Hey Guys!

As my 8th grade year is coming closer to an end, I've have learned a thing or two about how to deal with this year before high school. If I could take 8 things out of my 8th grade year that could help younger students through the year they would be:

1. Always bring a snack to school. With the new schedule, its easy to find yourself hungry without enough time to eat throughout the morning.

2. Sleep enough at night time. Although everyone is bound to have some late nights when their up studying, its important to give your body enough sleep so you can wake up in a positive mood the next day.

3. Always look at your schedule for the next day before you start your homework. The rotating schedule can be really helpful, you just have to look at it so you are 100% sure that you are doing your homework for the next day first.

4. Its ok to take breaks. Sometimes starting your homework the second you get home from school can seem like a daunting task and you just need to take a 20 minute break before starting.

5. Don't psych yourself out. Although its important to always feel prepared for tests, its important to not over do it and stress yourself out.

6. Come to school with a positive attitude. Everyone has those days where nothing feels like its going your way but if you begin your day with with a good attitude, you'll be surprised how much better your day can turn out.

7. Come prepared for class. Not only with supplies like a pencil and paper, but also prepared for tests. Sometimes if your not prepared for a test, you might get really stressed out and forget you know more than you really do.

8. Don't take things to seriously. 8th grade is meant to be a really fun year. Figure out a personal balance for you between extracurricular activities,  social life, and also academics.


I have truly enjoyed sharing my opinions and views on our world throughout this year on my blog. Thank you to everyone who took the time to see what I have to say over the year!




Nina

"The Erne From The Coast" by T. O. Beachcroft

This sorry is set on two farms in a village. Harry, a young boy, is sent by his father Mr. Thorburn to take care of a young, sick sheep. While Harry is taking care of the sick sheep on the other farm, an erne swoops down and carries one of the other sheep away. Harry's father refuses to believe this unless he sees the erne with his own two eyes; Harry then embarks upon his journey to kill the erne and bring it back to his father.

By the end of the story, Harry has proven himself to be a capable young man to his father. All the careless remarks Mr. Thorburn says to his son, leave Harry feeling inferior and unless. Harry has risked his life only overcome this humiliation his father has caused and to prove to his dad that he is good enough. Harry does endanger himself when trying to kill the huge erne; however, he is willing to go to such lengths to prove himself and is capabilities to his dad. I as well have gone through troubling times and regretted decisions; however those moments have given me the opportunity to grow and learn more about how to handle situations. I believe that although these times can seem like they're changing people for the worst, there is always a positive side to the outcome and lessons that can be learned.

My Biggest Inspirations

A lot of times, parents could arguably some of the most influential adults in the lives of most children. I feel like I am very similar to my parents but at the same time very different. When I listen to my parents speak to me or see what they do and how they react to things, I have noticed that I have inherited an equal amount of traits from my dad as well as my mom. I believe that the personality and character I have when interacting with others is very much similar to my mom's. Whereas my way of dealing with problems or solving things is mostly very similar to my dad's.

I have a very close but different relationship with both of my parents. Because my mom grew up in Paris, and my dad grew up in Chicago, they are able to bring very diverse knowledge as well as different perspectives to me from their life's experiences. I would say that the very close relationship I have with each of my parents has stayed very stable throughout my childhood up till now. When seeing all the things my parents do I have realized that being an adult does require many different responsibilities. Every day I am so thankful to have the parents I do; however, it is easy to take them for granted at times. I believe it is so important for me to continually recognize and appreciate all the things my parents do for me because they sacrifice and do so much for me. My parents are my biggest inspiration because they are always so kind everyone, they take the time to listen to everything I have to say, and they are always there for me when I need them.

Mass Production

Hey Guys!

Right now in history when are linking fairly recent history all the way up to the present day and how we, as a race have tremendously evolved through transformative innovations.

