Grade 8 Career Fair

                                                                   Career Fair

            Today on May 5, 2011, my class and I visited the grade 8 career fair in the gym. Basically, the grade 8s had to put the career they wanted to be and things about their career on a big piece of cardboard in a creative way. They had do put down things like the salary and the pros and cons of the job. There were many careers that caught my eye in the fair. Like an astronaut, a chef and a pediatrician. But the job that caught my full attention was a money manager because of the salary. It was a perfect job for me because I'm good at math and dealing with money.  

            A money manager is an extremely well-paid job. That was the only reason it caught my full attention. The amount of money you'd make per year was astonishing. If you've been a money manager for 5 years, you'd make from $130 000 to $1 000 000 dollars per year. If you've been a money manager for 10 years, you'd make $1 000 000 dollars per year. Other things that were amazing were the pros of this career. Some pros that I remember from this job is that the pay is very good, you could get a performance bonus, there are health benefits, you could earn extra money for travel and housing and the last one (I wouldn't really count as a pros) is that you get to wear a suit. There were also some cons I remember from this career. They were that the job isn't very socially interactive, you could hurt your eyes from staring at the computer too long, it's a very risky business and you have to keep track of lots of paperwork and records.

Overall there were many great careers the grade 8s chose but to me, the best career was the money manager. 

-Adam         

St.Andre

St.Andre

St.Andre was born in the year of 1845 and died in the year of 1937. He lived a life full of great difficulties. But even with all of these difficulties in his life, he never complained or got mad. When Brother Andre was 9, his father died from a falling tree that fell on him. Then a few years later, Brother Andre's mother died from tuberculosis. Brother Andre had a disability. As Brother Andre got older, he wanted to be a priest in a church in Montreal. But since he was in bad health and never had the qualities of being a priest, the church didn't accept him. So they let Brother Andre be a doorman of the church. Soon, people who had a sibling in bad health asked Brother Andre if there was a priest available to pray for their sibling, but there weren't any. Then Brother Andre offered the person to pray with them to St.Joseph. After that, the person Brother Andre prayed for got healed. In a little while, there were long lineups to see and pray with Brother Andre, not the priests. Brother Andre had determination and lots of respect for others. He spent lots of hours everyday praying to St.Joseph of other people. Brother Andre did thousands of miraculous healings over his life time.

-Adam

The Wednesday Wars

The Wednesday Wars 

Meeting Our Heroes

In the chapter of December, Holling is shocked when he sees the kind of person his idol really is. It all started when Holling gave his idol, Mickey Mantle, a baseball to sign. But Mantle won't sign Holling's baseball because Holling is wearing a yellow fairy suit with white feathers on the butt from the Shakespeare play he was just in. So Mickey Mantle thinks that Holling is gay. The way Gary describes Hollings feelings makes you fell very shocked and sad for Holling. It made me kind of mad because Holling admired Mantle very greatly and Mantle didn't sign Hollings baseball because he had a thought that Holling was gay. It just goes to show that some people aren't the way they seem to be. A similar situation happened to me before. I'm sure you know who the rapper T.I. is. Well before and still right now I loved the songs T.I. rapped and listened to it almost everyday. When my class had to write about a famous person, I wrote about T.I. When people asked me who is my favorite rapper/singer, I said T.I. Then a few years later, I heard that T.I. went to jail because he had possession of gun without a license for it. After I heard about that horrible news, it made me feel very shocked and let down. I had a lot of respect for T.I., but he went to jail for really dumb mistake. But I still liked him for his music. Few years later, T.I. went to jail again for having drugs. That news made me feel very sad. Till this day I still really like T.I. for his music but lost some respect for him for the things he did. Just like Holling, I realized not all people are the same the way they seem to be. T.I. did make some mistakes in his life but I still do like him as a rapper.  

-Adam

The Wednesday Wars 

So far the book The Wednesday Wars has been amazing.  One of the things that I like about this book is the way the author doesn't write what happened, Gary D. Schmidt shows you.  The way he writes creates a picture in your mind which makes this book really great.  Also Gary puts a lot of voice in his writing. He puts lots of hyperboles, metaphors, similes, personifications, alliterations, onomatopoeias and idioms.  Instead of writing, "It smelt under the floorboards," Gary writes, "A scent that lingered like the smell of a dead animal caught underneath the floorboards."  The sentences that Gary writes are detailed and unique.  You don't see this kind of writing in a lot of books.  There are some books that are boring and tell you what happened and there are other books that have a lot of detail.  But this book is detailed and creates a picture in your head that makes you want to flip to the next page.  What I love the most about this book is the way the author describes Holling's reaction when he survives one of Mrs.Baker's evil plots or when he suspects that Mrs.Baker is planning an evil plot.  It's hilarious. If I could rate this book in what I've read out of ten, I would rate it ten out of ten. 

