Facebook
Pokes, friend requests and notifications all make up the site that is probably the biggest reason kids start their homework at midnight. Facebook is like the mayor of Procrastinateville. Many kids waste time just thinking of a witty status to write so people will “like” it. And let’s face it, if you’ve got a camera anywhere nearby, “Hmm, my profile picture looks a tad bit bland all of a sudden” is what goes through your head. Meanwhile, you still have a two-page essay for your dual credit English class. Then, of course, there is the activity of obsessively investigating an individual, also known as stalking. “Oh my gosh, look up Billy Bob. Isn’t he just the hottest guy ever?!” starts an hour-long conversation with your best friend. “Well, paint me green and call me a pickle! You’re so right, Billy Bob is quite the looker!” All these things, and more, get in the way of last minute cramming. Overall, Facebook accounts should most definitely be deactivated when it comes to studying.

Twitter
#Studying. #Ihatestudying. #Gettingmystudyingon. All right guys, let me tell you something, if you write something similar to the hash tags I’ve listed, you are not studying. In fact, you’re obviously wasting your time telling the world that you’re not studying. Honestly, I’m not sure how anyone can procrastinate on Twitter for more than five minutes. Maybe it’s the kick you get out of blue words after you hash tag them. I mean you can only spend so much time reading about what kind of salad the Kardashians are eating or which country Angelina Jolie adopted a kid from this time. Next time you try wasting your time on Twitter, instead of typing “#studying”, you should just write “#I’montwitterandnotstudying.” #Rebel.

Reddit
Now this site can definitely be filed under major procrastination. From high school students to college seniors, Reddit never fails to give its users a good laugh. But, that can be a turn off when you finally realize, after browsing dozens of memes like “First World Problem Lady” or “Chemistry Cat”, that you haven’t even checked your planner which consists of history, chemistry, and, of course, algebra homework. All in all, Reddit is like a pair of skinny jeans, once you’re on it, it’s hard to get off.

Youtube
Cats, cats, oh and more cats. Youtube is as much of a home for cats as an old, lonely lady’s home would be. If it’s not Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit we turn to Youtube for entertainment. It’s not only cats though. There are parodies of famous songs that never fail to amuse us and the guy who is warning you to hide your kids, your wife and your husband. Then of course, there is the musical aspect of Youtube that we thrive for. From overly obsessive Beliebers (Bieber believers) to hardcore Lady Gaga or Adele fans, students think that listening to music while doing homework is the brightest idea that they’ve ever had. What they don’t realize is that while they have a pencil in their hand, they are using it as an imaginary microphone rather than using it as a writing utensil for their history review.

Tumblr
Tumblr is a blogging site that’s taken blogging to a whole new level. This site lets you effortlessly share anything from photos to quotes, which makes it a perfect site to start off your procrastination. “Man, I was on Tumblr all night last night! I didn’t get any sleep,” is a quote that often hovers around groups of red-eyed students. This veteran procrastinating site has really trapped in its users and has made it almost impossible for kids to accomplish any work.

These sites are just a few to name. There are billions of sites out there that haven’t become as popular with kids, but still manage to have the same effect on school kids who have discovered them. Overall, you have to proceed with caution when visiting these sites, because you might end up spending the whole night browsing them.

There’s just one issue with that. You pay $30 for a parking spot and can only use four colors to make it expressly yours. Red, black, white and grey are the four colors you are allowed to use to express yourself in the wide plain of parking spots.

Yes, these are our school’s colors and it makes the parking lots look a bit more uniform, but we are using our own money to pay for our own paint, not to mention the money we already dropped on a parking space. Because most of us are using our own money, mostly money from the minimum-wage jobs we held down during the summer, we should be allowed to use whatever brilliant hues we desire.

While using the same four colors may look more uniform as a whole, letting students use the colors they want will allow them to express themselves more and spend their money in the way that they want to and not be as constrained. This will also give way to more creativity in the decoration of parking spaces.

The parking lots actually look a little on the depressing side. Not that our school colors are lame or anything, we just need more bright colors in the parking lots to put people in better moods, as some of us learned in psychology class, and maybe we’ll have a bit less craziness out there at lunch and at the end of the day.

Shows like “16 and Pregnant” or “Teen Mom” have, in a way, glorified what some people may consider the major accidents of teenagers. Does the world really find entertainment in watching 16-year-old girls with difficulties experiencing the hardships that come with pregnancy?

Along with the relationship problems with their parents and boyfriends, most the families on the show are presented as not very wealthy people and usually have a hard time buying supplies and necessary items for their baby. I’m not sure why someone would want their personal life viewed by millions, maybe it’s the money the teen moms get paid for being on the show. Some might just be interested in the money but in the end that is their private business and it’s not our job to sit back and enjoy other peoples’ problems.

