Assignment 20 How to Make Friendship Bracelets

Tired of being lonely? Looking for a friendly gesture to bring you closer to an anacquaintance or a present to keep someone from forgetting about you? Friendship bracelets are the perfect casual (and beautiful) gift. You will need is scissors, four 56'' strings, some tape, a big heart, and a person to give the finished product to. One of my favorite friendship bracelets is the broken ladder bracelet, which consists of stylish chevrons and quirky "ladders" of knots. First, take your four strings of different colors and crease them into two halves and tie a knot about a half inch from the top of the fold, making a loop at the top of your string structure. Then, separate the strings, making two sides of mirroring colors (for example, if your colors are fucia, baby food green, commie red, and fungus yellow, and you have folded your strings to make eight 28 inch strings, you should now have a pattern of fucia, baby food green, commie red, fungus yellow, fungus yellow, commie red, baby food green and fucia). Then take the leftmost  string (fucia), making 2 left to right loops on each of the next 3 strings (baby food green, commie red, and fungus yellow). Then take the rightmost string (the other fucia) and make 2 right to left loops on each of the next three strings. The two fucia strings should now be in the middle of your fetus bracelet structure. Take the fucia string on the right and make two right to left loops onto the other fucia string to consummate the first chevron (or "v" shape). Repeat this for the next three colors, but without tying the finishing knot on the last chevron.Gather the three inner strings on the left side (left baby food green, commie red, and fungus yellow) and loop the leftmost string (now fucia again) around all three strings ten times. Do the same in the righthand side. You should have two mirroring elegant spirals of fucia on your infant bracelet. repeat the above steps over and over and over and over again until you have a garment that is approximately the circumference of the wrist of your muse. You now have a full grown bracelet child. All that's left to do is give it away, make a friend, and make  somebody pregnant with joy. 

The Perfect Playlist - Jasa Harris

Everyone is going to get a job eventually, but the most nerve-racking part of getting a job is getting through the interview. It’s important to stay confident and positive during this stressful time so this is the perfect playlist before a job interview.

Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J: This song will give you the confidence you need heading into your interview because “over the competition, you’ll be towerin”. You’ll feel ready and not nervous when you enter because you know you got it.  

I Believe I Can Fly by R. Kelly:  This song will also give you some confidence before a big interview. It tells you that you can reach new heights if you believe in yourself and this will motivate you to do well in your interview.

Remember You by Wiz Khalifa: This song prepares you too because for highly competitive jobs you’ll need to stand out, and often times the interviewer is “only here for one night”, so you’ll need to have a lasting impression on them in order to get the job.

Do it Like You by Diggy: This song will remind you that everyone trying to get the job is probably just as qualified as you, but this song also reminds you they aren’t nearly as good as you, so this song also adds some confidence.

Better in Time by Leona Lewis: Unfortunately you can’t win everything all the time, so this song humbles you and teaches that things will get better with time so you can be ready and positive for the next interview that comes. 

Hans Stromberg- Class review

AP English Language and Composition has been an interesting class all year, I’m not going to lie to Mr. Logsdon’s face; English is my least favorite subject. Personally I am a Math and Science type of guy and English finds itself at the bottom of the totem pole. With this being said, English this year has been completely bearable. I actually feel that my writing skills have improved dramatically just because of the amount of practice essays we wrote. If I were to change one aspect, it would be to continue the congress throughout the year because when we do it on turn it in, no one checks their peer reviews and then we don't get much out of the writing exersice. Also, you could take the multiple choice questions that were missed the most and have a short 5 minute lesson over that style of problem to help us with our multiple choice scores.

Blog 25- Chelsea Southworth

You know what? I'm going to do it. I'm just going to ramble about Shrek. Oh my gosh it was utter perfection; thank the Lord Jesus that Olivia wanted to audition and convinced me to go along for the ride as well. Auditions, yeesh. That monotone man completely unconfident singing voice, though. But outside the orchestra room, with all of us budding little thespians together, I felt it. I felt that instant connection that lets you know "hey, these are some really cool people that you're going to have so much fun with." Oh, Mr. Logsdon/anyone who wasn't back stage; if only you saw us. My favorite dance memories have to be pole dancing with the ladder and grinding on the wall during Jared's "Big Bright Beautiful World" solo (how else we were supposed to loosen up for the show?) and interpretively, storytellingly (it's a word, shh) dancing along to "The Ballad of Farquaad" (Jade was usually the mom, but sometimes we switched. Everyone was involved in the BBBW dancing). AND the two lines in Ballad would make faces and dance at once another before we went out; composing ourselves was always the struggle.

