Final Exam Planning Warm-Up

This is all a huge honking "MAYBE."  Seriously.  The party has a huge possibility of being cancelled due to the birthday woman's and her boyfriend's work schedules.  If so, I'll most likely revert to something like my mom cooking a meal.

1.  I'll probably shoot the assignment this weekend; a birthday is happening, and I'll most likely be spending the whole weekend in Waco.

2.  At my aunt Tracy's house; she lives in the country, and there's a lot of space to play sports and there's a tire swing and it's beautiful.

3.  Probably just the weekend--starting from the morning, to traveling there, to blowing out the birthday candles and opening the presents and all the children frolicking in the fields, blah blah blah.  All the way to traveling back home.

4.  Just a camera.

5.  The still images will probably be of opening the presents, some of the videos will be the children running around (which is completely inevitable) and the blowing out of the candles.  More still images will probably be of the road (if we don't end up driving at night) and the scenery on the way there and back.  Will probably be during the still images in the beginning and end, if that's at all possible.

Infographics

Harry Potter Theatre Profit by the Movie
Create column charts

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Final Exam Preview Assignment

1.  iMovie is a program/application-thing that helps people put videos, still pictures, narration, and other things together into one presentation.  Video clips can be placed anywhere in the presentation.  (This is an unfinished summary to be finished in the very near future.)

2.  I didn't know anything before.

3.  Basically everything--the trimming, the adding of the photos and videos and narration and video effects and yeah pretty much everything.

4.  I'm highly technologically impaired.  My understanding of technology is limited to my phone and the Microsoft Word 2016 on my laptop.  No exaggeration, whatsoever.  So what I'm worried about is being able to understand and navigate iMovie itself without getting so frustrated that I can't function for hours after the attempt at making the assignment.

5.  I'm pretty sure I can get the photos and the videos done quickly, if I can figure out what I'm going to do it on.  That's another thing I'm worried about.

6.  :/

Opinion Story

A lot of high school students stress themselves out about their grades, and stay up very late to get all of their work done.  According to the gatherings of people, this is for two reasons:  one, a lot of pressure is put on students in high school; two, high school students get a seriously heavy workload.  We students sacrifice our mental health in order to get work assigned to us done, and it is completely unfair.

Missing one assignment, especially as you get further into high school, is the kiss of death for most students, whether in the teacher's eyes or the student's own.

Teachers tend to get insulted if a student does not finish or turn in a paper on time, and they have no right to.  Sometimes, students have so much work that they - in a literal sense - cannot get all of their work done.

I can understand where teachers come from, giving us all this work.  They believe it helps us learn, and helps us receive a better understanding of the concepts we are learning in class.  But giving us so much work hurts our brains us much as it helps us - with more work, we get less sleep, leading to more headaches and a whacked sleep schedule.  It also makes us constantly worried about getting everything done on time.

We do not like to disappoint our teachers, but our teachers constantly disappoint us.  Their attitude toward our workload seems to send the message:  "School is more important than mental health."  According to some students, maybe it is.

The thing is, though, our teachers should not decide this for us.  We should have the right to decide our own ratio of mental health to schoolwork.

This needs to be fixed.  Students should be able to regulate the amount of work they get everyday.  We are not able to assert any sort of influence in our schools, and the workload is never considered among things we should get a say in.  Yes, some people would say that students would just vote for no work at all, but not all students are like this.  There is a breaking point somewhere in the amount of workload we get, and all we would have to do is find it.

A survey could be created in order to find the approximate amount of work a teenager can do before they simply can't do any more.

Overall, the lessening of the student workload could help improve both their grades and mental health, while simultaneously creating an even better reputation for Bowie High School.

People are always saying that students need to enjoy their "high school experience," but how can we when we're constantly sat down poring over our work?  If the amount of work we get changes, we would finally be able to gather some enjoyment from these four years of our lives.

Opinions Writing Part 2

1).  The most helpful thing there for starting topic ideas is when he said, "Give them the opportunity to say, 'Ah! Yes.  I've never been there or done that, but I can relate to what the author's talking about.'"

2).  "Make the emotions real and specific by noting specifics and details that draw the reader into the experience, rather than just setting them aside as observers.

3).  Three I'll probably use as a write are:  Letting the reader walk away from the article with a good idea of why I felt the way I did about my opinion;  Write as evocatively as possible;  Avoid philosophical rants which make no connection to your reader's experience.


SNO ONLINE EXPERIENCE:

"Should School Start Earlier?"

1). Mahad Rehman

2).  Whether school should start earlier (in the day) or not.

3).  They think that, rather than pushing school to end later to give students more time for work, they should start earlier.  They also think that pushing the start or end time of school doesn't solve any problems - the real problem is the amount of work we get outside of school, thus affecting our sleep.  "Maybe instead of pushing school times back to give students more time to work, schools should work to minimize the amount of work that is necessary for students to do outside of school so that they can come to school with adequate rest and a better mindset geared toward learning."

