alex hauser portfolio

Alex HauserI wanted to be a lawyer. As a rebellious seven year old,

a career where I could argue with everyone and not get in trouble

was a dream come true. When I got rep-rimanded for talking back to my parents, my

apology always consisted of “I’m sorry, but I’m just practicing being a lawyer.”

But that dream quickly vanished the day that I learned of that dreaded BAR exam. And I quickly decided that career wasn’t for me.

Luckily, I soon found out that I loved to write when my daily writing prompts in third grade seemed to go on for pages, when all the other kids could only muster a measly half page. I wanted to be the next J.K. Rowl-

ing after reading my first Harry Potter book. So I started writing. I took on the role of the

tortured writer, always carrying around my Lisa Frank notebook and choosing to sit underneath

the jungle gym to write during recess.I would write and write, positive that I had

the next best-seller in the making… for a couple pages. Then I would think of another plot. So I would scrap the old one and start over.

But never finishing was frustrating, and my third grade self decided to take a break to meditate.

In fourth grade, I tried my luck at script writing.

I wrote a play for my teacher, who was on maternity leave at the time. Our substitute let

us take some time during each day to re-hearse, and then when she returned,

we performed it at her welcome back party.

But by the time middle school

rolled around, I decided I was more mature and disciplined and decided to try my luck at novels again.

I was having the same issue. I just couldn’t stick to one plot line for that long.

The point is, my attention span isn’t some-thing to be proud of. I’m passionate, but I get distracted easily and change my mind.

And that’s where I found the beauty in journalism.

I can pour my heart and soul into each article I write or design I create. And be-fore I tire of it, it’s finished and I can start with something new.

When my eighth grade teacher first hand-ed me the application, I didn’t think it was something I would like. Writing newspaper articles seemed boring. I wanted to tell stories.

But over the years, I learned that I can tell the most important stories. I can tell about the student with down-syndrome who gradu-ated with a regular diploma. Or how the buses aren’t just a transportation system, they’re the reason some students can grad-uate and succeed.

These stories surpass the ones of the Boy Who Lives and the Wallflower. They tell the struggles and the joys of real people.

I learned that everyone has a story; you just had to dig deep enough and find the right angle.

Journalism was made for the hyperactive, indecisive people like me.

I’ve stopped springing from hobby to hobby trying to discover myself.

I’ve found it.I found my niche.

{ }NSPA SIPA ASPAWashington D.C

MinneapolisSan Antonio

Columbia, SC20102012

Tuscaloosa, AL2009201020112012

Conventions I’ve Attended

WritingFeature

3

Passing the Grad ExamsAllison Gabriel, senior, never quits.“[She tries] to do everything a hundred

and ten percent,” whether it is basketball or studying for classes.

Allison’s mom, Susan Gabriel, said that passing the graduation exam was just an-other goal to accomplish, and they had God behind her.

“That was just my goal for her, to gradu-ate. I knew God was going to let her. For her to get where she is, she works hard,” Susan said.

Allison passed her last portion of the exit exams, the history portion, during the first semester of her senior year.

“I felt absolutely amazing, and when I passed it, I thought I was smarter than any-one, which I am, because I’m a senior,” she said, laughing.

Her mother said “she likes to study. She likes to write. She wrote facts over and over again. That’s how she passed the history part.”

Allison’s sister, Beth, said that she was really excited when Allison passed the his-tory portion.

“I know she’s a hard worker and all of her hard work paid off,” Beth said. “She has a really good memory. She remembers everything. I knew she could [pass] it.”Relationship with God

Allison said she knew she would pass it because she had God on her side.

“My mom told everyone to pray that I would pass the exit exams, and God an-swered our prayers,” she said. “I really wanted to graduate, so it was important that I passed. God helped me with that.”

Beth said Allison prays for everything, “big or small.”

“I pray because I feel like I’m talking to God about what is going on in my life. I know He cares. He always helps me with my struggles and gets me out of darkness,” Allison said.

Allison even prays for her basketball team, who went 25 and 6 this season.

“I ask God to help us win all the games. That’s why we had a great season,” she said.Basketball

Allison has been playing basketball since she was six, and is currently on the school’s team.

“I’ve been playing for a long time, but I’m ten times better than when I first started playing,” she said. “It helps me make new friends, and I like having something to fo-cus on.”

Susan said Allison practices all the time when she is at home.

“She has always liked playing. In sixth grade she got a basketball clipboard and was researching basketball plays,” Susan said.

“She would look up plays and draw them and go out and practice them on her basket-ball goal. She would be her own coach and make herself even better,” Beth said.

Allison is an encourager to her team-mates and they encourage her in return.

“I try to keep the team motivated when

March 8, 2012 Volume 9 Issue 6

8BeatThe Northridge ReporterMarch 8, 2012

Alex HauserEditor-in-Chief

Passing the exit examsAllison Gabriel, senior, never

quits.She said she “tries to do every-

thing a hundred and ten percent,” whether it is basketball or study-ing for classes.

Allison’s mom, Susan Gabriel, said that passing the graduation

exam was just another goal to ac-complish, and they had God be-hind her.

“That was just my goal for her, to graduate. I knew God was go-ing to let her. For her to get where she is, she works hard,” Susan said.

Allison passed her last portion of the exit exams, the history por-tion, during the first semester of her senior year.

“I felt absolutely amazing, and when I passed it, I thought I was smarter than anyone, which I am, because I’m a senior,” she said, laughing.


Allison’s sister, Beth, said that she was really ex-

cited when Allison passed the history portion.

“I know she’s a hard worker and all of her hard work paid off,” Beth said. “She has a really good

memory. She remembers ev-erything. I knew she could [pass] it.”

Relationship with GodAllison said she knew

she would pass it because she had God on her side.

“My mom told everyone to pray that I would pass the exit exams, and God answered our prayers,” she said. “I really want-ed to graduate, so it was impor-tant that I passed. God helped me with that.”

Beth said Allison prays for ev-erything, “big or small.”


Allison even prays for her bas-ketball team, who went 25 and 6 this season.

Senior strives towards excellence despite limitations“I ask God to help us win all

the games. That’s why we had a great season,” she said.

BasketballAllison has been playing bas-

ketball since she was six and played on the school’s girls bas-ketaball team.

“I’ve been playing for a long time, but I’m ten times better than when I first started playing,” she said. “It helps me make new friends, and I like having some-thing to focus on.”



Allison is an encourager to her teammates and they encourage her in return.

“I try to keep the team moti-vated when they feel down be-cause they do the same for me,” she said. “We all love each other like sisters, we’re a Northridge family.”

Susan said she had the team be-hind her, and their support helped her score three goals during the season.

“The whole team cheers her on. When she scored, they jumped up and high fived her. They encour-age her during practice, too,” she said. “She’s a good cheerleader. She has confidence in everyone. They can do anything. She gets discouraged because she can’t run as fast as anyone, but it’s just because she’s 4’ 10”.”

During a game at Hillcrest, the coach called her to go into the game, but she had to take off a bracelet she had on after a Chris-tian conference.

“I didn’t want to take it off be-cause I wanted to tell my friends about the next conference. It was a reminder,” Allison said. “My mom yanked it off my arm. She knew I was going to score. And

I did.”Beth said she loved watching

Allison play during the season.“She’s really enthused about

playing. It’s her senior year and she’s excited to play. You can just see that she’s having fun,” she said. “I get so nervous [when I watch her play]. Whenever she gets the ball I get an adrenaline rush. I want her to score so badly.”

FriendshipsAllison said she has a “really

strong relationship” with her sis-ter, and they don’t fight, they just pick on each other.

“We don’t fight nearly as much as other sisters do. We get along really well,” Beth said.

Allison and Beth encourage each other in everything they do.

“I just feel that I’m glad to know that somebody’s always there to support me. I like know-ing she’s always there for me. She’s my biggest fan,” Beth said.

Susan said that Allison has a “heart like Jesus” and is friends with everybody.

“She’s very friendly. She loves being around people and knows everybody’s name,” Susan said.

Beth said that Allison is a big role model because she is very forgiving and loves everybody.

“Allison is that type of person that knows everyone, whether they know her or not. I tell every-one that you could go punch her in the face, and she will still love you. She never holds a grudge, even when she should,” Beth said.

Allison said that she was meant to be friends with everybody.

“God told me to be friends with people, so I am,” she said.

Susan said that her philosophy is not to set limits, to try it and fail, instead of not trying at all.

“When it comes back to it, we just used what was given to us. We would focus on what she needed to work with,” she said.

http://northridgereporter.wordpress.com/

Photo by: Beth Allaway

Allison Gabriel, senior, guides her team to victory against Hillcrest on Jan. 20. The team went on to beat Hillcrest 71-50.

“ ”

Alex’s story meant a lot to me because it

really expressed Allison well.

It showed her positives

instead of her disability.

-Beth GabrielJunior

I write to be influential

WritingFeature4

they feel down because they do the same for me,” she said. “We all love each other like sisters, we’re a Northridge family.”

Susan said that she has the team behind her, and their support helped her score her three goals.

“The whole team cheers her on. When she scored, they jumped up and high fived her. They encourage her during practice, too,” she said. “She’s a good cheerleader. She has confidence in everyone. They can do anything. She gets discouraged because she can’t run as fast as anyone, but it’s just because she’s 4’ 10”.”

During a game at Hillcrest, the coach called her to go into the game, but she had to take off a bracelet she had on after a Christian conference.

“I didn’t want to take it off because I wanted to tell my friends about the next conference. It was a reminder,” Allison said. “My mom yanked it off my arm. She knew I was going to score. And I did.”

Beth said she loved watching Allison

play during the season.“She’s really enthused about playing. It’s

her senior year and she’s excited to play. You can just see that she’s having fun,” she said. “I get so nervous [when I watch her play]. Whenever she gets the ball I get an adrenaline rush. I want her to score so badly.”Relationships

Allison said she has a “really strong re-lationship” with her sister, and they don’t fight, they just pick on each other.



“I try to always be there for her. I cheer her on in soccer and gymnastics. I get so nervous for her,” Allison said.

“I just feel that I’m glad to know that somebody’s always there to support me. I like knowing she’s always there for me. She’s my biggest fan,” Beth said.



Beth said that Allison is a big role model because she is very forgiving and loves ev-erybody.

“Allison is that type of person that knows everyone, whether they know her or not. I tell everyone that you could go punch her in the face, and she will still love you. She never holds a grudge, even when she should,” Beth said.





Allison Gabriel made A’s and B’s in Advanced classes. She passed all her graduation exams. She played on the basketball team and was the tennis manager.

And now she’s in college managing that basketball team and studying to be an office secretary.She also has down-syndrome. Her parents never gave her the opportunity to use it as an excuse. Allison thinks she used to have down-syndrome but “grew-out of it” when she was little.She has grown-up thinking she was normal. And that’s how she succeeded.And I thought her story deserved to be heard.

It took me two weeks just to get her interview. Our local paper was doing a story on her basketball achievements, and they kept scheduling interviews and then not

showing up. When I finally got the chance, her mom had reservations.It turns out our local paper put in the lede the one thing her parents asked them not to. They put that she has down-syndrome. Allison wasn’t able to read her story. And it broke her heart. I assured her mom that I would write a story Allison and her family could be proud of.

In our critique, our judge counted us off because I didn’t mention it. He thought people shouldn’t have to assume and the information should have been provided.

But the hugs and thanks I got from the family made it worth it. This story was the defining moment in my choice to pursue a

career in journalism. I want to change lives with my words.

WritingFeature

1

With the school towering over them and students twice as big sharing the hassle, high school can be intimidat-ing for many freshman. Twelve stu-dents didn’t have to face their fears alone. They had their twin.

Sawyer and Savannah Wilson, freshmen, are fraternal twins, and were glad to have their twin with them the first day.

“It was easier [for me] because I had Sawyer, I wasn’t afraid to walk in,” Savannah said.

Being in the same building is one thing, but the same room could be too much.

Alex and Davis Jordon, freshmen, would rather not have their twin in their classes.

“I see him at home all the time, so school is like a break for me,” Davis said.

There are, in fact, some advantages in having a sibling in your classes. Natalie Patton, freshmen, said she loves having classes with Samantha Patton, freshman, because it is easier to keep up with homework.

“We help each other with our class-es,” Samantha said.

Sawyer likes having classes with Savannah because he gets to get notes from her that he missed in class.

“Sawyer never writes anything down, always expecting me to have it,” Savannah said.

Lauren and Hannah Johnson, fresh-men, are not partial to having classes with each other.

“It’s fun having classes together,” Hannah said. “But we always sit in alphabetical order and that usually doesn’t turn out so well.”

According to keepkidshealthy.com, only about 3.6% of the U.S popula-tion are twins.

People are amazed when they find out a person has a double walking around.

“It’s just funny, people’s reac-tions,” Natalie said.

“People who see us together for the first time freak out,” Samantha said.

Scott Johnson, math teacher, is of-ten confused, along with many oth-ers, in identifying twins with their correct names.

“Mr. Johnson calls us Natantha and Samatalie,” Natalie said, “I guess just so he’ll never get our names wrong.”

“Twin” is a common name for identical twins, to ensure they aren’t called the wrong name.

“I’m called ‘twin’ everyday,” Sa-mantha said, “I hate it.”

Fraternal twins get different reac-tions when their twin status is re-vealed.

“They don’t believe me, I have to ask someone they trust to convince them, because we aren’t the least bit identical,” Hannah said.

“They’re like, ‘Oh wow, I didn’t know that’ because usually twins look alike, and you know, we’re fra-ternal,” Sawyer said.

Lauren said being a twin is just like having a sibling, that there isn’t really

a difference.“Everyone expects you to be the

same, but we aren’t, we’re totally dif-ferent,” Lauren said.

Jamel Smith, freshman, takes his status as a twin in stride.

“I like being a twin because there aren’t a lot of them, so it’s cool,” Jamel said.

“It gives me individuality,” Savan-nah said.

Freshman Jori smith, Jamel’s twin sister, said she likes being a twin be-cause she likes having someone who always understands her.

“The world may never know,” the famous question to the unsolv-able tootsie roll pop motto goes. “Do twins have telepathy powers?”

“Sometimes, I’ll be listening to a song and as the same time Sawyer will too, and we won’t even know until we walk out of our rooms sing-ing the lyrics,” Savannah said. “It’s weird.”

Jamel and Jori had a similar experi-ence.

“I can be thinking something, and she’ll say it out loud; it happens all the time,” Jamel said.

Lauren relates her twin status to an other sibling.

“Being a twin is just like having a sibling,” Lauren said, “but you have to share a room.”

“It’s not as different as some peo-ple think.” Sawyer said.

Where I started

Freshman class has six sets of twins

Our news editor was working on a profile about a set of twins in our school. At the same time, our feature editor was struggling on finding an idea for her page. She wanted to use his twin story, but there was nothing else to fill the page. It got me thinking about all the twins in my grade, and I realized there were six sets. Usually the in-depth features are held for the upperclassmen and more experienced writers, so it was a big deal that I was allowed to write this as a freshman. Shortly after I was finished, the need for another people spread came up, and so I was asked to alter my story and create a spread for the

yearbook.

WritingFeature2

Freshman

WritingNews

5

December 14, 2012 • Volume 10 • Issue 4 Northridge High School • 2901 Northridge Road • Tuscaloosa, Al• 35406northridgereporter.wordpress.com

Traffic lady returns

Kitty Craze Swimmingpage 7

Page 3


After seven and a half hours of school, several more hours of homework and having to wake up at the break of dawn to get to school by 8:00 a. m, students suffer from a lack of sleep.

But students who ride buses, lose another hour, the bus often picks them up as early as 7:00 a.m.

KeAmbria Washington, senior, said she is picked up around 6:52 a.m. and gets to school around 7:07 a.m.

“We have to stay on the bus until 7:15,” she said. “We are al-ways the first bus, and it’s very empty in the lunchroom when we’re [allowed in],” she said.

Jimmy Boone, the Director of Transportation, said there is not a law on the time buses can drop off students.

“We do have local policies,” he said. “As a rule we try not to drop off high school students before 7:15 a.m. Since all students begin breakfast at 7:30 a.m., students only have up to 15 minutes to wait before they can go to breakfast.”

Senior DeAnthony Mays, who rides bus 27, said his bus is over-crowded.

“You have a hard time trying to find a seat when there are so many people,” he said. “And then you have that person that is sav-ing a seat for someone or just wants to sit by themselves.”

Mays said many people that ride his bus could drive and that is part of the overcrowding problem.

“If you are a licensed driver and have a car, please drive to school, it will open up seats for the people who don’t have that option,” he said.

The bus routes are created using a computer program called Edulog. During the summer a complete listing of the students are placed on a map, and the transportation department assigns each student a bus.

“We try to make a distance of no more than four blocks to a stop for high school students. We examine how the students get to the stops for safety issues. For example, no crossing of four lane roads [or] railroad tracks,” Boone said.

The process of creating bus routes is “very difficult” because not every student rides a bus, but each one eligible is assigned.

“This year we hope to begin a process of including a request to ride a bus as a part of spring registration. If we can only identify students who want transportation, it will help us do a better job of creating routes,” he said.

The transportation system transports over 5,000 students with 93 buses, 73 of them running double routes.

Charles Anthony, assistant principal, said, for the size, the bus system is very effective.

“The drivers do a tremendous job in transporting students to and from school on a daily basis. They communicate problems they are experiencing on the bus to me, and we work together to try to correct the problem,” he said. “Mr. Boone often sends emails and will sometimes stop by the school to see if there are any problems with the buses and find out from us what they can do to better serve our needs here at Northridge.”

Anthony said the only time the buses arrive late is when there are a number of drivers out on a given day, and the transportation de-partment always informs the school when they are going to be late.

“Some days, there are just not enough substitute drivers to cover all of the routes where drivers are absent,” he said.

Boone said they are currently recruiting substitute drivers.“On occasion we have to bring in other buses to assist with

routes because of a shortage of drivers. We regret having to do this but strive to complete the routes,” he said.

Synteria Pearson, senior, said her bus driver really cares about the students on his bus.

“He talks to you when you get on and off the bus, and he knows all of his students by name. He’ll also wait a couple of minutes for you when you’re late,” she said.

Boone said the transportation department is a “vital component to education.”

“If students cannot get to school, they cannot get an education. Without the bus, many students would not be able to get to school,” he said. “A year ago I received a phone call from a young lady who had been in a lot trouble in high school, and nearly dropped out. After working on the problems with the bus, she started attending school every day. She called me to tell me she had just graduated from the Univer-sity of Alabama, and told me she would not have been there without the school bus,” he said.

Rabisa KhanCopy Editor

The board is considering implementation of tablets in place of textbooks next year.

Chris Jenks, Coordinator of Instruction-al Technology, said the board is currently evaluating various options to transition toward more digital learning opportuni-ties.

“At the direction of Superintendent Dr. Paul McKendrick, we are investigating on how to implement a ‘one-to-one’ initiative [which would give] one device [to each] student,” Jenks said.

He said that the devices the board imple-ments do not necessarily need to be tablets.

“The critical part to remember is that the focus should not be on the device but on the students’ needs,” Jenks said.

He said tablets will be most promising for consuming reading content, notes and enhancing an educational environment. In-

tensive writing assignments, such as essays, would not be suitable for such devices.

