wsre -- Blogmeister

Should the U.S. Continue to celebrate Columbus Day?

The United States celebrates Columbus day on the second monday in October and should never stop celebrating this discovery of our new land. Christopher Columbus started the discovery of the Americas of our modern world. I think that we should honor our heritage and hold on to our European culture. Christopher Columbus found our land and brought a new way of life to the land. Christopher Columbus's big discovery would go on to switch our culture to a new world. If it wasn't for his discovery no one else would of came and helped the discovery of every other piece of land. In my opinion we should celecrate Christopher Columbus Day for ever.
First I was saying if It wasn't for Christopher Columbus no one else like Hernando de Soto or Ponce de Leon would of thought there was land west. This was based on everybody else's thought that the world was flat but not for Columbus, he thought the earth was round and smaller than it actually is. And he took his knowledge and found the Americas. Secondly, He brought the culture and new religion that has transformed through our modern age. The people there before him might have had a culture butit was not as complex as what Columbus had showed these natives. With this it brought many new tools that Galileo and Aristotle thought of back in the Western world. These inventions consisted of navigational tools or hunting tools like the gun which brought many hunters going after all the buffalo for meat and fur. For me it is more important that he brought guns than didn't people might dislike this for wars and it not real sometimes you have to face this with violence. Finally, his conquest helped ceal permanent settlemens for North America. What he did was he took over these Inca's and yes Natives might be mad in what Columbus had accomplished but look at the world now the majority of them agree and that is why we all think this conquest was a success. My thought that his voyage brought us to where we are today.
This whole topic people like to take pro's and con's but when I look why we should and shouldn't celebrate this holiday it always seems to be that reason could have been on the pro side of the topic. Columbus showed me he found the land where our country is now. And it is not just me, the majority of our people like his accomplishments that he brought to the Americas including the conquest and new culture showing our european heritage. I want the United States to continue to celebrate this mark in history and it is a day where most people get out of school and work. But that is not just it folks, it was a point in history.

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Summer Reading List

1.Winter Boys, by Wayne Coffey, Nonfiction
2.Stormbreaker, by Anthony Horowitz, Action
3.The Contender, by Robert Lipsyte, Sports Fiction
4.The Young Man and the Sea, by Rodman Philbrick, Realistic Fiction
5.One Handed Catch, by Mary Jane Auch, Sports Fiction

WSRE
Portsmouth Bridges
The Bridges in Portsmouth are getting old including the Memorial and the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge or known as the middle bridge by the highway on the Piscataqua river bridge. I think they both look fine but all bridges have to come down sometime. I hear that the Memorial has 6% efficiency and it only has 2 to 5 years left. I guess it is getting really rusty in the last ten years. The middle bridge has 12% efficiency and 6 to 7 years left of use. They must replace these bridges if they are going to take them down. I think bridges are a beautiful thing and makes cities on the water light up at all times. I really like this quote, “We build to many walls instead of too many bridges.” I think what this person is saying is that it is better to open than close in life. The support of the bridge needs help and the current here is one of the strongest on the east I have heard and when I go out on a boat it rocks up and down. And the Sarah Mildred Long bridge is known as the middle bridge and that is what it looks like. The bridge is a double decker but only cars go on top and it looks really old and rusty and that bridge I think it needs to get replaced quicker than the Memorial because it looks worse. I think if they are going to take these bridges down they better spend the money and replace.

Higgins Armory Museum

A trip to Higgins Armory Museum can be very useful to topics of our middle Ages and how armor was used for. The Knights are in armor of very fine crafted wear at the high rate of the renaissance in the middle ages. You can learn about different types of armor and see how each was used. People can learn how it was to be a knight at these times and how they followed their code. Most people don't know in this time period that there were some women under armor taking place in these times, and you could find out these legendary warriors. Many displays shown here allow all people to learn about Medieval times.

There are plenty of different kinds of armor with many different uses explained in the museum. One kind is meant for combat consisting many different pieces of steel converted together to make an armored suit. Decoration armor had very little protection than others, but included very artistic details that made it look nice in parades or festivals. Tournament armor weighed the most of all three and thickest for jousting in competition. Weight and flexibility can be learned from Each kind of armor has certain uses for at special times in life.

It was mostly men in armor but in these times there was some famous known women who were leaders and defenders of countries. One of the most famous, "Joan of Arc" young but led France through many battles. Making all these women to support and stand up for her country is due to spiritual leads and inheriting from fathers. Some were of said to been in armor but no women ever was a knight at this time. So, we know we can get the look at each of these warriors and the experience in the atmosphere.

