september beaver tale
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The Beaver Tale; Wilton High School September IssueTRANSCRIPT
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WILTON HIGH SCHOOL ISSUE 1SEPTEMBER 2010
Mold Takes over Wilton High School
•School implements many technol-ogy updates
by Kimberly SloanWilton Jr./
Sr. High School has four newly installed Epson BrightLink 450Wi Interactive Projectors installed along with various other technological updates this fall. The interactive projectors were installed over the whiteboards in Mrs. Day’s, Mrs. Grunder’s, Mr. McDonald’s, and Miss Keehner’s classrooms. They
work by projecting an image of what’s on the teacher’s computer screen onto the whiteboard. The teacher or student can then use a special pointer to press on the whiteboard and “click” on objects as if they were using the computer itself. The use of the projectors in class has been positive experience for both the students and the teachers. “The kids enjoy utilizing it,” says junior high science teacher Miss Keehner. “I try to show different things and do different activities with them
using it. Sometimes kids don’t volunteer to answer but with this I’m seeing kids actually raise their hands. They’re more willing to answer.” The funding for the projectors came out of the high school technology budget and each cost $1,725. They were installed by technology coordinator Justin Marston with the help of Tyler Geiger,’12, and Wilton High School graduate Dylan Neiman. “I put the projectors in areas where I wanted to see how the teacher would use them to interact with different subject
areas,” says Marston. M a r s t o n worked throughout the summer installing the projectors as well as completing a slew of other tasks at both the high school and elementary School, including a 37-day stretch with no weekends. “I was busy, busy, busy - busier this summer than any other year I’ve worked in the past 10 years without a doubt,” he says. The result is a school filled with new technology and fresh updates. Along with the projectors, the school also purchased three document cameras
which can connect to any projector and display an image of anything set beneath them, 30 laptops on a mobile cart that will soon be available for student use, and wireless Internet access installed throughout most of the building. New software includes a transition to Microsoft 2010, a new library cataloging system called Destiny, web-based NovaNET credit recovery, and Adobe Creative Suite. Online, the school’s official website (www.wiltoncsd.org) has had a makeover, and preparations are being made for students and teachers to eventually be able to use “Web Lockers” - online drop boxes - to save files
Wil ton Gets Wired
by Kayleigh Whitman
Some of the things that have appeared at the
school are a lot less exciting than the new equipment and people.
Over the summer the choir
room and several other classrooms in the lower hallway have discovered some mold. School officials
from school and access them outside of class. Mrs. Day’s Journalism II class is also re-launching its interactive student news website “This Just In” (thisjustin.wiltoncsd.net). The website will be updated more consistently this year and will feature articles, photos, videos, and a discussion board where people are invited to share their thoughts on a posted topic. Overall, the school has taken a large step towards being technologically up-to-date. However, Marston says his work is not done just yet. “There will be one more update,” he says, “but I won’t say anything about it until I find out more about it.”
aren’t exactly sure how long it’s been there, but the mold in the choir room and downstairs classrooms was found this summer. Joe Ragatz said that the mold and water was found because of built up water in a door in the auditorium.
The choir room, Mr. Bjortved’s room, and Mrs. Howard’s room all had mold in them, but they’ve been cleaned numerous times, so most of the mold problem have been taken care of. There are still some corners and vents with mold but they get cleaned down almost as soon as they’re found now. The choir room has gotten all new music folders and had to have the robes dry-
cleaned a year early thanks to the mold.
A little later, after school had started, the auditorium floor got saturated with water from the wet summer and water buildup behind a door. It was found when the wood in the floor started expanding with the water intake and pushing against
the walls. The gym floor has been redone twice since it’s been put in, they were able to pump air into the floorboards and dry it out before another redo was needed. The school is looking into putting a big fan, like the one in the high school gym, into the auditorium to help prevent this from happening again.
The vents in Mrs. Hewitt’s room still have some mold in them that needs taken care of.
The gym floor was being dried out by pumping air into it.
