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Season 3, Episode 25 - Audrey O'Donnell
84 Plays1 year ago
Robert's oldest daughter joins him on the podcast. Currently in the middle of applying for scholarships to help with college next year, Audrey O'Donnell talks about what she loves about her current and previous teachers, as well as why she loves reading and to edit writing. It is a great look into the mind of a student who has genuinely always loved to learn in school.
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
you
Introduction and School Life
00:00:11
Speaker
Good afternoon. Welcome back to another episode of It's All About Perspective. I am, of course, your host, Robert Hinchliffe, and I have a very special guest today. She's extremely special to me as she is my oldest daughter. And I thought, who better to give us a perspective on school than a senior in high school? So Audrey O'Donnell, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Good. I still want to 10. How excited are you to be on the podcast? 10.
00:00:41
Speaker
You're saying it was such enthusiasm, but I just don't know if I believe you or not. It's a 10. That wasn't much better. It's a 10. It's just like 8 p.m. Yeah, I know. Well, you're busy. Did you listen to your mom's podcast? No. Why not? It's on the list. Okay. Yeah. You're very busy. Very busy young lady. Okay. How was school today? School was long today. I was in the same classroom all day. Why?
00:01:11
Speaker
I had what we call a chem-IA, which stands for internal assessment. So I had to do a lab and I did saponification, which was just making soap. I'm testing pH and I'm testing the cure time of the soap, depending on what additives I add to it. And it took me all day. Okay. So as the listeners can already tell, you're extremely smart.
00:01:33
Speaker
Um, all right. So you go to high school in Las Vegas and you're in the avid program. IB. IB. Sorry.
Understanding the IB Program
00:01:40
Speaker
What is IB? Tell people what IB is because us elementary people have no idea. And so you might as well, you might as well educate us. Okay. So it stands for international baccalaureate. And basically all of the countries were like, we don't know what to do with each other's diplomas because we don't know. British people don't know what an American diploma is. Don't know what a,
00:02:02
Speaker
French French diploma is so they made IB as a global Diploma so that everyone could understand it. So if I wanted to go abroad I could But it's also because it has to keep up to every single country standards. It's a very high level of education so it's Mostly regarded as higher than AP, which is the highest that you could possibly take in kind of CCSD and so
00:02:32
Speaker
I like it because when I was in middle school and everyone was looking at high schools and magnet programs, they were always like major focused. And I didn't want to pick a major. I didn't want to pick like nursing and go to West Tech or something. And IB let me have the highest level of everything so that I would be well educated in everything instead of just one major. So then I would have a bunch of skill sets.
00:02:59
Speaker
Okay. Do you have any regrets that you have taken these challenging, challenging classes rather than just get normal old diploma? Sometimes because I could have graduated last year. Um, but I think that it has made me better at learning and I'm going to go to college. So I think that it's going to be really useful. And my IB coordinator, Mr. Gebbia always says he's like the, we call him the king of IB.
00:03:28
Speaker
Um, he always says like college is going to be really easy for you guys. Cause you have already done the 4,000 word essays and the research and the kind of methods that you need when you're in college. And here I'm taking eight classes, but in college I'm not going to be taking eight classes a semester. So it's going to be easier. And I have that skill set that I need in the future. And also not just for college, cause you also need to be able to know how to like,
00:03:58
Speaker
We have to do individual orals in English and in whatever foreign language you take. And so for those, you have to learn how to speak clearly and be aware of your addiction a lot. And so for those, you can translate that into any job.
00:04:20
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It makes sense. Kind of. So I mean, I'm way older than you, obviously. Back in my day in the 80s and 90s, there was one diploma and it was it was what it was. And so do you think it's see, I struggle with this because I'm I'm more me. I don't understand why we can't just have one diploma and everybody's on the same GPA scale. So in your opinion, what do you think about that? Um,
Educational Experiences and Reflections
00:04:48
Speaker
I think I have a different opinion because I see some kids who don't really care about high school and they could basically just show up and get all A's in standard level classes. And I chose to do something different and I chose to make more of my education. So I think that I like there's something that should be a little certificate. You did this. And I think with
00:05:18
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AP or IB, the amount of stuff that you have to know and like go through over the course of the year. And if you do good on that test, you get credits for college. So if I do good, so I did really good on my AP test, my freshman and sophomore year. So I probably won't have freshman year history from college. And so it gets rid of that kind of economic issue that comes with college, not gets rid of, but it seriously helps it.
