NOVEMBER 2015• GUYER HIGH SCHOOL•VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1• 7501 TEASLEY LANE•DENTON, TX 76210

Optimism in Football Season

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Theater Plays Mary Poppins

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New Administration Looks Ahead

Assistant principal Corrie Edmondson, Principal Shaun Perry, and Associate Principal DeCorian Hailey are the new members to the administration team.

Photo by Kris Eckstorm

Kris EckstormEditor-in-Chief

Is this thing on? Yes it is, and so is the administration that has taken over after former principal Barbara Fischer retired last year with Shaun Perry becoming principal. In the spring, Perry inter-viewed teachers to get most

Homecoming Hits the Jackpot

With every year comes new students, new staff, and new beginnings, but despite the changes that each year brings, students and faculty--both old and new--continued to honor the school’s traditions with this year’s homecoming. Homecoming is not only a time to enjoy the start of the school year, but it is also a time when alumni come back, and freshman Morgan Scruggs said these two fac-tors made her first homecom-ing a fun and memorable experience. “My first homecoming at Guyer felt like Halloween 5 times in a row, because we

could act like 8 year olds in costumes and it was totally acceptable,” Scruggs said. “Plus, seeing all the alumni I knew was fun at the football

Bianca RamirezAssistant Editor

Seniors JT Ashcraft and Gairy Natvidad were crowned on Oct. 2.Photo By Estephania Stanos

game.” However, for student council sponsor Stephanie Guadagnoli, homecoming is not all fun and games.

Guyer to get information, but my best information came from visiting my staff and informal conversations with students,” Perry said. Perry plans to look at the students more individually instead of looking at a group of 2500 kids. He wants to find the talent in middle schools instead of in the later years of high school. “We have students who have the potential to be national merit finalists,” Perry said. “What we’re going to do is start looking at our feeder middle schools to identify the students as early as pos-sible, so we’re not waiting till they’re sophomores or juniors to prep them for the SAT or ACT test.” New assistant principal Cor-rie Edmondson worked for Carrollton-Farmers Branch and Prosper ISD’s central offices, and then one year as an assistant principal at Navo under Perry. Edmondson said that having so much experi-

of his information on the school rather than using other sources. “You can look at staff handbooks, the student code of conduct, disciplinary re-ports, and I can talk to my supervisors who work with

ence around her helps. “We are very fortunate to have several team members who have been here since Guyer opened, and so to be able to draw from that tradi-tion of Guyer that experi-ence, and work to take us to the next level,” Edmondson said. The team works to meet the needs of students and teach-ers, but Edmondson said they also work as a team to get what Perry wants done, done. “When we take on a big project say increasing a num-ber of students in AP classes, we all take a piece of ‘how can I help support that so that nothing falls on just one person’,” Edmondson said. DeCorian Hailey, new as-sociate principal said that the new administrative staff is very team oriented. “What I like about our administrative staff is we are proactive and try to think outside the box. We talk, so even if our views may not be

aligning as a group we figure out what’s best for kids and follow that plan,” Hailey said. “Our staff cares about our students because we want to see everyone successful.” One goal for the new ad-ministration is to be visible to the students. “I try to actually sit down and talk with groups and see how their experiences are going,” Hailey said. “It’s about being immersed in our student’s lives educationally, socially, emotionally in all aspects. We are a Guyer family.” Perry has a goal to be where the students are, so he can be seen as a leader. “I’m going to visit class-rooms to see some of the great things that teachers and students are doing on a daily basis, but also to let the kids know I don’t just see them as an English student or a math student,” Perry said. “I want my students to know I’m go-ing to be there.”

“Homecoming week is very hectic. There are a lot of things fighting for our attention,” Gaudagnoli said. “Student council is in charge of the carnival, deco-rating the hallways, and then we are also in charge of the homecoming court corona-tion, but it’s really fun, and when it all comes together it makes everything worth it.” Homecoming queen Gairy Natividad is also part of student council, and she said that winning queen was something she didn’t expect amidst the chaos of the week. “I’m in student council, so it was kind of stressful because we had to make sure everything was perfect,” Na-tividad said. “But it worked

out and homecoming was fun. I was really surprised that I won, but it was cool.” Quarterback Shawn Rob-inson, junior, said the game can also be a stressful time for the football team, as a lot is expected from them during the game. They finished with a score of 48-3. “Everyone who previously went to Guyer came to that game, and everyone wants to come back and see their high school do well,” Robinson said. “We carry all the previ-ous students and players on our backs. We just want to keep the winning tradition going.”

