New Desk!

Just the other day, I decided it was about time I got a new desk. Of course, being the spoiled person that I am, my Dad went out and bought me this desk! I didn’t get it set up the night he bought it because I had a lot of homework and studying to do for my Finals but the next day, Friday night to be exact, my dad and I set up my desk. It is really great! I have a place now for my computer to sit on and still have a big place to do school word and things like that! That is ultimately what I wanted, was to be able to have a big space in my room where I could do my school work and have everything look organized! This is a really great desk for that, and now when I get my iMac, I will have a perfect spot to put it! I am really happy about how it turned out! I think it looks great!

First Week of School!

It is official, my first week of school is over. I had a great time so far. In this post I will just give a little detail about what happened each day.

So the first day back was Tuesday. That morning I got up and got all ready, got my books and school supplies all packed up in my new school bag and went off to my new high school. When I got there I went right to the cafeteria and sat with some friends I knew. About half an hour later the Principal came up and spoke then the Vice Principal came up and told us all the rules and things like that. After he went over everything, he started calling out names of students to go with certain teachers. So the cafeteria was getting smaller and smaller by the minute and coming on the end I heard my name, but I was waiting for one key thing. They called my name, but didn’t say my middle inital. You are probably thinking… why would they call their middle inital, we they only do if someone has the same first and last name as you, and that applies to me. There is me and one other person that have the same name in the whole school. They didn’t call the inital so we both went with the teacher and then I finally realized that it was the other one that was supposed to be with that teacher so I had to go back to the cafeteria to ask the vice principal for my class. He finally found it and I was on my way.

By the time I got to my class everyone had already been there for ten to fifteen minutes or so. I asked my teacher, who is really my neighbor who lives a couple houses down from me, if I was in this class and he said yes, gave me my schedule and then I knew I could finally relax. The class that I have my neighbor for a teacher is my Computer Studies class. So for the morning after going over a bunch of things we just went on the computers until lunch. After lunch was over, we had a mini day. That is where we go to each class for 30 minutes. So we did that and then I got to go home. My classes for my first semester include; computer studies, environmental studies, algebra and english writing. My second semester of classes include; Geography of Canada, English, Science, and ITC (typing and another computer course).

The week went really well. In my computer studies course we started programming and we have a really big thick book with a bunch of reading we have to do while we write code for programs. My math class is going good, we are currently still working on reviewing a bunch of things to refresh out memories. In my environmental studies class we are taking lots of notes and learning many things about the environment and we are having a guest speaker who is a doctor and marine biologist come in and talk to us about global warming and diet for some reason… And finally in my English writing class, we are doing really boring grammar like sentence structure and parts of speech. Other than the really boring things, I am really liking this school and it is a nice change from my last one. I will be sure to keep you updated on my progress on everything as the school year progresses.

Tomorrow is the Day!

So tomorrow is the first day back to school for me. I live in Canada and it’s around this time every year that we go back. I know in the US most kids are already back in school, but tomorrow is the day for me.

This year I am in High School, and in Canada the grades are usually referred to as just numbers not names, but if you are going by name, I am a Sophomore, which is the 10th grade. The way our schools go here where I live is grades 1-6, 7-9, 10-12. So last year I didn’t actually go to a “High School” I was at a “Junior High” school. Luckily this year I am going to be in the same school as my brother who is in the 12th grade, a Senior.

At the High School I am going to there are 2 Semesters. You have 8 classes and they are divided into those two semesters. So you have four classes a semester. With those classes their are three categories, Academic, General, and Practical. Academic is for most students who have higher than a 70% average in their classes, General is for people below 70% in their classes and Practical is for mentally and physically challenged people. Now, you can be Academic for some classes and General for others. But there are a few rules. If you are General in Math, you have to take General Science and things like that. I am in all Academic classes because I had over a 95% average in all my classes. For our classes in High School, you have certain classes you need to take and then you have electives, which are classes you can choose yourself. The amount of electives depends on the classes you need to take. So say if you have to take math all year insted of just half a year, you have one less class to choose yourself. Same thing goes for people in French, and Band.

The classes I had to take were 2 English classes, math, science, and geography. That left me with 3 electives to choose for myself. My first elective that I took is called Environmental Studies, which is just about the environment, weather, ecosystems and things like that. You go on a lot of field trips and are never in the class room so that’s why I chose that, and it was better than taking gym! My next elective I chose was ITC, which stands for Information Technology and Communications. That basically is typing, word processing, desktop publishing, visual presentations, spreadsheet and graphing, operating systems, and Internet and email usage. That is a perfect class for me, being so interested in technology and computers. I should do really good in that class! My last elective is another tech one. It is called Computer Studies and in that there is database management, HTML coding, CSS, and computer literacy as well as programming and manipulation of 3D objects! That is another course that is really great for me.

So tomorrow morning, I go to school and all Sophomores meet in the cafeteria and they tell you all the rules and regulations of the school then tell you your homeroom teacher and then you follow them to your class. Once there, the homeroom teacher goes over the rules and and things further, gives us our schedule and we pay 25 dollars and they give us a student agenda and a lock for our locker. After we go and put our things in our locker we come back and fill out papers and contact information. That takes about the whole morning to get all that done, then we get dismissed for lunch. After lunch is over we take the rest of the afternoon and go to each of our four classes for just 30 minutes. Then we get to go home.

On Wednesday, that is when everything is back to normal and we go to our first class for 73 minutes, then we get a 10 minute break, have another 73 minute class, go to lunch, have another 73 minute class, then a 10 minute break and the last 73 minute class.

I will write another post tomorrow telling you about my whole day and the 4 classes that I got for my first semester. I think that I am going to have a great day, and I can’t wait for a change and to get back to see all of my friends!