The Occurrence Vol. 3 Issue 2

Page 1

OCCURRENCE

THE
bryant junior high october 14, 2022 vol. 3, issue 2

Meag Abo, Adviser

Yisel Acosta, Photographer

Nicole

Kaylee

McKayla Burl, Photographer

Alyssa Guevara, Photographer

Jocelyn Kirby, Photo Editor

Annabel

Circe Linares Ramos, Staff Writer

Rylee Rutledge, coEditor-in-Chief

Erin Taylor, artist and staff writer

Amber Vasquez, artist

Katie

Publication Policy

The Occurrence will not accept submissions containing the following:

Informally written letters

Letters over 175 words

Anonymous letters

Signed by a group Sexist remarks

Homophobic remarks Inappropriate remarks towards certain reli gion(s)

Rudely directed at a certain individual

We will except the following:

Formally written letters

Letters 175 words and under Signed letters by an individual

Letters that aren’t discriminatory

One letter per issue

Remember not all letters will be chosen

Thank you, The Oc currence staff

THE OCCURRENCE news................................ feature............................. special section................ entertainment.................. 3-8 9-11 12-13 14
Aguirre Rivera, Staff Writer
Anderson, Artist and Photographer
Odom, Staff Writer
..........................15-16
Wright, coEditor-in-Chief STAFF opinion...

Letter from the editor

We wanted to provide a fun filled issue along with some more serious topics. The message behind it is to see how far we have come since Covid first began, the struggles of athletes, teacher shortages and student struggles in general. We also talked about the fun of summer, where to watch good shows, and whether the schools switch from Chromebooks or iPads was better.

We wanted to make the colors tie into the overall theme of this issue. The colors consist of purple, pink, blue, green, red, orange and yellow. So with the theme talking about the summer, incorporating warmer tone colors helped convey that. The cooler tones balance the tones out and are mostly used on the more serious topics.

Overall we wanted to make something kids could relate to. We’ve come so far since the beginning of Covid, we went from no physical contact and on travel to now we are able to travel and hug our friends again! School has changed too, we went from blurry zoom calls to in person learning.

This issue was started in the 2021-2022 school year in April and was finished by a new staff in the 2022-2023 school year. We have attempted to release the best and most accurate issue that we can.

Thank you so much for reading our staffs hard work and we hope you enjoy this issue!

OCCURRENCE
Katie Wright Co-editor-in-chief 2 bryant junior high october 14, 2022 vol. 3, issue 2

PANDEMIC CAUSES EDUCATIONAL nation-wide teacher shortages

This year has definitely been a rough year for students, administrators, and teachers. So much so that this school year has caused a large number of teacher shortages to occur. According to The New Teacher Project (TNTP), there has been such a large amount of teacher short ages that some Arkansas students are being taught by educators that are not certified in the subject of teaching. TNTP found that the main reasons for teacher shortages includ ed: lack of cre dentials to teach efficiently, low teacher payment, and prospective teachers who aren’t familar with certain programs that are beneficial to a stu dent’s learning en vironment.

“I think everybody being back in the building and just getting used to everybody being together has been the most stressful part,” Lauren Mcknight, a Family Consumer Science teacher said, “Every year since the building has opened, it’s been different in some way or another. We still haven’t got into a routine yet because of the pandemic.”

Many teachers also have said that assisting their students and quaran tined students have had quite an impact this school year.

“This year has been a struggle,” April McWilliams, a science teacher said. “I think that the biggest struggle has been working with students who haven’t been at school for a year and a half (who were virtual). And then, we were out the spring semes ter.”

According to the poll, most teachers rated this year to be an “8” when asked - on a scale of 1-10 - how stressful this year has been.

“We have been very lucky where we have people that are willing to go above and beyond, and cover classes and their preps.” Jason Hay, principal said, “Administrators have subbed in some [...] but, we’ve not been as affected as most people.”

In a poll given out to teachers on how stressful this year has been for them, majority have said that this school year has been especially stressful.

“[Teaching] looks really easy on the outside to some, but it’s hard,” Hay said. “Re ally good teachers caer about their kids and they’re wor ried about if they’re not in school, if they’re sick [and] they’re worried about if they’re getting caught up with their homework. They don’t want kids to fall behind or fail.”

