NS Times 8th edition 2018

Emotional performance of Anne Frank deeply touches audience --story on page 10 25 apr 18

Low teacher pay leads to strikes, second jobs --see stories on page 4

www.nstimes.org

volume 11 issue 8

WELL SAID “I’ve had the opportunity to get to know so many people, so I want to get the school more united and create an even better atmosphere; a friendly environment where students want to come to school and support each other.”

-Student Body Secretary Linzy Flinders on the benefits of leadership

UPCOMING EVENTS Thursday, Apr 26 Girl’s Golf NS @ Manti-Palisades 11:00am-1:00pm Softball San Juan @ NS 3:30pm-6:30pm Boy’s Tennis NS @ Manti 3:30pm-5:30pm Boy’s Soccer Manti @ NS 4:00pm-7:00pm

NS elects new leadership

by Emily Barker

Friday the NS student body elected the Student Body Officers for the 2018-19 school year. Chance Clawson was elected president, with Kaleb Cox as vice president, Linzy Flinders as secretary and Brock Justesen as activity agent.

Clawson plays quarterback on the football team and has previously played on the basketball team, although this year he tore his meniscus,

photo by Hannah Ostraff

The newly elected SBOs gather together after the inaugaration ceremony on Friday: secretary Brock Justesen, vice president Kaleb Cox and president Chance Clawson. Not pictured is secretary Linzy Flinders.

so he was unable to started simply with play basketball. his school spirit.

Clawson’s deci“I always liked sion to run for office the idea of sharing

my pride as a lead- younger students. er,” Clawson said.

One thing He wants to be a Clawson plans on role model for the implementing is

BY THOMAS DE GROFF

3

Ranking of senior Carlos Navarro in sta soccer

Number of players on the boys volleyball team

2

Place senior Emily Barker took at state FCCLA

1 Place of softball in region

CONTENTS Features................5 Sports...................7 Arts......................10 Crossword...........12

See SBOs, page 3

NS looks to implement standards-based grading

BY THE NUMBERS

8

changing the stigma that surrounds our school’s dances; he wants to liven the environment and make more students want to come and to stay longer.

Clawson is prepared to take on his duties as president and plans to do so with his ability to not get discouraged and to remain selfmotivated.

Cox always loved the idea of being in leadership roles and the idea of making connections with people has always appealed

by Kaleb Cox and Abigail Clawson The push for equality between men and women is not new, but as the traditional labels for men and women are changing, the role the different genders play in society are currently being challenged in ways never before considered.

“I think stereotypes exist for a reason,

but I think they’re frequently wrong,” said NS Family and Consumer Sciences teacher Sterling Whipple. “I think men and women are both pressured by society to be things that they may not want to be.”

Not only the pressure, but the ideal gender covering particular aspects of society leave many feeling out of place when they step outside the norms for gender roles in society.

NS could be transitioning toward a new, standards-based grading system in the near future. While change can be frightening and confusing, this new method may not actually be so new after all.

“Our teachers have already established a guaranteed viable curriculum,” said NS Principal Nan Ault. “We’re guaranteeing that we’re going to deliver those things to [students]—not necessarily that every kid’s going to get it, but we’re going to deliver it.”

This is a key part of a standards-based philosophy in schools, along with the principles of the relatively new Common Core standards. Most teachers are already trying to teach their students a mastery of concepts rather than having their curriculum based around simple memorization or busywork.

“The philosophy behind it is that you

See Gender, page 3

See Grading, page 2

New counselors to change counseling dynamic BY

A BIGAIL C LAWSON

The coming retirement of NS counselor Chet Keisel brought about the decision to change the structure in the counseling center and bring on two new counselors, previous Work-based Learning Coordinator Jon Hafen and counselor Heather Allred.

The addition of a third person led to a

change in the organization of the different roles and the assigning of grade levels to each counselor. The current system has each class paired with a counselor who then follows that group for all of the students’ high school career. Starting next school year, each counselor will be assigned a grade level—freshmen, sophomore, junior or senior— and will remain over that

grade as each class graduates to the next level, enabling counselors to have a more complete understanding of what is required during their grade level, rather than shifting each year and missing changes and opportunities available to students.

It remains undecided who will be assigned to each class, but Hafen and Allred will each work with one class

while current counselor Ben Cox will cover two.

The idea is for students to have a support system where they work with and know each counselor and can receive differing points of view to determine what is best for the student.

“We hope that that will be valuable for students to get a little bit different input instead of always working with the same person; it’s nice to

have another set of eyes to review what they’re doing,” Cox said. “Now they get the perspective from different counselSee Counseling page 3

2 news Grading, continued from page 1 want to have strategies in your classroom that allow kids to meet proficiency in a concept,” Ault said. “You want kids to learn—you don’t want to just throw it at them and move on.”

If NS is already striving for a standards-based curriculum, then what would the implementation of a standards-based grading system look like?

These are two things that are related but different. Would a system that grades students based on proof of mastery in a concept be better than the grading scale currently in place?

“This standards-based grading scale isn’t something that’s new to all teachers,” said Instructional Coach Adam Peterson. “There are several—I think many—teachers who are kind of doing that. I think parents are going to be a harder shift than the teachers. It’s a cultural change.”

Teachers, faced with the task of preparing a young generation for an uncertain future, are no strangers to change.

But some wonder whether a change like this one is truly needed.

“I think there are some real positives with standards-based grading.

However, education likes to change things on a regular basis,” said school counselor and English teacher Ben

Cox. “The question is whether or not it’s necessary.”

Cox has already started to adapt his classrooms to parts of the standards-based philosophy. While he is concerned about what implementing standards-based grading at NS would mean for teachers who are already under heavy demands, he trusts that the right dewcision will be made.

“While I do have some reservations about standards-based grading and its implementation, I have complete confidence in Nan and our administration to do what is best for the students and the school,” Cox said.

Some schools that have jumped into a standards-based system of grading have had negative outcomes. When too much emphasis is placed on mastery of topics and too little on soft skills such as getting assignments in on time, the door is left open for student to try and cheat the system or get by with only a minimal effort.

“The problem is, standards-based grading comes with some interesting approaches by other schools that create kind of a nasty taste in our mouths,” Ault said.

That nasty taste could stem from concerns that a standards-based grad-

ing scale would shelter students trying to get by on laziness and procrastination.

“We still need kids to be motivated to participate, because if you’re not participating, how am I going to know if you’re learning?” Peterson said. “We still need to hold kids accountable with their time so it’s not these deathbed confessions at the end of the quarter.”

It is also important to understand that the school curriculum—and by extension the grading system—should be concerned not only with increasing and testing knowledge, but also with preparing students for the world that comes after high school.

“Your test scores will show your knowledge. What about your work ethic? I think the fact that grades show both is a good thing,” Cox said.

With all these fears and concerns under consideration, Ault assured that the transition to a standards-based grading system will a cautious one.

“We’re still just trying to figure out how this looks for us,” Ault said. “I’m not interested in creating a game, because teachers will play the game and so will kids.”

By learning from the mistakes of other schools, NS is looking to create its

own version of standards-based grading that would be best for both teachers and students. While it may seem easier to simply stick with the same basic system that has been around for decades, it is time to talk about the future.

“It’s come our way. The conversation is here; we’re going to have to have it,” Ault said. “I know that the district is moving in that direction, and so we’re going to have to participate, but we want to participate in a way that makes sense to us.”

That conversation may be a tricky one to have, but Peterson has faith in Ault and her leadership.

“Teachers are always under a lot of pressure to change and to improve and to hone their craft,” Peterson said.

“I believe that Nan isn’t going to ask them to stretch more than they can.”

Hopefully a new grading system could better display the academic accomplishments of students to teachers, parents and the students themselves while still valuing soft skills like punctuality and dedication. The details will be worked out in the future, but for now there is no cause for alarm.