Blog 24- Chelsea Southworth

This year was simultaneously the best and the worst. It was the worst for obvious reasons: AP classes and just plain work. Ugh. But I did a lot more this year than I have in the past; TIP over the summer, ComicCon in April, Shrek for what seems like the entire semester, and I came away from everything with new friends. After the traditional last-night iHOP breakfast at TIP, I couldn't stop crying (crying that eventually turned into blubbering noises one might associate with a whale or a dying cow). It was the last time I would get to go to camp and I had made so many amazing friends in that short time span that I might never see again; I was sure that nothing could compare to that soul-deep sadness I felt. Then Shrek ended.
As I told this to Grace on our way back to the dressing room, my words still punctuated with whale moans, she told me something surprisingly profound: yes I was sad now like I never thought I'd be again, but all that meant was that I'd keep making really close friends throughout my life. I might have to leave them, but there would always be amazing people in my future.

25- Lucy Wan

Presenting a really long, currently untitled poem:

We are not the branches which fall from trees
We are the roots from which trees grow
And why can't you see that
Love is the water that runs through our root systems
Interconnects us together
Together.
Somehow you don't seem to understand the word so I'll
Drag out a thesaurus
Scream out every synonym on the page
Pound these fading memories into your head
like math problems you'll do over and over again
and I'm not so good at math but I know
Anything divided by one is itself so stop trying to divide yourself
subtract the broken parts of yourself
You are no derivative taken from what you used to be
You are abstract art, trying to figure out what you want to be
A spoken word poem
that hasn't been edited, these words so raw
like a heart bleed in the snow
you know.
you know where I'm coming from
because you've been there already
We are not strangers to heartbreak and pain
We greet them with open arms,
like old friends,
because we've seen them over and over again
But we also know time,
and time heals all wounds
no matter how deep, how long,
how much hurt
And yes, these wounds will leave scars
but we will wear them as medals from battles with ourselves
We are not who you think we are
We are not strangers
So greet me with open arms
because I am an old friend
You can't stop yourself from seeing me over and over again
We are the seven-year-olds of years long past
Driving bumper cars made of glass
scared to move, afraid to
Crash.
But I'll make the first move
play the white side, slide a pawn
space by space
Learn how to drive.
You're a Queen hiding in a castle
but the world is yours once you let the walls fall
So push every piece off the board;
topple your king, it doesn't matter anymore
That's not a surrender, that's the start of the real fight
But take off your armor
You are no black knight
You once told me that people are like rain
And if I am a drizzle, you are a hurricane
But it's okay that you are summer storm,
because I am winter rain
And this all shall pass.

#21 Right Now Haley Longworth

Right now somewhere in the universe... someone is trying something new. Whether it be trying a new food or dish from another country, skydiving for the first time, or learning how to fly a plane, new ideas and activites are being learned ever second. A quote that reminds me of this, by someone whom I dont remember, says that every person you meet knows something that you dont. Gaining new knowledge is a valuable thing, and is best done when you try something new. Even learning how to a simple task can open you up to a world of possibilities. Doing new things helps you find your passion, it shows you things you may not like to do, and it teaches you things about yourself. It builds character. So, someone in the world is trying something new that they may love or hate, but no matter what, they are learning.

kicking the bucket- daniel horne

Before I finish high school it would be really cool if I could get to challenger in league of legends because I have a lot of fun playing the game and it would be really cool to be one of the best at something world wide.
Before I finish college I just want to get through college get a degree and such my whole goal for college is to have good grades and plenty of sleep. So I guess if it can get all A's one semester that would be great.
Before I die I would like to be the first to do something. I don't much care what it is but I think it would be cool because that can never be taken away from you. so if was something as big as being the first to prove the big bang really did happen or the first to eat 5 large pizzas in one sitting.

plastics- Daniel Horne

One of the greatest pieces of advice I have ever been given was as follows "pleasing everyone is impossible but pissing everyone off is funny and easy as hell" at first glance it doesn't really seem like advice but I can attest that it is. you see back in the days of my miss guided youth I tried to be liked by everyone I hung out with al the cool kids that climbed on top of the monkey bars in 2nd grade and had nothing to show for it. then in sixth grade I realized that this was a bad strategy so I thought back to this old peace of advice and started to piss everyone off and it was funny as hell sure a lot of people didn't like me but frankly those were shity people anyway and once I found that I didn't care what the thought I could find people who were actually human sitting off in the fringes.  

