Day in the life

Well, a day in the life of Alyssa Lauren Winkler. Monday through Friday, I get up at 5:20 to shower. Then I get dressed for the school day, then I wait until the bus gets to my house which is about 6:30. We drive all over picking up kids for school, I'm on the bus for about an hour and a half. When we finally reach school at about 7:25ish. Of course, 7:45 bell comes around and it's time for class. I sit through all my classes and get out of school at 3:20. I go to my bus and when it's time to leave I sit on the bus for another hour and a half or so, and wait until I get home. I get home, let my dogs out, get something to eat and start homework. Once I finish homework, I take a shower and get ready for bed. I go to sleep around 9:30-10:00 and start the cycle all over again.

On the weekends, I do whatever I want or whatever my mom tells me. I also do homework, go to conformation class at temple, and hang out with my family and friends.

Writing center learning

Going to the writing center was probably one of the best choices for the last paper. Although I thought my paper was perfect and nothing more could have been done, there were a lot of things I needed to fix. Having someone who is trained to read over papers to make them better makes me more comfortable with them reading and giving feed back other than someone else. Also I like that Christiane gave positive feedback rather than someone else saying that my paper is awful.

It also gave me a chance to have a second look at my paper. Christiane was not only helpful, she was relatable. She told me my paper was very good, but just fix a few things. She is relatable because she told me that she likes to be personal with the reader as well do I. So those are just a few things that connected us.

reading and working- 60 reading 12/2 and 60 working 12/8

reading and work times

11-26-13: read 60 minutes and 11-30-13: read 65 minutes <read chapters 8-11
12-1-13: chapter 12 about 15-30 minutes; all chapters with annotations

Free post, How did you become Jewish?

So, I get asked the question "How did you become Jewish?" 

My answer is pretty long so I would normally ask them if they have time to listen to the story because it's a long, but interesting story, especially if you don't know my family. 

My mom is one out of sixteen kids and my dad is an only child and so when they got married they decided to raise me and my two older sisters Jewish. Reason being that there aren't many Jewish people in the world and a bunch of Christians in the world. So it isn't a matter of that I became Jewish, it's more of a tradition thing because my mom had such a large family and my dad didn't. I love being Jewish because I get interviewed a lot. It's a lot of fun, but sometimes it gets out of hand, but that's another free post. (:

What's your favorite Disney movie and why?

I have loved and alway love the movie Nemo. I'm not really sure why I love the movie, but I love the fact that sea animals are talking. It's the funniest thing to me. Nemo kind of reminds me of kids in general, like in the beginning, by not wanting to get up for school, once he gets to his first day of school for his dad to leave him alone. The one sad part about this movie is in the early beginning when Nemo's mom was looking at all the first eggs the first time, and she looks out in the blue ocean and sees a huge shark and tries to protect her eggs. She and most of her fish eggs get killed except one.

Nemo was probably the most entertaining child movie I've watched in my life time. It shows us what life is like, but in the form of fish.

Reading- LOTF: 11-11-13 60 minutes 11-12-13 60 minutes

free post!

On this free post I wanted to talk about my religion and how much it means to me.

Being a part of my religion is very special and unique. I say this because in the United States in 2012 studies show that there is less then  2% of Jewish people. Being apart of such a small community is great because you know pretty much everyone in your city or maybe your state. Also Jewish people have a promised land that I will be visiting this summer in June, I'm so excited to go. Not many other religions can say that, which makes it extremely special.

One thing that bothers me the most is that sometimes people don't know when to stop talking. They also don't know anything about the religion and they just keep their mouths running. It makes me angry and somewhat uncomfortable. People will stereotype anyone no matter what, if you go on google and type in Jewish people then click on images, that is what Jewish people look and dress like in certain places. I get asked all the time why I don't look and dress like that and my answer every time is because I live in America and would get made fun of or stereotyped and even worse get called "the Jew". I find it unacceptable to call someone that is Jewish that name because people haven't been that cruel since the 1930's during the Holocaust. That was a brutal time back then and some people are still like that. Then others are just so ignorant they just keep talking and making situations worse for themselves. I'm guessing by this point you think I'm super defensive about Judaism, which I am. I won't beat around the bush on that statement. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that people need to watch what they say and how they say things because some times you won't know how the person will take it, rather it being sarcastically or serious. This is more of a life lesson then.

Reflection on deserted island

I think that the situation with our class would have been fine, just because on Thursday we seemed to work really well together, but over time people get sick with each other and start being rude. So maybe a longer period of time would have been bad. I think it would have been difficult in real life because some people's personalities don't work as well with other personalities. There are some people that like to take control in situations like this and others that like to just sit back and do what their leaders are telling them to do.