Elizabeth Tiley, guidance counselor, said she is not aware of the tablet idea but thinks it has many positive and negative effects.

“It might be beneficial for students in this fast pace modern world and better

prepare them for what’s coming up in college,” she said.

Tiley said stu-dents could down-load many programs and software for learning purposes but many students will most likely play games such as solitaire instead of

working in class.“Every student would most likely re-

ceive a tablet, but we could run into the same problem as this year,” Tiley said.

“Many textbooks won’t be returned at the end of the year, and we would run short of devices,” she said.

Mary Margaret Murdock, sophomore, was one of seven students selected from

the tenth grade to be part of a meeting with the board members.

“[The board] talked about replacing text-books with tablets, but I just don’t think that’s a good idea at all.”

Murdock said she thinks it is stupid be-cause the school is not even meeting AYP, and people are more worried about getting tablets.

Katherine McCray, sophomore, said she also prefers textbooks.

“I like to have something tangible in my hands, something I can shove papers into,” McCray said.

McCray said she is also worried about the financial aspect of this venture.

“If we can’t even afford textbooks for ev-ery student, how are we supposed to fund eBooks for every student?” McCray said.

Jenks said the school board has posi-tioned the school system on sound finan-cial footing.

“If the board decides this plan is the cor-rect direction, local funds will be available to make it a reality,” he said.

Additionally, McCray said she believes there are too many complications and vari-ables that would obstruct the success of

wheelstheon thebus

roundgo

andround

Buses key to some students’ success

Tablets become option to replace textbooks next year

tablets in the classroom.“Tablets could be lost or stolen, and they

require charging,” McCray said. “People could easily get away with doing nothing.”

If done properly with focus on profes-sional teacher development, network and infrastructure preparation and curriculum, Jenks said, “a device deployment like this could be transformative.”

Art by: Kanjalla Dancer

Is your bus overcrowded?Yes:38 No:14

Does you bus arrive before 7:15?Yes:12 No:36

Plugged in:Tyesha Pinnock, sopho-more, uses her iPad during class. “I use it to research topics in class and to help with school work or home-work,” she said.

I like to have something tangible in my hands, something I can shove papers into.

Katherine McCray, sophomore

Photo by: Alex Hauser

Compiled by: Kelly Burnham

After seven and a half hours of school, several more hours of homework and hav-ing to wake up at the break of dawn to get to school by 8:00 a.m, students suffer from a lack of sleep.

But students who ride buses, lose an-other hour, the bus often picks them up as early as 7:00 a.m.

KeAmbria Washington, senior, said she is picked up around 6:52 a.m. and gets to school around 7:07 a.m.

“We have to stay on the bus until 7:15,” she said. “We are always the first bus, and

it’s very empty in the lunchroom when we’re [allowed in],” she said.

Jimmy Boone, the Director of Transpor-tation, said there is not a law on the time buses can drop off students.

“We do have local policies,” he said. “As a rule we try not to drop off high school students before 7:15 a.m. Since all students begin breakfast at 7:30 a.m. students only have up to 15 minutes to wait before they can go to breakfast.”

Senior DeAnthony Mays, who rides bus 27, said his bus is overcrowded.

“You have a hard time try-ing to find a seat when there are so many people,” he said. “And then you have that

person that is saving a seat for someone or just wants to sit by themselves.”

Mays said many people that ride his bus could drive and is part of the overcrowding problem.

“If you are a licensed driver and have a car, please drive to school, it will open up seats for the people who don’t have that op-tion,” he said.

The bus routes are created using a com-puter program called Edulog. During the summer a complete listing of the students are placed on a map, and the transportation department assigns each student a bus.

“We try to make a distance of no more than four blocks to a stop for high school students. We examine how the students get to the stops for safety issues. For example, no crossing of four lane roads [or] railroad tracks,” Boone said.

Senior

Buses key to some

IDesignedThisPage

WritingNews6

I strive for diversity

The process of creating bus routes is “very difficult” because not every student rides a bus, but each one eligible is assigned.

“This year we hope to begin a process of including a request to ride a bus as a part of spring registration. If we can only identify students who want transportation, it will help us do a better job of creating routes,” he said.

The transportation system transports over 5,000 students with 93 buses, 73 of them running double routes.

Charles Anthony, assistant principal, said, for the size, the bus system is very effective.

“The drivers do a tremendous job in transporting students to and from school on a daily basis. They communicate prob-lems they are experiencing on the bus to me, and we work together to try to correct the problem,” he said. “Mr. Boone often

sends emails and will sometimes stop by the school to see if there are any problems with the buses and find out from us what they can do to better serve our needs here at Northridge.”

Anthony said the only time the buses ar-rive late is when there are a number of driv-ers out on a given day, and the transporta-tion department always informs the school when they are going to be late.

“Some days, there are just not enough substitute drivers to cover all of the routes where drivers are absent,” he said.

Boone said they are currently recruiting substitute drivers.

“On occasion we have to bring in other buses to assist with routes because of a shortage of drivers. We regret having to do this but strive to complete the routes,” he said.

Synteria Pearson, senior, said her bus driv-er really cares about the students on his bus.

“He talks to you when you get on and off the bus, and he knows all of his students by name. He’ll also wait a couple of minutes for you when you’re late,” she said.

Boone said the transportation department is a “vital component to education.”

“If students cannot get to school, they cannot get an education. Without the bus, many students would not be able to get to school,” he said. “A year ago I received a phone call from a young lady who had been in a lot trouble in high school, and nearly dropped out. After working on the problems with the bus, she started attending school every day. She called me to tell me she had just graduated from the University of Ala-bama, and told me she would not have been there without the school bus,” Boone said.

“ ”

No one every reports on the bus. It was nice for people to know how important the buses are to some students.

-Synteria Pearson

students’ success

Our school demographics define our school. We have the wealthiest part of Tuscaloosa combined with the poorest. We are 30% white and 70% black. But we tend to focus more on the 30%. I realized that we needed to report on the entire school, so I sought a story that would have a more diverse demographic. I searched through our old papers trying to find a story, until I realized that we have never had a story about the bus system, even though so many of our students ride a bus. I went and talked to the administrator who mans the buses, and he gave me several angles to pursue. I then talked to the transportation director and students to get my story.

WritingNews

7

During the first week in October, board members scoured the hallway, sat in on classes and talked to students and faculty.

Isaac Espy, principal, said the purpose of the visit was to evaluate the school’s in-structional program and to help the school do a better job of instruction based on spe-cific recommendations resulting from the audit.

“I contacted the superintendent last sum-mer and requested that this audit take place in the fall. It is a very healthy practice, and our faculty and the central office are work-ing together to improve the way we have school,” he said.

Paul McKendrick, superintendent, said the visit was not to evaluate people, but processes within the school and that some-one from the outside would have more of a “critical eye.”

“You look at a process of how [you] solve the problems, what are the ways that the school addresses organizational issues and then you try as much as possible to see where the instructional program is,” he said. “The idea is that you aren’t going into an audit like that and saying we’re going into Mrs. Jones’ class because we heard she’s a wonderful teacher. But at the same time, you don’t say you’re going into Mr. Jones’ class because we heard he’s a hor-rible teacher. Nor do you go back to the principal saying they’re a horrible teacher or perfect teacher because this is what we saw.”

Espy said teachers knew there would be walkthroughs.

“[The school board] has no bearing other than the general snapshot of elements of instruction that were observed at that par-ticular time,” he said. “In a walkthrough, the learning environment is assessed along with the format for instructional practices, strategies, teacher activities, grouping, stu-dent engagement and the level of student work required.”

McKendrick said the board came into the audit without a prearranged idea of what the school was going to look like.

They looked at data gathered through the observations, the records review and the conversations they had.

“[We] try to give a portrait of what the school looks like,” e said. “If it’s something that [we’re] happy with or we think is good then we say ‘yes, this is what the school is and this is what the school looks like and these are the kinds of things that we want in the school,’ [but] if the portrait shows you some blemishes that you really don’t want, then at that point, that becomes an issue.”

The board interviewed several students about their view on the school, including Natalie Patton, senior. Patton said they asked her whether she thought the school was safe, and how the school could be im-proved.

“I was glad that they were asking the questions, but I don’t think I gave them the answers they were looking for. I think they got mad when I spoke my mind about it,” she said. “I said things like get new text-books and better security cameras.”

Scott Johnson, math teacher, said the fac-ulty was told that the purpose of the audit was to assist us in better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses, but the re-sults were “disconcerting.”

“Pre-audit, I think we were all on board, although no one really likes to be under a magnifying glass. [But] post-audit, much more was made of the school’s shortcom-ings than its strengths,” he said.

Johnson said the people who had the “largest hand” in the audit believe not enough is being done for students who struggle the most.

“In their view, the successful students would probably be successful in spite of the teachers and curriculum. They tend to work hard regardless,” he said. “[The eval-uators said] our primary concern and direc-tion should be with the students who are at risk of dropping out or graduation with their ‘cohorts.’ While many of us disagree with this point-of-view and believe instead there needs to be a balance of both.

Johnson said that, while most of the au-

ditor’s behaviors were “unobtrusive and professional,” there were some that I wit-nessed that were invasive, disruptive and very unprofessional.

“Let teachers evaluate teachers. Some of these ‘experts’ wouldn’t last two days in a classroom. Take the evaluator who pointed out that six students were chewing gum. So? Is that against some board policy? Don’t think so,” he said.

Beth Allaway, science teacher, said the examiners should have looked for “real teaching” and not so much on paper work like lesson plans and objectives on the board.

“[They should have] stayed in the class-rooms longer. That way they could get an idea of how the class flows. There were judgments made on our critiques that were incorrect because they hadn’t stayed long enough to know. Many of the people who were observing had no knowledge or expe-rience in the subjects they were observing,” she said.

Mckendrick said he thought the audit did what it was meant to do.

“I think it gave and will give Dr. Espy what he needs to make some changes. One of the incentives and reasons why we went in is because the school did not make AYP,” he said.

McKendrick said, although the AYP and No Child Left Behind has some flaws, the results that came from the test scores was a good indicator to which students were doing well, and which ones were doing poorly, and that “everyone supported [it].”

McKendrick said that remembering fac-tors that students should be dealing is a key for educators.

“There are a lot of children that come [to school] that we have to resolve some kind of issues that are impacting their instruc-tion,” he said. “And that’s a part of teach-ing and being an educator because those are issues we have to solve right when they walk in their doors.”

Board visits to assist in better learning atmosphere

WritingNews8

November 30 , 2012 • Volume 10 • Issue 3 Northridge High School • 2901 Northridge Road • Tuscaloosa, Al• 35406northridgereporter.wordpress.com

Of Mice and Men

Fame Ashcraftpage 8


During the first week in October, board members scoured the hallway, sat in on classes and talked to stu-dents and faculty.

Isaac Espy, principal, said the purpose of the visit was to evaluate the school’s instructional program and to help the school do a better job of instruction based on specific recommendations resulting from the audit.

“I contacted the superintendent last summer and request-ed that this audit take place in the fall. It is a very healthy practice, and our faculty and the central office are working together to improve the way we have school,” he said.

Paul McKendrick, superintendent, said the visit was not to evaluate people, but processes within the school and that some-one from the outside would have more of a “critical eye.”

“You look at a process of how [you] solve the problems, [and] the ways that the school addresses organizational is-sues,” he said.

Afterwards, McKendrick said, they look at what in-structional program needs to be altered.

“The idea is that you aren’t going into an audit saying we’re going into Mrs. Jones’ class because we heard she’s a wonderful teacher. But at the same time, you don’t say you’re going into Mr. Jones’ class because we heard he’s a horrible teacher,” he said.

“Nor do you go back to the principal saying they’re a horrible teacher or perfect teacher because this is what we saw,” McKendrick said.

Espy said teachers knew there would be walkthroughs.“[The school board] has no bearing other than the gen-

eral snapshot of elements of instruction that were ob-served at that particular time,” he said. “In a walkthrough, the learning environment is assessed along with the format for instructional practices, strategies, teacher activities, grouping, student engagement and the level of student work required.”

McKendrick said the board came into the audit without a prearranged idea of what the school was going to look like.

They looked at data gathered through the observations, the records review and the conversations they had.

“[We] try to give a portrait of what the school looks like,” he said. “If it’s something that [we’re] happy with or we think is good, then we say ‘yes, this is what the school is, and this is what the school looks like, and these are the kinds of things that we want in the school,’ [but] if the portrait shows you some blemishes that you really don’t want, then at that point, that becomes an issue.”

The board interviewed several students about their view on the school, including Natalie Patton, senior. Patton said they asked her whether she thought the school was safe,

Board visits to assist in better learning atmosphere

I was in [Shane Ashcraft’s] class, and I was talking to a 9th grade English class. They were discussing To Kill a Mockingbird.

I don’t think there was a student in there that did not comment. And they hit on some really tough questions. They had finished reading the book, and they were discussing overall themes, and he had a set number of themes throughout that they were discussing.

Shane Ashcraft

ABehindthe Scenes

LookThe Classroom of

“

”See the story on Ashcraft on pg. 8

During the audit, Dr. Paul McKendrick observed several classes, and said he wished he could have visited more.

“Because you see some wonderful people that are teaching, and you see children engaged, and you see children enjoying the classes they’re in,” he said.

and how the school could be improved.“I was glad that they were asking the questions,

but I don’t think I gave them the answers they were looking for. I think they got mad when I spoke my mind about it,” she said. “I said things like get new textbooks and better security cameras.”

Scott Johnson, math teacher, said the faculty was told that the purpose of the audit was to assist us in better understanding of our strengths and weak-nesses, but the results were “disconcerting.”

“Pre-audit, I think we were all on board, although no one really likes to be under a magnifying glass. [But] post-audit, much more was made of the school’s shortcomings than its strengths,” he said.

Johnson said the people who had the “largest hand” in the audit believe not enough is being done for students who struggle the most.

“In their view, the successful students would probably be successful in spite of the teachers and curriculum. They tend to work hard regardless,” he said. “[The evaluators said] our primary concern and direction should be with the students who are at risk of dropping out or graduation with their ‘co-horts.’ While many of us disagree with this point-of-view and believe instead there needs to be a bal-ance of both.

Johnson said that, while most of the auditor’s be-haviors were “unobtrusive and professional,” there were some that I witnessed that were invasive, dis-ruptive and very unprofessional.

“Let teachers evaluate teachers. Some of these ‘experts’ wouldn’t last two days in a classroom. Take the evaluator who pointed out that six students were chewing gum. So? Is that against some board policy? Don’t think so,” he said.

Beth Allaway, science teacher, said the examin-ers should have looked for “real teaching” and not so much for paper work like lesson plans and objec-tives on the board.

“[They should have] stayed in the classrooms longer. That way they could get an idea of how the class flows. There were judgments made on our critiques that were incorrect because they hadn’t stayed long enough to know. Many of the people who were observing had no knowledge or experience in the subjects they were observing,” she said.

McKendrick said he thought the audit did what it was meant to do.

“I think it gave and will give Dr. Espy what he needs to make some changes. One of the incentives and reasons why we went in is because the school did not make AYP,” he said.

McKendrick said, although the AYP and No Child Left

Behind has some flaws, the results that came from the test scores was a good indicator to which students were doing well, and which ones were doing poorly, and that “every-one supported [it].”

McKendrick said that remembering factors that students should be dealing is a key for educators.

“There are a lot of children that come [to school] that we have to resolve some kind of issues that are impacting their instruction,” he said. “And that’s a part of teaching and being an educator because those are issues we have to solve right when they walk in their doors.”

Raiha BajwaManaging Editor

The AP grant that grants students a hundred dollars per passing score

in any math, science or English class, also gives the teachers in those subjects a hundred dollars per student. Based on previous years passing rates, bench-marks are set for the teachers and if they surpass them one thousand dollar bonus is added.

Patsy Lowry, math teacher, had 29 of her 31 AP Calculus students pass the exam, giving her a $3000 bonus, and a total of $5900.

Lowry said she cried when she got the scores because of how hard everyone worked.

“I cried not just because of how many people passed, but passed with the high-est score they could make,” she said. “Everyone went in and did the best they could, no one drew pictures.”

Lowry said in her forty years of teach-ing that was about the best she’s ever gotten.

She said she plans on using the money on a visit to England to see her daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “I don’t know if I could afford to go without it

[the AP money].”Lowry said she is concerned about her

current AP Calculus class on the new schedule.

“This year I’m having to do it in half the time,” she said. “It’s been very chal-lenging for me and the students, but we’ll see how it goes.”

Trina Busby, English teacher, said she was happy about receiving the money, but does not fully support the idea.

“It’s a grey ethical issue for me; I would do my job the same way regard-less,” she said. “Yes it’s a nice incentive, but at the same time it’s not why I want my students to pass.”

AP BiologyAP Chemistry

Calculus ABCalculus BC

Physics B

2213

292

9

Stephens

Lowery

Evans

Marilyn

Patsy

Ria

Statistics

English LanguageEnglish Literature

English Language

8

2115

27

Johnson

Busby

Moore

Scott

Trina

Mary Ruffin

AP Examswho passedStudents

Teachers receive monetary awards for test scores

Page 4-5

Page 3

Senior

Our board of education made many changes over the years that the student body and teachers have not supported. At the beginning of my senior year, the board came and audited our school. Many rumors were spread, and I sat down with the superintendent to find our what was true and what was not. After my story was published, students and teachers became more informed on what the board thought. I got

praise from both the city board and my school.

I am careful with sensitive subjects

I alsodesigned

thisPage

WritingReview

9

It was that kind of show that keeps get-ting better as it goes on. Three great per-formers Matt Nathanson, Maroon 5 and Train appeared on a Thursday night in Sep-tember in Atlanta.

It was a show that was worth the four hour drive and the wait through Atlanta’s rush hour. It was so good, I belted all the songs the whole four hours it took to get back.

Matt Nathanson was the opening act. And, like most opening acts, he isn’t nearly as well known. He sings “Come On Get Higher” for all of the Top 40 listeners.

Although he’s newer to fame, he had great stage presence and entranced the au-dience.

He is definitely added to my list of artists to listen to.

His last song “Faster” was catchy and was in my head until Maroon 5 started playing.

Adam Levine, lead singer of Ma-roon 5, started off with his new hit “Moves Like Jag-ger.” I was hop-ing for Christina to show up to sing with him, but it was phenomenal nonetheless. It was an unexpected start and got the audi-ence pumped up for more.

He sang his clas-sic hits such as “Misery,” “This

Love,” “If I Never See You Again,” Stutter” and “Sunday Morning.”

Maroon 5’s performing style focuses more on the music. Besides the pretty lights, there were few special effects, in contrast to Train, effectively bringing all of the attention to the lyrics and rhythm of the songs.

They ended with ”She Will Be Loved.” Levine stopped in the middle of the song to provide comic relief, asking his guitarist if he had boogers in his nose, saying it was bothering him and he felt self-conscious. He ended the song by setting up a two-part harmony in the audience.

After Maroon 5’s performance, I was doubtful it could get better. I was wrong.

A train whistle announced Train’s en-trance. The curtain rose, and they started off with “Parachute” and “If It’s Love,” the latter being one of my favorites.