How to- Daniel Horne

I will be writing about how to shoot a bow. it may seem like a simple process but in fact it is a complex art form. first you will need a bow and some arrows we will be using the Matthews geneses which is considered by most the ideal beginners bow. First you will have to set the draw weight which is what it would feel like lifting when you pull the bow back for example if it is set to 15 pounds it will feel like picking up a15 pound rock. once this is done it is time to knock an arrow this is just clipping it to the string at the knock point with the knock, you will want to make sure the odd colored feather is facing to you. now use your index middle and ring finger to grasp the string right under the arrow. pull back keeping your elbow up and touch the corner of your mouth with your index finger. then look down the shaft of the arrow and point the tip at the target and release the string.   

Hans Stromberg- #25

Well, I guess I will talk about what I have been watching on TV for the last couple days because that’s what is on my mind. The NBA playoffs have been going on for at least four weeks and every chance I get I watch whoever is playing that night. My team, the Mavericks, was bounced out in the first round in 7 games by the San Antonio Spurs, so now my main goal in life is to root for whoever is playing against the Spurs. Right now, that is the OKC thunder who are making an incredible Serge (Ha) now that Ibaka is back in the lineup. In the east I am rooting for the Indian Pacers because they were my dad’s hometown team. Unfortunately, they find themselves down 3-1 to the heat, so I am hoping they pull of a miracle. The last couple days the NCAA division 1 championships have been on the Golf Channel and that has preoccupied the other half of my TV watching time. Since I am hoping to play golf in college, the ultimate goal once I am in college will be the National Championships. Oklahoma State and Alabama survived the quarter- and semi- final matchups to meet in the finals tonight. The last couple of matches have been nail bitters so I am excited for the finals tonight.

Assignment #25

One of my pet peeves for writing assignments is when the teacher gives you the assignment to write about whatever you want. I can never think about what I should write about. My mind just goes completely blank and eventually I’ll just sit there and start day dreaming because I won’t know what to write about. I might have some ideas floating around in my head but I never have enough to say about that topic to fill the word requirement. So, instead of actually writing about something interesting that my teacher might enjoy reading I end up rambling on and on and on and on about some pointless subject that is really uninteresting. Just like this blog. I couldn’t think of anything interesting to write about so I wrote about how I couldn’t think about anything to write about and how I hate these kinds of assignments. So I hope you enjoyed (probably not) my pointless rambling on this topic.

Will Atkins-26-Class Review

Umm. Congress early on in the year. Helpful. Late in the year on the computers, ehh. Considering were all high school students, I feel like about 1 in 15 students went back and looked at the revisions people made upon. Unfortunately, while it is the students fault, talking to many of the students who enjoyed hearing corrections to their essays, those same students failed to go to turnitin.com and look at their revised essays. This is one part of the class that should be reviewed in some way. I would space out the teaching of the 3 types of essays on the AP English exam more. We did one type of essay, analysis, for all but a month and a half of the year. I understand the other two types of essays, synthesis and argument, are not the most difficult of tasks to accomplish, but you never know, they might be hard for some students.  

Besides those two minuscule things. Nah, this was a cool but still educational class with an appropriate amount of freedoms. Ehh scratch that. Less use of phones, and I say that as someone who uses their phone often. It’s bad for education man.

Zach Wolfe 23

Have you ever felt extremely stupid? Well don't feel bad. Here's the perfect playlist for how to make yourself feel more intelligent. 

A Milli - Lil Wayne

This is an uptempo song with unintelligent phrases littered throughout. Things such as "I'm okay, but my watch sick" you can't help but feel better about yourself. That phrase absolutely no sense and you know that you can't be nearly as dumb as this man. 

You Ain't Got Nuthin' - Lil Wayne

Just by reason the title, you know that you're smarter than this millionaire. When this song was published, "ain't" was not officially a word in the English language. However, now that it is, the title still doesn't make sense. Written correctly, the sentence should say "You don't have anything." As if the word choice wasn't bad enough, he even spelled "Nothing" incorrectly, and he repeats this phrase throughout the song. 

God Bless Amerika - Lil Wayne

Again, the title says it all. In an attempt to look patriotic and inspiring, his stupidity triumphs again. What is so hard about spelling our country's name correctly? What is the point of putting a "k" instead of a "c".

