Saint Andre

Saint Andre

Approximately seventy-three years ago on January sixth a man named Andre Bessette died. He was the first saint of the twenty-first century but he only became a saint after he died and until that we would have called him Blessed Andre. Saint Andre was born and was raised in Quebec and when he grew up, he made his own oratory. Andre was a poor man and unfortunately his parents died when he was at a young age so his uncle raised him. His uncle was very unkind to him because his uncle though he was lazy when he was actually weak and sickly. Also, because he was sickly he could not help around the farm and he was ill-educated. Even with all that against him still had a successful life "despite my limitations," he said, "There was no one who worked harder than me." At first he was rejected from the holy order because he was not smart enough so he became the doorman in Montreal. After that the miracles started to happen because he listened to people's problems and asked god to help them along with answering the door. He built his own church so that people could ask god themselves and millions of people go there every year with their prayers answered.

By: Sean D

Holling's Idol

The other day in class specifically on Tuesday we finished reading the fourth chapter (December) from our book The Wednesday Wars. Mickey Mantle, the greatest player on the Yankees team at that time was Holling's idol and he wanted to get his baseball signed by him since he was at the Baker Sporting Emporium. When Holling got there, Mickey Mantle would not sign his baseball because he was is a fairy costume in a blue robe from the play he was in. The author Gary D. Schmidt showed how sad he was by saying he was crushed and was lying on the floor crying. I think he did not sign the baseball because he thought Holling was gay since he was wearing a fairy costume with feathers on the butt. I remember how I used to think that rap music was so awesomely amazing and that it was the best music on the planet until I realized how much swearing could be in the songs which really turned me off. But just like Holling Something else filled that empty hole in me and it was jazz music. My favourite music artist is Elton John because I really liked the slow smooth beats and then when it picks up kind of like in the song Rocket Man by Elton John if you have ever heard of it. In Holling's case he had a friend to stick up for him and Horace Clark along with one other person from the Yankees team whose name I forgot. The two Yankees players gave him a signed baseball glove, a baseball and he got one of their jackets. My point is sometimes things are not as bad as they seem because usually something better will come up like for me and Holling.

By: Sean D

What I liked about The Wednesday Wars

What I like most about: The Wednesday Wars

          The thing I like the most about The Wednesday Wars is the interesting plot and story-lines. There are lots of things that happen to the main character (Holling Hoodhood) that make you want to turn the page to find out what unfortunate thing will happen to him next. What really gets me interested though are certain events like his teacher Mrs. Baker nefarious plots to make the year the worse year of school in his life. My all time favourite plot so far in the story was the villainous plot to make him bored to death by making him read Shakespeare books. All of the chapter November he is quoting certain characters  lines from The Tempest (particularly curses like "the red plague rid you" or "toads, beetles and bats light on you"). Although that is usually what I like in stories I also enjoy plot twists because it is a real shock kind of like in Citizen Kane where the plot twist is that Rosebud is the sled. One in the story would be when the two rats Sycorax and Caliban eat the cream puffs and against all odds Mrs. Baker bought them back for him. Even though I have only read through three of the chapters in the book I am almost certain there will be more of those in the future.

By: Sean D.

Biographical Paragraph Membertou and Mathieu Da Costa

Membertou was born in the year fifteen hundred ten and died in the year sixteen hundred eleven. He lived in the first nation called the Mi'kmaw around the area of Port Royal and was the chief and shaman of the band of Micmaq. The settler's success in the new land was mostly because of his and the local Micmaq's kindness, hospitality and guidance. Usually he would join the French in the habitation and did you know he was the first North American to be baptized in his own country. Proof of his military bravery is while in sixteen hundred seven; In order to avenge Panounais his son in law and one of his followers he led an expedition to the River Chouacouët. Unfortunately, Poutrincourt and the French had to leave Port Royal because it was a poor spot. Membertou stayed to care and protect the habitation for three years.

