Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard

Book Review by Kenny Le

It is important that we learn about our greatest American heroes and villains. Role models are a big thing in today's life. Everyone wants to be a better person everyday. Everyone has goals whether it be personal or academic goals. Abraham Lincoln had good goals that he had to accomplish, but John Wilkes Booth put an end to the pursuit of those goals. Stories like this inspire people to do good things, and it inspires people to stop the harm that is being done by bad people. 

When I first opened Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, I expected to skim through the pages and see what the book is like. I wanted to find out why would they sell a book about Abraham Lincoln when most people already know what happened. I thought people probably bought it, because it's written by Bill O'Reilly. Bill O' Reilly is a political commentator, and he also has his own show on Fox, The O'Reilly Factor. It is common knowledge that people know what happened to Abraham Lincoln. If they do not know what happened to Lincoln, they can find out what happened by searching up Abraham Lincoln on the web. I skimmed through the book, and read the first page that got me hooked. 

In the beginning of the book, Abraham Lincoln is the President of the Union in the time of the Civil war. It recalls the final days of the war with Abraham Lincoln watching over the war. The story of Robert E. Lee battling against Ulysses S. Grant was very engaging. After the war, the book soon moves into a sequence of events where Lincoln is working to end the war, while John Wilkes Booth's plan goes into work to end Lincoln's life.

Killing Lincoln is a nonfiction book, but as I read it, it felt more of a fiction novel. Killing Lincoln is written as a thriller, and the book just keeps drawing you in and making you want to read more to find out what's going to happen next. Everyone knows how Lincoln's life ended, but the book creates anxiety for the reader making you ask questions like "What if?". There were so many moments where Lincoln could've been saved that I never even knew about. There were so many different things Lincoln could've done differently to protect himself. It makes you keep hoping that Lincoln will realize the dangers in his life, as the plot to end his life continues on. 

Killing Lincoln is a very readable book about history. It's not boring and dull like history textbooks or articles you often see in history class. The authors Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard do a really good job with presenting the details of the past without overwhelming you with too much information. I highly recommend people to pick up this book.

This benchmark is a Podcast based off of the book "Hole in my Life" by Jack Gantos

Click HERE to download & listen to the podcast.

Enjoy!

​Explanation:

In order to tell someone what's today's date or what's the month you need to know

1.  How to pronounce the months?
2.  How to spell? 
3.  How to ask date and month?

Here is the website that will help you out to pronounce the months and some other vocabulary that is related to this topic.

Notes:

In español the days of week and months are not capitalized. In español writing the date is different from the English you need Date/Month/Year.


Months:

In español months are not capitalized. There are couple of months that are hard to spell for example diciembre and noviembre. 

Here is a video of Angelica asking Huzaifah's birthday in Spanish
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bys-eQUq-_0vMk9QaEhXZHo1Zms

Here is a video of Ameer asking weather from Huzaifah
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bys-eQUq-_0vdVFXdGRnVW1qbEU

Click Here

To the SLA Parent Community,

We hope that you are safe at home weathering hurricane Sandy. What a week!

This is a reminder that we are still ON for SLA's first Parent University session, SLA 101, on Thursday, November 1st from 6-8pm. 

What do your kids mean when they say “Moodle”, “Benchmark Projects”, “Standards”, and “Slate”?  Wondering about how to parent a student at a laptop-based school? What to get the most out of SLA? You are invited to attend an evening with Dr. Frederic Bertley, VP of Science & Innovation at The Franklin Institute and SLA teachers for SLA 101. 

"Wreck It Ralph" Film Festival Review.

Click here to see my review of Flight

​This is my home network. Most of the devices (6 of the laptops, all the iPods, the Kindles, and the printers) are connected to the network via WiFi, but the devices that need a consistently faster internet connection (such as the TiVo, the Wii, the PS3, one of the laptops, and the alarm system) are connected via ethernet. The devices on the top floor (TiVo, Wii, PS3, and one laptop) get internet through a box with an ethernet port that plugs into the wall and transfers internet through the electrical lines.
I learned that internet is very expensive.
I think people should know how their network works so that if something goes wrong they can fix it.

​

                                            AMIGOS VS FAMILIA

                                            Tu vs. Ud. Questions

     Ever wonder how to address your elders in spanish? Or how to greet your amigos? Depending on the person, they're will always be a certain amount of respect given in the spanish language. In english, we usually address authority figures with “Mr.” or “Ms.”, but with Spanish, it is way more complex.

     There are two different ways of speech that specify who you are talking to. When having a conversation with a friend or peer, it is always necessary to end the sentence “Tú”. This is an informal way of speech and should not be used when talking to authority figures. The same is applied when asking questions. Imagine you are meeting a new friend for the first time. They ask for your name. You would say, “´¿Me llamo ____, y tú?” By ending the sentence with “...y tú?” You are saying “And you?”. A couple of practices and you'll get the hang of it!

     Now onto to the formal way of sayings! Whenever referring to an adult or older authority figure, it is essential to ask them a question that ends with “Usted”. Simple questions such as “What is your name?” would be said in espanol like “¿Cómo se llama usted?” as opposed to its informal counter part, “¿Cómo te llamas tú?”. This applies to all older family members, teachers and other authority figures.

Just remember these simple things:

Tú=Someone around your age/peer/friend

Usted= An adult, authority figure (ex: Professora)

Try practicing here

 

   Lets take a look at the boxes below:

Here is a video of three friends talking to one another using "Tú" and a child talking to their grandmother using "Usted".

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1oSsqnAibh_AOeY7hUDWUxM-41dmdJXNlqzKMNv_kFyU/edit

If you want to know the weather in Spanish, you must learn these simple facts.

-The types of weather
-The Prefixes used in the weather
-How to describe the weather

Types of Weather:

Bright = Sol
Hot = Calor
Cold = Frio
Windy = Viento
Cloudy = Nublado
Humid = Hùmedo
Rainy = Lloviendo
Snowy = Nevando

Prefixes: 

The types of weather use two different prefixes: Hace and Està.

Hace: Està:
-Sol -Nublado
-Calor -Hùmedo
-Frio -Lloviendo
-Viento -Nevando


Describing the Weather:

Temperature = Temperatura
Maximum = Màxima
Minimum = Mìnima
Degrees = grados
Mostly = Mayormente
Partly = Parcìalmente
Sunny = Soleado
Clear = Despejado
It's nice (bad) out = Hace buen (mal) tiempo.

Days of the Week: 

Monday = lunes
Tuesday = martes
Wednesday = mièrcoles
Thursday = jueves
Friday = viernes
Saturday = sàbado
Sunday = domingo

Remember: The days of the week are always lowercase.

​Explanation: 
In order to have a basic conversation in Spanish, you must know how to:
Greet someone
Ask them how they are
Ask them their name
Ask them where they live
Say goodbye


This is how to ASK any of these questions: 

 

****NOTICE: (tú) is in parentheses for the questions ¿Cómo the llamas? and ¿De dónde eres? This is because the word tú is a way of addressing a friend (or amigo) of yours. If you are to ask these same questions to someone who is not your friend and is to be respected, you would ask them like this:



Here are some responses to those questions:

¿Qué tal?


¿Cómo se llamas?



¿De dónde eres (tú)?



WAYS TO SAY GOODBYE:

 

******It is always polite to say "Nice to meet you" after meeting someone for the first time. It is also polite to reply to that by saying "Likewise." 

 
OTHER USEFUL TERMS:


Here is a game that can be helpful with this lesson. It is also good for greeting someone in Spanish.







Here is a continuation of the video for How to Greet Someone in Spanish. In this video, however, we are having a basic conversation with the tourist.