Kevin’s Conversation

I have three favorite memories from this school year. My first memory was when in my core class we were reading a book and because it related to the book we got up went to the borders of the room got a partner and did an organized dance. Our core teacher told us how to do the dance. You would grab the partner’s hand and then do some type of move, I can’t remember because it was back in October. It was one of my favorite memories because it was such a surprise to the whole class when she did this.The second memory was when during the global day of play we played a card game called Throw Throw Burrito. It is a game where you draw cards and once you get 3 of the same card you will place them down and get one point. If you get 3 of the same of a special card which are burrito duel, burrito war, and burrito brawl. They all involved throwing burritos at the other person. It was so much fun because when one of those cards where placed down it was a free for all, with hands trying to grab the plush burritos. My third favorite memory is in pe when we were playing lightning and everyone missed their shots, it was favorite memory because it was funny seeing everyone miss.

Throughout the entire 20% project I have had some successes, struggles and adjustments. Some successes I have had over this 6 week span was learning the queens gambit which is a chess opening. I also learned how to develop pieces on the chess board which is when you get a piece of its starting square and move it to a more favorable position. Then I learned about the midgame which is when you will try to develop pieces and try to attack other pieces. I learned what a pin and a fork was as well. A fork is when you are attacking 2 or more pieces at the same time, and a pin is when the other persons pieces can’t move or else they will lose. I have also had some struggles such as making 2 to 3 blunders a game, and not finding the opportunities to attack other pieces. I also lost pieces like my queen early in the game to blunders. My biggest struggle was closing out games and getting the other player in checkmate. Some adjustments I had through the 20% project was playing with a aggressive mindset and changing my opening from the queens gambit to the scotch game. One thing I learned thought the 20% project is that I do things with out thinking.

The children in this image have very different reactions. The child on the left looks to live in a house and is white. He has lots of toys but is still crying because it’s looks like he wants more toys. Even though he already has enough toys to last at least 5 years. The child on the right looks to live in a house made of straw and the child is black. He looks like he lives in Africa because of the dry land. The child just has one toy that is a car that can be pushed and pulled. After hearing this description some people might think this image means spoiled people aren’t grateful. This opinion is great but I believe it is because of point of view. Let’s take for example the kid on the left. He probably expects to have more things and expects it to be perfect. When it is not that he will complain. Then let’s take the kid on the right. He probably doesn’t expect things to be perfect and knows he should be happy for what he has, and when he has something not be perfect he will be happy that he at least has it. That proves that your expectations will determine how satisfied you are. Let’s take for example a student who normally gets a 70% on a test. When he gets a 80% he will be very happy.

This week while working on my twenty percent project I had some successes, struggles and adjustments. One of my successes I had this week was getting to the endgame more often. This is crucial because if you can’t make it to the endgame that means all of your games are short which means one or the two sides blundered a lot. Another success I had was that I found myself winning material more often. When your are winning material it means you have the advantage because it means you either have more pieces or more quality pieces like a queen. One thing I struggled with was closing out games. I could be up on material and still lose because I keep on losing pieces, and that lead me to make an adjustment. The adjustment I made was using pieces like my bishop and knight more often. I did this because I was using my queen most of the time and because of that I would blunder my queen at some point in the game. Next week I will learn about endgames.

For this April’s Rad Reading, I read Finally Seen by Kelly Yang. At the beginning of the book, it explains how the main character Lina was left behind when her mom, dad and little sister named Millie moved from China to America without her. Lina’s parents send her postcards about their life in America. They say it is amazing and they live in a 2-story house. Lina lives with her grandmother in China, then after 5 years she goes on a plane to go to America with her parents. When she arrives, she finds out that they actually live in an apartment and they have to pay back rent. The mom sells bath bombs online to make money.

In the middle of the story, Lina starts going to school. When she tries to speak English, she doesn’t speak it very well and gets laughed at so she stops speaking in class. She makes friends with one kid named Finn. They share a common interest in reading. Then on some days, she goes to a special class to learn English. Then one day, Lina finds many racial statements written on the bathroom wall about her.

At the end of the book, they start reading a book in class called Flea Shop. It is a book very similar to Finally Seen. The School bans the book because there was an argument in class about if something was racist or not. There is a PTA meeting about the book being unbanned, so Lina attends the meeting. Lina gives a speech about why the book should be unbanned and her speech is successful. Then her mom’s bath bomb business gets a deal and it covers the family’s back rent.

