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THISISSUE FEATURES
Sophomore Ty Ladage’s recent surgery may allow him to walk indepenPage 3
OPINION Sophomore Marian Abdelmalek examines the pros and cons of reverse teaching. Page 5
ENTERTAINMENT Senior Jessica Wang reviews new eatery Cupcake A La Mode. Page 6
SPORTS Varsity basketball season ends after home playoff loss. Page 8
Roseville likely to leave SFL
by megan blumm megan.blumm@eyeofthetigernews.com
The Sac-Joaquin Section is still in the process of realigning leagues for the 2014-2015 school year. However, there has been a significant development for Roseville High School. Under the most recent draft, RHS would move out of the Sierra Foothill League and be placed in the Central Valley Conference, or CVC. “It looks like Roseville will be a part of the CVC in the 2014-2015 school year, when the realignment takes place” said principal Brad Basham. The CVC will be an eight-team league consisting of Oakmont, Bella Vista, Roseville, Consumnes Oaks, Antelope, Del Campo, Ponderosa and Whitney. The realignment committee has had three meetings so far in Lodi to decide what the new leagues will look like. The SFL will have all of the same teams except Roseville and will add Folsom and Oakridge. Realignment takes place every four years. The reason for the realignment is due to certain factors with schools always changing such as the schools’ enrollment sizes, the schools’ competitive equity numbers and new schools being added. The competitive equity number is a system where the schools are given points for their athletic achievements: five points for a section title, four points for a league title, three points if the team made playoffs, two points if they were .500 in league and one if they were below .500. Competitive equity takes different sports into consideration, mostly baseball, football, basketball and soccer. Roseville’s was a 1.82 average, while Granite Bay had an average of 3.05 and the other SFL schools had higher averages.
See SFL | Page 8
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February 25, 2013 Issue 8, Volume 12
College Board changes AP curriculum
By robbie short
robbie.short@eyeofthetigernews.com
Due to recent nationwide revisions that the College Board has made to its Advanced Placement curriculum, several AP courses at Roseville High School will be undergoing changes in the next two school years. These revisions are the result of an ongoing attempt by the College Board to keep the courses and their respective exams up-to-date with the most current thinking in their subjects, as determined through input from educators across the country, and also to better prepare
students for college-level work. The first courses at RHS that will be affected are AP Spanish Language and Culture and AP Chemistry, both of which will see the revisions take hold in the 2013-2014 school year. According to the College Board, AP Spanish will now be aligned with the national standards for foreign language education, will be taught with a more thematic approach, and will incorporate more culture into the curriculum than it did previously. “The big difference is that there will be more culture embedded in the AP test,” said AP Spanish teacher Kasey Hanna.
According to Hanna, this shift will mean that the assignments in her class will focus more on the cultural aspect of the Spanish language, which she believes should be emphasized more in lower levels of the class. “I think that, not just in Spanish 4 and AP, but in all of the levels, from 1, 2 [and] 3 all the way up, that we all need to be embedding more culture into our lessons and into our classes so students are more knowledgeable about different cultures in the Spanishspeaking world,” said Hanna. The AP Chemistry course at
RHS will also be seeing some revisions next year, which will bring with them a greater emphasis on critical thinking skills and a reduced breadth of content in order to allow students to get a greater understanding of the concepts. According to AP Chemistry teacher Robert Mahlman, the changes to the course would not affect his style of teaching of the class except in the types of problems that his students will be completing. “I would probably teach [the class] the same way, in terms of still doing practice problems; more problems may not be as cut-and-
dry as they have been in the past,” said Mahlman. “[Students will] get more practice doing problems that they have to think about.” In addition to AP Spanish and AP Chemistry, AP United States History and AP Physics B will also be affected by revisions, but the ones to those courses will take place in the 2014-2015 school year. According to the summary of revisions set forth by the College Board, APUSH will be given a new curriculum framework designed to specify what students need to know to be able to qualify for college credit
See AP | Page 2
Eye of the Tiger investigates bathroom concerns By meghan julin
meghan.julin@eyeofthetigernews.com
Administrators point to student misuse as cause of current state
After hearing several complaints about the condition of Roseville High School bathrooms, Eye of the Tiger performed an audit on the current state of the school’s facilities last week. Eye of the Tiger reporters conducted a walkthrough last Tuesday during third period and documented what they saw in each restroom. Among the problems there chronicled were unresponsive toilet and sink sensors, missing soap dispensers and sink water that runs above or below room temperature. Broken stall doors and an overturned trash can were also noted. While some students feel that the bathrooms are relatively clean, others feel they could be cleaner. Junior Tyger Yang has conflicted feelings in regards to the bathrooms. “I really like the bathrooms at the school in general, you go in them and then half the time they’re clean and there’s always a stall out there that you can find that’s clean.” said Yang, “My biggest problems is that only half the bathrooms have soap in them. I like having clean hands and not dying of, like, hepatitis.”
