Calming Facebook Games

I spent five hours in class, three hours in callbacks, and the rest of the day on homework.  Yet somehow I found time to play Farmville on Facebook.  It's my little zen garden.  I get peace from it because I can make everything perfect, I'm 'god' of this world.  It's funny how playing 'god' can provide temporary peace.  But true peace comes from God.

I have happy nervous bubbles for the cast list tomorrow.  The sooner I go to sleep, the sooner it will come.

The Year of Blogs

Both Mr. D, lit teacher, and Mr. Muskat, European history teacher, have reported peer pressure to start a blog for their students.  I knew lit classes had blogs last year, but I didn't know they were useful enough to catch on.
Wow, just had a moment when I realized those teachers I just mentioned could be reading this.  Because it's public.  And my teachers have access to the internet.  Haha, you two!  I finished my homework, okay?
Also when I went to the NHS meeting after school today there was a URL to a Google sites page on the whiteboard, for yet another class.  It's cool but odd.  I like the idea of putting educational material in a format that students spend a lot of time using, but requiring computer access for homework has always made me uneasy.

When I visited Kenya this summer I met a lot of students who learn and spend much more time studying than we do in the U.S., and they have not nearly as many resources.  So, when I start complaining in my head about budget cuts, which are still unfortunate,  I just need to suck it up.  I mean,  I have a textbook that has been written in the past five years, teachers with master's degrees, and computer access.
I also had fun today with College Board's College Search.   I put in search parameters for a school with around 5000 students, higher selectivity, that has a communications major.  I then eliminated those in NYC, because that place gives me culture shock, and found that at least one college I'm going to visit anyway, Stanford, is already on the list.  University of Richmond was also on there, but I didn't like it much.  I think it's because they didn't have a slideshow.   The school's I have liked so far, William and Mary and Whitworth University,  have both had slideshows.   I must be a visual learner. 

The internet allows educators to communicate with their students, and prospective students to examine their educators.  This transparancy facilitates an open learning community.  And that's a good thing.

P.S.  I added Mr. Muskat's full name, because his blog is public.  If he makes it private,  I'll remove his name.   But for now, there's no point in protecting his privacy.

Week 1: Complete

Unworrying is a lot a more fun than worrying.  Mr. H provided a clear concise review in AP Chemistry, and so I unworried.  AP Lit was unworrying because I've had Mr. D before.  And Children's Theater with Mrs. H?  Well how could that be worrying?

The two books I read over the summer for AP Literature are Brave New World and Great Expectations.  Brave New World has lead to some fascinating conversations.  We discussed a quote, something like "Utopias, or non-utopias, indirectly examine the world of today."  At least half the class had something meaningful to say, a very good experience.  Mr. D is making a blog, which will have daily read and response assignments.  Of course, that's assuming Mr. D can figure out how.  An invite-only blog friendly to class discussions isn't that simple, and Blogger requires every student to have a Google account.

I met with the Drama board today to discuss meetings, mixers, and events.  However, our two big state-wide theater events conflict with MORP and Prom.  I also checked out a script for the AUDITIONS Tuesday and Wednesday.  I'm very excited about the fall drama.   It provides such a great learning experience.

Day 3 - Fundraisers and Math Homework

Three days of school has seemed both long and short.  I enjoyed my first early release yesterday, which made my day feel shorter.  Adjusting back to doing homework is hard.

I skipped writing about yesterday.  It wasn't that good, because I had to go to the doctor and then work on a large math packet.  That crazy homework was what AP Hazing was refering to.  I worked on it for hours, and we got the weekend to work on it and Mr. Wheelie didn't even ask us to turn it in.  (And yes, Wheelie is a pseudonym - it's cause he does awesome things with his wheelchair... and his name starts with W.)

Second day of choir!  That class is so fun, but also expensive.  There are two retreats during the year adding up to $250.  We can sell both Entertainment books and Scrip to cover the cost.   The Entertainment books are already back-ordered at the warehouse.  I wonder if it's because they're selling or because groups like Concert Choir are more in need of selling them.  I like Scrip best because it's selling giftcards to common stores and then whatever group is selling them gets a commission.  So the person supporting the choir, or sports team, or school doesn't actually pay anything - they get all their money in the value of the giftcard.

Well, as a Junior, I can very much understand where senior-itis comes from.  I don't know how I'm going to propel myself through senior year.  Probably college apps.

AP Hazing: the boatload of hw AP classes give over summer and the first week of school to get people to drop. Very bad when classes are overfilled, like calc.

