SIGNPOST Hutchison School Student News Magazine December 2019 Volume 19, Issue 8
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE:
Present ideas for all your friends and family this holiday season page 7
Robobees pg 9 // Grinch Cupcakes pg 13 // If It’s Friday pg 8
The Signpost staff strives to practice ethical journalism and promote integrity in its publications. We welcome submissions from faculty, students, and alums, but we do not guaruntee publication of every article and retain the right to edit contributions for clarity and length. Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the entire staff, faculty, students, or administration. Please email all submissions to signpost@hutchisonschool.org.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR page 2
TENNESSEE SHAKESPEARE page 3 ROGERS SCHOLARS page 5
ROBOBEES page 9
IF ITS FRIDAY page 8
MAKING INSTAGRAM CASUAL AGAIN page 6
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE page 11
COLORING SHEET back cover
GRINCH CUPCAKES page 13 CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING page 15
MAN’S BEST FIEND page 16
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o me, the mark of the beginning of the holiday season is when Fresh Market begins putting out samples of hot apple cider for its customers and the light poles down Poplar Avenue are decorated with glowing snowflakes. However, I recognize this moment is not the same for everyone. Some blast Christmas music at 12:00 am on November 1st, and some consider Starbucks holiday cups as the commencement of holiday cheer. But for everyone, no matter your religion or stance on Christmas music, the holidays are a time to take a break from school and work and to spend time with people you love. One of my favorite parts about Christmas time is making peppermint bark and giving it to friends. I love not only to make the treats, but also to see the smiles on my friends’ faces when they receive an unexpected gift when they are stressed studying for exams or trying to get into the holiday spirit. The season of giving allows people to take a break from what is happening around them and enjoying giving and receiving gifts, whether that manifests itself through peppermint bark, volunteering at a nonprofit, or paying for someone’s Starbucks. Material gifts will never bring true joy, but they are a great way to show people you care about them and encourage people to be more generous with their time, money, and talents. This year, this issue is our gift to you. This holiday season, the Signpost staff is celebrating the launch of the website. Visit hutchisonsignpost.com for the rest of Madison Morris’ comic book, an interview with Mrs. Forgette, student photography, and more! This is also where you can exculsivley find this issue of Signpost. Whether you are reading this to procrastinate studying for your exams (note: the back cover is a coloring sheet), you are trying to get into the Christmas spirit, or you are genuinely looking for updates on Hutchison’s student body, there is something here for you. From all of the Signpost staff to you, have a merry christmas and happy holidays!
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Sincerely, Abby Hays Editor-in-Chief
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Tennessee Shakespeare Company
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by Kennedy Bell
illiam Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is one of the oldest and well-known plays and to a student who is not aware of Shakespeare’s writing style, Romeo and Juliet can be difficult to understand. Amy Lawrence’s 9th grade English class has accepted the challenge to read this Shakespeare classic with the help of Tennessee Shakespeare Company. This theater and education organization travels to schools and other establishments in Memphis to teach and perform Shakespeare’s works. Their vision is “to sustain a classical, professional theatre in Memphis that nurtures artists creatively and financially and encourages audiences to exaltation, curiosity, and wonderment [..] (Tennessee Shakespeare Company)” Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s representatives have already visited Lawrence’s classes. While in class, the actors dissect parts of the play the students have already read and try to give them a better understanding of the text. As well as talking about scenes with the students, the actors act them out, and call students to the stage to take on roles. This interactive approach gives students a clear interpretation of Shakespeare’s tone and intentions. “They helped me know and understand the characters”, says Ellie Diehl ‘23. Loraleli Forgette ‘23 adds, “Having TSC helped because they helped me understand the writing and brought it to life.” The Romeo and Juliet Project has helped over 17,500 students so far and continues to help more every day. Not only the students have seen improvement in understanding amongst themselves, but Mrs. Lawrence has also seen the improvement in her students’ performance. “It’s wonderful to have professional actors in the room with us, taking us through the story and talking to us about the characters motivation […] I really think it helps”, notes Lawrence. Without Tennessee Shakespeare Company, the students would be at a major loss and could possibly misinterpret one of the most famous works in literary history.
