Elizabeth's Blog

Violence In Television Today, many people believe that shows aired on T.V. promote violence in kids as well as the society, but this is all circumstantial. Of course every once in a while there will be a conflict in society between people or nations, but blaming this all on a show seems a bit more like avoiding responsibility than solving the issue. Violence shown in shows such as Criminal Minds or even The Simpsons is not the reason people fight today. If anything, having these shows opens up the eyes of the naive to what really goes on in the community outside of the perfect bubble of a neighborhood or school. Shows like these gives insight on tragedies and the people responsible for them. If seeing a character on a show beat someone else up makes people want to be more violent, then that is not an issue of the show's content, but of the mindset of the child or adult. Plots on popular T.V. shows are targeted to be relatable to the audience or else nobody would want t...

Yesterday morning at 10 a.m., Cyclone Victor hit the coast of the Solomon Islands and caused mass destruction across the community.  The cyclone took 20 houses, damaged numeral buildings, killed 6 people, injured 18 and made over 100 people homeless. The cyclone was spotted at 2 a.m. near Nauru by the meteorologists at the Nadi Weather Center. The center contacted the Solomon Islands government by 3 a.m. to warn them of the approaching Cyclone Victor. "We warned all the proper authorities," Nadi Weather Center Director James Jones said.  "It was a fast developing front that we could not have anticipated any faster." With the cyclone on the move, the weather center classified it's damage capability to better prepare the people. "The storm had sustained winds of 140 kph and was classified as a Level 4 Cyclone," Jones said. After  receiving knowledge of the storm, Government officials went into action to warn the people on the islands and get ev...

News This story was about how the Austin City Council just voted to remove the curfew of minors to relive some stress from both the minors and the officers. This new law allows minors to be out during the hours of 9am to 2pm and from 11pm to 6am. This change gives wiggle room to students with late night jobs and allows officers to focus on tougher crimes then just a night-owl teen. 1. Austin City Council member Ellen Toxclair, junior Han Vo, and council member Jason Stanford 2. "I don't think it's a good public safety policy to preemptively criminalize children who had no intention of committing a crime." -Ellen Toxclair 3. yes 4. quote Commentary This story talks about how "Bulldog Nation" has affected the school in a positive way and how our school spirit has increased because of it. It brings up topics like how easily we were able to accept a new thing that we originally made fun of, and how that can affect our sense of values. 1. only Pri...

1. Who were the sources? Neil Brien, Aunt Leardon 2. Summarize in 1-3 sentences the story: Neil Brien wend to a very strict, catholic school in Ireland growing up. The school had very strong and difficult curriculum, which pushed Brien to try his best and work as hard as he could. In the end, Brien enjoyed his school days and wouldn't change a thing. 3. How many paragraphs is the story? 34 paragraphs 4. How many words is the story (you can do this in the Google Doc itself)? 1027 words 5. How many direct quotes are there in the story? 19 direct quotes 6. How many different people are quoted in the story? 2 different people 7. Which quote is the most impactful of all the ones included? “It was extremely competitive between students,” Brien said. “In many classes, the seating arrangements were based on test scores.” This one was the most impactful to me because it really allowed me to fully comprehend how competitive this school really was. Compared to Bowie, most teachers go ...

1. Who were the sources? Kelle Shymkiw and Cathy Callaghan Noey 2. Summarize in 1-3 sentences the story: Cathy Callaghan Noey grew up in a military home as an army brat. She went through her life constantly moving and had troubles finding a permanent home due to her dad's constant re-locationing. In the end, she found that growing up this way taught her many important life skills and sculpted who she is today. 3. How many paragraphs is the story? There are 26 paragraphs in my story. 4. How many words is the story? There are 831 words in my story. 5. How many direct quotes are there in the story? There are 12 direct quotes in my story. 6. How many different people are quoted in the story?  quoted 2 different people. 7. Which quote is the most impactful of all the ones included? “Oh, yeah. It had a huge impact on my life. I was able to learn so many good quality traits from my dad. He made me motivated and responsible for my own life. Daddy really inspired me to join the army mysel...

