Alexis Farmer Assignment 22

At this very moment, somewhere in the universe...

Someone is getting married. 

Someone is having a baby. 

Someone is graduating high school.

 Someone is eating a pizza. 

Someone is running on a treadmill.

Someone is getting a new phone.

Someone is listening to music.

Someone is playing a game.

Someone is jumping off a cliff.

Someone is swimming.

Someone is crying.

Someone is getting in trouble with their mother.

Someone is eating a pickle.

Someone is stalking their ex boyfriend's twitter.

Someone is laughing.

Someone is on an airplane.

Someone is winning an award.

Someone is scuba diving.

Someone is jumping on a trampoline.

Someone is getting a hug.

Someone is going to Disney World.

Someone is singing a song.

Someone is really sad.

Someone is really happy.

Someone is drawing a picture.

Someone is making a movie. 

Someone is helping a friend

Someone is drinking some tea. 

Someone is desperately trying to pass english.

I'm Bad at Goodbyes but You Made Me Give One Anyway: Rachael Gilbert

There are a couple of things I'm not good at:
Physics
Human interaction
Goodbyes
I especially don't like number 3. Goodbyes seem final, and for a person who hates change, they're super horrible. At the end of every school year, I typically just pretend that everything's fine and I'll show up in your classroom tommorow....but, this is a grade.
So.
you made this more difficult.
I've really appreciated this class, English has always been one of my better subjects but I think what made your class different and more effective was that you oppened up writing to more than just informative school papers (blog posts).
Blog Posts were super great because it was the first time that I'd written for simply the fun of it in a long time (like since 3rd grade me write poetry...good times). And I felt like they really helped develop everyone's voices, through the blog posts I got to know the people around me in ways I never had in the three years (or more) that I've known them.
On the other hand, I think reordering the way you teach the three different types of essays could be more effective. Like, we all basically know how an argument essay works so I would teach that first and then the ones we're less familiar with last (so that you've had more recent practice by the time you get to the AP test), other than that I thought that this class was awesome and I learned a bunch and I really appreciate you as a human being.
20 points to Slytherin.

Suggestions for next year? Jodi Kirkner

For the most part, I felt like I killed the AP test. In a good way.

I would say the least helpful thing we did was to break down our sentences by highlighting verbs and introductory phrases or whatever we did... I really didn't learn a lot and we spent a lot of time on it.

I felt like going and reading everyone's writing was good, but not when we had to take it home. And I'm not saying that because I hate doing the work--I actually like grading essays--I'm saying that because almost NOBODY did it as homework. And then when your essay was one we did for homework there was nobody to talk about it and you got no feedback and it was super annoying. Personally, I only had my essay read and actually commented on in class one time. The writing practice still helped but because of the setup I felt like I wasn't gaining anything from the grading. Hopefully others did.

I also found that Writing With Style book SUPER helpful I mean wow. He taught me more in those like 2 months we worked on it than any English teacher I've ever had since elementary school could in an entire school year. I love that book. Haha

STREss! Jodi Kirkner

Stress is right.

To say it old school, Junior year went from 0 to 100 real quick.

The year started out like "oh yeah Junior year is great what's everyone talking about?" and suddenly second semester hit and it kinda felt like ????? hey??????? where did my peace and sanity go????????????

Luckily I cruised through all my AP tests and finals are coming up (like tomorrow lol) which is okay too besides one thing. I DON'T KNOW PHYSICS?????? WHAT IS PHYSICS????????? I took the AP test why do I also have to take 2 finals? It's really sad.

I have no good stress relieving tactics. I eat a lot and sleep more than 25 hours each weekend trying to make up for the 3-4 hours nights I had all week.

Like, I'll wake up on Sunday at 12, think of the video I have to edit, and my brain just nopes out, I'm back to sleep until 2:30. True story.

Once I tried baking because that's what a lot of my friends do, but I just go even more stressed out and burnt my finger.

I guess obsessively sudying Korean could be my stress tactic but that also doesn't make me less stressed out... when I was little I used to hide in my closet and snap those weird plastic hangers in half when I got really mad or stressed out. I'm still not sure if my parents know. Hahaha

Well anyway, I think we all see the moral here. Hide in your closet and break hangers if you're feeling stressed!

Jodi out.

THE FUTURE JODI KIRKNER

All caps just about sums it up, I'm more than excited for my future right about now. And I don't just mean to be over and done with the hell that was Junior year. I mean, I'm genuinely excited for what's to come. Let me tell you why.

In March I found out that I was accepted to be the recipient of a NSLI-Y scholarship to study abroad through immersion in Seoul, South Korea this summer. This would be cool to anyone, but for me it was like I had just accomplished my life dream. This is what I want to do with my life, so it feels like a step on the right path to my future.

Also, I recently visited Ohio State University. Although people always take it upon themselves to implore me to apply to every ivy league (and UChicago too!), after visiting all these and more, I really think Ohio State is where I belong. I'm so happy to have made this type of realization early in the process and that makes me excited for my future (hopefully at OSU) as well.

So I guess after I power through my summer work and have a great time in Korea I'll have to come back to real life and work on college apps and "do" my senior year... but for now, I think I'll just forget about all that.

Assignment 26-Cameron Combs

Obviously there are many great things about every class, but it is the bad things that must be reflected on. First of all, I felt as though over the course of the year, a lot of the class time was wasted. Although I was extremely prepared for the AP test, we still had a lot of classtime of doing nothing. One idea to keep in mind for the future would be to give out the assignment sheet for the final video sooner and work on it periodically throughout the year. I personally really enjoyed this project, but I also wished I had more time to perfect my piece. Also, the blog posts are a good idea in my opinion, however with preset due dates, I oftentimes forgot about them, so maybe give countdowns to due dates on the board in class next year or possibly send a remind message to the class. Either way, something to remember when the assignment is due would be helpful.

Assignment 25-Cameron Combs

With finals week just coming into picture, stress is something that has been running my life. Even though we have finals coming up, there are always those one or two teachers who still assign loads of busy work, which just adds onto the stress. One more week of school, and we will be in summer. Summer is pretty much just a reset from all of the stress. That is why kids love it so much. They love times to live very carefree and love just enjoying their lives, not being held back by school work and other plagues to their free time. That is why schools and teachers need to work with students to control this stress. They need to remove this major handicap from students as much as possible. It is what will improve the overall health as well as the happiness of the students, which all teachers must love to see.

Assignment 24-Cameron Combs

Looking back on my junior year, I have had a lot of things happen, some for the better and some for the worst. One of the worst mistakes I have made all of my high school career was taking AP Physics. This class was an absolute waste of a life and I shoulf not have taken it at all. Also, the AP test was just not worth taking for that class since I learned nothing all year. I made up for this error however by taking three other AP classes with teachers who actually prepared me for the tests, all three of which I am confident that I passed. Class choice in the future is something I definitely need to work on. Also, I should work on my socialization in certain classes. Multiple classes I would sit with friends and talk to them instead of learn in many cases. This is another failure this year that I should work on.

Rick Marino 24

Many things never change. I'm sitting here writing my final blog post at 12 o'clock at night, proving that I have yet to cure my chronic procrastination syndrome. In fact, if you talk to me now, you would think that your talking to the same rick as from the beginning of this year. The same funky dude with the same frizzy hair with the same abnormally large calves. My personality may the same, but I'm wiser now. I feel that I know more about myself and the world. I learned to always properly secure your bowtie in your pocket when ridding a scooter in a tuxedo. I learned to never flip people off in traffic. They will follow you. I learned the wonders of natural carrots( the bugs bunny type, not baby carrots). I learned to never take a class just because your friends are taking it because you will fail the final. I learned to always bring ear buds to school. ALWAYS. It will help you cope with the madness. I learned to never trust the decision-making skills of young metro-mode. I learned to perfect my roasting abilities. I learned the difference between real and fake friends.

