Jonas’s First Memory by Ian L

In The Giver by Louis Lowry Jonas is being trained as a Receiver. The current Receiver gives Jonas memories. This is Jonas’s job: to hold the memories for his community. The first memory that the Receiver (The Giver) gives Jonas, is sledding down a hill. Jonas did not know what downhill, snow, or sled meant, but after many more memories he understood.

If I was the Giver and had to give Jonas his first memory, I would give him a memory of the beach. I would have him lying on the sand, and see all the different colors at the beach: yellow, green, blue. All of these would see. He would also learn about the ocean. This would be a nice memory for him.

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Picture from Wikimedia Commons

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My Job Assignment by Ian L

In a world like that which appears in The Giver, I think I would be assigned to be an Architect. I love to draw, especially buildings. If I was not assigned to Architect, I think that I would be assigned to be an Engineer. For me this would be the second best job in the community. I would get to draw and design, as well as looking at the practical parts of buildings and structures.

Picture from Wikimedia Commons

Darkhold Chapter 7 by Ian L

7

John

I woke up bleary eyed and amazingly clean. At first I didn’t remember anything, but then I remembered the fire and wondered if I was in heaven. I mean there had been a fire and I remember blacking out. Then another thought came to me. Where was my mom? Was she all right. I felt frightened. Had both my dad and now my mom died in a fire. I couldn’t believe it. I opened my eyes and looked around at my surroundings. I was in a white room. All the walls were shining with light that was reflecting from a single bulb that was hanging on the wall. After a couple minutes the door opened and a man with a black cloak walked in. His hood covered his head.

“Well hello,” the man said cheerfully. The words came form under his hood. I glowered back at him. Why was he keeping my in this prison?

“Why are you keeping me here?” I asked, my voice still hoarse from the fire. His expression was still cheery.

“Well you are here because I found you half dead in my property,” he said.

“Your property?” I said. I thought it had been a museum.

“Yes, the museum you were almost killed in was part of my property.” Hmmm. Then again it hit me. Where was my mother.

“Where is my mother?” I cried. I already knew the answer. Why was this happening to me. My whole life had been a tragedy. First my father, and now my mother. I had no family left. He didn’t answer. Instead he asked me a question totally unrelated to my question.

“Say, John, what do you know about magic?” I was confused. A grownup that talked about magic in any other context then that it wasn’t real? Who was this man.

“Nothing, I don’t believe in magic. I mean I know about fairy tale magic, but that is about it.” The man nodded and then smiled. He didn’t approach magic again. For the next days he nursed me back to health. Over that period I hadn’t learned that much about the man. All I knew was that his name was , and that I should never ask how old he was. After I got better he told me that I should learn hand to hand combat. “Are you going to teach me or will I go to some school?” I asked. The man laughed.

“No, I am going to teach you John. I am going to teach you martial arts,” Vlad answered. After a couple of weeks one of our lessons got strange. In the middle of the lesson:

The room was dimly lit and the floor was matted for protection. The lesson began with stretching and then moved into technique. He showed me how to kick and other moves. Then in the middle of class we staged a mock fight. The very strange part was that when he knocked away one of my hands as it came down to strike him, Vlad’s hand burst into flames for just a tiny second and then cooled off. I was still left with a slightly burned arm. Vlad realized his mistake immediately and acted like he was very tired. He put his hand up.

“I need some water,” He gasped as if he was very tired. He was very passive for the rest of the day. I wondered what had happened.

After a couple month’s I had improved greatly. My martial arts skills were fair and I could defend myself against most people my age. Of course I wasn’t a master and anyone who was really serious about martial arts could probably kick my butt. Then abruptly we had to leave. We had to take a trip to Mexico.

Tech Project by Ian L and Davis C

We made a tech project for language arts class. We did our project about Google Docs. This project may or may not be shown to people who make this big decisions at D.A. Though the process was mostly smooth, we did encounter some very annoying problems. We filmed our movie on a flip camera. Then we downloaded it on to iMovie, and problems instantly occurred. We put in our video, but our audio was too quiet, so we boosted the volume to 500%. This definitely solved our problems. Next, iMovie was being annoying and whenever I moved my mouse, it moved where I was in the movie. This made us mad, but we overcame. It ended up being a good project.

