Rachel's Challenge

Recently, a program called Rachel's Challenge came and talked to my school. Rachel Joy Scott was the first person to get murdered in the Columbine school shooting on April 20, 1999. Rachel was a very kind, good person who always went out of her way to help others and make them feel better. She had this theory that if you're kind to one person, it could start a positive chain reaction of kindness. So after Rachel died, her family decided that they wouldn't just sit there and wallow in their pain and become bitter people. They decided to take her message to the next level, and start a program called Rachel's Challenge that challenges students across the world to do two simple things. Be. Kind. So pass on this message to your friends, and try to accomplish her challenges. So try it out, because in the end, everyone will benefit! :)
http://www.rachelschallenge.org/

Interesting News and a Funny Video!

Hello! So as you might know, the results came out for that poetry recitaton contest that my sister entered. And she won for her poem! It's been a big deal, and we're all so proud! So thanks so much for any of you that voted for her!

Now on a completely different topic.

I take Spanish, and in my class, my teacher showed us a HILARIOUS video called "The One Semester of Spanish Love Song", although it has NOTHING to do with love! Check it out the clip above!

Norton Anthology Recitation Contest

Ooh? Aren't you excited? TWO posts in ONE day. But I haven't posted in a while, so maybe this will make up for it.
But this is a really special blog post. My sister, Cecilia Gigliotti, has entered the Norton Anthology Recitation Contest for high school and college students. I was wondering if my few, blogging fans would be willing to vote for her in this contest, because she is in the FINAL three! :D
Very exciting. She recited an Anne Bradstreet poem, and I did the wodnerful filming. http://books.wwnorton.com/books/bradstreet-video-contest/
^^
CLICK right there if you would like to support her!!! :) You can watch all three, and she is the third video. At the bottom, it has the poll, and she is Cecilia Gigliotti, New Britain High School.

She thanks you for your support and remember: voting ends January 8th!

HAPPPPPY NEW YEAR!

It is officially 2012!!!!!!!! HOORAY!!! A new start for everyone who wants one! You watch the ball drop in Times Square (if you're awake for it :D) and you get to go to the calendar store and flip through all the glossy new calendars for the coming year. You get to buy those really cheap but cool looking 2012 glasses and scream like a maniac, going "HAPPY NEW YEAR, HAPPY NEW YEAR!" and the great thing is- no one thinks you're an idiot! Because they're all doing it too! And you can stay up all night, or toss and turn in bed since you can't go to sleep because there are fireworks going on at your neighbor's house. Talk about a blast, right?

The hardest thing about the New Year is New Year's resolutions. I know people who have already broken their New Year's resolutions, already, without even knowing it. Facebook statuses such as:

"I broke my resolution...without even knowing it."
"I don't even have any resolutions yet! How can I make myself a better person?"
"It's pathetic. Nobody in my family can stick to their resolutions...(not even me)."

See? It's not easy for anyone (now granted...I made those up, but BASED off of actualy ones I saw!) and it's difficult to stop doing things that one is used to doing. But I'm not going to go on a rant of how you should stick to them, because honestly, I couldn't even say if you made good resolutions, or if you made them at all! If I said, "Make sure you stick to your resolutions" then someone could be hurt. An anorexic person could read this and try to accomplish their goal of losing weight. NOT GOOD.

So basically,  just enjoy the new year of 2012!!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

*Jaws Music* (at climax) UH-OH! AHH! SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!! Run as fast as your little legs can carry you!

Now is the time that, after all the worry on the East Coast about Hurricane Irene and power outages and flooding, that one must prepare themselves for the word that many kids fear the most in the English language- SCHOOL. A young student must go out to Target or Staples or WalMart or whatever place of your choice and buy binders and pencils and markers and a brand new, fresh-smelling book bag, which they dread to think that they must drag to school.
I, for one, although ranting about short vacations, like school! I actually enjoy it the majority of the time, between seeing my friends and learning something new and seeing my teacher every day. But I'm in the minority.
Of course uniforms and rules and bossy teachers that are ALLOWED to order you around do not help the situation whatsoever. Some kids either get no discipline at all at home, in which case they don't know that these instructions should be followed, or sometimes rules ARE enforced at home, and kids want to just let loose since their parents aren't around to scold them. But when the privilege of slacking off is suddenly taken AWAY from them, school does seem as fun. In fact, they'd MUCH rather stay home.
Which is part of the reason I don't understand out of school suspensions. What percentage of the kids that get suspended do you ACTUALLY think go home and sit in their room thinking about what they've done wrong and how they plan to do it differently in the future? Very few, I can tell you that.

