Interesting Rain

When a person lives in a place like El Dorado Hills, you don't really get to experience extreme weather, but this week has been one of the craziest weather weeks that I have ever experienced here. On the this last Monday, the 26th, the weather seemed nice and normal. Nothing new, just sun and sky, but the next day, there was a dramatic change in weather. From the nice, sunny Monday, there came a dreary, wet, and rainy Tuesday. Even though I thought that the rain was bad enough, the weather got worse. During lunch that day, I sat happily in a classroom, free from the wetness of the rain, but I didn't know what the bell for 6th period would bring. When the bell rang, me and a friend, as usual. went out the classroom's back door into the auto shop garage. Because the garage doors were open, I could hear the tapping of the rain on the cars parked outside. Although I expected this, I thought that the rain was a little loud. When my friend and I were under the awning, my suspicions of hard rain were confirmed when I saw a small creek running down into the garage. Unfortunately, my 6th period classroom was on the other side of the school. I went into the rain and was immediately soaked by the rain. Ignorantly, my friend and I didn't run to our next class, but just walked. That was a huge mistake. The upper parking lot, which we had to walk through, was like a small pond, and when we had to go down from the upper parking lot, we had to go down a set of stairs, which actually seemed more like a waterfall. There was a wall of water at the edge of the roof on each building. My 6th period teacher was standing under the awning watching his class come in from the rain. He had to let us take off our shoes and drop all our stuff in a pile near the back of the classroom. The rest of this week was on and off rain and sun, but I still find stuff at the bottom of my backpack that are still wet.

The Lewis' Weekly Bible Verse

The Weekly Lewis' Memory Verse for this week should actually be called The Weekly Lewis' Memory Verses because this section is more than 1 verse long, but this verse struck me this week.

Mark 12:41-44
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything - all she had to live on."

The Hog, the Frog, the Dog, the Bog, Zog, and the Squirrel!

By Brahms Lewis

There was once a frog

Whose name was Pog.

He was the color

Of greenish fog.

There was Pog,

On a Log,

But as he sat,

There came a dog

His name was Clog.

He liked to Blog,

And so he sat

On Pog's Log.

Then came a Hog

Whose name was Gog,

So they decided
To go for a jog.

So Pog the Frog

And Clog the Dog

Went to run with

Gog the Hog.

On this jog

They found a bog.

An evil place,

The Bog of Flog.

In the Bog,

The Bog of Flog,

There lived a man

Whose name was Zog.

The three found Zog

In the Fog.

He attacked them

With a Log.

But then Pog

Picked up the Hog

and threw him at

the man called Zog.

Then off ran Zog

Into the Fog,

But from the bog

came a squirrel!

When Pog, and Clog

and Gog the Hog
Saw the squirrel,

They turned him down.

For unlike Clog

and Pog and Gog,

rhymith not

the name of the squirrel!

The Perfect Teacher

Almost everyone who has gone through school has a teacher or coach that they admire. Notice how I said, “Almost everyone…” I personally do not have a teacher or coach that I admire, but if you mix up a bunch of teachers I have had, you can find my perfect teacher. My perfect teacher, most importantly, does not crack down on students and only have them do work. Instead, he should care about a student’s life outside of school. He should also get to know the students and help kids who need help and let kids who are ahead of the current teachings to go a bit farther in the book. This can help people learn at their own pace, not too fast and not too slow. He should get to know the kids so that they see him as an acquaintance or a friend instead of an evil ogre from the deep who came out of the darkness to enslave us for two hours minutes every day so we can learn and be prepared for our doomed futures (Note that this is not personal, but a very detailed and descriptive metaphor.). Good teachers have no effect on my attitude because I always try to have a positive outlook on life, and always try to be happy. A good teacher should be interesting, help kids who are falling behind, and let kids go forward and advance ahead of class.
A good teacher must be interesting. Some teachers can be funny to be interesting, but if you’re not, don’t try (It’s not something you can learn). You can also make your subject interesting. Some teachers may say, “How do you make Math or Language Arts interesting?” If you are one of these teachers, try making fun study strategies you can do in class, such as Trivia or Jeopardy. If that’s not your style, you can assign cool projects like making 3-D geometric shapes for math and making a scene from a book in a shoebox. Teachers can also assign kids to read books that are at their reading level, but also books that they will enjoy. This type of work is probably going to make kids more relaxed, instead of making them tense and thinking, “Oh no! Ten hours of slave labor from the textbook!” (This is not a personal comment.) When the kids are less tense, the classroom atmosphere will be less tense, which makes it a better working environment.
A good teacher also helps students who are falling behind in class. A teacher could think, “We will get through the book. We won’t slow down, stop, or review, and I don’t care if my students get Fs.” (This is not a personal comment) A good teacher doesn’t think this; they would help kids and slow down for them. If a teacher does this, the students she helps will respect her, and actually, this is what a teacher should do, because these student’s grades on the Star Test will reflect on how well the teacher taught them. The kids in class will be happier because they know that if the don’t understand something, the teacher will help them keep up with the rest of the students.

