Opinion

If you head to school from your car and think, “I’m already at the parking lot and I still have five minutes, that’s plenty of time,” you’re wrong. That is, if you aren’t a junior or senior.  The current dropoff zones are significantly limited by junior and senior parking areas, resulting in a much longer […]

“In ___ words or less, please explain why ____ University is the right fit for you.” Every time I open my Common App and see that a school that I’m applying to requires a “why this school” supplement, I groan; this essay is yet another repeat of my “why this school” template with a failing […]

Imagine reaching into your plastic pumpkin bucket on the night of Halloween, hoping that your trick-or-treating adventures will result in a tasty piece of candy. But instead, you stare in dismay at a peppermint laying in your hand. Peppermint isn’t sweet, nor is it the best breath freshener. It stings your throat and turns your […]

Typing the last sentence of my ninth Common App personal statement draft, I heaved a sigh of relief as I pasted the polished essay into the text box: 649 words. Success. But as I embarked on the menial task of entering all my data into the application portal, all of that excitement went to nil. […]

Without the previous 30-minute tutorials on Red Days in the previous bell schedule, the last thing students want is a 40-minute advisory taking up their tutorials on certain Blue Days. (The Advisory periods are on hold right now as disagreements with the District Teacher Association are being ironed out.) Advisory periods disrupt tutorials that could […]

I love to read, but just not at the school library. To me, the library is a place to do homework, print papers and collaborate on school projects during tutorial — not a place to check out books.  When I do check out books, I check them out at the Saratoga Public Library, which offers […]

When we think of the word “holiday,” we imagine festivities. We imagine tranquility. We imagine hitting the brakes on the tedious cycle of school-related stress in order to regroup, rejuvenate and, most importantly, celebrate.  These thoughts align fairly well with the Merriam-Webster definition of “holiday” as “a day marked by a general suspension of work […]

With in-person learning beginning to resemble what school looked like before the pandemic, it would be expected that testing would revert to normal, closed-book testing. Several math teachers in AP Calculus AB and AP Statistics, however, are now adopting a rough/final draft system for tests in order to ease the transition between remote and in-person […]

Is a school lunch potato worth $5? $5 — baked potato, the school lunch menu read.  Beneath the aluminum foil, I expected — at the very least — a fluffy, golden potato topped with sour cream, bacon, butter and cheese.  As I removed the foil, my high hopes for potato nirvana were crushed. It was […]