Teacher Returns From Japan

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Incessant HAC Emails

November 2015 The Wire

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A new feature in the Home Access Center (HAC) now au-tomatically sends out an email whenever a student makes a grade below 70 or fails to turn something in. The email is sent immediately after the teacher submits the grade. In imple-menting this new feature, the district has made a poor decision as it has caused resentment and frustration among students as well as strain on student-parent relationships. Since students are already aware of their grades and both parents and students have access to view grades, this new feature is redundant. The email HAC sends essentially delivers infor-mation that both the student and the parents are already aware of. Furthermore, the feature in-forms parents immediately when a troubling grade is entered, and it does not give the students time to improve their grade or to in-form their parents, which could easily cause conflict between the parent and the student. While the district may have

had good intentions, they did not foresee the potential conse-quences. Students are already aware of their grades and receiv-ing emails that continuously re-mind them of their worrisome grades combined with added pressure from their parents only increases their stress. This stress leads to the opposite of the in-

tended result. Instead of be-ing motivated to improve their grade, students burdened with this extra stress often tend to panic and potentially do worse on a reassessment. Although the email does inform parents who may be too busy to constantly check their child’s grades, it only informs them of

negative grades. Student’s good grades are essentially ignored and the bad ones are put in the spotlight. Parents with this one-sided view of grades are more likely to be upset with their child than before when they had seen all the grades at once. If the district still feels the need to send these emails, they should consider sending a full report of all of the student’s grades once a week or every three weeks, much like a progress report. This way the students will know when the emails are being sent and have a chance to get their grade up be-fore their parents see it, and par-ents will view all of their child’s grades at once, giving them a more comprehensive overview. Overall, this new feature has had negative consequences, both on students as well as their relation-ship with their parents. As a re-sult, both parents and students should appeal to the district to remove this addition from HAC.

by Kris EckstormEditor-in-Chief

Celly due to the information be-ing text base instead of in front of students. One instance of this was when a pep rally was changed from Friday, October 23 to the following Thursday. A Celly was sent out to those who took ATC classes that the buses would be following their regular schedule, but the Celly didn’t mention that morning ATC students who have

A lunch would miss their lunches because classes were getting out early and they weren’t. Another way teachers commu-nicate with students is through Google Classroom, which allows teacher’s to post homework and notes. A major failure of this sys-tem is that some students are lazy, or don’t have a willingness to learn, so they expect that because a teacher doesn’t say that there is work on Google Classroom they don’t need to do any work. For teacher’s that use Google Class-room often, they shouldn’t have to constantly remind students of their work or have to use a large amount of paper for assignments. In most of these internet con-nections to school, it is up to the students to subscribe to what a teacher is putting out. Students need to take the time to get on these connections, so they don’t miss out on what their teachers or organizations are trying to tell them.

by Sana SyedStaff Writer

Email Frenzy HAC Sends Too Many Messages to Failing Students

Opinion

Over-Reliance on Internet Communication

Photo By Sana SyedJunior Kimberly Flack looks at an email sent to her by DISD HAC.

Photo by Branden Laredo

Sophomore Rebecca Sutherland looks at homework assignments for PAP Geom-etry on Google Classroom.

who forget to say something in class decide to send out a Celly. Thus, students who don’t sign up are left out of the loop. For all the people on Celly, they’re getting the information they need, but for students who don’t use Celly, they’re missing out on relevant information. A lack of informa-tion or a loss of understanding is another issue that arises with

A major focus of the new ad-ministration is to effectively com-municate with the student body and among themselves. In many ways, they are succeeding as most students can say they know the name of the loud man over the intercom, new associate principal DeCorian Hailey. Although the staff and administration are put-ting themselves out there and at-tempting to better communication with students, the student body is now overcrowded with com-munication systems such as their teacher’s website, HAC, email, Celly, Quizlet, and Google Class-room. The multitude of these con-nections as well as an unwilling-ness to use them by the students causes a gap in information. The major form of communica-tion to many teachers now is Cel-ly because it does its job by reach-ing a student on their phone. Still, many students prefer not to use it, mainly because they don’t want to be messaged by their teach-ers. In some cases, this causes an information gap, as teachers

