Tuesday, April 27, 2010

My Epic Poem

by WahhBAM

It was dark at night on a Saturday
My mother stood in front of the mirror to look at her reflection
She rubbed her face with her gentle hands
A look of dissatisfaction jumped on her face

"Tammy, would you care to take that filthy thing off my face?"
"There's nothing at all on your face!"
We both glance to the side towards the mirror.

"Oh silly mother! It is the dirty mirror!"

The Journey

by Milkman

Strolling proudly down the street
Impossible to defeat
From Claremont Middle School he came
Animals would sing his name

Heading home past shops and stores
People stopped, watched, and adored
Day and night, he would move
Leagues disappeared beneath his shoes

His feet grew heavy, but still went on
Trudging 'til the crack of dawn
No longer was he famed and awed
Fell to his knees and called to God

He longed to see the face of death
Suffering ended, laid to rest
It did not happen, he stayed alive
The walk home from school he survived

The Drummer

by Queen4aDay

He picks it up; in his hand,
The stick that looks at once so grand,
And melancholy, beaten and bruised
From all the times it has been used.

He hoists it aloft, like a blade of heroes elde,
Who went to war, armor shelled.
Its silhouette, in the sky;
A gleam of triumph, in his eye.

He starts to make a motion down
To strike the circle, below, ‘tis round.
His muscles strain, to give it force,
To make the sound his fans endorse.

The stick it swings, a wooden blur.
It makes a noise, like a whir, a purr.
The stick it strikes the drumhead scarred
From strikes like these from the same bard.

The sound that comes from the drum,
Halfway between a hollow thrum,
A gentle tap, a little rap,
And an exceedingly loud snare-driven slap.

The fans all cheer, for he has done it.
The amazing contest; he has won it.
To hit the drum at the right time,
It gives a musical pleasure quite sublime.

But suddenly, the mood is shed.
His stick through his eye, the drummer is dead.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Mock Epics

Hello, ThalerScholars Readers! Our next round of poems will be mock epics. We read "Casey at the Bat" and loved the way it satirized the epic form. We hope you like reading our own epic tales!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Spring-break Poem

by AK

I wake up early to school-less freedom,
the trees shiver; April showers have begun.

I will relax till noon, then meet my friends at the mall,
then check my "to-do list" that hangs on the wall.

I feel as light as a feather,
as busy as a bee,
excitement runs through me,
there's so much to see!

Only 1 week to shine,
as bright as the sun,
to ride a slippery boat,
for endless spring fun.

To stay up all night without any fear,
full of excitement, joy, and forever cheer.

No time for hate or anger,
no time to be bummed,
the sky's the limit,
so jump, soar, and run!

This short week of fun, is a precious diamond;
to be soon buried, lost,
a sparkly finding.

I felt like a released prisoner,
wild and free, living up spring break;
as happy as can be.

bored.

by Ashley

Bored
Sitting on the couch doing nothing but
Watching TV.
Nothing I liked on
But the news.
Sleepy but don't want to sleep,
want to play but don't want to play,
want to get on the computer but don't want to get up and get it,
too lazy to do or get anything.

If I wasn't lazy I would be having fun,
I complain but don't want to do anything about it.

Maybe I should do something.

Bad Writing! ("Poem")

by Al

On Thursday morning I woke with a smile
at that time the weather was not good for running the mile.
After a pleasant cozy while in the shower
my black and broken heart told me something.
What?!
What was it!?
He said
"Go, go see the girl in white!"
I ran, ran with all of my being
fleeing from the shower!
When I got there
the house of the girl of white
my heart
pounded with joy, love, fear and redemption
it bled inside of me
I could feel the black blood dripping down.
As I walked in I soon discovered
I would obviously be staying there for a while
with a cursed kiss I kissed the world goodbye
and entered to the eternal ditch of darkness and
love and
PAIN.

crash

by JG

I crash I disturb
I come uninvited I have more fun than anyone else,
I have more fun than you do
cause I crash parties
crashing parties is fun and its what I do

hit a flip
hit a back flip such strength from your legs
pushing you into a powerful spring of rotation.
The Rush of that flip the accomplishment of that movement
the electric feeling of landing in the pool,
water stinging your leg as you hit the water.