Mathieu Da Costa was born in Africa and died in Canada during the year of sixteen hundred seven. His African birth name was Lusofonia and was recorded the first black person in Canada. Mathieu was known to be fluent in the language Dutch, English, French, Portuguese and Pidgin Basque. He was also known to extensively travel throughout the Atlantic world in the late fifteen hundred's to the early sixteen hundred's. These days Mathieu Da Costa has an art award for ages from nine to eighteen every single year.

By: Sean D.

Teen Ranch Essay

Dispersal Week

            About one out of ten grade seven students would not go to Teen Ranch according to the teachers and students in my school. I am one of those people that did not go. While the grade sevens went to Teen Ranch; a few other grade sevens and I did not go or could not go to Teen Ranch because of various reasons. Over my dispersal week I had lots of fun and interesting experiences.

            It just so happened that I was dispersed into my old class that I had last year. My old teacher Mr. Stamcoff had not changed one bit from last year except for the fact he had more grey hairs than before. He also decided that it was totally alright to teach the new class more than my old class. I have to say though; the artwork this year was not as good as when we did it and their poetry was not rhythmical as ours. But you cannot blame them because we were very artistic and poetic ourselves! Even though a lot of things stayed the same as last year a lot of things also changed quite a bit from last year. Two examples of huge changes are the desk positions and the back of the room. I remember there were only about three or four groups of people with five to seven people in each group. Now there are six groups but with as low as four people. In the back of the room there is nearly nothing compared to last year. There are fewer dictionaries, fewer thesauruses, fewer bibles and way fewer extra textbooks. Also, what I think is very different is that last year our French teacher made us learn the Notre Pere (Our Father) prayer which you learn in grade seven but by we were in a split grade we had to learn it. The same French teacher this year instead let the keep saying the Hail Mary. But I actually should be thanking her because it helped me for this grade.

            During our dispersal week specifically on Tuesday it was announced by my old teacher that I was going to be dispersed to another class. I thought to myself and realized that I was getting double dispersed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately during the time period of Wednesday and Thursday I got a terrible fever and could not attend school those two days. The wait between Wednesday and Thursday was an eternity alone inside my mom's room with only water, dry crackers and T.V. I know what you are thinking, T.V. that was not a bad day but only baby shows come on at that time. I got back to school on Friday and when I got to my double dispersal class I realized I had my old grade two teacher again. Something really funny happened that day too. When I got back to school my friend was literally steamed because while I was gone he had nothing to do by there were only three grade sevens not going. What really made me laugh about it was that he did not even acknowledge the fact that I was sick those two days so he rambled on and on. Plus the look on his face made the moment just priceless at the time. Even when that happened it still was one of the most boring days at school but the two other people and I figured out something to do. During recess me and my classmates had no choice but to play with the grade eights who were really tall. We amazingly survived a couple rounds working together. Inside our class we would just help out our teacher with extra stuff.

            Based on the fact that I could only attend to three of the dispersal days he really tried to keep us busy. When I got back on Friday it was practically a whole book of homework. Most of it was math which was reasonable because I remember from last year he said when your noisy you have nothing to do and he would photocopy and then hand out extra math pages for the whole class. The ratio of math pages to language pages was probably about 4:1. Not to say that we did not get a fair amount of language but we got a ton of math in comparison. The work was kind of fun though because there were brainteasers and puzzles that you needed to do trial and error. To make Friday even busier our double dispersal teacher had extra work to do afterward. First of all she gave us five scholastic books each containing thirty magazines. She wanted us to rip twenty from each for her class then staple them in groups of two and others in three. After that she wanted us to help people in her class read by she was a grade two teacher. It was a big challenge to get them to read and listen and it was kind of surprising that they did not know how to read. Clearly I was not busy enough because I still got bored at the end of the day even though it is much easier doing work in a dispersal class which is why I do not have much homework.

            Overall I would say I did have lots of fun and interesting times during my dispersal week. I met back my old teachers from last year and grade two. It is fun when they ask you questions about this year and relate it to last year and it just makes me feel me nostalgic. Although I regret not going to Teen Ranch I am sure there will be many other opportunities to go on trips and spend time with my friends.

