Short days at school are always an exciting time, and this is even truer when there aren’t any classes to go to. This is why Jacksonville High School’s annual SIP, or School Improvement Day, is so highly anticipated. While some students choose to simply forgo school on this day each year, it is truly an entertaining and informative experience.

As the day began, each student was to report to first hour class for attendance. Seniors and sophomores were then shuffled into a slightly crowded auditorium. Christine Feller introduced herself and her presentation on cyberbullying, and it began. The cyberbullying information she presented was a mixture of information I already knew, as well as some that I didn’t. Her presentation was neat and organized which made it easy to understand and allowed her more freedom to teach us. With most of her presentation being spoken in a bright manner, it was easy and fun to listen to. Especially enjoyable were the videos she presented to us about internet safety and similar topics.

After the presentation was over, we transitioned to the west gym. I must point out that having us sit in the small set of bleachers was a rather strange decision because there were nearly two full rows of people left to sit on the ground, and let me tell you, a gym floor is not comfortable when exposed to it for long periods of time. Moving on to the actual presentation brings about more positive comments though. There is no denying the impact that cell phones have in our lives. It seems to me that people always use them at the worst time possible including when driving. The video that was presented was an eye-opener about the consequences of distracted driving. Not only can one be physically harmed and/or killed, but one could be the person causing harm to others. Nobody wants that type of guilt in their hearts, and the realization made me rethink where I place my phone while I’m driving.

After the presentations, classes continued on with lunch schedules. Personally, I felt that with a 4A lunch schedule it was much too early to eat, so I spent my lunch period discussing the assemblies with my fellow students. We discussed what we liked and didn’t like, and at last we went on to our classes as normal. While some changes could have been made, in my opinion the SIP day was a perfect send off for our four-day weekend.