I Know Why the Cage Bird Cannot Read

Last year I read the book To Kill a Mockingbird in Language Arts and I could agree with a lot of things that Prose said about the book in her essay, I Know Why the Cage Bird Cannot Read. My personal experience reading this book is very similar to how Prose describes the book and what kids learn while reading it. I really did not enjoy reading this book and in class discussions about this book, we focused more on the issues this book talks about, rather than the actual quality of the literature.           

                Most of the students in my class would agree that To Kill a Mockingbird was not the best book. Kids didn’t really enjoy reading it and after a few chapters a lot of students were either skimming the text or looking the book up on Sparknotes. Prose gives a short, one paragraph summary of the book in her essay and after words states, “Such summary reduces the book, but not by all that much.” I agree with her summary and what she said about the book. Even though most kids didn’t take time to carefully read the text, most of them still did well on the quizzes and discussions over the book, because the plot was so simple and the book wasn’t very challenging. To Kill a Mockingbird was not a very good book for students to read and because of that most students didn’t read it very closely.

                When discussing this book in class we spent a lot of time talking about the issues of prejudice that the book talks about. Throughout the essay Prose mentions the type of things students are taught when reading this book and the things she says are very close to what I was being taught when reading the book. She says, “… I obtained from the Internet, outlines the ‘overall goal’ of teaching the book (‘To understand problems relating to discrimination and prejudice that exist in our present day society. To understand and apply these principles to our own lives’).” I do believe that the goal Prose mentions in reading this book is similar to the goal of reading this book in my Language Arts class last year. We did spend a lot of time discussing the issues of prejudice mentioned in the book.

                Throughout Prose’s essay, I Know Why the Cage Bird Cannot Read, she talks about how students aren’t getting much out of books like To Kill a Mockingbird and I agree with her. After reading this book, I really didn’t learn much and didn’t enjoy reading it. I think she makes a valid argument when criticizing To Kill a Mocking Bird.

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Education

If I could change schools I would make them have a little more freedom for kids. I think that schools are good right now and are effective in giving a proper education for kids, but there are some things that I would change to try to make kids enjoy learning more than they do now. I would try to make schools offer more freedom to kids, change how students are graded, and have more hands on activities for kids.

                I think that kids should be able to take whatever classes they want and not be required to take any specific class that doesn’t relate to what they want to do when they are older. If someone wanted to be a writer when they are older, they shouldn’t have to take calculus or geometry. If someone wanted to do something with math they shouldn’t have to take four years of language arts in high school. Kids should have more freedom in picking classes, because it could help them focus on what their career is going to be when they are older and it could also help kids enjoy school more.

                I believe there should also be more hands on learning activities in school. This would include things like field trips to different places people could work when they are older and it would help kids decide what they want to do when they are older. Hands on activities would make it easier and more fun for kids to learn and I think it would make students have more motives to learn.

                I would also want to change how kids are graded. Instead of getting a grade based mostly off of test, it should be based more on a kid’s effort.  Grades should be waited more on how much homework they do and how often they are paying attention in class. Some kids are naturally very smart and they don’t have to pay attention in class or do their homework to get an A, so teachers should try to base their grades on effort rather than grades depending only on how well students do on tests.

                I do think that schools do a good job educating kids and I don’t think it is possible to make schools perfect.  Offering more freedom, changing how kids are graded and doing more hands on learning activities in school, might make kids enjoy learning more and try harder in school. If I could change schools, I would try to make students want to learn more.

 

 

 

 

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Track season has started

The first week of Track is over and the second week has started. I am so relieved to find out that I am not as badly out of shape than what I thought I was. I can still run with the girls I normally run with (who have already been competing in club track), even if I have to work a little harder than they do. I also ran a 5:48ish 1600, which is a lot better than what I ran last year at the beginning of track. There are a lot of new distance runners and a lot of people who returned from last year, so I really like our team. Track is off to a good start and I am excited for this season!

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Books :)

About a month ago I read a really good book called, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I was originally assigned this book for Biology and for whatever reason, I have a hard time reading books that I have been assigned to read, but I was pleasantly surprised with this book.

The Immortal Life of Hennrietta Lacks is about a woman who died of cervical cancer, but before she died doctors took cells from her tumor and those cells never died. They were used for many things, including a polio vaccine. However, neither Henrietta nor her family knew these cells were even taken. This really upsets Henrietta’s family. The book was very intriguing and it was hard to put down. Not only did it contain interesting, scientific information, but it was also a really good story. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone, especially people with an interest in Biology.

Currently I am reading Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. I had heard that it was a good book and I had a gift card to Barnes and Nobel, so I decided to buy it. Unfortunately the gift card did not have nearly as much money on it as I thought and I had to pay more money than I ever had on a book before. Because of this I considered returning it multiple times, but I am so glad I didn’t! I am almost done with it and so far it is amazing. It is a memoir by Jenny Lawson and it is extremely hilarious. I literally laugh out loud whenever I read this book. It is by far the funniest book that I have ever read. Jenny tells her life, starting with her childhood, where her dad brought home random animals to when she is older and trying to fit in. Here is a random quote from Jenny in her book, “I picked up the phone to call the police, but then I considered how it would sound when I told them that I was calling from inside my bathroom, where I’d OD’ed on laxatives, and that a possible rapist was quietly passing me notes under the bathroom door.” Like many other chapters, I could not stop laughing in this chapter. I recommend this book to everyone, except people who are easily offended and can’t stand the use of swear words. This book is sooooooo funny! I really can’t even make this book sound half as entertaining as it is, so you should really go read it!

