October 29th, 2010

TODAY IS FRIDAY, YAY!

My morning started off with McKenzie coming over to help me finish our costume and then we went to school together. Also, my friend Katie Smith is here and she came to school with us. Once we got to school, we had morning meeting and a few whips, and then soon after we went into our first music block!

(This is Katie in her halloween costume)

Mark from Telluride is here to help us with music. WOO HOO!

The first block we talked some and gave him our input on what's been going on, and then we learned how to play a song. It was the best we've sounded all year! haha

When we were done with music, we went to brain break. Then when brain break was over, I did flvs and some french with Katie. Soon it was time for lunch. I ate some soup from Cowgirl Kitchen and then we played kickball. My new team lost yet again, that's now 0-4. I think we are going to switch teams again, well hopefully.

After kickball we had another music block, and we learned how to play "I Love Rock N' Roll" and we played our other song, "You're Not Sorry." It was pretty AMAZING! Randy really helped us learn the songs.

When we were done with our second music block, we had another flvs block, during which McKenzie, Connor, and me ran down to Cowgirl Kitchen to get some toffee crunch cookies! They were YUMMY!!!

And now I'm back here writing this, what a fun day! I can't wait for this Halloween weekend!

(This is McKenzie and me in our halloween costumes!)

October 28th, 2010: Amy and Randy Day!

What Does Community Mean to Me?

Community, to me, means connectedness between each other. We are all so different yet so much the same. Through our differences and abilites, we balance each other out and make for a great community.

Ohana means family, family means no body is left behind or forgotten.

October 25th, 2010

MONDAYYYY....

My morning started out with both McKenzie and Kylie showing up at my house unexpectedly (but I was very happy that they came!) and then we went to school together. Morning meeting was uneventful with a pretty boring and fast whip.

During our first block, Hannah told me that she had seen Mrs. Linda from the trading company and that she wanted to see us about the scarecrOH's. So Mitchell and I (being the only ones at school from our team) ran over to the Trading Company and saw Mrs. Linda, she was very interested in buying a bench and we told her that we would come back at 10. So for the rest of the morning I worked on algebra and my first literary analysis and then at 10 I went back to Trading Company with Mitchell and a packet. We gave it to her and she said that she would buy a bench for all three of her stores (Bombora, Bike shop, and Trading Company). On the way back to school, Mitchell and I stopped at the doctor's office next door and were happy to have sold them a lamp post! YAY!

When 11 came, we all went out and back to all of the businesses that we presented to on Thursday. At summer kitchen, James wasn't there but they had his form filled out. So hopefully we will get another bench! If we are successful, we have sold 3 benches and 1 lamp post overall so far!

We ate lunch and played kickball, which my team won, and then came back up to school. We watched Channel One (Kylie's favorite!) and instead of music, had another FLVS block. I worked on algebra, french, and HOPE. And now I'm writing this!

Now I have to go clean basically the whole high school side because everyone likes to leave before school is over!!! (Haha)

Literary Analysis #1

My self selected book was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It was about a country called Panem, formerly known as North America, and a young girl named Katniss Everdeen.

Once, many years ago, there was a rebellion in Panem. Unfortunately, Disctrict 13 was taken off the map, and the districts lost. To show that the Capitol is still in control, they started a little thing called the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a televised fight to the death basically. Two "tributes" are chosen from each district, each between the ages of 12 and 18. The tributes are drawn from a glass bowl. Each year, the amount of times that their names are put into the bowl increases and they get their name put in even more if they do tesserae. The day of the reaping, Katniss Everdeen's younger sister, Prim, got called to be a tribute. Horrified, Katniss decided to volunteer for her sister and go in her place. The male tribute was Peeta Mellark, the one who Katniss will always remember as saving her life when she almost starved to death. She couldn't even imagine killing him.

