3rd Year Program 2024-2025
My Great Passion for Rocks
by Winston Gelardi
I just love looking for rocks with my family. It always gets me excited when I find a white rock. But what I like is finding the thunder eggs. Thunder eggs are hollow on the inside. This makes me very happy since being hollow is really cool. I also love taking them back from the site where we find them to the truck, which is always parked down steep terrain. Taking the thunder egg, which weighs around twenty pounds, back to the truck is extremely fun because it gives me a workout, especially when the truck is two miles away on rough ground. Hearing about how these rocks are formed is very fascinating because water seeps inside with minerals, making it into a hollow geode. I always thank my family for taking me on these trips because I love everything about them.
Teachers
by Georgia Spilotros
I love my teachers, especially when they give me a twelve-page packet and a quiz that I can finish in only one day. We only have eight classes, to use our critical thinking skills. The best teachers put on a two-page slide deck, hand out a 300-page packet, and push us to our limits by letting us figure it all out on our own. It really hones our problem-solving skills. The students in my grade look forward to the challenge. But pop quizzes are the most fun: they cover topics we’ve barely learned, so we all fight over teachers who will scold us for not studying every day and threaten to call our parents. Sometimes getting only one piece of homework for the week limits us: we need more consistent work to give our great teachers meaningful results.
Homework is Good
by Kenneth Weinrauch
The exciting homework our teachers give us every day helps us excel. The adrenaline we get from the pressure of completing it on time is exhilarating. To increase the stakes, I play sports, have fun on my own, and spend a lot of weekends with my family. The plethora of homework just adds to my fun. In math, pages and pages of complicated problems challenge me to become a smarter student. While it is more work than adults must do, our lives are much more exciting now and will be even better in the future. I will always need to know how to read poems from the Middle Ages: understanding the meaning of each line helps me expand my knowledge. Researching the Russian Revolution allows everyday high schoolers to know how to prevent wars from happening in America. As an architect, this history will guide my designs of future buildings. My science teacher is the worst: he does not give me anything hard to do, keeping his assignments small and reasonable. A plethora of homework is best; challenging me to be a better student. With all my extra adrenaline, I remember everything I need to know.
New Olympic Sport
by Scout Weiseth
The International Olympic Committee has made an exciting announcement: Public School P.E is now an Olympic Summer sport. Athletes may compete in Hoodie Toss, which involves throwing a weighted team hoodie across the gym in protest. Wall Sit Endurance involves the physical challenge of not sliding down the wall in sadness and despair. Synchronized Water Break, which is judged on artistic merit, demands that teams walk slowly to the water fountain without making eye contact with the coach. Audiences worldwide will also enjoy Freestyle Gym Excuses, as athletes invent spontaneous reasons to skip workouts (bonus points for actually pulling a muscle). Medals will also be awarded for not getting caught talking to friends during warmup, and for not passing out on the mile run. Set this exciting Olympic event to the top of your watch list and see internationally-ranked students awkwardly sweat before 9:00 a.m. in Los Angeles at the 2028 Summer Olympic Games.
Irritation
by Everett Lingle
My soccer team is great. All fifteen of our players, being the only kids thirteen or fourteen-years-old in McCall, are all the best. There isn’t a single person who falls behind. I appreciate when a player on my team misses a completely open goal from around four feet away: this kind of talent gives us something to work on. When a single player misses more than five times in a game, it is a great growth opportunity. One of my favorite parts of the game is when I send a beautiful pass perfectly to another player, and he misses the ball completely. This happens a lot in our games, each time making the game that much better. Another thing I love about our soccer team is our ability to recognize when someone needs help. At practice I like how all our players are at the same level so we can do better in drills. We never get the ball taken from us when we pass to a teammate who just seems to not have the ability of making or receiving a pass. Such ridiculous, low-level skills just do not exist on my team. Bad Plays just never happen.
Vocabulary words: poignant, ameliorate, resolute, transient, adroit, eminent, imminent, posterity, gravity, merriment, indolent, complacent, caricature, prudence, candid, fervent, former/latter, mutual/common, further/farther, zealous, utopia, renaissance, incessant, assimilate, explicit, precipitous, lucid, rudimentary, anachronism, fecund, temerity, furtive, abstract, gesticulate, introspective, recondite, petulant, abstinent, paradox, ingenuous, credulous, credible, credence, innocuous, vociferous, aristocratic, magnanimous, nefarious, among/between, ironic, impotent, profane, irregardless, alliteration, simile, metaphor, free verse, iambic pentameter, sonnet, sublime
French Foreign words & phrases: a propos, au courant, bete noire, carte blanche, de rigueur, deja vu, fait accompli, faux pas, idee fixe, joie de vivre, laissez-faire, outre, raison d'etre, rendevous, savoir-faire, tete-a-tete, vis-a-vis, ad hoc, aficionado, al fresco, de facto, junta, manana, mea culpa, nolo contendere, non sequitur, quid pro quo, semper fidelis, sine qua non, status quo, sui generis, zeitgeist
See the full list of 3rd Year Vocabulary words HERE, or study on Quizlet:
“The great skill of a teacher is to get and keep the attention of his scholar... To attain this, he should make the child comprehend...the usefulness of what he teaches him and let him see, by what he has learned, that he can do something which gives him some power and real advantage over others who are ignorant of it.”
— John Locke (1632-1704), on Education
Unfinished Pieces: Semester II
(updated 5/28/25)
Everett
Revisions = 100%
Edits = 10/12
FINISHED!
Winston
Revisions = 100%
Edits = 100%
FINISHED!!!
Kenneth
Revisions = 100%
Edits = 100%
FINISHED!
Georgia
Revisions = 100%
Edits = 10/12
FINISHED!
Scout
Revisions = 100%
Edits = 11/12
FINISHED!
Warren
Revisions = 8/36
Edits = 1/6
R&J/Masque/Bible essay OUTLINE
Paradox poem
Locke paragraph
Master schedule
Blue poetry: 1 Nature; Ballad; Narrative
Student Resources: 2nd Year
Check every piece for THESE SKILLS before turning anything in for an edit.
Check ALL CITATIONS (quotes) with these formatting rules before turning anything in for an edit.
Click HERE for directions for email editing
Access pieces written by 3rd year classes to see what our readings and assignments are for this year.
QUARTER GRADING:
Participation = 30% (purely subjective, based on my perceptions of your initiative, interest, self-motivation, & tenacity)
Assignments = Revisions (20%)
Edits (20%)
Vocab/Multiple Choice tests= 15%
Timed essay grades= 15%
SEMESTER GRADING
Participation = 30% (purely subjective, based on my perceptions of your initiative, interest, self-motivation, & tenacity)
Assignments = Revisions & edits (20%)
Vocab/Multiple Choice tests = 15%
Timed essay grades = 10%
Exam = 25%