00:05:48
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So I think that for people who wanna get ahead in that sense, even like without the GPA or without the honors that kind of comes with it, you can get ahead with your money. Okay, you make a good point there, which of course has a parent of you. The economic portion doesn't matter. How many college credits do you think you'll have at the end of your senior year?
00:06:14
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It depends on what college you go to. So a lot of them are super different. If you go to any UC school and you get, I want to say a 28 or a 30, 30 points. So the minimum to graduate with the IB diploma is 24. But if you get a little bit more than that, I think like 30 or something, any UC school will waive your first year basically.
00:06:40
Speaker
that's how many credits you get. And then it depends, other schools will be the same way. And then some will go class by class. They'll say, if you took chem and you got a, it's a one to seven scale and you got a five through seven, you can get this many credits. So a lot of schools are super different. So it completely depends on how my exams go. But yeah, and then we also have, as IB students, we have one,
00:07:11
Speaker
free period that we can use for any class that we want to take. So I could still take dual enrollment English and do a Nevada State class and then get six credits this semester. So for this year. Okay, to an elementary guy, that sounds extremely confusing, but to a high school person, I'm sure it makes complete sense.
00:07:33
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All right, so going back, you know, again, watching you go through your whole elementary life and middle school and then high school, go back and what is your favorite memory of elementary school? Can you think of anything right off the top of your head? Um, I like,
00:08:01
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If mom listens to this, she's going to be mad. I don't say her, but so excluding mom. Um, I think one of my favorite teachers was Mr. Bartolome. Um, I really liked his class. And I think that his, the English section of his class was always interesting for me. And I want to go into something English related. And so I think it was the first time I felt like I was really learning how to write properly. Cause before it was like, you just kind of write like that's, that was the only requirement and Mr. Bartolome.
00:08:32
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kind of like structured it and I remember like we were allowed to sit anywhere in the class during like writing time and so I would sit on the floor in like some corner and I thought that was fun.
00:08:45
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So what did he do to make writing fun though? Because as a fourth grade teacher back in the day, writing was probably one of the things, it probably still is one of the things that teachers hate teaching the most. So how did David make it so fun for you? Because you love to write. So what did he do? Just because he let you sit in the corner?
00:09:03
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I mean, being able, for elementary school kids, being able to sit anywhere is super fun. And I think a lot of elementary school teachers realize that now. I don't think when I was in elementary school, that wasn't as popular, but now after like Ron Clark and stuff, everyone's like fancy chair, sofa, like there's a bunch of different options now. But when I was in elementary school, that wasn't the cool thing to do. Um, and so Mr. Varnalome did that and he stood on tables and stuff and he was cray.
00:09:31
Speaker
Um, but that wasn't normal when I was in elementary school. Um, so I think that giving kids a sense of freedom in their education, but like still guiding them in the right direction is what made it fun because you still feel like you're choosing something and you still feel like you, um, like my favorite, one of my favorite teachers is, um, my journalism teacher, Ms. Vergarosa. And we write articles in her class because it's journalism.
00:09:56
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but she has never told you what article to write. You always have to decide what to write yourself. And sometimes she'll give you like a, it has to be news, it has to be opinion, but then you get to pick whatever you want. She's like, people don't want to write about stuff that they hate. That's annoying. And so I think that in Mr. Bartolome's class, it was guided, but we still had the freedom to choose so you could choose a subject that you still enjoyed enough to write about.
00:10:22
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So okay, so without throwing anybody over the bus, so no names, who was your least, or tell me about your least favorite teacher and why you did not like that person and beat in their class. I had one teacher in seventh grade who I didn't like because, um,
00:10:45
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Not too many details now. You never know who's listening. I know. Just generalize what does Audrey the student not like from a teacher? I think there's a lot of teachers where I have gone up to them and been like, I don't understand this certain thing. And they've been like,
Impact of Teaching Styles
00:11:03
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well, you should study more or figure it out. And my thought is always like, well, isn't that your job to help me?
