Stock Market

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In The Westing Game one of the main characters, Turtle, followed stocks. So as always we did a stock simulation. How we did it is we had a spreadsheet, (See above) and were loaned 20,000 dollars to invest and try to make back! I invested in Apple, Disney, Tesla, and Microsoft. It was a really great experience because it taught me so much about the real world and even made me some cash! Thanks so much to my financial advisor Mrs. Sprague and if you are looking to invest come on down to Fox Financials because we got the perfect advisor for your taste! 

What We Did In Our Language Arts Classes This Year

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This year in my language arts class we have done so much! Some of the things that have happened include a book we read earlier in the year, The Last Cuentista. The Last Cuentista‘s main story takes place in space around a super weird planet. It was a super interesting book! In The Last Cuentista, one of the main characters mentions cuentos, which are basically stories passed down through generations. It’s cool how in a story they mention another form of stories and I think that’s important because books and just stories in general are so important to a child’s learning. Connecting to the cuentos, we actually got to make a cuento about something we wanted to share. 

Another thing we did this year was after we finished The Last Cuentista was we made our Ideal Worlds. Like I previously mentioned, The Last Cuentista took place in space and around a really cool and weird world. So everyone in my class got to make our fun and funky worlds. Mine was focused on government and democracy because that stuff is super interesting to me. If you want to read it I made a blog post about it previously! In addition we got to draw what we thought our Ideal Worlds would look like. 

One of the most recent things we did was we made books with Peg Gignoux. Mrs. Peg is an author and illustrator and every year makes books with the whole 6th grade! In our books, we include our Ideal World as well as our Cuentos. It was a really creative way for us to think outside of the box because it was a multilayered book meaning that behind the center page there was a whole different world. My book ended up looking red with a bunch of stunning plant prints. 

I loved everything we did this year in language arts. From writing stories to making the books they would sit in to talking about the stories and even reading other stories!  Thanks so much to Mrs. Donnelly for being so supportive and teaching everyone so much. Also, thanks so much to Mrs. Peg and the rest of the 6th grade team, this was one of my favorite school years ever and I learned so much! To the 2022-2023 school year, you were such a rollercoaster! 

My Ted Talk-9/11

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On May 16, I presented my Ted like Talk to my Language Arts class at Durham Academy. If you don’t know what a Ted Talk is it is basically a non profit organization that has people (most of the time famous) talk about something they are interested in. In a real Ted Talk you are on a fancy stage with a big audience talking about a interesting topic for 15 minutes! In the Donnelly Talk  we still were pretty fancy, but we only talked for about 5 minutes. (Mine was 7 though!)

The topic that I chose was 9/11. I chose that historic day because it was  the single largest attack on American people and even though I knew so much I also realized that there was so much more for me to learn! My classmates did everything from How to kick a penalty in soccer to Everything you need to know about RC planes. In my presentation, I think maybe I could have improved on pacing because I was going a little fast. I think that I made really good eye contact and knew what I was saying. If I did it again, I would definitely put a little less information and put more emphasis on the super important parts.

When I talked about 9/11 I really tried to include everything such as  the third plane crashing into the Pentagon, Operation Neptune Spear, (The raid that killed Osama Bin Laden) and the war in Afghanistan.

Thanks to Mrs. Donnelly and my classmates for helping me and I hope sometimes I can get on the real TED stage!

¡Durham!

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Hola, yo me llamo Jake. Tengo doce años y mi cumpleaños es el dos de diciembre. Yo juego fútbol, estudio en Durham Academy. También, yo tengo un perro, su nombre es Winnie.

 

Yo vivo en Durham, hay muchas cosas para hacer. Primero, puedes caminar con tu familia y correr en los Jardines de Sarah P. Duke. También, en los Jardines de Sarah P. Duke puedes tomar fotos de hermosos paisajes y relajarte. ¿Te gusta correr y caminar? También, ¿Te gusta tomar fotos?