Blunt Blowin - Lil Wayne

This song is full of grammatical errors and dumb phrases but I can't list all of them due to their explicit nature. However, one example is "death is a decision". Well I don't think you need me to tell you that this is completely false. People don't choose to die from terminal illness. There's nothing they can do. Gangsters don't choose to get shot in the head, it just happens. A human's natural instinct is to survive. Most people would choose to continue their life. 

I'm Me - Lil Wayne

Another song you can tell is unintelligent just by the title. "I'm me" doesn't make grammatical sense. Also, the chorus consists of him saying "I'm me, I'm me, I'm me, I'm me, I'm me, so who you?" Please tell me you're more intelligent than this guy. Not only did he say "I'm me" five times, but he ended it with a question that's just as if not more stupid than his first statement. 

Assignment #24

I’m so happy my junior year is finally over. This was without a doubt the most challenging year of my life in school. With my schedule full of AP classes and one advanced class it was very tough to get through this year. One of my successes this year was getting an A in AP Chemistry first semester. AP Chemistry was definitely the hardest class I’ve taken so far and I was very pleased to get an A first semester. But one of my failures was blowing off the summer work for AP Spanish which caused me to get a B first semester. Another mistake I made was the huge amount of procrastination that happened this year. This caused me to pick up some zeroes and it caused me a huge amount of stress when assignments were all due on the same day. I definitely learned that I need to study for tests in classes like Chemistry and US History. My lack of studying definitely showed in my below par test scores in those classes. MY lack of studying this year was a risk that didn’t pay off at all. This summer I will be going on college visits going to Cancun and spending half my summer playing soccer. Next year my goal is to get accepted into my dream college and do the minimal amount of work to still get good grades.

#26 Rhoman James

I think the way you went about things this year prepared us very well for our testing this year. Personally, english is not my strong suit. I actually scored a 20 on it on my ACT :( BUT! Being a black athlete I really don't have to do that well on the ACT! I tell the coaches that I got a 25 on my ACT and their mouth starts to water! My English score used to be a 17..even though my math was a 28! But since I got it up and can continue to get it up hopefully I can get a 28 and get recruited my some ivy league schools!

Will Atkins--25

A blank sheet. A canvas in which to put my masterpiece in 151 words. I already did a review of my junior year so I don’t even know what to talk about this post. Oh I know. I shall talk about my bull crap recruiting process that nobody cares about except me. Well actually my parents have asked about it but only because they want me to get it over with so they know where I’m going to college. They want me to make a top 5 so I know where I’m taking my 5 official visits that a high school athlete is allowed. I don’t know my top 5 yet. I wish I could visit more schools up north first. Also my list right now is sort of irrelevant because if I improve a lot over the summer in cross country then I’m going to have a completely new set of schools recruiting me. Bro you don’t know. I’m dumber than most of the academy but I might be the one going to Harvard or Yale (like my sister). Watch me. With that said, and I hope none of the schools recruiting me see this, my (unofficial) top 5 is Centre, Tufts, College of Charleston, NYU, and Yale. That is in no particular order.

Hans Stromberg- The Future

To think that I am pretty much ¾’s of the way through high school is an interesting thought. I am on the way down the high school hill and getting ready to go to college. Before I get ahead of myself, my junior year was full of different successes and failures. My biggest failure at the moment is my grade in AP chemistry, a class in which I pulled an A out just because the teacher is nice. This semester I have a solid B, which will only be my second in my illustrious high school career. If a miracle occurs and I get a 4 on my AP Chemistry test I will escape with an A but that is not something to get my hopes up about. Considering that is my biggest failure, other than losing in a playoff in regionals in golf, it has been a pretty easy going year. Not that my classes have been easy, I just have had great teachers to get me through. In the summer I will be working at Lakeside golf course and playing a lot of golf tournaments in order to try and achieve my biggest goal: getting a college golf scholarship. Next year will be fairly chill because my hardest classes will be in the subject that I am best at: Math. I will not have a sixth hour so I will be able to leave school early. The one thing I am most looking forward to is getting a parking pass so I can arrive at school at 8:20 every day and get almost an hour more of sleep every day.

