April 27, 2012 • VOL. 17 • Issue 6
page 4 page 12
The Dreadnaughts’ voice
Al Ritt gets new turf Drama wants you
Dexter High School 2200 N. Parker Road Dexter, MI 48130 www.thesquall.com
A new Michigan law creates guidelines for evaluating teacher performance
Graded
Index
The Squall Page 2 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
4&5 News & Feature It’s always greener on the other side
Student on transplant waiting list
The 2011 football team was the last to play a home game on real grass. Al Ritt Field will soon boasts a brand new turf.
Freshman Ariel Fischer waits for a new liver after fights with insurance companies.
6&7 Sports & Entertainment
page 6 Photo Credit: The Vermeulen family
Riding onward to victory
April movie review
Junior Alexey Vermeulen has forgone an ordinary high school career to devote himself to amateur cycling.
May the odds be ever in your favor. The Squall reviews the biggest movies of the spring season.
8&9 Center Spread Teacher evaluations A state law, passed last year, will require more stringent teacher evaluations and quantified student progress.
Will it work?
Administrators and students sound off on whether the new education law is a good idea
10&11 Interactive Spread
Q+A
Humanities teachers Ellen Doss and Susie Walters talk about life, the universe and Viggo Mortensen.
The 5x5 Just in time for prom, The Squall interviews student fashionistas for this month’s 5x5.
12&13 Opinion & Editorial
page 14 Photo Credit: Justin Juback
Procrastination Staff writer Emily Pap doesn’t want to write a column this month.
The Drama Club
Editorial
The changes being made in the way we evaluate students and teachers will degrade the learning environment.
Business manager Jennifer Stirling wants you to know that the Drama Club is just like the other crazy, insular student organizations out there.
14&15 Get Involved & YOU Page UMDM
Michigan students raise money for Mott Children’s Hospital by dancing for 30 hours straight.
16 Photostory
Senior food auction
page 16 Photo Credit: Kathryn Pisano
Seniors became high rollers for the day as NHS held its annual food auction, raising money for tornado relief, muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis
Help Wanted
Which local employers are hiring? The Squall’s got you covered with a list of job openings in the Dexter area.
Web Preview
The Squall Page 3 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
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SHIRT TODAY You’ve seen them around. You know you want one. Your question now? “Where do I get one?” Your answer: Room 407 Now only ...
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Contact us
Mail address: 2200 N. Parker Road Dexter MI, 48130 (734) 426-4240 ext: 7407 Email: dhssquall@ gmail.com
Staff Editorials
Connor Thompson Editor-in-Chief Emily Darrow Editor-in-Chief & Head Designer Nicole Ferguson Web Editor Kristie Duve Photo Editor Jennifer Stirling Business Manager Carly Cash Illustrator & Design James Simonds Graphics Ali Bowman Taylor Schmidt Design Team Marissa Argiero Josh Boren Hank Dreffs Justin Juback Miranda Mors Kathryn Pisano Olivia Vollmers Photographers Benjamin Bruetsch Sirah Camara Dan Edwards Theodore Grammatico II Nathan Hoatlin Levi Kipke Cameron La Fontaine Abby Mesaros Steve Miller Charlotte Morrill Colin Northrup Emily Pap Staff Writers Rodney Satterthwaite Adviser
Memberships:
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the editorial board. Editorials are unsigned. Columns represented the opinions of the individual staff members who wrote them.
Staff policy
The Squall is a student publication distributed to students, faculty and staff of Dexter High School. The Squall is also distributed by subscription to the Dexter community. The Squall has a press run of 1700 copies and is printed by The Argus-Press in Owosso, MI The paper serves as a public forum with student editors making all content decisions. Opinions expressed in the newspaper are not necessarily those of Dexter Community Schools.
Letters to the Editor The Squall encourages letters to the editors. All letters will be screened for libel and obscenity. The editorial board may edit or shorten letter as long as the meaning is unchanged. All letters must be signed and include a telephone number for confirmation. Request to withhold a writer’s name will be considered by the editorial board. Letters can be emailed to the Squall staff, dropped off in room 407 or given to any member of the Squall staff.
