12/18 - 12/19 Class Update

Yesterday, we talked about habeas corpus and whether or not President Abraham Lincoln was justified in suspending it. We also talked about a couple of cases and if we agreed with the reason that their writ of habeas corpus was suspended. It seemed that most of the class agreed that anyone who said something, rather than actually doing something, shouldn't have their writ of habeas corpus suspended.

Today, we took Powerpoint notes on the Civil War until 1862. President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to defend the Union for approximately 90 days. By July, 1861, the volunteers were near the end of their enlistment and hadn't really seen any action yet. The battle of Antietam led Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

12/14 & 12/17 Class Update

On Friday, we spent the entire class period in the media lab working on North v. South worksheets/presentations, where we will get our information for a writing assignment. My group had the economic balance and overall, the North won for that topic.

Today, we did a Battles of the Civil War QR scavenger hunt. This one was much easier than the  QR scavenger hunt we did first quarter because we could look up the dates in the textbook. 

12/11 - 12/12 Class Update

Yesterday, we read the South Carolina "Secession Declaration" in groups. We filled out a worksheet about the document and discussed our answers, which led to a very heated discussion over whether or not South Carolina was allowed to secede or not. 

Today, we compared the Constitution and a New Orleans newspaper editorial about the job of a president and how it related to the secession of South Carolina and the lower south. We also read Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address and answered questions about it. Apparently Lincoln defines secession as "the essence of anarchy."

12/7 & 12/10 Class Update

On Friday, we didn't have class due to the half day.

Today, we filled out worksheets. They were about the proverb, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver," the Declaration of Independence, and a speech by Abraham Lincoln. The first two were to help us understand what the latter was talking about. We determined that the United States Constitution exists for liberty, but not the other way around.

11/29 & 12/3 Class Update

On Friday, we had a sub. We did a packet (which wasn't the work that we were supposed to do). The sub told us to keep eating white bread if we have a suicide wish. Then he told us to eat blueberries. It was quite strange.

Today, we looked at a political cartoon from the election of 1860. In it, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were fighting over land in the US, John Bell was trying to clue the map back together, and John Breckinridge was either taking away the southeast or helping John Bell glue the country back together.

My goal's going well. I'm going to sign up for the pit band for Anything Goes, so I'll have a lot of practicing to do even after the 30 days is up.

1850s Timeline

11/28 - 11/29 Class Update

Yesterday, we learned about John Brown and Harper's Ferry. John Brown was a Kansas abolitionist who met with Frederick Douglass to discuss whether violence could be legitimately used to free the nation's slaves. John Brown asked Frederick Douglass to join a band of raiders who would seize a federal arsenal and spark a mass uprising of slaves. Douglass declined and knew Brown's plan would prove to be suicidal, which did happen. Brown and his men were captured inside the arsenal by Marines. He was put on trial the the Virginia government for treason against the state of Virginia and was hanged for his crimes.

Today, we continued on with the topic of John Brown. We read primary source documents for John Starry, Robert E. Lee, and John Brown and filled out an analysis worksheet for the documents. This took all class, so we'll most likely be discussing them tomorrow.

My practicing is going well. I don't think my sister likes my goal too much, though. Oh well. For the rest of the 30 days (which is only 7 more, including today), I'll have to be practicing on my marching band/backup clarinet, since my new (well, new to me) clarinet was sent out for repairs today. Booooooooooooo.

11/26 - 11/27 Class Update

Yesterday, we read a document about Dred Scott v. Sandford. Dred Scott was a black slave who was brought from Missouri to Fort Snelling, which is in present day Minnesota and a free area. He was then brought back to Missouri. He sued against his master, the Emersons and later, Sanford, for for false imprisonment and battery. He wasn't able to win his case, even though others before him were able to win with similar cases.

Today, we talked about the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. We watched a video clip (and read along) from a movie made in the 1940s that had parts of the debates in the dialogue. After that, we read some passages from their speeches and filled out a chart about how Lincoln and Douglas's speeches contradicted each other.

My goal isn't going so well. Once I actually start practicing, I don't have an issue with doing 15 or more minutes. My mom gets mad when I practice before I finish my homework, which I've had a lot of lately, so practicing has been moved to the back burner for now.

