Assignment 26-Kathleen Gibbs

I think a couple of the early projects weren’t very successful. I liked the idea of the video summaries for the book, but I wish there would have been more clear guidelines and that instead of reading the whole book in class, we were separated into groups and given one chapter to do a video on. That way, we could have gotten in front of the class, presented our videos and explained our chapters, instead of using all of the class time. I also was a little confused about the vocabulary but I am sure that it would have been effective had the idea been put into full action. I wish that there would have been some examples for each visual literacy project. They were a little confusing and the standards/parameters were unclear. I struggled trying to figure out what you were expecting on them. I am sure I will ace the essays on the AP test.  

Assignment 25-Kathleen Gibbs

I don’t actually feel stress like a lot of my peers do. I don’t get melt-downy. I do, however, get very tense, and when I notice it, pray about it and then make a plan as to how I am going to get everything done. And because I know that I can’t sit and work on homework for more than two straight hours, I factor in break times where I will practice golf, shower, or get a snack. I also try to put my phone away when I start to get stressed out, therefore I won’t be tempted and get distracted. My stress relief activities work well for me. I try to read scripture and remind myself that I always get it all done in the end and that stressing about EOCs, AP tests, and finals right now is only digging into the amount of time I have to study and prepare for them. 

Assignment 24-Kathleen Gibbs

Junior year was a success in that I reached academic goals-well, almost- physics isn't quite over yet! But regardless of what my grade point average is, I know I did the best that I possibly could and I cant get too upset about the results. Over the summer, I will play in golf tournaments and I am going to go to the beach for a while and play in a tournament at the University of Georgia. I will also spend my summer doing summer reading, writing my college essays, and taking trips to decide where I want  to go to college. I want senior year to be as least stressful as possible and in order to make this happen, I plan to stay ahead of the college application deadlines and study for the June ACT, so I don't have to worry about it this fall. For senior year, I also want to enjoy the last year of living with my parents and sister-I know that after I go to college, it will never be the same.

Assignment 26 - Joseph Cook

Throughout this year, this AP Lang class has not taught me a massive amount of material, like calculus or APUSH, rather it has taught me the little things about writing, and made me care about my writing. The most easily visible part of what this class has done for me is I missed 0 of the questions on the reading part of the ACT.
As a teacher, something you could do better on is telling us all of the information on an assignment in class, and relying less on your calendar and website, which are rather difficult to find the first time. a good way to do this would be to hand out all of the information on a sheet, each and every time we have a project. Another thing would be to update grades much more regularly, so we know how we are doing in your class.

Assignment 23- Z. Sippy

I hate waking up early. In fact, I believe that sleep is one of God's greatest gifts to mankind. However, due to debate tournaments, I often have to arise in early morning hours. This is my playlist for pre-debate situations when you need to get in the right mindset.

1. Mr. Blue Sky (ELO)
This all time classic of the Electric Light Orchestra gets the blood pumping early in the morning. I figure that it is impossible to be mad or annoyed when jamming to this tune. It is a great way to start the day.

(2) Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing (Stevie Wonder)
Stevie Wonder. Is a further explanation needed? I think not.

(3) Otis (Jay Z and Kanye West)
Otis Redding and Jay Z and Kanye. That is an all-time great trio. Tallent just bleeds out of this song.

(4) Till the End (Logic)
I just love Logic.

5. Prisoner 1 (Lupe)
Now is the time to get mad. Think about all of the injustice in the world. This song sounds amazing and shares a powerful political message about the prison-industrial complex.

