Margaret’s Blog

Here is a Ethical Dilemma that our teacher gave us.

Mary is an eighth grader and, until recently, pretty popular at school. Lately, she started finding notes in her locker and in her backpack that were really upsetting. The notes were unsigned and mean. They said things like: “ We don’t like how you’re treading on our territory.” “ You act like a bitch.” And even, “ You better watch out because we’re watching you…”

Mary had no idea who might be sending the notes but she had an idea why. In the last few months she had started accepting invitations to high school parties. She had also fooled around with a couple of sophomore guys. She had a feeling that the notes were from some of the high school girls. She knew how gossip got around and how mean other people said the sophomore girls were.

What was she supposed to do? Almost every day this week she received a note. She felt angry, scared, and hurt. She showed the notes to two of her friends. One of them said that whoever is sending them was probably just jealous and she should just ignore them. The other friend said she should show them to a teacher.

Mary felt like there was no good choice. If she tried to ignore the notes she was afraid they would just continue, and she was not only scared, she was mad. She wanted them to stop. But if she turned in the notes, she was sure the whole school would find out and she would probably have to name names as to who she thought was sending them. If the gossip was bad now, wouldn’t’ it be worse then?

1. What do you think Mary should do?

I think that Mary should just tell someone and say that she doesn’t know who has she has no idea who it could be.

2. What do you think would happen to someone in your school who was in Mary’s situation? (I.e. would she get backlash for hooking up with older guys? Would people gossip about her?)

I’m not sure about that because it depends on the person and their personality.

3. How does gossip play a role in your school, in your community?

Gossiping is like a rumor and it can get around the school/community very quickly. It is a very bad thing to do because if someone tells who started it then they get in trouble.

4. Have you ever been in a situation similar to Mary’s? How was it resolved?

No, I haven’t ever been in a situation similar to Mary’s. I wouldn’t want to ever get in a situation like that because it is hurtful to other people.

5. Why do you think people gossip? Have you ever gossiped about someone? Why do you think you did?

I think people gossip when they are angry with someone or they plain just hate them. To tell the truth I haved gossiped about someone because he/she was very annoying and I was very mad with that person for what she/he did.

- margaret

Here are 5 websites that tell you about leadership.

http://www.andinia.com/a00100.html

http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_section.asp?articleid=1114&zoneid=101

http://www.managementhelp.org/mgmnt/leader.htm

http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Sharma2.html

http://www.tellboss.com/

Here are some questions our teacher gave us

1. In your own words, what do you think a LEADER should be?

In my own words, I think a leader should be someone who has courage, trust, and other good virtues, they also should have good ideas.

2. What are the qualities of a person that a leader should have? 

Again I think they should follow good virtues and not have plans to take over the world. They should know how to deal with things or problems that might come up while they are a leader.

3. Who is the leader that you look up to or insipred by? 

I am not really sure who the leader that I look up to, but I do know about leaders that have done good and bad things.

4. If you were a leader, what would you do?  What would you be a leader of?

If I were a leader I would give people positive ideas instead of ideas like taking over the world or killing everyone who is your enemy, or other stuff like that. If I was a leader I would be a leader of anything I can be.

5. What kind of leader do you think you’ll be?

I would try to be a good leader, but I would be scared if I do something bad and then people start betraying me.

 - margaret

We did a test personality test about ourselfs. The website we went to was http://www.personalitylab.org/. I think the question were acuarrate. The scores or feedback that I got were related to my personality. I think this was a very good quiz if you want to find out what kind of personality you have. If you want to try out the quiz you can go to the website I typed earlier and then press about myself.

- Margaret

For English we are doing Plot Diagrams and everyone had to do a collage about themselfs. We are also reading a story called “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

For Social Studies we are doing a powerpoint about the First Civilization.

 For P.E. we are playing softball and volleyball.

For Honor Choir we learned many songs.

Science we are learning about the earth.

For Math we are learning geometry like angles and geometric figures.

And for computer we are blogging and for study skills we are learning many different stuff.

This summer I went to Taiwan and to Thailand. I went to Taiwan first and I went to the cities called Hualien, Yunlin, Taipei, and Tainan. I lived in my grandma’s house in Sanchong, Taipei. I went to nighmarkets, street markets, different malls, memorials of the old president. In the memorials they had guards near the statue that are changed at every hour. The memorial had about 200 steps!! Here is some pictures of the memorial, Chiang Kai Shek who was the first president of Taiwan, and the guards.