These poor girls are broadcasted across America every week. Some people laugh and some think it’s stupid, but overall it’s sad. Every time someone jokes about these shows or brings them up, I feel almost embarrassed for them. Is this really the entertainment of the generations to come? Teen pregnancy? If anything I hope they are used as a warning sign for everyone our age.

What happened to Music Television? Where is the music? Instead of shows like this why aren’t there shows about teenagers that have good morals or have a good relationship with their parents and boyfriends and girlfriends? I know that it may sound boring at times, but there are plenty of exciting and successful people who have finished high school and have gone to college.

So the next time you’re bored and have nothing to do, instead of turning the TV on go outside and take a jog. Go read a book or hang out with a friend. Try to get away from the hatred and ugliness of the world. Try to find beauty in it instead. It will save you a lot of hardship and worry if you stay more positive by surrounding yourself with more positive, feel-good activities.

A little over a decade ago, the New Tech Network introduced a futuristic way of learning – Project-based Learning. New Tech is made up of 62 public high schools in 14 states, including Texas (New Tech High @ Coppell). Its goal? To prepare students with the 21st century skills they need to thrive in any college and career of the future.

New Tech has redefined the fundamentals of education, even down to the names of the participants. Students are “learners” and teachers are “facilitators.” “Learners” do not rely on “teachers” or “textbooks” for knowledge. They collaborate on challenging projects that demand critical thinking and self-direction. In the end, the “learners” learn from their own work and research, not from an outside source.

For example, in an Engineering class, “learners” may be told to design, build and race electric cars to test energy efficiency. In Biology, “learners” study single-celled organisms and provide certain data to scientific researchers.

Computers are crucial for this way of learning. “Learners” write (or type, more precisely) in their journals to track their progress on a project. All papers and research are done electronically as well.

Compared to the utopia of New Tech, the education system in our school is a bit old-fashioned, soon-to-be ineffective and incompetent. How much paper do we use up daily? All of those worksheets and notebook papers must amount to tons of wasted resources (maybe not tons, but you get the idea). Many a class discussion are stifled and creativity is often only of second importance.

As of now, because of all the competitiveness, stress, and deficiency of expression, students are most akin to robots, with a lack of the skills vital for a successful life. Most think in a predictable, restricted manner and will be at loss in the tough professional world.

High school is supposed to prepare students for the life ahead of them. New Tech is not completely perfect. For example, it lacks extracurricular activities such as the Fine Arts, Newspaper and Ready Set Teach. However, in the classroom they have a nearly flawless approach, one that addresses many of the problems that high school students have with learning.

For one, more technology should be available for use by students at our school. Technology is rapidly advancing, and knowing how to use a computer as well as other devices is imperative for any high school student. Computers can also help to accommodate the various learning styles that students have.

While a technological revolution at our school would be quite expensive, its benefits and importance overshadow the money problem. We need to begin now.

Shocking the students’ minds into life with some vibrant and interactive teaching techniques could be a possible first step. Yet technology is a valuable and sly aid for learning – one that is appreciated by students and effective in producing the desired high standardized test scores. Let us surge into the future!

One great aspect of the Kindle is that if you click on a word that’s unfamiliar to you, the definition’s right there. No need to get up, turn on the computer and go to dictionary.com to look it up. Better yet, no need to search for the word in a 2000-paged dictionary either.

Some people say that we’ve gotten too lazy, and things can be learned much more simply. But guess what? The whole world is thriving and progressing on lazy. We’re finding easier and faster and more efficient ways (which means cheaper) to do things. So the district needs to hop on board before we’re left in the dust.

Not only is annotating on the Kindle app so much neater (we don’t need to make a spiral around the corners of the book to write or waste $5 for each megapack of stickies and highlighters), we can search one specific phrase we remembered and it’ll find it for us out of the entire book. This is handy when we have to pull evidence from a book to support our answers. No more time is wasted on searching for that one measly quote when it can be found almost instantly with the search tool.

More importantly, there’s a recession. Money to buy books is scarce. The majority of us cannot rent a copy out from the school because there plainly aren’t enough to go around. For those who do or get the books from the library, they can’t write in them. They have an overall difficult time when they’re looking for things they’ve annotated on essay day because the passage they’re looking for isn’t highlighted and obvious.

Then there’s some who say Kindles or iPods are expensive, and if people have enough money to buy that, then they have enough money to buy books. They’re forgetting that Kindles can last post-high-school. I have matched the price of a Kindle for all the required books I’ve had to buy. All Kindle classics, in fact, are free. Plus, I can download so many of my college courses’ books later on. Knowing how to use them in high school would help me master it when college comes around. Not to mention your personal reading that you can download on it.

