ExtravaCANza

These past two weeks at school we have been collecting cans for a local food pantry. All students are encouraged to participate, by bringing cans to their first class and the classes are in a competition to see which class can bring the most. My chemistry class decided to participate, and we set goals for ourselves, to ensure the win. Our first goal was for each person to go around their neighborhood and get twenty cans for the next class, and to bring five dollars which we would put towards buying a collection of cans with money from our entire class. Only three people in my class have their licenses, me being one of them, so we were in charge at the end to go and buy the cans with all of the money. Our second goal was not specific, but just to bring as many cans as we could and two more dollars to ensure we would reach $200. In total, we collected $238, all which was put towards buying more cans for the canned food drive. Our third and final goal was to go out and buy as many cans as we could with the money that we collected, and the people that weren't going out to purchase the cans had to spend a total of thirty minutes going around the neighborhood and getting as many cans as possible.
Just ten minutes ago I got home from buying the cans, and I knew right away that I was going to blog about my experiences. We decided to go to Costco to get the cans because we figured it would be the best place to get a lot of cheap cans. After calculating the price per ounce, it turned out that there were not that many different food items we could get, in order to be cost efficient. Our best option was to get macaroni and cheese, a boxed dinner that was seven dollars for fifteen packages of macaroni. We ended up buying thirty three of these boxes, which ended up being 495 packages total. After waiting in line and approaching the register, they would not let us buy anything because we were under eighteen and for some unknown reason not allowed to make a purchase. The employees put our thirty three boxes of macaroni aside, and we went looking throughout the store to find an adult that we knew that would help us buy the macaroni. After splitting up and searching the store, we found a senior that graduated from our school last year, who also happened to be my peer group leader. Her and her mom were nice enough to come up to the register with us and since they were over eighteen, we were able to make our purchase. With the twenty dollars that we had left over, we went to Jewel, right down the street and found chicken noodle soup cans for only 69 cents. We bought thirty of those as well, and all of the macaroni boxes. Doing this made me feel so good, buying all this food for people who cannot afford it, while I can just walk downstairs and I have food stocked in my refrigerator, freezer and pantry. Not only did we have fun buying the food, but we helped so many families with my classes' contribution.

Stressing Out About School--Is It Needed?

For students, the biggest focus in school is grades. It is what everyone worries about, and all that anyone cares about. In all grade levels and in all subjects, it does not matter what was learned, as long as a good grade was the result. I am guilty of this too, obsessed with getting good grades. Part of this is the societal pressures put on students to succeed, another part is competition. Getting into college is very important,and the only way to do that is excelling in school. However, this should not be the only focus in school. Students stress out from all the homework, quizzes, tests and projects given every night but, "Grades follow learning, learning doesn't follow grades." This quote was said by my chemistry teacher Ms. Gallagher-Bolos, a big believer in learning, and not grades. This is Ms. Gallagher-Bolos's blog, look at the article "I don't show my own children their report cards," pertaining to this issue. gbnchem.blogspot.com
Reading this blog made me think a lot about the focus put on grades in school. Most people don't pay attention in class, don't care what they learn, and study very hard for the test so they can get a good grade. This puts tons of pressure on the student, trying to cram the night before, and this is a big reason why students get so stressed out. If we all payed more attention to learn the material when the teacher is teaching it, we would not have to study as hard. This is because we would have already learned all of the material, and the test would just show what we know. As opposed to studying FOR the test and memorizing the material. Studying for the test would be going over terms on a study guide or concept list, to make sure all of the material on the test would be learned, but not caring about the extra concepts not on the test but still pertaining to the subject matter.
My chem class has changed my views a lot about this topic. I still believe that grades are important, but not so much as it dictates intelligence, as I thought before. No matter what grades I get in my classes, I am still the same person and I am no smarter or stupider. I take school very seriously, always studying for my tests, very motivated to get the highest grades that I can. Because of this, it took time for me to realize that they don't take over the world. The good thing about colleges is that they don't only look at grades, which lightens the focus a little bit. ACT scores, essays and extracurricular activities are all parts of getting into college, emphasizing that grades aren't the only thing that matters. A big reason that students are so stressed out is because of grades for college. This stress is put on by parents, most teachers and other students as well. If everyone could realize that grades are not important as everyone thinks they are, stress could be eliminated and learning could be increased. This is not to say that grades don't matter and students shouldn't try in school, but less of the focus has to be put on the grades than the amount right now.