To prevent teacher shortages, teachers are getting creative to prevent burn-out for themselves as

"[Teaching] looks really easy on the outside to some, but it's hard. Really good teachers care about their kids and they're worried about if they're not in school, if they're sick [and] they're worried about if they're getting caught up with their homework. They don't want kids to fall behind or fail."

design
the occurrence 3
by molly kitchens

shortages arise

well as their stu dents.

EDUCATIONAL CRISIS Teacher Shortages in States

“Some times everybody needs a break hon estly.” Mcknight said. “There have been a few days where we havein certain classes, at least - if there are a lot of people gone or something like that, we’ll take a ‘stress-reliever day’ where we fo cus on relieving our stress and try ing to calm down because it can get so overwhelming with trying to keep up with everything.”

Students can also have a role in preventing teacher shortages.

“Everybody’s under strain and stress and kids doing what the teacher asked without them having to ask eight hundred times to get their homework done. And showing some patience (I think that’s the biggest thing),” Hay said. “Everybody’s fighting a battle we don’t know anything about. So, just now, extra pa tience [and] understanding. Times are tough, we’ll get through it.”

Learning Policy Insti

4
According to The
tute, the U.S. Department of Education shows that... states reported special education teacher shortages 48 states reported math teacher shortages 43 states reported science teacher shortages 41
April McWilliams and Kori Kordsmeier, science teachers, pose outside their classroom. Photo: Jocelyn Kirby
october 14, 2022 vol. 3, issue 2
Over half of the members of the National Education Association union are considering leaving teaching according to the results of a poll published in February.

ESSER FundS OFFERS COVId-19

With COVID-19 impacting the schools across America, the government has provided money intended to help students. Dr. Karen C. Walters, the Superintendent, gave some insight on what amounts of money was used for each need. [One “pot of mon ey”] was from IDEA funds.

“Updating six playgrounds so there are more handicap accessible playground equipment for our students who are in wheelchairs,” Dr. Walters said.

The ground covering will also be replaced with turf in some areas to make mobility easier for the students. IDEA funds are from the federal government specifically for students or individuals who are in the special education portion.

ESSER 3 funds have also been applied to help the students. The ESSER 3 funds was the largest sum of money, adding up to 7.7 million dollars. One federal requirement is that 20 percent of the ESSER 3 funds are to be used for student learning. “A lot of it is used for beefing up our literacy program,” Dr. Walters said.

One advancement has been Lexia which is a literacy program for the K-9 curriculum. The ESSER 3 funds were also used to pur chase the new iPads and improve the HVAC systems in the schools. The HVAC systems are being improved so there is better fresh air to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Release Fund (ESSER Fund) is intended to support attempts by the state to keep the school districts safe and open such as repairing certain parts of the school, planning for schools being closed for a long amount of time and training.

When it comes to assembling a plan, the dis trict applied steps to get it approved.

“We drafted a plan, we shared it with different people within the district and then once we had a drafted plan, we had a group of parents that we brought in, we had some elementary parents and some secondary parents trying to have a representa tion of groups of students. We shared our plan with

What About Athletes?

The regulations, quarantining, and the overall experience has been taken away from athletes- the impact Covid-19 has had on extra curriculars starts to beg the question: Should I quit?

“I’m gonna quit because after COVID it was hard to get back into it, I haven’t learned how to balance my schedule again,” former competi tive gymnast, Ariadna Flores said.

With the pandemic came the burnout, de pression, and isolation, and other problems that athletes have faced in the past couple of years.

“We had to wear masks, we had to social distance, sanitize before each activity and san itize equipment, and we worked out on Zoom,” Flores said.

The uncertainty has brought a lot of worry

upon both young and older athletes due to the fact that it could have affected their playing sea sons and training, and it did.

Flores adminited, “yeah, I got really lazy with all my sports, it’s kinda hard to find motiva tion.”

Not only did covid impact the athletes, but the people who helped them become the athletes they are today.

“I guess I have had to adapt to a new protocol that makes it harder, harder to add new procedures on top of the old ones,” 8th grader cross country coach Nicole Bradbury says. Still, not every change is for the worse. “I;ve had twice as many[athletes trying out] as far as I know,” Bradbury says.

page design by Nicole Aguirre-Rivera the occurrence 5

REliEF FOR diStRiCt

them and asked them for their feedback and then we took the plan that we had to our board for their approval,” Dr. Walters said.

