Comments for 2007-2008 Calvine High School Blog

Comment on Strawberry Creek Assignment by felina b

felina b — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:41:19 +0000

My name is FB and during the Strawberry Creek field trip I have participated in, the most fun day I had throughout all of the days was the second day because me and my partner both helped my teacher Debbie to identify the weeds and plants that the students found in the grids they were making. The students made grids and then found plants they were unfamiliar with and brought them to a table which I was working at and my job was to look through a book that had all the plants and weeds in California, and identify what they were. Not only did I do the identifying but also found new and fresh flowers that had been frozen from the previous years and replaced them. This day was a lot of fun. Because students worked so hard our teacher Ron was nice enough to provide us with water and granola bars.

The first day of the three field trips we really didn’t do that much but we walked to both trapezoidal creek and Strawberry Creek to record what we saw around the creeks and to draw pictures of what we saw. For example we saw birds, litter and algae and a lot more but on our paper we had symbols that we were to use for everything we saw.

The last day of the Strawberry Creek field trip we tested the water to find the temperature of it from one side of the creek to the other. Depending on the temperature of the creek we could discover how polluted or nr it was. We ran plenty of test on the water and did a lot of observations, and also picked up some of the garbage and litter that was left behind. We came to understand that when it rains or when you wash your car or when you water our grass a lot of chemicals that come from you doing those things washes down he storm drain and that’s how it becomes polluted.

Comment on Marsh Madness by Robert A.

Robert A. — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:02:30 +0000

Going to the Marsh Madness field trip was a good experience for me because there were so many good things to learn about and to teach to fourth graders. This field trip helped us learn more about the wetlands and nature. Also we taught the fourth graders about the wetlands and all the ways to make them interested about what they were learning by talking about the animals, plants, different type of habitats. We learned about so many birds and we were helping the fourth graders see them in the binoculars. We took the fourth graders on the safari guide which they really loved and enjoyed.

Teaching and showing these elementary students all these wonderful things made me learn how it’s important to learn about wetlands and the nature surrounding it. Having this experience gave me more knowledge about what is important to our life, even though we don’t realize it every day we have to be aware of our environment. All this comes in mind when we did all those safari guides and the activities with the elementary students because the more knowledge they get when their young, the better it will be in their future. I would definitely recommend this field trip again to Calvine High School students.

Comment on Marsh Madness by ryan d.

ryan d. — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:18:55 +0000

While I was working in the marsh madness program I worked with 4th grade students teaching them the importance of our wet lands. I learned that we only have 5% of our wet lands left which isn’t a very big number. Also I learned there are many reasons our wetlands are important. While I was working with the students I had to learn the value of patience; although most of the kids were really nice and listened to you what you taught some were really rude. But for the most part I loved working with the kids because I love kids. I think our community benefits from the program because the students we taught now know the importance of keeping our wetlands clean.

I would definitely recommend that students next year sign up for the program because you will get to be apart of something big. While in this program we got to try things we probably would never try like eating goose and duck. I can honestly say I am glad I participated in this program

Comment on Presidential Election by David O.

David O. — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:57:23 +0000

Out of all the candidates I would like Barack Obama to be our next president. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, August 4, 1961 and now lives in Chicago, Illinois; He is married to his wife Michelle in 1992 and has two daughters Malia and Sasha. Obama also has written two books (Dreams from my father and Audacity of hope). Obama graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School and work as a community organizer.

Barack Obama plans to give $75 billion dollars of stimulus into the economy by getting money in the form of tax cuts and direct spending directly to the people who need it the most. The plan also reserves an additional$45 billion dollars of stimulus that can be delivered into the economy quickly in the future if the economy continues to fall apart.

Obama also plans to help education by spending $18 billion dollars for early childhood education, drop out preventions, and teacher incentives. Also his plan of 0-5 will provide critical support to the children and their parents. Obama’s plan places key emphasis at early care and education for infants, so kids are ready to enter kindergarten.

Barack Obama puts his political career on the line to opposing going to war in Iraq. Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. Removing troops from one to two combat brigades each month and have all our brigades back from Iraq in six months.

This is why I think that Barack Obama would make a good candidate. He is for the people in the United States, Obama wants to help the younger generation with providing better school benefits, He wants to help our economy by giving back money people lost, and he wants to bring our troops back from Iraq.

