wiki 5 20/20 - good post. Be careful not to let your familiarity with a speaker get in the way of you being able to see the good things they do. Pastor C. is someone you're so USED to seeing that you notice more. Other people get a pass on that because you usually only get one shot to hear them. see what I mean?

10/2/09

Pastor Clausing: pastor Clausing gave chapel on Wednesday and it was also grandparents day.  Since it was grandparents day Pastor Clausing had to give an appropriate sermon for all ages there. he did good overall he had alot of had gesture that he used at the right time  in his sermon. I remember during class, mrs staude, that you said he had a really good sermon and hand gesture are what stuck out in my mind. his little okay sign thing that he does got a little to annoying for me, he does it so much that i get sick of it.  I agree that his sermon was interesting on how he approached it with the stumper questions he was saying.  He had good tone like he always does and fantastic eye contact.  he also did his laugh that is kinda annoying but funny it always makes me laugh, but it also distracts me from his sermon.  he had good posture like always.  It was a tipical Pastor Clausing kind of chapel, it was the same old same old.

wiki 4 - 0/20 - no posting

wiki 3 - 20/20- good posting!

10/19/09

Mr. Mizel:  Mr. Mizel gave chapel on Monday and i thought it was an alright chapel. He had good volume and I thought his quality of voice was also good, but something that he did distracted me the whole time.  He overused his hands way to much all I could pay attention to was what he was doing with his hands. Every time he said a word he would flare his hand in the air and try and make the point better but I think it made things worse. His appearance and posture was also good.  But another thing that bothered me was that he made good eye contact but only to the bleachers on the side, he would turn his whole body and face those people.  To me it seemed like he ignored the front people because he was to worried about making sure he looked at the side people.  He diffidently tried to connect with the listeners, he tried to make his speech vary interesting and you could tell this but how he was saying it and what he was trying to say.  I thought it was a good message but I keep on thinking about his hands because they distracted me so much.

wiki 2 - 20/20 - good entry... lots of detail and comment! It was a good chapel, I agree!

10/12/09

 Mr. Kuhlmann:  Mr. Kuhlmann and the football team did chapel on Thursday and Mr. Kuhlmann was the one who gave the message during chapel.  My first initial thought was that it was going to be a good and interesting chapel.  He is a great public speaker, he knows how to talk to his audience to make it very interesting.  He walked around a little bit to make our eyes wounder and I think stay more focus in what he was saying.  He did a lot of hand motions but they were to extensive, he did them at the right time, and when he really wanted to emphasize a point.  His tone of voice was very good, when he wanted to emphasize a point he got louder and he liked worked the crowd so we all payed attention.  His message was also very suitable for the audience, so i think that everybody actually payed attention and enjoyed his message.  He had some of the football players to come up and do a little demonstration which I thought was good because we kept our attention to them to see what they were going to do.  Overall Mr. Kuhlmann did a great job in chapel and I would highly recommend him.

wiki 1 20/20 - great response work! You aren't the only person who found him challenging to listen to!

10/09/09

Pastor Arle: Pastor Arle came to speak to us during Chapel on Monday.  He was an older man who did not seem like he would be very interesting to listen to.  It terns out he was a very bad public speaker.  When he started his speech it seemed like it would be very boring.  He pronounced words very weird, he did not pronounce the emphasize the syllable in the words correctly so it was funny to listen to him.  You were not able to listen to what he was saying.  He spoke very softly, which made it extremely hard to hear him.  He would also look down when he was talking so it sounded like he was mumbling his words.  He would look towards one side of the chapel only and would not even distinguish the other side of the gym.  He also had no facial expressions so it made it hard for me to pay attention and enjoy what he was saying.  He was not enthused at all about what he was saying he was very boring and had only one tone of voice which I did not like.  He did not walk around the much and if he did he looked at the ground while doing it.

The Shot   

    There were five seconds left, we were down by three points, our coach calls a timeout to draw up a play.  At that point I was extremely nervous, I had no idea what was going to happen, how we were going to win the game, if we were going to make the shot, who was going to shoot the shot, and if we were going to go into overtime.

    This game was the biggest game of the year, it was against our arch rivals, the East High Warriors.  We practiced the entire week as hard as we could just to win this game and it comes down to the last five seconds. 

    I’ve been playing basketball with half of the girls on the team for seven years.  We know what we need to do and how were going to do it to win the game.

    The night before the big day I was so excited for the game, I couldn’t sleep, I just thought about what I was going to do in the game and how I was going to do it.  I dreamed about having the ball with five seconds left down by two and the coach calls on me to take the last shot. 

    And that’s when it happened, the dream I had the night before came true.  The coach said, “Lucy, it’s up to you, your going to take the last shot.”

    My heart dropped, I had a chance to take the game into overtime.  I have never had that much pressure put on my shoulders, all I could think about was that the whole game, the biggest game of the year, the game that everybody came to, was given to me to win.  It was the biggest and best dream I could have ever wished for. 