By: Sean D

The Wednesday Wars: Holling’s Parents

The Wednesday Wars: Holling's Parents

          Holling's parents are just like average day parents except for the fact that his mom smokes but that is the only real difference. His parents and he live directly in the middle of the town on Lee Avenue. His dad is the type of person that likes the news especially when interesting stories like the war in Vietnam.  His dad is in the architectural business and he currently is in the top three choices for the Baker Sports Emporium. That is also the reason that he will not help Holling with his Mrs. Baker problem.  Holling's mother took the teacher's side when Holling told her about his problem with Mrs. Baker. I think that his mother does not really care about him as much as other things in his life. Not to say she does not love her son but his mother would care about other things more.

By: Sean 

blog6

Grade 7 Hepatitis B and Meningitis Vaccinations

          Approximately two days ago the other grade sevens and I had our Hepatitis B and Meningitis vaccines. I am not the type of person that is totally fine with needles so you could imagine how scared I was at the time. I remember the time when I had to get my influenza shot because I almost fainted right before I got the shot. When I got my shots in school it felt like the needle were still in me until about five minutes afterwards. We were sent to go sit down right after we got the shots and I was very, very weak. I was so weak I felt like I could sleep for a day and a half or maybe even a week. Even though it was pretty obvious because we were getting with a dead virus (a virus none the less) I did not expect to be that weak. The first few people in our class got to leave almost right away after their shots while a few other grade sevens like me had to wait until a whole other class had left. That day I felt horrible; it was three times as worse as a cold could ever be. I could not play any sports both because my arm was sore and if someone even just touched it I would feel pain. Some people were lucky and the pain wore of and went away in an hour or two. If you were me then you were very unlucky because the pain did not go away until the next day. We also had a test that day so one of my classmates suggested that we should have told the teacher we could not do the test because of our sore arms. I am glad I got the shots though because now I know I will never get those harmful diseases.

By: Sean 

Universal Soldier Poem Blog

 The Universal Soldier poem was a poem about war made by Buffy Sainte-Marie. The first stanza is about the actual soldiers themselves who fought in the war. I think this because the poet talks about the details of the soldiers like the height like 5 foot 2 and 6 foot 4. Other things like his weapons missiles and spears, age like 31 and 17, beliefs like Catholic, Hindu, Atheism, a Jain, Buddhist, Baptist, or Jewish. Buffy also mentions that they all "kill you for me my friend and me for you".

            The second stanza is about who and what the soldiers were fighting for. He says they are soldiers fighting from Canada, some France, some from U.S.A., some from Russia and some from Japan. They are not from any particular war like World War II or the Civil War but just literally soldiers from countries. According to him war will never end if they keep fighting. The third stanza is also about who and what they are fighting for except in this stanza the thing they are fighting for are democracy, communism and peace instead of their countries. What interests me is how he used the idiom he never sees the writing on the wall meaning he does not see obviously what will happen during war.

            The fourth stanza is about the universal soldier himself like how he gives his body as a weapon of war. Buffy also shows the universal soldier can be any soldier in the world when he says who would be by Caesar or who would be condemned to Dachau by Adolf Hitler.

            I agree with Buffy in his poem because what he is saying makes some sense to me. War really will not stop if everyone is fighting instead of co-operating. More people will just die. I really could not see the world not having any disagreements but at the same time I do not think violence is the answer especially not war.

By: Sean

Halloween Poem

 On Halloween the moon is very bright,

We go trick-or treating and it shines in the night.

People have run along and avoided the point,

Why at the end of the day you might be missing a joint.

When you go trick-or-treating you see spooky homes,

Sometimes you might even see some domes.

There are lots of bugs, bats, ghosts and more,

Be careful they might fly at you when you open the door.

People say bats will go for your hair,

A very high chance it will give you a scare.

When you read this you probably have some doubts,

But the next day people will want to know your whereabouts.

In there, nobody can hear you scream,

But from the house they might see a beam.

People will sit there to scare you silly,

The area will not be sunny and hilly.

