Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Softball
Monday, April 12 – Today at Softball we had a scrimmage in Mashpee. We got to the field and did our stretches and even got some running in. then we split into partners and threw the ball to one another before the game started. I was out for the first two innings while another girl played catcher. I also did not bat for these two innings because my name was not on the list until I started playing. I played the rest of the innings however and although I started off really poorly I saw myself improve during the course of the game. I think I became more comfortable as I played and more used to the position the more I was in it. The rest of team did alright as well. We made a lot of mistakes and we ended up losing the game but over all I did not think it was that bad. There was a good effort and there was a lot of support from the people on the benches which is always helpful. Also, I found that I was able to throw from home to second base which was a skill I previously lacked so I was very proud of that. I enjoyed the game. This will be my last CAS entry for this activity though the activity itself will still continue.
Softball
Tuesday, April 6 – Today at softball we had our game in Nantucket. We arrived at the field and began stretching out but we did not have a lot of time to devote to warming up began we had to start the game almost immediately. We did not do very well in this game because it was our first real varsity game and we were unprepared for the amount of skill required to play the other team. However, I thought that even in this game I was a great improvement in the whole team from last year. We were much more organized in our fielding and a lot of players made some very good hits. I myself did fairly well as catcher and I felt confident that, even though I had some things to work on, I would do well this year. I also made some very good hits and got on base all times I was up to bat. I do need to work on catching ground balls behind the plate.
Wednesday, 7 – I did not come to Softball today because I had to study for two very important mock exams.
Thursday, 8 – Today at Softball practice I got a chance to really start practicing my catching skills. First we stretched out and we did our running drills around the bases. Then we broke into partners and threw the ball around to warm up our arms. Then the coaches told me that I should practice catching grounders as a catcher while the rest of the team practiced batting. They said I should do a little batting practice first though, so I did some warm up swings and went to the plate. I did well with the pitches that were fair but most of the pitches thrown by the coach were poor because he was out of practice. I hit a few really good ones into the outfield and the rest were grounders. Then I got the catcher’s equipment on and started practicing with the different pitchers. I caught three different pitchers and it was good to get used to all the different ways in which they threw. Some threw harder than others and some threw faster than other. I also asked them each specifically to give me a few grounders to practice with. I did not do well at first but after some extensive practice I managed to get the hang of dropping to my knees and stopping the ground balls. I did this for the rest of practice.
Friday, 9 – We were supposed to have a Softball game today but it got cancelled due to rain.
Wednesday, 7 – I did not come to Softball today because I had to study for two very important mock exams.
Thursday, 8 – Today at Softball practice I got a chance to really start practicing my catching skills. First we stretched out and we did our running drills around the bases. Then we broke into partners and threw the ball around to warm up our arms. Then the coaches told me that I should practice catching grounders as a catcher while the rest of the team practiced batting. They said I should do a little batting practice first though, so I did some warm up swings and went to the plate. I did well with the pitches that were fair but most of the pitches thrown by the coach were poor because he was out of practice. I hit a few really good ones into the outfield and the rest were grounders. Then I got the catcher’s equipment on and started practicing with the different pitchers. I caught three different pitchers and it was good to get used to all the different ways in which they threw. Some threw harder than others and some threw faster than other. I also asked them each specifically to give me a few grounders to practice with. I did not do well at first but after some extensive practice I managed to get the hang of dropping to my knees and stopping the ground balls. I did this for the rest of practice.
Friday, 9 – We were supposed to have a Softball game today but it got cancelled due to rain.
Softball
Wednesday, March 31 – Today in practice we began by stretching out and warming up our arms for throwing. We then did our running drills and the coaches told us that we were all improving in our ability to stop on the bases and not overrun them and we were running much faster. We then broke into pairs and warmed up our arms by throwing the ball to each other. After this, we were broken into two groups, outfielders and infielders. Because I had not been practicing catching a lot I was put in the outfielder group because it was my back up position. We went out and first practiced with some simple ground balls. I found that these were very easy for me to handle and I did the drill without any issues. Then we practiced pop ups. This was much more difficult for me and at first I did not catch many. But as I got used to seeing the ball curve in a parabola I got better at predicting where the ball would land and I became much better at catching it. We did this for the rest of the practice.
Thursday, April 1 – Today we went to practice but we did not stay long because it began to rain very hard. We did a few running drills and we talked about fielding the ball at different positions in the field. Then we went back to the school and the coaches handed out uniforms to all of us. I got the same one as last year and I was very happy about it.
Friday, 2 – There was no school today so there was no practice either.
Monday, 5 – Today we had practice and we began as always by stretching out and doing our running drills around the bases. Then we split into groups of infielder and outfielders. I was able to play catcher this time and I was very excited. I did not do much except stand at the plate and catch any incoming balls and give them back to the coach to bat into the field again. However I was pleased to be in my familiar position and it was good practice for catching any kind of ball because every player throws a little differently. After this we finally did some batting practiced which the coaches had promised we would do. I was able to bat first and I did very well with smacking the balls into the field. Then I went into the outfield and assisted in getting the balls that the other players hit.
Thursday, April 1 – Today we went to practice but we did not stay long because it began to rain very hard. We did a few running drills and we talked about fielding the ball at different positions in the field. Then we went back to the school and the coaches handed out uniforms to all of us. I got the same one as last year and I was very happy about it.
Friday, 2 – There was no school today so there was no practice either.
Monday, 5 – Today we had practice and we began as always by stretching out and doing our running drills around the bases. Then we split into groups of infielder and outfielders. I was able to play catcher this time and I was very excited. I did not do much except stand at the plate and catch any incoming balls and give them back to the coach to bat into the field again. However I was pleased to be in my familiar position and it was good practice for catching any kind of ball because every player throws a little differently. After this we finally did some batting practiced which the coaches had promised we would do. I was able to bat first and I did very well with smacking the balls into the field. Then I went into the outfield and assisted in getting the balls that the other players hit.
Habitat
Tuesday, March 30 – Today will be the last day of my work at the Habitat for Humanity office because I will not be able to attend Habitat next Tuesday. The next step after this is to participate in one of the builds on one of the Cape Cod sites. I will be doing this on Saturday April 10 because this is the first date on which the builds open. Today at the office I finished the applications I have been processing for the last few weeks. I worked very efficiently and was able to complete 12 applications in one day which is the most I have ever done. I also learned a few new things about the computer such as how to delete entire files and multiple files at once. This came in handy because I accidentally made a file that already existed in the system and I had to get rid of it. I also learned that there is an extra tab on the data entry page that allows me to search all of the information in the system to make sure I do not repeat any input. I successfully completed all the applications on my last day.
Tuesday, April 6 – Today I could not come to Habitat because I had a game in Nantucket.
Saturday, 10 – Today I went to the Dennis build for Habitat for Humanity and participated in beginning to build a home for a family in need. I was very excited to be going and while I was there I learned a lot of valuable skills about carpentry and contracting. I was not able to do too much because I had no experience in carpentry but I listened to the experts who gave me lessons on some of the basics of carpentry and even some of the finer details about the craft. My job for the majority of the day was hammering nails into boards to create the walls for the inferior of the house. I was not very good at first and I broke a lot of the nails but then I was able to get the technique behind it and I successfully hammered the rest of the nails in. I also helped to a little bit of painting because the walls I had hammered needed to be primed as well. This took up the rest of the time and then I went home. I had a lot of fun and I learned some valuable skills. Being at this build also made me think about the family the house was being built for and I was pleased to be doing something to help them in their time of need. I realized what a big issue homelessness is on Cape Cod and from what others were saying it sounded like it was a global issue as well. I was glad to be doing my part to help even just a little with such a large problem. I am definitely going to come back to the next build but this will be my last entry about habitat for CAS.
