Assignment 26 - Grace Barnett

 One suggestion that I have for future classes is that you should maybe spend more time practicing each essay that is on the exam. I know reading and going through our peer's work is beneficial to see what works and what doesn't but it is not really the same as writing them yourself. Maybe not do a full timed writing but breaking it down? I still struggle a little bit with rhetorical analysis and choices but that might be because we learned about it online and did not have the same amount of time to fully dive into it as previous years. Another suggestion I might make is to go through a multiple-choice practice test because we did them in class but never went over any of them together. I'm pretty set on English sections for tests but other people might not, so I think that might also be helpful to just go through one. 

David Butler- Assignment 26

 Now I'm just going to start out and say that I don't really have any gripes, more so a few possible minuscule additions. One thing that could just be quick and interesting at the beginning of the day would be if you did a check in question. Mr. Cain does these and sometimes they are lesson related and other times they are not. I'm thinking that you could maybe even sometimes make them like an opener to your lesson. For example, in our philosophy/satire unit(like before the day about plato's cave) you could ask a question about philosophical morality like “would you rather live a short life surrounded by the ones you love, or a long life with little to love?” or “would you want to stay where you are or step out of the cave?” or just a variant of the classic vanilla trolly problem. I think that little things like this could be a cool and maybe even just occasional addition to the classroom. 

Assignment 25 - Sanat Dharwad

 I’m pretty lazy, and I’ll usually put stuff off until the last minute. I’ll sleep 12 hours a day if you let me. I love discussing complex philosophical topics with my friends, but I also find myself in heated arguments concerning the stupidest little things, like “If someone hits you unprompted, how hard do you hit them back?” Having discussions like these where we’re pretty much just having fun and not really saying anything is one of my favorite activities. I have a deep love of music, and I spend a lot of time listening, making, and talking about music. Whenever I’m bored, I’ll usually pick up my guitar and start practicing or composing something. I used to not be very social, but I’ve definitely moved on from that. If anything, I speak too loudly nowadays. Me being Indian has had a minimal impact on my life, as I never even picked up either my father’s or mother’s languages, and I can't relate to the culture very much

Assignment 26-Aiden Beach

This school year has been different, to say the least, than any other school year. Because of this, I’ve looked at all the teachers I’ve had this year differently, as they were just as stressed as everyone else, and they weren’t used to teaching a class virtually for almost a whole school year. However, with your class, it felt like you knew what you were doing. You rarely gave us any assignments, and when you did, you discussed it with the class in order to give the students a better understanding. With how well you discussed it virtually, I can only imagine how well it would’ve been in-person. You asked to write about both what you did well, and what could’ve been better. However, I personally can’t think of anything to be improved as I’m writing this. Your class wasn’t a perfect class that never had issues, but most of those issues were resolved fairly quickly or talked about in class, as expressed earlier. If you keep up your method of teaching, I’m sure future students will agree with me, whether it be virtual or in-person.

Assignment 24 - Sanat Dharwad

 Successes? I’m not sure I’ve really had any big ones this year. I survived, I guess, but I’d say this year was filled more with failures. The first half of the year I’d say I was doing relatively fine, but in the second half I suddenly had a lack of motivation, evidenced by when I’m turning in this assignment. Have I learned a lesson from this, to not procrastinate further? Funnily enough, I’m not sure I have. Ideally I should be suffering right now as I’m doing this super late, but I really don’t mind. This summer is going to be filled with numerous college visits, volunteering, and interning somewhere (hopefully), as I really need to buff my resume. I’m not really sure what I want for senior year, as I’m not a practitioner of prospection. There isn’t really much more I can do next school year that can help with college except continue to get good grades, so I guess that's my goal.

Assignment 23 Garrett Peavler

     We've always gone to my grandparents' house every week, but as my brother and I grew older he began to drive me there, which led to an hour of my older brother and I having actual conversations and listening to music. Since he was the driver he would always have the first pick in music, and while at first, I wasn't crazy about everything he played, as I grew to his age (and after listening to them so many times in the car) they eventually grew on me. These songs now represent good times, and I am very nostalgic towards them. They are songs that provided a soundtrack to me and my brother becoming less distant and they are songs that positively affected who I became. While they may seem unrelated, all of these songs represent good times.

1. Is This It - The Strokes: This was the first song on an album that I feel like I must have listened to a hundred times in the car, an album which, traffic or no traffic, always seemed to perfectly end right before we got to my grandparents' house.

2. How Many More Times - Led Zepplin: This was a song that my brother and I would often play together (I played bass, he played guitar, we went back and forth on drums). Even though that was about 3 years ago, I still know the bass and drum parts by heart.

3. Let Me Go - Cake: This was another song that my brother and I would play. For a long period of time, my brother was obsessed with the guitar part in this song, and would constantly request that I play the bass part so that he could have a backing track, most of the time I obliged.

4. Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys: This is one of the songs that my brother played at his first gig with his sophomore band. I distinctly remember him telling me about how much he hated playing this song and how his stupid singer made him, then, about six months later, he wouldn't stop playing it (I had always kind of liked it).

5. Stand By Me - Ben E. King: This song is definitely the odd man out in this line up, but without this song, I might not have stuck with music. See, unlike guitar or piano, there aren't many easily recognizable beginner bass songs, but Stand By Me is definitely one of them. I learned it early on and played alongside my grandpa who plays the piano. Being able to participate in music and have fun immediately sparked a passion for music that I still carry today.

Assignment 25- Sara Anderlich

Uniquely me... who am I?
My name is Sara Elizabeth Anderlich, I am 17 years old, I'm an INFJ, and my life has been crazy. 

But who really am I... what makes me tick?

I consider myself a people person. I like to talk, and I like to be around others. I'm organized, I'm anxious, I like to write, but more than anything, I love music. I feel like my life revolves around music, and I feel so connected to it that it truly encapsulates most of my personal growth- especially, through band. I found my spark, and with it, I gained confidence. When I was little, I really didn't understand social cues, and I think that's probably the same for a lot of people. But, it was bad, and when I finally did learn, it made me sad to realize that not everyone loved me as much as I thought they did. I started overthinking, I was nervous, and as much as I tried to make friends, I never felt very close to them. I was in orchestra for a while, but it wasn't a wonderful group, and I had bad luck with my teacher. So, in a minute of impulsivity, I took private saxophone lessons, and I joined two band classes my 8th grade year. Now, I debate a lot of things and think about the butterfly effect a lot, but, I can one-hundred percent say that that was the best decision of my entire life. 
Not only did I start to gravitate towards people that I could build lasting friendships with, but my entire outlook on life changed. Specifically, how to focus on the now, and how to challenge myself to do even the things I may not want to do. I learned self-discipline and, through it, I learned how to be my best, happiest, self. 

So, I guess that's my answer, I'm a band kid. And like them all, I have a weird, crazy background full of happy and sad memories that make me who I am. 

Assignment 26 Ben Belin

Overall your class effective in helping me to learn to write better. Now that I said that time for the exciting part... criticism! Although I completely understand that you planned the year out based on block scheduling and didn't want to give us busy work, I did sometimes think we could have done more. What I mean by this is that the class didn't have much variation. It was just write and essay every once in a while and then spend a week or two grading it. A way to improve this would be to mix it up with things like a bit more engaging like for different kinds of writing/reading activities. An example would be to maybe split us off into smaller groups and we could work together to write an answer to a prompt. This way we could see how other people in the class approach the writing. Mr. Wise did this with us last year and I found it extremely helpful. I'm sure this year wasn't how your class normally goes, and I know from my sister we usually do a lot more engaging types of activities (like the commercials).