Its been a peculiar year. Overall, Junior felt like a blast of fire to the face. It happened quickly, yet it left me singed and charred. I hope that senior year will be a more chill affair.

This summer I will be going to gsp. To be honest I don't really know what people do there. I was told to apply and got in, which is kinda dope I guess. I look forward to spunky adventures at gsp and my life.

26 Hannah Freibert

Not reflected in my sub sub sub par blog posts, I genuinely feel that my writing has notably improved this year. Not as though you would ever change this, but I side with you on teaching to the test and think you stayed focused on that throughout the year. I found the timed writings effective and that one book with a title and author I cannot recall over Language and Comp essay writing to be helpful. If we were to read it now, most of the author's key points seem second nature and obvious to us, but at the beginning of the year each piece of information was a new one, and I think that reflects growth and success. The vocal quizzes I would encourage in the future mostly because they hold the student accountable for something. If you simply remember to look over the words, its an easy A, but if you choose to slack the combination of grades can tank your overall. Additionally they helped with the PSAT. I appreciated that you focused on the ACT around April. I can also stress the success of class discussions, they encourage people to synthesize sources and form opinions in addition to making new connections. And finally, regrets. Maybe the timing was just poor this year but the week period of socratic seminar questions I recall being extremely unbearable. It seemed like all the teachers had chosen the same 3-5 day period to dump their hardest assignments on us and I think it's safe to say that the hours of sleep ran low for the academy that week. Perhaps in the future, have only two a week, spaced out instead of consecutive days.

25 Hannah Freibert

JUNIOR YEAR IS THE REASON I PROBABLY HAVING ULCERS DEVELOPING AND FESTERING THROUGHOUT MY BODY. But seriously, the past school year. was. the. worst. And persnaps there is some lifehack that I've missed in which case I will gladly take advice, but for me the only way to relieve stress is to get what ever it is, done. Stress generally stems from a probable cause and persists until I complete the task or action at hand. However, with junior year after each task came another, and so we were in this perpetual state of stress without any breaks. So while I cannot say I truly ever relieved the stress in times like such, some things helped ease it. I like to be underwater. Separate from swimming in this case, just existing submerged in water for a long period of time is an unbeatable feeling and is like a window of floaty wonderful solitude (until you need to breathe of course). In the next case, the underwater part goes with the actual act of swimming. Exercise in general helps to relieve stress. During long sets I truly have no choice except to be stuck with your thoughts and whatever shitty ass song is stuck in my head, and often times that is helpful. But then sometimes the thoughts lead to more stress, in which case I will warn you crying whilst doing a fly set is very hazardous and will lead to drowning. Also, hand sharpening wooden pencils and shuffling cards are two of life's gifts. If I could sharpen a pencil with my left and shuffle with my right while being underwater, that would be wonderful.

24 Hannah Freibert

Perhaps the worst thing I've ever experienced, junior year has surely left its mark on me. I can say I will never be the say, but am 47% sure the change is for the better.

Successes- 

• Mastered an array of advanced dance moves, centering my focus on dabbing and whipping.
• Did not get kidnapped and trafficked into the Swiss Alp's underground yodeling business despite valiant efforts from perpetrators.
• Perfected my underwater ring bubbles which may be my most prized ability.
• Am congratulated by Mark an estimated 7-15 times per day. Never loses its magic.

Failures- 

• Did not solve my procrastinating conundrum
• Did not get sufficient sleep
• May or may not have at one point taken a dinner knife to my skin when Clara cut me a ridiculously small piece of cookie cake after my request for a large one (instability attributed to lack of sleep)

Lessons Learned-

• Everything I know about junior year I acquired from my favorite classic work of literature, Lessons Learned. Stayed tuned for the sequel, Pages Turned, and finally, Bridge's Burned.
• 8 hours of sleep in whole over a school week's time will. affect. you. Don't do it.
• The school hand sanitizer dispenser's give you twice as much hand sanitizer as you need.
• Appreciate your friends in the time that you have and don't listen to Rivers and Roads on repeat with them in a car or all your marbles will be lost.
• STOP AT ALL THE DAMN STOP SIGNS

Risks Taken-

• Parallel parked into extremely small space
• Ate multiple of my brother's left over meals from restaurants and consequently risked my life
• Short sleeves to school, it's cold as fuck every gerderm day.

Summer and Beyond-

• Expect to be aquatic as usual and also to begin to narrow my college selection.
• Learn how to not be afraid of growing up.
• Learn how to not rather be put through a meat grinder than grow up.
• Become even closer with my awesome friends and cry about how long it took me to appreciate them

Assignment 26- Noah Tapp

To recap , I believe that your AP Lang and Comp class was effective. I will begin with the things I appreciated and other things that I think could be revised.

Writing With Style- the book was interesting and when writing throughout the year I often looked back at our summary sheet to help me.
Blog Posts- Blog posts help students write because they can implement their own style and use their own creative ideas
Practice Timed Writings- We practiced many times what was going to be on the actual AP test so we were confident before hand and knew how to write in the restricted amount of time.
Revisions- the class reviews of essays helped us receive constructive criticism

ACT practice- the ACT, whether it should or not, is extremely important for college so I think we could do more practice tests.
Review Multiple Choice Questions- you do give us time but I fell like most students do not spend it efficiently. Maybe as a class, we could review the commonly missed problems.
SAT vocab and roots- continue to do them even though they are not tested on because they help build a writers tool box.

Assignment 26 Brian Sato

It's finally the end of the year and it has been a blast. I thought that at the beginning of the year, the vocab words were effective and helping out with the PSAT. The ACT prep was also very helpful and I could find out what I needed to work on. I believe that it helped boost my ACT score. One thing that could have been changed was the grading of the essays. I feel like there is a much more time efficient way to grade the essays but feedback from my peers was helpful in improving my essays. it showed me what I needed to work on. I thought that I was prepared for the AP test. I liked how we do these blog posts and I think it should continue. I think its a lot of fun to write about different topics and I can see what other people think about that topic. These blog posts are unique in that sort of way. I improved as a writer and thank you for being a great teacher.

Assignment 24 Brian Sato

Junior year was overall a great success. I maintained good grades and am very close to achieving a 4.0 GPA this semester. I am also very confident in the scores that I will get from my AP test. I met new people as well as gotten closer with others. Junior year was a lot of fun. Some failures was that I didn't apply for GSP when I had the chance as well as joining Beta Club which I also forgot to do. I have learned that you should do your work early because its so much more relaxing then scrambling to do them. Some risks I have taken were to get hit by a car for my PSA (it was so worth it). Another risk was buying a mixtape from some random guy on the New York. Surprisingly it wasn't bad. Some mistakes I have made was getting hit by a car because my leg is kinda sore as well as not studying for tests. I want to hang out with my friends, have a good time and meet new people over the summer. I want my senior year to be the best year of high school. i plan to reach this goal by living it up.

Rick Marino 26

I'm going to make this as clear-cut and to the point as possible:

The Good:

- Writing with style book- This book was extremely eye-opening. I expected just another dusty and dry "how-to" manual, but what I got was a deliciously refreshing lesson. However, I do think we spent a little too much time on it.