In my opinion, the evolution of mass production in the food industry has tremendously affected many things in our world. As humans we have had to alter the way many things are done in order to keep up with our rapidly growing population. The demand for food has greatly increased over the last century and we answered this demand by producing mono crops and CAFOs. Although this has allowed many to have access to food at a cost affective price, the quality of nutrition in produce and meats has gone down. I believe that mass production has temporarily helped fill this gap in the food industry but is not sustainable enough to last forever.

I would love to know what innovation you guys think has most transformed the world and why.

See you in the next blog post!

Nina

Awareness Now

Hey Guys!

This week in History 8, we are learning about the Progressive Era. A time when individuals began to open their eyes to issues in our society and brought them to light. There were many progressives who had their eye set on an issue, a transformation that they thought needed to take place. There will always be improvements that our society could take. Many pressing issues that took place during the Progressive Era are still prevalent today such as child labor, environmental protection, and farming monopolies.

Our world is set off of competition, specifically between companies to always try and improve and better things before others. However, we sometimes get lost in the shuffle of competition amongst ourselves and turn to questionable "solutions." In order to achieve cheep labor and higher profits, some have turned to child labor. Out mindset was not set this way and I believe that child labor should not be permitted; it demonstrates selfishness that comes out in humans in order to better themselves at the expense of others.

I believe that there is not enough awareness about environmental protection, another large issue. Because of many things such as pollution, we are slowly destroying our Earth, the place we call home. I think that as humans who live on Earth, we should begin to take more initiative in the pressing issue.

In my opinion farming monopolies are also a large issue in this society. They create pollution and unfair treatment of animals as well.  While producing things in mass production, we are loosing quality in our produce and damaging our Earth at the same time. Although it can be difficult to keep up with our growing population, there are other ways to produce a sustainable form of nutrition for people.



I would love to know what you guys think are the most prevalent issues in society today if you could only choose three.

See you in the next blog post!

Nina

Communication Needs to Change

Hey Guys!

There is always room for change and improvement in anything. Human beings are amazing creatures, but we're not perfect and neither is our world. If I could transform or even just improve one thing in this world a little bit, I would change the way people and countries communicate. 

In my opinion communication is necessary to do anything or change anything on this planet. It seems to me that one place in which communication has a lot of room for improvement is between countries. Countries tend to try to improve themselves at the cost of bringing other countries down. I think it would be so beneficial to just change the mindset our world has. We all live on the same planet and were never made to live without communication. Every country invents new ideas everyday and if we share things everyone will benefit from it.Nothing will ever change or improve if everyone works against each other.













I would love to know what you guys would hope to transform in our world. 

Nina

The Fog Horn by Ray Bradbury

It has been more than a million years.
I have no one to talk to or play with.
One can not survive without communication.
I was alone.

I there may be one more creature like me left in the sea.
I've gathered up courage for my journey.
I'm ready to begin my travels upward from the Deeps.

It's the only option I'm left with.
Once I reunite with one of my kind all will return to normal.
I was alone

Months pass.
I told myself I would get to Lonesome Bay --eventually.
I just kept on swimming.
At times I had no hope.
I didn't know what would happen to me or when I would arrive.
I was alone.

After a year, I wanted to give up.
Suddenly I felt a coolness rush over my head.
As I kept swimming upwards, more came rushing down on me.
At last, I had reached the surface.
Joy had filled me.
I did it.
I didn't have to be alone anymore.

I had yet reunited with one of my kind.
I heard its deep cry--
I responded with pride and delight.
I wasn't alone.

We had just begun our conversation.
When all of a sudden, its bellow was no more.
Was it scared of me? Was the monster a joke?
I didn't know what was happening
My soul filled with despair.
I was alone.

After all these years.
This is what I have come to find.
A fake monster, only here to mimic me cry.
I was devastated.
I was alone.

As anger got ahold of me, I crashed into this fake creature.
Who dare do this to me?
I had but only good intentions.
I'll never come back.
What will I do?
I cant survive the rest of my life like this.
What will happen to me at the bottom of the ocean
with no one to talk to and nothing to do?
I'll rot away.
I was alone forever.

