Noelle's Honors English Poem Assignment

How to Win an Argument

Winning an argument is never a simple thing

It requires shouting, yelling, and possibly being a little mean

It may be a petty, small topic you’re fighting about

But if you want to retort with an answer, do it with a shout

To win, you must ignore the other person                                                                                                                           

Often times when you do it, it may involve a little cursin’

You must butt your way in and get your side heard

Pay no attention to the other unless they’re suddenly cured

If you can, rehearse what you’re going to holler and say

So when you’re actually yelling, you’ll most definitely get your way                   

If you’ve fired back tons of rebuttals and it feels like the fight’s been going on for ten years

Consider simply pausing, taking a deep breath, and taking time to wipe away those tears

Arguing is often not the best thing to do but a natural thing today

It not only wounds but causes our relationships with others to crack and fray

We all know sin exists and there’s a lot of it, but why do we contribute to the mountain of it by arguing?

Winning an argument looks like forgiveness.

Noelle's 1st babysitting job

Noelle got her driver's license at the end of March 2017 and she started a babysitting job right away, watching 4 kids all under 6.  Here is the youngest of the bunch...

Luke's NHS Jr Induction Event

Way to go Luke!

Luke got the 1st place medal at PG*A JR# golf match at Roll*ing Hills in Alton, IL!

All that hard work is paying off!  Good job Luke!

Noelle's Persuasive Letter to get *Snap#chat

Way to go Noelle!  

7th place in the 200 IM at your WCA Swim Conference Meet, beating your record with a time of 2:43.76!

What a blessing it has been hosting 2 Korean exchange students Joseph Kim and Peter Lee for the January month!  We miss them already :(  Here is a letter we found on our kitchen table from Joseph the morning he left for the airport and some pictures that Peter and his family sent us after arriving back to Korea...

Noelle's letter to Luke before 1st day at WCA

Found this sweet postcard letter from Noelle to Luke before he started his 1st day as a 7th grader at WCA.

Panel to interview new teachers

So proud of this kid who was one of three kids that was part of panel to interview new teachers for the 2015-2016 academic school year at Mason Ridge Elementary School. He came up with his own questions to interview and evaluated each of the candidates alongside PTO members and fellow teachers. Way to go Luke!

Hope's article review

Love this article review Hope did for school as "Letter To The Editor"...

September 18, 2014

Letter to the Editor

Newsela.com

How many times have you looked around and seen people engrossed in their electronics? At parks, malls, parties, and stores I’ve seen people completely absorbed by their phones. It’s not only annoying, but it’s becoming an unhealthy addiction. And some of the consequences of people being on their phone too often are they lose their ability to connect with people.

There’s not just one consequence though, there are many that follow for being on your phone too often. First of all, you don’t get enough exercise. You don’t burn as much calories by sitting on the couch and going on social media. Secondly, kids are focusing too much on their games or other apps instead of paying attention to their grades. They’re not getting all their homework done in time or sufficiently studying for tests. Lastly, kids these days are texting or face timing people instead of talking with them face-to-face. Sure, texting people instead of actually talking to them saves time, but you don’t get to have actual meaningful conversations. In addition, more people get cyber-bullied by text or on social media than they do in school or any other place.

According to the article ‘As they text more are kids losing the ability to read each other?’ a school in California sends their sixth graders to a camp without any electronics for a week. When they get to the camp, right away they take two assessments testing their ability to read people’s expressions. In the first test, the kids were asked to determine people’s different expressions in 48 pictures of people making faces. In the second test, the kids watched a video with the sound turned off and guessed the actor’s emotions. The article states that the kids made an average of 14.02 mistakes in the facial-recognition test at the beginning of the camp. At the end of the week-long camp with no electronics they only made about 9 or fewer errors. This proves that with electronics, kids are losing the ability to connect with other people, or read their expressions, which is a big social skill you need in life.

So would you rather get good grades and go off to college or get more likes? Would you rather be healthy and active or have more posts and sit on a couch all day? Would you rather have a good relationship with your friends and talk often or text them every once in a while? The choice is yours to make. 

RIP*Claus Burkey

Our dear, beloved dog Claus...

gifted to our kids on 12/3/09 to 9/7/14...

MO*Gold*Star*School-featured a pic of Luke-front and center :)

Missouri Gold Star Schools -- 
Henry and Mason Ridge Elementary 

4/14/2014 -- Two Parkway schools are among only eight across the state to be named 2014 Missouri Gold Star Schools. Congratulations to Henry Elementary and Mason Ridge Elementary!   The honor, from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, is given to schools performing at a high academic level. Both schools will now be considered for the Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education. “Congratulations to these schools for achieving this standard of excellence,” said Commissioner of Education Chris Nicastro in a recent news release. “They are laying the foundation beginning in the elementary grades to ensure students graduate prepared for college and career.” Parkway Schools have previously earned 14 Blue Ribbon Awards and 17 Gold Star Awards. Click here to learn more.

The Flautist - Bill Clevlen On The Road

This was a note sent from our amazing flute teacher Jalene Huang:

Hi Flute Students, Family, and Friends!

Please take a moment to watch this video interview put together by journalist/radio personality Bill Clevlen. This particular segment (part of his Bill Clevlen on the Road video series) features me as flutist. 