Ethan Scutchfield - Assignment 26

Despite what you might think, I have enjoyed your class.  I don't think I am as strong with English and this class has helped me.  I have always done well on reading comprehension, but I actually had my English score on the ACT go up a lot this year and I think you helped.

I think having your students use previous AP questions and the active set up of writing the papers is a good use of the class time.  The one critique would be how we reviewed the papers.  The reviews took long due to going over each one individually.  Generally for review I would have preferred them to be based on a small group like at the beginning of the year instead of whole class.

Assignment 25 - Ethan Scutchfield

The question of what makes me "uniquely me" is a pretty loaded question.  Depending on the day, I could answer this a million different ways.  Probably the the first thing that makes me uniquely me is I am a procrastinator, but of course, you have discovered this by now.  I am also a really big pessimist because I have a hard time seeing how things will work out better for me.  It is a self-fulfilling circle I live in.  I feel like it is rinse and repeat.  I can go from a ball of stupidity to actually having a brain, energy and randomly being able to completely focus on a task despite not having an attention span.

This year with Covid has definitely made me even more of a pessimist and procrastinator.  I hope that as more of us get vaccinated, we will see some things go back to normal, but again, I am the circling through pessimist thoughts.  I just can't quit thinking that something else will happen and we will be back to the start.

Assignment 23 - Sanat Dharwad

 The Perfect Playlist for relaxing after a long day of tests

Them Changes - Thundercat

Vultures - John Mayer

Time Alone With You - Jacob Collier (ft. Daniel Caesar)

It Runs Through Me - Tom Misch (ft. De La Soul)

Get Sun - Hiatus Kaiyote (ft Arthur Verocai)

All of these songs are pretty laid back and groove hard, but the playlist is in order of sad to happy. Them Changes has got some of the funkiest bass ever, and the chords are pretty cool. The sax lines at the end are also really sick. Vultures is a bit faster than Them Changes, but also grooves pretty hard, as the guitar is really tasty. Time Alone With You is the first upbeat song, and gets extremely hype at the climax, only to return back to being laid back. It also has a really cool turnaround which leads to cool key changes. It Runs Through Me brings some Brazilian vibes, which Get Sun also has. Get Sun is most definitely the most hype of all the songs, though still managing to be laid back.

Assignment 24 Garrett Peavler

    There is no doubt that this past year has been important. Not just to me personally, but to the future of education. This year has been a proof of concept for the possibility of virtual schooling; the possibility of a future where you can enroll in a college halfway across the country without leaving your home state. However, if that possibility is to become a reality, there are definitely some kinks that need working out because this year sucked.

    I'm not the type to believe that fate is predetermined, but if it is, the planner of the universe has some personal problems that they need to work through because this was the worst possible year for this to happen. For both the current state of politics and, more relevant to this assignment, my year of school. This would have been my most challenging year under normal circumstances, so the pandemic most certainly did not help matters. It has been a journey fraught with countless challenges, but I eventually reached the end.

   Perhaps the greatest challenge of NTI was the repetitive, unchanging routine that I inevitably fell into. School has always been more or less monotonous, but before, there were places to go, people to see, and other activities that would break up the repetition. This was not the case this past year. With nothing to break the cycle of public education, I quickly became bogged down with the monotony of school. The monotony made it difficult to care about what I was doing because no matter how hard I worked one day, it would always be the exact same the next day. I quickly became complacent with failure, as there was no reason to care. Missing assignments were no longer a disheartening interaction with a teacher I respected, they were just numbers on a page; nothing more. But enough reflection, let's focus on the future. What happens next?

    Well, after we came back in person, almost all of my grades raised a full letter, so now all that's left to do is rid myself of this awful year and get ready to tackle senior year. My schedule for next year is loaded with easy/ fun classes, and I'm just going to blow through it and close this chapter of my life. I don't know what comes after that, but as long as I'm not dead or homeless, I'll call it a win.

Assignment 26: Help! I need somebody. Help! - Henry Adams

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ip6E2IMyU2F-0aydR_4r7W2hB9CLyVtcKa8kzcH8KAk/edit

last blog post!!!!!!!!

Assignment 23- Eleanor Badgett

My versatile perfect playlist

When it comes to music, I don't really like or have the patience to spend a lot of time listening to and discovering new songs. As, a result my playlists are kind of a jumbled slapped together collection of songs. I would not say my playlists are perfect, but I would definitely say they are versatile. 

1. Holiday- Vampire Weekend

2. Basket Case- Green Day 

3. Summer Song- Matt Duncan 

4. Waiting for the Great Leap Forward-  Billy Brag

5. A-punk-  Vampire Weekend  

I included the two Vampire Weekend songs because they are one of my favorite bands. Almost every thing they release is pretty versatile so it was hard to choose just one. Basket case, while not the most versatile,  is included due to the versatile memories I associate with the song.  For some reason, there are so many times I have a memory and then remember that song. I included Summer Song,  because not only do I like it, but I think it is extremely versatile. Depending on the volume at which  it is played, the song can be an under the radar, talked over song or a very singable, windows down song. The last two songs on my playlist, Waiting for the Great Leap Forward and A-punk, are special songs to me because I always remember my dad playing them growing up. My dad and I like to call A-punk my first favorite song because he convinced me it was in order to instill his music taste in me, which I think was successful. I have always liked Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, but as I have grown up and learned more about what he is talking about, I have learned to love the song more and more. 

Assignment 24 - Grace Barnett

 How to sum up my junior year? I would never willingly go through it again but I am very grateful for it. I learned a lot about myself this year. Some successes that I have had are getting the grades that I wanted, managing stays engaged and on top of things while virtual, and winning the lacrosse state championship. I have had a few failures along the way, but I'll spare the details. I am both excited and terrified of the upcoming year, I will be booked completely. Over the summer, I am playing club lacrosse and visiting colleges to find places that I am interested in and I am also going to get started on my college application essay. But one thing I hope to do in my senior year is to not overwork myself and forget to enjoy being a senior and my last year of high school. I hope to find that balance.

Assignment 23 - Grace Barnett

 Perfect Playlist: For a rainy Tuesday as you are driving through a forest in Oregon (preferably in October as well.)

1. Cherry Wine - Live  (Hozier)

2. Clay Pigeons (Micheal Cera)

 3. Wasteland, Baby! (Hozier)

4. Sparks (Coldplay)

5. Stop This Train (John Mayer)

-  First, we are starting off with Cherry Wine by Hozier, I thought that this song was a good introduction to the playlist and it sets the tempo for the rest. Next, we have Clay Pigeons by Micheal Cera, I included this song because you will notice that all of these songs have an instrumental introduction and I thought that it also help set the vibe for the playlist. Next, we have another Hozier song. Can you tell that I am a Hozier fan? I could probably fill a perfect playlist with his songs but I decided against it to diversify my choices. I also thought that this song meshed well with the others. Next, we have Sparks by Coldplay and this song is just so good and it had a lot of similarities to the others, but you might consider it a little slower than the rest. Finally, we finish with Stop This Train by John Mayer. This song is a little different in the sense that it is a little quicker and that is why I put it last, but it matches the theme of the instrumental introduction and the tempo is not that far off from the rest. I find it important to mention that I have never been to Oregon but if I ever go and find myself in a forest on a rainy Tuesday then I know exactly what I am going to listen to. This is also a playlist that I found helps calm my nerves and relax me. 

Assignment 26- Eleanor Badgett

 The most effective thing we did in class, I think, was timed writings. Through the timed writings I was able to truly test my ability to write the expected essay in an environment very similar to that of an actual AP test. This has helped me to feel more confident going into the test. As the year went on and we did more and more timed writings, I felt myself improving. I remember on my first timed writing having no idea what to write about at all, on my most recent timed writing it felt like no big deal. One thing I think that could be improved about timed writings is grading. While I was able to learn some things from grading everyone else's essay, I think I could have benefited more from spending more time on my personal essay. Maybe grading in smaller groups would give people more time to find areas of improvement in their own writing while also learning things from their peers and their styles of writing. However, even if timed writings were to continue to be done in the same way, they would still be extremely effective. 