Tuesday, April 6 – Today I could not come to Habitat because I had a game in Nantucket.
Saturday, 10 – Today I went to the Dennis build for Habitat for Humanity and participated in beginning to build a home for a family in need. I was very excited to be going and while I was there I learned a lot of valuable skills about carpentry and contracting. I was not able to do too much because I had no experience in carpentry but I listened to the experts who gave me lessons on some of the basics of carpentry and even some of the finer details about the craft. My job for the majority of the day was hammering nails into boards to create the walls for the inferior of the house. I was not very good at first and I broke a lot of the nails but then I was able to get the technique behind it and I successfully hammered the rest of the nails in. I also helped to a little bit of painting because the walls I had hammered needed to be primed as well. This took up the rest of the time and then I went home. I had a lot of fun and I learned some valuable skills. Being at this build also made me think about the family the house was being built for and I was pleased to be doing something to help them in their time of need. I realized what a big issue homelessness is on Cape Cod and from what others were saying it sounded like it was a global issue as well. I was glad to be doing my part to help even just a little with such a large problem. I am definitely going to come back to the next build but this will be my last entry about habitat for CAS.
Creative Writing
Thursday, 8 - I could not come to Creative Writing today because of Mock Exams. Unfortunately this is the last chance I would have had for blogging about this activity for CAS so this is my last entry for Creative Writing, though I will continue to participate in the activity after CAS is finished.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Softball
Monday, March 29 and Tuesday March 30 – Softball practice was cancelled for both these days because of rain.
Greek Club
Thursday, February 18 – Today I could not make it to Greek Club because I had a lot of work to do at home finalizing some of my IAs that were due this week. So I asked one my students to take over for me and gave them a list of basic review topics to cover.
Thursday, 25 – Today I was back to the Greek Club. I asked the student I had left in charge how they had done in the last meeting and they said that overall they had done pretty well and there were only a few things they would have liked to have done better. I was very pleased to hear this because this particular student was the one that I was hoping to have take control of the club next year after I leave. I asked the student if they would be interested in taking in this responsibility and they said they would be honored. I was ecstatic to hear this because I felt it was my duty to make sure the club lived on after me in capable hands and I felt I had achieved this goal. After this I told my students they would be translating another passage for Greek and I gave them the vocabulary list to study. I then decided that we might as well start the translation today and so we did. We used the vocabulary list as a guide for the translation since there was no time to study it beforehand.
Thursday, March 4 – Today is unfortunately my last day of Greek, possibly for the rest of the year, although I am not entirely sure about that. This is because I will be starting conditioning for Softball next week and after that I will have to go to practice every Thursday for Softball. I made the announcement to my Greek students and informed them that my successor student for rest year would be taking the club over along with some help from the older members of the club. I had been delighted to hear that he was ready for this challenge and excited to take the club over. For my last day I simply had the group continue translating the passage we had begun last week and I was pleased to find that the majority of my students had studied their vocabulary lists and were prepared for the translation. I was also pleased because we were able to finish translating the entire passage by the end of the meeting.
Thursday, 25 – Today I was back to the Greek Club. I asked the student I had left in charge how they had done in the last meeting and they said that overall they had done pretty well and there were only a few things they would have liked to have done better. I was very pleased to hear this because this particular student was the one that I was hoping to have take control of the club next year after I leave. I asked the student if they would be interested in taking in this responsibility and they said they would be honored. I was ecstatic to hear this because I felt it was my duty to make sure the club lived on after me in capable hands and I felt I had achieved this goal. After this I told my students they would be translating another passage for Greek and I gave them the vocabulary list to study. I then decided that we might as well start the translation today and so we did. We used the vocabulary list as a guide for the translation since there was no time to study it beforehand.
Thursday, March 4 – Today is unfortunately my last day of Greek, possibly for the rest of the year, although I am not entirely sure about that. This is because I will be starting conditioning for Softball next week and after that I will have to go to practice every Thursday for Softball. I made the announcement to my Greek students and informed them that my successor student for rest year would be taking the club over along with some help from the older members of the club. I had been delighted to hear that he was ready for this challenge and excited to take the club over. For my last day I simply had the group continue translating the passage we had begun last week and I was pleased to find that the majority of my students had studied their vocabulary lists and were prepared for the translation. I was also pleased because we were able to finish translating the entire passage by the end of the meeting.
Creative Writing
Thursday, March 11 – Today in Creative Writing Club we read a poem by one of our very talented members. She is by far my favorite person to hear from in the club because I really enjoy her style of writing and I think she is very good. Today she submitted a poem about a clown giving out balloons to children at a carnival but in the poem he does not have enough balloons for everyone and he has to choose which kids to give them to. In the end he decides not to give a balloon to an ugly kid because he assumes that is what someone else would do but he feels guilty and apologizes to the kid in his mind. I really enjoyed the poem because I thought it was an interesting statement on how cruel humans can be and how they exercise the idea of survival of the fittest. We talked for a while about it and I said that not only did I like the meaning behind it but I was really impressed with the how well she used language to her advantage in the poem and I said I could definitely learn a few things from her writing.
Thursday, 18 – Today in creative writing we had a submission form one of our members that was very personal to her. We read it and I found it was difficult to understand and I did not really know what it was suppose to be about but I still really enjoyed it. When we went to talk about it I expressed this opinion and said even though I didn’t understand it, it was still really enjoyable because the language she used was so rich and descriptive I felt it almost made the whole poem. I said it was like ear candy and that was extremely pleasing to the senses. She told us afterward that the poem was based on a personal family matter and although she didn’t go into detail we could pretty much figure out for ourselves what that meant. It was still a very good poem.
Thursday, 25 – Today in creative writing we looked at two things, The first was a poem by my favorite member of the club and I was again blown away by her talent and told her she should go professional. I didn’t really know what this one was about but I still loved all the techniques she used in the poem like diction, structure, and rhyme. I said told her it was probably my favorite poem of hers that we had read so far. Next we actually looked at something of mine. It was a book of poems that I had one a spot in in a contest a few years ago. I had actually written the poem in the sixth grade but I had submitted it to the contest in my sophomore year of high school and I still won a place in this book. I told the group it was bad poem because I had written it when I was young but that I had wanted them to see the book of poetry because I thought they would find it cool. They said they thought it was pretty good, especially for a sixth grader, and they said that compared to the other poems in the book it looked really good. I thought that was funny. Also my supervisor said he really liked the fact that it was written in a traditional fashion that is rarely seen in modern poetry. I was really pleased to hear these things.
Thursday, April 1 – Today I could not come to Creative Writing Club because my supervisor was being duck taped to a pole.
Thursday, 18 – Today in creative writing we had a submission form one of our members that was very personal to her. We read it and I found it was difficult to understand and I did not really know what it was suppose to be about but I still really enjoyed it. When we went to talk about it I expressed this opinion and said even though I didn’t understand it, it was still really enjoyable because the language she used was so rich and descriptive I felt it almost made the whole poem. I said it was like ear candy and that was extremely pleasing to the senses. She told us afterward that the poem was based on a personal family matter and although she didn’t go into detail we could pretty much figure out for ourselves what that meant. It was still a very good poem.
Thursday, 25 – Today in creative writing we looked at two things, The first was a poem by my favorite member of the club and I was again blown away by her talent and told her she should go professional. I didn’t really know what this one was about but I still loved all the techniques she used in the poem like diction, structure, and rhyme. I said told her it was probably my favorite poem of hers that we had read so far. Next we actually looked at something of mine. It was a book of poems that I had one a spot in in a contest a few years ago. I had actually written the poem in the sixth grade but I had submitted it to the contest in my sophomore year of high school and I still won a place in this book. I told the group it was bad poem because I had written it when I was young but that I had wanted them to see the book of poetry because I thought they would find it cool. They said they thought it was pretty good, especially for a sixth grader, and they said that compared to the other poems in the book it looked really good. I thought that was funny. Also my supervisor said he really liked the fact that it was written in a traditional fashion that is rarely seen in modern poetry. I was really pleased to hear these things.