00:11:11
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And I don't think that figure it out is really the best option. I don't think that giving kids answers is the best option either. But I think that if a kid comes up to you and is like, I feel like I don't have the resources to do this, then you should provide more resources. You should find more. So it's what you're saying is that teacher just wasn't basically there to help you beyond what you needed. Or they basically just talked to you the whole time and then you had to figure it out.
00:11:37
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Yeah, it wasn't a question, answer type thing. It was like a lecture, figure it out. And that, that doesn't work. So again, you're very disciplined and very wise. So if you struggled in that class, how do you think the other students did in that class? Yeah. I imagine. Right. So, okay. Now back to, um, you know, is there anything else that you as a student remember just hating about school?
00:12:10
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It's a hard question for you because you've always loved school. I love school. I don't like waking up early. I think that's a problem. No, genuinely, I think that I go to school and I'm so tired that I can't focus. I had my freshman through junior year, I had math first period. Do you know what happened to my brain? Like I couldn't remember it because it was 7am. Like who's going to learn math at 7am?
00:12:33
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I mean, I think that's valid. One of the things that I think the districts should do personally is switch high school to the later time because elementary kids are up and rolling. Although your sister, Caitlin's up at like 450. But that's not by...
00:12:49
Speaker
Like choice, like she likes to sleep in. She just, she also likes her free time in the morning. Like my brother Marshall, he's up when I'm up and he doesn't go to school for another three hours. Yeah. Yeah. So the elementary kids are up and they're ready for the most part. So I think, you know, there's, I think there's a lot of things to look at with changing high school to later. Plus you work, I mean, you work in the same amount of hours. Like your work ethic is excellent.
00:13:15
Speaker
you know, you work at Starbucks and then you work at your other job on Sundays. So you're also working at town, which a lot of high schoolers are, and then they have to get up at five in the morning and go to work. So that's gotta be hard. I'm sure you have friends that that's hard on. Yeah. My friend Felipe has gotten off at two. He's 18, so it's like technically legal. And then I worked at teaspoons and I got home at 1130, which was illegal.
00:13:45
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But. Well, hey, you know, I mean, you had a job, so. OK. You love to read. We have pictures of you reading everywhere. We're sitting at the Twin Tower Memorial in New York. You're reading. We're at Lake Tahoe. You're reading. You love to read. Why do you love to read or how did that start? Or do you even remember that? I do. I remember.
00:14:14
Speaker
It was third grade and I got a B on a spelling test and I spelled the word money wrong. I remember this very vividly. And mom was so mad. She didn't think it was my fault, I think.
00:14:33
Speaker
I don't, she didn't think it was my fault. She thought, um, the teacher should have taught it better. I don't know. But she was like, you have to go to the library and we're going to check out a book and you're going to read it. And I was like, no, like I don't want to do that. And so I checked out Harry Potter and that was the first like book series that I like fell absolutely in love with. And I read it for the next year and I was obsessed with it for years. I'm still obsessed with it. And so like that was the first thing that I picked up at the library and it was my first like bigger book.
00:15:03
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I guess I had never read a book that long. I was reading like goosebumps and stuff. So you would say then, I mean, because this is a memory for you, the fact again, kind of going back to what you were saying earlier is you had a choice and you chose a book that interests you. And that was the springboard to your reading success. Yeah, because all of the books that I'd read in school, I don't think I liked very much. I also think that in
00:15:30
Speaker
third grade, I wasn't at the same reading level as the other kids. I think I was a little higher.
00:15:36
Speaker
I got annoyed with the books that we were reading a lot of the time. So hey, so this is perfect. Let's expand upon this. Okay. So again, you've always been able to read. You've always been ahead. So what you're saying is from what you remember, because that was a long time ago in first, second, third grade, you were higher than the other kids, but you were having to read stuff at a third grade level and boring to you and making you mad.
