THE SYLVANIA NORTHVIEW
STUDENT PRINTS
Sylvania Northview High School
5403 Silica Drive Sylvania, Ohio 43560
Volume 88, Issue 6
January 28, 2014
Jack Frost New schedule requires flexibility Calamity days delay exams, shorten second semester gives NV more time off school Nazihah Bhatti Staff Writer
Mother Nature put the “winter” in winter break this year. Northview students were scheduled to return to school on January 6, but severe winter weather and below freezing temperatures led to an extra week of winter break. Lucas County fell under a Level 3 snow emergency, as temperatures dropped to a record low of -16 degrees. Combined with the harsh winds, temperatures reached nearly -40 degrees. Road conditions were bad, and schools across the area were closed for at least two days. With the low temperatures and road conditions, snow days were inevitable. Superintendent Brad Reiger took to Twitter, updating Sylvania students regularly about school closings. “I liked finding out about the snow day the night before instead of in the morning, and it was nice to have another week off,” freshman Maddie Moore said. NV students spent the week of snow days in various ways, as some were stuck inside due to the Level 3 emergency. “I stayed at home studying for exams, sleeping, watching TV, and surfing the Internet,” senior Joon Kim said. Many students braved the cold temperatures due to cabin fever. “I spent the extra week off snowboarding and sledding which was fun, but I was definitely stressed about remembering things for exams. It was a bittersweet feeling,” sophomore Shaylee Strauss said. A popular activity was throwing boiling water into the sub-zero temperatures. “It looked really cool when I threw the water and it turned into mist,” Moore said. Videos of this science experiment showed up on YouTube, and gained popularity as most of the area experienced frigid temperatures for most of the week. NV students had mixed feelings about having the week before exams off, but the exam schedule was moved back one week, giving more time for in class review. This change led to second semester being one week shorter to compensate for the extra week out of school.
Photo illustration by Maggie Figliomeni AS TEMPERATURES REACHED DANGEROUS LOWS and level three snow emergencies were announced, Superintendent of Sylvania Schools Brad Rieger kept students and parents informed of closing and delays through social media. Dr. Rieger answered students questions and kept track of the score--“Mother Nature 5, Rieger 0.” The new exam schedule was posted by Sylvania Northview on Twitter and Facebook on January 10.
Claire Goecke Staff Writer
The snowmen have begun to melt, the streets have been cleared, and people can leave their homes without fear of frostbite. The “Polar Vortex” has finally ended. The snow storm caused Sylvania Schools to extend their winter break an extra week for the safety of the students. The five consecutive snow days caused alarm for many Northview staff members and students due to the upcoming semester exams, which were originally scheduled for January 14-16. On January 9-10, the building was opened in the afternoon for students who needed to access their lockers to take home studying materials over the weekend. After multiple revisions of the schedule, the exam dates were set for January 21-23, one week later than originally planned. Records day for junior high and high school teachers was also moved back to January 24 and the new semester began on the following Monday, according to sylvaniaschools.org. Many students believed the new schedule was a well thought-out plan, and made it easier
to tackle the stress of exams by giving students more time to prepare. “I think exams being pushed back gave a lot of the students some breathing room,” sophomore Coleson Baker said. “We had another whole week to study.” Teachers of Advanced Placement classes have had to rearrange schedules and shorten the amount of time spent on the upcoming units because although the school calendar has changed, the dates of the AP tests have not. “It’s really unfortunate that we missed five consecutive days of instruction. It would have been a very different story if these calamity days had been spread out over several weeks,” AP Psychology teacher Sarah Rhine said. “I have had to modify lessons by taking out pieces of information that I would normally spend time discussing with students. Instead I will just hit on the key concepts required by the Advanced Placement standards and leave out interesting, yet not tested information.” Many AP students are fretting about the rearranged schedule, because it still leaves them with one week less to prepare for the AP tests in the spring. “I think exams for this semester should have
just been cancelled because we are already so far behind,” senior Ashley Ingle said. “The point of an AP class is to help us test out of college courses and prepare us for the future. By cancelling exams we could have gotten back on schedule for preparing for the AP tests.” The NV administration is trying to accommodate all of the teachers’ and students’ needs in order to ensure success for as many people as possible, according to Principal Steve Swaggerty. “By shortening the second semester instead of the first, teachers have 18 weeks to decide what information they can afford to cut out, if needed,” Mr. Swaggerty said. “I know as a young teacher I had trouble writing exam reviews because I wanted to make my lessons as interesting and informative as possible. We wanted to give our teachers the opportunity to make exam reviews that weren’t given out before break and give the students the opportunity to use them to their advantage.” “Any time you make plans and have to unexpectedly change them it can be frustrating,” Mrs. Rhine said. “It’s part of being a teacher that you have to be flexible with lesson planning and change things as you need to.”
Speech, Debate hosts tournament despite weather Kendall McCoy Staff Writer
A couple of weeks ago, the Speech and Debate team competed in their hometown tournament. The Northview and Southview teams hosted the event on January 10-11 for students all over the state of Ohio. Not only is the tournament right at home but the Sylvania Tournament is the largest in Ohio. This year was a record high with over 40 schools and over 1,000 students. The venues included NV, SV, and McCord Junior High School. All nine speech events were held at NV where it wasn’t an unfamiliar sight to see people singing with their headphones on or talking to a locker. No room or area went unused in the school. Events were even held in the main and guidance offices and the world language office area. Many students work hard to prepare in advance for the specific speech or debate event they choose to do. The speech events included Original Oratory, where a speaker writes and delivers an original speech. Another event is Impromptu, where a competitor is given a certain prompt and
As for the competitors’ results, two NV debaters advanced time to prepare, after which their improvised speech is delivered. Three debate events--Public forum, Lincoln Douglas and in the tournament. This included junior Geeta Rao and senior Joon Kim. Congressional Debate--took place at SV. Public Forum is a two person debate which consists of an Both were in the Lincoln Douglas debates, which had a argument about topics and current total of six preliminary rounds and 86 participants. Rao’s personal record issues or events that differ from month to month. was 5-1 where she made it to the I was really happy with how top 24 and lost in the partial double Lincoln Douglas is a single person the Sylvania tournament debate about philosophical topics which octafinals. Kim’s record was 4-2 where change every two months. he made it to the top 16 and lost in the went. It was really nice to octafinals. Congressional Debate is a mock advance and see the kind of congress event where schools write “I was really happy with how the competition around Ohio... and submit mock bills that participants Sylvania tournament went. It was make speeches about and vote on in really nice to advance and see the kind -Geeta Rao, junior congressional sessions. of competition around Ohio to prepare for the district tournament,” Rao said. Due to the snow days the week of the event, the team couldn’t prepare for the event as planned. Overall, the tournament was a success for the competitors Instead, they came in for several hours on Thursday to staple and NV. The debate team ended third. packets, hang up signs, and get everything ready to go. Many came “This tournament is intimidating to walk into because of how many people there are but meeting new people and being early on Friday, which was the first day of the event. All people on the team donated food and drink to the able to intermingle is so fun,” team officer junior Tiana Sarsour said. concessions so they could raise money.
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News
Features
A&E
Sports
Prom king raises funding for senior class, After Prom pg.3
Play the flashback game with a look at Then and Now, pgs. 6&7
Student musicians compete at OMEA contest, pg. 9
Pool is pretty in pink for NV/SV swim meet, pg. 11