With virtual learning altering the previous school year, students’ mental health was another issue that was discussed, but new federal funds were not used.

“We have not used any of the ESSER funds for mental health services. It is part of Bryant’s budget every year even before COVID. For mental health services we have case managers, we have two behavioral health specialists and of course all of our counselors. As far as mental health, I think one of the biggest things that has helped out stu dents is being back on-site and not being virtual,” Walters said.

A percentage of the money was being used for materials such as masks and gloves for COVID-19 safety.

“I know on PPE alone that we’ve spent over $300,000 just on masks and gloves and things like that. We’ve spent a total of probably a half million dollars,” Walters says.

Even with new improvements in this plan, a way to get a clearer picture of how much it has advanced is to compare.

“We received so much more money than past plans. We were able to do a lot more. We re ceived almost or about 2 and a half times more of it for revenue for this most recent plan than in past plans,” Walters said.

There were more professional development for teachers, more resources for students with the iPads, new curriculum and the ability to do the HVAC systems. The district also gained two points of contact for the district so parents could call and report if their child was positive or exposed and had to quarantine. It was easier on the school nurses because they were already busy, Walters said.

With the even better advancements, there are still issues that haven’t been resolved including

conflicts with the Title 1 Formula and poverty within the district.

We still have that money so we’re still able to spend. The way districts received that money was based on a Title 1 from the federal government and so it was based on the amount of poverty students that you had.

“When you look at it from a perpetual amount that we received, Bryant received one of the lowest amounts in the state. To give you an example, Hot Springs School District has about a third of the students that we have but they re ceived three times the amount of ESSER funds that we received,” Walters said. “I was disappoint ed that they used that formula for every time they gave us those funds. I wish that they would’ve used a pre-pupal amount for one of the times they gave us money, at least. When you break it down per student, we have one of the lowest amounts in the state. With older buildings and with school districts, there are always needs that we are not always able to take care of,” Dr. Walters said.

Title 1 is a program that provides funds based on enrollment, reduced lunch percentage and other data.

The district is still planning on bettering the system in the future.

“I think that at the end of this school year we’re going to kind of look and see you know where we are, what did we spend, how do we need to revise our plan, and I think right now we still don’t know how to make those adjustments we have to wait a few more months,” Dr. Walters said.

october 14, 2022 vol. 3, issue 2 6

What a Crash

Let’s rewind a bit, December 2019 China had a virus outbreak. In ear ly 2020 it started to hit the US. Shops started closing, restaurants, airports, schools, plans got canceled, everything and everyone went into lock down. Grocery stores were closed after being scav enged for food, toilet paper and needed supplies for what is ahead of them

Quarantine was a very difficult time for many people, losing ones they love or feeling lost. “That was a really difficult time, I was worried about my students and their families.” Tara Dickie replies. Covid-19 has heightened anxiety levels especially in the youth.

“I believe we all need to be a little more gentle with one another and take the time to lis ten to each other.”

Mental health has brought back physi cal health and we are dealing with those effects now as a society. I think it will take some time for kids and adults to re-learn how to interact with one another in thoughtful ways. When the world took a toll we all were all isolated from each other to some limit. Technology helps us to connect although it’s not the same as face to face.

The Internet is a crazy and wonderful place where anyone can say anything without any consideration. Children hav ing access to a device could help them figure out specific things about them selves.

We did a google form for the children of the BJHS with a ratio of 70.9% saying the internet has changed how they act and who they are, but dragging along a no with 29.1%.

“I think it affected me at a young age, making me shy and uncomfortable with most activities.” Sammy Ali replies. 55 people replied to the google form we sent out, people got their first device 36.4% at 6-8 years old 9-11 years old with a whop ping 41.8% and 12-14 years old 18.2%.

The way children see the world and who they are as a person has been decided on what they see on the internet. Peo ple’s opinions change when they learn more about a certain topic or hear others thoughts on that subject.