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Rogers Scholars at Cotton Museum by Caroline Couch
When thinking of Memphis, one has to take many things into account. Her physical location on the bluffs, the long history of arts and culture, and the subject of November’s field trip, economic development. This is what brought the Rogers Scholars group to the Cotton Museum. While at the downtown location we as a group primarily learned about the scientific uses and classification about cotton and then transitioned into the importance of the cotton trade itself in Memphis. Founded in 1874 following the Civil War, the exchange served as a major trade hub for the growing cotton industry within the South. Since then the site has developed form an exchange into a museum, where students today can capture a moment of history in Memphis history. The trip was very informative and taught students many new things about not only the plant’s history, but its role in Memphis. Yet, there was one thing missing that caught the eye of many students on the trip, the lack of comprehensive and well throught out discussion
5photo courtesy of Makayla Boswell
of the role of slavery in the cotton industry in Memphis. This is where the question of Memphis’s history and development comes into play. It is integral that we do not forget what went into the foundation of Memphis not only as a city, but as a complex structured society influenced by socioeconomics, race, and legacy. We cannot view Memphis through the rose colored glasses of cotton carnivals and busy trading. To ignore precense and effects of slavery in the cotton industry is to rewrite history in a way that celebrates the people who profitted off of the abuse and mistreatment of an entire race of people. This is what aligns with the Rogers mission. The story of Memphis is not always pretty. It is imperative that we learn about everything that has gotten us to where we are today. When one understands the full picture of what has occurred, one can begin to make solutions that stand the test of time and address all the needs of all people.
Making Instagram Casual Again
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by Ava Dickson
round a billion Instagram users all over the world may not necessarily “like” the new changes they are seeing on the popular social media platform’s latest update. Before social media, you either liked something or you did not. But since the advent of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, how much you like something can actually be measured. Anyone posting pictures can get instant feedback in the form of “likes,” but Instagram is changing that. Kevin Systrom created Instagram in 2010 so users could quickly post a photo without using as many words as Facebook. The idea was instant gratification and it quickly became popular among teens who were tired of their parent’s oversharing paragraphs instead of clever one-line captions, or in some cases, no captions at all. Instagram has always made likes public, but that’s changed. With the current update, you can still see
“With the current update, you can still see your own likes, but other users aren’t able to see your exact numbers, so they can’t compare their number of likes to yours.” With the current Instagram update, you can still see your own likes, but other users aren’t able to see your exact numbers, so they can’t compare their number of likes to yours. Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri says, “What we’re hoping to do is depressurize Instagram a little bit, and make it a bit less of a competition; the idea is to try and reduce anxiety and social comparisons, specifically with an eye towards young people.” Some are thrilled about the change and believe it will make posting on Instagram less stressful. One Hutchison sophomore says, “I like the hidden likes because I feel less pressure when posting and don’t get caught up in the toxic comparisons with my friends.” While Instagram says they are trying to take some
“What we’re hoping to do is depressurize Instagram a little bit, and make it a bit less of a competition; the idea is to try and reduce anxiety and social comparison, specifically with an eye towards young people.” of the pressure off younger users, their new plan is putting the app’s nearly 3.7 million influencers out of a job. Influencers are people with a considerable amount of followers, and are looking to cash-in on their popularity. They seek to gain followers and likes on the app to attract brand deals with third party businesses. Influencers with high numbers of followers and likes, get the attention of companies wanting to promote their brand and they will often pay top-dollar for endorsements in influencer posts. According to www.influencermarketinghub.com, the world’s highest paid Instagrammer is Kylie Jenner who averages as much as $1.26 million dollars a post. Jenner, a cosmetics mogul and member of the JennerKardashian family has 147 million followers and deals with luxury fashion and beauty brands like Balmain. She’s followed by singer Ariana Grande, who has 165
“Some are thrilled about the change and believe it will make posting on instagram less stressful. One Hutchison sophomore says, ‘I like the hidden likes because I feel less pressure when posting and don’t get caught up in the toxic comparisons with my friends.’” 6
million followers, but makes just short of a million dollars a post. Grande mainly promotes beauty brand Ulta. The hidden likes will complicate their pay days. Instagram may have hidden the like feature, but that will not completely stop competition on the app. The number of followers for every account are still easily viewed by the public as well as the number of comments a post receives. According to Instagram, in April of 2018, they started experimenting with removing likes in Canada and Japan. It was not until May of 2019 that the company finally decided to hide the number of likes a post receives for accounts in the United States. Only users who have downloaded the latest update will notice the change. Likes may be a great way to show love on a friend’s post, but why do people care about the number of likes? According to Kelly McSweeney’s article, “This Is Your Brain on Instagram: Effects of Social Media on the Brain,” (www.now.northropgrumman.com), people want to share what they care about. The more likes on a post, means more people may care about what that person is sharing. In the article, Harvard University researcher Trevor Haynes says studies show when someone receives likes, the chemical make-up of their body actually changes when their dopamine levels increase, similar to what a person with addiction experiences.