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah, I remember, so in third grade, we reread Josephina Catalina Cucaracha, which was a great book. It's like a children's book, like a picture book. I love it, but I think I could read like novels by then. So it was still like, why am I spending a week on a chapter book type thing? And then I remember getting into fifth grade and I remember like,
00:16:30
Speaker
In fifth grade I knew how to check out my own books and I knew how to go and look for things that I wanted and I remember watching other kids Go into the library and pick out like chapter books that I had read in first grade and I was like I didn't realize like that Everyone was kind of at different levels. I guess Yeah, I mean that's that's one of the thing one of the challenges That I tried to remind teachers about
00:16:55
Speaker
that I think a lot of educators who believe in programs don't believe is that students like you want to read things that are interesting to them that are above their grade level at their level. So that's one reason we do Accelerator Reader at Thompson is because it gives you a book that you can choose at your level no matter where you're at.
00:17:16
Speaker
What's accelerated reader? It's basically just a program where basically, um, so like in third grade, you would have had a level of like, let's just say fifth grade and you would have been able to go choose a fifth grade book and read it and then take a quick test on it to prove that you understood it. So you would have been able to read those books that you generally wanted to at your level. What do you do for the books that like you want to analyze as a class though, kind of?
00:17:44
Speaker
So you mean like like a whole group? Yeah, like a whole group because I remember in I don't think we did that well in third grade She would read aloud one of the books. We wouldn't read it but she would read it aloud and then in fifth grade we kind of did both we did our own reading and then we did um, we had like three different group levels, so there was like British Erebitia and then there was hatchet and I hate it hatchet but um, I
00:18:09
Speaker
Fascinating that you remember this stuff, but I remember a lot. Yeah. So, I mean, technically read alouds are the way to go in a lot of ways as long as they are. So technically you're supposed to read a book that's above the grade level of the classroom because you're of course helping them and then you can discuss things.
00:18:31
Speaker
But you're basically saying, okay, so like in fifth grade, if I'm reading Bridge of Terabithia to the whole class, is that bad? And the answer I would say is no, because you're discussing the standards that need to be taught. So you can discuss connections between two texts and analyzing them or main character plot setting, all that. So it depends on how you use it. If you just read it for fun, I think there'd be some people that were like, well, we just need to learn to read for fun.
00:19:00
Speaker
I read it for fun. I was in the hatchet group and I was jealous of them, so I read Bridge to Terabithia. But you know, that's the thing is there's so many different viewpoints out there. And then right now, one of the big pushes is for everybody to be reading basically the same thing at grade level every week, which I struggle with.
00:19:25
Speaker
But what I'm seeing all over social media is how elementary school kids can't even read right now and how there's a big struggle. So I don't think that that's working.
00:19:40
Speaker
So again, I can't, you know, I only know my school and I only know what I see. But another difference that you have is that you came in, you know, with parents who read to you when you were little. You were always interested in books. A lot of kids don't have that. They don't have books at home or they're on their iPad all day long.
00:20:02
Speaker
They're not doing educational games, they're just tick-tocking it up at the age of whenever. And so they never get the basics before they get to school and then they're behind and then they don't have any kind of stamina to read a book or pay attention because they're out of technology all the time. And it just sets you kind of behind and it's hard to catch up. Does that make sense? No, yeah, I know that. Yeah, of course you do.
Passion for Reading and Writing
00:20:26
Speaker
All right, you also like writing.
00:20:29
Speaker
You just recently, you and I made a deal. You are editing my next book and I was greatly impressed with your editing skills. You catch everything.
00:20:45
Speaker
Why do you love to edit texts? Why do you enjoy that? I mean, I'm, I hate editing. I've told you this. I hate editing. I just want to write the story. Why did you enjoy breaking the book down? Is it because you were trying to find the mistakes that I've made or you just love it? I just love it. So my sophomore year I wrote my novella and I had never liked it. What's a novella for those. So novella is like a short book. It's,
00:21:14
Speaker
It's just a mini book. So mine was 15,000 words, which is on the smaller end because like an official book is like 35,000 or something like that. Um, so it's smaller than that. Um, and so I wrote this and I, before that I had never finished a project that I had written. Like I just kept writing little pieces and little pieces of different things. And so during that I had to force myself to do it because it was for a school project. And so,
00:21:41
Speaker
I remember going back and editing because it was a part of like my rules and my criteria for my project that I had to go back and edit it. And I made it so much better and so much longer. And then my junior year I was in Mr. Savannah's class who he's one of my favorite teachers of all time. I took his class again this year for fun. So he puts a big emphasis on editing.
