DISTRACTED!!

Okay, so today is the day our blogs are due and I just really have nothing to write about anymore. The reason why I am posting these all at one time is because my computer is messed up and I have to go somewhere else to pose these blogs. I would go earlier in the week to do it but I can’t go somewhere every time to post a blog for one Monday and then Tuesday and so on. So what I do is I sit at home or in class and write my blogs down so I know what I am going to write. Then when it came to write my fifth blog I just had nothing to write about anymore. It’s like my brain went dead. For some reason, I’m not motivated to write anymore. It seems that I always get distracted too, especially when I have we have to put these on the computer I always end up getting on facebook or checking my email. That makes it a lot harder to because I lose my train of thought and it takes me awhile to get back on track. I really think I am ADD. I really should go get tested for it so I can get some medicine to help me focus more

Oxford

After school today I went to the dentist and then picked up my cousin and headed down to oxford. She needed a ride back because she rode home last night with my other cousin and his girlfriend for my brother’s graduation. They left this morning to go on a cruise so I decided to pick her up come down and spend some time with her. I never really get to see her that much because whenever she is home I’m always working or doing something else and then I’m always too busy to come down and see her but today was a perfect time to come stay with her. We are going to have a funnnn time tonight! I’m excited. We are so crazy when we get together…its insane! I love coming down to oxford to because I just love the different atmosphere with everyone although I could not see myself going to this school. Anyways, I just figured I would write about being down in oxford with my cousin because I am so blessed to have such a close relationship with my cousin. It is basically like we are sisters. Sorry that was such a pointless blog, I just really needed one last thing to write about

Freedom Writer's Speaker

In English class on Tuesday we had a tiny discussion about a speaker. The speaker is Erin Gruwell. She is coming somewhere here in Memphis to speak. I think it may be at Crichton College. The main reason why I want to go and listen to her speak is because the movie Freedom Writer’s is based off of her and her students. I watched this movie for one of my movie reviews that we had due in English. I loved the movie so much because it made me realize what it may be like when I start teaching. Sometimes you get lucky and get stuck with a good school and a good classroom and sometimes you get unlucky and you don’t get put at a good school and it is hard to manage a classroom. I’m really interested to hear what she has to talk about and maybe I can include some of her stuff in my paper since I’m writing on school assessment or maybe get some ideas. I’m also interested and seeing the students she brings with her because I heard she was bringing a few of her kids that were involved with Freedom Writer’s to talk as well.

Police Officer in the Family

Last night I had my brother’s graduation from the police academy. It started at seven and it was downtown at the city hall. So we had to leave my house by like five thirty to make sure we got down there on time with all the traffic there may have been and we also had to wait on my brother’s fiancé and her parents to come to my house. Well we didn’t up leaving the house until six…bad mistake! My mom decided to take poplar instead of park which was another bad mistake because there was wreck and the traffic was backed up. The next option we had was to get on the interstate and take river drive…well there was another wreck! My mom was freaking out thinking that we would not make it there in time and I kept on telling my mom its okay we have 45 minutes! But she still kept freaking out and started crying. Anyways, we finally made it there with twenty minutes until it started. It was weird to see my brother in a Police uniform. They gave out awards for physical fitness, academics, and gun range, leadership and then an overall excellence award. My brother received the physical fitness and overall excellence. That was really honoring. He was also second in his class with academics. Then came the pinning of the badges. My sister got to pin my brother because she is a police for Memphis to and if you have a relative in the police department or who has retired they can pin you. Afterwards we took a bunch of pictures and of course we had to take one with me, my brother and my sister. So I stood in the middle, because they both had their uniforms on. We took a regular one and then I put my brothers police hat on and said “THIS IS AS FAR AS I’m GOING TO BECOMING A POLICE OFFICER!!” because everyone always ask them so is your little sister the next leatherwood to become a police..haha yeaaa right! Overall, it was a good night and I’m so happy and proud for my brother.

GO TIGGEERRRSS!!!

