letter to the class

This year has been a good year.   I really like the class I am in.  The work at times has been hard.  I am glad for all of yalls suport.  Pier editing has helped me a bunch this year.  It has improved my papers by at least 5 points each time.  The other thing that has helped me a lot if the class discussions.  I hope that we have time to finish Macbeth.  I hope I have this good of a class next year.  Thanks for all that yall have done.  Have a great summer.

This quarter was the best quart in english I think.  I came to class on time and prepared most of the time.  I did almost all of my homework.  The test were had and I did not do as good as I wanted to do.  Sometimes I got lost during the lectures and could not pay attention.  Group work was sometimes out of hand but individual work I felt like I did good on as far as paying attention goes.

We started Macbeth and we have not yet finished it.  I am beginning to wonder if we can finish it in time. We will have to do a lot of reading this week if we want to finish the book.  I am hoping that we will not have to read all of it for homework this week.  I have a lot of other stuff due at the end of the year.  So far this has been a good quarter.

reading throughout the year

This year has been a good year in english as far as reading goes.  This was the first time that I did not have to read for pages and I read for time.  People read at different rates and to make the work fair reading for time is better.  I felt like as a reader I have gotten beter though the year.  I felt like I wanted to read for fun and I was not being forced to read.

Another thing that was good is when we where reading a book for class you would let us use that reading towards our homework.  This helped me this year.  The blogs were a lot better than writing it in a notebook.  This years was a good year for reading.

free post 5-6-12

This week was very exciting for me.  I broke my arm and leaned that i fractured my ankle playing football.  I went to the doctor wednesday for my hand.  they said that it is broken and if it does not get better in a week they will put a pin in it.  When the doctor told me this, I was thinking that I sure did not want to get a pin.  The doctor was very nice but still the though of having a pin does not put me at rest.  I went to the doctor on friday and found out that I fractured my ankle in football last year.  My mom was thinking how did the other doctor miss that.  She was not happy about that.

Friday was also my birthday.  For my birthday I got some new fishing gear and a lift kit for my truck.  I cannot work on it until my hang gets better.  I cannot wait until I can lift my truck.  This week has most defiantly an exciting week.

wrap-up

Monty Travis

Writing wrap-up

English 1

Dr.deGravelles

            Every year in English we wright papers and they are graded.  I always feel like I get better as the year goes by but this year I felt like I have improved on my writing a lot.  This year by far has been the hardest and most writing I have done in a year I have done in my years of school.  It was hard and sometimes I did not want to do the work but in the end I am gad I did. 

            Spelling has always been hard for me, especially before I did all my papers on the computer.  Even when I type my papers I get words mixed up or wrong.  Pear editing has always helped me with this.  This year we did a lot of pear editing which helps.  Also what helps me is making a lay out of the paper before I wright it.  This helps me make my paper proportional and make more since. 

            We did several papers this year that delta with quotations.  In my comments on my paper I had a hard time with them.  I did not realize this until I looked at all my paper’s comments side by side.  This is one of the goals for next year that I want to work on.  I think this will help me a lot to spend more time on quotations when my papers require them. 

            The global issue essay was the hardest assignment this year for many reasons.  One is because it was a really long essay.  The other reasons were because we had to do research on our topic and use noodle tools.  The length of the paper was the biggest challenge for me.  This is also a small problem in my other papers.  This is another goal I would like to set for next year.  Another thing in the global issue paper has not giving enough background information.  If I had done this it would have helped the length of the essay and also gave more information. 

            Turnitin.com has helped a lot this year too because you can see all of your comment on papers and also see the papers right there on your computer at all times.  This year was a good year for improving my writing I thought.  I hope I can improve nest year even more. 

Common errors

1.              Spelling

2.              Quotations

3.              Essay length

4.              Commas

5.              Support of the topic

6.              Better titles

7.              Word choice

Reading 4-21-12

I read 150 minutes of Time Machine.  I read 38 pages of this book.

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

When I first read this poem I got the message that this persons father gets up early in the winter on sundays.    He gets dressed and talks about his hand, how they are cracked.  Then the narrator gets up and is afraid about how the anger in the house.  She says "Speaking indifferently to him".  To me this mean she is very carful with her words.  She also talked about love but I cannot figur out what that means.  

In this poem I see personification with the hands and how she talks about how they are they ached for labor.  I also see enjambment throughout the poem.  these are the only literary terms I see in this poem.  I class I would like to discus what they mean at the end of the poem by saying "what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?"