11/19 - 11/20 Class Update

Yesterday in history class, we talked more about Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin. We also talked about the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made helping slaves run away from their masters illegal. Those found guilty of helping slaves would be subject to a fine not exceeding $1,000 (approximately $30,000 in today's currency) and imprisonment not exceeding six months. This made it even harder for slaves to run away, even though slaves who ran away only made up about 4% of the total slave population.

Today, we talked about the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This Act divided the Nebraska territory into Kansas and Nebraska. The settlers living in each territory would decide the issue of slavery by popular sovereignty. Southerners supported the Act because they were sure that slave owners would move across the border into Kansas and vote for Kansas to become a slave state. Northerners opposed it because the Missouri Compromise already banned slavery in the territory in dispute. Proslavery groups gained control of Kansas by voting illegally and turned the whole dispute into a battle for power.

I've been managing to practice my clarinet for at least 15 minutes a day (usually more like 30). I'll finally be able to practice band music since my Districts audition is over. I only missed the cutoff by 5 points for that, which is a lot better than I thought I did. Side note- when the scale is going down, the notes are supposed to go down as well. Apparently my clarinet (my fingers were covering the correct holes for the notes!) didn't know that during my audition. Whoops.

11/15 - 11/16 Class Update

Yesterday, we talked about antebellum America and problems with making decisions about the Mexican territory. For each decision, we were given a handout with some background information and a list of options we could pick from. As far as deciding about slavery in the new territories, my class decided that "popular sovereignty" was the best option. For the Compromise of 1850, my class rewrote history and decided to vote for the Compromise.

Today, we talked about the Fugitive Slave Law. We also read a chapter from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

As far as practicing for 15 minutes every day, it's been working out well! Yesterday I practiced for a while before marching band (Alessandra yelled at me the whole time) since I didn't go home and I wouldn't have time once I actually got home. Today, I practiced during my study and even though I would practice more, my clarinet teacher told me I'm not allowed to touch my clarinet until my warm up time at my Senior Districts audition tomorrow morning.

11/13 - 11/14 Class Update

Yesterday, we went to the computer lab to look at this map and answer questions on two worksheets. There was a lot of math involved, so I was glad I had just come from math and had my calculator with me. It worked out that the South had more land but the North was more densely populated in 1820. The South (obviously) had the higher population of black people. In Louisiana and South Carolina, the black people even outnumbered the white people. We also answered a few questions about the Missouri Compromise, which we learned more about today.

Today, we took notes on a powerpoint about the Missouri Compromise. We also looked at excerpts from three textbooks (published in 1911, 1995, and 2005) about the Mexican War. We then filled in a chart about the similarities and differences from each of the three accounts. Very few things were the same in all three, most "facts" being found in only one or two of the textbooks. Again, this shows that not everything that is published is accurate. After that, we watched a short video on the Mexican War and took a short true/false quiz on it.

As far as my goal to practice my clarinet for 15 minutes a day, I (surprisingly) seem to be better at finding time during the week to practice than the weekends. I've practiced every day besides the long weekend, but I think that's probably because the weekends have less structure. For example, I planned to practice Saturday afternoon, but my parents told me we were going to be going shopping in New Hampshire, leaving in about half an hour. That didn't leave me any time to practice. Grrr. We'll see if that happens again in a couple of days.

1850s Personality VoiceThread Project: James K. Polk

11/7 - 11/8 Class Update

Yesterday in class, we took notes on a powerpoint about slavery in the early United States. We learned about the cotton gin and how it affected slavery. We also learned about the types of slavery- "gang" labor and "task" labor. It seems like while gang labor was more efficient, task labor would ultimately earn the slaves' masters more money (and help the slaves earn enough money to buy their freedom!), especially if the slaves went to work on another farm once they finished their work at home. We also filled out a worksheet on one of slavery's opponents or defenders. I had Abraham Lincoln's "Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society."

Today, we took notes on a powerpoint about escaping slavery. We also looked at different textbook excerpts about the same topic. It was decided that Texas doesn't like that slaves escaped and therefore doesn't want to publish textbooks that imply that the Underground Railroad was good or that white men helped the slaves escape. The textbook published in Texas was also the only excerpt that said that the slaves killed white men. Hmmm...

As far as my goal to practice my clarinet for at least 15 minutes every day, so far, so good! I practiced for about an hour and a half last night and while I have yet to practice tonight, I needed to finish all of my homework first. I just have to finish up this blog post and read about 50 more pages of Frederick Douglass, which shouldn't take me too long.

