Academics

What To Expect

     One lucky student in Creative Writing has written a play that the Drama I class will be performing.  Kathryn Irwin will co-direct her play next year with Mrs. Leist at her side to help her along.
    “Elnyce is about a young dalyor, a creature of light and goodness, who wakes up in a forest of large, purple flowers and discovers that she is the only one who can save Rundylorya, a world of beauty, from an evil dalyor, Ninköf," says Kathryn.  "She embarks on a journey to find and defeat Ninköf and ends up making the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect her beautiful homeland.”
     In Creative Writing students are encouraged to use their imagination to the fullest, which they always do.
    “One of our assignments first semester was to write a fantasy piece.  I had a lot of fun inventing weird names and describing the events and setting that played out so clearly in my head," says Kathryn. "When I turned it in, Mrs. Leist commented that the amount of dialogue in the story prompted her to read it like a play, picturing the characters acting out the scenes.  She asked if I would be willing to convert into a play, and I said 'sure.'  It was really difficult, but it’s really awesome to know that my play was chosen." 
     The students next year in Drama one can expect to put on this play with Kathryn as one of the directors.
    "Be ready to put a lot of hard work and time into the play.  It’s going to be a lot of fun, but it’s going to require everyone to give 110% every time they get onstage – just like any other production," says Mrs. Leist.

Ellis Van Hoesen (11)

Hola, Señors y Señoritas!

     Hola! The eighth grade explored the Spanish culture by seeing which countries have adapted the Spanish language. Each student in the eighth grade has to make a poster about one country that speaks Spanish.
     "The eighth grade will learn about a new country," says Ms. Blamer. "The students have to make a map of that country, then share what they learned with an elementary class."
     "Some of the countries people are doing are Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico, Venezuela  and many other Caribbean and South American countries," says Trenton Sulak. "We then have to prepare a dish from that country and present it to kids in the elementary, so they can get a glimpse of what we have just learned too."
     "Spanish is an exciting class because we get to learn a new language," says Trenton. "That way if any of us go to or visit a new country, we can communicate with the people."

Mitchell Carlson (9)

Geometry Fun

    What do toothpicks and gumdrops have to do with math? Mrs. Faulman’s Geometry class made polyhedras out of them.  
    “It was fun because we made polyhedras while playing with food, and it was hands-on,” said Dawson Bradley.
    Learning with food is a lot of fun for kids because it doesn’t really feel like you are doing school work, but having fun instead.    
    “We learned you can change the shape of a polyhedra by the number of toothpicks and gumdrops you use,” said Tabor.
    So if math or any school class isn’t fun for you, at home try using food to help. It’s fun with food and hands-on, so what else could you ask for?

Alyssa Kelley (10)

Lessons of Genocide

     The Junior and Senior Current Events class is talking about one of the worst issues that the world has ever come across.  More than 800,000 to 1,000,000 people have died in Darfur, Sudan, and the number continues to grow.  On Wednesday the class plans on watching the movie Hotel Rwanda to help them get the idea of what happened in Rwanda, Africa.  
     Mrs. Leist, the teacher of the Current Events class, says, “This is an important issue because so many people think that these are instances of the past. They don’t realize that they are continuing as we speak. Secrecy is one reason that these things continue.”    
     Continuing to learn about Genocide, one of the groups in the Junior/ Senior Current Events class is doing a project about Genocide.  
     “Even though it is sad, I still think that it is good to learn about it,” says Brianne Prins.  
     The Current Events Class has been really shocked to be learning about the Genocide issue.  Everybody had questions about why people would do such a thing and why people would pollute the water so people would get sick and maybe die.
     “That a person would have so much hate that they’d have the idea in their head that someone of a different ethnicity be denied the right to live...that to me is the most shocking thing. I have a hard time acknowledging that someone is capable of that amount of hate,” said Evie Roisen.
     Will genocide continue?  Will these people in Rwanda or Darfur continue to die?  Will the situation ever come to a stop? 

Jeffrey Kelley (11)

Who erased the turtles?

     Someone once told me, “You can tell a lot about a person’s soul by how they treat animals.”  Last week erasers were found in the science room's turtle tank and Mrs. Dodd would like any information on the situation.
    “I would like to encourage anyone who knows anything to come forward,” Mrs. Dodd stated.  There is a reward for anyone who has any idea of who might have started messing with the animals.
    “They could have had the erasers lodged in their throats and choked, making trouble for Mrs. Dodd,” Natasha Maierhofer added.  Everyone’s help is needed so that a situation like this never happens again to the animals.
    “I feel like the turtles are a great addition to the classroom-- same for all the animals,” Mrs. Dodd declares.  The turtles after all are school pets and should be treated with the same respect as students.
    “It makes me feel like people don’t care about the things that are important and are not respecting other people’s property,” Natasha Maierhofer says angrily.  The turtles are living breathing animals and messing with their environment is anything but funny.
    “For some reason people have chosen to harm the animals,” says Mrs. Dodd, who cares for the turtles.  The person who did this is lucky that none of the turtles ate the erasers or they would have been sick or worse.
    Students as well as teachers are outraged that someone could do this to the poor defenseless animals.  Natasha Maierhofer offers an appropriate concluding thought: “If you had the guts to do that to a turtle, you should have the guts to confess.”   

Ellis Van Hoesen (11)

Can yours beat ours?

     Can your windmill beat ours? That's the question the tenth grade Environmental Science class is asking.
     “Making windmills is fun but it's harder than we thought it was going to be,” says Megan Harrold-Torok. “When Mrs. Dodd told us that we were going to make them, we thought it was going to be really easy, but we then learned that it has to pick up a 30-gram weight.”  
     The goal for the students is to get their windmill to pick up the 30 grams, but to make it more fun and have a small contest, Mrs. Dodd wants to see which windmill can pick up more than that and how much it can pick up. The trick is to get the windmill to turn and still lift the weight and hope that is will pick up more than any other one and win the contest.
     “It's not as easy as it looks; it can get really frustrating,” says Harrold-Torok.

Alyssa Kelley (10)

Grow with the Young Fives

     Mrs. Batchelder teaches her Young Fives class about the parts of a flower and how plants grow. She shows the class a demonstration with a flower that is almost ready to blossom. The plant can be taken out of the dirt so that the children can see the roots.
     Emma Barns, a student in Mrs. Batchelder’s class, recalls that she learned "stems come out of the ground and BIG flowers come out!"
     The Young Fives students are also planting their own flowers and making a flower garden. This activity is very important for students to learn about the environment around them, like plants and trees.

Megan Harrold-Torok (10)