Keep our school....CLEAN!

How to and Why Keep Our Campus Clean.
by: A 7th Grade Leadership Student
Trash has been collecting around our school. Everyday, after lunch, I see a massive trash bank. And yet every day, our amazing custodian, Mario, cleans it up. So why not just pick up your trash? We should be picking up after ourselves It’s as easy as:

1. Eat your lunch/snack properly
2. Check for your own trash when you are done!
3. Pick up the trash/recycling and put it in the correct bin.

No one wants a campus full of moldy carrot sticks, right? This is a brand-new campus! We don’t want to ruin it after barely four months! Take our old campus, for example. It was nice, but there was trash in many places. If that happens to our new, donut-shaped building, it will just pile up in the corners, since it’s hard to get blown out of the quad. It is down lower than the rest of the school, for instance. It will pile up by the stairs. And not all “trash” really is trash. It could be recycling, or compost. All ChoiceLunch is compostable. But not everyone does! It’s not only bad for our school (overflowing trash bins), but bad for the environment as well! 

Take the initiative; help keep our campus clean!

The Leadership Elective according to a 7th grader

"Why you should take leadership in 7th grade" 
by a 7th grade student

Leadership is a great elective because it helps people become more responsible, nicer, and better at dealing with difficult situations in life. We also learn how to deal with bullies, and to not become one. Leadership is a great elective also, because the teacher, Mr. Darmanin, is very good. He is funny, and makes jokes in class, so nothing ever gets boring. And we even play games on Fridays. And we sometimes even get a reward if your team wins the game! Also, we get to use the computers to type things, and there are usually no wrong answers in the questions. As long as you participate in the discussion and try your best, you will probably do good in this class. Also, you don’t need any other skills to join. People usually don’t join the music elective if they  don’t play any instruments. People usually don’t join robotics if they are not interested in that. But this class, it is very good because anyone can do well in this class, as long as they have a positive attitude, and are hard working. We watch interesting videos in class to help us learn too, and we usually get to sit with our friends as long as you aren’t disrupting the class with talking. He also shared funny stories, like how he stepped on a nail once. If you enjoyed the advisory elective in 6th grade, then you will enjoy this elective!




Photo: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3609/3575000735_6ba08467d9.jpg
Handshake, by Aidan Jones

Being a Bucket Filler! (A 7th Grade Leadership Challenge!)

Being a Bucket Filler! (A 7th Grade Leadership Challenge!)

In leadership, Mr. Darmanin is a big believer in bucket fillers. Everyone has a bucket inside of them, if your bucket is full then you have a lot of self esteem. While if your bucket is empty or almost empty, you have low self esteem and will not have very much confidence or people are making fun of you and just not being nice to you. The challenge that Mr. Darmanin gave us,= was to each make 20 people’s day better by giving them a high-five, inviting them into your group, fist bump, helping them out, giving them a compliment, telling them a joke, or any nice thing you could think of that you could do to 20 people to help them fill their bucket. At first, I have to admit, the first person I went up to was a little bit hard to find a way to give them a high-five, but after that I felt so happy about making them feel better I barely even thought about it, I just found a way to fill their buckets.

Our goal was that every student that was in a leadership or advisory class, was to fill 20 people’s buckets each, getting a total of 960 student’s buckets filled up higher in a day. As we were walking around, we thought that it was just another assignment, and didn’t think it would make a difference, but the look on their faces was priceless after we complemented and gave a high-five to kids randomly, how happy they were, and how much it meant to them to have their buckets filled especially if they were having a bad day. To me this isn’t a challenge anymore, it is a way of living because I enjoy putting smiles on other people’s faces and making them feel good. Also its always a good thing to let people know that others do actually care about them.

Some Ways YOU Can Fill Buckets

1. If you see someone alone at a lunch table, invite them over to join your group. Believe it or not, you don’t always have to eat with the same lunch posse, you can switch up your lunch period and eat with other people.

2. If someone gives you a tip or suggestion, even if you don't like it please say thank you, awesome idea, and give them a high-five. Most people don't know how much that can mean to someone.

3. If at all you see someone making fun of someone else, you should immediately step in or get a teacher to stop it. Bullying is NEVER ok, but it actually makes someone feel better if you step in and defend them, so they know someone cares.

Making a Small Difference

Making a Small Difference

by 7th Grade Leadership Students

Compliments, high fives, and handshakes seem like little actions but they end up making a big difference. Yesterday in leadership we chose to walk up to another hillview student and do one of these things. To some kids these gestures will make their day to others it will just give them a small boost, but either way these compliments helps them (fill their bucket). When we went up to kids around the school and gave them handshakes,high fives, and compliments some of them really appreciated them and others complimented us back. At that moment we felt good about ourselves and that made us want to compliment more and more.

If I were to do this again today, we would cheer on kids if they’re playing basketball or a noon event. I would give them high fives if they did something well and compliment them. If I see somebody who’s bucket is drained, I would compliment them till they it’s overflowing. I would text/chat with them online, or I would maybe ask them to hang out and find if we have anything in common. Anything that you do would at least fill their bucket a little, and thats all we want at hillview we just want a nice happy environment.

These small differences are important at Hillview because they raise peoples self esteem, and make them a lot happier and when kids are happy, teachers are happy too....then everyone wants to help one another, and at Hillview we don't want people to put other people down and take from their bucket in a perfect world it would great if Hillview kids would give and give and never ask for anything in return. That’s what Hillview should be like, one of the best schools in the nation!

One high five, one compliment, one acknowledgement could boost a person’s self esteem to invent something great. Imagine if Steve Jobs got bullied, he’d be afraid to express his imagination in technology. If Neil Armstrong was made fun of to go to the moon, would anybody have gone by now? If somebody has just given somebody a high five, we could be in Mars. These small differences make a big difference and people don’t know. All we have to do is compliment, high five, and acknowledge.