Missing Her

by Prettygurldeija

going to church
having a nice day
learning about Jesus
going a positive way
leaving out the church's double doors
getting caught makes me not be
able to see her anymore

lyrics

by 6tabdanger

I never knew a lady that would lie to her child
She claims she loves them but
she parties and gets wild
I am a king and they all
love to bow
open the box... WOW!!
My lyrics consist of dead
flowers and an unburnt pile
of words that twined together to make
a towel

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Just a test

by Sage

Hands sweating knees trembling
I'm scared.
I'm a mess.
I'm a nervous wreck I'm playing in my hair
So I look through the lines of words
and I say to myself "Wow, J, you're such a nerd."
And I'm feeling some kind of way down deep inside
because no one gave me any reason why
I'm telling you it's not okay
Man I wish this test was delayed.

Rage

by Dark Moderator 5

To live my life should be a crime
I feel miserable all the time.
I haven't been pushed over the edge yet
but sometimes I feel major neglect.
I have a little brother that pushes my buttons
When I complain to my mom she acts like he's done nothin
My family events fill me with rage
I am really mean for someone my age.

Lyric Poem

by The Hatter

At last, the kitchen is sparkling and clean!
All that scrubbing of walls and what's in between.
The dishes are dry and in their proper place
But none of them beam so much as my face!

Lyric Haiku

by Joey Bagadonuts

Grinning like a fool,
When I see my cousin, yay!
It's been way too long.

Floorpunchers

by Queen4aDay

They fling their fists,

Like they want to hurt us, cause fear.

Don’t they understand,

We’re all friends here.

We go outside,

To escape the reaches of the fists,

To gripe about it,

To wish they’d understand.

We just want to dance.

Rocks

by Milkman

A rock
Silent
Still
Gray
Surrounded
By other rocks
Also
Silent
Still
Gray

Spring Break

by Corporal Afro

It's Friday before break
And my friends are off too
It's like the icing on the cake
Don't know what to do
My stomach is churning
Finally no more learning
My eyeballs are burning,
This was probably the best
part of spring break, not the
break itself but the
Waiting which seemed like forever
No more math, English, science or Ms. Clever
Finally the day was almost over
I felt luckier than a four-leaf clover.
I felt mightier than a great king
Finally could spend some time on the lawn
and then bring...
I was gone.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

My bike ride

by Yung Soup

We went on a bike ride.
It was cold,dark,windy
And there was 5 or6 of us
And we rode to Bay st
We rode as fast as
a nascar in a race

We raced
I was always in front
I was the winner
with a big gold trophy
a Jr whopper
I took the onions off
I don't like onions.

On the ride back
my feet pushed slower
on the pedals
until we got home

Lyric Poems

by Ms. Thaler

The Thaler Scholars have just started our poetry unit, and the first genre of poetry we studied is lyric poetry. We learned that lyric poems are usually short, don't tell a story, and express a single, strong emotion. We read "Valentine for Ernest Mann" by Naomi Shihab Nye, a lyric poem involving tacos and someone who gave his wife two skunks for Valentine's Day. Then, we wrote our own lyric poems about our spring breaks. We hope you enjoy reading them, and experiencing the emotions we felt last week!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Jimmy: Part 1

by Milkman

Jimmy woke up late. It was Sunday. He yawned, and glanced at the time. 11:00. He turned over and went back to sleep.

Jimmy woke up around 12:00. He pushed his bed covers off and sat up. His sister was standing just inside the door of his room.

“Oh! I was just about to wake you up. Jerome called a bit ago. He said for you to call him back.”

Jimmy’s sister, Alex, was average height, but with a pretty face, and was generally considered good looking. Jimmy couldn’t tell what guys saw in her. To him she was just annoying and immature. When Alex got her first boyfriend, Jimmy had asked Jerome about it. He had asked Jerome, “You think my sister fine?”

“I-I-I don’t know,” Jerome had stuttered back. “Maybe a little?”

