Smoky Hill HS NEXT Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 1: November 2018

Page 1

smoky hill high school

v o l . 5 - i s s u e 1 - N o v. 2 0 1 8 : t h e t e c h n o l o g y i s s u e


Contents Issue 1 4 Editorial on the new phone policies 5 Editorial on speakers in the halls

6 The basis of the new phone policies 7 Pros and Cons to the new policies 8 Statistics on teen phone use 9 Statistics on media use in teens 10 How Smoky gets its music 11 Popular Netflix shows 12 Comparison on online shopping 13 Comparison on food delivery 14 The Gaming Community at Smoky 15 Smoky’s Clay Printer 16 Future competitions of the printer

17 Your brain on technology 18 Smoky’s Chromebook costs 19 The disconnection of EBSCO 20 Leftover library sources for kids 21 Is your technology safe at school? 22 National Suicide Prevention Hotline

2 NEXT November 2018

Staff Christine Bailey Walter Bustamante Gabriel Cardenas Katellini Chrochrane Devon Cruz Tyler Dortch Brenton Force Henock Gashaw Tori Griffey Andrew Guerin Lola Howard Zazi Hunsucker Arian Jensen Tracy Johnson Stephanie Martinez Eyoel Naizgi Bianca Richerson Teagan Van Etten Dallas Vieaux


17 4

23

22

66

NEXT Magazine is an open forum for free expression by the Smoky Hill High School community. NEXT is a student-run publication produced in the state of Colorado, and is therefore not subject to prior review except by its own staff. All final design, reporting, content, and ad content decisions are the responsibility of the student journalists of Smoky Hill High School under the guidance of their adviser. The views articulated in NEXT do not necessarily represent the views of the entire magazine staff, Smoky Hill High School, or the Cherry Creek School District.

CONTENTS 3


LOCK NEXT

Staff Editorial 4 NEXT November 2018


THEM DOWN!

Smoky NEXT approves of the new cellphone standards at school What would you think if you walked into a classroom where all 30 kids were actively engaged with each other and their teacher? Where questions were being asked and answered? Where cellphones are out of sight and no one is Snapchatting? While kids at other schools might not be able to imagine locking their phones away during most of their classes, the Smoky Hill High School community is learning the benefits of life without access to a cell phone first hand. While students’ opinions about the new policy differ, the new policy has created an environment where students are actively listening and engaged, which will allow for better grades and test scores. The arguments against locking down phones are valid, but few. Some teachers are using apps such as Kahoot or GroupMe which allow for positive phone use that stays strictly academic. Additionally, access to online resources are often a huge benefit to students by allowing a more in-depth analysis of topics and assignments.

Plug in, people! Students who don’t use headphones in hallway are disrespectful to others

I

magine its 11 a.m. and you are sitting in second period Algebra trying to take a test, but halfway through some kid walks down the hallway blaring 2003 “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence. As much as you may love this song, you are honestly just being really rude.

That being said, without the distraction of phones, students are able to maintain a better attention span and overall focus. A study with McCombs School of Business and University of Texas Austin, suggested that the simple presence of a phone reduces attention and focus through online tests where the participants’ phones in different locations, including out of the room and in participant’s pockets. The test scores showed that participants with phones either in their bag or out of the room performed better than simply having their phones on desks or in a pocket.

While you might think that playing your music in the halls is a great thing because you may think that your taste in music is so amazing not everyone does. When people play their music in the halls through the speaker on your phone instead of earbuds, it is very distracting and no one honestly cares to hear it. If you are taking a test and this happened, you could lose your place on your test, you might forget what you were doing, and might just not be able to regain focus again. Essentially your test score could drop or you might start guessing on answers.

Up until the new policy, phones were often used to cheat in the classroom. According to a poll put out by The Benenson Strategy Group, 35 percent of teens admit to using phones as a cheating method, and according to a McAfee’s study, 48 percent of students admit to looking up answers to tests or copying assignments online. While the new phone policy may seem extreme, being more strict on in-class phone use can decrease cheating attempts along with the need to copy, as the students will have a better understanding of the subject though more active engagement.