Feature Story Rough Draft

Short Answer: 1. Sean Foley and Andrew Nestor 2. He did this to make the lands for "public use" and because the protections were "too broad" 3. This was due to inflation and to keep up with th competitive wages for their staff. 4. Baker Mayfield, Lamar Jackson and Bryce Love 5. I would want to see "Wonder" because I read the book all the time when I was little and loved it. It's such a sweet story and I really want to go see it.  Long Response: Trump's tweet raised suspicion that he knew about Flynn lying before it ws released, which means he could've been  apart of that, too. What was also weird wa show he brought it up with security the next day and hoped that they could be so kind to "let this go".  I think that there is a possibility that Trump knew about this before they fired Flynn because he was very eager to have everyone try to forget this ever happened. He also seemed to be trying to get the people to feel bad for ...

Taryn, 5th period Good topic! A lot of your questions seem to be "close-ended", so if you are going to ask these you might want to rephrase them to get ore depth on your topic. For example: "Was your school well-rated or poorly-rated?" could be rephrased as "How would you describe what your school looked like?" or by just simply adding a "What's your opinion?" to the end of it. Two questions you could ask your main source could be: What was the most memorable time of your life? What do you think most defined who you are today? A question you could ask your secondary source could be: How would you describe Aunt Beth growing up? You could also interview one of her close friends or another relative of yours. 1. The audience could be anyone because it deals with people of different generations. 2. The author's main point is to compare her lifestyle to her aunts 3. The part that interests me the most is finding out how different it actually w...

1. My Aunt Cathey 2. My mom, Grams 3. Growing up an army brat 4. 3rd person 5.  How would  you describe your childhood? Where was your favorite place to live? Would you want to go back and change anything about your childhood? Who was your inspiration growing up? Was it hard on you to move?  Where was your least favorite place to live? What was one thing that influenced you growing up? What was your favorite meal to eat put on the base? Was it ever frustrating to have a dad in the army? Is there anyone that you can still remember that you miss? Who was your best friend? Was school hard for you? What differences, if any, are there between growing up on the base and growing up in a  neighborhood?  What life skills did you learn growing up? Whats your favorite memory on the base? Was there anything different you did growing up that most people didn't? (a game or something) Where do you think was most home? What i...

1. The difference between a hard news lead and the one I read today was that this one did not require the 5W1H (Who, What, When, Where, Why, How), but instead tried to capture the audience's attention first. 2. I learned all of this information in paragraph 2 a. Who: Ted Williams b. What: became an internet sensation c. Where:  Hudson Street ramp off northbound I-71. d. When: January 4, 2011 e. Why: for his amazing voice  f. How: a video posted on Dispatch.com  3. Yes 4. Yes 5.  Kevin McLoughlin,  Doral Chenoweth III,  Ken Andrews,  Tony Florentino,  Shane Cormier,  Frank Willson,  Patrick Harris,  Ted Williams 6.  "We could make him a millionaire," Cormier said. I think that this is the most powerful quote in the story because these guys are planning on completely changing the life of this homeless man, all because he just happened to be gifted with an amazing voice.  7. 33 paragraphs 8. The story is 76...

1. I think that in today's society that people do perceive beauty, but in their own unique ways. While some people may find beauty in gardens or flowers, others may think that punk rock is truly beautiful.  Everyone has their own tastes in life, which reflects what we find beautiful or not. Finding theirselves in a situation where they are busy or unavailable might affect what they perceive as beautiful because they may not be as focused on their surroundings as they should be. 2. Beauty is not always appreciated in today's society because people can find it so often. Our culture and lifestyles are completely different today than they were in the 1800's. Nowadays, if people want to listen to classical music they can look it up on youtube or any app that supports music. Back then, music was appreciated a lot more because it was a delicacy. Not everyone cold go out and listen to whatever they wanted to on a whim because concerts were expensive and did not occur whenever the...

A) 1. Sami Orange      2. Standardized testing      3. " Personally, I think that standardized testing should not be issued."      4. Yes      5. No because she was very persistent about what she believed in and supported it will many facts and resources.      6. Yes      7. 1st B) 1. Karis D.      2. Allowances      3. " I like the idea of this system because it teaches kids the importance of money and hard       work. But weekly pay for children also must depend on the financial status of the family. "      4. Yes      5. Yes because they did not have a super strong opinion on this topic. They were understanding of both sides and you could slightly tell in their writing.        6. No      7. 1st      8. This is just a regular opinions piece because the...

