OTMS Newspaper
By: Addi Sims
Join a Club
If you like hanging out with your friends, having fun, and learning new things then Osage Trail clubs are the thing for you. There are many different clubs you can join during your two year Junior High experience. These clubs will test your abilities and overall challenge you. The clubs offered at Otms include Student Council, National Junior Honors Society, Scholar Bowl, Yearbook Staff, Band, Robotics, Cup Stacking, Chess and many more. Even if you have never done any of these clubs I would encourage you to try as many as possible.
Not only are extra curricular activities fun but they look great on applications. Also many activities require a certain grade in all your classes to participate throughout the year which forces you to keep your grades up and stay on top of your work. National Junior Honors Society is a great example of a club that pushes you to be the best you can be. NJHS also looks great to teachers and schools. Clubs help you extend your group of friends and learn life skills. So if you're thinking about joining a club at Osage Trail don't hesitate jump in and make your future bright.Staying On Top of School Work
The most important thing to stay on top of at school is your assignments. Assignments will count for most of your grade and help you to study for tests which are the other portions of your class grade throughout the year. To be proactive in class all year you will need to stay organized. To help you stay organized have a folder for every class and a calendar ready all the time to mark due dates and upcoming events. The biggest pet peeve of most teachers is missing or late work, so to stay on your teacher's good side make sure to keep up and turn in all your work on time. Procrastination will be a major problem your eighth grade year, if you choose to do so you will most likely fall behind in class.
This school year work will be a lot harder than any of your grades before, the purpose of this is to prepare you for high school. You will most likely have an hour of homework every night and even more if you do not manage your time properly in class. During class keep a notebook handy at all times to take notes on topics in class that confuse you or seem to be important. Make sure while taking notes that you summarize the information given and only write down the key points. When the time for testing arises you will be happy you have these notes. Also if you do not understand a topic don't wait till last second to ask, ask a teacher or if you don't have access to one, look up a youtube video of someone teaching the topic. Follow all these steps and you should have no problems keeping up throughout your eighth grade year.Class Experiences
This school year we read many novels, such as Tom Sawyer, Fallout, Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Hobbit. During all the novels we had different projects going on to help us get a better understanding of the book. My favorite activity we did was while reading “The Hobbit”. In the book Bilbo Baggins was venturing through a dark forest when he found himself in a bad situation, he couldn't see but two feet in front of him and it seemed to be that he was not alone in the forest. So Mrs.Edwards set up what was supposed to be a seminar of the forest so we could understand how Bilbo felt during this chapter of the book.
When you walked into the MPR you had a partner, one of you was blind folded and the other gave directions on how to get through the maze, that our teacher had previously set up. The maze consisted of tables, chairs and ropes that you had to jump over, go around or crawl under. If you wanted to get through the obstacle course you had to listen carefully to each instruction your partner gave. I remember tripping over a chair and cracking up with my partner as i came to the end of the maze. This was my favorite thing we did in ELA all year, it helped me to connect with the story and feelings of Bilbo Baggins while letting me bond with my classmates.
Stand Up Against Uniforms
Stand up against school Physical Education uniforms. Why is it that everyone is forced to wear the same pair of ugly gym shorts and t-shirt everyday? Many kids do not participate everyday because they are embarrassed to wear these clothes in front of their peers. I believe that if kids were allowed to pick what they wear to work out in, there would be a much higher participation rate. Also the complaint of having to wear these uniforms would disappear and teachers would have more patients and less lazy students.
These uniforms also raise an economic issue for several families. Now granted for most kids this isn't an issue but there are families that don't have an extra 20 dollars laying around to pay for these unnecessary uniforms. Most kids have plenty of clothes appropriate for working out in, at home already, so why are we forcing kids who maybe can't afford it to buy clothes that we don't need. Now I do understand that we have these clothes in order to easily keep an appropriate dress code and I'm not saying to let it be a free for all, you can still have guidelines that must be followed in order to participate and receive a grade for the class. High School students are allowed to pick and choose what they desire to work out in during gym class, so why are the rules different for Junior High Students? Why are we being forced to pay for clothes that most of us will only wear during class and never anywhere else? If you think about it this way is it really that much to ask, to be able to wear what you desire to gym class and in the long run wouldn't it be beneficial for everyone?