Sarai’s English Log

 One time that something in my life changed more quickly than I expected was all the times I'd changed schools in middle school. I went to a different school in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. I would say this connects to Frost's idea that "Nothing Gold Can Stay", because, it seemed like as soon as I'd gotten comfortable in a new place, and I'd finally made friends, I'd have to move again, which showed that sometimes good things don't last forever. Today in class we analysed two more Robert Frost poems, "Nothing Gold Can Stay" and "The Road Not Taken", and did an assignment based on the second one. Studying these poems has helped me to better understand them to some extent, and instead of being totally clueless now I can get a gist of what the author is trying to say.

 My favorite word to use right now is problably like, and it's not even on purpose. Sometimes when I'm talking to someone I realize how much I actually say it, and I realize sometimes it's not exactly a good thing to use a filler word so much, but I just do it subconsciously. Today in class we worked more on our "Climbing Back to Childhood" presentation. Working on this presentation has helped me get better at formatting my presentations according to the rubric, and helped me improve in my ability to make aesthetically pleasing presentations.

My imagination helps me cope with stress by giving me a way to escape reality for a little while. When I feel overwhelmed, I like to picture peaceful places or imagine positive outcomes to calm my mind. It allows me to focus on something uplifting instead of the things that worry me. Using my imagination helps me find comfort, even in stressful situations. Today in class we read and analyzed another Robert Frost poem, "Birches." and started working on our "Climbing Back to Childhood' presentation. Doing this assignment is helping me work on connecting poems to my real life experiences, helping me gain a better understanding of it and make me actually care about what I'm reading once I make a personal connection to it.

One time I faced a high pressure situation was during an important school presentation where my group relied on me to deliver the main part. The pressure was high because our grade depended heavily on my performance, and any mistake could affect the entire team. I had to stay completely focused to remember every key point and keep calm in front of the class. It was risky because one mistake could have cost us the high score we had worked so hard for. In class today we started reading poems by Robert Frost, and we read his poem "Out Out" and analyzed it. Analyzing poems like this help me to better my ability at recognizing the deeper meaning of different literary devices like metaphors and personification that are used inside the poem.

 Over fall break, I mostly just stay inside, although I did go visit my grandma and my aunt. I just spent majority of the break playing games and watching a bunch of movies. I also crocheted a lot over the break, I was able to finish one project and started two more over the week. Today we started making a comic strip using our new vocabulary words. Making this comic strip has helped me think of ways to actually use these vocab words. It's different knowing what a word means and then knowing how to actually use in in writing and speaking.

 One thing that I do the enjoy small moments throughout the day, even when I have a lot going on is listening to music because it helps me calm down and it's calming to me. Another thing I do is read at least a little bit everyday, because it's something I've enjoyed since I was little. The third thing I like doing is watching one of my comfort shows like Dance Moms or Smallville. Today in class we worked on our Ambush argumentative paragraphs. Working on this argumentative paragaph has helped me to realize the small mistakes that I sometimes may make in my writing. It has also helped me improve with argumentative writing in general.

 On time that someones words had a lasting impact on me was last year when I opened up to my aunt about my mental health struggles. It was very had for me because I feel like in general it's not something we talk about much in my family, and when I have before with my mom it was basically just forgotten the next day. She actually listened and understood what I was saying, which made me feel a lot better. Today in class we praticed reconginzing mistakes in peoples claims. Doing this assignment has helped me be able to understand what to look for when revising my own writing.

 One moment that I had where I had to step outside of my comfort zone was last year when I auditioned for Matilda. I was so nervous in the days leading up to it because I was nervous that I would do really badly, and I'm not a very outgoing person, so it was very nerve wracking for me. It turned out that I ended up doing much better than I thought, and I got into the show. Today in class we read a short story about an experience a man had fighting in the Vietnam War, and started writing an argumentative paragraph on whether we believe there is such a thing as "good" killing or not. I think that reading the story was informative for me considering I don't know much about the Vietnam War, and I also think that the paragraph prompt has a pretty complex topic, which makes me have to think more about my stance and my evidence to develop my argument.

 One dream that I had that felt real to me, at least at the time, was, when I was little, and once I had a nightmare about Swiper from Dora when I was in Kindergarten. It sounds kind of stupid now, but it actually scared me then. Today in class we did Vocabulary Lesson 3 and worked on a Newsela.  The vocabulary lesson helped me to learn about more words that I could use to make my writing more versatile and unique, and overall it will help me become a better writer.

 One thing that I have always been curious about is why people seem to go to such extreme lengths and cause so much drama over the smallest problems. I'm not usually a person that likes to make a huge deal out of something, even if it is kind of a big deal, so it always seems so insan to me when people do that over nothing. Today in class we wrote our unpopular opinion paragraph. Doing this assignment has helped me to better understand the components of an argumentative essay, and has helped me with writing evidence that is not based on text, but on personal experience.

 The best gift I've ever received was for my 14th birthday, when one of my friends got me a Kindle. I felt really grateful because it showed that my friends pay attention to me (they know I love reading), and also I was surprised that they got me such an expensive gift. Today in class we learned about how important evidence is, and the difference between formal and informal writing and when to use which form. Learning this has helped me to understand the importance of evidence in a paragraph, and how to write is correctly. Additionally, learning about the differences between formal and informal writing has helped me to realize when I may have accidentally used informal writing at the wrong time and not realized it.

 A conversation that I've had that I would say has changed me is when I told my aunt about the issues I had been dealing with concerning mental health and school and things like that. I am not a person who usually talk about my emotions, so it felt really good to for once. Today in class we practiced writing evidence. Practicing this will help me in the future when I have to write essays, and the fact that we also had to find evidence for the opposing side as well as the side we chose to agree with will help me realize that sometimes the side that I agree with isn't the best side to write my essay on.

 One thing that I believed as a child was that the tooth fairy was real. I remember when I was little and I lost my teeth, I would always be so excited to put them under my pillow, and even when I was older and I knew that it wasn't real, I would still do it.  Today in class we worked on vocabulary lesson 2. The vocabulary lesson helped me learn more about different and more formal and detailed ways of saying certain words. It will help me write better in the future.