At this moment 21-Zac Byrd

At this very moment, somewhere in the universe somebody is avidly researching all the teams and studying percentages for winning the NCAA tournament.  March is just around the corner and with a 1 billion dollar offer to a perfect bracket some people are going crazy.  Following every team, learning how they win on the road, margin of victory at home, where neutral site games are played, and who the nobody teams are that could emerge as dark horses in March Madness can lead to a perfect bracket.  Of course there are so many possibilities that that person needs some luck.  Less than one percent of brackets predicted Florida Gulf Coast University to make it as far as they did, and if you look at stats from before the odds they’d make it so far were slim.  One billion dollars is a lot, lump sum or divided up over time it doesn’t matter, it’s worth analyzing every bit of all NCAA teams for a couple months.  Especially if that person turns out to be correct.

#18 Bucket List Haley Longworth

1. The number one thing I want to accomplish before I graduate high school would have to be building friendships that will last a lifetime. I want to continue to be friends with people I have spent the past few years of my life with and continue to learn and grow with them. Having friends and a community around you that you can share your life with is a wonderful and necessary thing. What can anyone be without the people around them?
2. Before I graduate college I want to find a passion that I can incorporate into my future job. I want to do something I love and will never get tired of; something that will keep me happy my entire life and that can somehow help the world or impact people around me.
3. Before I kick the bucket there are a couple things I want to do. First would be meeting a man I truly love and forever will, and being able to share my life with him. Second would be growing closer to God and having an unbreakable relationship with him. Third would be travelling. I don't know where and I don't know when, but I know I want to. There are so many beautiful places in the world that are waiting to be seen.

#19 Plastics Haley Longworth

A piece of advice given to me that has stuck is that you can't live a positive life with a negative mind. One of my biggest problems is looking at the negatives in situations and complaining all the time. I notice that when I do this it is more difficult to be happy. Recently I have been able to be more positive, and the effects have been tremendous. I feel happier, smile more, and can talk to people easier. You feel so so so much better and light and happy and wonderful. Honestly I don't dread doing my homework so much, I do everything with joy and work harder on assignments, and am much more determined. It is easy to fall out of positivity and revert back to being negative, but it is not worth it to take the easy way out. Trust me! If I'm every feeling stressed or angry, I just have to remember that there is always something to be happy about in life.

Assignment 20 How To Karl Werner

How To Get Out of Showing Someone Your Homework

1. Write down the homework when the teacher assigns it.
2. Put the needed materials in your backpack and bring them home with you.
3. Do your homework at home because you are not a moron.
4. Store homework securely in backpack.
5. Go live life.
6. Go to sleep.
7. Wake up.
8. Prepare for school.
9. Go to school.
10. Greet comrades.
11. When lazy comrade asks to see your homework, look them directly in the eye.
12. Give the slacker a wistful, regretful look.
13. Slowly and sadly shake your head no.
14. Tell them you don't have and that you have not done it either.
15. Look down in despair.
16. Say sorry.
17. Say you plan on doing it later.
18. Pretend to fall asleep or start talking to someone else.
19. Enjoy your free morning as everyone else scrambles to finish their work before the class it is for.
20. Don't die young due to excessive stress.
21. Rinse.
22. Repeat.

And that is how you get out of showing someone your homework. Which is not useful at all for Henry Clay, because this never happens here. Especially not in the Academy. Go Devils.

How too 20-Zac Byrd

How to dive. It’s a really simple action, you just put your arms over your head and go into the water.  But as a lifeguard I see so many kids struggling with it.  First you must fully commit to it.  The biggest mistake you could do is start attempting a dive in the water and it turns into a belly-flop because you were unsure if you wanted to do it.  This only makes you never want to try it again.  Secondly once you are on the edge of the board you have a couple options.  The simplest was to dive is to put your hand over your head in a nice tight streamline, one hand on top of the other.  You then slowly bend over and let your hands fall in the water first.  Use your core to straighten the rest of your body out but keep it tight so that you don’t over-rotate and land on your back.  The other way you could dive is to take a big jump and go into a streamline position midway through the air. It’s more complicated but looks a bit more impressive rather than the first way I mentioned.  Either way the biggest part of the dive is knowing that if you commit to it you will not hurt yourself.  The only bad things that ever happen is if the water is a bit chilly.

