WHEN RHS SPEAKS WE
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Bulldog Preschool
Mr. Bartelsmeyer returns after hiatus
Rolla High School offers child care and a practical art credit all in one. See PRESCHOOL, page 5
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Calendar discussions
Two reporters spark conversation over a potential four-day school week and a block schedule. See CALENDARS, page 8
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Seniors reflect
Three seniors ponder past, present, and future. See SENIORS, page 7
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Photo submitted by Meghan Williams
By Meghan Williams
For the students
Meet the new student representative, junior Campbell Smith. See STUDENT, page 3
Follow us on social media @rhsechonews or visit our website at rhsecho.com.
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Edior-in-Chief
r. Jason Bartelsmeyer, more commonly known to students as Mr. B, has returned this semester to Rolla High School. On October 4, 2021, Bartelsmeyer suffered a heart attack while mowing his lawn. Luckily for the choir kids at RHS, he has been treated and is grateful to be back teaching. “I had a heart attack on October 4 [while] mowing my yard,” said Bartelsmeyer. “Thankfully I had firemen that came and gave me CPR, and my neighbor called 911. I was admitted to Phelps Health and they kind of… [made] sure I was stable. I was then flown to Mercy in Springfield, Missouri, where they put a stent in.” Unfortunately, a stent wasn’t enough to fix the damage caused by the heart attack, so Bartelsmeyer had to undergo surgery. “Besides the stent, they realized I needed some more heart surgery done, so they had a quadruple bypass, which is a pretty common thing these days,” said Bartelsmeyer.
Bartelsmeyer’s few months of recovery in the hospital left him missing many people at Rolla High School. “The worst part, I’ll be honest, is being away from my students. I just really missed the kids and certainly missed my accompanist, Mr. William Owen,” said Bartelsmeyer. “Just the daily connectivity with students, you know? You build a bond with your students and you build a relationship with them, so when you don’t see them for three months, you just miss being with them.” Luckily, Bartelsmeyer wasn’t completely cut off from the students and staff at RHS. Many people took it upon themselves to go the extra mile and reach out, some even literally. “I had several teachers that sent cards and donated money,” said Bartelsmeyer. “I had several secretaries that came to see me. I had my students send cards, send emails, send video messages. It was very nice. It made me want to come back even more. It’s nice to know that you’re missed
and certainly, I missed them, but it’s even nicer when you know that you mean something to somebody.” Since returning, Bartlesmeyer has faced a few physical challenges, including piles of paperwork and back pain. “It has been overwhelming, and I had a lot of paperwork to get caught up with coming back,” said Bartelsmeyer. “The more overwhelming part is [that] I do get tired and I didn’t used to. So about fifth or sixth hour these days, I realize I need to sit down a little bit and kind of rest myself. So that’s been a little bit challenging for me.” Overall, Bartelsmeyer is glad to be back in the classroom with his students teaching music again. “The favorite part of returning would just be the rehearsal. The musical that’s going well, that was nice to come back to, just all the students that are eager to sing makes me very happy and so just seeing that is awesome.”
See Mr. B Page 3
Superintendent comments on school calendar puzzle By Mallory Moats
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Webmaster
t’s a never-ending week in the middle of February. The weather is dismal (cold but no snow), and homework assignments are piling up like missed spam calls. However, at the end of the week there is a light enticing students and teachers onwards: a three-day weekend. These days off are an important part of planning the Rolla Public School calendar. “I want to build a calendar that gives breaks during the school year and allows people to refresh and recharge,” said Craig Hounsom, RPS superintendent. “We try to figure out how to stick those in at key points to allow that to happen. We all know that when you’re coming up on a break, it’s kind of fun to look forward and see that you’re getting a break from school,
so trying to put those [breaks] in enough throughout the school year that people can enjoy those times is really important to me.” Hounsom is the chair of the calendar committee which is made up of teachers, students, principals, parents, and board of education members. “The calendar committee meets and talks through [planning the calendar],” said Hounsom. “Then, they propose a draft calendar that is sent out to everyone in the district to look at and make comments. [The committee sees] if there’s any changes that come back, and then finally, the draft calendar with any changes that were made goes in front of the school board, and the school board is the one that approves it.” Some of the loudest voices on the calen-
dar committee are the students. A recent Missouri law pushed the school start date back. In response, the committee considered having the semester end after Christmas Break. “When the students heard that, they were pretty loud that that was not good for students and they didn’t want to do that, so that really ended that conversation, when that was the student feedback,” said Hounsom. Another big factor in deciding the calendar layout is the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) rules.
See Calendar Page 3
LEtter from the editor
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’ve just returned to school after being quarantined at home for over a week with COVID-19. Surprisingly, I’m grateful to say I’m back. One can only rewatch so many episodes of Gilmore Girls before losing interest. Quartines only seem to be on the rise, so I’ve decided to create a quarantine survival guide for my fellow students. Maybe it can help you manage your time better. Tip #1: Do your homework. I’m making an example out of myself here, do not procrastinate. The amount of assignments I had to rush through the night and even morning before my return was astronomical. If I had been smart and paced myself throughout my time gone, I could have avoided a headache and the disappointment of my teachers. Tip #2: Find something to do. Instead of spending hours watching bad Netflix originals, do something that’s good for you. Read a book. Clean your room. Do your laundry. Take up a hobby such as
RHS ECHO
baking or crocheting. Tip #3: Stay in touch with your friends at school. Quarantine can be pretty lonely, so
make sure you’re Facetiming and Snapchatting your friends regularly. This will also help with FOMO, if that’s something you struggle with. Tip #4: Don’t get your parents/guardians sick. They’ll be upset with you. Even if it ISN’T YOUR FAULT (sorry mom). Tip #5: Watch Daredevil on Netflix. If you are going to waste time watching Netflix, at least pick a good show. I highly recommend Daredevil. It’s fast paced, but still has good character development. Also, I need someone to understand my rants about Elektra vs. Karen. Tip #6: Spend time with your furry friends. Since you can’t see any real people, hang out with your cat, dog, or hamster. Sure, they may be incapable of responding to your incessant rambling, but they can provide a little company. Overall, don’t do nothing like I did. Use your “vacation” time to be productive. Trust me, if you don’t, you’ll regret it later.
COMIC By Angela Yang & Connor Lamora
Pictured (from left to right):
Visit our website for exclusive online content at rhsecho.com!
Crossword ACROSS 4. I am Hernando and I am afraid of nothing 5. Some of you may die but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make 7. Silenzio Bruno 9. I like to move it move it 11. You better hold on tight spider monkey 12. I like digging holes
DOWN 1. It’s the hard knock life for us 2. Flash Flash hundred yard Dash 3 You’re gonna need a bigger boat 6. Anyone can cook 7. Let it die, let it die, let it shrivel up and die 8. Yoo-hoo big summer blowout 10. I will never let go Jack, I’ll never let go. 11. Because singing killed my grandma OKAY, now leave me alone.