They mostly sang songs from their new-er album Save Me San Francisco, but also brought back some of the classics including “Calling All Angels” and “She’s on Fire.”

During “She’s on Fire” Pat Monahan let several girls come up on stage with him to dance and sing. He called them the “Trainettes” and most of them got T-shirts saying the name. One younger girl, a can-cer survivor, got to stand up on one of the speakers and show off her dance moves, and sing with him. It truly was an experi-ence well-made for the girl, and it tugged on all of our hearts.

Monahan interacted with the audience tremendously, autographing beach balls and throwing them out to the crowd; he even meandered through the stands whilst singing “Marry Me.”

The typically overplayed song “Hey, Soul Sister” was brought back. Hearing it live brought back the memories of first hearing the catchy rhythm, completely erasing my usual annoyance of it.

Train came back for an encore singing their main hit “Drops of Jupiter.” The fa-miliar piano was compelling, Monahan’s voice to die for. Not to mention his abil-ity to do acrobatics while singing. It put the recording to shame, although seemingly impossible.

They ended the concert singing “This Ain’t Goodbye” and announced that they were going to release a new album next year, and will be back to Atlanta, a concert I will not easily miss. I’ve been to several concerts, and this was by far my favorite, certainly one of the few I would go back and see again. It was fabulously performed and left me wanting more.

3EntertainmentThe Northridge ReporterSeptember 23, 2011

Kristi JacksonIndependent DirectorConsultant #168431

3523 18th Avenue NETuscaloosa, AL 35406Office: 205-349-4391Fax: 205-366-0891 [email protected]

kjcooks.com

TOP PERFORMANCE CLUSTER

“Your Orthodontist On The Black Warrior River”

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752-4343Go Jaguars!

James Rob-ertsBeat Editor

This sum-mer brought us the latest installment of the Planet of the Apes franchise Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Of all the science

fiction films

I’ve seen, I think that the Planet of the Apes franchise as a whole has one of the better concepts.

It takes place in a future where we humans have become animalistic and are no longer the most dominant of all of God’s creations, and simians have assumed our former role.

To me that is one of the most creative concepts for a film. But it takes more than a great concept to make a spectacular film. It has to be well-acted, well directed and produced, well written, and have excellent special effects.

The original 1968 Planet of the Apes and this summer’s installment in the franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, have this going for them, but the 2001 Tim Burton remake (that you may have seen when you were a kid) pretty much doesn’t. If you don’t believe me, let me compare these three motion pictures.

The original’s make-up was quite convincing (even by today’s standards.) The cast did a superb job of acting, al-though Charlton Heston kind of overacted from time to time, but it was still convincing. The characters were developed. The writing was great, seeing as it came from a beloved novella by Pierre Boulle.

The story was quite thought provoking and philosophical, and the plot twist at the end was thrilling.

To sum it up, it’s about as near perfect as a film can get.The ill-famed remake by Burton (that somehow grossed

$180,011,740, despite its problems) doesn’t exactly deserve all of the infamy it received, but it’s beyond doubt not as good as the original or Rise.

Some of the simian characters were actually pretty well acted, and I kind of liked the stylish special effects, but I

didn’t think that the special effects exactly worked with the story and were sort of goofy.

Those few positive factors didn’t make up for the short-comings in logic: The “animalistic humans” can talk, the “superior” simians act more like simians than in the origi-nal, and so on.

The Burton remake also had cardboard cut out human characters, bad writing, a weak climax, and a sloppy “twist” ending that made no sense. If it weren’t for the stylish spe-cial effects, it would probably be down there with Battle: Los Angeles, a summer 2011 film built on special effects that did poorly in theaters.

The recently made reboot of the Planet of the Apes fran-chise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, made up for the dam-age of Burton’s remake.

I will admit that at first, I thought it was going to be hor-rible, and that I wasn’t too happy that the simians were now CGI (Computer Generated Images,) as opposed to the con-vincing make-up of the earlier films, but I was happily sur-prised with it.

It wasn’t as thought-provoking as the original and the pacing was a little faster than I would’ve liked, but the writ-ing was better than expected, the characters were developed and well-acted, the CGI simians looked somewhat realistic, and the climax was splendid.

Overall, it was excellently made entertainment and pretty much the second best film in the entire franchise.

Rise is rumored to be the first film of an entirely new Planet of the Apes film series.

Will the new films be good? Let’s wait and see.

New Planet of the Apes movie proves to be surprisingly good


It was that kind of show that keeps getting better as it goes on. Three great performers Matt Nathanson, Maroon 5 and Train ap-peared on a Thursday night in September in Atlanta.

It was a show that was worth the four hour drive and the wait through Atlanta’s rush hour. It was so good, I belted all the songs the whole four hours it took to get back.

Matt Nathanson was the opening act. And, like most opening acts, he isn’t nearly as well known. He sings “Come On Get Higher” for all of the Top 40 listeners.

Although he’s newer to fame, he had great stage presence and entranced the audience.

Definitely on my list of artists to listen to. His last song “Faster” was catchy and was in my head until Maroon 5 started playing.

Adam Levine, lead singer of Maroon 5, started off with his new hit “Moves Like Jagger.” I was hoping for Christina to show up to sing it with him, but it was phenom-enal nonetheless. It was an unexpected start and got the audience pumped up for more.

He sang his classic hits such as “Misery,” “This Love,” “If I Never See You Again,” “Stutter” and “Sunday Morning.”

Maroon 5’s performing style focuses more on the music. Besides the pretty lights, there were few special effects, in contrast to Train, effectively bringing all of the atten-

tion to the lyrics and rhythm of the songs. They ended with “She Will Be Loved.”

Levine stopped in the middle of the song to provide comic relief, asking his guitarist if he had boogers in his nose, saying it was bothering him and he felt self-conscious. He ended the song by setting up a two-part harmony in the audience.

After Maroon 5’s performance, I was doubtful it could get better. I was wrong.

A train whistle announced Train’s en-trance. The curtain rose, and they started off with “Parachute” and “If It’s Love,” the latter being one of my favorites.

They mostly sang songs from their newer album Save Me San Francisco, but also brought back some of the classics including “Calling All Angels” and “She’s on Fire.”

During “She’s On Fire” Pat Monahan let several girls come up on stage with him to

dance and sing. He called them the “Trai-nettes” and most of them got T-shirts say-ing the name. One younger girl, a cancer survivor, got to stand up on one of the speakers and show off her dance moves, and sing with him. It truly was an experi-ence well-made for the girl, and it tugged on all of our hearts.

Monahan interacted with the audience tremendously, autographing beach balls and throwing them out to the crowd, and even meandered through the stands whilst singing “Marry Me”.

The typically overplayed song “Hey, Soul Sister” was brought back. Hearing it live brought back the memories of first hearing the catchy rhythm, completely erasing my usual annoyance of it.

Train came back for an encore singing their main hit “Drops of Jupiter.” The fa-miliar piano was compelling, Monahan’s voice is to die for. Not to mention Mona-han’s ability to do acrobatics while sing-

ing. It put the recording to shame, although seemingly impossible.

They ended the concert singing “This Ain’t Goodbye” and announced that they were going to release a new album next year, and will be back to Atlanta, a concert I will not easily miss. I’ve been to several concerts, and this was one of my favorite, certainly one of the few I would go back and see again. It was fabulously performed and left me wanting more.

Photo by Robb D. Cohen

Matt Nathanson, Maroon 5 and Train perform and seize fan’s heartArt by Jane Yu

Pat Monahan, lead singer of Train, sings one of the crowd’s favorites at the September 1 concert in Atlanta.

Junior

Matt Nathanson, Maroon 5 and Train perform and seize fan’s heart

Knowing I would need this review done the day after the concert, I wrote it around 1 a.m. during the three hours it took to drive home that night. It was edited and placed the next day. I received 2nd place review for this at the Alabama

Scholastic Press Association.

WritingSports10

the northridge reporteroctober 22, 2010 spor ts 11

alex hauserfeature editor

Their team name, “Life is Grand, Eh?” proudly “defined [their Canadian heritage” as they suited up for the big race.

Andrew Lattner, junior, and his mom, Patricia Tessner participated in the Pedal, Paddle, Pedal race on Sept. 18 at Lake Lurleen State Park.

“It was a race done by the Druid City Bike Club that included a 23 mile long bike race, 2.2 miles of paddling and a 23 mile mountain bike loop,” Lattner said. “I did the paddling portion in a kayak.”

Lattner’s training for the race consisted of one practice lap a week before the race, although he’s been kayaking for four years.

“We just did it for fun. We knew that some of the people doing this would be serious athletes, and we probably couldn’t beat them anyway. It was lots of fun doing it as a mother-son team,” he said.

Lattner first kayaked at a YMCA camp on Paradise Lake in St. Jacobs, Canada, and continued participating in the sport because he “thought it was really fun because [he] could go at [his] own pace.”

“I just enjoy the feeling of freedom I get while kayaking, it’s just me and the boat, there’s nothing to distract you. It’s just your own thoughts. It’s calming,” Lattner said.

Lattner said he was pleased with his performance and his personal time.

“I [think I] kayaked rather quickly; I had a pretty good time, and I was able to make up two minutes of our time,” he said. “[But] I’m not a professional, not even close, because I know there are people a lot better than me. I don’t know if there’s professional kayaking, but if there were, I couldn’t do that.” Lattner said being able to see his competition gave him motivation.

“It gives me the goal to beat [my competition], but when I’m alone, or I’m on a river that has a lot of bends, I can’t see [my competition]. It’s hard to find motivation when you don’t have a goal,” he said.

Lattner and Tessner were the only two-person team, Tessner competing in both the cycling and mountain bike loop.

“She’s a really good athlete,” Lattner said. “[I’m proud of her] because I know I can’t do it, and the fact that she’s more than twice my age, that’s a big accomplishment.”

Knowing she could check off doing both a road and mountain bike ride in

one day from her lifetime list was one thing that helped her finish the race.

“Andrew was there supporting me, no matter how long it took,” Tessner said. “And the fact that the mountain bike trail goes around a lake so you have no choice but to finish; other than swimming across the lake with a bike.”

Tessner’s favorite part of the race was tagging off between the events.

“We spent the extra few seconds to give each other a hug and wish each other luck,” she said.

Lattner and Tessner, although having a disadvantage of only having two people, loved doing the race as a mother-son team.

“Andrew is so laid back. I could enjoy all of the race, without any pressure to win. We cheered each other on just because we support each other’s effort,” Tessner said.

Lattner said he worked hard, not wanting to disappoint his mom.

“I didn’t want to let her down, she was biking so far and long, and I wanted to help her achieve her goals,” he said.

His mom said she “almost wishes he had gone a little slower so [she] could have had a little more rest between the road and mountain bike rides.”

“If he decides to become a free agent for next year’s race, I’m sure there will be teams interested in recruiting him,” Tessner said.

Junior helps mom in bike race

craig firstinfographics editor

The girls volleyball team won the area tournament for the first time since 2005 during fourth period on Oct. 12.

Hosted and sponsored by Northridge, the team played Bessemer City and Hillcrest.

The first round of games in the tournament were played against Bessemer City.

“Before the [first] game, I was in my normal routine trying to set up and get my girls ready for the game. I didn’t allow time for myself to get nervous, but I was excited,” Coach Sherri Shuttlesworth said.

The whistle blew and the game started at 2:02 p.m. and within the next ten minutes the score was 16 to 5, Northridge. Then, five minutes later the score was 24 to 9, only one point away from Northridge winning. And, in the blink of an eye 30 seconds later the first game was won, Northridge 25 and Bessemer City 10.

“Normally, I’m not into sports, but during the first game it got pretty intense. I really enjoyed it, and I can’t wait to see the next one,” Lane Russell, spectator, said.

In the first few minutes of the second

game, Northridge started the game leading with a score of 7 to 0, but then a series of blunders led Bessemer City to gain 5 points. For the rest of the game, the scoring fluttered back and forth between the teams with scores such as: 15 to 9, then 16 to 11 and 18 to 15. With less ease than the first game, Northridge still managed to come out on top with a final score of 25 to 17.

As for the third game, the score was neck and neck. Then, for the first time in the championship, Bessemer City got a lead on Northridge by three points. After that, it was fairly close. But again, Northridge beat Bessemer City, but the score was even closer than before with Northridge scoring 25 points and Bessemer scoring 20 points.

Later after the school bell rang and students went home, Northridge went on to beat Hillcrest three games out of three and won the tournament.

“During the Hillcrest game our team really came together and played as one. We beat Hillcrest in three games straight and won the whole area tournament. [This was] one of our biggest goals from the beginning of this season,” Natalie Cignetti, freshman, said.

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Email: [email protected]

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Phone: 205-799-3843 Email: [email protected]

Lessons are $70 a month

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752-4343Go Jaguars!

Volleyball team continues to win

photo by becci hauserLattner splashes through the shallows at Lake Lurleen State Park. He participated in a race with his mom on Sept. 18.

Volleyball season, in briefwins losses -The girls volleyball team ended their season

with a 26-4 record. -The team won the Stillman Challenge, the

Brookwood Brawl, and the Area Tournament.-Ashlyn Sunseri was named MVP at the

Brookwood Brawl and the Area Tournament.-Carly Cignetti, Kenyatta Moffett, and Lizzi

McElwain were on the All-Tournament Team at the Area Tournament. McElwain and Cignetti were also on the All-Tournament Team at the Brookwood Brawl.

compiled by ellie cauthen

brookwoodhillcrestbessemerfayattebibb countybryantcounty highsipsey valleycentral

holy spiritbrookwood

Their team name, “Life is Grand, Eh?” proudly “defined [their] Canadian heritage” as they suited up for the big race.

Andrew Lattner, junior, and his mom, Patricia Tessner partici-pated in the Pedal, Paddle, Pedal race on Sept. 18 at Lake Lurleen State Park.

“It was a race done by the Druid City Bike Club that includ-ed a 23 mile long bike race, 2.2 miles of paddling and a 23 mile mountain bike loop,” Lattner said. “I did the paddling portion in a kayak.”

Lattner’s training for the race consisted of one practice lap a week before the race, although he’s been kayaking for four years.

“We just did it for fun. We knew that some of the people doing this would be serious athletes, and we probably couldn’t beat them anyway. It was lots of fun doing it as a mother-son team,” he said.

Lattner first kayaked at a YMCA camp on Paradise Lake in St. Jacobs, Canada, and continued participating in the sport because he “thought it was really fun because [he] could go at [his] own pace.”

“I just enjoy the feeling of freedom I get while kayaking, it’s just me and the boat, there’s nothing to distract you. It’s just your own thoughts. It’s calming,” Lattner said.

Lattner said he was pleased with his performance and his per-sonal time.

“I [think I] kayaked rather quickly; I had a pretty good time, and I was able to make up two minutes of our time,” he said. “But I’m not a professional, not even close, because I know there are people a lot better than me. I don’t know if there’s professional kayaking, but if there were, I couldn’t do that.”

Lattner said being able to see his competition gave him motiva-tion.

“It gives me the goal to beat [my competition], but when I’m alone, or I’m on a river that has a lot of bends, I can’t see [my competition]. It’s hard to find motivation when you don’t have a goal,” he said.

Lattner and Tessner were the only two-person team, Tessner competing in both the cycling and mountain bike loop.

“She’s a really good athlete,” Lattner said. “[I’m proud of her] because I know I can’t do it, and the fact that she’s more than twice my age, that’s a big accomplishment.”

Knowing she could check off doing both a road and mountain bike ride in one day from her lifetime list was one thing that helped

her finish the race.“Andrew was there supporting me, no matter how long it took,”

Tessner said. “And the fact that the mountain bike trail goes around a lake so you have no choice but to finish; other than swimming across the lake with a bike.”

Tessner’s favorite part of the race was tagging off between the events.

“We spent the extra few seconds to give each other a hug and wish each other luck,” she said.

Lattner and Tessner, although having a disadvantage of only having two people, loved doing the race as a mother-son team.

“Andrew is so laid back. I could enjoy all of the race, without any pressure to win. We cheered each other on just because we support each other’s effort,” Tessner said.

Lattner said he worked hard, not wanting to disappoint his mom.“I didn’t want to let her down, she was biking so far and long,

and I wanted to help her achieve her goals,” he said.His mom said she “almost wishes he had gone a little slower so

[she could have had a little more rest between the road and moun-tain bike rides.”

“If he decides to become a free agent for next year’s race, I’m sure there will be teams interested in recruiting him,” Tessner said.

Sophomore

Junior helps mom in bike race

My sophomore year, we didn’t have a very reliable sports editor. Every story that ended up on the page

was a last-minute football or basketball season update, and we knew we needed something better. So I searched for someone who did an extracurricular sport and found a student that participated in a road bike, kayak and mountain bike race with his mom that weekend and wrote a story.

DesignFeature

11

Sophomore

This was my first spread I designed. Not

only did I write the story on the left, I compiled the information for the timeline at the bottom, digitally color the illustrations in

Photoshop and created the bar graph using Illustrator. I was only a sophomore at the time. This spread won first place newspaper

design at the Alabama Scholastic Press Association

spring convention.

My first feature

page

DesignFeature12

Sophomore

This was my first time designing graphics in Photoshop. I created several photo manipulations for my previous designs, but I never made anything from scratch. For this page, I created the notebook, the binder, the sheet of paper, the sticky note, the scraps of taped paper and even the background. I also created the graphs using illustrator.

Broadening my expertise

DesignFront Page

13

September 2011 • Volume 9 • Issue 1 Northridge High School • 2901 Northridge Road • Tuscaloosa, Al• 35406

Large class sizes makes teaching difficultTrent ClantonNews editor

The student body count has in-creased slightly over the years, since the split of the three Tusca-loosa City high schools. Over time it has grown until now it is 447 students more than it was intended to be.

Jackie Hudgins, guidance coun-selor, said the actual student body count has increased only slightly this year.

“We have roughly 25 more stu-

dents than we did last year,” Hud-gins said. “The total number of students is up to 1247.”

However, that total number is very large, compared to the other city schools’ population.

Each high school in the Tus-caloosa City School system was built to house 800 students. Now Northridge has the majority, with Bryant’s population at 881 stu-dents, and Central’s down to only 735.

Hudgins said one reason the at-tendance is so high is because of

the school’s prestige.“We have grown due to student

transfers from both the public and private schools. Northridge has a phenomenal academic and athletic reputation and many students have chosen our school to increase their opportunities,” Hudgins said.

Mallie Humber, history teacher, has 38 students in one of her class-es.

“One of my AP U.S. History classes started out at 38 students, and now it’s back down to 30. But my other one started at 44 students and is now at 38,” Humber said.

One of the most difficult things with a large AP class, Humber said, is grading.

“It’s hard to grade a large AP class because little of the work is multiple choice. It’s mostly writing and short answer, which takes a lot longer to grade,” Humber said.

She said with larger classes, she isn’t able to assign as many activi-ties and essays as she would like.

“It’s harder to do group activi-ties, and I feel the quality of in-struction isn’t quite where I want it to be. Also, [as with any large class], with so many bodies it’s hard to transition between activi-ties without excessive talking,” Humber said.

She said she was glad that she had good classes, though.

“Even if my classes are large, they’re a very well behaved group of students. It will be difficult, but they’ll be prepared for the AP Exam when the year is over,” Humber said.