With that alone, you shouldn’t play music in out loud in the halls is because it is simply inappropriate. Many people play music that has explicit language or controversial topics that often go against Smoky’s policies . Even if this doesn’t go against Smoky’s policies but it could affect the people around you. You don’t know other’s beliefs or morals, so please be more respectful and consider the environment that you are in.

Social media usage in classrooms has been one of the biggest distractions, as it halts any attention to a student’s surroundings. Not only does keep a student from fully understanding the material being taught, it can be an invasion of privacy, through unwanted pictures or videos being shared online of a student in class. No one likes showing up on someone’s Snapchat story without their consent.

If you don’t have headphones and you’re off and you want to play your music out loud, at least go outside of the school or in a place that it is more appropriate. For instance walking to lunch, near the buffalo, outside the cafeteria, or even afterschool.

Teachers, now that you have our attention, please continue to hold us to this standard and make us better students. Even though many students say they are against the new policy, we know it’s making a difference.

But please, just don’t play your music out loud as you are walking in the halls, going to class, or when you are off and just mindlessly walking around the schools. Playing music without headphones is distracting, rude, and just annoying.

By Tori Griffey

OPINIONS 5


There’s research behind the new cell phone policy By Elizabeth Hunsucker

Cell phones are starting to be a major crime in school, especially with an article that was published that led to them being banned entirely in the math department. One look at the article, aptly named, ‘Cellphones in classrooms contribute to failing grades: Study’ and phones were locked up for the rest of the year. Phones have been a major game changer, especially with the release of smart phones in 1992. Nearly a decade later, and they’ve become a huge problem for students’ work ethic, especially in the eyes of substitute teachers, school coordinators, and people in charge of specific departments in the building. Lorena Cortse has been a substitute teacher 6 years, and she can agree that phones have negatively impacted drive dramatically. “The only thing frustrating about being a guest teacher is the dis-

6 NEXT November 2018

respect with students and their phones,” Cortese said. “[The students become more] focused more on the phone than the subject matter”. Speaking about her favor on the ban, “I believe we need to go back to what the math department is doing,” Cortese said. “Obviously the kids in math are not needing their phones, why do they need them in any other disciplinary?” Adrian Holguin has taught for twenty two years at Smoky, twenty seven years in total. He is the head of math department, and was the one who orchestrated getting phones banned in all math classrooms. “[The article] shows that there were preliminary studies that show not only do phones have an impact on mathematical achievement, for the kids that have the phones, but it also has an impact on the mathematical classroom in general,” Holguin said. “Kids

were not engaging in communication and collaboration in the classroom, in the way that they could be”. Michael Ady is a teacher at Smoky Hill High, and is also the coordinator for the IB program. He has been around long enough to see the impacts of cell phone usage, saying, “I think the usage [of cell phones] has completely ruined it [work ethic]”. Classrooms and students started to shift, “The overall feeling in classrooms started to change, the number of students who started to do poorly changed as well” Ady said. If this is the case, it makes sense that the math department would advocate for this change for phones getting banned. At the end of the day, teachers just want to see students succeed.


