Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Becoming Michelle Obama - by Kennedy

Michelle Obama is the former first lady and was married to President Barack Obama. She is such an inspiration to almost everyone around the world. She made a book about her experiences when she was the first lady. This book is called Becoming and it shows her paths to becoming who she is today.

Children like me see her as a role model and a leader who makes a difference in everything she does.


We had two extra tickets, so we invited Millie and Molly. They were very thankful for the opportunity that they had to listen to such a strong and powerful woman. We had fun watching different pictures of Michelle pop up on the jumbotron. We not only enjoyed that, but we admired the other leaders that spoke at the beginning including Ayesha Curry and two of Michelle's childhood friends. They also spoke a little about their paths to success.


The overall experience to see such a famous and inspirational live was great. Her life must be amazing. I can't imagine how fun it was when she was able to live in the White House. So many people around the world dream of just being able to take a picture of the White House. Michelle Obama is just an all around great person and makes a difference with her actions. She is a big part of history and I wish she was still the First Lady.


8th Grade Cross Country - by Kennedy


As many people know, cross country is a very hard sport. It requires energy and speed. With those two things, you are can be successful. The course that we regularly ran on was the hardest course in the state. It was located near Evergreen College.

At every meet, each school in San Jose Unified had around ten runners except for Burnett. We had only five athletes.


In every one of my meets, I ran to a 4th place finish. Everyone said that it was good, however I feel I should've done better, After every meet, I was exhausted. It was very hot at each meet and difficult to compete at.

At the county meet, I ended up getting 16th out of all middle school runners in all of Santa Clara County, which can be considered good.


As I said, this course is one of the hardest. This hill is a killer - it is pretty much straight up. To be successful, you need to be technical. By doing so, you need to have shorter strides and more pumping of the arms. That gives you better momentum to have more speed up the hill.


In my district, we have four of us who are on the same soccer team, Santa Clara Sporting. Bethany, Esme, and my sister Landry all competed in the same cross country finals at county. Bethany got 5th with a very fast time. Esme got 65th which was actually very good. Landry got around 45th which was alright and I got 16th which was pretty good. We all brought this speed out on the soccer field, which impresses our coach.


All of the athletes who participated in our cross country team included Landry, Nicole, Clarissa, Oscar, Ty, Jermaine, Connor, Leslie, Chloe, Noah, and Ethan. We had a fun and successful season that will never be forgotten. And my cross country career in middle school is now officially over!


Our Final Fall in Las Vegas - by Landry


This fall, like many other years, our Santa Clara Sporting U15 team went to Las Vegas for the Mayor's Cup Tournament. It is our 3rd year doing this and unfortunately it's our last. We left Friday morning and got back Monday morning.


We won our first game 2-0 against a team from Idaho. But later in the day we lost 2-1. So that meant that we were second in our group. Sadly, we couldn't qualify for the finals so we just played one final game on Sunday. In that game, we tied 1-1.


On Saturday night, our team had a little fun. We went to a haunted house. It was super fun because everyone was screaming and pushing each other to be first. Somehow I ended in the front but its fine because I was the brave one, *wink wink!


One thing I didn't mention is that both of our teams wears pink in October to support breast cancer awareness. In the end, the Green team got 2nd place and the White team got 4th place in two separate brackets.


This was a weekend of fun and hard work and I'm glad that both teams did pretty well. The Green team will be going back to Vegas in March for a player's showcase!

By: Landry Schoennauer

Las Vegas 2018 - by Kennedy



This years trip to Vegas was a blast. We started off the tournament with success, winning our first two games. In between games, we went to our usual lunch location, Whole Foods. Whole Foods has a large variety of food that our team decided from. I enjoyed rice and chicken because there was lots of protein and it was pretty light.


I was really tired after a long first game, so since I didn't have a chair, I decided to make myself comfortable in between these boxes of water. My teammates were making fun of me, but I just thought that it was an energy saver. They understood when I was the only one not as tired on the field.


This tournament is very hard since we have to play the best teams from around Nevada. Although it was very upsetting that we lost, we were proud of our performance. The last time we played the highest Vegas team, we lost by three points. This game we only lost by one point. We thought we deserved the win, but it is what it is.


For the finals game, a parent brought a bagette of bread. That was used to bring us motivation. We kept saying, "Let's get this bread!" Since I guess it was like a trophy, we all lifted it up in happiness.





Saturday, January 12, 2019

High School Musical - by Landry


This year at Burnett Middle School, we did the show High School Musical. When I first heard what show we were doing I was unsure if I wanted to participate. But, I ended up auditioning and I got the part of Zeke. HE is a baker and he plays on the basketball team.