News
The Squall Page 4 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
Illustration by Carly Cash
Upgrade at Al Ritt
Coaches excited about addition of turf Levi Kipke
that we could have one or more games there.” Lacrosse coach Brian Callanan is also excited for his team to play on artificial turf. Al Ritt Stadium is getting artificial turf, the second “Our teams will become more comfortable as well major renovation on the field in two years. as more confident playing on turf when having to “(Superintendent) Mary Marshall and the Board travel to other schools who have had turf for some made the decision to put in turf this year,” varsity time now,” Callanan said. “It will open up new ophead football coach Brian Baird said. “They apportunities for the student athletes.” proached coaches of all sports that Coaches, including Forrester, were could use the field for input.” on a committee that discussed the The best part is that The changes in football practurf, and he said the committee contices and games will be noticeable, there will be a consissidered many different options for according to Baird. tent surface to practice how the field would be put together. “The best part is that there will “We looked at different turf styles be a consistent surface to practice and talked about the lines we would on,” he said. “Whether it’s hot need to accommodate all of the and sunny or rainy and cold, the sports teams,” he said. “We also displaying field will be the same. You cussed how frequently the field would always know what you’re getting.” be used.” And Baird isn’t the only coach who feels that way. The turf is expected to be used by football, soccer, “I think that the girls could have some preseason field hockey, track and field, and lacrosse teams, as games on the field,” varsity soccer coach Scott Forwell as marching band, so it will have to be painted rester said, “because it’s a dependable surface that will with the correct lines for each sport. help us prepare for the rest of the season. We look According to Marshall, the construction is due to forward to being able to play several games there next start as soon as school is out and end before the sports year. The boys have never played on that field because seasons start next fall so that practices can be staged their season is the same season as football, so the grass on the field. was always too much of a mess. But now it’s possible
Staff Writer
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Brian Baird, varsity football coach
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The field was previously thought to have been too expensive to install, but that changed this year, according to Marshall. “The field was thought to have been too expensive in the scope of the bond work, but as we received favorable bids and changed some scope that brought expenses lower than expected, we could consider this additional work to be done,” Marshall said. “We needed to complete the projects we had made commitments to before we knew the funds were available.” For Baird, the best part of the field, will be the enthusiasm it creates. “It’ll be fun for everyone,” he said. “I think that the turf field will get a lot of use, and it will have a big impact on a lot of students. We’re excited.”
Feature
The Squall Page 5 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
Waiting for a miracle Student in need of a life-changing transplant Dan Edwards Staff Writer
Last year, Ariel Fischer was a normal eighth grade girl. But in early spring, she got a call from the school nurse that shook everything up. Now a freshman, Fischer, at 14 years old, is on a waiting list to receive a liver transplant. “I got a call from the principal one day last year, and she, and a couple of the other teachers, had talked to the school nurse because they noticed that my skin was turning a yellowish tint,” Fischer said. “So, I went to the hospital later, and my blood work showed that there was a problem, but they didn’t know what exactly. (My family) was shocked when we heard.
Photo Credit: Miranda Mors; Photo Illustration: Emily Darrow, Ali Bowman
A few months later, Fischer was diagnosed on the wait list for a transplant. with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, a chronic “We were all upset and didn’t want to leave liver disease caused by progressive inflammation Mayo, but we had to for the time being,” Maiand scarring of the bile ducts in the liver. hofer said. “All of this has been quite a shock to me beThe experience they had at Cincinnati was a cause Ariel has always been a healthy child and stressful one according to Maihofer, because the never was sick,” her mother Melinda Maihofer doctors at Cincinnati were unwilling to do a parsaid. “It’s like it came out of notial transplant from a livwhere.” ing donor, which is what This has been quite a shock Fischer has had to go through: a the family wanted to do to me because Ariel has liver biopsy, two colonoscopies and because it is quicker. four endoscopes. “They said they always been a healthy child. “I also take six different medicawouldn’t do it because tions, all that do different things,” Ariel needed an adult Melinda Maihofer, she said. liver, and they had only Some of these medicines provide done it in infants and todAriel’s mother her with vitamins, some help provide dlers,” Maihofer said. her liver with nutrients that her body Fischer said she was is not producing, one stops the itching and other devastated and scared when she heard this, but steroid-type drugs help keep her numbers where her mother reassured her things would be OK they should be. and that she’d do whatever it took to make things PSC has also inhibited Fischer’s ability to par- right. ticipate in sports. Since her body is fragile, she So Maihofer took swift action to help her can’t participate in anything that requires a lot of daughter, writing letters to Gov. Rick Snyder, State physical