Gina Calbeto 2016
Article 1 This past week, University High School students of all grades and ages showed off their support for Literacy Week through clothing ensembles and various different engaging activities they advertised the importance of reading and their favorite pieces of literature from Stan Lee to Shakespeare. The event included the theme days: Monday was a chance for students to snap a few pictures of themselves with their favorite book or in their favorite place to hide away and read for the “What Titan Literacy Looks like Photo Contest.” Tuesday was a returning popular day for participation, Poetry Day. On Poetry Day, students were urged to keep a poem in their pocket to share with their teachers and peers throughout the day. Wednesday was a comic book junkie’s heaven as it was dedicated to Graphic Novels, here was where many students came dressed in the full apparel of their choice superhero such as Spiderman, Batman or Captain America. Thursday, Visual Vocabulary Dress-up Day, prompted students and teachers alike to select a vocabulary word and represent it as best they could. Friday closed out the Literacy Week extravaganza with Fictional Character Friday and a special all-day reading of the novel The Princess Bride. Among the fictional characters were Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter, Snow White and Hermione Granger. “Reading is the single most powerful action that one can do to build the essential skills in all facets of life,” English teacher Shawn McMann said. The book fair also brought in tons of eager readers who stopped to listen to the all-day reading, students and faculty both took their turns at picking up the book. Later in the day, freshmen English teacher Bethany Smith read for the crowds of people that came in and out of the media center. Smith explained that it’s important for students to familiarize themselves with the vocabulary that comes with Literacy Week so that they may have fun with language. Smith and reading coach Heather Henderson both explained that it is important that the students celebrate literacy in all its forms, even in technology, because the basis of everything is words and language. “Literacy Week allows us to celebrate characters that have had positive influences in our lives and opens doors to experiencing characters we weren’t aware of before,” sophomore English teacher Elizabeth McKenzie explained. “If one student reads one more reads one more book or learns one more word or thinks differently about reading and writing. Then this week is worth it,” Henderson said of the week’s events.
Reflection Literacy Week motivates students to pick up a book: This article is included in my list purely because I was extremely proud of myself for putting it together in record time and having it still get the point across and be of well writing quality. I had interviewed at least five teachers in the time span of two class periods. One of the things that I wish I could have done, time constraint aside, was to get more photos of the costumes on campus and make more of a flip through gallery of them to support the content of the article. I also could have included more of a student perspective and asked students why they chose the costumes that they did. Overall, I was proud of the quality of the quotes, like Henderson who said, “If one student reads one more reads one more book or learns one more word or thinks differently about reading and writing. Then this week is worth it.” I think that this exemplifies good journalism writing because I got an abundance of quotes, accurately portrayed the day’s events, and employed alliteration and comparison for interest with my lead, “This past week, University High School students of all grades and ages showed off their support for Literacy Week through clothing ensembles and various different engaging activities they advertised the importance of reading and their favorite pieces of literature from Stan Lee to Shakespeare.”