I’m sure everywhere is so excited and anxious about the game tomorrow against Tennessee because I know I am. It is so exciting to go to a school where your basketball team is ranker number one in the nation. Our basketball team fully deserves the ranking they have too. I don’t know about any of you, but I really don’t think Tennessee deserves to be number two. I mean come on…they lost against Kentucky. Anyways, I was thinking about going up to the Forum tomorrow morning for the ESPN game day since if you go to that you will be guaranteed a seat at the game, but I just really don’t want to go that early and wait in line that long. I won’t be able to handle it. So I am probably going to go somewhere and watch it on a big screen TV with some people. It will still be exciting. Oh yea, I went and got a shirt to wear too. I’m sure some of you have seen it. It says Memphis basketball on the front and on the back it says the biggest game in town and Feb. 23, 2008. I can’t wait to sport that around wherever I go =). I can’t wait to see the TIGERS take over the VOLS! This is going to be one good game. I know they can do it and plus we get home advantage as well

Working out

I went to work out today! I did the ellipetical for thirty minutes, the bike for 20 minutes, a few weights, and did some ab workouts! Today was the first day I have been to work out in about five days! I need to work on this. I'll go for like four days straight and then quit for like a week. This won't help me at all to lose weight. I have to make it consistent especially if I want to lose weight, get in shape, and see results! I love seeing results it makes me confident in myself. One reason while ill stop going is because I get sore, but what good is it to just sit around and not go? The best way to get rid of your soreness is to work it out! So I am making a promise to myself that I will be consistent with my workouts and go to the gym whenever I have time. In fact, I am going to make sure I make the time to do it. Whenever i work out I fill so much better about myself and I am always full of energy! I love those two feelings. It makes me a happy person, and I don't feel like some bum!

Valentine's Day

How was everyone’s Valentine’s day? I honestly thought mine might have been spent single this year. Instead, it wasn’t! To make this story short, the reason why I thought that was because my ex-boyfriend of 3 and a half years broke up in December. We were together since I was 15 and he was 16. Anyways, we just were going through a lot and our schedules were conflicting and we just needed to put some stuff in the past. Everything is really good now and we are basically back together but without a title right now. It seems to be working really well. It just makes it feel like we aren’t tied down right now and it’s not stressful with our schedules. Some people may think that’s weird, but if you knew our situation then you would understand I’m sure! The whole point to this is that he was so sweet. I didn’t think we were going to do anything and the other day I heard my dog barking really loud but I didn’t get up to see what it was. Well, when I left my house for work I saw a box in front of my house door. He sent me a dozen roses!!! It was so thoughtful and then today I got another package and it was chocolate covered strawberries from some place in California. Those are my favorite. We also went to Carabbas for dinner. So all in all my Valentine’s day was perfect! I hope everyone else’s was!!

Freedom Writers

This movie is about the diaries of the students in room 203 at Woodrow Wilson High School. One of the main characters is Eva. She is a student in room 203. She states that she doesn’t even want to be at school but her probation officer told her it was either school or boot camp. On her first day of school she was initiated into a gang, where basically the beat her up so bad. It was a way of saying that you won’t break. Everyone was against each other, but mainly the Latino, Asian, and African Americans fought for their territory.
Ms. Erin Gruwell became a teacher there in 1994. She wanted to teach here because she thought it was a good idea to have the school integrated. The lady asked her are you sure you can handle all of these students and Ms. G replied yes, if I do my job that will be lining up at the door.
The first day in the classroom Ms. G had to deal with a lot of nonsense between different people. The next day she came with a cd player that was playing Tupac to try and help them learn about poems, but they just totally shut her out and were being smart about everything. Eva said, “She thinks she can teach but she can’t”. She was just trying to do something fun so they would be interested in learning.
The next day as she was writing notes on the board there was a lot of laughing so she turned around to ask what was so funny, that’s when she noticed Jamal had a drawing of himself in his hand that Tito drew making fun of him. Ms. G goes on to state that this how the holocaust started. Eva screams out you don’t know our pain we go through. This is all about color, I hate white people. Ms. G said, “So you hate me?” and Eva said “yes!” and Ms. G said “that’s the whole problem, you don’t know who I am.” In order to get respect you have to give it.
Ms. Gruwell does a really neat thing. She tells the students that they are going to play a line game. This game is about asking a question and if it applies to you, you step up on the line. She continues asking questions. After this, she told them that she has a surprise for them. She got them journals to write in everyday. She told them that it won’t be graded and that she will not read them unless she is given permission by the student. She said she will have a cabinet open during the class and after class she will lock it. If they want her to read them that is where they will place them. Everyone left their journals in the cabinet for her to leave. You could tell by the look on her face she was thrilled and honored.
She took her students on a trip. On the trip they went on a tour. At the beginning of the tour each student for a card with a child on it and they got to know who they were and what camp they went to and if they were a survivor. She also had them a dinner at the hotel she worked at on the side. They had dinner with holocaust survivors. The students could not believe that Ms. Gruwell did this for them.
Ms. Gruwell was talking to the person underneath the principal and asking if she could use some books to read in class. The lady said no because they will be in bad condition afterwards because the students don’t care to read. So Ms. G went out on her own and bought the students a book called Durango Street and the Diary of Anne Frank. Eva like the book Durango Street so much she took it to her dad in prison. All the students could relate to this book. They also loved the Diary of Anne Frank. They did fundraisers so that they could have Ms. Deeds, which is the lady who helped the Franks, come and speak to them. Marcus wanted to escort her in, and he did. Marcus told her that he has never had a hero before and that she was his hero.
Then came sophomore year where they walked into room 203 again. Ms. G had a Toast of Change up. She told them that in the border bags there were four books, take the sparkling cider and make a toast to every voice that said you can’t is silenced, every reason that tells you things will never change disappears, and that it is turn for the new you. It was such an emotional part of the movie to hear what all the students had to say.
Ms. G had to fight to teach the same group of student’s junior year. They were upset when they found out they would not have her as a teacher junior year. She told them to not use her as another excuse to why you can’t make, and Eva said that’s not it, it’s the sign of respect for you. Ms. G gave them one final project. The project was to make their diaries into a book. They have something to say to people and that they are not just kids in a classroom anymore, they are writers who have their own voice and own stories. She told them to come with a title to call you, and they came up with The Freedom Writers Diary.
Ms. G had great news for them after she spoke with people at the school. They asked her if she will be teaching them junior year. She replied “no, I will be teaching you junior and senior year!!” All the students were so happy.
During this movie, the author showed his purpose well. To me his purpose was to show that someone can change an individual’s thoughts and hopes. That everyone has their own voice and should be heard. This was a great movie to watch considering that I am going to school to be a teacher. It was neat to watch a movie and understand in some ways that side of a teachers point to get across to students. These students became a family and respected Ms. G as their teacher. That is such an honor to have, to know that you have affected someone’s life in such a good way and made a positive change.
Many Freedom Writers were the first in their families to graduate high school and attend college. Ms. Erin Gruwell left Wilson high school to follow her students and teach at California State University at Long beach. The Freedom Writers Diary was published in 1999 and Ms. G and the Freedom Writers Foundation dedicated to recreating the success of room 203 classrooms throughout the country. I highly recommend everyone to watch this movie. This movie makes me want to teach even more.