“We’re going to figure out how to do it our way,” Ault said.

Tradition changed to one color graduation gowns for seniors BY

MOSIAH BUNTING

Tradition is an ideal held in high regard by many students, teachers and parents at NS. This year tradition has changed; the graduation gown policy at NS has been revised due to the identity revolution taking place across the U.S. “Instead of two separate gown colors, there will only be one,” said Nan Ault, principal at NS. In the past, the graduating classes had males wearing red and females wearing white. Now, all seniors will wear red gowns. This decision was made and approved after the careful consideration of both the administration and school board members.

“The school board has been discussing this change for a while,” said Jeff Ericksen, assistant-principal at NS. Ericksen emphasizes that this change is not due to any current students or issues at NS, but rather a preventative approach to avoid potential problems that may appear in the future. He also said that this change was approved at the start of the school year, seven months ago, and that it had been discussed the preceding year as well.

“Jostens, the company that provides class rings and graduation attire, suggested the change to the school,” Ault said. “Jostens is a nation-wide company, and they have seen some issues arise due to gender identity misunderstandings.”

Issues have arisen in various schools when students who identify with a different gender are free to choose their gown color for graduation, and this leaves other more traditional students feeling that

photo provided by Laura Bunting

The class of 2017 stands during graduation with the boys in red and girls in white.

equality is not being implemented fairly, at least pertaining to graduation.

“I understand that [transgender students] may be opposed to wearing the color of their biological gender,” said Anna Staker, senior at NS, “but we are letting the minority decide what the majority does.” Staker feels that the gown colors should have remained the same, and that many people, mainly women, are no longer fairly represented at graduation with the one color gowns.

“North Sanpete is not the only school to have one-colored graduation gowns,” Ault said. “Pleas-

ant Creek has had one-color graduation gowns for as long as I can remember.” The uni-color gowns have helped to create an environment where all seniors are treated the same, regardless of gender or accomplishments. Ault feels that the one color graduation gowns will help to unify the graduating seniors, and it was an option that put less stress on the local community. “[The administration] thought about changing to a two-color gown,” Ericksen said. This new gown would have incorporated both the traditional red and white colors, but due to the financial circumstances of the community, requiring every student to purchase a new gown would have put many families under unnecessary monetary strain. This influenced the decision to move into a one color red gown that many families would already have from previous male graduates. However, not everyone in the community feels this change is ideal.

“I don’t feel that this change is preserving tradition,” Staker said. She feels that women should be represented in graduation just as they have always been. Staker is proud to be a woman and she feels that this change degrades the distinctness between men and women. The administration feels differently.

“We made the change to preserve our school’s tradition,” Ericksen said. Ericksen feels that this change, while shocking to some, will preserve the tradition of graduation better than retaining a potential hotbed of controversy that could have been stirred up in the future.

Cache Valley Bank is your local community bank ready to assist with your personal, business, and farm financial needs.

We are proud to support the N.S. Times

Go Hawks !!!

3

news SBOs, continued from page 1 to him. Cox enjoys working with people and has come to know that there is good in everyone.

“In a SBO role you are representing the student body,” Cox said, “so I want to be able to represent all of the student body and get to know students I wouldn’t normally get to know.”

Along with befriending more students, Cox wants the students to all feel like they have a role.

“Not everyone needs to have a role in making the school function,” Cox said, “but we all have a role in the way that we make this school what it is.”

Every student deserves to be able to find something they love doing and to be able to do that through the school. Along with this, Cox wants everyone to feel that they have a place in the school— that they are accepted and that they can be accepting.

Flinders loves being social and because of that, she has been very involved in high school. Her involvement is what has made her high school career so enjoyable, and she hopes to encourage other students to do the same.

“There has become a separation between classes and groups,” Flinders said. “I’ve had the opportunity to get to know so many people, so I want to get the school more united and create an even better atmosphere; a friendly environment where students want to come to school and support each other.”

As a member of Hope Squad, Flinders has been involved with the uplifting Twitter comments posted around the school.

“It’s been important to put up the good things about people around the school because those good traits are what you start to focus on; it has helped me

Counseling, continued from page 1 ors and have an opportunity to learn and get knew things from each of us.”

The experience and past each of the new counselors brings new perspectives and skills to students.

Hafen’s work at NS, as well as his experience working as a counselor at Pleasant Creek High school the past three years, has been incredibly valuable, which brought the interviewing committee to take the opportunity to change how counseling is done at NS. Working half-time in this capacity and half-time in his previous role as Work-based Learning Coordinator, Hafen will be at NS full-time, making him available to students throughout the entire school day if needed.

Having Hafen full-time at NS and the addition of the third counselor expands the ability of the counselors to fill in for each other, and strengthen the overall coordination of the team.

While Hafen’s work at Pleasant

Creek and his familiarity with NS will be beneficial to the counseling center, Allred will bring a new aspect of support to students.

For a year, Allred has worked with Central Utah Counseling to come into the school once or twice a week to provide support and help for students beyond what the counselors are trained to do; this expertise and time at NS made Allred an ideal candidate for the job.

“We had a ton of really qualified candidates, and everybody brought different things to the table, and we had an opportunity to include someone who had more experience with actual therapy with students,” Cox said.

“That’s why we’re thrilled for Heather Allred to be a part of the counseling team because she brings in some experience that we don’t have and that we’re not trained for, so she’s an incredibly valuable asset for us.

Gender, continued from page 1 “[For example,] women are pressured largely by society to be beautiful and are told from day one that if you’re not beautiful you have no value,” Whipple said. “That’s why makeup sells so well, and that’s why there is no market for makeup to men, because that’s not how men have been brainwashed.”

We hear a lot about the portrayal of women by Hollywood and the media as a whole, giving their characteristics of the ideal female, leaving many feeling insignificant and with little value in the world, but it is becoming more common to see women and men living outside the cookie cutter mold shown in the media.

“I think [stereotypes have] blurred a lot since the 70’s,” said English teacher Kate Carney. “I think it’s much more of a you have stay-at-home dads besides stay-at-home moms, but you still have a lot of people who expect working women to then still take care of the entire house...but I think it’s blurring more so it’s not quite so cut and dry, and many more husbands are willing to help take care off kids and help run the house and things like that.”

Societal norms, though becoming gradually more tolerant and accepting, still tend to throw labels on different kinds

of people, men and women specifically.

Men often times feel pressured to be the main worker and source of income in homes, as well as many feeling like they have to “man up” when things go south for them.

“I would like to see boys and men feel like they are able to express their feelings and not have to be breadwinners or bring home giant paychecks to be important people,” Whipple said.

The lean towards men as the main source of income for a family is a big factor in the discussion on occupational segregation based on gender and the ever-debated wage gap between men and women.

This refers to the tendency for some jobs and industries to be heavily occupied by one gender, and studies show that those jobs occupied by men tend to pay more than those by women.

In Utah, occupational segregation is prevalent. Religion plays a large part on the roles women tend to play in their community, and with nearly 60 percent of the state identifying as members of the LDS faith, beliefs sometimes help to further these expectations.

Mormon culture emphasizes marriage and motherhood, which is reflected in the fact that Utah has the highest mar-

see the good in everyone,” Flinders said.

Justesen is excited to be an SBO because of his personal goal to get to know every student by name so they always have a friend to talk to.

“My football coach said, ‘Brock, I need you to do me a favor, I need you to sit with kids who sit alone at lunch. Be their friend,’” Justesen said.

Justesen had plans to do this already but having his coach encourage him pushed him even harder to work towards his goal.

“I want students to have fun at the school and feel like they have somewhere that matters, a place where they are wanted,” Justesen said.

He also plans on finding ways to get more students interested and excited about the school’s dances.

