What I Like About This Class

Even though, there are somethings that need to be improved in grade 8 english class, there are many good things in garde 8 english class also. For instance: the blog entry. I think the blog entry is a pretty good idea, because most students in PAS, including me, are native chinese speaker. Our english isn't very good comparing to real American. That is why we need extra practices, we need to practice writing and speaking to improve our grammer and vocabulary skill. Another good thing about grade 8 english is the quiz on every Thursday. The quiz tested the meaning and the example of the words. That helps us to understand the structure of the words and some vocabularies, which is very useful on learning english. The online homework assignments have good and bad points. I have already told about the bad points in last entry, What I Don't Like About This Class. The online homework assignments are good, because they can help students to learn how to use technology. Before I been to this class, I didn't even know how to use Wikispace and Blog. Learning how to use technology can help people solve some problems easier. Last thing, the english teacher is not boring. He is very humorous and amusing. He spoke confidently and loud enough during the class, which is very significant. I will like my english teacher to keep up the good work. 

What I don't like about this class

Well, I think grade 8 english is actually a fine class, cause I didn't gain very much pressure from this class. However, grade 8 english class can still have some improvement. For example: the quiz on Thursday. I think it is good to have quiz on every Thursday, but some questions can be added into the quiz paper like the definition of the example. Some time students just memorized the words and didn't really understand the meaning. That case, students won't be able to know how to use the words. Also, Mr.McCool can make some extra credit quetsions for the students. That way, not only students can have better grades, they will also learn more things. Mr.McCool don't have to spend almost a whole peroid to talk about formatting. Students can ask teacher for help after school if they have question on their homework assignment. I think the reading quizs and vocabularies can change into writing on paper, cause some people don't actually read the book. They just copy their answers from the others through wikispace. Because all students did their homework on wikispace, they can just see each others answers from that! That is all what I want to tell Mr.McCool about grade 8 english class. Thank you very much!

Frietche v Jaclson

In the poem "Barbara Frietchie", there are two main characters. One is the old lady, Barbara Frietchie; Other person is the Confederate General, Stonewall Jackson. Barbara Frietchie showed her bravery in the poem, she raised the Union flag up in the air, while the Confederate troop was marching. The Confederate soldiers shot down the staff, but Barbara Frietche quickly snatched the flag. He said "Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, but spare your country's flag." From the word she said to the soldiers, we could see she wasn't shock at what the soldiers did. Also, we could see the loyalty to her country of Barbara Frietche. She didn't succumbed to her enemies. She believed that she was doing the right thing. Over all, we can know that Barbara Frietchie is brave and loyal. Another main character in the peom is Stonewall Jackson. While their troop was marching through the town, he heard what Barbara Frietchie said to him. He felt guilty and shame about it. Then he ordered all the soldiers not to touch the old lady, kept marching. From the action he did, we could see that he respect his enemy. He knew that it would be pretty cruel to just kill a old lady, because she showed their country flag. Over all, Stonewall Jackson is a respectful and clever general.
I think both characters in this poem are hero. They did the right thing! 

Do the Right Thing

     The definition of a hero is a person who does the right thing even though he or she might have to act alone. I think this definition can apply to Harriet Tubman and Barbara Frietechie. Harriet Tubman had gone back to his home to save the slaves even though he was already a free woman. Although nobody were willing to go with Harriet Tubman to save the slaves, Harriet Tubman didn't change her decision. She decided to bring the slaves to Canada, the promised land at that time. Barbara Fritechie was also hero. He raised the flag of Union right in front of the Confederate army during the American Civil war. That was a very brave deed. No one in the town dared to raise the flag even they were the union. Stonewall Jackson could also call as a hero. He stop his soldiers from shooting the old lady. He knew that she was doing the right thing, so that she shouldn't be shot. Stonewall Jackson was a wise general. He could understand people.
     I think I have done more right things than the wrong things in the past. One right thing I did in the past was I respected everyone. I didn't tease or mock somebody when they made simple mistake. I mean everyone make mistakes, don't be so cruel. When somebody didn't know about something, I wouldn't say that they are dumb or stupid. Even I said that was just kidding, not serious. I wouldn't make joke that hurts people's feeling, cause that is what jerks always did to the others.