- ACT prep- The tips and practice multiple choice for the ACT were very informative and aided in boosting my score

-  Classroom atmosphere- I felt that the relatively-laid back classroom vibe was very fitting. That's not to say that learning wasn't the number 1 objective. But there wasn't any hesitation to take an internet video break from stressful or mundane tasks

Possible Improvements:

- Essay Grading- I wasn't a huge fan of the full class grading style. If someone voiced their opinion, it seemed like the rest of the class would conform to that opinion. The small-group discussions were much more personal and helpful for me.

- Finals- I really liked the idea of having a speech and a psa for our finals instead of multiple choice or an essay. However, we didn't receive the information until late into each semester. If we had received the instructions earlier I believe we could have produced better work,

Honestly, I racked my brain for more suggestions, but came up blank. Thanks for the cool year Logsdon!

Assignment 25 Viviana Ortiz

I don't actually know if I have to do this post, but I'm gonna do it anyway because well yay writing. But okay... stress stress stress. Stress is something that is built up really easily. I have a very particular way of dealing with it. While it takes forever, I like to calculate every single detail of my life in moments of struggle. What I would do is create a checklist for each class that looked a little like this:
Class: English (just as an example)
Current grade: 90.1
Make-up assignments/Anything you can do to get your grade up:
-Corn Socratic Seminar

After that, I would do a whole bunch of math. I would calculate what my grade would be if I made up the assignment. If there were multiple assignments, I would calculate the percentage my grade would go up with each assignment.
While it took forever and a half, I like having everything in front of me and the percentage improvements there to motivate me to actually do it. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't.

One last thing I would do it play oboe. Oboe is kinda my life, just like band is. It helps me destress.
(It isn't a Vivi blog post if I don't mention band at least once.)

Assignment 26 Viviana Ortiz

Not to burst rainbows up your butt (or whatever the actual expression is), but this class was pretty great and my favorite class. Somehow you have fun and at the same time somewhere along the way we learn stuff. It's weird. I have this strange feeling that we didn't do much, but when I look back at my writing from the beginning of the year I cringe... so we must have done something.

One suggestion I would have though is changing the peer grading system somehow. While I definitely think that the big group discussion and the packets with the numbers at the top is super useful, I felt that as the days went on people would stop trying to actually grade the essays. Changing the order of the numbers around was a great idea to make sure thta everyone was getting feedback at some point, but I would just start that process earlier in the year.
Another suggestion would be about the book we read at the beginning of the year. I was kinda a big fan of it though so I might just be totally biased. I wouldn't have minded having it as summer reading and then debriefing over it during class. Then on the first essay they write, the students could possibly have to point out how they incorporated the knowledge they gained from the book which would also serve as a way to make sure they read it and would make them better writers.

But basically, you're amazing and yeah. Cool? Cool.
Total sidenote: I started watching Lady Dynamite after we watched the trailer in class. It's pretty funny but full of cuss words which I didn't notice until the f bomb was dropped at full volume with my parents at my side :P

Assignment 26- Meriwether Carling

Mr. Logsdon-

Overall you class was very effective and I felt prepared for the AP test that we took. The book that we read at the beginning of the year was super helpful because it showed us that we can write outside the standard 5 paragraph essay which in my opinion made writing easier. The book also gave us strong examples of essays that had done so to prove that being different in formatting was a good thing, and if done correctly can strengthen your essay. However, I did feel like we read it for too long. Most of what we read was helpful, but there were a few chapters that we could have skipped over and saved a lot of time in doing so.

The biggest thing that you could do to help prepare future students for the AP test is to go over the test questions in more detail and more than once. I know that we went through all of them with our student teacher, but he went through them so fast that there were some that I was still confused as to why that was the correct answer but there really wasn't time to ask questions and get an explanation. If we spent just one or two days per test we took going over questions that would have been really helpful in the long run. But on the essay side of the test I really enjoyed how we graded them as a class. Yes, it did get boring at some points because there were so many essays to grade, but I thought it was the most effective way to gain feedback from everyone in the class.

All in all your class was really helpful because I now feel confident in my writing skills. You wanted us to improve as writers, but the work load you asked of us was very manageable yet you still prepared us well for the AP test. Thank you for always allowing me to put snapchat filters on you and for being the best english teacher in the game. You rock my socks and I will miss you next year :')

Clara 26

I feel weird going into this because I'm not quite sure how to start it, but I guess positives always first (not that there are really any negative negatives). I really like the blog posts (when I don't push them off to the last minute) because I feel like they help with my writing in a sense of creativity the AP papers do not assist. I also really like your flexibility with turning things in late with reasonable excuse because sometimes, even if it's just your own personal issue, it's nice to know you can turn your turnitin paper in 2 months later and not receive a zero. Socratic seminars get a 3/10 on the fun scale because they take a lot of time to write but are very helpful and as long as it takes, talking about the papers as a class really really helps. Really the only suggestions I can think of right now would be to do more ACT and less SAT (voacb quizzes even though vocab isn't an SAT section anymore) as lots of students focus on the ACT more and little tips can really really help. I would also do a little more walk through after the multiple choice practice test as a whole class. 

(I apologize for any typos seeing as I am falling asleep typing but thank you for a wonderful year)

Assignment 24- Noah Tapp

I am not sure which is worse. Hell or the junior year of high school.

The only just way to recap the year is to do a traditional list.

Lessons Learned

1- realize where your motivation stands. freshman year if something was due at 11:59 on sunday night, i would do it the night it was assigned. Now I wait until about 1:00 am on Monday morning and then decide that I should attempt it.

2- do not take an AP class if you do not plan on taking the AP test.

3- be brave enough to park in the staff parking lot so you can sleep later. sleep is essential.

4- do not play tennis. you do not want to miss 2 weeks right before finals.

5- surround yourself with the right type of people.

Summer

In the summer I am traveling and playing tennis tournaments. I will start my academy mentoring project and hopefully complete 100 hours. Also I plan to make it lit with my friends.

Senior Year

I want to make senior year the most fun, relaxed but productive year as possible. I am not sure how I will combine all those opposing ingredients but I will make it happen. We will all start college applications and realize that our friend group will never be the same.

Risks

- parking in staff parking lot.

- calling attendance office and acting as parent 

- working on another assignment in Ms Dewees's  class

Success

-prom picture on Linda's wall

Assignment 24 Viviana Ortiz junior year

So, I’m not gonna lie. Junior year has definitely been really tough. It’s a balancing game. WIth band and the musical and schoolwork and band and more band, time management had been the key to everything. While sometimes I’m super proud of my achievements like GSA and stuff, there are other things that I know I could do better. For example, I could not be writing this at 11 an hour before it’s due. Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. Regardless of my struggles and the stress that this year has put me through, it’s been an amazing year with amazing classes. This year has set me up for college through its intensity and also the results that it’s had. I got into NHS, GSA, and did relatively decent on the ACT. This summer I will be doing nothing for a grand total of two days. I start the summer out working and dogsitting and grandmasitting (yes, that’s totally a thing). Then I go to DMA (Drum Major Academy) where I will wave my arms with other arm wavers for about a week. Then I go to GSA for three weeks. Then I come home for two days. Then college visits. Then band camp. So, yeah. Summer reading should be fun to fit in there.

Clara 25

Well, my very first strategy is being displayed by the fact the 2 very stressful AP testing weeks are long over. In attempts to not lose all sanity and fail all tests I put off all work which can be done at later dates. However, to relieve the stress I cant get rid of I complete a series of tasks. To start, I sleep. In reality it is possibly the worst reliever ever, seeing as it simply means less time, but I love it. My more useful tasks include, rushing through things, listing all the things I must get done, not doing things because I am simply so stunned with the amount of work I have, thinking of ways around work or explaining to myself how even if the grade isn't an A, I am still awesome and of course, rambling on about exactly what you shouldn't do, right after I did it all, and now prepare to study for finals.

