jo breese portfolio 2018-2019

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BR E E SE portfolio 2018-2019

reflection 1 Actual Production Skills: This semester I learned how to write better interview questions and how to interview people well. In the future I plan on using these skills to conduct better interviews that in turn produce great and well thought out answers from the interviewee. I think my biggest issue in newspaper that i need to improve on is that I have problems managing my time wisely.

Deadlines: Deadlines are always a hard goal for me to accomplish, and I often miss them. I didn’t really learn anything new about deadlines this year, but I do plan on being more constant with deadlines in the future.

Teamwork: I think I work pretty well with others, but i’m usually just better if I do something by myself. Working together as a team is an incredibly important to create a good newspaper because everyone has a role and each roles needs to work together to create a newspaper. Next year I plan to turn in my articles on time to my editors so they can edit them on time so there won’t be tension between staff members.

Journalism Ethics: I know how important ethics in journalism is, especially in today’s world, and how it impacts how much people trust newspaper and news sources. Newspapers have to be very neutral in every argument and must always strive to publish true facts or else the newspapers credibility will be lost and people will stop going to the newspaper for the news and facts.

Dedication: I was a valuable asset this year because I spent a lot of time working with the staff and writing my articles. I am very committed to newspaper as I spend a lot of my time thinking about it and wondering how I can improve in it.

Self-reflection: One of the biggest problems I had this year and years before was with doing interviews, but I overcame this hardship by trying to make the interviewee more comfortable in interviews and spending more time writing interview questions. My greatest weakness is always time management. I am very bad at managing my time and turning things in on time and next year I plan to overcome this weakness by forcing myself to do my work in class and trying to stop goofing off by ignoring my friends in class.

reflection 2

I think my robotics club article is by far my best work because it is the one I think that I put the most effort into and I think that is shown in the article. The purpose of this article was to inform the reader about the robotics club and also mention that they went to a competition and got an award. It was not that hard to complete but I did have problems with getting an interview in person with the adult so I had to resort to using text instead.

It was not edited at all during the edit process by the editor and it never really changed from its original. The process I went through to complete this article mostly was just interviews that that taught me about the club and gave me more information to use in the article. The writing was not very hard and I completed it quickly after I finished my interviews, but I think it is some of my best writing to date and that is my favorite part about it.

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS THE NEWS

Administration contemplates limiting reflection 2 cont. novels in English classes Frida Alvarado

A staff writer

SSISTANT

Principal of Curriculum and Instruction Laurie Umbarger has proposed that English teachers stop teaching so many novels in the classroom. Her main reason for this is because reading novels does not prepare students for the text types they will be using in college and the workforce.

Currently, English teachers assign a variety of novels throughout the year, and students are required to read the entire novel. This is taking up a lot of schools days. Umbarger points out that the State and National standards are based on acquiring analytical skills, and not necessarily discussing ideas and themes in novels.

“It's not that I’m reading the Great Gatsby or I'm reading Romeo and Juliet, it’s I'm learning how to analyze text,” said Umbarger. “So, when we spend an inordinate amount of time on a certain piece of text, that’s not allowing our students to experience multiple types of text.

Umbarger also explained that when students get real jobs, they are not going to be reading novels. Most students will be going into colleges and getting jobs where they will be reading informational text. Colleges will be requiring students to know how to read certain text, pull out information from texts and then respond to questions using the text that has been pulled out. e“I think that fiction books wouldn’t have as much meaning as a book that’s more relevant to the topics of today,” said Dylan Heideman, a sophomore and book lover. “Novels have completely defined my personality and

life. Whenever I read novels, it always changes my perspective on things and helps me open my mind to certain views.”

The curriculum the school is looking into right now is called Springboard.

Springboard was developed by the College Board, and is geared towards students in grades six through 12 grade.

Every grade levelis’ curriculum has an in-depth studying of one novel and one play.

According to Collegeboard.com, Springboard selects specific texts for study, but also allows teachers to choose their own texts that they know will work for their students.

Pre-AP Curriculum is already being used at Cactus Shadows. According to Collegeboard, this curriculum offers high standard focused courses that “help build, strengthen, and reinforce student’s content knowledge and skills.”