contact. Representative Rebekah Warren, Blue Cross and “It makes me too tired to do a lot of things, Channel 7 News. such as exercise and running,” she said. “It was so amazing on how quickly everyone She was, however, able to play basketball at responded, and they were all trying to help out the start of the season, though with a lot of and making phone calls on Ariel’s behalf,” she caution. said. “I had to wear an abdominal guard when On March 28, the family got a phone call from Blue Cross saying they were impressed by Maiplaying,” she said. The abdominal guard is used to protect the hofer’s dedication and determination in helping inflamed organs in her abdomen and to avoid her daughter, and they got Fischer back into the any outside pressure from causing any further Mayo Clinic. damage. If any of the muscles or organs were hit, “There are over 16,000 people waiting for a they’d spasm and become severely irritated. liver transplant a year and over 2,000 die because The hardest thing for Fischer, though, is the they never got one. I wasn’t going to sit back and sitting and waiting for what will happen next as do nothing,” Maihofer said. well as her family’s battle with insurance compaThe family now waits at the Mayo Clinic to nies. receive a partial liver donation from a family “We had come to a standstill due to our in- member. “We have a lot of people in my family that are surance company, because they would only cover eight places for a liver transplant in the whole willing to donate parts of their liver, but we have US,” Maihofer said, “U of M was one of them, to wait for tests results to make sure it’d be OK,” but since we had gone to the Mayo Clinic for a Fischer said. second opinion, U of M no longer wanted to Fischer’s doctors say the transplant will likely help us. So the next closest hospital that was happen in August. And once she gets a new liver, covered in our policy was Cincinnati Chil- they say she can go back to who she was and return to the activities she loves. dren’s Hospital in Ohio.” She said, “That’s what we’re praying for.” Fischer was sent to Cincinnati and put
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The wait list process There are thousands of people on waiting lists for new organs every year, and people with more serious and urgent problems are put at the top of the list, so sometimes patients’ dates for transplants can be pushed back. If a patient feels sick, they must visit a physician or specialist in the field of care they are concerned about. If the specialist decides that the patient is at a certain risk of serious illness or organ failure, they will refer the patient to a transplant center. The doctors will evaluate the patient and run numerous blood tests and lab studies to determine the overall state of health the patient is in. The tests are analyzed, and if the specialists conclude that the patient is in need of a transplant, the information is given to a surgeon who will finalize the decision. Additional testing occurs over the next few weeks unless it is an emergency transplant, in which case it will be a matter or days. Social tests are performed with social workers, psychologists and counselors to ensure the patient is mentally prepared to face the surgery.
Sports
The Squall Page 6 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
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Cameron LaFontaine Staff Writer
A typical day for junior Alexey Vermeulen starts with breakfast, and then a 30 to 50-mile bike ride. Alexey races road bikes all over the world at a junior level. “I have raced in almost every state as well as spent over two months in Europe racing in 10 different countries,” Vermeulen said. Vermeulen has a detailed training routine, riding up to 20 hours per week on top of hours training in the gym. Vermeulen is unable to take classes currently at DHS because he spends too much time racing. However, he still takes classes online, and is still a Dexter student. “I ran with the cross country team this year, and I will graduate with my class in 2013,” he said. “I just travel too much to be able to attend regularly.” Vermeulen’s grandfather got him into the sport. “My inspiration was my grandfather who had been racing previously,” he said. “I had always been into hockey, but it was clear that I was not going to go pro in that, so I decided to try another sport. I’ve loved it ever since!” Vermeulen’s parents have done a lot to support him
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and his success. “Our support for cycling increased over the past few years along with Alexey’s success in triathlons and cycling,” Vermeulen’s father, Aaron, said. “We love going to races, and it was a highlight to see him on the big screen in Copenhagen, Denmark at one of his competitions.” Aaron also said he and his wife, Sandra, have especially been there for Alexey when it’s very tough. “It can be a really tough sport, and you need all the support you can get,” he said. “In cycling, there can be 150 racers in a peloton (group of racers) and only one can cross the line first. His mother and I have been there to literally carry a broken bike while Lex is getting road rash cleaned out. Sometimes we just need to be there to give him a hug.” Vermeulen has been racing road bikes for five years. He will be leaving in late April to race in Europe. This means a lot of traveling for him and his family. “If possible, we take the whole family and his younger brothers will race in junior races and we make it a family trip,” he said. “The cool thing is that it has allowed us to see remote parts of the country that otherwise we would have never visited, like Fitchburg, Mass. or Rock Island, Illinois. Now that he is a tier-1 athlete with USACycling and living in Europe it is very different. We talk almost every day, and Skype makes him sound close to home, but it is still hard not to be at the finish line.”