Oscar Cheng, Kyra Ray, Mallory Moats, Hannah Puetz, Meghan Williams, Lana Simpson, Helen Weiss, Abigail Neulinger, Haylen Jackson, Connor Lamora, Angela Yang, and Samantha Maddux
NEWS
FEB. 16, 2022
RHS ECHO
High school becomes building site
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n 2020, the R31- 2020 Bond Issue received voter approval to help fund several construction projects around the district of Rolla. Planned projects for Rolla High School include new, larger instrumental and vocal classrooms, the conversion of the current main gym into an 800 seat auditorium, and a fieldhouse with approximately 2000 seats. With the increasing number of students in the fine arts and athletic programs, the new facilities will allow room for such growth. With so many people, larger spaces are needed to help keep the environment safe and enjoyable for the students and staff. “166 students signed up for band this semester,” said RHS band director Michael Goldschmidt. “... and It’s going to be safer. First off, if we had to have a fire drill during the middle of band class, or if there was an emergency fire, I can’t imagine how long it would take us to get every student out of that band room.” The sheer amount of students make drills or emergencies extremely difficult and dangerous for the student’s health and safety. Construction for RHS began in the early weeks of January. On January 10, Blossom Basket Florist and Peak Sport and Spine were demolished to begin construction of the new fieldhouse. Now that demolition is underway, parking is more challenging for both the teachers and students. “All of the parking on the Cedar Street side, adjacent to the building, will go immediately,” updated assistant superintendent Kyle Dare at the board meeting. Teacher parking will be shifted to the south side of the main office, and student parking will be shifted towards the football field. Student pick up/drop off will be moved in front of the main office to ac-
commodate for the old site being blocked off for construction. RHS students can expect to see construction over the next three years, along with some disturbances while in their math classrooms. Students all around RHS are excited to see the changes and advancements to their respective programs as the construction begins. The band room was constructed when the band student population was less than half of what it is now. As the program continues to grow, the needs exceed what RHS can provide at the current moment. “We [Rolla Bands] really do need the space,” stated junior Kate Potter. “However, I am sad that I won’t get to experience it.” Coaches and directors are excited and thankful for what the new facilities will bring to the athletic programs for the high school. “As an assistant track coach, I’ve observed firsthand how living in Missouri brings challenges for outdoor sports due to drastic changes in our weather. Our indoor facilities are often limited due to having to share spaces with other sports and groups. So training momentum is often paused, and we lose what we’ve worked so hard to build up,” commented Cyndi Kinder, assistant track coach. “Bulldog nation has more than earned the blessing of finally being able to have a facility similar to the other schools we compete against within our conference.” The estimated completion date is in 2024, so current freshman and sophomores should be able to see and use the new facilities. The new additions to the building will help future students reach their full potential in many aspects; whether it be sports or music, they will be able to further their education in the subjects they enjoy.
Building plan from rolla31.org
School calendar puzzle From Page 1 “The second loudest voice is just the DESE regulations,” said Hounsom. “They leave very little wiggle room in what your calendar can look like. There’s just not a lot of variation if your goal is to finish the [first] semester before Christmas and also finish school before Memorial Day in May, which everyone seems to really want.” DESE requires schools to attend a certain number of hours each semester and each year. However, RPS goes more hours than required.
“If you factor in all the snow days, there are a certain number of hours that you have to build in, so you wouldn’t have to make all of them up,” said Hounsom. “We have built in days… so that it can capture all of those possible snow days within the dates that we’ve set… I would say as a school district, we do believe in going more than just the minimum number of hours that DESE requires. So part of that’s also a value judgment based on our history and the number of hours we’ve always attended.”
Construction at Rolla High School broke ground January 11, 2022.
Photos by Mallory Moats
Smith champions student voice as newly-appointed representative
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olla High School has many student leadership positions that are unique to the school. One position empowers the student leader to express the thoughts and concerns of students to a larger audience than just people of RHS. Junior Campbell Smith is the current student representative to the school board. Smith saw opportunities in taking the position. “I saw the position was open because I kept on getting emails about it, and I was like, this kind of seems cool because I get to sit on the board and share my thoughts [about] what I think is going on around the school, and bring up any concerns that anyone has,” said Smith. “I thought that was just a really cool thing to do in general, so I wanted to help out.” This position offers advantages not usually presented to student officers of other organizations like Student Council. “One advantage is that I do get firsthand experience with the board,” explained Smith. “Just being able to talk to them is really helpful in knowing what’s going on around the school. A disadvantage, though, is that it is kind of nerve-wracking because I’m in front of all those people, and they’re broadcasting it.” There is a specific set up for this position as a student representative. “So most people have little sections. I have my own little section, but that’s mainly on events that are happening within the district. They have different specialized sections. They have a COVID specific section now. They have finances specific [section]. They have school improvement specific sections,” said Smith. “I would basically just bring up anything that I see is going on and anything that needs to be addressed. If I have a concern about something, I can bring it up.” Campbell believes that there is a need for more emphasis on student leadership. “I think there does genuinely need to
Photo by Mallory Moats be more of an emphasis on student body clubs like StuCo,” said Smith. “I think maybe an emphasis on more scholarship based merits would be a good motivation for students because college is expensive, and having a way to pay for that is really nice. That would be a good motivator, and also the student culture could be more focused on [student representation]. It’s really isolated, unless you’re involved in it.” Having additional representatives is a thought to entertain. “It would be interesting to have a different age range, like having a freshman and a senior [as representatives]. Seeing how a freshman would look at the school and what they want in the school, and then seeing how a senior, who’s experienced the actual experience of high school, would make changes to the school,” said Smith.