Assignment 25- Meriwether Carling

Stress is every kids enemy. Yet, no matter how stressed out we are for something, everything ends up turning out okay. In life I stress out over pretty much everything, but over the years I have come up with ways for me to get through the stressful times life has to offer.

1. Running- Whenever I run I don't have to thing about the things that stress me out. Even just 30 minutes outside not thinking about responsibilities helps calm me down.

2. Netflix- This is quite funny because me watching Netflix only adds to my procrastination of things which will eventually lead to more stress, but in the moment it relieves stress.

3. Hanging out with friends- usually my friends can help talk me through little things that I overthink that are causing me to stress. Thanks friends.

Hopefully one day I will be a stress free gal who realizes that some things just aren't worth worrying over.

Assignment #26: Liz Graves

Mr. Logsdon, I know you don't want this post to be all rainbows and unicorns, so I will try to be as honest as possible. Before I try and tell you how to teach, though, I want to thank you for all the help you've given me this year. I genuinely think I have become a better writer under your tutelage. At the very least, I know what I'm doing wrong. You are a great teacher. Thank you so much for all you do!

I do have a couple suggestions:
I wasn't a big fan of the book we read at the beginning of the year. I thought we spent too much time on it. It was definitely helpful, but it got a little boring after a while. I think if your future students read the book in smaller doses it will be just as effective. 

I thought the editing that we did in small groups was more effective. I got more detailed feedback on my essay. Maybe you could split the class in two or three groups so the groups are smaller, so the feedback is more specific. Also, it would make the number of essays to grade less daunting.

It would have also been helpful if you had spent a little more time going over how to use certain editing software. I am horrible at video editing, and stressed that I am going to have the worst quality PSA ever. I appreciated some of the editing that you showed us in class, but maybe some hands on practice would have also been helpful.

Again, thank you so much Mr. Logsdon, for being an incredible teacher. I had a hard time thinking of any suggestions at all. I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck next year!

Assignment #26- Jessica Sunnenberg

Ya done good Mr. Logsdon.
In previous years I have considered English to be one of my least favorite subject, but I found myself enjoying it this year. You're laid back (but not overly laid back) teaching style was just what I needed after coming from Physics and Calc 1st and 2nd hour. The summer work was not overbearing. I actually really enjoyed doing in depth research on a specific topic and found the annotated bibliography useful when writing my speech for the winter final. Reading Writing With Style at the beginning of the year was helpful. I enjoyed reading it and I found myself using the tips/strategies in it when writing throughout the year. Grading essays was probably what benefited me the most. Being able to read what other people were writing and what techniques they were using helped me to develop my own writing. I think we could have benefited from going even more in depth with AP style multiple choice questions.
And with that, I say goodbye for the final time.
Its been real.

post 26 mason saunders

I don't have too much to critique this year for english. Unlike some of the other classes that I took this year, I did not find english to be a terribly complicated course. The constant essay prompts that we wrote as well as the multiple choice tests served well to prepare us for the ap test as far as I can tell at this point. I particularly enjoyed the blog posts and found them to be an excellent opportunity to share both with my classmates and teachers a little insight to what was happening week to week in my life. I also appreciated the discussions we had during class despite the topics being somewhat boring to me at first. They really forced me to share my academic opinions with the class, something that I have failed to do well in the past years, especially in Mr. Behlers. Socratic seminars should definitely be continued but the essay topics that they are on could be made slightly more relevant and interesting for the fraction of individuals who don't enjoy discussing the historical progression of the english language. That aside, I felt well prepared for all of my exams and I found english to be an enjoyable class filled with great friends and you can't ask for much more than that.

Post 25 Mason Saunders

Junior year is, as the prompt suggested, full of stress. I most particularly felt this stress over this past weekend as my car broke down and I came to the realization that I have less then a week of being a junior in high school. Between attempting to create something that resembles a PSA, and scrambling to finish a yabla assignment that unbeknownst to me was due two weeks ago, I managed to find some inner peace knowing that all this stress was very close to being over and soon senior year would be here. In terms of my stress relieving activities, the tend to center around physical exercise and playing with my dog. Take for example, last night. I found myself incredibly stressed that my car was essentially shot and that I could potentially be stuck at home in the malicious clutches of my parents. I couldn't focus with all of that weighing on me so I took a break and started running. I ran until I couldn't stop and found myself alone on an unlit country rode staring past fields of fireflies at a just finished setting sun. It was very quiet and incredibly peaceful and definitely something that took the edge off my nerves. Anyways, I would 10/10 recommend taking a run like that if you ever get stressed, just park your car near the intersection of Armstrong Mill and Delong Road if you don't live close and just run as far as you can, it's immensely calming.

Assignment 26 Tommy Gardner

The timed writings were more effective than I originally thought that they were going to be. At first I thought that they were going to be pointless and excuses to shame other peoples' writing, but they turned out to be useful and helped to improve my writing skills. The practice AP tests were also very effective and useful. They allowed me to see what I needed to work on, as well as areas in which I needed to not spend as much time.

The socratic seminars did not really help much. They were an unpleasant jolt to those of us accustomed to budgeting more time for classes other than English. Also they did not really serve any purpose, as they did not apply to the AP test much.

A Critic Critically Critiques Core Class- Henry Walther

So I feel like English was a successful class this year. The summer work was reasonable, I enjoyed the Gladwell book. Writing with Style was surprisingly helpful and gave me reason to break down the essay writing norms that I haven't questioned for my whole life. Initially, it was a tad bit scary having our essays read and graded by the whole class but it became helpful and sometimes fun. I feel like the class was laid back to a good degree, the occasional likecool video helped break the monotony of every day school.
I do wish we dove more deeply into the practice multiple choice for the AP exam though, even though I'm sure we did fine regardless. I think doing more ACT English practice would be helpful because there are a ton of easy tips and tricks that I learned outside of class and utilized on the ACT.    Wow I'm done with blogs, kewl.

Assignment #25: Liz Graves

I'm not sure I handle my stress very effectively, but there are a couple things I do to try and comfort myself.

Drink a Diet Coke- I absolutely love Diet Coke. It's cold. It's fizzy. It has a very distinct, refreshing flavor. It has caffeine. It helps keep me awake at 1 a.m. when I am on the verge of mental collapse because APUSH Unit Assignments are due tomorrow and I hadn't started until 5 p.m. It also reminds me that a world that can make something so delicious is not all bad.

Nap it off- If I'm going to be honest, 99.9% of this time this makes my stress worse because I've wasted so much time, but at least I have one blissful hour of peace.

Talk to my mom- Mom calms me down and puts things into perspective for me. She usually talks me through the worst case scenario and convinces me that whatever I'm stressing about is not anything life-altering or earth-shattering.  If she's feeling generous she'll stay up with me a keep me company.

Listen to music- Studying is almost enjoyable if you sing your study guide, flashcards, or textbook to Hollaback Girl and Harder to Breath.

Netflix- If there's nothing I can do to prepare for whatever is stressing me out (or if I just don't feel like doing anything) I watch the Vampire Diaries, or Cupcake Wars, or some other badly-acted, D-rated show. I distracts me from my stress.

Future is overrated- Henry Walther

Future is nothing more than an autotuned mumbler who is made famous by amazing production by metro boomin and others. His raps focus almost all on harmful drugs even though he is sober. He is just bad all around.

