I got an award in choir! Woohoo! I got the award for best sight-reading! Yeah, buddy! Diamond got the award for best improved because at the beginning she was really offkey and couldn't read music and now she sounds like an angel, Katie got Best Teammate or something like that because she's the one we always talk to if we need a schedule worked out, and get this: MEGHAN got class favorite! I guess falling off the risors had some benifits! GO MEGHAN!
The concert was amazing, I got glitter headbands for everyone in 8th period choir, and I even got Meghan to wear glitter. Of course, she hid the headband behind all her hair (it's that thin) and we rocked!
Mom bought me bottled Starbucks frappucinos and hot fries. I can't wait until tomorrow when I can have one. Unfortunately, they have caffine, and it's 9:35, so it would keep me up.
Today, I forgot my belt, so I tied together a bunch of headbands. Leah said that I should have one the Most Creative Award for my belts. I have made belts out of black cardboard paper, notebook paper (that didn't work out to well), a Cheez-It box, and now this.
We presented half of the history projects today, and the 9/11 project couldn't find a video to show, so they put on some music and had a slide show from the History channel. One of the pictures was someone jumping out of the building. Tomorrow, our group presents, and I have a bad feeling that we're missing a slide.
We finished watching Never Say Never in theatre and we're going to start watching the monologues and iMovies we were working on.
We took a test in math that is supposed to take two days, but I finished mine in about 30 minutes. We're going to start graph drawings, which is hard to explain.
We're working on high school music in band: Maroon and White, which Mrs. Behne congratulated us on for playing such hard music almost perfectly. She said she had the hardest time teaching her French Horns last year. We're also playing Texas Fight, which we're obviously going to play long due to the excessive amount of chormatic sixteenth notes.
Test on microscopes in science. I got at least a B-.
I presented my Tom Sawyer project yesterday in English. I made a newspaper, while almost every person made an A-Z book. I got tired of hearing "H is for Huckleberry Finn." so I just daydreamed until class was over.
Choir, we rehersed for the concert, which went fabulous.
By the way, I forgot to say: I GOT FEATURED IN THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS!
Many thanks to Marcus Murphree for featuring me in the article!
I changed the last names of the students and the name of the school.
More Than A Game
by Marcus Murphree
Josie Bakerson’s world felt like it was spinning 1,000 mph, all day every day.
Wake up, go to class, grab a binder, turn in this geography work sheet, read the chapter about the water cycle, eat lunch, practice an instrument, go home and repeat.
For a 13-year-old with attention deficit disorder, organizational skills were not easy to come by, and daily tasks seemed to pile up with few signs of improving.
When her mother suggested she start playing chess, Josie did not foresee the positive changes that would start coming her way.
“I made bad grades and would forget homework,” Josie said. “The concentration from chess has really helped.
“It builds me up for the day ahead.”
Josie, like dozens of other young chess wizards at Smalltown’s Lincoln Middle School, spends each morning in the portable room on campus practicing her craft against other students and the school’s chess coach, David Barrett.
“I didn’t play it much as a kid. I just found it to be a great tool to help kids with learning disabilities,” Barrett said of the centuries-old board game. “They are using their mind. They are controlling their emotions, and for a lot of kids, they are now a part of something.”
With the basic rules provided by a square two-tone grid, the young chess players have developed not only their game technique, but also their overall work and life skills.
“It helps with things like planning ahead,” Barrett said. “We do a thing called touch-move, where if you touch a piece, you have to move it, and that helps with impulse control.
“Sometimes a kid will grab at a piece, and it’s one of those ‘too-bad,-you-have-to-suffer-the-consequences-of-your-action’ situations.”
Fostering sportsmanship
At Lincoln, every game is a challenge, every move a situation, every match a battle where the competitor cannot and will not quit.
“I tell the kids they cannot resign even if they are losing, because at this level someone may make a mistake,” Barrett said. “Win, lose or draw, you can set small victories within the big picture.”
Before and after every game, the students shake hands with their opponent, a friendly gesture showing that the participants will remain gracious in victory or defeat.
“I try to act like I’m not winning,” said seventh-grader Jonathan Wall. “After a game, I shake their hand and leave.”
The great equalizer
Chess’ simple move combinations, but limitless ways to win, enable competitors of all ages to test their knowhow and abilities.
At tournaments where Lincoln competes against high school students from around the Dallas area, students can see where they stack up against players of a higher rank and grade level.
“Sometimes they are intimidated,” Barrett said. “I explain this isn’t basketball, they can’t swat your shot, and his brain is as big as yours.”
For Montgomery Buckett, the school’s top-ranked player, being in a position of where every game starts exactly the same makes for a unique challenge every time he begins a match.
“It’s probably the best board game, because you never know the outcome,” said Montgomery, 14.
“It’s a level playing field,” Barrett said. “Money doesn’t matter; age doesn’t matter; ethnicity doesn’t matter; it’s just putting in the time and effort.”
Every morning, that time and effort are put to the test in Portable No. 2 at Lincoln, and every day brings a chance for a new winner to emerge.
With a fresh start coming in every game, optimism can go from the tile, to the classroom and beyond.
WEE HEE!!!
The reason I'm always happy is because you only have one life to live and you never know when you're gonna die, so celebrate life and stop being sad. -Me