Assignment 24- Eleanor Badgett

 Obviously, my junior year had been unlike anything I expected. However, even without COVID and not going back to school until March, my year was still unexpected. This year my grades were better than ever. I think this was due to the fact that I had so much time with a 3 hour school day and very little else going on. In past years it was not unlike me to wait to do all of my homework at school, just hours before it was due. This year I usually did my homework immediately after classes so I could move on with the rest of my day. This habit helped me to understand the information I was being taught to a fuller extent. For my senior year, I hope to retain this new and improved work ethic through a time where I presume it will be difficult. Hopefully, this will help me be ahead on my college applications. At this point, I have absolutely no idea, even remotely, where I want to go to school or what I want to study. Hopefully this is something I will figure out soon and then I will get started on applications and not do last minute, halfway work. 

Assignment 26-Zent

I think that overall I feel mostly prepared for the AP tests and mostly agree with my peers' responses. I think that the timed writings we did were helpful. I think that they taught us what to and not to do and seeing other responses helped us know what works. However, I do think it would have been very helpful to be able to conference with you about our essays and you tell us in what ways we could have made them stronger. I also think that doing more multiple choice practice tests and being able to talk about the right answers as a class. I think this would have given us a chance to know how to approach the multiple choice questions to be able to pick the best answers. Overall, I think that I am pretty prepared from all the things we did in class for the ap test. 

Assignment 25-Aiden Beach

I was born in San Diego, California, near the town of La Jolla. I would live with my mom and dad during the week, and on the weekends, I would visit my grandparents. I kept this routine up until I was five years old, to which events happened that caused my parents to split up and for me to go to Kentucky with my mother. I met my grandfather on my mother’s side, and my mother and I lived with him. When I was in fourth grade, my mother moved in with her boyfriend, while I continued to stay at my grandfather’s house. However, I would visit her on the weekends. This routine, similar to the one I had in San Diego, continued until eighth grade, when my mother decided it was time for me to move in with her. Since then, I’ve been living with my mother in her boyfriend’s house. Other than the fact that I was born to a rich family in San Diego, there's really nothing interesting about me, and I've had a pretty normal life.

Ghazzal Hammad - Assignment 26

     Reading through my peers' responses, I agree with a lot of their feedback. I found that the multiple timed writings we did were helpful, and I think it was good having class discussions about them (even though some people were a little too critical and others gave very vague feedback). 

    However, I do wish we did more multiple choice tests. My laptop died during the first one we did and my College Board app had a network error midway through the most recent one. So, in retrospect, I got little experience and practice with the multiple choice tests. Since it is a pretty big portion of the AP test, I am a little worried for that.

    I also wish we did some one-on-one reviews with you. As Sara said, it was a little hard to do that considering this year's circumstances, but I feel like they would have been beneficial. Getting critiques and recommendations on my writing would've been very useful, especially coming from an actual AP Lang grader.

    The only other thing is I'm not sure how effective the Wednesday assignments were. I know lots of people enjoyed them, and I guarantee many benefitted from them in some shape or form. There were definitely a handful that I enjoyed too, but I personally didn't find them to be the most meaningful use of time. I do think they were a nice, though, because they shifted away from the regular curriculum for a day. 

Assignment 26- Katie Taylor

Mr. Logsdon, I think it's safe to say that your class was the saving grace of this year. I had no idea how much I enjoyed discussing writing and the authors' true sentiments behind the piece until this year. Plus, your class really helped me out with reading comprehension, which led me to get a perfect score on the ACT Reading section (not a single question was missed.... I was very shocked by this so I felt like I had to brag). 

What I really thought was effective from your class was your push for us to break away from the middle school writing norms we were used to (ie Intro-3 Bodies- Conclusion) and expand on our own artistic liberties. I also learned that I don't have to sound like I'm writing a speech for the president- I oftentimes find myself using huge words in both my writing and everyday speech. 

But seriously, I hadn't really considered writing a true art form until this year. Sure, the stuff we write is far from the "art" caliber, but I was surprised by some of my eloquence this year. I was even more surprised when I would publish what I considered to be my best blog post yet and then read my classmates and find that they've written a Pulitzer Prize-level essay. You guys are seriously great writers!

Anyways, I sincerely enjoyed your class and your personality and I don't necessarily have any criticism to offer. 

Have a great summer,

Katie Taylor

Assignment 26 Jake Walters

 Overall, I feel very prepared for the Ap exam that is coming up over the horizon. The practice multiple choice tests that we did during class I felt like was very beneficial to becoming more familiar with the test and the skills needed. However, I feel like more could have been done with them. Our class time was obviously cut short due to covid, but you could have had days where you went over the most missed questions in the practice multiple choice tests. This would have helped tremendously as the multiple choice seemed to be something you put on the backburner during the year. The multiple choice is still a large part of the test and need the same focus that the essays also need as a different skill set is needed for the multiple choice. The multiple essays you gave us and the reviews of them we did were very helpful. It was good to see what other students were writing and to hear what worked and what didn't work. 

Assignment 26 - Jimmy Chen

I enjoyed the class with the assignments, I believe the writing assignments did improve my writing. The one thing I am kind of worried about is the multiple choice questions. I feel that we didn’t cover it as much as I’d probably liked, we did do a couple practice tests, but I feel that breaking down the multiple choice a little more could probably help me on the AP Test. Another thing that I am a little worried about is grammar, which has nothing to do with the AP Lang curriculum, but before entering the class that was what I was thinking Lang would be about, because honestly I don’t know the grammar rules at all. I know where to put most things based upon intuition, but the actual grammar rules I have a very vague understanding with not much of a foundation on top of it. Maybe somewhere along my education I may have missed something or have forgotten something but I don’t know the grammar rules that well. This is like an actual question that got me thinking, are there any good grammar rules books out there that I can use? The SAT grammar rules books assume you are not playing by intuition, which is what I am doing. I feel it would be nice to identify the rules they are testing on the standardized tests.

Assignment 24 - Jimmy Chen

This year I honestly wasn’t as involved in school and extracurricular activities as I would have liked, mainly due to the nature of the situation we were put in. I did work on practicing violin, I had made it into the National Orchestra, but that unfortunately was put online and not at Disneyland unfortunately. I also probably didn’t manage my time well enough, I had developed such a knack for wasting time doing aimless things that I can’t be super productive anymore and I need to work past that at some point. But, honestly I don’t think I can get the driven well managed Jimmy Chen that once existed back, but I am trying. I also applied to some summer music programs, I really wanted to go to this international summer festival in Milan Italy which I worked really hard on and managed to get into, but unfortunately due to covid it is still up in the air if I will be able to attend. But because I focused a lot on the Milan camp I kind of neglected my other applications. I surprisingly got waitlisted by Bowdoin international music festival in Maine, where I was expecting a rejection since they churn out a good number of internationally famed soloists with alumni such as Ray Chen and Anne Akkio Meyers who both perform with 10 million dollar plus Stradivarius Violins. I also may have extremely neglected my GSA application where I may or may not have used the same essay as last year because I didn’t have the energy to write a new one and generally neglected the excerpts they required us to play, which I unfortunately ended up getting alternated to. Honestly I feel that if we didn’t go online I would’ve probably done so much better with seeing teachers at school and my lesson teachers in person where they can hear clearly and correct my technique which had started to lack due to a year of quarantine. I can see that some people have thrived during this period, but I was not one of them. This has helped me realize and appreciate that although I liked to complain about the structure of school and the mundaneness of life, I really do need this kind of structure in order to succeed. I hope senior year goes well, I do want to get into a good college (hopefully Early Decisions so I can be done with applications), and hopefully live up to my moms expectations. One thing I really need to do is study for the SAT over the summer. This really weird year has given me a new perspective on school and helps me appreciate the structure even though it seems repetitive. I think it has helped me develop a new perspective on my future. I used to be terrified of working a 9-5 job at an office, wearing boring clothes, doing paperwork all day, and being generally mundane and boring, but now I am not really scared of that anymore. After a whole year of being independent and being my own boss I realize that I kind of hate it. Although most people are terrified of becoming mundane and bland due to an office job I really appreciate it.