In the REAL future I'm gonna be doing some real hoodrat stuff with my hoodrat friends. Over the summer I'm doing a student congress, a mock trial thing, and I'm going to France. Oui Oui monsier that's right, I'm going big time. I have a French friend named Max who is a fellow hoodrat and we will do hudratt things in France.

Junior year was pretty cool, we got some good new memes like dat boy and I made good grades so yay.

Senior year will be great as long as Trump doesn't win. I also hope that people who are uninformed about politics will keep their mouths shut because they just muffle the voices of people who actually have educated opinions.

I should chill about politics most likely.

But I probably won't

Assignment 24- Meriwether Carling

Ahhhh this year. Junior year did have its highs, but it also had its lows. Good things that came out of it were my teachers, and I'm not saying this because I feel obligated to do so, but my teachers this year were some of the best one I have had in a long time. I mean, Mr. Cain came to Grae's walk this past weekend and played basketball with everyone. It doesn't get much cooler than that. Also my friends. Junior year has brought some of the best people into my life and I wouldn't trade them for anything... even Brian's eye roll. But this year wasn't just filled with rainbows and butterflies. The work load and stress of colleges and the ACT and grades and everything else in a persons life was important this year and I may or may not have had a few breakdowns in the process, but hey, it's over now (kinda). This summer I am babysitting and playing soccer for the most part, pretty boring, I know. But, when senior year comes around it will be amazing but super sad because the whole year will be filled with "lasts" and that saddens me and I don't want to talk about it. Now I'm done. Adios junior year, you will (sorta) be missed.

26 Alec Dupont

Well we have come to the end of the year haven't we? some things will never change, like me turning in the blog posts last minute.I honestly feel like I am going to ramble this whole last blog post because I felt that everything that we did was effective and worth the time.The one thing that I would say that could possibly be done more efficiently is grading the essays. I know that we tried several different methods, but I still think there might be a way we could grade them more quickly. Other than that, I felt well prepared for ACT AP and the PSAT. The vocab in the beginning may have seemed like a slog at first but I think that they really help with the psat as well. I also want to thank you for the ACT prep I think that that brought my score up a good bit. Your class prepared me very well for the AP test, and I definitely improved as a writer as well.

Trucktopia Mason Saunders

Junior year has been quite a trek scampering. I've both learned and accomplished so much this year and I could write a book on everything that has happened. It can be summed up that this year started as a failure and turned into a success, and a huge one at that. I began this year, just a simple boy dressed in yoga pants and a pair of small women's athletic shorts. I was without experience and lacked many more decision making qualities than I do now. I learned this the hard way in places such a shower that is labelled backwards, veterans park elementary school, and even within my very own car. I paid dearly for these mistakes. However, as the year progressed, so did I. I learned that pissing your waiter off at Waffle House will make them charge you two bucks for a drink, that using a car without locks isn't the brightest idea, that ravioli's are something that I want none of, that blueberries are allowed to attend normal public school, that listening to hours of didgeridoos can open ones mind, that one can be amused for hours purely by the sound of Shapiro's demonic laugh, and most importantly that when in doubt or under heavy stress, just play 30 hours straight of MW3 and all will be well. Knowing all of this, I could not be happier with the ending to this year. Everything went right, from hugging schaeff daddy 8 times in one night to getting to see wild turkeys which I had never done before. Moving on to the next year, I hope to make more memories with all of my friends and enjoy the remaining days I have left before the stress of college hits and I have to enlist in the military as Colonel Saunders. RIP junior year and thanks for the memories.

Relfection - Emily Sandford

Successes

I completed junior year (soon) so thats a success right there. On a more serious note I worked on the thing I'm the worst at, public speaking. While really one instance of this was at school, the speech for this class, I taught a class ay 4-H teen retreat, and another at 4-H teen summit, and I gave a speech at the state fair.


Failures

I didn't truly participate in class, yes I actively listened but the amount of times I vocally gave my opinion can be counted on one hand.

Lessons Learned

It's okay to be scared, and it's okay to go at your own pace. This was learned throughout the year by my public speaking.


Mistakes

Not voicing opinions in class. This has lead to many a late sleepless night thinking over what I should've voiced (mainly about the cornbelt).

Summer

This summer I will be going back home to Disney. After that I will be teaching a super seminar at 4-H teen conference, and I will be a Junior counselor at 4-H camp.

What you want senior year

Senior year I want to put more effort into what I due so I can make it the best. Also like every high school student I want to survive senior year and get into a good college, preferably Oberlin University.

How you plan to reach your goal.

I plan to achieve this by throughly organizing my life and efffectively communicating my opinions, and my plans, as well as using my note taking skills to keep track of everything

Assignment #24: Liz Graves

Oh Junior year, Junior year... This has been an interesting year to say the least.

Successes: this is the first year that I have not gotten all A's. Wait, Liz, isn't that a failure? Not necessarily.  Having lived through bad test and quiz grades, not being able to finish all my homework because I was just too tired, and being late to calculus a couple times (I'm sorry Mrs.Dewees), I know that the world doesn't end when I'm not perfect. That, my friends, is a very freeing experience, and what I call an unqualified success. 
Failures: The number of times I wiped out coming up the stairs during class change. I sincerely apologize to that one person I accidentally tripped when I fell. I know that kind of embarrassment is hard to come back from.
Lessons learned: Never walk to school from Adair if you are trying to break in new shoes. The blisters are unbearable. I have a scar on my heel as a constant reminder.
Risks taken: I ate dolphin for the first time. Why don't more people talk about dolphin??? It is AMAZING!!! I can never watch Flipper again, though.
Mistakes made: Thinking AP Calculus AB was going to be easy. Enough said.
What I will do over the summer: Catch up on sleep, hopefully go to the beach, college visits, come to terms with the fact that I'm going to be a senior in high school.
What I want for my Senior year: At some point do something absolutely insane that will result in a great story to tell in college.
How I plan to reach the above goal: I feel like great stories only happen by accident, so I can't really plan it out.

Assignment #26 - Daniel Kolpek

Overall, this year has taught me numerous writing skills that I will use for the rest of my life. The book we read at the beginning of the year, even though tough at times, was definitely helpful and effective in teaching ways to improve writing. It made me think about writing in new creative ways that I never could comprehend inside the five paragraph essay box I had been stuffed into all through middle school. Also, reading examples of the various essay types in class before actually writing one was great and made me feel much more comfortable about the AP test. The practice multiple choice tests were good preparation. I also felt that reading the essays out loud in class was helpful. It helped me make improvements and identify the issues I had for each specific essay type. The only thing I think would be a good improvement would to have at least one actual timed essay during the year where they have the time for writing they would on the AP test, without any revision. The time limit was a concern for me leading up to the AP exam, but it turned out okay.

Assignment #24 - Daniel Kolpek

This school year has been a blast and was probably the best year of high school I've had so far. It's crazy to think that I will be a senior next year when the first day of freshman year seems like it was yesterday. I'm pretty satisfied with this year. I continued hard work academically and I have my standardized test scores at a decent place. I can't think of any failures off the top of my head, but I wouldn't go back on them. Learning from failures is better in my mind anyways. For the summer I'm vacationing for the first month in South Carolina, then I am headed to St. Paul, Minnesota for a week. I am going to an engineering camp at Purdue for a week after that, and getting my wisdom teeth out. As for senior year, my main goal is restraining senioritis, at least for the first semester. I'll do my best to maintain my grades, but I'm not too concerned about it right now. I'm just happy to be done with  junior year and all its standardized tests.

assignment 25 Will Shapiro

Stress n' Stuff
I tend to adopt the policy that I'm gonna get what I'm gonna get. I know that no matter how much I study I'm not going to get the 120% i need on the Spanish final to get an A, but it will be similarly impossible for me to drop below the solid B I have now unless I straight up had a stroke in the middle of the test. This trend continues itself in my other classes as well. My English final,  while I will try to make it good, wont drop me down below an A because even if I do terribly and it does drop me, I know I did well enough on the AP test for a grade bump that will bring me back to A range. Basically all my other finals are like this. My grades are not really going to move anywhere if I keep performing at the level I have been performing in those classes, so I don't really stress all that much about them. Maybe that's a bad thing and I should be more worried, but in reality I am just looking forward to Super Smash Bros making a comeback in Mr. Cain's class this coming week.

