Update!!!

Okay, so it's been a while since I've posted, but I've got a legitimate reason as to why. For the past month, my teachers all simultaneously agreed to double up the homework and make us study harder. It doesn't help that we've got STAAR tests in the spring, but obviously that doesn't matter. Usually this time of the school year, I get really bored because we barely do anything and we just study for STAAR tests. Sadly, this new district doesn't share the same ideas as my previous district. Today, I had to take my English I EOC (End-of-course) test. The test took me four and a half hours to complete in our five-hour time limit. I was absolutely shocked at how different the seventh grade test was and the EOC. This test contained 63 multiple-choice questions, 3 short answers and 1 essay. I'm absolutely glad that we were given a five-hour limit cause I wouldn't of finished the test on time in four hours. Another good thing that's coming up is that it's almost Good Friday. Supposedly, this day is so important that we get to have a student holiday at my school, so I've got no school on Friday!!! Well, I guess this is all that's going on right now, but we get to pick our high school classes soon so I'll post again soon. Hasta luego, mis amigos!!!!

Making Muffins with the Family

Today, my sisters and I got to make banana muffins and quadruple chocolate muffins. Both muffins were delicious. My sisters and I are going to be making muffins for breakfast like these muffins more often for school because they're time-saving. The banana muffins came from Simply Recipes, though we made some alterations to the recipe. Below are the recipes for each muffin with a picture of our muffins:

Banana Muffins
Prep time: 10 minutes            Cook time: 30 - 40 minutes            Yield: about 17 - 18 muffins

Ingredients

• 4 very ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C), and lay out 17-18 regular-size muffin cups on a pan.

In a mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until smooth. Stir melted butter into mashed bananas.

Mix in the baking soda and salt. Stir in the sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla extract. Mix in the flour.

Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling only about 1/3 of the cup.

Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350°F (175°C), or until toothpick comes from the center clean.

Remove from pan and let cool. Serve with some butter and enjoy!



Quadruple Chocolate Muffins
Prep time: 10 minutes            Cook time: 17 - 19 minutes            Yield: about 23 - 24 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 pouch of Betty Crocker Hershey's Ultimate Chocolate brownie mix
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of Nescafé Clásico
• 1/2 bag of Nestle Toll House Dark Chocolate Chips, 10 oz. bag

Directions

Heat oven to 325°F and lay out 23-24 regular-size muffin cups on a pan.

Stir brownie mix, Nescafé Clásico, oil, water, and eggs in a medium bowl until well blended. Mix in Nestle Toll House Dark Chocolate Chips. Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling only about 1/3 of the cup.

Bake for 17-19 minutes at 325°F, or until toothpick inserted into center of brownie comes out clean.

Remove from pan and let cool. Serve with a cup of milk and enjoy!

 

 

First Week!!!

So this week was the first week of school and I can already tell you guys that I had an amazing week. I absolutely loved the school. The school is, in one word, different. All of the aspects of the school is different than what I'm used to. This is a new experience for me. My schedule for this school is just absolutely crazy-weird. I have math, social studies, science, language arts, art, lunch, Chinese, Spanish, athletics, and lastly my enrichment period/homeroom. All of my classes are awesome. The majority of the teachers come from other places around the country and some around the world. Both my Spanish teacher and math teacher come from Spain, while my Chinese teacher actually came from China. I think that I'm still trying to get used to the school and waking up early enough. Like I said in my other post about the school, this school starts at 7:45 in the morning. For me last year, that was usually the time that I woke up for school to get on the bus. That is sadly not the case for this year. I have to wake up at 5 a.m. in the freaking morning just to be out of the house by 7. This would be easy for me if I it was just me, but there's also my sisters. None of us are morning people, but, for me, it's easy to actually wake up than my sisters. Once I'm awake, I usually stay awake. Anyways, I'm really excited about this school year and I hope it goes really well. So a cabo la paz! Hépíngle! Peace out till next time!

New School!!!

This year my sisters and I are going to be going to a charter school for the first time. I am really excited about this new school because I'm going into eighth grade with a whole new group of people. The new school is called the International Leadership of Texas (ILT). The school's motto is to strengthen the mind, body, and character. I really am looking forward to going to this school because not only is this like a big restart button, but it also is a more advanced curriculum. Some of the differences between this school and Chisholm Trail MS (previous school) is this school has more hours. My previous school started at 9:20 and ended at 4:30, whereas this school I would start at 7:45 and end at 3:45. That's an hour added onto school. Another major difference is that this school looks like a community college and my old school looks like a regular middle school. The charter school also holds about 1300 students, whereas Chisholm Trail has only about 900 students. ILT has a total of nine periods. At this school, they teach Mandarin Chinese and Spanish to all of their students. Although this school doesn't have as many different electives, this school makes it up for its activities. At this school, there's soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball, track, and cross country. I love the variety of sports here and I really can't wait until school starts!!!

