P.E. Class

Author's Note: This piece was asked to be written for a gym essay. Within the piece were were told to include different activities that take place in gym class and how it benefits our bodies.

SMACK! I hear the volleyball hit my hand when it flies over the net. The other team has a tough time getting to it, but they end up getting it over the net.  I take a step back and watch the ball come right to my arms, a perfect pass to the setter.  Right away the setter says, “Mine, mine, mine,” letting us all know that she is going to take the ball. Making a smart move, she tips the ball over the net, where the other team has left the court wide open.  This is what happens sometimes when we are able to play volleyball in P.E. and because of those opportunities, many people like P.E. because of the variety of skills we learn.  Generally, physical education is a very good class to take because of its benefits to all of our growing bodies.

When our bodies grow we need to keep in shape so that we stay healthy. This is where P.E. class helps us. In our P.E. class we do an assortment of skills such as: hand-eye coordination, agility, hand-eye-foot coordination, and we learn about many other sports.  We also do a health unit dealing with drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. We also learn how to give CPR and use the AED. When we are not studying a sport or a health topic, we do the Presidential Fitness Testing, a test using different skills to measure your activeness.   Within this test we are required to do a certain amount of sit-ups, pull-ups, run a timed mile, sit-n-reach, shuttle run, and the pacer test.  The level you must reach is determined by the amount you were able to do in 6th grade at Horizon.  For example, if I did my shuttle run in 10.4 seconds in 6th grade, then I would have to get less than 10.0 seconds in 7th grade. Throughout 8th grade and high school I would have to either keep improving or get the same score, depending on what score you have. We do lots of sit-ups outside of the fitness testing as well; this means that we will most likely not have core or spine problems when we get older.

While we do lots of physical activity in our gym class we also learn about different cancers and what they can do to your body. In addition we learn how to keep our bodies in shape. This can really benefit our bodies when we get older. Our knees shouldn’t crackle or pop because we run and do lots of balancing stretches in gym, when we get older. I think that we also benefit from our P.E. class because it teaches us about the side-effects of smoking, eating disorders, doing drugs and many more things that aren’t especially healthy for our bodies.

In all of the skills and sports that we learn how to play, I can tell that almost everyone likes to walk into P.E. because they know they will have fun time learning about how to keep their body healthy. Due to all of the good things we do in P.E. class, it is a good way to keep our bodies healthy and in shape.

Band Concert Evaluation

Author's Note: This is an essay evaluation about the seventh and eighth grade band concert on March 6, 2013 in the Pewaukee High School's new auditorium. 

The seventh and eighth grade band performance at the Pewaukee High School’s new auditorium on March 6, 2013. In the big picture, I think that both of the bands did a really good job throughout the entire performance. 

The first portion of the concert was done marvelously by the seventh grade band playing their 5 songs.  All the way through this portion of the concert the seventh grade band did an excellent job with their dynamics, intonation and many more things. Their songs were with many different sounds and emotions making me want to get out of my chair and dance.

Right away my ears tuned into the jazz band with their sassy sounds and musical enthusiasm. I thought it was especially cool when certain musicians could play different instruments. Such as the tuba player, Drew Godsel, could also play the drum set particularly well. Also the dynamics were excellent for this instrumentation as well.

During the eight grade bands performance I was really intrigued by the different sounds they made with their mouths during the song The Great Locomotive.  The different sounds and noises were very well choreographed and done well by everyone.   Throughout the different pieces in the eighth grade segment of the concert I could really hear all of the different sections and the dynamics that the different sections were playing.

In the long run, I think the entire band concert was fantastically put together.  All three of the bands were fantastic and sounded really well together.  On the other hand, both of the bands could have done a bit more of counting.  However, the song selection was awesome. I could really hear the emotions through the songs. 

The Fortune Cookie

Author’s Note: This piece is a short story involving semi-colons, colons, and commas. The main characters are Hunter and his wife, Stacey.

Imagine having to flee the country, for no reason, only because a fortune cookie told you to. Hunter is going through this exact crisis. He knows the cookie is true because all of the other fortunes he’s read have come to life. For example: Two months ago he read a fortune saying , “Within the next week you will have luck with employment.”  The very next day he got a fantastic new job at the hospital, and his wife had just gotten a new job as a physical therapist.  Only today, he didn’t want to believe what the cookie had told him. He read it once again; “Leave the country at once, your life is in danger; only take what you desperately need. Do NOT say a word to anyone about this message.” Floating around in his head was the last thought of the note he had just read. Over and over again… “Do NOT say a word to anyone.”

Hunter immediately got up and ran all the way home to find his wife sitting on the couch with a book in her hand, giving him a puzzling look.  He thinks again of the last part, “Do NOT say a word to anyone,” and suddenly realizes he cannot tell his own wife about what he had read on the little slip of paper just  five minutes ago.  Right away Hunter decides to obey what the fortune told him so he starts packing a bag. Thinking of the consequences, he only slips one thing to his wife; “Get a suit case out and start packing!” She follows his orders with a little smirk on her face.

Hunter takes both of the luggage bags; he tells her to follow him to the car. Just like before, she thinks he is crazy but does it anyway. Both Hunter and Stacey race to get a cab to go straight to the airport. Hunter knows he is making the right choice by following the fortune’s directions; but somehow he just can’t seem to be entirely convinced.  When they both reach the airport, they pay the driver and sprint in towards the security and ticket purchasing counter. He looks at all of the different flights; domestic and international.   Being of English descent, Hunter told the ticketing agent, “two tickets to London, please.”  Finding it impossible to contain the secret, Hunter tells Stacey the entire story of how the fortune cookie had persuaded him to leave the country as they were waiting to board the plane.  For a week, for a lifetime… ?  Only time would tell.

After the flight Hunter and Stacey are shocked at how amazing and strange it is to be in England where everyone thinks  they have an accent. Almost by an instinct they hop into another taxi-cab to find the best hotel they can afford to stay at until they can find an apartment.  Before they got out of the cab they  both looked around to see if there is anyone suspicious like a sheriff or guard; someone who might be looking to hurt him. They look both ways and spot no one at all. So, they take a step out of the cab and find themselves in front of a beautiful hotel. They make the decision to stay, and get checked in right away. Hunter decides to freshen up in the men’s room while Stacey is checking in because now he spots someone that he had seen at the airport in America; not just a normal  England tourist, but perhaps a person who might be trying to follow him and his wife.

With things seeming to get more peculiar every minute, Hunter pulls his wife away from the front desk of the hotel and asks if she really wants to stay there. He tells her about the person he thinks could be following them, and together they decide to make a quick exit.  Relieved to get out of the hotel, they grab a taxi-cab to the other side of town.  Reluctantly, Hunter scopes out the cars around the cab and spots the person following them in the car behind them.  He thinks about what has transpired in the last few hours, and in the back of his mind the thought keeps repeating itself… “Do NOT say a word to anyone.”

Realizing that the only way to escape from the torment of the repeating fortune is to meet it head-on, Hunter tells the cab driver to pull over at the next hotel.  Either the follower will also pull over; or he will go on, meaning he wasn’t following them after all.  Hunter had to have the answer.  Pulling up to the Hilton, the cab driver starts calculating the fare, and  Hunter watches as the car behind them drives on by.  WHEW!!!  Hunter had his answer, and now he and his wife could enjoy their English holiday!  A bit of an extreme circumstance to get them to England, but now that they were there, they were going to enjoy it.  They sat down to dinner, toasted each other with their water glasses, and lived happily ever after… back at home in their little cottage in  Iowa.  And they never, ever, opened another fortune cookie for the rest of their days!