Assinment 24- Will Shapiro

Oh boy I am excited for this year to just end already. Although it was pretty fun compared to other years because I did pretty well academically and tried new things, I would say overall it is time for it to come to an end. Next year I have a great schedule lined up that is going to make senior year a blast (being able to leave after 5th hour is going to be pretty awesome as well. For failures I would probably have to say my soccer career. Back in sophomore year JV I started every game and was given the Most Outstanding Offensive Player award for having the most goals, but transitioning into Varsity this year I can say with certainty that my total time spent on the field throughout the season was less that 30 minutes. It has been a real kick to the chest of my confidence, but next year will probably be better now that 12 seniors are leaving and the starting lineup is open again. No matter what happens I am excited to see what next year brings and I am VERY ready to be done with this year.

Assignment 25 Tommy Gardner

To deal with the stress I will spend whatever time I'm not using to studying or do homework, to watch South Park, and play games. South Park helps to get rid of the stress simply by distracting me, and helping to get my mind off of what is going to happen, whether it is impending doom or success. Although after a while I run out of free episodes to watch and I have to wait until a new set comes along. Playing games allows me to get my mind away from everything. It is just me playing games on my computer with no interruptions. Or maybe I just don't hear any outside distractions, because noise cancelling headphones. Both of these things are very effective with dealing with stress.

Assignment 24 Tommy Gardner

Over junior year I have learned that it is better to spread long term assignments over a long period of time than it is to leave them until the week before. As for the summer, I am going to spend 6 days hiking in the Land Between the Lakes, which is in south western Kentucky. I am going to hike 50 or 60 miles. After that, I will be visiting colleges and sitting around the house until early July. In July I will be preparing for a trip to Canada. The Canada trip will entail mostly fishing and pranking people. Hopefully I can catch more fish than my dad. After Canada my summer will be about as lazy as possible.

Also, apparently spellcheck doesn't like the word pranking.

Now you know - Emily Sandford

English this year has been pretty great. We were taught exactly what was going to be on the test (which has my utmost appreciation). But somethings could've been better.

The practice tests, as someone who regularly misses school due to sickness or other things, I only took one practice test during second semester. If we had taken more practice multiple choice I would've felt even more prepared. These multiple choice don't have to be full tests, but could be single passage warm ups once a week, or once every two weeks.

The essays. I'm not good when dealing with large groups, and I hate it when people critique my work. So the essays this year have been a personal form of torture. The satire essay wasn't torture because we were in small groups (but then again satire). Also, the essays werw helpful, but once we got to the AP test I couldn't remeber exactly what I was supposed to do for the analysis essay. Maybe if you mixed up the essays just a little bit more it would make the AP test even easier.

Final projects. I think the projects in your class are really good ideas to get us to think about issues around us, I didn't like hiw we were given them. You wiuld hint at a project through the year but without paper work it just seemed like an empty statement, but then when we did finally get the paper work there was a week to complete it. If you could've explained these throughout the year, I bet the kids next year will greatly appreciate it.

With all that being said, you are a great teacher.  And I always looked forward to your class (except essay days). I hope you have a great year.

Because You're Worth It Hye Jee Kim

So you want my help in improving your class.. Well, for the most part I really enjoyed your class. It prepared me for the AP test and made me a better writer. So for me to point out ways for you to increase your effectiveness, I have to nitpick. Honestly if you just keep doing what you do then I think you're more than fine.

First, the things that I thought were the most effective:

1. The book on how to become a better writer: This book (its title seems to have fallen out of my brain) blew my mind. It transformed what I viewed as good writing. And although it was incredibly dull to spend a month reading it in class, it helped me immensely. 
2. Whole class essay grading: I know that we experimented with different, more time-efficient ways of grading essays, but getting feedback from you and the entire class was the most beneficial for me. More range of opinions. 
3. Socratic Seminars: These didn't necessarily prepare me for the AP test specifically, but I they helped me with my analytical reading skills.
4. Speech: It was good practice in formulating a well thought out opinion.
5. Practicing AP MC ?'s regularly: This helped me to familiarize myself with the format of the test. 

Now, for the less than super effective:

1. Switching around styles of grading essays throughout the year: This seemed inconsistent, and I felt as though some of my essays didn't get as thorough feedback.
2. What we're doing right now: Maybe it's because I basically had this class in 8th grade, but the whole learning how to correctly manage money isn't the most helpful thing that I feel like I could be learning right now. Maybe we could be reading funny satire pieces on the Onion and debating them or something more related to English. I appreciate that you're trying to help us for the future, but what you're showing us seems to be kind of "there is only one way to correctly live your life and here it is". To be fair, though, I've only been to class like 2 days after the AP test so maybe I missed the other parts that gave it more variety of perspective..
3. The days we spent just going over MC: Nobody needs the whole 60 minutes in which we just read out the question and recite the answer. Also, that one chart thing that we did for the multiple choice seemed more like busywork than anything. It didn't really give me a whole lot of new understanding of the material. 

Aaannndd that's it. Oh also, keep doing this. It's super awesome that you take thorough feedback from your students. 

Stay gold, Ponyboy. 

Now I'm Stresses Out - Emily Sandford

Here is a list of things that stress me out
1. Homework
2. School in general
3. Driving
4. Making phone calls
5. Offending people
6. Being put on the spot
7. Talking to strangers my age or older
8. Ordering food
9. Presenting
10. Heights

Here is a list of ways I deal with stress
1. Cry
2. Cry
3. Sleep
4. Cry
5. Cry
6. Cry some more
7. Get frustrated
8. Eat
9. Cry one last time
10. Actually accomplish the task

So as you can see I get stressed out very easily with no way of properly releaving my stress. While the list of ways to releave stress is somewhat of a joke five out of the ten things are ways I do to releave stress. And despite this, it is still glaringly obvious that I need help getting rid of my stress, and a way could be avoiding stressful situations more than I already do.

ap testing is hard shocker - Cas Young

Okay, first of all, I feel like I freaking killed the AP test.

Second, although I smashed it, I feel like I could have smashed it harder if...

1. We did more multiple choice.
So honestly, I know we already did a lot, and I definitely improved, but I feel like I wanted to do more at the end of the year. Doing like two at the beginning is fine but I still wish I could have improved my score more.

2. We did essays in a different order.
I am glad that we spent so much time on analysis, that's what challenged me most on the actual test, but I wish that maybe we alternated essays. Did analysis, synthesis, argument and then repeat the cycle, especially in second semester. And I think our last few essays should have been raw, no editing, 40 minute time limit because I think that would have helped gauge me for test scoring better.

And I also wish you'd given us the rubric for the final project sooner or at least gave us more than two weekends, essentially, to work on it. Because I like making videos but wish I had more time for planning, casting (if necessary), and figuring out a date and such.

So yeah, this year was still killer nonetheless and I've gotten infinitely more confident in my academic essay writing skills considering I've written about twenty or so and most of which had been in just an hour.

