Character Interviews

The other option besides doing "I Wonder" statements this week is a little tougher, and a little more creative. In this space, I'm going to pretend to interview a fictional character from People of Sparks. I have to make up all of the answers as well as the questions, and the answers have to be part of the book. I can't just make a character say something for fun. It has to be close to the book in order to make sense.

Mr. Reilly: Hi Torren, I understand that you're feeling kind of frustrated about the people of Ember showing up in your town, Sparks.
Torren: Yeah, I really am! These people are useless, and they don't know anything!
MR: They don't know anything at all?
T: No! Well, they know a little bit about some things. But they're really weird, and they took my room!
MR: They took your room?
T: Yeah! Three of them stay there all the time. My stupid aunt told them they could stay there to rest. And they still haven't left yet!
MR: Do you think they'll leave anytime soon?
T: No! They'll probably be here forever! Although my aunt says we'll kick them out by the cold time.
MR: You said earlier that they were useless. What did you mean by that?
T: I meant that they don't know how to do anything! They can't farm, they can't cook anything like us, and they don't even know how to get water from the river.
MR: Is there some things they know how to do that you don't?
T: Of course not! I'm way smarter than all of these blunderheads! I wish they'd just hurry up and leave so that it could get back to normal around here.
MR: Thanks for your time today, Torren.
T: No problem, anything to get these people out of here sooner!

Notice how I tried to make Torren sound a little whiny and a lot mad here, just like in the book. I think that he would say all of the things above based on how he feels and acts through Chapter 5.

"I Wonder" Statements

I'm going to be trying a new approach to reader response this week, and it's in the form of "I Wonder" responses. The point of them is to ask questions about what might happen in the book, and then attempt to read ahead and find answers. It's good for focusing my reading purpose. Here's some "I Wonder" statements about Jeanne DuPrau's People of Sparks:

• I wonder whether or not Lina finds her city that she drew so often in Ember. 
• I wonder if the people of Ember will learn to farm properly so that they won't starve.
• I wonder if Doon will learn all about engines and make the trucks become more than just wagons. 
• I wonder if Torren will do something that will make more people mad at the people of Ember. 
• I wonder if the people of Ember are going to live through the winter.

I'd like all of us to do at least 4 statements, and then go start finding answers. I'll post back in another few days and let you know if I've found any.

If I became a famous nerd...

I would definitely work with other people on bullying of people based on stereotypes. I think that it's sad that people are labelled "nerds" in a negative way. I think "nerds" are very cool people who are into video games, board games, science fiction and scientific things. Think where we'd be without nerds today! We wouldn't have TVs, computers, there would be no video games at all, we wouldn't have any of the fancy technology that we're used to using everyday! Nerds can be great people, too; often they're some of the best inventors or smartest people we know. So why do we bully them? I think we should be happy that people like them are interested and curious about science and video games. Curiosity in those areas is what makes some of the best new technologies!
I would use some of the money I would make from my invention to help less fortunate people. There's people all over the world who can't afford some of the most basic technology that we use today. Many people in the world can't afford a television or computer. How many of us watch television on a daily basis, even just for a few shows or for the news? I would try to make sure that these types of people got some form of help to make sure that they could eat, sleep and live a little better than they currently do right now. Whether that's in the forms of fancy new houses that are cheaper than what they're using now, or it's a new type of well-digger, I would try to make sure that there's more opportunities available for all.

Torren's Feelings

We're currently reading the People of Sparks (sporadically) in class, and we're talking about how a character in our book feels right now. Torren is frustrated because the People of Ember have shown up in his town, have started to take over, but don't seem to know anything. They've started to take some of his food, and they took his room, which made him really, really mad. He yelled at his aunt, the doctor, and mocks Lina all the time. Torren doesn't seem like he's very happy, claiming "they'll touch all my stuff!" I think that Torren is going to continue to make Lina's life miserable as the story goes on. He might do something to make her mad, or to try to hurt her.

Book Reports!

We're starting our work on book reports, but we're going to be doing them in a different form. This year, we're going to try out blogging about books we've read! If someone's blog is something that is exceptional, I'll make sure to post a public link with permission. We're focusing on all different types of books from graphic novels to chapter books, and from horror stories to fantasy. I'm really excited to read all of Room 6's opinions.

Hilarious BitStrips

Mikayla was very busy last night, making some fancy new BitStrips for our class. Since two of them really stood out, I've decided to post them here as well.

BitStrips!

We just started working in BitStrips, and so far I'm very impressed with all of the things you can do. We started a free, 30 day trial and it looks very promising. Here's a look at the first comic Mr. Reilly whipped up today.

