Friday 10/29/10

Today was music filled! Mr. Mark from the Telluride Mountain School came and visited. We had two hours of music today we actually learned two mew songs. we learned an ACDC song and also "I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett. We talked about ways that we needed to improve our music hour. It was all really productive. I love music and am glad that I have the opportunity to go to OH. All the scarecrows are up for our fundraiser tomorrow for Halloween. We have worked non-stop these two past afternoons to get them all done. I am so excited to actually go and look at the finished products!

Wednesday 10/27/10

Today was a little crazy! We are getting a ready to make the scarecrows today and the moms have been coming in and out of the school with supplies. So far we have raised over 2,000 dollars for our service learning trip! This morning I started on some Spanish and Geometry, I also resubmitted a few lessons. We did the usual brain break games and then watched an 11 min video on education. It was really cool! I think the perspective that the speaker had on education was dead on. I have to go make scarecrows now so sorry for the short blog today!

Here is the video that we watched: RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

Literary Response #2

I am reading Jane Eyre and I have to say that I am really enjoying the book. I am about halfway done with the book now and I am going to give a summary. This book takes place in the mid to late 1800's and so far has had three major setting changes three times. When we first meet Jane she is about eight years old and lives in her cruel aunts lavish house (Gateshead) in the English countryside.Jane Eyre is an orphaned headstrong confident young girl who has experienced no love her life. So far she has made a few friends but none that fill space that a young child needs to feel from a parent. Her aunt is cruel to her and sees Jane as a burden that she cannot wait to rid herself of. Jane has three cousins who are not kind to her and are particularly fond of hitting her. While at Gateshead Jane grows fond of the house-maid Bessie. Bessie is kind to Jane but not like a loving mother. Little Jane is always accused of doing the naughty things that her cousins do; her aunt seems to have enough of Jane and confines her to the red-room. The red-room makes quite a negative impression on Jane because it is said that the ghost of her dead uncle dwells there. Jane "experiences" the presence of his ghost after she is locked in the room for hours and is reduced to fainting. The doctor is sent for, Jane tells him of her unfair treatment and Jane is sent to Lowood Institute by her aunt.

 We next transition to the Lowood Institution for poor young ladies. Mr, Brocklehurst is the head of Lowood and not liked at all. He accuses Jane of being possessed by the devil. He required that all the young ladies at Lowood be dressed in a dismal manner and not fed well. He believes that by doing this to the girls he will harden them and rid all the young girls of the devil. Mr. Brockelhurst hypocritically goes so far as to cut off a girls naturally curly hair because it is not "modest and plain" when his own wife and daughters walk in with beaver hats and curled hair! Jane makes a few good friends while at Lowood: Helen and Miss Temple. Helen is also headstrong like Jane and she passes away when Jane is young. Miss Temple is a teacher at Lowood and generally looks out for the girls and makes sure that they are health. Whenever the girls have a bad breakfast she tries to sneak them food. Miss Temple befriends Jane and takes a liking to her. While at Lowood Jane excels in her studies and becomes head of the class. A board of benefactors are appointed to Lowood and take better care of the girls while Jane is at the school. After Jane finishes her studies, she becomes a teacher for two years; at age eighteen she decides she wants to leave Lowood. From age ten to eighteen she had been confined to the school and has hardly ventured from its walls. Jane puts an add in the paper at the hopes of becoming a governess. Jane gets the call and is appointed the position of governess to a little girl near Millcote London at a house called Thornfield.

Jane describes Thornfield as less in grandeur than Gateshead, but she believes that she will be happy as a governess. Upon arrival at Thornfield she meets the housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax, who is an older woman and who welcomes Jane to the house with kindness. Thornfield is owned by Mr. Rochester who at this point in the story is the seemingly mysterious guardian of a little girl named Adele Varens. Adele is a little French girl who was brought to the English countryside by Mr. Rochester. Adele was also orphaned like Jane. At this point in the story Jane is very happy at Thornfield at is impressed by Adele's scholastic skills.

