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Casi una mujer is a story of a young girl forced to leave her home in pr to live in ny. As she try to "fit in" her culture say she was betraying her. The stories you hear on tv comes to life. Must read for yourself!

This year when I walked into my English class I didn’t know what to expect. I thought that I would be reading lots of books, taking quizzes and writing essays. As the year went by my expectation were proven wrong who would of thought that part of my English/history grade would have anything to do with dancing, or visiting a prison. Throughout the year we have been through quite a journey. Not only did my English teacher Mr. Block teach us grammar and had us read books, but he got us physically and emotionally involved with our lessons. We had many projects to do in which we were allowed to put a lot of creativity into. For example our final "Passing" Project This project was based on the book “Passing” we were given many choices on how we could complete this project. My group and I decided to draw a picture that told a story. There were no real restrictions on what we could or could not do for our project and that really pushed creativity. “Creativity helps you to accomplish something from your heart and that you have strong feelings about.” (Ananda Knight) This project helped me to look into a story pass the words but look for deeper meanings that not everyone will catch. Another project that I really liked was when we got into our poetry unit we wrote many different poems. One of my favorite poems was my “I was raised by poem.” I felt like I could use that poetry topic to express myself in many different ways. “I was taught by
other peoples mistakes, I was taught by my own mistakes.” That is on of the quotes in my I was raised by poem. My poem reflected of lessons, and things I was brought up on. When Mr. Block told us to write poems I didn’t really think I could do it. I guess I just had to believe in myself. Mr. Block helped me to realize that I was a good writer and that if I put my mind and heart into it I could complete a polished poetry Wiki.

About a week ago we were all surprised as a class when our teacher introduced us to Leah Stein from the Leah Stein Dance Company. We were shown some of her work and were told that we were going to be going out into the streets and perform dance pieces in front of a bunch of people. When I first heard about this I thought What does this have to do with English or History. I am already a dancer so I thought this would be really easy. As the days went by I realized that this was not the kind of dance that I was used to. What I didn’t know is that I was actually learning a lesson through movement I even became closer to my peers you can see more about my experience through my Art in the open reflection. As I write this portfolio I think of many different assignments that I could include. We did so much work that has helped us all to grow. The final two projects I wanted to talk about were for one my play. The play put my through my biggest struggle, but “Challenges push you to try harder.” This was very hard for me because never before had I tried to write a play. I started over three times until I finally came up with a great idea. Our play had to have an connection to the world and it was a really cool experience. Finally my language autobiography this was my first time writing something like this. It was not that hard of an assignment because it was basically about yourself. When writing we always went through the same process of having friends and our teachers read over our work and give us lots of feedback. Mr. Block encouraged us to do so as well. When I finally finished my Language autobiography It was really amazing when I read it out loud I was really proud of my work and that is what matters the most.

Overall this year has affected me in many way. From confusion, understanding, and shed tears I feel like I have learned a lot from my time being in class with Mr. Block and my classmates. Everyday I walked into class Mr. Block always had a new way to challenge our minds and help us accomplish something new. I will never forget my experience and how it has helped me to become a great writer and thinker.

This is a poster for the book that i read If i stay.

I reccommend Asimov's i,Robot becuase it is an engaging and thought provoking book that you will be difinitely be hooked. You probrably have seen the movie but now it is time to read the book becuase they are nothing a like. I won't get into too much detail so I will let you read i,Robot and will find out for yourself.

Enjoy!

Jessica Maiorano

Final Portfolio

  Before I came into his class I wasn’t sure what we were going to do. When I first walked into Mr. Block’s class I wasn’t a good writer and I didn’t like history class but Mr. Block made his projects different and creative. Every project was unique in its on way and that’s what I liked about it. We had the freedom to write our thoughts in our papers.

“I am me and that’s who I want to be

 I am fifteen cool, fun and free

 I see and hear just like you

 But very different I am to you”

About a month ago Mr. Block told us to make poetry wiki of all different poems we are going to write in class during our poetry unit. One of poems I was most proud of was my riff poem.

“The feeling you get when you realized you can run all those miles
Every step we take were getting closer
Is that want we want?”  

That quote was only part of my poem but you do not even need to see the rest of it to know that my writing has changed. I have grown as a writer and as a student in Mr. Blocks English and history class.

  There were projects that I found hard and there was projects that I thought were easy but I made sure I turned in my best work. Hard work leads to a lifetime accomplishments. My language autobiography was a writing that I worked hard on. In my Language autobiography I wrote, “Yes, it may take a lot of work and you may struggle and at times it might not make sense but language helps you accomplish greater things.” That is true with language but also with everything else if you work hard enough.

A Series of Unfortunate Event

I recommend this book because the stories are engaging and there are enough books that you can stay occupied that hole summer.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2243045/New%20Project%209%20-%20Large.m4v

Lesson Plan for Grades 3-6

Purpose: Kids should be able to demonstrate why leaves change colors in the fall 

Objective:Kids will learn the science behind colors and leaves.

Question:How do leaves change color in the fall?

Materials: 

Leaves

Small Jars

Plastic Wrap

Rubbing Alcohol

Coffee filters

Shallow pan

tap water(hot)

tape

pen

plastic spoon, clock

Procedure:

1)Collect leaves(different leaves from different trees)

2)Add rubbing alcohol to fill the jar and leaves

3)Cover the jars but not to tight and place jars into shallow pan with 1 inch of hot water

4)Keep jars in pan for 1/2 hour

5)Remove jars and uncover while placing thin strips of coffee paper in, so it's touching the alcohol

6)The colors should travel up the paper and you can see the colors

7)Remove the paper let it dry and hang it where you want.

Impulse, written by Ellen Hopkins.

 file:///Users/cpagan/Desktop/New%20Project%209%20-%20Large.m4v

   At first for this project, I had NO idea what I wanted to do. So I thought about some of my talents and I know I'm a pretty good writer. So, I decided to work on a SciFi novel for the 10% project. I'm really interested in becoming a neurologist, the brain really interests me, so I based a story around it. I also incorporated religion into the story to give it some character. Sometimes, I disagree with modern science, so in my story, I wrote about science going wrong. Scientists discover a cure or brain cancer, but this treatment makes the patients go mad. This resembles the doctors trying to play god, which can be bad sometimes because it might not be the dying person's fate to live. That is why I turned those people into zombies because it was not their FATE to keep living. That's why I talked about faith and fate so much, in hopes that the readers will understand what I am trying to get across.
     My process for this project went very smoothly. I didn't really plan a plot or anything, I just wrote and wrote and wrote. I did not face any challenges, I actually enjoyed doing this project and writing this story.

The book I choose to make a poster for was, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo