Crazy Clare's Comments

This year, my class is reading a book called Three Cups of Tea. It’s not just any book, though. It’s a book about helping kids around the globe get an education, particularity in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It all starts when a mountain climber, Greg Mortenson  is attempting to climb K2, the second tallest mountain in the world. Stumbling upon a village called Korphe after his climb to K2, Greg sees that the school the kids have there isn’t that great. It’s outside, where the students sit upon the cold ground and study their lessons the teacher gives them. They write in the dirt with stick and mud. Greg is stunned and promises the chief of the village that he will come back to build them a school.

About two years later, when the construction, in Greg’s mind, isn’t fast enough. He wishes for the school to be finished by winter, and worries about questions and tasks and jobs that the people of Korphe might have trouble with. He doesn’t realize that he’s being a bit bossy, and rushing things along. So the village chief, Haji Ali pulls him aside and tells him that he needs to slow down, and go the pace of Korphe’s people. He told him that he should stop over a cup of tea, and get to know the person.  I think it took Greg Mortenson this long to understand this, because he was used to going fast. Americans tend to be faster at things. We tend to think we have to accomplish everything quickly I also think that Greg thought that the Korphe people really needed a school, and he had planned to finish the school by winter, so that they didn’t have to sit on the cold ground anymore, especially in the winter.

I too, have done what Mr. Greg Mortenson did. In a group project for school one year, I was put in a group that I didn’t like. I didn’t know anybody. I just wanted the project to be finished. To be over with. But I realized that it would be easier and more fun to get to know my group. We would get along better as well. And I did. I took time to “share three cups of tea.”

http://www.threecupsoftea.com/ is a website about Greg Mortenson and his books.

http://www.penniesforpeace.org/ is a website about the education of the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Morning Dove. That’s where I went this past weekend. And boy, was it fun! Not only did I help all of the the horses get ready for their lessons, but I saw the happy faces of the handicapped-kids when they came. They were so happy, and they made me smile. Their faces where the best reward I ever could have gotten. I’d like to comment on Morning Dove-their program. I think it is a fabulous program because it helps handicapped children. It’s kind of a miracle, the way the horses help the kids.

You might be wondering what sort of things I did at Morning Dove. Well I’ll tell you this: When you’re a horse person, you don’t mind doing “gross” things as much-things such as mucking out a horse’s stall. Those things are exactly what I did. Mucking out a horse’s stall is actually more fun than you would realize.

Neigh said the horse….

I am so excited! In school, we are working on our GATE projects. GATE stands for Global Awareness Through Exploration. My  group includes my two friends, Maggie and Alysa as well as me. And we all love horses! So we wanted to help out in their department. We wanted badly to do something with horses. So Alysa came up with an idea to volunteer at a program called Morning Dove. You can visit their website at http://ibccn.org/mdove/SITE/MD_HOME.html . It’s a way to help out around horses, and take care of them too. My group chose this as our GATE project, and we just can’t wait to get started! 

Try volunteering at a certain program that you love. It’s a really great way to help your community and have fun at the same time. The reward is I think the best of all-that warm feeling inside you.

In my English class, we are learning Caesar’s English. But for the last lesson, instead of a test, my teacher gave us an assignment. An assignment to write a story with Caesar’s English Vocabulary in it, which is a neo-new way to writing stories. It had to have a clear beginning, middle and end, and had to include 10 words and 5 stems….here it is!!! Write a comment and tell me what you think of My Nerdy Wordy Story! The Caesar’s English stems and words are bold. If you aren’t familiar with some of these words (believe me, before I learned them I was clueless), then you can look them up on Dictionary.com

If any of you have read my master poem, Wondering Woods, then you will know more of what I am talking about. If you don’t, then please read it!

I never thought I would be able to write such a thing, but I did. In my poem, I love how I kind of set the mood I guess you could say. I love using unike words, and I think they make writing sound well, better! It was hard at first, but as I slowly  got into poem-mode, it became easier to think of words that rhymed.

My Master Poem’s layout wasn’t always the same. I originally had a twelve-line stanza in the beginning, then a quintet, or a five-line stanza. If you don’t know-believe me I didn’t know before sixth-grade-a stanza is an arrangement of a certain number of rhyming lines. Multiple stanzas form a poem. A fter the five-line stanza, I had a ten-line stanza, then a quintet again. Of course, this was a problem, because I needed a poem scheme. I couldn’t just have a twelve-line stanza here, a five-line here, another one here, I needed a pattern. So I split two lines off my twelve line stanza, then added three more lines to the two, making it a quintet. Then I had a pattern.

I also have many enjambed lines. Besides my stanza adventure, I enjoyed writing this poem because I loved the setting and feeling of it. I was inspired by Jack Frost, who wrote Stopping by the Woods On a Snowy Evening. I love his poem, and I was inspired to write something about the woods. So I did!

I hope you like my poem, Wandering Woods-tell me what you think!!!