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Abs!

Core is a really important part of running, and it happens to be one of my weaknesses when it comes to running. After the State cross country meet, my arms and my abs were sore. My legs didn’t hurt at all, but I couldn’t move my arms to hug anyone or laugh without grabbing my belly and screeching in pain. So I decided I need to start working on getting stronger arms and abs. It is really hard for me to do ab work outs and about 99% of the time I actually start a work out, I end up quitting in the middle of the workout.

Normally when I want to do ab workouts, I do either Julian Michaels (sorry if I didn’t spell that right) or Kettlebell core workout. I really like the kettlebell workout, but I get tired of doing the same one over again. I really just need a good video to do that is fast, effective, and not confusing. Some of the moves on the videos are too hard to do and it gives me an excuse to stop working out. I think I am also really bad at a lot of the moves, because a lot of times my neck is left sore and I don’t even move my neck! It’s really quite confusing.

Although I am not a huge fan of ab workouts and I have a hard time completing them, I am actually working my abs a lot more than I used to do. My stomach is a lot flatter than it normally is, especially for being winter.  Ab workouts are also continuing to get a little easier to do. I am going to try to do more ab workouts and I am going to try to find good ab workouts to do.  

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Food

Track is starting on Monday! For some reason during cross country and track, I just can’t stop eating. I have to eat almost every hour and I just never get full. That’s one of the best things about track, but my house never has any food, so a lot of times it sucks. I always forget to make a grocery list for my mom so I end up eating random healthy, but unappetizing food, such as chia seeds mixed in coconut milk, which is what I had the pleasure of eating this morning. There are a lot of different foods that I like to eat as snacks during the track season.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! I try to eat especially good breakfast during Track season. It is important to eat at least 3 different food groups in the morning. I might start my day off with eggs, toast, and orange juice, or oatmeal (which I put protein powder in, because it not only makes you fuller, but also tastes really good) and yogurt with fruit in it. There are a lot of different breakfasts that I eat during track, but I always make sure I have at least three food groups.

Unfortunately, school doesn’t feed you after every hour, so I have to bring my own snacks to school. Normally during track and cross country I bring anywhere from 3 to 4 snacks each day. I always bring at least one granola bar. I bring either Chewy granola bars, Kashi cherry dark chocolate, or Cliff Bars (a lot of times I bring the kids ones, because they are better than the adult ones). I also like to bring fruit snacks, Chex mix, and pretzels. I always want to bring fruit, but fruit is really hard to bring to school. I have no place to put it, because my backpack will smooch it and sometimes it is really awkward to eat it in class, so I normally stick to foods that come in wrappers. It can be really hard to bring all this food to school, but it is definitely worth it.

After I get home from track practice, I need protein. So I will either eat chocolate protein shakes, which I buy from Melaleuca, a smoothie with vanilla protein powder that I get from Hy-Vee, or apple slices dipped in peanut butter. These are all healthy options for snacks that I eat after Track. I really like to make smoothies, but a lot of times I am too lazy to make one, so it’s nice to have other options for snacks with a lot of protein. They are not too filling and I am still hungry by dinner.

Around 8:00 I start to get hungry and head to the kitchen to try to find something edible. For some reason I either crave ice cream or breakfast food at this time. Sometimes I make egg in the middles, egg sandwiches, or toast. It’s really hard to find food to eat at night, and I haven’t really come up with any good snacks to eat at night.

 

I think I just made a grocery list!

 

Ps. This is what Chia seeds in coconut milk look like:

yum.

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And the Ravens Win!

This year, at the beginning of football season, I decided that I didn’t just want to cheer for a football team, because my dad likes that team. I wanted to pick a team to cheer for by myself. I started watching different NFL teams play and one team really stuck out to me. Their team consisted of a former Iowa State player, that I remembered watching, Kelechi Osemele, and Michael Oher from Blindside. I instantly fell in love with the Baltimore ravens. I loved the way they played and I started watching all their games. They did well, but I could have never imagined that they would be the Super Bowl XLVII (I think that’s 47 but I am not really sure and do not feel like looking it up) champions!

 

The game was pretty intense. Baltimore had a good lead at half time. Baltimore also made a 50ish yard pass to get a touchdown and got and interception before half time. Beyoncé sang at the half time show and I was pleased with her performance, although I had heard from someone that Justin Timberlake was going to be singing with her, so I was disappointed when he didn’t. After half time ended Baltimore Raven’s Jacoby Jones, ran for a 108 yard kick return, leaving the Baltimore Ravens winning 28-3! When everything seemed good, the lights went out. They had to take a 30 minute break until the lights turned completely on again. This somehow boosted the 49ners confidence and they had a good comeback, scoring 17 points in around 4-5 minutes. The Ravens didn’t give up though. They scored 2 field goals and stopped the 49ners from scoring a touchdown with 2 minutes left of the game. John Harbaugh made some good decisions to let the 49ners score a couple points, to buy time and when the 49ners got the ball after a punt, there was 4 seconds on the clock. Baltimore won 34-31!

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