Assignment 23 - Jimmy Chen

 My perfect playlist is something you can vibe with while doing homework. I personally listen to a lot of hip hop and rap, but there’s some things I can’t listen to while doing homework like hype music. So my perfect playlist is a list of lowkey rap songs that have strong beats but aren’t hyping everyone up (sorry Dababy) but that’s car music. Ocean Drive by 21 Savage is a classic, it’s got a good beat and flow but it isn’t over bearing which is often good when doing homework. It brings me back to my peak academic years when my mom made me do math sets in middle school, it helps me get in a study mood. Route 66 by Jack Harlow is a good newer song. It's got a good beat and nice flow, more upbeat than ocean drive. It helps build some energy and hype. Rendezvous also by Jack Harlow has a similar energy level and can help build a little bit of energy and hype. Devil In A New Dress is a classic Kanye song, it isn’t one of his hype songs but it's more lowkey which I enjoy when doing homework. Next would be a Bryson Tiller song, they keep that same energy level that Kanye’s lowkey songs have, like Let Em’ Know. Then I would throw in another Kanye song, probably waves, which is the extent of my hype level I am willing to reach while doing homework. I would add Biking by Frank Ocean, JayZ, Tyler, The creator after that, as it is also a classic, it’s much more relaxed than the other one but it's good to calm yourself down after a hype song like Waves. Then I would probably add Location by Playboi Carti as it brings a more upbeat vibe but it is mostly calmed down from here. I would probably add The Weekend by Mac Miller and Miguel as this is a great vibey song and it gets me in a study mood as it reminds me of middle school. Then I would add a joji song, I really like the I don't wanna waste my time remix I like the beat behind it. Then I would probably add a piece I am working on with my teacher as it’s often good double tasking and helps me memorize the piece.

Assignment 26- Sara Anderlich

     Mr. Logsdon, I would be lying if I didn't tell you that you are a phenomenal teacher, because you are. However, keep in mind, I'm a student who generally enjoys writing, and prefers it over math or science. I may not have enjoyed writing every essay, but I knew that each was important to my development as a writer. Every essay you gave us taught to the test, but even still, I don't feel prepared. Writing is so subjective and I feel like what would've really helped would've been one-on-one peer reviews with you. It was something that Mr. Lentz did in my freshman year, and it's something that I have always appreciated from my teachers. You know, just having the chance to hear what they thought about each part of my essay, and why they scored it the way they did. I know this year was different and that teacher conferences were virtually impossible (pun unintended), but in a normal year, I know that would've helped me a lot. It also didn't help that I stayed virtual this semester. I don't know why, but I felt like I didn't have the same ability to talk like I would have if I was in person. I usually have so much to say about essays, and about my essays, but it was like I was restricted by the screen. I couldn't see the class, and a lot of the time your camera wasn't on, so I couldn't see you either. As for our assignments, I felt like all of them were relatively straightforward, and even with the longer ones, I knew that I would get out of it what I put in. I loved "Writing with Style" and I loved "Plato's Allegory of the Cave". Not going to lie, I didn't read the allegory in class like I was supposed to. I tried to, but I didn't understand anything. I thrive off of class discussions and I just didn't feel like I had that. However, hearing the things some people were saying, and hearing about the discussions in other classes, made me really want to understand it. So, using the leeway that you gave us to submit, I took my laptop, went to a friend's house, and we read it out loud together, discussing every paragraph. It was such a good assignment, but I know that there were probably a lot of people that didn't take the time to look at it in that much depth. It just made me sad because I really wanted to be a part of that conversation, and I knew that so many people didn't. It's because of this that I really think it's important for you, as a teacher, to try and take the time to read stuff like that together, including the essays. You know it, and I know it, but when you ask a class to read something, there will always be the few who don't. Now, you can't always force a class to pay attention, even if students are taking turns reading, but at least it makes it harder to not listen. That's why I loved being able to take the time at the beginning of the year to read every essay. It helped me want to pay attention and it was more engaging... especially compared to later in the year when we read most of them on our own. It just seems like when you trust a class to do that, a lot of them don't care enough to actually try. And it really takes away from the value of the peer reviews. I think that one-on-one teacher conferences are always valuable, but I think that they are especially important when you're just giving students a google form and asking them to grade someone else's essay. Not only will it probably be really brief and unspecific, but it's just not the same compared to talking to someone face to face. I admit that I did the same sometimes, but it was the nature of the assignment. Read essay. Score. Repeat. And being a student, I overthought a lot of it, and I know others did too. As for the speech, I know that our class didn't exactly get to do it, but I think that it's a really good idea for future years. Presenting is a life skill, and I am so grateful for my opportunities to practice it outside of school and in band. Every student should have that opportunity, no matter how much they may hate it at first. So thank you, Mr. Logsdon. You did your job, and you did your best to go as easy on us as possible. Every assignment had a reason, none of it was busy work, and you gave us enough leeway to avoid any stressful situations. Thank you so much. It may have not been the best year, but it helped me in more ways than one. 

Assignment 24- Aaron Falk

Assignment 23- Aaron Falk

 I think for my playlist I would create one that encaptures songs that are defined by a movie they have been showcased in. First would have to “Hip to be Square” by Huey Lewis and the News which belongs to the iconic scene in American Psycho where Patrick Bateman displays his musical knowledge as he goes on a rant about Huey Lewis before he goes in for an infamous kill in the world of cinema. Next would be “Mess Around” by Ray Charles which belongs to an iconic scene in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles which was later copied in Ted 2. In this scene John Candy is driving down the interstate late at night while dramatically playing the piano on the dashboard along with Ray Charles before his coat gets stuck and he ends up on the wrong side of the interstate heading towards two oncoming truckers. Then it would have “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealers Wheel which belongs to the iconic scene in Reservoir Dogs in which Michael Madsen Prances around the kidnapped officer to the song and similar to Patrick Bateman he demonstrates his psychotic tendencies to the tune. Next is “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy which is the iconic song belonging to Radio Raheem from Do the Right Thing. Raheem is seen throughout the movie carrying around a big boombox always blasting the same song in the scenes he’s in which gets him into trouble with the tense scene when he goes for a slice of pizza but everyone knows, “No music in Sal’s Pizzeria”. Lastly, is “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. Everyone knows “Bohemian Rhapsody” just like everybody remembers the iconic scene at the beginning of Wayne’s World in which the gang is jamming out in the car to this classic that most wouldn’t see as the headbanger they portray it to be especially in the slow parts. However, this adds to the comedic effect before the guy that partied a little too hard has to spew, ending the legendary scene.