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Kristopher EckstormASSISTANT EDITOR: Bianca RamirezSTAFF WRITERS: Thositha SoysaSana SyedBranden LaredoEvan Simmons

FACULTY ADVISOR: Mr. Larry TurnerPRINCIPAL: Mr. Shaun Perry

NEWSPAPER POLICIESAs the student newspaper of John Guyer High School, The Wire pro-vides a forum for student writing and opinion. The opinions (signed) and staff editorials (unsigned) contained herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the principal of John Guyer High School or the Board of Trustees of Denton ISD. Staff editorials represent the opinion of the paper. Letters to the editor and guest columns are welcomed, but are subject to mass editing for reasons of clarity, space, accuracy and good taste. The Wire reserves the right not to print letters received. Give letters, guest columns and classified ad-vertisements to Kristopher Eckstorm or Mr. Turner in room H166 or E-mail to: Lturner@dentonisd.org

“Some material courtesy of American Society of Newspa-per Editors/KRT Campus High School Newspaper Service.”

Sports 3November 2015 The Wire

Evan SimmonsStaff Writer

As Guyer progressively climbs the ladder of competition each year, athletes are learning to acquaint themselves with the increasingly difficult rivalries that hard work and competi-tive nature bring forth. In par-ticular, the football players and coaches are experiencing the whiplash effect that division change brings forth, but despite minor setbacks and challenges, Wildcats are proving why the change was made. Head Running Back coach, Marvin Nash, says he looks forward to the rest of this sea-son and believes that with the attitudes that he’s got on the team now, he will be seeing some positive outcomes in the next few weeks. “Every year is different,” Nash said. “Because every per-sonnel group is different. In comparison to previous years this group is very active and has very outgoing personalities that make them fun to coach. It’s always a challenge to get a new group of guys with a new group of attitudes and person-alities while also trying to get to know each other and become a family.” “I’ve seen marked improve-ment over the past few weeks, but there is still a long way to go,” he said. “The good news is that we still have about four more weeks to get things right.” As Nash continues to look “optimistically towards” the future season, he lifts his team up and teaches them the con-cepts and lessons of football and life.

Varsity Football Optimistic for SeasonWildcats Play Ryan for Last District Game

Photo By Estephania SantosSeniors Chad Chadwick and Matt Bergman speak to Coach Norris on the sidelines.

Photo By Estephania SantosAt the Keller game, freshman Noah Cain fakes that he has the ball during the game versus Keller on Sept. 2.

In terms of team improve-ment, Coach Nash believes that the best goal for team improve-ment is “being in tune with all three phases of the game. If we’re able to get all three as-pects of the game kicking at the same time, I think we’ll be a lot better than what we have been.” With a current record of 5-1, varsity football exemplifies the qualifications of a great team and program. Not only are they winning, but they’re also de-feating their opponents in an increasing margin of points, 2, 17, 18, 45, as games 2-5 reflect respectively. Aside from the team’s great success, becoming familiar with the new atmosphere has had its complications. “It’s all kind of new to me,” junior, Brian Polendey said. “It’s my first year on varsity so I’ve never experienced any-thing like this, but I kind of expected it since I’m starting to become a bigger and bigger part of the offense.” Senior Cesar Vidana thinks the talent the team has will re-ward them. “With all the talent we have this year, and all the hours we put in during offseason and the summer, I feel like our team will be very successful,” Vi-dana said.

SportsNovember 2015 The Wire

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Varsity Tennis Places Fourth at Area

by Bianca RamirezAssistant Editor

Players Reflect on Season

loses,” Ramirez said. “But all in all, we’ve definitely grown from this season.” The varsity team played Plano West on Thursday, October 22, and, although they lost, varsity player Ben Phillips said he is proud of the team and their accomplish-ments this season. “It’s sad to see the season come to an end, but unfortunately it had to happen,” Phillips said. “I’m glad about the improvements the team has made throughout the year, and I’m real optimistic about the next upcoming season in the spring.” To junior Nathalie Wetherington, this season has also been a “come-back” as the team struggled last year immediately after the division change. “For me, I went from only win-ning about half the time last year to being undefeated this year,” Weth-erington said. “This tennis team is closer than ever and I can’t wait to see what the spring season holds for us wildcats!”