Free reading 4-9-12

I have spent all of my 150 minutes and more working on the homework due April 16 in English.  I have spent about four and a half hours on these homework assessments.  I am writing about this not to complain but I do not know what to wright about since I did not have any free reading this week.   Before I knew we had all of this home work over the break I did a little free reading in my book Animal farm by George Orwell.  


I did not read very much but I found out that the man on the farm is seeing treatment for drinking all the time.  This is very hard for him and is struggling to get sober.  He is still seeing things outside his window and nobody will believe him because he is drunk, this is why he is trying to get sober.     

"My Father's Garden"

I picked the poem "My Father's Garden" by David Wagoner.  I picked it because the tittle seamed interesting.  It is about a place that makes hot rolled steel.  The graden is not a garden that you would normally think of.  It is a graden of steel scraps.  The narrator refers to the stuff in the scrap yard as flowers in a garden.  At the end they talk about how he brings "lumps of tin and sewer grills as if they were his ripe prize vegetables.

I see a lot of personification in this poem.  He talks about how the steel is like flowers and he takes things home like prized vegetables.  There is also some consonance in this poem.  (like "cannons and cars")  The poem is mostly personification between the unreal steel and the real flowers.  I also can see a little imager in it.  (like "gears and cogwheels With teeth like petals")

free reading

This week I continued to read Animal Farm by George Orwell.  I have found out more about the book but it is getting off to a very slow start.  I have spent all of my 150 minutes reading this book this week.  I have only read about 30 pages though.  As I told you last week the farmer is seeing strange things outside his window.  I also predicted that it was because he was drunk.

Most of this I found out to be true but not all of it.  He went for help in the town and they told them that it is just because he is seeing stuff and they cannot help him until he gets sober.  I am at the point now where he is trying to stop drinking.  I think it will be really hard for him to stop drinking.  I also think he will be able to do it at the end of the book and find out what is outside his house.

Free post 3-26-12

This week was very boring but went by fast!  I am glad because I had a good weekend planed.  Friday when I got home I left with my neighbor to go fishing at his camp in Mississippi.  We got up there and had about 2 hours of daylight and we started to fish! We caught about 20 bass that afternoon.  We went in to his camp and ate.  After we cook we went to bed.

The nest day we got up and fished all day.  We caught about 80 bass Saturday!  They where not huge bass but they were big enough to eat.  We fished till dark and had a great day of fishing.  We got back to the camp that night and cleaned fish for three hours.  I was really tired by this time.  We ate and went straight to bed.  The next morning we fish until about ten and caught about 25.  We left the camp and went home after that.  All together we had about 125 bass.  It was a great trip.  

Free readind

Last week i was reading a book and I put it down, now I cannot find it.  So this weekend I got a new book called Animal Farm.  It is written by George Orwell.  I picked this book up by mistake because I was in a hurry and needed something to read.  The 37 Pages I have read are really strange but I like the book.  I have read all of my 150 minutes this week.

The book starts off by a man that is a drunk and he is seeing creatures outside his window at night.  At first he thinks it is the animals on his farm but soon he finds out that it is not the animals.  That is as far as I have gotten in the book.  I think that he is going to try to go and find the creature but him being a drunk is going to play a big roll in him finding the creatures.

Free Read

I started last week reading Robert B. Parker.  I have only read about 30 pages but it is a strange book.  This boy Bobby Merphy is new at school and his teacher is new too. The boys form a basketball new basketball team.  That is far as i have gotten in this book.  I have read all 150 minutes this week.  From reading the back of the book I think the new teacher is someone from World War II that has came back from the dead.

This teacher is always talking about World War II and what happend over there.  I do not know much more about the book but it seems really good so far.  I would recommend it to people even if I have not read the whole thing.  I think it is going to be a good book.

free post 3-19-12

Last week went by so slow.  It took for ever for friday to come.  I was so ready for the weekend.  I hope this week is not nearly as slow.  This weekend was fun tho.  I went to Taylors party friday night witch was really fun.  The nest day I got up early and went fishing with my Dad.  We went down to the riogoles in Slidell.  We did not catch the fish we normally do but we caught a few.   We had a good time though.

I got home late that night and did not do much more that Saturday.  Sunday was very relaxed day too.  I washed my truck and set up for a family party at my house.  I also went and got crawfish for the party and boiled them.  They where good and that is all I did on Sunday.  I just hope this week goes by faster.  

free post 3-12-12

We had a short week last week but it was a busy week.  We had the English test, a big science quiz, and a lot of other stuff.  It was hard to believe that this is the end of the third nine weeks and we only have the fourth quarter left.  This is good and bad because we do not have much school left which is a good thing but soon we will have to start thinking about exams.

