Swimming unit

When I first started the swimming unit I didn't know butterfly and was very weak in back stroke and freestyle. I was expecting to improve in both back stroke and freestyle. I feel like I improved in all strokes a lot but mostly in freestyle, I learned more techniques involving hands that mostly helped me in freestyle. I got more confident in the water and I'm able to swim a lot more then I was able before. I didn't like the games in the water because I felt like i'm not improving my swimming skills, I prefer swimming laps because it's physically challenging and I feel like I'm improving.

Math Project - Floor Plan

The Head And Me- Natalie Meller

Hi new Head,

Because you are new in my body (the other head fell and got something in his leg and couldn’t do a lot of things, so I fired him :( how sad) I wanted you to know me. My name is Captain Peacy. I live with my parents, in an Icloud. No no not a cloud, an I-cloud. Its this thing you have on your phone and… never mind. I have three main superpowers, flying, so be careful when you make me mad I can go away and leave you alone. The second one is that I am super smart, super heroes usually have two powers but I ate a computer ,and now I’m smart like one. Thats why I don’t go to school, I just know everything. Last power (but of course not least) is reading minds (so be aware of what you think :). Some people will say I don’t have friends but it’s not true; it’s a choice not to have friends, not my choice but a choice. I guess this is called not having friends in a way, but never mind. That is all I can tell you about myself little head..

20.3.2225

Dear New Head,

So today is my birthday, my thirteenth one actually. I wanted to celebrate it with my parents, but again they had a super important superhero super mission and they had to go and save the world! I have you, my head, the only one that is here in my big and empty house. I hate my house because I can see a lot of pictures of other people’s birthdays, celebrated with a lot of other people and I get jealous. My parents won’t let me go into this rooms with the files and pictures, but I do go there, a lot. It makes me happy the way people treat their family and friends in the pictures and videos but it also makes me sad because I don’t have it. I have you, celebrating with me my birthday. It would sound weird but I am enjoying my birthday. As a superhero when I turn thirteen its the sign of being a grownup and tomorrow I am going to my first mission.

Oh and by the way, I will never stop calling you New Head even though it has been a few years..

23.3.2225

Dear old, New Head,

You won’t believe it! I am so so so so excited. I just came back from my mission and I can’t breath…. I feel like I am flying which is pretty funny because of the fact that I am able to fly. Never mind, as you know it took a long time for me to come back because of captain Juju (we do not like him!). Do you want to hear the story? Ok I will tell you the story, are you sure? Ok, ok stop shouting I’ll tell you. I know you want to hear the story but I can’t tell you right now, I have to go shower. BYE..

***

So it all started like this:

When I woke up in the morning, or you could say when I didn’t wake up in the morning, I went to the kitchen without knowing when, where or what was my mission. I thought my parents will be with me on that special day, but of course not, they had to go again to a super important superhero super mission. I found a note that said, “Morning Sweetie” I mean they didn’t even have time to write good morning? “We hope you have the best day”. Yeah me too! “Love you and good luck”. I was furious, how could they do this to me? Sorry, back to the story. I went to the superhero station, where we go on the missions. I got in and I saw a lot of nervous kids like me, the place was mostly purple and orange but very colorful. A lot of parents were so happy they cried but my parents didn’t even come. I went to the table where it said “Welcome new heroes come and sign in..”. I met Captain Lollipop, he guided me, showed me around and was really nice, which most superheroes aren't. I think it is weird but the prettiest place there was the toilets, it was purple which is my favorite color, but lets not go into the details! My mission was to save kids from an evil ice cream thief, I was excited that I got such an important part in kids lives. It was heart touching to know they chose me. I was sent to this place called Earsh I think, but I am really not sure. I flied to Earsh and saw a lot of little kids holding ice creams. I didn’t know what the thief looks like so I decided to read the minds of everyone that looked suspicious.  At first everything worked, I heard some people think about their relationships, family, dogs but no, not even one ice cream thief. I looked for him everywhere but no sign of an ice cream thief. When it became late, I decided to go to sleep and continue the next day.

