Kimball Khetani

May 31, 2019

Fitz English 8

End Of Year Reflection

How I Improved On Reading And Writing

Give a damn and figure it out

- FItz

    This year was full of writing and reading. As a class we read, Tom Sawyer, All Quiet On The Western Front, and we had a free read. Those books took up about three quarters of our year and while we were not reading, we were writing literary analysis’, narratives, and literary reflections. This year was full of work and reading but I learned a lot of classics, writing techniques, and why we annotate books that we read. I was very disruptive in class and I apologize for that but that didn’t stop me from learning. I kept moving forward and as the year progressed, I got better and better at writing, reading a focusing in class. 

    I think that I did a really good job learning these different writing and reading techniques. I really enjoyed using the writing rubrics because when I write just a really long paragraph, I run out of ideas. But when I have the rubric, I find myself writing different ideas into the different boxes and I end up with a very good essay or paragraph. At the beginning of the year I didn’t want to write. Our first assignment was to write five-hundred words and I was so worried. But as the year progressed I learned to be able to write more and I was beginning to become a better writer.

    In my past schools, for english all we would do is read but that wasn’t going to help me for college. This year, Fitz’s main goal was to get us prepared for high school. He taught us how to read for a long time without getting bored an writing a lot but with one topic. I am struggling writing this metacognition but if I wasn’t in Fitz’s class, I would be able to write two-hundred words. He taught us to be patient, and write, write, write. I am going to be well prepared for college and high school because I will know how to write like a pro and read like a expert.

    It was a very rough year for me in english class. I was a very misbehaved kid. Sam and I were very troublesome together but not as much when we were apart. I am like the gasoline and he is the flame and the other way around. When we are near each other, we usually get in trouble. We are really good friends though. I get in trouble a lot and I don’t usually mean to. Sometimes, I think I am doing something funny and I don’t even think about the consequences. I get in trouble and I realize how stupid it was to do it. I have been trying not to do stupid things lately and Fitz threatening to tell my parents has really helped even though I shouldn’t need to be threatened to stop. This year has been awesome and full of challenges and there were some good times. I learned about reading, writing, and improving my behavior.

Narrative Reflection Paragraph

How Smitty Changed My Life

The people in your life should be source of reducing stress, not causing it

- Unknown

You are going to have person in your life that affects you in a good or bad way. It might be a sentence that they say or the person that they are but they are going to do something that changes your life forever. My experience was in the fourth grade. I was going into the fourth grade at Fenn and I only new about five or ten kids. I had Smitty as and advisee. I was kinda scared but when I first walked in his room all of my stress was relieved. I felt stranded at first at the Fenn school but when I met Smitty, I felt like I was found. He was the best. I brought up funny conversations and made random jokes that everyone laughed at. He was the best teacher that Fenn could have hired for the fourth grade teacher. He welcomed kids to his classroom like he already knew them. I was at the Fenn school. And Smitty was always there to support me. He always was going out of his way to make sure that we had a great day. During flop, he would do trivia and the winner would get some of his coke that he got from Star. I couldn’t have gotten a better fit for me. During the year Smitty was so awesome. One day, I was messing around with a friend and my pizza money ripped in half. I was devastated. I went to Smitty for help and he taped the five dollar bill back together. At the end of the day, he wen with me to the pizza sales to make sure that they would accept the money and I would get my pizza. Thanks to Smitty, I was the happiest fourth-grader ever. Smitty was the best and I will always be able to go and have conversation with him whether its for fun, I am having trouble with something, or I just need to talk, Smitty will always be there for me.

Kimball Khetani

May 28, 2019

Fitz English 8

Literary Analysis Paragraph

How Determination Played A Huge Role In Through The Tunnel

Some people succeed because they are destined but most because they are determined

- Unknown

Every boy has determination but in the book Through The Tunnel, by Doris Lessing, the boy Jerry has lot of determination to find and swim through the tunnel. Jerry sees the older boys going through the tunnel and he has a lot of determination to do it himself. “Soon the biggest of the boys poised himself, shot down into the water, and did not come up. The others stood about, watching. Jerry, after waiting for the sleek brown head to appear, let out a yell of warning; they looked at him idly and turned their eyes back toward the water. After a long time, the boy came up on the other side of a big dark rock, letting the air out of his lungs in a sputtering gasp and a shout of triumph.” I keeps looking to try and find it but can seem to only see a rock. I goes a little deeper and finally sees it. I begins practicing holding his breath for a long time to go through the tunnel. 

Jerry was so determined to go through the tunnel that he practiced so much. He worked very hard to hold his breath. He did as much as he could at times. Some days, he even went back to the villa with a bloody nose and he was feeling dizzy. His mom wanted to let him go and do his own things to make him feel like he wasn’t trapped but when she saw his nose bleeding, she got worried and made him stay with her for a day. “Have a nice morning? she asked, laying her hand on his warm brown shoulder. Oh, yes, thank you, he said. You look a bit pale. And then, sharp and anxious, How did you bang your head? She said. Oh, just banged it, he told her.”

Again his nose bled at night, and his mother insisted on his coming with her the next day. It was a torment to him to waste a day of his careful self-training, but he stayed with her on that other beach, which now seemed a place for small children, a place where his mother might lie safe in the sun. It was not his beach.

His determination was very important in getting to his goal; he didn't have any determination then he would have a hard time getting to his goal; “He was without light, and the water seemed to press upon him with the weight of rock. Seventy-one, seventy-two. There was no strain on his lungs. He felt like an inflated balloon, his lungs were so light and easy, but his head was pulsing.” Determination is what kept him going and to keep trying. 

His determination got him to his goal and that experience probably taught him that if you work towards something, you can achieve it.

Kimball Khetani

May 6, 2019

Fitz English 8

My Experience Reading All Quiet On The Western Front

How The Book Effected Me

Alone we can do little; together we can do so much

- Helen Keller

Responsibility

Dont be afraid to rock the boat. If somebody falls off your boat, they were not ment to be in it

    On Saturday morning I was really excited. I was going with my dad to the woodshop at Fenn to re-varnish the wood that is on my boat. Last year, my parents went to this auction at Fenn and they won this thing where you can do any project with Mr. Hienze. I chose to re-varnish the wood. We got there at eight thorty in the morning and he was already there and getting ready for us. I think that he was more excited than my dad and I. We immediatly got started. We had to sand the old varnish and stain off of the wood in order to put the new coats on and that was the hard part. Mr Hienze and I used the huge sander to get the big pieces of wood while my dad what using a electri handheld sander to get the small areas. If my dad and I did this at home it would take forever but at Fenn it took a while but at the end the wood looked brand new. Then we took some tack cloths to wipe off the extra sand dust that was on the wood. That way there wouldn't be any lumps on the wood at the end. After that we started to paint the appoxy on. My dad and I were planning n using stain but Mr. Hienze suggested that we use appoxy so that we could see the grains in the wood and it would look better. We ended up applying only one coat of the appoxy because it takes overnight for it to dry. My takeaway from this experience is that you have to be responsible for your own stuff. It was really hard work but it is going to look much better than it did.