18
Jun

End-of-Year

By smotto 0 Comments
Categories: Boredom Posts, Silent Reading and At School

Well I know I haven’t written a post in such a long time, so I thought I should write one before the year ends. We have exams starting at the end of this week. We have one on Friday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Then we have no school on Thursday so our teachers can finish our report cards, and on Friday is the end-of-year assembly. I only have to write one exam (I think) because I got exempted from the other 3. Although we don’t find out of exemptions until tomorrow, I’m pretty sure I only have to write my LA exam.

This coming weekend is also Grad. My brother is graduating this year (:D) so I have to go to the pictures, the ceremony, the supper, and the social. Grad is pretty fun, and my friend Katie’s sister is also graduating so I will be with her for some time. Some of my family is coming in but not many of my cousins because they also have to write exams.

I am also having family coming in later, but not until after grad for their annual fishing trip that all my uncles go on every year. The girls all stay back and bake and watch movies and stuff like that. For the rest of my summer, I will probably be going out of town to my grandma’s and maybe Winnipeg, nowhere fancy. In the summer I usually tan outside, go swimming, tubing sometimes, that kind of stuff.

Well, this could be the last post of mine this year, so have a good summer and see you next year!

*sara.

15
May

Nothing But The Truth

By smotto 2 Comments
Categories: Homework posts and At School

What is true? That can be a hard question. There are two ways to answer that. Yes, it’s true that Global Warming is going to kill the world soon, but there’s another way to answer it. It’s what you think is true in life.

Being truthful is the opposite of lieing. It’s being faithful to someone or something. I think that truth is hard to tell, definitely harder to tell than a lie. Like if you do something you shouldn’t have, and then you go home, what do you say to your parents? Well, if you lie, then its not as hard. But if they find out that you lied, you will suffer the consequences. But if you just tell the truth in the first place, maybe they’ll understand and you won’t get in as much trouble.

I also think that its true that life can be hard. But sometimes, and most of the time, you bring it upon yourself. Like for example, say you’re a bit late for something but you have something more important to do so you skip what you had to do in the first place. If you get in trouble for missing that, its only your fault and you will suffer the consequences.

Its also true that mistakes make you stronger. Mistakes shape you as a person. If your life is totally focused on being perfect, you won’t change as a person and you will stay on one level. You will never learn different than what you already know.

There are a lot of things that are also true. But things that are true in life are different, like how you think life should be, what you think make make you or break you, etc.

*smotto.

13
May

My Weekend

By smotto 3 Comments
Categories: Silent Reading

This weekend was pretty fun for me. On Friday, I hung out with some of my friends. We watched some fireworks that were going on that night, walked around town, and went for ice cream. But because we’re girls, there was a little bit of drama for a while but it cleared up.

On Saturday, there was a dance called semi-formal. Its a dance that we have at our school. But this dance is a bit different than the other ones we have at our school. This is the one chance that people have where they can dress up, and most people take it. I got ready with my friend Elaine at her house, and as everyone says, getting ready is half the fun. Then we showed up to the dance together. It went from 7-10 pm. After the dance, me and some friends walked around for a bit, but they went out and I went home.

Well, silent reading is over now so I better go do some work. Bye!

*smotto.

01
May

About Me, Again

By smotto 4 Comments
Categories: At School

Hi everyone,

We’ve been told that some new people are going to be looking at our blogs, so I’m gonna tell you a bit about myself.

My name is Sara. I’m 12 years old, almost 13, and in grade 7. I live in Snow Lake, MB, Canada. I go to JHK School. Snow Lake is a small town with one school. There’s basically one of everything, except houses restaurants, and small convenience/candy stores. There’s not much to do here, so me and my friends just usually hang out and walk around town and watch movies, that kind of stuff.

I don’t exactly have one hobby really, I play volleyball sometimes when there’s practices and games. I like to read lots. I’m also good in school, but I don’t really enjoy it, well no one really does.

Well, I’ve introduced myself, and I hope you do the same so we can all learn about you too.

*sara.

29
Apr

Coming Up

By smotto 3 Comments
Categories: Silent Reading

I know its a little early to talk about the weekend, but I have nothing else to say, so I might as well.