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Lucas Wall, Alexey’s coach, started coaching him in 2008 before he went to the national championships. He placed fifth at nationals that year. “Over the next couple of years he continued to focus more and more on cycling,” Wall said. “Aside from his very strong work ethic, Alexey showed early on that he was adapt at reading races—being able to see opportunities, take risk to try a move, and finding success. Cycling is unlike other endurance sports, where the person in the best shape usually wins; in cycling you have to be fast, but if you can’t piece together all the details of a course, riders’ habits, changes in the group’s pace, and act at the right moment, a fast rider may never win. “Alexey’s shown over the last four years that he has plenty of talent—both physically and mentally—for bike racing,” he said. “Like a quarterback watching game film, he studies the details of the sport including courses, the competition, equipment and his preparation to be more prepared than any other rider in the race. Then he uses all that preparation and his excellent fitness to chase after wins. It’s rare not to see him being aggressive in a race, trying to take advantage of opportunities or testing other riders along the way, while other riders may sit casually back and hope the right situation unfolds for them. “Top levels of professional cycling usually take about 10 years to reach, so despite racing seriously for a few years, he’s still relatively new as an elite level rider,” Wall said. “He has a great start as a elite cyclist, a great work ethic on and off the bike and the right attitude to manage the challenges that come with the nomadic, international and busy lifestyle of a professional cyclist.”
Movie reviews
Entertainment
The Squall Page 7 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
“The Hunger Games”: The Hunger Games was a decent movie that did not live up to the hype that surrounded it. It was pretty much the same thing as the book. But that was boring for people who had read the books before seeing the film. It was well-cast and the action sequences were realistic.
“21 Jump Street”: Amazingly hilarious. The movie turned out to be much better than the previews depicted . Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum make a perfect duo. See this movie on the big screen before it’s too late.
“American Reunion”:This film is easily a 10. Anyone who grew up watching all of the American Pie movies won’t be disappointed. With the same cast and humor as the old movies, this was a definite success.
“The Avengers”: Directed by Joss Whedon, and starring Robert Downey, Jr., Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson, the story of The Avengers is about Nick Fury and the international agency S.H.I.E.L.D. which brings together a team of super humans to form The Avengers to help save the Earth from Loki & his various membered army.
“Men In Black 3D”: Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and staring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, it’s the same action from the other movies added into the third dimension. It’s bound to be intense.
“The Dictator”: Directed by Larry Charles and starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris and John C. Reilly, this superb cast and likely funny plot, make The Dictator a must-see in May.
Ben Bruetsch Staff Writer
Upcoming films:
Graphic Credit: James Simonds, all images used with permission
Spread
The Squall Page 8 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
Connor Thompson Editor-in-chief
The educational assessment law passed by the state government has not gone unnoticed by the district. The law will drastically affect how district administrators go about the business of evaluating teachers, especially those who have worked more years in the district, according to Principal Kit Moran. Previously, teachers who have worked in the district for more than four years were evaluated once every three years, in a planned, hour-long session during which an administrator watched a lesson and made an evaluation based on what he or she saw. “It wasn’t a good way of evaluating,” Principal Kit Moran said. “It was like knowing where the speed trap is on 94.” In other words, teachers having prior knowledge of when their evaluation would be, Moran said, could plan for the session and possibly perform differently than they do on a day-to-day basis, defeating the purpose of the evaluation: To document how teachers do their jobs, for use in personnel decisions. According to Moran, the new law aims to create a more valid system of evaluating teachers; in addition to being evaluated twice each year as opposed to once every three and according to a stricter set of guidelines, teachers will now be required to show quantifiable progress from each of their pupils. This would likely take the form of standardized tests administered at the beginning and end of every course students take. While this makes sense from a logistical standpoint, Moran said it creates a new set of problems. “The state wants improvement every year, in every subject,” he said. “That’s not reasonable based on how people learn and grow. If the swim team wins states and then places fifth the next year, that isn’t growth. The coach might call that a successful season, but it’s a drop in results.” Essentially, a high-performing school would find it increasingly difficult to outperform itself if its students are already getting good grades. If the state requires the dismissal of teachers who do not meet the goal of student progress, then this could create problems for plenty of good teachers as well
as those who actually underachieve, according to Moran. Students will also feel the effects of the new law Moran said. Pre- and post-testing would add to an already-sizeable number of standardized tests Dexter students take, such as the MEAP and the ACT. Senior Taylor Neely is quite familiar with standardized tests. As a high school student, he has seen multiple major exams each year since taking the MEAP in grade school. “When people take standardized tests, they improve each time,” Neely said. “A true test tests knowledge, not how good you are at taking the test. Standardized tests are a tool colleges and universities use in evaluating student ability. However, Neely argues, classes that center around performance on such tests will not be beneficial in the long run. “By mandating standardized tests, we’ll create an atmosphere where we’ll learn how to test, not what we actually need to learn about a subject,” he said. According to Dexter Education Association president Joseph Romeo, the new law has its good and bad points. But what he said he appreciates is the way those in charge of education in Dexter are handling it. “In Dexter, administrators aren’t trying to chase down bad teachers,” he said, “because we aren’t bad teachers. We’re developing an evaluation that encourages teachers to self-reflect. In some large districts, if you spend time looking for bad teachers rather than helping the good ones, students won’t improve.” In a more impoverished school district, Romeo said, students might not have very strong support at home, making it difficult to evaluate based on student progress. “If you’re evaluating based on kids who might not have dinner at night, you’re looking in the wrong place,” he said. So while teachers will not be evaluated exactly as they have been, Dexter teachers’ situation will not be as dire as those of their peers in other, less-fortunate districts, according to Romeo. This is due not only to student performance, but an administration geared against personnel witch hunts. “We’re trying to keep the staff calm,” Moran said. “We’re not looking to fire people; we just want to focus on the kids.”