I think my class would have managed finding the essential things like, food, water, shelter, and fire. Which in this case or really any case, it's great. We definitely would have faced figuring out who the true leaders are because we do have a lot of leaders so maybe we would have one for every aspect. I'm unsure because we aren't in the situation.

reading times: LOTF- 60 minutes 11-10-13 and essay- 60 minutes 11-9-13

reading times and outside work

Literary analysis- 120 minutes
Zoe Letting Go- 15 minutes

FREE POST!

Over the weekend I went to a Jewish Youth Group Event, called BBYO. The event was for new members (it was called New Member Weekend) whether if you were a freshmen or sophomore, there weren't many sophomores there. It was so much fun! At first it was kind of sluggish and boring because some of the chapters were really rude and annoying, so I just zoned them out.

All in all, I had a great time. I got to see a couple friends from camp, but I also met so many people from Tennessee and Alabama. People were so amazed when I told them I was from Baton Rouge because I was the only one from Baton Rouge. We also had two people from New Orleans (which is where the chapter is), one from Mandeville, and one from Lake Charles, Louisiana. I was so amazed to see 120ish kids there that are freshmen. It was just so much fun getting to know everyone. I had a BLAST!

Reading Response

The first short story I read was The Sniper. I think if i gave bits and pieces of information about the characters at the beginning then give more and more as I go. Then kind of like drop the largest part about the whole story at the end like Liam O'Flaherty did in The Sniper, when he turns over the corpus and it's his brother. After sniper does that I personally would have added a little on his feelings and what will happen next.

The second story I read was Araby. I want to make sure that I add a lot of things about setting so that people reading it can physically and mentally understand what's going on.

The last story I read was Sucker by: Carson McCullers. This story was like a roller coster kind of like my story, but I want to make sure that I have a happy ending. I feel like if it's a happy people will tend to like it more, but maybe my topic will have to have a sad ending.

REading times- 120 minutes- Zoe Letting Go: 10-23,10-25, and 10-27

Reading and working times

Short story: 60 minutes 10-13-13

reading this week: 60 minutes 10-8/10-10

Personal Questions:

• Why do people self-harm?
• What other books can I explore?
• Are some people happier than others?

Reading Log for this week

I'm still reading the book "Zoe Letting Go" By: Nora Price and I am really enjoying it. I still have a question about it though because I don't know why Zoe is in this so called hospital. I also ask my self if all the girls that she is with in this hospital with anorexic or have problems with their weight because the way Zoe describes it is that she looks perfectly fine compared to the other girls. To be honest, I'm just waiting to see if her mom will ever tell her why she sent her there for 5 weeks.

reading time- 40 minutes in class, then 20 extra minutes on my short shorty, one hour on reading short stories

mapping out my plot

Exposition: a girl that's amazing at sports, gets all of the guys, has a perfect family, loved by everyone, and has a bunch of friend, but what they don't know is that she hates almost everything about herself. 

Setting- Athens, Georgia
Characters (as of now)- Belinda and friend

Rising action-

• starts getting called names as "jokes" but she takes it more seriously now because it's gone on too long

Climax-

• starts to starve herself- loses a bunch of weight
• starts to cut, but she doesn't think that it stops the "jokes"
• she has thoughts of suicide

Falling action- 

• a friend stops her from the thoughts 
• helps make her life a whole lot better

Resolution-

• goes to camp for 4 and a half weeks and comes back a better person
• loves more about herself

Post 1

The short story I mostly enjoyed was the A & P. Some reason I was able to get a lot out of  it by, reading it, taking notes on it, and then talking about it in class with everyone. A & P is the main one that I actually processed and was able to get the most out of it.

I think it was the most interesting one. From creepy Sammy to the girls about my age. They really pulled the story together and made me think about whats going on and how everything works together to make it make sense.

reading: Zoe Letting Go By: Nora Price time/dates: 9/24- 10 minutes, 9/26- 10 minutes, 9/27- 1 hour
short stories: 1 hour

Belinda (voice of character)

               Hi, my name is Belinda and I'm about to fall asleep, but I just have to write a few things down that are going on in my head before I pass out into a deep sleep.
               I love playing volleyball and I have played since the third grade. It's a big part of my life, but I have also played basketball, soccer, and softball in the last few years. This year I really want to focus on volleyball and school work, but my mom doesn't want me to say that because she wants me to play her favorite sport to watch which is basketball. I don't want to play because one, I'm already stressed out with school and two because I hate getting knocked around by girls that are much larger than me(height and weight wise).
              Lastly, I hate school. I don't like most of the girls in my grade because I feel like I have to act fake around them, it's not fair to me or to them. Most of the guys are okay, but I hate when they make "jokes" about the way I look. Even though they say "it was a joke, Belinda. chill out!" doesn't mean I wont take it seriously. I am very self conscious, by the way. I've had many of problems in the past about my self consciousness. Not too good.. anyways my eyes are starting to close.
              Man, I need to talk to my mom!

reading response

I have started a new book called "Zoe Letting Go" By: Nora Price. So far my question would definitely be what majorly is going to happen and where is Zoe? The book gives really good description about everything. I'm just confused on where Zoe is going because her mom told her to pack enough clothes for six weeks and no more information.

