First Persuasive Paragraph

Students shouldn’t be allowed to play sports because they need to focus on their school work before they do any extra curricular activity. I believe that if a student doesn’t have good grades then they aren’t trying in school and shouldn’t have the advantage of playing on a team. If a student isn’t allowed to play a sport they will get encouraged to try harder in their academics to get better grades and have a chance to play a sport. By not allowing a student to play a sport, if they don’t have good grades is a benefit for the student because it challenges them and puts them to the test to try harder to achieve a goal.

"The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant" and "Catch the Moon" Theme Comparison Essay

Love has a variety of effects on people. When it is pure it can change people for the better and heal their pain. “ Catch the Moon” was written by a Puerto Rican American woman and is set in the Caribbean Hispanic Barrio. “ The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant was written by a Caucasian man from New Hampshire and is set in a New England summer home waterfront community. In “Catch the Moon” and “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” The main character a teenage boy, believes himself to be in love with a beautiful girl he just met. However, In “Catch the Moon,” Luis feelings for Naomi redeem him by inspiring to return to acts of goodness. In “The Bass, The River and Sheila Mant,” The fourteen year old boy realizes that “loving” one for their looks is shallow and futile.

In the story “The bass, the River and Sheila Mant” the main character is a boy who loves to fish. The boy falls in love with a girl named Sheila Mant but she hates fishing. He decided to take Sheila out of a canoe, on a date, and ends up catching a bass. He decides to let the bass go and later regrets his actions. In the story the main character says “There would be other Sheila Mants in my life, other fish, and though I came close once or twice, it was the these secrets, hiding tuggings in the night that claimed me, and I never made the same mistake again”. The character changes because he learns not to give up something he loves for a girl who is ungrateful. The theme of this story is that a person shouldn’t have to change who they are for another person to like them, even if they are in love.

The main character of “Catch the Moon” is a boy named Luis who lives in the Hispanic Barrio. He is dealing with the loss of his mother and the pain he had been hiding for years. He went to jail for breaking into a house, and was told by the court that he owed free labor to his father who worked in a car junk yard. He meets a girl, who’s family owns the funeral service that helped with his mother’s funeral, who he likes. She is missing a hubcap for her old Volkswagen buggie and Luis makes it his duty to find it. While Luis looks for the hubcap he starts to think about his mother, and how much he never realized how much he missed her. He found the hubcap for the girl and, started to change when he realized how the girl made him think about his mother. He broke down crying when he thought about his mother and how much he never grieved for her and missed her. Some people change when they are unable to grieve for someone they had lost, sometimes they look for attention by doing things that are wrong, and showing love and grief for someone they lost can be difficult, but it is always important to let go and grieve.

Love can control, and change people. It can change their behaviors and their action. It can heal, and hurt. Never change in the loss of someone you love and never loose something you love for some else. Many people change in the presence of others, and at the loss of someone close to them. Many people hide their grief, and their love for other things, but it is always good to some your love for something and someone you love. Hiding feelings for something or someone can be a mistake that can affect people in the long run. Grief and acceptance is something many people should learn and know.

“Catch the Moon” Grief Paragraph.

The change Luis experiences after he address the grief he feels for his mother’s death is believable because he starts to change. At first Luis was a good kid but after his mother passed away he became bad. He started hanging out with the wrong people and the wrong crowd. His so called friends influenced him and he started changing causing him to end up in juvenile hall. A similar situation I’ve experienced was when my mom got deported and I started becoming a bad person and not caring. Like Luis, I ended up in juvenile hall for my mistakes and for hanging out with the wrong crowd. I changed a lot but in the end I realized that I was just hurting myself.

"Homeroom Reform Essay."

“You need to learn how to separate your wants from your needs”-Mr. Litoff
(Financial Education Teacher). This quote is important for all students to learn because
it teaches them how to control, save, and spend their money right. Statistics proves that
85% of foster youth don’t know how to handle their money after they get emancipated
or leave the system. We feel that more students should have a financial education before
they leave the system.