It helps prepare student for AP classes along with other college-level coursework.

They are designed to help all students and serve as a baseline for course work for subjects.

Janet Wells, an IB teacher who teaches English Honors to sophomores, does not believe novels should be taken out of the English curriculum.

“I think whatever a teacher does to make a student read a book is okay. I don’t care what students read as long as they read. I think that there is value in everything we read,” Wells said.

“Reading fiction prepares people to be open minded and tolerant, which are very necessary in our community.”

There is no current proposal to change the English curriculum, but the standards require that at least 50 percent of the time should be expository text.

May 17, 2019 ● 3

GIVING A FEW MOMETS AND A BIT OF YOURSELF

THE KEY CLUB hosted a blood drive on April 30 to give students an opportunity to give

blood for patients in need. Local hospitals often run low on blood, which can cause serious problems when treating emergencies like car accidents. “I felt like I was giving back to the community somehow,” said Jacob Biggs, a junior who donated blood. 4 LOGAN MCDADE

Robotics Club RoboBear team wins rookie award at regional competition

By Jo Breese staff writer

The Robotics Club is a community club that creates and drives robots to win competitions.

The Robotics Club is a combination of the old Cactus Shadows robotics club and the old Bella Vista High School robotics club.

The Robotics Club borrows Bella Vista’s old robotics team name, making them the RoboBears at competitions.They became one club this year for funding reasons and next year they plan on getting a sponsor from cactus shadows but still remaining a community club.

“I started it ‘cause I was at the middle school and when I was there, I thought, this is so fun, why do I have to stop at middle school, I should just start at the high school,”

said Sebastian Cuc, a sophomore and the current president of the club and former president and founder of the Cactus Shadows Robotics Clu. Sonoran Trails Middle school has a robotics club for 7th and 8th graders, but when Cuc moved up to high school, there was currently no robotics club active, so he started his own. Cuc then helped in merging the clubs together to create a singular community robotics club.

The Robotics Club recently went to a FIRST Robotics Competition, which is a competition for high school and college teams to use their robots to complete a variety of tasks for certain amounts of points. Each year has a theme and this year’s theme was “Destination: Deep Space.”

“They had these rocket ships and this

cargo bay, where you had to either plug up the panels on the rocket ships or the cargo bay or you could put basically, like, rubber balls into the ship to gain points and putting hatch panels on, got like, two points per thing and putting cargo in got three points per thing and our robot only did hatch panels, so we just went around and plugged up all the sides of everything, so our teammates could put cargo into the bay,” explains Dominic Nicosia, a sophomore and an engineer on the robot.

Each division has a different theme each year. There are four divisions of age groups and grades: FIRST LEGO League Jr, for kids six to ten, FIRST LEGO League, for elementary and middle school, FIRST Tech Challenge, for middle school and high school, and FIRST Robotics Competition,

which is for high schools only. The Robotics Club recently competed at the FRC Regional West Competition and won an award.

“We won the Rookie Inspiration Award, which is how well you were able to spread the work of FIRST to other people as well as within our community. [We were] setting a good example for other rookie teams to join,” said Mike Artenian, the Lead Mentor of the Robotics Club.

Cuc claims that the award recipient is also determined on how well the team overcame challenges presented at the competition, how well they work together, and how far they get in the competition.

The Robotics Club continues to grow through students from Bella Vista and Cactus Shadows and they plan on going to many more competitions next year.

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS THE NEWS

Ma

EVIT offers a different opportunity reflection 3

Jo Breese staff writer

East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) is a Career and Technical Education District (CTED) that gives tuition free education to students in CCUSD starting next year.

“EVIT is a centralized high school campus. They have 11 school districts that are now members, and they take programs that other high schools maybe would not be able to implement the program into their high school,” said Louise Rochford, the Career and Education director.

EVIT is meant to help students who want to learn practical job skills before they enter a field. For example, you can take courses like nursing or repairing cars. In addition, they offer many different courses from aviation to veterinary assistant. Next year, sophomores and juniors can take advantage of this program by signing up for EVIT in the front office. “[EVIT] has really good teachers. I went to the open house, and they seem pretty cool,” said Romi Takamura, a junior who plans to take 3D Animation at EVIT next year.