00:22:11
Speaker
Um, we read a essay by Anne Lamont called, I'm not allowed to say it, but it's called shitty first drafts. And you're, you're a month away from 18. I know that mom's going to listen. Okay. I promise. So it's, so it's this.
00:22:29
Speaker
Um, so it's part of this book that Robert has and he won't read, but, um, and Lamont, she goes on about that, how you have to write the bad first draft and then you can go back and edit, but you can't look at it really. Um, because you get so wrapped up in everything. And so I think that going back and editing afterwards is really where you get into the nitty gritty, where you understand your characters better, where you understand your story better, where you understand your thesis better. If you're writing an essay.
00:22:56
Speaker
I think that when I'm writing, I don't know where it's going to end up when I start it. I don't know anything. I just kind of write and then I hope for the best. So that's where editing comes in. And I love to do a circular ending. I love to tie things all together and make a little joke. And so in editing, I can do that because then I know where I end up.
00:23:18
Speaker
Okay, so you're not wrong that editing can make the story better for sure. So you just edited my rough draft or whatever word you just said, and you basically made it better. I give you complete credit, but I failed to understand where the joy of that comes from because I don't have it.
00:23:44
Speaker
Because after I wrote my first draft of my novella and then I went back and edited it and then I reread it, I realized how much better it was, I think. And seeing an end product to that makes me feel better when I'm doing it. Because when you're just editing and you have no clue where it's really going to end up and you feel kind of hopeless, everything sucks. But when you edit something and then it turns out good, you realize the next time that maybe that was a good method.
00:24:15
Speaker
And so I think that when, and then I also like editing other people's works. I like to see how they write and how their tone is because I have a very specific tone when I write. Um, and when I look at other people's work, I like to see how that shifts and I like to see like.
00:24:35
Speaker
Not the inconsistencies, but where they decide to go off of that, even when it's subconscious. Some people will use the same tone, and then for a sentence, they'll go into a different tone, and I think it's interesting that people do that subconsciously. So, you're hard on me, which is fine, I think it's just because I'm who I am. Critique my writing. Don't give anybody any hints about the book, but, okay, so, I mean, and you can be honest, I mean, the people would love to hear you, you know, be honest.
00:25:05
Speaker
I mean, you've read two of my books. What do you think kid? Cheesy. You're so cheesy with so much stuff. And cheesy cheesy to a 17 year old, but that might not be to a 46 year old. I still think it's cheesy to a 46 year old. Because I still think that like, there are some things that you you 46 year olds might say.
00:25:32
Speaker
But those things aren't really written in books usually and for a reason because they don't kind of pass off the same way in books. I think a lot of the time people write dialogue exactly as it's said, but I think that dialogue in books needs to be specific so that it seems to be exactly how it's said, not so much that it is. If that makes sense? Yeah, I get it. I told you one of the things I hate writing is dialogue because I hate like
00:25:58
Speaker
I just struggle with it and I also struggle with contractions. I write them out. I don't believe in using contractions, but you said, well, sometimes you have to. So again, you did a great job and I appreciate that. So for the listener, she's a tough critic though. I only got a 3.7 out of 5. But it's better than that. You're just being hard because it's me.
00:26:21
Speaker
Okay. No. Yes. Come on. You love to pick my stuff apart. You know you do. I like to pick everyone's stuff apart. That's very true. There's no doubt about that. Excellent point. All right. We have a kind of a deal where you are working on this book.
00:26:40
Speaker
And then you're going to try to do the PR for it. And if you do it, then you kind of will learn what you want to do with life. Because if I'm correct, you do not know what you want your major to be, but you love writing and books and things of that nature. So on a scale of one to 10, how much do you want this whole editing thing to work out? Like an 8.5. Okay. It's fine.