Homecoming 2010
Page 2
Fall Sports
Page 3
Freshmen
Page 2
PAGE 2 - SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 - THE BEAVER TALE
by Cassie Cavazos W h e n seniors think about their first day back to school they feel like it just another day and now freshman feel the same way too.
T a n n e r Gandia, ’14, and Kaleb Schmidt, ’14, said, “I’m not nervous it’s like another day of school.” Danielle Pelzer,’14, said, “I was a little nervous, but it wasn’t that bad.”
M o s t freshmen, along with most of the high school girls are looking forward to the homecoming dance, which is September 25.
by Courtney Kiser
You may think you have all the time in the world to decide your plans after high school. However, graduation is coming sooner than you think! It’s time to start applying for colleges, and with that comes knowing what you will be doing for the rest of your life.
A survey was given to 44 out of the 72 seniors, 57 percent of which said they already know where they’re going to be attending. Additionally, 59 percent say they know what they will major in.
But, for those of you who still have no idea, don’t panic! You still have plenty of time to go on college visits, talk to your counselor,
and talk it over with family and friends!
If you need advice about what to do, two seniors, Zach Sperstad,’11, and Tyler Hartley,’11, may be able to help. Both of these boys have worked hard preparing for college, and already have everything planned out.
“I really want to be a community college or University Theatre Professor. I plan on going to UNI to get my B.A.in Theatre with an emphasis on performance, and then go to Iowa for my M.F.A. in Theatre,” says Sperstad, ’11.
When you start your planning, first think about what you love to do! If you’re having trouble, you could try going on the Internet and taking
Freshman
Never Too Early to Get Involved, Prom 2011by Melanie Walde
The 2010-2011 school year is already underway and things seem to be moving pretty fast. With fall sports, clubs, and activities to keep us busy we sometimes forget about those “big” events, like the prom, and just how much work goes into making them happen.
Terri Denkman, a huge help in the prom effort, says that prom costs about $2,000, all of which must be fundraised. Fundraisers for this year include collecting pop-cans and the always popular Cookies in the Commons. Emily Hayes,’11, said, “Cookies in the Commons was my favorite! Everything looked so amazing and we raised a lot of money that
Most freshman guys are looking forward to upcoming sport seasons such as; football, track, wrestling, and golf.
Being a freshman isn’t as bad as everyone makes it seem. Though it is a big change from junior high the freshman this year seem to be adjusting well. Upper classmen just pick on freshman because they know they are nervous and scared about starting school. “Be nice to freshman!” Pelzer, ’11, said when asked if she had anything to say to the upper classmen.
way.” Juniors can sign up to help out with these and other fundraising efforts at their class meetings.
The parents of the junior class are also organizing a softball tournament at Cherrydale park that will help pay for after-prom activities. The tournament will take place on September 18th and 19th from 8a.m.-
Building Your Futurea career test to see what your strong suits are. If you are still unsure after high school, go to a community college like MCC and get all of your prerequisite classes out of the way. Once you finally have it figured out though, the next thing to worry about is paying!
“I’m going to apply for as many scholarships and grants as possible,” says Sperstad,’11. “If I don’t get enough I’m going to take out some loans.”
Hart ley,’11 , says he will be paying by “ s c h o l a r s h i p s , s c h o l a r s h i p s , and the money I have saved from [working at] McDonalds.”
As you can see scholarships are very important! They can save
you hundreds to thousands of dollars if you just take the time to properly fill them out. I know all this seems a little scary, but college is very important! It greatly effects what you will be doing for the rest of your life.
“College is building the rest of my life. What I do in college will determine my future income and passion,” explains H a r t l e y , ’ 1 1 .
Sperstad,’11, adds, “It will give me the chance to get a well-paying job so I can live a less stressful life.”
College isn’t as scary as everyone makes it out to be. As long as you figure out what you want to do, apply for scholarships, and visit colleges, you will be headed in the right direction!
5p.m. Juniors, or anyone else interested in helping, can sign up at the high school office. “I can’t wait to help!” said Becca Bartell,’12, “This prom is going to be amazing!” As of now, prom plans are in the beginning stages, but it’s never too early to get involved in the efforts and make prom 2011 the best one yet.