The argument AGAINST

The argument FOR

The new Cell Phone policies

By Arian Jensen

Ever had a time where your mom needed to contact you during class time for an emergency? Music helping with your anxiety? Technology is a very popular subject in Smoky Hill, especially with phones and them being in classrooms. During class when students are doing work or studying, the environment becomes loud and kids get stressful. Listening to music can help relieve stress and anxiety. According to the article “Can Music Help You Study And Focus” published by North central University on ncu.edu, “Music activates both the left and right brain at the same time, and the activation of both hemispheres can maximize learning and improve memory,” says Dr. Masha Godkin. When you listen to your music, it can cancel out all the sound and can help you focus on your assignments. Everyone’s taste in music is not all the same, but NCU states that classical music, and nature sounds can help you concentrate. You never know what can go on in a classroom or around the school. According to the article “Gunfire on School Grounds in the United States” on everytownresearch.org, an estimated 3 million American children are exposed to shooting per year. In 2018, there have already been at least 72 incidents of gunfire on school grounds. With the number of incidents and occurrences happening during school, having cellphones in classrooms provide safety and security when an incident occurs, allowing easy access to law enforcement and parent/guardian. Technology is evolving as the years go by. Having phones for educational reasons makes it a better reason to have cellphones in classrooms. There are apps for just about anything. Students can download apps to take assessments for their class. Some students like taking notes and writing things down on their phones, instead of wasting paper. When having this certain technology in the classroom, it’s very easy to get information from the internet if you are working on a project and getting work done. It’s time to take action buffs! After all, cellphones play a huge role in our lives, especially during the school hours.

By Bianca Richerson

Have you ever wondered how the cell phone affects you in the classroom? There are a lot of different reasons on how being connected to your cell phone can affect you during school and one of the many reasons is how you easily get distracted during class. Call, texts, and emails are all examples of distraction. Schools all over the world are starting a new phone policy to have students engage more and as months pass by students are getting better grades and they’re paying attention in class. At least 80 percent of students and teachers agreed that using a mobile phone in class decreases their ability to pay attention and focus on what the teacher is teaching. Since phones are a big part of teenager’s life students, during school become disrespectful towards teachers and as crazy as it sounds, it’s true. Before there was a cell phone policy students would constantly got yelled at by their teachers to put their phone away but instead students listening students would talk back to teachers and become aggressive which is unfair to the school and the teachers. During tests almost 40 percent use their cell phone to cheat on their test. This issue makes students lazy on doing their homework, classwork, or even studying for their tests. Laziness is a big part of technology, it affects the students with doing their academics. Students motivation and their self esteem becomes an issue with their laziness from their technology. Smoky Hill science teacher Kathleen Kleeman has a strict cell phone policy and students in her class put there phones in a pocket holder in the front of the classroom everyday. “ I put tape on the student’s desk that corresponds to the pocket holder and I do that so I can know who’s phone is in the pocket and if someone didn’t put their phone in the pocket holder than I can find out who didn’t from their number. Over my 35 years of teaching I would have to take students phones and put them in a drawer but until now this new phone policy doesn’t only help me but it helps my students in being successful.” Kleeman said. Overall, the new phone policy during school is a big positive impact, it helps the teachers and the students work together and also engage together instead of against each other. Students don’t have to worry about struggling anymore in school and because of this phone policy it will not only help us, but it will help the whole world.

NEWS and OPINION 7


Teen

SOCIAL MEDIA By Lola Howard

Overall Use of Social Media

use

73% of teens use

Social Media

60.8%

8 NEXT November 2018

of girls use

Social Media

39.2%

of boys use

Social Media


51%

of teens use

Facebook

As phones bleed into the everyday lives of teenagers, the umber of social media options are growing. Many teens spend multiple hours every day scrolling through Instagram and Twitter, but just how much time is spent online?

Twitter

69%

Teen Interactions Online

24% 45% 31%

32%

of teens use

of teens use

Snapchat

of teens experience

mostly negative encounters online

of teens experience

neither positive or negative encounters online

72%

of teens use

of teens experience

Instagram

mostly positive encounters online

85%

of teens use

YouTube

48%

of teens have

Shopped online

Overall Online habits

95%

of teens admit to being online

almost constantly

NEWS 9


Smoky Chooses ... How does Smoky get its tunes?

By Tyler Dortch

Spotify v Apple

You wake up, head to school or work. Your morning has been perfect, a nice cup of coffee and a breakfast. You get to school.. What have you forgot? That’s right, your headphones! If you don’t have these sacred devices how could you listen to music? But then again.. What will you listen to music on, Apple Music or Spotify?

