Visit#5

By: Harry Staley

In this visit I encountered a lot of problems but it was also one of my best visits. I first got there with Alan and Tony and we were already to do some work. I started off by getting dishes from the animals to Tony for washing. Thin I prepared the food for Crow. I had to change out all of the newspaper for crow and then I could give him his food. Then I fed some of the other animals, like Gem, a terrapin. To feed Gem I needed to get a clear container and fill it about two inches with water. Before I put Gem into the container, I needed to put in little chunks of squid. After the squid was in the tank, I put Gem into the tank and left to feed another animal. A few minutes later Tony and I started to look at the snakes. When we got to the last snake, a corn snake, we noticed that it wasn’t moving. We examined it further and noticed that wood was coming out of its mouth. I told my partner and she immediately felt sad. That snake has been there for twenty years. She was very sad, but then she got over it and we resumed our work. After I finished feeding the animals inside, we had to feed the animals outside. All of the animals outside are a bird of prey, which means they eat other live things. My partner brought Kolton and I out to the big cages where we would begin feeding. Kolton and I had to give each bird the correct number of mice which was indicated on the feed sheet. We first walked into the cage and a big owl swooped down at Kolton and I. Immediately Kolton’s response was this is crazy, which it was. In one of the cages we went into Kolton and I had to pick up rats that were the size of my forearm. I thought that the feeding was really gross, but I also thought it was cool to go into those cages and feed those big birds. I love the experience and I can’t wait to go again.

utline for 11- or 8-sentence Paragraph

TS (Main Idea, Topic, or Thesis)At my service sight I think I did some good with all of the thing I do there.

Bell word-

SD At Nature Center always do what I was told

Echo word to be used- well

 CM, always do what I was told so I don’t get in trouble

CM Good practice for when I do it alone

SD always listen so I do it right

CM can’t mess up or the animals could get hurt or sick

CM Got to listen or else you get in trouble

SD bring humor to my sight

CM Without humor it get kind of boring, because all they do is work

CM Without the humor it would be so boring

CS bring a whole bunch of stuff from my everyday life to my sight every visit

Outline for 11- or 8-sentence Paragraph

TS (Main Idea, Topic, or Thesis) three difficulties at nature center communication, rules, and familiarity, and location of materials

Bell word-Difficulties

SD had hard time emailing with them

Echo word to be used- problems

 CM, had to go to the place

CM had to make a special visit

SD Even with tour, didn’t know where anything was

CM animal feeding is hard, because couldn’t find food

CM Buddy system helped

SD Have to have parent

CM parent is an inconvenience- without parent can’t feed

CM “to dangerous” animals are unpredictable

CS the more I go the more I learn, but still an inconvenience because parent has to stay the whole time

Outline for 11- or 8-sentence Paragraph

TS (Main Idea, Topic, or Thesis) Place has difficulties

Bell word-Difficulties

SD Over course of visits had problems

Echo word to be used- problems

 CM, couldn’t communicate

CM emails were hard

SD Learning ways were hard

CM animal feeding is hard

CM very confusing

SD Have to have parent

CM without parent can’t feed

CM “to dangerous”

CS I have problems at Nature Center

Outline for 11- or 8-sentence Paragraph

TS (Main Idea, Topic, or Thesis) I chose my assessment place because it was close.

Bell word-close

SD While I was in the hunt for my assessment assignment I look everywhere to find a good place to work.

Echo word to be used-Nearby

CM For all of the places I looked I looked for places that were nearby.

CM Since I have two homes being close would be kind of an issue.

SD Being close to my home is what I really wanted so that if I had things to do after my assessment I wouldn’t have to take a long car ride to be there.

Echo word to be used-Area

CM In the area that we live in there are plenty of places that could use some volunteers.

CM Before I chose the nature center I looked at a whole bunch of other places.

SD Before I chose the nature center I looked at a couple of other places.

CM I looked at the Stonington Harbor Yacht club but that was something that I had already done so I chose a place that I used to go to all the time as a kid.

