Comparing Series: Alex Rider vs. Cherub

The book the Stormbreaker is a thrilling and suspenseful book that people of any ages can enjoy. While The Recruit is a great book, with a similar storyline but, in my opinion, is not quite as good. I am comparing these books because they are the same in many ways. These books are the first in their respective series, both of which I have grown to love.

In each novel, the British school boy’s parents/guardians die at the beginning of the story. Following their parent/guardian dieing they are each recruited by a military intelligence agency. Each is schoolboy is then led through an extensive training program to ready them for their awaiting mission. Both go undercover in their missions, impersonating another person. Each of the missions they are on, they stop people from releasing harmful substances to the public. Along with these many similarities, they’re many differences.

The first difference in the story is that in Stormbreaker Alex’s (main character) uncle dies while in The Recruit James’s (main character) mom dies. MI5 recruits Alex, while CHERUB recruits James. In Stormbreaker, Alex saves people from the RS Virus and in The Recruit, James saves people from anthrax. The character Alex is rather shy, but James is very outgoing and social. Now for this I think is why Stormbreaker is more interesting, because it is more focused on the story at hand, while The Recruit wastes much time explaining James’s social life.

To conclude my post, I must say, listed above are not all the similarities and differences of these great books. If you want to find out what they are then you should definitely read them. I highly recommend both books, and series for that matter. Below I have included links to Amazon so you can order the books for yourself! I hope you have now learned of the numerous similarities and differences of Stormbreaker and The Recruit.

Stormbreaker: http://www.amazon.com/Stormbreaker-Alex-Rider-Anthony-Horowitz/dp/0142406112/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334512766&sr=8-1

The Recruit: http://www.amazon.com/The-Recruit-Cherub-Robert-Muchamore/dp/1442413603/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334512814&sr=1-1

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Comparing Middle Schools Cont.

 I would say that Harding middle school was a close third. They were definitely not far behind Franklin middle school, but they did have a few students holding them back. Also because Harding had a very different layout than Franklin, Roosevelt, and McKinley, I had a difficult time finding my way around the school. I previously hated Harding, who knows, maybe I still do. My elementary school friends mainly went to Harding, with a select few of us going to Franklin. This caused a "elementary hatred" for Harding Middle School.

 Roosevelt middle school comes in fourth place. They had some students that were so exceedingly bad, it dropped them from what would probably have been second place to fourth place. In general the kids were respectful, but some were just terrible students. This was my first time actually going inside of Roosevelt, and as I stated in my previous post, it was astonishing how similar Roosevelt, McKinley, and Franklin are.

 In dead last, way behind all others, is Wilson middle school. They were the only middle school that held true to our opinions we formed in middle school. We had believed that the students attending Wilson Middle School were not exceptional students, and our opinions held true. Students there were simply rowdy and disrespectful. They could not stay focused, and were not interested in the experiments at all.

 Looking back, most opinions that we formed in middle school were completely inaccurate. And honestly, it is actually a good thing, it was just surprising, because we didn't exactly have high opinions of any of the schools really, other than Franklin Middle School, our previous opinions of the public middle schools in Cedar Rapids were not very good. This just proves you can't judge a book by its cover. We were previously basing our opinions on what we have heard about the schools, but now that I have actually visited them, I feel I can accurately form my personal opinions about the schools.

Note***You may not agree with all of my opinions!

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Comparing middle schools

Recently I've had the opportunity to go around the Cedar Rapids Community School District middle schools area for Kennedy Science Roadshow. In doing so I have noticed many similarities and differences among the middle schools. The most astonishing similarity I've noticed is between Roosevelt middle school, Franklin middle school, and McKinley middle school. All three middle schools were built around the same time period, and so the architecture the buildings are remarkably similar. Personally, I went to Franklin middle school, and when I went to the other middle schools, McKinley and Roosevelt, I felt like I knew around the middle schools even though I had never been there before.



When we went to middle school, everyone formed their opinions about the other middle schools and it turns out now that I have visited all of them, not all these opinions are accurate. I had previous believe that the students of McKinley middle school rowdy and relatively bad students. When we went there, it is a complete opposite; students at McKinley middle school were by far the mildest students we had visited for Kennedy Science roadshow. These results were very surprising considering I had previously believed that the students of McKinley middle school were the worst in the district.



A close second, my Alma Mater, Franklin middle school. Like McKinley middle school, they were also very respectful and had a genuine interest in our science experiments. They were calm and collective, and very fun to work with. I will also add that was very exciting to go back and see former teachers of mine. The school was just how I remembered it, except the kids were miniature. That is one thing that I noticed a lot when going back to these middle schools, the kids seemed tiny. I have been short all my life, but these kids were small! Nevertheless, it was cool going back to visit my former middle school.

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How to take the ACT Cont.

On this blog post I will continue to offer strategies to consider while taking the ACT test.

Make sure you get a good night’s rest the night before! This is extremely important because if you are tired then you are likely to not “be fully present” as Ms. A refers to it as. The ACT isn’t exactly exciting and so it could be possible to drift off, which would be catastrophic.

This strategy might seem a little excessive, but it makes sense. Use dull pencils. This is because a dull pencil has a greater surface area on the tip; therefore you can circle in the ovals quicker. This is really a minute detail but remember, every second counts! The few seconds you save could be the difference between you getting to answer the last question or not.

