Weekly Reflection 12/14/12

A couple of weeks ago, we started our first reading group book, Where The Liles Bloom. This book is set in the mid-1900’s Appalachia. This book is all about a girl, Mary Call Luther, who must provide for her family when her father dies. Even though she is the second oldest, she is the smartest and most responsible of the Luther’s so she is the most fit to lead. She has two sisters and one brother. The oldest sister, Devola, is kind of stupid and she is like a child even though she is 18 years old. Her younger brother, Romey, is the second main protagonist, he is a curious kid who is always trying to learn more. Her little sister Ima Dean is the baby of the family. The main antagonist of the story is Kiser Pease, who is a rich man who is always giving the Luther family grief. He wants to marry Devola but her father’s dying wish was to not let Devola and Kiser get married. This family has a lot of ups and downs as the story goes. I think that this is a good book because it is captivating and it keeps me interested for most of the time that we are reading.

I am a snowflake

We are all snowflakes

Nobody is the same

And neither are snowflakes

Everyone falls

But whenever I do

I get back up

And go and touch the sky

I get bigger and better

Every year

Sometimes I land in different places

Sometimes I stay in the same exact place

Some people think that I’m cold

Others think that I’m soft

I don’t care what they think

They have no affect on me

Weekly Reflection 11/30/12

Last week, before the break, we went on a trip to two community service projects, on the same day. The first trip we went to was the Georgia Justice Project. The Georgia Justice Project is a community service program to find good lawyers and support for people who have been convicted of a crime but are too poor to afford a good lawyer. We learned how they supported people in need of support, by helping their families and building relationships with their clients. Our tour guide was really funny and I enjoyed it a lot. Our next trip was to the Genesis Shelter, which is a place where homeless families with newborn babies can stay for 6 months. We toured the whole place and got to see some of the classes. I think that community service is good for you and good for the people you are helping. It feels good knowing that you made a difference in someone else’s life. It feels like you accomplished something. I think that people that don’t give back to the community are not as happy as those who do. My father always says if you give then you will get. 

Appalachian Reflection 11/12/12

The Appalachian people have a very distinctive culture. They have a culture different from the rest of American society. They are like their own country, almost. Their culture revolves around music, story-telling and art. They have their own folk tales and mythology. They are influenced by the European and African American music. They sing folk songs and the blues. The Appalachian people usually live in small one room houses where the whole family sleeps. That is why the Appalachian families are so strong because they are always around each other, unlike most Americans who do their own thing a lot of the time. They do not have a whole lot of technology, so they build their own tools. We are going to foxfire, Wednesday, to learn more about Appalachian culture.

I am an Appalachian man

I take care of the farm

And my family

All I own is my farm

My house

And my fiddle

But that is enough

That is all I need in life

I am a man of the mountains

I was birthed by these mountains

Son of the Appalachia

Is what I am

My house only has one room

That is where my wife and me

And my 6 children sleep

Another day another pay

I love these mountains

Field Trip to Dalonega

Dahlonega was a very interesting experience for me. My favorite part of the whole trip was going through the mine. The gold mine is a dark cave filled with light from the light-bulbs, everywhere. The cave goes deep underground and there are many rocks that may hit your head if you’re not careful. I learned all about how the mine-trains work. The mine-trains work kind of like how bumper cars work with a long stick stuck to the ceiling controlling moving it from place to place. I learned that when you wake up a bat during their hibernation period they die immediately, so let them sleep.

Before the mine walk, we went to a gold museum. The museum was cool but it wasn’t much of a museum to me. It was more like an exhibit that was meant to be put in a museum but they just didn’t feel like finishing up the whole museum but they already made the exhibit so they just kept it there and called it a museum.  It was pretty cool for an exhibit, but it was terrible for a museum. I felt like I was at a Little Five Points art gallery or something like that. I learned about how the Federal Mint picture wasn’t found until ten years ago at a college.  I learned about how the gold was processed. They put mercury on the rock with the gold inside of it to get rid of the rock and kept the gold. I loved this trip and I learned lessons that I probably wont forget about gold.

-Ajani Issa

P.S I apologize for my blurry and dark pictures

Ajani's weekly reflection 10/19/12

This week we went on a field trip to Cloudland Canyon. We went on Tuesday the 16^th.  It was a long bus ride there and back. Altogether, we spent about 4 hours on the bus but it was kind of a fun ride. When we got there it looked beautiful. There were trees off all different colors all around the canyon. We all hiked down the trail first to take pictures. Another thing I thought was cool was it was so clean, I’ve never been to a forest that was that clean with no litter at all.  I also saw that the prisoners were there to clean the bathrooms. I thought that was interesting. We saw the trees breaking through the shale parts of the canyon walls. I saw sole marks in some parts of the ground. I also learned about the rock overhanging and we learned about that last week. We had to film a movie at the mountain and use three vocabulary words in our lines.  Chris and I were partnered up to make a movie that was kind of like MTV Cribs but it was a tour of the canyon. I thought that this trip was really fun and it was a nice break from the regular school schedule. 

The Overhanging

You rock!!

I respect that you don’t care

What other’s think about you

You just do you

And that’s trill

You are an individual

An “outcast”

You will never be follower

To the other rocks

You are who you are

And you never hide that

People should aspire

To be like you

Or be like

Themselves

You are an inspiration for me

And sitting upright rocks

Everywhere

I try to tell people

You can’t be famous

If you are just a fan

You have to standout

Jesus wasn’t a disciple

He was the Messiah

Robin never had his own TV show

Batman did

Lil Wayne’s forehead used to be Juvenile’s ashtray

Then he decided to start leading

You are not just a rock

You are an overhanging rock

- Ajani

Weekly Reflection 10/12/12 Ajani Issa

Last week, we had a pretty full week. First, we went on a field trip to Arabia Mountain. We didn’t have a tour guide this time like we did have at Stone Mountain so we had to find the plants and animals names all by ourselves. The hike wasn't as long and tiring as Stone Mountain. The hike wasn’t bad at all, I wasn’t even tired when we got back to school. There were a lot of plants growing on the rock, as well. There was moss and tall grass and weathering pits. We had to go and measure the weathering pits. The weathering pits are like a puddle thing with a mini forest growing inside them, like the one in the Smurfs. Our measuring pit was 150 inches tall and about 75 inches wide, and 14 inches deep. We had to take a lot of pictures of plants and animals and whatnot. We took a poetry break to write about our lives. Arabia Mountain is way smaller than Stone Mountain. Arabia Mountain didn’t have a whole lot of tourist attractions and buildings either. But, there are a lot of things the same, too. For example, they have both, at a time, been quarried for granite. They are also both located in the Piedmont region of Georgia. This is all you need to know about our trip to Arabia Mountain. 

10/10/12

Name: Ajani Issa

Date: 10/10/12

Book Title: Manchild in the Promisedland

Pages Read: 107-164

RAT option: Describe a character

Reno is a street hustler and pimp from Harlem that Claude met when he was 16. Reno is a cocaine user and a conman. He taught Claude new con tricks like how to play Murphy. He doesn’t like working with people from the south. His mother didn’t care about him.