Comment on Presidential Election by Lakiah C.

Lakiah C. — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:27:32 +0000

The candidate I’m choosing is Barack Obama. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. He was raised in a small village in Kenya. He has a wife and two daughters. Barack became a community organizer in Chicago, helping out the crime filled and impoverished neighborhoods. He went back to college to obtain his law degree and was the first African American to become the president of Harvard Law Review. His experience helped him run for Illinois state senate and served 8 years doing that.

Obama wants to create a tax cut for working families. He wants to tax credit up to $500 per person or $1000 per working family. He also believes that foreign trade will strengthen America’s economy. Obama wants to enforce trade agreements by stooping countries from dishonest trades. He wants to speak with Canada and Mexico about NAFTA to make things better for American workers by giving them money to do things. Obama is trying to help people become unionized without any harassment from other people and he wants people to be able to strike and not get permanently replaced.

Obama’s plan on education is to make an Early Learning Challenge Grant to help kids before they start kindergarten that means starting as an infant. He wants an affordable child care to help people who are working and can’t afford daycares. He is reforming the No Child Left Behind law and wants to help the schools that need help and not punish them. He wants to create teacher scholarships to award the teachers who actually help, also making the teachers salary increase is what he has in mind to. Obama wants to establish the drop-out crisis to help teens so they won’t drop-out.

Obama’s plan is to remove all the troops from Iraq. In 2002 Obama did approve of the war. In 2003-2004 he spoke against the war he’s also stated that the war would be a costly factor that the society doesn’t need. In September of 2007 he started making a plan to withdraw troops when he became the president. He said as soon as he became the president he would remove the troops at least from one-two brigades a month. He will only keep troops to protect the embassies and diplomats. He thinks America is responsible for how the Iraqis live, 2 million Iraqis are refugees, and 2 million are displaced in their own nation.

The candidate I would choose is Barack Obama he actually wants to change the world. He’s experienced the hardships of life. He wants improvement from the world. He was the first African American to become the president of Harvard law. He wants to make things available for everybody not just the people who can pay for it. He wants to tax credit people who are working citizens. Obama wants to help people find jobs and by making an affordable child care to help people who most likely aren’t available to pay for a day-to-day day care provider. Obama also wants to help bring the United States troops back from the war and destruction. He is also thinking about when he becomes the president that he would help give Iraq $2 billion to help make sure that they are living somewhere safe and so that they could expand their lives.

Comment on Marsh Madness by Karla M.

Karla M. — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:30:05 +0000

In working with the Marsh Madness program I learned a lot of new things in our land that are very important to us. For instance, keeping the water clean, and also keeping it preserved. I also learned that it is very important to take care of our habitats, so that our animals can live in a healthy and clean environment as we wish to live in. I had a good experience working with the elementary students, by participating in the activities with them. Also it helped me with my confidence knowing that I can teach kids and not being shy. I believe that the students from Calvine High School help benefit our community in many ways because it helped us view those habitats like Stone Lake as important, and we can pass the information on to other people.

For the first time I experienced fun with nature. I think that this program is a really good experience for many people, the fact that you learn new things in nature and also because you get the opportunity to work with the nature and beauty in this world. I believe that this program is a good idea it helps a lot in nature or in other science areas etc. If the program was to be run in the fall I think it would be better because a lot of people aren’t able to enjoy it in the hot weather.

Comment on Citizenship by K.Daigre

K.Daigre — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:14:40 +0000

The benefits to society is very important for everyone to do because our society is not taken care of like it should be. Its a big thing for the members in our community to take part in society because it’ll better the atmosphere we all live in.
The first day of Creek Week was interesting because we visted not even the main creek but something like it more into a small area of the neighborhood next door to our school had alot more pollution than I thought it would. We were able to sit and observe everything that we saw, and draw pictures of them as well. There were all kinds of grafitti around the sement part of the creek and shrubs growing as well. The second day of Creek Week we were able to build up a block around a specific area we were concentrated on in a group and test the water, measure the perimeter, find out the varieties of all the plants that were in the square that we assigned to ourselves. Not only were there so many kinds of plants growing but there were temperatures I never thought could exist while taking them down with the area of water we were assigned to. The third day of Creek Week I felt was the most interesting because of all the activities/assignments we were assigned to do. We tested the pH of the water, turbidity, temperature, and many other kinds of testing that are very important to do in any stream of water that take a living spot in the community. Not only was thisjust an assignment but it gave me a brand new outlook on the way i feel about caring for the creeks around me, just because all this water we eventually drink.
Which is where i repeat to say that it is very important to perform public service in the communtiy, so we get a better understanding of how the things in our society arent just there but we may drink, eat, and touch all of this stuff which all go through our body so it takes a big toll on our life.

