From the Adviser : Pushing the Wildcat Wake Up Call to #EGHSRAK

Pushing The Wildcat Wake Up Call to #EGHSRAK

     I might be the only teacher in the world who thinks this way, but I like to think my career allows me to have three other "New Year's Days".

     One of these occurs around the first week in August when I can't hold the calendar back anymore, the sunburn doesn't sting quite as much, and I smell new crayons in the stationery aisle at Target. This is THE year...year number...eleven? Maybe twelve now? Anyway, this is THE year where I am going to be what I call the PERFECT TEACHER.  I'll have matching, funky, and fun bulletin boards, super clean desks, a teacher's desk that would pass white-glove inspection, and I will have engaging lessons EVERY SINGLE DAY that would make even the most challenging student putty in my hands. Seriously. My classroom could be on Pinterest because it's just SO.PRETTY. Who can't learn in here? Then, around mid-September, I have learned 90 names in 25 days, with 10 parents to call, and about 19839203 papers to grade. There's also 14 more days until payday and a checking account that is getting close to single digits. Sigh. There's always next semester.

     The second one is around January. Exams are finished. Semester 1 is in the books. I've got new kids, new ideas, and a new energy. Kids are excited to see new people. For this "first day of school" they don't have that "summer sunscreen haze" on them and it takes less time for them to figure out life. Then #SNOWWWWMG occurs and we are out for two weeks. As a result, everyone's names escape me and we need to read pages 1-39849892 before March. Buckle up, kids.

    However, there's that third wind that comes around April. We're safely out of snowy weather territory, you hear the ping of the baseball bats from the field, and you realize for the first time since October, you left your jacket in your classroom and it's not that serious. The environment around you is a lovely clean rain, then a thunderstorm rain, then OMG..for the LOVE...STOP RAINING!! This is followed by "It's hot", but now "It's cold", followed by doing a double take on a student and saying "Honey, I know yesterday it was 85, but today it's 45, and I'm not entirely sure that's in dress code", and a thousand other in-between, one foot in and one foot out kind of situations. To me, this is the time of year where I roll my sleeves up, close the door at the tardy bell, open the door at the dismissal bell, and the word that comes to mind is "push". Push the kids to stay strong through the year. Push myself to stand before kids in April with the vision of the teacher I aimed to be in August. Push myself out of bed at the alarm and push myself into bed when the "go to bed" and "wake up" times get too close together. Push through the novel. Push through the pacing guide. Push through this lesson. Push to 3:55.

     Sometimes, in all of the pushing, we often push away what matters most...each other.

     Voices in the classroom get a little sharper than intended. Communication gets a little more punctuated. Patience for everyone gets a little closer to nonexistent. Then, it's Friday night/Saturday morning and while all day you would have loved a nap, as fate would have it, the one time you can finally hear your own voice inside your head, THAT voice is now the one that you wish you could silence with a stern, but "you know I still think you're awesome just stop talking when I'm talking" look.

     That was my wake up call.

     So I asked my students if they felt the same way. I asked if there was something about that March/April that brought the moody out in everyone, if the rain made everyone a little more in their feelings that day, or if I was the only one. It appears as though it we are a bunch of moody,
"somewhere else we'd rather be" individuals making it bell to bell.  We like each other. For the most part, we like what we're doing. However, we've just pushed away that energy and replaced it with "dig in...seven weeks...exams....doooo iitttttt." 

      It turns out that we can have our cake and eat it, too. We can push and dig and roll our sleeves up and make magic happen AND do it with a smile. This is where The Wildcat Wake Up Call was born.

      For the next seven weeks, many students and staff members will be participating in fun, themed weeks that engage each other, push each other through to the end, and encourage everyone around us that no one wakes up determined to fail. We fail because some obstacle gets in the way and it's hard to work around. Remove the obstacles and reinstate the success. Please join us in this wake up call that we have hashtagged #eghsrak. RAK = Random Acts of Kindness, which we can all use! Here's a taste of what's to come!

• Unlike the film Mean Girls, You CAN Sit With Us! One week will focus on inclusion in the cafeteria. Anyone wearing a You CAN Sit With Us sticker is considered "safe", willing to let go of the "assigned" seats, and open to making a new friend that week.
• Motivate Me begins this coming week. There will be a daily short video (between 1-2 minutes) from a different senior. This will be sent to teachers via email before school to show during 1st period attendance. Each one of the five seniors explains how focus, determination, and hard work matter in growing from a freshman to a senior. There will be EGHS trivia questions posted around the building and motivational tickets to hand out to anyone who needs a pep talk.
• Chalk Talk includes positive messages throughout the student parking lot, the bus lot as students walk in, and D-lot. Who wouldn't want to walk on a bit of sunshine into the building?
• We can't share all of our secrets. :) 

     The reality is that everyone has a battle, whether it's big or small. However, what trips us up is that we will call someone's battle small when it is a full out war to the other person. Let's push through for our H15TORY making SEN1OR5, our DEL16HTFUL juniors, our EL17E sophomores, and our freshmen who think that they are INVINC18LE. Mostly, because regardless of the class, the subject, or what side of the desk we are on, we're Wildcats. :)

     

Society's Unrealistic Views on Beauty

                    Society's Unrealistic Views on Beauty
                                            By: Elisha Lee

  Society is cruel; people are judged everyday for their appearances.The definition of beauty is a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases aesthetic senses, especially by the sight. To me, beauty is twisted.The media portrays beauty as it being rare and that very few people have it; however, the truth is everyone is beautiful in their own unique way.
      
