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This is a video about to greet someone. 

In this video you will learn

• ¿Cómo?
• ¿Cómo te llamas?
• Soy
• ¡Mucho gusto!
• Igualmente

Over the last month I read the Fifth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I watched as the war of the five Kings wound to a close. I tasted the meals while reading George’s famous descriptions of food. I hurt when my favorite characters felt pain, and I smiled every moment they didn’t die tragically.

George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons is the fifth 1,510 page installment to his A Song of Ice and Fire series continuing his stories of the fictional continent of Westeros. While a healthy appreciation for fiction is certainly needed to get through such a large book, I can say that the series has much more to offer than originally meets the eye. Dance continues the story telling style of using “point of view characters”. Chapters are divided up by character, telling the story through their eyes.

For readers unfamiliar with this style of storytelling, let me tell you that it makes it very hard to hate one character more than another. Martin creates a world of gray areas. Much like real life, every character has a reason for their actions. This leaves it up to the reader to draw his or her own opinions. The maddening part of this type of storytelling is that those characters who might otherwise be considered the “bad guys” get to show their own perspective. I found it frustrating that George R.R Martin didn’t let me fully agree with the “good guys” or completely hate the “bad guys”, but I will say that it kept me on my toes. It keeps the story relatable and interesting more than anything else.

One issue I’ve had with the series so far is the inclusion of characters that don’t drive the plot in any way. This continues in Dance. For example, Quentin Martel’s inclusion in the story doesn’t serve any purpose other than to give exhausting details about unimportant places. His entire story can be summed up in the sentence “ The heir to Dorne travels east to find his queen.” I found myself caring little about him and more for what his actions mean to other characters. To those readers who don’t care about every detail but still want to be able to understand the plot, skipping Martel’s chapters is a safe way to save time.

While I love this book and hope everyone reads it. I also had to read the other huge books in order to get to it. Dance is completely plot driven, and will not make any sense unless the first four books are read before hand. If you think you are up to the challenge of reading such a long story, I guarantee that you will enjoy yourself. If you’ve made the journey through the other four books, congratulations! You are in for another thrilling installment to the series. Remember though, George R.R Martin in infamous for killing off major characters. In A Dance With Dragons, winter is coming, and that certainly doesn’t mean he’ll relent.

.By James Prell

These are some words people need to know in order to greet each other.

This is a video of Hannah and Tomy having a casual conversation.

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!

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.