00:27:11
Speaker
I think if I'm good enough at it, I know that I can do it. And it's the PR thing that gets me. I know I can edit, but like if I can get you 300 sales, everybody go pre-save, then I think I'll be at a kind of like crossroads where I don't think I know, cause PR is a different kind of degree than
00:27:41
Speaker
English is, I can still do English and then go into PR, but it's very, they're very closely related. But I think that I'd have to kind of choose or double major but based off of my difficult choices in high school. What though I'm, I don't know, you know, because you've been researching all this stuff. But
00:28:03
Speaker
What, I mean, is there a job after that basically you couldn't just be an editor? Cause in my mind, an editor is like the person that is like higher up on the food chain a little bit. Like they're making the decisions a little bit. Um, yeah, you can be an editor. So I'm pretty sure there's like, you can be a freelance editor so you can choose what works, you want to work on. There's companies where you can edit. Um, some publishing companies will have copyright or copy editors and that's not so much for story as it is for grammar. So there's a lot of different jobs for editing and then not only in
00:28:33
Speaker
books, there's a lot of kind of copywriting stuff like every single travel website you've ever seen has a copywriter. So there's a lot of different jobs that kind of go along the same route. But and that's why I think I'm going to do English because it kind of opens me up to everything. And I'm not limited to just journalism and specifically news media. I am
00:29:01
Speaker
opened up to everything that English kind of offers. But what kind of jobs? I don't know. And when you get an elementary ed degree, there's one place you're going. If you get a degree in English, then what kind of jobs can you get? I mean, what's out there for an English major? Besides, I just think of an English major as a person that writes books or writes newspaper articles. Those are the things that I like to do.
00:29:28
Speaker
True. It's also a hard life. Yeah. And I know that, but I think that if I'm good enough at it and I like it enough, then I can do it. And I think that a lot of people, when they think of English, they just think of the writer in the woods, the poet who is poor and then they die and their works are found and they are loved 200 years later. But I think that there's a lot of
00:29:58
Speaker
Like writing is everywhere. In advertising, English is super important. You have to be so specific about how you use your words when you're advertising Super Bowl commercials. Like they have 30 seconds for two billion dollars. And you have to be very specific with how you use that. And that is from advertising and from English majors and from PR. So.
00:30:25
Speaker
All right. So what are seniors worried about these days?
College Application Journey
00:30:30
Speaker
Um, right now scholarships, cause colleges are in where most of the, most of everyone is going to hear back in the next two months. Um, a lot of people are going to Reno. So Reno has rolling admissions. So I'm already admitted and a lot of people are already admitted to Reno, but, um, anyone who wants to go out of state or look at out of state is figuring it out in
00:30:54
Speaker
late February to late March, basically. And then scholarships, because our PEF Public Ed Foundation scholarships are closing tomorrow. OK. So how are you going about choosing a college? And why are you going to college? Because today's world, college isn't really necessary in many ways. So why are you going to college? And how are you going to choose a college? You can talk all about it.
00:31:24
Speaker
Well, like you said I like learning it's something that I've always liked I think that even if my degree ends up being useless I think I it's an experience I don't want to miss out on and a lot of people say that like College isn't so much about the education part as it is learning how to kind of function outside of your parents and outside of high school I guess and then
00:31:52
Speaker
for if I go out of state, and even if I do go to Reno, it's that aspect of moving away, which all of my parents hate. But I think that that's important.
00:32:06
Speaker
I think I'll be fine. I'm self-sufficient. I got a driver's license. It's not about that, honey. You're going to learn in 25 or 30 years. It's not about that. No, OK. I know that. But I think compared to some of my peers who don't know how to wash their clothes, some parents are worried about functionality. And that's not a worry that I have. That's true. You're very self-sufficient. That's true. I kind of went about choosing my colleges based off
00:32:34
Speaker
place first of like places that I would live and my mom kept wanting me to go to Georgia or like Tennessee, which are both places that I don't think I want to live in. Um, so which most, all of the places, almost all of the places I applied to ended up being places where all my parents are from. So I have schools in Massachusetts where my dad's from, and then I have Washington where you're from. And then I did apply to one Texas school where Kristen, my stepmom's from.
00:33:02
Speaker
And then Colorado is the oddball, but I just think Colorado is pretty, I guess. I want to live somewhere where I like it. And then I also want to go to a college. I picked them mostly based off of their liberal arts programs because I know that's the direction they go in. So Colorado College, places like Mount Holyoke and Gonzaga have good English programs. And then also based off of
00:33:30
Speaker
how much money they might give me. True. I mean, that is important. Okay, so if you could pick, where do you see yourself five years from now? Five years is a long time. Yeah, I know honey, but the older you get, the faster it goes. So four years will be at college and it depends on if I like where I'm at. I figure
00:33:58
Speaker
I don't think I want to move back to Nevada. And I don't think anyone's going to be here in five years anyway. I think everyone's moving out. So I don't think I'll be in Nevada, but I think I could see myself in any of those states that I like, hopefully, writing in the woods or something.