11/5 - 11/6 Class Update and Month Long Commitment

Yesterday in class, we created Venn Diagram that showed the similarities and differences from the documents we read the day before. All three were about the daily lives of slaves and likely wouldn't have been shared or known if we only these slaves' masters' accounts. We also looked at slavery's opponents and defenders and looked for similarities and differences.

Today, we voted in THS's mock election and we'll find out the results tomorrow. We also looked at the Constitution to decide if the United States Constitution is a slave document or not based on Frederick Douglass changing his views on it. So far, I'm leaning towards pro-slavery, but we'll see once I'm done analyzing it.

For the next thirty days, I'm going to try to practice my clarinet for at least 15 minutes a day. It's something I should be doing anyways, especially since I have an audition next week, but often doesn't happen for one reason or another. Maybe if I try to commit to practicing, it'll actually happen.

11/1 - 11/2 Class Update

Yesterday, we went to the library and looked at the entire grade's integrated projects. Some very rude person stole the Casca game piece. Apparently they were desperate for a penny. Of all the places they could've found a penny, they had to take Casca's game piece. So rude.

Today, we looked at a couple of documents (1 group had 1 document and the other two groups had different parts of the same document). My group's was about a slave's journey on a boat and how he was treated during this time. Each group also created a storyboard for their document/section of document. Our storyboard had a slave jumping off the side of the boat in one of the pictures, not that you could tell that it was a slave. We also all got stuff for the new unit/quarter, which included the timeline, a new voice thread assignment, and a new integrated project. 

10/29 - 10/30 Class Update

I'm not 100% sure that we have a blog post tonight, so I'll do one anyways. Yesterday, we had no school due to the hurricane. I worked on the integrated project a little bit at home. Today, we worked on our integrated projects. Jess and I are doing a board game and had to draw Pompey's statue for it. We chose to skillfully rearrange his toga so he wasn't naked. I commented that Pompey was so sassy that he ripped off his toga.

10/25 - 10/26 Class Update

Yesterday, we had a quiz on the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. After that, we started talking about battles during the Revolutionary War and took notes on them. Then we got very off-topic. We talked about the weather, which resulted in Mr Boyle saying that there are people dying in Jamaica dying because of the "Franken-storm" and we're excited for it. It's true. We had a earthquake last week, but it wasn't that big. It just "jiggled a little."

Today, we had a test. It was supposed to be out of 80 points but there were only 75 points available on it. I counted. Jess says that Mr Boyle is being sneaky. I don't like tests. They make me sad. That is all.

American Revolution Timeline

10/23 - 10/24 Class Update

Yesterday, we did a Battles of the American Revolution QR Scavenger Hunt. We ran around the square on the first floor (foreign language hall, science hall, history hall, and the hallway leading to the cafeteria) looking for pieces of paper with a QR code taped to the wall. Each of the QR codes linked to a question or hint to determine what battle from the American Revolution each one was.

Today, we watched a video on art of the American Revolution. One of the artists that was mentioned was John Singleton Copley, the person I did my Revolutionary Replica on. I already knew most of what was said about the two paintings he did because of this, but I still learned things about him and the other artists. John Singleton Copley, John Trumbull, Emanuel Luetze, and Grant Wood all used triangles/arranging the subjects in triangles in their works. I hadn't noticed that before it was said.

(Mr Boyle, if you see this before school tomorrow, DON'T FORGET THE MONSTERS INC DVD!!)

10/18 - 10/19 Class Update

Yesterday, we had a sub. We wrote an essay on "The Crisis, Number I." by Thomas Paine. I never actually finished my essay because the sub talked for somewhere between 15 minutes and half an hour about how "inspired" the document made her and the history behind it. She wouldn't let us take them home to finish, but she let the other class do that. She also wrote the quote that we were answering the question on wrong and I didn't catch it until today. She wrote, "These are the times that try new men's souls," instead of "These are the times that try men's souls." Not sure how I didn't catch that, considering the fact that I underlined it in the document...

Today, we learned about the Battle of Trenton/Princeton and the Battle for New York. We watched the animation on these two battles at http://www.revolutionarywaranimated.com/. As far as the Battle for New York, I thought it was smart of George Washington to relocate the colonist militia while the British soldiers were sleeping and on Christmas Day. It definitely kept the colonists safer, if not giving them an advantage. We also talked about the essay we wrote yesterday. I agreed that these still are the "times that try men's souls." Thomas Paine never actually said that this was due to the battles of the Revolutionary War. The colonists were in a rough economic situation due to the British taxing them, just like today (though ours isn't because of the British).

