talking these ideas out

What has struck me more about My Ishmael was how the tribes before lived better than we do now, and that people just for power took over and changed everything. Especially with the school system. Everything that Ishmael says is a totally different perspective than how I have seen things. I don't exactly agree or disagree with anything I just think it's a really good way of seeing things, because I don't really know. Even though many things he says are very true and I understand where he gets it from. I guess it could be applied to the real world by seeing things in a different way and maybe try to change in what we think would be better for us. When I told my mom about Ishmael's thoughts about the school system, she didn't think that way at all, she likes the schools and thinks that everything we learn is very important.

Sisters - Tragedy

Sisters

Cecelia looked at her beautifully silver colored watch she was given as a gift for her birthday, once again and gave away a big sigh. She had been waiting for her little sister for over 30 minutes. Cecelia looked around desperately hoping she would see her sister with a big smile on her face walking to the table outside of a coffee place downtown.
She was the oldest of seven children and her sister, Lela, whom she was waiting for was like a daughter to her. She took another sip from her warm, rich cappuccino which wasn’t as hot anymore because of the cold weather. Growing impatient Cecelia decided to call Lela; she picked up her shiny, leathery black bag from the floor and placed it on her top of her lap. She dug around her bag looking for her BlackBerry. She noticed she had two missed calls from her son Darrell, but none from her sister. Her mind started to think of awful things that could have happened to Lela, she shook her head trying to remove the thoughts from her head, but they didn’t go away.
She took another sip from her cappuccino and decided to call Darrell. She put her phone to her ear and listened to the phone ring repeatedly.
On the 4th ring her son answered, “Hello?”
“Hey, honey why did you call?” she asked him as she heard the rap music playing in the background.
“Huh? Oh yeah, can I go to the mall with Rafael?” he asked even though he knew how much his mom didn’t like it when he hung out with Rafael.
Cecelia paused for a second as she thought of what to say.
“What for honey? What are you guys going to do?” Rafael was a boy in Darrell’s school who was one year older than him, but much more experienced and foolish.
“Uh I don’t know, just walk around I guess. He’s here right now.”
“Rafael is at the house!” Cecelia yelled harshly, making the waiter beside her turn around and look at her.
“Yup.”
“No, honey you can’t go to the mall, just wait for me until I get home.” She ordered in a strict voice.
“Please, mom?” He begged but Darrell actually really didn’t want to go to the mall; he just asked because Rafael wanted to.
“No, honey I’ll be there in like an hour.” She really hoped that she could be there in an hour, she was worried of the things Rafael could make Darrell do.
“Alright, mom. Bye.” He suddenly clicked. With that Cecelia hung up as well and looked down at her phone. Lela still wasn’t there.
Cecelia then spotted her sister with three bags in her hand and a big smile on her face. Lela started waving at Cecelia and dropped one of her bags in the middle of the street; she bent down to pick it up but, as she got up a yellow hummer honked and she turned around and gasped. The driver in the yellow hummer tried to step on the brakes but it was too late, he slowly shut his eyes as the front of the car hit Lela in the head and she collapsed to the ground, blood streaming out of her head. Cecelia let out a horrible scream as Lela fell to the floor. She swiftly got up from her chair and ran towards her sister. The people at the coffee shop and on the streets that had just witnessed what happened stood frozen and watched; Cecelia was the only one running towards her. People stared as the hummer driver slowly stepped out his car with a terrified look on his face. A little girl tugged on her Mom’s hand and asked what was going on.
