SKills Post 3: Editing and Proofreading

For this blog post, I would like to take my first skills post, edit and proofread it.

During Writing class, our teacher gave us an assignment to compare and contrast two or three different camps. I chose to compare and contrats Camp Big Apple and Ranch West Camp. In these two camps, I would like to compare and contrat the teachers and the living condition/situation.
 
At Camp Big Apple (CBA) the teachers have at least a masters degree but I wouldn't know what the degree would be for. However, the teachers would have had to earn their degree at an American college. To me this means that they can understand english well. However there is still no evidence that the teachers and teach well. At Ranch West Camp (RWC), the teachers are all recent graduates from the local university. That means to me, the teachers are inexpirenced. While the teachers were at the university they might have majored in something besides english. This leads me to believe that the teachers at RWC are not as good as the teachers at CBA.
 
At CBA, the students all live in dorms. At RWC, the students live with another family. I think these camps are alike because one doesn't live alone. At CBA, one's room mates will be from all over the world. That means that they cannot communicate in their home language and will have to speak English to communicate with each other. Living in a dorm is also a good studing environment. In contrast, RWC is a home-stay situation. There are always possibilities that you may not like the  family's rules or you just might not like the family. Canada also has two national languages (French and English) so the family you stay with might speak a lot of french. These reasons lead me to believe that the housing at CBA is better for both learning english and is a better studying environment.
 
There are many more pros and cons to these camps but using these two arguements I have decided to go to CBA because CBA's housing and teachers make it a better camp than RWC.

Skills Post 2: Summarizing and Paraphrasing

During class, we all learned how to summarize and paraphrase.  The way to sumarize is to read the passage, re read it, take notes, put the passage away and start taking notes.  In this blog, I will summarize an article about shark attacks, than paraphrase a paragraph and write about something important to me.

Shark attacks
Some people have the fear of being in a shark attack.  It is possible, but it is highly unlikely.  It is actually more likely that you would be struck by lightning.  In some parts of the U.S.A, around 180 people get struck by lightning every year while there are around 11 shark attacks.  It is also more likely that you will drown while you are at the beach than be in a shark attack.  There are some ways to avoid the slim chance of shark attacks.  Swimming in groups is one way because sharks are more likely to attack a singal swimmer.  Sharks have a keen sense of smell so if you have a cut and are worried about shark attacks, don't go swimming.

Bear attacks: paragraph 6
There are some ways to reduce the chance of a bear attack.  If you travel in a group of four or more people the bear will probably not attack.  Also if you find a bear, don't run away.  If you stay calm, there will be a smaller chance that a bear will attack you.

An article that is interesting to me:
Jelly Beans are a type of candy with a hard shell and a soft middle.  There is a lot of sugar.  It is thought that jelly beans were surfaced when William Schrafft told people to send jelly beans to soldiers.  In 1905, the mentioning of jelly beans happened the Chicago Daily News.  Jelly beans come in many colors such as red, orange, yellow, green, purple, black, white and pink.

Jelly Beans:
There are some jellybean brands that make different flavors such as berry, tropical fruit, soft drink and popcorn in addition to the regular fruit and spice flavors.  Individual flavors can be sold from the distributors.  There was also a commercially available version of the Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans form Harry Potter.  They included the flavors earwax, dirt, pepper and vomit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellybean this is the article I used

Fun Post 3: Speech Contest

At my camp, every Saturday, we have a special event.  This Saturday, at camp, there is going to be a Speech/Presentation Contest.  Each class has two representatives and my classmate and I were chosen as representatives.  Last Saturday, our class held preliminary rounds and our teacher chose the top seven.  Somehow, I made it past the preliminary rounds and today we held the final rounds.  For our speeches, there are requirements such as our speeches need to be 4:30-5:00 minutes long.  Many of our speeches did not meet the requirements.  So our teacher took the speeches that were longer than 4 minutes and compared them.  Luckily, my speech was only 10 seconds to short.  At the end of our class with our teacher, our teacher announced the two representatives.  My classmate and I were really surprised when we found out that we were the representatives!  Now, all we have to do is practice, practice, practice!

My speech is about Yellow Cards.  I remember my teacher saying that our speeches needing to be emotional or funny.  I thought I might have been able to make an entertaining presentation about Yellow Cards.  Yellow Cards are warning cards we get from out camp.  When we misbehave and our teacher catches us, we get Yellow Cards.  Since everyone knows about Yellow Cards, I thought people would understand my speech better.  Everyone in my class had really great speeches and I know we all worked hard on it.  Everyone in camp probably worked hard on their presentations so I know it will be hard to compete on Saturday!

