Co-teaching equals success
Students returned to class this August to find a new policy implemented regarding Sweep procedures. According to Pilar Vazquez, assistant principal of discipline and attendance, this is a district-wide policy change which will put students back into the classroom. The old policy required students to report to the sweep room and remain standing all hour. However, with the assistance of a new computer program, students will now check into the attendance office and tardies will be recorded immediately. Once documented, the tardy student will report to their designated class for the remainder of the hour. The system records the time the student left the attendance office, and when they arrive into class. Any student who does not make it to class in a timely manner will be sent back to attendance for disciplinary actions. The tardies still count towards the absent policy, and classes will still be dropped if tardies are accumulated. It is stressed that students report to class on time, to minimalize the absent hours and gain time for beginning of hour assignments such as quizzes and bellwork. It is expected that the tardy rate will decline this semester due to the new policy in place, said Vazquez.
Co-teaching has arrived at this campus. It is a method of teaching which has been around a while and has proven to help students be more successful, according to John Carreon, special education teacher. In order to help not only special education students, but all students, the district is leaning toward two teachers in one class to benefit all students, according to Brenda Magee, special education teacher. The school district is including all students in all aspects of every class. Students who have been in special education classes in the past are now included in general education classes, according to Carreon. Students who normally have one hour a day of resource classes no longer do. These students still have other resources they can use when in need of extra help in the academic learning center, according to McGee. The co-teaching classes are focusing strictly on what students need to know for the districts’ standards and the CRT, said Joseph Crable, social studies teacher. “Co-teaching is all about how we can help students. It’s a lower student to teach ratio than when you only have one teacher,” said Carreon. This school will start to see more co-teaching in classrooms because of the benefits it includes for the classroom environment and the students in them, said Carreon.
News Briefs
Compiled by davyd soal
Parking changes No longer will any student worry if their assigned spot will be taken by another student who is running late to school. Over the summer, a new parking system was put into place. This system organized the Thunderbird Road and 19th Avenue side parking lots. Students were assigned a decal with either orange for Thunderbird, or blue for 19th Avenue. Assigned spots are a thing of the past, and both parking lots are on a first come first serve system. The reason for these changes in parking is because of disruptions among students with assigned spots. The most common one occurred when another student parked in someone else’s assigned spot, which in turn lead to conflicts among students. compiled by seamus mulvey
Compiled by Alyssa Barton
did you know? Americans throw away over
25,000,000,000
styrofoam coffee cups every year. That’s enough to circle Earth 436 times.
Join Go Green Club every Monday after school in room 304 to learn more.
Journalism staff’s tenacity rewarded Standing up for their First Amendment rights, graduates Vaughn Hillyard and Sophia Curran—along with the entire newspaper staff—will receive the national Courage in Student Journalism award, sponsored by the Student Press Law Center. The award is presented to student journalists in middle or high school who have “shown determination, despite difficulty and resistance, in lawfully exercising his or her First Amendment press rights,” according to studentpress.journ.umn.edu. “Awards and recognition weren’t even on our [Hillyard and Curran’s] mind,” Hillyard said. “We honestly didn’t even know they all existed.” The initial stir started when Teresa Hauer, current senior and then-sophomore, wrote a story about Performance Based Assessments (PBA), wherein many teachers questioned the effectiveness of the tests. The administration, however, cut the story from the paper, saying it was biased and shoddily researched. “We weren’t going to back down...simply because authority at the school and school district told us to. Censorship of ideas and truths is dangerous to society,” said Hillyard. The legal struggle that ensued lasted longer than anyone could’ve predicted, least of all Hillyard. “I never imagined it taking ten months, but it was ten months well spent,” says Hillyard. Ten months well spent because the administration eventually relented, letting the updated story run in the February 2010 issue. Although their acquisition of the award was announced last Wednesday, Hillyard and the staff will not officially accept the award until Nov. 11, during the National Scholastic Press Association’s fall convention in Kansas City. “It’s definitely an honor to receive the recognition for our work because, if anything, I hope it will encourage others to do the same in life,” says Hillyard. “If we can use our story to change the situations of motivate others, then I’m glad we were able to help.”
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New sweep policy affects students
Compiled by Miranda Motsinger
the challenge october 1, 2010