Also spring break is only in four weeks and then after that we have five weeks until summer.  The fourth quarter always flys by for me.  At the end of April spring football starts.  Then as soon as that is over we have to start training over summer for fall football.  I am nervous and excited at the same time about this.  I am just glad that we will not be the freshmen for this years football season.  

Finishing Nervous Conditions

Last week we had already finished Nervous Condition and had a test Wednesday and Thursday.  Last weekend and part of the week I spent my 150 minutes rereading the important parts of the book.  This was part of they way I studied for the test.  I felt like this helped me a lot.  I also studies my notes and all the hard outs and stuff we did in class.

The class discussions on each chapter in Nervous Conditions really helped.  The guided reading questions also helped me too.  Those always help me unterstand class reading.  Another thing I did to study is look at the open-ended questions I asked for each chapter and see if I could answer them.  This is how I studied for the test.  

Free post 3-5-12

This weekend was very boring and I do not have much to talk about but I will talk about my weekend.  Friday I had to work a powerlifting meat until ten that night witch was very boring.  It rained most of Saturday and i stayed inside most of the day and worked on my homework and did some stuff around the house.  

Sunday I went fishing with my Dad.  We caught a few fish but it was really cold so that is understandable. after we finished fishing we went home.  When I got home I washed my truck and had to help my uncle.  We decided to boil crawfish Sunday night.  We had to go to tony's seafood to get the crawfish.  We had a good time and it was a good weekend.

Nervous Conditions

This week I read chapter six through nine in Nervous Conditions.  This was all of my 150 minutes of reading and it was 73 pages.  These four chapter helped me a lot to understand the book.  I have to read one more chapter and I will be finished with the book.  It was not my favorite book but it was a lot better than what i thought.  

I have a good idea for what is going to happen in the end of the book.  But in another way the book has a  lot of up and downs and I could be wrong, so I really dont know what will happen.  

Free post for 2-27-12

I had a very relaxed Mardi Grass.  The first two days of the break it rained all day which was very boring.  I went fishing for most of the break which was fun.  I also got the chance to go goose hunting.  I have never been goose hunting outside of duck season and this trip was really fun.

I did not got to the basketball game but we won on Wednesday but no Friday we lost to Winfield which really sucks because they beat us in football in the playoffs.  They also beat us by a bad call in football and if it wasn't for the bad call we could have went to the playoffs.  But it is ok because both basketball and football had a good team this year.

Nervous Conditions

For the week for mardi grass I read chapters six and seven for Nervous Conditions.  These chapter told a lot about the story and took awhile to read but was very informational.  I spent all 150 minutes this week reading Nervous Conditions.  


I also answer the guided reading for both chapter and when I did that, it helped me understand the chapter better.  In my blog I wanted to talk about how I would rather read and answer the guided reading question than reas the chapters and post about what I read.  This is just my opinion and what helps me.

free post for 2-11-12

This week was very uneventful for me.  We are having to lift weights after school for football and that is starting to get seres.  This is making me more and more excited for football.  Football starts at the end of April and the first week of May.  It is about eight practices after school for two weeks.  Then we have off until we get out for school.  As soon as school end we have to start weight lifting.

We have to lift Tuesday thru Thursday during the summer.  It is normally form 7:30 to about 10:30.  We lift weights and do agility and run.  There is a lot of running.  At the start of August we can start putting on a helment for about two weeks.  Then after that we can where full pad and then school starts and we go to practicing for a regular game week.  I cannot wait until football starts.

Nervous Conditions

This week I spent all of my 150 minutes of reading on our class reading book Nervous Conditions.  It started out very blut by her saying "I was not sorry when my brother died."  She states this all threw chapters one all the way to three.  But she says that she is a little sorry for talking about this so much, but will not apologis for saying this.

She moves around in these first chapters.  I think it is going to be like this for the whole book.  She goes threw the book and grows up and tells us about it.  She also wants to go to school and she sells corn to be able to go to school.

Free post for 2-3-12

Most of this week for English homework I have been working on my paper.  Thursday I read chapter one in Nervous Conditions.  I do not know what I am doing this week.  I will probably work on my paper and read some more of Nervous conditions.  


I think it will not take long to finish my draft.  I have to wright one more page and do the works cited and I will be finished with my first draft.  I also have to do my Wordly Wise cars.  Then that will be all the homework for english this weekend.  