The Squall Page 9 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
Changes in the evaluation process
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Administrators will no longer be required to coordinate with teachers to plan exactly when evaluations will take place, instead coming to classrooms unannounced.
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Administrators will also come twice each year, as opposed to once every three years under the old system of evaluating tenured teachers.
Teachers now are required to have a viewable lesson plan and a tangible plan for student growth in terms of understanding of the class curriculum.
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In order to document student growth, teachers increase the use of pretests and post-tests on similar content to show that their pupils are mastering the content taught in the class.
Strapped for cash Schools try to do more with less Nate Hoatlin Staff Writer
Losing sight?
As part of a series of budget cuts in the state, Gov. Rick Snyder has signed several bills into laws cutting spending from the education system. And much of these funding cuts affect the students themselves according to Principal Kit Moran. “These changes will affect our district within the next few years,’’ Moran said. Tougher evaluations on teachers, student funding cuts and less distribution of money
Administrators will visit each teacher’s classroom unannounced twice each school year, visiting for around five minutes each time.
are only some of education’s finance woes. In Dexter however, some of these changes will be less obvious. According to computer teacher and Dexter Education Association President Joe Romeo, “We’re protected to some extent by the Dexter bubble. Really, we’ve got a great community that supports our schools, and we won’t go without things that a lot of other schools have to.” Even with a supportive community though,
Administrators look for a lesson plan available for students to peruse, such as a list on the whiteboard.
recent cuts have already been felt throughout the district. “We lost 12 percent of our funding this year,” Romeo said. “Even with great support from the community, we’re still talking thousands of dollars in losses. In poor areas, education levels tend to be lower, so the losses can be explained. Our students are performing remarkably though, and we’re losing money, especially in the elementary arts.”
Student interest is also taken into account- Are students physically engaged in the class? Are they taking part in the discussion?
Finally, student growth is evaluated. Growth is calculated according to a set series of topics for each given course that students are required to master.
The new teacher evaluation process
Some say new teacher evaluations will force educators to focus on testing over authentic student learning
Do you own a pair of sweatpants?
Yes.
How early do you get up in the morning? How often do you go shopping?
Do you ever repeat an outfit?
How high are your highest pair of heels?
Oh yeah. And some slippers.
6:00 a.m.
5:50 a.m.
Every two months.
Every three weeks.
No, or at least I try really hard not to.
Yes, I use a lot of the same things just in different outfits.
Probably six inches.
Q&A English Teacher Ellen Doss and History Teacher Susan Walters
Ellen Doss and Susan Walters have teamtaught Humanities and English 9 classes for almost two decades and have built a reputation as a legendary philosophical tag team. Squall staff writer Charlotte Morrill sat down with the pair to find out what makes them tick.
Four or five inches.
When did you and Mrs. Walters first know it was meant to be? ED: We always say we’ve outlasted most marriages. In 1994 a former principal set us up because he knew we both liked to teach in an active manner. What is your favorite thing about Humanities? ED: I love the really fun teaming with Mrs. Walters, and the students are really great. SW: You can’t beat a senior. And believe me, we’ve tried. ED: Maybe you should interview us as Siamese twins. The secretary still thinks we’re one person. What is your opinion on sleeping in class? ED: (Laughs) I’m against it. What do you look for in a Humanities student other than consciousness?