    The first thing that came out of my mouth was, “Coach I can do it, I’ll make the shot.”

    Earlier that day, I came to school and everybody was talking about the game that night.  I couldn’t have been more excited, my friends, the faculty, and people I didn’t even know came up to me and wished me good luck.  The whole school was stoked for the game that night, it was the talk of the day. 

    Coach was drawing up a play during the timeout, it was so loud in the gym I could hardly hear her.  I just had to take a look around the gym to see what was going on.  Everybody, I mean everybody was on their feet.  I saw my whole family in the first row, my mom and dad, grandparents, my two brothers, and even my aunt, uncle and cousin came.  My mom was covering her eyes and my dad could not stand still, seeing them made me extremely nervous, so I looked away.  The student section was all in black and louder than ever, they were all chanting WHS, which were the initials of our school, West High School.  I turned back into the huddle and saw the play that was being drawn up, I was going to have to take a three point shot.

    During lunch time, I was relieved to see some of the girls on the team and the boys we hang out with sitting at the table.  Talking with my friends really calmed me down but, I could barely eat anything, I was so nervous for the game, I felt like I was going to throw up.  Then I heard an announcement over the intercom, it was some students who were going to the game tonight, and they said, “Hey everybody! Tonight  is the game against the Warriors and  we decided that were going to have a black out, so everyone come to the game and make sure to wear black! Go Indians!”

    After I heard that I got even more nervous, if that was possible, but I was so excited for the game, that’s the only thing I could think about.

    The referee blew the whistle, the timeout was over.  Coach said, “Does everybody understand the play, Lucy do you know what you have to do.” 

    I nodded my head and said, “Yes coach, I got it.”

    After school we went out together as a team before the game to get dinner.  The team could not stop talking about how we were going to destroy the Warriors.     

    We made sure we were all back at school by the time the JV team played because our coach always made us watch JV.  But tonight we didn’t care, all we wanted to do was be in the gym. 

    I ran out from the timeout and looked around the gym one more time, I saw everyone so excited, I couldn’t let them down. I had to make the shot.  The ball was in bounded and thrown all the way up the court to me.  I got the ball with three seconds left, the defender was all over me, I couldn’t shoot the ball from where I was standing.  I took a shot fake and one dribble to the right.  With one second left I shot the ball.

    Right after the halftime of the JV game we went to the locker room.  When we got into the locker room, I turned on the music and turned up the volume all the way, we all started dancing.  We’re all really good friends so we never care about how stupid we look.  Dancing before a game was our way of getting rid of our nerves and getting pumped up.  We would laugh and mess around with each other, and then we did our pre game cheer and ran out onto the floor. 

    It was packed everybody who said they were going to be there were there, and even more came.  I had the best warm up I could have and before I new it the whistle blew, the ball was thrown up, and the game was on.  We were having a really good game, especially me, I was making all my shots but the other team was making all theirs too. 

    We were neck and neck with each other throughout the whole game.  Nobody could have asked for a better game to watch.

    When the ball was in the air the buzzer went off, everybody was silent.  Then I saw the ball go through the net, I did it, I made the shot that I had to make.  The gym exploded with cheering, everybody was jumping up and down.  I sent the game into overtime.

    But it was so loud in the gym, that nobody could hear the whistle blow.  The referee said to me, “You got fouled, you’re going to have to shoot a foul shot.”

    I gasped, I was shocked, I thought that was the last important shot I was going to have to make for the night.  But I had a chance to shoot the game winning shot on a free throw.  The time had expired so if I made it the game was over, but if I missed we were going into overtime. 

    I was trying to calm myself down, I had so much energy I could have ran a marathon.  My teammates and coach were saying things to me but I didn’t really pay attention, I was just trying to get into my zone.

    I stepped up to the free throw line and the referee was about to give me the ball, but then the other team called a timeout.  The students in the stands booed, but I didn’t really care, I was so focused that nobody could mess with me. 

    After the timeout, I went back to the foul line.  The whole gym was silent, it went from the loudest place ever, to the quietest place that you could have heard a pin drop. 

    The referee gave me the ball, I did my free throw routine that I do every time, and then I shot it.  It felt like the longest second ever, everybody was standing, the coaches and players on the bench were standing, all eyes were on me, the ball, and the hoop.  Swish, I made the shot, the gym went crazy.  The student section charged the floor, we were all jumping up and down, it was the best game I have ever played.

Week of the 14th-

wiki 5- nice work. I find myself agreeing with you in comment 2... but then I am a big softie where mother/daughter plots come in.