Assignment 26 - Palmer Lee

Although I may feel differently after taking the AP test in a couple of weeks, I wish you had assigned more timed writings. As much as I don’t like doing them, I don’t feel as though I’ve had enough practice to write a solid paper within that short a time frame. I understand that normally kids have some practice from AP Seminar the previous year, and I did well on the AP Seminar exam last year, but the test was altered so there were no timed writings - the only part of the AP test we had to do were two research papers, each of which we had several months to write. I don’t like comparing people to other people, but I’m going to for the sake of conveying what I mean: In Mrs. Dewees’s AP Calc AB class, we’ve been doing nothing but practice AP multiple choice tests and practice AP ORQs for several weeks, and I feel well prepared for the AP Calculus test. It may be because I’m generally more confident in my math skills than my writing, but I’m more skeptical going into this test than I am with Calculus. I also wish we had a better idea of what AP was looking for; on the most recent timed writing, you gave my essay a 1-3-0, which I am completely fine with and is about what I was expecting, but I know for a fact that at least one peer gave it a 1-4-1. Writing is subjective, yes, but I don’t think I personally understand how it’s graded well enough to be confident in what I’m writing. These problems, especially the first, may not come up at all next year if things are back to normal, and what I’m saying may be completely irrelevant. I hope I don’t come off as too harsh.

Ghazzal Hammad - Assignment 25

    I don't know if there's anything that makes me super special. I'm a minority. I don't have the same experiences that my white counterparts may get. I have a multicultural household. I guess growing up in a different environment than most of my classmates has shaped me in a unique way. At my house, we don't eat the same foods that most households eat. We don't share the same traditions, and we don't celebrate most of the same holidays. In a way, this has caused me to feel isolated. It's difficult to find people who have a similar upbringing to mine, so I rarely have people to relate to. The way I was raised and the type of life I live in my house has definitely shaped me and my personality.

   Aside from that, though, I'm not sure what really sets me apart from others. I play sports, I'm on the debate team, I love crime-themed books and shows like Criminal Minds and NCIS, I'm not the biggest fan of going to super social events, I tend to gatekeep things that I really like, and I think I want to do something related to medicine. There is nothing about me that significantly sets me apart from other people, but maybe my non-uniqueness is what makes me unique. 

Ghazzal Hammad - Assignment 24

   It goes without saying that junior year was unique -- and not necessarily in the best ways. I, like a majority of my classmates, struggled more in school this year than I ever had before. As someone who has always been very responsible and school-oriented, my lack of motivation throughout this school year caused me a multitude of issues. I stopped paying attention and taking notes (undoubtedly my biggest mistake), my homework was rushed and effortless, and I spent my time doing leisure activities like watching Netflix and scrolling through my phone. And, as you may guess, this caused me to fall behind in half of my classes.

   Regardless of that, I think I did have my fair share of successes, one of which was being able to juggle everything outside of school without too much difficulty. As we move into the next school year, I hope to be able to return to the work ethic I once had. I hope that senior year provides me some solace and peace after the whirlwind that high school -- and especially junior year -- has been. And most importantly, I hope I find a good college to go to that will make the next chapter of my life more enjoyable than this one.

Assignment 25- Katie Taylor

 It's funny you'd raise the question of "who am I" considering that's the number one thing on my (and my peers') minds. 

People will often say to not compress yourself down to a label. But I like labels- it helps me understand myself better. I have OCD, I'm an extrovert, my Meyers-Briggs type is ESFP, I'm a type 6w7 enneagram, I'm a Pisces sun, Gemini moon, and Leo rising, and my Pisces sun is also my chart ruler. I'd consider myself a Ravenclaw. I'm a music fan. I'm white. I'm a girl. I'm a Native New Yorker. I'm a high schooler. I'm 17. I was almost born on Leap Day 2004 (off by mere hours). I'm curious. I like going to new places. I'm lactose intolerant. I'm intelligent. I'm interesting (at least in my opinion). I'm an oversharer. I like crosswords. I like thinking and talking about my thoughts. I'm not sure what I want to do for a living. I'd like to live in a city like Nashville, Richmond (VA), Portland (OR), Boston, Seattle, etc. as an adult. I like nature and hiking. I get anxious about climate change (and how a mere handful of corporations are responsible for the majority of this planet's carbon emissions). I like watching movies and TV and talking about their plots with my friends. I have a podcast. My favorite color changes often. I like spouting off random facts and inquiring about things I'm interested in.

The bottom line is, I'm pretty cool. I personally am not a fan of having to dish out my life story on a blog post in front of my grade, so you'll have to learn more about me as we go. I've lived a great life so far. So yeah, you'll have to actively talk to me if you want to hear my full story (as if there's much substance to it, anyways.) Peace. 

Assignment 24 - Duncan Wingfield

 It goes without saying that this year was quite the odd year. I think the biggest success is the fact that we were even able to go back to school in-person in the first place. Another great success for me is that I was able to retain any knowledege at all from before returning to in-person school. Online learning was a real challenge for me, especially in the more involved classes, and I consider it a success that I am not utterly and completely lost in terms of content in those and really all classes. I have made many many mistakes with regards to time management and that sort of thing. Not listening in class, going to bed before I've finished all my homework, that sort of thing; and because of that my grades aren't amazing this year. Which I'm trying to sort that out but as I'm running out of time I might not be able to fix everything, which if I can do that, great, but if not I'm not gonna be too hung up over it. I really don't have any plans for summer right now. I''ll probably start going on some college vists or something like that though and I will start that application process. My goals for senior year are to decide what I want to do, find a college for that, apply there, and hopefully get in. 

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 100+ 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 30 at 11:59 pm

2 Days after the last day of school is the last day to make up blog 26

Rukavina- assignment 26

 I just have to say that I am not a writing person, so coming into this class I was not expecting to write anything too amazing. But I’m actually pretty surprised with myself this year because I think some of my papers were pretty good and that I improved a lot. Even though I hated them, the practice timed writings were honestly really helpful when I was trying to figure out how to do them and the grading in class helped too. I do think that when it came to the grading part, that going over exactly what each person could’ve done to get their score to a 6 and really pinpointing what we should do to get the sophistication point would’ve been helpful. Out of everything we did this year, I think the Wednesday assignments were the least helpful for me and that it might’ve been better if we were assigned a sample essay that got a 6 and then we had to describe how they got full points for each section.

Rukavina- Assignment 25

 I feel like I’ve been told by a lot of people that all my experiences from when I was little have really shaped who I am today. To start off, I have a brother and sister 8 and 10 years older than me, so I never had the phase where people talked baby talk to me. I honestly believe if they had tried to talk to me that way I would’ve been so offended. I also was just always around kids who were my siblings' age all the time. Next, I have swimming which was a sport I was originally forced into because my siblings both swam. Being on that swim team was unlike playing any other sport because when I got there all the coaches had known me since I was a baby. It was kinda like when you see your family at Thanksgiving and they say things like “Oh my gosh! Look how old you're getting!” I still love swimming for Dolphins (name of team) because it’s always fun to see everyone everyday and we all get to travel to meets together. My final point is a little random, actually all three of these points don’t really go together but oh well. I am an avid watcher of Criminal Minds. I know that it's been crazy popular right now, but I have been watching it since I was 7. I’m not quite sure what psychological damage that's done, besides paranoia, but mystery tv shows, movies, and books are definitely one of my defining traits. 

Rukavina- assignment 24

 I never would’ve thought my junior year of high school would’ve been the way that it was. I thought I was going to be stressed about college the whole year, but the entire world fell apart so things went a little differently. I loved nti at first because the schedule was nice and it just felt like an extended summer break in some ways, but once January hit I was so tired of it and I was really happy when we finally got to come back in person. Mostly because my family was driving me crazy and I just wanted to walk around instead of sitting in front of my computer all day. For my summer before senior year I really just want to focus on college essays and figure out where I want to apply. My mom and I have been talking about traveling a bunch of places and going to visit schools just to see what it’s like. I’m not quite sure what I hope to do during actual senior year, but I’m going to be really happy once I’m there because all the college applications will be over.

