Update!

My life has been so busy lately! Juggling school, family, and friends all while trying to sneak some fun in can be difficult, but I definitely wouldn't have it any other way! Although I've been busy, not many exciting things have happened, but last week I got two little surprises that made my week:)

I got my "I Exceeded AIMS" shirt!

I've been waiting for this shirt since I got my scores! And even though it fits me like a dress, I still love it.

Back in April of my Sophomore year, we had to take the AIMS test. I wasn't nervous, but I really wanted to exceed! I felt pretty good about how I did, but I was still anxious to see my scores. Finally in May, my English teacher received the scores! My friend and I stayed after school so we could see how we did. SUCCESS! I had exceeded my Writing AIMS! Apparently the Writing portion is the toughest to exceed on out of Reading and Math so I was extremely happy! I did really well on Reading and surprisingly, Math but I was way more excited about Writing.

They score the Writing using the Six-Traits rubric. The traits are Ideas, Organization, Word Choice, Voice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions. On each of those traits, you can receive a score of 1 to 6, 1 being the lowest and 6 being the highest (and toughest to receive). I received a 6 on Voice.

"VOICE shows the writer's personality. The writing has a sound different from everyone else's. It contains feelings and emotions so that it does not sound like an encyclopedia article. The reader should be able to sense the sincerity and honesty of the writer. The writer should be writing from the heart. The language should bring the topic to life for the reader. The voice should be appropriate for the topic, purpose, and audience of the paper."

Having a strong voice in my writing is what I strive for so it was really encouraging:)

Last week, my ceramic bust was finally taken out of the kiln and all that was left was to glaze it. After it had been glaze fired, I got to take it home! It's definitely not the best sculpture, but I'm really proud! It took us like three months to make and I feel so accomplished! And anyway, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, cliche, cliche, etc.

Throughout the day I got a lot of funny looks because really, how many times have you seen people carrying around a bust? Some of those looks were also directed at the look of my sculpture, but I don't care because I worked really hard and long on it and they obviously can't appreciate art work:)

Sincerely Yours,

Alexis, the next Michelangelo!:P

P.S.

Need I say more?