New things to add!

Since I wanted to keep my "How To" instructions separate from my actual blog, here's a link to the "How To Blog" blog. If you need more help with something, or would like to get more advanced, check out the Help Center.

Mr. R's weekend

This weekend, I was very busy. I went to a games night at a friends house, where we played lots of different board games. One game, Pit, was lots of fun, but I ended up losing points every round because I had the "Bull" card. It's a little like Old Maid where you don't want to end up with some of the cards. We also played Catchphrase, Chaos (which is like Crazy Uno), and You Don't Say! (Which is like a guessing game). We were there very late, and I slept in on Saturday. Saturday I woke up and played some video games, and then came to school to do some planning. Once I was done planning I wanted to go to the movies with Kassandra, but when we got there, both Sherlock Holmes and Adventures of Tin Tin were sold out. We went home and watched Aladdin instead. Sunday I went to go see Kassandra play in her soccer division's All-Star game, but her team lost 5-3. It was a good game, with lots of passing and some fancy goals. After her game, we went to my parents' house and ate dinner, and then went to my basketball game. Our game was very close the whole way, with the other team doing a good job on defense. Late in the fourth quarter, I was left open and hit the go ahead layup. Then with 5 seconds left, the other team fouled me and I hit one of two free throws to seal the game. It was lots of fun.

Room 6 Blogging

I'm glad to see that some of us have been blogging over the course of the break. I saw that some of you got some very cool presents (hockey tickets, a puppy, 3DS), and I hope that you're enjoying them! Just a reminder to post a few more times before the end of the break this weekend.

Also, we'll talk about connecting our blogs elsewhere this coming week in school, Mikayla.

Home again!

Well, we're back.
Our "fly home" day was probably one of the longest days I've ever had the displeasure of being involved in. We were up for 22 hours straight by the time we got home and sat down for a minute. But before we talk about me being on a plane, you might be wondering "What happened in between the 30th of December and now?"
On New Year's Eve, we attempted to go to see the City of Paris catacombs, but they closed early! We got there an hour before they closed, but the line up was two blocks long. A museum employee came and told us that we could stay in line, but at that point it would take us an hour and a half to get close to the front. We decided it wasn't worth it to try our luck, and instead hopped on the Metro and rode to Notre Dame. We hadn't been inside yet, so we lined up to do that instead.
Because the inside of Notre Dame is nothing like the top (there's lots of space, it doesn't cost anything to come in, and there's no limit of people on a tour) the line moved really fast and we were inside in about 15 minutes. I was stunned at just how big it was. The church itself is huge, and then there's alcoves along the sides that hold graves, models of the church, statues, paintings, and the famous stained glass windows. We wandered for about an hour inside, taking pictures of everything and keeping quiet while doing so. There was about 100 people in the church praying when we walked through, spread out through the many pews. There were even priests there, taking people into booths for confessions. Once we were done looking at things in Notre Dame, we went back to our favorite restaurant, Pizza Enio! We ate and then went to our apartment to get ready for New Year's, which we thought was supposed to be a big deal.
Once we were ready, we went to Champs d'Elysses to see what was going on there. We'd read on the internet that it was supposed to be festive and a lot of fun. When we got there, we found that it was just very crowded. There wasn't anything going on other than people walking up and down the street, and all of the stores were boarded up. The police were out in riot gear, and all of the restaurants were super busy, because they were the only things open. We walked the street for a bit, and then decided we'd go check out the Eiffel Tower instead.
We walked all the way to the Eiffel Tower instead of taking the Metro, because the trains were so packed. The park around the tower was really busy, but wasn't nearly as crowded as Champs d'Elysses. We found a spot in the park, and watched the fireworks. The fireworks weren't nearly as good as the ones in Edmonton, we were a little underwhelmed. It was cool to see them light up the tower with flashing lights when the clock struck midnight, though. Once the fireworks were done, we walked a few blocks to a smaller Metro station hoping that a smaller metro line would be less busy. We were right! We hopped on a train that was nice and roomy, and took it home.
On New Year's Day, almost everything was closed (except Pizza Enio!), so we cleaned up the apartment and started packing. We got up really early the next day, took a taxi to the airport, and flew for 11 hours to Calgary. Once we got into Calgary, we found out that British Airways had lost Kassandra's luggage, and we had missed our flight to Edmonton. We lined up at Air Canada, got tickets and then went through the long (really long) security line up. Once we got back to Edmonton, we basically flopped over and fell asleep.