Emily Hayes ’11 and Becca Bartell ’12 are all smiles thinking about the upcoming prom.
You’re Invited!by: Nicole Jurgersen
Who: All Wilton High School students in grades 9-12
What: Homecoming dance 2010
When: Saturday, September 25th, 2010Where: Wilton Community CenterTime: 8 to 11 p.mCost: $5 for single and $8 for couple
THE BEAVER TALE - SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 - PAGE 3
by Emily Hayes
What’s the hardest thing about coaching cross country?There’s nothing hard about coaching cross country. I look forward to being there every day, it’s the high light of my day.” Dave Cook
W h a t ’ s one thing you love about cross country?“The team because they are fun to be around.” Becca Bartell“Improvement because it’s cool to see the project in growth, not just yourself, but your team.” Tyler Hartley“The coaches because they make it fun and push ourselves to make us better.” Kurt Paulsen
What’s the hardest thing about coaching v o l l e y b a l l ?“It’s important to have a very good practice plan every practice. Working on our overall goals and development plus working on the immediate problems we saw at the first match and working within groups on their
by: Haley HarbitAs most of us
know Mrs. Miller is pregnant. She is the freshman English, communications, and drama teacher. Mrs. Miller and her husband, Brad, are expecting a baby on September 15, 2010. They don’t know the sex of the baby; they want to keep it a surprise. They do have names picked out though, if it’s a boy the name will be Parker, and if it’s a girl the name will be Chloe. When asked what she thinks the baby will look like Mrs. Miller said,” Probably dark hair, and really tall.” Mrs. Miller’s
Fall Sports Q & A
respective skill needs.” Coach Grunder
What’s one thing you love about volleyball?“The speed of the game because it’s a really fast pace.” Shelby Broders“Team bonding because I have never had that experience before.” Shelby Schmidt“A good time with my friends.” Leah Duffe
W h a t ’ s the hardest thing about coaching football?“Having the one sport with the most players is hard because you
have to get your team to get together.” Coach Pederson
What’s one
thing you love about football?“Playing the game because it’s my first year of
actually playing.” Derek Pankow“Team bonding gives you time to hangout and have
fun.” Andrew Snyder“The student section at the games. Seeing and hearing them pumps me up.” Dylan Stepleton
Germany Comes to Wilton
by Matt Bowman Our new foreign exchange student, Toni Schultz, has noticed many differences as well as many similarities between Wilton and Germany. This year one of the new student is Toni Schulze, a 17 year old senior from Germany. He is from Crimmitchau, Germany and will be staying in Moscow with his host family, the Proctors, for the whole school year.
When talking about what he wants to do while in America, Toni said that he really wanted to go to a big city, like Chicago, learn perfect American English, and to experience the American way of life. Toni said that he has made many new friends and that good friends are important because you can tell them your problems, have fun together, and not be lonely. During the 2 months he has been
in the U.S, he says that he has made many friends and is already playing for the school’s football team. “It is different here because back home, we don’t have sports in school, you have to join a club or something outside of school,” said Schulze.
Back home he really likes to play tennis, soccer, and he really likes hockey. Toni said that the schools are totally different as well because, “In Germany we only have required classes, with only small choices, like music or basic design.” Toni is also, like many guys, interested in cars and music. His favorite car is the Audi Q7, and his favorite song seems to be “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz. He says that he also really likes Nickleback, rap music, a few country songs.
Getting to Know Mamma Miller
husband is also a teacher, he teaches middle school band in Mediapolis. When the baby is born he will get one week off of work, while Mrs. Miller get 6 weeks off after the baby is born. Mrs. Miller said she does not think she will have her baby on her due date, she thinks it will come after September 15th. When asked if she had the baby’s room done and a babysitter lined up for when she goes back to work her answer was, “yes.” It sounds like Mrs. Miller and her husband are excited and ready to have their baby.
