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About The amplifier. (West Linn, Oregon) 1921-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2007)
2 __________________________________________ News ___________________________________________ A FP Seven advanced theatre students direct Shorts VIII ■ M ary W ood _________________ Page Editor Shorts VIII, four short plays directed by seven advanced theatre students, will be held May 17,18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium. "When Shakespeare's Ladies Meet" by Charles George is being directed by Alison McDonald, junior, and Jordan Grelewicz, senior. This play follows five of Shakespeare's leading ladies as they help Juliet, played by Rosie Dickson, junior, learn how to properly go about having a relationship with Romeo. Amy Brumbaugh and William Farnbach, seniors, are directing "The Two Halves of Andrew's Brain," a comedy by Alex Miceli. This is a creative tale of a boy named Andrew, played by Jonathan Bins wager, sophomore. In the play, the right and left sides of Andrew's brain, played by Lucy Walker, freshman, and Max Henderson, sophomore, respectively, team up to give the right a bigger role in the boy's life. In "Reneta" by Lynne Vance-Kramer, and directed by Karen Vance, senior, a family deals with the title character's age inappropriate behavior. Though Reneta, played by Raeme Blacklidge, junior, is an old woman, she acts just like a teenager. The last play, "Hello Out There" by William Saroyan, is directed by Dylan Stark and Avik Bandyopadhyay, juniors. This is a play about loneliness in a jail in Matador, Texas. It stars Nicholas Kemner, senior, as the young man; Hannah Bradford, freshman, as the girl; Alyssa Johnston, freshman, as the woman; and Tanner Low, sophomore, as the man. The directors of these plays are faced with the unique challenge of directing other students. "At first it was sort of weird. You feel bad telling them what to do," Farnbach said of his experience. He began to feel more comfortable directing Denekas takes first in congressional art show Jenni D enekas, senior, w on first place in the she w anted to convey w as the inter connectedness of life on our planet. H er prize for w inning w as the opportunity to annual C o n g re ssio n a l A rt h a v e h e r p a in tin g d isp la y e d Show C om petition for C ongressw om an D arlene H ooley's Fifth D istrict. "It's really exciting. I have entered the contest tw ice before and its cool to win. I'm glad I can spread the in W ashington D.C. for a year. She also received three plane tickets for travel w ith her parents to see the painting on display. Shannon M cD onald, senior, received honorable u C hris G arfield ______________ Page Editor though, mostly because the majority of the actors are underclassmen. Farnbach has enjoyed seeing his cast band together in the comedy. Though he found casting to be a challenge because narrowing down the possible actors was difficult, he's happy with where the play is going. "I couldn't think of another play I would rather direct," Farnbach said. He also greatly appreciates Brumbaugh, his co-director, whose relationship with him mirrors a theme from the piay. "Amy and I are like left and right," he said. Max Henderson, sophomore, and Lucy Walker, freshman, practice a scene from "The Two Halves of Andrew's Brain," that is a part of one of the four one act plays Shorts VIII. Shorts are student-directed one act plays performed each year in the spring, It is traditionally the last show of the year for the theatre department. Photo by Cole Fiala CORE class offered; open to seniors M C hristopher E rbin __________ Page Editor Beginning next school year, a first ever CORE English 12 and CORE World History 12 class will be taught by Morgan Hubbard and David Frick. The class will focus on an interactive and project-based education of both language arts and social studies. The class is being offered to seniors only for the 2007-2008 school year. "The idea for the class came from discussions about senior attendance issues and input from seniors who said that they weren't feeling invested in the school in their senior year," Hubbard said. "So, with the help of others, Mr. Frick and I came up with a curriculum that will hopefully capture seniors' attention and keep them interested for the entire year." CORE stands for culture, opportunity, renaissance experience. The class will take up two periods of the day, and therefore will count as four total credits; Jw o English and two social studies. The class can be taken for honors if desired, but that is not a requirement. It will focus equally on current events around the world in both language arts and social studies and is an experiential, hands-on component in which students will be designing service projects and giving back to the community. "I am excited to see what the students come up with in terms of cultural enrichment— drama, dance, music, art—to really experience the historical side," Frick said. Although the class was just announced a few weeks ago, CORE already has students interested in the new curriculum. "It seems like a really good hands-on experience," Alex Namhie, junior, said. "It's a great opportunity to get double credits, two for English and two for your social studies." In addition to the hands-on education, the class will also involve a significant amount of reading. The instructors hope to make the literature more intriguing to the students by choosing novels from multiple ethnic backgrounds. The history and culture of the author and other things outside the context of the book will also be studied. "We'll be doing cool things like a ropes course, a writei^^ workshop, and maybe e v e ^ ^ camping trip," Hubbard said. "If students want a class where they'll be getting involved, giving back, doing lots of discussion, learning about music and history and culture, and reading different kinds of books, I really hope students will consider signing up for it." year's honors grads is fairly extensive. Depending on a student's grade point average, there are a certain amount of honors credits needed. There are many classes available that can earn a student honor credits, not only the honors and AP classes. They must also earn at least two credits from a humanity honors or a math or science honors course. They must earn at least four honors credits by the end of their junior year and four during their senior year. They cannot drop an honors class, they must have met all their CIM requirements, and they must complete 12 hours of community service. Next year, some changes have been made in the acceptance process. Beginning with the Class of 2008, two credits from a humanity honors and a math or science honors course are required. Also, if a student drops only one honors course for reasons felt justifiable by either Carrie Guy, Curriculum Secretary, or the Honor Grad Review Committee, that student will still be eligible to be an honors grad. Last, students will only be required to earn two honor credits their senior year instead of four. These changes have been made because the members of the Curriculum Coordinating Committee agreed that students have various scholarly and personal obstacles that may force them to drop an honors course or not earn as many credits. They want to make sure that as many students who are capable of being an honors grad as possible are given the opportunity to do so. Students currently possessing honor status will have their grades verified at the end of third quarter, and the final group will be announced at that time. Being chosen for this prestigious honor is also very impressive on college applications. " It's a huge group this year. If everyone makes it, there are 90 kids," Guy saiM h Honors Grads recognized for academic excellence u K aitlyn R agan _______________ Staff Reporter Jenni Denekas,. senior, wins first place at the Congressional Art Show Competition. Honoring her work with her were Lynn Pass, art teacher; Darlene Hooley, congresswoman; and a Southwest Airlines representative. The airline donated three plane tickets so Denekas and her parents could see her painting displayed in Washington D.C. Photo submitted by Lynn Pass m essage through m y piece. It's an idea that's im portant to m e to convey," D enekas said. H er artw ork w as very detailed and w as painted on a puzzle w hich she bought at G oodw ill. It consisted of sw irling water, rocks, a w aterfall, a bear and salm on. The m essage that m ention for her "Shiny Still Life" piece. Twelve other A dvanced Placem ent art students also entered. "All of the w orks in the show w ere incredible. It w as w onderful to see the talent and hard w ork of everyone involved from all of the schools," Lynn Pass, art teacher, said. West Linn High School has many academically promising students, and there are many ways in which these students are recognized. One of those is the honors graduates program, and the Evening of Excellence ceremony which will take place on Tuesday, May 15 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium. "This is the night we honor and pass out all of our local scholarship awards to our seniors who have applied and will be receiving m onies," Julie Swanson, Career Center Coordinator, said. Anyone is welcome to attend and support these honors grads. Each is asked to choose one of their high school teachers to speak about them at this ceremony. The teachers work thoughtfully to prepare a speech that highlights the talent and uniqueness of the student. The criteria for this