I'm too relaxed - Cas Young

I hate my stress habits. I hate them so much. See, normally, I'm a really relaxed, easygoing, chill person and I pride myself in that. And I do well under pressure, I'm past the point of cracking under the pressure of an impending deadline, but I don't seem to have the best way of expressing and dealing with stress.

I know people who stress-Netflix-binge, people who stress-bake, people who stress-smoke (love you, mom), and people who stress-overprepare. Some of those skills are useful like stress-overstudying and most people, when under stress, buckle down and realise, "oh, man I really have a lot of work to do I need to prepare." but I just don't.

I stress-take-care-of-myself. 

Utterly ridiculous and useless. The nigh before an AP test, I'll shower, shave my legs, floss my teeth, get to bed before 10:30, then wake up and have a nutritious breakfast. I tend to cut my nails more, sleep more, either dress impeccable or comfortably, and study less. My self-care also extends to, "You'll do okay without studying, just make sure you're happy and healthy and calm and you'll be just as well off as you would be if you cracked open a review book!"

But to top it all off, I swear to god everyone at the AP Lang test got me sick and I'll never forgive those coughing heathens; they crushed my health and my immune system just after I was bragging how kickass it was. 

Moral of the story, I hate myself and have great skin. At the cost of many test scores. Bless.

I am Cas - Cas Young

This year was a little bit monumental for me. This year was really the year I found my footing. I discovered who I am, I tried new things, I'm making so many new friends and getting involved in so much more than I did freshman and sophomore year. So emerging from Henry Clay this year, I can really say that I found myself.
This year, I made executive decisions to go places I wanted to go and to do things I wanted to do i.e. go to McDonalds after school for a shamrock shake, watch Game of Thrones after school on a Monday, go for Beta Club Officer, watch a movie after an AP test. I figured out where I wanted to go to school and decided what I want to do with my life. It feels like I finally know where I'm going.
However, this year I made some mistakes, I put off telling people things I should have told them sooner, I put off work until the morning, sometimes I got a little too confident in my abilities and rested on my laurels more than I should have, but I'm working on pushing past that for sure.
Next year, I hope to achieve even more than I did this year. I want to push myself past what I'm comfortable doing, I want to ask more questions in class, I want to prepare more for speech and lead more in clubs I'm involved in.
I also want to get the confidence to criticize people that are close to me. Recently, I've been dealing with some people who are making decisions detrimental to their health and inflationary to their ego and I want to be able to say "You don't have to prove yourself to others, you're not above me, and you really need to find self-restraint." in a nice, constructive way. That's my personal goal. It's easy to critique someone's essay in class, but it's hard to tell a close friend that their lifestyle isn't good for them.

Well that got a little personal, but what the hell. It's fine. Feelings and emotions are good. whoohoo.

Lauryn McNair #26

I think most things we've done in class have been effective. The essay grading was nice, not so much in knowing what to do, but what not to do. For that, I think if some time was dedicated to learning how to write an effective body paragraph each week or month would really help some of the struggling students. But at the same time, it's up to the student to want to improve in their writing. Also, if there was a time writing once every two weeks instead of once a month, but only one was for grade, I feel that would really help some of the students. Also for multiple choice, identify the major types of questions and let the students choose what to focus on, that may be helpful as well. I was already comfortable with English coming into the year, and everything I learned enhanced my knowledge, and I honestly grasped for straws with things you could improve on.

Lauryn McNair #25

I don't know if we're expected to do this one, so I'm going to do it any way. Stress goes onto my medium size list of things I don't do well with. My mom says I function at a constant level of stress, so I begin to think it's normal and I don't really think I'm stress, but apparently I am. The best way I deal with stress is actually getting the things I need to get done, done. A decent amount of my stress comes from the seemingly endless amount of responsibilities I have and things I'm trying to be good at. The other part usually comes from me pushing it off until the last minute. I fear rejection in every aspect of my life. Whether that's being mocked by peers, or having an idea shot down, or my lunch number being incorrect and not going through the system. This leads me to constantly avoid things until I can't any more. Then I get even more stressed and anxious, until I finally just do it. Then my life's a little bit better and I can breathe a little bit easier. I also stress about not doing well in school, not being as high as an achiever as everyone else, of not getting into college, etc. These things I usually just stress about for an unhealthy amount of time until I remind myself that I'm not doing terribly bad, and in like 10 years from not it's not going to matter and nothing really matters so there's no point in stressing. And finally for really big things that I can't avoid, like a family member having cancer, I just pretend it's not happening. Anything possibly bad that could be going on in my life, I just act like it's not and look up cute pictures of James Franco.

Lauryn McNair #24

Junior year has been a whirlwind and a desert (not really parallel I know) at the same time. Crazy and at times seemingly unmanageable, while also being boring and relatively anti-climatic. When looking back, I have a really bad habit of thinking it (whatever it is) was easier than it really was. Conveniently forgetting all the troubles that plagued my existence at the time. So I'm going to talk about all the mistakes I made to remind myself how much this summer break is needed. This year I got my first B in high school. Yes, I know how it sounds, boo hoo I have a 3.97 instead of a 4.0, big deal. But okay, I've worked my butt off for the 4.86 I have and this was the first year I could have a 5.0, and sadly did not get one. Admittedly, I acted like a huge baby for like a week and may've or may've not ripped up my report card in an act of sadness and honestly just to bother my mom. Getting B honestly took the pressure off of having a 4.0, and made me a little less psycho crazy about my grades. Other big mistake was thinking that I should work during my junior year of school. Like that was the dumbest thing I've ever done. Trying to juggle 5 AP classes, several clubs, and a job, not including a social life, is honestly more stress than it's worth. But I made it through with only one B, and money to fuel my CD/lip-gloss addiction so I'm not terribly disappointed in myself. Poor decisions and failed grades aside, I'm really bad at following through with things. As we speak I'm pushing off a project that I created and am trying to implement ,for reasons unbeknown to me. Because of this, I don't really do applications. I start them, freak out about them, push them aside, don't do them, and have anxiety about them for several months after them because I didn't do them. I didn't apply to GSP or GSA, both which I found really interesting and would have loved to do, but simply could not find the strength or time to complete the applications. But not to dwell too long on the bad things, I've actually accomplished stuff this year. I achieved the exact ACT score I wanted, I got into NHS, and I got accepted into a student congress type thing over the summer(which I filled out an application for!!). I've also gotten a lot better at not comparing myself to people, whether that be in looks, or grades, or writing, which is something I've been working. This post is reaching annoyingly long, so for next year I just want to get into UK with a full ride and be happy and debt free.

23 claire jicha

Happy Sounding Songs About Unhappy Things.

What exactly is the purpose of trying to convey a dark message through some upbeat melodies? To lessen the blow, as a metaphor for our complacency, just to creep us out? Regardless there’s some seriously disturbed themes being hidden in the catchiest tunes i’ve ever heard.

• Keep Awake - 100 monkeys

I think this one is pretty self explanatory, i mean the first thing you hear is “I will kill you in your sleep.” But its just so catchy, the acoustic major chords just don’t match and the vocals fit perfectly, somehow.

• Semi- Charmed Life- Third Eye Blind

The funny thing is that its kinda hard to make out the lyrics of alot of these songs, so you really don’t catch whats creepy until later. Like this:

“The sky was gold, it was rose

I was taking sips of it through my nose

And I wish I could get back there, someplace back there

Smiling in the pictures you would take

Doing crystal meth, will lift you up until you break”

• Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People

By far my favorite song in this list, the chorus can and will get stuck in your head forever. But its about school shootings. And its not even disguised. Unlike some other songs you can easily make out “better run faster than my bullet.”

