Welcome

“I’m very photogenic!” — Riley

“Bark Bark Woof Woof ” (Me too guys!) —Max

This Spring Break my family and I are going to The Big Island, Hawaii. I have decided to travel laptop free but will post pictures and snippits of my trip from my phone.

The Journey
I, like always, saved my packing until the last minute. Last night I tossed a bunch of clothes and other things into my suitcase, zipped it up and went to bed.

This morning, my dad woke me up around six, I took a shower and ate breakfast. Shortly after, a white Lincoln Town Car arived at our front door. We put our suitcases in the trunk and got in. There were six seats including the driver; three in the front and three in the back. Riley and my dad squished themselves into the front while Levi, my mom and I sat in the luxurious back seats.

By seven, we had arived at SFO. We quickly checked in outside, rather than waiting in the long line inside. Then, we went inside where I purchase two magazines and waited for our plane to board.

Now, I’m on the plane we have about an hour and twenty minutes until we land. At first, Riley and I had trouble figuring out when exactly we would land. We knew that we were scheduled to land at one o’clock but we didn’t know exactly what time zone that was refering too. It turns out we land at one o’clock pacific standard time and therefore ten o’clock in the morning in Hawaii. Apparently, Hawaii is three hours behind California.

Just landed!

Our plane has landed and we have to walk right off the plane and down a bunch of stairs; it’s very hot and humid. It turns out that the entire airport is outside. It’s very interesting, even the baggage claim is outside. Also, it doesn’t seem like anybody works at the airport.

Once we got all our luggage we got on a shuttle which took us to the car rental company. We got a purple SUV!

Fair Winds
It’s Monday and we just got back from something called Fair Winds. It’s a large, catamaran style, boat that took us on a 7 mile journey to an awesome area for snorkling and having fun. The boat had a water slide and a high jump area off the second story.

A Ranch in Hawaii?!
On Tuesday, we spent most of the day just hanging out. I slept in for a while and then went swimming in our pool. After that, we headed down to the beach and went snorkling with equiptment from Snorkle Bobs. I saw quite a few sea turtles which was really cool.

For lunch, we walked over to the Maouni Lani hotel for lunch. I had a delicious panini and then Riley and I walked home.

Finally, at 5:30 we drove over to Starbucks where we met our strange driver who drove us up to a ranch. The ranch was really cool. It was interesting to see such a different side of Hawaii. We got to have a delicious meal followed by smores and numerous activities. We even got to see a pet pig who sat on command like a dog.

A Life Changing Experience
Before embarking on our trip on Wednsday to swim with the dolphins we were warned that it would be a life changing experience.

We met our tour guide at a marina and took a private boat around looking for sea creatures. The first animal we spotted was a manta ray. Manta rays look just like sting rays but they’re safe because they don’t have stingers. Knowing that, we decided to jump in the water and swim with him.

The best part, however, was swimming with tge dolphins. Whenver we spotted some dolphins we would drive to boat along side of them. Also, it was awesome to watch them play we the boat. After that, we would speed up and go ahead of the dolphins. We would then jump in and wait for the dolphins to catch up.

The dolphins came in a huge group of about 500 dolphins. It was amazing! Luckily, we also got to see whales and many colorful and unique fish.

At my school, I am part of a group of students that make up a program called team.  Team, is a great program that allows core teachers to work together and plan things together.  For the most part, the result of their collaboration is a success. But, their not perfect and they make mistakes too.  For example, they have created a no homework policy and it is poorly thought out.

The “No Homework Club” was created in attempt to regulate the grades of the students. In accordance with the team website, “you are responsible for going to No Homework Club [...], getting the obligation slip signed by the supervising teacher and returning it to Mr. Proctor.” As clearly stated, the team teachers take maters of students homework into their own hands. While, the concept may be on the right track, the extent to which many teachers mandate it is frankly ridiculous. The rule in which to assign homework club has become so concrete that teachers will hand out obligation slips without even thinking what benefit the student will have. For example, I had lost the handout for a web quest assignment in Mr. Bolt’s class. I explained to him that I had explored the website but there was nothing I could do because I had lost the handout. Without any thought, he wrote me a homework slip; I wouldn’t be able to make up the assignment in homework club because I would need a computer and a new handout.

Instead, “No Homework Club” should be more regulated so it isn’t so arbitrary. Teachers shouldn’t be given the option to give a homework slip to a student without a good reason. For example, not doing your homework isn’t necessarily a sign of a bad student who needs the assistance of their teachers to succeed. On the other had, a students repeating failure to complete assignments may lead to not passing the class. As a compromise, teachers should be allowed to hold after school homework clubs but should develop a preset guideline to decide when students must go to homework club. For example, there could be a rule that all students with a ‘C’ or below in the class will be required to go to homework club if they don’t do an assignment. This way, homework club is more fair and less arbitrary and students know what to expect.