As the focus towards mental health and safety has become more intense in recent years, many are concerned about how prepared their children’s school is and what measures are being taken to help troubled students. While counselors have certainly offered assistance in the past, and could make referrals to therapists, having one onsite increases the team’s ability to assist students in the school and the effort in helping and protecting students.

“Heather comes in here with a lot of expertise on the mental health side of things that we’ve never really had in the school...” Hafen said. “By having [her] here as a school counselor who’s also qualified in the mental health department, she’s gonna be able to help support us with some of the rising concerns that we see in the schools— the suicidal rates, the school shootings—the different things we’ve been worried about that we see in the me-

riage rate, earliest age for marriage, second highest fertility rate and the highest average household size.

Despite these statistics, the amount of Utah women in the workforce is still at a similar percentage as those across the nation. However, because many of those women working see their income only as a way to make ends meet for their families, they are not focused on a long term working career.

“I think that that’s part of the reason why teachers make so little in Utah, because women are supposed to stay at home and most of the teachers are women in Utah,” Carney said.

“Theirs is a second income, so they’re not going to pay them as much because it’s your second income and you probably shouldn’t be working anyway.

But I do know that outside of teaching women tend to make less than men.”

Nationally, the generally accepted number for the pay gap between women and men annually is 80 cents to the dollar.

When narrowing it down to per hour or per week, these numbers are a lot closer, but a lot is left out when looking through a smaller scope.

Studies show that there is only a seven percent difference in pay during the first year out of college, but as time goes on,

dia a lot, it’s going to be great to have someone on board who can help support that effort.”

Allred’s help will certainly be a great aid to students, and working with each counselor also opens the door for students to find someone they identify with, in turn pushing the way for a greater end result.

“People connect with others in different ways, and I think the more people you have the more likely you have of someone making a strong connection, which is one of the most important things we do as school employees: make connections with students,” Cox said. “That is one of the top things that correlates with students success, is making strong, positive connections with role models, with teachers, with counselors, with administration, whoever, and having more just gives us more opportunities to connect.”

that gap increases. Time spent off for things like motherhood put women at a disadvantage as they can lose job experience that their male counterparts wouldn’t, as well as not receiving promotions within the workplace as quickly or frequently.

“Sometimes [women are paid less] because they take time off to have children,” Carney said, “and so then when they come back they’ve lost maybe a couple years of experience or they’ve gone to half-time.

But if they’re doing the exact same job then they should be getting paid, in my mind, the exact same amount of money.”

It’s hard to know where to begin when finding ways to fix this issue. From an education standpoint, many suggest starting with encouraging women to finish their education, specifically with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Most women tend to work for a large parts of their lives, and even if they don’t, it’s good to have that education if the need ever arises.

But what happens at work is but one of the several stereotypes and discriminations that can occur with gender.

As the typical roles are being challenged, questions arise as transgender people take their place in society. While this is a highly controversial topic

with many possible outcomes, “If there is a right and wrong to [the transgender issue], I have don’t know where it is,” Whipple said. “I think, my straight up opinion regarding the transgender issue is, “Can we all just be nice to each other?” There’s so much hatred attached to it and rejection.

Can we all just be nice to each other?”

The idea of being considerate of another person is not only true for transgender people, but of all people working towards something, whether to provide for a family or to work with something they are passionate about. If this is what someone is doing, why should they be looked down on or have a tougher go of it because of their gender?

“My motto for many aspects of reality is you do you,” Whipple said. “If there’s a girl out there who wants to be a computer programmer or a astrophysicist or whatever, you do you, knock yourself out, go be excellent at it. If there’s a guy out there who wants to be a stay-at-home father, you do you, knock yourself out, be excellent at it. Life’s too short to spend your time worrying about what other people think.”

4 news

Teacher strikes bring focus to salary, benefit struggle

BY

CARLI JOHANSEN

Though the problem has existed for years, recent strikes in many states around the country are shedding light on the low wages of teachers and sub-par benefits.Teachers are taking a stand, saying enough is enough.

It started in Oklahoma, Alabama and West Virginia, teachers all over these states shut their schools down for pay raises and better health insurance, but now the movement has spread nationwide—Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky and others have joined in—all campaigning for the rights they believe they deserve.

“It’s a domino effect,” said science teacher Kolby Henrie. “One guy does it and gets what he wants, and everyone else hops on the bandwagon.”

So how does this affect the nation?

Does this mean anything for our future and children?

“Nations that value education pay their teachers very well,” said business teacher Justin Morley, “because they realize that these are the people teaching their doctors and lawyers. They’re the first step.”

Not only do teachers have an incredible impact on students and future generations, but they put in hours of off the clock work.

“We have a lot of influence on the community, on the students we come

in contact with,” said science teacher Brad Bentley, “and people don’t seem to realize all the work we put into what we do.”

Why is it? Virtually every person spends a large portion of their childhood in a classroom, and that time is vastly essential for who they become.

Teachers are often the trailblazers for change and have a large impact on who students become. No one denies the potential influence a teacher holds.

Yet, no one goes into teaching for the money.

“To go into teaching, you have to understand that you are going into it to help others, and not to get rich,” Bentley said. “That’s why most teachers are innately kind hearted.”

While this problem is nothing new, it is getting worse. Teacher’s benefits are being reduced or removed while wages are stagnant, making teaching less and less financially safe and profitable by the year.

The average starting salary recently crossed $35,000 in Utah, and the money is near to impossible to support a family on, forcing many teachers to quit before their tenth year.

Teachers underpayment is no new issue; for nearly as long as teachers have existed, they have struggled to remain financially stable.

In a study done by the Economic Policy Institute, published in the Wash-

ington Post, it was found that public teacher weekly wages have dropped 30 dollars (inflation adjusted) from 1996 to 2015. It’s an important distinction to mention that this study compares teachers of similar standing from 1996 to those from 2015, not the same teacher in 1996 and 2015 (i.e a first year teacher in 1996 to a first year teacher in 2015).

“The rate of inflation is about 4 percent, and if a teacher gets a raise, its only about 1 or 2 percent, so we are falling behind the rate of inflation,” said math teacher Matt Syme.

In addition to the paycut, benefits are also becoming less appealing as time goes on. An attractive feature of teaching was the rather supportive retirement plan, which made up for some of the loss of salary.

In 2011, a rather significant change in teacher’s retirement plans in Utah was made. Under the retirement plan prior to the change, teachers after 30 years would receive around 60% of the annual average of their highest three years of pay for every year of their retirement. Now, any teacher hired needs to work 35 years to receive around 52.5% of the annual average of their three highest years. They work longer to receive less.

“The retirement is not what it used to be,” Morley said, “and that negatively affects the compensation value.”

Perhaps the salary would be sufficient if teachers strictly worked the paid 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., five days a week, 187 days a year. However, teachers have to donate much personal time in order to succeed. Once a teacher packs up and goes home, it does not mean that the work is done. Assignments and quizzes must be created and graded and lesson plans laid out, creating hours more of unpaid and unnoticed labor. “[The job benefits] are not a draw anymore,” Syme said. “It’s not going to attract teachers to teach in Utah; it’s just not that good anymore.”

There has been a significant drop in students entering the teaching field, and even fewer that enter stay in the education workforce. This means fewer options, less competition and therefore lower quality of teachers, which creates a sub-par learning environment for the children, and future of the United States.

“The less and less effective teachers are, the worse and worse the students perform, and the less and less prepared they are for the future,” Syme said.

But teaching does provide rewards that don’t involve money.

Many teachers feel that teaching is a selfless job, and one that while underappreciated, is noble and rewarding in ways that are indescribable.

Many teachers take second jobs to make ends meet

photo provided by Justin Morley

Business teacher Justin Morley owns and operates a lawncare business to suppliment his income.