-Adam   

Biographical Paragraph

Jean de Poutrincourt

Jean de Poutricourt was a French colonizer and was well known because he fought for Catholicism in the French Wars. He was born in 1557 and died in the year of 1615. Poutrincourt lived a life full of frustrations. In 1604, Jean de Poutrincourt went to Acadia with Pierre Du Gua de Monts and Champlain to look for a colony. Then they come back to France with a large cargo of furs. In 1606, Poutrincourt returned with new settlers and supplies and had discovered the de Monts moved the colony from Bay of Fundy to Port Royal so Poutrincourt had command over it. In 1607, the colony was abandoned after the king cancelled their trading monopoly. In 1610, Poutrincourt returned to Acadia with his sons and father Fleche, Claude de Saint – Etienne de La Tour and La Tour's son Charles. More colonists arrived in Port Royal the next year. Poutrincourt had a hard time trying to maintain the colony. He struggled to raise money for the Port Royal colony, keep the monopoly and continue to Christianize the Native people. In 1613, Port Royal was attacked by the English while Pourtrincourt was in France. He couldn't obtain investors in France. Acadia, as a European settlement, almost disappeared. 

-Adam

Universal Soldier

Universal Soldier

In the first stanza of the poem "Universal Soldier," the poet Buffy Sainte-Marie was trying to say that all soldiers are different. Soldiers are different heights, ages and use different weapons. They  have different beliefs and different thoughts about killing. The poet is saying there has been soldiers throughout time. For thousands of years.    

In the second stanza, the poet is saying soldiers fight for different countries and they think the will put an end to war by defeating other countries. They think by defeating other countries at war, they would get more power.   

In the third stanza, the poet is trying to say that soldiers fight for their rights and their country so there would be peace. But soldiers don't see the real reason because the more a country fights, the more the other countries would fight back so there will never be peace until some country stops.  

In the fourth stanza, the poet is saying that soldiers save others so without Hitler's army, Caesar would have stood alone. He used his own body as a weapon to kill other soldiers so he was the one to blame because he was the worst soldier among all. He made his own orders to kill so this way war will never end.     

I would like to end my description of this poem by saying war/fighting is never the answer and you should respect soldiers for they respect you.

-Adam 

Halloween Poem

Halloween Poem

Halloween is a time when it is very scary,

You see the bright stars and the big white moon.  

Kids dress up as skeletons and monsters that are hairy, 

Knowing that Halloween will be here soon.     

Halloween is a time when kids have fun,

Kids go trick or treating and get lots of candy.

They get treats like chocolates, chips and gum, 

After they're done they feel very dandy.

Some kids get candy that are gone bad,

Parents get mad and throw them out.

The kids start to whine and feel sad,

Then parents get mad so they scream and shout. 

Kids feel tired after they're done trick or treating,

Some kids count their candy and take a seat.

Kids that get a little candy start weeping,

So they cool themselves down and listen to a beat.  

Different things happen to kids on Halloween,

But hopefully they don't pass by a black cat.

It could be good, bad or somewhere in between,

But remember there's going to be lots of bats.

The Nest

The Nest

In this story, Jimmy's mom said he can't go on a hike with Paul. I could relate to this by when my friends were going to play at the Salvation Army a few weeks ago. They were going there to play around with their skateboards after school. So when I went home after school, I called my mom on the phone and asked her if I could go to the Salvation Army. But my mom said I couldn't go. Then I told my mom that I didn't have any homework. But my mom still said I couldn't go. I told my mom so many different reasons to why she should let me go to the Salvation Army, but she said, "No," to all of my reasons. Then I just hung up the phone. I was angry because I had no homework or anything, but my mom said I couldn't go. Like Jimmy, I learned how to cool myself down. My mom didn't say why I couldn't go; she just said I couldn't go. Just like in the story the way Jimmy was angry when his mom said he couldn't go on a hike with Paul. But he learned how to cool himself down. The only difference was that Jimmy still went on the hike, but I didn't go to play with my friends. Also Jimmy's mom told him a reason why he couldn't go on the hike, my mom never gave me any reason to why I couldn't go play with my friends.  

By: Adam

The Best Halloween I've Ever Had

The Best Halloween I've Ever Had

  

The best Halloween I've ever had was when I was in grade 4 (3 years ago). I was dressed up as a phantom and was so excited to go trick or treating. So my parents and I left the house, we started to do trick or treating.

Most of the houses were decorated very nicely with ghosts, graveyards and skeletons. The streets were full with lots of children wearing different kind of costumes, which was creepy. It looked like everyone is having a very good time and going around with bags to collect candies. I was going to every single house on the street where I live and every house gave me at least four pieces of candy. The owners of the houses always asked me questions and I never got tired of it because when I was trick or treating back then, the more I talked the more candy I got. That is why, the Halloween was awesome. Every house I went to, I always tried to start a conversation, then the owners of the house got distracted and put more candies in my bag. By the time my parents and I stopped trick or treating, I had about 3 bags full of candies.

This was the best Halloween I've ever had. I got more candy than I ever did in the previous years and I had a great time.

By: Adam M