I got the opportunity to perform for both casts because my double was unable to be in the show. I am the person you see on the right in the picture above. I may look a little different and thats cause they made me wear the ugliest wig. :(


These beautiful people you see above are the Triplets. Isiah was Ryan, Bella was Gabriella and Illy was a Basketball player. This was the first year that the 5 of us got to perform together!


Claudia got to watch us perform on Thursday night. She said she loved the show. We have been watching each other perform since elementary but we have known each other since we were 3 months old. Im glad she could come watch us!


3 months and over 70 hours of practice later... we completed this wonderful show called High School Musical! I had so much fun and I wish I had done these shows earlier!


By Landry

Monday, January 7, 2019

We're League Champs - by Landry

This year, the Burnett Middle School girls became league championship in basketball. It is the first time that the girls basketball has won since 1998. I am super proud of how I performed and I am super proud of how hard my teammates worked.


In the championship game, my grandparents came out to Bret Harte Middle School to watch us win. I'm glad that they supported us and were cheering us on. They also came out to watch us play in the Eighth Grade All Star game.


These players you see here are the All Stars for 2018. They were all picked based on their performance during the regular season. Each team had 2-4 players and combined to make one team. Hoover, Bret Harte and Willow Glen were on one team and Burnett (me), Castillero and John Muir were on another team.

Unfortunatley we lost the All Star game but its okay because we were just focusing on having fun together and playing with other new people. In the picture above, in between Kennedy and me, is our best friend Claudia. She plays for Hoover. We were all hoping that maybe we could finally play on the same team together but it didnt work out. So now we have to wait till next year when we are freshman at Lincoln High School.


These four girls you see here are the All Stars from Burnett. It is Alina, Kennedy, Iliana and me.

I believe we were picked because we showed the most hard work and skill to help us get through the season. The four of us are also the starters for our Burnett team.

Overall, I am so proud of the way that this team got through the season and won the championship. It took a lot of determination (and yelling) but that is what a championship winning team has to do. At the end of the season we realized that we were all just one big family and being champions was just a small part of our great journey!


By: Landry Schoennauer

My Many Talents - by Kennedy

As many people know, I love playing sports. However, I never thought about golfing. My first time at a golf range was fun. We started off my driving the balls as far as we could. The farthest my ball went was 150 feet. After, we went to putt. This was a different and harder technique. I would say I'm somewhat good at golfing, but that's hard to say because I've only been once.


For three years, I've played the viola. The viola is a bigger version of the violin. The strings are deeper as well. I enjoy playing because I love the sound that comes out. My favorite song is called Sailor song. The main part in that song that I have is performing double stops. A double stop is when you play on two strings at a time. I can't wait to play more in the future.


Lincoln High School is a big performing arts high school. They have all types of electives involving performing arts. Since I am in orchestra and I am going to go to Lincoln, they invited me to Performing Arts Day. That day we selected three arts classes to participate in. My classes were stage combat, audition skills, and advanced orchestra. My favorite class was the orchestra class because we learned a new song called "Eleanor Rigby." This song is a very energetic song that I enjoyed playing in front of everyone at the end of the day. 


At our school, Burnett Middle, we perform a show every year. This years show was High School Musical.

I was Chad. Chad is the main basketball player. He is the captain of the Champions (East High School Wildcats). I had so much fun doing this show with all my friends. HSM was my favorite show that I've ever performed in!


Sunday, January 6, 2019

Bears Take It All - by Kennedy

This season was dedicated to friends and family. Landry and I worked so hard to make it to the finals so that our grandparents could watch us play. It was their only opportunity to come in town and watch this big game between our Burnett Bears and our opponents, the Bret Harte Broncos.


It is always fun playing against our longest and best friend Claudia. Although we wish we were on the same team, many memories come out of playing against one another. It has always been a big rivalry between each of our teams.

For 20 years, our school has lost almost every game, so to have so much success over big teams like Hoover and Bret Harte, we had confidence in one another.


In our last game against Bret Harte, and we knew that it was going to be a tough battle. This game was for a district title and lots of bragging rights. We worked hard in practice which paid off in the game.

It came to the last second to see who had more endurance. When the clock had 0 seconds left, we knew we made history! We were the first team in 20 years to win the championship for our school. We represented Burnett and showed that we aren't a little ghetto school in downtown: we are fighters and we are champions.



Becoming Michelle Obama - by Kennedy

Michelle Obama is the former first lady and was married to President Barack Obama. She is such an inspiration to almost everyone around the ...