7 the occurrence
.
page design by Annabel Odom
8 october 14, 2022 vol. 3, issue 2

Fears of the

As you’re sitting back in your comfortable chair to the calm melody of your favorite playlist, you begin scrolling through social media posts until you stumble upon a post that talks about the importance of one’s future. Putting your phone down, you might begin to feel anxious or ex citedly curious as you wonder the question: what do I want to do in life?

As funny as it might seem to be nervous or even scared from this thought, many young people com monly experience this. According to an article in Verywell Mind written by Brit tany Loggins (and medically reviewed by Daniel B. Block, MD), this fear of the future can actually be titled as “anticipa tory fear.” If one has this fear, they might worry or dread the outcomes to future occassions, fear social interactions with others and avoid experiences that may not have ended well in the past.

Chance Thompson, 8th grade student

As shameful as it might feel to al most feel lost in the crossroads of the fear that failure might come in one’s life, it is truly ordinary and is bound to happen sooner or later, most of the time with it be ing out of our control.

“We learn from our mistakes,” Bren da Rodgers, a coun selor at BHS said.

“It’s just like a spell ing bee, you don’t remember the words you spelled right, you remember the words you missed. So, mak ing mistakes is a part of growing. If you never make mistakes, you’re never going to grow and improve. Fear is natural (everybody has fear). Fear kinda gives us a motivation to get prepared. So if we didn’t have a little bit of fear about something, we wouldn’t work on it. But, you gotta make mistakes to grow.”

But, why? One might still wonder. Why might I fear the future? There are many possible answers to this interesting question.

“I feel like some students’ fear of the future stems from a fear of failure,” Jenny Watkins, a coun selor at BHS, said. “It might be that students who dive right into a plan and are okay with processing their future goals are conscious of the support that surrounds them - even if they fail. Students need to know that they have a safe palce to land if they put themselves out there and try new things but do not succeed. At the end of the day, something will al ways be learned, whether they learn that they like it or hate it or learn that they can or can’t do something.”

As much as one might wish to do well and suc ceed in life, perfection is never a guarantee. And yet, this isn’t to say that imperfections are the worst things that oculd happen in one’s life. As humans, we might feel as though imperfections or failing are the worst things that could possibly ever happen to us. And yet, imperfections too are always okay now and then.

According to a column in The Atlantic written by Arthur C. Brooks, the fear of failure has had a large impact on our so ciety and how becoming happier from fearing failure is not to eliminate fear itself but rather become more fearless (to essentially have courage to help you through struggles instead of being so terrified at the thought of fear).

After interviewing a few students re garding their future, we found that some students feared the future because they wanted to do good in their future pro fession or natural stress that comes with the unknown of the future. And we also found that some students felt that there

Nirhra Martin, 8th grade student
page
the
9
design by molly kitchens
occurrence
"If you never make mistakes, you’re never going to grow and improve. Fear is natural (every body has fear). Fear kinda gives us a motivation to get prepared.”
-Brenda Rodgers, BHS counselor

Future

was no reason to fear the future.

“There are positives and negatives in every profession,” Watkins said. “If you choose the right profession, there will be more good days than bad. It is important to not focus on the bad. You will be hired for a job for a reason and as long as you do your best, that is all that can be asked of you. Remember that you cannot be all things to all people and you will nev er make everyone happy or save everyone or helpe everyone or make every sale. We are all human. It is getting back up and tackling the task again that is the most important.”

As hard and confusing as it might seem to ac cept the fact that failure and mistakes will occur it can also be oddly comforting, as imperfections can high light the value of one’s hard work and dedication as well as their own perseverance.

“High school is a fun time, a growing time, and a hard time.” Rodgers said. “But when all is said and done, your life is not high school. Once you walk across that stage is when your life really begins. Your future starts then. So, I would tell any student, no mat ter what you have been in the past, you can always change. You can always become the person you want to be.”

Though we do not want to mess up as humans, potential - otherwise known as success - is not often obtained from doing things effortlessly perfect the first time, it’s learning from mistakes to understand the earning of true success (and when one achieves suc cess in life, satisfaction from learning from mistakes is the common outcome).

The counselors at BHS also want students to know something imporant. “Coming to the counsel or’s office is not a place you come to if you’re hav ing a bad day all the time’” Rodgers said. “We’re a resource. Let’s say you just wanna learn something new or you want to ask anything, we’re a safe place. Coming up here is not just scheduling (we don’t just do schedules, even though that’s what most people think we do). But, I want junior high [students] or even anybody to know that all of us up [at BHS], we work together. We want to hear the good times that happen in you life. [...] We’re gonna make sure you graduate. So, don’t worry about that. The counselors are gonna make sure you graduate.”