Assignment #20

How to get healthy and stay healthy:
Many americans today are facing the problem or being overweight or obese. I you think you could be headed down that road then follow these simple steps and you could be healthy and in shape in no time. The first aspect of your lifestyle that you need to focus on to become healthy is your diet. You won't be healthy if you're stopping by McDonalds every other day. I would reccomend to eat home cooked meals as much as possible. Make sure you eat enough vegetables like asparagus, broccolli, beans, etc. Once you have started to eat at home more and focused on what you're eating the next step to living a more healthylifestyle is to exercise more. You may not enjoy running or liftintg weights but exercise can be as simple as riding your bike somewhere or going on a family hike one weekend. Instead of sitting on the couch and watching TV you could go play basketball with your freinds. Also if you plan on exercising to stay healthy you need to find an activity that you enjoy so that you will continue to do it and not stop after a couple of weeks. Just follow these simple steps and you could be on your way to being healthier in no time.

#25 Haley Longworth

SPOILER ALERT (THE FAULT IN OUR STARS) This past week, I was finally able to finish The Fault in Our Stars. It took me two tries because of being busy all the time, but it was definitely worth my time. Although I don't think it was as good as everyone made it out to be, it was a very good book. My favorite part was when Gus and Hazel were in Amsterdam. The details about the scenery made the Netherlands sound so beautiful, and I loved when they were at the fancy restaraunt and also when they went to the Anne Frank Museum. It created a lot of happiness before Augustus told Hazel his horrible news; that his cancer had come back and he wasn't going to survive. After they get home from Amsterdam, everything goes downhill and Gus never acts the same, which is very heart-wrenching since his character was so charismatic. The ending to the book was a surprise because it was more expected that Hazel would be the one to pass away after dealing with an awful cancer, but instead it is Gus, who had an 85% survival rate for his disease.

#25 Rhoman James

High school is fun but it is so silly. It is fun though. It is fun being in the academy and also having friends in other groups of the school. Some weekends I'll be with a couple of my friends from the football team and go see some fellow academy students. I think it's really important for people to hang out with new people in high school because you never know how that connection can benefit you. I've meet many people throughout high school that I randomly see and they come in handy in necessary situations! People like to stay secluded to the same groups of people and not branch out, but in the end that will come to bite them in their ashes (ha ha)

Will Atkins-The Future-24

Huh. The future. God is it finally here? I don’t even know what to think about it all. It’s hard to even fathom what is going to happen next. To review my junior year, I don’t know bro. To say there was a lot of internal growth would be to both underestimate and be super cheesy. I learned more about responsibility within my home with my siblings being off at college. I became much more independent from my parents. I learned about more than I could have ever hoped. Both in and out of school. Success: internal growth. Failures: I don’t know.

This summer? Work hard. Both with the jobs I will have (probably 2 or 3) along with the hard work that I will have to put into my running. All progress that I hope to make on my cross country times (to get offers from better schools than I already have) shall be accomplished through hard work this summer and fall.

Senior Year? Survive. Go to a good college. Leave .

Blog 26 Enjoy JDH

Mr. Logsdon

I have no past experience with your profession. At times, you may have found difficulty in directing our spastic attention to your lessons and/or, at other times you may have found relative ease at molding our minds to attack any necessary test. I have no realistic way of grading you due to my lack of experience in what being Mr. Logsdon: The English Teacher, entails. That being said I do have some critiques and compliments to dole out.

First off is what you did well. English writing is a very hard class to teach because it isn’t so much English as logic. I could spell every word A to Z, or quote from Shakespeare and give the modern translation of ancient pros, or even write a 100-page research paper with relative ease. This is because these are basic things that we do every day; we spell out our words as we write them, we draw upon previously read texts, and we manufacture print like machines. Ask me how or why questions and the degree of difficulty is raised significantly. Answering what, who, and when questions can be answered in a sentence at most: The plane, Me, and 5 o’clock last Sunday are basic examples. Answering why anybody does anything, or how anybody does anything are near impossible to answer definitively. Too often though, it is the how and why questions that English writing students face. We require logic to digest and regurgitate texts and sources on to the AP Exam. If we lack the critical thinking required to “get the job done” there is very little you can do to aid us. Over the past school year though, I feel that you have aided us in many ways. Although the trek of an AP English student is a solitary one, you provided us with a base camp of knowledge (Writing with Style) and gifted us the experience needed to bridge any perilous gaps in our logical facilities. I can only empathize with your struggles as an English teacher and thank you for what help you provided me over the last year.