A LEX L ARSEN

As a first year teacher at NS, a teacher earns just NS business and com- $35,766 a year. Any teacher puter teacher Justin Morley who would be the sole providwakes up to the summer sun er for their household would shining down on him. The be in the lower class of the school year just ended and it’s United States economy. time for him to break out the Realistically someone lawn mowers and get to work. with a bachelor’s degree could This year is Morley’s sec- find a job that pays significantond year teaching at NS and ly more in a different place. his fourteenth year mowing But many teachers have found lawns, both of which are jobs additional employment to that he must have in order to supplement their income. have a decent living.

“I own a lawn mowing “It allows me to truly be business, [and I] also breed a teacher,” Morley said. “I cattle,” Morley said. “The lawn wouldn’t be able to afford liv- mowing is seasonal, but it’s ing off of my teaching salary really busy with school still alone.” going on. We just mow and BY

Corner Station Deli & Co-op (435) 427-5500 Every Day 11-7

fertilize and aerate people’s lawns.”

Morley is grateful for the opportunity to have a second source of income as he feels that something like that may be crucial to provide.

“The cows don’t really make as much money; we just started a couple years ago,” Morley said. “Down the road it’ll provide, in my opinion, a retirement plan, to a degree.”

Morley is not alone, many teachers work to provide a second source of income.

Life sciences teacher Brad Bentley works as a journalist/ writer for the local newspaper, The Pyramid.

“It kind of ties in with what I do here at the high school,” Bentley said. “I write a lot of the sports articles for the high school and also a lot of whatever else is going on here at the high school.”

With such an involvement in the sports at the high school, Bentley also found a job as the announcer of football, basketball and volleyball games.

“I just kind of fell into it,” Bentley said. “My second or third year teaching here, the announcer that was here got sick and the athletic director asked if I would be able to fill in, and I’ve been doing it since then.”

Alongside these two jobs, Bentley also spent some of his first few years of teaching as a forest service technician in or-

OLSON FAMILY DENTISTRY 462-2070 Glen S. Olson DDS.

Go Hawks!

der to help pay bills.

“The summer forest service job that I had was a huge boost,” Bentley said. “It was nice to have a few extra thousand dollars in the summer.

It relieved a lot of financial stress.”

As a teacher moves through their years of teaching, their salary is slowly increased and any additional extra curricular activities also have the potential to pay.

“After about the first ten years of teaching, I was finally starting to make enough money to feel good about things,” Bentley said.

Similarly, math teacher Matt Syme works for the forest service during the summers to help provide and take his mind off of school.

“You’d think that would be really nice to have 10 weeks off--after the first week it was awful,” said math teacher Matt Syme. “People suffer if they don’t have something to do.”

Some of Syme’s responsibilities include putting up fences, developing springs, cutting down trees that are in the way, as well as anything else that is needed of him.

“I’m kind of a handyman for the forest service,” Syme said.

“I’m not like the guy who goes out and hugs trees. We show up and if there’s an urgent need, we do it.”

Alongside the pay that is provided, Syme feels that the forest service job can help him to get his mind off of the school year.

“Financially it’s nice, but I picked [the job] up for something to do,” Syme said. “And it’s more of a therapy than anything else… it’s a nice get away.”

With teacher salaries so low, it’s becoming more of a common occurrence for teachers to have that secondary source of income. Some of the newest teachers at NS, Justin Morley and college prep teacher Rhett Bird, have a business to help provide for themselves.

“You definitely have to have something to provide for your family,” Morley said.

“It’s a standard that I wish wasn’t there, because it would make educators have the opportunity to provide a better job because they can focus on [teaching].”

MKJ has been serving Sanpete County and surrounding areas for over 20 years A family owned and run business, specializing in building excavation and demolition. Services include buildings, basements, ponds, roadwork, water lines, and septic systems. No job is too big or too small.

5

25 apr 18

Trivia app gains popularity among students, faculty BY

C HRISTIAN SANCHEZ

In August 2017 the IOS app store received an app that nobody knew would take over trivia shows. This same app later was acquired by the Android Play Store in December of 2017. This app is called HQ Trivia; the game is a live trivia show that has a set grand prize and 12 questions ranging from easy and gradually growing to tricky questions.

If the player gets past all 12 questions they win real money; the only issue is that you do need a PayPal account to put the money in. Do not be fooled if you do end up winning, you don’t earn the full $5,000 for yourself. The prize is split up between all of the winners of that round. Some have only won $1.67 while others have won up to $60.

“I think it’s so addictive because everyone wants free money,” senior Makade Talbot said.

“It tests how smart you are, and you’re proving your intelligence, so why not make a few bucks while you’re at it.”

HQ isn’t a correct abbreviation for something, but cofounder Rus Yusupov (creator of Vine) suggested that it may stand for “Hard Questions.”

This new app has had great success through its short time in both the IOS and Android de-

vices. There are two broadcasts per weekday, which customarily begin at 1 p.m. MST and 7 p.m.

MST. The Sunday evening quiz is usually a bigger prize. The show often gives five to ten minutes heads up in case you wanted to join the race for the big prize.

With a competition ranging from 600,000 to 1,000,000 participants (called “HQties” by host Scott Rogowsky), players must know their stuff when going into this game.

Speaking of hosts, main host Scott Rogowsky, aka Quiz Daddy is currently 33 years old and still living with his parents. Rogowsky used to be the host of a comedy panel called, “Running Late with Scott Rogowsky” with his dad.

His parents or “roommates”

are his biggest fans when it comes to HQ. They watch him every time he goes on. During an interview he said, “They haven’t won yet, but are killing it at the ‘have you heard of my son’ game.”

The students at NS have their own thoughts about the hosts of HQ. “I don’t like the girl hosts—it looks super exhausting,” Talbot said. “I mean I would like his job to just read a screen and have millions of people watching me, plus I bet he makes a lot of money.”

Some of these players include some of the staff at NS. Mrs. Cheryl Hadley said she is the one who introduced the game to the staff here at NS. Her niece told her about it during the Christmas break, then she introduced it to

the staff.

“I am determined to win at some point,” Hadley said. “During second lunch all of us just sit in there and play.”

Along with the staff there are students that also play the HQ game.

“HQ gives kids cancer,” Talbot said. “I used to think it was a dumb thing that everyone did, but now I really enjoy it.”

With this show having such great success and many people joining in each round the question remains—where do they get their money to fund all the shows they are broadcasting? Yusupov had made significant investments long before they released the app.

They raised $15 million in venture funding in hopes that the

app would gain great popularity and companies would pay to associate with it.

The app has done so well they have partnered with many companies including Nike for a shoe give away and with Warner Bros to help promote a couple of their upcoming movies, and have included many guest co-host stars as a feature, including Jimmy Kimmel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. “[I played in the Dwayne Johnson round] but I wasn’t very focused because I was at the baseball game at the time; I was very distracted and it kept freezing up,” Hadley said.

The app has gone through vast improvement, with the app being a live game, there is a lot of room for glitches.

“I think they do a good job with the live show; it keeps getting better” Hadley said. “At first when they did it they had a lot of glitches, and the app would be way slow, and the hosts would talk way too much, but now they get right to the questions.”

All in all, this app has taken the country by storm. There are other apps out there that have tried to mimic the HQ app, but nothing beats the original. With much improvement to come, the app has indeed made its mark.

Moroni bakery’s high quality goods satisfy customers’ sweet tooth

photo by Kaje Nielsen

Lucy’s Bakery in Moroni offers homemade sweets for a fair price.

BY

K AJE NIELSEN

When first entering Lucy’s Bakery, you are instantly delighted as the delicious smell of freshly baked bread fills your nostrils.

This bakery, similar to the Corner Station Co-op and Deli in Fairview, was re-

Ice cream

Drinks

modeled from a historic landmark to serve a whole new purpose while still retaining its 1900’s style.