When Cecelia finally reached her sister she fell to the ground her eyes red with grief, tears rolled down her checks one after another uncontrollably, she picked up her sister from the ground and brought her fingers to her neck to check her pulse. Cecelia waited a second and then she felt her sister’s pulse, she was still alive. Cecelia now drenched in her sister’s blood, looked around franticly and started yelling, “Someone please help! Call the ambulance!” The driver grabbed his cell phone and called the ambulance, he slowly got closer to Cecelia. Cecelia looked up with sadness, her chin trembling as she looked up at the man who had just killed her sister. She recognized that it was the man that was driving in the hummer, the very one that hit her sister. She slowly got up and wiped the tears away from her cheeks but the tears kept flowing out of her eyes, like a leaking sink. The man backed away a few steps; Cecelia’s eyes were still red but this time with rage, but before she said anything the high pitched noise of the ambulance made everyone’s head turn.
The paramedics quickly ran to the scene, they put Lela in the ambulance and Cecelia got in, too. She held her sister’s hand and talked to her, telling her it was going to be alright, trying to believe her own words as she said them. When they finally reached the hospital, Cecelia was stuck in the waiting room, desperate to know what was going to happen. She slowly closed her eyes and tried to relax, suddenly her phone starting vibrating, she dug in her bag for her cell phone and quickly answered it, “Hello?” her voice cracking as she spoke.
“Hello, Cecelia? Cecelia, it’s me Chanita your neighbor. Oh my God you need to come quick… your house is on fire!” Chanita’s voice sounded frantic.
“What? Why is my house on fire? Call 911 Chanita!” Cecelia couldn’t believe what she was hearing; she thought this must be some kind of nightmare, from which she couldn’t wake up. She closed her eyes then opened them again hoping that everything could disappear and she would be back at the coffee place waiting for Lela. But of course when she opened it she was still in the waiting room covered in blood.
“I already did.” Chanita assured her.
“Okay, I’ll be over there soon.” She said out of breath before hanging up.
Cecelia was shaking; she wasn’t even crying anymore her face was blank and emotionless. She realized she had left her car at the coffee place, so she decided to call her brother, Darius. As she explained everything to him she started to sob, he tried to clam her down, telling her he would go pick her up from the hospital right away.
The car ride to Cecelia’s house was quiet, neither of them said a word. Cecelia silently wept to herself. Darius patted her on the shoulder and assured her, “Everything is going to be okay.”
As they arrived to her house, the firefighters were all over the place trying to turn extinguish the fire. Cecelia started to remember all the valuable things she had in her house, then she remembered Darrell and Rafael were in the house, she quickly got out of the car and went to one of the fire fighters, she started yelling and asking where her son was. One of the firefighters grabbed her and told her to calm down and that he was ok; she spotted him on the street coughing besides Rafael, she ran towards him. Darrell’s face lit up when he saw his mom but he was scared because of what was going to happen to him, since they set the house on fire.
“Ooo honey, are you ok?” Cecelia hugged her son like it was her last time, grateful nothing had happened to him. When she finally released him from her embrace, Darrell looked down at his mom who was covered in blood, and gave her a confused look since that was obviously not from the fire.
“Yeah mom I’m ok, the real question is are you ok?” Cecelia looked at him sympathetically.
“Honey, you know Aunt Lela…. well she’s in the hospital.”
Darius got of the car and went running towards Cecelia and Darrell, tears streaming down his cheek. Darrell had never seen his uncle cry. Darrell dropped his phone to the ground.
“She died.” He tried to choke out.