Assignment 26 - Maddie Klumb

I think that writing the essays and the scripts (beginning of the year for Writing With Style) were the most effective parts of class. They had a clear purpose, and I feel that my writing over both long and short periods of time has improved drastically because of this. That being said, I preferred to grade the essays in small groups because they were done faster, there were less essays to read, you could have a more in-depth discussion, and you were forced to engage more rather than just zoning out because you received a fair grade for it (the drawback to this system being less feedback on your essays). I think much of the stress I had about this class stemmed from unclear, or too little explanation of assignments. For example, I liked and appreciated most of the visual literacy projects, but most of them were never clearly explained in class and the rubrics were a little confusing to understand. I think the Socratic seminars (especially the later ones) were interesting and helpful, but the explanation on procedure and scoring we received in the beginning was a little confusing (not your fault) and some of the articles were long and dry. I liked the later ones both because they were shorter and because I could connect to them more and they were more controversial topics with more opportunities for discussion. Overall, I had a good experience in this class and and happy with my ACT, PSAT, and SAT scores; and most importantly, I feel prepared for the AP test.

Assignmet 25 - Maddie klumb

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a person who gets stressed often and easily. I find that constantly moving helps me relieve some stress (so bouncing my leg, tapping my foot, picking at my nails etc.). Through this, I have discovered that activities like needlepoint and cross stitch help me to relax (and I get the added bonus of giving people gifts when I'm done so what's not to love?). I also use dance as a stress reliever. I dance 20 hours a week and going to the studio gives me a safe place to express whatever I may be feeling. It also allows me to take a break from whatever is stressing me out and forcibly removes me from the situation of studying or overthinking the large test I might have the next day. I also turn to reading as an escape from the daily stress, and lose myself in the made up (or even historically accurate) worlds I find in books.

Assignment 24-Elizabeth Ueland

I can't account for the number of times I've stated, “because of junior year," this school term. Although I didn't drown myself in rigorous AP classes, the struggle is still real as the kids would say. My main difficulties have been balancing school, extracurricular activities, and a social life. The latter has dwindled throughout the year as soccer and other activities have consumed most of my free time (mostly Netflix). My abilities to procrastinate, however, have undergone the opposite trend and have skyrocketed. While this has hindered my ability to complete tasks, I am now well versed in cake decorating videos and memes. This summer I will be venturing to Wyoming with my family to camp and hike for two weeks, attending a music festival, and going to a sustainability summer program at Furman University. Sadly the beach is not in my schedule but I am hoping to change that. As for reaching my goals, hopefully I will remedy my procrastination and motivation issues.

Assignment 23-Elizabeth Ueland

https://open.spotify.com/user/epueland/playlist/6g8Wye6ePpdt6fZmnXUsWt

The first song, Them Changes, sets the tone for the playlist with Thundercat's beats that reek of vibes. The song adds grooviness to the mix and instigates an unavoidable head bob within the first five seconds. Breezeblocks also adds a groovy tone to the playlist with the typical Alt-J compilation of sounds and moans harder to decipher than hieroglyphics. Next in the lineup, Alabama Shakes adds a sense of rock-and -roll with the electric guitar and drums while maintaining the Tame Impalaesque nature of the playlist with Hold On. Warm On A Cold Night evokes a comfortable yet groovy tone with HONNE’s somber voice and lyrics. Wild Child also induces relaxed feelings with Rillo Talk, as the slow paced song adds a calm nature to the mix. Lastly, Wampire’s groovy beats in Wizard Staff, akin to those in Them Changes, with a melody of instruments accompanied with few lyrics also add to the “chilaaaaax” nature of the playlist.

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 14th at 11:59 pm

May 14th is the last day to make up blogs 23-26

Assignment 24 - Joseph Cook

The successes of my Junior year are my relatively high grades, my membership in the musical, my 35 on the ACT, and my learning to play guitar. I choose not to remember my failures, unless they help me in life, and then, they aren't failures, so I actually can't remember any. I have learned that I actually need to do homework, and that procrastination is bad. Risks taken? I like to fall off of the beasts castle in the theater. I guess that counts. Mistakes made? No mistakes that I would change, all of the mistakes I've made, I'm fine with the results of. Over the summer, I plan on doing absolutely nothing at all. Junior year has been a lot of everything, so I need a lot of nothing. During senior year, I plan on taking all 3 physics 2 AP tests, I will do this by studying.