10/16 - 10/17 Class Update

Yesterday, we read the Declaration of Independence in groups (as per usual). In these groups, we were assigned a section of the document to summarize- the introduction, preamble, indictment, indictment (cont'd), denunciation, conclusion, and signatures (we didn't do the signatures- everyone already knows what signatures are and that John Hancock's is the biggest and most legible). My group was the biggest (yay technical issues!) and therefore got both parts of the indictment. This section points out things the king did wrong, like not passing laws or allowing them to be created, interfering with the colony's military, the Intolerable Acts, so on and so forth.

Today, we got into different groups and shared our information on the sections of the Declaration of Independence we did yesterday so we would all have it. We also had a class discussion about the government that all boiled down to the importance of voting. The social contract is when we give up certain controls to the government so that they ensure others don't take away our natural rights (life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness). This means that we (meaning anyone over 18 who is registered to vote!) should vote for the person who they feels better protects their natural rights, depending on what issues ensure their happiness. As a 16 year old who can't vote for 2 more years, I could petition the government and write a letter to President Obama and/or Governor Romney about how their bickering on last night's debate was unacceptable, if I chose to. A point that was made was that there's no one forcing you to stay in the country- if you don't like it, you can go somewhere else where you prefer their government. Like the weather, many people complain about the government but don't do anything to change it- their vote could ultimately help change it for the better. If you don't vote, then you allowed the government to be the way it is.

10/12 & 10/15 Class Update

On Friday, we were all given a document for either the Olive Branch Petition, Common Sense, or Plain Truth. In groups determined by which document we had, we found the main ideas of each document and important facts. We were then split into another set of groups where we taught each other about the document we had. I'm sure there were inconsistencies with the information from group to group, like what one person found to be important and another didn't think it was important so they didn't share it, but we all got the main ideas for each document.

Today, we presented our Revolutionary Replica "guests." For the record- never ever use orange (or yellow, for that matter) markers for skin. It may work out well for colored pencil, but marker makes your person look like they belong on some form of Jersey Shore in the 1760's. It's not pretty and now my guy looks like he belongs in the back of someone's closet or the trash can. Anyways, I had John Singleton Copley, which I pronounced wrong every time I said his name in my VoiceThread (which is in the previous post). Apparently 'Copley' doesn't have the 'oh' sound, it's more of an 'ahh.' He was an artist in the New England colonies before the American Revolution.

Lesson learned- I know about the Olive Branch Petition, Common Sense, and Plain Truth. And not to use orange markers for skin. Unless I'm drawing Snooki. That's the only case where it's acceptable.

Revolutionary Replica VoiceThread

(If my voice sounds weird, it's because I'm getting sick)

Edit: Also, ignore the fact that I pronounced Copley's name wrong. Whoops.

Civic Value VoiceThread

Search Stories- Battles of Lexington and Concord

I don't think the embed code is working for whatever reason, so this can also be found here.

10/9 - 10/10 Class Update

Yesterday, in attempt to determine who fired the "shot heard 'round the world" in the Battle of Lexington and Concord, we looked at six different sources from different people who recorded the event. First, we watched a TedTalk on how reliable an eyewitness source really is. It was determined that your mind fills in a lot of information or groups it together. The speaker identified this with September 11th, 2001. He said that he, along with many others, could swear that the second Twin Tower fell within an hour or two of the first, but this isn't true- it fell almost a day later. This related to the documents that we looked at by helping us determine if they were reliable or not. All of which were decidedly not reliable, mostly due to being written up to a week later, being biased, and/or not actually seeing the event occur.

Today, we looked at both this and this animation to learn about the more about the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Battles of Bunker/Breed's Hills. After this, we created search stories on the two battles (which will be posted once it finally loads!). 

