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S P E C TAT O R
VOLUME 93 NUMBER 2
1500 WEST KENNEDY ROAD, LAKE FOREST, IL 60045
Featured Stories NEWS
Project Pumpkin perfected by Prefects page 3
NEWS
Healthy Choices day to have changes in curriculum page 2 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Grease presents new opportunities for winter musical page 13
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OCTOBER 31, 2014
Co-ax finds new melody amidst suprising changes By Romaer Chopra Editor-in-Chief For Mr. Steve Ryder, faculty sponsor for LFA’s Co-ax band, the time seems right to give the students more leadership within the band. While Ryder remains the sponsor of the band, he greatly surprised many of the members by giving the students a chance to run more of the day- to-day operations on their own. As of now, this is meant to be a semester long experiment, and the band will re-evaluate its status at the end of the semester. Ryder has placed students in charge of things such as scheduling practice, choosing who plays on certain songs, and, to a large extent, choosing the music. While it is an experiment, Ryder believes that the increased leadership has worked very well to this point, but it remains to be seen how the band will perform at its upcoming concerts. “I am still overseeing things, and I may not play in this concert, but I may play in future concerts. We’ll see how this experiment goes; we’ll see how the band runs with more student input and with students running more day- to- day operations,” said Ryder. According to senior Daniel Bunning, the increased leadership came as a surprise to the students, but it was nothing they weren’t prepared for. Bunning recalls a few occasions when Ryder relied on his seniors to run practice, and Bunning believes this has helped prepare them for the current changes.
“We were honestly just really surprised because Mr. Ryder has had that role for so long. But because we had run practice before, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. But at the same time, we miss the quality control that he has because he as so much experience,” said Bunning. During the change, some members of the band have found it as an opportunity to develop new ideas and interests for the band. According to Bunning, the band is considering doing a type of performance with the new club, Bucket Crew. The band also uses
By Brandon Amoroso
“Canvas can help provide a portal to information, a system for faculty and student communication and collaboration. I do not see it as a driving force for our curriculum, but a way in which we can provide students with greater support and organization,” said Schwartz. Quinn Foley, an LFA senior, uses Canvas in his AB Calculus class and can see Canvas in the same way that Schwartz does. “The great thing about Canvas is it lets you have all the information you need for a class all conveniently located in one app, which really allows students to become more organized as they do not have to deal with the clutter of having various papers for the class syllabus, cycle sheets, homework, etc,” said Foley. Despite the general school-wide support for Canvas, a few teachers and stu-
a new rule where half the people playing a song have to approve the song in order for it to be preformed. This was added as a way to guarantee that the band is playing the most popular types of music. The change has also motivated members of the band and created a stronger bond among the existing members. “This being my first year, I didn’t really know the flow of things, but the changes have helped me become more comfortable with the group,” said senior in his first year with the band Lander Braggs.
Senior Lander Braggs sings at Parent’s Weekend concert.
Photo courtesy of Oliver Yuan
Canvas allows new collaboration between students and faculty
OP-ED
Gender inequality: real and prevelant page 5 SPORTS
LFA Soccer ends five year drought against LFHS Scouts page 16
Staff Writer Canvas has been taken in by the LFA community in approximately 25 classes, and has slowly begun to replace GoodReader, iTunesU, Edmodo, Quia and many other learning management systems that LFA teachers have utilized in their classes. Canvas allows teachers and students alike to post assignments, files, grades, and videos seamlessly, connecting student, teacher, and classroom all through technology. Mr. Phil Schwartz, Dean of Faculty and Curriculum, doesn’t see Canvas as being a driving force of the LFA curriculum but sees one of the greatest impacts of Canvas as providing a standard and consistent platform for students to access information regarding their courses.
dents remain a little skeptical of leaving behind their old and reliable ways such as GoodReader. Brian Sheu, Mathematics Teacher, does not use Canvas for any of his classes, instead opting for GoodReader. “I don’t use Canvas because we’ve had so many platforms at this school, so many different ways. I want to see what other teachers think first before I give it a try. I like the S-Drive, it’s a very easy click and drag that the students have access too. Unless I am presented with something that’s better than the S-Drive than that’s what I’ll use,” said Sheu. With all of the many platforms circulating LFA and its’ curriculum, Canvas seems to be one of the more favored options available. As of now, there are no plans to make Canvas a requirement for teachers to use, however.