“Pineapples belong on pineapples.”
Image by Claire

“We’re on top of the world!”
Image by Claire

“We’re different flowers from the same garden.”
Image by Allison

The theme of the images is family. All three images are from Claire and me. The images show one of us in with our sibling. We wanted to use pictures of ourselves to demonstrate the theme of family. It allowed us to have more of a personal connection with the images. Originally, I was going to put an image similar to the first one but of me and my sister Andrea. However, the image couldn’t be found so I decided to put another picture of me and my sister.

Claire and her brother Charles are in the first and second images. The first picture shows Claire when she was younger. The caption reads “Pineapples belong on pineapples.” This caption was given because Claire and Charles were both dressed up as pineapples and Claire was holding Charles. Claire was inspired by a WSC debate topic of how pineapple should or shouldn’t be on pizza. In the second picture, Claire and Charles were standing and sitting on a rock. The picture was taken from a lower angle that makes them look like they are on top of the world. Therefore, Claire captioned the image as “We’re on top of the world!”

My sister and I are in the third image. This picture was taken in front of a garden-like place. I chose this picture to be as one of the images because I find my sister’s expression really funny. I captioned the image “We’re different flowers from the same garden,” because our expressions were different and our personalities are quite different also. However, we are still from the same family and the caption shows how we are different and the same simultaneously.

I learned that writing captions aren’t as easy as one would think. The caption would have to be related to the image while maybe having a fun twist or a sub-message. Claire and I wanted to make the captions fun and related to the image at the same time. It took quite a while for us to finally decide on which captions we liked best. Our inspirations were mostly from idioms because they can convey literal and subliminal messages.

Academic honesty is an essential part of integrity. It should be incorporated into coursework during one’s time at school and at work. But, what exactly is academic honesty? Why is it so important? Academic honesty is when one doesn’t plagiarize and would cite the sources used to create the product. It is important because, without academic honesty, there would be serious consequences. One may be kicked out of a school because of owning work not entirely done by him/her. To prevent offending any academic policy, works have to include a bibliography section where all outside sources are cited.

For the topic of academic honesty, I had to make a presentation with my group about academic honesty and present it to my class. I was paired up with Lee and Jai. My partners and I separated the work so everyone had the same amount of work. Lee was responsible for defining the term academic honesty. Jai was responsible for explaining the importance of academic honesty. I was responsible for analyzing handbooks and giving examples of both academic honesty and dishonesty.

Below is the presentation that my group presented to the class:

When I was elaborating on my observations of the handbooks, I talked about how I found that all of them addressed academic honesty one way or the other. The high school handbook of KAS and MAK included definitions of violations and listed some consequences. An example of the KAS highschool handbook defining a violation is in Section 14. “Plagiarism​ This is defined as the representation of the ideas or work of another person as the student’s own” (34). Asheville High School’s handbook only stated that “Faculty members must be consistent in applying their own policies regarding academic honesty” (17).

For the academically honest example, I talked about how we cited each picture used in our presentation and how the person who owns the screenshot of the bibliography page cited his/her sources. For the academically dishonest example, I said that if one person was writing a lab report and used different websites to help write justifications, but did not cite those sources, the person would be academically dishonest.

While presenting, I tried my best to present with an audible voice. I did not bring a script up with me because I felt that if I brought a script, I would read off the paper. If I read off a piece of paper, the audience would feel that I am not prepared and don’t have a thorough understanding of the topic. I, however, brought up the KAS Highschool Handbook. The handbook was used as a prop to show the audience what parts of the handbook I was talking about. I did glance at the screen a few times, but most of the time, I maintained eye contact with the audience.

My group members also presented loudly. They did not stare at the screen for the whole time either. Their performances were well done, and they demonstrated their knowledge of the topic.

To further enhance my performance, I would add more hand gestures and keep eye contact with the audience even more. These improvements may allow me to connect with the audience more and they may be more interested in the presentation.

The question simply asks, “Are you responsible online?”, “Are you thinking before posting something online?”, or “Are you being safe with the things you do online?”

Being a digital citizen means that you have digital citizenship. Digital citizenship is important to everyone who participates on any kind of social media—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more. Having digital citizenship, you have the responsibility of whatever you post online or whatever information you give out online. For more on digital citizenship, please click on this link.

With technology improving and becoming essential, almost every teenager has access to social media. For example, I am the owner of a phone and computer. On social media, a lot of private information can be shared. Thinking that people would share their passwords to strangers seems unreasonable and dangerous, but many people actually do that. To even be able to use social media, some younger users would lie about their age. Below is a video that shows interesting statistics of online safety.

