This spring the Writers’ Workshop class drove to Slana and participated in a six-mile ski trip that consisted of hills, corners and flat stretches. Each of my classmates took turns falling down on the hills. The kids tried to avoid falling down.  
    When we were just starting Kat’s skis came loose. Mrs. Hobbs went back to the house with Kat. Kat really wanted to go to the end of the trail, but she did not finish it.
    Trayl Wilson and Amber Lenard had a little competition of who could fall the least. Trayl noticed that he was losing. He changed the game to who could fall the most. It was looking good for Trayl afterward.
     Trayl was focused on falling while the rest of us were trying to stay on our skis. When Trayl fell, Amber laughed. After that, just a few seconds later, she fell and this went back and forth.
    Trayl fell about 120 to 150 times. He would even fall down when he didn’t have skis on. Everyone fell more than once. Falling on this trip was a real skill. We would fall up hill, downhill, and on corners. Falling on our face, down and uphill; falling on our butts on the corners was the best part of the entire trip. 
    The pain from falling is easy to feel when you are not wearing gloves. It is painful when you have fallen a lot. You start to feel the coldness going through your body.
    The six-mile trip was long and tiring. If you ever go on a trip like ours take only essential gear. The trip was filled with pain, and experience. We looked at this trip as an adventure of fun, filled with experience, and pain. On one of the stops our teacher Mr. Voley asked if anyone needed a helicopter. I fell and Mr. Hobbs says, “We need one up here.” Everyone started laughing.
    Skiing is the best workout. I would recommend it for someone wanting to be out and doing something. Do a short trail until you are used to it. Most people would attempt the long trail first then go to the short trail, but I recommend you do the short trails first then go on the long ones.  

    I-pods have made a new world. Most kids have become too dependent on I-pods. I know this from my own personal experience. In the old days kids would listen to records. As our world expands with new electronics like iPods, we won’t go back to the old world most of us knew.
    The sources of music in the old days were records. Most people did not want to go to a world of electronics. They chose to keep their world of no devices. Almost all kids have an Ipod. It is a new music item that is portable, other than a radio.
    The cost of a song nowadays is ninety-nine cents each. There are a lot more songs to pick from. Most kids are always in trouble because they are listening to their iPods during class.
    Some kids have become dependent on iPods. Most of them cannot go one day without playing on them. Instead of doing chores, kids put their music in and do not listen to their parents. That is also why most kids are failing their classes, because they walk in the door of their home and put their music on right away.
    Now you see how electronics have changed our world forever. We have just become way too dependent on technology to help us do work. We don’t see that it is changing the world forever. Parents could be harsher on their kids.

    Last quarter I went to Texas and did not grab my homework before I left and when I came back to school I had a lot of homework to do. I believe that teachers should not give students so much homework because it takes away from our family and free time. It also ruins the environment. Some people say that homework does not help you get smarter. 
    Sometimes parents have activities for their kids, but they find out that their kids can’t go because of homework. For example, some parents like to go out to eat a lot, maybe even to H2O Oasis in Anchorage. A lot families visit relatives and the kids cannot do that because of homework.               
    Every time we use paper for homework we kill trees. Cutting down trees is harmful because they filter carbon dioxide that helps us breath. When we kill trees we are harming ourselves.   
    According to Professor Robert Tai, homework does not help you on a test unless it is math homework. He also says that teachers should give a reason why they are assigning homework.

            I think that every parent should be informed about the homework we receive. When the parents are informed, the kids actually do the homework. I understand that the parents cannot be informed every single time their kids are assigned homework. The parents should be informed about the homework assignments that teachers don’t think the students will complete. After a while the kids might start to hate school, and their teachers. Some kids drop out of school because they think the homework load is too much.  

             Math is one of the subjects that you can give the most homework in. If you think about it, kids do a lot more homework in math than any other subject. Because math is used almost every day in our lives, teachers assign more of it because the more students practice math, the better they will become.  

I know that it is important to do our homework, but sometimes it makes the student feels stressed, dazed, tried, and bored. That is why I want the teachers to give their student less homework. If they need for us to do more work in school then make the school days longer.

    When I am on a horse I black out from the world into my own little world with no troubles. I feel like I am supposed to be up on top of a horse at all times. I just have this special connection with the horses.
    My grandpa has a few horses, but there is one I like the most; major is my favorite. He is light brown and when you hurt him he will get pay back by throwing you off his back. He will let you do anything just as long as you are not hurting him. I can make him do a figure eight.
    We took Major up and down the road. Once we went back into my grandparents’ yard, and that’s when I Major did a figure eight. I tugged on the reigns up high on his neck and to make him turn I pulled right and left.
    I first learned how to ride a horse this last summer with a friend. When my mom was on the highway I would go over to a friend’s house every day until four o’clock when my dad was off of work. We went down to the field in Copper Center. I have rode my friend’s galloping horse.  

          Since that time I have a connection with horses. Someday I will have a horse of my own. I will ride it every day. I will also hold my grandparents’ horses for as long as I can.

