Finally, school is almost over. It has been too long since I could escape the school building. I think that the easiest class this year was math. Although we have homework in math every day, the pace was really slow. This year, I learned vocabulary words, human anatomy, and ancient civilizations. I would get rid of homework if I could change something. I will work harder and get the gold honor metal. If I could give some advice to new 7th graders, I would tell them to keep following goals because through hard work, you can achieve them.

International Towne was pretty fun. It was fun to write up a bunch of forms as Finance Minister. I also thought it was fun to look around and find products to by. Unlike Young Ameritowne, you got to change the prices of the products. That was pretty fun. In the experience, I learned to keep track of your money. I dropped my stack of money at the very end of my first brake and I couldn't find it. I only bought my passport photo, a chocolate coin, and a drink (which I got arrested for). If I could change something, I would change the amount of work the Finance Ministers get. I found myself with nothing to do shortly after lunch. I would also change the length. I think it would be more enjoyable if we were there for three or four days. Then, you can see what prices are just right for the economy and go to more places and buy more things in different countries. I think that the best part is the morning because you are just getting accustomed to your work station and your job.

World history has a lot to do with present day. If it weren't for history, we couldn't know what to do next. Because of history, there are advancements and mistakes. Both of which help us. If it weren't for the mistakes that were made, there are a lot of mistakes that could be repeated. If it weren't for the advancements (that we now call basic inventions) that were made, we wouldn't have a solid foundation of engineering. As a result, new inventions would not be as great. As I researched my topic, Hunnic warfare, I found that the Huns contributed to some modern day inventions. The spur, for example, was thought to be first used by the Huns. Also, the soldiers were all bowmen. This could have contributed to the rise of projectile weaponry and the fall of melee weapons.

I found that learning about other people's topics was almost as fun about learning about my topic. I didn't really learn much, but there are some facts that I picked up. For example, I learned that there are many types of gladiators that use different weapons. I also learned that the plague originated in rats and fleas.

I've only read the first couple of chapters, so I can't really answer who my favorite character is. As for the format, it is original. I haven't read any books like it. It is fun to read something new. I think that this isn't a very productive format. Each chapter has to explain about the character first before explaining more about the story. Frankly, the origins of the characters shouldn't take up half the book. They could use some of that half to explain main characters, but some of it to describe the happenings. I like the activities that we are doing. My favorite is the tomato seed experiment. My group, since all the other groups were doing experiments in soil, chose to do our experiment with hydroponics. Growing plants with hydroponics means that you use just water to grow the plants. Since we didn't have a pump, we had to change out the water every day. We messed up trying to transfer the seeds one day, and we ruined our experiment. We tried again with the same results. After that, we pretty much gave up hydroponics.

My final project isn't going all that well. So far, my display board and my 3D/2D museum display are just a plan. They are good plans, though. I'm hoping that my project turns out as well in real life as it does in my head.

I find that springtime is the prettiest time of year. The flowers bloom, and the trees start to grow leaves. The only problem is the allergies. With all of the pollen in the air, I often find myself feeling quite miserable. The end of the school year is a motivation to keep getting up in the morning. If there wasn't a MAJOR break comming up, I might not get out of bed. 

In the chicken wing dissection, we learned about muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments. The makeup of the wing is just like the makeup of a human arm. We could see how the muscles were attached and even got to pull on the muscles to see how the bones moved. I think it was worthwhile. It's definitely more fun than taking notes and reading text books. I didn't learn all that much. What I did learn was that the skin of a chicken is pretty thick!

I thought that the movie exposed me to some new information. I knew that there was extreme racism around in the past, but I didn't realize that it was that bad. I think I might do what the Little Rock Nine did for two reasons. One, I would probably be angry about all this discrimination going on and want to retaliate. Two, I would want to be the first black kid to make it in a white school. The will to be the first one to graduate might make me continue. Since then, black people have just about been completely integrated into society. Black people are allowed to do everything white people can and share the same rights, but some racism still exists. I don't know of any specific discrimination going on now.

This unit in science class, we've been learning about cells. We learned the parts of the cell and their functions. For example, the vacuole, found mostley in plant cells but sometimes in animal cells, stores the water, waste and other products like these for the cell. We also got to look under microscopes. We looked at a variety of single-celled organisms, like amoebas.

[around the bend] [past the busy cheerful streets]

[through the optimistic park] [across the street]

I'm reading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolken. So far, I'm liking it. The main charactar Bilbo Baggins goes through a pretty big adventure with a group of dwarfs. Bilbo isn't really up to the adventure, though.

I felt that working in a group like this is hard. I think that groups just within the school would work better. I liked learning about poetry and poets. I didn't know much about either poetry or poets before this unit. In conclusion, I think I would have rather done the project on my own. Then I don't have to figure out what other people are going to do. I would also not have to spend that much time to make a decision.

This year, I want to work out more. I made the IS team for football this year, but next year won't be as easy. I also want a good time on the mile run post test in PE. 