PAGE 4 - SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 - THE BEAVER TALE OPINION
The Beaver Tale AN OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF WILTON HIGH SCHOOL The Beaver Tale is an official, monthly publication of Wilton High School. We publish to provide a pub-lic forum for discussion of issues reaOur staff is re-sponsible for every aspect of production, including researching, reporting, advertising, design, photog-raphy, pagination, and anything else necessary to serve our readers. The mission of The Beaver Tale is to accurately, truthfully, and professionally report on events and issues that are important to our readers and present them in a way that is informative and en-tertaining, while upholding professional standards of English and journalism.
Letters to the editor within our publication critria are welcomed. Letters should not exceed 250 words; how-ever, longer submissions may be considered as a guest column. No material will be printed where content is obscene, invasive of other’s privacy, encouraging physical disruption of school activities, and/or implies libel. The editor reserves the right to edit for gram-mar, length, punctuation, and clarity. If editing is required, the letter will be sent to the author for con-sent. All letters the editor will be verified by a member of the staff to determine the authenticity of the writ-er. All letters to the editor become the property of the school newspaper and will not be returned. Unsigned letters will not be published as a general rule. Letters to the editor may be submitted to Mrs. Day’s room or e-mailed to [email protected].
Newspaper Adviser...................................Mrs. Margot Day
Editor-in-Chief.............................................Nicole Jurgersen
Assistant Editor.................................................Matt Bowman
Design Editor....................................................Abbi Leathers
Business Manager...........................................Melanie Walde
Business Manager..........................................Courtney Kiser
Columnist..............................................................Wes Moeller
Columnist..................................................................Kim Sloan
News Reporter................................................Carlee Grunder
News Reporter.................................................Cassie Cavazos
News Reporter...............................................Dylan Stepleton
News Reporter.....................................................Emily Hayes
News Reporter.....................................................Haley Harbit
News Reporter.........................................Kayleigh Whitman
News Reporter..................................................Marvin Herter
“…And he just came up to me and stole my stuffed duck,” I giggled to the police officer. I was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face and I was choking on my words. Everyone must have thought I was crying… but, I was laughing at the insane turn my Friday evening at Founder’s Day had taken.
The afternoon had started off great. I went down to Founder’s Day around 5 pm, more excited than a kid in a candy store. Looking for my friends, I wandered around the vendor’s area and bought a bag of fortune cookies to share with them. But first, I was curious to see what my “fortune” would be so I took one of the cookies out of the bag.
My fortune read: “Someone will find you mysteriously a t t r a c t i v e . ”
I laughed and put the slip of paper away in my pocket. A few minutes later, I bumped into my friends and thought nothing about my fortune the rest of the evening.
I had an
Founder’s Day Fortune Cookieamazing evening and wanted to win something completely random to remember the night by. That evening, I happened to be pretty lucky with the shooting game and won a floppy, fat-bottomed orange duck that reminded me of the one from the movie “Click.”
I proceeded to carry the duck around under my arm the rest of the evening, getting laughs wherever I went with it.
A friend and I were in the middle of a really good discussion when we were interrupted by a pair of aspiring superheroes… two shirtless, out-of-town junior high boys ran up to us screaming, wearing baseball caps and shirts tied around their necks like capes.
Together they leaped through the air and landed in front of us, saying in unison “Hello ladies.” Then, the first one proceeded to ask me, “How much does a polar bear weigh?”
… S i l e n c e .C o n f u s e d ,
I replied, “I don’t know, tell me.”
He smiled, sticking his hand out.
“Enough to break the ice! Nice to meet you.”
Ugh… I laughed at the cheesy line and shook his hand. Captain Shirtless and his sidekick proceeded to chat with us for about five minutes. Then they asked us if we wanted to see them dance, and before we could object they proceeded to perform a horrible Macarena-like belly dance around a tree. When finished, they then announced they had to go because there was crime to be fought and people to be saved.
“You boys better go,” I told them, “before I call actual crime fighters because that dance was a crime in itself.”
The two gave us high-fives and charged off into the distance to further leave their mark on Wilton before the night was over.