00:34:23
Speaker
Writing in the woods. Hey, if our publishing situation here takes off and you're like a editor publisher company, we can move to, we can move to Colorado.
Future Aspirations and Advice
00:34:36
Speaker
We'll find a compromise. Colorado's not bad. It's just cold in the winter. You have never had a cold winter. I don't know how you're going to deal with that.
00:34:47
Speaker
I think I'll be fine. I still know how to layer. That's how you step outside and it's 10 degrees. Dad has taught me how to layer. When we went to the mountains with my cousins from California, they were all cold. You know who was sweating? Me. I can dress for cold. It's not good to sweat outside in the cold though. But you can take things off. You cannot put things on. That's true. That's true.
00:35:16
Speaker
All right. Well, you have definitely shown the listeners that you are ready for college and you are ready for life. I think your parents and maybe me a little bit have done a good job. Your teachers definitely had a good job. One last question. If you could give your teachers or any teacher some advice or even a principal like me, some advice from a 17 year old, almost graduate, what's your GPA right now? 4.9. Okay.
00:35:47
Speaker
If you can give the teachers or admin or any educator advice, what would you tell them? I think for teachers, read the room because sometimes teachers do their best to do an engaging activity that the students do not care for. And I know that the teacher is super excited for it because they think it's creative.
00:36:16
Speaker
Um, I have one teacher who only is my English teacher who does only like art assignments kind of, and it's like, we have to draw the character and draw pictures of their traits. And like, I would rather write these down. I would rather write an essay about their character traits. And so even though it's that creativity, I, I'm not in an art class, you know, um, I'm a very words creative type person. So, and I don't, and a lot of people don't.
00:36:46
Speaker
like that and so I think that you can be excited about an assignment and it might not work and that's okay. And I think that sometimes sticking to this to the basic thing of okay we're gonna write an essay is fine or we're gonna write a paragraph and you can make the paragraph fun but I think that going like valuing like valuing
00:37:16
Speaker
your personal creativity as a teacher kind of limits the creativity of your students sometimes. And for admin, like, I mean, I got a lot of issues with admin. Okay, I don't want you to, I don't want you to, you know, you haven't graduated yet. So let's keep it on the down. So what, what is one thing that you think admin should do? And what is one thing that you think they should not do?
00:37:47
Speaker
I, number one is closing the library at lunch because where are people like me supposed to sit? Um, with the rest of the kids in the lunchroom. It's lunchroom and outside. Like we have a lot of students at our school and we used to be allowed to sit in the library and in teachers classrooms. Um, but they stopped us from, we're not allowed to go in teachers classrooms or in the library at lunch anymore.
00:38:16
Speaker
And so now it's kind of packed in the lunchroom. If it's a bad day outside, everyone's in there and it's loud and it's noisy and it sucks. And if it's good outside, there's no tables. You have to sit on a planter or on the stairs. So we just have too many kids, which is a problem in CCCs. We have too many kids, but if you have that many kids, either, I don't know, make a third lunch or open up the library because the librarian doesn't,
00:38:43
Speaker
mind, because I'm me and Miss Bechtel are like this. And so we're besties. And so Miss Bechtel lets in kids who are respectful, and she lets in kids who don't ruin her library. And I think she enjoys that she loves talking to the students, because she and she's super smart. I love how she went to Gonzaga, actually, she's super smart.
00:39:05
Speaker
And so she lets people in the library, and then she's like, if admin comes in, go hide. So she's super nice, and she wants kids in her library. That's what it's for. But admin wants, and I get controlling fights and stuff. But I think that if you have everyone focused in the same room at lunch, that might also be encouraging fights. Very true. All right.
00:39:34
Speaker
Thank you for coming on here. I appreciate you. Very proud of you. And in five years, I hope that you are living it up in some mountain town, writing books, and perhaps we're writing books together. But as you definitely know, in the end... It's all about perspective. Thanks, Adbal. Appreciate your time.