Thursday, April 1 – Today I could not come to Creative Writing Club because my supervisor was being duck taped to a pole.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Softball
Monday, March 22 – Today in softball we began by stretching out and then we did our running drill. I found that I was able to run much faster than in the previous practices and that I was much less sore afterward. Then we got partners and practiced our throwing and catching with each other. Here, I found that I was working out the mechanics of throwing much better and much more easily. I could throw the ball farther than before and with more force. After this we were all assigned positions in the field so that we could practice fielding the ball. First I was in the outfield and I was having a little trouble catching the ball as a pop up. However I did very well whit grounders and I was moved up to the infield. Now I was playing third place which is my least favorite position but I did alright and the only real issue I ad was throwing the ball to first because it is the longest possible throw to make on the field. I moved one last time to the outfield before the end of practice and I did much better catching pop ups.
Tuesday, March 23 – Today we did not do much for Softball because we had to leave early to go to the sports meeting that was being held as an introduction to spring sports. We stretched out and did our running drills and we all found that we were improving. Then, for the rest of the practice we did some basic conditioning and did not really throw the ball around much. After practice we went to the softball meeting and listened to some of the coaches talk about what this season would like for us. They explained that we were now a varsity team which meant we would be practicing harder and playing more difficult games. I was still in disagreement with this decision because the Softball team had only been in existence for two years and there were some girls on the team who had never even played the game so to me it seemed unfair that they should be pushed onto a varsity team where they would most likely be ignored because the coaches would feel they had to spend more time working with their experienced players to prepare them for playing varsity teams. But there was really nothing I could do so I decided to accept and support the decision.
Wednesday, 24 – Today in Softball we started the practice by stretching out and doing our running drills. Then we broke off into two groups and had a sort of competition between the two groups to see who could throw the balls the fastest to each other. We lined up ten feet apart from each other and threw the ball down the line back and forth two times. My team finished the first so the other team had to do a running drill for losing. Then we did another game where we tried to see which group could catch the most pop ups out of 30 balls. In this game we lost and I was not surprised because I am not that good at catching pop ups. So we had to do the running drill this time. After this we did some batting practice where we hit the balls against a wall as rapidly as they were thrown to us. I did very well with this exercise.
Thursday, 25 – I could not come to practice today because I went to Habitat for Humanity.
Friday, 26 – There was no practice today because of rain and wind.
Tuesday, March 23 – Today we did not do much for Softball because we had to leave early to go to the sports meeting that was being held as an introduction to spring sports. We stretched out and did our running drills and we all found that we were improving. Then, for the rest of the practice we did some basic conditioning and did not really throw the ball around much. After practice we went to the softball meeting and listened to some of the coaches talk about what this season would like for us. They explained that we were now a varsity team which meant we would be practicing harder and playing more difficult games. I was still in disagreement with this decision because the Softball team had only been in existence for two years and there were some girls on the team who had never even played the game so to me it seemed unfair that they should be pushed onto a varsity team where they would most likely be ignored because the coaches would feel they had to spend more time working with their experienced players to prepare them for playing varsity teams. But there was really nothing I could do so I decided to accept and support the decision.
Wednesday, 24 – Today in Softball we started the practice by stretching out and doing our running drills. Then we broke off into two groups and had a sort of competition between the two groups to see who could throw the balls the fastest to each other. We lined up ten feet apart from each other and threw the ball down the line back and forth two times. My team finished the first so the other team had to do a running drill for losing. Then we did another game where we tried to see which group could catch the most pop ups out of 30 balls. In this game we lost and I was not surprised because I am not that good at catching pop ups. So we had to do the running drill this time. After this we did some batting practice where we hit the balls against a wall as rapidly as they were thrown to us. I did very well with this exercise.
Thursday, 25 – I could not come to practice today because I went to Habitat for Humanity.
Friday, 26 – There was no practice today because of rain and wind.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Softball
Monday, March 15 – Today was the first day of Softball practice for this school year. Because it was just the beginning of the season and not all the players knew each other’s names, the coaches decided we would start by introducing ourselves and talking about why we decided to play Softball this year. I told everyone my name and said that I was playing this year because I had played last year and wanted to continue, and because I really enjoyed being the catcher on the team. After this introduction we stretched out and were told that the first practice would be mainly dedicated to conditioning to get our muscles toned and strengthened for the season. So we did some running drills and we did pushups and sit ups to try and get back into shape. I was surprised to find that I did very well with these drills and was in better shape than I had realized. It was a successful first practice.
Wednesday, March 17 – Today at Softball practice we were told that we would be working out the mechanics of the sport by doing things like catching, throwing, base running, and hitting. We started by stretching out and then we moved to the catching and throwing. We each got a partner who we stood ten feet away from to start. We threw the ball to them and then every time we made five successful throws in a row we would move back a few steps and try throwing from a farther distance away. The coached went around to each player and pointed out any mistakes they were making in the mechanics of throwing the ball. After this, we moved to base running. We did a drill where we all lined up and ran to first base, then got back in line and ran to second base, then got back in line and ran to third, and so on. It was tiring but overall everyone did well. We were unable to get to hitting today but we were told we would do it next time for practice.
Thursday, March 18 – Today we did not have practice because it was raining.
Friday, March 19 – Today in Softball practice the coaches kept their promise of letting us hit for a while. First, as always, we stretched out and then the coaches informed us that we would be repeating the same base running drill we had done last practice at the beginning of every practice from now on. So we ran the bases and I felt that I was already improving in that. Then we finally got to the hitting. We all lined up and went one after another to hit and after we hit we went out into the field in no particular position and helped catch the balls being hit. When it was my turn I was pleased to discover that I could hit each of the balls into the outfield. Some were grounders but most of them were line drives which meant I was off to a good start for the season. After this we all went to random positions in the field and practiced fielding the ball to first base. We made some mistakes but in general we were all able to successfully get the ball to first base even if we missed it the first time. It was a good practice.
Wednesday, March 17 – Today at Softball practice we were told that we would be working out the mechanics of the sport by doing things like catching, throwing, base running, and hitting. We started by stretching out and then we moved to the catching and throwing. We each got a partner who we stood ten feet away from to start. We threw the ball to them and then every time we made five successful throws in a row we would move back a few steps and try throwing from a farther distance away. The coached went around to each player and pointed out any mistakes they were making in the mechanics of throwing the ball. After this, we moved to base running. We did a drill where we all lined up and ran to first base, then got back in line and ran to second base, then got back in line and ran to third, and so on. It was tiring but overall everyone did well. We were unable to get to hitting today but we were told we would do it next time for practice.
Thursday, March 18 – Today we did not have practice because it was raining.