$9.99/month Cost: none - any brand will work Device requirement: yes Playlists: yes Sharing: Family plan: Zoe Huff said, “I use Apple Music, it’s good beCollege discount: cause my brother is in college and you don’t have

66/100 of Smoky students use Spotify to get their music

$9.99/month Apple products only yes yes $14.99/six people $4.99/college student

to pay as much, it’s also very convenient for my family because we all have iPhones.”

Hulu Vs. Netflix

By Katellini Chochrane

93/106 of Smoky students use Netflix to get their shows and movies

What do Smoky students watch after school? Now the school day has come to a end and you head home. The only thing you have to do tonight is some English homework, and finish up the last few questions on your science review. All of this work is due tomorrow and even though there isn’t a lot it still feels like a ton of work. But you decide instead to watch a show but what would you want to watch on, Netflix or Hulu? “I prefer Netflix because its cheaper than Hulu and has more options,” Autumn Taylor said.

10 NEXT November 2018


How do you

Orange Is The New Black “Because it does not show a real representation of jail and it’s so hilarious. My family has experience [with jail] amd they’re like, ‘it’s not like that’.”

Chill? By Teagan Van Etten

Alexandria Keita, 11

Who dosen’t love to watch Netflix with friends and family or even by yourself? Netflix has

Brittany Sherrill, 9

changed the way we watch TV and movies with

“I watch ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ because I want to be a doctor one day and I watch ‘13 Reasons Why ‘because it was hype so I just decided to watch it. I watch horror movies because I love them and because they make me feel like I’m really in them.”

118 Million subscribers worldwide, and over 100 million hours of content.

“ I watch ‘13 Reasons Why’ and the ‘House on Hounted Hill.’” Elijah Nabors

Stranger Things Bigmouth The Office “My favorite is The Office because I like the comedy.” Dylan York, 10

Marvin Jones, 9 “I watch Luke Cage because it’s action, and I love action. The new season comes out soon so I’m excited to watch it when it comes out.”

“[My] hobby [is] to watch Netflix until it asks me if I’m still watching then [I]stare at my reflection in disappointment.” McKenna McElhiney, 9

NEWS 11


With free shipping and low prices, there’s no need to leave your home.

Shop On Get your

By Stephanie Martinez

12 NEXT November 2018

Shipping Free Pick up Fees Shipping Available?

Rewards Programs or Credit Cards

$10

N/A

Yes

Credit Card

$5.99

$35

Yes

Credit Card

$5.99

$25

Locker *

Prime

Free

Free

Locker *

Paid Membership

$5.49

$35

Yes

Credit Card

$6.25

$35

Yes

Rewards

$6.25

$35

Yes

Credit Card and Rewards

$10.95

$49

Yes

Credit Cards

$8.95

$99

Yes

Rewards

Free

Free

Yes

Rewards

$8.95

$75

Yes

Credit Card

$7

$50

Yes

Credit Card

$9.25

$150

No

Credit Card

$8.99

$89

No

Credit Card


The

Delivery By Tori Griffey

Game

With only 45 minutes for lunch, more and more students are turning to delivery services to get their midday meal. For the past few years the rise of delivery has become more of a big deal. Everything becoming more convenient is very helpful in everybody’s hectic life. So many people are starting to use things like Postmates, GrubHub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats. These services help deliver food from almost any restaurant in you area right to your door. But many people don’t know that they can get these things delivered right to Smoky Hill. So if its cold out and you can’t drive and don’t want to walk you can have these come right to the school. The only downside to this is if you don’t have a credit card or a way to pay that’s not cash.

Delivery Prices to Smoky

How many restaurants offered

$4

7

Depends on the restaurant

32

Free over $15

40

$4 depending on restaurant

80

Average delivery times to Smoky

For all of the restaurants the average delivery time is about the same. It’s usually around 3040 minutes depending on the restaurant you order from.