Some teachers think that annotating on the Kindle can result in cheating, but there’s ways around that. We can have our names printed on them. Also, you can cheat by using someone else’s annotated book from another class or one that’s been passed down by a brother or sister or even a Half Price Books previous owner. No, handwriting doesn’t give it away when many just purchase their own book and copy others’ thoughts into their own book. And yes, people do that unfortunately. So Kindles and iPhones are not the source of cheating by any means.

Other benefits of the Kindle are: The screen does not damage your eyes like a computer can.  The print looks as if you are reading the text in a bound book. The words can be zoomed in and adjusted to the reader’s preference, so it reduces squinting and losing perfect eyesight.

We need to think of Kindles and iPhones as luxuries, but necessary ones. Calculators are allowed for math, so Kindles should be an option for English. Young Junior High has school-bought iPods. What happens when those students come here and nothing of that sort exists. Their applications with technology will be hindered at a place where it should actually expand.

If the Kindle is still not cutting it, then a general acknowledgment of technology would be nice. iPhones and iPods provide even more applications and abilities that exceed the Kindle’s by far. We need to have them used in all sorts of classes, just how Promethean Boards and such are starting to be used.

The district’s financial limitations do create a major obstacle for this situation. But if they can’t buy them for our learning, they should change their policy standards to allow students to bring their own.

These technology applications such as those on the Apple devices don’t need to be used on tests and quizzes if that may risk academic misconduct. But for notes, lectures and the overall learning process, they can be great tools.

In the end, the point of school is to learn enough to succeed in the future, and when so much more can be done through mastering the use of technology for academic purposes, why don’t we? Especially when the next generation expects more in high school, only for them to come see that we use pen and paper and maybe computers if we’re lucky.

Kindles and other technology don’t need to be enforced, but people should have the option.  Consider it, school board. Before we end up even more outdated.

Many club members get harsh consequences for things most wouldn’t even consider inappropriate. Some sponsors give more severe punishments than others, whereas some don’t give any at all. Depending on the club, members sign charters, or contracts, telling what is expected of them and what the consequences are for breaking the rules. The only problem with this is that it’s not consistent through every club. Members of different clubs who attend the same events can receive punishments for the same actions that range across completely different ends of the spectrum, from a simple verbal warning to complete probation. Shouldn’t all clubs be held accounted for the same actions and receive the same consequences throughout the school? How is it deemed fair that one club be punished more severely than another?

If advisers and coaches are going to keep track of what their students are doing, then all contracts should be the same. Students should be held accountable for the same actions across the board. Creating a uniform charter for all clubs will get rid of unfair punishments and discrimination against certain actions. Requiring all clubs to use the charter will also resolve the problem of clubs being monitored while others are not.

Facebook is a social networking site that students use outside of school to communicate with friends, long distance relatives and pretty much find out information about everyone. Facebook makes everything official; if you get gossip from Facebook then it must be real. Some club sponsors however check up on students’ Facebook pages and punish them for what they find, and sometimes assume is happening. If a student has a picture with a “red cup” then teachers assume that it’s alcohol. Teachers, coaches and sponsors shouldn’t be allowed to monitor students’ Facebook’s unless they have reason to believe the student is doing something illegal or inappropriate.

When students feel like they are being watched and monitored, then it doesn’t stop them from doing bad things, it just makes them more aware of who’s looking at what they put on Facebook.

We’ve all heard it at some time or another, probably even laughed about it with our friends. Here at Martin, we’re all just a bunch of snobby rich kids.

But here’s the difference: we’re just joking around. Not everyone else is. What I find most pitiful is that some people, including adults, actually believe those stereotypes, and they give us Martin kids a full-blown judgment before they know a single thing about us besides where we go to school.

My slap in the face came when I took summer school at Seguin for my Health credit right after my sophomore year. Due to a little mix-up, I was placed there instead of at Martin, so I was the only Martin kid at Seguin.

The rest of the people in my class were Seguin students, except for a handful from charter schools. By the first day of class, my teacher managed to isolate me from the rest of my classmates by referring to me as “the Warrior.”

For the rest of the summer school session, I not-so-very-much enjoyed answering stereotypical questions on behalf of Martin, most of which were asked by my teacher. One conversation in particular has stuck out in my mind.

“So what car do you drive?”

“I don’t have a car.”

“What? But you go to Martin! Everyone there gets a Mercedes as soon as they turn 16. So all your friends must have cars, right?”

I followed this by taking the pleasure to explain to her that, no, not everyone at Martin even gets a car for their sweet 16. In fact, few of my friends had cars then, and most of them actually had to work for them.

Contrary to what many of my classmates thought, families of Martin students aren’t immune from downturns of the economy. We don’t live in some magical land of financial prosperity. Yes, we do have some people at the high end, but you can’t simply generalize all of Martin because of that. We have the whole spectrum at this school – rich, poor and everything in between.

Maybe this incident wouldn’t have bothered me so much if I hadn’t also been treated differently because she thought I lived a completely different lifestyle simply because I went to Martin.