That morning I woke up really early to find him: the thief! People started coming out of their houses and I couldn’t read their minds; I felt so, so, so ahh I can’t say it, something between angry and frustrated. I heard a voice behind me and when I turned around I saw Captain Juju, and he said “Can’t hear your minds there?” at first I thought he came to help but then I looked at him and he looked familiar, it was Captain Lollipop. Now I was really furious, he tricked me, and I do not like to be tricked. At this moment I had to think as a superhero, but before I noticed he was gone. I had to catch Captain Juju but then I realized he had taken my powers (which included the flying). But what he did not know is that I had a third power, I could be a computer because I wasn’t born with it, it wasn't on the birth certificate and he couldn’t know. So I tried to look for him and track him down by the awesome navigator I have up there in my brain.

After a long long time, and when I say long I mean I had to walk the whole thing, about a year or two, which is I think ten minutes in Earsh the most amazing thing happened, you won’t believe it head: I finally found this evil person and jumped on his back, he turned around and couldn’t believe it was me, I smiled and thought to myself, “You are not a person that fights other people, you are nice” but then I thought again.. He looked at me and tried to punch me but I bent and he missed me. As you know, I had too much time without friends or school, practicing everything and when I say everything I mean mostly fighting. So, guess who won? That’s right! ME.. He fell down and I took his bag, gave back the children their ice-creams, gave me my powers back but lets not forget, took a picture of him on the ground. Now when I think about it he was unconscious, well I think he will wake up in a few years.

I always think about how weird it is when I’m talking to you but it is also me because you are inside me and it means I am talking to myself but you are still not me because… Ok i’m confusing myself even more. Maybe I will stop now.

The End

SYAH project

See You At Harry’s Project

Bullying- Natalie Meller

“Each school is committed to a safe and respectful educational environment for all students, employees, volunteers and patrons free from harassment, intimidation, or bullying.” RCW (Revised Code of Washington) 9A.36.080(3). Bullying can come in many forms: Physical, Verbal, Social, Psychological, Electronic or Cyber, Racial, Religious, Sexual and Disabilities.

A bully is a person that uses a certain power he has, to embarrass, humiliate, threaten, or cause some form of harm to another student. Every student has the right to feel safe coming to school. This right is taken by the student when someone bullies him. Our school encourages students to speak up and come to the principal or the counselor and talk about it.

At WBAIS there are strategies in place to prevent bullying and address bullying when it occurs. Mr. Waldman our Middle school principal says, that each story has two sides, “My job is first to see both sides of the story, and then act, there is a reason for everything”. The school will use different strategies for each case. In order to get to the story they will try to get to the source of the problem.

After doing all of this, the school will include the parents, speak to the students about the consequences and will probably punish the students that took part in it with suspension or even expulsion (they didn’t expel anyone yet).

In my opinion our school takes bullying very seriously. They will want to educate us, the students, so that the bullying will not occur but also punish the students that bully. I think that they will prefer to teach us not to bully before punishing us for doing that. It is more important to learn from mistakes that other did, or yourself, than getting punished for mistakes that you didn’t know were mistakes!

In order to address the many issues that bullying represent, the principal, teachers, counselor, students and parents all have a role. First make the students understand what bullying means. Then have certain rules that every student is aware of. The students should know how to behave when they can see bullying occurs and especially when they are a part of it.

Unfortunately, bullying happens all the time, the consequences to this behavior can end really bad or make the victim stronger. In either way bullying should not be tolerated. Those that bully should be the ones ashamed they spend so much time on making someone else miserable and can’t see that it is makes them miserable too. Over 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year and approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying in the US. In order to stop bullying all over the world, we all must be active, as Theodore Roosevelt once said “Knowing what is right does not mean much unless you do what is right”.

Fable About The Lion And His Land

            

Fable About The Lion And His Land-

By Natalie Meller

Once upon a time, In a land far away, a lion called Lolo ruled the kingdom. He ruled the kingdom of the animals. But with very strict rules. Each animal was afraid from him and they did whatever he wanted without arguing. All from fear. They had different jobs and work to do, Lolo decided what they do based on what he thought of them. The mice were in charge of making the lions clothes, the crocodiles were in charge of letting in and out only the animals that have permission, the cows were the ones that were preparing food and the birds were sending messages to other countries… they never got to see the other animals.

