Welcome to Mosaic.
Be honest. Be kind. Be temperate.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Posting in Mosaic

{summary}

Mosaic is available for you to use as a part of your English class. What you post here will be visible to all students registered in Mr. Umphrey’s English classes, but it is password-protected so unregistered browsers cannot see it. Remember that you are writing in a public space. Use appropriate diction--no vulgarity--and avoid telling personal things about yourself that would embarrass you if they were published in a newspaper.

Although this is a password-protected site, you should always be cautious when online about giving out an email address or other ways for strangers to contact you. On this site, never share your email address, your phone number, or your physical address.

Do not use “email style” writing, such as abbreviations, sloppy spelling and punctuation, or sentence fragments. The Internet is frequently used for important work in business, government, and education, and you should practice writing carefully in standard English.

Feel free to respond to posts made by others. Be polite.

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Thursday, November 16, 2006

I am from…

{summary}

I am from

I am from cooking from taking a mothers place
I am form the hurt and torment of an abusive brother

I am form the sweat smell of roses, the blood red ones that stay in you memory even when you donŒt want them to

I am from good times and bad, from a sisters death, from a caring mother, an older brother and a sweat remembered sister

I am from the laughter and the cries that fallow, from the words (there in a better place) and (its okay now)

IҒm from my home in Washington were there is only one of my bad memories, from the heartbreak of a loved one loused, the pieces of a mother that I had to learn so quickly

I am from the good, the bad, and the life of caring about my family

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Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Finally

{summary}

It is the blistering summer of 2005, and I am sitting at a stoplight, my future depending on the next move I make. At this point I think back on all the years that I was completely reliant on other people to drive me where I wanted to go. All of this was about to change. I was getting my Drivers License!!

Backing up in our story a little bit, it was July 19, 2005, and I had turned 15 just one week prior. I had to go through 100 grueling hours of Drivers Ed and 6 long, boring drives with my so-called mentally challenged Drivers Ed teacher. After almost killing my partner and I once during our weekly drives, I was finally at the DMV taking my drivers test.

As I pulled forward to make a right hand turn at the light a car was turning left and nearly clipped my front end. I slammed on the brakes and narrowly avoided ruining my grandmother’s new car. I proceeded to to drive around following the instructor’s insructions. As we arrived back at the DMV the instructor told me that I had failed. I WAS DEVASTATED. The people at DMV told me that i could not re-take the test for one whole week.

After one week of constant heckling form my family and friends, I was back at the DMV, ready to attempt it again. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I was quite nervous because of the results last time. As the test continued I did everything right, including the ever-dreaded parallel parking. Pulling back into the parking lot I awaited those dreaded words, but they never came. She said that I PASSED!!

After that I drove everywhere and gave everyone rides where they wanted to go. But after a while driving lost its excitement and started being just a daily routine, and then Winter rolled around!

{extended}
Posted by Aaron Mather Period 1  
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Life changing event

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A life-changing event was when I moved back to Montana. I lived in Montana until I was four years old. My mom and dad wanted to move to a bigger city than Polson, so they decided to move to Las Vegas, NV. After living there for nine years, I had enough of the desert and thought about moving back home.
Every summer I went to stay with my grand parents here in Polson. The summer of my seventh grade year, while I was in Montana I decided that I was not going back to Vegas. I had my grandparents talk to my mom and dad and after a lot of arguing they gave in and agreed to let me stay.
I started eighth grade at Polson middle school, and found that people were a lot different here. The school was quite a bit smaller than the one I went to in Las Vegas. I started to meet friends right away, and now Ive been living here ever since. It has been about three years and now im a sophomore at PHS.

{extended}

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Janeva Albert s

{summary}

I would like to interview my grandma Cinda Barnes.  She is my mom’s mom.  The topic that I would like to interview her about is when she moved from Alaska to Montana.

20 Questions
1) What was your favorite part of the trip?
2) How would you have changed the trip?
3) Where you happier there?
4) What was the worst part of the trip?
5) How did everyone else handle the move?
6) What did you bring to start your new life in Montana?
7) What lead up to the big move?
8) Where was your first home in Montana?
9) Why did you decide on Ronan?
10) How old were you when you moved?
11) Who many children did you have at the time of the move?
12) How many people moved with you?
13) Do you miss the people in Cordova.
14) Did Grandpa help you move?
15) How long has it been since you moved?
16) What were your emotions like before you move?
17) Was I all worth it in the long run?
18) Was this a hard experience? Why or why not?
19) How long did it take to save up the money to move?
20) What part do you miss about Alaska?

{extended}
Posted by Aaron Mather Period 7  
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Wednesday, February 14, 2007

the turn around/someone who influenced me

{summary}

cool cheese There was not only one person who influenced my life so I’m going to tell about a couple of people.