Although always being in the spotlight of games, the tower-ing teddy bear like mascots of-ten keep their identity a secret. The identity for the lady wildcat remains a mystery for most stu-dents. The lady mascot said that be-coming the mascot was just

something to get involved in. “I wanted to be the mascot because it seemed like a lot of fun and it’s easy. You just walk around and wave at people,” the mascot said. There weren’t many people try-ing to be the mascot this year, so the mascot didn’t have to try out,

but to do so she would’ve had to dance. “The girl who was the mascot last year told me that you go in the gym,” the mascot said. “You play music, and show them what you would do if you were in the suit.” The suit is hot to work in, gives the wearer a lack of vision, and, if you’re smaller, the person in suit the needs to wear a body pad. “Inside the suit, it’s really hot and sweaty,” the mascot said. “It’s a bigger suit, and I’m too small for it so I have to wear this body pad. The head is what most-ly kills you because it’s so hot and you see through the mouth, so you can’t see much because you have no peripheral vision. You have to move the whole head to see.” The lady mascot is assisted by the lone boy mascot who was in-jured when she first began. “The boy [mascot] is really en-couraging and he gives me a lot of pointers,” the mascot said. “It’s a lot easier for me with only us two because it’s less overwhelming.” The first experience for the lady

by Kristopher EckstormEditor-In-Chief

The boy mascot poses at a pep rally for the homecoming game against North-west Texas on Oct. 2.

mascot was the first pep rally. “You don’t have a lot of ex-pectations going into a pep rally because it’s hard to get attention. The cheerleaders are doing their thing, so that’s basically what ev-eryone paying attention.” The mascot walks around and interacts with people. “It’s the same at games,” the mascot said. “You’re taking pic-tures with smaller children. When you’re on the field, you walk back and forth, and you get the crowd pumped if we’re losing.” To the mascots, having their identity a secret is fun. “People always ask you who you are and it’s a lot of fun, but it doesn’t really matter,” the mascot said. “If they know it, then they usually forget it.” The mascot encourages every-one to try out by talking with Head Cheer Coach Ashley Ham-ilton. “Not everyone is going to like the suit because of how hot it is, but it’s a lot of fun,” the mascot said.

Photo by Skylar Fuentez

Photo by Bianca Ramirez

Junior Varsity Tennis player Naomi Ramirez practices her serve on the court.

The varsity tennis team closed their regular season by placing fourth at area, and now with the end of the fall season and the upcoming spring season, varsity tennis players reflect on their year. Senior Catalina Aloman said that the team has handled the difficul-ties of this year very well. “This season was tough with close rivals, but we fought hard and made it all the way to area,” Aloman said. “It’s been bittersweet because my team is like my fam-ily and it’s sad to think this is my last year, but I am so proud of them. They work hard and fight for every win even when we are out matched.” However, this year hasn’t only been about winning. Junior Naomi Ramirez said the team has learned as much from their losses as they have from their wins. “I feel really proud of us this season and am happy with the out-come of everything we won some close matches and had some brutal

Lady Wildcat Identity Remains Unknown

FeatureNovember 2015 The Wire

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by Kris EckstormEditor-in-Chief

Theater to Perform the Musical, Mary Poppins

Flying in on an umbrella, the musical Mary Poppins will be played on November fifth, sixth, seventh, 12, 13, and 14, the Guyer Theater program will be acting Mary Poppins, and tickets will be for 10 dollars. Eleisha Crotwell, theater director, decided to choose Mary Poppins because the school will host the district children’s show. “I picked it for the little kids because this might be the only musical theater that they ever see,” Crotwell said. “I figured why not give them something extremely memorable.” Fly by Foy, the first organiza-tion to fly people on stage, has worked with the theater program in past productions, and will be working Mary Poppins too. “The character, Bert, tap dances upside down on the ceil-ing in this show, and, of course, Mary Poppins flies in and out,” Crotwell said. Sophomore John Fredrickson plays Bert, and he said he was asked if he was afraid of heights once he got the part. “I told them I wasn’t, and that I was really excited about

getting to walk upside down,” Fredrickson said. “Don’t embar-rass yourself, so don’t get off balance, hit your marks, per-form, don’t be nervous when you’re tapping upside down on the ceiling.” Sophomore Malana Wilson plays Mary Poppins, and said Mary Poppins is a complicated character. “You have to play her in dif-ferent ways because not only does she care for the children but she also has to remember that she’s a nanny and she has to play that part,” Wilson said. “She can’t become attached to the

