Relating With a Book Character

A big writing project this quarter after reading the book "Bringing the Boy Home" was to write a two voice poem.  Throughout this project I have realized that I am a strong writer in terms of voice, ideas, organization, and word choice.  I still need to work on sentence fluency, conventions and presentation.  I think that I did good job at comparing my life with the character's.  I was able to show not tell, as did I use figurative language.  Revising helped me recognize spelling errors, add figurative language, take away un-needed information and add in information.  I think maybe I could take away extra information.    

Blog Post Artifact

In humanities, we were assigned to do a blog post about our Literature Circle book "Bringing the Boy Home."   I think that my blog post was clear, easy to read and did not have frequent errors in terms of grammar.  I think my response to the claim was were clear and supported my claim with evidence and then explained why I chose that evidence.  My blog post was completed one time, as did I use the rubric.  One thing I could do to improve my blog post is use more textual evidence and also write in more for my explanation.

Where am I Going to Use This?

1. What is the perimeter of the bed?
2. What is the area of the bed?
3. Why is the pillow that says I❤U backwards? (In the photo, not in real life)
4. If the pillows take up 1/5 of the bed, then what percent is covered by pillows?
5. If blankets are 2/3 of the weight of the bed, then what percent in of the weight is taken up by blankets?
6. In the dresser in the background, what is one array for the knobs? 

First Quarter Reflection-Math

Statement: Mathematical thinking is not the same as doing math.
I disagree because math involves multiple types of thinking-- pushing yourself to think in another way, that you would not normally do to solve one thing.  I also think that math is a different way of thinking because it involves thinking critically.  Math makes you stretch your mind to solve a question but you also have to think creatively so that you can break down a problem or put a problem into context.   Math is not just solving a problem on a piece of paper, but also putting "problems" into a realistic context and incorporating it into the world around you.

Characteristics of a Good Mathematician

• Critical Thinkers
• Asking themselves "Why"
• Visualizing
• Putting Questions into Contexts 
• Recognizing Patterns
• Learning from Mistakes
• Re-reading instructions
• Highlight key words
• Being responsible 
• Balanced
• Curious
• Reflective

I think that one of my strengths as a mathematician is that I am an innovative learner so, when I have trouble with math, I draw pictures or put the question into context.  I've noticed that for me personally I need to always look over my thinking because I've realized that some of my mistakes are not very hard to find.  I have found myself improving in math because the more strategies and self corrections I make, the more I can prepare for units in the future.  I think that I have to try and be more of a risk taker in terms of trying different methods that I am not used to.  I also need to work on being reflective because sometimes when I do not go over my thinking I find myself making obvious mistakes.  For the future, I hope to grow more confident in myself, especially when taking tests.

Documenters for a Week

My group was given the topic about the flood rescuers. I think this topic was very interesting because we got to learn about how people had to be risk takers and maintain the quality of perseverance. We learned about what they had to do and how they were constantly doing things that they struggled with. We also were able to learn about how they had to swim underwater a lot in order to get into buildings. They rescued cats and dogs that were scratching them with sharp nails, but they never let go of them because they knew that the animals could drown.  I think our group demonstrated the core value innovative when we showed various pictures that were high quality and were strong. We were also curious when we looked at different ways to show our video. I think we needed to work on showing, not telling. We also needed to work on pacing our audio. Otherwise, our video was high quality and a lot of thought was put into it.  We were being risk takers when we asked people that we did not know about their experiences during the flood.  We were challenged by  misunderstanding what people said.  I think that next time, in order to improve, we will split up the time that we have.  For example, we will find all our pictures one day, make a script, storyboard and then record the next day.

Determined: Theme of Bringing the Boy Home

What do you think the theme of this book is?
I think that the theme of the book is to not stop believing and to be determined.  

I have evidence of this from page 101, when Tirio says "Yes, I say, getting up. "I am ready." I think that this is important because it shows that Tirio is determined to show Sara what he is capable of and also to prove his Paho wrong. Determination is a huge factor in pulling him through his test, and also what drives him to do the test in the first place.  

On page 19, it says; The wood taps the floor on one side. I overcorrect. Tap. Then the other. Tap. I grit my teeth. I hate not being good at something. I believe that this shows how Tirio is trying hard to be the best person that he can be. He cannot lose his self confidence, or else it will distract him from his goal.  

Finally, on page 158 it says; I lurch for the table. The room is spinning as I grab the piece of bamboo and quickly snort the contents. The second time, my nose burns as badly as the first. Luka is determined to see the future. He will not give up and will endure the painstaking ritual in order to find out who he is and what he might be. This quote shows that Luka is ready to pay any price to see what kind of man he will become.  
Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/assets/183092/1830914147/sun-light-1-1407472-m.jpg

Atchim!

Nas aulas de português, nós aprendemos como você usa o  Popplet.  Popplet é uma fernamenta online que ajuda você a organizar e lembrar suas ideias.  O tópico foi sobre doenças.  Eu listei as doenças e depois eu adicionei fotos.   Eu acho que popplet me ajuda a entender as diferentes palavras sobre essa unidade. Por exemplo, para chá, eu tenho uma foto de chá, e também que chá ajuda você quando você está doente.

Tutorials in Toolkit

In 1:1 toolkit, we are working on tutorials.  My tutorial is about putting in accents on a mac.  I have found this knowledge very helpful especially considering that we do blog posts and other exersises that involve writing in portuguese on our computer.

Aprendendo com Poplette

Com poplette, eu aprendeu sobre "donkey bridges" que são differentes visuais que voce pode aprendeu sobre.  Eu aprendeu sobre as conneçoes com differentes palavras e picturas.  Eu acho que isso e um jeito que e muito interessante por que vocé pode tem um grande compreensão sobre uma palavra.  Eu acho que nós podemos usar Poplette para múltiplos coisas com aulas differentes na escola.