Mirror, Mirror

photo from: http://wubtub.blogspot.com/2012/08/mirror-mirror.html

There was once a father that had one son and one daughter. The son was very good looking, while the daughter was as ugly as could be. One day, while the children were playing together, they found a mirror sitting on their mother's chair. They both looked into the mirror. The boy saw just how handsome he was and began to talk all about his good looks. This made the girl extremely angry. She ran off to tell her father that the son was praising himself as though he were a girl. The father hugged both of his children and gave them each a kiss. Then he said, "I hope that you both look in the mirror every day: so that my son will not spoil his good looks by doing bad; and that my daughter will see that what she lacks in beauty, she needs to make up for in virtues."

Bird: All the Drama...All the Time

A Pirate Fairy Tale

Once upon a gally there lived a capt’n named Francis Smith. He was a mean capt’n always using the cat’o’nine tails. He kept a tight ship and wanted everything in the perfect condition or else someone would walk the plank. He would never let a bilge rat crawl upon his ship!

The crew wanted to do something about their awful capt’n, so they decided to plunder on land and see what they could find. They found a beautiful landlubber. Her name was Helga. She was a curvy lass with a big smile. She was very feisty and fought them all the way to the ship and didn’t stop fighting until the ship sailed away from the port.

Helga walked up to Capt’n Francis and punched him the face. “I will see ye all dance the hempen jig! Take me back to port now!”

Francis smiled. “Me lass, welcome aboard my galleon. If you don’t watch your tongue I will cut it out.”

“Blimey!” Helga shrieked. “You are a horrible piece of scum. How dare you threaten a lady like myself?”

The crew laughed. “You are nothing but a wench,” one shouted from the crow’s nest. Helga wasn’t going to stand for this she grabbed one of the pirate’s cutlass and to their surprise she was very good. She blew a few men down and came face to face with the capt’n. He was much better with his rapier. The rapier was a much thinner sword used for quick strikes in close quarters. He flicked the cutlass from her grasp, spun her around, and put the sword to her neck.

“I’ll give ye quarter if ye surrender,” Francis said.

Helga thought for a moment before she nodded. “Parley,” she requested. The captain sheathed his sword.

“Let’s chat in the hold. Gangway!” Capt’n Smith yelled to clear the deck. Helga followed quietly. “If ye are going to stay aboard this clipper ye are going to have to be a buccaneer. To do so ye’ll have to sign and swear oath to the code of conduct.”

She frowned. “And if I don’t want to be a picaroon like yourself?”

“Then ye be dancing with Jack Ketch.”

“I suppose I have no other choice.”

Francis nodded. “Aye.” He then grabbed a book from the quartermaster. He laid it open to a certain page. “Do you agree to abide by the articles?”

“Aye.”

“Then sign here.” He pointed at the book and handed her a quill. Helga hesitated and then signed. He closed the book and tossed it back to the quartermaster. “If ye abandon the crew that is mutiny,” he warned.

“Bring a spring upon her cable!” A shout came from above deck. “We got ourself a Plate Fleet coming upon us.”

Francis’s hand went to his sword. He then stole  a quick glance at Helga. “Perhaps ye should sit this one out.” Then he left. Helga stood for a moment contemplating the choice she had. She decided if she was going to be a part of this group of scallywags she might as well start now. She dashed up the stairs and found a cutlass.

“Listen up, you filthy dogs,” the captain yelled from the poop deck. “We give no quarter today! Hoist the Jolly Roger!” The crew did as they were told and soon the pirate flag flew high above their heads. “Ready the guns with chain shots. Fire in the hole!” Soon the battle was in full swing. Cannon shots came from both directions. Helga had never felt so frightened in her life. The man next to her was shot down and she quickly ducked trying to avoid the same outcome. That was when they were boarded. Spanish sailors seemed to appear out of nowhere striking down anyone in their way.

Helga clutched tightly to her cutlass and hoped that no one spot her from the safety of her corner. She noticed Captain Francis in the middle of the battle. A man was coming up on him from behind. Helga took a deep breath and then jumped to her feet. She charged the man and brought her sword down on his back. He crumpled to the ground. Francis turned to see what she had done and was surprised that she had risked her life to save his. It was then that he noticed how beautiful she was.

“Look out,” she said. He turned and began to fight again.

In the end the pirates had found victory. They also found that the Plate fleet had a lot of booty. This excited the pirates greatly. Francis found Helga at the stern of the ship. “Uhh,” he said not sure where to start. “Thanks for saving my life.” She blushed. He kissed her lightly on the lips and they lived happily ever after.

Do you believe in me?

1. I believe that he was a good speaker because he was interesting and excited and easy to listen to without getting bored.
2. His good characteristics as a speaker was the fact that he was good at talking to the audience and knew what they wanted to hear. His bad characteristics I think would be that he never really smiled or acted like he was having fun speaking, and I feel like the yelling kind of got old.
3. Whenever he came to a part he really wanted to drive in, he would get louder and put more emphasis on it so that the audience actually listened to exactly what he was saying.
4. He used a lot of hand gestures and pointed at the groups as he was calling out their schools to make the speech more effective.
5. I think that they selected him as their keynote speaker because the audience probably gets tired of listening to adults talk, I know I do. This boy is actually the kind of student they are teaching and to learn something from him would be an eye opener to the teachers.
6. I think that his main point was to inspire the teachers to believe in their students, their co-workers, and themselves. I think this is very important to help the teachers do the best job they can do.
7. I believe it did. This boy was so cute and had such a powerful message that I think the teachers really did listen and took something from his speech.

I personally thought that his speech was very good and if I were a teacher I would probably never forget hearing his speech. I think that he put a lot of work into learning this speech and I am not so sure that I would be able to give a speech in front of 20,000 people today, let alone when I was in fifth grade. Actually, I believe that this speech may have inspired me today, I don't think you need to be a teacher to believe in today's youth and your peers and especially yourself. I think he did a very nice job at teaching the teachers.

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