Final Reflection

The three most important things I've learned his year is, work hard, don't doubt yourself, and be determined. I had plenty of fun in Mrs.Larson's ELA class, but one thing that I will always remember is when we would laugh and joke around saying vocabulary words and use them in a sentence to talk to one another. It was funny when Jorge and Isaiah would use the word debacle in the wrong way then Mrs.Larson would correct them. The class had its days where it had to be serious but we would always have fun no matter what. The people in that class are very funny and nice and try to help when they can. I remember the nicest thing someone did for me in that class is help me study so I wouldn't get a bad grade on my vocabulary test. Something I taught my classmates this year is to be happy and enjoy the time they have, whether they're popular or not. Life is too short to invest our time in people that don't care for our wellbeing. Just live life and don't worry about what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow. Go with the flow and everything will be okay.
    I feel like I made the biggest improvement in the way I write and annotate articles or passages. In the beginning of the year I didn't know how annotate how I do now. Now I write things down, ask questions, I think more, and it's all thanks to Mrs.Larson’s ELA class. Even though things got hard I still persevered and got through it. One thing that was challenging this year was the vocabulary because they were words I never really understood or knew what they meant. I think the best piece of writing I did this year was my “I believe” speech. I believe that is my best because that speech shows how I really am and what I'm interested in. That speech let me express my feelings and myself more than anything else I have ever done. Out of all the books I read this year I'd have to say The Giver was one of the best books I have ever read because it gave me another perspective of the world and that we should appreciate the memories we have with people no matter if we never got along with them.
    The advice I would give students in this class next year is that to work hard, have a great bond or friendship with Mrs.Larson, because even though she is strict, she is a very fun person and she's only strict because she doesn't want to see you fail. She is one of the teachers that would never give up on you no matter what.

Heat & Texas article Blog

Do immigrants choose to stay away from police or anyone that works with the government because they're afraid they might get deported? This question relates to both the article Texas announces lawsuit against local officials considered hostile toward 'sanctuary cities' ban, and the book Heat, because in the article, immigrants are scared, and distant with the police. In the book however, the main characters do not stay away from the police, they just make sure that they limit their conversation with a police officer in case they ever have to talk with one.

In both the article, and book, they share information about immigrants a different way. In the book, I recall that the main characters, Michael, his brother Carlos, and his friend Manny were discussing how they were going to talk to Mr.Lima without him finding out they were Cuban immigrants.”They definitely asked you for Michael’s last name?” Carlos asked Manny. “I thought about giving them a middle name or something, just to throw them off for now,” Manny said. “But if they found out later I'd lie about something that easy to find out, I figured they'd be asking themselves why I lied about something that easy to find out” (page 58). This quote shows how Carlos and Michael are afraid of getting discovered by the police or government that they're immigrants. Michael looks at New York as his home, and as his chance to actually accomplish his goal of making it to the Little league Baseball series.

In the article there are many ways that show people are distant from the police and that they're afraid to ask for their help because they're afraid they might get deported. In the article it states that people are standing up for their freedom no matter if they're immigrants, and one person mentions that people are distant from police nowadays because they fear them. “We want them to help us solve crimes… I'm afraid that people will shy away from the police altogether.” This quote shows how the government/leaders fear people getting distant with the police just because they're immigrants. They want them to feel safe in their country or state, they don't want them to worry about deportation.

MLA Citations:

Lupica, Mike. Heat. New York: Puffin , 2012. Print.

Jarvie, Jenny . "Texas announces lawsuit against local officials considered hostile toward 'sanctuary cities' ban." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, n.d. Web. 11 May 2017.

Heat Blog

In the book Heat, by Mike Lupica, there is a character named Ramon and another character named Michael. The book started off with Ramon, a 16 year old boy that lived in New York. He was a troublemaker, he was a thief, he would go around stealing people's money so that later on in his day he'd spend the money on a girl of his choice. One day Ramon was bored and decided to go steal someone else's money. He stole this old lady's purse and ran off with it. The lady told a police officer and the officer ran after Ramon, but he was too slow to catch him. Ramon ran past a park with a baseball field, there was a kid named Michael. Michael was a good baseball player, he was really good at pitcher. Michael saw Ramon running and he saw the police officer running after Ramon. Michael threw his baseball at Ramon, hitting him behind the head. Ramon fell and blacked out, when he woke up, the officer put him in handcuffs and walked away with him. Michael continued on. He went to home to home to his brother Carlos. Michael and Carlos are both Cuban, they're immigrants and are trying to hide the fact that they can't be staying unless they have papers. Carlos, Michael's brother, is 17 years old and is waiting to turn 18 so he can get papers for him and his brother Michael. A few days later Michael goes to play baseball against his friend Manny, this girl watched them play. Michael went to her as soon as him and Manny had finished playing but while Michael headed towards her, she started to run away.  A couple days past and now Michael and Manny met up to play baseball again. The same girl was watching them, Michael threw the ball over to her trying to let her know if she wanted to play. She threw it back and then headed over to them. They played for a couple of hours and then the officer that arrested Ramon showed up with man named Mr.Lima, he was looking for Michael because they had heard how good he was. Michael told Manny to tell the men he wasn't able to stay, he chased after the girl that watched them play. Her name was Ellie, she was a really good pitcher like Michael. Since Michael's dad is dead, is hard for him to get around. Mr.Lima talked to Michael and told him to tell his father to call him or email him directly, but since his father is dead, he has no one to help him out.

Throughout all the chapters I've read Ramon hasn't came out, so why did the book start off with Ramon then transitioned to Michael. I wonder if Ramon was just a person in the book to present us to Michael or if he actually serves a purpose. Does Michael meet him later on in the book or does Ramon work with Mr.Lima. It did mention in the book Ramon runs really fast so it might even be possible if he is in a baseball team and goes against Michael's team.

I think the characters can be realistic because they're all human and nothing is fiction about this story. The characters in this book face real life situations like being an immigrant, growing up with nothing and having a hard and painful past and finally getting ahead in life. The characters have hobbies and jobs they have to do throughout the day. Michael, Manny, and Ellie play baseball. Carlos has to work and make money for his little brother. Although Michael's dad isn't really a main character he was still a character, he died and in life people die. It's part of life, therefore, I think these characters can be real.