Skimming, not reading. If you truly read out the passages in your head, you will never finish the reading portion of the exam. Although you comprehension will likely be better, you will not have enough time to answer all of the questions. Remember, it is better to answer questions hastily than to guess, or not answer it at all.

Using a watch is instrumental in being able to accurately pace yourself. Make sure you don’t bring a watch that beeps; otherwise you will be asked to leave. When the test administrator starts the test, start your stopwatch, that way you know exactly how much time it has been later in the test.

I highly recommend that you leave your cell phone in your car, or at home. Do you really want to take the chance that your phone might go off in the middle of the test? No, you don’t want to take that risk. Should it go off, you will also be asked you leave, and your test will not be scored. That is not at all what you want.

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How to take the ACT

The ACT is a large fear among teenagers across the United States. The ACT has so much weight when deciding where you go to college. It can be the reason you get in and vice versa. It is a dreadful four hours of your life on an early Saturday morning. There is a way to take the ACT test, but there are many ways how not to take the ACT.

The first thing to do is PREPARE! Find out the format of the test. It is good to know what the test will be like. I recommend taking an actual practice test because it is truly the best way to find out the exact format of the test. Another way you need to prepare is your testing materials. Make sure you collect your pencils, calculator, ID, watch, and admission ticket the night before. You don’t want to wake up and have to scramble to get your materials together.

THE TEST.

Make sure you get at least 15 minutes early. They say 30 minutes, but really you just sit around for those 30 minutes. 15 minutes is plenty to get checked in and find you room. Once you get there just sit in your seat and get you things situated the way you want and then wait for the test administrator to begin.

STRATEGY

Go quick. I believe it is better to have a hasty answer than a guess. You are obviously much more likely to get an answer correct if you answer quickly, rather than not at all. The thing that will hurt you score more than anything is not getting finished. Personally I have had this problem a lot.

Another huge tip is stay focused. If you are reading a passage, but instead you are thinking about something else, you will ultimately have to read that entire passage again because even though you “read” it, you didn’t comprehend it.

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ITEDs vs. The Iowa Assessment

The state and federal governments have a newfound urge to make high schoolers take more tests. Well, in reality we are taking no more tests than we used to. This school year (2011-2012), The Cedar Rapids Community School District has switched the standardized test they are administering. In the past, high schoolers were required to take the Iowa Test of Educational Development, and it had been this way ever since I have lived here (17 years). Recently the CRCSD has decided to replace the ITEDs with a new standardized test, The Iowa Assessment. Apparently it is not a test just for Iowa, it would be called the "Illinois Assessment" if you were taking the test in Illinois, or the "California Assessment" if you were taking it in California. It is a nationwide test that is said to offer a better understanding of where student are at, and an overall better rating system.


Having taken both of these standardized tests before, I can accurately assess the two tests. In my opinion, overall, The Iowa Assessment is much easier than the ITEDs. The ITEDs were more obscure and didn't really test us over things that we have learned. This was especially true about the science portion of the ITEDs. All it would have us do is look and analyze graphs and experiments. This was partially true with the Iowa Assessment, there were some things that were pointless and we shouldn't have been tested over. Who gives a rip if I can read the graph? THAT ISN'T SCIENCE. They should change the name of the test to "Analyzing Science" because that would be a much more accurate title.


Other than this gripe about science, I thought the Iowa Assessment was much easier than the ITEDs were. Also there is a lot more subject matter appearing on this test that we have actually learned about in class, as opposed to basic algebra I learned in 7th grade.


Overall, I like the Iowa Assessment much more than the ITEDs.

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¡En Español!

He querido escribir un blog en Español para un tiempo largo y ahora, estoy escribiendolo. No sé que escribir, así voy a escribir todo que quiero.

Cuando era niño, habría querido aprender Español porque mis hermanas lo aprendía. Y ahora estoy haciendo exactamente eso. Es muy divertido, y estoy muy alegre que escogé sacar Español que Alemán o Francés.

Me gusta mucho mis maestros habría tenido. En mi primero año de Español, my maestra fue Sra. Jauhiainen. Ella nos dio tarea todos las noches, y no me gustó eso, pero era muy bueno para estudiar. En los años segundo y tercero, no tenemos mucha tarea y es muy agradable.

En el año segundo , tenía Sr. Schmidt. Él fue muy simpático y comprensivo. Me gusto como él me enseñó. Él dijó chistes en su lección, cual fue muy cómico y divertido. Este año nos faltan Sr. Schmidt porque el habría salido para siempre. Estoy triste, I quería tener Sr. en AP Español también. Tú no siempre puedes conseguir lo que quieres.

Y por fin, en el año tercero, mi maestra es Sra. Perkins. Ella es considerada y comprensiva también. Ella tiene una personalidad fuerte y sabe lo que quiere. Creo que es importante tener estas characterístticas. Mi clase con ella son súper inteligente y divertido. Mi actividad favorita es "cerdos". Es un partido rapído, pero muy divertido. Es bueno para estudiar el vocabulario también.

Por el año cuarto, voy a sacar la clase de Español AP con Sr. Burke. Estoy emocionado por mi futura en Español. Quiero continuar my educación de español en la universidad.

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