Confederate Soldier: “My Thoughts on the Civil War”

Dearest Henry and Elizabeth, 

I am fighting every day in the war with my fellow soldiers. Conditions are not the best in the war right now but you needn't worry about me, I will come back soon, a stronger man. When I come back, I promise, Abraham Lincoln will no longer be president. I am more than happy to be fighting for the Confederacy... there are not enough men on our side. The Union troops are greatly outnumbering us and it's sufficiently hard to keep attacking them back. Oh, and children, please don't forget to send your condolences to Uncle Harriott's family, unfortunately he passed away in the Battle of Gettysburg yesterday. I'm furious that the Union won the Battle of Gettysburg, but all that means is that us confederate solders will keep fight harder. Henry, would you also please make sure that Elizabeth keeps up her studying, we don't want to stress Margret out now do we. I hope this letter finds you two well and I am very much looking forward to seeing everyone soon.

After this write soon,

George E. Smith

To many, the word witness refers to someone who has watched an event, big or small happen. A witness however, can also be a person who is informed and aware about a situation. In our case, none of my classmates were alive when WWII took place. However, after visiting both the Museum of Tolerance and the Japanese American Museum we have all become witnesses. I personally was greatly transformed from this experience. Though it is hard to wrap my head around everything that happened, I am very thankful that I was able to learn about WWII from various points of view and have come out of this experience humbled for every human right I have.

Sixty Acres by Raymond Carver

The protagonist Lee Waite in the sort story "Sixty Acres" by Raymond Carver is faced with making two important decisions. The first choice Lee is faced with is how to go about treating the young duck shooters that he has just found trespassing on his land. Waite then is conflicted with himself when deciding if he should lease some of his property away or not.

At first, when Lee catches the shooters on his land he is very angry; however, he tries to cool down and let them off easy as they are young and have only made one mistake. The way in which Lee has dealt with this situation shows that behind the strong and strict person many may see in Lee, he does have a softer, more sympathetic side. Later, Lee is confronted with another situation, in which he doesn't know if he should follow through with leasing his land and choose earning money over honoring family traditions or not. This scene in the book is left unresolved; though, it has ended with Lee leaning towards selling his land since he could use the money. In the past, I was faced with the decision of deciding which elective I would take at my school; several of the elective choices were more on the creative side, while some more productive. I chose to enroll in one of each type; this one decision signifies and important aspect of my personality; I like and try to have a balance in things as much as possible.

Hey Guys!

In my history class right now we are investigating the topic of identity. So, how we as individuals view ourselves in terms of cultural background, family, and childhood memories. Time capsules are one of the best ways to really reveal your true identity. If I were to make a time capsule, I would want to put tons of things inside so that I could look back and see everything that was meaningful to me at the time it was made. However, if I could only choose four significant items to put inside, I would choose a plane ticket, a recipe for chocolate croissants, an English Essay, and a picture of my family.

I would choose these items because each one has importance to me. The reason for including the plane ticket would be because my family and I love to travel and explore different parts of the world. I love traveling because you can really see how other cultures work and how they are different from the one I live in today. Because I am half French, every once in a while we like to have traditional French foods (weather we make something ourselves or eat at restaurant); this is my reason for putting a recipe for chocolate croissants in my time capsule.  As of now, I spend a pretty good amount of time working on assignments for school. Some of the achievements that I am most proud of are as simple as an English essay. By incorporating an English essay into my time capsule, I will be able to look back at it and see not only how my writing has improved, but also what I was learning at school. Lastly, a picture of my family would be a great way to remember all the love and care my family has for each other. The care and respect for other people that my family has is defiantly something that I would never want to loose and always make sure to treat others with that same amount of appreciation. For the actual container that I would use to store each of my items in, I would use a small suitcase; this would help symbolize my love for traveling.


                    


I would love to know what you guys would put in your own time capsule if you could only choose four items.

See you in the next blog post!

Nina