Beth Gabriel, junior, said her classes are crowded.

“The hallways are a lot more crowded and so is the lunchroom. My classes have a lot more people than last year,” Gabriel said. “I personally like smaller classes be-cause you have more individual at-tention from your teacher.”

Average smallest class size

Average largest

class size

Num

ber of students

Continued on page 6See Class size

Average class sizes

Page 7Jaguars beat wildcats

website: http://northridgereporter.wordpress.com

Class size has increased. Trina Busby’’s AP Language class (pictured) has 27 students.

Photo by Nick Motz Compiled by Jah’meka Baxter

Designed by Alex Hauser

New schedule creates hassle for AP StudentsAlex Hauser

Editor-in-chief

A new schedule was put in effect this year after the board of education received information on the effec-tiveness of the former 4 x 4 block schedule.

The Director of Second-ary Programs, Robert Coates said that the board requested an evaluation of the effec-tiveness of the Block Sched-ule due to the number of student dropouts, the high school graduation rates and the ability of our schools to make AYP under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. A committee was then formed in 2009-2010 to dis-cuss and recommend a more effective schedule.

“[After the board received the research data they] is-sued a directive to change the 4 X 4 Block Schedule,” Coates said. “The Alternat-ing A/B 4 X 4 Block Sched-ule was the consensus of the high school principals, including TCT.”

Several other options were considered. The 5 x 5 and a 7 or 8 period day were the two top alterna-tives.

“The challenges [of the 7 or 8 period day] of sched-uling Career and Technical courses at TCT would have been adversely affected by 55 or 50-minute classes. [It’s] not enough transition time for students taking only one Career Technical course,” Coates said.

The alternating A/B 4 X 4 Block Schedule offers flexibilities to add in extra minutes for an advisory or power period.

Although the alternating schedule was considered the best, students are frustrated they can’t take all the class-es they need to.

“I had my junior and se-nior year all planned out, but the schedule disrupted it,” Sarah Cassel, junior, said. “I have to take more AP classes senior year, I was hoping on having it all bal-anced out.”

New ScheduleRationaleThe Core Curriculum is taught for the entire •school year (Half credits earned at end of Se-mester 1).Maintains the 4 x 4 Block Schedule resulting in •8 credits per academic year.Provides opportunity for year-long courses in •Advanced Placement (AP) andInternational Baccalaureate (IB) in alignment •with the A+ Initiative.Provides opportunity for year-long courses in •mathematics and other areas of concern.There is no time required by counselors and •school staff at mid-year for planning and imple-menting a new schedule for the spring.There is more flexibility within school calendar .•Students will be attending Core classes during •the administration of the AHSGE/EOC Exams, PLAN and ACT assessments.Teachers retain the same amount of planning •time.

Continued on page 6

See schedule

Coates said that the A+ Col-lege Ready Program Grant for AP Classes did not affect the decision on the schedule choice and that “courses re-quired as year-long would have been included regard-less of what schedule format was selected.”

Cassel said that the sched-ule affected AP students a great deal. Cassel said she could not fit all of the class-es she wanted to take into her schedule because “noth-ing fit.”

“I’m kind of mad at the schedule because I was planning on taking a lighter AP load and get the harder classes done, and I was planning on taking more AP classes as a whole, but I’ve maxed out my senior year just for the requirements,” she said. “[The new sched-ule has] messed up me tak-ing AP and non-AP classes together. It just doesn’t work.”

Yes No

Num

ber of Students

Do you like the new schedule?

Information compiled by Alex HauserCompiled by Jah’meka BaxterDesigned by Alex Hauser

Page 8Summer snow helps out

Junior

This page wasfeaturedin theBest of theHigh School Press 17after we wonfirst placeBest-of Showat the NSPAfall conventionin Minneapolis, Minnesota

This was the first front page I designed. It was a lot different from designing feature pages, because you are allowed to break some rules for feature pages. I used grids instead of columns, which was a new concept to our staff. I also made sure not to use useless color, something that our front page designer did a lot the year before. The pink comes from the eraser on the graph, and the blue from the graph was taken out of the picture. We try not to use jumps. This was the only page that had to be jumped because of two huge stories that were deemed “front-page worthy.”

DesignFront Page14

April 12, 2012 • Volume 9 • Issue 7 Northridge High School • 2901 Northridge Road • Tuscaloosa, Al• 35406http://northridgereporter.wordpress.com

Trent Clanton

News Editor

When the bell rings to dismiss for lunch, most students head to the lunchroom. But

some head to the parking lot, leave campus and buy their lunch at a fast food restaurant. The only problem is: leaving campus, even for lunch, is against the rules.

Isaac Espy, principal, said it is board policy that students can’t leave campus without checking out.

“The punishment for skipping lunch is in-school suspension with a parent conference. The only stu-dents permitted to leave campus during lunch are the ones in programs like Co-Op or SGA, and stu-dents with a class at TCT that period,” Espy said.

An anonymous senior said that he skips lunch frequently and has been caught before.

“I typically go to McDonald’s, Taco Casa or Taco Bell. I always make it back to school in time for my classes, though. I get my own lunch be-cause I don’t like the taste or portion size of the cafeteria food, and it’s nice to get away from the school for a little while,” he said.

James Donahoe, senior, said he used to go off-campus for lunch until he got caught.

“I think some students just don’t want to go to school lunch and so are willing to pay a little extra to eat something like Taco Casa,” he said.

Donahoe said he didn’t think he did anything wrong when he went off-campus for lunch because of the fact that he got back to school before his lunch period even ended.

However, the policy is for more than just trying

to keep students in school.Mike Morgan, zoology teacher, said the rules are

in place to protect students.“I think the biggest reason students can’t skip

lunch is obviously the safety factor. Having teens out driving unsupervised presents the possibility of them getting in a wreck and getting hurt, not com-ing back to school or even getting into some other kind of trouble,” he said.

Morgan said he believed the punishment for going off-campus without permission should be changed slightly.

“The first couple of times, ISI is fine, but I think after multiple offenses the student should have their parking pass taken away for a week or two,” he said.

Laine Elliott, junior, said she didn’t think it was fair that students attending classes at TCT 3rd pe-riod were able to skip lunch and others aren’t.

“I think we should all be able to leave for lunch and have longer lunch shifts. If they’re worried about liabilities, I’ll sign a piece of paper or get my parents to sign one that says I can leave,” El-liott said.

On the other hand, the anonymous senior said he somewhat agrees with not letting everyone leave for lunch.

“I think the rule is appropriate; hundreds of cars leaving the school in the middle of the day is im-practical. As for TCT students, they should have the privilege to go off-campus for lunch because the school already entrusts them to drive to another location,” he said.

Jah’’’’meka BaxterInfographics Editor

Manga Book Club met on March 27 in the library

to discuss their favorite Mangas and what they like best about the genre.

Neilann Thomas, librarian and sponsor of the club, said that those who attended the meeting showcased their Manga themed artwork.

Popular Mangas that were re-leased in the past will be ordered to place in the library, Thomas said.

The club members chose two Manga books to read: Fullmetal Alchemist and Blue Exorcist.

Fullmetal Alchemist is writ-ten and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa.

The series is about two brothers who want to restore their bodies after a disastrous failed attempt to bring their mother back to life through alchemy.

In the manga series, Blue Ex-orcist written and illustrated by Kazue Kato, humans live in the world of Assiah as demons reside in Gehenna.

The two dimensions are not meant to interfere with each other, but demons still possess creatures in Assiah in spite of this. The hu-mans who can fight these demons are known as exorcists.

Both Mangas are written by

women, and they have some reli-gious references.

Manga Book Club members Kanjalla Dancer, sophomore, and Joshua Thomas, junior, are fans of the Manga series and have their own personal favorites.

“I think that [Blue Exorcist] is a very interesting series, and I love the Anime,” Dancer said.

“[Fullmetal Alchemist] is a popular series and one that I en-joy watching,” Thomas said.

The Manga Book Club will meet on April 11 during advisory to begin reading one of the select-ed manga.

(See the first story on the Man-ga Book Club on the web at www.northridgereporter.wordpress.com)

New book club interests Manga readersJaguar StarMeet the new

Beth GabrielPage 7

BCN ProblemsPage 6

Leaving school for lunch forbidden; students ski p anyway

Photos b

y Beth Allaway

(See editorial on page 2)

Photo illustration by Alex Hauser

Two books chosen

(see

tale

nt sh

ow a

t w

ww

.nor

thrid

gere

porte

r )

Junior

This pagereceived2nd placefront pagein theGold Circle

hosted byAwards

CSPA

This was the April issue of our paper my junior year. April 27 was the one year anniversary of the devastating tornado that swept through Tuscaloosa and our centerspread topic was about where

we were now in recovery. We aimed on having a light story on the front page. Skipping school for lunch was a fun story, and I loved designing the page around it. I blackened the student and highlighted the “M” on the bag because it told the story of why the student was sneaking into the school in the middle of the day.

I designed the grunge headline to show the rebellious nature of the student and the colors show the humor in the problem. At first, someone found me a picture of a Manga character on MCT Campus, but right before we sent the page off, I switched it out with a photo story of the talent show with the winner featured on the front. That student loved being on the front, and would come in our class everyday for 2 weeks to pick

up more copies for his family. I was so glad I spent the time to design it just to see that smile on that guy’s face.

DesignFront Page

15

September 24, 2012 • Volume 10 • Issue 1 Northridge High School • 2901 Northridge Road • Tuscaloosa, Al.• 35406northridgereporter.wordpress.com


For the second consecutive year, the school’s schedule has changed.

After the disapproval of the A/B block schedule, the school decided to implement a seven period schedule.

“The initial reason for changing the schedule had to do, in very general terms, with overall student performance. We felt as if the block presented barriers to student learn-ing that could be corrected with year-long classes,” Isaac Espy, principal, said.

Espy said the block schedule had two main disadvantag-es—consistency and the length of class.

“Many students found it difficult to concentrate for an hour and forty minutes,” he said. “The pace, at times, tend-ed to be slow.”

Espy said another benefit to the seven period schedule was having class all year because it “eliminates semester and year-long gaps in crucial areas of study.”

“The seven period day is a ‘normal’ school schedule. George Washington had a seven period day when he was

in high school. [And] thus far, the schedule has been well received,” he said.

Espy said the new school year will be “re-energized” with a faster paced schedule, although Kearston Wells, se-nior, said the classes are “pressed for time.”

“I like that the classes are shorter, and you don’t lose focus. But it’s too short because the teachers are stressed and struggle trying to get everything done in that time pe-riod,” she said.

Wells said another downfall is the inconsistency in class times.

“It’s really unfair because first [period] is super short with announcements and fire drills and second [period] is really long if you keep your bonus period. So the only class you really get the most time in is second,” she said. “So teachers are like ‘Oh I have more time I can teach you and do fun activities,’ but the other classes are so pressed for time, they can’t get as much done and have to cut out all the fun stuff and get straight to work.”

Nancy Reed, history teacher, said she prefers the seven period schedule.

“I like the consistency that it provides, and I believe it

serves most students the best. It also helps alleviate disci-pline issues in the classroom from my experience,” Reed said. “For someone like me who loves to lecture [the seven period schedule] just works best for me.”

Scott Johnson, math teacher, said he “think[s] [he] likes the seven period day.”

“I think it’s better for the kids to have math and reading [all year]; there’s not as many gaps,” Johnson said. “I’m hoping [scores] will go up.”

Amanda Burns, senior, said she likes the seven period schedule, although there are some flaws.

“I’ve only had seven periods my whole life, and when I came to Northridge they were on the block, and I hated it,” she said. “[With the new schedule] I don’t like the bonus, and I don’t like how we lose a credit because we don’t have eight periods like we used to.”

Burns said she likes the shorter classes, and it will just take time to adjust.

“Teachers have to adjust to the time change, but I think it will work out. Only time will tell,” she said.

Rateof

ChangePhoto by: Alex Hauser

New schedule implemented, gets mixed reviews

Renu PanditFeature Editor

Sixty-two percent of the 231 students that took AP exams passed.

Dr. Isaac Espy, principal, said that Northridge surpassed other schools in West Alabama like Bryant, Central, Hill-crest and Tuscaloosa County High school, whose passing rates were 21%, 2%, 46% and 47% respectively.

“I am extremely proud of the great work of our students taking AP courses, and the teachers who worked with these students,” Espy said. “I was honestly stunned at the results.”

Espy said the passing rate two years ago was 67%, but that only 173 students took AP exams.

“We had a 26% increase of students pass-ing tests,” Espy said. “We pushed far more students out of their comfort zone and into a major challenge.”

The AP Grant that was initiated last year promises a $100 reward to students who pass an AP English, math or science exam.

Espy said the money will be rewarded to the appropriate students at an assembly the last week of September.

Jane Yu, senior, took and passed the AP Composition, Statistics, Calculus BC, Physics and Chemistry exams in the spring.

“The AP Grant has helped make AP classes more appealing for students be-cause of the incentive the money reward gives,” Yu said.

However, Yu said she would have want-ed to pass her exams even if there was no monetary reward.

“AP courses are helpful when it comes to getting ready for colleges. I’ve already figured out what I like to do because of them,” Yu said. “Also, I think it’s a once in a life time opportunity to explore as many subjects as you want without the huge cost of tuition.”

Jacqueline Hudgins, guidance counselor, said it’s too early to tell if the money had a serious effect on increase in AP students and AP passing rates.

“We always have students who work hard because they have a determined work ethic, and they understand the value of AP in

preparing for college,” Hudgins said. “However,

who wouldn’t want $100 for passing a test?”

Hudgins said she feels students who do well on the AP exams are properly recog-nized.

“Especially those who are named AP scholars,” Hudgins said. “I would love for us to do more, but funding receptions is nearly impossible.”

Zoe Bakker, senior, took and passed the AP Calculus, Chemistry and Composition exams in the spring.

“The money reward didn’t have a huge affect on me, but it was a nice bonus,” Bakker said. “I would have wanted to pass even without it.”

However, Bakker said she believed the money reward is what “caused a rise in students joining AP classes, many of which didn’t even pass.”

“When you have a class of 35 people, and at least five don’t even want to be there, it makes it hard to learn,” Bakker said.

Upon hearing that the school’s passing rate was 62%, Bakker said the school needs to put more focus on people who do well.

“The school system puts so much focus on people who fail the graduation exams.

Rather than changing our schedule to help a few people with their graduation

exams, we should do what’s best for the whole school,” Bakker said.

Do you like the seven period schedule?

YesNo

7 PeriodA/B

Block

20%23%

57%

Which schedule do you like the most?

6981

150 students polledDesigned by: Alex HauserInformation compiled by: Jakailah Cooper

AP passing rate beats area schools, AP students earn cash

Continued on page 6See Schedule

Julia HocuttStaff Writer

ReplayIt is an interactive, community wide picture sharing website. Students can upload personal pictures from their phones, computers and other devices to the Replay-It “time capsule,” so the school yearbook staff members have more picture options to put in the school’s yearbook.

With the program, student body mem-bers who aren’t apart of the yearbook com-mittee now have the opportunity to help out their staff and participate themselves.

“I really like how the whole school can get connected and involved,” year-book editor Katherine Duckworth, ju-

nior, said.“ReplayIt is a great way for students to

share their pictures with other classmates. Being a member of the yearbook staff, I would love students to upload their fun pictures,” Hallie Young, junior, said.

Site helps students contribute to yearbook

Cash in your scores

AYPPage 6

Hillcrest gamePage 7

Designed by: Alex HauserInformation compiled by: Jakailah Cooper

ZoologyPage 8

St

udents who made f ves

Stud

ents who made fours

Stud

ents

who made threes

SeniorThis was my first design of my senior year. I wrote the main story, took the picture at the top (see page 29), created the infographics at the top and bottom, and took all the pictures to fill the inside boxes on the bottom. I also spent time teaching the new students and mentoring the old.

Story

Infographic

Infographic

Pictures

DesignFront Page16

October 29, 2012 • Volume 10 • Issue 2 Northridge High School • 2901 Northridge Road • Tuscaloosa, Al• 35406northridgereporter.wordpress.com

Color RunPage 8


Whether it’s taking standardized tests or visiting schools, college preparation can start as early as freshmen year.

Jackie Hud-gins, senior counselor, said students have to find the “right fit” for t h e m s e l v e s when it comes to preparing for college. Some people take a year off or a gap year, go to a two year school or a four year uni-ver- sity.

“Finding the right fit for you… is what we want to help you with,” she said.Gap Years

Hudgins said gap years have been a rising trend and help students

take time to figure out what to do and to decompress from high school.

Special Education teacher Beth Hol-liman’s daughter Maury took a gap year to save up for a study abroad program before starting college.

“Maury was a junior in high school when she started making college visits. She was very unsure of what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go. She thought she might want to go into culi-nary arts,” she said. “I knew she would eventually go to college, so I encour-aged her to take a break and just work for a while… [During her senior year], she pretty much decided she wanted to

take a year off, work and save all of her money and use it to go on a big trip.”

Holliman said taking a gap year has “tre-mendous benefits.”

“It gives [students] a year to take a break from academics, experience

having a job, and, in my daugh-ter’s case, a chance of a lifetime trip. She earned enough money to

travel to Europe [and visit] eight differ-ent countries. She was over there for 35 days and paid for every bit of it her-self, [and] even had money left over to decorate her dorm room at UA,”

she said.Hudgins said students need to find a

balance between having fun and remain-ing focused.

“[Students] really need to focus on pre-paring for what they are going to do the next level,” she said. Community CollegesCommunity colleges are resources for

anyone in the community and helpful for all students, according to Hudgins.

“It’s for the student that maybe dropped out of high school and got their GED. It’s for the student that received special edu-cation services, and they exit high school with a different type of certificate. It’s for the standard diploma student who, maybe for financial reasons, couldn’t afford a four

year school, or for academic reasons didn’t meet the criteria to get into a four year school,” Hudgins said. “And it’s also for the advanced academic, honors or AP stu-

dent that just wanted to start in a smaller set-ting that’s a lot less ex-pensive.”

The local communi-ty college, S h e l t o n State, of-fers a sum-mer schol-a r s h i p called S2. The schol-arship al-

lows students not eligible for Pell grants to take 12 hours of academic study free of charge the summer between graduation and the start of their freshman year in college.Paying for College

Students can receive money through fi-nancial aid, standardized tests scores and scholarships.

Financial aid is available to every stu-dent, but has levels that only certain stu-dents qualify for. Low-income students can receive Pell grants, and any student is eli-gible for student loans and work study.

“Fill out FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). It doesn’t cost you anything to do. You never know what cir-cumstances could change. Something hap-pens, and someone could suffer a job loss,” Hudgins said. “[Also,] work study is a great way to get your foot in the door.”

Many organizations award scholarships based on interest, test scores or essays.Some colleges accept your college appli-cation as the scholarship application, but some places, like the University of Ala-bama, require students to fill that out sepa-rately.

“A scholarship is that investment of a college or organization in you. And so, if they thought everybody was qualified, they would give everybody money. They are looking for an investment to represent their organization,” Hudgins said. “They want more than just the very, very smart student. They want someone that will be in-volved in their campuses.”The Common App

The Common Application is a resource available to students planning to apply to several schools.