As High School Musical returns to TV screens for an encore reunion special, plenty of mega fans that were watching contently back in 2006 (yes, 2006), are now in high school themselves. Some fans are now older than the characters in the first film and graduating come May. It’s been a whole whopping ten years since catchy Disney anthems like “We’re All in This Together” and “Stick to the Status Quo” debuted and (nearly) the whole all-star cast is back to reflect on the movie that made them including: Vanessa Hudgens, Corbin Bleu, Lucas Grabeel, Monique Coleman and Ashley Tisdale. Feel old yet? High School Musical alumnus may have quickly recognized that a very important name is missing from that list. Where is Zac Efron? According to International Business Times, he was busy promoting his next film, Dirty Grandpa, at the time the segments were filmed. Some still chastised Efron and told him on multiple social media platforms, “I thought we were all in this together, Troy!” and “Get your head in the game, Bolton!” Fear not however, Efron did contribute a pre-recorded thank you message for the special airing, proving that he did not completely forget his basketball playing, “Twinkle Town” days as high school heartthrob Troy Bolton. Although, nostalgic throwback photos and behind the scenes filming shots were shared by the rest of the cast prior to the special, all of Efron’s social media remained bare and Bolton-less until hours before the special event. We see (almost) the entire main cast for the first time about twenty minutes into the film, they appear in a California high school gymnasium to match the tone of the hit movie and begin reminiscing. They watch each other’s audition clips for the first time musing about their familiarization with Disney and musical theater as children. “Every single person that was in the cast, everybody brought something so different and so interesting to the table and it was always so genuine,” Bleu explained. “So many children went off then and did High School Musical at their school theatre. The fact that we created something that allows children to have the opportunity to express themselves is so beautiful,” Hudgens added. Aside from the occasional commentary, viewers were given a chance to recall the oh-so-cheesy and endearing bits of High School Musical that make it Disney gold. Example one, the cringe-inducing tryouts for the winter musicale, held by everyone’s favorite sassy drama teacher, Ms. Darbus, before Troy and Gabriella surprisingly (and to Darbus’s awe) steal the spotlight. Darbus’s sass is prevalent at the close of one audition where she so blatantly exclaims, “Well, that was just…very disturbing…go see a counselor.” Little did Darbus know, Troy and Gabriella’s late audition was truly the start of something new that would grow into tours and a major score on the Billboard charts by the actors behind the praised TV pairing. The second cast clip was focused giggles over dance routines and pride over the fact that they were learned under crunch time of production. “He [Director, Kenny Ortega] gave the most inspirational speech that it wasn’t about the dance moves, it wasn’t about the choreography, it was about the spirit. That number just set it all,” Grabeel said. Sadly, the returning cast chatter that emulated the feeling of sitting in front of the cast in person, were brief and lack-luster in conversation. Not to worry, because shortly after audiences met again with the song that made us all believe that high school was going to be an all-day flash mob, “Stick to the Status Quo” in full with hip-hop girl and cello guy. (If this film was not what taught you what a crème brulee was, thanks to Zeke’s baking talent, you are lying.) Additionally, it would not have been High School Musical without Sharpay’s Mean Girl-esque outbursts including the lines, “I already had the colors for my dressing room picked out!” and “Evaporate, tall person!” We are once again reunited with the returning members as they review how technology, hairstyles and clothing has changed since the taping of the movie. Tisdale laughed explaining that Efron’s hair was “pre-Bieber” and Bieber, in fact, stole the look from Kenny Ortega’s lead male character. She also gifted Bleu his exact jersey from the film in the midst of the casual conversation. In terms of fashion, the wardrobe choices for the character Sharpay emulated the days of swimming through the racks at Justice and Limited Too for many elementary girls at the time. At long last, the promised pre-recorded message from the elusive Efron played toward the movie’s end and included insight as to his all-time favorite scene and heartfelt thanks, “I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there in person, but I am with you all in spirit. I think my favorite scene from the movie has to be We’re All in This Together. The unity, the whole cast in that moment was just really fun. I’ll never forget that day of filming, it’s imbedded in my mind, it’s one of the most beautiful days of my entire life. Thank you so much for being a part of this huge extravaganza, it’s been the coolest thing that I’ve ever been a part of,” Efron said. Despite his absence, Efron’s head really was in the game. Overall, factoring in the few and short intervals of cast commentary, the much anticipated reunion was still worth it for diehard fans seeking a little elementary school throwback nostalgia.
Reflection High School Musical Reunion: still all in this together This article was by far the most exciting for me to write because I was personally invested in the TV event and again I was very proud of this piece because it was done in an extremely timely manner. The morning after the premiere, the piece was up and published. I think that this piece was an example of good journalism because I took a tip from some of our biweekly annotated pieces and included puns and jokes that hinted to the original movie which hopefully created a feeling of nostalgia for readers. Examples include: “still all in this together” in the title, and “Little did Darbus know, Troy and Gabriella’s late audition was truly the start of something new that would grow into tours and a major score on the Billboard charts by the actors behind the praised TV pairing.” The flashback tidbits of the movie helped to create pathos appeal. However, again I feel I could have focused more on student reactions and feelings towards the movie and its anniversary to attract more readers to the site.