Our school needs to have more students educated on how to use money. If we
had an elective class that students could choose to teach them about finances, they would
learn how to spend, save, and control their money. We would need funding for this to pay
for the costs of a new class with maybe some technology such as computers to help the
students learn. We would also need materials and school supplies to make our classroom
a better environment where kids can learn. Students need to learn about how to handle
money because when they graduate from high school and go on their own they need to
know how to control and be safe with their money.

This funding for our school would give a personal impact because we feel like it
would be an interesting topic to learn about and learning to control money is important to
teenagers who are becoming adults. It would help us when we have to go out on our own
and learn how to use money. This prize money would help many students in the need
for financial education. It would help us learn many things about money spending most
people don’t know about. This funding would be extremely important.

One way teenagers can learn about money at our school is by the one man who
gives individual lessons and helps students open a bank account. This is the closest thing
we have to getting financial education on our campus. It would be good to incorporate
these learning skills in to a class to help many other students learn about it in a school
environment, and give the opportunity to many students at a time.

This program will have an impact on our school by helping students prepare for
adulthood and it will also give the students an opportunity to earn school credits and learn
about business. By having this program in our school it will give the students different
options for elective classes. It will also help students and enhance their knowledge
not only about money but also about banks, businesses, and any other money related
companies such as stock trading and investment firms.

Financial Education is important and should be taught to students to prepare them
for a business career and their future with money. Our school needs to enhance its
student’s knowledge and teach them more what it’s like to handle and be in control of
their money. This prize would be helpful to our school and will open doors for many

foster youth.

"I wrote this essay with Rebekah M. We wrote it for the KNSD Homeroom Reform Essay Contest

"SPA Movie & Games Day Paragraph

When I arrived to school on Friday I was in an outstanding and humorous mood. I knew that I was going to have a great time because it was going to be a fun day. I went to class and watched the movie “Freedom Writers”, which was a great movie but people were talking a lot so they ruined it. The movie taught me about racism and how some teenagers are living their lives day by day not knowing if they are going to make wake up the next day. After the movie we had the volleyball and basketball games. The class of 13 won the basketball game but unfortunately we lost the volleyball game. When the games were done I went to eat and hang out with some friends. Friday was a great day and I hope we can have more days like this one!

Homeroom Reformers Ideas

"The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant" theme graphic organizer

Internal and External Conflicts in "The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant"

In “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant” the main character faces both internal and external conflicts. The main characters internal conflict is the fact that he fell in love with Sheila Mant and he likes her a lot. He didn’t have the courage to ask her out so he would try to impress her until one day he asked her out. He took her to the fair in a canoe and she told him how much she hated fishing. Fishing was one of his favorite things to do and he had a fishing pole in his canoe that caught a bass while they were talking. He doesn’t want to catch the bass because he doesn’t want Sheila to see him fish and possibly make a fool out of himself. The external conflict of the main character is the fish and Sheila Mant. The fish is a conflict for him because it is the biggest fish he has caught and he doesn’t know if he’s going to have a hard time reeling it in. Sheila Mant is another external conflict because she is rude and not that friendly towards him. As a result of these conflicts the narrator changes because now he knows that he will never make the mistake of letting love take control over things that he enjoys doing.

"Catch the Moon"Falling in Love Paragragh

Falling in love sometimes changes a person and sometimes it doesn’t. Some people change because they feel like they can trust their partners but after they break up they feel betrayed and don’t want to trust anyone. Some people also change because their relationships don’t work out and they feel abandoned and lost. Every person is different and for some love doesn’t change them. For example I was in a relationship where I trusted my boyfriend but in the end it didn’t workout and we broke up. I didn’t let that situation affect my trust with other people. Sometimes love can be a good thing and at times it can be a bad thing. It makes people realize many things and can either bring you down or make you stronger.

"Halloween Memory in Third-Person"

One Halloween, Amy stayed all day at SPA and had an amazing time with some friends. She woke up and was excited because even though she wasn’t going trick or treating, she knew that she was going to have a great. She got up and got ready and watched some movies with some friends that came over to her house and went to the gym. She also played a game with her friends but it got ruined because boys were fighting. Amy’s day was going great until the fight and then everyone had to go inside there houses and the campus went on lock down. She was so upset because she couldn’t come out her house for the rest of the night and she couldn’t go to the gym like she wanted to.