The main person who has influenced me is my dad. He has been there since the beginning and had never given up on me and he taught me to never give up when the times get rough. He showed me option of where I could take my life. Also showed me a career that i positive of being only because he showed me how fun it is to help people.

He is not the only person that put a star in my sky. my best of friend Andrew he may be in collage but we have more things in common then me and my brothers. He taught me to look for the stars in the sky and not just guess that they are up there and also taught me to keep my chin up even in bad situation, and to always look for light even if I’m in a hole of darkness, and that not everything in the world is bad. [Kennley--you’ve got to land the plane. That sentence keeps stringing along with “and”. . ."and". . ."and"—Work on saying one thing at a time]

my mom is the third person because she showed me that I had a caring mother that was already alive and would have been 16 when she had me. One that doesn’t hit or scream at me. One that show emotions of compassion and love and not anger. my mother also showed me to not let my guard down to easily and that everything in the world isn’t all good. and help me find my true passion which is baking American and foreign dessert. Which she let me show the emotions that I have for it in her bakery.

dedicated to my mom and dad in Montana

{extended}
Posted by Aaron Mather Period 7  
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Friday, February 16, 2007

It Takes Brains

{summary}

If I would have known brain scans would have been in my scrapbook at the end of last year it might have prepared me for the journey that lay ahead. It was the biggest blizzard of the winter months and the house was cold and an eerie silence surrounded everything. It wasn’t a peaceful silence. Nothing was peaceful about it. The phone ringing broke that silence.

“Hello, this is Dr. Gardner from St.Patrick’s hospital in Missoula.” There was a pause. “Hello, are you still there, Miss Trosello?”

“Yeah, I’m still here.”

“This is regarding your brain scans. We suggest that you get down here immediately.”

Those next four months after that phone call were spent doing agonizing tests and sitting the waiting rooms of busy doctor’s offices. I had never in my life realized that I would know so much about MRIs and head CTs. That innocent bruise on my head wasn’t so innocent anymore. The severe headaches pounded like a hammer and my eyesight became blurry. There were no answers. It felt like everything was falling apart one painkiller at a time.

After about a thousand doctors later the results all came into view: a rare bone cancer called fibborus displasia was taking over my bones. There are very few cases of this disease and some are worse then others. It’s most common in children and young adults and many doctors do not know what to do about it. In the meantime the headaches grew worse. Since the doctors were stalling my mom grew impatient. It was really hard for her to see her only child in pain. Nights were sleepless for the both of us. She spent hours reading books and looking at various websites for answers.

Over the next few months, my troubles seemed to have no end. I suffered disorientation, depression, and an eating disorder. With so much happening at once, I wanted to stop and take a deep breath.

So I did. With lots of help from lots of people, I began to re-think all sorts of things about my life. I came to realized that all my troubles hadn’t started with this disease. Even before I got sick, there were things wrong. In fact, maybe some things had gotten better in a way.

Before all this I was going on a completely different path. I was almost lost in the beginning years of adolescence, the parties, and lies and way too many late nights. At that point I really did respect and care more for my loser friends than I did for my own parents and I knew that really hurt them. I regret that all now.

It was my sixteenth birthday this last January and it was the first time in about two years that my mom told me with sincerity that she thought that I was growing up to be a very mature young lady, and she didn’t know as a person how I deal with everything that I have been through. And that meant a lot to me. Even if getting sick was one of the most terrible things that happened to me I think that I can say it changed my life.

{extended}
Posted by Aaron Mather Period 5  
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

someone who influenced me:20 questions

{summary}

No capitalzation: 0

1. where were you born

2. what is your favorite school subject. why do you like it

3. favorite band and what do you like about them

4. what is your favorite thing to do when you have free time to yourself and why do you treasure that moment

5. favorite moment with a loved one why was it special to you

6. before time job

7.when were you born.

8.what do you want to be when you get out of collage

9.what is your favorite movie

10.what is your 2nd most treasured moment with a friends or girlfriend

11.

{extended}
Posted by Aaron Mather Period 1  
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Interview Questions

{summary}

I am going to interview my grandfather about his military campaign in the Vietnam War.

1. Were you drafted or did you enlist in the armed services?
2. Where were you living at the time of enlistment?
3. How did you feel about your first days in the service?
4. Do you remember any experiences from Boot Camp?
5. When did you get called to active duty?
6. How did this make you feel?
7. How did you feel when you stepped off the plane onto Vietnam soil?
8. What were your jobs/assignments when you got there?
9. Were there many casualties in your unit?
10. Tell me about a couple of your favorite experiences in the war.
11. Were you ever a POW?
12. Were you awarded any medals while in the service?
13. How did you get them?
14. How did you stay in touch with your family?
15. What was Daily life like?
16. How was the food?
17. What did you do while you were on leave?
18. Did anything special happen on your last day of service?
19. How was life back at home?
20. Do you still keep in touch with anybody that you served with?