This weekend, I am going to my Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Holland, Manitoba. Its a small town about an hour to two hours away from Winnipeg. Its kind of an old people town so we don’t have much to do there, but its just good to see them. Also on this trip we will be spending a day in the city to get grad outfits and whatnot since my brother’s grad is in June.

My whole family except for my sister and the dog will be traveling there on Friday after my mom is done work at 5 because she can’t get time off. Its about a 7 to 8 hour drive so we won’t get there til late. The next day, we are going to Winnipeg to shop. It sucks though because I only have a few hours to get everything I want/need, and trust me I have a long list.

When we get back to Holland on Saturday night we will just be hanging out and spending time with them because my grandpa is in the hospital lots so we don’t see him often. Then the next day is when we will have our family supper. My aunty, uncle, and 2 cousins will be coming in from Morden, and my aunty and uncle from Cartwright will be coming in too. My other 2 older cousins might not be coming in since one lives in Calgary I think and the other is going to have her baby in the next week or so, but I’m hoping she comes in because I haven’t seen her in a long time and I’m hoping she might already have the baby.

We are leaving on Monday, so I won’t be in school, and then the next day my class doesn’t have school so I get two days off, and then the next day we get out early. Also, I know its a long time from now, but my sister and my mom have to go into Winnipeg for like 5 or 6 days for my sister’s braces, so I will have the house to myself! Except for my brother though. But that’s okay. And he will be gone one day so I think I’m going to get a friend to sleep at the house with me, we’ll see what happens.

Well, silent reading is almost over, so I hope your weekend is going to be as good as mine! :)

*smotto.

16
Apr

What’s The Most Important?

By smotto 2 Comments
Categories: Homework posts

Our first question this week is, what is the most important thing a parent can do for a teenager?

Children and teenagers are hugely different. Little kids rely on their parents to feed them, clothe them, pick them up from school, help them with homework, love them, and way more. But as a teenager myself, I know that I can pack my own lunch, buy my own clothes, walk home from school by myself, and be independent. So since we don’t need all the things a child does, what do we need?

I know there’s a point in every teen’s life where they think their parents are the worst thing in their life and they think all their parents want to do is torture them. But your parents can help you a lot; they can teach you things that you need to know to be a successful adult. But that’s the question: what are those things? One of those things, in my opinion, is food. Yes I can pack my own lunch and make my toast in the morning, but I don’t want to, and honestly, don’t know how to, come home from school, do my homework quickly, and then cook myself a big steak supper with potatoes and whatever else I don’t know how to make.

Another important thing is rules. I know when your parents tell you to be in early, you groan and throw a temper tantrum, but they’re just trying to protect you. For me, I don’t have a curfew, it just depends where I am. I think that is a good rule. But one of the things that goes along with having rules is compromising. Your parents usually want to keep you happy, so I think you and your parents need to compromise the rules so you’re all happy.

The one last thing that everyone, no matter who you are, needs is love. Your parents are there for you when you’re in a fight, or you need someone to talk to. They’re the ones who care for you, no matter what the circumstance is. Even if you think they’re trying to ruin your life, they’re just looking out for you.

I think those things are the most important things I need from my parents.

*smotto.

 

16
Apr

This Week

By smotto 0 Comments
Categories: Silent Reading and At School

This week of school has been pretty boring for me, and today is the day when I get nervous. On Monday and Tuesday, we presented our TEDTalks projects. It continues today, and today is my day. I was supposed to  go first, but then we didn’t have time to finish them all yesterday, so now Shyla is going ahead of me. It wouldn’t really matter to me if I went first anyways.

Other than the TEDTalks projects, we have been doing 2 sets of blogposts each week (it only started last week though). This week we have been looking at questions about us as teenagers. You can check out the questions here.

We just finished a math unit as well. We had a test yesterday. It was about surface area and volume.

Well, silent reading is about over, so I should sign off now. Bye!

*smotto.