Standing up for Your Beliefs

     Many heroes stood up for their belief. For examples Abraham Lincoln and Sun Yat Sen. Abraham Linclon was the 16th president of the United States.. When he saw the slaves were whiped by their white owner. He felt sad and angry. He was sad for the slaves. they got treated very badly for many centuries in Britain. He was very angry about the slavery. He believed that all people on earth were born in equal. There shouldn't be someone ruling, or control them. He stood up for the slaves, said that they should end the slavery after he became the president of the United State.
    Sun Yat Sen is the founding father of Republic of China. He believed that the only way to make a country strong was to bring democracy for the country. He thinks that China was too weak. That was why they got under estimated by the foreigner. He stood up and fought against the Chin dynasty. China had finally walked into the door of democracy after his revolution.
   My belief is that all people need to go to school until they are 18 years old. No matter you are rich or poor. They have the right, because they need to know the basic knowledge to live in this world. Also, maybe the person is a very smart person. He could have done a great achievement for the country. He's achievement should be ruined just because he is poor.  
  
 

Cinderella Story

     Many people are like Cinderella. They were very poor at the beginning, then they became very successful at the ending. Like Wang ung Chin. He born in 1917 and died in 2008 or 2009 ( I forgot). Before that he was one of the richest bussiness man of Taiwan. He was extremely rich. He had his own model company. Before his company was established, he was a poor guy. His edjucational background wasn't very high. He didn't go to middle school after he graduated from elementry school. He formed a rice shop by borrowed 2000000 japaneses coin from his father. Soon, his business career started thriving and developing. More and more his shop were built in Taiwan. Eventually, he had his own rice factory and model company. Wang ung Chin could have this kind of success in his life, because he got a lot of bussiness ideas. Also, he put a lot of effort into his job. From this story, we can see the importance of deligence. 
     This Cinderella story didn't really occur in my life before, cause I have never been terrible on something and then became very good. My grades didn't have a huge change before. It was constant. I hope my popularity can be like the Cinderella Stroy. I wanted to be more popular in school.

              p.s  This blog is posted late, because I couldn't use internet yesterday. The computer had som problems.

Hero Biography

Well, I think there are many heros in this world, because many people in this world has courage, selfeness, and honesty. My top choice of hero will be the founding father of Republic of China, Sun Yat-Sen.
Sun Yat-Sen was born at Guangdong in 1866, and dead in1925. He was a doctor, modern revolutionist, and the first president of the Republic of China. That is why we call him our founding father. During Sun Yat-Sen time, China was still in Ching dynasty. He saw how rotten and turbulent the China was, and he thought very bad for that. While he was studing in Hawaii, he saw how good United State was. The people in United State helped each other, they have a better edjucation, people have more freedom, and there were no emperor or empire in United State, only president. After he saw the comparasion between China and United State, he decided to bring democracy to China.
Sun Yat-Sen revolution track was very tough. He have started 10 revolts before, and all of them had failed. Finally, in his 11th revolt, he finally succeeded. That was on Octoer 10, 1911. I think Sun Yat-Sen is a hero, because he was trying to save the people of China. He wanted to bring freedom and justice for them. He wanted China to be like United States. Also, He didn't fall back. Even though he failed 10 times, he still didn't give up. I think Sun Yat-Sen is a hero for every person of Republic of China.

What is a hero?

The definition of hero is an illustrious man, supposed to be exalted, after death, to a place among the gods; a demigod, as Hercules. Well, I think that is correct but not totally. I think heros are the people who are willing to save or sacrafice for the other people without any benefit from him or herself. They will all share the quality of courage, honesty, selflessness, and determination. I think the most important charateristic of being a hero are courage and selfessness. Hero needs to have the courage to fight for the others. Like when you see a little poor puppy got chased by a crowd wild furious dogs, you need courage. When you see a person is cheating on test, you need courage to charge him. Hero shouldn't be selfish, otherwise that will be like a jerk, that is like hire somebody to do some specific job for him. We don't call that hero. Harriet Tubman is a great example for hero. He ran back to save the slave even though he was already free. He got the courage to help the slaves, and he is selfessness. He fought justice for the slaves, and that is a hero. Hero is actually not that hard to be. Just remember that don't do bad things to the other people, and try to help the people that needs help. That is what I think!

Leaving Everything Behind

During the Qin dynasty of Shi Huangi, china was turbulent. Shi Huangi was a tyrant. He killed the people who disobeyed him, and the book that he thought was useless.He called tons of tons of workers to work for his construction, without paying money (cause he was the emperor). The most splendid and famous building that he called the workers to build is the Great Wall. Someone said that if you look at the earth from space, the most apparant construction will be the Great Wall. From that, we can understand how enormous the Great Wall is. Shi Huangi built the Great Wall, because he needed it to help him defend the Huns in the north. Most workers of the Great Wall were the civilians. They were called by the soldiers, and they have to go. They couldn't stay with their family, or he and his family would be all killed. As they were called up to work on the Great Wall, they had a very big chance of wouldn't see them any more. Even though you see them, it will probably be about 30 or 40 years after. You would have to work in a big summer day, you couldn't have any water, and you were not allow to rest. If you are lazy, the soldier would whip you. A lot of workers of the Great Wall were died while they were working, cause they were exhausted. They have never seen their family again after they got called up to build the Great Wall. 
The workers and the slaves have experienced the similiar experience. But there were some little differences between them. Slaves got some choice, even though is very slight. The workers got exatcly no choice. Slaves were easier to run away, but the workers were impossible to run away, because the soldiers were right next behind them

