News Story 2

Having been accepted into the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program, teacher Charla Klein will be teaching at Kelso Secondary School in Scotland for the fall semester.

 “A few parents have called me about their concerns. I understand the apprehension, but (Scottish foreign exchange teacher) Ms. Schouller will be prepared come on the first day of school.” Said principal, Bruce Dubes.

Though The  Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program is a great accomplishment, concern has been raised about the curriculum requirements of the TAKS test, and whether or not Ms. Schouller will be able to properly prepare the kids.

“When i told my classes that i would be leaving in the fall, some of them were worried about the TAKS test, but i assured them they would do fine. Besides that, i am leaving my lesson plan from last year.” Said Klein.

Due to the fact that many of her students are worried about the TAKS test, Klein is leaving previous lesson plans so that they are prepared.

“The Math department will work with Mr. Dubes and Ms. Schouller to ensure that she has all the support that she will need.” Said math department chair, Janelle Vander.

Because of Ms. Schouller’s new appearance at the school, the school staff will work with her to prepare her for the fall semester.

“I am a little anxious about Ms. Klein leaving. Ms. Klein is my algebra teacher this year, and i wanted her next year, too.” Said Freshman, Melissa Staff.

Ms. KIeins absence for the fall semester leaves many students anxious about their new teacher from Scotland, but klein reassures the students that they will do fine on the test.

“We certainly will miss Ms. Klein, but this is an exciting opportunity for her.” Said Vander.

News Story 1

After being denied by principal Tanya King, Junior Jim Stacks appeals to the school board. The board will decide on Monday on whether he will be allowed to break school dress code and donate his hair to charity.

“There are other ways Jim could help the Locks of Love group.” Principal Tanya King said.

The Locks of Love group is an nonprofit organization, that donates wigs to children without the ability to grow hair.Despite  Stack’s reasons for breaking the dress code,King continues to support the rules regarding the dress code.

“We desperately need hair for wigs,” Locks of Love president Gisel Roco said.

Every month the Locks of Love group has to turn down about 150 requests every month.

“The Locks of Love group requires at least 10 inches of hair for donations,”said stacks.

 The dress code states that hair must be collar length or less,Principal King denied his request to grow and donate his hair.

“The letter was signed by 300 students,” “The council listed 150 students who also were willing to grow their hair to donate to Locks of Love,”

150 students that signed the petition in support of Jim Stacks cause, also signed themselves up to donate their own hair.

“I’ve known the stacks family for about 20 years,” “We all were relieved when Jasmine recovered and the doctors said the cancer was gone.” said school board member Bill Valdez.

Blog Post 5

racism (1)The image displays my thematic motif of racism, because the girl is hiding who she really is due to the color of her skin. In our world today  racism almost seems accepted, we see it almost everywhere we go, even in our small city of White Oak. Today we don’t realy think of it as being offensive, even though that is exactly what it is. Where I see it most is at school, mostly in a joking sense, but what we see as a joke another person could see as very offensive. Most of the time when I see this going on I try to stop it, but I has become something of an unconcerning nature. In the photo the girl seems to be upset do to this, and often times we just seem to not care, but like I earlier stated, it can be taken very offensively. The photo I have chosen shows that most racism is done due to skin color, Which in reality it doesn’t make sense, because a person may be the exact same as you, but they are just a different color. Altogether my thematic motif of racism is best explained by this picture shot by Shutterstock photography found on google Images.

Blog Post 4

“That’s what you call a house, it looks more like a shack,” explained my friend Jake when I showed him where I live.

“It’s actually not that bad,”

I explained to my astonished friend. My name is Nathan, I live in a part of Detroit where many people would see in nightmares, with murders, shootings, and one of the highest crime rates in the whole city, but of course it’s where I call home. I moved here at the age of 7, I am now 15, of course living in this area of town does have some perks, because of the fact that everyone in my neighborhood is poor, I have nothing to prove to anyone, but there is one exception to this, I don’t go to school here. I go to school in one of the nicest schools in the city, the only reason for this, is that my father works here as a janitor. Being a poor kid in a wealthy school I’m often called things like,

“Trailer trash,” Because of the fact that I have been called this for a while it doesn’t bother me anymore. It hurt me for a while but it all got better when my father told me this one thing

“You have no one to impress but yourself,” this meant a lot to me growing up, but it is as I graduated high school valedictorian that I really got what that meant, it means that as long as you do everything in your power to get where you want to go, you will eventually get there.

Blog Post 3

The quote that I believe has the most meaning is, “People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars they forget those of us who live too much on earth.” What this quote means, is those that more or less have everything that they would ever need, forget about those that have nothing. Even though this quote may have many different meanings, I believe this is the point that Cisneros was trying to get at, but I believe another point just equal that she was trying to get at, is those who do nothing but dream, have trouble facing reality. This could strongly relate to Esperanza, because she is always dreaming about a place far from Mango Street, that she sometimes has trouble accepting her reality. The first definition also relates to her, because in one of the last vignettes she talks about how the mayor wouldn’t step foot on Mango Street, like the quote states, the mayor would be sleeping on hills while Mango Street is living on earth. There are many ways that this quote could be taken, but I strongly believe that this is what Cisneros was truly trying to get at. I believe that this is the strongest quote in the book due to the fact that it can relate to not only Esperanza, but also to us.

Blog Post 2

Dear Esperanza,

I want to start off by telling you that the choices that you made at the beginning of the novel were very dumb, for example whenever you got in the Cadillac with Louie and his cousins, could you not make the connection that a young boy in a not so great neighborhood would have a nice car? I mean              figuring that one out wasn’t exactly rocket science, but of course you were oblivious to the fact that he stole it. Another dumb thing that you didn’t think anything of at the time, was the Tarzan swinging competition. In what way would that ever have been a good idea? Along with all the dumb things that you did, there were also many things that you did right, for example when Rachel and Lucy were making fun of Nenny for being a dumb little girl, you defended her, exactly what an older sibling is meant to do. Another thing that I admire about you, is that you were always thinking about a better place, like your own house not on Mango Street. Through thinking like you did you were able to overcome many obstacles and get to the place that you wanted to be, which is another thing for me to be admirable of.  Overall, you were a very interesting person tom read about,

Sincerely Tyler