Wednesday, May 24, 2017

A picture is worth few words by Rebecca Greenberg




As our 10th grade English curriculum comes to an end, our last unit deals with the freedom of creativity. One of our assignments is to take a picture and write a brief evocative description for it, which is also known as a vignette

Many know the phrase, "a picture is worth a thousand words", but the purpose of my blog is to create a new phrase. "A picture is worth few words". 

Below are some powerful pictures, that can be interpreted in many different ways, and can be described variously.

These pictures are worth a thousand words, reaction, and thoughts, yet i'm only going to describe them in eight. 

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My weapon destroys, my soul yearns for harmony 


 The poisoned air I digest, keeps me clean

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My hand placed in yours, a comfort unknown

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the words of violence, are wires tearing flesh.

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My life plays me, bleeding at the heart.

Feel free to comment you own eight word vignettes below describing these pictures!

Lacrosse Re-cap by: Brianna Falco

Lacrosse has been on my mind lately. Actually for about two, maybe two and a half months. I play for the high school and I love it. I love the program Ms. Brennan has built up. I have been going to the Sparta lacrosse camp ever since I was in third grade. My teammates are my best friends and I learn more and more about them everyday. Honestly, my favorite part of the day is lacrosse practice. No matter how much running we do, I have a secret love for exercise and an obvious love for the sport. The interactions and jokes my teammates and I share are memories in the making, memories that will stick with me beyond high school. I am truly thankful for the opportunity to be apart of such a talented and friendly team that have guided me for the past two years in high school. Each one my friends on this team has something special about them, something that is appealing to everyone they meet. My friends brighten up my day, everyday. I see the impact they have on the people as well .My teammates pick each other up and are plain and simply kind people. They can tell when I feel down and they will help repair my wounds like true friends do. I feel that the bond and chemistry we all share will help lead us to a state title. The semi-finals is today against Mahwah. We have beaten them earlier in the season and we hope to pulverize them today. If we play a solid game today and win, we will move on to the state championship Friday. I am anticipating to play Ramapo in the finals since they have the second seed in our group. We are the first seed and plan to stay number one and be crowned champions.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Journey Journal - Josie Embleton

      In English class, we've been assigned to write a Journey Journal, where we try something new or try to improve something about ourselves and write about our experience in doing so. So far, I believe this is a beneficial assignment that helps us grow as people and discover new things about ourselves. For my journal, I'll be writing about trying new exercises with my horse every day and trying to get those exercises perfect. This journal doesn't feel as horrible and pointless as other schoolwork such as an essay. This assignment feels like something that can actually help me improve on something I want to get better at. I like that rather than being a boring typical school assignment that seems to have no other purpose than causing stress, this allows me to see how to use my work outside of the classroom, not to mention this journey doesn't feel like work because I enjoy going over my ride and finding more things to work on with my horse. Overall, the Journey Journal is one of the most enjoyable and interesting assignments I've done this year and I hope to see more like it.

Monday, May 22, 2017

School is the Source of my Stress by Natalie Earl

I wanted to talk about school and my opinions on certain things about schools in general, it almost seems like humans have a cycle of life they are supposed to go through with schooling. Later in your child years you must start going to school and each child has to qualify to move on to the next level of their education. So as humans the common way of living would be to go to school until you’re 17 or 18 years old usually, beyond those ages people decide if they would want to continue schooling in college or choose not to go at all. Our whole lives we must be worthy of each level of education, we have to get certain grades and pass certain classes. I don’t fully understand that because personally I know I will be going to college for a major that has to deal with science and math specifically. So can somebody, anybody tell me why it is important for me to be learning history? I am only a sophomore and I know what I am doing in life after the world of high school so I should be able to choose what classes I want to take in high school. The school wants the best education for me but it should be up to me to pick which course I would like to take to set up the rest of my life. It should be optional to take classes like history or science but I do agree that English and Math are key factors in everybody’s life.
Now that I have talked about the choices of school, I would like to move on and talk about the aspects of high school that make everything so stressful on a teenager. Most of the teenagers play a sport or musical instrument, volunteer, have a job, and/or anything else a teenager could be busy with that doesn’t have to deal with the education from school. Now I understand that teachers have the right to give tests, quizzes, homework, and/or projects but most teachers do not understand the struggle each student would be going through outside of their classes. Being a teenager should be fun still, we should be able to experience life and not be forced to get home from school and immediately have to be swamped with all their homework. The homework they have is not the only thing we have to do, there are other activities that we would like to do instead. I appreciate that the teachers give us homework to help us practice the concept of the class but at the same time I would like it to be a minimal amount because personally I know I do practice in school for each class. Being a teenager means that you must be heavily active with their education, although that is a great concept I believe that education will ruin mine and possibly a lot of other teenager’s lives. We will not be able to just be teenagers and experience life in it’s natural form, my life is based on my education. I wish that I could be capable to do other activities but I am too stressed to fit everything in my schedule.

I do not want to feel like I wasted my life on just learning and not trying new things that interest me. I am too focused on performing to a standard in school so that I can get into a college that suits me because after college I want to have a job that I love and makes an amount of money that can support me. School shouldn’t be my number one priority because it is important but I don’t want to regret focusing only on school and nothing else. I want to be able to volunteer more and be able to get a job without worrying that I can’t keep up with my school work. School is the cause of most teenager’s stress and I wish teachers gave us a break from giving us so much homework that is usually just busy work that isn’t important.

Beware by Zoe Merold

Beware.
Beware of the place of beasts.
Beware of the people who they inhabit.
Beware of the savage hearts of those who have killed.
Run away.
Run away from them.
Run away from their evil ways.
Run away from the savagery that has poisoned them.
Hide.
Hide from their darkness.
Hide from their searching eyes.
Hide from the savages that wish to turn you into one of their own.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

School by Sophie Venus

School
When june comes
School will end
After finals I'll have a life again
No more stress
No more studying
No more homework
No more early mornings
Or long days of work
I'll no longer be afraid of math grades
I won't have to worry about gpas
This will mark the end of sophomore year
But only a couple months until I return to this place






The Power of Positivity by Stephanie Downes

In my past academic years, especially last year, I’ve realized something about myself. I was  CONSTANTLY complaining, mentally judging people, bringing myself down, and spouting negativity into the world. Finals for me last year included an abundance of mental breakdowns and stressful anxiety attacks. At the start of my sophomore year, I made the decision to change this. I didn't want to be stressed out all the time. I made a decision to try my best to stop complaining, stop judging, and to be a pleasant person who people want to spend time with. It was a struggle at first. When something irritating happens, usually your first instinct is to go rant about it to your friends. I’ve realized that the only impact this has is that it spreads negativity. That is not to say that you can’t discuss your problems, but I found it better to do it in a calm way, and always look at the positive side of it. Over time, this optimism became a habit, and the habit turned into a lifestyle. Now,  I like to think of myself as a generally positive and happy person, and I hope others think that of me too.
Optimism has a massive impact on people, both mentally and physically. It decreases stress, lowers rates of depression, increases cardiovascular health, and can even increase your overall lifespan. For me personally, it has reduced my stress, increased my self-esteem, and definitely has made me a happier person.

Image result for positive thinkingI encourage you all to try and live a lifestyle of optimism. It will be hard at first, but it’s well worth it. Start with yourself. Be open-minded. Don’t be so critical of everything. When things don't go your way, instead of complaining about it, look for the solution. Once you accomplish optimism in yourself, it will spread to others, and overall make your high school experience and your entire life more enjoyable.

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