Rabk - Part 12

The Obligatory Rescue Chapter
Part 12
Rabk



At this point in the story, Rabk and Beowulf have been fighting a rather large spider. Unfortunately, as in all stories with rather large spiders, they are too strong for the hero. Rabk, at the moment, has a rather large spider leg on his stomach and has the mouth of a rather large spider inches from his head, but we will stop the story and continue it in a short while. In most stories, characters would have their lives flashing before their eyes, but because Rabk is not a normal fictional character, all he thought was, "Those are some large fangs.", but Beowulf, being a normal fiction hero, saw Rabk's life flash before his eyes, which Beowulf thought was rather odd. The molds on the cave walls were not thinking anything at the moment. The spider was thinking nothing but 'FOOD!' At this point in stories with large spiders, a rather short person would come into the cave with a light, a sword, and no shoes on, and would scare the monster away, or a crazy, self-guided, flying car would come and roll over the spider, but that does not happen in this story, and we will get back to what does happen now. As the spider lunged to eat Rabk and Rabk thought about large fangs, a machine gun fired and the spider backed up and started twitching, and soon ran off. Rabk stayed lying down, and took many deep breathes. Beowulf stood up and leaned against the wall, and rubbed his head with a face full of pain. Seeing Rabk's life story was a very painful experience. Rabk, after about five minutes, looks up to see his savior, and finds a man with a beard and blue camouflage on holding a machine gun. "Who is that?" asked Rabk. Beowulf looked up, still rubbing his head. "I don't know." he said, "but that beard looks very familiar." "I know!" responded Rabk, "But I can't put a pin in exactly who's beard it is." Rabk and Beowulf spend about ten more minutes figuring out who's beard it is. In the mean time, I'm going to describe the beard. The beard was brown with a small bit of blond in it. It was about six inches long from the chin to the end, and the beard was very scruffy and had a few hairs just sticking out of it. Finally, Rabk and Beowulf figured out who's beard it was. "It's Bert's beard!" said Rabk happily. After having the normal greetings, Rabk asks "What are you doing here, Bert?" Bert frowned and said "I thought it would be more interesting to follow you than to guard Atlantis. I just have to scrutinize every fish that passes by." "Well, c'mon then!" said Beowulf happily, and they walked down the path. Soon, they found the end of the cave, and they all cheered. They ran towards the light, but came to a halt as they exited the cave. A pistol was pointed at each of their heads. Rabk slowly looked up from the barrel of the pistol to see who was holding it. He found Captain Hook on the other side of the gun. "We meet again, boy. I have a bone to pick with you."

The Lewis's Weekly Bible Verse

The Weekly Bible Verse is back, but is not officially the whole family's verse, so its really only Brahms' Weekly Memory Verse, but it doesn't sound as awesome.The Verse for this week is...

Numbers 6:24-26

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Thank You

France- Day 5 (Last Day!)

21 March 2010; 8:42 pm (Paris time)-

Today, my dad and I went to Notre Dame Cathedral. We listened to the mass in the morning and looked at the inside of the cathedral, seeing the rose windows and the amazing ceiling. We went into the bell towers on a tour. We saw a lot of gargoyles and one of the main bells. Some of the gargoyles looked very funny. You can tell in the towers better than anywhere else that the cathedral is on an island. There is a statue of Charlemagne outside of the cathedral. We also went to the Crypte Archeologique, which is an ancient Gallo-Roman city underneath the front of the cathedral. Across the river from the cathedral, we found Shakespeare & Co. (Finally!). It is an old English bookstore with many nooks and crannies. It actually looks like it is one of the oldest shops around. Amazingly, though, it was packed with people. My dad got Master and Commander, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, but I got Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia. I had a tart called Tarte Mendient, which is made of chocolate and nuts. I also had a panini called Le Dinde, which had French sausage and tomatoes inside of it.

France- Day 4

20 March 2010; 8:15pm (Paris Time)-

Today, my dad and I went to the Chateau de Versailles, an overgrown mansion made by Louis XIV of France. We saw the great chapel and the Hall of Mirrors. I learned that a lot of the stuff that was originally from Versailles was stolen when the French Revolution took place. That meant that some rooms that we saw had just a bust or a painting. The most amazing thing about Versailles for me was the ceilings. Almost all the ceilings were painted with pictures of gods and other people in the sky, and although the building was amazing, the gardens were more amazing. The garden was huge. Everywhere, there was a fountain. We had lunch in front of the Fountain of Neptune. After a long nap and resting of legs, my dad and I went to the Musée D’Orsay, and we were the last people allowed in because we only had an hour until closing time. We saw paintings like the Large Dressed Dancer by Degas, Dancing at the Moulin de la Galerre by Renoir, the self-portrait of Van Gogh, and many others. Something else I noticed about France is that there are a lot of statues. On almost every road, there is a statue of some somewhat famous person in history.

France- Day 3

19 March 2010; 1:51pm (Paris Time)-

Today was interesting. Today, we went to the Eiffel Tower, but before we did, my dad made me go into the grocery store alone to get our food for the day. I got cheese with cumin and batard bread. We went onto the train during rush hour (which was a huge mistake) and made it to the Tower before any large crowds got there. I thought that the double-decker bus was very inventive, and the view from the top of the tower was amazing. I took a lot of pictures up there. We also went to the Arc de Triomphe, which was amazing. I thought that it was crazy how the road around the Arc was basically a free-for- all. The staircases were larger than I expected and that was a tiring climb to the top, but the view was great.

19 March 2010; 10:04pm (Paris time)-

We went out to find the book store, Shakespeare & Co., but to no prevail, so we went to the Jardin du Luxembourg and ate grapes in front of the fountain of Marie de Medici. We then went to a restaurant called the Hippopotamus. Although we had hamburgers, we also had an Ile flotante, which was basically meringue in custard. We saw a park with a bronze statue that I’ve seen in books of baby Romulus and Remus underneath the wolf.