Dear … Amir

How’s life Shalabs? I’ve been really busy lately. I have a lot going on in all areas of my life. School has been so chaotic for me. There’s so much work to do and so many different things to learn. My grades are doing well but I need some improvement in spanish. I’m on varsity soccer and I’m kinda sweating at it. I’ve had so much work for school applications and I have the SSAT coming up but enough about me what life for you like? I know you're doing the application process just like me. Is it easy or hard for you? Do you have a top school?

We’re reading this book in school called The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian By: Sherman Alexis. It’s this really cool story about a kid who’s 14 and his life on and off his Indian reservation. He lives on the reservation but goes to school at white school called Reardan high. His best friend for years used to be a kid named Rowdy but since he left the school they haven’t been friends. The main character‘s name is Junior and Arnold at school. He likes this girl named Penelope who goes to her school. That is pretty much what has happened in the book so far.

I have liked the book so far. It is a mostly easy book to read. I like the parts of the book where he talks about the school Junior is at. I think it is pretty interesting how the author uses techniques to write interactions. I think it’s a fun book that I like to read. I can’t wait to figure out what happens next.

One theme of this book is racism. The racism theme is seen throughout the whole book on multiple occasions such as this example about their dentist “our white dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as white people did, so he only gave us half the Novocain.” (Chapter:Black eye of the month club) Another example of racism is when Arnold is in his science class and he corrects the teacher then the teacher said “Okay, Arnold,” Dodge said. “Where did you learn this fact? On the reservation? Yes, we all know there’s so much amazing science on the reservation.”(Chapter:slouching towards thanksgiving) this talks about how the teacher was saying he didn’t learn right because he was on the reservation. My last example of this theme is when he arrived at school for the first time and how the kids viewed him “Those white kids couldn’t believe their eyes. They stared at me like I was Bigfoot or a UFO. What was I doing at Reardan, whose mascot was an Indian” (Chapter:How to fight monsters) this talks about how they viewed him as not a real person.

Amir I hope you understand what has happened in the book and the theme of the book and hopefully you will read it too. I’m interested in what you're up to and we’ll see each other soon.

Sincerely,

Parker Daniel

My Big Impact

Turning Injury into skill

Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation

~Michael Jordan

        I was four years old and it was only a couple of hours before I turned five. It was Saturday, April 6th, My Birthday! It was 9am and I was in my mom’s blue Toyota suv with my family driving to my birthday party. I was so excited because it was at this really cool bouncy house place. We arrived and put the cake in their fridge for later. I thought my party was going to be fun and then I’d get cake and open presents, but it actually was a party filled with intense pain that helped me learn a new skill.

Overcoming Fear, Taking Risks, and Having Fun

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

~Helen Keller.

Our grade trip to Camp Caribou started out the year with a bang. After only two days of school, we were on a bus mid-morning and headed towards Winslow, Maine. We were all excited for the trip and talking about what we would do when we got there. As the bus got closer to Winslow, people started to put their devices away and started talking. We thought it was going to be an easy and fun trip and it was very fun, but little did I know I would soon have to overcome my fear of  jumping at high heights. This would end up being a trip filled with fear, taking risks, and having fun.