When she finally got to where they were going she met a lady named Angela, who is the head of the facility. The first time they met Angela said "Patient", and Zoe had no idea what she was involving herself in. They wouldn't tell her what was going on either. She walked through and there were five other girls there too, but they obviously seemed to not like her... girl drama and they don't even know Zoe yet.


Reading: Short Stories: hour and 30 minutes and Zoe Letting Go: 30 minutes dates: 9/17-20/13

E-Book

I don't think I have any concerns towards my narrative because I didn't put many different people in the paper. I should be good on that aspect of the e-book. 

If I could choose the formatting of my paper I wouldn't do the heading. I personally am not a fan on it, I don't really have a reason.

This is Water/reading Response

In "This is Water", it talks about the difficulties in life. By this I mean, when you get off of a long days work you want to go home and rest up and unwind, then go to sleep earlier than normal. That's what you would want to do, but in reality you would get home after being in rush hour traffic and from your job. You soon notice that you don't have food in your house or apartment. You have to go back out into traffic and get food from the store, or you have to get off of work and get into that awful traffic go to the store, walk through all of the aisles of food trying to pick out what you want. Then after you have picked out what you want you have to stand in a long line full of pestering people. When you finally get to the front of the line and the casher checks you out and says, "Have a nice day." Then you have to get back into traffic and drive home. 

I really liked this video because it was so interesting to realize how the mind works because the way he describes it is actually how it works. I really liked how everything came together. It's like the muscles and bones, if you hurt your ankle and start limping and your ankle feels better, but then something else will start hurting. It's all connected in someway.    

Reading: time: 2 hours worked on my literacy narrative

Dialoge

"hey, what's up?"
"nothing."
"are you okay?"
"I was a few seconds ago."
"what's wrong now?"
"I'm not feeling well.."
"Well what happened to make you feel bad?"
"My stomach, head, back, and throat hurt really bad."
"Did you eat something different today?
"No, not that I know of.."
"Have you been to the doctor lately?"
"NO!"
"Why do you say it like that?"
"It's an awful place!"
"No it isn't! They make the things that hurt, not hurt anymore!"
"Well I'm still not going!"
"Why not?"
"Okay, the real reason I don't want to visit the doctor is because they always give me shots and I hate shots!"
"You should get the numbing cream they have! It's great!"
"Wow, I didn't know they had stuff like that! I guess I should go to the doctor then!"
"Yeah, you really should! I promise it won't be as bad as you think!"
"Okay, well I'm making my appointment today! Thanks!"
"Any time! Hope you get well soon."
"Thank you! see you soon!"
"bye"

Reading Response

For my literacy narrative I'm super excited about giving more detail about one particular thing which was my bat mitzvah training and trying to get people to understand that it isn't easy learning a language that has a completely different alphabet. Trying to get people to understand all the different things I had to give to keep up with school work, but also with my Hebrew studies... It wasn't easy at all. To be honest though, it was worth giving up parties, sporting activities, going to friends houses', and watching tv. I say this because in the long run I became a Jewish women and no one can take away something as special as that.

I'm not that excited about it having to  be 2 1/2-3 pages, but if you add enough details and explain exactly whats going on in that situation it isn't that bad. I guess that I'm not excited to actually have to sit down and write it because I don't want to write about myself because I tend to find things that I should have done better when I didn't. In most situations I would say to myself, "wow that was dumb of me." or "why did I choose to do/say that?" I don't like criticizing myself.


reading log: Literacy Narrative: time: 3 hours day: 9-4

Response to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Speech

I just want to begin with thanking Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because if it weren't for this amazing man, we would still have slaves and the thought of us having slaves makes me cringe. In the speech I noticed the Dr. King uses a lot of metaphors and to be honest it makes the speech a lot better. He is an inspiration to all people. He stood in front of thousands of people and told those thousands of people what was right. Even though Abraham Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation 100 years before the speech, nothing was different. 