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FEATURES RHS ECHO
FEB. 16, 2021
Wonders of the Brain: an inside look at brain chemistry
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he human brain is a galaxy of awe-inspiring power and mystery. Even today, new things are being discovered about the brain like how it functions and it’s hidden potential. Understanding the brain and how it works can not only help those who struggle with symptoms of PTSD or anxiety but also anyone who could benefit from a healthier brain. For one, brain development is key to having a healthy and functioning brain throughout our early years and years to come. “When a baby is born, they actually have all of the neural cells that they will have, or at least most of the neural cells that they will have through the whole course of their life,” explained Amanda Engelke, social studies and psychology teacher. “The difference between a baby’s brain, an adolescent brain, and an adult’s brain actually has more to do with the connections between those neurons than the actual neurons themselves.” Neural cells are responsible for sending and receiving messages to the brain from the body, and back to the body. They are sent through weak electrical currents called neurons. There is an estimated total of 100 billion neurons present in the brain. “So when we’re born, we have all of those neural cells, but the connections between them aren’t very well established,” continued Engelke. “We start to form these connections through our life experiences as we interact with people and the world around us.” These experiences in return help us establish networks in our brain that are made to process a certain type of information the best, such as memory, emotional, and math. As mentioned, the cerebrum has two sections: the left and the right hemispheres. These hemispheres differentiate from one another in different aspects. While the right hemisphere involves the more creative side of each individual, like art and creativeness, the left side is the more logical side with skills such as comprehension and arithmetic. Some information however is not always as prominent as other stored information. The brain has a special process called “pruning”. Phillip Smith, the new RHS based thera-
pist, explains the process of how the brain “matures” throughout its life span. “If I don’t attend to [a certain] area of my life, say I decide I don’t want to study music and don’t want anything to do with music, we let that prune [and] that part of the brain just gets reabsorbed if you will,” Smith explained. “How we mature the brain is we determine what we want in our lives as we get older and we make sure that we attend to it. If you want to love music for the rest of your life, play music for the rest of your life. Keep that area of the brain active, otherwise it will prune off that economy of growth and economy of energy. The mind will begin to move into the areas that we use.” These skills and abilities that our brain learns throughout school that don’t get used as often in our adult careers are not lost. This is why teachers don’t recommend cramming hours of study time the night before a test. Our brains won’t fully register all the information we take in a short period of time, resulting in a small minimum of information being absorbed. Constant practice and repetition helps to enforce these skills and information learned during the day in each classroom. While poor and lazy practices can lead to no beneficial effect on the brain, PTSD and other anxiety/stress disorders also handicap the organ as well. “Stress can have different impacts on the brain, depending on whether it’s acute, short term stress, or if it’s chronic stress,” stated Engelke. “Whenever our brain is in a highly emotional state and something very stressful is going on we process it as a crisis, and It sort of alerts our brain through emotion networks.” Systems in our brain like the limbic system and the amygdala structure help us process fear and aggression and other emotions. The hippocampus, dealing with emotional memory regulation, is connected with the amygdala as well, storing these “crises” in our memory. “When we’re stressed, and there’s this crisis, it sort of sends out an alert in the brain to say, ‘this is really important’,” Engleke continued. “The chemicals in our brain change and we are more likely to store these events in memory. Sometimes these are called flashbulb memories because it’s like a camera flash sort of going
off. They’re not necessarily more accurate memories, but they tend to be very vivid.” PTSD studies have shown to damage the hippocampus, causing those individuals to have damaged spatial memory and having harder times recalling neutral or positive memories and emotions. This is why individuals who have PTSD have harder times describing certain details during traumatic moments, but can recall the negative vivid details that they went through. “What happens is our brain has formed associations between where we were, or who was around us when that happened, or certain smells or sounds or images that are connected to us. And then, that’s all stored in that same memory network. So the next time we encounter a similar situation, or hear or see something that reminds us of it, it fires through that memory network and it can reactivate us,” Engleke said. These connections not only distance ourselves from our own mind, but create difficulty in learning and progressing through our life. “[PTSD] is like driving a car and gunning it all the time. Sometimes our bodies just overreact and overreact. We know that studies have shown that physically that begins to deteriorate the body quicker,” Smith explained. “Our bodies get over activated repetitively, and we’re an electrical system that just gets over fired and over fired and over fired.” One of the most mysterious situations the brain undergoes, however, is our concept of dreaming. Some say that dreaming is the act of individuals foretelling the future, while others say it’s the accumulation of information that has been processed through each person’s day. According to an article about future telling in dreams, Abraham Lincoln reportedly dreamed of his own death before he was brutally shot and assassinated. In March 1968, Kathleen Middleton reported her first dream of the death of Robert Kennedy three months before the event. Is it possible for us to do this? Or is it all just a coincidence? “We know certain biological processes are connected to dreaming. And we can actually measure and describe those biological processes,” Engleke said. “What we don’t know is the exact purpose of dreaming. There are several different theories of
why we dream, and I think as psychological research into dreams continues, we’ll learn more about those.” While lots of pieces are unknown about dreams and their purpose, the research that has been done gives us a little insight into the world of REM sleep. “We know that humans go through a sleep cycle that lasts approximately 90 minutes. And there are several different stages of sleep. During each of those stages, our bodily processes like heart rate, breathing, temperature, and brain waves change in predictable ways. So dreaming typically occurs during what we call REM sleep, rapid eye movement, and it’s the last stage in our 90 minute cycle,” explained Engleke. REM is similar to our version of light sleep, or the period where your body is almost awake. While our body goes through the process of REM, our brain is highly active and our brainstem blocks any incoming signals to the brain. So throughout the night, if we actually get sufficient sleep, that 90 minute cycle repeats and we get more and more REM sleep later on at night. If people do not get sufficient REM sleep, they have trouble transferring information into long term memory.” Vast theories have circulated to try to connect the dots of REM sleep and dreams. Although lots are still unknown, there are more speculations that have been made. “One theory is that our brain is highly active during REM sleep because it needs electrical stimulation and activity in order to sort of grow those networks and keep them healthy, which could explain why dreams are usually very bizarre combinations of people and places, and it all makes sense while you’re dreaming,” Engleke concluded. As technology advances, the world’s knowledge grows on topics that have only been scratched at. While a lot is known about the brain, there are still many things we have yet to fully understand and come to certain conclusions on. “[Understanding our brain] is a field of study that is just now really being scratched, if you will,” Smith stated. “It’s like a whole outer space exploration in between our ears.
Dungeons and Dragons makes an appearance in classroom
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t is not an uncommon sight to see teachers doing different lessons than the regular lectures, worksheets, and quizzes. But for English teacher Natasha Green, Dungeon and Dragons (D&D) is a part of her lesson plan. For those who aren’t aware, D&D is a very popular role-playing tabletop game that allows people to come together and collaborate to play. “I hadn’t really heard of anybody doing it [playing D&D],” said Green. “I created everything from scratch.” This planning did not just occur overnight. “It took a lot of hours of preparation, but I decided to try it [playing D&D in class],” said Green. ”I think the first time I did it was with a mythology class. I worked it in so that they could kind of create the myth of their character, and they could tie it to myths that we had read, if they wanted, and it sort of grew from there.” Green has seen how different students react to the idea of playing the game. “Students who have heard about it, or have played it before, are usually just elated. They’re excited and can’t wait. Students who have no clue what it is are a little more hesitant about it.” said Green. Green believes that playing D&D grows students’ communication skills. “They are forced to learn that if they don’t communicate clearly, there can be misunderstandings,” said Green. “So, if they don’t speak up and tell the Game
Master, the person who’s guiding the story, exactly what they’re trying to do, then it could go wrong because they haven’t communicated effectively”. Green also has her students complete a written reflection at the end of the D&D unit. “It was always fun that when I get the reflections, I can see the different elements of what they kind of gleaned from it, what they got out of it, and even how they were appreciative,” said Green. Junior Evan Huang, who had never played D&D before Green’s class, was very
fascinated by parts of the game. “I thought it was very intriguing to see that there’s so many possibilities that can branch off from just one decision, ‘’ said Huang. D&D is a very complex game and can be hard to understand at first. “There’s a lot of aspects, so I would say it’s hard to learn, but it can be very fun later on,” said Huang. Senior Lizzy Patton was also a first time player in Green’s class who had some difficulty learning all the rules, but there were also many parts she enjoyed.
Photo by Samantha Maddux
“There were just a lot of little rules that I had to memorize, but the rolling of the dice was fun. Combat was fun, but like the other aspects of interacting with different characters was a little difficult.” Patton was inspired to continue to play the game after Green’s D&D Unit ended. “I’ve actually joined an outside of school campaign,” said Patton. Senior Ashley Tyler was an experienced D&D player when she participated in the D&D unit in Green’s class. She noticed some differences between the way Green had the game set up and the way she had played it before. “We didn’t have to stress about making the story, unlike in my other D&D campaign where we had to build the story from the ground up,” said Tyler. Playing D&D in the class encourages students to socialize with people they usually might not talk to. “I didn’t know anyone in my group,” said Tyler. “And now when I see them out of school, I can actually talk to them and be like, ‘Oh, how are you doing?’ I can start a conversation because I know who they are now.” D&D is a very effective tool in getting students engaged in classroom activities. “With the students where, sometimes it’s hard for them to get their paper and pencil out, they would come into class [during this unit] and they were grabbing the stuff and saying, ‘go get ready, get ready. We’ve got to start as soon as the bell rings,’” said Green.
