What Class Has Left An Impression On You?

What class has left an impression on you? Did you like math, reading, spelling, science, social studies, or writing? A few classes I know that have made an impression on me are my 3^rd grade math class, on parentheses and order of operations, and my 4^th grade spelling class (Unit “Chen 4”).

My 3^rd grade math class was one that made an impression on me because I, along with the rest of Mrs. Greer’s other 3^rd grade students, had to dance. Right in front of the 4^th graders, we had to sing and put on a show about how to use PEMDAS (an order of operations rule - "Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.") Mrs. Greer announced each group and called them part of the “Order of Operations Ballet”, which made it even worse! It was very embarrassing, although I will still remember PEMDAS for a long time.

One of my 4^th grade spelling classes was also a class that is very vivid in my mind because of a very funny event that happened. During the spelling Pre-test, Ms. Chen created a sentence for the fourth word, “raspberry” – “In the middle of summer vacation, raspberry sorbet is a great way to cool off.” Anyway, somebody suddenly started licking his lips! I looked at Archit and Ms. Chen, and they were laughing hysterically. I suddenly realized – it was Archit! I expect I will remember this incident for many years to come because it was so funny.

During these two school days, many interesting things happened; however, I have no doubt I will remember these specific events for a very long time. Even though events like these may seem like normal classroom events, some will ultimately impact your students for the rest of their lives.

PE - Volleyball's Worst Players

Today in PE (Physical Education) the topic was volleyball. I enjoy playing volleyball with a beach ball – I’m really good at it. But today, even though Kevin and I, the two best players in the class, were assigned to the same team, we still almost lost.

One reason we almost lost (and the main reason, too) was that three of our players, Suhani, Bradley, and Carmen, were really bad. If I could give them a rating, from 1 to 10, they would all get -∞s. All Carmen and Suhani want to do is sit around and talk. All Bradley wants to do is hit the ball every time, really hard. Frankly, I think if they weren’t playing, we would have won, even with the three-player disadvantage.  We almost lost because they got all switched to the front – we rotate clockwise – and they had to hit the ball the most. The back rank players didn’t even have a chance to help, because we had to stay behind the black line, and the balls were all flying in front of the black line. Bradley was trying to take the ball from his own front row teammates, while Carmen and Suhani talked, laughed, and danced, completely ignoring the ball! I call them “hyper-inactive players”.

Another reason we almost lost is that we were winning by a mile before our “hyper-inactive players” went to the front. We were winning 10-2, because Kevin and I had blasted the other team. Then, suddenly, it turned out the score was 10-9! Our “hyper-inactive players” had caused us to lose 7 points! And they ignored my yells to them about being attentive. They just stayed there, unmoving, until the ball hit the floor, when they picked it up and handed it to the opponent. We probably would have lost if the teacher didn’t announce that our PE section was over.

Our players in the volleyball game were simply unfair because the good players stayed in the back the whole time, while the bad players just ignored all the balls that were coming at them!

"My MiniHome" Projects

There have been some very interesting MiniHome projects that were presented over the course of the last two days.

One project, by Bradley Bialke, was aiming to create the most expensive house in the class! His house design hit the $154,000 mark, even though it was less than 600 square feet. He claims to have added green marble toilets with intricate gold inlays, each costing $15,000. Also, he claims to have solid iron doors ($5,000) and steps that are $2,000 each! He actually might achieve the most expensive house, if Suhani’s claim that her house is $7,000,000 is false.

Another project, by Ron Dubinsky, has a lot of calculations in it. He made a mistake at the very start, and this caused him to get everything else wrong. Another problem with his project is that his SketchUp model is missing a lot of stuff. He forgot a door, steps, a doorframe, and the follow-me rim. His presentation had too much stuff, as I said earlier. He included a bunch of trees (25 give or take 5) he wanted to fit in his 25 square-foot patio, along with bunches of potted plants, tables and chairs.

There were lots of crazy presentations today!

Field Trip to the Paramount Theatre

Yesterday I saw a few of Disney’s earliest silent films at the Paramount Theatre. The movies were accompanied by a large organ played by Jim Riggs, with Paul Hansen making the special sound effects. We watched three shorts, “Alice in Wonderland”, “Alice Gets in Dutch”, and “Alice’s Day at Sea”.

“Alice in Wonderland” was not actually about Wonderland, as you might think. It was more like “Alice in Cartoonland”. Alice, who was played by Virginia Davis, ran around and explored Cartoonland, meeting a few friends along the way. I liked the animation effects – they were spectacular.

“Alice Gets in Dutch” was actually my favorite cartoon. A boy in Alice’s class blew up a balloon and put some ink in it, while the teacher wasn’t looking. He told Alice to hold it, and blow it more. It ballooned outwards, and then the teacher saw the balloon. She demonstrated: “This is what will happen to all balloons that I find in my classroom.” And she popped the balloon. Ink covered her face, clothes, and most of everything else near her. I liked the cartoon part of it best.

“Alice’s Day at Sea” was my least favorite. It wasn’t very exciting, and all Alice did was dream she got shipwrecked and then wake up tangled in a net. I guess the part where the shark tried to eat her was okay.

To sum up, Walt Disney’s earliest films were pretty good!

Floor Hockey Unit

For the past few PE classes, we did our Juggling Unit, which I didn't like. But recently, just this Tuesday, we started our Floor Hockey Unit!

A game I liked was “Pirates”. “Pirates” helps to improve our stick-handling. In “Pirates”, there are landowners and, of course, pirates. The pirates go after the landowners, trying to steal their pucks. Once a landowner’s puck is stolen, he or she becomes a pirate. If a puck goes over the border, or the black rectangle, the person who hit it out has to do five clap jacks. I liked this game for its speedy tempo.

A warm-up I like was “Body Part Relay Race”. In this strange race, people line up in groups of threes. One person runs to the mid-line, and touches it with the body part of the day. Then, he/she runs back to the starting line, touches it with the body part of the day, runs to the end-line, touches it, and runs to the starting line and touches it, earning one point for the group. The second person in line does ten clap jacks. The third person does a wall-sit for ten seconds. The team with the most points wins. Kevin, Patrick Fan, and I always select each other as group members. We're the fastest runners in the class, so we always win. I like this warm-up for its ability to make people bend into strange positions to touch the floor with their body parts.

To sum up, I like this unit better than the previous one!