What the World Eats

For this posts, my class is supposed to choose a family and explain what they eat.  I chose the Manzo family of Sicily, Italy.  Every week, they spend 214.36 Euros or 260.11 American Dollars.  Their favorite foods are: pasta with ragy, hot dogs and frozen fish sticks.  In their family, there are five people.  A mother, father and three children.  I noticed that they eat a lot of bread and fruits.  There are also many canned foods.  This family eats mostly wheat produts.  They seem to drink a lot of soda.  I think this family is healthy with their food choices but could work on their decisions for drinks.

If I were this family, what would I eat for a snack?  I would make a sandwich.  Using the bread this family has, I would cut it up into slices, then chop up some tomatoes and add some lettuce. 

Another thing I might make is a fruit salad.  There is a lot of cabbage and lettuce.  There is also a lot of fruits such as bananas, grapes, pears and something exotic.  Then I would cut the bread and make delicius cruetons.  These are two recipies that can be made from the family in Silily, Italy.



This is the picture I used.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373675,00.html

Fun Post 2: Chain Writing

During writing class, we passed around our journals and made chain writing stories.  Here's mine...

Once upon a time, there was a pig named Mary.  Mary was a magical pig who could turn dead people alive again.  One day, Mary's mother died so Mary used her powers to make her alive again but failed.  Mary was so depressed that her voice started croaking  and she got dark circles under her eyes. 

One day, she was taking a walk in town and met an evil pig named Ted.  Ted learned how to use magic and bring dead people alive.  So Ted made the person called the person named Bob come alive again.  Bob thought he was so smart because he thought he could use the spell "bucabuca" not "ducaduca."  So Bob is alive but doesn't know that he is because the spell "bucabuca" erases one's memories. 

Bob bumped his head on a rock and died again.  The rock had a name and it's name was "I think Bob is not smart because he said 'bucabuca.'"  Bob, somehow, became alive again but then died with the evil pig, Ted.  Mary lived happily ever after because she was annoyed by Ted and Bob.  The moal of this story is: never say "ducaduca," unless you want to end up like Bob and Ted.

Skill post 1

During Writing class, our teacher gave us an assignment to compare and contrast two or three different camps.  I chose to compare and contrats Camp Big Apple and Ranch West Camp.  In these two camps, I woud like to compare and contrats the teachers and the living condition/situatiuon.

At Camp Big Apple (CBA) the teachers have at least a masters degree but I wouldn't know what the degree would be for.  At the camp, the teachers have to have earned their masters degree at an American University.  To me this means that they can understand english well.  However there is no evidence that the teachers and teach well.  At Ranch West Camp (RWC), the teachers are all recent graduates from the local university.  That means to me, the teachers are inexpirenced.  While the teachers were at the univerity, they might have majored in something besides english.  This leads me to believe that the teachers at RWC are not as good as the teachers at CBA.

At CBA, the students all live in dorms.  At RWC, the students live with another family.  I think these camps are alike because one doesn't like alone.  At CBA, one's room mates will be from all over the world.  That means that they cannot communicate in their home language and will have to speak English to communicate with each other.  Living in a dorm is also a good study environment.  In contrast, RWC has a home-stay situation.  There are always possibilities that you may not like the family's rulesor you just might not like the family.  Canada also has two national languages (Frencha and English) so the family you stay with might speak a lot of french.  Even though RWC's living condition may be more comfortable, I think CBA's living situatiuon is better for language improvement.

There are many more pros and cons to these camps but using these two arguemtents, I have been led to believe that CBA's housing and teachers make it a better camp than RWC.

Fun Post: Tasmanian Devils

Tasmanian Devils are mammals that live in Tasmania which is an island state in Australia.  In the wild, a Tasmanian Devil can survive for about 5 years.  It is also about 20-31 inches in size.  The weight can vary from 9-36 pounds. 
Right now, they are endangered because there is a contagious cancer going around.  Cancer may not be contagious, but for the the Tasmanian Devils, it is.  It is called Devil Facial Tumor Disease or DFTD.  It causes large lumps around the Devils' mouth and head.  This makes it hard for them to eat.  Eventually, they starve to death.  This disease was discovered in the mid-1900's and it has killed tens and thousands of Tasmanian Devils.
The Tasmanian Devil is the world's largest carnivorous marsupial.  They survive by eating small prey such as, snakes, birds, fish and insects.  They can clear the landscapes of dead carcuses.  Devils only come out at night to feed and when they do find something to eat, they will eat the entire animal.  Including hair, organs and bones.
I think Tasmanian Devils are facsinating animals.  I hope this post has helped you learn more about them.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/tasmanian-devil/?source=A-to-Z