T-Bird
THE
Times
Students learn Microsoft apps
Corbin Keeling................. copy editor
In Computer Applications class, students are earning certifications in Microsoft applications. Business teacher Jane Melroy had five students complete all four of the certifications. The students who have received the title of Microsoft Office Master include sophomore Caleb Reece, juniors Michelle Ramirez, and Sara Carrington, and seniors Sydney Koirth and Justin Brown. “Work in the class was hard at times. You had to get a lot of work done by a deadline,” junior Sara Carrington said. “Sometimes I would have to stay after school to get the work completed.” There were also four juniors who completed three of the four programs. These students were Cade Swonger, Kamron Welsch, Nik Montgomery and Mily Guerrero. “The class is very beneficial because it can be used in a wide variety of occupations,” Carrington said. “My dad uses Microsoft Excel almost every day at his
Five students from Jane Melroy’s computer applications class became Microsoft Masters. Junior Sara Carrington, senior Sydney Koirth, junior Michelle Ramirez, and sophomore Caleb Reece all passed the tests along with senior Justin Brown, not pictured. photo by Seth Bower
job in the hospital with health and infection control.” The Microsoft applications that students are being certified in include Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access. The students go through an extremely detailed textbook to learn the ins and outs of the program they are studying. “I don’t know much about computers and I wanted to learn more about their programs,” Reece said. Other than wanting to learn more about computers, some other students had
different reasons for taking the class. “One of the reasons I took the class was so I could earn a credit towards college and high school,” Reece said. The Computer Applications class is offered as a dual credit class through Pratt Community College, meaning when a student completes the class they receive credit at the high school and college level. “I took the class because both Mrs. House and my father agreed that it would be beneficial later in life when applying for jobs,” Carrington said. see Microsoft pg. 3
Skyline students win stock market game for first time Hallee Burgardt design editor
Business teacher Jane Melroy’s Investing class from first semester got some attention for one of it’s class projects. The class recently had a team of two kids place first in the Stock Market Game. The game was a real-time investing game students played to help them develop positive money habits.
The class had a total of four kids for the first semester. They learned about savings, simple versus compound interest, stocks, mutual funds, and the stock market. “Playing the game gives them real time experience learning how to track stocks, look at historical data, and buy and sell in real time with fake money,” Melroy said. Junior Jace Riggs and
freshman Colton Gamble got first out of 593 teams across the state of Kansas during the 10-week period. “Our strategy at first was to pick our favorite stocks and keep them if they were doing well, but get rid of the ones that were doing bad,” Riggs said. “We took a risk on one stock we saw doing well and it took us all the way to the top.” Melroy thinks that every
Skyline High School Volume 42 Issue 4 February 9, 2018
student should have to take a class like this or at least a finance class because it gives them ways to get out of the living “paycheck to paycheck” cycle. “I think these skills will apply later in life when you want to plan for retirement,” Gamble said. This was the first time in Skyline history that a team won the game.