I only wear sweatpants when the dance team forces me to. I only own four.
Olivia Marks Senior
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Fa
Kim Frauhammer Junior
n o i h
Lexi Wajda Sophomore
s a t is
Chelsea Kearns Freshman
Sirah Camara
Staff Writer
Kim Kardashian
Interactive Spread
The Squall Page 10 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
Photo Credit: (Christopher Pasatieri/ newsday/MCT)
Oh, yes.
Do yoga pants count?
6:15 a.m.
6:15 a.m.
4:07 a.m.
I really don’t go shopping as much as people think I do, maybe once or twice a month.
Not that often really. Once a month.
I’ve been able to cut down to one time every other day.
Maybe parts of outfits, but if I do, not intentionally.
Yes.
Oh no. My people dispose of my outfits immediately after they have been worn.
Six to five inches.
Five inches I think; but I don’t count. I just buy.
Not that high. Maybe seven or eight inches.
ED: Besides a heartbeat and a pulse? SW: An open mind. Actually, for Mrs. Doss it’s someone who laughs at her jokes. ED: Someone intelligent who is willing to take a risk. Courage. Do you have a crush on a fictional character? ED: Oh yeah. I mean it’s too mundane to say Mr. Darcy. But yeah, Mr. Darcy. Or Aragorn son of Arathorn. SW: The movie “Aragorn” because Viggo Mortensen is hot. But he’s probably arrogant because he’s good-looking. How many times have you read “Lord of the Rings?” And who is your favorite character? ED: Minimum of 10 times. Oh gosh .... I guess you have to say Gandalf. Gosh. When you’re growing up, you don’t want to be a geek. I never dressed up like Gandalf or anything like that.
Opinions on “The Hunger Games?” ED: I like “The Hunger Games.” I thought it was a quick read. Supposedly it’s dark and violent but not really--I mean the cheesy poison berries and whatnot. It might not be as edgy as Harry Potter. I’m not going to the midnight premiere though. Who is your favorite “Harry Potter” character? ED: It’s always been my dream to become Minerva McGonagall. What is your personal philosophy? ED: Alright. In “Lord of the Rings,” the elves talk about how they’re fighting their own defeat. So even though life ultimately heads to death, and everything could--and probably will--go to ruin, you still have to make the best of it and live in the present.
Interactive Spread
The Squall Page 11 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
Diagnose your
Pre-game baseball rituals revolve around superstitions Ben Bruetsch Staff Writer
Ever since the creation of the sport, baseball players have been superstitious, whether they know it or not. Some may have more than others, but players who have no ritual on the mound or in the batter’s box are rare.
a). Tapes wrists when playing infield and also must be playing infield with junior Ben Bruetsch. c). Always eats the same sandwich before a game and never steps on the foul line.
Whether it’s doing simple things like not stepping on lines when playing in a game, or more out-of-the-ordinary things like pushing a hat up and down three times while staring down the batter most players have superstitions. In fact, try to match the players below to their superstition and share your superstition online at www.thesquall.com.
senioritis
b). After the first pitch to a batter, lifts his hat halfway up and down three times on his head. d). Gives a big five-minute hug to junior MacKay Little and chews a new piece of gum.
Match the person to their superstition
2) Cole Rize
3) Brennan Maisch
4) Bryce Walls
Freshman
Sophomore
Junior
Senior
Answers: 1-C, 2-A, 3-B, 4-D
1) Spencer Vollmers
Illustrations by Carly Cash and graphic by James Simonds, text by Steve Miller
Opinion
The Squall Page 12 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
Despite rumors, drama is not a cult Jennifer Stirling Staff Writer
As I walked down the hall past my group of theatre friends, I overheard a freshman girl gossiping with her friend. “Those drama people are strange,” she said. “They are like so cult-like; it’s weird.” I’d say: Don’t judge it until you’ve tried it. I am involved in theatre, so I may be biased, but I hear a lot of false things about what we do and how we produce our shows. Other students outside of the club don’t seem to understand why we are so close and also don’t comprehend our theatre talk. The truth is, we aren’t really all that strange. A typical week during a theatre production means we have rehearsal for three hours every weekday and a set building day on Saturday. We are together all the time. Therefore, we have plenty of inside jokes and are close friends. Everything we talk about is drama-related, and if you don’t know what we’re talking about, you’re missing out. Drama club is one big family, and people outside the family don’t understand. Fun things happen at rehearsal that we love to laugh about the next day, or even a year later. We still
laugh about the funny moments from shows years ago. From Senior Patrick Rogers changing Professor Hill in Music Man to Professor Chill, to the nerdiest version of “Video Killed the Radio Star” in Back to the ‘80s that anyone has ever seen, we often reflect on the fun people we have met and great talks we’ve had. We also have conversations about the stresses of the show; we vent about how strenuous the production process can be. Sometimes things don’t go right. Microphones don’t work, or the light board fails. It’s fun to tell the stories of the previous day and laugh at them. That becomes therapeutic. The drama club creates a lot of well-done productions: typically a straight play in the fall, a musical in the winter, a student one-act production in March and a spring musical. We’re busy. After each show ends, we miss each other, because we aren’t together. We go from being together at least five hours a day to maybe not even seeing some club members at all. It’s really difficult. Yet, we keep going, because we want to see our friends again. By close count, we are the largest club in the school, and a lot of people don’t give us that credit. It’s time people did. We work hard and are dedicated. So maybe we are a bit close, and maybe we talk about things others don’t understand. But, we always accept new people. Take a risk. Jump in and join the cult.
