Random post
Do you guys ever hear yourself on video and think “is that really what I sound like” hahaha
@SallyStephens YES my voice disgusts me
Oh my god I hate my voice too. My dad took videos when we went to Mexico in seventh grade (and I have videos from other occasions as well) and my voice is horrible D:
On another note, my hair is now four inches shorter D: My mom kept telling the hairstylist to cut it shorter and shorter, and the hairstylist listened because “it’s her [my mom’s] money.” I liked my hair the way it was; the most I wanted was a one-inch trim. I hate short hair…
My Journalism interview is tomorrow and I’m (slightly) freaking out. Their interview process is absurdly scary–ten-ish people staring you down with really, really good poker faces no matter what you say; they ask both generic and random questions. I did really badly last year, although I hope I’m not so hopeless this year.
@topaz1116 Wow, Journalism must be huge at your school. There isn’t an interview at mine, because barely anyone applies so everyone gets in.
Anyways, what are y’all reading in your English classes recently?
My class is starting The Great Gatsby, which I’m very excited about reading. We just finished a rather depressing memoir called Night (about The Holocaust) so I’m glad we can move on. We even get a Gatsby Party at the end of the year. 
@SirSly I’m going to read Gatsby junior year for English (I actually read it a couple of years ago and it was so good)
We read Red Badge of Courage, the Cherry Orchard, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream this quarter and I think next quarter we’re focusing on Huck Finn.
We read Night a while ago! Right now we’re (re)reading Much Ado About Nothing (I don’t see the purpose, as we read it in seventh grade, but to each their own…), and next we’re going to read Julius Caesar. We read the Great Gatsby junior year.
Journalism is huge at my school–there’s a staff of around fifty people, and every year, around fifty try to get in. I think around thirty make it to the interview round, but less than half make it past the last cut, so they have to be pretty strict with who gets in. Most of the decision is based on your interview, and I’m not the best at improv…
We don’t read Great Gatsby until senior year 
but we just finished the Crucible and are starting Death of a Salesman
@SallyStephens Yup, it is college credit; however, it will go to your high school transcript depending on your school policies. Straight-up, I think you should take them - you don’t have to worry about getting a 5 on an AP, and you get legit college credit.
@SirSly We’re reading Lord of the Flies now in AP Lang, we were supposed to read Julius Caesar but we aren’t going to anymore…we’re only on our second book this year. Last year we read about 10 books. I guess that’s why it’s called AP Lang and not AP Lit!
We just finished Richard III, which is actually pretty cool since they just buried him, but I didn’t care for it. At least it’s not Macbeth though /
Our 4th quarter curriculum says we are reading Julius Caesar but it’s been two weeks into fourth quarter and we haven’t touched it yet. Currently we are working on preparing for our state required reading test. ugh I hate tests that determine if we will pass tenth grade–it’s not even viable
We don’t spend time preparing for standardized tests (save AP) because it’s assumed that everyone will pass–especially in honors classes.
I think I did well on my Journalism interview! I answered every question promptly and confidently, which is a lot of what they look for.
@topaz1116 that’s great! I hope you get in! My newspaper experience has been wonderful, and your school’s journalism sounds amazing (if not intimidating!)
I have a question! Since the staff is around 50 people, how do they all operate? I mean, surely that’s too big for one class to work. Are there multiple classes of varying levels? How do they separate them?
@topaz1116 I didn’t mean our teachers think we won’t pass… the state legislature made a new test for tenth graders that involves interactive multiple choice and completely computerized software. Instead of answering a multiple choice, we have to click on words in the text and drag and drop or we have the choice of choosing more than one answer. There’s also typing responses and there’s like certain formats. We had to watch a 20 minute demonstration on using the computer tools.
So yeah… it’s aggravating and I wish it didn’t exist
@MissSuzyQ there are two classes (3rd and 4th period), although I think all of the J1/J2/J3 students are interspersed between the two periods, since they wouldn’t want all of the editors and stuff in one period and all the staff writers in another. Generally, all Journalism 3 students and quite a few Journalism 2 students are editors/managers, and everybody is considered a staff writer, although J1 students are expressly so.
@SallyStephens oh ew. I think we’re moving to computerized testing this year, too, but nobody has any idea on how it’s going to work.
@topax1116 that’s interesting. I pretty much assumed that the classes had to be mixed with newbies and veterans since the newbies need to be taught a lot, but still, that staff is huge! Our staff is around 20 people, and it has a very close-knit feel. Your school’s staff, on the other hand, sounds more like a college staff.
When will you know if you got in?
Okay. Okay. Okay.
So today in APUSH I was retaking an essay after school and I swear he said finish at 2:53 and so I paced myself accordingly. But no. He said 2:43 and at 2:48 he wrenched the paper out of my hand and said that the other kid who stayed that late and I lost his trust because we didn’t follow it and told us to leave because others were testing for different classes of his. He is taking points off because both of us misheard and stayed longer than the extended time.
Grrr and there is 0 way for me to tell him we misheard cause it’s too late for that.
I had 4 words left -.-
Hmm my class just finished The Great Gatsby this year! We have done The Catcher in the Rye and will do the Crucible next.
@SallyStephens wow that really stinks. We have to take the PARCC exam for English, which is really easy. But we had a full trial run in March and now we have to take the stupid test again:(