Friday, March 19 – Today in Softball practice the coaches kept their promise of letting us hit for a while. First, as always, we stretched out and then the coaches informed us that we would be repeating the same base running drill we had done last practice at the beginning of every practice from now on. So we ran the bases and I felt that I was already improving in that. Then we finally got to the hitting. We all lined up and went one after another to hit and after we hit we went out into the field in no particular position and helped catch the balls being hit. When it was my turn I was pleased to discover that I could hit each of the balls into the outfield. Some were grounders but most of them were line drives which meant I was off to a good start for the season. After this we all went to random positions in the field and practiced fielding the ball to first base. We made some mistakes but in general we were all able to successfully get the ball to first base even if we missed it the first time. It was a good practice.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Habitat
Thursday, March 25 – Today at Habitat for Humanity I was to help my advisor, Hilary, set up and run one of the organization’s monthly meetings. This is why I came today instead of on Tuesday, so I could be there fore the meeting. When I got there I was given a name tag and asked to set up chairs and tables in the conference room. Then I wrote the schedule for the meeting on the board and set up all the posters and diagrams that would be used during the meeting. I also set up the Habitat documentary that would be shown during the meeting. When people finally arrived I helped seat them in the conference room and Hilary began the presentation. When she got to talking about office work she asked me to say a few words to the group about my experience with this. I talked to them about data entry and said it was very enjoyable and relaxing. Then I played the clip from the documentary. This featured interviews with some of the families the organization had built houses for in the past and they all expressed their gratitude for what Habitat had done for them. This made me realize what a serious issue their living conditions had been before Habitat helped them and it made me glad that I was helping such a wonderful organization. It seemed to me that bad living conditions must be an issue all over the world and I eager to help solve it at least in my own community. After the meeting was over I helped Hilary clean up and put the tables and chairs back. Hilary was pleased with how the presentation went and so was I.
Habitat For Humanity
Tuesday, March 16 – Today I went back to the office at Habitat for Humanity to hopefully finish the rest of the applications that needed to be put into the computer. Now that I knew all of the different codes and things for the applications I did not need any help from Hilary putting them into the computer. I was able to finish more applications today than any of the previous times. I was very proud to have gained so much knowledge about computer work and data entry. Hilary informed me that next week she was going to need my help setting up and hosting one of the organization’s monthly meetings in the same building. She told me to come on Thursday instead of Tuesday.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Creative Writing
Thursday, February 25 – Today in Creative Writing we got a submission that was a continuation of one of our previous submissions. It was story that was told through the journal of a young girl whose teacher was making everyone in her class keep the journal as practice for writing. I had really enjoyed the first entry of this story because I thought it was a unique idea to tell a story in this way. Now I liked the second entry even better because in continuing the story we learned more about this girl through her journal and I thought it was really well done because none of the information was out rightly stated, it was all hinted at in the form of the journal. This submission really exposed me to different styles of writing that I had never seen and never thought of before. I told the author that I really enjoyed it and that I was eager to read more.
Thursday, 4 – Today I could not attend Creative Writing because I was having my final Extended Essay meeting with my advisor.
Thursday, 4 – Today I could not attend Creative Writing because I was having my final Extended Essay meeting with my advisor.
Habitat for Humanity
Tuesday, March 2 – Today was my first day of working with the organization Habitat for Humanity. I went to their main office building in Yarmouth and I met some of the people who do the organizing for all the fundraisers and events that Habitat holds. I went there to help them with some of this office work because currently there are no functioning building sites on the Cape for me to attend. I was told that the building would resume in April and until them they needed help with office work and organizing Habitat applications. This became my job. I met with my supervisor Hilary and she set me up at a computer and gave me a stack of applications to process. It was not very exciting but I enjoyed it anyway because I learned a lot about the computer I never knew before and I felt this knowledge could come in handy later on. It was a good first day.
Tuesday, March 9 – Today was my second day of assisting the organization Habitat for Humanity with their office work. I went to the same building as before and met with my supervisor Hilary. She took me to the computer and gave me the pile of applications to process. She also showed me a few more things about the computer like what certain errors meant and the different codes I needed for some of them. I really learned a lot about the computer and I enjoyed learning it. I started processing the applications and I found that I was much quicker in getting them done now that I knew how to work the computer. I was pleased that I was improving my computer skills and work effort through this activity and I felt confident in my knowledge of the inner workings of Habitat for Humanity.
Tuesday, March 9 – Today was my second day of assisting the organization Habitat for Humanity with their office work. I went to the same building as before and met with my supervisor Hilary. She took me to the computer and gave me the pile of applications to process. She also showed me a few more things about the computer like what certain errors meant and the different codes I needed for some of them. I really learned a lot about the computer and I enjoyed learning it. I started processing the applications and I found that I was much quicker in getting them done now that I knew how to work the computer. I was pleased that I was improving my computer skills and work effort through this activity and I felt confident in my knowledge of the inner workings of Habitat for Humanity.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Creative Writing
Thursday, January 14 – Today in Creative Writing we had the return of a previous Creative Writing submission. One of the members who had submitted a poem about his sister’s struggle with a deadly disease submitted the same poem again this week. We took a few minutes to read trough the poem and gather our thoughts about it. We found that the poem had not been drastically altered but that there were a few subtle changes in some of the wording and some of the tenses and they seemed to make a very big difference. I commented on how I thought the poem flowed much more smoothly and how I thought the subject of the work could be more clearly understood. I also said that now that I had this understanding of the poem I really enjoyed it much more and realized what a good poem it was. Everyone else in the group seemed to feel the same way and we all agreed that the poem was much better.
Thursday 21 – Today there was no Creative Writing because of midterms.
Thursday 28 – Today I could not make it to Creative Writing because I had a doctor’s appointment during that time.
Thursday, February 4 – Today in Creative writing we got another very interesting submission. It was a cartoon which is not what we normally do in class because cartoons don’t usually involve much writing. However this cartoon was different because it had a lot of dialogue and the member who submitted it said that this was because it was part of a graphic novel which is a classification of cartoons that involves full and rich dialogue. I really enjoyed reading the submission because of its accompanying pictures. These illustrations allowed me to literally visualize what was happening in the story and I found that that helped me to understand and connect with the story better. I said that I thought it was very entertaining and that the only thing I would change is perhaps adding even more illustrations because that was my favorite part. All other members of the group enjoyed the cartoon as much as me and said they wanted to see more submissions like it.
Thursday, 11 – Today in Creative Writing we had a very good submission and I would definitely consider it one of my favorites. It was an interesting one because no one in the club had any idea what it was about, so much so that we didn't even attempt trying to guess. However we all loved it. It flowed so smoothly and the diction was so rich that it was like ear candy to read it out loud. It was audibly pleasing and it was the rhyme scheme and the meter and all the sounds of each word that made it that way. When we actually paid attention to the words however, none of us could figure out what they meant. I commented on how it was incredible that a poem could completely rely on its sound to be considered fantastic without ever understanding the meaning. We all agreed that it must ave been a difficult poem to write and we were all impressed.
Thursday 21 – Today there was no Creative Writing because of midterms.
Thursday 28 – Today I could not make it to Creative Writing because I had a doctor’s appointment during that time.
Thursday, February 4 – Today in Creative writing we got another very interesting submission. It was a cartoon which is not what we normally do in class because cartoons don’t usually involve much writing. However this cartoon was different because it had a lot of dialogue and the member who submitted it said that this was because it was part of a graphic novel which is a classification of cartoons that involves full and rich dialogue. I really enjoyed reading the submission because of its accompanying pictures. These illustrations allowed me to literally visualize what was happening in the story and I found that that helped me to understand and connect with the story better. I said that I thought it was very entertaining and that the only thing I would change is perhaps adding even more illustrations because that was my favorite part. All other members of the group enjoyed the cartoon as much as me and said they wanted to see more submissions like it.
Thursday, 11 – Today in Creative Writing we had a very good submission and I would definitely consider it one of my favorites. It was an interesting one because no one in the club had any idea what it was about, so much so that we didn't even attempt trying to guess. However we all loved it. It flowed so smoothly and the diction was so rich that it was like ear candy to read it out loud. It was audibly pleasing and it was the rhyme scheme and the meter and all the sounds of each word that made it that way. When we actually paid attention to the words however, none of us could figure out what they meant. I commented on how it was incredible that a poem could completely rely on its sound to be considered fantastic without ever understanding the meaning. We all agreed that it must ave been a difficult poem to write and we were all impressed.
Greek Club
Thursday, January 14 – Today there was no Greek Club because not enough people showed up for the class. Only two came and I have to assume this is because people were preparing for midterms next week.
