RLA Quarter 1 Reflection

1. I think I have started to read more often in the past quarter. I normally don't read on the weekends, but I have started to read more often on the weekends and finish books faster. I finished Shooting Kabul in five days, when I am normally a pretty slow reader. I have started to comprehend more while I read and pay more attention. Sometimes while you read, your mind isn't really on what your reading. I don't do that as often now. I don't think I have been varying my genres too much because I am reading mostly realistic fiction (which are my character books), but I want to read other books as well as my character books. And even though I am reading more often, I still think I can read more to get done with books faster.
2. One thing I really got better at in Writer's Workshop is adding a "heart" to your story. Before, my writing had almost no heart. I was really proud of my "So What" at the end of my personal narrative, and showing why my story is meaningful to me. I could work on spreading the "heart" throughout my story. I got better at paragraphing. I experimented with paragraphing in different ways to show importance and time change. My story did have some parts that could've been sped up because they were unimportant. I think I did well on adding DAT; which is dialogue, action, and thinking. I think I was able to add in descriptive DAT to my story.
3. My reading responses have gotten more deep and meaningful, and I am able to explain more about them. My claims show more insight and deeper thinking about the text. I can now find evidence across the text, which shows a tracked claim, rather than one piece of evidence. My explanations are longer because I have to explain more about how my claim makes sense, since they are deeper. I think I have gotten better at analyzing characters' feelings and relationships. My first reading response wasn't very specific, but my reading responses now are specific and I am able to explain what my thought is well.

Maybe it Was a Good Thing

For the past few weeks in RLA, we have been working on writing our personal narratives. We learned about having DAT (Dialogue, Action, and Thinking), a clear "So What" that explains why the story is important to us, a good lead, and lots of detail. The area I grew most in while writing these personal narratives was writing a good "So What". Without further ado, here is my personal narrative, Maybe it Was a Good Thing.

I guessed that the double knot in my stomach meant a combination of excitement and nervousness. Mostly nervousness. That could be a good thing, I hoped internally.

The large crowd of people behind me roared. I spun around, grinned, and waved to all the people I knew. Most of them were just acquaintances. I knew my mom was in the back, and my friends were somewhere in the crowd. But I couldn’t see any of my closest friends.

There were butterflies in my stomach and I had no idea how I was going to do any of this.

The gym was just a loud room. The only thing I could hear was people cheering and chatting in the crowd. Kids were making up cheers for their friends, teachers and parents were getting their cameras ready; and here I was, sitting here being as nervous as I could be.

One of the PE teachers walked to the center of the gym, with a microphone in his hand. I turned back around and listened to what he had started to say.

“Welcome to the Basketball Shootout!” blared his voice from the speaker behind him. That rapidly made the crowd hush down.

“Thank you, everyone for being here to cheer on your friends, children, or just fellow students!” he paused. “All of us PE teachers are glad to be here and I’m sure our players are too,” he said, gesturing toward us. “Students will get 60 seconds to shoot today.”

Double the time of the semi-finals, I thought. That should be good, I reassured myself, remembering how well I had done then; making four 3-pointers, exactly according to plan. I hadn’t missed one shot. I was actually impressed with my own performance yesterday in the semi-finals. I hadn’t expected myself to do so well then. I knew I normally didn’t do as well as I wanted to in these types of things; where you have to prepare the whole week, then you have just one shot at it.

“The order for the players will be 3rd grade girls, 3rd grade boys, 4th grade girls, 4th grade boys, and the same with 5th grade,” the PE teacher continued.

Ok, I thought to myself. 2nd to last, not bad. That’ll give me some time to watch others and hopefully get rid of my nerves. I thought my nerves would die down, but I didn’t know how that would happen.   

“But first, let’s congratulate our players for making it to here!” the PE teacher called out. The entire audience burst out into claps and cheers. I liked to be congratulated, but it did put a whole lot of pressure on me. I had to do well, I internally pressured myself. I had to do well.

“Let’s get started,” said the PE teacher, and handed the microphone to another PE teacher.

This PE teacher called out, “First: 3rd grade girls.”

As I watched different kids win, and get 3rd place, the exact opposite of what I hoped to happen happened. Not one bit of my nerves went away. I felt as if the butterflies in my stomach had turned to moths instead. Soon enough, my name was called out and I grabbed a basketball and went to the fraction of the gym I had been assigned to. I dribbled the ball from side to side, and took a practice shot. The ball hit the rim of the hoop and dropped back down.

Focus, I thought. But before I could take another practice shot, the teacher called, “On your marks..”

Oh no, I thought. I was not ready. But I had to be. What was worse was somehow all of my closest friends were at the inside of the barrier right behind me. They were cheering my name loudly: “Let’s go Kavya, let’s go!”

“Get set,” called the PE teacher.

The pressure was on.

“GO!”

The moment the whistle blew, I knew to stick to the strategy I had practiced this whole week: go for the 3-pointers. I ran over to the 3-pointer line and aimed, jumped, and shot. Missed it. I ran over to grab the ball, then returned to the 3-pointer line. I shot. Missed again. I was almost mad at myself, muttering, “Kavya, you practiced for this; focus. You have to do this.”

After missing another shot from the 3-pointer line, the words, Ok. I have to start making some 2-pointers, zipped through my head.

I shot the ball into the hoop from the 2-pointer line. I made it. Making this shot increased my confidence. I took a quick glance at the timer. 20 seconds left. I made another shot from the 2-pointer line. I made it. I knew I was low on time so I took a shot from the 1-pointer line and missed. Then, I made a quick 2-pointer.

I was down to the last 5 seconds.

I took a quick 1-pointer. Score.

Another 1-pointer. Score.

“3!” The audience yelled.

I can do this, I thought.