“For real?”

“You just don’t see it cause she your sis. That just don’t happen.”

And that was the end of it.

Jimmy looked at Alex now. She didn’t seem attractive at all, just weird.

“And oh! Jimmy, you owe me five dollas.”

“Say what?”

“I don’t remember! You just asked if you could borrow some money, and I gave you some. You haven’t paid me back yet.”

“Definitely not attractive!” thought Jimmy, “Just annoying.” Then out loud he grumbled, “Okay! Man leave me alone!” He dragged himself out of bed, found his wallet, and threw a crumpled five dollar bill at her.

“Happy now?”

Alex made a face, then picked the money off the floor. “Yes,” she shot back and skipped happily out of his room.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Monster


For this journal entry, students were given a photo at random to respond to in writing.

By Da'Vine

My legs are getting sore. The leaves of the bushes are hitting me. I can still see the giant behind me. It’s holding something. I really don’t understand the monster.

It has no eyes. It does have horns and two nostrils. The monster has a cup of some sort in one of his hands. He runs with it like he’s going to do something to me with it.

I had been in the camp and everyone else was still asleep. We had been looking for the rock for 2 days now. We had stopped to sleep and find camp. We had some gutted lizard of just root soup. It was pretty tasty. When I woke up I heard something. I went out of my tent and checked. There he was.

The monster was walking in to camp. Right when I looked at him. His head just turned straight to me. He turns his body to me and starts to walk over. He has that object toward me and I had to run as fast as I could into the jungle.

This is where I found myself in the jungle. Running from something I have no idea what it is. And what it wants but I really don’t want to find out what it is.

I come to a little village. The people are now in the streets already. I come running in and screaming. The people turn to me and stare. Then I think they see that I am being chased.

They look and some smile and some just look puzzled. They make a wall and I’m confused. They stop me and I turn, I’m terrified of the monster. He comes to me and stops and kneels to me and mutters something. All the villagers laugh. I still don’t understand.

Mr. Fantastic

by Ronald

If I could customize my own super hero he would be very smart. My super hero would wear a fur coat, and everybody loved him. His name was Mr. Fantastic. Mr. Fantastic works alone, but he still has a side kick every once in a while. His side kicks name was fantastic. Super had more powers then Mr. Fantastic but wasn't as smart as him. Mr. Fantastic is good at getting the truth out of people, finding criminals, and giving people the right amount of time in ail. He lived in Atlanta, Georgia. He was 34 years old, but he never will die. He got his powers from his father who gave him to him before he died. When he gets mad he turns invisible and takes his anger out on people in jail. He is a good person until you get on his bad side.

My Dreams

by Young Soup
My dreams have a lot of different stuff in them. I go to parties and stuff like that. Also, my dreams have people from Seattle and Oakland in them and it's funny that my dreams mix both of my lives together. Sometimes it repeats my life and I do what I did that day in my dream, and sometime I like when it does that because my day was fun and funny.
I have dreams about me being back home in Seattle and sometimes people from Oakland are in them. Also I have dreams with my mom and my brother in them, and me and my brother are doing the stuff we would do together when he was alive. My life was fun when I was in Seattle, and I am happy that I am from Seattle. But its a good thing that I moved, because I was planning on doing something very bad because of my brother being killed. My life got very bad and I hated that my life changed like that. I hate that I wanted to kill someone. He didn't have to kill my brother just because his brother got beat up. My brother shouldn't have said what he said, but thats how it is. I can't change it.
But in my dreams, I can go back to the time before that happened, and be with my mom and brother again.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I Will

By Stewie and Lady Beatrice

I am the howl in the whistling wind,
the cool
breeze in a hot summer day.
I am the bark in a howling wolf. I belong to no one.

A dog barks
a cat purrs,
a lion roars, but what do I do? where do I belong?