10/4 - 10/5 Class Update

Yesterday, we did an EdCafé on the events before the American Revolution that paved the road to the colonists' independence. This one wasn't as successful as the previous EdCafé we did. No one really knew enough about each event to discuss their opinions- instead, we all worked on just getting the facts. I think it would've been more successful if we had been taught the information as a class, even if it's just the bare minimum to be able to form an opinion on the event, and then the leaders of the EdCafé received additional information to discuss. I had the Boston Massacre/Townshend Acts. In my discussion, I was only able to ask a few questions that didn't relate to the information I gave to the rest of the group, like, "Based on the word 'massacre' in the name of the Boston Massacre, how many people do you think were killed?" I asked if anyone thought they would've had the same reaction as various people involved, but I didn't get any conclusive answers because no one knew the information well enough to form an opinion.

Today, we got more information on the events from the EdCafés we did yesterday. We also read the poem Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In pairs, we wrote our own poem in a similar style but using historically accurate information. With most of the information we received on Paul Revere and the real story, I found that I remembered a lot of information from 5th grade, but not well enough that I could randomly spurt out facts about it without prompting it.

10/2 - 10/3 Class Update

Yesterday in history, we read about George Washington and the French and Indian War. My group never actually got past the first page... (we liked Governor Robert Dinwiddie's name too much). However, from what Mr. Boyle told us, we found out that the British ultimately won but King George III made some decisions that the colonists didn't like too much and made them angry about being ruled from 3000 miles away.

Today, we worked on our Google Presentations on our EdCafe topics. My group started getting frustrated at how many times we had to refresh the page- automatic saving isn't a good thing as far as working on school computers goes. We each worked on two of the six sections from our event profiles. I liked how we worked on a group presentation, but I don't think Google Drive is the best choice for doing it at school. It took us a long time to type one word, and we ultimately ended up writing everything in Microsoft Word and copy and pasting it into the presentation, which still took a long time but slightly less.

Civic Values Comic Strip

First Value- Justice

Second Value- Moderation

9/27 - 9/28 Class Update

For the past couple of days, we've been finishing up the unit on the Constitution and beginning the American Revolution. Yesterday, we had our first end of unit test. I didn't find it to be too difficult, especially after having Ms. Herzl last year with tests that often could easily take much longer than the period allowed and that I never finished. There's one question that I know I definitely got wrong- I had the right answer first and second guessed myself. Oh well, too late now.

Today, we created an animated person from either the New England, Middle, or Southern colonies using voki.com. The person was to be a representation of the average colonist in that section of colonies. My group chose to represent the Southern colonies in the form of John Jacobs, a rice and indigo plantation owner from Charleston, South Carolina. I'm pretty sure my entire group had more fun picking out what John Jacobs looked like than actually writing what he said. I still think we should have had him talk with penguins in the background. No one said the background had to go along with the colonist!

First EdCafe!!

I thought that EdCafe on the rights listed in the First Amendment of the Constitution went really well. When we first got the actual assignment, I wasn't a fan of the concept. It seemed like a waste of time and something that we wouldn't learn anything from and I was going to do a lot of prep work with no return. This wasn't the case once we started. In the end, I ended up really liking EdCafe. I learned about others' opinions on the different freedoms we discussed, which made me think more about my own. I found that having a student-led discussion is more like we're just talking than learning, while really we're doing both. We weren't afraid to make our opinions known to our peers when we might pull back and not say anything during class discussions that include the teacher. Student-led discussions also seem less stressful (that's not actually the word I want to use but I can't think of a better one) than regular class discussions. It's a less pressure environment. While I don't believe that EdCafes should take the place of class discussions, I think they're good to supplement what we're learning in class.

Timeline for the Events of the Constitution

9/21 & 9/24 Class Update

On Friday, we had a half day with the morning classes, so my class didn't get to have History class.

Today, we talked about the Bill of Rights. These rights were adopted because New York, Virginia, and Massachusetts wouldn't have ratified the Constitution otherwise. People are provided protection against the National Government's power by the Bill of Rights. The National Government's power is limited by the first ten (10) Amendments to the Constitution. These Amendments include rights such as having no national religion, freedom of speech and press, peaceful assembly, the right to a public and speedy trial, the right to a lawyer, as well as others. I think the right guaranteed in the Bill of Rights that is used the most by myself and other people in my life is the freedom of speech and press. This is used everyday in things like class discussions.

9/18 - 9/19 Class Update

Yesterday, we learned how a bill becomes a law and about the checks and balances in the 3 branches of government. We also created a infograph about the government's branches (which is shown in my previous post)!