Commentary Writing

Ideas: 1. Phone addiction: is it a problem? 2. Stress levels 3. AISD Bond I read BuzzFeed a lot because they have entertaining stories with topics that I am interested in like cooking, fashion and DIYs. Their stories are well-written and are focused on things that mostly teens would be interested in. Most of their writers are mid-late twenties so it reflects a younger view and stance on the issues they discuss.

Wednesday night at 10 p.m., a 53 year old woman named Janice Jones was shot in the leg in Barstow, California after her dog accidentally knocked a 9 mm handgun off a seat. California Highway Patrol press liaison Tammy Rye was working the case. She reported that Jones was eating pork chops in the back of her motor home on Beach Boulevard near Highway 1 when the gun went off, shooting on impact of the fall. The bullet went through Jones' leg and exited out through the side of the vehicle. "It could have been worse," Rye said. "The bullet hit two inches from the gas tank." Jones was immediately transported to Huntington Beach Hospital for her injuries. Jim Washington, a spokesperson for Huntington Beach Hospital, confirmed Jones was treated at the hospital but gave no additional information. After inspecting the property, Jones’ dog, a pomeranian named Tombo, was removed by Huntington Beach Animal Control officers due to malnourishment and fres...

Commentary Piece: Homework

This morning at 8:12 AM PDT, a earthquake hit San Fransisco with a  magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale. The earthquake caused six injuries and two deaths after the McHenry's Auto Supply Shop on  2342 Plum St   partially collapsed. Names have not yet been released. Three of the six injuries were serious enough to require hospitalization. "Of the three unfortunate people, I am sure their injuries will be able to make a full recovery," Doctor Luke Gerold told reporters. "Their injured are serious, but the breaks are clean and should be able to heal within a few months." Local Thomas Harris has a broken ankle from carrying his daughter away from debris. "I'm still in complete shock. The only thing that will make me feel better would be to know that my family is okay," Harris said. Shop owner Gustav McHenry is devastated by the results of the storm. "I saved everything to open that shop," said McHenry. ...

1. $1,840 2.  P ilots must get a clean bill of health from an FAA-approved doctor to receive a medical certificate. 3.   AISD: $1.05 billion  Leander: $454 million  Bastrop: $88.5 million  Lake Travis:  $253 million    Eanes: $253 million 4. $5 billion 5.  You can find memes, scary stories, legends and a link to their youtube account. Long Response 1. After not being able to drive due to their visual disability, Mahan was able to be the first passenger in a self-driving car on public roads. Doing so opened a door for the disabled community as well as giving a prototype for the future cars of America. Self-driving cars have the ability to be safer than normal cars by not having humans as a factor of accidents. 2. Everyone could benefit from a driverless car because it would eliminate drunk driving and road rage. This would allow the streets to be safer and less chaotic than usual. 3. I would feel safer because I...

AISD Bond may bring major benefits Who: Bowie High School What: AISD may receive a large bond When: November 7, 2017 Where: Austin, Texas Bowie High School Why: To improve the facility by adding a new parking garage, improving the AC, computers and renovations to the fine arts hall and athletics facility How: Voting In order to improve the well being of all schools in Austin, AISD has set aside a bond that will be worth over $1 billion for the schools. Bowie just turned 30 and with little remodeling and reconstruction, is now placed 11th in line for the schools in most critical condition. Although this would help better the average school day for the students at Bowie and all over Austin, the school board and the people of Austin must vote on weather or not to pass this bond. Principal Mark Robinson- Direct quote Dr. Paul Cruz- Direct quote Matais Segura- Direct quote Brianan Garcia- Direct quote 4. no opinions 5. it does 6. yes New principal makes individuals and ...

Happy Metal Bowie Square

A Very Bad Encounter She opened her bedroom door, and to her horror a giant foot wiggled it's toes through her window. Avery shuddered as the yellow nails sickled and flexed toward her. She slammed the door and raced downstairs to escape through the back door. As she made her way down the carpeted steps of her stairs, her foot landed ever so slightly on the tail of her cat. With a deep fury, Ellie Belly flew through the air and knocked Avery down the stairs. For a slight moment, fear struck through Avery as her whole world went black. She played there for what felt like hours before a dense object struck her in the back of the head. As she slowly regained consciousness, she looked down at a Chaco laying next to her. She gagged at the thought of a too-small toe strap, but was interrupted by the screeching of her older sister above her. "Are you thick, Avery?!" yells Noa. Avery rolls her eyes so hard her head hurts, but that might just be from the shoe. She limps h...