Payment Methods

Apple Pay, Credit Card

Credit Card

Credit Card, Debit Card, or Paypal

Credit Card, or Debit Card

NEWS 13


The principals

a gamer Cafeteria renovations create new hangout By Andrew Guerin

14 NEXT November 2018

Smoky students have begun bringing their consoles to school for a while now, and now they have permission to hook up their consoles to the tv’s. Even the staff are beginning to play with them. Seeing Chuck Puga, principal of Smoky Hill, has the goal in mind to get to know more students by talking to them and engaging in activities they are doing, even if they are a bit contradictory to the image of a “regular” principal. One activity he has engages in is playing video games with students during their lunches or during

breakfast. Puga plays video games with students for a couple of reasons. “Part of it is because, number one, ‘cause it is fun. Number two is because it gives me a chance to meet with students that I maybe didn’t have a chance to meet and talk to, and gives me an opportunity to talk to students in general about what’s been going on school and their lives,” Puga said. “It’s just kinda like a community feel.”


Puga hopes to change the school environment by giving Smoky a community vibe by talking and getting to know students. Kareem Soldana is a sophomore at Smoky Hill who plays games on the Cafeteria television. He believes Puga is doing a good thing by engaging with students,“When I usually look at a principal I kinda think they are mean and buggy but if your playing and enjoying time with the students it really shows you care.”

Puga doesn’t really care what games were brought into school as long as they were school appropriate. “When kids came to me and say, ‘how do you feel about us playing video games,’ at first I was a little afraid of that, but on the flip side of that, I thought it might be a great opportunity for kids to really feel like they’re in a college union, where they can do a lot of different things,” Puga said, “and so the video games have to be, in my opinion, appropriate, so no first person shooters.” Bringing his consoles to school is normal

for Kaleb Holt, yet there are limits to what games he can bring to school, “[I know we can’t bring] multi-player games like fighting games or and racing games and stuff like that. I say if we are bringing games it should be like rated T and no mature video games like Grand Theft Auto.” Smoky staff are now embracing the idea that the school should feel like a community, and has gone great lengths to make students feel comfortable and happy to be at school.

FEATURE 15


Art

meets

technology By Bianca Richerson

P

ottery can be a mess sometimes because artists get their clothes or their hands dirty, but luckily 3D clay printers do everything for you…. except the math.

First high school 3D Clay printer in the nation is Smoky’s 16 NEXT November 2018

Smoky Hill pottery teacher Josh Teplitzky said, I went to the National Clay Conference a couple of years ago and I started seeing hints of 3D clay printing, so for me it’s been around me for a thousand years and that’s pretty amazing and obviously stuff like this technology is really expensive so we got a lot of help from our tech department. My friend Celine Perea and I both took an engineering class together which helped us fund this 3D clay printer and we got the printer last year and we started to use it this year.” But, that wasn’t all they needed to get going. “The learning curve was pretty steep so, Perea and I found a professor named Ronald Reel at UC Berkeley. He


developed a program named PotterWare and we’ve been working with him ever since and basically testing the software and that’s been helping a lot,” Teplitzky said. “As we get help and work together with the program students get more and more excited and our Instagram account for pottery helps with that as well.” Smoky Hill High School is one of the first in the nation to have a 3D clay printer and the students are loving it. Teplitzky said, “Many of my students are interested in the new 3D clay printer because they get to make their own creations.” Junior Deonte Rivers is interested in art and has a passion for it. “In pottery I love being able to do what I want to do in that class by creating my own creations. My artwork inspires me to keep doing pottery because I think it is so cool just watching the 3D clay printer crate something that I

made,” Rivers said. Junior student Luis Vargas said, “Pottery is the endless ideas you have with it, you can make so many unique and interesting shapes and so many things you can actually use in the real world instead of looking at 3D modeling and in clay you can make anything that’s boundless to the world,” Vargas said. “Also my favorite part is the creative aspect to it and working toward level four and five creativity level because it just helps you expand your mind and see what different ideas you can come up with that are different from what everyone else in society thinks.”

and more. I like to say that pottery is a hobby now [and] since we have a 3D printer it’s so much fun, I have used the 3D clay printer at least two or three times and at first I really didn’t understand it but as [Teplitzky] helped me through it” Orozco said. “it was easier to use and it was also very fun and interesting to watch something that I made in a drawing into a real object.”

