I don't want to leave ISB :(

Our Valuable Friendship by Sunny Lee

Oh what a joy it is,
to have a friend like you.
For giving me strength,
the way you do.

For lifting me up like an elevator,
when I’m feeling down.
Putting a smile on my face,
when I’m wearing a frown.

Thanks for being there,
and helping me grow.
Your friendship means a lot,
and I’d like you to know.

Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face

[audio m4a="http://blogs.isb.bj.edu.cn/pkoch/files/2014/03/asdfghjkl.m4a"][/audio]

Be Glad Your Nose in on Your Face

By: Jack Prelutsky

Be glad your nose is on your face,
not pasted on some other place,
for if it were where it is not,
you might dislike your nose a lot.

Imagine if your precious nose
were sandwiched in between your toes,
that clearly would not be a treat,
for you’d be forced to smell your feet.

Your nose would be a source of dread
were it attached atop your head,
it soon would drive you to despair,
forever tickled by your hair.

Within your ear, your nose would be
an absolute catastrophe,
for when you were obliged to sneeze,
your brain would rattle from the breeze.

Your nose, instead, through thick and thin,
remains between your eyes and chin,
not pasted on some other place–
be glad your nose is on your face!

The Raven

The Raven

by: Edgar Allan Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
''Tis some visitor,' I muttered, 'tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore-
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
''Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-
This it is, and nothing more.'

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
'Sir,' said I, 'or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you'- here I opened wide the door;-
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering,
fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, 'Lenore!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, 'Lenore!'-
Merely this, and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
'Surely,' said I, 'surely that is something at my window lattice:
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore-
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;-
'Tis the wind and nothing more.'

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and
flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed
he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door-
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door-
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
'Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, 'art sure no
craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning- little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door-
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as 'Nevermore.'

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered- not a feather then he fluttered-
Till I scarcely more than muttered, 'other friends have flown
before-
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, 'Nevermore.'

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
'Doubtless,' said I, 'what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore-
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of 'Never- nevermore'.'

But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and
door;
Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore-
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking 'Nevermore.'

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.
'Wretch,' I cried, 'thy God hath lent thee- by these angels he
hath sent thee
Respite- respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!'
Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'

'Prophet!' said I, 'thing of evil!- prophet still, if bird or
devil!-
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted-
On this home by horror haunted- tell me truly, I implore-
Is there- is there balm in Gilead?- tell me- tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'

'Prophet!' said I, 'thing of evil- prophet still, if bird or
devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us- by that God we both adore-
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.'
Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'

'Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend,' I shrieked,
upstarting-
'Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!- quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my
door!'
Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the
floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted- nevermore!

Our Valuable Friendship by Sunny Lee

Oh what a joy it is,

to have a friend like you.

For giving me strength,

the way you do.

For lifting me up like an elevator,

when I’m feeling down.

Putting a smile on my face,

when I’m wearing a frown.

Thanks for being there,

and helping me grow.

Your friendship means a lot,

and I’d like you to know.

The Book Hunter - Book Review of I Am Number Four by Sunny Lee

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore is a science fiction novel. The main character named John Smith is a Garde (or an alien) from the planet called Lorien. He was sent to earth when he was a child with eight other Gardes to escape from the invading Mogadorians who destroyed the planet Lorien. They all never had real names, so they were each assigned a number (John was given number four). John was very young when he was sent to earth so his guardian Henri protected him up until now. John is beginning to develop legacies, in his case: telekinesis (ability to move objects at a distance by mental power) and power to transmit plasma through his hands. Earth was meant to be a safe place for training and for getting ready to fight back the Mogadorians because of what they did to Lorien back in history. But the Mogadorians followed them and are killing the Gardes one by one. ”They killed Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya.” Will John make it? This might be the end of his life.