So far major conflict in this story is Jane not being loved and wanted. She also conflicts with her aunt and Mr. Brocklehurst quite a bit.

Friday!!! 10/22/10

Today was a pretty fun day!! We started out with a community meeting and we did a Whip again today. We then went straight to work. I worked on Spanish this morning. In the module of Spanish that I am working on I am learning about the Cuban missile crisis and Cuba's relationship with the United States. I also resubmitted so lessons and worked on some math. At brain break we played Silent Speed Ball, Jackpot and also (drum roll) BLOB TAG! Now of course, I can't really play these games but it is still fun to watch. :)

During lunch some of the middle schoolers teacher came and visited the school while we played kickball. We came back from kickball and then went to music. The high school was working on some songs for our concert on November 14th. Then I had a check-in email with Mrs. Amy. Sorry for such a short blog today but my literary response is coming after this.

Wednesday 10/21/10

Today was very productive for me and for the OH community. We started the day with an early 8:15 Scarecr-OH Lane meeting. We talked about what we would say when we went around the the businesses to ask for donations to fund our service learning trip to Costa Rica. We got our flyers and posters together to be ready to head out and walk around Rosemary and visit all the businesses. We then had community time and did a whip. The whip today was, "If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?" I chose a horse because they are fast and are free. After that we had FLVS time. I worked on my Spanish and got a lot done in that subject. At 10:00 it was time to head out of the school and visit the businesses. I was in a group with McKenzie, Alyssa, and Olivia. We were assigned to go Wild Olives, Amavida, Bombora, The Cottage Rentals Agency, and Solace Day Spa. One group took the Scarecr-OH that the students designed as a prototype around to the other buisnesses in Rosemary. Then two of the other groups went to Seacrest and Seaside to ask for donations for our service learning trip. It was all so exciting to open up to the community about our school. We are also excited to make the Scarecr-Ohs for all the businesses to put on Scarecr-Oh Lane. Our fundraiser is going to be Saturday October 30, and will be in conjunction with the usual Rosemary Halloween Party. For the OH ScarecrOH fundraiser there will be prizes for the winning Scarecr-OH. Our total amount of money raised today was $870! WOW!!!

After everyone got back from the fundraising excursion, we had Lunch. Today was tennis, but I can't go with my hurt knee. I found out that I have officially torn my ACL and I am getting surgery in four weeks. I have to do physical therapy until then and then I have to do physical therapy after my surgery. The recovery for my surgery is about four and a half months. To fix my ACL the doctor will take the Achilles Tendon from a cadaver and atatch it to what is left of my ACL. What is cool is that the incision from the surgery is only one centimeter and the rest is scoped. During tennis I worked on Spanish, Geometry, and H.O.P.E. After everyone got back we discussed lots of things but we mainly talked about our successes with the Scarecr-OHs After that I finished my Geometry and then started writing my blog. I was listening to everyone debate about the kickball teams. One team is actually ordering jerseys! I can't wait until I can play kickball again!! Tomorrow is Friday and then it is the weekend! Make sure to come to the OH bake sale which is the same day as Scarecr-OH Lane.

Monday 10/18/10

Hello Again! Sorry that I haven't written in a while, I have been at home because of my knee. I sure am glad to be back at OH though!! Today we had some special visitors. The men who created the program that the elementary school uses for math visited and talked to us. It was a great experience and we learned a lot about math and how it builds on itself. Mr. Mike, who is from China shared part of his life story with us and his appreciation for education. I have been interested in Chinese and he actually taught us a few characters which actually related back to math.It is always fun to make global connections and learn new things. After that I met with Olivia's grandmother, Mrs. Silvia who is a college English professor and book author. We worked on my writing project for Hybrid Cars. I learned LOTS of things about writing. One thing that she said that especially caught my attention was that the English language is totally different in writing from the spoken part of English. I had not previously learned that and I am excited to apply that to my future writings. I am thankful that she came and spent time with the High Schoolers to show us the fundamentals of  writing. I am ready to turn in my final project and cannot wait to have my first PBL done. I promise that the link to the paper will follow soon! I worked on the paper until lunch.