FEB. 16, 2021
FEATURES
5
RHS ECHO
Bulldog Preschool introduces RTI Spotlight: Culinary Arts new opportunities for students R
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ulldog Preschool offers high school students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in an early childhood learning environment. The class is set up to help high school students become better at teaching young children while also providing quality child care to families in the community. The class is offered during the first through third hour, and high school students will teach preschoolers subjects like math, science, and writing. The preschool uses a system of rotations to help the students learn easier and give more individualized care and attention to the preschool students. “We have a red group, a green group, and a yellow group. And there’s about six students in each group. The red group will teach one week, the green group will teach next week, and then the yellow group will teach the week after that,” said Family and Consumer Science teacher Jamie Cantrell. Enrollment numbers for Bulldog Preschool lowered due to COVID-19 last year. Otherwise, the program mostly faces the typical issues of a modern day preschool. “Other than preschoolers having temper tantrums, the preschool hasn’t faced other problems, but when Covid first hit, the program completely shut down the preschool. Then the next spring, we had a low number of preschoolers while some parents were a little afraid,” said Cantrell.
The preschool welcomes children ages three to five. The experience helps kids grow while also helping the parents deal with separating from their children. “We have more trouble with parents unable to let go than we do with the children,” said Cantrell. For high schoolers, this early childhood lab offers dual credit, but students are not required to take dual enrollment. “It is dual credit with Missouri State University, so you get three hours of college credit,” stated Cantrell. Getting the extra college benefits is exciting, but students do need some prerequisites to join the class. “You have to take Child Development which is the first semester and then Early Childhood,” added Cantrell. Cantrell and the Bulldog Preschool would welcome anyone who would want to join the teaching team. “It’s just for anybody that wants to work with young children or would like to go into psychology, education, even medical,” said Cantrell. This year’s teachers met their new students on Friday, February 28. The practical experience of working in the preschool gives the high school students insight of what it’s like to work with children in a professional setting. “They will love it, it’s totally different from babysitting… Working in a lab like this, students become the teacher,” said Cantrell.
Photo by Abigail Neulinger
What’s in a name? Students share how they were named
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hen it comes to meeting a new person, one of the first things that you do is exchange names. Other than appearance, this is usually the first piece of information that people learn. Usually, we do not get to choose our own names since this decision goes to your parents, so how does someone choose a name for a child, and how does this name end up affecting a person? Hearing a name like Kytelin Johns, a sophomore, may have people wondering where this uncommon name came from. “My parents were watching this TV show called ‘Big Brother’ at the time. And apparently, there was this girl whose nickname was Kite,” said Johns. “And my dad couldn’t remember the actual girl’s name, so they based it off of that nickname.” People react to her name differently than they would a more familiar one. “They usually pronounce it wrong, first, and then they’re like, ‘oh, that’s unique. That’s a good name’,” said Johns. Having an uncommon name can help you stand out in the crowd. “I don’t get confused for other people. When people see my name, they’re like, Oh, I know that person. That’s definitely that person,” stated Johns. Some names that we hear may seem odd to us but are actually very popular names in other cultures. One name that fits this description is that of senior Yahya
Elgawady. “It’s actually a very common Egyptian name. It’s also a name that was given to one of our profits in Islam by God,” said Elgawady. “Everyone I know misspelled or mispronounces my name because we’ve already Americanized it so much.” Even though some names might be more common than others, that does not mean they can’t have an interesting backstory. This is true when it comes to the name of Junior Elizabeth Allmen. “Well, I was born in Australia, and there was a Queen Elizabeth coin at the time and my mom named me after the coin,” said Allmen. Having an ordinary name may cause confusion when you are around others that also share your name. “There’s a clarinet [player] here who goes by Elizabeth as well, and I have to go by Liz so we don’t get mixed up,” said Allmen. People with a common name may feel that a more unique name would be a better fit for them. “I just feel like it would be more extravagant than Elizabeth. Like something that’s really rare and out there,” said Allmen. Although learning how people get their names may be interesting, it is usually their parents who decide their child’s name, so a name really can’t tell you very much about a person. “Honestly, a name doesn’t really play that big of a role in anything,” said Elgawady.
olla Technical Institute is a vocational tech school that hosts classes for the students of Rolla High School and other students in surrounding areas. RTI offers a culinary arts program. “Students learn a variety of skills in the RTI Culinary Arts program that can help propel them into a position in the restaurant industry. [It can] simply allow them to have a better understanding of cooking and baking techniques that may help them as a person truly interested in food and food production,” stated RTI Culinary Arts Instructor, Carmel Dare. The RTI Culinary Arts program also prepares students for further study at the college level. “I am planning on going to the College of the Ozarks, because they have a five star restaurant, and they also provide work study,” stated senior Isabelle Crowell, who is a student in the Culinary Arts program at RTI. Another student, senior Lucy Baur, has always had an interest in the culinary field. The program has inspired her to also go to the College of the Ozarks for agribusiness. “I joined the culinary arts program because since I was around kindergarten, I’ve always wanted to be a chef. The class just seemed like a good way to get started,” stated Baur. “I am [planning on going to college] to major in agribusiness. The eventual goal is for me to open a farm to table restaurant.” There are many ways that the culinary arts can connect to future professions and careers. There is a need for many people to work in the culinary industry, but it is not just to work as chefs. “Even before the pandemic, there has always been a need for people to work in the restaurant industry. There are always positions open, and even more opportunities are available for students who further their skills and education by either going to culinary school, joining the military as a culinary specialist, or seeking out apprenticeship opportunities,” stated Dare. “The culinary world is vast, and there are always opportunities for employment, education, growth and development of skills at every level in the career ladder.” Along with having the ability to go to college in culinary arts, many students in the Culinary Arts program gain hands-on-experience and have a fun time learning new recipes. “I think [my favorite recipe was] the ugly Christmas sweaters that we made [my] junior year. We were able to use a sheet
cake and decorate it with all the icing, it was cute,” stated Crowell. Students also participate in different challenges during class. “We had a mac and cheese challenge, and I really liked that because that was our own creative spin. The first time I baked spicy asiago bagel mac and cheese, and then the second round I did jalapeno pepper mac and cheese bites. They were both pretty good, and I really enjoyed that,” said Baur. Despite the class’s fun environment, students still face challenges while in the kitchen. “[The biggest challenge] is probably staying organized, especially during the burger competitions, or the other food competitions that we have,” claimed Crowell. “We have to stay organized and have time management.” Along with learning a variety of new things, students also learn how to work on a project with multiple people. “I think the biggest challenge is learning my peers because we have to work together. Obviously, you have to work together in the real industry, but you have to learn how they think, what they want, how they communicate, and then work together,” stated Baur. While many RTI classes can be daunting to schedule with their 3-hour block, many of them contain embedded credits, which counts towards graduation requirements in core subjects. “It’s [the Culinary Arts class] a three hour block, you either have it in the morning or the afternoon. I’ve had it in the afternoon both years. We typically start off with ServSafe management in those ServSafe courses, which you get certified in. Then, we also have embedded English and math included in the kitchen handson work,” stated Crowell. One major topic that always has to be covered in the classroom before trying new recipes and cooking is safety management, which is the most important thing when it comes to cooking. “Before you even go in the kitchen, you have to learn all the safety stuff and be certified in safety, and that’s a good thing. I wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t know how to use a knife or doesn’t understand that you need to stay sharp when you’re going around with a knife. I mean, if you were cutting on a cutting board, and then you just suddenly turned around with a knife and someone was behind you and you didn’t say anything, that would be a problem,” stated Baur. “I definitely think it’s very helpful for learning.”