• Misery - Maroon 5

Imagine my suprise when i walked into my little sister’s room just to hear “Sometimes these cuts are so much deeper than they seem/ You'd rather cover up/ I'd rather let them bleed”

• Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen

Now im not a big fan of Springsteen, but this song gets on for the irony. An anti war song about vietnam that so many people take as a patriotic anthem, too funny.

22 claire jicha

To be entirely honest, i seem to be drawn to some of the most unfortunate characters, and i wouldn’t particularly want to be any of them. Let’s make a list shall we, first we have;

• James “Bucky” Buchanan Barnes, who died but not really, lost an arm, was tortured and brainwashed for 70 years by nazis and then communists, trained and forced to be an assassin, and once he finally remembers who he was and has his old best friend back, he finds out everyone wants to kill him for things he was forced to do while brainwashed.
• Remus Lupin, who was violently turned into a werewolf when he was a kid, persecuted for that attack, had one of his friends turn on the others resulting in the death of one and the wrongful imprisonment of the other, tryed to live a normal life but was outed by a vindictive teacher, still decided to help and do whatever he could to support his dead friend’s child, and then killed along with his wife leaving behind a son.
• Theres more but i can’t think of anymore right now because im still crying over Bucky Barnes. He didn’t deserve any of it. He a fictional and yet i still love him.

21 Claire Jicha

At this very moment, somewhere in this universe… a long time ago in a galaxy far far away… once upon a time… the end?

Somewhere in this, and all adjecent universes, there sits a student wrapped in some very soft blankets with a labtop in front of them dieing.

“I’m dying,” they said, “I don’t wanna do this.”

And so to avoid their school work, they decided to explore the depths of netflix. And thus three hours passed.

“Aaahhhhhh,” the student cried, “I still don’t wanna do this.”

And so they decided to sleep for a bit. And thus 10 hours passed.

“Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh,” they said again, “I’m going to be late to school.”

And thus 8 hours passed. And although this poor student wanted nothing more than to fall face down onto the couch and never get up again, they knew they had work to do, so they dragged their backpack to the table and died before they could get any work done. RIP in peace, poor student.

Alec Dupont 24

I would have to say that my junior year has been pretty swell. academically i have been near perfect, depending on ap scores, and the high school soccer season that we had this year was absolutely astounding. going to the state finals was incredible. I have maintained a 4.0 and I got a near perfect 36 on my ACT (darn you English you are my nemesis). Noting particularly exciting happened. in fact most of the time I was quite bored.school just becomes so monotonous after a time and I just can't stand it after a while. But oh well, only one more year. Prom was pretty fun this year hopefully it can be as fun next time. I really now just need to nail down a mentoring project and ill be set. At this point I'm rambling, i have nothing left to say. I feel the same way about these blogs as I do junior year. Im just dragging mys self through till the end.

26- Rachel Roberts

First and for most, you did good.
I liked most everything you did, but there were a few things that I had issue with.
Summer assignment:
I feel like if had had the speech rubric back in the summer while I was doing my original research, it would have really guided me in the right direction. So many next year have at least some sort of outline to give out with summer assignments so they have some sort of idea of what direct they need to go in. Trying to find time write a speech at that point in the semester was very stressful.
Practicing for multiple choice:
It really would have helped me at least, if we had done more multiple choice practice. You wouldn't necessarily have to do the whole test every time, but maybe once or twice a week did the multiple choice for one or two of the passages on a released test. But still do the whole test once a month because that was helpful too.
Essay practice:
Next year you should do more essay practice in general with strick time limits and limited to no editing. Today I was relized how much I realied on using the whole class or making small corrections when I was typing.
But overall, awesome job, keep up the good work!

hahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahah nope. Hye Jee Kim

I don't deal with stress. I let it consume my life and soul and mind and sometimes (all the time) I worry about it and am anxious and I'm never relaxed. So I'm a fun person to be around.

Confession time: I stress about things even though I know that I shouldn't. I'm self-aware. I know that it's obnoxious and gross but I do it anyway. I'm not entirely sure why, maybe some twisted part of my brain thinks it's fun to watch my brain mutate until it looks like a melted strawberry starburst. So if you're looking for stress management tips, I'm not the person to go to.

I don't manage stress, I ignore it. I put it in a little-bitty box (maybe box isn't the best word; think more like a bunker) in my head. But this box is hard to ignore. So I bury it in Netflix and Buzzfeed and food. Super healthy.        

On the rare occasions where I'm in a high stress environment with no way to escape (a mental Alcatraz, if you will), I usually don't remember what happens. Take for instance, what happened yesterday. I was asked to speak to a group of probably between 300-500 ppl (I'm not good at estimating). It was a short speech, no big deal, but I only had 15 minutes to think about what to say, and when I got up there, my mouth was moving and words were happening but my mind was white. Actually, it was more like the dream sequence in Dumbo. But I don't really remember what I said. Same goes for the physics final last semester. Don't remember any of the questions. Just stress.

I'm unhelpful. Sorry.

Future Hye Jee Kim

Junior year was the busiest year of my life. I did so many things. So many. Too many. And because I did so many things, I now know everything that there is to know about all of life. Except not really. If anything, I know less than I did (or at least, I'm more uncertain about stuff). So now I'm going to tell you about it. yay.

Okay so Junior year, I stressed myself out about things that I really shouldn't be stressed out about. Grades, test scores, applications, extracurriculars, oh my. And just because I'm self aware doesn't mean I'm going to stop. It's kind of part of my existence now. But, while being perpetually stressed low-key sucks, it has helped me be successful in some things like..

1. Wendell-Irish Viola Competition: I did pretty darn well in this because the week before, I got stressed out about embarrassing myself and practiced a butt-ton.
2. Grades: I took harder classes this year than last year, which stressed me out, which made me try super hard, which made me get better grades.
3. GSP: I got in because of my stress about not having anything to do this summer

So among my many fabulous successes, I also failed.. which sucked but oh well.. These failures include...

1. NSLI-Y: I super wanted to get into this summer program because Arabic is literally the coolest language ever but I didn't, which sucked.
2. APUSH Long Essay: Let's just say that 15 minutes is not long enough to write a very good long essay.

But life goes on. and on. and on until you die. Happy thoughts.

So in the interim, I'll be going to GSP, volunteering at FACE camp, and taking a super hard senior year schedule (which is a terrible idea but hahahahahhahaha).

Sorry about it future me. 

Assignment 26: Help! I need somebody. Help!

I wanna be better in all things.  It's easy for teachers to get stuck and comfortable in patterns and activities that are completely legitimate but perhaps have become stale and even ineffective.  Throughout the semester I've asked that you work hard to prepare for the AP Language and Composition test.  I taught to the test.  I'm sorta fine with that.  As I've said, I believe that the skills the test assesses are important and some of the most important skills you will develop in your lifetime - the ability to think, process, synthesize, and argue.

To that end I've tried to develop every assignment to focus on one element of the test and hone those skills required for success.  Now that you've taken the test - multiple tests (ACT, PSAT, AP) what suggestions do you have?

I'm not asking for what you "liked" or what was "fun" but rather what was effective.  I know not everything connected with everyone and with 97 students I will get a plethora of responses.  Though I am asking for honesty I'm not asking for a tongue-lashing nor do I expect "all sunshines and rainbows." I know I'm flawed but I also know that I am effective.  I want to minimize my flaws and increase my effectiveness.  I need your help to do that.




Minimum of 150 words - due on Sunday, May 22nd at 11:59 pm

(Last day to turn in make up assignments 24-25)