Letter To Our School Principal

Dear Mr. Martinez,

Hello! I am a seventh grader at El Roble. Recently, I read an article in The New York Times about how physical fitness relates to students doing well in school. The main idea of the article is showing that kids who are fit and more active do better in academics and school. So, I am writing this letter to suggest to you, even with a forty-minute session of PE everyday, it would be awesome to have some active things included in some of the other five periods.

Instead of only having PE as the only active class session, we could make English, Biology, SSR, and History, active class times as well.

For English, how about acting out the plays instead of just reading them. From the plays, we can learn English literature, grammar, and vocabulary. Learning these things by acting out the them out not only is fun, but also might allow the students to boost these facts in their brains. Meanwhile, the physical activities help students to do better on overall academics.

What do you think of when the words science or biology are mentioned, Mr. Martinez? Well, I think of looking around and observing. Most of the observing that we have done before was done inside. But why not observe an open world?

The  students could take a scientific walk around the campus and enjoy the sun while making observations about the structures and nature.These observations sure would be more interesting than some in any old classroom.

It’s really great that you have Opportunity Time in SSR because you can work in the garden and that’s really active. But for the people who don’t participate in Opportunity Time, the SSR teacher could organize a lively and fun game that everyone loves. One idea is Tag, but with one little tweak. Each person gets three “lives” so everyone can stay moving for a longer time. There are many more games the students can play, the options are almost limitless.

Being active in History is very similar to English. The kids can have fun acting out some scenes or battles from history. Acting something out and memorizing the information is definitely easier and more experiential than reading from a heavy textbook and learning by heart all the dates of important events in history. Performing a battle might appeal to some of the kids who don’t pay attention in class and could make their grades in History more satisfactory. Again this activeness leads back to the issue of how fit kids perform better in overall school work.

I hope you really consider my suggestion. This plan does not require any money, and also will win lots of parents’ support. I wish to see you put my plan into action! In a short time, you will notice all the benefits of it. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Justin W.

The Yamaha Stringless Piano

 

    David Pogue, a well known New York Times Newspaper writer who especially writes about new electronics, wrote about a new series of stringless, electric Yamaha pianos, called the N1, N2, N3, and NU1 (AvantGrand Series). Sensors replace the strings, with sounds recorded from the world’s best piano. When the hammer hits down upon the sensors, the recorded sound is played through a set of high-end speakers, which produces such a realistic sound, it can fool many hard-core pianists.

    I particularly appreciate the detail that these hybrid pianos never need tuning. Tuning is very expensive (around $100), and takes a lot of time. Also, the soundtracks are reproduced from the world’s best piano, so one can get almost as high quality a sound as the best piano, and, in the meantime, save thousands of dollars. I also like the fact that if I live in an apartment or condo, I can turn down the volume or listen to my playing through headphones to prevent my neighbors from screaming and yelling at me when I am practicing at one in the morning. It is also great for people who don’t have very big houses, because the pianos in the Avantgrand series are really compact, yet imitate the sounds of nine-foot grand pianos.

 

The Return of the Wolves to the French Alps

Recently, there has been a big issue on the news about the gray wolves coming back to the French Alps, an area where more than sixty thousand French herders still use to herd livestock. This way of livestock farming is one of the last natural and ecological methods.

Back in the 1930s, the herders and farmers that lived in the French Alps had hunted the gray wolves to extinction with some official encouragement. But within fifty years of the gray wolf's extinction, the animal was made a protected species throughout Europe. By 1992, the first pack of wolves re-entered the French territory from the Italian borders. The conservationists were very happy, and the populations of the gray wolves grew steadily.

 Even though the conservationists were happy for the return of the wolves, that did not mean everyone was. The shepherds are becoming increasingly annoyed, because the growing number of wolves keep attacking the sheep. Since these wolves are protected species, the herders cannot shoot them, which allows the wolves to take as many sheep as they can. The shepherds have been asking the government permission to hunt the wolves. They refused, but the government hired Great Pyrenees guard dogs that trot along with the herd. So now the shepherds have started to take action in trying to stop the wolves from attacking their sheep. Each night, some owners lock the livestock in a kind of structure to protect the animals and they hire more hands to help out. Even with the French government spending millions of euros to reimburse the herders, the herders only earn around the minimum wage.

The wolves, on the other hand, don’t have any stress in surviving. The small group of wolves has a large amount of prey available to them. Because of the easy kills, their populations have been growing more than twenty percent a year. The small delicate pack that crossed the Italian borders to France has now swelled to more than 250.

So far, I sympathize with the wolves. Although the wolves have done a lot of damage to the livestock, the wolves are still endangered in France. If the French government authorized the killing now, the wolves would go extinct very quickly again. Then, it would take a long time for the wolves to return to the French territory again.

I like it that the French government is reimbursing the herders for the lost livestock, and providing the guard dogs, but they really don’t seem to be thinking of ways to stop the attacks.

I have a couple of suggestions on how to maybe reduce the number of attacks from the wolves. The government could build some kind of moveable barrier around the area where the shepherds herd their sheep. That should stop most of the wolves, and the guard dogs could take care of the rest.

Another plan is to introduce a new species into the ecosystem that won’t affect the balance of nature. Some of the wolves might start hunting the new species instead of the sheep, and that should decrease the loss of the livestock.

The government could also provide the herders with more guard dogs. Instead of the usual ratio of around 200 sheep to a dog, it should become 100 sheep to a dog. The herders would have twice as many dogs and most likely feel more secure.

I hope the French government will do something about this issue soon. If this continues, it could get very ugly.