Jack Humphries Blog 18 Bucket list

#1 goal for High school

           

            Refrain from catching senoritis AND maybe go to a concert?

#1 goal for college

            Be more free AND stay awake for a whole weekend

#1 goal for life

Figure out what the hell is going on AND go sky diving (maybe not because I’m terrified of heights)

Although I didn’t write a full-blown bucket list for this assignment, I’m happy about the goals I came up with. To explain my 1^st goal for high school/college/life is a goal I feel I should strive toward. I know my 1^st goals will be tricky to keep/ achieve and so I have a back up goal. As my father always says “ The key to happiness is low expectations and being over prepared”. Thus I have the 2^nd/ back up goals that I can achieve fairly easily. They hopefully will keep my morale up as I strive for my 1^st goals.

High school

            We are in the second half of our junior year of high school, and one year from now we lose all motivation. All of our college applications will be sent out, and we will be waiting for summer vacation to arrive. I hope that I can hold off senioritis for the remainder of my high school but I doubt I will. I have this goal simply to reminder myself not to waste my time by being lazy. If I’m going to be in school, I should be learning or doing something at least half way productive. If indeed I do contract senioritis though, I always have my 2^nd goal to fall back on. I can skip school and go to a concert or do something of the sort. In the end I hope I can jus make it through the rest of my high school experience with as little annoyance and as much enjoyance and possible.

College

            College will be interesting. I will no longer have to answer to “the man”/ my parents for every single thing I do. I wont have to go swim for 2+ hours a day, and I will (hopefully) have a few quick and painless hours of school a day. I will go from being a slave to my schedule to a free worriless college student. I wont be able to do anything I want, whenever I want, but still I think my college goal will be the easiest to achieve. Sadly, my fall back goal may be harder than my 1^st goal since I am pretty lazy, and I LOVE sleep. I fear I may have to use an unhealthy amount of energy drinks to achieve this goal, and that after, I will slip into a deep coma. Anyway I think I can expect college to be fun hopefully more free.

Life

            I hate the phrase “Life is too short”, life is the longest thing you will ever experience besides swim meets and boring theater productions. Those things literally take forever. Anyway I say this because, I usually don’t know how to start paragraphs/ papers/ things I general and I thought it would be a pretty good intro. I never have really understood what’s going on too well. Sure I know when assignments are due (Most of the time), or what I should say to people, or even my own ideas on things like life and death, but I don’t really know what’s going on. In essence this is my impossible goal. For no one can really know the whole story; there is always some point of view you haven’t explored, or some rock you left un-turned, which is a good thing. I have this goal as a way to keep me going. It’s a target that I can never reach but it something I will always aim for. Just think how demoralizing it would be to achieve your life’s goal. To complete something I have worked toward for all of my life would leave me empty. It would be like an author dieing before her book is completed. The driving force behind the piece would be lost and so the book would go unfinished. In the case where I am the book and my goal is my author, I would rather be completed and un-achieving than unwritten without a goal. As for my life time goal of sky diving, I’ll have a better chance of know what is going on than jumping out of any plane that isn’t on a tarmac. 

Assignment 19: plastics

Most of the advice we receive in our lives is unsolicited and quite frankly inane.  However, every once in a while we get a real gem and changes our trajectory.  What is the one piece of advice given to you that has stuck?  Explain its effect.

