Quick Write- Perfect Playground (UltraFunland)

Quick Write 1- Inside a Teenager's Brain (inside my brain)

Skype Reflection

       1. The mini-lesson myself and my group presented was on the subject of punctuation. The way we made it stick in the kids minds’ was by using expressive language and tones of voice to keep them interested, and also by using the metaphor of a traffic light to express what each type of punctuation was used for.

       2. I feel like, for my part, the lesson went quite well. The kids were very much into the lesson and seemed to enjoy the topic and use of visual aids. Some strengths would be my stage presence and use of enthusiasm. Some weaknesses, the Skype connection strength seemed to wane at times and actually cut out once, other than that, we had a flawless presentation.

       3. I learnt that sometimes you have to slow down and understand that not everyone understands a concept in order to teach it well. As a high school student trying to educate elementary school students I learnt that they have a rather short attention span, and that you need to keep them interested to get anything across, but in the end it’s a very enjoyable experience.

         4. I think that next time, they should teach us something. Something we might not know or may have forgotten, something only lively 8 year olds would know.

My 3 comments

This post was on Tom's Blog and it was about the Academy Awards and not having gotten to see all the nominated films:

"I'm aware the Awards are done and there was quite a controversy (at least for me) with Gravity winning all those awards, but like yourself I also slacked off on seeing a lot of the nominated films, but now, after the awards I've been taking some time to see them one by one."

The following is one I posted on a small blurb on Xavier's blog, it is in fact about a double cheeseburger:

"I'd like to put in my two cents if that's all good here. What you have in a single word is Beauty, elegance, and amazing. I am envious of this post and how much it makes your blog more deliciously entertaining, hats off to you Mr. Chacon hats off indeed."

The final post I have for this comment section is from Alysha's blog, and it deals with the subject of growing up, something that I'm sure speaks to everyone:

"It's funny how by the end of grade school everyone has thought and thought about this exact thing. Growing up. I don't think any of us realize that we actually are until we stop and say, "Hey I'm almost 18," or, "Jeez I'm going to university next year." But like you said it doesn't need to be a scary thing, yet people find a way to make it terrifying, I know personally I just think of it as the next big thing and hey, by the time I post this comment I'll be older than I was when I started writing it, more mature, wiser, who knows? But that's what's great about growing up, you get to experience so many new things!"

As always thanks for reading!

-Ben

P.S. The links for the blogs are as follows:

http://tomsmovietalk.blogspot.ca

http://xchacon.blogspot.ca

http://alyshacho.blogspot.ca

Those are listed in order of the comments above.

Quick Write 3- New Beginnings

As I look at this image I think to myself what can you change? What can any of us change in our everyday lives. And the answers are endless. There isn't a thing about you you can't change. An example of personal and outward change I can think of from the past year would be in football. My team suffered heavy losses the last year. 0-7 to be exact. So knowing I had a captain's spot on the team I took it upon myself to better myself mentally and physically in the off season. I knew I couldn't force the team to change, it wasn't about that. It was about making myself a machine that had one goal for the season. Win. Now by win go don't mean defeat others. I mean triumph personally, so that at the end of the day I could look in the mirror and say I was proud. I spent the summer working out by running and lifting weights, I tried to eat as clean as I could, and everyday saw change flying throughout the door. As the season started, I made it a job to bond with my quarterback Jonny so that the center-qb relationship was the strongest on the team. We hung out together, worked out together and generally just talked, so that when it came to game time we could be a fully functioning wrecking ball on the field. My new beginning came with our first loss of this season. I played a couple of games up to that point with a similar mentality to the one I had previously had. So when we were beat by Steinbach my shock was a familiar one. And I asked myself, why did I not feel proud? Why didn't I feel as though I had done my job 100%? Then I realized that I kept thinking about what I could do to make me proud, instead of thinking about how I could help my team find a sense of pride in itself. I changed, I made it so that everyone on the team in one way or another belonged to a brotherhood, they were a family, and with that mentality we took that season by storm, making it to Semi finals. The seniors took the field that game with the mentality of brotherhood that day, but there were those who felt as though they had won the day just by being there. It was a relapse. And the point I'm trying to make is if you're going to change. Don't try, just do. But don't let yourself change back.

-Ben

Quick Write- The Reversed Order

They heard. Good! Now they were all running towards the door with excitement! Sensing the anticipation my fellows had, I stepped back as they swarmed the package.

"Let's take it to the kitchen!" One yelled.

"The Kitchen!!!!" it was a chorus of echoes through the halls. They shuffled into the dimly lit kitchen and began the process of cooking and edge thallus eating the human. I walked away to my chair and sat and watched as the commotion stirred to an all time high. It was funny to watch, how ferrocious we got about food. We eat and eat, but we never take a moment to appreciate the animal who gave up its life for our meal. I mean we eat to live and it dies to feed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a vegetarian, I just think  it's funny that we never appreciate the fagility of life. As I sat I noticed out of the corner of my eye a flash, and then one of the younger ones, from upstairs, ran at the human flesh, slow cooking in the fire, and jumped on it and started chewing, and then there were 30, 40, 50! Too many to count all crammed into one little space trying desperately to get some food. I guess that why they call it a coop. We are chickens after all and if we see something one of us wants, we flock to it. Oh well, it was a nice dream. Packaged humans, chickens being superior. I guess I'll never know that feeling, back to corn for me.

-A Short Story by Ben McMahon

Quick Write- Which Door?

Of all the 6 doors on the screen I'm torn between Bag End and 221B Baker Street. I've always loved both LOTR and other Tolkein works, but also the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and ridiculously brilliant albeit goofy detective Sherlock Holmes. I suppose I'll list reasons for both and come up with a final answer. 

In regards to Bag End. I feel as though I'd rather step out than into it. You see nothing fun ever happened in the Shire, it was only when Bilbo or Frodo left their happy hobbit hole that they were met with adventure. It is a fantastic world that I wish I could have been in, but alas! No such luck. Adventure action and chaos, all followed bt a happy ending! 221B Baker on the other hand is buzzing with activity every day even and when Sherlock and Watson are home, it's a tad bit more relatable, because it's closer to the time period of my life, especially if you look at the modern adaptation. It's a wild ride everyday, so I don't know whether or not I would choose Bag End or 221 B Baker Street. But I would probably go Bag End ;)

-Ben