Thursday, 21 – Today there was no Greek Club because of midterms.
Thursday, 28 – I could not make it to Greek Club today because I had to go to the first meeting of the Astrometrica project I am participating in. Therefore I assigned the job of teaching to my student who had been in the club the longest. I had been planning on grooming this person for the position of Greek Club teacher next year since I would be graduating, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to show him what it’s like. I gave him a list of everything I wanted him to cover in the class period which simply consisted of a review. I wanted them to review all the declensions and conjugations they had done so far because people were just getting back from midterms and I knew they had probably forgotten some things. I also gave him a list of vocabulary words and told him to pass them out and inform the class to study them because next week we would be translating a passage that involved these words.
Thursday, February 4 – Today I interrogated my Greek Students about last week’s class and how well the teacher had done. They seemed to agree that overall he did a very good job and covered all the material I asked him to. I was very proud and I felt that he was a good pick for taking over Greek Club next year. After this discussion I reminded people of the vocabulary list they had received last week and then gave them the passage that went along with it. We ended up translating about half the passage in the time we had and I was pleased with this because I had not let them use their vocabulary but made them translate from memory. I did this not only because it would help them internalize the vocabulary but I felt that it would allow them to focus more on identifying the endings of the Greek words and making connections to declensions and conjugations. I told them we would continue translating next week.
Thursday, 11 – Today in Greek Club we continued translating the passage we had gotten half way through in the previous week. Some students came to the club today that had not been to the two previous classes and therefore had not gotten the vocabulary list and had not translated the first half of the passage with us. So I gave these people some Greek vocabulary books and assigned them the job of looking up any words that we got stuck on while translating. We were able to completely finish translating the passage and I was particularly pleased because I noticed a definite improvement in my students’ ability to translate even from just last week.
Thursday, 21 – Today there was no Greek Club because of midterms.
Thursday, 28 – I could not make it to Greek Club today because I had to go to the first meeting of the Astrometrica project I am participating in. Therefore I assigned the job of teaching to my student who had been in the club the longest. I had been planning on grooming this person for the position of Greek Club teacher next year since I would be graduating, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to show him what it’s like. I gave him a list of everything I wanted him to cover in the class period which simply consisted of a review. I wanted them to review all the declensions and conjugations they had done so far because people were just getting back from midterms and I knew they had probably forgotten some things. I also gave him a list of vocabulary words and told him to pass them out and inform the class to study them because next week we would be translating a passage that involved these words.
Thursday, February 4 – Today I interrogated my Greek Students about last week’s class and how well the teacher had done. They seemed to agree that overall he did a very good job and covered all the material I asked him to. I was very proud and I felt that he was a good pick for taking over Greek Club next year. After this discussion I reminded people of the vocabulary list they had received last week and then gave them the passage that went along with it. We ended up translating about half the passage in the time we had and I was pleased with this because I had not let them use their vocabulary but made them translate from memory. I did this not only because it would help them internalize the vocabulary but I felt that it would allow them to focus more on identifying the endings of the Greek words and making connections to declensions and conjugations. I told them we would continue translating next week.
Thursday, 11 – Today in Greek Club we continued translating the passage we had gotten half way through in the previous week. Some students came to the club today that had not been to the two previous classes and therefore had not gotten the vocabulary list and had not translated the first half of the passage with us. So I gave these people some Greek vocabulary books and assigned them the job of looking up any words that we got stuck on while translating. We were able to completely finish translating the passage and I was particularly pleased because I noticed a definite improvement in my students’ ability to translate even from just last week.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Adopt A Family
Saturday, December 4 – Today was the first day of my participation in the Adopt A Family program that I signed up for this December. The purpose of the program is to help low income families afford Christmas by buying presents for their children. Each person is assigned a family and is given a list of the children and what they want for Christmas. We were given a family with two young boys whose favorite colors were red and blue, and who were interested in bugs and cars. We tried to start the shopping today for the kids but we didn’t find much. We did find a coloring book with a few bugs in it and some toy cars but we still needed to get cloths and a few more toys for the kids.
Sunday, December 5 – Today we were able to find a lot more of the toys the kids wanted and all for reasonable prices. We got the first boy a Creepy Crawlers Creation Laboratory that lets him create bugs from a Joelton like mix. We also got him a pack of giant crayons so he can color in the bug book we got him. We got the second kid a Tomas the train set that runs on batteries and a kid’s book about different kinds of cars and their engines. For clothes we got the first kid three shirts, three pants, a red winter jacket and gloves set, and some red Spider Man pajamas. And for the second kid we got three shirts, two pants, a blue jacket with matching gloves and a hat, and Cars pajamas. We were successful in getting everything on the list.
Saturday, December 11 – Today I was at the building where all the toys from all the people who volunteer for the program come and get sorted into their different families. In addition to volunteering for the program I also volunteered to help with the sorting. My job is look through all the items that are sent in and match them with their families while also checking to make sure there are no excess items in the bags people send in. Today was just for setting up the stations in the building for the sorting and not to do any of the actual sorting yet. We set up tables in a room for all the excess toys and we got bags to fill for all the toys that would go to the families. Then we sorted out the forms of all the families in alphabetical order to make sure everything would be set to start the sorting on Monday.
Monday, December 13 – Today was to be the first day of sorting but before that could start we had to bring all the bags of toys people had donated down stairs to the sorting room. There were a lot of bags and took a very long time because some of them were very heavy and needed two people to lift them. We lined the bags up in the hallway outside the sorting room and made sure they were all numbered correctly to correspond with the number their families were given. This took so long that we did not have enough time to start the sorting and we waited until next time.
Saturday, December 18 – Today we started sorting. I was taught by my adult supervisor
what to do. You would take the form of one of the families and on it would be a list of the children in the family and what they wanted for Christmas. Then you would take the bag that was labeled with the same number as the family had and see if the items in the bag matched the items on the list. If there was anything extra you had to put it on the extra’s table. If there was anything missing you would look on the extra’s table and try and find something that was similar to it to put in the bag for the family in place of the missing item. Then you had to check everything off on the list and write in anything extra that you added. This is all I did today as a start and I finished a lot of bags and felt good that I was doing it for such a good cause. I did the best I could to make sure every kid got what they wanted for Christmas or at least something like it.
Sunday, December 19 – Today I learned how to organize the bags into the different storage trucks to wait until the families came to pick them up. There were three different trucks with different purposes. Because there over 100 bags, two of the trucks were used as storage trucks for the bags that already had everything in them and were all set to be picked up. One of these trucks was to store bags 1-80 and the other truck was to store the rest of the bags. The third truck was for bags that were not completed yet. In other words, if a bag being sorted had a missing item and none of the extra items could substitute it, it would go into this truck until an extra arrived that was suitable for replacing the missing item. There were three lists as well for each truck and after a bag was stored it had to e recorded on the list that represented that truck. I did this for most of the day along with sorting some more bags.
Monday, December 20 – Today was the last day for me to help with the Adopt A Family program. I spent the day sorting out bags and storing them in their respective trucks. Today I combined these two activities and once I was done sorting a bag I immediately put it into the truck it belonged to. After all the bags were done being sorted I went to the third truck and took out all the bags that were not yet complete and went around to the extra’s table to look for items that could replace the missing items for the bags. I was able to find an item for each bag and afterward I put the bags into the two finished trucks. Then the families came and gathered the bags that were marked for their kids and I checked them off the list. This program made me aware of some of the serious issues of low income and even homelessness not only on the Cape but the world as well. I was glad to help with this issue a little bit, though I wish I could have done more.