Today, we did some background information of the Question of Ratification of the Constitution. We were divided into groups to learn about the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. After we finished that half of the worksheet, we were split into different groups to learn about the other side. We also created a magazine cover for either the Federalists (which is what my groups did) or the Anti-Federalists. My magazine cover was called The Federalist News and had a picture of the Constitution in the middle with their biggest arguments for ratification of the Constitution.

Classmates Civic Values Podcast

Infographic of the 3 Branches of Government!

Happy 225th birthday, US Constitution!

In class for the past couple of days in History, we've been going over assignments and learning how the executive branch was formed. On Friday, the class went over the syllabus and answered any questions someone had. It's definitely a lot easier to hand in assignments on time when you know what's due when! Today, we read a document about the Virginia Plan, the New Jersey Plan, and the Hamilton Plan. We then analyzed each of the documents to find answers to questions like how many people have power, how they're elected, how long a term length is, etc. The current executive branch a combination of all three plans along with some changes that none of the plans have, like running for re-election. I think that the most effective plan would be the New Jersey plan because the president(s) would still be impeachable and there's still a defined length of time for the term. Also, happy 225th birthday, US Constitution!

9/12 - 9/13 Representation at the 1787 Convention

For the past couple of days in History class, we've been learning about representation at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Yesterday, my group took notes on William Paterson, James Wilson, and George Mason's opinions on a bicameral Congress. Today, after our quiz on the Preamble, the groups from yesterday got switched into new groups with one or two people from each of yesterday's groups.  From there, we shared our notes from yesterday so everyone would have the same information. The other two topics were whether election should be done by the people or by state legislatures and whether states should have proportional or equal representation in Congress. After that (and lunch!), we took notes on the Connecticut Compromise. I think it's strange that slaves weren't allowed to vote and yet they counted as 3/5 of a person as far as representation. 

Fake Tweet Builder Submission...

...from William Paterson, James Wilson, and George Mason!

http://cheezburger.com/6580343808

Family Civic Value Photo Essay

http://private.rewindy.com/story/226VPXbm/view

3 Artifacts That Describe Me

Clarinet
My interest in music- more specifically, my clarinet- is major part of my life. I started playing in the school band on flute in 4th grade; that didn't go well, so I switched to clarinet and haven't looked back since, despite learning new instruments between 4th grade and now. I can often be seen bringing my clarinet with me throughout the school day. In the typical week, it seems like I spend more time playing my clarinet than I do sleeping. Every fall since 8th grade, I've played clarinet in the THS marching band. This requires me to be at school for an extra 12 or more hours a week, in addition to the regular class hours. I also take clarinet lessons once a week and play in the Northeast Massachusetts Youth Orchestras' wind ensemble. The clarinet may be something that causes me to have a hectic schedule and a lot of stress, but it's part of who I am.

Guard Gloves

My guard gloves, in some ways, can describe me very well. To most people, they look like a pair of ugly tan fingerless gloves with some padding on the palm. Yes, I see them pretty much the same way as others, but it's more about what they symbolize for me. I see the gloves as a reminder that anything is possible if you're willing to try hard enough. Last winter guard season, I was a rookie and had never even spun a flag before. I faced different challenges each practice, one of the most common being unable to do the flag work given and getting frustrated due to that, but I didn't give up! I went home and practiced and practiced and practiced until I could get it, maybe not perfectly, but able to do the work given. Every member of the winter guard's hard work throughout the season paid off, since we won the NESBA Championships! In previous years, the guard hadn't done well, so this was a huge milestone for us. I wore my guard gloves in every competition that prepared us for the championships. I've been told that I keep trying at something until I'm able to do it, which is what my guard gloves symbolize to me.

Cell Phone
Technology is constantly changing and improving, which means there's always the 'next big thing.' At one point, cell phones (and I'm not talking about smart phones) as we know them today were the big thing. They're one of the many things that help people stay connected with each other and keep you from ever being truly alone. I don't like to be alone a lot- I've watched too many creepy TV shows and movies to be comfortable alone in the dark and, sometimes, during the day. Obviously, everyone has those times when they want to be alone- I turn off my phone and the problem is solved! Also, cell phones can be incredibly distracting, just like a million other things that are mostly technology. I can get distracted by my phone a lot while I'm doing homework or studying, especially when I really don't want to be doing whatever it is that I'm doing. Even while I'm typing up my blog post, I'm texting a friend. The constantly improving technology may mean more distractions when it comes to things like school work, but it's here to stay. At least, until the next big thing comes along.