Category Archives: School

Divergent: A Movie Review

Date Seen: March 23, 2014

 

 

Title: Divergent

 

Main Characters:

Tris (Beatris Prior): A sixteen year old girl, born into the faction of Abnegation (the faction for those who blamed human evil on selfishness), who transfers to the faction of Dauntless (those who blamed evil on cowardice and weakness)

Four (Tobias Eaton): The Dauntless initiate training instructor, of whom there is little known about.

The Story:

Divergent, set in post-apoctalyptic Chicago, is comprised of a society of five factions, or groups of people bonded together depending on what they thought was the reason for the war that destroyed the rest of the world.

Abnegation, the faction that the heroine of this story, Tris, was born into, is the faction of the selfless.  They wear plain clothes, eat plain food, and are only allowed to look in a mirror once a month, to demonstrate a lack of obsession about their personal selves and a devotion to the good of others.  Abnegation runs the government of Chicago, as they are concerned only for the good of the people and others.  Amity, the second faction, is the faction of the kind and peaceful, for those who blamed violence on human failing.  They wear bright clothes, and are all cheerful and jolly.  They produce food and farm for the rest of the population.  Candor, the third faction, was created for those who thought lies and dishonesty was at fault.  Their most important rule is to always tell the truth, no matter how painful, and they wear only black and white, to show that the world is only good and evil, truth and lies.  Erudite, the fourth faction, was made for people who blamed idiocy and unintelligence.  They are all incredibly smart and well educated, with blue as their faction color.  They are the inventors of the serum, which is a chemical injected into your neck with transmitters in it that allow people to view what’s happening inside your head, as well as test your aptitude for which faction your personality is best suited for and as shown in Dauntless initiate training, to force you to confront your darkest fears.  The last faction is Dauntless.  Dauntless train themselves to overcome fear and weakness, first weakness of the body (physical combat, knife throwing, self-defense), then weakness of the mind (using serum to overcome your fears, to brave them).

Tris is sixteen, and it is the day before Choosing Day.  When she goes in for the Aptitude Test, administered by a Dauntless woman by the name of Tori, she is told that she must pretend the serum made her sick, that what her aptitude was got messed up.  She finds out this is because she is Divergent, something considered evil by Erudite and the rest of the factions, and that if anyone found out she would be killed.  With this in mind she goes home and deliberates which faction is best for her.  On Choosing Day, she symbolically cuts her palm and sprinkles her blood over the coals that represent Dauntless (and enforce the motto Faction before blood), and begins a new life in her new faction.

Likes:

 

Dislikes:

Oakland School for the Arts 2013 – 2014

Starts: August 26, 2014

Ends: June 2014

First Day of Eight Grade
First Day of Eight Grade

August 26, 2013

Up early to catch the 6:23AM train.

8th Grade
8th Grade

August 29, 2013 (Thursday)

Dance was even better than yesterday.  The school has a very strict absence policy now.  There’s no longer an excused absence, all absences are unexcused and affects the grade.  The Dance emphasis has a 4 absence limit before it starts bringing your grade down.

 

August 30, 2013 (Friday)

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Exp Course Teacher Subject
1(M-F) SOC008 Shaw, Arlyle Social Science 8
2(M-F) COR003 Thaggard, David Core Connections Algebra
3-4(M-F) DAN107 Savage, Reginald 6-8 Middle School Ballet
5(M-F) DAN108 Savage, Reginald 6-8 Middle School Contemporary Dance
L(M-F) LUNCH Jones, Loretha Lunch Period
7(M-F) ENG008 Guerin, Laurice English 8
A(M-F) ADV600 Savage, Reginald 6-8 Dance Advisory

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 25, 2013 (Friday)

Amelia withdrew from her studies at OSA to transfer back to the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD).  The daily commute had become to hard on her.

Operation Tole Mour 2013 – Please Donate!

Raising funds to be able to go on the Tole Mour Tall Ships Sailing Camp by bake sales, baby-sitting, dog-walking, plant watering and asking for donations.  We gotten donations from several friends and family members.  Plus Dad added another $100.00.

 

June 8, 2013

Bake Sale!

Cookies For Sale
Cookies For Sale

We sold over 100 cookies and scones.  That’s $100.00!  Wow!  That helps.  Dad create a Google docs spreadsheet for us to keep track of earnings and expenses so we can tell how much we actually made and how much it cost us to make it.  Really useful.

 

June 15, 2013

Bake Sale No. 2

Bake Sale 2
Bake Sale 2

We made $67.00 today and completely sold out all the cookies and scones.

 

June 22, 2013

Bake Sale No. 3

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We only made $22.15 today.  We think it was because of the cloudy weather and it was a Sunday.

 

July 6, 2013 (Saturday)

Bake Sale No. 4

 

Bake Sale
Bake Sale

A Bounty of Yumminess
A Bounty of Yumminess

Our net profit today was $37.08 after expenses.  Dad has me keeping an account spreadsheet so we can see how much money we’re actually making versus how much we’re spending to make the cookies.

