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Act fast!
As the season for standardized and state testing approaches, both students and teachers are dealing with the newness of the ACT, with many of them approaching it in different ways
The ACT is new to MCHS this year, but the prepping process and the way it is brought about remains very similar to the SAT ACT prep assignments have been added to many classes, and students seem to be benefiting from it Along with students practicing through mandatory assignments, they have
the option to attend Warrior ACT Prep sessions
“We have offered our internal prep courses for the last 10 years and they have been well attended and good practice for students,” Assistant Superintendent for Learning and Innovation Carl Vallianatos says, “This is also the third year that we have offered the SAT, now ACT, early for Juniors to get exposure Both of these things together serve as great preparation for students to go in and achieve their best score in April ”
Although testing this year is mostly the same compared to the past, there s one thing that is starkly different – the ACT has a science section This means that students
have to prepare for an additional subject, rather than just english and math like on the SAT
There were actually some teachers in the science department that were doing science prep for the SAT in their classes,” Derek Poci, science teacher says, “We decided to see if the prep was any good So we ran a control group: one group that did nothing in terms of preparation, which was mine We compared data from all the groups: those that prepared a lot, those who moderately prepared, and those that did nothing ”
According to Poci, the results were easily predictable The students who didn’t prepare in class didn’t do as well on the PreACT compared to those that did prepare in class From this, it can be seen that the in-class prep is benefitting testtakers
“The idea behind it is that we identify the areas or types of questions that students tend to struggle with,” Poci says “Then we [teachers] can focus on those areas and strengthen them, which would increase students’ results overall ” In addition to doing in class preparation for the test, students are provided the opportunity to attend Warrior Prep Sessions on Tuesdays and weekends
Many students participate in this, some having taken the ACT last Saturday, and some who haven’t
“Basically, when you get there, they give you ACT materials that you can study
Digital playgrounds
damaging in the long term Children everywhere have been immersed in social media and screens Once they are born they are exposed to the media and children's programs that are
designed to keep them glued to the screen, so much so that they have a hard time functioning if it is not in the background
Any child under double digits today knows the latest trends on TikTok or the newest brain rot terms whether they are appropriate or not The quickest fix to this issue aside from limiting screen time could be YouTube Kids But even then, out of touch content can slip through
During a child's preschool years around 62% of children have access to the YouTube Kids app which is designed for kids 12 and under, while around 58% have the regular YouTube app which is designed for anyone of the ages 13 and up
“When I get home from school, I mostly watch YouTube on my Ipad fourth grader, Greyson Moore says, “I watch
on your own time,” Kayla Chulert, junior at MCHS says “They give you a practice test there, and then you can check your scores and how you do They also give you access to practice tests on Albert io ”
“The questions are all really similar to what’s actually on the ACT, so it makes it easy to get an idea of what I’ll need to work on for when the actual test date comes,” Chulert says
“I feel like that helped, just because I think I was a little too confident from the pre-ACT, and that kind of humbled me,” Kyra Hanneman, junior at MCHS says, “So now that I’ve done the prep sessions and the additional ACT, I feel like I know how to better prepare for the next one ” Sudents are also able to focus their their prep on test taking skills
“I do think that a common thing we always hear from students is ‘I am not a good test taker,’” Vallianatos says, “I think this stems from a lack of confidence around the preparedness students feel for testing If we could lead every student on a process to be more prepared, they would feel more confident and probably score higher on ACT tests ”
Overall, the effort MCHS has made to help students do better on these tests has proven effective, allowing students to worry less and score better
“Ultimately, we want every student to engage in a process of growth over time to attain their "best" score so that doors of opportunity can open in their future ”
As more elementary kids spend their downtime on screens, some wonder if the impact is more negative than positive
whatever comes up on the home page, mostly Kai Cenat ” Kids typically click on whatever grabs their attention first Most YouTubers have caught on to this trend and began including bright colors and exaggerated scenes in their thumbnails, more commonly known as ‘clickbait ’
“I like to watch Doctor Mike on YouTube fourth grader, Prudence Dotlich says, “I watch things that grab my attention in the thumbnail or caption or title "On YouTube, I watch a lot of fortnite" sixth grader, Hudson Murch says, "I also play a lot too One good example of this take over is smaller children's addiction to CoComelon on Netflix This show has dominated children's media It is the third
most popular channel on the entire platform with 189 million subscribers
“My little cousins will not peel their eyes away from the screen when ‘CoComelon’ is playing ” Sophomore, Fil Fiore says, “They won't watch anything else and they cry unless it s on
The media is not a place for children to roam free Not only is it unhealthy for their brain development, depending on the type of content they are consuming, it can be unsafe
Depending on whatever kids watch, play, or scroll on, the main point is that it takes up a lot of their attention As they grow fonder to it it makes it extremely hard to pull away from these habits We notice similar trends in ourselves but it's mentally and physically beneficial to avoid these habits at a young age
MCHS students are utilizing the large amounts of resources and opportunities offered to them to help in preparing for the upcoming ACT, including PreACT tests and in-class CFAs | Photo by : Afton Ingraffia
Michalina Sotka Print Managing Editor
As more and more kids are being given screen time people are able to see the effects of it as these children grow up having to rely on screens for everything
Photo by: Rose Wenckebach
Afton Ingraffia Features Editor
Madness mode: on
Mark your calendars as that March madness is now counting down the days until brackets and pools open!
for the national championship title The seven rounds are, First Four, First Round, Second Round, Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, and then the NCAA Championship game ”
The 2025 March Madness tournament starts with “Selection Sunday” on March 16
There will be 68 teams out of 355 that will play in the NCAA tournament for men’s basketball
Here’s who and what to look for when the brackets open
According to the NCAA, “The Division I men’s basketball tournament is a single-elimination tournament of 68 teams that compete in seven rounds
The NCAA said, “Selection Sunday is the day when the Selection Committee reveals the full NCAA tournament bracket, including all teams and all seeds ”
The dates for each round are as follows:
First Four: March 18-19
First Round: March 20-21
Second Round: March 22-23
March madness has an official countdown for brackets and pools to open
Sweet 16: March 27-28
Elite Eight: March 29-30
Final Four: April 5
NCAA Championship Game: April 7
“There are two ways that a team can earn a bid to the NCAA tournament,” based on the NCAA “The 31 Division I conferences all receive an automatic bid, which they each award to the team that wins the postseason conference tournament ”
Here’s what the top 10 is looking like according to AP and keep in mind that these will be changing as the season goes on:
1 Auburn (23-2)
2 Florida (22-3)
3 Duke (22-3)
4 Alabama (21-4)
5 Houston (21-4)
6 Tennessee (21-5)
7 Texas A&M (20-5)
8 Iowa State (20-5)
9 Texas Tech (20-5)
10 St Johns (22-4)
To learn more about the odds of a “perfect bracket,” pick and choose wisely!
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As people prepare for March madness the countdown is released for people to start thinking about what to put into their brackets and pools | Photo by: Andy Lyons / Getty Images / TNS
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