Should seniors be exempt from finals?

Senior's most definitely should be exempt from finals all together. A final usually covers the information that was taught to the students from the middle of the school year until the end. Finals should be given to freshman, sophomore, and junior students. Finals are required for each class taken in high school. Senior's should not be required to take final's due to all the work they have done throughout their high school career.

Final's cover information from after you take your midterm until the end of the year. By this time seniors already know whether they are going to graduate or not. If the senior is eligible to graduate they should not have to take a final. Finals and midterms in general require students to recall too much information. Why should we have to know half a year's worth of information for one test? That is absolutely ridiculous! Our minds cannot even hold that much information at once. One test should not have that much information on it. Finals should be nonexistent, especially for seniors.

Seniors have already been in high school for three years. Senior's have worked so hard to get where they are.  They have taken so many tests and quizzes in their high school career they should not be required to take a huge final. Senior's are trying to get their life together to start the real world. They are focused on getting everything in they need to for college; they should not have to worry about studying for a final exam. Senior's should be relieved that it is the last week of high school, not stressed out because they have to take tests. Some students are so hard headed that they will not even show up the day of the test and just take a zero on a final exam! They do this because they strongly believe they should not have to take it. It is not even a question; seniors should not be given final exams.

Having final exams for Senior's only causes stress, chaos, and rebel.  It would be so much easier for everyone if Senior's were just exempt from final's all together as long as they are passing. Senior's have worked so incredibly hard to get to where they are and they should be proud of themselves, not worrying about another test as they are already worrying about getting all of their papers in for college. Senior's are ready to move onto a new chapter in their life. They should not have to be worrying about finals, they should be completely focused on the future ahead.  

Changes in the Gymnastics World

The whole gymnastics world is changing. There used to be levels one through ten, ten being the most difficult. Most gyms do not start putting their gymnasts' in competition until they have reached level four.
USA gymnastics decided there needs to be another level. So to the gymnasts' if you were a level six you are now a level five. The gymnasts' did not like this very much. It brought down their self esteem, and even made some gymnasts want to give up. . The changes were just made and will be enforced next competitive season. Being a coach I see first hand how the gymnasts' reacted to this change. Some girls even cried because they have worked so hard to be where they are, and they feel demoted for no reason at all.
I was once a gymnast and I can not say I would react the same way as some of the gymnasts' I coach. I believe that this change should make you want to work harder. Gymnastics is a very challenging and demanding sport, you have to be a certain kind of person to be a gymnast.
I think that a change needed to be made, but I think their could have been a better solution to this change. They could have just added a level eleven, but then that brings up the issue of the level tens who have worked their whole life to get where they are now have to go even further. No matter what kind of change they made there would always be an issue, but a change absolutely needed to be done. I think this was a change for the better, even if some of my gymnasts' disagree.

Boston Marathon

On April 15, 2013 something happened that changed the world forever.  On this day, at the Boston Marathon, two powerful bombs were exploded at the end of the finish line. The bombs were exploded after almost three quarters of everyone participating in the marathon had already crossed the finish line.  The first bomb exploded in a trash can at 2:50 pm; just thirteen seconds later another went off. This resulted in three dead people and more than a hundred were injured. One of the three dead was an eight year old child. April 15, 2013 is a day that will never be forgotten.

                Personally I just cannot grasp why anyone would ever do this. I understand that people are angry with the world, but why take it to that extent? I just do not get it. It does not make any sense to me. But I can tell one how it made me feel. When my mom called me and told me what happened I was shocked. I did not know what to think or what to do. The minute I heard that I immediately did not feel safe where I was. I was scared that the bomber’s might come to where I am. At the time no one knew where they were or even who it was. I was scared something was going to happen to not only me, but my friends or family. I would not even know what to do if something happened to them. It did not just scare me it made me so angry. I kept asking myself “Why? Why did he do it?” but once I got past the fact that it happened all my fear turned to anger. I think this awful event made everyone come closer. We all had something in common and that was the love for our country.

                I wish I could say that something like this will never happen again, but I cannot. There are people in the world who are going to do awful things, even kill innocent children, but we just have to be strong and stand up to them. We have to be better and smarter than those awful people.

Medline; A Company That Cares

I interviewed my father, John Borroni, on what exactly happens at Medline Industries. There are Medline’s all around the world. The one Mr. Borroni manages is in the industrial park in Mansfield. It is right around the corner! The building itself is absolutely huge, but it needs to be with all the trucks coming in and out all the time. Medline makes supplies for hospitals from tissues to wheel cheers.  There are people who work as secretaries in offices, and there is a warehouse where some workers stay all day and move the supplies to where they are supposed to go. They put everything where it is supposed to go for the truck drivers to pick them up and bring them to the different hospital who hold their supplies.