Sophomore Alexa Teleki carries a piece of the set for Mary Poppins.

children, but you see throughout the musical that she does.” Because it was the children’s musical, Wilson said the theater kids knew it would Mary Pop-pins. “We all knew that [Mary Pop-pins] was what it was going to be,” Wilson said, “but when she [Crotwell] announced it she had it in a slideshow, we were all sitting in the auditorium, and when it started playing the Step in Time song we all just froze because we knew what an amaz-ing show this was.” Senior Allyson Roberts, plays Mrs. Banks, said that she usually

that we needed to help the pro-gram,” Woody said. “He’s laid-back, but also very task oriented, so he’s able to get things done without much oversight or extra prodding, which is what a really needed from someone in that po-sition.” Freshman Catherine Golden said Brinkman has already shown his level of dedication to the band, and that she’s excited to have him as a director in the upcoming year. “He is always very interactive with us in class and is always looking to our future,” Golden said. “Not only is he about getting business done, but also he is great at being loose and not uptight.” Brinkman said he chose music because of the impact it had on him in high school, and he is hop-ing to help bring that positive ef-fect to students in the program. “I learned so much about, not just music but about life while I was in music,” Brinkman said. “I

think that’s just a great medium to teach life lessons and learn a valuable skill, because you can make music for your entire life, and it’s something that you en-joy doing.” Senior Luis Sanchez says Mr.

This year, the school has wel-comed a wide variety of new staff members, including Tyler Brink-man, the new Associate Director of Bands and director of the Sym-phonic and Jazz Bands. As a recent Baylor graduate, this is the first school Brinkman’s taught at, and he said he “can’t imagine a better first job.” “[The students] have been so welcoming to me, and the staff has been great,” Brinkman said. “I really like Ms. Woody and Dr. Hampton and when I got a chance to meet them in person and in-terview with them, it just really seemed like the right fit.” Even though he is a first year teacher, Amy Woody, Director of Bands, said that she initially hired Brinkman because he has a “veteran-sense” of teaching, and because his philosophies were “on par” with what the program wanted. “He brought a lot of the things

Mr. Tyler Brinkman watches the game versus Wichita Falls.

plays multiple small roles in one play, and she’s “excited” to have a set character. “It’s really cool because you get to put on a persona, and you get to see life through somebody else’s eyes,” Roberts said. “I would have no idea how a wom-an in the 1920s in Britain would have lived, but now I have more of an idea.” The musical will have most of the songs that people already know Crotwell said. “It has a lot of people’s favor-ites from the movie: “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”, “Supercalifragilis-ticexpialidocious”, “Spoonful of Sugar”, but there are additional songs that are really beautiful,” Crotwell said. Crotwell said that the theater program is aiming to touch the lives of the audience with Mary Poppins. “We want the audience to be touched because it’s such a mov-ing story,” Crotwell said. “Even some of our high school kids are so connected to it because of their childhood, so, to me, it’s bringing to life something that so many people love.”

Brinkman has succeeded so far in bringing a positive attitude to the program. “He is doing a superb job help-ing kids enjoy and love what they do,” Sanchez said.

New Assistant Band Director Marches In

Photo by Emma Marino

Photo by Rick Rasor

by Bianca RamirezAssisstant Editor

Feature6November 2015 The Wire

Japan. “Japan was intensely different, and very difficult to adjust to, mainly because of the language,” Erwin said. “My son needed surgery while we were there, and my daughter got sick several times, and being able to find the language that you need to talk to the nurse and explain yourself was very difficult.” When she decided to teach overseas once again, Erwin was looking for a school that needed science teachers and met her needs as a parent. Erwin chose a small school on the outskirts of Tokyo. It was based on an American system and had about 450 students enrolled in grades K-12. Due to the school’s size, Erwin taught several different types and levels of science. “I was the science depart-ment chair, and I had to teach a

