DG Issue 7

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0488dfc3.jpg"> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="218bc8d0.jpg" border=0 width="188" height="141" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Marcela with Mrs. Medina.  Marcela, an exchange student from Columbia, will be here until November.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0498dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Mrs. Davies                      Room 206</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mrs. Davies Room 20"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Diverse Grapevine 20052006"><U>The Diverse Grapevine 2005-2006</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DG Issue 1"><U>DG Issue 1</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DG Issue 2"><U>DG Issue 2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id59.jsp" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DG Issue 3"><U>DG Issue 3</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DG Issue 4"><U>DG Issue 4</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DG Issue 5"><U>DG Issue 5</U></A>   |   <B>DG Issue 7</B>   |   <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DG Issue 8 "><U>DG Issue 8 </U></A>   |   <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DG Issue 9"><U>DG Issue 9</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DG Issue 10"><U>DG Issue 10</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0498dfc3.jpg"> <div> <I>DG Issue 7</I></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Student What?</div> <div> by Angelee Santillo</div> <bR> <div>      Many students in Liberty High School are unaware of the differences between student council and student government. Although both contain members of the student body, the functions and purposes of these organizations are not the same. When some people hear the term “student council,” they immediately think of a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, which is a common misconception. On the other hand, when students hear the term “student government,” they often lose interest in this unfamiliar organization. However, these two organizations whose functions, purposes, advisors, and students involved differ, are very important to Liberty High School.</div> <div>      Liberty's student council is an organization that is dedicated to making improvements in our school and community. Student council is often considered the “voice” of our student body as the council consists of members from all grades and is student-run. Despite what many people believe, student council is not chaired by a president. Instead, a junior or senior, acting as the moderator, runs the meetings and keeps them in order. In LHS, senior Matt Lockwood is student council moderator. Like all clubs in our school, student council has an adult advisor who attends all meetings and presides over the students in action. History teacher Ms. Shawn Davis is the current student council advisor. </div> <div>      Members of the student council come from all grades. They vote on a wide number of topics such as community service projects, and fundraisers. Student council also has officers who are appointed directly by the moderator. The officer positions include secretary, treasurer, public relations, and head of elections. The current officers are senior Jieun Park, secretary; sophomore Michael Dunnigan, treasurer; sophomore Angelee Santillo, public relations; and senior Mac Isseks, head of elections. These officers assume the responsibilities of their positions and attend student council meetings; however, they cannot vote. The LHS student council meets every Thursday in room 102, and all students are welcome to visit during these meetings to discuss an issue. </div> <div>      Student government refers to the individual governments of each class. These organizations consist of each class president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer who were elected at the end of the previous year. Each student government raises funds for its class for important activities later, such as senior prom and senior class trips. Although student government does have class representatives that are members of the student council, the purpose of the student government focuses on each class itself and not the entire student body as student council does. The presidents of each class are Pranali Trivedi, senior class; Justin Garrit, junior class; Anam Chouhdry, sophomore class; Jenna VanKeuren, freshmen class; and Nik Beimler, eighth grade. Each class president is at the head of his or her class student government, along with each class advisor.  </div> <div>      Student council and student government are two different terms that represent different things in Liberty High School, but they both involve members of our school who want to “help out” the people in both their own classes and the student body. All Liberty High School students are welcome to share their opinions with both the LHS student council and their class's student. More information can be acquired by asking any of the people involved in these organizations.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Exchange Student Excited to be Here</div> <bR> <div> by Clara Tedesco</div> <div>    </div> <div>   <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier" >There are new students who come into school all the time. But do we acknowledge the new students who come? Do we ever wonder where they come from or how they may be so different or even the same as us? There is a new exchange student in our school and she seems like a wonderful person; she is very happy and seems like an outgoing person and not very shy. She likes to talk a lot and is always smiling and laughing. She was very into learning about the interviewer (me).</FONT></div> <div>      Her name is Marcela Roman. She is seventeen years old and is a senior in Liberty High. She has moved here from Cucta, Columbia.  There aren't seasons, yet the weather differs from place to place. In the city Marcela lives in is warm, but other places in Columbia it is cold, although not cold enough to snow! There are also beautiful beaches in Columbia</div> <div>       Marcela is not a bilingual, but she is learning English. She lives with a family who speaks ONLY English but they are very nice.” She enjoys school although it is very different from her school, which only goes up until 11th grade. In her former school, students remained in the same class all day and the teachers came to teach their different subjects. Her school also ends in eleventh grade; that is graduation year. Unfortunately for us, she will be going back to Columbia in November. She will be going back to finish her education in college.