June 8th/10
Natasha Friend Skype
Today our class skyped with Natasha Friend. We were her first class skype session. There were alot of things that really motivated me, not just as a student or a person, but as an author as well. I would like to someday have at least one book published. It has been a life long dream to see my name on the cover of a novel. Natasha gave good pointers on how I could reach that dream. Maybe the pointers weren't directly pointed at me or pointed to writing, but they helped.
One thing that really stood out to me was that she really seems to have alot of passion about writing. As a writer I have alot of passion for writing. Every time I get an idea about a story I am writing. Natasha told us that she would be writing until she runs out of ideas. She also said that she hopes she never runs out of ideas. That tells me about her passion for writing because she never wants to run out of ideas. She wants to keep writing novels. I have so many ideas about stories that I could write. I may be able to write stories for a very long time. But lets hope that some of those stories and ideas get out in the world once in awhile for others to read.
Natasha was very open with what she told us. Not everyone can say, to complete strangers, that her books have pieces of her in them. The way I think of books, is that they are like children and the author is their mother. If the mother doesn't care to write them, and make sure they are well cleaned up, (punctuation, spelling) then they will never make it in the world. Natasha Friend may be a mother of three kids, but she is also the mother of herself in a way. If each of her books has a piece of her in it, maybe they are guidlines for her. Maybe, deep down, she writes them with pieces of herself in them, so she can live in the future and the past as well.
April 28/10
Crossing the Boarder on Computers
Our class is creating Voicethreads with the Fredricksburg, Academy in Virginia. This project was to learn about issues of justice around the world. For my group's topic we chose Homelessness. Why did we choose homelessness? Homelessness isn't something that everyone knows much about. Sure we all know that they live on the street, don't have jobs, and need food, but we don't know the ins and outs of homelessness. One thing that seemed to stand out for me is that most sexual abused people are homeless.
This was a very fun project to do. Not only did we get to use new technology [like Skype], but we also got to collaborate across the boarder. Our class is the first school, in our schoolboard, (Avon Maitland Distrcit school Board) to do a project with students in other countries. Turnberry. A very small school that isn't on the map, has "created" students with the knowledge of technology well enough that they can do projects with students across the boarder. Who knows maybe even around the world.
April 28/10
Pepper Spray and Nails
Children were in school, people walking and biking to work, and stores were opening on the outskirts of London. The black bear could have injured a citizen. Was everyone in London aware of what to do if the black bear charged at them? In London, black bears don't stroll into town every day. It is amazing that nobody was injured while the bear was walking the streets because nobody would know how to protect themselves. Pepper spray and nails may work on someone following you, but probably would only make a male black bear more angry. Even I am not an expert on protecting myself against a black bear. All I know to do is stay still and "play dead" until the bear wonders off. The fact that police were able to handle the situation and nobody was hurt in the process is an excellent accomplishment for the police department.
February 5/10
On Thursday, (the 4th) I babysat my niece Amy. She has this little tin can that she puts her toys, and food in. She has started learning about going to the bathroom. Amy sat on the tin can and pretended going "potty". I asked her if she was going potty, and she leapt off the can. She ran into the kitchen; I followed her into the bathroom. When I got into the bathroom, Amy was trying to get up on the toilet to go potty. She had one leg up on the seat, and was trying to push herself up onto the toilet. It was really funny because she keeps saying "potty?" when I change her diaper.
January 29/10
I played in the snow with my niece Amy. We had a lot of fun! My favourite part was when I made a snowman, and Amy crawled all over it. She grabbed onto the head, and made it brake off. Amy, holding onto the head, fell along with it. Luckily she fell into a huge pile of snow, and did't get hurt, but of course being the drama queen she is she cried like crazy until I picked her up to see if she was alright.
I dyed my hair blond, but It turned out to be a little bit orange. My step-dad, said it looked like lemon meringue pie. I can sort of understand why he called it lemon meringue pie because the roots are very light blond, and the rest is a dark orange colour. A lemon meringue pie is very light in colour except for the top where it looks darker, and kind of orange.
January 22/10
My hair is finally long enough that I can do stuff to it. My sister bought me some clips and hair ties. She said that she has to be able to play with my hair. I have done a lot of things in my hair. I have put piggy tails and pony tails in it. Usually I play with my hair at home, and if I do something cool to it I try to do it again tomorrow for school.
My mom let me put clips in her hair. I made her have five pony tails. Somehow I had all five ponytails connected together. When I took out the pony tails, her hair was sticking straight up. Her hair was a fire of tangles and tats. She told me I couldn't do that to her hair again, unless it was just a simple pony tail or curl.