Spring Break

I know it is a little bit to early to be writing a blog about spring break but I’m going to go ahead and ramble on about it. The reason for this is because I have to pick between two things. I’m not going to the beach this year so instead these are my two options: go to Knoxville for the boxing tournament they have and be with some of my good friends for our spring break or Lindsay who I talked about in my other blog had some news for me. She asked me the other day if I was doing anything for spring break and I told her about Knoxville and she was asked me if I would like to go to Orlando for the Memphis women’s basketball game March 6th because they need some extra girls to cheer at the game. Everything will be paid for like the plane ride and going to the parks and wherever they stay. I was excited about it. So I’m debating on what I should do? Either go visit my friends or go to Orlando. I think I may pick Orlando so that I can get to know the girls and show them what I can do like cheer wise so at try outs they have already seen me and maybe that will give me some extra points on making the squad. Who knows? Any opinions?

Tumbling

Well, as one of my previous blogs stated I am trying out for Memphis All-Girl cheer. So today me and this girl Lindsay who I cheered with on Germantown went to tumbling today. She cheers for Memphis All-Girl. I have to get back into this whole tumbling concept considering I haven’t really done a lot since February of last year after my senior year at nationals. So we got to the gym and of course stretched first so we can warm up our bodies. Then we just started doing the basic tumbling skills like back handsprings and back handspring backs and standing backs. We didn’t do any running tumbling today because I had to practice on my three and a back, in case no one knows what that is ..it is three toe touches in a row and then a back tuck. This is basically Memphis all girls trademark, they do it in the intro of the routine or in the middle. Anyways , we do all of our tumbling passes and the she told me some really really really great news! I am going to be so sore tomorrow! The try outs aren’t going to be until May 9, 10, and 11. I was so relieved because they are usually in April and I didn’t think I would be ready by then and didn’t think I would have enough time to go to enough tumbling practices. Stress was definitely lifted off of my shoulders. Well to end this whole non important blog, haha…the tryouts are open for anyone to come and watch! So, if you know anyone else trying out you are more than welcome to come!

