D-day

D-day, some people look forward to it all year - others hope that it never happens. No I'm not talking about the historic day during World War 2. I'm talking about something even more historic - frog dissection day. Now I'm sure my older blog readers remember doing this in high school, but we're not in high school - we are 7th graders.

There are 3 kinds of frog dissectors:

• Those (mostly boys) who are really excited to dissect. They want to dissect every single body part that they can. They even want to get the brain out and empty out the abdomen.
• Second are the those that aren't looking forward to it but deal with it. We try our best to learn and get something out it. We are grossed out but try our best to have fun with it.
• Lastly are those who don't want anything to do with the frog. They just let their partner do the work. In one class a girl started full out bawling. The girl just started crying.
  

We all got through the dissection in one piece and all got good grades to boot. The question is "Is it really right to sacrifice these frogs for a bunch of 7th graders?" We could always do a virtual dissection though it was kinda of cool to dissect a real frog.

D-day was definitely exciting. It might even become my most memorable moment in 7th grade science, time will only tell. Middle schoolers are definitely adventurous when it comes to biology.

The Problem with Arizona

With all the news going around about Arizona and its new law you'd think that 7th graders would know something about its geography. We don't know much about its geographic location or shape. Some of these will even surprise the people who think we have an education problem. Here are two statements that my PE classmates thought about Arizona.

• One girl said that Arizona was the square one. Yes she got Arizona mixed up with Colorado or Wyoming. Most people don't think that Arizona is close to square. But the shapes of states are hard to remember. This didn't make me gasp as much as the next one.
• One boy thought that Arizona was the one next to Canada. Yes, this boy thought that Arizona was Alaska. They are not even remotely close together. Alaska and Arizona - though I guess they both start with the letter A.

Now you might be thinking that at least we know our current events because we were talking about Arizona. But you'd be wrong. We were talking about it because someone had gone to Arizona over Spring Break and he got really tan. They all wanted to know where he went so we got talking about Arizona. No politics involved.

Arizona might be in the news everyday since this law passed but before they tell us the news about the new law, they should show us a map.

Time for a Run

Now for those who don't know the ups and downs of middle school PE, I'll tell you the worst part - for me at least. Every Monday we have to run the mile. Four laps around the track. There are basically three kinds of middle school runners.

• One -- the people who are very athletic. They run the mile under - well let's just say they finish their second lap before you finish your first. They're the people who you all envy for their athletic talent and always make the team they try out for. They're just good runners.
• Next is the category that I fit into. We try to run our best but we still can't make a good time. We're just not cut out for running, or throwing, or catching, or - let's just say athletics aren't our strong point. We really do try but we can't run fast and far at the same time. This isn't bad has long has you have some friends that push you to do better. (Or in today's case a friend that did 5 laps instead of 4 so her time was worse than ours, even though she is very athletic.)
• Lastly are the people that treat the mile run as a social hour. They walk the laps and just talk to their friends. This causes them to get a bad time - but since we only count our time every few weeks, they only have to try then.
  

Also in our school there seemed to be some sexism in how long it takes a girl and boy to run a mile. Today the best times for each sex were posted on the whiteboards in the gym. The kids in our class booed at the time of 6:16 for a boy but said that 7:23 for a girl was good. It seems that they think that boys should be able to run the mile way faster than girls. This doesn't make any sense.

Next post: D-day!!!!!

Drive-bys

Today me and my friends tried to sell hot chocolate and misfortune cookies like you would lemonade. What are misfortune cookies you say? They're fortune cookies that were made wrong, you can buy them in 5 pound packages. In celebration of spring break, I am having a guest blogger, one of my best friends, CB.

While trying to sell hot chocolate and cookies we found that there are a few types of drivers in our neighborhood.

• The type that actually stop. These people buy something and make conversation (in our case our neighbors. Sadly they are kind of obligated to buy something.)
• The kind that drive by and acknowledge our presence. They smile and wave but don't have guts to buy something.
  
• Next there are the people who slow down almost stop directly in front of you then speed away. These make you the most mad. They trick you into thinking they're going to buy something but then don't. They get our hopes up and then crush them.
• Next are the ones that speed up when they see you. In one case a walker started running when he saw our table. They don't want to buy anything and avoid you at all costs.
  
• Lastly are the ones that drive by and don't notice that you exist. In one case a walker walked by us while we were talking in loud voices. He didn't even twitch his head.

One thing we also noticed, we sold more product when we had cute little girls with us. I also noticed that middle schoolers don't know how to sell product. Thank you everyone for our 5 dollar earnings.

Happy SPRING BREAK!

Pencil Cases and Exciting News

Pencil bags - students can put random things in them if they're in a hurry. Here are the weirdest things found in a pencil case:

• 5 Euro - my friend said these were for her emergency trip to Europe.

• Foreign coins - this included Lira which isn't even used anymore.

• I keep almost 2 dollars worth of dimes in my pencil case - just in case.

And my personal favorite:

• One girl I know keeps a first aid kit in her case - so if you ever need anything go to her, not the nurse.

On another note -

SPRING BREAK is here. One whole week off to do nothing. This means I might not be posting much (sorry about yesterday.)

I know you're thinking why spring break now? Most other schools had spring break one or two weeks ago. Our district has it this coming week. We kept hearing about other schools doing their break, so the wait seemed even longer.

Anyway - SPRING BREAK (Yes, yes, yes!!!)

So lessons learned today: don't expect just pencils and pens in a pencil case and SPRING BREAK is here.

Coming up after the break - Our school talent show.

Science Survivor

Middle schoolers get creative when you ask them how to survive. In science class we were posed the question:

What would you do if you were lost in the woods and needed to get warm?

These were our answers:

• Eat something so digestion warms you up (it is a science class after all and we did just study the digestive system.)