“From this day, until I say so all kids are not going to school”  Lolo the lion said “oh and they are also going to help their parents with their jobs” he shouted. The parents were really angry but they were too afraid to tell anyone that they are mad because if Lolo hears about it he could do some really bad things to them… Then Ivy the mouse that had to take care of twelve little kids now couldn’t let Lolo do that to her or to the other parents. She called the mice for an emergency meeting. She told all of them about her concerns, she said that she want to stop Lolo from not thinking about them and only about himself. “ We will never do something against Lolo and even if we do want to, how can a bunch of little mice win one big lion like Lolo?” a muse said. “But if you can make the other animals do that then we won’t be the ones to stop you.” Ivy decided to go and talk to the other animals and see what they have to say but each one of them had a different excuse for why not.

A few months later Lolo the lion started doing even more horrible things, he took  some of their money and made them work harder. But the worst thing was the day he decided to take a-l-l of their smart phones. In that moment the whole land said ,“enough, we can’t take this anymore”.

The next day every animal except for Robi the fox (that was sick) came to Ivy the mouse. “We can’t let him do it to us”, said Ivy “He thinks he can control our lives” she continued, “I don’t want my kids to grow and be scared like me every day”, she finished. They talked a lot and decided to use the only power they had and take Lolo down. The next week each animal did her job wrong but it wasn’t a mistake they wanted to make him understand that they are not necessarily his followers. The mice kept on making his clothes but let their little kids eat some of it before giving it to Lolo, the crocodiles didn’t pay attention to who is coming in and out, The cows ‘forgot’ to put spices in the food, and the birds delivered the wrong messages to other countries. Every animal without exception did the work improperly.

After a while Lolo called every one to the main square. “My dear citizens,” he never used words like that. “In the past few months I realised I ruled the kingdom harshly. I took the power I had and used it badly, used it for my own good.” No one was ready for something like that! “I feel like I don’t deserve my power and what I have” Most of them knew where he is going but couldn’t believe it. “I can’t rule this kingdom anymore and I’m giving you the power  

And they lived happily ever after… The end

moral: Little people can make big impacts and change the world. If they use the power they have (even if it is small) wisely.

The Boy Who Painted Christ Black

The Boy Who Painted Christ Black By John Henrik Clarke

The Boy Who Painted Christ Black is a short story about a black boy called Aaron but the narrator is another student from his class. The book was published in 1940 when

Aaron learns in a segregated school in Georgia.

There are five main characters, The first one is Aaron, a talented boy, with big drawing skills, that one day decided to draw a painting for his teacher for her birthday, and drew Christ, but black. The second character is Aaron’s teacher, she received his present. the third character is the supervisor, he was white and thought that black people shouldn’t have rights and maybe even considered them as animals, in the story he saw Aaron’s drawing and attacked him with words. Then came the principal. Which is also the fourth character he defended Aaron and followed his beliefs. The principal said exactly what he felt about the situation. Even though it got him fired he found another job and helped Aaron with his future. The last character id the narrator, he is a boy in Aaron’s class that is not doing much in the story except for telling it.

This story has a important life lesson, that if each one of us can follow it even a little bit we can make the world a better place. The story presents struggle between man and society it shows us how people can be judged and publicly humiliated only because of the color of their skin. For example, when the supervisor noticed Aaron’s painting and reacts to it.However, on the other hand the story also shows us how people are standing up for their beliefs and saying what they think to protect others no matter what can happen to them if they will do that.

Tolerance

Tolerance means to me, being kind to others and different people even if you don't like them. Some people thinks that tolerance is respect and being generous and underrating. In  first semester I learned about the other religions in the world which made a more tolerated person. I got to know different cultures and understanding them better. In the future, when I will be older, those units will help me to communicate and understand other people better. I could understand their religion and there differences.