Nervous Conditions

Last night I read the first chapter of Nervous Conditions.  I thought I would be about something totally different but when we went over the book in class thursday I got a lot better view of the book.  The books starts of with her brother dying and she says she was not sorry.  She says she can remember and feel more that she could when she was younger.  

I have no idea what is going to happen next.  If I had to guess I would say that it is going to be about the wars and fighting that goes on in africa.  I say this because that is what we talked about in class.  I have read 40 mins in nervous conditions this week and 110 mins on the ruff draft this week.  

global issue analysis

This week I have be working on my research paper.  I have been really worried about getting my ruff draft finished.  But since you moved the date it have not been as worried.  The outline has really helped me on my research.  I have spent about 120 mins on the research and writing the outline.

I stated to write the paper last night.  I spent about 30 or 35 minuets on it.  I got the first two paragrafs written.  It was a lot easer now that I have the right information.  The paper is going to hard than I thought but I am glad that you moved the dates back.  

Free post for 1-27-11

I do not know what to wright about for my free post so i am going to talk about my weekend.  Today after school I have to lift weights for football.  After that I am going to my hunting lease in Woodville, Mississippi to deer hunt.  This is the last weekend for deer season  .  I have only killed two deer this year and I want to get another one.  So maybe they will be out.  

But with this weather I do not know if the deer are going to be moving.  Saturday night I am driving back for your camp and going home.  On sunday morning I will do any homework that i have left for the weekend.  Then around noon I am going to shoot skeet with my neighbor.  I think it will be a fun weekend.  

Among the Enemy

I am still reading the book Among the Enemy".  It is a really good book.  I have only read to page 83 but it is getting better and better.  The boy was forced to join the police academy and feels like he is always being watched.  He does not know who to trust because people in the police academy tell him stories about people that come in and act like a normal kid but are really working for the government.

From reading the summary of the book and what I have read so far I think he is going to find a friend that is a girl.  They are going to try to get out of this place they are in.  He does not know weather to trust the girl or not.

Pages   48 to 83

150 mins

Free post for 1-20-11

This week for my free post I am going to write about what I am doing over the weekend.  This weekend I think I am going to go to the EHS game and go to the dance.  After the dance I am leaving to go duck hunting.  It will be a late night because I probably will not get to the camp until one or two tonight.  But it is worth it.  I will hunt until Sunday and come back Sunday around lunch.

When i get back Sunday I will need to finish my homework for the weekend.  I have a math project due Monday that I need to start and finish.  I am not too worried about it because it is an easy project.  I also have to finish the Wordly Wise note cards.  After I finish my homework I do not know what i will do.  But that is mostly what i will be doing this weekend.

Free post for 1-15-11

This week for a free post I am going to do it over the Saints game on Saturday.  The Saints had four fumbles and turn over from Drew Brees.  This was I think is second turn over pass of this season.  The 49ers came out in the first quarter and scored 14 points and the Saints did not have any points.  Then in the second quarter the Came back with two touch downs but the 49ers still had them beat because they kicked a field goal.  Then it went into half time.  

In the third quarter the Saints and the 49ers both played good defense and either time did not score.  But in the fourth quarter it got really exciting because both teams scored a few times and got in the lead.  Them once one team got ahead the other team would score and get in the lead.  When it can down to the two minute warning the Saint scored and in the last 30 seconds the 49ers scored and was in the lead.  There was three seconds on the clock and the Saint tried a trick play but even Brees could not pull it off.    

Among the Enemy

I started a new book the quarter and it is called Among the Enemy".  I have only read 47 pages but so far I like the book.  The book is written by Margaret Peterson.  All I know about the book right now is that Matthias the main charter is an illegal third child.  The book started very interesting.  This is many while I like the book so much.

From what I read in the summary and the foreshadowing of the book, it looks like Matthias is going to have to join the army or what we think of as police.  In the summary it says that he has to choose between rebels and the Population Police.  This all I know for right now but I think there is a lot more to come.

Week of 1-8 to 1-15

150 mins and 47 pages

new years revolutions

For this years revolution i want to make better better grades.  By better grades I mean high B's.  At least above 85 present.  To do this I and going try to get all my homework point and really study for my test.  To study deferent from they way I have studied in the past, I am going to prepare for my test and quizzes more in advance.  This should help me improve my test grades.

I also want to have a better grade in spanish.  I would like this grade to be at least a C.  To achieve this goal I am going to go to spanish tutoring more and get as many bouns points as I can.  I will also do all my homework in spanish class and really try to do my homework correctly.  These are my two goals for this quarter and year.