 

Assignment 25 Jake Walters

 Who I am. That is a complicated question. I have gone through many different phases through my life where my dreams and aspirations have changed. I've gone from wanting to be a chef, to a lawyer, and now to a psychiatrist. Through all of these phases, ive been able to weed out pretty quickly that i don't want to do these certain things for a living. When i was wanting to be a cook, I was in elementary and middle school. During this time, I would always see my dad cooking dinners and wanted to help any way I could. He let me chop things and help him out and I loved it. This cause my craze of wanting to be a chef. But as i looked more and more into it I realized how long it took to create a perfect dish. This didn't work well at all with my impulsive and impatient personality at the time so I dropped it. I still love to cook but as a way to calm down and relieve stress instead of making it another stressful part of my day. Then, i wanted to be a lawyer like my dad. This phase was the shortest as I realized how hard being a lawyer was. My personality also just did not fit with the job requirements. I do not enjoy conflict or drama and do whatever is necessary to avoid it. I would not be able to confront people in the courtroom. I'd lose every case I got. However, I've found psychology now which I think fits my personality perfectly now. I love to talk to people and overall help people with their problems. Its a nice reward hearing them say thank you for listening and talking. Id do the job for free if I could, except I do want to be able to live in the future. This job I want actually does play to my strengths as I can talk about problems for hours and love helping people through them and know they are living a mentally healthier life because of me. Through all of these phases, they've helped me realize who I am. Seeing certain jobs work out and others not have revealed to me what my personality is. I know who I am because of it. 

Assignment 24- David Butler

This year has been hard, not just for me, but for everyone. Students, teachers, parents, you name it, have collectively had to deal with more change this past year than any other year. This year one of my biggest successes was and still is that i have pushed past these conditions and didn't let them stop me from improving. More specifically, I have hit more health and fitness goals in the past year than ever before. Anything from eating healthier to breaking a 5 min mile to breaking 200 lbs on my bench press. Even when the gyms closed and we couldn't have track practice I still pushed myself and that's why it's one of my greatest successes, I grew as a person. One of my greatest failures is nothing in particular just mainly how i wasted time first semester. I have been much more productive this semester than I was last semester and gotten much more done. I feel as though I am finally having to take responsibility for my own goals and it's hard to do, but i'm getting better at it. One of these goals is to be as productive as possible surrounding my movies. I would like to finish my current short film within a week of finishing AP tests, so around June 1st, and im almost done right now so that should be feasible. I would also like to make 2 more short films with the time I have during the summer and now that I have so much more experience, gear, time and crew this should be much more feasible. One last goal I have is to go to the gym, run, and bike or swim every day(more like week days, weekends are for resting) which I already do, I just want to maintain that.

Assignment 23- David Butler

 In reality i listen to hours of music a day whether that be me creating it, driving to school or anywhere, just while relaxing, or even occasionally sleeping. It's a safe bet to say that music is a large part of my life and I wouldn't want it any other way. Long ago I realized that I'll give just about anything a try and the same goes for my musical tastes. I like something in just about every genre. 

Since I drive an excessive amount everyday I am going to make a playlist called “traffic-jam jams” , a slow pop-rock mixture, lol.

1. Black Madonna- Cage the Elephant(first of all, i am biased, i love cage the elephant and love their slower pop rock kind of style much like that of the arctic monkeys, i think that this song has very good instrumentals and is much more complex than most songs nowadays. It has a complicated chorus yet is catchy and means something.)

2. Imagination- Foster the people(this song is quite catchy and it feels just right for a traffic jam. It can pull you out of a bad mood but keep you calm at the same time. It's chill but has amazing instrumentals. It also has great bass in my car because I have nice speakers. )

3. Take me to church- Hoizer(although the actual meaning of this song is very morose and sad, it is still a song i know word for word and will scream in the car. In other words, it gets you excited and can make an otherwise aggravating traffic jam entertaining. It also has a very deep meaning behind the song that most dont know, it is about gay men being found out and killed in a community of religious extremists)

4. Broken Halos-Chris Stapleton(i love Chris Stapleton, one of my favorite country artists because his songs are much more complex and technically difficult than most country songs yet still extremely catchy. Amazing harmonies and vocal runs in this song. This song is one of his more upbeat songs and i felt like i should include one of his great songs and this one fit best in a playlist about entertaining you in an otherwise dull and frustrating situation, like a traffic jam)

5. Creep-Radiohead(this is a great song for the same reason as take me to church, it is rhythmically very satisfying and it has an actual meaning behind it. I feel like it's one of the rare songs that most people can relate to, know most of the words to so they can scream it in the car, and is actually catchy)

6. Honeypie- JAWNY(honestly, this song just slaps. It gets you hyped up, or at least it does for me. Has a very satisfying guitar backing and high hats. It makes you want to roll down the windows during the summer while driving.)

7. Heat Waves-Glass Animals(This song has a slower beat than most of the rest of these and it is more relative but I hypes you up. This song if fun to play loud with the windows down, it has really nice bass and is very catchy)

Assignment 24-Zent

Junior year was unlike any other year I have ever had and I probably (hopefully) will never have another year like it again. It wasn't all bad but more like the highs were highs and the lows were really low. When we were online, I loved the getting up at 9 am and being done by 12 thing. It made me really manage my time and allowed for me to be able to babysit. I am so glad were are back in person though. The first weeks were a bit of a reality shock because I hadn't been around that many people in a year and I wasn't used to a normal classroom setting. But, getting to do some semi-normal school things and being able to see my friends has been great. Overall by no means would I want to repeat this year but I feel like I made the best out of the situations we were all put in. 

Assignment 24- Church

 Junior year sucked! Well I mean I learned a lot about myself and my limits but overall it sucked. After spending the first half of the year online and only doing half days of school I became pretty acquainted to my schedule of going to school in the morning and then taking a nap and going to work. It was great because I had plenty of free time to catch up with friends or sleep, but as my job became worse and my grades slowly followed, I learned that I was being treated to nicely at the beginning of my junior year. Then trying to come back to in person school... I didn't know these people at all. I had spent over a year away from these people and I felt like I barely knew them. So between balancing school and more than 40 hours of work a week, I never had time to sleep. The combination of all of things really made my mental health go down hill after a long streak of being happy and healthy. So I went back online. It made it easier between my job and school to be able to be home and skip the commutes and other necessities of school. Then I also quit my job right after this. After that I immediately noticed that my overall mental status was improving greatly. Plus I got a new job where they cared about me as well. So although I spent a lot of time in a worse mental health state.. I did learn about my limitations in school and that you don't always have to be perfect. As well that sometimes you can't hold yourself to standards that you won't reach. Plus I had some fun with finding new friends and new hobbies. 

Assignment 23 - Ethan Scutchfield

This is my playlist for chilling.

Bloody stream: Artist Coda, first off all of these songs are going to be openings from JoJo’s bizarre adventure because that series has great music all around, this song is high energy and is one of my favorites just to listen to in general.

Sono chi no kioku: TOMMY, Coda, JIN: another one of my favorites from the OPs and it also is a song with high rhythm and is just great and high energy.
Naked Silver: Jin Hashimoto: another song from JoJo’s but it is still a great song with a nice beat and that consistently has high energy even just listening to it.
chase: batta: another great JoJo song that just is consistently high rhythm and stays constant throughout.

Fighting gold: Coda: another JoJo song and it’s just really great and especially works with the opening animation which also helps it be a song I really enjoy listening to.