4).  Yes.

5).  Sort of.  Their opinions are clear, but it changes a little at the end.

6).  No.

7).  Third.

"New Principal's Dress Code Emphasis Draws Mixed Opinions"

1).  Lindsey Fast

2).  The new dress code at Brazoswood assigned by the new principal.

3).  This person obviously is against the new dress code, but it isn't stated directly anywhere.

4).  Yes.

5).  The opinion isn't straightforward, but it's pretty clear...does that make sense?

6).  Yes.

7).  Third.

"Fear Should Not Breed Ignorance"

1).  Kaylin Jones

2).  Terrorists, and how we (teens) are ignorant to them.

3).  She thinks we're stupid to let our fear breed ignorance in ourselves, and our ignorance gets us hurt.  "As a direct result of this ignorance, innocent Muslims in America and around the world after feel the consequences of the extremists."

4).  No.

5).  No.

6).  No.

7).  Third.

Peer Review SoM

Their Student of the Month Story

Four paragraphs.  -0 points?
Three quotes.  -0 points?
The inverted pyramid was somewhat effective--the information got less and less important.  -25 points.
The quotes were done correctly, but not in separate paragraphs.  -5 points.

TOTAL = 30 points.

Opinions Writing Preview Activity

"Apple refuses to violate privacy of users"

1.  Editorial (anonymous, the opinion of the whole staff).
2.  Apple refusing to crack open an iPhone, which would compromise the security of all other iPhones.
3.  "This doesn't change our opinion about creating backdoors for anyone to gather information about iPhone users."
4.  Yes.
5.  No.
6.  No.
7.  First point of view.

"Drug dog investigations have students feeling as though their rights are being violated at school"

1.  Granger Coats
2.  Students feeling like their rights at school are being violated due to drug investigations.
3.  "I believe the DAEP should be a punishment saved only for severe cases such as students considered a threat to the school, the well-being of students, or themselves."
4.  Yes.
5.  No.
6.  No quotes except for the information sources from a website.
7.  First point of view.

"Social media, back at it again"

1.  Alicia Molina
2.  A piece about "Damn, Daniel," and how the people who became famous used their fame for good reasons instead of sucking up the fame and using it for their own benefit.
3.  "I think that it's great that people are using their fame for good and they are not keeping it all to themselves."
4.  No.  It was more story-mode, and it was enjoyable.
5.  No.
6.  They're contextual quotes, used in the middle of paragraphs to add an entertaining quality and also give insight on the people being written about.
7.  First point of view.

"Beyonce causes controversy"

1.  Fuaad Ajaz
2.  Beyonce causes controversy through her stance on police brutality.
3.  "But apparently people think that celebrating an organization that among other things fought for equal rights, provided breakfast for little kids, and protected their communities is wrong."
      --that one was extremely sarcastic and bitter, which indirectly stated his opinion very strongly.  Here is a direct statement:
     "She is trying to say that not all wealthy people are white, that there are wealthy people who aren't white and don't get noticed.  Sadly this is true in today's world.  If someone is white and rich they are known worldwide but if someone is black and rich, not many people know who they are."
4.  Yes, but not thoroughly--it was more with the quote above, where it was sarcastic and biased but still addressing the other side's argument.
5.  He felt very strongly about his opinion, so, no.
6.  There were quotes, but not from his own sources.
7.  A very strongly biased third point of view.  Like, third POV limited.

"Is the AP world history test worth it?"

1.  Mia Barbosa
2.  Whether or not the AP world history test is worth the time and money to take.
3.  "I think that the test is a great way for students to get ahead in the competitive race for college."
4.  She addressed the other side, but more as an issue to solve rather than a defense for an opposing opinion.
5.  No.
6.  No.
7.  First point of view.

Final Questions

A.  A major difference between a news story and an opinions piece is the structure--the structure of an opinions is much more free, while a hard news story, almost 100% of the time, has to be done in a very specific format.
    Another major difference between a hard news story and an opinions piece is the optional point of view.  Opinions pieces are allowed to be from first point of view, while hard news stories are required to be from third--no first point of view pronouns allowed, unless they're in a quote.
    The most significant difference between and hard news story and an opinions piece is the objectivity--an opinions piece is biased, and gives the opinion of the writer, shows what the writer thinks about a topic and why.  A hard news story is objective, and states the facts and only the facts.

B.  There aren't very many photos on this page because the people who write commentary or opinions pieces aren't required to go out and observe an event or interact with people to get interviews from them to use for a story.  There isn't something to take a picture of, because opinions are mostly given on a popular topic, not something that can easily be photographed.

C.  Having FIT all week, because ew; the new state policy making Bowie students have longer school days because elementary and middle schools weren't meeting requirements (even though we were); AP class workloads and expectations.