“Dopamine is associated with food, exercise, love, sex, gambling, drugs...and now, social media,” said Haynes. Instagram’s experiment with hiding likes has the attention of parent-company, Facebook. A Facebook representative confirms: “We are running a limited test where like, reaction, and video view counts are made private across Facebook.”
“Instagram may have hidden the like feature, but that will not completely stop competition on the app. The number of followers for every account are stil easily viewed by the public, as well as the number of comments a post recieves.”
If Its Friday
by Caroline Couch It is an adage, a conditional statement, a motto, and most importantly- a lifestyle. If it’s friday, it’s Gov club. Government club, or the more colloquial Gov Club, is a student run organization that hosts its meetings every Friday morning at 7:25 in Mr. Robinson’s room. The space provides students the opportunity to come and learn about recent government news and political happenings from all around the globe. Students have been exposed to everything from the turmoil of the British Exit from the European Union to coverage of hyper-local municipal elections. However, Gov club proves more than just a recap of the news. Government club is a civic space that allows for students to see the histories and policies that they learn about in American History and Government courses to come to life. It is not only the realization of the things that we are actively learning every day in the classroom, but it gives students a safe space to formulate their thoughts and opinions on political happenings. The non-partisan club allows for genuine discourse and interactions to be held between peers about political and governmental happenings. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has said that, “Democracy is something that you must learn each generation. It has to be taught.” I am a firm believer that government club is this forum of learning. Not every student has the opportunity to take every Government course at Hutchison, not every student has the opportunity to do YIG, but Government Club exists to continue the education of the grand governmental structures of our nation and the world through the modern issues that we perceive today.
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Robobees
by Lacy Williams Gears are turning, and girls are whispering plans to each other as they sit in the library building impressive machinery 3 times a week. Supervised by the 8th grade science teacher, Sherri Sobczak, Middle and Upper School students join together to build robots that can complete a handful of different tasks for competitions all over Memphis. As these girls spend about 3 hours over the course of a week, they are strengthening their teamwork and learning how to think outside of the box. “Robotics has helped me on many of my applications, and I even got into programs like governor’s school,” the oldest member on the team, Erin Leal, Junior, stated. She has been a member of the team since her 8th grade year, and she has received many benefits from being a part of the team. “Robotics made me decide to take AP computer science during sophomore year,” she explained. In her opinion, the class helped her further understand programming and decide what she wants to do with computer science later in her life. It also looks really good on college applications. The girls on the team have learned a great deal of patience. Every year, a new challenge is presented, and all competing teams must create robots that can effectively complete these tasks while being 18
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x 18 inches. Throughout the planning and building process, girls have to build and disassemble the pieces they just added because they don’t work, or they have to go back to the drawing board and draw out a new plan because the original plan wasn’t working as well as they thought it would. Programmers on the team have to learn how to deal with difficult coding scenarios and make sure each part of the robot is programmed to the correct buttons on the controllers. They also have to program the robot to complete a part of the challenge without anyone controlling it for 15 seconds. This patience can transfer over to other classes and assignments. Nothing turns out perfectly on the first try, so the more patience these girls acquire, the more ready to are for the outside world. “The girls strengthen their abilities to work together as a team”. There are few times where middle and high school students can work together, so the club is a great way to form various bonds between the grades. These bonds can develop friendships that last outside of the arena. Robotics is more than just assembling pieces. The members of the team gather valuable info for college applications, learn to think outside of the box, and develop long lasting relationships that normally wouldn’t happen.
“The club is a great way to form various bonds between the grades. Robotics is more than just assembling pieces.
The members of the team gather valuable info for college applications, learn to think outside of the box, and develop long lasting relationships that normally wouldn’t happen.”
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uide G t f i G y a d Holi er stelle Turn by E
The holidays are coming up, which also means one of the most stressful times is near. It can be a struggle to find the right gift for someone, and difficult if you do not even know which store to shop at. Luckily, the Hutchison Buzz Shop has the perfect gifts for anyone. This gift guide will help solve all your holiday shopping needs.