Assignment 24: The Future -Henry Adams

 Here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ip6E2IMyU2F-0aydR_4r7W2hB9CLyVtcKa8kzcH8KAk/edit

Assignment 24- Ben Belin

Its crazy to think that there are less than 30 days of my Junior year left. I am just starting to get back in the groove of school! Don't get me wrong I'm still looking forward to summer, but my brain still isn't ready for it. One success I've had this year was for the first time ever getting an A in Spanish! This might be because while we were online she didn't give a single test, but I'd like to think I'm becoming fluent. A lesson learned is to not procrastinate (to much). I always put stuff off but especially this year since none of the deadlines were final which caused me to tell myself I could do an assignment later. However this eventually caught up to me and led to me having to do a lot of things in very little time. Its safe to say I've learned my lesson. From here on out they will call me Ben-never procrastinates-Belin. This summer I'm hoping to visit some colleges and get a feel for what kind of place I want to go to. My goals for Senior year are to get the whole college situation figured out as early as possible so I don't have it hanging over me the whole year. My plan to accomplish this goal is to do things as soon as they become available.

Assignment 24 - Ethan Scutchfield

I hope if I live another 100 years, we don't have another year like the past one.  I have learned a lot of my limitations and what I can do well.  I have also learned a lot about what I will have to work on for college.  My successes are not too many, but I have gotten together with friends for D & D almost weekly and that has been fun.  I started working out with a personal trainer, which helped me play much better lacrosse.  HCHS lacrosse team has had a pretty good season so far and we hope to play for the championship again this year.

I have learned that I don't manage my time well, which is one of the reasons I tend to fall behind on work.  And then it piles up and I don't think I can catch up.  I know I will have to work on this for college.  My grades have suffered this year because NTI was not a good fit for me.  I haven't really taken many risks this year because there aren't many opportunities.  I am communicating with a couple college lacrosse coaches, which is pretty cool.

I hope next year we will be in school the entire year.  I hope people get vaccinated and the world can go on.  I hope to pick a good college for me to go to.  I plan to work hard, both in school and lacrosse so that I have opportunities available.  I will pretty much play lacrosse all summer.  

Assignment 25: Uniquely You – Mulligan (College app)

This is a Makeup Blog Post.  If you have a score that is less than a 30/30, this will replace that grade

When I tell my wife I’ve met someone new (a friend – don’t go there) she always asks, “what’s their story?”  She is keenly interested in the who, the capital WHO, a person is - in that she wants to know their story.  You have a story.  You have a unique background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful you believe you are incomplete without telling it

Inspired by Keanu Gomez

Minimum of 150 words.  Due on May 2 @ 11:59 pm

May 16 is the last day to make up blogs 23-25

Assignment 24- Katie Taylor

 Junior year was my worst year, academically speaking. I struggled the most this year in my classes, more specifically, Calculus and Physics. However, I feel truly happy with the friends I have and my role as a member of the school. I learned that I do not well on an online format, that's for sure. I took a risk by joining Model UN although it was completely online this year, and I also started my own podcast. I gained a better taste in music. This summer, my family plans to take a trip to New England, where I'm from originally, and just travel around that region. I will also work on my college applications. In June-July, I'll be at GSP, which kind of stinks because I won't be able to enjoy my summer with my friends like a teenage kid usually would. Then, I get back from GSP and immediately go to marching band camp, where we rehearse for 9 hours a day outside on our show. I'm very excited for senior year, mainly for my license, the college application process, and the classes I'll take. I hope I do better academically next year.

Jake Walters Assignment 24

 The future. Its a scary thing with how much in uncertain, but I'm trying to do as much as I can right now to make sure I'm prepared for it. I've learned a lot from this year. For one thing, how important reading is. I want to be a psychiatrist when I'm older and seeing how much work and dedication its going to take I've realized I'm not going to be able to avoid reading. So I've started getting into reading psychology related books even the DSM-5 which I never thought id be reading for fun. I'm going to try and keep up this trend of being able to read during the summer too where ill have even more time to do so. This helps me reach my goals and something to do during my free time. My mistakes this year have also shaped me. I need to get my sleep order in shape. I have been staying up way too late to be getting up at 6 am thinking I'm all set for school. Staying off my phone more and having a better night time routine have helped me with this and fix my mistake I came into junior year with especially with being online for the first part. Overall, junior year has been a big year of change for me with building better habits for myself and doing more now to help achieve my goals for the future and not procrastinate. 

Assignment 24- Sara Anderlich

    My junior year was nothing like I expected it to be. February, as a Sophomore, I was getting so excited for it too. We were going to perform our 2020 Marching Band show at the Bands of America Grand National competition, I was getting weekly private saxophone lessons with my band director, I was getting ready for my CKYO Jazz Concert, and I truly felt like I was getting somewhere instrumentally, and with the rest of my life. It may sound strange, but I intertwine how I think with how I play. I was so happy... I had never felt so confident...and then everything changed. I think it's impossible to talk about my junior year without mentioning the pandemic, no matter how much people may be tired of hearing and reading about it. The pandemic hit and I had no idea what was going on. My lessons stopped immediately and within a few months, I was hardly practicing at all. I just couldn't bring myself to, even if all of my school stresses flew out the window. I absolutely loved that my grades couldn't drop, as I was convinced that without the pandemic, I wouldn't have had an A in Pre-Calculus. 

    But anyways, as this transitioned to my junior year, I really didn't know what to think. Everything was so still Up in the Air (marching band inside joke hehe) and we didn't know when we would be coming back to school, or even if we would come back at all... For me though, this uncertainty wasn't awful. I was sad about band and not getting to meet my teachers, but I don't think my work ethic got any worse. If anything, it got better. I have never had a year where I didn't procrastinate until this year. I just didn't. Sure, it happened on occasion, but for the most part I planned out all of my assignments and did everything by the due date or significantly before it was due. Specifically with my APUSH Key Terms, I started doing at least seven every day. It was difficult to train myself to do, but eventually it got to be really easy and I really feel like it taught me a lot of self-discipline. I may not have given myself a detailed practice regimen for band, but in every other class I truly believe that I thrived. It was weird. All this time alone, and I managed to motivate myself. Sure, it may have been initially triggered by anxious habits and fear of guilt if I didn't do my work, but I still did it. I even started doing my homework with friends, which did help a lot for accountability... I don't know, it was just really cool. This year was the first the year that I was ever able to actually sleep, and I think that that helped a lot too. I just felt like a person, you know? Because I had complete control over my schedule, I was actually living in my own life, rather than walking around in auto-pilot. I really liked it. 

    I think that the hardest thing for me was just getting distracted, not with my assignments, but in class. I feel like some of my teachers really didn't know how to be engaging over zoom, and that made it really hard to learn. I still struggle, but I'm doing my best to always take notes/screenshots of the lectures so that I can be successful in all of my classes. I think this will be an easy fix for next year. I assume my senior year will be in-person and at least semi-back-to-normal, and that's really all I need. I like seeing everyone. Though I get really tired around a lot of people, I'm an extrovert at heart and seeing everyone makes me really happy. Now that I'm vaccinated, seeing more of my friends this summer is something that I'm excited for too, assuming that COVID cases start to go back down again. I don't know... it's just going to be really nice to have a break from school so that I can focus on things that I'm really passionate about. For example, now that I know I want to go into Veterinary Medicine, I'm excited to apply for some kind of job/internship at a veterinary clinic. I think that would be a lot of fun. I also plan to really crack down on myself and actually try and learn how to play piano. I have a keyboard and multiple beginner/intermediate books, and I really think that I can do it if I put my mind to it. I have a friend that's going to do it too, and we're going to use each other to stay accountable with weekly check-ups on our progress. Marching band should happen too... so with that and the normal relaxation time, I think that's all I want to do this summer. 

    As for senior year, I think I'm just going to take it as it comes, and make the most of everything that happens. All I want is to be happy and experience everything that I can, so that's going to be my goal. I want to spend time with my friends, build quality relationships, and do my best to work towards scholarships for the University of Kentucky. I know it will go by fast, but I plan to relish in everything that happens. 

