Author's Note...

            "They [litter experts] estimate that deliberate trash tossing has fallen about Two percent a year since the mid 70's in communities where it's been measured." Says Frank Greve in McClatchy Newspapers (1 of 5).
        It is a great thing that litter is decreasing, but two is a small number, especially out of 100. Also, this is only in "tested" areas, so that means that nyc might not be one of them.There is a new trashcan in the making called the "big belly" and it holds up to 4 times more than old nyc trash cans, and on top of that, doesnt lett food blow onto the street when it gets overflowed, said by Brooke Edwards from the nyc garbage project. Litter and trash tossing makes this world a dirtier place, and I want it to stop. Thats why I made this picture book.
        Since I was five years old, my mom would always get mad when she saw people litter on the street, and she always told me not to do that. In the end, it was a great thing that I learned not to litter at a young age, but not everybody does. My goal for this picture book is to teach kids not to litter at a young age, and hopefully their parents too.

Response to face book bullying research

          Bullying is bad in general, and you would think that bullying is worse in person than over the internet, think again. In the past few years, face book and other social networking websites like myspace are getting amazingly popular, and making lots of money from ads. Their are good things about these websites like the fact that you can talk to people that you haven't seen a while, or your friends that you see everyday. But then theirs a dark side to it. Everyday, hundreds of kids are getting bullyed or having fights over face book. And in the past, this has lead to serious things such as suicide, and running away.

         I got a great article on this subject o Technorati.com. The whole thing is about face book and people who are helping. There's a club called "the trevor project", that helps a lot with cyber bullying. Theres also an application called "find help" that facebook and safety web came up with. Pretty much, it helps in detecting any abuse of peers occurring on the site. Not only can cyber bullying be detected, but so can depression, suicide, drug abuse, hate, and last but not least, runaways. This makes me happy that face book is doing social action to help us kids of america.

        

Response on my research of litter.

 LITTER... I used to think this word was simple, and didn't think much of it, but ever since my class has started doing social issues, I have learned that its complicated, and in my opinion, one of the most important issues in the world. Although it falls under the category of pollution, I'm focusing on the single topic.
      
          When we first this assignment, in my head I really didn't want to do it, but now that I'm actually doing it, I regret that thought, because I'm having fun and learning a lot from it. My main source was sirs, on ms51library.org. Its a great website, and has accurate good information. First, when I typed in "litter" , a lot of the things that came up didn't say litter, they said "trash". And right then, is when I realized what litter really was, TRASH. Just the thought of trash sounds and makes me think about dirty things, who likes dirty things? Nobody. So why do sososososo many people in this world litter? Nobody knows, but my goal is to help as many people as I can stop littering, or at least not as much. Walk around park slope for a while, and please try to find a single block that does not have any type of litter on it. If you do that would be great, but the thing is, you're not going to.

           In the article I found, written by Frank Greve from mcclachy newspapers, It said that litter experts say that "they estimate that deliberate trash tossing has fallen about 2 percent a year since the mid 70s in areas they have measured." Now, it makes me happy to hear that it is falling. But first of all its only two percent, and secondly, its only in certain areas of the world. So, that means that there could be different areas of the world that it isn't dropping, but it is increasing... well, I hope you have learnt that you really shouldn't litter, and it makes planet earth a worse place every time you do.

Poem on Littering Assignment # 6.

RETTIL T'NOD

             DONT LITTER
      Its quite bitter
              dont be a critter
             AND LITTER
          its opposite of glitter
       LITTER IS BAD!
             it makes me sad
         its worse than my DAD
          AND ON TOP OF THAT............ IT MAKES ME MAAAAAAAAAAADDDD!!!!!!!!!

Observe your Surroundings Assignment # 2

Heres a list of social issues I have seen or noticed in my surroundings:

. Kids around my age getting mugged or beat up by near highschool students. (mostly john jay)
. Grownups or kids littering on the street or out of car windows.
. Kids calling other kids inapropriate or discusting  names the internet (mostly facebook).
. Racist remarks!

REFLECTION:
       All of this stuff makes me sick to my stomach! First of all kids getting mugged by bigger and stronger kids is just plain out wrong, and HAS to stop sooner or later. Who ever is picking on smaller kids are either messed up in the head or raised poorly. Secondly, I HATE when I see grownups litter!!!!!! They should know that its not good for the enviorment at all, and on top of that it might not effect their life but it will effect their great grandchildrens life!

Media/News assignment # 1

SOCIAL ISSUES:
. Major bullying. like kids bringing guns and knives to school.
. Mom killing her infant daughter.
. Lady throwing a bucket of puppy's into a river.
. Facebook bullying.
. Train station stabber.

REFLECTION:
         All of these horrible social issues I saw on the news makes me think about how terribly horrible people there are in this world. Also, it makes me think about all of the social actions that could be done to solve or help these social issues. For facebook bullying, its mostly kids, so more schools should have big assemballys to show that that is a wrong thing to do. For kids bringing guns and knives to school, maybe the parents can raise them a bit better and make sure that doesn't happen again. At least this does not happen at ms51! In my opinion, there should be more police officers at train stations so their arent too many more train station stabbers.

MOTHER TO SON by langston Hughes

       I love this poem, Mother to Son by Langston Hughes for several reasons. One is that in the poem there is a lot of words that are not real, and that I'm not used to, for example "kinder harder" and "ise". What I like about this is that by the third time reading the poem, the words sound regular to you, and you can read it super fluently.

