The Crash
The dark haired girl lied unconscious in the deep snow. The soft moonlight showed her beautiful face full of scratches. Her hair fanned out around her head like silk, as the heavy snow continued to fall. Her coat was already covered as was one of her hands. The white snow around her was marred only by drops of red blood from her nose and mouth.
Clutching his right shoulder as if it were broken, a teenage boy crawled onto the two-laned road where the girl lay. He had struggled to get out of a ditch at the edge of the forest. Now he crawled through the snow toward the girl, panting for air. Everything around him was all white and quiet. The boy knelt down by the girl's side and saw how still and quiet she was. Afraid to hurt her, he put a hand out and gently touched her snow-covered shoulder. Then he started to call her name.
When he first tried to wake her, the girl was still deep in a dream. She didn't want to wake up. In her dream, she was back at home, watching a basketball game on ESPN. She was safe, but she knew that if she woke up, she'd have to face the terrible thing that had just happened to her. She also knew somehow that outside the dream it was bitterly cold. The kind of cold that would freeze your hands, and feet, so bad that you would not be able to move. She would do anything to avoid that feeling.
But the boy's intrusive voice would not stop. Finally, she opened one eyelid at a time. She had no idea of where she was, why she was there. All she knew was that it was cold, and she was in pain.
"You're bleeding," she heard the voice say. "Your nose." Although she didn't know who the voice belonged too, it still sounded familiar.
"What happened?" she tried to ask as she sat up, but the words came out hard to understand. She reached a hand up and brushed the snow and blood off her face.
"Alex, are you okay?" The voice asked with concern.
"Yeah," she mumbled. But inside, she felt far from okay. Her head was aching like crazy, and her shoulder hurt like she had just been punched. When she looked down on her hand, there was a lot of blood on it. "I feel sick"
Suddenly, it all came back to her. She had been inside a car, an SUV. She remembered it had smelled like McDonalds because they'd just stopped for fast food a few minutes ago. She tried to focus on the important things: Where was the car now? Where had they been coming from? Where had they been going? Most of all, she wondered about what had happened to her. Alex heard a noise as the boy sat down heavily in the snow next to her. Deep in her thoughts, she had almost forgotten about the boy's existence. His brown spiky hair was matted with blood and dirt. For a second, she couldn't remember who he was, and it scared her. She knew she was supposed to know. Then his name cam rushing back.
"Johnny!" she said, relieved. He was her boyfriend for 3 years now.
She moved sideways and hugged him tightly. Feeling his warmth, she was no longer as scared.
"I thought you were dead." he finally said. She could hear in his voice how concerned he was. "I couldn't get you to wake up."
"Don't worry, I'm fine now." Her eyes blurred, and her head ached with pain. "What happened to us?"
"You don't remember?"
She shook her head. "No. I mean, sort of." The event slowly floated back into her mind. She remembered that she was returning from a ski trip at Copper Mountain. They had spent a wonderful weekend there at a condo owned by Johnny's father.
"We had an accident," Johnny said. "We crashed the SUV."
"How are the others?" Alex asked.
"They're still in the SUV." Johnny replied, as his hair was covered up with snowflakes. "I climbed out of the side window to see if I could get help. I found you first. We still need to go back for them."
"How did we crash?" Alex asked as they stumbled to get up.
"We hit a deer. A big one." He paused. "We started rolling and I blacked out. When I woke up, the SUV was in the woods. My door wouldn't open and no one answered me. I didn't know what to do.
The two of them walked through the gap in the trees. Alex didn't allow herself to wonder what kind of shape her friends were in. Her fingers were feeling so numb it was scaring her. She didn't know where her gloves had gone.
"Look," Alex sad. In the distance, thirty yards or more into the white forest, were the remains of the SUV. Without saying another word, they began moving toward the car as quickly as they could. Alex pushed branches out of her way as she stumbled forward, getting covered in even more snow.
She reached the SUV first, a moment before Johnny.
I'm really proud this piece of writing because I worked really hard, and spent a really lot of time on my docs. I look at the things in my docs, and there are so many things I've written.
I'm really proud of this voice thread, because I put a lot of work into it. I had a lot of fun making it, and it looks really cool.
2 very different choices.
In the end, I can pick one,
and only one.
Headed for college, or not.
To choose the right one,
I needed persuasion.
Trying to take the right path,
Trouble, I had a lot.
To have the knowledge,
or to have the weaker career.
The one that was most taken,
I tried to take.
Then again,
Lots went the other.
I tried to go with my own thoughts,
but mine felt wrong.
To be successful,
or not.
In the end,
The choice was made.
I took the one,
that seemed right to me.
I believe I took the right one.
College, here I come.
I really like this poem that i wrote because reading this poem right now reminds me of the time that I was writing this. I had a good time writing this, and I had a lot of fun.
First proposition constructive- 5 minutes
First opposition constructive- 5 minutes
Alice Liu
Second proposition constructive- 5 minutes
Second opposition constructive- 5 minutes
Opposition rebuttal- 3 minutes
Proposition rebuttal- 3 minutes
1. Assertion: Online schools do not provide a more authentic learning environment than traditional ones.
Reason: Online teachers aren't as good as teachers in traditional schools.
Evidence: 75% of teachers reported receiving training in foundational knowledge in
the field of online teaching.
http://www.nacol.org/resources/
They say that online schools provide a more authentic learning environment than traditional ones, but I disagree because only about 75% of online teachers have been reported that have not received training in foundational knowledge in the field of teaching. Therefore, online schools do not provide more authentic learning environments than traditional ones.
2. Assertion: Online schools do not provide a more authentic learning environment than traditional ones.
Reason: Kids that go to online schools, don't get as good grades as the ones who go to the traditional schools.
Evidence: Cyber schools-- where students complete all coursework online using home computers -- are a big hit with parents, who are signing up their children as quickly as the virtual doors open. However, test results for 2003 show students at many cyber schools are not measuring up to the state standards or to their peers who attend brick-and-mortar schools.
http://www.jemetc.com/edtech/archives/000146.html
They say that online schools provide a more authentic learning environment than traditional ones, but I disagree because kids that go to online schools, don't get as good grades as the ones who go to the traditional schools. Therefore, online schools do not provide a more authentic learning environment than traditional ones.
3. Assertion: Online schools do not provide a more authentic learning environment than traditional ones.
Reason: Some kids who went to online schools, can't go to college now because their grades aren't good enough.
Evidence: Two players that were studs in Orange County are not going to be eligible to attend a 4 yr. college on a scholarship nor attend because of their grades. One of the players is the 3rd kid in the last two years from the same school who should have gone somewhere on scholarship. The other kid was in the Div 1 Finals this past year. Both kids are Div 1 college players but because of their grades in school they will have to got he JC route and everyone knows that is a crapshoot when you go JC. Coaches please remember that you need to get these boys ready for life and not just for Friday Nights.
http://talk.ocregister.com/showthread.php?t=20100
They say that online schools provide a more authentic learning environment than traditional ones, but I disagree because some students can't go to college because they don't have good enough because they went to a bad online school. Therefore, online schools do not provide a more authentic learning environment than traditional ones.
4. A lot of distractions
Notes on other team
higher level of standard of education*
more free time*
there's technology or computer at skool*
great technology*
I had a really fun time doing the debates. I enjoyed it a lot, and it turned out really good.