link to zine

Hero project reflection

A hero becomes a hero by putting other first and by their actions. A hero can also be hero my ones perspective, because someone can be a hero to somebody but probably wont be a hero for someone else.

We had to find out what a hero is and what makes a hero. Once we have chosen our hero we interviewed them and wrote a character sketch about them. We learned literary devices, 5 senses, dialogue and detailed writing. We also had to write about a one moment in time that shaped us in who we are today. We also had a Socratic seminar about what makes a hero.

I met all my deadlines but had to work hard, since we also had a lot of work going on in different classes. I stayed many nights to get my work done on time and really started to use my planner to keep track of due dates.

I learned a lot of things, it changed my perspective on what it hero really is and really made me think and take seriously about what makes a hero a hero. I think I have also really improved on my writing. At first my computer wasn’t working and I had to do extra effort to get things done on time. I would have written a better character sketch, I feel like I could have done better, it would honor my hero more. Another challenge I had was picking my hero since I didn’t really understand what a hero really was at first, but I found my mom is a hero to my eyes. This will help me later on, because now I know the true meaning on what’s a hero.

Perspective was a big thing in this project since everyone has their own different perspective on what is a hero, or what changed them to who they are today. At the beginning of the project mostly everybody had the perspective of a hero being like superman. Through out the project everyone’s perspective changed and took the question more deeply.

Sweet Home Child Care

“Yo queria trabajar, hacer algo.” my mom said as she picked up clothes from the floor, my sister uncaringly threw. Even after a long day she kept going. My mom, a short, strong woman that wanted to do something with her life. “My friend showed me an advertisement on the newspaper, about a course on daycare at the South Western College, that’s what got me started.” I flashed back when she started her job.
She went ahead and saw her opportunity of starting something that she seemed capable of doing. At the same time we started constructing our house to have more room for the daycare, I didn’t see the point in expanding our house, and I didn’t like change. I was excited for my mom but at the same she wasn’t going to be our full time mom anymore. She came to me many times for help, I felt eager to help her accomplish her goal but I couldn’t take it seriously. My mom had always been a house mom.

She finally graduated from South Western College. Many months after she started advertising but, didn’t really get any good customers she took another big step forward and enrolled herself into Navy Child Development Home; this is where the real challenge started. Navy Child Development Home is strict and you have to do a lot of paper work, she would have to sacrifice her night sleep to finish her work. Once she started moving forward, things we thought were going to get smoother, they did in some sense. My mom started really working. She has to take care kids sometimes from 6 to 6, do the bills, do the housework, and take care of my brother, my sister, my dad, that has a bad knee, and me.

When I come home from school, if the children aren’t there anymore we all plop down in front of the T.V. and eat the delicious food my mom so caringly made. I looked at her, she looked so tired you can see it in her red eyes and the way she ate, I cleaned the kitchen with out being asked, hoping my mom will take advantage and rest for a while more before she starts up again with things that she has to get done.
As I wash the dishes my mom stumbles in, she looks at me then at the clock.

“Tienes mucha tarea?” she asks, minding my work and responsibilities. I think and try to remember the things I still had to do as I rinse a glass cup. I had plenty of homework but helping her seemed more important, I wanted to let her know that I really appreciated all the work she has to do to keep buying me cute clothes.

“Mmm, sort of.” I muttered not making eye contact.

“If you have a lot of homework go do it, I don’t want you to stay up late.” She strictly told me. I thought how she always had to wake up earlier than me and always went to bed later than me. She should be telling herself that, I thought.

I look at her now with a year working like this. “Do you miss your old life, when you didn’t have a lot of little kids running around? What do you miss?”
She looked at me with her still red eyes as she thought, “The Peace. When I could do everything [bills, papers] without stress.” I missed that, too. “Okay, ¿es todo? Estoy cansada y tu te tienes que ir a dormir.” I don’t know how she does it to stay on top of everything and still care about how much sleep I get.

She’s a good mom and really cares on everything she does. Even though it’s hard she is proud of herself, “Yes [I’m proud] because, it’s my own little business and we have gone forward because of my daycare we haven’t lost our house.”

Literary Device

Catching the signal from one of her friends, Angela brushed her skirt, took a deep breath and walked towards where he was sitting. She looked over at her best friend for approval. Her best friend smiled and gave her a small nod. She remembered how things use to be before, how easy it used to be to talk to him, that was before everything changed. She glanced at him once more before approaching; even the way his eyes met hers was different. He no longer had that warm safe feeling they once had; they were dark brown with hate and resentment. As she took a seat in front of him she tried to smile sincerely. Angela gave him a small peck on his cheek and noticed his breath smelled like ice cold lemonade on a boiling hot summer day. When he looked up at her he said in a miserable blue way that could have made even the reddest of roses die in a heartbeat, “I can’t believe she is really gone.” Angela tried to hold his hand to comfort him; his hand was ice cold she squeezed it slowly trying to make it warmer. Memories of his mom flooded in, Sandy, she remembered, the night she met her and the warm welcomed feeling she gave her to their family. Angela gently laid her head on his shoulder and lovingly whispered in his ear, “I’m sorry.” The cell phone on the table buzzed as it slowly vibrated towards the edge of the table. He ignored it, and looked at Angela as she assured him, “It’s going to be okay, baby, and I’m here for you.” The cell phone buzzed again like it was screaming at him to answer. He checked his phone, sighed and turned it off. He laid his head on Angela’s and kisses the top of her head. She feels his pain and a teardrop drops from her eye and lands on her hand in her lap. He squeezed her and teardrops fell from his eyes, too. The loss of his mother was terrible for both of them.