Article 3 Filing taxes, understanding loans, comprehending interest rates, learning how insurance companies handle car accidents and the proper percentage a person should tip at a restaurant—these important functions all have something in common. They are some of the life skills that past University High School students said that they wished they had known prior to navigating the real world after high school. While it is true that some of these tasks are taught in specialized academies such as the Finance Academy and the STEM Academy, students who opted out of the academy option are prone to stumble through these processes on their own, sometimes long after they should have originally been introduced to these topics. “I won’t need to know calculus unless I go into that field, but I will need to know how to interview for jobs. I feel like I am so busy working, I don’t have time to make plans for my life or practice doing things that will help me. I’m genuinely afraid that I’ll get out into the real world, and I won’t know how to take care of myself. But at least I’ll know how to do the quadratic formula,” senior Kallahan Stanley said. Many students fall into the same boat as Stanley, especially with graduation drawing closer for this year’s seniors. A group of 30 students of all grade levels completed a survey inquiring about basic skills needed for real world settings. Sixty percent of students said that they did not know the proper way to go about opening a credit card, 73 percent said that they did not know how to keep a checkbook, and 46 percent did not know how to change a tire in an emergency vehicle situation. Opponents to teaching life skills argue that teaching adolescents about properly entering the real world should be solely up to the parents. This argument has its own cracks because of the fact that there are a sizeable amount of students that do not have parents to turn to or many parents are unsure how to teach their kids these rudimentary tasks, because they themselves were never taught them. UHS graduate Nikki Natriello explained that when she left secondary education she was expected to take over a car insurance payment that had previously been under the name of a family member, she had no idea how to go about doing so. Implementing a required life skills class would prevent scenarios such as this from becoming the norm for students who are otherwise inadvertently unprepared. “I learned basic income tax through Mrs. Dela Cruz’s financial algebra class last year, but they cut the class after that. Also, I wish we learned how to change a tire [and] buy things like a house and a car. I know nothing about credit or credit scores. What exactly is a mortgage? I have no idea. [We should also learn] sex education, current events and politics too. People vote and know literally nothing about the subject they are voting on,” Stanley added. It is because of these shortcomings in the current educational system that we should reform to include the basic life skills that students agree they are lacking in, and we should do so as soon as possible. Since the current school year is already halfway through, it would be unrealistic to call for a class to be added for this year’s pupils. However, these skills should at the very least be taught through seminars or through the same process currently in use for GRAD Plan, this way the seniors of 2016 are not robbed of their chance to gather information that could greatly impact their life choices.
Reflection Practicing practical applications in school This piece was fun to write because it was one of the ones I got to develop with the learning month and help from Ms. Kohler’s tips. I also felt that the topic would hold a bit of importance with the student body as it does for me. My favorite part of the piece and what I think made it good journalistic writing was the poll that I got to take that asked students of UHS questions like: do you do your own laundry? Do you know how to get your own credit card? Do you know how to change a tire? I also believe that I had a very well thought out call to action: “It is because of these shortcomings in the current educational system that we should reform to include the basic life skills that students agree they are lacking in, and we should do so as soon as possible. Since the current school year is already halfway through, it would be unrealistic to call for a class to be added for this year’s pupils. However, these skills should at the very least be taught through seminars or through the same process currently in use for GRAD Plan, this way the seniors of 2016 are not robbed of their chance to gather information that could greatly impact their life choices.” The thing that I would like to change most about this piece is the variety of quotes I got, the variety was lacking although I got great responses from those I did interview.
