observation practice

The class sits quietly in their chairs after the test. One girl scrolls on her phone then flips through her papers. Only one or two people haven't finished the test. Many people use the time to come plate work for other classes. One boy wearing a blue McCallum basketball shirt figits with his backpack then goes back to writing. The boy in front of me is on Instagram. A girl wearing a tie dye shirt enters the class. the silence continues.

observation

There are two lines of people dressed and only the top half of suits and graduation gowns. The photography lights flash every once in a while every time. The lines are mostly filled with guys, but a few girls peek out. One photographer instructs the students to put their shoulders back and keep their head straight. The students that are in the lines on the floor talking. some of them lay on the ground while others sit, on their phones. The mood of the room is very chill. One student picks his nose trying to be sneaky. A photographer wearing a purple shirt enjoys getting up and instructing the seniors repeatedly. Guy anna tells me his name is Steven stands with his legs crossed kind of awkwardly laughing with his friends. his hair is a terrible attempt at the Justin Bieber do and his jeans skinnier than me. another girl standing near him probably 2 feet shorter than Steven is wearing a tan shirt with blue jeans. Suddenly she is wearing a yellow shirt, Anna tells me her name is Flora. The seniors outfit seem to be super cute or super laid-back like they don't really care. some of the people wearing to graduation gowns I have white sashes hanging over them. two boys at the end of the room seem to be speaking through a carpet or a cardboard pipe. It seems like they are enjoying themselves. One guy wearing a striped shirt comes over and bends down and talks to his friends. Then he comes over and starts talking to an English teacher near us then he leaves the gym. A guy comes and sits down with anna he is wearing a black shirt and green shorts, has a phone case that has a unicorn on it. He tells us a story. He uses his hands a lot to express himself. 

Current Event Quiz 3

1. The central message of the speech by the Pope was "to break out of its cycle of polarization and paralysis" he wants people to stop being so power hungry and to think re or the people instead of for the money. The speech was delivered to congress. The story illustrates interest because the pope rarely travels to there countries to give speeches so maybe he thought we needed it. It is historic because the pope talked about controversial topics such as gay-marriage. The Pope was invited by by John Boehner.

2. The broad difference of opinion is whether or not racial slurs started the incident. The coach Mack Breed has resigned and the players have been suspended for a month due to the incident. He was frustrated because the "central figures' in the incident did not appear before the committee.

3. Five dozen parents and students protested for the return of a sixth grade teacher named John Wetherold.  The district moved Wetherold due to overcrowding in the 3rd grade at Blackshear Elementary. It affects the sixth grade because now the sixth grade is overcrowded because they only have one teacher. The same thing happened at Bryker Woods Elementary except that because of the reaction from the parents and students the teacher was aloud to stay.

4. John Whitmire and D-Houston want to know if the law will make it so guns can't be carried in parking lots, sidewalks and driveways of schools. The law takes effect on January 1st. Whitmire's understanding of the law is that school districts will be aloud to ban guns in outdoor areas. The alternative interpretation is that state gun laws don't consider parking lots, sidewalks and driveways to be apart of the premises where guns could be banned. The attorney General has 180 to answer Whitmire's question. It might not matter because the Senate Bill 7 will allow those with licenses to carry a concealed handgun.

5. Story: Jury in ex-deputy's murder trail says it has reached an impasse
Summary: An ex deputy shot and killed Yvette Smith, a black woman just seconds after encountering her. The jury, after 17 hours of deliberation over two days is at an impasse. They do not know is it should be classified as "reasonable action" or murder.
Opinion: I think that the case should be classified as murder. If a white man shoots a black woman just after encountering her it seems very suspicious, especially because of all the recent murders of black people by whit policemen. This leads me to believe it was not "reasonable action."

Extended Response: Obituaries are written about people that died. They are usually about recent deaths because people don't want to read about someone that died 2 years ago. They usually provide information about the most prominent points of peoples lives. You would expect to find how they died in any obituary but obituaries are normally about how the person lived instead of how they died. I did not know that many reporters are assigned obituaries. I think it would be interesting to write an obituary because it is a new and different type of writing.