Then when I went to Chiangmai, Thailand we did a lot of things with the tour. Changmai is nice because no one steals there or does crimes, so there is very little cops on the streets. We went to go ride elephants,we saw a snake show with king cobras, and we saw monkey shows, and we also went to go feed wild monkeys. I think the best thing we did was riding the elephants because they also had a show. The elephants had different flags on them and they were playing soccer with giant soccer balls. Some of the soccer balls even hit the aduience. We also saw the elephants dance, draw, and play the harmonica. It was kind of scary in the beginning of riding the elephant because we were so high up and the hill was very high up too. The elephant I rode was 17 years old, and it’s name was Mae Boomamai. The elephant I was on went to the river and then sat in the water. The driver was like take a shower? And me and my sister were like no way!! The driver the instructed the elephant to go away from the river. There was a ton of elephants too. The Place I went to was Maesa Elephant Camp. Then after that we went to go look at the wild monkeys and when the our tour guide shook some peanuts all the monkeys started to come down. Some of them even had babies on them. We even handed the monkeys peanuts and bananas. I think my whole summer vacation was very fun this year.

-Margaret

Resolution means a course of action determined or decided on. When someone asked to go to their house and then somene else asked you then that would be resolution. There are many problems where resolution happens because life is like that. People always get stuck in this problem and I think that they should think which one would be better, which one would not get me into trouble. Or many other questions like that.

HOW TO BE YOURSELF

It’s not always easy to be ourselves. Sometimes, when we’re with other people, we make choices or act in ways that are different from when we’re alone. Here are some ways to prevent that from happening.
• Know your values and stay true to them.*
• Make your own choices, don’t just go along with the crowd.
• Respect yourself.
• Think about your goals and act accordingly.
Think about these questions and see how you answer them.

1. When somebody says “just be yourself,” what does that mean?
It means don’t be like other people and be who you are, and not what other people want you to be. If someone acts bad I don’t think that you should act bad too. Then you would just be in trouble too.
2. Is it always easy to be yourself, or can it sometimes be difficult? Why? How? Give examples.
Yes, it should be easy to be yourself because that is who you are. If you be yourself then you wouldn’t need to learn to act like someone else. It would be easier to fit in if you did.
3. A lot of kids around talk about “fitting in.” What does “fitting in” mean? How do you do it?
Fittng in is like when you act like someone to get friends. Like if someone is smart. You pretend to be smart to, so that they will like you.
4. Is it true that there is a lot of pressure in this school? What do you have to do to fit in here?
No, I don’t think that there is any pressure in this school. I don’t think you have to do anything to fit in, in this school. I think all you have to do is be yourself.
5. Does fitting in ever make it hard to be yourself?
Yes, because you are trying to be like other people and yourself at the same time.
6. What if you don’t fit in? Is that okay, or does it mean there’s something wrong with you?
That is okay, it just means that they don’t like the way you are and you should find other people to hang out with. There is nothing wrong with you though.
7. Are there groups here in school? Cliques? (Gangs) What are they?
There use to be cliques in our grade, but i’m not sure about right now. Cliques are like groups of people and so is gangs.
8. Why do these groups exist? What do they do for the people in them?
I think that these groups exist because the people in the group is their best friends.

9. Does being in a group sometimes make it harder to be yourself? How? In what way? Examples?
Yes, because it is risky. If you do someting bad they might kick you out. So you have to try to do the right things.

10. Are there pressures to fit into these groups? If so, describe the pressures.
Yes, because if you aren’t in a group you might not have any best friends.

Brendan was in third grade when he was caught cheating on his math quiz. He had been doing poorly in math and his parents had threatened that if he didn’t raise his grades they wouldn’t let him play on the baseball team. So he cheated. When the teacher asked him about it, he denied it at first, but finally admitted to writing down the answers ahead of time.

A parent conference was called and Brendan had to sit with his parents, the teacher, and the principal to discuss the school policy on cheating and lying. On the way home, his father told Brendan he was deeply disappointed in him and expected more from him in the future. That night, Brendan felt like the whole world was against him, but he also felt guilty for letting his parents down.

That weekend, Brendan and his family went to a movie. When they got to the ticket window Brendan’s dad asked for children’s tickets for both Brendan and his 16 year old brother. Brendan looked over at his brother, who stared down at the sidewalk and hunched his shoulders hoping the ticket seller wouldn’t notice that he was well above the age for a child’s ticket. The ticket seller glanced suspiciously back and forth between the father and the brother, and then, with a doubtful look on her face, she handed them the the two child’s tickets. This happened every time they went to the movies, and it always made Brendan feel weird.