EVIT boasts a 98% high school graduation rate and 92% of their students placed in jobs, college, or the military by the time they graduate. According to the East Valley Tribune, it has been voted “Best Public School” by readers four different times in 2013, 2015, 2016,

and 2017. Doug Ducey, the Governor of Arizona, is one of the many to praise the program.

“A model example of what a career and Technical Education should be,” said Ducey.

Jacqueline Kennedy, a junior, plans on taking the Medical Assistant program at EVIT next year.

“I wanted to do Lit Mag because I’ve been in it for three years. But, it’s sort of a compromise because I can’t come after school, so I might figure that out,” said Kennedy.

There is one issue that is discussed often when EVIT is mentioned, and that is the schedule. EVIT requires you to leave Cactus Shadows at third period and they will bus you back to Cactus Shadows at around 3pm, which makes it extremely difficult for students who take EVIT to participate in afterschool clubs or sports. Adding to that, students would be required to take English during zero hour, a period that starts before school hours. ”Zero hour is probably the worst part.

But, I like getting out early and we get to leave, which is nice,” said Kennedy.

EVIT is planning on providing free transportation for students to and from Cactus Shadows. Although, many upperclassmen would prefer to drive themselves to and from the EVIT campus and the Cactus Shadows campus.

I choose this article because I think I did a good job on researching it. I spent a lot of time combing through websites to gather information for this article. I think I could have done better with interviews, but besides that I think it is a pretty decent article.

STAY FOCUSED Students

from Cactus Shadows visited the EVIT campus in October and watched students study their practice. Starting next year, Cactus Shadows’ students will have the opportunity to join the program. 4 LOGAN MCDADE

Arizona teacher shortage le schools with out full staffs

By Ryan Bartholomew staff writer

Arizona continues to face a teacher shortage unlike ever before. Nearly a quarter of teaching positions in Arizona right now are empty, with some districts facing incredibly high vacancy rates and soon to face even higher. In two years, about 25 percent of current teachers will be able to retire, leaving the unfilled positions at closer to 40 percent. The shortage also emphasizes the lack of special education teachers in the state, with about half of the vacant positions being for special education.

Kathy Hoffman, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, has made note of the shortage in numerous interviews since 2017. Her point of view focuses mainly on how the teachers who are leaving feel about their job situations.

“If there was a way for us to work together to find a way to have improved health care benefits, perhaps then schools would have many left over to give teachers raises,” said Hoffman.

Some teachers are retiring or leaving their jobs because of the low pay and a chance at better benefits somewhere else. Governor Doug Ducey proposed a new budget with substantial funding increases for K-12 schools. The intent of this is to eventually have an increase in teacher pay as a method of incentivizing them to stay on board with their districts.

“Obviously, pay as a teacher is not that good. You just have all the kids there which is what most are really staying for. But, I think they have a point,” said Grayson Pysczynski, a Callahan sophomore.

“

seen up to three teachers their Geometry classes.

“We work with our tea what ideas they may have Interest Based Negotiatio also think we need to alw tionships, listen to each o each other with professio said Dr. Debbi Burdick, D Superintendent.

Additionally, the Speci side of schools was hit ve shortage. In the Tucson U alone, 27 percent of the jo were for special educatio While Cactus Shadows ha as hard in the Special Edu ment, other departments with the loss of multiple t the course of the semeste few weeks of each other.

“Schools only function work of our teachers. But year, we have seen a deva ber of teachers leave the and move out of state,” sa during her first State of E address at the Arizona leg According to a survey p three months ago of 211 by the Arizona School Per Administra Association ers abruptl resigned w first four m school year “I would increase wa current fun that just isn said Callah freshman.

Districts have been fied teache vacancies i Schwartz until they c a freshman one with a teaching. T parents con the quality tion their c each day.

I would just say to increase wages, but with current funding I know that just isn’t possible.

Cactus Shadows was affected by the shortage throughout the state as well. In the 2018-19 school year, the school saw multiple new teachers, especially through the mathematics department.