This was more a random post.....I felt like this was necessary since i haven't done this in several days (in my defense, the hurricane taking out the power didn't help me AT ALL).

Thanks for reading!!

Vacations and Apologies

This is my sincere apology that I have not posted in the longest time (although I know I don't have THAT many followers, but the few I do have, I apologize to). Anyways I had my entire school year, which was a bit hectic for me, as well as summer time, which although doesn't seem very busy, is very busy, because you're looking for things to busy yourself with. I should know since I decided not to do any sort of camp this summer.

But I think vacations are much too short. Now, you're probably thinking, "Oh she's just a kid in school and thinks school is boring and stupid, so of course she thinks vacation is to short." Well, that is a WRONG statement. Well, partially wrong. I am just a kid in school. But moving ON.

1. I am in the minority of kids who do NOT think school is boring and stupid (most of the time. there are those days when you really don't want to learn and you're just too tired. But every kid has off days, am I right?). I am a pretty dedicated student, and because I care so much, I usually get along with my teacher very well, making school enjoyable for me. It's only the kids that misbehave and get yelled at all the time that usually hate school, because they hate their teacher because they YELL at them! It's pretty simple to follow.

I do my work > the teacher likes that I do my work > I like that the teacher likes me > I like school.
That's just how it works.


2. Even my MOM agrees that vacations are too short. She obviously isn't in school any more, so she isn't a biased opinion. It's hard to have family time in the summer, because sometimes kids do camps, and my dad teaches summer school sometimes, and my sister has her AP packets that keep her crazy busy for a while. So we basically have NO time. So school isn't helping families join together, although they expect the parents to be all supportive during the year.


3. Just look at the facts! One reason kids might not like school is because they have too much of it, and we have to make up days we get off....it's just not fun! Also, the ration of time we spend in school vs. out of the classroom is 10:2. Tell me that's not crazy! We only get 1/6 of the year to do what we please!


If those three reasons don't convince you, I'm not sure what will!!

I'm sorry again for my lack of devotion. I will be posting much more often now!

CMTs....Who Needs Them?

No matter what age you are, if you're old enough to read, then you've taken some kind of standardized test. Whether it's CMTs or CAPTs or SATs, we all know what a pain they are and how USELESS they are. I mean really, someone leave a comment giving me ONE SOLID REASON when I'd use the mean, median, and mode in real life. We learn all this stuff, and when do we need to use it? Oh yeah, THE STANDARDIZED TESTS YOU GIVE US!!! We're not going to go out and spout out the Egyptian flooding seasons of the Nile! Some things, I agree we do need to know, such as conversion and measurement. But guess what? In my grade, WE DON'T EVEN TAKE A SCIENCE CMT!!!! I swear, none of this stuff makes any sense.
My mom helps distribute CMTs, and she said that the process is gureling and much harder than it has to be. The pocedures they take to make sure no one is cheating or has an advantage is pointless, because there are still kids who get 'extended time', who may not even have special needs!! I HATE CMTa, with all the fiery passion of 1000 suns.
That is my rant, and, if you couldn't guess, tomorrow I start CMTs. :(

The Groundhog is a LIAR!

After all this snow, you'd think it would be impossible that the groundhog would predict that there will 4 more weeks of winter, and not an early spring. I bet you can guess which one the groundhog predicted very early on that February 2nd. Yep, he thinks that there's going to be an early spring. Of ALL the winters he could've chosen to not have a shadow, he chose the one where we've gotten over 80 INCHES OF SNOW. Especially since it's only the beginning of February.....I mean, Connecticut has gotten snow in APRIL for crying out loud! Anyways, I've decided that this year, the groundhog is a LIAR. But only for this year. I personally like the groundhog. He's cute.

Oh yeah, by the way, Happy belated Groundhog Day.  : )