“We’ve had students in the past that have applied to 10 different schools, and nor-mally that would mean filling out 10 differ-ent forms and writing 10 different essays. Now with the Common App, they just have to do it once,” she said.

When turning in any application, Hud-gins said to remember deadlines.

“The deadlines are expected to be met. If they say the deadline is Dec. 1, they don’t want your stuff on Dec. 2,” she said.

For any college, there’s a process; first, the application must be sent, then the tran-script, and sometimes, a separate scholar-ship application.

“Once you do those three things for the university, you’re pretty much done until you make a housing department and en-rollment deposit, and they will talk to you more specifically about that later,” Hud-gins said.

Early deadlines for the University of Al-abama are Dec. 1, and applying early can take away tension from senior year.

“It helps to know that this is an option, or this is not an option, so students can go ahead to Plan B. Procrastinating brings on stress,” Hudgins said.College Visits

When picking colleges, she said campus visits are one of the most important things to do.

“You can feel very comfortable in a place or feel very out of your element. A college campus visit is where you can determine that,” Hudgins said.

LaJessica Duncan, senior, visited UAB (University of Alabama in Birmingham) because she was interested in the medical program.

“It’s not too far, but not too close either. Some of my family members go there. But I wanted to make sure it’s like people say it is, and that I like it and can imagine myself living there.

Hannah Johnson, senior, visited Cove-nant College in Georgia. She said the cam-pus visit was what made her sure about her college choice, and that it’s a necessary trip any senior should take.

“It’s important to find a college you can imagine yourself living in. Covenant Col-lege was that for me. I liked that it was small and a Presbyterian college. To me, when you visit a college that you really like, you find little things that stand out to you,” Johnson said. “I wanted a school that had a pretty campus. Covenant looked like Hogwarts. And that’s definitely a plus.”

Johnson said it was important to fill out the application when you have time to

think about each answer.

“Just elabo-rating on a certain volun-teer event you attended could impress the admissions of-fice. Don’t be modest. This is your time to

brag about your years in school,” she said.

She said she’s glad she started applying early because now she can enjoy her senior year.

“It takes so much stress away, knowing what my options are. And I loved Cov-enant so much, I’ll probably go there,” Johnson said. “I definitely think it’s wise to apply for college early. You never know what could happen, and how busy you will get later. Don’t make applying for college stressful. It’s an exciting time.”

“I definitely think it’s wise to apply for college ear-ly... don’t make applying for college stressful. It’s an exciting time.”

Hannah Johnson, senior

College Prep

Search out 1. admissions requirementsSend in 2. applicationsSend in transcripts 3.

and test scoresFill out 4. scholarship applicationsWait for answers5. Make a decision6.

Mrs. Hudgins’ 6 steps to apply for college

Mock ElectionResults

As school year goes by, students start preparing for college

Breakdown of grades

9th 10th 11th 12thObama

Romney=10%

Breakdown of ages

18

14

15

16

17

Romney

Obama

Breakdown of ethnicity

Obama Romneywhite black other 1 person=10%

And the winner is...Barack Obama

69%31%Romney

639 students polledinformation compiled by: Alex Hauser

Designed by: Alex HauserPhotos by: MCT Campus

In-school conditioningPage 7

Exemption policyPage 6

Senior

I did something different for this page, I only used one story. When I wrote this story at first, it was a lot shorter. My advisor told me not to worry about length because I had a lot of good information and nothing could be cut out. This page design was difficult because I had to figure out how to break up all the text. I used subheads for the story, and I asked our artist to draw me a white board. Even with the white board, there was still too much text. I used Photoshop to extract the eraser and expo marker to make the page look more appealing.

See page24for more

informationabout the

Mock Election

DesignNewsmagazine Cover

17


December 16, 2011 Volume 9 Issue 4

Pg. 4-5

8BeatThe Northridge ReporterDecember 16, 2011

Christmas: season of nostalgia

alexandra stewart

sports editor

As the wind blows cold with wishes for snow, and Christmas decorations are put up, students and teachers reminisce on their favorite holiday memories.

Shea Mills, English teacher, said she remembers going to her grandparent’s house every year on Christmas morning.

“[I remember] getting up at about five in the morning and opening our presents and then driving to my grandparents, who lived out of state, for lunch and seeing all my cous-ins. My mom had 12 broth-ers and sisters, and we would all get together and exchange gifts,” Mills said.

“I remember getting my first cabbage patch doll,” she said.

Mills smiled as she remem-bered her favorite present.

“Last year, my husband gave me an autographed copy of a series of books that I like to read,” she said. “He drove all the way and stood in line to get this author to sign the book for me.

Mary Caitlyn Wilhite, junior, said that she remembers her fa-vorite present being a surprise.

“One year, my parents sur-prised us by telling us that we were going to see our Great Aunt and Uncle, and then they

actually took us to Disney World,” she said.

Ashley Ray, senior, said that what she remembers most is singing songs around the piano as her mom played. She said she remembers waiting to open presents and the breakfast cas-serole that her mom makes on Christmas morning.

“We all wait at the top of the stairs for mom and dad to “get coffee” and until they are ready for us to come down, and the whole family opens our pres-ents at the same time. After-wards, Dad reads the Christmas Story in the Bible, and we leave for Tennessee the next day,” Ray said.

Mary Catherine Vail said she remembers one year when

she woke up on Christmas to find her sister, who was living in South Carolina and was not supposed to arrive until the next day, standing in her living room. She said she remembers the tra-ditional memories as well.

“[I remember] sitting on the side of my stairs, looking into the living room and trying to stay up to see Santa, and then finally going to bed when my mom told me to and waking up at the crack of dawn to see my presents,” Vail said.

Wilhite said she also gets up early on Christmas to open presents.

“I always remember my brothers and sister waking me up at the crack of dawn to open presents that would still be there in three more hours. I wanted to sleep,” Wilhite said.

With all the traditional Christmas memories, also come the memories unique to our families.

“Every year my husband cooks some different, unique, strange kind of meat. He has cooked goose, duck and cor-nish hen. It’s always some-thing different, and we have people over for it,” Mills said.

Teresa Meissner, BTA teach-er, said that when her children and grandchildren come over, she likes to have a non-tradi-tional Christmas meal.

“Since we are all tired of Christmas meals, we have a Christmas meal to get over Christmas meals. I usually try to make something Italian, like pasta,” she said.

She said that her favorite thing about Christmas is the stockings.

“My favorite part [about Christmas] is that I love mak-ing the Christmas stockings. I start shopping early because I love to get different, unique things to put in them. One year, I even had a stocking for my grand pup,” Meissner said.

Memories of students, teachers reflected upon

Seniors Amy Kathryn Reddoch, Courtney Plott and Ashlyn Sunseri

help decorate SGA sponsor Angela Shaw’’’’’’’’’’s door.

Photo by Nick Motz

http://northridgereporter.wordpress.com

Junior

This is one of my favorite magazine pages I designed. I created the background, napkin, and coffee cup from scratch in Photoshop. I then created a coffee stain brush in Photoshop and used it to make the letters to spell “caffeine.” Our paper is limited to black and white, so I try to add as much dimension to my pages to distract from the lack of color.

Honorable Mentionat

CSPA’sGold Circle Awards

See the backof myPortfolioto see how ournewspaperutilizes bothtraditional front pageand anewsmagazinecover

DesignNewsmagazine Cover 18

March 8, 2012 Volume 9 Issue 6

8BeatThe Northridge ReporterMarch 8, 2012


Passing the exit examsAllison Gabriel, senior, never

quits.She said she “tries to do every-

thing a hundred and ten percent,” whether it is basketball or study-ing for classes.

Allison’s mom, Susan Gabriel, said that passing the graduation

exam was just another goal to ac-complish, and they had God be-hind her.

“That was just my goal for her, to graduate. I knew God was go-ing to let her. For her to get where she is, she works hard,” Susan said.

Allison passed her last portion of the exit exams, the history por-tion, during the first semester of her senior year.

“I felt absolutely amazing, and when I passed it, I thought I was smarter than anyone, which I am, because I’m a senior,” she said, laughing.


Allison’s sister, Beth, said that she was really ex-

cited when Allison passed the history portion.

“I know she’s a hard worker and all of her hard work paid off,” Beth said. “She has a really good

memory. She remembers ev-erything. I knew she could [pass] it.”

Relationship with GodAllison said she knew

she would pass it because she had God on her side.

“My mom told everyone to pray that I would pass the exit exams, and God answered our prayers,” she said. “I really want-ed to graduate, so it was impor-tant that I passed. God helped me with that.”

Beth said Allison prays for ev-erything, “big or small.”


Allison even prays for her bas-ketball team, who went 25 and 6 this season.

Senior strives towards excellence despite limitations“I ask God to help us win all

the games. That’s why we had a great season,” she said.

BasketballAllison has been playing bas-

ketball since she was six and played on the school’s girls bas-ketaball team.

“I’ve been playing for a long time, but I’m ten times better than when I first started playing,” she said. “It helps me make new friends, and I like having some-thing to focus on.”



Allison is an encourager to her teammates and they encourage her in return.

“I try to keep the team moti-vated when they feel down be-cause they do the same for me,” she said. “We all love each other like sisters, we’re a Northridge family.”

Susan said she had the team be-hind her, and their support helped her score three goals during the season.

“The whole team cheers her on. When she scored, they jumped up and high fived her. They encour-age her during practice, too,” she said. “She’s a good cheerleader. She has confidence in everyone. They can do anything. She gets discouraged because she can’t run as fast as anyone, but it’s just because she’s 4’ 10”.”

During a game at Hillcrest, the coach called her to go into the game, but she had to take off a bracelet she had on after a Chris-tian conference.

“I didn’t want to take it off be-cause I wanted to tell my friends about the next conference. It was a reminder,” Allison said. “My mom yanked it off my arm. She knew I was going to score. And

I did.”Beth said she loved watching

Allison play during the season.“She’s really enthused about

playing. It’s her senior year and she’s excited to play. You can just see that she’s having fun,” she said. “I get so nervous [when I watch her play]. Whenever she gets the ball I get an adrenaline rush. I want her to score so badly.”

FriendshipsAllison said she has a “really

strong relationship” with her sis-ter, and they don’t fight, they just pick on each other.



“I just feel that I’m glad to know that somebody’s always there to support me. I like know-ing she’s always there for me. She’s my biggest fan,” Beth said.



Beth said that Allison is a big role model because she is very forgiving and loves everybody.

“Allison is that type of person that knows everyone, whether they know her or not. I tell every-one that you could go punch her in the face, and she will still love you. She never holds a grudge, even when she should,” Beth said.







Allison Gabriel, senior, guides her team to victory against Hillcrest on Jan. 20. The team went on to beat Hillcrest 71-50.

Junior

During this month, our feature page missed the deadline, and I was forced to design this without any knowledge of what the page looked like. I had the idea to have the names of the politicians balancing on top of each other as if one of them could fall at any moment. Then on top the “bigger battle” of the two parties battling it out. Little did I know, the feature editor’s page looked very similar to this.

DesignNewsmagazine Cover

19November 30, 2012

Volume 10 Issue 3

northridgereporter.wordpress.com

8BeatThe Northridge ReporterNovember 30, 2012

English teacher starts out jobless, now receives praiseJared LotfiStaff Writer

Shane Ashcraft, English teacher, could not be more optimistic about

his second year.“I’m still thrilled to be here,” he said,

“I’m fortunate to have found a job in a great environment that’s relatively close to home.”

Ashcraft, a University of Alabama graduate, is originally from Montgomery, Ala. and moved to Tuscaloosa in 2004.

“After graduating, I was without a teaching job for nine months. Those weren’t exactly the easiest months of my life,” Ashcraft said.

He started out teaching only sopho-mores and juniors but began teaching pre-AP classes for incoming freshmen this year. Ashcraft said he was excited to increase the diversity of his teaching en-

vironment. His new pupils, he said, are “quite lively.”

Senior Vaughan Veillon took 11th grade English with Ashcraft.

“He definitely wasn’t a traditional teacher,” Veillon said, “and had a more open teaching style that was stimulat-ing.”

Senior Jameson Hubbard had a similar experience, stating that Ashcraft was able to relate to his students extremely well and bring any concept down to earth.

In the two weeks leading up to Thanks-giving break, Ashcraft let students sign up for after school one on one sessions with him for essay editing.

“Most of my students really took ad-vantage of the idea, and I’m looking for-ward to some great revisions,” he said, “I plan on continuing it in days to come.”

Aside from teaching, Ashcraft served as a boys varsity soccer assistant coach

and the head coach of the junior varsity team during his first year at the school.

Preston McCool, junior, played on the junior varsity team and had Ashcraft as his sophomore English teacher.

“As a coach he wasn’t as hard on us as he was in the classroom,” he said.

Ashcraft said he has an affinity for es-pecially long road trips which has led to a number of excursions including a sum-mer drive to Montana and participation in Spartan Sprint 2011, a four mile race featuring a plethora of obstacles and gal-lons of mud.

“I did plenty of hiking in Montana along with some free climbing and boul-dering,” he said.

Ashcraft said he plans to compete in the Spartan Race again this year.

When things are more tranquil, he said he enjoys reading Faulkner, Orwell and e.e. cummings.

Teach it: Shane Ashcraft teaches To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee to 9th grade Pre-AP English students. “I like how we can have fun in his class but still learn things,” Abbey Burnham, freshman, said.

Photos by Jared Lotfi

Ninth graders look for easy road, leave Pre-AP classJared LotfiStaff Writer

Since the beginning of the school year, five or six students have left

Shane Ashcraft’s Pre-AP English 9 class, three of those left in the first week.

Ashcraft said his students should desire or at least expect to perform at Pre-AP levels.

“Simply being in a Pre-AP English class and doing the bare minimum hurts [stu-dents], and they probably would learn more in a regular or advanced class,” he said.

The primary cause for his concern is that students who are capable of Pre-AP coursework may try to shy away from a challenge and attempt to find easier sub-ject matter in lower level courses.

“The problem is that those students who try to find an easier road are in for a rude awakening,” he said, “Although our standard may be higher than other classes, Ms. Tillman, Ms. Wright and any other [English teacher] will still require students to work hard and meet expecta-tions. Switching to a lower level does not guarantee a free ride; our teachers ensure

that you get what you need.”Freshman Anna Katherine Tucker said

that she found the class too difficult, and, within the first nine weeks, switched to Ms. Tillman’s honors course.

“I understand Ms. Tillman’s teaching a lot better,” she said, “She’s willing to stop and explain details of the pieces we’re working on, and I don’t think Mr. Ash-craft was as responsive a teacher.”

No matter which English course a stu-dent takes, Ashcraft said that he or she must expect to cover the same literary content.

SeniorI designed this my senior year. The centerspread was about alumni who went on to become famous musicians, football players, or comedic superstars. The feature editor did hand drawings, and spotlights were thematic in her design. I created this and loved the dark contrast it gave.

DesignYearbook Page20

Freshman

I stopped playing basketball a few weeks into my freshman year, meaning I had to find a class to have my last period. Yearbook was

the only class I was allowed to join because of the lateness in the year. I had journalism the period before, and so I just continued into the next period, instead of doing yearbook as well. I did independent study learning InDesign and Photoshop. Soon enough though, I started editing the other freshmen’s

stories. The freshman editor was struggling, so I sat next to her and helped her with coming up with ideas. She had to leave for two weeks for a funeral across the country, and I had to take over. There was a blank spread, and the yearbook editor decided to do it on the six pairs of twins we had. I already wrote the story, so I just modified and shortened it for the yearbook. I set up and took

every picture for this spread, as well as design the page from scratch. This was my very first published design in my journalism career. It received 2nd place

People Page at the Alabama Scholastic Press Association.

DesignInfographics

21

feature4 the northridge reportermay 19, 2011

the northridge reportermay 19, 2011 feature 5

kate daviso p i n i o n

entertainment editor

Trees falling, walls crashing, r o o f t o p s

coming apart and collapsing: on April 27, that is all some people could hear.The tornado that

struck that day tore up our town and destroyed many people’s lifestyles.

Jameson Hubbard, sophomore, lived by Forest Lake close to University Place.

His house was split in two. Hubbard had lived there for 12 years of his life.

He said that the safest place in his house was in his downstairs hallway. His family placed a mattress over their heads.

“When it went over us, it made a terrible

sound. It sounded like a jet, a freight train and an eighteen wheeler pulling the horn,” Hubbard said. “I am glad that we are alive.”

Sophomore, Aaron Dill’s house was also destroyed. The house was near American Christian Academy.

“The only safe place we had in our house was the bathtub,” Dill said.

He said that they did not have to wait too long for the storm. While they were waiting they were listening to his dad’s police radio. Police were claiming to see cars flipping and tumbling down the road.

“When it went over us, all my senses took over my body. I tensed up so much that I just blocked it all out,” Dill said. “When it was all

over we went outside to check on all of our neighbors.

Allen Michael Floyd, sophomore, was in an “unsafe” place during the storm. He and his brother were sitting outside of the University Mall.

He said he saw the man at the mall recording the video of the tornado that went viral on YouTube.

He said it was very devastating to see something that he knew was killing people. He could see all the businesses being destroyed.

He said the tornado sounded like something that was out of this world, almost like an evil growl.

“We just sat and watched it go right by us,” Floyd said. “It was awful to know that I was looking at something that destroyed the town.”

Affected areas of the tornado

Teacher’s preparations save family’s live T h e house shook

a n d the power went out. I got to ‘Our Father who art in Heaven’ and the bathroom door was sucked out,” Fuller said.

She was hit in the face by dirt and glass, but none of the glass scarred her. She and her husband held on to their children as the tornado continued to cause damage. Fuller said that it took about a minute.

“When it was over I was so happy that we were all alive,” Fuller said.

Before the storm actually hit, Fuller said her children had already packed suitcases, though she didn’t believe it would get that bad.

As the oldest daughter grabbed their already packed suitcases, Fuller began to pack a bag herself. She put water, clothes, peanut butter and other food in the bag.

While everyone in her household was safe, after calling her dad who lives on 15th street and getting no answer, Fuller began to fear the worse. However, her

grandmother in Ohio called

her to confirm that her father was alive.

After finding an exit out of their devastated neighborhood, the Fuller family began to wheel their suitcases to Forest Lake Baptist Church. The fear didn’t stop there as rumors and news said that there would soon be another tornado following the same path. The alarm for another tornado came and went. The family decided to go to her dad’s house.

Although Fuller’s family is together and safe, she said that she will always take warnings seriously, and she encourages everyone else to do the same.

The day after the storm the picture of Jesus still sat in the bathroom floor.

Currently, the Fuller family is staying with her mother-in-law.

Fuller came up with an emergency plan that she thinks everyone should have in place

in case there is another

disaster.

1. Have a list of phone numbers to call after a disaster. Include an out of state number.

2. Have a box put up in a closet that has flash lights, a first aid kit, and old bottles of medication you take.

3. Take the warnings seriously.4. Prepare for the worst.5. Inform your relatives to have

a plan to rescue you.

-Avril Lavigne

Students face devastation

design by: alex hauser

Sophomore

After our April Tornado, we decided

to do a spread on how it affected students in our school. I designed the page as well as the map infographic. I showed

the path of the tornado through our town. I included

recognizable features and key areas hit. I gave it a minimalistic design to give the reader ease

and be able to read the information without much

hindrance.