In this dangerous yet frightening story, John, a young alien boy struggles to survive from the Mogadorians on the planet earth and activates two important messages. The first one is don’t trust others, no matter how close you are with them; rather, trust yourself. In the story, some Mogadorians are disguised as humans that pretend to help John until one night John sneaks into this house and finds out that they were in disguise. The second one is to never give up on yourself, don’t stop, in fact sometimes help will come to you. When John went in that house and started fighting the disguised Mogadorians, he ended up being cornered when suddenly his guardian Henri came to rescue. The author captures the reader’s attention by putting some great humor and detail in helping us visualize each moment in the story. Also, after parts of big climaxes, he always puts in another big conflict that we would have never thought of, but keeps the story going smoothly. The story is very straightforward, it gives many visualizing details but never puts any unnecessary text.

I Am Number Four is full of action and danger. It is a wonderful novel to read for those who enjoy action, danger, fighting and maybe even those who love mystery! I Am Number Four shows feelings of a boy that has been wanted and has been chased ever since he was a child. I think this book is good for ages 11 and up. This book is exciting and worth reading.

The View from LDI

[caption id="attachment_213" align="aligncenter" width="529"] Hanging Around[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_215" align="aligncenter" width="658"] Rock Out![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_212" align="aligncenter" width="617"] Ready to Go![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_209" align="aligncenter" width="798"] Balance[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_210" align="aligncenter" width="617"] Mr. Cormack Leading the Way[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_208" align="aligncenter" width="2448"] The Morning After the Storm[/caption]

 

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2081 Handicaps

Harrison Bergeron, a story about a future society where the government imposes handicaps to keep all citizens equal, was this week's short story.  Below are examples of how we would be handicapped if we lived in Kurt Vonnegut's 2081.

 

Good Morning Fireworks

Paul Koch's post on Vine.

2nd Week Success by Sunny

In the two weeks of school we had so far, we have read two short stories in each week and annotated important parts of them. 'Harrison Bergeron' was the name of this week’s story. Our annotations fall into six categories; setting, characterizations, vocabulary, plot elements, irony and theme. Later in the week, we used our vocabulary annotations to come up with 10 vocabularies for our words of the week list. We then used those vocabulary words to find their definitions and to do other activities with these words. This leads onto our vocab Project.

For the vocab project, Mr. Koch gave each partner group a word from our words of the week list, and each pair had to make a project defining the meaning and the use of that word. For example a video explaining the definition, a question and answer that uses the word, a drawing that shows a visual definition, or even a short drama performance. We students in 7-7 especially found the videos quite interesting and entertaining.

Also something we did that was reading related was the Torch test. One of the pre-assessment tests that we always have at the beginning of this year is the Torch test. This is a reading test to see how well we can read and understand stories. For some people this is easy, for some it is hard, but for a major amount of people, it requires a lot of thinking. This occurs because it may be asking you something you know, but does not always give you the right word or vocabulary for that answer and also don’t always give you the answer in the passage that is given to you to read. It is a reading test but it also tests your knowledge.

The first writing assignment that we had was our first process writing papers. It was our choice to choose one of six types of writing: Reader Response, Creative Fiction, Original Poem, Personal Narrative, Business Writing/Technical Writing and Expository Writing. We chose one of the six and wrote a first rough draft on our own. Then at school we had a peer revision, we exchanged our drafts and gave each other comments and advices on parts that were not needed or parts that needed to be added with more detail.

To end the week, we had a class activity during our mentoring time on Friday morning. Our class got in 2 teams, each with 11 people. The 2 teams got in 2 lines facing each other and 2 opponents on the end of each line walked through the 2 lines facing each other. While the 2 people were walking through, the people on the opposite team were allowed to make you laugh by saying things or making faces but without touching, and if you laughed while walking through the 2 lines you were out and went on the other team's side. The point of the activity was to teach us about peer pressure, especially since we were in middle school now and we really cared a lot about what we wore, what our friends wore and what they did that sometimes influenced us to do, we had to know how to control ourselves and be able to decide what was okay to do and what was not.  

We had a fun week and most of us went to the STUCO Function to have some extra fun on our Friday night.

-Sunny Lee

APAC Baseball Information

 Canadian Academy Field

This is our field on campus

It has an artificial infield and outfield

Metal cleats can not be worn on this field