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A student’s story

Although Christmas is over, students are still enjoying the gift of Christmas break. They are getting the chance to spend time with family, take time to relax and catch up on sleep.

Students finally are getting the break they have earned through their hard work in the classroom. Students now almost are halfway to being done with the school year and this calendar year is on the brink of ending.

A tradition around this time of year is to create a New Year’s resolution, a promise or goal to keep throughout the next year. According to TIME magazine, some of the top resolutions are to lose weight and get fit, quit smoking, eat healthier and diet, save money and drink smaller amounts of alcohol. Though these resolutions are broken more times than not, it is still good for people to have goals to aim for.

These are all resolutions that common everyday people set for themselves, but what do students and staff resolve to do for the quickly approaching New Year?

Students often have a different mind set than grown adults. For students, the year doesn’t end until June, and if you are talking about next year, then students are thinking about when they will be in the next grade up. Since the schedules of students are completely geared around school, it’s not surprising that they have their very own, very unique set of New Year’s resolutions.

Shayana Hubbert, a 10th grade student at Hughesville High School made it her New Year’s resolution to stop putting her homework off until the last minute and to bring her grades up.

Alisha McKinely, also a 10th grader at Hughesville resolves to work harder during sports season and push herself at practices.

Hughesville 10th grader Rachel Thomas’s resolution is to follow up on her previous years’ resolutions to choose the healthier school lunches and to stop buying unhealthy snacks.

Students’ resolutions reflect those of the adult world, but have their own high school spins on them. But just because students make these customized resolutions, doesn’t make it any easier to keep them.

The second half of the school year will take just as much, if not more, hard work than the first. Luckily, the students have a few days left to relax and spend time with family until they have to face it.

Thompson is a 10th grade student at Hughesville High School. Her column is published on the second and last Mondays of each month in the Education section. She can be reached at education@sungazette.com.

A student’s story

By SAM R. THOMPSON

Special to the Sun-Gazette

It’s that time of year again – the Christmas tree is up and decorated, children wish for snow, toys fill every store and songs of Christmas are heard everywhere you go.

Students can’t wait for vacation and with everyone focused on the holiday spirit, it’s hard to remember that students still have school and the responsibilities that come with it.

The last few weeks before vacation, teachers try to finish up everything in their lesson plan unit before the long break that students have. This helps so that students don’t come back and forget everything that they had been working on or take a unit test and receive a bad score. Teachers try to give students a fresh start, teaching them something new when they get back from break. This helps the students, but unfortunately it causes an overload of tests before break.

Most students have four to five core subject classes and some also have a foreign language class or other electives that have graded tests. Within the few weeks right before Christmas vacation, students can have several tests or quizzes for each of those classes, putting a lot of stress on students who just want it to be Christmas vacation already.

The second marking period is one of the hardest times for students in high school. The time spent in school between Thanksgiving and Christmas break is trying on each and every student.

“At this point I just want Christmas break to be here. I don’t care about school right now. I don’t think anybody does,” said an anonymous student at Hughesville High School.

The will to do homework, study for tests or do extra credit work has died away for nearly all students. Many students simply just do not care about anything school related at this point. Even students who take pride in their grades and work hard normally, find it hard to sit down and spend time on school related things.

Also, in the second marking period, the students have finished with their reviews from the previous year and are starting to get into the new, harder material. The students are faced with problems that they’ve never seen before and have to learn how to successfully solve them. The combination of this new material and Christmas vacation looming in the near future takes a serious hit on students’ stamina in the classroom.

For Hughesville High School, Christmas vacation is only a short time away. Students need to continue working hard and push through their classes and test to ensure that their grades don’t drop. Although it may seem like it’s far away, Christmas is right around the corner.

Thompson is a 10th grade student at Hughesville High School. Her column is published on the second and last Mondays of each month in the Education section. She can be reached at education@sungazette.com.

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