15
Apr

TEDTalks Researching

By smotto 0 Comments
Categories: Homework posts

For our TEDTalks projects, we spent a lot of time just researching about our topic. My topic was animal testing. One of the ways I researched about it was watching YouTube videos. That was one of the most common choices that I saw people doing. It could be because you get good information, or it could be that its just a fun and easy way to study.

 

Another way I researched about animal testing was looking on the internet, on sites about my topic. I would use search engine sites like Google to find the sites, then read the info on them. This way was the most common and most effective way to learn about your topic.

Another way was contacting people. The way I did it was by looking for email addresses that I could ask questions to. Only one place that I sent an email to replied, so I think this way of research isn’t that effective and I wouldn’t choose this as the best way of research.

The last way I found that I could use to research about animal testing was a blog search engine site called Technorati. On Technorati you can find blogs about a topic that you type in and any blogs that mention the words you typed in will show up. The only problem I had with Technorati was that the blogs weren’t just about the topic you typed in, it just had the words in one of the blogposts. If I had a choice of which way I could research, I wouldn’t choose using Technorati.

These are all the ways of researching that I used to research about my TEDTalks project, animal testing.

*smotto.

13
Apr

TEDTalks Project

By smotto 1 Comment
Categories: TEDTalks project stuff and Homework posts

For the past long while, we have been working on TEDTalks projects about major issues in the world. The topic I chose to do is animal testing. Over 50-100 million vertebrate animals are tested on each year.

Animal testing is not only cruel, but pointless. Just because a product is safe or unsafe to use on animal, doesn’t mean that it’s okay or not okay to use on a human. One of the solutions to animal testing that is going on right now is protesting. Sometimes it works, but most of the time it doesn’t because if people don’t get a response quickly, they will give up.

Another is is donations. Donating on websites like PETA, SPCA, or StopAnimalTests probably can help, but what I don’t understand is where the money would go to help the problem. It goes to research but how does that help it? All it is is educating people about the issue.

Another one is petitions. Petitions could help because if you sign a petition to stop animal testing and then someone hands it in to a company, they could see how many people care about the issue. But just because a bunch of people signed a piece of paper doesn’t mean a top-of-the-line company is going to stop what they’re doing.

The last one I found was laws. There are no actual laws against all types of animal testing, only on testing cosmetic products on animals. Some people say that animal testing could become a regulation in some beauty product manufacturers.

We were told to come up with better solutions of our own. I came up with three. The first one is better protests that go on until results are shown. The second one is boycotting companies that test their products on animals. Boycotting a company is when you don’t buy anything that that company makes. I think this solution could help alot because if enough people do it, it would be really effective and the company would know that people want them to stop testing on animals and won’t buy their products untl they stop.

The last and most effective one that I came up with was new laws against all types of animal testing. If people are caught testing on animals, they should be fined, shut down, or sent to jail. Since there are none like that, I think this would be the most effective solution to animal testing.

That pretty much sums up what my TEDTalks project is about.

*smotto.

13
Apr

Success and Culture, LA and Snow Lake

By smotto 0 Comments
Categories: Homework posts

The title of my post has 2 sets of very different things. Success and culture of course are different, and LA and Snow Lake are also very different.

Looking at my class’ blogposts, and looking at the kids in LA’s, I can tell that we have all written about different things. We all have different minds and ideas on what we think of this and that.

Success

Most of the blogs I looked at, from Snow Lake and LA, talk about success being achieving goals that you set for yourself. In almost all of the Snow Lake blogs, I saw that most people think of success as being happy, even if you have nothing. Some people in Snow Lake also talked about how it can be money, but it doesn’t have to be. Some people in LA talked about how being successful is about being who you want to be and being happy.

 

Culture

The blogposts that I read from the 2 different places were very different. Most kids from LA knew exactly what their culture was, and had lots of interesting traditions. They knew exactly what they would put in a box from their culture. But most of my classmates from Snow Lake didn’t know what all of their cultures were since most people had more than one. Some people in my class were unsure of what they would put in a box from their culture. It seems like the kids in LA know a lot more about their culture than us in Snow Lake do.

These two places and these two things that I have been talking about are very different. We all have different ideas, but most of them make you realize one thing: we all think differently about what success and culture mean to us.

*smotto.