Teacher Sabrina Erwin Returns From Japan

Choir Enters Second Round at All-State

variety of classes,” Erwin said. “Typically, I would teach physi-cal science, but I mentored the AP Biology teacher, one year I taught sixth grade science, and one year I taught physics.” Erwin said her favorite part about teaching at the school was the diversity of the students there. “I loved the diversity of peo-ple, of the countries they were from, of places they had seen, of experiences, of background,” Er-win said. “It wasn’t uncommon to say, ‘where are your passports from’ because many students had one or two passports.” When they left for Japan, Erwin had children in fourth, sixth, and tenth grade. Now, one of her kids, Luke Erwin, is in tenth grade and currently attends Guyer. At first, Erwin said he did not want to move to Japan. “But he was the one who actu-ally did not want to come back. He absolutely loved it there,” Erwin said. “They really enjoyed the freedom. Luke would often go off to sporting events by him-self, and sometimes he got lost but then he figured out the way.” However, her children’s educa-tion was one of the reasons why Erwin’s family decided to move back to Texas, as her eldest son is currently a freshman at the University of North Texas. “I wasn’t good with sending my son across the ocean to go to college,” Erwin said. “My husband had to do that when his parents were missionaries in Af-rica, and he had a very difficult

For the past three years, chem-istry teacher Sabrina Erwin taught at the Christian Academy in Japan. Before teaching over-seas, Erwin taught here for three years and is a charter member. Her decision to leave was based on her husband’s background as a missionary kid and her own personal beliefs. “My husband grew up in Afri-ca, and went to a boarding school there and was very impressed by the adults in his life,” Erwin said. “We really wanted to be able to serve in that way. Neither of us are pastors or things like that, but I feel like we’ve been gifted with teaching.” Initially, her family left in 2008, Erwin and her husband taught in Singapore, but they returned home after a year. Three years later, Erwin decided to teach abroad again, this time in

by Bianca RamirezAssistant Editor

Hundreds of choir students from throughout the district flooded into to audition in the second round of the TMEA All-State choir. Rebecca Ginez, Assistant Choir Director says that there are four rounds. “The first round is just the la-dies because there are a lot more girls that audition than boys. In round two the boys join the re-maining ladies to determine who will make it to the district- region choir,” Ginez says. Ginez gives the students advice before the competition. “First, I always tell them it is an experience of a lifetime and it’s a lot of hard work, but you have to really want it,” Ginez says. “All

the hard work you put in pays off because it really is a great experi-ence.” Some students like Evan Sim-mons, junior, have been training and preparing for their audition by either going to week long summer camps or studying on their own. “The process of getting there is very stressful, before the audi-tion I found out that one of our pieces is in Russian. I don’t know Russian though. I had two days to learn a language that looks like Roman numerals and pi,” Sim-mons said. In January, the remaining choir students who made it through the audition process will perform at San Antonio’s Convention Cen-

ter and gain recognition from col-leges from all across the country, which could help the students fi-nancially with scholarships. Senior Kylie Jensen, an All-State veteran and current student choir president, knows the feel-

ing of the competition. “Really incredible. It’s awe-some to experience that kind of concert with people who all care about music just as much as you do and who have that high caliber of talent.” Jensen said.

Chemistry teacher Sabrina Erwin helps sophmores Carley Manuel and Jake Deats during class.

by Branden LaredoStaff Writer

The Chamber Mixed Choir group performes at the Choir concert on Oct. 13.

time, as he didn’t know anything or have any family.” They returned in mid-June, and, although she enjoyed her experience in Japan, Erwin said she is excited to be back. “I loved it here and it was very hard to leave what was a very great administration, great coworkers, and great students,” Erwin said. “There’s still some familiar faces but there’s also a lot of new faces, so I’ve really enjoyed getting to know staff that wasn’t here before and meet-ing all of these students.” Since her return, Erwin’s enthusiasm for teaching has not wavered, and Science Depart-ment Head Stephanie Taylor-Whitlow said she’s excited to have Erwin back. “As far as her and her as a teacher, I knew how she was when she left—and that’s a really good teacher,” Taylor-Whitlow said. “I haven’t noticed any dif-ference in that regard. She’s still high-quality in my book.” Through her travels, Erwin’s eyes were opened to other cul-tures, and “a diversity of people and ideas,” and she hopes oth-ers will have the opportunity to experience the same thing. “I think it’s a good experience that if any students or teachers get a chance to visit other coun-tries,” Erwin said. “Not just as a one week vacation, but get to live there and get to know people of other nations, of other cul-tures, whose first language is not English. It really makes you have a love of other people.”