Tuesday's Class

So this past Tuesday we went to go listen to Percival Evertt get interviewed. I’m not going to lie, I was sitting there and thinking to myself am I really sitting here listening to him get interviewed, because I thought we were going to listen to him read. I did actually enjoy it. It was kind of interesting to sit there and listen to his responses that he was given. When he mentioned how one of his students did some blog thing with her paper , I thought that was a neat and different way to do something to get other peoples opinions. I wish I could have stayed a little bit longer to see what else he had to say and what other questions the interviewers had to ask him but unfortuantely, I had to go to my intro to art class I had to attend. I don’t know if it was just me or if anyone else in the room felt the same way, but sitting there listening to the interviewers ask Percival Evertt questions and him respond to the questions, I felt like I was in an audience on a talk show on television. Something like Opra or Dr. Phil haha.

Once again..Cheerleading!

So this past Wednesday night was Germantown’s cheer show night! For any of you who read my last blog about Germantown Cheerleading, of course ya’ll know I would go to this to support them. They had a really good turn out. The past practices I have been to they haven’t gone full out so I was really excited to see what the full picture looked like! Of course, Chris the coach, made another entertaining routine. I wrote them a letter that one of the coaches is going to read to them. I thought I would do this just to give them more confidence and to pump them up! They actually leave today for Nationals. They have prelims tom and then finals on Sunday! So hopefully, they will do amazing! I will be waiting anxiously for the results since I cannot be there with them! I really wish I could be. Hopefully, they can go to nationals do their best , be Germantown and win back the National Title. It was taken away from us last year and I know they can get it back! They got it. I know they are going to do amazing! I have so much faith in all of the girls! I can tell they want it!

Procrasination

So, I’m really good at this thing called PROCRASINATION! As you can tell, I am writing my blogs so late. I know this sounds bad, but they just seem to slip my mind sometimes with all that I have going on. Sorry Mrs. Winter! Well, actually it’s not like they totally slip my mind because I do think about them during the day and think to myself oh that would be really good to write about, but I just never get around to writing them. I have got to fix this. Not only do I procrasinate on the blogs, but I tend to do it on everything..not just school stuff though. With school assignments I always wait to until the night off to do the homework for that certain class. It’s defintely going to catch up with me.When I wait until the last minute I always end up having late nights. I could be getting sleep instead, you know? So what I’m really trying to say is that I am going to work on my procrasination skills. I have got to get a move on. Starting today, I am going to be ahead on mostly everything! Brooxie and Sarah, stay on me! Haha because ya’ll are way ahead of me and we are usually in the same boat! haha

Stormy Weather

Throughout the whole day at school on Tuesday, I was just hoping the bad weather would hold off until I got home. Luckily enough it did, because last time it rained cats and dogs I was soaking wet and my umbrella almost broke! Anyways, when I got home I decided to lay down and take a nice nap before I went to work out. I fell asleep around two and woke up around 4:30 to the annoying sound of the tornado sirens going off and my dog barking so loud. Of course, I started freaking out because I hate storms. My dad, mom,me , and Rocky..which is the dog go down to our basement. After the first 30 minutes we were down there we got a call from my sister. She was just wondering if we are okay and everything because she is a memphis police and on their radio it said they spotted a tornado at Poplar and Germantown. Of course, I started freaking out more because our house is located right around that area. I was thinking to myself please don’t come this way please don’t come this way, but if it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go..you know? Anyways to make the long story short, we were down in the basement for atleast a good hour and a half and needless to say I did not get to go work out. But I’m just glad we are all okay and that no serious damage really happened.

GO GIANTS!

Okay, so I’m not a big fan of football, but everytime that superbowl comes around I have to watch it. My family always goes to my grandparents house and we have a huge cookout. This year we had a fish fry. The boys in the family decided this for out lovely superbowl meal. Anyways, so half of my family members were going for the Patriots and the others were of course going for the Giants. The half that went for the Giants are big Ole Miss fans, so of course, you got to root on the Giants with Eli being the quarterback. Well, I was on their side because I wanted the underdogs to win! Sorry Mr. Sexy Tom Brady, you did not win! Hahah. But anyways so we are watching the game while we eat, and occasionally doing the whole yelling and screaming football thing! To tell you the truth,I enjoyed watching this game it was reallyy good, but I was just anxiously waiting to see how this years half time show would turn out to be. Unfortunately, it did not impress me even though it was Tom Petty. The only half time show I enjoyed was about five or so years ago when it was Aerosmith,Nsync,Britney Spears, and Nelly. That was defintley the best! It’s going to be hard to top that one off in my opinion ha! Well, I guess I’ll just have to wait until next year for another superbowl party with the family, and maybe the girls in the family can decided what to eat!