Unity Club welcomes all
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n Tuesday evenings, a student may pass by room 247 and see about 30 kids sitting in the classroom talking about current events, but that’s not all that they do. They create a safe environment for students to come and socialize with others. This club is called Unity Club, it is sponsored by Aaron Loker with Kiwi Cooper as president and Rat Elliot as vice-president. “So basically, the biggest and main goal is to provide everyone and anyone a safe place,” said Cooper. “This actually makes me really sad because I know a lot of people who, no matter how they look or how they dress, they get bullied. They have tried their absolute best to fit in and they just get bullied when they try to be themselves.” The club would like to expand their horizons to the overlooked student body. “I do want to expand the group of people that's in [the club],” said Cooper. “The main target of our club is the LGBTQ community, which is perfectly fine…But we also need to focus on giving people of color their own space, people with different ethnicities, different backgrounds, and different beliefs. Especially, we are very much leaning towards the liberal side and there is a club that leans more to the conservative side. And we actually had a really big
step because one of the more conservative club leaders came to our club and we made her feel welcomed.” The club hopes to expand by joining with other clubs to do some fun activities like have a water balloon fight or pick up recycling with Eco Club. “We are wanting to unite more of the clubs that have different aspects to people,” said Cooper. ”It's not set in stone, but we are thinking of trying to get other club leaders to come work at a soup kitchen with us…We still have a lot of planning to do. We want to just kind of expand and bring the clubs more together, if that makes sense.” Unity Club has many ideas and dreams for the future of the club. The club aspires to be more open to students and have a safe area for them. “The goal is to just give people a place to hang out,” said Loker. “It’s kind of a community where they might not have all the time and a place that they can share their opinions and beliefs. And just be in a respectful place that's going to take them seriously and not make fun of each other.” According to Cooper, bullying in this school is a big issue and one that is hard to handle. However, they were able to support those being bullied via the club.
See Unity Club, page 8
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SPORTS
FEB. 16, 2022
RHS ECHO
Boys just wanna have fun: 2022 Powderbuff tournament
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ver the past few years, Leadership at Rolla High School has held a special event called Powderbuff, which gives boys the opportunity to participate in volleyball, a sport usually just permitted to girls. Leadership began the event a few years ago and continued the tradition January 8 of this year. “I think the first Powderbuff game event was in 2014,” stated Leadership adviser Jamie Cantrell. “Leadership began hosting Powderbuff when I had some really great volleyball players in Leadership class one year. They were super excited to host an event where the boys could play. We also had quite a few boys asking for their own event since girls got Powderpuff.” There are many challenges that students in Leadership have to face with being able to hold events such as Powderbuff. Junior Akela McCracken and senior Ashton Chambers worked hard for the occasion to happen this year. “They [McCraken and Chambers] had to get the event approved with administration, set a date, make flyers, conduct signups, and form the teams,” stated Cantrell. “Then, they had a couple practices and had to have extensive communication with all the players and the coaches. They got referees and, of course, made sure the event ran seamlessly.” Many participants in Powderbuff enjoy
to play a sport with their friends, and getting to have a different experience with them. “[My favorite part about Powderbuff] was just getting to play with my boys,’’ stated sophomore Trustyn Ragan. Along with having fun with other students and friends, Powderbuff brings a lot of competitiveness and challenges to the participants. “There was a lot of competitiveness if
and the faculty. I just like to be out among them.” Another fan, who has been attending games longer than most high schoolers’ parents have been alive, is Dwayne Miles. “I started out coaching here at [Rolla] high school in 1958,” said Miles. “I coached for five years, got an ulcer, and got out of [coaching], but then I got into refereeing. I loved to referee. I’ve been around the game all my life, and I love it, so I come and watch it. I want to win, but we don’t have to win. It’s how we play the game and what we get and take from the game. Two other loyal fans, Joyce Heidecke and Mary Jane Aufdengarten, come to basketball games to support youth they know from their church. “We both go to Greentree [Christian Church], and a lot of our kids play basketball, volleyball and softball, so we come,” said Heidecke. “These kids are great and fun to watch.” These ladies were affectionately nicknamed the church ladies two years ago by the boys’ basketball team, but they are invested in all the players, whether they go to their church or not. “We feel like we know all the players, even if they don’t know us, but they should because we come to all the games.” said Heidecke. All of these fans are excited to watch more Rolla basketball games in the new gym. “I’m 85 years old,” said Miles. “I just hope I can make it to the new gym. This one was one or two years old when I first came to Rolla to teach and to coach. I would like to see the new gym.”
veryday after school, over a hundred students flock to the wrestling room. These athletes practice their craft in preparation for their future matches. They are perfecting the art of one of the oldest Olympic sports: wrestling. One of these athletes is junior Taylor Heimbaugh, who is a state qualifier. “I think to be a wrestler, you have to be mentally tough,” said Heimbaugh. “I mean, you really just have to love it, and I think that other sports, people do them and they just do them because their friends do them, but to be a wrestler you have to really love the sport because it’s hard.” There are a multitude of ways wrestling differs from other sports. “I mean, there’s not a team [in wrestling], but it’s not so different individually,” said Heimbaugh. “I think that [in] wrestling, our coaches definitely work more [on mental preparation]. And in softball, it’s more technique. There’s a lot of technique in wrestling, too, but I would say, you have to be mentally prepared to go out there before you can hit any of your moves.” Wrestling offers a great opportunity for everyone of all walks of life. “We really look for those kids that are way under 100 pounds where they might not excel in basketball, or volleyball, those sports you know you need a little height to have an advantage,” said Coach Hauck, the Rolla High School wrestling coach. “Whereas in wrestling height doesn’t really take part. At the same time, if you want to be a football player… there’s an optimal size that they would like you to be, so that 100 pound kid is ideal for wrestling.” Over time, wrestlers hone their technique. “So freshman year when you first start out, everything’s so different because it’s not like a lot of other sports,” said Heimbaugh. “When you’re taking shots or setting up to take a shot, it’s just so different and new and you feel like you’re doing things wrong. It’s a little frustrating at first. At the beginning, you’ll have to really sit and think ‘What do I do from this position?’ Especially this year, my junior year, I’ve really just started to go out there and do things without thinking, and I think it’s because we do so much of it, like repetition. So I think it gets easier the more you do it, like everything else.” Wrestling offers advantages that other sports don’t. “You only wrestle your weight class, so you don’t wrestle anybody bigger than
Community fans rally for the Bulldogs
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t the scene of a Rolla High School basketball game, the crowd is full of the usual suspects: devoted parents, a rowdy student section, and a loud pep band. However, upon further inspection, there are also devoted community members who come out each night to cheer on their hometown team. Players graduate and the bleachers fade, but these loyal fans remain season after season. Last season was an exception to this pattern. Most community members could not attend games, since there was a limited amount of passes handed out to players for their families. But with no restrictions this season, fans are happy to return to the gym. “It’s fun to be here in person,” commented Ross Stroupe, a devoted basketball game attendee. “We’ve watched a lot of games on streaming because of the COVID situation, but if we can make it here, we are glad to be able to do that.” Stroupe comes to basketball games with Sandy King who also agrees that in-person watching is ideal. “It’s a different atmosphere than staying at home,” said King. “We enjoy watching the game from home, but you get into the spirit when you’re there. I think the fans are very supportive of our student athletes, whether it’s wrestling, football, or basketball.” King has lots of experience attending Rolla basketball games. “My late husband was the superintendent of the school, and I’ve been coming to Rolla ball games for 44 years,” said King. “It’s just one of those things that I enjoy, and I support the school, the students,
Photos by Hannah Puetz
playing volleyball with different students and other athletes at the school, and a lot of them look forward to the event each year. “We don’t have a boy’s team, so just having the chance to go out there and just have some fun with a bunch of different guys [is my favorite part about Powderbuff],” stated senior Gage Klossner, a participant in Powderbuff. Other students enjoy having more time
Photo by Mallory Moats
you know the guys at our school; we get very competitive and we’re all multi-sport athletes, so it’s just everyone playing one sport,” claimed Klossner. Another challenge that some boys had to face was problems within their team and working together. “[The biggest challenge was] not communicating well and we needed to fix that. We had to communicate,” claimed Ragan. Most of the boys decided to participate in Powderbuff to have the experience of playing volleyball and to have a fun time playing a sport. Some of the boys enjoyed it so much that they would enjoy having an actual boys volleyball team at RHS. “I have already talked to them [other students] about making one [a boy’s volleyball team],” claimed sophomore Cameron Studdard. The event has helped build a variety of skills for the boys including communication, dedication, and teamwork. Powderbuff also gave the students a lot of fun with making team and individual names and picking out team colors. All of the participants seemed to enjoy the occasion very much and are excited to participate in it once again next year. “Being paired up with different guys was a little bit different because you have to learn how to work with different people, but overall it was just a great time, and I don’t know how it could have gotten much better,” stated Klossner.