       Another think I appreciate about Mother to Son is that there are a lot of sad and unlikable sentences and words in the poem, but in the end it gives a happy and positive message. The message is that you should keep going on in life, and it can be good in the end, even if you font hit the crystal stair.

       Overall, Mother to Son by Langston Hughes is a great poem and teaches a powerfull message. If you have not read it you should, because its probably one of the best poems out there.

      

Appreciation

       I discovered the book Freak the Mighty, by Rodman Phillbrick, when it was read aloud to me in fifth grade, by my teacher, Ilana. I remember loving this book and wondering when I would ever read it again in the future of my life, or if I even would.  In the fifth grade, I did not have deep thoughts like I do now, but I did appreciate the book, because from getting it read to me, I learned a lot about friendship, and I appreciated that a lot because I was having trouble with my friends at that time. I still appreciate the book now, but in deeper and different ways. One of the ways I appreciate this book now is that the book has wonderful balance, and wonderful writing, by Rodman Phillbrick. 

       The two main characters in Freak the Mighty are Max (M ighty) and Freak (Kevin). I appreciate this friendship because of the balance. Kevin, otherwise known as freak, is tiny, but super smart. Max, otherwise known as the mighty, is really big, but not that smart at all, creating a perfect balance. I connect and relate to Freak because we are both small, and have friends who are bigger and not as smart as us. I can relate to Max because i have two little sisters, so sometimes I feel really big, just like Max (Mighty).  Some back round information on Freak the Mighty is that it was published by Rodman Phillbrick in 1993.

       The characters in this book (Freak, and Max) are super important, because they shape the book, and put a perfect balance to it. Another reason the characters are important in this book is because they teach lessons about friendship. This text is great for any age because if your a kid and read it, you can learn about friendship, and what it is to have friends. If your a grown up, and you read it, it can remind you what it was like to be kid, and what it was like to go to school, or any other things you did as a kid that you havent thought about in a while. If you have not read this book, or you just want to reread it, you should, because its a great book, and will bring back memories. Freak the Mighty is a magical text because it teaches a great lesson, brings back memories, is well written, has great balance, and will make you laugh. Overall its a good read and will make you think like youv never thought before...






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Research to deepen thoughts

        To make my thoughts, feelings, and questions about the book Freak the Mighty deeper, I did some research on the auther, Rodman Philbrick. While doing my research on him, I found lots of interesting ideas and facts about him, that deepened my thinking on the book greatly.

        One thing that I found out from researching Rodman Philbrick is that he also wrote a book called Max the Mighty, a sequel to Freak the Mighty. This deepened my thinking on the book Freak the Mighty, and on the author, Rodman Philbrick. Now, from knowing this, I think about other good books i have read in the past, and if the authors of those books have written other good books. If so, i would love to read them. The website i got this information from is: WWW.rodmanphilbrick.com/book20.

         On http://biography.jfrank.com, i found some more interesting information on Rodman Philbrick, such as; He is a screen writer and a novelist, he was born in Boston,Mass, and he loved fishing as a kid. This deepens my thinking a lot about Freak the Mighty, because now when I read it, i can sort of picture Rodman Philbrick as a kid, and that helps me understand maybe how and why he would write the books he wrote.

        In conclusion, researching your book, or the author of the book you like a lot, can help you think, feel, and ask deeper things about the book. After I researched Rodman Philbrick, all my thoughts about the book Freak the Mighty got more safisticated, and a lot deeper.





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Balance

       In the book Freak the Mighty, there is a lot of balance. There are three examples of balance in this book, one, friendship, two, education, and lastly, size. All of these balances create Freak the Mighty, aka, Kevin and Max.
    
      Education is a perfect example of balance in Freak the Mighty. Freak, or Kevin, is very smart and well educated, he know how to read and write, and almost every word in the dictionary memorized. Mighty, or Max,  is the opposite, he hardly knows how to read or write, and has trouble even looking a word up in the dictionary. This created a perfect balance for a perfect friendship.

      Size is another very good example of balance in the book Freak the Mighty. Kevin, or freak, is really small, about a 7 to 8 year olds height, and Max, or mighty, is giant, like 6 to 7 feet, and still growing. This is just another factor of kevin and Maxes friendship, Freak the Mighty.


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Growing Up.

         There are a lot of themes and issues in the book Charlottes Web, by E.B. White, but the one my partner and I focussed on mostly is the theme:Growing Up. This theme plays an important role in this book, and the characters in it.

         When I went deeper and deeper into the theme growing up, I chose a more specific theory to work with. This theory is;As you grow, your interests change. This theory is great because it backs up the theme I chose really well.

        This theory is backed up with evidence on page 183 of Charlottes Web, where it clearly states that as Fern grows up, her interest for the barn and animals gets smaller. Another example of my theory is in the first few pages of the book, it states that Wilber is a little runt that deserves to die several times. Then in the end of the book, it clearly states that Wilber is a full grown pig, this shows that every living thing grows, and gets bigger in the end.

        Growing Up is also a major role of every body's life in the REAL world, not just in book like Charlottes Web. An example of this is when I was three, i was obsessed with little toy cars, and now, when im growing to be an adult, I realize that there are bigger and better things in life than toy cars. That shows that as i grew, my intrests changed, witch is exactly what my Growing Up theory  is.

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