LIFESTYLES page 8
Bite-sized Opinions
OPINIONS pages 4 & 5
VOLUME 60 NO. 2
T H U RS DAY, O C TO B ER 26, 2017
A Day in the Life of a Teacher
Girls Volleyball Conquers Milpitas
FEATURES pages 6 & 7
Rihanna’s LIFESTYLES page 9 influence on beauty
Switching Lenses
SPORTS page 11
FLIP SIDE page 12
The Prospector
CHSPROSPECTOR.COM
Student Newspaper of Cupertino High School
MAYELA SANCHEZ STARTS CHS FUNDRAISER FOR HURRICANES NICO CHILLA features editor JENN ZARATAN
Latino music reverberated through the quad throughout the week of Oct 10. to announce the Puerto Rico and Mexico fundraiser to help the victims of Hurricane Maria and the Central Mexico earthquake. Started by senior Mayela Sanchez, the fundraiser raised $2,245, earnings that will will be donated to a poverty fighting organization called World Vision that is working in Puerto Rico and Mexico. “After acknowledging the damage in Puerto Rico and Mexico from natural disasters, I was inspired by some popular Latino singers who were
stepping up to gather supplies and donate to help those in need,” Sanchez said. “I started researching and decided I should do something to help too. I told Sra. Canton about my idea, and she agreed to help me.” Spanish teacher Kiki Canton helped to coordinate a partnership with Spanish Honor Society and the Latino Student Union, and alongside volunteers from her class, they held a weeklong fundraising event for the victims of these natural disasters. She also discussed the topic heavily with her Spanish sections. Said Canton, “In my classroom, we talked a lot about what was going on in Puerto Rico and Mexico. My students understood why the topic was so important because we spent time in class talking about it and watching videos.” A funding goal of $2,000 was set, and the first day was used to promote the event with posters and decorations around campus. Following the example of the C.E. King High School fundraiser, Sanchez asked students to donate $1 each in order to reach the goal. At first, the task of coordinating the event was challenging. “It’s been time-consuming and taxing
Mayela Sanchez, continued on page 3
10100 FINCH AVENUE, CUPERTINO, CA 95014
JAPANESE CLASSES WRITE TO PEN PALS CLAIRE WARNER news assistant
This year, students taking Japanese 3, 4 Honors and 5 AP will be writing letters and sending gifts to pen pals in Japan to learn about Japanese culture and understand the lives of fellow students across the world. Though Japanese 4 Honors and 5 AP have not begun the project yet, the Japanese 3 classes have started the project. Kindai University High School, located in Higashiosaka, Japan, has partnered with Cupertino High School through Schoology, a social site that aims to connect students around the globe. While CHS students can practice communicating in Japanese, Kindai University students can practice communicating in English. Students on both sides will exchange messages through Schoology and send gifts that are not available in the other country. Cupertino will be trading Ghirardelli chocolates, Starbursts and Sour Patch Kids for Kindai’s Japanese candy and stationery. According to Japanese teacher Ruiko Nagai, the idea is to provide students in the Japanese program with an opportunity to extend their learning beyond the classroom. This gives them insight into high school life in Japan, enabling them to be more aware of different social backgrounds. “CHS students cannot get that [experience] anywhere else except from them,” Nagai said. Junior Pratheek Sarma, who is taking Japanese 3, believes the Pen Pal Project is beneficial to Japanese 3 students. “It helps us share ideas and learn Japanese Classes, continued on page 3
BAY AREA SCHOOLS PROPOSE REPLACING LETTERBASED GRADING SYSTEM WITH TEACHER REVIEWS SYDNEY LIAO features assistant
Several Bay Area private schools are planning to reform the current grading system by eliminating letter grades and replacing them with paragraphed teacher reviews in what is called a mastery transcript. With this alternative transcript, the member schools have one goal: to change the college preparation process by reducing student stress. The idea was introduced by an established organization known as the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC), consisting of over 120 independent schools across the nation. Two of these schools, The Girls’ Middle School in Palo Alto and The Nueva School in San Mateo, have been using this mastery transcript for two years. The Nueva School in San Mateo uses solely teacher reviews for all freshman, and for sophomores to seniors they use teacher reviews and letter grades. Scott Looney, head of Hawken School in Cleveland, Ohio and founder and board chair of the MTC, identifies that grades are one of the leading causes of adolescent stress. In order to achieve the grades they want, students sacrifice their mental health and put themselves under unnecessary pressure. In the Bay Area, the home of many high-achieving students, this trend is especially apparent, and as a result, the region alone now has fourteen representative schools in the consortium. Said Looney in a video for the MTC, “We’re creating a generation of kids who have the tendencies of perfectionism, and the mental health challenges that come with that are tough to watch.” The consortium aims to shift schools’ focuses away from grades and to develop a digital mastery transcript based on paragraphed teacher reviews. Instead of receiving a grade for each assignment, students will either earn credit for mastery or be given
feedback and asked to improve. The mastery transcript will include a pie chart illustrating what classroom skills each individual has mastered, such as collaboration and creativity. Additionally, each student’s home page will provide a link to their academic works, featuring essays, projects and more. Through this alternative way of assessment, the MTC hopes to alleviate the stress placed on students and encourage them to focus more on the learning process rather than the outcome. Junior Aakash Karvat predicts that students will find other means of comparison. Said Karvat, “I do believe eliminating letter grades will ul-
There is only so much that a letter grade says.” - Elena Gonzalez
“If they choose to still be assessed in the traditional way, they can sit in content-based courses and get letter grades and that’s what will show up in their transcript. But they can also sit in those same courses and instead be assessed through the mastery system,” Looney said. CHS history teacher Elena Gonzalez supports the consortium, though she has some doubts and concerns. “While the stress associated with achieving these grades would be eliminated, the stress to do well and get into college would still exist,” Gonzalez said. Nevertheless, she sees a majority of positives to the system. “There’s a positive to having a teacher write out feedback rather than assigning letter grades because there’s only so much that a letter grade says.” As of now, MTC membership is only open to independent schools; however, the MTC plans on expanding the proposal to public and parochial schools in the future. COURTESY OF SINEAD CHANG
timately reduce the pressure on students; however, the letter grades themselves are only one of many contributing factors to student stress.” Implementing a new grading system is still a work in progress. Only a few months old, the MTC is still in its early stages and has set lofty goals that will take at least seven years to achieve, according to a CBS News interview with consortium member San Domenico School. Replacing the 123-year-old A-to-F grading system with one that both high schools and colleges may not agree upon is no small task. However, Looney’s plan is to give incoming high school students the opportunity to decide which transcript system they wish to be evaluated by.
COURTESY OF SINEAD CHANG
STUDENTS AT THE NUEVA SCHOOL | The Nueva School is one of the few that has incorporated teacher reviews on student transcripts and has been doing so for many years