Essay “It’s just a grade.” I was not fully aware of how deeply I could cringe until I heard a teacher use that phrase nullifying the weight of it, letting the sounds meld into words and lift off as simple as a fly away paper in the wind. Yet, no other teacher was as effective as him in getting us to realize our worth beyond a letter on an “official document” (talk about irony in an English class, we were the epitome of the definition at times.) A collective sigh carried across the room. I remember looking to the left and to the right of me and meeting the same dormant faces with similar grayish bags encircling tired eyes just as mine, we were convinced that no one had ever worked as hard as we must have in the past semester. I had picked fights with him over those four words too many times, on this particular day Bailey chose to be the class’ opposition: We all began in the same exasperated spiel, “But Korten…” It was a running joke that the period before us was the more enjoyable period of students for this reason exactly. Knowing what I know now I can see why, there was an incredibly drab seriousness to our tight knit “family”, as Korten had trained us to call each other, that worked against us in creating an unnecessarily stressful outlook all around. His retort was the same each time, rehearsed over years upon years of teaching, but still just as honest as his first explanation. “You could fail all of your classes and still be a good person.” Now, by no means was he telling us to flunk out of school but he was rather giving us the greatest example of hyperbole in order to get a point across. That point was: grades do not make for a good person and grades, or whatever we may be worrying about now as high schoolers, are not the end all be all dilemma. Grades do not make the whole person and because my class as a whole was so invested in the gravity of our grades in relation to our future, we were too blind to see this at the time it was most needed in our lives. Instead, we succumbed to pleading, tears and overall jeopardizing of mental and emotional health. Everything that Korten worked to prevent us from doing. It should be noted that in the end, the stress was an avoidable side effect of the course load that we nearly always inflicted upon ourselves with the help of procrastination and worry. Though Korten was persistent in this intentional agitation in hopes of teaching us more than just to relax and realize who we are apart from our GPAs. Additionally, he wanted us to realize that it is the effort and the knowledge gained as an individual that you should measure by, not by a number or letter value. I have gained a whole new perspective too, watching his current students flail to stay above water occasionally when it comes to that class, having already been through it. I have listened to them complain about a workload that is a quarter of that of the previous year, helped them study flashcards and try to give my best advice possible even if they think it will not help at that exact moment. I could be overly bitter about the amount of work that they are completing compared to our previous academic year, but that would directly go against the principles that Korten instilled in all his students. Ones that directly correlate to our growing ability to realize ourselves as holistic human beings beyond the letter grade. Yet another one of Korten’s staple statements was, “we are a family” and as such we learned to look out for each other
Essay and got equally agitated by the phrase, “it’s just a grade.” Which is exactly why I choose to help the juniors of the current year to the best of my ability. For that reason and because it is entertaining to watch the newest students make realizations about themselves like how to relax and define themselves less by written accomplishment by absorbing the text that he purposefully made us read. For example, one of the first passages that we read at the start of junior year was Living Like Weasels by Annie Dillard, which portrayed the same message of carefree living and giving less stressful weight to things that should not matter as much as they do. Something that stuck with me after realizing far too late into high school, the worry and the amount of tears or negative energy I was exhausting just to achieve the “A”. On the other hand, the ultra-relaxed attitude that Korten reflected onto us made me all the more motivated to strive for personal pride in my work and my teacher’s feedback. Because the less I cared about the grade, the more that the critique meant and the more I was satisfied with my own efforts instead of the letter. Side effects to my new mind set included: faster work pace, a sense of accomplishment greater than before, happier classroom atmosphere, and an undoubtable sense that I had done everything I possibly could regardless. I knew then that better prioritizing made for a better student and human being. I still get to take part in this healthy train of thought by peer counseling for the same teacher and seeing the same initial reaction on the faces of German 1 freshmen that I had last August at the same phrase. Today the ever-constant phrase resurfaced, “it’s just a grade guys” and one of the students fired back with one I had not heard yet: “it’s just a pay check, Korten.” And I could feel the smirk on my face as I shot my teacher an amused look and stared back at the student. It is an entertaining thought that I know what was meant when he does not, but at the same time—he would soon. Because it is a long and trying process for the caring student to let go and agree, “it’s just a grade.”
Spread
Spread I really enjoyed working on my spreads because I liked the element of dress up and fashion in them almost as if it was a real “who wore it better” spread in a publication. I also liked the happy mistake we made of getting student’s submissions for the other prom spread because it makes the student buyers more excited to see their own photos in the magazine. This year although I have already worked with InDesign through Mrs. Peel’s class, Ms. Kohler retaught me a lot of shortcuts to make my InDesign experience much easier than it would have been like copying and working smartly with the master pages. I also enjoyed learning how to do cutouts again and working in crunch time when it came to the final prom spread. It really showed me how quickly I could still put together a quality product.