Preparing For Greatness

3 planning methods to ease the stress of future occassions

Keeping A Planner Making To-Do Lists Setting Goals for Your

Whether you’re stressing about a future exam or worried you might forget that one important event, keeping a planner can ease that stress as well as providing yourself with a more organized life style.

Ever feel overwhelmed with homework or nev er-ending tasks to com plete? Not to worry! Mak ing to-do lists can provide you with a step-by-step method of completing tasks on time without the stress.

When it comes to plan ning your future, your goals are a key founda tion. Setting goals for yourself can not allow you to achieve what you de sire but setting goals can also allow you to explore new opportunites.

october 14, 2022 vol. 3, issue 2 10
self
Design and Graphics: Molly Kitchens

Marching orders;The benefits

ROTC is a Reserved Officer Training Course at Bryant Junior High. The ROTC program helps behavioral development, and teaches disci pline.

Sir Andrew Rodriguez is the leader of the ROTC program.

Students in the program earn required credits for graduation. “The first semester, you actually get PE credit. We do mile runs, push ups, and sit ups. It just betters yourself, it’s up to you (and) is not for a grade. In the second semes ter you get your health credit, so we’ll do a few weeks of that versus 18 weeks of health,” Rodri guez said.

What actually is ROTC? [“It is a reserved officer training course. It is an elective course and gives an opportunity to learn different things from space science, land navigation, and basic marching,” Rodriguez said.

page design by Katie Wright the occurrence 11
“Active [Duty] members have to retire at some point of their career, and as they do the actual ROTC program allows us to roll over and to be an in structor. We have to have a minimum bachelor's degree, at least some fitness, professional appearance, and a clean record. They want someone that shows a positive role model,” Rodriguez said
12 october 14, 2022 vol. 3, issue 2

STREAMING SER

NetflixHB0 MAX

When you think of how to watch movies, what streaming site comes to mind? Netflix can be considered as the most popular online streaming platform. It has shows, movies, interactive things, etc. Netflix is good when it comes to boredom and bingeing. During quar antine, everyone relied on streaming services. People would spend most of their time laying in bed watching movies. The only bad thing about Netflix, is that you can spend hours on it. Netflix can be very addicting for some, and could take time from doing anything active. The top ten movies and shows on netflix are, (1. Inventing Anna) (2. Love Is Blind) (3.Sweet Magnolias) (4. All Of Us Are Dead) (5. Ozark) (6. The Tinder Swindler) (7. Despicable Me 2) (8. Tall Girl 2) ( 9. Catching Killers), and at number ten, Raising Dion.

HBO Max is a large ranged streaming service , used by many to watch well known shows like Euphoria , Games of Thrones , and Gos sip Girl. HBO Max has grown as many teens and young adults watch these popular shows. While some movies are still in theaters , HBO Max has them ready to watch at home safe away from COVID-19.

Disney Plus

Disney Plus, launched for users November 12, 2019. Even though the site is only two-yearsold, it has already climbed its way to one of the top streaming choices for families. The price to use the site begins at seven dollars and ninety-nine cents a month, so seven ty-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents a year.

83.33 percent of students like disney plus

Upgrades

Unlike other sites, Disney Plus does not in clude a thirty day free trial. Although the free trial isn’t included, an upgrade to the Disney Plus Bundle for thirteen dollars and nine ty-nine cents. The bundle includes a subscrip tion to ESPN Plus and Hulu. This saves mon ey in the process by paying for them in one monthly cost. Another upgrade is the cost for ad free Hulu on the bundle. The cost to get rid of the ads is nineteen dollars and ninety-nine cents a month.

Founders

The site was founded by CEO Bob Iger and talks of Disney having a streaming site since 2016.

the occurrence page design by Katie Wright 13

VICE STANDOFF

Hulu Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime is one of the best online stream ing platforms. Unlike netflix, Amazon has brand new movies. The only downfal is that with prime, you have to purchase for some movies. How ever, it is worth it in the end. Amazon also has a variety of shows. Even though you have to pay for some movies, Amazon has a lot of other amazing movies you can watch without purcahsing.

