Dear Chamblee Community,
        We would love if our teachers were missing school to go on strike personally. Striking to protect their pay, and no school for a couple of days would be absolutely great! Unfortunately, the teachers in Chicago went on strike for their salaries being cut based on student tests. There are students that skip class, disrupt class, and ones who don't have the eagerness to learn which is why the teacher's salaries shouldn't be based on test scores, but there is also the argument of if the teacher is actually teaching or not.
        There are good and there are bad teachers. Teachers can be loving, involved, and caring. But some can be unfair and egotistical. A good teacher should make her students excited to come to school each day. A good teacher should respect her students, make them feel comfortable in the classroom, and be consistent. They will not snap back if a student asks a question. If they do, the student tends to not ask more questions. Then that causes them to fade out. This would consist of a bad teacher. When the bad teachers are evaluated in their classrooms it always seems as though they tell the students to act on their best behavior and pay attention more diligently than usual. We had an experience with this once.  Our teacher told us the principal was coming in so we needed to be on our best behavior and that teacher actually made us take notes off the board for the first time ever.  But, in reality those components should always be present in a student's learning environment, disregarding whomever is present in the classroom that particular evaluation day. These bad teachers should be punished for their wrong doing salary wise. 
          Some may say, teachers have to be teaching if the students are getting the answers correct. Although, they don't know that some teachers,the bad ones of course, may cram in work before the standardized tests or maybe even cheat so that their salaries don't get changed. Outside factors in communities, class disruptions, and student eagerness to learn effects children's test scores, but most importantly its on if the teachers are eager to be a good or a bad teacher.

         
         


                                                                                  Sincerely, 
                                                                                                  Malaika English and Meghan Hall
                                                                                                    10th grader

The crowd is patiently waiting for your show to start. They cant wait to admire your new trends for the season. Your models walk out on the runways and look flawless but you pray to god that no one falls. That wouldn't reflect you very well right? The stress is all on you. Now it's your time for you to walk out and thank everyone for coming. The bright lights on you while you and  smile and bow for everyone's prescence. Everyone loves your line and wants your clothes immediately. You would think all your work has paid off right? Wrong. This for now is all just a dream.
I have a strong passion for fashion. I love arranging  fabrics and materials, testing them out, and seeing how great it looks on people. It's like a piece of artwork. No one can tell you how or what to do. Only your opinion matters and nothing could come between. And of course you need beautiful people to showcase your artwork. Models are pefect for this.  I love making people look beautiful and feel much better about themselves. It makes people feel more confident and raises self esteem. Everything about it fascinates and excites me. Retailing, modeling, styling, image consulting. Everything. It's like I can see myself  backstage at fashion shows lining up the models and sending them out or walking into the doors of Vougue's office and meeting Anna Wintour or interning for Kelly Cutrone.

Describe a stressful situation you had to endure. How did you calm yourself down? What are some other coping strategies you regularly use?  Stress can be one evil thing unless you know how to deal with it.  Life is always full of deadlines and procrastination should never be an option. I knew had a lot of homework to do and tests to study for but i always would put it off for another day and say well i'll just do that later. You know that feeling? Yeah well should should never do that. I was dealing with so much stress that everything had become so overwhelming to me. I began getting aalot of anxiety and didnt know how to deal with it. The only person that I could blame was myself. I was penalizing my grades and jeopardizing my future. Some ways that I calmed myself down was taking deep breaths in and out and finding anything to calm myself. My way to unwine was playing the piano.  Some of my other strategies were to get alot of sleep and to exercise at least once a day. I also made a schedule for when to do homework and to study so I won't get left behind and feel overwhelmed.  Any thoughts?

Lying on her knitted hammock in her jungle cabin alone, Anne thought about the promise she made to her grandmother.

“I’ve got to find the ring.” she said.

Her grandmother, a strong and passionate woman, made her promise that she would never leave the jungle until she found her most precious possession.  It was a ring that was bestowed upon her by the emperor of India. All generations of people in the village came to watch the ceremony in thanks for restoring the emperor’s crown. A man stole the precious jewel, but was sent to jail soon after. Nobody knows the mysterious man’s identity. He has the power to penetrate fear into anyone he targets. At her grandmother’s celebration party, the pugnacious man broke out and killed everyone in his path with their fears. He found her grandmother and used her fear of snakes to steal her ring.

“Till the day you find this ring, you shall be cursed! And I doubt you will ever find it!” he screamed.

“What have you done to me?” grandmother questioned.

Without answering her question, the mysterious man rushed out of the party and ran towards the jungle. That was the last time she ever saw the man. The man cursed blindness upon her so she even if she found the ring, there would be no chance of her actually seeing the quite exquisite piece of jewelry. The only person she knew could save her was her granddaughter, Anne.

“Anne you must promise me you will find the ring!” pleaded grandmother.

“I promise.” replied Anne.

“Promise to stay in this jungle until you find the ring Anne. I leave all my trust with you.” stated grandmother.

For six years now, 18 year old Anne, a now beautiful and fearless girl, has been stuck in unknown territory in the jungle and has come across the mysterious man on many accounts now. Anne is afraid to get the ring back because every time that she gets near the man, poisonous and deadly spiders rise from the ground. She knows that he is aware of who she is and who her grandmother is. However, he knows what damage and destruction Anne is capable of doing as she was taught many things by her now deceased assassin parents.

“Why don’t you work with me instead? This is so childish.” the man villainously stated.

“Why?”  Anne asked.

“Anne we could rule the world. We could conquer together.” he stated.

“I will never. You’ve blinded my grandmother. You will pay.” Anne said.

Ever since the altercation, Anne was preparing her plan and plotting revenge on the man.

It was a trap of poison ivy and other poisonous plants that he will step into. This man has been here for centuries and legends have said he will give back what he has stolen if you irritate the man with poisonous substances and plants and kill him. A trap was left overnight. Calmly sleeping in the midst of the night, Anne is awakened by a noise, loud and alluring. She knew who it had to be. Leaping towards the edge of the cabin, she slung down the vines of her jungle cabin to see where it was coming from. Realizing that the man is trapped and that her plan worked successfully, Anne notices the ring on his pinky. As Anne creeps upon him, the mysterious man tries to act strong but cannot hide the pain that he is encountering.  He is slowly dying, his pain comes to a pause and he speaks.

“You will never get this ring,” he exclaimed. “You’ve wasted your time!”

Raising his arm as fast and high as he could, he threw the sacred ring with all of his might. It dazzled and shimmered all the way through the depths of a cave. Anne runs in the cave and the beautiful jewel attached to the ring catches her eye. She runs to it but comes to a halt. The ring, a beautiful  piece of jewelry for the fingers, fell on the dirty floors of the cave. The spiders crept and crawled on anything and everything including the ring. This is her one and only chance to get the ring. Thoughts of her grandmother then run through her mind. She thinks of all the things that her grandmother has done for her. She then believes in herself and comes to her senses. She grabs the ring and runs out of the jungle. Out of the corner of her eye, she catches a glimpse of a corpse body decaying.  Anne proudly finds her grandmother to tell her the news. Anne was the hero that finally restored the ring to her grandmother.

“You’ve found it my granddaughter. I knew I could believe in you.” she said with her icy, blue eyes wide.

“Well I promised I would find it right?” Anne giggled.

As much to Anne’s dismay, the man unknowingly still exists gaining more strength as the sun sets every night. He will be back and hopefully Anne will be ready with her cured grandmother itching for revenge.