Some students have

NEWS BRIEFS

CSHS DECA wins big at State

Cactus Shadows DECA members competed in State on the first of March third. Members received both the Elite and Affiliated State DECA Chapter April, six members will be attending the International DECA Conference in

Protestors rally for first amendment rights at a Gilbert h

At Perry High School, one student was suspended for bringing “Make Again” gear to campus. Students say administration demanded that s remove their gear in support of President Trump. However, faculty sa only asked a student to put away a large banner. Students describe h photos taken without their permission and being disrespected by oth

reflection 3

I am proud of this photo because I think it looks great and is one of my personal favorite photos I have taken. I love the lighting and framing in the picture and I am very proud of it.

reflection 3 I am proud of this pewdiepie article because I think i state my opinion well and I think I help people understand what has happened with pewdiepie. I like that I broke down what was happening at that time and then began to explain my opinion on the matter. I think I kept my opinion constant and did well on this article.

TE SH

A E

R S E T

C

ing an expired registration on January 9.

A routine traffic stop turned deadly when Jerry Sanstead fatally struck Townsend because he was texting and driving and did not see officer Townsend standing near the pulled-over driver’s side door.

Texting and driving should have been banned a long time ago, however, not every state has laws or even restrictions against it. Arizona is one of those states, and it is irresponsible for the state legislature to not have a law to prevent texting and driving.

Too many families can relate to horror stories like Officer Towsend’s family, and, unfortunately, it seems like the state legislature does not care about preventing such tragedies. No text message is worth someone’s life, and Arizona’s current laws against texting and driving are too soft to make anyone fear the consequences of texting and driving.

The National Conference of State Legislatures shows that Arizona does not have a hand-held ban, a texting ban, and the state police can only enforce an all-cellphone ban against school bus drivers, learner’s permit holders, and provisional license holders during the first six months after their licensing was deemed effective. This needs to change if Arizona roads are to be made safer.

Last year in February, the Arizona state legislature introduced SB 1261. The law was suppose to push

which researches, monitors, tracks, and reports on every single bill which passes or gets denied, shows that SB 1261 could have had a great impact on drivers. It would have opened those who text and drive to legitimate prosecution and penalties instead of the lax laws the state currently has in place.

Arizona resident Cynthia Schneider, had a 16-year-old daughter who was killed in a texting and driving incident in November of 2016. Her daughter was riding a mountain bike when she was struck from behind by a woman who was speeding and on her phone. Her killer received a speeding ticket and a $1,000 dollar fine.

It is not just the average Arizonian who dont support texting and driving bans either. Arizona is one of the only states who has rejected a texting ban for 11 consecutive years. The people of Arizona as well as our Legislature has deemed texting and driving bans as “too instusive” and “the state’s generic traffic laws can be used to site distracted drivers.”

If this were true then in turn accident rates would surely drop, but looking at traffic reports and statis-

F E B U AR R Y

Mia Brito staff writer

tics, 25% of fatal car crahses are due to “distracted drivers”, and the numbers will only continue to increase.

This type of inaction is inexcusable, if people who kill others because they were texting and driving get off without severe consequences, the state is becoming complicit in the loss of innocent lives. Instead of being so soft on texting and driving, legislature should enact state-wide laws supporting a full ban on texting and driving in order to make Arizona roads safer.

High school is not preparing students for college With a competitive global outlook for new jobs, schools are challenged with further improving student’s skills in time for college. However, studies have shown that schools are struggling to help students get ready.

OPINION

Jo Breese staff writer

There is a serious debate taking place about whether or not high school actually prepares students for college. High schools are not about preparing a student for college, they are preparing someone to get into college.

Schools are so focused on improving GPAs and having students get good test scores, that they forget to teach students how to actually be ready for college -- things like how to take notes and study the material taught.

Most high schools do not offer challenging classes that help ease kids into the way college professors teach.

High schools care more about students passing standardized test and graduating than preparing them to handle the stress and workload of college.