DesignInfographics22

May 10, 2012 • Volume 9 • Issue 8 Northridge High School • 2901 Northridge Road • Tuscaloosa, Al• 35406http://northridgereporter.wordpress.com


Even with the extended four period block schedule, students taking classes at Tuscaloosa Center for Technology (TCT) are rushed when traveling back and forth, so they can have as much time in their classes as possible.

The shortened class time that will be in effect next year will hurt HOSA students because they won’t have enough time for class and clinicals.

Sally Latham, HOSA teacher, said that she prefers the traditional 4x4 block sched-ule because it offers the best opportunity for the health science class.

“[The 4x4 block schedule] allows maxi-mum time for hands-on learning which is what health science is all about,” Latham said. “[But] I always want to remain flex-ible enough to have as many students tak-ing health science classes as possible. If that means changing to a seven period schedule then we will certainly make the most of what we have to work with.”

Juniors taking Foundations of Health Science will take the class in a two pe-riod, one semester course, meaning they will have to find two half-credit classes for the other semester. If they aren’t able to find classes, they will be unable to take HOSA.The senior level course will be a two

period block class all year. There will be two classes: first and second, and third and fourth, using the bonus advisory period for extra time. This will give students enough time to complete their clinicals as well as other in-classroom activities.

Elise Tucker, junior, is currently taking the junior level Foundations of Health Sci-ence so she can participate in HOSA next year.

“I’ve been waiting to take HOSA since freshman year,” she said. “With the new schedule, I’m not sure how it’s going to work out. My schedule is really full, and it’s going to be difficult scheduling around HOSA.”

Jane YuEntertainment Editor

The A/B block schedule affected foreign language honor societies because fewer students were able to finish the required courses by the end of their first semester.

Barbara Beemer, French teacher, said French Honor Society had only a handful of students this year compared to almost twenty students in previous years.

AP foreign languages hindered by all-year classesThe foreign language department will be

affected even more by the new seven pe-riod schedule.

Unless students take foreign language classes in middle school, they will not be able to reach an AP foreign language.

Julie Kim, senior, said she feels bad for those who cannot take AP foreign lan-guage.

“In Spanish I, II, III and IV, you just do vocabulary, but in AP Spanish you put all

knowledge together, comprehend Spanish thoroughly and get to be really immersed into Hispanic culture,” Kim said.

Isaac Espy, principal, said the new sched-ule will affect foreign language classes and limit the number of double-ups.

“The school system will plan to increase opportunities to earn foreign language credits for middle school students,” Espy said.

school schedule changes again

Class times affect HOSA

Information supplied by: Lesley Bruinton

Tennispage 11

Raiha BajwaOpinion Editor

The Tuscaloosa City School Board an-nounced a new schedule for the 2012-2013 school year consisting of seven periods, as well as a thirty-six minute skinny block.

Beth Allaway, biology teacher, was on the committee to discuss a schedule for the next school year.

“In our committee everyone was with the four block,” Allaway said. “But the big problem with the four block is that the board wanted students to be in math and English classes all year instead of just a semester.”

Isaac Espy, principal, said there were flaws in the previous four block schedule.

“There has been a level of dissatisfaction with the block schedule for years,” he said. “Some of the common complaints include lengthy classes, and a seven month gap in math instruction.”

Espy said the seven period day is a tra-ditional schedule, and one that is used in most high schools.

“It is not innovative, exploratory or a novel idea,” he said. “It is a common sched-ule among many if not most high schools in Alabama, and I am optimistic that it will be progressive and a positive component of our instructional program.”

Allaway said she hopes the change will not be too stressful.

“I imagine that there will be some rough patches that we will have to work through,” she said.

“I don’t think that anything can be worse than the schedule this year. The grades are horrible compared to what they have been.”

Elizabeth Tiley, guidance counselor, said she does not think the changes will be that bad.

“Everyone will have to learn to adjust,”

she said. “Students will have to learn to ad-just their schedule to their workload, just like teachers will have to change teaching styles.”

The new schedule will make it harder for students to retake classes they have failed.

“Failures will be harder to deal with,” Tiley said. “You won’t be able to make up classes the way you used to be able to.”

But Espy said available credit recovery courses should solve the problem.

“Credit recovery resources will make repeating entire classes almost obsolete,” he said.

Allaway said there should be some pros to the new schedule.

“The people who like the seven period schedule like it because kids don’t pay at-tention for that long anyway,” she said.

Taylor Goodall, junior, said he likes the schedule for that reason.

“I think that it’s

better because my attention span is defi-nitely not an hour and thirty minutes long,” Goodall said.

Goodall said even though he’ll have to sign up for more classes, he does not ex-pect it to be too stressful.

“It’s not like I’m going to be taking seven academic courses,” he said. “There should be at least three classes that are electives that I don’t have to stress about.”

The incoming freshman class will only need 24 credits and will need to have taken Algebra II as a math to graduate.

Graduation exams will become obsolete and all juniors will take the ACT.

“The state of Alabama is going to have end of course examinations,” Espy said. “The ACT test will help school officials monitor student achievement, as well as provide students with a free opportunity to take this important assessment.”

Seven period schedule provides shorter classes for shorter attention spans

Cinnamon Challengepage 8

Designed by: Alex HauserInformation compiled by: Jah'meka Baxter

May 10, 2012 • Volume 9 • Issue 8 Northridge High School • 2901 Northridge Road • Tuscaloosa, Al• 35406http://northridgereporter.wordpress.com


Even with the extended four period block schedule, students taking classes at Tuscaloosa Center for Technology (TCT) are rushed when traveling back and forth, so they can have as much time in their classes as possible.

The shortened class time that will be in effect next year will hurt HOSA students because they won’t have enough time for class and clinicals.

Sally Latham, HOSA teacher, said that she prefers the traditional 4x4 block sched-ule because it offers the best opportunity for the health science class.

“[The 4x4 block schedule] allows maxi-mum time for hands-on learning which is what health science is all about,” Latham said. “[But] I always want to remain flex-ible enough to have as many students tak-ing health science classes as possible. If that means changing to a seven period schedule then we will certainly make the most of what we have to work with.”

Juniors taking Foundations of Health Science will take the class in a two pe-riod, one semester course, meaning they will have to find two half-credit classes for the other semester. If they aren’t able to find classes, they will be unable to take HOSA.The senior level course will be a two

period block class all year. There will be two classes: first and second, and third and fourth, using the bonus advisory period for extra time. This will give students enough time to complete their clinicals as well as other in-classroom activities.

Elise Tucker, junior, is currently taking the junior level Foundations of Health Sci-ence so she can participate in HOSA next year.

“I’ve been waiting to take HOSA since freshman year,” she said. “With the new schedule, I’m not sure how it’s going to work out. My schedule is really full, and it’s going to be difficult scheduling around HOSA.”


The A/B block schedule affected foreign language honor societies because fewer students were able to finish the required courses by the end of their first semester.

Barbara Beemer, French teacher, said French Honor Society had only a handful of students this year compared to almost twenty students in previous years.

AP foreign languages hindered by all-year classesThe foreign language department will be

affected even more by the new seven pe-riod schedule.

Unless students take foreign language classes in middle school, they will not be able to reach an AP foreign language.

Julie Kim, senior, said she feels bad for those who cannot take AP foreign lan-guage.

“In Spanish I, II, III and IV, you just do vocabulary, but in AP Spanish you put all

knowledge together, comprehend Spanish thoroughly and get to be really immersed into Hispanic culture,” Kim said.

Isaac Espy, principal, said the new sched-ule will affect foreign language classes and limit the number of double-ups.

“The school system will plan to increase opportunities to earn foreign language credits for middle school students,” Espy said.

school schedule changes again

Class times affect HOSA

Information supplied by: Lesley Bruinton

Tennispage 11

Raiha BajwaOpinion Editor

The Tuscaloosa City School Board an-nounced a new schedule for the 2012-2013 school year consisting of seven periods, as well as a thirty-six minute skinny block.

Beth Allaway, biology teacher, was on the committee to discuss a schedule for the next school year.

“In our committee everyone was with the four block,” Allaway said. “But the big problem with the four block is that the board wanted students to be in math and English classes all year instead of just a semester.”

Isaac Espy, principal, said there were flaws in the previous four block schedule.

“There has been a level of dissatisfaction with the block schedule for years,” he said. “Some of the common complaints include lengthy classes, and a seven month gap in math instruction.”

Espy said the seven period day is a tra-ditional schedule, and one that is used in most high schools.

“It is not innovative, exploratory or a novel idea,” he said. “It is a common sched-ule among many if not most high schools in Alabama, and I am optimistic that it will be progressive and a positive component of our instructional program.”

Allaway said she hopes the change will not be too stressful.

“I imagine that there will be some rough patches that we will have to work through,” she said.

“I don’t think that anything can be worse than the schedule this year. The grades are horrible compared to what they have been.”

Elizabeth Tiley, guidance counselor, said she does not think the changes will be that bad.

“Everyone will have to learn to adjust,”

she said. “Students will have to learn to ad-just their schedule to their workload, just like teachers will have to change teaching styles.”

The new schedule will make it harder for students to retake classes they have failed.

“Failures will be harder to deal with,” Tiley said. “You won’t be able to make up classes the way you used to be able to.”

But Espy said available credit recovery courses should solve the problem.

“Credit recovery resources will make repeating entire classes almost obsolete,” he said.

Allaway said there should be some pros to the new schedule.

“The people who like the seven period schedule like it because kids don’t pay at-tention for that long anyway,” she said.

Taylor Goodall, junior, said he likes the schedule for that reason.

“I think that it’s

better because my attention span is defi-nitely not an hour and thirty minutes long,” Goodall said.

Goodall said even though he’ll have to sign up for more classes, he does not ex-pect it to be too stressful.

“It’s not like I’m going to be taking seven academic courses,” he said. “There should be at least three classes that are electives that I don’t have to stress about.”

The incoming freshman class will only need 24 credits and will need to have taken Algebra II as a math to graduate.

Graduation exams will become obsolete and all juniors will take the ACT.

“The state of Alabama is going to have end of course examinations,” Espy said. “The ACT test will help school officials monitor student achievement, as well as provide students with a free opportunity to take this important assessment.”

Seven period schedule provides shorter classes for shorter attention spans

Cinnamon Challengepage 8

Designed by: Alex HauserInformation compiled by: Jah'meka Baxter

Junior

The last paper of my junior year, the front page featured three different stories on the effects of the new schedule that would be implemented the next year. Instead of trying to have three different graphics, I decided to turn my page into a package and tie them together. I created the paperclip graph in Photoshop so I could link the paperclips. The line graph was created in illustrator

and the graph paper I made in Photoshop. I used a sharpie to write on the legal pad and post-it notes and drew the drawings on a piece of copy paper. I arranged a blanked lined sheet of paper, the legal pad and the book on a desk and took a picture of the desk from a bird’s eye point-of-view. I took separate pictures of the post-it notes , drawings and pencil to transpose into my infographic. I combined

all my elements to create this infographic.

DesignInfographics

23

March 8, 2012 • Volume 9 • Issue 6 Northridge High School • 2901 Northridge Road • Tuscaloosa, Al• 35406

Trent ClantonNews Editor

Information Now (also called I-Now), a grading program used across Ala-bama, underwent updates in February to include a new feature with which parents can view their children’s grades online.

Jackie Hudgins, guid-ance counselor, said as long as they come to get their I-Now password, there is no reason why parents shouldn’t know how their child is doing in school.

“Some students don’t like to take progress reports and reports cards home, and now we can ensure that par-ents will know what kind of grades their students are making,” she said.

The I-Now program, cre-ated by the STI company, was required to be placed in all public schools across the state by the Alabama State Department of Edu-cation before the end of the 2011-2012 school year and cost $5.3 million dollars.

Though it offers useful features, like online access for parents, various teach-ers have had issues with the new grading program.

Pat Newman, Stu-dent Database Manager at the T u s c a l o o s a City Board of Education, said there were a lot of enroll-ment problems at the beginning of the year.

“We have also had many reports of teachers not be-ing able to use the grading function of the program. There are sometimes bugs in the system, too, but STI usually fixes them,” she said.

Though I-Now has its issues, Newman said there are advantages to the pro-gram, such as the fact that it is web-based and oper-

ates as one database that is accessible

state-wide. R i c h a r d

N o w e l l , c e r a m i c s t e a c h e r , said the I - N o w sof tware

d o e s n ’ t work as well

as it could.“I think that they didn’t

test it well enough before it was mandated to be in all schools,” he said.

Quincy Collins, English teacher, said he doesn’t have any trouble with ev-eryday use of I-Now, but runs into problems some-times with specific step-by-step tasks.

“If I have issues with it, I’ll usually ask another teacher if they know how to fix it, or I can Google it to see if I can find an answer,” he said.

Collins said he liked the idea of I-Now, but not its implementation.

“The original intent was for teachers to have access to their grades from any-where, but it seems like

it was just thrown on the teachers without any prepa-ration,” Collins said.

Some students have fluc-tuating or incorrect grades because of the program, like Sarah Cassel, junior.

“It has made some of my grade averages higher and lower than they should be, and slows down the grad-ing process because some teachers have to do grades by hand,” Cassel said.

Newman said the State Department of Education will likely continue to use I-Now.

“As long as the state re-quires its use, we don’t re-ally have a choice. They’ve put a lot into this program, and I think STI will be able to make it better in the fu-ture,” she said.


The United States has over $15 trillion of national debt according to usdebtclock.org.

The United States started to accumulate national debt for the Revolutionary War. The debt for the war was $75 million, but it was paid off quickly.

The amount of debt has increased a great deal since then.

Jared Lotfi, junior, said he condemns the government for causing this tremendous debt.

“Poor government spending causes the debt,” Lotfi said. “As our debt increases, our credit rating goes down.”

He said bailouts and wars are the two big obvious reasons that we have prodigious amount of debt.

Scott Johnson, math teacher, said tre-mendous amounts of debt started when we started to borrow money for entitlement social programs.

“Government should not spend money on social programs,” Johnson said. “[We need] self- reliance.”

He related debt problems with lazy peo-ple who are reluctant to work.

“We have 40 million on food stamps, and one fifth of the nation is unemployed,” Johnson said.

He said the laziness passes to the current students’ generation.

“This generation will be the first genera-tion to be worse off than the generation be-fore,” Johnson said.

He said former generations were taught better work ethic, whereas students these days play too much and are exposed too much to social media.

Johnson said a link exists between in-creasing college tuition and the United States tax-system.

“Tuition doubles because so many get free rides, not academically or athletically, but socioeconomically,” Johnson said.

He said those exemptions decrease the money colleges take in, thus tuition in-creases.

“How many people are getting privilege

by faking their socioeconomic status?” Johnson said. “Our tax system is messed up.”

Johnson said tax is the most direct and effective way for government to get mon-ey. However, he said only 50% of people pay federal income tax, not including those who are socioeconomically exempt, so less money is available to the government, and people who are taxed are overtaxed.

“We are definitely overtaxed, and gov-ernment should stop spending,” Johnson said.

He said he supports the idea of shrinking the government.

“Small businessmen have to spend so much to keep their businesses,” Johnson said. “We have to reduce regulations on business corporations.”

He also said tax is not the way to fix the debt but spending is.

“One out of four works for the gov-ernment,” Johnson said. “We have too many departments for government, and we spend too much money supplying for military. [That is a] bureaucracy.”

Barbara Beemer, French teacher, too, said she thinks the national debt is caused by the federal government spending more money that the government receives in taxes.

“The federal government has had to borrow money to cover its expenses,” she said.

She said, “If a family spends more mon-ey than it has earned, the family has to borrow money to live and to pay the bills. If that practice continues, the family goes bankrupt.”

She said one huge expense for the fed-eral government is paying Social Security to retirees.

“The workers have been putting mon-ey into the Social Security Trust Fund throughout their career,” Beemer said.

“However, the federal government has bor-rowed money from that Trust Fund to pay for other programs, and now there is not enough money left in it to continue paying what has been promised.”

She said that is why we have to borrow huge sums of money from China to meet the government our obligations to fund its program.

She said she strongly believes that the federal government has to cut spending and eliminate waste and corruption.

“As painful as it may be, the govern-ment may have to raise taxes,” Beemer said. “Cutting spending is not easy because the public expects a lot from the govern-ment.”

She said her outlook for our future is grim if the federal government continues to bor-

row more money, and the debt continues to be out of control.

“Our credit will be downgraded, again, and that will cause the government to owe more in interest on all of those loans,” Beemer said. “That increases the debt

further.”She said the public will have to be bur-

dened with heavy taxes, and the federal government could go bankrupt.

“If we want a preview of that possibil-ity, we can watch what is happening in Greece,” Beemer said.

Andrew Lattner, senior, said he does not think there is that much of a debt problem.

“Something rarely known is that debt is actually necessary for the government to function properly,” Lattner said. “The gov-ernment and the world economy are based on the sale of treasury bonds, which are forms of debt.”

He also said he thinks the Alabama State debt could have much more of an impact on students than the national debt.

“It will take dozens of years to get close to Greece which had excessive debt and major government cuts,” Lattner said.

5

10

15

20

25

30

National Debt$15,410,000,000,000

$49,215Debt Per Citizen

Population313,101,231

Unemployed23,054,654

3,824,812,630

What could be bought with the National Debt?

Super Bowl tickets

58,000,000average houses34,545,482,137Lady Gaga ticketsInfographic designed and compiled by: Alex HauserInformation from usdebtclock.org and abcnews.com

Poor government spending

causes the debt. As our debt

increases, our credit rating

goes down.“”-Jared Lotfi, junior

Parents can now view grades online with I-Now; program still has bugs


Graphic by: Alex Hauser

Infographic designed by: Alex HauserInformation compiled by: Jah’meka Baxter

Teachers, do you like I-Now?

Number of Teachers

Yes No

Allison GabrielPage 8

Black history monthpage 6

Government spending, laziness blamed for debt

March 8, 2012 • Volume 9 • Issue 6 Northridge High School • 2901 Northridge Road • Tuscaloosa, Al• 35406

Trent ClantonNews Editor

Information Now (also called I-Now), a grading program used across Ala-bama, underwent updates in February to include a new feature with which parents can view their children’s grades online.

Jackie Hudgins, guid-ance counselor, said as long as they come to get their I-Now password, there is no reason why parents shouldn’t know how their child is doing in school.

“Some students don’t like to take progress reports and reports cards home, and now we can ensure that par-ents will know what kind of grades their students are making,” she said.

The I-Now program, cre-ated by the STI company, was required to be placed in all public schools across the state by the Alabama State Department of Edu-cation before the end of the 2011-2012 school year and cost $5.3 million dollars.

Though it offers useful features, like online access for parents, various teach-ers have had issues with the new grading program.

Pat Newman, Stu-dent Database Manager at the T u s c a l o o s a City Board of Education, said there were a lot of enroll-ment problems at the beginning of the year.

“We have also had many reports of teachers not be-ing able to use the grading function of the program. There are sometimes bugs in the system, too, but STI usually fixes them,” she said.

