Alice in Wonderland

The movie, Alice in Wonderland, by Tim Burton, is a must see film. Inspired by the author Lewis Carroll and the animated Disney movie, Alice in Wonderla­­nd, the producer has recreated the Underworld except 13 years later. He puts the Wonderland to a whole new level, with action and humor around every corner. Now no longer animated, the audience can clearly picture the other world and the fascinating characters. 19-year-old Alice Kingsleigh, daughter of Charles Kingsleigh, is one day suddenly asked to accept a marriage proposal at a garden party from Hamish, an English nobleman. She then becomes distracted by a peculiar rabbit and rushes to catch up to it. Soon, Alice encounters a large hole and accidentally tumbles in, falling into the Underland. Shortly after she enters the world, Alice is told that she is destined to be the White Queen’s champion, the person who will destroy the Jabberwocky, a huge, terrifying dragon, on Frabjous Day. In her adventure, she confronts the Red Queen and her sister, the White Queen, the Mad Hatter, acted out by Johnny Depp, and some magical creatures. With her childhood memory along with the animals’ and the Hatter’s help, Alice Kingsleigh is able to guide herself through the Wonderland. Two of the funniest characters in the movie are the brothers, Tweedledee and Tweedledum. They always disagree with each other and think oppositely. Also, the childish behavior of the Red Queen makes her funny. She wants every single thing to be done her way. Other than these three, there are many more amusing and hilarious parts to the movie. Overall, Alice in Wonderland is a wonderful, exciting movie.

USA Makes It to Final 16

Throughout the soccer games for the United States in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, our nation has been pretty lucky most of the time. Our team has not lost any game so far this year, sometimes barely tying against the opponent. But other times we win the game easily. One example is from the most recent playoff, USA verses Algeria. Everywhere the crowd was cheering for our soccer team, so energetic and loud. It seemed as if there were more U.S. fans in the stadium than South Africans. The first few minutes seemed dull and plain, with no team rushing in for some great goal. Occasionally an Algerian would somehow maneuver past our defenders and take a shot, only to find it missing or blocked. But after the 20th minute, all this had changed, and our players were dribbling for a goal. Just when the Americans thought that Dempsey had scored a wonderful goal for us, the referee called him off sides, and the point was gone. This is probably the unluckiest moment that USA has had so far. Many people thought that Gomez made a perfect pass to Dempsey, who rightfully scored a magnificent goal, but the referee didn’t, and made a big mistake. But even if he had called wrong, whatever he said is just what happens. But after this unfortunate event, our soccer players were soon back toward the goal attempting more shots. Even though they missed them, our players kept persisting. Soon it was the last minute. The fans were tense. The players were slowly becoming tired. But then suddenly US player Landon Donovan was sprinting with the ball toward the goal. Then another player, Jozy Altidore, took over and attempted the shot. He fumbled with the ball and then fell to the ground, but Donovan was ready. He made one final shot, which cleanly went in. Luckily, the goalie fell down with Jozy and could not react fast enough. This one, skilled and lucky goal let USA advance into the Final 16.

Notes

These are from notes that I took on the PowerPoint about Notes.

How to Take Notes
The reason people should take notes is to help remember the information or to store it for later use. You should always pay attention while taking notes.

At the end of a slide, at the end of the presentation, or when the speaker says so, you should ask questions to the presenter. If the slide already past, right down something to remember your question and wait until the end of the presentation. Do not be afraid to do ask!

Also, when taking notes, do not copy everything! You will not be able to write everything down fast enough. Instead, just summarize whatever the speaker says and your thoughts.

Use italics, underlines, or other things to emphasize some word or phrase. You can also do this with certain punctuation marks. You can also use short hand, like putting a smiley face for happy.

You should take notes either while the speaker is presenting or after the presentation. The bad part of taking notes after is that you may not remember everything. The bad parts about taking notes while the speaker is speaking are that you may not be able to catch up the speaker and you may start copying off the slides and not listen to the presenter. I recomend to do a little of both.

All and All, try to always take notes.

Last Day For Me

Today I went to soccer practice for the last time. I had many scrimmages and barely any drills. It was actually pretty fun!

In class today we read two stories from Chicken Soup for the Soul. One was about a man who after 155 rejections, finally succeeded in his goal. He later became very successful. The other story was about a man, who as a child wanted to own a ranch very badly, and even when his teacher discouraged him, he persisted. Finally he was able get his 200 acre ranch.

Also today in class, we gave our speech again after each watching our impromptus. But this time, we were not allowed to read from the paper. I think I did better since I did not need to look at my paper and instead be able to establish eye contact. I also think I understood what to do better.

I think that I had a great last day!

6/17/10

Again I went to soccer camp this morning before class. For some strange reason, today seemed less exhausting. I think it is since I didn't have to do as many drills.