I don't know much about ancient Greece, but I do know what we've been doing in Humanities. First of all, at the end of the day, we do "The Fates". Basically, one member of each group roles a die or spins a spinner. Then, the teacher reads something that happens to your city-state based on the number rolled or spun. This is the main way city-states gain or lose points. We have also been doing other stuff that relates to ancient Greece like learning the Greek alphabet. 

I kind of liked this blogging experience. Sure I didn't get all my blogs in and now I am likely to get a bad grade, but I liked it. My favorite was probably the first one, "7 Random Facts". I also liked the one where we explained our favorite mysteries. My least favorite is definitely the Rachel's Challenge one. I hope we will do this again next semester.

I am thankful for food, water, and air. Without food, life would be sad. Many great cuisines would be nonexcistant. Without water, there would be no sodas. No water means no sugary drinks! Without air, we would die before we could think of any other good things about air other than it's essential to life. 

The best mystery I've ever read is probably Black Peter by Sir Arthor Conan Doyle. I haven't really read a lot of mysteries, so I don't have much of a choice. Of the choices I do have, I like this one because it is more than just a simple mystery story. The author was good at adding suspence to the story even though it is a short Sherlock Holmes story.
I think a good beginning to a mystery may be: "One stormy night, a suspicious figure ran through the nieghborhood."

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I think that blogging once a week is a lot. I just sat down at the computer and did the past two week's blogs, not including this one. I also don't like the fact that every week there is something that we have to write about. I would blog a little bit more often and happily if it were more like a public journal. I like the idea of blogging instead of writing papers because it teaches typing skills. All in all, I think there should be changes to blogging in class

This is the introductory paragraph to my essay.  Please give me feedback on whether you would expect that this essay would be interesting based on this paragraph.

This year we remembered 9-11’s tenth anniversary. Why did we do that? Every year we celebrate President’s Day and the 4^th of July and Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day and other national holidays like these, but, why? Why is it important to remember?

This year, I am trying to get the gold honor role, which means that I need straight A's this quarter. Last quarter, I had all A's, except for one B+ in Humanities. I need straight A's in the rest of the quarters and this one to get the honor role. I've got A's in all my classes, except one. I have an F in Language Arts! I need to get an A in Language Arts!  

I'm not currently reading anything. The last book I read was Manta's Gift by Timothy Zahn. The story takes place in the distant future when humans are trying to colonize the solar system. In the beginning, the main character, Matt Raimey, gets paralyzed from shoulders to feet in a skiing accident. When someone offered him another chance to move, Matt jumped at it. What was in mind was for him to be placed into the womb of an alien and be born as one of them! Matt agreed, though. He was taken to Jupiter and was placed into a giant “Quanska.” With every second chance comes consequences, though, and Matt, or “Manta” as he’s now called, finds himself faced with a problem he couldn’t dream to figure out. This was a great book and I’d recommend it to everyone, except it has mild language.  

The field trip to Fox Run Park was exciting. My favorite thing was when we played camoflage. Once I hid in the gazebo out on the water, and a couple of my friends followed, and their friends followed them, and their friends followed them. Pretty soon, ten or eleven people were in there and I faced the fact that it would be easier for the seeker to find me. I didn't really learn anything on the field trip, though. I've heard it all before.    

I think some books should be banned. Many books contain bad language that just shouldn't be used in books or otherwise. Some good books, like Huckleberry Finn, are good books, but often have bad words in them. Theme is also a problem. What if someone wrote a book about terrorists who bomb the White House. Mabey the book has a great plan of how to do it, something that would work. You can't just give people a fool-proof plan on how to kill the president. What if someone wrote about a new form of government that sounds appealing. New theories about how the USA should be run would rise. Despite the freedom of speach, some books should be banned. 

A man was making donuts for the offices. There are 7 offices, and he wants to make 13 for each of them, but he baked 28 donuts. He is sure that 13 X 7 = 28, but simple multipication states that 4 X 7 = 28. He has a method to his madness, though. First, he divided 28 by 7. As you know, 7 does not go into 2 (as in 28). So, instead of putting 7 directly into 28 like he should have, he put 7 into the 8 in 28. 7 goes into 8 once. He wrote 1 off to the side. Then, he proceded by dropping down the 2 in front of the 1, making 21. 7 goes evenly into 21 three times. He wrote 3 after the 1. 13! Then, to make sure he was right, he added 13 seven times. He added all the 3's in the one's place and got 21, like he was supposed to. Then, he proceded to add the 1's in the ten's place, but he added them as if they were in the one's place. 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28! His final answer was 28! He used 2 ways to prove that 7 X 13 = 28!   

If I have to say the weirdest thing that happened to me, I would probably choose when my mom dropped a butter knife in the kitchen on the wood floor. The end of the knife landed point-down right on the floor, but it stuck up! The knife blade wedged itself in between the floor panels.  

          I also thought that the Rachel's Challenge assembly was emotional. You hear it one year and think it's emotional, but you hear it the next year and it's just as. It's so funny! I think the assembly was much better to learn from this year. I'm going to try to slowly emerge to a nice person by using the steps they taught us.