            So what does the boss do all day? My dad told me about his work day, “Well there is no normal work day, I do not have a set routine. Sometimes I walk into work with over a thousand emails I just got over night so I have to stay in my house all day on days like those. But some days it is completely the opposite and I am in the warehouse moving things ten hours some days!” His relationship with his workers is very important. They go to him for personal problems sometimes! In the interview he was asked, “How do you get along with your workers?” His response was, “It depends on the person. Of course I get along with my employees. The better the worker the better we get along.” Many hospitals take his supplies. The ones that are in the area are Norwood, Morton, and Sturdy. The last question he was asked was, “How do you think the hospitals would run if they did not get your supplies? And how does this affect society?” He answered saying, “Well I mean there is other supply companies, but hospitals would definitely be short of supplies. This could greatly affect the patients. They might not get the full care they need and deserve.”

            By interviewing my father I learned a great deal about his company and the kind of stress he is put under to always be the best. His company never closes even on holidays because when do hospitals ever close? They do not. Therefore John Borroni is a very dedicated to his company. He has to if he wants it to keep running.

Cloning

Have you ever thought about having another one of you? A clone? Well scientists all around the world have been trying to figure out how to make a duplicate of someone. Cloning is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms reproduce asexually. But the problem with that is humans do not reproduce asexually. In cloning ever single bit of DNA is exactly the same for both. 

            You might not believe it, but there are human clones among us right now. They were not made in a science lab though; they are what we call identical twins! There are a few ways to go about cloning. One of which is artificial embryo twinning. In the real process (not artificial) it makes the two cells separate, and they continue to separate on their own until it ultimately develops into a separate individual. This is how identical twins are created. Artificial embryo twinning uses the same approach, but occurs in a Petri dish instead of a mother. This happens by manually separating a very early embryo into individual cells, and then allowing each cell to divide and develop on its own. The more complicated and complex way to clone is called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SNCT) uses a different approach than artificial embryo twinning, but it produces the same result: an exact clone, or genetic copy, of an individual. This method was used when creating Dolly the sheep, the first clone ever.

            Reproductive cloning is expensive and does not guarantee results. More than 90% of cloning attempts fail to produce viable offspring. More than a hundred nuclear transfer procedures could be required to produce just one viable clone. In addition to low success rates, cloned animals tend to have higher rates of infection, tumor growth, and other disorders. Japanese scientists have proved that cloned mice live in poor health and die early. Many clone calves were abnormally large. Many cloned animals have not lived long enough to generate good data about how clones age. Appearing healthy at a young age unfortunately is not a good indicator of long-term survival. Clones have been known to die mysteriously.  

But is cloning really necessary? What would you use it for? So your clone can be doing your homework while you are out with your friends? What is the good in that? Absolutely nothing. It will only make people lazier, and less willing to do things on their own. There has not been enough research and experiments on this for scientists to gain enough knowledge to make cloning a good and safe thing.

What superpower would I be?

There are many different kinds of superpowers. Having the power to fly is one of the most famous superpowers. You never have to wait in traffic as Superman showed when he had the ability to fly. Another super power would be predicting the future. Being able to know what happens before it happens. This superpower is not as common Nicholas Cage has the ability to see the future in the movie “Next.” A popular super power is super strength which is shown by the Hulk. There is nothing you cannot overcome with super strength. Having a super power for a day would be an incredibly fun experience.

If I could have one superpower for a day I would love to be able to fly. I would go all across the world in one day and see all the places I have always wanted to see.  Moving through the air without any outside influence would give someone the biggest adrenaline rush and that would be awesome. To fly I would need some sort of wing(s).  If I was ever flying I would try my hardest to get high enough up to touch the clouds. Maybe they actually are fluffy! If I had one day to fly it would be the best day of my life.

Some people disagree with my opinion on flying, “If I could have one superpower for a day I would have invisibility,” said Shelby. Although being able to be invisible when I want too would be a lot of fun, I would still choose flying because to be able to float in the air would be an incredible feeling. 

My Blog

Hello everyone, I am Mackenzie Borroni. This is my blog for journalism. I'm not sure why I was put in this class considering I hate writing, but hopefully that will change. The only thing I enjoy writing about is gymnastics. I love gymanstics more than anything. I was a competitive gymnast for ten years, but now I coach competitve team. I could not ask for a better job. I never thought I would say this but work is actually fun. I know it sounds crazy, but once you find something you like to do stay with it. Even if it is not the most high paying job I can promise you you will be SO much happier if you work in a field that you actually like. I do not just feel like a coach, I feel like I am part of a family. It is not just fun and games though, competitive gymnastics is taken very seriously. I know first hand since I was once a level nine gymnast and practiced twenty hours a week. It gets tough and sometimes you just want to give up, but if you have the love for the sport then that will over power any fear you have. I wish more than anything that I was still a competitve gymnast. The gym was my place to let go of everything and just do what I love. It took my mind off of all the bad in life. It is also a great place to take your anger out. Gymnastics is the best sport in the world.

                                                 Mackenzie B