Writing Reflection #2

Hi blog followers,

My blog must be interesting because you keep coming back.

Last week we learned about Six Word Memoirs, which are stories, told using only six words. I like writing Six Word Memoirs because it is a challenge to tell a story but having a limit of words I can use. Writing Six Word Memoirs are easy for me in the sense of coming up with ideas to write about, the difficult part for is choosing only six words that describe a story but not leaving the story uncompleted.   I learned that I have all these great ideas in my head. My most rewarding pat of writing these when I was able to get my ideas down to only six words. We got this assignment where we had to take photos that went along with our six word memoirs. This is hard for me because I couldn’t think of photos that could go along with them.

We also worked on our blogs last week.  Blogging is going well for me because I’m having fun with blogging. The hardest part is still finding ideas for extras. The most rewarding part for me is when I get an idea for extras.

My blogging goal for this week is to add more extras to my blog page. I will do this by looking on the internet for ideas.

♥ Michelle  

Reading Reflection #2

Hi again to my blog followers,

I’m still reading “The Help” and to be honest, I’m at a boring part in my book. I haven’t really read much of the book since my last reflection because my weekend was busy. I was my 18^th birthday and I didn’t really get a chance to read my book. The questions I put in my first reflection have not been answered. The author just left me with even more questions. Mostly questions about what words are. I like that I’m learning about how life in the early 1960’s is way different then life now in 2012. I wouldn’t like to live in the town that appears in the book. I still don’t understand how a mother could allow a maid to raise her children. The mothers in this book seem more interested in theirselves and not focused on their children. My mom was only little in the 1960’s but she tells me that life was way different then now a days. She told me that children back then did what they were told or they got in big trouble.  My mom can remember having a shared phone line with her neighbors when she was a child. A shared phone line is mensend in the book. This book is getting my mom and me talking more in depth because I ask her stuff if I want to know more about a certain thing that happened in the 60’s. This book is making me more aware of what happened in history.

I hope this book gets more interesting in the next couple of chapters.

Well, I have to go now but keep coming back and checking in on my reflections about this book

♥ Michelle  

Reading Reflection #1

I started reading “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett at the beginning of this semester. While reading, I used post it notes to keep track of questions, comments, predictions, and different text connections. I have only read 3 chapters and I already have lots of questions, comments, predictions, and different text connections.

Chapter 1 questions (told by Aibileen)

·       Who is Mae Mobley? (Pg 1)

o   The baby Aibileen (the maid) is taken care of

·       I didn’t understand who was speaking at the moment (Pg 1)

o   Realized it was Aibileen (the maid of the Leefolt family)

·       Why is Aibileen skipping a bunch of words while specking? (Pg 1)

o   The way she specks

·       I was wondering why Miss Leefolt doesn’t take care of her own baby? (Pg 5)

o   I asked my mom and she told me that in the early 1960’s that most families had a maid that took care of their children

§  I don’t think it’s right to have your child raised by a maid

·       Why did the author Kathryn Stockett put so many memories in the book about Aibileen’s son? (Pg 7)

o   Not answered yet

·       Why did Kathryn Stockett decide to use bad slang? (Pg 9)

o   Not yet known

§  I don’t think it’s right to but slang into this story

·       I don’t understand why the baby, Mae Mobley, has two names (pg 13)

o   Not yet answered

Chapter 2 questions (told by Aibileen)

·       Why is the author, Kathryn Stockett, telling the reader about the town? Is it important to the plot? (Pg 15)

o   Not sure yet

·       Why are Miss Leefolt and Mister Leefolt fighting about the building a new bathroom for the “help”? (Pg 17)

o   It has something to do with Miss Leefolt not wanting to share the same bathroom with the “help”

§  I predict that Miss Leefolt will get her way because it sounds like Miss Leefolt controls the relationship

·       I’m wondering how old Mae Mobley is? (Pg 19)

§  I’m wondering this because she is able to climb out of her crib by herself

o   On page 21, it tells the reader that Mae Mobley is 2 years old

·       I am wondering why Miss Leefolt hit Mae Mobley for trying to get her attention? (Pg 21)

o   Not sure

·       A pie is mentioned on page 25, but the author doesn’t tell us anything about this pie. So, I am wondering if the pie will be talked about later in the book?