Now comes the tongue-lashing of sorts. Well not so much a lashing as some advice from a pupil. First and foremost, keep your focus. You act as an author, while we, your students, act as the audience, the readers. Your primary focus must be on the end goal of the class just as an author’s focus is to inform and entertain the audience. Your lessons must be entertaining to keep us, you should think of us as easily distractible monkeys in this case, engaged. At the slightest provocation we will descend into anarchy and ignorance. You already know this basic fact though, which is why I am only reminding you of it. (In my opinion, videos on broneys, robots, and cannibalism, no matter how entertaining and philosophically stimulating, should be retooled into more focused lessons.) Secondly, and I should follow this advise as well, assess yourself constantly. The ordinary are content with their current condition, the extraordinary strive to be better in everything they do. If you wish to be an extraordinary teacher, father, or person in general, never be happy for longer than an instant and never stop striving. Evaluate the effect of every word you say and every action you do. It may be a Herculean task, but too often today people are stagnantly all right with the way things are. As was once said (Maybe by Gandhi I don’t really know) “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. Finally, don’t let us highschoolers get you down. We may think we all deserve A’s and know everything, but we don’t. Some day every bratty, slightly gifted kid will have to face the piper. We will all be off to senior year and then to college soon enough where the professors won’t yield to the rabid helicopter mom or the rogue psychotic father. Sadly you will still be left in the excessively caddy and annoying halls of high school, having to duke it out with a bunch of ignorant snot nosed idiots with identity crisises. I guess what I’m trying to convey, in essence, is the message stated in first paragraph; I have no possible way of accurately gauging your job other than from my seat in your class every 9:30-10:30 most Mondays through Fridays. I wish you the best of luck either as a continuing English teacher or as the new Academy Councilor/Coordinator (I fail to recall the correct title). I hope my final blog post has helped give you feed back on how you can improve future classes, and how I view you.

Jack H.

#26 Help- Haley Longworth

1. Timed writings and practice tests. As much as I hated doing them, the wide variety of questions and prompts that we answered during class helped me a lot with my writing. Also, going over the example essays to see how I was scoring on average, and pointing out ways to improve my writing, helped immensely in the quality of my essays.
2. Essay grading. I think when we discussed the essays in class and in person, it was much more effective than grading them online. When we had to type our comments, all I wanted to do was get the assignment done, rather than putting a lot of time and effort into them. Also, we never actually went over the essays that we put on turnitin, so it was not helpful to do it this way. Going over them in class is much more constructive.
3. Socratic Seminars. I feel like these were helpful with discussing texts and improving analytical skills, but I think the assignment of 150 words per question was a little too much. Although it is important to be prepared for the class discussion, I would make the responses to the questions a little shorter.

Zach Wolfe 22

Of all the fictional characters I've seen and read about throughout my life, I would choose to be Superman. For obvious reasons, it would be great to be Superman. Nothing can hurt or kill him. The only thing that makes him weak is a rock that's fairly rare. However, even though I would want to be Superman, I probably wouldn't fight crime. This is because I could just love an easy life without having to worry about being killed in a freak accident or something like that; and no one would try to weaken me with kryptonite because I wouldn't have any enemies. One thing I have always wondered about Superman is whether or not he can die by drowning. If so then I would just make sure to stay away from the coast that way I couldn't be killed in a hurricane. I wouldn't have to worry about tornadoes because even if they picked me up or covered me in rubble, it wouldn't hurt me to hit the ground and I could push all the rubble off me. And then earthquakes wouldn't be a problem either because I would be able to fly and stay away from the ground. 

Help! I need somebody. - Jasa Harris

Now that schools almost over I like to think about what we have done or I wish we would have done in each class, and I wish we did more in English. I didn’t really understand Socratic seminars and I didn’t know if they were supposed to be some type of test prep for the AP exam. Also, I felt congress was ineffective, especially towards the end of the year when we just annotated online. I feel like a lot of people didn’t even go and read their feedback, which was the point of doing it so you could get better. And during class congress a lot of people would comment about small, petty things just to get points, so they weren’t helpful. But I was the most upset over the fact that we never really got into the multiple choice after taking a practice AP exam. I struggle with multiple choice and just giving the correct answer and acknowledging that a question had an “obvious red herring”, but not addressing the question was completely ineffective. We never really just sat down and went over the multiple choice, and maybe some strategies that could have been used. I thought the ACT prep was more effective and I got more out of it because we actually went over the questions and you explained why something was right and why something else was wrong. 