(Prompt inspired by Mary Austin)

Minimum of 150 words - due Sunday, February 9th at 11:59 pm

Plastics- Jasa Harris

My family isn’t the one to give great lessons or advice like that; I get most of my advice from Rev Run. However, I did get some good advice one Saturday. My family had gotten together to go watch my aunt perform at some competition, so we got all dressed up, did our hair and make up nicely and just tried to look presentable. And back then I hated getting fancied up and overdressed and stuff. Then afterwards when we all had changed and we were heading over to my great grandma’s house for dinner I ran into my cousin Dexter. He kind of just looked at me and was like what’s on your face? I guess I looked uncomfortable or maybe just weird because I never wear makeup and I’m the one in my family who is kind of laid back and “hmm”. I was just like my sisters and grandma put it on me, and that’s when he told me in his thick, country accent “You ain’t gotta be like everybody else.” Even though it was so simple and kind of cliché that’s stuck with me just because it told me not to try to be someone I’m not. Not to try and be one of “the Harris girls”, but to be Jasa. I always secretly kind of knew that the majority of my family likes me more than my sisters, but him telling me this was a nice reminder that some people prefer me as just me. Now my answer to anyone questioning why I do something is because I want to. 

#19- Plastics (Chelsea Southworth)

It came on the very last day of camp that any of us would ever experience.

We are all sitting in our little nook sharing sniffles and cuddles, trying to come to terms with the fact that we could never return to what we all considered the most perfect place in existence. We'd all known it was coming, but that did nothing to stop the tears that slowly rolled down our cheeks, the last melancholy drops of fountains that had been flowing for hours.

Then Sam, our Residential Counselor, our beloved Mama Hedgehog, posed a simple question: What did you love most about TIP?

The stories came haltingly at first, then soon poured out of us in rivers- but there was something in common with every touching tale told, every recounting of the warm smiles and warm words that were as constant as the North Carolina heat on our shoulders.

That was when Sam said something that, in all honesty, changed my life. "The one thing that every single one of you has talked about is acceptance," she told us, her face as somber as ours but filled with a wisdom we had not yet reached. "Acceptance, and how you wish it didn't have to be over...but it doesn't. If you carry this feeling of TIP- this unquestioning, automatic love you have for one another, this way of assuming that everyone is amazing and this celebration of all your quirks and flaws- if you take this with you and act like this no matter where you go, you can make life just wonderful as these past three weeks were."

Sappy, right? "I'm always with you...right here, in your heart." Except, well, Sam was right. At TIP, if you see a guy performing magic tricks in the quad, your first thought is magic? Show me some of that! You're so talented, wow! rather than magic? Laaaaame. At TIP, the quiet ones aren't ignored or shunned as freaks; anyone sitting alone is promptly joined by at least one other person, who is content with carrying the conversation until they find the topic that gets their new friend talking (and there always is one). At TIP, dashing through the halls and asking a second-year guy that you've never spoken to if you can borrow his clothes for Wear a Dress Wednesday (really Cross Dress Day) is completely acceptable, as are water-gun wars with the fourth-year guys and impromptu Disney sing-a-long sessions.

This is getting long because I'm getting emotional, but I think there's something beautiful about the acceptance and love of TIP, and it's something that I've tried to live into in my own life ever since I came back. To quote the speech of another fourth-year girl, "TIP is my Narnia, TIP is my Neverland. TIP is where I can wear a cape around all day and the only comment I get is, 'Nice cape.'"

TIP is llove, as the Easties with their Llama are fond of saying, and that llove is what I try to express. TIP is my home, and though I can't go back to my family, I can use what they taught me to make my life as TIPtastic (TIPsters are fond of these words. See: TIPression, RelationTIP (sometimes called tipTIPtipTIP) and TIPpropriate) as possible.

#18- Buckets and Buckets (Chelsea Southworth)

High School: Finish a novel. I've got one pretty good NaNo already written, a NaNo that could be great given some reworking and rewriting, and a project that I'm in the planning stages of right now; before I graduate, I would like to get at least one of these (or maybe something I have yet to write, but it has to be a novel) as thoroughly revised as I can make it. I don't necessarily need to be published, and in fact I doubt that that will happen in a year in a half, but I want to take one of my first drafts through the revision process and end up with something that, with some work and dedication, could plausibly end up in print.

