Love is a ____

For essentially the entire quarter, our class has been going over metaphors and their ubiquitous nature in our language. How we use them, why we use them, and how often we use them. Intentionally or not. Recently, along that same topic, we covered cliches: something so unoriginal that it’s ingrained into the public consciousness. We were asked to come up with an end to the phrase “Love is”.

Here’s what we came up with.

Love is a crop
Love is hell
Love is a mirror
Love is heaven
Love is a tree
Love is a raging
Love is a network
Love is a war
Love is forever
Love is fictionalized
Love is blind
Love is bliss
Love is a door
Love is a contract
Love is a cliche
Love is a riddle

How many cliches can you spot?

Swing, Swing, Swing

A couple of Clonlarians enjoying a very large swing on a recent field trip to Planet Rock Climbing Gym.

 

Max

Sean

Kristyn

Rachel

Logan Birchfield

Simon

Bennett

Business and whatnot

Uncle Sam wants you...to buy stuff.

Recently for our U.S. History class we were asked to create projects and  presentations on the Colombian Exchange (a section of history characterized by the first interactions between Europe and the Americas). Students researched and spoke about what the Americas looked like before and after contact was made between the two continents.

This collage was made by Logan Birchfield to represent  the new ideas of business that were brought over by the Europeans to the Americas. Before Europeans came over, people didn’t sell, they traded and bartered. Everything was done on a much smaller scale. Then Europeans came over and with them they brought new ideas of mercantilism and big business.

Check out the other student presentations on their Student page!

STUDENT DICTIONARY

When these students become famous someday, the Clonlara community will be able to say that we knew them back when… and were already privy to their fascinating interpretations of the world. These are some student definitions (FAR more interesting than dictionary definitions) of the meaning of the word “History”.

“History contains all that has ever transpired. It is everything that ever was that is not right this moment.” – John

“History is the past, present, and future.” – Arais

“History is events in the past that have chosen how the world works today.” – Lisa

“History is the name given to the record of past events. It is the only record of what happened before us.” – Lucas

“History is the story of things or events that happened in the past.” – Felix

“History is a recorded event in the past time.” – Simon

“History is what happened in the past.” – Naoki

Zoom Zoom

Students have been working on creating Zoom Books in Forensic Science class. The one you see above is Ethan’s Pikachu Zoom Book. The students begin with the ‘big picture’ in the first panel and then “zoom” in on an area over the course of the next 5 panels. Focusing in on the details in this way is a skill that Crime Scene Investigators have to master, but it’s also a skill that artists have to perfect. Not to mention that at Clonlara, we all need practice focusing

Check out the Student pages to see which other Olders students have created Zoom Books!

Self Portraits!

Felix's Self-Portrait

Many of the Clonlara high school students have created self-portraits (some of which are more abstract than others) to represent themselves. You can see them by clicking on the STUDENTS! link in red and then clicking on a student’s name. In the future the students may put other works of art or assignments up on their pages. Keep checking back to see what we’re up to and what beautiful things come out of these Clonlara kids.

I also want to congratulate Felix for winning the “Tagline competition”. He’s the creator of the phrase you see above, describing Clonlara: “We’re just bigger kindergarteners.” There were many great submissions, but this seems right on.

Secondly, I want to thank Ben Posa for helping me design and upkeep this blog. He’s been a great help and will probably be responsible for much of the good stuff you see on this site.

Hello World

Here at Clonlara, we believe in freedom of expression. Expression may take the form of flying balls of fire, pulsing speakers, mumbles, grumbles, talking with mouths full of pizza, or articulate, well-reasoned arguments. Our space is full of our myriad expressions and is always interesting, colorful, messy, and exciting because of them. We may not be the best planners. We may not be the best at warding off chaos. But we create art and community at almost any given moment and make this campus a living, breathing work-in-progress. This site will become full with our finished and unfinished work and ideas. Explore our strange and beautiful thoughtz, if you’re so inclined. We hope to make this page an ongoing conversation amongst ourselves and with the world.