Back!

Ahhh! Finally! I'm finally not so busy and able to post. lol. Well, ever since last week, school has been absolutely crazy. And the funny thing is, it's pretty much just one class making it crazy. And that class would be English. You see, we have a student teacher that has taken over teaching the class. She seems like a very nice person, but also seems to be a bit clueless about the fact that we have OTHER classes that we have to keep up with and do work for besides our English class. And also about the fact that most people need more than one week to do research papers AND research the topic enough to do a debate on it, and that research papers really shouldn't be done as group projects (yeah I know, you're probably wondering, what the heck? That was exactly what I thought when we were told we would be working in partners on our research papers). So yeah, I guess I basically summed up what we had to do. She put us all in partners, except I ended up in a group of three since we have an odd number of people in the class. She told us to pick a topic to write a persuasive research paper on, and that one person would argue for it and the other against it. The two girls in my group decided on the new universal healthcare plan, and me, not knowing a whole lot about the subject and figuring I could research it and find out enough about it to write a paper, agreed. When I later found out we'd be doing a debate, I immediately wished we had picked an easier topic. But it was too late now...
So anyway, we spent two days in class in the library doing research. The other two girls decided to write against it, which meant I had to write for it, even if I'm not even really for it. But again, I hoped I could just find enough research to be able to pretend like I think universal healthcare is the greatest thing in the world. Oh, and I can't believe I didn't mention the dumbest thing about this whole project, which was what made it the most complicated- we all had to use the same points in our papers. Like one person would write a body paragraph in their essay arguing a point, and you'd have to argue about the same thing. This whole thing would have been a hundred times easier if I could have just picked my own things to write. And, it was really hard to plan anything with your partners, because in the library, we couldn't even sit together- there weren't enough computers for all of us in that one room so some people had to go to another room, and we were separated. And then on the day that we were working on it in class and planning everything, we weren't allowed to talk (!). Uhh, the last time I checked, if you're doing a GROUP project, you need to be able to talk to each other. Luckily, we managed to get away with whispering to each other (the student teacher shot us a few glances, but we just explained to her that we really needed to talk just a little bit so we could figure out what we were going to write, so she finally let up and just told us to whisper and make it quick). So, after a lot of thinking and wanting to slam our heads into the wall, we came up with some subcategories to write about. They came up with their argument and I'd have to find sources that argued against those exact points- so it turned out the research I had done in the library was pretty much useless, and I had to find sources at home that addressed those exact points. Well, thankfully, I have now finally pretty much finished the paper. I have the rough draft written, so all I have to do is make the works cited page and add in one little extra detail, and I'll finally be done! YESSSS! It's such a relief. And also, I finally got the debate over with today, which I had been dreading all week. Some of the stuff about the healthcare thing is really hard to understand. Like, I get the basic idea, but all these little things about it can be hard to understand. So I was extremely nervous about the debate because of this. I'd have to defend it all on my own, and worse, I'd have to just spontaneously come up with a rebuttal after the other side stated an argument. I wasn't worried about presenting my opening statement or my arguments, but the problem was when I had to argue back to one of the other side's arguments. I mean, who can just come up with something to say right on the spot like that, especially when you have a topic that you don't even fully understand? I felt shaky and nervous pretty much all day before that class. Normally, English is my second block class, but since this week we're doing those good old graduation exams, they have to switch the order of the classes around each day so the people testing spend enough time in each class. So today, it wasn't until third block, so I had more time to dread it. When the end of my second class was nearing, I was already starting to shake and could barely concentrate on the story about the history of Spain that we were reading. When I actually got to English class, I thought I might actually throw up. My group members and I tried to plan as much as we could before class started. We basically hadn't had ANY time in class to plan our debates at all. But, one good thing about today was that since the class was later that day, all the people who are dual-enrolled weren't there, so only about half the class was even there. So, I didn't have to do it in front of as many people at least. Anyway, the first group went, but I hardly even noticed what they were saying. And then...my group was next. Well, at least we were going to get ours done before lunch, so I'd finally be able to relax at lunch, and maybe I could actually keep my food in my stomach. So, the three of us walked up to the front of the room and stood at our podiums with our notecards. I just tried to tell myself, this will be over in just a few minutes. Just get it over with. So we started, and luckily, with all the notes I had written down, I managed to always have something to say. In my rebuttals, I just read some of what I had written down, but it wasn't always necessarily related to what the other side just said. But at this point, I didn't care. It was better than saying nothing, and I just wanted to get it over with. And then, it was finally over! I don't know how well I did, but at least the student teacher said she wouldn't be too hard grading them, so maybe I did okay. But I am just sooo glad it's over!

Well, my other classes are going okay. Economics is almost over. We only have two weeks of that class left before we go into government. I'll be kind of glad when that class is over (although I'm not sure how much better gov will be- but, at least the teacher for that is extremely funny, so maybe he'll make it fun:) Econ just isn't my favorite subject. Pretty much all we do in there is write notes and listen to our teacher talk. See, whenever he's lecturing, EVERYTHING he says always reminds him of some story he has to tell, so it just goes on and on. Sometimes the stories are somewhat entertaining though, so I guess it's still better than doing a bunch of written work haha.

Peer helping is awesome! Next month, we're going to go to the elementary schools and put on a skit and teach them a chant and song about being drug-free. We have a few people in there who can play guitar, so we're all going to be divided up between all the elementary schools so different groups of us will go to different schools. We'll do our skit and chant and then someone will play the guitar and we'll sing. It's very interesting, somehow whoever wrote the words to the song decided to make it into the tune of Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours." It's all kind of cheesy, but it is for elementary kids, so...but yeah, that'll be so much fun!

Spanish is all right too. My teacher must think I'm the biggest slacker ever, because I've been having so much trouble getting homework for that class done with all this stuff I had to do for English. The homework we had this week wasn't exactly that quick either- we had these incredibly long packets talking about the history of Spain- in Spanish. Then there were questions at the end, and to find the answers you had to go back and look through the whole thing again! And when it's not even in English, that's really hard. And then last night, I also had to make a food dish to take for "food day"- we always have some of those in every Spanish class where everyone gets a different recipe from a Spanish-speaking country and we have to bring it in. Anyway, I spent most of the day working on my research, and then I got as much done as I could for Spanish, but I ended up just having to go to bed before I was even done because I couldn't have possibly stayed up any later without falling asleep in my classes the next day. Sorry Mrs. Clough! Now that this stupid research stuff is finally over, I can actually finish your homework now!

We have also had a few pep rallies already this year. It's not fun being a sophomore or junior at a pep rally, because they have to sit in the top bleachers, which are very cramped and crowded and it gets really hot up there. But unfortunately, it's not much better for the seniors- now we get to sit on the very bottom bleachers...right by the band. I didn't think I'd ever recover from the headache that came from all those drums banging and trumpets blaring right in my ears. The only good thing about those is that we get out of 4th block early.

And yeah, like I said, we also have those grad exams this week, but thankfully, tomorrow is the last day. Then we can look forward to having them again in the spring! But yeah, I believe I told about the joys of having those last year- how the test-takers can't have any "distractions", so they turn off the bells and block off areas where people are testing, making all 2,200 students have to take the same routes to class. Just a recipe for disaster.

But anyway, I guess I should stop complaining about stuff, since, after all, I am really really happy about this week being over! I'm so excited for the weekend!