I miss being able to play kickball, but I found that it is still pretty fun to watch everyone. We had to make new teams, but I think that they are fairer than the last ones. I hope that I will be able to play again soon. I'm not sure of the other teams name, but I know that Connors team is NO MERCY. Haha. There are a lot of people here on fall brake so we have to be careful not to hit pedestrians and bikers...

After lunch and kickball I worked on my H.O.P.E. collaboration with Hunter. For the collaboration in H.O.P.E. you have to contact a person in your class and grade their project. Hunter and I got lucky because we have the same teacher and are able to work on our project together. Nathan also has our same teacher. It is nice to be able to work face-to-face with students although virtual school is wonderful. After that I worked on Spanish. I learned about Cuban Dominoes. In the Cuban version of dominoes you double the dominoes. Well, that's all folks! My literary response on Jane Eyre is going to follow.


Jane Eyre Literary Response 1


Already in previous blogs I have told you all that I am reading a book called Jane Eyre. This Novel is by Charlotte Bronte and published in England in 1847. The 1800s are my favorite time period and I have taken an interest in reading novels published in that Time period ever since I read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Charlotte Bronte was born in England and had six siblings of which three were writers (including Charlotte) and have published works. For an extensive biography on Charlotte Bronte please see here http://www.online-literature.com/brontec/. This novel is generally considered a Gothic romance.

The main theme in Jane Eyre is her quest to find true love, but also find her place in the world. Jane was orphaned at a very young age and she has trouble feeling like she belongs. Family is a major theme in Jane Eyre along with love, religion, and social standing. I am very excited to delve more into this book!

Monday 10/11/10

Today was very successful. I got A TON done! Mainly, I got a lot done because I tore my ACL and I can't do anything and I have to sit on the couch away from everyone. I did Geometry and Spanish this morning. I did a few lessons in Geometry and in Spanish I did my review. I have DBAs (Discussion Based Assessments) for both classes tomorrow evening. I can't do brain break activities anymore so I watched everyone play Team Blob Tag and Steal The Bacon. After we came back I worked on the new PBL that I am doing on the Industrial Revolution. I am doing two short stories from the different perspectives of girls in that time period.

(Here is the link to the Hybrid Cars project that the High School did before I forget
http://docs.google.com/a/oh-institute.org/present/viewid=dg6cf489_28cfrg99fg&revision=_latest&start=0&theme=blank&cwj=true)

I am excited for this project and I hope that it turns out! I had to work during kickball time today because I am hurt (The Denominators lost fortunately), and I did a module 2 Geometry practice test. I did pretty good on it and I think I am ready for the real test which I can take after I do my DBA with my math teacher.

After lunch was music, and the high school band worked on getting the notes and chords for "Dirty Little Secret" by the All American Rejects. It's funny because the All American Rejects visit the beach here a lot (I haven't personally seen them here but I know lots of people who have. I thought that us doing their song is kind of coincidental. :) After music I came back and worked more on Geometry and then I worked on Biology. I learned about biodiversity today. That's it for today! See you tomorrow.

Thursday 10/7/10

This morning at 8 o'clock we had a fundraising meeting. We talked about how we can revise our mission statement to better explain what it is we are going to be doing in Costa Rica. We want to make it more tangible, and meaningful to those who will donate for our trip. We watched last year's Panama video and it was really inspiring and it made me very excited to go to Costa Rica. I especially look forward to helping the school children who are less fortunate that we are here at OH. After that I finished my Biology project from yesterday and I worked on H.O.P.E. Then we had brain break. We had a Leap Frog relay which was pretty fun! After that we came back into the school and I worked on my Geometry. During our PBL block I continued writing my paper on hybrid cars. I am in the middle of writing it and the rough draft is due tomorrow. I will post the final product soon. While I was writing we talked about the books that we are going to read for our Language Arts credit. I am going to read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I am very excited to start reading it! :)

This is Jane Eyre! Cannot wait to read it! :)

After lunch we had tennis today. We had to warm up by running the lines of the court and then sprinting. We then worked on our serving. We are going to have a tournament soon where we will play the other kids at OH. I cannot wait for that, it is going to be super fun!