The Promise Land

Moses was a man got banished by the ancient Egypt. God had told Moses that he would lead the Hebrews to the promise land. During that time, Hebrews were used as slaves in ancient Egypt. The Egypitain treated them harshly. Moses went back to the Egypt to asked pharoah to free the hebrews. At first, the pharoah didn't agree to free them. But after the ten plagues that were given by god, the pharoah agreed to free the hebrews. After that, Moses started leading the Hebrews to the promised land.
  Harriet Tubman and Moses had a lot of similarities. First, both of them came back to free the other people when they were already their free. They both risk their life for saving the slaves. Sexond, they both lead their people to the promised land. For Moses, the promised land was the Jaruselum. For Harriet Tubman, the promised land was Canada. Even they were in different places, they both have the freedom that every slaves anxious about. I think the biggest similarties between Moses and Harriet Tubman is their mind. They both wanted to save the slaves from the unjustice. They were helping the people that sholud be helped.

Why Risks Your Life?

Harriet Tubman, a woman who was already free, was willing to risk her life to lead other people to freedom, because she thought that was the right thing to do. She thought that every person borned the same, there shouldn't be someone rule someone else. Why did those people couldn't be free? Did they do someone terribily wrong before? Why couldn't they just be like a normal person? I think that was what Harriet Tubman thought. She was fighting the unjustice. She rather die than have to save the people who isn't free.
  Sometimes, people will risk their life to save something that means very important to him or her. For example: Harriet Tubman. Freedom was very important for her. I think she knows the feeling of being limited and stricted. She wanted the other people to be like her, a free person. There are some other examples for risking life for something. Like soldiers. They fight for their country, they protect it. For soldier, their country is just like their mother. It gives them strength and power. They love their country. It is not hard for them to risk their life to protect the country. They rather die than protect it.

For The Sake of the Freedom

  Over many centuies, people had endured all kinds of pain to be free. For example: Taiwan. In 1895, China had a battle with Japan. At that period, it was Ching dynasty in China. The Ching dynasty was very weak at that time, and Japan was strong. Because of that, China got defeated by Japan very quickly. China was force to cede Taiwan to Japan after that battle ( Taiwan was one of China's province at that time).
  Japan soon started sending troops to Taiwan. The taiwanese didn't want to be ruled by Japan, so they started to defend their own land. A lot of taiwanese tribes had gathered together, they had only one purpose,and that was cast the japanese away. There were Hakka people, Aboriginal, and the Mi Na
people. Even though the taiwanese fought bravely, because their weapons were poorer than the weapon that japanese soldiers used, Taiwan still got took over by Japan in 1895.
  After Japan took over Taiwan, they started to rule the taiwanese. They treated taiwanese differently than the original japanese. Taiwanese couldn't get very high level job even they were smarter or better than the japanese. They gave taiwanese students worse education than the japanese students. Also, they forced taiwanese to do a lot of work that they didn't want to do, like constructions, fought, or sexial entertainment.
  Even though, it was such a bad condition for taiwanese, the taiwanese didn't give up. They still have many revolts that againt the japanese. They used all of their strength, just to try to cast away the japanese back to their land. They believed they would get freedom someday.
   

What happens?

  Billy stared at the landlady, thinking about what landlady had said to him. " Only you, what was that? How could only have two guests have been here for so many years? " Billy felt creepy and scared a bit when he heard that." I think I'll just go back to my room and ready to sleep, thanks for the tea. " said politely Billy. "Your welcome, my dear. Have a good night!" said the Landlady.
  Billy started walking back to his room. While he was walking back to his room, he felt sleepier and sleepier. He was getting unbalanced so he couldn't stand still. "What is going on with me?" thought queerly Billy. Sunddenly, he thought about what his chemistry teacher in middle school had told him about bittery almond in tea. "Oh god, not that old lady!"said Billy. Soon after he said that, he was lying on the floor.
  The landlady looked at Billy's body. It was quite, still, and peaceful. She walked toward Billy, and touched his face with her cold hand. "It will be alright, Mr.Weaver." said evilly the landlay. " It is just going to be OK." Landlady dragged Billy toward the forth floor.