JanTerm wraps up with teachers’ final opinions

Discovery’simprovedJanTermhasjustcometoanend, teachersexplaintheirfinalthoughts

By: Sophia Perian

When looking back at last year's (reportedly) worse structure, other teachers mentioned that they didn’t really get to participate in JanTerm and interact with the students. Whether the teachers were involved, or simply watched JanTerm unfold from the sidelines, it was mass mayhem.

“Last year [the schedule] was up on a wall and you had to walk with a pencil and try to figure it out yourself, it was chaos,”saidCorinneLorch,oneofDHS’scienceteachers.

“Last year, I was only with the juniors so I only got to see the juniors’ projects; but this year I can view any student's project,”saidBenton.

There were also many non-scheduling positives this JanTermthatteacherswereimpressedandsatisfiedwith.

“What stood out to me was not the end product but the effort that students put into their projects.” said Ivy Sprouse, a DHS paraeducator who observed and helped manystudentswiththeirJanTermprojects.

“IliketheideaofJanTermandgettingclosertothereality that we want it to be.” said Kim Cunningham, a gym teacheratDHS.

“I liked the flexibility of [JanTerm] and I feel like it gave studentsmore‘ownness’,”saidSprouse. IthinkthisyearIsawmorepeoplethatwantedtoreallygo into[theirprojects]andthatmademereallyhappy.”

“This JanTerm allowed me to meet more students who I didn'thavearelationshipwithbeforeJanTerm.Itwasnice that I got to know more students other than juniors.” said Benton.

Lunchroom snack bar returns

Discosalesfoundingmemberswishtostayfriendly withlunchstaffasbothlunchroomvendors continuetogrow.

By: Beck Gummer

After a few years of absence, the snack cart has made a return in the DHS lunchroom, which may imply competition with DHS’ student store, DiscoSales. Founding members of the organization stated that there was no ill will or desired competition between them and theofficialcafeteria.

Once students came back to school for hybrid learning after the Covid- pandemic, DHS’ snack cart had a noticeable absence. It did not make an appearance during the following - school year, but returned in full operationthisyear.

“I do not think that [the reopening of the snack cart] is going to impact DiscoSales sales currently,” started Erika Wood,founderandcurrentpresidentofthestudentstore. Although there are some similarities between DiscoSales products and snack cart products, with the diversity of merchandise that they offer, DiscoSales didn’t expect to taketoobigofahit.

DiscoSalesoffersawidevarietyofproducts;fromT-Shirts andkeychains,toItaliansodaandassortedcandies.

“Aroundeverysingletimethatweopentheshopweraise at least dollars,” said Wood. “But now that we are going to be opening days a week with our new opening date on Monday, again during lunch—where we make most of our profit, I would say that you’re in the realm of around

When interviewing teachers, Digest came across many suggestions for next year, ranging from specific to overall adjustments. Two teachers, Linthwaite and Cunningham, seemedtoagreethatprojectsshouldhaveahigherlevelof interactivity.

“Seemstomeasiftherecouldbemoreparameterstowhat thestudentsarechoosing…Ijustmeanverifyingthattheir project has an interactive element,” stated Cunningham. “When projects are presented there needs to be an interactiveelementalready.”

“I don't want the trifolds to be involved. I want it to be a student and their finished product willing to have a conversationaboutwhattheylearned.”saidLinthwaite.

Linthwaite and Cunningham had also mentioned many generalswitchestheywouldliketoseeormakeinthenext JanTerm.

“One other thing that I would change was the table setup for presentations,” said Cunningham. “Some people really got the shaft, it wasn't set up equally. I didn't see some of the people's projects because of accessibility.” said Cunningham.

“Whether or not you can make a pretty poster doesn’t matter at all in life skills.” said Linthwaite. She repeatedly expresseddisdainfortheamountofqualityoftrifoldsthat werepresentinthe Intersessionexhibition.

“I think we should scoot up the school exhibition by a week so that students can get direct feedback on their exhibition,” said Linthwaite. “I don't think I will offer reassessment as I did this year because it took up a lot of timeforprojectsupport.” potentially dollars [sic] a week.” This has led to DiscoSalesrecordingrecordprofitsrecently.

“Projects should be assessed by students. It should be a discussion of how they reached the standard.” said Linthwaite.

“Ithinkweshouldinvitestudents'parentstocomehalfway throughthemonthsotheparentscangetaprogresscheck onwhattheirkidsaredoing,”saidLinthwaite.

Finally,nowthatJanTermisover,teachersareveryproud to know how hard their students worked. They hope for future Intersessions to be even better, with even more amazingprojectstocome.

DiscoSales often takes advantage of the DHS cafeteria equipment for their own operations. All the ice in their Italiansodaproductsissourcedfromthekitchenusedto producestandardschoollunches.

JackHarding,afoundingmemberofDiscoSales,doesn’t believe the snack cabinet’s reappearance will negatively affect relations between the lunchroom and student store.

Despitethesnackcabinet’srecentreturn,Discosaleswill continue operation and expansion as normal. The organizationhasalsobeenhintingattheannouncement of a new line of hot foods that will be available for purchaseinMarch.Theto-be-releasedproductsmaybe seen as a introduction that will inspire more competition with the school cafeteria. However, as reported by Wood and Harding, DiscoSales has no intention of beginning direct competition with the cafeteria. They made it clear their intent was to stay friendly with the lunch staff, offering students more lunchoptionsinsteadofacompletealternative.

“[DiscoSales] has been going incredible,” stated Wood. “Better than I really expected it to be.” DiscoSales will releaseaspecialitylineofValentine'sdaythemedItalian sodas, aptly named the Makeup and the Breakup, which willbeavailableforpurchaseFebrurary – , .On the same days, they will begin execution of their “Cupid’sArrow”promotion,wherestudentswillbeable to send Valentine’s Day gift baskets to other students duringWINperiod.

Around , the cafe was made available to the students of Discovery High School, offering the purchaseofsnacks.Itprovedtobequitepopularamong students. The popularity of Discosales has only increasedwiththeadditionofItaliansodasforpurchase. It has participated in multiple after-school events, offering confectionery and drinks to potential customersoutsideofDHS’studentbody.