Assignment 23-Kathleen Gibbs

This is my perfect playlist for lazy Saturday mornings for Unit Assignments:
1. "Strawberry Fields Forever" by The Beatles because, while this is a great song with a catchy tune, it isn't too upbeat or crazy for the morning. I put it first because it is the perfect song to set the mood for the rest of the playlist. This song won't distract you from focusing on unit assignments either.
2. "In a Perfect World" by The Sam Chase because it starts out with a little tune and grows, just like slow mornings eventually lead into afternoons-when you are forced off of your couch. This song also has very interesting music as opposed to lyrics so that you can stay focused on your work.
3. "Rivers and Roads" by The Head and the Heart because this acoustic masterpiece is mellow and slow, just like your morning. It is peaceful, but won't put you back to sleep.
4. "Stay Alive" by Jose Gonzales because it, too is a song that starts small and builds. It has a great tune and the piano that stays constant throughout the whole song is played beautifully.
5. "Priceless" by For King and Country because, even though it doesn't fit with the peaceful and calm tone, we all need to know that God has cleansed our souls and to Him, we are priceless! This song always gets me ready to conquer the afternoon!

https://open.spotify.com/user/kathleengibbs/playlist/3ECX437pw61K3vt89RBRAy

Assignment 26- Nick Joseph

Overall, this year has been pretty successful.  While I by no means enjoyed every moment of this class, I feel very well prepared for the AP test.  For me, the most effective exercise we did was repeatedly writing essays.  The sheer exposure to the format of the test will be helpful.  I believe that while the intent of the Visual Literacy component of the class was good, the amount of time spent on it (mostly on the explanation of expectations) was lacking.  To me, it just seemed like a way to get another grade in the gradebook.  Additionally a new approach to benchmarks would be nice.  While grading these were EXTREMELY helpful, sitting through three or four classes straight of just grading benchmarks caused many students to lose interest.  Socratic seminars were a major failure in my eyes.  While some of the articles were a little interesting, holding students to such a specific list of guidelines was much too tedious for their partners and WAY too much time was spent on some of the discussions.  Additionally, I would like to address the bikes.  I know many students found them distracting or even a nuisance, but I disagree.  I loved them and I even believe they were somewhat beneficial to our learning.  Finally, I really appreciated the exposure to real world topics that I got from this class.

Assignment 24- Nick Joseph

Let me start off by saying that I think this year has flown by.  It seems like just yesterday we were starting our junior year, and now we are six weeks away from being seniors.  High school in general, but junior year in particular, has taught me a lot about life.  I would say that the biggest success this year has been my grades.  People always talk about how tough junior year is, but in reality it's been pretty low stress.  As long as you keep up on your homework and have a pulse in class, you are guaranteed a pretty good grade.  The biggest failure (and mistake) was probably the elective I chose to take.  It is just extremely boring.  The biggest lesson this year has taught me is that, throughout life, there will be people who you cannot stand interacting with that you will be forced to cooperate with on a daily basis.  I cannot tell you how annoyed I have been with some of my classmates, both inside and outside of the academy.  The ability to keep my mouth shut while somebody around me is spewing uninformed opinions will (hopefully) help me out later on down the road.  This summer, my family will go on vacation, most likely to the beach.  The rest of the summer will be spent working as close to 40 hours a week as possible and hanging out with friends.  Senior year, I want to take interesting (and relatively easy) classes.  I want to get into a good college and hopefully receive a scholarship.  This can be done through putting lots of time into applications, as well as using all the hard work from these last 3 years as support.

Assignment 24 - Maddie Klumb

So, I learned this year that as much fun as it is to code, taking it as a class doesn't work well for me because of the way many of the questions are formatted. I thought I would be able to be ahead or at least on top of all of my homework, and I failed in that respect in that I got more behind than I would like to be. I didn't really take many big risks this year, but that doesn't bother me because I prefer to take small risks in moderation rather than put everything on the line all at once (so do I actually take risks?). I do believe that I became a better writer throughout this year, and I have learned better time-management skills than I ever thought I would possess. Over the summer hopefully I will participate in GSP. If I don't get in to GSP, I will do th Spindletop dive team, and probably get a job out there as well. I will also continue to work on things like my mentoring project, and start college essays (I know, real exciting). I also have a national dance competition in Gatlinburg this summer if I am able to go around GSP (if I get in).