Their mentor, Haymitch, was a drunk. But he promised that he would stay as sober as possible if they listened to him. Through training in the capitol and the pre-games activities, Peeta and Katniss came out on top thanks to their prep team and Cinna and Portia, their stylists. They were the most popular, which could help with sponsoring and keeping them alive. They also started an "act" of being in love.

Once they were in the arena, Katniss stopped trusting Peeta when she saw him with the Careers (the allied team of killers). But when the careers found her, Peeta helped save her life. Soon after that, the gamemakers announced that two tributes could win this year, as long as they were from the same district. Immediately, Katniss went searching for Peeta and nursed him back to health since he was injured from saving her life. They became allies and worked hard to win, also... Katniss learned that Peeta really did love her, but she couldn't shake her thoughts of Gale, her best friend, waiting back at home.

Throughout the games, they both met people and had to see them die. For Katniss, the hardest death to watch was little Rue's. When it came to the fight to the death in the middle of the arena, instead of Katniss and Peeta having to kill the last tribute, a pack of Mutts came on him and unfortunately, he couldn't beat them like Katniss and Peeta did, and he was ripped apart until he died. Katniss and Peeta thought that they had won, but soon the announcer came over the speaker and told them that the rules had been changed yet again, and that one would have to kill the other. Katniss, knowing that the gamemakers would never let both of them die, decided to come up with a plan. She gave Peeta some poisonous berries and told him that they would both eat them at the same time and commit suicide so that there would be no winner. The gamemakers panicked and announced both Peeta and Katniss as victors. They won the games.

On the way home, things got tough for them and Katniss now knew that Peeta really loved her, but she couldn't quite figure out her feelings for him and she knew that the fight between the country and herself had only just begun.

http://geektyrant.com/news/2010/9/14/gary-ross-in-talks-to-direct-the-hunger-games.html

I loved this book and I was very eager to get the next one. I liked how it was action packed but there was still some romance. And Prim and Katniss's relationship reminded me of my own relationship with my sister. It was a great book!

October 21st, 2010

Today was ScarecrOH day!

I brought the scarecrow to school at 8:15 and the fundraising team had a meeting because we were going to to sell some scarecrows!!!

I worked on algebra for my first block and met with Mrs. Sylvia and then when 10am came, we went out! My team consisted of Nathan, Davis, Mitchell, and me. We also had the good luck of getting the real model scarecrow for our presentation!

We started out in Rosemary and Nathan was our official scarecrow carrier. We then made our way over to Shades, and during the walk over there Nathan decided to walk in the middle of the street with the scarecrow raised high. There was pointing and laughing from the oncoming cars!

When we finished doing our rounds, we came back up to the school to print more packets and then went to Seaside to meet up with another group consisting of Jordin, Hannah, and Kylie. We walked around with them for a little bit and I got a $20 donation! YAY!

Jordin, Hannah, and Kylie sold a bench!!!!

After we were done, we came back to school, and most everyone went to tennis but I decided to stay and do school. Then for the rest of the day we just all hung out and did school, we had a meeting where we talked about our plans for the day and the elementary kids showed us their comic strip!

Now, of course, the high school side has dwindled down and today it is just Leah, Mira, McKenzie, and me and we now have to clean. Thanks Mr. Randy for the blog song!!!

October 20th, 2010

Yesterday was pretty eventful. It was Nathan's birthday so I spent the morning with Alyssa, McKenzie, and Hannah and we covered his room in toilet paper and streamers. Once we were through, we came back to school and had a long meeting with Mrs. Amy and Mr. Randy about PBL. I think that now it will be a lot better. The rest of the school day was pretty uneventful, besides the fact that we watched Panama Videos all afternoon!

 When school got out, we went to Watersound and waited to surprise Nathan for his birthday. When we came in, he was so surprised he almost jumped out of his skin! We spent the rest of the night hanging out, playing games, eating, and having a bonfire. Alyssa and I even wheeled Leah down to the beach so that she could enjoy it too!