Though I-Now has its issues, Newman said there are advantages to the pro-gram, such as the fact that it is web-based and oper-

ates as one database that is accessible

state-wide. R i c h a r d

N o w e l l , c e r a m i c s t e a c h e r , said the I - N o w sof tware

d o e s n ’ t work as well

as it could.“I think that they didn’t

test it well enough before it was mandated to be in all schools,” he said.

Quincy Collins, English teacher, said he doesn’t have any trouble with ev-eryday use of I-Now, but runs into problems some-times with specific step-by-step tasks.

“If I have issues with it, I’ll usually ask another teacher if they know how to fix it, or I can Google it to see if I can find an answer,” he said.

Collins said he liked the idea of I-Now, but not its implementation.

“The original intent was for teachers to have access to their grades from any-where, but it seems like

it was just thrown on the teachers without any prepa-ration,” Collins said.

Some students have fluc-tuating or incorrect grades because of the program, like Sarah Cassel, junior.

“It has made some of my grade averages higher and lower than they should be, and slows down the grad-ing process because some teachers have to do grades by hand,” Cassel said.

Newman said the State Department of Education will likely continue to use I-Now.

“As long as the state re-quires its use, we don’t re-ally have a choice. They’ve put a lot into this program, and I think STI will be able to make it better in the fu-ture,” she said.


The United States has over $15 trillion of national debt according to usdebtclock.org.

The United States started to accumulate national debt for the Revolutionary War. The debt for the war was $75 million, but it was paid off quickly.

The amount of debt has increased a great deal since then.

Jared Lotfi, junior, said he condemns the government for causing this tremendous debt.

“Poor government spending causes the debt,” Lotfi said. “As our debt increases, our credit rating goes down.”

He said bailouts and wars are the two big obvious reasons that we have prodigious amount of debt.

Scott Johnson, math teacher, said tre-mendous amounts of debt started when we started to borrow money for entitlement social programs.

“Government should not spend money on social programs,” Johnson said. “[We need] self- reliance.”

He related debt problems with lazy peo-ple who are reluctant to work.

“We have 40 million on food stamps, and one fifth of the nation is unemployed,” Johnson said.

He said the laziness passes to the current students’ generation.

“This generation will be the first genera-tion to be worse off than the generation be-fore,” Johnson said.

He said former generations were taught better work ethic, whereas students these days play too much and are exposed too much to social media.

Johnson said a link exists between in-creasing college tuition and the United States tax-system.

“Tuition doubles because so many get free rides, not academically or athletically, but socioeconomically,” Johnson said.

He said those exemptions decrease the money colleges take in, thus tuition in-creases.

“How many people are getting privilege

by faking their socioeconomic status?” Johnson said. “Our tax system is messed up.”

Johnson said tax is the most direct and effective way for government to get mon-ey. However, he said only 50% of people pay federal income tax, not including those who are socioeconomically exempt, so less money is available to the government, and people who are taxed are overtaxed.

“We are definitely overtaxed, and gov-ernment should stop spending,” Johnson said.

He said he supports the idea of shrinking the government.

“Small businessmen have to spend so much to keep their businesses,” Johnson said. “We have to reduce regulations on business corporations.”

He also said tax is not the way to fix the debt but spending is.

“One out of four works for the gov-ernment,” Johnson said. “We have too many departments for government, and we spend too much money supplying for military. [That is a] bureaucracy.”

Barbara Beemer, French teacher, too, said she thinks the national debt is caused by the federal government spending more money that the government receives in taxes.

“The federal government has had to borrow money to cover its expenses,” she said.

She said, “If a family spends more mon-ey than it has earned, the family has to borrow money to live and to pay the bills. If that practice continues, the family goes bankrupt.”

She said one huge expense for the fed-eral government is paying Social Security to retirees.

“The workers have been putting mon-ey into the Social Security Trust Fund throughout their career,” Beemer said.

“However, the federal government has bor-rowed money from that Trust Fund to pay for other programs, and now there is not enough money left in it to continue paying what has been promised.”

She said that is why we have to borrow huge sums of money from China to meet the government our obligations to fund its program.

She said she strongly believes that the federal government has to cut spending and eliminate waste and corruption.

“As painful as it may be, the govern-ment may have to raise taxes,” Beemer said. “Cutting spending is not easy because the public expects a lot from the govern-ment.”

She said her outlook for our future is grim if the federal government continues to bor-

row more money, and the debt continues to be out of control.

“Our credit will be downgraded, again, and that will cause the government to owe more in interest on all of those loans,” Beemer said. “That increases the debt

further.”She said the public will have to be bur-

dened with heavy taxes, and the federal government could go bankrupt.

“If we want a preview of that possibil-ity, we can watch what is happening in Greece,” Beemer said.

Andrew Lattner, senior, said he does not think there is that much of a debt problem.

“Something rarely known is that debt is actually necessary for the government to function properly,” Lattner said. “The gov-ernment and the world economy are based on the sale of treasury bonds, which are forms of debt.”

He also said he thinks the Alabama State debt could have much more of an impact on students than the national debt.

“It will take dozens of years to get close to Greece which had excessive debt and major government cuts,” Lattner said.

5

10

15

20

25

30

National Debt$15,410,000,000,000

$49,215Debt Per Citizen

Population313,101,231

Unemployed23,054,654

3,824,812,630

What could be bought with the National Debt?

Super Bowl tickets

58,000,000average houses34,545,482,137Lady Gaga ticketsInfographic designed and compiled by: Alex HauserInformation from usdebtclock.org and abcnews.com

Poor government spending

causes the debt. As our debt

increases, our credit rating

goes down.“”-Jared Lotfi, junior

Parents can now view grades online with I-Now; program still has bugs


Graphic by: Alex Hauser

Infographic designed by: Alex HauserInformation compiled by: Jah’meka Baxter

Teachers, do you like I-Now?

Number of Teachers

Yes No

Allison GabrielPage 8

Black history monthpage 6

Government spending, laziness blamed for debt

Junior

The front page story assigned was about the

national debt. I tried to find a way to get a graphic with a student, but I kept running into the same problem: no one knew

how much the debt actually was. Our students didn’t know much at all. I decided to make a comparison of the national

debt to things students could understand, such as Superbowl

tickets.

DesignInfographics24


Color RunPage 8


















































College Prep






Breakdown of grades


Romney=10%

Breakdown of ages

18

14

15

16

17

Romney

Obama




69%31%Romney




Exemption policyPage 6


Color RunPage 8


















































College Prep






Breakdown of grades


Romney=10%

Breakdown of ages

18

14

15

16

17

Romney

Obama




69%31%Romney




Exemption policyPage 6Senior

My senior year, we wanted to cover the election, but it was difficult getting interviews because there were so few people who were eligible to vote. I had the idea to have a school-wide mock election and post the results in our paper. I went and talked to SGA and they agreed to help me with the election. We set a date and they agreed to make posters, create announcements and supply students to help run the election. Two days before the election, I had not seen any posters, nor had any announcements been made. I made my own announcement and made all the ballots. I went up to talk to SGA and they decided they were too busy to help me. That night, I created my system for holding this election by myself. I delivered a set of ballots to each teacher with specific instructions on how and which period to let their students vote. After that period, I went to each teacher to pick up their ballots, and I spent free time in all my classes counting the ballots. Luckily I had help counting the ballots from my staff members. I created the infographic based on different demographics, which was interesting because we are one of the few areas in Alabama where the majority is democrat.

AlexHauser

WriterDesigner

PhotographerEditor

I am a

Journalist

PhotographyEnviromental Photo

25I was also

voted by the senior class most likely

to become a writer!

Photo by - Alex Hauser

During my senior year, I had my journalism teacher for 3 periods, one of them being yearbook. I usually worked on newspaper, but I would also assist the others when they needed help. It was mostly design purposes, but occasionally they needed someone to get a picture, and I would volunteer. This picture was tough to shoot. I had to come 2 hours before the game to help them paint up during tailgating. We brought several props to try out, and planned to take the picture after the first quarter. After trying several different poses, we decided we needed the student section in the background. It took a while to get enough of the students to participate or move out of the way, and we had to do it right before the half was over, so we had enough crowd in the background. We gave students bags of confetti, and placed them around the two senior favorites so it would look more filled. I opted out using the manual mode, and switched to sports mode, knowing I would need to get several shots, and we only had enough confetti for one shot. Afterwards, I added a lens blur to the background to make them stand out. Unfortunately, the guy was adamant to looking at the field, and the girl said she had to look in the camera. But they were extremely happy with the photo, and that’s what matters.

PhotographyEnviromental Photo26

I turnedTHIS

intoTHAT Senior

PhotographySports Photo

27

Thomas Arnold, senior, jumps up to hit the ball at sectionals against Thompson High School on April 18

Junior

PhotographySports Photo28

11SportsThe Northridge ReporterMay 10, 2012

Tennis team performs well Tyesha Pinnock

Staff WriterThe girls tennis team won second place

out of 16 teams in the Austin High School Tournament on March 30-31.

Becci Hauser, head girls tennis coach, said she was very proud of the team.

“The team did very well for their number of players,” she said.

Hauser said there were less experienced girls filling in for injured players. She said she was impressed with the girls who played doubles together that had never played before.

Maani Kamal, senior, had a hip injury that occurred while doing a back swing in December during practice.

“It really hurt. I just pulled back, and the cartilage in my leg tore,” she said.

Kamal said she hated not playing tennis for so long.

Even though she was out most of the season and couldn’t play, Kamal attended every home game.

“I was very proud of my team; they’re doing a very good job,” she said.

According to Hauser, Kamal was able to return on April 16 to play in sectionals. The tennis team won first place. As a result of their placement, the girls went to play the State competition in Mobile on April 26.

They earned 5th place out of 16 teams.

Kennedy Buettner, sophomore, hits a serve at sectionals against Hillcrest High School on

April 18.

Open your heartOpen your home

To learn how you can becomea foster or adoptive family

Call 1-866-4AL-KIDS or visit www.dhr.alabama.gov

PRIDE of Tuscaloosa

Be safe.Be smart.Make good decisions.

Celebrate a safe anddrug-free lifestyle!

We aren’t defined by what we don’t.We are defined by what we do.

And what we do is...LIVE FREE!

Thomas Arnold, senior, jumps up to hit the

ball at sectionals against Thompson High

School on April 18.

Aasiyah Sullivan

Staff Reporter

Vinnie Sunseri, 2011 alumni, has become a prime candidate to play safety for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide this upcom-ing football season.

Sunseri said working to take Mark Barron’s spot as safety is challenging, and he still has to work hard. Barron was in-j u r e d l a s t season a n d w i l l not re-turn to play.

“ A lot of t h e o t h e r p l a y -ers on the team are working towards having Barron’s spot. It isn’t certain that I will get it, but I still can prove myself worthy to the coaches,” Sunseri said.

He said that being moti-

vated while practicing and playing is key if anyone plays a sport like football.

“The thing that moti-vates me is the desire to be the greatest ever. Being av-erage scares me, and I can’t be satisfied with being av-erage,” Sunseri said.

Ashlyn Sunseri, senior, said she can see why getting this position and why play-ing football has became so

important to her brother.

“Play-ing foot-ball is important to Vinnie b e c a u s e f o o t b a l l has be-come his life, and he has been sur-

rounded by football since he was little, so he loves the sport,” Sunseri said.

She said her father coached at the University of Alabama for three sea-sons and has involved Vin-nie in football since he was

Former student achieves success in Alabama Football



younger.“My dad always had

Vinnie involved in a foot-ball team when he was lit-tle. My dad always encour-aged him to do the best he could,” Sunseri said.

She said it will be dif-ferent this season because their dad is the defensive coordinator at Tennessee, and Vinnie still plays for the U of A, so it will be awkward when they [the U of A] have to play Tennes-see.

“I think Vinnie misses our dad coaching him be-cause he was always his support system when it came to playing football, and now our dad will be on the other side of the field,” Sunseri said.

She said that since Vin-nie has started playing for the Crimson Tide, his foot-ball skills have improved a lot.

“The things that I have seen him improve on since last year is that he can read any offense, and he can also read the quarterback extremely well,” Sunseri said

Ace

Kennedy Buettner, sophomore, hits a serve at sectionals against Hillcrest High School on April 18

Junior

Boy’s Tennis Sectionals was hosted at our school. I spent

my journalism periods out on the courts shooting photos for newspaper and yearbook. I was not allowed on the courts to shoot and, as pictured on the left, the courts are surrounded by a chain linked

fence, as well as a dark wind shield. To shoot I got down on my stomach behind the fence so I was below the windshield and set my lens as close to the fence as I

could without scratching it. I used a large aperture so the fence would just blur and I

could get the pictures I needed.

PhotographyEnvironmental Photo

29

September 24, 2012 • Volume 10 • Issue 1 Northridge High School • 2901 Northridge Road • Tuscaloosa, Al.• 35406northridgereporter.wordpress.com


For the second consecutive year, the school’s schedule has changed.

After the disapproval of the A/B block schedule, the school decided to implement a seven period schedule.

“The initial reason for changing the schedule had to do, in very general terms, with overall student performance. We felt as if the block presented barriers to student learn-ing that could be corrected with year-long classes,” Isaac Espy, principal, said.

Espy said the block schedule had two main disadvantag-es—consistency and the length of class.

“Many students found it difficult to concentrate for an hour and forty minutes,” he said. “The pace, at times, tend-ed to be slow.”

Espy said another benefit to the seven period schedule was having class all year because it “eliminates semester and year-long gaps in crucial areas of study.”

“The seven period day is a ‘normal’ school schedule. George Washington had a seven period day when he was

in high school. [And] thus far, the schedule has been well received,” he said.

Espy said the new school year will be “re-energized” with a faster paced schedule, although Kearston Wells, se-nior, said the classes are “pressed for time.”

“I like that the classes are shorter, and you don’t lose focus. But it’s too short because the teachers are stressed and struggle trying to get everything done in that time pe-riod,” she said.

Wells said another downfall is the inconsistency in class times.

“It’s really unfair because first [period] is super short with announcements and fire drills and second [period] is really long if you keep your bonus period. So the only class you really get the most time in is second,” she said. “So teachers are like ‘Oh I have more time I can teach you and do fun activities,’ but the other classes are so pressed for time, they can’t get as much done and have to cut out all the fun stuff and get straight to work.”

Nancy Reed, history teacher, said she prefers the seven period schedule.

“I like the consistency that it provides, and I believe it

serves most students the best. It also helps alleviate disci-pline issues in the classroom from my experience,” Reed said. “For someone like me who loves to lecture [the seven period schedule] just works best for me.”

Scott Johnson, math teacher, said he “think[s] [he] likes the seven period day.”

“I think it’s better for the kids to have math and reading [all year]; there’s not as many gaps,” Johnson said. “I’m hoping [scores] will go up.”

Amanda Burns, senior, said she likes the seven period schedule, although there are some flaws.

“I’ve only had seven periods my whole life, and when I came to Northridge they were on the block, and I hated it,” she said. “[With the new schedule] I don’t like the bonus, and I don’t like how we lose a credit because we don’t have eight periods like we used to.”

Burns said she likes the shorter classes, and it will just take time to adjust.

“Teachers have to adjust to the time change, but I think it will work out. Only time will tell,” she said.

Rateof

ChangePhoto by: Alex Hauser

New schedule implemented, gets mixed reviews

Renu PanditFeature Editor

Sixty-two percent of the 231 students that took AP exams passed.

Dr. Isaac Espy, principal, said that Northridge surpassed other schools in West Alabama like Bryant, Central, Hill-crest and Tuscaloosa County High school, whose passing rates were 21%, 2%, 46% and 47% respectively.

“I am extremely proud of the great work of our students taking AP courses, and the teachers who worked with these students,” Espy said. “I was honestly stunned at the results.”

Espy said the passing rate two years ago was 67%, but that only 173 students took AP exams.

“We had a 26% increase of students pass-ing tests,” Espy said. “We pushed far more students out of their comfort zone and into a major challenge.”

The AP Grant that was initiated last year promises a $100 reward to students who pass an AP English, math or science exam.

Espy said the money will be rewarded to the appropriate students at an assembly the last week of September.

Jane Yu, senior, took and passed the AP Composition, Statistics, Calculus BC, Physics and Chemistry exams in the spring.

“The AP Grant has helped make AP classes more appealing for students be-cause of the incentive the money reward gives,” Yu said.

However, Yu said she would have want-ed to pass her exams even if there was no monetary reward.

“AP courses are helpful when it comes to getting ready for colleges. I’ve already figured out what I like to do because of them,” Yu said. “Also, I think it’s a once in a life time opportunity to explore as many subjects as you want without the huge cost of tuition.”

Jacqueline Hudgins, guidance counselor, said it’s too early to tell if the money had a serious effect on increase in AP students and AP passing rates.

“We always have students who work hard because they have a determined work ethic, and they understand the value of AP in

preparing for college,” Hudgins said. “However,

who wouldn’t want $100 for passing a test?”

Hudgins said she feels students who do well on the AP exams are properly recog-nized.

“Especially those who are named AP scholars,” Hudgins said. “I would love for us to do more, but funding receptions is nearly impossible.”

Zoe Bakker, senior, took and passed the AP Calculus, Chemistry and Composition exams in the spring.

“The money reward didn’t have a huge affect on me, but it was a nice bonus,” Bakker said. “I would have wanted to pass even without it.”

However, Bakker said she believed the money reward is what “caused a rise in students joining AP classes, many of which didn’t even pass.”

“When you have a class of 35 people, and at least five don’t even want to be there, it makes it hard to learn,” Bakker said.

Upon hearing that the school’s passing rate was 62%, Bakker said the school needs to put more focus on people who do well.

“The school system puts so much focus on people who fail the graduation exams.

Rather than changing our schedule to help a few people with their graduation

exams, we should do what’s best for the whole school,” Bakker said.

Do you like the seven period schedule?

YesNo

7 PeriodA/B

Block

20%23%

57%

Which schedule do you like the most?

6981

150 students polledDesigned by: Alex HauserInformation compiled by: Jakailah Cooper

AP passing rate beats area schools, AP students earn cash

Continued on page 6See Schedule

Julia HocuttStaff Writer

ReplayIt is an interactive, community wide picture sharing website. Students can upload personal pictures from their phones, computers and other devices to the Replay-It “time capsule,” so the school yearbook staff members have more picture options to put in the school’s yearbook.

With the program, student body mem-bers who aren’t apart of the yearbook com-mittee now have the opportunity to help out their staff and participate themselves.

“I really like how the whole school can get connected and involved,” year-book editor Katherine Duckworth, ju-

nior, said.“ReplayIt is a great way for students to

share their pictures with other classmates. Being a member of the yearbook staff, I would love students to upload their fun pictures,” Hallie Young, junior, said.

Site helps students contribute to yearbook

Cash in your scores

AYPPage 6

Hillcrest gamePage 7

Designed by: Alex HauserInformation compiled by: Jakailah Cooper

ZoologyPage 8

St

udents who made f ves

Stud

ents who made fours

Stud

ents

who made threes

Senior

When I was planning my pages, I couldn’t get this image out of my head. I

wanted a student standing in a busy hallway with students running around him to show that our new schedule clutters both the hallways and the classrooms. At first I was just going to shoot the blurred hallway and

place a cut-out on it, but I decided that was just an easy way out. I got a student who wasn’t in an important class and we waited outside in the hallway before lunch let out. I set my camera up on a tripod to keep it steady.