OSA School of Dance Spring Concert 2013

Announcement:

Features OSA School of Dance Middle and High School students in World Premiers and OSA Premiers from Mr. Savage and Ms. Maia Siani, as well as brand new choreography from the School of Dance Senior Class of 2013.  AMS will be in the performance!

 

Spring Dance Concert
Spring Dance Concert

Concert Schedule:

  • April 18, 2013 (Thursday) @ 7:00 PM
  • April 19, 2013 (Friday) @ 7:00 PM
  • April 20, 2013 (Saturday) @ 7:00 PM
  • April 21, 2013 (Sunday) @ 3:00PM

Where:

The Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts
1428 Alice Street
Oakland, CA

Photos:

Fleurette Africain
Fleurette Africain

OSA Week One

January 28, 2013 (Monday)

[First day at OSA.  We had to get up an hour earlier to catch the train  to the BART station then BART  to Oakland.  With school starting at 8:10 AM, it’s a long haul.  She will study science online (BYU Online) since OSA didn’t have room for her in their regular science classes.

The School of Dance has the highest academic ranking of all the schools at OSA – so it’s a little bit exclusive.  She has to maintain a minimum 3.5 GPA to be able to perform – so the pressures on.  95% of the graduates go on to college or university!

Everybody’s really friendly and helpful.  She’s already made several friends.  There are only seven students (including AMS) in the dance emphasis in the 7th grade.  They all wear their leotards, tights and buns to their classes everyday.  Although considered one of the “normal” girls, she fits right in, .]

 

First Day OSA
First Day OSA

 

I woke up at 5:00 AM today, with no time for coffee.  It was really cold, and I was yawning a lot.  Even though I hadn’t had any coffee, I was unable to sleep.  When we got there, I took one look at everybody else’s clothes and thought, wow I look so un-OSA!  My dad had to keep reminding me to stop smiling because everyone else could tell I was new because of that.  

The other new dance girl was called Ava.  She’d taken the summer intensive there, which meant the other dancers already knew her.  I spent first period waiting outside the main office.  After that, Avery, a very happy and excitable 7th grade dancer took me and Ava to second period, which was English with Ms. Bradburn.  We had ballet/contemporary dance next, and because it was a minimum day, we did a work instead of any dancing.  

There were many push-up activities, some jogging with pointed feet, and exercises designed to improve flexibility.  Compared to how well everybody else was doing, I felt so out of shape!  I didn’t have Mr. Savage that day.   Instead I had Ms. Hurley, another dance teacher.  She assigned this girl named Alana, who I met at SFB, to be  my dance guide.  We didn’t have lunch, and instead Ms. Bradburn, also my History teacher, allowed us to eat in class.  I had math as last period.  Ms. Humphrey, my math teacher, helped me get up to speed on what everybody else in the class was doing.  Dismissal time was 12:50.  We took the BART and Caltrain home.

 

January 29, 2013 (Tuesday)

[Second Day:  We’re both very tired already.  Today was a 14 hour day which started at 6:15 AM and ended when we got home around 8:45 PM.  Tomorrow I’m going to let AMS go by herself to OSA.  I’ll drive up later and meet her at the BART station in SF for her ballet class in the City.]

Today I got up about 15 minutes later then I was supposed to (5:15 AM).  I managed to get some coffee, and was still sore from Monday.

Second Day
Second Day

January 30, 2013 (Wednesday)

[Up early as usual – 5:00 AM – for the long commute to Oakland.  It’s still dark outside but need to catch the early bullet train.  City Ballet after school in SF tonight]

Waiting for the Train
Waiting for the Train

[The BART from Millbrae to 19th Street Station was really late this morning but because she doesn’t have a first period class it’s OK for her to be delayed. This was OK’d by Ms. Peters.  More gushing enthusiasm from Amelia. She’s loving OSA – every minute of it. She got a pretty hard workout today and was having some thoughts but she hung in there and overcame. Mr. Savage is giving them a real training in dance – a combination of detail information about which muscle groups are being used (or should be used) and practical physical training. She’s learned some Pilates stretches and more details about technique.  Nothing but raves about the teaching methodology of OSA.]

January 31, 2013 (Thursday)

[Same as yesterday.]  The dance emphasis students, of which I’m a new member, have a typical “dress code”, hair up in a bun, leotards and tights on, sweater and jeans or shorts, and wearing a scarf.  All the dance emphasis students wear this outfit (except the boys).   Once again, City Ballet after school. 

February 1, 2013 (Friday)

[We met one of AMS friends mom at the train station this morning.  Hopefully they’ll be able to ride together for some portion of the trip.  AMS successfully completed the entire trip to school and back by herself.  I’m so proud of her.  Again rave reviews of the things they’re doing at OSA and the training she’s getting.  I can’t believe it’s free!]

BART was really delayed again today going through SF.  No matter, I don’t have a first period this semester.  Today at school it was College Day, and they changed the bell sound to a college’s fight song. Along with that in all our classes (besides our emphasis ones) we got to spend most of the period talking about colleges, universities, and careers.