Wrestling reps. demystify the sport
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you,” said Coach Hauck. “An advantage for a smaller person is there’s not many 100 pound high school kids anymore nowadays, right? If you go back to the 80s, it was significantly different. And the weight classes were different. So our average size with that of the weight class has changed accordingly. So if you’re under 100 pounds, you have a great chance, because instead of 16 teams in a tournament, there might only be eight kids in your weight class. Whereas if you’re 145 pound kid, that’s kind of the average, you’re going to have a full bracket. So you know your opportunity is still the same, but the advantage is a little bit different.” This year, another opportunity to practice has been offered. “We actually have this new thing this year where we’re doing a group called Betas,” explained Heimbaugh. “It’s a morning group, so I actually have two practices a day. The Betas are in the morning, and it’s more for one-on-one help. It’s people who decided at the beginning of the season that they wanted to try to go as far as they can in the season, so they picked to do two practices, and it’s more conditioning. We do weights. We have bags in there and dummies that we throw, and that’s more of our conditioning. It also helps us keep our weight down. I mean, if you practice hard, it’s not hard to keep your weight in check. But obviously, we do have weight classes that you make. I think we have 10 in the morning group, all the other wrestlers just wrestle after school.” There are many misconceptions about weight in wrestling. “I think a lot of people don’t wrestle because all they’re thinking about is, ‘I don’t want to cut weight,’ and that’s not really how it is. You pick a weight class that you can manage your weight and keep it there,” said Heimbaugh. “It’s not really cutting, it’s just managing.” However, the need to cut weight is not the only misconception. “Another thing is, a lot of people are kind of scared to go out for wrestling, just because you think you’re fighting other people, which is…what you’re doing,” Heimbaugh explained. “But, there’s a technique to it.” Heimbaugh is going to compete at state level February 17. Competing at state is a monumental achievement. “I’m pretty excited. It was definitely like my goal at the beginning of the season. We all wrote goals on the wall in the wrestling room, and so every day we go in there we look at our goal. My goal was to qualify for state and so it kind of felt like a dream.”
FEB. 16, 2022
OPINION RHS ECHO
Beyond the branding: reclaim “Self-care”
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elf-care is defined as the practice of taking care of your own body and mind in times of stress; however with the phrase being thrown around on social media during the last few years, “self-care” has been separated from its original meaning. On social media, influencers are often seen taking bubble baths or using particularly expensive beauty products. While that may be considered self-care to some, companies may use this label as a way to make money. Self-care is more a way of staying healthy. It can be anything from reading or hanging out with friends, to practicing sports or doing makeup. Any-
thing that can make you feel mentally well can be considered self-care. Personally, my way of self-care is cuddling with my dog because he somehow understands a language that can only be understood from human to pet. Even without spoken language, he takes my struggles and helps me through what I call, “Puppy-Therapy.” Puppy-Therapy keeps me afloat when everything in my life is trying to turn me into the 21st century reenactment of the sinking of the Titanic. That is why I tend to get upset or irritated when I see celebrities creating an unrealistic expectation of what self-care is. When online influencers promote beauty products for self-care purposes, it changes the goal from wellness to a marketing grab for large companies. While the door of wellness is open to anybody, when it is geared towards beauty, it turns away from those who could benefit from it. When we start to show that self-care is more than just beauty, the concept is no longer exclusive. Self-love springs from self-care. Self-love is learning how to love who you are and not trying to change yourself for others. Most teenagers have social media on
their phone; whether it be Snapchat or Instagram, they can post themselves for the opinion of others and it is not always a positive one. The classmates we grow up with don’t often keep their opinions to themselves, and those opinions can create a lasting impression in our minds. Selflove is one of the most important forms of self-care. Having a higher self-esteem will ultimately help put your mind at ease. When your mind is finally at ease, you will not only be able to help yourself, but you will be able to help others around you. Through my years of growing up, I have realized that most people cannot pour from an empty cup. In order to truly help those around me, I need to take care of myself before I help them. I’m the kind of person who gets joy from helping others but also more stress than I can handle. When you are at the time where you get to care for others, you need to make sure that you have an appropriate amount of self-love and know your type of self-care. It is important to be able to love and appreciate yourself before taking the step to love others. The person you love does not deserve to be your source of happiness. I
see that happen a lot in high school, where person A falls in love with person B, and then Person B leaves. When this happens, it often causes person A to become completely crumbled and scared to fall in love again. Looking from the outside in, I have realized that you need to be able to care for yourself alone before you ever start to look into relationships. They are not responsible for your emotions and health. It may even become an unhealthy relationship if someone stays simply to protect the other because they don’t know how to handle the negatives of their life. With the rise of social media now a normal part of our lives, it is more important than ever to make sure that we know how to handle our stresses and the negatives of our lives. We need to make sure that we know what self-care works for ourselves, as well as realizing how important it is to love ourselves no matter what society thinks is the “most beautiful” at any certain time.
Flexible seating for the win
Wait, what? We’re Seniors?
