Today, a big decision, one that will mean life or death for my people, has been put on my shoulders. My people have been hunter-gatherers for generations, following the food to where it may go. But now, we have a chance to break tradition and stop the following of the herds. We have a chance to settle and stay in one place, to grow crops of maize and only hunt game that is near the village. We will no longer have to be scared that we have hunted all of the game. We will no longer have to chase the game, and leave our temporary homes in a minute's notice. We will no longer have to focus on our game, and where it is located. Our children will be able to learn other things than just hunting. But, on the other hand, we will be changing tradition of our people.

The decision is made. If breaking tradition is enough to insure my people's safety and lives, I will allow it. We will now settle in the area close to the river for water. Life as a hunter-gatherer is over for my people. Things will never be the same.
 
"Yaaaaaaawwwn," it was all I could say after the very long day of work, plowing the fields over the hill. I was walking back towards the village where I knew a very poor supper waited for me. All of the other villagers had already made it to the village, but I had lingered in the fields an hour longer, to cut my work just a little shorter for the next day. Just over the hill. I thought to myself. On my way up, I smelled something cooking, but then I realized the smell was no small cooking, it was burning. I ran as quickly as I could up the hill, only to realize my worst fears were true.The village was burning. I dared not move. I didn't want them to find out I was still alive. There were Vikings all walking back to there ships. Each was carrying a sack or trunk, the village's riches I suppose. I laid low until the ships were gone, but there was a handful of them that took the main road of the village and walked towards inland. It was late at night before I lost any sight of them. I dared not make a fire; attention was the only thing I didn't want at the moment. It was very cold, the wind howling and whipping my bare face, arms, and legs. It was to be a long night.

I was awaken by a cry. I got up and hurried towards the village. The crying continued, until I finally found what was creating that noise. It was a little boy, no more than 5 years old. He was sitting near what seemed to be his house. "Are you hurt," I asked him. "N...nn...n.no," he said with a quivering voice. "What's your name, lad," I asked him. "Ch..Ch..Charles,"is what I could make out of the reply that came back. "Good morning, Charles. My name is Ferdinan.." he quickly interrupted. "Where are my parents," he asked, standing up while he was asking. "Well, they're... um.. gone. I'll take care of you until they come back. Come, we must go to the closest village from here, which is just north, I believe." We then started our sad journey to the next village, not knowing what would happen to me, and that little boy, Charles. 
 
My favorite book this year would probably be Crispin, The Cross of Lead. I think that this was one of the better books we read in Core this year. It was a very exciting book with many twists and turns to definitely satisfy me, and I believe my class, too.

This book was about a boy who finds out a lot about his father, birth, relatives, and royalty in the Middle Ages. His name is Crispin. Other characters would be Bear, Crispin's master (For most of the book); John Aycliffe, Stromford's steward; and . This book is packed with adventure. I definitely recommend this book to people who like historic fiction books, especially about the Middle Ages; and to those who like action and books that have secrets and mysteries, but they aren't spilled until the end. I definitely like these types of books. It even has two books that come after this one, and I heard that they are equally amazing.
 
We learned many things about the Middle Ages for the past month, but there is one Middle Ages topic that is my favorite...... It's the Vikings! Even though I don't like the football team, I did like everything about the Vikings. The Vikings were a very interesting people. It was fun and cool to learn about how they came about, where they went, who they raided, and what eventually happened to them. Let's explore the information about the Vikings.

Vikings originally came from Scandanavia. They were groups of people who wanted better land than they were living in, which was cold and dry. So, the Vikings attacked the coast of Britain, Ireland, and all western parts of Europe. Many Europeans feared Vikings because of stories of their brutal killings. They also looted many towns and monasteries for their gold and silver. Many people were killed by these attacks, but some were taken as prisoners, and sold as slaves. Unfortunately, for the Viking's part, they were only able to attack coastal areas, because that was where their boats could reach. After the Vikings started to settle, most of them became Christian. Do you now see why I thought they were very interesting? I hope you grew an interest in Vikings, too!
 
Do you know Martin Luther? No, not Martin Luther King Jr., there's a difference. You know, the man who nailed his 95 theses to church doors? Yes, that's the guy. Today I will be stating my 5 theses about school.

1. Class should start at 8:15 a.m. and end at 3:15 each day. This gives student more time in the morning to get homework and projects done. This also makes school longer, for slightly longer periods. This also makes our schedule an even time instead of an uneven time, for example: 2:48?2:57.
2. Jeanious day (A Friday once a month that allows students to wear jean if they have a 70% or better in all of there classes ) should be for students with an 85% grade or higher in every one of their classes. This is a great privilege for students working hard and not just barely surviving on a C in every class. This makes students strive for a better grade so that they have the privilege of wearing jeans.
3. Signatures in a student's agenda should be more inforced and graded if signature is absent or present. If a teacher in a certain class checks the agenda of a student, the student would have to get a signature from their parent if they do not want to fail. This  makes students show their parents their agenda, making parents with irresponsible children question them for their homework load, thus creating a more hard working, good grades student.
4. Homework Lab and Lunchtime Detention should be more inforcing, meaning longer and more consequences if absent. From what I've heard from friends, and what I've seen before, I don't think that Homework Lab and Lunchtime Detention are very inforcing, thus creating a student who does not care if they are in either form of detention. If the student is more fearful of the detention, the student will become harder working.
5. There should be more consequence to non-dress students during P.E. I've seen students who would not wear their P.E. clothes for over a month, and give excuses of their clothes' absence. If a student drops down a grade because of non-participation in P.E., a phone call should be sent home so that parents know that their son/daughter has a low grade in P.E. for small reasons that could be easily fixed.
 