Procrastination: The sport of kings Emily Pap Staff Writer
Well, it’s layout night in Newspaper class, and, no surprise, I am staring at a blank document, mesmerized by the blinking cursor on my computer screen. Procrastination is the name of the game, ladies and gentlemen, and I am the Tiger Woods of slacking off.
What is the unique characteristic that makes me not want to do my work? It’s that special trait hidden deep within all of us (yet very few of us actually admit to possessing it) that takes away our ambition and replaces it with the drive to do anything except what needs to be done: Laziness. (I have actually been looking up videos from the Will Ferrel cop comedy, “The Other Guys,” every five minutes because I am incapable of focusing). You see, procrastination is similar to hunting. You wait for the perfect moment to strike: when your prey is
most vulnerable. Those who diligently work to finish every single assignment weeks before they’re due claim to have “plenty of extra time to relax” as opposed to putting off these assignments until the night before they are due. Well, you see, I have just as much time to relax. Actually, I have more. While you’re wasting hours a day for seven days straight polishing and perfecting every minuscule detail of your essay, I am sitting on my butt watching endless episodes of “How I Met
Your Mother” with a nice cup of hot chai tea sprinkled with a hint of sugar just sweet enough to make my tummy smile. When “the night before” finally approaches, I stand up, do a couple stretches, hype myself up with a little Frank Sinatra and get crackin’ on my work. Well, not really. I sit down in the same spot I started as I began writing this column: staring at the blinking cursor on my computer screen. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go watch more youtube videos.
Editorial
The Squall Page 13 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
Teacher evaluations put large weight on students Michigan passed a new teacher evaluation process law in July 2011 that radically changed how teacher evaluations are done in the state. Among the many things that are changing: student progress is now part of a teacher’s official evaluation by an administrator. We think that including student progress as part of a teacher evaluation process is not only unfair but also impossible to judge because of the many factors that influence student performance in the classroom. In Dexter, for instance, students will often have different teachers for the same class as the year progresses. Students might be taught math by Mr. Miller for term one, but then be taught by Mr. Baird for term two. This change of teachers makes tracking student progress very difficult. Gov. Rick Snyder, however, supports the law and says its primary focus is on student growth. He and other supporters contend the law will weed out ineffective teachers. The new law says, for instance, that teachers who earn unsatisfactory evaluations three years in a row can be fired and teachers who earn grades of highly effective three years in a row could pos-
sibly earn tenure early. But the new law lengthens the time that new teachers have to work to earn their tenure from four years to five years. Since it takes more time to get rid of a bad teacher under the new bill, it’s actually more difficult than it was previously to get rid of an ineffective educator. Also as a result of this law, students and teachers will feel even more pressure to perform well, causing academic performance to decline. For example, many good athletes when faced with pressure situations perform worse than they would with no pressure. It’s no different in the classroom, where students have to perform well in a difficult testing situation. We think Michigan’s new teacher evaluation law, specifically the student performance portion of the law, is not fair to students or teachers because there are many factors that impact performance: a student’s family situation, a student’s previous teachers or even a student’s lack of sleep and poor nutrition. In Dexter we are lucky to have good teachers. The new student performance portion of a teacher’s evaluation does nothing to make them better.
What we think:
Student progress shouldn’t be a big part of a teacher evaluation because it puts too much pressure on students.