{extended}
Posted by Aaron Mather Period 1  
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The Move To Texas

{summary}

When I was 13 I moved to Texas with my auntie.  I was in 8th grade. I moved from a predominate white school to a predominate black school.  The change was a good one. My cousin was the only other “white person”. I’m Native American and so is he. We were judged on our skin color.  When I was not in school I was traveling all around the states.  I had many friends.  It was I different culture then on the Reservation.  People minded there own business in Texas.  When I was in Texas I had more confidence.  There is a lot less trouble to get in to.  At school we had a dress code so everybody looked the same. At lunch we had flip and flow contests.  My day was pretty normal except I lived with 3 boys.  I was the only one who knew how to clean.
I had to move back 1 year later.  I was very upset because I was much happier there.  I would have gotten a better education.  I also had a chance to get in to great colleges.  This changed how I look at life because now I know there are good things out there.  Not everyplace is the same. I cant wait to finish school and travel the world and meet new people. This expedience will stay with me for along time.

{extended}
Posted by Aaron Mather Period 7  
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Friday, February 23, 2007

Narrative

{summary}

I am writing about all the trips that Ive taken in the past 10 years, the first place I went to is Chicago in 1995 and had to go all the way there with my mom and my screaming little baby sister.  The only reason we went to Chicago is to get a Cadillac that was my step dad’s and see his parents who lived in McHenry, Illinois, Just South of Chicago.  We went through so many towns and states but the only thing I remember is the museum, zoo and Mount Rushmore.

The second trip I went to was Texas in the fall of 1999; I went to Texas because I wanted to se what it was like, but we went by plane in the dead of winter and had to stay in Denver for like a week to get another plane to Dallas, when we landed in Dallas and got outside I couldnt believe how warm it was and all winter I stayed their on a ranch with a family friend and just had fun chasing horses and tipping cows at night.

The third trip I went on was to California and we drove there too, but with someone that I didn’t even Know, his name was Lonnie and he played in a band called Craigs Eggs.  The day after school got out for the summer He asked me if I wanted to go to San Francisco, so I said yes and I went there.  We first went to San Francisco and stayed their for most of my summer then we had to go on gigs which are like playing a concert but in bars and for hippies, we played those all up the west coast and then finally got to Seattle, where my mom came and got me a couple of days before school stated.

{extended}
Posted by Aaron Mather Period 1  
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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Fat Kids and PE

{summary}

Fat kids in school and in life in general is a big issue and a big problem.  Overweight kids in highschool equals more heart attacks when they get older.  There should only be a salad bar at lunch for them with no dressing.  We could start them on diets, they can eat (drink) things like slim fast and Trim Down. 
Waylon, myself, and Tyler will be the teachers of the kids PE Classes, wich they will have to go to for four periods a day.  Waylon wil lteach arobics, Ky for muscular fitness, and Tyler for psychological help because chances are these fatties are gonna break.  Fat kids get teased alot so there are alot more suicides, if all the fat kids buffed up they could go and beat up all the kids that teased them.  After they get slimmed down and are able to beat the kids that teased them up we would put them on anabolic steroids, so that they would keep working out and not get fat again.

{extended}
Posted by Aaron Mather Period 1  
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My Favorite Scenery

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The most beautiful scenery I have ever seen was Woodward Lake in the summer of 2003. Woodward Lake is set against the spine of the Mission Mountains in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The snow-capped Holland Peak reflected perfectly on the mirror like surface of the water. At the mouth of the river coming out of the lake, there was a gigantic log jam that you could walk out on and fish. Every few seconds a silvery cutthroat trout would break the surface of the water, and you could catch them quite easily with a fat juicy worm. Man, those fish sure did taste good roasted over a campfire.

{extended}

the book report

{summary}

The latest book I read was “Lord of the Flies” and I had to do a speech book report witch was pretty gay and it was a prety crual but I thought it was cool like at the end when pigy gets killed buy the others. 

{extended}
Posted by Aaron Mather Period 1  
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The Best Scenery

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The best scenery ive ever seen was probably when i hiked up to Crystal Lake in the Belt moutains. The view over the lake from a cliff side was pretty sweet. The lake was frozen over and it had just snowed, the trees were frosted over with ice. On the farside of the lake there was a moose walking along the shore. As i was looking at the moose wishing i had my rifle, i saw an eagle flying overhead and the whole setting was calm.

{extended}
Posted by Aaron Mather Period 5  
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