Students often do not take any classes that challenge the or prepare them for college. In fact, the Hechinger Report, which covers innovation in education through in-depth journalism and research, reported that only 47 percent of American high school graduates take either a college ready course or career ready course. Even worse is that, according to The Education Trust, a national nonprofit that works to close opportunity gaps that dispro-

portionately affect students, reported that only 8 percent of graduates are ready to take on college courses.

Some people argue that high school helps prepare students by giving them large loads of homework, as students would be given in college. Teaching kids how to handle homework is a great thing, but high schools should not just be giving out homework. They should be giving kids progressively harder classes to deal with instead of just hammering on the homework.

Many college freshman say that the transition from high school to college is tough because of how high school allows second chances, such as late work or test redos. Most college professors do not allow late work or trest retakes. In high school, you can just spend a whole week not studying and look at a study guide the night before and ace the test. College requires way more effort to be put in to receive a good grade and pass a test.

Many critics point to a study done in Canada in 2010 that says that of 78 percent of kids in 12th grade feel they are ready for college. While these students may feel ready, college will still hit them hard. They may not drop out, but

many have a tough time transitioning.

This rough transition period could be easily mitigated if high schools focused more on college preparations then GPA. Perhaps Cactus Shadows should consider what the U.S. Department of Education’s guide to preparing high school students for college recommends: 1. Offer a college preparatory curriculum and make sure that, by ninth grade, students understand academic requirements for college entry and success 2. Use assessment throughout high school to help students understand their relative readiness for college, and help them address any identified deficiencies 3. Surround students with people -adults and peers -- who build and support their college-going aspirations 4. Help students complete required steps for college entry 5. Increase families’ financial awareness and help students apply for financial aid Regardless of how it is done, it is clear that we need to be doing a better job helping students succeed in college.

Students feel high school does not adequately prepare them for college Only 45 percent of high school students feel positive about their readiness for college and careers

Results from a survey administered to 165,000 students nation-wide conducted

by YouthTruth, a nonprofit group based out of San Fransisco, showed that students feel that they are not ready for the real world or careers. The point of high school is to help students prepare for college, so if they are feeling unprepared changes need to be made.

Only about one third of high school seniors are ready for college level courses

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a government agency which collects data and measures what students are capable of in various subjects across the nation, have shown that high school seniors are not ready to go to college. In 2013, 26 percent of high school seniors were above or at proficient levels for college level mathematics. In 2015, this number decreased to 25 percent. For reading readiness the number of seniors proficient or above college readiness levels were 37 percent, which decreased in 2015 to 36 percent. Researchers from NAEP say that in 2018 these levels have not had any significant change.

KASSIDY WHEELER

C H M A R

Renaissance Redux THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS SPOTLIGHT

March 8, 2019 ● 11

Jo Breese reviews his visit to the Renaissance Festival in Gold Canyon

By Jo Breese staff writer

The 2019 Arizona Renaissance Festival is back in Gold Canyon this year, every weekend until March 31 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with brand new attractions and vendors.

The Arizona Renaissance Festival has been going on for 31 years. This year the festival boasts nine different rides, 49 entertainers, and over 200 vendors. One of the festival’s biggest attractions is the jousting, which goes on three times a day.

Over 2,000 other costumed characters can also be seen throughout the festival grounds.

The festival also puts on multiple themed weekends. These include the Regal Royal and Monarch Monday (February 16-18), Time Traveler Weekend (February 23-24), Pirate Invasion! (March 2-3), Celtic Weekend (March 16-17), and the Fairytale Fynery & Fantasy Weekend (March 23-24). Each of these themed events add their own spin to the renaissance theme the festival has, each in different ways.

For example, during the Regal Royal they will have a birthday party for “the Queen” with cake and a small skit.

The Arizona Renaissance Festival has many new performers and entertainers this year, but they still have returning guests such as

ORNATELY SCULPTED POTTERY is just one of the

many things that artists bring to sell at the Renaissance Fair.

THE CACTUS SHADOWS4 PRESS THE NEWS JO BREESE

Local equestrian makes it rein:

Luke Fappani, a gold medalist for the US Reining Team, has already kickstarted his career in reining horses.

By Grant Richardson

L staff writer

UCA Fappani is a freshman

at Cactus Shadows who reins horses. Reining is a type of competition where the riders guide horses through a precise pattern of circles, spins, and stops. It is judged by three main concepts: functional correctness, maneuvers, and attitude.

