Student Blog Entry #1 - A Surprise Trip

I thought the night of September 17^th was going to be a normal night, oh but no it wasn’t.  That night we finished eating my dad’s birthday dessert and then my mom and dad said that we would be going to Hawaii the next morning.  At first I thought they were joking but they were serious.  I was so happy I thought I could scream my lungs out.  And they were serious.  The next morning we woke up at 4:00 in the morning had a quick breakfast and took a taxi to the airport.  We flew to LA and then from LA to Maui.

When we got there I was surprised again— my friend was there!  I then figured out that my parents had been setting this up for a few months. 

We all left the airport and got lunch, then drove a rental car to our hotel, The Westin.  We then played at the pool and the beach.  The pool had an awesome waterslide! The next day we played some more at the pool and the beach and went parasailing.  I was nervous about parasailing, but Mateo talked me into it. It was really fun, and we were really high up in the air. The next day we went snorkeling off of a boat at Molokini and saw the coral reef.  We also got to see this huge tree which is one tree but has a bunch of stems and covers a whole park!  It’s in Lahaina and it’s called a banyan tree. The next day we drove the road to Hana (which is like 6 hours) and got to see Twin Falls, a black sand beach, and the Seven Pools of Serenity (we only saw 2).  The next day we went to the pool and beach and went to a luau and saw fire dancing and hula dancing.  The next day we went the pool and beach and snorkeled at a place by our hotel called Black Rock.  A turtle and a sting ray swam right up to the beach! The next day we went the pool and beach and went to Black Rock and then at night we drove up to the top of the volcano Haleakala and saw the stars.  It was really cold at the volcano, and very windy. The next day was our last day.  We went the pool and beach and then started a night flight back home.

This was a great surprise trip to Hawaii. It was really fun having one of my best friends with me to have fun on the island. 

Feelings and Emotions in Writing

As we continued working on our personal narratives this week, we spent some time one day focusing on how great authors include feelings and emotions of characters in their writing. We tried going beyond simple use of synonyms for describing feelings to use of character response and behaviors to draw a reader in.  Students have only just begun typing up their own personal narratives and the goal will be to revise and add in descriptions of feeling through the revision process. We focused on five emotions and these are some of the descriptions they came up with.

Confused

*eyes wandering *dazed *weirdly gasping *sweat on brow *discombobulated*dizzy *inquisitively *don’t know what’s going on *unsure *flabbergasted*anxiously seeking *dumbfounded *baffled

Angry

*mad *clenching her fist *with a tornado at the top of his head *not happy/unhappy *stomping *his face burned with anger *eyes scrunched up with little stars*his hair going up everywhere *making his hands into fists *at the top of his voice*shaking fists *grumpy *thundercloud in brain

Sad

*with tears in his eyes *teary-eyed *glum *depressed *tears welled in her eyes*downcast *dejected *upset *melancholy *shivering

Happy

*excited *tears of joy *giggling *jumping up and down happily *jumpy*giggling *feeling like you could give anyone a big hug *ecstatic

Scared
*heart pounding *gasped in horror *throat was dry *eyes wide *unable to breathe

Native Americans of California

With our first day with Chromebooks, students were already challenged to use them to use resources to find out the variety of California Indian tribes in California by clicking on a name and seeking out information such as their main food/resource lifestyle, where they were located, and major events in their history with accompanying years. Here are some highlights of what they found.

Maddie found that in the Southern Palute were visited as early as 1776 by Father Escalanted. In 1871 they were visited by 1871. Surprisingly, in 1970, The Southern Palute received $7.25 million from the US government for being mistreated.

Mihir researched the Koso tribe. The Death Valley party passed through their territory and their territory was surveyed by Von Schmidt. The Koso were the ones to start the Borax trade.

In addition, Sierra learned that the Koso, a hunting and gathering group, lived in the barren country between the Sierras and Nevada state line. The Koso spoke Central Numic and in the 1860's discovered gold in the Coso Mountains.

Kiana researched the Kawaiisa. They spoke Southern Numic and between 1844-1850 were visited by John C. Fremont. Unfortunately, the Kawaiisa were devestated by the gold rush miners.

Jakob looked into the Shasta tribe. They unsurprisingly spoke a language called Shastan and practiced a ghost dance. The Shasta tribe had over 2,000 in 1800 but had dropped to 600 by 1900 and in 1921 the tribe was infected by small pox.

Mateo also studied the Shasta and found that relied heavily on fishing and had their first contact with white trappers in 1821.