Eye of the Tiger (Issue 7, Volume 14)

Page 1

TOP NEWS Features

Opinion

Entertainment

Sports

Students return to the district after expulsion to reunite with friends, traditional education Page 6

Sophomore Rachel Barber pushes for student patience after early struggles of IM2 Page 7

Eye of the Tiger charts the most notable things to look forward to in 2016 Page 9

Student athletes look to kickstart their post-RHS sporting careers Page 12

EYE OF THE TIGER Roseville High School’s student-produced publication

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Eye of the Tiger

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1 Tiger Way, Roseville, CA

FEBRUARY 1, 2016 | ISSUE 7, VOLUME 14

IM2 combats fall fail rates Integrated math teachers restructure curriculum with aim of improving student understanding and results BY GABI HUTSON

g.hutson@eyeofthetigernews.com

Since the start of the new Integrated Math 2 courses last term, the math teachers from each site in the Roseville Joint Union High School District have held meetings discussing how they could combat the high fail rates of the new class. Last term the IM2 teachers Levi Fletcher, Sandra Schmatjen, and Miguel Quinonez had a fail rate average of 21 percent.

Through these meeting, they decided to begin by reorganizing the topics and lesson plans of IM2’s curriculum. According to Schmatjen, the major change of the curriculum will not be a change in the actual content, but in the lesson’s order. “I believe all the schools are tweaking as teachers usually do with any curriculum” Schmatjen said. “They hone in on what type of a lesson worked and what didn’t and hone

in on that or improve it. So that’s what we’re doing, we’re looking at what we did last term and having lots of discussion on the order we taught. So we’re not changing the topics just the order we teach them in.” According to Fletcher, the department was rearranging the course to pick up where IM1 had left off to make the transition to IM2 smoother, specifically in geometry content. “We saw some ways to make the learning more continuous and build on top of eachother, versus somethings that didn’t necessarily connect and we taught them one right after anoth IM2 | Page 2

AMY ADAMSON EYE OF THE TIGER

Teachers restructured their approach to Integrated Math 2 curriculum, reordering concepts in an effort to better student performance in the course’s second term.

What it takes to return

PROJECT LEAD THE WAY EMBARKS

Students rehabilitate after expulsion BY MIKAYLA STEARNS NIKOLAY LUBKO EYE OF THE TIGER

NIKOLAY LUBKO EYE OF THE TIGER

ZACHARY CHEEK EYE OF THE TIGER

P ZACHARY CHEEK EYE OF THE TIGER

roject Lead the Way made its debut on campus this term with the first-level Principals of Biomedical Science (above) and Intro to Engineering (below). The courses act as the first stepping stones in two separate branches of the PLTW program and aim to provide students with vocationally-oriented curriculum. Eye of the Tiger’s exploration of PLTW-driven student experiences continues on  Page 5

BY SAM MAILEY

s.mailey@eyeofthetigernews.com

At the start of the second semester, Roseville High School administration and staff began working on policies to reduce class disruptions. These include tightening restroom and vending machine use policies, the office making efforts to distribute dismissal notes to classes in either the first or last ten minutes of class and limiting phone calls to classrooms unless it is an emergency. “We had some teachers in our department leadership teams several months ago bring up some

concerns that they had that there were a lot of interruptions in their class,” principal David Byrd said. A department meeting held last November targeted staff concerns regarding class disruptions. A subsequent survey completed by the faculty in December showed support for exploring these policies. Rather than implement new rules to limit the disruptions, school administration chose to focus on reviewing existing policies. “It’s been less about we’re really going to crackdown and put some rules in place and more of a reminder and a request that we change a few things up,” Byrd said. Principles of Biomedical Science teacher Erin Granucci noticed the disruptions impeding class.

 CLASS | Page 3

ZACHARY CHEEK EYE OF THE TIGER

Some teachers have tightened student access to campus vending machines in an effort to reduce disruptions during class.

INSIDE: Upcoming Events ..... 2 News ..... 2 - 3 Español ..... 4 Features ..... 5 - 6 Opinion ..... 7 - 8 Entertainment ..... 9 - 10 Sports ..... 11 - 12

Just three weeks ago, sophomore Michael Soto and junior Ash Cayabyab and waited in foyer of the of the Roseville Joint Union High School District office with their families. They hoped to present cases in favor of their return to Roseville High School. “We all just waited there and they called us in one-by-one and we stood in front of this big group of people,” Soto said. “They read our papers and how we did, and our transcripts and our grades so they could say, ‘Hey, I think you can do it,’ and they approved us to come back.” Soto, who faced expulsion for sales and drug offenses on campus, left RJUHSD in April until the beginning of the spring term. After his third suspension for drug-relat EXPULSION | Page 2

Staff drives admin response to disruption concerns Admin opts to review and tweak existing policies, rather than implement new rules

m.stearns@eyeofthetigernews.com

Byrd brings AP Gov credit push to district

Proposes weighted credit for second quarter of AP Gov BY JOHNNY MULLIGAN

j.mulligan@eyeofthetigernews.com

After AP Government students did not receive the full semester AP grade bump they were promised, principal David Byrd is creating a proposal in order to give students the bump they feel they deserve. At a monthly district principal meeting, Byrd brought up his proposal to the other principals of the district. If they all agree with the proposal, then Byrd plans to present it to the district board. “Anything that’s gonna change starts with us,” Byrd said. “We are the principals, we all think this idea is worth going to the next step.” Byrd’s proposal entails giving the un AP GOV | Page 3

Read more at eyeofthetigernews.com.


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