1.     The story "One Friday Morning" was a very predictable story.  I have to give a lot of credit to Nancy though because she was very strong and mature for what happened to her.  I actually think she was more mature than the people giving the scholarship because she took it so well and all she wanted was liberty and justice for all.  I had a feeling that the story was not going to end up in Nancy's favor.  When Nancy was talking about the assembly and how she was going to have her mom come, I really knew at that point in the story that the scholarship was going to be taken away for her.  I think its pretty stupid that they took the scholarship away from her just because shes black, its just not right.

2.     The story "From Mother...With Love" was a very sad story.  I pretty much knew what the dad was going to say to Minta when she took her to the beach to talk.   When she told her dad that she wouldnt say anything to her mom about knowing she is going to die, and act like nothing is going to happen.  That would have been impossible for me to do. If I found out that some family member was going to die there is no way I would have been able to act the same.  I respect Minta for being able to keep that a secret and acting the same.  I thought it was intresting when Minta couldn't cry after her mom dies and then lokked through her moms closest and let go of all her tears.

Week of the 8th-

1.     The story "The Finish of Pasty Barnes" was an interesting story.  At first when I started reading it I didn't think that is would be interesting at all. Because the first thing that came to my mind was that this story is about a kid who dropped out of school, this wont be interesting at all. But then I got to the end of the story and thought it was very interesting.  I liked how Pasty decided to help out his mom because he couldn't bare to see her so ill.  It was cool how he won with the same horse that killed his dad, to help save his mom.

2.     I thought the story "D.P." was pretty cool.  I really liked the end of the story when the sergeant told Joe that he promised he will come back across the waters as fast as he could to get him.  I like how Joe could say that with all the confidence in the world to people, especially Peter.  I liked how when Joe went to go see his "father" the soldiers gave him what they thought were precious to them.  Also how the soldiers did not treat Joe badly, they treated him with respect. I hope that the sergeant comes back for Joe and takes him back to America, so Joe can finally get what he wants, a father.

Week of the 31st-

1.     I thought the story "Usher II" was very strange.  It was different than any other story i have read. It was weird because Stendahl was the villain but yet we were cheering for him to win the battle with Garret.  I thought it was interesting when Stendahl trick us into thinking that he was killing the robots of the people, but he was actually killing the people and the robots were the ones still alive.  I thought it was funny when Stendahl took Garret down into the catacombs because Garret had no idea what he was going to do to him and the reader knew exactly what was going to happen.

2.     I thought the story "There Will Come Soft Rains" was pretty weird.  I have not read a story with the characters being a house and the things inside a house. I did not like how Bradbury wrote the story.  It was hard for me to understand the point of the story and what was going on.  I thought it was interesting when different things started talking and the kitchen making breakfast.  I wish my kitchen could make breakfast for me.  When the house caught on fire it seemed pretty hectic and crazy.  A lot off things were going on at once, it was kinda hard to me to follow along.  I thought is was interesting when the whole house burned down, only one wall was standing is still saying the date like it did before.

Week of the 24th-

1.     I thought the story "Charles" was all right.  It was very predictable.  I've heard many stories of a student who has a bad kid in their class and the mom finds out that the kid is an imaginary student and its actually her kid being bad.  I thought it was interesting in class today when Mrs. Staude was talking about the mom being a "helicopter" mom because I didn't really pick that up throughout the story, but once we talked about it in class it made perfect sense.  The mom was the bigger problem in the story.  She would always listen to what her boy said and she didn't look past the lies he was telling her unlike the dad who was able to pick it out.

2.     I thought the story "Sixteen" was interesting.  When the boy walked the girl home from the ice rink and told her that he would call her, but never did.  I thought that was disrespectful and he should not have done that.  He could at least of told her that he wasn't interested in her so she didn't have to worry about him calling for a week.  Today in class we were talking about if it would be any different in today's society.  I think it might be a little different but for the most part you should never leave a person hanging just tell them that you don't like them and that's that.

Good job on Wiki 2! I appreciated your frank opinions!  How's project #4 coming? 

Week of the 17th-

 1.     I thought the story was pretty interesting.  I liked how Crane jumped around from seen to seen because it remind me of a movie and it kept me more interested in the story longer.  I thought how Crane established Scratchy as a character was pretty cool because he made him seem like a bad guy but he was really a nice funny guy.  The part that I thought was funny was when Crane said Scratchy was a terror when he is drunk and when he is sober he wont hurt a fly.  I also thought the ending of the story was pretty predictable because I didn't think that Scratchy would shoot Potter if his wife was right there.

2.    Now the really fun question: Should Grannies go about giving little kids sticks and sending them out to "battle" other kids???

I personally think that they should.  I know it sounds strange in this day and age that I would want my grandma to tell me to go fight because usually their all about peace and talking it out.  But when you are unable to protect yourself walking across the street or something because there are people who want to hurt you or give you crap because they think their cool, you should do something to them that would scare them and make them back off.  Sometimes you need to go to the point of fighting in very serious situations but a lot of times you just need to scare them enough to the point where they know that your not afraid and here to stay.

Good job on wk.1