The places I go
The people I see, there is never a person that doesn’t fit in, but when I look at a mirror,
I see no one,
a reflection lost with a crowd of people trying to fit in,
I will be myself, I will believe I will.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Seattle to Oakland

by Young Soup

I live in Oakland and my life is okay. I have fun sometimes with my friends and family. On the other hand, I don't like living in Oakland because sometimes my family makes me mad. I don't like being around some of them. But that's what happens with family and being a teen. I always think about going home cause I loved being there with my sister, cousins and all my friends i grew up with and had fun with. I will never forget my true home in Seattle WA. I loved being there when it snowed. I also loved going to school because I grew up with most of the kids and we always had fun every day. No matter what, we did what we wanted to do, because we were good in school. I got to leave when I waned, go where I wanted, do what I wanted, have girls over when I wanted, come home when I felt like it. Go to school when felt like it. I went every day unless I had court for something I did a long time a go when I was 10 or 11 years old at the time this stuff happen. I always had money on me. But even though I miss Seattle, I'm starting to realize that life in Oakland isn't so bad.

Friday, March 5, 2010

My dream school



by Taco123

So, let me tell you about my dream school. The name would be “Taco Burrito.” It would be a middle school. When you first walk in my school, you would see on your left and right Mexican food with their histories, like tacos and burritos. It would say when they were first invented and etc. As you walk, you would see the principal's office. As you continue, you will see 2 paths. One for the 6th graders, and one for the 7th and 8th graders. The 6th are new so they have to be with others that are new. The 8th and 7th graders have been there. So they are cool being together. Then you will go out the doors and see a cafeteria, basketball courts, and a PE area. My school is gonna have a vote on who has lunch with who so it won't be painful for students of the principal's decision. So this is my dream school.

P.S : when I get older, my goal is to really make my dream school come true.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Ba Bump... Ba Bump... Ba Bump

by Ziggy96

After a long tiring day of ice-skating on December 3rd, I walked up the glossy wooden stairs. I heard my grandfather screaming, he was screaming "Zion HILFE!" (which meant "Zion HELP!" in German) it sounded just like the screeching of nail on a chalkboard. I started to run up the stairs and almost tripped. Once I was upstairs, I knew that there was something wrong with my grandmother.

While I was running up the stairs, I was thinking about what could have happened. At first, I thought I was in trouble but that could not be because I did not do anything wrong. I searched for my grandfather in the bathroom; nobody was there. I checked in the warm and cozy computer room, still no sign of him. I peeked in the bedroom and there he was talking to my grandmother nice and clearly. She could barley talk back and that is when my heart started to beat fast as if I were a drum in a marching band. BOOM BOOM.

My grandmother was mumbling lots of nonsense. At first she called me "Marlene." I thought maybe she was just playing around with me. But it got worse; I cried, "Where do you live Oma?" ("Oma" is German for grandma). She did not even know. I started to cry even more. My grandfather called the police and ambulance. He did not want me seeing my grandmother like that so he asked me to leave the room. I left. He invited some neighbors so they can watch my sister, Kaya, and me. I kept on crying and I just couldn't stop. My tears were running down my face and I tasted the salty teardrops.

When I looked outside to see if the ambulance was coming, I saw the red and white sirens, and heard them as clear as water. My heart stopped for a second. This was a very dramatic evening for me. I was wondering if my grandma would be okay. All of a sudden I saw the E.M.S volunteers come barging in my grandparent's house. They ran up the glossy stair. The swift E.M.S workers put Oma on the gurney and took her out the door. But before that I saw her shaking and she yelled, "don't take me away!" Or something like that.

The day after the tragedy we went to visit my grandmother in the hospital. They told us that she had brain damage and a heart attack. She kind of creped me out at first because she was so pale, I didn't really go near her at all. I was still in major shock from the day before. A few weeks passed and they let her go home. We were all very happy that she is doing well to this day.

Journal Entries

by Ms. Thaler

Thanks so much to everyone who has been reading our blog and leaving comments! We really appreciate all the positive feedback.

The next group of posts will be excerpts from our weekly writing journals. Every Thursday, we write for twenty minutes while listening to instrumental music. There is always a journal prompt on the board when we write, but writing about the prompt is optional. So, some of the journal entries you see here will be responses to prompts, while other will be free-writes. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we enjoyed writing them!