Then, when it came to the time where everyone was leaving, McKenzie, Hannah, and I drove to the Nathan's house as fast as we could and hid in his bathroom and waited for him to come home. He was very surprised, Prank: One complete, there is still more to come!

So today in comparison was pretty uneventful but still fun. We had a fundraising meeting at 8:00am and decided what to do about sponsor's for the ScarecrOH's. Then we did school until brain break.

Break break was fun, we played heads up seven up and blob tag. When we came back, we did more school until lunch. I had Subway, and then we went to kickball! Today was the first day of kickball with our new teams. My team was winning at first, but in the end we lost. Oh well.

Then we had music, where we learned how to play "Gives You Hell" and we played almost the whole thing!

Then we had another block of FLVS, and it was only Mira, Connor, Nathan, Jordin and Me at school, and now we are cleaning!!!

October 18th, 2010

OH, what a Monday!

Our morning began with morning meeting, and a presentation by Mike Lue and Rob Fiance. They talked to us about Mr. Lue's math learning product. He believes that by learning the fundamental basics, we can build everything else on it. He showed us how this works through learning chinese using pictures of people and trees.

Next, all of the high schoolers met with Mrs. Sylvia who is Olivia's grandmother and a writer. She read all of our essays on hybrid cars and gave us incredible feedback. I learned a lot from her and hopefully it will improve my writing skills.

After that, we had brain break and then another FLVS block. I worked on my collaboration project with Leah and then I did another HOPE lesson. Once I was done, it was time for lunch and kickball!

Since Jordin and Nathan weren't here today, we had random teams, and unfortunately my team lost. My skills at catching are at a minimum. Oh well. We are trying our new official teams on Wednesday.

Music was cancelled for today because my dad has many meetings in his office with the visitors. So we had an extra FLVS block which was great. I did a ton of french (hopefully my french tutor will be happy with me today! Ha ha) and then Mr. Randy helped me create a graph for Chemistry. Now its time to clean (its only McKenzie, Leah, and me today) and then I have french tutoring. I also got the third book in my series in The Hunger Games books, they are great. I can't wait to find out the ending!

http://www.fizzythoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Mockingjay.jpg

October 14th, 2010

Today we will be doing the final planning for the prank that we will be pulling on the boys in the near future. It's going to be awesome! I can't wait to see Jordin cry.

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Today my best friend from South Florida, Sydney, came and I got to pick her up from the airport early this morning. By the time that I got to school, it was brain break. We played a bunch of games today because it's Shanna's last day! I'm going to miss her a lot.

The rest of my morning was spent doing chemistry with McKenzie. When lunch finally came, I was starving. But unfortunately, my lunch had to be cut short because Jordin and Nathan locked me in the kitchen, while McKenzie watched. So I never got to finish lunch and I had to rush to tennis. Tennis was pretty uneventful, I played with Mitchell, Hannah, and Davis the whole time. Mitchell and I won our set, 6-0. After tennis, we came back to school and started on our PBL time. It was hard convincing Connor to work on his part, but I think his will be great. I am making a venn diagram with him, Kylie, and me. Our essential question is: "Was the civil war fought to free the slaves or prevent the breakup of the union?"

After PBL, McKenzie and I had some serious talks about our ultimate prank on Jordin, Nathan, and Connor. We have Jordin's part figured out (after a slight change) and Nathan's, and I think we know what Connor's will be.

So overall, today was pretty successful. Now I have to go wash dishes!

October 13th, 2010

TODAY WAS THE PSAT!

This morning, I woke up at 6:20am to get ready to go to South Walton High School for the PSAT. I was not excited, ha ha. McKenzie spent the night at my house so we could go together. Mrs. Paige, Connor, Mitchell, and Davis rode with my mom, me and McKenzie over to the school.

Mrs. Paige and my mom were definitely prepared. They gave us extra pencils and put our calculators in zip lock bags, and Mrs. Paige wrote down our social security numbers on pieces of papers so we wouldn't lose them. It was pretty funny actually. We got to the school right on time. When we all walked into the main office, Kylie and Shanna were already there and ready. Fortunately, we were all going to be in the same room.