College: This depends on if I end up going to grad school or not, but assuming I do, I want nothing more than to study bonobos. My passion for these animals is immense; I am fascinated by their sociality, their extremely unique group behaviors as well as their extremely unique individual personalities- it would take me longer to think of something I do not find amazing about bonobos than to list every single one of the things I do. They're wonderful primates, and whether I intern at the Cincinnati zoo, volunteer at the Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary, or study a wild population, I will consider any experience in college with bonobos a success.

Life: Hm. This is a hard one. I'd say the one thing I want to do is make an impact and leave a legacy. It might sound lame to those who are scientifically-inclined, but having my name on studies that I have conducted and then seeing my name used in other peoples' work is incredibly exciting to me; I would attain, at least in the niche field of primatology (but quality is more important than size), immortality to the extent that humans can grasp it. "Southworth, et. al."...if only. But outside of career ambitions, I want to make an impact on people too, whether through myself or through the book(s) that I will (hopefully) published, it does not matter to me. If I can do anything to change the world or even the small microcosm of it that I inhabit I think I'll die happy.

Plastics-Zac Byrd

"Go hard or go home" is the best piece of advice I've gotten.  At first glance it seems like a crappy quote but it carries a much bigger meaning.  When I first heard this I just laughed because it sounds ridiculous. But I realized it is one hundred percent true.  Put your best effort into the things you do or you have no business being there. And it can apply to everything from sports to school.  Its the kind of thing that motivates you through a swim practice. Or through a trumpet practice. Or through a night of homework.  As my swim coach would say, "if you dont want to be here, then leave".  It has made me realize that if I dont put my best effort into all my activities it's a waste of time.  And it has payed off in the swim meet, trumpet auditions, and school tests I've gone through.

Assignment 19- Plastics Karl Werner

I love money. Money is my friend. Money is my best friend. I think I might in fact be in love with money. Our relationship has not always been as strong as it is today. I used to be very reckless with money. I did not give it the proper care or attention. It would often just slip away from me. Then, one day, I bought a $70 pair of jeans. My cheapskate mother was not happy. She gave me quite the talking to. I was told "Never buy anything full-price." And despite her negative tone, I took these words to heart. I began my new life as a sale hunter. Forever, my world was changed.
These days, I am a frugal person. I use coupons on everything, and never buy anything without a sale or a deal. My wallet is significantly fatter, and my bank account significantly less depressing. The things I own cost me less and satisfy me more. I love money, and since that motherly advice changed my life, I think I have a chance at getting money to love me <3.

Assignment 18: Buckets and Buckets

Welcome to your first blog prompt for 2013! Yay!

A bucket list is a list of everything you want to accomplish before you kick the bucket. That doesn't mean you can't have such a list for specific aspects of your life as well.

To begin the year, generate your own bucket lists - one for high school, one for college, and one for life. Then, write about the priority on each list.

1. What is the number one item on your bucket list before you finish high school?
2. What is the number one item on your bucket list before you finish college?
3. What is the number one item on your bucket list before you finish living?

(This blog is inspired by Axel Liimatta - former academy teacher - my friend and former colleague that inspires me to live every day more fully)

Minimum of 150 words - due Sunday, January 26 at 11:59 pm

Buckets and Buckets Jania Stevenson

1. My number one goal before I graduate is to figure out what want to do career wise when I get older. These past three years have been preparing me for college, but they're all kind of pointless right now because I don't even know where I want to go for college or what I want to be. The day I'll finally able to pick a college based on what I want as a career and getting rid of all this stress will be one of the best days ever.
2. One thing I want to do before I graduate college is go study abroad. I have no idea where I would go but the idea of traveling to another country just sounds so amazing. I love learning about other cultures and meeting new people so being able to go somewhere and experience all those things for myself would be pretty cool
3. Before I die I want to become a millionaire. I honestly don't know how I'm going to do it and I honestly don't really care. I could become famous or something, or I could actually work at it and do or make something useful to people. It doesn't matter to me. I just want to die rich

Bucket List - Jasa Harris

High School: I don’t really have that many things I want to do before leaving high school, but one that I’ve wanted to do for forever is learn how to dance. Really dance. Like how they dance on Dance Moms or hip hop dance. No one in my family really knows how to dance and I just want to be a good dancer and be the best at something in my family. It’s kind of dumb, but there isn’t a whole lot I want to accomplish in a year I guess.