International Leadership of Texas

Chisholm Trail Middle School

Insignia

I just finished reading Insignia by S.J. Kincaid. The book is about Tom Raines going from a low-life kid living off the streets barely going to school to becoming an important person in the military. In the world, there is a coalition of 12 companies that practically rule the world. They are split into two groups that are fighting for land in space. Tom goes through different challenges that he never had to go through when he was with his father. This book is a really good sci-fi book for people who like sci-fi. This book would be a 4 out of 5 because it was a really good book and it showed how even great things can have a bad impact on a person's life.

Track Meet

Tomorrow, is my first track meet. Since I made the track team, I've just gotten used to the waking up early in the morning it's not even funny. The events that I'm doing is discus and shot put. I actually am pretty good at both. Not the best, but I'm alright. I really can't wait to go to the meet because it's the only meet in the season that's at a different district. I really can't wait and I really need to do good tomorrow. Wish me luck!

   

Chalee Panko

Chalee Panko is probably the only person in the world that's crazier than Ali and Lexi combined. She's funny, short, and an absolute Takis lover. She loves to talk and talk and talk until she can't talk anymore and sometimes it gets really annoying. She babbles a lot and has some of the weirdest selfie poses ever. Chalee and Lexi are almost inseparable and love to talk to each other. Besides being crazy, Chalee is actually a really good friend. She can keep a secret and almost eats everything that you have. So, Chalee is crazy and a very weird person. Truthfully, I don't know how we became friends.

http://lifeofamiddleschooler7.blogspot.com/ 

Ali Taylor

Ali Taylor is one of my best friends and, I guess, that's pretty sad. She is one crazy girl. Ali is also one of the most ghetto-est person I know. She always has food. Always. She never goes anywhere without having at least one bag of Takis and some vitamin water. Even though she has horrible habits of eating so much junk food, Ali is a great friend. She is always there. Ali has her stupid moments. She thinks out loud a lot and, most of the time, it's really funny. She gets "addicted" to almost any new game or app she sees. She posts the funniest things on her blog and they're sometimes really stupid.

http://thefiestyfashionista.blogspot.com/ 

Semester Exams

There's only one time in the year that I absolutely dislike. Semester Exam Week. Those three words are horrible. I'm pretty for sure that everyone doesn't like semester exams. Even the people that don't like doing school work. Either way, semester exam week is dreadful. When we're not taking a test, we're studying for another. It's just study, study, test, study, study, study, test, and study. We do nothing but study. I know that some teachers don't like it. The two days that we have half days are full days for the teachers. The look on my math teacher Ms. Kerby was so funny. Another reason why semester exams suck is that it's about everything that you learn in the whole first semester of school. Nobody remembers that stuff. It's so funny to see people go at the last minute to study for a test. The bad thing, for me, is that I have to actually study. Even I don't remember some of the things that I learned this year. Today, I had my third and seventh period exams. That's science and math for me. They kind of balance each other because I don't like science, but I love math. I was so prepared for the math test, until my Ms. Kerby said that it was extremely hard and the previous period didn't even finish the test. Otherwise, I went from being super prepared for a test that I now felt that I will fail. We started the test today and I can completely agree with Ms. Kerby. We had a little over two hours to do the test. Halfway through the two hours, I was only on question 12. I knew then that there was absolutely no way that I would finish this test today. Tomorrow, I have Texas History and my Newspaper exam. I, specifically, am worried about my Texas History. Even though I practically grew up here, I'm still trying to get the history part down. The test is about the 5 regions of Texas, Native American cultures, Texas Exploration, Spanish Colonization, Mission System, Texas Revolution, and the Civil War. Basically, Texas before 1870. My only hope is that I get a some-what good grade on all exams.

Mini-Winter Break!

Today was the first day we got back to school. From being stuck in a house with all of my sisters and parents, I was happy to be back in school. With my family and I living in the more rural part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan, the ice on the roads weren't helping. Last Thursday, the district cancelled all after-school programs, games, and Saturday school. This was our first notice to say that basically school was out for the rest of the week. I can truthfully say that I was happy that we had a small break from school before our Christmas break. We were scheduled to have our first basketball pep-rally during first period. Pep-rallies in the morning is one thing that I absolutely do not like. I am not a morning person, so mixing in a pep-rally that's supposed to make us all happy and cheery doesn't mix well with me. So, my weekend went from a two-day weekend to a three-day weekend. My weekend turned into a five-day weekend when the "wonderful mini-vacation" turned into an "everlasting nightmare." I had to stay with my family. For FIVE days! The weekend is enough and even then I'm not with them much, that's probably because about half of the day I spent sleeping in my bed ;) Coming back to school made me so happy because not only did I get to see my friends, but I got to actually go outside. I hope that this ice and snow melts away before the beginning of next week.