Here we can learn about the Knighthood of each branch which includes, "The Code of Chivalry." It was used to make the knights look experienced and all exact the same under a set of rules. The rites and rules of a knight in armor was strict that tied with religous beliefs. In the warfare they had to bathe and dress in a certain and proper way every time getting ready to battle. It is a great way of being in experienced training at a high level. This was a great way of organizing and keeping the military strong and under rule during the middle ages. You can see everything the knights had to go through a day and the religion practiced along the way.

As you could learn on this tour thoughts go up looking at these interesting artifacts such as Corinthian helmets from Greece. The Higgins Armory Museum shows visitors the use of armor and the displays of medieval armor. Mostly men had rites but not as much less for women than other times in this period, so you can see the female leaders and warriors. Exhibits and writings could show you well the knighthood of chivalry and what they used for horses. Medieval warfare and the way of living in this time period the, "Middle Ages" is learned well in these displays at the Higgins Armory Museum.

Higgins Museum Essay

Evaluation

3 -- Outstanding 2 -- Ok, but could use some improvement 1-- Needed improvement 0 --- Missing

Introduction

2 Gave the reader background and general information about the museum --- set the scene.

3 Transitions to the body of the essay. (Three things that can be learned by a visit to the museum)

Body

3 Three topics were addressed, each with its own paragraph

2 Topics were clearly explained and used researched supporting details & vocabulary

Conclusion

3 Restated topic --- What can be learned at the museum?

2 Brought closure to essay (Summed up essay)

Structure

3 Essay format followed the directions for assignment

3 Spelling

2 Capitalization (Used correct capitalization)

Comments: Good overall format to the essay - intro-body-conclusion. The introduction needed to more info on the Higgin's Museum to set the scene for the reader,but has a good transition to the body. You needed a lot more research details & vocabulary to add depth of knowledge to the piece. The conclusion is a good effort,but the writing doesn't flow well and could be clearer

Stock Market Report

I selected Microsoft, Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola for my stock portfolio because they are all apart of my daily life and I had a feeling they would end up in the black and be a profit. I bought Microsoft because I wanted to buy a tech stock and everybody was buying Apple so I bought Microsoft so I could be different. Wal-Mart was one of my stocks because I like those stores that have like everything and what is better than Wal-Mart. I love Coca-Cola and it is my favorite soda and that is why I bought it.

My stock was losing and in the red so I would of made some minor changes to my portfolio. When your stocks are losing money another name for it is being in the bear market. I would of added more stocks into Microsoft because it was my only stock in the black. I would of deleted Coca-Cola out of my portfolio because it lost me the most money. With my shares in Wal-Mart I would not of bought as many stocks as I did. I bought 92 shares of Wal-Mart, instead I would of equaled it out.

For any future brokers I would recommend them to have their stock portfolio consist of at least one tech stock. There is always a couple of them always rising in the black. Before you buy shares of a stock I would research if they have been doing good over the year and if new products are coming out. When you are looking at your portfolio in the middle of your term if you see that there have been a high rise in price and other stocks in your industry are starting to fall it might be a good time to sell and be happy to be in the black and gaining money.

These last two or three weeks were based on the environment and the world leading up to April 22nd, which is Earth Day. We got to have a guest speaker come in to our class for a couple of days and show us videos like, "The Story of Stuff." In the video, it was these people telling us how bad humans are on helping the environment. They would say all these crazy facts and just put it out that might not even be true. When it was talking about the buying of goods they blame President Bush about how he told everybody in America to go out and shop. And of course, that isn't true it is just the same old people that think it is all our fault that the trash is building up and nowhere to go. I thought and how I always think, "that it is the people telling us what they think not what we think."

When in another video when it was based on the advertisement, telling students that when their kids they nag their parents until they get it and when something is not as totally cool as on television. Then the people in the video had to blame someone so they blamed the companies of making things so bad. I say, "the companies aren't to blame because all they want is to make a better product, and that is their job."

The next thing that we got to do is have another group of helpers come in and pick trash out of our garbage of the last two days. What we did is break the trash into groups Landfill, recyleables, or compost. There was a total of 85 pounds that our school would have thrown away. As you see in the picture we would dig through trash and sort it out. We all were amazed at the end when we weighed the three categories. The lowest amount was landfill with about 25 pounds. You would have been surprised where most of the world's trash goes was the least for our school.

This is a picture of artifacts from a book I read, Crispin:The Cross of Lead. I have a tree reperesenting the setting which takes place in the forests when he runs away. The King hat is for the character of the steward, he is the king of the land and wants to kill Crispin. The picture of what it looks like dirt is for the plot because Crispin has a bumpy road along the wayfrom running from the steward. The Cross of lead is for plot as well because it was his mothers who died which plots out the rest of the story. The juggling ball is for the character, Bear who is Crispins leader juggles along while Crispin plays his recorder. The weapon is for what the steward and his soldiers are trying to kill him with.