Assignment 26 - Benjamin Givens

For me—and I know many would disagree—the most helpful thing to do in the class was to write the essays and peer review. This helped not only for preparation for the AP test, but also for the writing section on the ACT and SAT. The build up to higher and higher pressure timed writings with all the different types of essays that college board provides seems really boring, but it was the most effective activity for me. Part of the appeal was that it felt inherently purposeful. It is obvious what benefit writing an essay gives you when preparing for a test where half the weight is writing essays. This makes it much easier to be motivated when doing the assignment. For the multiple choice test, I felt that while doing the practice tests did help some, especially in gauging how to manage time, it seemed like more structured instruction on what to look for in the passages would have been helpful.

Assignment 24 - Benjamin Givens

Academically, the year was defined by the word "acceptable." I got good enough grades and I am happy with my test scores. The stress involved with missing a bunch of days due to illness and trips wasn't great, but the trips themselves were great experiences. I learned a lot about managing my time and work load as well as accepting a lower quality of work when the amount of tasks demands it. This summer and my senior year I hope to spend more time working on programming projects while still keeping up with homework. To accomplish this goal, I plan to more clearly set time aside for certain activities, as I have found that it is way easier to something when it is a habit. Things assigned on a regular basis are much easier to do, so if I assign them to myself on a regular basis it might mirror the effect.

Assignment 23 - Benjamin Givens

Music to pull an all-nighter to:
Paradox Interactive - Ride Forth Victoriously (Guns, Drums and Steel Remix)
This song has a captivating melody that encourages you to keep going and a loudness from the metal remix to keep you from falling asleep.

Sabaton - Lejonet Från Norden
An extremely high energy song, but its in Swedish so the lyrics aren't as distracting and you can write without interruption. No one is going to fall asleep to Sabaton.

The Glitch Mob - Fortune Days
With elements of repetition and string'd instruments, this is the perfect track to move towards the EDM side of the playlist.

Justice - Stress
This song is almost grating in nature, as the name implies. It has a driving force that makes you need to keep working.

Daft Punk - Rollin' & Scratchin'
I would not willingly listen to this song under many circumstances, but the constant drum kit and weird noises will certainly keep you on edge.

Assignment 25 - STRESS!!

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


As high school students, you are becoming more and more involved and in control of your school life as well as your "real" life. You face the many challenges of being a high school student in the Liberal Arts Academy as well as the growing responsibility of independence. Many of you are about to experience the dreadful two weeks of multiple high stakes tests as well as your Final for US History. To get through these two weeks and other weeks like these, how do you manage all that stress? What are your stress relieving activities? Are they effective? 

Inspired by Keanu Gomez
Minimum of 150 words.  Due on April 23rd @ 11:59 pm



May 14th is the last day to make up blogs 23-26

Assignment 23 - Joseph Cook

Songs for when you have no idea what you're doing with your life

1. YMCA by somebody probably
This song is very peppy and helps you forget about your life, much less what you're doing with it. This song also is very catchy, and has dance motions to go along with it.

2. Take on Me by Aha
This song just sums up knowing the tune to a song, without knowing what the song is, what it's about, or what any of the lyrics say, or mean. Very useful for distracting yourself.

3. The Mii Channel music by Nintendo
This song, lacking a name, triggers memories of playing the Wii, and not really know what was going on in the outside world, I personally spent hours making Mii's that looked funny, just for fun.

4. All Star by Smash Mouth
Not only is this song encouraging, but it's featured in Shrek. What could be better? The song really has no deep meaning, and isn't that hard to understand what the words are, making it ideal for listening to.

5. Never Gonna Give You up by Rick Astley
Really, let's be honest here. this whole list is incomplete without this song. This timeless tune is not only a good song, but a bad song, at the same time. And if you play it at full volume, it's even better.