16.67 percent of students like Hulu

Hulu, launched on October 29, 2007, is a popular streaming site known for having many channel networks offered. The price is only six dollars and ninety-nine cents a month and sixty-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents a year, however if you want the luxury of having no ads, it bumps up the cost to twelve dollars and ninety-nine cents a month.

Available Networks

The fourteen-year-old site offers many chan nel networks such as A&E, ABC, ABC News, Adult Swim, AMC, BBC America, BET, Bloomberg Television, Bravo, Cartoon Net work, CBS, Cheddar, CINEMAX, CMT, Com edy Central, Complex, Discovery, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, E!, Epix Originals, ESPN+, Food Network, FOX, Fox News, Freeform, FX, HBO Max, History, Hulu Original Series, IMAX, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, MTV, NASA, Nat Geo Wild, Nation al Geographic, NBC, Nickelodeon, pocket. watch, SHOWTIME, Starz, SYFY, Tastemade, TBS, Telemundo, TLC, TNT, TV Land, Univer sal Kids, and finally VH1.

Founders

Hulu was founded by CEO of Time Warner, Jason Kilar and American business executive Beth Comstock.

14 october 14, 2022 vol. 3, issue 2

the occurrence page design by Katie Wright

Chromebook

A few years ago, the idea of a switch to iPads was presented by the Director of Technology, Jeremy Cunningham and the Bryant Schools Apple repre sentative, Mark McDougal at the time, there wasn’t enough funding to make the change, but during Feb ruary of 2021, when ESSR funds became available to our district, the iPad discussion was revisited. It was a positive and quick decision to spend it on iPads, said Dr. Angie Dischinger, assistant superintendent of secondary education.

Now that it’s been a year with the iPads, there’s been talk of which is better: Chromebooks, or iPads?

Chromebooks have been the main device students used at school for many years. There had been no major or noticeable problems with them, and they were familiar and comfortable for students to use. Chromebooks didn’t get frustrating to use, and were cheaper than the iPads are.

Compared to iPads, Chromebooks were fast. If a Chromebook had issues, it would be sent to the tech department and the student would be able to bor row an extra Chromebook, without having to trade in something valuable. If common sense was used when handling Chromebooks then they would work fine. A major contrast to the iPads. It’s very easy to break an iPad. Even just having it in backpacks wrong can cause it to crack- we’ve seen it happen before. There aren’t even screen protectors to negate any possible damage. Plus, iPads are very expensive to fix, a price which is normally paid by the student and their parents.

Since Chromebooks are computers, Google apps, such as Docs and Drive, are much easier to use. The one with the most glaring difference to most people is Slides. On the Chromebook, students are able to do lots of things, like add animations, word art, build themes, and more. On the iPads, it is much more difficult to get around, and most things can’t even be done. On Gmail, images don’t even work most of the time. Images have to be sent to Google Drive to be able to be seen. It’s frustrating to use the Google apps on iPads, and not being able to do most things

just adds fuel to the fire. Chromebooks stayed at the school, meaning stu dents had no responsibility over them at home. Students wouldn’t have to worry about remembering to charge the Chromebooks at home, or remember to put them in backpacks. On the iPads, battery life can deteriorate very quickly. It isn’t an uncommon sight to see other students asking around for a charger for their iPad. Quite different to the Chromebooks, where it’s rare to see them needing charging.

Chromebooks were familiar to use, and most stu dents know the insides-out of how to work them. There’s a Slides presentation in science? Easy! Just go to Drive, make a new Slide, and work on it with little to no frustration. There was a touchpad, so no bumbling fingers would have to fumble on a screen just to change the size of a textbox. With iPads, there’s a learning curve for both students and teach ers.

15

V.S. iPads

iPads are a fresh start for students at our school. No major complaints have been made about the iPads. iPads are newer and easier to use, so no need to worry about having to get fixed several times. Even if there is a problem, it can easily be taken to get fixed and an other iPad or an old Chromebook can be used until the owner’s is fixed, which doesn’t take long at all.

iPads aren’t very hard to take care of consider ing that they’re small and light weight. All that is needed to do when a student gets home is plug it up to charge. The school also provides a charging station at lunch to charge the iPads and not every class will require iPads use, so it can be charged then. Unlike Chromebooks where people had to wait in a long line with a bunch of tangled wires and trying to figure who’s cord is who’s. The next day, most people come to find out that some one unplugged the wire to someone else’s chrome book, so it’s not charged.