The Scientific Revolution was a very important time in history. It happened right after the Middle Ages, about the same time as the Renaissance and Protestant Reformation. If the Scientific Revolution didn't happen, we still might think that light is clear or that the earth is the center of the universe! Some major discoveries and inventions happened at this time, too.

 For example, when the sun, not the earth, was realized as the center of the solar system by Copernicus and Galileo. We wouldn't have known this until satellites and spacecraft were developed and launched. Isaac Newton proposed the theory that light is not clear, but all of the colors of the rainbow, and when mixed, the color white. Or when Galileo invented the telescope, giving much more evidence for his sun-centered solar system theories, and so many more details about the moon, including how it has craters and is not smooth. The telescope even showed that Jupiter has four major moons. Without the telescope being invented, all of these things would not have been found out until long later. Can you think of anymore Scientific Revolution achievements? I sure can! But unfortunately, the list would go on so long that you would probably fall asleep while reading this.
 
Recently, 7th grade Computech students when to the zoo, because of a project we have been working on for 2 months. There were all of these different stations at the zoo, and we had to do different assignments for them. There was the elephant station, the beak station, the tiger station, and so on. But my all time favorite station would have to be the one and only beak station.

The station was set up with a pile of raisons, a pile of rubber bands, a pile of toothpicks, and a pile of paper clips. There were three cups by each pile; one with two popsicle sticks, one with tweezers, and another tweezer like object. Each person grabbed a cup, took out their tool, and when the timer started, tried to pick up as many objects they can, but only from their pile. We then looked at which tool, or "beak", that worked the best to get the most items, or food. The tweezer like object was the best tool, the tweezers next, and the popsicle sticks last. I like this station because it showed us what kind of beaks are the best for catching prey, and it was fun interacting with the project, rather than do a math problem and move on. I hope that this is not one of the stations that is left out next year, and I hope many other students will have a great time 
 
Recently, I learned about the fall of the Inca and the Aztec empires. Today I will be discussing how both empires were destroyed almost the same way, even though they were both separated by hundreds of miles and very different cultures. 

To start off, both were defeated by Spanish conquistadors; the Aztecs fell to Hernan Cortes, the Inca fell to Francisco Pizarro. Both men were seeking gold, and both had a very small group of men. One thing that contributed to both the Inca's and the Aztec's destruction was that their enemies, the Spanish, had a huge military advantage by using guns and horses, which both empires had never seen before. Bothe empires were also in a state of civil war and corruption in their empires, causing them to be weak against enemy attack. Both groups of people actually may have been able to defeat the Spanish, if the Spanish had not brought diseases like the smallpox to these empires. This disease killed many Aztec and Inca soldiers, causing an even larger weakness. All of these things contributed to the fall of the Inca and the Aztec empires.
 
There were many funny and awesome times here at Computech, but my all time favorite would probably have to be the time we did the Harlem Shake as a school. The reason why we had done the Harlem Shake was because we were having a spirit rally, and one of the things we had to do was to "Do the Harlem Shake!". It was very unexpected on my part and it was just hilarious watching all of the other students dancing and going crazy. I would have never thought that "The Harlem Shake" was going to be danced that day. Like I said, it was really fun. Some people had just stayed off to the sides, not wanting to dance and rather record the whole thing.

Another awesome moment was when I had played a football game against (I'm not even sure anymore) Wawona. We beat them, and it was probably the game I played in most. I was playing as a line men and I was able to push back those players and show the coaches who I really am. They were actually quite impressed, and insulted some of the 8th graders who I had 
 
I woke early in the morning, only to feel cold and sad. I just lay there, pondering on the idea that I am now Bear's servant. I didn't know what I ought to do. It seemed the right thing to grab his sack and run as fast as possible. Surely he couldn't catch up with that kind of a head start, he wouldn't wake until midday. No, I told myself. That would be two sins, one for sealing and one for breaking my vows. Not too long later, Bear woke, just shifting positions at first, but then finally yawning and starting to get up. We started our journey not too long later, when my back and feet started aching. Oh, how terrible this is! What would happen if we were to meet John Aycliffe, the steward, on our journeys to the large cities! What if we ran out of food? Would he keep all scavenged food for himself, and I would starve to death  before we reach another village or city? All these thoughts just continued to go through m y mind, over, and over again. Oh, I hope all goes well!

    Author: Vahae O.

    The Core Concentration blogs are on various language arts and world history topics.