Humans of McCallum with Anna Addison

"Over the summer I was living in a college dorm with a bunch of other kids my age for writing, and me and all my friends did something bad that I don't think I can say on record. The camp director found out that we did it and he threatened to kick us out, but like the thing is we were being brought in to be interviewed one by one and so it was like the most stressful day of my life." -Anna Addison

Current Event Quiz 2

1b. To help the long-shot candidates the debate was set up so the candidates with a lower chance of winning went first to give them a better chance. Donald Trump was center stage because he was the initial focus of the four candidates whose polls didn't qualify.

2.The CIA came to the UT campus to say the dive to unveil the records stemmed from the White House. They are trying to show a new level of openness between the government and the public. The CIA made the documents available on its website. The PDB is important because it gives very crucial security concerns of an eight year span in the 1960's.

3. Hungary sprayed syrian migrants with water cannons because they tried to break through a fence.  The migrants then began crossing from serbia into Croatia as an alternate route.

4. He was detained and handcuffed because teachers decided his homemade alarm clock looked like a bomb. The teacher later said the alarm clock "looked suspicious in nature." The public responded with the hashtag #IStand-WithAhmed which was tweeted over half am million times. Obama invited Ahmed to the White House and said his clock was "cool." Some thought it was related to the bills saying judges can't rule based on foreign law because the bill was viewed as anti-muslim.

ESSAY:
1. I first learned about the story this morning (9/17/15) on NPR. I think that both the newspaper and social media are accurate because the newspaper provides information about the story and social media provides peoples views on the story.

2. I think I would have placed the story more upfront because I think it is an important story because racism is still very prominent and the fact that they thought a 14 year old boy had a bomb is insane.

Short Free Response Edit

Story reporting on: Trump’s insult of Fiorina draws ire

Donald Trump, running for president and social media famous, insults Fiorina Draws, saying that her face is ugly. This is not the first time he has insulted women. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal calls Trump "a madman" and Jeb Bush says his comments were "small and inappropriate." The only thing Trump acheived with this comment was more haters. This story is important to the people following Donald Trumps strange presidential campaign. The reporter used quotes and thought from other politicians to back up report.

Current Event Quiz 1

1. The University of Texas was attacked because the two employees that they hired had criminal back-rounds. They can't explain their hiring system publicly because federal laws permit them from revealing information about students. I do not think the university knew because if they knew they wouldn't have hired them due to the horrible hate rime they committed. 

2. A black man was badly injured in the back of a police van when he was arrested, he died a week later. The government is giving his family a 6.4 million dollar settlement. The mayor supported the deal because she thought it was in the best interest of the city and they could avoid litigation. The Eric Garner trial is still pending.

3. The Chancellor announced that they are letting 500,000 syrian refugees in a year. Critics blamed germany because in letting people through they are creating an environment that will cause many refugees to risk their lives. Germany responded to the criticism by announcing a reduction in cash handout to the asylum seekers. The larger crisis is the complex nature of Europe's migrant problem. Many people from Iraq and Syria are coming to Europe because of the bad situations in their countries. Germany has led the way by letting in many refugees and getting other countries to do so as well. 

4. Ted Cruz invited Donald Trump to his anti-Iran nuclear deal rally. He is unlike other presidential candidates because he doesn't criticize Trump. He invited Donald Trump to get the medias attention. 

5. Hilary Clinton apologized for her use of a private email account. Ron Johnson and Bryan Pagliano asked for a meeting with Pagliano's attorney to seek legal protection for him. Co-mingling means to mix or to blend. Clinton's personal and business life commingled. Her earlier mistake was her resistance to use he word mistake.

6. Two players were suspended because they knocked down and speared a game official because he was "cheating them." the assistant coach was also suspended because he made comments that led the players to think the official was cheating. The players say that allegedly the official used racial slurs against the players and that was what prompted the attack.

PART ONE

If I were to research and report this story I would first began by trying to get access to the district website of approved lesson plans. If I was able to do so then I could see if either the district  was assigning inappropriate Power points and lesson plans to teachers, or if the teacher lied and was promoting creationism. If I did gain access to the website I would see if the PowerPoint really did promote creationism, if it did either the district, the teacher or both would be in trouble and I would have a very interesting story on my hands. If I were to be unable to access the website, then I would go to the students. I would of course interview several students, because then my information would be more reliable. I would also go to the parents because their views may be an interesting addition to the story. Also I would definitely have the definition for creationism in my story for some readers who may not know what it is. With this research I could come up with a pretty intriguing story.