The store is rather petite and consists mostly of wood and paint, filled with old posters and quotes to help express their pride in the store’s old age.

The decor establishes a heart-warming

Snacks

MAIN STREET, MORONI

atmosphere, and the goods aren’t disappointing either.

Lined on the shelves is neatly packaged bread that is incredibly soft and delicious, nearly melting in the mouth when fresh, and it tastes better than a lot of what you can buy at your average grocery store.

The store also has a slightly misplaced “library” off to the left side of the store, consisting of only around 40-50 books, most of which didn’t appeal to me.

After looking around, my mom and I went up to the counter to order, and were greeted by a friendly manager. While they were sold out of their most popular dish, “Hunny Buns,” we still ordered a large selection of other dishes, and their prices are reasonable.

For example, they sold bottled soda for 75 cents, while most places would charge you around a dollar for a soda.

The first dish I tried was their chocolate chip cookie. It was approximately the size of a saucer plate, and about half an inch thick, so it was quite a big cookie.

It tasted wonderful and was loaded with chocolate chips and coated in delicious butter that curbed the sweet taste and balanced it into the perfect flavor.

I next tried one of the “roses,” which were muffins that had a cute appearance

resembling a rose, hence their title.

Once again, they were soft and melted in your mouth, but they tasted as if they could’ve used some more sweetness. The flavor was delicious, but it just felt as if it was missing something. Maybe some glaze or butter could’ve fixed the problem.

Finally, I tried one of their sugar cookies, which unlike their chocolate chip cookies, was rather small; only slightly larger than an Oreo cookie. However, I didn’t mind, because the cookie was extremely rich and sweet, so it gave you the delight of a full sugar cookie in only a small portion.

While we were eating, the manager continued to be friendly, and made it her priority to make sure that we were in constant comfort.

While I had a fantastic experience overall, the one problem I must note is that the store doesn’t have a vast selection of items. It was just cookies and several types of bread.

So when compared to Terrell’s Bakery, their goods probably are higher quality, but they don’t have many of the items that Terrell’s has.

In the end, I feel that Lucy’s Bakery is off to an excellent start, and it has a lot of great potential.

6

Intense practice led to emotional world premiere for choir, band director M EGAN BOOHER

This is an emotional piece according to Kidder. In this piece, Matthew Maslanka In the midst of writing his tenth was describing his mourning process afsymphony, David Maslanka unfortu- ter losing his mom then losing his dad nately lost his battle with colon cancer. only a month later.

A month prior to David’s death, his wife “The Saturday before the perforAlison Matthews had passed away. Ali- mance we had about an hour left in reson was the inspiration for David’s tenth hearsal, so we said: ‘let’s go for it and see symphony. When David passed away his what happens,” Kidder said. “When we son Matthew Maslanka—who is a musician, euphonium player and composer—did not want his father’s work to go unfinished, so he started composing the rest of the symphony.

Band and choir director Timothy Kidder was able to play this piece on his alto saxophone for its world premiere.

Kidder spent roughly twenty hours practicing with an orchestra and a lot more time practicing on his own preparing for the premiere.

Kidder had been subbing for the Utah Wind Symphony for the last concert cycle, and the director called him and asked him to sub for the University of Utah, opening the opportunity to be able to play this piece of music.

“Because it was about a 45-minute symphony when we worked on it, we would only work on a section here and there we never really ran through the whole thing,” Kidder said. “But it was cool that Matthew Maslanka was at the rehearsals telling what he wanted.”

BY

Cafe

Das

33 N Main Street Spring City, UT (435) 462-7484

started we would say, ‘Oh, that wasn’t right. Neither was that,’ but after a couple of minutes we all focused and got into it, and then all the sudden it was over.”

Kidder had to practice for many hours to be able to perform this demanding piece; it was challenging for him to find time to practice with all the

rehearsal and travel time involved.

“When the orchestra played through the piece it was all worth it,” Kidder said.

With a piece this emotional it is hard for everyone to maintain the feelings involved.

“We were all trying to convey these emotions; in the beginning it’s kind of like disbelief, and it sounds as if he is lost, and then it goes through a really sarcastic, mean, angry, almost denial stage, and then there is longing, and there were some spoken word sections in it… It was amazing,” Kidder said. “We looked around the room and everyone was sweating; everyone was tired. We had put so much effort into it— Matthew was tearing up. He tried to say thank you and then it all came out—he just started bawling, and he said: ‘I miss my dad’ and everyone else was seriously upset and crying, and Matthew, he just couldn’t stop.”

The world premiere of this symphony was on April 3; three pieces were performed, two of David Maslanka’s previous pieces and then his tenth symphony.

“The premiere was awesome,” Kidder said. “We did a live stream, and they did a concert-lecture before, so Matthew went out to talk about the process and couldn’t believe it was happening. The university did two of David Maslanka’s pieces, and then we did the symphony, and it is hard to describe.”

Shepp’s Grill Fountain Green (435) 445-3257

7 8

sports 25 apr 18

Softball continues to dominate region play

by Makade Talbot

The NS softball team continues on in their outstanding season, leading their region.

The girls have maintained a nearly perfect region standing, which currently sits at 8-1.

Grand travelled to NS for a double-header matchup on Wednesday and gave the Lady Hawks their first region defeat.

Senior player Brooke Price attributes the loss to overconfidence. The team found out that Grand had lost to Richfield, whom the girls had mercy ruled 16-1 two days earlier.

“Grand came to play.

They played their best game all year against us,” Price said. “We were not ready for it, and we didn’t start catching up until it was too far into the game for a recovery.”

The first game ended with a final score of 8-5 in Grand’s favor and some frustration from the Lady Hawks. After a fifteen-minute break and long talk with their coach, the girls returned to the field with their heads in the game.

“We knew our capability and we under-

stood that we weren’t playing at our best level.”

Price said. “We literally just had to snap out of it and get into game mode again.”

The team showed Grand what they were really capable of during their second match up, winning 11-4.

Contributing immensely to the team’s success is sophomore Nakiah Taylor, the team’s main pitcher this season. Taylor ranks second in the region for most strikeouts; 32 total over 16 games, and just two less than the leader.

“I just feel like I have more control with the ball this year, and my movement pitches have been working a lot better,” Taylor said.

Playing college ball is what drives Taylor to be a great pitcher, and the support of her parents encourages her even more. But Taylor says she wouldn’t be so successful this year if it wasn’t for coach Landon Bailey.

“It helps when I have a coach who knows what he’s doing when he’s calling,” Taylor said. “It’s like we both know what to throw in every situation, and it has helped me get

photo by Makade Talbot

Sophomore Addie Brotherson takes a swing during a home game. Softball has excelled in region play this year and is currently ranked first with only one loss.

more strikeouts.”

While the connection between coach and player certainly has an impact on Taylor’s performance, her continual practice and work with different teams has also built her ability.

“Nakiah’s just worked incredibly well, and she’s doing really really well as a sophomore,” said head coach Landon Bailey. “She pitches all year round, and she’s played a whole bunch of games for various teams all season

long, so she’s turned into our most consistent pitcher.”

With no teams in the region even close to their standing, the girls expect a strong finish to a successful season.

“I think what’s made us different from other softball teams this year is the dedication we have to make ourselves better,” said senior player Laynie Gillins. “I think the team chemistry is a big part of it as well.” Gillins currently holds the highest batting

percentage in the region; a .549 percentage.

Senior Lexie Olsen is one of the pitchers for the team, and her 18 strikeouts mark her as having the fifth most strikeouts in the region.

Olsen says that this year is her personal best, as well as the best the team has had.

“In other years the girls have kind of separated into groups, but this year we all hang out and we all like each other and we all support one another,” Olsen said.

Team unity seems to be a unanimous reason for the team’s high level of performance this year, but the pool of natural talent among the girls helped as well.