-The ThalerScholars

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

My hero

By YoungSoup

My brother, Diquan Jones, loved being with his family :my sister, our mom, and me. He was overprotective of all of us, but our mom is what kept us together. My brother always thought that he was my mom's favorite, even though my mom said she didn't have a favorite. My brother always loved having fun. He also taught me how to get girls.

He loved to play sports- basketball, football, and baseball. He was the one who got me to start liking sports, and he's why I love to play sports now. He taught me how to play basketball, and he could hit a baseball, although I never could.

My brother helped me when I needed it, no matter what. He made sure we always went to parties and places to have fun with our cousins. Diquan was also a math person, like me. When I was little he would help me with my math homework . He was a real big brother; he helped me with all my homework that I didn't get.

But in 2006, everything changed for us. Our mom started to get really sick and we didn't know how to take it. We dealt with it by running the streets, doing whatever we wanted. We also made a clique called Hyphy Boyz, and we did stuff that was against the law. We didn't know that we were making our mom sicker.

Eventually, we got kicked out of our house. My brother and I moved in with his dad, and my sister moved in with our grandmother. My brother made sure that we were together. We tried to get back on track. Then the unthinkable happened: our mom died. I didn't know right away, because I was at school. When I got picked up, my family had my brother tell me that mommy had died.

That was when my brother’s life changed. Once that happened, it sent him over the edge. He just didn't care anymore. He went back to his old ways, and got arrested. He went to jail for nine and a half months. When he was in there he called me and told me to stay out of the streets. He also told me to go to school and make something out of myself.

He got out of jail on November 14, 2008. A week later he was in the mall looking for some girls. He saw some people there that he didn't like. They insulted our cousin, who was killed over the summer, and my brother got really mad and beat one of them up. Then that guy’s brother started shooting inside the mall, and my brother got shot and later died. My brother was shot and killed in the mall, November 22, 2008. HE WILL ALWAYS BE LOVED.

Diquan’s birthday was March 3. I wanted to honor his memory by posting this essay about him on his birthday. I know I will think about him on this day every year, and he will always be my hero.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

My hero

By AW

I have an awesome superhero of my own. She may not be very ideal or picturesque to you…yet, but she came just in time to save the day. My hero doesn’t have mind reading powers, but she has so much understanding in her heart that you can never be mis-understood. She can’t go faster than light but she always seems to help out in the nick of time. She doesn’t have the power of knowing everything but she always has an answer for anything. She may not be able to give you everything you want but she won’t fail to deliver everything you need. If you don’t believe me, then keep reading and I’ll tell you how she does it all.

There hasn’t been a single instance when my hero mis-understood something that I’ve said or done so I would be in a bad position. For example, a teacher and I were in a bit of a conflict. My hero made a trip to my school, talked with the teacher and the principal, and saw to it that the conflict was resolved, and that it never happened again. She started working with my schools ever since. Here’s another example.

My hero doesn’t know every answer to every question like bing.com does, but if she knows it, then she’ll tell you. If she doesn’t know it, then she’ll reference you to something or say something that’ll help you to succeed in the most ways possible. If I ask her how to do a math problem, she’ll reference me to my brothers or sisters. If I ask foe some grammar help, she tells me to look it up. If I ask for some ice cream, she asks if I did my homework. I never said her answers would never be a question. I’m almost done so keep reading.

Lastly, my hero doesn’t always give me what I want, but what I need. My hero won’t always give me hamburgers and mac’n’cheese for dinner, but give me healthy food and veggies instead. She won’t let me wear a spaghetti strap under a see through top and some shorts in the winter in Alaska, but bundle me up in a large winter coat, snow pants, and boots. She’s not always going to let me gulp down soda or sugary juice, but every now and then shove milk, water, or fruit juice down my throat. She’ll give you what she sees is necessary, not what you think you need.

My hero doesn’t seem interesting to many children and teens, but she’ll always be a super hero with super powers in my eyes. My super hero saved my life from turmoil and pain, and with some help, turned me to a brighter future. My hero is the one and only, Theresa Walker.