daniel horne 26

I will talk about 3 main things in this blog. first the Socratic seminars which I think are a good and fun thing to do but I do not like that you have to answer your own questions. it made it so that if I did have a question about the text I would not write it down because I could not answer it which took away from how much it helped me. second the congress sessions which were not all that useful because most of the time new what I was doing wrong but needed to know how to do things right. I feel like we only pointed out the good things and the bad things in the congress never how to make it better. And finally all the practice test for the AP and the ACT which were beyond helpful without a doubt the single most helpful thing out of that class all year.

daniel horne 25

So we are apparently just writing about anything we want so I will write about something like um let’s see what I want to talk about. Why can’t you run without those shoes in Pokémon? Why is it a train of thought and not like a car or something? Why do they close down escalators when they break down? Why is EA such a bad company? Never mind we all know the answer to that. What was the point of making the hobbit into three movies? Why is 42 the meaning of life? How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood? If a tree falls in the forest and no one can hear it does it make a sound? Why are we here what is our purpose? Do aliens exist? These are all questions that need to be answered unfortunately I have already gone over 150 words so.   

daniel horne future

This summer I am doing tons of stuff. First off my mentoring project which will hopefully be pretty fun but it may be kinda not fun at the same time because it will maybe be a lot of work I think, I don’t exactly know what my project will be but still it should be fun. And I will also possibly maybe be taking a class at UK over computer science which should be cool. And then I will be going to the beach with like all of my cousins and my grandparents which will be chaotic and crazy. For my senior year I just want to have a mostly easy year. To reach that goal I will try to do all of my homework. This year some failures I had were not doing homework and just being bad at math but physics was fun so that was cool. And that is basically it.

25 - Jasa Harris

I didn’t really know what to write about so I’ll just tell about my very first concert. It was November 29^th, 2008 at 4:00 pm in Rupp Arena. It was The Cheetah Girls One World Concert. And it was amazing. I got the ticket for my birthday and I went with my older sister, and my other sister and her friend. Our seats weren’t that great, but since The Cheetah Girls weren’t that popular, their concert wasn’t even close to being sold out, so we got to move up really close to the front. I’m pretty sure my sister was the oldest person there, she was 16, and she was the loudest. But during one part they came out to talk and then me and my sisters were like “we love you!” and then they looked directly at and were like “we love you too”. And that is honestly the highlight of my life. We knew all the lyrics to every song and we sang with them. Then when they were running through the crowd they touched our hands. It was great I just wish Raven was there. 

Assignment 26 Hannah Pauley

The test prep has been done pretty well. The ACT prep was very helpful, so I would keep doing the same thing for that next year. Even though some people didn't take the multiple choice AP prep seriously, I think that was also done well, because people will either choose to try on the MC and the exam, or they'll choose not to try on either, or they won't try on the MC all year and end up weeping over the AP exam for not prepping themselves in class. Taking a grade for it or doing the practice more often wouldn't really do much in the way of making test preparation more effective, so that would also be a good system to continue. In socratic seminars, I understand the importance of mostly student-led conversation, but I do think the discussion could be more full and effective (and maybe a little deeper or more helpful) if you helped the direction of the conversation more often, maybe asking more questions from specific people, and asking questions directed at more of the students who don't usually participate or are quieter. I think engagement could improve in socratic seminars, and I think more teacher involvement might help that. During essay scoring, I think comments like "it flows nice" or "they have good diction" should just be prohibited, because I think they hold back the discussion of problems or overall effectiveness in an essay, and they don't really help the writer (except to boost their self esteem).

Overall, I think the course did a pretty good job of preparing students for the test, and some of the topics were pretty interesting, but I think discussion could improve, and maybe some free class time could be spent reading articles or practicing identifying rhetorical strategies. 