Fappani has been riding horses since he was two years old and he has started showing them over the last five years. Andrea Fappani, his father is the one who got him into riding horses and is his trainer.

Mr. Fappani has been very successful with horses. He has became one of the all time leading trainers in Reining-world wide. He has also became the youngest NRHA (National Reining Horse Association) million dollar rider. He is now a five million

dollar rider and three time NRHA futurity champion.

Fappani is always trying to get better and to practice as much as he can.

He tries to practice at least six days of the week. It is convenient that his dad is his trainer so he can train whenever.

They have a good father and son relationship that makes it easy for them to work together.

He loves having a good challenge so he can work hard to get it right.

“When you get a really tough horse to ride and at the beginning they are quite a handful and hard to ride but then the satisfaction of making them good and showing them is a fun time,” said Fappani.

Riding horses has been in their family for a couple of generations. The family has been extremely successful and they look to keep up all the hard work. Mr. Fappani has participated in very big events in his career.

Cast in Bronze, a 4 ton musical instrument containing over 35 bronze bells that has been invited to play for Pope John Paul II and the Presidential Inauguration.

Also returning is the performance act, Cirque du Sewer, a trained animal show with rats and cats, and Knotty Nauticals, a interactive comedy show with rope walking and fire eating. The festival has 14 different stages, each with their own schedule and shows, scattered throughout its walls, which is why it is handy to grab a map up front before you enter. Another reason to grab a map is to see which shops/venders you want to visit. With over 200 venders spread over 30 acres, it can be hard to locate certain shops.

Vendors can have everything from faux elf ears to fantasy maps to a steel battle axe.

There is also a costume shop at the front to rent or buy outfits for the fair. The fair is not just shops though, it also has many different foods too, like the turkey legs and roasted corn-on-the-cob. If you are planning on going, be sure to bring a credit card or $30 to $100 to carry around while browsing the fair.

The Festival also hosts a dinner and entertainment event call The Pleasure Feast. It includes a renaissance themed five course meal along with a special edition goblet and 90 minutes of entertainment.

The Pleasure Feast takes place at 12 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. everyday the feastival is open. It costs $75.95 and comes with a admission ticket to the festival, but they sell out quick so preordering is necessary to get a spot.

EVIT offers aMONTHLY different opportunityPLAYLIST:

“I’ve had great moments in my career but one that stands out is to represent the United States in the Olympic Games and winning gold Blitzkrieg Bop by The Ramones with my team,” said Mr. Fappani.

Going Up the Country

by Canned Heat and 2017.

Doug Ducey, the Governor of He has been aJogreat mentor for Teenage Dirtbag byis Wheatus Arizona, one of the many to praise the Breese Fappani and always The Sign by Ace of Base staff keeps writer him motiprogram. vated. He constantly tells him that if Santa Monica by Everclear “A model example of what a career East Valley of Technology he wants to stay competitive, he Institute has Bloody Well Right

by Supertramp andSpirit Technical Education should be,” said (EVIT) is apedal Career to keep his foot on the gas and and Technical Smells Like Teen

by Nirvana not stop working.Education District (CTED) that givesOne Week Ducey.

by Barenaked Ladies Fappani stays humbled witheducation all of What’s My Age Again? by blink-182 Jacqueline Kennedy, a junior, plans on tuition free to students in his success and how much money he Just a Girl by No Doubt taking the Medical Assistant program at CCUSD starting next year. has won. Over the last couple years he Champagne Supernova by Oasis nextMelon year.

“EVIT is a centralized high school has won $75,000.

No RainEVIT

by Blind “I wanted to do Lit Mag because I’ve campus.

They have 11 school districts “He is an excellent person in and I Wanna Be Sedated

by The Ramones out of school, he has so are much talent on been in it for three years. But, it’s sort of that now members, and they take horse riding and gets fantastic grades a compromise because I can’t come after programs that other high schools maybe in school. I am very lucky to call him a school, so I might figure that out,” said would not be able to implement the profriend,” said Cooper Roderick a freshKennedy. gram into their high school,” said Louise man and one of his closest friends.