Senior Riley Blas have also noticed things wrong with the bathrooms. “There are like paper towels everywhere and it’s just mainly dirty and stinky,” said Blas. Youth service officer Carlos Cortes feels that students may be to blame for these bathroom conditions. “One of the things I’ve noticed is they have kids go in there and they deface the bathrooms, deface it with graffiti that they put on there,” said Cortes. “And to me I think that’s bad because, guess what, you’re going to the school and you as a student, you guys should be proud of your school.” Assistant principal Jon Coleman also shared his thoughts on the students vandalizing the bathrooms. “It bugs me that students are slobs and can’t take care of personal hygiene at even the minimal level that is accepted by society,” said Coleman. “Soap dispensers are put up, only to have them torn down again 10 times over. Students need to have more respect for themselves and others and take care of [the bathrooms].”
Right, a graphic depicting the conditions found in each bathroom last Tuesday, February 19. GRAPHIC BY DANIEL WETTER
Algebra I requirement removed for eighth-graders By robbie short
robbie.short@eyeofthetigernews.com
In the middle of last month, the California State Board of Education voted unanimously to strip the Algebra 1 requirements from the state eighth-grade curriculum standards. This move aligns the standards with the upcoming Common Core standards, which do not include Algebra 1 for eighthgrade students. However, not all eighth-grade students will be barred from taking Algebra 1 – the state board will be creating accelerated curriculum
options for middle schools. The details on how these pathways will work or who will be able to enter them for the Roseville City School District, which local George A. Buljan Middle School and Robert C. Cooley Middle School are a part of, are still unknown. “As things are still unfolding as we speak, I don’t have much information at this point,” said Buljan assistant principal Stephanie Brown. “Whatever we do, we will do as directed by our district.” The intent of the board is to encourage a more gradual transition
into Algebra 1 for the students who are not ready to advance, as they were required to complete it during or before eighth grade before this decision; the hope is that students will now have a stronger background in math, which may benefit them in high school courses. “The major problem for students entering high school has been a lack of solid foundational math including equations, functions, the number system, etc. … the district has actually encouraged more students to have stronger foundation skills for success, so I see the change as
a positive impact over time,” said John Montgomery, Roseville Joint Union High School District assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. The new course for eighth-grade students who do not take Algebra 1 will be an alternative class that includes Algebra 1 concepts but would not completely cover the course; the new California Standardized Testing will now be based on that alternative course. Taking the other course would place students into Algebra 1 during their freshman year of high school,
a math level lower than the state currently expects students to start at, which could affect their math advancement through high school. The current high school math progression prepares students to take Algebra 1 in eighth grade, Geometry as a freshman, Algebra 2 as a sophomore, Pre-Calculus as a junior and Calculus as a senior. Starting with Algebra 1 as a freshman would cause students to end at Pre-Calculus, unless they decided to take more than one math class in a year.
See Algebra | Page 2
Roseville area high schools air athletic rivalries via Twitter, hashtags provide increased exposure By BRODIE MAY brodie.may@eyeofthetigernews.com
Over the past few years, the rivalry between Roseville-area high schools has spilled onto the Internet. During sports seasons, the students often use websites like Twitter and Facebook as outlets for their school pride. This year’s boys basketball season saw an increase in schoolrivalry posts. Most posts were made before big games. Hashtags on Twitter such as #BeatWoodcreek, #Beat Roseville and #BeatOakmont were trending before the schools
played against each other. On top of hashtags, students from rivalry schools have been trashtalking each other through social networking sites. “I feel like trash-talking is being taken too far, and it’s putting unnecessary outer pressure on the players,” said senior Roman Tyukayev, a varsity basketball player. “Aside from playing the game, we have more pressure coming from the entire school to win.” Before the Woodcreek High School versus Roseville High School varsity boys basketball
game, a WHS student claimed he would run out onto the court at halftime and yell an obscene statement if he received over 100 retweets. Despite reaching his goal of 100 retweets, the student did not do what he said he would, due to WHS administration stepping in before the game. Instead, he appeared at halftime to bow only when students started to chant his name. According to senior and varsity basketball player Cole Jacobs, the team disregards the online conflict between students supporting their school’s basketball teams.
“We don’t really worry about it because it’s distracting, but we know it’s happening,” said Jacobs. Varsity basketball coach Greg Granucci believes the intensity of the exchanges have exceeded what is considered acceptable. “Friendly banter back and forth is one thing,” said Granucci. “But the level I’ve heard it’s been taken to is something I do not agree with.” Basketball isn’t the only sport that students in Roseville have been talking about online. Upcoming girls soccer games have also been
See Twitter | Page 2
Above, Woodcreek students participate in Twitter rivalry. SCREENSHOT TAKEN FROM TWITTER BY BRODIE MAY