Experienced potter senior Briana Orozco has taken pottery since she was a freshman and s interested in how her pottery can change with the new printer. “First I started because it was an art class and as I took that class I loved it more

FEATURE 17


Imagine

yourself sitting at home at your desk or at a table, doing your homework. All of a sudden, you hear that familiar sound. The light from your smartphone shines brightly. What do you do in this situation? Most people would immediately reach for their phone eager to find out what’s going on in the world. There is no doubt that technology has changed society, whether it is in a good or bad way. But, how does technology affect the brain? Merritt University has been researching and reporting this idea in their article, “5 Ways Technology is Altering our Brains”. In a survey 52% of smartphone owners say they check their smartphone a few times in an hour or more. People who spend a lot of time looking at a screen find that it’s harder to not get distracted by the media. Adam Alter, author of Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping us Hooked, said in an interview, “Ten years ago before the iPad and the iPhone were mainstream, the average person had an attention span of about 12 seconds...research suggests that there’s been a drop from 12 to eight seconds.”

At the University of Melbourne, Andi Horvath talks with researchers to find out how our daily use of technology affects our brains in their article “How does technology affect our brains”. The University of Melbourne said, “technology affects our memory, our attention, what we focus on, and our sleep cycles.” Our sleeping cycles have been affected by technology due to the bright light coming from our smartphone which then tricks our brain to think it’s day. It is also said that digital technology demonstrably increases narcissism.

smartphone, Elgersma said “For some people, it’s a big distraction. But for me, I just use it as a tool for like, communication and all that so it doesn’t affect my daily life.”

Aside from affecting the brain, the technology could also affect someone’s daily life. Aaron Elgersma, 9, is a trumpet player in the band, a baseball player for the Smoky Hill baseball team, and a smartphone user. Like most smartphone users, he has multiple uses for his phone. When asked how his daily life is affected by his

This is your brain on

By Tracy Johnson

TECHNOLOGY

18 NEXT November 2018


Stop killing the

By NEXT Staff

Chromebooks

TECHFACTS

Smoky Hill IT spends more time fixing Chromebooks than on any other task

1,305

Chromebooks

803

Dell Books With a total of 2,108 devices, Smoky Hill has enough to go 1:1 for the 2,306 students

4 Resources Centers: Social Studies/English Math/Science Tutoring Center Testing Center All Resource Centers have computers and printers for student use. 4 Labs for teachers

to reserve for their classes: I-Lab Colorado Classroom I-316 I-317

Chromebooks are seemingly longoutdated, in a world where technology is constantly evolving. In technology world, five years old is practically ancient. But according to Timothy Siml, Smoky Hill’s building technology head, that’s how old the Chromebooks are that students are using. “You’re on the fifth year for those chromebooks, which for around $200 for a piece of equipment is not that bad,” Siml said. “Especially seeing as they’re not really made to replace.” Chromebooks are easy to break, and it doesn’t help much that they’re being handled by high schoolers. To name just a few of the problems that can go wrong when dealing with them, “We’re finding some of the batteries are expanding so

those need to be replaced, these track pads are migrating down as they get warm, so we have to move the track pads up, and we have kids who try to move the keys around,” Siml said. “Batteries die quicker because they are charging their phones with the USB ports instead of plugging in their power supply into the wall.” All these issues are the reason theChromebooks are being replaced by Dell Books, and thanks to Google. “[Google] decided after a certain while, about four years, that [they’re] not gonna support those Chromebooks anymore,” Siml said. “So that’s why [the district] went to the Dell Books instead.”