There is one issue that is discussed Rochford, Career and Education He looks to keep up withthe riding W AUSTIN HAGAN horses and followdirector. in his father's footoften when EVIT is mentioned, and that steps. is the schedule. EVIT requires you to EVIT is meant to help students who

want to learn practical job skills before they enter a field. For example, you can take courses like nursing or repairing cars. In addition, they offer many different courses from aviation to veterinary assistant. Next year, sophomores and juniors can take advantage of this program by signing up for EVIT in the front office. “[EVIT] has really good teachers. I went to the open house, and they seem pretty cool,” said Romi Takamura, a junior who plans to take 3D Animation at EVIT next year.

EVIT boasts a 98% high school graduation rate and 92% of their students placed in jobs, college, or the military by the time they graduate. According to the East Valley Tribune, it has been voted “Best Public School” by readers four different times in 2013, 2015, 2016,

leave Cactus Shadows at third period and they will bus you back to Cactus Shadows at around 3pm, which makes it extremely difficult for students who take EVIT to participate in afterschool clubs or sports. Adding to that, students would be required to take English during zero hour, a period that starts before school hours. ”Zero hour is probably the worst part.

But, I like getting out early and we get to leave, which is nice,” said Kennedy.

EVIT is planning on providing free transportation for students to and from Cactus Shadows. Although, many upperclassmen would prefer to drive themselves to and from the EVIT campus and the Cactus Shadows campus.

Arizona teacher shortage schools with out full staf

By Ryan Bartholomew staff writer

Arizona continues to face a teacher shortage unlike ever before. Nearly a quarter of teaching positions in Arizona right now are empty, with some districts facing incredibly high vacancy rates and soon to face even higher. In two years, about 25 percent of current teachers will be able to retire, leaving the unfilled positions at closer to 40 percent. The shortage also emphasizes the lack of special education teachers in the state, with about half of the vacant positions being for special education.

Kathy Hoffman, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, has made note of the shortage in numerous interviews since 2017. Her point of view focuses mainly on how the teachers who are leaving feel about their job situations.

“If there was a way for us to work together to find a way to have improved health care benefits, perhaps then schools would have many left over to give teachers raises,” said Hoffman.

Some teachers are retiring or leaving their jobs because of the low pay and a chance at better benefits somewhere else. Governor Doug Ducey proposed a new budget with substantial funding increases for K-12 schools. The intent of this is to eventually have an increase in teacher pay as a method of incentivizing them to stay on board with their districts.

“Obviously, pay as a teacher is not that good. You just have all the kids there which is what most are really staying for. But, I think they have a point,” said Grayson Pysczynski, a Callahan sophomore.

“

seen up to three te their Geometry cla “We work with o what ideas they ma Interest Based Neg also think we need tionships, listen to each other with pr said Dr. Debbi Burd Superintendent.

Additionally, the side of schools was shortage. In the Tu alone, 27 percent o were for special ed While Cactus Shad as hard in the Spec ment, other depart with the loss of mu the course of the s few weeks of each “Schools only fu work of our teache year, we have seen ber of teachers lea and move out of st during her first Sta address at the Ariz According to a s three months ago o by the Arizona Sch Adm Asso ers a resig first scho “I incre curre that said fresh D have fied vaca Schwartz until

I would just say to increase wages, but with current funding I know that just isn’t possible.

A

that English teachers stop teaching so many novels in the classroom. Her main reason for this is because reading novels does not prepare students for the text types they will be using in college and the workforce.

Currently, English teachers assign a variety of novels throughout the year, and students are required to read the entire novel. This is taking up a lot of schools days. Umbarger points out that the State and National standards are based on acquiring analytical skills, and not necessarily discussing ideas and themes in novels.

“It's not that I’m reading the Great Gatsby or I'm reading Romeo and Juliet, it’s I'm learning how to analyze text,” said Umbarger. “So, when we spend an inordinate amount of time on a certain piece of text, that’s not allowing our students to experience multiple types of text.

