Michelle: Going outside after lunch

Ask any group of students what they like about school and one answer will come up over and over: recess! Who doesn't like that time of the day where you can just go outside get some fresh air, run around, or just sit and talk with friends? But for many students today, the recess bell comes too late, for too little time, or not at all. After some students eat that yummy, stomach filling lunch they have to go straight back to class and learn again. Haven't you ever thought that students, in any grade level, need time to relax, socialize, and run around? Have a time to let all that energy just consumed out? Middle school students need a time after lunch to relax, socialize, and exercise. Giving this freedom to middle school students will also help students concentrate more during their classes after lunch.



According to experts, childhood obesity is an epidemic in the United States. A combination of unhealthy eating habits and a lack of physical activity appear to be the cause. It is estimated that 15% of adolescents are currently overweight. (http://middleschool.suite101.com/print_article.cfm/recess) For some students, recess is the only time for them to exercise, aside from their PE classes. As shown in the graph, 27 students exercise less than 3 times per week. In the case of childhood obesity and overweight children, the numbers don't seem to lie. If schools are being asked to play a part, they need to take a serious look at the facts and make an informed decision on how to help their students. Though, there are cons to having recess the pros out weigh the cons. Students may become healthier just by having the opportunity to run around for 10 to 15 minutes a day. Just think about it, bringing back recess to middle schools could be the best decision for the school day of a middle school student.



Stress is a big cause of why middle schools should add recess to their schedules. Everyone needs that one time of the day where they can just relax and socialize with each other. All day middle school students stress getting good grades, passing tests, doing well on projects, and just fitting in with friends. If recess is added to middle schools not only will students make new friends, students will be less stressed since they will know that they don't have to sit in a classroom all day with only one break, to eat lunch. After all, students sit in a classroom for about 6 1/2 hours a day and then on top of that have 1 to 3 hours of homework every night. Don't you think students need that one time of day, for at least 15 minutes, to just get refreshed and recharged for the rest of the day?



Who would have thought that recess can actually be educational? It gives students the freedom to choose what they want to do for 15 to 30 minutes a day. Audrey Skrupskelis, associate professor of early childhood education at the University of South Carolina said, "[Recess] is the one time during the day that [students] have the freedom, or power, to control what they will do in terms of decision-making, in terms of negotiation, and in terms of conflict resolution with their peers." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/31/AR2006053102208.html) Recess also gives adults a break to get re-energized for the rest of the day. If recess is added to middle school schedules it will not only give students a break, it will give staff a break too.



After lunch, students normally have a lot more energy than they had before lunch and don't seem to concentrate as much. If middle school students are allowed time for recess after lunch, some of that energy just consumed won't be bottled up inside their bodies and they will have more focus on their school work. At Hammond 37% of students surveyed feel that if we get to go outside after we finish our lunch, we will have less energy during classes. Given the opportunity to run around after sitting in a classroom will get students' minds cleared and ready to learn again. More than 40 students at Hammond agree that going outside after lunch will help them concentrate more during class. It will also give students the opportunity to tell their peers what's on their minds, making them more focused for the rest of the day. Adding recess to schedules will give students time to get their mind and body ready for the rest of the long school day.



It is obvious that adding recess to middle school schedules will have a great impact on students. So, go ahead, add recess to schedules and see what role it plays on your life. After all, who doesn't remember that wonderful moment when you finally got to run out to the playground, cheerful, for a game of soccer, basketball, or just plain old hide-and-go seek?

more trips for school, By:Josef Cruz

In the middle school of Francis C. Hammond , most kids are upset do to the poor amount of field trips. I believe that the students of Hammond should take a break from the teachings of class and learn from a field trip. I think that most students learn better if they are experiencing what they have learned in their classroom. I think that with less field trips, students will learn with no experience, students will be stressed with classroom teachings, and students should have choices on to where they should go.

Do to the less amount of field trips, students will learn with no experience. For example, South Florida parents agree that field trips can't replace classroom teachings, but children do learn better from experience. "Educational field trips get students out of class and allow them to experience hands-on activities that they learn in class", said Gabrielle Boll, owner of Fort Lauderdale-based Build-A-Field Trip."Good field trips bring lessons to life!"I believe that when students get stressed, they should keep on learning but with a good life lesson field trip. Amy Conza of Parland praises the field trips at her child's school. "For example, my first grader learned about butterflies in class, and a lesson was followed with a field trip to the Butterfly World!" In some cases, field trips provide a real-world view of something children only understand in theory from a classroom lesson.Also, with the freedom of getting to go on a field trip, we should get to choose or at least get choices of where we should go. We should also average the amount of pay that we have to give because, in my view, sometimes people just might not have enough money to meet the amount due. I believe that our choices to which field trip we should go should be both educational and fun for the students.With all do respect, I think that most kids would like to learn by going on field trips. There is nothing wrong with taking a field trip. It wouldn't hurt anyone, it should just help students experience what they have learned. After all, students do like going on field trips or at least getting out of class.