In class today, we worked on writing, reading, and more public speaking. First, for writing, we wrote a transcript. This is mine:

Billy popped out behind the bush and shot Bob with a Maverick Nerf gun. "What was that for?" exclaimed Bob. Billy responded, " I was just trying to surprise you." Bob then grinned slyly. He replied, "Well then, you're up for a big surprise." Billy, now puzzled, questioned, "What do you mean?" Then Bob took out an Airsoft B-B gun and pointed it at Billy. He then yelled at the top of his lungs, "Fire!" B-B pellets streamed toward Billy. "So, you want a fight! Well you got one!" Billy then seized Bob's weapon and started shooting his adversary. Then Bob shouted, "It's on!"

Writing and presenting the script was pretty fun and I enjoyed it a lot. Next came reading. Today we read A Smile, a story that also came out of Chicken Soup for the Soul. This story is about a man who was saved by an unintentional smile. I was able to get a chance to read it. After this, everyone gave their speech that they had prepared the day before. I went last, speaking close to a minute and a half. Next on the agenda, our class listened to Carl give an impromptu speech about Apples. I enjoyed listening to him. It was amazing how he had came up with so many ideas just referring to an apple. After hearing him give the speech, everyone else got a turn. At this point I left.

My Day

Before class today, I went to soccer camp. It was exhausting and I was forced to do many drills. Everyone was sweating like crazy because it was extremely hot outside. After a quick lunch I went to camp.
Today we read another short story from Chicken Soup for the Soul called One at a Time. It was about a man who would walk by the seashore throwing all the starfish on land into the water. With each starfish he threw into the ocean, he made a difference, one at a time.
We also read a poem called Touch of a Master's Hand. The meaning of the poem was that everyone has something special, a soul, and when taken care of well, it can make a great person. I think that this lesson is very valuable.
In class we also voted on a topic for our presentation/speech that we will show tomorrow. I chose "Are video games good or bad?", the topic that I made up. But the official topic became "Should you tell lies?".
After this, we practiced our public speaking skills by reintroducing ourselves while showing the 3 things: Eye Contact, Poise, and Confidence. Right after this someone came up with the idea of a yelling game, where we would go around first whispering and then slowly increase in volume until we were yelling. I found that activity very fun.
Thoughout the class the teacher gave us candy and other prizes for various reasons. That was a good idea. Overall, I learned a lot today!

Lying

In my opinion, lying is okay only if you don't do it that often and it is absolutely neccesary. In some cases, it may be better to lie than tell the truth. A harmless lie, one that does not hurt anybody, is better than a hurtful truth, one that depresses or angers a person. There are times when it is possible to put yourself in danger or other people in danger if you do not lie. For example, if someone asked you to go somewhere that is unsafe but you had nothing else planned, you should still lie and say that you are not available. Also, if a stranger walked up to you and asked your friend's address plus their phone number and you knew both, it would be good to lie to that person and tell them that you do not know that information.
You can also hurt someone else's feelings if you do not lie. If somebody asks you if he or she did well in a performance and you said that they did horrible, that person will feel sad and ashamed. Instead, you should compliment that person to make him or her feel good. Another case is if a person is very determined to win a game and he or she asks you what you think, but you know that the person isn't very good, you should lie and just encourage him. These are the reasons why I think lying is okay in certain occasions.

Comments About My Class

6/14/10
-I had fun with the story activity
-I enjoyed the bits of humor put in here and there
-Advice-maybe a bit more activities and working in groups

6/15/10
I liked the reading activity that we did today. But it would be a little better if we could go more in depth about analyzing the story. I also enjoyed the speaking activity where we were given a topic to talk about. I also liked how you emphasized about the three main concepts about speaking in front of an audience. I really got that remembered now. Maybe you can get all the students involved at once for some activity to keep them from zoning out too often. Also, you can ask all the students to take notes on a piece of paper so they won't be tempted to play a computer game. But overall, I think today's class was very fun.

Suggestions:
Reading- We each can bring a book and analyze it.
Public Speaking- We can each discuss something we did the previous evening
Writing- We can write about our favorite hobby.

The Penguin Story

Billy was slowly walking around on the ice. He was a thin, hungry penguin who was desperate for food and warmth. He was gazing around for food when he suddenly saw and orange object far away. This curious penguin wondered what it was and was soon gliding toward the strange object. He was hoping for a nice, big fish but instead saw what looked like a life jacket. He now noticed that the ice around the life jacket was slowly melting and realized that what he was looking at must be warm. Billy then carefully put it on. All of the sudden he felt cozy and comfortable. Now all the penguin wanted was food. He was starting to think of a way to break the layer of ice when he realized that the jacket was already doing that for him. Very soon the ice under Billy gave away and the penguin was sent into the water. With his energy replenishing, Billy was able to swim faster, and had soon caught many fish. The following days the penguin was able to catch more fish, and he was getting stronger and bigger each day. It came to one day when Billy was too big to fit into the little life jacket. He couldn't move that well and the life jacket was stuck to him. He was feeling hopeless when two penguins came waddling by on there way to look for a better fish spot. After some teasing and mocking, the other penguins finally freed Billy. The penguin was now able to get food without anything's help.