On the way home from the movie, Brendan asked his father why it was okay to lie and cheat the theater out of money but not to cheat on his math quiz. His dad responded that sometimes its okay to lie as long as nobody gets hurt.

Do you think Brendan should try to talk to his Dad again about his lying at the movies?
Yes, I think he shuld tell his dad that there is no difference from what he did and what Brendan did.

Who might Brendan have hurt by cheating on his quiz?
He could have hurt the teacher because if he cheats then the teacher will know that she is doing a bad job with Brendan. It also says that the teacher is not helping him.

Brendan’s Dad said it was okay to be dishonest if no one was hurt. Who do you think might have been hurt by his lying at the movie ticket office?
The people who work there because they use that money to buy food and to pay for their employees. If they don’t get the money then their employees would want to quit there jobs. And the movie theater would lose there business.

well thats the story of Brenden.

- Margaret

This is my story. Instead of people hating me I was the one asked to hate someone. Here are some pretend names Jack, Benny, and Jeremy. Jeremy got a prank email from Benny, but Jeremy didn’t think it was funny. Jeremy didn’t want to be his best friend anymore so he asked me and Jack to hate him too. I said okay I will kind of hate him for you, but Jack said he wouldn’t hate him, so then Jeremy and Benny didn’t really like each other anymore, but Jack told Benny why Jeremy didn’t like him anymore. Now they are all best friends again.  Okay that’s all. Bye

- Margaret

Here is an article that our teacher told us to read.

Julia was in 6th grade and had been at her school since kindergarten. Her two best friends were Wendy and Erin. Erin was the most popular girl in the class and all the girls saw her as the leader. One morning Julia arrived at school and Erin was acting weird. When Julia said hi to her, she didn’t respond. She just looked away and smiled at a group of girls in the corner of the classroom.

It didn’t take long for Julia to figure out that Erin had turned most of the girls against her. But, she didn’t know why! She went to Wendy and asked her why Erin was mad at her. Wendy acted nervous and said that all she knew was that Erin told her that if she hung out with Julia, none of the rest of the girls would talk to her anymore.

The rest of that day lasted forever. Whenever the teacher was looking everyone was nice to Julia. But, when her back was to the class, Erin or another girl would throw pieces of paper toward Julia or whisper to each other and look in her direction. Julia thought Wendy would help her but Wendy just pretended nothing was happening.

That night Julia talked to her parents and they told her to wait and see if tomorrow was better. If not, they said, perhaps they could help Julia talk to Erin and work through the problem. Julia felt like that would make her look stupid if everyone found out that her mom and dad had to get involved. She knew that sometimes the class would pick on someone, but she never thought her friends would turn against her and do the same thing to her. She felt like she didn’t have any friends and nobody liked her.

The next day was even worse. No one wanted to hang out with her at recess and she had to sit by herself at lunch. At the end of lunch she went into the girls’ bathroom. While she was there, a girl from her class came in and said that Erin had sent her in and that Julia had to take off her shoes and send them back to Erin or no one would talk to her tomorrow. Julia just wanted to go home. She didn’t want to cry but she was confused and hurt and scared. She gave the girl her shoes.

Now she was late for class and was in the bathroom with no shoes. She headed to class and walked in quietly with her head down. Before she could get to her chair, the teacher asked her why she was late and where her shoes were.

Why do you think Wendy didn’t stick up for Julia?
I think that Wendy didn’t stick up for Julia because all the girls would have turned against her too. If she did then she would have been a really nice friend but she didn’t because she didn’t want everbod to hate her.

Has this sort of thing happen ever happened to you or to someone you know?
This has never happended to me or anyone I know.

Have you ever been in Wendy’s position? Erin’s?
No, I have not ever been in Wendy’s or Erin’s postition. If I was in Wendy’s postition then I would have just keep being friends with Julia. If I was in Erin’s I would have stopped being mean to her and start helping her.

How do you think this situation would be different if the case involved boys instead of girls?
It would have been even more horrible because sometimes the guys are tougher then the girls. If that did happen I think that the girls should help Julia stick up to the boys.

Why do you think people pick on others, and why do others join in?
I think that people pick on others because they just think that they are nasty and that the have never given them a chance as a friends, so they pick on each other. I think others join in because the don’t want to be picked on too.

Have you ever felt that a good friend turned his or her back on you? What happened and what did it feel like?
I haven’t ever felt that way but if I did I would have tried to become friends again instead of making a new enemy. I think I would have feel really embarrased and would have tried to tell someone.

I think that people shouldn’t treat other people like that. They should treat everone fairly instead of making everyone turn against him or her. That’s what I think.

- Margaret