Horas de Sueño por Noche: Anoche, dormí 5 horas.

Horas de Sueño por Noche: Anoche, dormí 7 horas.

El Desayuno: 
Comi frutas bebida

El Almuerzo:
Anoche, dormí doce horas.

La Cena:
Comi pizza (again haha)

Las Meriendas:
papas fritas

Ejercicio: 120 minutos
(natación)

The choices that eighth graders make on which high school they pick is crucial. Not every high school would fit the needs of each and every individual eighth grader and so picking the right one makes it even more important. 

Philadelphia school District officials say "more options" across a new and improved landscape of high schools in Philadelphia. But will these new schools help  to reduce dropout rates, or address disturbingly low test scores, and provide an education relevant to students future pursuits and dreams?

Though Shelia Simmons a journalist says "Perhaps the most critical barometer for all the changes will be the performance of the city’s neighborhood high schools, which still serve over 60 percent of the District’s high school students and where many of challenges to educating students are greatest."

Some of the new schools are "High School of the Future" on Park side avenue in West Philadelphia. With a partnership with Microsoft Corporation, the school promises state of the art technology and student to computer ratio one to one. 

The Franklin Institute teamed up with a much anticipated Science Leadership Academy, at 22nd and Arch street. Also a building on 7th street near Market is National Constitution Center Partnership High School for Law, Democracy and Civic Engagement, a college preparatory program with a service learning emphasis. 

A selective new school will be Academy of Palumbo, at 11th and Catherine street. A small school who's program was modeled after the districts acclaimed magnet Central High School. It's admissions standards of almost all A's and B's and at least an 88th percentile ranking on city wide Terra Nova Exams. 

The Science Leadership Academy sets similar admissions criteria, and incoming freshmen must attend an intensive summer science institute. 

Will these new high schools overcome old problems? If so which ones will succeed and which ones will fail? And if they do why?

Horas de Sueño por Noche:
Anoche, dormí doce horas.

El Desayuno: frutas

El Almuerzo:
Comí nada

La Cena:
Comi pizza

Las Meriendas:
papas fritas

Ejercicio: 60 minutos
(natación)

Horas de Sueño por Noche:
Anoche, dormí 5 horas.

El Desayuno: Comi
Nada

El Almuerzo:
Comí bacon hueva y queso.

La Cena:
Comi espinacas ravioli y vieira con arugula

Las Meriendas:
rasinets, y granos calientes

Ejercicio: 80 minutos


Horas de Sueño por Noche:
Anoche, dormí 4 horas.

El Desayuno:
Comí yogur.

El Almuerzo:
Comí raisinets, y fruta tentempre

La Cena:
Comi Bot hongo sopa con perejil, y bocadillo.

Las Meriendas:
Fruta smoothie,alta proteinas bar

Ejercicio:
Corrí por 140 minutos.

    One interesting fact I researched was is it the guys or the girls that have problems in schools? While I was researching I came across an interesting site that proved to me that boys are at risk in schools as opposed to girls. In the Philadelphia Enquirer states that if you go to the home of an average white working class family you'll notice an odd pattern. The chances are that the daughters are doing well in school (whether it be college or high school) the daughters bring home better then average grades, have careers in mind, and are on realistic tracks to achieve their goals.
    As for their sons not so much, Chances are, their grades are poor, their lives disorganized and their futures uncertain.
Now some people are probably thinking wait a second you're thinking about the boy problems are supposed to be limited to African Americans. And black males are faring terribly in society. Richard Whitmire the president of the National Education Writers Association describes that their plight is so severe that it overshadows the significant problems seen among white boys from blue collar and lower income white-collar families. For the most part the problems of white boys go unnoticed. Teachers will tell the parents that their sons lack motivation, leaving the parents believing that bad parenting is at fault. Worse yet, teachers tell them not to worry, that boys will be boys and everything will turn out well in the end. Only it doesn't...

One of the surprises that I had was a question that kept bugging me. The question was what exactly do I want to change? If I had 5 minutes of the Director of Philadelphia Student Union, what exactly would I say? What exactly would I want her to change? She knows and understands the problems with the School District of Philadelphia better then I do. Is there anything I can tell her that would actually assist her on her mission to change the schools in Philadelphia. This would be the biggest question in my book, and its been bugging me for the past two weeks.
Though besides that everything has been going well, every article I read I gear myself with more knowledge of the system as well as different opinions and points of view. I’ll be writing my last and final two blogs in the aspects of the school districts.
My plan is to finish what I started and help progress the road to better education. I honestly do believe that anyone is capable of doing so if they care enough.

Back in September Janice I. Solkov was brought in to be a new Principle for Morton McMichael Elemntary. She was hired by the state to manage the 20 lowest performing schools. Dr. Solkov was from the suburbs with an idea to change it all. Her idea was to privatize Edison. After 3 months into the school year and everything was starting to fall apart. The idea of privatizing public schools was a good idea but it just wouldn’t be possible in Philadelphia. For example Dr. Solkov wanted every student to have a computer to be able to use. That wasn't possible because she was only allowed to spend $880 per student. So those computers never materialized. Dr.Solkov was also never given an accountant which was promised to handle funds, or the second school secretary so she wouldn’t have to type her own meeting minutes and letters. She wasn’t even allowed to paint the school's peeling walls, or open the school library because of the lack of funds.

It was a big mess and after 4 months left the veteran principle in her office in tears. I've also done a little research on Dr. Solkov on whether she really was capable or not. It says that Dr. Solkov is 50 years old with a doctorate in education and has 30 years worth of experience.  She even turned down an offer to be a suburban school administrator. She was described by her Edison recruiter as ''extraordinarily talented, with an outstanding track record for success.''

The question that people always ponder on is why are Philadelphia schools so bad? How would you assess the quality of Philadelphia public schools? Craig Weeks a highschool history teacher replied “If there was funding, the schools would run a lot better than they are now.”
On Activism Online it states that a typical class size is 30 kids, textbooks are ripped, pages missing, drawn on, not up to date, we have under qualified teachers, not enough funding, and much more. The Philadelphia Student Union is also working on these problems. The Union is doing everything they can, they’ve protested, done civil disobedience, went to Harrisburg and talked to the legislature. Talked to city reps, talked to mayor Nutter, been to SRC (School Reform Commission) meetings. The Union has really done just about everything they can to make Philadelphia schools better.
When President Bush's made the voucher plan which uses public money to send kids to privatized schools the Union was a bit surprised. What President Bush just did was putting public schools further down because they are taking money that we don’t have, and giving it to schools that have double or triple what we have. All of this information was cited at Activism Online.
The voice of the Philadelphia Student Union is screaming for help to have the right to education. But to only to be muffled out by the higher ups caught up in other matters. Isn’t the next generation important? If we’re not educated isn’t that a big deal? Why is this kept being pushed aside and not taken care of? These are the questions that stir in the mind of the students that are being abandoned.