·       What is a party line? (Pg 28)

o   I asked my mom this question, and she told me that a party line is an old fashion shared phone line between neighbors.  

§  My mom had this when she was little

·       Will the author explain why everyone in this town dislikes Miss Celia?

·       Why is Miss Leefolt calling her 2-year-old fat? (Pg 31)

o   What kind of mother does that?

Chapter 3 (told by Minny)

·       First off, before I started to read this chapter, I was already wondering why the author decided to change who was telling the story?

·       Why is Celia Foote (sorry for the language choice) “white trash” for not wearing shoes in her own house? (Pg 17)

o   Doesn’t tell us

·       Who is this Leroy that Minny is talking to? (Pg 18)

o   Tells us later in the chapter that he is Minny’s husband

·        At the beginning of this chapter, where is Minny? (Pg 18)

o   At her house

·       Why is Miss Celia acting differently (acting nicer) towards Minny then all the other women? (Pg 43)

o   Not sure yet

·       Why will Miss Celia not tell her husband about bringing help? (Pg 43)

o   Not sure

§  I predict that her husband will walk in one day and see Minny in his house and get into a fight with Miss Celia

·       What is a Hoover? (Pg 50)

o   I searched it on the internet and found that a hoover is a hand held tool for vacuuming  (www.thefreedictionary.com)

·       What is corn pone? (Pg 51)

o   Some type of food

Well, that’s all that I have read (and have questions, comments, predictions, and different text connections on).

What do you think of the narrative style of "The Help"? What are some of the benefits and drawbacks to this narrative style?

I like the way “The Help” is narrated in the first person because it shows different viewpoints of the characters in the story. The first couple of chapters are narrated by two of the maids (Aibileen and Minny) and it looks that the fourth chapter is narrated by one of the white people.

I think first-person narrative style can be a good narrative style because like I said above, it shows the different viewpoints.  By using first-person narration, it draws the reader’s attention to the narrator.

But, on the flip side, it can also be a bad style because it can get the reader confused easier. Also, using first-person narration can lead the narrator to only tell their point of a situation and not it doesn’t show what the other characters are thinking.  




♥ Michelle  

Writing Reflection #1

Welcome back blog followers,

Well, it has been 2 weeks since the second semester started, and wow, has it been a busy one. We have done lots of fun things in this class (creative writing). I started reading a book called “The Help” by an american author named Kathryn Stockett. I am enjoying this book because I get to learn about how life was like in the early 1960’s for different groups of people.

Also, in class, we started blogging (that’s why you’re here). I enjoy blogging because it allows me to show my creative side. I may only have a couple of posts so far, but keep checking my blog and I promise you that many more posts will come and they will very interesting.

Making doodles of our media footprint was so much fun (see my second post on this blog). I never know that I could draw so well. I learned that whatever you put on the internet will stay on the internet forever.  I also learned that future employers may search my name on goggle and they will be able to see all my accounts I have with different websites. I am afraid that someone will goggle me and find stuff about different people with the same name and think it’s me, meaning that I possibly won’t get a job. When I searched my name, I found inappropriate things about different people with the same name as me.

Making the listographs last week was kind of hard for me because my drawings didn’t really turn out as when. Other than that, this assignment was fun. It allowed me to show more of my creative side.

My blog doesn’t really have many personal additions because I can’t really think of things to do. I have searched on the internet for things to write about so I promise if you come back soon, I will have lots of personal additions.

I have put 110% into making my assignments this semester very good.

I think my next writing assignment (personal addition) will be writing a short story.

I hope you are enjoying reading my blog posts

♥ Michelle

my 6 word Memoirs

I sebmitted a 6 word memior  


http://www.smithteens.com/story.php?did=1160823694675759726

♥ Michelle

My Life in Lists

Hi to all my blog readers,

Welcome back to my blog. This post is about my life in different lists.

Again, this picture is not very clear, so I will explain the doodles.

First off, I created a title for this peice, which I put "MY LIFE IN LISTS". I thought it was a tile that would go good with this since it's all about different lists in my life.

Now, on to the lists...

First list is ... "The Best Things About Me..."

•  I'm helpful
• Creative (my doodles may not look good but they are what I see them as)
• Sweet
• Everyone says I have a good personality
• Kind
• Mature

Second list is... "My poudest Accomplishments..."