 

Segundo, en Durham puedes visitar el museo de arte Nasher y tomar fotos de la exhibición. También en el Museo de Arte Nasher puedes caminar con tu familia y explorar los jardines. ¿Te gusta caminar con tu familia? También, ¿Te gusta explorar?  

 

Tercero, en Durham puedes mirar el béisbol en el estadio de los toros de Durham y comer en el área de concesiones. En el estadio de los toros de Durham puedes comprar recuerdos de mercado. Finalmente, en el estadio de los Toros de Durham puedes ver fuegos artificiales. ¿Te gusta ver béisbol? También, ¿Tú juegas beisbol? 

 

Finalmente, en Durham puedes visitar el parque estatal de Eno River. En el parque puedes nadar o montar en bote en el río y caminar en las montañas. También, puedes comer junto a los árboles y correr. ¿Puedes ir en barco? También, ¿Puedes nadar en el lago? 

 

 En conclusión, Durham tiene muchas casas, mercados y jardines. También en Durham hay muchas personas, cultura y bibliotecas. En mi opinión Durham es limpio, antiguo, interesante y fascinante. 






Movement!

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Movement performance

Right now my fine art is Movement, which I’m loving! I love movement because of Mrs. Norkus who lets us use our curiosity in our project and lets us be really creative! Right now in Movement we are working on our final projects, this might be my favorite thing we have done all trimester! Why it’s my favorite thing we have done all trimester is because as long as we are following the guidelines we can do any dance we want!                                                     

I also like the walkabouts and stretches that we do so we can exercise! I like these because it is an opportunity for us to walk outside, get fresh air and most fun play on the playground! The stretches we make up with partners which is really fun and we can be as creative as we want! In Movement, we also play lots of fun games,  like swipe the Tic Tac box, Night in the Museum and my favorite Asparagoose! All in all, Movement is really creative, fun and at the same time super relaxing! 




 

My Ideal World

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By: Jake

My ideal world is probably different from yours in many ways. My ideal world is not anything you know, my ideal world is self-sufficient from any other planet, galaxy, or solar system. My ideal world has a name, meet Abstract Astronomy. Abstract Astronomy has 500 days in a year, 25 hours a day. School starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 4:00 p.m. Any child must attend school until after college. AA’s school system is fabulous. All schools are free for any child. At age 19 everyone must have a stable job and be self-sufficient unless they physically or mentally can’t. At age 60 any citizen can stop working and retire. All children until age 18 must be enrolled in a physical sport as well as an organization working towards a cause, both are run through the school system. 

In AA all animals are unable to go extinct because no hunting is allowed without a permit. Transportation is all electric and there are no accidents because everything is on tracks. There are flying cars but they are only used for emergency purposes. The military can go wherever but anyone else can only go 150 feet above the ground. All buildings can only be 300 feet at the most.  In the case of a war the military will put a draft into effect for 25 percent of all able citizens.      

A big part of AA is the fact that everything is free, to some extent. In AA all non essentials are needed to be paid for. All essentials are free though. For example, the government will assign you to a house but if you want a nicer house then you must pay extra. Everyone gets paid very little because essentials are free. The governments will give registered businesses a set amount of money to pay the employees. 

In AA the justice system is very essential in life. The system is built on checks and balances. There are three branches of government: law makers, (Legislative) the people who carry out laws, (Executive) the people who evaluate laws and take away laws, (Judicial). Any buffoons or criminals are innocent until proven guilty. When a disruption to society is proven guilty they are fined, put in a correctional facility, or put to death.  If it is a minor fine then they are just fined for example speeding in a car or not paying for something that is a want. For major crimes, for example murdering or severely hurting a human, you are put to death when proven guilty. The person that committed the crime only goes to court if the police are going to put him in a correctional facility or put them to death. 

In Abstract Astronomy the physical appearance is a little funky. Sixty percent of all surfaces is land, therefore forty percent is water. Even though 40 percent of the surface is water that is not enough so AA also has water 600 feet under the surface that can be pumped up straight into living accommodations. In AA the power lines are underground so that you don’t have to see some funky lines in the air. So in conclusion, after all has been said and done Abstract Astronomy is very creative and unorthodox to you but to me it’s fair and well balanced.  





