Second Quarter Reflection Blog

Prompts:

- *In what area do you think you made your biggest improvements in English Language Arts? 
- *What is something you have accomplished since the new year that you are proud of?

- *What has been the most challenging part of 2nd Quarter for you and what did/can you do to help overcome this?

- Of the books you have read this quarter, which was your favorite? Why?

          In general, I believe I have made many improvements. However, I think I made the biggest improvement in my writing skills. A couple days ago, I was reading different short stories I have written from fifth to seventh grade, and my writing was atrocious! There were so many grammar issues and spelling errors! In the beginning of the year, my writing was also not a work of Jordan Sonnenblick. Now that we have written a few essays, I feel I have improved with conjunctions, introducing quotes, embedding quotes, and following the proper TIQA format. Of course, I am not ready to publish a book without any errors, but I have definetly learned some tips. 

         Something I have accomplished since the beginning of the year is, it will always be my answer, but reading as many books as I have. I've always been a big bibliomaniac, to the point where I think reading damages my health. The one accomplishment that I very proud of dealing with my bibliomania is finishing the Book Thief in three days. This is a huge accomplishment for me because the longest book I have ever finished in that span was most likely After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick. To carry on with that accomplishment, the book is approxmently five hundred pages. 

          To be honest, the second quarter was a very hard quarter for me. I was up very late and very early everyday to finish homework. One day, I was up before my mom left for work at four in the morning! I would sometimes survive on 4-5 hours of sleep. After being lectured by my parents, I decided to come straight home after school, and work on homework until ten o'clock. Of course I had to make sacrfices like giving up going to youth group, or not going to a friend's house so I can catch up on homework. In the end, it worked out well enough to where I could receive a normal nights sleep, and wake up at a humane hour. 

          At of all 20 books I've read so far, my favorite had to be After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick. This was hands down my favorite book because I absolutely loved Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie. Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie, is the prequel to After Ever After. I think I liked it because it was relatable to me because Jeff, the main character, was having to go through physical therapy because he couldn't move his legs in a normal way, and he didn't have strength in his arms. This was really relatable to me because, even though our weaknesses were the effects of different causes, we were still sailing in the same boat. (And no matter how funny people think my locked shoulder is, it was a vey serious injury that if I couldn't move it, I would have lost all strength.) After seeing that a kid, the same age as me, in remission from Leukimia could start rebuilding his strength, I decided I could to. 

I commented on Jared A's. Blog.