"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." Maya Angelou
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H/W - Read and be thinking about our writing topic for tomorrow
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This is where we are going with our writing. We will take this entire week to get here...
My Second Grade Story
By Caroline Meredith E/F
The classroom was quiet. All you could hear were second graders scribbling down words onto a clean sheet of white paper. I was one of those second grade students, determined to spell every single word correct because if I did, I wouldn’t have to take the real test next week. I was used to spelling every single word correct. I was proud of my great reputation as a speller, and I didn’t want that taken away from me. “That was the last word. Please bring your paper to the front,” my teacher announced, breaking the silence in the room. I pushed my seat back, walking to the front with confidence. My teacher looked at my paper, and then quickly wrote something down and held it in front of me.
When I saw what was written, I panicked. There was a big “-1” circled in ink in the top right corner of my test. “Oh no!” I thought. I scrambled back to my desk to find my pencil. I hesitated but then decided in my head, “It’s only one letter.” I was glad that I realised my classmate’s paper was right beside me, so I looked to see how the word was spelled. I quickly erased the wrong letter and wrote down the right one. I ran up to the front and waved the paper in front of my teacher. “I looked back at my paper and I didn’t actually get this wrong,” I said as naturally as I could. I think she was rightfully questioning me in her head. “So isn’t this a one hundred, and I won’t have to take the test next week?” I asked. “Alright,” she said as she crossed out the big “-1” in the top right corner that I was so ashamed of. She handed it back to me. Who knew that that moment would be one that I would remember for the rest of my life? That moment built my character so much more than I could have imagined. “That was close!” I thought to myself as I walked back to my desk.
Later that day a classmate walked up to me. “Did you get a one hundred on the pre-spelling test?” “Yes,” I said proudly and with a smile. “Did you?” I asked. “No.”
As the days turned into nights and the nights turned into days, guilt washed over me. A dispute went on between my head and my heart, and both wanted control over the other. “What do I do?” I had a moment alone with my mom to discuss what had happened days earlier. “Mom, I have something to tell you,” I said as my face blushed red with embarrassment. “You know how we do pre-spelling tests at school?” My mom said, “Yes,” and I went on. “Well,” I paused. “I cheated on it because I didn’t want to take the test next week and I wanted everyone to think I was a good speller and now I feel really bad,” I said quickly as I could. “Have you talked to your teacher about it?” my mom asked in a comforting voice. “No. Can you? I’m scared to.” We discussed it and decided to email her.
“Caroline, can you come here please?” my teacher asked in class later that week. My face turned red as a tomato again as I got out of my seat and headed toward the desk. “I got the email your mom sent.” The conversation continued. “I wish this day would be over. I’m so embarrassed,” I thought. “Just don’t do it again,” my teacher said as I stood up. I hurried to my desk, relieved that it was over. All the guilt, gone.
As I look back to that day, I am glad that I had that experience. It made me better. I was able to learn when I was young that when we make mistakes, we can always find a way to fix them. When I do fix them, I feel so much better! Honesty is so important in our daily lives. By being honest we build trust, friendships, character, and relationships. Imagine what would the world be like without honest people. After all, mistakes may hold or tear us down in the beginning of the story, but in the end, they just build us up and let us fly.
Imagery Inner Thinking Reflection Figurative Language
For the dots video, I found that it's all about knowing where you belong. Groups of people form in life and one single person may struggle to find where they belong (In the case, the person with the different colored dot). Now, it's all about being an upstander and helping them. Since I was the person who was "different", I now know what it feels like to fight hard in order to know where I truly belong. This lesson also taught us that you may say you value generosity, kindness, or even responsibility. But when you're put into certain circumstances, that's when your core values get tested. Don't let them slip away. Thank you, Mr. Buxton for an amazing class!
ReplyDeleteyou made a great point about the need for 'upstanders' to model the behavior for those unable to be the first movers. +1
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but this is going to be an unpopular opinion. I actually think that the reason we all chose groups with the same dot color is because we all had the idea that we were supposed to do something with the dots in the activity. So we used the dots to put us into groups, I thought that that was some kind of clue you gave us. And actually, what I thought was that there are 21 people I counted and 4 corners, so there would be 3 corners with 5 people and 1 group with 6 people. The person with the different dot just had to choose a corner. My group had 5 people, so if Sophie came to our corner, we would be the group with 6 people. I didn't say anything because it was her choice of which group to go to, maybe she wanted to go with her friends, maybe she didn't care. I wasn't actually thinking about how she was different. But creative lesson today with the dots, it was really fun to see what would happen.
