The First Day of School

I was a little scared but at the same time I felt as if my heart was beating faster than usual. I felt like I was shivering and I could not stop. The wind was cold and fresh in my face. My stomach felt as if I was going down a rollercoaster. My mind thought so much things that I walked slower than usual.

I finally got to the door. It was blue in the corners and in the middle it was kind off like a mirror because you could see yourself. My face looked pale and scared when I saw it in the door. The door felt warm in my hands as I pulled it open. As I walked slowly inside I felt the warm air in my face. It was the delicious and mouth-watering smell of fresh popcorn. The delicious smell traveled through my nose and made me hungry for a moment.

The walls were smooth and were the same color blue as the door and at the bottom they were orange. There were a lot of different colored backpacks on the floor in the right side. I kept walking slower and slower. As I walked I heard things like “OMG I love your hair!” or, “I haven’t seen you in a long time,” and “How was your summer?” Probably that is what I would be telling my friends if I wasn’t here. Everyone’s faces were bright as the sun and their smiles as big as the earth. They looked as happy as a person who won the lottery and as excited as students waiting for summer. Their eyes brighten more than a diamond but my eyes didn’t even shine. I didn’t want to be here. I did not know anyone here and I was going to go to 8th grade. Almost everyone had been in that school since 6th grade. My heart was beating faster and faster with every step I made. At that moment, I wished I had not moved school but it was too late I had already moved to High Tech Middle.

Suddenly, I started thinking everything out and I realized how much I loved my school and my friends and how much I was going to miss them. As I thought more about my old school and friends I felt more and more pain in my heart. My mind was full with thousands of thoughts about everything. My face was still pale and looked as if I had seen a ghost. My hands hung beside my body like nothing. My eyes were open big and brown as a shiny coffee grain. My stomach felt as when you see someone you love or like. I stood there like a statue looking around. I was still shivering and my skin felt cold as ice. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

Sensory Detail: Sound

Click here for audio The Toy Choral Top

It first started like a really soft sound that you could barely hear. It made you feel like you were on another place alone without anything or anyone around you. Then it was a little louder but still soft and calm. It sounded like the songs movies play when something sad happens or when someone dies and everyone is crying. In the beginning it also sounds like when someone is in a really dark room alone and a ghost is behind them and that person is turning around to see what is behind them. It was a sound that was calm and peaceful but at the same time sad and a little scary. It sounded like a train going through a lonely forest on a cold, dark, and stormy day. Going without direction just going forward to see what it finds. In some parts it also sounds like a train going through a city when the sun is going down on the afternoon. This sound makes you think about sad things but it also makes you a little sleepy. This sounds fills you with hope. This sound made me think of someone alone in their house playing an instrument while it was raining outside. That person was playing how he felt and what he felt through that sound. That sound made that person express all of his sadness and loneliness. At last, it also sounds like a carousel but a little softer.

The Locker Problem

My group and I found out that there were 31 perfect square roots in 1,000. Then we connected what we got to what other groups got and came out with the answer that when 1,000 students follow the pattern with the 1,000 lockers, there would be 31 lockers open. The lockers that would be open would be the ones that have perfect square roots. For example, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, and until you get to 961, which its square root is 31. These lockers are open because only perfect square roots have numbers that multiply by themselves. For example, locker number 4 is open because it has been changed the state of, 3 times. It is 3 because you can make 4 with only three numbers, which are1, 2, and 4 because you don’t count the numbers twice. So 1*4 and 2*2. Only perfect square roots have odd amount of factors because they have numbers that multiply by themselves and you just count them once. Locker number 4 is open because student #1 opened it then student #2 closed it, then student #3 didn’t do anything to it, and at last student #4 opened it, so it stayed open like shown in the diagram below. Each factor corresponds to the student who touched the locker. The perfect square roots have to have odd amount of factors to be open because if they had even amount of factors they would be closed. Odd amount of factors mean open and even amount of factors mean closed.

Student #1:

The first student goes along the row and opens every locker.

Student #2:

The second student then goes along and shuts every other locker beginning with locker number 2.

Student #3:

The third student changes the state of every third locker beginning with locker number 3. (If the locker is open the student shuts it, and if the locker is closed the student opens it.)

Student #4:

The fourth student changes the state of every fourth locker beginning with number 4.

Locker #1:	1	2	3	4	5
Students that have opened or closed the locker:	1= Open	1=Open 2=Closed	1= Open 2= Closed	1= Open 2=Closed 4= Open	1= Open 5= Closed