Tag Archives: student blogging challenge

WEB

One way I love to show leadership is by participating in WEB ( Where Everyone Belongs) at school. In WEB, some seventh and eighth student start off the school year by welcoming the sixth graders with games and a tour. We get groups, 11 sixth grader (or so) to 2 leaders. It’s a really fun day. Then, during the school year, we see our WEB group on no homework nights and do fun little activities with them. We also get to see them during lunch a couple times, just to talk to them for fun.

WEB is fun, but it’s also a lot of work. We have to go to a training for two days at the very end of summer, to get to know each other and learn what we’ll be doing on the assembly day (welcoming the sixth graders). We also have to go to a few training’s during our lunch period during the school year. The training’s aren’t bad, they’re actually very fun, especially the ones during the summer. The first day, we get to play a bunch of getting-to-know-you games. You also get to meat your partner (if you haven’t already).

This year was weird because a new teacher was in charge of WEB (love you Ms. Brown!) and she changed WEB from just being a one-day thing at the beginning of the school year to being lots of things throughout the school year. I like it better this way to clarify. Anyway, none of us really knew that that would be happening, so a lot of us didn’t want to do it. Ms. Brown, realizing this, let us choose, at the end of the first semester, whether we wanted to continue or not in the second semester. I did continue, as did many of my friends, but my partner did not. It’s been harder (one seventh grader with eleven sixth graders), but I’ve gotten used to it.

I think I make a good WEB leader because I’m good at watching/handling people that are younger than me. My mom is the Director of Christian Education at my church, and she does a lot of camps for elementary schoolers. I often get to help her with this, and everything always goes really well. She lets me be totally in charge sometimes (with her in there, of course), and even that goes well. I also really like hanging out with people that are younger than me, so it’s perfect to connect to some of the younger people in the school. I like being a WEB leader because I like getting to be a role model for younger students. I still remember some of my role models from when I was younger, and I’d love to be that person for someone else. 

If you asked me if I would recommend WEB, I would say yes. In fact, it made me really happy to know some of the sixth graders in my WEB group were thinking about doing WEB next year. I don’t like to do things at school that are extra-curricular (like I didn’t even try to get into NJHS, for example) because it tends to make homework harder (being a transfer and having to drive a lot), but WEB is a exception. I wouldn’t want to quite WEB anytime soon, and I’m glad I still get another year to do it.

 

Comments

So, for the Student Blogging Challenge this week we’re supposed to write a post about how we’re going to try to get more comments, but I feel like I’ve got that covered. My parents comment on almost everything (Kim and Bruce), Ms. Schoch comments a lot, and I recently just got some very important people to comment on my blog:

  • Mrs. Bridges, on of the school’s Vice Principals
  • Ms. Bacon, the other Vice Principal
  • Elliot Bristow, an EduBlog’s support person
  • Mr. Ramsey, my school principal

Ya, I’m very happy with my blog and how many comments I have. So, how am I going to get more comments? Keep doing what I’m doing, because that seems to be working pretty well. 

Blogging Challenge for the Week? DONE!

Happy-ness

If you look at her, you’ll just see an old, dirty stuffed animal whose fur won’t lay the right way. But when I look at her, I see the stuffed animal that I could never live without. My prized possession, my best friend, and my comforter all rolled into one. When I was younger, I even considered her to be my sister. My stuffed dog, Happy, is the thing I’ll always need and I’ll always have.

When I was five, I got a build-a-bear workshop gift-card from my grandma. When I went, I picked out a stuffed dog (because I was the type of child that could be in a room full of stuffed bears, for example, and one dog, and I’d only see the dog) that looked almost exactly like my dog, Butler. At first, I was only moderately excited, but the excitement grew as I began to build my build-a-bear collection.

I got bears, frogs, cats, and even more dogs, but each one I had would be cast aside, because I always went back to Happy. No stuffed animal I ever got was as good.

Since I’ve gotten Happy, I’ve always had her in times of need. When I got bit by the dog, Happy was there. When I had a horrible third grade year (that’s a different blog post), Happy was there. Even this year, when I shut my finger in the car door (different blog post again), Happy was there. And I’m sure Happy will be there in years to come too. She’s my every-lasting best friend.

I have to admit, when I was younger, I was starting to worry about what people would think if I still had Happy with me for everything. I thought people would start to tease me and make fun of me. I’ve gotten over that. I really don’t care if you think I’m childish (if you do, thank you!) for still having a stuffed animal as my best friend.

The assignment was to write a blog post about a memory with an object or movie (physical things), and I knew right away I was going to write about happy. But now, I don’t think that’s as smart if an idea; I can’t think of one memory with Happy that would do her justice. Looking back, Happy is in almost every good memory I have, and just about every bad one.