Dr. King, wow he is amazing and has a lot of bravery. It's sad that someone had the guts to kill him across the street from the motel he was staying in, in Memphis, Tennessee. At the end of the speech when he says we will all be able to say "FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST, THANK GOD WE ARE FREE AT LAST", some reason it struck me more than anything because I think of the Holocaust, when we were put into slavery and into gas rooms where they would kill us. I wish that we had someone like Dr. Martin to stand up for us Jews when we were in trouble. Anyway, Dr. Martin is just a big inspiration to many people. 

Reading Response

We have been getting a lot of new magazines lately, so I haven't been very focused on my actual reading book except for time in class that Dr. D gives us. Also I've been reading a lot in the sports section of the newspaper and I read a poem that I love that a friend suggested.

There are a bunch of new news in the world. I read the People magazines, "The Little Blue Envelope", the poem ToThis Day By: Shane Koyczan, and the literacy narratives. People magazines are just fun to read and I like to see what is happening with famous people. I'm about to stop reading "The Little Blue Envelope" because I'm not really following it, so I think I'm going to go to Barns n' Noble so I can get a book that interests me.

The poem "To this Day" By: Shane Koyczan is probably the most life changing poem I've ever read. My friend at camp has it memorized, so one night he came out to the dock and he started saying it. The poem literally was a life changing poem. I try to read it every day just to be sure I make the right decisions.

The literacy narratives were actually a lot more interesting than I expected them to be. I kind of realized that I like to read stuff like that. "Always Living in Spanish" narrative was really interesting, but I also felt bad for her because all her family had died and she didnt really have anyone left. The second narrative I read is called "Literacy Behind Bars" was also really interesting because he was talking about how he was living in prison and giving us his point of view and how he tries not to see it as prison and also with him reading all the time he has to hide from the guards when he reads. It was cool to see what he had to say.



reading log: 8/26 - 10 minutes, 8/28 - 10 minutes, 8/29 - 10 minutes, 8/30 - 10 minutes, those were The Little Blue Envelope pages: 79-120, To This Day: 8/28 - 10 minutes, 8/29 - 10 minutes, literacy narratives: "Always Living in Spanish" (33-35) time:30 minutes and "Literacy Behind Bars" (640-643) time: 30 minutes, Dr. Martin Luther King speech: time 17.29 minutes

Birthday Dinner

My best friend, Sarah, from camp came in from Lake Charles, LA for my birthday weekend. Saturday, August 24, 2013 we went to my birthday dinner.

It's about 6:45 P.M. at Ruth's Chris, Sarah and I are super hungry and ready for a really good steak. We got seated and didn't even have to look at the menu because we already knew what we wanted. So our waiter comes by and gets our drink order and my mom tells him that it's my birthday, he told my "Happy Birthday" and walked away to get our drinks. He comes back with the drinks and bread. Mine and Sarah's stomachs are growling so loud, we were the first to dig into the bread. We finally order, Sarah and I order a petite filet and we are splitting a baked potato. About 15 minutes later the food comes out. I devoured my steak and potato and so did Sarah. It was so good! The waiter, Sean, picked up our plates and once the table is clean he brings out a cheese cake with a candle, so my mom starts to sing to me. Once we finished the cake and paid the bill we went home and ate my actual birthday cake, It was delicious! Sarah and I finally went to sleep at about 12:30. It was so much fun!

Reading Response

The next book will read Perfect By: Natasha Friend. My question to myself is "Which kinds of books do I want to read and or learn about?" Emma Scott read this book and when she presented it to the class I felt a connection with the book. I want to read books that deal with actual problems and I think that the problems in the book are easy to compare with high school.

I feel like I could relate to some of the problems in the book. One being some personal problems like she has and I've never really been bullied before, but I can understand bullying situations. I, also cant relate that her dad died, but I can feel like that is my grandfather's and grandmother. So I want to learn about people dealing with situations like those and I think if I wanted to learn about them that through a book like this I could understand better.


Reading Log- Business Report; Date: 8/22 Time: 120 minutes

Outside reading

book: The Last Little Blue Envelope Author: Maureen Johnson Time: 60 minutes Pages: 1-79
also the choice book stuff preparation Time: 60 minutes

Reading Response to The Knife of Never Letting Go

What I liked most about The Knife of Never Letting Go, was really the whole overview of the book, but mainly when Todd was being chased in the woods are runs into what he thought to be a Spackle, but it was just a girl trying to find her way and follow him. I also liked the relationships. Viola coming in being one of the only girls in the town is scary even though she doesn't have her parents anymore. Viola changed Todd from being the little boy that he was into that man he wanted to become. 

Todd's thoughts changed from him always thinking of himself to thinking about Viola and the rest of the world or town that he was running away from. As I was reading, I was thinking about how the guys in my grade have changed over time and how they sometimes think more about what they are doing and saying rather than saying and doing whatever they want. So I can relate to that. I also really liked The Knife of Never Letting Go.