 



My Field Trip To The Museum Of Raleigh Natural Sciences

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Thank you to Patti Donnelly for this picture. Here is the link to the museum https://naturalsciences.org

https://naturalsciences.org

 

On January 27th the sixth grade class at Durham Academy went to the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, North Carolina. The trip was a big eye opener to many ideas; one was the Race Exhibit. The Race Exhibit was a really interesting way for the museum to show what race is and how it affects my daily life. The physical exhibit was nothing too interesting because it was just posters but the awareness of how race affects everyone was mind blowing.

Another exhibit was with dinosaurs which was one of my favorites. They had dinosaurs that literally looked like the real things, they even had real life bones!  After looking through all of the exhibits we went outside of the building and ate lunch in our groups. Lunch was delicious but I was way too excited for what was coming next! 

So, after lunch, we went walking around the capitol building. The exterior of the building had a bunch of different statues which was really cool. The entrance even had a memorial to World War ll which is my favorite history topic. Unfortunately, after looking at all the statues it was time to go home, so we piled up onto the buses and drove back to Durham Academy. 

My Covid Story

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The Day I Got My Dog

March 15, 2020

Sitting in a room in rural North Carolina, the world is shutting down. Me wanting to get a dog, my dad saying no, the world is shutting down. Dogs peeing, the world is shutting down. ACC tournament canceled, restaurants closing down, my family cloroxing down our vegetables, global shortage of masks. My only question was, why? Months later, my family went on a hike talking about the crazy things we were doing right now. For me, this lock down time was pretty awesome, I had my designated bubble of friends and family. Hanging out in the neighborhood hood for the whole day. Going on family walks to Franklin Street. Hanging out with our family friends every Saturday. 

Back To In Person School

6 feet!

Trinity School, sitting 8 feet apart, all windows open, using two rooms so that we can fit everyone. Special air ducts, why? Not ever seeing anyone’s face because of masks we had to wear, why? Me having a hint of hope that the virus is almost over, why? Me in the car coming home from the last day of school crying because it was the last time I was to be on that campus, my mom telling me school will be back to “normal” next year at my new school. And the hint of hope was just getting bigger! 

Almost Done, Not 

First day of school, Durham Academy! I was so excited to be at a new school that had more than one building! Hope getting bigger. Couple months later, why? Mom is getting stage 3 lung cancer. New type of Covid, really, you have to be here. Hope fades away, why? Rules get stricter. Like getting up and being pushed right back down. Of course, a couple months later masks go off for good, so we thought. Masks went back on then right back off. Bane  of my existence, not knowing what’s going on.  Why is all of this blowing back up again, I think we have had our fair share of you.

Resilience 

Keep on going, keep on going

What do I want for now? Well, to be honest, I really don’t know. Of course, I do not want to have to wear a mask just because of my mom. Of course, I don’t want to. Having to think if it’s stupid to go somewhere that I might get sick. But, to be honest I’ve accepted the fact that this might be the new normal. That it might just be safer to wear a mask in a place with lots of people. Of course it sucks, not saying anything against that but if something keeps me safe I’m doing it. 





The Way You Make Me Feel

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                                                          Image From Sora

One book recently that I enjoy reading was The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo. I have really enjoyed reading this book because Mrs. Goo did an amazing job with having no boring points but still being able to explain the story very well.

For me The Way You Make Me Feel is more of a window because I am not in her situation; her situation is having divorced parents. Also, she is in high school whereas I’m in middle school. Finally, the last reason that this is more of a mirror is because she is working in a food truck but I’m not.

The Way You Make Me Feel is about a grumpy girl with no friends except for two boys who are bad influences. She made a poor choice  and ended up working for a food truck all summer with her arch nemesis. Eventually, Clare the grumpy girl and Rose the nemesis become friends and meet a boy who also works for someone. Clare starts to really like him and then they become a couple! All in all, I would definitely recommend this book because it is an amazing story that is interesting the entire time.