I couldn't really think of any proud accomplishments, but here are a couple I could think of

• My dance complitions
• Being on the honor roll all 4 years of high school
• getting my beginners drivers license

The third list is... "My Biggest Fears..."

I'm a afraid of many things, but here are my four top fears

• Spiders (they are creepy)
• Mice and Rats (they are gross)
• Bugs (they scare me)
• Big dogs (they jump on you and are gross, some older big dogs are good but most scare me)

The fourth list is... "My Past Schools"

• I went to Strathmillan from kindergarden to grade five
• then I went to Gold Gate for grades 6 until 8
• now I'm here at Sturgeon Heights from grade 9 until now in grade 12

The fifth list is... "My closest Friends"

I have met all these people in high school

• Kaitlyn (met her in grade 10)
• Ksenia (also in grade 10)
• Larrisa (met her last year)

The sixth list is... "My Life To Do List"

• I want to get married
• have kids
• become a teacher
• buy a house
• make it manditory for elementry school students to be tested for dyslexia. I want this to happen because I don't think that children should go through the school system and end up in grade 12 and find out that they are dyslexic and not be able to be helped (I just found out that I'm dyslexic last semester of this school year)

The seventh list is... "the pets I've had.."

•  I have had many cats 
• Izzy (grey, 6 years old cat)
• Princess (black and white tabby, 10 1/2 cat; passed away March 2011)
• Squash (calico, 1 1/2 years old)
• Pumpkin (calico, my mom's cat, 17 years old; passed away December 2010)

• I have also had many fish, but I can't remeber all their names
• I rember one fish named Sparkle 

The eighth list is... "My Character Flaws"

• I'm OCD
• shy (at first when I meet someone new)
• Dramatic
• I over react to stuff

Finally, my last list is "What People Should Remember me for.."

• I'm helpful to others
• Graet with little kids
• my kind heart
• my volenteer hours (I have over 200 hours)

Wow, that is many lists. I hope you like this post. 

♥ Michelle

My Digital Footprint

For those who don't know, the assignment was to doodle pictures of our "digital footprint". This picture really isn't a good shot of it, so I will explain the entire picture.

First, I draw a outline of a foot and added a title "My Digital Footprint".

I added doodles of all the accounts I have on the internet.

I included...

• BeingGirl.ca
• Shaw e-mail (my e-mail provider) 
• Wikepedia
• Facebook
• Blogger
• YouTube
• Yahoo Messenger
• 99designs (a site for graphic designers)
• Photobucket
• iTunes
• GMail
• Novel Games
• Google account
• Coroflot (also a site for graphic designers)
• Skype

I googled my name on google and found that many people have the same name as me. I'm afraid that my future employer will search and find not good things about other people with the smae name and think it's me because I found bad stuff when I googled my name. 

Other things I included in my doodles include...

• the size of my digital footprint. I put medium because I don't think my footprint is big but also not small
• The internet has pictures of me 
• also has pictures of my cats
• Short stories I submitted to diffrent creative writing websites

One thing that is digital but not on the internet is video of me co-hosting a couple of things for my mom's work (APTN). I helped out on a couple of occations with APTN's Friday Night Flicks that they air every Friday. 

I also included what I want in my future. I want to become a teacher in a elementry school. I also want to get married (the two rings I doodles in the picture), have children (the doodle of the little kid) and continue writing short stories (the pencil doodle). 

I had fun doing this assignment and I hope you enjoyed veiwing this post. I hoope to be back with another post very soon

♥ Michelle  

Who Am I??????

My name is Michelle and I'm almost 18. I like this concept of blogging in class because it's fun to have a place where everyone can see my work. Blogging saves many trees from being cut down.

I'm in my final year of high school.

After graduating, I'm going to the University of Winnipeg to get my teaching degree. I hope to become a elementry school teacher.

I will tell everyone right now, that I'm not very good with spelling, so please don't judge my blog posts if words are spelt wrong.

I love cats (I own 3 cats; Izzy, Squash and Princess)

I love to write short stories but don't really like to read, unless it's a good book that I can get into. I usually read the first chaper of a book and then decide if the book is worth continuing to read.

I hope you enjoy me blog

♥ Michelle