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itting on tan, maroon, gray or blue chairs all day gets to be quite boring, especially with the material that we are being taught. The desks can be small and cramped, oftentimes leading to backs hurting, specifically mine. In some classes, however, the seating arrangements have changed; teachers could let students walk around the room, sit on the floor, and some teachers even have bean bags. Most of my teachers do this, with the arrangement going by the lovely name of flexible seating. I like the flexible seating; I cannot stay still for long periods of time and one or two of my teachers letting me pace helps out a lot. Flexible seating should be available in every classroom. When it comes to seating arrangements now, we are often shoved into rows of other students that we don’t necessarily know. While this is a great way to get to know new people, it’s not always what every student wants or needs to flourish in this type of classroom setting. I am often distracted by new people around me because I am trying to figure out what is going on with them and if they are a possible new friend. While making friends is important, so are
Illustration by Hannah Puetz
grades. In Spanish I, Señora Smith allows her students to move freely when it comes time to do a worksheet or book work, but she has us stay in assigned seats while learning the lesson. Another classroom that allows students to move freely is Magistra Oster’s room. While spending three years in the classroom, I had a specific desk that was mine. I sat in the far left corner next to the windows. I would lie or sit on the floor to translate stories with my vocabulary near me. I could spin in a circle and get everything done in a timely manner. When there was a substitute who would force me into a desk, I wouldn’t translate as well and often got distracted by a classmate by going on rants about pasta and which is the best (it’s conchiglie). Being able to sit on the floor or move around the back
Illustration by Hannah Puetz of the room, or even just stand up usually made me focus a bit more on the task at hand. While I truly love the idea and the use of flexible seating, I do acknowledge that there are some downsides to it. With COVID-19 still raging on, health and quarantining come into play and are a bit of a worry. When we were in sixth-going-on-seventh grade, we started deciding what our future careers were going to be, by picking band, FACs, art, woodworking, or another extracurricular I’m forgetting. If we’re allowed to choose our futures as little babies, why can’t we choose where to sit as nearadults? We should be able to decide where we can sit, whether it be on the floor, in a chair, on a bean bag, or even stand. If it’s not distracting, then what’s the big deal?
s second semester has been set in motion, graduation is just around the corner for seniors at Rolla High School. Every individual treats graduation differently; some may be excited to cross the threshold into adulthood while others may be filled with uncertainty for what will come after they walk off of the football field for the last time. “Whenever people go like ‘Oh, you’re graduating,’ it’s exciting, but then also I feel like once it starts getting really close, I’m going to start being sad about it,” said senior Kate Van Hoose. Apprehension and anxiety are completely normal things for seniors to feel as they begin their last semester of high school. “I’m looking forward to graduation, but it just means growing up which is kind of nerve-wracking,” said senior Jake Fuller Some of this apprehension is due to uncertainty when it comes to adulthood and long term careers. “I think during my freshman, sophomore, or junior year of college, I’m gonna be just fine, but then after that, I don’t really know what I’m going to be doing long term, so I’m a tiny bit nervous,” said Van Hoose. As their last semester trudges along, seniors may find that they have lost motivation when it comes to school. “I definitely think everyone’s senioritis has been a lot more since COVID, and we all just want to take a little break. I think we’ve all lost the initial excitement, and we’re really looking forward to graduat-
ing,” said senior Lorena Cook. When looking back to their first years of high school, some seniors may find that their attitude towards school has changed significantly. “I definitely enjoy school more than I did freshman year… It felt like a job, but now it feels like it’s bearable,” said Fuller For some, COVID has impacted their feelings towards school. “School was just kind of boring before all the COVID stuff happened, but now I kind of appreciate school more and the people in it,” said Van Hoose. Many students are thankful that their final year is without hybrid or virtual classes. “This school year has been a lot more normal than last year, and it’s been good for everyone to have consistency,” said Cook. After surviving almost four years of high school, the seniors have a few tips for underclassmen. “Don’t try to rush it. Try and just figure out what’s best for you, not what your parents want, or what everybody else wants for you,” said Fuller. Some put an emphasis on enjoyment, while others find academics more important. “I would say that you think you have a lot of time, but you really don’t, so start preparing and doing things like taking the ACT and hoping to get better test scores because senior year you don’t have a lot of time since you’re worried about other deadlines,” said Cook. As the year flies by, the feeling is almost universal in the class of 2022 that nothing should be taken for granted. “Whenever COVID happened, I never saw it coming, and so I kind of took everything for granted. So, I guess you just can’t take anything for granted. Just do everything you want in high school because if you don’t, I feel like you’re gonna end up regretting it whenever you’re actually grown up,” said Van Hoose.
Photo by Meghan Williams
FEB. 16, 2021
ECHO EXTRAS RHS ECHO
Calendar puzzle revisited: pros and cons of alternative scheduling models
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nbeknownst to many Rolla High School students, a drastically different high school experience exists in different parts of the state. 90-minute classes and four classes a day is the norm for many. These block schedules’ extended periods provide different strategies for teaching and learning material. “Each semester we take eight classes. Four of them end up as our A day classes, and the other four end up as B day classes. Then, each day of school, it’s either an A day or B day, and we attend those four blocks that day, which are each roughly an hour and a half,” said Senior Joseph Sanders, a student at Smithville High School. Senior Aiden Sullivan, who attends Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, has a school week that is mostly a block-schedule with Monday being an exceptional 8-period day. “Monday is periods 1-8, 40 minutes each, while the rest of the days alternate as 90 minute classes. Tuesday and Thursday are periods 1,3,5,7, and Wednesday and Friday are periods 2,4,6,8,” said Sullivan. “Class feels rushed on Mondays, and we normally just do busy work. However, I do like having Monday to get back into the groove of school.” Sanders also experienced an 8-period schedule when his school implemented it in 2020 due to COVID. “Our schedule last year was a much more traditional schedule. Lunch was pretty much the same, although we had much less time. I didn’t love it as a lot of the classes felt like we were rushed, and I generally was expected to complete a lot more work outside of school” The starting and ending times for each school day varies across districts. While some students start as early as 7:30 AM, Senior Sona Ferguson from Battle High School begins class relatively late at 8:55 AM. “I get to school early for activities and stay late for activities, so it really doesn’t matter to me much. It is nice to be able to schedule things before school without them being ridiculously early, although it being dark by the time I leave school some days is not ideal,” said Ferguson. Ferguson sees the block schedule as ideal for many reasons. “It allows more time in the day for class, instead of a ton of passing periods; it simulates a college environment; it allows for more schedule flexibility, generally; and it gives students an extra day to do work for each class,” said Ferguson. However, he acknowledges that there are disadvantages. “If you miss a day of school, you will go 4 or more days without attending one of your classes. If it is an ABABA week, and you miss Wednesday for example, you will go from Monday to Friday without having your A day classes…The effects are highly variable based on the class, teacher, and student, but it seems true that missing a day of block classes will probably be worse, just because you meet as a class fewer times, even if the total hours are the same,” said Ferguson. “Also, the classes can feel too long sometimes, and it can be hard to stay in focus the whole time. I think teachers could solve this with a 5 minute break in the middle of the block.” Senior Mishal Wu from Warrensburg High School has classes that usually have time for breaks built in. “Some [classes] have 5-minute walk breaks, others have longer 15-minute breaks at the end of class,” said Wu. “Some don’t have any at all, but [they] usually have homework time built in.” The conditions surrounding homework are different in alternating block schedules, as students are given an extra day to complete work. For Wu, she believes this can be both helpful and detrimental. “It’s on both extremes. For some it really helps since they’re busy, but for others it helps them procrastinate,” said Wu.