Photo by Bianca Ramirez

Photo by Lizzy Hubner

FeatureNovember 2015 The Wire

7Key Club Starts Up with New Found Spark

As the school year starts up once again, old clubs and organiza-tions slowly begin to reappear, and some, such as Key Club are coming back to life more vibrant than ever before. At their first meeting of the year, the classroom was packed; Key Club members occupied every seat and those left standing lined the room, making this year’s Key Club over fifty members. Upon witnessing the potential size of Key Club this year, Erin Roberts, their president, said that she’s delighted and thinks the rea-son that they have more students this year, is due to more juniors being involved in the club. “I’m really excited for this year, honestly,” Robert’s said. “It seems like we’re getting juniors back because as the years go through usually we have small freshman, small sophomores, barely any ju-niors and a lot of seniors, and this year we have a lot of juniors.” For the club, the large number of juniors is somewhat of a saving grace. Roberts explains that the large number of juniors ensures

there will be more students to run for officer positions next year. “We have a lot of juniors and a lot of them want to be a class rep and that’s really exciting because we were really, really nervous for who was going to be an officer next year,” Roberts said. Junior Megan Vennell, a candi-date for class rep is looking for-ward to the experiences that being a part of Key Club will bring. “I’m optimistic about the op-portunities that Key Club will provide for me in terms of service and learning experiences,” Vennell said. However, it’s not just the club officers and new members who are enthusiastic. Ashley Whitehead- Pearce the Key Club sponsor of five years expressed her excite-ment for the large turnout at their first meeting. “Today we had a huge crowd, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this big except my first year. My first year was that big but it’s kind of dropped off a little bit, but now it’s back and I’m so thrilled,” White-head-Pearce said.

However, Whitehead-Pearce believes that due to the increase in members, Key Club will have to make adjustments. “It does affect the events we do. We have to make sure any event we do is going to be able to hold at least fifty people so that may limit the events we can do,” Whitehead-Pearce said. “Or we may do an event every weekend, and have only a third of the club go.” Although the officers will have to make arrangements for the new members, Secretary Kevin

Key Club sponsor Ashley Whitehead-Pearce speaks with the key club officers after their first meeting.

Photo by Bianca Ramirez

by Sana SyedStaff Writer

Cuadrado said that he’s looking forward to the enthusiasm the new members will bring to this upcom-ing year. “I think everyone is excited to be in Key Club this year because a lot of people came and seemed to have a good time.”

National Honor Society Welcomes New Sponsor

National Honor Society has up-coming events and a new Co-spon-sor Alycia Clark, who took over Beth Sullivan’s previous position. “Last year, around second se-mester the two previous sponsors Mrs. Sullivan and Mr. Ellis asked if I would assist them with NHS,” Clark Said. “But due to Mrs Sul-livan’s busy schedule I have been asked to fill the role.” Clark was chosen by due to her ability to connect and interact with most students allows her to adapt quickly into NHS. “Ms. Clark is an invaluable addition to NHS,” Ellis said “she’s warm and loving and able to com-municate and connect with abso-lutely any student” Being in NHS can help in col-lege acceptance and introduce members to other with similar interests Clark said. “Being NHS member is good for you resume,” Clark said. “It also puts you in a group of peers that are academically achieving people,” NHS does a large amount of community service.

“[It] helps you be involved in community service,” Clark said. “[It] helps you get exposed to something one wouldn’t usually encounter. On the Sept. 19, NHS hosted a bean bag baseball event with the elderly residents at the Dogwood Estates retirement home. “We had 15 students show up for that,” Clark said. “and several residents there, where we played bean bag baseball”. Ellis believes that NHS students interacting with the elderly is ben-eficial to both parties. “It’s really special and neat to see our students developing rela-tionships with the older commu-nity,” Ellis said “you can tell both our students and the residents of Dogwood truly enjoyed that inter-action” There are many key positions held within the club. “We have students that do the campus pick ups, a student that does fun runs, the retirement homes, Ronald McDonald house and miscellaneous,” Clark said. “We have a student in charge of

each one of those, where members could decide which ever one they want to do”. NHS is starting a new event that will help students. “Yes, we are actually starting a new program that we are very excited about, where we would like to offer tutoring to any student at Guyer High School,” Ellis said. “We are going to set up tutoring twice a week for anybody strug-gling with any subject can come and get help from NHS seniors.”