“Everyone on the team has talent in like everything they do,” Olsen said. “They all know exactly what their role on the team is and they have no problem getting it done.”

New boys volleyball team finds great success

BY

E MILY K ERKSIEK

A new opportunity opened for male athletes with the start of a club volleyball team consisting of high school boys from North Sanpete. They are currently in the middle of a great season with 9 wins and 3 losses.

“This North Sanpete boys volleyball team is new and very exciting,” junior Bubba Ison said. “We have wins over several 4A, 5A and 6A teams including Lone Peak, Skyridge and Salem Hills. As a new team we are doing very well. We know how to battle and play with big schools and the energy we play with is very fun to watch. We are getting better every week and that shows now that we are one of the top teams in the Utah Valley.”

The team competes in the Utah Valley boys volleyball league. There are five different skill level groups and in the first year NS has reached the top level.

The team travels every Tuesday to Orem high school to play two games.

The top four teams will be able to compete at state.

Playing such large schools can be intimidating, but NS won two matches Tuesday, April 10. The first victory that day was against Salem Hills, where NS lost their first set (23-25) and won

their second and third sets (25-21, 1512). Sky View was the boys second opponent that day with NS winning both sets (25-12, 25-18).

Their most recent win was against Mountain View Tuesday, April 17, losing the first set (22-25), but coming back the second and third sets (25-18, 15-8).

That same night, the team took a loss to Lone Peak (18-25, 22-25).

The opportunity for the boys to play is largely due to coach Austin Ison, who wishes he had the opportunity to play boys’ volleyball when he was in high school. To help give NS students the opportunity that he missed out on, he started the club team.

The team has eight boys on the team, each contributing something different.

Alex Mower is the starting middle on the team with 28 kills, 14 blocks and 13 aces.

“I played volleyball in flex, and it is pretty fun,” Mower said, “so I decided to try out for the team.”

While Mower and the team’s experience may seem limited, the players are able to work well together.

“Our team does very well when it comes to big hits by Conner Jorgensen and Payton Clawson, and great defensive plays by Morgan Cook,” Bubba

photo provided by Alex Mower

Junior setter Bubba Ison goes for a block. Ison plays on the club team as part of the Utah Valley boy volleyball league.

Ison said.

Bubba Ison is the starting setter for the team with 147 assists and 21 aces so far.

“We only have a couple weeks left and we are doing really well for putting a team together and going up there to play against teams that have been playing for awhile,” said right side hitter and sophomore Callan

Beck. “We need to work on not getting ourselves down when we make mistake, we need to just play and have fun.”

sports

8

Soccer sees gradual team improvements M AYZIE TALBOT

against Emery and three consecutive wins against Grand, The NS boys soccer team Richfield and South Sevier. continues to fight hard taking In a match against Manti, home the win in two region NS’s rival, the team lost their games this past week against first region game. The score Grand and Richfield; they was close with NS in the lead hope to see more success as at the beginning of the second they finish off the season. half, but Manti came back and The team started off the won 5-2. region competition with a tie “We have moments where BY

we don’t play as a team and that’s why we lost to Manti,” Coach Zac Ostraff said.

Playing as a team unit has been one of the challenges for the Hawks this year, but through practice, they’ve improved a lot. Games when the boys are able to get in the right mode and work together are the games that turn out the

photo by Mayzie Talbot

Sophomore Luis Rodriguez goes for a header during a recent home game against Richfield. The Hawks came out with a 3-1 win.

best.

“When we do work as a team, when we’re all on that same page, we do really good things and we can beat anybody,” Ostraff said.

In another intense game against Emery, NS lost again, keeping the score tied 0-0 until the last five minutes of the game where Emery scored a goal. Despite some losses, Coach Ostraff remains hopeful for the rest of the season.

“We’ve got a lot of fight in us, and I like that,” Ostraff said.

“I think we’re doing some very good things and very rarely do we give up.”

Sophomore Luis Rodriguez, striker for the Hawks, also remains hopeful and sees their loss as a way to improve.

“We did get those two losses, but I think we all learned something,” said Rodriguez. “We’re going to learn from our mistakes and hopefully get that win.”

The team currently stands third in region, but the team and coaches are confident in their chances of finishing first or second.

“We just have to take it

one game at a time,” Ostraff said. “And then I’d really like to make it through at least the first round of state.”

In a friendly game against Salem Hills, the team suffered yet another loss. At the end of the first half, NS was down 0-6. Coach Ostraff told the team to stop worrying about the scoreboard and just play their game. The boys took this to heart and returned to the field where they scored three goals in the second half. The final score was 7-3 for Salem Hills, but the NS team walked away with smiles and lessons learned.

“The only way we’re going to get better is if we have more games like that,” senior Christian Sanchez said. “We were all having fun and we all learned a lot about each other.”

With room to improve, the NS boys soccer team aims to continue the last few games of the region competition as well as they are able.

“If we keep pushing for the positivity and keep pushing away the negativity, then we’ll grow even stronger as a team,” Sanchez said.

Boys tennis remains focused on region title goal

photo by Mayzie Talbot

Senior Joseph Garlick hits a forehand return against South Sevier.

Garlick and his partner Kendall Grasteit are undefeated this season in first doubles. The team is currently second in region.

H ANNAH O STR AFF

ing to improve on that throughout the rest of NS boys tennis is the season. off to a decent start in “The singles are still region with a 6-2 re- developing—we only cord, and they are look- have one returning sinBY

gles player, because we lost the other two due to graduation,” said head coach Matt Braithwaite.

Even though the singles players are inex-

perienced the team is hopeful of what they can accomplish this season.

“There is still a possibility of winning the team title, but there is definitely a chance of some individual region titles,” Braithwaite said.

Boys tennis hasn’t won a team region title in at least fours years, although there have been many individual titles during this time.

“As a team, the main goal is to win region, but Joe and I have set the goal to win the first doubles region title and make it to the second day of state,” junior Kendall Grasteit said.

Grasteit and Joe Garlick have been doubles partners for two

years now, and won the region title last year for the first doubles position.

“We won last year, and are definitely prepared to take the region title for the second year in a row,” Grasteit said.

Braithwaite isn’t just preparing for the current season, but is looking forward for the next years season as well.

“We have a diversely aged group on varsity this year. We have two seniors, two juniors, and three sophomores,” Braithwaite said. “This helps us for the next few years, because boys are getting varsity experience.”

Preparing is important but that doesn’t al-

ways mean it is going to be an easy win.

“Tennis is about 40 percent technique and 60 percent mental,” junior Kaleb Cox said.

“You have to be able to control yourself mentally in order to let your technique take over.”

Technique in tennis is acquired by hours and hours of repetition repeated multiple times a week.

“When you are on the court you have to be able to take a mistake and critique it to find out what you did wrong, and then you need to fix it for the next point and that takes a lot of repetition,” Cox said.

sports

9

Baseball begins to slide after long spring break

photo by Charlee Christensen

Senior Keegan Eliason steps up to the place during a home game against Emery.

C HARLEE C HRISTENSEN BY

The NS baseball team had a superior start to this season, but has struggled to win games since they’ve been back from spring break.

“We started out really well,” said head

varsity coach Daniel Christensen. “We had a really good first half to the season. After spring break, we’ve struggled; we need to get back on track.”

During spring break the team didn’t practice, which made it harder to get back into game

mode.

“Before spring break it was pretty good, but after it has been rough,” junior Zane Tibbs said.

“We lost our groove and we didn’t practice, so now we’re just trying to get back to where we were.”

The team has been

able to practice since then, but they still haven’t brought it back to their previous level of performance yet. The team’s overall record is 11-10, and 4-7 in the league.

“We had a lack of practice during spring break and everything sort of fell apart,” senior Keegan Eliason said.