Sunday, December 5 – Today we were able to find a lot more of the toys the kids wanted and all for reasonable prices. We got the first boy a Creepy Crawlers Creation Laboratory that lets him create bugs from a Joelton like mix. We also got him a pack of giant crayons so he can color in the bug book we got him. We got the second kid a Tomas the train set that runs on batteries and a kid’s book about different kinds of cars and their engines. For clothes we got the first kid three shirts, three pants, a red winter jacket and gloves set, and some red Spider Man pajamas. And for the second kid we got three shirts, two pants, a blue jacket with matching gloves and a hat, and Cars pajamas. We were successful in getting everything on the list.
Saturday, December 11 – Today I was at the building where all the toys from all the people who volunteer for the program come and get sorted into their different families. In addition to volunteering for the program I also volunteered to help with the sorting. My job is look through all the items that are sent in and match them with their families while also checking to make sure there are no excess items in the bags people send in. Today was just for setting up the stations in the building for the sorting and not to do any of the actual sorting yet. We set up tables in a room for all the excess toys and we got bags to fill for all the toys that would go to the families. Then we sorted out the forms of all the families in alphabetical order to make sure everything would be set to start the sorting on Monday.
Monday, December 13 – Today was to be the first day of sorting but before that could start we had to bring all the bags of toys people had donated down stairs to the sorting room. There were a lot of bags and took a very long time because some of them were very heavy and needed two people to lift them. We lined the bags up in the hallway outside the sorting room and made sure they were all numbered correctly to correspond with the number their families were given. This took so long that we did not have enough time to start the sorting and we waited until next time.
Saturday, December 18 – Today we started sorting. I was taught by my adult supervisor
what to do. You would take the form of one of the families and on it would be a list of the children in the family and what they wanted for Christmas. Then you would take the bag that was labeled with the same number as the family had and see if the items in the bag matched the items on the list. If there was anything extra you had to put it on the extra’s table. If there was anything missing you would look on the extra’s table and try and find something that was similar to it to put in the bag for the family in place of the missing item. Then you had to check everything off on the list and write in anything extra that you added. This is all I did today as a start and I finished a lot of bags and felt good that I was doing it for such a good cause. I did the best I could to make sure every kid got what they wanted for Christmas or at least something like it.
Sunday, December 19 – Today I learned how to organize the bags into the different storage trucks to wait until the families came to pick them up. There were three different trucks with different purposes. Because there over 100 bags, two of the trucks were used as storage trucks for the bags that already had everything in them and were all set to be picked up. One of these trucks was to store bags 1-80 and the other truck was to store the rest of the bags. The third truck was for bags that were not completed yet. In other words, if a bag being sorted had a missing item and none of the extra items could substitute it, it would go into this truck until an extra arrived that was suitable for replacing the missing item. There were three lists as well for each truck and after a bag was stored it had to e recorded on the list that represented that truck. I did this for most of the day along with sorting some more bags.
Monday, December 20 – Today was the last day for me to help with the Adopt A Family program. I spent the day sorting out bags and storing them in their respective trucks. Today I combined these two activities and once I was done sorting a bag I immediately put it into the truck it belonged to. After all the bags were done being sorted I went to the third truck and took out all the bags that were not yet complete and went around to the extra’s table to look for items that could replace the missing items for the bags. I was able to find an item for each bag and afterward I put the bags into the two finished trucks. Then the families came and gathered the bags that were marked for their kids and I checked them off the list. This program made me aware of some of the serious issues of low income and even homelessness not only on the Cape but the world as well. I was glad to help with this issue a little bit, though I wish I could have done more.
Prospective Students and Parents Night
Wednesday, December 2 – Tonight I went to the school to speak to prospective students and their parents about the expectations of Sturgis and what life is like for attending students. I had to do two sessions along with another senior because too many people showed up and they could not fit into one room in the school. The other senior and I talked about Sturgis to one group while Mr. Hieser informed the other group about the IB program, and then we switched off. I was very nervous to speak to the crowd because I have some performance anxieties and it showed during the first session. I jumbled my words a bit and paused a lot when I was asked questions by the parents. One parent began interrogating me about if I was really prepared to go on to study Astrophysics in college because I hadn’t taken HL Math and he was very rude in the manner in which he asked the questions. However I was able to hold my ground and I answered all his questions in a way that eventually made him stop. I was very proud of myself and I began to feel more confident in my ability to talk to the crowd. We talked about academics and the school environment, and just school life in general and how difficult but rewarding it was. By the time we got to the second group I felt much better and I was able to give them more direct and meaningful information. All in all I had a really good time with it and I would do it again if I could.
Creative Writing
Thursday, November 5 – Today in Creative Writing we read a poem by one of the members who had recently written it. The poem was about an image of how the mind works and its different regions of lightness and darkness. I commented on how much I liked the description of the image and the many adjectives that were used. I said that while there was so much description it still seemed as though they had paid very close attention to their diction or choice of words and that was well conveyed through the poem. I also commented on how I liked the contrast of light and dark in the poem. Other members of the club said what they thought and we all found it hard to give advice on such a well written work, but they did give some criticism and I thought that it was great how well we were all working together to help each other improve our writing.
Thursday, November 12 – Today in Creative Writing we got an interesting submission because it was comic that one of the members of the club was writing. It was hard to assess in terms of the writing aspect of it because there was not much of it. The comic was mostly pictures with a few lines here and there. However, I still found a way to discuss the methods used to build up the moment being illustrated in the comic through the placement of certain phrases and the significance of what the phrases were. The rest of the club suggested that more writing should be involved in the comic.
Thursday, November 19 – There was no Creative Writing today because no one submitted anything.
Thursday, November 26 – No one submitted anything again today but it was alright because Mr. Arcenas brought in one of his favorite short stories by Franz Kafka. I was very excited to read it because Kafka is my favorite short story writer and I have always loved his work. We read the story and talked a bit about what we thought but I couldn’t help but talk mostly about how much I loved Kafka’s style of writing and the wonderful images and powerful diction he uses. I talked about a lot of his other stories like the Metamorphosis and Huger Artist, and I couldn’t help but mention how much he had inspired my own writing. In short, I did not stay on topic today.
Thursday, December 3 – Today I could not make it to Creative Writing because I was sick.
Thursday, December 10 – Today in creative writing we got an interesting submission by the newest member in our group. It was a super hero story about a high school kid who saves the girl he has a crush on with his super powers. The story was very charming but very badly written. It was a difficult one to talk about because no one seemed to have anything good to say about it and we all felt guilty because we knew we were making the author feel bad about the work. I honestly enjoyed reading it but it was true that the grammar was very poor and plot was not very creative. It was a very awkward meeting and I don’t think that member will be coming back to the club.
Thursday, December 17 – Today we got one of the best submissions we have ever had by one of the members. The story was very simple but it had a great deal of potency that I respected very much. It was just about a young boy getting up and out the door to go to school in the morning. It described his view of his morning routine and it made all of us very nostalgic. I loved the diction the author used and the very basic descriptions of things going on around the boy. I thought the story really captured a certain essence of childhood that we can all remember and relate to. I talked about how much I enjoyed the complicated meaning behind such a simple piece of literature. I was very excited when the author said they were planning on writing more for the work.
Thursday, January 7 – There was no Creative Writing today because not enough people showed up.
Thursday, November 12 – Today in Creative Writing we got an interesting submission because it was comic that one of the members of the club was writing. It was hard to assess in terms of the writing aspect of it because there was not much of it. The comic was mostly pictures with a few lines here and there. However, I still found a way to discuss the methods used to build up the moment being illustrated in the comic through the placement of certain phrases and the significance of what the phrases were. The rest of the club suggested that more writing should be involved in the comic.
Thursday, November 19 – There was no Creative Writing today because no one submitted anything.