How would a trip to Texas feel to someone in a cold place? This is a story about my mom and me going to Texas for a party. We wake up at 8 am on Christmas day and we start working out what it would take to be in Anchorage by midnight; we start packing where we left off the night before. After we did that we sit down and watch TV for the last time with my brother and dad.

I said, “I have to do my homework and get ready to go.” And my mom said, “Let’s go.” We go to the truck and drive off. We stopped at the Hub and put gas in the truck and bought junk food and sodas to have on the way to Palmer where we would meet my aunt at her house who then would take us to the airport. We pulled into the outskirts of Palmer and called my aunt to see were we could go to buy items we needed for the plane ride down. The only place that was open was Walgreens so we stopped there and bought the items we needed. We were looking for a place to eat out. There were two places; King Asia buffet was $15.95 for one person. We went to McDonalds and it was okay, not that good though, but I survived. We went to my aunt’s house only to find that we were locked out of the house.

   My aunt comes back and her youngest Buddy climbed into the house by his window. We go inside; we sit down and take a bit to warm up. A few hours later we head for the airport with my aunt and cousin. They drop us off, and we go through security. Then we find our gate and sit there until it’s our turn to board. We are the last group to go on the plane. We go on the plane and we sit down. The plane starts to take off. I hate taking off and landing. We both fell asleep. We start to land and we exit the plane. We have to almost run to our next gate because it was at the other end of the airport. We arrived there just before they started boarding. Again we were the last ones. We both fell asleep when we were taking off. It felt like it was 30 minutes. We woke up just as we landed. My ears were hurting really bad. We landed; my aunt and grandma were late because they could not find our gate. (To be continued).

    When I was seven, I came from Wyoming to Alaska in a half ton pick-up with my brothers. We would stop every night at a hotel in different cities. Just in case we fell asleep in the truck, we would have several pillows and blankets. We would mainly stay up watching DVDs on the mini TVs.
     It took us three weeks to come back up here. As soon as we were in the state, we called my dad’s sister, Chris, and asked if we could spend a few days with them, and they said, “Yes.” After a few days, my dad was back at his old job in Tazlina at Copper Basin Sanitation. A few weeks later, my mom, Josh, Matt, and I moved out to Cooper Center. I have moved at least seven times.
    The first time I remember moving is from Palmer to Tazlina. Then to Copper Center when I was four, next to Texas, then to Wyoming, then to Alaska, then to Cooper Center and then to Kenny Lake.
    When I went to Texas, I was with my mom, Josh, Matt, Aunt Misty, Kinzie, Jonathan, and Buddy. It took us two weeks to reach Texas. My dad and Uncle Rick worked as truck drivers. We were back as a family about one week later. When I was down there, we were visiting my grandparents who own horses.

    In this blog I will tell you about my present life and more. I might have talked about this a lot, but I like this topic the most.
    I am having a lot of good times in my classes mainly Writers’ Workshop. Kat and I worked on a podcast assignment and we really enjoyed it. We are now working on a video. We are putting together a video where Kat is narrating and we have videos of Mark Vail and pictures.  Mark Vail is interesting because he is living a life that most people want to but can’t.
    In history, we are writing AIH (adventures in history) stories. An AIH story is where we write about characters who go back in time. My character, Tosha Dea, loves history and she is athletic. Cadeta So-De loves math and is a volleyball player. The beginning of my story takes place in a seventh-grade classroom. The teacher is talking about who failed the test and I was one of them. The teacher is giving the people who failed the test another chance. I am so sad; I am thinking of not retaking the test. I leave the class wondering where my friends Tosha and Cadeta have gone. I ran into the school’s crazy janitor and he asks “What is wrong.” I said that “I just failed the history test.”

    My name is Kelley Olt. I am 12 years old going on 13. I will tell you about my brothers. Their names are Matthew Olt and Joshua Olt. My brothers and I used to get along, and now we do not. This is because Matthew or Matt started to get into Joshua or Josh’s toys.
     Matt and I were born in Palmer in the same room with the same nurse, too. Josh was born in Texas. We moved to Copper Center and had this dog named Thunder. He was really cute.
    When I was about four I shoveled the driveway in my swimming suit in the middle of winter. I was only in my boots. My mom had told Matt and Josh to watch me, but instead they went outside. My mom was at that time making videos of us when we were younger. I went outside with my swimming suit and boots on. Then my mom came out and asked what I was doing, and I said I was shoveling the driveway. Next she told Matt and Josh that they were to be watching me.   
    Then we moved to Texas, and we had to give Thunder away. When I was about five I received my first bike from my uncle John. I have my uncle John wrapped around my pinky finger.
    Next we moved to Wyoming. I finally enrolled into the elementary school there.  
     I moved back to Alaska and we spent about a year or so in Palmer. My dad (Jonathan Olt) is at his old job back at Copper Basin Sanitation here in the Copper valley. Then we moved to Kenny Lake. In my years here in Kenny Lake, I have played basketball, and volleyball.
    My favorite Christian song is “Our God is an Awesome God.” We are now going to church here and youth group. My mom (Janie Olt) and my dad are going to be on the worship team in the church.