After tennis was design. We talked about the OH website. Each student at OH is going to have their own webpage that is part of the main one. We are each going to get to design our background. Our background has to relate to the design elements and principals that we have already had classes on. Mrs. Dana surpriser the high school girls by saying that we are going to be able to go to a local salon to learn the design principals of makeup. I am really excited for that! i worked more on my writing after design. Tomorrow is Friday! WOHOOO!

Wednesday 10/6/10

Today was a pretty normal day, but nonetheless it was great like always! :) Today during morning meeting we did a whip. A whip is when you go around the room and everyone answers a question. After that I worked on H.O.P.E. and Spanish. I was very productive and got A LOT done. We then had brain break. We did this game where your team will form a circle and hold hands. A ball is then placed in the center of the circle and the whole team has to try to pick up the ball without letting go of each others hands. Then of course we played blob tag!

We had lunch and then an extra long kickball game. The Dominators won! WOOOHOOO! We won 6-4. It was great because we were able to play 2 more innings. My team did great and I can't wait until Friday. I hope that we will be able to win again.

After lunch and kickball was music. Our band decided on a new song, "I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett. We got pretty far and everyone is trying out a new instrument. I am singing. Oh dear, well see how that goes...:) After music I did Biology. It was a pretty good day.

Tuesday 10/5/10

Today I worked on FLVS in the morning. I worked on Spanish 3 and then H.O.P.E. I also had a H.O.P.E. DBA, which is a discussion based assessment. For a DBA, you call your teacher and they quiz you on the module that you have been working on. After that we had brain break and we did relay races and then blob tag. For the relay race we played Hop and Run. Each person on your team either runs of hops around a shoe and the first team where all the players run of hop wins. Blob tag was fun like always! After brain break we had our PBL block (Project Based Learning). In high school we are individually working on a paper that will go along with our original question about hybrid cars. We worked on the introductions and the problems that we had with writing them, if any. After that was lunch.

After lunch we had tennis! Tennis was fun like it always is and it is nice with the weather. We worked on doubles    playing. We also have tennis team after school today. Can't wait!

After tennis we had design, and we had too draw a self portrait. It was pretty fun and when we were all done we had to guess whose drawing was whose. Throughout the year we are going to continue drawing self portraits and compare them with the ones we have already drawn. Right now I am going to go work on more Spanish and turn in my DBA assignment for H.O.P.E. See you all tomorrow! :)

Friday 10/1/10

Today is FRIDAY! We have had a pretty awesome day with just the high school because elementary and middle school were at on a field trip. This morning started out with the whole school going next door and checking out the design for the new school website that Mr. Tim has designed and it is really cool. After the other kids left to go on their field trip to see Chef Nelson, high school had FLVS time. After we worked for a little while we went outside for brain break. We played Dodge Ball today an it was interesting... I don't know if we are going to play that again. :)Then Mr. Randy showed us some Dodge Ball videos.  After brain break we had more FLVS time and I worked on my Spanish 3. Then we went to lunch.

Since there was only 8 people here we had a small kickball game and it was pretty fun. On the Dominator's was Me (Leah), Hunter,  Jordin, and Mr. Randy. On the Butterflies of Hope's team was McKenzie, Nathan, Shanna, and Mason. We tied the game up 18-18. Hopefully next time the Dominator will win.

After lunch and kickball we had music. The High School band worked on the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. We are getting the song down pretty well. We then worked on the song "You're Not Sorry" by Taylor Swift which sounds pretty amazing. Hunter is singing both songs and she has an excellent voice. After music we had some more FLVS time and I worked on more Spanish. The high school got into a very heated debate about our cleaning wheel. We couldn't decide on who would be the supervisor. Today is also Elle's birthday and she is 11. Sweet Jeni's provided cupcakes for us. Well, that's it for today! I will be back on Monday for another reflections on OH. :)