Happy means the world to me, even as a teenager. I would be devastated if anything happened to her. It’d be like an older sibling moving away from home, or a best friend moving to a different state. I’d be missing a part of my childhood-a part of my life. Nothing can ever break the bond between Happy and I, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
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Digital Footprints

Footprint

Photo Credit: stephanie carter via Compfight

Digital Footprints: your history online

I’m not sure what my digital footprint is, but I think it’s pretty positive. I mean, the most recent thing I searched on Google was my name and nothing about me came up (turns out, there are a lot of other ‘Kendall ——-‘s). Technology is a dangerous thing. Imagine: lets say, when you are 5 years old, you go online and join a website of some kind. Well, to get in, you must enter your email, name, age, city, and birthday. All of these things you do because you don’t yet know better. Now let’s fast-forward 10 years. You’re in the mall with your friends and some random person comes up to you and tells you something like, “Happy Birthday,” and walks away. Well, that person could have gotten that information from anything…including the website you joined when you were 5. Some other sources could have been an account on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

“But that’s not true,” you say, “My stuff isn’t able to be seen by everyone! I have the privacy setting on. You can’t see my account unless I let you.” Yes, that’s true: when you have the privacy setting on, sometimes it won’t let everyone see your posts unless you let them. Let me emphasize the word ‘sometimes.’ I just recently got an Instagram account. I didn’t have one for a long time because I didn’t want everyone to be able to see my posts. When my friend asked me why I didn’t have an account, I told her that reason. She seemed surprised that that was my only reason. “Kendall, you know there’s a privacy setting,” she told me, ” and if you have it on, only your followers can see your posts!” I’m telling you now: that doesn’t matter. There are brilliant people in this world that can easily hack into your account and get a lot of information on you. With the information a hacker gets, they can easily use it against you. And believe it or not, that happens a lot. 

Now, I’m not saying getting an account on a website or signing up to the latest social media thing is going to get you instantly hacked and attacked via-social-media, but I would be cautious. Back to the topic about Digital Footprints, if you have a negative footprint, when you go to apply to a collage, you are going to be considered more. Don’t post inappropriate stuff on anything, or it will come back to hurt you. That goes for Google too; searching bad stuff on Google is just as bad as posting something bad. 

With all of the technology in the world today, I feel as though some people are forgetting some of the most important rules of the internet, thinking it doesn’t matter. You Digital Footprint will be active and accessible for years after you die, and has been active and accessible for years (ok, a year) before you were born. If you are tempted to post something bad on the internet or look something bad up, think about your future and think about how the post or search will affect you later.

Texas, our Texas! All Hail The Mighty State!

I live in Austin Texas and I have for my entire life. If you were to visit Texas, there are some places you should go, and I’m here to tell you where I would go (and have been).

Firstly, you should go to the Alamo. I just recently went (during this past spring break), and I really found it interesting, even though I’m learning learned about it in class. You can learn all about William B. Travis, James Bowie, David Crockett, James Butler Bonham, and so many more heroes. In case don’t live in here in Texas, I’ll give you a little information to get you excited.

  1. We lost the Battle of the Alamo. Every man fighting died; only the women and children survived.
  2. The Alamo is probably the most famous battle in Texas History
  3. The Battle of the Alamo lasted 13 days and ended on March 6, 1836
  4. Four of the most famous people are William B. Travis (who has Travis County named after him), James Bowie (who has a high-school named after him, Bowie High School), David Crockett (king of the wild frontier!), and James Butler Bonham (the most famous Currier in Texas).
  5. The Alamo was originally named San Antonio de Valero as a Spanish Mission

Another place you should go is one of the Six Flags Fiesta Texas amusement parks. They are all over  Texas and they are a blast! They are so much fun! I don’t really do roller-coasters, and the one I go to still gives me a lot of fun choices. 

You should also go to the Capital Building here in Austin. The capital is huge and is totally worth seeing. The capital holds a lot of history about Texas. I haven’t been in a while, but I remember it was really fun and interesting. If you want to learn about Texas, the Capital is definitely where to go. Here are some facts to get you excited:

  1. The capital is facing South, because Texas was part of Confederacy (South) during the Civil War, and it was important for Confederacy Capitals to be facing South.
  2. If you go to the Capital gift shop, I don’t recommend getting the key-chain that has a spinning center, it breaks really easily.

Ya, it’s been a while since I’ve gone, so that’s all I have. Go to find out more!

The final place I recommend going is San Antonio’s River-walk. There is a mall, lots of restaurants, fascinating buildings (A hospital that looks like a flat wall is one thing you’ll see if you go. Carol Burnett was born there. You’ll also see a restaurant that rotates one full turn every hour), and more all on a river below street level. It’s very cool.

There are lots of places in Texas you should go if you visit the great state. I don’t want to limit you to these, but these are some really good ones (or my favorites anyway). If you visit, spend time throughout the state, because it would be a mistake to limit yourself to one city. So, I’ll leave you will a…

Bye, y’all!