I don't know what I was supposed to write about but oh well- Jack Humphries Blog 25

Nearly Over Jack Humphries Blog 24

Nearly over

One cannot live a year and fail to change. The passage of time induces change and forces us to melt and grow in to shapes we once were not. Over the past year, I have failed and succeeded too often to count in ways to trivial to list. I took risks and made mistakes that were not so much risks or mistakes as they were lessons in living. With these lessons I will endeavor for a better future in which I succeed in my failures and avoid mistaking my risks for something other than living. For living, in itself, is the greatest risk of all and in the gamble of life we all must pay out eventually; the house always wins, death always comes. Some might call the sobering fact of death a depressing one but I think of it as enlightening. My future is my own, time to be spent as I please, never to be wasted always to be savored since once its gone, no amount chasing the green light at the end of the dock will ever bring it back. I hope to live up to this ideal mentality over the summer. Ill most likely wake up to swim at 6 in the morning, work on my mentoring project, hang out with my friends, and begrudgingly spend time with my family in true adolescent fashion. I plan for my summer to be boring beyond compare filled with banal boring dog days in the hopes that my actual summer will surpass my expectations. Always plan for the worst but hope for the best. As for my senior year, I have no doubt that it will be legen, wait for it, dairy as Neil Patrick Harris would say. Not in any particular sense though, since my junior year is supposed to be the hell before the calm I can only see a senior year filled with merriment and challenge.

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 66 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 25th at 11:59 pm

(Last day to turn in make up assignments 24-26)

Assignment 25 Karl Werner

The Wheel of Time is a very intriguing book series. Almost a spiritual successor to Tolkein's epic fantasy, the series blends the traditional light vs dark battle with Buddhism, physics, and other interesting disciplines. The end result is a dense but gripping series. The main character Rand is the reincarnation of humanity's savior, who is also destined to destroy the world. Salvation lies in destruction. Fate plays a large role in the series, as actions and outcomes are heavily controlled by the Wheel of Time. The Dark One, sealed at the beginning of time, is breaking out of his prison and seeks to reshape the Wheel and the world in his image. Rand and his companions must battle the mysterious Dark powers that be in a world that has paths to alternative universes and ancient myths akin to star wars. It is a vast, deep, and mysterious world with powerful characters. It isn't the easiest read, but it is worth it.

Assignment 26: Help- Karl Werner

                The year is winding down. We have taken test after test after test after test. And before each of these, there was a copious amount of studying.  A sizable quantity of the studying and preparation occurred in this very class. A wonderful tool that helped me improve in English was class essay grading. When we went over essays in a class, I was able to view and identify errors in writing style and technique. I saw these errors in my own writing and others, and was able to apply these lessons into future works. These class grading sessions were very effective. However, late in the semester we began commenting and grading these essays online. I felt this was far less effective, as we were only able to access a limited critique of only our work, and most people did not take the time to even do this. I felt this medium of grading was vastly less constructive to me as a student of English. In conclusion, I felt the group grading sessions were highly productive, and those taking place online not so much.  

26 Help-Zac Byrd

Most people focus on different methods of studying but actually just studying in general for the ACT is effective.  With a packed schedule like most juniors have it’s good if you can take a couple practice ACTs or do a daily ACT question.  For me when teachers focused on doing practice tests in class that helped me tremendously.  No I don’t have a 36 on any section but I did see enough improvement in the English and math section as opposed to the reading and science where I didn’t practice those in or out of my classes.  When I found the time to do the math ACT homework I saw improvement because it shows you typical mistakes you make and it also shows you new problems you can focus on. The biggest strategy I’ve had for science and reading is to not read the passages or the stuff they show you about experiments.  With so little time you shouldn’t read and just need to answer the questions.  Read up on test taking strategies and find some sort of time to study.  Any way of studying works, even it is just 5 minutes a day on an ACT site, just find a way to make it happen.

Assignment 25-Zac Byrd

Spring is once again here and we are just about ready to start the new season.  We have a #2 recruiting class coming in and surprisingly we have 4 out of 6 people returning from last season’s team.  What we didn’t think would happen ended up happening for the second time in the Coach Cal Era; some of the best players actually stayed for their sophomore year.  While that’s great, next year marks the first year under Coach Cal that a McDonalds All-American will be staying for his junior year (Poythress).  

“It’s a national championship or bust”, “this year a 71% chance for 40-0”, and “Kentucky already leads the league in rebounding” are some of the many phrases and stats being thrown out there.  Yes Kentucky Basketball has once again has captured the attention of many Big Blue fans right after the season ended but it has also captured the big eyes of the college basketball analysts.  Analysts like last year are already predicting the Cats to win their 2 championship in 4 years.  The 40-0 hype last year was clearly an overreaction to a group of freshman with no experience trying to come in and beat veterans in the biggest stage, the championship.  But now with a roster that now boasts 9 McDonalds all Americans, 3 7-footers, and a national championship tested coach how can you pick against Kentucky? So once again in the upcoming year watch for UK to be the New York Yankees of the college basketball world.