Overall, I liked this book and would recommend it. One reason I liked it was because it is a lot like real life and highlighted some issues in today’s world. Also, I think some people could relate to this book. Another reason I liked this book was because the plot was simple. You could easily follow the plot and not be confused.

My favorite character in the book was Lina’s mom because she was positive. This quote proves it “‘… I started selling bath bombs online. To pay for the back rent.’ … ‘But also to launch my new career,’”

My favorite quote was “I want to know exactly where we stand with our green card application. I don’t ever want you girls to feel invisible again.” This is my favorite quote because it shows that the mom cares about her kids. It also shows how hard it is to apply for a green card.

There are many ways to be a good neighbor and here are a few examples. One way you can be a good neighbor is by being nice. This is being a good neighbor because you are not being rude or disrespectful. Another way to be a good neighbor is by baking cookies for the neighborhood. This is being a good neighbor because everyone enjoys a good cookie. The next way to be a good neighbor is by trying to be friend with people in the neighborhood. This is being a good neighbor because people like having a friend they live close to.

This week while working on my twenty percent project I had some successes, struggles and adjustments. One of my successes I had this week was learning how to play the midgame. The midgame is the stage after the opening and before the endgame. You can do lots in the mid game but the first thing you want to do is develop your queen. You want to move it to a safe square so you don’t blunder it. Then you want to develop the rook. You want to develop the rook that you didn’t castle with first. Castling is when you move with the king and rook. After you develop all of your pieces you want to start attacking. You can open up spots to attack with pawns. When you start attacking you want to make sure you are winning material. Winning material means that the outcome is a positive for you. One struggle I had this week was checkmating. I would get in the right position and not know how to checkmate. This week I made one adjustment which was changing my opening. The new opening I learned was the scotch game. it is when you take e4 first move black matches with e5 and then you move knight g3. Then if they defend with knight c6 you go pawn d4 which forces the pieces to develop faster. Next week I will learn about different ways to checkmate.

This week while working on my twenty percent project I had some successes, struggles and adjustments. One of my successes I had this week was learning what a pin is. A pin is when you are attacking a piece that can’t move. An example would be a rook that is attack a knight and behind that knight is a king. I decided to learn this because I was having trouble finding opportunities to get a piece of the board. I also learned 1 way on how to checkmate with a queen you can get the king in the top left corner then get your queen to b6 to secure the checkmate. One struggle I had this week was making sure pieces like my queen were safe. I would put one of my more valuable pieces like a queen out unprotected. One adjustment I made this week was analyzing each piece on the board more and looking to attack. Next week I will be looking at how to play the midgame and early endgame.

This week while working on my twenty percent project I had some successes, struggles and adjustments. One of my successes I had this week was learning how to develop pieces. Developing pieces is when you take a piece out of its original starting spot and move it to a more favorable spot. This is used so when you are in a more favorable spot you can do some more advanced strategies. I Also learned one of those strategies and it is called forking. Forking is when you are attacking two pieces at the same time with one piece. Something that I struggled with was to get in a good position to fork. I was most of the time trading pieces and not keeping them so I could fork more often. Another thing I struggled with was winning games. I only won 1 out of 5 games that I played this week which is a 20% win rate. One adjustment I made this week was taking a slow but aggressive play style. I made this adjustment because I felt like I was playing defense from the beginning and not giving myself the opportunity to win. Next week I will learn more advanced strategies and learn the basics of how to get someone into checkmate.

There are so many people I would want to invite to dinner, but these are my top three. First I would invite Shaquille O’Neal who is former lakers center, I would invite him because he would make everything look ridiculously small. Plus I could get some autographed items from him. Next I would invite Jose Altuve the second baseman for the astros. I would invite him and sit him next to Shaquille O’Neal to see the crazy height difference because Altuve is only 5 feet and 6 inches. I could also talk to him about the Astro’s 2017 cheating scandal. Also I could get autographed items from him. The last person I would invite would be Jayson Tatum the power forward for the Celtics. I would invite him because he is on the Boston Celtics my favorite NBA team. Then like all of the other people I have invited I could get autographed items.