• Do jumping jacks or other exercise to warm yourself up.

• Put on blanket (possible if you happened to carry around a blanket.)

• Build a fire (hope you brought matches.)

Next are my two favorite and most hilarious ways our class thought we could survive.

• Build an igloo (sure if you went hiking when it was snowing.)

Last but not least:

• Kill a bear and use it's skin/fur for warmth (really - how would you pull this off?)

This just teaches you - don't count on our science class to help you survive in the woods.

He said, She said

The arguments heard in middle school are weirder than most.

Some can be quite normal. These range from which drinking fountain has the best water to who is the best/worst teacher. These can be very interesting if say someone's favorite teacher is someone else's least favorite or that the drinking water used in Chef School is cloudy and white looking.

Food pronunciation seems to be a very popular topic among middle school arguments. Interestingly though none have been about the pronunciation of tomato or potato. Ones that have been heard range from tortillas to bagels. The funniest case was with the word syrup. One kid interrupted the whole class, to put the pronunciation to a vote. Food pronunciation can provide many arguments.

Now come the ones that don't make much sense. Once in math we had a argument about if the sun would come up tomorrow. Sure in a couple billion of years the sun will burn out, but tomorrow people. Go get a science journal.

The weirdest argument this year -- if it can really rain cats and dogs. Incidentally this also happened in math class. How this has anything to do with math, I don't know. People kept arguing that tornadoes can make it rain cats and dogs. Others insisted that cats and dogs just don't rain down from the sky.

He said, she said. Feel free to weigh in on the arguments above. Middle school verbal fights can go from normal to just plain bizarre.

Periods of Passing

Passing periods... that 4 minute period to get from one class to another. A friend of mine summarizes this best:

"These people are crazy."

In this small amount of time you see people shoved, pushed and even fall down. The craziness begins once the bell rings with students rushing out of their classrooms. This isn't because they want to get to their next class, but so they can see their friends. With large groups of people congregating in small hallways, just getting through is trouble.

Another special mention award is deserved. The worst hallway intersection ever. This belongs to the 300-400 intersection. Getting through this is big trouble. You might lose your water bottle, papers, or even a class project. This is by far the most horrible hallway in school.

There are a couple ways that make it easier to get through middle school hallways:
1. Quickly go through the intersection or hallway by following someone bigger and/or taller than you.
2. Use the conga-line method. Hang on to the backpack in front of you, someone hangs on behind you. Before you you know it you'll have a line of 4-5 people leading you to your next class.

Troubles are not just with the students. The doors in our school open outwards into the hallways. This makes it very possible to get bonked in the head by a door. This can cause major traffic jams. For example, once when someone fell down, someone tripped on him, who then tripped another person. Soon 4 people were on the ground around a classroom door trying not to get trampled by others.

No matter which middle school you go to passing periods will ensue craziness and hilarity.

Dos and Don'ts of Lunch

This is the post you've all been waiting for, or at least the one my mom has been waiting for. Middle school lunches, the good, the unhealthy, and the just plain weird.

Let's start with the good. We get to have Pizza Hut pizza everyday. Don't fret, we don't just get the plain old cheese pizza. My school offers 4 different pizzas - cheese, pepperoni, veggie, and, my personal favorite, Hawaiian. We also serve other entrees, but the safe bet is always pizza.

Now the unhealthy, I know kids who will have 2 Izze's and a malt cup for lunch, no entree whatsoever. What probably went through your mind just then was one of two things: 1) what is an Izze, or 2) Your school serves malt cups to students on a daily basis? First of all, an Izze is a carbonated juice drink, which comes in 4 flavors. Secondly, yes our school serves malt cups daily along with Italian ice cream, Rips (100% juice slushies), rice crispy treats, cookies, and baked potato chips. To top it all off we also have 4 vending machines.

Now the just plain weird. Have you ever heard of a school that serves quiche to students? No... well our school does. They serve quiche as the vegetarian option on some of our school days. Other weird lunch choices include stuffed pasta shells, "pork chop patty on a bun," and the buffalo chicken sandwich.

One aspect of our school lunches needs to receive a honorable mention as the most thrown away. It is thrown away by almost every student in the school. You might guess it's fruit or vegetables that are getting thrown away, but you would be wrong. The answer is the breadsticks that come with pizza. Nearly 3/4 of lunch buyers will buy pizza, this comes with the dreaded breadstick. These sticks are horrible, they have no taste, are dry, and just don't taste good. Very few of these breadsticks actually get digested, they go straight into the trash seconds after students pay for their lunch. Somewhere a landfill is full of my school's breadstick waste.

These are the dos and don'ts of middle school lunch food.

Running in the Hail

Today was the best PE in the history of all PE's. Why? When we went outside to run laps it was snowing/hailing!. We all walked our own laps and we only had to run 1 lap instead of 2. With the blue skies above and the cold chilling snow, PE will never be the same.

The other highlight of PE: You've heard of minutes and seconds, right? How about the Ramundo. NO, this is how our class started counting push-ups and curl-ups. We have invented a new form of counting. This is how middle schoolers show their creativity.

Opening Remarks

Hey
I'm ordinary 7th grader in an ordinary middle school living an ordinary life. Why start a blog? I like to talk to myself...well not really. I just thought it's time to do something with my so extra-ordinary life. Balancing school, homework, and sleep won't be easy, but I'll do for the sake of this blog.

Take today for example, my group in Chef School messed up on making hot chocolate. The recipe involved 3 steps. 1) put saucepan up to medium heat and add dry ingredients. 2) add 1/2 cup of water and bring to a boil. 3) take off heat and add milk. How we could mess this up, I don't know. Actually I do, we added all the ingredients at once. I guess that's how middle schoolers read directions.