“2!” they cheered.

Another 1-pointer. Score.

One more…

“1!” I took the quickest shot I could. Missed. I sighed and wiped the sweat off of my forehead.

“9 points,” the PE teacher notified me. I already knew that I had gotten 3rd place, because I had scored 12 points in the semi-finals when I had only 30 seconds. My idea was confirmed when I asked the other girls what score they had gotten.

At this point, I felt a mix of emotions. I felt regret. I somewhat felt I could have done better. I felt mad at myself that I got 3 points less in double the time as the semifinals. I was smiling in the joy of knowing I had made it till here, but my toe was squirming around in my shoe in some sort of regret. I guess you could say that I knew I should be happy for making it till here, but I didn’t really feel that happiness.

I went up to collect my certificate after they called my name. My body language showed that I was happy, and I did feel that way, but the regret still stung me.

But, as the crowd started to disperse, it hit me. Just like that. Within a few seconds, I understood. I had practiced for more than an hour every day of this week. I had played in front of this giant crowd, under so much pressure. I kept going after not scoring in the first 30 seconds. I had put so much effort into this, that it was almost unreasonable for me to regret any of it. And, sure I could’ve done better under the pressure, but that didn’t matter. It didn’t matter than I had gotten 3rd place. That is not going to make any difference in the long run.

One shootout is not going to define the best player. Making it till here is more than amazing for me.

By the time these thoughts were done whizzing through my head, I had friends patting my back, complimenting how I had played, and a big grin on my face.

My mom asked me, “You’re ok, right? Getting third place?” in a sort of awkward way.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I’m alright.”

The one thing I had just learned was that it didn’t matter. It really didn’t matter.

Maybe it was a good thing I had made it till here, I thought to myself, beaming. ‘Maybe it was a good thing.

Photo Credits:
https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=basketball&tbs=sur:fmc#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=qsRKGESn1Z9w5M%253A%3BJ8E5qUiPKL5_WM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fupload.wikimedia.org%252Fwikipedia%252Fcommons%252F1%252F10%252FBasketball_through_hoop.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fen.wikipedia.org%252Fwiki%252FBasketball%3B2592%3B2044

Finding My Volume

Here is the video I made about my science assignment-finding my volume. It is just about a minute long, and shows the two solutions I used to find my volume using water displacement.

My first solution involved water displacement. My plan was to fill up my bathtub till an amount in which I think I can fit my whole body in, mark the height, and submerge myself entirely into the water. After measuring the height of the water and marking it both before and after I went into the bathtub, I found my volume. I had displaced 6 centimeters high of water. (The water level was 24 cm before I went in and 30 cm while I was in the water.) I then had to multiply the height of the water I had displaced by the surface area of the water. I multiplied the width of the water (45 cm) by the length of the bathtub (125 cm) by 6 cm (the height of the water I had displaced). My product was 33,750 cm3, or 33.7 liters.

I wanted to check my answer with another solution. This was to fill up the bathtub to the second mark (the water height with me in it); then use my 500ml measuring cup and took out water, counting each full cup. To compare this method to my first strategy, I would need around 66 cups because 500ml x 2= 1 liter, and with the first method, I got 33 liters. Using this method, I got 64 cups, which is 32 liters. This means my volume is between 32 and 34 liters. 

Here are two assumptions I made before performing this experiment:

• My bathtub has the shape of a rectangular prism.
• My swimsuit and goggles do not have a significant enough volume to interfere with calculating my volume. 

54321+8 Promoting Wellness in My Community

Here is my Google Presentation for 54321+8. I worked on a SMART goal and sharing this presentation with my parents, then interviewing them about their wellness and this presentation.

Factor Rainbow or Factor Tree?

When is it better to use the 'factor rainbow' method, rather than the 'factor tree' method for finding factors?
I think it is better to use the factor rainbow method when the numbers are low, because there wouldn't be as many numbers to write down. For example when I need to find the LCM or GCF of 12 and 6, it wouldn't make sense to use the factor rainbow method. But using the factor rainbow method is quick since 12 and 6 are low numbers and don't have as many factors. It's better to use the factor tree method when the numbers are big because you don't have to write down as much. For example, finding the LCM or GCF of larger numbers like 84 and 48 or finding the LCM or GCF of multiple numbers like 24, 72, and 80.

8.5

8.5

TEN is a person who is dying to hit the stage on day one of drama and would willingly perform in front of all of 7th grade right NOW!  ONE is a person who would rather be ANYWHERE but the stage and would prefer to be wrapped up in a blanket back in their bed hugging their teddy bear. On this scale of one to ten, I would be an 8.5 because I really like acting and making other people laugh. I like to entertain people. I have had some experience with acting and drama, and I have really enjoyed it. I have always found pretending to be other people and being dramatic really fun. But, I am not the kind of person who would just hop onto the stage and perform. I do get nervous before I go onto stage, and sometimes shy. Even though I get nervous, I like the feeling of having nerves and butterflies in my stomach. I think it makes me do well on the stage, enjoy it more, and the whole thing feels real. I am looking forward to acting in drama class and showing people what I can do on stage. I do get nervous, but with the nervousness comes excitement! I am always excited to be on stage and get a chance to perform. 

What We Measure

Here is my 'What We Measure' table for science. I filled out the ones I knew, and tried my best on the ones I wasn't sure about. I left the boxes I was really stuck on blank.

Quantitative  Data Type	Instrument Used	Unit of Measurement
Mass	weighing scale/balance	Gram
Distance	meter stick	meter/kilometer
Volume (liquids)	beaker/flask	milliliter/liter
Volume (solids)		centimeters cubed, meters cubed
Temperature	thermometer	Celsius
Time	clock	minutes/seconds/ hours
Density