Senior NHS member Jane Igbeka plays beanbag baseball at the Dog-wood Estates Senior Living and Retirement Community.

Photo by Bianca Ramirez

by Thositha SoysaStaff Writer

NHS is a well known club that requires not only commitment to the club but also to student aca-demics. “I think that this group of student do amazing things, and I wish more people knew about what they were doing,” Clark said. “They do this while maintaining a 4.5 gpa, they are preparing for college, dealing with personal business and contributing to the club.”

8November 2015 The Wire

EntertainmentWired Zodiac by StaffAQUARIUS: JANUARY 20-FEBRUARY 19 Be wary of the Google Doc. Like the Harry Potter’s Marauder’s map, stu-dents trample, edit, and read your every thought.

PISCES: FEBRUARY 20-MARCH 20 Today you should be nice to someone. Or don’t. You won’t see them after high school.

ARIES: MARCH 21-APRIL 20 This Friday is going to be a “HAPPY” spirit day! Wear optimism and if you have to, fake a smile. It will become real.

TAURUS: APRIL 21-MAY 21 It’s fall. Leaves are changing, allergies are acting up, and the stress of college applications is getting to our seniors. But don’t worry, the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back at Starbucks.

GEMINI: MAY 22 - JUNE 22 With football season coming to a close, maybe now you can actually sup-port other organizations that go to this school.

CANCER: JUNE 23-JULY 23 If you do your class work and get good grades, your life will be amazing, you will become famous, and get to travel the world, you will get your dream home, you will have a pet monkey, you will have parties every Friday night, you will be able to do whatever you want. Just do your work.

LEO: JULY 24- AUGUST 23 Believe in yourself because no matter what, you can do anything you want to do in your life.

VIRGO: AUGUST 24-SEPTEMBER 23 You’re amazing just the way you are…when you study, get enough sleep, try, get better grades, care, do better, try, are more fun to be around, make

better grades, try.

LIBRA: SEPTEMBER 24-OCTOBER 23 You ever wonder what it’s like to be Oprah. Now you’re probably thinking about it. *open thought bubble* You get a horoscope. You get a horoscope. Everybody gets a horoscope. *close thought bubble* Oprah.

SCORPIO: OCTOBER 24-NOVEMBER 22 Intense, vivid dreams spark your mental processes. You could wake up wondering why you dreamed what you did and what it has to do with what’s

going on in your life.

SAGITTARIUS: NOVEMBER 23-DECEMBER 22 If you reach for the heavens, then will you get the stars thrown in?

CAPRICORN: DECEMBER 23-JANUARY 19 An interesting and important opportunity will present itself to you today, and if you’re willing to take it, you will learn how heavily your actions influ-ence your success.

Love Your Selfie

S U D O K U

On a brisk fall day you begin walking towards your ________(noun) when suddenly a ________(noun) appears out of nowhere. The ________ (same noun as previous) is ________ (adjective) and carries a ________ (noun). You begin ________ (verb ending in -ing) as you try to ________ (verb). But, you are ________(ad-jective) and you ________ (verb). Then, a wild giraffe appears and the ________ (2nd noun) rides away on the majestic beast. Unnerved but determined, you pursue the ________ (2nd noun) on a ________ (noun). But, you are stopped when Shia Labeouf emerges from the ________ (noun) and steps on to the ________ (noun). He wields a ________ (noun), a crazy look in his eyes. You jump on to a ________ (adjective) building to avoid the conflict. Shia follows ________ (2nd noun) and ________ (-ly adjective) hops on to the giraffe. You watch in ________ (adjective) as the giraffe runs away into the ________ (adjective) night. Shia Labeouf doesn’t look back.

Mad Libby Bianca RamirezAssistant Editor

During the month of October, the counselors worked to raise awareness of bullying and suicide prevention. In order to promote positivity and self-love, the counselors set up the photo booth and encouraged students to start loving their self as well as their “selfie”.