           When asked to name the most beautiful person, we know we probably name a famous person with the best body and a flawless face. In reality, you will probably never meet those people,and you do not what qualities, morals, or even what type of personality that person has. So why call them beautiful? To truly say and mean the word beautiful, I think you need to know what type of person they are because a mean person with a bad personality can take away from that person true beauty.

        I think that media should stop limiting beauty to one size and few races. Instead, they should create a variety of people and have different styles and ideas for models and TV show stars.

STOP...... BUS SAFETY ....... GO

                           

                                      Bus Safety

           Thousands of children from all ages ride the bus the bus to and from school everyday; so don't you think buses should be safe? Recently, a child in NC was hit by a car while getting on the bus. I think that all NC school buses should improve their lights and warning signals to warn oncoming cars, as well as adding cameras to catch cars who hit and run after the child is injured. 
          
            This subject means a lot to me because I do not want to be hit by a car while going to school trying to get a good education. There are also dangers on the bus as well, such as the fact that that there are children not sitting correctly in their seats and being thrown when the bus jerks to a stop (which is often) and children often hit their heads. The bus driver must focus on the road, so cameras should be on board all buses to catch misbehavior. I think that it would be wise for all counties to invest in lessons on bus safety and the dangers of not sitting correctly. A lot of children are injured on buses and many parents rely on buses to get their children to and from school safely.

         Has your bus ever been late? Well, I have an idea. It is a simple solution: "BUS TRACKERS"  This is an app that allows students to type in their address and bus number and tell whether they missed the bus, if its on its way, as well as an estimated time of arrival. Although this seems very futuristic, I think that it would be better for children by lowering the amount of side road abductions and bus stop kidnapping.


#elishasopinion

Is it Blue/Black or White/Gold, now joining Cause

      Is it Gold and White or Black and Blue? Remember the dress debate, the dress that caused controversy because some people saw it as being black and blue and others saw it is white and gold. Well according to the people who originally took the picture said the dress was naturally black and blue. Now you may be asking yourselves 'than how did other people or I see it as white and gold?' It was discovered that the amount of light caused people's color perception to change; for instance some people's brain made it up as white and gold, while others as blue and black. Well it as this kind of attention that drew the salvation army to use this dress in a campaign against domestic violence.
       "Since the dress caused such a positive stir nationwide and garnered so much attention, the salvation army decided to capitalize on that by bringing awareness to domestic violence", Jaylen Christie, public relations coordinator for the salvation army in South Africa, told the Christian Post. They are bringing attention to domestic violence by including a young women with the gold and white version of the dress, with bruises on her body. "It warms my heart to know that we're getting such positive feedback from individuals that want to end domestic violence or individuals that may be in a situation that they're able to speak up". So far the campaign has received positive reviews from the public.

Different

In a generation where everyone's mind-set isn't really set on anything. Majority design their futures based on the simple, temporarily appealing things. Many favor the popular statements and the stands that other people create, the idea of relationships, social segregation, titles, jokes, and the social media's perspective of how life should be lived is favored to be right.

So many kids have lost the way and fail to recognize it, due to the corruption of their minds. So young and so gullible to the views and opinions of what is important and what is not. What is it that we value? other than what is said should be valued? Since the next kid did this, and the next kid did that, the other kids cant do this or that, because what this or that is, has already been done. Therefore we fall into the followers category.

However we wont dare accept that, because everyone wants to be a leader like the other kids. So we must find something else, so we can stand out as well. Everyone wants to be different. Yet that is all they all they say. They want to stand out just any other kids. They want to be unique and spontaneous like that kid; to be noticed and resected like this kid. So do we really want to be noticed? There's nothing wrong with the admiration of the higher people. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be different. However, in this generation being different is equivalent to being the same. Since everyone wants to be different; everyone ants to be special, everyone is a someone that is not just a simple anyone. Everyone is different, but some prefer be the "different" that  they see in others, rather than the different within themselves. Everyone wants to be an equal different.

Not everyone is meant to be like everyone Not everyone is a singer, dancer, athlete, writer, speaker, thinker, talker, artist.. (etc..) Not everyone can do and be everything. There is no limit to what you can do, if it really is what you want to do. But don't push the limit, just because you saw someone else go beyond it. Don't follow behind a dream or opinion that isn't yours. I believe everyone is different, however no one is equally different. the sky is the limit for those who seek to be the type of different that portrayed on TV, social media and in other people.

There is no limit for those who aspire to be their own type of different.

#GleeToMe

Season 6 Poster

After 6 long seasons, 121 episodes, and the tragic death of Cory Monteith; the hit TV show “Glee” is over… The show followed the lives of many different high school students who were all very different, but found a connection through a Glee club. The last episode of Glee was a two-parter; the first episode flashbacked to the first week of the show; it showed all of the original member’s auditions and their introduction to Glee Club. The second half of the finale showed where the Glee Club was going and where the original members were going as well. After the original members parted ways they showed five years into the future. They showed where Blaine and Kurt’s marriage had lead to, they showed Sue’s crazy dreams being accomplished, they showed Mr. Schuester’s life with Ms. Pillsbury, and even where Rachel was in her career and even in her love life. The night ended with a dedication you can’t miss and an emotional cover of “I Lived by OneRepublic that features old face you have most likely missed.

The Final Episode

Glee has been more than a TV show for me… Glee has been an emotional rollercoaster ride that made things seem so much better. Whether they were bringing me to tears with a tragic relatable back-story or making me smile while covering an Ellie Goulding song; Glee has been so much more than a TV show. Glee has always been a way to forget about what was going around me; and provided me with something to look forward to every week. This is what Glee has meant to me, and I can say a lot of people agree with me. Glee has a special place in my heart and I am sure it will stay there forever.

This is #GleeToMe

By William Brummell