Thursday, November 26 – No one submitted anything again today but it was alright because Mr. Arcenas brought in one of his favorite short stories by Franz Kafka. I was very excited to read it because Kafka is my favorite short story writer and I have always loved his work. We read the story and talked a bit about what we thought but I couldn’t help but talk mostly about how much I loved Kafka’s style of writing and the wonderful images and powerful diction he uses. I talked about a lot of his other stories like the Metamorphosis and Huger Artist, and I couldn’t help but mention how much he had inspired my own writing. In short, I did not stay on topic today.
Thursday, December 3 – Today I could not make it to Creative Writing because I was sick.
Thursday, December 10 – Today in creative writing we got an interesting submission by the newest member in our group. It was a super hero story about a high school kid who saves the girl he has a crush on with his super powers. The story was very charming but very badly written. It was a difficult one to talk about because no one seemed to have anything good to say about it and we all felt guilty because we knew we were making the author feel bad about the work. I honestly enjoyed reading it but it was true that the grammar was very poor and plot was not very creative. It was a very awkward meeting and I don’t think that member will be coming back to the club.
Thursday, December 17 – Today we got one of the best submissions we have ever had by one of the members. The story was very simple but it had a great deal of potency that I respected very much. It was just about a young boy getting up and out the door to go to school in the morning. It described his view of his morning routine and it made all of us very nostalgic. I loved the diction the author used and the very basic descriptions of things going on around the boy. I thought the story really captured a certain essence of childhood that we can all remember and relate to. I talked about how much I enjoyed the complicated meaning behind such a simple piece of literature. I was very excited when the author said they were planning on writing more for the work.
Thursday, January 7 – There was no Creative Writing today because not enough people showed up.
Greek Club
Thursday 5 – Today in Greek I decided it would be good to have some review of the first declension and the first conjugation so that we could do some translating next class. So I did an example on the board of the declension and talked my students through it. Then I wrote some first declension nouns on the board, one for each student, and had them come up and decline them. Most of them did pretty well and only a few had mistakes which I corrected for them. Then I did an example of the conjugation and talked them through that. Afterwards, I wrote a verb for each student and had them try. They did not do as well on the verbs and I decided we would have to work more on them.
Thursday 12 – Today I began class by giving my students some verbs to conjugate for the present tense. I gave them hints when they were stuck but for the most part they did much better than in the previous week and I felt they were ready for some translating. I gave them a passage from the text book we were using because it was fairly simple and straight forward and it provided all the vocabulary for them. We set the desks up in a circle and translated as a group taking turns reading the sentence aloud and then translating it one word at a time. We were able to get the whole passage done and I was very proud of my students.
Thursday 19 – Today I decided it was time for the class to learn the second declension so that we could add another dynamic to translating. I wrote an example of the declension on the board and explained how it was a masculine declension that could be identified by its ending. Then I pointed out the differences between this declension and the first declension and also the few similarities that the two forms had. Then I gave a word to each of my students and had them decline for themselves. They did very well and I continued giving them words to practice with for the rest of the class. I told them we would be translating something different next class.
Thursday 26 – Today I decided it was time to try a more difficult passage to translate. I gave them a passage that had the first declension, the second declension, and the first conjugation. In addition to this I also took out all the vocabulary keys for the words they had already learned on their vocabulary lists. We sat in a circle again and took turns reading and translating sentence by sentence and word by word. It was definitely more challenging for my students but they did very well and they were able to complete the entire passage.
Thursday 3 – Today I could not make it to Greek Club because I was sick so I told Mr. Arcenas to give the student s another passage to work with.
Thursday 10 – Today I came to Greek to discover that my students had done very well with the passage Mr. Arcenas ad assigned them last class. I was very pleased and I told them I would give them more vocabulary so that they could do more complicated translating next time I gave them a passage. So I wrote ten more vocabulary words on the board but this time they were from the second declension. I had each students pronounce a word and guess what the meaning would be. Then I told them to add them to their vocabulary list.
Thursday 17 – Today we did a little review of the first conjugation in Greek Club but then we went right into the Christmas Party I had promised my students. I brought cookies and drinks for the class and I read them a book called “You Will Go To The Moon”. It was very fun.
Thursday 7 – Today in class we had two special guests come and tell us about Greek. Laura and Sam were two of the original Greek Club students and Sam as a special talent for reading Greek with all its accents and pitches because Greek is a tonal language. So we spent the class hearing stories about old Greek classes and having Sam read and educate us about pronouncing Greek.
Thursday 12 – Today I began class by giving my students some verbs to conjugate for the present tense. I gave them hints when they were stuck but for the most part they did much better than in the previous week and I felt they were ready for some translating. I gave them a passage from the text book we were using because it was fairly simple and straight forward and it provided all the vocabulary for them. We set the desks up in a circle and translated as a group taking turns reading the sentence aloud and then translating it one word at a time. We were able to get the whole passage done and I was very proud of my students.
Thursday 19 – Today I decided it was time for the class to learn the second declension so that we could add another dynamic to translating. I wrote an example of the declension on the board and explained how it was a masculine declension that could be identified by its ending. Then I pointed out the differences between this declension and the first declension and also the few similarities that the two forms had. Then I gave a word to each of my students and had them decline for themselves. They did very well and I continued giving them words to practice with for the rest of the class. I told them we would be translating something different next class.
Thursday 26 – Today I decided it was time to try a more difficult passage to translate. I gave them a passage that had the first declension, the second declension, and the first conjugation. In addition to this I also took out all the vocabulary keys for the words they had already learned on their vocabulary lists. We sat in a circle again and took turns reading and translating sentence by sentence and word by word. It was definitely more challenging for my students but they did very well and they were able to complete the entire passage.
Thursday 3 – Today I could not make it to Greek Club because I was sick so I told Mr. Arcenas to give the student s another passage to work with.
Thursday 10 – Today I came to Greek to discover that my students had done very well with the passage Mr. Arcenas ad assigned them last class. I was very pleased and I told them I would give them more vocabulary so that they could do more complicated translating next time I gave them a passage. So I wrote ten more vocabulary words on the board but this time they were from the second declension. I had each students pronounce a word and guess what the meaning would be. Then I told them to add them to their vocabulary list.
Thursday 17 – Today we did a little review of the first conjugation in Greek Club but then we went right into the Christmas Party I had promised my students. I brought cookies and drinks for the class and I read them a book called “You Will Go To The Moon”. It was very fun.
Thursday 7 – Today in class we had two special guests come and tell us about Greek. Laura and Sam were two of the original Greek Club students and Sam as a special talent for reading Greek with all its accents and pitches because Greek is a tonal language. So we spent the class hearing stories about old Greek classes and having Sam read and educate us about pronouncing Greek.
Karate
Tuesday, November 3 – Today in karate we were told that there would be a belt test on Tuesday, November 18 and that today the instructors would be deciding who was ready to go to the test. We stretched for a while but not as long as usual because the instructors wanted as much time as they could get to decide who would be testing. So they quizzed us on all the things we were suppose to know for the next test. This included wrist grabs, one steps, and most importantly forms. We started with wrist grabs and went through them together as a class to make sure everyone was caught up on what they should know. Then we did the same with the one steps. I did fine with both these things because I knew mine pretty well. However I had more difficulty with the form. But I asked my instructor to help me understand the moves involved and I had it down by the end of the class.
Saturday, November 7 – Today we were told that those of us who were eligible for the next test would be given a form at the end of the class. I was nervous that I might not get one and I stayed nervous all through class. This made it difficult to focus on what we were doing. We stretched out and then we repeated what we had done in the previous class to help us prepare for the test. We did all our wrist grabs, one steps, and forms together as a class, though I was still nervous and did not do very well. But at the end of class I was still given form to sill out for the test and I was very happy that I was eligible.
