One day I was walking home from work (because they did not reinforce the law about 16 and younger people going to work.) When I got home I saw Dora Goldfein and Wolf Goldstein fighting. So I went inside and saw a ton of inspectors. Just as they were speaking the inspectors were writing stuff down. Then half of the inspectors went with Wolf and half went with Dora. So I decided to follow Dora. She explained that Wolf had no paid his rent for 3 months! Right at that moment I just screamed out “3 months!” Then Dora said, “Yes, 3 months and that’s when I told him you have to pay the rent!” Then he said, “Instead of that I will just paint you some pictures.” “So he did, he made a beautiful picture but then he started to get lazy and made a black picture and he said, ‘It is a night version’. And his son goes around the place breaking things!” And then all of the inspectors went with Wolf and the others went with Dora. I decided I would go with Wolf. When we got inside I could see his apartment was a mess and there was even some urine and feces in the chamber pot. Just then I saw something move then I screamed, “Ahhhh!” I think I screamed so loud the neighbors could hear me. Wolf bent down and picked it up, it was a filthy rodent! Then he said, “See, this is what I have to deal with! Rats and rodents!” Then I saw the inspectors were starting to leave so I went up to my apartment and hoped the inspectors would not come to my apartment.

~ Zirie

Boys who swear and smoke tobacco can’t sleep here

My sister Mina took me to the new park a few blocks away from our house. I am really excited because this is the first playground in the city. Before this park all of the kids would play in the street. We would chase fire trucks play jacks play stickball and spud. But now instead of doing this in the street we can do this in the new park! My mom does not like the new park because she can not see what I am doing all the time. I like because I can do things without her knowing.

On our way home we saw a few things like we saw a man with a monkey, and the monkey was dancing to the music the man was playing! It looked so cool, I even gave them a penny and the monkey tipped his hat at me. We were one block away from the park when we heard a boy mutter under his  breath “Boys who swear and smoke tobacco can’t sleep here ugg.” Then my sister told me, “ Just keep walking dear”. Just then I decided I could not hold it in anymore, then I just said, “Sir were you um talking to me?” Then as he walked over to us my sister hushed me. When he got over to me he started to explain. He said his name was Jerry. He also said I finally raised enough money to sleep in a shelter for kids. But then there was this sign that read, “Boys who smoke tobacco or swear can’t sleep here. And now I don’t know what to do.” “Well we hope you find a nice place to live and if you need any help just ask,” said my sister. But then he said, “thank you but I am sure I can do it on my own.” Then my sister said, “ By the way my name is Mina and this is my little sister Ziri.” Then he said goodbye and my sister said goodbye and then we finally went to the park! When we got to the the playground my sister told me to go play. So I went over to my friend Sara lent and we played jacks. Jacks is my favorite game  because I always win! After I won my sister called me over and said “Ziri its time to go.” So we went home and I decided I would  tell my mom anything that happened.

The End! By Sierra McDonald             

Welcome to your brand new digital portfolio/blog at blogs.lrei.org!

Your portfolio can be used for many things through out your middle and high school years, including:

• Documenting and reflecting on your learning, passions, and interests, both in and out of school
• Curating and highlight work for your Family Conferences
• In some instances, your teachers will ask you to submit, reflect and comment on work in this portfolio

It is our hope that you also seek to make this a personally relevant learning space in which you curate work that is important and meaningful to you. As you build this learning space, we also hope that you will use it as a way to connect with other learners in the LREI community and beyond.

Your LREI account (Mail, Docs/Drive) credentials will automatically get you into your blog. Here are a few things you’ll want to take a look at:

1. Change the name of your blog. To do this, go back to the Dashboard and click on the “Home” symbol, then on “MS Digital Portfolio Template” under “This Blog.”

In the field for “Site Title,” add a new title. You can use your first name if you want (e.g., “Mark’s Digital Portfolio”), but don’t use your first and last name. You can also create a title that doesn’t have your name in it. Be as creative as you want, but keep in mind that the title should relate to the purpose of the portfolio.

After you’ve added a new title, click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page.

2. Add a Post

For the most part, you’ll be adding items to your blog as posts. To add a new post, you can click on the +New button in the top bar of your blog, and then select “Post.”

You’ll want to give each post a title, and assign it to a Category. These categories are broken down by class and grade (e.g., fifth grade, core, etc.). This will allow you to organize and sort information so that you can control the look and feel of your blog. If you take a look at the menu bar under the blog title, you see the different groups of categories (e.g., class, grade, teacher, etc.).

When you’re done with your post you can click “Publish” on the side to make the post appear on your blog

For assistance, come see Clair in the Tech Lab, check out our comprehensive support site, or take a look at our Edublogs User Guide guide.

You can also subscribe to our brilliant free publication, The Edublogger, which is jammed with helpful tips, ideas and more.