to learn about the kid’s passion and connect with him/her that way, so the student will like the teacher. Secondly, I think that the teacher should be fun in some ways and not always talk about the subject that the teacher is teaching about. They have to trail off the subject a little and talk about what they did over the weekend or something like that. They have to be strict when necessary and not when not needed! The teacher has to have a fun lesson sometime during the year, like an art project or creative story writing where you can express your self.

Edgar Allan Poe by Charlie

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19th, 1809 in Boston MA. His mother died when he was only two years of age, and Edgar went to live with an adoptive family, the Allans’. Edgar didn’t have enough money to pay for college so he had to leave. Edgar started becoming shunned by his father and had to look for a job. He had no skills, and no money. When he was about eighteen he joined the U.S. army in Boston. Edgar’s adoptive mother soon died. Edgar’s adoptive father tried to become friendly towards Edgar. He also had to sign an application for West point, but then he didn’t come up with enough money.  Edgar didn’t have many friends to help him so he tried to make a living as a writer. He soon became a newspaper editor and started to submit poems and stories. Some examples of his work are “The Raven” or “The Tell-Tale Heart”. In his personal life he married his thirteen year old cousin and they moved to Virginia. After his wife died his health declined and all this time he was a heavy drinker. Found in Baltimore after taking the wrong train and not being able to tell what had happened to him, he was taken to the hospital and died at the age of 40. He died on October, 7,1848.

Edgar Allan Poe was a great horror story writer because in the poem “The Tell-Tale Heart” he uses a lot of description. For example this part of a paragraph talks about the reason the narrator does not like the old man’s eye – “I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture –a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees — very gradually –I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever”. An example  of good vocabulary is placed in this sentence – “Above all was the sense of hearing acute.” Acute is the descriptive word in the sentence.He also uses words that we would not technically use today in are own writing; words like Hearken for example  He also has a way of making his poems scary. For example, in “The Tell-Tale Heart” he focuses on how he wants to kill the old man. Murder and a sense of evil is what makes his poems scary,but what makes Edgar Allan Poe a successful writer and where does he get his inspiration for his characters?

I think “The Tell-Tale Heart was will chosen for the poem because it’s about a servant and an old man and how the old man has a evil eye that the creeps the servant out. The servant doesn’t like the eye so he plans to kill the man. At the end when the old man is dead and the police arrive the servant is confident that the police will find no trace of murder because he hit the old man from sight,but all of a sudden he hears the beating of the old mans heart. Now this drives him insane and he finally confesses to the murder.One of the things that makes Edgar Allan Poe a successful writer is this – He is very descriptive and uses words that are in someways very violent like murder and kill and these words make the poem all the more horrific. In a lot of Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and stories their are usually a lot of interesting characters. I think he gets his inspiration for these characters is from his childhood of family or maybe he just made them up. He also comes up with a lot of interesting plots like in “The Tell-Tale Heart” he talks about how he wants to kill and old man because he doesn’t like his eye. Just by observation I notice that a lot of his work includes a death of an evil thing that haunts him. Personally no ,but if someone got me to read a poem that I really like while scanning through it it might make me want to read it a little.

This picture is from flickrcc

Here is a portrait of Edgar Allan Poe by Chris Watkins


Edgar Allan Poe

Win Win Win by Charlie

Win! Win! Win!

by Charlie


If I was in charge of the student blogging challenge, I would probably have people go to an international blog and learn about the country the blogger (that owns the blog that the student is looking at)  comes from. For example, if someone were to go on to a blog from Romania (and they themselves aren’t from Romania) they could learn something about Romania. I might include this task because the student or person might want to visit that place some day and it’s always important to know about the place (in this case Romania)  ahead of time or you could find out about a place you have never heard of.

Another thing I might have people do is to write little clues (no personal info) about themselves and have visitors to their blog try to guess what kind of person they are. I would do this because the person reading the clues might be the same kind of person and usually if you have something in common with someone else you can become good friends with that person.

This is part of the Edublogs Challenge and I chose number 4.

Ramapo letter by Charlie

Dear Cayla,

Thank you for being my councilor at Ramapo and for challenging me along the way. My favorite part was when we had to swing on the rope and getting from box to box in the low ropes. I also liked balancing on the log. It was hard when we couldn’t speak, but somehow we pulled it off.

I loved the lunch! My favorites were the little potatoes. I did not really like the hot dogs because in general  I don’t like hot dogs. I want to thank the cooks at Ramapo for their lovely food.

In the beginning I was a little nervous even though I have been there before, but you helped me overcome my fears! Then when we got to the high ropes, I was terrified I would fall when I was up there. You helped me along with all of my class mates and the other councilors there at the high ropes. So Thank You!

From,
Charlie