Remember your recess days back in elementary school? Recess was a time for fun, and hanging out with your friends without having to worry. Well, in high school, you don’t get recess. Everyday is just going from class to class learning without a break, with kids rushing in the hallways trying to get to their next class before the bell rings.

Depending on the classes you take, you get a certain amount of work and assignments. With many assignments, you don’t have time for doing other stuff, which can lead to stress. Everyday is just going home and then starting homework.

Since high schools are giving students a ton of work, don’t you think recess is a good thing to add to high schools? Students could have the time to hang out with their friends and play games. Hanging out with friends can be a distraction from stress or worries.

Students could just have fun for 15 minutes and then it’s back to learning. They could get a break from learning and they might just enjoy school a bit more. Back in elementary school, during recess, everyone would run and play with their friends. Either playing tag or staying inside and playing card games or board games.

Recess would be nice to have in high school to help students get the stress off their shoulders. Students could work on their assignments with no distractions, a bit like study hall but with more freedom.

Sometimes students can feel restless and they want to go for a little run in the field. Recess would be giving them the freedom to do what they need to do for themselves that they can’t do in a classroom. Recess would be a good idea to add into high schools.

Should St. Paul schools be uniform wearing schools? If so why or why not?

Today I went and interviewed some of my fellow classmates during school about this topic, asking them different questions.

The first person I interviewed was Junior Bonfil.

My first question was, “Should students in St. Paul wear uniforms?”
He answered with “No, they shouldn’t.”

My second question I asked him was, “Why shouldn’t they have to wear uniforms?”
Junior said, “Because people don’t have to wear them and it’s like you’re not free when you wear them, it’s like you’re stuck following people.”

One of my other questions was, “How do you personally feel about this topic?”
He answered with, “Not good to have them, they don’t represent us the students.”

My last and final question was, “How do you think school uniforms affect other students?”
He answered with this particular answer, “Uncomfortable because it doesn’t bring the sparkle in us.”

The second person I interviewed was Zuani Marilyn Venture.

I asked her if students in St. Paul should wear uniforms and she said no.

My next question was, “Why shouldn’t they?”
She answered, “People should wear whatever they want.”

My third question was, “How do they feel about this topic personally?”
Zuani answered with one word “Disturbing.”

My last question was, “How would it affect students?”
She said, “They wouldn’t feel that they can express who they are. They would just look like everyone else.”

My opinion personally is that students should not have to wear uniforms because dressing how you want is apart of being unique and one of a kind. People need to be heard and seen how they want, and wearing uniforms would make them alike and as they say “an original is better than a copy.”

I have a question, who actually took time to do their personal project?

After asking 10 different sophomores, 8 out of 10 said that they had.

The IB MYP Personal Project is a project completed by sophomores at Highland Park Senior High. It is an opportunity to express a personal interest as well as the development of a student’s writing and thinking skill. The project consists of three parts: journals, a paper, and the product. The paper is typically due in the middle of February and the final product is presented in a showcase around spring. The full completion of the project overall takes a year.

The project is first introduced to students at the end of their freshmen year. This gives them the chance to explain and decide what they actually want to do for their project. Then later at the beginning of sophomore year, students are assigned an adviser who will help them and lead them through their project. Each adviser is assigned about five students. This gives them (the advisers) a better chance to actually sit down one-to-one with each student to keep them on track. Each student gets the chance to meet with their adviser three times before actually completing and turning in their project.

Now that you know about the project, let’s ask a few of our HPSH sophomores about it. I asked 10 students (the same 10 from the beginning of the article) the following question: Do you think you were provided with enough help? Here are some of their answers:

Danasaja: “No I didn’t {Receive help}. I had to ask other students.”

Mohan: “Little help on the journals, but I did fine on the final paper.”

Sydney: “There was not  enough structure, but yes, enough help was provided.”

Even though there wasn’t a lot of positive feedback, the project does help us prepare for being independent for our adult lives. The project can become time consuming when we have other homework to focus on.

After taking a poll from the same 10 students, 6 out of 10 were proud of their final products. Even thought it wasn’t favored, many were proud of their final product.