Tuesday, November 10 – Today we were told that for the next week we would spend our time preparing for the test. We stretched out and then we were broken up into partners and told to practice our one steps. A few times we switched partners so that we could see how other people did their steps and practice on people of all different sizes. We did this same routine with our wrist grabs and we were encouraged to help each other execute the moves correctly. I was able to help my partner bend the wrist in a more affective way and they helped me to understand how close I should be to the person I was attacking because if I was too far away I my moves would not be very affective. It was interesting to see how differently each person executed their moves. Then, for the rest of class we practiced our forms alone.
Saturday, November 14 – Today is the last karate class before testing so we were told that those of us taking the test would get extra attention today. In fact the lower ranks, including me, were teamed up with a black belt for the whole class to critique the moves we had to do for the test. We started with forms and my black belt said that the only real problem with me form was that I was not twisting my boy enough and therefore my moves were a little stiff. He showed me how to be more flexible in my movement and I felt that my form was immensely improved. Then we worked on wrist grabs and one steps and my black said I had them down just fine.
Tuesday, November 18 – Today was the test and I am very happy to say that I succeeded in earning another rank for my karate belt. I now have a purple stripe on my belt and I am more than half way to reaching black belt. At the end of the test the instructor gave a speech about how this test represented a new stage of maturity for us and how he hoped we would use some of the ethical lessons we had learned in class to deal wit the real world. I thought that I would always consider my actions in life before perusing them. This was a very important test to me because it will be my last test before I am done with karate for this school year.
Saturday, November 21 – Today there was no karate class because of black belt testing.
Tuesday, November 25 – Today we were able to take things easy because we had just had a test. So after we stretched we had some fun with an exercise in kicking. The instructor put on a mouth guard and held the body pad over hi front while the rest of the class lined up and did their best to knock is over with different typed of kicks. I did very well because kicking is one of my strong points because I am good at throwing my weight into a kick to make it more powerful. I was one of the few people who was able to knock the instructor over and I was very proud of that. After this we spent some time on wrist grabs but we were able to do challenge each other with surprise grabs to see if we could get out of them. It was very enjoyable.
Saturday, November 28 – Today we began class by stretching and we spent an extra long time on it because we were told we would be working on balance today. We did some new stretches that stretched different muscles in our bodies to make sure we were loose enough to do the balancing exercises. I was glad we stretched that long because it is always easier to balance yourself when you are more flexible. Then we tried the various balance exercises, I found it difficult at first to maintain my balance one foot and I fell over many times. We were shown how to position our center of gravity in each exercise to keep our balance more easily. By the end of the class I was able to maintain my position without much difficulty at all.
Tuesday, December 2 – Today I could not make it to Karate because I was having an interview with MIT.
Saturday, December 5 – Today we began class with some stretching and we did pus ups and crunches. It was time to introduce the new material to be learned for those of us who had been in the last test which included me. We learned new wrist grabs, one steps, and a new form. We started with the wrist grabs and I found my new one very easy to do. Then we tried the new one steps and I had a little trouble balancing for the kick in mine at first, but I remembered the trick to balancing from the last class and I was able to apply it to execute the move correctly. Finally we moved to our new forms and I was very excited for mine. I really enjoyed learning the new form and I had it internalized by the end of the class.
Tuesday, December 8 – Today was my last day of karate class for this school year and I was happy to find that everyone said they would miss me in class. A few people even gave me hugs and the instructor said I could come back for a class whenever I wanted. It felt very nice to be a part of a group that felt like a family to me. We did the normal routine for the rest of the class. We began with stretching and then broke off into partners and worked on our wrist grabs. Then we moved to one steps and finally to our forms for the remainder of the class. I felt that I had accomplished a lot by taking these karate classes and it really helped my self esteem. I am very grateful I was able to make karate apart of my life.
Saturday, November 7 – Today we were told that those of us who were eligible for the next test would be given a form at the end of the class. I was nervous that I might not get one and I stayed nervous all through class. This made it difficult to focus on what we were doing. We stretched out and then we repeated what we had done in the previous class to help us prepare for the test. We did all our wrist grabs, one steps, and forms together as a class, though I was still nervous and did not do very well. But at the end of class I was still given form to sill out for the test and I was very happy that I was eligible.
Tuesday, November 10 – Today we were told that for the next week we would spend our time preparing for the test. We stretched out and then we were broken up into partners and told to practice our one steps. A few times we switched partners so that we could see how other people did their steps and practice on people of all different sizes. We did this same routine with our wrist grabs and we were encouraged to help each other execute the moves correctly. I was able to help my partner bend the wrist in a more affective way and they helped me to understand how close I should be to the person I was attacking because if I was too far away I my moves would not be very affective. It was interesting to see how differently each person executed their moves. Then, for the rest of class we practiced our forms alone.
Saturday, November 14 – Today is the last karate class before testing so we were told that those of us taking the test would get extra attention today. In fact the lower ranks, including me, were teamed up with a black belt for the whole class to critique the moves we had to do for the test. We started with forms and my black belt said that the only real problem with me form was that I was not twisting my boy enough and therefore my moves were a little stiff. He showed me how to be more flexible in my movement and I felt that my form was immensely improved. Then we worked on wrist grabs and one steps and my black said I had them down just fine.
Tuesday, November 18 – Today was the test and I am very happy to say that I succeeded in earning another rank for my karate belt. I now have a purple stripe on my belt and I am more than half way to reaching black belt. At the end of the test the instructor gave a speech about how this test represented a new stage of maturity for us and how he hoped we would use some of the ethical lessons we had learned in class to deal wit the real world. I thought that I would always consider my actions in life before perusing them. This was a very important test to me because it will be my last test before I am done with karate for this school year.
Saturday, November 21 – Today there was no karate class because of black belt testing.
Tuesday, November 25 – Today we were able to take things easy because we had just had a test. So after we stretched we had some fun with an exercise in kicking. The instructor put on a mouth guard and held the body pad over hi front while the rest of the class lined up and did their best to knock is over with different typed of kicks. I did very well because kicking is one of my strong points because I am good at throwing my weight into a kick to make it more powerful. I was one of the few people who was able to knock the instructor over and I was very proud of that. After this we spent some time on wrist grabs but we were able to do challenge each other with surprise grabs to see if we could get out of them. It was very enjoyable.
Saturday, November 28 – Today we began class by stretching and we spent an extra long time on it because we were told we would be working on balance today. We did some new stretches that stretched different muscles in our bodies to make sure we were loose enough to do the balancing exercises. I was glad we stretched that long because it is always easier to balance yourself when you are more flexible. Then we tried the various balance exercises, I found it difficult at first to maintain my balance one foot and I fell over many times. We were shown how to position our center of gravity in each exercise to keep our balance more easily. By the end of the class I was able to maintain my position without much difficulty at all.
Tuesday, December 2 – Today I could not make it to Karate because I was having an interview with MIT.
Saturday, December 5 – Today we began class with some stretching and we did pus ups and crunches. It was time to introduce the new material to be learned for those of us who had been in the last test which included me. We learned new wrist grabs, one steps, and a new form. We started with the wrist grabs and I found my new one very easy to do. Then we tried the new one steps and I had a little trouble balancing for the kick in mine at first, but I remembered the trick to balancing from the last class and I was able to apply it to execute the move correctly. Finally we moved to our new forms and I was very excited for mine. I really enjoyed learning the new form and I had it internalized by the end of the class.
Tuesday, December 8 – Today was my last day of karate class for this school year and I was happy to find that everyone said they would miss me in class. A few people even gave me hugs and the instructor said I could come back for a class whenever I wanted. It felt very nice to be a part of a group that felt like a family to me. We did the normal routine for the rest of the class. We began with stretching and then broke off into partners and worked on our wrist grabs. Then we moved to one steps and finally to our forms for the remainder of the class. I felt that I had accomplished a lot by taking these karate classes and it really helped my self esteem. I am very grateful I was able to make karate apart of my life.
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