Dismissing time from lunch by Mitko

The survey that 7-2 students took shows the number of people that we’re being dismissed from lunch late. By the information that we have so far, we can see that about 55% out of 75 people have been late from lunch. Also the data shows that about 22 people were late for their electives twice a week. The lunch problems weren’t the only thing students told us about. They also know why this is happening as well as the ways we can solve this problem. Believe it or not 70 people out of 77 think the way of dismissing should be changed. The information that we got from the votes is that most of the people think they should be dismissed exactly at 11:37.
We were also told why students were late for their electives, and the information that we got is that most of the people that voted said that they were dismissed late because of the people that kept talking.
Well now you have an idea of what’s going on in lunch. You may always express your opinion- that way we can actually do something about the problems in school.

Alex- Cafeteria Seating

Cafeteria Seating

Almost all day students are thinking about what little things their friends said in the hall or before school. Come lunch they can still talk to some of their friends but not necessarily the ones they were talking to earlier that day. We should be able to sit in any cafeteria because students can sit to where they can get to their lockers faster, it would give a chance to get to know different people and many students have friends on other teams.

Students should not be separated into two cafeterias at lunch. 33% of students on team 7-2 surveyed said they wished they were in the other cafeteria five times a week, while 7% never did.

In our school we have two lunch rooms, correct? And each one is dismissed at a slightly different time and through a different exit and stairwell. For many of us, our lockers are nowhere near the exit/entrance that we are directed out of. This is a problem. When asked twenty-eight students out of eighty-two said we should be able to sit closer to our lockers while ONLY 2 said we shouldn’t be able to choose where we sit.

Many of us have to rush to our next classes because if not we will surely be late. But if we were to sit in the cafeteria that dismisses out the stairwell closer to our lockers, we will have more time to get to our next class. And that means not stressing over being late again, maybe even having time just to ask a teacher a quick question on the way or, making a quick trip to the restroom. So, we should be able to choose where we sit in the lunch rooms to get to our lockers and next class quicker. Everyday students are released from class to lunch. They make their way to the same cafeteria they always sit in, usually to the exact same table every day with the same people as usual. But what if we were allowed to sit ANYWHERE we choose. People are bound to end up sitting with new people and learning about other people, other cultures, and so many things they don't know about. We are always told to connect with other people and to learn about them but are kept from the best way to do so, talking and meeting new and different people. Instead of learning from a book or another second hand source shouldn't we try and learn about things from people who really know about it. The more people you meet and befriend the more you learn, and you learn things that you can't just read in a book nor have a teacher tell you a little of what happened. When we have to an opportunity to meet someone from another place, another religion, maybe just another state or someone who has been through something you haven’t shouldn't we take the opportunity and expand our minds. Because, that is what school is for, right? In sixth grade everyone entered with a friend some were split up and some stayed together in their teams. None the less everyone made new friends. Now in seventh grade we still have those friends and many again have been split into four teams, again. Seventy-nine out of eighty-two students surveyed said they had good friends in the opposite cafeteria as them.

When friends are separated and don't really get time to talk, and they sometimes never find the time to reconnect. "Friends and friendships are especially important at this age," Kathryn Wentzel says. "During adolescence, students begin to form a sense of self based in part on their interactions with their peers. They also tend to look to each other for help and support as they make other important physical, cognitive and school-related decisions." (http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/friendships.html ) When friends don't have time to chat and just hang out they tend drift, and when you end up not having those friends you would usually turn to decisions become harder, and this may ends up effecting grades. Seventy-four percent of students on team 7-2 also say they only see get to see their friends before school, in the halls and during class. When caught talking in the halls, getting off topic in class and being late because they were catching up with friends before school started, teachers tell students they can do their talking and personal time at lunch. Well, many students don’t have the chance because they don’t see their friends at lunch. If we were able to sit in any cafeteria we wanted, we wouldn’t have those problems in the hall, class or before school.

After sitting thinking about what your friends and what you were talking about earlier that morning wouldn't you want to be able to sit with them and finish what you were doing? After waiting for class to end so you could use the restroom or talk to a teacher wouldn't you want to have a chance to get to your locker as soon as possible when you have some REAL time before your next class? And don't you ever wonder about how it would be just to meet a new person everyday? Yes? Okay, and that’s why we should be able to sit in either cafeteria we choose.