Assignment 24-Aiden Beach

Overall, my junior year was a year of growth. Being quarantined for over a year has helped me learn to be more responsible with my work, not turn away from problems, and pay attention to other people around me. I’ve learned to have much more self-control when it comes to talking to other people without becoming very hyper. I’ve also learned to give people personal space, and I’ve opened up to other people about my problems instead of bottling them up. This helped me reduce stress in order to focus on school better. This summer, I’ll be seeing my grandparents in California for three weeks after I get my second vaccination, a vacation I was going to spend spring break of 2020 if Coronavirus didn’t hit. For my senior year, I hope I spend more time focused on my work and don’t get distracted with any outside situations or personal issues.

Assignment 24 - Palmer Lee

Junior year has been... something. When I started high school, going through a year-long world-wide pandemic wasn't exactly what I had in mind. The pandemic isn't even over, and it probably won't be for another several months, at least. I'm a more introverted person, so I enjoyed staying home. That said, it wasn't good for my habits - I got much worse about putting things off until the last minute, and I never wanted to do anything. Even know, I have a hard time getting out of my chair to go get dinner. Still, I tried to make the most of it. I did do a few college visits, and I hope to do more over the summer. As for next year, I just hope to be able to go outside without a facial mask on. I don't mind wearing a mask now, but it will be nice for it to not be a big deal for me to leave it at home. 

Assignment 24-Lin

 Unexpected. Hectic. Spontaneous. All words I would use to describe this year but one thing it has taught me is how to be adaptable and how to be responsible for my school work without a teacher actively enforcing instruction. The NTI that started last April of 2020 was something that lacked preparation so when we started school in August, the more strict schedule was something to adapt to. The lack of in person classes made learning from a distant less effective as constant distractions to get up and move or look at other stuff made staying on task difficult. As this year went, I learned how to be responsible for work as what the teachers can do during the hour period on zoom is limited to how much they can teach. A friend in college told me that this is what college is like. The lack of an active teacher enforcing due dates is common and the shorter school days leave the day up to the students to decide how to spend it. In a way, this unexpected, hectic and spontaneous school year has helped me learn an important self-discipline skill. With the semester almost ending, I look forward to normalcy during the summer and a more opportunities to enjoy our last year of high school next semester.

Assignment 23- Lin

 Don't Stop Believing 

More than a Feeling 

Smooth Criminal

Werewolves of London

Bat Out of Hell

All of these songs give a type of retro vibe that gives me a nostalgia to when I would watch the movie Grown Ups with Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock and others. It was my all-time favorite movie that showcases a hilarious group of old friends who share childhood experiences with each other. The songs are light hearted and upbeat at the same time. It's really fun to just go with the beat of these songs because they have this feeling with it that just makes you tap your foot and change your mood entirely. The retro vibe makes it all more interesting for me which contrast to today's music which doesn't use as much guitars, pianos, and drums together.

Rukavina- assignment 23

 Perfect playlist-

 

Dancing Queen - Mamma Mia

I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers

Family Tradition - Hank Williams Jr

Callin’ Baton Rouge - Garth brooks

Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks

 

I do feel like I should say that at least for the first two songs, my favorite songs change all the time.

 

First, I chose Dancing Queen specifically from Mamma Mia (that is very important) because I just watched the movie for the first time last week and I can’t get it out of my head. Second, I chose I Wanna Get Better because it is also another song I just started listening to a lot about 2 months ago when a friend played it for me. Finally, my last three have kind of a combined reason because they are all songs my mom would play in the car allll the time when I was little. Well she actually played a lot of country, but these are just the ones I always liked the most. Out of the three I think Callin’ Baton Rouge might be my favorite because I’ve just always really liked it. Also my mom’s entire side of the family is from Louisiana and my mom didn’t actually move from there until about 20 years ago, so whenever I hear country songs my mom listened to like this they just remind me of visiting down there in the summer and being in the car when I was little. 

Assignment 22- Aaron Falk

 As of right now I am quite undecided in what my college path is going to be so everything written is far from a commitment. Once thing I can say that will play an influence into my college fit I believe is my sense of independence. I feel like this is going to push my college decision to a border state as it gives some space to my previous chapter of life giving me room to grow, but also doesn’t take me too far from home. I feel like I'd find myself a little more successful with a little distance between me and home as it would give me less to worry about and a new environment to adapt to. I feel like somewhere in-state wouldn’t be a good fit as it would be too close (especially UK) as it’d be hard to adapt because if anything went wrong I'd see going home as a solution and it wouldn’t give me what I'd need to strive as a student.

Aaron Falk- Assignment 21

 One of the most recent challenges I’ve had to overcome that comes to mind was in the second semester of freshman year. My body has been notorious for catching strep at least once every single year, but freshman year probably had the most long term effects. Starting around the beginning of February I caught strep and my parents thought I was over exaggerating so I continued to go to school until one day I passed out in the shower. I would have strep until near the end of March with about the first two weeks out of school and numerous more days as the doctor would require frequent tests as they thought I had chronic strep. Through all of this it was very difficult to keep up with school as I was constantly having to miss while also having very draining symptoms. It also threw off my wishes to do track as I was beaten down and too unconditioned to attempt to return. But school was the most important aspect to not let slip out of my hands so I would make sure that every time I was feeling a little better and not completely drained I would set a goal to finish so many missing assignments even if it was just an hour or two.

Duncan Wingfield Assignment 23

 My perfect playlist:

Ancestors by Huun-Huur-Tu

Traditional throat singing is just genuinely one of the coolest things ever and Huun-Huur-Tu are complete masters at their craft. Ancestors is my personal favorite song of theirs. It's absolutely beautiful and captivating and it's just so impassioned and I just love it so much.

Got To Be Real by Cheryl Lynn

Disco never died and this song proves it. This incredible masterwork of grooviness is the greatest musical composition of the 20th century. 

When Doves Cry by Prince

An absolute classic that is just off the walls insanely good that will never get old no matter how often I listen to it. The instrumental is insane, Prince's vocals are fantastic and crazy and man it's just so good.

Digital Love by Daft Punk

Another masterwork of grooviness blending electronic and funk with a fantastic driving beat that just goes so hard and then later when they start adding guitaur solos and stuff on top and it just always gets me feeling great.

(What A) Wonderful World by Sam Cooke

This is probably just like the most feel good song ever.

Assignment 23-Zent

 My perfect playlist-

Two Ghosts (Harry Styles)

Life in the City (The Lumineers)

Cigarette Daydreams (Cage the Elephant)

Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor Swift)

Rivers and Roads (The Head and the Heart)

What I like to listen usually changes just about every week but these are the songs that I currently like to listen to. So, all of the songs don't necessarily go together on paper but they are the ones I've listened to a lot lately. 

Two Ghosts- I like Harry Styles but I have really only every listened to fine line and none of his older songs. I listened to Two Ghosts recently for the first time and I like it because its different than his other songs. Life in the City- I like the Lumineers and have listened to many of their songs. Right now I like Life in the City the best because its a little more upbeat than their other songs. Cigarette Daydreams- This song has been stuck in my head for the past three weeks. It has many different parts and all of them have just been going through my head at one time or another. No complaints though because its a good song. Mr. Perfectly Fine- Taylor Swift just recently released this song and I really like it because its just a big dis track and even though she wrote it a long time ago it still holds up to her other songs. Rivers and Roads- Lastly, I added this song because I think it kinda perfectly describes where all of us are at being juniors this year. It says in a year from now all of our friends will have moved away and that our family will live in a different state. Which is basically what is going to happen when we all move away to college next year. Its sad to think about but I would add it because it reminds me to live in the moment.