First

My leg was shaking, moving the whole little baby Buick car. I stared at the red light for a few seconds and it turned green. The little song that I learned in kindergarten replayed in my head, red means stop, green means go, yellow in the middle that means wait even if you’re late. My mom pressed on the gas pedal and we started driving by the convention center; there were people hurrying all over the place trying to get to their important meetings, this soon enough will become my daily view to school and back. We stopped once more at a red light. My mom looked at me, my leg, then at me again and asked, “Estas nerviosa?” she made butterflies in my stomach flip, so many reasons just screamed in my head. It wasn’t just only my first day at school; it was my first day of middle school. I had thought about this day over the summer a lot but, for some reason it hadn’t hit me.

When I was in elementary, my friends and I had imagined and waited for this day forever and now on the very day, they weren’t by my side to calm down the crazy butterflies in my stomach or my leg, it hadn’t stopped moving. I simply replied to my mom, “No,” with a fake smile. I remembered complaining everyday to my mom that I didn’t want to switch schools; I didn’t care if it was a better school. I wanted to be with my friends. Now I was starting school a week before everyone else and waking up around two hours earlier then all my friends. I even started worrying about my clothes and my hair. I could’ve been going to the same old school with all my friends.

As we passed by the beautiful Seaport Village there was a big cruiser that was the size of what could be a building, I looked for the name on it, “The Carnival”. My mind replayed images of the movie Titanic and how it sunk into the deep icy water, it gave me shivers that ran down my spin. I though that maybe that wasn’t the only thing giving me shivers.

As we came nearer to my new school, the butterflies in my stomach started getting frantic. We were one turn away from my school with a long name, High Tech Middle Media Arts. As we came to the front of my school I glanced at the time, 8:58. I remembered being late to school everyday in elementary, I didn’t want to start my three years of middle school by being late. I pulled the handle to the baby blue Buick car, and as I stepped one foot on the cement ground, confidence rushed over me like a wave of cold water, freezing up the butterflies. A smile spread across my face, like when you spread peanut butter on a piece of bread; I was excited.

The Sound

Its little helpless squeaking sound, it goes then it stops. It could be like the sound a little lamb makes. The sound gives you a gushy feeling in your heart that you need to help it. Something seems to slide under, sort of like a rough but soft sound at the same times. It makes the other be more high pitched. The under noise stops but the other noise keeps going steady then, it stops then it starts up again. It keeps going a high pitched sound like of comfort or struggle. It seemed like it was attempt trying to say something. The last sound was a nice, like it had accomplished what it wanted.