</div> <div>      While Marcela is here, she wants to learn English, travel, see new things, make new friends, and learn about American Culture. Although Marcela cannot speak English well, she can understand spoken English although she cannot respond well in English yet.</div> <div>      There is so much to learn about new students that might not be able to see or understand by just looking at someone. Just making eye contact or saying hello can make someone feel like they belong and are not an outsider. I believe that if we had not met for the interview, we never would have met one another. I'm glad we did.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Make a Change</B></div> <bR> <div> by Priscilla Brown</div> <bR> <div>      Black History Month is a month that everyone should know and learn about in school.  There are many ways in which the school can celebrate this month.  Perhaps a teacher could facilitate a class where students can learn not only about African Americans, but also Black History Month's essential meaning and value and the effect it has on people.         Social Studies teacher Laurene McKenna is having her 9<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Palatino" >th</FONT> grade class write letters to President George Bush promoting peace and protection in Darfur, Africa.  Addressing students attempts to effect positive change, McKenna noted, “Students are voluntarily adding their voices to a million voices to save Darfur.  These students will urge President Bush to act.” Darfur is a place where many Africans are being slaughtered everyday.</div> <div> In honor of Black History Month, guidance counselor Michelle Nunez has put up a display of prominent black historical figures.  These figures include inventors, poets, playwrights, and musicians that helped the African nations.  </div> <div> Every morning on the announcements, a diverse statement will be read to show the importance of Black History Month and how it has made a change for black figures in today's society.</div> <div> In favor of Black History Month, students together should make more of a change and celebrate this one event that comes around only once a year. </div> <div>      Schools can do more to promote positive black historical figures. Students often know little about black inventors; without them, we wouldn't be able to use certain things today.  Instead of briefly speaking about Africa, classes could discuss more essential aspects of that region and how certain figures made an impact on changing the world today<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Americana" >.</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Regents Week Unfair?</div> <bR> <div> by Carissa Ruiz</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier" >    </FONT> The expectations for most teachers during Regents week were beyond unreasonable. Was it fair for administration to expect teachers to not only run their everyday classes, but to proctor Regents <I>and</I> grade them? How about the students? Unless a student has superpowers and can be in two places at once, how can they be expected to be at Regents <I>and </I>in a class? What's the solution?</div> <div>      Five to six years ago, Liberty High School was closed for several days during Regents week so that teachers could proctor the tests and grade them without having to worry about their everyday classes. But, since then, teachers have not had it easy. It's hard enough planning five to six periods of classes a day, but try doing that when half of the class is off taking a regents <I>and</I> when it's the end of the marking period and grades have to be in. Add in the substitutes that the school has to pay to bring in just so that students can take advantage of the poor soul, sit around and learn absolutely nothing because they're teacher is off proctoring or grading Regents. That has to be a sign of some sort that something is wrong. What is the point of coming to those classes during “Regents Week” just to sit around and learn absolutely nothing?</div> <div>      Then again, it's not only difficult for the teachers, but students as well. It's increasingly stressful to worry about work for classes and this big huge test that has to be taken. Also, taking the Regents while there are still classes going on means a half a day of work that's been missed and has to be worried about. However, if students didn't have any Regents to take, they didn't miss much unless, yet again, their teacher was proctoring and they got stuck with a substitute. Normally, most students use the end of the marking period to find out all of the work that they've missed, cram it all into one night, and find a way to salvage passing a class by the skin of their teeth. But, if the teacher isn't there, then there's no way to find out what the student owes. Granted, it's a student's responsibility to know what they owe, when, and to do it on time, but in reality, where we all live and breathe, that is not the way things work.</div> <div>      The best resolution to this problem would be to close for one or two days out of Regents Week, since it is obvious that closing for the whole week would jip everyone out of some sort of vacation time that we all find valuable, in order to give the teachers time to catch up with grades, and the students time to finish up work.</div> <div>       Regents week should not be a time of torture or stress. Students should not be forced to sit in a classroom to learn nothing at all because teachers are being pulled for proctoring duty, and teachers should not be pulling out their hair running around trying to finish this or work on that. It's simply unfair.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Cupids Carry Carnations</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="21a85640.jpg" border=0 width="133" height="100" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">     <IMG SRC="21c4b640.jpg" border=0 width="75" height="100" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">     <IMG SRC="21e85640.jpg" border=0 width="133" height="100" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">   <IMG SRC="22085640.jpg" border=0 width="133" height="100" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> The sophomore class delivered carnations as a fundraiser on Valentine's Day</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Memory Project</div> <bR> <div>      Students in Ms. Mills' 9th grade English class have been working on “The Memory Project,” a collaborative effort with art teacher Kathy Lambert, as well as musicians Judith Pierce, Bill Adler and Annie Hat</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>