4 dedicated labs for

specific classes: Plato 3D Graphics Journalism Business

The district purchased Dell Books for the 18-19 school year to bring the student to device ration to 1:1.

NEWS 19


CCSD loses EBSCO Host Lawsuit ends in elimination of online resource

For Smoky Hill High School, students’ research is something every student is very familiar with. Most students were taught how to research back in middle school, with multiple resources at their fingertips. High school is no exception to the amount of research sources. Smoky Hill High school has a total of 21 different research sources under its database link. All of these sites are open to students. However there is now one missing. A research site called Ebscohost was once taught at Smoky Hill High School, but sadly it had to be removed due to content. The disconnection of Ebscohost luckily didn’t hinder students too much. Rather than making a big ordeal out of the situation, students were instead shown other sites they could use to accomplish their work such as “NBC Learn” and “World Book.” When the Superintendent of Smoky Hill, Scott Siegfried was interviewed on the subject he had this to say. “Ebscohost was a research website that we provided to all our students through the library link of the Smoky Hill High School website. It could be used to research things for a class paper or project just like the ones we now use instead.” When he was asked about why the site was disbanded from the Cherry Creek resources, his response was, “every website that we supply to our students gets a background check to make sure that it is not only credible, but also safe for use in a school. There must have just been

20 NEXT November 2018

an error when the site was checked and some content was sadly skipped over.” Upon further research it was found that said content came from a student who searched pornographic content. “We did however learn from this mistake to ensure that the issue will not have a second coming.”

By Brenton Force

High School, students have started to use many of the other sites that the school gives them access. A prime example of these students are the seniors that are apart of the IB program. They are now tasked with writing a personal essay which involves researching the topic of their choice.

When Jasmine Barzideh, an IB senior, was asked about how she did her research she Luckily, as stated before, the students replied with the following, “a lot of us are of Smoky Hill High were not majorly working on our personal projects right now, impacted by the dropping of Ebscohost. and we have to do some research for that Before the site was disconnected, the depending on the topic.” When she was wonderful workers of the library were still asked what site she would use as a go to, busy teaching students about the other “well, the school library gives us stuff like websites they would have free access to. Part time teacher librarian, Jen Radosevich J school, which is a really nice academic database. You can find all the things you explained when interviewed, “I started to need.” show students Noodletools and that is what is now mostly Even though used for student “I haven’t seen many or heard Ebscohost research rather than any students show any signs of has been Ebscohost.” When she was asked if disliking the crossover and I think officially kids had disliked the that’s just because they hadn’t re- removed from the idea of switching ally used EBSCO for too much to district from Ebscohost to Noodletools she said, begin with,” Jen Radosevich said. databases the “I haven’t seen many resources or heard any students that are supplied to all students will get the show any signs of disliking the crossover same job done. While many students were and I think that’s just because they hadn’t taught and made familiar with Ebscohost, really used EBSCO for too much to begin the students of Smoky Hill High School with.” continue to thrive in research. “Sometimes we must adapt to our current situation.” Now that Ebscohost has been taken said Scott Siegfried. away from the students of Smoky Hill


Library

Resources With the loss of EBSCO Host, there are still plenty of resources for Smoky students By Dallas Vieaux and Walter Contreras

Kyle Harmon

World book: a huge encyclopedia

Head librarian

“I like to help students study because they have a more diverse thinking and they get a better information when you don’t look for just the obvious information.”

Gale Virtual Reference Library books and reports as well as story’s for Energy,Arts, Biography, etc.

NBC Learn K-12 helps provide for any grade level and show only subjects to look up.