Illustration by: Carly Cash
Should teachers be evaluated based on student performance? Andrew Pek Freshman
Marisa Williams Sophomore
“I think it should because teachers are teaching students, so how the students do should be in the teacher’s evaluation.”
“Yes, if a teacher can not explain things well, and most or all kids do poorly ,that should count on their evaluation.”
Carolyn Whitaker Junior “I think it should but not completely. It’s the teachers’ job to teach us what we need to learn, and it’s not completely the teachers’ fault. It could also be the kids’ fault.”
Travis Reinhackel Senior “Yeah, I think so, to a certain point. The teachers are obligated to teach the student, but if the student won’t learn, that isn’t the teacher’s fault.”
Get Involved
The Squall Page 14 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
University of Michigan students Rachel Doig, Roshni Khurana, Lauren Lewis, Priya Joshi, Sam Kosinski, Katie Sterarns, Taylor Schweitzer, Erin Swor, Hannah Cottrell, Shannon Neville, Katie O’Donnell, Amanda Remeer, Kim Brisse, Eddie Zaliagiris and Joe Yancho perform a choreographed dance at the U of M Dance Marathon, an event to raise money for Mott Children’s Hospital.
Connor Thompson Editor-in-chief
University of Michigan students held 2012’s edition of their annual Dance Marathon, a fundraiser for Mott Children’s Hospital, on March 24-25. UMDM is a 30-hour event at the Indoor Track and Field Building. Volunteers dance and otherwise stay on their feet as a gesture to those who are unable to do so: the children who benefit from the funds raised by the event. Participants contribute
to the fundraiser’s coffers, which, according to the UMDM organizers, usually hit $500,000. Dexter students and alumni also routinely contribute to the fundraiser. Mill Creek Middle School has held its own annual Dance Marathon for the past several years, sending proceeds to UMDM. This year’s “MCDM” took place on March 9, lasting for one evening rather than the full 30 hours.
A U of M student dances to the song “Cha Cha Slide.”
An inflatable block “M” was set up in the U of M track and field building in downtown Ann Arbor for the dance.
University of Michigan Dance Marathon Student dancers raise money for Mott Children’s Hospital Central planning team members including) Charlotte Rath, Kristin Winn, Sean McCarroll, Michael Brown, Suraj Patel, Emma Stevens and Katie Fatum perform “The Dougie.”
Photos by Justin Juback
YOU Page
The Squall Page 15 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
Jenifer Stirling
Employers hiring In the Dexter area
Business Manager
What:
Agency Contact Representative. Need someone who is organized and can communicate. Would be answering telephones and making phone calls to other agencies.
Where:
The Monaghan, Johnson and Tapping Agency from Farm Bureau Insurance.
When: Monday-Thursday from 2-6 p.m. Contact: cmonagnah@fbinsmi.com.
What:
Babysitter for a one and a half year old.
What:
Dishwasher, buser, server and kitchen prep for a catering company.
Where:
Local home, need to be able to drive.
Where:
Simply Scrumptious Catering
When:
6 hours a week, maybe more in the summer.
When:
Flexible hours.
Contact:
Call 734-657-4789.
Contact:
jim@simplyscrumptiouscatering.com or 734-646-4586.
Illustrations by Carly Cash
Photostory
The Squall Page 16 www.thesquall.com April 27, 2012
Seniors Trevor Herman-Hilker and Aleks Vartanian load up on pizza and pop.
Auction for charity Charlotte Knoerl-Morrill Staff Writer
Photo Credits: Emily Darrow, Kathryn Pisano
Senior Micaela Conter stands to make a bid. Items up for auction included pizza, soft drinks and stromboli.
Senior Zac Whidby counts singles as he and several friends conspire to outbid the competition. “The High Rollers” made the biggest individual purchases of the day.
For 25 years, the senior food auction has raised money for different causes, most recently muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis research. The NHS-run auction is an annual event where seniors spend money on food. “The auction is the first of the senior events,” NHS adviser Cheryl Wells said. “The first year we made $600 in baked goods, and each year we’ve made sure all the money has gone to a charitable fund.” Wells and student co-chair Daniel Kesterson made the choice to have the money raised this year go to tornado relief. This year, the auction raised $3,095. “I knew the students wanted to get involved in the recovery effort, and what better way than to have the whole senior class get involved?” Wells said. While the goal is to help struggling families get back on their feet after the storm and raise money for the Dexter Relief Fund, Wells is not giving up on her original charities. “We will still send $150 to muscular dystrophy and $150 to cystic fibrosis,” she said, “but what people (in the Dexter community) need is actual money gifts.”