I used a very low shutter speed and a long exposure to show motion. The student had to

stand completely still so he wouldn’t blur.

PhotographySports Photo30

7The Northridge ReporterSeptember 24, 2012 Sports

School fails AYP, state moves to end of year tests

Abby AllenSports Editor

In the eyes of football player Bo Scar-brough, the only thing better than being a junior and already committed to playing college football is having committed to the college of the number one football team in the nation.

Two weeks before he committed, 6-foot-2, 218 pound, running back on the football team, Bo Scarbrough, had already decided he wanted to play football at the University of Alabama.

While standing on the football field im-mediately following the win over Hillcrest, Scar-brough verbally committed to playing at Alabama.

“It takes a lot of pressure off of me,” Scarbrough said, “I have nothing to worry about because I’ve already made my deci-sion.”

Although he decided on Alabama, he said it was not the only college on his mind.

Georgia, Clemson, and Auburn were a few colleges where Scarbrough could have made his next move.

“I felt like it (Alabama) would be the best place for me,” Scarbrough said.

Scarbrough said he has always wanted to play football but not necessarily at Ala-bama.

“I used to dream about playing at Okla-homa University,” he said, “but you know, dreams change.”

Head football coach Mike Smith, said he first knew Scarbrough’s talent when he saw him play in middle school.

“When you see his speed and watch him bounce around like a pin-ball because he is so much bigger than everything else out there, you realize he is a special player,” he said

Scarbrough said com-mitting to play for Alabama will not affect who he is or how he plays during his ju-nior or senior year.

“I’m still the same person and player I have always been,” he said, “and that’s not going to change.”

Football team beats Hillcrest at NHS

‘Starbo’ commits to UA

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bringing the score to 9-8, Patriots.A game-changing touchdown

with a two-point conversion was scored with 5:32 left in the fourth quarter, bringing the score to 16-9 Jags.

The celebration was short-lived when the Patriots came back and scored another touchdown to tie the game, only to have their ex-tra point blocked, bringing the score to 16-15 with the Jags in the lead.

In one climactic moment, the Jags scored a final touchdown at the end of the fourth quarter to bring the score to 23-15 and send-

Morgan DeWittStaff Writer

Coming off of a 40-30 win against Bob Jones on Aug. 31, the football team beat the Hillcrest Patriots 23-15 on Sept. 7.

The game started with the Pa-triots getting a safety in the first quarter and a touchdown in the second.

The score at halftime was 9-0, Patriots. The team came back in the third quarter, scoring a safety followed by a touchdown, but the intensity heightened when the Patriots blocked the extra point,

ing them to victory.Mike Smith, head football

coach, said the game was impor-tant because it was a “regional and in-town rival, and they were the last team to beat us at home in the 2012 season.”

“Our defense played well but our offense was not on top,” Smith said.

Bo Scarborough, junior, gained 160 yards on 24 carries and ended the game with a 30 yard touch-down run, bringing the score to 23-15.

“We didn’t execute during the first half,” Scarborough said, “but

I think we did great in the second half to pull through the game.”

James Cox, senior and wide receiver, said, “Every mistake we made was made only by us. It was us holding us back during the first half. This game was a real team effort. It was a tough win.”

The student section celebrated the win by storming the field. The senior class was exceptionally excited to beat Hillcrest this year after a 14-35 loss last year.

Taylor Goodall, senior, said, “We overcame all of our obstacles and got our momentum back. The crowd played a huge part.


First Down: Hillcrest defenders try to stop the Northridge offense, Phillip Cunningham, (80), C’yonati Lewis, (88), Keyon Handley, (75), and Daryl Pham. (70), from widening their lead. Northridge won 23-15 on Sept. 7. “The team played strong,” Lewis said.

Katie PooreStaff Writer

The girls varsity volleyball team won their second game of the season, defeating Hillcrest High School within the first three matches on Sept. 6.

The volleyball team won their matches with scores of 25-7, 25-22 and 25-15.

Kiana Johnson had two kills, three digs, one ace, 15 assists and two blocks.

Amanda Guarisco had five kills, four aces and one block.

Anna Lee Petitt ended the game with three kills, three aces and one block.

The varsity team now has three wins and zero losses for the sea-son.

They will play at the Hewitt-Trussville Tournament on Sept. 22.

Volleyball team beats Hillcrest

Volleyball games at NHSHillcrest Sept. 27 5:00Oak Mountain Oct. 2 5:00Brookwood Oct. 4 5:00Holy Spirit Oct. 9 5:00Area Tounament Oct. 18-20

Football scoresBob Jones 40-30Hillcrest 23-15Minor 28-13

“We sell Hunt Brother’s Pizza”

Gordo Chevron

Phone: (205)-364-220

Run: Bo Scarborough, junior, runs the ball during the game against Bob Jones.


Hillcrest defenders try to stop the Northridge offense, Phillip Cunningham, 80, C’yonati Lewis, 88, Keyon Handley, 75, and Daryl Pham, 70, from widening their lead. Northridge won 23-15 on Sept. 7. “The team played strong,” Lewis said.

Senior

I took most of the football pictures my senior year for The Northridge Reporter as well as Blueprints Yearbook. I took this photo on my

knees so I could frame the center with the two opponents. This same night, I also had to shoot

the senior favorite picture (page s 25-26)

PhotographyYearbook

31

Senior

The day of senior night for the football team, cheerleaders and band the yearbook realized that they did not have anyone who could shoot pictures at the game. I knew I would be attending the game anyway, so I volunteered to take the photos. I shot the one at the top so that

the players would lead to the center, and also showed the pink some of the players were sporting for a parent that was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The bottom picture not only shows the team honoring the seniors, but it shows the current captain handing her position down to next

year’s captain.

PhotographyYearbook 32

The Jaguars line up against the Hueytown Tigers and prepare to run a play. “That was a really good game, the team played well,” Deondre Rogers, 11, said.

Multimedia/ OpenFeatureFeature

33

Senior

I revamped our website this year. I added a new template, features, and created the header to match it. Because we did not have any money to put towards the site, I had limited resources and had to work with the templates. I had to match the colors to create the header in Photoshop and add in our flag. I used HTML to embed our print issues via Issu and connected our Facebook and Twitter Although it is still in it’s infancy, I worked along side a sophomore and got her excited about being our webmaster so it can grow in the upcoming years.

I

to

createdthis header

matchthis template

Multimedia/ OpenFeatureFeature34

The giant shark entrance is what sepa-rates Souvenir City from the other dozens of souvenir shops in Gulf Shores. Located near The Hangout, the shark has become an icon to any beach-goer.

Susan Herrington grew up near Gulf Shores, and said the shark was a landmark for her.

“It meant that we had finally made it to the beach,” she said. “I either bought a surfer’s cross or a shell necklace.”

Souvenir City has been around since 1956 and the owner, Paul Johnson, had the idea of a shark at the entrance. His brother-in-law, Mark Royster, said Johnson found inspiration at a golf course in Tennessee.

“He shops for ideas. It’s how he works. Everything inspires him and he loves to build, ” Royster said.

At first, a smaller shark was positioned above the entrance, Herrington said she re-called it being pink.

“[The shark] is how I recognize the store. If not for the shark, it would just be another souvenir store,” she said.

But in 1987, the building burned down.“After the fire, [Johnson] thought of the

giant shark entrance. It used to play the Jaws theme song, but was taken away after it was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan,” Roys-ter said.

In 2004 Hurricane Ivan hit the gulf and

washed away several businesses. Souvenir City was flooded with four feet of water and the shark was wrecked.

“It took us two weeks until we could get in the building and start cleaning,” he said, “We just brought in a front-end loader and a Bobcat. We took out four loads of stuff. We have six warehouses in Foley and brought in the machinery and pushed ev-erything out.”

Royster said the shark had to be repaired and repainted, and Souvenir City opened back up Feb. 26, right before Spring Break.

“[The shark is an icon to me] just know-ing I am almost to my favorite place in the world,” Herrington said.

Iconic shark attracts new generation of tourists

Junior

During the summer after my junior year, I spent two weeks at the Multicultural Journalism Workshop at the University of Alabama. We visited Gulf Shores

to find stories to write. Our focus was the oil spill for our paper, but I took a different approach to add more versatility by reporting on the souvenir store known by any tourist

who visits the area.

Multimedia/ OpenExperiences

35

Every year we hold a wedding after the first paper is delivered. We commit ourselves to the paper and promise to work our hardest.

I attended the NSPA Fall con-vention in Washington D.C. my freshman year. It was just me and the editor that went. We got close and she trained me early so I could become editor one day.

I attended the SIPA convention in Columbia, South Carolina my freshman and junior year.

I spend a lot of time working on contests. Winning awards seem to be the thing that motivates my staff the most, so I make sure to enter as much as I can.

The first Friday of each month we have Quill and Scroll meetings and McDonald’s. It’s a great way for both yearbook and newspaper students to get together. Newspaper is where I found many of my friends, so I really enjoy these meetings. We can have fun without the stress of deadline on our shoulders. I was president my junior and senior year.

During my junior year I had to induct the new members into Quill and Scroll during the Honors Day ceremony. I was the only junior who was president of an honors club. The teacher in charge of the ceremony complimented me on my speech and told me it was very professional.

Multimedia/ OpenExperiences36

During my first year as Editor-in-Chief, we won 1st Place Best-of-Show for an 8-page tabloid at the NSPA convention in Minneapolis, MN

Also at the convention, I received an honorable mention for review writing at the write-off

For the second time, I won an honorable mention in review writing. This time at the NSPA convention in San Antonio.

During my senior year, we received 5th place Best-of-Show for an 8-page paper, though NSPA decided we were considered a broadsheet this time.

I won 12 awards my junior year at the ASPA spring convention.

During the San Antonio convention, I grew really close to new staff members. Here, we were anxiously our on-site categories to be announced.

Multimedia/ OpenFeature

37

These were used in the opening number during the title song, “9 to 5.” They directed the cast and helped them with blocking as well as assist the audience to better understand the choreography.

This is the Historic Bama Theatre where 9 to 5 was performed.

I run spotlight for many of The Actor’s Charitable Theatre’s productions. Around 2 a.m. the day before the first showing of 9 to 5, the director decided that there needed to be several graphics displayed on the backdrop.

He could not do it on such short notice, so I volunteered. All of these were made the day of the first performance. The Board was so impressed with my work, I am now being

paid to design their programs, ads, and anything else they need.

Senior

Multimedia/ OpenFeature38

During Judy’s dream sequence, she was imagining herself as a mob gangster. The term “Judy’s Joint” is a play on words because these dreams were conjured while they were high on “mary-jo-wanna.” This was on display during Judy’s song, “Dance O’ Death.”

Doralee’s dream sequence consisted of a western scene, where Doralee ropes down her creepy boss, Franklin Hart. In the wanted poster, it states that he is wanted for being a “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” which is a repeated, stand-out phrase in the musical.

This was displayed on the backdrop after Violet’s major song, “One of the Boys” where she is imagining herself as CEO. It shows up when there is a black out and just a single spot on Violet.

Multimedia/ OpenColumn

39

I’m moving on. After four years of devoting myself to

The Northridge Reporter, the time has come for me to give up the seniority and comfort of the high school kiddie pool and immerse myself in the larger pond that is college.

It’s a scary thought. I’m not sure what will happen to the pa-

per after I leave. Will it continue to thrive? Or will the lack of student interest bring the paper to an end.

After all, there’s only one freshman on my staff this year. And only four of us re-turned from a class of 21.

I don’t know where I’m going to college, whether or not I want to double major or what I’ll be eating for lunch tomorrow. But I do know that I have to make the initiative now to help the journalism program thrive here at Northridge for years to come.

I get it. Why join a class where writing assignments will multiply and there’s al-ways something due?

For me, it’s passion. And a little bit of crazy.

The point is, on the outside, a journalism

class just seems like a whole lot of stress. And I’ve made it my job to show my school the opportunity it is on the inside.

So when I came across JEA’s new student program, j, I knew that was my answer.

j has so many benefits, not only for peo-ple currently in a journalism program at their school, but for anyone with an interest in pursuing a journalism career. Members get exclusive access to “hangout” with pro-fessionals, scholarships and special distinc-tions to colleges.

To me, it seemed like a great way for someone to get a foot in the door.

That’s when I decided I would open up j to everyone in our school, not just those in journalism.

Now, it’s just getting started. We’ve only had one get-together, and it was only an in-terest meeting. There was a great turnout, not only from those currently in journalism, but from others that might be interested.

And I have big things planned for the future.

Our next few meetings my staff and I will be teaching the basics of journalism such as ethics, AP style and the ins and outs

of InDesign and Photoshop.Then the fun begins. Each meeting after will consist of con-

tests and challenges to get the members excited about writing, photography and design.

Write-offs, photo scavenger hunts and who-can-design-the-most-appealing-page-with-only-the-elements-given competi-tions will make the learning fun and re-warding (plus the candy prizes will bring out competition in even the shyest of mem-bers).

This is it.This is my contribution to The North-

ridge Reporter. This is my effort to keep people excited about writing.

But it can’t end there.I want all of ASPA to join this amazing

experience. I want them to share the ben-efits of scholastic journalism to others in their school and to show everyone else how amazing the students of Alabama are.

This is our chance.So let’s take it.Visit JeaJ.org to get started.

JEA’s student program has many benefits

I started my school’s chapter of “j” the first semester of my senior year. We were the first in Alabama, and I contacted the Alabama Scholastic Press Association’s director to see if we could work together to start other chapters across the state. She was very enthusiastic and asked me to write a column for the ASPA newsletter. Unfortunately, the University of Alabama has a building called Houser Hall, so my last time is misspelled

quite frequently.

Multimedia/ OpenFeature40

ASPA News Vol. 25, Issue 2 • Fall ‘12/Winter ‘13

By Alex HouserI’m moving on. After four years of

devoting myself to The Northridge Reporter, the time has come for me to give up the seniority and comfort of the high school kiddie pool and immerse myself in the larger pond that is college.

It’s a scary thought. I’m not sure what will happen

to the paper after I leave. Will it continue to thrive? Or will the lack of student interest bring the paper to an end.

After all, there’s only one fresh-man on my staff this year. And only four of us returned from a class of 21.

I don’t know where I’m going to college, whether I want to double major or what I’ll be eating for lunch tomorrow. But I do know that I have to make the initiative now to help the journalism pro-gram thrive here at Northridge for years to come.

I get it. Why join a class where writing assignments will multiply and there’s always something due?

For me, it’s passion. And a little bit of crazy.

The point is, on the outside, a journalism class just seems like a

whole lot of stress. And I’ve made it my job to show my school the opportunity it is on the inside.

So when I came across JEA’s new student pro-gram, “j,” I knew that was my answer.

j has so many benefits, not only for people cur-

rently in a journalism program at their school, but for anyone with an interest in pursuing a journal-ism career. Members get exclusive access to “hangout” with profes-sionals, scholarships and special distinctions to colleges.

To me, it seemed like a great way for someone to get a foot in the door.

That’s when I decided I would open up j to everyone in our school, not just those in journalism.

Now, it’s just getting started. We’ve only had one get together, and it was an interest meeting. There was a great turnout, not only from those currently in journalism, but from others that might be interested.

And I have big things planned for the future.

Our next few meetings my staff and I will be teaching the basics of journalism such as ethics, AP style

and the ins and outs of InDesign and Photoshop.

Then the fun begins. Each meeting after will consist

of contests and challenges to get the members excited about writing, photography and design.

Write-offs, photo scavenger hunts and who-can-design-the-most-appealing-page-with-only-the-elements-given competitions will make the learning fun and rewarding (plus the candy prizes will bring out competition in even the shyest of members).

This is it.This is my contribution to The

Northridge Reporter. This is my effort to keep people excited about writing.

But it can’t end there.I want all members of ASPA to

join this amazing experience. I want them to share the benefits of scholastic journalism with others in their school and to show everyone else how amazing the students of Alabama are.

This is our chance.So let’s take it.Visit JeaJ.org to get started.

Houser is the Editor of The Northridge Reporter at Northridge High School in Tuscaloosa.

Alex Houser

JEA’s student program has many benefits

TEAcHERS OF SENiORS: pLEASE NOTE THAT THE NATiONAL JOuRNALiST OF THE yEAR (JOy) REquiREmENTS HAVE cHANGED. ASpA bASES OuR GuiDELiNES ON THE JOy GuiDELEiNES, SO pLEASE cHEcK cAREFuLLy NExT yEAR, AS THEy WiLL cHANGE SLiGHTLy.

Senior

ScopeFreshman

Sophomore

Junior

Senior

2

4

11

12

This is me speaking in front of my staff. I enjoy teaching others everything I learn, so I can inspire others.

Here is mysessionI taughtat the AlabamaScholasticPressAssociation

Alex

Experience

Feature EditorAugust 2010-May 2011

August 2011-PresentEditor-in-Chief

Computer SkillsAdobe InDesignAdobe PhotoshopAdobe IllustratorMicrosoft Office

iWorkGoogle docsWordpress

Individual AwardsStateDESIGN• 1st place newspaper spread• 2nd place graphic• Honorable mention graphic• 1st place newsmagazine cover package• 1st place newspaper front page• Honorable mention newspaper front page• 1st place feature• 3rd place featureWRITING• 2nd place review writing• 2nd place news story• 3rd place review• 3rd place feature writingRegional• 2nd place newsmagazine cover

NationalDESIGN• 2nd place page one design• Honorable mention newsmagazine design• Honorable mention page one design

portfolio• 3rd place overall designWRITING• Honorable mention review writing (2011

and 2012

Education2009 - PresentNorthridge High School

Profile• 18 years old• Planning to major in visual journalism,

and minor in the general spectrum at the University of Alabama next fall

• Am currently residing as Editor-in-Chief of The Northridge Reporter at Northridge High School where I create the layouts and graphics of 3 pages, as well as oversee all the other pages, and help with the design of their graphics

• Have 4 years of design experience• Have attended numerous scholastic

journalism workshops, where I have worked with professionals in improving my design skills

• Spent my free time in journalism teaching myself Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator my freshman year. I was able to apply those skills helping page editors design pages my second

semester of freshman year. I then became feature editor my sophomore year.

• I have taught at two different conventions. At the ASPA Long Weekend summer workshop, I taught a class on how to be an editor in the newsroom. During the 2012 ASPA fall convention, I lead a session on scholastic design.

[email protected]

205-292-1195

1600 Mallard CircleTuscaloosa, AL 35405

Contact Information

While Editor-in-Chief, our newspaper has also received 1st and 5th place Best-of-Show at the National Scholastic Press Association, the highest our paper has received in history. In my two years, we have also made All-Alabama, All-Southern and All-American.*

Alabama Scholastic Press Association

Southern Interscholastic Press Association

Columbia Scholastic Press Association

National Scholastic Press Association

August 2009-May 2010Staff Writer

Quill and Scroll President

* During the fall of my senior year, I started a J chapter at my school.

alex hauser portfolio

Documents

grade teacher

grade self

script writing

im sorry

im passionate

daily writing prompts

important stories

grad examsallison gabriel