Additionally, the severity of homework depends on the class. “On some days it’s no problem, but missing Spanish is a death wish…it has around 4-8 hours of homework per class, so missing a period means at least 8 hours of homework, if not more,” said Wu. Star Hargis, an English teacher at Rolla High School, used to teach at a school with a slightly different type of block schedule. “I worked at Kickapoo High School, which is on an accelerated block. Students have four classes a day, each around 95 minutes long, and they have the same classes five days a week. You finish a year long class in a semester, and you finish a semester class in a quarter,” said Hargis. As a teacher, Hargis saw many advantages in block schedules. “It was far less grading since I had a lower student load, so I could spend more quality time on the grading itself. I did not feel as overwhelmed as I do with the amount of students in classes that I have now. Plus, the planning period that teachers got was an hour and a half long,” said Hargis. “It’s also nice because you have enough class time to, for example, assign a reading, read it, analyze it, and do the analysis all in one class. You’re continuing the thought process within a one day period, which is better than trying to pick up where you left off the day before.” Sanders also believes that the longer periods help him learn. “I like the time that a block schedule provides, and I think it allows me to learn more effectively, as I have more time to process and learn information in classes.” For Hargis, block schedules made things more efficient, both for her and her students. “I prefer block scheduling for managing students in terms of planning. Without it, I struggle trying to talk to everyone about what they’re working on,” said Hargis. “[Additionally, with blocks,] many more students used the class time to their advantage, because they knew that they could get their work all done. Whereas sometimes students here think the class period time is so short that they’re not going to get it done anyway, so they’ll just work on it at home.’” However, Hargis greatly struggled with building long-lasting connections with her students. “Sometimes I felt that right when I had finally developed a good relationship with my students, we had to start an entirely new load of stuff. I felt like it was too quick in terms of the development of those relationships…It was weird for me to adjust to that, and it was weird for me to not interact with those students again after the semester. There was sort of a disconnect that was created there,” said Hargis. Sanders sees this as one of the detriments of block-schedules as well, although to a lesser extent. “The main weakness is not being in your classes every day, which can cause some content to slip. This is especially true for upper level math classes where you have to be doing things daily to keep it all in your brain. Additionally, since you don’t see the same group of people every day it can be harder to build relationships with peers and teachers, however after a few weeks this is largely negligible,” said Sanders. However, an important aspect of block schedules is how they often positively affect students’ mental health, something Hargis noted about her time at Kickapoo. “I do think that students were far less stressed and anxiety-ridden, because they had fewer subjects to manage and complete work for each night. Of course, there are many other factors that are contributing to the stress and anxiety now, so I think that trying to manage four classes is much easier than trying to manage seven, especially when so many people are involved in extracurricular activities,” said Hargis.
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f the last few years have proved anything, it's that the world is changing and with that comes an evolution in education. While some takes on education benefit the students and staff population, other ideas provide little to no benefit. Various learning tools have been developed and have gained more popularity as the last few years have passed. However, there is something that the Rolla school district has yet to consider: the introduction of a four-day week schedule. Can a four-day week schedule be introduced into the Rolla school district? Is it even possible to completely revise the daily schedule of all students and their family and staff? Systems like these have indeed been placed in smaller school districts. The sudden change in school days are the result of budget constraints and the increasing absences of students. While four-day school weeks do exist, the hours in each day also are changed. The law requires 1,044 hours in the school year. This is why when snow days happen, they are made up later in the year regardless if the school planned for a school day that day or not. Furthermore, when four-day school weeks are made official, each school day is extended. Schools that do enforce these new schedules offer a tutoring day on the fifth-day, either Fridays or Mondays depending on the off day, and some even open up child care centers. However, the resulting difficulties with introducing these drastic changes falls not only on the students of these schools, but also the parents. Parents
must be able to find babysitters or some sort of childcare since not all schools establish these options. The lack of transportation can also be a problem for students who wish to engage in activities on their off-days. Students who are food insecure will lose access to healthy meals on their days off. However, the little research done into these four-day week schedules proves to attract new staff, along with budgets being saved and better attendance. The academic side of the research is much more scarce, though, with not enough strong support to argue either side. While these four-day schedules have begun to trend and larger schools are considering this change, should all schools do this? “I don't know that that's the right thing to do, and [I have] also not [seen] that there’s any academic benefit to doing that,” Superintendent Craig Hounsom said. “[Schools] do it as a recruiting tool, but typically it’s not being done on a welfare of the student basis. It's usually other reasons.” It's obvious that a change this big would not happen during a school year that has already started. It would also mean that if the Rolla school district applied this method, the schedule would have to fit the needs of all students and their families including some sort of child care, extracurricular activities on off-days, and beneficial help to students who struggle with athome needs. Could the four-day week be coming to RHS anytime soon? Most likely not. The model will take immense time and research to conduct a plan that would not only make sense but help further the education of all students.
Photo submitted by Aaron Loker
Unity Club continued From Page 5 “My partner, Rat, and I got bullied a lot just for holding hands in the hallway, which you see straight couples do all the time,” said Cooper. “And we got we got the nickname ‘The Green Haired Lesbians’. And one of our club members had a wonderful idea, ‘Why don’t we all dye our hair or wear green to support people who are getting bullied?’ and so one day we did it out of nowhere, it was like a spontaneous thing, a word of mouth thing. Like if you didn’t know anyone in the club, you didn’t know about it because we wanted to make sure that people didn’t try to combat it. Kind of like the ‘dress up like an animal’ day. And then people wear camo to ‘hunt’ the animals. So we just did it spontaneously. And like a whole bunch of people showed up we made ribbons. And people were asking, ‘why is everyone wearing green?’ And we were like, ‘if you know, you know.’” One thing that people can do when getting bullied is go to a trusted adult; however, that doesn’t always work. “I get called names, slurs…It happens a lot,” said Elliot. “A lot of people are getting treated like that. It’s just how it is. I was almost shoved down the stairs…We’ve been to the principals, we’ve talked with the school administrators, but they’re not really doing much. So we’re just [in Unity] trying to be there to support each other.” Bullying isn’t the only hurdle that this
club faces, they also have to deal with people who oppose their club and COVID-19 made the club unable to meet for a year. Lucky for the club, Cooper and Elliot brought the idea of the club restarting back up to Loker. “Last year, it kind of started going downhill when COVID hit,” said Loker. “It’s just because we weren’t sure about meetings, especially in the first semester, and everybody was kind of concerned about sticking around after school and being in groups and stuff. So it kind of really slowed down. But Kiwi and Rat came to me at the beginning of this year, and were like, ‘Hey, let’s get this thing back,’ so they kind of took over the reins.” Some people tend to oppose the club, but the leaders are determined to always create a safe place for the students of RHS. “Plus, I think just being in a place like Unity Club, where you can be welcome and free to be yourself…I think that’s good,” said Loker. “Even if you are kind of getting flack outside. You always have that place that you can go to and feel safe.” In Unity Club, anyone and everyone is accepted because the club is a safe place for those who need or want stability. “Anyone is welcome in Unity,” said Cooper. “It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, straight. You can be anything you want in Unity as long as you’re not being offensive.”
