6 months into the school year!

The Challenge:

Your challenge is to reflect and write about the first half of grade 6 and then create a "word cloud"using key words taken from your written reflection.

Next, now is the time to have some fun with wordle.

Try copying and pasting your reflection into a wordle, or identify key words that you would like to include in your wordle.

When you are done, take a screen shot of your wordle, upload to your blog and write a reflection of the first 6 months of grade 6 .

 1. What you have achieved - both academically and socially.

I really have enjoyed 6th Grade! I admit that when I first came I was nervous, uncomfortable and worried, but once I settled in made new friends and met with friends from 5th grade I felt much better! I achieved socially by making new friends with new students and getting to know better the people from 5th grade. I feel that with friends it's much easier to fit in 6th Grade, so you don't feel alone in classes without your best friends. I achieved academically a minumum of A- in all my grade averages of Trimester 1. I hope to get a good grade in Trimesters 2 and 3.

 2. Skills that you have learned.

There are many skills I have learned and many skills I really want to learn. A skill I learned was how to manage 6th Grade homework and return it on time, but sometimes I loose this skill because I forget what I had to do for a certain class, even though I finished homework for other classes. This can be upsetting because I think that I have finished all the homework, but I really haven't and even though I have a feeling that I'm missing something, I ignore it until I realize too late that I needed to hand it in. The second skill I learned was handling my schedule, I have to say that this is a big improvement from before because I often didn't know where I had to go at a specific time, now I know where to go and at what time to be there, this gives me an advantage because I don't get late as often. The final skill is how to find my way around the school. I admit it is a bit lame not to know where to go but before I had to use the school map to figure out where to go and even then I sometimes didn't find where I needed to go. Now I am familiar with shortcuts and where important areas of school are!

 3. Skills that you want to learn.

I want to learn how to manage study time or homework time without wasting time. I also want to learn more about how to keep your locker clean by avoiding stray papers! I also want to be able to refer to my binder to review for big chapter tests, but sometimes I lose these notes or forget that they can be of use. This happens a lot in Mandarin and it's bad because I can forget the characters that I badly need for a following Dictation. I want to be able to have kept a good record of my notes, so that when I look in a subject binder I can find everything that I could use later on.

 4. Goals for the new year and the next 6 months of schools

Next year, I have many goals but I will try to list the most important ones. I will try to be the best peer helper I can and help my buddy around the school so she isn't as lost as me, I will help her make some new friends and make sure that she isn't confused about where to go. My second goal, is a better grade in Math, Band and P.E because I really think I can do better if I push myself. My final goal is to keep my friends from this year and make friends with the new ones for next year, this way I have many friends to keep me company. I think that's the most important thing in life, to have good friends and many other friends to and not to limit yourself to a small amount of friends. Don't forget to stay close with your very good friends, you can at least be sure that they will always be there for you. 

Note to Merina-- Sorry if the last line sounded like I was trying to be touching, I know you hate that!

Literature Circles Reflection

Task:

Please read the questions very carefully, and answer each question in a well written paragraph

(4-6 sentences each)!

1. Did you like the book? Why/Why not?

I can say that I really loved The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle this is mostly because the main character: Charlotte was extremely interesting. I found Charlotte interesting because she changed in both mind and spirit throughout the book. When she changed from a proper lady to a crew member, it was a very important part in the book because she had let herself become a new person altogether and had changed the way she thought. During this process, she freed her spirit from the chains of a proper life. She suddenly felt these changes because she was introduced to the freedom of a sailor's life and how free they were in mind and spirit even with Captain Jaggery breathing down their necks. It just goes to show you can become whatever you want to be if you feel it's a positive change.

2. What was your favorite part?

Although there were many interesting and important parts in this book, I'll have to say that my favorite part was at the end when she decides to return to her true home on the ship. I felt that the conclusion was well written and I admit that it made me feel a bit emotional, because she found where she truly belonged. I was upset that she had been forced to leave her family, because through thick and thin they were her family and she would still miss them. I hope this doesn't affect her new life on the ship with her new family.

3. What do you think the message of the story was?

There are many messages that I pulled from this book, but I must say that there were 3 important ones that I think really mattered. I think the first message I pulled from the story was (at least the message that got across to me) was that you shouldn't force yourself to be something you aren't for those who don't appreciate who you are. This my response to Charlotte lying to her family about her life on the ship. The second message was to defend the rights of those who you care about, just like Charlotte defended the crew against Captain Jaggery. The final message to me connects with the last few words of the book-"a sailor chooses a wind but it's ship sometimes chooses a different wind" or something similar to that. My message was take your own path but be careful because those along side you might guide you differently; so basically she should stay on the path that she thinks is right.

4. How did you like the Literature Circles assignment? What suggestions would you make to improve it?

I think that Literature Circles is one of the best parts of Humanities class in Trimester 2. Sure, it could be difficult at times but the challenge pushed me to try and do more in it. Mrs.Narsiman's comments were very helpful because they helped me know if I could do better, the comments helped me the most on Literature Circles 1. The blog posts were really fun to write because I could really reflect on the Literature Circles better. Everything was really good, so it's really hard to say what I would change or improve on with. I guess I would maybe add something like a day at the end of the Literature Circles where all of the groups could mix and talk about their book and what they like about it. With this you could share opinions outside of your own group and it could help show who really understands their book and can share it well enough for the person outside of that group to get the main idea, plot and problems.

5. After talking with your classmates, which of the novels that you did not read, would you like to read next?

After talking with other people I have to say that I want to read Julie of the Wolves next, this is mostly because I haven't heard of Maroo of the Winter Caves from other people well enough to tell if I want to read it or not. I heard of Julie of the Wolves from a friend and I can tell that it is an interesting book. It is a little confusing how an Eskimo girl managed to become part of a wolf family and I'd like to find more about how this happened. I know about her pen pal and how she married at 13. I have a lot of questions about the book like why did the author use Julie for the title and not Miyax of the Wolves. It seems like an exciting book full of adventure for Julie/Miyax and I think I want to find out how her story ends.