Shrayes Gunna Staff Writer @shrayesgunna
Coppell High School IB History teacher Kyle Dutton creates a monthly playlist dedicated to each month’s holidays, events and celebrations. The playlist opens the social studies department’s staff meetings and promotes the department to faculty. Ashley Qian & Nandini Muresh ton and his many different talents.” The playlist is sent out to all CHS staff at the start of each month by de Waal, while Dutton hand picks each song in the collection, even going as far as researching the music’s origins and inspiration. Dutton further crafts the playlist as a mechanism of highlighting a month’s importance from its holidays.
In the month of February, Dutton selected 14 songs that allude to love from various genres such as pop, country and classics. Through entertaining introductions to each song such as a personal description of Dutton’s history with Elvis Presley to introduce 1961’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” Dutton embraces the music, bringing the playlist to life. In addition to introductions,
Dutton enhances the experience of venturing through the assortment of songs with vivid and joyous fonts, images, jokes and trivia. “At first, I just drew up a list and sent it to her. It was a simple list of about five songs,” Dutton said. “Slowly, I began to add to what it was because I could see that it was something that she really enjoyed and it brightened things
PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
Beach taking every opportunity for future preperation Nathan Cheng Staff Writer @WalterBotell
www.coppellstudentmedia.com Coppell High School junior Lauren Beach practices her lines as Caroline Cassidy in the upcoming Cowboy Theatre Company production “By the Bog of Cats’’ during her third period UIL Production class on Feb. 25. Beach juggles many scholastic and extracurricular activities such as KCBY, Lariettes and theater. Olivia Cooper
APRIL 2022
Whereas many high school students use their time to discover their interests, Coppell High School junior Lauren Beach is already deep in her interests at school. Her schedule is full of electives she hopes will set her up for her future and improve herself in the present. During her time in high school, Beach has participated in school activities as a dancer in the Coppell Lariettes, an actress in the Cowboy Theatre Company, social media manager at KCBY-TV and as a leader in the Coppell Student Council. Driven by her love for digital media and fine arts, she spends every moment she has working to keep up with these activities and her school work. “I have always been very passionate about the arts,” Beach said. “I’ve been interested in singing and acting since a very young age. I loved being in talent shows and plays because it’s just a passion of mine and I really enjoy it. It’s also what I want to do as a career. I would like to make films, act and make my own music.” Beach chooses her electives around what she plans to do in the future. She hopes that all the fine arts she takes during high school will prepare her for a career in the field later by providing her with basic skills she may have to employ on her way through the field. “In theater and drama club, I want to connect with my peers because we can really see that on stage,” Beach said. “In KCBY, I get used to just being in front of a camera and working a camera, cables and doing interviews. I
just try to learn about the behind the scenes of what I am going to do. Additionally, some of her roles on campus prepare her for the field by teaching her critical leadership and social skills. “In student council and [National Honor Society], I try to focus on leadership skills and growing as a student leader, but I also try to put myself in front of the community for volunteer hours,” Beach said. Despite her full schedule, Beach still is able to show exceptional dedication and focus in each activity. Her attitude has earned her a distinguished reputation among her peers in her activities. She is known to be a great leader and a positive influence on both her younger and older peers. It is clear to her teachers and peers that her every effort is spent for self-betterment. “She’s always bringing a positive attitude; she’s always high energy, always focused, and she is an amazing leader,” Coppell theater director Karen Ruth said. “She has been able to take on larger roles and manage more things at once. She really works hard to take direction and make herself better.” Her Lariette officers can also speak to her positive influence. Despite being a first year dancer, Beach projects confidence to other dancers, even dancers who are older and more experienced. “Her confidence is what really stands out to me about her,” Lariette junior lieutenant Jules Hunt said. “She’s very outgoing and she’s never afraid to be herself. She’s definitely taught me more about not worrying about other people’s opinions.”
YouTube: Coppell Student Media
As faculty shuffled into Zoom meetings and the new normal setted in, the Coppell High School social studies deparment sought methods to put its members at ease and produce a positive space for team meetings to ensue. CHS social studies department head Diane de Waal looked to the talents of her team members to do just that. Born out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the imposition of Zoom meetings, the monthly K-Tunes Playlist, a relatively new tradition for the department, is curated by CHS IB History teacher Kyle Dutton, who plans on retiring after the 2021-22 academic year. “It grew out of a love that Mr. Dutton has for music, he is such a renaissance man,” de Waal said. “He has taken this idea and turned it into a way of welcoming the month and bringing joy to our meetings, and it is a way to celebrate Mr. Dut-
up a little bit. I began to add video links, trivia points about the singers and the songs. It’s become quite a lot of fun for me to put it together.” The playlist transcends the classroom and education, highlighting the very way in which social studies is a worldwide exploration. With music relating to Veterans Day, Holocaust remembrance and women’s history according to de Waal, the playlist brings other departments and faculty members in on the grand scale of the department. “To send [the playlist out], it puts the social studies department on the radar through something fun,” de Waal said. “It really just lifts people’s spirits.” Bringing the department and school together truly is the goal for the social studies playlist, using music as a universal language to celebrate moments in history. “It’s certainly something that we are more and more familiar with since we’ve been doing it all year,” Dutton said. “We really expanded it to what it has become now. Mrs. de Waal decided to share it with the whole school. Some folks have expressed that it is a fun idea. Some folks have commented to her that they love this, and it’s fun.”
STUDENT LIFE THE SIDEKICK
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