Response to Luis about substitutes

As I was looking through the blogs, I found this intersting post from my buddy Luis about substitute teachers:

"I hate it when people try and take advantage of substitutes like if they do not even know the rules of the school. In my old school, taking advantage of substitutes continuously happened throughout the year. I admit it I also used to take advantage but sometimes there is a limit. Some people take it too far."

I wanted to write this response post ever since I saw those words, "In my old school..." Well, me and Luis went to teh same middle school, and I agree with what he said. That there were substitute teachers that we took definitely took advantage of. For example, there was this one French guy that was at our school for 3 years and trust me, everyone hated him. Everyone spread rumors about him, but he was cool....sometimes.

Taking advantage of substituts are, what I think, just our way of responding to ourselves that there is no teacher for the day and we have the classroom to ourselves to do whatever we wantm which is true. We get our snacks out, put our headphones on, and munch away.

From what my brother told me, at my old school, we actually have substitute teachers on hand that are actually working int he office, and this year, he had the former math teacher that I never had, but he taught me how to tune my guitar by ear. My borther and his classmates hated him.

Now, 'hate' is a strong word to say, especially to substitutes, but what makes a sub so- hateable?

I think it's the sound of their voices (the french dude had a thick accent), their personality (french guy was french...enough said), and whether or not they have the ability to get the class to order.

Speak Book Post #2

This is the part where we actually find out what happened to Melinda. I do not know if it is a spoiler, but without it, this post would be meaningless to the readers.

Melinda got raped by IT. IT is Andy Evans. The guy that offered Melinda a bite of his jelly doughnut and she ran away.

When I read that part, I instantly wanted to go back to the beginning of the books and figure out how the rape fits in to Melinda and how she's acting.

After reading the second part, with Melinda's grades and her problems at school, it seems like she doesn't care about anything else but what had happened to her. What me and my group discussed was how the rape does affect her life at home and at school.

For school, it would be her grades and the teachers. We also discussed why Melinda calls her teachers by her nickname, but that's for another time. Her grades, event though she never does send out that feeling in the book: "I was raped." I kind of thought she was just depressed.

Also, what our group talked about was how Melinda struggles with her grades. From what my group gathered, we made a theory of some sort that if Melinda would speak out and not be afraid of saying what she wants to say, then she would live a much better life than the one she has right now in the book.

 One last thing my group talked about was the closet that Melinda decides to take over as her own 'home'. John asked what this could symbolize to Melinda. We all sort of agreed upon this place as being the only place that Melinda can trust. The only place where she could be herself and not have to worry about being asked anything.

Speaking of symbolism, there was also a mention of that in the book, where Hairwoman wants the class to analyze The Scarlet Letter and figure out what symbols are in there. Our group discusses how symbolism is a part of Melinda's life. From naming the teachers by their nicknames and also the closet itself.

Silent Auction SUCCESS/Response to Peter

First off the Silent Auction was A-MA-ZING. I had a lot of fun!

There were many items for bid. Many of them were baskets, or tickets to the many places that could be discovered in the Bay Area. I myself bid on two items, a voucher for dog food which I won, but did not really want because at the last minute, McCoy erased her name, which was surprising to me. I'm just going to give it to her on Monday.

The second item was fun to bid on, it was a live auction, for the Dinner and Movie for 3 with Mr. Fong and Ms. Ahn. It was Me, Kristine, Annie, and Branson. Noticed how it's dinner for 3? Yeah. There was four of us. We were up against Lisa H., Andy Chu, and Marissa. But we planned everything out! In the end, after going to about $160... both of us are getting dinners, and if I have my facts wrong correct me.

Since there was four of us, Annie decided to just give it to the three of us and she won't get it. Then Ms. Ahn talks to us about a different solution for the four of us..... to the response!


This is from my buddy Peter's blog. He was one of the performers that I personally asked to perform... no matter how much I hate him (JK). He was good, as usual, and he also played the piano for Music Club and ended the song with the Super Mario Overworld Theme Song! Which is what I wanted him to play, but NO he played a different song.

Anyways, I thought this quote fit in with everybody that was at the auction, and especially for the PTSA execs, who helped plan the auction:

"After having the Silence Auction night, I went home as fast as I could because I did not do any of my blog post, and if the Freshman did not remind me, I might probably forgot."

I like how the freshmen had to remind him. I'm pretty sure that throughout the night, the only thing running through everybody's mind, especially the sophomores was that we had HW due, and that included this post, a book post, 2 essays to work on, math hw, a study guide for science, and a STD brochure for science. On the weekend of the Silent Auction. How convenient.

I wanted to say my thanks, but didn't want to. To the PTSA board and Ms. Harhen. To the teachers that came (everybody except Mr. Sutherland *cough*) and the student volunteers. without any of you, we would not have raised OVER $2-3000.

Speak Book Post #1

My first impression of Speak was that it would be just another of those high school books. You know, the one where a student feels left out and just wants to fit in. Well, in Melinda's case, the person that was like that, was Heather. A typical high school student that onl wanted to fit in somewhere, so as to not be known as a loner.

In our first group discussion, we mostly talked about the characters, an what effect they have on Melinda. For example, how Mr. Freeman could potentially be a role model for our main character. He seems to be the only one that actually cares about her 'growth,' which is a coincidence because for the art project, the students had to choose an item to focus on the entire year, and Melinda got a tree. In our discussion, I asked what the tree could mean to Melinda. It could mean 'growth' and how Melinda would grow branches if she learns to finally speak up for herself.

Also, the day before, we wanted to discuss what makes a b*tch. Mostly because of the way that Rachelle, Melinda's former best friend, and many other studants treated her. In the book it is said that Melinda called the cops at a party and got everybody busted. Although we wil eventually learn about what would happen at the party later in the future, that is also what we discussed. The party and people that are the b-words, what really makes a b-tch? In Rachelle's case, that would be not bothering to know what happened at the party and why Melinda called the police when she knew she was having fun. In Heather's case, it's just being herself, and in Melinda's case, it's not caring about anything, keeping everything to herself, and just being a b-tch of her own.

Oh how could I forget Mr. Neck? The only thing my group figured out about his relationship with Melinda is just a bad first impression. What if it was better? Too bad we didn't get to that.

So far, this book is good. And I am so looking forward to what happens at the party.