I have accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube. On Facebook and Instagram, I connect with my family and friends by looking at pictures and videos posted. I also watch journalling videos on Instagram because they are very satisfying and inspiring. On Twitter, I follow celebrities and find new information. On Youtube, I often watch videos on studying and lifestyle vlogs as they are very motivational. On all of the platforms, I make sure to be a good digital citizen. Before I post anything on any of the social media platforms, I make sure that the post is kind, safe, and appropriate. I also make sure that I have enough privacy on all of the accounts. I make sure not to give away any passwords or other private information to anyone.

Please ask yourself these questions before posting things on social media. Also, make sure to stay safe online!

Image from TeachThought

If you are interested in reading more on the topic discussed in this post, please refer to these articles:

• Online Guidelines for Student Blogging, Commenting, and Personal Safety
• 5-Minute Film Festival: Teaching Digital Citizenship
• Think Before You Post: Be A Responsible Digital Citizen
• Oversharing: Think Before You Post
• Teaching Digital Citizenship: 10 Internet Safety Tips for Students

The three handbooks analyzed were of the schools:

• KAS
• Kingsway Regional High School
• Anchorage School District High School

Among these handbooks, there were shared characteristics and there were certain characteristics that made each of the handbooks different. The contents of the handbooks were written specifically for high school students and their families. The purpose of handbooks is for students to know the rules of the school and to know the expectations of the school.

Some characteristics that all three handbooks share are similar writing style and content.

Writing Style
The writing style of the handbooks is formal. It is logical for schools to produce formal texts, especially when it is for students. With a formal writing style, it shows that the school is being serious and increases the level of the text. The students may be more cautious when reading the text and may pay more attention to the rules. If the writing style is colloquial, it would appear as though the school is not being serious and the rules can be disobeyed.

Contents
All three of the handbooks contain the table of contents. Table of contents is crucial in a booklet, especially in a packet of text where a lot of different important information is included. A table of contents will increase the level of organization in the booklet. They clearly list out the different sections that the handbooks cover. Also, it increases the efficiency of the book. When one wants to read a certain part of the handbook, one won’t have to flip through every page to find that certain part of the handbook. The table of contents can be found on

• pages 2 to 4 in the KAS high school handbook
• pages 4 to 5 in the Kingsway Regional High School handbook
• and page 3 in the Anchorage School District High School handbook.

Safety and discipline rules is another section included into the handbooks. These rules often revolve around what students may not do and what consequences that would follow if the banned action was done. This section should be included in all handbooks as it is important for everyone at school to be safe. By listing out the consequences of inappropriate actions, students will be more aware of what they do because some consequences may affect their future. The safety and discipline rules can be found on

• pages in the KAS high school handbook
• pages 16, 29 to 42 in the Kingsway Regional High School handbook
• and pages I-17, II-1, II-6 in the Anchorage School District High School handbook.

Graduation requirements are also included in the handbooks, as graduating high school is very important. It helps shape the classes of students and what they will have to take later on in high school. Some students find this helpful to know beforehand because they will know what to expect. They are listed for students to be able to take certain courses in certain colleges/universities. The graduation requirements can be found on

• pages 42 to 43 in the KAS high school handbook
• page 6 in the Kingsway Regional High School handbook
• and page 2 in the Anchorage School District High School handbook.

One characteristic that makes a handbook appealing is the format.

KAS
The KAS handbook is clearest as it conveys its messages through the use of concise bullet points, heading, and subheadings. In Section 13 (Discipline Code) of the KAS handbook, instead of writing a large paragraph about examples of behaviors that would result in disciplinary actions, KAS directly used bullet points to list the examples. Further into the section, there were different headings, some even with subheadings. These headings allow ideas to be more organized and it condenses the amount of text. The paragraphs written under the headings were no more than one-third of a page. When students read the KAS handbook, it wouldn’t be as stressful and they would be able to focus on the important information.

Kingsway Regional High School
The Kingsway Regional High School handbook had some interesting formats. On page 26, some information about attendance were formatted into a Q&A. This is more appealing because the reader wouldn’t have to scan through paragraphs to find an answer to a specific question about attendances. The handbook also had a lot of sections with headings and subheadings, similar to the KAS handbook. However, the paragraphs were longer and less condensed when compared to the KAS handbook. Even though more background information can be found when reading a handbook with less condensed texts, the readers may feel that it is too much to read.

Anchorage School District High School
The Anchorage School District High School handbook was not as well-formatted as the other two handbooks mentioned. The pages were split in half with words filling in the two columns. The texts were in paragraph format with a very small font size. With this kind of formatting, students may feel like reading a dense newspaper rather than a handbook. The readers may not want to read the handbook because the amount of text is too overwhelming.