Unhealthy Food Consumption by Teens by Ekrem

Ekrem (Eko):P

Do you want to be overweight? Do you want to have diabetes? Or do you want to be able to run, play, and do whatever you want? Well, that is the way it should be. But there is just one problem. School nutrition is really bad. But there is an easy answer. Schools need to change their menu to a healthier menu. There are three main reasons to change. There are not enough healthier choices, there are too much unhealthy choices, and nobody is trying to fix this. The school's food is absolutely atrocious. In some schools, they allow the kids to just buy fries! In our school, they serve French fries 3-4 times each week! In fact, 9 out of 10 schools serve junk food. (http:www.parentsagainstjunkfood.org/) Also, I think that the food is not kept well. It's really greasy. They give out cookies, sodas, and have a bigger selection of ice cream than vegetables. A perfect example of that is on the 7-2 survey that states that only 7 people out of 73 think that their school serves more healthy foods than unhealthy! I also feel as if no one else is trying to fix this. In 2003, the Center for Disease Control declared obesity the most important public health issue in the US. The USDA supplies schools with the same commodity foods as prisons. Teenagers' milk consumption decreased by 36% between 1965 and 1996, while soda consumption increased by more than 200%. (All three from http://www.parentsagainstjunkfood.org/) Yet do you see much done about this? I answer you, no. There are no protests; there is nobody at Congress trying to fix this. Heck, most of us probably don't know anything about this. Based on a survey in team 7-3 65 out of 80 students say they have never checked the nutritional facts of their lunch! That is just sad.The first thing they need to do is start making some appealing vegetable choices, and start taking away the cookies and the ice cream and French fries. Most teens (71 out of 78) would start eating healthy vegetable choices if they are appealing, this is based on a survey for 7-2, but only 16 out of 79 say that there are any appealing vegetable choices. Now, let's go and change our school systems!

Modified School Calendar Faisal

Everyday waiting for the moment to come, the moment to go home. Everyday waiting for that time of day for 10 months. It'll make me go mad one day. There are two big reasons I don't like going to school with our normal calendar. First is that going away for 2 1/2 months can reduce your knowledge of everything you learned last year before going on you summer break. Second off is that during the school year kids get tired of school because of going to it for so long. You might be asking yourself well if you don't want to use the normal school calendar then how will you get your education? Well, I have a solution with me. Instead of going to school with our normal school calendar we should go to school with a modified school calendar. Now you might be asking yourself " what in the world is that ? ". We'll I have an answer to that question of yours too.

A Modified School Calendar is a calendar where you have a summer vacation for only 1 1/2 months. Well that isn't a long summer break but listen to this. You go to school back in July and then after every quarter you get off for 2 weeks (15 days). The period is called intersession where you can go to school and do fun stuff for example you can take a cooking class, language class etc. or you can stay home and chill. Plus if intersession comes around a holiday, your holiday you get those days off plus you 15 days of intersession. I'm sure a lot of students will enjoy that idea!

After some research off the Internet I found out that most teachers have said that after they have gone on a modified school calendar the student’s level of performance has raised. I agree with that fact because when my old school went on a modified calendar I was getting better grades then I used to. And the students who rarely tried to do their best, their grades have increased!
One other teacher said that her students were making great progress in their reading scores because the more breaks they had the more reading time they had!

There was one thing I found really interesting was that a teacher in California had said " After having a modified school calendar my students have reduced their summer memory loss ". I think that happened because the shorter your summer is that less you forget when you come back to school. Thanks to the short memory loss the students have started to get high scores in the state finals. The state test scores are going skyrocket from what they used to be.

Now I have done my job now it’s your turn to tell me what you think. Should we go on a modified school calendar? Should we still continue going on our normal school calendar which doesn't give kids that much time to do their studies? My answer is to go on a modified school calendar but it’s your thinking that counts let your voice be heard!

Harry Potter Author Diamond

Schools should be allowed to have famous people come as guest speakers because famous people inspire the students. If I were to choose one famous person to come to my school as a guest speaker I would choose Joanne Kathleen Rowling also known as J.K Rowling .If she were to come to my school as a guest speaker I would want everyone their to hear her speak. There are many reasons I think that J.K Rowling should come to my school but there are only three specific reasons. Those three reasons are that she inspires many of us students already, she could teach us never to give up on our dreams, and last that we should always pay attention in school.J.K Rowling inspires us to do our best and by coming here she could teach the few of us that haven't to try to. She is an exceptional character. I think that by coming as a guest speaker her advice and words would inspire may of us students to work harder in school and try are best and never give up. She might give us hope that we could do anything we put our minds to. To some students she is inspirational because she wrote this Multi-millionaire book out of thin air. It gives you the thought that you could do anything. There are many reasons why she can teach us never to give up on our dreams but I think that there is one that is most important. J.K.Rowling is motivational because before she wrote Harry Potter she was a single mother and had to rely on state assistance to help her. But somehow she created the Harry Potter series and became famous. She achieved her dreams with little or no help at all. She shows us that no matter what your situation is you can still achieve your dreams. So many of us feel as if obstacles get in our way then we won't be able to achieve our dreams. But if we look at the famous people around us and see how they became who they were we probably won't feel that way anymore.I think that in many ways paying attention in school helped J.K. Rowling into becoming who she is today. I think that by coming to this school as a guest speaker she could teach the students to pay more attention in school so we can achieve are dreams. I think that J.K.Rowling could teach us students to pay more attention in school because if she hadn't paid attention in class she probably wouldn't have made Harry Potter. She has learned many lessons in life and I think she could teach us some.I conclude that J.K.Rowling should be invited as a guest speaker at my school because the lessons she could teach us now will help us later on in life. If the famous Harry Potter writer came to this school I think she would be able to teach us to try our hardest at everything life throws at us.