Chromebooks have a slow mouse that gets frustrating after waiting for it to actually work. iPads are touch screens, so we don’t have to wait on the mouse. Although some apps require a stylus, like SketchesS chool and sometimes just to help navigate through the iPad better, styluses aren’t expensive. Stylus don’t have to be the fancy $100 ones, they can be the $5 ones from Walmart. Sometimes, teachers have them in their room for students to use, so this really shouldn’t be the problem with iPads.

It could be argued that apps are harder to use on the iPads, but is that true? A Google classroom notification pops up and it’s another assignment as per usual, but wait it’s a document. This will be difficult to do, iPads make it so much harder. Once you un derstand how the iPads work it’s much easier to use. All that’s needed to do is instead of clicking the arrow icon, look at the top right corner of the screen, there will be a little box with an arrow pointing upward. That will take the document to Google Docs and make it easier to use. So iPads don’t have to be hard to use, we just need to figure them out more!

It may seem like iPads are easier to break, how ever, this is not the case. Without actually testing, we wouldn’t be able to find which is easier to break. Kids are reckless so either way, iPads and Chromebooks

could both easily be broken.

Both Chromebooks and iPads have many pros and cons each. Chromebooks are more comfortable to use and less expensive. iPads allow for more creativity and flexibility. In the end, there must be one winner, and ma jority votes for the iPads. The iPads are new and excit ing, and allow for many new opportunities for students.

“I believe that providing a device to every secondary student outweighs the extensive learning curve and other difficulties that we have encountered so far. As a team, we are still learning how to best support our teachers and students using iPads.”

Artwork:

16
october 14, 2022 vol. 3, issue 2

page design by Katie Wright the occurrence

QUIZ:

WHAT

SUMMER PERSON

ARE YOU?

1. What do you like to do in your free time?

a. Read a book or play a video game b. Hangout with my friends c. Relax and take a nap d. Go have fun a different places

2. What is your ideal vacation? a. Staying at home b. Go to the beach with friends c. At a hotel or condo, so I can relax d. Anywhere but my house!

3. Where do you like to go swimming?

a. I don’t really like swimming b. The pool c. The lake d. The beach

4. What is your favorite drink? a. Tea b. Lemonade c. Coffee d. Soda

5. How many out-of-state places have you been? a. 0-3 b. 6-7 c. 4-5 d. 8 or more

6. Where are you happiest? a. Somewhere quiet b. At the pool c. In my bed, taking a nap d. On a vacation, far from home

7. What is your favorite type of food? a. Pizza b. Light snacks c. Takeout d. I can’t pick one

8. Where do you like to hangout with friends?

a. Online b. At the pool c. At a restaurant d. In the car on a road trip

Mostly

A’s: The Hermit

You like to stay inside as much as you can during the summer. It’s not that you don’t like people, but why go out when you can play with them online? When quarantine first started, you proba bly spent hundreds of hours playing Animal Crossing. You’re a reserved, introverted person, but once peo ple get to know you, you’re rarely

Mostly B’s: The Pool Partier

You like to spend summers with your friends. Whether it be at the pool or an amusement park, you all have a great time. You’re almost always the one texting the group chat to start planning a new activity. You’re an extroverted person and the life of the party.

Mostly C’s: Workaholic

By choice or force, you work all summer. While your friends are all out having fun, you’re stuck at a school activity or job that requires a lot of your time. You’ve probably considered quit ting, but you’re in too deep now to get out of it. You’re a busy person, and like to relax when you have the time. You have to-do lists galore, and are very productive and reliable.

Mostly D’s: Avid Tourist

You like to spend all summer anywhere but home. You love visiting different places and likely want to visit all 50 states and at least one foriegn coun try. You love daydreaming about vacations. When school starts you have a million stories. You’re a fun, bubbly person who is always ready to try new things.

17

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
The Occurrence Vol. 3 Issue 2 by Bryant Junior High Journalism - Issuu