Comment on Presidential Election by MitchellM

MitchellM — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:04:34 +0000

Finally I’m old enough to vote. Sounds great doesn’t it? Well not really. To me there was so much confusion about the last election, and well some people can tell you that voting for George W, Bush again was the worst thing that ever happened for the US of A. there were so many little things and some big ones that made Citizens of the US pissed at George. Have you ever ask someone “Why do you think we are fighting a WAR in Iraq?” I’m sure you have. Well have you noticed that almost everyone will give you a different answer? Amazing isn’t it? This is all because of George, and we might never know the true reason. This up coming election is going to go down in history, there is a woman running for president and there is an African American male running for president, if there is a woman elected for president then this will be the first for the united stated and same for having an African American as president. There is nothing wrong with that at all. It’s just that most, and a lot of people that vote will look at the fact that she is a woman and want to vote for her, just because she would be the first woman president, but there is more to that, same with voting for the first African American president. Don’t just vote for them because there never been a woman president or an African American president, look beyond that and vote for one because they will help our nation.

This year I’ am going to vote and I hope that my vote will make a difference to how we live our lives in the US. My vote will have to go to Barack Obama. Obama, what most people know him by was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. His father was born in Kenya and his mother was born in the United States in the state of Kansas. Once Barack was born his father left back to Kenya, and lived with his mother in Hawaii then shortly moved to Indonesia. Barack moved to New York in his later years and received a degree from the University of Columbia. Barack moved to Chicago in 1985, where he became a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment.

Obama has said that he would help our striving economy by having more job opportunities to help everyone on both sides, business owners and workers. Businesses will make more money, and also be able to pay workers better. Another is a tax cut; this is were I think Bush messed up, he cut taxes to wealthy people and forgot about the poor. Obama’s plan is to cut taxes for the middle and working class by nearly 1,000 dollars a year witch would be great.

Education is somewhere that I think Obama would do great if he goes through with it. Obama said that he will help children 0-5 prepare for the school environment, also help student that are under achieving. Having a class out of school to finsh home work before they leave is another one of Obamas ideas. Obama said he will also help cut the drop out rate by having new student, student and teacher, and student and parent programs, also to let kids know that some is there for them all the way.

I my self is not a big fan of war especially with family and friends in the military. The fact, as I mentioned earlier about being in a war we have no clue about bugs me a lot. Obama has said that if he is elected president that he will pull troops out of Iraq instantly. That sounds great to me. My ressons for electing Obama for president might be different than others, but voting for Obama not just he will be the first African American but because he seams like a man of his word.

Comment on Citizenship by ryan d.

ryan d. — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:02:09 +0000

I believe that by planting trees and cleaning up our creeks we play very important role in saving our earth. While we were at Strawberry Creek I saw that animals that were once everywhere slowly disappearing. If we can keep all of our creeks clean maybe some of the important wild and plant life will return. When we throw trash and dump waste in our creeks all that nasty stuff ends up in our lakes and oceans, and eventually in our drinking water. When I seen what we as humans are doing to the environment I feel that it is our rightful duty to keep it clean for our animals.

Comment on Economic Choices by Brian B

Brian B — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:35:18 +0000

Vintage Park Trapezoidal Canal Strawberry Creek Watershed Price Sq. ft. Price Sq. ft $273,000 1,685 $305,000 2,189 $206,000 957 $369,000 2,820 $210,000 983 $282,000 1,842 $268,000 1,685 $307,000 2,189 $219,000 2,092 $287,000 1,842 Average: Average: $235,200 1,408 $310,000 2,176 As you can see, the numbers are quite different. While Vintage Park’s are is cheaper your sq footage is cut, but in Strawberry Creek the price is higher and you get more sq footage. If I had the money I would go with Strawberry Creek. You may pay more but its worth it and the resale value might be larger in this area rather than in Vintage Park.