ReplyDeleteWhy use the dots to form the groups? Why not form groups with a group of friends? It is easy to say that you were following the clues given - but isn't that the point? Society always gives us 'clues' - ways we are supposed to behave - people we are supposed to like, dislike, connect with. My point was that people took the easiest approach to form the group. Moreover, almost nobody reacted when one person wasn't in a group. It not really about the 'forming of the group' its about the people who get 'left out' when we form these 'groups.'
ReplyDeleteIn the U.S. tomorrow, they are going to decide whether 700,000 children (DACA program) who came to the U.S. illegally and lived all their lives in the country will have to be sent home to a country they have never known. On the surface, It is easy to say these people do not belong in the US. However, doing what is right or easy isn't the same as doing one is wise or difficult.
The point being, At some stage in our lives, we are all going to be the person with the 'dot' that is different color to everybody else. Will people simply give up and say we don't belong OR will somebody reach out to us and help? I'd like to think there will always be someone there to help. Don't you?
Your opinion is ENORMOUSLY appreciated. +2
This actually reminds me to write this down as one of the things I value. If I were the one with the dot on my head, I would go to a random corner, that sounds simple, but now that I think of it, I actually realise that I'm the kind of person who thinks that everyone should stand up for themselves. I know that some people may have to practice on respect, or responsibility, I realise that as a person, I have to practice empathy. I'm so caught up on everything being perfect, 3 groups with 5, one group with 6, that I actually don't look at it as the person with the different colored dot.
ReplyDeleteI realised the left over people of all the different classes all looked lost, as if it's in the real world, where people are judged by what they look like, instead of who they really are on the inside. I think this is really important to our world now because racism is every where, human rights, gender rights are still being fought for. To me, this is really important. I don't think anyone in this world is better than one another, everyone's equal. No one should be left out because of their color, their look or maybe their disability. Through our lense that we see, everyone should be the same. Talking about this, it reminded me of how bias relates. Casually, we would say "I don't want to hang out with you because you wear glasses therefore you're a nerd" It's unfair. Nothing is fair. But we should live a world where we can make everything fair and include everyone in your society :)
ReplyDeleteI think that we formed groups according to the same color dots that were placed on our head because we were so caught up in trying to put ourselves into the right groups (in this case the same color dots). I think we should have stopped for a second thought about what you said (which was get into groups and once you have a group leave the carpet.) I think we went a bit too fast a didn't take time to process what you said and that it didn't matter about the color dots at all. I think that if we took some time to process what you said we would realize that there is no right or wrong group and that what you said was very general, not hinting specifically to the dots. We were so caught up in trying to find the right answer that we didn't take time to find the best answer. After we had the situation where there was only 1 person in the middle, I think we blanked out on what to do, and only when that happened had some people start to try to help and think about why that would happen. Like the saying, "Slow and steady wins the race," I think if we took a step back and not rushed to try to get into the right groups, someone would have realized that the groups had nothing to do with the dots, but was a general idea of groups.
ReplyDeleteI think that you used dots because with dots it's random and it's simple for a human mind to think well he randomly gave us dots so I guess that's how we should make groups. And we didn't really think it through on why you didn't say make groups according to the dots. and we were like okay there's one person left, so I guess she can join any group and kind of ignored her. Just like in the story Little things are Big. We had the choice to help the last person or we could just ignore her. And one of the people in our group decided to be that person to invite the last person into her group. So little things like that could make other people happy.
ReplyDeleteI think it is just the way human minds work. Under the circumstances that we were not allowed to speak, we simply followed what was obvious: the dots. We did not think to, nor could we have done, something else that relates to something less external. When we saw someone being left out, we reacted just by observing, trying to figure out what's going on, while others simply didn't care about what's going on; or on the other hand, where they didn't care about the dots, but only wanted to help out a lost soul. I think it all depends on our personalities.
ReplyDeleteAlicia - you speak with such wisdom +2 - How often do we rush into situations looking to do what is right and not necessarily what is wise?
ReplyDeleteYour comments all show that you are willing to look more at the big picture before diving in and doing what is obvious.