T h o r o u g h l y disturbed, as I was heading for home, my night took an insane twist. A man who had had a little too much to drink apparently saw the stuffed duck and thought it was love at first sight, for as he walked past, he stopped.
“…You’ve gots a good looking duck there, miss,” he told me, a pleasant grin on his face. “Can I sees it?” He proceeded to grab it by the bill and take off with it.
I stood there in dismay, border lining between laughter and shock. “Hey, I want my duck back!” I called after him. He just kept on walking.
Several young children were still there
and started to laugh, and several of my classmates came up to me and asked me, “Did he just seriously take that from you?” to which I giggled an incoherent yes.
I went to the beverage tent where somebody I knew came over to help me find a police officer, but luckily several of my peers already found one of the officers on duty and told him what had happened. I’m sure he thought an 18-year-old girl having a fat stuffed duck stolen by an inebriated stranger was the strangest case of theft he’d ever handled, But he acted quickly and treated my case seriously, and others chipped in to look as well.
Soon the man was found sitting on the ground with my duck, and the situation was cleared up. Nothing happened to anyone, which was great because the poor man didn’t mean to really do anything wrong, and my duck was returned to me. I could go home with a crazy tale I was sure never to forget.
On my way home I pulled my house keys out of my pocket. My fortune from earlier slipped out and floated to the ground, and as I picked it up, it suddenly clicked. Someone will find you mysteriously attractive.
And then, as I was reviewing the random encounters I’d had that night, a man in a cow costume skipped across the street past me.
W o w … isn’t Founder’s Day wonderful?
“Girls spend t h o u s a n d s of dollars on stuff that smells good, but guys spend t h o u s a n d s of dollars on stuff that just smells.” There are many d i f f e r e n c e s between what guys and girls smell like. In addition to these differences, people have their own opinions on stuff that smells good and bad. N i c k Becker thinks guys smell like sweat, Axe, and old spice. He thinks girls smell like perfume, hairspray, and lotion. To Nick, guys have simple smells while girls have potent and very interesting smells. Sophomore, Chase Maxwell, thinks that guys smell like sweat, dirt, and strawberry lotion. He also thinks that girls smell like money, time, and uselessness. To Chase, girls don’t really smell like anything in-particular but they smell very weird. T o most guys, girls always smell different. Girls are always worried about if they smell good or if the people around them smell good too. To guys, if they smell bad it really doesn’t bother them too much and when they do smell “good” they don’t really notice. I t seems that the most common smells for guys are sweat, old spice, and Axe. But according to Mr. Bockwoldt guys smell like gym socks, grilling, and livestock. He also thinks that girls smell like flowers and fruit. To him the guys don’t smell like cologne, they smell like things in nature and “guy stuff.” Mr. Bockwoldt thinks that girls also smell like things in nature but he thinks that they smell like “good” smelling things in nature. T o girls, guys smell very interesting. To Junior,
Wes’s Words of Wisdom
Ashtin Bartels, guys smell like Hollister, Ag Farm, grape juice, and possibly Panther by Odeo(60% of the time it works, every time). She also thinks girls smell like flowers and vanilla. Sophomore, Kristen Mcconnaha thinks that guys smell like Hollister and farm. She also thinks that guys smell like fruit perfume and everything. T o me everyone has their own personal smell. They may have a very distinctive smell. Now this may be a good smell or a bad smell, but whichever it is you usually remember it. I think that guys smell like cologne, the Ag farm, and sweat. To me most guys do not care what they smell like. They don’t put much thought into what other people think they smell like. On the other hand girls, in general, want to smell good. If they smell bad they are upset and mad because of that fact. I think that girls smell like hand lotion, hand sanitizer, and perfume. I think that there are many more different scents that girls have than guys. When looking through the “scents” department in a store, you will find that there are a lot more girl scents than guy scents. Here are some smells that I think people should avoid, doe urine (if you are a hunter you know why), P.E., Mr. Hedrick’s coffee cup, and locker rooms. In the midst of all the bad smelling things and good smelling things please take in to consideration the smelling need of others when choosing your “scent”.
KKim’s
orner