College: In college I want to study abroad in Latin America and become fluent in Spanish. I really love the Spanish language and I just really want to be good at it. And I’m obsessed with Honduras, so I really want to visit there and maybe even live there for like a year after their crime rate goes down.

Life: Right now I don't really know everything I want to accomplish in life but I know I want to go zip lining, pet a tiger, make a cameo in a show or movie, learn how to swim, own a snake and have kids. I just want to do small things before I die. But the one thing I really want to do is trace my ancestry. I want to know where I come from and who I’m related to. To be able to see several different people connected that ultimately lead to me would just be amazing. 

Bucket list 18-Zac Byrd

1)Next year for high school my top priority will be to make the national honor jazz band for trumpet.  As a high school student this would be a big reward and a really neat experience for myself as a young artist. 
2)During college I want to go to the Olympics in Rio or during what I hope will be my graduate school years during 2020.  I don't really want to be there to swim I just want to see them.  From all the years I’ve put into swimming it’d be an amazing experience to see some of the best swimmers compete.  And even then I could also go out and watch the other sports. 
3) During my life I want to climb a mountain. I have no experience at all with climbing anything but conquering Everest would be amazing.  Literally the top of Everest would be breathtaking and traveling around the world to get to a place like Everest would be an amazing opportunity for me to see the different cultures and natural beauties of the world.  As far-fetched as that is I’d love to do it.

#18 Bucket List: Erin Holbrook

To be honest, I've never really considered my bucket list very seriously. Hopefully, kicking the bucket is still a long way in the future. The main thing on my bucket list is to not kick the bucket. That said, there are certain things I know I want to do before reaching the upcoming milestones in my life.

High School: Before I graduate high school, there isn't much more I want to do. I'm eager to grow up and get out of the house. Graduation couldn't come sooner. The main thing I'd like to do is not loose my head. Getting into college is stressful, and I am not the best at dealing with stress. If I can get through school without going bonkers, I consider that a huge success. I don't think I'm going to aim any higher than that.

College: During my college years, I am really looking forward to living abroad. I want to visit Spain, Ireland, England, and several other places before I die. During college, I want to spend at least a year living in one of those countries. Even if I end up having to take a year off to travel through Europe, it will be done. I look forward to it like an adventure.

Death: Before I die, I hope to have accomplished quite a lot of things. I mainly hope to be quite successful in my career. Though since I haven't picked a field of study, I can't make any specific goals there at the moment. Instead I'll say that I want to have written a book. By "write a book" I don't mean throw slop on paper and then publish it obscurely so that all of 2 people read it. I want to write something worth reading, that I can be proud to put my name on. Writing a good book will probably be one of the hardest things I do, especially since my career is likely to be focused elsewhere. With hard work, and plenty of trial and error, I think it can be done.

Assignment #18 Bucket List- Karl Werner

1) My biggest priority for the rest of high school is to decide on a career that I would enjoy doing. I am a person who needs clear direction to feel comfortable in my life. As of now, I have little to no idea where my future is headed. Because of this, in the next year or so, I would like to solve that query. When I have a goal and take steps towards it, I feel proud and euphoric. I would like to choose my career goal so I can obtain this mental state.
2) My biggest thing in college is that I would like to spend one semester abroad. I have relatives in other countries that offer me this option. I plan on taking them up on this offer. I love foreign  foods, peoples, places, and cultures. As a young boy, my family traveled frequently. It has dwindled off in recent years, and in college I hope to rekindle that.
3) Number one on my rest-of-life bucket list is to live to see space colonization. I want to see humanity take the next step. I want to be there when we begin our ascent into the stars. I wish to witness (at least) the beginning of our rise unto new horizons. My goal is to not die till this happens.