Once Alex and Mira arrived, we heard the announcements over the speakers and then a lady took us to the classroom. We actually got to sit in desks! HA HA! I sat next to Connor and Davis and Kylie was right behind me. The lady that administered the test was the guidance counselor, and she was super nice.

The test itself was pretty easy, I think I did really well on the reading and writing part but not so well on the math components. There was this weird grid in part that I probably failed!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0OyIRLyQ_kQZx_2xT-hwdTS10AHKjiSbyKEW-eU5k32_7hWQeKkQEIP-FxOYJvijPMTUQFphJYkRp1KB-sxZKXMLFtx0SGzY2eoE0lwAfNGkC4CdY_HwFg9BVUwn3JKEp4QxSqqVyEfsX/s1600/PSAT.jpg


Once the test was over, we had to fill out our homeschool part of it and then we left. Overall, it was pretty uneventful. The scariest part of the whole thing was the school bell, I had the urge to run out of the building every time it went off! haha.

When we got back to Rosemary we went straight to summer kitchen to have some lunch. Then, it was time for kickball. My team was losing pretty bad at first, then we made a sort of comeback. But the other team still won. So for the rest of the day through music, we made new teams. Our new teams are:

Team 1:
Jordin
Connor
Mira
Davis
Hannah B.
Alex
Alyssa

Team 2:
Nathan
Mason
Hunter
McKenzie
Mitchell
Kylie
Olivia
Ellee

Hopefully, they will be fun and even. (But I am definitely on the louder team.)

So now we are all writing our reflections and then it will be time for cleaning! yay!

October 11th, 2010

Hello from OH,

Monday's are certainly not my favorites. It's always hard to get started on flvs after the weekend, especially since I missed school on Friday too.

This weekend McKenzie, my mom, and me went to Nashville to see Sara Bareilles in concert... and she was amazing! While we were there, we also toured Belmont University, it was nice. I can't believe that I am going to college in two years!

http://xolondon.blogspot.com/2008/05/review-sara-bareilles-live-dc-0408.html

http://puka.cs.waikato.ac.nz/cgi-bin/cic/library?a=d&d=i64
(This is the Belmont Mansion that is basically the centerpiece for the campus)

So after a fun filled weekend, Monday came fast. This morning we had morning meeting, and our whip question was "If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?" I chose Michael Jackson. After our meeting, we started FLVS. I worked on french because for some reason my chemistry class wasn't working. Then, about halway through our block, I got a text from Mrs. Clark, she wanted to come visit the school.

Mrs. Clark is Nathan, Leah, and my H.O.P.E teacher and she's also Jonathan from the tennis courts wife. She drove the golf cart over and came up. It was funny seeing an flvs teacher in our school, she looked around for a little bit and then left. Then we had brain break, and played blob tag, and of course, steal the bacon. Once that was over I went home to grab my french binder and I talked to my mom for a little while. By the time I got back to school, PBL had started. We discussed our earlier projects and once our environment project is over, I will do a civil war venn diagram with Kylie and Connor (wish me luck).

The rest of the morning I read my book, The Hunger Games, and then it was time for lunch. I went to Cowgirl Kitchen with McKenzie, Hannah, and Ellee and we met McKenzie's parents there. After lunch, we went to the eastern green to play kickball.

Since Alex, Leah, Kylie, and Alyssa all were unable to play, I was the only high school girl. We lost but it was still fun as always. After kickball, was music.

For some reason I had a feeling that we wouldn't be very productive since we started yet another song, so I took my book, sat down at the drums, and read. Like I thought, it was not a productive day. Everyone just kind of played around till it was over.