The team has trouble hitting the ball. Some players hit, but others are struggling to find their swing.

“We need to hit better,” Eliason said. “If there is one thing I could change it would be the way we’ve been hitting.”

Christensen agrees that the team has a lot to fix to get back into their winning groove.

“Right now we need to work on everything,” Christensen said. “We did a lot of things really

well in the beginning of the season, but now we’ve made way too many errors and we need to fix that.”

Besides batting, the team gets into a slump when they make errors during a game, which sometimes makes them play worse.

“We tend to get down on ourselves when we either make mistakes or are losing,” Tibbs said.

Despite the turn the season has taken, this season still been exceptional compared to previous years.

“This is the best season North Sanpete has had in years,” Eliason said.

The team wishes they could have played as well as they did in the beginning for the last couple of games, but they can all agree that this season has been a

good one.

“Our season has been going very well. We have had ups and downs through the season, but that’s alright, most teams do,” senior Tanner Madsen said.

Although the team hasn’t been doing the best, they are all still getting along as teammates and friends.

“All of the players are really good friends,” Eliason said. “We’re all really close. We like each other.”

Throughout the course of the season, the team has still maintained their close relationships with one another.

“The relationships I have with my teammates is very personal,” Madsen said. “I feel like I am very close with them, and I could trust them with anything I need.”

Track takes off due to recruiting efforts, throwing coach BY

E MI PALMER

The track and field team this year has grown drastically compared to past years with help from the new PE teacher, Bill Pollock, who has been able to spot strong runners in his PE classes.

Pollock strongly encourages them to come to practices, helping the team to grow.

“It has been to nice to see the program grow and be able to see it go somewhere in the

future,” junior Linzy Flinders said.

Flinders, a captain for the team who runs the 400 meter and the 800 meter races, has qualified for the BYU invitational along with many others on the team. This year they have had most that have ever qualified in a long time.

Taking around 30 kids to BYU is a big accomplishment, while in the past they have only had a couple be fast enough.

“We have been try-

ing to qualify as many kids as we can for BYU,” coach Scott Butler said.

The team has been working hard this season, and just past the midpoint, the opportunities to qualify for state are fewer.

Flinders has been putting in extra work on and off the track in the weightroom and running on her own. She hopes to shave some seconds off her time in order to qualify for state.

Although this year the new region change is making this a little more difficult.

Only the top four teams go to state out of seven. With as big of a team as NS have this year, and

photo provided by NS Track

Junior Linzy Flinders sprints at a recent meet in St. George.

as many people that have already qualified for BYU, the team hopes to have a good turn out for state.

Along with having so many runners this year, there are also more throwers than ever before. This is thanks to having an actual throwing coach this season.

In the past, throwing

athletes would have to coach themselves.

Rhett Bird, head football coach, is coaching the javelin, discus and shot put, with help from Pollock.

“We have a lot of new kids, it has been really good, but we have had a lot of learning curves,” said Bird.

Overall there are

about 18 throwers, four have already qualified for BYU. Madisyn Allred took first in a meet, Laramie Roberts is ten feet away from qualifying for state.

They are doing very well for such a new team, as most everyone is throwing for the first year.

10

arts 25 apr 18

Students show maturity, talent in ‘Diary of Anne Frank’

photo by Lucy Anderson

Senior Kavin Johansen and junior Jeff Putnam have guns drawn on the Frank family and their friends in the recent drama production of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” The emotional portrayal captivated audiences.

BY

LUCY A NDERSON

The NS drama department is well known for its happy and humorous plays including “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “The Wizard of Oz,” etc., but this spring the department took on the challenge of acting out at the dramatic play based on a true story, “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

Anne Frank is known for keeping a diary of her experiences as a Jew hiding during the Holocaust. Her family moved from Germany to the Netherlands to escape the rumors of war with the Nazis. Unable to emigrate to the US, Anne’s father Otto Frank takes his family to hide from the Nazi’s in the annex of his business firm. Otto’s family, a dentist and one other family all

hide in the secret annex of the building.

The play opens with Otto Frank (Keagan Mitchell), his wife Edith (Mariah Ashworth) and their two daughters, Anne (Ariel Valko and Maralyn James) and Margot (Katelyn Hill) moving into a small annex in the back of Otto’s business firm. Otto’s business partner’s family, the van Daans, move in soon after. Mr. van Daan (Nicholas Honey) comes across as a grumpy curmudgeon. Mrs. van Daan (Emily Hill) provides many laughs throughout the play.

Her son Peter (Harrison Cook) comes across as a shy and awkward boy, although Anne is thrilled by the fact that Peter has brought his cat, Mushy, to the annex.

Living in the annex proves to be a challenge for all of the characters, who all show their stresses differently. Mrs. Frank becomes quiet and impatient. Mrs. van Daan, however, is loud about her grievances. The stress only worsens when a dentist named Alfred Dussel (Aiden Anderson) moves into the already cramped annex. Mr. Dussel is a fussy complainer who almost comes off as ungrateful.

The acting was well thought out and touching. Many of the actors had to stay on stage for the vast majority of the production. From subtle, snarky facial expressions to looks of exhaustion, the actors did a good job of making their characters believ-

able. These actions also helped cause the audience to feel an attachment and love for the characters.

The set also enhanced the actor’s performance; it allowed the audience to see just how cramped and run-down the annex was.

The audience’s attachment to the play and the characters became so strong that when the Nazi’s (Kevin Johansen, Ian Tomlin, Jeff Putnam) barged into the annex to arrest the families, the air felt like it was sucked out of the room as everyone’s stomach dropped. It was even harder for the audience by the end of the play when Mr. Frank returns to the annex and explains what happened after his family and friends were inhumanly taken away and separated. The performance was made even more heartbreaking as he told the audience that he was the only one that was hiding in the attic to survive the concentration camps. All of the people from the annex except for Mr. van Daan died from illness; Mr. van Daan was the only one that was gassed.

The production left many audience members in tears. With the newfound knowledge that the NS drama department can pull off dramas as well as comedies, it is difficult not to be excited for what’s to come in their future.

Stop-motion animation pleases fans in ‘Isle of Dogs’ BY

A DAM C OX

Big budget movies these days seem to have no sense of originality. Wading through all these unoriginal and uninspired films, eventually you will find an excellent new idea with brilliant execution.

“Isle of Dogs” is a fullyanimated, stop motion film

by Wes Anderson. Anderson is famous for his work in other interesting films such as Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).

All of Anderson’s previous films have received fairly positive reviews, which left many fans excited how his big new film would turn

out. Their hope and excitement was not in vain.

“Isle of Dogs” follows a pack of dogs who have been banished to trash island and follows a young pilot in his attempt to find his dog Spots (Liev Schreiber).

This is a simple enough concept, definitely not anything crazy, but where this movie really shines is in the execution. It takes such an ordinary story and manages to create something truly extraordinary.

One of the main things that sets this movie apart from the rest is its overall presentation. As mentioned before, this movie is completely stop motion, giving it a different feel, but

beyond that it has a stylistic approach to the concept.

Each shot is head on and seems more like an art piece that tells a story. Almost everything is drained of its color, showing you how bleak our heroes’ situation is.

One fear I had when going to “Isle of Dogs” was that it’s artistic style would distract from the main story, but I can assure you that this is far from the truth. “Isle of Dogs” uses its unique art style to compliment the story perfectly, without overwhelming you.

The cast for “Isle of Dogs” is phenomenal as well, with actors such as Bryan Cranston (Chief),

Edward Norton (Rex), Bob Balaban (King), Bill Murray (Boss) and Jeff Goldblum (Duke). Each of the amazing voice actors in this movie gave stellar performances conveying the bleak and hopeless situation that they are in.

As a side note, it is slightly amusing that all the dogs are voiced by middleaged men.