Speech- Cassie Adams

Every year around this time, students become frantic. Anxiety levels rise as finals approach and the panic sets in as we all crunch the numbers in hopes of securing the best grade possible. But along with the anxiety comes the complaining. Students are constantly lamenting the fact that finals are now worth 20% of our total grade. Arguments that our fates should not be decided by our performance on one day of the school year are heard throughout the halls. Cries of, “We were never taught any of this!” ring out as we walk into our classrooms. But what students are failing to recognize is that we have it better than most. As students in the Liberal Arts Academy, we are not only gifted with the ability to solve complex math problems or to understand archaic reading passages, we are also gifted with a team of above-average educators to support us. We have teachers who are extremely qualified in their fields and who care enough about the futures of their students to invest a great deal of time and energy into their work. Others aren’t as lucky.

Throughout the United States, there are a number of students who are trapped in a school system that is sub-par. Parents are left with no option other than to send their children to a school that inhibits rather than promotes learning. Even in neighborhoods with one outstanding public school, there aren’t enough spaces for everyone. And so, the children’s fates are placed in the hands of luck, a lottery deciding who will be given the education that they deserve.  One such case is documented in the film, “Waiting for Superman.” This film follows five children on their journey through the failing school systems and criticizes the current state of education in our nation.

After tracking the effect of individual teachers on groups of kids, Eric Hanushek confirmed the suspicions of many parents. Ultimately, the problem comes down to the quality of the teachers. Studies have found that students with high performing teachers progress three times as fast as those with low performing teachers.  The logical solution to this problem would be to fire these inadequate teachers, but there is one provision that stands in the way: tenure. Tenure was originally meant to protect professors at universities from being fired for arbitrary reasons after proving themselves through many years of teaching, but it is now granted to some public school teachers almost automatically. The procedures to remove an ineffective teacher are lengthy and there are strict rules that must be followed. It is also difficult to reward teachers who are performing extremely well. In effect, all teachers are viewed as being on a level playing field, which is simply not the case.

Another factor that plays a large role in the success of our students is a system called tracking. This system involves separating students into various groups based on their academic ability. Those placed on the higher track are put in more challenging classes and those on the lower track are placed in classes where they face lower expectations. Historically, tracking was an effective way to prepare students for jobs in the work force.  But, this system fails to meet the needs of today’s society. The need for qualified workers in the high tech industry continues to rise and companies find themselves searching for candidates outside of the United States. Bill Gates argued that, “We cannot sustain an economy based on innovation unless we have citizens well educated in math, science and engineering. If we fail at this, we will not be able to compete in the global economy.”

Traditionally, there has been a large gap in the test scores of students from various socioeconomic backgrounds. Those in poorer neighborhoods can be as much as two to three years behind and often bring other issues to the classroom that most middle class students do not have to face such as crime, troubled homes, etc. The achievement gap between these students and students from more wealthy backgrounds has remained, despite all our efforts to reduce it. However, some progress is being made. The Knowledge Is Power Program has worked to create charter schools in these poorer neighborhoods in hopes of providing the children with a quality education. They increased classroom hours and focused on achievement, with the primary focus on going to college. Today, there are over 80 KIPP schools across the nation. Studies have proven that students enrolled in these schools have increased test scores in both reading and math. The top charter schools send over 90% of their students to a four year college. Students do better the longer they stay in charter schools. The achievement gap that has plagued students for so long has begun to close. Clearly, we have found something that works.

As cliché as it sounds, the youth really are the future of the America. And the only way to secure our future is to ensure that each child is equipped with the proper tools that they need to succeed in today’s society. As a nation, we need to rethink our current policies on education and recognize that while there are many examples of thriving schools that offer an exemplary education, there are many that are falling behind. So, the next time you complain about your abundance of homework or criticize a strict teacher, I ask you to reconsider, because there are many children that would love to receive the education that we so often take for granted.

#15 Rhoman James

Forever. The word forever is a weird word. Because technically nothing is forever because nothing lasts forever. But time will go on forever. But one thing that really freaks me out is how the universe is endless. It actually doesn't have an end. How could something literally go on forever. That leads me to the point that there must be aliens some where in the universe. If there is endless amounts of space, there must be some other forms of life. I think there are probably ones that are more advanced than us! That just blows my mind.