Churchill Archive helps with exploring topic,place, people, period Jstor: Journals ,primary sources, and books

ColoradoNIE.com- quizzes online on American history, events, and vocabulary quizzes

Classroom Video: find educa-

Alex Angeles:”EBSCO Host has helped me with my research for several different projects at school”. Joey Pham:”No I have never used any of the websites provided to me by the school for studying but if I did I would use either Gale or Churchill”.

tional videos on war, cities, and more

Student Resources has topics that may help you when writing any type of research paper.

The New York Times : Newspaper events that are happening now or happening before

NEWS 21


Is it worth it?

gy to class

The dangers of bringing technolo pair Freshman Andrew Wilslev owns a Are . $160 t abou cost that of AirPods over question was why he chose AirPods like I “ said He s. other cheaper earphone I r. bette d soun ic mus how it makes the on ys alwa is it and it use le peop don’t let can eone som that way no is e ther so me take it and so I don’t lose it.” t Andrew does recognize that it migh s not be safe to bring expensive thing h it wort is it to school but he does think r bette have s thing e because expensiv s lose he If er. long last they and quality it h muc or damages it, he knows how will cost to replace or repair them and he is willing to take the risk.

Jason Bowdre is a science teacher from Smoky Hill High School. Getting a teacher brings a different point of view to the table. Mr. Bowdre owns an Iphone X. When he bought this phone it cost about $1000. There was a reason he bought this expensive phone, “it has better qualities and I have multiple uses for it.” For high school students, the typical use for a phone is to contact people, listen to music, and for little school use. Teachers have more uses to technology then students do because s they have to set up a learning plan it es mak for their students and it the easier for the teacher to teach and e sam the get ld wou “I . learn to student use beca it stole eone som if e phon the price is cheaper because of my an insurance, but I would keep more of can e som that ely unlik is It eye on it. my steal it because I always keep it in

Junior Caleb Holt owns a Nintendo Switch. The console costs about $300 t but he has many games that cost abou little a t spen has he total in so $70 each over $1000. He brings this to school can to occupy his off period and so he y man are re The ds. frien play with his pocket.” but d, perio off your use to s way other it use he likes to play his games beca He is a break from school and it is fun. I so anty warr year one a said “ I have g ethin som if free for one new a get can he If it.” goes wrong or I break or lose a lost or broke it he said “ I would get back it bring still ld wou I new one and to school because it would be my a fault. To prevent this I will just keep stole eone som if better eye on it, but it I will not bring it back to school been cause there is a chance it can happ again.”

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By Eyoel Naizgi and Henock Gasha

22 NEXT November 2018


Log in By Christine Bailey

to check in

Online resources help students manage crisis situations

Suicide is difficult to talk about. When a person is hurting, it might be even more uncomfortable to sit down and talk to a stranger about these feelings. Advancements in technology have created a comfortable place online to allow the interaction that is so necessary in a time of crisis.

When students don’t feel comfortable to speak to a parent or counselor, a hotline call to an anonymous professional can reduce a caller’s distress in the moment. “Everyone on these hotlines are all trained to talk about it; you’re going to be with a professional on those phone calls or text lines,” Smoky Hill school psychologist Julia

Richardson said. “Because I think that one of the biggest things that we see is that code of silence that they’re afraid to talk about it.” Because teens often have their cell phones on them, some of these resources have begun to be available in app-format. The app “MoodTools” helps a person assess how they are feeling. After that, “Safety Suicide Plan” is an app that helps people make a plan to access resources and positive activities when they are feeling the warning signs of suicide. In the app, users can journal their reasons to live and list the contacts who they can talk to in a time of crisis, right on their phone.

In general, teens feel more comfortable online than in person. “I feel like the [online] media is a great way to be able to talk to people and stay connected with help all over the world,” senior Hayem Serra said. “Having the media provide resources through technology provides a faster solution to a temporary problem.” When someone is starting to have suicidal thoughts, but haven’t gotten to a place where they’re going to act upon it may find help with the Colorado Crisis Center. They provide not only a phone number hotline but also a text hotline and walk-in clinic. All these services are free.

CONTENTS NEWS 23



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