While the Buzz Shop mainly sells items for young girls and women, there is a section that has many gifts for dads. There are belts and baseball caps that have colleges on them. There are also some grilling utensils along with cutting boards. There are plenty of gifts for moms in the Buzz Shop. Lots of jewelry is sold at the Buzz Shop, so there are many options if you want a quick gift. There is also women’s apparel, which includes cute sweaters for the winter. Along with that, there is home dÊcor for the holidays and more.
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Something teenagers struggle with is finding the perfect gift for friends, whether it is their birthday or for Christmas. The Buzz Shop has many gifts for friends. Some popular gifts are bath bombs, jewelry, face masks, and scrunchies. Buy a couple simple gifts and give them to friends together for perfect Christmas gifts.
If you have a younger sister or brother (who are maybe in Lower School), then you can find gifts in the kids’ section of the Buzz Shop. This section has many toys or stuffed animals that siblings will love. If you have a sister closer to your age, or older, then maybe shop in the same sections as you would your friends. For brothers closer to your age or older, then maybe buy them something in the men’s section like a baseball cap.
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Grinch Cupcakes
INGREDIENTS:
by Callie Oehmler
Cupcake Batter: ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature 1 cup sugar ½ tsp vanilla extract 3 large eggs 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour ½ tsp baking soda ½ tsp salt ¾ cup buttermilk green food colouring lindor balls Buttercream Frosting: 3 cups unsalted butter, room temperature 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract 7 cups confectioner’s sugar Green, red, yellow and black food colouring INSTRUCTIONS: Cupcakes: 1. Preheat the oven to 350F 2. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and mix until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and eggs (one at a time), and beat with each addition. 3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add this to the first mixture in two additions, alternating with the buttermilk. 4. Dye the batter green. Divide the batter into a lined muffin tin. Stick a lindor chocolate ball into the center of each cupcake. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes, then cool completely. Buttercream Frosting: 1. Put the butter in a mixing bowl and beat until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and combine. Add the confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time, then beat for 3-5 minutes, until fluffy. 2. Dye ¼ cup of buttercream black, ¼ cup of buttercream yellow, 2 cups buttercream red, leave ½ cup buttercream white and dye the remaining buttercream green. Place the red and green buttercream in piping bags fitted with large, round piping tips, the yellow and white into bags with medium-sized round piping tips and the black into a bag with a small round piping tip. Decorating: 1. Pipe a large dollop of green buttercream onto each cupcake. 2. Pipe a slightly smaller red dollop on top. Create the trim and pompom of the hat with the white buttercream, the eyes with the yellow buttercream and the eyebrows and pupils with the black buttercream. 3. Eat and enjoy!
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Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony by Emma Couch
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emphis is a city rich with traditions, all of which come with a unique set of stories which shape our city. For some, the annual Peabody Tree Lighting Ceremony has been a part of their lives for thirty-six years. Every year, hundreds of families across the country flock to the Peabody Hotel lobby to take part in a day filled with fun and kick off their holiday season. The ceremony is an all-day event consisting of a duck march, local holiday choirs, a visit from Santa, and of course the lighting of the tree. The Christmas tree it self has 20,000 lights and takes seven hours for a team of 20 florists to set it up. Many people attend every year because they cherish the sense of community and the holiday spirit. When I arrived at the Peabody, I was immediately surrounded by hundreds of excited people awaiting the tree lighting. Everyone was filled with holiday spirit while the children’s choir sang Christmas carols. The famous Peabody ducks were led to the roof and that is when the fun began. A countdown began and moments later the entire room was lit up. As the room erupted with cheers many people stuck around to enjoy such a fun atmosphere. This was Chloe Browns first year attending and she said “I will definitely come next year I didn’t realize how fun it was.”People stayed for hours after the tree was lit. The historic Peabody Tree Lighting truly does commemorate the Christmas holiday with such a fun filled event.
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Man’s Best Fiend Chapter Three, Page 1 by Madison Morris
Check out hutchisonsignpost.com in the coming weeks for the rest of chapter one.
Fun Page
source: USA Today
Seasonal Jokes: What do elves learn in school? Answer: The elphabet Why isn’t the turkey hungry at Thanksgiving? Answer: Because he’s already stuffed! What do you get if you cross a snowman with a vampire? Answer: Frostbite How do mountains stay warm? Answer: Snowcaps