"The Flautist" 

(or visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCY3bqMlXGI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUt4DI1M-CICHp8z5BKAkKmg)

Needless to say, Bill's portrayal of me and my work leaves me feeling quite honored and deeply appreciative for the many wonderful people and experiences that music has brought to my life. 

Or listen to him on 550am KTRS Radio 

Bill Clevlen on the air

Special thanks to: 

-The Burkey siblings for appearing in the video and for being attentive, hard-working students not only in the video but also in their respective journeys with the flute. 

-FSSL flute choir for humoring not only my teaching/conducting but also my occasional forays into the flute-world paparazzi. ;) 

-My mother (and fellow flutist) for giving me my first flute, being my number one fan, and helping me realize my potential and passion. 

Halloween 2013

Can you tell what the kids were for Halloween?

                                          Luke's 4th grade classmates in Mrs. M's class

Hope's 6th grade camp thank you letter

Dear friends and family,

Thank you so much for sending me letters while I was at camp! Camp was really fun and I enjoyed it so much. We built dams, went horseback riding (the picture above is of me at camp riding a horse named Chester), hiked a trail, dug rocks, and went on a low ropes course. I got the most letters in my cabin while I was at camp- I got around 15! I had a big smile on my face while I read the letters. Thanks again! :) 

  Hope :)

A Lesson Learned in Life...

I think this letter explains the lesson that my daughter had to learn.  I realize that this event is probably not a huge deal in that her reasoning was because she just didn't want to complete the work, but it was a good lesson learned and an eye-opener for me as a parent to never stop praying for their heart.

I appreciated the comment though that the Kumon instructor wrote.

Baby Teeth No More...

Hope lost her last baby tooth...does that mean she is no longer my baby? :)  How quickly time flies...

2013 Summer Missions-Chattanooga Inner City

Daddy and the girls left on Saturday, June 29th to Chattanooga, TN to help with *HFIC: Hope*For*the*Inner City*. 

Here is the blog that recaps their daily events during this missions week:

http://crossroadschattanooga.blogspot.com/



Hope's 5th grade graduation

May 20,2013

Today was a celebratory day for Hope as she graduated from Mason Ridge Elementary School. 

During the ceremony, each teacher read the graduate's aspirations for the future.

Here was Hope's aspirations that was read by Mrs. Binder:

"Hope plans to live a simple life in a small home on the beach in Florida. She will be married and have three kids named James, Carly and Mary and a black lab named Max and a puppy named Taylor. She plans on working at Petco while her husband will become a successful doctor. That's good because Hope also wants to travel to Antartica, Africa, North Carolina and Michigan."

     Also during the ceremony, principal Schmerold and administrative intern Dr. Gunn addressed the graduates amongst their family and friends, excerpts from the student's writings that defined the theme of their graduation, "To Infinity and Beyond." Anonymous writings of various students were read during the address that defined key thematic words/phrases such as determination, happiness, courage, enjoying life.  Little did we know until after graduation that Hope's writing about "enjoying life" was featured during the address.  Here is the complete writing in its entirety with the excerpt in bold print that was addressed during the graduation.

Enjoying life could have a lot of definitions. To some people, it means just having fun. But to me it means doing what you love best and not worrying about when you have to stop. Some people give time limits on things which make people more rushed and hurried. But enjoying life shouldn’t have time limits because every second counts.

To a lot of people, setting up pet shops in their cousin’s basement is probably what they did in first grade. But for me, it’s what I do almost every time I see my cousins. I only see them twice every year so I really couldn’t care less if people thought that we were being childish. The parents would usually conference upstairs so we got to redecorate their whole basement. This moment in the basement really captures my attention because there’s endless laughter and a basement full of happiness. I enjoyed every second of it because it felt amazing to forget about my troubles and just be happy with my cousins. Moments like these make me want to slow time down and just have fun.

I’ve always loved sleepovers, but sleepovers at my cousin’s house couldn’t be beat. I couldn’t contain my excitement for the whole day simply because I knew that we would be sleeping over. As I got ready for bed, memories I had of sleeping over with my cousins flooded my thoughts. We never worried about getting in trouble or staying up too late. We never had a second thought about tomorrow. We were just hanging out and enjoying the moment we had with each other by just being there for each other. It might sound boring to other people, but it meant the world to me. My two cousins are like sisters to me. They are both really close to me and have changed my life without even knowing it.

Whenever I think of my cousins, I think of all the fun times we’ve had together (like how we would play laser tag in the dark). We had to wear heavy gear but none of that stopped us from having a blast! I remember how I would jump at every little noise or movement in the dark but after I got past that, I was having the time of my life. I remember I would keep running into my cousins and then scampering away when they would try to shoot me. We were all competitive but I can’t deny that I was having fun. After our laser tag mission was over, I wanted to do it again and again with my cousins. Time seemed to fly by and there was nothing I could do to stop it. That’s why slowing down and just enjoying life holds so much importance behind it.

Sometimes it’s hard to enjoy life. But I guarantee you this: If you just slow down and have fun, you won’t have any regrets. My cousins taught me that I shouldn’t worry about when we had to stop or when we had to leave. Just enjoy every moment like it’s your last.

Post graduation party at the park...

 Congrats Hope!!!