Umbarger also explained that when students get real jobs, they are not going to be reading novels. Most students will be going into colleges and getting jobs where they will be reading informational text. Colleges will be requiring students to know how to read certain text, pull out information from texts and then respond to questions using the text that has been pulled out. e“I think that fiction books wouldn’t have as much meaning as a book that’s more relevant to the topics of today,” said Dylan Heideman, a sophomore and book lover. “Novels have completely defined my personality and

Springboard was developed by the College Board, and is geared towards students in grades six through 12 grade.

Every grade levelis’ curriculum has an in-depth studying of one novel and one play.

According to Collegeboard.com, Springboard selects specific texts for study, but also allows teachers to choose their own texts that they know will work for their students.

Pre-AP Curriculum is already being used at Cactus Shadows. According to Collegeboard, this curriculum offers high standard focused courses that “help build, strengthen, and reinforce student’s content knowledge and skills.”

It helps prepare student for AP classes along with other college-level coursework.

They are designed to help all students and serve as a baseline for course work for subjects.

Janet Wells, an IB teacher who teaches English Honors to sophomores, does not believe novels should be taken out of the English curriculum.

“I think whatever a teacher does to make a student read a book is okay. I don’t care what students read as long as they read. I think that there is value in everything we read,” Wells said.

“Reading fiction prepares people to be open minded and tolerant, which are very necessary in our community.”

There is no current proposal to change the English curriculum, but the standards require that at least 50 percent of the time should be expository text.

M

A

Y THE KEY CLUB hosted a blood drive on April 30 to give students an opportunity to give

blood for patients in need. Local hospitals often run low on blood, which can cause serious problems when treating emergencies like car accidents. “I felt like I was giving back to the community somehow,” said Jacob Biggs, a junior who donated blood. 4 LOGAN MCDADE

Robotics Club RoboBear team wins rookie award at regional competition

By Jo Breese staff writer

The Robotics Club is a community club that creates and drives robots to win competitions.

The Robotics Club is a combination of the old Cactus Shadows robotics club and the old Bella Vista High School robotics club.

The Robotics Club borrows Bella Vista’s old robotics team name, making them the RoboBears at competitions.They became one club this year for funding reasons and next year they plan on getting a sponsor from cactus shadows but still remaining a community club.

“I started it ‘cause I was at the middle school and when I was there, I thought, this is so fun, why do I have to stop at middle school, I should just start at the high school,”

said Sebastian Cuc, a sophomore and the current president of the club and former president and founder of the Cactus Shadows Robotics Clu. Sonoran Trails Middle school has a robotics club for 7th and 8th graders, but when Cuc moved up to high school, there was currently no robotics club active, so he started his own. Cuc then helped in merging the clubs together to create a singular community robotics club.

The Robotics Club recently went to a FIRST Robotics Competition, which is a competition for high school and college teams to use their robots to complete a variety of tasks for certain amounts of points. Each year has a theme and this year’s theme was “Destination: Deep Space.”

“They had these rocket ships and this

cargo bay, where you had to either plug up the panels on the rocket ships or the cargo bay or you could put basically, like, rubber balls into the ship to gain points and putting hatch panels on, got like, two points per thing and putting cargo in got three points per thing and our robot only did hatch panels, so we just went around and plugged up all the sides of everything, so our teammates could put cargo into the bay,” explains Dominic Nicosia, a sophomore and an engineer on the robot.

Each division has a different theme each year. There are four divisions of age groups and grades: FIRST LEGO League Jr, for kids six to ten, FIRST LEGO League, for elementary and middle school, FIRST Tech Challenge, for middle school and high school, and FIRST Robotics Competition,

which is for high schools only. The Robotics Club recently competed at the FRC Regional West Competition and won an award.

“We won the Rookie Inspiration Award, which is how well you were able to spread the work of FIRST to other people as well as within our community. [We were] setting a good example for other rookie teams to join,” said Mike Artenian, the Lead Mentor of the Robotics Club.

Cuc claims that the award recipient is also determined on how well the team overcame challenges presented at the competition, how well they work together, and how far they get in the competition.

The Robotics Club continues to grow through students from Bella Vista and Cactus Shadows and they plan on going to many more competitions next year.