First Day Back

Providing my schedule up front didn't work.  I have a new one now.

1. Concert Choir
2. AP Chemistry
3. Spanish IV
4. AP English Literature
5. AP Calculus AB
6. Children's Theatre/Acting 3
7. AP European History
8. Early Release

I'm now taking full advantage of my status as an upperclassman with Early Release (or Early Dismissal).  Basically, I get to leave the campus, rather than staying in a dull study hall.   

The Calc class is huge.  There are 46 students in it, including myself.  I sat in a chair, wedged between two desks, and I wasn't the only one without a proper table.

I'm tired right now; adjusting back to a 6 am wake-up is hard.  My big impression from the day is how hurt every part of the school is by budget cuts.  Choir can't afford buses, Spanish and Calculus are overflowing with students, and European history needs new textbooks.  And I guess that isn't so different than the complaints during the good times, but in this case 'can't afford' is $700 instead of $200, 'overflowing' is two dozen, and new textbooks... well, actually, that's just pretty normal. 

Freshman Year

Wow, it feels so weird, about to start my Freshman year of high school. When I was younger, high school people were so big, and now they don't seem quite so big - because I know I'm not that big. I'm kind of nervous about making friends, not getting lost, auditioning for shows...I suppose it's absolutely normal to feel this way, but I don't want it to be underrated. It's pretty scary, the whole idea. I've asked my sister lots about the school I'm going to (and that she goes to), but...I don't know. It just feels so strange, this feeling that's hovering over me that something could go wrong, that it isn't real, that...

Well, I try to counter this feeling with the idea that billions of people have made it through their Freshman years of high school and been perfectly fine. Naturally, it doesn't help one bit. The only comforting thing right now is that I know where my locker is and that I know the choir and theatre teachers. From then on, I have no idea what to do and how to act. For goodness sake's, I don't even have teachers that Lindsay's had. Except for, of course, the theatre and choir directors.

1. Biology
2. Geometry
3. Acting 1
4. Spanish II
5. Global Study 9
6. Lit & Comp 9
7. Study Hall
8. P.E.

Okay, so never would I voluntarily take P.E., but it's just one of those fickle little things you have to take to graduate. Like Lindsay mentioned earlier, it's an A Day/B Day system, with the odd classes being on the first day and even on the next. So, for my one elective, I got Acting 1 (yay!), with Women's Choir being my one elective second semester, and my classes are evenly distributed. I can only say that my schedule turned out a lot better than some people's, who had to have a lot of changing and tweaking and didn't get their first-choice electives, and that I'll see how the other classes are after Tuesday and Wednesday.

Lindsay originally was going to use this blog for herself, but asked if I wanted to join her in cataloging this year's adventures. It'll be a strange but interesting experience to look back on it all.

Junior Year

Junior year of high school starts tomorrow. Well, not for you necessarily, but certainly for me. And I have a feeling that all that talk about 11th grade being the hardest is true. So, I thought, hey, I'll chronicle this overworked year of madness, and see where it takes me. I'm thinking about my commitments for this year, and doing a double take: AP classes, treasurer for the theatre board, an editor on the literary magazine, voice lessons, piano lessons, and an educational acting troupe. What was I thinking? Oh, and then there are those pesky college visits.

So my required summer homework for AP English Literature and AP European History is done, I'm reviewing for AP Chemistry, and I'm hoping that my Freshman sister doesn't get terribly lost the first day of school. I'm thinking that providing my schedule up front will be much more useful than letting everyone puzzle it out. I'll be working on pseudonyms for my teachers as I need them, class names should be good for now. My high school has an A day/B day schedule. I have four class periods a day, odds on one, evens on the other.

1. Concert Choir
2. AP Calculus AB
3. Spanish IV
4. AP English Literature
5. Study Hall
6. Children's Theatre/Acting 3
7. AP European History
8. AP Chemistry

Now, I watched the movie Julie & Julia yesterday, which is probably why I'm writing this post today. Julie Powell took a year and wrote a blog about the recipes from Julia Child's first cookbook, which landed a book deal, and then a movie deal. And all I can think about is what Cousin Knitty was saying (wow - making up those pseudonyms isn't so hard) about how all Julie Powell wanted from the beginning was a book contract, and that she didn't read anyone's blogs. I might not read that many blogs, or be much of a blogger myself, but I'm really writing this so I will have a time capsule of this year. I really don't know how it'll turn out, and I'm very curious. This will let me look back to the beginning of the story because when I get to the end, I'm guessing I'll have forgetten a lot of the journey.