One of my favorite characters is Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig), a foreign exchange student who gathers her classmates and protests for the rights of the abandoned dogs. She provides some of the best moments in the movie.

One minor gripe I had with “Isle of Dogs” was

photo from IMDB

that most of the minor dog characters have little to no character development.

Although it’s reasonable to have most of the screen time and main story revolve around Chief, most of the other dogs in the pack barely do anything to contribute anything to the plot or grow as characters.

But in the end this is a minor problem and it doesn’t

make the film any less amazing.

Overall “Isle of Dogs” was a fantastic movie with an incredible art style, a great wholesome story and a phenomenal cast. It is clear that an enormous amount of care was put into every aspect of it, and I would recommend this movie to anyone.

Newest 30 Seconds to Mars album lacks previous flair

BY JULIETTE JORDAN

On April 6, 30 Seconds to Mars released their fifth album titled “America.” This is their first album to be released in five years.

30 Seconds to Mars formed in 1998, but their debut album didn’t come out until 2002 with their self-titled album. The band consists of Jared Leto (lead vocals), Shannon Leto (percussion) and Tomo Miličević (lead guitar). They have been around for the past 20 years and have never failed to amaze people, proof of that feat being found in their 173 award nominations and their impressive 82 award wins, including in 2008 they won Breakthrough

Artist-International. Then in 2014 they won Artist of the Year and Best Online Performance.

And now in 2018 they won tour of the year for their tour with Muse and PVRIS. They also won song of the year for their song “Walk On Water” from “America.”

Their debut album was slow selling at first but ended up very successful with 2 million copies sold worldwide. After this they continued to sell more and more. Just with their first four albums they sold 10 million copies worldwide. Their recent album earned them the Highest Charting Album Ever on Billboard 200.

My personal favorite from

their newest album is “Rescue Me.” Its slow rock beginning makes it intriguing as it begins to get more upbeat. Like most songs made these days, it uses a bit of techno and electric guitar.

If I had to chose my least favorite it would have to be “Dawn Will Rise.” Though it is a good song, it has too much autotune for my liking; everyone uses autotune a little bit, but that song has too much.

I really enjoyed the whole album. Some songs were just a bit weird, but overall it was a very well put together album. You can really hear the love and hard work they put into it, though I do have to say it may not be everyone’s

cup of tea. With its modern take on rock mixed with some pop styles it definitely isn’t for everyone.

I feel like in their attempt to make it more modern they lost a little bit of what they started out as. My personal opinion is that some of their older albums are better, such as “A Beautiful Lie.” Their older albums have more of the American rock feel, at least of what it used to be.

Talking about the album you can really tell that Jared Leto enjoyed writing and recording it. In an interview with “The Rolling Stone” he talks about many different aspects of the album, he said, “For a long time, I wanted

to make an album about the American dream and America as a concept-- and as I was halfway through, I thought ‘I guess I’m making that album now.’”

I would recommend listening to their newest album. If you love rock/pop music you will be sure to love them. After listening to “America” you will want to listen to all of their music if you haven’t already. I give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars. For me, even though it was really good, it’s not an album that I’m going to keep playing on repeat. As I said before, I prefer their older albums, but compared to new music coming out now “America” is definitely one of the best.

arts

11

‘A Quiet Place’ offers different scare for horror fans

photo from Poughkeepsie Journal

BY

SALEM K IMBALL

“If they hear you, they hunt you.”

“A Quiet Place” is the third and newest film from director John Krasinski. The film is a drama/thriller, starring Krasinski (who “The Office” fans will recognize as Jim Halpert) as the father character, alongside his real life wife Emily Blunt, who plays the mother, and the actors who play their two children, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe.

The film follows the family on their quest to survive in a world plagued by unearthly sound-hunting abominations; a world where if you want to survive, you have to do so in absolute silence.

The daughter character (Simmonds) suffers from a severe case of deafness and, due to the absence of sound throughout the movie, the idea of being deaf in this terrifying scenario is used to great effect.

In order for the characters to communicate, not just with her but with the other

characters, they have to resort to using ASL (American Sign Language) as their primary source of communication.

Although the thought of having to read subtitles in this day and age has the power to make any number of moviegoers nauseous, it is actually in benefit to the film. Even if the characters were simply whispering their way through the film, it wouldn’t be nearly as impactful as their waving hands.

In the case of horror films, compelling scenarios and atmospheres are more often than not pursued over interesting storylines and characters, “A Quiet Place” is no exception to this. And with there being little dialogue, character development is made even harder. However, the film seems to be aware of its shortcomings with characters and drives the point home that “characters aren’t our strong suit” by not granting any of them names.

And because this is a horror movie with underdeveloped characters, the only real emotions that the actors have to portray accurately is fear and pain, which they do spectacularly.

Though not the most outstanding in the genre, “A Quiet Place” is a solid thriller

flick, with great effects and mood setting guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

“A Quiet Place” takes the horror genre and strips it down to the bare minimum.

With only an hour and 30-minute runtime, it doesn’t overstay its welcome like so many other films of the same type. It knows you can only jump scare the audience so many times before the spook gets run into the ground. It gets in quick, whispers its sweet nothings into your ear, and then high tails it out.

The film is a refresh in the horror industry. It’s nothing new, and it’s nothing you wouldn’t expect from a horror film.

But in a film industry full of demonic possessions, deranged doctors and maskwearing psychopaths, it’s nice to have a good old-fashioned monster movie--a movie that doesn’t have to relay on a blood and gore to entice the audience--all it needs to do is break the silence to get you to bite your nails into oblivion.

“A Quiet Place” is a must see for any horror or film enthusiast, taking the genre back to where it all began. And in context of not just the film, but also its name--silence truly is golden.

Fast Track Support Local Buy Local Fast track Supports NS

Let’s face it. You’re ready for more speed.

Upgrade your Internet today. visit: centracom.com/moreSpeed 427-3331

arts

12

Artists B Y H ANNAH O STR AFF

Heard in the

Halls “It’s like inhaling glaciers!”

“Gosh dang it you are rubbing your chin on my gameboy again!”

“Is your sandal unlaced?”

“My mouth needs a blanket.”

“Does death smell like peppermint?“ ”Don’t give me eyes of let’s try.”

“I don’t Facebook stalk people, unless they are hot girls.” ”I have to water my face holes.”

Across

Down

5. Painted Madame X 7. Was a spanish draftsman 9. Artist of Rosie the Riveter 11. Painted the Dance of Life, and the Scream 12. Known for photograph called the Migrant Mother 13. Red ninja turtle 15. Black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West 19. Orange ninja turtle 20. Painted Whistler’s Mother 24. Irish painter with the same name as a cut of meat 25. Paintings combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional 26. Known for his distorted reality 29. Painted Pink and Blue 30. He is considered the most important Span ish artist of late 18th and early 19th centuries 32. Credited with painting one of the first rec ognised purely abstract works 33. Cut off his own ear 36. Purple ninja turtle 37. Was in competition with Norman Rockwell?

1. Known for painting large flowers 2. American portrait photographer 3. Founder of French impressionism who painted The Water Lilies 4. Painted the Mona Lisa 6. Who painted the Old Guitarist 8. Used techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism 10. Known for his TV show, where he paints land scapes 12. More than half of his works depict dancers 14. Photographer for National Geographic, Afghan girl 16. American artist known for his pop art 17. Dutch painter born in 1606 18. Painted American Gothic 19. Leader of fauvist movement who painted the Woman in the Hat 21. This artist had a unibrow 22. Major figure in abstract expressionism 23. Recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style 27. French painter known for his still lifes 28. Blue ninja turtle 31. Sculpture of the Thinker 33. Best known for his painting Girl with a pearl Ear ring 34. Known for his graffiti 35. Austrian symbolist painter whose painting was fo cused on in the movie Monuments Men