GenTx Week

This past week at school has been Generation Texas week. It's basically about college and career readiness. This whole week, all of the teachers at my school had to decorate their doors to represent the college they went to. I love this because we get to decorate, which I love to do, instead of reading for twenty minutes. On Wednesday, during your science period you had to go to the eighth grade computer lab and take this career and skills survey. On my career interests survey, my top five pathways were performing arts, journalism and broadcasting, marketing communications, visual arts, and governance. I do not life performing arts, marketing communications, and governance. The only job pathways that I would even consider would be the journalism and the visual arts pathways. My skills confidence survey had similar results. I got journalism and broadcasting, performing arts, professional support services, health informatics, and early childhood development and services. I don't like any of these except, of course, journalism and broadcasting. Tomorrow, there will be a poll of which teacher's doors is the best. I'm pretty for sure that it would be Ms. Pennington's door because hers had lights, a theme song on it, and is overall awesome.

UPDATE!!!

OH MY GOSH! Since the last time I've posted, I've been busy with homework! I forgot all about my blog and feel so bad. I haven't posted for almost a whole month. School has been really hard for me with all of the homework and having to work around my schedule. With basketball tryouts coming up, I've been working my butt off trying to get my school work done. After that, I have to start getting ready for Thanksgiving. Some family are coming over and I really need to clean my room. I can't wait till Thanksgiving Break!

My Fantastic/Horrible Week (So Far)

These past two days have been fantastic for me. Yesterday in first period, we did absolutely nothing. We only had to review someone's Native American PowerPoint and then submit it to our teacher. In my career portals class, we only had to work on our "resume" and cover letter. Science was as boring as always. In journalism, we got to spend the whole entire period taking pictures of people dressed in red, white, and blue to honor 9/11. In language arts, all we had to do was peer edit our personal narratives and do our vocabulary words. Math is a wasted period. I mean, we never do anything in that class. Athletics was awesome. All we did was laps in the gym. Overall, that day was awesome. Today was just as good. It was picture day and we had to take our pictures during our social studies period. Thankfully, mine is my first period. By the time we got back to class, there was only like twenty minutes left. So, we got to watch a video honoring those who died twelve years ago on September 11th. Career portals, science, math, and language arts were pretty much the same. In journalism, a couple of my friends and I got to start our first story. It's about the honoring those who died on September 11 twelve years ago. After school, I was completely wore out. I got home, at my usual time, to only find that we were going to have this electrician come and install our new kitchen lights. That was bad for me because I had to work on four assignments. My day only got better and better when the electrician left my house. At nine-freaking-o'clock. That means he was here for about three hours. I never thought that was possible, but him and my dad were buddies making them talk and joke around. I am so tired. that I could literally pass out and not finish this post. Luckily, I'm not that wore out. I probably won't post till like Friday at the most. Hope my week will finish off just like it started. Peace!

Journalism Class

Today in journalism class, we got assigned projects that we had to report on. I have to go to either the 7th grade football game or the 8th grade football game. I have to write about their scores and all that type of stuff. Since I don't know anything about football, I'm going to try to get my dad to help my with the statistics and all, but the rest of the work is going to be all mine. My school blog hasn't even been updated since May. I can't wait to actually start writing stories. I hope this is going to be as easy as this blog. The school blog is called Chisholm Trail Tribune and is on my blog list. I hope you all like my school blog. Peace!

Tough Day at School :(

Oh my gosh! Today was a very loooooong day. First period, all we did was work on this PowerPoint about a Indian tribe in Texas. Second period, was career portals and all we did was finish the rest of the things that we did yesterday. Third period, we actually had to take two quizzes; one was a safety quiz and the other was about force and motion. Fourth period, was journalism and we got to look at all of our blogs. The blogs are all on my blog list on the right column. Most of them barely have their first posts. We just started these blogs last week. Fifth/sixth period was language arts. For about the first hour, we spent that whole time trying to upload this personal narrative that we'd written on Monday. Sixth/seventh period was math. I absolutely hate that class. Everybody is so talkative. Sometimes, I just feel like yelling to everybody to shut up. The bad part about it is that not only is it a Pre-AP class, but the people that are talking all are flirting. It's just annoying to hear. Athletics, my eighth period, was awesome today. We ran half a mile, two times around the track/football field, in less than three minutes. Then, we went inside and ran about the rest of the mile because it felt like a hundred degrees outside. Today, I finally got to see the one person that I've been looking for the two weeks. My friend, Lily, and I got to sit in the very back of the bus. We were so happy because it was the coldest part of the whole entire bus. When I got home, I got to spend pretty much the whole entire time working on my Texas history homework. Curse you homework! Whoever came up with that idea should have thought more about their future descendants because we all hate homework. Hope you all have a blessed day! Peace!