I am really enjoying my book and I'm almost finished with it. Because Leah has already read it, I keep asking her questions about it... but she doesn't say much.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZgzS_kHBAG0/S1Ab3WBUQLI/AAAAAAAAAf4/lDu-Oaf0b0k/s1600/The-Hunger-Games-the-hunger-game-trilogy-2624991-1280-960.jpg


And now I'm here writing this, time to go clean!

October 7th, 2010

OH...

Today (McKenzie just totally stole my intro) was interesting. We had a fundraising meeting this morning and watched our panama video (not the funny ones by Mr. Bob). We are going to make another mission statement that includes information about our services that we will do in Costa Rica.

Since we were here thirty minutes earlier than normal, we skipped morning meeting so that we could get started on school work. I submitted an honors assignment in chemistry (it was tough), and then I spent the rest of the morning before brain break working on french and studying for my H.O.P.E oral (which is at 4:45 this afternoon, and yes I study for all orals). Once brain break came, we went outside and got into our relay teams! We played leap frog today, which was surprisingly fun. Then we came back and had another flvs block and PBL time. For PBL today, we discussed what book each of us chose. I originally chose this book called Before I Die by Jenny Downham, but I think I am going to read The Hunger Games instead (Leah said it was really good.)

                              http://thehogshead.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/hungergames.jpg

Then came lunch. I had yummy subway and it was good! During lunch, I also had a meeting with Mrs. Amy about school (I need to get moving on creative writing!) and then I went to tennis. The only high school girls that were at tennis today were Leah, McKenzie, and me. We had fun. I played king of the court (queen in my case) with McKenzie and Hannah (the best sister in the world!) most of the time. I won!!!

After tennis was design. We watched videos and stuff about our new website. Now we have to decide what we want our individual backgrounds to be. (I have many plans for mine.)

Once design ended, McKenzie was kind enough to drive back over to the tennis courts with me to get my jacket that I had left (thanks!) and then we attempted to do some chemistry, but it didn't work out very well.

Now it's time for cleaning!!! Connor is supervisor today so we will see how that goes.

October 5th, 2010

Today was a great day!

This morning we had morning meeting and an flvs block. Brain break was a lot of fun because we played two relay games with our teams. Then we came back and had another extremely successful flvs block (and I listened to KT Tunstall's new album during it!). I got a ton of school work done this morning, even though I spent half of the morning joking around with McKenzie and Shanna, which was fun!

When 11am hit, we had our PBL time. We worked on our introductions to our hybrid car persuasive essays and I wrote the first few paragraphs for my essay. I have decided that hybrid cars are not any more beneficial to the environment in the long run than your average vehicle with good mileage.

I then ate a quick lunch and went to tennis...

tennis went by fast, I played doubles the whole time with Connor, Mason, and Hannah. It was a lot of fun. After tennis was design class. We had to draw self portraits of ourselves and we also had to take pictures of ourselves beforehand. Unfortunately, we had to take them right after tennis. Ha ha.

Here is the picture of me that I used for my self portrait:

And now I have to go clean!

October 4th, 2010

Monday is definitely here.

Morning meeting was uneventful and we went into an FLVS block. I did some H.O.P.E and McKenzie helped me on my Creative Writing story. When 10:15 came, we went outside for BRAIN BREAK! We played tongue, a relay game, and glob tag. Once that was over we came back inside for some more FLVS. At 11:00am, all of the highschoolers (minus Jordin and Shanna) got together to work on our PBL project on Hybrid Cars. Now that our main project is done, we have to write persuasive essays based on our topic: "Are hybrid cars really beneficial to the environment?" By tomorrow we have to have our introduction done. The rough draft is due by Friday and the final paper is due on Tuesday of next week. After PBL was lunch...

I went to Cowgirl Kitchen with my cousin, and then we played kickball. Since Nathan was absent, we switched up the teams. My team won, 13-3. After kickball, we came back and started music. We attempted to play "Smells Like Team Spirit" but it wasn't very progressive today. So now we are deciding on a new song to play. Then after music, I came back, planned my week in my calendar, took a pretest.. and now I'm writing this.