Granger high school
Tri-Color Times An open forum for student opinion and expression
TRICOLORTIMES.COM
May 2018 LX-IX
Now it’s time for these teachers to kick back By Gabriela Thompson THERE comes a point in one’s life when it is time to move on to greater things in life, whether it is relaxing at home or spending time with loved ones. This want for something more has been infiltrating some of Granger’s teachers. We are sad to say, more than a few of Granger’s teachers are going to make their exit in the next academic school year. These teachers are: Dr. Van Tassell, Ms. Atkins, Mr. Hopkins, and Mr. Babcock. Each of these teachers have made an impact at Granger. Some can be known for their spirit bowl pick up chants and others for their cool lessons in the name of science. In the manner of knowing what to do during their retirement, some are unsure. “I do not know what I will do during retirement. Probably travel, play, sleep in,”
Dr. Van Tassell said. For 25 years, Dr. Van Tassell has been teaching at Granger, and during these years he has taught science—although one year he even taught math—so simply relaxing will be a change to his usual schedule. Mr. Babcock knows that family time is the one thing he wants. “I’m 65 and there are family health reasons I’m needed at home. I’ll fish and carve wood,” said Mr. Babcock. Being a teacher isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. They stay past schools hours correcting papers or stay late for parent teacher conferences. This time at work takes away time from family members and family engagements, so to have plenty of time to spend with family is a definite want and need for teachers like Mr. Babcock. Some of these retirees have plans, such as Ms. Atkins. During her first year of retirement, she’s
going hiking to Havasupai Falls in Arizona. Then in July, she and her granddaughter are going on a train to San Francisco. “The rest of my retirement years I will have to figure out,” Ms. Atkins said. Ms. Woodward is also leaving to continue her retirement from five years ago after teaching for forty-nine years-- forty-three of them at Granger. “I plan to travel, read, index, and enjoy spending time with my nieces and nephews,” Ms. Woodward said. “I retired five years ago, and I have been coming back as an hourly teacher so that we wouldn’t lose Latin at Granger. I’m not returning next year because I would have to recertify to continue teaching. Sadly, when I leave, there will be no more Latin taught at Granger,” Ms. Woodward said. Another thing that Lancers are losing is Mr. Hopkins’s La-La-
La-Lancers hype at spirit bowls and assemblies. In the manner of things that the teachers won’t miss, Ms. Atkins says it all. “I will not miss going to faculty meetings or district training. I will not miss getting up at 5:30 every morning, I will not miss grading endless latework and tests,” Ms. Atkins said. In the end, despite how they are leaving students, they will definitely miss the Granger community. “I have known some spectacular individuals as students and faculty at Granger. I will miss them,” Dr. Van Tassell said. Ms. Woodward will also miss Granger enormously. “Being here has been a joy. It will be strange in August when school starts and I don’t return. Teaching at Granger has been my life, and I have loved it. I will ALWAYS be a Lancer!” Ms. Woodward said.
2018-19 Student Body Officers:
President Danny Rayos
Vice President Luis Ramirez
Secretary Chloe Topacio
Public Relations Zack Christensen
Gene Van Tassell
Susan Atkin
Ken Hopkins
Phil Babcock
Performance-based grading is taking over Granger High By Hayley Rigby AT GRANGER, the teachers and district are trying to implement a new way of grading called performance-based grading. With this, it makes it less about attendance so students actually have to learn something and pass each one of the tests on that objective. “For my classes I give three different ‘tests:’ a multiple choice test, a project, and then an essay. With those three things I broadly look over it and see if the students have learned the subject at hand. If they have mastered it, they get a 4, an understanding of it would be a 3, and then it would just continue down from there. With this type of grading it makes it easier for colleges to see if students have actually learned something,” Mr. Fuller said. Performance-based grading is how the district wants all teach-
ers to assess student achievement in the future. District leaders feel this will be more beneficial and help when it comes to grading the kids on actual learning. With this being so new, though, there are a few things that need to be fixed. “With this type of grading, students that are struggling get an intervention period where they can receive some help. But with this system, that means that students who are succeeding in the class have to do extra work on the same subject and become ‘smarter,’ and I know that some of those students wouldn’t want any extra instructions considering that they already passed, they might think, ‘why do more work?’ ” Fuller said. Students that are already passing a class might not want to put in more effort, but students that need to learn the material really
need extra help, so is this obviously a challenging system to manage for passing and failing students. In the April faculty meeting, some Granger High teachers participating in a PGB pilot program explained how performancebased grading is already working for them and how they like it. “It improves teaching while also improving the student learning kinda simultaneously. With performance based grading has made it extremely easy to grade because I went from have 30 assignments in a quarter to now having 8-10,” Mr. Wiemer said. With fewer assignments, the students won’t have to worry about those classes as much anymore unless they need the extra help. If homework is no longer being mandatory, students will be doing less homework unless they
need practice for the test. “With [PBG], homework no longer counts against a student’s grade because homework is practice. One assessment won’t lower a grade until a student has taken three assessments. Then teachers will take the average of all three tests, and scores would start counting towards grades,” Ms. Funk said. Although this idea seems like something the students would like because it means less work, some students don’t like the whole idea of it. “Many of the students don’t like the idea of this type of grading, and I heard many complaints when I told them how I would be teaching this year. Most of the complaints were just horror stories about past teachers who had tried to implement this teaching strategy,” Fuller said.
Art Director Richard Dinh
Historian Elena Flores
Service Learning Michelle Zarate
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