When you go trick-or-treating you will get lots of candy,

If you eat it in all one night your teeth will not be dandy.

You might have nightmares when the event is done,

But overall a Halloween experience is fun!

By: Sean D.

blog4

Halloween Poem

 On Halloween the moon is very bright,

We go trick-or treating and it shines in the night.

People have run along and avoided the point,

Why at the end of the day you might be missing a joint.

When you go trick-or-treating you see spooky homes,

Sometimes you might even see some domes.

There are lots of bugs, bats, ghosts and more,

Be careful they might fly at you when you open the door.

People say bats will go for your hair,

A very high chance it will give you a scare.

When you read this you probably have some doubts,

But the next day people will want to know your whereabouts.

In there, nobody can hear you scream,

But from the house they might see a beam.

People will sit there to scare you silly,

The area will not be sunny and hilly.

When you go trick-or-treating you will get lots of candy,

If you eat it in all one night your teeth will not be dandy.

You might have nightmares when the event is done,

But overall a Halloween experience is fun!

By: Sean D.

The Nest reflection

Text to Self 

From the short story called The Nest I think I could relate to Paul a lot. The reason I say this is because at one point of my life I had almost no friends. It obviously was not for the same reason but I had nearly no friends because I did not really fit in with some of the big groups of people. So when my friends were not at school because they were sick or some other reason I would be considered a loner. But just like Paul all I needed was one friend (in his case it was Jimmy) to hang out with me and today I have a lot of friends and acquaintances in the school and community. Unfortunately my friend had to leave Cardinal Leger when we graduated from senior kindergarten. We used walk and talk in school just like Paul and Jimmy did in the story. Also one day I got stood up by my cousin while waiting for him just like Paul but my cousin just had to reschedule when he was coming over.

By: Sean D

blog2

The Worst Halloween Ever

     The worst Halloween I ever had was believe it or not 7 long years ago when I was in senior kindergarten. The reason for this was because I had a really bad day at school and I did not get good candy. On October 31^st (Halloween) when I went to school I forgot to put my costume on and by it was the day we went to other classes to show off our stuff I was furious. Also, it just so happened that I was the only person that did not bring their costume to school so I was kind of like the odd guy out of our class and I was very embarrassed. When I got home I took a bath did my homework and everything else that had to be done. After that I decided that it would be best to take a nap before dinner. I woke back up at about 6:30 P.M. and had dinner. Then it turned out that I had forgot all about Halloween and trick-or-treating so I did not leave for trick-or-treating until 8:00 P.M rather than 7:00 P.M. To make it all worst I only got lollipops that night, just lollipops, lollipops, and more lollipops. Also, half of the lollipops I got were expired so I did not even get to eat much candy which is why this was the worst Halloween EVER.

By: Sean D

Vincent Van Gogh 

Vincent Van Gogh was a great artist in the time of his life. I think his life story was very interesting and amazing because of all the twists and turns in his life. He was born on March 30^th 1853 in the Netherlands (Holland) .Van Gogh did not really like art at first but he liked it after playing around with it. At one point though he had decided he wanted to be a clergyman instead. Before that happened though he went through many odd jobs such as art dealer, teacher and a bookseller before he became a clergyman which was when his life changed. While he was working as a clergyman he saw how poor people were suffering and decided to give all his things to them. But he gut fired right after because he was accused of taking the teachings too literally. This was not like regular though because he was devastated. Later his brother Theo pushed him to be an artist and by he was an art dealer in Paris he sent paint supplies to Van Gogh every once in a while. He moved to Paris with his brother Theo to learn art but moved away to Arles because of hectic city life. One day he invited a friend named Paul Gauguin and they had a quarrel. Van was chasing down Paul with a razor but could not catch him so he cut off a part of his ear with the razor. Afterward he went to a mental hospital voluntarily and spent a year there. When he got out he walked into a wheat field and shot himself in the chest. I think Vincent Van Gogh was a crazy person but I know he was not lazy, for he made 1100 paintings and 900 drawings.

By: Sean D