CM When I was a kid some of my best memories were at the nature center.

CS I love the nature center and I thought it was a great choice for me.

Circle

Harper Lee and Harry Lee

An essay by: Harry Staley

8^th grade English

Pine Point School

January 31, 2011

I think my life is like the book To Kill A Mockingbird because the book and my life always seem to go in a circle. Over the course of my short life, I have found that each time I take a shortcut or do not do as good a job as I could, it always seems to come back to haunt me.  Like in the book when Jem and Scout do not tell Atticus that they spoke to Boo Radley through the big tree and later regret not talking to him more.  I like it when characters in a book and I have similar experiences.

(TS) I think To kill A Mockingbird is like a big circle because things and people come back into the story at strategic points. (SD) A lot of old things are starting to come back around into the story. (CM) A lot of characters from earlier in the story reappear, like Dr. Reynolds, who came back “after ten forever’s”  to help Jem when he got hurt. (CM) Also, in the last few chapters I noticed how Harper Lee started to bring back old styles of writing. (SD) A lot of places that were very popular earlier in the book are beginning to loop back into the story. (CM) For instance, early in the book there was a tree with a hole that was used for communication between Boo Radley and Jem and Scout. (CM) That tree was a great place for Jem and Scout before it was ruined by Mr. Radley who did not want them communicating with Boo. (SD) In the last couple of chapters, Atticus’ job is revolving back to becoming something that is rarely discussed. (CM) At the beginning of the book, we did not hear much about Atticus’ job. (CM) In the middle of the book all we read about his trials and about Tom Robinson, but  towards the end of the book we have not heard much about his job. (CS) I think that the whole structure  of To Kill A Mockingbird has been circular.

(TS) Like how To Kill A Mockingbird is structured, the older I get , the more I find my days  becoming  round. (SD) While all of my days are becoming more continuous, they each seem to be the same old boring day. (CM)My Day consists of three things: waking up; going to school;  and doing homework, which doesn’t make for a very exciting day. (SD) The older I get, the more I realize that my days and weeks are becoming too consistent and boring. (CM) As the year progresses, I notice how boring and routine it is. (CM) The weird thing about all of this is that it feels like they go by really fast. (SD) Now that I have lived in a few places and met a lot of people,  some of them are coming back into my life like a circle. (CM) A lot Of old friends who I knew when I lived in Stamford are finding me on Facebook and we reconnect. (CM) I know it probably sounds strange, but it seems to be happening more and more. (CS) Boring as it is, life is short and within that short period of time many circles start to form and that is the circle of life.

After reading my essay on circles I hope you agree  that my life and the book To Kill A Mockingbird are very similar. Once in a while things don’t go the way we want it to, but eventually it all comes back around and you can work at it again like a circle. I hope my life starts creating more interesting circles.  The boredom of my current circles is killing me.

On issue that I faced while writing this essay was trying as hard as I could o connect the book to my life.

One strong point I see in this writing is that I really tried to complete all of the bell words and echoes.

On weak point I see is that before I read through my writing half of the stuff I wrote didn’t make sense.

Self-grade: B

Visit # 4

By: Harry Staley

                In this visit I started off by grabbing all of the food and water dishes for the birds upstairs and went downstairs with them and cleaned them out. After I cleaned them, I started feeding other animals. I fed Crow, as everyone calls him, and all of the other animals. Some of the feeding was kind of gross. When I had to feed the box turtle, I had to give it fruits, veggies, and two mealy worms. Before I gave the turtle its food, I had to maim the mealy worms, which was not cool, because i had to pinch each worm until I heard it crunch and could no longer move. When I was about half way through my time, I met two people in there late forty’s who loved to volunteer at the nature center. I thought this was cool because they werent being forced to be there but they wanted to be there, and i thought that was a really nice thing to do. During the last visit I learned, I learned more about feeding and where everything in the nature center is, and that some people like to volunteer there time for the nature center when they need help. I am slowly beginning to like the nature center more and more and I can’t wait to go again.