This is a picture from our project 

Apollo 13 by Ian L

Picture from Wikimedia Commons

 The beginning of the movie started off normally. I didn’t even know that something was going wrong. The part was funny, but I felt really bad for Ken Mattingly who didn’t get to go to the moon, because they thought he had the measles. The main character is Jim Lovell. When they get into space there is many scenes showing the zero-gravity and how the astronauts mess around in it. When they are near the moon, Mission Control instructs them to make a routine oxygen tank shift. When Jack does this, the tank blows up, and damages the ship. Their oxygen is running out and Mission control must find a way to get them back to earth in time. Luckily, they make it back to earth and survive reentry. This mission was called a successful failure because they survived, but never touched down on the moon.

Darkhold: Chapter 6 by Ian L

Sorry for in the last post for saying it was chapter 6. This is chapter 6!
Chapter 6
I looked down at the boy. He waide him. My servants aren’t actually real people. They are very useful, animated, wood creatures that I brought to life. They have no feelings and do whatever I say. So they don’t feel sad, they don’t feel treated unfairly, and above all they don’t try to overpower me. Even if the did try, they wouldn’t have been able to because nothing other than another demon could kill me.Anyway, the boy was probably around the age of eleven and was about average in height and weight. The servant had cleaned him off and backed away out of the room. When he woke up I was right by his side.

“What is your name?” I asked looking deep into his eyes.

“John,” the boy replied and fell unconscious again. I let him be. I looked out the window. The last leaf fell from the tree that stood outside my house. The last straw. I would have to take my complaints about Hecta to someone more powerful than even me: The Great Da’enth. The greatest of all of us demons. The oldest and the wisest. His name meant all powerful in the old tongue. I hadn’t talked to him in almost five hundred years. Hecta would say that it was because I was afraid of the Da’enth. It was true. I was afraid of someone more powerful than me. But I was sick of Hecta. Before I went though I would have to pay another visit to my little friend that I had locked up. The one that broke in.

Poem by Ian L

I made this poem during English class. The words I use are not crossed out in purple pencil. The transcript of this piece of newspaper (the poem part) is:

Listening,

Coherent.

Different ideas by looking

at the big picture.

Change by comparing

ideas from you.

 

 

 

 

 

No More Laptops by Ian L

Picture Drawn by Ian

When we got our laptops, I thought it would be an eternity until it was my time to give them up, but that time has come and gone. Only next week I will have to give up the laptop I have had for months now. I think I have the same feeling about the laptops that I had in the beginning of the pilot. I don’t really think that they are necessary for the learning of students; my laptop did not help me like I would have liked it to. Maybe my expectations were to high, or maybe laptops just aren’t for me.

I do not really think that not having laptops will do anything to me. This is because in English class if we need computers than we can get some from the laptop cart outside our room. I don’t use laptops for any other subject like many people do. Overall, I had a good time with the laptops, but I haven’t grew my school life around it. In other words, I don’t depend on it to do my school work.

However, I believe that technology is the future. And to maximize the learning of students, I think that Durham Academy should go on with the program. I think that if the Board of Directors sees fit for this to go school-wide, it will be a net-positive for the school. In the time we have had our laptops, I have seen many people working, doing homework, and using the laptops in creative, educational ways. This is why, even if it doesn’t work as well for me, I say again that we should go on with this project.

My Life is Like Chess by Ian L

From Wikimedia Commons

 

 

My life is like chess. In a way I think many people’s lives are like this. For me (and many others, I am sure) in life I am always thinking about what to do and how it will affect my position. Sometimes I blunder and make a mistake. Like doing something bad  thing and getting in trouble. Other times I do something good and getting ahead in the game. The only problem I can see with this analogy or metaphor is that I don’t think in life that I am “playing against” anyone but myself.

If I Were an Adult by Ian L.

Picture from FlickrCC

 

If I were an adult for one day. I would go to work in the morning. I would be an architect and go to my firm. I would finish of a huge building that I had been designing for a couple weeks with my colleagues. All the people I would work with would be really nice and good at their job. I would be really good friends with my boss like my mom is with her boss. If I were married I would get to tell my children (if I had any) to do something, and if they asked why I would reply, “Because I said so.” I would live in a nice neighborhood. I would have designed my own house and it would be big but not too big.

I would really like to become an architect when I grow up and I hope I do. I want to become an architect because I used to draw castles when I was a “kid”. Unfortunately or fortunately I am not an adult yet and still have many years until then.