Echo is a book filled with adventure, suspense, sadness, and happiness. You’re taken through the worlds of Otto, Friedrich, Mike and Ivy. Friedrich works at a harmonica factory, and one day mysteriously finds an old harmonica marked with a M. He finds comfort playing it in the midst of Nazi Germany. Mike and his brother Frankie are orphans living during the Great Depression. Mike is a great piano player, and when a harmonica contest comes to town, he decides it would mean a better life for him and Frankie. He also inherits this mysterious harmonica marked with a M. Ivy, living in California during World War 2, is heartbroken when her family has to move again. She finds comfort when she inherits a harmonica marked with a M. Even though the instrument is discouraged by everyone in her family except Fernando, her brother, she finds time to play. Can these kids find hope and comfort in a harmonica? Or will it just lead to more problems?

Winter is here                                                                                                                          Snow is everywhere                                                                                                            Blizzards here and there

White is all around                                                                                                                Can it really be true?                                                                                                            Are we bound to the cold?

Snow is here                                                                                                                              When will it stop?                                                                                                                  Snowmen around every corner

Winter is here                                                                                                                          And maybe, just maybe                                                                                                      We’ll have white holidays

Lina is like any other Lithuanian girl in June 1941. She’s smart, is really good at drawing, and is outspoken. In June 1941, she hears Soviet fists pound on the door. Her family is separated from her father, and her mother is trying to keep her little brother Jonas and Lina with her. They are deported to Siberia, in which they are sold. In a hurry to find her father, Lina draws pictures and sends them to her father. She meets so many people along the way. One day, a list is sent out and Lina and her family are on it. They soon cross the Artic Circle, and still go further north, finally reaching their destination,  Trofimovsk, North Pole. Will Lina have the wits and strength to survive? Or will she suffer the same fate as others have, death?

 This phrase means to me that a picture can describe things that words can’t describe. Sometimes we can’t say how we feel with words but we somehow need to describe how we feel. This is when what you’re feeling is left to your imagination. An artist can be as complex or as simple as he/she wants. Nonetheless, simple or complex, the artwork says a thousand words, and it’s put into a perspective that they can describe without using words that wouldn’t be enough. This is what this phrase means.

My favorite blog that I keep going back to is Grace’s Blog. Her URL is gracek23.edublogs.org. I love keeping track of her posts. She writes a lot about her class’ unit of inquiry, and some of the projects they have are interesting. She has written about different novels that either her class is reading or someone in her class has read. I love just to check out what’s new at her blog. She has awesome posts and totally deserves to be nominated in the Edublogs Awards.

When I’m done with my education, I would like to get a job working at a school in Indiana. I want to start teaching middle school students at a great school. I don’t know what grade I want to teach, but probably sixth grade. I would absolutely love to teach English/Language Arts. I have always adored that class. You might say that I’ll never leave school until I retire! Anyway, this what I want to do when I graduate from college.

So the community I’m involved in after school is Destination Imagination, (DI). This is a global community, and has competitions held all around the world. The first competition is the regional tournament, then the affiliate finals, finally, global finals, which literally is global. This past May, they crowded those who came into the University of Tennessee. I have personally been apart of all these levels of competition, achieving first place in the state of Indiana middle level improvisational challenge. So, it consists of seven different challenges based on STEAM, (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). In my organization, all we need to do to ensure we stay in DI is a creative mind, participation, good grades,  and the talent of working well with others. This is my community and if you want to find out more please visit www.destinationimagination.org!

In chapter 12 pages 94 and 95, Jonas realizes that when things change he’s seeing red. The Giver performs a test after Jonas told him about it. This confirms that he’s seeing red. This might change things because he’ll begin to see other colors. This was also sort of an aha moment for me, too, because I realized that they can only see in black and white. It helped me understand what they were seeing, and really throughout the rest of the book imagined it was a 1950’s television show. It also helped me understand that this was more of a futuristic setting to it.

Word power is anything you say with influence. Negative word power can be anything from bullying to gossip. Positive word power can be anything from encouragement to just commenting. Bullying can be word power if you are using words. It’s not word power if you just walk up to someone and start hurting them physically. Hurtful words will impact your emotions. Positive word power can lift people’s self esteem. You might say something to congratulate someone on their awesome work. Positive word power might also just talking to your friends as long as your not gossiping or bullying. Just talking to your friends is positive word power because it has a positive effect on your self esteem. This is positive and negative word power.

Power is something that has influence. For instance, presidents have influence over their nation or country. Monarchs also have influence over their kingdom. The Queen of England has influence over the United Kingdom. These are all great examples of power. Power might have other meanings, too, but this is just one of the many definitions of power.