http://margaretnoble.net/blog/24-hours-old/

S.L.O.B Lily's deleted scene

I heard Rosaleen keep talking to Neil and June. “I haven’t registered myself to vote. I don’t know what’s the point they ain’t gonna let a black person vote.” Neil said. I thought how left out I felt. My white skin felt whiter then ever, lately the color of my skin has been bothering me more. I wished that I could have dark skin, too or that every one could have the same color skin. The world would be so much better there would be no racism.
I started listening to Rosaleen say “Yea, I was on my way to vote when, some white men got in my way.” I closed my eyes hoping Rosaleen wouldn’t give us away by telling her story. “So, I just told made my way passed them minding my own business but, I didn’t go vote.” I realized for once Rosaleen started to go with my plan. I heard a chair move, Neil was probably sitting down. A plate was put on the table; June was serving Neil his pancakes. “Why didn’t you go vote?” asked Neil. Roasleen fidgeted “Oh, cause you know… it was too hot that day to keep walking.” It didn’t make sense but, she didn’t let out our story.
I stared wondering around I found May by here wailing wall. She was scribbling on a piece of paper. I started thinking on these sisters lived with so many different traditions and religious beliefs. I had never liked any sort of religion but, I really like how theirs worked. I got near she was still sniffling. I asked May, “You better, now?” she looked at me with her teary eyes and tried to smile “Yea.” She folded the little piece of paper and stuck it into the wall. “You know if you ever need something, you should put your prayer in a piece of paper and stick it in the wall. It really works.” I smiled and thought how I could probably fill the wall up with prayers of my own. “Yea, thank you.” She got up well, “I better go keep making those pancakes. What happened to your L for Lily pancake?” I remembered my burned up L for Lily pancake that got burned and thrown into the trash. I blushed “Oh well, it got burned.” I hoping this wouldn’t upset her and make her go back to the wall again. She started humming again. I quickly said “See, that way you can go make me another.” She stopped humming looked at me and said “Good idea.”
We walked back into the pink house towards the kitchen. June was there with Rosaleen and Neil was getting up from his chair to leave. “Thank you, June for the Pancakes. I’ll see you later, Excuse me.” He told every one else and he left out the screen door. Lily started making my L for Lily pancake. She put it on a plate and gave it to me; I drowned it with honey and started eating. June asked “I thought you weren’t hungry?” I looked at her and with pieces of pancake in my mouth said “I am now.” And ate up my L for Lily pancake.

My Superhero

Superman is well known super-hero he was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. He was the last son of Krypton who sent him to earth in a shuttle before his planet exploded. He was found and raised by Sam and Molly Kent who named him Clark. Sam and Molly showed him how to use his superhuman powers responsibly like by helping others and to fight crimes. The powers that Superman has are strength, speed, stamina, durability, senses, intelligence, regeneration, longevity, super breath, heat vision, x-ray vision and he can fly. He creates his secret identity as Superman. Then he moves to Metropolis and becomes a reporter.

He has always been one of my favorite superheroes because he really cares about the planet earth, his family and friends. He saves the planet numerous times. When I was little the first thing that attracted me to him was that I thought that he was very handsome. I also really like the color scheme in his costume; I think the colors look well together. Superman is unstoppable, undefeated, handsome and he can fly! What more can you want in a man.

People in general like superman because he has a good story behind him, to the eye of anyone he is just a simple reporter but, he has a secret identity that no one knows about. People are inspired by superheroes in their daily lives because it encourages it them to do the best that they can. A really catchy phrase that people use when they see superman is "It’s a bird, it’s a plane, No its Superman!" For the most part females like superman because he is handsome, polite and saves the world. Boys like him because he knows how to kick some butt! Boys and girls are attracted to this famous heroic superhero because he was one of the first superheroes to become famous.

30 things that you didn't know about me!

1. i love ice-cream


2. i love chocolate


3. i was born on April 25 1995


4. i love pickles


5. my favorite color is purple


6. i was born in tepatitlan, jalisco


7. i love being with my friends


8. i love collarcaosters


9. i have a younger sister


10. i have a younger brother


11. i went to HTMMA


12. i have a boyfriend


13. i go for las chivas de guadalajara


14. I have a mixed poodle called rayito


15. I fell off a motorcycle


16. My favorite store is Papaya


17. i love watching movies


18. i'm going to have my Quinceanera in January 2 in mexico!!(even though i turn 15 untill Apirl)


19. i share my room with my little sister


20. i like the smell of gasoline


21. i love watching George Lopez


22. my favorite number is 15


23. i love twilight [the books & movie]


24. im in love with Taylor Lautner


25. i got lost at the San Ysidro mall with my BFF at night


26. i love starbucks & Jamba Juice


27. i love mangoes


28. i love the beach & anything thats tropical


29. i love playing volleyball


30. i want to learn how to speak french